It’s been a couple years since we frequented a Gawker Media blog. Back in the Golden Age, we were rabid followers of Gawker, Defamer, and Wonkette.

Or, more precisely: Jessica Coen, Mark Lisanti, and Ana Marie Cox.

They were witty companions throughout the day. They had distinctive voices.

We like distinctive voices. Might have something to do with radio, our first love. Seventies radio. Local radio, before stations got scooped up and homogenized by corporations.

But the voices left Gawker. They were replaced by other voices, some more companionable than others, and then, later, a lot more voices — a cacophony, really. Twelve posts a day, you can absorb. Beyond that, a blog becomes a newswire. If we want headlines, we’ll check Memeorandum.

So Gawker evolved away from our interest. And soon, it plans to evolve beyond blogging.

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“U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Tuesday that he won’t participate in Tulsa’s Holiday Parade of Lights until organizers put ‘Christ’ back in the event’s title. ‘Last year, the forces of political correctness removed the word “Christmas” and replaced it with “Holiday” instead,’ the Oklahoma Republican said. ‘I am deeply saddened and disappointed by this change.'” [Tulsa World]

“The original coffin in which suspected Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was buried will go on the block on Dec. 16, with bids starting at $1,000… Oswald was buried in the casket until 1981, when a legal dispute between his widow and brother led to an exhumation.” [MSNBC, via Political Wire]

• Splash Mountain Baptism
• Stone’s Throw Haunted Mansion of Sinners
• Enchanted Glossolalia Room

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Our guest columnist is Organizing For America, which has yet to send us this message. Last we heard from them was Thanksgiving, when President Obama told us “we know that you’ll be right there with us, ready to fight another day.”

A decade of irresponsible spending led to a projected $1.3 trillion deficit that President Obama inherited upon taking office — putting America on an unsustainable fiscal course.

From Day One, this administration’s top focus has been growing the economy and putting Americans back to work — and that will never change.

The economy is growing again, yet all across America families and businesses have been tightening their belts. The President knows their government must do the same.

Yesterday, he announced a proposal to freeze pay for non-military federal employees for two years — a plan that will lead to $60 billion in savings over 10 years. It’s one of many tough choices the President has made to cut costs in the upcoming budget to begin to put our nation’s fiscal house in order. And it follows directly from this administration’s dedication to stretching federal dollars and reining in the long-term deficit.

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“On his November 30 radio show, Beck said, as he’s prone to do, that ‘the storm is here,’ adding that ‘Wikipedia is just a part of it.’ One of Beck’s sidekicks quickly stepped in to correct it to WikiLeaks. Beck then asserted that Soros ‘helped develop software’ for Wikipedia. Sidekick Stu Burguiere responded, ‘I’ve read this before, but I don’t think it’s actually accurate.'” The free software is called MediaWiki, and — surprise! — we use it too. [Media Matters]

Tea Party Nation prez Judson Phillips plays Amendment-Repeal Bingo, fills his card:

The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.

Surprised? Oh, come now. It was only a matter of time.

Tea Party Nation President Says It ‘Makes A Lot Of Sense’ To Restrict Voting Only To Property Owners [ThinkProgress]

Image: jardMail