Al Sharpton’s former chief of staff said he was awakened at about 6:30 a.m. yesterday by two FBI agents who gave him a subpoena asking him hand over the holy man’s financial records. Several employees of Sharpton’s National Action Network also got early morning subpoenas to testify before a Brooklyn panel, The Daily News reports.

The FBI and IRS are investigating whether Sharpton improperly reported the amount of money he raised during his 2004 White House run in an effort to illegally obtain federal matching funds, a source told the paper.

“I can’t think of a time when the Rev. Sharpton wasn’t under investigation,” Sharpton’s lawyer said in response to the situation.

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Some wacky stuff happened in our media world over the past several days, and we’re still trying to sort it all out. A friend suggested that writing our thoughts down in a list form might help. After pondering the top stories at Digg (”ten pen tricks to do when you’re not jacking off” and “five ways to make your chest bigger” ), we figured everybody likes lists anyways, so why the hell not:

1) Why did MSNBC bail on reporter David Shuster for asking Rep. Marsha Blackburn a simple question?

The net’s soon-to-be former General Manager Dan Abrams made Shuster issue an apology to Blackburn on-air after he asked the congresswoman to name the last soldier to die from her district. When Blackburn didn’t know the answer, Shuster said that Jeremy Bohannon was that person — which soon became a source of controversy, with some conservatives saying that Bohannon was not from Blackburn’s district. Before that important detail could be sorted out, Abrams made an unhappy Shuster apologize because he thought Shuster had gotten it wrong. In the end, it turned out that Bohannon was from Blackburn’s district.

Hopefully Abrams made it up to Shuster in private — not that he has much incentive to do so, since he’s in the process of leaving his management job to become the permanent host of the network’s 9 p.m. hour, which was vacated by Joe Scarborough earlier this year.

Media Madness Ranking:  (3) Patrick Gavins  Read more…

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A press conference is scheduled to begin in about a half hour in downtown DC. If it turns out that Ms. Hilton is black, we are gonna give up the blog.

Update, 5:10: Rev. Sharpton says that he will meet with L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca on Monday to ask whether Paris Hilton received preferential treatment in getting house arrest.

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Al Gore elected President of global warming! His first act: goading Oscar from gold to green.

Iraq war still unpopular.

150 years ago Al Sharpton might have been Strom Thurmond’s slave. 

Dick Cheney wants Pakistan to be acting more like Australia in this here war on terror.

Governors have opinions on Election ‘08.

Congress is card checking unions.

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Either Dick Cheney is lying, or Scooter Libby is lying. Both scenarios sound credible, but only one can be true. You decide.

Congressman Tom Tancredo does not like the Congressional Black Caucus. Says race-based groups of lawmakers amount to segregation and should be abolished.

Sen Chuck Hagel’s got a possible Presidential platform: I hate Bush as much as you do.

Al Sharpton waiting to “size up” candidates before he inevitably decides to run another failed campaign for Prez.

Who can suckle from Barbra Streisand’s teat better? Hil or Barack? (Insert your own Bill Clinton joke here.)

Missouri loves health insurance. But does Missouri love unpopular health insurance plans coming out of Washington?

White House intent on surge, no matter how many Congress members it has to kill; Sen. Russ Feingold ready to fight to his death.

Do not drive in Washington this weekend. Anti-war rally to halt traffic.

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