I don't care that Michael Jackson's dead

That's pretty much all I have to say about it. He had some great songs, and now he's dead. That can be said about a lot of people. Throw in the fact that he might have been a kid toucher, and my skin's been crawling over the last couple hours at all the "so sad MJ is gone" status updates I've seen on facebook.

But I have no interest in saying anything more about this guy, instead I'm going to write about the person who's probably the most happiest that all this happened today, and the people who are getting most screwed over by it: Mark Sanford, and the Iranian people.

First off, the fine governor of South Carolina. This guy is such a jerkoff I can't help but love him. When the story first broke that he was nowhere to be found, the first thing I remember hearing was that he often did this when work had been really crazy. How cool is that? Work has been kind of a pain in the ass for me this week, I think I'm just going to disappear of the face of the earth for a couple of days. I think I'm going to try that next week.

Then, somehow this Appalachian Trail story gets out, but he left a state owned car at the Atlanta airport. Really? You're trying to leave the country to bang your mistress, and you probably floated this appalachian trail story to your staff, but then you borrow a STATE OWNED MOTHERF*CKING CAR and take it to the airport? Nice move.

I've been reading/hearing some people on the right complain the last couple of days that only Republicans get in trouble for this stuff and it's un fair and blah blah blah. Stop getting caught and you won't have to worry about it. And, the reason why Republicans get blasted for this more is because they're the ones who go around judging the morality of other people. Mark Sanford was big time for Clinton's impeachment back in the day, and when he was in Congress and Newt Gingrich had to resign, he was the first Republican to argue that Gingrich's proposed replacement back off because he had cheated on his wife. You don't get to do all that and then get a pass when you're flying down to Argentina to cheat on your wife (side note: why not fly her up here, since he's the governor of a state and already was a leading presidential candidate and all?). Besides, I vaguely recall that Eliot Spitzer guy getting hit pretty hard when he was caught paying for a hooker.

But enough about all that, something more important: Iran. I can't necessarily explain why what's happening there grabbed me right from the start, but I was kind of paying attention to the upcoming election and when I started to see the news that something very bad seemed to have happened there, I just couldn't stop paying attention to it.

Of course, if I wanted to really get information about what was happening in Iran, the web was the only place to go. Monday morning, the first weekday after an election was apparently stolen in the middle of the Middle East, and CNN, the station that made it's name on live coverage of an event in that part of the world (Iraq War Part I), is hyping Larry King interviewing the Jonas Brothers. I know I've got a bit of crotchety old man in me: I couldn't pick a Jonas Brother out of the lineup, I don't know a single thing they've ever done and I don't really want to. The point is that this is a news station and this ginormo story was getting ZERO coverage. It was pretty messed up. Honestly, if you care about Iran and want to try and find as much info as possible concentrated into one place, go here. Andrew Sullivan has been on top of this story since second one, and the passion he has for it comes through in his writing.

Fortunately for Mark Sanford and unfortunately for the Iranian public, their stories will now be buried in the background. It doesn't have to be this way though. When CNN starts talking about Michael Jackson, John & Kate or the next pseudo-celebrity crap fest, change the channel. It's not that hard, and maybe you'll learn something.

P.S. I wasn't going to write anything tonight, until I happened to skip by MSNBC and saw they were running live footage of a helicopter carrying Michael Jackson's body to the coroner's office. That was kind of the last straw.

P.P.S. Right before I started writing this, I was watching the premier of The Real World: Cancun that I had DVR'd last night, so I know I'm not perfect in the bad TV department.