The One Person I Wouldn't Want To Be Right Now

Michael Jackson's doctor.

Sanford/Palin 2012! (With Updates!)

This guy wants to run against Obama in 2012. That goal might be a bit hard for him to achieve after this:

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford’s staff said this morning that the governor plans to return to his office Wednesday. Late Monday, his office said the governor was hiking on the Appalachian Trail, ending four days during which staff and state officials said they had not heard from him.

In a statement, Joel Sawyer, Sanford's spokesman said, "Governor Sanford called to check in with his chief of staff this morning. It would be fair to say the governor was somewhat taken aback by all of the interest this trip has gotten. Given the circumstances and the attention this has garnered, the governor communicated to us that he plans on returning to the office tomorrow.

Neither Sanford’s office nor the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for governors, had been able to reach Sanford since he left the mansion Thursday in a black Suburban SUV assigned to his security detail, said state Sen. Jake Knotts , R-Lexington, and three others familiar with the situation, but who declined to be identified.

On Monday, Sawyer would not disclose where on the trail the governor was hiking, nor would he reveal whether Sanford was hiking alone. Sanford’s last known location was near Atlanta late last week. A mobile telephone tower there picked up a signal from his phone, according to a source familiar with the situation. Since then, the governor’s state and personal phones had been turned off, and Sanford had not responded to phone or text messages, a source said. Most mobile phones cannot be tracked if they are turned off.

First lady Jenny Sanford said Monday her husband has been gone for several days over Father’s Day weekend and she did not know where.

She said she was not concerned.

“He was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids,” Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press while vacationing with the couple’s four sons at their Sullivan’s Island beach house. * * *

Before all this shit happened, Gov. Sanford was famous for speaking out against Obama's stimulus plan, and even tried (unsuccessfully) to reject portions of South Carolina's stimulus allotment. When those efforts failed, he apparently decided to take a long hike.

I hope he gets the GOP nomination in 2012, because the attack ads practically write themselves. One of them could be just like Hillary's "3 a.m. telephone call" ad, except it would show "President" Sanford's telephone ringing for four days straight without getting answered.

The real question, of course, is: Was Gov. Sanford hiking naked?

UPDATE: Sanford was in Argentina (at least that is what's currently being reported). There's simply too much shit happening with this story right now for me to fully cover it at this time, but ThinkProgress has the goods (as does TPM).

Something tells me that when all the dust clears, this story will be better than Ted Haggard and Larry Craig combined.

UPDATE II: Unless Sanford's "dear friend" in Argentina turns out to be a guy, it looks like all this story will boil down to is simply another Bible-beating Republican politician having an extra-marital affair. [yawn]

It even features FauxNews' worn-out ploy of "accidentally" mis-identifying the wrongdoer as a Democrat. I've lost count of how many times Fox has repeated that particular "mistake."

And I had such high hopes for this scandal. It had such a great start.

The Northern Lights From Space

This is pretty cool:

Quote of the Week

"It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."

-- CIA Director Leon Panetta re: Dick Cheney, who has recently stated on several occasions that Obama's policies are making the U.S. less safe.

Frank Rich doesn't mention Cheney in this column, but he should have.

This Seems Pretty Stupid

From Sci-Fi Wire:

Richard Hatch—who played Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica and Tom Zarek in SCI FI's re-imagining—told Moviehole that he's watching the recently proposed feature film closely, though he's not involved, and has ideas as to how to reboot the franchise.

"I think they saw the success Paramount had with their Star Trek reboot," Hatch told the site. "But unlike Paramount, who seems to know the Star Trek audience, I don't think Universal ever quite got Battlestar. I just hope they hire the right people and make a good movie."

Universal Pictures quietly entered into negotiations with Battlestar creator Glen A. Larson to produce a big-screen version of the property he created, which would be unrelated to the recently concluded SCI FI series headed by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, according to The Hollywood Reporter in February.

The film would reportedly preserve the premise—a ragtag fleet of human survivors runs from the murderous Cylons while seeking a new home on the mythical planet called Earth—as well as the characters of Adama, Starbuck and Baltar, but insiders told the trade paper that the movie will otherwise be a complete re-imagining of both series. * * *

A re-imagining of the re-imagining? But why?

Some Good News

From Reuters:

Sales at U.S. retailers rose in May and the number of workers filing new applications for jobless benefits fell for a fourth straight week last week, according to official data on Thursday that suggested the recession was abating.

The Commerce Department said total retail sales rose 0.5 percent, the first advance in three months, lifted by strong gasoline and building material receipts. Sales fell 0.2 percent in April.

A separate report from the Labor Department showed the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless aid fell 24,000 to 601,000 in the week ended June 6, the lowest since January 24.

"It looks like we are turning the corner. There is pretty clear evidence that the worst of the labor downturn has passed, but we still expect more job losses," said Zach Pandl an economist at Nomura Securities International in New York. * * *

Quote Of The Week

"I know this trip doesn't get any easier as the years pass, but for those of you who make it, there's nothing that could keep you away. One such veteran, a man named Jim Norene, was a member of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Division of the 101st Airborne. Last night, after visiting this cemetery for one last time, he passed away in his sleep. Jim was gravely ill when he left his home, and he knew that he might not return. But just as he did 65 years ago, he came anyway. May he now rest in peace with the boys he once bled with, and may his family always find solace in the heroism he showed here."

-- Barack Obama, from his speech at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, commemorating the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

Greatest Country In The World?

It's hard to make that argument when you read shit like this:

Medical bills are involved in more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, an increase of 50 percent in just six years, U.S. researchers reported Thursday.

More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine.

"Using a conservative definition, 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92 percent of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5,000, or 10 percent of pretax family income," the researchers wrote. "Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations." * * *