What A Strange Couple of Weeks

Posted Sunday, July 19, 2009, at 12:11 AM

It all started a few weeks ago, when it was found that Senator Ensign, the junior Senator from Arizona, had been having an affair with a woman. This woman turned out to be a close personal friend of the Ensigns, and on top of that, she and her husband, worked for Ensign. Shortly before the story broke, Ensign ended the affair and fired both husband and wife, which has prompted an ethics review. This story gets much jucier, but let's move along on the timeline.

About two weeks ago, the governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, disappeared for five days. He had told his staffers that he was going to travel the Appalachian Trail. When he finally showed back up, he revealed that he had actually been in Argentina with his mistress. Neither his wife, lieutenant governor, or the state legislature (not to mention his own staff) had any idea where he was. Immediately questions were raised whether he should be impeached or not. Not because of his affair, that's a private matter, but because of his disappearance. This, as it turned out, was the second time the governor had simply disappeared from duty. I raised the notion at the time, that the only reason I think he should resign or be removed from office is if he used public taxpayer monies for these trips. More on that part of the story in a bit.

Then, on the Friday before July 4th, Sarah Palin announced that she was resigning the governorship of Alaska, effective by the end of July. Naturally, for most people, they saw this for what it truly was, she just up and quit. Her supporters and those that believe she is the great savior of today's Republican Party, have done some amazing acrobatic back-flipping somersaults in an attempt to spin her quitting to something positive. They have blamed everyone from the media, to liberals, even to fellow Republicans, but they have yet pointed the finger at Governor Palin, and asked, "What were you thinking?"

Back to the Ensign story, it appears that his parents paid his mistress thousands of dollars to keep her quiet. If true they are guilty of breaking quite a few lies. To top it off, several senators names have been brought into this little story. Their main connection is that all these men all live on the mysterious "C Street" in Washington. It has been said that several senators upon hearing about the affair (one senator mentioned by name is Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn) pulled Ensign into private, forced him to essentially write a Dear John letter to his mistress and then mail it overnight FedEx. Much to their chagrin, he later phoned his mistress a little bit later and told her to ignore the letter.

As the weeks have passed for Governor Sanford, the story has gotten stranger and potentially more illegal. He's said in several interviews that his mistress was his soul mate, and oddly enough with him publicly stating that his soul mate was not his wife, she has decided to try to work things out. Then reports came out on late Thursday, that Sanford reportedly used hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars to make these trips to see his mistress. On top of that, while he was using taxpayer money to fly around the world first class, his staff was paying out of their own pocket to fly coach on the same flights.

Finally, to top it off we have the wingnut birther story of the week. Fox News is reporting the story as factual (so that should tell you something). Back in April, a soldier by the name of U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, filed a lawsuit questioning the legitimacy of President Obama's birth. Then he volunteered to go serve in Afghanistan. Anyone would sense right there that there was a set-up coming. Why would someone question the president's legal status as as American then VOLUNTEER to go serve for him. Of course, it turned out to be a set-up Cook was using military service for a political ploy. When it was time for his service to start he refused to go stating that Obama was not president and could not order him to go. A few problems with his logic to come. The Pentagon eventually resended his order and he pronounced that he was right and the Obama White House was trying to cover up the birther conspiracy (considering that Obama has answered this question more times than any other person will ever have to a cover up was just silly)

As it turns out, as a volunteer, the president is unable to order volunteer troops to go anywhere, those orders come from the Pentagon. The Pentagon, rightly I might add, smelled a rat, considering that Cook had sued and then volunteered to serve and then refused to go. Honestly he should be dishonorably discharged for trying to turn military service into a political statement. There are men and women dieing everyday to serve their country and this joker is making a mockery out of their service because he doesn't like who won the presidential election.

There is no doubt that, had a liberal attempted this after Bush won the election in 2000, the wingnut base of Republican Party would have demanded he be hung from the nearest tree for treason. Yet, her we have Fox News treating Cook as a hero.

Then there's the Sotomayor hearings where we heard Republicans ask the same questions over and over and over and over again. Apparently they thought that if they asked her the same question repeatedly she would answer differently at some point. One of the biggest offenders was Senator Sessions. I'm guessing that he had forgotten that during the Roberts hearings he had chided the Democrats for doing the same thing, yet here he was just a few years later asking the same question over and over again, sometimes switching up the words, but it was the same question.

I don't care who you are, Democratic or Republican, once a question has been asked, don't ask it again. I tired of it during the Roberts hearings and it wasn't any better in the Sotomayor hearings.

Comments
Showing comments in chronological order
[Show most recent comments first]

I love that the Rebublicant Party has objected and voted against everything so far this year yet they are just so sure that Sotomayor is going to be confirmed that suddenly they are going to be quiet.

The new Republicant Party has a spin and lie for everything under the sun. They have no original ideas on their own. Anyone who has paid attention so far this year knows that every time Republicants poo poo on a piece of legislation and are pressed for something different they hold a big huge news conference and announce that they don't have anything specific but they are working on something and sure is better than what the other party has.

Their top leaders have come under fire for affairs and misusing their office and other Republicants come to their defense and say that these are private matters (yeah only private when a member of their own party is caught, not so much on the other side)

One of their supposed leaders for the 2012 nomination just up and quit the governship with two years still remaining and the Republicant Party can't stop singing her praises. This of course calls into question whether or not she has real experience for the presidency (sound familiar? it should) but don't day that to a Republicant.

-- Posted by MichaelHendricks on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 5:28 PM

-- Posted by MichaelHendricks on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 5:32 PM

And yet another lie has been dismissed, Sarah Palin's hair is not thinning.

-- Posted by Chunky Peanut Butter on Sun, Jul 19, 2009, at 10:08 PM

meanwhile, back at the ranch, Obama's poll numbers are falling as the economy gets worse and worse. The budget deficit has NEVER been higher. The national debt is looming so large the number of zeros is almost laughable. Obama still wants to spend more money. This president is the biggest joke the world has ever seen. He still to this day has produced zero results unless you consider miserable failure a result. Presidential staffers are lying about things now more than ever in history. Joe Biden makes Dan Quayle look presidential.

All this is taking place and all you libs wanna do is talk about Palin? Maybe you should be questioning your own pile of failure administration as to why nothing they are doing is working and why they want to just keep throwing more debt on top of our problems. This liberal socialism is a flipping joke and a threat to everything we know. It is not solving ANY problems, only making things drastically worse.

-- Posted by Justin76 on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 10:37 AM

Views from the the other side.The Moon or Mars?

-- Posted by orville on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 12:19 PM

Know what else is strange? After just 9 months off his "landslide" victory, polls have the lying president in a dead heat with Romney, who didn't even make the ticket last year.

4 more months of lies, lost jobs, more BS Czars for some other new found bureaucracy and more socialism he'll be in a dead heat with Dan Quayle!

First we need to get rid of the crooks in congress and the senate and then we'll get rid of the biggest crook. Maybe we'll get rid of him before he turns the entire country into the Chicago cesspool he crawled out from.

-- Posted by Justin76 on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 1:57 PM

Back in ancient history, there was a California publisher who was almost the ONLY VOICE opposing the Jarvis-Gann Amendment, the Political Conservatives Proposition Thirteen.

All Thirteen did was freeze property taxes at the levels of about 1970.

Only if THE REAL ESTATE per se were sold could property taxes be adjusted to reflect the price paid by the new owner.

Reality, before Prop. 13 became effective, a huge portion of commercial properties, large land holdings and large residential estates were placed into specific individual corporate ownership.

In the decades since, the stock of those corporations is sold. Usually 100% of the stock.

Result, there is no increase in property taxes, because the real estate had not been sold.

Now, nearly a half century after the passage, commercial properties which have increased 10 to 50 times in actual market value are being taxed at the original level.

However, a single family home, with a tax appraisal base of $60,000 in 1968, selling for $1.2-MILLION in 2004 -- is taxed at the new basis.

The "old owner" was paying $900 annually in property taxes. The "new buyer" gets a tax bill for $15,000.

Meanwhile, a corporate shielded $50-MILLION commercial skyscraper in 1968 transfers with the corporate stock for $980-MILLION in 2005, while the property tax remains at the original level.

A 75-room, Pebble Beach mansion on a 20-acre seashore estate could have a tax appraisal value of $1.8-MILLION in 1968. With passage of Prop. 13 this family owned estate is transferred into a family corporation within a land trust at $250,000 value, dropping the tax base to $250,000.

In 2002, the corporation is sold out of the land trust to a Japanese conglomerate for $65-MILLION.

Property tax valuation -- up slightly, but still less than $500,000.

Up the hill, but still in the Pebble Beach gated community, a 2200 sq. ft. custom home sold for $89,000 in 1968. In 2001, this home was sold out of the probated estate for $2.5-MILLION, with that being the new tax value -- and the new owner paying 25 times as much tax as had been the case before the sale.

In the same exclusive community, a $65-MILLION foreign owned estate paying 20% of the taxes on a 2200 sq. ft, three bedroom suburban home.

Why are hundreds of new subdivisions sitting empty around California today?

Certainly a ridiculously overheated real estate market was one leg of the tripod supporting the situation.

Unfettered growth; despite chronic and acute water shortages and waste, unreal traffic snarls, depressed wages in comparison with other states; was the second leg.

The absurdity of the property tax system with Prop. 13 was the third.

It started with the sub-prime mortgage nonsense, with unqualified borrowers able to borrow 150% of a home's value. Many moved in, did not make payments until foreclosed and evicted and left with 50% profit, plus their savings from free housing for up to two years.

Then came the dramatic slow down in growth, with tens of thousands of new homes which had no buyers.

But finally, Prop. 13's chickens came home to roost. A poorly constructed tract MacMansion selling for $900,000 to $2-MILLION, was taxed at $15,000 or $35,000 or more annually.

Now the state and local governments have hundreds of thousands of homes which are not generating any tax revenues, the former occupants are now living on the public dole, in homeless squalor and overburdening public services, including medical services.

A conservative shell game has effectively destroyed California.

And that publisher; He sold a custom 4-bedroom home purchased for $21,000 in 1968, for $1.3-MILLION in 2004 and GOT OUT OF CALIFORNIA.

-- Posted by HerndonHank on Mon, Jul 20, 2009, at 8:19 PM

"Now the state and local governments have hundreds of thousands of homes which are not generating any tax revenues"

If a home is empty because of foreclosure then the bank owns the house and still has to pay the taxes on it. So if the state is not receiving tax revenue on any of those foreclosed home then it's not because they went into foreclosure.

-- Posted by McCook1 on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 9:27 AM

What amazes me is that for eight years all we heard was give Bush a chance, give Bush a chance. He'll get things done. And yet Obama wasn't even given a second by you same people to fail and now after only four months of the stimulus plan (when the Obama Administration said it would take 10-14 months originally) you declare him a great failure.

I'd hate to be waiting in line behind you at the movie theater you would do nothing but complain an whine. You have no patience, you expect things to be done for you immediately. You expect thing to be handed to you in some bronze spoon.

Settle down, recessions and depressions aren't resolved over night. You people would have never made it through the Great Depression. You are nothing but a bunch of immature whining babies.

-- Posted by MichaelHendricks on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 10:15 AM

My favorite Republicant lie is when Boehner went to Ohio and lamented that the stimulus hadn't provided any highway construction jobs. This of course was two weeks after he had said that the stimulus had provided highway construction jobs in Ohio.

The Republicants apparently still haven't figured out this new fangled technology where if you say something on tape, people can go back and see or hear what you have said.

Republicants are trying to talk out of both sides of their mouths and failing miserably.

Maybe if this supposed liberal media would actually do some reporting and expose the Republicant Party for being a party of absolutely no ideas we could move on as a nation. All we hear from the GOP is the failure of no bipartinsanship, and yet if you actually look at the record the only ones acting partisan are the Republicants, they offer absolutely nothing to debate except to say no.

-- Posted by MichaelHendricks on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 10:20 AM

"What amazes me is that for eight years all we heard was give Bush a chance, give Bush a chance. He'll get things done. And yet Obama wasn't even given a second by you same people"

And this is different from those who were so opposed to Bush that they attacked him constantly but give Obama a pass? You're right Mike, some people are being unfair, but it isn't as if they invented the idea. You spend so much time complaining of the hypocrisy you disagree with while conveniently ignoring the hypocrisy you support. It would indeed be an interesting line to be in to watch you and those who think like you, on either side, whine.

NEWSFLASH: Politicians lie at times and are proven wrong at others. Politicians on both sides.

I haven't declared Obama a failure, however I do have reservations about the amount of spending that has occurred and what little there is, thus far, to show for it. For the record I wasn't in favor of Bush spending either.

"You are nothing but a bunch of immature whining babies."

I'm so glad you have such a strong argument that you don't feel the need to resort to petty namecalling and insults to try to win.....oh wait that must have been someone else.

-- Posted by SWNebr Transplant on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 12:07 PM

amen swnebr, amen brother/sister!!

-- Posted by doodle bug on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 1:55 PM

try all you want Mike, you cannot and will not make enough excuses for this BOOB in the White House. The new fangled thingy you speak of the very same thingy we are using to keep track of all his campaign lies you so foolishly believed in.

He closed GITMO, yet we're still there and have no exit plan.

We pulled out of Iraq, yet we're still there and have no plan.

We passed historic spending measures and we're still losing jobs.

I don't know how to add all this up other that utter disaster.

I don't rememebr ever needing to "give Bush a chance." He always took the bull by the horns and did what needed to be done. Never during his presidency was I EVER afraid of my future or my kids' future. Now I'm shaking in my boots because of what these crooked fools you look up to so much are going to do with our money.

They should be charged and sentenced for their lack of respect for our freedom and liberty!

-- Posted by Justin76 on Tue, Jul 21, 2009, at 6:02 PM

Bush always took the bull by the horn? You mean when he was told we were being attacked on 9/11 and he preceded to sit there and do nothing for five minutes, then flew around the United States in Air Force One for hours? When we needed assurances from our president he was flying around.

Or how about when Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and he was too busy getting a guitar for his birthday to even mention the hurricane, or when he finally went back to D.C. he did a simple fly over.

Or when he was told the levees would be topped and he sat there staring and didn't even ask what could be done.

Or how about when he had Osama bin Laden cornered in Afghanistan and thought it was so much a better idea that we attack a sovereign nation that had no attacked us. Now we are trying to catch back up in Afghanistan.

Or when he gave the okay for the government to listen into all American phone calls just in the hope that he could catch someone (he didn't). Is that the freedom and liberty he protected?

Oh yeah good ole Bush took the bull by the horns and plunged us right into a recession.

What does money have anything to do with freedom and liberty? Although I get your point a little more clearly. Bush could take away our right to speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion. That was all fine and dandy, but Obama dares to raise taxes in an effort to get us out of a recession and somehow he is restraining your freedom and liberty.

What a bunch of bull.

-- Posted by MichaelHendricks on Wed, Jul 22, 2009, at 11:18 AM

once again mike; would you please tell us which of your loss of freedoms has affected you most? do you have any idea how silly you sound?

-- Posted by doodle bug on Wed, Jul 22, 2009, at 1:01 PM

Be careful Mike...your intelligence is showing...

All of your statements are either misleading, based entirely on your misguided opinion, or outright lies.

Since that infamous "five minutes", how many times have we been attacked? I'm quite sure that you weren't sitting at home thinking, "I really need the President to tell me everything is going to be ok! Oh where is my President?"

Hurricane Katrina would have toppled New Orleans even with your precious Pelosi, Frank, or even Obama in the White House. There is a lesson to be learned, and that is that Mother Nature is still in charge and there is very little we can do about it.

Osama Bin Laden is either dead, or at the very least has been made irrelevant and ineffective in his attacks on U.S. soil. Unlike you, I won't sit behind a computer in rural Nebraska second guessing our military leaders in their decisions to try to protect our rights.

And to continue our dialogue from the other blog...you presume too much to think that I wish harm to this country just to sit back and make a point. What arrogance you have! I pray that I'm wrong, but the people that Bush dealt with have no interest in negotiating with us.

Canada's health care system rated higher?? That's a joke right?? By whom? Speak with any Canadian and they'll tell you that if they need health care right away, they'll come across the border. Really Mike, I'm disappointed with you. How many times have you or anyone that you've known been turned away at the hospital?

Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean that I am a deceitful, illogical and hateful citizen. I think you have those titles all to yourself. I can clearly see now why Steffanie does nothing but bash you with every comment. I must admit that you/he/him/it could drive me to that point as well.

You are pathetic.

-- Posted by Husker23 on Wed, Jul 22, 2009, at 2:35 PM

Moon or Mars Mike?

-- Posted by orville on Thu, Jul 23, 2009, at 8:12 AM

Strange couple of weeks alright. The President of the US calls the police stupid because they arrest somebody. Sounds like something the President should keep to himself. Except of course the guy was a buddy of his.

-- Posted by wallismarsh on Fri, Jul 24, 2009, at 1:19 PM

If I used a crowbar to enter my home and the police showed up and asked for ID. I would gladly provide it and thank them for looking out for my neighborhood.

Is that a sign of continued racial injustice? President BO seems to think it is.

-- Posted by wallismarsh on Fri, Jul 24, 2009, at 6:25 PM

This just in. College student Obama left Harvard with 17 unpaid parking tickets that he paid just before he announced his presidential bid.

I guess you guys think that is cool.

I always pay my bills. As for tickets? I always followed the rules.

-- Posted by wallismarsh on Sat, Jul 25, 2009, at 6:37 AM

Saw Tony Alamo got his. I think he used to hang out in Alma Arkansas.

I did that I-40 drive from LR to OU in the mid 80's.

-- Posted by wallismarsh on Sat, Jul 25, 2009, at 1:34 PM

Am very bullish on some stocks. Probably going to use some options.

Some stock options have a 25% probability of returning 20x over the next 60 days.

ie $10,000 invested could yield $200,000. I haven't seen these odds since December.

MGM and USO are the symbols.

-- Posted by wallismarsh on Sat, Jul 25, 2009, at 7:45 PM

You and both know that you know NOTHING about what happens when the president is breifed on catastrophic events. For you to claim you everything like thi is just typical for you actually. Your arrogance is undeniable.

You are full of the same pathetic rhetoric as our stupidly elected bafoon of a president.

If I was the cop, I would most certainly file a major defimation lawsuit against the baffoon.

I have never seen such a deal when the president of all people comes out to national media to attack a private citizen like this.

It just goes to show you that we were right. This guy is a Bill Ayers nutbag like we thought!

It's one thing for Jesse Jackson and Al Spartpton to be jack@$$es that will defend any black person for any crimes they have commited just because they are black, or hold any company hostage for ransom if they don't have enough balck people working there, but our president??????

Yes, it has been a wierd couple of weeks. The campaign promises only fools believed are slipping out of sight. The president is attacking private citizens in the name of reverse racism. The democratic party is revolting against it's supreme leader, the ones that aren't nutbags anyway. Obama is slipping in the polls as this circus he calls his presidency becomes mroe transparent and poele pull their heads from the posteriors.

What a difference a couple of weeks makes.

What are you going to write for your next article Mike?

Oh, I forgot one funny thing:

The Iranian nutjob denied the halocaust, vows to wipe Israel off the map, Kim Jong Il launches long range missles and threatens WWIII against anyone whoever gets in his way, millions of jobs are being lost, Global cooling is happening rapidly as crooked politicians are trying to ram this cap and trade crime up our rears.........

and Obama is on national tv calling a cop a stupid racist for arresting a suspicious black character because it appeared he broke into someone's home and a 911 call by a neighbor was placed.

WOW.

Shamefull.

Disgraceful.

Astonishing.

Reckless.

Hopeless.

Typical of what I figured this presidency would be like and not much of a beacon of hope for the rest of us who have so much to lose and live for.

-- Posted by Justin76 on Sun, Jul 26, 2009, at 5:19 PM

I forgot about the levees! "What could be done?" Maybe you think the ex pres is stupid. Maybe you are stupid. Surely an intelligent person would realize that in the middle of a Cat 5 hurricane, when levees are breaking and there is a city that lies BELOW sea level...there is little that can be done.

I laugh, and I mean laugh, and continue to laugh that you looney liberal dolts actually blame a person for what happened in New Orleans. You guys are pathetic.

I guess when you build your home 20 feet below sea level, right next to the ocean, where hurricanes occur, why is someone else to blame when the hurricane floods the place?

It's just your stupid Bush Derrangement Syndrome. It's draining you of your brain cells rapidly. If you don't put the Bush Bashing down, you will rot your brain....unless you have already.

Go ahead Mike, blame Bush for a Cat 5 hurricane disaster some more, it never gets old. I love it! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Deep breathe,

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I know you can't resist!

HAHAHAHAHAH, oh my stomach hurts.

-- Posted by Justin76 on Sun, Jul 26, 2009, at 5:29 PM