“By 10am it emerged that Mr Perkins had single-handedly moved the global price of oil to an eight-month high during a ‘drunken blackout’. Prices leapt by more than $1.50 a barrel in under half an hour at around 2am — the kind of sharp swing caused by events of geo-political significance. Ten times the usual volume of futures contracts changed hands in just one hour.” [Telegraph UK, via Daring Fireball]

“Conservatives have maintained their leading position among U.S. ideological groups in the first half of 2010. Gallup finds 42% of Americans describing themselves as either very conservative or conservative. This is up slightly from the 40% seen for all of 2009 and contrasts with the 20% calling themselves liberal or very liberal.” [Gallup]

Let’s set the Wayback Machine for November 2007…

JAYE: “Hundreds of billions of dollars — wow. Well, forgive me if I sound like a skepic, because that’s a lot of money. It sounds too good to be true. Congressman, is it for real?”

HAYWORTH: “It is for real. Now look, I understand the skepticism, in part because President (Ronald) Reagan used to say the greatest contradiction ever uttered was, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.'”

JAYE: (Laughs.)

Read more »

Ladies and gentlemen, your candidate for the Alabama GOP second-district runoff. Spoiler alert: He’s dead too.

“Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century.” [USA Today]

“Orange County authorities are launching an investigation into possible voter registration fraud after a local newspaper reported over a hundred cases of voters being tricked into registering as Republicans by petitioners who asked them to sign petitions for, among other causes, legalizing pot.” [TPM]

RNC spends $1,946.25 at “Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.” [Daily Caller, via ThinkProgress]