This is the front and back cover of the scientific journal, Nature. I believe it’s brilliant commentary on the nature of this election, the tactics the candidates have descended to, and race in America. Or, it’s an accidental picture of puppies.

Good fucking lord, can’t we get any work done around here without a crisis erupting every hour? We were quite happy to let things slide while we caught up with the paying customers, but we didn’t expect them to fall off a cliff. Given the circumstances, we’re left with no choice but to resort to The Link Dump From Hell:

• Psychogeezer checks into rehab: Proving once again he’s not afraid to take bold steps in a crisis, John McCain concedes the presidential race five weeks before the election. We look forward to watching Barry debate a cardboard cutout Friday night. Not that we expect anyone would notice the difference.

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Don’t you just love those automatically generated WordPress passwords? No? If trying to log in is driving you to drink, email me at nojo@www.stinque.com with your preferred password and I’ll plug it in for you. When I wake up.

We had hoped to announce this under calmer circumstances, but events overtook intentions, so here goes:

Welcome to Stinque!

Stinque will be our new home from here on, and we’re inviting everyone — bloggers and commenters — to come party with us.

Our intention for the site is simple: We want to embrace the traditions we’ve quickly developed at our old home, and allow them to continue evolving. While the primary focus remains politics, the name reflects the broader interests of our community: If someone wants to post or chat about sports, culture, Big Fucking Ocean Tornadoes, or even Project Runway, we want them to feel at home.

(We mention Project Runway here so that when we gag on somebody’s finale liveblog, you can hold us to our promise.)

We hold no ill will towards our former hosts, and we don’t want folks feeling like they have to choose sides. We just have Profound Creative Differences with their future plans, and thought it best to bow out now before we get all pissy about it.

Look, it’s bad enough that McCain’s intern flack attended our college in our hometown. But what the hell’s going on in Yamhill County?

NEWBERG — Students and campus leaders at George Fox University denounced the hanging of a life-size cardboard cutout of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama on campus, vowing to work together to fight racism and intolerance.

Our first reporting job was in McMinnville, just down the road, and while, yes, we first encountered Libertarians during our time there, the area’s gentle Republicanism never struck us as suffocating. You want nutcases, head down to Medford.

How absurd is this story? George Fox is Quaker. Then again, so was Nixon.

Effigy of Obama alarms George Fox campus [Oregon Live]

If the details of the current crisis confuse you as much as it does the President, this online presentation walks you through the steps from mortgage application to pension-fund bankruptcy. Monopoly money not included.

The Subprime Primer [Google Docs, via RedManLaw]

We’ve been highly distracted with geek chores the past couple of days, and we’re discovering that trying to catch up with the Financial End Times is like missing an episode of a primetime serial — we have no idea how that polar bear got there, but we imagine it’ll make sense eventually.

So pardon us while we attempt to wrap our exhausted mind around this:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) warned his former colleagues that they would pay a price in November for backing the bailout now — and that John McCain could ride to victory over Barack Obama by persuading voters that the bailout is really the “Obama-Bush plan.”

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