Politics
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Obama's Iraq Speech: Expect It to Be Sober and Low Key
At the beginning of Manderlay, Lars von Trier’s underrated 2005 film about the legacy of American slavery, the audience is given a brief glimpse at the gates of fictional Alabama plantation Manderlay. Atop the wrought iron fence, which overlooks a modest but healthy cotton crop, is a short passage from Alabama’s eponymous state song: “Little,…
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POLL: Majority of GOP Believes Obama Wants Worldwide Islamic Law
It is not often that we don’t know where to begin, but this is one of them. A Newsweek public opinion poll shows that a majority of Republicans believe that President Barack Obama “sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world,” according to a survey released on…
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It's Too Soon to Write Off Obama
Is it over for President Obama? Yes, says Fouad Ajami in The Wall Street Journal, arguing that the president can’t salvage his presidency and he is doomed to fall into Jimmy Carter-like irrelevance. Not so fast, says David Rothkopf at our sister publication Foreign Policy. He argues that it is simply too soon to write off…
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Instead of Marching, Let's End the War on Drugs
So it happened. The Reclaim the Dream March “recaptured the flavor” of the March on Washington. But it isn’t an accident that this brings to mind popping an old piece of gum from the underside of a desk into your mouth to see how much “flavor” might still be left in it. The 1963 March…
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Obama on Muslim Rumors: 'The Facts Are the Facts, Right?'
President Barack Hussein Obama is keeping it real, dismissing rumors that just won’t quit about his religious practices. In an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams in New Orleans, where he was marking the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President Obama said, “The facts are the facts, right?” when discussing the persistent rumors that he is Muslim.…
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Sharpton's Reclaim the Dream Rally Recalls the 1963 March
For a lot of the people who joined Al Sharpton’s Reclaim the Dream rally and march, it was their first opportunity to experience something close to what people saw and felt when they marched in Selma, Ala., or sat in at Greensboro, N.C.As the marchers made their way from Washington’s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School…
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Not Much Talk About MLK at Glenn Beck Rally
The true story of Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial today is one of cognitive dissonance. In the weeks leading up to the event, Beck, perhaps fearing left-wing backlash, chose to speak only vaguely about his intentions, saying that he hoped Restoring Honor would “restore the values that founded…
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New Orleans' Police Problem
It began as the story that no one was interested in. No one in the media wanted to believe that officers of the New Orleans Police Department had murdered unarmed civilians and then engaged in a massive and wide-ranging conspiracy to cover it up. And no one wanted to pursue evidence that revealed a department…
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Why This Conservative Won't Be at Glenn Beck's Rally
It could have been an honor to attend. It would have been something to tell my grandchildren about one day. I could have said that I participated in a historic event — Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally that will be a notable point in the story of the Tea Party movement in America. Instead, I…
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The Rev. Al Sharpton on Reclaiming the Dream
When National Action Network members gather at Washington, D.C.’s Dunbar High School this Saturday, the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s beatified “I Have a Dream” address, they’d like everyone to be certain of one thing: They’re not reacting to Glenn Beck. “It’s something we do every year,” says Rachel Noerdlinger, a spokesperson for…