Seriously: How many kids were watching Joe Scarborough on MSNBC this morning? How is it that, on a show for adults that discusses adult issues, an accidental vulgarity can pull a discussion of the news to a full stop? It's 2008. Fucking get over it. There are much worse things, like for instance the sad state of television journalism, to get all huffy about.

Here's hoping every one of those raging lady chocoholics grows up to be a sassy Grandma Horny.

A suspected Italian mobster who went into a clinic for liposuction surgery has ended up losing more than his excess weight.

Domenico Magnoli, a suspected cocaine trafficker, also lost his freedom.

Soon after he regained consciousness, police officers disguised as nurses and visitors bearing flowers arrested him in his hospital room.

"We performed a little operation of our own," police spokesman Col Aldo Jacobello said.

I would only move the "said" in the last sentence so it immediately follows the quote. Other than that, it's a crown of splendor.

You're at the top of Google News, Salon. But rather than looking confident like Obama, who just appointed his bad cop, and confident like the headstrong Rahm Emanual, who doesn't give a shit what you call him, you put up a wimpy headline with the word "a - - hole"? Everyone knows you mean ASSHOLE. And you know that we know you mean ASSHOLE. So stop being such a wimpy ASSHOLE and just spell A-S-S-H-O-L-E.

The front page of newspapers from around the world. Awesome. Scroll down to get past the English-speaking parts of the world.

(Thanks, Superfrankenstein!)

“We were told … that you can’t bring The Stranger and the Weekly in,” says an employee who attended the meeting and asked to remain anonymous. “I was shocked, personally.”

Carolyn Lacey, an employment attorney, was also concerned the city overstepped it bounds. “This is not as though somebody with a Seattle Center uniform is holding up The Stranger and giving the public the impression that somehow the Seattle Center endorses The Stranger or … escort services,” she says. “To infringe on someone’s First Amendment rights, there has to be a real compelling reason.”

But the Seattle Center seems to be backing off. “There will be no restriction on The Stranger or the Weekly and nobody will be penalized for having a copy in the workplace,” says Deborah Daoust, a Seattle Center spokeswoman. “The back sections [of the papers] were used as examples of things that could be seen as inappropriate or be seen as sexual harassment.” She says the Seattle Center never intended to ban the publications outright.

“It could have just been the way they heard it,” Daoust says.

But the way the employees heard it seems clear. By the Seattle Center’s own admission, the employees were told about prohibited materials, and the newspapers were used “as examples” of the types of things that violate the policy.

“My understanding leaving the meeting was that we should not bring [the papers] in and not even have them in the locker,” says the employee. “People could have complained. There are, it seems, a lot of Christians that sort of dominate things there.”

Via TwitPic. Thanks to tipper NaFun.

But...

While I was moved by the NYT's lead editorial today about the travesty of justice in California, and while I appreciated the editors' decision to run their story about the approval of anti-gay-marriage amendments in California and two other states on the paper's front page and above-the-fold, and recognizing that there's no way to say this without looking like a self-serving ingrate, it has to be said: The New York Times needs to add a gay writer to the its roster of opinion columnists. (And, no, I'm not thinking of the gig for myself; I've written for the NYT op-ed pages in the past, but I'm fond of the column I've got, thanks, and way too fond the "f" word to be a NYT columnist. I'm thinking of Andrew Sullivan, who would be a great choice, as would Jonathan Capehart, Pam Spaulding, and a dozen others I could name off the top of my head.) I came to this conclusion after reading the three opinion columns on today's NYT op-ed pages.

Nicholas Kristof writes...

America is more than a place. At its best, it also is an idea.

When my father was driven from his home in Eastern Europe in World War II, he initially settled in France. But France offered no opportunity to impoverished refugees, so my father sought better prospects for himself and his descendents by moving on to an Oregon logging camp to begin to learn English and start a new life. What lured him was not the real estate of America, but the idea of America.

We Americans have periodically betrayed that idea of equality and opportunity, but on Tuesday evening we powerfully revitalized it.

Uh, Nicholas? Voters in three states—including the nation's largest—betrayed the "idea of equality" for gays and lesbians on Tuesday. I agree that the election of Obama powerfully revitalized the idea of America, but the symbolism of Obama's election was marred by the results in California, Florida, and Arizona.

Gail Collins writes today...

Tralalalalala.

We are only thinking cheerful thoughts today, people. America did good. Enjoy.

Gay and lesbian Americans aren't so cheerful today, Gail, particularly gays and lesbians who read your paper's front-page story about the "stunning victory" of the religious right's efforts to ban gay marriage in California, Florida, and Arizona.

Maureen Dowd writes...

In the midst of such a phenomenal, fizzy victory overcoming so many doubts and crazy attacks and even his own middle name, Obama stood alone....

There have been many awful mistakes made in this country. But now we have another chance.

As we start fresh with a constitutional law professor and senator from the Land of Lincoln, the Lincoln Memorial might be getting its gleam back.

Tuesday didn't offer a fresh start for gays and lesbians, Maureen, just more "awful mistakes," more bigotry and discrimination, courtesy of straight voters in three states who exercised their "special right" to vote on the fundamental civil liberties of their gay and lesbian fellow citizens. (Is any other minority group subject to this treatment in this country anymore?) No gay American can read the words chiseled onto the walls of the Lincoln Memorial today—"With malice toward none, with charity for all..."—and conclude that the Lincoln Memorial got its "gleam back" on Tuesday.

I'm sure Frank Rich will have something to say about the anti-gay marriage amendments that passed on Tuesday in his column this weekend. Rich is passionate defender of the dignity and equality of gay people; like no other straight writer in America (maybe it's his love of the musical theater?), Rich understands that our struggle for equality under the law is the civil rights struggle of our time. For that reason alone the NYT should have a gay opinion columnist. That the three devastating blows delivered to the "idea of equality" on Tuesday failed to register with even one of the opinion columnists featured in today's paper makes the need for a gay columnist at the NYT that much more pressing, urgent, and obvious.

You're welcome.

A letter sent yesterday from Frank Blethen and Carolyn Kelly to the Times's employees is pasted below the jump.

MORE: Folks at Fairview Fanny say the main news section has already consumed the business section; now they speculate that local news may get combined into the main news section, as well. They also think that the Lifestyle desk will be hit hard. NW Life and Arts & Entertainment have already been combined into one section--and the travel section may be folded in next.

The Seattle Times Co. announced more cutbacks today, including a reduction of 130 to 150 staff positions through a combination of buyouts and layoffs...In a memo to staff, Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen and company President Carolyn Kelly blamed the moves on industry changes and the worldwide financial crisis. They said the company needs to adjust to structural changes that have reduced advertising revenue in all media. Even the growth of online revenue — previously a bright spot for the company — has stalled during the worldwide economic slowdown, Blethen and Kelly wrote.

The company hinted there might be more cutbacks to come: "As the 2009 budgeting process continues, there will be additional expense reductions, which may include additional layoffs," the memo stated.

This is not good news for anyone.

(Thanks to Slog tipper Susie.)

Being an employee of a big paper, I have hardly ever had that happen to me. The one time I remember was in the 90s as a business reporter being denied entry to a stockholder meeting of the Fisher Companies, which was then under SEC rules a public company. I was furious--shaking--and a good deal less polite to the Fisher vice-president who kicked me out than Goldy was yesterday--and I don't regret anything I said to that Fisher man, or about him, thereafter. My experience wasn't exactly the same as Goldy's, but close enough.

Obviously, a lawyer holding a press conference in his private offices may let in who he likes and exclude who he likes. It may well be, as Goldy suspects, that they excluded him because he's anti-Rossi, and because his style of expression is less than genteel. Maybe even the name of his blog has something to do with it. But for the record: Goldy is part of the media in Seattle. People who follow politics know who he is. They read him. Whether Feit is paid, or how much he is paid, is beside the point. We are not media because of how much money we make, or that we make any at all. We are media because of what we do.

I can only add: The only time I've ever been asked to leave a press event was at a press conference held by the anti-monorail campaign in 2003--and I'm still pissed. People who work with the media need to learn that you get better press by letting the media (even the partisan media!) in than by excluding them.

So I'm pretty fond of Stuff Journalists Like, because it's got the potential to be a little more nasty than Stuff White People Like. They've already pointed out that journalists dress poorly, and that they love Free Swag, Press Passes, and Free Food. But what's this, at #22? Interns.

Interns are essentially used as mops to wipe up the day’s dullest news, allowing the professional paid journalists who get paid to focus on items that will wind up in frames and earn them the name recognition they so crave. Interns also allow journalists to pursue time worthy efforts such as griping about the death of newspapers or to write personal blogs. Without interns, covering the news would get in the way of these endeavors.

But the best part? The illustration for the Interns entry:

Why, it's Steven Blum, our former Public Intern! Truly, he is the archetypical Intern of Interns.

[Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino] Rossi [deposed this morning as part of a lawsuit alleging he illegally coordinated his campaign with the Building Industry Association of Washington] has to counterattack.

So he's holding a press conference at 9:30 a.m. No slinking in and out of a lawyer's office for him. [...]

To Rossi and his supporters this is now a political ambush by Gregoire operatives and the loony left.

The legal case against the BIAW, they note, is brought by Knoll Lowney, who sued Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick late in his 2006 campaign. That suit stirred stories. But coverage was less visible seven months later when a federal judge dismissed the suit.

Lowney also represented the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which contributes heavily to Evergreen Progress PAC, the union equivalent of the BIAW. Evergreen Progress PAC gave $35,000 to Fuse, Republicans point out. Fuse is a liberal group that helps Lowney with public relations; they're his mouthpiece. The circle of liberal complicity is complete in the plot against Rossi.

Lowney says he's not being paid in this case. He's working on contingency. He has a class action suit against BIAW alleging the group breached its fiduciary trust with its members. That suit could pay big fees, he says. That's why an Arizona firm is helping with his case. Not because they're Gregoire fans, he says, but because they can see the potential payday.

Lowney does have a history of liberal activism. And he was on the winning side in at least one big case, getting the state Supreme Court to overturn Tim Eyman's Initiative 747.

Lowney's big "win," by the way, was actually overturned at the instigation of Gov. Gregoire--the very same "liberal" politician Young is insinuating Lowney is supporting.

And not that we at the Stranger are against editorializing--hell, we endorse it. But it's funny to watch reporters for the above-politics, uber-"objective" Seattle Times when they're suddenly allowed to betray their real opinions--opinions every informed citizen has, but which reporters for the "objective" daily papers aren't supposed to betray under any circumstances. Could allowing naughty words be next for Seattle's family newspaper? Stay tuned.