Politics

DC OKs Same-Sex Marriage Just days after black voters helped put Houston’s first openly gay mayor into office, the Washington, D.C. city council struck its own blow for gay rights. The federal district’s local lawmakers voted Tuesday night to allow same-sex marriage, making it the sixth jurisdiction in the U.S. to pass such a law.…

Hiring the former New York mayor to help reduce Rio’s horrific crime rate is a really bad idea. Rio has hired Rudy Giuliani to tackle its crime problem. When the idea first came up, I kept hoping the mayor of my favorite Brazilian city would come to his senses before he made a big mistake.…

Despite the brilliant Nobel rhetoric, Barack Obama is a president treading water. The peace efforts in Iran and between Israel and the Palestinians that seemed so promising at the end of summer are fading. America will soon have 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan. The bombings and general destabilization in nuclear-armed Pakistan continue at a frightening…

Facebook Terrorists Can we ever catch up with al-Quaeda? They turn out to be such tech wizards. It’s such a contradiction to the images we see on TV whenever the coiffed suits are talking about our global enemies: bearded guys walking through mountain passes with guns slung over their shoulders and wearing robes and those…

OBAMA’S NOBEL MOMENT The brother can preach. U.S. President Barack Obama delivered another dazzling speech this morning as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, an award that many Americans say he doesn’t deserve. In his far-reaching Nobel “lecture,” as the speech is called, the President acknowledged the controversy and said he could not argue with…

Way back in the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton argued that Barack Obama hadn’t the mettle to connect his inspiring rhetoric with actual reform, that soaring speeches are poor weapons for the Beltway battle zone. Her skeptical, tough-lady political persona was anachronistic in those pregnant times. But listening to Obama’s latest Big Speech Tuesday, on jobs,…

January 2009 “Prince” Joe Henry, 78, a Negro League all-star baseball player with Memphis Red Sox, Indianapolis Clowns and Detroit Stars died on Jan. 2. Sam “Bluzman” Taylor, 74, a blues singer-songwriter/guitarist, died Jan. 5 from complications of heart disease. On Jan. 4, Giselle Salandy, 21, Trinidad and Tobago’s unbeaten female boxer and winner of…

CAUCUS SLAMS OBAMA President Obama’s jobs speech yesterday got mixed reviews – as could be expected, with approval and criticism dividing largely along party lines. But one key constituent group – the Congressional Black Caucus – made it clear to the first African-American president that is was not happy. The President proposed a number of…

It isn’t often that Russians climb in bed with Rwandans. Yet, as the much-hyped United Nations climate summit convenes in Copenhagen this week, 56 world newspapers united against the growing threat of catastrophic climate change. An editorial urging global action to deflect the worst effects of fossil fuel dependence appeared in major news outlets, including…