As far as we’re concerned here at FPP, the only real story here is in the source and wording of the report as opposed to the information it is presenting.

The Irish Left is a many-headed monster but the Social Democrats certainly appear to be presenting something close to a “mainstream” face on their organisation, offering a place of refuge for disillusioned Labour voters in particular.

Running on a platform that claims to “Support a healthy, inclusive and progressive society, ensure a strong, stable and vibrant economy & make politics and government more transparent” the 2015 election was a success for them and they now have 3 TDs in Stephen Donnelly, Catherine Murphy and Roisin Shorthall as well as a host of councillors.

All of which makes it interesting to see how the Irish Independent, owned by Denis O’Brien’s* Independent News & Media, is reporting this “story” involving James Heffernan, who unsuccessfully ran on behalf of the SocDems for the Senate elections.

Below you see the article in full by Philip Ryan

FORMER Senator James Heffernan was arrested again last weekend and charged with a public order offence.

This incident comes weeks after Mr Heffernan was arrested three times over the course of a weekend while attending a music festival in Cork.

He was arrested in the early hours of last Saturday morning by gardai in Galway City following an incident outside a popular music venue.

The Limerick politician, who ran for the Social Democrats in the recent General Election, was charged at a special sitting of the Galway District Court on same day.

He is due to appear before the court on December 19th.

Mr Heffernan is understood to have been with his band in the Roisin Dubh venue before the incident which resulted in his arrested.

It is unclear what led to his arrest but sources say onlookers videoed the incident.

Sources close to the former Senator said he was examined by a doctor following his release due to injuries he sustained from the incident.

A Garda spokesman said a 36-year-old male was arrested at 2am on Dominic Street in Galway City Centre on Saturday morning.

The spokesman said the male was brought to Mill Street Garda Station and charged on the same day.

In the last week of September, Mr Heffernan was arrested three times in Mitchelstown, Co Cork over the course of a 36 hours period while attending a music festival.

He was arrested at the Indiependence Festival after gardai became concerned about what has been described as his erratic behaviour. He was arrested and detained over night before being released without charge.

He was arrested on the day of his release on suspicion of drink driving and again detained by gardai. He was later released and arrested on third occasion for public order offences.

In May, before the election, he was arrested in Templebar in Dublin City Centre after he mistakenly entered a crime scene.

Here at FPP we feel the above piece is less about “proper journalism” and more about associating words and terms like “arrested”, “public order offences”, “suspicion of drink driving”, “erratic behaviour” with the words “Social Democrats”.

When you weed out all the references to times Heffernan was arrested without charge, you discover that there is only one actual charge pending, namely a “public order offence”.  So why not wait until December 19 when all of the facts can be put into the public domain?

And instead of citing “sources close to” him, why not ASK him?  Or at least give him the opportunity and tell us if he declines?

We also found their choice of photo interesting.  Let’s just say it’s a far cry from the one he has on his Oireachtas page.

If you wanted to take it further, going by the information presented above, there’s even a case to be made for investigations into targeted police harassment.

Just to be clear…we have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever in relation to this case, nor are we putting forward any actual opinion as to his innocence rather than the standard democratic assumption of same.

*= Of course O’Brien and the SocDem’s Catherine Murphy have history in the area of putting allegations into the public domain – he doesn’t seem to like it when it’s done to himself

The Bernie Sanders movement was an amazing thing for progressive politics and the achievements it made dragging Hillary to the left on so many key issues cannot be over stated.

However it is sad to see what is known as the “Bernie or Bust” brigade claiming they will never vote for Secretary Clinton even if that means contributing towards the election of Donald Trump.

The way I see it, while the “party platform”* agreed at the Democratic National Convention isn’t supposed to actually mean anything, one of the basic tenets of the Bernie outlook is to shake up what is known as the “status quo” and having gotten so many progressive policies onto the platform, his supporters should first vote for her, then make it very clear they voted for her and finally let her know from the day of her inauguration that they’ll be watching for her to get cracking on their agenda from the White House because it won’t be that long before she’ll be looking for their votes again in mid-terms.

But anyway…I have been wondering in recent times that because Sanders isn’t exactly a “spring chicken”, there must be another politician ready to take up the baton and having seen this interview on The Young Turks I reckon Alan Grayson may be stepping forward, though by all accounts I’m not so sure the Democratic establishment are too crazy about him (which probably means more donations & votes for him from Bernie followers!

Watch the clip and see for yourself.  Good luck to him I say.

* = I find it interesting that they use the word “platform” … here in Ireland we say “manifesto” but God forbid Americans refer to something that is often used alongside the word “communist”!!!

 

 

 

 

Excellent letter in the IT by Sarah Lennon from Inclusion Ireland: The National Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

That this info is in the letters section and not a prominent talking point in the Irish media is one of the principal reasons I have started this FPP blog.

Harry McGee reports (August 9th) on the welcome news that Minister of State for Disability Issues Finian McGrath wants the long-delayedUnited Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) ratified by the end of the year.

While all indications are that Ireland will in fact do so, it would be preferable if the language being used went beyond that of “wanting” towards “ensuring”. In the article, former minister of state Kathleen Lynch reiterated the oft-mentioned position of successive governments that the State was not prepared to ratify the convention until it was in the best possible position to deliver its provisions. Ireland has now secured the dubious distinction of being the last nation in the European Union to ratify the UNCRPD.

While aspiring towards compliance with any international convention is to be welcomed, it does not ring entirely true in this case. Ireland will enter a declaration of progressive realisation on the issue of “reasonable accommodation”, citing constitutional private property rights as a barrier.

A multitude of laws in the disability arena remain partially commenced or not commenced at all, including our Disability Act, Education of Persons with Special Education Needs Acts and the Assisted Decision-Making Act, which was much vaunted as the missing piece of the ratification puzzle and is now seven months old without commencement.

In fact, a Disability Equality Miscellaneous Bill will be forthcoming to mop up the other areas of legislative reform, as indicated in Harry McGee’s article.

While any commitment to ratification is to be welcomed, Ireland cannot hide the fact that it has taken almost 10 years to get to this point where imperfect ratification can occur. When Ireland signed the UNCRPD, Michael McDowell described it as “a blueprint for a significant improvement in the lives of these people.” Clearly those lives were not considered significant enough. – Yours, etc,

SARAH LENNON,

Inclusion Ireland: The

National Association

for People with

Intellectual Disabilities,

The Steelworks,

Foley Street,

Dublin 1.

With FG in what we call a “virtual coalition” government with FF this weather, we imagine the referendum on the #RepealThe8th issue will be a can that gets kicked down the road for a good while to come.

But eventually wording will have to be decided and a date will have to be set and when that happens, there is little doubt that we will have the most contentious public debate since the formation of the State.

For now though, we have this podcast (recorded last week) from the Irish Times which couldn’t have hoped for a better title, as the battle lines are clearly drawn.

Two personal observations…first, I find it very interesting that Cora Sherlock goes to such great lengths to disparage the media, making this “talking point” pretty much the cornerstone of the so-called Pro-Life campaign…

The media does not represent the Pro-Life side of this debate in a fair way

…after which host Hugh Linehan appears to shrug his shoulders and say (paraphrase) “you have a point”.  SHE’S TALKING ON A PODCAST FOR A NATIONAL NEWSPAPER!!!  Essentially she’s using a megaphone to complain about not being able to use a megaphone.

But that’s not the only thing that interests me here…just look what US Vice Presidential candidate and Donald Trump running-mate Mike Pence said yesterday…

The media is overwhelmingly biased in electing Hillary Clinton the next president of the United States. I think it’s amazing. My late father used to say, ‘It is what it is.’

(Note…this is after the guy at the top of the ticket ‘joked’ about assassinating the President)

Basically, the so-called Pro Life campaign are running the same strategy as Trump.  ‘If we lose this election, it’s because the media is biased’.  Well isn’t that convenient!

OK just one last point before I wrap up…I thought Kate O’Connell did an absolutely superb job stating the case for the Pro Choice side of the argument, showing an ability to riposte the attacks from Sherlock again and again.  That said, I’m not so sure I’m wild about a Fine Gael TD being the voice of the #RepealThe8th movement.

WHERE IS THE IRISH LEFT????  Anyone???? Bueller???

We’ll be keeping a close eye on how this debate develops here on FPP.

 

 

 

Of COURSE Trump was referring to people using guns in retaliation to Hillary…it’s not the media being dishonest, it’s not spin by the Clinton campaign, he meant what he said.  Period.

Does that mean he was calling for people to actually assassinate the President? OF COURSE NOT.  He meant it as a joke.  It was a very, very, very, VERY bad one and it does nothing but illustrate just how unfit he is for public office.

So while the thoughts of whack jobs among his supporters taking him seriously is a worry, what’s a more realistic concern is that this is further evidence that if he is to spend at least four years in the White House after all, he is bound to spend at least half of that time trying to correct his latest gaffe, much like the way he does with his BFF Sean Hannity on Fox News…

“Nobody in that room thought anything other than what you just said… There can be no other interpretation!”

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-there-can-be-no-other-interpretation-of-my-2nd-amendment-remarks/

1. It’s been a busy few months for the Uplift community, and in the fast paced world of people powered campaigning, we sometimes forget to look back and see what we’ve managed to achieve together. So, here it is, some of the great work we’ve all been up to over the past few months. +

https://storify.com/UpliftIRL/getting-started

Good to see progressive activism getting results here in Ireland.  We’ll be sharing much more from UpliftIRL here in the future I assure you. 

http://www.npr.org/2016/08/08/488816816/donald-trump-looks-to-turn-the-page-on-bad-week-with-economic-speech

A total snooze fest of a speech where he says pretty much nothing (apart from one snippet where he says “I want wealth” this should be made into a gif pronto) but the fact checking makes for interesting reading. 

Excellent piece by John Oliver about the way websites shamelessly take material from other sources to make easy free content for their own site.  Disgraceful behaviour, that!

Despite the fact that I have made an ironic gag out of this topic, I also acknowledge it is a serious one which is killing journalism as we once knew it.