here we go....

BERLIN Jan 12, 2006 — The British, French and German foreign ministers said Thursday that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program had reached a "dead end" and the Islamic republic should be referred to the U.N. Security Council.

Biggest spenders on lobbying in Ireland

1998-2004

1)	Norbrook Laboratories Ltd.			$260,000
2)	University College Dublin	-	-	$60,000
3)	Derry Investment Initiatives	-	-	$20,000
4)	Liberty Mobile Holdings Co.			$20,000
5)	North of Ireland Free Trade Initiative	-	-	Less than $10,000

From http://www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/profile.aspx?act=countries&co=ie

William Blums anti-empire report

On December 7, the All Things Considered feature of National Public Radio had a report about the "honor" killing of a young woman in Iraq who had been kidnapped. She had to be killed by her family because of the mere possibility of her having been raped by her captors; the family had to protect its honor; a much loved and admired daughter she was, but still, her cousin shot her dead. It had nothing to do with Islam, the story said, it was a "tribal custom."

This report was followed immediately by Col. Gary Anderson, US Marines retired, arguing that the United States has to stay the course in Iraq. He's concerned that bin Laden et al. will think the United States is "a quitter." He says that leaving now would "dishonor" the Iraqis and he's apparently prepared to continue killing any number of the very same Iraqi people to preserve their honor. Anthropologists report that this seems to be some kind of "tribal custom" in Anderson's country.

Presumably it doesn't bother the good colonel that a large majority of the informed people of the world think the United States is a murderous imperialist power -- he's probably proud of that -- but a "quitter"? Over his dead body. Or someone's dead body.

Bush Impeachment Defense Memo Leaked, President Expects to Use Idiot Defense :)

With the first calls for impeachment circulating in Congress and across the country, President George W. Bush and his advisors met in Washington over the weekend to map a defense based on the so-called "idiot defense," sometimes referred to as the "I was out of the loop" method of shifting blame to others.

Spurious attempt to tie Iran, Iraq to nuclear arms plot bypassed

Several U.S. and foreign intelligence sources, along with investigators, say an Iranian exile with ties to Iran-Contra peddled a bizarre tale of stolen uranium to governments on both sides of the Atlantic in the spring and summer of 2003.

The Impeachment of George W. Bush

Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush--not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.

A sad day today.

I had the misfortune to come across some right wing Irish organisatons and blogs today. I was blissfully unaware that there were organisations such as the Freedom Institute that promote US policy in Ireland without realising that US policy itself is more or less determined by a cabal of Neo-Con's.
Some of the reports on the Freedom Institute are deluded! I felt sick and had to give up reading after I came across the report on Iran (note the lack of references for his points)
The report has this corker of a line: 'What should certainly be worrying is the fact that the stockpiles of nuclear weapons in Iraq were discovered only after the 1991 Gulf War'
So Iraq had stockpiles of nuclear weapons? Thats certainly news to the rest of the world..

And here's a question? Why does Ireland need a 'Freedom Institute'? Someone should inform the knee-jerk conservatives there that Ireland is a democracy and we don't need anymore right wing lies.

Rumsfeld's Archipelago of Gulags

For four years Guantánamo’s high profile obscured a far shadier world of US-sponsored interrogation chambers around the world, writes Clive Stafford Smith. Only now is the world finally asking about the archipelago of US prisons around the world, and the fleet of CIA aircraft ferrying prisoners from one torture chamber to the next.

And the war drums keep beating...

Israel is updating plans for a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities which could be launched as soon as the end of March, according to military and intelligence sources.

Iran has every right to develop whatever it wants. Even if it wants nuclear weapons. Considering the aggressiveness coming from Israel and the fact that Israel has up to 200 nuclear warheads it is complete hypocrisy on behalf of the main stream media to denounce Iran.

Of course ideally no one should posses a weapon of mass destruction but why should Israel/US hold all the aces?

Rove Implicated In Santa Identity Leak :)

WASHINGTON, DC—The recent leak revealing Santa Claus to be "your mommy and daddy" has been linked to President Bush's senior political adviser and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove.

New Study Shows Unborn Babies Could Be Harmed by Genetically Engineered Foods

Mortality rate for new-born rats six times higher when mother was fed on a diet of modified soya

Iraq war could cost 2 trillion!

Three years ago, as America was preparing to go to war in Iraq, there were few discussions of the likely costs. When Larry Lindsey, President Bush’s economic adviser, suggested that they might reach $200 billion, there was a quick response from the White House: that number was a gross overestimation.

Points to note:
Lindsey was fired by Bush, because his estimate was three times higher than the $70 billion guess that the Bushcons used to mislead America about the burden of the war.
Also they do not account for the costs that the war on terror has cost to civil liberties,if it is possible to put a figure on freedom.

How the hell do you carry out a war on terror anyway?Its a war on a freakin word! Arent wars usually fought against countries or people?Correction:Arent wars usually fought against poor countries or poor people?? Screw picking a fight with a rich country that can defend itself! That just isnt the American way.

Canadian Child Kept In Solitary Confinement For 4 Years To Be Tried By US As War Criminal In First Such Action In Modern History

Only 15 at the time U.S. troops took him prisoner, for the past three years Khadr has been held in solitary confinement, virtually incommunicado, without charge, and subject to torture and abuse during continuous interrogation by his captors.

How To Beat Government Internet Censorship

Many people in the world, particularly those living in China and certain parts of the Middle East, have restricted internet access or have their rights to free speech stopped by government censors. There are, however, many organisations who can help these people beat such oppressive systems and here are links to their websites

Bush Advisor Says President Has Legal Power to Torture Children

Question is: Does it surprise you that they would torture a child? Considering all we have heard in the press lately re renditions and secret torture jails it doesnt surprise me. Whatever next??

Cassel: If the President deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?
Yoo: No treaty.
Cassel: Also no law by Congress. That is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo.

The Whitewashing of Ariel Sharon

From the beginning to the end of his career, Sharon was a man of ruthless and often gratuitous violence.

A scary thought..

Interesting article from The Hindu magazine about Ireland:

"Ireland is a paradise built on the back of multi-national companies that flock to the country for its 12.5 per cent corporate tax — the lowest in the EU. But the low tax regime has also earned the country the rather negative tag of a tax heaven with global companies using their Irish operations to maximise profits. The future of the Irish success story is predicated on the stability of Ireland's relationship with the MNCs."

Arms trade nets Irish firms €300m since 1997

And we're supposed to live in a neutral country...oh and 900 US soldiers a day passing through Shannon doesn't help either!

From Irish Examiner:
"Irish-based companies exported €30 million worth of military equipment to the international arms trade last year
It brings the total weapons-related sales to over €300m since the Coalition came to power in 1997. "

And the cuddly Michael D!:
“The Government has consistently ignored the advice of independent consultants, Amnesty International, and a report by Forfas report two years ago commissioned by Tanaiste Mary Harney, that identified serious gaps in procedures for the monitoring and control of military exports from Ireland. Our control systems lag seriously behind those of major arms exporters such as the UK."

Merkel criticises Guantanamo Bay

Given that she has taken to plagarising from speeches by Ronald Reagan(see below) I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the German Chancellor was critical of the existence of Guantanamo. I had thought that she would be toeing the US line in anyway possible and become just another lapdog for the Bushcon's. But we'll watch to see how critical she is when she meets Bush at the end of the week, I do think she is playing up to the voters at home and as soon as she meets with Bush she will become very quiet..



In a live TV debate with Schröder a few days before the last German election Ms Merkel looked into the cameras with a warm smile and declared: "In two weeks you will make your election decision. Perhaps it will help if you answer a few questions when you make your decision: Is our country better off than it was seven years ago? Is growth higher? Is unemployment lower? Is there less bureaucracy? Are our pensions and health care system secure?'

"If you answer all those questions 'Yes', then I think it's obvious whom you've decided to vote for. But if you have doubts, if you don't want this course to continue, then you have a choice with the CDU and CSU [the CDU's Bavarian sister party]."

In the 1980 debate with President Carter, Reagan closed with the famous statement: "Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls. It might be well if you would ask yourself: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we're as strong as we were four years ago?

"If you answer all of those questions 'Yes', then I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don't agree, if you don't think that this course that we've been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have."

yet more Political Correctness gone mad!

Some people get wound up over the smallest of things. 'Working like a black' is a saying that has been in use in Ireland for only god knows how long.

And so what if a FF senator glibly makes a remark that praises her election team for helping her secure the nomination as a candidate for the next general election, saying they had "worked like blacks".

It was not a racist slur as the Residents against Racism suggest. Us Irish have always used language in a colourful way and I pray it remains that way without fear of the PC brigade getting all uppity.

Ahern has full confidence in McDowell

Does +=?

Nice to know even though our Justice Minister (the love child of Cheney and Rove?) has carried out what can only be called a political assassination on Frank Connolly and the CPI that Bertie is standing by his man. See article under News Highlights.

So its ok for a Minister to use his Dail privileges to denounce the head of an independent group,get their funding withdrawn,hand over a Garda file to a newspaper(which funnily enough had been very supportive of McD) and then Bertie says thats ok! What does McD have on Bertie,lol!

What threat, other than revealing the truth on issues it may investigate in the public interest, can the CPI pose?

It does seem strange though that a party with less than 4% of the vote can have such high profile Ministers in office or maybe I'm being subversive in my thoughts. Better not tell McD or who knows what he will do!

Fingers crossed in the next election that McD and his PD cohorts are sent into the history books.

Well worth a read

Fisk does his usual cutting through the bull in these excellently written articles:

The Quiet Death Of Freedom
"Last October, an American surgeon, loved by his patients, was punished with 22 years in prison for founding a charity, Help the Needy, which helped children in Iraq stricken by an economic and humanitarian blockade imposed by America and Britain. In raising money for infants dying from diarrhoea, Dr Rafil Dhafir broke a siege which, according to Unicef, had caused the deaths of half a million under the age of five. The then Attorney-General of the United States, John Ashcroft, called Dr Dhafir, a Muslim, a "terrorist", a description mocked by even the judge in his politically-motivated, travesty of a trial. "


Rather than read the usual main stream media rubbish on Sharon read the article below,bit long but no evaluation of Sharon can be complete without looking at the Sabra and Chatila massacres.
Ariel Sharon
"Israel's Prime Minister was a ruthless military commander responsible for one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century, argues Robert Fisk. President George Bush acclaims Ariel Sharon as 'a man of peace', yet the blood that was shed at Sabra and Chatila remains a stain on the conscience of the Zionist nation. As Sharon lies stricken in his hospital bed, his political career over, how will history judge him?"

mirror mirror

"What no one seemed to notice was the ever widening gap between the government and the people. And it became always wider.....the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think....for people who did not want to think anyway gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about.....and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated.....by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing,
little by little, all around us.....

"Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'.....must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing.....Each act is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next.
"You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even talk, alone.....you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes.
"That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves, when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed.

"You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father.....could never have imagined."

Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1938-45
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955)

Looks like Irish firms may have been throwing around cash at lobbyists in the US. See article to the right from todays Eircom.net.
And even a Dermot Desmond backed company are in on it. E-Spatial develop 'geospatial technology' ,whatever that means. Quite scary if you read this though: E-Spatial