Huffington Post has hired Dan Froomkin. Great decision by Arianna.

Al Franken has been sworn in as U.S. Senator. The Dems now have their 60 majority.

The family motorcade is leaving Forest Lawn for the Staples Center. The motorcade includes a hearse which contains Michael Jackson's casket. MSNBC has medical examiner Cyril Wecht, fresh off the heels of the dismissal of fraud charges against him, providing commentary. Lots of talk about whether the doctors committed a crime in prescribing drugs to Michael Jackson. (Wecht lashed out last week at Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan (of Tommy Chong fame, the one who is asking Obama to keep her on as U.S. Attorney even though she was a Bush appointee.) More on the Wecht's case at the Pittsburgh Gazette here. I rarely agree with Cyril, but I like him personally.

This is an open thread, all topics -- related to the "most important entertainer on the planet" (per CNN) or not - welcome.

Michael Jackson mania continues. Do you really care who will be singing at his memorial tomorrow? I don't. It was his singing and dancing I liked and would want to hear, not his friends. Meanwhile, LA Observed tells us Michael will be buried tomorrow morning at Forest Lawn in the San Fernando Valley and lists several other celebrities who are interred there. Followed by:

Lucille Ball was originally interred there, but her ashes have since been moved, says Find A Grave.com.

Find A Grave.com? How gruesome. Is anyone covering the Obamas in Moscow? I think it's great that the Russian president wore jeans today , but all I've seen besides that are Michelle and the girls' outfits (very cute, especially Sasha, love this photo) and the very important news that the Obamas will vacation this summer at Martha's Vineyard. [More...]

More facts have come to light in the shooting death of Steve McNair. Police yesterday ruled the death a homicide, a fairly obvious conclusion given that McNair was shot twice in the head and twice in the stomach. The remaining question is whether the single shot in the head of McNair's girlfriend resulted from another homicide or a suicide.

One of the factual uncertainties noted in our original post -- that the presence of a gun was not immediately apparent when the police arrived -- has been resolved by news that the gun was found under the girlfriend's dead body. Evidence in support of the murder-suicide theory became stronger today as police revealed a report that the girlfriend purchased a gun a couple of days before she was found dead. While the police have wisely refrained from jumping to conclusions, this increasingly looks like a tragic case of murder-suicide.

In response to news coverage of the 133 death row inmates who have been exonerated and spared execution, death penalty proponents make the argument (pdf) that the list of exonerated inmates is overly inclusive because it includes inmates whose convictions were reversed but whose actual innocence was never conclusively established.

Dan Rodricks at the Baltimore Sun contacted the Death Penalty Information Center, which keeps track of the exoneration count, to ask for a response to that criticism. The DPIC explained what it means to be "exonerated" and therefore included in the count:

[more ...]

Greg Sargent gets a White House reaction to Joe Biden's comments on Israel bombing Iran. and then runs well, an incorrect headline and story imo. First the WH reaction:

I asked White House spokesperson Tommy Vietor whether Biden was articulating the administration’s official position, and he emailed “The Vice President refused to engage hypotheticals, and he made clear that our policy has not changed. Our friends and allies, including Israel, know that the President believes that now is the time to explore direct diplomatic options, as with the P5+1.”

Of course this is nonsense. Biden did engage a hypothetical. The rest of the answer is contrary to what Biden said. And thus, Sargent's description of the WH response is also rather nonsensical:

The Michael Jackson memorial service at Staples in L.A. is Tuesday at 1pm ET. 1.6 million applied for tickets awarded online through a computer-generated lottery system. 1 of every 182 who applied received a ticket. From CNN's website:

Tomorrow, join CNN and CNN.com/LIVE for all day coverage of the Jackson Memorial. Don't miss special primetime coverage of the day's events beginning at 8p.m. ET.

CNN will also broadcast the event online. How many plan to watch? The current tally from a poll on its website: 82% won't watch. Five other networks will broadcast the event live.

Dan Abrams new site, Mediaite, launches today. Howard Kurtz has a rundown: it plays to the celebrity factor of journalists, and is described as "When HuffPo meets Gawker."

I've been following their twitter feed for weeks now, probably because I know and really like Dan Abrams, having guested on his shows for years, I like the site'sconcept. Rachel Sklaar is Editor at Large.

With separate pages for TV, print and online, the site aggregates plenty of content, like other media-focused portals, while also offering opinionated takes on scandal coverage, journalistic feuds, ethical questions and sundry embarrassments.

Dan's last show on MSNBC had a "Beat the Press" segment. This sounds similar. He was always the most energized during that portion, almost gleeful at times. He reportedly has funded the new site himself and it's lean, with just 5 staffers. [More...]

NYTimes:

As the ousted Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, headed by plane toward Honduras Sunday evening, huge crowds of his supporters clashed with soldiers and riot police at the airport as the interim government vowed to prevent him from landing. As all of Honduras stood in suspense, the interim president, Roberto Micheletti said he was willing to negotiate with the Organization of American States . . .

I do not know what Micheletti has in mind but it might be this - offer to reinstate Zelaya in exchange for a promise by Zelaya to completely forego his attempt to alter the Honduran Constitution to allow him to run for another term (as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela did and as Alvaro Uribe of Colombia is proposing.) the Honduran Supreme Court ruled Zelaya's attempts unconstitutional but he put forth a "nonbinding" referendum anyway. It was Zelaya's determination to hold the referendum that precipitated the coup that removed him. I speculate that if Zelaya agrees to let that go, he could be reinstated. Elections are currently scheduled for November 29. Zelaya can not run in that election under current Honduran law.

Pro-Zelaya reporting by my friend Al Giordano, who reports Zelaya landing in Nicaragua. Not exactly helping Obama out on this one - Venezuelan planes landing in Nicaragua? Oy.

speaking for me only

Barry Wingard represents Fayiz Mohammed Ahmed al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti who has been detained at Guantanamo for seven years. While Kandari is no longer subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques," his life hasn't otherwise improved since President Obama ordered Gitmo's closing. It has, in fact, worsened in some respects.

Fayiz reports that a small number of military guards have begun to punish any detainee resistance or infraction, even minor ones such as talking back or hanging towels in the wrong location. The special unit of guards known as the Immediate Reaction Force — whom the cell-block guards call for assistance — has increased its number of bruising “cell extractions,” he says; almost every day, a detainee is forcibly removed from his cell as the guards show the prisoners who is in charge. Fayiz was extracted from his cell three times in a 10-day period this spring.

[more ...]

I have very much disagreed with my co-bloggers on the coverage of Sarah Palin generally, and specifically since her announced resignation. But I think Open Left has the goods on Palin's hypocrisy on media criticism:

A fair question for Governor Palin would be - do you admit you were wrong in your prior comments about media criticism of Hillary Clinton? Cuz she was.

Speaking for me only

I thought this post from Digby might be of interest:

Is it just me or were Joe Biden's comments on Stephanpoulos this morning somewhat ... uhm ... startling?

Plunging squarely into one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. suggested on Sunday that the United States would not stand in the way of Israeli military action aimed at the Iranian nuclear program. . . .

What was funny to me was Biden's explanation - "Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else . . ." While Digby rightly wonders if Biden's, um timing, given what' going on Iran, is um, helpful, my thought is about Obama's supposed line in the sand on Israeli settlements on the West Bank. I'm not one to rush into the I/P controversy, and it is not my intention to do so here. But here's a question - is Joe Biden really up to the job? He is a mistake machine.

Speaking for me only

Heat in the south is being mitigated by storms, but the rest of the country seems to be enjoying sunny, pleasant weather. You probably have better things to do than reading a blog, but if not, here's an open thread. It's open to all topics, but lets throw out a rhetorical question for starters: what kind of jerk boards an airplane, stranding his newlywed wife in an airport in Malaysia, because he thought she was taking too long in the bathroom?