• One of the winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics is some American gal, Elinor Ostrom, who is the first lady economist ever to win. Something about communities and resources, anyway it was uncontroversial! [CNN]
• So our government is still working out the kinks in its system of telling when foreign people who visit here actually leave. [New York Times]
• Bombings, bombings, bombings all weekend in Pakistan, all thanks to the Taliban. [WSJ]
• There is a new song on the Internet from the dead, apparently self-referential pop star Michael Jackson called “This Is It.” [LA Times]
• A gang of British Greenpeace people had a sleepover party on the roof of the Palace of Westminster to let everyone know how much they despise climate change, and also politics. [Guardian]
• China is so excited to be able to sell Hummers soonish! There are some minor “regulatory emissions things” to figure out, but other than that, just pure excitement. [Reuters]

Here’s our own Liz Glover with Atlanta celebrity Antwan André Patton, better known as Big Boi. Why do these liberal hip-hoppers watch CNN when they could be learning so much about angry white people from Fox News? And why does that Barack Obama get so much media attention? MORE »

By the Comics Curmudgeon
Readers, your Comics Curmudgeon apologizes for missing last week’s column, but you were all probably using alcohol, smoked meat products, and dangerous explosives to mask your self-loathing and economic despair and weren’t watching the Interhoo anyway, were you? You probably didn’t even notice that I was gone, after all I do for you, week after week … [quiet sobbing] … where was I? Oh, right, last week. Anyway, Sarah Palin quit and Michael Jackson died or whatever, so obviously this week’s Cartoon Violence is all about sex perversions involving moose and little people. MORE »

• You careless fools! Barack Obama’s name is misspelled on a diplomatic agreement he signed with Dmitry Medvedev, which means … Stalin gets East Germany back. How could this happen? [RedState]
• Did Sarah Palin read a book, or stumble across Wikiquotes? And is there a difference? Let’s ask Plato. [Think Progress]
• The American Hostage Crisis is finally over! [Swampland]
• What do Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Malkin have in common? Besides having lady parts? They both detest Michael Jackson and his Kingdom of Pop. [The Caucus]
• “Are Crows The Smartest Birds EVER?” Watch the video! Take the POLL! Did space monsters abduct Arianna Huffington, and then “probe” her? Watch the video! TAKE THE POLL! [HuffPost]

• Barack Obama forgot how he met Michelle, his wife, his guiding star! You’ve only been married to the woman since 1992, Barack. Jesus Lord. And last year he forgot to get her a wedding anniversary present, so he swung by Radio Shack after work and picked up a lousy DVD box set. Ugh, the DVD box set is for the twentieth anniversary! [Swampland]
• Had a poopy day? Well that is now over, because the Guardian is servin’ up the feel-good tonic of the millenium with this, the wacky story of Binyam Mohamed! It’s more fun than The Hangover and Transformers Two combined, times ten! Savor every word. You will love it. It is a happy story. Go! Go read the happy story! [Guardian]
• The Democrats want to pass a resolution honoring Michael Jackson, but Michelle Malkin no likey — it’s just another piece of legislation full of pork-barrel spending! John Boehner read the resolution over and over again on the House floor, for sixty entire minutes, because the voters deserve to know what’s in this piece of shit. TEA PARTY! [Michelle Malkin]
• Screw health care! You know what we really need? It’s almost too obvious. [The Caucus]

America’s first black president, 12-year-old space monster Michael Jackson, is still dead. But like most Americans, you are probably wondering, “Is he in the coffin at that vulgar Staples Center death show in Los Angeles, or is whatever’s left of his body somewhere else?” TMZ just sent us this EXCLUSIVE photo showing … we don’t know, really. Some microbes? PROOF OF LIFE ON MARS? Yes, we think so. 7/7, never forget. [TMZ]

Congressman Pete King: Is he the Mike Gravel of 2009? He’s very fond of the brief, nonsensical YouTube on important topics such as why we all “glorify” Michael Jackson instead of firefighters and AIDS clinic workers. Hmm, good question! Here is a hint: one was a bizarre recluse who traveled with chimps, danced like an angel, and slowly morphed from a handsome young black man into Liza Minnelli; the other fights fires. NO CONTEST. Why didn’t David Paterson appoint Pete King to Hillary’s Senate seat instead of that dull Gillibrand character, who has never once produced a noteworthy opinion on Michael Jackson? [YouTube]

The look on these anchors’ faces at 0:33 might rank among the greatest YouTube freeze-frames of some period of time. [Las Vegas Gleaner]

Tonight Friday, June 24: To mourn the passing of the King of Pop, you can try to snag tickets to Who’s Bad the “World’s No. 1 Michael Jackson cover band” at the 9:30 Club tonight (a concert that was coincidentally scheduled prior to his death). Unfortunately, no Charlie’s Angles marathon was randomly scheduled for this weekend, so if you want to mourn Farrah Fawcett’s passing — lest we forget that TWO celebrities died yesterday, just like when Princess Di and Mother Teresa died on the same day — you can transport yourself back to the ’80s and head to Rosslyn for a screening of Footloose at the “I love the ’80s” Film Festival. MORE »

• POLITICS CANCELED DUE TO JACKO’S DEMEROL OVERDOSE: “As anyone who has turned on a television set in the past 12-15 hours has noticed, Michael Jackson’s passing will overshadow any political news today — and perhaps throughout the weekend.” Happy hour starts … NOW. [First Read]

One-man circus Michael Jackson has officially died, and somebody is very, very happy about this news. (That “somebody” is Mark Sanford. Adios, Mark! Enjoy the rest of your life.) We, of course, could give a hoot about Michael Jackson, although your editor once free-lanced a “concert review” of Wacko Jacko’s post-pedophile (?) 1996 performance in Prague, and the National Enquirer paid something like $500, enough for a plane ticket back to America. So, thanks, Michael! Thanks for the good times, and thanks to Vladan for getting us the Ecstasy so we could tolerate that awful spectacle. Also, Michael, you sure did get yourself photographed with a lot of 1980s and ’90s presidents! You were truly the Barack Obama of that particular era. MORE »