BlackAmericans.com

U.S. presidential contender Barack Obama arrived in Germany Thursday for the latest leg of an international trip intended to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

Obama, who will also visit France and the UK before heading home, is due to give a public speech in Berlin later following talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But Obama's performance will likely be intended as much for an audience in the U.S. as for the German crowds expected to gather in front of the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten Park.

Obama had originally hoped to speak in front of the iconic Brandenburg Gate, where U.S. President John F. Kennedy was photographed during a popularly received visit to the city in 1963 shortly after the Berlin Wall had been built.

The Gate was also the site of a speech by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1987 in which he memorably urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the wall.

Use of the gate was apparently vetoed by Merkel, who a spokesman Wednesday said disapproved of the use of the landmark as a "campaign backdrop."

But as a youthful Democratic presidential hopeful promising change who has frequently been compared to Kennedy, Obama's strategists hope a warm welcome from Germans will play well with voters.

CNN European Political Editor Robin Oakley said Obama enjoyed widespread popularity in Europe.

"He is somehow one of those politicians who reaches parts other politicians don't reach," said Oakley. "After the unpopularity of George W. Bush, the world is waiting to love America again and they see in Obama, with his youth and his optimism, somebody who can bring that about."

But Oakley said Obama also needed to prove to Americans that he could defend U.S. interests abroad. Republican rival John McCain's campaign team has frequently criticized Obama as being inexperienced on foreign policy and a recent poll suggested just 48 percent of Americans thought he would make a good commander in chief, compared to 72 percent for McCain.

Talks between Merkel and Obama were expected to include discussion of Afghanistan, Iraq, trade, climate change and NATO. Oakley said European leaders would be seeking confirmation that Obama, if elected, would be a "listening president."

In addition to Merkel, Obama is slated to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron as well as French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Prior to leaving Israel earlier Thursday, Obama paid a pre-dawn visit to one of Jerusalem's holiest sites, the Western Wall.

Under tight security, he arrived at a section of the Western Wall that had been cordoned off. The visit had not been announced in advance, but dozens of people were waiting in the darkness for his arrival.

Wearing a white yarmulke, the Illinois senator walked towards the site with the Rabbi of the Wall, Shmuel Rabinovich. The rabbi read Psalm 122, and he and Obama looked through a Holy Book before Obama left a note, a custom of visitors to the site.

Obama bowed his head and placed his hand on the wall for a few moments.

CNN producer Sasha Johnson, a pool reporter for the brief visit, said a man screamed "Obama, Jerusalem is not for sale" despite pleas from the crowd for him to stop.

Obama has already visited Jordan, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq. He has said he is making the trip as a senator from Illinois and not a presidential candidate.

On Wednesday Obama said he would be willing to meet with any leader if he thought it would promote the national security interests of the United States, but he said there is a difference between "meeting without preconditions and meeting without preparations."

"That continues to be my position: that if I think that I can get a deal that is going to advance our cause, then I would consider that opportunity," he said.

"My whole goal in terms of having tough, serious direct diplomacy is not because I'm naive about the nature of any of these regimes. I'm not," Obama said.

"It is because if we show ourselves willing to talk and to offer carrots and sticks in order to deal with these pressing problems, and if Iran then rejects any overtures of that sort, it puts us in a stronger position to mobilize the international community to ratchet up the pressure on Iran."

After Obama's remarks, McCain's campaign accused the Democrat of shifting his position and said his comments show "his refusal to admit a mistake about what he said."

POST COMMENTS BELOW :

CNN.com 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/24/obama.trip/index.html

Senator Barack Obama in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Senator Barack Obama opened a day of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday, sharing breakfast with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak before traveling to the West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr. Obama, who shuttled between morning meetings at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Wearing a white yarmulke, he rekindled a flame and paused for a few moments of quiet reflection as he laid a wreath on a tomb that contains ashes from Nazi extermination camps.

“At a time of great peril and promise, war and strife, we are blessed to have such a powerful reminder of man’s potential for great evil, but also our capacity to rise from tragedy and remake our world,” Mr. Obama said after visiting the memorial. “Let our children come here, and know this history, so they can add their voices to proclaim “never again”. And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us, and who have become symbols of the human spirit.”

The brief ceremony at Yad Vashem was intended to convey symbolic images of Mr. Obama’s commitment to Israel as he listens to leaders on both sides of the Middle East peace process. He did not take questions from reporters on Wednesday morning, but was scheduled to make an afternoon visit to the southern Israeli town of Sderot, near Gaza, where he was expected to hold a press conference. Sderot has been hit by more than 2,000 rockets in the past four years, and is a symbolic destination for visiting politicians, including Senator John McCain, who toured it in March.

“The most important idea for me to reaffirm is the historic and special relationship between the United States and Israel,” Mr. Obama said as he arrived here on the latest leg of a weeklong trip to the Middle East and Europe. “One that cannot be broken. One that I have affirmed throughout my career and one that I will intend to not only continue but actually strengthen in an Obama administration.”

As Mr. Obama headed to his private meetings, including one later with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, his aides were sensitive to any perceptions that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was getting ahead of himself. They stressed that he was here to listen, not legislate.

“The United States of America has one president at a time — that president is George W. Bush,” Susan Rice, a senior foreign policy adviser to the campaign, said Wednesday. “Senator Obama will not be engaged in any way, shape or form policy-making.”

Aides to Mr. Obama did not provide an immediate account of his meetings, but Mr. Barak’s office issued a statement saying that the two discussed “all the relevant issues” and the “future challenges facing Israel and the region.”

The list of challenges includes Israeli-Palestinian peace talks as well as Israel’s concern about Iran’s nuclear program.

Mr. Obama received a warm reception from Israeli President Shimon Peres, who said his fondest wish was for a "great president of the United States. That is the greatest promise for us and the rest of the world."

As he strolled with Mr. Peres just before their meeting, Mr. Obama said: “I’m here on this trip to reaffirm the special relationship between Israel and the United States, my abiding commitment to Israel’s security and my hope that I can serve as an effective partner whether as U.S. senator or as president in bringing about a more lasting peace in the region.”

“You are a person who has forgotten more than I will ever know on these issues and so I look forward to a robust discussion, having an opportunity to get your insights and your wisdom,” he told Mr. Peres.

Mr. Obama also met with the opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, who told reporters that Israeli-Palestinian relations and Iran were the main points of his morning conversation. “The senator and I agreed that the primacy of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is clear, and this should guide our mutual policies,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement.

He added that Mr. Obama told him “he would never seek in any way to compromise Israel’s security, and that this would be sacrosanct in his approach to political negotiations.”

Mr. Obama’s visit to Israel comes after three days in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, where he met American military commanders and soldiers. On Tuesday, he visited Jordan. The international trip, which is unusual in the middle of a presidential campaign, was drawing considerable attention at home and abroad.

At the King David Hotel, some supporters brought Obama campaign signs bearing the slogan “Change you can believe in,” translated into Hebrew. In the lobby, an “Israel for Obama” sign was hanging from a chair.

As they talked casually, Mr. Netanyahu asked the visiting senator how he was feeling, to which Mr. Obama replied, “I could fall asleep standing up.”

POST COMMENTS BELOW: 

NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/us/politics/24obama.html?ref=world

Rev. Al Sharpton

Federal prosecutors have dropped their criminal probe of fiscal irregularities and tax fraud by the Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network.

Lawyers for the civil rights activist said that means Sharpton's tax tangle won't result in an indictment or jail time, or even an appearance before a grand jury, though he's agreed to pay millions in back taxes.

It also means the feds aren't pursuing allegations the civil rights leader extorted contributions from corporations in exchange for not protesting against them.

Prosecutors would not comment, but law enforcement sources confirmed that the criminal probe is over.

Bottom line: Sharpton gets a huge, hearty laugh at the expense of his large and vocal chorus of critics and accusers.

And a dozen current and former aides to Sharpton who got slapped with subpoenas - some at 6 a.m. - can now breathe easy.

While all criminal investigations are over, Sharpton and the National Action Network (NAN) have agreed to a tax settlement of between $2 million and $9 million.

Prosecutors turned the matter over to the IRS, which is still calculating what it believes Sharpton and his organization owe. The government has agreed to let Sharpton pay it off over a period of months or years.

"According to the government, Rev. Sharpton individually owed in excess of $1 million and NAN owed in excess of $1 million, over 50% of which was penalties in both cases," said Michael Hardy, Sharpton's longtime lawyer.

Legal bills related to the long-running case total another $2 million, Hardy said.

"Rev. Sharpton, his business entities and NAN have already deposited a substantial sum as an initial payment of these outstanding federal tax obligations," said

Zachary Carter, another Sharpton lawyer, who used to run the same U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn that launched the probe of Sharpton.

Sources estimated that Sharpton has shelled out $1 million to the IRS and will eventually have to fork over millions more.

"The U.S. attorney's office, after doing an investigation, came to the conclusion that this was most appropriate for a civil resolution," Carter said.

One way or another, he'll have the money to make good on the debt.

None of NAN's corporate supporters, including name brands like Wal-Mart, Pepsi and Colgate, has stopped supporting the group, Hardy said.

And while critics are fond of calling Sharpton an ambulance chaser who somehow makes money by speaking out on hot-button issues like police brutality and racial profiling, the truth is that his sources of personal income are fairly straightforward.

Sharpton hosts a syndicated daily radio show heard in 40 markets nationwide, as well as a weekly TV show and regular (paid) appearances on the "Tom Joyner Morning Show."

The media gigs pay him a combined salary of $750,000 a year.

He also earns royalties on his two books and lecture fees of $15,000 to $20,000 a shot, along with amounts in the $2,000 range for giving sermons at churches around the nation - often, two on any given Sunday.

In other words, Sharpton can easily take home close to a million a year - and often plows his earnings into his civil rights group, making loans and donations to NAN.

All the shifting money caused an unholy fiscal mess, particularly in recent years after a fire destroyed NAN's records. The group fell behind on submitting payroll taxes, raising red flags with the authorities, Hardy said.

Operating as he does with one eye on the history books, Sharpton knows he will always get scrutiny and never get the benefit of the doubt from the government he criticizes for a living.

He would be well-served to use this expensive close encounter with the feds as a wakeup call and hire as many accountants, lawyers and managers as it takes to keep himself and his organization out of trouble.

POST COMMENTS BELOW: 

NYDailyNews.com 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/21/2008-07-21_feds_drop_criminal_probe_of_rev_al_sharp.html

Two of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s children have released a statement explaining their reasons for suing brother Dexter King for allegedly taking money from the estate of their deceased mother.

      "We love our brother, yet we cannot ignore our responsibility to ensure that the corporation we are all shareholders and directors of is properly managed," read a statement by attorney, Jock Smith, who represents siblings Bernice and Martin III.     

      Their July 10 lawsuit against Dexter King, president and CEO of King Inc., claims he improperly took money from the estate of their late mother, Coretta Scott King, and mishandled the funds of King Inc., the estate of Martin Luther King Jr.    

Bernice & Martin Luther King III

      Dexter King, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is denying the allegations and has produced bank statements and other documents that he says show that he and his siblings have benefited equally from their parents' estates. He said the lawsuit stems from a disagreement with his siblings three years ago over the sale of the King Center in Atlanta. The three have basically been "estranged" since then, he said.     

      "At the end of the day, I love my siblings and my family, but they have chosen the low road, to use personal vindictiveness ... to [address issues] that I am certain can be resolved otherwise," Dexter King said, according to the newspaper.     

      In their statement, Bernice and Martin III claim it is Dexter who has taken the low road.

      "It is unfortunate that our brother continues to use the media to attack our character and expose personal business transactions," Martin III and Bernice said. "In spite of these efforts, we will remain on the high road and approach this difficult matter with dignity and respect."

POST COMMENTS BELOW: 

EurWeb.com 

http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur45510.cfm

Disgraced Olympic track star Marion Jones has asked President Bush to commute her six-month prison sentence for lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and a check-fraud scam.

The Justice Department confirmed Monday that Jones is among hundreds of convicted felons who have applied for presidential pardons or sentence commutations but would provide no further details. A pardon is an official act of forgiveness that removes civil liabilities stemming from a criminal conviction, while a commutation reduces or eliminates a person's sentence.

Such applications are reviewed by the Justice Department, which makes a recommendation to the president.

It's unclear when Jones, who won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, made the request. She entered prison March 7 in Fort Worth, Texas.

After frequently denying that she ever used performance-enhancing drugs, Jones admitted last October she had lied to federal investigators in November 2003. Jones also admitted lying about her knowledge of the involvement of Tim Montgomery, the father of her older son and a former 100-meter world record-holder, in a scheme to cash millions of dollars worth of stolen or forged checks.

Jones was sentenced in January to six months in prison and 400 hours of community service in each of the two years following her release. She was sentenced to six months on the steroids case and two months on the check-fraud case but was permitted to serve those sentences concurrently.

The judge in Jones' case said the check-fraud scheme was a major crime, and the wide use of steroids "affects the integrity of athletic competition."

POST COMMENTS BELOW: 

ESPN.GO.com

Senator Barack Obama with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American military commander in Iraq, in a helicopter above Baghdad.  

 The Iraqi government on Monday left little doubt that it favors a withdrawal plan for American combat troops similar to what Senator Barack Obama has proposed, providing Mr. Obama with a potentially powerful political boost on a day he spent in Iraq working to fortify his credibility as a wartime leader.

After a day spent meeting Iraqi leaders and American military commanders, Mr. Obama seemed to have navigated one of the riskiest parts of a weeklong international trip without a noticeable hitch and to have gained a new opportunity to blunt attacks on his national security credentials by his Republican rival in the presidential race, Senator John McCain.

Whether by chance or by design, the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq chose a day when Mr. Obama was in the country to provide its clearest statement yet about its views on the withdrawal of American troops. After a weekend of dispute about precisely what Mr. Maliki was suggesting, his spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told reporters in Baghdad, “We cannot give any timetables or dates, but the Iraqi government believes the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal.”

Mr. Obama has said he would seek to withdraw American combat forces over 16 months if he is elected president, starting upon taking office in January, meaning his plan would be completed on roughly the same timetable as suggested by the Iraqis. The Bush administration has signaled a willingness to work with the Iraqis on their desire to begin setting at least a general “time horizon” for reducing the American military presence, leaving Mr. McCain at risk of becoming isolated in his position of firm opposition to a withdrawal timetable.

The central tenet of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy is suddenly aligned with what the Iraqis themselves now increasingly seem to want. Not only have the developments offered Mr. Obama a measure of credibility as a prospective world leader in a week when his every move is receiving intensive attention at home and abroad, but it has complicated Mr. McCain’s leading argument against him: that a withdrawal timeline would be tantamount to surrender and would leave Iraqis in dangerous straits.

Mr. McCain is hardly conceding the point. He continued to hammer away at Mr. Obama’s judgment on national security, saying on Monday that Mr. Obama had gotten it badly wrong when he opposed sending additional American troops last year to help stabilize Iraq. Republicans said Iraq would never have reached the point where it could reasonably call for a reduction in the American presence without the troop increase, a policy championed by Mr. McCain over the objections of Mr. Obama and most other Democrats.

“The fact is, if we had done what Senator Obama wanted to do, we would have lost,” Mr. McCain told reporters in Kennebunkport, Me. “And we would have faced a wider war. And we would have had greater problems in Afghanistan and the entire region. And Iran would have increased their influence.”

American military commanders have also expressed qualms about setting a specific timetable for withdrawal, suggesting that to do so could risk reversing the progress made in Iraq since the United States increased its troop presence last year. On Sunday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, told Fox News that the consequences of setting a two-year timeline for removing American combat troops “could be very dangerous.”

For a day, at least, the images of the two presidential candidates offered a sharp contrast. In an interview on “Good Morning America” on ABC, Mr. McCain talked about securing the “Iraq-Pakistan border,” a momentary misstatement of geography. (American forces are pursuing terrorists along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border; Iraq does not border Pakistan.) His aides staged an event where he was seen riding in a golf cart in Maine with the first President George Bush, while Mr. Obama flew over Iraq in a helicopter with Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American military commander.

During his visit to Iraq, Mr. Obama said it was important that the Iraqi government take charge of its own affairs.

“I think it is very important we build on this progress and recognize Iraqi sovereignty,” he said shortly after meeting with Mr. Maliki and as he was starting a meeting with one of Iraq’s vice presidents, Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni.

The talk of a strict timetable appeared to worry Mr. Hashimi. Sunni Muslims fear that a rapid withdrawal would leave them vulnerable to Shiite Muslim efforts to further diminish their power. Rather, he said the emphasis should be on the Iraqi army’s readiness.

The comments on troop withdrawal came after a weekend of controversy between the United States and Iraqi governments over a German news report that Mr. Maliki had expressed support for Mr. Obama’s proposal to withdraw American combat troops within 16 months of January. On Friday, President Bush agreed to a “general time horizon” for pulling out troops without mentioning any dates.

Mr. Obama, on the latest leg of his first overseas tour as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, arrived in the Iraqi capital in the early afternoon after first stopping in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. General Petraeus met briefly with Mr. Obama when he arrived at the Baghdad airport, and they flew by helicopter to the Green Zone, where the American Embassy and many Iraqi government offices are situated, an American military official said.

Mr. Obama met with Mr. Maliki; President Jalal Talabani; Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser; and other Iraqi officials at the prime minister’s residence in the Green Zone.

He and the two senators traveling with him, Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, had dinner with General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker.

In an interview with ABC News on Monday in Baghdad, Mr. Obama said he would not be locked into a false choice between a rigid timetable for withdrawal that ignored changing conditions in Iraq and “completely deferring” to the recommendations of military commanders.

He said his conversation with General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker focused on “what’s adequate for our security interests, factoring in the fact that not only do we have Afghanistan, which I believe is the central front on terror, but also the fact that if we’re spending $10 billion a month over the next two, four, five years, then that’s $10 billion a month that we’re not using to rebuild the United States or drawing down our national debt or making sure that families have health care.”

Before meeting with Mr. Hashimi, Mr. Obama said he was “pleased with the progress taking place” and said it was his impression that among Iraqis there was “more optimism about what is happening.”

He spoke of more “activity taking place, the people in the shops, the traffic on the streets” and said, “Clearly, there’s been an enormous improvement.”

Mr. Obama’s trip is cloaked in secrecy and high security, and aides have also worked to avoid images like the one that caused a headache for Mr. McCain in a visit to Iraq, when he suggested that safety had improved as he walked through a market that was heavily protected by military personnel.

Mr. McCain, whose aides are frustrated by the level of attention being paid to Mr. Obama this week, criticized Mr. Obama as not recognizing the reductions in violence and improvements in Iraq.

“He’s been completely wrong on the issue,” Mr. McCain said, offering a reminder to voters that Mr. Obama is “someone who has no military experience whatsoever.”

That biographical difference, of course, is a central reason for Mr. Obama’s across-the-world detour from the domestic presidential campaign. From Kuwait to Afghanistan to Iraq for three straight days, it is difficult to find a picture of Mr. Obama not surrounded by American commanders or troops.

POST COMMENTS BELOW: 

NYTimes.com 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/us/politics/22assess.html?pagewanted=1&hp

                                     Soledad O'Brien

As the world's window on the United States, CNN is offering its second documentary on black life in the republic, just as Barack Obama heads off to Europe and the Middle East, with the three network anchors in global tracking mode.

*** Parsons, board chairman of the cable network parent company, Time Warner Inc., wondered aloud why he was invited to launch the two-part series, "Black in America," that starts Wednesday. "It may have something to do with the fact that I'm black in America." Gilding the lily, as CEOs are wont to do, he said that the documentary illustrates a "new paradigm."

Soledad O'Brien, the CNN host of the show, however, kept her feet on ground and was closer to the point of the 18-month production. "We did not have a desired outcome," she said, "what we wanted to do was to tell stories; not to pull punches. We wanted to tell stories through human beings ... who have to make choices; some are personal, others are influenced by [government] policy."

The Time Warner honcho seemed intent on nudging the CNN series away from its journalistic moorings toward the open sea of politics. "Things have changed," said Parsons, sliming African-Americans' struggle to achieve parity as a "paradigm of victimization." "It's time to stop thinking in the old way and start thinking in the new way. Barack Obama is trying to get us to converse through this new paradigm."

Such efforts, which hold great appeal for whites, collide with the very reality that the CNN series explores. As cited in a recent New York Times poll, Americans are sharply divided along racial lines over the nation's first presumptive black presidential nominee. Blacks are nearly three times more likely to have a favorable opinion of Obama than are whites; twice as likely to embrace his wife, Michelle; and twice as likely to see "race relations" as "bad," with no improvement in recent years.

While African-Americans agree with whites that these troubled times render America "ready" to elect a black president, they do not view this change as a significant sign of improvement in race relations.

This perception, chairman Parsons might note, flows not from a black paradigm of victimization but rather a white American history of villainy. Such a model of villainization does not reassure the lamb when sitting down with the wolf to discuss dinner. The American experience instructs that most whites who would dare vote for Obama will do so not out of altruism but rather a cataclysmic desperation brought on by Bush-Cheney. Sen. John McCain offers no hope with his plethora of disquieting inadequacies.

The new racial "paradigm" that Parsons preaches and Obama campaigns upon is, unfortunately, quite a ways off. The CNN documentary flicks at the structural problem when discussing the raw side of the criminal justice system that bludgeons black men unfairly. Those who don't run afoul of the law are nonetheless stigmatized. Potential employers, the TV series reports, treat black job-seekers without criminal records less fairly that they do comparable whites with criminal records.

Reporter O'Brien found the level of terror police generate in black neighborhoods simply "staggering." "No matter what the socio-economic class, people told stories of what they told their 12-year-old sons to do when pulled over by cops." The "almost verbatim" spiel was given "whether it's inner city Detroit in a house that is falling down around you or a Hollywood star in a giant mansion with a pool that is humongous."

"If you're pulled over by a cop, here's what you do, here's what you say." Single mothers; couples, everybody had the same speech. Typically, "an Ivy league professor said, 'I tell my boys, you cower, cower, because I want you to live.'"

"These are conversations that white people do not have with their children," said O'Brien. With its global audience of 1.2 billion viewers in 212 countries and territories, CNN will offer a mere hint of this state of terror that the police sustain in black America.

POST COMMENTS BELOW:

NewsDay.com 

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppay215770266jul21,0,6529410.column