Some poor flack from money-burning "insurance" company AIG tried to send Wonkette editor Ken Layne—a known terrorist!—several long, dry emails correcting him on some minor point of fact, until a pissed Layne vowed "I am going to post all of these, for hilarity," and now AIG looks thoroughly incompetent in media relations as well as the insurance business. Why must it take a dangerous patriot like Ken Layne to teach AIG about jokes? [Wonkette]

"It's what America looks like, increasingly. The roads are potholed, the bridges collapsing, metro trains crash and kill as dull-eyed engineers peck text messages, airlines have become Aeroflot, dams and levees busting apart, yearlong waits to get a passport, maimed soldiers sent back to the endless war again and again, and a book-banning big-government cipher from Siberia is briefly popular for being a nasty moron." [Wonkette]

"It doesn't matter at all what I write about," Ken Layne wrote at AOL News this weekend, "because the comments will be an insane half-literate string of racist nonsense and startling ignorance that has nothing to do with the subject of this post." The post got twelve pages of comments. Guess whether the Wonkette editor was right! Here's a sample of the best comments.

NICK DENTON — I am, says Jacob Weisberg, doing a "Cheney" — heading the search committee for a new managing editor of Gawker, and choosing myself. Thanks for that. Yes, Brian Stelter had the story right. The site won't change much: it will remain focused on media gossip and pop culture; Alex Pareene will blog the breaking news; Maggie Shnayerson will continue to embarrass the magazine industry and permalancer-abusing media conglomerates such as Viacom; and Sheila McClear will cover book publishing. We'll be adding some new contributors over the next few weeks. To begin: Richard Morgan, who'll focus on the TV networks; Nick Douglas, a Gawker Media veteran, as our early warning antenna for Youtube clips and other pop culture phenomena on the web; Richard Lawson, better known as the commenter lolcait, will be running the site's new photo caption contest. Oh, and there's a surprise guest, this afternoon at 2pm, in the comments. After the jump, other new year changes at Gawker's sibling titles, if you're interested.

From the mailbag: "You know what I would pay good money for? A 120-page history of the Bush Administration written by Ken Layne—his just-the-facts history of the past seven years." Now that is actually a best-selling idea. Plus he'd have the manuscript done by this Labor Day! See here:
George W. Bush Wishes New Orleans a Very Happy Katrina Birthday [Wonkette]

Blogger Ken Layne discovers a poetry generator that takes words and phrases from websites. His result for Gawker:
Gawker stalker though I slammed the streets
where Loews 42nd St Bernards had just walked
over and husband, Harry Evans]. Also: said,
we have your afternoons with being cool.
[Ed. note� or so terribly sorry Wall Street: bearded and beautiful, She meant ,
she and see the title of
making impossible not thing AT the burning question,
I saw what people
Toby Young socialites mailing
list: [] Encounter with Dennis Miller
in the underground economy, euphoria circa 1993
When you corrections.]
�Anisa, 8 years old, P.
Poetry [KenLayne]

The upside of working as a street vendor? The freedom to work where you want, being your own boss, and having no one to tell you what to doexcept for the cops. So says the IPA. The downside? You're a street vendor. (The romantic angle doesn't work so well with us.)
Visits with New York street vendors [Indypress.org via Reason via Layne]

"Mikey is the typical ex-smoker. He had his fun, and now you can get fucked. He's rich and you're not."
Super fun opinion update [KenLayne.com]

Ex-NY Post gossip columnist Chris Nolan writes in:

In convenient digest form. Ken Layne: "The only people that move to San Francisco are people that hate themselves."
Friscophobia [Nick Denton]

Layne's at it again. Now it's hamburgers. If you want a real one, hop a plane to L.A., Layne says.
In-n-Out burgers [KenLayne.com]

LA resident Ken Layne responds to Mylerdude's Top 16 Reasons: "Apparently, there are two San Franciscos: the one where I lived for several years and a magical secret version where everything is wonderful." See also, Layne's edition of the "Top 16."
Two San Franciscos [KenLayne.com]