Oxegen Day 1

It’s Saturday morning of Oxegen weekend, and we are about to leave for the second day of the festival in Punchestown. Last night was a ate one, due to some difficulties on our bus, and some rowdy shouting and fighting (masterfully handled by the COOLEST undercover guard in the world) so its late that I post my day one report.

Well, it stated well, little or no traffice ment our journey was a little under 80 mins to site, which is about what we had last year. Straight in and with the help of twitter got into the Dirty Epics. Alan, the drummer, has really tighened this dublin punk/pop outfit up a lot, and there was much more energy in the bigger Green Spheres room that the smaller tent of last eyar. SJ Wai was on form, chatting away between songs, but they might have prefered more vocal in the mix. The Cure, Weirdo and Pony all went down well.

From here we went out into the rain, to The Corona’s. Good set, with the big sons going down best, ome decent new stuff being tested out, and Hero’s or ghosts ending, first verse in Irish.

After Corona’s, Pam wanted to be up near the front for the evening, so we stuck around for James, who was a bit meh. Lily Allen was on next, and was n much better form that last years blue mermaid gig, seemed more relaxed, and got the ladies in the crowd going.

Home-comers The Script played a short set, and were it not for the constant crowd cheering may have struggled to fill a slot which already featured a few covers. The new album will be the test of this Dublin band, but the crowd at Oxegen loved the set they played, with cheering and chanting stopping the gig a number of times. The finale of Hero’s draped in a tricolour was a little much maybe, but you can’t fault enthusiasm.

Pam was more excited about Snow Patrol then ever, probarbly hasn’t been this excitable since the last Snow Patrol gig we went to. Lightbody et al started as they ent to go on, and toured through their catelogue, leaving out Chocolte dissappointed, but its good to see Hands Open a live staple now, and Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking was a great choice. The girls from the crowd for Set The Fire To the Third Bar was a nice idea, but probarbly cost the set a song, and added little after they had screamed their hello’s to Sarah Kate and Claire. Still, they won’t ever forget singing to the Oxegen crowd.

Blur started off alright, and prob will be well reviewed today, but to be honest, I missed out on them first time around, and didn’t feel compelled to see them this time. Girls and Boys was good though.

A combination of tiredness from the week in work, and being oldies now, as well as our theory that the best way to handle the three days is to take your leave when you can led us to the busses around 11.30. With our journey home being as eventful as it was, we got in close to two. Should have just stayed for Blur….

Song of the Day: Lily Allen – Fuck You

Quote of the day: The crowd is amazing – Various

General Impression – Good start to the weekend. Some people missed, Duke Special and FLC. Will do more wandering today, but made the right choices.

Huge Obama Policy Announcement

Via icanhascheeseburger.

Evan Bayh? Obama’s VP – NEVER MIND

According to Time, Evan Bayh is the VP on the Change ticket. (See here) Who I hear you ask?

From Wiki:

“Birch Evans Bayh III (commonly known as Evan Bayh) (pronounced /ˈbaɪ/, like “bye”) (born December 26, 1955) is an American politician who has served as the junior U.S. Senator from Indiana since 1999 and earlier served as Governor of Indiana. He is a member of the Democratic Party.”

He was in favour of the Iraq War at the outset, but seems to have altered his status, and voted against Ashcroft for AG, Rice for State, and Roberts for Chief Justice. He is pro-choice, strong on education, and has good public healthcare platform, having introduced the Medicare Prescription Drug Emergency Guarantee Act of 2006. He has a decent national security and foreign relations background, he served on the Armed Services Committee and the Select Intelligence Committee.

So, will he get the nod, only time will tell. I might be another blogger who has jumped the gun based on Time Magazine.

Scratch that, its been announced. Joe Biden, as expected in wider circles gets the pick. How this goes, who knows. I would have preferred Bayh to be honest, but the choice is made, and failing a Santos/McGarry style meltdown, I think its safely decided. See Obama’s site here for more details.

Lisbon, Sarkozy and His Big Mouth

On Monday Nicolas Sarkozy will land in Ireland, on what he has termed a “fact finding” mission, to better understand the reasons behind the No vote in our recent Lisbon Treaty referendum. And last Monday I was in the audience of Questions and Answers asking whether his visit would cause more harm than good. See here: Q And A. All of the panel were in agreement that Sarkozy should be welcomed, and had a reason and puropse in coming. My lonely voice pointed out that Sarko is ideoligically abrasive, and would cause more harm than good in coming to Ireland and meddling further.

And today, I was proved right. Making broad statements in relation to Ireland being required to have a second vote on the Treaty, in conjunction with the political games the French government were playing before polling day, will only serve to further alienate the Irish no voters from the European Union. Sarkozy is a self important mouthpiece, and even a scant glance at his political career should show us that his comments are often misinformed, and blatantly incorrect. His interference in what should be a national debate will only muddy the waters more, and in a campaign where many of the No sides arguments are at best misguided, and at worst misinformation, this extra layer of soundbyte-ery should not be welcomed.

Looking to comments made while Minister for the Interior in the aftermath of the shooting of 11-year-old in the La Courneuve in 2005, that he would clean the area with a Kracher, a brand of powerhose, while calling the residents of the troubled suburb scun was insensitive at best, and an incitement to hatred in most peoples eyes. He has been controversially chatty in relation to genetic predispositions to paedophilia, and depression, the seperation (or reintegration) of church and state, and has rather racist views on Africa, and oddly patriotic attitudes to France and Frenchness, not in themselves bad things, but the way he uses and abuses the idea of nationalism is often a mask for other more sinister ends.

So, Sarko, you need to be aware that people in Ireland hold you in comparable esteem as a sizable minority of your own voters, that is not much. Keep your opinions to figuring out why French voters rejected the Constitution and try not to scupper any chances of a proper national discussion here.

George Bush is a Terrorist – SHOCKER

Fresh on the heels of reports of Barack Obama engagnig in an activity best described as a “terrorist fist bump” by amongst others, Fox News, see the run down from Casa Casey-Courtney here, reports are surfacing from the US that the latest Hamas terrorist is none other than POTUS himself, G.W. Bush. Shocking news I know, but look for yourself:

Fox are claimed to be busy remaming this gesture the Macho Fist Bump of Patriotism.
What is the world coming to, can we trust no-one?

(Picture via Halperin)

Cowen’s Downfall

This is amazing. Well done whoever is responsible. BTW NSFW captions.

Oh and yeah, I have been posting a lot lately…..

Ireland’s alive and well…

The Lisbon Treaty. Three words most of us never want to hear again, at least not in that order. Now that Ireland has voted, and my pulse rate has slowed, with my blood returning to a gentle simmer from the raging boil it was on Friday the 13th, I thought I would give you, my avid reader, an insight into my feelings on the vote, why it went the way it did, and what, if anything may come of this.

Firstly, may I preface my comments by saying, yes indeed No voter, it was your prerogative to vote however you wanted. However, if your choice of vote was led by a meaningless soundbyte put forward by either campaign, then you sir or madame are an idiot. I do know one or two no voters who have gotten reasonable grounds for voting no, ones which I might not agree with, but they are reasonable none the less. But just so you know, if you listened to Libertas, and their threats that the EU was going to raise our corporate tax, you are an idiot, there is no such ability in the treaty. In fact this is a claim Libertas themselves moved away from, saying instead it was indirect tax that the EU could interfere with. Again, the EU has as a whole a much more liberal view of indirect tax than we do, that is to say, they don’t like it as much as successive Irish governments have, so probarbly the oly taxation change could have been an elimination of VRT, or a reduction of VAT. But no, don’t let the EU in the back door to do something like that. For a finish taxation was a non-issue in debates, but unfortunately by deceiving the people the punch had been landed. They got you.

Maybe you didn’t vote for tax, maybe you voted to protect our neutrality. You were probably enticed by messages from Sinn Fein, or this new fangled Coir organisation, that the EU was going to raise a standing army, ready to fight evil Iron Monger and The Abomination, when they attacked, as well the shall, to kill our babies and legalise drugs. Well apart from the constitutional protection of our own, which maintains us as a neutral country, the treaty expressly in Article I.49 b of the Treaty stated that the policy of the union in the security and defence field shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain member states. So neutrality was a none issue too. But the People Before Profit alliance told you different? They were conflating the Irish involvement in a peacekeeping task force with standing army participation, and used OH NOES private leaked French government documents, which detailed what they wanted to propose at a meeting of the EU heads of state, which showed the EU FORCING us into spending 6% of our GDP on weapons and not plough-shares. Well, like many commentators said at the time, the French can discuss what they bloody well like, we in Ireland would never support that kind of spending, and neither would many of our EU counterparts. So you bought the scaremongering there too, but to be honest, there were more people touting that line, and it requires you to read two documents, not one.

Finally, on social policy. actually lets call a spade a spade and say abortion, which we know was one of the major problems people had. Lisbon could not have forced us to allow abortion on demand, in absolutely no way have or form. We have protocol 19 to the Treaty of Maastricht which is still in force, which protects and reserves our ability to define article 40.3.3 of our constitution. But pro life organisations tried everything under the sun, from “The EU could define abortion as a service, and compel us to do so”, to “The charter of rights isn’t clear enough” to “They can tell us when life beings”. Nonsense. We have our own courts, our own protocol in relation to EU interference and our own ability to tell the EU it is none of their business.

Now, don’t misinterpret this as me saying abortion is an abomination to the one true god of my country, I cannot stand the fact that in some foreign media we are now being painted as this crazy conservative basket case of a country, some ungrateful cousin who takes everything their Eu family gives them, and then when the EU is being reformed to give equality for those other less fortunate members we say no. But we have painted ourselves this way. If there was a clear and active opposition to the Treaty on any reasoned ground, I would have supported it. I admit my threshold would be quite high, I believe in the European experiment, where it has taken us, and the direction it seemed to be going, but if there was a cause to get behind I would have. But even on a macro level, and stuff like losing a commissioner for 5 out of 15 years, well I weighed it up. The commissioner could not act in our interests, is directed by the council of ministers on which we still sit, and you know what, I would not like having to spend money on 27 portfolio for commissioners, to ensure we all have one, and end up with the Irish commissioner having special responsibility for sewage effluent run off. I just didn’t hear a credible argument for voting no.

So, what happens now?

- Re-run; perhaps, after we secure the same protocols on abortion, tax policy and militarisation. But if we go to the EU looking for these, we look like the Irish people are too stupid to understand a treaty, a consolidated treaty, or a treaty explanation document. It also makes it appear as if we don’t trust any of our government and would be better off letting Sinn Fein, Libertas and Youth Defense run our country…

- Re-Negotiation; perhaps, and in 2 years we get the same document handed to the Irish people, or 90% the same, but maybe called the Treaty of Dublin, or of Paris. The Irish, they didn’t trust them dirty Spanish with their treaties and their paella.

- The EU goes ahead without us; doubtful. I would imagine that we hold too much power in the EU for this to happen. Also it would be a disastrous message for the Union to send to other members. But this is the second time we have voted against a treaty for spurious reasons, and it might affect how further reforms are discussed or enacted. The first European lawyer to figure a work around Crotty v An Taoiseach will be able to retire a rich man or woman.

- Nothing happens, the EU goes along like it is already; the favourite of Libertas, and also the most unlikely. The EU will not simply shelve reform it has been working on for the last 7 years.

Even after listening to Sinn Fein and voting no for a better deal, can a better deal be done. Well unless we identify an issue which we can try to get a better deal on, I would have to say no. So even if you think you’re political choice was valid, you were probably misinformed, or misunderstood. Blame must lie with the pro-European parties for this, but the lions share has to be apportioned to the No campaigns, who proved themselves to be the most cunning, the most devious of them all.

So, peacemonger, you voted with military contractors. Liberal thinker, you voted with youth defence. Economic powerhouse, entrepreneur, mother of three, you voted with Sinn Fein. Farmer, worker, student, you voted against the parties which have served you well, to times of boom from bust. Brothers, Sisters, Comrades, you have abandoned your unions. People of Ireland, you have been duped, through your own fault or others. Too keen to scrutinize the government and the EU, you absorbed and accepted half truths and agendas for undemocratic alliances, and voted for people who spat at our elected officials at polling stations. You did put people before profit, but you also put politics before sense, sound bytes before reason, and a no vote before our interaction with the EU. And for what?

Obama-rama

So, Barack Obama is now only 73 delegates short of his magical number (2026) to ensure he is going to be the Candidate for the Democratic Party in the United States. It has not been a fun campaign I’d imagine, just yesterday over half of the Clinton staff came out to say they’d rather abstain than vote for Obama, because of his ‘frightening lack of experience’. He has weathered the storm over Rev Wright, and managed to recover from comments he made in relation to small town voters getting bitter, and clinging to religion and guns (something which to be honest, I did not think was a mischaracterisation).

With Hillary Clinton seeming hell bent to stay the course, Obama seems to be destined to have a competitive floor vote at the DNC to ring fence his candidacy. These last 73 delegates will most likely come from super-delegates, party leaders and officials who are given the power to vote whatever way they want in the Convention which will end on August 28th. Many commentators in the US are now calling for Florida and Michigan to be allowed a re-vote, with the Clinton camp even offering to pay for the privilege. This is unlikely to happen from what I have read, but also there would be no guarantee of success for Clinton here either, its been a long and divisive campaign since she won delegate votes in those illegal primaries.

I have long admired Obama’s rhetoric and message. And in the last few weeks I have seen him clash with both President Bush and Sen. McCain, in a way which leads me to believe he can stand toe-to-toe in November, and I believe come out on top. As pointed out by a fellow politics watcher, he answers hypothetical questions, something which has done him some damage, but which gives us a clearer upfront picture of how the man is likely to operate when he gets into the Oval Office. But how much, if any damage, is he likely to sustain from this drawn out fight, and the sapping of his war chest that comes along with it. Raising money is an important part of US presidential politics, and Obama’s network of small donors has been awesome in its application, raising over 30 million in the last month, but how much more can that network donate.

Personally, I do hope he gets the nomination, if super-delegates decide this in Clintons favor, or if the two illegal primaries are allowed a re-vote, the division in the Democratic Party will be far too great to overcome. But as one CNN commentator has said, Clinton is a fighter, and while the odds must look slim of her being able to overcome Obama’s number at the minute, she needs an additional 286 delegate votes, over three times Obamas number, stranger things have happened. Meteors do fall from the sky sometimes.

Apathetic? Me?

I had lunch the other day with a friend of mine, and talk turned, as it often does with me to politics. You can probably guess that I am a little politically active, I have been involved in politics since I was a wee lad, with a pretty active family. And not just party politics, but board of management stuff in schools, heritage projects, and public works stuff. So I was a little concerned to hear from someone, who has always been pretty smart and well informed, and who I respect, to say something along the lines of, ‘”I’ll never vote, I don’t see the point, like no matter how I do vote, the government always gets in.”

Young people are,now more than ever, apathetic towards organised politics. That is not to say that there aren’t young people involved in the machine, from youth organisations such as Ogra Fianna Fail to Young Fine Gael, and non-profit politically active organisations, like Suas and more directly Rock The Vote. Young people are being elected to office, in the Dail and Seanad, with Deputies Dara Calleary, Lucinda Creighton, Olwyn Enright and Barry Andrews, all having a high profile within their respective parties. The profile is astounding for Fine Gael, one in five TD’s are under 35. But still there is little or no evidence to show that young people turn out to actually vote in elections, with more and more staying at home or not informing themselves.

How do we tackle these kinds of problems? I think that parties need to do more to tie all parts of life into politics. Young people need to realise that every part of their lives, from college fees to grants, from job prospects to house prices, can be tied directly back to the government. It is a fact that if you don’t get out and vote, or get involved, then you are giving some of your biggest decisions to other people.

Some people, like my friend, don’t think they can have an effect. Well, I have been involved in several initiatives which have come to fruition with policy change. Students and young people have shaped society in the past, and could again. Look at all the major changes, student opposition to apartheid, student campaigning for equal rights for the gay community, student revolt in various countries leading to awareness and change. Maybe it because we are a little too comfortable.

And governments and parties need to do more to assist in mobilising voters, and young voters. Most college age people have been ruled out of voting in the last general election, and again in the upcoming Lisbon treaty, due to bad timing, either for the vote, or for registration amendments or changes. Everyone should be automatically registered to vote, and the act of polling should be made easier.

It has to be made easier to decide how to vote, by which I mean who to vote for. I will admit there is little or nothing to seperate parties on issues nowadays, but if people could identify a set of general principles they could agree with, a list of broad objectives for government that we could either get on board with or not. Then voters could get active, get involved, and shape how those general objectives are made into policy.

Politics is a murky world. It is often difficult to see the wood from the trees until you have been inside the organisations and understand how these leviathan machines plod along. We, the people, have the power to alter that machine once we get involved. I think that moves from the parties to select more young candidates are great, drawing people into the inner circle. I also think that groups coming together to politicise young people are fantastic, but have an uphill battle. Rock The Vote, which is a great idea, faces a problem. They have to dumb down politics to a certain extent, but not do it so much that the message becomes patronising. Lets wait and see how this campaign unfolds for them. But one thing is certain. Young people need to find their voice.

Is The Lisbon Treaty Evil?

I just finished this, and it’s quite long, so apologies for that. It is a run through some of the major problems I have heard people having with Lisbon, and my opinions of them.
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The Lisbon Treaty is a hot topic at the minute, so I have spent a while reading various Anti Lisbon stuff, just to see what the arguments are, and if they make sense to me. The best run down I have found on the web are the Libertas 6 Points, which are below, but with some of my thoughts on them too. To be honest, I think they are a pile of twaddle, but have a read and see if you agree.

1. Ireland’s vote in the Council will be cut by 60% while Germany’s increases by 100% and France’s by 50%

- Well to be fair guys, Ireland’s vote will be brought in line with its population. One person one vote, I would think thats a bold democratic standpoint to take to be honest, particularly from an organisation that is constantly being branded as Anti-Democratic by opponents. Or should it be democracy which favours you and your people?

2. Foreign Direct Investment would come under the control of the Common Commercial Policy for the first time so that the Irish Government could no longer legislate in this area except with the permission of Brussels.

- Foreign Direct Investment provisions can only be legislated by the EU if there is UNANIMOUS support from member states. The CCP again only acts unanimously. Maybe I’m not getting this, but I don’t see how a unanimous decision is an overriding of the rights of the Irish Government. And given that we are subject to Enforcement Notice control of our Corporation tax regime at the minute, and it hasn’t been utilised to damage our economy, I don’t see a problem. To be honest, we need to move away from attracting business simply because of a low tax base to a more robust model.

3. Ireland would lose its commissioner for five out of every 15 years – an Irish voice in the body that has the exclusive right to propose EU legislation.

- As does every other member state? And this presupposes that no one else will listen to Irish concerns for the time we don’t have a commissioner? Is that what Europe is about, having one guy over there to shout loudly for us…. It should also be kept in mind that now all legislation has to be sent to National Parliaments for consideration, thus giving more power than currently available.

4. Ireland would lose its veto in 68 areas including over “competition rules necessary for the functioning of the internal market”, immigration policy, employment policy and many other areas.

- Given that a number of issues which we are supposed to be able to veto are actually ideas we have signed up to in agreements and through ratification already, the big ones here seem to be taxation policy and immigration/rights based stuff. Firstly, like already mentioned, all members need to unanimously support any taxation changes, so I don’t see a clearer indication of our veto power. In relation to human rights based vetos, we have signed up to more restrictive covenants on rights than the EU would seek to enforce, and I think it’s xenophobic to say, “Oh, the EU can make us take in a load more Poles/Romanians.’ I really wish Libertas had put more substantive stuff behind this point. Oh and note also that the UK have already secured a clear opt out structure, simular to the ones Ireland uses to opt out of issues we don’t agree with.

5. The EU’s traditional commitment to “free and undistorted competition”, a key component of every EU treaty since the 1957 founding Treaty of Rome, has been relegated in the Lisbon Treaty by Nicholas Sarkozy, who upon removing the clause asked “what has competition ever done for us?” His idea is to have European business dominated by what he calls “National Champions”. This is code for protection of inefficient state supported industries to the detriment of European entrepreneurship and innovation, the growth companies that produce 80% of all new jobs in Europe.

- So, firstly here, the entire reason for objecting on this ground is a statement, taken in isolation, and made by a single politician, who has incredibly low support in his own country. Even leaving all that aside, the changing of the language does not alter the fact that the EU has at its heart strong principles on making competition fair. Also, doesn’t point 2 on this list argue that we shouldn’t be ‘forced’ into the same practices as all the other states, thus equalising competition? And I love it when in order to argue against something people rely on statement like “This is code…”

6. So understanding that we would have our voting weight reduced, the competition clause relegated, surrendering 68 key vetoes, and conceding to having an unelected President and Foreign Minister. Any person familiar with business negotiation might ask, what do we get in return that we don’t already have? Nothing.

- My god. What do we get in return. A more democratically representative EU. Which has always been a huge problem for skeptics in the past. We get more protection through the new voting rules in relation to qualified majority and double majority, which require not only state majority, but also population majorities to pass legislation. We get consultation with National Parliments on European legislation. We get confirmed opt outs for policy we do not agree with. But no, Liberts, you’re right, we should vote no. Someone on the Libertas Facebook page said that this list of problems should be on the front page of the profile. I think it should too.
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One last thing, however bad this is, at least Libertas has come up with problems with the treaty itself. I have seen some amazing claims from other organisations, everything from Ireland will lose it’s neutrality, to passing Lisbon will result in the outlawing of Republican organisations. That’s just sad.

And there are several campaigns I kind of can see the point to, like a number of hospital campaigns who have made statements like, No Health Reform, No Lisbon Treaty. Honestly though, the way to address health reform is through Local and National government. 2009 local elections, make your voice heard there. There is little or nothing to be achieved, other than a waste of money, in voting No to this treaty without something that can be changed in it to make it improve your situation. Like, if by voting no to Lisbon there could be a clause inserted requiring a full time Accident and Emergency department in every major town, then there would be a reason to vote no. But there isn’t. We have to come up with more appropriate ways to lobby for that kind of change, using Lisbon isn’t the right way.
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One last, last thing. This idea that Lisbon removes the right to have a treaty passed by referendum. That decision, to put the treaty before the people, lies solely with the government and the people, through the constitution. Article 48 clearly states: “The amendments shall enter into force after being ratified by all the Member States in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements.” In Ireland, our constitutional requirement dictates that such matters be passed by referendum. There is some scare mongering on this issue, so here, have a piece of information, readily available from the citizensinformation.ie website:

In order to call a constitutional referendum, a proposal to amend the Constitution must be introduced in the Dáil as a Bill. The Bill sets out the proposed amendment to the Constitution. The Bill must be passed by both the Dáil and the Seanad.

The Bill is then submitted to the people so that they can vote for or against it. If the majority of the votes cast at the referendum are in favour of the change, the Bill is signed by the Irish President and the Constitution is then amended.

In fact, to abandon this method, there would have to be a referendum to pass the power to agree to EU treaties back to the government, a referendum to abolish referendums. If that does happen at some stage, well it take a majority of voters, like all elections.
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Finally, finally I promise. The Lisbon Treaty also sets out clearly the procedure for leaving the Union. So if it all does go horribly wrong, and there really are no more benefits for us, or if the majority of peoplethink we should, we can just leave.
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Thats my view on the subject, thanks for reading. Now, regardless of whether you agree or not, please just get out and vote on the 12th.