Politics

CNN and MSNBC recently announced new television hosts: Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker on CNN and Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. These three fit the description of cable television’s network news and chat fest champions like Greta Van Susteren, John King, Bob Schieffer, Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly. They are all white, and cable news has…

There is an old saying: “Knowledge is power.” True of many aspects of life, it is of paramount importance in facing the crisis of HIV/AIDS in the black community. As an African-American medical expert, I know that the single biggest factor fueling the AIDS epidemic in our community is that too many of us don’t…

If you’re convicted after spending a reported $30 million on legal fees to keep from going to jail, it makes sense to go all in and take your case all the way up to the Supreme Court. It paid off for Jeffrey Skilling, who prevailed in challenging the constitutionality of the legal doctrine used to…

President Barack Obama has a terrible dilemma in Afghanistan. The surge isn’t working. His ostensible partner in Afghan president Hamid Karzai is sickeningly corrupt. His team on the ground is bickering. His top general, Stanley McChrystal, has been fired for the vulgar rant that he and his staff issued on the record for Rolling Stone…

On occasion, life can be so simple: Trash-talking the boss in public means that you get fired for it. Ill-considered action leads to swift and painful consequences. The fact that you’re a military man who signed up to follow the orders and the lead of the commander in chief makes his decision to fire you…

by Courtland Milloy Imagine that the inauguration of President George W. Bush had sparked an explosive rise in African-American militia groups. Suppose thousands of heavily armed black men began gathering at training camps in wooded areas throughout the country, devising military tactics for “taking back their country” after what they believed was an electoral coup.…

I know what you are thinking: that General Stanley McChrystal’s comments—quoted in the upcoming edition of Rolling Stone—stem from disrespect for President Obama because the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is a racist that doesn’t want to serve a black president. You immediately came to mind when I heard this. And, no, I’m not referring…

Gen. Stanley McChrystal has offered his resignation to the president, who has accepted it. After a couple of days filled with criticism and controversy caused by a candid new Rolling Stone magazine profile posted online, the country’s top military leader in Afghanistan resigned. The article included quotes by McChrystal and his closest aides making disparaging comments about President…