in lending that is still with us. you know, the beauty of obama's speech is, what he said, he is a man of both ends. he can talk about the president and he knows that that audience needed to hear that as well as white america needs to hear that after what we've been through this week, but then he goes on to personal responsibility and self-responsibility, and white and black america loves that. i wanted to see the shout-out to my friend jeffrey canada who the president mentioned. his harlem children is an example of both ends sinking. poverty is about prejudice but also family responsibility. if you can reach that family early, gibb them health care and parenting classes, get them involved in education, their kids do well. it's not just about, it's the teachers' responsibility or society's responsibility. it's all of our responsibility. jeffrey gets that, obama gets that. we're really on a much better path to understanding race, education and poverty with these

people in charge. i'm really proud. >> and chris, you mentioned this earlier. the fact is politically president obama can deliver those kind of remarks, give that sort of tough love in a way that a bush or clinton couldn't do it because of who he is. and i think that he recognized that. he's sort of using that pulpit. i was so struck, chris, not just watching that speech tonight in new york, but also in new jersey. how this president performs differently when he's outside of washington. something about the sort of marble formality of the white house or the halls of congress. just sort of stifling you a little bit. when he's outside of there, the jacket's off, he seems liberated and so much more -- not just because it's a black audience. that's part of it. you saw it in jersey, too, at the campaign stop. she a different person entirely and his people, his staffers are jazzed tonight to see this obama come out. this is the obama -- >> a few years in the campaign. >> finally our president and the philadelphia, better on the road. and they did, phillies can't seem to win at home.

thank you, jonathan and joan. coming up right now, "countdown with keith olbermann." which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? put your money where your political mouth is. arizona leaders complain about the stimulus. obama's team has the funds to stop coming to the state of arizona. for senators, they want the cash too. and howard simon and the obama administration's no more mr. nice guy stance with jonathan alter. irony hits the sotomayor hearing, after a week of offering the nominee in slack in her wise latina remarks, today's session left a doozy. >> we when you going to do that crack cocaine thing that you and i talk about before?

>> important to you now, senator? maybe feeling a little empathy for sotomayor? why follow the law if you can just ignore the law? former bush administration justice official john hugh hu. defending spying on millions. considering it obsolete. shocking video surfaces 25 years past as this pyrotechnic mishap lead to an addiction of painkillers and the subsequent death of michael jackson? and the nominee is -- >> now i'd like to entertain everybody with some fancy pact walk-ins. >> tina fey earns an emmy nomination. an amazing year in politics. all that and more now on "countdown." >> and i can see russia from my house.

good evening from washington, everybody. i'm david shuster in tonight for keith olbermann. like a vomby from "dawn of the dead" the stimulus has risen from a brief slumber. this story in the "countdown," president obama isn't afraid of a few ghouls and he's fighting back, forcing republican critics to howl in monstrous hypocritical agony. you may recall the senator of arizona ho cancel stimulus betting because of was a failure. the obama administration acted as though he meant what he said. four different cabinets wrote to the governor of arizona asking if she agreed with senator kyle. the transportation secretary. if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state as senator kyl suggests please let me know. a three-page list paid for by the $521 million that arizona is getting. republican governor made it clear her state wanted the money

adding, the governor is hopeful that the federal cabinet officials are not threatening to deny arizona citizen as portion of the federal stimulus to which they are entitled. governor, you might want to take that up with the junior senator from your own state. and arizona's other senator, john mccain, tried to grab his bit of flesh in this fight, quoting "i strongly support the kaunlts of senator kyl and call on the administration to retract its threat against the citizens of arizona." meantime, in our republican stimulus hypocrisy news. governor rick perry of texas directing his state to borough $643 million from the federal government to cover unemployment claims. this from the man who earlier this year rejected $550 million in stimulus money. and what does president obama think of all of this? he offered a pretty clear idea to a huge crowd in warren, michigan, earlier this week. >> i love these folks who help

get us in this mess then suddenly say, well, this is obama's economy. that's fine. give it to me. my job is to solve problems. not to stand on the sidelines and harp and gripe. >> let's call in "newsweek" magazine senior washington correspondent and political columnist and political analyst howard simon. thanks as always. >> hi, david. >> howard, as governor brewer and senator mccain calmed it a threat, but in that particular skirmish isn't the operative word out maneuvered? >> yeah, i think so, in talking to some republicans here in washington and elsewhere. i think they would probably agree this was a little like general custard saying, i really executed a brilliant ma you'ver to get myself surrounded here, because the fact it is, most governors republican and democrat in most parts of the country as governor perry really showed byes, in the clip you had earlier, they need the money and they need the projects, and they need it now.

>> when senator kyl first made his comment about the failure of the stimulus senator dick durbin let him have it reminding him only $56 billion of the $787 billion has been spent. kyl and other republicansen like congressman eric canter seemed to believe that little more than five months into this administration they can get away with a new round of slamming the stimulus? >> well i think they can complain about the economy. here to going to do so. president b blah a good comeback, when you just heard. the fact is the risk in doing what they're doing is that the stimulus program as poorly designed in some ways as it was, that needs to be admitted. it is really just getting up a head of steam now. and as a matter of fact i think over the next six to eight months or year is really going to kick in big time. that's something the democrats are going to stress. the president is going to stress. and that may, in fact have a good affect on the economy by the time, certainly by the time election time rolls around.

>> we've also seen karl rove get in on the act. the former bush senior adviser writing in the "wall street journal" today that president obama should have implemented more republican ideas, like more tax cuts for the rich, though he did not use the word rich. obviously this is a debate worth having, but are republicans bringing anything new to the debate? >> no, they're not bringing anything new, and the problem is that the tax cut philosophy as expressed by george w. bush and the republicans in charge in the congress really didn't work. it didn't work big time in the last many years of the bush presidency, and so that gives barack obama some room to maneuver. he's got to be careful, however, i think, david, because if he piles up too much spending and too many programs, that not everybody is in favor of, the additional taxes he's proposing could become politically perilous for him. i don't think it's happened yet but i can assure even though democrats aren't going to listen to karl rove they're going to be

careful on the tax front as they move forward especially on health care. >> the key question, of course, the public patience. the word plenty of republican governor to complain about stimulus money to their political createment and now the public is somewhat less patient and that it wan when mr. obama first took office, but are republicans mistaken in thinking the public is already at that tipping point ready to jettison president obama's approach? >> well, the white house is fully aware of that, in talking to them they want to stress what other juice and there's a lot of it, there is in the stimulus package and they'll be pushing that day in and day out in the coming months. as president obama tries to portray himself in the clip that you showed, a guy who's really got his sleeves rolled up and is working on the problems, and that's what he's going to show you all the republicans complaining from the sidelines. >> howard simon of "newsweek" and msnbc. howard, thank you so much. appreciate it. >> thank you, david. >> you're welcome. let's bring in howard's

colleague, "newsweek" magazine senior editor at msnbc political analyst jonathan alter. good evening to you. >> hi, david. >> republicans dare president obama to take ownership of the economy. so he does. while slamming them for being whiners and sitting on the sidelines. is that effective? >> yeah. he goats have it both ways. he can slam the carpers and whiners that he called them and continue to make the point that he didn't create this mess. continue to jump on president bush, and convey that he's really part of almost the shovel brigade, cleaning up this mess, but at the same time, he's seen as taking responsibility. that was something that he stressed over and over in the campaign. he talked about the new era of responsibility at the beginning of this presidency, and he's not in any position to shirk that responsibility. so right now he's kind of walking a fine line between

blaming his predecessor and taking responsibility. i think he's doing a pretty good job doing it. >> of course, the president an his surrogates have been out there reminding the public it's still way to early to judge the effectiveness of the stimulus, but isn't this small change compared to what president obama is prepared to do or could bring on the bully pulpit, should review the public stations as truly fragile? he hasn't addressed it head-on in a news conference yet? >> he has not really started to expend his political capital. 's in a news conference much less a primetime oval office address. when you do that, you're really going to the people, and you're putting it on the line. i think you can expect him to do that at the opportune moment when health care really ripens in september or october. you will see him cash in some chips, but it's not time for him to do that yet. >> getting back to the senator kyl, one of the various ways

that i suppose we could look at this is one thing that certainly is obvious. that is this administration was sick and tired of republican politicians and the stimulus, some of whom then go back to constituents and act like they played some part in getting the money. >> these guys really have a lot of nerve, and i think it's really also pretty appropriate that it happened to governor brewer out in arizona. you know, she replaced janet napolitano, done a very good job of running that state. brewer comes in, starts basically running it into the ground, and she slashes with the help of the legislature, slashes money for education, which is what the future of that state or any other state is based on. so for her to now turn around and get it, for siding with jon kyl and wanting to turn down stimulus money until called on by the white house, i think it's

just for the governor and any other, mark sanford or any of these other governors who think they can score political points by attacking obama on the stimulus, and not take the money. >> it's been reported when senator kyl made his comments it was white house chief of staff rahm emanuel who directed that letter be sent to governor brewer. this after some democrats worried that the white house did not have a coordinated response to renew republican attacks. is it safe to say the white house is back on its feet? >> well, i don't think they were off their feet on this. look, howard is right, that the stimulus was not structured in an optimal way, and it was a real design problem with that and they're seeing some of the effects of that. i do think they're showing a little more toughness now politically worrying a little less about bipartisanship and more about calling out the hypocrites which is what these folks are, if they attack the

stimulus and then at the seam time want to take the money. >> jonathan alter of "newsweek" and msnbc. thanks as always. appreciate it. >> thanks, david. >> you're welcome. the politics of pandering from the gop, also front and center at the sotomayor hearings today. after begging for more time to scour the record, the week devoted almost entirely to her speeches instead of her ruling. after telling the nominee how much they were bothered by letter wise latina comment, today visiting session with one giant slip of the tongue. we're going to do that crack cocaine thing you and i have talk about before, end quote. that's next on "countdown." re/max agents have the experience to get the job done. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. where do you want to be?

we all knew republicans weren't making headway in the sonia sotomayor hearings. but did he have to announce he was going to do some crack cocaine? and bringing torture in your

name defends his right to ignore the law so the u.s. can spy on you. that and tina fey gets an emmy for playing sarah palin. that's next. this is "countdown." taking its rightful place in a long line of amazing performance machines. this is the new e-coupe. this is mercedes-benz.

d only from progressive.oupe. call or click today. in her duties as an associate justice in the united states supreme court, would sonia sotomayor be, a, ruling on the law, or, b, giving speeches? despite the republican fixation ob judge sotomayor's speeches all that really matters is the nominee's judicial record. our story in the "countdown," republicans can find nothing wrong with judge sotomayor's 17

years on the bench. not that they haven't tried, no the that they didn't try some more today. republicans extended question time to a third round of ten minutes each. the democrats all took a pass. when the ranking republican greeted the witness this afternoon, senator jeff sessions of alabama learned firsthand why the context of what you say can be so important. >> during these hearings we're going to do that crack cocaine thing that you and i have talked about before. >> hear only that portion of his racks and it makes you wonder exactly how senator sessions planned to unwind after the hearing was finished for the day? you know, same as if you heard or only heard the part of judge sotomayor's speech in which she said, she hoped that a wise latino woman would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male. but if you give senator sessions a chance to explain himself, what he really meant to say becomes obvious lp. >> we've got to -- >> thank you, senator. i appreciate it. >> i want to restate that.

>> let me correct the record. >> please, rephrase it, senator. please, rephrase. >> i misspoke. >> quite all right. >> we're going to reduce the burden of penalties in some of the crack cocaine cases and make them fair. >> four days summed up by that one sound bite. four days in which republican senators have been fixated on lines taken out of context from speeches by judge sotomayor, because they can't find anything wrong with her judicial record. >> what should i tell my constituents who are watching these hearings and saying to themselves, she says one thing but at these hearings you are saying something which sounds contradictory, if not diametrically opposed to some of the things you've said in speeches around the country? >> i would tell them to look at my suspicions for 17 years, at

my decisions for 17 years and note that in every one of them i have done what i say i so firmly believe in. i proved my fidelity to the law, the fact that i do not permit personal views, sympathies or prejudices to influence the outcome of cases, rejecting the challenges of numerous plaintiffs with undisputably sympathetic claims. >> the plaintiff, like frank richey, a firefighter who sued the city of new haven, connecticut and turned out today to testify against judge sotomayor. she was among the judges who roomed for the city when it threw out a case that would have qualified he and others for proeths but not african-americans. judge sotomayor base herd decision not on the personal stories of the firefighters but on the law. something today's questions made clear. the firefighters know little about.

>> do you have any reason to think that judge sotomayor acted in anything other than good faith in trying to reach a fair decision in the case? >> that's beyond my legal expertise. i'm not an attorney or a legal scholar. i simply welcomed an invitation by the united states senate to come here today and, because this is our first time that we've got ton testify about our stories. so i can't comment on -- >> in the end, republicans who have indicated they're likely to vote for judge sotomayor and those who will vote against even reached agreement on her judicial views. >> you have as a judge been generally in the mainstream. >> judge you know, i actually agree that your judicial record strikes me as pretty much in the mainstream of judicial decision-making by district court judges and by court of appeals judges on the federal

bench. you appear to be a different person, almost, in your speeches and in some of the comments that you've made. >> to talk about this, the former chief of staff of the senate finance committee when chaired by the late senator patrick moynihan. good morning. >> good to be here. >> even the senator concluded judge sotomayor's judicial record does not matsch her speeches. wasn't that supposed to be the focus of these hearing? >> you would think, but when you have the speeches and it has meaty stuff in it, they're going to go out. and, look, what the public has to remember about these hearings is, these are the television invention. there were virtually no confirmation hearings for the supreme court before the invention of television. all the famous supreme court justices, that you read about in the history books as a kid had no confirmation hearings at all. so this is show, and that's what they were doing, and that's why

they didn't concentrate on her judicial opinion, 17 years as a judge. he concentrated or two or three speeches here and there, because this is not bought show and that's what these hearings always are. >> senator sessions and hits crack cocaine declaration. maybe the most ironic moment of the hearing, considering how republicans have taken judge sotomayor's remarks out of context? >> you can see why jeff sessions had a lot of trouble when he was nominated for the federal bench and came to that committee for a confirmation hearing. he couldn't make it through. so it's -- you know, look, that's what she was up against. that's the kind of ability she was up against, and she knew it going in. she'd been confirmed by that committee twice before. i think she entered confidentially. y i think she knew in a way how difficult it was going to be and how easy it was going to be. >> firefighters frank richey admit head could not comment on anything requires legal

expertise, but nor should we expect him to be able to. what about the republican the case against sotomayor when this was their star witness? >> yeah. look, he wasn't there in any sense to testify against her. they brought him in there for show. he told his story in a very articulate way, a very sympathetic witness. another hispanic firefighter who told a similar story and this was the only time they got tell their stories. it was actually quite an important moment for them in a way provided by sonia sotomayor. if she had not been the nominee they never would have gotten to tell their stories and, oh, by the way, the supreme court would have ruled in their favor, anyway. the end of their story is that the system worked very, very much in their favor, and republicans have been trying to use them as an example of the system working against people. the republicans forget that these guys won the case in the end. >> senator graham all but said again today he would be voting to confirm judge sotomayor.

so when might we consider her to be confirm and what kind of justice do you expect her to be? >> she'll be the solid judge he's been in the last 17 years. a clear record. i think a leader on the supreme court. the majority leader is trying to get this vote in before the august recess. i think he might be able to. he might be able to get as early as the end of next week. they have to get some appropriation bills off the floor and done before that. so there's a lot of work to do. they might stretch out a little bit going into the august recess and not go into the august recess exactly when they thought. so i think she will be confirmed by the senate before the august recess, and she'll be able to start setting up her office in the supreme court in august. >> which would make this even faster in terms of the timeline that a lot of people thought initially. >> exactly. >> and chairman leahy was being criticized for the high speed timetable earlier by republicans. they completely surrendered on that criticism. all agreed that the committee and leahy bran ran a very fair

hearing and the times was fair. >> and at msnbc, lawrence, thank you so much. sock, ladies. question. would you say yes if this is how you were proposed to? hmm. and later, the michael jackson pepsi commercial disaster the never before seen video and why some sap this was a huge turning point in the king of pop's life. sap this was a huge turning point in the king of pop's life. ysap this was a huge turning point in the king of pop's life. this was a huge turning point in the king of pop's life. ♪ on this endless ocean ♪ finally lovers know no shame ♪

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on this date in 1969 at 9:32 in the morning, three men climbed into a metal tower standing 363 feet tall. with the extension of the three men and a tiny chamber on top the vast majority of the touter was filled with millions of pounds of explosives. after the men got inside, they set the explosives on fire. 12 minutes later the burning explosive that had thrown the tower so high it went toish it and the earth. a rocket would separate into pieces the smallest of which took two of those men to the moon. let's play "oddball." we begin in osaka, japan where the washington nationals are touring and predictably playing like a bunch of old women. wait. these are old women. the team the osaka silver sister, grandmothers all, average age, 75. former pros back in their 20s,

the team nerve are took off after scandalizing spectators with the lascivious outfits. you can see here. a reunion in 2005 although they sometimes take on a younger male team, the grannies have advantages. namely, lighter on their feet and the benefits of one pace maker and performance-enhancing drugs like geritol. play ball! england, hello. whoa, buddy! i said, hello, not audi, sailor. meet pete who wouldn't be the first to tape himself in his tidy whities or the first to set it to music. might not be the man to show the individual grow a public audience. looking at you. he probably is the person to do it for pete's reasons. the charming young woman by his side, he took her to what we he

thought was an event, but it was pete in his underradios. the video was a marriage proposal. she said, yes. and then removed the guarder belt. finally, to rio de janeiro with a new twist on hanging out at home. meet the primo brothers. houses with roofs, windows and ceilings and stuff are boring. they spend time eading, reading, sleeping off the side of at building instead using climbing gear to maneuver between a bed, desk and happenic, the brothers spent 14 hours a way with furniture nailed to support walls. when asked if they were afraid of heights, they said, no, but it would be nice if the rent fell. coming up, in defensive spies one of the justifiers of the bush/cheney wiretapping program takes notion some prefer they follow the constitution, which they swore a note to

defend. and sarah palin, and tina fey's portrayal of her. emmy nomination. all that and more ahead on "countdown." and now a song for mary... from a mr. broom. ♪ don't you want me, baby ♪ don't you want me, ohhhh new swiffer sweeper is redesigned... to clean deeper into corners. dry cloths trap and lock 50% more dirt, dust and hair than a broom... with a new dirt grabbing texture. the all new swiffer sweeper... cleans better or your money back, guaranteed.

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based on bush and his department lawyer using justification of torture rejected even by the bush administration the obama justice department recommended disciplinary action against hu by the bar association. the number two story, latest defense of surveillance is so poorly done the guy really ought to be disbarred just for plain old ineptitude. pushing back after five inspectors general singled him out for special score in his report unveiling bush's activity was far beyond the wiretapping mr. bush admitted to. gets three things wrong in the first sentence. it was instantly clear after september 11, 2001 that our

security agencies knew little about al qaeda's inner works, could not detect its operative entstry into the country nor blictwhere it might strike next. new little about al qaeda's inner workings? in 1996 jamal spent six months debriefing the cia about all kind of network company, farms and port operations and told the "new yorker" magazine. for instance could, not detect al qaeda's entry into the country. on august 6, 2001, president bush was ex-press is it warned al qaeda had members in the u.s. in march of 1999, german intel gave the u.s. information about al sheehy and asked thousand track him down. the u.s. famed to do so and next picked up his trail after he piloted united flight 175 into the south tower. the cia began investigating the others in january 2000, but did not put them on the watch list

until august 23, 2001, after they were in the united states. and couldn't predict where al qaeda would strike. a year before the africa embassy bombings the cia learned about the bombing plot. when a member of al qaeda walked into the nairobi embassy and told them about it. after the first world trade center bombing investigators found an e-mail constructed needing all the -- "next time it will be very precise." no surprising you get everything else wrong claiming that the law requires warrant is obsolete, meaning it is not the law. despite the fact he feels that in 2003, the laws were perfectly fine. a little surprised, perhaps, today we learned the bush administration assassination squad also fell short. national intelligence director telling the "washington post" it was cancelled because intelligence officials had serious questions about his effective tz, maturity and level

of control. we're joined by scott, a lawyer studied abuses related to this and serves as contributing editor of harper's magazine. thanks for your time tonight. >> great to be with you. >> going further than he ever did in the bush administration essentially tossing the federal surveillance into the obsolete pile at the geneva convention and also argues that the presidency itself was created xpefkly because the founder wanted to quick moving action gear in charge for emergencies. care to respond? >> exactly right. our founding fathers obviously wanted george iii to remain at king of the kingdom of america. that's the new view. >> mr. hughes, reasoning, it's so bad, he actually takes the argument that you need a warrant to wiretap and treeds as, you should not wiretap. is this dishonesty, or something else? >> it's dishonesty.

he knows very well the statute doesn't require a warrant in the sense of a probe, the only thing required is the government la to show relevance that there actually is reason or national security concerned that motivate the request for surveillance and also authorizes the president and the attorney general to authorize wiretaps and surveillance for a period of time without a warrant. so it gives much more flexibility than you suggest and as that piece. we should note that john hu when he refused to carpet, when he appeared before congress and asked questions, he can't answer, but then writes these long ridiculous pieces that are published in the "wall street journal" and the "philadelphia inquirer." >> he also writes the best way to find an al qaeda operative is

to look at all e-mail, texts and phone traffic between pakistan, afghanistan and the united states. is that not a somewhat childish or at least simple approach to counterterrorism coming from one of the so-called big brains of the bush counter terror group? >> the point is not to say there should be no effort between monitoring between al qaeda leadership and operatives. we want that. the point is that our constitution requires some checks on what the executive does. the executive can't use this authority to wiretap or observe a journalist or analyst or political figures. we know base and disclosures that came out of the last three year, they did all of those things. >> we've heard from other former bush administration officials who made the same defense. that the united states couldn't possibly have known what al qaeda was up to or where they might attack. is it becoming a case where 2 was just official after

officials were sort of so out of touch or willfully wanted to ignore the evidence they before 9/11? >> i think it's really more actually democrat doingry. a piece in giving the administration all it wanted and this sort of rett rik was used an used very, very effectively to intimidate congress and congressional leaders to give them what they wanted. then, by the way, when they got that, they proceeded to ignore the amendments and authority they got under the amendments. they continued to illegally. >> finally, "the washington post" reports it came to leon pennetta's attention, because they were about to take it operational again. your saszment is there more we need to hear about this, a, never got off the ground yet and, b, because it caused such a ruckus. >> we should be skeptical that the rockets never got off the ground. rer, we're looking at the national security act of 1947

saying there was a requirement to brief an operational program. and you really believe leon piniel piniella, rushing the congress to brief them if in fact that program had never been operational? there's too much evidence now actions were taken based on this plan. >> scott horton, national security lawyer and contributing editor "harper's" magazine. nice having you. >> great to be with you. new video, the special effects disaster some say was the catalyst for michael jackson's life to spiral out of control. tina fey gets good news this morning. her portrayal of sarah palin bets her and emmy nod for "saturday night live." and when rage many joins you at the top of the hour, pat buchanan joins her over the confirmation hearing of judge sonia sotomayor. arthritis pain.. in your hands... knees... and back.

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you've heard about the accident for years. now see it for yourself. the explosion that sent michael jackson's hair on fire. later, sarah palin may have been the runner-up for vice president in the 2008 election, but tina fey could get a big win at the emmy for her portrayal of the alaskan governor. the shenanigans that never get old, ahead on "countdown." - girls: yeah! - announcer: welcome to the now network.

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homicide. the los angeles coroner working on the case told the associated press the toxicology thoughts may determine the cause of death could be back next as early as next week. but in our number two story, shocking new video of jackson's 1984 pepsi commercial accident that may point to the beginning of his deadly addiction to pain medication. ♪ . >> reporter: it was michael jackson's final day of the pepsi commercial that changed everything. the take was going smoothly until take six. a flash on stage. the pyrotechnics exploded too early and suddenly the king of pop was on fire, in this never before seen video, you can see the flames shooting from his hair. >> when i showed this video, it's just absolute shock. his hair is actually on fire for about eight seconds before anybody steps in to put it out and he continues dancing

oblivious to the fact his hair is alive. >> reporter: jackson kept performing to the cameras and 3,000 fan there's to watch. still smoking as people rushed to help. >> when he suddenly realized there was a fire, he put his sequinsed white glove on his head and tried to put it out. >> reporter: he looked shocked moop wouldn't be? with the slowed video you can see the hair zinged off. january 1984, michael jackson was at the height of his career but this would become the watershed moment of his life. >> the pepsi commercial going wrong almost pinpoints, really, the beginning of the end. when everything started to go wrong. this is when he first became addicted to painkillers. he was prescribed demerol to get over this injury. >> reporter: "us weekly" magazine obtained the video and poefrted it online top this day the jackson family blames the pepsi incident for many of michael jackson's problems. jermaine jackson spoke at it at

neverland. >> i had heard about when he had the perps pepsi burn. >> reporter: 25 years later prescription drugs are at the center of his death investigation. turning over medical records including dr. klein and conrad murray with jackson at the time of his death. dr. murray is now in virtual hiding though his lawyer denies the doctor did anything wrong. his spokesperson tells nbc news he met with investigators twice. the final interview on june 28 27th, two days after jackson died, lasted three hours. they say he heen been served subpoenas or search warrants and turned over all documents requested. usc law professor jean rosenblum says prosecutors have an opportunity here to send a message. >> when the whole world is watching you've got a high profile victim, you get more bang for your buck if you go after the people criminally responsible in a situation like that.

>> jeff rossen reporting. according to tmz, they're focusing their investigation on doctor murray and asking for the king of pop's determinologist and klein. a big day for the television industry and an even bigger day for tina fey. emmy nod for her bore phoning her work on "30 rock" and portrayal of the future ex-governor of alaska. a look back at why fey is getting such high praise, next on "countdown." having the right tools is crucial to being able to manage your diabetes properly. it's very important for me to uh check my blood sugar before i go on stage. being on when i'm feeling low can be like a rollercoaster. it does at times feel like my body is telling me to do one thing... and, my mind, my heart is telling me to do something else.

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anont cfidedence ininin o. caususususlendnds s ve a a a t tcks. ququq n . maybe it was the fancy pageant walk or going rogue on tbc. perhaps she had the, i can see russia from my house. our number one story, tina fey

now emmy nominated. only ten more days until sarah palin becomes the ex-governor of alaska. tina fey's portrayal goes on. receiveds nomination for outstanding role. a category pitting her against two guest stars from fey's old serious "30 rock" which nabbed 22 nominations, highest ever for a comedy in a single season. meanwhile, "saturday night live" scored 13 nominations total's in part for its role during the 2008 presidential campaign season. both shows, of course, can be seen on nbc. now, as fey's fictional palin prepares for the honor, does this mean sarah palin will attend the emmy? a clip courtesy of "saturday night live." >> live from new york -- >> live from new york --

>> it's saturday night! >> i'm john mccain. i approve this message. >> what's the difference between a -- >> a pimple. >> lipstick. ♪ what i got you can't >> because i -- >> great. >> we don't agree on everything -- >> anything. >> barack obama says he wants universal health care. is that so? health care for the entire universe? including osama bin laden? >> i would like to take this opportunity to make my proponent a proposal. effective immediately each of us suspend our campaigns and instead hold a series of three pie eating contests. >> i believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy, and i can see russia from my house. >> i would now like to give each of you a chance to make a closing statement.

>> are we not doing the "talent portio portion"? ♪ ♪ solid as a rock >> who is that under there? >> i enjoy being myself. i'm not going to change who i am just because it's halloween. >> well, that's -- that's great. love your outfit. >> well, i love your outfit. >> thank you. >> i do want the earrings back. >> oh. [ laughter ] >> do i really laugh like that? >> oh -- >> all right, all right. >> barack obama purchased air time on three major networks. we, however, can only afford qvc. >> these campaigns sure are expensive. >> they sure are.

>> and who wouldn't want the complete set of limited edition joe action figures? joe the plumber. joe six pack and my personal favorite, joe biden. you pull this string he talks for 45 minutes. >> tried to work every day. after work i take it home. >> i'm going rogue right noi. so keep your voices down. available now, we got a bunch of these t-shirts. >> i will continue what i've done for 25 years, which is to reach across party lines. somebody that pee pants over here would never even consider. >> oh, no. it's that crazy lady from the mccain rally. oh, no. >> question about obama. i -- do nothing, can't take -- obama [ mumbling ]