The economy is lower than Andy Dick on hangover day, Congress might let unemployment benefits for two million Americans expire this month, and the country's deficit is at $1.3 trillion. And the feds find time to crack down on … energy-drink alcoholic beverages.

Really.

Yeah, the brand Four Loko is making national headlines because, well, it does as you might expect: It kicks your ass with a combination of relatively high alcohol content (12 percent in the beer-and-wine category) and three kinds of legal stimulants. How post-millennial.

As LA Weekly staff writer Simone Wilson reports, the makers of the syrupy drink — under pressure from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — say they're removing the legal but heart-racing stuff that makes it unique: guarana, taurine and caffeine.

No word yet on whether they'll change the name to One Loko or Lonely Loko.

Our commenter of the day, Tamanta, wonders aloud if the federal government doesn't have better things to do than to worry about perfectly legal albeit potent beverages:

Here we go again Daddy Government looking out for our welfare slowly taking our rights away as consumers, all because of some immature idiots abusing the beverage…why not ban alcohol altogether and caffeine?

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