Conservatives say the damndest things: "Just Tax"

After two weeks I bet you didn't think I was going to bring this little gem of a series back, did ya? Well I am. I just had to do a little more digging this time to find something that was post-worthy.

This second installment is something I found on Meghan McCain's column on The Daily Beast. I usually stop by her site just to keep up with what the "young and hip" journalists are doing these days. To be perfectly honest, the stuff she has to say is usually pretty moderate and I don't disagree with all of it.

But this video she posted of some dorky guy changing the lyrics of Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" was too much.



Not only do I respectfully disagree with this guys position, but this song is pretty terrible. Apparently even Auto-Tune can't fix everyone's voice. I'll agree with Ms. McCain that the Republican party needs a lot more stuff like this to reach out to the younger folks, but this is definitely not "cute" or "catchy."

Get back to work, GOPers.

ADDENDUM: I completely forgot about this little gem that Bill Kristol said on The Daily Show earlier this week. Jon Stewart backed him into a corner that he was helpless to get out of and it's beautiful.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Bill Kristol Extended Interview
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

Stewart didn't have to do anything but repeat exactly what Kristol said: the military deserves better health care, which it gets from the government. Oops!

Tuesday Guilty Pleasure

It's a beautiful Tuesday afternoon and I'm getting ready to bike out to Maple View Farm to sit on the back porch and have some delicious ice cream, but before I do that, I feel obliged to talk about something I absolutely love but don't like to admit. 

As I've said before, I have a special place in my heart for girls who can sing and play piano. Or guitar for that matter. Just any instrument. They don't even have to be cute. But this girl is. 

Sara Bareilles: "Love Song."

Sara Bareilles |MTV Music

Almost every morning during my junior year of college, I would pull this video up on YouTube or catch it on MTV (during one of the few times they actually play music videos) and crank it up as I got ready. It's such a fun, catchy song and a cute video. It put me in a great mood every morning. You can't beat a song like that. 

I tried to get another guest TGP from Courtney, but she didn't have anything. She told me she'd have something for me next week, so look out for that!

Rapping about Twitter?

On the way back home from my interview with the Charlotte Observer (that I hope went well), I heard quite possibly the worst rap song that I've heard in a long time. There's no other way to describe it. 

But what really sets it apart from the rest is the prominent role that social media and new technology plays in the song. This song is all about text messaging, Twitter and Twitpics. I'm not kidding. The chorus even uses an emoticon. 

Ladies and gentlemen, "LOL (Smiley Face)" by Trey Songz:

Just in case you didn't catch those lyrics, here they are in their entirety. 

Shorty just text me, say she wanna sex me
LOL smiley face, LOL smiley face
Shorty sent a twit pic saying come and get this,
LOL smiley face, LOL smiley face

Shorty called my phone, I was busy (i was busy)
Cruisin in that benz round the city (round the city)
Then I felt my phone buzz, I know that she like thugs,
And I’m a bad boy like diddy, (Take that)
Then she sent a text (text), that read (read), baby im at home,
Then she sent another one that says she’s all alone
So I text her a smiley face and said lets do the grown,
She said lol, boy you crazy, come on
Then she said actually, you aint gotta ask me
Sent the lil face with the tongue cos im nasty
Im on my way, girl I can’t wait, twitter me a picture
Let me see that ok,

[Chorus]
Shorty just text me, say she want to sex me
LOL smiley face, LOL smiley face
Shorty sent a twitpic saying come and get this,
LOL smiley face, LOL smiley face

Go to my page and follow, if you got a body like a Coke bottle.
Shorty sending twit pics sayin come and get this
LOL smiley face, LOL smiley face

(Gucci Mane)
Email me shorty, text bay,
Gucci Mane x-rated we could make a sex tape (GUCCI!).
Pics on my iphone, gucci on her ipod,
When she turn around, ass make ya say oh god,.
Mommy real beautiful,
Manicured cuticles,
Office job, student girl, holding down her cubicle,
And she got my number to her, man that’s like a miracle,
She say she like my swag,and my 6’s on my vehicle,
GA to VA, Cali girls love me,
Brooklyn girls hug me,
Miami girls sexy, (I think I love her!)
Pull up in a stretchy…
Jump out flexing
First date sexing,
Next night sexing. (Well Damn!)

[Chorus]

(Soulja Boy)
Lol smiley face, lol smiley face,
Soulja boy tellem bay,
Lol smiley face,
Baby girl sent da picture to my blackberry,
She fine and she thick just like Hallie berry,
Kiss me through the phone, LOL smiley face
We can go and kick it bay
Later on at my place,
She message me on myspace told me she loved me,
She texting my phone 4:30 in da morning,
Baby i’m horny, I wanna kiss you,
I can put it on you, thats not an issue,
She scratching my back, screaming out im hers,
She text my phone say I need your love,
I met her monday last week in da club,
One week later now she telling me that she in love

I can't make that up. I don't even know what else to say about it. How about you guys just tell me how you feel down in the comments. 

Tuesday Guilty Pleasure

Welcome, one and all, to yet another spectacular installment of Tuesday Guilty Pleasure, where I bravely go where no man has gone before and tell you about something I love that I really, really shouldn't.

This week we're going to take it back to the '90s with some angry chick music (I mean no offense to any ladies in the audience when I use the word "chick"). My mom had this CD when I was growing up and I could sing along to every word, even if I didn't quite understand what it all meant. Now that I get it, I still sing along to every song, just only when I'm alone. 

Alanis Morissette |MTV Music

That's right, I know almost every word to Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morisette. I have to admit that I definitely like angry Alanis much more than I like the happy-go-lucky version, even though her version of "My Humps" is classic. There's just so much passion in the lyrics of this song I can't help but belt it out whenever it comes on. 

Fun fact: I heard on the radio this morning that this song ("You Oughta Know") was rumored to be written about her failed relationship with Dave Coulier from the show "Full House." Not sure how true the rumor is, but it will definitely make you look at the song differently, especially since he is almost 15 years older than her.  

SK6ers: "The Bear"

If you haven't already heard of them, take this chance to hear the magic that is Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. They're a great acoustic rock trio from Massachusetts that I stumbled upon at a concert four years ago and I've been a die-hard fan ever since. 

Their new album, "The Bear," is available for pre-order on CD and vinyl. I've only heard one track off it so far, but it sounded great and I'm sure the rest of the album is even more SK6ers deliciousness. Also, if you're in the Chapel Hill area, Stephen Kellogg is playing a solo set at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro with Dar Williams on August 14. The whole band will be back around on October 6 at the Cat's Cradle co-headlining with Carbon Leaf (who, coincidently, is who they opened for when I first saw them at the Cradle).

Hands down, they have the best live show that I have ever seen, with Ben Folds being the only show that even comes close. I could go into more detail, but it might be easier just to link over to some of the other posts that I've written about them to give you an idea. 

Don't miss this band when they come around. I promise that the show will be magical. I'll probably be dancing like a maniac in the first row. 

Richard Sine: "Close the J-Schools"

Richard Sine over at Huffington Post made a bold statement on his blog today: all journalism schools should close their doors. Hmmm...interesting. Let's read on. 

Shocking news from the halls of academia: Forbes reported earlier this year that enrollment in graduate journalism schools is booming. These kids are paying upwards of $70,000 (the cost of Columbia's J-School, including living expenses) for a ghost's chance of landing a job, at pitiful pay, in an industry that is rapidly collapsing. What's going to be the next hot field in graduate study? Blacksmithing? Bloodletting? Steamship design?

I don't meant to offend anyone from the noble field of steamship design, where there is actually a lot to learn. Journalism is not a profession like engineering, medicine or even law. You can pick up most media skills on the job, or with a few hours of instruction. If you screw up, nobody dies, and nothing collapses. This is why so many — perhaps most — journalism pros have built successful careers without touching J-school, and why many of them considered a J-degree a dubious credential even in the field's heyday.

OK, fair enough. I completely agree that journalism graduate school is not always worth it. I can't think of anything with journalism that I would want to do that would require me to go get a master's degree other than than boost my ego. Journalism is a skilled based industry: either you know how to write, report, edit, take pictures and design pages, or you don't. The end. 

But I think Sine's argument is a little too vague and alarmist. First, journalism school doesn't imply graduate school. I have a bachelor's degree from the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Sine makes it sound like the only way to get a degree in journalism is to pay $70,000 to go to graduate school. Not true. I went to a state college and got a great liberal arts education that was focused around journalism. I don't feel like I wasted a bit of my (and my parents) money. 

Is it possible that I could have skipped journalism school and been just as good of a writer? Maybe. But there are definitely perks to getting the education. As Sine said, much of what journalists learn can be picked up in the field. But does anyone really want to hire someone who is going to have to learn on the job? That means mistakes, corrections to publish, possible libel suits and possible damage to the publication's reputation. Why do you think you need a journalism degree to even get in the door?

UNC-CH has a very experience-based J-school. I had classes where I covered a beat, created and designed a magazine, wrote columns and published an online newspaper. This gave me the chance to make mistakes and learn from them without having to worry about whether I would keep my job or how much ad revenue the publication was going to lose. All I had to worry about was my grade. 

I also learned a lot from talking with my professors, who Sine described as "old-media refugees who made the desperate leap onto J-school faculties in response to buyouts or layoffs." Sure, this is true for many professors. But does that mean that the wisdom they've gained and the experiences they've had won't help me when I'm looking for a job or working at a paper? Sine says that these "old-media refugees" can't even help students get connections in the journalism world. I beg to differ. In my job search, my most promising leads have come from former professors who hear about job openings around the state. They're still well connected. 

Also, Columbia University doesn't exactly represent the average journalism graduate program. The University of California-Berkeley offers their graduate program for exactly $0.00 for in-state students. For out-0f-state students, a whopping $14,694. My alma mater? An unbelievable $4,198 for in-state and $10,417 for out-of-state. Sine should do a little more research before he starts throwing out wild claims. 

Finally, I'm tired of the alarmist doomsday statements that many journalists are making about the industry ("...an industry that is rapidly collapsing. What's going to be the next hot field in graduate study? Blacksmithing? Bloodletting? Steamship design?") I've said it many times before and I'll say it again: journalism is not dying, it's changing. Major newspapers are dying, huge media corporations are dying, but the industry is not. My guess is that journalism is going to move to a more community focus and/or online. I especially think it's interesting that he would claim journalism is dying on HuffPo, a new media giant that might as well be the poster boy for the future of journalism. 

Journalism schools are preparing for the shift in the industry. Everyone's not just sitting back praying that newspapers will just start thriving again. I took a blogging and social media class on top of creating an online newspaper while in school. Many new classes are being offered that aim to teach students about new media or new skills that could become valuable in this new era of journalism. Anyone interested in getting into journalism would be much better off with this type of education.

Two totally different worlds...

This is the perfect example of what's wrong with the American mindset when it comes to transportation policy. 

Today in the New York Times there is a great article about a river in South Korea that was once covered by a highway but is now thriving. Not only is it pretty to look at, but it's helping the environment and the economy.

The recovery project, which removed three miles of elevated highway as well, also substantially cut air pollution from cars along the corridor and reduced air temperatures. Small-particle air pollution dropped to 48 micrograms per cubic meter from 74 along the corridor, and summer temperatures are now often five degrees cooler than those of nearby areas, according to data cited by city officials.

And even with the loss of some vehicle lanes in this city of 10 million people, traffic speeds have picked up because of related transportation changes like expanded bus service, restrictions on cars and higher parking fees.

“We’ve basically gone from a car-oriented city to a human-oriented city,” said Lee In-keun, Seoul’s assistant mayor for infrastructure, who has been invited to places as distant as Los Angeles to describe the project to other urban planners.

Those are some pretty sweet results if you ask me. We talked about this a lot in my environment and society class last semester with regards to urban sprawl. It seems that everyone wins when society moves from car-centric to people-centric, but lawmakers can't get past the price tag and little words like "initial ridership" for public transportation. But think about how much we spend on road construction each year! 

Which brings me to my next point.

From the Raleigh News and Observer: 

It turns out that Wendi Johnson, a Wilson-based construction engineer for the state Department of Transportation, was right all along. And the central office experts were wrong.

North Carolina will spend $13 million to correct their mistake, DOT officials said today, and to implement a recommendation Johnson made six years ago.

In 2003 and 2004, Johnson urged DOT honchos in Raleigh not to scrimp on the thickness of pavement for the new 18-mile Interstate 795, a truck shortcut from Goldsboro to I-95 at Wilson.

Citing her experience with other road projects in Eastern North Carolina, Johnson warned that DOT’s planned 5-inch pavement would be too thin and too weak to support the expected freeway traffic.

Senior DOT planners rejected her plea to add 3 more inches of asphalt. They objected to the cost – an extra $2.8 million for a $196 million project.

Wow. Really? I see we have our priorities in the right place. So that puts the total cost (as of now) for this 18-mile stretch at $209 million. That's almost half of what it cost to build the LYNX light rail system in Charlotte. Wanna bet which one will last longer? Or which one is going to be more beneficial in the long run? 

And for all those who complain that initial readership is low? Let me throw some figures at you: for the first year the initial weekday ridership was predicted to be 9,100. By March of 2008 it was already up to 18,600, a level it wasn't predicted to be at until 2025. 

Public transportation is useful, as the people in Charlotte found out. Now it's time the rest of the country figures it out. 

The other Blind Pilot

Anyone who knew me in high school will remember (maybe) that I was part of a "promising" alternative rock trio called Blind Pilot with my buddies Patrick and Andy. We had some good times, played a few shows and recorded a few songs on home equipment, but it never amounted to much. I'm still convinced that given more practice time and a better lead singer (someone other than me...) we could have made it. But maybe that's just me. 

Well you can imagine my surprise last summer when during my road trip across the country I looked down at the XM radio screen and saw a song by Blind Pilot playing. My first thought was "Did Andy release one of our songs from Myspace?" I quickly realized I was wrong when the music started: it was actually good. 

With a little more research, I found that this more talented Blind Pilot is a sextet that hails from Portland. The more I learned about them, the more I liked. The two founding members, Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski, have done two bike tours down the West Coast. Literally, they rode their bikes from tour stop to tour stop. How awesome is that?

Besides being cool guys, they play really good indie/acoustic/pop music that's catchy and fun. What reminded me of this is that they recently recorded a session over at Daytrotter that's worth checking out. Who's gonna say no to free music?

Now excuse me while I whip out my guitar and rock some of my classic Blind Pilot tunes....

Tuesday Guilty Pleasure!

For the second day in a row, my body decided that the alarm clock going off beside its head was not reason enough to wake up, which is why I'm just now getting to put up this weeks post about stuff that I'm obsessed with but am slightly ashamed about. 

This week is a slight change of pace. It still involves music, but it's not a pop song. For eight years of my life, I spent every weekend in the fall on a football field. But only during half time. College band was fun, but it was nothing compared to my marching band in high school. We were a competitive band with a militaristic attitude and a history of excellence. Every weekend we went to some competition in some random part of the country and expected to come back with more trophies than we could carry, and we usually did. 

I was obsessed with marching band and still love the sound of the brass and drums. I watch drum corps whenever I can and still get chills when I listen to old marching band shows. That's why I was so excited when I found this on YouTube. 

"Drum Major Corey Inscoe and the Cary High School Marching Band!" 

Yep, that's right. I was a big enough band nerd to be drum major my senior year. That little white thing in the front waving his hands around like crazy, that's me. I loved every minute of it, especially leading the band at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis at the Bands of America Grand Nationals competition. 

I still know most of this show, too, and could probably conduct a decent chunk if I studied it a little bit. High school band was a lot of work, but I left with some amazing memories. This is one of them. 

We have video!

I finally quit slacking off and got the hang of Apple's iMovie enough to finally produce the first part of "EuroTripping," the video montage of mine and Thomas' trip this summer. There is quite a lot of material to work with, so sifting through it all has been a challenge. 

Part I includes material from Frankfurt and Berlin. The camera took great quality video, but Thomas' unsteady hand made things a little interesting sometimes. 

I'm working on Part II now, which should include Amsterdam and Bruges, Belgium. Here's a teaser: stairs, dogs and sausage. I'll let you know when it goes up! Until then, enjoy Part I. Feel free to give me some comments, or if you see anything wrong, let me know. 

Conservatives say the damndest things: Heritage vs. EPA

After the stunning success of my first weekly post series, "Tuesday Guilty Pleasure," I've decided to start a new one: "Conservatives say the damndest things." This may not be quite weekly like TGP, but I'll do my best to put one of these up every Friday. And for the conservatives in the crowd (if there are any), I'm working on doing the same thing with liberals. We say some crazy stuff as well. 

The inaugural post in this series hearkens back to a controversial post I wrote a couple weeks ago about the Waxman-Markley cap and trade bill. I got this gem of an e-mail from the Heritage Foundation and though I should share it with you. 

Inhofe produced an EPA chart generated last year during the Senate’s debate of the Lieberman-Warner cap and trade legislation. The chart showed that the carbon reductions under that bill would not materially effect global carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. Inhofe then asked Jackson if she agreed with the chart’s conclusions. Jackson replied: “I believe that essential parts of the chart are that the U.S. action alone will not impact CO2 levels.”

[...]

For example, a recent study of cap and trade by MIT concluded: “The different U.S. policies have relatively small effects on the CO2 concentration if other regions do not follow the U.S. lead. … The Developed Only scenario cuts only about 0.5 °C of the warming from the reference, again illustrating the importance of developing country participation.”

Well duh! First, let's go ahead and throw it out there that part of the reason the bill is so weak is that it would have had absolutely no chance to pass the House if it actually had any teeth because the Republicans and Democrats with no backbone would have never voted for it. God forbid we sacrifice a little bit to, you know, save the world. 

But why are they acting like this is such a big "Got ya!" moment against the EPA. Of course this legislation isn't going to mean much if other countries don't follow along. Despite what many may think, there are other people on this Earth and they're polluting too. At the G8 summit this week, world leaders are working to curb worldwide emissions of CO2, even agreeing today to not let the world temperature go more than two degrees Celsius higher and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. 

Of course, China and India are not going to sign on too quickly. But do you really think they would consider it if the U.S. wasn't working to cut back their emissions? If nothing else, this is a symbolic gesture to show that we're taking this seriously. 

The e-mail goes on to say: 

So if other countries will not sacrifice their own economic growth to meet carbon cutting goals, then what is the economic hit Americans are taking? The left is touting a recent Congressional Budget Office study which they say shows Waxman-Markey would only cost Americans $175 a year. However, the left is seriously misrepresenting what the CBO study is. Footnote three on page four of the CBO study explicitly admits: “The resource cost does not indicate the potential decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) that could result from the cap."

First, it's nice to see that Heritage is finally listening to the Congressional Budget Office about how much this is really going to cost. But this logic just baffles me. "But -- but China isn't doing it so why should we?? It's so not fair!" What are we, bratty five-year-old kids? Grow up. Yes, this is going to cost us a little bit. We've established that. But I'm willing to pay a little price if it means there's some slim chance that we can reduce our effect on climate change. 

Google is taking over the world!!

Today, Google announced that they are releasing a brand spankin' new operating system based on their recently released browser, Chrome. Google Chrome OS is backed by Linux, but the majority of the applications will actually run on the internet. 

From CNET: "

Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the Web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small Netbooks to full-size desktop systems," Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, said in the blog post.
The move has widespread implications.
One is that it shows just how serious Google is about making the Web into a foundation not just for static pages but for active applications, notably its own such as Google Docs and Gmail. Another: it opens new competition with Microsoft and, potentially, a new reason for antitrust regulators to pay close attention to Google's moves.

Google is all about some Web based applications, but I'm just not sure how practical something like this is. Of course, I'm not terribly tech savvy, but I have reservations about putting so much faith in the internet. Users don't always have internet access. Or what happens when the internet unexpectedly goes down?

I'm not too worried about all of this, though. I'm sure Google has all the answers, or they'll figure it out before too long. Chrome is a pretty sweet browser. I used it on my old PC because nothing else seemed to run quickly at all. And I'm pretty sure I would be lost if I didn't have Gmail and all its bells and whistles. I'm interested to see how this all plays out and how much Microsoft freaks out. 

In other news, it looks like the creators of Twitter is shopping around for a buyer and, thankfully, Murdoch isn't interested. I think I might have to shut down my Twitter account if the big bad wolf takes control. I'm thinking we'll see Google buy it before anyone else does.

Tuesday Guilty Pleasure!

First, a small aside. If you're reading this on Facebook, click the link that takes you to the actual Web site. While I love people finding my blog via Facebook, it's so much more fun and easier for me to have you comment on the actual blog post instead of in the Facebook note. Just come on over and join the party by bookmarking CoreyInscoe.com. Then you'll be able to read my fantastic updates whenever you want. And leave a little note below this post to let me know you got here safely!

Now on to the business at hand. It's time for my weekly confession of something I really like that I really, really shouldn't! This week's selection actually came from a cool little feature I saw last week that ranked the 12 greatest key changes in pop music. As a rule, I can't stand key changes at the end of songs as a way to keep things interesting, especially when it changes about five times while the singer keeps singing the chorus, straining as the notes go higher and higher. 

There were, though, a few songs that caught my attention. This weeks song is hard for me to explain. I really shouldn't like it because, as it says in the post, it's "one big key change." And it's an extremely cheesy and sappy song that no man's man would ever be caught dead singing. But when have I ever claimed to be a man's man?

Honestly, I think I have to attribute it to the way the song just continually builds (thanks, key changes) and finally peaks in a barrage of piano, gospel choir and heavy drum fills. I also love how the beginning is so dark and mysterious, too. Or maybe it's because I have this great '80s movie choreographed in my head as I listen to this song. 

Either way, there it is, another guilty pleasure.

P.S. how creepy is that video?? That was not the gospel choir I was expecting....

Lonely Island

I know I'm late on this one, but if you haven't listened to The Lonely Island yet, you're missing out big time. The rap duo, made up of the hilarious Andy Samburg and his buddies Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, first hit the scene with the classic "Dick in a Box" featuring Justin Timberlake. But arguably their best song to date is "I'm on a Boat." 
(Unfortunately YouTube won't let me embed the uncensored version, but the link above will take you to it.)

The Lonely Island |MTV Music

You simply can't beat what T-Pain contributes to this song. His verse might be one of the greatest things I've heard all year. And the best part of all of this is that they don't take themselves seriously at all. 

Believe it or not, but they actually recently released a record called "Incredibad" that features the songs I mentioned above alongside many other comedic gems. You can check out all the videos and material on their Web site or on their YouTube channel. 

Steve McNair

When I saw the news last night on my phone, in the middle of 4th of July festivities, I was completely shocked. I looked at multiple Web sites just to make sure it was true. Sure enough, Steve McNair was found shot to death. 

For some people this may not mean a lot: he didn't have the superstar quality of Peyton Manning or the pretty boy charm of Tom Brady, but McNair was by far one of my favorite quarterbacks and someone in the game I really respected. He was a big part of the reason I started pulling for the Tennessee Titans after their heartbreaking loss to the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV. 

The man was a tank. He would have five injuries on five different parts of his body and would still be taking snaps. I always loved when the broadcasters would pull up this little graphic that showed all the injuries he had sustained in a season and never missed a game. He was something to watch, especially when he had the help of running back Eddie George, who, coincidentally, is the one that broke the news to Titans coach Jeff Fisher. 

It's a tough day for a Titans fan and for the whole NFL. Let's hope this trend that started last week will finally come to an end....

Yet another post about the future of journalism

In a post today Ezra Klein proposed that newspapers should be heavily subsidized by the government. I've never liked the idea of government control of newspapers, but this argument is pretty convincing. It wouldn't mean that all news would be controlled by the government, but there would be "public newspapers" that survive through subsidies. 

Thankfully, society has developed models for funding things we deem important but don't entirely trust to the private market. We have public universities and public centers for disease research and public firefighting departments and a public military and public roads. Why should news be different?

You can argue that it must be oppositional to government, of course, and so government funding is a conflict of interest. But many European countries have solved that problem by developing automatic funding structures free of government influence. Meanwhile, it's not as if NPR or the BBC seem particularly concerned about criticizing their respective governments (nor, for that matter, do professors at public universities seem particularly cowed).

Whatever the outcome, it can't be worse than the crap that the Washington Post tried to pull or ugly advertisements and advertorials on the front pages of our favorite newspapers. 

They're partying in the streets of Alaska!

Or at least they should be with the latest news that Governer Sarah Palin is stepping down! (*cheersapplausescreamsshootingmoosethrowingbabies*)

Our favorite hockey mom is throwing in the towel up in Juneau with very little explanation other than that she doesn't feel like she is doing a good enough job for Alaska. Well duh! In typical Palin fashion, no one knew that this was coming. According to the NPR article, many members of the media missed the announcement because it was scheduled so late and even Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell didn't know that he was going to be stepping up until Wednesday. 

From NPR: 

"Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional Lame Duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose," Palin said in a statement released by her office.

That sounds nice and all, but there's got to be more behind this. Maybe she is taking the time to prepare for that 2012 presidential election. Man I hope so. There's no way the American public will let her win and it was so much fun to make fun of her last year that I would love to get another chance. 

Interestingly enough, this happened just two days after Chris posted a great Vanity Fair article about the Alaskan. Be sure to check that out.