Mitt has the temperament, the intelligence, the decency and the drive to be POTUS.  And he doesn't lie about a fellow Republican opponent on the eve of an election as McCain did the other day in Florida.   I agree with Dan Riehl -  "competence, class and a life well led":

"Mitt Romney is the only candidate on the Republican side capable of truly uniting the base and going on to win in the Fall. I support him for his competence, class and, yes, his consistency over a life well led, much of it not on the public dime, or planning and plotting inside a failed Washington as to how he, but not genuinely conservative principles, can move ahead.

I strongly encourage my conservative friends  and colleagues to rally behind Mitt Romney for the very hard fight just up ahead. We are fighting an establishment just as short-sighted, as it has been corrupt.

Whether it's helping to raise money, make phone calls, or get out the vote, Mitt Romney as the last man standing anyone can honestly call a loyal conservative needs our help. Win, or lose in the Fall, if Romney doesn't get our support and the Republican nod, conservatives will be left homeless under McCain. No president has not reverted to being himself once in office. The Party will be over, as it were. And as we don't support government subsidies, a boot-strap re-building on our own will cost conservatism much. Yet, we must prepare for that eventuality, too - should it emerge. That fate for conservatives and the Republican Party can be avoided. It is not too late."

Keep up the good work, boys. In fact, try and get a lot more practice.

A suspected U.S. missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region this week had targeted second or third tier al Qaeda leaders, according to residents in the tribal area.

Initial reports said 10 people were killed in the attack on Monday on a house in Torkhali village near the town of Mir Ali.

An intelligence official, however, told Reuters on Thursday that based on information gleaned from tribal contacts there were seven Arabs and six Central Asians killed.

He said the attack was believed to have been carried out by a pilotless U.S. Predator aircraft flown across the nearby border with Afghanistan.

"The missile appeared to have been fired by a drone," the intelligence official said.

The Pakistani authorities have not confirmed the attack, and the Pentagon has denied taking any action, but the Defense Department does not speak for the Central Intelligence Agency, which operates Predators that the tribesmen say carried out the attack late on Monday.

Tribesmen in the area said a deputy of Abu Laith al Libi, a senior al Qaeda leader, had been staying there and was among the dead, according to the intelligence official.

"The latest information we have from the area is that a second-in-command to al Libi was among those killed," he said.

A leading Pakistani daily, The News, reported that the strike had targeted Libi and another senior figure, Obaidah al Masri, though neither was present at the time of the attack according to a senior Taliban commander quoted by the newspaper.

Libi and Masri were promoted up the al Qaeda ranks due to successful U.S. and Pakistani operations in the past to catch or kill the guerrilla network's second tier leaders.

Cross-posted from JWF. 

What could be more normal that a primary school teacher referring to "Mum and Dad" in the class-room?

PLENTY, it seems.

You see the Government now believes that teachers should not assume that their pupils have a "mum and dad" under guidance aimed at tackling anti-gay bullying in schools. It says primary pupils as young as four should be familiarised with the idea of same-sex couples to help combat homophobic attitudes. Teachers should attempt to avoid assumptions that pupils will have a conventional family background, it urges. It goes on to suggest the word "parents" may be more appropriate than "mum and dad", particularly in letters and emails to the child's home. Teachers should avoid telling boys to "be a man" or accuse them of behaving like a "bunch of women". When discussing marriage with secondary pupils, teachers should also educate pupils about civil partnerships and gay adoption rights.

I'm sorry but this is just sick. This is the Stonewall gay rights group having its own extreme views accepted by Government and now to be propagandised in the primary school class-room. I am fed up with these gay rights supremacists wanting to make their own agenda legitimised, even to kids as young as four! Aren't you? 

Repulican Presidential nominee, John McCain, is not a Conservative.

Did anyone else watch the debates on CNN last night?  McCain, in the Reagan Library (of all places). sat next to Romney and bashed free enterprise. Unbelievable.  He called people on the lending side of the housing market “greedy.” He dissed profit making over patriotism.  And he provided an insultingly oversimplified definition of a CEO as one who buys, sells, and lays off people.  

Where does he think all of the money to  pay for Senate salaries and benefit packages comes from, anyway?  And doesn’t he realize that he speaking to the Conservative base, in the Reagan Library?  Does he have a screw coming lose in his brain?

Don’t believe me? Think I’m just partisan? Here are the  quotes:

1. McCain: “I think that we’ve got to return to the principle that you don’t lend money that can’t pay it back. I think that there’s some greedy people on Wall Street that perhaps need to be punished.”

2.    CNN: "I want to start with Senator McCain.    There’s been a lot of discussion lately about the importance of leadership and management experience. What makes you more qualified than Mitt Romney, a successful CEO and businessman, to manage our economy?"
      MCCAIN: "Because I know how to lead. I know how to lead.  I led the largest squadron in the United States Navy. And I did it out of patriotism, not for profit."

3.  CNN: "I’m going to ask you all for follow-ups on this, but, Senator McCain, I just want to give you an opportunity to follow up on that. Is Governor Romney ready to be a military commander?"
     MCCAIN: "I think he managed companies, and he bought, and he sold, and sometimes people lost their jobs. That’s the nature of that business."

This man is not a conservative.  Not with a capital “C, ” and not with a small “c.”

First, the background.

It is widely understood that an IRA gang  brutally beat 21 year old Paul Quinn to death last year. Mr Quinn's family believe the IRA did it. Up to a dozen Provos lured Paul Quinn to a barn, went about him with crow-bars, and broke every bone in his body. Quinn had apparently had an argument or two with some local IRA figures. Oddly enough, the police have been unable to make any progress in determining who carried out this killing and there is little doubt that it would cause HUGE political embarrassement should it become public knowledge that the IRA is still murdering, even as it's delegates sit in power with the DUP and peace is proclaimed.

I now see that IRA/Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy has refused to withdraw an allegation that Paul Quinn was involved in criminality. Murphy  has claimed Mr Quinn's murder was linked to a feud among criminals. His family has said they will not speak to Sinn Fein until this claim is withdrawn. Speaking on Radio Ulster yesterday, Mr Murphy said he stood over the allegation that Mr Quinn's death had been linked to criminality.I can say that I made my analysis on what happened here honestly on the information which was available to me at the time - I have been consistent in that analysis,"

Just a few points.

One, honesty is not a term applicable to IRA/Sinn Fein comment

Second, since when does a Sinn Fein MP have the authority to declare who is a criminal, and on what evidence? I can say with authority that Mr Murphy has a track record of being an IRA terrorist and was convicted of his crimes. I am unsure as to what date he terminated his membership of this illegal terror gang. The idea that a person of his pedigree can blacken the reputation of those murdered by the IRA is sickening.

The media here in the UK are exultant. John McCain is going to secure the Republican nomination for the Presidential election, or so they believe. Yesterday we had Rudy Giuliana endorse McCain. Today we have the news that Ah-nuld Schwarzeneggar will also be endorsing him. In other words, the RINOl wing of the Republican Party is sliding towards McCain which will mean two things;

1. If by any chance McCain was to win, a dripping wet Liberal would be in the White House.

2. If the GOP base does not turn out to support McCain, and I am certain it will not, the Dem's have a shoe-in to the White House.

Above all else. the msm wants a liberal in the White House. The only guy that could upset this is Mitt Romney and if you notice, he is all but ignored by the UK media. All the excitement is about whether or not it will be Hillary or Obama, and whether or not they will be able to triumph over nice Mr McCain and his liberal policies.

It's a win-win for the left and they KNOW it. But why should those of us on the right accept this? When all those media institutions which are IMPLACABLE enemies of conservatism cheer lead for John McCain, as the New York Times has done most recently, switched on Republicans know that this is a clear signal that McCain should not be granted their trust. He will not win it so he cannot win. And folks - that is exactly what drives MSM enthusiams for his candidacy.

Given that there is a general consensus that it is best for all parties if young Muslims fully integrate into our society, I wonder what your reaction is to the news that UK private Muslim schools have been given the power to police themselves. 

In a controversial move, they have won the right to appoint their own Ofsted-style inspectors. A new independent watchdog has been set up to be more "sensitive'' toward Islamic education. The decision comes despite concerns some private Muslim schools are already failing to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain. Barry Sheerman, the chairman of the Commons schools select committee, told MPs last month local councils were finding it "difficult to know what is going on in some faith schools - particularly Muslim schools". But religious leaders defended the move, saying the curriculum and religious traditions in faith schools demand specialist knowledge.

This is pathetic stuff. It shows that their is little will amongst the political class to ensure that Muslim schools are providing an education process which is compatible with the values of our society. This is an opt-out and another victory for Islam in the UK. It is also a betrayal of these young Muslim kids.

We keep being told by Islamic apologists that Sharia law is much misunderstood by us infidels and that it is in fact a very enlightened form of justice. As you know there is an active Islamic lobby that would wish to see Shar'ia law implemented in the UK. In some areas it already operates at low level.

So - wonder what you make of the news that  a young man, a student of journalism, has been sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohammed. Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter.

Leaving aside the inherent anti-US bias in this report in the Independent, surely it is just one more instance of how Islamic law and modern democracies are entirely incompatible? Can you imagine how Shar'ia law would roll back every form of liberal values imaginable. I imagine the Graham Norton Show would struggle to get to air, don't you? And yet, oddly enough, many western liberals appear content to run with the idea of tolerating Sharis law! Is it because their uberliberalism has stopped them from seeing that Shar'ia is a threat to us all, but most particularly, to them? 

Gee, the hopes were so high, yet now it's all coming unraveled.

Must be the after-effects of the neo-McCarthyite plot.

Apparently, only the Democrats take these people seriously.

Al-Jazeera's troubled English language news channel is facing a "serious staffing crisis" after scores of journalists left or have not had contracts renewed amid claims of a revolt over working conditions.

Staff at the Doha-based 24-hour news channel - which only reached its first birthday in November - have told MediaGuardian.co.uk of a series of issues including the removal of benefits and a lack of pay rises which have led many to resign or look to leave.

The staff unrest comes amid speculation that al-Jazeera English is set to relaunch in the second quarter of this year with new schedules and new studios in Gaza and Nairobi.

According to insiders, resignations have occurred across the board, including the director of human resources, the director of operations, producers, senior camera operators and editors.

One source said that the general belief among staff was that the English language rolling news service "cost so much to set up that they are now cutting costs at the expense of quality and quantity".

There are also renewed reports of tensions between al-Jazeera's Arabic language channel, which has been on air since 1996, and the more recently launched English outlet.

Sources have added that executives on the main Arabic al-Jazeera network are trying to exert more control over the English language outlet, which is mainly staffed by western journalists.

One source said the al-Jazeera editor-in-chief, Ibrahim Hilal, was pushing for the English channel to take a more Islamic slant, quoting the example of the recent furore surrounding British teacher Gillian Gibbons who was arrested in Sudan for allowing her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

"He [Hilal] sent an email banning the story from being run on al-Jazeera English because it would upset Muslims," the source added. "It was only covered when there were riots in Sudan."

Al-Jazeera is also embroiled in two employment disputes, including one in London with the former al-Jazeera English head of planning, Jo Burgin, who is claiming sex, race and religious discrimination.

Sources have said that the Washington-based former financial controller Clive Brady is also taking legal action in the US after being dismissed.

Another source described the working environment at al-Jazeera English as "hateful".

"I have never worked anywhere where morale was so low," one former staff member said. "Some people have worked very hard to produce a channel but there is no recognition whatsoever."

In a statement, he said: "Al-Jazeera's mission and vision has always been based on the values of human dignity, equality, and diversity.

"This applies not only to our coverage but also to our organisation. The commitment to diversity is the reason we have over 2,500 staff and journalists from over 40 different nationalities and from many different faiths working across all parts of the world.

"In a global organisation such as ours all employee grievances have a channel for resolution and we have an open door policy to resolve all issues.

Also at JWF. 

Did you see that the patio heaters warming drinkers and diners on the pavements of northern Europe are also warming the planet's climate and should be banned, according to a European Parliament report that could be adopted on Thursday. Environmentalists argue that heaters not only pump heat directly into the atmosphere but also climate-damaging CO2, while owners of pubs and bars say they need them to help retain customers driven outside by smoking bans.

"Patio heaters are scandalous because they are burning fossil fuels in the open sky, so producing vast quantities of CO2 with very little heat benefit," said European parliamentarian Fiona Hall, who wrote the report criticizing the pace of energy reforms in Europe. "We urge the Commission to set a timetable for completely taking off the market some appliances that are intrinsically inefficient, such as patio heaters," she added.

Chip, chip, chip - the environmentalists erode our liberties and all in the name of saving Gaia. Better we freeze outside than offend the earth mother?

I'm sure you may have heard the latest anti-Semitic outburst from Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has proclaimed that...

"I advise you to abandon the filthy Zionist entity which has reached the end of the line. It has lost its reason to be and will sooner or later fall. The ones who still support the criminal Zionists should know that the occupiers' days are numbered.''

Now, we all know just how dangerous this man is, as the regime which he heads up seeks to gain nuclear capability.

But what is the connection with the MSM's favourite Republican - John McCain?

Well, McCain is using James "F*ck the Jews" Baker and Brent Scowcroft, the man who favours talking to Hamas - as his key foreign policy advisers.  Both these men also hold interesting views on how the US should deal with Ahmadinejad's lunatic regime. Scowcroft has warned that the US should not to be belligerent with Iran, whilst the fabulous Baker boy believes that Iran  can be a force for stability in the region. (Well, I suppose if wiping Israel off the map constitutes stability then maybe he has a sort of point?) So, both these appeasers of a regime that calls Israel "filthy" and is working to finish what Hitler started are the men that McCain turns to for his foreign policy expertise. Little wonder the MSM loves McCain.

Last night, the Republican pack pounded around the corner in Florida and when the dust had settled, the race had changed. Giuliani quit. Huckabee finished poorly. McCain eked out a single digit lead over Romney. And the "Main Stream Media" went wild.  

The MSM victory dance over McCain’s win, coming as it does on the heels of the New York Times endorsement for McCain, and the fact that the media is almost universally liberal leads me to ask: “What’s up with this McCain love fest?”  

Conventional wisdom and current polls have it that McCain will win if pitted against Clinton.   Is it possible that Democrats want McCain as  POTUS?
 
The answer is obviously, “yes.”

Democrats can’t lose with McCain as President.  McCain is a national defense hawk, but in every other way, McCain is a Democrat – open borders, global warming carbon caps, blocking conservative judicial appointments with his Gang of 14 etc.

With McCain in the President’s seat, Democrats can have their cake, and eat it too.   Except for national defense, there is little policy difference between  McCain and the Democrats.  With McCain in the President's seat, Democrats will be able to pander to their anti-war far-left faction, giving lip service to appeasement and pull-outs while relying on McCain’s hawkishness to keep them safe from jihadists.   Meanwhile, Democrat social policies will be furthered along with McCain's support.

For a Conservative, however, a McCain win is a loss.  A McCain Presidency  moves the Republican Party to the left and effectively casts  Conservatism  into the Wilderness.   

What does it gain a political party to win an election but lose its soul?

Do you remember the good old days when the rotten Soviet Union was crumbling from within? There used to be regular Pravda communication hailing the latest record-breaking run of factor production! Wheat production regularly exceeded all targets. Nobody believed it, of course, but the Soviets felt obliged to pretend all was well, even as their people starved and the factories melted down.

Now comes the announcement from EU leaders that their economies are strong and the fundamentals were secure. LOL. Does ANYONE believe this drivel? The EU economies are a mess, and the underlying problem is that none of them can afford to run the welfare statism that characterises their economic infrastructure. Check out the unemployment rates in France or Germany if you want to assess just how solid those fundamentals really are. Britain is as bad, though, and government manipulation of statistics, just like Soviet manipulation of the statistics, does not alter this reality.

When the majority of the public view the police with something akin to contempt, this way serious trouble lies. Writing over in the Daily Cameron, Simon Heffer writes that where once his readers wrote in praising the work of the police...things are now different.

"When I wrote about the just nature of the police's pay demand, I had little sympathy from readers. The tone of the complaints was consistent. They are good at catching errant drivers, but less good at burglaries and muggings. They are invisible on our unsafe streets. When encountering the public, many are charmless, even rude. They enforce not the law, but political correctness. In short, the law-abiding public regard them as not on their side. "

This derision is mostly reserved for those higher ranks, those politically driven Chiefs who are more concerned to get the ethnic/sexuality mix of their officers right than solve crime. I suspect Heffer readers are increasingly the norm in a society that sees the police as not being on OUR side - us being the law abiding citizens who want to see law and order protect us from the criminal class. I think that's sad but it is an inevitable consequence of politicised policing in a Human Rights uber alles world which takes great concern to look after the criminal but ignore their victims.

To use a Danny Kennedy style-pun (Anything he can do..!) she'll be the Ruanation of us all!

I refer to the Northern Ireland Minister of Education the ridiculous and out of her depth Caitriona Ruane. Her plans to destroy academic based election is about to go off the rails with the news that a  major political split has occurred over her plans to replace the 11-plus with a system of school transfer at the age of 14. The results of a Belfast Telegraph survey of the 11 members of the Assembly's education committee confirm a unionist/nationalist divide when it comes to views on Education Minister Caitriona Ruane's plans to scrap academic selection.  The news comes as the Minister prepares to appear before the education committee at Stormont tomorrow morning. Tensions between Ms Ruane and the group are at an all-time high after she recently refused to answer 29 questions put forward by the committee in relation to her controversial transfer plans. The DUP's Jeffrey Donaldson warned today that if the Minister attempts to proceed with banning academic selection without a consensus in the Assembly " then we are heading straight into the biggest crisis in education for many years".

Hey Jeffrey - didn't you realise this BEFORE you voted to form an Executive with IRA/Sinn Fein? All the hapless Caitriona is doing is following on from Martin McGuinness. I actually don't  blame her, just as I do blame for snake for being venomous. She's a disaster, her ideology is a disaster, she will ruin education but this is not  unexpected. So Jeffrey - what are you going to DO about this, precisely?

A prayer for the dead.
 
For those who died on - Sunday January 30th 1972, and all those who perished as a result of the violence in the Northern Irish conflict.
 
Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed
through the mercy of  God rest in peace.
Amen. 

Typhoo asked me to post this and I am happy to oblige. She has requested that comments are closed as she does not want  debate, just a way of remembering and showing respect. 

Liberal guilt is a wonder to behold. Remember when Bubba Bill Clinton got into the White House he started apologing to ever group he could find. He was sorry to the Hawaiian natives for the overthrow of their kingdom, he was sorry to the Native Indians, he was just so full of.... ahem...remorse for the shameful past as he saw it. When Tony Blair came to power, he also started apologising to the Irish for the famine in the 19th century, to Africa for the slave trade, he was just so choked with guilt. Now I read that the new Australian PM Kevin Rudd, will be apologising to the Aborigines. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the apology would be the first item of business when the new legislature convened on 13 February!

All this apologising is indicative of the self-loathing that typifies much of modern liberal thinking. They love to find a minority group to which they can then grandiously apologise. In truth, there is little to apologise for but wearing your taxpayer-financed heart on your sleeve is all part of the lefty trip. I'm looking forward to the day when they apologise to white heterosexual males for all the drivel they force us to endure! Or is that the ONE group that can never expect an apology since it is in fact the group that gets blamed for all these historical real or imagined ills?     

Such is the VAST increase in the number of births to foreign-born mothers, that a maternity unit in Ascot has been shut down so that multiculti Slough could have additional maternity resources. This confirms a post I made the other day.

Get this. While the number of babies born to British mothers has fallen by 44,000 a year since the mid-1990s, the figure for babies born to foreign mothers has risen by 64,000 - a 77% increase which has pushed the overall birth-rate to its highest level for 26 years. In London, our capital city, 60% of all new births are to foreign-born mothers. The impact on the NHS has been startling - with over £200m now being spent on providing this maternity service for foreign mothers. In essence, our taxes are being used to fund maternity care for the third world. Wonderful.

Further complexity is revealed in the news that births within migrant groups can often be more difficult, more dangerous and more expensive - with much higher rates of type 2 diabetes, tuberculosis and HIV among mothers who often turn up very late in their pregnancy.

Our common humanity means we want to take care of mothers-to-be - but it is quite outrageous the way in which Government has sat back, allowed this massive influx to happen, (and it continues apace) and pressurise already very finite health services to they get to the point where resources are now being shifted away from areas where British born mothers live to those where immigrants congregate, as in Slough. 

"Slough Syndrome" is a sickness that has a . political cure

First, remove the Labour rabble. Second, defend our borders. Third, restrict welfare benefits. Fourth, deport all those who come here illegally.

Well, as Grizzly Mama has already commented, Rudy Giuliana is out of the Presidential race. His defeat in Florida sealed his fate. "America's Mayor" has gone nowhere fast. Readers may know that I was keen that he would win the GOP nomination, based on his expressed views on dealing with the Islamic threat. He was also very supportive of Israel, a big plus fore me. Politics is a funny business and it's full of surprises. The strategy Giuliani put in place has proven catastrophically bad! He risked everything on Florida and neglected all the States leading up to it. His profile in the media consequently plummeted others got a head of steam going, and he has ended up with a risible share of the GOP vote in the sunshine state.

I notice that he then went on to endorse John McCain. I'm not too happy about that since I believe McCain is the Republican that is 90% liberal at heart. So Rudy has not only failed in his own bid, but he has failed to support the one authentic conservative candidate that can still beat McCain - I refer to Mitt Romney. Naturally the liberal MSM dislikes Romney as much as it loves McCain. Go figure.

In a way I am glad that Rudy's judgement has been exposed. He is unfit to lead the US, and it's better we realise that now. Yes he did perform with exemplary courage at the time of 9/11, and yes I think he does get the war on terror big idea, but in the end his campaign was inept and so he has no choice but to withdraw. I just hope that no-one listens to him as he lavishes praises on McCain - the Bob Dole of the current set of GOP candidates. 

I would hope that Romney wins big on super-Tuesday, he came a close second to McCain in Florida. But if McCain does get the results, then the GOP does not deserve to win the White House. I don't think McCain will energise GOP supporters in sufficient numbers and I wonder how many of them would feel like me that if given the choice between John McCain and Hillary/Obama, it's no choice at all. Three liberals, none worth my vote (If I had one!)

There are many good reasons why a Nation must robustly defend and police its borders.

Comes the news that most organised crime committed in Britain has its origins abroad, one of the country's top law enforcement officers has revealed.

Bill Hughes, director-general of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, said gun crime, drugs and people smuggling are heavily linked to overseas gangsters. He told MPs on Tuesday: "Most of the crimes we are dealing with are international. The source of the trouble starts elsewhere." His comments came as Sir Stephen Lander, SOCA's chairman, warned that large-scale "cannabis factories" run by Vietnamese and Chinese criminals are springing up across the country.

South Africa has also been revealed as a gateway for thousands of poor third world workers who seek the joys of welfare Britain. Apparently all South African passport holders can enter Britain without a visa. Last week, it was revealed at least 6,000 illegal immigrants - mostly poor Indian workers - had been smuggled into the UK via South Africa. The villagers, who were charged up to £30,000 a time, were given genuine passports which were obtained fraudulently from corrupt officials.

One can never erase crime and corruption. It happens. However rigorous border controls combined with effective policing are the best defences we can have. This rotten government has conspired to remove both - hence the crime-wave that is now so visible that all can see the consequences.