Wonkette Goes Solo

Ken Layne has announced that Wonkette has been cast out of the Nick Denton media empire and gone solo, along with a couple of other Denton sites you've never heard of. The rationale is complicated but, essentially, Gawker Media was having trouble selling ads on those sites and thinks there's going to be another bursting of the Internet bubble. Could ...

GET OSAMA Tag Banned in New York

New York has retroactively decided that a man's GET OSAMA vanity tags are offensive and can not be displayed on his vehicle. The federal government may have a $25 million reward for fugitive terrorist Osama bin Laden, but a retired city cop says the Department of Motor Vehicles has banned his "GETOSAMA" vanity license plates as offensive. Arno Herwerth, 42, ...

GOP Debate a Black Comedy

As might have been expected, last night's "All-American Presidential Forum" featuring Repubican candidates for president talking to black journalists at a historically black college talking about issues of special interest to black Americans turned into a black comedy. The focus was mostly on the candidates who didn't show -- which is to say, all of them who might conceivably ...

Sen. Larry Craig Hits on Male Cop in Restroom

Senator Larry Craig apparently likes to make creepy advances on strange men in airport bathrooms. Unfortunately for him, one of his random targets was a Minneapolis airport policeman. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report ...

Fidel Castro Dead or Alive

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is dead. Unless he's not. Val Prieto had a flurry of updates yesterday reporting Castro's death, with imminent announcements expected. Half the political blogosphere linked the post and his server couldn't handle the strain. In a Communist plot, no announcement was forthcoming. Meanwhile, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton got into the act with ...

Blogging Elitism

Fellow Jacksonville State alumnus Stacy McCain has noted something odd about The Atlantic's growing stable of bloggers: Without exception, they have Ivy League degrees. Indeed, until Megan McArdle's recent hire, they were all Harvard grads. (Megan, with a mere Penn BA and Chicago MBA, broke the glass ceiling.) For some years now, bloggers have been portrayed (and have portrayed themselves) ...

Hooker Credentials

Matthew Yglesias, responding to a report by Ben Smith on Pamela Martin's requirements for employees of her DC "escort" service, observes, "Now how's that for out-of-control credentialism -- two years' college to be a hooker?" Now, I'm all for credentialism but even I fail to see how a college education contributes the skill set required for work in the oldest profession. ...

Florida Moving Toward January 29 Primary

Florida is making a move to escalate the presidential selection process even more by jumping to the head of the primary line. Hoping to muscle Florida into a pre-eminent role in picking next year's Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, the state House voted Wednesday to leapfrog almost all the other states and set a Jan. 29 primary, with an option ...

BlackBerry Orphans

WSJ reports on "BlackBerry Orphans," a phenomenon so serious that they're letting non-subscribers read about it. As hand-held email devices proliferate, they are having an unexpected impact on family dynamics: Parents and their children are swapping roles. Like a bunch of teenagers, some parents are routinely lying to their kids, sneaking around the house to covertly check their emails and disobeying ...

CNN’s E-lection Nite Blog Party

I'll be blogging from a DC coffee house starting around 4 Eastern as part of a CNN's "E-lection Nite Blog Party." (See how they have the clever homage to the kids there with the intentional misspelling of "night" and the pun on E as in electronic? Very hip!) Here's the lowdown: On Election Night, Tuesday, November 7th, CNN ...

Evangelical Leader Ted Haggard Accused of Gay Hooker Affair

A gay prostitute claims he had a three-year pay-for-sex relationship with National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard. A gay man and admitted male escort claims he has had an ongoing sexual relationship with a well-known Evangelical pastor from Colorado Springs. Mike Jones told 9 Wants to Know Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward he has had a "sexual business" relationship with Pastor ...

What a Corker!

Radley Balko's allegiances in the competition for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Bill Frist have shifted due to an unlikely event: the public revelation of a Facebook photo showing Julia Corker, daughter of Republican nominee Bob Corker, apparently making out with another young woman with some dopey looking frat guy kissing air in the background. If I didn't know ...

Eric Muller’s Michelle Malkin Obsession

UNC lawprof Eric Muller posts about Michelle Malkin, a lot, on his blog, Is That Legal? Yesterday's installment is a rather inexplicable rant saying that her recent syndicated column criticizing Charlotte Church's transition from Christian rock teen queen to 20-year-old skank is hypocritical because--brace yourself!--Malkin wore a bikini and went to parties in 1992 and he has photos to ...

Taliban vs. Annie Leibovitz

Carolyn O'Hara notices (via Wonkette) something odd about this week's editions of Newsweek magazine: All editions save the U.S. variant (i.e., the primary one) put the story of the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan on the cover. What knocks it off in America? A photo essay profile of Annie Leibovitz entitled "My Life in Pictures." Hmmm.

Army Considering Fort Belvoir Amusement Park

Living as I do very near Fort Belvoir, I read with interest this morning's A1 piece in WaPo about the Army's plans to build a giant amusement park and hotel complex in land owned by the base. Army officials say they are considering allowing a private developer to build a 125-acre entertainment, hotel and conference center complex next to a national ...