The Sarah Palin action figure goes on sale today. Accessories include a pistol or Bible-grip hand, a tiara, and several dozen recorded lies. The company also sells some ridiculously buff John McCain, Barack Obama, and Eliot Spitzer dolls. I have a feeling some of you will get the Palin doll just to stick pins in it.

Coney Island’s Astroland, the nation’s most legendary boardwalk arcade, closed forever this weekend although some still hope that it will someday return. The Wonder Wheel and the world famous Cyclone roller coaster are landmarked and must remain where they are. The Astroland property is set to become a giant “destination” ocean side resort with luxury condos. Sigh. This year’s extraordinarily …

Here are the clips of Michelangelo Signorile’s interview with Sally Kern at the RNC last week. In the first clip, Signorile asks Kern to respond to the Log Cabin’s endorsement of McCain, and then Kern goes on to discuss the abomination of homosexuality, same sex marriage, as well as the Palin spawn. In the second clip, Kern expounds on the …

Last month a winning San Francisco softball team was disqualified from the gay softball World Series after a judge ruled that they had too many straight players. The rules stipulate that no more than two players on a team may be straight. D2, a team from San Francisco, beat the Atlanta Mudcats in the series to qualify for the A …

Keith Olbermann points out that Sarah Palin doesn’t understand that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were actually private companies and goes on to point out numerous other lies that Palin is telling over and over, including her claim that she opposed the “bridge to nowhere” and that she sold the government jet on eBay. (It was sold by a jet …

“Now we’re back to the experience. Remember how they were talking about how the experience for Hillary wasn’t necessary? Do you notice how they’re talking about experience again? I’m just cracking up. I’m just like, whatever! I think Palin’s great. I think she’s awesome. I think she’s honest, I think she’s real.” – Tennis legend Billie Jean King when asked …

The latest Gallup poll shows McCain taking a sharp upswing as Palin’s post-convention creepy fanclub of snake handlers continues to grow. But from Real Clear Politics, here’s their latest assessment of where the electoral college stands. Of course, these maps can vary widely depending on who’s doing the guessing.

Here are the boroughs of NYC as represented by the states which are closest in population. According to the 2000 US census: Bronx-1.332 million; Brooklyn-2.465 million; Manhattan-1.537 million; Queens-2.229 million; and Staten Island 443,728. I freekin’ love maps like this. (Via – Gothamist)

As you can see by the coffee table in our Berlin apartment, by yesterday it was apparent that it hadn’t been the most “cultural” of visits. Depends on how you define culture, I suppose. Embiggen at your own risk. NSFW.

We had an incredible lunch at a place called König in the Alexanderplatz neighborhood of Mitte, the centermost Berlin borough where most of the museums are. Then we rode to the top of the Fernsehturm, the Communist-era tv tower which is the tallest object in Germany. The view reveals the striking differences between the stark and ugly formerly East Berlin …

Pretty much every person we’ve met here immediately wants to talk about Sarah Palin thanks to my Obama cap, which only a hour finally elicted the above quote from a shopper at Checkpoint Charlie. The consensus on Palin is completely horrible, of course. One very tall Finn told me last night that she’s become a national joke for his countrymen. …

Aaron, Little Tom, Chris and I are in Berlin until next week, posting will be light except for some touristy photo stuff from the occasional cafe. Now we get to see what good three years of high school German does me, thirty years later. I’m betting, nicht viel.

What’s on your DVR/Tivo right now?

Last week New York City won a statewide contest for best tasting tap water, something Gotham has long been known for. Now somebody is bottling NYC tap water and selling it. The Tap’dNY strategy doesn’t hide the fact that they “purify and bottle New York City’s famous tap water, leaving out the malarkey and far journey included in other bottled …

Politico goes to the actuaries for the hard numbers. It’s a macabre point to raise on the night when Palin will speak to the convention here — but a look at the actuarial tables insurance companies use to evaluate customers shows that it’s not an irrelevant one. According to these statistics, there is a roughly 1 in 3 chance that …

Because I am a complete Google whore, I had to immediately download the test version of Chrome, the companay’s first-ever browser, when it came out yesterday. And…..wow. Super clean interface (as minimalistic as the Google.com page) and super, super fast. So far anyway. That sucker just drew the NY Times homepage in less a second. It’s more like Firefox than …

You should all be following along with Michelangelo Signorile either on his blog or on SiriusXM where he has gone into “Republican drag” at the convention to meet our enemies. This gem was posted today. Well, the Republican drag worked! I ran into wacko theocrat Oklahoma state lawmaker Sally Kern over at the Oklahoma delegation, and she didn’t realize it …

Yesterday Page 6 leaked a rumor that the powers that be at MSNBC are unhappy with new anchor Rachel Maddow’s mannish appearance. MSNBC loves the chatter of liberal pundit Rachel Maddow, but not her look. Maddow, who’s getting her own show, is being subjected to a network makeover. A source says an entire “glam squad” has been hired for the …

“We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling. That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.” – Camille Paglia, responding to Sarah Palin’s first speech after she was introduced by John McCain in Dayton, Ohio.