Hey, did you hear? Oil is almost $100/barrel. What does this have to do with politics? Well, naturally, if there are headlines to be had, Congress comes calling.

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• Another nail in Cocktober’s coffin: everyone’s had the Foley emails since June. [Harpers]

• Duke Cunningham breaks out the crayons, scrawls letter to San Diego Union-Tribune. [TPMMuckracker]
• Fox News is preparing to serve their new masters. [MoJo Blog ]
• New anti-Coulter books fuel the hate-filled flattery she thrives on. [GalleyCat]
• Ironically, we only read blogs for the pictures of naked ladies. [Radosh]
• Are Saudis increasing the oil supply to lower prices and help the Republicans? They would, if they had any left. [Outside the Beltway]

• Venezuelan owned CITGO gas stations facing boycott by people whose giant vehicles need the most refilling. [GOP and the City]

• George Allen’s “ethnic rally” from the point of view of the “ethnics” in attendance. [Shaking Her Assets]
• Flight Attendants resort to lying to get you off your damn phone. [Freakonomics]
• Why are oil prices dropping? Because of the growing stability in Iraq and the decreasing possibility of an invasion of Iran, duh. [Blogs For Bush]
• Ever relevant Consumer Product Safety Commission wants you to take product safety TO THE EXTREME! [Consumerist]
• Tragically misunderstood Mahmoud Ahmadinejad respects Jews like George Allen, has several Jewish friendsters. [Captain's Quarters]
• Richard “Leakmeister” Armitage threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the stone age.” Unless he didn’t; buy President Musharraf’s book on Monday to know for sure! [ChicagoTrib]
• Lynn Westmoreland thinks torture is fucking hilarious. [Echidne of the Snakes]

• Polls in the Connecticut Senate Primary opened 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Senator Joe Lieberman still trails in polls behind challenger Ned Lamont, but the gap had narrowed by election day. [NYT, NYT]

• A poll shows most Americans have an anti-incumbent mood coming into the midterm elections. [WP]
• Corrupt Democratic Congressman William Jefferson will get a primary challenge from Louisiana State Senator Derrik Shepherd. [CQ]
• Texas Republicans have abandoned their fight to keep disgraced Representative Tom DeLay off the November ballot. [AP]
• “[B]y one estimate, state and local governments owe their current and future retirees roughly $375 billion more than they have committed to their pension funds.” [NYT]
• The largest oil field in the US shut down after investigators detected “heavy corrosion and a small leak in a critical pipeline,” sending oil prices up yet again. [NYT]

• Violence in Lebanon and Gaza shows no signs of letting up, with Israel stepping up its bombing of Lebanon and Hezbollah continuing its rocket attacks. President Bush gave his “qualified” support to the Israeli campaign. [WP, NYT, NYT]

• The Voting Rights Act was passed by the House, despite the almost-rebellion of southern Republicans who wished to change portions of the civil rights legislation. [WP]
• The price of crude oil hit a record high yesterday, at $76/barrel. [WP]
• Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame Wilson are suing Vice President Dick Cheney, his former chief of staff Scooter Libby, and Karl Rove for violating their constitutional rights. “Plame and Wilson might be entitled to demand documents from Cheney and others, as well as to require them to sit for sworn depositions….” [WP, NYT]
• President Bush, in Russia, is urging G8 leaders to speak with a “unified voice” in combating violence in the middle east. Bush is expected to gently encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to be a little more democratic. [NYT, AP]

• Under no circumstances, in this world or another, has Joe Biden ever been, “brown and down.” [Love and Haterade]

• A glass of water, the right size buns, and a little time for digestion would be all it takes to “liquidate” the North Korean nuclear program. [SFGate]
• Vladimir Putin touches young boys, “like a kitten,” but the question remains: hot or not? [Things That Make You Go "Hmm"]
• He may touch children with the soft pad of his paw, but the economies of the European Union will feel the full power of his one-dimensional petrochemical based economic leverage, er, claw. [Andrew Sullivan]
  Accusations of plagiarism faced by Ann Coulter may go unsubstantiated as man hired to find proof is afraid to, “make my eyes bleed.” [Galley Cat]

• The sandy beaches are calling you Justice Stevens - heed them, please. [Southern Appeal]
• Easy-E rolls over in his grave as gangs resort to blogging their threats: “Your page views ain’t shit bitch, you gettin’ blasted.” [Wired]

• Bush calls for oil conservation: “We can all pitch in. People just need to recognize that the storms have caused disruption.” [NYT, WT]
• Bush may endorse expansion of the military’s responsibilities in responses to natural disasters. [NYT, WT]
• Congressional Republicans turn attention to unsteady oil market; proposals will likely become Energy Bill II. Bush: “The storms have shown how fragile the balance is between supply and demand in America.” [WSJ]
• Republicans change rhetoric about fiscal policy, not the policy itself. [WP]
• Hundreds of anti-war protesters led by Cindy Sheehan are arrested in front of the White House; they lacked a permit. [WP]
• Bush hints next Supreme Court nominee will not be a white male. [NYT]

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