memeorandum: U.S. Retracts Iran's July 4 Invites (Wall Street Journal)

7:50 PM ET, June 25, 2009

Top Items:

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.

Discussion: Wonkette, USA Today, The Washington Note, Jules Crittenden, distributedrepublic …, Six Meat Buffet, Piece of Work In Progress, TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider, Gawker, The Volokh Conspiracy, Pajamas Media, Macsmind and Runnin' Scared

Shelby Grad / L.A. Now:

Michael Jackson is dead [Updated] — [Updated at 3:15 p.m.: Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead by doctors this afternoon after arriving at a hospital in a deep coma, city and law enforcement sources told The Times.] — [Updated at 2:46 p.m.: Jackson is in a coma and his family …

Discussion: American Power, Newsweek Blogs, Swampland, Truthdig, The Democratic Daily, TalkLeft, La Figa and TMZ.com

msnbc.com:

Singer Michael Jackson dead at 50 — Newspaper reports pop star wasn't breathing when ambulance arrived — Michael Jackson had been planning to start a series of comeback concerts in London and had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.

Discussion: Roger Ailes and Mashable!

New York Times:

Michael Jackson, 50, Is Dead — This post is written by Brooks Barnes in Los Angeles and Ben Sisario and Brian Stelter in New York. — Quincy Jones Reacts | 7:06 p.m. “I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news,” the music producer Quincy Jones said in a statement read by MSNBC.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Reason and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

CNN:

Reports: Michael Jackson has died — (CNN) — Entertainer Michael Jackson has died after being taken to a hospital on Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports including the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. CNN has not confirmed his death.

Chris Orr / The New Republic:

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

Discussion: Ideas Special Report, No More Mister Nice Blog and Democratic Strategist

Gina Smith / The State:

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.

Discussion: New York Times, The New Republic, Michael Calderone's Blog, Wonkette and The Sleuth

Fox News:

Sanford's Mistress Identified as Professional, Passionate and Beautiful Brunette — Details are emerging about South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mistress, whom he visited in Argentina last week after his wife told him to leave. — FOXNews.com — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's mistress …

Discussion: Slate, WIS-TV, Gallup, The Huffington Post, The State, theblogprof, Weekly Standard, The Other McCain and Achenblog

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:

Limbaugh On The Sanford Affair: It's Obama's Fault! — On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh offered his own explanation for the Mark Sanford scandal: That Sanford flew out of the country to have an affair because President Obama drove him over the edge: — “This is almost like …

Discussion: Paul Krugman, Democratic Strategist and Pam's House Blend

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Exclusive: Sanford booked 10-day getaway — On or around the day his wife asked him to move out, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford booked a ten-day trip to Buenos Aires, a person familiar with the governor's travel plans told POLITICO. — Sanford booked the trip on Delta Air Lines on June 10 …

Discussion: News Desk, Leon_H_Wolf's blog, Emptywheel, Taegan Goddard's …, Daily Kos and PoliPundit.com

TMZ.com:

Governor Hit the Bar with the Mistress — We've been on the hunt in Buenos Aires, Argentina and found the bar where Governor Mark Sanford brought his mistress — so how do you say PDA in Spanish? — Carlos Soto, the owner of Guido's Bar, says he's seen Sanford and Maria Belen Chapur …

Discussion: FITSNews, The News Bizarre, Gawker, The Impolitic and TPMMuckraker

Zachary Roth / TPMMuckraker:
Media Recap: Credulous Press Ate Up Spin From Sanford's Office

Discussion: The New Republic, Grasping Reality … and Eschaton

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Sanford Adviser: Resignation Not An Option

Discussion: The Post and Courier, Crooks and Liars, Washington Post, Salon and Daily Kos

S.A. Miller / Washington Times:
Social conservatives fall from moral high ground

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Newsweek, Indecision Forever, The New Ledger and The Note

Michael Falcone / The Politico:
Poll: Half say Sanford should resign

Discussion: CNN, FiveThirtyEight, Salon, Hot Air, TPMDC, Real Clear Politics and Washington Monthly

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Sanford had trade mission rendezvous

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Democracy in America and Hotline On Call

Hollywoodreporter / The Live Feed:

ABC's White House special struggled for viewers — President Obama's town hall meeting on health care delivered a sickly rating Wednesday evening. — The one-hour ABC News special “Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America” (4.7 million viewers …

Discussion: Say Anything, Ben Smith's Blog, Riehl World View, Connecting.the.Dots, Commentary, Washington Post, Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, Townhall.com, GayPatriot, Politics Nation and NewsBusters.org

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

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.

Peter Nicholas / Los Angeles Times:

Obama discusses deathbed measures — At a healthcare town hall, he says stopping futile procedures for the terminally ill can lower costs. — Reporting from Washington — President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive …

Discussion: Right Wing News, Say Anything, The Corner, The Swamp, The Mahablog, White House Watch, Pundit & Pundette and AmSpecBlog

Jeff Poor / The Business & Media Institute:
ABC ObamaCare Special Turns Into Presidential Filibuster

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Flopping Aces

David Stout / New York Times:

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 …

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy, Obsidian Wings, USA Today, Daily Kos, pandagon.net, ACS Blog, DISSENTING JUSTICE, The Moderate Voice, Joanne Jacobs, The Impolitic, RHRealityCheck.org, Balloon Juice and Liberal Values

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Analysis: Law need not bow to chemistry

Discussion: Reason

Scott Lemieux / Lawyers, Guns and Money:
Court Finds Arbitrary Strip Search Unconstitutional

Discussion: American Prospect, The Opinionator, Law Blog, Cato @ Liberty, ACS Blog and The Washington Independent

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
Supreme Court Rules School's Strip Search of Girl Was Illegal

Discussion: SCOTUSblog, Los Angeles Times, Althouse, Reason, Law Librarian Blog, PoliGazette and JustOneMinute

Michelle Malkin:

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.

Discussion: alicublog

Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Perino: Sanford affair proves we need to ‘elect more women.’

Discussion: ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Pam's House Blend, MoJo Blog Posts and Democracy in America

David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
Conservatives Write Off Sanford as a National Leader

Discussion: Erick's blog, The Bilerico Project, Top Stories from CQ, Ben Smith's Blog and Sadly, No!

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Neocons Bemoan USA Soccer Victory — Gary Schmitt, formerly of the Project for a New American Century, has a bizarre post up at an AEI blog in which he laments the fact that the United States upset Spain in the Confederation Cup, then further laments the fact that soccer exhibits a high degree …

Discussion: New York Times

Spectator:
The Never-Ending Neoconservative War On Soccer

Discussion: EPL Talk and Reuters

Gary Schmitt / The Enterprise Blog:
The Not-so-beautiful Game

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Alexander Mooney / CNN:

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.

Discussion: Conservatives4Palin.com, Wonkette, Riehl World View and Liberal Values

Patrick Gavin / The Politico:

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.

Discussion: The Swamp, The Note and Ben Smith's Blog

Peter Baker / New York Times: How a Blogger's News Conference Query Came About

People.com:

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 …

Ali Frick / Think Progress:

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 …

Discussion: TPMDC, Washington Monthly, Wonkette, Balloon Juice and MoJo Blog Posts

Wall Street Journal:

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.

Discussion: The Politico, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, And So it Goes in Shreveport, The Other McCain, Gateway Pundit, The Foundry, A Blog For All, Left in the West, Hot Air, FiveThirtyEight, Roll Call, Maggie's Farm, The Rhetorican, Commentary and Riehl World View

The Huffington Post:

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 …

Discussion: Democracy in America and Campaign Silo

Akiva Eldar / Haaretz:

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.

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Salon

James Hibberd / Hollywood Reporter:

Fox News set for best year yet — Viewership solid as rivals take post-election hits — Fox News is on track to have its most-watched year ever, showing significant ratings growth despite having just come off a highflying election year. — With the second quarter coming to a close …

Discussion: Democracy in America

BBC:

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 …

Discussion: The Huffington Post