Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D.
OW Contributing Columnist

Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D., is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum (www.urbanissuesforum.com) and author of the upcoming book, REAL EYEZ: Race, Reality and Politics in 21 Century Popular Culture. He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com

Aug 4 2011

Between the Lines

Now that the national debt ceiling has been raised, and the country has averted economic catastrophe, it really is necessary to process and analyze what a small band of obstructionists have put the nation through.

This debt ceiling debate, usually a pro forma act of Congress, took on an ideology tone of huge proportions. Why is that? The last president, George W. Bush, raised the debt ceiling seven times without as much as a peep out of Congress. The federal deficit was spiraling out of control at that time, too.

Jul 28 2011

Between the Lines

The California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CCRC) will be voting on the final iteration of redistricting maps this week. These maps are supposed to reflect the demographic shifts in the state’s population following the 2010 Census.

Jul 21 2011

Between the Lines

Before I start this rant (and it’s gonna be a rant), I want to say one thing—Curt Flood deserves to be in Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame. If you come away with nothing else in this commentary, I want you to come away with the man who challenged Major League Baseball’s reserve clause made the biggest contribution to the game of baseball in the 20th century since the addition of lights (night games). It is unconscionable that Flood, who died in 1997, is not in the hall of fame, and it begs us to ask why?

Jul 14 2011

Between the Lines

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ordered the state of California to address its prison overcrowding problem. As a quick fix nearly 30,000 low-level (nonviolent) offenders will be released in the next few months—nearly 12,000 in Los Angeles County—so the county has a few perplexing dilemmas:

Jul 7 2011

Between the Lines

The nation’s second largest market is called, among other things, the “City of Dreams.” Whatever you want, whatever you can think of … you can get it here in Los Angeles. Everything except one thing—a National Football League team.

Jun 30 2011

Between the Lines

President Barack Obama’s re-election bid has posed some interesting dilemmas for those who helped push the “change we can believe in” agenda.

Since the election, the change agenda has evolved into a manipulation agenda, where everybody has a new demand for the president. The new demand is an extension of the old demands of classic “stakeholder” politics—what did the president promise versus what did the president deliver on, with a little “what have you done for me lately” added in.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.