Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been voted as the third worst premier in UK history since the Second World War.
A poll of more than 100 academics in Britain found that the former Labor Party leader should be considered a failure because of the huge debt he left behind, the Daily Mail said in a report.
According to the poll results, Brown came tenth out of the 12 post-war premiers, ahead of Anthony Eden and Sir Alec Douglas-Home who both have long been associated with failure.
David Cameron was not included in the survey as he has just taken the post of prime minister.
Brown was portrayed as the biggest prime ministerial failure in more than 45 years as his predecessor and bitter rival Tony Blair came out as the third successful leader, marginally behind Margaret Thatcher.
Labor's post-war leader Clement Attlee has been voted the best UK prime minister who between 1945 and 1951 established the National Health Service (NHS) and welfare state.
Harold Macmillan, dubbed Supermac when he led the Tories from 1957 to 1963, came in fourth place.
Labor's Harold Wilson (1964-70 and 1974-6) was the fifth, while Winston Churchill only came sixth for his peacetime stint as premier from 1951 to 1955.
James Callaghan -- who led Labor during the notorious Winter of Discontent, came higher in the survey than both John Major and Edward Heath, who took Britain into the EU but whose premiership was marred by arguments with the country's miners.
Next on the list is Brown, followed by Douglas-Home -- who only led the Conservatives for a year as the party floundered in the wake of the Profumo scandal.
At the bottom of the list is Sir Anthony Eden, who led Britain into the disastrous Suez invasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010 00:00 ||
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"Labo[u]r's post-war leader Clement Attlee has been voted the best UK prime minister who between 1945 and 1951 established the National Health Service (NHS) and welfare state."
Um... OK... so the one-term Labour leader (who was bumped out at the first opportunity to be replaced by Churchill - who could only compete with Thatcher as truly the best post-WWII PM), who sowed the seeds of future Labour governments and their gross over-spending on social programmes was the best? Rollocks: Attlee and Brown should be slugging it out at the bottom together.
#1
A Better Way to Freeze Rat Sperm (Columbia, MO) - $180,935
AKA the Levi Johnston Project™
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 7:55 Comments ||
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#2
What no money for a study of the effects of passing an Amendment that would require Congresscritters to live under the same laws they pass for others?
Liberal asshat filmmaker Michael Moore, in an interview with CNN's Larry King, compared the suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning with witnesses of Nazi atrocities testifying at Nuremberg.
He's saying that Manning is a Nazi? Oh, no, he's saying that Manning is fighting Nazis. The Taliban are Nazis? No, our government are Nazis. You know, the government led by Barack Obama.
"He essentially followed the Nuremberg principles," Moore claimed, "which is when you see something going on like this, when you see war crimes being committed, when you see lies being told in order to bring a country to war, you have to speak out against it."
Same thing when you're dumped by your boyfriend, you push a lot of classified files into the public. No difference at all.
Moore thought that Manning "is exactly who we want in our armed forces," and deserves the Profile in Courage award for helping to make the WikiLeaks public knowledge. "You can't just line up and be a good German and do what you're told to do," Moore said in defense of Manning's audacity.
Let's have someone rummage through fat boy's personal files and see what he says then.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Moore thought the Arizona immigration law "disgusting," and added that he planned to boycott the state, by not having his films screened there, until the law is changed.
Awwwwww geez, Mike, say it ain't so....
Losing Bush as a punching bag ruined this slob's schtick. Ouside of geriatric talk show hosts, who the hell cares anymore, Mike?
#6
Moore thought the Arizona immigration law "disgusting," and added that he planned to boycott the state, by not having his films screened there, until the law is changed.
Like states need more incentive?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 7:57 Comments ||
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#7
Lumpy Riefenstahl
AC,
You owe me one new monitor.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/04/2010 8:25 Comments ||
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#8
He war already irrelevant, and now he's Godwined himself.
Welcome to the revolution... Democratic Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan lost her bid for an eighth term on Tuesday, the crap splatter from her son Kwame, the former Detroit mayor, prompting her constituents to throw her out on her ear in a year when disgusted voters seem eager to fire their would-be rulers.
She's the sixth -- and the fourth in the House -- to bite the dust so far this year. And infuriated voters could deal others the same fate in primaries over the next two months, not to mention the general election in November, when nothing less than unchecked Dem power will be at stake.
In another nod to fresh blood, Michigan voters chose political newcomer Rick Snyder as the Republican nominee in the race to succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Jennifer "Placidly Surveying the Rubble" Granholm in a state severely battered by ineptitude and mismanagement.
He automatically became the favorite in the ailing state in his race against Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who grabbed the Democratic nomination by beating House Speaker Andy Dillon. Michigan has the nation's second-highest unemployment rate -- at 13.2 percent -- and scores of foreclosures, and that has been a drag on Granholm, the Democratic governor who must leave office because of term limits. The voters wouldn't toss her, of course...
The two outcomes reflected the electorate's strong tar and feathers sentiment and intense desire to turn the bastards out just three months before midterm elections.
Other races in Missouri and Kansas were more predictable in what otherwise has been a primary season filled with unanticipated results, as tea party hopefuls shook up races and voters threw rotting fruit and vegetables at candidates aligned with the political parties.
In Kansas, two-term Sen. Sam Brownback sailed to the GOP nomination in the gubernatorial race. Democrat Robin Carnahan -- the privileged scion of a famed Missouri political dynasty -- and seven-term GOP Rep. Roy Blunt secured spots on the November ballot in that state's Senate race.
Another veteran politician -- GOP Rep. Jerry Moran -- narrowly topped fellow Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt in the race for the party's Senate nod in Kansas and will face Democrat Lisa Johnston, who's regarded as toast. Moran had the backing of Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., while Tiahrt had the support of Sarah Palin. Victory in the GOP primary was tantamount to a general election win, as Kansas hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.
The 2010 midterm elections already have seen five incumbents lose. Sens. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, and Arlen Specter, R-D-Pa., were ousted by their respective constituencies, if any. Reps. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., Parker Griffith, R-Ala., and Bob Inglis, R-S.C., have crashed and burned.
State Sen. Hansen Clarke of Detroit beat Kilpatrick in Michigan's Democratic primary. Throughout the campaign, he stressed the oozing corruption of Kilpatrick's son, who was kicked out as Detroit mayor in 2008 after copping a plea to obstruction of justice. Kilpatrick tried to overcome her son's record by emphasizing her membership on the House Appropriations Committee and what she called her record of providing boodle for the metropolitan Detroit district, which is rolling in dough as anyone with half an eye can see.
In the governor's race, Snyder -- who grabbed attention with ads promoting himself as "one tough nerd" -- overcame Attorney General Mike Cox, Rep. Pete Hoekstra and two others. The former president and chief operating officer of computer maker Gateway Inc. spent $6 million of his own money to purchase the primary.
In Kansas, Brownback easily won the GOP gubernatorial nomination over a single opponent and already was considered a shoo-in. He is giving up a Senate seat he's held since 1997. The conservative made a brief run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination before dropping out because nobody noticed.
State Sen. Tom Holland is unopposed for the Democratic nomination. They will square off to succeed Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson, who was finishing out the remainder of Kathleen Sebelius' term. She left office last year to join the B.O. team as Health and Human Services Secretary.
In Missouri, Carnahan, the heir of a former governor and a former senator, easily defeated two token opponents. Her Senate bid comes 10 years after the death of her father and one of her brothers in a plane crash. Still waving the bloody shirt, is she?
Carnahan, the two-term secretary of state, will face Blunt, another dynast who has served in the House since 1996 and whose son is a former governor. He beat eight opponents for the GOP nomination, including tea party favorite state Sen. Chuck Purgason. Four-term Sen. Kit Bond is retiring.
Missouri also became the first state to test the popularity of Obama's health care fiasco.
Voters jumped on a new law that prohibits the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them from paying for their own health care. That conflicts with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014 which means the fed are going to take them to court before the next month is out.
The legal effect is questionable, because federal laws generally supersede those in states, which is why they're going to court. But its passage is a thumb in the eye to Obama and the Democrats.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010 11:02 ||
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Kilpatrick tried to overcome her son's legal woes by emphasizing her membership on the House Appropriations Committee and what she called her record of providing for the metropolitan Detroit district.
Really. Detroit is such a utopia thanks to folks like Caroline and her scumbag son.
The U.S. Justice Department will sue Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio if he continues to refuse to cooperate with a civil rights investigation.
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division since March 2009 has been investigating Arpaio's operation for alleged discrimination and for unconstitutional searches and seizures. Arpaio has said he believes the investigation is politically motivated.
In a letter sent to Arpaio today, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez gave the Sheriff's Office until Aug. 17 to cooperate with the investigation, and to turn over documents requested last year for an inquiry into claims of discrimination based on national origin.
"MCSO's refusal to cooperate fully with the Division's investigation makes it an extreme outlier when compared with other recipients of federal financial assistance, which have uniformly recognized their obligation to cooperate with the Division's investigations of alleged discrimination," Perez wrote.
"Although we would prefer voluntary compliance in this case as well, we will not hesitate to commence litigation after Aug. 17, if MCSO continues to take the position that it need not cooperate with the Division's investigation." The quote from that bureaucrat needs to be framed. In a single sentence, it screams "political attack", "abuse of office", "bureaucratese", "coercive yet unconstitutional federal authority", "doublethink", and "buzzword blahspeak."
#1
The DOJ bigwigs better start purging their files. Darrell Issa becomes chair in a Republican year, and the power of subpoena comes with it. Clear house at DOJ of the corrupt lying racists
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 8:57 Comments ||
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Classic case of selective enforcement. This is the DOJ that will do nothing about Black Panthers blocking voter access to a polling station.
#5
I heard Sheriff Joe on the radio yesterday. He said that the DOJ has been investigating him for 18 months to support a racial profiling charge. Apparently it's easier to CLAIM a racial profiling charge than it is to PROVE one. I really cracked up when he said he would arrest demonstrators and lock them in the same jail as illegals. poetic
#6
In a letter sent to Arpaio today, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez gave the Sheriff's Office until Aug. 17 to cooperate with the investigation, and to turn over documents requested last year for an inquiry into claims of discrimination based on national origin.
"And if we find that the number of illegals people arrested exceeds the fraction of the population that they make up, we'll know for sure that it's discriminatory! Boy, we'd better find representative samplings of little old ladies in wheelchairs, blacks, whites, hippies, babies, and everything! You have to do this with your eyes closed!"
"MCSO's refusal to cooperate fully with the Division's investigation makes it an extreme outlier when compared with other recipients of federal financial assistance, which have uniformly recognized their obligation to cooperate with the Division's investigations of alleged discrimination," Perez wrote.
So, smartypants, where do you suppose the feds get that money that they give back (mostly) to the states, anyway?
Proposition C, also known as the Health Care Freedom Act, has been approved by Missouri voters.
Prop C was placed on the ballot as a referendum after being passed by the Missouri Legislature and authorizes Missourians to opt out of the federal healthcare plan passed by Congress earlier this year.
With 2,681 of 3,354 precincts reporting, 72.7 percent of Missouri voters approved the measure.
“Tonight is a historic night,” said Lt. Governor Peter Kinder. “Missourians have the distinction of being the first Americans to go to the ballot box and reject the reckless federal health care takeover. From Massachusetts to Virginia to Missouri, voters are rejecting the extreme liberal agenda being forced upon our nation by an out-of-control federal government.”
Kinder has filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of Missouri, claiming the federal healthcare plan is unconstitutional.
Clearly the measure is split down party lines.
Kinder is the only Republican to hold statewide office. Democrats Gov. Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster did not support the move.
Sen. Jane Cunningham, a Republican, fostered the bill through the Missouri Senate.
“Missourians have sent Washington a clear message: stay out of our health care decisions,” she said. “For more than a year, Americans have taken to the streets to protest the federal government’s irresponsible agenda. Washington liberals didn’t listen when they rammed through Congress their reckless health care bill — but they can’t help but hear us now.”
Cunningham noted that Prop C does present a conflict with federal law and the case will likey come down to a decision by the Supreme Court.
She also noted that Prop C does not prevent Missourians from participating in the federal healthcare system, it simply gives them a choice.
Four other states will vote on a similar measure in upcoming primaries
#3
so, nearly 73% of Missourians reject serfdom to their betters. Can you smell the Dem desperation this AM?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2010 7:25 Comments ||
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If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
- Sun Tzu
Let's just hope the socialists stay in a state of denial through November and simply retrench into recrimination and the usual abusive howling afterward.
#6
And after the Federal judges find it unconstitutional, according to their unwritten-and-doesn't-exist Liberal version of the constitution, the voters will get even more irate.
At this point, I'm not sure that there are judges even worthy of respect. I'm sure there's a few out there, somewhere.
But at this point, they pretty much rank with 'journalists'....ie, Liars, traitors and anti-human bigots until proven otherwise.
Without a massive voter uprising that ends up forming a new party and sweeping it into power long enough to purge government of all the vermin, I'm not sure I can see any solution to getting the country moving back toward founding ideals.
I admit to being normally pessimistic, but even that isn't enough to stop me from getting a bit depressed at how far into the Twilight Zone this country has gone. It's like some weird hybrid of Huxley, Orwell and Pournelle's CoDominium series of Taxpayers and citizens.
Yep, says right here in the constitution, the 28th Amendment - "The Federal Government can do anything it wants". What, it's not in YOUR copy of the constitution? You need to get the new Obama Constitution RIGHT NOW citizen!
Saying "I'm very comfortable where I am," Sen. Ben Cornhusker Kickback Nelson (D-Neb.) indicated Tuesday he will not switch to the Republican Party -- or become an independent.
Nelson, a chameleon who's broken with his party on a number of key issues during this Congress, said he enjoys a great deal of flexibility as a Democrat, which wouldn't be the case if he were to join the GOP.
"I don't believe so," Nelson said on KLIN radio in Nebraska when asked if he'd become a Republican.
The GOP, Nelson said, "doesn't seem to be" a party with a very large ideological tent.
"Certainly, if you look at the partisan votes recently," he said, "it's been pretty much lockstep, and I'm not one who's comfortable being that way." "The chameleons have been getting thrashed everywhere you look!"
Nelson has arguably been the Senate's most slippery Democrat over the past year and a half, having opposed several jobs packages without budget offsets, the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan, and elements of healthcare reform, including the so-called "public option" favored by many in his party's base. But in the end he was available for the right price...
His voting record led some to think he might bolt to the GOP or follow the path of Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who ran for reelection as an independent in 2006 after having lost a Democratic primary. Lieberman still caucuses with Democrats but sometimes also breaks with his party's leaders.
Nelson rejected such a move, saying he still feels very comfortable within the Senate Democratic Caucus.
"I'll put it this way: I don't think you leave your party, your party leaves you. And my party hasn't left me," he said. "My party gives me a great deal of latitude to do what I think is right on the basis of policy and interests, rather than just what party philosophy seems to be. So I'm very comfortable where I am."
Nelson is up for reelection in 2012, leading to some suggestions that his voting record may be aimed more at protecting his reelection effort than anything else.
"I'm an independent-minded person, so some folks back in Washington have a difficulty in understanding that you can be independent-minded," he said. "Because this is a partisan town, and when you approach things in a bipartisan way, you don't fit into the mold or the category that they have all set for you."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010 00:00 ||
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The GOP, Nelson said, "doesn't seem to be" a party with a very large ideological tent.
translation - it still has people of influence and position who believe in the Constitution as written.
#2
Good riddance, you useless turd - we wouldn't want you anyway. Hope you're "comfortable" with two years of irrelevancy followed by an ignominious passage into retirement come the '12 election.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
08/04/2010 9:05 Comments ||
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In general, we are better off without these clowns, but if it means the difference between a majority in the Senate we should be willing to write a very generous check.
Sen. Lindsey Endangered South Carolina RINO Graham (R-S.C.) was officially censured last night by a third Republican county committee in his home state.
The Greenville County Republican Party passed a resolution censuring Graham for "support of President Obama and the Democratic Party's liberal agenda for the United States."
GOP committees in Lexington and Charleston counties had previously censured Graham.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010 00:00 ||
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With considerable help, it must be admitted, from the financial meltdown that preceded his arrival in office, Obama & Co. have been remarkably successful in lowering expectations. They have persuaded a large part of the American people that we should count ourselves lucky if what was once -- and indeed throughout almost our entire history -- the greatest and most dynamic economy in the world drifts along in a semi-comatose state -- without totally collapsing. They continue to promote the idea that the American economy is no longer capable of functioning without massive and ever-increasing government intervention. In their view, we should accept this as a permanent condition. And be glad for it.
According to a recent Pew / National Journal poll, nearly two-thirds of the American people think that "Barack Obama's economic policies" have failed. That includes 29% who think the president's policies have led to worse results and another 35% who think they have had little or no effect.
The poll numbers on Obamacare are worse still. A Rasmussen poll shows that a 2-to-1 majority of voters are in favor of repealing the president's landmark health care bill. That includes a stunning 46% who "strongly" favor repeal, against just 25% who "strongly" oppose repeal.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010 00:00 ||
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The problem with the swamp is that every election rainy season, it just fills up again. Mandatory term limits draining on a regular basis is the better tool at hand till the political topographical landscape is restructured to address the source of the containment.
#3
I like the analogy. The swamp is draining, and there are dying and dead Democrat fish wallowing around in the mud, as the stink rises to high heaven.
Last November, Nancy Pelosi was asked if ObamaCare was Constitutional and she replied: "Are you serious?" Two salient points are implicit in Pelosis' statement. Those are: 1. Failed lawyers go into politics and 2. "We don need no steenking Constitution." Pete Stark was making that exact point that just the other day ...
The State of Virginia passed a law which had broad bipartisan support in the State legislature. The law prohibits its citizens from being forced to purchase health care insurance at risk of being fined if they don't. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson got serious and ruled against Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' motion to dismiss Virginia's lawsuit. Judge Hudson's ruling paved the way for a trial beginning October 18th (Just in time for the November elections)
which is certain to end up in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Twenty-one states and several individuals are already suing to overturn ObamaCare. Missouri took another avenue similar to Virginia's except Missouri chose to use a referendum to turn aside the ObamaCare. At the heart of these arguments are individual and States' rights versus the rights of the Federal government. If individuals can be compelled to buy health care insurance then they can be compelled to buy anything at the direction of the Federal government depending upon the perceived needs of the government. If ObamaCare stands, individuals could be compelled to buy cars from GM or Chrysler, buy certain kinds of food that are deemed healthy, buy appliances or other products which are determined to impact health, buy stocks from Wall Street firms to keep them solvent, and on and on. The individual basically becomes a servant/slave of the state the purpose of that slave to be determined by central planners in Washington. At that point individual liberties defined by the Constitution cease to exist. The ends justifies the means and social justice have replaced a sacred document which has guided this country for more than two centuries; the U.S. Constitution.
Did you know the Justice Department threatened several universities with legal action because they took part in an experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle for textbooks?
Last year, the schools -- among them Princeton, Arizona State and Case Western Reserve -- wanted to know if e-book readers would be more convenient and less costly than traditional textbooks. The environmentally conscious educators also wanted to reduce the huge amount of paper students use to print files from their laptops.
It seemed like a promising idea until the universities got a letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, now under an aggressive new chief, Thomas Perez, telling them they were under investigation for possible violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Unless Bin Laden starts issuing his fatwas in Braille, we should sue him under the ADA.
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/04/2010 5:54 Comments ||
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DOJ's motto: We are everywhere, all the time meddling in the mundane affairs of Americans. If blind people can read Braille, cannot they not identify the buttons on Kindle that would convert text to speech. Is this not a technological fix or training fix rather than a legal fix? Doesn't the DOJ have better things to do?
#5
American soldiers are being disenfranchised AGAIN, but the DOJ is more concerned with an experiment to distribute Kindles to college students. Eric Holder is an ass.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been voted as the third worst premier in UK history since the Second World War. 
Liberal 
Democratic Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan lost her bid for an eighth term on Tuesday, the 
Sen. 
