Margaret Kimberley

The NAACP made more headlines than usual at its recent annual convention because of one speaker. Who was that person? Number four is correct. George W. Bush spoke at the NAACP convention. Most presidents, including Nixon and Reagan, do that at least once during their term in office, but Bush had never seen fit to…

“Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.” – Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan was one of the founding fathers of the state of Israel. His political and military successors are certainly living up to his frightening advice. In retaliation for the capture of an Israeli soldier, a policy of collective punishment has…

How is a rape and murder planned? Does one man casually say, “She’s hot, let’s rape her,” and hope that someone else says, “Hell yes!” Is the crime spelled out, or are there mutually understood winks and nudges. Is the conversation brutal or casual and banal? Abeer Qasim Hamza and her family are now dead…

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has had a rough year, but she had a lot to smile about recently. A grand jury declined to indict her for using a cell phone as a lethal weapon, and the Bush administration vindicated her. White House press secretary Tony Snow was not content to use the term “tar baby” and…

“I agree with Senator Warner that the message should be ‘we really mean business, Iraqis, get on with it.’” – Sen. Barack Obama, on the Senate floor. It is always a bad sign when Democrats publicly proclaim agreement with Republicans. Lately Senator Barack Obama has given pause to progressives every time he makes one of…

The people who were once considered black leaders have reached their collective nadir. Ken Blackwell, Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State, has written election rules so draconian that anyone who helps another register to vote risks the possibility of jail time. Chicago Alderwoman Emma Mitts has sided with Wal-Mart in opposing living wages for her constituents.…

Occupations are always deadly. The occupied are at constant risk of death, incarceration and humiliation. It is important to keep this in mind when thinking of the killings of Iraqi civilians at Haditha, Iraq. It is a story that needs to be told, but it was not an unusual event. It is just the first…

“Kids Eat Shit in New Orleans Jail” Those words, or something akin to them, should have been headlines. While Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans streets and homes, the waters also rose in New Orleans jails, including jails for juveniles. The story of Hurricane Katrina is an epic one, a foretelling of what is to come…

Fox News is the television news mouthpiece for the Bush administration. When the White House recently announced the departure of press secretary Scott McClellan rumors immediately surfaced that his replacement would be Tony Snow of none other than Fox News. The rumors were true and now it is official, Fox News speaks for Bush. At…