The LA Times debunks the rumor:

“There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we’re investigating her or getting ready to indict her. It’s just not true.” — FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez

WTF?

Sarah Palin has pulled the plug on her governorship. Before the end of her only term. At an impromptu press conference. At her house. On a Friday. Before the 4th of July. And refuses to answer questions.

This is not in keeping with a woman with presidential ambitions.

And certainly not in keeping with a politician who has learned to milk a media frenzy for every last drop (see Letterman, David.)

No. This has the hallmarks of a politician slinking away before the shit hits the fan.

Really. If this were some double-bank-shot designed to bolster her presidential standing (as AP seems to suggest) would Sarah Palin choose to duck out on the first day of a three-day weekend? When the entire American mediaplex is off buying ice for the cooler?

No way.

Another shoe is about to drop, but what is it?

UPDATE: Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC reporting Palin sources saying ex Guv is “out of politics for good.”

UPDATE II: If you’re looking for the most plausible unsubstantiated scandalicious rumor about Palin’s sudden exit, Bradblog is your buddy.

In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on “the Wall Street Bubble Mafia” — investment bank Goldman Sachs. Taibbi goes behind the story and explores key issues in a series of video interviews found here:

• The Great American Bubble Machine

India Legalizes Gay Sex

Mark Sanford, apparently unwilling to accept the gift of Michael Jackson’s all-media consuming death, has reinserted himself into the national conversation by talking about his feelings toward his mistress to AP:

“I will be able to die knowing that I had met my soul mate.”

My jaw, along with Mrs. Sanford’s, presumably, is on the floor.

The Minnesota Supreme court has finally ruled that Al Franken won the election in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Read the (.pdf) ruling.

UPDATE: Coleman concedes: “The Supreme Court has made its decision and I will abide by the results.”

The one-man Enron, perpetrator of a $65 billion fraud, has been sentenced to 150 years. For comparison, consider that Jeff Skilling, the criminal mastermind behind Enron’s collapse, got just 24 years.

What do you think, has justice been served?

Historic climate bill passes House 219-212.