What Obama's Election Really Means to Black America

Much of black America is still struggling to grasp the full meaning of Barack Obama's election to the presidency. The overall mood is awash with pride but shaded with angst and the larger question: Now what?
Will a Black President Really Heal the Racial Divide?
The Five Faces of Barack Obama
More Related
The Origin of Obama’s Pastor Problem
Obama’s Church Moves On After Exit
How Jeremiah Wright Found Religion
On Wednesday, the Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. appeared on Oprah Winfrey's celebratory post-election special. After learning the news, Gates says, "we jumped up, we wept, we hooped and hollered." It is hard to overestimate the historical significance of the election of the first black U.S. President. For many blacks, and certainly for much of the country and world, Obama's victory is an extraordinary step toward the redemption of America's original 400-year-old sin. It is astonishing not least for its quickness, coming just 145 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation effectively ending slavery and four decades after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. And it is even more astonishing for its decisiveness — Obama carried Virginia, once the home of the Confederacy, a place whose laws just five decades ago would have made the interracial union of his parents illegal. (See pictures of Barack Obama's family tree.)
"Just a little more than 10 years ago," Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin told TIME this week, "it was inconceivable to any of us that we would see an African American win a national party's ticket and then compete effectively. It's mind-boggling," she continued, "how much this means about the opportunities available to all people — Asians, Latinos and other people who've historically been locked out of the system." (See pictures of Election 2008 in the heart of the Civil Rights struggle.)
What is perhaps most surprising about many blacks' support of Obama is that it was not immediate or easy. Many African Americans were initially skeptical about Obama's candidacy, partly because they regarded him as somehow inauthentically black due to his upbringing in Hawaii and Indonesia, as well as his last name, which even the President-elect has described as "funny sounding."
Black support of Obama soared after he won last winter's Iowa caucuses. But there were moments in this campaign when Obama was forced to manage the issue of race deftly and explain the unexplainable to a largely white electorate. Consider the case of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. Obama joined Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in the 1980s, when Obama was an obscure community organizer. Trinity gave Obama an entrée to the city's thriving black middle class, and Obama came to view Wright in particular as a mentor. Yet earlier this year, Obama was compelled for political reasons to leave the church. The public criticism stemmed from controversial comments about the U.S. by Wright that proved too harsh to the ears of outsiders, many who are not aware of the nuances of the black religious-cultural experience, or of the fact that black churches have traditionally been a place for coping with the legacy of racism in this country. When Obama left Trinity, he suggested that the scrutiny he faced because of Wright's sermons would follow him to whatever church he and his family chose to attend as the First Family. That will be especially true if the Obamas choose another traditional black church, where the rhetoric on matters of social policy and everyday life — not just on racism — may sound radical to much of the country.
See pictures of 60 years of election night drama.
See pictures of Barack Obama's campaign behind the scenes.

World reaction to Obama victory: Elation

If history records a sudden surge in carbon emissions on Wednesday, it may be due to the collective exhalation of relief and joy by the hundreds of millions -- perhaps billions -- of people around the globe who watched, waited and prayed for Barack Obama to be elected president of the United States.In country after country, elation over Obama's victory was palpable, the hunger for a change of American leadership as strong outside the U.S. as in it. And there was wonderment that, in the world's most powerful democracy, a man with African roots and the middle name Hussein, an upstart fighter who took on political heavyweights, could capture the highest office in the land.
So as results came tumbling in on their radios, TV screens and cellphones, many outside the United States saw it as their moment as much as America's, and Obama's victory as their own."A lot of people told me they had tears in their eyes last night. I was one of them," Randa Habib, a Jordanian writer and political analyst, said Wednesday. "I saw his speech. I was very moved. This is a lesson to us all, that blacks and whites in America can have such a shameful past between them, yet they come together and learn how to live together."The Middle East, she said, has always wanted to look to the U.S. as a beacon, despite differences over the Arab- Israeli conflict, the Iraq war and other issues."There's a feeling of hope that things will be right in America," Habib said. "Obama can make you once again respect the U.S. for its values and democracy and all those things we had forgotten about over the last eight years."No one yet knows what Obama's foreign policy will look like, and the celebratory mood over his triumph in many places was tempered by questions about his plans for U.S. troops in Iraq, his role in Middle East peace talks and his commitment to free trade, among other issues.But such doubts aside, legions of jubilant supporters set off firecrackers in El Salvador, danced in Liberia and drank shots in Japan. Good wishes went streaming Obama-ward from homemakers in Indonesia, the world's most-populous Muslim nation, where Obama spent some of his early childhood, and from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who also beat long odds to lead his country."Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place," said one letter addressed simply to "Senator Barack Obama, Chicago."Its author: Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, writing to the first black president-to-be of the United States. Africa has embraced Obama as something of a native son, though it was his father who was born in Kenya, not Obama himself.Those inspired by Obama's origins and accomplishments include French political activist Patrick Lozes, the son of an immigrant from the African nation of Benin."This election is going to improve the image the U.S.A. has in our neighborhoods," Lozes said of France's heavily Muslim working-class enclaves. "The American dream comes back to life."Tens of thousands of Europeans turned out to catch a glimpse of Obama during his tour of the continent over the summer. Many are counting on him to restore a more harmonious relationship between the U.S. and Europe, after recent years of tension over the war in Iraq and matters such as climate change.A similar hope lives in Mexico, where former Foreign Secretary Jorge Castañeda wrote in Wednesday's Reforma newspaper: "Obama won, the map of the United States was transformed and for Mexico an extraordinary opportunity has opened . . . because it will be infinitely simpler to be a neighbor, partner and friend of the United States with Obama."Supporters of the Republican presidential runner-up, John McCain, were not impossible to find Wednesday. Just very much harder.

Facebook's political squad looks overseas

Social network Facebook hopes to replicate the phenomenal success of its 2008 U.S. presidential election outreach and coverage in other countries, outreach and marketing director Randi Zuckerberg told CNET News on Thursday.
"This week is definitely all the post-election aftermath, but I'm definitely looking forward to jumping right into some of the international politics (and) international elections," said Zuckerberg (who is, in case you were wondering, CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sister). "It's a little more fun to work on some of those because they don't draw out their elections for a year and a half."
It's a logical conclusion for the social network, as numbers indicate that three-quarters of the site's users are now outside its native U.S.
Right now, Facebook is in election heaven. According to its official blog, more than 5.4 million users clicked an "I Voted" widget that shared the news with members of their friends' list. Some 1.7 million used the "Causes" application to encourage their friends to vote. Out of Facebook's 125 million members, 15 million of those aged 18 or older logged into the site on Election Day. Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, members distributed 200,000 copies in a single day of a "virtual gift" advertisement created by The New York Times that depicted its election results headline.
Randi Zuckerberg said to CNET News that two of the countries where Facebook is hoping to jump into election media are the U.K., where Facebook actually has greater penetration than in the U.S., and Germany. It's going to be a learning process, Zuckerberg added. "There are legal restrictions that are different in every single country. I was even learning about the U.S. legal restrictions down to the last second, some of the things like with Ben & Jerry's and Starbucks giving stuff away for free on our site."
The two had launched high-profile campaigns, advertised on Facebook, in which free Ben & Jerry's ice cream or Starbucks coffee was offered to anyone who voted. Giving incentives in exchange for a vote is technically illegal in the U.S., something that most people were not aware of until Starbucks had to announce that it would give a free tall coffee to anyone on Tuesday, regardless of vote.
"In the U.K., for example, there are certain rules about showing advertising around political content," Zuckerberg continued. "We'll definitely have to get in there and learn the lay of the land."

Obama wins historic US election

Democratic Senator Barack Obama has been elected the first black president of the United States, according to projected results.
There were scenes of delight at a park in Chicago where tens of thousands of Obama supporters had gathered.
Mr Obama is expected to address the crowd soon.
His rival John McCain accepted defeat, saying "I deeply admire and commend" Mr Obama. He called on his supporters to lend the next president their goodwill.
Mr Obama captured the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, before passing the essential figure of 270 electoral college votes at 0400 GMT, when projections showed he had also taken California and a slew of other states.
He has so far held most of the states that voted Democrat in 2004, as well as seizing at least six from the Republicans, including Florida and Virginia.
Several other key swing states are hanging in the balance.
In Indiana and North Carolina, with most of the vote counted, there was less than 0.5% between the two candidates.
However, the popular vote remains close. At 0345 GMT it stood at 50.7% for the Democratic Senator from Illinois, against 48.2% for Arizona Senator McCain.
The main developments include:
Mr Obama is projected to have seized Ohio, New Mexico, Iowa and Virginia - all Republican wins in 2004.
He is also projected to have won: Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Delaware, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Maryland, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Rhode Island.
Mr McCain is projected to have won: Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Utah.
Turnout was reported to be extremely high - in some places "unprecedented".
The Democrats made early gains in the Senate race, seizing seats from the Republicans in Virginia, North Carolina, New Hampshire and New Mexico.
Exit polls suggest the economy was the major deciding factor for six out of 10 voters.
Nine out of 10 said the candidates' race was not important to their vote, the Associated Press reported. Almost as many said age did not matter.
Several states reported a high turnout. It was predicted 130 million Americans, or more, would vote - more than for any election since 1960.
Many Americans said they felt they were voting in a historic election, not least because of the possibility of choosing the first African-American president.
Faton Fall, 40, a black voter queuing at a Baptist church in Chicago, said: "It means a lot to me. I'm overwhelmed. I can't say more."
Congressional race
There are also elections to renew the entire US House of Representatives and a third of US Senate seats.
Democrats are expected to expand majorities in both chambers.
They need to gain nine Senate seats to reach a 60-seat majority that would give them extra legislative power.
In the presidential vote, under the US Electoral College system, states are allocated votes based on their representation in Congress.
In almost every state, the winner gets all these college votes.
To become president, a candidate needs to win a majority across the country - 270 college votes out of a possible 538.
The presidential election has been the most expensive in US history - costing $2.4bn, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Africans rev up to celebrate an Obama victory

Barack Obama's Kenyan family erupted in cheers Wednesday, singing "we are going to the White House," as he became the first African-American elected president.
In the western village of Kogelo, where the Democratic candidate's late father was born, police had tightened security to prevent hordes of media and others from entering the rural homestead of Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah.
But the elderly woman and several other relatives came outside Wednesday to cheer for Obama in a country where the Democrat is seen as a "son of the soil."
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
KISUMU, Kenya (AP) — Africans stayed up at all-night parties or woke before dawn Wednesday, gathering around televisions and radios as Barack Obama took the lead in his election bid to become the first black U.S. president.
"I'm not tired even, though I have been watching the results through the night," Josiah Otupa, 30, said early Wednesday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "Our man is in the lead but we are still praying hard."
In Nairobi's Kibera shantytown, one of the largest slums in Africa, hundreds gathered around a massive bonfire of burning tires. Residents joyfully held up Obama posters, blew whistles and waved American flags.
"We will be here until morning, and we will continue with celebrations if Obama wins," said organizer Sam Ouma, 32. "If Obama loses I don't know what this crowd will do."
Obama, the son of an economist from Kenya, is wildly popular across Africa. Many people hope an Obama presidency will help this vast continent, the poorest in the world. Some are looking for more U.S. aid to Africa, others simply bask in the glory of a successful black politician with African roots.
"Obama, being partly African, has the moral obligation to intervene in Africa," said Samuel Conteh, managing editor of The New Citizen newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone. "The aspirations of Africans are very high, believing that he will change the social and economic situations of Africans."
Those hopes come even after President George W. Bush made a special effort to combat disease and promote democracy in Africa.
Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood reared by his mother, a white American from Kansas. He barely knew his late father. But that has not stopped "Obamamania" from sweeping the continent, and particularly Kenya, where his picture adorns billboards and minibuses.
In the western village of Kogelo, where the Democratic candidate's late father was born, police tightened security Tuesday to prevent hordes of media and others from entering the rural homestead of Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah.
Earlier in the day, Sarah Obama attended an open-air religious service where local bishop Ogonyo Ngende offered prayers for the candidate's maternal grandmother, 86-year-old Madelyn Payne Dunham, who died late Sunday in Hawaii.
"I think this is one person he could have wanted to be there and witness him becoming the president of the United States of America," Obama's uncle, Said Obama, said in Kogelo, referring to Dunham.
In Uganda, hundreds of university students booked a hall on campus in the capital, Kampala, to watch the results.
"We will feast if Obama wins," said Makerere University student Robert Rutaro.
Kenya's two main newspapers ran Obama stories on the front page. The Standard newspaper also offered a 16-page "Obama Magic Souvenir Pullout" with photos.
The mass daily newspapers in Nigeria, Africa's most-populous nation, were running rare multipage inserts with U.S. electoral coverage. Headlines in The Sun called Obama a "Black Phoenix" and declared in advance of an expected Obama victory: "One Giant Leap for Mankind."

Barack Obama voted America's first black president in historic landslide victory over McCain

Barack Obama became America’s first black president early today.
The Democrat scored a crucial breakthrough win in Ohio to take a commanding lead in the White House race, leaving Republican John McCain fighting for his political life in a string of close battleground states.
The huge victory, along with a win in Pennsylvania, which was targeted by McCain as his best hope of stealing a Democratic-leaning state, moved Obama to the brink of a historic White House win. He was also projected by Fox News to capture New Mexico's five electoral votes, another state won by Bush in 2004.
The combined 25 electoral votes in states won by Bush would be enough to put Obama over the 270 Electoral College votes if there are no major upsets by McCain
'At this point we need a miracle,' a McCain aide was quoted as saying on the CBS News web site.
A win by Obama, 47, son of a black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas, would make him the first black U.S. president and mark a milestone in U.S. history 45 years after the height of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King.

OBAMA ELECTED US PRESIDENT

Democrat Barack Obama wrote his name indelibly into the pages of American history Tuesday, engineering a social and political upheaval to become the country's first black president-elect in a runaway victory over Republican John McCain.
The 47-year-old Illinois senator, son of a white mother from Kansas and an African father from Kenya, mined a deep vein of national discontent, promising Americans hope and change throughout a nearly flawless 21-month campaign for the White House.
Obama stepped through a door opened 145 years ago when President Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Illinois politician, issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed African-Americans from enslavement in the rebellious South in the midst of a wrenching civil war.
The powerful orator lays claim to the White House on Jan. 20, only 43 years after the country enacted a law that banned the disenfranchisement of blacks in many Southern states where poll taxes and literacy tests were common at the time.

McCain and Obama hit key states

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain raced through the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania on Sunday, with McCain struggling to overtake Obama's lead in the final 48 hours of a gruelling White House campaign.
Obama warned supporters against overconfidence during rallies in Ohio, one of about a dozen crucial battleground states that will decide Tuesday's election to succeed unpopular President George W. Bush.
The Illinois senator leads McCain in national opinion polls and in many key Republican-leaning states as a two-year campaign that has cost more than $2 billion (1.2 billion pounds) draws to a close.
"Don't believe for a second that this election is over," Obama told a crowd of more than 60,000 in Columbus. Another 80,000 greeted him in Cleveland, where rocker Bruce Springsteen warmed up the audience and introduced Obama.
"We can't afford to slow down, sit back, or let up for one day, one minute, or one second in these last few days," said Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president.
McCain reached out to undecided voters in Pennsylvania, his best and perhaps last hope of stealing a Democratic-leaning state from Obama as the two candidates search for the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
He also visited Peterborough, New Hampshire, another state won by Democrats in 2004 and where he scored key wins in 2000 and earlier this year in the primary.
The Arizona senator is battling to overcome a strong challenge from Obama in about a dozen states won by Bush in 2004, and he and his top aides said he was closing the gap at the end.

Lewis Hamilton's girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger celebrates Formula One title win

Lewis Hamilton celebrated becoming Formula One world champion by partying with his pop star girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger, lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls.
Scherzinger was trackside to watch Hamilton's amazing victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix. "I nearly broke down, it was so thrilling. I thank God," she said afterwards as she showered Hamilton with kisses.
The pair met at the MTV Europe Awards in Munich last November and have been inseparable ever since. At 30, Scherzinger is seven years older than the racing driver.
She says: "I love his soul. When I saw him for the first time, I was located in an enormous crowd. He asked me, 'How do you deal with all this bustle?' I said to him, 'Stay close to your family. It gives you everything that you need and keeps your feet on ground.' At that time I didn't suspect that Lewis is exactly the same family person as me. We are soul mates."
Hamilton previously dated Miss Grenada beauty queen Vivia Burkhardt and was spotted out in the company of supermodel Naomi Campbell, although he insists: "There's most certainly nothing going on between me and Naomi.
"She's like a big sister. Anyway, she's way too old for me."
His first girlfriend was Jodia Ma, a restaurant receptionist whom he met while a student in Hertfordshire. They were together for four years but split when Hamilton started in Formula One.
Scherzinger has been welcomed into the Hamilton family and stays regularly at the F1 star's home in Switzerland.
The only thing he doesn't like about Scherzinger is her driving. "I have a Bentley but Lewis doesn't like it. He's scared of my driving. I don't know why," she says.
The Hawaiian-born singer – full name Nicole Prescovia Elikolani Valiente Scherzinger – owes her exotic looks to a Filipino father and Hawaiian/Russian mother.
After attending stage school and singing backing vocals for rock band Days Of The New, she got her big break in the television talent show Popstars, becoming a member of all-girl group Eden's Crush.
When the band split, Scherzinger briefly went solo before joining the Pussycat Dolls in 2003.
The Dolls started out as a burlesque dance troupe, performing with the likes of Christina Aguilera and Carmen Electra, before moving into the music business.
Their debut single, Don't Cha, topped the UK charts in 2005 and was nominated for a Grammy.
Scherzinger embarked on a solo career again in 2007 and released an album, Her Name Is Nicole, but it failed to match the group's success.

Hamilton makes history after Brazil thriller

Britain's Lewis Hamilton has become the youngest-ever Formula One world champion by winning the 2008 title in a thrilling finish at Interlagos on Sunday.

Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula One world title after an incredible final race at Interlagos.

The McLaren driver needed only to finish inside the top five at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo's Interlagos circuit to claim the crown, but it happened in the most dramatic of circumstances.
In the end, he needed to make a pass two corners from the finish line to claim the title by a solitary point 98 to 97.
Hamilton was comfortably sitting in fourth three laps from the end, but a heavy rain shower changed the race.
Forced to go to the pits to change tires, Hamilton was passed by Sebastien Vettel and Timo Glock -- leaving him in sixth position and potentially costing him the world title.
However, Glock's decision not to change to wet tires slowed him down on the final lap, allowing Hamilton to pass and finish fifth -- enough for the championship.
Hamilton's nearest rival, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who sat seven points adrift coming into the final round, won the race.
Spurred on by a massive home crowd, Massa charged to a comfortable victory, however, it was never going to be enough to win the championship unless Hamilton finshed outside the top five.
The result left the crowd unhappy and Massa mortified as they initially believed the Ferrari driver had taken the crown.
Hamilton wins the title at a record age of 23 years and 300 days.
See photos of the dramatic day's action
After the race an emotional Hamilton told waiting media: "It's pretty much impossible to put into words how I feel. I'm speechless. It has been such a long journey and I am thrilled to be able to do this for everyone."
Hamilton said the shower of rain before the end put what had been a finely calculated finish into jeopardy. "Before it started to rain I was comfortable, but then it started to drizzle. I saw Sebastian and he got in front of me and then I was told to come in to change tires.
Don't Miss
See a photo gallery of the dramatic day
The Circuit
"Then I got past Glock and when I did it was just amazing. It was one of the toughest races of my life," Hamilton said.
Massa praised the efforts of Hamilton, but was visibly emotional at the result. "We did everything fantastically and I am so proud about that race and I'm so proud about the team and the people here. But then we came up just one point short."
The drama began shortly before the race when a heavy downpour of rain in Sao Paulo caught the teams unaware as they headed to the track for a warm-up lap.
Officials eventually delayed the start while the teams headed back to the pits to change to wet tires.
When the race did get underway the front of the grid all made a clean start. Massa held strong at the front and Hamilton managed to hold his fourth place on the grid as team-mate Heikki Kovalainen nursed him through the first corner.
But it was not such a smooth run for veteran Briton David Coulthard. Racing in his final grand prix, Coulthard was involved in a crash with the Williams cars of Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima. The accident ended his race and a long and successful career in Formula One.
Massa managed to hold his lead firmly through the early stages, and through the change to dry tires as the track dried and weather held clear.
He eventually went on to win and claim the consolation of the constuctors' championship for Ferrari, but he and the Brazilian crowd were left hugely disappointed.

Rihanna Takes Chris Brown To Her Homeland Barbados

Rihanna continues to spark rumours that she is dating Chris Brown, by taking him to her homeland of Barbados.The couple has constantly played down rumours of a romance stating they are just good friends, but pictures of them canoodling in hot tubs and clubs tell a different story.Lovers or not, the pair are currently holidaying in Barbados, home to the Umbrella singer, where she will no doubt take her ‘friend’ Chris to meet her parents. Will they approve? Who knows!Do you think Rihanna and Chris should go public with their relationship? Be sure to leave your comments below.

Eminem's New Album Set for December?

Mark your calendars with a big red sharpie. Eminem's new album, The Relapse, is slated for December 23rd, if Amazon.com's release schedule is to be believed. Here's what we know for sure: Dr. Dre will handle a bulk of the production on Relapse, which is a welcome development. I think we can all agree that Eminem is a much better rapper than he is a producer. So, it's a good idea to let the hip-hop doctor work his magic while Slim concentrates on his rhymes.

John McCain's Daughter Meghan Talks Election: 'It's Nowhere Near Over'

Candidate's daughter says she's gotten to live the 'life of a political rock star.'
LAS VEGAS — Apparently, the homestretch of this year's presidential campaign runs parallel with the Strip here.
As Senator John McCain marches through a final push in key swing states, his 23-year-old daughter, Meghan, is rubbing shoulders with punk-rock royalty at the Hard Rock Café in Las Vegas. Meghan has turned up alongside Johnny Ramone's widow Linda to thank campaign workers in this hotly contested western state. Nevada is a key battleground state, after all ... and Linda assures us that being a Republican is very punk rock, so it all makes sense. (Plus, Meghan is a die-hard Ramones fans, even stealing her first kiss to one of their songs.) So while Senator McCain and running mate Sarah Palin continue their final push through Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, Meghan is on the western flank.
"It's just a good way for me to say hi to people while they kick back and have a drink at the end of the day," McCain said.
It's a role that fits well in her comfort zone — despite a year in the spotlight, she's still nervous speaking to large crowds ("I've got to give it up to my girl, Chelsea Clinton. She's the one who rocked that, not me," she said), and prefers one-on-one time with supporters. And she's logged a lot of it over the past 18 months while hitting the trail with her father — a long, strange trip that's been captured on her blog in all its giddy, gory and usually sleep-deprived glory. There are behind-the-scenes photos and videos of life on the road — Straight Talk shenanigans, hotel room hijinks and quiet moments when the candidate is simply "dad."
"I've had such an amazing experience, and I've gotten to live the life of a political rock star," she said, looking back. "It's been so amazing. I'm so grateful."
Amid the parade of snapshots, playlists and personal stories that populate her blog, Meghan has also published a children's book ("My Dad, John McCain"), palled around with Heidi Montag and done time on "Larry King Live," "The Tonight Show," "The Today Show" and "The View." She's also made the leap from registered independent to card-carrying Republican, and become one of the hardest working members of her father's campaign (quite a change from when MTV News first met Meghan, almost exactly a year ago, on the campus of South Carolina's Clemson University).
"I thought Hillary [Clinton] was going to be the nominee," Meghan said of her initial expectations. "A lot of people thought [Mitt] Romney was going to be our nominee. Nothing has turned out the way I thought it would be, except I knew my father could pull it out."
No, little has gone according to script in this election year, so the campaign (and the blog) that were expected to fizzle out long ago are marching on. Meghan's week includes more TV, radio and college appearances before meeting up with her father for a series of rallies. "We're continuing to get the message out, and we're giving back to the people who've given up so much for this campaign," she said.
"It's not over. It's nowhere near over," she declared.
And, of course, all of it will be fodder for her blog. "I love the blog and I love the people I meet and I have really great friends here with me," she said. "It's been the most liberating experience of my life. ... I wanted to be a music journalist back in the day. I wanted to work for Rolling Stone and be the next Hunter Thompson. But I've kind of gone about it a different way."
It's been a remarkable experience for Meghan, one that she's not eager to let go. She admits that she gets emotional when thinking about how close this trip is to its end. "I've been doing this for a year and four months, right after I graduated college. Living on a bus for that long is a long time. I can't believe it's almost over. ... I'm going to have to manage a band or something after this so I can stay on the road," she joked.
There has been disappointment, however, especially when encountering indifference during an election season offering up what she calls "two great candidates."
"I don't know what's going to inspire you if these two candidates don't," she said.
And, of course, there have been the lessons that this unique race has taught us about gender issues. "I'm disappointed in how the media treated Senator Clinton," she said. "I think it's a shame. I think how they treat Sarah is also terrible. My mother, Mrs. Obama, myself ... politics is a rough place for women. ... I hope for more. I think that Senator Clinton and Governor Palin have broken a lot of barriers, and I hope that will continue in the future.
"I think that a lot of male reporters have issues with interviewing powerful women," she added. "It says a lot more about the media than it does about the public."
But the disappointments have been few. For Meghan, seeing her father's success has been overwhelming at times. "I cried at the [Republican National] Convention — backstage and onstage — when I was watching him. My mom was pregnant with me at the '84 convention, so it kind of came full circle."
And the success of her blog, which Meghan calls "my baby," has been an unexpected thrill as well. "I've totally opened myself up and made myself vulnerable. ... I wasn't sure how it would be received, but people have been so amazing.
"If my dad does win, knock on wood, I'm going to keep the blog going and tell everyone what it's like to be the first daughter," she vowed.
But before all that, how will she unwind after a year and a half on the campaign trail? What does life on November 5 look like?
"I'll relax a little bit, but I'm a total type-A personality," she joked. "I've got to start looking for another job when this is over."
And what will be the first song on her playlist the day after the election?
"Probably Queen's 'We Will Rock You.' "

How Was T.I. Able To Vote After Felony Weapons Conviction?

Rapper's early trip to the polls in Georgia marked the first time he had ever voted.
You may have seen the pictures of T.I. proudly displaying a sticker on his thumb Tuesday as proof that he cast an early ballot in this year's presidential election.
According to a press release from his spokespeople, it was the first time the 28-year-old rapper (born Clifford Harris) had ever voted. Tip is the national spokesperson for the nonpartisan group Respect My Vote's "Get Out the Vote" campaign.
"T.I. has been a very vocal and engaged activist in helping to get young people to register and, now, to get them to the polls to vote," read a release from T.I.'s camp. "With his prior difficulties with the law, T.I. made it his point to emphasize that, while he thought he was ineligible to vote, others needed to get out to the polls to make a difference in their lives and their communities. Recently, he did further research on his own and discovered he was, in fact, still eligible to vote. Going to the polls early this morning in Atlanta, Georgia, was a transformative experience for him."
How was T.I. able to vote? Well, the Georgia Secretary of State's office, in consultation with their own lawyers and the Georgia Attorney General's office, in consultation with their own lawyers and the Georgia Attorney General's office, "reviewed the law and found that Mr. Harris is eligible to in Georgia because the state constitution says that to be able to vote, you have to have served your entire sentence, which includes all probation and fines and any other stipulations," said Matt Carrothers, the Secretary of State's director of media relations.
Because T.I. is not slated to go to prison until next year on felony gun charges and is not currently incarcerated — though he is under house arrest — and is not on probation, all he had to do was contact the county he votes in and get re-registered in order to cast a ballot.
"Feels like I've taken advantage of my right to become a part of the democracy," T.I. said in the release. "It was definitely worth standing in line and doing all the things people complain about voting. I think it's more than worth it."
T.I. was arrested in October 2007, mere hours before he was to headline the BET Hip-Hop Awards in Atlanta. The rapper was charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers and possession of firearms by a convicted felon. He pleaded guilty to the charges in May as part of a plea deal.

Want To Ask Barack Obama A Question? Here's Your Chance!

Senator will answer the best questions we receive, and we'll also air your response to his answer!
What would you ask Barack Obama if you had the opportunity?
Think fast — because that opportunity is here!
MTV will be speaking with the Democratic presidential candidate Saturday morning, and we want you to give us the questions. Upload your video or written question to YouRHere.MTV.com, we'll take the best ones to Senator Obama, and we'll broadcast his answers on air next week.

But that's not all — be sure to check your e-mail in the coming days, because if your question is chosen, we'll want to know your reaction to his answer. We'll broadcast your response to his answer on-air and/or online Sunday night and Monday.
MTV News has extended the same offer to Republican candidate John McCain; as of press time, he has yet to respond. However, both Senators McCain and Obama participated in our "Presidential Dialogues" last year, where they fielded a wide variety of tough questions from college-age audiences.
Senator Obama also participated in our "Closing Arguments" forum in February, and we also caught up with him in North Carolina late last month.
In that interview, Obama talked about everything from McCain's attacks on him to ways in which the current economic crisis could affect young people in the job market.
"If we don't do it, it will have an impact on everybody, especially the next generation, because if the economy slows down, they're the ones who are going to have the toughest time finding a job," he said. MTV News' Sway even got in a few questions about hip-hop.
So what do you want to know? Head over to YourRHere.MTV.com and make your voice heard!

Michael Jackson opts out of Jackson 5 reunion

Michael Jackson denied on Thursday that he would take part in a reunion of the famed Motown singing group, a day after elder brother Jermaine said the faded pop star was on board.
"My brothers and sisters have my full love and support, and we've certainly shared many great experiences, but at this time I have no plans to record or tour with them," the self-proclaimed "king of pop" said a statement.
Jackson, 50, said he was in the studio working on "new and exciting projects."
But Jermaine Jackson, 53, said in Australia on Wednesday that the clan was working on the music and logistics for a tour next year.
"It is going to be more like a family affair," he was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press. "(Younger sister) Janet's going to open and, of course, the original Jackson 5 ... Michael, Randy and the whole family. ... We're in the studio, we're planning on being out there next year."
Michael Jackson has not encouraged reunion talk. He did not show up with his brothers to collect a lifetime achievement award in Los Angeles in September.
The Jackson 5, whose lineup is rounded out by Jackie, 57, Tito, 55, and Marlon, 51, as well as unofficial member Randy, 47, rose to fame in the early 1970s with such singles as "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There." The group last toured in 1984, by which time Michael Jackson was a huge star in his own right.
His statement was credited to a spokesperson dubbed "Dr. Tohme." The publicity firm that distributed the statement declined to elaborate on the person's identity.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman, editing by Alan Elsner)

Former McAfee employ arrested

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A California woman and her husband have been arrested on suspicion of misappropriating millions of dollars from software provider McAfee Inc.
The Santa Clara District Attorney's office says 35-year-old Susan Despinic of Los Gatos and her husband, 37-year-old Aurawm Almaneih, were arrested Wednesday on grand theft charges.
Prosecutors say Despinic, who worked as a product marketing manager for Santa Clara-based McAfee, steered more than $3.8 million in business from the company to vendors in which she had a financial interest.
Prosecutors say at least one of the firms was a dummy company set up by the couple for their own benefit.
The couple is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 14.

Cyberattacks target UK national infrastructure

Sustained cyber-espionage attacks are being waged on companies that play a key role in the Britain's national infrastructure, a UK cyber-defense chief has warned.
The computer systems of critical businesses in the UK, such as power companies and large financial institutions, are being repeatedly probed to steal information or uncover weaknesses that could take them down.
That was the warning from Mark Oram, head of the threat and information-security knowledge department at the Center for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), the security service tasked with protecting key government and private organizations in the UK.
Speaking at the RSA Conference Europe 2008 in London, Oram said: "We see frequent attacks on organizations for the purpose of theft of property. There are known threat sponsors with known requirements looking to gather information from industry."
"The use of cyber-techniques is relatively easy, cheap and low risk in terms of being caught. Most of the time, we know the likely culprit but proving it is very difficult," said Oram.
However, he added that the UK government feels the risk of a cyber-terrorist attack is low due to a "lack of capability and difficulties with understanding the vulnerabilities in the infrastructure".
Oram said the CPNI would continue to work closely with key industries to help them understand the vulnerabilities and threats they face.
Internet-warfare expert Ira Winkler, president of the Internet Security Advisors Group, said Chinese hackers are "vacuuming up the internet for security and economic secrets". Winkler cited examples such as the Titan Rain hacking attacks.
The announcement came as the EU presented a blueprint for how European countries can strengthen national communications networks.
The report from the European Network and Information Security Agency recommends prompt reaction to reported incidents, collaboration between public and private stakeholders, and development of a national strategy for information-sharing and responsibilities for different parts of the network.
In the US, the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity Division has tripled its budget to $350m (£215m) over the past two years, to upgrade security systems protecting critical civilian networks and build up its US-CERT emergency-response team.

Madonna: Who's a gold digger now?

With much more serious choices pending for Americans at the polls in just 11 days, the side-taking game surrounding Madonna's collapsed marriage is trivial at best. Commenters on entertainment news message boards declare themselves for "Team Madonna" or "Team Ritchie," but who really cares? It's just another War of Roses, with both sides shaming themselves with displays of materialism and vindictiveness.
But this is Madonna, who's channeled feminine aspirations and anxieties since Sarah Palin's role model Ronald Reagan was in office. It's a pity that her personal life now generates more interest than her art -- the matter of her divorce has become a central theme in the mostly negative reviews of her directorial film debut, "Filth and Wisdom," and the mostly positive ones for her new Sticky & Sweet tour -- but it's also inevitable, given her lifelong devotion to the project of creating herself in public. What's truly sad is that she's seemingly abandoned the aspects of her mission that challenge the culture in favor of simply promoting and preserving her own gain.
Or has she?
In the 1980s, Madonna shocked onstage and in her music, but now we've grown utterly comfortable with bared midriffs, masturbation references and even the language of S&M; they're just part of the blithely exhibitionistic era that Madge herself helped usher in. The imagery she used in her tours, her "Sex" book and her videos pushed an envelope that's been ripped open -- now you can see girl-on-girl action in episodes of "House" and bondage is a joke in a bound-for-Broadway musical.
Madonna herself embraced a more conservative image, though by no means did she conform to old ways. She became a mom without marrying her daughter's dad, Carlos Leon. She wed Ritchie, son Rocco's father, but that union broke another mold -- Ritchie is a decade younger than she is. Her third son, David Banda, was born in Africa and joined the family in a controversial adoption. Madonna also became religious during the last decade, but she's devoted herself to Kabbalah, a mystical Jewish sect that was hardly the obvious path for this former Catholic schoolgirl.
As the entertainment world caught up to her, making it tougher for her to break taboos, Madonna became less controversial and more simply clucked over by gossips. But even sticking with the tabloid fodder, she's still flipping old norms.
Take recent reports that she's been calling Ritchie a "gold digger" -- a term rarely, if ever, associated with the male plaintiff in a divorce. The quote she apparently fed to an anonymous friend didn't invoke the usual term for a money-hungry male -- gigolo, which would have had demeaning sexual connotations for Madge. "Gold digger" feminizes Ritchie and elevates Madonna to the role of the soft-hearted moneybags -- as played, for example, by Tommy Noonan in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," a flick we all know she's seen a few times.
The gold digger is also a recurring character in pop music. Madonna may have tossed off the reference in anger, but her word choice shows some of her old cultural savvy. After all, she's played the gold digger herself in song and videos; to brand her soon-to-be-ex with the label signals her final ascension beyond that scrappy role. It also relates, however accidentally, to the present moment of economic struggle and doubt.
The "Gold Diggers" films of the 1930s provided dazzling distraction from the economic hardships of the times. Busby Berkeley's choreography could make even poverty picturesque, while the antic plots celebrated showgirls who lived by their wits but ultimately let love rule. The fact that their hearts usually steered them toward wealthy suitors only made the atmosphere bubblier. In these films, gold diggers could sometimes be conniving, but could plead that they were just looking out for themselves. They represented American pragmatism in a rapidly changing time.
From the Depression on, the gold digger has remained a complicated comic figure in pop culture, a female trickster who upends the boys' club by playing a traditional female role. Independent but not exactly feminist, a champion of the underdog who's not above pulling some tricks to benefit herself, she represents the possibilities and limits of individual empowerment in arenas dominated by men.
Madonna herself refashioned Marilyn Monroe's portrayal of the diamond-loving Lorelei Lee in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," a 1949 gold digger film, into her "Material Girl" identity. Though in the video she plays the gold-hearted vintage vamp, the song has a twist that makes it very 1980s and all Madonna: "Experience has made me rich and now they're after me," she sings, putting herself forward as the working woman who'll make her own material world, thank you very much.
A few other women have taken on the persona since Madonna christened herself the Material Girl in 1985, but the most noteworthy gold digger of the new century is the one Kanye West described in his hit of 2005. Tweaking a Ray Charles sample (in the original song, the woman gives her man money instead of taking it), West offers a wry meditation on the risky intersections of lust and money.
He admires the gold digger he takes to task -- "Get down girl, go ahead, get down," he chants in the chorus, resigning himself to her charms even when he knows he should demand a pre-nup. And the last verse suggests that a man can be a gold digger too, though on a more modest scale. Admonishing a put-upon girlfriend to stay with her struggling, would-be "baller," West concludes by joking that when he does make it, he'll dump her for a white woman.
The scenario West paints in his song is the same one in which Madonna's offhand bash at Ritchie resonates. When materialism has gone too far, whether in a scene like hip-hop or in a marriage like that of the Ritchies, it can become impossible to separate money hunger from other forms of lust, or love.
It's a sad scenario, and particularly repulsive now that the whole culture's greed is backfire. It's too bad Madonna's least attractive side is now making her more relevant, but you gotta hand it to the woman: she can still tap into our rawest nerve.

Madonna: 'Sarah Palin Isn't Welcome On Tour'

Madonna has made her dislike for Sarah Palin very clear by banning the politician from attending her world tour.
The singer shared her political views whilst performing a show in New Jersey as part of her Sticky & Sweet tour.
She told the crowd: "Sarah Palin can't come to my party. Sarah Palin can't come to my show. It's nothing personal,"
And this outburst against the Republican party is not the first for Madge.
On her current tour she used John McCain's image in a video clip alongside scences of destruction, global warming, starving children and Adolf Hitler.
A spokesperson for McCain's campaign said Madonna's actions were, “outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time.”
It seems the superstar is walking a fine line. Speaking of lines see Madonna's straight face here

Suspect In Murders Of Jennifer Hudson's Mom, Brother In Custody

Singer/actress' nephew is still considered missing.
considered missing.
Although Chicago police had yet to officially confirm, police sources tell the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune that a suspect in the double-homicide of Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother has been taken into custody.
Earlier Friday (October 24), Chicago police told MTV News they had responded to a call shortly before 3 p.m. at a South Side residence belonging to Hudson's mother, Darnell Hudson Donerson, where they found both Donerson and Hudson's older brother, Jason, who had been shot and killed. Donerson was 57 years old; Jason was 29.
Chicago Police Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson told reporters in a press conference that neighbors reported hearing shots between 8 and 9 a.m. Friday. Patterson said a family member found the body of Donerson in the living room Friday afternoon and left the house to call police. When authorities arrived, they found Jason Hudson in a bedroom. Patterson said there was no sign of forced entry, and police were unsure if anything was missing from the house.
Chicago police told MTV News that William Balfour was a suspect in the double-homicide, which may have arisen from a domestic situtation; the Sun Times reported that Balfour is the suspect who was taken into custody. Balfour, 27, was out on parole from the Illinois River Correctional Center on attempted murder, carjacking and stolen-property charges, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was sentenced to serve seven years in 1999. He's 5-foot-5 and weighs 147 pounds. Police called him "armed and dangerous."
A Corrections rep said that Balfour was paroled in 2006; he was set to be discharged from that parole in May 2009.
Balfour was romantically involved with the singer/actress' sister Julia, who identified Balfour as her husband on her MySpace page. Balfour had been living at the residence and shared vehicle registration with Julia.
Julia's 7-year-old son, Julian King, was declared missing in the aftermath of the shooting. According to the Amber Alert issued for King, he is wearing a brown, striped polo shirt and khaki pants. He is 4 feet, 11 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds and has brown eyes and black hair. Despite reports that a suspect is in custody, Chicago police stressed to MTV News that King is still considered missing.
According to public records, the home is owned by Hudson's mother, but both Jennifer and Jason have been listed as residents for the second apartment. A neighbor, Vanessa Stanton, told ABC News, "Jason was a good person. His mom was too."
The Tribune reported that Hudson is not injured, according to her bodyguard. ABC News reported that Hudson was traveling to Chicago from Tampa, Florida. Her representative had no comment yet.

Obama vs. His Advisers

On health care, they once liked McCain's principles.

One underreported story of this election is how heavily John McCain has been damaged by Barack Obama's television ad assault on his health-care plan. A lot of voters seem to believe the Democrat when he says that Mr. McCain wants to deny them coverage or bankrupt them with crushing hospital bills.

Mr. McCain has himself to blame for not defending his own reform ideas, during the debates and in TV ads, against attacks that have been misleading when not flat-out false. Even so, Mr. Obama's tactics are especially cynical because his own health-care advisers support plans much like Mr. McCain's. Or at least they did before joining up with Mr. Obama.
Put simply, the McCain plan seeks to remedy a distortion in the health-care market that economists have spent decades begging politicians to fix: The tax code subsidizes insurance only if it is provided through employers. Individuals can't take the same tax deduction for buying insurance that businesses can. So Mr. McCain wants to "spread the wealth" of these tax breaks to individuals of any income through a refundable tax credit, no matter where they get coverage.
"The fact that the tax subsidy, which supports the employer-sponsored system, is better than nothing is a feeble excuse for resisting any changes to the status quo." That's not John McCain's judgment. It's a quote from Jason Furman, who happens to be Mr. Obama's economic policy director. In a cri de coeur published in the journal Democracy in 2006, Mr. Furman implored fellow Democrats and other progressives to confront "a critical missing link" in their health ideology -- the same link his boss now spends most of his time demagoguing.
Mr. Furman used to portray the current system as regressive, inequitable and a subsidy for health plans that insulate consumers from the cost of their care, thus inflating health spending. When he was director of the Brooking Institution's Hamilton Project, Mr. Furman outlined a health reform -- again using tax credits -- that took the "sensible approach" of "exposing individuals to the price of health care through greater cost sharing."
When President Bush unveiled a health reform similar to Mr. McCain's in 2007, Mr. Furman co-authored a Tax Policy Center paper that called it "innovative and a step in the right direction." As recently as May, he published a long article in Health Affairs on the possibilities of health-care tax reform.
What a difference an election makes. "The choice you'll have," Mr. Obama warned of the McCain plan during one of the debates, "is having your employer no longer provide you health care." Sounds terrible. But wait, let's consult another one of Mr. Obama's advisers. David Cutler, the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard, put it this way: "Health insurance is not something that is made better by tying it to employment. As a result, essentially all economists believe that universal coverage should be done outside of employment."
That passage comes from Mr. Cutler's 2004 book, "Your Money or Your Life," which outlined a strategy for universal health care. Not surprisingly, Professor Cutler's plan, like Mr. McCain's, also applied subsidies such as "tax credits -- people get a lower tax bill, or a refund from the government, to be used to purchase insurance." In this he was echoing many other liberal health experts such as MIT's Jonathan Gruber, another Democratic policy star.
These advisers know that Mr. Obama's claim that Mr. McCain will tax health benefits "for the first time in history" is particularly disingenuous. For people who stick with employer coverage under the McCain plan, the money employers take out of wages to pay for insurance would be taxed, but the new credit more than covers the bill. The people who decide to buy coverage on their own would see their wages rise. And everyone who joins the individual market -- many of them uninsured now -- would be equipped with new health dollars, instead of paying with after-tax income.
Obviously neither Mr. Furman nor Mr. Cutler would endorse the McCain plan outright. They are, after all, Democrats. Liberals who support rearranging the tax code for health care think it must be accompanied by other insurance reforms to protect families in the individual market that Mr. McCain doesn't include. Even so, speaking on a Tax Policy Center panel on taxes and health insurance in February of this year, Mr. Furman said that "I think we should be cheerleading" the emphasis on tax reform, "not writing it off."
He even prefaced his remarks by joking, "this talk might actually sound like a John McCain rally." Maybe Mr. Obama should be running attack ads against his own economic guru.

The best cancer-fighting foods

A doctor with a malignant tumor changes his diet to stave off his disease

was diagnosed with brain cancer about 16 years ago. I received chemotherapy and went into remission, but the cancer came back and I endured two surgeries and 13 months of chemotherapy. I asked my oncologist if I ought to change my diet to avoid another recurrence. His answer was perfectly stereotypical: "Eat what you like. It won't make much difference."He was wrong.The extensive research published in the last decade alone proves that what you eat can have a profound effect on your protection against cancer. But my doctor's answer was hardly surprising. It's a little-known fact that nutrition is barely taught in med schools, where the solution to most problems is a drug. And doctors don't trust patients to make lifestyle changes. I recall a conversation with a fellow physician at a conference after I spoke on the importance of a healthy diet in fighting disease. "You may be right, David, but people don't want to change," he said. "They just want to take a pill and forget about it." I don't know whether he's right, but after all the study I've done, I know it isn't true for me.I spent months researching the healing powers of food before I fully grasped my own natural cancer-fighting potential. I met with a variety of researchers, scoured medical databases, and combed scientific publications. I traveled all over the world and consulted experts from nearly every continent.In my quest, I discovered that the list of anticancer foods is actually quite long. Some foods block natural bodily processes such as inflammation that fuels cancer growth. Others force cancer cells to die through a process that specialists call apoptosis. Still other foods assist the body in detoxifying cancer-causing toxins or protecting against free radicals. But most of them attack the disease on a variety of fronts. And they do it every day, three times a day, without provoking any side effects. To avoid the disease, it's essential to take advantage of this natural protection, and nurture it.I've learned that the anticancer diet is the exact opposite of the typical American meal: mostly colorful vegetables and legumes, plus unsaturated fats (olive, canola, or flaxseed oils), garlic, herbs, and spices. Meat and eggs are optional. Through extensive research, I devised a list of the most promising cancer fighters, along with recommendations on how to make the most of their potential. Include at least one, and preferably two, at every meal, to maximize your protection.To date, there is no alternative approach that can cure cancer, and I believe that the best of conventional medicine — surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and soon, molecular genetics — must be used to treat this disease. But to neglect your own natural cancer-fighting capacity is folly. I've kept cancer at bay for 8 years now, and I attribute my survival largely to the changes I've made in my diet and lifestyle. I exercise and meditate more and eat wholesome anticancer foods on a daily basis. Still, the medical establishment is slow to embrace this approach. After my last screening at the university's cancer center, I stopped at the cafeteria and discovered eight different types of tea: Darjeeling, Earl Grey, chamomile, and several fruit-flavored herbal teas. Sadly, there was not a single packet of green tea in the lot.

Microsoft profit up 2 percent, but outlook soft

Microsoft is still churning out big profits, but its decision to trim its sails shows that even the world's largest software maker is feeling the effects of the choppy economy.
Microsoft Corp. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit edged up 2 percent, buoyed by corporate customers that renewed licenses for servers and other business programs.
But Microsoft's guidance for the current quarter was weaker than Wall Street was expecting. Its shares rose then dipped in extended trading as investors digested the news.
"We, like most companies, saw a slowdown at the tail end of the quarter in particular," Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said in an interview. "We're now taking a more conservative stance on the balance of the year."
Liddell said the worst hit among Microsoft's customers in the just-concluded quarter were small- and medium-sized businesses that "perhaps are more affected by the credit squeeze and who perhaps make decisions on a month-by-month basis."
In a conference call with investors, Liddell said Microsoft will "tailor our business to whatever the economy brings."
The CFO said Microsoft will trim operating expenses by $400 million to $500 million in the fiscal year by slowing hiring, cutting marketing expenses and spending less on building the massive data centers that prop up its online business.
"Microsoft isn't known for great spending restraint," said Edward Jones analyst Andy Miedler in an interview. "It is clear that Microsoft is now watching its expenses very closely, which is important in this challenging economy."
In the three months that ended Sept. 30, Microsoft's earnings rose to $4.37 billion, or 48 cents per share, from $4.29 billion, or 45 cents per share in the same period last year.
Sales improved 9 percent to $15.1 billion.
Microsoft beat Wall Street's expectations on both counts. Analysts, on average, predicted the Redmond, Wash.-based company would earn 47 cents per share on $14.8 billion in sales, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.
The software maker highlighted a 20 percent third-quarter jump in sales of multiyear contracts to businesses, which helped boost revenue for Microsoft's server software group and the division that makes Office productivity software.
The server group's profit increased 20 percent to $1.2 billion, while the division responsible for Office software saw earnings jump 23 percent to $3.3 billion.
The Windows division's profit, on the other hand, slipped 4 percent to $3.3 billion. Microsoft, which recently launched a massive new advertising campaign to trumpet Windows' virtues, attributed part of the decline to higher marketing expenses.
The company also blamed some of that decrease on the rising popularity of netbooks, a class of small, inexpensive laptops that on the whole aren't powerful enough to run the souped-up, pricer versions of Windows Vista.
Sid Parakh, an analyst for McAdams Wright Ragen, said Microsoft also drops the price it charges PC makers for installing Windows on laptops that cost so little.
Microsoft also said revenue from PC makers like Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. sank 1 percent as those companies bought a smaller percentage of higher-priced "premium" versions of Windows Vista.
Microsoft's online division widened its loss in the quarter to $480 million from $270 million last year as the company continues to invest heavily in the unit. Liddell said Web advertising revenue improved 15 percent, with search ads bringing in more than graphical "display ads." That's much stronger than the 1 percent gain Yahoo Inc. reported this week in its online ad revenue.
Liddell said Microsoft's outlook for the current quarter was lower than expected because of an across-the-board slowdown, not pain in one particular area. Microsoft expects to earn 51 to 53 cents per share, on sales of $17.3 billion to $17.8 billion.
Analysts were predicting a profit of 55 cents per share on $18 billion in sales.
Shares of Microsoft slipped 21 cents, or almost 1 percent, to $22.11 in after-hours trading. In the regular session they added 79 cents, or 3.7 percent, to end at $22.32.

Computing Awards: Best IT Strategy shortlist

Computing Awards for Excellence: Best IT Strategy shortlist
Berwin Leighton Paisner
A green IT strategy has already produced results at the law firm. New laptops lowered energy consumption, investment in blade server technology saved space and power, and use of virtualisation has increased performance and resource utilisation. Introducing new printers and electronic filing has reduced the amount of paper required, and helped staff to work more efficiently.
Liverpool Direct
Liverpool Direct is a joint venture between BT and Liverpool City Council. Over the past seven years the partnership has modernised datacentres, rationalised its servers, introduced digital telephony, improved web services and hosting, and upgraded the local and metropolitan area network. This has led to lower power consumption and emissions, plus cost reductions.
PDSA
IT plays an important role at the veterinary charity. This year it began updating its IT strategy and has implemented data warehousing and analysis. A wide-ranging intranet is in pilot, and a major overhaul of all veterinary systems is due to take place soon. The IT strategy has had input from all areas of the business.
Swiftcover.com
The insurer’s IT strategy has three objectives: To build an agile IT platform, to maintain an innovative online service, and to increase revenue opportunities in insurance aggregator sites. All areas of the business had input into the strategy ­ an effort that delivered industry firsts.
VocaLink
VocaLink implemented the hub of the Faster Payments service in May, providing near real-time interbank money transfers. It operates under ever increasing volumes, continually exceeding performance expectations.

Top 10 best features found in laptop computers

With the recent release of the new Apple MacBook Air, which is apparently crafted out of a single block of metal, we've decided to have a look about for some other impressive sounding laptops.
If you have a niche requirement such as: "I only want a laptop that is carved from a piece of aluminium", then this is the place to look. The products below are neat devices that could get you out of a spot of bother - whether that is at the oversized baggage counter, or on the top of a cliff in a heavy downpour. Here you will find laptops that can stand falling off desks; laptops that could save the planet; and notebooks that can survive the British weather.
Which is the toughest?
Is the Panasonic Toughbook the toughest notebook? It certainly looks like it. Not only does it look like a briefcase that could withstand a bomb blast, but it can stand a fall of almost a metre. We think that this means that it could fall off the top of Jeanette Krankie's head without breaking. Disturbingly, the web site has a picture of an elephant stamping on one (a Toughbook, that is, not a Krankie). We presume that this is to demonstrate its toughness, rather than the fact that one disgruntled user happens to be an elephant.
Which is the most waterproof?
On its web site Getac shows its notebooks being exposed to a multi-directional shower - putting us in mind of certain other online videos that you wouldn’t find on our site. It certainly looks waterproof, everything is sealed and the water just runs off the keyboard. Unless they are prepared to send one in, we can't say whether it would withstand a large dose of cider, and at almost £5000 you could not call it a drop in the ocean either.
Which is the thinnest?
There is a lot of competition here, but the aforementioned MacBook Air is so thin it is almost not there. According to Apple it is almost as thin as your index finger which is presumably the digit that Apple chief Steve Jobs sticks in the air in the direction of his competitors - at least those competitors that might be as slim, but only get a thin slice of the sales pie. But really, how thin is too thin? Do you actually want to lose your laptop down a crack in the pavement?
Which laptop is most likely to be used to save the world?
The fact that an Apple iBook in the film Independence Day was used to send a computer virus to marauding aliens prompted blog comments such as: "Are the aliens using RS-232, or USB 1 or 2, or maybe Firewire. Maybe Ethernet or maybe Token Ring. I can't believe the aliens would use our physical interface specifications." Of course, we believe everything the former Fresh Prince says or does. Speaking of the Prince, his song Boom, Boom Shake the Room reminds us that the next entrant is:
Which laptop is least likely to blow itself up? A tough choice this one, quite a few vendors have been forced to withdraw their devices following battery-based explosive incidents. In this case it was made even harder by the fact that our own piece of equipment decided to turn itself into an incendiary device during the research process. Feel free to contribute your own experiences so we can compile a definitive list.
Which is the most powerful?
CompAmerica appears to lay claim to the title of most powerful laptop. It's Orca Extreme is certainly pretty consistently harpooned by our researchers. Although the firm has given itself a name that surely is the first out of the end of a screenwriter's fingertips, it actually calls itself the best little computer company in the world. Which is nice. When it comes to the Orca Extreme in question, it's specifications are anything but little.
Which is the most expensive?
The Ego notebook is surely a major contender here, and cream of the crop is its Bentley model. The laptop is clad in Bentley leather and stamped with the iconic Bentley logo. It even has what looks like a Bentley door handle on it. There are only 250 in the world, and it will most likely set you back £10,000. Still, at least its never going to get you a parking ticket.
Which laptop really should never have been lost?
Is the Ministry of Defence’s infamous lost laptop the most inappropriate device to find itself in the wrong hands? Possibly. Unfortunately, we are loathe to write too much about government bodies and their laptops in case they start investigating us. And we would hate to find our personal information falling into the wrong hands. Which has the strangest keyboard?
Sony has a Vaio with the snappy title VGC-LJ25L, that looks the least like a laptop out of all the ones we've seen so far. Sure, it has a 15.4in wide display, but below that everything goes a bit odd. Ever specifically wanted a laptop with only half a keyboard? Then this should go at the top of your Christmas list.
Which is most likely to act as a girlfriend repellent?
NEC's Himitsu Kitchi Type No-1, which it co-designed with the toy maker Takara, looks like the ultimate gamer boy’s-toy laptop, which surely can’t ever be seen as a good thing. It looks like something that would fill the centre of a control panel in a tank, and even has an LED message panel and emergency alarm button. If you are on the look out for one, be warned, there were only ever 300 made, which is somewhat less than the number of single guys out there.

Surprise, Surprise: E-Voting Glitches Found In Early Voting

from the this-is-a-surprise? dept
The GAO had warned that there would be some pretty massive e-voting problems this year, as election officials were not properly trained on the already problematic machines, so it should come as little surprise that over in West Virginia, the "early voting" procedures have resulted in numerous complaints that the e-voting machines selected the wrong candidate. The scenario is depressingly similar to the one that The Simpsons predicted, where the voter selects one name, and the other one shows up as highlighted. Poll workers told them to just keep clicking until the right one was chosen, and noted that the machines have "just been doing that." What's more depressing is how everyone involved seems to brush this off as no big deal. Officials claimed that these "were isolated cases and that poll workers fixed the problems so the correct vote was cast." That may be true of the two people that CNN spoke too, but who knows if others got the machines to work properly. And then there's West Virginia's Secretary of State, Betty Ireland , who basically pulled a page from Sequoia's playbook, of covering her eyes and ears and screaming loudly that everything is fine:
"There are no problems with the machines as recalibrated. Touch-screen voting in West Virginia is accurate and secure." Because you say so? As opposed to those who are actually voting and finding it's not? That's comforting. In this case, the machines are supplied by ES&S whose machines (like both Sequoia and Diebold) have a relatively long history of screwing up at election time. ES&S is also the company where an employee of the company showed up here to berate us and insist that no independent experts should be allowed to look at the machines and that they were safe and reliable because those working at these firms knew better than the rest of us. It's as if the e-voting companies and the politicians think that if they just keep repeating it, maybe it will become true.

Intel teams with Oprah Winfrey for ad campaign

Intel and Oprah Winfrey. You don't hear these two words often in the same sentence, but perhaps you may want to get used it, at least for this year. Intel announced today that that for the 2008-2009 season, it will be partnering up with the popular talk show host for an ad campaign emphasizing the power of their processors as well as the company's investment in education. The partnership seems to have been in the works for a while, as tomorrow's O You! event in San Francisco, California, will be made live at www.oyouonline.com, powered, of course, by Intel Centrino 2 processors.O You! is an annual self-help event hosted by the Oprah Magazine where the publication's lead specialists come in and talk to those attending. Intel, obviously attracted by the mass following of Ms. Winfrey's media network, is hoping to tap into her viewers. Although Oprah Show watchers are probably not in Intel's target demographic, the company presumably wants to capitalize on increased name recognition afforded by the campaign. Whether this turns out to be a productive measure, however, remains to be seen.

Lil Wayne Welcomes A Baby Boy

Rapper had announced that he was expecting a son during the BET Hip-Hop Awards.

Lil Wayne said on Saturday that he'd be the father of a baby boy any day now, and he wasn't kidding.
Wayne's son, Dwayne Carter III, was born Wednesday afternoon (October 22), at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, a rep for the rapper told MTV News. It's Carter's second child. He has a daughter, Reginae Carter, with Antonia "Toya" Johnson, his high school sweetheart, whom he married in 2004 and divorced two years later.
The identity of the boy's mother had not been announced at press time.
Wayne revealed during the BET Hip-Hop Awards that the birth of his son was imminent. He made the announcement during his acceptance speech, after being named Lyricist of the Year.
While changing diapers is in Wayne's immediate future, the MC is prepping the re-release of his latest LP, Tha Carter III. The rapper said the reissue wouldn't be like most reissues, which typically include only one or two unreleased tracks.
"I think we're gonna release Tha Carter III — a new Carter III with none of the same songs, though," he told MTV News recently. "None of them. Not one! We don't wanna call the [next album] we got coming out Tha Carter IV. That was the dilemma we were in. We want Carter IV to be what everybody wants it to be. This is something brand-new, so we don't want it to be some experimental thing, 'cause some people are not gonna like this. I don't want them to not like Tha Carter IV. But I do have an album coming soon, very soon, and it's gonna be called ... Tha Carter III: The Rebirth. The birth of a new beginning."

Beyonce would like to be known as "Sasha Fierce"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) – Just like the "Seinfeld" episode where George wanted everyone to call him "T-Bone," Beyonce Knowles would like to be known by a bold new name.
The R&B singer has christened herself "Sasha Fierce" for her new double album, "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," due in U.S. stores on November 18, and has released a lengthy justification for the comical moniker.
"I have someone else that takes over when it's time for me to work and when I'm on stage, this alter ego that I've created that kind of protects me and who I really am," the former Destiny's Child frontwoman said in a statement.
"Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I'm working and when I'm on the stage."
Additionally, she has set up a cryptic MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/sashafierce) that gives a "lucky person" the opportunity to receive a personal message and a gift bag valued at $500.
As George found out, nicknames usually do not work when they are self-bestowed. His colleagues thought he should be called Koko the monkey. In real life, rapper Eminem had better luck with his alter ego "Slim Shady," which he said came to him while he was on the toilet.
Beyonce released her previous solo album, "B'Day," to coincide with her 25th birthday in September 2006. It debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart and yielded the No. 1 single "Irreplaceable."
"I Am ... Sasha Fierce" will be distributed by Columbia Records, a unit of Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment.

Jay-Z: I'm voting for Obama"

Jay-Z: I'm voting for Obama"
Tuesday October 21, 2008
Jay-Z and Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama have been trading compliments throughout this election season. Obama compliments Jay for his entrepreneurial endeavors in interviews; Jay, on the other hand, describes himself as the "hood's Barack Obama" in song. So, it should come as no surprise that the hip-hop mogul is casting is vote for Obama. Watch the video below to see Jay-Z proclaim his support for Obama.

Ciara Gets Motivated By Sports Stars

Ciara says she looks to the inspiration of basketball players to drive her music career.
"I take my motivation from athletes - basketball players in particular," the R&B star tells Men's Health magazine.
"I love LeBron James because he's my age and full of ambition and drive. I love Michael Jordan... there was so much pressure, but he pulled through every time."
"That energy motivates me," Ciara adds.
"When it comes to my career, there's nothing more exciting than being successful at the highest possible level."

John McCain And Barack Obama Sharpen Attacks In Final Presidential Debate

Candidates take the gloves off to fight over negative campaigning, taxes, abortion and health care.
Forget Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. The real winner at Wednesday night's presidential debate was a guy from Ohio called "Joe the Plumber."
In their most bare-knuckle meeting yet, the men vying for the White House got personal at Hofstra University during a 90-minute debate focused on domestic issues ranging from the tanking economy to education, abortion and the Supreme Court.
(Which candidate do you think won the debate? Go to the MTV Newsroom blog to weigh in.)
Both candidates sharpened their attacks and tried to give one final impression of his opponent — McCain again painting Obama as a typical big-spending liberal who is going to raise taxes, Obama repeating his assertion that McCain will continue the failed policies of President Bush. But they also veered off topic to air dirty campaign laundry and argue over who was going to do more to help Joe the Plumber.
As the candidates sat at a large table within a few feet of each other and moderator Bob Schieffer, McCain went on offense early in the evening, responding with a snap to an early assertion from Obama that the Arizona senator would keep up the policies that have led to the biggest national deficits in American history.
"Essentially, what you are proposing is eight more years of the same thing — and it hasn't worked," Obama said. "And the American people know it hasn't worked."
Looking like he'd been waiting to unwrap the line for weeks, McCain responded to a question about whether he could balance the budget in four years by saying, "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago." The line was already being called out as the quote of the evening by many pundits moments after the debate ended, but it did not throw the calm, measured Obama — whom some Republican commentators on CNN called "professorial" and cold during the debate.
One of the most heated exchanges of the night, though, came when Schieffer brought up the relentlessly negative tone of the campaign and asked both men if they would repeat to each other's face some of their campaigns' nastiest charges.
McCain sounded genuinely hurt when recounting a recent comment from Representative John Lewis, who said that McCain and running mate Sarah Palin were stoking the fires of hatred much like 1960s segregationist George Wallace did. McCain asked Obama to repudiate Lewis' comments, and Obama said he had already done so.
When the question came up again about what proposals they could cut given the current financial disaster, Obama once more appeared to talk around the answer. He mentioned cutting the $15 billion spent per year on insurance company subsidies and said the answer is to invest in education, health care and energy policies. McCain pointed to several obscure budget items, including marketing assistance programs, ethanol subsidies and tariffs on imported sugarcane-based ethanol from Brazil.
But back to Joe the Plumber. According to The New York Times, he is Joe Wurzelbacher, a small-business owner from Ohio who was seen speaking to Obama earlier this week. He became a running example during the night of how differently the two candidates plan to fix what ails the country. McCain said Obama wants to tax people like Joe out of business and force them to buy health care while attempting to "spread the wealth around" to lower-income Americans. Obama said the opposite was true, that he wants to give Joe a tax break right now.
"You were going to put him in a higher tax bracket, which was going to increase his taxes, which was going to cause him to not be able to employ people, which Joe was trying to realize the American dream," McCain said, accusing Obama of engaging in "class warfare." He asked Obama why he would want to increase taxes in the current economic climate.
"Now, Senator Obama talks about the very, very rich. Joe, I want to tell you, I'll not only help you buy that business that you worked for your whole life and be able ... I'll keep your taxes low, and I'll provide available and affordable health care for you and your employees," McCain said.
Obama reiterated that his plan would cut taxes for 95 percent of working families, adding that an independent study found that his plan provided three times the tax relief to the middle class as Senator McCain's. "Now the conversation I had with Joe the plumber, what I essentially said to him was, 'Five years ago, when you were in a position to buy your business, you needed a tax cut then,' " Obama responded.
The elephant in the room, though, was the William Ayers question. McCain's camp had, until this week, been daily questioning Obama's truthfulness and judgment by attempting to link him to the 1960s radical, and McCain had vowed to bring Ayers up for the first time in person on Wednesday night. Obama smiled when the subject finally was on the table and said, "Mr. Ayers is not involved in this campaign, he has never been involved in my campaign, and he will not advise me in the White House." Obama added that the fact that McCain keeps bringing up Ayers, "says more about your campaign than it says about me."
McCain also questioned Obama's association with the community organization ACORN, which has been accused of hiring workers whose job it was to sign up new voters, but some of whom filled out their forms with phony names. McCain accused the organization of being "on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." Obama said his campaign has nothing to do with ACORN and that he represented the organization years ago as part of a "Motor Voter" project in Illinois to register voters at their DMV offices.
While McCain accused Obama of spending more money on negative ads than any campaign in history, Obama shot back that McCain has run "100 percent" negative ads, an assertion McCain refuted. "This has been a tough campaign," McCain said, suggesting that if perhaps Obama had agreed to his suggestion for 10 town-hall style meetings, it might have been less nasty.
"The American people are less interested in our hurt feelings during the course of the campaign than addressing the issues that matter to them so deeply," Obama countered, noting that McCain's own campaign said last week that they would lose the race if they kept talking about the economy.
And when it came down to those issues, both men made it very clear that they do not see eye to eye on most of them. In response to a question about why they thought the country would be better off if their running mate became president, Obama said his VP pick, Senator Joseph Biden, "is one of the finest public servants" in the country's history, with a long list of foreign policy credentials and strong ties to his working-class roots. McCain praised Palin as a "reformer" and "role model to women," who would be a "breath of fresh air" in Washington. Obama ducked a follow-up about whether Palin would be qualified, but McCain said he thought Biden had been wrong on "many foreign-policy and national-security issues" over the years.
Painting Obama as being in concert with "extreme environmentalists" in saying nuclear power isn't safe, McCain said he would deal with climate change by building 45 new nuclear power plants and investing in clean technologies. Obama said he thought it would take 10 years, not four as McCain suggested, to wean American off foreign oil.
They clashed once again on health care, hitting at one another's plans in much the same way as they have in previous debates, but with Joe the Plumber getting into the mix this time when McCain talked about his claims that Obama's plan would fine those who don't sign up, a claim Obama again refuted.
One of the pivotal issues in any presidential campaign, abortion, finally came up when the candidates were asked if they could ever nominate a Supreme Court justice who disagreed with their stance on the Roe vs. Wade decision. McCain, who is against abortion, said he has never imposed a litmus test and said he would look for "the best people ... in the United States" for the job.
Obama, who is pro-choice and wants to uphold Roe vs. Wade, said he would also look for judges with "an outstanding judicial record, who have the intellect and who hopefully have a sense of what real-world folks are going through." McCain lashed at Obama over his voting record while in the Illinois Senate — at one point attempting to tie Obama to the most "extreme" proponents of abortion.
But the men agreed that more needs to be done to prevent unintended pregnancies and that reforming education is so critical as to be a national security issue. Both vowed to give parents more choice and provide funding for more affordable college loans.
McCain ended by saying, "All of these things and all the promises and commitments that Senator Obama and I made to you tonight will ... be based on whether you can trust us or not to be careful stewards of your tax dollar, to make sure America is safe and secure and prosperous, to make sure we reform the institutions of government. That's why I've asked you not only to examine my record, but my proposals for the future of this country."
Saying investing in tax cuts for the middle class, health care for all Americans and college for every young person is necessary, but won't be easy, Obama signed off by admitting that "it's not going to be quick. It is going to be requiring all of us — Democrats, Republicans, independents — to come together and to renew a spirit of sacrifice and service and responsibility. I'm absolutely convinced we can do it. I would ask for your vote, and I promise you that if you give me the extraordinary honor of serving as your president, I will work every single day, tirelessly, on your behalf and on the behalf of the future of our children."
A New York Times/CBS News poll released Tuesday night suggested that the negative campaigning from McCain's camp was not working, with 60 percent of the voters surveyed saying they thought McCain spent more time attacking Obama than explaining what he would do as president to help the country, while 63 percent said they thought Obama has spent more time explaining his policies than attacking McCain.
With Obama up by 8 points and 8 percent of voters still undecided, according to the latest CNN poll, with 8 percent of voters still undecided, both men are scrambling to reach those voters who have not yet made up their minds in the final 20 days of the campaign. It remains to be seen if their performance Wednesday night will be able to tip those scales.

Janet Jackson resumes tour after bout of vertigo

WASHINGTON - Janet Jackson took the stage to exploding fireworks, clouds of smoke and the sounds of some early hits Wednesday in her first concert since she was sidelined for two weeks by a bout of vertigo.
Sporting a huge mohawk and light-colored body suit, the Grammy-winning performer opened with "Pleasure Principle," followed by "What Have You Done for Me Lately" from her 1986 album "Control." Soon after, she sang her latest single, "Feedback."
"It feels so good to be back after being down just a little bit," Jackson told the crowd at the less-than-full Verizon Center.
The two-hour, high-energy show went smoothly, but Jackson did appear winded at times. At one point, she paused to admire her backup dancers, and the audience roared with approval.
"She was perfect. If she was sick, she's not sick anymore," said Maurice Bell, 28, of Washington. "She can still do it at 42."
At the end of the show, a teary-eyed Jackson told the crowd: "I love you D.C. so much."
Jackson's publicist said Wednesday she has been suffering from migraine-associated vertigo, which led to her canceling a string of shows. She is being treated for the illness, which is characterized by dizziness, imbalance and other symptoms.
"She's a world-class entertainer and needs to be at the top of her game to give her fans the show they expect," Jackson's manager, Kenneth Crear, said in a release. "She's feeling much better and is ready to hit the road again to finish the tour."
Crear said Jackson is feeling better and ready to continue her first North American tour in seven years. Upcoming stops include Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, New York and East Rutherford, N.J.