United States obtains $120,000 settlement and injunctive relief in cased based on National Fair Housing Alliance testing; Justice Department press release describes fair housing enforcement as "top priority."
The Institute on Race & Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School finds substantial disparities based on race and linked to residential segregation
A day doesn't pass without someone purporting to be a reporter weighing in on why President-Elect Obama will not, cannot, or should not do what he said in the campaign he was going to do.
Sometimes, the basis of the "no, we can't" spin is a Republican - named or unnamed - who opines that it is essential that the President-Elect govern essentially like John McCain would have governed. Sadly, these comments sometimes also come from Democrats -- in language reminiscent of the 1980s heydey of the Democratic Leadership Council.
Frequently, the report reflects the reporter's embedded assumption - even in the face of two trillion dollars of bailout assistance to date - that spending on the needs of people could never be affordable.
Most often, the assumption is that any seriously progressive legislative agenda will be stymied because Democrats lack a 60-vote majority in the Senate. The recent inability of the Senate to pass auto-industry bailout legislation is cited as evidence.
In fact, in significant ways, the lack of 60 votes is only as important as Democrats allow it to be. While it is true that only 60 votes yield success on a cloture motion, the defeat of a cloture motion is fatal only if one is unwilling to force opponents of your legislation to mount an actual filibuster.
Take the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the legislation that would overturn the Supreme Court's narrowing of the Equal Pay Act. The bill, supported by the President-Elect, has majority support in both House and Senate, and broad support in the country. If a cloture motion fails on such a bill, invite Senate Republicans to filibuster against equal pay for women for as long as those Republicans want to have that stance define them.
This strategy won't work on every issue, but "reaching across the aisle" - just like any negotiation - requires the people on the other side to understand that there are consequences to adopting a rejectionist posture.
A day doesn't pass without someone purporting to be a reporter weighing in on why President-Elect Obama will not, cannot, or should not do what he said in the campaign he was going to do.
Sometimes, the basis of the "no, we can't" spin is a Republican - named or unnamed - who opines that it is essential that the President-Elect govern essentially like John McCain would have governed. Sadly, these comments sometimes also come from Democrats -- in language reminiscent of the 1980s heydey of the Democratic Leadership Council.
Frequently, the report reflects the reporter's embedded assumption - even in the face of two trillion dollars of bailout assistance to date - that spending on the needs of people could never be affordable.
Most often, the assumption is that any seriously progressive legislative agenda will be stymied because Democrats lack a 60-vote majority in the Senate. The recent inability of the Senate to pass auto-industry bailout legislation is cited as evidence.
In fact, in significant ways, the lack of 60 votes is only as important as Democrats allow it to be. While it is true that only 60 votes yield success on a cloture motion, the defeat of a cloture motion is fatal only if one is unwilling to force opponents of your legislation to mount an actual filibuster.
Take the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the legislation that would overturn the Supreme Court's narrowing of the Equal Pay Act. The bill, supported by the President-Elect, has majority support in both House and Senate, and broad support in the country. If a cloture motion fails on such a bill, invite Senate Republicans to filibuster against equal pay for women for as long as those Republicans want to have that stance define them.
This strategy won't work on every issue, but "reaching across the aisle" - just like any negotiation - requires the people on the other side to understand that there are consequences to adopting a rejectionist posture.