Featured Article

    2010 ELECTIONS: Past as Prologue
    by Richard Hébert

    THE President is in trouble up to his ears. He can get nothing done. Congress blocks his every piece of legislation. His hands are tied, his popularity in tatters. He’s publicly mocked as not up to the job. Pessimism and recession dominate the headlines. With an election just a few months ahead, the President’s party is doomed. Its epitaph is already being written in headlines and commentaries in preparation for the day of downfall.

    Sound familiar? It should, but this isn’t 2010. It’s the political setting for the election of 1948, with lessons to teach in 2010.

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Quick Takes
BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES: Supreme Court Opens Floodgates for Corporate Spending in Elections, SAYS SEIU

“Today the US Supreme Court lifted the floodgates and started dismantling century-old restrictions on corporate electoral activity in the name of the ‘free speech rights’ of corporations—meaning if you are a ‘corporate person’ (aka a CEO or corporate official), you are now free to hit the corporate ATM and spend whatever of your shareholders’ money it takes to elect the candidates of your choice,´ said Anna Burger, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer and Chair of the Change to Win labor federation, condemming the United States Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission:


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Voices
BLACKS & SUPER BOWL XLIV
by William Reed

THE National Football League’s showcase event will draw an audience numbering in the millions and money in the billions for the NFL and team owners. While African American fans root, bet and grouse about the game and competing teams, we’d be remiss not to ask the NFL, and its member teams, “Are NFL hiring and retention practices acts of equal and equitable opportunities?”


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In Depth
MASSACHUSETTS GAME-CHANGER:QUESTIONS AND OPTIONS
by Richard Hébert

TO state the obvious, the Massachusetts vote to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat is a game-changer. It emboldens Republicans and shakes the very ground Democrats stand on.

When all the handwringing and finger-pointing are done – and they are coming in a tsunami force wave at this writing – there will remain critical questions and options that must be dealt with. I suggest the dealing start immediately, regardless what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says about “not rushing into anything.” Harry, it’s time to get a move on.


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The Barras Report
LEAVING THE METRO STATION
by jonetta rose barras

John B. Catoe, Jr. finally realized he’s not the right person to serve as general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). He announced last week he intends to step down in April. He said he is a distraction.

Actually, he’s a first-rate wrecking ball.


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