Archives for January 2013

More housework means less sex for hubby, says study. What’s that, again?

As women’s roles in everything from combat to the office are being debated, research says ‘looking under the hood’ not only sounds sexier than washing dishes, it is sexier.

Will the Democratic South rise again?

It was almost but not quite like being in the middle of the action on Inauguration Day. If you opened the door of the restaurant on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol, you could practically hear echoes of President Obama’s speech and Beyonce’s rendition of the National Anthem, real or lip-synched. But it was all a little muddled. You could say the same about the state of the Democratic Party in the South.

I watched the inauguration ceremonies on big screens in the eatery, surrounded by Southern Democrats with a plan. I listened to strategies designed to re-establish the party’s dominance in the region it once owned. Because of issues of race, social issues and habit, for starters, it won’t be easy.

Keeping It Positive: No Cultural Hibernation!

CHARLOTTE, NC: There’s no hitting the snooze button here in Charlotte. Winter is prime time for great cultural events. Mary Curtis has the rundown on three exhibitions you’ll want to visit.

The GOP on its minority problem: Don’t call it ‘outreach,’ but ‘engagement’

In a come-to-Jesus moment at the RNC winter meeting in Charlotte, the message was: Republicans cannot scare people and expect to win; Republicans have to invite people and include people and that’s how you win.

Myrlie Evers-Williams — Making Her Own History

In the glow of Inauguration Day spectacle, anyone reading reports might think the news flash of the day – after the second inauguration of America’s first African American president, of course – was Beyonce’s lip-synch-gate. Did the beautiful performer have some help in her rendition of the national anthem? And, by the way, did you notice First Lady Michelle Obama’s bangs?

It did surprise me that more was not made of another figure sharing the stage and holding her own with the president, someone’s whose history is also entwined in the red, white and blue flags fluttering throughout the crowd on the mall on that clear Washington day. You could say that without the efforts of a Myrlie Evers-Williams and all she represents, a President Barack Obama would not have been possible in 2008 and beyond.

Does Obama’s presidency improve the lives of everyday African Americans?

‘The weird sort of ironic reality is it might be easier for America to elect Barack Obama to get that job than it is for a lot of other people of color just to get a job managing a department store,’ says white anti-racism author and activist Tim Wise.

N.C. Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan has a task ahead in 2014 reelection campaign

In a state where Republicans did well in 2012 and have high hopes for the next election, she carves out her own path on issues from guns to energy.

Keeping It Positive: An Inauguration recap, plus serving in your community

Sharing behind-the-scenes moments from President Obama’s second Inauguration. Plus, discussing ways we can keep the good vibes from Monday’s festivities going here in the Queen City!

Hair we go again: Michelle Obama’s bangs

The political and diplomatic world shifts, not because of policy but bangs? Sure, it’s silly, and I could be a grump and ask if hair will take away from Michelle Obama’s work for healthy children and military families. But it’s one of the few safe topics to argue over nowadays. It’s cool that the most stylish and glamorous White House couple since the Kennedys is African American.

She the People reacts to the new look.

For Southern Democrats, all politics are local

Southern Democrats in Washington for the inauguration of President Obama on Monday celebrated as much as their counterpoints from across the country. But they also knew they had work to do, with GOP senators, governors and state legislatures cutting a bright red swath through the region. So they used an Inauguration Day gathering to launch South Forward, a program aimed at making gains for the Democratic Party by supporting local candidates.