Archive for March, 2004
Wednesday, March 24th, 2004
According to the Irish Times Bush will spend only 12 hours in Ireland this June:Plans for the visit, now well advanced, indicate that Mr Bush will arrive late on June 25th from Washington and stay the night at a location outside Dublin, possibly Dromoland Castle in Co Clare or Ashford ...
Posted in Political activism | Comments Off on Details of Bush’s visit to Ireland
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2004
By funferal guest columnist Sabryna CornishNo war thing. That's how Dylaan (he's 6) described what we went to Saturday. We joined thousands of other people in Chicago and millions around the world to let the government know that one year later, we still object to the occupation of Iraq by ...
Posted in Political activism | Comments Off on This IS what democracy looks like
Monday, March 15th, 2004
It seems the US government is (again) looking for immunity for its agents during Bush's time in Ireland later this year. Joe Costello of Labour has released a statement calling on the Irish government to resist the request. Meanwhile anti-war groups have announced plans for protests, a call echoed by ...
Posted in Political activism | Comments Off on Bush in Ireland
Monday, March 15th, 2004
Pat Rabitte has released an interesting statement on the government's planned referendum:
Ireland seems to have produced another politician who automatically knows what is good for the Irish people from looking into his own heart. For Minister McDowell to assert ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity | Comments Off on Labour criticise xenophobic referendum
Friday, March 12th, 2004
Yesterday's mailbox contained an interesting press release:
The President of the Labour Party, Michael D. Higgins TD has accused the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Coughlan TD of using an underhand device to overturn a ...
Posted in Society and culture | Comments Off on Irish gov’t to remove benefits from same-sex couples
Wednesday, March 10th, 2004
Democracy Now!, today had an item on electronic voting, featuring David Dill, and announcing that international observers are being sent by Pax Christi to oversee the ballot in Florida in November.
Posted in Electronic Voting | Comments Off on Electronic voting in the USA
Wednesday, March 10th, 2004
The Irish government has announced a shameful proposal to withhold citizenship from children born in Ireland whose parents are not legally resident in the country. Pat Rabitte of the Labour Party has, rightly, criticised the proposal, though in terms far less strident than I would think appropriate. The fact that ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity | Comments Off on Shame! Shame! Shame! Irish government in xenophobic opportunism
Wednesday, March 10th, 2004
By funferal guest columnist Sabryna Cornish
One of the leading independent media activists in the nation came to UIC last week to talk about the state of the media in the U.S. and its global effects. Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, host of 'Democracy Now!,' a national radio show that provides access ...
Posted in International Affairs | Comments Off on Amy Goodman at UIC
Saturday, March 6th, 2004
An interesting proposal being considered by the EU is to reduce the voting age to 16, in hopes of increasing voter participation amongst young people. I think this may miss the cause of falling participation, but it may be worth investigating.
Incidentally, the grammar-cop in me is upset by the use ...
Posted in Electoral politics | Comments Off on Voting at 16?
Saturday, March 6th, 2004
The government has published the membership of the 'Independent Commission' on electronic voting. Unsurprisingly it has come under fire from other parties, with Pat Rabitte decrying the lack of consultation with the opposition.
From our point of view I can identify the following problems (some of which have been raised by ...
Posted in Electronic Voting | Comments Off on The ‘independent’ commission