Michael Calderone, Politico: “Barack Obama hasn’t yet made a statement on the death of Michael Jackson, which was confirmed around 7 p.m. last night.”

Susan Davis, WSJ: “Obama, a music aficionado, has not released a written statement since news of Michael Jackson’s death broke late Thursday afternoon.”

Katie Connolly, Newsweek: “And he was black, so it seemed reasonable to expect the first black president to have a few heartfelt words.”

Jocelyn Vena, MTV: “Although President Obama held a press conference on Friday (June 26), no one asked him for his reaction to the news of Michael Jackson’s death on Thursday in Los Angeles.”

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Russia’s energy giant Gazprom has signed a $2.5bn (£1.53bn) deal with Nigeria’s state operated NNPC, to invest in a new joint venture.

The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria.

We don’t dare.

Gazprom seals $2.5bn Nigeria deal [BBC, via TPM]

Title: “The Trust Committed to Me”

Author: Mark Sanford

Rank: 160,247

Blurb: None. Published in 2000 by the U.S. Term Limits Foundation.

Review: “Unlike the lack of trust committed to my wife and children as I scamper off to Argentina in the dark of night to be with my other family I truly love.”

Customers Also Bought: “Conscience of a Conservative,” by Barry Goldwater

Footnote: Makes a great read on those long international flights!

Bonus: Meet the ghostwriter!

The Trust Committed to Me [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

Let’s face it – Farrah Fawcett picked the wrong day to die.  Like those who passed away around the time Ronald Reagan died (Tony Randall, Ray Charles) her story will be washed out to sea by the tsunami of Michael Jackson coverage. Poor Farrah – yesterday, once the Gloved one was declared dead, she went from a banner at the top of the NYT front page to a blurb and a postage-stamp photo at the bottom.

It is also true that coverage of the Ensign and Sanford sex scandals will suffer. And this is unacceptable. These family-values fuckwits need to be mocked, driven from office, and perhaps gelded.

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In two hours, Geraldo Rivera Abuna Pauolos, patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, will reveal the location of the Ark of the Covenant, fabled container of Steven Spielberg’s bank account the Ten Commandments.

The Ark has been stored in a nondescript government warehouse Ethiopia for millennia, says Pauolos. Many duplicates were made to milk the franchise protect the secret location of the real Ark, but now a museum is being built to suck tourist dollars from the gullible display the holy treasure.

Nothing good can come of this. Least of all, another Raiders sequel.

Update: The Patiarch Vanishes.

‘Ark of the Covenant’ about to be unveiled? [WorldNetDaily]

Thanks to SFL we have video and fotos.