Pointless Column Attacking Michael Jackson For No Reason On Big Hollywood

Most of the people who have been the angriest about coverage of Michael Jackson have been old, white and conservative men.

Most of us felt that the coverage went overboard, but not so many people complained about coverage of Princess Diana’s death or the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin’s death coverage.

But, those represent a different issue.

Consider this excerpt from a Big Hollywood right-wing (I know it’s redundant) column:

The outpouring over Michael Jackson’s passing has made plain a seething and hideous fact: We have become a desperately sick people, incapable of distinguishing between achievement and artifice, between histrionics and heroics, between glitter and gold.

I look up at the moon sometimes and am thunderstruck: There are footprints up there. And an American flag. Mankind put its first tentative toe in the frigid cosmic waters 40 years ago – that is Neil Armstrong’s legacy.

Michael Jackson’s legacy? A handful of albums filled with entirely shallow, unoriginal music – and a dance move called the moonwalk.

As millions mourn for Jackson, I mourn for our enfeebled and rapidly fraying republic.

Neil Armstrong?

The moon?

Moonwalking?

Maybe this writer should steal from Michael Jackson and write a new song: Man on the Moon. This clown might not want to look at the Man in the Mirror … as Jackson suggested.

This is how far conservatives are now reaching to attack Michael Jackson.

This just seems like a random and angry blog looking for some kind of a new way to bash Michael Jackson. It shows how conservative old guys are still seething with anger.

That excerpt is from a blog written by a guy with a lot of hate in his game. It’s amazing how some of these Republicans wonder why their party is so lacking in diversity. This is just one more example of the close-minded and hateful mentality that could render the GOP and the conservative movement (as it is now) impotent in 10 to 20 years barring some shift in direction.

What Is Going On With Joe Jackson?

Look, I’ll cut Joe Jackson a little slack as he is mourning the somewhat mysterious and sudden death of his son, legendary entertainer Michael Jackson (the greatest entertainer of my lifetime and arguably the best ever). But, I found it more than a little uncomfortable listening to him at the BET Awards and during a news conference today (flanked by the Rev. Al Sharpton) promoting his record label.

Sorry, but it just didn’t feel right.

Here is how one blogger saw it:

This is just awful. Earlier tonight CNN’s Don Lemon interviewed Joe Jackson on the red carpet at the BET awards, where Jackson displayed indifference over the recent death of his son and then plugged some Blu-Ray disc he’s peddling.

The Blu-Ray plugging comes in at about the 3:20 mark, but the whole thing is completely cringe-worthy right from the start and doesn’t stop until the very end. To his credit, Don Lemon maintained his composure throughout the interview and resisted what must have been an overwhelming urge to grab Jackson, slap him across his face a few times and shake him vigorously while screaming, “What the hell is wrong with you old man!”

That was painful to watch and listen to at the BET Awards and to listen to him in a press conference today (June 29).

Again, I will cut him some slack as this might simply be his way of grieving the stunning death of his son.

Remember the movie “The Jacksons: An American Dream” (from the early 1990s) that still plays once in a while on VH1? The portrayal of Joe Jackson in that movie looks too similar to the Joe Jackson we’re seeing today. Joe’s handlers might want to work with him a little more because, right now, Joe is not coming across well.

Frankly, it’s too early to discuss business ventures, protecting Michael’s legacy and promoting record labels.

Hopefully this merely is Joe’s way of grieving.

I know some people will think I am being tough on Joe Jackson. I just hate to see him come across the way he’s coming across (negatively).

John McCain Understands The Torture Issue

Sen. John McCain, perhaps as much as anyone, understands what torture issue is all about (even if you take the approach of former Vice President Dick Cheney and distract from the seriousness by using the words “enhanced interrogation” to describe torture). Vice President Cheney has been on this Save-My-Legacy Tour, but has mostly done nothing but damage to his own party.

MCCAIN: When you have a majority of Americans, seventy-something percent, saying we shouldn’t torture, then I’m not sure it helps for the Vice President to go out and continue to espouse that position. But look, he’s free to talk. He’s a former Vice President of the United States. I just don’t see where it helps.

Sen. McCain also seems to take issue with the sugarcoating of torture:

MCCAIN: (Cheney) believes that waterboarding doesn’t fall under the Geneva Conventions and that it’s not a form of torture. But you know, it goes back to the Spanish Inquisition.

Someone needs to tell Dick Cheney that it’s over, his time is up and he should go chill out somewhere.

Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/22/mccain-cheney-torture/

Begala: Bush/Cheney Administration Did Not Keep Us Safe

Paul Begala, writing for Huffington Post, debunks a lot of the garbage we’ve been hearing from former Vice President Dick Cheney on his Save My Legacy tour.

Here is an excerpt:

If 3,000 Americans had been killed on your watch, in an attack that could have been prevented, perhaps you’d be a little hesitant to accuse anyone else of endangering America. And if you had advocated torture, and the torture produced false information that you used to mislead America into an unwise, unjust and unwarranted war, you might be a tad sheepish about defending the use of torture.

Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/mr-cheney-you-did-not-kee_b_203013.html