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Without doubt the most positive outcome of the election was the virtual destruction of the Progressive Democrats as a party and in particular McDowell’s banishment from the political scene.

As the most arrogant and dangerous politician since Haughey I was delighted when he was elected leader of the PD’s because it was a virtual certainty that he would seriously damage the party.

In September 2006, when Mary Harney resigned as party leader I sent the following email to General Secretary, John Higgins

The people of Ireland can only hope that Michael McDowell is elected
as the new leader of the Progressive Democrats. His arrogance,
incompetence, giant ego and extreme right wing views are sure to cause
the PDs even more damage.

The passing into history of the PDs can only be a good thing for the people of Ireland and especially for the quality of Irish democracy. For a party that started out with such high ideals and integrity it has been sad to witness its descent to Fianna Fail levels of tolerance of sleaze and dishonesty.

Yours etc.

George Weigel is a right wing American theologian who believes that the American way is far superior to all others and that the US should lead all other nations, by force, if necessary. He’s a strong supporter of Bush and believes that the invasion of Iraq was necessary in the fight against global terrorism.

He has written many books including the best selling biography of Pope John Paul II. He’s apparently highly intelligent and widely respected, getting invitations to speak from all over the world. He’s also a religious nutcase.

Writing in last week’s Irish Catholic about the Virginia Tech. massacre, George claims that the psychologists have got it all wrong. The killer wasn’t frustrated, self centred or even mad, no, he was possessed by the Devil. Yes, Old Nick himself is apparently still stalking the globe pouncing on every unwary soul that passes his way.

And this is not the first time George has come up with such a mad explanation for a major disaster. He blamed fallen angels for the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed approximately 300,000 in December 2004 (Read the full article here).

Christianity has always had a problem trying to explain why its god would allow such natural ‘evils’ like floods, earthquakes and tsunami’s cause massive suffering to innocent humans going about their business.

In the Dark Ages, before scientific enlightenment, all such nastiness was blamed on Old Nick and his fellow demons working away feverishly on their evil plans far below the surface of the earth.

But nowadays, apart from a few head bangers, most humans don’t give Old Nick the credit anymore. Nowadays, it’s all scientific theory this, scientific experiment that and I can tell you Old Nick and his demons are not happy.

The following is an account of a board meeting in 2004 between Old Nick and his fellow demons to discuss their credibility crisis.

Right you evil fuckers, I want some suggestions and I want them quickly. Things have gone from bad to worse topside. Humans have been making all the running lately, wars, disease, environmental damage, George Bush, global terrorism, Charlie Haughey. We devils have been almost forgotten, we’re not taken seriously anymore and we’ve got to do something about that.

How about killing the Pope? Oh evil one

Bollix, we sent an apprentice devil to do that in 1981 and the bastard missed. And with the state of JP’s health he’s due to join us shortly anyway.

We could arrange for an asteroid to strike and vaporise the whole shebang

Jesus, save me from stupid devils, if we vaporise, who will be left to suffer, who will be left to agonise over the existence or not of ‘Mr. oh so fucking holy’ above in heaven?

I have it. Oh master of darkness, we could impose Irish political standards on every government in the world.

Fuck, even I’m not that evil. No my son, you have great potential for causing suffering and destruction, but while we want something terrible we also want to give humanity some hope of survival.

I have it, oh prince of all that is perfidious, pestiferous and putrid; an underground earthquake in the Indian Ocean topped with a massive tsunami and finished off with a thick coating of dead humanity.

Brilliant, brilliant, but how will we convince the humans that it was our handiwork?

We could use George, your evilness, you know? George Weigel, one of your most successful creations, designed so that humans see an intelligent, philosopher/theologian when in fact you scraped him from the bottom of the barrel in the deepest pit of slime and stupidity.

Yes, yes I knew George would prove useful some day. Make it so you bastards, get out there and create mayhem.

You, get me George on the line…

The chief executive of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm has announced yet another task force charged with the mission of reducing the incidence of MRSA in hospitals by 30 per cent over the next five years.

This is sure to be followed by a cabal of committees; a conundrum of very expensive consultants topped off by the inevitable and most terrible monster of them all – a tribunal.

Meanwhile, people are dying.

The Blog Awards last Saturday night were a memorable occasion. It was fascinating to meet and listen to the ‘real life’ people behind the various blogs. I say listen because I have to admit I am not a blogger, not a real one anyway. I was lost to a good extent when conversation turned to the technical side of things and I have never been bitten by the bug of surfing through the blogosphere.

Gavin (my nephew) over at Gavinsblog and The Story, set up and maintains Public Inquiry. He is also a source of great encouragement and inspiration, especially when I’m suffering from a serious bout of procrastination. The bottom line is that I see blogging as a means of getting across the message on Irish corruption. Doing this on a public forum forces me to think carefully about quality of writing and accuracy of content, and thus, I hope, improve my writing/communications skills.

Was it coincidence, I wonder, that the event occurred on the night of a lunar eclipse? Do such astronomical events trigger the bloggers psyche onto a higher astral plane? (All queries to the event organizer, Damien Mulley, who was universally and deservedly acclaimed on the night).

Certainly, the ‘after’ socializing at the aptly named ‘Howling at the Moon’ pub/nightclub would indicate that there is some truth in the idea. I was anxious about this part of the night as I was obviously the ‘most senior’ member of our party and knew I would not be comfortable in the standard nightclub environment.

But Howling at the Moon turned out to be an experience in itself. A four storey Alice in Wonderland type labyrinth of oversize furniture, massive chandeliers, outsize (real) plants and heavy velvet curtains created a Victorian like setting for the large, buzzing but not crushing crowd The setting made it possible to enjoy the music but still engage in good conversation and the craic.

As I mentioned, the whole experience was a memorable one and I certainly look forward to next year’s event.

Bertie Ahern’s performance in the Dail yesterday clearly demonstrates that he has no idea what he’s talking about.

He expressed surprise that the Office of Corporate Enforcement would need 20 extra staff to the 35 it already employs. He seems to be ignorant of the fact that corruption in Irish corporate life is practically endemic.

The very fact that ODCE is looking for extra staff so that it can take action in more than 500, mostly criminal cases, should be a strong indicator that something is seriously wrong. He said ODCE would have to wait its turn because the priority was to appoint more labour inspectors.

He seems to be ignorant of the fact that these labour inspectors were promised over three years ago in response to the Gama case.

During this case, which involved slave labour and the unauthorised ‘transfer’ by Gama management of €30 million of workers pay to a secret bank account in Holland, it was found that there were only 21 badly trained and for the most part legally powerless labour inspectors to watch out for the rights of nearly 2 million workers.

He seems to be ignorant of how embarrassing it is, that one on the wealthiest countries in the world cannot appoint sufficient staff to ensure workers are not exploited.

He seems to be ignorant of the fact that if rampant corruption in the corporate sector is not properly dealt with then the Celtic Tiger is on a hiding to nothing.

It is ironic that the latest killing in Dublin (Dodge City) took place outside the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

The IFSC is closely associated with Charlie Haughey, the most corrupt politician in Irish history.

Recently, the New York Times described Dublin as the “Wild West of European finance.”

Given the rampant corruption at every level of Irish society it is only a matter of time before the cowboys shooting it out on the streets merge with the cowboys operating within Irish financial institutions.

Hence the restrictions on comments. Interesting too that the anonymous commenter is based in Dubai.

It was that long ago, but some might remember why the Planning Tribunal was established. The next module relates directly to why Michael Smith and Colm MacEochaidh offered a £10,000 reward for information on alleged planning corruption.

After Easter, the tribunal plans to start new hearings into the rezoning of Monarch Properties’ lands at Cherrywood for housing and industrial uses in the early 1990s. The change, which was fiercely contested by local residents, was regarded as the most controversial rezoning to go through Dublin County Council, after Quarryvale.

It was concern over this rezoning that prompted a local barrister, Michael Smith, and a colleague, Colm MacEochaidh, to offer a £10,000 reward for information on alleged planning corruption.

This initiative led indirectly to the setting up of the tribunal.

Monarch has told the tribunal it lobbied virtually every member of the council and made political donations to more than half its 78 members. The politicians are expected to say the contributions were for election expenses and did not influence their vote.

Former government press secretary Frank Dunlop, who was also employed by the company to lobby councillors, says he was paid £25,000 for his work. He alleges he paid £2,000 each to Fianna Fail councillors Tony Fox and Colm McGrath to support the rezoning motion; the two men deny this claim.

The new module is expected to reveal further examples of “amnesia” over political donations by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael politicians, only 11 of whom disclosed contributions from Monarch to their respective party inquiries in 2000.

Senator Don Lydon has already admitted to the tribunal he failed to disclose a £2,500 donation from Monarch in 1992.

…

The tribunal is also investigating Mr Monahan’s success in getting urban renewal status for The Square in Tallaght in the late 1980s. This decision, taken by former minister for the environment Padraig Flynn, turned the Dundalk-born former mechanic into a multi-millionaire. Mr Monahan died in 2003.

Let me put it this way, there are a lot of shenanigans going on at the moment that if the public were aware of, I think they would be horrified… there are things happening, I think, which are very strange indeed, to put it mildly.

The above quote is how RTEs Charlie Bird described the latest developments in the dodgy dogs saga at Bord na gCon. The response to this latest scandal is following a well established pattern when lids are lifted in this corrupt state.

Denial is the first reaction. We have already had that from sources within Bord nag Con.

Playing for time is the next stage. The most common strategy here is – a report or investigation. This has great advantages. While enquiries are being made, politicians and those directly involved have only to repeatedly mouth the mantra.

I would love to answer your questions but there’s an investigation in process and it’s only fair to wait until that is complete.

This strategy also means that the public will have forgotten most of the details by the time the report is published and any outrage wll have long evaporated.

In this particular case, there was a blip. Paschall Taggart insisted on holding a press conference to defend his side of the story, despite being asked not to by the minister, John O’Donoghue. This kind of maverick action could result in further embarrassing revelations. Luckily, for those involved, the press conference left the public as much in the dark as ever.

The final stage in the farce that passes for accountability in Ireland is when the report is published. If anyone is required to step aside or move sideways into another job, (Sacked? No, no – That never happens) they will be well compensated by the taxpayer. (Who, by the way, has already paid over €70 million to the greyhound industry)

The same taxpayer will then be told that the person moving sideways is a man/woman of impeccable character who has served his/her country like a true patriot.

Finally, the public will be informed by a somber politician that steps are being taken to ensure that this kind of thing never happens again.

After that – it’s on to the next scandal and the process starts all over again.