DENVER - John McCain kept his vice presidential pick a closely guarded secret mere hours before the high-stakes announcement Friday, but his choice has been revealed to be Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a self-styled "hockey mom" and political reformer.
With an announcement scheduled in Dayton, Ohio, an associate of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the governor had been informed he is not McCain's pick.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Pawlenty, who had all but ruled himself out.
"I'm not going to be there. I plan to be at the state fair. You can draw your conclusion from that," Pawlenty said on his weekly call-in radio show on WCCO-AM in Minneapolis. He also called it "a fair assumption" that he will not be McCain's running mate.
DENVER - On the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, Barack Obama stood before nearly 85,000 cheering supporters, accepted the Democratic nomination for president of the United States and stepped into history as the first African-American to lead a major political party on a quest for the White House.
His words, his vision for the nation and his profound passion for change, brought tears to some in the multi-cultural throng of Democrats who are solidly behind Obama on his unprecedented journey.
“Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes, and more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay and tuition that is beyond your reach," Obama said. “These challenges are not all of government’s making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed presidency of George W. Bush. America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.”
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Instead of basking in the glow of a nomination that could usher him and his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, back into the White House, former President Bill Clinton stood before the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night urging Americans to vote for someone else – Barack Obama.
And he did it without hesitation.
“I am here to support Barack Obama,” Clinton began his speech after a long and enthusiastic welcome from the crowd.
“You heard Hillary last night say that she would do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us. Actually, that makes 18 million of because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November,” Clinton said, referring to the 18 million people who voted for Clinton in the primaries.
Clinton’s enthusiastic support of Clinton even drove the crowd to chant Obama’s slogan: “Yes We Can!”
“Yes, he can,” Clinton said. “But first, we have to elect him.”
It was a speech that may have finally laid to rest suggestions that Clinton would be unable to let go of the disappointment that his wife did not win the Democratic nomination for president and fully, wholeheartedly embrace Obama.
“If the goal is big enough, sure, he can work with Obama and I think Bill Clinton wants a Democrat elected,” said Michael Frisby, a public relations executive who covered the Clinton White House as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
The Clintons came under fire during the primary contests because of the Clinton’s campaign’s dismissiveness of Obama’s candidacy; the suggestion that voters in the caucus states didn’t really represent the will of the people or that black voters were voting solely on the basis of race and that his wins didn’t matter because previous black candidates Rev. Jesse Jackson and/or Rev. Al Sharpton fared well in some of the same states – particularly South Carolina – and didn’t win the nomination; calling Obama’s position on the war a “fairy tale;” to some, diminishing the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., by saying it took a president for his efforts to reap benefits and, near the end of the campaign, Hillary Clinton calling herself the candidate of “hardworking white people” left both the Clintons with a long row to hoe with some black people.
But several people were ready to bury that story line.
DENVER — Preparing for Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech Thursday night at Invesco Field at Mile High has required an equally historic level of preparation. More than 200 spotlights. Twenty 18-wheelers full of equipment. A crew of hundreds working nearly around the clock to prepare the stage for the Democratic National Convention's grand finale. "The magnitude of this is incomprehensible," said Bruce Crawford, the stadium crew chief overseeing the preparations.
Crawford has been sleeping in an office at the stadium since Friday night, when the Denver Broncos completed a pre-season game and the work began.
Crews cleared the field of benches, goal posts and rain tarps. The next morning, they began moving in massive components to build elevated platforms for journalists and the main stage — complete with faux-marble columns to mimic Washington's iconic architecture.
Crawford has overseen events at the stadium since it opened in 2001 and has produced concerts and music festivals for 30 years. He said none of that, however, has compared to this week's preparation, with workers for news organizations and stagehands marching up and down while he struggles to protect the $1.5 million field — a complex blend of synthetic grass and real bluegrass.
Democrats made it official tonight in Denver, when party delegates formally nominated Barack Obama as their 2008 presidential candidate -- the first African American ever nominated by a major party.
The traditional state by state roll call went on until about 6:40 pm eastern, just after the network newscasts went on the air on the east coast.
The roll call included several delegates cast to Sen. Hillary Clinton, whose name was formally put into nomination, even though she did not win the primary battle. By previous agreement by the Obama and Clinton camps, the roll call was halted and Obama was nominated by acclamation.
DENVER — A group of suspected drug users arrested in Denver this weekend with methamphetamine, guns and bulletproof vests made racist threats against Barack Obama but posed no true danger to the presidential candidate as he accepts the Democratic nomination here this week, federal authorities said Tuesday.
The three men _ all said to be high on methamphetamine when arrested _ are the subject of an assassination investigation, but so far, authorities say, it appears they had no capacity to carry out any attack on Obama.
"The law recognizes a difference between a true threat _ one that can be carried out _ and the reported racist rantings of a drug addict," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said.
He said the men's plans were "more aspirational, perhaps, than operational."
The three have been charged with drug and weapons offenses but not with threatening to assassinate Obama or with other national-security-related crimes.
Obama will become the first black nominee for president by a major party at this week's convention.
Eid insisted that the vague racist threats from the men would continue to be investigated. He said he didn't know whether Obama had been briefed on the arrests or whether security plans would change for Obama's acceptance speech Thursday.
If there was a question whether Sen. Hillary Clinton would strongly endorse Barack Obama for president, she sought to put that to rest immediately in her address to the Democratic National Convention.
“I am here as a proud mother, a proud Democrat, a proud senator from New York and I am a proud supporter of Barack Obama. Whether you voted for me or you voted for Barack Obama, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose,” Clinton said.
There had been questions right up to the moment Clinton stepped on the stage that she may not be able to convince Democrats that she truly embraced Obama’s candidacy and, more importantly, persuade others to do so.
“Hillary Clinton touched every chord and gave an unequivocal, unqualified endorsement of Obama's candidacy. Talking about women's rights and quoting Sojourner Truth was apt on the anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment," said Mary Frances Berry, chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. "Her suppporters should get the message and forget their discontent and start working."
DENVER (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton delivered a ringing call for Democratic Party unity on Tuesday, promising to work for Barack Obama and challenging her supporters to bury their grudges and rally behind his White House bid.
"Whether you voted for me or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose," said Clinton in a speech Democrats hope will end a lingering party rift left over from their bitter nominating fight.
Clinton, a New York senator, praised Obama and said Democrats could not sit on the sidelines and watch Republican presidential candidate John McCain take the White House and "squander the promise of our country."
"No way, no how, no McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our president," Clinton told a roaring crowd waving a sea of white "Hillary" signs.
Lately there has been a lot of talk about the need for Barack and Michelle Obama to properly introduce themselves to the wide swath of America that doesn't yet feel that it knows who they are. There has been much talk about the need for the Obamas to present themselves in a way that America's many undecided voters can relate to.
And let's be honest: There has been plenty of discussion---much of it private---about the Obamas' (desperate?) need to connect on a visceral, human level with America's (white) older voters and (white) working class voters who still feel a bit leery about casting their vote for an African-American man in November. This is the subtext. This is the plain truth.
I'm sitting here in the Pepsi Center just moments after the evening's closing benediction, and I can't help but wonder whether tonight's marquee sequence was successful. Did Michelle Obama's speech help or hinder the cause? Did it alleviate or exacerbate the concerns of working class white Democrats in, say, Pennsylvania steel country? Or in the wilds of northern Georgia?
The speech was utterly inoffensive, of course. Autobiographical. Absent of all hot-button issues. And stuffed to the hilt with applause lines and gracious dispersals of unity-building praise. Aside from that, it was generally well-delivered. I can't imagine that it would have a negative impact.
DENVER — When her husband ran for Congress in 2000, Michelle Obama groused so much about handshaking and fund-raising that Arthur Sussman, then her boss at the University of Chicago, finally asked if she truly could not find a single thing about campaigning to enjoy.
Mrs. Obama thought for a moment. Visiting so many living rooms had given her some new decorating ideas, she allowed.
Eight years later, the once reluctant campaigner is at the center of a multimedia charm offensive that may be the most closely managed spousal rollout in presidential campaign history. On Monday night, Mrs. Obama delivered a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention, preceded by an intricately made biographical video, a touch usually afforded to candidates, not their wives.
A relative newcomer to campaigning and the first black woman with a serious shot at first ladyhood, Mrs. Obama is a softer, smoother presence on the trail than she was at the start of the race.
When I was young, my father volunteered as a precinct captain for the Democratic Party in our neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Some of my earliest memories are of tagging along as he went from door to door. He helped people register to vote. If our neighbors needed absentee ballots, he arranged them. And he made sure people got to the voting booth on Election Day.
My father loved educating folks about their rights, and he believed deeply in the responsibilities that come with being participants in our rich and varied society. He never missed an opportunity to vote. He viewed it as his obligation as a citizen—and a moral obligation to those of his generation who marched and fought and sometimes died for the right.
I’m very grateful to my father for teaching me the value of voting. As a parent, I try to instill that value in my daughters. I vote because I care about my country and my community; because I want to have a voice in my government; and because I believe that our country has a better chance of solving the problems we face if we all speak up and get involved.
When Sen. Joe Biden, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s choice for vice president, made his speech Saturday in Springfield, Illinois, 975 miles away in Denver, Colorado, crowds gathered around televisions in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel to watch.
“People were excited,” AFL-CIO executive vice president Arlene Holt-Baker told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “There was applause. You could just feel it in the air." Outside and throughout the city, there also was heightened security.
As thousands descend on the Mile High City this week for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, there is lots of talk about the event's excitement, but Democrats must face the challenge of carrying that excitement through to the November presidential election.
At least 50,000 people -- convention participants and protesters -- are expected in Denver for the convention, and millions are expected to tune in on Thursday night when Sen. Barack Obama officially accepts the Democratic nomination for president.
Several bricks and some paint were tossed through the Barack Obama for President Campaign headquarters in St. Paul, MN. It was early on Sunday morning and one volunteer was in the basement of the building and was not injured. We talk with Obama Minnesota campaign spokesperson Nick Kimball about security concerns with the campaign.
By: Liz Sidoti and Nedra Pickler, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his vice presidential running mate early Saturday, balancing his ticket with a seasoned congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues.
Obama announced the pick on his Web site with a photo of the two men and an appeal for donations. A text message went out shortly afterward that said, "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee."
Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.
Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.
In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses.
WASHINGTON - John McCain may have created his own housing crisis. Hours after a report that the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting didn't know how many homes he and his multimillionaire wife own, Democratic rival Barack Obama launched a national TV ad and a series of campaign stops aimed at portraying McCain as wealthy and out of touch.
With the economy the top issue in the race, Obama sought to turn McCain's gaffe into one of those symbolic moments that stick in voters' minds.
Think John Kerry sailboarding or the first President Bush wowed by a grocery store checkout scanner, Michael Dukakis riding in a tank or Gerald Ford eating a tamale with the husk still on.
"I think -- I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico when asked Wednesday how many houses he owns. "It's condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you."
Later, the McCain campaign told Politico that McCain and his wife, Cindy, have at least four in three states -- Arizona, California and Virginia.
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after having a brain hemorrhage, a Cleveland Clinic official said.
Tubbs Jones, 58, died at 6:12 p.m. after suffering a brain hemorrhage that caused an aneurysm that burst and left her with limited brain function, spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, had a brain hemorrhage and was in critical condition with limited brain function, a doctor said Wednesday.
Tubbs Jones, 58, suffered the hemorrhage while driving her car in Cleveland Heights on Tuesday, said Dr. Gus Kious, president of Huron Hospital in East Cleveland. The congresswoman had been driving erratically and her vehicle crossed lanes of traffic before coming to a stop, police said.
The hemorrhage was in an inaccessible part of the congresswoman's brain, Kious said during a news conference. A team of doctors who evaluated her determined she has limited brain function.
Family friend Joe Hewitt asked people to pray for the congresswoman.
RALEIGH, N.C. - A combative Barack Obama said Tuesday that Republican John McCain "doesn't know what he's up against" in this election and challenged his rival to stop questioning his character and patriotism.
Obama, campaigning in a state where he hopes to become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win in more than three decades, implored his supporters to fight for the presidency.
"Our job in this election is not just 'win,' although I'm a big believer in winning," Obama said during the rally. "I don't intend to lose this election. John McCain doesn't know what he's up against."
"He can talk all he wants about Britney (Spears) and Paris (Hilton), but I don't have time for that mess," Obama said.
His remarks carried forward a theme of feisty campaigning he debuted earlier in the day.
Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Florida, Obama reaffirmed his early opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and said the strategy of sending in 30,000 additional troops last year had not produced the political reconciliation necessary to achieve lasting peace in the country.
McCain supported the Iraq invasion and was an early champion of the surge.
Mother Jones, a progressive news magazine, recently reported on how prisoners are no longer just laboring at making license plates and other state-mandated busywork. Inmates in some states are now doing manufacturing chores and other tasks for corporations who have, undoubtedly, found a way to profit from America’s prison explosion.
Each month, prisoners in California process hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef, chicken products, milk and bread. In Texas, prisoners make furniture and mattresses, brooms and brushes, toilets and sinks. Boeing subcontractor Microjet once used prisoners to cut airplane components at $7 an hour; on the outside, that job would have paid $30 an hour.
Some inmates have even been subcontracted out to sew lingerie for Victoria’s Secret. According to Mother Jones, one contractor, Unicor, outsources call center work to inmates.
Predictably, advocates of paying prisoners minimum wage or pennies for their work on behalf of corporate America say that it’s important because it gives them training. And yes, this wouldn’t be so bad if these inmates, a disproportionate number of them black males, could take those jobs and parlay them into real work once they are released.
Booker T. of the legendary Stax band Booker T. and the MG’s flew to Memphis Sunday from Nantucket, Massachusetts, making several connections to get there in time for a public memorial the next day for his longtime friend.
Monday afternoon, he sat in the huge sanctuary of Hope Presbyterian Church in suburban Memphis, reflecting quietly on the years, the successes and the joy he had in knowing and performing with soul star Isaac Hayes, the R&B icon who captured hearts and acclaim worldwide with both his music and acting.
Hayes, 65, died last Sunday of a stroke. A private memorial was held for him on Sunday. And on Monday, an estimated crowd of 3,000 filled the church, listening to musical tributes and reflections on the one called “Black Moses.”
“I was sitting there feeling very close to Isaac. I thought about the days when we were back in the Stax studio together,” Booker T. told BlackAmericaWeb.com, shortly after the three-hour service ended. “I thought about some of our last conversations.”
The faces flowing into the church told the story of the lives touched by Hayes during a career that spanned almost five decades -- lawyers, preachers, entertainers, politicians, and fans.
“People started arriving as early as 9 a.m., and from that point, the crowd began to flow,” said Cheryl Duncan who handled public relations for the service.
In spite of fawning media coverage, an unpopular Republican president and economic challenges, Democrat Barack Obama has not managed to build a very substantive lead over his Republican rival John McCain. Recent polls show McCain closing the distance in key states, and one national poll even had the Republican candidate with a slight lead.
There are those that have, of late, attributed Obama’s lackluster polling to race. It happens that they are correct. But Obama’s presidential run has always been about race. It has not, however, been about race as we most often envision it, as part and parcel of race-“ism”. Most Americans are tired of race and are looking to move beyond it in a concrete way.
Obama’s polling numbers have not stalled because he has hit the glass ceiling of white supremacy. He has struggled because Americans no longer view him as a candidate that can transcend race. Many have, in fact, come to see him as ardently willing to manipulate race in order to gain a political advantage. Rather than representing a different kind of politician, he then appears to be not so different from any number of liberal black politicians who have graced the stage.
People began sleeping outside Friday night to be sure they had a seat. They started lining up outside the doors about four hours before the noon event started.
About 7,000 people poured into the 10,000-seat House of Hope on Bishop Ford Freeway in Chicago to bid farewell to Bernie Mac, one of the "Original Kings of Comedy."
His brothers in royalty -- D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Steve Harvey -- broke down at times as they paid tribute to Mac, who died Aug. 9 at age 50 of complications from pneumonia. But they also broke it down and kept the congregation laughing.
“I was laughing so hard at times, it was hard to take notes,” said Kelley Carter, an entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune, who covered the service.
“The Kings of Comedy, they were emoting; they were very physically distraught,” Carter told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “They broke down during their tributes, but they had people in stitches.”
Cedric the Entertainer looked at the huge crowd that turned out for the service and cracked that even in death that Mac was “still the hottest ticket in town.”
Mac's stage attire each night on the Kings of Comedy tour was so bold, Hughley said, that “Bernie would wear colors that crayons hadn't even thought of yet.”
Had it happened in the Nevada desert rather than the Mediterranean Sea, we might never have learned of the humiliation that beset the USA men’s basketball team at the 2004 Olympics.
Alas, what happens in Athens does not stay in Athens, so the shock of the team’s humiliating losses -- point-wise and medal-wise -- made headlines around the world. A bronze medal from the most famous, richest and professionalized team in the games; from the progenitors of basketball, no less?
Sometimes mockingly, sometimes regretfully, sports commentators worldwide began calling the squad the “Bad Dream Team,” noting that the players hadn’t had enough pre-Games practice, assumed too much of themselves and too little of their opponents, had not familiarized themselves with the nuances of international play, and, in some instances, betrayed a me-and-mine attitude with a keener eye on the MVP award than on the gold medal.
Now, in Beijing, the U.S. men’s basketball team is determined to make the “Redeem Team” moniker stick. In their quest to recapture the top medal, the 2008 delegation is treating all comers with respect -- i.e., as if they could win.
ASPEN, COLO. -- An offhand remark Sen. John McCain made to reporters Friday morning is adding kindling to the controversy over an inflammatory new book about Sen. Barack Obama.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was asked by a reporter if he had a response to the best-selling "Obama Nation" by Jerome Corsi, which repeats discredited allegations about Obama and portrays him as a stealth radical with extensive Muslim ties.
McCain stepped toward the reporter, and the journalist repeated the question: "The Jerome Corsi book? That book, 'Obama Nation,' Jerome Corsi, that some people are asking . . . "
The senator replied, "Gotta keep your sense of humor," and the media were escorted from the room as scheduled at the end of a breakfast meeting.
