The ABC report on another British MP who stepped into the expenses mess: ‘Ashamed’ MP says ducks rejected island

A British Conservative politician says he feels “ashamed and humiliated” over claiming expenses for a ‘duck island’ to put in his garden pond – and he admitted the ducks did not like it anyway.

Sir Peter Viggers was forced to announce his resignation on Thursday (local time) over the 1,600 pound ($3,300) aquatic home, the latest embarrassing revelation in an expenses row which has shaken Britain’s House of Commons.

He issued a statement pointing out that the claim had been refused by the Fees Office – which has come under fire over claims ranging from swimming pool and tennis court repairs to cleaning a moat.

But he admitted that he should never have claimed for it in the first place.

Getting dissed by your own ducks has to be nearly as bad as it gets.  Before we make fun of the attempt to claim money for moat cleaning, we need to check on the activities of the GOP.  I can imagine a couple of them having a moat.  I can certainly imagine Dick “Dick” Cheney having a moat.  The guy had a dungeon built under Blair House.

Two male and a female mallard dropped in for a dip in what we laughingly refer to as a storm water drain in the property across the street. Instead of draining anything, there was a two-foot-deep pond.

After an inch yesterday and two more today, the frogs decided it was a time for courting, so when the thunder stopped the froggy arias took over.

If Invest 90 had had about 6 more hours over the Gulf it would have probably become the first tropical storm of the preseason, and the season doesn’t start until a week from Monday.

In the last couple of months Central Florida has had drought, fire, and now flooding. It is not a good thing for the Mouse, and Florida tourism on the Memorial Day weekend. People won’t visit when they can get rained on at home.

It certainly is strange how, every year, the “supply and demand” forces cause the price of gas to shoot up just before this weekend. It has risen a quarter a gallon in the last week. It will drop on Tuesday, but the forces will cause another amazing rise before the Fourth of July, and then before Labor Day. It’s a mystery how the “free market” works. You would almost begin to believe that something other than supply and demand were at work. 😈

McClatchy, who, when they were called Knight-Ridder, were the only news organization who refused to drink the Kool-Aid, and published the truth about the Hedgemony’s push for war with Iraq, deliver a one-two on Dick “Dick” Cheney’s propaganda tour.

The shorter snarky version is found at the blog, Nukes & Spooks, in a post by Warren P. Strobel: Cheney vs The Past.

The formal long form is at the McClatchy DC site in an article by Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel: Cheney’s speech ignored some inconvenient truths.

The National Weather Service has started running the models on Invest 90, the low that dumped all of the rain on Central Florida and has cause 11 deaths from flooding in Haiti.

The consensus is that it will come ashore around the Mississippi-Louisiana border before it achieves tropical depression characteristics.