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Friday, November 14, 2008

Blogging the Montecito Fire


(AP photo by Michael Moriatis)

Wonkette editor Ken Layne has been one of my heroes of the recent presidential campaign. Under his watch, Wonkette has been a fun, irreverent stop to read about some of the more outrageous but true aspects of the McCain-Obama race.

Layne happened to be spending time in Santa Barbara this past week, and got a front row view of the devastating fires now hitting Montecito. He filed this report for LAist. An excerpt:

In the foothills, dozens of "hot spots" could be seen, with five or six huge estates bursting into flames and a fire line that dropped behind ridges and over hills and went in either direction for as far as you could see. Convoys of fire engines roared up the highway, from Ventura and Los Angeles and Orange County. The radio hosts somberly recounted the tragedies seen and offers of help received.

Mansions and compounds literally exploded as we creeped south on the 101.

Layne tunes in to L.A. news radio outlets KNX and KFWB, where the anchors made sure to reassure listeners that estates owned by Oprah Winfrey and Rob Lowe were safe. Sez Layne: "Idiots."

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