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Man Brings Street Sweeper to Anti-Obama Rally
From CNN: A man toting an assault rifle was among a dozen protesters carrying weapons while demonstrating outside President Obama’s speech to veterans on Monday, but no laws were broken. It was the second instance in recent days in which weapons have been seen near presidential events. Video from the protest in Phoenix, Arizona, shows…
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Health Care Reform: A Pissed-Off Nation
Media outlets have gingerly approached the question of whether the virulent and over-the-top town hall meetings over health care are thinly disguised venting sessions in which right-wing whites express their frustration and sense of dislocation over the election of the first black president. Following quickly on the heels of the out-in-left-field, birther conspiracy theorists, the…
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Say Uncle, Mr. President
It’ll take President Barack Obama more than a couple of town hall appearances to get his health care reform proposals back on track because health care isn’t the only thing that needs tweaking—he needs someone on the team to help him figure out how to get his mojo back. Obama has aides for every occasion:…
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Who You Callin' Ghetto?!
OK, I will admit it: I didn’t much care for or about the Real Housewives franchise until Bravo decided to take it to Atlanta. I sat down to watch them last season and, to my husband’s horror, I found it riveting, for all kinds of reasons. (Who lives with that kind of excess? Why buy a…
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Death Squads Target Gay Iraqis
A chilling Human Rights Watch report adds to a building mound of evidence that death squads are targeting gay men in Baghdad and Sadr City, Iraq—a reality that undermines claims of a democratic and cultural opening in the country since the 2003 U.S. invasion. At minimum, dozens of men who are either openly gay or…
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'Macaca' Was the Least of Allen's Sins
Three years after seeing his presidential dreams dashed by a rash, three-syllable slur, George Allen, who occasionally insists on wearing full cowboy regalia, is reportedly back in the saddle. Perhaps you don’t remember Allen. Despite a decades-long career in public office—first as a congressman, then as the governor of Virginia and then as a senator—you’ll…
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Prince's Protégées: Then and Now
Saaret Yoseph is a writer and Assistant Editor at TheRoot.com. She manages and blogs for \”Their Eyes Were Watching …\” Back in the day, Prince wrapped himself in that whole fabulously mysterious Purple Majesty thing. If you came of age in the ‘80s, chances are that you wanted, above anything, to be a part of…
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Getting Gamed on the Public Option
Clear signs of what is being described as impending doom for the “public option” on the various health care bills pending in Congress can best be found in the subtle switch of White House language on the health care debate. What was once known as healthcare reform is now “health insurance reform.” Peep White House…
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Nigerian Police Round Up Hundreds of Boko Haram
From Al Jazeera: Nigerian police have detained hundreds of people belonging to an Islamic community in the state of Niger.The arrests on Saturday came weeks after a radical sect killed almost 800 people in the north of the country. About 1,500 police officers backed by reinforcements from the capital, Abuja, had surrounded the compound of the…
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Incarcerated & Read: Coming of Age in Prison
R. Dwayne Betts was a 16-year-old honor student when he carjacked a man. It was 30 seconds that would forever change lives. Thirty seconds that he, his mother, nor his victim could ever get back. It was 30 seconds that would eventually lead Betts to spend nine years in prison. His first book, “A Question of Freedom:…