If one wants to comprehend the state of the Republican Party in the United States, one need only turn on reality television.  The former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay will be appearing on “Dancing With The Stars”.  

The former Texas Congressman was compelled to leave his position due to an inability to dance around certain ethical issues in Congress.   Rather than return to his original occupation in pest control he joined a Right Wing Belief Tank in Washington, D.C.  Who knew he was only marking time until his Gotta Dance moment? 

I will be rooting for him.  On the dance floor he will certainly do less harm than on the floor on Congress.  His strange and fixed facial expression (of a man who has just realized he sat on a plate of syrup) will be more comforting in a dance contestant than in a national leader.  No doubt listening to him discuss tempo, costume selection and dance routine will be more enjoyable than listening to him complain about the poor.  Plus, if he turns out to be more Fred Astaire than Fred Thompson he may finally get the call in and text in votes of a grateful nation that would be denied him in the political arena.  Always a politician who sought division he can at long last unite the country – at least in common ridicule.

Hold us closer Tommy Dancer! 

We are advised that the total number of registered voters in Nad-E-Ali, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, amount to 48,000.

The actual number of votes cast in the main polling station for the Presidential Election was less than 150, and in other areas either a grand total of ONE, or Twenty votes in a late surge!

These votes were counted as being cast despite the Election Monitoring Group fearing to travel to the area, stating that it was too dangerous.

Election officials were seen collating piles of ‘votes’ for Karzai, despite no voters ever coming near the polling booths.

Voting turnout for Helmand is estimated as less than 5%!

The total number of dead British soldiers, not just badly-wounded, amounts to 206.

So every vote cast in the main Panther’s Claw security blanket was worthy just over 1.25 British lives!

The question is, are we getting value for the blood spilt on the desert sands?

Lest we forget. Via Eu Referendum.

Did you read read that former UK Deputy Prime Minister John “Two Jags” Prescott has come out and said that he SUPPORTS the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber?

Asked by Sky’s Eamon Holmes if he had any objection to the decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi, Mr Prescott said: “No I don’t have any objection.”If the man is dying, if compassion is passed as it is in the Scottish administration, and the medical authorities then gave proof to that effect as they did, then it’s a decision for their legal authority. You know Scotland has always had a great deal more independence in its legal authority going back many years so we have to respect that decision and I do.”

Not too much compassion for all those consumed in the flames at Lockerbie, eh? Prescott is perhaps ther most stupid Labour politician of recent times and it was inevitable that he felt obliged to rise to the challenge of supporting the release of the Libyan convict. As a final point, IF the threat of dying is reason for compassion to be exercised, how many other mass murderers shall we release? And what constitutes the assessment of likely death, and who decides, and on what basis does this mean that justice can be set aside?

Scotland’s concept of justice has become an international laughing stock because of this shameful decision and so who better than John Prescott to support it?

Well, I did suggest this would happen and so it has proven.

Democrats are hoping that the memory of Sen. Ted Kennedy will revive the Democratic Party’s flagging push for health care reform. “You’ve heard of ‘win one for the Gipper’? There is going to be an atmosphere of ‘win one for Teddy,’” Ralph G. Neas, the CEO of the liberal National Coalition on Health Care, told ABC News.

There is nothing like political opportunism, is there? Not so much win won for Teddy, more destroy one for Teddy. Yes – Teddy’s final gift – the destruction of America’s current healthcare system and it’s replacement by socialist Obamacare. He just keeps on giving…. 

I can remember the news even though it happened 30 years ago today. It was a moment of triumph for the IRA.

One of the darkest days of Northern Ireland’s Troubles will be remembered today — the IRA murder of the Queen’s cousin Lord Mountbatten with a bomb on his fishing boat off the west coast of Ireland, swiftly followed by the slaughter of 18 soldiers.

On August 27 1979, the IRA detonated a bomb on Lord Mountbatten’s boat Shadow V which had just set off from the fishing village of Mullaghmore in Co Sligo.It was where the 79-year-old Earl traditionally spent a family summer holiday at their Classiebawn Castle, previously untroubled despite the ongoing violence across the border.One of Mountbatten’s twin grandsons, Nicholas (14), as well as local teenager Paul Maxwell (15), also died in the blast. The Dowager Lady Brabourne (83) died later from her injuries.

I guess slaughtering young Nicholas and Paul was fair enough if it meant killing a 79year old man. Oh what joy for the Provo scum.

But hey – they were bust that day and more was to come..

While the news was still reverberating around the world, the IRA detonated two 800lb bombs beside Narrow Water Castle at Warrenpoint, Co Down.The first explosion killed 16 members of the Parachute Regiment, the second, two members of the Queen’s Own Highlanders who had been sent to the scene.

I used to pass that section of road and wondered at the unimaginable carnage that took place that day – all carefully constructed by Ireland’s finest.

The body parts were collected in bags. Young men blown to pieces – a great IRA victory.

Thirty years on – where are we? Well, the IRA murderers got out of jail for their crimes. The IRA leaders now sit in government. The dead are mostly forgotten – just blurs on some personal memories.

We live in an era which rewards killers and some claim it is a noble peace. It is not. It is a tawdry and tatty appeasement process of republican monsters by verminous politicians. As I wrote in my book, Unionism Decayed, good cannot flow from rewarding evil and the events that happened on this day 30 years ago should still send a chill down the spine of anyone who cares about justice.

About time too.

Two million town hall staff could have their gold-plated pensions slashed to plug a massive budget shortfall. 

 

Ministers are considering stripping council workers of final-salary pension schemes.

Doctors, nurses and teachers may also see their pension schemes scaled back as the public-sector burden becomes unaffordable, with the elderly living longer and pension funds being hit by the economic crisis.

This is inevitable but I wonder if the Conservatives will find the guts to do it? Labour won’t since it would impact on their core vote (along with the workshy) I am sure many of us who operate in the wealth-creating sector and who are punished financially by government for having the temerity to do so look on aghast as the public sector luxuriates in pension provision that we can only but dream off. It’s time that the State sector paid its own way and THAT means breaking up the cash bonanza it is gifted care of crucifying the private sector.

WHY should the jobsworths in local Councils, and local schools and hospitals get to retire early, and on final salary – when the rest of us will have to work even longer just to fund THEIR indulgence from the all powerful (but now bankrupt) State? No, this has to end and public finances will force it even if the political class would prefer to look the other way. Can you IMAGINE how the Unions will squeal if this action takes place? I can’t wait. 

Socialised healthcare – what a great idea! Everyone gets treated and it is free! All a liberal fantasy, of course, and when we examine it – in the cold light of day – all is far from being well.

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today

I am shocked. JUST a million?

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with ‘neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel’ treatment.The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.

Let’s face a few home truths. The NHS contains many people who are committed to providing patients with great care and we should be grateful to them. But there are others who are lazy, uncaring, incompetent and disinterested in the patients that they deal with. The vast bureuacracy that runs the NHS is also impassive, concerned with itself, not those it is tasked to help. The NHS concept is outdated and costs way too much for far too little. We need to make quite a few changes;

1. Remove the deadhand of politicians from setting priorities.

2. Make it accountable to patients.

3. Involve the private sector as much as possible and find effective ways to get the very best for those who seek to use the services on offer.

4. Get rid of the vast army of bureaucrats who offer nothing but a drain of resources.

Thoughts?

Flying home from London this evening, we were informed by the airline that visitors entering Northern Ireland should pick up a government produced leaflet on Swine Flu when they arrive and — get this — keep it with them at all times when in Northern Ireland. Why? To blow their nose with? What a pointless waste of taxpayers money!

An internal report has been published regarding the effectiveness of the P.S.N.I., it’s 9-5 attitude and the fact that it does not provide an “effective 24-hour policing service” because officers are not deployed when and where needed.

Chris Patten, the man who emasculated the R.U.C. and in doing so deprived this nation of one of the most effective law-enforcement bodies ever to have existed, must be really pleased!

Apart from having bombers and killers on the Police Board, the crowd on the streets can’t even be trusted to tie their laces correctly!