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(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu said Thursday that the issue of race is a major reason that President Barack Obama has struggled politically in Southern states. “I'll be very, very honest with you. The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans,” Landrieu told NBC News in an interview. “It's been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader." Noting that the South is “more of a conservative place,” she added that women have also faced challenges in “presenting ourselves.” The comment prompted a fiery response from Louisiana Republican...

In the final days before the election, Democrats in the closest Senate races across the South are turning to racially charged messages — invoking Trayvon Martin’s death, the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and Jim Crow-era segregation — to jolt African-Americans into voting and stop a Republican takeover in Washington. The images and words they are using are striking for how overtly they play on fears of intimidation and repression. And their source is surprising. The effort is being led by national Democrats and their state party organizations — not, in most instances, by the shadowy and often untraceable political action...

The recent unfortunate shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and its violent aftermath seem to have had everything and nothing to do with race. Brown was black and unarmed and the officer white; but it is equally true that the 292-pound Brown likely committed a number of crimes in the minutes before his death. He was high on drugs; he robbed a store and strong-armed the clerk; he was walking down the middle of a road; and he started a physical altercation with policeman Darren Wilson (who tried to question him), inflicting injuries on the officer before being fatally...

When it comes to life’s guarantees, there’s death, taxes, death taxes, the tides, the Chicago Cubs not winning a World Series, and the race card being played by Democrats as an election approaches. With less than two weeks to go before this year’s mid-term elections, that last guarantee is in full effect. Polls show Democrats aren’t very excited at the prospect of voting next month. They’re disappointed by the president’s failures and the fumbles by their candidates. But make no mistake – they will vote, and they will vote for the Democrats. Polls on enthusiasm are interesting but irrelevant in...

Democrats from the White House on down are getting so desperate about the mid term elections that a flood of racial dog whistles have been unleashed in order to goose black turnout and give Democrats a chance in several elections. What makes the tactic so rancid is that there is no attempt whatsoever to mask the direct appeal to fear and racial solidarity. Subtlety is not in their playbook. Deneen Borreli writing in the Washington Times, catalogs some of the most egregious examples: Because her husband’s unpopularity makes his presence politically toxic for liberal candidates, first lady Michelle Obama is...

FULL TITLE: Missouri police prepare for riots as they await grand jury decision over whether to charge officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown Missouri police have been brushing up on constitutional rights and stocking up on riot gear to prepare for a grand jury's decision about whether to charge a white police officer who fatally shot a black 18-year-old in suburban St. Louis. The preparations are aimed at avoiding a renewed outbreak of violence during the potentially large demonstrations that could follow an announcement of whether Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson will face a criminal trial...

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, committed human rights abuses as they sought to quell mostly peaceful protests that erupted after an officer killed an unarmed black teenager, an international human rights organization said in a report released on Friday. The Amnesty International report said law enforcement officers should be investigated by U.S. authorities for the abuses, which occurred during weeks of racially charged protests that erupted after white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9. The use by law enforcement of rubber bullets, tear gas and heavy military equipment and restrictions placed on peaceful...

Democrats are losing -- and they know it -- so things are getting awfully ugly out there. A New York Times story over the weekend previewed the onslaught of overt political race-baiting that has begun to sweep across the country.  Entitled, "Black Vote Seen as Last Hope for Democrats to Hold Senate," the piece describes the party's desperate measures: The confidential memo from a former pollster for President Obama contained a blunt warning for Democrats. Written this month with an eye toward Election Day, it predicted “crushing Democratic losses across the country” if the party did not do more to get black voters...

A mural was painted over Monday afternoon after Trenton police expressed concern that the painting, depicting Michael Brown, a Ferguson, Mo., teen who was fatally shot by police in August, sent the wrong message about community and police relations. The painting depicted Brown’s face with the caption “Sagging pants … is not probable cause.” Will "Kasso" Condry, the artist behind the mural, said he wanted to start a conversation about racial profiling. The Trenton Downtown Association elected to remove the image after hearing concern from police officers that the mural sends a negative message about the relationship between police and...

link only:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/17/lee-terry-brad-ashford_n_6003976.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

With two weeks to go until he is formally out of office and, as of yet, with no fixed onward job, Jose Manuel Barroso is a politician concerned with his legacy. […] He argues the EU has emerged stronger from the crisis, equipped with around 40 new pieces of legislation dealing with financial supervision—and a whole lot more power for the European Commission. “We have powers that our predecessors could not even dream of,” he says, highlighting the commission’s new right to “reject” draft national budgets. […] Asked about the roots of euroskepticism—a stronger political phenomenon in recent years—he says...

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that the world could be seeing 10,000 new Ebola cases per week before Christmas. U.S. pundits seem more concerned with using Ebola to berate President Obama rather than dealing with the impact of the disease. At a time when the nation needs to unite around protecting the country from an epidemic, rational discussion of Ebola is competing with a new contagion—right-wing racism, and it’s spreading like, well, you know what. 10/06/14 18:29 UTC@DineshDSouza Which is worse: EBOLA, the disease; or OBOLA, the dream from his father?(with illustration) https://t.co/zsWqu4KuqR Enter #obola, a diseased little...

Ebola victim, Thomas E. Duncan, said he’d recently traveled from West Africa, was in severe pain — rating it an eight on a scale of 10 — and had a fever that spiked to 103 degrees, enough to be flagged with an exclamation point in the hospital’s record-keeping system. Duncan, displaying symptoms that could indicate Ebola, underwent a battery of tests during his initial visit to the Dallas emergency room before eventually being sent home with a prescription for antibiotics, his medical records show....

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and a Dallas County commissioner have accused a Texas hospital of racism in the death of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan. "What role did [Duncan's] lack of privilege play in the treatment he received? He is being treated as a criminal rather than as a patient," Jackson wrote in a story for the Huffington Post this week. "As followers of Jesus, we are called to work for the day when those with privilege, most often white people, have greater access to better medical care than those whom Jesus calls 'the least of our sisters and brothers.'"...

The family of Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan are venting their outrage that the late Liberian may not have received the same quality of care leading up to his death Wednesday morning as the other patients treated in the U.S. for the dreaded virus. 'No one has died of Ebola in the U.S. before. This is the first time,' Duncan's furious nephew Joe Weeks told ABC. Weeks and others in Duncan's family are calling his treatment 'unfair,' after seeing other patients pulled from the brink of death in government-funded evacuation planes and using life-saving blood transfusions and cutting edge drugs....

BOSTON (CBS) – A New Hampshire woman believes her tweets about an incident at the Philadelphia airport got her booted from a flight. Lisa Carter of Exeter was booked on JetBlue Flight #760 to Logan at 8:30 Tuesday night. But it was delayed several hours after another passenger accused the pilot of being intoxicated. JetBlue says the pilot submitted to a sobriety test which he passed. Carter tweeted and posted photos of what she witnessed at the gate.

Apparently, Apple’s problem (who knew the world’s most profitable company had a problem?... I mean, aside from bendable i-phones?) is that their executives are all “old white guys.” According to Yahoo Finance, the tech sector (in general) is suffering from a minority deficiency. According to Yahoo Finance, you just can’t help but notice that Apple events are essentially one long “parade of middle-aged white guys who came on stage to reveal the company’s latest and greatest.” Strong words for a website that regularly features Henry Blodget, Aaron Task, and Ben Stein. (And Henry Blodget is even barred from the securities...

Holder had no business being chief law enforcement officer of the United States. When law enforcement was needed, Holder played the race card. When the Constitution deserved defense, he offended its fundamental premises Attorney General Eric Holder has announced his resignation, and he will step down as soon as a successor is appointed to replace him. What took so long? President George W. Bush suffered through three attorneys general, the first resigning for health reasons, followed by the second because of conflicts of interest and failures relating to the termination of US Attorneys, and the third because of the end...

Attorney General Eric Holder is at long last relinquishing his cabinet post after nearly six unprecedented, catastrophic years of racial demagoguery and gangsterism.

A Django Unchained actress is claiming she was 'handcuffed and detained' by police after being mistaken for a prostitute as she kissed her white husband. Daniele Watts, who played slave CoCo in the award-winning film, posted the news on her Facebook page on 2 September and said her arm was cut when she was handcuffed. Watts and her husband Brian James Lucas claim that they were kissing on a Hollywood street when police were called and they were asked to show their ID card to which Watts refused.