Scandal, celebrity deaths crowd Iran out of news

Hard to believe idiocy of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford winging off to South America to hang with his mistress for a few days, leaving the constituents of his state in the dark as to his whereabouts -- was this the politica equivalent of self-immolation? -- and wall to wall coverage this afternoon of sudden death of singer Michael Jackson at 50 (same day as Farah Fawcett). Meanwhile, in Iran, word that has filtered out in recent days was of brutal crackdown getting worse. Looks like the revolt could be going way of China in '89 instead of eastern Europe. Even if true, however, Iran is no longer the country is was only weeks ago.