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Last night, I joined Chris, Kenna, Courtney, Claire and Tamara (although she slept the whole time) in watching the Senate debates last night on King 5.

In a nutshell, Maria Cantwell, the incumbent Democrat, boasted her record, Mike McGavick, her Republican challenger, attacked it and Bruce Guthrie, her Libertarian challenger, made mostly idiotic, illogical statements. After Guthrie mentioned being a lecturer at WWU, all of us WWU alumni agreed that we had to go back to a different college to earn B.A.'s again because Guthrie certainly destroyed any credibility WWU had and devalued, if not nullified, our degrees.

Outside the King 5 studios, Green Party candidate Aaron Dixon, who did not meet the fundraising and polling requirements for the debate, protested and demanded that he be included. After refusing to leave, he was arrested, according to the P-I.

As for the candidates' specific arguments in the debate, both the P-I and Times have nice summaries, so I won't go in-depth there, but here are some stand-out statements by the candidates:

Cantwell (on McGavick): "Do you want to send somebody to Washington who is willing to cut thousands of employees off his payroll and take a cash bonus as a reward for that?"

McGavick (on Social Security): "I don't trust Wall Street to manage this money, I don't trust individuals to manage this money. It should be a government program."

Guthrie: (on drug control): "I'd prefer drug and alcohol testing on members of Congress."

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Caption Contest!

Because Mondays tend to be a downer, I've decided to enstate a Caption Contest on the blog. As you all know, I have a priceless collection of pictures from my college years, and I figure this can be a fun way to share them. So, I encourage you all to check in on Mondays and put those captions in the comments field. Here we go...

Note: Scott is holding the gun and Courtney (his girlfriend of nearly three years) is in the jumpsuit.

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Now that I feel I'm close to becoming employed again (crossing fingers), I decided to re-visit my former employer's Web site to try and remember what it's like working full-time (It's been so long!). In my research, I discovered some blog posts by my former colleagues that I had not read. They were written in my honor and, since I haven't boasted myself in some time, I'll republish some of these excepts without permission:

From Terry: "Paolo has been a constant source of amusement since I came to PRWeb. He really made an impression on me when Captain Kathy and Nicole happened to have the same day off around Christmas time last year. Paolo swaggered into the office, propped his feet up on the desk and announced since he was the senior editor, that he was in charge. Shades of Alexander Haig..."

From Al: "PRWeb editor Terry and recent officemate to the resident Italian, spearheaded a going away party and roast to honor the Ego and it’s small orbiting oddly misshapen planetoid called Paolo...

Paolo countered with a beautifully executed roast of his own against his officemates and broke into song with his guitar. It was a tear jerker.

As most insiders to PRWeb know, Paolo was the creative genius for the editors shed - The BrownHouse. In fact most of the things that can be said in praise about Paolo actually can’t (or at the very least shouldn’t) be repeated publicly."

Oh, how I miss office dynamics! The next unsuspecting office shouldn't be so lucky to have me!

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I'm on board. I'm voting No on Referendum 1 this November. The referendum asks voters if they favor a recent City Council law requiring patrons of adult-entertainment clubs to sit at least four feet away from dancers. While I'm not for turning Seattle into one big Red Light District, I don't want Seattle to turn into Salt Lake City either.

The Seattle Citizens for Free Speech (aka strip club owners) has launched a huge campaign to support disposing the four-foot rule, which was enacted along with other outrageous rules by Mayor Greg Nickels and City Council after a judge ruled the city's 17-year moratorium on new clubs unconstitutional. The interest group has compiled a ton of information on its Web site and launched a few of commercials, like the following:

It's true. Seattle police do have better things to do than measure how far away dancers are from patrons or determine if the lighting in a club is bright enough. Are these restricitions just an excuse for Seattle police to be in strip clubs?

I have a little brother who'll be 18 in a couple years. I'll have buddies getting married. Where could I take them if the strip clubs go out of business because of these ridiculous restrictions? And where could Brother Bear go? I don't want to face the alternatives, and I don't see any major problems with strip clubs the way they have been functioning for decades. If you don't like 'em, don't go. I'm voting No on Referendum 1.

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Dear Google,

I've learned that, in your quest to monopolize the Internet, you recently purchased YouTube for $1.67 billion. Congratulations. To assist your efforts in achieving world domination, I'd like to offer you the next piece of the puzzle: my blog, Word Is Born.

YouTube was started by two 20-somethings in February 2005 and draws an audience of nearly 75 million people monthly. I created WIB in August 2005, just after YouTube went live, and the blog draws an audience of approximately 75 people monthly. The numbers speak for themselves. WIB is an asset to gain.

Unlike the YouTube creators, I already have experience in Internet acquisitions. I worked at PRWeb for a year, enhanced its value, and the company sold for approximately $28 million in August.

Sure, you might be thinking, "I already own Blogger, which hosts Word Is Born, so what's the point?" Good question. The blog's intellectual property is the value here. Some might say it's priceless, but I can part with it for only $1.19 million.

I look forward to speaking with you further about this acquisition. You know how to contact me. You host my email account.

Sincerely,
Paolo