Mass cops get some of their gravy train taken away

If you're not from Massachusetts, you are likely not familiar with the influence of the state's police union. It has enormous sway over state politics. State employee unions and Massachusetts politicians go together like mustard and relish. It's a mutual beneficial relationship. The police union and other state employee unions help the mostly Democrat politicians get elected to the State House, then in turn, the politicians let the cops become well compensated. Massachusetts requires a police officer to be stationed at almost every road project. This has been a boon to police offficers' salaries. Under state law, a police officer is guaranteed a certain hourly rate. Some officers can double or even triple their salary over the course of a year while doing traffic details.

I didn't expect the use of police officers at traffic details to end in my lifetime. No one was going to upset the cozy relationship between the police union and state government. Well I was wrong. In a cost-saving move, Governor Deval Patrick is allowing civilian flaggers at some road projects. As you can imagine, police officers are quite upset to see some of their gravy train be taken away and are protesting at road projects that employ civilian flaggers, reports the Boston Globe.

Gmail now prevents those late-night drunken emails

I'm a big fan of Google's free web-based email service, Gmail. It has so many great useful features, I wonder if there really is much room for improvement.

Well Google thought up another great feature, which at first I thought it might be a joke. It's called Mail Goggles and it's set up to prevent those drunken emails going out at 2am on a Saturday. Wired magazine explains a person has to complete some simple math problems before the email is allowed to be sent. It's not 100% foolproof. Someone could be a math whiz even when they're drunk.

Where to get your drink on while watching tonight's debate

There has been times during this painfully long presidential campaign where you just want to pour yourself a drink. My friends, if you have the need to watch tonight's second presidential debate (God knows why), I strongly advise you to watch it at a local watering hole, for the sake of your own sanity. Washingtonian's After Hours blog delivers a good list of DC bars where you can hang out, watch the two candidates tell each other they're dangerously wrong for America, blah, blah, Ayers, terrorists, maverick, earmarks, blah, blah, change, Bush, Wall Street greed. Time for another cold one.

George Will is in the tank too

Awhile back the McCain campaign accused the New York Times of being "in the tank" for Obama after the Times published an article that was critical of the campaign. Ben Smith from Politico was also accused of being "in the tank" when he asked for evidence of the McCain campaign's accusations regarding Obama's past.

Now its not just the liberal media who's criticizing the campaign, but fellow conservatives. Influential conservative columnist, George Will said Sarah Palin is 'obviously' not prepared to assume the presidency if necessary while at a Senate Press Secretaries Association reception yesterday, according to Huffington Post. I'm interested to see how the McCain campaign spins this. They will likely mutter something about inside-the-Beltway thinking and "we don't listen to pundits".