Quote Of The Day.

Gordon Brown is asked by an interviewer whether it was a mistake to promise an end to "Boom & Bust":

'I actually said, 'No more Tory boom and bust,'

Can we shoot him now?

Voters Reward The Perps.

Every so often there is a story about a firefighter or wannabe fire fighter getting caught committing arson so that he can be the hero putting it out. This is much like giving Gordon Brown credit for trying to resolve the financial crisis that he caused, but that is seemingly what voters are doing.

The effect shouldn't be exageratted, Labour's standing in the polls has merely been upgraded from "catestrophic" to "dire", but even so this crisis does appear to be helping the left, both here and abroad as Daniel Hannan notes:

No one said politics was fair. Strikes always hurt Labour, however much Labour condemns them. City bonuses always hurt the Tories, even when the Tories are in Opposition. In the current climate, what people see are fat-cat bankers being bailed out by hard-pressed taxpayers. And, instead of objecting to the bail-out, they object to the bankers and, by extension, to the free market culture they are thought to embody. The world over, Left-of-Centre parties are benefiting: Obama in the US, Brown here.

The paradox is that what Britain most needs at the moment is to cut spending and cut taxes. In retrospect, we can see that the massive extension of the federal government during the Great Depression served to prolong the slump. (Why the court-packing, four-term Roosevelt is so kindly treated by history remains a mystery to me.) Sadly, we seem about to repeat FDR's errors, engorging the state and mortgaging its citizens in order to socialise the financial system.

Similar effects are occuring in Canada and New Zealand, where right of centre parties that were heading for big wins now look like having to settle for just getting across the line in first place.

The crisis has made Obama the big favourite in the US election and there is a danger that a combination of an left wing President Obama, a Democratic congress, a sycophantic media and a financial crisis could enact legislation that will harm the US and world economies for decades to come as any disasters that they inflict on the world economy will be blamed on the legacy of the current crisis.

Has Prince Philip Been To Austria Recently?

Austria's far right* leader Jorg Haider has been killed in a car crash, just weeks after his success in Austrian elections. Whilst a conspiracy theory is unlikely the timing of his death makes them inevitable as others have already noted.

As I understand it, poisonous personal relations between Jorg Haider and the leader of Austria's other party of a similar outlook made it very difficult for them both to enter a coalition together so that is one obvious beneficiary right there.


* I don't like the term "far right" as I consider fascism to be a cult of the far left, but am using the term because it is widely understood. The Freedom Party used to belong to the same international grouping as Britain's Liberal Democrats amusingly enough.

And The Winner Is.....

The "Biggest Twat" contest is now closed, and the victor with more than 50% of the vote is Sion Simon who beat his fellow minister Quentin Davies into the number two slot, so to speak.

Right Wing Myths Bunked!

I'm assuming that bunked is the opposite of debunked, you know how the left always complain about the tabloid myth of immigrants being given really big houses and benefits in return for sod all?:

A FAMILY living on benefits in a £1.2 million house in west London told today how they felt they had won the lottery.

Mother-of-seven Toorpakai Saindi gets £170,000 a year in benefits and the council pays the property's private landlord £12,500 a month to accommodate the family who fled Afghanistan seven years ago.

The house in Acton has seven bedrooms, two reception rooms, a dining room and two kitchens, as well as an extensive back garden.

Mrs Saindi's son, Jawad, 20, told the Standard: "If someone gave you a lottery ticket would you leave it? No. You take what you get given.

It should be pointed out that the fault is almost entirely with the law and the council rather than the family. Of course pointing this out means that you are "Playing into the hands of the BNP". Similarly do you remember the right wing myth about the welfare state punishing marriage and rewarding single parenthood? Well that happens too:

Jacqueline Maxwell, 42, of Lakeglen Park, claimed income support totalling £51,037 while failing to declare she was living with a partner.

As other reports make clear she is a mother of three. Whilst her fraud is the newsworthy aspect to the case, the fact that the benefit system rewards her for remaining a single mother is the more interesting point.

{via}

Is Putin Gay?

I saw Vladimir Putin on the ITV news grappling with a fit young man supposedly practiscing Judo. This is the latest in a long line of publicity stunts by the Russian dictator that seek to make him appear more manly.

• Shooting a tiger, with a TV crew coincidentally on hand to capture the moment.
• Being photographed strolling around bare chested on holiday.
• Having rumours spread that he is going out with a much younger woman.

I can think of two possible reasons for this, as a short, slightly built, middle aged man who has only ever worked as a bureaucrat he is desperate to appear more like action man or secondly he is in the closet. When you combine the rather desperate attempts to be more masculine with other aspects of his life, such as:

• his membership of the KGB (MI-6 famously attracted a lot of homosexuals so I'd guess the same dynamic is true for the KGB).
• Surrounding himself with young male advisers, including the Ken doll lookalike who succeeded him as president.
• Holidaying with Prince Albert of Monaco, who is widely rumoured to be gay.

I'm not saying he definitely is gay and it doesn't bother me if he is, although being a mass murdering dictator does bother me, but it explains a lot. It might also be why he doesn't want a free press to operate in Russia.

Update : In the comments Alison points to Vladimir's rather flamboyant aesthetic tastes. It's very Elton John like.

I Blame Kerry Katona

Iceland is on the verge of going bust. If only they had stipulated in Kerry Katona's contract that she must buy all her family's food from them thenthey would be alright. Let's suppose she were to spend £2 per child per day on food, this would be £730 a year, multiply that by the number of kids and Iceland's $4 billion debt would be paid back in no time.

The Curse Of Brown Finds Another Victim

So Peter Mandelson makes up with Gordon Brown after a 15 year feud, and is then struck down by kidney stones the moment he starts his new job. Does anyone still doubt the awesome and terrible powers of Jonah Brown?

Sorry Mrs Blakelock, Your Husband Has Been Attending An Uprising.

Marc Wadsworth writes at Comment is Free about some fringe political movement he was involved with in the 1980s:

None of the movement's achievements would have been possible without protest and agitation. The uprisings that occurred in the early 1980s in Brixton, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and elsewhere acted as a wake-up call to a society that was either indifferent or hostile to the demands of disenfranchised and disadvantaged black people.

"Uprisings", nice!

I must remember that word the next time I want to excuse racially inspired violence.

Update: Wadsworth also says:

Furthermore, racial inequality in education, employment and the justice system still exists.

This is very true, the hindu, chinese & sikh cimmunities are all far less likely to unqualified, unemployed or in prison. Go and let Wadsworth know what you think about him.

Twat Competition!

The return of Peter Mandelson to the government has overshadowed the fact that other equally risible figures have been promoted in Gordon's barrel scraping re-shuffle. The question though is who is the biggest twat to join the government? Either vote in the poll which will be up until Friday or leave a comment. The contenders are:

• Chris Bryant, the new deputy leader of the Commons, previously best known for sending around a photograph of himself in his Y-Fronts.
• Quentin Davies, Tory traitor and all round figure of fun who jumped ship during Gordon Brown's honeymoon period when it looked like he was joining a winning team. Previously best known for having been convicted of cruelty to sheep (seriously).
• Sion Simon, Labour traitor who was part of the coup that forced Blair out in the belief that Brown would lead them to victory. Most notable for his cringe inducing attempts at satire and arrogantly declaring that Labour were going to rule for a generation.
  

Maggie! Maggie! Maggie! Out! Out! Out!

Over at CiF, Robert Reiner uncovers the person who is really responsible for Ian Blair's downfall.

So yet another thing to thank the Iron Lady for.

'The prime culprit is the neoliberalism launched by Reaganomics and Thatcherism. This generated enormous criminogenic pressures, because of the social tsunami flowing from unemployment and inequality, and the egoistic amoral culture with which it went hand-in-hand: economic and moral laissez-faire'.

??????

What Part Of "Free Speech" Don't They Understand?

I don't usually like defending Liberal Democrat spokesmen but this headline on the BBC website about Chris Huhne is utterly misleading:

Holocaust denier gets MP backing

Obviously if he backed a Holocaust denier then he would be unfit for office, but of course that is not what he has done, he has simply made it clear that he regards free speech as being for everyone even if you disagree with them.

The story is about the Holocaust denier, Gerald Toben, who has been arrested on an European arrest warrant in order to be extradited to Germany to stand trial for holocaust denial. Whilst I do not approve of Germany's laws regarding Holocaust denial I can understand why they have them, but Toben's didn't go to Germany to spread his lies, he did so online from his website in Australia. It is outrageous that Germany is trying to impose its restrictions on free speech against everyone else.

It goes without saying that the colossal self pity of Toben is hypocritical considering that he is an apologist for a far, far greater level of persecution than this mere inconvenience as this son of a Holocaust survivor wryly notes.

Half Assed Theory Of The Day.

There is an old saw that the taller candidate always wins the US election. It isn't quite true although there is a strong positive correlation, and the average height of US presidents is comfortably more than of the average US man, which is remarkable when you consider that the office began in the 18th century when the average height would have been considerably less than it is today.

Anyway this got me thinking, do presidential candidates always choose running mates shorter than themselves? This time around Obama is 6'1 and Biden 6'0, McCain like a lot of fighter pilots isn't very tall at just 5'6 or 5'7, which would have made it tricky to find a shorter male running mate but Sarah Palin is shorter even in heels (despite being a college basketball player). Using the internet to look up the height of past candidates gives the following results:

John Kerry 6'5
John Edwards's 5'10

George W Bush 5'11
Dick Cheney's 5'6

Al Gore- 6'1
Joe Lieberman- 5'9

Bill Clinton- 6'2
Al Gore- 6'1

Bob Dole- 6'0
Jack Kemp- 6'0

George H.W. Bush- 6'2
Dan Quayle- 6'0

Michael Dukakis- 5'8
Lloyd Bentsen- 6'1

So since Dukakis back in 1988 the pattern holds pretty strong with eight consecutive tickets having a taller Presidential candidate. The likelyhood of this happening by chance are about 1 in 256. George H. W. Bush was an inch taller than Ronald Reagan to make him the last sitting veep taller than his President. What does this demonstrate? No idea, perhaps that presidential candidates are terribly insecure or are aware of the old trope described earlier.

This appears to be a particularly American thing, in Europe the vertically challenged have had fewer problems attaining the er heights of political office with the likes of Nicholas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin all currently in office despite being about the same height as McCain.

Oh Mandy!

Peter Mandelson's only been sacked from the cabinet for corruption twice so far, so he deserves another chance. Even Joey Barton would struggle to get as many "second chances" as Mandy.

Chief Commissioner Clouseau Steps Down.

New Labour place man Ian Blair has stood down (ie. been kicked out) as Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. About time too, he should never have been appointed.

What worries me though is whether there is an adequate replacement in the ranks of the MacPhersonised police.

Update: Comment is Free is a laugh riot with a number of eulogies for this very political policeman.

Damn You Skippy!

I've been shocked to see the rise of extremist parties in the recent Austrian elections, so much so that I've decided to boycott Castlemaine XXXX, Neighbours and Vegemite.

Crime & No Punishment.

I can see the purpose of open prisons, if certain inmates who aren't dangerous and are content to serve their time can be held with a minimum of security then it is a good way to save money. Obviously they should not be used for prisoners with a known history of violence and absconding. Well it's obvious to me and any sentient being I've ever met, but not to the custodians of our criminal justice system:

Robert Foye, 29, beat and restrained his 16-year-old victim before raping her after being allowed out of Castle Huntly open prison last year to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, in spite of a history of flouting prison discipline and escaping.

.......

Foye was convicted in 2002 of the attempted murder of a police officer and sentenced to nine and a half years. Three years later he in was in the open prison. Lady Smith was told two police forces were trying to track him down last August after he failed to return from his day out.

The court was told yesterday that Foye had spent only two months outside prison since 1996, having notched up 25 convictions as an adult.

They decided that being in an open prison didn't give him enough opportunity to escape so they sent him out on day trips! There is no mention in the article of who was responsible for letting a dangerous criminal out and I doubt those responsible for enabling him to rape the girl will suffer any consequences whatsoever.

Two minor points that occur to me are, if someone is in prison shouldn't he be unable to get any alcohol, thus rendering the AA meetings unnecessary? Secondly shouldn't attempted police killers be serving more than nine and a half years, which for a prisoner more disciplined than Foye means about 4 or 5 years?

The Obama Youth.

(via ATW)




Update: Aaaaagh, they've removed it. For the benefit of those who hadn't seen it, it was a video of children, in an affluent liberal city, who had literally been taught to sing songs of praise about Obama. "Obama's gonna save us" is a sample lyric.

Update 2: It may have been removed but the video is described here:

The video was promoted on Obama's presidential website in an August 20 post. "What the children and a few adults accomplished in a few hours on a Sunday afternoon embodies the nature of the Obama campaign: its grassroots inspiration, its inclusiveness, its community building," Obama's campaign site said of the video.

The song begins with a young girl singing alone, "We’re gonna spread happiness/ We’re gonna spread freedom/Obama’s gonna achange it/Obama’s gonna lead ‘em/We’re gonna change it/And rearrange it/We’re gonna change the world."

The other children then join in, chanting Obama's campaign mantra "Yes, we can, yes, we can."

Update 3: Rejoice, the video is back up, as is Reason TV's own version: