Breaking news from the US – Osama Bin Laden has been killed and US authorities have his body. He was killed by a Navy SEAL team along with some of his family in a mansion outside of Islamabad. President Obama will be making an official announcement at 11:15pm local time.
Live from Karl, your temporary West Coast (not Westport) correspondent.
“Mr Ahern said last night he did not know the report was being published and he would “have to have a read of it”. Mr McCreevy could not be contacted for comment, while Mr Cowen did not respond to questions on the matter.”
How Ahern Ignored Key Warnings On The Economy (Irish Independent)
“No, I don’t favour same sex marriage. We were the first party down here to produce a document on civil unions and registration of civil unions , and to deal with tax and hereditary property and all of that – that’s as far as we went.”
Enda Kenny, in today’s Irish Daily Mail
[smooth=id:200]
[ ← GALLERY →]
Democracy.
It’s a beautiful thing.
Mmmf.
Promised we…wouldn’t cry.
Potential coalition partners Michael Noonan and Joan Burton argued about cutting child benefit on this morning’s ‘Today with Pat Kenny’ (on the sideline was an amused Brian Lenihan).
If you thought the Greens and Fianna Fail were disfunctional…
Joan Burton: “I think Fine Gael need to think about this. Effectively, Michael, your plan is to take about €250 a year, about €21 a month, from a family –”
Michael Noonan: “No, that’s not right, Joan. That’s not right. Your figures are wrong.”
Burton: “Michael, just let me finish – from a family, from a family…”
Noonan: “Could I say something, Joan? You know, you’re into magic bean economics.”
Pat Kenny: “Hang on a second.”
Noonan: “Labour aren’t going to do anything about anything. They’re going to pay more money to everybody. Do you realise the crisis we’re in? What happened to you over the Christmas?”
Burton: “Michael. Sorry. Michael”
Noonan: “You were talking about the bailout and the crisis and the country is banjaxed. Do you remember that? And now you have no solution for anything. You just knock the Fine Gael proposals.”
Burton: “Michael. Michael…”
Pat Kenny [aside]: This’ll be a great coalition alright
Brian Lenihan: “[laughs] Think we’ll still need a strong Fianna Fáil in the Dáil”
Burton: “Michael, there’s a lot of big houses all around the country where, inside those houses, there’s actually very little money because people are at the pin of their collar paying their mortgages and the child benefit is a critical income support to put food on the table. I’m just asking you, Michael, to think about this..”
Noonan: “You’re spoofing Joan.”
Burton: “Michael, I understand –”
Noonan: “You’re pretending you can fix the economy without doing anything.”
Burton: “Michael.”
Noonan: “That’s your problem. It’s magic beans economics.”
Burton: “Michael, you sound like you’re shouting from Limerick..”
Noonan: “You’re a long way away, Joan…”
It all started with a tweet from the FG TD.
Lucinda Creighton‘s Facebook Wall
Fine Gael‘s Facebook Wall
Anti-Lucinda Creighton Facebook Wall
Hey, what if everyone bombarded Lucinda’s Facebook wall with messages. And then bombarded Fine Gael’s wall with messages?
Thankfully, we live in a civilised society.
What a week for Phil Hogan! Enda Kenny’s right-hand man is a dead-cert to retain his seat in Carlow-Kilkenny, and is likely to be the next Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
It’s a powerful gig, all the more so in the context of Hogan’s announcement earlier this month that he intends to shut down the Moriarty Tribunal when Fine Gael gets into government.
As older readers will recall, Big Phil was actually a witness at the Moriarty Tribunal back in 2003, when he denied meeting Denis O’Brien at a meeting in a Dublin restaurant in October 1995.
That evidence was contradicted by party colleague Mark Fitzgerald – son of Garret the Good – who claimed not only that O’Brien was present, but that the businessman asked about the second mobile phone competition at that meeting.
Broadsheet wonders if it is appropriate that a witness to the Moriarty Tribunal should be in a position to close it down.
And we have a modest request, on behalf of our older readers:
Before he accepts a Ministerial appointment, will Mr Hogan confirm to the Dáil the extent, if any, of his relationship – either professional or personal – with Denis O’Brien?
The campaign has been precisely the kind you’d expect in a context where the most fundamental decision facing the country is avoided, and where the real decision-makers don’t run for election. Informed opinion from left to right suggests that some form of default is inevitable. The broad strokes of the ‘austerity’ policies trumpeted by Fine Gael, and bashfully coded by Labour, are dictated by the terms of the IMF-EU agreement. So despite the fact that the political landscape will be changed significantly by this election, there is more than a hint of The Apprentice about it all. The candidates can swear all they like about their commitment and liathróidí, but Bill isn’t going to let them do any real business.
And we all know what happens when the apprentices get smacked around the head with penny apple wisdom. They turn on each other. That is our social future.
We have heard endlessly from the big parties and their media cheerleaders about a turn away from ‘auction politics’. No such turn away has happened; the nature of the auction has changed. In this auction, you’re not told what precisely you are buying. We are all promised pain, but nobody admits that the scale of the ‘pain’ required by the austerity lockdown, and the unjust impact on the poor, will rip the social fabric apart.
Labour may well give a Pat Rabbitte sigh and participate in this historical re-shaping of the state. For Fine Gael, that’s all part of the fun.
Gavan is Lecturer in Media in NUI Maynooth, and a contributor to Crisisjam on Politico.ie.
It was one of the moments of the election.
The old lady who asked Michael Martin could he live on €230 a week.
TV3 featured the entire exchange – lasting 32 seconds – on its 5.30pm bulletin.
It was electric viewing.
So – not to want to sound too Max Keiser about it – why on earth did RTE – on its 6.01pm and 9pm bulletins – edit her out off after TWO seconds?
Answers to the usual address.
Watch the RTE Version Here (play from 3.30)
And compare with the TV3 report, below:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKYmx6bI-vM&feature=player_embedded
