Politics

What does it take to convince federal watchdogs that mortgage bankers can’t be trusted to make housing loans without discriminating by race and ethnicity? If they need proof beyond all the obvious observational and circumstantial evidence available to the rest of us, then they should pay attention to a study being released today that was…

Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that the Obama administration had increased funding for the Civil Rights Division, encouraged stricter enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and removed the Bush-era practices of putting important decisions in the hands of political appointees rather than career lawyers. Unfortunately, current and former Justice Department employees say much of…

When an outraged Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at President George W. Bush during a visit to Baghdad, the incident was fodder for jokes and snickers. Mostly we laughed at the president’s lightning-quick reaction and the failure of the Secret Service to stop the guy from throwing not one, but two shoes. But even those…

It’s a safe bet that when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s address to Congress, he had no intention of being the lone angry voice cutting through the silence of Obama’s pregnant rhetorical pause. Wilson got sandbagged by his Republican colleagues who suddenly fell silent—he thought he’d be part of a…

Joe Lies: Rules for Heckling the President Rowdy joint session of Congress? Just follow these guidelines. David Swerdlick 11 September 2009 It’s a pretty safe bet that when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted, “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s address to congress, Wilson had no intention of being the lone angry voice cutting through the silence…

[Editor’s note, Sept. 11, 2010: Though this essay first appeared on The Root one year ago, we believe it’s still as relevant today as it was then.] Sept. 11, 2001, was, of course, one of those Technicolor days, with beyond-perfect temperatures, azure skies — the better to see the column of smoke towering from lower…

Nobody ever said the man can’t talk. And if President Barack Obama’s words alone could breathe vigor into Democrats’ effort to rebuild the health care system, we’d be on our way. If only it were so. Obama opened and closed his speech by finally departing from the fiscal case to make the moral one, invoking…

Excerpts from the President’s address to Congress: I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. It has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for health care reform. And ever since, nearly every President and Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, has…

If the days leading up to President Barack Obama’s address to American schoolchildren Tuesday were retold on stage, the title would be a no-brainer: “Much Ado About Nothing.” Not since the rampant Y2K panic 1999, has frantic, reflexive public reaction so outweighed the actual harm of the potential problem.To anyone with an iota of sense, the…

Like many others in the hip-hop generation, as I dissect all these rants and essays, it appears that much of the discussion regarding health care reform and its potential effects—as told by the media and various legislators—is shrouded in that brand of policy legalese unique to the vernacular of Washington insiders. As a result, certain…