Eirbiz.com…Ireland…The Reality

Hard Times Come Again No More

Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor:
There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

chorus:
‘Tis the song, the sigh of the weary;
Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more:
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay
There are frail forms fainting at the door:
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh! Hard Times come again no more.

There’s a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away
With a worn heart whose better days are o’er:
Though her voice would be merry, ’tis sighing all the day
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

‘Tis a sign that is wafted across the troubled wave,
‘Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore,
‘Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

THE REAL BERTIE AHERN OFFICE.ORG
Getting answers from Brian Cowen is just as difficult as getting answers from Bertie Ahern

This piece in the Irish Times seems to indicate that Cowen is using the same tactics as his predecessor…

Grudging and weary Biffo all over the place

MIRIAM LORD

DAIL SKETCH: There is an air of exhaustion about the place. The extra three days tacked on to the end of this Dáil session seem to have proved too much for deputies.

When Cowen eventually got his feet under the desk in Government Buildings after being in limbo for months, he was landed with the Lisbon referendum fiasco.

The dust had hardly cleared before the true state of the nation’s finances emerged from the wreckage. If the Taoiseach and his top brass are to be believed, the news shot like an express train from a concealed entrance and flattened them.

Cometh the hour, cometh the Cowen. He assumed office trailing a reputation as a politician of brilliance: a straight talking and decisive figure with leadership credentials as long as your arm.

At a time of faltering confidence, who better than the bruiser Biffo to calm the nation? He was expected to hit the ground running.

Instead, he just hit the ground.

Yesterday, as a glum Dáil got down to discussing how the Government intends to manage the downturn, Brian Cowen faced questions on the package of cuts he intends to introduce.

He was all over the place.

“Let us be clear,” he told Labour’s Eamon Gilmore. “There is no need for confusion.” Deputy Gilmore was seeking clarity on the figures.

No cuts, you understand, just savings. Almost half a billion to be clawed back this year, and a further billion next year. A bit here, and a bit there. His Ministers would supply the detail.

Why couldn’t the boss supply the details? Where would the axe be falling? “Instead of having this type of drip-drip feed of sneaky cuts and stealth taxes emerging during the summer months, will the Taoiseach give the House the full picture . . . before the Dáil goes into recess?” Grudging would be the best way to describe Cowen’s response, wrapped up in a frustrating fug of economist waffle that means nothing to people worrying about mortgage repayments or their job.

“We must work within the spending limits we have set ourselves to underline confidence in ourselves going forward . . . That is the position,” he explained. At the moment, this involves finding €1.5 billion over the next 18 months. Although yesterday the best Brian Cowen could manage was a shaky attempt at where the first €440 million of that money might be found.

He was none too hot at that either. Never mind the outstanding billion. That’s for next year. And the situation may have changed for the worse by then.

“We are putting out the information as we have it on what we are trying to do.”

It didn’t help when Cowen began to argue with the Labour leader over why €1 billion and €440 million did not necessarily add up to €1.4 billion. Joan Burton suggested he work it out on a blackboard.

By reputation, he may be the brightest and best for the job. But his Dáil performance yesterday, which had a worrying hit and hope ring to it, did not engender confidence.

And still, he won’t hear mention of “cuts”. As if an admission that all is not well would insult his intelligence, not to mention his reputation. Like he told Enda Kenny: “If you’re not prepared to read and understand what’s going on, that’s your problem.” But it isn’t. It’s Brian’s problem, and unfortunately, this means it is everyone’s problem.

Jammy Bertie got out in time. Is that the sound of laughter from the snug in Fagan’s?

© 2008 The Irish Times

A report in today’s Independent shows that over 50 representations were made to the Dept. of Justice by some of our inept politicians in order to have criminal thugs released early from jail.
If this is how our well paid public representatives spend some of their time, is it any wonder our economy is in bits and people are afraid to walk our streets.
It’s a sad state of affairs when the politicians who are supposed to provide security for the law abiding end up trying to ‘unleash’ thugs, who in many cases should be doing life, back onto our streets to continue as before because their sentences were too short.
Bertie Ahern once tried to have a thug, Philip Sheedy, who mowed down and killed a woman while being drunk, released early because Sheedy worked for his friend Joe Burke who was one of the ‘donors’ who gave Ahern money.
You will do a huge amount of searching before you will find a politician who lobbied the Dept. of Justice to increase the sentence of any criminal.
Likewise, there aren’t many instances of politicians going to victims or the relatives of murdered people to apologize for their incompetence in allowing thugs to roam our streets at will even after being bailed on numerous occasions by judges who are secretly directed by our lying government to keep sentencing to a minimum because there aren’t enough prison places to hold all of the thugs if they got the sentences they deserve.
Maybe, after today’s exposure, our politicians might devote their time to the proper running of the country in the future.

Related links:
Anger at ministers’ bid to aid prisoners
Politicians accused of insulting victims of crime

Udaras na Gaeltachta, a body for the promotion of the Irish language, is proposing designating some of the islands around Ireland as tax havens for the greedy wealthy.
Sure, there’s no need to go to all that trouble because the majority of the greedy bastards NEVER pay their proper taxes on the mainland anyway. It’s only poor ‘Joe Sixpack’ working his arse off and mortgaged up to his neck and who has no choice in the matter as his tax is stopped at source who ends up paying for the running of the country. All the rich crook has to do is lobby a few politicians and, not alone will he not have to pay his proper taxes but, he will probably get a grant to go along with his ill-gotten gains for the financing of his next project/fiddle. Or, if there’s good money in the deal for the politicians, they will change or introduce legislation to facilitate the crook under the guise of creating employment.
Does anyone think that Bertie Ahern got around E400,000, that we know of, from businessmen because they liked him?
There must be some flaw in the Irish psyche whereby the more wealthy someone becomes the more they are looked up to by the people whom they have swindled. I have seen idiots almost genuflect with reverence in the company of some of the so-called elite, some of whom pretend to be living abroad in order to avoid tax.
The fact that the Revenue Commissioners come out every so often and announce a ‘crackdown’ is indicative of a less than rigorous examination of all business records.
Now that the country is in the shit as a result of Bertie Ahern’s skulduggery and political incompetence, poor ‘Joe Sixpack’ (average citizen) can look forward shouldering more of the burden while the ‘gods’ have fucked off with as much loot as they could lay their greedy hands on.

Can-O-Worms
Alternative Bertie website therealbertieahernoffice.org which shows the real extent of the crooks tenure as the leader of the country.
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Is our former great leader and payola man Bertie Ahern going to give after-dinner speeches on how to get away with corruption?
Yes, the man who admits to taking thousands of pounds from business interests while serving as the Irish Minister for Finance appears to be trying to get on the speech making and toastmaster circuit
His new website bertieahernoffice.org displays a photo of Ahern looking statesman-like with a visionary expression. Visionary he is not because, the furthest this man could see into the future while serving Ireland as a politician, was only as far as the next brown envelope or rolled up newspaper. In fact, Ahern spent most of his time as the country’s leader looking after his rich benefactors to the detriment of other sections of society.
He could start out his gobbledegook circuit by explaining how, through his inaction as Prime Minister, he allowed the country to plummet into a recession that every idiot could see coming. For ELEVEN YEARS this man was a ‘cheerleader’ for the economy and when quality leadership was required he scurried off like an IRA man after planting a bomb.
Another topic for a speech to an audience of politicians would be to show them how to get away with political corruption.
He could explain that all you have to do is to hire an army of spin doctors paid for by the people who are going to be deceived.

Ireland is run by crooks who don’t really have to answer to any authority.
If an ordinary Joe Sixpack was found to fiddle an employer out of a tenner he’d be looking for a new job the next day. So, why is it that people in government or government connected jobs can remain in the their jobs FOR YEARS after being discovered to be involved in something of an irregular nature.
Today’s Irish Times tells of a FÁS executive who was reported to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Harney in October 2004 who is still under investigation NEARLY 4 YEARS LATER.
Not alone is the executive ‘under suspicion’ but, two years after coming under suspicion he got a bonus of 10 grand. Sure, that’s nearly as long as our former great leader and proven liar Bertie Ahern has been messing around with the Mahon Tribunal.
The whole scenario just serves to give the fingers to the ordinary decent people of this country who, apart from fighting a losing battle to make ends meet on a daily basis, end up also paying for the misdemeanors of the ‘elite’ who pretend to have the interests of the country at heart.

Building workers to get the DCM…(Don’t Come Monday)
In yesterday’s Irish Independent we had more gloomy indication that the Irish Economy is in dire straights. According to the report, the Department of Finance is worried that after the traditional builders holidays that there could be another 10,000 joining the dole queues.
For months now we have had no plan from our government as to how to address what amounts to a serious recession. Brian Cowen seems to have have inherited the same tricks of his predecessor and ‘payola man’ Bertie Ahern in that no matter how the opposition try to elicit answers to legitimate questions Cowen gets up blusters, obfuscates and generally avoids the real issues. He seems to think that ‘thinking positive’ will cure the ills of our failing economy.
We will eventually come out of this depression but, only after the most vulnerable in our society have paid the price by losing out on opportunities which should be in place now.
Between the soaring cost of living, soaring unemployment, a failing Health Service, cutbacks in education, the financial institutions (crooks) fiddling away as usual and no answers from our leaders, it’s going to take a long, long time.

Related links:
127 people laid off each day as redundancies rise 30pc
Ahern forced Cowen into U-turn over stamp duty
News: Action is needed on interest rates
A self-pitying Lenihan faces a Black Friday
Pressure is on to slash stamp duty

Another Bertie Ahern legacy comes home to roost
The results of how Ireland has voted on the Lisbon Treaty are coming in as I write this from RTE Radio’s Pat Kenny Show and, unless a miracle occurs, the answer is NO!
It’s hard to believe that the politicians whom we elected concocted such a scenario whereby the electorate was presented with an impossible to understand load of gobbledegook as the Lisbon Treaty. Not if they spent years in the Legal Inns of the EU could the average person fully understand what the whole thing was all about.
Is it not the case that our overpaid politicians and the equally overpaid legions of pen-pushers should be dealing with the legal aspects of any treaty or other arrangement entered into?
Apart from the above mess, I believe that there was a substantial protest vote against the dishonesty and general failure of our present Fianna Fail led government. Between recession and almost everything else gathering into one horrible ‘pile of dung’ with no plan of action to address any issue any reasonable person could only vote NO.
I voted NO because the man in charge of looking after our interests in Europe and in Ireland for over 10 years, Bertie Ahern , is presently before the Mahon Tribunal telling one lie after another in his attempts to explain why he took hundreds of thousands of pounds from wealthy business interests while serving as Minister for Finance.

Killarney is our premier tourist attraction and it’s really annoying to read reports of the area being taken over by gangs of car thugs. It’s not as if this is a new phenomenon…the terrorising of local people and tourists alike by gangs of thugs who amuse themselves by racing around the town and other adjacent areas at all hours of the night has been going on for years while the authorities - Gardai, local councils, politicians, tourist bodies etc - wring their hands and blame each other.
The appeal of the area for both tourists and locals in the fantastic scenery and the tranquility. So, why would anybody in their right mind bring a stupid car rally to Killarney on an annual basis.
Apart from the ugly sight of cars tearing around the scenic roads at top speed, this surely is like a drug to galoot ‘car enthusiasts’.
As usual, our Gardai turn a blind eye to the trend of making cars noisier than what they should be by fitting exhaust systems that are supposed to make the car sound like a ‘racer’.
In my opinion, this activity is illegal and I believe that, in some cases, it affects insurance policies.

Related Links:
The situation in 2005
Wikipedia’s view
100 arrests as gardaí crackdown on thugs…2008
Forty arrested at Killarney rally …2007

This is not me exaggerating…these are the words of a judge who does the sentencing
Full story
As always in Ireland, when something is not working properly it’s someone else’s fault.
Justice Paul Carney was whinging about the number of sentences which had been passed by him which were later seriously reduced on appeal.
The reality is that his original sentences were puny to begin with and, after having a chunk taken off later, makes our attempts at maintaining law and order a joke.
Just to re-enforce the point, an article in today’s Kildare Post tells of a gang of scumbags who were drinking in the street in Naas when a Garda asked some of them for their names. One of the thugs struck the Garda causing such injury that he had to have his teeth sorted out to the tune of €2,000.
Patrick Coady brought €1,500 to court as an offer of compensation but, the judge said that he would have to produce another €360 before he would look favourably upon him when it came to sentencing and asked for the famous Community Service Report.
A couple of thousand euro as compensation seems now to be the latest way of getting away with violent thuggery.
What would be wrong with five years and not a day less?
You see, Coady didn’t just punch the Garda…he ‘punched’ you and me and every other decent citizen in the pocket also. Because, undoubtedly, taxpayers money will be used to KEEP THE THUG OUT OF JAIL.