Politics

Recently, the notoriously inaccurate Fox News host Glenn Beck, who uses rage the way artists use oils or acrylics, made what was undoubtedly his most shocking proclamation to date. While discussing the Henry Louis Gates Jr. controversy on morning chat show Fox and Friends, Beck turned to his colleagues and said quite certainly, “[Barack Obama]…

Check out The Buzz’s Shorter Obama tweets from the town hall today in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Here’s a sample: Shorter Obama: We need to build an economy that works for everybody. I hate America and freedom Shorter Obama: We have the AMA; y’all have Lou Dobbs Shorter Obama: We are trying to dilute the insurance…

From The Guardian: During an appearance at a university in the Democratic Republic of Congo, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton went on an impromptu tirade following a question about her husband. However, it seems the query may have been relayed to Clinton incorrectly. According to CNN, a student in the audience wanted insight into…

A take on Ferguson’s clever thoughts from Ta-Nehisi Coates: Via Fallows, Niall Ferguson has taken to calling Obama, “Felix the Prez.” I’ll allow the Harvard professor to explain why: “President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat. One of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black. He was also…

Accusations of ethnic disloyalty have long been a feature of the debate between liberal and conservative Jews over the actions of Israel. In the blogosphere, conservative Jews have a term for a group of prominent liberal Jewish bloggers who have been critical of Israel’s behavior in the region: the “Juicebox Mafia.” Two weeks ago, Jamie…

Judge Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina Supreme Court justice. The Cambridge police dropped the charges against Professor Henry “Skip” Gates, an action supported by the mounting evidence that he was the subject of a false and racially charged arrest. But without a doubt, this has been a bad summer for conversations on race. It…

From CNN: Forty prison inmates were sent to hospitals, four of them airlifted, after a riot erupted at the California Institution for Men in Chino, a spokesman said. The melee broke out at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Reception Center West facility, said Lt. Mark Hargrove, prison spokesman. The situation was under control as…

Whenever I read Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s now-famous 2001 lecture, “A Latina Judge’s Voice,” I think of my maternal grandmother’s words at the kitchen table: “¡Ay nena, no tienes que decir que eres negra!” Yes, my Mama Cristina had a thing about my choosing to say I was black. My mother is a white woman born…

From CNN: Drumsticks in hand, Derrick Tabb has found a way to transform New Orleans children from troublemakers to tuba players. Tabb, wearing a gold chain and a baseball cap, doesn’t look the part of a typical band teacher. But every weekday evening in the French Quarter, he beats out the rhythm on his music…

From Think Progress: Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) faced a “heated” discussion about health care at a town hall meeting yesterday, with people in the crowd who were heckling, interrupting, and filibustering him. One vocal attendee was a woman named Heather Blish, who identified herself as “just a mom from a few blocks away” and “not…