Records also show Doug Hampton, 47, received a monthly salary of $13,555 as an administrative assistant in Ensign's Senate office. He received a payment of $19,679 for his final month of employment and was off the payroll on May 1, 2008, according to Senate records.

That works out to a little over $162,000 per year, for an "administrative assistant", a common title for what used to be called a secretary. His wife, of course, was also on the payroll of the good senators PAC and campaign staff. As was, apparently, their son.

Remember that number the next time you see a general or admiral testifying before a Senate committee. The base pay for a Lieutenant General with 26 years of service is $13,766 per month - roughly the same as the guy handing the thirsty politician a glass of water...

In fact, the current base pay for rank and file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year.

If you still wonder why no political party can seem to get government spending under control, I suggest you re-read this post.

AP - Sen. John Ensign has been quick to describe his dalliance with an aide in brief and simple terms. The affair is over. The apologies made and accepted. No questions will be answered, the married Nevada Republican said in his brief admission of infidelity.

08:06 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Left out of the CNN article is the philandering senator's affiliation with the secretive group of would-be theocrats known as The Family. Scary stuff, but apparently even the anointed ultimately have feet of clay...

Sen. John Ensign of Nevada admitted Tuesday an extramarital affair with a woman who had worked for him. "I violated the vows of marriage. It's absolutely the worst thing I've done in my life," the Republican senator said outside his office in Las Vegas. A member of the party's Senate leadership, Ensign last year took over as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

20:38 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Unbelievable. Chutzpah, gall, cojones ... words fail me.

British Airways is asking thousands of its staff to work for free for up to four weeks, spokeswoman Kirsten Millard said Tuesday.

20:26 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

It's about time somebody did this as native code. And as a long time Delphi/C++ Builder fan, I'm glad it's Embarcadero.

Embarcadero is now betting on cross-platform for Delphi and its partner C++ Builder, which shares many of the same libraries. "The most important thing is native cross-platform, Mac and Linux. Some of our biggest customers have moved completely to Mac. Internationally we don't hear as much Mac interest, but Linux is really strong," Williams said.

(link) [The Register]

07:01 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Just another training day in the War on Some Drugs™.

AP - When undercover detectives busted Jose and Maximo Colon last year for selling cocaine at a seedy club in Queens, there was a glaring problem: The brothers hadn't done anything wrong.

22:11 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Joy. We got one of those installed here a few weeks ago - it has cut our bill substantially, but I suspect that's only because we were being grossly overbilled in the first place.

New electricity meters being rolled out to millions of homes and businesses are riddled with security bugs that could bring down the power grid, according to a security researcher who plans to demonstrate several attacks at a security conference next month.

15:34 /Technology | 1 comment | permanent link

Worm grunting! Who'd have thunk it?

AP - Gary Revell gets up every morning before sunrise, heads into the woods and grunts. Not because it's so early. It's the term for coaxing worms from the ground by the hundreds to be scooped up and plopped in a tin can until he can sell them for fishing bait.

15:33 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Ya know, I'm completely unprepared. And I'm neither too poor to afford a converter box or too ignorant to know what one does. I simply don't care: we don't ever watch TV. The last time we had the TV tuned to a broadcast station was during the blizzard last February to check traffic conditions. I could've gotten the exact same info off the Net had I been so inclined. And I'm so pissed off over the Colts and the stadium tax they've imposed that I can no longer in good conscience watch football and support thieves.

So go digital, broadcast TV. I don't give a rat's ass.

In less than 24 hours all full-power broadcast TV stations in the U.S. will flip a switch to stop broadcasting their analog TV signals and will only broadcast TV signals in digital. And for millions who are unprepared, it could mean lights out on their favorite TV shows.

21:49 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Yeah, but we got better football players ...

With about 4,200 people participating in a US National Security Agency-supported international competition on everything from writing algorithms to designing components, 20 of the 70 finalists were from China, 10 from Russia, and 2 from the US. China's showing in the finals was helped by its large number of entrants, 894. India followed at 705, but none of its programmers was a finalist. Russia had 380 participants; the United States, 234; Poland, 214; Egypt, 145; and Ukraine, 128. Participants in the TopCoder Open was open to anyone, from student to professional; the contest proceeded through rounds of elimination that finished this month in Las Vegas. Rob Hughes, president and COO of TopCoder, says the strong finish by programmers from China, Russia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere is indicative of the importance those countries put on mathematics and science education. "We do the same thing with athletics here that they do with mathematics and science there."

06:54 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Well, as long as it don't include no pagans!:

GINGRICH: I am not a citizen of the world. I am a citizen of the United States because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator. [...] I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history. We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism.

Surrounded by pagans, eh? We should get so lucky. It's becoming patently obvious that the Republican Party has become naught but an oversized PAC for the Baptists, AoG and other assorted theocrats. It's obvious they don't want my vote, or my support, so by the gods, I'll make sure they get neither.

AP - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday urged some 2,000 Republican party loyalists to stand up for GOP principles but to be inclusive as the party tries to retake the majority.

08:05 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Perfect example of corporate welfare - I wonder how many billions are spent every year on largess for companies like Dell, as opposed to the "above board" expenses in the TARP funds and other overt bailouts? I'd wager it's considerably more ...

Residents of Lebanon, Tennessee are apparently none too happy with PC and server maker Dell.

07:48 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Talk about monoculture! I wonder if the authors thought about the phrase "beginning of the end" very carefully....

Clonal reproduction of crop species took a step closer to being realized with new research published in PLoS Biology this week. The advantage of clonal reproduction is that it produces an individual exactly like an existing one -- very useful for farmers who could replicate the best of their animals or crops without the lottery of sexual reproduction.

07:29 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link