Approving a resolution by voice vote on Wednesday, the U.S. Senate is now urging President Barack Obama to pardon Jack Jackson, the late black heavyweight champion who was went to prison almost one hundred years ago because of a romantic affair with a white woman.

Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion in 1908, and was convicted in 1913 of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes.

Obama's opponent in the 2008 presidential elections, John McCain, sponsored the resolution. Similar resolutions offered in both 2004 and 2008 failed to pass both the House and Senate.

Activist Rusty DePass, a prominent South Carolina Republican, was caught likening FIrst Lady Michelle Obama to an escaped gorilla. Commenting on a report posted to Facebook about a gorilla escape at a zoo in Columbia, SC on Friday, DePass wrote: "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless."

SC political blogger Will Folks busted DePass, forcing him into an apology. DePass told WIS-TV in Columbia:

"I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly in jest." He added, "The comment was hers, not mine," claiming Michelle Obama made a recent remark about humans descending from apes.

Columbia's mayor, Bob Coble, has called for DePass to issue a proper apology, stating:

"The comment is reprehensible. There's nothing funny about it. What he needs to do is simply apologize in a straightforward manner."

DePass was the former chairman of the Richland County Republican Party, was an early back of George W. Bush, and was the co-chairman of Rudy Giuliani's 2008 campaign in Richland County, the largest county in the state.

DePass, former chairman of the Richland County GOP, was an early backer of George W. Bush and co-chairman of Rudy Giuliani's 2008 campaign in Richland County, the state's largest.

He's baaaaaaaaaack. Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the former minister and confidant of President Barack Obama that caused him quite a stir on the campaign trail last year, is ruffling feathers again. Wright is now blaming "them Jews" for keeping Obama from giving him a call.

Wright told the Daily Press in Newport News, Va.:

"Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office.

"They will not let him talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is .... I said from the beginning: He's a politician; I'm a pastor. He's got to do what politicians do."

The White House, wanting nothing to do with another controversy involving Wright, declined to comment. Officials pointed out, however, that the Obamas ditched Wright last year after he made incendiary remarks, including blaming the government for the spread of AIDS.

The former pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago continued:

"Ethnic cleansing is going on in Gaza. Ethnic cleansing [by] the Zionist is a sin and a crime against humanity, and they don't want Barack talking like that because that's anti-Israel."

During an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Monday evening, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said that President Barack Obama's spending policies to revive the economy were leading the United States to socialism.

"When you consider that the federal government is about $11 trillion in debt, and we're borrowing more to spend more ... it defies any sensible economic policy any of us ever learned through college.

"It defies economy practices and principles that tell ya 'you gotta quit digging that hole when you are in that financial hole,'" she said.

Palin's comments came on the heels of the White House's acknowledgement that it has spent just 5 percent - or $44 billion - of the $787 stimulus so far. The total is expected to rise sharply this summer.

Palin also launched an attack over the government's take over of the auto industry.

"We're borrowing from China and we consider that now we own 60% of General Motors - or the U.S. government does… But who is the U.S. government becoming more indebted to? It's China. So that leads you to have to ask who is really going to own our car industry than in America."

After some coaxing by Hannity, Palin said "I told ya so."

President Barack Obama began a goodwill tour of the Muslim world, visiting King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. At the same time, a new audiotape surfaced from Osama bin Laden with new threats to the U.S.

In the recording, Bin Laden said that Obama inflamed Muslim hatred towards the U.S. by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in Swat Valley and block Islamic law in the area. He also claimed that U.S. pressure led to a campaign of "killing, fighting, bombing and destruction" which prompted the exodus of a million Muslims in Swat Valley.

Osama's message was first broadcast on Wednesday on the Al-Jazeera Television network at almost the exact moment Obama touched down in Saudi Arabia.

Just one day earlier, Al Qaeda's #2 man dismissed Obama's trip aimed at repairing U.S. relations with the Muslim world, insisting that the overture is trumped by wars against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an audio message posted online, Ayman al-Zawahiri said:

"His bloody messages were received and are still being received by Muslims, and they will not be concealed by public relations campaigns or by farcical visits or elegant words."

A Pennsylvania newspaper unwittingly published a classified ad calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama earlier this week, and is now issuing an apology.

John Elchert, publisher of Tthe Warren Times Observer said Friday that the ad which ran Thursday read:

May Obama follow in the steps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy!"

For those unaware, all four were Presidents assassinated while in office. Elchert said that the paper's advertising staff had failed to realize the historical connection, and that is how the ad slipped through the cracks and got published.

The newspaper has since turned over information to the police, and the individual who placed the ad is now the subject of a Secret Service investigation.

The Times Observer apologized in a brief note in Friday's paper "for the oversight."

It is 2009 and the French and English are still on each others nerves. The latest squabble is do to the fact that Queen Elizabeth was not invited to the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. The New York Times writes:

Queen Elizabeth is not amused.

Indeed, she is decidedly displeased, angry even, that she was not invited to join President Obama and France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, next week at commemorations of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, according to reports published in Britain’s mass-circulation tabloid newspapers on Wednesday. Pointedly, Buckingham Palace did not deny the reports.

The queen, who is 83, is the only living head of state who served in uniform during World War II. As Elizabeth Windsor, service number 230873, she volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in support roles in England.

The celebration will be held on June 6th and French President Sarkozy stated:

The Republican National Committee has unleashed a scathing advertisement that uses footage from the famous Daisy commercial from the 1960's. A little girl in the advert is plucking flowers questioning "to close it or not close it" and political figures are talking about the facility.

President Barack Obama has come under fire from the GOP for his declaration that he will close the facility. His administration has stated that it needs to be done as the prison has given a bad name to America throughout the world.

Here is the video of the advertisement:

Approximately fifteen protesters who were opposed to President Obama's address to the graduating class at Notre Dame were arrested Friday after disobeying rules about staging a demonstration and walked on to the school's campus. Protesters were told beforehand that they could protest as much as they want within South Bed, but if they stepped foot on Notre Dame property, they would be arrested.

Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes led a group of about 50 people towards the Notre Dame campus. They passed through the gate and went up about 200 yard in the driveway, where they were met by campus police. Police asked them to leave, they refused and were arrested. It was said to have been peaceful, and vans were on-hand to load up the offenders in.

Other than the arrests, the Notre Dame campus was relatively quite, despite the controversy surrounding the president's visit.

Obama will also be receiving an honorary law degree from the university on Sunday. This decision has upset abortion opponents who say that the Catholic university is violating ts own beliefs in honoring the president.

A group of student have announced that they will not attend the commencement ceremony, and will instead hold a prayer vigil elsewhere on campus.