Our Father, Who Isn’t in Washington

by Lisa Fritsch

Family devastation was one of the most damning aspects of a slave-owning society. A constant pain to the slave was not having “relations.” This broken human link weakened the resolve of slaves to fight for freedom, giving slave masters greater power.

Today our very own government plays the role of master. The advent of public housing and public assistance programs landed our community in peril. As the government replaced fathers with welfare checks and food stamps, out-of-wedlock births in the U.S. went from five percent in 1960 to 38.5 percent as of 2005 among the entire population. For the black community, the statistics are worse — up 70 percent today.

Family structure is vital to an individual’s prosperity and success. Government will have people believe that those 70 percent of black children born out of wedlock are safe as long as there are enough food stamps, public schools and universal health care to go around. But some of us know better.

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Obama accused of exaggerating terror threat

Obama accused of exaggerating terror threat

for political gain

by Simon Tisdall and Richard Norton-Taylor

• Pakistani diplomat launches scathing attack on White House
• European intelligence claims raised terror alerts 'nonsensical'

A US terror alert issued last week about al-Qaida plots to attack targets in western Europe was politically motivated and not based on credible new information, according to senior Pakistani diplomats and European intelligence officials.

The non-specific US warning, which despite its vagueness led Britain, France and other countries to raise their overseas terror alert levels, was an attempt to justify a recent escalation in US drone and helicopter attacks inside Pakistan that have "set the country on fire", said Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the high commissioner to Britain.

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White House solar panels bring Carter comparisons

by Darren Samuelsohn

There are many symbols in President Barack Obama’s decision Tuesday to return solar panels to the White House roof: a nod to liberal “green” voters, a sign of personal commitment to the fight against climate change, a reminder of his pledge to retool the U.S. industrial sector to manufacture clean-energy components.

One image his administration probably didn’t want to invoke, however, was that of former President Jimmy Carter, whose term was considered a disaster for Democrats.

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