Ensign's parents gave mistress nearly $100,000

The plot thickens, and gets increasingly bizarre, in the case of Sen. John Ensign's affair.

The Nevada Republican, through a written statement by his attorney, admitted Thursday that his parents paid the family of his mistress nearly $100,000 last year.

Here's a good observation:

"It just makes John Ensign look all the worse," [Sloan]said. "He's a senator, not a 12-year-old. Now he needs his parents to come in and clean up his mess?"

Republican senator Tom Coburn, from the Okie Bible Belt, has had his fingers in the Ensign pie from the beginning. He's the one that Hampton - husband and p*mp, or p*mp and husband, take your pick - alleges was talking money. Coburn refuses to discuss what advice he took, since Coburn is - naturally - a deacon. An ordained deacon. Well sure. Figuring out a fair settlement for clearing out one of those pesky "Family Values" things certainly comes under 'religious counselling'. Not only that, but Coburn is claiming doctor/patient confidentiality, since he is a physician, too.

Problem is ... Coburn is an obstetrician. Since Ensign is such a wussy, I wonder if his vagina was hurting. 

Roll Call reported Thursday that Coburn is claiming that because he gave the advice as a "physician and as an ordained deacon," he doesn't have to testify. Roll Call reported that Coburn cited constitutional protections for religious counseling as well as for patient confidentiality.

Coburn, though, is an obstetrician, making it unlikely that Ensign was a patient in the traditional sense.

Republicans. The party of Family Values. What a joke.

More embarrassment for John Ensign the senator that was boffing one of his staffers:

Ensign paid mistress severance, husband says
An excerpt:

Hampton told the newspaper that he learned of the affair between his friend the senator and his wife when he discovered an incriminating text message. He also detailed a February 2008 meeting in which he, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and others encouraged Ensign to end the affair, as well as the working relationship with the Hamptons. Hampton said Coburn and others tried to encourage Ensign to compensate the couple and help them relocate.

"These men were the ones that said, 'What we need to do is get Doug Hampton's home paid for, and we need to get Doug Hampton some money. We need to get his family to Colorado,"' Hampton said in the interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press.

OK ... now, Ensign did screw the pooch, in a figurative sense. We already know about the literal sense, and I'm not sure she's a dog. But consider this:

The husband is right in the middle of all this. It's like he's the shackrat's press secretary and broker. Did you catch that business about the husband being at the meeting with the other senators who were trying to 'encourage Ensign to end the affair"? That's the same meeting where they were trying to broker 'compensation' for the Hamptons. "... get Doug Hampton's home paid for ...". Get him some money. Get them moved to Colorado.

The cynic in me wonders ... was Hampton her husband, or her p**p? (apparently TownHall thinks that word is 'inappropriate') Think about it. There's a bunch of Republican senators, sitting around with Ensign and his shackrat's p**p, negotiating a price. "Family values" at work. Not only is Ensign dumber than dog crap, but so are his pals. And consider this somewhat cynical thought: Was the whole thing a setup? Did the Hamptons, once Ensign started sniffing around, put together the Rest of the Plan in order to squeeze some bux out of Ensign? Wasn't extortion part of the original story?

This is really quite a sorry mess. These are the clowns who are running the country.

Then, Ensign, like Sanford, just has to bring God into it:

In the Feb. 2008 letter posted on the newspaper's Web site, someone signing their name "John" says he takes "100 percent responsibility for my actions." "God never intended us to do this. I walked away from Him and my relationship with Him has suffered terribly," the letter reads.

Wow. "John" has just had a theological Revelation. Not bad for a Republican, a member of the Family Values Party. Why is it that these guys don't seem to remember these little details when they are running around suffering from Erectus Permanitus?

"Family Values". You gotta be kidding.

... it does:

Debate churns over proposed Jackson butter sculpture

Yep. For like reals, dude:

Michael Jackson may be memorialized in wax at Madame Tussaud's, but it's not yet clarified whether he'll get butter treatment at the Iowa State Fair.

The debate over how to honor the late King of Pop is churning for Iowa fairgoers who will vote on whether to include Jackson's image as part of the fair's 2009 display of celebrated butter sculptures.

On June 30, fair organizers announced plans to honor the deceased singer's musical feats through a butter sculpture of Jackson to appear alongside a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's walk on moon – a recognition of Jackson's famous "moonwalk" dance step.

But after tempers began bubble, organizers decided to cut the fat and feature Jackson's buttery image in a "small side portion" of the moonwalk sculpture. They said in a second press release issued on the same day that Jackson — whose personal reputation is controversial — will not be honored for his character, but for "recognizing his piece of Iowa State Fair history."

That still didn't satisfy everyone's taste, and after hundreds of complaints, fair officials opted to let the public vote on whether Jackson should win a coveted spot in the buttery line-up.

FoxNews cutness with the 'churns' and 'clarified' aside ... they were really going to put a butter sculpture of Jacko alongside an Apollo commemoration? Because Jackson, like Neil Armstrong, did a moonwalk?

Do these yay-hoos not understand the difference?

Over on Red Planet:

Capped

Check the cartoon. Unfortunately, it applies to local government as well as the Feds and the state.

Meanwhile, as for Cap and Trade ripoffs, here's a good read from Jamie Dupree:

Cap and Trade grows

An excerpt:

Oh yeah, other stuff caught my eye as well, like on page 473, "Bounties for Replacement, Retirement, and Recycling of Existing Low-Efficiency Products."

You read that right - under this bill, the Secretary of Energy would pay money to retailers that get rid of older appliances and machines that use extra energy.

In the same section, the bill lays out "Premium Awards" that would be paid to the manufacturers of new energy efficient appliances.

From what I can make of the legislative gobbledygook on page 479 of the bill, it looks like the feds would pay the manufacturers of "Superefficient Best In Class Products" for each unit that they produce.

* $75 for each dishwasher
* $250 for each clothes washer
* $200 for each refrigerator or refrigerator-freezer
* $250 for each clothes dryer
* $200 for each cooking product
* $300 for each water heater

Now I don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if you pay enough of those awards, that is going to be a big chunk of change in Fiscal Years 2011, 2012 and 2013, which is when the awards would be paid out.

How much money are we talking here? Well, the entire section relating to super efficient appliances would get $600 million for FY 2011, 2012 and 2013 - and then "such sums" as may be necessary in the future.

The bill specifically says that "no less" than 40% of the money in those first three years shall be for "Premium Awards for Development and Production of Superefficient Best-in-Class Products."

This would be a great horselaugh if it weren't the Real Deal. They are going to give away your money and mine, to private business. Well, we should be used to that by now.

Speaking of which ... how we doin' with that $150,000 subsidy to the golf course? That contract is up for renewal, and we have elections coming up this November.

The news coverage of Michael Jackson' demise and the on-going circus over his funeral is downright obscene in its intensity and scope.

Nothing else seems to matter to the mainstream media as they continue their frenzy.

How about this:

Relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan Decry Lack of Coverage Amid Jackson Spectacle

Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media," Martha Gillis wrote to the Washington Post. "Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week?"

Gillis' nephew, Lt. Brian Bradshaw, 24, died in Kheyl, Afganistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Bradshaw, of Steilacoom, Wash., was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division in Fort Richardson, Alaska. He was one of at least 13 U.S. soldiers to die in Afghanistan since Jackson's death on June 25.

Bradshaw's mother, Mary, said she agreed with Gillis, saying the nonstop coverage of Jackson's death has become "totally ridiculous" and laughable.

"I can watch the news many nights and there's no mention of what's going on in Afghanistan or Iraq and there's boys dying over there," Bradshaw told FOXNews.com. "Oh God, I can't talk."

It is obscene. We are worshipping a man who at best had strange appetites and who led a debauched life, and who at worst was an unrepentant pedophile protected by the same worshipping mindset that we now see everywhere.

That he could sing and dance, no matter how well, changes none of that.

This media coverage has become a national embarrassment.

In the previous post, we mentioned 'common sense' in the conduct of both business and politics.

Here's another commentary, this one from Chris Muir over on Day by Day, regarding the current Sara Palin dustup:

Common sense