Aww man how hilarious is this… Steven Seagal is a bad mutha.  Check out this preview video.

“Steven Seagal has never sought publicity for his work with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. However, over a span of almost two decades, he has regularly gone out on patrol and worked major cases. The series will allow fans to ride shotgun with Seagal as he and his hand-selected elite team of deputies respond to crimes-in-progress. Then, when Seagal goes off-duty, the cameras will continue following him as he pursues his many ventures – including musical performances and philanthropic efforts – in Jefferson Parish and New Orleans.”

As always political corruption seems to be a non-stop issue, but surprisingly there aren’t very many concrete laws on the books to address political corruption and how it may be prosecuted.  The ban on honest services fraud is the one law that is most utilized for getting these politicians that try to sale political seats, take bribes from friends and use unfair influence is very general and generic, which actually kinda works if you think about it because you never know where politicians are heading with their corruption.  However, laws that are very broad and general aren’t really Constitutional.

The thing is, one of the people bringing this law to question is former Enron executive Jeff Skilling who claims that he wasn’t trying to cheat customers, he was just trying to save his company (riiight, save his company by cheating customers?).  Another person who could benefit if the vague honest services law is struck down in Blagojevich.  If the court were to strike down the law it will definitely have to ask congress to come up with more and more specific laws to make sure that these corrupt politicians and business men do not find anymore loopholes.

I’ve seen some pretty dumbass tattoos but damn, this takes the cake…

Antonia Carter just tweeted a couple minutes ago congratulating Nivea and Wayne on their newborn baby boy. That puts Wayne’s kid count at 4 overall and 2 for the year. As much as I like to clown Wayne and his defective condoms, I must say that somehow, someway this knee grow is making this multiple baby mama thing work. Not only do all of his chicks get along great (evidence on twitter), but he appears to be a great and dependable father to all his kids. Crazy right?

It was just reported that Gilbert Arenas has moved out of the home that he shares with his two-timing fiancee Laura Govan. The couple have two children with one on the way and Gilbert has asked for DNA test to determine if he’s really the daddy. Damn straight son! But why the hell is Gilbert moving out? Kick that ho to the curb. 5 years of cheating with Shaq?!?! Now that’s just straight disrespectful. smfh

Say what you want about crusty ass lipped Gucci but his music is catchy.  Hot new track with Cam and Weezy.

Before he passed, DJ AM briefly mentioned some kind of Nike collaboration and we’re happy to see that they might still release given the untimely event of his passing. I think these are super wavy and I kinda want them for myself! No details about the release date yet…

I got this email today from Rachel Zoe and was pleasantly delighted.

The holiday season is officially in full swing, a time of year synonymous with family, friends and a personal fave—the art of gift-giving. Let’s be honest, I have practically built my career on shopping for others, so it is only appropriate that I share some of my favorite holiday gift ideas with you. Whether you are seeking that special something for a Future Style Star, College Cutie or The Rodger in your life—finding that perfect token to showcase how much you care can be quite the daunting task.

Corresponding with the inaugural year of The Zoe Report, I found it beyond necessary to provide my two cents on the matter. Designed specifically with you, my cherished subscriber, in mind—each item in my gift guide is under $100. I like to think of it as an extended, ultra-fab edition of TZR’s “Parallel Universe” section. Click through to RachelZoe.com to view the 20 items in my 2009 Holiday Gift Guide now, for some instant gift giving inspiration. Follow my lead and you will totally shut it down this holiday season. Happy giving, and more importantly…SHOPPING! xoRZ

Click here to view the 2009 Holiday Gift Guide.

Forgive me web for I have sinned, it has been a month since my last post. Sorry folks but I was living it up in Europe but I’m baaack. Ok, enough of that…on to business…

In case you haven’t heard yet, news broke a little while back that Shaq had been having an affair with fellow NBA baller Gilbert Arenas‘ fiancee, Laura Govan for the LAST 5 YEARS! Shaq’s wife, Shaunie, filed for a divorce not too long after and word has it that Gilbert is tight as a muthaeffer.

The Cavs played the Wizards on November 18th to a sold out crowd and **gasp**, Shaq was a no show. The Cavs claimed that the big man was injured but c’mon son, even injured players travel with the team. So we’re led to believe that Shaq’s absence was to avoid this messy ass love triangle being brought onto the court.

Gilbert and Shaq have been going at each other via Youtube and the NBA has had enough and wants these two to put a lid on it. They even tried to arrange a sit down with the two players but Gilbert isn’t tryna hear it.

Curious to see how this all plays out. And for the record Shaq, you’re grimey as hell and Laura, you’re a ho.

A University of Chicago research study might have uncovered something interesting and a little disturbing.  Researcher Eugene Caruso led a study in which some pictures of President (then candidate) Obama were darkened and some were lightened, while some were kept as is.  The photos, 16 in all, were shown to students and they were asked which ones were most representative of Obama.

Turns out that liberal participants liked their Obama light and conservative participants liked their Obama dark.  Additionally, thinking that the light Obama was most representative of the real Obama was a good indicator of if they were going to vote for Obama in the presidential elections, which were soon after the study.  The researchers even controlled for race and political party of the participants.  Which means 1.) Didn’t matter if you were black or white.  Light Obama is probably still your favorite if you like Obama and if you don’t like Obama then you think he’s dark. 2.) Are conservatives still afraid of darker skinned people or is this one of those “what came first…?” things?  3.) Any person who might remotely remember anything from a stat class (and I barely remember anything) knows that correlation does not equal causation, so you should probably take the results of this study with a grain of salt.

Interestingly, the researchers did the same study with photos of John McCain and found no correlation between skin tone perception and political leaning.  Turns out its not “light so its got to be right”… its left seems to like the light.  To test this further the researchers would like to do the same study with a bi-racial conservative to see if conservatives will think their politician is light because they agree with him.

An Ohio bank robber straight gobbles up a paper police pull from his pocket and place on the hood of their cruiser.  Allegedly the paper was the note the robber had given to the bank teller to get the money.  For some reason this has me dying laughing.  I of course don’t admire his robbing a bank, but I can’t help admiring his quick thinking!

I mean at least it was kinda on beat right?

On November 23rd the play “Fela!” will be opening on Broadway.  The play isn’t new.  ”Fela!” is coming from an off Broadway run that must’ve been pretty damn good because the play has earned 3 new producers- Jay-Z, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith.  ”Fela!”  is about the unconventional Afrobeat artist, Black Panther, and activist Fela Kuti.  With Jay-Z, Will, and Jada as producers the show is sure to be well funded and we can expect the three to help with the marketing push.  Their red carpet appearances at the premiere will definitely help to bring the hype.

For hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco, deciding to accept the invitation to take part in “The People Speak” was easy.

“I realized it’s just an extension of what I normally do — upset the system,” he said.

Fiasco’s performance Tuesday night took place as a promotion of the upcoming documentary, “The People Speak,” which highlights the importance of social activism.

The event featured clips from the documentary, readings by Fiasco and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and a panel discussion featuring documentary producer Chris Moore and Penn sociology professor Tufuku Zuberi.

The theme of fighting social injustice dominated the performance, which began with Fiasco’s reading of Muhammad Ali’s protest against the Vietnam war and continued with McDaniels’ recitation of the lyrics of the Public Enemy song, “Fight the Power.”

Moore took the stage following McDaniels’ performance and gave the disclaimer that, “As you can probably tell, I do not represent rap in any way.”

He went on to explain the premise of “The People Speak,” which is based on Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States, which Zinn co-wrote with Anthony Arnove. The two authors, along with Moore and actors Matt Damon and Josh Brolin, executive-produced the film.

Excerpts of the film featured McDaniel’s reading of David Walker’s inflammatory abolitionist pamphlet, Appeal, which encouraged slaves to rebel against their masters.

The film also included Fiasco’s recitation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s Petition Against the War in Vietnam, Don Cheadle’s reading of Frederick Douglass’ West India Emancipation speech and John Legend’s performance of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” — a song condemning racism against African Americans in the United States.

Moore stressed that the messages of these texts are timeless.

“‘Power will never give up power without a struggle,’” he quoted from Cheadle’s reading of Douglass. “What we’re trying to say is that’s true always.”

McDaniels echoed this later when he addressed the problems of religion and politics in the U.S.

“You guys have the capacity to change the world,” he said. “It ain’t a politician that’s going to do it for you, it ain’t a preacher that’s going to do it.”

After denying his allegiance to either the Democratic or Republican parties, McDaniels declared himself a member of the “hip-hop” party, which he proclaimed embodies the idea of social responsibility.

Fiasco ended the night with a speech on “the union of struggle” — the bond forged by people united in opposition to injustice.

Of his experience working on the film, Fiasco simply said “It made me proud to be an American.”

Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose will host the second season of “AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange” on “World,” the 24-hour PBS digital public television channel, beginning on Dec. 2.

The documentary series shines the spotlight on contemporary life, art and pop culture across the African Diaspora. AfroPoP is produced by the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC), and co-presented by American Public Television (APT).

“Hopefully the series will shed light on our similarities across the Diaspora, the beauty of the cultures depicted and the forward progress of Africa and its people,” said Rose, who will soon appear as Disney’s first African-American princess in “The Princess and the Frog.”

“I don’t think Americans are very knowledgeable about Africa, so I think this is a wonderful and positive way to broaden our understanding,” Rose said.

For more information about the films, filmmakers, and to view trailers, visit www.AfroPoP.tv.

EURWEB

Hip-Hop activist Erica Ford, CEO and founder of Life Camp Inc., has partnered with the Rev. Al Sharpton to lead “National Day of Outrage,” a nationwide protest against violence on Nov. 23.

Sharpton will lead a rally in Atlanta while other gatherings are scheduled to take place in Houston; Cleveland; Philadelphia; Boston; Syracuse; Savannah; Eunice Louisiana; Greensboro, North Carolina and Los Angeles.

The day was organized by Sharpton’s National Action Network and will include families of victims of gun violence, activists, elected officials and concern citizens.

“We must be just as vigilant against the shootings that are random, gang related or intentional because we are in a crisis state and too many lives are being forsaken. We’ve got to come together across all lines to fight this battle,” Sharpton said in a statement.

Ford – who runs the “Bury Da Beef” program in New York and has worked with rappers like Tupac Shakur, Ja Rule and KRS-One – says of the event, “It takes a village to save a child. The strength that breathes inside of us beats the madness of society. We achieve great success when we don’t accept all the habits as normal behavior. Love your life.”

All events start at 2 p.m. ET. For information and rally details in your local area, visit www.nationalactionnetwork.net. EURWEB

I think this is a great gesture, however Sharpton is showing his age on this one. It is 2009 and I think it’s gonna take a little more than a march and some press to stop the violence. This is a good way to start the conversation however, and I do commend him for the national scope of the activities. Get it together people.

Lee Daniels, director of the new movie Precious, was photographed for the November online catalog. The brand chose Lee Daniels as one of their real models for the new campaign, along with ten other real models, deemed the “cool guys.”  The guys chosen all have biographies on the J.Crew website, asking a range of questions like Daniels’ favorite blogs, which are Oprah’s, Perez Hilton, and Get Fresh Daily. Also, he was asked who has had the biggest influence on his career and the answer of course was Oprah.