R.I.P.

What a long strange trip it's been.

OH COME THE F--K ON

What do you expect from Mikey?

Sanford, Farrah, now Michael! So much for health care...

Sanford, Farrah, now Michael! So much for health care...
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The cheap distractions just keep on a'comin JC-san.

I'M the only one semi-serious? The world is doomed.

"My twitter search script sees roughly 15% of all posts on Twitter mentioning Michael Jackson. Never saw Iran or swine flu reach over 5%"
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Vivid evidence of our genetic closeness to chimpanzees.

Vivid evidence of our genetic closeness to chimpanzees.
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Chimpanzees are easily distracted and celebrity-obsessed?

MJ had one on his shoulder for years, so the answer must be yes.

MJ had one on his shoulder for years, so the answer must be yes.
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Good point, although I oddly thought of that as MJ's one true love. I'm gonna go nap, wake if/when the world ends.

3,500+ cds
750+ albums
500-600 cassettes
Ones by Jackson (0)

The amount of posts on Sanford was embarrassing, but no less so than the number of comments in each (and in all fairness, that was a political issue). I didn't see any posts in the Swamp about Farrah, and a single 9 word post on Jackson hardly seems like a diversion. There have been numerous substantive posts on health care here (mostly by KT), so I hardly think it's time to declare that this blog is giving up on reform. Unless perhaps you meant that the media establishment in general is easily distracted?

Born a poor young black boy. Dies a very wealthy middle-aged white woman. What a country.

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RIP Sky Saxon
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I liked this post, and the linked story. And the linked video. Thanks, MS.

I don't see why some of you guys think it's so bad that he posted this. Jackson was a cultural phenomenon, he ruled music for a decade. Geez.

I remember being very surprised at my visceral defense of Michael Jackson when the first allegations against him surfaced. Though a big Jackson fan growing up (born 1978), by the mid-90's I was very much a Nirvana/Pearl Jam-inspired grunge king and very teen angsty and unsentimental. But I just felt that Michael was misunderstood, and that, as Sebastian at Obsidian Wings said: "that Michael Jackson was the only person I could imagine who was so weird that it was even remotely plausible that he could be sleeping in the same bed with those kids and not be molesting them."
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Ultimately, I was probably wrong about that, but I will never forget being unable to shake the feeling that he was getting a raw deal. I'm a little surprised at how sad I am about this even today.
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I really hope he is able find greater peace in the next life then he had in this one.

"Born a poor young black boy. Dies a very wealthy middle-aged white woman. What a country."
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Funniest thing I've ever read. You made my night, sacred, thanks for that

What anon76 said. It can't be "serious" all the time - that gets boring. At the same time, that's no excuse for not covering, or white-washing, or false-equivalizing - I'm looking at you, JNS - the serious stories when they _do_ come up. And look at the bright side... no spob.
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sacred: what?! No 8-tracks? And I don't think s/he/it was that wealthy, in the end. Wasn't he trying to work out a deal to avoid bankruptcy?
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In any case, I'll bet hundreds, if not thousands, of young boys all over the world will sigh deeply in relief...

sacred: what?! No 8-tracks? And I don't think s/he/it was that wealthy, in the end. Wasn't he trying to work out a deal to avoid bankruptcy?
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He owned the rights to about half the Beatles catalogue. It's my understanding the monetary troubles were caused more from mismanagement than anything else. Sort of a moot point now.

yutsano –
True enough – moot indeed. As a wise colleague once observed, "I've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul." That said, if MS's Twitter criterion is valid he should be covering the Jonas Brothers instead of the White House.
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Come to think of it, that's what we might call "win-win."

I don't see why some of you guys think it's so bad that he posted this.
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We get three days of nonstop wall-to-wall Sanford coverage, and then this. On a politics blog.
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The very same politics blog where KT begged off commenting on the cops getting killed by the skinhead in Pennsylvania because it's not politics.
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At the very same time the health care bill, the global warming legislation AND the financial system overhaul are getting dismantled on Capitol Hill.

8000 reporters telling each other how they listened to "Thriller" in junior high school is not news. It's nostalgia.
 
This is the one time that Fox News has it all over CNN. Their viewers couldn't care less about a "worldwide outpouring of grief", so Fox can spend just a little extra time pumping out the lies.
 
Too young to die. Sorry for his family. Very influential man. Eyes back on the road, please.

This is a huge gift to Mark Sanford. After the wall-to-wall coverage this weekend of MJ I doubt anyone will remember.

I'm watching morning Joe and my god Maureen Orth or whatever her name is can't trash
Michael enough. She had the nerve to say this is a great ending for MJ of course John Ridley slapped her viscious a$$ down. This from a woman whose husband's sudden death forced us all to listen to weeks of never ending tributes to Tim Russert.
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MJ I always thought your eccentricities were too much for me to ever leave my chrildren with you, but unless someone provides proof not rumors about child abuse, I'm just going to remember the incredible music, the soundtrack of my entire life. Peace out!