Rapper MC Breed dies at friend's home at age 37

Rapper MC Breed dies at friend's home at age 37

11/24/2008 1:18 PM, AP


It was in the gritty, blue-collar city of Flint that Eric Breed grew up amid the dimming opportunities of a declining auto industry.

That starkness was vivid in the lyrics of what would be the rapper's biggest hit, 1991's "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'."

Breed, known professionally as MC Breed, died Saturday at a friend's home in Ypsilanti, about 30 miles southwest of Detroit, a Washtenaw County medical examiner's spokesman said Monday.

Toxicology reports were pending, but no foul play was suspected in the 37-year-old's death.

Breed had suffered from kidney failure, according to The Detroit News and The Flint Journal.

"More than just an artist, we mourn the loss of a beloved father, son, brother and friend," his family said in a statement. "We are thankful and blessed to have been in his presence and want him to be remembered for his creative, caring, talented and hardworking spirit."

Breed released 13 albums from 1991 to 2004, and collaborated with artists such as Tupac Shakur and Too Short.

He moved to Atlanta in the 1990s, but always identified with his tough Flint roots.

The lyrics from "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'" included: "I'm from F-l-i-n-t'n. A city where pity runs low. If you ever shoot through my city, now you know. Cause we are strictly business and we also got our pride, and if you don't like it, I suggest you break wide."

The single was from his first album, "MC Breed & DFC," which sold between 2.5 million to 4 million copies.

Breed was a "musical legend of Flint," said Carter McWright, owner of local record store Music Planet.

"One thing about Breed is he had that flow, that rhythm," McWright said. "He knew how to flow with it."

Funeral arrangements were being completed Monday in Flint.

Breed is survived by three daughters and two sons; his parents; two brothers; and a sister.

Mc Breed-Ain't No Future In Yo' Frontin video

Obama-McCain: New meeting set to bury campaign ax

CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama will meet Monday with John McCain in talks that Obama's transition office said would focus on ways they can cooperate on an array of troublesome issues facing the country.

The meeting will be the first since Obama, the Democratic Illinois senator, beat McCain, the Arizona Republican senator, by an Electoral College landslide in the Nov. 4 election.

"It's well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality," Obama spokesman Stephanie Cutter said in announcing the meeting.

Cutter also said the two will be joined at Obama's Chicago transition office by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a McCain confidant, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat whom Obama has chosen to be his White House chief of staff.

In his first two weeks as president-elect, Obama has struck a bipartisan tone. He paired a Republican and a Democrat to meet with foreign leaders this weekend on his behalf in Washington, for example, and his aides emphasized the bringing together of both sides in announcing the meeting with McCain.

Republican and Democratic officials say Emanuel and Graham arranged in a postelection conversation to have Obama and McCain meet at the earliest possible time and Monday was it. Emanuel and Graham have worked together before on issues on Capitol Hill, and Graham jumped to Emanuel's defense when Republicans criticized his appointment as Obama's chief of staff.

Since the election, McCain has had few public appearances. He appeared on the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno on Tuesday and campaigned in Georgia for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who faces a runoff next month.

Meanwhile, a Democratic official speaking on grounds of anonymity said that Obama met in Chicago with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is under consideration for secretary of state.

The two met on Thursday afternoon, said the official, who asked not to be publicly identified because the official was not authorized to release the information.

The motorcade of Clinton, who receives Secret Service protection as a former first lady, was seen leaving the office complex shortly before Obama left for the day. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines would say only that "Senator Clinton had no public schedule yesterday."

Obama has surrounded himself with several former staffers of Bill Clinton's presidency. Some of them are pushing Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Other senators, including Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, also are thought to be under consideration.

Obama holds secret meeting with HRC

President-elect Barack Obama met Thursday with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at his transition headquarters in Chicago as a growing chorus of advisers pushes her for secretary of state.

This would give him a “Team of Rivals” Cabinet that would allow him to focus on the domestic economy while Clinton traveled the world to shore up America’s image with allies.

A clue to the secret visit was contained in a note last night from the protective pool of journalists who follow Obama: “Several minutes before President-elect Obama's motorcade emerged from the basement garage beneath his transition headquarters, another unidentified motorcade of approximately three SUVs left the garage.”

Several officials described the visit to Politico on Friday.

Clinton said during her primary campaign against Obama that she was running, in part, to “restore America's standing in the world,” and she may get her chance to try. Several key Obama transition advisers argue that she would be “force multiplier” for the administration on the global stage.

Among those who like the idea: Bill Daley, an Obama adviser who was commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton.

With rumors swirling that she might join the Cabinet, Clinton said Monday night on the red carpet at Carnegie Hall in New York at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards: "I am happy being a senator from New York; I love this state and this city. I am looking at the long list of things I have to catch up on and do. But I want to be a good partner and I want to do everything I can to make sure his agenda is going to be successful."

Clinton plans to remain coy. She had an event in Albany, N.Y., on Friday but did not plan to answer questions.

The president-elect already has shown signs of valuing proven competence over longtime loyalty, diversity or interest-group wish lists.

“If you want to avoid an early stumble — and he just can’t afford them, for a million reasons — he’s got to have people who know what they’re doing,” a well-plugged-in Democrat explained.

One explanation for Obama’s willingness to consider Clinton for chief diplomat can be found in a January interview he gave to Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News.” As part of her “Primary Questions” series, Couric asked him what books besides the Bible he would consider essential if he were elected president.

“Doris Kearns Goodwin's book ‘Team of Rivals,’” Obama replied. “It was a biography of Lincoln. And she talks about Lincoln's capacity to bring opponents of his and people who have run against him in his cabinet. And he was confident enough to be willing to have these dissenting voices and confident enough to listen to the American people and push them outside of their comfort zone. And I think that part of what I want to do as president is push Americans a little bit outside of their comfort zone. It's a remarkable study in leadership.”

The once-laughable idea is plausible now in part because Obama is exceedingly confident now, in a way that only someone elected to the presidency of the United States can be. “He doesn’t need anybody right now — he’s on the cusp of becoming a world historic figure,” one adviser said. “This is a much different calculation [than picking a running mate]. He is completely and totally in the driver’s seat.” And during the general election, she campaigned tirelessly on his behalf throughout the country.

Even officials who like the idea threw up strong “caution” flags. Fresh off his electoral triumph, Obama does not feel he needs the Clintons. The president-elect has never liked the idea of Bill Clinton as a back-seat driver. The former president has had many tangled foreign business dealings that could complicate his wife’s entry into an administration that is promising transparency. And at most a few people, none of whom are talking, know what Obama really thinks about all this.

But some Obama advisers argue that Hillary Clinton would be an ideal fit if Obama concludes that he will have to focus his early days in office on the domestic economy, and will have to essentially outsource heavy-duty foreign travel to his secretary of state. Her celebrity and credibility would be a huge asset in his goal of reengaging the United States with allies. “You can send out John Kerry or Chuck Hagel,” said one adviser, mentioning some other candidates for secretary of state. “Sending Hillary Clinton out is better.”

The officials said Clinton becomes even more attractive if Obama retains President Bush’s last secretary of defense, Robert Gates. Some Obama advisers are advocated that course because he would provide cover for drawing down troops in Iraq: Gates has said he believes that is possible, and it would keep Obama out of a fight he can’t afford with Army Gen. David Petraeus, now the head of the U.S. Central Command.

An Obama adviser threw out one final rationale: It’s better to have the Clintons inside the tent than outside, causing trouble.

The Clinton camp refused to comment on the possibility. Senior Adviser Philippe Reines said: “Any speculation about Cabinet or other administration appointments is really for President-elect Obama's transition team to address.”

VP-elect Biden hopes to be a hands-on No. 2

WASHINGTON – Vice President-elect Joe Biden was all smiles Thursday when he paid a courtesy call the man he will succeed, Dick Cheney. But he has insisted he wants to be nothing like him. Biden has called Cheney "the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history" and said he couldn't name a single good thing Cheney had done.

But even if he won't acknowledge any similarities, there's one way that Biden wants to be like Cheney — a strong partner in governing the country.

Biden is proving to be a hands-on No. 2 to President-elect Barack Obama. He is carving out his own niche, specializing in foreign affairs, his area of expertise for decades in the Senate, and sticking close to Obama.

Past vice presidents have often been relegated to ceremonial roles, without major input on daily decisions. But the last two vice presidents, Cheney and Al Gore, have been extraordinarily involved and insisted on private weekly lunches with their bosses.

Biden has said he told Obama, before accepting the running mate slot, that he wouldn't want a peripheral assignment like reorganizing government, which Gore took on, along with other tasks. In a New Yorker interview last month, he said he told Obama: "I don't want to be a vice president who is not part of the major decisions you make."

Biden himself will have an experienced aide who can help his voice be heard in the White House. He chose former Gore chief of staff Ron Klain to fill the same job for him, Democrats said Thursday.

Biden will certainly have a special interest in the Iraq war, with his son scheduled to deploy there this month.

So far, Biden has been working closely with Obama. He has been in almost all the president-elect's meetings at his new government office space in Chicago and has been dispatched to make calls to several foreign leaders.

Biden was asked to smooth over a miscommunication following Obama's phone call with Polish President Lech Kaczynski last week. Kaczynski issued a statement saying Obama vowed to continue with President Bush's missile defense project. But Obama's advisers denied it, and the Polish foreign minister later said it was a misinterpretation on their part.

Biden called Kaczynski a couple of days later to explain that the Obama administration will assess the program before deciding whether to stick with it.

He also spoke this week with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Jordan's King Abdullah II, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair. And he spoke with Israel's foreign and defense ministers, along with Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement issued Thursday by the Obama transition team.

Biden has said he'd like to use his 36 years of experience in the Senate, including leadership of the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees, to help push Obama's agenda in Congress. It's longtime insider's experience that Obama lacks and a role that has not been Cheney's focus.

Cheney has been forceful in the White House, while venturing to Capitol Hill occasionally to cast a tie-breaking vote or meet with GOP lawmakers.

On the campaign trail, Biden often lambasted Cheney. In a debate with Republican rival Sara Palin, Biden objected to Cheney's claim that the vice presidency is part of the legislative branch because of its largely ceremonial role as Senate president.

"The idea he's part of the legislative branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive, and look where it has gotten us," Biden said. "It has been very dangerous."

When "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric asked Biden to name the best and worst thing Cheney has done as vice president, he said he hasn't done much good, then offered admiration for his strength.

"But the thing I think he's really, really has done: I think he's done more harm than any other single high elected official in memory in terms of shredding the Constitution," Biden said. "You know, condoning torture, pushing torture as a policy, this idea of a unitary executive, meaning the Congress and the people have no power in a time of war, and the president controls everything. I don't have any animus toward Dick Cheney, but I really do think his attitude about the Constitution and the prosecution of this war has been absolutely wrong."

Despite the harsh words during the campaign, the Cheneys invited Biden and his wife, Jill, to the Naval Observatory, which is the official vice president's residence, for an hourlong tour Thursday. Biden said he had been in some of the first-floor rooms before. But it was his first look at much of the mansion that will be his first Washington residence after decades of commuting by train from Delaware.

Both couples were on their best behavior, at least during their greetings on the porch that reporters observed.

"Mr. Vice President, how are you doing," Biden said. Cheney replied, "Joe, how are you?" and offered his congratulations.

As reporters left afterward, a Secret Service agent could be heard telling another agent standing guard for the famously reclusive vice president, "I haven't seen press here since I've been here."

A statement from Cheney's office said the couple "enjoyed giving the Bidens a tour of the residence and wished them well as they make it their home in January."

Officials: Sen. Clinton eyed as secretary of state

CHICAGO – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the candidates that President-elect Barack Obama is considering for secretary of state, according to two Democratic officials in close contact with the Obama transition team.

Clinton, the former first lady who pushed Obama hard for the Democratic presidential nomination, was rumored to be a contender for the job last week, but the talk died down as party activists questioned whether she was best-suited to be the nation's top diplomat in an Obama administration.

The talk resumed in Washington and elsewhere Thursday, a day after Obama named several former aides to President Bill Clinton to help run his transition effort.

The two Democratic officials who spoke Thursday did so on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering Obama and his staff. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines referred questions to the Obama transition team, which said it had no comment.

Other people frequently mentioned for the State Department job are Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and New Mexico's Democratic governor, Bill Richardson.

The Renegade Is Loose. We Repeat, the Renegade Is Loose.

The Secret Service takes a lot of risks for the first family. So it's only fair that the agency gets the honor of coming up with code names for the president-elect and his family. Various sources within the Buzz recently revealed the not-so-secret nicknames.

Mr. Obama will be known as "Renegade" (move over, Lorenzo Lamas). Michelle, a woman of many talents, will be referred to as "Renaissance." Malia Obama's name will be "Radiance," while little sister Sasha's will be "Rosebud."

And what of the Bidens? We were hoping the Secret Service would stick to the "R" theme and dub Joe "Rogaine." Alas, his name will be "Celtic." His wife Jill will be "Capri." A bit boring, but hey, nobody asked us for our opinion.

Too bad, because while we don't have the power to assign nicknames to the world's most powerful family, we can dig up the most popular nicknames in Search. Here they are below for your enjoyment. And if you have your own ideas for code names for the future first family, chime in below. Buzz Log, over and out.

Roger Moore dislikes the more violent James Bond

Tuesday November 11 12:45 PM ET

Movie audiences nowadays expect scenes of graphic violence in James Bond movies, unlike when Roger Moore played the super spy with a tongue-in-cheek humor, the actor believes.

"I am happy to have done it, but I'm sad that it has turned so violent," Moore said before "Quantum of Solace," starring Daniel Craig as a darker Agent 007, opens in North America on Friday.

"That's keeping up with the times, it's what cinema-goers seem to want and it's proved by the box-office figures," Moore told Reuters in an interview about his memoir, "My Word is My Bond."

The new Bond film opened in London on Oct 31, breaking the British weekend box-office record with a gross of $25 million. It has taken in more than $106 million worldwide so far.

Moore, 81, recalled being appalled at the violence in "A View to a Kill," the 1985 movie which was the last of the seven in which he played Bond. "That wasn't Bond," he said.

In his book, Moore writes of his distaste for guns, ever since he was shot in the leg by a friend with a BB gun as a teenager.

While making "The Man With the Golden Gun," director Guy Hamilton wanted Bond to be tougher and had him threaten to break Maud Adams' character's arm to get information, he writes. "That sort of characterization didn't sit well with me, but Guy was keen to make my Bond a little more ruthless.

"I suggested my Bond would have charmed the information out of her by bedding her first. My Bond was a lover and a giggler, but I went along with Guy," the British actor wrote.

Moore has not yet seen "Quantum of Solace," but based on Craig's first Bond film, "Casino Royale," believes it will be a success in North America too.

"Daniel has done one Bond and he was in 'Munich' and ... he's done a lot of stuff, but his face, after one Bond film, that's all he needs. He is Bond."

Asked about his own legacy as an actor known mostly for playing Bond and in TV series such as "The Saint," and "The Persuaders," with Tony Curtis, Moore said: "I would love to be remembered as one of the greatest Lears or Hamlets. But as that's not going to happen I'm quite happy I did Bond."

His memoir is full of anecdotes about Hollywood and the stars he worked with such as Vivien Leigh, Mae West and Lana Turner. He also tells of his bust-up with Grace Jones during the filming of "A View to a Kill," when he forcibly pulled the plug on her stereo and flung a chair against the wall because she was playing loud rock music.

The only child of a south London policeman, Moore also writes about growing up before and during World War Two, of evacuation to the country and air raids and getting -- and being fired from -- his first job with a cartoon film company.

By the time he was called up, the war was over, but he served as an officer in Allied occupied Germany, where he ended up in the Army's entertainment regiment.

That was his entree into show business, along with his marriage to British singer Dorothy Squires.

"You're not that good, so smile a lot when you come on!" his first repertory theater manager told him. His first wife, who was a professional ice skater, was no less encouraging: "You'll never be an actor, your face is too weak, your jaw is too big and your mouth's too small."

Rahm's Return to the White House

People are still having problems spelling the name of our president-elect, and now Barack Obama has gone ahead and appointed as chief of staff Rahm Emanuel—searched in the past seven days as Ron, Rob, Rom, Ram, Rahn, Rham, and Rohm. We won't even go into the surname variations...although egregiously missing is his old moniker that the New York Times revived: Rahmbo.

However one spells the first Obama Cabinet member, the online frenzy for Emanuel surged an astonishing 75,473% on Yahoo! before he accepted the position. That number makes him the fastest moving search term in the past seven days on Yahoo!. Add up all his misspelled searches, and he pushes past lookups for "miley cyrus" and "thanksgiving."

The Search vetting process looked into his position as Illinois congressman, his bio, his Wikipedia entry, his religious affiliations, his nationality, his wife Amy Rule, his relationship with Israel, and (of course) his Clintonian legacy.

While his name has resonated in computers across all 50 states, the areas conducting due diligence most intensely include Delaware, Alabama, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. Drill down to the cities, however, and the people who most want to know about Emanuel come from Victoria (Texas), Lake Charles (La.), Hattiesburg-Laurel (Miss.), Springfield (Mo.), and Chattanooga (Tenn.)

The Buzz had plenty to offer in Emanuel reminisces. The New York Times brought up the steak knife catharsis ritual. Both Defamer and Time offered fun facts, such as his ballet training, and how he inspired the Josh Lyman character on "The West Wing" (which, incidentally, bubbled up 56% in searches). The Huffington Post dug up an old Valentine's Day Politico blog that ran through his wicked political punch lines at a party.

In case all this rough stuff has worried people, NPR does talk about how his infamously short temper may have mellowed with age (he turns 49 on November 29), which would put him more in sync with Obama's calmer "change" mode. If not, at least the new antics could provide fodder for "The West Wing: The Next Generation."

Rapper Soulja Boy Thanks Slave Masters for His Ice T

Rapper Soulja Boy Thanks Slave Masters for His Ice T

President Barack Obama: Black America Stands Tall

FoxNews & Rupert Murdoch, Meet President Barack Hussein Obama

As I indicated months earlier, Barack Obama would not only win the presidency but would win by a landslide. He has done so and he did it with the grace of a statesman. America is happy, the world is happy and now it is time for all of us to go to work and make things better. To repair the damage that the Bush/Cheney Administration committed and the wars they have spawned or played a part in escalating.

Rupert Murdoch has made it clear in the past that he did not want Barack Obama to become president. Well, Mr. Murdoch, it is now President Obama and Wall Street and those who are thieves will no longer steal from the people and then ask the people to bail them out.

106-year-old Atlanta woman basks in Obama tribute

ATLANTA – At age 106, Ann Nixon Cooper doesn't usually stay awake past midnight. But on Election Night she had special reason to do so: She was waiting for Barack Obama to mention her name. Cooper, one of the oldest voters for the nation's first black president, had been tipped off by the Obama campaign that she would be mentioned in his acceptance speech. Toward the end, she got her moment.

"I was waiting for it," said Cooper. "I had heard that they would be calling my name at least."

Obama introduced the world to a woman who "was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin."

"Tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can," he said.

On Wednesday, Cooper beamed as she greeted reporters at her southwest Atlanta home, wearing a gold cross around her neck that proudly displayed her age.

Cooper first registered to vote on Sept. 1, 1941. Though she was friends with elite black Atlantans like W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and Benjamin E. Mays, because of her status as a black woman in a segregated and sexist society, she didn't exercise her right to vote for years.

Instead, she deferred to her husband — Dr. Albert B. Cooper, a prominent Atlanta dentist — who "voted for the house."

Her husband died in 1967. Cooper has outlived three of her four children and lived to see women gain the right to vote and the end of segregation. On Oct. 16, she voted early for the Illinois senator, who called to thank her after reading a news article about her.

Cooper said she believes Obama's win could finally signal the change she has been waiting for.

"I feel nothing but relief that things have changed as much as they have," she said. "After a while, we will all be one. That's what I look forward to."

Cooper turns 107 in January, just a few weeks before Obama's inauguration.

Obama picks Clinton alum Emanuel chief of WH staff

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama pivoted quickly to begin filling out his new administration on Wednesday, selecting hard-charging Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff while aides stepped up the pace of transition work that had been cloaked in pre-election secrecy.

Several Democrats confirmed that Emanuel had been offered the job. While it was not clear he had accepted, a rejection would amount to an unlikely public snub of the new president-elect within hours of an electoral college landslide.

With hundreds of jobs to fill and only 10 weeks until Inauguration Day, Obama and his transition team confronted a formidable task complicated by his anti-lobbyist campaign rhetoric.

The official campaign Web Site said no political appointees would be permitted to work on "regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration."

But almost exactly one year ago, on Nov. 3, 2007, candidate Obama went considerably further than that while campaigning in South Carolina. "I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House," he said of lobbyists at the time.

Because they often have prior experience in government or politics, lobbyists figure as potential appointees for presidents of both parties.

On the morning after making history, the man elected the first black president had breakfast with his wife and two daughters at their Chicago home, went to a nearby gym and visited his downtown offices.

Aides said he planned no public appearances until later in the week, when he has promised to hold a news conference.

As president-elect, he begins receiving highly classified briefings from top intelligence officials Thursday.

In offering the post of White House chief of staff to Emanuel, Obama turned to a fellow Chicago politician with a far different style from his own, a man known for his bluntness as well as his single-minded determination.

Emanuel was a political and policy aide in Bill Clinton's White House. Leaving that, he turned to investment banking, then won a Chicago-area House seat six years ago. In Congress, he moved quickly into the leadership. As chairman of the Democratic campaign committee in 2006, he played an instrumental role in restoring his party to power after 12 years in the minority.

Emanuel maintained neutrality during the long primary battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, not surprising given his long-standing ties to the former first lady and his Illinois connections with Obama.

The day after the election there already was jockeying for Cabinet appointments.

Several Democrats said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won a new six-year term on Tuesday, was angling for secretary of state. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss any private conversations.

Kerry's spokeswoman, Brigid O'Rourke, disputed the reports. "It's not true. It's ridiculous," she said in an interview.

Announcement of the transition team came in a written statement from the Obama camp.

The group is headed by John Podesta, who served as chief of staff under former President Clinton; Pete Rouse, who has been Obama's chief of staff in the Senate, and Valerie Jarrett, a friend of the president-elect and campaign adviser.

Several Democrats described a sprawling operation well under way. Officials had kept deliberations under wraps to avoid the appearance of overconfidence in the weeks leading to Tuesday's election.

They said the group was stocked with longtime associates of Obama, as well as veterans of Clinton's White House.

Quite apart from transition issues, Obama's status as an incumbent member of Congress presents issues unseen since 1960, when John F. Kennedy moved from the Senate to the White House.

The Senate is scheduled to hold a postelection session in two weeks, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a news conference Wednesday to reinforce her call for quick action on a bill to stimulate the economy.

That places Obama in uncharted territory — a president-elect, presumably first among equals among congressional Democrats. Yet his and their ability to enact legislation depends almost entirely until Inauguration Day on President Bush's willingness to sign it.

Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, was elected to a new six-year term from Delaware on Tuesday and he must resign before he can be sworn in as vice president. Democrats are certain to hold his seat, following Jack Markell's election as governor.

There has been intense speculation that Biden's son, Beau Biden, is interested in ascending to the seat. But he is serving a one-year stint in Iraq as a member of the National Guard. In the interim, outgoing Gov. Ruth Ann Minner is seen among many Democrats as a likely appointee to hold the office until an election in 2010.

Obama also must resign his Senate seat before he can be sworn in as the 44th president. Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will pick a replacement.

____

Nedra Pickler reported from Chicago. AP writers Liz Sidoti and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed from Washington and Glen Johnson from Boston.

Kenya maternities greet Obama and Michelle

KISUMU, Kenya (AFP) – Little Obamas and Michelles were coming to the world in maternities all over Kenya -- one woman managing both at the same time with a pair of twins -- as the party mood continued Wednesday in the nation where the US president-elect's father was born.

In the New Nyanza provincial general hospital in Kisumu, the capital of the region which is home to Barack Obama's ancestral village, Pauline Adhiambo gave birth to twins she named Obama and Michelle, an AFP correspondent reported.

At least eight other boys were named Barack or Obama -- or both -- in this hospital alone while maternities in the capital Nairobi and across the entire country reported new namesakes for the future occupants of the White House.

"I consulted my husband and we agreed the name Barack Obama would be ideal for our baby boy because the whole town and the entire world was very enthusiastic about Barack Obama, and we believe he is a great man," Josephine Anyango Anyango told AFP.

President-Elect Barack Obama in Chicago

Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4th, 2008 in Chicago.

Why Obama won

Barack Obama’s sweeping victory as president of the United States sends him to the White House to face what may be the worst national financial crisis since the time of Franklin Roosevelt’s election in 1932.

Obama won on his own terms, strategically and symbolically. He rolled up a series of contested states, from Colorado to Virginia, long out of Democratic reach. And his victory reflected the accuracy of his vision of a reshaped country. Racism, much discussed, turned out to be a footnote, and African-American turnout was not unusually high. Instead, Obama drew his strength from an array of racially mixed, growing areas around cities like Orlando, Washington, Indianapolis, and Columbus on his way to at least 334 electoral votes.

“Even as we celebrate tonight we know that the challenges tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime: two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,” Obama told a crowd of more than 100,000 in Chicago’s Grant Park.

The assembled crowd had been strangely silent through the evening, even as Obama shut the door for McCain by winning New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, and even after his victory in Ohio pointed toward a landslide, seemingly unwilling to accept or believe the impending victory.

Only at 11:00 p.m., when CNN declared that Obama had surpassed 270 electoral votes, did the crowd roar in approval.

"This victory alone is not the change we seek — it is only the chance to make that change," Obama said, standing between two bulletproof glass walls.

McCain, speaking in a somber concession speech outside the Phoenix hotel where he married his wife, declared that he had done what he could.

"I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election," he said.

Calling Obama "my president," McCain vowed to work with him to help repair a nation facing profound challenges at home and abroad.

"These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face," McCain said.

After booing Obama's name and offering a few jeers, the crowd came to recognize the history in the evening when McCain paid tribute to the nation's first black president by recalling his own favorite commander-in-chief.

"A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters," McCain recalled. "America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States."

For the first time, claps and even a few cheers were heard from the dejected crowd.

Obama’s win came with Democratic gains in the Senate and House, though his broad victory — he swept swing states ranging from Indiana to Ohio to Virginia — was perhaps even more dramatic than his party’s success in congressional races. Obama and other Democratic leaders quickly signaled their awareness of the risk of overreaching, with Obama avoiding any claim of partisan victory, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid going further.

"This is a mandate to get along, to get something done in a bipartisan way. This is not a mandate for a political party or an ideology,” Reid told Politico.

As grand as the symbolism of Obama’s victory was, it was also a victory for his steady, corporate campaign management. The campaign’s early decision to play on a more ambitious map than other Democratic nominees was the source of his mandate. And the result closely mirrored the PowerPoint presentation his campaign manager, David Plouffe, pitched to sometimes-skeptical audiences of reporters and donors.



McCain’s campaign blamed larger forces for their candidate’s defeat.

“We were crushed by circumstance,” communications director Jill Hazelbaker said after McCain’s speech. “The economic crisis was a pivotal point in this race.”

External factors aside, McCain and his campaign also lagged far behind Obama in every key metric — money, organization, discipline — and failed to embrace Obama's organizational model or the technology it borrowed from the private sector.

Earlier campaigns had celebrated their technological prowess, but in Obama’s cutting-edge campaign, new political technology was implemented and came of age, evidenced by its vaunted fundraising machine and its “Houdini” computer system, which enabled the campaign as late as Tuesday afternoon to identify and bring to the polls a last wave of supporters who hadn’t yet voted.

The coalition Obama assembled proved as modern as the technology his campaign employed.

In his clear-cut victory, Obama became the first Democrat to win a majority of American votes since Jimmy Carter’s 1976 election. He won states just months ago thought to be impregnable to his party, places that just four years ago went for President Bush by double-digits: Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina among them.

Indeed, Obama won in all regions of the country but the Deep South, piling up big wins in the perennial Democratic bulwarks on both coasts and making deep inroads into New South states, the industrial and agricultural heartland and the fast-growing Rocky Mountain West.

But perhaps most spectacularly, he found victory with a multiracial coalition that has the makings of a formidable political base of power.

If his was the first 21st century campaign, his victory was powered by a new face of America: comprised of all ethnicities, hailing mostly from cities and suburbs, largely under 40 years old, and among all income classes.

As they emphatically proved by obliterating the presidential color line, many of these voters are not guided by traditional cultural attachment to race, religion or region.

What makes his victory so resounding, and so daunting for Republicans, was that he combined support from African-Americans, Jews, and young whites with other key groups. He also reversed President Bush’s advances with Hispanic voters.

Further, and even more worrisome for the GOP, Obama was dominant among self-described “moderate” voters, a 60 percent swath of Americans larger than either self-described liberals or conservatives.

This 21st century coalition allowed Obama to blow out McCain in cities and suburbs where Bush had narrowly won or lost by smaller margins four years ago, and to pull off narrow wins in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana and Ohio.

He ran up huge margins in heavily-black cities and counties in each, but was able to edge out McCain thanks to big wins in populous, racially-mixed localities like Northern Virginia's Fairfax County (59 percent), Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County (62 percent), Orlando’s Orange County (59 percent), Indianapolis’s Marion County (64 percent) and Columbus’s Franklin County (59 percent).

The coalition underscored the theme that made Obama famous in 2004, and one that he returned to in his victory speech, citing his support from “young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled — Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."

Two Discounts for Two Trains Running- FINAL TWO WEEKS‏

	ONLY 2 WEEKS LEFT! $20 Tickets- All Remaining Seats Click Here Thursdays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2PM and Sundays at 3PM $30 Tickets- All Remaining Seats Click Here Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM Now - November 9, 2008 Nate Holden Performing Arts Center Critics Are Raving! "First-class opportunity to hear one of August Wilson's most eloquent works…the play's powerful meditations on race, justice and political prophets make it a fascinating text in light of Barack Obama's historic candidacy." – Los Angeles Times "The success of director Israel Hicks' revival can be attributed to the consistency and quality of the cast." – LA Weekly "Helmer Israel Hicks and a capable ensemble understand the rhythmic flow and subtextual undercurrent of Wilson's Language." – Variety (l to r) Ellis E. Williams, Glynn Turman, Roger Robinson (l to r) Felton Perry and Earl Billings (l to r) Russell Hornsby and Michole Briana White All Photos By Craig Schwartz About Ebony Repertory Theatre Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT), a newly formed Equity Company, is the Resident Company and Operator of the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, under the leadership of Founder/ Producer Wren T. Brown and Artistic Director Israel Hicks. ERT's commitment is to bring diverse, high standard, professional performing arts to the Mid-City community, as well as the greater Los Angeles area, to engender business development along the Washington Boulevard corridor, and to make the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center Los Angeles' Newest Cultural Destination! For more information about Ebony Repertory Theatre or to join our mailing list Click Here

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Some of McCains Black Relatives Support Obama‏

Some of McCain's black relatives support Obama

BY ELGIN JONES

Black-mccain-family_web.jpgIn the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where the ancestors of Sen. John McCain owned enslaved Africans on a plantation, black, white and mixed-race family members unite every two years for their Coming Home Reunion, on the land where the plantation operated.

Some of McCain’s black family members say they are not sure exactly where they fall on the family tree, but they do know this: They are either descendants of the McCain family slaves, or of children the McCains fathered with their slaves.

White and black members of the McCain family have met on the plantation several times over the last 15 years, but one invited guest has been conspicuously absent: Sen. John Sidney McCain.

“Why he hasn’t come is anybody’s guess,” said Charles McCain Jr., 60, a distant cousin of John McCain who is black. “I think the best I can come up with, is that he doesn’t have time, or he has just distanced himself, or it doesn’t mean that much to him.”

Other relatives are not as generous.

Lillie McCain, 56, another distant cousin of John McCain who is black, said the Republican presidential nominee is trying to hide his past, and refuses to accept the family’s history.

“After hearing him in 2000 claim his family never owned slaves, I sent him an email,” she recalled. “I told him no matter how much he denies it, it will not make it untrue, and he should accept this and embrace it.”

She said the senator never responded to her email.

Although Charles is uncertain who will get his vote for president, several of John McCain’s black and white relatives are supporting his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

“I am absolutely supporting Obama, and it’s not be cause he’s black. It’s because he is the best person at this time in our history,” said Lillie McCain, a professor of psychology at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan.

“We simply need to look at the economy, and McCain’s campaign does not take us there,” said Joyce McCain, Lillie’s sister, a retired engineering manager with General Motors who lives in Grand Blanc, Michigan. “He is my cousin, but we are in dire times right now and people are hurting. Sen. Obama is clearly the best choice to be president.’’

Charles McCain and his wife, Theresa, who still live in Teoc, started the reunions over a decade ago. Charles is the deacon of Mitchell Springs Baptist Church, the only black house of worship in the area.

When Theresa McCain started the family reunions in the late 1980s or early ‘90s (neither he nor his wife is sure of the exact starting date), only black family members attended. But as word spread about the gatherings, white members of the McCain famil y got involved. Today, the reunion has expanded to the point where it is becoming a community event.

The reunion’s website, teocfamilyreunion.ning.com, has pictures, postings and other information about the family gatherings. While Sen. McCain’s brother, Joe, and many of his other white relatives attend the reunions, family members say Sen. McCain has never acknowledged them, or even responded to their invitations.

“Well, a lot of the people who had moved away and were living up north, would send money to help us maintain the church,” said Theresa McCain, 62. “Myself and others began inviting them back home for picnics, just to show our appreciation.”

The McCain campaign did not respond to repeated questions about John McCain’s black relatives, or about his relatives of both races who support Obama. Pablo Carrillo, a media liaison with the McCain campaign, said the senator was aware of his African-American relatives, but asked the reporter to put his questions into writing, and that someone would get back to him.

After the reporter sent questions in writing, and made repeated follow-up phone calls, neither Sen. McCain nor anyone else from the campaign responded.

Based on information obtained by the South Florida Times, the senator has numerous black and mixed-raced relatives who were born on, or in, the area of the McCain plantation. The mixed races in the family can be traced back to the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where his family owned slaves.

Sen. John McCain’s great, great grandfather, William Alexander McCain (1812-1863), fought for the Confederacy and owned a 2,000-acre plantation named Waverly in Teoc. The family dealt in the slave trade, and, according to official records, held at least 52 slaves on the family’s plantation. The enslaved Africans were likely used as servants, for labor, and for breeding more slaves..

William McCain’s son, and Sen. John McCain’s great grandfathe r, John Sidney McCain (1851-1934), eventually assumed the duty of running the family’s plantation.

W.A. “Bill” McCain IV, a white McCain cousin, and his wife Edwina, are the current owners of the land. Both told the South Florida Times that they attend the reunions. They also said the McCain campaign had asked them not to speak to the media about the reunions, or about why the senator has never acknowledged the family gatherings.

In addition to distancing himself from his black family members, John McCain has taken several positions on issues that have put him at odds with members of the larger black community.

While running for the Republican Party nomination in 2000, he sided with protesters who were calling for the rebel battle flag to be removed from the South Carolina statehouse, only to alter that position later.

"Some view it as a symbol of slavery. Others view it as a symbol of heritage,” John McCain said of the flag. "Personally, I see th e battle flag as a symbol of heritage. I have ancestors who have fought for the Confederacy, none of whom owned slaves. I believe they fought honorably.’’

Novelist Elizabeth Spencer, another white cousin of John McCain, noted the slaves the family owned in the family’s memoirs, Landscapes of the Heart. Sen. McCain has acknowledged reading the book, but claims to have only glossed over entries about their slaves.

“That’s crazy,” said Spencer, who also attends the reunions in Teoc. “No one had to tell us, because we all knew about the slaves. I may not vote, because I don’t want anyone to think that I have an issue with John, but I don’t want to see him become president because I think Obama is entirely adequate, and it’s time for a Democrat.’’

Spencer acknowledged donating money to the Obama campaign and to what she called “Democratic causes.”

Sen. John McCain was born in 1936 at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station, a segregated military installation in the P anama Canal, where his father was stationed in the U.S. Navy. His family returned to the states shortly after his birth; where he went on to attend segregated schools in the Teoc community and elsewhere around the country.

He served in the Navy, where he was a prisoner of war during Vietnam, before being released and eventually running for Congress.

After he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, McCain voted against the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday in 1983. When he arrived in the U.S. Senate in 1986, he joined North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms in opposing the holiday again, and voted in 1994 to cut funding to the commission that marketed it.

John McCain also aligned himself with former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham.

Mecham was the governor in McCain’s home state of Arizona from January 1987 to April 1988, when he was impeached and removed from office for campaign finance violations. As a state senator and governor, Mecham publ icly used racial slurs against black people and other minorities. He was also a member of the John Birch Society, which opposes civil rights legislation. In 1986, Mecham campaigned for governor on a promise to rescind the state’s recognition of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which he did in 1987.

Earlier this year, during the 40th anniversary recognition of King’s assassination, McCain, by this time a presidential candidate, said he was wrong for opposing the national King holiday.

Politics in America has long been steeped in the dynamics of the country’s myriad cultures, diverse ethnicities, and varying religious beliefs. Several of Sen. McCain’s black relatives say Obama’s candidacy represents progress.

“He is denying his black and white relatives in Teoc,” said Joyce McCain, 54,. “I think he may not want the country to know his family’s full history, but times have changed and we need to move on, and that’s why I’m supporting Obama.”

EJones@sfltimes.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Photo: Lillie McCain, left, and her husband, Jack Vickers, right, pose with Joe McCain, center, during this year’s family reunion.
Last Updated ( Saturday, 18 October 2008 )

SPOTTED: SERENA & COMMON SURFING

Serena Williams and Common were spotted doing some surfing in Hawaii on Monday. According to the paps, the couple were having a ball surfing and Serena was better than Common at it. LOL (more…)

Could Mike Ditka have derailed Barack Obama's ascendancy?

Barack Obama's easy win in the 2004 Illinois Senate race catapulted him to national fame and set him on his current path toward the White House. It was a convincing victory that is now but a footnote in the career of the Democratic presidential nominee. But that victory wasn't as assured as it appears in retrospect. For a few days in the summer of '04 there was the very real possibility that the Republican opponent in Obama's first major election battle race would be Chicago Bears coaching legend Mike Ditka.

Jack Ryan had won the Republican primary that year, but dropped out of the race after the release of embarrassing papers from his high-profile divorce with actress Jeri Ryan. The vacancy left GOP leaders in the state scrambling to find a replacement. With fears that the election was all but lost, Republicans wanted a major name to turn the tide. Ditka was that name.

For days the press played up the "will he or won't he" stories about Ditka's possible candidacy. The Drudge Report even said that Ditka would declare his entry into the race. But, in the end, Ditka rebuffed the offer, saying he didn't want to go through the rigors of a campaign or give up his lucrative jobs as an NFL analyst at ESPN or as an endorser of a casino and car dealership.

There's no way to know whether Ditka would have won but, remember, Obama was still a virtual unknown in Illinois in June of '04. Had Ditka run and won, Obama most-assuredly wouldn't be running for president today. Either way, the Hall of Famer almost certainly would have received more than the 27% of votes that eventual nominee Alan Keyes garnered in November. And you know he'd have locked up the endorsements of these three potential voters.

Powell endorses Obama, chides McCain campaign tone

WASHINGTON – Colin Powell, a Republican who was President Bush's first secretary of state, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president Sunday and criticized the tone of Republican John McCain's campaign.

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said either candidate, both of them senators, is qualified to be commander in chief. But he said Obama is better suited to handle the nation's economic problems as well as help improve its standing in the world.

"It isn't easy for me to disappoint Sen. McCain in the way that I have this morning, and I regret that," Powell, interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press," said of his longtime friend, the Arizona senator.

But, he added: "I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change and that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama, not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Sen. John McCain."

Powell's endorsement has been much anticipated because he is a Republican with impressive foreign policy credentials, a subject on which Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, is weak. Powell is a Republican centrist who is popular among moderate voters.

At the same time, Powell is a black man and Obama would be the nation's first black president. Powell said he was cognizant of the racial aspect of his endorsement, but said that was not the dominant factor in his decision. If it was, he said, he would have made the endorsement months ago.

Powell expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain's campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and McCain's and Palin's decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers. A co-founder of the Weather Underground, which claimed responsibility for nonfatal bombings during the Vietnam War-era, Ayers is now a college professor who lives in Obama's Chicago neighborhood. He and Obama also served together on civic boards in Chicago.

"This Bill Ayers situation that's been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign," Powell said. "But Mr. McCain says that he's a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him?"

Powell said McCain's choice of Palin raised questions about judgment.

"I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States," Powell said.

McCain seemed dismissive of Powell's endorsement, saying he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.

"Well, I've always admired and respected Gen. Powell. We're longtime friends. This doesn't come as a surprise," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

Asked whether Powell's endorsement would undercut his campaign's assertion that Obama is not ready to lead, McCain said: "Well, again, we have a very, we have a respectful disagreement, and I think the American people will pay close attention to our message for the future and keeping America secure."

Obama called Powell to thank him for the endorsement, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

"I am beyond honored and deeply humbled to have the support of Gen. Colin Powell," Obama said in remarks prepared for a rally in Fayetteville, N.C. "Gen. Powell has defended this nation bravely, and he has embodied our highest ideals through his long and distinguished public service. ...And he knows, as we do, that this is a moment where we all need to come together as one nation — young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Republican and Democrat."

Powell said he remains a Republican, even though he sees the party moving too far to the right. Powell supports abortion rights and affirmative action, and said McCain and Palin, both opponents of abortion, could put two more conservative justices on the Supreme Court.

"I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration," Powell said.

Powell, 71, gained popularity while serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's top military commander, during the first Gulf war under President George H.W. Bush. After retiring from the military, speculation mounted that he would run for president in 1996 — perhaps becoming the nation's first black president — but Powell opted against it.

As secretary of state, he helped make the case before the United Nations for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, launched in March 2003.

Powell said the nation's economic crisis provided a "final exam" of sorts for both Obama and McCain.

"In the case of Mr. McCain I found that he was a little unsure as to how to deal with the economic problems that we were having," Powell said. "Almost everyday there was a different approach to the problem and that concerned me, sensing that he doesn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had."

In contrast, Powell said Obama "displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this. ..."

"I think that he has a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well," Powell said.

Powell said he does not plan to campaign for Obama.

___

On the Net:

Obama: http://www.barackobama.com

In Chicago, ex-radical better known as a scholar

CHICAGO – These days, Bill Ayers doesn't want to talk about the Weathermen, the Vietnam-era radical group he helped found that carried out bombings at the Pentagon and the Capitol.

That doesn't mean the man who has become a political headache for Barack Obama is hiding his past. In fact, all you need to do is stand outside Ayers' office at the University of Illinois in Chicago to be confronted with it.

Ayers' connection to the Weather Underground is plastered on his door. A postcard for a documentary on the group shows an old mugshot of Ayers. Nearby is cover art from Ayers' 2001 memoir, "Fugitive Days."

But also affixed to the door is the title that reflects how Ayers, now 63, has become known in the past two decades in Chicago: distinguished professor.

"He gives of himself greatly to his students. He gives of his time, his energies, his commitment," said Pamela Quiroz, an associate professor who works in the college of education with Ayers. "He is just a superb individual."

Quiroz is among more than 3,200 people, mostly academics, who have signed an online petition protesting the "demonization" of Ayers during the campaign for the White House.

John McCain's camp has accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists," citing, among other things, a 1995 meet-the-candidate coffee that Ayers hosted at his home for Obama when the younger man launched his political career by running for state Senate. The two also served together on a Chicago school reform group and a charity board.

The subject flared up again during Wednesday's final presidential debate when McCain said Obama needs to explain the full extent of his relationship with Ayers, whom he called "an old, washed-up terrorist."

By all accounts, the two men were not close, and Obama has repeatedly denounced Ayers' radical activities.

Ayers has declined repeated requests for interviews. This week, he opened his front door a crack to tell an Associated Press reporter, "I'm not talking, thanks."

Ayers' beige stone rowhouse on Chicago's South Side is just a few blocks from Obama's home. He lives there with his wife, former fellow radical Bernardine Dohrn. Now a law professor at Northwestern University, Dohrn was a fugitive for years with her husband until they surrendered in 1980 and charges against him were dropped because of government misconduct, which included FBI break-ins, wiretaps and opening of mail.

Although Ayers has refashioned his life from street-level revolutionary to intellectual, he has not entirely renounced his past.

When "Fugitive Days" was published, a photo accompanying a Chicago Magazine article showed him stepping on an American flag. He also told The New York Times, in an interview that appeared coincidentally on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."

The Weather Underground claimed responsibility for bombings in the early 1970s at the U.S. Capitol, a Pentagon restroom and New York City police headquarters. No one was injured. In 1970, a Greenwich Village townhouse that the group was using to build a bomb blew up, killing three members, including Ayers' girlfriend. The bomb, Ayers wrote in his memoir, was packed with screws and nails.

Had it been detonated, he admitted, it would have done "some serious work beyond the blast, tearing through windows and walls and, yes, people, too." It belied the group's claims that its targets were buildings, not people. "We did go off track ... and that was wrong," Ayers told the AP when his book came out.

"I'm not a terrorist," he said at the time. "We tried to sound a piercing alarm that was unruly, difficult and, sometimes, probably wrong. ... I describe what led some people in despair and anger to take some very extreme measures."

Still, in Chicago, he is known more for his work in education, which has earned praise from Mayor Richard Daley, whose own father, the iron-fisted mayor of this city during the Vietnam era, famously sent police to do battle with anti-war demonstrators during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. This spring, when Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign first raised Ayers' relationship with Obama, the younger Daley issued a statement defending him.

"I also know Bill Ayers," Daley said. "He worked with me in shaping our now nationally renowned school reform program. He is a nationally recognized distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a valued member of the Chicago community."

Ayers has a doctorate in education from Columbia University in New York and has written or edited more than a dozen books, most about teaching. Ayers is on sabbatical this academic year but still spends time at his university office.

In an opinion piece this week in The Wall Street Journal, Sol Stern, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute who is writing a book on Ayers and social justice teaching, challenged the notion that Ayers is a reformed revolutionary. Stern said he has read most of Ayers' work and concluded: "His hatred of America is as virulent as when he planted a bomb at the Pentagon."

Scott Snyder, a UIC junior in chemical engineering who describes himself as a conservative, said he is uncomfortable with Ayers working at a public university.

"The majority of taxpayers probably would not appreciate their money being spent to somebody with a history of disrespecting numerous public institutions within the United States," Snyder said. "He spent his life sticking it to the man, where now he is employed by the man."

UIC education professor Bill Schubert, who has known Ayers since he sat on the university committee that hired him in 1987, said the Ayers he knows is a Chicago Cubs fan and a good cook who invites colleagues, students and others over to his home for dinner.

But mostly Ayers is a good teacher, said Schubert, who recently wrote a letter about Ayers that he initially circulated among friends when questions about him began to mount. The piece, titled "The Bill Ayers I Know," has since made its way to the Web and extols Ayers' scholarly work and his commitment to teaching.

"I feel like I'm telling factual information about him," Schubert said, "and I am saying that he's a good colleague and friend."

Still, Ayers' past is a delicate matter. Schubert wanted to discuss only Ayers the educator, not Ayers the radical. Asked how he reconciled the two, Schubert paused for a long moment, then said: "That's a question that's too complicated to answer, I think, because it's dependent on different conceptions of what he did."

Robert Becker, an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at UIC, is, at 60, a member of Ayers' generation but doesn't share his politics.

"He's unrepentant. He took a violent route along with his wife, and is lucky he didn't blow himself up," Becker said. That said, he added that he does not believe Ayers' past disqualifies him from a position on campus: "I'm a pretty conservative person, and I'm not going to deny him the right to be a member of the faculty. I believe that departments should hire who they feel is best for their departments."

Janise Hurtig, a researcher at the university who has known Ayers for about eight years, said he strongly backed a project she and another educator worked on that offers adult writing workshops in Chicago neighborhoods. If the renewed publicity about Ayers' past has weighed on him, Hurtig said, she hasn't noticed.

"He and Bernardine are very thoughtful and reflective about their past, and it's their past," she said.

Ayers had been invited to speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln at an education conference Nov. 15, but the school canceled those plans Friday because of safety concerns.

Marjorie Kostelnik, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences, said the decision was based on e-mails and phone calls the university's threat assessment group had received. She did not describe the communications as threats but said they left officials concerned about safety.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman and others had urged the university to rescind its invitation.

"Bill Ayers is a well-known radical who should never have been invited," Heineman said Friday. "The people of Nebraska are outraged."

Celebrities with John McCain

'Right thing to do'

Not all of Hollywood is supporting the Democratic Party this November.

Among those opening checkbooks for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings, are Wilford Brimley, the mustached actor known for his Quaker Oats commercials and famous line, "It's the right thing to do." (Before acting, Mr. Brimley was Howard Hughes' bodyguard).

Also supporting the Arizona Republican are Dick Van Patten; William Barron Hilton (famous of late for being Paris Hilton's grandfather); and Rip Torn, who played Artie on HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show."

Our Hollywood insider says "this is just the beginning. You can look for other big names to hop on board the StraightTalk Express," referring to Mr. McCain's campaign bus. Among the notables she says lean right:

Britney Spears, Drew Carey, Bo Derek, Tom Selleck, Shirley Temple Black, Clint Eastwood, Ben Stein, Kim Alexis, Scott Baio, Adam Baldwin, Robert Conrad, Alice Cooper, Shannen Doherty, Robert Duvall, Jamie Farr, Kelsey Grammer, Dean Jones, Jimmy Dean, Shirley Jones, Don King, Heather Locklear, Chuck Norris, Freddie Prinze Jr., Mickey Rooney, Jessica Simpson, Grace Slick, Tony Danza, Kurt Russell, Pat Sajak, Stephen Baldwin, Rick Schroder, Hilary Duff, Cheryl Ladd, Marilyn Manson, Marie Osmond and Bruce Willis.

a more indepth roster of McCain's Celebrity backers

From this list of McCain backers attending a McCain event were:

-Dean Cain (Clark from Lois and Clark - Superman; Hope and Faith, etc)
-James Caan (Godfather I and II, Get Smart, Las Vegas, etc)
-Jon Voight (National Treasure I and II, Tomb Raider, etc)...and
father
of Angelina Jolie
-Robert Davi (Profiler, Die Hard, etc)
-Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk)
-Adam Carolla (The Man Show)
-Lacy Chabert (Party of Five, Mean Girls, Daddy Daycare, etc)
-Angie Harmon (Law & Order, Agent Cody Banks, etc)
-Victoria Jackson (Saturday Night Live)
-Gerald McRaney (Simon & Simon, Major Dad)
-Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men, Hot Shots, Pretty in Pink)
-Lorenzo Lamas (The Bold and the Beautiful, Renegade, Falcon Crest)
-Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, Avenging Angel)
-Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond)
-George Newbern (Father of the Bride, Friends, Justice League - Voice)
-Robert Duvall (The Godfather and The Godfather II, Secondhand Lions,
Deep Impact, God's and Generals, etc).
-Jerry Bruckheimer (producer of wildly popular television shows such
as
CSI, Cold Case, and Without a Trace, and films such as Pirates of the
Caribbean)
-Gary Sinese (Forest Gump, CSI:NY, etc)
-Steven Baldwin (Bio Dome, Midnight Clear, etc)
-Wilford Brimley (The Firm, The Natural, etc
-Craig T. Nelson (Coach, The Incredibles)
-Gail O’Grady (NYPD Blue, American Dreams, etc)
-Jason Sehorn (NY Giants)
-David Zucker (Producer of Airplane, Superhero Movie, etc)
-Lionel Chetwynd (documentary writer/producer)

A few names at the RNC Convention...

-Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Men in Black II, etc)
-Joe Pantoliano (The Fugative, US Marshalls, Daredevil, Sopranos, etc)
-Tim Daly (Wings, Private Practice, The Associate, etc but supports Obama)

According to Variety, a few more McCain backers...

-Tom Selleck (Magnum P.I., Friends, etc)
-Kelsey Grammer (Frasier, etc)
-Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby, Dirty Harry, etc)

According to Sports Illustrated, a few more celebrity backers of
McCain...

-Curt Shilling (Boston Red Socks Pitcher)
-Chuck Liddell (Ultimate Fighting Championship star)

Two more celebrities that shouldn't surprise anyone...

-Sylvester Stallone backed McCain on the 700 Club about 6 months ago,
and he remains a backer.
-Chuck Norris was on Fox News this morning and backed McCain and
Palin.

-Rip Torn was on the contribution list for John McCain, as was Dick
Van
Patton.

-Adam Sandler was a contributer for Guliani, but that doesn't
necessarily mean he supports McCain. The same can be said for Pat
Sajack (of Wheel of Fortune), who supported Fred Thompson.

Other McCain contributers on official records include (some may be on
previous lists):
*(NOTE: unless specifically identified, contibuters gave to McCain
only)*
-Troy Aikman (NFL)
-Mario Andretti (racecar driver)
-George Brodenheimer (ESPN President)
-Pat Boone (actor)
-David Brandon (Dominoes CEO)
-Jerry Bruckheimer (film and tv producer)
-August Busch III (Anheuser - Busch Chairman)
-Pete Coors (Coors Chairman)
-Richard DeVos (Orlando Magic Owner)
-David Dorman (AT&T CEO)
-Clint Eastwood (actor)
-Larry Ellison (Oracle chairman and CEO)
-John Elway (NFL)
-Carly Fiorina (former HP chairman and CEO)
-Roger Goodell (NFL commissioner)
-Kelsey Grammer (actor)
-Mike Helton (NASCAR president)
-Rick Hilton (Paris Hilton's dad)
-William Barron Hilton (Paris Hilton's Grandfather and HIlton co-
chairman)
-Charles Hilliday (Du Pont chairman and CEO)
-Robert Kraft (New England Patiots owner)
-Alan Lacy (Sears CEO)
-Edward Liddy (Alstate chairman and CEO)
-Peter McGowen (San Francisco Giants owner)
-Lorne Michaels (producer)
-Jack Nicklaus (golf champion)
-Arnold Palmer (golf champion)
-Richard Parsons (Time Warner chairman) - wow...interesting
-Richard Petty (NASCAR driver)
-Colin Powell (former Secretary of State)
-Steven Reinemund (Pepsico chairman and CEO)
-Jerry Reinsdorf (owner of Chicago White Socks and Bulls)...gave money
to both but twice as much to McCain
-Curt Shilling (MLB)
-Ricard Shulze (Best Buy chairman)
-Ivan seidenberg (Verizon chairman and CEO)...gave money to both
parties but overwhelmingly more to McCain
-Gary Sinese (actor)
-Harry Sloan (MGM chairman)
-Frederick Smith (Fed Ex CEO)
-Alex Spanos (San Diego Chargers owner)
-Ben Stein (actor, producer, and businessman)
-George Steinbrenner (Yankees owner)
-Darrel Waltrip (NASCAR driver and sportscaster)

This was just from the McCain donations...party donations not
included.