Obama Gets A Well-timed Push From Edwards
Posted
May 15, 2008 
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Comments(4) The announcement came as Clinton was riding a euphoric media wave
For many people, the main question was, “Why did it take former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) so long to throw his support behind Sen. Barack Obama.” But given the way the announcement erased Sen. Hillary Clinton’s overwhelming win in West Virginia from the front pages of American newspapers, it’s clear that he couldn’t have had better timing. How important do you think this endorsement is? Read more at Pamela On Politics.
Amid disclosures that top brass within the U.S. Secret Service exchanged racist e-mails and even joked about assassinating the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate is demanding to see any derogatory e-mails directed at him and his family. On Friday, a filing by attorneys for 10 African-American Secret Service agents disclosed several racist e-mails that were exchanged between supervisors at the agency. Among the e-mails was one titled “The Righteous Reverend,” which joked about how Jackson’s assassination “certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and probably wouldn’t be an accident either.” The U.S. Secret Service’s main job is to protect the president of the United States as well as presidential candidates. Both in 1984 and 1988, Jackson, who was the subject of regular death threats and hate mail, requested Secret Service protection early in those campaigns, which he got. “This e-mail today tells me I have a lot less confidence in the Secret Service than I did before it was exposed,” U.S. Rep Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), the son of the reverend, told CBS 2 in Chicago. He said that his father “wasn’t quite as charged as Mrs. Jackson was. My mother wants to know what she has to do with this at all.” Speaking to The New York Times earlier this week, a Secret Service spokesman said, “We are deeply disappointed by any communication or action on the part of our employees that exhibits racial or other insensitivity.” The Rev. Jackson told CBS 2 that he wants all Secret Service communications in which he or his family is mentioned. Sen. Barack Obama also got Secret Service protection early on. During an Obama speech in Texas recently, the Secret Service was criticized for allowing throngs into a Dallas arena without first being screened. Jesse Jr., who has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service documents, told the station, “Suffice it to say that if supervisors at the Untied States Secret Service are passing around racially explicit e-mails and sexually explicit e-mails, there’s a problem at the highest ranks of the United States Secret Service that deserves all of our attention.” He also said he would push Congress to investigate. “The Secret Service is charged with investigating threats, not initiating them,” he said. “This gives you some sense, some insight, into what may be taking place there,” he said. “The Congress of the United States has oversight responsibilities and we’re going to be looking very carefully at what’s going on there.”
Just days after the four suspects in NFL player Sean Taylor’s murder were spared from the chance of a death sentence because of one suspect’s age, a fifth teen participant has been named. Timothy Brown, 16, was also involved in the armed burglary of Taylor’s Miami home, which resulted in Taylor’s death from a shooting, Miami-Dade County prosecutors say. The Washington Redskins safety was unexpectedly at home with an injury at the time of the home invasion, police say. When he surprised the suspects by confronting them with a machete, he was shot in a major leg artery, later dying at the hospital. Prosecutors had just announced that they won’t seek the death penalty for the four defendants who’ve been held since Taylor’s November murder, because teen Eric Rivera Jr. was too young to be charged as an adult when the death occurred. The same sentence is typically sought for similarly charged co-defendants. Brown is being held in Florida’s Lee County. The other co-defendants face trial in August.
Police restrained comedian Mike Epps recently after the “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next” star verbally attacked a photographer in Los Angeles, TMZ.com reports. Video footage shows Epps at Los Angeles International Airport cursing and shouting to an unidentified man carrying a professional camera: “You’re a fag, homosexual!” Epps is restrained by a cop, but footage doesn’t clearly show what provoked the performer’s anger. The incident marks the second time this month that Epps reportedly lost his temper – the first being when he and his associates allegedly jumped a man who tried to serve him paternity suit papers at a club where Epps performed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton says that the federal government should block millions of dollars in funding to the NYPD until the department proves that it isn’t out to get Black folks. “You gotta hit them in the pocket and let them know we mean business,” Sharpton said at a community forum in lower Manhattan. “Cut the money off, and they’ll take you seriously.” The Monday forum was led by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who has called for police accountability following the acquittal of three NYPD detectives who shot to death Sean Bell, a 23-year-old, unarmed Black man, on the eve of his wedding in November 2006. Conyers is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Cops who violate their own polices shouldn’t get a dime, Sharpton argues. “They would have to explain why there’s a continued racial disparity in stop-and-frisks, in arrests, in brutality claims, and why the top echelons of the NYPD are still disproportionately against what the population is,” Sharpton said. In addition to leading a massive rally that blocked traffic on five New York bridges last week, the civil rights leader is demanding to know why more than a dozen police officers yanked three Black men from a car in Philadelphia and punched, kicked and stomped them as a TV camera captured the ordeal.
spending practices, says a group of church leaders. In a letter to the head of the Senate Finance Committee, the coalition of ministers contends that the inquiry sets a frightening precedence. Investigations into financial practices that purport to violate U.S. tax codes, as committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has alleged, should be handled by the IRS, the group argues. “Just the fact that you are named in an investigation casts a cloud over your integrity,” says Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council and one of the almost two dozen signatories. “There are, of course, always violators out there – but there are appropriate remedies for them, and that is through the IRS as the proper investigatory agency.” Saying that the probe is intimidating, Schenck believes the ministries were targeted for their evangelical theology and conservative social positions. Several months ago, Grassley announced that his committee was looking into allegations that six televangelists were raking in tens of millions of tax-free dollars in their offering plates and using the money to fund their personal, lavish lifestyles. He cited luxury cars, sprawling cribs and personal jets as examples of items bought with church money. The six televangelists being investigated are Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer, and Paula and Randy White.
Sources say that 50 Cent will ink a major deal with MySpace for $300 million, in exchange for his thisis50.com Web site, the G-Unit records, his G-Unit books, and all of his other businesses. 
Since his rise to popularity, everyone from 50 Cent to Snoop Dogg has made use of the instrument that T-Pain has made famous. In a new song, Kanye West takes his turn with the Auto Tuner. 
American woman to lead the California Assembly since it was created in 1849. “California is a giant in crisis — and now it is up to us to solve that crisis,” said Bass, 54. “It is up to us to take the fear out of California’s future.” Her predecessor, Fabian Nunez, is required to abandon the post after two consecutive terms. Bass, the state’s 67th Assembly speaker, said that her priority would be repairing the state’s budget. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has released his revised spending plan for the next fiscal year that features a deficit that could reach $20 billion. “We have to decide how we will come together to mobilize the incredible assets and resources at this state’s command to solve the budget crisis,” Bass said. “Members, we have to respond to the current economic crisis the same way we would a natural disaster. We have to toss aside the boxes we put ourselves in and the labels we place on others and come together to get the job done. “I believe part of that job has got to involve looking at the big picture and really examining California’s overall economic structure. Most importantly, we have to ask the question of whether a tax structure that was established in the 1930s is sufficient to meet the needs of Californians in 2008. …”
It’s either a sign of hope for married couples or a planned publicity stunt that two just-married Hollywood celebs already are planning to renew their vows. Singer Mariah Carey and actor Nick Cannon will hold a public ceremony in 2009, Carey says. “We’re just going to have another [ceremony] next year,” she tells talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. “His plan is to have one every year.” Carey and Cannon were wed April 30 at Carey’s property in the Bahamas.
A recently leaked script of director Oliver Stone’s planned film chronicle of President George W. Bush’s time in office confirms actress Thandie Newton as a cast member. Newton, who co-starred in Beloved and Crash, will appear, along with actors Josh Broslin and Ioan Gruffudd, in the film that reportedly disses Bush and his administration, Michael Moore-style. A copy of W.’s script reached the New York Post. Filming began this week.
Allegations against a possible 2008 NBA draftee aren’t true, the baller says. O.J. Mayo disputes claims by an ex-associate on ESPN’s show “Outside the Lines” that Mayo accepted about $30,000 in cash and gifts from a booster while in high school and at USC. “I don’t know anything about it. It caught me by surprise,” Mayo tells ESPN.com. “I’ve got to get to L.A. to see what’s going on. I’m just focusing on the draft.” Airline tickets for relatives, a flat-screen TV and other incentives are among the items allegedly provided to Mayo by an L.A. promoter, in violation of NCAA rules. NFL star Reggie Bush has also been accused of – and also has denied – receiving gifts while playing football at USC.