Jack & Jill Politics

...shows the King of Pop NERVOUSLY LAUGHING, COVERING HIS FACE with his hands in dismay and GROANING IRRITABLY as a team of lawyers grilled him in 1996 as part of a lawsuit brought against him by Neverland staff...Thriller star Jackson-who died last week-SQUIRMS at times as he is questioned about allegations surrounding Jordy Chandler, Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin and Brett Barnes.

But at one point in the frank and revealing footage, the star launches into a spirited defence of himself in which he:


INSISTS he is NOT GAY.


DENIES bleaching his skin and says he is PROUD to be black


SLAMS his child abuse accusers as LIARS...

...as the lawyers battle on, the Bad star becomes increasingly agitated and produces a series of his own handwritten documents.


Jackson admits it is a list he made, saying: "When I get angry enough I write down what I want to say and what I want to talk about, to set the record straight.


"Cos you get to a point where you get tired of people lying. I get tired of situations like this, where people completely lie on me, and I'm sick of it . . . I want to set the record straight."


Jackson first denies bleaching his skin. "I'm a black American and I'm proud of it. And I'm honoured of it," he says. "The bleached skin rumour, which is a rumour. I don't bleach my skin. He adds: "They say-they once said-I wanted a white kid to play me as a child, which was a rumour."


Then he blurts out: "I'm not gay." And he adds in faltering, disjointed speech: "Don't judge a person unless you have spoken to them one-on-one, which, which is true. 'Cos what you hear is a lie."

There is, it turns out, a political price to pay when you make bold statements calling out Michael Jackson for some of the nefarious moments of his personal history.

Fans of Jackson are mobilizing to raise money for an opponent -- any opponent -- to run against Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., following the critical remarks the congressman made about the recently deceased pop icon.

Over the weekend, King said that the media had gone far over the top in glorifying Jackson, who he deemed a "low-life" pervert who "may have been a good singer" and "did some dancing."

Now, an ActBlue fundraising site has been set up by "A fan of Michael Jackson" titled "Michael Jackson Fans AGAINST Peter King."

"Peter King ought to let Jackson rest in peace, and focus on the needs of his constituents. As we mourn the loss of an American legend, political grandstanding is not what we need right now!" the page reads. "Fans of Michael Jackson and his legacy stand united against Peter King's hateful words. Please donate here to show Peter King that true MJ fans won't stand for the smearing of a pop sensation!"

The fund is being set up to benefit the Democratic nominee for New York's third congressional district -- a reliable Republican stronghold. The problem is that at this time, there is no Democratic nominee. And King has flirted with a run for New York's governor's chair in 2010. Still, it will be interesting to see the extent to which Michael Jackson devotees can mobilize politically. Who would have thought that the King of Pop's legacy would become a partisan issue?

The first lady's office did not immediately respond to an e-mail asking if Michelle Obama had approved the marketing materials. Heather Lynch McAuliffe, the vice president of J.Crew public relations, said <b.the White House did not approve the release before she sent it.

Police say woman with Steve McNair bought gun
Steve McNair smiles while speaking in Baltimore on January 2, 2004 about the NFL Most Valuable Player award which he shared with Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.
Authorities are still leaning to a murder-suicide in the case.
Associated Press
3:02 PM PDT, July 6, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Police say the gun found at the scene where former NFL star Steve McNair died was bought by his girlfriend less than two days before the two were shot to death.

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said today that 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi bought the semiautomatic handgun Thursday evening from a person he didn't name.

An autopsy showed that McNair and Kazemi died early Saturday. He was shot four times and his death has been ruled a homicide. She was shot once and Aaron said police are still waiting for ballistic and gunpowder residue tests before deciding if she was slain or committed suicide.

Their bodies were found in a Nashville condominium leased by McNair, who was 36.

Aaron said that as far as he knows McNair was not with Kazemi when she got the gun.

According to The Tennessean, Kazemi had discussed visiting a shooting range with Farzin Abdi, and had mentioned that she was unhappy living alone.

They discussed the potential for Kazemi acquiring a gun permit, but according to Abdi, "She told me she didn't have to because Steve had lots of guns."

Steve, 36, married Mechelle McNair in 1997, and no accounts of the couple's separation have been reported. The McNairs have four children together.

Soheyla Kazemi, Sahel's sister, rejected theories that her sister may have orchestrated a murder-suicide, killing the former football great and herself.

"It’s not true. She loves Steve too much," Soheyla Kazemi said in an interview with the Florida Times-Union. "She said they were planning to get married."

Nashville police have solicited the help of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to trace the origin of the gun they found at the crime scene Saturday.

I write this article at the risk of offending my daughters, who are all in the "We think Lil Wayne and Chris Brown were sent by God" age group. It doesn't matter if you've admitted to beating your girlfriend, or if you use every word other than "woman" to describe females. If you are rich and famous, you're suddenly sexy, cool and dateable. That's just the way things work for some teenagers (and some grown folks too).

As I rode in the car for 16 hours listening to the radio with my daughters, I noticed that Lil Wayne seemed to feature in every song. I think I upset the girls when I said, "Yeah, Lil Wayne's song about wanting to have sex with every girl in the world reminds me of Eazy-E...Oh by the way, he eventually died of AIDS."

Yes, I had just puked on my daughters' parade, but I had to say it. Kids don't want to hear that kind of stuff, it disrupts their celebrity buzz. So, the same way my daughters grimaced when I compared Lil Wayne to Eazy-E, some execs at BET might grimace when they read this article. I hope they will take comfort in the fact that I am not into blanket indictments. But that never seems to matter in a dichotomous world, where you are either a critic or a supporter. I'm just a man with a brain and two eyeballs, and I try to use them both.

I've done a great deal of work with BET, and I've always loved it. The staff is courteous, respectful and professional. Many of their specials have been informative, progressive and provocative. I do not, however, consider the most recent BET Awards to be one of these shows.

The great challenge for BET is that there is a genuine concern from the African American community that BET has slipped away from acknowledging any kind of double bottom line that merges necessary profitability with equally critical social responsibility. For every million dollars earned in revenue, there is at least another 20 million dollars in lost productivity created by a generation that was raised to shake their butts in the club all night while holding a bottle of Cristal. Now, every black boy wants to be a rapper, and millions of little girls think that the word "bitch" or "hoe" in a song means that the rapper is talking about somebody else. Sorry sweetie, but Soulja Boy wants to "super soak" you too, and you're dancing while he says it.

For the sake of full disclosure, I am a huge fan of some hip hop and R&B music. But we would be insane to not be disturbed by the trends that have been created by BET, arguably the most influential network in the black community, especially among young people. R. Kelly's situation might be a good example. Right after the allegations of child molestation (among other things) against Kelly, BET proceeded to honor him at the BET Awards, in addition to giving him one of the longest performances of the evening.

While I can certainly understand allowing him to be a part of the show (after all, he was found not guilty - cough cough), I cannot agree with the message being sent to our young girls, that a videotaped urination on a little girl can be written off simply as eccentric celebrity behavior. But again, we all know that R. Kelly was found not guilty (cough cough). In spite of all that, I would argue that some degree of conscious prudence might have been called for in that situation. The tragedy of the corporate model is that it trains us to ignore blatant sexism, racism and everything else, all for the sake of maximizing our revenue stream. Morals and values just don't pay the bills.

This year's BET Awards show was also interesting. I can't help but wonder why there were what appeared to be really young girls dancing on the stage with Lil Wayne as he and others repeatedly stated that they wish they could "bleep every girl in the world." What's scary is that I truly believe they were serious in their objective. What's even scarier in a community plagued with alarming rates of HIV is that there are young men and women who emulate the behavior of Lil Wayne in their everyday lives.

I'm not "hatin" on Lil Wayne, and I'm certainly not out to attack BET. But there must be a point where enough is enough. Whatever poison exists within the organizational structure of this network that breeds such disturbing and socially destructive programming needs to be challenged. As a business school professor, I know how organizations work. So, the problem is that the same social sickness that impedes the progress of many of our greatest HBCUs is probably keeping BET from doing the right thing.

My greatest hope is that the intelligent minds that run BET will take a second and realize their personal power to gain the courage to critically assess what the network has become. I firmly believe that if the leadership is presented with a model that is both profitable and responsible, they will gladly use it.

The truth is that the public trust has been betrayed and the power of media has been underestimated. When our kids are literally being brainwashed with images that ultimately affect their physical and mental health, it's time for all of us to step up to the plate.