About That European Vacation....

Take this information with a grain of salt, but it is interesting to say the least. It seems the rate of violent crimes is higher in Europe then it is in the good old US of A.

The U.S. has a violence rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, Canada 935, Australia 92 and South Africa 1,609.

The reason I say take this with a grain of salt is for the reason the writer of the original article points out, that being different countries have different ways of describing and reporting violent crimes. In jolly old England it is probably considered a violent crime if you serve tea without cookies.

Just in case you think this a strictly European survey, the data was derived from reports compiled by the European Commission and the United Nations. Yeah, I know citing the UN as source of good data immediately discredits any sort of reliance on the information, but hey, at least it wasn't The Lancet.

Meanwhile, Switzerland boasts the lowest rate of crime and some people say it is for a reason most people wouldn't realize.



.....the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,......

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

The man who opened the Berlin Wall
On November 9th 1989, Harald Jäger wanted his night shift at the East Berlin border crossing at Bornholmer Strasse to go quietly. Instead, Jäger opened the first crack in the Berlin Wall and helped make history.

“But then things happened, that I would have never imagined even in my worst dreams,” remembered the former state security officer in a conversation with the DPA new service. His border crossing was the first to open - without an order from above. The hours leading up to the opening were the most dramatic in his life.

“I’m happy that only thing that flowed was fear-induced sweat and not blood,” Jäger said.

In the canteen around 7 pm that evening, he had followed the press conference with the East German official Günter Schabowski, which outlined new travel rules for the country's citizens. Almost offhandedly, Schabowski announced the immediate opening of the border. The impact of the announcement was almost immediately visible, said Jäger.

“At first there were just a handful of East German citizens there, but by the minute there were more. It went from hundreds to thousands, who chanted, ‘Open the gate!,’” explained Jäger, who was in charge of 30 guards and three border posts that night.

“We stood just an arms-length away from the masses, who were separated from us by just a closed crossing gate,” he said, explaining how he was scared of a mass panic. “We no longer had the situation under control,” said Jäger, now 66 years old. He kept trying to phone his superiors for orders. “But higher up, chaos reigned just as it did for us.”

Around 9:40 pm, the order came to allow especially “provocative citizens” through the border, but not to let them back in. But this “ventilation” tactic didn’t help.

“At 11:20 pm, I then ordered the crossing gate to be opened and to allow everyone to leave without inspecting their papers,” said Jäger. About 25,000 people used their new freedom on that evening to cross into West Berlin.


“In the first moment, something was really empty inside me. I didn’t understand the world anymore,” said Jäger. Today, he’s “a bit proud” that he prevented the situation from escalating. He believes that because of his cool-headed handling of the situation, he made some amends for his 28 years of service with the East German border troops.

It was good that “the East Germans didn’t exclude us, instead they embraced us,” said Jäger. The reaction from his then-superiors was also mild. “My knees were shaking when I called up my colonel to report on what was happening. He said only, ‘it’s good, my boy.’”

After Germany reunited, Jäger had to “start from zero.” He was unemployed for two years and then trained to become a taxi driver. He also sold ice cream and newspapers and worked as a security guard. Coming to terms with his past took many years, Jäger said. A series of interviews with Gerhard Hasse-Hindenberg, who wrote a biography of Jäger that was published in 2007, helped considerably.

Today, Jäger lives in the town of Weneuchen in Brandenburg and spends a lot of time in his garden tending cacti. After 20 years, he wants to go back to his former border crossing on the 9th of November and mix with the others there.

But he can’t fully savour the freedom to travel that came with the fall of the Wall: he doesn’t have enough money for the dream trip to Mexico that he’d like to take.

Via The Local

Meanwhile, as Berliners and dignitaries celebrate the Fall of the Wall and remember those who died during their attempt to flee the communist paradise, BarryO won't be there.

In his first year in office, Barack Obama has visited more foreign countries than any other president. He's touched ground in 16 countries, easily outpacing Bill Clinton (three) and George W. Bush (eleven). It's an itinerary befitting a "citizen of the world."

But there's one stop Obama won't make. He has begged off going to Berlin next week to attend ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall. His schedule is reportedly too crowded. John F. Kennedy famously told Berliners, "Ich bin ein Berliner." On the 20th anniversary of the last century's most stirring triumph of freedom, Obama is telling them, "Ich bin beschäftigt" - i.e., I'm busy.

It doesn't have quite the same ring, does it? Obama's failure to go to Berlin is the most telling nonevent of his presidency. It's hard to imagine any other American president eschewing the occasion. Only Obama - with his dismissive view of the Cold War as a relic distorting our thinking and his attenuated commitment to America's exceptional role in the world - would spurn German president Angela Merkel's invitation to attend.

Obama famously made a speech in Berlin during last year's campaign, but at an event devoted to celebrating himself as the apotheosis of world hopefulness. He said of 1989, "a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one."

The line was typical Obama verbal soufflé, soaring but vulnerable to collapse upon the slightest jostling from logic or historical fact. The wall came down only after the free world resolutely stood against the Communist bloc. Rather than a warm-and-fuzzy exercise in global understanding, the Cold War was another iteration of the 20th century's long war between totalitarianism and Western liberalism. The West prevailed on the back of American strength.

But Obama doesn't think in such antiquated, triumphalist terms. Given to apologizing for his nation abroad, he resolutely downplays American leadership. "President Obama is applying the same tools to international diplomacy that he used as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side," the Washington Post notes, approaching "the world as a community of nations, more alike than different in outlook and interest." To the extent that the Cold War doesn't fit this unbelievably naïve worldview, it's an intellectual inconvenience.

Wouldn't Obama at least want to take the occasion to celebrate freedom and human rights - those most cherished liberal values? Not necessarily. He has mostly jettisoned them as foreign-policy goals in favor of a misbegotten realism that soft-pedals the crimes of nasty regimes around the world. During the Cold War, we undermined our enemies by shining a bright light on their repression. In Berlin, JFK called out the Communists on their "offense against humanity." Obama would utter such a phrase only with the greatest trepidation, lest it undermine a future opportunity for dialogue.

Pres. Ronald Reagan realized we could meet with the Soviets without conceding the legitimacy of their system. He always spoke up for the dissidents - even when it irked his negotiating partner, Mikhail Gorbachev. Whatever the hardheaded imperatives of geopolitics, we'd remain a beacon of liberty in the world.

Obama has relegated this aspirational aspect of American power to the back seat. For him, we are less an exceptional power than one among many, seeking deals with our peers in Beijing and Moscow. Why would Obama want to celebrate the refuseniks of the Eastern Bloc, when he won't even meet with the Dalai Lama in advance of his trip to China?

So Obama huddles with Merkel during her visit to Washington and leaves it at that. An American president will skip events marking the end of a struggle to which we, as a nation - under presidents of both parties - devoted blood and treasure for 50 years. For Barack Obama, 1989 is just another far-away year - and the Democratic party of such men as Harry S. Truman and JFK has never seemed more distant.

Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review.

Via RCP

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Czech extremists planned attacks on power plants, kidnaps

The Czech extremist organisation White Justice (WJ) was preparing terrorist attacks on power plants and unit substations and kidnappings of police and "Jews in high posts," daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today, referring to a secret neo-Nazi web.

It writes that it also drew information from testimonies by two founding members of White Justice, Filip Stransky and Lukas Sedlacek.

Organisation members were taught to destroy property, blast cars and fight with and without arms at "fight camps," MfD writes, adding that training and communication was strictly secret.

MfD writes that Stransky was probably the head of the whole organisation, or at least some members consider him to be the chief though he himself denies it.

White Justice organised four fight camps at which professional soldier Sedlacek taught the interested persons to attack concrete persons and buildings, MfD writes.

It says the group also launched a project called "red watch" within which the neo-Nazis wanted to monitor and intimidate "ideological enemies," particularly anarchists and police.

The police found the plans of the hydro-electric power plant in Zelezny Brod, north Bohemia, in the flat of one of the group founders, MfD writes.

"I am one of the founders of the organisation. Filip Stransky and a person called Jany founded it with me," Sedlacek said in police questioning, MfD writes adding it has his testimony at its disposal.

Sedlacek confessed to having trained about 30 people in the camps. He taught them hand-to-hand combat, both armed and unarmed, and attacking animate as well as inanimate targets. He also trained them to blast cars and destroy property, MfD writes.

Stransky claims that he administera web ervers of the White Justice group. He also received instructions via the Internet, but he says he does not know the authors, MfD writes.

Anonymity was a condition both in training and in Internet communication. All participants used nicknames, the paper writes.

"We knew ourselves only in small groups. If one of us were exposed, this would not threaten the rest of the organisation," MfD quotes Stransky as saying.

Sedlacek also testified to having known practically no individual members. For the sake of secrecy they communicated only electronically via foreign and mostly encoded servers. One of them is in the United States and another in Israel, MfD writes.

"The WJ organisation is here to do the dirty work. We know now who is a Jew and who is his lackey. It is unfeasible to remove the top-placed Jew within a week, but it is feasible to gradually rise along the pyramid of those in power up to the very peak," a person nicknamed "Redakce" (editorial office) said on a secret web, MfD writes.

Stransky admitted in an interview with MfD that he used to enter the web just under this name.

The police arrested a part of the extremist group for propagation of Nazism two weeks ago.

"We were monitoring the group on suspicion of preparation of terrorist attacks," Robert Slachta, director of the police Squad for Uncovering Organised crime (UOOZ) said then.

Community organizer David Duke was unavailable for comment.

Via ČeskéNoviny

H/T Mishi & Pito

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Police arrest 30 suspected of ties to extremism, neo-Nazi movement
Wednesday afternoon saw roughly one hundred right-wing extremists protest in front of the Office of the Government, in reaction to a carefully-planned crackdown by police earlier in the day. Officers moved in in the early hours of Wednesday morning to arrest almost 30 individuals across the country suspected of ties to extremist and neo-Nazi groups.

Wednesday morning the police move in at addresses including Prague, Kralupy nad Vltavou, Ceské Budejovice, Zlín, a crackdown against individuals suspected of ties to extremist and neo-Nazi movements. The second such wave in four months saw almost 30 people arrested, among them, a politician for the extreme right-wing Workers’ Party, thought to have ties to the neo-Nazi movement known as Národní odpor. (Note: Translatation may not work in Firefox, Ed.) Another picked up by the police: the bassist for a known neo-Nazi rock band called Impérium.

In the course of the crackdown, police confiscated books, computers, and other items – allegedly looking for evidence related to neo-Nazi concerts and more. Interior Minister Martin Pecina confirmed for Czech TV that such steps would continue as long as there was reason to suspect criminal activity. But representatives of the extremist Workers’ Party cried “foul”, saying the arrests were an attempt by the government to strengthen its aim to see the party banned. The party’s Martin Vandas: “It’s a last minute attempt to try and find some kind of evidence that would legitimise banning our political party.”

Not surprisingly, the police, aren’t commenting: tight-lipped even on the exact number of those taken into custody Wednesday. So far for this year, though, this much is clear: the police have largely stepped up crackdowns in apparent response to the alarming jump of neo-Nazi activities in the country in recent years - from demonstrations to illegal concerts.

Arguably, the most significant bust came by police back in August. After months of investigation and slow-going, officers arrested 12 (and later charged four suspects) for a brutal firebomb attack against a Romany family (aka Gypsies, Ed.). That attack which took place in the east of the country, left three people injured: parents and their two-year-old daughter. In the incident, the toddler only narrowly escaped death and remains in treatment after having suffered burns to 80 percent of her body.

by Jan Velinger | Radio Prague

Intrepid community organizer David Duke was unavailable for comment.


Via Radio Prague

H/T Mishi

CLUB JIHAD

Further to JMF's post, I am not in the least surprised to discover that there are those here in Europe who are gagging with unexpurgated excitement at the prospect of having some of the Gauntanamo faithful resettled amongst them. Perhaps there may be some staff vacancies on the Madrid rail system or maybe the London Underground?

The reality is that for many Euroweenies, the Gitmo rabble are noble heroes, all innocent of any crime, imprisoned by the great Satan in an act of inhumanity. But now The One is going to release these dedicated enemies of the USA, and what better place for them to go but Club Jihad - firmly located right across Europe. Hang out the bunting and let the celebrations begin - the boys are coming home. God help us.

EU Passes Anti-Illegal Alien Measures

Of course, the New York Times doesn't call them illegal aliens. That would clearly be a violation of their style guide. Instead they're undocumented migrants. But the interesting story here is how the high-minded European Union is cracking down on illegals, plans to put them in detention centers and ban them from entering the EU for five years thereafter. Yet nowhere in the story do we see the terms harsh, mean-spirited or racist, which surely we'd see if, say, Republicans tried to do the same thing here.

Why the double standard?

Update: James Kirchick at Contentions nails it.

The passage of this measure could not have come at a more opportune time to expose Europe’s hypocrisy. Just last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that enemy combatants captured on foreign soil have habeus corpus rights. The decision was predictably applauded by Europe’s chattering class, to whom, we are endlessly lectured, Guantanamo represents a “stain” on our national reputation.

Good News: Clean Air Means More Global Warming

Talk about bamboozling the tree-huggers.

OK, I'm not promoting pollution, but maybe we can pin alleged global warming on the environmentalists themselves now.

If anything, it will be amusing to see the reaction.

Europe is heating up much faster than climate researchers expected, and now they think they know why: air made dramatically cleaner by anti-pollution programs. With less particle pollution clouding the air, more sunlight is coming through and the continent is getting warmer.

The 1970s were a hazy time: Cars ran on sulfur-rich gasoline, power plants and heavy industry burned sulfur-rich coal. Europe lay under a blanket of fumes filled with sulphate particles. Acid rain brought the particles back to earth, ravaging the continent's forests.

That was then. The situation today is considerably different. Auto emissions are low in sulfur, power plants only run with smoke filters and acid rain is no longer an issue. But the success of efforts to restore Europe's air quality have had an unintended side effect that is just now coming to light. Because the atmosphere over Europe is increasingly clean, global warming is impacting the continent more quickly than other regions of the world.

The dwindling clouds of pollution are apparently the reason that Europe is heating faster than other mid-latitude regions. Since 1980, the average surface air temperature between the Bosporus and the Bay of Biscay has risen by almost an entire degree Celsius -- twice as much as expected. The reasons for this were until recently a matter of heated dispute. Greenhouse gases could explain half that increase, at best. But now climate researchers in Germany, Switzerland and the United States, using data and computer simulations, claim that the rise in temperatures has been caused most directly by a decline in sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere.

The Goracle was unavailable for comment.

In Contrast To The UK . . . .

Czech petrol price lower, diesel oil grows in previous week

Petrol prices on the Czech market decreased slightly in the past week, while the average price of diesel oil was 30 hellers (US$0.018) higher than a week earlier, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) said today.

Drivers paid an average Kc31.39 (US$1.91) for a litre of diesel oil on Monday, March 17, compared with Kc31.09 (US$1.89) a litre a week earlier. The top-selling petrol Natural 95 cost Kc30.77 (US$1.87) a litre on average, down three hellers against the previous week.

The unleaded petrol Special 91 with an additive dipped by five hellers (US$0.003) to Kc30.22 (US$1.87) a litre, while the average price of LPG rose by two hellers to Kc16.02 (US$0.97)/l.

A similar development was recorded by the company CCS that also monitors fuel prices on a regular basis. CCS said a litre of Natural 95 was eight hellers cheaper at Kc30.50 (US$1.85), while the average price of diesel oil increased by 20 hellers (US$0.01) to Kc30.96 (US$1.88).

Analysts say diesel oil prices will probably continue to grow in the days to come; petrol prices should rather be stagnant.

The increase in diesel oil price is caused largely by the sharp price growth on the Rotterdam bourse, Colosseum analyst Petr Cermak said. The steadily firming Czech crown currency, which to a certain extent absorbs the rising prices of commodities, will not prevent diesel oil prices from growing, he said, adding that diesel will cost dozens of hellers more in a fortnight.

Having eyes like a kestrel, I cruised al-Gore's invention looking for a Leftisphere-type boogeyman to blame this on.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! In no time at all, I struck gold.

Via FinanČíNinoviny.cz

Previously: And Not Even A Kiss

Also at A Tangled Web


Photo courtesy European Commission

Building Putin's Empire

Deal with Serbia gives Russia victory in 'pipeline war' with EU

Russia won the right Friday to direct a major supply route for natural gas through its ally Serbia to Europe, a deal that analysts described as a Kremlin victory in a "pipeline war" with the European Union.

The agreement, signed in the Kremlin before President Vladimir Putin and visiting Serbian leaders, increased Moscow's control over energy supplies to Europe and could undermine a rival EU project.

Strong Russian opposition to independence for the Serbian province of Kosovo was a key bargaining chip in the negotiations that resulted in Serbia joining the project, the South Stream natural gas pipeline. Belgrade also agreed to sell a majority stake in Serbia's state-owned oil monopoly, NIS, to the Russian natural gas giant, Gazprom, at a favorable price.

South Stream is a project worth a projected €10 billion, or $14.7 billion, organized jointly by Gazprom and the Italian energy giant ENI to carry Siberian gas to Europe via the Black Sea.

"Our close political relations were today converted into economic results," Putin's chosen successor, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, told reporters. "This is a great breakthrough."

[...]

The agreements signed Friday by Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica of Serbia, gave Gazprom a 51 percent stake in Serbia's NIS oil and natural gas company, for €400 million [US$593,259,318.44 ed.] and a pledge to invest €500 million more by 2012.

Some analysts described the price as well below market value, giving estimates of €1 billion to €2 billion [US$1,483,589,692.57 - US$2,966,249,293.59 ed.], although others said the NIS plant needed heavy reconstruction.

NIS dominates the Serbian market, with a monopoly on refining and a network of almost 500 gas stations. The NIS deal gives Gazprom its first refinery outside Russia.

Gazprom gets OMV stake

Gazprom will acquire a stake of 50 percent in OMV's natural gas hub in Austria, giving it greater access to the Continent's customers, under an agreement signed Friday, Bloomberg News reported.

The two will sell to Germany and Italy through the Baumgarten hub, located near a trunk pipeline from west Siberian natural gas fields.

Via The IHT

On January 17, 2008, The Streetwise Professor observed that

Gazprom/Russia is/are playing smashmouth ball over Serbia’s national oil company. Don Miller and Don Medvedev have presented Serbia with an offer it can’t refuse: to sell Naftna industrija Srbije at a fraction of its true value–and one with an unbelievably short fuse, like, you know, Friday.

In exchange for control of SIJ’s hard assets and guarantees of a monopoly position in Serbia for some period (take that Serbian consumers, Gazprom doesn’t do competition), Gazprom Neft (Gazprom’s oil affiliate) is offering an amount that has been estimated to represent well less than one-half (and perhaps as little as one-quarter) of the Serbian company’s value. The tacit quid pro quo is that Russia will support Serbia on Kosovo–but, if Russian rhetoric is to be believed (yeah, I know) they would do that anyways.

To make the deal look a little less like an abject surrender, Gazprom has also dangled the prospect of giving Serbia a stake in a future gas venture. Word of advice, guys–DON’T BELIEVE IT, and DON’T TAKE IT. Gazprom is the master of what Bob Amsterdam calls “premature contractualization.” That is, announcing deals just in time to forestall projects that are adverse to Gazprom’s interest, and then fading the deal when the threatening competing projects are shelved in response to the Gazprom announcement. Gazprom will whisper sweet promises in anybody’s ear to get what they want, and then renege when it suits them. (Nigeria–you should take note of this, as Gazprom has been wooing you too.)

Gazprom’s stratagem is analogous to a common ploy in the software business. In the 80s and 90s “vaporware” was a commonly employed competitive strategy. A software company would announce a new, improved software product in order to forestall entry by a competitor. Once the potential entrant was scared away, the new software would just fade away into the mists, never to be seen. Gazprom is essentially following this playbook–constantly announcing vaporpipelines, vaporwells, vaporinvestments, vaporstorage, vapor-you-name-it whenever a threatening project is mooted.

So, what Gazprom is offering Serbia is: a pittance in cash plus a pig in a poke in exchange for hard assets right now. Given Gazprom’s record of delivering on its big talk, the Serbs would be well advised to take cash on the barrelhead and take the promises for what they are worth–a little more than nothing.

It would be fair to say that Serbia is the first new province in Putie's Soviet Union Lite. Let's see how long it takes before soon-to-be Soviet Russian Premier Putin directs the new pawns - with their new military advisors - to square off against KFOR, while at the same time, telling the EU that abandoning their NATO obligations would be in their absolute best energy supply interests.

And whether he delivers the message or has his beard, Gazprom poohbah Gerhard Schroeder, do so instead.

See also: How To Attract Foreign Investment (Gazprom and its business partners)

Human Smugglers Getting Creative

It appears the human smuggling racket is big business for those transporting illegals into Europe.

These astonishing pictures show the lengths desperate immigrants go to in order to reach Europe.

In one image, two men have managed to hide themselves inside the front seats of a Mercedes, with their heads jammed into the plastic head rests.

With a pair of human-traffickers sitting right on top of them, on the hollowedout seats, the immigrants had hoped to be smuggled into Europe.

Read the rest of the story and have a glimpse at some of these photos.

Uh, could you move the seat back a bit?

I was just checking the oil!

Peek-a-boo, I see you!

Now They're Concerned

'The West Must Distance Itself from Putin's Swindle'
The European press reacted on Monday to Vladimir Putin's landslide victory with a mix of criticism and, in a few instances, praise. But most papers agree that the power struggle within the Kremlin is only just beginning.

The liberal Danish daily Politiken writes:

"As expected, Russian President Vladimir Putin garnered an overwhelming election victory. Even before (his victory), he claimed he would be given the 'moral right' to continue to determine his country's political course. ... After his victory he spoke of a festive atmosphere. But it has an ugly downside. Neither the campaign nor the election was deserving of this description. It was the most unfair election since the fall of communism. The state abused its power in the media. Opposition voices were suppressed. ... If the West doesn't strongly distance itself from this historic election manipulation, which one could at best describe as a swindle, it will muddy our own democracies. And we would also be abandoning Russians who haven't yet buried their hopes for democracy in their country."

The Rome daily La Repubblica comments:

"In his years in office, Russian President Vladimir Putin has succeeded in resurrecting the myth of Russian power that stems from an era before the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union. The Russians felt the need for this resurrection as a way of forgetting the humiliations that came along with the collapse of the Soviet empire and the tumultuous years under Boris Yeltsin. Vladimir Putin is the man who revived it."

Switzerland's Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes:

"To some extent, it remains astonishing how nervously and aggressively Putin and his army of propagandists have reacted to every form of criticism or opposition to the Kremlin.

Nothing astonishing about it mein Herr. Paranoid people have enemies to, ya know!

No one seriously questions the fact that the economic boom that has happened during Putin's terms has made him even more popular. And he and his vehicle of power, the United Russia party, likely could have gained a solid lead in the Duma election wiithout having to resort to methods that included the application of massive pressure and manipulation in the run-up to the election."

"It appears that potentates like Putin -- with their pronounced autocratic tendencies, a tradition that is deeply rooted in Russian history -- are incapable of trusting the democratic persuasiveness of their arguments and in some respects their formidable achievements. The old Lenin saying that "trust is good, but control is better," seemed to be the central vision of the man pulling the strings inside the Kremlin during this election."

Italy's Corriere della Sera writes:

"Vladimir Putin can book an election triumph, based on true endorsement, but it is also the result of excessively deployed authority. And that's why the true battle for power is just beginning in Russia. After all, it was precisely this Kremlin chief who turned Sunday's election into the first round of the Russia presidential election in March 2008, knowing full well that he would soon have to change offices. A plebiscite mandate was supposed to guarantee his 'moral right' to remain Russia's leader, even if he is in an office other than the presidency. To that end, the Russians have pushed aside allegations of election manipulation and have instead given their approval to Putin."

The liberal Vienna daily Der Standard writes:

"Will the Kremlin chief's words be followed by corresponding actions after he leaves the office of president? If he decides to continue to exercise his enormous remaining influence through the United Russia party (with its inevitable majority in the newly elected parliament), we will see if he is serious about what he has been saying. But if he allows himself to be named prime minister after leaving the office of president, circumventing the constitution, we will know that, in truth, he is merely seeking personal power.

Ya think?

A weakening of the office of the president in Russia, the only institution that is vested with political legitimacy, will lead the country on a path to chaos. The practice of changing the playing rules in order to retain power will also remain after the all-powerful man leaves the political stage, but the superficial stability of his leadership will not."

Zurich's Tages-Anzeiger writes:

"There is little doubt that the Russian president will interpret this result as a vote of confidence -- and that it also justifies his desire to remain in power. If he is no longer able to remain president in spring, then another function will be found for him -- be it prime minister, head of parliament or in the role of a 'national leader'. But Putin's victory is a false one. The allegations of manipulation brought by the opposition are a dark shadow hanging heavy over the election result. Still, Putin has no reason to fear any Ukranian-style Orange Revolution. At the same time, he shouldn't feel overly secure, because a government that has to gain a victory through undemocratic means, is not as firmly in the saddle as the election result might lead one to believe."

The right-liberal Bulgarian newspaper Dnewnik writes:

"Russian and Western election observers were unable to hide their shock on Sunday over the absolute pressure imposed on the vote in the giant country by the Putin administration. ... It was exercised regularly and transparently enough that one could say that Putin held true to his promise of honesty. It's not his problem that other people imagined a different outcome -- probably like the European leaders who live in a complete fantasy world with their dream of drawing Russian natural gas without Putin's political policies also flowing through the pipes."

Funny how a newspaper in a former Soviet slave-state understands what Gazprom - Vladimir Paranoid's ambassador to Europe - is all about.

The liberal Romanian daily Evenimentul Zilei writes:

"Elections and free-market economies are viewed as a symbol of recovery, and Vladimir Putin's iron hand as a necessary phase during the transition from post-communist chaos to a liberal democracy. But Russia has destroyed a number of myths about democracy and confirmed the failure of the recipes and frameworks that the West has applied to transition countries. ... Russia's economic strength, which has in no way buttressed democratic transformation, has instead empowered Moscow's oppressive regime. In Russia, the traditional authoritarian model has been restored using the tools of capitalism, and the Russians appear to be contented with that."

The State Department's Russian expert was unavailable for comment.


Via Spiegel International.

See also Riding The Cronies To Victory.


Also at A Tangled Web

Reuters: Osama a 'Militant'

What, I thought he was a freedom fighter?

Well, it appears the militant Osama bin Laden and his merry band of liberators pose a thread to the EU. Just hope the folks in Europe are paying attention.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Al Qaeda remains the major terrorist threat to the European Union and a fresh attack by Islamist militants is likely, the bloc's new anti-terrorism chief said on Monday.

"An attack perpetrated by local or international networks remains likely," Gilles de Kerchove, appointed in September to coordinate member states' counter-terrorism policies, told EU lawmakers.

"Al Qaeda ... continues to be the most serious terrorism threat to Europe," de Kerchove told the European Parliament's justice, liberty and security committee.

He said the movement founded by Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, who inspired the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, inspired local radicals.

Courage On Display

Are Eastern German Police Soft on Neo-Nazis?

By David Crossland in Berlin

The eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, which had the highest incidence of far-right attacks in Germany last year, has launched a parliamentary inquiry into the region's police force following accusations that it has failed to investigate racist assaults properly.

The probe comes at a time of heightened public awareness of right-wing extremism in the east of Germany, following last month's attack on eight Indian men (more...) in the neighboring state of Saxony by a group of Germans shouting "Foreigners out!"

The investigating committee, which was set up at the request of the opposition Left Party, will focus on six cases, including a widely reported attack by skinheads on a theater group in the city of Halberstadt in June. Eyewitnesses said police officers didn't initially pursue the assailants, even though they were still at the scene when police arrived.

In another case, police in the town of Bernburg refused to take legal action against people accused of threatening and hurling racist abuse at asylum seekers from the African state of Burkina Faso.

The inquiry will also probe the former deputy police chief of the Dessau-Rosslau police department, who allegedly told staff that, regarding far-right crimes, "one doesn't have to see everything."

Kind of like when the Reichsbahn was evacuating Jews, mein herr?

"We decided to focus on these cases but we could have chosen others," Gudrun Tiedge, a Left Party member of the committee, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We've made it clear that we don't want to level blanket accusations at the police, but we do want to analyze the cause of what's been happening. Maybe they were overstretched, for example."

Given the German infatuation with meticulous documentation, a cursory check of precinct records should tell the tale. Next excuse?

Spate of Attacks

Ever since unification, eastern Germany has seen a high level of far-right violence including random assaults on foreigners, arson attacks on kebab shops and swastikas daubed on Jewish cemeteries. The country's Jewish lobby last month echoed warnings from anti-racism campaigners that the region had become a no-go area for minorities.

Various reasons have been cited. One is that foreigners became scapegoats for the economic upheaval that came with the region's overnight transition to capitalism.

Another is that eastern German society was less resistant to neo-Nazi views than the west because under the communist regime, no sense of national responsibility for the Holocaust was instilled in people.

Reasonable explanation, as their new social benefactor shared the Austrian corporal's love of Jews.

Depopulation is a further factor -- educated young women have been moving away (more...) to get jobs in Germany's more prosperous regions, leaving behind bored, unemployed young men who seem to get a kick out of neo-Nazi ideology.

Yep. Not gettin' any will do it every time. Look at der Österreichisch unteroffizier, for example.

Saxony-Anhalt, which together with the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had the highest unemployment rate in Germany in August at 15.7 percent, has been one of the states hardest-hit by the post-unification slump.

Government Slow to Respond

The parliamentary committee will start work in the coming two weeks and spend the next few months hearing witnesses and questioning officials and police officers from the two police departments of Halberstadt and Dessau-Rosslau.

"The far-right and racist incidents that have come to light and the confusion over how the police dealt with them have made clear that a thorough and complete investigation is required," the Left Party (progressives, ed.) said in its motion to set up a committee. The ruling Christian Democrats and Social Democrats abstained in the vote to form it, but will have members on the committee, as will the opposition liberal Free Democrats.

Tiedge said the government was stepping up efforts to curb far-right support by funding anti-racism campaigns and special training in police forces. "The issue still isn't being addressed enough in our schools," he said. "All this should have been done many, many years ago."

Ya think?

Frau Erika Steinbach was unavailable for comment.

Via der Spiegel

Courage In The Face Of Adversity

Yesterday, Charles over at Little Green Footballs focused attention on the mayor of Brussels, Belgium, who has cancelled a 9/11 memorial march because You Know Who might be offended.

From Flanders News:

It is feared that conflict would arise between the protesters and members of the capital's large Muslim community if the planned demonstration were allowed to go ahead.

Mr Thielemans told journalists that "there could be a counter-demonstration. I'm not prepared to allow something to take place that could bring chaos to the streets".

Mr Thielemans says that he receives between five and six hundred requests for demonstrations each year and has only banned about half a dozen demonstrations since becoming Mayor at the beginning of 2001.

The organisers claim that Mr Thielemans' reasons for banning the demonstration prove their point.

They add that the demonstration will be held and that Mr Thielemans "is not fully aware of his responsibility, for as a mayor at EU's capital you cannot simply forbid ordinary European citizens from expressing their constitutional freedoms."

Three organisations are behind the planned demonstration; the Danish anti-Islam party SAID, the British group No Sharia Here and the German organisation Pax Europa.

Stop the Islamisation of Europe announced on Friday afternoon that it is [to] mount a legal challenge to get the ban lifted.

In response to this nitwittery, Stop the Islamisation of Europe, proponents of the march, has also launched an online petition drive.

Someone was even so kind as to provide the email addys of the governor of Brussels, Mme. Veronique Paulus de Chalet and the mayor of Brussels, M. Freddy Thielemans.

I wonder if Mayor Numbnuts would have the courage of his convictions to ban a march that would feature slogans such as, Jews Out Of Palestine, What Holocaust?, Death To Israel And The Great Satan, Ahmadinejad Is Right, or Submit Or Die?

For some reason, I doubt it.

Wouldn't want to offend anybody, you know.

Old Europe Put On Notice?

Vaclav Klaus and Lech Kaczynski focused on Czech-Polish economic and cultural relations . . . .

Klaus calls for joint efforts of Czechs, Poles in EU
Czech President Vaclav Klaus Wednesday pointed to the importance of cooperation of the EU member states on the regional level and of their joint efforts in the EU.

Klaus, on an official visit to Poland, said at a meeting with Polish Senate Marshal Bogdan Boruszewicz that the result of the June EU summit did not fill him with optimism, the Polish news agency PAP reported.

At the summit Poland came up with the proposal to extend the validity of the current EU voting system until 2020 after which a new system envisaged in a draft European treaty would take effect.

Poland demands more voting power in the EU, pointing to the size of its population. Poland believes that the new voting system envisaged in the EU's new draft treaty will give large countries such as Germany too much influence.

Wanna see Old Europe really fill their panties? Suggest Demand one nation, one vote.

Of the EU's 27 member states, the Czech Republic alone has offered Poland support in its bid to reopen a debate on the voting system.

The summit in the end did not comply with Warsaw's demand but it agreed to postpone the new voting system's introduction until 2017.

Boruszewicz praised an important role of the regional cooperation within the Visegrad Four that includes, apart from Poland and the Czech Republic, also Slovakia and Hungary.

Klaus said that the more was achieved within the group the better but pointed to disputes that exist in the group.

Boruszewicz said he was satisfied with the Polish-Czech consultations on the U.S. plan to station a missile defence base on their territory.

Klaus said that the Czech Republic's approach to the U.S. proposal shows the importance it attaches to trans-Atlantic relations.

To stand on two feet - in the USA and the EU - is especially important for the countries with such geographical position as Poland and the Czech Republic, Boruszewicz said, adding that it would be appropriate to think about the strengthening of the east European policy.

It is reasonable to consider cooperation between the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, Klaus said.

Hmmm. All countries which have recently told Soviet Russian president Vladimir Paranoid and his lackeys to STFU.

Klaus will end his three-day visit to Poland on Thursday. The main topics of his discussion with Polish President Lech Kaczynski are Czech-Polish economic and cultural relations, the EU and the planned stationing of the U.S. missile defence base in the Czech Republic and Poland.
This story is from the Czech News Agency (CTK)

That stench emanates from Old Europe's panties. Host elements of the US missile defense system?!? Why . . . why . . . that might make Putie mad at us!

Old Europe, your loyal apparatchik kameraden José Manuel Barrosa has said that the European Union is now an empire.

I agree. Empire of the Tax Consuming Toothless Tiger.

U.S. Productivity Far Outpacing Europe

Here is one good reason why the U.S. productivity rate is generally higher than that of Europe.

Europe heads to beach, Americans head to work

As Europe's workers take a few weeks of holiday this summer, their American colleagues will be lucky to get a few days off work, says a report published by the European Trade Union Institute.

Finland, followed by France, offers working people the most statutory vacation, at more than six weeks per year, the report, an international snapshot of how much paid leave people get by law and in practice in 21 countries, says.

The United States is the only country where employees have no statutory leave, and they get about half as much time off in reality as Europeans get, according to the report, compiled by the Washington-based Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Of course, the socialists at Reuters write this up with a critical attitude toward the U.S.

"The United States is in a class of its own," the report says. "It is the no-vacation nation."

Andrew Watt, an economist at the Brussels-based European Trade Union Institute, said the report not only highlighted a conscious decision to ensure more free time in Europe. It also showed the errors many economists make when saying U.S. productivity and economic output is better than Europe's.

Errors? Errors! Errors?!? U.S. productivity and output is better than Europe's over time, pure and simple. One of the reason why the U.S. has historically seen higher productivity rates than Europe is we work harder than they do. Six weeks a year vacation? My gosh, if I have any employees that can be gone six weeks a year every year, then I don't need that position to begin with.

This argument reminds me of the sleazy sports agents who whine their client should get paid top dollar even though he sits out half the season every year with minor problems, that but for the injury time off he would be top producer. Maybe, but the fact remains that he took the time off and did not produce.

The market compensates you for the true value of your productivity. You will always see socialists refusing to accept that reality.

Defense Shield Long In Coming

In September 1944, German forces launched the first-ever successful missile attack against London.

In July of the following year, a delegation of U.S. officers traveled to Europe to investigate. Their conclusion: The United States needed to develop anti-ballistic missile defenses.

Within a year, the missile age had begun and so had the United States’ quest to build a shield. Neither has stopped since. Although ever-present, this issue has at times risen to the surface of public consciousness and debate.

In the 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s notorious Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or “Star Wars”) program marked the highest-profile phase of the ongoing push toward a missile shield.

Notorious as in being a contributing factor in the collapse of the Evil Empire because they went bankrupt trying to compete.

Research, development and testing of new technologies, including space-based chemical weapons and ground-based laser weapons, continued through the 1980s with mixed results.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, criticism of the need for such a program mounted. In his 1991 State of the Union address, President George H. W. Bush announced that SDI’s mission would change from defense against a large-scale attack to “protection against limited ballistic missile strikes — whatever their source.”

Don't tell the neocoMs, but when was the last time you read this?

By the late 1990s, U.S. President Bill Clinton had authorized the development of a missile-defense shield; the decision was influenced by North Korean missile tests in 1998. The United States continued pouring billions of dollars into missile defense development and testing.

Read it all, you'll appreciate the clarity.

Peaceful Progressives

They're probably just misguided youths.

Militant opponents of this week's Group of Eight summit claimed responsibility Tuesday for a firebomb attack on a Mercedes car dealership in Zurich.

An anonymous fax sent to The Associated Press and other media organizations also demanded the release of G-8 opponents arrested by German police. The overnight attack caused about 200,000 Swiss francs (US$160,000; 120,000 euros) in damage.

Europeans Pay For China To Cut 'Greenhouse Gases'

The sun shines on the Goracle's Ponzi scheme.

Power generators and other polluting firms are buying "carbon credits" from countries such as China to offset their own emissions.

But where the Chinese gain by cleaning up their factories and selling the resulting credits, European consumers lose as the costs are often passed on in the form of higher energy bills.

Last year alone, European companies spent around $2.5bn (£1.25bn) on carbon credits from China.

Although action to tackle global warming is generally welcomed, consumer groups worry that poor people are finding it increasingly difficult to pay this energy "tax".

Jonathan Smith, a spokesman for the international power company E.ON, admitted the purchase of carbon credits had contributed to a rise in utility bills in Europe, and warned that the cost of buying carbon credits was likely to rise over the coming years.

Newly-minted environmental expert Jean-Pierre Kerry was unavailable for comment; and Nancy Pelosi was out shopping for trees.

The Goracle May Be Offended

On Monday, insisting that there be a fair playing field, the Czech Republic filed a lawsuit against the European Commission over cuts in CO2 permits.

In an analysis worked out for the ministry, the way the Commission proceeded when setting the amount of carbon credits for the Czech Republic was interpreted as discriminatory against Czech energy and industrial companies, he added.

The Czech Republic asked for permissions to emit 102 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, but the Commission only approved 86.8 million tonnes a year. The lawsuit was proposed by Industry and Trade Minister Martin Riman.

The lawsuit has been sent to a first-instance court in Luxembourg where the Czech Republic will be represented by Tomas Bocek, government commissioner for the European Court of Justice and procedures with the European Commission.

By means of emission allowances, the European Union tries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that are believed to cause global warming.

Not known to cause global warming, merely believed.

Within the emissions trading scheme, companies that want to emit more greenhouse gases than the set ceiling can buy extra carbon credits on the European market. In contrast, firms producing less emissions can sell their excess allowances.

The collapse of carbon credit prices in the middle of last year, which was caused by a surplus of allowances, was another reason for the Commission to resort to a reduction of carbon credits allocated to individual countries.

Why would someone be concerned about the price of carbon credits?