Apparently some dude got a hold of MJ’s phone number and prank called him pretending to be Akon, who is supposedly working on Mike’s new album. As a huge fan and an audiophile, I will clue you in on a couple of details.

First of all, Mike’s pretty mischievous and got into a lot of trouble as a kid for crank calls, water balloons, etc., activities he’s known to still enjoy. He clearly understands what’s going on from early in this phone call but decides to have fun with the interaction. This is a man who says he wears disguises to record stores and amusement parks just to hear people’s conversations and interact with strangers who don’t know him.

Secondly, his “handler” is obviously him disguising his voice from the very beginning. If you’ve seen his film “Ghosts” where he plays multiple characters and if you’ve listened to him give interviews, you should be able to tell. Again, as someone with a remote understanding of his personality, I can say I’m not surprised and somewhat amused. Listen to how quickly Michael comes on the phone as soon as his “handler” says “hold on.” And when the prankster starts talking about child molestation, Mike transitions almost instantly into his “handler” again (and he’s pissed the guy took it that low).

I love that he just answers his own phone pretending to be someone else all the time. That’s the mind of someone smart enough to want to be in control of his communication with the outside world but quirky enough to get a kick out of fooling people.

The Georgetown branch of the D.C. Public Library is on fire, authorities have told NBC4. The DCFD is battling a two-alarm fire at the building in the 3600 block of R Street in northwest D.C. News4’s Darcy Spencer reports that firefighters are trying to save painting and historic items from the building.

What the Hell is going on???

A three-alarm fire ripped through the shops of the historic Eastern Market on Capitol Hill early this morning, gutting the southern half of the 134-year-old landmark that Dave and I have enjoyed on many a weekend since moving to the area. It apparently took 160 District firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze, which tore through the roof and all but demolished the collection of meat, produce and other popular shops. No word yet on when the building will be repaired and the marketplace will reopen.

ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross, who has seen Jeane Palfrey’s 10,000-strong list of clients of her Washington, D.C. escort service, will have a full report on “20/20″ on Friday, May 4 just in time for the beginning of sweeps. The special hasn’t even aired and already a Bush appointee has resigned. Who’s next???

If you take yourself over to CNN’s politics page, you’ll be able to locate a story on the resignation of the Deputy Secretary of State who admitted to ABC News that he paid for escorts. If you then go to MSNBC’s website, they’re covering it as well. And obviously it’s on the main page at ABC’s site.

But Fox News, whose slogans are “Fair and Balanced” and “We Report, You Decide,” seems to have suspiciously dropped the ball on a very major news story this weekend. I’ve looked all over their main page and their politics page and there is absolutely no mention of the scandal.

Feel free to contact the network and alert them of this mistake. You can contact them via telephone at 1-888-369-4762 or send emails to the following addresses:

General Comments — YourComments@foxnews.com

America’s Newsroom — AmericasNewsroom@foxnews.com

The Beltway Boys — Beltway@foxnews.com

The Big Story w/ John Gibson — Myword@foxnews.com

The Big Story Weekend — Bigstory-weekend@foxnews.com

The Big Story Primetime — Bigstory-weekend@foxnews.com

FNC iMag — Fncimag@foxnews.com

FOX & Friends — Friends@foxnews.com

FOX Fan Central — YourComments@foxnews.com

FOX News Live — Feedback@foxnews.com

FOX News Live w/ Jamie Colby — Jamie@foxnews.com

FOX News Live Weekend — Feedback@foxnews.com

FOX News Specials — Fncspecials@foxnews.com

FOX News Sunday — FNS@foxnews.com

FOX News Watch — Newswatch@foxnews.com

FOX Report w/ Shepard Smith — Foxreport@foxnews.com

FOX Report Weekend — Foxreport@foxnews.com

Geraldo at Large — Atlarge@foxnews.com

Hannity & Colmes — Hannity@foxnews.com OR Colmes@foxnews.com

Heartland w/ John Kasich — Heartland@foxnews.com

The Journal Editorial Report — JER@foxnews.com

The Lineup — Lineup@foxnews.com

The Live Desk w/ Martha MacCallum — Martha@foxnews.com

On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren — Ontherecord@foxnews.com

The O’Reilly Factor — Oreilly@foxnews.com

Red Eye — Redeye@foxnews.com

Special Report w/ Brit Hume — Special@foxnews.com

Studio B w/ Shepard Smith — Studiob@foxnews.com

Your World w/ Neil Cavuto — Cavuto@foxnews.com

From CNN:

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, took his presidential announcement tour to this southern city Thursday, touting his support for the Iraq war and refusing to back down from his controversial tongue-in-cheek joke about bombing Iran.

McCain also challenged opponents of the war to vote against funding further operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a way to express their disapproval. And the Arizona senator offered pointed criticism of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, for declaring the war was lost last week.

At the end of his speech delivered at a flour factory, McCain’s campaign cued up the Beach Boys hit “Barbara Ann,” a not-so-veiled reference to the senator’s rendition of the song last week when he jokingly changed the words to “Bomb Iran” in response to a question about whether it was time to attack Iran.

A McCain aide told CNN it was no coincidence that the song was played at the end of the event.

“We thought it would add a little levity,” said John Weaver, a senior McCain strategist, adding, “And to show we are not going to get pushed around on things like that.”

The photo below is of a real yard sign photographed in South Carolina.

From McClatchy newspapers on Friday:

WASHINGTON – Senior congressional aides who have seen unedited internal documents say the Bush administration considered firing at least a dozen U.S. attorneys before settling on eight late last year.

The four who escaped dismissal came from states that the White House considered political battlegrounds in the last presidential election: Missouri, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Two of the four said they resigned voluntarily before eight U.S. attorneys were fired on Dec. 7. Two continue to serve as federal prosecutors.

The latest revelation could provide new fodder to critics who contend that politics, not policy or performance, played the determining role in the firing decisions. At the very least, it opens new avenues of inquiry for investigators from the House of Representatives and Senate Judiciary Committees…

Robert E. Coughlin II, the deputy chief of staff for Dept. of Justice’s criminal division, which is overseeing the Department’s probe of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, stepped down as investigators in his own division ratcheted up their investigation of Kevin Ring. Ring is one of Coughlin’s long-time friends and a key associate of Abramoff.

Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias submitted his resignation later yesterday after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of the Washington escort service currently under investigation (and whose madam wants to expose all of her powerful clientele). Tobias, who is 65 years old and number two in the Department of State under Condi Rice, said “that he must step down” from his post “effective immediately.”

Bush ran in 2000 on a platform of restoring “honor and integrity to the White House.” Somehow, I don’t think history will see that as the case…

Why do I find the Gumpian nature of the photos amusing? Every time I watch, I’m waiting to see him asking Hitler for directions out of London. Definite gratuitous high note at the end.