If you missed your soaps this week, and if your ex is actually complying with that restraining order, you may be missing out on your daily dose of drama. Well, if the three-dimensional world has been too uneventful of late, I can assure you the fur has been flying in cyberspace. And if I may be so bold to ask, please grant me one giant, all-encompassing (sic) for this post. This week, Martini Republic,......

- With all the hoopla, you'd think that more than just 200 acres of the 4,212-acre Griffith Park had gone up in flames, but no, 200 is the number in the Griffith Park fire... and zero deaths. Then who's the winner? CBS2, because that's who Drudge is linking to on his banner headline - CBS2 - More pics of the fire on Defamer, blogging.la, and of course flickr - La Habra man decapitates woman,......

Water-coloring, jazz-listening, horse track-attending, local politics-loving, cocktail-making, Joseph Mailander is stepping down from the blog he helped form, the Martini Republic. LAist has the exclusive interview with one of our favorite LA bloggers who dares say something about the Yankees which we recommend that you ignore as we have done. LAist: There appears to be some major changes in Martini Republic, namely I see that you are not the Editor of the site any......

- Reggie the Alligator is back to say whaddup bitches - LA Observed - Mayor Tony dreams of being on Ugly Betty. Don't we all, bro? - Daily News - Any teen who attends Saturday's all-teen performance of the rock musical Quixote will get an autographed copy of Don Quixote signed by one of the performers. Yay? - Valley News - Rapist who killed 10 women including a woman 6 months pregnant found guilty......

- Dave Naz, an heir to the Max Factor fortune, marries porn star Ashley Blue - xxxporntalk via Luke Ford - Morrissey tells Kate Sullivan a sweet ghost story - LA Weekly - Dear Kevin Costner, please go to this website and take a picture of you flipping it off - If I Blog It They Will Come - Congratulations, LA City Nerd Award Winners - LACN - Prison Break Star was Drunk and......

- Hillary Clinton announces her bid for 2008 presidency - LAT - Outspoken in opposition to abortion rights, Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas also announced his presidential bid - CNN - Burbank Police wound a suspect at the Ramada Inn - CBS2 - Mountain Lion Spotted In Beverly Hills - NBC4 - "California parents could face jail and a fine for spanking their young children under legislation a state lawmaker has promised to......

Blogwar at Martini o'clock starring two guys who don't back down for nobody -- Martini Republic & blogging.la. It started here in the comment section, continued here and went over here. Even the word "pussy" has been used. Downtown Los Angeles Central City East Blogger takes note. A few days earlier: Martini Republic vs. LA Times regarding KTLA's Stephanie Edwards not doing the Rose Parade. LA Times' Joel Stein vs. his readers: "DON'T E-MAIL......

Joseph Mailander is editor of Martini Republic, a local blog, a national blog, a political and cultural blog, but most of all, a toper's blog at heart. Beyond Joseph, Dr. Cocktail (Ted Haigh), Tod Mesirow (of Monster Garage fame) and anonyblogger Alex DeLarge (an obvious surly drunk) all monitor the beverage industry there with the kind of scrutiny that puts them at the top of all beverage industry blogrolls. MartiniRepublic's fabled drinks blog is......

- Our good friends at Gawker seem to have some unwelcome guests - Wired - Jillian Barberie is expecting - Celebrity Baby Blog - Macaca wins Most Politically Incorrect Word - Reuters - Know some University of Michigan fans coming to town for the Rose Bowl? Wolverine Day will go down 12/20 at Universal Studios (where we like to keep our tourists), and if they act now they can get $15 off a ticket......

- Courtney Love was a good girl, judge removes her from probation, she cries. "Thank you for not taking me into custody... You've been a good, fair judge. Sorry for crying." E! News - SUV chased by LAPD crashes into a house near Exposition Park - Mercury News - LA Opera gets $4 million to help recover music suppressed by the Nazis - Playbill - Teen Soccer sensation Freddi Adu gets traded to SLC's......

- The Simpsons have their Tire Fire, LA has its Tire Store Fire - LAFD blog - Some Hollywood women too Busy to shave their armpits? Say it ain't so! - Reuters - Martini Republic asks "who's the bigger idiot, Instapundit or Bill Kristol?" Which makes us finally understand that IT WAS A CONTEST ALL ALONG! - Martini Republic - Mom calls cops on her 12-year-old son for opening his videogame before Christmas -......

- Beyonce will be holding auditions in LA for background dancers for her new tour at Alley Kat Studio in Hollywood on December 6th and 7th - SOHH - An environmentalist heckler interrupted a speech by the president of GM yesterday and asked him to sign a weird contract to be the fuel economy leader, which is silly because Schwinn is the leader - AP - First E! gave Ryan Seacrest $21 million to......

Over the weekend, the anonymous "scribes" at Martini Republic voiced a complaint common to many: "The City of LA’s continued shakedown of its own citizens continues apace. The foto-tickets cost about $365, and are very tough to fight (a day off work, a drive to Compton), even though cops snicker when they see that one has popped up in your life: 'Those lights are almost always wrong,' they say." Will someone explain to me......

- UCLA Hoops is #1... wait it's nowhere near March - SI - LA Fire Department's Hottest Holiday Gifts - LAFD Blog - Hey Pervy High School Teachers: Here's a List of the Age of Consent around the World - Avert.org - Hey Now... it's TV Land's 100 Greatest TV Quotes - PR Newswire - Tony Soprano hurt while getting head-butted - ContactMusic - Sometimes you want to sign up for something on the......

- If LAist smoked (cigarettes) we'd be so pissed at Santa Monica - Martini Republic - If LAist had a Book Club, If I Did It would be next month's selection. - Defamer - If LAist was in a rowboat in Uganda, we'd call you from this payphone. Probably collect so be cool - payphone project - If LAist ran any southland Fire Departments we'd take it easy with the black firemen - KNX......

- That loveable racist Kramer, aka Michael Richards, is not a Jew, not that there's anything wrong with that - Jewish Journal - Mayor Tony doesnt care about black firemen who are fed dogfood and awarded millions - Firefighting News - Did Fox offer the Browns "hush money" to be cool about the OJ book & interview? - TV Squad - The California Supreme Court has made it safer to be a blogger -......

UCLA is policed by the UCPD who follow this taser policy: 301.24 PAIN COMPLIANCE TECHNIQUES (Metroblogging LA) "We are Big Brother. Not the government or the police; American society - LOS ANGELES - is Big Brother. And to that, I say: so be it." (LACityNerd) "The acting Chancellor of UCLA, Norman Abrams, an expert in anti-terrorist law, has, in a statement issued by the University, gone a long way towards justifying the repeated tasering......

Congrats Liana who won the "I Voted" cd six-pack contest with her entry above. - Bush Admits He Lied To Reporters - Think Progress - Bush channels Madonna's faux British accent: "I say, why all the glum faces" - White House - Righties see a blossom out of the turd: "And it is a wonderful day for new media, especially talk radio. For two years we have had to defend the Congressional gang that......

- Travis Barker responds on his Myspace about his ex-wife's divorce party this weekend, that he didn't get an evite to - seriouslyomgwtf - Speaking of Barkers: Nerd might replace Bob Barker - WOW - Jill Stewart hired at the LA Weekly, several fired, hilarity doesn't ensue - LA Observed here and here, LA Voice, Martini Republic, - Microsoft Office 2007 & Vista will be released Nov. 30. for eh behavior. - PC World......

- John Kerry calls the President stupid, President and his bros are too stupid to know that they were being called stupid, so Kerry calls them stupid again - johnkerry.com - The Political Director of ABC News is stupid - Tristram Shandy via Martini Republic - Drew Brees doesn't want his mom to use his image in her stupid election - Austin Statesman - Vice President Cheney says Charles Rangel "doesn't understand how the......

- "I think that blogs should die a sudden death," Jared Leto said while wearing mascara. - Best Week Ever - "I'm not sure I can stomach continuing to read National Review." - The Corner - The mid-term election has hit an all-time low when Al Franken's face is photoshopped on the body of a man wearing adult diapers. - Think Progress - AZ GOP Congressman one of the Foleyish men with a Page Problem?......

- Who is this blonde bombshell at the Borat premiere at Grauman's Chinese? Answer after the jump. - Sky News - Why would a Kabbalahist want a Godfather for her son? - Daily Mail - Increased housing values create more affordable housing? - LAT via Martini Republic - Howard K. Stern is not Anna's baby daddy? - TMZ - USC discovers that The Pill does not cause breast cancer? - mediLexicon - Lee's is the......

Anna Nicole's new baby will have Howard K. Stern's last name. - TMZ via Defamer A 79 year-old woman was raped in her home this weekend - LAPD Blog Cops find a grenade in the home of a man barricaded inside his South Central crib - CBS2 Sheryl Crow in a bikini (which isn't so bad), at a John Mayer show (unforgiveable) - Egotastic Jack Abramoff via RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman got Allen Stayman......

Allow top-rated Howard Stern to leave, lose Brooke Burke to the hit show "Rockstar", replace red-carpet icon Joan Rivers with no-names, and give Ryan Seacrest $21 million to host a news show that loses ratings and what do you get? You now get to ruin G4. Heck of a job Ted - AP After Mel Gibson got popped for that DUI, he had beers for breakfast while explaining to his kids what he had......

$18,000 worth of City Hall-sponsored Happy Endings - LA Observed Five spoilerish "teases" for this season's Lost - E! Nevada religious leaders behind new NV pot legalization - Las Vegas Sun Safe Surrender bill vetoed by Governator; cold feet moms only have 72 hours to drop off unwanted babes, not 30 days - Mayor Sam Griffith Observatory to re-open in one month - Daily Breeze Homeless no more! Sleep on Skid Row streets in......

Joseph Mailander is like many native Los Angelenos that you will run into -- softspoken, easy-going, but sharp as a tack, and eloquent. Head honcho of the left-leaning Martini Republic, Mailander had the opportunity to meet Ann Coulter (pictured, above) this summer and had nice things to say about her in this exclusive interview -- the same can't be said for his feelings about The Grove, Little Green Footballs, and the L.A. Times. 1.......

-- A prank caller gets on Wolf Blitzer's CNN air and when the caller delivers the punchline, Wolf Blitzer suddenly becomes the least cool person on earth and instant old man when he declares "All right. Well, that sounds like we've just been Howard Sterned, as they say." - NY Post -- There are so few people who want to drive MTA busses for up to $20 an hour that the Mayor is proposing......

This round up is in honor of the Raiders, who are playing a pre-season game against the Minnesota Vikings tonight at 5pm on Monday Night Football on ESPN; the game marks Randy Moss's first return to the Twin Cities. LA Observed lets us know that the times they are a-changing. The L.A. Times will no longer provide the TV Times to Sunday subscribers unless they call and ask for it. The rise of TiVo......

Noah Kagan at Okdork.com explores the differences between LA and Silicon Valley. "Do you think MySpace would have succeeded if it was started at Stanford? Do you think Google would have come out of USC?" "A settlement has been reached between the Disney Hall contractors and Gehry Partners LLP over the enormous cost overruns the building incurred." (Martini Republic) We're not really sure what to make of this yet, but LACityNerd finds ValleyNews.com, which......

Jason Toney, editor emeritus, is back to blogging, just not for LAist. On his personal blog, Negro Please, he writes that after three months "away from the daily grind of blogging about Los Angeles in our glutted city-blog landscape, I thought I'd take a look at what's going on in LA and who is doing it well. I've barely read most of these sites since I retired completely so it's almost a whole new......