• Pro-smoking Orwell fan gets all slapdash with loaded words: "'I mean, really, you're treating us like children,' testified writer Christopher Hitchens, [who] said a ban would be un-American." [WP]

• A belated local take on the Jackson verdict: "As the resulting and varied furor in the courtroom died down - I specifically recall that Nancy Grace had a stacatto, seal-like orgasm that cut through the rest of the din - the giraffe purposefully leaned his looming neck from the back row of the jury box all the way down to the defense table, steadied his musky snout a taunting three inches from my face and breathed, in Jacko's spine-tingling falsetto ... 'Guuuuiiiilll -teeeeeeeeee.' I didn't have any pants on, either." [INDC Journal]

• The Clintons close a bar: "Their retinue also included five secret service agents who were probably not enjoying pints of Pilsner Urquell. Though he may have enjoyed some wine, our source tells us that Clinton drank Diet Coke, at least when ordering from the bar." [ABMAF]

• Why does Senator Hutchison sleep with a gun? [DCist] — WONKETTE