I guess it’s my week to write about polls, because this number in the new Gallup poll on President Obama really jumps out.

Faced with the prospect of strong challenges from both sides of the aisle, Sen. Joe Lieberman (CT-Party of One) is set to announce this hour that he will not seek a fifth term in 2012. Word leaked out yesterday after Connecticut’s former Secretary of State, Susan Bysiewicz, announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination (see FDL’s coverage from Ryan, David, and Teddy).

Sen. Jeff Merkley acknowledged that one component of the consensus plan on Senate rules reform put together by him, Tom Udall and Tom Harkin would probably get tweaked, and that the biggest concern for skittish Democratic lawmakers was changing the rules at all, lest they be changed on them when Republicans take over. Which is kind of an amazing commentary on the state of the Democratic Party, when you think about it.

Kansas’ Republican Secretary of State is pushing for new laws to stop what is essentially nonexistent “voter fraud.” These laws would just happen to also make it much harder for younger, more urban, and poor individuals to register and vote. These are groups that tend to vote more often for Democrats.

“[The bill] has many strong elements,” Frist added later. “And those elements, whatever happens, need to be preserved, need to be cuddled, need to be snuggled, need to be promoted and need to be implemented. But how do you do it? How do you do a lot of what is in this law?”

So, Amazon, Visa, and PayPal–was it worth it?

Probably some left-winger trying to make conservatives look bad.

Nobody follows tradition like the Washington Posts and lame obituaries

Loretta Lynn and Jack White — Portland, Oregon.

TSA’s super-frisky frisking vs their really rad–as in radiation–full body scan prompted witty manufacturers to churn out underwear with the 4th Amendment screened in metal ink. The magic undies send a firm message about privacy while shielding (what could be) the fun stuff from prying eyes.

But libertines, courtesans, romantics and even Ted Haggard had better think about what they’re packing in their hand-held luggage, since a Minnesota man, Terry Allen Lester, has developed a new tool terrorists could use to shake things up: a remote controlled exploding vibrator. Lester had planned to send it to an ex-girlfriend as a holiday gift. Wow.