Republican Congressman Vito Fossella is such a champion of family values, he decided to have two of his own.  He ran a red light when drunk the other evening, and could not recall the alphabet or that having the mother of his love child bail him out of jail might not be a bright idea.  I recall young Vito jumping up and down during the Clinton sex scandal and proclaiming that President Bush would restore family values to the White House.   Ah -  sweet Karma.

Vito's Congressional District includes Staten Island, Bensonhurst and ATW regular Phantom's own Bay Ridge Brooklyn.  He is the only Republican in the New York City delegation, and frankly stood out more for that statistic than any legislative abilities.  The district is fairly conservative, flush with hardworking Italian and Irish-Americans, and more than its share of firemen, police and government workers.   They might have let him slide on the DWI arrest (the actual only crime), but having apparently set up family number two down in the D.C. area while portraying himself as a conservative family man in Staten Island, Vito has become the Oddfather.

He is under pressure to resign, as the national party could do without a Congressman sitting in jail.  Virginia where he was arrested has thankfully passed strict DWI laws, and Vito may go to jail for a few days.  He should have gotten a Fredo to drive the car if he was going to hit the vino so hard.   Instead, he drove his own poltical career right off the track.  Vito had a three year old and apparently a longstanding lovenest that he stayed in.  A horses head may not appear in this Oddfather's story, but the horse's ass clearly did.  His wife appears to be ready to kick him out (Do it Mrs. Fossella, start a new trend of poltical wives who give the bum the rush he deserves).   Hanky Panky is of course a bipartisan failing as we just had a Democrat Governor who resigned after his high priced hookers came to light, and the replacement Democrat Governor AND his wife are admitted serial adulterers who patronize hotels with hourly rates.   Jaded are we as Yoda might say, but Vito had TWO FAMILIES going at the same time!  Where does he think he lives?  Texas?        

Crewe is perhaps best know for being the English town which has a formidable railway engineering heritage, and it looks like being the location where the wheels finally come of the NuLabour project when the by-election for the vacant seat formerly held by Gwyneth Dunwoody is held on the 22 May. Crewe is a rock solid Labour stronghold - but all the evidence suggests that the Conservatives will WIN it - so delivering a body blow to Labour.

You can read a report about what is happening amongst the electorate here.

I believe Labour are destined to lose this seat and this will deepen the mutterings about the wisdom of permitting the continuation of the Gordon Brown premiership. But I think that on balance the Party will cling on to poor dour Gordon, convinced that it would be just too risky to change him at this time. Plus there is no-one who offers a better alternative! David Miliband? Puh-lease. Ed Balls? - you have to be joking!  Labour are going down in 2010 - just as John Major's wretched Conservatives went down in 1997. There is no escape for them as the Nation turns its back and the final whistle is heard.

I see that the BBC faces fresh embarrassment after admitting that it failed to pass on £106,000 to charity from premium-rate telephone votes on more than 20 programmes, including last year's UK Eurovision final.

In the latest scandal to engulf the corporation, a "handful" of staff knowingly held back money from calls that should have gone to charitable organisations, including the BBC's Children in Need.  So, just for clarity, the BBC HELD ON TO CASH DUE TO CHARITY. In the case of Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up 2007, the BBC also admitted that viewers were wrongly encouraged to vote for a winner before phone lines had even opened. Although the error did not affect the result of the contest, with Scooch rightly being named as the group to represent the UK, the BBC has decided to hand over £6,000 to charity, which covers the cost of the ineligible calls. How kind of them.

I think these phone-in programmes are a scam, and I appreciate that the BBC is not the ONLY media organisation which has its fingerprints all over such fraud, but the BBC is the only media organisation which forces us to pay it money and which claims to operate to the highest possible ethical standards. Plainly, this is not so. 

First the awful reality.

In October last year, Mr Zommer and his wife Matgorzarta returned from a shopping trip to find their 14 year old daughter's semi-naked body on the bedroom floor. She had been murdered by a man called Michael Clark in a frenzied attack. He fractured her skull by stamping on her head, stabbed her and cut her throat. Clark had a criminal record for violence dating back 20 years. As I say, the poor girl was 14.

In 1991 Mr Clark had brutally raped a woman he met in a nightclub and was jailed for seven years; in 1996 he was jailed for an assault on two police officers; in 1998 he sexually assaulted a woman in front of her three-year-old son; and in 2004 he assaulted a prostitute.

Clark's request to to move 40 miles away from his home town of Scunthorpe  to Leeds was refused by officials but they forced to back down after representations from the homeless charity Shelter. The organisation warned the council it was breaking the law by not letting 40-year-old Clark, as a "homeless" person, jump to the top of the housing queue. His Human Rights would have been impnged.

So he was given the priority treatment requested , got what he wanted, and then he raped and killed i4 year old Zuzanna Zommer. I guess her right to life didn't quite trump Clark's human rights. The charity that shilled for him - Shelter - must feel very proud.

Some days I wonder why I write here - well THIS is why - to express my outrage and disgust at the way in which the innocent and defenceless are betrayed by our uncaring and perverted State. Clark should swing for his crime but this society cravenly refuses to act responsibly and take his life and so you can be sure that he will get out from prison again and when he does he will want to move to another area where he is unknown to locals. What if it were YOUR house he moved next to? What if YOU have a young daughter? This piece of scum has forfeited his right to life when he cruelly took young Zuzanna's. Let him dangle.

Let’s see….in the last quarter of 2007, in the USA,  there was  .6% growth, a low 5% unemployment rate, record low interest rates, and a vibrant stock market.  This is a recession?

From US News and World Report:

“Recession? Where? Looking back months from now, we may find that the economy grew 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, 1.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, and 2.5 percent (according to a model from Macroeconomic Advisers) in the second quarter. Now my buddy Barry Ritholtz over at the Big Picture blog has criticized me and economist Brian Wesbury and CNBC's Larry Kudlow for having the temerity to conclude that since the economy expanded in the first quarter—gross domestic product rose at a 0.6 percent annual pace, according to preliminary government estimates—that the economy, well, expanded in the first quarter. (FYI: That initial take may have underestimated first-quarter growth by half given today's economic data, which showed a closing of the U.S. trade gap.)”

The curious might like to know why the Democrat Presidential candidates are so adamant about the present existence of rough times in America:  imaginary bread lines, imaginary hurt.  

And, here’s the answer:  it’s about winning the Presidential election. The Democrats hope that they will be hired as change agents,  solutions to "the bad times."  As with Manmade Global Warming, Democrats offer Bigger and Better Government, solving problems that don't exist.

Hey liberals, just to show there are no hard feelings, this one's for you ....

This one is just for Fun I hope you Enjoy

I had a good chuckle at this nonsense written for the soaraway Newsletter today by IRA/Sinn Fein Education Gauleiter Caitriona Ruane aka The Ruanator. Here are the best bits..

" I have always said I am opposed to academic selection. Not because I am opposed to academic education, quite the opposite. We have many successes in our education system and I applaud these."

and then..

"After three years of post-primary education, at 14, the young person, in conjunction with parents, principals and careers advisors can decide which educational pathway they will follow – in much the same way as young people choose GCSEs now. This may be academic, vocational or both. For some children, this may involve a change of school, but this will be done on the basis of election not selection through testing."

Great nonsensical tripe from the Ruanator - but should she not stick to comedy and give up the pretence that she has the slightest clue about Education.

Hi folks! Wonder what you make of the tale of the man who spent 18 hours in police cell and has his DNA taken for the shocking crime of 'dropping an apple core'

Mr Hirst had just come out of the Post Office near his home in Swinton, Greater Manchester when he was accused of littering by a police community support officer. "I came out and started walking towards a chemist to get my wife a prescription," he said. "I got a tap on the shoulder and turned round. "There was a chap there in a fluorescent jacket, big sunglasses, and a baseball cap, on a bike, with a wad of tickets and a pen. He said 'Why did you drop that apple core?', and I told him I didn't drop an apple core. "He then said he wanted my name and address. "I told him I was on my way to the shops but would be walking back that way if he wanted to speak to me later."

The little pip-squeak community support officer is evidence of our rotten to the core set of policing priorities.

Happy Birthday Israel !

As Israel celebrates it's 60th Anniversary I raise my mug to toast the true jewel of the Middle East, God Bless you and may our armies keep you safe forever. Of course as I say this the Mad little Persian had his own wish for Israel.

Ahmadinejad: Israel is a 'stinking corpse' doomed to disappear

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday called Israel a "stinking corpse" which is doomed to disappear, as the state celebrated 60 years of independence.

"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

"Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation," he said.

Such a nice man the mad little Persian is.  As the summer gets ready to start the Iranian puppets Hamass and Hezbooha are already starting their war in Lebanon. Hezbooha took control of Muslim west Beirut on Friday, tightening its grip on the city in a major blow to the U.S.-backed government. The Civil War in Lebanon is being directed by Iran through Syria. The attacks from Gaza are being controlled by Iran through Hamass via orders through Syria. The Terrorists like the Al Qaueda chief that was captured yesterday in Iraq is Syrian, financed by Iran. The Czar Vladimir the first is bending over backwards to feed the mad persian whatever he needs to build his bomb. Not to mention that the Chi-Com backed wackjob in N Korea is also helping Iran build nuke weapons not only in Iran but in the desert of Syria also.

Yet the countries that the world worries about are Israel and The U.S. Happy Birthday Israel may your walls stand strong.

GORDON RAMSEY, the cook turned TV 'personality', wants the state to outlaw the use of out of season ingredients. Yes, really.

He said: "Chefs should be fined if they haven't got ingredients in season on their menu ..... "There should be stringent laws, fines and licensing laws to make sure produce is only used in season. If we get this legislation pushed through the Houses of Parliament then the more unique this country will become."

I'll stop here only to ask - what the hell is 'more' unique? As for the proposal and what it reveals about this odious creep, Perry de Havilland at Samizdata says puts it well enough:

The 'I am' does not want to see something and so wants his views be the force backed law of the land, the psychopathology of the expert that we so often see coming from doctors at work again. The great unwashed must be forced to follow expert opinion, which means their opinion, naturally.

I like the idea of third world farmers pulling themselves out of poverty and selling me their products whenever I want to buy them and why should a loud mouthed self important chief and a bunch of fascistic green activists get to have a say in that? Their craving to impose their will on others should stop being socially acceptable and they need to be called authoritarian thugs to their faces.

A TWENTY YEAR OLD MAN pleads guilty to meeting a child (she was 11 years of age) following sexual grooming, sexual assault of a child and attempted rape; the probation report read out in court assessed the accused as being "manipulative and predatory" and poses a "high risk of serious harm" to children by the probation service. Cue Judge Robert Atherton, who allowed the accused to walk free because the girl 'welcomed sex':

But Judge Robert Atherton rejected the probation report findings - saying the girl "welcomed" sexual activity which was not forced, was "inappropriately aware" of sex, and Dixon had not specifically sought out a child on the internet.

Lock up your daughters. If paedophiles can now cite the sexual awareness level of their targets, they'll all be walking. All of which anyway sweeps aside a perfectly simple legal concept. As the dumb one says:

 Not to hammer the point home, but the whole point of the age of consent is that below that age, the victim can't consent (the law isn't as complex as libs would have you believe). Judge Atherton hasn't conjured up a wacky interpretation of the law, he's completely ignored it.

ABU QATADA, a genuine threat to the lives of Britons, is no longer in the clink. His release on bail was ordered by the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal. Qatada applied for bail to the Tribunal on the ground that it was inhumane to detain him indefinitely if there was no prospect of his being deported. Hark at the liberals ullulating in north London today.

We know there's no prospect of Qatada being deported, since the judges said that Jordanians are liars and changed British foreign policy to suit. So we can't kick him out and can't detain him. What's to be done?

Once he has been released, the Jordanian father-of-five, can expect to receive £1,000 a month in benefit payments. The taxpayer will also face a bill of tens of thousands of pounds to keep the cleric under 24-hour watch.

I'm so glad I went to work today.

I suppose I should know that it would be sectarian of me to entitle a piece "An Irish Breakfast", since the Unionists here would complain it must be called an Ulster Fry.  However, a few too many cocktails last evening have resulted in your author being at less than at his best so I will be indulging in a traditional Irish Breakfast for lunch today in the hope that the heart attack on a plate will help me make it through the day. 

Our American readers might wonder what the heck I mean by an "Irish Breakfast" or an Ulster Fry.  In the Anglo-Irish world it is also known as a full breakfast, a fry, a fry up, and depending upon where one is, a regional name and small variation is added (The Scottish Breakfast, The Welsh Breakfast, The Great British Breakfast, the Full Irish Breakfast). 

I encountered this vegan nightmare on my first visit to the Emerald Isle.  Toast or fried bread, eggs, sausages, bacon, black pudding, white pudding, fried tomatoes, mushrooms, chips and baked beans.  All washed down with orange juice and copious amounts of tea.  The plate often presents the most immediate danger as it seems to be presented by various B & B hosts at the temperature of lava.  One's shakey hands after a night of Guinness and Whiskey consumption often come into contact with the plate, a painful mistake of unsuspecting tourist.  The damage to the heart and colestoral level takes a few more sittings.

It is custom to offer the guest eggs in any style they wish, so long as that style is sunny side up or over easy.  Scrambled egg orders are more common now and will meet resigned but not unhappy looks.  On the other hand a Yank tourist requesting the eggs be poached or the egg whites separted is a cultural faux pas on the level of shitting in a bidet (some French grievances are understandable).

The sausages are not hot or sweet like our Italian friends make.  And they are not the mammoth and varied phallic compensators the Germans munch upon while listening to Wagner and drinking their beer.  These sausages are tasty, and easy to digest.  The bacon is not in the thin American strip tradtion, but thicker, and called rashers.  Calling bacon rashers is one of those charming devilish things they insist on doing, like calling elevators lifts and gas petrol, just so they can pretend they aren't wholly consumed by our culture.

BNP households probably only have white pudding and exclude black pudding, but the average tourist will encounter both.  Yanks with delicate stomachs should go ahead and eat without asking, as neither is pudding in the dessert sense.   Black pudding is a blood pudding made priamrily with pig or cattle blood and cooked with a filler until it is congealed.  White pudding lacks the blood and contains pork meat, fat, suet, bread and oatmeal.  The two puddings are usually served in minature hockey puck style, two of each to a plate. 

The Baked beans, I prefer Batchelor's to Heinz, are perhaps the primary cause of the Anglo-Irish contribution to man made global warming.  I've found that a short walk in one of Ireland's many fields after the Irish breakfast is healthy and socially considerate, so that one avoids releasing wind in the small rental vehicles where one's travelling companions have little opportunity to safely exit.  Driving on the wrong side of the road is danger enough. 

I leave to the experts to discuss the Southern Boxty or the Northern form of Soda Bread.  Either will suit me and each is permissible now since the Good Morning Agreement was signed in Belfast.  I am off to my lunch and recovery.   There is a midtown hotel that does a fairly good one, and happens to have a snug little pub adjoining the dining area.  Hope you all enjoy your day.          

Did you read that Austrian deviant Josef Fritzl has made an astonishing plea for understanding from his cell yesterday, denying that he was a monster. The Austrian, who locked up his daughter in his cellar for 24 years and subjected her to repeated rapes, claimed he had been unfairly represented by the police and the media. Unbelievably, Fritzi is alleged to have claimed that he deserves more credit for not killing his daughters, rather than just imprisoning them for decades and raping them.

Two points.

1. Evil is real and this man embodies it.

2. Execution seems the only apt punishment for this depraved fiend. My heart goes out to his poor daughters - what an awful thing for a FATHER to treat his own children so abominably! 

We all know that this lousy Government pays lip-service to our national security and nowhere is this more evident than in the news that thousands of foreigners are being allowed to work in high security parts of Britain's airports without passing proper criminal record checks. Despite warnings that terrorists would try to recruit people working "airside" in terminals – with direct access to aircraft and baggage – no attempt has been made to check whether foreign workers have committed any offences abroad. The vetting process checks only for crimes committed in Britain. Foreign workers – arriving from inside or outside the European Union – are not checked in their country of origin. What this means is that a foreign person with a firearms or explosives conviction can work in the most sensitive parts of British airports. So, no reason for a fear of flying...the government is control.

In what one way, you could look upon this as good news.

Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published today suggests.

The fall - from the four million people who attend church at least once a month today - means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable. A lack of funds from the collection plate to support the Christian infrastructure, including church upkeep and ministers’ pay and pensions, will force church closures as ageing congregations die.

In contrast, the number of actively religious Muslims will have increased from about one million today to 1.96 million in 2035. The number of actively church going Christians will decline to 899,000. Islam becomes the faith of choice in the UK. 

Why might this be a good thing? Well, because the established Churches are more about themselves than about Christ. They have abandoned much of the Christian gospel and so deserve to die - with the Anglican Church as the worst offender. Christianity is about much more than going along to a whitened sepulchre each week and so perhaps it is a good thing that these former shrines to Christ are allowed to run empty.

The problem of course is NOT the decline of these established Churches, but the decline of faith itself. THAT is the key issue for me. It is said when people stop believing in God they start believing in anything. But with the rise of Islam, that may be a little luxury denied to them. As a nation, Britain has turned its collective back on God, and so who can be surprised that we wallow in degeneracy?