Now that Time Inc. has laid off 600 staffers in the last 48 hours or so, it would not be the best time (ha!) to ask for a little extra cash to cover the last days of the campaign trail in style. But that's what Ana Marie Cox, the original Wonkette, has to do over at Time.com's Swampland, since her previous source of travel budget came from Radar, and they're…well…kaput.

So what's a girl gotta do to make sure her seat is still reserved on John McCain's airplane on Nov. 3rd?

Why the classiest thing, of course. Beg Fundraise for the dough:

CONTINUED »

Balthazar snob and blog publisher Nick Denton is unloading a trio of his websites. Music blog Idolator, which never gained much traction, is being unloaded to Buzznet, the music-focused social network that insisted it wasn't raising capital to buy blogs. City guide Gridskipper goes to old pal Lockhart Steele's Curbed network of hyper-local sites. And political muckraker Wonkette is going its lonely way, with managing editor Ken Layne taking the reigns solo. Not that it'll impact the business much: As Denton himself writes, those blogs represent just 3 percent of his pageview dump. Full memo from HQ below.

CONTINUED »

“Dude, that tattoo is sick.”
“Dude, I know. It’s actually totally tribal and stuff.”
“It must be like a total chick magnet. It makes you look so tough.”
“You know it. Except I got mugged last week.”
“No, dude. How could you get mugged with such a bitchin' tattoo?”
“Aw, man, I didn’t get a chance to show it to him. I’m sure if I did, he would have never taken my $80.”

[NYP]
[Big Head DC]

As we write this, we’re looking out the window and salivating over the picture perfect weather outside,* currently being wasted on lazy unemployed persons and pretentious NYU students. And so, for your sanity and ours, we’ve decided to kick off a glorious new feature called “Comment of the Day,” to provide a transient glimmer of entertainment for all you working stiffs who would much rather be downing margaritas poolside on the Jersey Shore (while fending off advances from married, guidos named Tony) than slaving away in your cubicles.

Today’s “Comment of the Day” comes to us from Wonkette, and pertains to Scooter Libby's sentencing memorandum—an unbiased legal document (produced by Scooter Libby's legal team) explaining why defendant Scooter Libby should not be sentenced to prison.

Early contender "Words" gets things started with a bang:

Shame is he's the only one in our lifetime to pay for anything this Loser Administration has done (besides the constituents, of course). –Words

Ultimately, however, "Gnaeus" wins us over with his blunt candor.

CONTINUED »

We are probably going to see this come back to us in the form of drunken high school photos, but, it's Friday and there's nothing else going on, so you mind as well look at (what appears to be) a hot republican in a bikini.

Now, we don't have a problem with this photo (what kind of girl with that bod doesn't have bikini photos laying around) especially since it proves that Malkin is capable of smiling and having fun. We also don't have a problem with the fact that the increasingly un-classy Wonkette ran the photo. We just thought this could leave room as a cautionary tale. And who couldn't use one of those once in awhile?

Plus, the "Yo yo baby wanna git buzy wid you and deport the japs!" image title (a reference to Malkin's book on how she's pro-kicking out the Japanese from America during and after WW2) is pretty funny.

Michelle, You Ignorant Slut … [Wonkette]

Update: Like four minutes after we posted this, Michelle Malkin had her response up.

I have blogged before about the obsessed UNC professor Eric Muller.

He and his friends at Wonkette have sunk to a new low (Guess insulting me with ping-pong ball jokes wasn't enough). As a response to my column this week on Charlotte Church, they post a picture of a woman in a bikini that they claim is me (I wish I looked that good in a bikini).

Sigh. And come Monday, the scrap game of stone throwing will get picked up in someone else's backyard.

War in blogland has begun. Gawker's founding editor, Elizabeth Spiers, has snatched a blog editor from former boss Nick Denton. David Lat, who jumped at the chance to blog for Denton at Wonkette, will be joining Spiers as she expands her empire to include a law blog. (Paging Melissa Lafsky!)

Before joining Wonkette, Lat ran a little law blog of his own called Underneath Their Robes, until he was sold out by Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker last year. As surprised as we were that Denton picked off an outed blogger, we guess getting press without giving press is always a plus for the Gawker Media mogul.

Last week, when Gawker commented that "coporate blogger" was codename for "working for Spiers," we didn't exactly get it … but with the news that Spiers will be adding two more sites to her company (a fashion blog along with her law venture), it's all coming together. Still, can blogging really get any more corporate than the empire of Denton.

LAT PULLED [Sara James, WWD]
Earlier: Cox to leave Wonkette

The ongoing lawsuit against Jessica Cutler, brought by Robert Steinbuch (one of Cutler's many conquests) is gaining weight faster than Britney Spears. Steinbuch, who is suing for "invasion of privacy and emotional distress" has added former Wonkette Ana Marie Cox to the defendant list.

Cutler responded that she only shared her blog with four friends and did not perpetrate its broader airing. So Steinbuch is now seeking to add Cox and the as-yet-unnamed person who turned her on to Cutler's blog to the suit. Cox, now a columnist for Time, declined comment last night.

Look, if you don't want people to write about banging you on their sex blog, you have two options. Stay inside and never get laid, or make everyone you fuck sign a confidentiality agreement that they will never talk, write, or blog about it. Sure, maybe it kills the mood, but at least it will prevent innocent bearers of truth like Cox from getting sued for spreading the good word of gossip to a dreadfully boring city.

Steinbuch's Suit Has Room to Grow [Reliable Source, Washington Post]

• Why can't Jack Shafer and Martin Peretz just play nice? [Slate]

• Really, those boys better bury the hatchet — or they're going to end up like Walter Cronkite and Alan Abel. [Page Six]

• A newbie joins Jann Wenner's staff. Here's to hoping he knows how to organize his pencils just so. [Revolving Door]

• So, Michael Leeden thinks Osama Bin Laden is dead, and nobody noticed but Wonkette? [NRO, Wonkette]

• What is fabulosity? Even better, who freakin' cares? [Kirkus Reviews]

Normally, we don't really read the Wall Street Journal, and we didn't even know there was such thing as a law blog. But, nerds need blogs, too, and it's a good thing. Otherwise we wouldn't have learned that Wonkette editor Ana Marie Cox is leaving her blog spot to tour with her first book, Dog Days.

Ana Marie is passing the gavel to Underneath Their Robes blogger David Lat. David likely got tired of posing as a bitchy chick at his previous shtick, and will now say good-bye to New Jersey, and trek to D.C., all in the name of defending the blogopshere, exposing politicians, and more stuff that we know nothing about. Well, we guess Gawker has that corporate lure — they even get vacation days.

We are sad to see Ana Marie go, yes, but are always happy when bloggers are released from their apartments and laptops, and allowed to interact with society. David, we do hope you keep peekin' under those robes &mdash nasty nerds totally turn us on.

Article III Groupie Expected to Become Wonkette [Peter Lattman, WSJ]
Underneath Their Robes