[Fox]

If you haven’t heard, Sarah Palin, um, graces the cover of the latest Newsweek, which is now run by Tina Brown, which explains the shamelessness.

And if, like us, you find yourself visiting the web version of the cover story, you’ll see the above photo, captioned “See more images from Sarah Palin’s cover shoot with photographer Emily Shur.”

And if, like us, you dawdle your mouse over that photo, you’ll see the alt-text “palin-newsweek-tease”.

Which is easily explained: In the biz, a “tease” is just a promo, an offer to click through for more detail. For the geeks running the Newsweek site, it’s merely a means of labeling one of the elements of the presentation, for easy reference.

We suspect, however, that like us, you don’t really care. For palin-newsweek-tease so perfectly captures the story, the person, the presentation, and the phenomenon, the only possible explanation is Divine Intervention by a mischievous deity who has an adorable weakness for shits & giggles.

Palin Plots Her Next Move [Newsweek]

[CBS]

Lori Montgomery in the Washington Post business section this morning:

The three Republican congressmen saw it as a rare ray of sunshine in Washington’s stormy budget battle: an invitation from the White House to hear President Obama lay out his ideas for taming the national debt.

They expected a peace offering, a gesture of goodwill aimed at smoothing a path toward compromise. But soon after taking their seats at George Washington University on Wednesday, they found themselves under fire for plotting “a fundamentally different America” from the one most Americans know and love.

“What came to my mind was: Why did he invite us?” Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said in an interview Thursday. “It’s just a wasted opportunity.”

The situation was all the more perplexing because Obama has to work with these guys…

Speaking of perplexing, we hope Ms. Montgomery saved a receipt for the three bottles of hand lotion she used in researching this story.

Read more »

Anthony Weiner is tired of being mooned by the “Triumph of Civic Virtue” statue in Queens:

The statue features a nude, muscled man holding a sword behind his head standing atop two bare-chested mermaids, who look more like Medusa than Ariel, slithering at his feet.

The statue is meant to portray civic virtue triumphing over vice and corruption, however, many have found it offensive for decades. Its allegorical portrayal of vice as female caused a stir following its unveiling in 1922 — which was just two years after the 19th Amendment was passed.

Weiner suggests selling it on Craigslist. But some concerned citizens think all it needs is a good rubdown. We think they’re all avoiding the issue:

Read more »

[Headline: BBC]

Sure, we could tell you what’s going on here, but that would ruin the beauty of the final line of the actual caption:

Eventually, five hours after he first got stuck, Wang was freed.

You don’t really want to know more. You don’t need to know more.

The week in pictures: 24 September 2010 [Telegraph UK, via Daring Fireball]