The thin veneer of 'democracy' and Politicians calls for 'empowerment'.

When governments make unpopular decisions, there's always a spin doctor
to remind us that "it's a democracy", and we must accept the decisions of the elected government or vote them out in 5 years time.

That's a very thin veneer of democracy for 'the little people' not the 'big players'. 
Take for example the banks. Back in 2006, when it was known that we were already building far more houses than even the frenzied property bubble was buying up, the banks were still lobbying
heavily to get the regulations changed, so they could take even bigger and riskier gambles.
Some of the civil servants at the department of finance and staff in the financial regulator raised repeated concerns about this, but were over-ruled. The government published a bill in February 2007, and
passed in April 2007, just BEFORE the election. No empty election promises for this crowd. They got their changes without even trading a vote for it. So much for the 'currency of democracy' in Ireland.

Smoking ban or smokescreen? Beware the wedge issues that distract and divide.

What is a wedge issue?

A wedge issue is a clever distraction that is used to draw public attention away from a more serious issue.

They cause the public to spend time and energy arguing over a different topic, while the government continues to push ahead with unpopular policies.

A very recent example of this is the proposal to ban smoking in cars.  How many of you heard your local radio station discussing this, or saw articles about it in the paper, or were talking about it with colleagues or friends? The vast majority of you, right?  Why did this topic suddenly pop out of nowhere, while the country is going down the tubes and we're being hit by  cuts and charges?

Think about it, before the proposal to ban smoking in cars, if someone asked you to list the top 10 things that needed to be done to fix the country, would that ban even cross your mind?

If you got to Google News, and type in "Ireland smoking in cars" it returns over 13 MILLION results, from news articles in papers and radio websites across the english speaking world. And this is just a proposal.

Now type in 'rape crisis network ireland funding cut' and it returns 7 results. This is despite the fact that
their funding is in real danger of being cut off, and has only been extended by a short period.

Why Fine Gael's "chicken little" act doesn't add up.

Brian Hayes, junior minister for propoganda

Does this sound familiar "If we don't do this, we'll be out of the EU,
and we'll be back to the days when we had nothing"?  
Nice? Lisbon? Yes, they trotted it out then, and before, and they are reheating this "chicken-little" scare tactic once more.

The latest is junior minister Brian Hayes telling us that we must
"clear the debts or go back under Britain's skirts."
Apart from the foolishness of playing the 'Britain card' so soon after
the visit of Lizzy Windsor, the threat was rubbish.
The Minister managed of course to present the only options as paying off all the debts, including those of the zombie banks, or leaving the euro, losing our sovereignty (as if it was being bravely defended now).
This is utter crap, which is nothing new from politicians, but it is also dangerous.
This country should not pay for bankers debts, and also CANNOT pay for them, not unless it is forever strung out, by 'deals' that piece by piece privatise everything possible, while reducing living standards to something similar to Poland or Turkey.   

Facebook as an activist tool - know the limits

Summary:
Some of the best websites for free non-mainstream media (like Indymedia.ie) have lost readers to sites like Facebook. While Facebook can connect you and let you post (theoretically) to large numbers of people, note that fewer people may see it than you think. Also, in order to get change done, we have to engage with people who do not already agree with us. Facebook filters can actually lead us into more closed circles with people who agree with us. And while I do agree that blogs and Facebook can be useful for activism, never forget that we must do more than be keyboard warriors, and  get out there in the real world with real people. 
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Facebook and other online tools can be useful, if used correctly.

Ireland in Debt. Hostage to fortune, or just plain hostage?

We have been repeatedly told that "we" lost the run of ourselves, that "we" all partied, blew the boom, and now "we" are dependent on the "kindness of strangers".

This is a dangerous lie, designed to make us feel guilt rather than justifiable anger at the banking crisis.

The banks didn't fall apart because of people not paying their home mortgages, it was their reckless lending to speculators, and over-borrowing from the bond markets that landed them in trouble.  It's nothing to do with the average John or Mary on the street, the vast majority of whom continue to pay their mortgages even in these tough times.

Irish Examiner

Most of the deficit is caused by the fact that we borrowed money to help out the banks. These banks borrowed ridiculous amounts of money from the bond market in order to lend it out to the property developers who didn't know when to stop.

Fake choices, moving targets and diversions.

Some tricks to watch out for in opposing the cuts caused by the banking scam.


Fake Choices
In an attempt to fool people that 'we're all in this together' and that it's all above board and democratic, the government is providing us the opportunity to have some input into the public sector 'review' (also known as the big cuts, aka the 'tough decisions'.)

If you visit the website of the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform, you will see that Minister Howlin has a nice new section where we can all play our part in planning the cuts.

While there certainly is plenty of waste to complain about (mostly a result of corruption, appointment of incompetent cronies who couldn't run a chip shop etc.) the emphasis is on "suggestions and proposals for making further savings, and for introducing reforms and efficiencies in spending programmes and in the design of delivery of public services."
The biggest current waste of money doesn't get a mention. There s no option for 'burning bondholders'... nor of course do they propose taxing the rich, nor increasing taxes on (or nationalising) the Corrib Gas field.
You can suggest this yourself by sening an e-mail to expenditurereview@per.gov.ie

They haven't moved into a full on "choose your punishment" question... yet.

Time to stop dithering, and do what the people AND the markets want

The more it drags on the worse it gets. Ireland is facing savage cuts followed by insolvency, and the rest of the Eurozone is looking like a house of cards.


It's time this government grew a spine and did the right thing.


Burn the holders of bonds in the zombie banks. Just do it. Merkel wants us to do it, the IMF wants us to do it, the markets want certainty, so they can move on.  And everyone knows that the Irish people don't want to pay off the debts of banks, to people we didn't borrow the money from.


We've already paid out over 60 billion euros to bank bondholders, and according to figures available on namawinelake and bondwatch, there's at least another 64 billion that expires soon. How can we pay that? Borrow from the markets at 14% to pay off bonds that the state didn't even issue ? Even if the Greeks think we are sheep, we can't be THAT obedient can we?

Let's find out.

bin Laden dead, time to reflect, not just whoop it up.

I can't say I was sad or happy to hear that the US had killed Osama bin Laden.

He'd been reported dead before anyway, so I don't jump at headlines.

I think, if after 9/11, they'd treated that massive crime, as a crime and hunted the man down, caught him, or killed him resisting, I would have been happy about it.

But after 9 and a half years, during which the crimes of 9-11 were abused as cover for the slaughter of innocent Afghans and Iraqis, hearing that bin Laden is dead brought me no relief.

Certainly he didn't deserve to be free and happy, but I strongly feel that the most just solution for the 'War on Terror' would be bin Laden in handcuffs awaiting trial for mass murder, while Bush and Blair sit in the dock in the Hague.

Enough damage, you're fired, get out.

"More than enough done, only one thing left to do."

No, you may not have a national consensus government to bide time while you cover up more of the connections between your buddies and the mismanagement of the banking and building bubbles.

No, you may not continue to fudge the problems, while you lie to us, throw good money after bad, and build an Ireland where the prospects for our children looks far worse than it did for us.

No. You are not fooling us with saying it was all "international factors". It wasn't international factors that got the overpaid financial regulator to engage in light touch regulation of your banking buddies, gave tax breaks to an overheating construction sector filled with more of your buddies, and led thousands of people into a trap by talking up the economy while they were burdening themselves with crippling debt.

Fake Feminism for pro-war purposes

We are currently seeing a renewed effort to rebrand Afghanistan as a war for Human Rights, and in particular Women's rights.

The current issue of TIME Magazine has a front cover photo of an 18 year old Afghan woman called Aisha whose nose has been cut off and the headline "What happens if we leave Afghanistan".
The Editorial and other stories and interviews go on to tell us all about the horrific treatment of women by the Taliban. And I have no reason to doubt any of the claims of brutal oppression. What I don't believe is the Editorial assertion that "We do not run this story or show this image either in support of the U.S. war effort or in opposition to it."

lies about torture, and uncomfortable truths about a kidnapping case in Iraq,

I remember reading a few cases of torture where the detainees where forced to sign false confessions.

There is the case of the the Tipton Three, British Muslims, who the US said were in Afghanistan with Al Qaeda in 2000. The problem with that is, their passports, travel records, employers, all show that they didn't leave the UK in 2000. MI5 actually backs up their story.

Another example is the case of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. He was tortured by the Egyptians (one of the CIA's favourite places to 'outsource' torture).
He signed documents that were used the sole source to "prove" a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. This was then used in a speech by Bush in 2002 to persuade Congress to get behind the invasion of Iraq, then just a few months away. Powell also repeated the same garbage at the UN.

He later said, it was false, and he signed it so they would stop torturing him.
He claimed that his interrogators staged a mock burial, locking him in a box for 17 hours, and after they let him back up, they punched and beat him until he agreed to sign the detailed confession.

The only people who benefited from this torture, were the ones who wanted a convincing argument to attack Iraq, and didn't care that the argument was a work of fiction.

Torture is terrorism. It's politically motivated and has nothing to do with saving lives.

Wikileaks criticised by the White House.

Wikileaks releases over 90,000 classified reports from Afghanistan, a war that's being going badly (as EVERY attempt in history to occupy that country has done) and where the media reports are about as open and informative as the burkas some of the women are forced to wear by local fanatics.

The cables paint a picture of a different war from the re-assurances we've been spoon-fed. Some hints of the reality came out from McChrystal's statements about civilian casualties and some of his staff remarks that they are 'losing this f*c&ing thing'.
Reports available from Wikileaks and the Guardian Newspaper contain accounts of Polish troops raining mortars on a wedding party, of British troops killing civilians, of collusion between the ISI and Taliban, of the Taliban shooting down helicopters with anti-aircraft missiles, and of US troops killing and maiming the locals. In one case, it gives a report of an American base that was over-run by insurgents, abandoned by the surviving soldiers.

New Dictionary definitions thanks to NAMA and FF

Dictionary of NAMA.

Bailout (verb, noun)

1. To remove water from a flooded area, such as Cork or Galway after a river breaks its banks.

2. To put taxpayers money into a bank after it has been broken by unregulated greed.

Chuggers - Charity Muggers. No thanks.

"Chuggers. " Either sounds like a theme bar or an insult. I'm sure you've met them. The practiced smile, extended hand and polished sales pitch.
"Hey, you look like a decent person, you wouldn't refuse to help (orphans, AIDS victims, the blind... etc)"
Usually young and energetic, and dressed in a bright uniform, with a clipboard full of forms ready to take your bank details.
Now, I've worked for charities AND I've worked for banks, and I would not give someone a form that contained all my banking details AND my signature. The potential for fraud is too high.
One Chugger tried to reassure me by saying there's the same info on a cheque. Well, that's why I don't have a cheque book.
I ask them to give me the form so I can set it up myself. Nope. I figure they're working on commission. Well, if they care more about their commission than the people they're supposed to be helping, they can take their fake 'buddy smile' somewhere else. I'll donate without their 'help'.

Mayor Kiely does it again. Jail the beggars!!!!

According to the front page of this week's Limerick Chronicle, our fearless Mayor is jumping to our rescue from another great peril.
He wants new laws brought in to give powers to Gardaí to stop people begging on the streets of Limerick City. He has the backing of the manager of Brown Thomas!
The mayor says that he had been approached by three beggars and found them "a complete annoyance to shoppers and it is time something was done about them".

I'd also prefer if there were no beggars so what's the wonderful cure, Mayor?
Mayor Kiely intends talking to the city manager and the Gardaí to see if new bye-laws can be brought in to prevent begging, and urges the TDs to see if legislation is needed.

Really? To do what? Tell them it's illegal, move on or be arrested? So that they can end up in court and prison (costing over 300 /day and being around criminals and drugs in our already overcrowded prison system).

In Limerick city, we have beggars, some are simply homeless, some are Romanian gypsies, begging while selling old copies of Big Issues, others are homeless because they are addicted to alcohol or another drug.

Secret Banking Inquiry? Shows how obedient we are that they even propose it.

So, Fianna Fáil wants to hold the Bank Inquiry in secret?
Of course they do. Not for any decent reason (to get more evidence)
but the usual formula;

• to control what is made available to the public
• as an excuse not to answer questions ("that's under review by the inquiry, I wouldn't like to prejudice that process")
• and when the whitewash is done, to point at the conclusions that there were systemic faults but no personal blame can be attached to anyone, unless they've already been laid low enough to be used as sacrificial lambs.
  

And the Irish public will probably let them do it too.

Never mind that the 'Financial Regulator' didn't do his job -

• he carried out less than 25% of the checks he should have
• he didn't check that the banks were being prudent (and before being regulator, he worked in the prudence section of the Central Bank)

He got a lovely big payoff when he retired, rather than being fired for incompetence and lack of productivity. Was it hush money?
Obviously the Minister for Finance and the Government allowed this situation to go on, because in the short term it created jobs, and grasping politicians always think in the short term. Let the next govt deal with the burst bubble, and we'll blame it on 'external factors'.
We know it wasn't just external factors.

Voting Fraud in Ireland? What would "Wheeliebingate' mean for Lisbon 2 vote?

WHEELIEBINGATE
=========================

An angry young Irish politician is outraged over the lack of progress in the investigation into the incident known as 'Wheeliebingate' - where 3,000 of his votes in last June’s European Elections were incorrectly attributed to another in the Ireland North West constituency.


MARGIN

Not a big deal, you say? Consider these facts;
The Irish Divorce Referendum of 1995 the deciding margin was 9, 114 votes.
If the Republic of Ireland is the only country to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, that will utterly change the nature of the European Union for all of its 500 million inhabitants.

Now Irish voters are being warned to be concerned whether their votes during the upcoming Lisbon Treaty Referendum will be allocated correctly.
28 year old resident of Carndonagh, Co. Donegal, Fiachra Ó Luain has this week written to the Republic of Ireland’s Top Cop, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, complaining that the police officer put in charge of the investigation, was the same Garda who was in charge of the European election count when the votes originally went missing. Ó Luain has complained that so far, the Garda in question has been professionally inert in his attempts to gather further statements and investigate the matter.

Adding changes to Lisbon AFTER voting Yes?

So, let's get this straight, it's the same Treaty. They promise to fix it, AFTER we vote.

Wow, the best 'election promise' yet. I must try this scam meself.

I have a car to sell, I bring it to you, you look at it, and say no thanks.

A short time later,I come back uninvited with the same car. I'm not happy you said no, and the other guys in the car dealership are giving me a hard time. So here I am, with the same car, right down to the fluffy dice.

- Ah, go on buy it.
"But there's things wrong with it" You tell me.
- I'll fix them sure I will.
"Okay, go on fix them".
- Ah, just buy it first, and I'll fix it later.
"and is it in the contract of sale that you would fix them later?"
- Ah, no. Trust me. I'm a salesman. I wouldn't lie.

Wouldn't your reply be along the lines of
"Exactly how thick do you think I am? Get out, take your dodgy car. I don't want to see it again" ?

Should they even be allowed re-run the Lisbon referendum?

A lot of people feel it's undemocratic, even a lot of those who voted "Yes" the first time.
Of course some people, when a vote doesn't go their way, welcome the chance to just vote again, ignoring the fact that it's not democratic.

Some argue that the government has a mandate to re-run it, supposedly cos they support it as do most MEPs we elected. (discussed that in a previous post)
But that's irrelevant. As a result of the Crotty Case, the decision to ratify Treaties like this is not a decision for the government, but one for the people to decide by referendum.
So, it was our decision and we took it, looked at it, and said 'No'.

A lot of people on the pro-Lisbon side, have been arguing that the government has every right to keep pursuing a policy of asking us again, "because circumstances have changed" or in some cases, blatantly stating that they should ask until we say 'yes', because really, we're better off saying 'yes'. Cos obviously, the politicians know better, and the referendum is really just supposed to us giving a rubber stamp to the government's decision, and the expensive voting day is just down to that gurrier Crotty...

First off, apart from being insulting, that's also very dangerous for democracy, and it's bigger than the Lisbon Treaty problem itself.

Let's knuckle down to the hard work for 2nd Lisbon rejection

We can expect plenty of hype, scaremongering and bullying from the YES side.
There will be lots of doom and gloom threated about the consequences of a NO vote.
Of course, we'll still be in the EU, and we'll still be an equal partner to the other countries and they'll just have to work with us, but it's amazing how many people seem to think otherwise.

And of course they have the recession to help fuel that fear, and dangle the idea that the Lisbon Treaty will fix it.

They can point to the elimination of Declan Ganley (the fake figurehead of the NO vote) as some sort of evidence that people have changed their minds. When of course, we want neither "Lisbon nor Libertas" and Declan Ganley's vote on Lisbon still carries the same weight as yours, mine, Brian Cowen's or any Irish MEP.

We'll hear loads about the 'mandate' for the No side being lost.
Mandate? Isn't that something you give to representatives when they vote on an issue instead of the public? This is a referendum, we all get to vote. We're not delegating it.
We have to get that idea into people's heads, it's YOUR VOTE, not theirs, and their just ticked off that they can't use their whip system to get people to vote in line, like they do in the Dáil.