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The American public's dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study by the Heritage Foundation. The conservative think tank's annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks money spent on housing, health, welfare, education subsidies and other federal programs that were "traditionally provided to needy people by local organizations and families." The increase under Obama is the biggest two-year jump since Jimmy Carter was president, the data show. The rise was driven mainly by increases in housing subsidies, an...

In a profanity-laced tirade, a Memphis DJ last week used an on-air interview to berate a local Republican congressional candidate -- calling her a "token negro" who is doing the bidding of "white folk." DJ Thaddeus Matthews called Charlotte Bergmann, who is black, "stupid." He referred to her as a "curly-haired nigga." When she walked out of the interview, he refused to shake her hand, saying he didn't want to get her "whiteness" on him. The outrage? The fury? In Memphis, you can hear the crickets. Bergmann told FoxNews.com that, while the web video of the interview has gotten a...

Jackson: Heated GOP rhetoric puts presidents at risk

Odd question? Well yesterday Daniel Burke’s article in the Washington Post titled, “Will Mormons’ racial history be a problem for Mitt Romney?” tried to tarnish Romney with the brush of past discrimination in the Mormon priesthood. Burke states that “Until 1978, the LDS church banned men of African descent from its priesthood.” But if the actions of others in a group you belong to reflect on you then should Obama be tainted with the racial bigotry of the Democratic Party. For none other than Bull Connor was a Democrat and the history of many elected Democratic who were historically significant...

Trying to jump-start his re-election with hometown fund-raisers and rallies, President Barack Obama told 500 cheering fans Wednesday, “Everything that we fought for is now at stake in this election.” He repeated the message at more intimate gatherings in private homes in Lake View and Kenwood. He fired up the troops in his very first visit to his national headquarters in the Prudential Building. And he even stopped in to his own home for 20 minutes at the end of the night before flying back to Washington, D.C. He hopes the fund-raisers bring in more than $2 million for what...

At 15, Jarvis Nelson should be in high school and even thinking about college. Yet Jarvis is in seventh grade, and doesn’t know where he’ll go to high school — or even where he will be living — when he graduates from junior high, hopefully next year. That’s because Jarvis has attended three different schools in the past four months. He’s lived in three different places on the North and South Sides of the city — including his most recent home, a temporary shelter in Lake View. Jarvis, like thousands of other students in Chicago Public Schools, is homeless. He...

Is it racist to require people to show a photo ID when they vote? You need a photo ID for nearly any meaningful transaction, such as cashing checks, including government checks. If this simple requirement “suppresses” the vote, maybe we need to ask why it’s such a great idea to push for universal suffrage for every adult who is merely breathing. Of course, even this latter requirement would suppress the vote in Chicago and New Orleans, where dead people get to vote all the time – and do so cheerfully! In a speech Tuesday at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library...

A crowd of about 50 unemployed D.C. residents swarmed House Speaker John Boehner's Capitol Hill home Wednesday night. (WTOP Photo/Alicia Lozano) WASHINGTON -- "Jingle bells, Congress smells, Republicans laid an egg," sang a group of otherwise jubilant carolers outside House Speaker John Boehner's Capitol Hill home Wednesday night. The crowd of about 50 unemployed D.C. residents swarmed the quiet residential street, candles and lyrics in hand. "Oh what fun it would be if the sick could afford their meds," they bellowed. They also carried holiday themed signs that read "Boehner stole Christmas," "Boehner - jobs of Christmas present" and...

One Black Woman's Personal Mission To Reelect Obama The president may need an even bigger African American turnout this time — and political dynamos like Gerri Hall to help him get it. Gerri Hall, a lifelong Democrat who grew up poor in Mississippi, has made it her personal goal to see that President Obama is reelected. This time around, Obama's chances may depend even more on a strong turnout by black voters. December 11, 2011 By Mark Z. Barabak December 11, 2011 Reporting from Flint, Mich.— Growing up poor and black in Mississippi, Gerri Hall learned there was a meanness...

When the Civil War ended, and after Republican President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, Democrats initiated Jim Crow laws to keep the black man down. Democrats didn’t much like blacks. In fact, the KKK, as you know, was founded as the the terrorist wing of the Democrat Party. Setting the Record Straight A group of black activists led by Wayne Perryman has filed a brief against the Democrat Party for its long history of racism and discrimination of the black community.

I understand that the NAACP opposes voter-ID laws. Given the long history of fighting against uses of state law to deny blacks and other minorities the franchise until the Civil Rights Movement prevailed, their deep skepticism over proposed stricter enforcement of eligibility laws can’t help but recall echoes of voter suppression in their communities, even if the new laws are innocent of any racial animus. We still have plenty of mistrust that will take generations to undo, especially given that we still have those with living memories of having been denied the right to vote. Still, if the NAACP wants...

With just about a year to ago until Election Day, the U.S. is a racially divided nation when it comes to President Barack Obama. Consider this: A new CNN/Opinion Research Poll shows 61% of whites disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job vs. 36% who don’t – that’s almost two-to-one. For non-whites, it's almost the mirror image. Only 32% disapprove while 67% approve. For a president who was supposed to symbolize a post-racial America, this is not good news. When Obama defeated John McCain in 2008, he did it with significant support from white Americans. Exit polls showed...

In January of this year, an African-American man living out his life in a Maryland nursing home succumbed to Alzheimer's disease. Because he was not a sports hero or a member of America's brain-dead entertainment industry, the nation barely noted either his life or his passing. His name was Samuel Frederick Yette. Born into the segregated South in 1929, Mr. Yette earned a bachelor's degree from Tennessee State University and a master's from Indiana University. Then, following his U.S. Air Force service in the Korean War, he became an award-winning journalist who worked for several newspapers and magazines. In 1964,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You know, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, folks. After all of these years, none of us should be surprised, but I still am. Look at how quickly what is known as the mainstream media goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative. You know who's laughing himself silly today is Bill Clinton. (imitating Clinton) "Yeah, I really did it. Ha-ha. They praised me and they went as far out of their way as they could. Even my old buddy Carville is out there and he's saying, 'Look what happens when you...

Karen Finney is not just any Democrat; she was the spokeswoman for the Democrat National Committee, served in the Clinton White House, was the press secretary for Hillary Clinton's New York Senate race, and is a veteran of four Presidential Campaigns. Tasked with analyzing Herman Cain's surge in the GOP's Presidential campaign for MSNBC last week, Finney offered up the most outrageous, insulting, demeaning single sentence we have ever heard – particularly by someone who supposedly speaks for an entire national political party. "I think he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel that they're not...

On Martin Bashir's television program this afternoon, Democratic strategist and MSNBC analyst Karen Finney said that Republicans are supporting Herman Cain because of his race: One of the things about Herman Cain is, I think that he makes that white Republican base of the party feel okay, feel like they are not racist because they can like this guy," Finney said. "I think he giving that base a free pass. And I think they like him because they think he's a black man who knows his place. I know that's harsh, but that's how it sure seems to me."

The author who calls himself simply Toure -- a regular guest on MSNBC, and before that on CNN -- is throwing rhetorical bricks at Herman Cain for Time magazine. His article is headlined "Is Herman Cain the Most Unctuous Black Man Alive? Why the Hermanator experience is making me sick." Toure compared Cain to a circus clown, called him a "buffoon," compared him to "rancid, spoiled, stinky, curdled milk" and dissed him (in the liberal mind) by calling him "the Black Sarah Palin." In the midst of that, he somehow scolds Cain for "sinking to teenage-level disses." He began: This...

In a "Joy Behar Show" segment scheduled to be aired on HLN Friday, singer Harry Belafonte attacked Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain in potentially the most disgraceful manner of any media member to date. While his host and others on the set laughed, Belafonte called Cain "a bad apple" that was "so denied intelligence...I don’t think prayers were created for him" (video follows with transcript and commentary): JOY BEHAR, HOST: Now, let me interrupt you for a second, because now you have someone like Herman Cain. HARRY BELAFONTE: Who? BEHAR: Herman Cain? BELAFONTE: Herman Cain? BEHAR: You know who he...

I returned a bit ago from getting photos and video of the Obama fundraiser protest in St. Louis. It was hosted by Tom Carnahan, owner of the Wind Capital Group, an alternative energy group which received around $100 million in stimulus funds. That Carnahan’s brother is Democratic Representative Russ Carnahan surely helped change Wind Capital Group’s fortunes. (Snip) I’ve been to a lot of protests–both conservative and progressive–and only one other time have I witnessed such a level of hostility and outright inappropriate behavior. It’s a shame some individuals allow themselves to get so partisan and emotional that they make...