Damien Mulley

From that FG email mentioned already today is also news of their pro-Lisbon website – Heart of Europe.

From said email:

Enda will launch a new campaign website on Friday morning – www.heart-of-europe.ie – and in conjunction with this, we will have banner ads on most of the breaking news websites. Our Dublin Campaign will be formally launched on Friday also.

All those breaking news sites also do Google ads. The No people can just run their ads next to yours.

There’s nothing on the site just yet, though Google does throw up some pages behind the splash screen. G’wan, have a nose. It’s not hacking…

Green Ink had his way with their logo:

Beating the Heart of Europe.

This is the original:

But lads, HeartofEurope.ie exists. People are going to Google Heart of Europe and that will come up. Or type it in forgetting the hyphens.

He says “fuckers” with conviction. I can just see Enda’s microphone being left on and him calling Fianna Fáil “those scallywags”.

Mp3 link hijacked from the Irish Times, it’s the last 5 seconds:

Photo owned by Editor B (cc)

Enda Kenny called out the Church the other day for the insidious funding for a No vote on the Lisbon Treaty. Many right-wing Church funded groups are campaigning for a No vote because it will give European Courts more power to decide on local issues like abortion, equality, children’s rights and gay marriage. They don’t like that as they would prefer the much more conservative Irish Court system to use our dictated by the Catholic Church constitution to knock back anything which the Church is against. Bertie would never make such a call since he was in the pocket of the Church.

Also fair play to the Green Party who yesterday broke ranks to ask for less road funding and more funding for public transport initiatives outside of Dublin. They launched their sudbmission on a bus going around Dublin. My favourite Green Ciarán Cuffe (there wasn’t sarcasm there, he’s cool) was all over the radio talking about their submission to the Sustainable Transport Plan and really it made me harp back to the intelligence and logic the Greens had in bucketloads before the election. The old Green Party were out yesterday. It’d be nice to see plans like this turn into reality though.

A hippy bus, but not the Green Party hippy bus.

Photo owned by BusGreg (cc)

Or bad ones? Or any? Thought not. Welcome to Ireland and the fact that we as a country are obsessed with voting on abortion yet for a country that has sent an estimated 120,000 Irish women abroad over the past 30 years, there doesn’t seem to be anymore to the discussion than right, wrong, age of foetus and the definition of “unborn”. Five referenda in 20 years and it feels like another one is right around the corner again. 120,000 stories yet do we hear of any of them except the ones from the various Court cases?

Both sides seem to concentrate their time on legalising it or further removing the right of people to get an abortion where it is legal and can be carried out. I really don’t seem to see either side working hard and especially not together in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Are they too enraptured with taking polar opposites and getting personal? It seems they are. 30-40 years of battling seems to have polarised both sides too. The fact that there are “sides” says it all.

One of the groups (via Suzy) has decided to take up blogging and video making to talk about the lack of talk. The videos are a good idea as is the blog but I think they made a large enough error with the videos. Where to next? It shouldn’t be ended with everyone saying the same statement. That’s just an advert. Where’s the call to arms? We get the idea of the silence and the taboo of abortion so what now? There should have been an action point there and then for people to leave a comment, sign up to a list, make a call etc. The most opportune time is the seconds after the video.

Remember this video? From this post?

Apparently the original creator of it is going to report me to YouTube for putting it back up when they took it down. I only saw their message on YouTube now:

As the original creater of the video and copyright holder of all the pictures contained in it I must ask you to remove the video before I am forced to report this infringement to YouTube!!

It’s that second exclamation mark that’s worrying me. And I thought I was a friend to Fianna Fáil since I think Enda Kenny is a tosser? I mean what’s wrong with it? It just shows the future Taoisigh of the country unwinding. They’re allowed to do that without the PC firebrigade burning down the doghouse, who let them out. Oooh oooh. Or something. GetwhatImean?

So with haste, watch this once more and tap that toe to the Saw Doctors.

Just looking at the Standards in Public Office report and who got what. Very interesting that the person that got the 3rd highest donations was everyone’s fav Catholic, Ronán Mullen. There must have been a lot of closet fans of Ronan so.

So here’s how this donation thing works:
TDs, Senators and MEPs must disclose individual donations of over €634.87.
Foreign or anonymous donations cannot exceed €126.97
Donations from a single person cap out at €2,539.48 pear year.

Photo owned by atbartlett (cc)

Via Ireland.com

The person disclosing the highest donations was Fianna Fáil TD for Wicklow Joe Behan, who received €37,600. Minister of State for Trade and Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness was second with €32,500.

Independent Senator Rónán Mullen, whose donations were the third -highest reported at €32,030, was the only non-Fianna Fáil member in the top ten.

Independent Fianna Fáil TD for Kerry South Jackie Healy-Rae, who received €24,900, was in sixth place, while Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment Micheál Martin was in eighth, disclosing donations worth €22,135. Fianna Fáil’s Áine Brady got a total of €22,000 in ninth place, while FF TD Mattie McGrath received a total of €20,500 and was number 10 on the list.

I’m most surprised at the lack of money raised in an election year by these people. Divide the donations by the number of constituents. Jeez louise. Politicians here have a lot to learn about asking for money from people. Look how much the consumers of Ireland spent on crap last year compared to these tiny amounts of money.

I really do hope this is the last politics post for a while. It’s becoming boring.

“Well End”.
“Well Bert”.
“Fancy a quickie in the Dáil before I go?”
“Taoiseach I’m not going all brokeback Mountain for you, despite that rogue-like charm.”
“I meant the whole questions thing, it’s my last day as Taoiseach in the Dáil before I go off to America. You really did make my job easy, you thicko.”
“Oh feck, yeah I knew that. Yes, of course. What’ll I ask you? Show me the money?”
“Funny”.

So today is the last day for Bertie as Taoiseach in the Dáil. It’s amazing to see that people aren’t paying much attention to him anymore. “Oh you’re still here?” seems to be the attitude. Anyways, I’m sure it’ll be a sad day today and all that and I’m sure that plank Kenny (the other one) will be all nice as pie as Bertie says bye.

But, he could do one more thing today, just one. We all know what is is too:
Bertie, Take Enda With You. Join the Facebook Group too!

And while that’s happening, 40 Take Enda With You badges will be posted to people all over Ireland with a few going to Germany, the States and even Japan. I think Enda would make a better EU President than Bertie any day. Hee Haw Bruton can fill him in on what Europe is like. From his er mansion in Washington.

Maybe he can take Kathleen Lynch too and drop her off at some reality spa.

So apologies to Deputy Gogarty for comments wrongly attributed to him which incorrectly said gay people need to contact the Green Party more to ask for equality. I’ve updated the original blog post.