Updated

As we reported Wednesday night, the vile rapper Ludacris has released a song extremely disrespectful to Hillary Clinton, John McCain and President Bush, while touting Barack Obama for president.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

LUDACRIS, RAPPER: Hillary hated on you, so that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is irrelevant. You can't stop what's about to happen. We 'bout to make history. The first black president is destined and is meant to be. Paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified. McCain don't belong in any chair unless he's paralyzed. Yeah, I said it 'cause Bush is mentally handicapped.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

Now, no one cares what a person like Ludacris does. His audience is small; his mind smaller. He smears people and markets hateful images to children. In Iran, they'd execute him.

So why did the Obama campaign then issue this statement? In part: "This song is not only outrageously offensive to Sen. Clinton, Rev. Jackson, Sen. McCain and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual, he should be ashamed of these lyrics."

But of course, any kind of shame is far beyond a hater like Ludacris.

Now the reason the Obama campaign made that statement is that there has been a slight association between the candidate and the rapper. In November of 2006, the two met privately in Chicago, apparently to discuss AIDS awareness and helping young people. Last month in Rolling Stone magazine, Obama praised Ludacris as a great businessman, but said he wouldn't let his daughters listen to his raps.

All of this would be somewhat trivial if not for Reverend Wright and the Chicago radicals, who also had associations with Senator Obama. Add Ludacris to the mix, and some voters will say enough's enough unless Obama can quickly knock the story down.

As dim as he is, Ludacris had to know that his hateful song would hurt Obama, just as Reverend Wright knew that his continual hateful statements would damage the senator.

So the lesson for Barack Obama is be careful who your friends are.

The liberal media, of course, is playing down the story. For example, The New York Times buried it on page 15 with the headline "Rapper Praises Obama." Talk about spin. Whoa.

All the polls show that millions of Americans still have doubts about Barack Obama, primarily because we don't know him very well. Having a thug like Ludacris anywhere near your campaign is not a good thing, and Obama knows it.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling says she will donate all the proceeds from her next book, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," to charity. That's around $8 million the woman is giving away. For that, she's a patriot.

On the pinhead front, the sad saga of a cat without a gender. Look at this chubby cat. It weighs 44 pounds, and because of the body mass, nobody knew whether it was a boy or a girl until they dragged the cat on "Regis and Kelly."

Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY RIPA, CO-HOST, "LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY": Her owner believed that she was a boy, but I hear you saying "she," so I don't know...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't know.

REGIS PHILBIN, CO-HOST, "LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY": We do have a vet here.

RIPA: We can't tell. We can't see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't tell.

KELLY: Oh boy.

PHILBIN: We're not going to hurt the cat.

KELLY: I see nipples. Does that mean something?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boys have them, too.

RIPA: Careful, doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what I said.

PHILBIN: I didn't see anything. What did you see?

RIPA: Doctor?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's like us.

PHILBIN: He's a boy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

I love Regis and Kelly, but everyone involved in that is a pinhead, except the cat.