New Politics for Ireland

If Ireland continues on the current path it will be the far right that exploit the weakness. A new politcal force is needed that is not led by a Declan Ganley type or a Denis O'Brien type nor a Gerry Adams type nor an Enda Kenny who is partner in our destruction with Merkel and Sarkozy nor Michael Martin who is lumbered with the baggage of his past.

The disillusioned of all the main parties and the wise of all quarters of society must join forces

Irish for Change!
Ireland for the people ? All the people.

Lets get the show moving
this blog is now a vehicle for change

Enda Kenny goes against the cause of Ireland VOTE NO FOR A FUTURE

Enda Kenny despite the reality proudly displays thousands of euros of wasted funds on his posters which are to encourage the people of Ireland to vote for a constitutional change that will hard wire austerity into the reality of future life in Ireland in our Nation's constitution.
Enda Kenny takes this step despite the fact that across Europe governments are falling as a result of his political partners Merkel and Sarkozy plans for Europe. By Next Sunday Sarkozy will be confined to history and even if by a miracle he survives the French presidential vote he has pledged to hold a referendum on the treaty in France which will not pass.

The people of Ireland have a chance to say they have had enough austerity, enough failed politics and enough bailouts of banks at the cost of health services, pensioners, workers and social services and welf


VOTE NO FOR A FUTURE
VOTE NO BECAUSE YOU CAN 

Hollande says Ireland does not have to vote YES

Ireland must vote No

Austerity Treaty whitewash website funded by Taxpayers

The Austerity treaty website is a whitewash by the Irish Governmnet with public funds paying for far right Sarkozy partners Fine Gael and their Labour minions http://www.stabilitytreaty.ie/

Revolution now
VOTE NO because you can
Use your voice tell the government you are not dementedly acquiescent.
remember that France's new president  Hollande will not ratify this treaty

Nain Sarkozy to FN " I will stick a melon up my arse if you vote for me"

French soon to be ex president has promised Front National voters that he will stick a melon up his arse on live TV if they vote for him on May 6.

Ok he did not quite say that but he is promising a racist reach around if the 6 million Front National voters vote for him.

Sarkozy even said he was pro worker despite increasing the unemployed by 1 million he attacks social welfare. If he were to be elected again the people he will put out of work can expect what? less benefits?

Sarkozy should not wait only a stunt like stuffing a melon up his arse on live TV before the election might save him.

Bye Bye  nain.

Ganley and Brevick one recruited True Finns the other was promoted by True Finns

How much healthcare and education would France and the Uks military spending provide?

Britain spent $62.7bn and France $62.5bn in 2011 on arms and armies.


How much healthcare education, employment and social programs of housing would that have provided? Answers on postcards to your local MP, newspaper and in the case of France presidential candidates.

Lt Col Shalom Eisner of Israel Defense forces shame on your Nazi style thuggery

The people of Israel will know that this blog has been at the forefront of exposing the dark face of global racism, neo Nazi thuggery  and Antisemitism. Therefore the people of Israel should take note that this blogger finds the actions of Lt Col Shalom Eisner reprehensible and unacceptable. Israel cannot have its cake and eat it any more. Too many crimes against humanity and injustices including imprisonmnet without due process are occurring. 
Whereas this blogger will continue to expose Antisemitism globally and campaign against its emergence in new European political movements rest assured that Nazi style thuggery by the IDF will also be exposed and publicised.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/16/israeli-soldier-clubs-danish-protester

To the family and friends of Lt Col Shalom Eisner you should note that this man you know is a viscous thug unfit to wear a uniform even that of janitor a a hog farm.

Murder apologist decries McCarthyism in Irish media

Alan Shatter a supporter of genocide in the middle east decries what he terms "McCarthyism" in the Irish media over his alledged cronyism with the disgraced TD Michael Lowry who recieved nearly 1 million euro from business man and political money giver Denis O'Brien.

Shatter who has been defended by this blogger in the past from anti Semites might take note ...this blogger does not take kindly to false metaphors.

Resign now Shatter and go promote your friend's genocidal behavior elsewhere than the pages of the Irish Times and the Irish Dail. Corruptions stench is licking at your feet.

If you met with the disgraced (well you obviously did as he is your pal)  Lowry admit it and stop being a petulant pup.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0412/breaking49.html

Resign now you and the other Fine Gael members who support Lowry and yet condemn Bertie Ahren and Charles Haughey must realise that the Irish Poeple see all corrupt politicians  in the same light.... the scum of the earth...Go figure.
Resign and go retire. You would be welcomed by your paymasters in Galilee

Nicolas Sarkozy at the funeral of French Resistance hero Lucie Aubrac 2007

Her husband

Raymond Aubrac died today aged 97 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/11/french-resistance-raymond-aubrac-dies

Council of Europe commitment to human rights in doubt after ruling in Abu Hamsa case

The European Court of Human Rights has cast the entire notion of a Council of Europe and what it stands for into doubt today with its controversial ruling that allows for  sending people not charged with violent crimes to a potential brutal regime of solitary confinement for life , without human contact or exercise,  in USA super max prisons.

The European Court of Human Rights has allowed for people to be sent for permanent incarceration in isolation, in a concrete room, 7ft by 12ft , where the only light comes from a 10cm by 40 cm "window" and all exercise must be in a concrete bunker like swimming pool after invasive and  sexually abusive strip searches. The cells and exercise facilities are designed to disorientate the prisoner and no maximum tariff is set for sentences.

Most prisoners spend up to 23 hours a day in their cells, every minute, every meal. The window in their cell is blocked so they can't see the mountains. Inmates can watch a 12" black and white television or read books to pass the time. And if they behave, they may get limited exercise in a one-man recreation pen. 

 The fact that the European Court of Human Rights fails to regard such incarceration conditions as a violation of human rights or indeed torture must be regarded in the most serious way as a violation of the notion that the European Union is an institution worthy of support or indeed continuation.

The fact that the Council of Europe now allows for barbaric treatment of human beings to be legal negates the ethos of European Convention on Human Rights

There is now a determined rot at the heart of Europe both economically and legally.

Life in the prison the  Council of Europe  says is humane includes humiliating strip searches on each movement of a prisoner even to exercise. eg

Yousef has lived in the ADX for 11 years, sacrificing to live by his own code. "Something as simple as recreating, he would have to be strip searched to go recreate. He chose not to do that because of his belief that it would be inappropriate for us to show his body, or see his body," Hood says.
"And so he stays in the cell?" Pelley asks.
"Never been out, to my knowledge," Hood says

and forced feeding60 Minutes has been told that there have been frequent hunger strikes among the Islamic terrorist inmates inside Supermax and to keep the inmates alive there are often force feedings. That's when an inmate is restrained and liquid nourishment is poured down a tube in his nose. We're told there have been about a dozen hunger strikers and one of them used to be Osama bin Laden's secretary. 
Former Warden Robert Hood told us that he supervised many of these feedings. "I probably conducted, authorized, conducted 350, maybe 400 of involuntary feedings. Again, not…individuals, because you could have one person, three meals a day for, you know, two months. That adds up," he tells Pelley

This is what the European Court of Human Rights now deems humane. Some are even further detained without even human contact of any kind because of "a look in their eyes"

As strict as that seems, 60 Minutes has been told there is an even higher level of confinement, sort of an "ultramax" inside Supermax. It's a group of cells where there's virtually no human contact, not even with guards and there are only two prisoners are considered so dangerous that they're locked in this place that's known as "Range 13."
One of them is Tommy Silverstein, who killed a prison guard; the other is World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef. 
Warden Hood says Yousef is on Range 13 for just one reason. "He has that Charlie Manson look," Hood says. "He just has the eyes. He has some charisma about him. He's in uniform. But you know that there's a powerful person that you're looking at."
"You didn't want him in a place where he could give anybody any orders?" Pelley asks.
"True," Hood agrees.

All contact with the outside world and family is rescinded  as in the case of a prisoner never tried for the death of his cellmate in another prison but transferred to ADX Florence, Colorado, 

 Linderman had been in another prison for robbery until his cellmate there was found stabbed to death. Linderman wasn't tried for the murder but they transferred him to the ADX or Supermax. He was released, robbed a bank, and 60 Minutes found him in a Washington State prison.
"How is the ADX different than other lockups you've been in?" Pelley asks.
"Your connections to the outside. Your family. Through phone calls, visits, all those are pretty much stopped at the ADX. There's no comparison," Linderman explains.
"You talk about the brutality of isolation, what do you mean by that?" Pelley asks.
"It breaks down the human spirit. It breaks down the human psyche. It breaks your mind," Linderman says. 

The fact that a European Court of Human Rights can  deem it correct for a person allegedly a fund raiser, a preacher and others against whom there is not even a charge of violence against, to be locked down for their lives in such conditions and deem them to be humane is  beyond being a cause of great concern. It is  a reason to abandon the entire  Council of Europe !

There is nothing to be gained by being part of inhumanity.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-3357727.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/10/abu-hamza-extradited-us-court

According to The Guardian

Prison reformers have long objected to the prolonged use of solitary confinement at the ADX, which in some cases has lasted for more than a decade. David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's national prison project, described the conditions as "extraordinarily harsh".
"Solitary confinement, even for a few months, let alone for more than a decade, can be shattering," he said

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/10/abu-hamza-isolation-supermax-prison?newsfeed=true


For this blogger this decision by the European Court of Human Rights indicates that  stronger and more proactive intercession in the political sphere is necessary.
If the European Union has decided to abrogate and turn its back on basic Human Rights then it is the right of all European  citizens to repudiate and resist by all mean necessary the power of injustice and unjust legal practices and decisions.

It is clear that the  Council of Europe  cannot have it both ways. Either it protects its citizens and  residents from abuses or it abrogates its legal rights and can expect  its citizens to defend themselves proactively against torture and violations of human rights which are now allowed by a decision of the  second  highest court in the system created by the European Convention of Human Rights. .

Time to stretch necks? No off with their heads

It is obvious that the Irish people can take no more so what are our options? One suggestion is quite humane and a fine way of dealing with corrupt elites

Boycott Fine Gael and Labour and their supporters who deny cancer treatment and pain relief to the sick

While Fine Gael and Labour are happy to hand the disgraced billionaire Denis O'Brien taxpayer's companies like Siteserv at knockdown prices  they would deny a poor man his pain treatment at St Vincent's hospital because "he is from Donegal" not "Dublin".


If they can treat one man with cancer thus then before too long it will be you, your child or parent that this despicable shower will deny medical treatment to.

It behooves the Irish people to deny items such as fuel. food and companionship to TDs, senators, party members and cadre of Fine Gael and Labour  and revile them publicly at Mass, in the streets, in the supermarkets and shops, at marts, garages and in all public places.
. Shun the supporters of this Fine Gael and Labour.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cancer-patient-refused-specialist-pain-treatment-due-to-cutbacks-189758.html#.T4C5HWgFll4.twitter

They are immoral pain givers let them feel pain.

Fine Gael and Labour deny Cancer patients pain relief

Having stated that cancer care must be centralised, a Donegal man has been left in agony because the Labour / Fine Gael government have withdrawn his health care to him because he is not from Dublin or Leinster. It is time inflict serious pain on the rats in power in Ireland.

For a start a boycott on providing all services to health minister Dr James O'Rielly should be instigated followed by a withdrawal of all services to all government personnel.This may be followed by a boycott of all party members of the two leading government parties.

If there were any justice then TDs from the leading parties should be subjected to an equal measure of pain per week as Mr Thomas Keaveney.


The time for revolution is NOW


http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cancer-patient-refused-specialist-pain-treatment-due-to-cutbacks-189758.html#.T4C5HWgFll4.twitter

Cancer patient refused specialist pain treatment due to cutbacks
By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Saturday, April 07, 2012
A man who survived cancer three times in the last decade has been told he can no longer receive specialist pain treatment at a major hospital due to HSE and Department of Health cutbacks.
Thomas Keaveney, aged 40, from Lifford in Co Donegal, revealed the situation in a letter sent to Health Minister Dr James Reilly and seen by the Irish Examiner.
The father-of-two was first diagnosed with seminoma/testicular cancer at Letterkenny General Hospital in 2001 before being referred to St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin for specialist care.
Just two years later he was again diagnosed with cancer, this time of the stomach glands and chest glands, and returned to St Vincent’s for chemotherapy.
Despite the high-quality care he received, in 2005 the stomach and chest cancer relapsed and were joined by a cancerous tumour in the base of Mr Keaveney’s neck, meaning he had to return to St Vincent’s for aggressive chemotherapy.
After this treatment ended on Dec 27, 2005, Mr Keaveney suffered related pains in his neck and back and began specialist pain treatment at St Vincent’s from 2006 until this week.
However, despite the delicate nature of the support — which involves inserting needles which burn off the damaged areas’ nerve endings to provide short-term pain relief — on Tuesday, he was told he could no longer receive this support.
Explaining the sudden change, a member of pain specialist consultant Dr Declan O’Keeffe’s team told Mr Keaveney this was because of HSE and Department of Health budget cut-related changes which mean hospitals cannot provide the care to patients outside their catchment area.
The only catchment area Mr Keaveney lives in is for Letterkenny General and Sligo General — neither of which have the necessary specialist services he needs.
"I was taken into an office and a doctor proceeded to ask me how I was feeling. I said I was glad to be there because I was in a lot of pain.
"At this point her facial expression changed and she began to tell me that, due to cutbacks and more so that because I was not in the catchment area, they could no longer offer me the procedures," the letter to Mr Reilly stated.
"Dr O’Keeffe confirmed the above and went on to state that he too was upset to tell his patients this; that his role was to monitor his patients and administer appropriate medical treatment, not to tell them that they could no longer receive this due to money issues," it added.
Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Keaveney said neither he nor the hospital knows where he will now receive the support needed, if it is provided.
A spokesperson for St Vincent’s said the case will be raised with the hospital’s board on Monday week in an attempt to find a solution, but stressed that the facility currently has no option other than imposing HSE and Department of Health policies.
"We have been told by the HSE that we will not be funded for treating patients from outside our catchment area, and that the HSE funding provided is to be dedicated to the care of St Vincent’s catchment area patients only, except in the case of the national designated liver transplant programme," he said.
"St Vincent’s has pursued this approach with deep regret, but it has no option."
A spokesperson for the minister declined to comment on the specific case.

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cancer-patient-refused-specialist-pain-treatment-due-to-cutbacks-189758.html#.T4C5HWgFll4.twitter#ixzz1rOooNDqH

Siteserv 60 million offer made formal shareholder proxy votes 98.4 % for O Brien deal'? and Liam Lawlor is dead

Fine Gael seem determined to allow Denis O'Brien, who owes Anglo hundreds of millions to run away with a gem company Siteserv that has had a 110 million write down from the  IBRC  aka Anglo Irish Bank despite a better offer.
 According to  Ray Neilson of Altrad who are offering the 60 million, the votes at today's shareholders EGM were proxy votes mostly cast before his firms offer. It must be remembered that Alstad were repeatedly told the company was not for sale from last September top March this year.
 The sale to Denis O'Briens Isle of Man company was announced on March 16. If the Irish government allow this sale to proceed then they are threading on the patience of the Irish people. 


It must be noted that despite a write down of 110 million Siteserv shareholders are to be allowed keep 5 million from the sale . However if the taxpayer were to get the  60 million offer the loss via Anglo is reduced to 90 million. Go figure whats going on here . Enda Kenny buddy sweetheart deal? Corruption? Note Denis O'Brien and Anglo debt of his own below


NB http://dublinopinion.com/2012/01/17/is-denis-obrien-irelands-biggest-idiot/ The story of O’Brien owing money to Anglo appeared in the UK edition of theSunday Times this week. It mentions how he borrowed 510 million to invest in Independent News & Media and then lost 500 million when IN&M got into financial difficulty in 2008 and was forced to do a debt for equity swap when it couldn’t pay up for bonds when they became due. Of course he still owes the millions he borrowed. Here’s the quote from the article which was provided by Broadsheet.ie:

“His most painful investment has been Independent News & Media, whose stable includes the Irish Independent. Between 2006 and 2009 he built a 26% stake at a cost of more than €510m. During that period the group’s newspapers ran articles critical of him.

He engaged in a bitter wrangle over the company’s direction with Sir Tony O’Reilly, the long-time chief executive. O’Brien eventually won his campaign to force out O’Reilly, who retired in 2009.

Financially, however, the business was a disaster for him. The publisher was hit hard by the economic slowdown and in 2009 it was forced into a debt-for-equity swap that virtually wiped out investors.

O’Brien, still the biggest single investor, was left nursing a €500m paper loss. Worse, he would have to look elsewhere to repay Barclays Bank and Anglo Irish Bank, which funded the share spree.”

Looks like the Irish people are getting shafted without a reach around.

Libertas the Return part III

Libertas are back...again...or is that again and  again and again. I  heard Declan Ganley on RTE radio 1 Drivetime today, he was using the word we a lot, when asked who "we" were  he agreed that "we" meant Libertas.
For the third time Ganley sees an election as too much pr and potential fund fundraising  to pass up and he is dusting off the bat cape. Whereas his real companies declare losses his faux political ones make profit. Lots of donated cash slushing around. It is no doubt one of the reason Deco cant make up his mind on which way Libertas will vote.....principle dollar, principle dollar principle ...dollar Opps the daisy has landed on dollar again (I know in movie metaphors I am referring to Frankenstein not Nosferatu) but still.
Jesus wept.

A Cuban voice on Che and Galway who is not a hysterical right winger

Declan Ganley and the hard right cabal he has mustered to try and influence Galway Council over plans to put a up statute of Che should read the below. Cuban academic, Manuel Barcia, Deputy Director at the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Leeds and Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the School of Modern Languages and Culture puts some historical and personal context on the ahistorical spin of Harvard's Prof Eire. The below was originally published by Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/2012329972089727.html

Leeds, United Kingdom - The normally peaceful city of Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, has recently been making the news due to the polemical decision of its city council to build a monument to Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The decision has been based on the fact that Guevara, a descendant of the Lynch clan, was himself partly Irish. This attempt to celebrate Guevara's Irish heritage has been met with resistance in some conservative quarters within Ireland, and subsequently in the United States.

First, Irish businessman and campaigner Declan Ganley suggested the monument would drive away tourism from Galway - an unlikely outcome, as it is well-known that Che Guevara's image is found among the most popular merchandise in the world. Then, Yale-based academic Carlos Eire and Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lethinen added their voices to Ganley's and requested that, since Guevara was a murderer and a war criminal, the Irish should scrap the project altogether and, in the words of the latter, build instead a monument to "the enslaved Cuban people".

"Guevara was much more than a grotesque criminal, as it has been suggested."

One can only wonder, why this opposition all of a sudden? More importantly, do they have a point?

Ernesto Guevara, better known as "Che", was a guerrilla fighter and one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Soon after coming to power, Guevara was in charge of carrying out a number of executions - some accounts mention hundreds - of people that the new Cuban leadership considered to be "enemies of the revolution".

Although it is true that Guevara seemed to have no qualms about carrying out this gruesome task, his entire contribution to the history of the modern world should not be defined solely by this dark episode; and especially not so by taking the event out of context to demonise him, as Ganley, Eire, and Ros-Lethinen have done.

Before anybody jumps to conclusions, let me start by saying that as a pionero, growing up in revolutionary Cuba in the late 1970s and early 1980s I was subjected to all sorts of propaganda about Guevara - we were all expected to repeat every day at school the motto "pioneers for Communism; we'll be like Che". As a result, and understandably, I have never been particularly fond of the man.

As a historian, however, I am deeply aware that Guevara was much more than a grotesque criminal, as it has been suggested. Revolutions are by nature violent events, and those who oppose them are frequently at the end of that violence. By this measure, Washington, Toussaint, and Bolivar could all be considered war criminals if we look at their records - and yet, they all have monuments built to their memory in the United States. Their hands never trembled while giving orders to execute the enemies of the revolutions they led. Do not get me wrong. I am not trying to justify Guevara's actions, but I do think that they must be examined within the historical context in which they took place.

Besides the executions that seem to steal all the limelight these days, Guevara was also a committed revolutionary who, early in his life, came to realise that poverty and repression were rife in the continent where he was born. He was radicalised in 1954 when a CIA-sponsored coup d'etat in Guatemala deposed democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz.

Contrary to the one-dimensional opinions of Ganley, Eire, and Ros-Lethinen, and in the words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, he went on to become "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom". In Cuba, he was behind some of the most progressive measures taken by the revolutionary government, including agrarian reform in 1959 and a literacy campaign in 1961. Eventually, after assembling an unsuccessful guerrilla force against Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, he went to Bolivia, where he was assassinated, reportedly on the orders of President Rene Barrientos - and under the apparent approving supervision of CIA agent Felix Rodriguez.

Was Guevara an executioner of those he considered threats or traitors to the Cuban Revolution? Yes, but let's not forget, he also became a hero to many around the world. It should not be taken lightly that well-respected figures such as Mandela, Jean Paul Sartre, Graham Greene, Sunsan Sontag, and Christopher Hitchens have written about his impact on the contemporary world, and that poets Pablo Neruda, Rafael Alberti, Julio Cortazar and Derek Walcott have published works in tribute to him and his legacy.

Ultimately, as Miami-based Cuban-American scholar Uva de Aragon has suggested, we will have to wait "many years for history to deliver a definite judgement on Che, when the passions of both sides have passed". Those Cuban-American public figures trying to meddle with the Galway City Council decisions should take a step back and think again. The man and his legacy cannot be defined by a blunt "good and evil" perspective.

Grey moral grounds

Professor Eire's letter to the Irish Nation constitutes an archetypical example of how to bend history to satisfy one's views. He called the project "monstrous" and rubbished the opinions of those "who think highly of Che" by comparing them with "Holocaust deniers". Maybe Professor Eire is not aware of Godwin's law - if you use Hitler or the Holocaust in an unrelated argument, you automatically forfeit the argument - or maybe he is, and still could not resist the temptation of comparing Guevara's actions with Hitler's. In any case, his hyperbolic assessment goes a long way to showing the lack of objective judgement shown by those who passionately loathe Guevara's figure and legacy.

While I disagree with Professor Eire's intervention in what I believe should be an Irish affair, I still respect his opinion. Nevertheless, I do believe that he should refrain from using the phrase "We Cubans" in future writings, because it erroneously gives the impression that all Cubans agree with him, which is not the case. The Irish should know that Professor Eire may speak for himself and on behalf of a number of Cubans and Cuban-Americans, but he certainly does not speak on my behalf, or on behalf of many of the Cubans I know.

More difficult to digest are Ileana Ros-Lethinen's arguments, considering her own positions about themes such as terrorism and executions. Here is a US Republican congresswoman whose own definitions of terrorism and crime are blurred, to say the least. Here is a woman who not once, but twice welcomed any assassination attempt of Fidel Castro during an interview with the British makers of the documentary 638 Ways to Kill Castro.

"If the Irish are going to take advice from anyone, they should certainly think twice before taking it from this Cuban-American congresswoman or any of her cronies."

Here is a woman who, in the 1980s, campaigned for the release of confessed and convicted (by none other than the US government) Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch, the mastermind behind the terrorist attack that destroyed Cubana Flight 455 on October 6, 1976, killing all 73 passengers and crew upon take-off from Barbados. Here is a woman who lobbied the George W Bush administration for the release of Jose Dionisio Suarez and Virgilio Paz, both of whom had been convicted for the assassination, also in 1976, of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier, an opponent of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

No wonder Ann Louise Bardach, writing for the Washington Post a few years ago, called the environment fomented by Ros-Lethinen in Miami "a peculiar ecosystem" where "the definition of terrorism is a pliable one: One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter".

If the Irish are going to take advice from anyone, they should certainly think twice before taking it from this Cuban-American congresswoman or any of her cronies. As a matter of fact, the Irish, and Galway City Council in particular, should be able to decide whether to build the monument or not without allowing any foreign interests to meddle in their internal affairs.

It is not for Cuban Americans, Cubans, or Argentineans to decide what the good people of Galway should do. It is for them to weigh the pros and the cons, and to discuss why and how to deal with the issue. Whatever they do, Guevara's face will continue to appear upon tourist merchandise around the world, and his figure and legacy will still provoke all sorts of controversy and opinions. Somehow, I think he would be proud of the reactions of Ganley, Eire, and Ros-Lethinen; after all, they are naively putting him in the place he liked best: on the battleground against his enemies.

Manuel Barcia is Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, as well as Deputy Director at the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Leeds.

Even Fine Gael lawyers dont like Denis O'Brien

Denis O’Brien: a complicated career and dubious ethics read more at The Village http://www.villagemagazine.ie/index.php/2011/12/denis-obrien-a-complicated-career-and-dubious-ethics/

Met police brutality and racism exposed twice by same young man Mauro Demetrio

After being attacked and strangled by Met police officers Mauro Demetrio who had the foresight to record taunting and racist abuse on his phone viewed the viscous assaulting of a 15 year old child by Met police while in the custody suite at Forest Gate police station. These assaults occurred on 11 August 2011, one day after the London riots ended and indicate that a culture of violence and torture was rife in London police stations at the time. Having made his complaint Mauro Demetrio has been vindicated by his own phone recordings and cctv at Forest Gate police station of the assault on a child he reported.

It is also evident that a lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Services was complicit in aiding police brutality by recommending no action against police in either case prior to recent publicity by The Guardian newspaper The cases are now being reviewed by "a more senior legal " figure. Given the draconian sentencing which was politically ordered following the London riots it is clear from these incidents that the UK police and Crown Prosecution Services are merely corrupt apparatuses of a racist and brutal state policy. One law for the rich no justice for minorities or the poor. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/02/police-race-row-assault-claim

If Met police officers are not jailed for these actions then it would be fair to deny  any cooperation  with all Met officers, court officers and any legal officer or official of the  UK until it can show it is in good standing with UN, EU and international laws pertaining to police brutality, and civil rights. Until then we may regard the UK as a rouge state, a racist state and one that should be internationally boycotted.

Irish bank conspired with corrupt payments

A blog by an expert on the corruption exposed by the Mahon tribunal who goes by the online name Toxic Avenger notes that Irish bank AIB was fully aware of the corrupt paymnets being gathered by Frank Dunlop and facilitated these transactions. Owen O’Callaghan paid corrupt payments of £10,000 each to Liam Lawlor and to Colm McGrath. He notes

Those payments were subsequently written up in his company accounts as ‘expenses’, with a handwritten not beside them saying he’d explain this on Friday’ when he met AIB. AIB claims he didn’t tell them the true purpose of the payments. The Tribunal utterly rejected AIB’s claim that they didn’t know what the payments were for.

It must be noted that Declan Ganley employed Liam Lawlor. http://itsapoliticalworld.wordpress.com/the-mahon-tribunal-the-aib-and-ocallaghan-it-wasnt-only-politicians-you-know/]

The stink of corruption Enda Kenny, Fine Gael and Denis O Brien

It appears that a firm which owes the Irish people 150 million, Siteserv, has had a debt write down and that it is to be bought by Fine Gael buddy the disgraced Denis O'Brien. O'Brien had adverse findings against him in a recent corruption inquiry, The Moriarty inquiry, yet is still a Fine Gael photo op buddy.

 Today Enda Kenny's consigliere, Michael Noonan, said that ministers could not chose who they were meeting. This is the standard Fine Gael line on O'Brien right now. However, Enda Kenny has not ruled out his inclusion in further official Irish Economic Forum meetings. .....so if Noonan were to meet Charles Manson at a photo op he could not chose to not attend?? The kicker on this is that as well as screwing the Irish people, O'Brien is paying 45 million for a company that French firm Altrad were willing to offer 60 million for but were told it "was not for sale"!!!!! On top of that "Shareholders, including chief executive Brian Harvey, Chris Neate and John Neal, will make €5 million from the deal" with O'Brien.

 Meanwhile the Irish taxpayer will receive just 40 million which is 110 million less than Siteserv owe the now nationalised Anglo Irish Bank andf therefore the Irish people. It is little wonder that Enda Kenny does not seek to renegotiate with the ECB or the IMF as it seems that his government have already worked out that there is more cream and cash to be made by them and their buddies from the status quo of disaster capitalism. A heads up to both O'Brien and Fine Gael.....the people have had enough of this.

 It would appear that Enda Kenny and his cabal have decided to see just how far they can push the Irish people while they and their buddies get write downs on nationalised debt. It is obviously time for Labour to withdraw from this coalition, however it is unlikely until ministers reach the magic two year marker when they will be assured ministerial pensions for life. Fine Geal is therefore further strangling the life blood and the prospects of ordinary Irish citizens who suffer daily from new taxes, cut backs and austerity to enrich their friends at a direct financial cost to the people of Ireland. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/0402/1224314233936.html

http://wexboy.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two-2/

Tom Gilmartin New ireland

It is clear from the treatment of Tom Gilmartin that Ireland was closed for business save for a few gougers in the 1980s and 1990s.I found the same to be true in my own affairs in those years in Ireland. I would hope that given the Mahon report Gilmartin has a tranche civil cases in the pipe line that should impoverish those who sought to impoverish him. Though it was Fianna Fail gangsters like Liam Lawlor and Bertie Ahrern who impeded Gilmartin, let us not be under any illusions regarding Labour or Fine Gael and their equal corruption. There is a solution for the problems facing Ireland and that is a drastic one. The old methods must be swept away, Sinn Fein must be swept away SWP must be swept away Declan Ganley needs to be exiled, FF, FG and Labour are redundant. It is time for a complete revision of the political landscape. There needs to be a national forum established for dialogue and reform from the grassroots on the basis of respect, mutual benefit for all citizens and a reform of all corrupt agencies of the state starting with An Garda Siochana. The main stream political parties are pariahs the opposition SF and SWP types are touts we need to redraw the lines. Let us be brave and take the hard decisions and sweep away the corrupt political classes completely and start afresh with the people and mutual respect and care as our goal.