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Mc Dowell's Law.

category national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis author Tuesday February 13, 2007 20:23author by C Murray Report this post to the editors

Making the Best of your Limitations...


http://www.justice.ie has details of a new 'Counter Gangland Crime Law'
published 'draft legislation' which means he thinks he's coming back, or
the guillotine will be used.

The Guillotine is a handy little device which the FF/PD administration has
been using for many years, in which full debate is disallowed ,to shove
everything through in time for 'snap' elections- of which there are few,
or recesses (of which there are many).
the Old Chestnut.
the Old Chestnut.



The new Legislation includes these headed sections:

1.Detention Periods to be extended up to seven full days.
2.Amendments to rights of silence (will provide link to that one later0
3. Bail- a 'senior garda may give his opinion to the court that bail should be refused
4.Juristiction on bail will be conferred on the circuit court.
5.An applicant for bail will be asked to supply a list of his assets- income and sources of income.

New offences to be created.

DNA and Finger-printing:- change of the law- extending the DNA database.
This ties into the criminal justice overhaul story- extending the admissability of hearsay
evidence- which had promoted all these issues (under a different guise)

Ger Hogan SC (of the Tara Case and the Frozen embryo case consulted on the law changes)

The new laws will be drafted in consultation with the AG.

Other Mc Dowell titbits- The 'Sundays'said that he had a 'war-chest' of
donations for the election and that he was targetting the 'grey' vote.

The older people in the community where I live are well pissed off with the
Minister's co-hort Mary Harney over Nursing homes and deportation, they
don't like seeing families separated- best target the 'aspirational' classes.
The elderly are going to vote and they do not like the PD intereference
in the family home to aid the nursing home industry either.

Civil Liberties violations are never a good election platform- too many shootings
in Dublin- and the previous legislations that we have witnessed have been
charged with unconstitutionality.

Related Link: http://www.justice.ie
author by liampublication date Tue Feb 13, 2007 23:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I disagree with this new proposal because the Gardai will only abuse their powers on this, just like they did in other cases. When is McDowell going to realise that by giving the Gardai extra powers will not increase public confidence in the force when they continue to hound anyone like a dog. Peoples rights matter too.

author by C Murraypublication date Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:23author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The link provided in comments exposes abuse of press and framing.

In October these same laws were introduced under the ending of right to silence-
or extending the admissability of ' hearsay' evidence. now- they have been re-framed to
tackle gun law/gun crime and etc.

However:- They are wide open to abuse and they are going to fill up the
prisons with people who are in enough trouble through social-isoalation
awareness of the inequalities between the rich and poor.

The prisons are in shite- Thornton Hall is held up, due to an inquiry into buying
the land. The 'Joy' has medieval slopping out and inadequate psych care and
a drug problem.
The Prison officers are complaining of danger and suicides are averted.

When we head into an election we have to look at what is being suppressed.
Every single media station headlined with this 'new law' when its the same
shite different bucket school of setting up people for civil liberties abuse.

Meanwhile the FF/Pd admin are trying to issue consent/ child protection laws
to clean up the June 2nd 2006 mess.

But some very stupid people who like the press cachet will vote for the man,
In Rathmines/Ranelagh/Ringsend.

author by Marlboro manpublication date Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:17author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The more capitalist a society the more draconian its security forces must become to tackle the destructive dehumanisation process of that capitalism.

The 'I'm alright Jacks' cant see beyond this. That they are feeding into the very system that is creating all these problems. Either that or they are full aware and just don’t care.

Either way this group demand barriers be placed between them and what they see as 'scum' and present a faux pas mandate for their political representatives to usher in greater affronts to civil liberties etc etc.

Round and round it goes until we are left in a fascist state with a strictly monitored and segregated populace and a hard-hearted pay or die attitude the norm among the elite.......... oh wait, maybe we have that already!

author by C Murraypublication date Wed Feb 14, 2007 15:06author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The obvious holes in his facist agenda are playing into the alternatives:
'Rainbow Coalition' or minority FF supported by SF.

yet none of these parties have focussed on:

Climate change.
education (traveller capitation grants have been removed. multi's advertise in schools)
health- (the elderly are fodder for the privatisation of the nursing home industries- the
refusal of state to provide adequate care to people who have paid taxes all their lives
is a huge scandal- wanting to take up to 15% of the family home for nursing care
that is industry, thus not open to regulation is disgusting)
Women's issues (midwifery, nursing, the land grab and pharmaceutical interests
in relation to the Mater site. the monaghan hospital debacle)

The process of abdicating care from the citizenship and providing huge tax breaks
to the beneficiaries of the privatisation is what drives the PD's -it suits FF.

In the short term it creates money and jobs but it means that people who are
victimised by private industry have little recourse in Law.

All these legislations are approved at cabinet and sealed by Mc Aleese.
The so-called opposition do not provide info to people on how a law
will affect their way of life, but get in with amendments and election trash
about taxes. The taxes reliefs will only pay for the abdication of state
rsponsibilities.

Mc Dowell does not want the prison scandals, the SIB, the Sex Law debate
highlighted because it's a media game- so we have to look at what is
being pushed down/tailored and suppressed. it is all in the public domain.

(add to the List).
1. 15 years after 'x' no legislation.
2.IPS and POA at loggerheads over lack of funding to the prisons, cuts
in education and rehab.
3. The Mater Hospital 'package'.
4. How SIB affects small communities and is weighted to corporate interests.
5. The referendum on child protection- that is intresting cos the Dail never
debated church /state indemnity and also n the context of the 'A' and 'CC' case.
6. Criminal Law- database/rights to silence- pernicious erosion on civil liberties.
7.TDR and data Retention - post 9/11 infringement on civil liberties, we have the highest
date retention laws in europe, he is currently trying to prevent homogenisation
wherein an agreed two and a half year period is 'insufficent'.

All this info is in the public domain and has been for years, its a matter of
pointing to where the government abdicates it's mandate in favour of
a few well-heeled people.

author by C murraypublication date Thu Feb 15, 2007 20:03author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Irish Media are covering the Mc Dowell Story from a variety of angles.

Last night he said that the Mahon Tribunal lawyers fees were amounting to one billion,
thus the Quarryvale module was in doubt.
Today , he rolled back saying that it will continue.

On Monday Next Geraldine Kennedy and Colm Keena will face the high court
in relation to destruction of evidence that lead to the 'Bertie-gate' saga,
in which An Taoiseach was implicated in a payments scandal.

Tonight Justice Mahon has issued a letter refuting the Minister for Justice's
Claims of one billion euros.[in Lawyers fees]

Mr Howlin had threatened to seek an injunction against the State's attempt to
pull the plug on Mahon over three months ago.

If FF/PD get back in for many years- there will be more of this crap.
Two things:-
1. Money wasting and corruption has been endemic in the present administration
including the e-voting debacle [Mr Cullen]
2. Suppression of information and media manipulation has been endemic in
this administration with a variety of bad and unconstitutional legislation
over the period 2002-2006.

Its a bit late to be watch-dogging the Government which is what Michael
claimed he was doing, when the poodles in the street ['thanx joe higgins] pissing
on the lamposts know:
The schools are run-down.
The hospitals are third world.
The prisons are medieval.
The elderly feel dis-enfranchised.

author by @/%publication date Fri Feb 16, 2007 00:09author address author phone Report this post to the editors

because we have mostly forgotten both the wherefore & how thereof "
The mafia in all the best stories got around hiding evidence by leaving false trails in all directions. Each sleuth called to the case, be he a funky streetwise former cop or a hardened special services veteran always came up against the dead end.

But what did they do?

did they take the blind end and solid wall as the end of the story? Did they turn back and lose heart & forget ever wanting the over the horizon happy ending? No. they did not. They went after the bastards even harder, more often than not dragging them out of their homes in oxygen masks & shakes & put them on that stand or kept them in that home under permenant cardiac arrest & neither of those were possible - they just did really wicked things to their eternal souls yea unto the ages & generations. Well actually no they didn't, they mostly didn't have the gumption for that. Instead they Often turned back way before the blind end and solid wall. Why couldn't they just make the evidence? What could be possibly wrong with just planting it?

Dear Madam,

Does anyone really read the Irish Times for the same reasons as our forebears did anymore? Is like crossaire really good these days? Do they do better feature articles and letters? On the 12th of December 2005 they published an opinion piece written by T.Hourigan who witnessed Shannon. He wasn't like a holy intermediary of god in the traditional connaught sense. Loads of other people witnesssed Shannon too. Geraldine gave half a page to a staff journalists explaining that Shannon war business was booming and expected to double. The exact language used perhaps being more of an attempt to introduce the photo of a profitable looking row of jets with one small harmless looking example of the USAF & then the former ambassador of the USA to Eire next to our T.H. Between was the small thumbnail picture of a lad with sunglasses & a mohican. The US ambassador dismissed as a leftist fantasy world the origins of stories of rendition. Then T.H. wrote it as it was. "we had seen..."

is mise le meas (you are the lizard queen)

This has nothing to do with Geraldine destroying evidence, nor Bertie doing whatever it is you're going on about as usual in the article above. Whoever wrote this stuff???? Honestly it's got feckall to do with big swinging mickey mc dowell. It's got more to do with how they all keep not only evidence but proof.

& perhaps it's got everything to do with who reads & watches it -

you do. don't forget.
you do.

by the people for the people
by the people for the people

author by C Murraypublication date Fri Feb 16, 2007 08:46author address author phone Report this post to the editors



The Taoiseach does not attend the Dail on Friday, due to a deal made by
Ruairi Quinn and which Pat Rabbitte as a 'leader' of the opposition
and true sociopath never tackled.

Bertie gets friday off.

The repurscussions of the slicing of the speaking time in the Dail cannot be under
estimated:-

The pie is sliced thusly:-

FF/PD get the speaking time.
Enda gets a few minutes.
Labour gets a few minutes.
SF/Green/independent bloc- rotate and get to ask Bertie Questions.
[independent bloc- includes Joe Higgins (socialist), Jerry Cowley, Tony Gregory and others]

The dirty little deal means that all tabled questions are pre-determined,
received and researched.= There are no surprises in the Dail.

This facsimile of democracy is what people are asked to vote on.
Each piece of corrupt legislation that the present government has
introduced has been amended and dealt with by the party whips,
cross- party co-operation has necessitated the members of the
Oireachtas with honourable exceptions to openly collude in the
shite legislation that includes:-

The Housing Bill (Miscellaneous Provisions) 2002. [the trespass law]
The Strategic Infrastructure Bill [2006]
The Criminal Law (sexual offences bill) 2006.

where Mc Dowell has failed:-
Extending the Admissibility of hearsay evidence -(he is trying again with a crime Bill)
The Privacy and Defamation Bill
[it is now a defamation Bill]
The Asylum Qualification Directive- the Protection aspect of the
Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill [This directive which is not retrospective
is necessary the other two parts ain't]

The Rainbow may hue and cry over nasty corruption but the have openly
facilitated it by moving into the centre and ignoring their constituency.;
in terms of opposition- Enda Kenny may as well have been Tanaiste.
I have lost count of the number of times he has said :-
"This legislation is similar to a FG one and therefore we will not
impeded its progress through the house".

The Press are massaging the 'electorate' for a Rainbow- specifically Tony O Reilly's
rags.

author by C Murraypublication date Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:04author address author phone Report this post to the editors



The planned 'Code of Conduct' for judges has been deferred until after the election
by Minister Mc Dowell. looking dispassionately at the current record of the Justice
Minister , this is another ill -thought out scheme which alienated a section of the
Irish legal establishment. {he had blamed the judges for a lot: including gangland
murders- apparently lenieint sentences and revolving door systems have nothing to
do with the Dept of Justice).

This has to be clear- Judges work within our legislature- which has seen a regime
based in privatisation, abdication of care, a phenomenally bad prison service from
the point of view of prisoner health and well being. The legislature seems to be
starving and winding down the prison infrastructure and staff moral is at an all time
low. there have been, murders, suicides, attempted suicides, drug dealing, private
firms, low rehab and psychological support, over-crowding violence and little in
the way of support for prisoners when they leave institutions.

The post-election post-mortem on the judiciary and conduct pre-suppouses the return of
the Minister For Justice to his place at cabinet table!

In the D.S.E constituency, the effect of Thatcherite policies on community health care
is evident for all to see. We are losing a cancer hospital (st Lukes), a Lukedoc/dubdoc
clinic (out -patient emergency clinic) and the Other alternative Our Lady's Hospital in
Crumlin is subject to an amalgamation/re-location to the Northside (home of an Taoiseach).

The code of conduct for judges was delayed by a submission from the Judges.

[The story is front page left column , Irish Times, where Minister Mc Dowell appears with
startling regularity]

inherent dangers in right-wing administrations include the appointment of judges
by the legislature, the judiciary is suppoused to be an independent pillar within
the State.

Related Link: http://www.ireland.com
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