Politics

COPENHAGEN—For the past 12 days, the NAACP’s Climate Justice Initiative has been blogging from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. While the discourse on global climate change often focuses on the impacts on wildlife or faraway places, it also has a direct and profound impact on communities at home in the United…

News Stand Closer to Universal Health Care President Obama’s health care bill moved a step closer to passage when Democrats in the U.S. Senate voted to cut off a Republican filibuster. With members voting strictly along party lines, the 60-40 vote indicated that the Democrats had rounded up the votes they need despite vehement opposition…

Who won in Copenhagen? Americans like to keep score and the question is inevitable as the world digests the inconclusive and disappointing outcome of the UN’s climate change summit. The answer depends on what you read. The Washington Post says China is the big winner. The newspaper’s analysis argues that one outcome of the summit…

Tiger Woods Wins PGA Player Award, Loses Tag Heuer Watch Deal The relentless wave of bad news about Tiger Woods took a brief respite Friday when his fellow professional golfers voted him the player of the year.  This was the 10th time in 13 years as a professional that Woods has won the award, a…

When President Barack Obama touches down in Copenhagen, Denmark, tomorrow, he will be entering a hornet’s nest of urgent, competing priorities that will test his negotiating skills like never before. Far from the kumbaya conference that one might expect for a gathering devoted to saving the planet, the two weeks of United Nations-sponsored climate talks…

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…