It is reasonable, considering the many high profile members of the elite involved in the project, to expect a blizzard of media attention for the 'We The Citizens' initiative to accompany their showpiece Citizen's Assembly taking place on June the 25th and 26th in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

It is quite unbelievable that the bona-fides of those involved, and the methodologies being utilized by the initiative to select a representative group of people for their 'citizen's assembly', have been subject to no public scrutiny whatsoever to date. This is especially so when you consider the fact that so much money is being poured into it.

Hugh Green, in a timely article which is excerpted below, subjects what he refers to as 'Weed the Citizens' to a searching critique. His piece, which looks coldly at the track record of some of the elite team behind the initiative, includes a translation of a report on recent events in Spain which feels (from an Irish standpoint) like a broadcast from an alternative universe. In that universe citizens organize themselves within structures created from the ground up and without help from billionaires and politically connected elite insiders.

The brief and extremely vague overview of the methodology used by 'We the Citizens' for selecting participants makes it apparent that those with the benefit of a good education and the attendant confidence to participate would be favoured by this approach. These are not the kinds of people most likely to be hit hard by the actions of the ECB/IMF financial dictatorship presently running the country.

Related Links
Real Democracy Now! Ireland (Facebook Page)
We the Citizens

As Elizabeth Windsor's visit moves into history it is time to analyse the reasons for the visit and what happened during it: the small protests, the massive restrictions on movement in Ireland's capital city, the huge violations of the right to protest,

Related Links: Protests Greet the British Queen in Cork – Report & Photo Essay | Republican Response to English queen | Citizen's Rights Suspended Because of Queen's Visit | AUDIOLINK-"Opposing theBritish Queen's Visit to Ireland"- Radio Interview with 4 Anti-War Activists | Lockdown for Queen's Visit | James Connolly, Monarchy & Labour Party Hypocrisy

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You have to be in the matrix to believe 'Yes we can'

The country yesterday was abuzz with the visit of Obama to Ireland and the mainstream was aglow covering the event. There is no doubt he is popular in Ireland as evidenced by the tens of thousands who queued up and turned out to see him and went through airport type security to get a closer look. I would suppose there are two reasons for this and one is that everyone wants to be seen and associated with success and the other is that Irish people seem to get very proud of their country and want to show it off when important people or visitors in general show up.

Related Links: OBAMA - The Emperor has no clothes, his wars have no end! | Obama: A Presidency of Hope or Failure? External Links: Obama's Private Killing Machine Sibel Edmonds Bin Laden Death Script & the Needed Trigger for Next Step-Pakistan | Assassination Nation: Are there any limits on President Obama's license to kill? | Economy Obama’s Bushism | Mr. Obama’s Most Recent “2%” Sellout is his Worst Yet | Peak Oil OilDrum website The Speech Obama Need(ed) to Give | Still Obama says nothing After peak oil, are we heading towards social collapse?

In a blatant and outrageous act of political censorship Dublin City Council is attempting to impose an unprecedented ban on posters advertising political protests. This poster ban represents a very real attack on the right to political expression, the right to organise politically and the right to assembly.

The ban is due to come into effect from May 15th to May 25th, during which time both the 'British Queen' and US president Barack Obama are to visit Dublin. Those applying for permission to erect posters have been sent the following email by the council: 'I wish to advise you that your application has been refused. This decision has been taken on the basis that no postering applications for events between 15th and 25th May are being granted in the interest of promoting a clean environment for Dublin City during forthcoming State visits.'

Related Links: These links relate to when the change occured so that you had to get permission to put up a poster. Before that you did not need permission. -i.e another bit of our basic democratic rights were lost then.
Joan Collins Puts Virus Into Protocol For Ban On Public Notices | Motion on Poster Ban passed at DCC | The poster ban That Never Went Away is Back Again | Dublin City Council officials ban anti-war poster Leafleting Ban?

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The people of Ireland should consider a Boycott in relation the upcoming Census in April 2011. The reason I say this is that the company contracted to carry out the Census is CACI UK who are a subsidiary of CACI international which through its various outsourcing has been accused of contributing to the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq, something I myself am not happy about, and it will be one of the reason's why I will not be completing the Census form this time.

Related Links:
CACI's website
Graphic Video Displaying CACI Crimes (Irish Census Contractors)
Cencus Alerts - UK
This Lockheed Martin contract tarnishes the census - from The Guardian
Lockheed Martin Awarded £150M Contract to Support 2011 Census for England and Wales, and Northern Ireland

Apologies the related links are to stories about the English census (and Lockheed Martin), but the Irish media seem to have missed the relevance of CACI in getting the contract to develop the software for the Irish cencus