Anyone old enough to remember when Elvis died will also remember the small industry that began shortly afterward.  You could buy Elvis Commemorative Plates.  Late night commercials sold compilation records and tapes of his greatest hits (only $19.99 plus shipping and handling, delivery in 6-8 weeks, NO COD).  Graceland opened and became a theme park/shrine/cemetery.  Elvis Inc. became big business.  The King of Dead Celebrities.

The King is dead, long live the King's Image.  And now we will see it all over again, but updated for the 21st century.  There will be a Michael Jackson channel on SIRIUS.  iTunes will have special deals on MJ MP3's.  Oprah will have entire shows dedicated to Michael Jackson's housekeeper.  There will be books!  And just wait until they open up Neverland Ranch to tourists (they already have rides!).  You will be able to walk through MJ's version of The Jungle Room.  For an extra five dollars you can tour the bedroom.

And people will pay!  We all love a good freak-show.  It will be a like driving by major car wreck on the freeway -- but frozen in time so the viewer can linger.  The post-respiratory phase of Michael Jackson's career has now begun.

Michael Jackson is still dead.

And in other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still valiantly holding on in his fight to remain dead.

I am Steevo and you are not.

Who cares if a politician cheats on his wife?  I do not,  I actually sort of expect it.  Powerful men have powerful libidos.  Big deal.

The real Sanford story is that of a hypocrite -- a politician who voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about a blowjob has now engaged in a weeklong exotic erotic bangfest with a married woman.  This same Governor actually turned down money to help the poor people of his relatively poor state, just to make a few political points with Rich White Assholes.

I would be happy if our politicians could at least be good politicians.  Instead, we now have perhaps the least effective congress in a long time.  Our country faces a dire situation, and one party has a rare lock on the executive and legislative branches, yet very little is happening.  We are still hemorrhaging money in Iraq.  Our healthcare system is going to collapse within five years.  Our entire economy nearly died six months ago, and is still on life support in the intensive care unit.  Unemployment is growing.  Stagflation will probably be next on the list.  And the military industrial complex has become the beast that Ike warned us about.  World War is still a real threat.  At least the US Government isn't as bad as the crazy California system.  Despite all this, I still hope Obama can make a difference.

Yet our "newsmedia" is run by adolescents.  CNN is a joke, Fox News is a criminal conspiracy, even NPR has been weakened.  Political reporting in the US is beyond pathetic.  The average US citizen is such a victim of propaganda, they no longer really have any sort of working knowledge of the world. 

Clinton, Spitzer, Edwards, Craig, Sanford, and that other recent guy whose name I can't even remember -- who cares who they fuck. 

Well, except Edwards, I still think he is a super douche...

One final thought, how bad would things be right now without Blogs like TPM???