I haven't written in awhile but thought I would concentrate on two things in this post: passionate politics and a book review on Stieg Larsson's 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' (part 2 of his Millenium trilogy)
Firstly, I'd like to share two brilliant videos of passion in politics. I would like to applaud Congressman Anthony Weiner for calling Congress out on partisanship at its worst and politicizing even the most humble bills for the sake of it. Republicans gave 12 votes to the bill, and needless to say, it failed. At the last minute, perhaps due to the Arizona issue, Republicans wanted to amend the bill to make sure that no person who fell ill after helping out during/after 9.11 received health care who has an illegal immigration status. This is tricky because firstly, if it was amended to that point, all those 9.11 "heroes" are only so if they have documents to prove their status. They aren't "heroes" because they assisted in the effort to save American lives (and some illegal lives, as well). The Hispanic community is a traditional Democrat constituency and the D's cannot be seen to support an anti-immigrant legislation or they will loose thousands of votes.
Anyway, point is, this is the passion some politics has been missing. The Congressman has been criticized for loosing his temper in Congress and appearing unprofessional, however, he has attracted heaps of media attention to both bipartisanship and a bill that the majority of average Americans would have a hard time justifying not passing:
As he says ... "Its Republicans wrapping their arms around Republicans instead of doing the right thing for a hero .. its a shame, its a shame."
On the same note ... this fella is a cousin-in-law of mine and goes by the name of Paul Gogarty. He is a Teachta Dála (like being a member of congress/MP) for Dublin West for the Green Party. Despite being a spokesperson for his party on a number of issues, including Education, Gogarty was fired up on a particularly empty night in the Dála (as seen in the video) and said 'Fuck you Deputy Stagg, fuck you!'. Well. Needless to say, he has become a bit of a legend around these parts and continues to be one on youtube with thousands of hits!
Thats it for now. Maybe a book review tomorrow or in the next few days, which was going to be the second part of the blog but I am too tired and have been smoking Silk Cuts with the filter ripped off for the past two hours.... yuck! Also would like to write something about the Arizona immigration issue and include interesting interviews/commentaries from the governor and republican Congressmen on the topic. Very very interesting, especially the connection between economic downturn and support for far-right groups/people/legislation. History has a funny way of repeating itself, as we all say, but nobody seems to actually acknowledge or take into account when making decisions.
