Damien Mulley

As introduced by the Creighton:

Via the Green Party Flickr account. (Kudos for having one lads and ladies.)

We already know Vincent is a badass but where does Irish politics’ baddest badass go when he’s hungry? (And also Politician of the year) Same place that Chuck Norris goes to when he’s in Dublin – The Badass Cafe. Badasses do in fact dine there. (They have a special box that goes on top of Norris’ chair so he can reach the table.) Oh and that’s milk they’re drinking. Enough of your Marc Almond jibes. In case you need to know Ciaran Cuffe dines in Govindas while Eamonn Ryan dines on tuna friendly baby dolphins in chez Jacques.

FYI, Chuck Norris, son of David, is pictured on the right below. Don’t let his Koala-like cuddliness fool you. Like a real Koala, he can take you:

Or Batt O’Keeffe for that matter:

Vincent Browne taking on Bertie Ahern now on YouTube. Also taking PJ Meara down brilliantly. Quality not great. (see how long it lasts):

IrelandOffline press release on National Broadband Tender.

The gist is this: Dempsey announced today, 3 weeks before an election that he was the Jesus Christ of broadband. The saviour for all the broadband sins of Ireland. Lots of talk of everyone now getting broadband.

The tender says that all areas not covered by eircom and the various wireless companies out there will be covered by the tender. Where do they cover?

This is the godawful map:

How did they make the map?
Well the DCMNR asked the wireless companies for their coverage areas and it seems many were quite liberal with their coverage. Example: Permanet said they covered the whole of county Wexford and so now Wexford will not be covered by the tender according to the 18MB 1 page PDF the DCMNR issues today. Yes, irony that you need fibre to the home to download the damned map. But see, the major issue is that despite Permanet saying they can cover the whole of Wexford, not everyone in Wexford will get their signal. Coverage is once again, the old eircom definition, which means it is not the same as getting a signal. So no signal because of trees, or buildings or interference or blackspots? Tough. Look at Donegal too, a broadband paradise according to the DCMNR!

Also, many people even in an area where eircom “provide” broadband, still cannot get broadband because of split lines and poor quality lines. It is not just about distance from the exchange. This tender excludes these people. If the exchange is already enabled then it is tough for you too. Unless you are 4.5km from that exchange, any nearer and again, no deal.

Additionally, the tender does not cover areas where eircom recently said they will enable. eircom are still not offering a timeline on this so right now they hold a monopoly on these areas. That’s about half the country, geographically speaking, from what I can see. We’re in week 1 of an election and so far no political parties have pointed out all these flaws. Jesus people!

Then there’s the case of WestNet who do offer a service in but are not on the map so according to the tender, the tender winner will be subsidised by the taxpayer to go in and compete with them.

This is the real coverage map (excluding wireless companies). With every single exchange in the country enabled, (only half are) this is what the map would look like yet the DCMNR seems to have a different take on this.

Here’s an interactive Google Map with 4.5km radius

Fergus Cassidy has a great piece on how the canvassers do way more than put a leaflet in your door. I must say most of this was new to me but it makes complete sense. Well worth reading. Look forward to part 2.

We’ll all be getting visits from various campaigners over the next few days and weeks. To help you out with this, here are the expenses claimed by all your sitting TDs for 2005 and if any Senators call, here is the list for them.

Here are some suggested questions to ask from various bloggers or maybe you can use this list from the EastMeath blog or maybe any of the ones directed to Batt O’Keeffe. Conor O’Neill has some good ones in relation to the TB outbreak in Cork.

You can also see the policies of political parties in relation to equality rights here.

Don’t forget to have a look at websites such as IrishElection.com, Politics.ie and Irish Politics aggregator Politics In Ireland and if you want to see all the videos from all the campaigns, then stop by VoteTube.org.

And don’t forget about the doorstep challenge.

Edit: John Ward has some questions too.

Later: More from Adam. More from Antoin. More from Bernie.

There isn’t a prize for coming up with the best expletive. Sorry.

Daithí Mac Síthigh has some advice if you want to vote by post. You have one day to apply!

EDIT: See further discussion over here.