"Next Head of State in Topless Bar " - NO.

"Alternative Australian PM in Topless Bar" - YES

The Prime Minister, which Mr Rudd is not yet (still has to win an election that is at least 2-3 months away), is the head of government, not the head of state. Queens Elizabeth II, represented in Australia by her Governor General, Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC (http://www.gg.gov.au/), the the Head of State.

This is an appalling, grade-school error by Slate editors.

But come on. Is this "error" -- and I'm inclined to believe Shafer when he says he went with that wording just because it scanned better -- really that big a deal?

Not to me, anyway, and I speak as a citizen of (though not, please to note, a subject of) another constitutional monarchy. And I'd thought my fellow citizens were some of the touchiest in the English-speaking world. Perhaps they have some cause to be, most of them living within easy driving distance of New York and thus subject to endless... but I digress.

In truth I'd have liked the headline better had it involved the word "legless." Do Aussies use that to mean pissed-as-a-newt, or is its use restricted to Poms?

Agreed. I am let down and surprised by Slate's lack of political knowldge between Head of State and Head of Government.

I think the 'read better' excuse can't be allowed when it changes a basic fact.

To answer the question, Aussies also use "legless" that way (but it might be a relic of our fading "British" past?).