Obama Meets Four Former Presidents For Historic Hand-Off As Burris Inserts Himself Into The Picture

Obama Hails 'Extraordinary' Moment with Presidents

Roland Burris Expects to Join Senate 'Very Shortly'

Kanye West Mom's Surgeon Jailed for DUI in California
Feds Say Inauguration Attractive Terrorist Target
Election Day Assaults Lead to Hate Crime Charges

Porn Industry Needs A Bailout - Is Barack Down?

Brian McNight, T-Boz, Rodman and Hershel Walker Do What?

Study: Networking Hinders Black Women Execs
Justice Dept Seeks Injunction Against New Black Panther Party
Biggie’s Mom, Voletta Wallace, Wants to Talk to Lil’ Kim
Detained Zimbabwe Activists 'Severely Tortured', Says Lawyer
Hip-Hop Clothing Chain Files for Chapter 11
Real Housewife Sheree Whitfield Appeals to Ga. Supreme Court

Divorced Husband Tells Ex: 1.5 mil Or My Kidney Back

Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas: "Obama Presidency Not Legal"

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President..."

Because these are the words of the United States Constitution, because Barack Obama has dual citizenship through his Kenyan father and because Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' ego and arrogance will always put him in the middle of "mess"... the U.S. Supreme Court will now look into this before December 15th. Why now? Because December 15th is the date the United States Electoral College must ratify the election of Obama as the 44th President. Click the link below and read about the storm that is brewing.

Thomas Forces Supreme Court to Look at Obama Citizenship Case
Obama Facing Continued Diversity Pressures
Beatings Made Obama's Grandfather Loathe the British
Knicks, Stephon Marbury Have Cooling Off Period
Zimbabwe Declares National Health Emergency
DJ Suspended Over Busta's 'Arab Money'
Crisis Threatens South Africa's Black Empowerment Push
Why African American Art is So Hot
Tyler Perry Takes the Stand in Copyright Lawsuit
Civil Rights Beacon Odetta Dead at 77
Poll: Black Democrats Near GOP on Moral Issues
Oprah & Friends Celebrate Susan Taylor

Thank you James Wright Afro News, for the heads up on the Clarence Thomas Article

California Blacks Not To Blame In Passing of Proposition 8, Banning Gay Marriage

In the November 4th General election the state of California voted YES on Proposition 8, thereby banning same sex marriage in the state of California. In the wake of this, Black folks have been blamed for the loss to gay rights. Labeled "Homophobic" and "Church-going Hypocrites", Black folks have taken a lot of heat for the ban. But a deeper look points the blame in another direction because the numbers don't hold up. The state's Black population is 6.2 percent, and it accounted for 10 percent of the overall vote. In other words, blaming African Americans for the referendum's passage ignores 90 percent of the vote.

It also ignores recent history. To judge from social research, had there been an unapologetically pro-civil rights campaign, there was the prospect of a different outcome.

The most comprehensive study of Black attitudes toward homosexuality, which combines 31 national surveys from 1973 to 2000, came to a fascinating conclusion. Georgia State University researchers found that "Blacks appear to be more likely than whites both to see homosexuality as wrong and to favor gay-rights laws."

African Americans' religiosity leads many to believe that homosexuality is a sin, while their own experience of oppression leads them to oppose discrimination. This was borne out in the 2004 elections, where, in the six states with substantial Black populations that had same-sex marriage bans on their ballots, Blacks were slightly less likely than whites to vote for them. We highly recommend Author Sherry Wolf and the rest of this story.

ELECTION DAY AT 3BAAS: OUR VERY FIRST POST WAS ABOUT BARACK OBAMA!

By Kevin Ross

It was March 20, 2007 and we still had not figured out how to enlarge photos or add embedded video. But we knew Barack Obama would forever change the face of politics. 3BAAS Media Group has been through a lot over the last 21 months. Yet the one constant has been that each of us was hoping and praying and truly believing in this biracial brother from Illinois.

After just seeing Barack and his wife Michelle vote, I couldn't help but feel a bit of nostalgia today. So under the hood, read the very first stories we posted on our site. And more importantly, VOTE! Not for Obama, but for the spiritual journey that our ancestors have taken in this place called America. We honor them today, and the tomorrow our children are racing towards!

By Bill Schechner

(CBS 5) OAKLAND Illinois Senator Barack Obama is closing in on Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. One poll shows Obama trailing Clinton by just five points.With a tight eight-piece funk band establishing the mood, national and local press covering the event, the Senator from Illinois got set to deliver his speech at an appearance in Oakland on Saturday."All right…

This is a good looking crowd, too," Obama said to the crowd.When the history of the campaign is written, March 2007 will be the month Barack Obama undid, at least for the moment, the inevitability of the Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee despite her organization."She has the support of the most popular president in modern history, and it's still not enough at this point to make Obama be three paragraph's down in the news story instead of being right next to her in the same paragraph," said CBS 5 Political Analyst Joe Tuman.

Obama has overcome several obstacles. He is of mixed race, which some say therefore not a genuinely African-American candidate.The appearance of old-line national black political leader and now Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums at the Obama rally helped quiet that discussion, so does 10,000 people."His appearance in Oakland was one of the kinds of things he needs to do to shore up African-American voters as a block for him," Tuman said.The creepy and nasty attack ad now on YouTube, using an old apple ad, to portray Clinton as a controlling politician, while disavowed by Obama could have backfired.

Instead, it has brought nearly half-a-million showings.People in Oakland brightened a bit when asked about Obama. They said they thought he understood, and it was time for him. Outside a church on 14th Street, CBS 5 talked to Roshawna Tibbs, a 22-year-old registered voter."We need a black president. There are black secretaries. Black people working in the white house. Why not have a black president?" Tibbs said. "Is it a pride thing? I wouldn't call it that. I'd call it a fair thing." But Tibbs also said many people in her neighborhood said the system would never let it happen.



LETTER FROM WASHINGTON

By Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The most liberal member of Congress running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination isn't Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

It's Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

And the Republican candidate who's grown less conservative over his years in Congress? Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Those are among the interesting findings in a recent analysis of votes by all the members of Congress who are running for president. They cut to the heart of debates going on among activists in both major parties: Can a liberal Democrat win a general election? Which Republican is ideologically pure enough to win support from conservatives?

The study, released this month by the National Journal, a respected inside-the-Beltway research report, will help voters cut through the spin and hype of TV sound bites in coming months and judge these candidates for themselves.

Unlike TV commercials that focus on a single vote, these rankings are based on comprehensive voting records. The 2006 scores, for example, were based on as many as 95 votes on such issues as federal spending, tax cuts, the war in Iraq, embryonic stem-cell research and border security.
On the Democratic side, the analysis of "lifetime" voting records shows Obama as the most liberal with a score of 84.3 after two full years in the Senate. The most liberal score possible was 99.

The lifetime liberal scores for the other Democrats:

-Kucinich, 79.4

-Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, 79.2

-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, 78.8

-Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, 76.8

The rankings differ if you look only at their 2006 scores. That year Kucinich edged Obama by one point as the most liberal, and Clinton was the least liberal, as she sought re-election and prepared to launch her presidential campaign.

Their ideological purity also varies by issue areas.

Obama, for example, is more liberal on economic and foreign policy issues and slightly less liberal on social policies. Clinton and Dodd are most liberal on social policy questions, less so on economic and foreign policy votes.

Biden is most liberal on economics, much less so on foreign policy.

The most conservative member of Congress seeking the Republican nomination - based on lifetime voting records - is Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, with a score of 82.5. The most conservative score possible was 99.

Lifetime scores for the other Republicans:

-Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, 81

-Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, 75.9

-Sen. John McCain of Arizona, 71.8

-Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, 71.5

-Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 51.7

The year-to-year scores can reveal consistency or change. McCain, for example, grew increasingly less conservative in recent years. He started with annual conservative scores consistently in the 80s when he first went to the Senate in 1987, dipped to the 70s during the mid-1990s, into the 60s in the late 1990s and into the 50s starting in 2004.

The GOP candidates' votes also reveal big differences issue to issue.

Brownback, for example, got a score of 53 on social issues for his 2006 votes and a 92 for votes on economic issues.

Hagel, too, got lower conservative marks for social issues and higher conservative scores for economic and foreign policy votes.

McCain got a 46 for social issues - left of center - and more conservative grades for economic and foreign policy issues.

For more on the National Journal scorecard, http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/

I'm Touched By Barack's Single Tear, And All That His Campaign Embodies!

By Aunt Agnes

I am watching Barack Obama speak for the first time after learning his grandmother made her transition. And I saw the tears running down his face. He tried to wipe one away without anyone noticing.

"That One" speaking at a rally, was clear and specific. Telling the story of the quite heroes in all of our lives. He used his grandmother as an example of a hard worker fighting through the depression. He has withstood character assassinations and assertions that would have had most of us wanting to say "put up your dukes, because I going to kick your a--."

But Barack has taken the blows. Understandably, losing his grandmother brought the emotion. He was resolved to finish the task at hand. You saw the strength with the touch of humility and sadness.

Whatever happens, the impact has been felt, "That one" made some of us face ourselves as Americans and what we are made of. "That one" made us talk about our hopes and desires again.

I will be fixing Margaritas tomorrow and as I sip, I will be saying prayers for myself and the American people to let grace prevail over "the self-righteous mavericks."

I am keeping hope alive (a little tipsy maybe) but working my faith.........

Once Barack Wins This Election, America Will Never Be The Same!!!!

Blacks See Hope/Doubt in an Obama Victory
Level of White Support for Obama a Surprise
Feds Investigating Leak about Obama's Aunt
Spike Lee Keeps Florida Voters Company in Line
Former Reagan Adviser Endorses Obama

Black Formula One Racer Lewis Hamilton On Fire
Def Jam Exec Shakir Stewart Commits Suicide

Vegas Launches New Monthly Black Lifestyle Mag
12-Year-Old Shot Dead While Trick-or-Treating
Judge: King Family Must Resume Documenting Papers
Memorial Held for Slain Hudson Family
Federal Grand Jury Looking into Nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund
AIDS-Hit Swaziland Promotes Circumcision
New Party Forms to Challenge ANC in South Africa

Is Obama's Illegal Aunt A Smoking Gun???

Someone needs to remind Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama that family can be a pain, and there is nothing you can do. Barack Obama's aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago. What's more, she has been contributing to his campaign and it is illegal to do so unless you are a citizen or have a green card. Then there is the question of how someone illegal and on a deportation list qualified for public housing???

Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUHN on-YANG-oh), referred to as "Aunti Zeituni" in the Democratic presidential candidate's memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a person familiar with the matter told the AP late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss Onyango's case.
Onyango, 56, is Obama's late father's half-sister, the Obama campaign has confirmed. She is not a relative whom Obama, 47, has discussed in campaign appearances and, unlike Obama's father and his maternal grandmother, is not someone who has been part of the public discussion about his personal life.
The Obama campaign declined to comment late Friday night.
Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.
Onyango's refusal to leave the country would represent an administrative, noncriminal violation of immigration law, meaning such cases are handled outside the criminal court system. Estimates vary, but many experts believe there are more than 10 million such immigrants in the U.S.
According to Federal Election Commission documents filed by the Obama campaign, Onyango has contributed $260 to Obama over a period of time. Under federal election law, only U.S. citizens or green-card holders are legally permitted to give money to campaigns. Onyango, who listed her employer as the Boston Housing Authority, gave in small increments to the Obama campaign. Her latest contribution was $5 on Sept. 19.
The AP could not immediately reach Onyango for comment.

Aside From The Recent Discovery of A Plot To Kill Barack, This Black Man's Campaign Has Gone Relatively Smooth

LIGHT OF DAY

By Erin Aubry Kaplan

The presidential election is coming down to its final, frantic moments, and one of the biggest shocks in a year of many is that, at this point, I have almost nothing to say.

This is an oddly pleasant shock in a notably unpleasant election season. Why pleasant? The stones I expected to be overturning to loudly describe the slimy creatures underneath have all been overturned.

Racism in advertising, running-mate incompetence, genuine public fury over the government’s weekly scramble to bail out the rich on the backs of the working and middle class (or what’s left of it), shrill charges and counter-charges of anti-Americanism that make McCarthy look a moderate—it has all come to the fore, and not a moment too soon.

Overtaken by our own missteps and a sense that we’re approaching a critical moment in our brief history, America is seeing itself plainly in a hall of mirrors it has assiduously avoided for the last several election cycles; we have no choice but to look now and realize that the distortions and grotesqueries are not tricks, but real. We may still be the most possible place on earth, but right now we’re the ugly America. We need a makeover. Bad.

Are we going to get one? Hard to say. Barack in the White House will undoubtedly give us a face-lift, a cosmetic boost to our flagging self-image and far worse international image as a guiding light of democracy where anybody with craft and ingenuity can make it.

Besides being black, Barack is young and handsome, cool and charismatic. He’s a big ego who has nonetheless encouraged people to project onto him their own image of a more perfect or prosperous America, and it’s worked. Unlike the top-down cults of personality led by presidents over the last 30 years, Barack is a tabula rasa that people have gotten behind like nothing and no one else.

I thought for sure his color and all the complex, troubled history it entails would have made that impossible; I was wrong. Oh, he still might lose the election, and he might very well lose it because of color. But his triumph as a new model of politician, especially a consensus-building black politician, is already complete. I thought a year ago that this was the worst time for a black candidate to run, with so much at stake; now I see that this is the only time that made sense.

A rookie psychologist will tell you that it’s only when all the crap gets dredged up into the light of day and all the lies people have been telling themselves are laid bare that they are most willing to make drastic change.

But the second and more urgent question is, will there be change, drastic or otherwise? Barack getting there won’t be enough. Looks are important, but they’re only the beginning, the means to an end. We’re almost done with beginning. The end, far from being the Christian apocalypse we’ve come to associate with the word, is what will save us. All of us.

ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN is the first African American in history to be a weekly op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Her musings continue to appear at KCET, the Times, Essence magazine, and a host of other publications. Among her many projects, Kaplan is currently working on her much anticipated book.

2008 Presidential Election: Hey Joe Sixpack - Grits Dummy!

By Tor Shephens

One of the events in my life that I have never forgotten occurred when I was in Junior High School. It was when Alex Haley's ROOTS came out.

Just thinking about this has me on edge, in particular as it relates to the present political environment as proffered by Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin. When I hear “Joe Sixpack”, I can’t help but think this is a code phrase for not me, or the average American, but rather those that harbor the hatred of the past and the racist beliefs that yielded Jim Crow, and even slavery as depicted in the historic television miniseries.

It was cool after Monday's show, but after the Tuesday episode things hit the fan. It was as if everybody in the world was looking at roots. And seeing that folks from around my way were selectively bused to a predominantly white school, the environment during that week was completely different.

Prior to this, we all just had a ball, no problems never. But after that Tuesday segment, like I said it was on. See, that was the episode when Kunta Kinta was made, via whip to call himself Tobe.

There was a tension in the air that day.

Continue...

Obama Had Me At $150 Million!

Senator Barack Obama’s announcement on Sunday of his record-shattering $150 million fund-raising total for September underscored just how much his campaign has upended standards for raising money in presidential campaigns.

This Black man's campaign has now raised more than $600 million, almost equaling what all the candidates from both major parties collected in private donations in 2004.

It is a remarkable ascent to previously unimagined financial heights — Mr. Obama’s September total more than doubled the record $66 million he collected in August — that has been cheered by some and decried by others concerned about the influence of money in politics. The impact on the way presidential campaigns are financed is likely to be profound, potentially providing an epitaph on the tombstone of the existing public finance system.

Campaign finance watchdog groups said Sunday that Mr. Obama’s September haul bolstered their arguments for the need to revamp the presidential public financing system to restore its relevancy. It is an effort that both Senator John McCain and Mr. Obama have supported but that has faltered in Congress recently.

Democrats, though, may be reluctant to surrender the significant money-raising advantage they have developed over Republicans, saying that Mr. Obama, by cultivating millions of small donors over the Internet, has built what amounts to a parallel public financing system that is arguably more democratic.

“I think there’s going to be a fight inside the Democratic Party on this,” said David Donnelly, a director of Campaign Money Watch, a watchdog group.

In this election cycle, all of the major presidential candidates, except for former Senator John Edwards, opted out of the public financing system for the primary. Mr. Obama became the first major party candidate to bypass the public money for the general election since the system began in the 1970s, backing away from an earlier pledge to accept it if his opponent did as well. It was a move the McCain campaign and campaign finance watchdog groups harshly criticized.

But any effort to fix the system would be complicated by loopholes that permit wealthy individuals and moneyed interests to exert outsize influence, including through 527 groups, which can accept unlimited contributions.

“If you locked me up in a room and said, ‘You fix it,’ I’m not sure there is a way,” said Joe Trippi, the former campaign manager for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004 and a senior adviser for Mr. Edwards in the Democratic primary last year.

Tad Devine, a former senior strategist for Senator John F. Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004, said there were plenty of arguments that what Mr. Obama had done was healthy for the democratic process.

“What we’re going to have to figure out,” Mr. Devine said, “is why this is not only good for the Democratic Party but it’s good for the country.”

An examination of Mr. Obama’s intake in September lends credence to arguments by both sides. David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, said in a video message sent to supporters that Mr. Obama had 632,000 new donors in September, bringing the campaign’s total to 3.1 million. The average contribution, Mr. Plouffe said, was less than $100.

The full details of how the Obama campaign raised its money in September will not be available until Monday, when it files its official report with the Federal Election Commission. But a separate filing by the Obama Victory Fund, which is the campaign’s joint fund-raising operation with the Democratic National Committee, underscores that Mr. Obama has also been powered by major donors, many of them with interests in Washington, as well.

Mr. Obama’s joint money-raising committee, which can take in checks of more than $30,000 that are divided between the campaign and the D.N.C., collected $69 million in September. The fund funneled $32 million in September to the Obama campaign’s coffers and $26.5 million to the national committee.

The D.N.C., which can spend money on Mr. Obama’s behalf with certain restrictions, announced Sunday it collected nearly $50 million in September and had $27.4 million in cash on hand at the end of the month.

Coupled with his appeals to small donors over the Internet, Mr. Obama has maintained an aggressive, high-dollar fund-raising schedule. More than 600 people wrote checks of $25,000 or more to the Obama Victory Fund in September. They included Dwight Howard, the Orlando Magic basketball star; Andrea Jung, the chief executive of Avon; Gregory Brown, president of Motorola; and Charles E. Phillips Jr., president of Oracle.

McCain finance officials and other campaign finance experts initially anticipated that the Republican National Committee’s stockpile of cash and strong fund-raising, along with the $84 million Mr. McCain received in public financing, might be enough to stay within range of the Obama financial juggernaut.

The R.N.C. announced this month that it raised $66 million in September, which exceeded fund-raisers’ expectations, and officials said it had finished the month with about $77 million in the bank. But the Obama campaign has been outspending the McCain campaign on television by three-and-a-half-to-one, even with spending by the R.N.C. factored in, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which analyzes advertising spending. Source

Colin Powell to Barack Obama: I've Got Your Back!

2008 VP Debate Between Biden & Palin: Joe 6-Pack Kicked Some Barracuda Butt!

"Say It Ain't So Joe" and a shout-out to a group of 3rd graders was the highlight of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's performance. Let's call it what it is -- she's in over her head and no amount of lipstick is making this pig purty!

The Showdown in the Show Me state had vice presidential candidates, Democrat Joe Biden, 65, and Republican Sarah Palin, 44, debating for 90 minutes at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Nice to meet you," Palin greeted Biden, because indeed they hadn't met before. "Can I call you Joe?"

Asked about Congress's work on the Wall Street bailout package, Biden said it was evidence of eight years of failed policies.Biden pledged to "fundamentally" change policies to focus on the middle class.

Palin answered that a barometer is to go to a kids' soccer game, and said "I betcha" that you'll hear fear. She also said that federal government not provided "sound oversight," and said running mate John McCain had sounded the warning bell on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and said McCain had put politics aside by suspending his campaign to return to Washington to work on the bailout.

Biden responded by saying that McCain said two weeks ago that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. "He's out of touch," the senator said.

"He was talking to and talking about the American workforce," she retorted. Asked if predatory lenders were to blame for the subprime mortgage crisis, Palin answered, "Darn right, it was the predatory lenders."

"Joe six-packs" and "hockey moms" need to band together and say, "Never again," she said, filling her answers with everyday conversational language.

Biden, who never looked at Palin and answered Gwen Ifill directly, blamed McCain and other Republicans for deregulation that allowed subprime lenders to run free. He also disputed Palin saying that Barack Obama had voted to raise taxes, asserting that it was a procedural vote and by that measure McCain had voted to raise taxes much more often.

"It's a bogus standard," Biden said.

While simultaneously winking at the camera, Palin went after Biden for saying in a television interview last month that it would be "patriotic" if wealthier Americans paid higher taxes, as under Obama's plan under which those making $250,000 or more a year would lose their income tax cuts passed under President Bush.

Palin said that she comes from the middle class, and there "That's not patriotic. Patriotic is saying, 'Government you're not always the solution, often you're the problem."

Biden replied that he grew up in the middle class as well, and that McCain would give more tax breaks to big oil companies. He also pointed out that small business owners typically make under $250,000 a year, dispelling the idea that these individuals would suffer due to this tax imposition Barack imposes.

Palin, repeatedly looking down and apparently checking her notes, accused Obama of supporting tax breaks for Big Oil that she tried to undo as Alaska's governor.

Biden said Obama voted for the bill because it included alternative energy, and tried to strip out the tax breaks. Palin defended McCain's vote for a bankruptcy bill that made it more difficult for consumers to get out from under debt, but acknowledged that circumstances are changing.

Biden also voted for the bill, while Obama opposed it. "Barack saw the glass as half empty, I saw it as half full," he said.

Asked about her position on global warming, Palin said Alaska is feeling the effects more than any other state because it is closest to the Arctic.

"We know it's real," though she said she would not attribute all of climate change to man's activities.

Not answering many of the questions directly, Palin promoted McCain's "all of the above" plan for energy independence that includes wind, solar, nuclear, and offshore oil drilling.

Biden said global warming is "clearly man-made," asserting that if you don't understand the causes, you can't come up with a solution. He derided McCain's call for offshore drilling, saying the first drop wouldn't be produced for 10 years.

Biden said he supported equal rights for same-sex couples when it comes to hospital visitation, contracts, property, and other issues, but does not support gay marriage.

Palin said she opposed moves toward a change in the traditional definition of marriage, but said she is tolerant of people who choose to be homosexual.

On the Iraq war, Palin said McCain has the right strategy, put in place by General David Petraeus. "We're getting closer and closer to victory," she said.

Biden said Obama has a clear plan -- to withdraw troops within 16 months of taking office -- that President Bush and Iraq leaders are now negotiating. "We will end this war," Biden said. "John McCain has no end in sight."

"Your plan is a white flag of surrender," Palin replied.

They also sparred over whether Obama had voted not to fund the troops; Biden said McCain had done the same thing by voting against a funding bill that included a timetable for withdrawal.

Biden disputed McCain's assertion that Iraq is the central front on the war on terror, arguing that any attack on the United States would be planned in the badlands of Pakistan.

Palin asserted that Petraeus and leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq had said that of Iraq.

She tried to turn the tables, calling Obama not only naive but dangerous for agreeing to meet without preconditions with dictators who hate America.

"This is simply not true," Biden replied, saying that former secretaries of state and allies are urging US leaders to negotiate.

He then criticized McCain for saying he would not promise to meet as president with leader of Spain, a NATO ally. "I find that incredible," Biden said.

Palin broadened her critique of Obama and Biden, saying that voters will tire of them constantly criticizing the Bush administration's eight years.

"There's just too much finger pointing backwards," she said.

She acknowledged "huge blunders" by the Bush administration, like every administration, but vowed, "Change is coming."

Palin said McCain will learn from the mistakes, put aside partisanship, and move the country forward.

But Biden said the comparison to Bush is entirely fair because McCain has not proposed any different policies on a wide range of issues.

"Past is prologue," he said. The bottom-line challenges for the candidates:

It is the most-anticipated vice presidential debate in years, with some predicting a record audience. Of course, the same predictions were made about the first presidential debate last Friday, and it ended up not even cracking the top 10, though typical light TV viewership on Friday nights likely kept the numbers down.

John McCain Is No Maverick On Kitchen Table Issues

Biden really came into his own the second half of the 90 minute showdown. He clearly was in his own element, and show strong emotion when he talked about being a single father taking care of two boys after his wife died. Holding back tears, he checkmated Palin on the whole mom of five thing and demonstrated that this race is personal for him.

The most-watched veep face-off so far was George H.W. Bush vs. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 with 56.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The 2004 version between Dick Cheney and John Edwards drew an audience of 43.6 million.

The candidates at the top of the ticket are both watching the debate from afar, Obama in a hotel in Lansing, Mich., and McCain at one in Denver.

That Sinking Feeling: One Black Woman's Take On Sarah Palin

What Does John McCain's VP Pick Say About Us?

by Erin Aubry Kaplan

All my life I’ve resisted the philosophy of the Communist party members and other deeply disenchanted types that America is a lost cause. I’ve had my criticisms of this country, plenty of them. I still do. I don’t disagree too much with Communist Party’s analysis of America as a corporate plutocracy masquerading (very badly at this point) as a representative democracy.

But unlike the Party, I believe America can be redeemed. I believe it can change gears. I believe that beneath the rust and slime and infuriating hypocrisy is an ideal that’s battered but still intact, and we can save ourselves if we decide to use just a bit of it. I believe in a guiding light, even if we haven’t seen much wattage lately.

But with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin joined the Republican ticket as a vice-presidential candiate, I almost saw that light go out. The possibility I’ve believed in for the last 30 years felt, for the first time, like a complete sham, like I’d been believing in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

It’s not simply that Sarah Palin represents the worst American archetype out there—arrogant, cutthroat, contemptuous of any reality other than her own (which can often mean racist), smile-in-your-face smarmy, and proud of all of the above; it’s that this worst archetype represents so much of America itself.

I would like to believe Palin is on the fringe of our groupthink, but she isn’t. True, she doesn’t fully reflect all voters out there, with the exception of the rabid Christian right. But too many people identify with too many parts of her, whether it’s the Christian certitude, the unfettered ambition, the perky pitbull image, or most importantly, the blithe sense of entitlement and righteousness that markets itself as American chutzpah but is really white privilege with good PR.

Actually, white privilege in America is good PR. They’re the same thing. Whites get the fullest benefit of PR and the rest of us are always doing damage control, even when we haven’t done any damage.

Imagine, for a moment, if Barack Obama had chosen a personable but remarkably inexperienced running mate, like Snoop Dogg. Imagine Obama insisting that Snoop had the chops to run the country because he’s a wildly successful businessman and a “quick study.”

Imagine Obama touting Snoop’s commitment to his kids’ Pop Warner league as evidence that he’s just a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy and a devoted “football dad.” Imagine Snoop bragging about his small-town bona fides (he grew up in North Long Beach, one of a million small towns in and around L.A.)

Laughable, right? Right. So why is it that Sarah Palin isn’t equally laughable?

Why is her ignorance so charming, while black ignorance of any degree (associated heavily with hip-hop) so threatening? Forget ignorance for a moment--why is Barack Obama’s intelligence equally suspect?

The answer is that when it comes to marketing, that endeavor of American invention, there is no such thing as a really good Negro. There is no such thing as a Negro who credibly represents all of “us,” which we think of as hockey moms or lunch-bucket workers or Reagan Democrats. The distressing fact is, it doesn’t matter how credible Obama (or Snoop) is or isn’t, they can never be credible enough because of their color.

Sarah Palin only has to be as credible as a contestant on “American Idol,” and that’s evidently enough to capture our imagination. We eagerly lap up all the Palin details custom-built for mythology: the librarian up-do and glasses that coyly speaks to a beauty-pageant past, the red-carpet smile, the vague Minnesota accent.

What possibility, we say. Only in America could a relative (but good-looking) nobody come out of nowhere and nab the second-highest office in the land.

But I don’t want a nobody in that office. I don’t want an average hockey mom. Black or white, I want somebody qualified, knowledgeable, empathetic, even extraordinary.

Sarah Palin is none of those things, but the scariest part is, her supporters know that. But they’ll willingly swallow the hype because the alternative, putting a black man in charge (albeit with a white VP a hearbeat away), scares them—and a lot of us--even more.

That’s not possibility, that’s capitulation. Obama has said we’re a better country than we’ve been the last eight years. I’d like to believe him, but I have precious little belief in the country left. With the lack of light, my vision is getting dimmer all the time.

ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN is the first African American in history to be a weekly op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Her musings continue to appear in the Times, Essence magazine, and a host of other publications. Among her many projects, Kaplan is currently working on her much anticipated book.

While I May Not Agree With This View of Sarah Palin, NY Times Writer Frank Rich Is Wickedly Good With A Keyboard

By Frank Rich

WITH all due deference to lipstick, let’s advance the story.

A week ago the question was: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? The question today: What kind of president would Sarah Palin be?

It’s an urgent matter, because if we’ve learned anything from the G.O.P. convention and its aftermath, it’s that the 2008 edition of John McCain is too weak to serve as America’s chief executive. This unmentionable truth, more than race, is now the real elephant in the room of this election. No longer able to remember his principles any better than he can distinguish between Sunnis and Shia, McCain stands revealed as a guy who can be easily rolled by anyone who sells him a plan for “victory,” whether in Iraq or in Michigan. A McCain victory on Election Day will usher in a Palin presidency, with McCain serving as a transitional front man, an even weaker Bush to her Cheney.

The ambitious Palin and the ruthless forces she represents know it, too. You can almost see them smacking their lips in anticipation, whether they’re wearing lipstick or not.

This was made clear in the most chilling passage of Palin’s acceptance speech. Aligning herself with “a young farmer and a haberdasher from Missouri” who “followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency,” she read a quote from an unidentified writer who, she claimed, had praised Truman: “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity.” Then Palin added a snide observation of her own: Such small-town Americans, she said, “run our factories” and “fight our wars” and are “always proud” of their country. As opposed to those lazy, shiftless, unproud Americans — she didn’t have to name names — who are none of the above.

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Barack's Lipstick Comment, Republicans Guilty Of Double Standard

Here is the video of the actual comments by Barack Obama and the same comments by Dick Cheney when running against John Kerry in 2004.

A Young Black Kid From L.A. Claims He's Bristol Palin's Baby Daddy?

Watch Out Little Man, You May End Up Costing Barack This Election

Obama's Biggest Mistake...Not Choosing Hillary

OK, I said it Barack should have chosen Hillary as his running mate for vice president and it is so glaring now that we see how Sarah Palin has snatched a big chunk of history from the Democrats and like a bulldog plans to hang on to it. How can I see it and my GOP brother from another mother who blogs here with me stay silent on the subject. In fact all over the country, you "brother" GOP are strangely looking a lot like Luke Skywalker as you step away from the "dark side" of the Republican heart and look to Obama for some historical soul. But I digress, because Hillary really should be our girl.

She earned it. She has a base of deliverable votes. She was the history maker. And from her and Bill's performance at the DNC convention they have healed themselves and really are "team Democrats" in the end. The GOP has gotten the drop on all us Dems. To say, Sara Palin is bouncing, and burping that conservative right wing Republican base like yet a new born babe, would be and accurate analogy. In fact is that not a collective "Ma Ma" I hear from them as they finally get what they want and those grassrooters will now give McCain what he wants and desperately needs...energy. That's right because now they are ready to go out and organize and get "their man and WOMAN" in the White House.

How could Obama have been so scared of the Bill and Hillary show that he would risk his own place in history. Hillary is the one female who should be making history as the first woman on a national ticket for Vice President. Obama was confused with all the pants suits and feared she would always want to wear the pants. You were wrong. Sara Palin is a pale ghost compared to what Hillary has brought and would have brought to the ticket and eventually to our office. Hockey mom? Caribou Killer?? The son is not enlisting, he is running away to the army, the daughter in getting pregnant was in fact saying, "screw you mom, I can do what I want and I'm just as much a woman as you are." This is some highly dysfunctional crap and as the days roll along we will learn just how jacked up her family life is, and that Sarah Palin can't run "her" house, let alone the White House. Could his miscalculation, not choosing Hillary for VP, cost him the Presidency?

KINI-CLAD, GUN TOTIN' SARAH PALIN: GOD BLESS AMERICA!

In short, Sarah Palin is the emblem of what feminism was supposed to be all about: an unafraid, independent, audacious woman, who soared on her own merits without the aid of a patriarchal jumpstart, high-brow matrimonial tutelage and capital, and old-boy liaisons and networking.

For the rest of this guys take on McCain's VP pick, click here. And if anyone believes Govenor Palin's spot on the GOP all-star team is not about abortion, check this out.

Meanwhile, Time Magazine discusses how Team Barack is handling this latest curve ball:

Nobody was more surprised by John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate than the people who run the Barack Obama's campaign. "I can honestly say that we weren't prepared for that," says David Axelrod, Obama's top strategist. "I mean her name wasn't on anybody's list. It was a surprise to a lot of Republicans as well."

Their shock was evident in their initial, clumsy reaction, a hard-hitting two sentence statement from Obama spokesman Bill Burton which included this zinger: "Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency." Eighty-six minutes later, the campaign corrected course, issuing a second statement from both Obama and his running mate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden: "While we obviously have differences over how best to lead this country forward Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign."

Later that afternoon, Obama, almost apologetically, explained the discrepancy: "You know campaigns start getting these hair triggers and the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments." The do-si-do by the campaign reflects their initial uncertainty on how to deal with Palin, a rare moment of unsure footing for the usually flawlessly managed 19-month-old operation.

The dilemma the campaign has about how to deal with the sudden emergence of this political superstar comes down to this: it possibly can't ignore her, but going after her directly could easily backfire. If anything, the past week has shown that Palin wears a similar coat of Teflon as Obama. Just as many of Obama's opponents suddenly found themselves accused of playing the race card, many of Palin's supporters have been quick to accuse Dems of outrageous sexism in the frontal assault on Palin's record and family.

Still, given her attacks on Obama, his campaign will have a hard time resisting the urge to respond head on. Many observers had assumed that the choice of Palin would effectively take the McCain campaign's experience argument off the table. But the Republicans have shown no such reluctance, continuing to claim that Palin's eight years as a small-town mayor and two years as Alaska Governor make her more qualified than Obama with his seven years in the Illinois Senate and three years in the U.S. Senate — or even Biden with his 35 years in the U.S. Senate.

Meet Bristol's Baby Daddy: Levi "F---in Redneck" Johnston

Potential VP's Daughter & Hockey Badboy Have Some 'Esplainin To Do!!!

Doe-eyed Bristol Palin, 17, and Jamie Lynn Spears have a lot in common. Both are white, pretty, young ladies who's family members helped thrust them into the national spotlight.

Oh, Bristol and Jamie have also become the poster twins for teen pregnancy. The only difference, however, is that Bristol's soon-to-be baby daddy is a self described "F---n' Redneck".

Maybe it's me, but something tells me that won't go over well with the brothers. I'm just saying!

A ruggedly handsome varsity hockey jock that obviously was not properly vetted, Levi Johnston is an 18-year-old who's dating VP pick Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, for about a year according to locals in Wasilla, Alaska.


The all-American teen twosome will make the Alaska governor a grandma at age 44 - just in time for Christmas.

And the pregnancy? It was an open secret in the close-knit town of 9,780. Wasilla High School Warriors' coach Bill Sturdevant said he never believed that talk. "He was the same kid from the beginning of the season to the end. No signs of anything like that," the coach said.

"He was a good kid to be around, with lots of friends. He was well-liked."

A telephone number for Levi Johnston's parents, Sherry and Keith Johnston, was disconnected.

Besides his hard play on the ice, Levi Johnston was also a bit of a hell-raiser off it - another reason Bristol may have been smitten. State troopers popped Johnston last year for snagging some king salmon out of season in Moose Lake, records from Alaska wildlife enforcement show. He had to pay $370 bail.

On his MySpace page, Johnston proudly declares: "I don't want kids." "I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing," he says on the site. He also warns that if anyone messes with him, "I'll kick ass."

Given the almost zero appeal the GOP currently has with African Americans right now, this is not a good look for John McCain in general and Republicans in particular. I mean seriously, how do you spin that bull???

This election is just the gift that keeps on giving. I'm already busy casting the movie.

My vote is Will Smith and Kimberly Elise as Barack and Michelle Obama, and Richard Dreyfuss or Colonel Saul Tigh of Battlestar Galatica as John McCain. To round this thing out let's go with Emma Thompson as Hillary, William Hurt as Bill Clinton, John Voight as Joe Biden, Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin, Hillary Duff as Chelsea, Robin Wright Penn as Cindy McCain, and High School Musical's Zac Efron as Levi. Stop me if you think I'm off track.

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36 Reasons Republicans Need More Blacks In The Party

Where My People At????

Former Md. lieutenant governor Michael Steele is only one of 36 black delegates at the Republican convention here — less than 2% of the total and a sharp drop-off from 2004, a black think tank reports.

Nevermind a pregnancy that the McCain/Palin campaign clearly wanted to hide (note the 17-year-old at Friday's press conference being strategically covered by a baby and matching nursing bib), this is the real controversy!

The Democratic Party, which has targets for minority representation, said a record 24.5% of delegates at its convention last week were black. That's about twice the percentage of blacks in the U.S. population, according to the Census. The GOP set a record with 6.7% black delegates in 2004.

Republican convention officials did not respond to several requests for comment on the report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

The center said Republican John McCain likely will end up with a historically low share of the black vote despite his outreach to groups such as the National Urban League and the NAACP.

The chief reasons, the group said, are Democratic nominee Barack Obama's enormous appeal to black voters and McCain's "association with President Bush, an exceptionally unpopular figure" among blacks.

The report said McCain also is hurt because his home state of Arizona has few blacks and there are no well-known black elected officials to make his case.

GOPAC chairman Michael Steele, whose group helps elect Republicans to state and local office, said the black community "has to get out of the mind-set that anything the Republican Party says is bad for them."

But Steele, who is black, also said that "black folks aren't going to flock to the GOP unless they have something to flock to." He urged his party to stop superficial "outreach" programs and start building coalitions and relationships with black voters.

One black convention delegate, Robert Smith of Little Rock, said he was amused but not surprised at the tiny number of blacks. He said he is on a personal mission to win back blacks he says are "voting for Barack Obama out of ethnicity rather than principle." If he's successful, he said, "this will be the last time you see so few" blacks at a GOP convention.

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