George W Bush tackles border security

President George W. Bush travels today to Quebec for talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The talks will be dominated by border security issues and speeding commercial traffic between the trading partners.
This message is music to the ears of GOP supporters. Border security will be a major issue in the Presidential Election campaign in 2008.

It is glaringly obvious that there are numerous deficiencies in security especially on the Mexican border. A major tightening is a sine qua non if another terrorist attack is to be avoided. Along the Mexican border Al Qaeda terrorists can infiltrate and assume Hispanic identities. President George W Bush must tighten security whilst reassuring law abiding Hispanics. The Hispanic vote will be crucial in 2008.

Ireland - Tension between media and sports people

The Joe Duffy Show -hosted today by Damian O'Reilly featured a heated debate on media treatment of sports people. Babs Keating -ex Tipperary hurling manager- launched a slashing attack on his critics some of whom he named. Verbal punches were traded with one of these journalists. Babs was careful to name prominent journalists whom he considered fair.

The parent of one player alleged that one journalist was engaging in a personalised campaign against her son.

Jessica Kuerten was criticised for comments which she made to an RTE journalist.

There is increasing tension between some GAA players and managers on the one hand and journalists on the other hand. GAA players as amateurs sometimes feel that they are subjected to criticism- by journalists- which should only be meted out to professionals. Journalists will argue that they are objective in their comments.
Tension between both groups is at an all time high. They are both interdependent. Possibly some journalists could temper their comments a little whilst each county team should have a PRO to liaise with journalists. That would make their task easier.

Amnesty International decides to support abortion and betray its ideals

International human rights organisation Amnesty International-at a meeting in Mexico- has confirmed its controversial decision to back abortion in some circumstances, replacing its previous policy of neutrality. It has been hijacked by the pro abortion lobby.



The Catholic Church has urged Catholic organisations worldwide to withdraw their support from Amnesty International.

It has shamefully betrayed the ideals of its founder Peter Benenson who was a Roman Catholic and strongly opposed to abortion. This decision is strongly opposed by many Protestants also- especially in the US.

This warped decision deprives the unborn child of its human right to live. A major split in the organisation is inevitable. In Australia large numbers of Catholics are lining up to resign. Its membership will be decimated in Ireland. It is time for a new human rights organisation similar to Amnesty International but opposed to abortion. It should be called New Amnesty International.

O'Cuiv denies rebellion report

Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív has strongly rejected reports that he has "rebelled" against the Cabinet position on Aer Lingus' decision to axe the Shannon - Heathrow link.
Speaking on RTÉ , Mr Ó Cuív rejected any suggestion that he or the Government would intervene to reverse the airline's decision.

FF politicians will huff and puff. In the Mid West it is necessary to be seen to oppose the Aer Lingus decision for electoral reasons. However there will be no defections. Efforts will be made to manage the opposition and eventually to divert it into a cul-de-sac. As far as FF is concerned all will be forgotten by the 2012 General Election.
Can the peoples alliance maintain the momentum and stampede the Government into a volte- face?

Renee Fleming-America's Beautiful Voice

Renee Fleming is among the most widely admired American singers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. She is generally considered to be one of the world's leading lyric sopranos.


She is a much sought-after performer in opera houses and concert halls throughout the world. She is known as "America's Beautiful Voice". Unfortunately she is not very well known in Ireland. Her CD Sacred Songs is really special.

View her website: Renee Fleming

FF rebellion splits cabinet?

According to the Sunday Independent Eamonn O Cuiv Willie O'Dea and John Gormley are opposed to the axing of the Shannon to Heathrow route. W O'Dea and E O'Cuiv (left) voted for privatisation. They now wish to have their cake and eat it.

Neither is prepared to resign from Government. Yet each seeks to distance himself from its decisions whilst enjoying the perks of office. Voters in the West and Mid West will not be fooled.

Acting simultaneously as Government and opposition has worked in the past. However now that peoples jobs are on the line political gymnastics will not suffice to mollify them.

If the Government fails to facilitate the overturn of this disastrous decision at the egm Willie O'Dea and Eamonn O'Cuiv will lose all credibility if they fail to resign.

A threat by FF TDs in the Mid West to vote in block against the Government-in a vote of no confidence -would quickly concentrate minds. Of course it would have to be for real. It will never happen. Therein lies the weakness of the threats and criticism from West and Mid West Fianna Failers. Willie O'Dea and Eamonn O'Cuiv would never dare to establish an Independent FF. Their actions will never become a de facto revolt. They are loyal party men.

Jackie Healy Rae is strangely quiet. Will he continue to support the Government in the event of a failure to overturn the decision? Of course he will.

Can people power force a government u-turn? The Government just might take fright and change its stance if the campaign of resistance continues to intensify.

Persecution of North Korean Christians-US must act

North Korea may be cooperating with U.N. experts supervising the shutdown of its plutonium-producing reactor however it is mercilessly persecuting Christians. Kim Jong Il is determined to exterminate Christianity. The world stands idly by.

Close to 100,000 Christians are incarcerated in prison camps, enduring regular torture. Executions of Christians are common place.

Christian prisoners are tortured with electrical shocks. This often results in death. Others are sent into solitary confinement in small containers. These containers are so cramped that permanent paralysis of the legs is the inevitable result . Eight Christians working in a prison smelting factory were murdered when molten iron was poured onto them, one by one, for refusing to deny their faith.
In one prison, a warden hung a Christian man upside down and ordered him to deny his beliefs. He refused so the warden stabbed him and pushed him to the ground. 6,000 prisoners were ordered to trample him to death. Prison cells are rat infested. Christian prisoners are regularly left naked and so starved that they are reduced to eating rats raw in their prison cells .

In some cases Christians are crushed with steamrollers and used as human fertilizer while newborn babies are murdered because their parents are Christians.

Women prisoners are regularly raped and beaten and Christian children are drowned.

The US and other Western powers must now exert the maximum level of pressure on the barbaric and satanic North Korean regime to end persecutions of Christians. The US has the capacity to cripple this rogue regime if it persists in torture of Christians. It is now time for George W Bush to take the initiative on this issue.