Jenny Sanford

"As her husband's affair with an Argentine woman exploded onto the global stage and publicly humiliated her family, Jenny Sanford, 46, and their four sons sought refuge here at their large beachfront cottage on this lush island enclave outside Charleston. . . . But it has also been the first lady's war room, where she has given her wayward husband a public thrashing. In the process, she seems to have drawn a new path for the aggrieved spouse of a philandering politician, an episode that has become something of a ritual in American politics."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062802436.html?hpid=topnews

It is refreshing to see a political wife put her self respect above shared political ambition.

Because they did such a good job raising their kids . . .

"Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, was granted temporary custody of his three children by a Los Angeles court as she and her husband sought interim control over the late singer’s estate."

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aHdMyuVmaN6s

How to lose an election

First, have your people attack your probable opponent for spending thousands of dollars of state money commuting to his home and on unnecessary, purely political side trips.

Next, have previously suppressed records show you spent three times as much state money on unauthorized travel as the person you just finished attacking.

This might not end well for the "leading" candidates.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/1120415.html

Bernie Madoff

I'm not an expert, but why did millionaires invest 100% of their assets with Bernie Madoff?

What about the saying, "don't put all your eggs in one basket"?

What about the axiom, "diversify"?

It makes you wonder how these people were smart enough to get rich in the first place.

None of this excuses Madoff, but it makes you wonder.

New middle class taxes to pay for healthcare 'reform'?

"The White House left open the possibility Sunday that President Barack Obama might pay for his health care overhaul by taxing employer-provided health insurance even though he had campaigned on not raising taxes on middle-class families. White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration wouldn't rule out taxing some employees' benefits to fund a health care agenda that has yet to take final form. The move would be a compromise with fellow Democrats, who are pushing the proposal as a way to pay for the massive undertaking without ballooning the federal deficit. . . . if Obama compromises on that point, it would reverse his promise not to raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000. "I pledge that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase," Obama told a crowd in Dover, New Hampshire, last year. "Not income tax, not capital gains taxes, not any kind of tax." At the time, his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain was proposing a tax on health benefits similar to the plan Obama is now considering. Just a year ago, Obama spent millions on campaign commercials attacking the idea. One ad accused McCain of favoring "taxing health benefits for the first time ever ... taxing health care instead of fixing it. We can't afford John McCain." A second Obama ad called McCain's approach "the largest middle-class tax increase in history." Driving the point home, it contended the "McCain tax could cost your family thousands. Can you afford it?"

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=989128&lang=eng_news&cate_img=logo_world&cate_rss=WORLD_eng

Taxing non cash employer supplied healthcare benefits decreases take home pay, which decreases family disposable income, which negatively impacts families and the economy on numerous levels. Plus, employer supplied healthcare benefits generally go to union, civil service and middle class workers, i.e., the Democratic Party's middle class base. How do you think they would vote in 2010?

Government taxes things it wants to discourage. Does Obama really want to discourage employer supplied healthcare? If they pass this tax, it means the ultimate goal is to put everyone on a government-supplied HMO.

Celebrity doctors

As a general rule, if a celebrity - - Michael, Elvis, Anna Nicole, etc. - - has a full time physician on staff, the celebrity has a prescription drug problem.

A John Edwards sex tape ?!?

In my experience, the nastiest personal attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton during the primary campaign came from the John Edwards camp, with the attitude, "If we can't have it, she won't either".

So, this is rich . . .

"Former presidential candidate John Edwards is out of luck if he hoped that the extramarital affairs of Gov. Mark Sanford and Sen. John Ensign would take people's minds off his own cheating scandal. Former Edwards aide Andrew Young says the ex-senator and his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, once made a sex tape, according to someone who has seen Young's book proposal. St. Martin's Press just inked a deal with Young, who also says in his proposal that, contrary to his public statement last year, he is not the father of Hunter's infant daughter - Edwards is. Edwards has denied that. Young says that his belief in Edwards ran so deep that he agreed to take the fall for the candidate, inviting the pregnant Hunter to live with him, his wife, Cheri, and their three children. Later, after Hunter delivered the baby, Young and his family moved to a different home in California. While he was unpacking, Young discovered a videocassette, according to the book pitch. Hunter had been hired by the Edwards campaign to videotape the candidate's movements, but this one is said to have shown him taking positions that weren't on his official platform. The purported sex tape confirmed to Hunter that Edwards was even more reckless than he thought. According to our source, Hunter confided to Young that she and Edwards talked about getting married should the candidate's cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, pass away, even discussing what music they'd play at their wedding. Elizabeth Edwards is said to hold Young partly to blame for her husband's affair, since Young knew it was going on and sometimes used his cell phone to conference the senator and his girlfriend. Young has told friends that, in revenge, Elizabeth arranged for the media to learn about a youthful misdeameanor in which Young was arrested for stealing a sign from a biker bar. Elizabeth also suspects Young stole the baseball card collection of her late son, Wade, according to a source who says that she told Young in an e-mail that other former staff members "have passed lie detector tests." Young's proposal, which one editor said "was impossible to put down," also contends that Sen. Edwards frequently clashed with running mate John Kerry during their 2004 race for the White House. And before Edwards owned up to his affair with Hunter, Young says he told him that Barack Obama had promised he'd make him attorney general if he didn't pick him as his 2008 running mate. Elizabeth Edwards and Young's agent had no comment. An e-mail to John Edwards' assistant wasn't returned. Hunter couldn't be reached."

http://www.nydailynews.com/gos...

Get that? While saying, "Vote for me, my wife is sick!", the bum was picking out wedding music with his baby mama.

Can you imagine if Edwards had been the Democratic nominee - - for president or vice president - - and this broke in October? Whether or not this is 10%, 30%, 50% or 100% true, once Edwards started the affair, he opened himself to any / all of this. For him and his wife and his baby mama to have continued the presidential campaign with this skeleton in the closet was the height of irresponsibility, self involvement and egotism.