Maman Poulet

CNN  are gathering lots of bloggers together on Election Night – for the US Mid terms on November 7. So how about it next May or  June in Montrose?  John Bowman and Miriam in one room, Irishelection.com in the other?

Alternative title to this post – how to take out most of the US politicking blogosphere in one easy move.

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Roman Catholic Bishops in the USA will debte a new document on Pastoral Guidelines for ‘Ministry to Persons with Homosexual Inclination’ when they meet next month. Much of it is the usual ‘love the sinner hate the sin’ type of stuff but there are new challenges for them to face including a policy affirming the baptism of adopted children of lesbians and gay men.

No such pastoral letter exists in Ireland. There have been discussions and hints about pastoral outreach to lesbians and gay men from the Dublin Diocese but I have not heard if anything came from these in the past few years. Anyone else heard anything?

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Well I was right! (Ok so it’s only an invitation so far) And there is word of QE2 and Benny 16 visiting Norn Iron on a ‘joint visit’ next spring.  So anyone joining me in a ‘trip’ to the travel agents to plan the non-papal visit to anywhere else other than here? Maybe I’m not so bad at this prediction thing after all.

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I’ll be reviewing the Sunday Papers tonight (Saturday) on Newstalk’s Taste. I should be on about 8.45pm Irish Time and you can listen online – link to listen on Windows Media Player. One of my housemates asked me if I was doing any preparation for it – well Mystic Meg powers on predicting tomorrows news were not really part of my make up but if anyone has ideas post a comment!

We can bet that the Sunday Indo will have yet another picture of a beautiful Eastern European woman living in Ireland on the front page. Lisa whoever will still be saying that she does not care about Michael Flatley’s wedding and um stuff about Ryanair, AerLingus, planning in Laois, Bertie and his love of makeup, how crap the alternative government is, an opinion poll or 20 maybe and a bit of Heineken Cup coverage. Oh and I bet I have to explain what a blog is, or maybe for once the presenter will take it as given!!

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This is a good time for us election junkies. You know the type who stay up all night watching US TV on satellite for mid terms or presidential elections - or who can tell you how they reacted when Portillo lost his seat in 1997 – there is even a phrase – Were you there for Portillo? (oh how I loved the stunned face of that young out politician Steven Twigg who won.)  I even stay up to watch by-election results in the UK, although I think there are a lot less MP’s dying and causing by-elections in this parliament than in previous ones as there seem to be fewer by-elections.

The last US Presidential election saw me in a forest 17 miles outside the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, in the middle of god dam nowhere with a dodgy shortwave radio, a mobile phone and some American delegates who were praying for a Kerry win. He didn’t and I was up all night waiting for news and texts on what was happening on the other side of the world.

November 7th sees the US Mid Term elections where some seats in both houses are being contested, governors are also being elected and many many plebiscites/ballots on all sorts of issues are being contested at state and city level. I’ve been busy overdosing on news, views, blogs and video – a sort of cramming session for what’s ahead. 

Negative campaigning is something that Irish electors have not been exposed to yet or have we? Someone today on the Moncrieff show said that Bertiegate was an example of negative campaigning. That’s a load of bull.  We have had negative poster campaigns but as we don’t allow political advertising on TV beyond party political broadcasts I don’t believe we have really seen negative campaigning here (yet).

• You can see examples on Youtube of the negative ads being run by candidates and groups which support them. There are even ads telling candidates to keep it clean. I have already commented this week on the Michael J. Fox coverage and reaction to his condition. Last night he did an interview with Katie Couric on CBS which was very moving and yet again ‘graceful’ about his condition and the coverage of his symptoms. He’s still campaigning for embryonic stem cell research and has supported candidates from both parties.
• Hilary Clinton is evolved/evolving on the issue of gay marriage. What does this mean? Perfecting the art of speaking out of both sides of her mouth?
• Gay Marriage was a quiet issue in the election until this weeks ruling in the New Jersey Supreme Court but some Republicans are rehashing it as they see it as a vote loser for Democrats and a winner for them.
• It’s also very interesting to observe netroots in action. Money is being raised by bloggers and people who read blogs for candidates who have a chance of defeating incumbents.
• And then there is the ‘manipulation of google data’ – or google bombing, a bit of which is being touted this side of the pond.
• Some candidates are trying new tactics such as recording voters testimonies and posting them to listen to/view on their websites. Maybe a bit too infomercial??? Or maybe its too natural to make it feel like an infomercial. Have a listen. 
• BBC Radio 5’s Pods and Blogs will be following the election night with bloggers and podcasters.

And at the end of all of this there is sure to be a lot of pontificating on the role of the internet and social media in the election. And a fair bit of cud chewing on campaigning tactics. But above all the journey to the Presidential election in 2008 will begin and we’ll see if a Clinton/Barack (Or will it be Rodham-Clinton/Barack) ticket will emerge.

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I posted earlier in the week about Rush Limbaugh’s rubbish about Michael J. Fox’s gamming on about his Parkinsons Disease. Thanks to Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown you can see Rush Limbaugh as he makes those comments. Double Dickhead.

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Mulley is off to NY next week (lucky bastard), knowing his penchant for good food he might try to find this blogging waiter who just signed a book deal and was interviewed this afternoon on the Moncrieff show on Newstalk.

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The Minister for State Sile De Valera launched a campagin against homophobic bullying today. Read more about it at BelongTo’s Website. Well done to them and the Equality Authority for a really important campaign and kudos to the Minister also for launching it. Her speech is available here.

In the case of homophobic bullying, young people who are already part of a minority in society, and who are often experiencing a complex array of problems in their young lives, are readily targeted either individually or collectively as they are seen as “soft” targets. Such young people may already be experiencing isolation, fear, marginalisation and lack of acceptance from their peers and others as a result of their sexuality. There may be uncertainty regarding where to go and how to report the situation in which they find themselves. In short, they are in a weakened position to defend themselves….
It is important, therefore, that the message is conveyed to all young people through confidence building, and positive interventions that all citizens are equal and that positive social change is helped by an intolerance to unwanted homophobic remarks, jokes, name calling or general harassment – all preludes to bullying. Young people should learn how to recognise bullying behaviour and know that they should never tolerate it.

The posters and accompanying information will be distributed to schools throughout the country and hopefully with the support of Teachers Unions, the Department of Education, the Gardai and also the Students organisations the campaign will be very successful.

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• The Ipod was 5 yesterday  – however Uncle Seth reminds us that one does not necessarily need one.

• IWOOT

• Michael J. Fox is campaigning for Democrat politicians who support Stem Cell Research in the forthcoming US Mid Terms. Rush Limbaugh believes he’s gamming on a bit with his symptoms or at least he should have taken his tablets. Oh lets lock up all the crips why don’t we – it’s not pretty to look at and they should not be seen or heard.  For the record Fox has used an implant to control his symptoms – it clicks on and off and is not completely effective, it’s not a cure and he does not have to use it if he does not want to. Or is Limbaugh suggesting Fox should be made use it?

• A Norwegian Public Service Announcement aimed at Gay young people. I want to know if the guy said yes!!!

• This visit is currently underway in Rome and under-reported from what I can make out. What bets on Benny 16 announcing he’s coming to Ireland for a visit or are their worships telling him not to bother as things are bad enough here as it is?

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I was wondering if the Mayor of Limerick is a regular listener to the Daily Source Code*? On DSC 482 Stacey from Podcasting.ie was giving Adam Curry a language lesson in how to speak Limerick. Am sure the complaints from the Mayor will roll in soon but anyway I laughed during my cattle train commute this morning, as Adam tried to conquer the Limerick Accent and proclaimed that ‘Buurd’ must be in popular usage as a term to refer to ones Biatch, woman etc etc.

I look forward to the language lessons in How to speak Cork (Taking bets now on the inclusion of Langer as the most important word to translate) and Dublin.  And I know Bernie is behind this somewhere – at least in getting his students to think! Adam needs more than language lessons on Ireland though – his geography/general knowledge like many Americans is poor!
I do hope that the work being done by Stacey and Tanya and others on podcasting.ie means we are going to see more Irish podcasting content??

*For the uninitiated The Daily Source Code is a podcast – one of the more popular ones – hosted by the Podfather, co-founder of Podshow and former MTV VJ Adam Curry. 

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