Parasitic Demagogues finally disband

Tonight Ireland is a happy country, as we celebrate the end of the PDs, a nasty little political party, which has imploded.
Good bye - I say - and good riddens!

After they lost six of their previously eight deputies in the 2007 general election, the Parasitic Demagogues (PDs), until then the junior partner in the government coalition led by Fianna Fáil, were demoted to infant partner. (Their previous position as the juniors was taken by the equally power-hungry Green Party.)

Among the 75% casualties were their then leader, the Tanaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell (left), as well as deputy leader Liz O'Donnell and party president Tom Parlin.
The latter, a Minister of State and a corrupt weasel of amazingly few morals, found quickly a new perk as the head of the construction industry federation. He feels quite at home there now, as no-one in Ireland knows corruption better than the builders and property developers.

But greedy and power-hungry as they were, the PDs still stayed in government, despite being almost wiped out by the electorate. If there ever was a case in Irish politics where the expressed will of the voters was completely ignored and contradicted, it was to keep the damaged remnants of the PDs in government last year.

With a grand total of two Senators (kindly appointed by Bertie) and two TDs, one of which - the infamous Mary Harney (right) - even retained her position as Minister for Health (with an annual budget of more than € 16 billion), the PDs became the living dead of Leinster House.

It took more than a year before they could not stand the stench or their own wrotten existence any longer. Today they finally decided to obey the will of the Irish voters and disbanded what was left of the party.

But it was not an easy death. In April they even went through the charade of electing a new leader, as if there was anything left to lead. A previously unknown Galway man named Ciaran Cannon - one of the two appointed Senators - was chosen as the sacrificial lamb, as even Mary Harney could see no future for the PDs and refused to lead them into any more disasters.

Now it's all over - thank God! This afternoon the last surviving members of the PDs meet for a wake in Mullingar and voted to finally disband their party. Ciaran Cannon will have to live with the dubious stain of having been their last 'leader', while no-one even mentions the pompous and self-important Michael McDowell any longer.

The party, founded by the former Fianna Fáil TD and minister Des O'Malley in 1985 as the Progressive Democrats, had originally offered a new alternative in Irish politics. But after the founder resigned in 1993 and turned the party over to Mary Harney, things began to go rapidly downhill. Under the 13 years of her leadership the PDs became the Parasitic Demagogues.
It is however ironic that the very man who urged Des O'Malley in 1985 to establish a new party would become its undertaker. This man was no other than Michael McDowell, in 1985 a young Fine Gael activist, and from 2006 to 2007 the hapless leader of the corrupted PDs.

Neither he nor Des O'Malley were in Mullingar for the party's funeral. These days they have better things to do.
However, the decommisioning process of the PDs is not quite complete yet. Though the party is now officially disbanded, they still have a hidden stash of power in the Cabinet, known as Mary Harney. She is now trying to masquerade as an 'independent', but no-one believes her anyway.

She sees herself as the first one-person party in Irish history and is determined to stay in power as long as it is possible. Only with her decommissioning the disbandment of the PDs will truly be finished, and I hope she will be decommissioned soon.

British Militarism is still alive in Belfast

First came two British soldiers, decked out in desert battle dress and leading a pair of large Irish Wolfhounds.
Behind them strutted the first contingent of soldiers from the (British) Irish Guards. Left right, left right, they marched with their chests puffed out pompously.

Next came the military band in their ‘Royal Irish’ green dress uniforms, blasting out the odious protestant hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers", the one Winston Churchill was so fond of.
That was of course an attempt to hide this display of naked militarism behind a religious fig leaf.

Not that it mattered, as the strains of the hymn were all but drowned out by bellicose screaming of hundreds of 'loyalists' who crammed into Belfast's Fisherwick Place. Their jeering was directed at the families of nationalists, gunned down by British forces.
These decent Irish people stood not more than 30 metres away, protesting against the British Army’s pompous march of triumphalism, which was in fact a march of shame.

This happened five days ago, on Sunday, November 2nd, in the centre of Belfast. It was the long advertised and hyped-up 'homecoming parade' for the (British) Irish Guards and the Royal Irish Regiment, who have bloodied their hands in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over all the excitement in the USA it was almost overlooked by most of the media.

If the actions of the PSNI, the British Army, the 'loyalist' mobs and the unionist politicians who were in Belfast city centre last weekend say anything, then it is to tell nationalists and all decent Irish people that the struggle for justice and equality has a long way to go.

Belfast is still an occupied city in the grip of a cruel and bellicose army. The only difference is that they now prefer to kill Iraqis and Afghans instead of Irish people.

The Future of Sarah Palin

"Well, folks, I know where I am going..."

Hail Palin! Death to all moose!

The Future of John McCain

Relax, John, and enjoy your retirement.

Thank you, America!

Today I want to thank the people of the USA for what they have done last night.

Yes, I thank you will all my heart. Obviously there are a lot more decent Americans than I thought for the past eight years.

It's early days yet, and we should not expect too much from Barack Obama. He's just a man and not the Messiah. He won't be able to perform miracles.
And the mess the criminal and corrupt Bush administration leaves behind is colossal.

But at least hope is restored today, to the USA and to the rest of the world.

Once again, thank you America! And congratulations to Barack Obama!

May the good luck of last night remain with you, and may you have the strength and wisdom to be a great leader.

John McCain conceeds

Guess who just won the election?

That one!

Barack Hussein Obama

President-elect

History in the making

The Americans elected Barack Obama!!!
*

Today is D-Day in the USA

Yes, the day is finally here. Today is D-Day - Decision Day - in the USA, and by tomorrow we will know who's the next man to spend four years in the White House.

Hard to believe how time flies.

Back in January, when the whole spectacle of primaries and caucuses started and more than 30 politicians from the two large US parties put their hats into the ring, it was all very confusing, and even more so for someone like me, here in Ireland, where we don't have this kind of political circus.

When we elect our President - once every seven years - there is of course a modest campaign with all the candidates, and then the people vote. Our President is directly elected by the people, with no 'electoral college' in between, even though the office has very little political power and is more of a representative position, like it is in most other European countries as well.

But we take a lot of interest also in the US elections. After all, there are about 50 million Americans with Irish ancestry (that's one in six US citizens), and above that the USA are now the only 'super power' eft on the planet. So whatever they - and their President - do has a lot of consequences for everyone else in the world, regardless where they live.

I followed the developments in the USA with great interest, but as I said, my understanding of the process and procedures was limited. So I read a lot about it, in papers and on-line. And I did learn a lot from that.
However, there is only one blog I read that really impressed me. As it happens, it's written by another Irishman and called "Views from the Emerald Isle". (the URL is http://inishtrahoull.blogspot.com/)
This man seems to know his politics and has an amazing power of analysis and vision. He was the only one of all the journalists and bloggers whose articles I read who wrote back in January that the final contest would be between John McCain and Barack Obama.
While most of the Irish media - including RTÉ - were sure that Hillary Clinton would win the nomination of the Democratic Party and almost campaigned for her, this single blogger dismissed her and her chances back in January, and he explained his reasons in detail. I just read these articles again, and with hindsight they are even more impressive. I think this man should be on RTÉ or write for our major papers. They all got it wrong for a long time, but he was right from the very start.

But enough about the past. Today the Americans have to decide, and I hope they will make the right decision. Which - in my humble opinion - is Barack Obama. He's the only one who could bring back some decency and honour to the American nation that has been turned into the true "Empire of Evil" (the phrase used by Ronald Reagan for the Soviet Union many years ago) under the criminal and corrupt administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

John McCain was an honourable man eight years ago, when he ran against Bush in the primaries of the Republican Party. Had he won the nomination then, he would probably have won the election as well and - perhaps - been quite a good President. But a lot has happened since. In fact way too much has happened. And since McCain joined the Bush camp four years ago and sold his soul to Bush, Cheney and Karl Rove (the evil spin master behind Bush), he has become a differnt man and part of the evil machine that dragged America down into the gutter.

If one had needed more proof for that, his selection of Sarah Palin as 'running mate' said it all.
This right-wing woman, who could have made Adolf Hitler smile with pride and joy, is the personification of everything that is wrong with the USA today. Even the theoretical thought that she could be "one heartbeat away from the Presidency", which she would if the Americans elect the 72-year-old McCain, makes me shiver.

I have no vote in this election, and I would never want to live in the USA, no matter who is the President. But I can only urge the decent Americans - and yes, there still are some - to vote for the right man today, in their own interest and in the interest of the whole world.

Quite a lot of Americans visit this blog, so I hope they will read this and do the right thing. I will be sitting here and waiting in anticipation. My gut feeling tells me that Barack Obama is going to win the White House, and probably with a good majority. But as long as people like Karl Rove are around to muddle things up (as he did in 2000 and 2004), one can never be completely sure.

Please give yourself and the world another chance for peace and prosperity and vote for Barack Obama!

McCain's five Reasons

My friends, there are five reasons not to vote for me:
The Economy,
the War in Iraq,
my closeness to George W. Bush,
Sarah Palin
and, and... ah ... myself.

It's Make-your-Mind-up Time

"I do wonder... who I shall electionise tomorrow..."

"Maybe it's O'Cain... or should I go for McBama?"

"Or can I stay in bed and have another banana?"

John McCain has a Dream today...

"Oh yeah, I have a dream today..."

(But that's all it is and ever will be)

"Are we there yet, are we there yet..."

November Handicap Meeting

Remember Sean Fitzpatrick? Perhaps you do, as I mentioned him here before.
And no, I don't mean the banker (and chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, whom I mentioned as well).
I mean my neighbour, the philosopher and retired printer.

This morning he told me that he was going to the 'November Handicap Meeting' today. I was not sure what he meant by that, since I had never heard about that before.
But then I remembered that his wife is handicapped since she had a stroke a few years ago. I didn't want to look stupid, or appear as too nosy, so I didn't ask him about details.
I just assumed that he was going with his wife to a monthly meeting for handicapped people.

But then I saw his wife in the garden this afternoon, and began to wonder. So I went out and said hello, asking how she was, and that I had thought she was going to a meeting today.

She said she was fine, and that Sean had gone on his own, as she didn't really care much for the horses and couldn't bear the crowds at race meetings.

Now I was puzzled. Horses? Race meetings? I clearly remembered that Sean had said he was going to a handicap meeting. To avoid embarrassment I said no more and went back inside, where I sat down at my desk and googled the words "November Handicap Meeting".

It only took a few seconds, and then Google filled my computer screen with plenty of links to "handicap meetings". And guess what? They were all horse races! Not one was an actual meeting for handicapped people.

You might think I am stupid, or perhaps not.

I am not into horse racing, nor anything that uses animals in improper and exploitative ways. So I am not familiar with the internal expert lingo of the sport. But now that I have heard it, and read about it a good deal, I wonder why they use such strange and often even hilarious language in horse racing.

Everything in this sport seems to be totally commercialised and there is advertisement in every bit and detail. Even the names of the actual races are now pure advertisement. Doing my bit of research, I found many silly names, but here are only a few from yesterday alone:

• A. Bartlett & Sons (Airdrie) Ltd. Maiden Hurdle (could be a chastity contest)
• William Ewart Properties Handicap Hurdle (getting a mortgage is difficult now)
• JNwine.com Champion Steeplechase (Does the champion get a head start? And a bottle of wine?)
• Killultagh Properties Ltd. Steeplechase (They even sell churches now..., don't they?)
• Rainbow Telecom Handicap Steeplechase (does probably involve handling new types of mobile phones)
• Lough Developments Ltd. (Pro/Am) Flat Race (how to get a new apartment in a newly developed area)

I don't know how anyone can take such ridiculous names - and thus the whole horse racing business - for serious. Fortunately I will not have to occupy my little brain with the matter any longer, as I do now care even less for horse racing than I did before. The horses, I am sure, are having a good laugh at us.

Secret Cabinet Meeting in Co. Offaly

It has emerged that the Irish Cabinet had a secret meeting last night in a secluded place near Clara, the Taoiseach's home village in Co. Offaly.
When asked about it by journalists, the government's new unofficial spokesman Willie O'Dea refused to comment. But a reliable eyewitness reports that the meeting was held "in the spirit of the season", even though "some would have mistaken it for a gathering of the Ku Klux Klan".
Only Tanaiste Mary Coughlan (pictured right) refused to wear the traditional over-garment and appeared uncovered.
"I wouldn't wear a burka, so I'm not wearing this either," she was overheard saying to Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who eventually accepted her "eccentric attitude".
Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Martin commented that it was "not a beauty contest", adding that otherwise he would take his bedsheet off, too. But the Taoiseach was having none of it.
"You can do that in Cork, you tosser," he told Martin, "but not here in Clara. This is Offaly!"
Despite attempts to learn more about the nature of the meeting, no statement was issued and all participants have refused to comment.

Brian Cowen's Hallowe'en Address

While many Heads of State give a traditional address to their nation on Christmas Day, and many Prime Ministers speak to their people on New Year's Day (January 1st), Ireland's new Prime Minister, who is a fluent speaker of Irish (Us Gaelge), decided to create a tradition of his own.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen addressed the Irish nation today, on Samhain, the day that is traditionally the Celtic New Year's Day.

The address was broadcast live from Cowen's home in Clara, Co. Offaly, by RTÉ Radio 1 and Television. However, many people watching with a sense of anticipation were rather disappointed and said that they were not able to understand what the Taoiseach was saying. Well, that's not a new thing with Brian Cowen. It happens every week in the Dail, too.

Dublin's Burning

Dubliners celebrated Hallowe'en last night in the
traditional way of the now famous 'Celtic Tiger' :

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright...

People really made a great effort and went all across the city
with huge Irish enthusiasm and plenty of pints of Guinness.

They burned down one pub, one block of flats,
and - as the coup de grâce - a whole factory.
As a side-show they also torched 50 cars,
which is quite an achievement in one night.

They stabbed 15 people and beat up 2 Gardai and 1 fireman,
which are still in hospital to show that Mary Harney cares.

They made sure that our emergency services work hard for their
wages and that Eircom gets a fair share of trick-or-treat money:
There were 800 calls to the Fire Brigade
and 500 calls to the Ambulance Service.

Happy Hallowe'en!

The Republican Truth

John, you are eight years too late

and got a real bad running mate!

Paul, the See-Saw Man

Paul Gogarty (39), Green Party TD
and his party's spokesman on Education,
also known as "See-Saw Man",

has (as we can see) two hands and (as we cannot see)
also two minds, and two opinions (which we can read).

Two weeks ago he was happy with the 2009 Budget.
Ten days ago he criticised cuts in the education budget.
One week ago he was "satisfied with the education budget".
This week he told a lobbyist by e-mail that the Green Party
"might eventually consider withdrawing from the coalition".
Today he is "fully behind the Minister for Education".

Great variety act, Paul. Have you tried any other circus,
or are you under exclusive contract to Dáil Éireann ?

The unacceptable Face of Irish Politics

Conor Lenihan (45), Fianna Fáil TD,
Minister of State for Integration
and wild-tempered Hooligan-in-Chief
in the disgraced government of Brian Cowen,

son of former Fianna Fáil TD and Tánaiste, the late Brian Lenihan,
grandson of former Fianna Fáil TD, the late Patrick Lenihan,
brother of Fianna Fáil TD and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan Jr,
nephew of Fianna Fáil TD and former Minister Mary O'Rourke.

He is also a grand-nephew of former Irish customs officer,
smuggler, racketeer and spy, the late Joseph Lenihan,
who worked as a double agent for Nazi Germany and
for the British MI-5 during the Second World War.

Already known for his insensitivity in matters racial and ethnic,
he reached a new height of unacceptability today, when he called
Fine Gael TD Dr. Leo Varadkar "a Fascist" and gave the infamous
Nazi salute with his outstretched arm. And where did this happen?
In a smoke-filled back room of some seedy pub in the docklands?
No, right in Dáil Éireann, in front of 150 fellow TDs.

And - what happened to him afterwards? Absolutely nothing.
As a member of one of Ireland's political dynasties, he seems to
have carte blanche and gets away with any possible outrage.

This kind of intolerable behaviour will only stop when we end
the power of these corrupt and inbred Irish political families.

P.S. - Yesterday a tram driver in the Austrian capital Vienna
was immediately sacked from his job when it became known that
he had used the words "Sieg Heil!" (a verbal Nazi salute) over
the intercom system of his tram. Of course he was not a member
of the Lenihan family, and thus unprotected. In fact, he might be
prosecuted and could face 10 years imprisonment for his stunt.

Creationists love and support Sarah Palin

This group of dedicated American creationist women meets every Tuesday at their local country club for a coffee morning. They all belong to the same evangelical church and are sure that the world was created by God in six days, 6012 years ago, as their preacher keeps telling them every Sunday. They also believe that they were created after God's own image.

All four also belong to the Republican Party and are over the Moon (also created by God 6012 years ago) that Sarah Palin, the creationist governor of Alaska, will soon be Vice-President and - perhaps in a few years - the first female President of the USA. They are sure about that, since no-one will elect a negro as President. That would be as idiotic as the idea of Evolution. But to be sure, they have turned their weekly coffee morning into a fund-raising event for Sarah Palin. The four of them pose - for a donation to the cause - in their bikinis for local photographers. We can well imagine that their efforts are highly successful. And Sarah Palin has said that she is proud to have such dedicated supporters.

The Great Craiglist Heist

In an elaborate robbery scheme that was one part "The Thomas Crowne Affair" and one part "Pineapple Express", a criminal robbed an armoured van outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Washington, by hiring decoys through Craigslist, a popular US advertising website.

He then escaped in a creek, headed for the Skykomish River, in an inner tube, and the police are still looking for him.
"A great amount of money" was taken, the Monroe police said, but did not provide the actual sum.

It appears that around 11 a.m. the robber - wearing a yellow day-glow vest, safety goggles, a blue shirt and a respirator mask - went over to a guard who was overseeing the unloading of cash to the bank from the van. He sprayed the guard with pepper spray, grabbed his bag of money, and fled the scene.

But here's the hilarious twist. The robber had previously put out an ad on Craigslist for "road maintenance workers", promising wages of $ 28.50 per hour.
Willing recruits were asked to wait near the Bank of America in Monroe right around the time of the robbery, wearing yellow day-glow vests, safety goggles, a respirator mask, and preferably a blue shirt. At least a dozen of them turned up after responding to the ad.

"I came across this ad that was for a job for $ 28.50 an hour," one of the unwitting decoys told NBC. As it turns out, he and his "colleagues" were simply placed there to confuse the police, who were looking for a man wearing an identical outfit.

They eventually found the getaway inner tube (a getaway inner tube - hilarious!) and suspect that accomplices may have picked up the robber in a boat.
According to NBC, police hope to track him down by finding out who posted the ad in the first place. Good luck with that...

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was - surprise, surprise - not available for comment.

See how they run...

Nearly 12,000 people with nothing better to do were running around Dublin today.

They call it the Dublin Marathon, and most of the runners taking part have not the slightest clue what the name means and where it comes from. They are just happy to run 26.2 miles and exhaust themselves once a year.

They have no idea that the first Marathon was run by only one man, a messenger, who ran from the battlefield at Marathon in Greece to the city of Athens to bring the news that their army had just won a huge victory against their arch enemy, the Persian Empire. And they also don't know that the runner collapsed and died shortly after delivering his message.

Maybe human beings are not meant to run 26.2 miles in one go.

But now it's a popular fashion and thousands do it every year, with no connection to the historic event, and no understanding what they are actually doing. The Jones' are running, so we have to run as well. What's the point?

Oh yes, I almost forgot, it's all "for charity". That's alright then, yes? We torture our bodies in a way it is not prepared for, so some more lazy gaffers will give us a few Euros for it...?

We must be totally mad. If people want to donate money to charity, they can do it any time and very easily, without thousands of sports freaks running around, blocking Dublin city for a whole morning and making a show of themselves.

And not enough with that, some really silly buggers are running the Marathon in stupid outfits or awkward costumes. Those idiots should really be rounded up and put into a lunatic asylum. Then they can run around all day wearing silly costumes, and no-one is bothered.

If you want to know why this country is in a crisis and running out of money as well as common sense, just look at events like the Dublin Marathon and you have your answer. We have become brainless lemmings, running blindly after something or someone who tells us it's fashionable. It may be a Marathon today, or a housing bubble tomorrow, and the need for more holidays or a new SUV next week. We no longer think for ourselves and just follow whatever is advertised as "the thing to do".

When the original runner from Marathon delivered his message in Athens, he collapsed and died. And when the lemmings reach the coast, they jump over the cliffs and die as well. What a great way to live our lives... I hope you enjoy the Bank Holiday.

Fianna Fáil is 10 Points down

Yes, it's true. According to the latest Red C opinion poll, published in the Sunday Business Post, Fianna Fáil have lost ten points in popularity since last month. And if Brian Cowen had any more fingers, they might have lost even more support, as he would certainly have put them into even more pies than he has so far. The larger government party is now left with only 26% of public support, the lowest level for them ever since - in 1926 - they came out of the political wilderness and decided to participate in the parliamentary process and in democratic elections. There must be a special meaning in the number 26. Meanwhile Fine Gael has risen to 33%, Labour to 15% and Sinn Fein to 10%.

If Cowen were not such a coward, he would call a new general election, and what fun would that be now...

Sarah's Chick comes home to roost...

Animal killer, creationist "Christian" and "hockey mom"
Sarah Palin, also governor of Alaska, has apparently
been too much concentrated on (ice) hockey, hunting animals
and weird religious doctrines.

In the process she missed the little matter of her eldest daughter
Bristol (what kind of name is that for a girl?) sleeping around with
the boys at school. Now that 17-year-old Bristol is pregnant, it is of
course entirely "a private matter" for the Palins and has nothing to
do with Sarah's ideas of parenthood, sex education and morals . . .

Alaskan Girl still wants to be Beauty Queen

Meanwhile Sarah Palin has been out shopping with John McCain
and his credit cards. To make her look presentable, the campaign
has spent $ 150,000 on Sarah's new wardrobe. That's nearly
four times as much as "Joe the Plumber", McCain's special friend
from Ohio, earns in a year. I hope Joe is watching Sarah and her
attempt to become a beauty queen at last. When she tried back in
1984 to become "Miss Alaska", she was beaten into second place
by - now, wait for it - the first ever black "Miss Alaska".
Some Omen - or what?

While Sarah is focused on her new clothes and her dream of
living in the White House and nuking moose and caribou one
day in the future, an independent investigation in Alaska has
found her guilty of abusing her gubernatorial powers
when she sacked the Public Safety Commissioner (something
like a Minister for the Interior) after he refused to kick Sarah
Palin's former brother-in-law out of the state's police force.
Not because he was a bad cop, no. The only reason was that
Palin wanted to punish him for divorcing her horrible sister.
Bitches, you have to realise, always stick together like glue.
And as Barack Obama pointed out so very well and clearly:
"A pig with lipstick - is still a pig..."

And, as we know since George Orwell's 'Animal Farm', pigs
are more equal than all the other animals. I can see that.

Irish Billionaire is fined Pocket Money

Sean Quinn from Co. Fermanagh
is a self-made billionaire and currently Ireland's
richest man, with a personal fortune of about
€ 4 billion.

For irregular loans worth € 288 million between two of his
companies he has been fined by Ireland's Financial Regulator
the sum of € 3.25 million.
For a man like Sean that's really just pocket money, but
going by his reaction it seems that it still hurts his pride.

Bloody Friday

Today the world's great gambling dens, known as the 'financial markets', have gone crazy once more and share prises have lost much of their value.

Most of the main stock exchanges experienced the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.
In New York the Dow Jones industrial average index fell 3.6%, not falling as much as other markets.
The bankers and stock brokers have dubbed today 'Bloody Friday', which is even worse than the infamous 'Black Friday'.

Whatever next? How far can a share price fall?
Well, I suppose until it reaches 0.00 ... but given the shenanigans the banks have invented, this might not be the end after all. Perhaps shares can have 'negative equity', like houses.

Both the US Dollar and Japanese Yen soared today against other major currencies, particularly the British Pound Sterling and the Canadian Dollar, as world investors sought safe havens for their money.

Yes, there is no shortage of money on this planet.
Quite the opposite. There's loads of it. But it is usually in the wrong hands and pockets.

Those who have too much know nothing better to do with it than to gamble on the 'financial markets' and thus create perpetual turmoil for the world's economies. And neither governments nor their central banks seem to be able to stop the dangerous nonsense.

Why? Because most governments are in the pockets of big business and the wealthiest people on the planet. They are the 'untouchables' of our time, untouchable by the law of any country, and controlling what ever they chose to control.

Today the deputy governor of the Bank of England, Charles Bean, made a frank statement, very unusual for a central banker like him.
"This is a once in a lifetime crisis, and possibly the largest financial crisis of its kind in human history," he said.

And he's probably right. The super-rich are playing cat-and -mouse with the rest of us, and we have to pay ever higher prices for everything, while we also earn less - to keep 'competitive' - and have to pay more taxes to bail the nearly bankrupt government out.

The joke's gone too far, and it's not funny in the first place.
It's time the ordinary people get their acts together, organise themselves and put an end to the plague of our time: uncontrolled and unregulated rampant capitalism.
If we want to survive, we need a revolution!

The Google Queen

Elizabeth Windsor, well-known senior citizen and hat model,
has developed an interest in computers and this 'thing' called
Google. Her husband told her that it was a way to bowl a ball
at Cricket, but she did not believe him. Eventually she found
the magic Google and decided to add it to her private empire.

Easy Riders

While Elizabeth Windsor is learning all about Google, her two
grandsons William and Harry are enjoying themselves with
two motorbikes on a 1000-mile tour across South Africa.
For the two Lieutenants of the British Household Cavalry this
is a nice adventure holiday, but officially they are doing it - as
a press release says - "for charity". It seems that whatever a
member of their family does is always "for charity", but hardly
ever do we know what kind of charity their fun is actually for.

In this case it is probably irrelevant, as - according to South
African media reports - the costs of providing "security" for
the two precious young men are much higher than the money
they raise for charity from their cross-country motorbike ride.
Some Royal charity, indeed!

Three Cheers for the Old Folks !

Ireland is not (yet) a racist country, but we are the world champions in ageism.

More than half of our population is under 25, so once you get into the higher numbers, you are supposed to disappear and not spoil the show for the 'youth orchestra'.

Once you pass 40 they look at you with suspicion. What's he still doing here?

If you manage to hold on past the 50 line, the looks will become more annoying. Unbelievable - he's still about. Shouldn't he be well dead by now?

Anything after that is just a mixture of neglect, ignorance and hostility. Nobody takes any longer any notice of you once you pass 60, and at 65 they give you a free national travel pass and a free TV licence. That way they hope you'll either get lost on the buses up the country, or you may die of boredom in front of the dumb-box.

Seven years ago Fianna Fail was short of votes, so they decided to win over the 'grey power' by giving everyone over the age of 70 a free medical card.
The old folks liked that. They'd been ignored for decades, and now they felt that someone was in a sensible way looking after them.
But now the government wants to take these medical cards back, in order to save € 100 million a year. Apart from the fact that it's wrong to rob the elderly of their health care security, it's also a most idiotic political move. Only an imbecile of great incompetence and no political talent at all could come up with such an idea.

But the Irish are no fools, even though the government treats us like such. We are not playing ball with the little bully boy from Offaly and his piggy-bank carrier from Dublin!

Yesterday they tried to undo the damage with a 30-minute press conference that told us nothing but the fact that even the Taoiseach and some of his senior ministers have not a clue about this matter and how to get out of the hole they have dug for themselves and the country.

But then the people took over and completely sidelined the press conference at government buildings.

More than 5000 senior citizens, including quite a few sitting in wheelchairs or walking with Zimmerframes, crutches or sticks, assembled outside Leinster House and demonstrated against the government and the threat to their medical cards. On Monday 1800 elderly people had already voiced their anger at a meeting in Dublin, which was organised by 'Age Action', the 'trade union of the elderly'.

This is a level of activity the government never expected. And indeed such an amount of elderly people on a protest march was a novelty, never to be seen before in the Republic, or anywhere in Ireland.
The old folks did not just march, they also carried placards and shouted slogans. One of the large placards carried said: "Why don't you just shoot us? It would be cheaper!" And that sums up the general feeling of anger, fear, disappointment and distrust that the government has spread in the elderly population.

None of the senior government ministers had the guts to come out and face the demonstrators. Not only are they mean and cruel, they have also exposed themselves as spineless cowards.

Eventually a woman called Máire Hoctor was sent out. Nobody had ever heard of her before, but apparently she's one of four junior ministers in Mary Harney's Health Department, responsible for "older people". Not for old people, mind, but for "older people"... whatever that means.

But the angry pensioners were not in the mood to be lectured and patronised by a second class Fianna Fail apparatchik and told her to shut up. On Monday Hoctor's colleague John Maloney had a similar experience. He was sent to the meeting of 1800 eldery people in a Dublin church, but also was told to get lost when he tried to patronise the gathering. Selecting him as an official government representative to 'Age Action' Ireland was in fact an insult, as Maloney is junior minister for Mental Health and Disability, commonly known as 'minister for the mad and lame'.

The only mad people in this affair are the members of the government, which is a 'lame duck' administration without precedence in Ireland.

It needed the older people to come out and expose the government as the incompetent bunch of nitwits they are. Well done!

Let's have three cheers for the old folks!

They built this country, demonstrated against the Vietnam War and in support of the hunger strikes in the North, worked hard to survive and bring up children. They paid taxes all their lives and are the backbone of the state.
That they have shown once again with the meeting on Monday and the demonstration yesterday morning. Well done, indeed! I salute everyone who was there and showed great courage.

And well done also the 10,000 students who demonstrated two hours later in protest against the government and it's education policy. Next week there will be another march by angry teachers, and in the meantime the farmers have come out of the woodwork as well and contemplate a demonstration, too.

It's early days yet, but when the books will be written on our era, this day - October 22nd, 2008 - might be recognised as the first day of the second Irish Revolution.

The PD's last Reserve...

...is now being mobilised by Noel Grealish for the
final assault on universal health care in Ireland.
Mary Harney is watching from her dungeon.

Incompetence rules Ireland

We all are humans, and human beings make mistakes. That's normal.

Some of us make more mistakes, others less.

In the real world those who make more mistakes than they should pay the price for it.
They are demoted or even sacked, and then have plenty of time to ponder over their abilities and skills while signing on for the dole.

Only in Irish politics - and especially in Fianna Fail - those who make more mistakes than others are promoted. And the more mistakes they make, the higher up they get.

So we have an arrogant Taoiseach, who is nothing but a rude bully boy from the sticks who got into the Dail at the age of 24 and has not done a decent day's work since.

Mary Coughlan, the woman he chose as his Tanaiste, is Ireland's answer to Sarah Palin and the most clueless and useless politician one can imagine. Bad enough that she's a TD, even worse that she's been a minister for quite some time. But Tanaiste? That's a bad joke.

Looking through the Cabinet, there are not more than three or four people in it who are actually up to the extremely well paid ministerial job they are holding. The rest is a bunch of chancers and fools.

This morning Brian Cowen called a snap press conference "to explain changes to the rules about medical cards".
He appeared shortly before 10 o'clock at government buildings in Dublin, with Green Party leader John Gormley at his right, and Mary Harney at his left.

Never was there a more unholy trinity in Ireland than those three, trying to pull the wool over the people's eyes. But even though our politicians are fools, the people are not. So the attempt to shut the stable door after the horse had bolted was an utter failure, as you might have expected in the first place.

The current government is simply incompetent and not up to the job. They brought the budget forward to deal with the crisis, and by delivering a messy, over-bureaucratic and totally unfair budget, they created an even bigger crisis.
Now they want to talk their way out of that, and what do they do? They insult the intelligence of the majority of Irish people. And behind their backs they have at the same time the next plan ready to screw us ever more and more.

Can you still trust those clowns?

I can not, and in all fairness, I never did and have criticised the present regime for all the eleven years they have ruled us so far. I'm not in any party, and most of them are pretty useless anyway. But I'm Irish, proud of it, and take a very keen interest in the matters of my country.

The way I see it, the members of the current government are breaking their oaths of office they have to say when they are appointed by the President. They are supposed to serve Ireland and her people, defend the country and its interests, and perform their duties to the best of their abilities. On all three elements of the oath the current government is falling short.

At this stage I would not go as far as calling what they do treason, but it comes pretty close to that at times.

None of the three government parties are now led by the person who was party leader during the last general election in 2007. So the people the electorate voted for are no longer in charge, even though most of them are still in politics and in the Dail.

After all what happened in recent weeks and months, I think there is only one fair action for a government in such a deep shitehole: Call a general election! Let the people decide who they want to lead them through the crisis and out of it. Anything else is neither wise nor democratic.

The Banks will be saved

Who cares if we all go bust and burn to death,
as long as the incompetent banks are saved and
their criminal bosses can keep their millions...