Politics

Barack Obama took the oath of office as a United States senator on January 4, 2005, and promptly began running for president. Very quickly, he began using the peculiar kind of celebrity that comes with being a senator to introduce himself to Washington, to a new generation of political power brokers, and, more broadly, to…

Are you living paycheck to paycheck, counting down the days until your next direct deposit? Do you find yourself in the same basic financial state you were in five years ago, with a slightly better salary and slightly nicer stuff? If so, you’re not alone. Recent research confirms that high-earning African-American households lag far behind…

So what furry creature scurried across the Rose Garden steps while President Obama gave a statement on his Wall Street reform bill? Obama seemed not to notice the furry visitor, but his audience certainly did.  After the statement, when Obama was out of earshot, reporters and photographers started arguing about the species of the creature, The Associated Press reported. Was it a rat?  A mouse?  A mole? “I would partially rule out rat,” said Russell Link,…

Better Late than Never: New bank rules for lenders and borrowers http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100521/ap_on_bi_ge/us_financial_overhaul From our better late than never file, new rules for banks and consumers have emerged following the housing bubble that burst and decimated the economy. After much debate, Congress is getting tougher on the lenders and borrowers by creating new bank rules. Banks…

“National Guard troops patrolled the streets of Chicago’s Negro West Side last night and early today. For the first time in four nights there was no major violence in the riot-torn ghetto area.” That was the first paragraph of a New York Times article that ran on Saturday, July 16, 1966. If Illinois state representatives…

That giant sucking sound you hear is the sound of the great debate promised by Rand Paul’s quixotic Senate candidacy slowly circling the drain. After all, why would anyone bother to sort through deficits, taxes and the role of modern American government? They can just go on The Rachel Maddow Show and have a good,…

Updated May 20, 2010 at 9:10 a.m. Could an NAACP boycott of Texas be in the offing? NAACP President Ben Jealous said Tuesday that “all options are on the table” if sweeping conservative changes to the state’s educational curriculum are enacted this week. Jealous testified before the Texas State Board of Education on Wednesday in the hopes…

Tuesday’s primary election results will only serve to reinforce the anti-incumbency narrative that has overlaid much of the media coverage of this election season thus far. According to the polls and the pundits, voters are angry at Washington and at political incumbents of all stripes, but especially at Democrats, who, we are told, will pay…

A year ago, if you had told President Barack Obama that all he had to do in exchange for Sen. Arlen Specter’s decisive votes on the stimulus, healthcare, and what he thought would by now be a done deal on cap-and-trade was one quick press conference to tepidly “endorse” Specter’s return to the Democratic party—and…