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.

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

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.

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 …

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 Never-Ending Neoconservative War On Soccer  —  Long-time readers may recall that one of this blog's minor amusements is chronicling the ridiculous extent to which some Americans - mainly, it must be said, on the right - go in their efforts to decry the baleful influence of soccer upon …

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.

Farrah Fawcett Dies of Cancer at 62  —  Farrah Fawcett, who skyrocketed to fame as one of a trio of impossibly glamorous private eyes on TV's Charlie's Angels, has died after a long battle with cancer.  She was 62.  —  Fawcett died at 9:28 a.m. PST on Thursday at St. John's Heath Center in Santa Monica …

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.

Kerry Pushes For Public Option Trigger In Closed-Door Meeting  —  In a closed-door meeting of Senate Finance Committee Democratic members and their staff Wednesday evening, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) suggested that if the committee bill didn't have enough votes for a public option it include …

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 …