When President Obama takes to the podium Thursday to deliver his vision of the Middle East, he will need all the magic of his oratory. In his two years in office, his message to allies and enemies in the world’s most contentious region has been confusing, at best. His administration has angered both Israelis and…

As he ponders the “shellacking” the Democratic Party took in last Tuesday’s elections, President Obama should begin the second half of his term by overcoming his aversion to dealing with the bad things of the past. Remember, he rejected calls for investigations into possible wrongdoing by Bush administration officials, insisting that, instead, he preferred to…

What a difference a generation makes. We’ve gone from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference founders’ sexcapades—infamously taped by the original TMZ gang, J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI voyeurs—to the continuing buffoonery of their heirs and disciples. The evolving scenario involves charges and counter-charges over who’s running the joint; characterizations of opponents as “thugs,” “renegades”…

Please permit a final few words about Dr. Dorothy I. Height before she’s assigned a slot in the Black History Month index. Here are some frank thoughts about her role as a woman of the movement versus a man of the movement. Although she was a legendary figure, I reject a lot of the phony…

If they’re already complaining at Galatoire’s in the French Quarter about the impact of the oil spill, I wonder what Mrs. Chase and the brothers at Dooky Chase are saying. As the pending disaster snakes its way toward the Gulf Coast like a creepy crawler, the toll it will surely exact is the zillion-dollar mystery. Restaurants and cuisine are the…