“Rebel fighters who ransacked Gadhafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound have been turning up some bizarre loot, including the Libyan leader’s eccentric fashion accessories and his daughter’s golden mermaid couch. The latest discovery is a photo album filled with page after page of pictures of Rice, the former secretary of state who visited Tripoli in 2008.” [MSNBC]

As we’re all aware, senators McCain and Graham have been harsh in their criticism of the president’s Libya strategy. Why was he coddling Qaddafi? Why didn’t he man up and take him out like a real American patriot?

Even now, when it seems a great victory has been won promising $2 gas by September, McCain and Graham congratulate our  NATO allies, even the French, but not the president.

We here at Stinque wondered why. Why such a mealy-mouthed response? Apart from the obvious reasons?

Well it seems that just two years ago McCain and Graham, with BFF Lieberman, were in Tripoli to reassure Qaddafi that support for him was building in Congress and that he need have no fear his supply of American munitions would be cut off. In fact it would be increased.

Though the delegation was no secret it seemed to have been forgotten till Wikileaks posted the cable. And now McClatchy and others have picked up on it.

(And don’t bitch at me about the picture. It was either that or dead Libyan rebels.)

“Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, is considering a run against U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur in 2012, according to Republican Party sources. Jon Stainbrook, chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party, said there is ‘high-level interest in the national Republican Party’ in a potential Wurzelbacher candidacy.” [Toledo Blade, via Political Wire]

We’re starting to like Rick Perry. A lot. Here’s why:

Since leaping into the GOP presidential race, Texas Gov. Rick Perry hasn’t been asked if he thinks gays are born or made. But in a little-noticed passage in his first book, “On My Honor,” a encomium on the Boy Scouts published in 2008, Perry also drew a parallel between homosexuality and alcoholism. “Even if an alcoholic is powerless over alcohol once it enters his body, he still makes a choice to drink,” he wrote. “And, even if someone is attracted to a person of the same sex, he or she still makes a choice to engage in sexual activity with someone of the same gender.”

In “On My Honor,” Perry also punted on the exact origins of homosexuality. He wrote that he is “no expert on the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate,” but that gays should simply choose abstinence. Perry’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether he maintains this view.

Read more »

Our guest columnist is the Manhattan District Attorney, describing Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s $3,000-a-night hotel suite.

Three of the other stains on the carpet contained the semen and DNA of three different unknown males, and one other stain contained amylase and a mixture of DNA from three different unknown individuals. The stain on the wallpaper contained the semen and DNA of a fourth unknown male. As there is no evidence that any other person was present during the charged incident, the circumstances under which the unidentified DNA was deposited are unrelated to the incident under investigation.

The Guests Who Never Left Strauss-Kahn’s Hotel Room [NYT, via @Slate]

Haven’t we suffered enough? And don’t we all know it’s going to get much, much worse? Meanwhile, some of our more productive members of society are doing this. I have no idea who these people are but I suspect they are not part of Team Sarah, Team Mitt, or Team Rick.

Oh, and my lawyers need to talk to Disney about copyright infringement at about the 2:35 mark, but whatever.

Next up? Hurricane Irene!

As Craig Fugate, manager of FEMA, puts it, “We don’t always get to pick the next disaster.”