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The Scene: A fictitious meeting in the new era of the GOP’s ever-expanding “big tent.” ------------------------------- I had the pleasure of sitting down to dinner with two members of my county Republican Party steering committee this week to discuss the GOP’s options as we move into the 2010 election cycle. I was joined by Dr. Eric von Dersgarten (of the Rhine Valley Dersgartens, of course) and Cecilia Montgomery. Ms. Montgomery chose the venue for our meeting and I have to say it was one of the most unusual ever, nicely setting the tone for what was to come. It was...

P. Diddy: "I thought I was dreaming when Obama was elected" Tim Reid It is with some trepidation that I walk up Broadway toward my rendezvous with Sean “P.Diddy” Combs, who minutes before I meet him is staring down at me from a 172 ft-high vinyl advertisement towering over Times Square - it is the biggest billboard in America - dressed as a black James Bond, chest filling a white tuxedo, next to a muscular-looking bottle of his modestly named new fragrance I Am King. It is not just that his PR lady has warned me that P.Diddy can be...

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.” The RNC's first black chairman will “surprise everyone” when updating the party's image using the Internet and advertisements on radio, on television and in print, he told The Washington Times. Having been elected to the job that the Bush White House and its political guru, Karl Rove, once denied him, Mr. Steele is running the show his way. To those who claimed he can't make the...

DENVER - During the 2004 presidential election, Diddy and his Citizen Change campaign, known best for its “Vote or Die” slogan, figured prominently in headlines about celebrities and politics. So where is Diddy this time around? Here in Denver, there was some chatter among DNC organizers that led some to believe that Diddy had been asked specifically not to come. “That’s completely untrue” was Diddy’s response when asked about being un-invited to the convention. A rep for Diddy confirms: “An Obama advisor invited Diddy to the convention, but he was unable to attend because he was supposed to be in...

[Phoenix] - John McCain made it clear who his daddy was Monday morning. Daddy Yankee, the hip-hop star from Puerto Rico, endorsed the Republican candidate Monday morning. Wearing black aviator shades in the library of Central High School here, Daddy Yankee said, “I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation…He’s been a fighter for the Hispanic community.”

Once again, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is hurt by the ones who love him. On YouTube yesterday, rapper Ludacris released a song called "Politics," in which he denigrates President Bush, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- all in the space of about two minutes. "Well, give Luda a special pardon if I'm ever in the slammer/Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president," he raps. In the next line, the three-time Grammy Award winner calls Clinton an "irrelevant [slur for female]." He goes on to suggest that 71-year-old McCain belongs in a...

Kim Whitley (in the Obama shirt), Flo Rida, Lil Mama, Young Joc and Mc Lyte praise Obama from the red carpet at the Black Entertainment Awards in America. BBC has video of the interviews HERE. The BET crowd joined together to holler "Obama or Die" (video here) last night at the annual awards show. MyWay reported: Barack Obama didn't attend the BET Awards, but that didn't stop attendees from talking about him. "If we all register and vote, we will have the first black president in the history of America," Sean "Diddy" Combs told the crowd Tuesday at the Shrine...

Obama Gets Coveted “Ludacris” Endorsement Apr 3rd, 2008 | By NationalSquib | Category: Lead Story The hits just keep on coming for Hillary Clinton’s flagging bid for the Democratic Nomination. Already lagging behind in both the delegate and super-delegate counts with only a few primaries to go, her rival for the nomination has just picked up one of the most coveted endorsements of the Democratic Party. Having met with Barack Obama in the past regarding, as Mr. Obama stated, “The empowerment of our youth,” Ludacris has since been mum on who would get his endorsement. But during a recent concert...

<p>Hip-hop star Snoop Dogg has launched a scathing attack on U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, accusing him of gleaning support from the Ku Klux Klan.</p>

Yesterday CNN reported that 50 Cent switched his endoresement from HRC to Barack Obama. But my question is...does anybody really care?! I know I don't. Especially because folks are using the election as a PR opportunity. (I guess I am stupid enough to post what Fiddy thinks, so I guess it works.) Yesterday CNN reported the 50 Cent no switched his endoresement from HRC to Barack Obama. " I heard Obama speak," he said. "He hit me with that he-just-got-done-watching-'Malcolm X,' and I swear to God, I'm like, 'Yo, Obama!' "I'm Obama to the end now, baby!" But the musician...

In a brief in-car interview aired on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, 50 Cent was asked by a British reporter who he would back in the primaries. He gave his backing to New York Senator Clinton. "I just think she could do a job. There's nothing bad with Obama in my eyes either, I just think Hillary ... that would be my choice. "I'm not sure America's ready to have a black president. I think they might kill him," the rapper said as the reporter thanked "Mr Cent" for the ride.

Wow...I guess P Diddy wasn't fooling around.... Vote or Die

As the Kerry campaign disintegrates into oblivion, the finger pointing in the Democratic ranks has already begun. The New York Post's must-read Page Six reports that numbers of notable figures in the 2004 campaign are being roasted by party insiders. These include: # Alexandra Kerry: The paper said John Kerry's daughter "made a splash at the Cannes Film Festival last spring when she appeared on the red carpet in a see-through dress." Campaign "insiders snipe that all she did was rack up major expenses. 'She had an entourage of five people with her everywhere she went.' A hairdresser, makeup artist,...

October 27, 2004 BLACK GROUP SLAMS “P. DIDDY” VOTER DRIVE Rev. Peterson Charges “Vote or Die” Campaign With Scaring Blacks Los Angeles--Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, and organizer of The ‘Black’ List Campaign, today accused rap mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and his nonprofit organization Citizen Change of using a scare campaign to get blacks to vote against President George W. Bush on November 2nd. Citizen Change, with its “Vote or Die” slogan, is conducting a three-day “get-out-the-vote” initiative geared towards minority voters in swing states. The tour began...

NEW YORK -- Hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs is following the lead of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry by taking his get-out-the-vote campaign to the swing states. "If you are going to play the game, you need to play it all the way," Combs said in a telephone interview Saturday. "And if you talking about flexing your power, and you ain't flexing in the swing states, then you ain't flexing your power." Combs' Citizen Change initiative will launch a three-day get-out-the-vote drive starting Tuesday in Milwaukee and Detroit, followed by rallies in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Miami. Combs...

He wants Bush out, but has not decided if he will vote for Kerry. The rapper has a younger brother who "could be drafted if Bush is re-elected." Lyrics from new song: "Let the president answer on higher anarchy/Strap him with an AK-47, let him go fight his own war/Let him impress daddy that way ... No more blood for oil"

Several thousand young political activists will try to parlay hip-hop's influence on consumer culture into a viable political force that they hope will rival that of soccer moms and NASCAR fans. While organizers of the first ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention held earlier this month in Newark, N.J., did not endorse a presidential candidate, they did agree on a national platform that they hope a major political party will adopt as its own. We did not endorse a candidate because we feel the civil-rights leadership has gotten into the habit of voting for Democrats without getting anything back, said Bakari...

John Kerry can claim to be "fascinated" by hip-hop. He can say he hopes to succeed Bill Clinton as our second "black president." But despite the naked pandering, Kerry has failed to connect with voters in the hip-hop generation — that is, according to the guy who invented the term. Author and activist Bakari Kitwana's take on Kerry's candidacy should be a sobering one for Democrats: Not only does it suggest a loss in November, it also forecasts the defection of young black voters from the party they believe has long taken them for granted. "Historically, just watching the constant...

Likely Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry claimed Tuesday night that he's a big fan of rap and hip-hop music. The straight-laced Beacon Hill blue-blood who married into the $700 million Heinz ketchup fortune told MTV, "I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think that there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger - a lot of social energy in it." Kerry said America's leaders disregard rap music at their peril, telling MTV, "I think you better listen to it pretty carefully because it's important." Asked about some of the more outrageous lyrics in today's rap...

America's finest advocate for "social justice" and "equality" is none other than Eminem, the popularly revolting rapper whose recent lyrics glorify such things as drugs, murder, rape, and other sorts of atrocious pastimes. Eminem is the quintessential homophobe and the quintessential chauvinist, but he is quite celebrated in the corner of the Left that had him as the keynote speaker for last weekend's Detroit Hip-Hop Summit, an effort to register young gangsta's to vote. Eminem himself is not a voter, for he is a convicted felon. But that did not deter the organizer of the Hip-Hop Summit, Russell Simmons. Simmons...