As heiress to her father’s stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain is an executive whose worth may exceed $100 million. Her beer earnings have afforded the GOP presidential nominee a wealthy lifestyle with a private jet and vacation homes at his disposal, and her connections helped him launch his political career — even if the millions remain in her name alone. Yet the arm’s-length distance between McCain and his wife’s assets also has helped shield him from conflict-of-interest problems.

Nearly 30 years before John McCain became the Republican presidential nominee, he worked in public relations at his wife’s family company.

Within a few years of marrying Cindy Hensley, the daughter of a multimillionaire Anheuser-Busch distributor, John McCain won his first election.

Hey guys. Don’t drink this shit. Remember how the right wing fascists wouldn’t use Heinz Ketchup in 2004? BESIDES, you drank enough of it in college. Time to try new, better tasting beers that don’t support a pro-waterboarding candidate. Barack wants you to drink an IPA, a stout, anything but a Budweiser. What does Hillary want you to drink? A Mai Tai? Straight up bourbon on the rocks? Wheatgrass and vodka? I have no idea. Post in the comments what you think each candidate wants you to drink before entering the voting booth in November.

Cindy McCain’s Fortune Provides Senator With Private Jets, Vacation Homes

This is from the email newsletter of my favorite guzzling spot, the Colorado Wine Company, in Eagle Rock:

The looming WGA strike is no longer looming but here, and many of our writerly friends and customers are already feeling the pinch. So, while this nasty strike business is going on, present your WGA card at the bar and get a dollar off your glass of wine. Go on, fulfill the stereotype that writers drink too much…maybe you can stare out a window longingly and explain to the rest of the people in the bar how misunderstood you are.

Look, wine will make you feel better. It will help you forget the world is full of weiners and I have read things about how wine can help painful enlarged balls.

Visit Colorado Wine Company

Being a self-proclaimed American wino takes a lot of reading so I am always snooping around in bookstores and newsstands for more winey reading material. I spotted this new magazine, Imbibe, at Skylight Books on Sunday and I flipped out.

A magazine about beverages! ONLY BEVERAGES! Beer! Wine! Coffee! Tea!

There is only one issue so far. I was flipping through it this morning and it contains a beautiful spread on the drinks of Oaxaca (horchata, hibiscus juice, chocolatey tasty looking concoctions), a how-to on using your French coffee press, a profile of organic wineries, and the best damn thing yet, a few pages on Trappist Ales. There is also a standard story on sleek hotel bars, but personally, that stuff is a little Los Angeles Magazine richy-rich for me.

I was also gladdened to find a write-up on a friend, the one and only Dr. Cocktail, who you may have heard on NPR talking about the fine art of serious mixology! Dr. Cocktail is one of two guys who maintains the always helpful Cocktail Database . And here’s something you may not know about Ted Haigh, AKA Dr. Cocktail: he designed the famous Dapper Dan tin featured in O Brother Where Art Thou. It’s true.

I am totally subscribing.

A friend sent this link to me because I drink more wine than anyone else I know, except for old Winey McGuzzles up at Zinfandel Fiesta Party House. And how true can that be because I’m pretty sure I made up Mr. Winey McGuzzles during my last drunken rambling encounter with a bottle. Anyway, for the first time in human American history, we are drinking more wine than beer and liquor. How does that go again? Beer before wine before liquor, you’ve never been more violently sicker?

(I also found it interesting that this article calls my friends and I (those born after 1976) “the Millennial generation”. That’s funny, I thought we were a bunch of lazy, losery, non-voting, illegal music downloading losers! Millennial sounds better.)

Anyway, here are is a giant wine barrique of links for you…
1. Colorado Wine Company – Eagle Rock
2. Silverlake Wine – Silverlake
3. Wine House - West LA
4. Mission Wines - South Pas
5. Red Carpet Wines – Glendale
5. Du Vin – Weho
6. Woodland Hills Wine Company – far away land
7. Red Bank Wine – Wilmington, N.C. (a shout out to Sara Tarbert!)
8. Greenblatt’s Deli / Wine Shop
9. The 30 Second Wine Advisor
10. Bukowski vs. Dylan Thomas
11. Get thee to Santa Barbara

This post was written under the influence of Torres’ Sangre Del Toro 2004 (Garnacha + Carignan). TASTEE.

Nothing like a great weekend to make you despise Monday. And what a crappy Monday at that! I left my damn umbrella in the car! I am forlorn and sleepy.

Look at the bloody great weather we just had 2 days ago! What a bummer. Here are some shots from various activities undertaken this weekend. Enjoy.

Start with a tasting at the Colorado Wine Company. Get fuzzy.

This place is my favorite place in the entire world to shake off the anxieties of a long work week with five consecutive glasses of wine. What? Don’t French people do that every day?

After the tasting you can wander around the Eagle Rock Farmers Market afterward and stumble up to the crepe booth. There was no faux-Elvis this last Friday. Faux-Elvis, come back soon.

Wandered around this particular block of Silverlake on Saturday.

A heavenly Croque Madame from Dusty’s in Silverlake.

This is the giant crepe I had- yeah, I guess I have a thing for crepes. That’s two mentions of crepes in one damn blog post. We washed down our meal with a bottle of Rose from the wine store, perfect on that hot Saturday.

There’s a gallery in the back of the boutique next door to Dusty’s called Gallery Revisited. The gallery owner Leora Lutz let us know they are having a big interesting to-do called “ARTpage” on June 3rd, including live silkscreening.

I’ve always noticed this store sign. They seemed to be repainting the walls and doing all sorts of work on the interior so there was nothing to see inside at the time.

Next door to that store is Casa Victoria (3212 Sunset), a wonderful vintage furniture store with reasonable prices and a great selection of midcentury finds. I love me some paint-by-numbers Jesus.

Beer boot at the Red Lion in Silverlake. Only for the strong of heart and disposition. All wussies should stay on the westside and suck down some mango mojitos or something.

While I was drinking this last lager, my damn DVR was forgetting to tape the Sopranos. Thanks a lot, beer.

All activities shown happened east of Vermont and required very little gas for the trip. Thank you. *bows solemnly*