Friday, February 16, 2007

Is He Running For Taoiseach As Well?

Either that, or Barack Obama is thinking of getting a seat at Stormont. Will he run under the Sinn Fein banner? Don't think the DUP would have him, what with his skin color and his heritage and all.
The determined optimism of the Irish people has enabled them to grab hold of hope in the United States, from south Boston to the south side of Chicago. It's an optimism expressed in three issues so important to Irish-Americans today: a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, an American immigration policy that keeps faith with our tradition of offering opportunity to those who seek it, and strong economic and cultural ties between our two nations. As I chair the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe, and as I travel around the country learning from and listening to the American people, I will be advancing ideas and policies to meet these goals.

Lovely sentiments, I'm tearing up, but this quote is lifted from the Irish feckin' Times. It's published in Dublin, and that's the city in Ireland, not the one in Ohio. Do you think anyone abroad really cares about your campaign promises? Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph, but there's an election coming up in Ireland as well, with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats slinging mud. To say nothing of the election up in the north, where the DUP is splintering on the whole devolution issue. There's Continuity IRA against the Provies, the SDLP trying to get some attention, and the little Alliance Party hanging on by their fingernails. It's a bit much, isn't it, to have American politics flogged as well?
The gains of the last decade were in part made possible by US engagement. Going forward, we should continue the practice of having a special envoy for Northern Ireland, and our president should personally engage where America can play a constructive role, working closely with the Taoiseach, the British prime minister, and party leaders in Northern Ireland.

Ah Christ, will you leave off? Do you have any idea what's been happening in the Six Counties for the past hundred years? You think the Irish want a lasting peace? A republican in Ireland is not the same as the one in America, lad, and it isn't peace that they're after.
To seize this hopeful moment, the Democratic Unionist Party should take the next step outlined in the St Andrew's agreement: a commitment to a power sharing executive after March elections, so Northern Ireland can continue the process of peace that its people so clearly wish to follow.

How about getting England out of Ireland completely? Got a position on that one?

Oh for feck's sake, he's after quoting John F. Kennedy. Ah sure he was that Irish-American fella that came through in the early sixties, and now Barack thinks he'd be pleased to see Ireland lifting up other lands, "...from east Africa to east Asia." I know he's not Catholic, so how would he know about the Irish priests and nuns who went to lift up other lands, before JFK was even born. Obama is one of those brilliant speakers who puts words together so they sound pretty, but if you look at the content, he knows fuck-all.

What about the thousands of illegal Irish in America? Why, your man is reaching across the aisle to bring about a guest worker program. You've heard of that program; it's the one that President Bush proposed. But there's Obama, the savior of the immigrant, the man who understands the plight of the Irish in America. Why, he's the son of a Kenyan immigrant...who was here legally. And his mother was an American. Maybe he's good at using his imagination to feel the pain.
I welcome this opportunity to be a part of that story, and look forward to hearing your concerns in the months ahead.

You want to be President, so? And you think you can spew this 'sensitive man' shite in Ireland and everyone's granny will ring them up and tell them to vote for the nice young man? And I'll be sure to let my friend Margaret know you'd like to hear her concerns. She's upset about all the black faces that she sees in Dublin. Care to address that?

All that sickly sweet prose...I think I need a shot of insulin.

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