The Keane Edge

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the fighting on the Hill a "disgraceful proceeding."

He was referring to the shouting match on a Bill that was supposed to grant 9/11 responders sickened by poisonous air at Ground Zero a promised $7.4 billion in aid, finally after all these years. Insults were slung between Congressman Weiner and Congressman King who represent constituencies with lots of fireman, cops and other rescue workers. The Bill failed to win the 255-159 needed for a two-thirds majority.

That "2/3rds" requirement is the crux of the question: why did the Bill fail? Are Democrats or Republicans to blame?

The disgrace belongs, as usual, to both Republicans and Democrats, but not to Peter King specifically. Weiner's theatrics so wrongly, however, would have the casual observer believe King is to blame.

Because it happened incrementally, the cause and effect of our Economic Crisis is hard to pin-point, but all along the way, it had helpers. Over decades, both Democrats and Republicans overturned Depression-era laws that let liars on Wall Street sell huge financial bubbles of fake value using fake analysis.

All the rules were swept away, and yet Greenspan and Rubin; Paulson and Bernacke; Geithner and scores of other Goldman Sachs regulators will claim they had no idea it would turn out this way.

"How many! All these here once walked round Dublin. Faithful departed. As you are now so once were we."
--Ulysses, James Joyce

The United Nations has named Dublin City of Literature. The announcement was made by Irina Bokova, president of UNESCO.

At a ceremony in the Grand Canal Theatre, Ireland's Culture Minister Mary Hanafin, with Dublin Lord Mayor Gerry Breen, accepted the award, predicting it would be a great boon to the city.

I started paying close attention to the latest round of themes on TV news when my neighbor got a flat screen. The experience for someone watching high definition without previously having had a TV is mind-blowing. The TV is very suggestive in high def. I could never live with one.

Bill O'Reilly reminds me of Max Headron, the 1980s and Ronald Reagan, so I watched him firstly. I like him the way I like some cops--I get where they're coming from, but it's not for me.

As a tool-of-Rupert-Murdoch, I find O'Reilly incredibly unlikeable as well, especially when he's selling war, or playing up racial stories to distract from real news, and especially when he's defending sociopathic corporate behavior.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a modern fairy tale published in 1900, that was written by Frank Baum who loved editorial cartoons from the newspaper. He used the universal symbols of his day to create a contemporary fable that explains our own financial crisis.

Hurricanes (socio-economic upheaval like now), the Tin Man (working stiffs dependent on oil), the strawman (farmers), the Lion (populist leader), the wizard (the pinhead "in charge"), the Wicked Witch of the East (Wall Street banks), the Wicked Witch of the West (big oil & business) are but a few of the symbols Baum used from his imagination and the newspapers to create a fantasy where an American child could go into and fix the world of finance (Oz) that is causing her aunt and uncle such worry in the real world ("Main Street" or "Kansas"). Dorothy does this amazing thing by changing the way money is made. She kills the Wicked Witch of the East and takes her shoes. In the book the shoes are silver (money) and ruby in the movie for technicolor. The original is better.

If killing the witch seems extreme, in the context of American political cartoons it is not. The banking plutocrats were often depicted as vipers (in top hats) battling Andrew Jackson or populist heroes like him. ["The bank," Jackson told his vice president, "is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!,"--this captures the sentiment towards banks.] The vipers becames witches in Baum's fantasy of Oz.

Ireland's moves toward austerity are slow-forming, but will be speeding up, according to Taoiseach Brian Cowen. The details of his plans are being made public in cryptic news reports across the financial and Irish media, but not on Irish TV.

Brian Cowen gave the keynote address in May to the Trilateral Commission's yearly full-membership conference, which was held, significantly, in Dublin at the Four Seasons resort in Ballsbridge. The meeting was a hugely important indication of how deeply and how painfully Fianna Fáil will cut into Ireland's well-being in order to pay off the financial system monopolizing economic power internationally outside normal democracy. His speech and answers during a Q&A session went unreported on Irish national television.

An actor from the movie Inglorious Basterds has threatened Mel Gibson with a baseball bat to the head, calling for "euthanasia" on the actor in a "Mel-o-caust."

The excerpt from the TMZ show is blurbed on its website with the following inadequate description: "Today on TMZ Live -- Eli "The Bear Jew" Roth stopped by to say he's ready to smack Mel Gibson upside the head with his "Inglourious Basterds" bat."

"Smack" is an understatement.

Ireland's moves toward austerity are slow-forming, but will be speeding up, according to Taoiseach Brian Cowen. The details of his plans are being made public in crypticnews reports across the financial and Irish media, but not on Irish TV.

Brian Cowen gave the keynote address in May to the Trilateral Commission's yearly full-membership conference, which was held, significantly, in Dublin at the Four Seasons resort in Ballsbridge. The meeting was a hugely important indication of how deeply and how painfully Fianna Fáil will cut into Ireland's well-being in order to pay off the financial system monopolizing economic power internationally outside normal democracy. His speech and answers during a Q&A session went unreported on Irish national television.

A report published in Britain recently recommends Ireland and other countries reverse its decision to follow the American example, and stop putting the poisonous chemical called fluoride in public drinking water and hygiene products.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Toxicology — the official journal of the British Toxicology Society and the German Toxicology Society - author Dr. Robert Verkerk said "mass fluoridation of the public water supply [must be]stopped immediately. This is borne out by actual data from Ireland which shows that every third child is affected [by a high risk of dental fluorosis]."

Fluorosis is a condition which causes staining on the teeth and indicates unhealthy toxicity in the body.

Niall O'Dowd reports that over 120,000 Irish people are set to flee economic conditions in Ireland.

Debbie McGoldrick reports that the United States has restricted entry of Irish people into the country, despite the long historical ties and enormous contribution made to America by Ireland's emigrants.

The Irish were given 1,637 green cards. That's down from 2,088 in 2005.

Michelle Obama gave a speech to the NAACP yesterday. She cited tragic statistics about the African American community and the speech was televised.

Meanwhile, Mel Gibson is all over the "news" with audio clips adding nothing but crap to the racial discourse here.

In the same news cycle, Bill O'Reilly made a speech on his show about the first lady, wherein he dissected the African American community in a three minute segment. It appeared on Fox on July 13th.

Is tú díolta leis na Gallaibh. The famous refrain curses those that have sold Ireland like a cheap prostitute. The warning has never been so apt as now, in an era of existential crisis for Ireland. And a curse on the gombeen politicians that follow non-sense pop-economic thinking and have undertaken to leave the Irish people asset-less.

In the last 20 years, Ireland has sold off half of its commercial enterprises for a measly €8.3 billion, and is now entering into negotiations to sell off a big chunk of the other half of what's left.

Ireland's public financial institutions were among the first to be sold: ICC Bank, TSB Bank, Irish National, ACC Bank and Irish Life. They're gone to non-Irish interests.

There's no shortage of heroes in Irish history and mythology, some real and indeed some re-imagined through green spectacles, or on July 12th, through orange ones.

Saint Patrick's Day is shared by both the Green and Orange traditions, but July 12th is where green and orange part ways a bit.

The Orange Irish hold big parades all over Ireland on that day to commemorate the victory of William over James in the Glorious Revolution, and the creation of a Protestant Ascendancy apartheid state in Ireland. South Africa used to have holidays like this.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a modern fairy tale published in 1900, that was written by Frank Baum who loved editorial cartoons from the newspaper. He used the universal symbols of his day to create a contemporary fable that explains our own financial crisis.

Hurricanes (socio-economic upheaval like now), the Tin Man (working stiffs dependent on oil), the strawman (farmers), the Lion (populist leader), the wizard (the pinhead "in charge"), the Wicked Witch of the East (Wall Street banks), the Wicked Witch of the West (big oil & business) are but a few of the symbols Baum used from his imagination and the newspapers to create a fantasy where an American child could go into and fix the world of finance (Oz) that is causing her aunt and uncle such worry in the real world ("Main Street" or "Kansas"). Dorothy does this amazing thing by changing the way money is made. She kills the Wicked Witch of the East and takes her shoes. In the book the shoes are silver (money) and ruby in the movie for technicolor. The original is better.

If killing the witch seems extreme, in the context of American political cartoons it is not. The banking plutocrats were often depicted as vipers (in top hats) battling Andrew Jackson or populist heroes like him. ["The bank," Jackson told his vice president, "is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!,"--this captures the sentiment towards banks.] The vipers becames witches in Baum's fantasy of Oz.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a modern fairy tale published in 1900, that was written by Frank Baum who loved editorial cartoons from the newspaper. He used the universal symbols of his day to create a contemporary fable that explains our own financial crisis.

Hurricanes (socio-economic upheaval like now), the Tin Man (working stiffs dependent on oil), the strawman (farmers), the Lion (populist leader), the wizard (the pinhead "in charge"), the Wicked Witch of the East (Wall Street banks), the Wicked Witch of the West (big oil & business) are but a few of the symbols Baum used from his imagination and the newspapers to create a fantasy where an American child could go into and fix the world of finance (Oz) that is causing her aunt and uncle such worry in the real world ("Main Street" or "Kansas"). Dorothy does this amazing thing by changing the way money is made. She kills the Wicked Witch of the East and takes her shoes. In the book the shoes are silver (money) and ruby in the movie for technicolor. The original is better.

If killing the witch seems extreme, in the context of American political cartoons it is not. The banking plutocrats were often depicted as vipers (in top hats) battling Andrew Jackson or populist heroes like him. ["The bank," Jackson told his vice president, "is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!,"--this captures the sentiment towards banks.] The vipers becames witches in Baum's fantasy of Oz.

The Declaration of Independence is a physically beautiful document and when I was a kid I had an image of it on my wall. There were Irish names, including "McKean" on that original parchment, and that gave me the story I needed to feel at home here like a native. My love of country--the United States--and of my heritage--Ireland--converge in that document because I acknowledge the Irish who risked their lives to sign it.

Among the citizens who signed what could have been a death warrant, were at least eight Irish Americans, three born in Ireland.

Many of them were Orange Irish or Scotch Irish who hated monarchy, and whose spirit of independence is at the heart of the Republics they would crucially help found in America and Ireland. Their brand of Irish defiance saw right through British imperialism, and used Enlightenment Republican ideals to create alternative society for free people.