Smurf's Up! (for election)
CNN has the picture - Senate candidate blue -- literally:

GREAT FALLS, Montana (AP) -- Montana's Libertarian candidate for Senate has turned blue from drinking a silver solution that he believed would protect him from disease.

Stan Jones,a 63-year-old business consultant and part-time college instructor, said he started taking colloidal silver in 1999 for fear that Y2K disruptions might lead to a shortage of antibiotics.

He made his own concoction by electrically charging a couple of silver wires in a glass of water.

His skin began turning blue-gray a year ago.

"People ask me if it's permanent and if I'm dead," he said. "I tell them I'm practicing for Halloween."

He does not take the supplement any longer, but the skin condition, called argyria, is permanent. The condition is generally not serious.

Kids, don't try this at home!

Uh Oh! Viagra for Women!
The Observer titillates with Nasal spray for women who are sniffy about sex:

It is the seducer's ultimate dream: a potion that will turn a woman's cold indifference into warm sexual interest. Sound improbable? Not any more. Scientists last week revealed they had successfully tested a nasal spray, PT-141, that sent 'healthy, normal women' into states of high sexual arousal.

'The crucial point about PT-141 is that it directly targets the brain's arousal centre,' said Dr Carl Spana, president of Palatin Technologies, of New Jersey. Originally uncovered through tests on rats, the drug aroused female rodents 'so quickly they started mounting males', added Spana.

Maybe I should have titled this 'Orgy Alert!'?

No, It's Not About South Florida!
New Mexicans to decide if 'idiots,' 'insane' have right to vote:

With less than five weeks until the general election, many New Mexicans may be surprised to learn that among the candidates, bond issues and constitutional amendments on this year's unusually long ballot, they will also be deciding whether to allow "idiots" and "insane persons" the right to vote.

That's right. Idiots currently can not vote in New Mexico under Constitutional Amendment 7, Section 1.

Proposed Amendment 2 on the November 5th ballot would change that. The amendment would alter the current wording on voter qualifications, which now reads, "except idiots, insane persons and persons convicted of a felonious or infamous crime."

If approved, the amendment would scratch out references to "idiots" and "insane persons," which may have been considered reasonable when the state's constitution was written in 1912, but is considered offensive and meaningless by many people today.

Some argue the terms are overly general and very much up to a person's own opinion. In fact, it's probably safe to say several of New Mexico's own politicians have been called "idiots" at various times, yet they've always enjoyed their right to vote.

The dead are voting, so what's the beef?

One More Torch Story
Jeff Brewer writes Where the Streets Are Paved With Gold: The legacy of Robert Torricelli:

Public servants used to go to Washington to serve the public interest-not their own. It was well understood that for many people, getting elected to public office was not the path to getting rich. It was presumed that some noble or higher call, rather than the desire to amass personal wealth, motivated people to serve.

Evidently, Robert Torricelli didn't subscribe to this concept. Rather, he did the improbable; he's become a rich man on a congressional salary. Indeed, since first winning public office in 1982, Torricelli has accumulated wealth and extravagance beyond any reasonable level. Unfortunately for him, much of it was garnered through unethical, if not illegal means. As the record shows, Torricelli repeatedly benefited from favorable loans and the occasional quid pro quo.

Consider that in 2001, Torricelli sold his home for $905,000, even though the 2,415 square foot home appraised for only $328,400. In turn, Torricelli bought his favorite estate in Rosemont, NJ - an expansive, $1.2 million dollar farm.

While Torricelli shopped for a million dollar home, he was also looking at yachts. He even found one to his liking - for $405,000. According to his spokeswoman, the Senator would use the proceeds from the sale of his home in Englewood, NJ to buy the boat. Of course, since Torricelli had agreed to put the money gained from his home's sale towards the Rosemont property, the spokeswoman?s comments were false.

So where did Torricelli plan on getting the money to buy a luxury yacht and the million-dollar estate in Rosemont? He has been a public servant for the last twenty years. When he first took office in 1982 as a representative, congressional salaries were $69,000 annually. Considering that Torricelli maintained two homes - one in Washington, D.C. and the other in New Jersey - it's difficult to craft a scenario that would allow him to acquire additional luxuries unless, of course, someone supplemented him along the way.

Er ... maybe he got investment advice from Hillary Clinton and Terry McAuliffe?

Or maybe they should all be in the big house.

Homegrown Terrorist Alert!
After today's amateur terrorist bust, Mayor (and Police Commissioner) Vera Katz of Portland, Oregon went into hyper butt covering mode because Terror suspect worked at Mayor Katz's office. You may remember Vera - her previous two minutes of fame were when she kept the Portland Police Department from assisting the FBI in questioning Middle Eastern aliens after 9/11. More interesting than Vera are the real heroes - Skamania couple sounded alarm on suspicious activity.

More Hanky Panky Alert!
Seems to be a bumper crop today - Former Democratic official arrested in San Diego:

Former Mecklenburg County Democratic chairman Andrew Reyes, who vanished more than a year ago, was being held on federal bank fraud charges after his arrest at the Mexican border, authorities said Friday.
...
According to the indictment, Reyes had signature authority over a client's checking account at First Union National Bank and he used that power to funnel large sums of money into his own accounts.

"Using that authority, he illegally diverted more than $3.6 million from accounts of his client to accounts he controlled," said Conrad, the federal prosecutor for the western district of North Carolina.

"On 15 separate occasions between March 1998 and March 2000, he transferred amounts in the six-figure range," Conrad said. Each of the 15 counts carries a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, he said.
...
Reyes had been bankrupt in 1989 but less than a decade later he was a major donor to Democratic candidates, mingling with Hollywood celebrities and President Bill Clinton. In 1999, Gov. Jim Hunt named Reyes to his Advisory Council on Hispanic/Latino Affairs.

What! No Asian bagmen?

'Do Over" Alert!
Oklahoma Republicans try to head them off at the pass - Republican Chairman Asks Walters to Stay in the Race:

OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Chad Alexander today asked Democrat Party Chairman, Jay Parmley, and candidate David Walters to assure the voters of Oklahoma that the Democrat Party will not seek to replace Walters as their party's nominee for United State Senate.

"Given the fact that David Walters is 24 points down in the polls, has an ethically and legally challenged past and tries to drag his opponent down to his level with attacks and lies, I want to make sure he continues his candidacy," Alexander said. "I would hate to see something happen in Oklahoma like what just took place in Bob Torricelli's senate race in New Jersey. Up there, Torricelli found himself 14 points down in the polls and had a past similar to David Walters'. He dropped out of the race and created a problem in the state's court system so the Democrats could replace him with a viable candidate. I wouldn't want that for Oklahoma.

If they thought they could get away with it, they would do it.

Voters' Choice Alert!
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that DeKalb voters file suit to throw out results of McKinney-Majette primary:

Five DeKalb County voters today filed a federal lawsuit seeking to throw out the results in the Aug. 20 Democratic primary that handed Denise Majette a victory over incumbent Cynthia McKinney in the 4th Congressional District.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, says "malicious crossover" voting by Republicans in the primary violated the Voting Rights Act. The suit was filed against Secretary of State Cathy Cox, the DeKalb and Gwinnett county elections supervisors, Majette, the DeKalb Republican Party and the state Democratic and Republican parties.

Georgia does not require voters to register by party, and it allows them to vote in the primary of their choice. Before the election, some Republicans called on their fellow party members to vote in the Democratic primary to help ensure the controversial McKinney's defeat. Since the vote, she has repeatedly blamed them for her downfall, as well as state Democratic Party officials, whom she says aided Majette. ...

The suit asks that the crossover votes be declared unconstitutional and invalid and McKinney be declared the winner of the Democratic primary.

Hey, I thought the Democrat party was all for voters' choice?

Actually, of course, they are for anything that helps them grab power.

It Must Be Friday!
The AP says Women's Group Wants Billboard Removed:

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- A women's group is blasting a California company's billboard as offensive.

The billboard uses photos of three women to illustrate payment options for software. A prostitute represents hourly, a girlfriend represents term and a bride represents perpetual.

Then in Providence, RI: State Rep. Accused Of Assaulting Repo Man. Yes, he was a Democrat.

And an obligatory Toricelli cartoon.

Fond Memories of Da Torch
R. Emmett Tyrrell reminisces in the American Prowler about A Fat Little Butter Ball:

Senator Torricelli is a political bully who uses political power to do what he is physically impotent to do. As the months have passed since he was severely reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee for taking gifts from a former campaign contributor the evidence of his coarseness mounts, for instance, there is the tape showing Torricelli accompanied by a shadowy thug hounding the aforementioned campaign contributor. Doubtless there was more evidence to come before he cut and ran.

I have had my own experiences with his bully-boy tactics. After The American Spectator published a well-substantiated report in 1998 that the New Jersey senator had received $136,000 in hard money from the Mujahedin-e Khalq, a group involved in the murder of American servicemen in Iran and in the subsequent takeover of our embassy in Tehran, he threatened us with a libel suit through his agile lawyer Abbe Lowell. I ignored his threat.

When empty threats of libel did not work Torricelli led in ginning up a year-long government investigation of the magazine complete with a grand jury to look into our revelations of the misbehavior of his friend Bill Clinton, another of Lowell's unsuccessful clients. It all began on a gray Sunday morning in Washington on ABC's "This Week With Sam & Cokie." There Torricelli denounced the Spectator, accusing us of money laundering, which is a felony. Then he wrote Attorney General Janet Reno and demanded an investigation. The charges they settled on were witness tampering and threatening murder, the last, perhaps, provoked by our deadly prose. Of course, unlike the Senator and his friends in the Clinton Administration we cooperated fully with the authorities and were completely vindicated. Thus here I am today, a free and happy man, while Torricelli shuffles off into ignominy.

Stick a fork in him, he's done!