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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/rss2full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" version="2.0"><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:09:21 +0000</lastBuildDate><category>BBC</category><category>free market</category><category>creationists</category><category>banana republic</category><category>Northern Ireland</category><category>display</category><category>finance</category><category>Radio 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Park</category><category>smoking</category><category>demonstration</category><category>history</category><category>Tanaiste</category><category>Craiglist</category><category>hats</category><category>debt</category><category>RTÉ</category><category>revolution</category><category>health</category><category>turmoil</category><category>fat</category><category>way</category><category>human</category><category>Sarah Palin</category><category>Ireland</category><category>Celia Ahern</category><category>money</category><title>Peas be with you</title><description /><link>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>71</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/peasbewithyou" /><feedburner:info uri="peasbewithyou" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-822897488859152644</guid><pubDate>Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:06:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T21:03:29.961Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Mary Harney</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">PDs</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">politics</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Des O'Malley</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">parties</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Michael McDowell</category><title>Parasitic Demagogues finally disband</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8GuwnEzXI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/EiUp-BWYZ00/s1600-h/PD+gone.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 427px; height: 267px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8GuwnEzXI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/EiUp-BWYZ00/s400/PD+gone.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273441089066683762" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Tonight Ireland is a happy country, as we celebrate the end of the &lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-size:130%;" &gt;PDs&lt;/span&gt;, a nasty little political party, which has imploded.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Good bye - I say - and good riddens!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After they lost six of their previously eight deputies in the 2007 general election, the &lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"&gt;Parasitic Demagogues&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;(PDs), until then the junior partner in the government coalition led by Fianna Fáil, were demoted to infant partner. (Their previous position as the juniors was taken by the equally power-hungry Green Party.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8G59U0X1I/AAAAAAAAAPY/Jk3wAxHJvN4/s1600-h/MichaelMcDowell.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 98px; height: 134px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8G59U0X1I/AAAAAAAAAPY/Jk3wAxHJvN4/s200/MichaelMcDowell.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273441281458331474" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Among the 75% casualties were their then leader, the Tanaiste and Minister for Justice &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Michael McDowell&lt;/span&gt; (left), as well as deputy leader Liz O'Donnell and party president Tom Parlin.&lt;br /&gt;The latter, a Minister of State and a corrupt weasel of amazingly few morals, found quickly a new perk as the head of the construction industry federation. He feels quite at home there now, as no-one in Ireland knows corruption better than the builders and property developers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But greedy and power-hungry as they were, the PDs still stayed in government, despite being almost wiped out by the electorate. If there ever was a case in Irish politics where the expressed will of the voters was completely ignored and contradicted, it was to keep the damaged remnants of the PDs in government last year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS74Ed2hfaI/AAAAAAAAAOg/izTkBsUyX3k/s1600-h/Mary+Harney+6.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 152px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS74Ed2hfaI/AAAAAAAAAOg/izTkBsUyX3k/s200/Mary+Harney+6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273424969313910178" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;With a grand total of two Senators (kindly appointed by Bertie) and two TDs, one of which - the infamous &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Mary Harney&lt;/span&gt; (right) - even retained her position as Minister for Health (with an annual budget of more than € 16 billion), the PDs became the living dead of Leinster House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It took more than a year before they could not stand the stench or their own wrotten existence any longer. Today they finally decided to obey the will of the Irish voters and disbanded what was left of the party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But it was not an easy death. In April they even went through the charade of electing a new leader, as if there was anything left to lead. A previously unknown Galway man named Ciaran Cannon - one of the two appointed Senators - was chosen as the sacrificial lamb, as even Mary Harney could see no future for the PDs and refused to lead them into any more disasters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now it's all over - thank God! This afternoon the last surviving members of the PDs meet for a wake in Mullingar and voted to finally disband their party. Ciaran Cannon will have to live with the dubious stain of having been their last 'leader', while no-one even mentions the pompous and self-important Michael McDowell any longer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The party, founded by the former Fianna Fáil TD and minister &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Des O'Malley&lt;/span&gt; in 1985 as the &lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 0);"&gt;Progressive Democrats&lt;/span&gt;, had originally offered a new alternative in Irish politics. But after the founder resigned in 1993 and turned the party over to Mary Harney, things began to go rapidly downhill. Under the 13 years of her leadership the PDs became the &lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"&gt;Parasitic Demagogues&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span&gt;I&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;t is however ironic that the very man who urged Des O'Malley in 1985 to establish a new party would become its undertaker. This man was no other than &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Michael McDowell&lt;/span&gt;, in 1985 a young &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"&gt;Fine Gael&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;activist, and from 2006 to 2007 the hapless leader of the corrupted PDs.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span&gt;Neither he nor Des O'Malley were in Mullingar for the party's funeral.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; These days they have better things to do.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span&gt;However, the decommisioning process of the PDs is not quite complete yet. Though the party is now officially disbanded, they still have a hidden stash of power in the Cabinet, known as Mary Harney. She is now trying to masquerade as an 'independent', but no-one believes her anyway.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span&gt;She sees herself as the first one-person party in Irish history and is determined to stay in power as long as it is possible. Only with her decommissioning the disbandment of the PDs will truly be finished, and I hope she will be decommissioned soon.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8FyHrIlzI/AAAAAAAAAPI/33nz4xQGbYo/s1600-h/PD+logo.png"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 286px; height: 102px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8FyHrIlzI/AAAAAAAAAPI/33nz4xQGbYo/s400/PD+logo.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273440047285704498" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8FWSADGuI/AAAAAAAAAPA/ZuoNo-OJhoE/s1600-h/down_sign.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 291px; height: 102px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8FWSADGuI/AAAAAAAAAPA/ZuoNo-OJhoE/s400/down_sign.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273439569021442786" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-822897488859152644?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/nunmiTHNI04" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/nunmiTHNI04/parasitic-demagogues-finally-disband.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS8GuwnEzXI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/EiUp-BWYZ00/s72-c/PD+gone.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>2</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/parasitic-demagogues-finally-disband.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-7601831522047262692</guid><pubDate>Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:43:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T18:06:45.229Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">UK</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">military</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Belfast</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">nationalists</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">unionists</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">British Army</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">PNSI</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Northern Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">loyalists</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">triumphalism</category><title>British Militarism is still alive in Belfast</title><description>First came two British soldiers, decked out in desert battle dress and leading a pair of large Irish Wolfhounds.&lt;br /&gt;Behind them strutted the first contingent of soldiers from the (British) Irish Guards. Left right, left right, they marched with their chests puffed out pompously.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7e8K9rVkI/AAAAAAAAAOI/EmIFljh44Fo/s1600-h/RIR+homecoming+parade.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 420px; height: 276px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7e8K9rVkI/AAAAAAAAAOI/EmIFljh44Fo/s400/RIR+homecoming+parade.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273397339013994050" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Next came the military band in their ‘Royal Irish’ green dress uniforms, blasting out the odious protestant hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers", the one Winston Churchill was so fond of.&lt;br /&gt;That was of course an attempt to hide this display of naked militarism behind a religious fig leaf.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not that it mattered, as the strains of the hymn were all but drowned out by bellicose screaming of hundreds of 'loyalists' who crammed into Belfast's Fisherwick Place. Their jeering was directed at the families of nationalists, gunned down by British forces.&lt;br /&gt;These decent Irish people stood not more than 30 metres away, protesting against the British Army’s pompous march of triumphalism, which was in fact a march of shame.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This happened five days ago, on Sunday, November 2nd, in the centre of Belfast. It was the long advertised and hyped-up 'homecoming parade' for the (British) Irish Guards and the Royal Irish Regiment, who have bloodied their hands in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over all the excitement in the USA it was almost overlooked by most of the media.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the actions of the PSNI, the British Army, the 'loyalist' mobs and the unionist politicians who were in Belfast city centre last weekend say anything, then it is to tell nationalists and all decent Irish people that the struggle for justice and equality has a long way to go.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Belfast is still an occupied city in the grip of a cruel and bellicose army. The only difference is that they now prefer to kill Iraqis and Afghans instead of Irish people.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-7601831522047262692?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/XVAgNN1Nsc8" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/XVAgNN1Nsc8/british-militarism-is-still-alive-in.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7e8K9rVkI/AAAAAAAAAOI/EmIFljh44Fo/s72-c/RIR+homecoming+parade.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/british-militarism-is-still-alive-in.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-3904451291628531563</guid><pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:27:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T17:34:14.728Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sarah Palin</category><title>The Future of Sarah Palin</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7Zf9uPONI/AAAAAAAAAOA/QWu04vfBRco/s1600-h/Palin_nowhere.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 420px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7Zf9uPONI/AAAAAAAAAOA/QWu04vfBRco/s400/Palin_nowhere.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273391356865099986" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;"Well, folks, I know where I am going..."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7Y3CkOBdI/AAAAAAAAAN4/ZjcJHmmIZPg/s1600-h/palin+mad.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 417px; height: 319px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7Y3CkOBdI/AAAAAAAAAN4/ZjcJHmmIZPg/s400/palin+mad.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273390653790619090" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;Hail Palin! Death to all moose!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-3904451291628531563?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/mNU-tQUFXSo" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/mNU-tQUFXSo/future-of-sarah-palin.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7Zf9uPONI/AAAAAAAAAOA/QWu04vfBRco/s72-c/Palin_nowhere.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/future-of-sarah-palin.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-977155422367509779</guid><pubDate>Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:07:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T18:22:28.221Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">John McCain</category><title>The Future of John McCain</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7kk3FyO4I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/3Yb9TvW4wiA/s1600-h/ObamaMcCainCartoon4.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 427px; height: 354px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7kk3FyO4I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/3Yb9TvW4wiA/s400/ObamaMcCainCartoon4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273403535612066690" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;Relax, John, and enjoy your retirement.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-977155422367509779?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/q0c8WhoNm-M" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/q0c8WhoNm-M/future-of-john-mccain.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7kk3FyO4I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/3Yb9TvW4wiA/s72-c/ObamaMcCainCartoon4.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/future-of-john-mccain.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-6830527909461322581</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:10:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T17:20:01.678Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Barack Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">election</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">thanks</category><title>Thank you, America!</title><description>Today I want to thank the people of the USA for what they have done last night.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yes, I thank you will all my heart. Obviously there are a lot more decent Americans than I thought for the past eight years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's early days yet, and we should not expect too much from Barack Obama. He's just a man and not the Messiah. He won't be able to perform miracles.&lt;br /&gt;And the mess the criminal and corrupt Bush administration leaves behind is colossal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But at least hope is restored today, to the USA and to the rest of the world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Once again, thank you America! And congratulations to &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Barack Obama&lt;/span&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;May the good luck of last night remain with you, and may you have the strength and wisdom to be a great leader.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-6830527909461322581?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/D5Fy8t-gKHs" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/D5Fy8t-gKHs/thank-you-america.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/thank-you-america.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-6246963400780561634</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:56:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T17:09:57.997Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">John McCain</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Barack Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">election</category><title>John McCain conceeds</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7SJ5KYppI/AAAAAAAAANo/HVy1RX26vaM/s1600-h/McCain2008MemorialDay.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 410px; height: 267px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7SJ5KYppI/AAAAAAAAANo/HVy1RX26vaM/s400/McCain2008MemorialDay.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273383281102464658" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Guess who just won the election?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:180%;"&gt;That one!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7TiMDN-2I/AAAAAAAAANw/2dwyHoQKhyA/s1600-h/Barack+Obama+4.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 406px; height: 229px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7TiMDN-2I/AAAAAAAAANw/2dwyHoQKhyA/s400/Barack+Obama+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273384798001167202" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Barack Hussein Obama&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;President-elect&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-6246963400780561634?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/Z9i6GAYXzZc" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/Z9i6GAYXzZc/mccain-conceeds.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7SJ5KYppI/AAAAAAAAANo/HVy1RX26vaM/s72-c/McCain2008MemorialDay.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/mccain-conceeds.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-5199421382614032422</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:52:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T18:59:43.616Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Barack Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">election</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">history</category><title>History in the making</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7QlDrv8sI/AAAAAAAAANY/wG7UhJ8ULpM/s1600-h/history.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 419px; height: 273px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7QlDrv8sI/AAAAAAAAANY/wG7UhJ8ULpM/s400/history.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273381548759970498" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:180%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);font-size:130%;" &gt;The Americans elected Barack Obama!!!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);font-size:78%;" &gt;*&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7l9qtT6GI/AAAAAAAAAOY/l4_EWOUXUHo/s1600-h/we+did.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 419px; height: 280px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7l9qtT6GI/AAAAAAAAAOY/l4_EWOUXUHo/s400/we+did.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273405061296547938" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-5199421382614032422?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/UIvVkMqnyXI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/UIvVkMqnyXI/history-in-making.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7QlDrv8sI/AAAAAAAAANY/wG7UhJ8ULpM/s72-c/history.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/history-in-making.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-6093873542007754560</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:03:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T16:20:09.120Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">John McCain</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Barack Obama</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">election</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sarah Palin</category><title>Today is D-Day in the USA</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7FwqNnF5I/AAAAAAAAANA/Z0n-uaXh7Ww/s1600-h/White+House.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 231px; height: 169px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7FwqNnF5I/AAAAAAAAANA/Z0n-uaXh7Ww/s200/White+House.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273369653453199250" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Yes, the day is finally here. Today is D-Day - &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Decision Day&lt;/span&gt; - in the USA, and by tomorrow we will know who's the next man to spend four years in the White House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hard to believe how time flies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Back in January, when the whole spectacle of primaries and caucuses started and more than 30 politicians from the two large US parties put their hats into the ring, it was all very confusing, and even more so for someone like me, here in Ireland, where we don't have this kind of political circus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When we elect our President - once every seven years - there is of course a modest campaign with all the candidates, and then the people vote. Our President is directly elected by the people, with no 'electoral college' in between, even though the office has very little political power and is more of a representative position, like it is in most other European countries as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But we take a lot of interest also in the US elections. After all, there are about 50 million Americans with Irish ancestry (that's one in six US citizens), and above that the USA are now the only 'super power' eft on the planet. So whatever they - and their President - do has a lot of consequences for everyone else in the world, regardless where they live.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I followed the developments in the USA with great interest, but as I said, my understanding of the process and procedures was limited. So I read a lot about it, in papers and on-line. And I did learn a lot from that.&lt;br /&gt;However, there is only one blog I read that really impressed me. As it happens, it's written by another Irishman and called &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;"Views from the Emerald Isle"&lt;/span&gt;. (the URL is http://inishtrahoull.blogspot.com/)&lt;br /&gt;This man seems to know his politics and has an amazing power of analysis and vision. He was the &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;only one&lt;/span&gt; of all the journalists and bloggers whose articles I read who wrote &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;back in January &lt;/span&gt;that the final contest would be between &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;John McCain&lt;/span&gt; and &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Barack Obama&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;While most of the Irish media - including RTÉ - were sure that Hillary Clinton would win the nomination of the Democratic Party and almost campaigned for her, this single blogger dismissed her and her chances back in January, and he explained his reasons in detail. I just read these articles again, and with hindsight they are even more impressive. I think this man should be on RTÉ or write for our major papers. They all got it wrong for a long time, but he was right from the very start.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But enough about the past. Today the Americans have to decide, and I hope they will make the right decision. Which - in my humble opinion - is Barack Obama. He's the only one who could bring back some decency and honour to the American nation that has been turned into the true &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;"Empire of Evil"&lt;/span&gt; (the phrase used by Ronald Reagan for the Soviet Union many years ago) under the criminal and corrupt administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7EeDwzKwI/AAAAAAAAAM4/MBTd6Tfh6lY/s1600-h/john+mccain+09.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 158px; height: 208px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7EeDwzKwI/AAAAAAAAAM4/MBTd6Tfh6lY/s200/john+mccain+09.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273368234382535426" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;John McCain&lt;/span&gt; was an honourable man eight years ago, when he ran against Bush in the primaries of the Republican Party. Had he won the nomination then, he would probably have won the election as well and - perhaps - been quite a good President. But a lot has happened since. In fact way too much has happened. And since McCain joined the Bush camp four years ago and sold his soul to Bush, Cheney and Karl Rove (the evil spin master behind Bush), he has become a differnt man and part of the evil machine that dragged America down into the gutter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7DYEYIKRI/AAAAAAAAAMw/d5ciauTCn0Y/s1600-h/Sarah+Palin+3.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 215px; height: 129px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7DYEYIKRI/AAAAAAAAAMw/d5ciauTCn0Y/s200/Sarah+Palin+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273367031956646162" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;If one had needed more proof for that, his selection of &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Sarah Palin&lt;/span&gt; as 'running mate' said it all.&lt;br /&gt;This right-wing woman, who could have made Adolf Hitler smile with pride and joy, is the personification of everything that is wrong with the USA today. Even the theoretical thought that she could be "one heartbeat away from the Presidency", which she would if the Americans elect the 72-year-old McCain, makes me shiver.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have no vote in this election, and I would never want to live in the USA, no matter who is the President. But I can only urge the decent Americans - and yes, there still are some - to vote for the right man today, in their own interest and in the interest of the whole world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7CCGu7bwI/AAAAAAAAAMo/KmtlZHcxPsQ/s1600-h/barack_obama.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 420px; height: 280px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7CCGu7bwI/AAAAAAAAAMo/KmtlZHcxPsQ/s400/barack_obama.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273365555120402178" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Quite a lot of Americans visit this blog, so I hope they will read this and do the right thing. I will be sitting here and waiting in anticipation. My gut feeling tells me that &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Barack Obama&lt;/span&gt; is going to win the White House, and probably with a good majority. But as long as people like Karl Rove are around to muddle things up (as he did in 2000 and 2004), one can never be completely sure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please give yourself and the world another chance for peace and prosperity and &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;vote for Barack Obama!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-6093873542007754560?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/dnpQPV1bml4" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/dnpQPV1bml4/today-is-d-day-in-usa.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7FwqNnF5I/AAAAAAAAANA/Z0n-uaXh7Ww/s72-c/White+House.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/today-is-d-day-in-usa.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-394423675402483549</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:21:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T16:44:07.385Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">John McCain</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">election</category><title>McCain's five Reasons</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7MQvcJA6I/AAAAAAAAANI/ooQ30Vt8xE8/s1600-h/John+McCain+6.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 404px; height: 236px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7MQvcJA6I/AAAAAAAAANI/ooQ30Vt8xE8/s400/John+McCain+6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273376801681900450" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;My friends, there are five reasons &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;not&lt;/span&gt; to vote for me:&lt;br /&gt;The Economy,&lt;br /&gt;the War in Iraq,&lt;br /&gt;my closeness to George W. Bush,&lt;br /&gt;Sarah Palin&lt;br /&gt;and, and... ah ... myself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-394423675402483549?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/9zZzsColfL4" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/9zZzsColfL4/mccains-five-reasons.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7MQvcJA6I/AAAAAAAAANI/ooQ30Vt8xE8/s72-c/John+McCain+6.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/mccains-five-reasons.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-7834899647006519592</guid><pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:45:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T09:00:29.977Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">election</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">George W Bush</category><title>It's Make-your-Mind-up Time</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5es4sj_oI/AAAAAAAAAMg/T-7X-0k1hCw/s1600-h/GW+Bush+confused.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 414px; height: 304px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5es4sj_oI/AAAAAAAAAMg/T-7X-0k1hCw/s400/GW+Bush+confused.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273256338923978370" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;"I do wonder... who I shall electionise tomorrow..."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;"Maybe it's O'Cain... or should I go for McBama?"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Or can I stay in bed and have another banana?"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-7834899647006519592?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/F-00bzCkcss" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/F-00bzCkcss/its-make-your-mind-up-time.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5es4sj_oI/AAAAAAAAAMg/T-7X-0k1hCw/s72-c/GW+Bush+confused.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/its-make-your-mind-up-time.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-6986901492078745874</guid><pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:18:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T16:48:27.177Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">John McCain</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">election</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sarah Palin</category><title>John McCain has a Dream today...</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5Z-MapYVI/AAAAAAAAAMY/4ZN_kD-YyUQ/s1600-h/shake+up.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 423px; height: 339px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5Z-MapYVI/AAAAAAAAAMY/4ZN_kD-YyUQ/s400/shake+up.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273251138717180242" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;"Oh yeah, I have a dream today..."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;(But that's all it is and ever will be)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7Oxkg0ryI/AAAAAAAAANQ/0ZwCSSvWRe4/s1600-h/Palin+cartoon.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 417px; height: 312px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS7Oxkg0ryI/AAAAAAAAANQ/0ZwCSSvWRe4/s400/Palin+cartoon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273379564707688226" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;"Are we there yet, are we there yet..."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-6986901492078745874?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/SzuBngSDVQI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/SzuBngSDVQI/john-mccain-has-dream-today.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5Z-MapYVI/AAAAAAAAAMY/4ZN_kD-YyUQ/s72-c/shake+up.gif" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/john-mccain-has-dream-today.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-56537722122954266</guid><pubDate>Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:01:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T08:10:23.681Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sean Fitzpatrick</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">horse racing</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Google</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">advertisement</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">language</category><title>November Handicap Meeting</title><description>Remember Sean Fitzpatrick? Perhaps you do, as I mentioned him here before.&lt;br /&gt;And no, I don't mean the banker (and chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, whom I mentioned as well).&lt;br /&gt;I mean my neighbour, the philosopher and retired printer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This morning he told me that he was going to the 'November Handicap Meeting' today. I was not sure what he meant by that, since I had never heard about that before.&lt;br /&gt;But then I remembered that his wife is handicapped since she had a stroke a few years ago. I didn't want to look stupid, or appear as too nosy, so I didn't ask him about details.&lt;br /&gt;I just assumed that he was going with his wife to a monthly meeting for handicapped people.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But then I saw his wife in the garden this afternoon, and began to wonder. So I went out and said hello, asking how she was, and that I had thought she was going to a meeting today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She said she was fine, and that Sean had gone on his own, as she didn't really care much for the horses and couldn't bear the crowds at race meetings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I was puzzled. Horses? Race meetings? I clearly remembered that Sean had said he was going to a handicap meeting. To avoid embarrassment I said no more and went back inside, where I sat down at my desk and googled the words "November Handicap Meeting".&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It only took a few seconds, and then Google filled my computer screen with plenty of links to "handicap meetings". And guess what? They were all horse races! Not one was an actual meeting for handicapped people.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You might think I am stupid, or perhaps not.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am not into horse racing, nor anything that uses animals in improper and exploitative ways. So I am not familiar with the internal expert lingo of the sport. But now that I have heard it, and read about it a good deal, I wonder why they use such strange and often even hilarious language in horse racing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Everything in this sport seems to be totally commercialised and there is advertisement in every bit and detail. Even the names of the actual races are now pure advertisement. Doing my bit of research, I found many silly names, but here are only a few from yesterday alone:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5TAVpkLlI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/4C9L4CgHYNY/s1600-h/Funny+Horse+Smile.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 168px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5TAVpkLlI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/4C9L4CgHYNY/s200/Funny+Horse+Smile.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273243478974017106" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;A. Bartlett &amp;amp; Sons (Airdrie) Ltd. Maiden Hurdle&lt;/span&gt; (could be a chastity contest)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;William Ewart Properties Handicap Hurdle&lt;/span&gt; (getting a mortgage is difficult now)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;"&gt;JNwine.com Champion Steeplechase&lt;/span&gt; (Does the champion get a head start? And a bottle of wine?)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Killultagh Properties Ltd. Steeplechase&lt;/span&gt; (They even sell churches now..., don't they?)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Rainbow Telecom Handicap Steeplechase&lt;/span&gt; (does probably involve handling new types of mobile phones)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Lough Developments Ltd. (Pro/Am) Flat Race&lt;/span&gt; (how to get a new apartment in a newly developed area)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;I don't know how anyone can take such ridiculous names - and thus the whole horse racing business - for serious. Fortunately I will not have to occupy my little brain with the matter any longer, as I do now care even less for horse racing than I did before. The horses, I am sure, are having a good laugh at us.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-56537722122954266?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/wO3W159x2Yg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/wO3W159x2Yg/november-handicap-meeting.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS5TAVpkLlI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/4C9L4CgHYNY/s72-c/Funny+Horse+Smile.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/november-handicap-meeting.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-8794051267230588980</guid><pubDate>Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:30:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T02:55:56.953Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Tanaiste</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Willie O'Dea</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Hallowe'en</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Taoiseach</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Mary Coughlan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Michael Martin</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Cabinet</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Brian Cowen</category><title>Secret Cabinet Meeting in Co. Offaly</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS4Gj714_CI/AAAAAAAAAMI/1bFabqYvv7U/s1600-h/Halloween+1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 421px; height: 263px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS4Gj714_CI/AAAAAAAAAMI/1bFabqYvv7U/s400/Halloween+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273159428126342178" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;It has emerged that the &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Irish Cabinet&lt;/span&gt; had a secret meeting last night in a secluded place near &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Clara&lt;/span&gt;, the Taoiseach's home village in Co. Offaly.&lt;br /&gt;When asked about it by journalists, the government's new unofficial spokesman &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Willie O'Dea&lt;/span&gt; refused to comment. But a reliable eyewitness reports that the meeting was held "in the spirit of the season", even though "some would have mistaken it for a gathering of the Ku Klux Klan".&lt;br /&gt;Only Tanaiste &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Mary Coughlan&lt;/span&gt; (pictured right) refused to wear the traditional over-garment and appeared uncovered.&lt;br /&gt;"I wouldn't wear a burka, so I'm not wearing this either," she was overheard saying to Taoiseach &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Brian Cowen&lt;/span&gt;, who eventually accepted her "eccentric attitude".&lt;br /&gt;Foreign Affairs Minister &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Michael Martin&lt;/span&gt; commented that it was "not a beauty contest", adding that otherwise he would take his bedsheet off, too. But the Taoiseach was having none of it.&lt;br /&gt;"You can do that in Cork, you tosser," he told Martin, "but not here in Clara. This is Offaly!"&lt;br /&gt;Despite attempts to learn more about the nature of the meeting, no statement was issued and all participants have refused to comment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-8794051267230588980?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/juTGEcTArGw" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/juTGEcTArGw/secret-cabinet-meeting-in-co-offaly.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS4Gj714_CI/AAAAAAAAAMI/1bFabqYvv7U/s72-c/Halloween+1.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/secret-cabinet-meeting-in-co-offaly.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-7374848662007851690</guid><pubDate>Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:06:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-27T02:28:54.775Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Radio 1</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Hallowe'en</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Taoiseach</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">TV</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">RTÉ</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Samhain</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Brian Cowen</category><title>Brian Cowen's Hallowe'en Address</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS4BpCk0dvI/AAAAAAAAAMA/6TypjpF1kVg/s1600-h/Halloween.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 423px; height: 266px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS4BpCk0dvI/AAAAAAAAAMA/6TypjpF1kVg/s400/Halloween.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5273154018274998002" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;While many Heads of State give a traditional address to their nation on Christmas Day, and many Prime Ministers speak to their people on New Year's Day (January 1st), Ireland's new Prime Minister, who is a fluent speaker of Irish (Us Gaelge), decided to create a tradition of his own.&lt;br /&gt;Taoiseach &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Brian Cowen&lt;/span&gt; addressed the Irish nation today, on &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Samhain&lt;/span&gt;, the day that is traditionally the Celtic New Year's Day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The address was broadcast live from Cowen's home in Clara, Co. Offaly, by RTÉ Radio 1 and Television. However, many people watching with a sense of anticipation were rather disappointed and said that they were not able to understand what the Taoiseach was saying. Well, that's not a new thing with Brian Cowen. It happens every week in the Dail, too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-7374848662007851690?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/UGpnf0obnbo" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/UGpnf0obnbo/brian-cowens-halloween-address.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SS4BpCk0dvI/AAAAAAAAAMA/6TypjpF1kVg/s72-c/Halloween.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/brian-cowens-halloween-address.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-6004819660040985705</guid><pubDate>Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:30:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-09T12:04:19.168Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Hallowe'en</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">burning</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Dublin</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">fire</category><title>Dublin's Burning</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRbK1YPYulI/AAAAAAAAAL4/p6Tknejp7nU/s1600-h/Dublin+-+Nov+1st+-+fire.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 430px; height: 272px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRbK1YPYulI/AAAAAAAAAL4/p6Tknejp7nU/s400/Dublin+-+Nov+1st+-+fire.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266619832645237330" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Dubliners celebrated &lt;span style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);font-size:130%;" &gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Hallowe'en&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; last night in the&lt;br /&gt;traditional way of the now famous &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;'Celtic Tiger'&lt;/span&gt; :&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:130%;" &gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Tiger, Tiger, burning bright...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People really made a great effort and went all across the city&lt;br /&gt;with huge Irish enthusiasm and plenty of pints of Guinness.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They burned down one pub, one block of flats,&lt;br /&gt;and - as the coup de grâce - a whole factory.&lt;br /&gt;As a side-show they also torched 50 cars,&lt;br /&gt;which is quite an achievement in one night.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They stabbed 15 people and beat up 2 Gardai and 1 fireman,&lt;br /&gt;which are still in hospital to show that Mary Harney cares.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They made sure that our emergency services work hard for their&lt;br /&gt; wages and that Eircom gets a fair share of trick-or-treat money:&lt;br /&gt;There were &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;800&lt;/span&gt; calls to the Fire Brigade&lt;br /&gt;and &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;500&lt;/span&gt; calls to the Ambulance Service.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:180%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Happy Hallowe'en!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-6004819660040985705?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/jLhqIleCgVY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/jLhqIleCgVY/dublins-burning.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRbK1YPYulI/AAAAAAAAAL4/p6Tknejp7nU/s72-c/Dublin+-+Nov+1st+-+fire.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>1</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/11/dublins-burning.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-391334008806692389</guid><pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:14:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-09T11:27:02.043Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">John McCain</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">election</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sarah Palin</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Republicans</category><title>The Republican Truth</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRbGWRxx2XI/AAAAAAAAALo/SGIgUiUb-5s/s1600-h/McC+%26+Palin.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 427px; height: 302px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRbGWRxx2XI/AAAAAAAAALo/SGIgUiUb-5s/s400/McC+%26+Palin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266614900287986034" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:180%;"&gt;John, you are eight years too late&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:180%;" &gt;and got a real bad running mate!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:180%;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRbIZXJuK7I/AAAAAAAAALw/gIeeeYQCmFM/s1600-h/palin2012.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 429px; height: 286px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRbIZXJuK7I/AAAAAAAAALw/gIeeeYQCmFM/s400/palin2012.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266617152293448626" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-391334008806692389?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/Cj9xuf8-d1U" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/Cj9xuf8-d1U/republican-truth.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRbGWRxx2XI/AAAAAAAAALo/SGIgUiUb-5s/s72-c/McC+%26+Palin.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/republican-truth.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-185659648871196777</guid><pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:24:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-09T19:54:36.393Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Green Party</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">education</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">see-saw</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Paul Gogarty</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">TD</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Dáil Éireann</category><title>Paul, the See-Saw Man</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRa6vzbP9gI/AAAAAAAAALg/51E63ytGGHo/s1600-h/Paul+Gogarty+TD+Dail.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 426px; height: 255px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRa6vzbP9gI/AAAAAAAAALg/51E63ytGGHo/s400/Paul+Gogarty+TD+Dail.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266602144677492226" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);font-size:130%;" &gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Paul Gogarty&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; (39), Green Party TD&lt;br /&gt;and his party's spokesman on Education,&lt;br /&gt;also known as &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;"See-Saw Man"&lt;/span&gt;,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;has (as we can see) two hands and (as we cannot see)&lt;br /&gt;also two minds, and two opinions (which we can read).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Two weeks ago he was happy with the 2009 Budget.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"&gt;Ten days ago he criticised cuts in the education budget.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;One week ago he was "satisfied with the education budget".&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"&gt;This week he told a lobbyist &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"&gt;by e-mail &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"&gt;that the Green Party&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" &gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"&gt;"might eventually consider withdrawing from the coalition".&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"&gt;Today he is "fully behind the Minister for Education".&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;Great variety act, Paul. Have you tried any other circus,&lt;br /&gt;or are you under exclusive contract to &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Dáil Éireann&lt;/span&gt; ?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-185659648871196777?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/T6XmNJgADvI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/T6XmNJgADvI/paul-see-saw-man.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRa6vzbP9gI/AAAAAAAAALg/51E63ytGGHo/s72-c/Paul+Gogarty+TD+Dail.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/paul-see-saw-man.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-6885027923345078815</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:35:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-09T11:02:18.476Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Conor Leihan</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Nazis</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Lenihan family</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">politics</category><title>The unacceptable Face of Irish Politics</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaiN2uJ3LI/AAAAAAAAALI/2EiBJOgcSVg/s1600-h/Conor+Lenihan.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 418px; height: 252px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaiN2uJ3LI/AAAAAAAAALI/2EiBJOgcSVg/s400/Conor+Lenihan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266575173167471794" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);font-size:130%;" &gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Conor Lenihan&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; (45), Fianna Fáil TD,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Minister of State for Integration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;and wild-tempered Hooligan-in-Chief&lt;br /&gt;in the disgraced government of Brian Cowen,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;son of former Fianna Fáil TD and Tánaiste, the late Brian Lenihan,&lt;br /&gt;grandson of former Fianna Fáil TD, the late Patrick Lenihan,&lt;br /&gt;brother of Fianna Fáil TD and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan Jr,&lt;br /&gt;nephew of Fianna Fáil TD and former Minister Mary O'Rourke.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He is also a grand-nephew of former Irish customs officer,&lt;br /&gt;smuggler, racketeer and spy, the late Joseph Lenihan,&lt;br /&gt;who worked as a double agent for Nazi Germany and&lt;br /&gt;for the British MI-5 during the Second World War.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Already known for his insensitivity in matters racial and ethnic,&lt;br /&gt;he reached a new height of unacceptability today, when he called&lt;br /&gt;Fine Gael TD Dr. Leo Varadkar "a Fascist" and gave the infamous&lt;br /&gt;Nazi salute with his outstretched arm. And where did this happen?&lt;br /&gt;In a smoke-filled back room of some seedy pub in the docklands?&lt;br /&gt;No, right in &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Dáil Éireann&lt;/span&gt;, in front of 150 fellow TDs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And - what happened to him afterwards? Absolutely nothing.&lt;br /&gt;As a member of one of Ireland's political dynasties, he seems to&lt;br /&gt;have &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;carte blanche&lt;/span&gt; and gets away with any possible outrage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This kind of intolerable behaviour will only stop when we end&lt;br /&gt;the power of these corrupt and inbred Irish political families.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;P.S.&lt;/span&gt; - Yesterday a tram driver in the Austrian capital Vienna&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"&gt;was immediately sacked from his job when it became known that&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"&gt;he had used the words "Sieg Heil!" (a verbal Nazi salute) over&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"&gt;the intercom system of his tram. Of course he was not a member&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"&gt;of the Lenihan family, and thus unprotected. In fact, he might be&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"&gt;prosecuted and could face 10 years imprisonment for his stunt.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-6885027923345078815?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/4hJwkRehgqU" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/4hJwkRehgqU/unacceptable-face-of-irish-politics.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaiN2uJ3LI/AAAAAAAAALI/2EiBJOgcSVg/s72-c/Conor+Lenihan.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/unacceptable-face-of-irish-politics.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-6012807097366504396</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:41:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-09T15:11:29.856Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">creationists</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sarah Palin</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Republicans</category><title>Creationists love and support Sarah Palin</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaw8Gp9LAI/AAAAAAAAALQ/qOBRrISGfJI/s1600-h/US+women.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 411px; height: 371px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaw8Gp9LAI/AAAAAAAAALQ/qOBRrISGfJI/s400/US+women.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266591360881601538" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;This group of dedicated American &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;creationist&lt;/span&gt; women meets every Tuesday at their local country club for a coffee morning. They all belong to the same evangelical church and are sure that the world was created by God in six days, 6012 years ago, as their preacher keeps telling them every Sunday. They also believe that they were created after God's own image.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All four also belong to the Republican Party and are over the Moon (also created by God 6012 years ago) that &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Sarah Palin&lt;/span&gt;, the creationist governor of Alaska, will soon be Vice-President and - perhaps in a few years - the first female President of the USA. They are sure about that, since no-one will elect a negro as President. That would be as idiotic as the idea of Evolution. But to be sure, they have turned their weekly coffee morning into a fund-raising event for Sarah Palin. The four of them pose - for a donation to the cause - in their bikinis for local photographers. We can well imagine that their efforts are highly successful. And Sarah Palin has said that she is proud to have such dedicated supporters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-6012807097366504396?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/aRcf3Y_5kdA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/aRcf3Y_5kdA/creationists-love-and-support-sarah.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaw8Gp9LAI/AAAAAAAAALQ/qOBRrISGfJI/s72-c/US+women.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/creationists-love-and-support-sarah.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-2404849342282793741</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:24:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-09T09:40:58.147Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">hilarious</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">crime</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">decoys</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Craiglist</category><title>The Great Craiglist Heist</title><description>In an elaborate &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;robbery&lt;/span&gt; scheme that was one part "The Thomas Crowne Affair" and one part "Pineapple Express", a criminal robbed an armoured van outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Washington, by hiring decoys through &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Craigslist&lt;/span&gt;, a popular US advertising website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He then &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;escaped&lt;/span&gt; in a creek, headed for the Skykomish River, &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;in an inner tube&lt;/span&gt;, and the police are still looking for him.&lt;br /&gt;"A great amount of money" was taken, the Monroe police said, but did not provide the actual sum.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It appears that around 11 a.m. the robber - wearing a yellow day-glow vest, safety goggles, a blue shirt and a respirator mask - went over to a guard who was overseeing the unloading of cash to the bank from the van. He sprayed the guard with pepper spray, grabbed his bag of money, and fled the scene.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But here's the hilarious twist. The robber had previously put out an ad on &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Craigslist&lt;/span&gt; for "road maintenance workers", promising wages of $ 28.50 per hour.&lt;br /&gt;Willing recruits were asked to wait near the Bank of America in Monroe right around the time of the robbery, wearing yellow day-glow vests, safety goggles, a respirator mask, and preferably a blue shirt. At least a dozen of them turned up after responding to the ad.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"I came across this ad that was for a job for $ 28.50 an hour," one of the unwitting decoys told NBC. As it turns out, he and his "colleagues" were simply placed there to confuse the police, who were looking for a man wearing an identical outfit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They eventually found the getaway inner tube (a getaway inner tube - hilarious!) and suspect that accomplices may have picked up the robber in a boat.&lt;br /&gt;According to NBC, police hope to track him down by finding out who posted the ad in the first place. Good luck with that...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Craigslist&lt;/span&gt; founder Craig Newmark was - surprise, surprise - not available for comment.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-2404849342282793741?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/6ZiVKCqjCog" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/6ZiVKCqjCog/great-craiglist-heist.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/great-craiglist-heist.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-3510709712952489712</guid><pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:22:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-09T10:21:31.997Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Marathon</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">charity</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">bubble</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">lemmings</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">trends</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">fashion</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Dublin</category><title>See how they run...</title><description>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaRdTP8_iI/AAAAAAAAALA/phOskjALDN0/s1600-h/Dublin+Marathon.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 283px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaRdTP8_iI/AAAAAAAAALA/phOskjALDN0/s320/Dublin+Marathon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266556746825793058" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Nearly 12,000 people with nothing better to do were running around Dublin today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They call it the &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Dublin Marathon&lt;/span&gt;, and most of the runners taking part have not the slightest clue what the name means and where it comes from. They are just happy to run 26.2 miles and exhaust themselves once a year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They have no idea that the first &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Marathon&lt;/span&gt; was run by only one man, a messenger, who ran from the battlefield at Marathon in Greece to the city of Athens to bring the news that their army had just won a huge victory against their arch enemy, the Persian Empire. And they also don't know that the runner collapsed and died shortly after delivering his message.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Maybe human beings are not meant to run 26.2 miles in one go.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But now it's a popular fashion and thousands do it every year, with no connection to the historic event, and no understanding what they are actually doing. The Jones' are running, so we have to run as well. What's the point?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh yes, I almost forgot, it's all "for charity". That's alright then, yes? We torture our bodies in a way it is not prepared for, so some more lazy gaffers will give us a few Euros for it...?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We must be totally mad. If people want to donate money to charity, they can do it any time and very easily, without thousands of sports freaks running around, blocking Dublin city for a whole morning and making a show of themselves.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And not enough with that, some really silly buggers are running the Marathon in stupid outfits or awkward costumes. Those idiots should really be rounded up and put into a lunatic asylum. Then they can run around all day wearing silly costumes, and no-one is bothered.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRa4pY6fHtI/AAAAAAAAALY/DEh7DkKdX3M/s1600-h/Dublin+Marathon+-+end.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 426px; height: 116px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRa4pY6fHtI/AAAAAAAAALY/DEh7DkKdX3M/s400/Dublin+Marathon+-+end.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266599835458281170" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;If you want to know why this country is in a crisis and running out of money as well as common sense, just look at events like the &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Dublin Marathon&lt;/span&gt; and you have your answer. We have become brainless lemmings, running blindly after something or someone who tells us it's fashionable. It may be a Marathon today, or a housing bubble tomorrow, and the need for more holidays or a new SUV next week. We no longer think for ourselves and just follow whatever is advertised as "the thing to do".&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When the original runner from Marathon delivered his message in Athens, he collapsed and died. And when the lemmings reach the coast, they jump over the cliffs and die as well. What a great way to live our lives...  I hope you enjoy the Bank Holiday.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-3510709712952489712?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/4pbE5BIfQA4" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/4pbE5BIfQA4/see-how-they-run.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaRdTP8_iI/AAAAAAAAALA/phOskjALDN0/s72-c/Dublin+Marathon.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/see-how-they-run.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-4852402553333760631</guid><pubDate>Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:48:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-09T19:52:55.330Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">opinion poll</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Fianna Fáil</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">parties</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Brian Cowen</category><title>Fianna Fáil is 10 Points down</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaI9qq-ccI/AAAAAAAAAK4/SfOIPWn64BQ/s1600-h/Brian+Cowen+20.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 413px; height: 247px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaI9qq-ccI/AAAAAAAAAK4/SfOIPWn64BQ/s400/Brian+Cowen+20.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266547407264313794" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Yes, it's true. According to the latest &lt;span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;Red C&lt;/span&gt; opinion poll, published in the Sunday Business Post, &lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"&gt;Fianna Fáil&lt;/span&gt; have lost ten points in popularity since last month. And if &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Brian Cowen&lt;/span&gt; had any more fingers, they might have lost even more support, as he would certainly have put them into even more pies than he has so far. The larger government party is now left with only 26% of public support, the lowest level for them ever since - in 1926 - they came out of the political wilderness and decided to participate in the parliamentary process and in democratic elections. There must be a special meaning in the number 26. Meanwhile &lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"&gt;Fine Gael&lt;/span&gt; has risen to 33%, &lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"&gt;Labour&lt;/span&gt; to 15% and &lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"&gt;Sinn Fein&lt;/span&gt; to 10%.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If Cowen were not such a coward, he would call a new&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt; general election&lt;/span&gt;, and what fun would that be now...&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-4852402553333760631?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/94XQAhzS9GA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/94XQAhzS9GA/fianna-fil-is-10-points-down.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRaI9qq-ccI/AAAAAAAAAK4/SfOIPWn64BQ/s72-c/Brian+Cowen+20.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/fianna-fil-is-10-points-down.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-3238873690584363205</guid><pubDate>Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:45:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-08T07:03:38.298Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sarah Palin</category><title>Sarah's Chick comes home to roost...</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRU2vWGt7-I/AAAAAAAAAKY/zGfbfjaNKkE/s1600-h/5855.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRU2vWGt7-I/AAAAAAAAAKY/zGfbfjaNKkE/s400/5855.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266175526295171042" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Animal killer, creationist "Christian" and "hockey mom"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Sarah Palin&lt;/span&gt;, also governor of Alaska, has apparently&lt;br /&gt;been too much concentrated on (ice) hockey, hunting animals&lt;br /&gt; and weird religious doctrines.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the process she missed the little matter of her eldest daughter&lt;br /&gt;Bristol (what kind of name is that for a girl?) sleeping around with&lt;br /&gt;the boys at school. Now that 17-year-old Bristol is pregnant, it is of&lt;br /&gt;course entirely "a private matter" for the Palins and has nothing to&lt;br /&gt;do with Sarah's ideas of parenthood, sex education and morals . . .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-3238873690584363205?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/4g9ihKZfOIU" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/4g9ihKZfOIU/sarahs-chick-comes-home-to-roost.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRU2vWGt7-I/AAAAAAAAAKY/zGfbfjaNKkE/s72-c/5855.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/sarahs-chick-comes-home-to-roost.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-4549244174914257360</guid><pubDate>Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:19:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-08T08:05:29.263Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">USA</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">shopping</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sarah Palin</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">fashion</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Republicans</category><title>Alaskan Girl still wants to be Beauty Queen</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRU-yAefo3I/AAAAAAAAAKg/-BA4CON6lq8/s1600-h/populistha.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 289px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRU-yAefo3I/AAAAAAAAAKg/-BA4CON6lq8/s400/populistha.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266184368121946994" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Meanwhile Sarah Palin has been out shopping with John McCain&lt;br /&gt;and his credit cards. To make her look presentable, the campaign&lt;br /&gt;has spent &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;$ 150,000&lt;/span&gt; on Sarah's &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;new wardrobe&lt;/span&gt;. That's nearly&lt;br /&gt;four times as much as "Joe the Plumber", McCain's special friend&lt;br /&gt;from Ohio, earns in a year. I hope Joe is watching Sarah and her&lt;br /&gt;attempt to become a beauty queen at last. When she tried back in&lt;br /&gt;1984 to become "Miss Alaska", she was beaten into second place&lt;br /&gt;by - now, wait for it - the first ever black "Miss Alaska".&lt;br /&gt;Some Omen - or what?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRVDpwmOC2I/AAAAAAAAAKo/oMvbbVbfMnM/s1600-h/dresspalin.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRVDpwmOC2I/AAAAAAAAAKo/oMvbbVbfMnM/s400/dresspalin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266189723978566498" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;While Sarah is focused on her new clothes and her dream of&lt;br /&gt;living in the White House and nuking moose and caribou one&lt;br /&gt;day in the future, an independent investigation in Alaska has&lt;br /&gt;found her &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;guilty of abusing her gubernatorial powers &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;when she sacked the Public Safety Commissioner (something&lt;br /&gt;like a Minister for the Interior) after he refused to kick Sarah&lt;br /&gt;Palin's former brother-in-law out of the state's police force.&lt;br /&gt;Not because he was a bad cop, no. The only reason was that&lt;br /&gt;Palin wanted to punish him for divorcing her horrible sister.&lt;br /&gt;Bitches, you have to realise, always stick together like glue.&lt;br /&gt;And as Barack Obama pointed out so very well and clearly:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);"&gt;"A pig with lipstick - is still a pig..."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRVGRJQrnrI/AAAAAAAAAKw/eLbrtG7Vr9Q/s1600-h/lipstickpig.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 277px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRVGRJQrnrI/AAAAAAAAAKw/eLbrtG7Vr9Q/s400/lipstickpig.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266192599637270194" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;And, as we know since George Orwell's &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;'Animal Farm'&lt;/span&gt;, pigs&lt;br /&gt;are more equal than all the other animals. I can see that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-4549244174914257360?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/kQfzc_t_9Qk" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/kQfzc_t_9Qk/alaskan-girl-still-tries-to-become.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRU-yAefo3I/AAAAAAAAAKg/-BA4CON6lq8/s72-c/populistha.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/alaskan-girl-still-tries-to-become.html</feedburner:origLink></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8707253163154443511.post-4370168890375210495</guid><pubDate>Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:24:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2008-11-08T10:45:02.069Z</atom:updated><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Financial Regulator</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">money</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Ireland</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Sean Quinn</category><category domain="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#">Northern Ireland</category><title>Irish Billionaire is fined Pocket Money</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRUxAtXLS0I/AAAAAAAAAKQ/ew_N2KraVo4/s1600-h/Sean+Quinn.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 397px; height: 203px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRUxAtXLS0I/AAAAAAAAAKQ/ew_N2KraVo4/s400/Sean+Quinn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266169227526228802" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:130%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Sean Quinn&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt; from Co. Fermanagh&lt;br /&gt;is a self-made billionaire and currently Ireland's&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;richest man&lt;/span&gt;, with a personal fortune of about&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:180%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;€ 4 billion&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For irregular loans worth &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;€ 288 million&lt;/span&gt; between two of his&lt;br /&gt;companies he has been fined by Ireland's Financial Regulator&lt;br /&gt;the sum of &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;€ 3.25 million&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;For a man like Sean that's really just pocket money, but&lt;br /&gt;going by his reaction it seems that it still hurts his pride.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8707253163154443511-4370168890375210495?l=peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~4/v-hmAl3oqHk" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description><link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/peasbewithyou/~3/v-hmAl3oqHk/irish-billionaire-is-fined-pocket-money.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Peashooter)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1lP85RYcbBU/SRUxAtXLS0I/AAAAAAAAAKQ/ew_N2KraVo4/s72-c/Sean+Quinn.jpg" height="72" width="72" /><thr:total>0</thr:total><feedburner:origLink>http://peas-be-with-you.blogspot.com/2008/10/irish-billionaire-is-fined-pocket-money.html</feedburner:origLink></item></channel></rss>

