Growing up in the 70s, I remember the Jackson 5 very well. I was watching the Jackson 5 appearance on Soul Train and my mother walked in and said "is that little Michael Jackson?" That was the first time I heard her call him "little Michael Jackson" and that's what she call him through for 2 decades. When he began to grow up she said "little Michael Jackson is getting tall." When "Off the Wall" came out she said "little Michael Jackson cut off his afro." Even when "Thriller" came out and Jackson became a mega-superstar she said "I can't believe that is little Michael Jackson is all over the TV."

She came to me one day and asked "why is little Michael Jackson turning white?" I did not have an answer but I can tell she really did not like that part of his career. Now that Michael Jackson has passed way, I can clearly see what he was and what he meant to millions of people and many generations.

It wasn't just his entertainment value. We cared about this man. He really had no power by force. He did not command an army. He made music, he danced, he sung, and the whole world like him. From the age of 5, he has been in front of the whole world and in his death, good or bad, the whole world has an opinion about him and the whole world is thinking about him.

To millions of fans, he will always be the mega superstar who was the king of pop. To others, he will be the weird eccentric hermit. To others sadly, he will be a pedophile. To others, he will be peter pan. To my mom, he will be "little Michael Jackson"

To me, he was the whole package. Michael Jackson will always be that kid singing "ABC" in the Jackson 5, the bad jerry curl guy from "Off the Wall", and the mega-superstar from "Thriller". It was the whole Michael Jackson package and I loved it all. The music, the videos, the clothes, the hair, the dance steps, the kid singing about a rat, the middle age guy trying to moonwalk, the family drama, the lawsuits, the spent money, the hermit, the marriages, the kids (his kids), the concert tours, the reunion tours, plastic surgeries, lightening of his skin, and everything else that made up this 40 year multigenerational experience called Michael Jackson. I loved it all. I laughed, I was surprised, I was shocked, I was angry, I was disappointed, I cheered, I hoped, and I grieved. Thorns and all. I loved the whole damn ride.

It feel strange to know that there won't be anymore Michael Jackson music, Michael Jackson news, Michael Jackson concerts, and everything else. His show lasted for over 40 years, but now it is over. The final curtain has fallen. Little Michael Jackson has left long ago. The Michael Jackson show has come to an end. As he leaves the stage for the last time, I hope he finds peace. Whatever he was lacking in life, I hope he finds it in the here after.

Thank you for a great performance. If you can, say hi to my mom. She'll get a real kick out that.

Bravo!!! Love onto you. Peace onto you.

Once again, another republican is caught with his pants down. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford admitted an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina when he disappeared for 4-5 days and no one knew where he was. The thing that stands out is the fact that he did not tell his staff. With all due respect, the purpose of your staff is to cover your tracks to the media! That tells me that whatever he was doing in Argentina was so freaky, he knew there was no way his staff could cover it up. So this fool disappeared for 4-5 days and his wife and staff did not know his whereabouts. All the while, he was in Argentina with his mistress and all of this happened....on Father's Day!!

Personally, this looks like a payback situation. This is the kind of thing a husband does when he really, really wants to get back at his wife. You just can't go to Argentina like you are going to the grocery store. You have to reserve a hotel, move money around, etc. The logistic of this are huge. To not tell his staff is to make sure his wife can't find his ass and to do it on Father's Day is putting the cherry on top. He wanted to emotionally "OJ" his wife without the blood and the knife.

How many times do the republicans have to prove to this country that the republican party don't have any of the family values, religious morals, and common decency they like to lecture the rest of us on. Of course, Democrats cheat on their spouses too. However, Democrats don't claim to be holier than thou. Democrats don't claim to be the party of christian faith. Democrats don't claim to be the party of family values. Republicans have chosen to portray themselves as having a moral standard that advances their political agenda, but, in truth, they cannot reach themselves.

To all the cheaters in our political world, if you are going to cheat, have the decency to make an effort to do it right. If you want to cheat with a woman in Argentina, don't wait till Father's Day to disappear and don't tell your staff and lie about where you are. Wait for a quiet weekend, take a day trip somewhere, have your staff cover your tracks, and fly her in, fool!!! We have beaches here in America you can have plenty of sex on. Save yourself and the country all of this stress and have a little style in your cheating.

All week long, the republicans and conservatives have been wanting for Obama to speak out in stronger support of the Iranian protests. The reason why the people are protesting is because their government stole an election. Why should he speak out? The people are putting more pressure on the Iranian government than anything Obama can say or do.

Obama is correct when he said that if he speaks out, he will become a foil that can be used as propaganda by the Iranian government. The people is standing up to the government's policy of cracking down on protesters. They are using the internet to communicate to the world the state of their protests. They are using the death of Neda Agha Soltan, the poor woman who was killed during a protest whose was broadcasted on the internet, as a martyr for the people's cause. In the end, the Iranian government will have to come up with a concession that will satisfy the protesters and allow them to govern the country.

The Iranian people are flipping their government to a government that is favorable toward America. This is a free revolution in an enemy state. We don't have to send any money, no supplies, no troops. All we have to do is sit here with our hands in our pockets and let the Iranian people do the work for us. This will weaken the Iranian government and weaken Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to our advantage. Bottom line is if we give the Iranian people enough rope, they will hang their tyrannical dictatorship government. Obama needs to say nothing and give them all the rope they need.

Father's Day use to mean something. It was about getting a good meal, getting some credit for being Dad, and getting a gift from the wife and family. Today, instead of a good meal, Dad gets a lecture from the women and kids whose dad left them. Instead of getting credit, he gets no credit for anything. Instead of a cheap gift, he gets an even cheaper gift. I know one dad who, instead of getting an actual tie, he got a gift card to go buy a tie. That's cold...

I think it's time to end father's day all together. Deadbeat dads have jacked up father's day for all the other fathers and it just isn't worth it anymore. Obama said that "dads need to be better dads to their kids than their dad was to them." I know there is a case to be made there but what kind of father's day message is that. That's like the president saying on Mother's Day, "moms need to be better cooks for their kids than their moms were to them." Stores don't advertise as many father day sales like mother day sales. Mother's Day is like the president of the USA. Father's Day is like the vice president. He is necessary but there is really nothing for him to do and unless something goes bad, it's never going to be about you.

I think sometimes Father's Day inspire fathers to leave their families because this day is not inspirational at all. It is nothing like mother's day. I don't think that was the intention. Oh well, to all the father's who are still there and still trying and still hanging in there, happy father's day. Try not to let the lectures and bad stories get you down. Don't pay your wife's cell phone bill and cut your kids allowance for a week. Bet you'll get some credit then. Order you a pizza, watch some TV, and take a nap because that's what you really want to do. Now that's a happy father's day...

I was watching Bill Maher on HBO and he said that this nation has 2 political parties. One party is a centrist/dright leaning party and the other is party of nut cases and psychos. He was referring to the republicans as the psycho party and the democrats as the centrist party. The problem for both parties is that the nation is a very liberal nation. The people want government single payer universal healthcare, regulation of our financial system, more money for education, improve housing, regulate credit card companies, and a host of other liberal issues and are willing to pay higher taxes to get them.

Obama and the political parties are more afraid of loosing their corporate campaign contribution than they are of loosing the vote of the people. The people are not stupid. They can see that the government is making a greater effort to please their corporate overlords than the people and their poll number reflect it, including Obama's poll numbers too.

Obama has a opportunity to change the course of our nation just by doing what the people want him to do. You can't suffer any political consequences by doing what 70% of the public want done. We need our government to start choosing to serve interest of the people over serving the interest of corporations. As long as Obama takes into consideration the interest of .005% of the people who make up a corporation over the 70% of the people who want it done, his poll number will continue to drop, and rightfully so.

Unbelievable!! General Motors Corp. has filed for bankruptcy. GM has been delisted and removed from the U. S. Stock Exchange. For decades, GM has done everything possible to stay afloat except sell good cars. They have smashed unions, fought federal regulations to increase gas mileage, shutdown factories, and moved jobs overseas. All in an an attempt to, as GM stated, "compete in the marketplace".

Well, GM was given everything they wanted to "compete in the marketplace". They had regulations removed, the unions made concessions, they shut down factories and moved them overseas. Local, state and federal tax regulations were removed and a host of over forms of corporate welfare was given to GM by the GM truckloads and they still went bankrupt.

Who is at fault? The answer is GM themselves. They failed to create products that could "compete in the marketplace". They were making big trucks when the rest of the world was making small cars and the small cars won out. Nissan, Toyota, and Honda did not beat GM by selling more trucks and SUVs. They beat GM by sell more 4 and 6 cylinders cars than GM could sell trucks and SUVs. GM also helped the competition by adopting a stupid business strategy. GM thought they could close down a factory in a town, move the factory to Mexico for cheap labor, then sell GM cars to the people in the same town.

Basically, the times changed and a new generation of consumers took over. GM made products that were not suitable for the times we are in today and that today's consumer did not want. They were subsidized by governments, financial institutions, and the tax payers. It all failed. Sadly, GM is not the only failed corporation subsidized by our governments, banks, and tax payers. As the old saying goes, "as the auto industry goes, so goes America."

Get in the backseat, sit down, and shut the f%#k up!!! It is the most sickening thing to see Dick Cheney give a speech trying to validate and justify his failure to this country at the same time as Obama gives a speech on resolving the country's problems with Guantanamo Bay. Obama is trying to clean up the international and domestic mess Bush and Cheney made and here is Cheney trying to convince the country that Obama is mishandling the national security of the country. Cheney is saying Obama is the problem for this country, not his and Bush's legacy. That is stupid and insane on it's face.

The country doesn't care what Cheney has to say because the country is in a very different place now. The country has confidence that Obama will work through this mess and that is something Bush and Cheney could never get. Bush and Cheney had to scare the country in order to get the country to respect them. Obama treats and speak to the people like adults. This is why he is more respected, has more of the country's confidence, and the country is more hopeful about the future than any time during the Bush/Cheney years.

Cheney is like the rest of the republican party. They refuse to believe that they are out of step with the country and the country has moved on beyond their politics. Cheney still believes that he matters and he doesn't. His words, his beliefs, his stories, his lies, even his truths, they just don't matter anymore. For all that he said in his speech, there was not one apology, one admission of fault, nor one acceptance of responsibility. That's why he needs to shut up and accept his infamous place in history. Cheney made his bed in history, now he has to shut up and lie there.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is stating that the Bush administration and the CIA mislead her and congress regarding the use of torture techniques on enemy prisoners.

First of all, Pelosi is covering her backside because in the past few months, she stated that the she was never informed at all about any torture techniques being used. Now she is saying she was informed but she was misled. She stated "at every step of the way, the administration was misleading Congress and that is the issue". Pelosi is correct. Misleading Congress is the issue. That is why she must now call for a congressional investigation and a special prosecutor to investigate this immediately.

Don't come before the american people and tell us that the Bush administration and the CIA mislead Congress and not call for an investigation. This is not the only time Pelosi and the democratic congressional leadership allowed people to skate on their crimes.

I am tired of seeing Dick Cheney on TV saying "hell yea we tortured them, tortured them all day and all night and twice on Sunday" and there is no action by the congress. I am tired of seeing Karl Rove on TV ignoring a federal congressional subpoena to appear before congress while there are people are sitting in jail right now for ignoring a parking ticket.

Pelosi is admitting that people lied to Congress and if she does not call for a special prosecutor to investigate, she needs to go.

President Obama has decided not to release the torture photos, that were taken during the Iraq war, to the public. His reason not to release the photos is that, due to the graphic nature, they could incite the middle east forces to target all U. S. troops and undermine America's efforts to negotiate an end to the Iraq war. Obama made the correct decision on this matter. The interest of the public and the troops are being upheld.

For the organizations who disagree with this decision, the question they must answer is do they have a problem with the photos or the information behind them? They cannot have a problem with the information because the information is already out. If they have a problem with the withholding of the photo's, that is a trivial position to hold.

The problem with the Bush administration was that the people did not get any photos nor any information. The evidence was hidden. The records were destroyed. As far as the Bush administration was concerned, it never happened and the public was in the dark.

The difference with Obama is that even though he is withholding the release of the photos, the public still have the information behind them. We know the torture that took place. We know how many times each prisoner was water boarded even though we don't have the photos of it.

Obama is upholding the public interest by releasing the information to the public and he is protecting the interest of our soldiers by not releasing the photos. If Bush was still in office, we would have no knowledge that the photos existed and no knowledge the at torture ever took place. When the time is safe for our military, he will release the photos. Until then, the public will be well served in having the detailed information regarding the torture performed in our name.