Our best hope in the Clone Wars showed up on CNN to disown his potential constituents:

Utah Republican Mike Lee said Friday that he favors changing the way senators are elected, even as he seeks his own seat in that body.

Speaking on CNN’s John King, USA, Lee said that the 17th Amendment was a mistake, and that while he wouldn’t focus on repealing it, he does “think that we lost something when we adopted it.”

The 17th Amendment established the direct election of senators by the popular vote. Senators had previously been elected by state legislatures.

We thought we were done with this issue after Glenn Beck helpfully explained that you could use one of those rare 1913 wall phones to call your local politico about your senator, who would pass along your complaints to other politicos at the statehouse, who would then laugh in your face exercise their solemn constitutional reponsibility to put a different crook in office recall your senator from D.C. for a severe tongue-lashing.

But no, it’s not going away. Which raises the question: Where the hell did it come from?

Read more »

Yeah, you guys know this already, but it’s still a classic headline. 

From the Daily Telegraph: “Tory MP ‘too drunk to vote in Commons debate.'” Snips, including some nice turns of phrase, and a positively Pythonesque name on the offender:

Mark Reckless [Oh, dear. — Ed.] was one of a number of MPs accused of being “well-refreshed” and “convivial” during the late night sitting which finished at 2.48am on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old new MP for Rochester and Strood had been drinking alongside scores of MPs on the Commons Terrace and was not the only one said to be worse for wear.

John Randall, the deputy chief whip, was accused by Angela Eagle — the shadow Treasury minister — of having indulged in “rather a liquid evening”.

Stephen Pound, the Labour MP, said Miss Eagle could not be heard in the Commons “because of the well-refreshed ejaculations [Oh dear, cont’d.  — Ed., cont’d.] from the benches opposite.”

Mr Reckless, who became an MP at the general election in May, was understood to have had difficulty standing and has scant recollection of the night.

“I feel very embarrassed,” he said. “I’m terribly, terribly embarrassed. I apologise unreservedly and I don’t plan to drink again at Westminster. It was a mistake I will not be repeating. I have learned my lesson.”

No, Mr Reckless.  Booze it up.  Maybe Steve King (R-Dumb Half of Iowa) might take a lesson and give us all what would be some of the best legislative comedy EVER.

Alright, Paul the Psychic Octopus has predicted Spain will defeat Holland. We’ll see about that…

And how do their hotties line up?

Read more »

Title: “Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality”

Author: Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá

Rank: 32

Blurb: “Since Darwin’s day, we’ve been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species… Weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality, the authors show how far from human nature monogamy really is.”

Read more »

… and if the oil makes it around the tip of Florida and up the Atlantic Coast, and then heads for Europe?  A global depression and food shortages, we think.

Shrimpers who were exposed to a mixture of oil and Corexit dispersant in the Gulf of Mexico suffered severe symptoms such as muscle spasms, heart palpitations, headaches that last for weeks and bleeding from the rectum, according to a marine toxicologist who spoke issued the warning Friday on cable news network.

Dr. Susan Shaw, founder and director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute, described the symptoms during a CNN broadcast on Friday. Dr. Shaw said that after personally diving the oil spill herself, which she’d chronicled in a widely-publicized essay in late May, a “very fiery soar throat” plagued her after inhaling the fumes.

She specified that stories shrimpers had told her were from when BP was deploying “the more toxic” Corexit 9527. BP has allegedly switched to Corexit 9500.

World Cup madness is winding down with today’s third place match between Uruguay and Germany.  Action starts at 11:30 PT/2:30 ET/??? Nabeesco time.

Germany is heavily favored, though they are more even in their hottie matchup.

Read more »