SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

ALI DEAD – FROM FOX:   Muhammad Ali, the three-time heavyweight champion boxer whose electrifying prowess in the ring and controversial outspokenness outside of it made him one of the world’s most recognizable personalities of the 20th Century, died Friday after a battle with a respiratory illness. He was 74.  Ali, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 1984, died at a Phoenix hospital. Ali family spokesperson Bob Gunnell said in a statement that Ali’s funeral will take place in his hometown of Louisville, Ky.  RIP, but I must say that I preferred the quiet dignity of Joe Louis, the "brown bomber," who became a champion as well as a patriot.

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP DEPARTMENT – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  Over mocking objections from their own staff, two top Democrats on the politically divided Federal Election Commission voted to investigate one-time Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee for joking that he hoped supporters would shower him with million dollar contributions.  In the latest display of FEC Democratic efforts to regulate speech and target Republicans, Commissioners Ann Ravel and Ellen Weintraub backed a complaint against Huckabee, who made the joke during his May 2015 presidential candidacy announcement.  We must not have humor in politics.  If humor were a good thing in politics, the  Declaration of Independence would begin, "A funny thing happened to the mother country today..."

HOMELAND INSECURITY – FROM CNN:   (CNN) An accused war criminal living in the United States is now working as a security guard at Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC.  A CNN investigation found that Yusuf Abdi Ali, who is accused of committing atrocities while he was a military commander during Somalia's brutal civil war, has been living a quiet life near the nation's capital for about 20 years.  He is just one of more than 1,000 accused war criminals living and working in the United States.  I'm sure they're all just misunderstood.

June 3, 2016