The Tucson Police Department's photo-radar van will be in the following areas on Saturday, Nov. 10:

• 9 to 2 p.m.: On Wetmore Road near Oracle Road
• 2:30 to 8 p.m.: On Valencia Road near Campbell Avenue

The smooth-talking residents of Monolog Cabin are sharing more tall tales of personal humiliation tomorrow night at Hotel Congress. If you've never seen one of their shows, it's an hysterical evening with some of Tucson's best story-tellers, including screenwriter Steve Barancik and occasional TW contributor Sean Murphy. The show starts at 7 p.m. Saturday night and tickets are a mere $7.

And hey: If you're not doing anything on Sunday afternoon, check out Raging Bull at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. I understand it's a new 35mm print that looks gorgeous. Bonus feature: Special guest Gene Rudolf, the film's production designer, will talk about the film. Showtime is 1 p.m. and get this: It's free! How can you not love the Loft?

The Tucson Police Department's photo-radar van will be in the following areas on Friday, Nov. 9:

• 7 to 9 a.m.: Whitmore Elementary School, 5330 E. Glenn St.
• 9:30 to 1:30 p.m.: On Craycroft Road near Fifth Street
• 2 to 4 p.m.: LM Prince Elementary School, 125 E. Prince Road
• 4:30 to 8 p.m.: On 22nd Street near Country Club Road

I was just cruising the Weekly's past issues trying to come up with a never-used person, place or thing to run out of town for the 2007 edition when I came across...

Rodney Glassman who was run out of town in 2003 by the late, great reporter Chris Limberis.

Chris, if you're up there still reading the Weekly, I wonder what you're thinking?

Maybe it can better be said -- making a difference in four years or ... perhaps, not.

After listening to the radio news, I'm toying with the idea of asking my lawyering husband to give up fighting for people, because I understand now: In the new post-Sept. 11 world we've created, we don't need laws. 

Just ask Michael B. Mukasey who was just given a nod of approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee to be the next attorney general. Seems Mukasey doesn't necessarily believe water-boarding is torture. If it was torture, then according to the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture and the War Crimes Act, water-boarding would be considered illegal. 

Republicans like Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and the White House think Mukasey's view on torture and water-boarding is great, American-minded independent thinking. All right then. What Hatch and the Bush White House really mean is that this is after all an age when laws really don't matter anymore. They want people who are independent of the Constitution. 

So, those big bad Republicans causing so much trouble, I could just spit across the street ... but wait... what about Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who voted for Mukasey?

Now I'll have some momentum to really spit across the street. There are nine Republicans and 10 Democrats. Those Demo votes were needed to make it happen. In The New York Times, Schumer said he admired Mukasey's independence. Feinstein said he was better than Alberto. 

So, not much is illegal these days. The Democratic Party, the party my family has held so close to for so long, doesn't seem any different to me than the GOP.

My lawyering husband disagrees. 

Now dear, remember this during my defense: That pot farm I'm thinking about putting in the back yard is just me following in the footsteps of our great leader and doing some independent thinkin'.

Here are a few events that were received too late for inclusion in our Nov. 8 print issue. We recommend calling event organizers to check for last-minute changes in location, time, price, etc.

• Saturday, Nov. 10 from noon to 3 p.m.

  Wild Oats

  3360 E. Speedway Blvd.

  Thanksgiving Meals Tasting Event. Sample side dishes, including mashed potatoes, natural cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, roasted vegetables and more. Free. Takes place in the bakery department. Call 795-9844 for info.

• Sunday, Nov. 11 from 3 to 5 p.m.

  Wingspan

  425 E. Seventh St.

  Senior Pride Fun and Games. Bring games and a dish to share in the potluck. LGBT seniors and their allies are invited. Call 624-1779, ext. 122 for info.

• Tuesday, Nov. 13 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

  Beth Shalom Temple Center

  1751 N. Rio Mayo, Green Valley

  Craft Fair. More than 30 vendors will be on hand. Call 648-6690 for info.

• Tuesday, Nov. 13 from 5 to 7 p.m.

  Tucson Convention Center, Crystal Ballroom

  260 S. Church Ave.

  Tucson Region Literacy Initiative. A follow-up event on literacy recommendations set by the Tucson Regional Town Hall. Speakers include Peter Likins, Steve Alley, Chris Baker and Tomas Leon. To register, visit www.cfsoaz.org or call 545-0313.

The Tucson Police Department's photo-radar van will be in the following areas on Thursday, Nov. 8:

• 7 to 9 a.m.: Gridley Middle School, 350 S. Harrison Road
• 9:30 to 1:30 p.m.: On 22nd Street near Pantano Road
• 2 to 4 p.m.: Reynolds Elementary School, 7450 E. Stella Road
• 4:30 to 8 p.m.: On Kolb Road near Golf Links Road

It's online and ready for you to lovingly devour!

Also ... I am going to turn off the comments moderation, for the primary reason that it's a royal pain in the rear to have to check the comments queue every other minute. Hopefully, it'll stay off.

Thanks to all of you who behave here. And to the one or two bad apples: Please behave and let this be the open and lively forum we all want it to be.

An occasional Weekly contributor sends in the following news:

An unveiling! I'm so excited to share my web site with you.

It's www.tucsonmama.com

I hope that it can serve as a hub of information for Tucson women and families--I know there are a lot of us with similar interests and concerns, and it would be helpful to be able to share information. For example, I got something like a million email about the Baby Club Congress event, which led me to conclude that there are many of us interested in these types of events. I also know that many of us are artists and freelancers, and it would be helpful to be able to have a place to share our wares and ply our trades, so to speak.

I plan to write about local events and issues, as well as general mama/woman stuff. Dad and non-mama input always welcome. I want to publish really good essays on a variety of subjects that relate to women and parenting. We'll maintain a list of links to important and/or interesting sites, and generally pool our resources online.

PLEASE let me know what you want, what you don't want, what interests you. Comment, send me an essay or a suggestions for a review. Send a picture of your kid, your foot, your favorite tree. If you make something that Tucson mamas might want to buy, or do something unique that we might want to pay you for...email me. I want to publish reviews of local artists and craftspeople. If there's a local issue that you think needs to be spotlighted, let me know.

I'm a few hours late to the post-election analysis party today, because I was so sure about how everything was going to turn out that I spent the last week of Stumblewatch ’07 back in New York City. And then my flight home last night turned into a disaster, and I ended up in Phoenix instead of Tucson. Plus, hey, I caught some sort of NYC bug, so I'm not moving so fast this a.m.

Can someone bring me some chicken soup?

So: nearly final numbers. Prop 200 went down like the Hindenburg, with 72 percent of the voters rejecting John Kromko's wackadoodle scheme. That's a bit higher than supporters of Prop 200 predicted; remember Ross' comment yesterday that Prop 200 would be within 10 points in either direction?

Can't say I'm much surprised about the blowout. Kromko ran a lousy campaign, and even though the opposition came up with some goofy arguments of their own, they controlled the debate by spending somewhere around $800K. Supporters of the prop are going to whine about how the election was bought, which allows them to avoid admitting that Prop 200 was a collection of mostly lousy ideas. If nothing else, can we finally grow up and stop bitching about the trash fee?

Kromko told the morning daily that he now wants term limits for Tucson City Council members. Term limits have turned out to be a disaster at the Legislature and wouldn't be any good here (can someone tell us why is expertise considered a bad thing?), but John evidently needs a hobby and doesn't seem to care what he screws up these days.

Mayor Walkup steamrolled Green Party candidate Dave Croteau, who leveled the predictable complaint in the Star that Big Money won out over Big Ideas. The big problem with that analysis: Croteau didn't float any real Big Ideas. Or, more specifically, he didn't propose ways of using government to achieve his ideas of "relocalization." He also didn't bother to raise enough money to get any of his ideas to a mass audience, but that's one of those unseemly things that Greens are above. Which, by the way, is one of the reasons that they lose.

Democrat Rodney Glassman got more than 60 percent of the vote over Republican Lori Oien, while Democrat Shirley Scott got more than 65 percent of the vote over Republican Dan Spahr. That's mostly due to the current political environment, with Democrats coming on strong while Republicans are on the decline. Scott got a higher percentage because she's an incumbent with a weak opponent, but Glassman compensated for the lack of incumbency (and the accompanying name ID) by working his ass off on his campaign.

With roughly 26 percent of the voters casting a ballot, turnout was light. We hear there are votes left to be counted, so the overall number of people going to the polls will top out between 60,000 and 65,000.

As it turns out, the city sent out about 60,000 early ballots, but only about 36,000 were counted as of yesterday. (A few thousand still need verification.) That's still much higher than the 22,500 or so people who actually cast a vote on Election Day.

We'll have more in next week's Skinny!