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Obama Administration Mistakes Journalism for Espionage

Eugene Robinson — Wed, 31 December 1969 7:00:00 EST

The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson gives perspective on the Associated Press scandal.

The Obama administration has no business rummaging through journalists' phone records, perusing their e-mails and tracking their movements in an attempt to keep them from gathering news. This heavy-handed business isn't chilling, it's just plain cold.

It also may well be unconstitutional. In my reading, the First Amendment prohibition against "abridging the freedom ... of the press" should rule out secretly obtaining two months' worth of the personal and professional phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, including calls to and from the main AP phone number at the House press gallery in the Capitol. Yet this is what the Justice Department did.

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The Obamas' Tough Talk to Black Grads

Kai Wright — Wed, 31 December 1969 7:00:00 EST

Kai Wright gives his take on Colorlines on the controversial angle of last weekend's high-profile commencement addresses.

Graduation season is upon us, and with it the time-honored ritual of big, important graduation speeches. This weekend, Barack and Michelle Obama each gave theirs at historically black colleges -- the president spoke at Morehouse, the first lady at Bowie State. This is a fabulous thing on its face. And both talked explicitly about race and opportunity.

The problem is that both also continued a pattern we have too often been forced to examine -- using the world's largest bully pulpit to browbeat black people for the personal failings that the Obamas seem to believe are our largest challenge.

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Kanye West, 'New Slaves' and Hypocrisy

Ernest Owens — Wed, 31 December 1969 7:00:00 EST

Ernest Owens rips into Kanye West's new single at the Huffington Post, lamenting that the singer knows more than other rappers, yet "does nothing to fix the problem."

Everyone has that one cousin in the family that never tends to shut up at the dinner table.

They complain about how the world is wicked and how all of us are just pawns in the middle of it. Some of what they say is enlightening, insightful, and makes sense. Yet, a lot of it gets mumbled in between blatant disrespectful rants and overblown ignorance. When it comes to hip-hop and mainstream music, that cousin would be Kanye West.

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Child-Support Laws: A Boon for Gold Diggers?

Keli Goff — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:27:00 EDT

(The Root) -- Just when it seemed Charlie Sheen's story couldn't get any more depressing for him, his fans and his family, things have managed to take a turn for the worse. His estranged wife, Brooke Mueller, has been admitted to rehab for drug addiction, something she's struggled with for years.

Despite the fact that her twin toddlers with Sheen have previously been cared for by his first wife, actress Denise Richards, during some of Mueller's previous stints in rehab, Mueller has attempted to have the twins removed from Richards' custody. The reason, Sheen's lawyers allege, is that the $55,000 a month in child support that Sheen is paying Mueller is her sole source of income.

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Obama, Blacks and Personal Responsibility

Wed, 31 December 1969 7:00:00 EST

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama addressed freshly minted African American graduates over the weekend, reopening a debate that has dogged him since he was a candidate. On such occasions, how much emphasis should he give to addressing the "personal responsibility" of African Americans? How much should he focus instead on the responsibility of the government he leads to address African Americans' plight?

Underlying the question is the obvious fact that Obama is the nation's first black president and African Americans are his most loyal voting bloc. What is Obama's own responsibility?

By all accounts, the president was a hit Sunday at Morehouse College in Atlanta, as the first lady was the previous day at Bowie State University in Maryland, another historically black institution.

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Doggie Racism Is Real! Here's How to Deal

Jenée Desmond-Harris — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:06:00 EDT

"We live in a diverse urban city. I am white and my husband is Filipino and white, but he's often mistaken for Indian or black/mixed because of his dark complexion. He is great with animals in general and is a supersweet, calm, gentle person; we foster rescue dogs that are really sensitive, and they love him! But on several occasions when we're meeting with co-workers and friends, their dogs will bark and act aggressively toward him, yet not toward the other white people who are also present.

"I've researched why dogs may behave this way, but I'm wondering what to do about this from my end. Is there a polite thing that we can do or say to alleviate this socially? If we are somewhere long enough for the dog to calm down and interact with my husband, it works out, but most of our friends are dog people, so I am curious if you know of a polite fix!" --Needing a Doggie Olive Branch

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Quote of the Day: Jean Toomer

Henry Louis Gates Jr. — Wed, 31 December 1969 7:00:00 EST

Details of McCree Trial Hit Twitter

Wed, 31 December 1969 7:00:00 EST

(The Root) -- The Detroit judge who famously declared "no shame in my game" is back in the hot seat. Judge Wayne McCree originally caught the public's attention after he was caught sending nearly nude pictures to a married bailiff. The bailiff's husband found the picture and went public with it. When questioned about it, McCree quickly owned up to the picture, boasting that there was "no shame in my game!" The video soon went viral.

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Soyinka on 'Obscene' Push for Achebe Nobel

Sahara Reporters — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:28:00 EDT

(Sahara Reporters) -- Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has described Africa's most well-known novelist, Chinua Achebe, as a storyteller who earned global celebration, adding, however, that those describing Achebe as "the father of African literature" were ignorant.

In a wide-ranging interview with Sahara Reporters, Soyinka paid tribute to the late novelist, who died on March 21, 2013, at age 82. Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for literature, also spoke about his personal relationship with Achebe and other Nigerian writers; his regrets about Achebe's last book, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra; and his attempt to talk the late Biafran leader Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu out of fighting a war. Soyinka also answered questions about Heinemann's African Writers Series and scolded "clannish" and "opportunistic hagiographers" fixated on the fact that Achebe never won the Nobel Prize.

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Could Chelsea Hurt Hillary?

Wed, 31 December 1969 7:00:00 EST

(The Root) -- By all accounts the 2016 presidential election is Hillary Clinton's to lose.

It should be. After all, it is arguable whether there has ever been a more qualified candidate in terms of experience, since she has served in the Senate, the Cabinet and the White House -- for two terms, no less -- albeit in a slightly different capacity than commander in chief. (Disclosure: I once interned for Secretary Clinton's Senate campaign.) While conservatives try desperately to stop Clinton's seemingly unstoppable momentum by making Benghazi, Libya, a permanent, tragic albatross around her neck, there is one more obstacle to her White House hopes emerging: her daughter.

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