Politics

If ever anyone is in need of a grim yet unvarnished example of both America’s choked bureaucracy and her unwillingness to approach, grapple with and truly understand her horrifically racist past, they need only be directed to what took place in the Mansfield Room in the U.S. Capitol building on June 16, 2010, at 3:00…

In President Obama’s address to the nation Tuesday, he pledged to create a “Gulf Coast restoration plan” for families and workers whose lives have been negatively affected by the BP oil spill. “The plan,” said the president, “will be designed by states, local communities, tribes, fishermen, businesses, conservationists and other Gulf residents.” For that to…

Public housing in this country is rapidly becoming endangered, and with it, the lives of low-income people. Public housing provides a safety net for the working poor and those on a fixed income, which is critical in today’s housing market considering that as of 2008, there was no county in the United States where an…

BP finally puts its money where its mouth is. The besieged oil company has agreed to put $20 billion in an escrow fund to pay for claims in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. BP made the offer during its meeting with President Obama to address how to resolve the oil spill and compensate those…

President Barack Obama, using all the prestige of his office and the office itself, sought to assure Americans last night that he was on top of the oil spill disaster currently devastating parts of the Gulf Coast, destroying lives and livelihoods at an alarming rate. He meant to show not only that he understood the…

by Jonathan Capehart President Obama didn’t speak long. Just about 15 minutes. But he got his points across. BP is footing the bill for the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s history. Removal of the oil from the water, beaches and wetlands and their restoration to health is a must. Reviving the seafood industry is…

With anti-immigration sentiments overtaking the nation like bad reality television, it should come as no surprise that lawmakers in at least 19 states are considering or have passed laws similar to Arizona’s statute that targets illegal immigrants. William Gheen, a conservative who is president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a nonpartisan political action committee based…

Talk about being kicked while down. It looks like government subsidies to help pay insurance premiums for the unemployed will be going away. Under President Obama’s economic stimulus law, the government provided a 65 percent subsidy because many unemployed could not afford the exorbitant insurance premiums. The aid expired May 31, 2010 and has yet…

To his credit, the nation’s first black U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, has not shied away from discussing race and its impact on our criminal justice system. Shortly after he was confirmed, he famously said that ”in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of…

A number of writers have questioned the much-hyped black Republican surge after many of the candidates failed to win nomination in the latest round of primaries. The Root’s Cord Jefferson asked ”Whatever Happened to the Black Republican Wave?” as if black Republicans have failed in some regard. Granted, black Republican politicians did not deliver many…