A week from today, if the McCain-Palin ticket manages an unexpected, mavericky victory and clinches the presidency, low-rent bloggers, editorial cartoonists, and Hustler will all silently rejoice. Sarah Palin has been a Wasilla-Assembly-of-God-send for Web traffic numbers (Exhibits A and B) since her sudden Sept. nomination as McCain's veep. News of Hustler's Palin spoof porn [...]

Three years ago, 29-year-old Brentwood resident Lamar Abrams parlayed his art-school degree into a rare stable job: full-time government animator. "I would create reality-based stuff about flight paths and missile trajectories and things like that," says Abrams. "I found it kind of boring."
After six months, Abrams abandoned his fledgling military career, took a job at [...]