Michael Jackson Dies  —  We've just learned Michael Jackson has died.  He was 50.  —  Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him.  We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.

Obama's Michael Dukakis moment  —  Barack Obama got ABC to move their news division into the White House in order to make the big pitch for his egalitarian, everyone-gets-treated-equally ObamaCare push.  Instead, Obama fumbled into a Michael Dukakis moment that exposed him as a hypocrite.

Hunch leads to airport and tired, troubled Sanford  —  It was about 6:15 a.m. Wednesday as I stood in the waiting area at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, squinting my eyes to see whether Gov. Mark Sanford was part of a crowd exiting the plane from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Supreme Court Says Child's Rights Violated by Strip Search  —  WASHINGTON — In a ruling of interest to educators, parents and students across the country, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, on Thursday that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking …

Limbaugh to GOP: ‘Screw it’  —  Defying parody once again, Rush Limbaugh lays the Sanford affair at President Obama's feet: … I guess this means we can look forward to a lot more GOP sex scandals...  (via TPM; full audio here)  —Christopher Orr

Bad taste award  —  I don't find anything funny about the Sanford affair.  It's the mom in me thinking about four handsome boys on Father's Day weekend abandoned by their stupid, selfish father, who was busy tanning with his mistress in Argentina.  Heart-breaking.  Yes.  Nauseating.  Yes.

The Not-so-beautiful Game  —  Yesterday, in what might be one of most stunning upsets ever, the U.S. men's soccer team beat Spain 2-0.  In doing so, the U.S. team beat the top-ranked national team in the world, ended Spain's record-setting unbeaten streak of 35 games, and put the Americans …

Palin hits back at ‘malicious’ photo  —  (CNN) - A week after a high-profile uproar with comedian David Letterman over the late-night host's joke about her daughter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is again sharply responding to the appearance of her children in the public sphere.

Emanuel: Sanford needed a cigarette  —  Perhaps no one knows how to butter up reporters better than White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.  —  The longtime Washington insider is known for personally reaching out to reporters and always being cognizant of the media landscape.

Bachmann's Latest Irrational Fear About The Census: It Was Used To Intern The Japanese  —  Last week, Rep. Michele “I'm not a kook” Bachmann (R-MN) boasted about breaking the law in refusing to complete the 2010 Census.  The Census is the perfect boogeyman for Bachmann in that it unites …

The Cap and Tax Fiction  —  Democrats off-loading economics to pass climate change bill.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put cap-and-trade legislation on a forced march through the House, and the bill may get a full vote as early as Friday.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi slams Iran's leaders  —  Mousavi speaks out after days of quiet, blasting the nation's supreme leader and state-controlled media.  He promises to continue his campaign to have Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection annulled.  —  Reporting from Tehran — After days of relative quiet …

Final moments  —  Neda was standing a metre away from me... I saw blood gushing out of her chest"  —  The doctor who tried to save an Iranian protester as she bled to death on a street in Tehran has told the BBC of her final moments.  —  Dr Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university …

Europeans: Gilad Shalit transfer to Egypt imminent  —  European diplomatic sources said Thursday that kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit will be transferred to Egypt in the coming hours or coming days.  —  This information has yet to be confirmed by Israeli officials.

Dems see agenda slipping  —  There is a growing sense among Democrats that they will not be able to accomplish the entire agenda leaders set for 2009, pushing major policy debates into the midterm election year.  —  Concerns over the cost of overhauling the nation's healthcare system have served as a wake-up call to lawmakers.