Maman Poulet

Update: It’s just been confirmed that I was right. She stopped over to refuel and did not visit. Bloggers do the vetting again…

So the Republican’s Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin has visited Ireland – this is listed as part of her foreign travel experience. She only got a passport last year and visited US troops (Alaskan National Guard) in Kuwait and Germany.

Two words to describe that visit to Ireland I think.

SHANNON STOPOVER! *

I could of course be wrong and Governor Palin was over to find her roots?? More as I get it.

*For US readers the Shannon Stopover refers to planes landing at Shannon Airport to refuel when on their way to and from parts of Europe/Middle East. Shannon Airport sees many US Military and contractor flights arrive there each month for refueling – passengers get off the plane for a while and then get back on again. Hardly a visit to Ireland?

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Haven’t we? Otherwise we’d all be thinking that Sarah Palin was a great choice by John McCain! A great choice for a President Barack Obama morelike !

She doesn’t like polar bears very much, didn’t know what a vice president does (obviously not watching the telly like we do!), she tried to get her brother in law sacked but when she could not she sacked his boss instead, and is under investigation. For the full scoop from an alaskan bloggers point of view have a look at Mudflats.

But best of all she has to go head to head with Biden in a few weeks in a veep debate (that’ll be worth getting the popcorn out for!)

A heartbeat away from pressing that button. She’s no Hillary and she’s definitely no Geena Davies…

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…The way in which the words ‘gay’ or ’sexual orientation’ are mentioned by every keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Al Gore… Nothing from Joe Biden, the Catholic who scores well with gay rights activists.

So Barak over to you.

I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.

Yup in his acceptance speech in what is going to be the tightest and maybe ugliest election in years Barack Obama mentioned the word lesbian too.

As Pam Spaulding said

It’s a statement that will tick off those who want it all, and want it now — after all, separate is not equal, but the reality is that, on this national stage, a call for equality in this way is groundbreaking because it was purposefully present — and the crowd responded — and a nation watched a presidential candidate in a close race (that shouldn’t be close), put himself out there.

And it was the applause after he said it which really got me – and got Good as You also. (Video of comment available there also!

I hear that Eamon Gilmore, Enda Kenny and a whole lot of other Irish Politicians are visiting the convention – maybe they’ll learn that it’s not that difficult to say it, to mean it though well that’s another thing!

No doubt there will be those who say it shouldn’t make a difference. Well if you have spent your life not being recognised, reaching out for the merest hint of inclusion in public discourse, or enduring opportunities for verbal gay bashing, the past week has been significantly different in not having to search for a nod to the fact that matters to do with sexual orientation deserve to be prominently part of the civil and human rights agenda.

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The Leader of the ‘the Sisterhood of the travelling pantsuits’ told them all to go vote for Obama.

If you like me gave in before she spoke and got some sleep – here’s the speech in full.

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From Monday’s Irish Times

Speaking yesterday, she said bodies like the Equality Authority were set up to fight for and defend human rights in Ireland and “need to be invigorated, not pared down on the cheap�.

“There should be no erosion of the powers of these bodies,� she said. “They should never be reduced by merging or in any other way.�

She was responding to a Government proposal to merge the Equality Authority, the Equality Tribunal, the Irish Human Rights Commission, the office of the Data Protection Commissioner and the National Disability Authority into a single agency.The bodies have been given until September 12th to respond to the proposal.

Ms Robinson said human rights “belong to the people and are to hold those in power to account�.

The former president, who was the UN high commissioner for human rights until 2002, and is one of the world’s leading human rights activists, was speaking at a commemoration for the 40th anniversary of the North’s civil rights movement.

‘Not pared down on the cheap’ – says it all really doesn’t it?

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Before post olympic blues have a minute to kick in, politics wakes up a bit with the Democratic Convention taking place this week in Denver.

As well as tuning into the news channels and MSNBC’s live feed online (who have just announced a new show fronted by the cutest butch – ok I’ll stop swooning for the moment) I will be reading more than a few of the blogs who are credentialled to cover the convention.

First on the list is Pam Spaulding and her team at Pam’s Houseblend, where I have been a fan for a long time. When Pam received word that she would receive credentials for herself and team of bloggers to cover the blog she set about raising money to cover their expenses. The bloggers at the houseblend are from all sections of the lgbt community and Pam as an Afican American lesbian woman blogger has carved a niche in the coverage of the democratic campaign and also lgbt rights and other social issues. Not all Pam’s team could afford to attend the convention so she had a fundraising campaign where I and many others chipped in. The blog was covered in an must read article on how blogs have finally arrived (again says I?!) in last weekend’s New York Times. Expect lots of coverage of the protests, caucus meets as well as commentary on the prime time set speeches and other gossip from Pam, Russ, Terrance and Autumn and other blenders.

Andy Towle from Towleroad is also covering the convention as an accredited blogger – convention posts can be read here. Now I know that Andy has his fans in Ireland (he even got nominated in error for an Irish Blog Award!) but the Catholic Defence League were not too happy that the mix of lgbt politics, pop culture and jock straps got a Democratic nod. Andy directed the Church to more urgent issues in their own back yard and is blogging from Denver this week.

The full list of credentialed blogs can be accessed here - other ones of note are Bitch Phd, Disability bloggers Disaboom,  and Firedoglake. Have fun surfing!

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HSE officials and government press secretaries were probably cheering yesterday. Brenda is being replaced as a morning anchor on Newstalk by rockstud and calm voiced Tom Dunne. (Take a Parachute is one of my all time favourite songs.)

The Irish Times reports that Brenda is looking forward to getting back into ’scripted radio?’ Is that reading out her Sunday Times columns on air? Yyyyyyyyyyawn. At least the unscripted closeted anti dyke stuff will cease.

I’m going to miss Orla Barry though – especially the weekly film/gossip bit she did with a Alan Silverman from California and also her interest in things bloggy/social media.

All change in morning radio – now if only someone would move Gerry aside for Rick and the radio listening world would be a much happier place.

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In our apartment block or in the car park. He jumped to his death. I don’t know anymore than that and neither will most other people as suicides don’t make the news and probably rightly so. However I haven’t stopped thinking about him and also his family. I was leaving for work when I noticed the Garda tape across the car park entrance which the Garda had to move to let me out.  A woman trying to get in to get her car asked me had I not seen him. I hadn’t. I feel sorry for those who did find him and sadder still that he felt he had to do what he did.

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Ah I know they say don’t given them oxygen but read the last line of the article by Ruadhán Mac Cormaic on the latest reaction on the possible merger of the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission. Laugh? Oh I giggled merrily otherwise if I had really spent time shouting at the screen I could have done myself an injury.

AMEN have been a bit quiet of late, nothing to do with Rachel O’Reilly or Siobhan Kearney or any of the 90 women killed in their own homes in the past decade per chance?

…However, Mary Cleary, the founder of the support group Amen, said the importance of some equality groups may have reduced, adding: “It’s mostly human rights for women we’re talking about here anyway.”

“I would imagine there probably was a good reason to set up the Equality Authority when it was set up. However, maybe they have fulfilled whatever they set out to do,” she said.

Ms Cleary also claimed that violence against women had become a “huge industry” that commanded funding of some €30 million a year.

“I do believe that that remit has been expanded to include anything that causes any displeasure to any woman in the country . . . It’s about banging doors and throwing the odd tea cup or whatever you do. It’s about a bad Monday or a bad Friday or whatever day of the week it happens to be sometimes,” she continued.

“But the slamming of a door or the banging of the tea cup, I would not interpret that as domestic violence.”

According to the Equality Authority’s annual report for 2007, approximately 50 per cent of cases taken across all nine grounds of the Equal Status Acts last year were taken by men.

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Cos if I was my gmail account would not have been hacked into or attacked by virus would it? Thousands of emails sent out last night to my contacts list.

Text messages, emails and phone calls from many of these contacts have been received this morning. (Thank you to those who weren’t laughing at me!)

I’m sorry.

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