At least ...... I'm assuming she's a flatbelly until we get picture proof. Anyway, what a wild story. First the Governor of South Carolina goes "missing." Then there is a period of days where he is staff "thinks" he is hiking in the Appalachian Mountains. Then he shows up yesterday and admits that he has been "clearing his head" in Argentina ...... with his Argentinean lover.

Alright, should we give the guy a pass? As one of my Twitter followers (14,000+ strong) pointed out (and I love this): If Mark Sanford had cheated on his taxes instead of his wife, he would have been a cabinet member by now.

Naturally the media jumped on this story. But Republicans in particular jumped on it, calling Sanford a "bastard" or "scumbag" or any name that would impart their own moral supremacy onto the situation. Give it up, folks. Men are pigs, all men, no exceptions. Not that that is an excuse, but this guy isn't doing anything to his girlfriend that the average politician hasn't done to the average taxpayer. Besides ... don't we have a wonderful history of this sort of stuff? John F. Kennedy comes to mind. Then there's Bill Clinton. The Democrats, you will remember, were telling us that this Clinton thing didn't matter ... it was his private life after all.

I'll tell you what really bothered me. Father's Day. It's Father's Day and this character is nowhere to be found. He has four sons wondering where their daddy is. How sad. Meanwhile .. another step backward for the Republicans. Look ... the Republicans love to parade through town on their moral high horses. When they fall off it's naturally going to make more noise.

Thud.

Did you catch this part of PrezBO's presser earlier this week? Some reporter asked him about his government health insurance pushing private health insurers out of business. Obama responds "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical."

OK .. one of two things about Obama's "not logical" statement is true:

(a) Obama actually believes what he said; or,

(b) Obama thinks that we are too stupid to realize how completely inane his statement was.

Sorry ... but I'm going with (a). Obama's love of all-things-government is so strong that he just cannot see the inherent problems with private-sector insurance competing with a government plan.

First of all .. it is the very nature of competing businesses to try to run each other out of the marketplace. Government health care will be no different. The bureaucrats and politicians behind the government health plan, recognizing that every switch from private sector to government insurance increases government dependency, will fight to destroy the private market. This won't be hard to do, after all the private insurance market will have to earn a profit. The government insurance scheme will not.

Another point .. this from the Cato Institute .. did Obama happen to notice that Medicare completely wiped out health insurance plans for the elderly? To ignore that little fact is simply not logical.

Seriously, folks; did Obama put any real thought into his statement? How can any private sector insurance company compete against a government plan that does not even want to earn a profit and can, in fact, operate at a huge loss year after year? Maybe Obama picked up on that Atlanta college professor who, years ago, announced that the use of linear logic is racist.

Now ... if you don't' think Obama can do all of this ... if you're a doubter. Just click here. You'll feel so much better.

Barack Obama says that his thoughts on healthcare are "evolving." Oh really? Well what are they "evolving" toward? It seems as though Obama is okay with the idea of mandating that individuals purchase health insurance. Of course, there would be a waiver for the poor, poor, pitiful poor. Where in our Constitution does it give the federal government the authority that private citizens buy anything, let alone health insurance? I've tried, but I just can't find it there. Then I suddenly realized what an idiot I was for trying to find a Constitutional justification for an Obama plan.

Now get this ... this is his explanation as to why he thinks that mandates for all people are a good thing: "People have made some pretty compelling arguments to me that if we want to have a system that drives down costs for everybody, then we've got to have healthier people not opt out of the system." Ohhhhh ... that's ObamaLogic for you.

So, in the World According to Obama, even if you are healthy and/or could afford to pay for your own healthcare costs as they arise, the government still wants to force you into its system. Why is that? Not because you need their health insurance, but because they need your money. Duh. If you are a healthier person that is forced into paying for health insurance, naturally you are going to choose the least expensive option, which in this case may be the government option. Now you know you aren't really going to use the services, but hey .. at least you are avoiding that pesky government fine. So now, your payments can be used to subsidize the healthcare of some government leach.

Also, here's the latest line from the Obama administration. Listen to the difference this makes. Obama was preaching the fact that people who liked their healthcare plans and their doctors would be able to keep them under his healthcare reforms. Well, he knows that this isn't true. So he has developed a new line. He says that "the government" will not take away your current healthcare plan. What changed? Well, Obama recognizes what will happen once his reforms go into place ... private employers would probably change their healthcare benefits on their own. They'll simply announce that the employee health plan is going to be terminated, and that all employees should take steps to apply for alternate insurance or move over to the government plan. The employer will probably placate the workers by saying that their paychecks are going to be increased by some fraction of the amount the company was paying for health care. So ... off you go to the government health plan, but the government didn't make you do it. Your employer did. So Obama's "the government won't take away your current healthcare plan" holds true. Obama says "I can guarantee you that there's the possibility for a whole lot of Americans out there that they're not going to end up having the same health care they have ... Because what's going to happen is, as costs keep on going up, employers are going to start making decisions: 'We've got to raise premiums on our employees. In some cases, we can't provide health insurance at all.'" See? He knows the game he's playing here.

More government regulations are never the answer .. unless you are a politician who loves government and the power it provides them. In this case, let's go to San Francisco. The city's Board of Supervisors has come up with new regulations for landlords. These 'renters' rights laws' were written by Supervisor Chris Daly. One proposal would make it illegal for owners who want to move into their property to evict a family with children. With or without a lease. This would mean that once you've rented an apartment ... all you have to do is download a tricycle motor and you're in for good. The idiot politician who introduced this regulation moaned about "children having to leave the city where they were born." Cry me a river.

Among the most outrageous proposals from Daly is one that "bars landlords from increasing rent to more than one-third of a tenant's income. Realizing how asinine this idea is, he proposed an amendment that would limit eligibility to those who are unemployed, people whose wages have fallen more than 20% over the past year or those who solely rely on the government for a living.

By the way ... did you know that in San Francisco they have something called a "Tenant's Union?" Just wonderful.

I've owned rental property. It's a good deal. But here's a word of warning. If you're going to own rental property be sure that the property can command rents far and above what would be deemed "affordable" for some household living at or near the poverty level. In today's economy I wouldn't touch a piece of rental property that rented for less than about $2000 a month. Once you're above that level your tenant isn't going to be among that class pandered to by politicians. You might actually end up making some money on your investment.

Here's a Wall Street Journal piece about the Cap and Tax proposal. You may read it, most of the dumb masses won't. Too bad.

Something else the dumbest among us should read. Government health plans ALWAYS ration health care. Period.

North Korea says that if the United States provokes "a second Korean war" it would wipe us off the map. Those be some fightin' words. This is what happens when our leadership projects weakness.

And speaking of weakness ... Dick Morris believes that Barack Obama is showing weakness in the face of North Korea and Iran. I wonder what his first clue was.

John Kerry is a world-class jerk.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon says that threat is "silliness."

Even if the Democrats don't get their government healthcare plan, the unions will find a way to receive their thanks in the form of special tax breaks for union health plans.

Get out the pitchforks ... Citigroup will raise salaries by as much as 50% to compensate for a reduction in annual bonuses. Citigroup says this is necessary to stop the outflow of capable executives .. but government-lovers won't see it that way.

You know the myth ... more tax dollars will mean better education? Here are some facts on why that is simply not the case.

Here's Slobbering Barney Frank's explanation as to why this fancy new financial consumer-protection agency will be good for financial institutions.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is seeking an additional review of an EPA finding that would regulate greenhouse gas emissions, saying that the findings were based on cherry-picked data and manipulated by agency officials.

The Politico seems to think that there is going to be a Republican resurgence within the next year. Based on what? Mark Sanford?

The great state of California could run out of money by July 28th. Think the Mexicans would buy California from us? We could trade California for some oil. It would be the "Fruits and Nuts for Oil" program.

This line about 46 million Americans not having health insurance is not accurate because it does not reflect exactly who those people are and why they are "uninsured."

The taxpayers of Massachusetts are paying $2 million a month to house homeless people in motels.

Barack Obama could save $45 million by eliminating the job of U.S. trade representative.

It's been proposed before, but several members of Congress want to take redistricting out of legislative hands and give control to nonpartisan, independent panels.