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President-elect  Barack Obama did his best to distance himself from the spectacular public drama playing out in his home town yesterday, refusing to talk about the indictment of Illinois Gov.  Rod Blagojevich during his only public appearance outside his Chicago transition offices.

Federal prosecutors said flatly that there is no evidence of involvement by the president-elect in allegations that Blagojevich (D) attempted to sell Obama's vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

But the conspiracy allegedly dreamed up by Blagojevich was an unwelcome development in Obama's transition to power, threatening something Obama has avoided throughout his career -- the taint of Chicago politics.

Obama was nurtured politically in the city, rising while scandal swirled around him but remaining largely untouched as governors, lawmakers and lobbyists went to jail. For years, rivals -- including  Sen. John McCain and the GOP this year -- sought to tie him to Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a onetime friend and fundraiser who was convicted in June of fraud and bribery.

"This man has managed to dodge many a near-corruption bullet," said Richard Epstein, a University of Chicago law professor who has clashed with Obama in the past. "My hope is that he will be vindicated, as I think he will be."

By all accounts, Obama and Blagojevich are not close, though then-Sen. Obama endorsed his fellow Democrat's reelection bid in 2006.

"I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening," Obama told reporters as he emerged from a meeting with former vice president  Al Gore yesterday. "It is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don't think it's appropriate to comment."

In a television interview last month, David Axelrod, a longtime Chicago political consultant who served as Obama's campaign strategist and will accompany him to the White House, said Obama had spoken to the governor about the Senate vacancy. But yesterday Axelrod issued a statement saying he had been "mistaken."

"They did not then or at any time discuss the subject," he said.

But Obama was dragged at least tangentially into the scandal by virtue of repeated references to him in the 76-page indictment of Blagojevich. In one section, prosecutors described a deal the governor envisioned involving himself, a union and Obama.

In a two-hour telephone conversation recorded by federal agents, Blagojevich's chief of staff suggested that "SEIU could help the President-elect with Rod Blagojevich's appointment of Senate Candidate 1 to the vacant Senate seat, Rod Blagojevich would obtain a position as the National Director of the Change to Win campaign, and SEIU would get something favorable from the President-elect in the future." The SEIU is the Service Employees International Union.

"Senate Candidate 1" is apparently a reference to Valerie Jarrett, since "Candidate 1" is described as a woman who withdrew her name from consideration. A close Obama friend who was initially a leading candidate to take his place in the Senate, Jarrett took her name out of contention last month and was named a senior White House adviser.

(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday outlined some of his plan to create 2.5 million jobs by 2011, and said he will push for immediate action by Congress when he takes office in January.

Obama wants to make public buildings more energy-efficient, repair roads and bridges, modernize schools, increase broadband access and ensure that health care professionals have access to the latest technology.

"Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world," he said in the weekly Democratic radio address.

"We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won't just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work." Watch how bad roads lead to good jobs »

In addition, he said, "It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online.

"In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the Internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet."

"These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately.

"We won't do it the old Washington way. We won't just throw money at the problem.

"We'll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve -- by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world," Obama added. Watch how Obama is handling the economic crisis »

On Friday, the Department of Labor released a report showing the U.S. lost 533,000 jobs in November -- the largest monthly job loss since December 1974. This year saw the loss of 1.9 million jobs.

The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent in November, up from 6.5 percent in October. It is the highest unemployment rate since October 1993.

The report came out as Congress and the White House wrestled with financial bailout requests from the Big Three domestic automakers -- Ford, General Motors and Chrysler -- whose top executives testified this week on Capitol Hill.

Obama asked Americans to "rise to the moment" to put his plans in place, and said his economic recovery team is working on his proposals.

(CNN) -- The rapper Common wants to take hip-hop in a new direction, he says, and he has an unsuspecting ally -- President-elect Barack Obama.

Obama "is going to change hip-hop for the better," predicted the rapper, whose eighth album, "Universal Mind Control" (G.O.O.D. Music/Geffen), hits shelves Tuesday.

"I really do believe we as hip-hop artists pick up what's going on in the world and try to reflect that," he told CNN, outlining his belief that mainstream as well as so-called "conscious" rappers -- the more socially aware -- will pick up on what he sees as the more optimistic prospects of an Obama presidency.

"I think hip-hop artists will have no choice but to talk about different things and more positive things, and try to bring a brighter side to that because, even before Barack, I think people had been tired of hearing the same thing," he said.

Likewise, "Universal Mind Control," with its hook-heavy, synthed-out tracks, represents a "broadening" of hip-hop's audience -- one that demands evolution rather than hackneyed revamps of old beats, rhythms and rhymes, Common said. Listen to clips from the album and Common's interview with CNN.com »

Not that Common, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., is altogether removed from the temptations of his hip-hop brethren.

He serves as a spokesman for Lincoln Navigator and purports on his new album to "rebel in YSL," a reference to designer Yves Saint Laurent. Money is also a weakness, as Common -- No. 14 on Forbes magazine's 2008 list of richest rappers -- regularly invokes the greenbacks he makes and spends.

Still, Common has come at hip-hop from a different angle from many of his colleagues. He was generally considered "underground" until he linked up with Kanye West, who produced his albums "Be" (2005) and "Finding Forever" (2007).

Even now, while paying homage at mainstream hip-hop's altar, the Chicago-born lyricist also enters parishes where most rappers wouldn't be seen. He's helped front movements for HIV/AIDS awareness and vegetarianism, and he's written two children's books emphasizing the importance of self-esteem.

Lyrically, violence has never been his thing; soft-drug use has been mentioned but rarely glamorized; he removed homophobic references from his lyrics years ago; and while there have been hints of misogyny and the occasional N-word in his verses, neither has been a staple of his rhymes.

"I've always been conscious, honestly," he said. "I made a choice on this album, 'Universal Mind Control,' to really make some music that was bright, that would be a little more lighthearted, just because of what was going on in the world." Read more from the interview

With a few exceptions, his latest lyrics are consummate Common. In his beat poet's cadence, the 36-year-old rhymesmith aggressively courts the ladies, personifies hip-hop, aggrandizes himself and his hometown (lovingly, "the Chi"), and respectfully doles out props to hip-hop's forefathers -- most notably to Afrika Bambaataa on the album's title track. Hear the title track »

The album's sound, however, is atypical, moving -- sometimes jerkily -- from club-banger to anthem to ballad to Top 40. The latter even runs counter to the opening verse of "Everywhere": "No pop, no pop, no pop, no pop/We gonna do this thing till the sky just drop."

But the sound is part of "a whole new sound and a new movement" in hip-hop, something he explored out of disdain for repetition and predictability, he said. That might explain Kanye West's relative absence on "Universal Mind Control."

The Louis Vuitton don appears on only one track, the pop-drenched "Punch Drunk Love." But West has long been credited, even by Common, with bringing his fellow Chicagoan to the mainstream after "Be" and "Finding Forever" went gold and leapt up the Billboard 200.

Of course, it's not all Kanye, said Common.

"I'm a true believer that it all boils down to the music, because Kanye can endorse something, and if people don't like it they ain't gonna get with it -- regardless of whoever endorses it," he said.

He compared his working relationship with West to the collaboration he enjoyed with The Neptunes' Pharrell Williams on "Universal Mind Control." Williams, whom Common casually likened to Quincy Jones, pushed him lyrically, much like West did, he said.

Between Williams and Mr. DJ -- who composed backbeats for some of OutKast's biggest hits -- Common arrived at the evolution he sought, he added.

Common also is plotting a change, or at least a detour, in his career path. Though his past cinematic endeavors have been primarily gangster flicks, Common has landed a role in the upcoming "Terminator Salvation" and could play Green Lantern in "Justice League: Mortal" should the derailed movie get back on track.

"I would truly love to go increasingly in the acting direction," he said. "My goal is to be a movie star. I want to be at Will Smith's level. I want to be co-leading with Leonardo DiCaprio."

Fear not, Common fans. The aspiring thespian is confident he can pull off both, though hip-hop might ride sidecar to the silver screen. Acting, he said, seems to improve his music.

"I don't take as much time overthinking it. Actually, since 'Be' I've been working on films and each album has been expanding and increasing, so I feel like I would still make music, but it wouldn't be the main gig," he said.

Selling albums, Common said, is about more than good music, and though he stands proudly by the music he made pre-West, he concedes he didn't do enough to claw his way up from the underground.

"After you make good, quality music, then it's your job to go out there and promote it and to market it and to get it out there to the people. I feel like I wasn't doing that early on," he said. "Now I am, and I feel like I'm growing as a songwriter and working with producers that are very incredible, so I feel all that is contributing to me getting the recognition that I'm getting."

USA-OBAMA/REGULATIONS (URGENT):Obama vows to unveil strong financial regulations

President-elect Barack introduced retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as his nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, bringing to his Cabinet a career military officer best known for running afoul of the Bush administration by questioning the Pentagon's Iraq war strategy.

Shinseki, a four-star general and 38-year veteran who retired shortly after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, appeared with Obama in Chicago at a news conference today commemorating the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Obama said Shinseki agreed to join the incoming administration because "both he and I share a reverence for those who serve."

"When I reflect on the sacrifices that have been made by our veterans and I think about how so many veterans around the country are struggling even more than those who have not served -- higher unemployment rates, higher homeless rates, higher substance-abuse rates, medical care that is inadequate -- it breaks my heart, and I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home," Obama told NBC News' Tom Brokaw in a interview taped for broadcast today on "Meet the Press."

Shinseki was Army chief of staff when, during the run-up to the Iraq war, he publicly disputed the Bush administration's determination to invade with a relatively small force. To maintain the postwar peace in Iraq, Shinseki told the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2003, "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" could be necessary. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reacted by telling reporters that the estimate "will prove to be high," and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz called it "way off the mark."

When Shinseki retired that summer, neither Rumsfeld nor Wolfowitz attended his farewell ceremony.

Three years later, Gen. John P. Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command and the main architect of U.S. military strategy in Iraq, told the same committee, "General Shinseki was right." And in January 2007, President Bush ordered tens of thousands of U.S. troops back into Iraq to stabilize and secure the country.

Notably, Shinseki led the Army at the same time that Gen. James L. Jones, Obama's pick for national security adviser, commanded the Marines. Both questioned Wolfowitz's presumptions, before the war in Iraq commenced, about how the fighting would go, and they argued that the Pentagon was being too optimistic in its planning and should prepare thoroughly for worst-case scenarios.

In a 12-page private letter he wrote to Rumsfeld in June 2003 just before stepping down as chief of staff, Shinseki said: "People are central to everything we do in the Army. Institutions don't transform, people do. Platforms and organizations don't defend the nation, people do. . . . Without people in the equation, readiness and transformation are little more than academic exercises." The letter was never publicly released; The Washington Post obtained a copy this August.

Military leaders and veterans advocates hailed Obama's selection of Shinseki, describing the nominee as a soft-spoken, dynamic leader who is widely respected by rank-and-file service members past and present.

Retired Army Gen. Colin L. Powell, who was President Bush's secretary of state at the time of the Iraq invasion, called Shinseki "a superb choice. . . . He is a wounded hero who survived and worked his way to the top. He knows soldiers and knows what it takes to keep faith with the men and women who went forth to serve the nation. He also knows how to run large and complex bureaucratic institutions. His is an inspired selection." Powell, also a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supported Obama's election.

Shinseki, 66, was twice awarded a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Vietnam.

Kori Schake, a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution who served on Bush's National Security Council during the run-up to the war, said Shinseki is "a great choice. . . . Shinseki will be a terrific advocate for and leader of our Veterans Administration. He distinguished himself in caring for wounded warriors while chief of staff, and I'm certain he will serve veterans and the country well."

Wearing yellow badges and traveling in groups of 10 or more, agency review teams for President-elect Barack Obama have swarmed into dozens of government offices, from the Pentagon to the National Council on Disability.

With pointed questions and clear ground rules, they are dissecting agency initiatives, poring over budgets and unearthing documents that may prove crucial as a new Democratic president assumes control. Their job is to minimize the natural tension between incoming and outgoing administrations, but their work also is creating anxiety among some Bush administration officials as the teams rigorously examine programs and policies.

Lisa Brown, who served as counsel to Vice President Al Gore and is helping manage the reviews, said typical questions include: "Which is the division that has really run amok? Or that has run out of money? If someone is confirmed, what's going to be on their desk from Day One? What are the main things that need to happen, vis-a-vis Obama's priorities?"

Every presidential changeover includes some type of review of the federal landscape, but some have succeeded more than others, experts say. Obama's teams -- 135 people divided into 10 groups, along with a list of other advisers -- started earlier than most, gearing up months before Election Day with preliminary planning, and will work until mid-December preparing reports to guide the White House, Cabinet members and other senior officials.

The team members include Democratic Party loyalists jockeying for senior administration jobs and subject experts in areas ranging from military systems to Medicare policy.

The Obama teams say they have benefited from a commitment by the Bush White House to cooperate as fully as possible to ease the shift.

"President Bush initiated preparations for the transition earlier, and with more extensive planning, than has ever been done before," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. "We've also benefited from new legal authorities that allowed for better preparation of the transition teams. As we're at war, defending the nation against terrorist threats, and addressing a global financial crisis, it's more critical than ever that we have a successful transition."

John D. Podesta, a former Clinton White House chief of staff and co-chairman of the Obama transition, said the Obama teams have been dispatched with "clear roles and missions." In assembling the study groups, Podesta drew heavily from the Clinton administration, academia and think tanks such as his own, the Center for American Progress. Many team members were informal advisers to Obama throughout the campaign -- such as Sarah Sewall, a Harvard University human rights specialist who is a leader of the national security team.

Many chosen for the teams come with high-level, firsthand knowledge of certain agencies.

"They were part of that culture; they understand the political issues as well as the bureaucratic issues," said Melody C. Barnes, Obama's incoming Domestic Policy Council director, who is helping with the agency reviews.

Some teams parachuted in at the top. At the State Department, Obama team leaders Tom Donilon and Wendy R. Sherman met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. At the Pentagon, transition team members John White and Michèle A. Flournoy dropped by the offices of four senior officials and arranged for further interviews over the coming days. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates named a transition leader, Robert Rangel, to work with the group, even though Gates is slated to continue in his job when Obama takes office.

A typical approach has been playing out at the Environmental Protection Agency, where the Obama team is led by Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and Robert Sussman, a former Clinton official and now a lawyer and fellow at the Center for American Progress. Both are considered front-runners for senior administration jobs (Jackson as EPA administrator, Sussman as a top EPA deputy).

President-elect Barack Obama announced Monday that Robert Gates would remain as defense secretary, making President Bush's Pentagon chief his own as he seeks to wind down the U.S. role in Iraq. Obama picked former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

At a news conference, Obama also introduced retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security.

The announcements rounded out the top tier of the team that will advise the incoming chief executive on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe.

"The time has come for a new beginning, a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century," Obama said as his Cabinet picks stood behind him on a flag-draped stage.

"We will strengthen our capacity to defeat our enemies and support our friends. We will renew old alliances and forge new and enduring partnerships."

Obama said his appointees "share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America's role as a leader in the world."

Gates' presence in Chicago made him a visible symbol of the transition in power from the Bush administration to one headed by Obama.

Samantha Power, who resigned as senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama, is back on his team

Samantha Power, the Harvard professor who was forced to resign from Barack Obama's presidential campaign last spring after calling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster," is now advising the president-elect on transition matters relating to the State Department -- which Clinton is slated to head.

Power is listed on Obama's transition Web site as part of the team reviewing national security agencies. Her duties, according to the site, will be to "ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in."

In short, she is part of a team that is likely to work directly with Clinton, a potentially awkward situation for the two women. Obama is expected to officially announce Clinton as his choice for secretary of state after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Transition officials declined to comment. A spokesman for Clinton did not respond to an e-mail sent yesterday evening. Power has been on the list of review team officials since mid-November; the Associated Press first called attention to her presence on the list yesterday.

But people close to the transition suggested too much was made of Power's comment at the time, and said that she has made moves to bury the hatchet with Clinton and that the senator accepted those efforts.

If so, that could pave the way for Power to reemerge as a key adviser for the new president after being barred for months from appearing on television as a foreign policy surrogate for Obama.

Power, who is close to Obama, resigned March 7 after being quoted in the Scotsman newspaper saying that Clinton "is a monster" and that "she is stooping to anything. . . . The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."

The same day the comments were published, Power was forced to resign. In a statement at the time, she said she made "inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign."

Then locked in a tight battle with Obama for the Democratic nomination, Clinton responded with a statement urging donors to contribute to show that "there is a price" for the kind of attack politics that Power's comment represented.

After leaving the campaign, Power remained active in the public debate. In an Aug. 13 article in the New York Review of Books, she argued that Obama had an opportunity this year to reverse the decades-long advantage that the Republican Party had with voters on national security and foreign policy issues.

"Although few have focused on this, the Democratic Party today is also in a strong position to show that it will be more reliable in keeping Americans safe during the twenty-first century," she wrote. "If the party succeeds in doing this, it will not only wake up the United States and the world from a long eight-year nightmare; it will also lay to rest the enduring myth that strong and wrong is preferable to smart and right."

Power was at one time considered a contender for a top post in an Obama administration. But her name has not surfaced recently, and she is not listed as a lead official on the State Department review team.

Obama officials have said the review teams will review agency policies, budgets and structures with an eye toward recommending to the new secretaries what is working and what is not.

Barack Obama's plan to pull the country out of recession has a strong green hue. Conventional wisdom says Washington won't have the stomach or the dollars to tackle long-term issues like climate change or dependence on foreign oil when the economy is in the tank and oil prices have plunged. Wrong conclusion, Obama says. These problems, "left unaddressed, will continue to weaken the economy and threaten national security," he said on Nov. 18 in a video message to a climate summit meeting in California.

His fix? Obama plans to set ambitious targets for reducing emissions that cause global warming—and to invest $15 billion or more per year in energy efficiency, renewables like wind and solar, biofuels, nuclear power, and "clean" coal. Beyond the environmental benefits, says the President-elect, the investment "will also help us transform our industries and steer our economy out of this economic crisis by generating 5 million new green jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced."

Whether or not a "green" stimulus will create millions of American jobs is hotly debated by economists. On the one hand, the seeds of the transformation have already been planted thanks to market forces, such as overall higher energy prices, and government policies like tax credits for renewable energy. But there are also major questions. Many executives and experts say the most effective policy to push America toward a clean, efficient energy future is putting a price on emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, thus raising the price of energy. That's a tough sell now to Americans struggling to pay their bills. There's also a danger that the government could steer investments to the wrong technologies. Remember synfuels, President Jimmy Carter's experiment to reduce dependence on foreign oil? Most important, a green stimulus plan from Uncle Sam may end up sending billions of dollars to foreign companies instead of to Main Street, since the U.S. lags in such crucial industries as solar panels and wind turbines. Will green technologies become today's VCRs and flat-panel TVs, invented in the U.S. and commercialized elsewhere?

But the fear of enriching overseas companies simply makes a green stimulus more necessary and urgent, proponents argue. Without a plan like Obama's, which would expand U.S. markets for new technologies, American companies may fall even further behind. Michael R. Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials (AMAT) in Santa Clara, Calif., is a believer in the need for government support. Splinter has seen his business of supplying equipment for factories to make solar panels soar beyond his wildest projections. But 97% of the company's equipment goes to foreign manufacturers, who then sell panels in the U.S. It seems like the U.S. has "given up on manufacturing," Splinter laments. "Right now we are on a path to being a second-tier player in clean energy technology."

A plan like Obama's could turbocharge American industries, Splinter and other executives say. Why have European companies become world leaders in wind and solar power? Because a number of governments guarantee that anyone who supplies renewable power to the electric grid will get a premium price for that power. That cost is then passed along to customers.

POLITICAL LAND MINES

Similar incentives could work magic in the U.S., says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. America already has a vibrant green-energy sector, so the transformation could be rapid. There are upward of 3 million Americans employed in green jobs, ranging from renewable-power startups to businesses with products that reduce waste and pollution or boost energy efficiency.

And even when goods come from foreign companies, some of the jobs will be in the U.S. One growing trend is for European and Asian manufacturers to build factories in America so they can be closer to what promises to be the world's largest market.