Private Sector Strikes Again

Here's something that should be of interest to every hospital in the country.

HN: Czech firm invents photoactive air cleaner
Advanced Materials, a small Czech company seated near Prague specialising in nanotechnology, has invented special paints that can clean air from emissions and kill viruses and bacteria, the daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes Tuesday.

These photocatalytic suspensions can remove 95 percent of pollutants from the air in 24 hours, including exhaust gases, allergens, flu viruses and substances causing bad smell.

"It looks like a transparent paint. The layer has no colour and from a distance people cannot see that it is on your wall. However, it very effectively cleans the air in your flat," the company's head Pavel Sefl says.

"If a room is full of cigarette smoke and you leave and return in two hours, you won't smell any smoke at all," Sefl adds.

The air cleaner is only functioning when the sun is shining or when the artificial lights are on.

The paintlike layer is 20 times thinner than a human hair. It costs 1500 crowns [$83.74] per 10 square meters [107.6 sq ft.]. The company says it can be used indefinitely and is good especially for hospitals, schools, offices, shopping malls and all air conditioned buildings.

From the chemical point of view, the basis of the protective coating is photoactive titanium dioxide.

Advanced Materials, which has only five employees, has its invention protected by a patent and registered trademark.

The invention, made by Jan Prochazka, has attracted interest abroad. The licence for its production and sale has been sold to companies in Australia, New Zealand, Poland and South Africa, the paper writes.

HN recalls that a new Centre for Innovations of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnologies, built thanks to finances from the European Union, will open in Prague Tuesday.

The centre is to speed up the application of base research in practice. "It has state-of-the-art equipment to test technologies," its director Zdenek Samec said.

Among others, the centre will focus on surfaces exposed to sunlight or temperature cycles. This is to test technologies used for the reconstruction of historical buildings, the paper writes.

Once submitted to the EPA for the necessary approval/s, will the bureaucrats get it right, or screw the pooch?

Via The Prague Daily Monitor

'It's For The Children'

That's what the Left starts whining whenever they lack substance - or are otherwise losing - on fiscal issues. But their 'it's for the children' is modeled on the failed ideas of both Marx and Lenin, while Central and Eastern Europe pursue free-market capitalism and Western Europe confronts piddling distractions such as a Eurozone on the verge of collapse and bills coming due for single-payer health insurance, the very type of healthcare change now making its debut in the Colonies. But there's an upside: US schoolkids don't get hurt playing games such as dodgeball and many school decisions are made in consideration of whether it will possibly damage a student's self-esteem.

Czech secondary school students Europe's best in finance literacy

Czech secondary school students finished the best in Europe in a test of financial literacy organised by the NGO Junior Achievement along with the Citi Foundation, the two organisations' representatives have told CTK.

The test involved almost 3000 students from 12 European countries.

Young Europeans did markedly better in the test than their peers from the U.S.

"The Czech students achieved the important victory when they finished first with the highest number of correctly answered questions, ahead of Bulgaria and Britain," Junior Achievement executive director Josef Mueller said.

Congratulations to the Czech students, you are the best amongst your peers.

The questions checked how students understand basic financial principles and terms.

European students correctly answered almost 63 percent of the questions, while the U.S. students achieved 48-percent success.

The Czech Education Ministry made financial literacy a part of school curricula last year. It is not a compulsory subject, it is up to schools to offer such lessons.

A previous research by the Finance Ministry showed that Czechs have a low knowledge of the area of finance and banking. The special lessons are to help people better manage their household budgets and avoid a debt trap.

ČeskéNoviny via The Prague Monitor

The NEA was unavailable for comment.

Czechs Tell Norks To Get Serious

Don't be surprised if this decision ends up being smeared with either the 'racists' or 'bigots' label by the angry, intolerant, piss-ignorant Left.

North Korean ginseng offer refused
Ginseng is said to have libidinous and energizing qualities.

But the herbal root from the Orient did not have the same effect on trade negotiations between Czech and North Korean authorities.

At issue was a 186 million Kc [US$9,574,650 ed.] debt outstanding from a late 1980s deal for Czechoslovak trucks, trams and heavy machinery.

"We can confirm that a negotiation regarding the North Korean debt was held in July," Radek Ležatka, a spokesman for the Finance Ministry, told The Prague Post. "Representatives of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea came with an official proposal to forgive 95 percent of the debt."

Ležatka said the ministry found this proposal "unacceptable."

Ministry officials then suggested that the cash-strapped North Koreans pay the debt in goods rather than hard currency. Less formal talks followed, and North Korean officials apparently suggested making part of their debt payment in ginseng - a plant that grows naturally in cooler Asian climates and is now a common ingredient in energy drinks or an additive in green tea.

North Korea's military controls much of the country's exports. Ginseng sales are controlled by a highly secretive branch of the Army known as "Bureau 39," according to The Financial Times. The North Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Ležatka said the offer came during informal discussions and that "the Finance Ministry will wait for the official proposal of the North Korean authorities."

Czech negotiators were reportedly considering other commodities as part of any deal, including zinc ore. The Finance Ministry would then plan on selling the zinc to recoup the North Korean debt.

The debt dates from the rule of Kim Il Sung, the communist dictator who ran North Korea from 1948 through his death in 1994. He was succeeded by his eccentric son Kim Jong Il, who is known for enjoying among other things fine liquors and James Bond films despite the grinding poverty that has engulfed his country. He has driven the country into increasing international isolation, due largely to continued work on a nuclear weapons program.

Kim's health has become the subject of much speculation since late 2008, when he reportedly suffered a stroke. In public appearances since, he has appeared frail, and in July 2009, The New York Times reported he is suffering from pancreatic cancer. Earlier this year, the United Kingdom's Telegraph cited a South Korean intelligence official in reporting that Kim had $4 billion stowed in numbered bank accounts in Luxembourg.

Pyongyang owes an estimated $12 billion to the world in unpaid debts, two-thirds of that to former communist states like the Czech Republic. International sanctions have tightened further in recent years, depriving the North Korean regime of its key source of hard currency: arms sales.

"We have finished the official negotiations on this position, and informal discussions about different possibilities have followed," Ležatka said.

It is not known what other commodities Kim - who before a previous round of sanctions in 2007, formerly imported an estimated $800,000 worth of Hennessy cognac each year, according to the brand's manufacturer - and his government are considering to offer for paying off the debt.

"Negotiations will continue," Ležatka said.

Members of the UN Human Rights Commission were unavailable for comment.

Via The Prague Post

The Jews, The Jews

A little red meat for the Jew-haters to snarl and snort over as they get ready for the weekend.

Photo courtesy of the Terezín Memorial

43 states agree on property restitution to Holocaust victims

{CTK) - Forty-three countries have agreed in Prague on a set of recommendations concerning the restitution of the property of Holocaust victims and other victims of Nazi persecution that Czech PM Jan Fischer and U.S. Department of State adviser for Holocaust assets Stuart Eizenstat presented yesterday.

The document recommends the principles the restitution and compensation for the property of the Jewish victims of the Nazi persecution should be based on.

The states express in it their willingness to consider working out national programme and legislation on the still open restitution issues.

The recommendations concern not only the synagogues, cemeteries, schools and other buildings that served religious purposes before the Nazis confiscated them in 1933-1945, but also private real estate, Eizenstat said.

He said the recommendations also involve the property that has no more owners to be returned to. The revenues from it should serve the survivors with low income.

There are about 500,000 such survivors all over the world. About a half of them live below the limit of poverty, Eizenstat said.

He said the list of recommendations is not binding, nor does it break the law of the countries that have agreed with it.

Russia disagrees with the recommendations and would not follow them, the Russian embassy in Prague said in reaction to the disclosure of the document yesterday.

The Terezin Declaration, which EU representatives signed in Terezin (wartime Theresienstadt with a Jewish ghetto and a Nazi prison), north Bohemia, at the close of the Czech EU presidency in mid-2009, calls for the restitution of the Holocaust victims' property, including private, that was seized by the Nazis.

Ways to the implementation of the demand in individual states are outlined by the document that a commission of experts discussed in Prague in the past days.

A Russian delegation headed by Alexei Fedotov, the Russian ambassador to Prague, took part in the negotiations.

Fischer welcomed the states' agreement on the restitution principles yesterday. He said it is a "common shame" that the issue remains unsolved 65 years after the war.

"Nevertheless, it is better if justice is secured belatedly than never," he said.

Eizenstat said the recommendations are voluntary, not binding on the countries involved. In fulfilling them, the states should each respect its own law, Eizenstat said.

He praised the Czech Republic's leading role in this activity.

In its statement yesterday the Russian embassy says the approved document on the compensation and restitution methods does not reflect the approaches that Russia considers crucial.

A reference to "treaties and principles of the post-war arrangement of Europe" is missing in the document. That is why Russia has not joined the recommendations in it, nor does it feel bound by any commitments ensuing from it, including moral ones, the embassy said.

Sounds like the Rooshins are perhaps a bit leery that there will be a call for restitution for the crimes against Russian Jews committed by the stalwart hero of the American Left, Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.

Eizenstat said Russia's reaction surprised him. He said Russia demanded a special reference to the post-war arrangement which a number of countries, such as Germany, would probably oppose as this does not directly relate to restitutions.

Apart from Russia, the Prague initiative has not been joined by Belarus, Serbia and Malta for the time being.

"We're addressing the remaining countries with a proposal to join [the initiative] additionally," said Tomas Pojar, Czech ambassador to Israel, who participated in the negotiations.

The Prague Jewish Community's former chairman Tomas Jelinek said Russia showed a reserved stand on the restitution talks in the past. Russia seems to be the first country to decide not to join the agreed-upon principles, Jelinek said.

"This reserved stand [of Russia] was known," he continued, adding that the restitution of the aryanised immovable property concerns Russia only marginally.

Helen Thomas and Jimmy Carter were unavailable for comment.

Via The Prague Monitor

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Trial of extremists over arson attack on Roma starts
(CTK) - The trial of four right-wing extremists suspected of the April 2009 arson attack on a Romany [aka Gypsies, Travellers ed.] family house in Vitkov, north Moravia, started under tough security measures at the Regional Court in Ostrava yesterday.

The four, David Vaculik, Jaromir Lukes, Ivo Mueller and Vaclav Cojocaru, face exceptional sentences, up to life imprisonment, if convicted of racially motivated attempted murder.

They have been escorted to the courtroom by a strong unit of Prison Service officers.

The state attorney says the crime, committed in the night to April 19, 2009, was planned by Lukes.

This is also what Cojocaru and Mueller told the court. They said Lukes told them about the plan that was to frighten local Romanies in a pub in Opava, a town near Ostrava, on April 18.

Lukes and Vaculik refused to give testimony.

Lukes stayed in the car and each of the three young men threw a Molotov cocktail in the windows of a Romany family house in Vitkov. Then they drove away.

Three of the house inhabitants suffered injuries in the subsequent fire. The worst afflicted was a 1.5-year-old girl, Natalka, who suffered severe burns on 80 percent of her body.

Natalka stayed many months in hospital, undergoing a series of surgeries. Doctors call her survival a miracle. She will bear lifelong consequences of her injuries, however.

Cojocaru and Mueller claim they did not know that the house they attacked was inhabited. Muller said Lukes told them it was a place where stolen goods were stored.

Both Cojocaru and Mueller said they heard the news about the burnt girl only in the morning after their attack. They read it on the Internet, they said.

"We really felt sorry for the little girl... We didn't realise that something like this might happen," Mueller told the judges.

The four wanted to draw attention within local extremist groups. They also wanted to take a "bigger action" on the eve of Adolf Hitler's 120th birth anniversary, the attorney said.

Someday, not necessarily today, these dumbfucks and their fellow travelers might learn that the Austrian corporal had a solution for the Czechs, too. And, just like The Final Solution to the Jewish Question, it's architect was Reinhard Heydrich, Reichprotektor Bohmen und Mahren until his assassination in 1942.

Cojocaru and Mueller rejected this.

"I was spontaneous. I don't believe that anybody prepared it. At least not with me," Cojocaru said.

Lukes's lawyer Pavel Penkava said he disagreed with the statements that Lukes masterminded the attack. "We will try to refute this claim during the trial," he said.

Pavel Uhl, the representative of the children who were in the house when the attack occurred, told CTK yesterday that he would demand financial compensation worth some nine millions of crowns. Markus Pape and Ladislav Balaz demand compensation of 900,000 crowns on behalf of Natalka's family.

The VZP health insurance company demands the payment of 7.5 million crowns for the treatment of Natalka and her parents.

The trial is to continue on Wednesday at 9:00.

The ACLU was unavailable for comment.

Via The Prague Monitor

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

Conquering From Within

Shortly before the Czechs announced that Milquetoast Diplomacy had trumped the planned missile defense posts in the Czech Republic and Poland, RIA Novosti (Russian Information Agency) published an editorial by Andrei Fedyashin that was focused primarily on Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and his National Intelligence Strategy. Fedyashin concludes his article with clear insight to, and understanding of, the utterly naive worldview of Barack Obama.

[....]

[....]

Now Blair is ready to give American intelligence agencies broader counterintelligence missions. In the past, counterintelligence was directed primarily at exposing foreign spies. Now it has been elevated to the level of a priority mission for the entire American intelligence community. The NIS states that the targets are now not only foreign governments but also "non-state actors, violent extremist groups, cyber intruders and criminal organizations", which are increasingly undermining U.S. interests in many different ways. It cites attempts to "manipulate U.S. policy and diplomatic efforts, disrupt or mitigate the effectiveness of our military plans and weapons systems, and erode our economic and technological advantage."

The last phrase should be remembered. It is significant in the context of the afore-mentioned nuclear threat coming from Iran and North Korea, and Russia's "global revisionism." After such statements it is difficult to believe that Obama has given up on the deployment of new components of the missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. This prospect seems even less likely in light of the fact that Republicans and neo-Conservatives have launched a fierce campaign against him.

A special conference on missile defense in Europe was recently put on by the influential far-right Heritage Foundation, located in Washington, D.C. Leading right-wing political analysts stated at that conference that Russia's approach to the problem does not reflect the realities of this century, and is based on the failure to comprehend American technological achievements. The message is clear - if Obama rejects the plan drafted under Bush, it will mean that he also fails to comprehend many things in the United States. And that is very bad for America.

No doubt, Putin is laughing his ass off. "Mine! Mine! Europe is all mine!"

Read it all.

Obama Administration Throws Anti-War Crowd A Bone

Of course in appeasing the far left peaceniks and the growing totalitarian regime in Russia he is also throwing the countries of the New Europe under the bus.

President Barack Obama has decided to scrap plans for a U.S. missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had deeply angered Russia, the Czech prime minister confirmed Thursday.

I guess this his way of trying to make peace with the far left in his party over kicking the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy down the road. I am trying to figure how you get much further left in foreign policy then you do with this crowd in DC. Their track record so far includes rebuking and imposing sanctions on Honduras for enforcing their constitution, embracing nuclear rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran, applauding Venezuela and Cuba and now conceding to Russia, and managing to piss off Canada and China with their trade policies. Issuing apologies is one thing, disarming what should be our allies is a travesty. Poland has a little bit of experience with not having a strong defense when you border nations bent on domination.

Recently a new slogan has been making the rounds in the former Soviet satellite countries that is basically a twist on the Marine theme of no greater friend, no worse enemy which goes something like being an enemy of the USA may be dangerous, but being their friend is downright deadly.

I would suggest that if Barry O can't find his spine that he go back to being a legal representative for community organizers, since it seems to be the only thing he was good at besides giving good speeches, in which everything said is nothing but words in a teleprompter and the word hypocrisy doesn't exist in his world.

A Shameful Abandonment

Few seemed to notice the other day when we noted Barack Obama was about to sell out Eastern Europe. Well, now it's offical.

This is bad news for all who care about the US commitment to the transatlantic alliance and the defence of Europe as well as the United States. It represents the appalling appeasement of Russian aggression and a willingness to sacrifice American allies on the altar of political expediency. A deal with the Russians to cancel missile defence installations sends a clear message that even Washington can be intimidated by the Russian bear.

What signal does this send to Ukraine, Georgia and a host of other former Soviet satellites who look to America and NATO for protection from their powerful neighbour? The impending cancellation of Third Site is a shameful abandonment of America’s friends in eastern and central Europe, and a slap in the face for those who actually believed a key agreement with Washington was worth the paper it was written on.

When Poland and the Czech Republic are overrun by the Russians, you'll know who to blame. Just sickening.

'They Don't Want Us. They Don't Care About Us'

Nothing like pissing on our friends while busy sucking up to every two bit tryrant and leftist government out there.

Czech and Polish leaders bristle at America's new ambivalence over a Bush administration plan to base a missile defense shield in the two ex-communist countries. The system, which would put 10 interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, had been touted as a strategic way to counter a threat from Iran.

But recently, senior U.S. Defense Department officials said they're considering other options. The Czech-Polish plan had infuriated Russia, and the Obama administration has been working to improve relations with the Kremlin.

It gets even more complicated: Although the Czech and Polish governments agreed to host the system, it's been highly unpopular among ordinary citizens, who staged boisterous protests. Now, some leaders fear they may have exposed themselves to needless flak.

"I would consider it a dirty trick if the Czech Republic and Poland would end up unprotected," Alexandr Vondra, a former deputy Czech prime minister and one-time ambassador to the U.S., told The Associated Press.

Vondra was among a group of prominent Eastern European ex-leaders who wrote to Obama in July, saying the region is gripped by anxiety that his overtures to Russia could lead him to ignore them.

"If we don't take care of relations between the U.S. and Central and Eastern Europe, it could lead to a certain worsening of relations in the future," he told the AP.

Poles have other reasons to be rankled at Washington.

On Sept. 1, the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was there for the commemoration. So was French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. The U.S. sent National Security Adviser James Jones — a move seen as a snub by Poles who expected Vice President Joe Biden or Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"They don't want us. They don't care about us," commentator Lukasz Kwiecien wrote in a scathing editorial for the national daily Dziennik under the headline: "We are paying for our blind love for America."

And there could be consequences, warned Bartosz Weglarczyk, a columnist for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.

"I have no doubt that under the new administration, Washington has neglected relations with Poland and with Central Europe as a whole. Some say, and I count myself among them, that it is a mistake and that one day Washington may pay dearly for it," he said.

Here A Nut, There A Nut, Everywhere A Nut Nut

In Europe, Petr Hajek is considered a right-winger. I amend that common characterization to European right-wing nut.

Klaus aide: 9/11 attacks likely not by Islamists

Petr Hajek, a close aide to Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Klaus's former spokesman, views as realistic the possibility that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA were organised by U.S. secret services, not Islamist radicals, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Wednesday.

"There exists a real possibility that September 11 was really organised by U.S. secret services," MfD quotes Hajek as saying in his new book of essays.

Hajek does not give any evidence to support his assertion.

The fool must not know of Alex Jones. Rest assured, though, he should shortly.

On September 11, 2001, Islamist radicals hijacked four planes with passengers. They crashed with two into the WTO center towers in New York and with one into the Pentagon building in Washington.

The fourth plane crashed before reaching the target, after several passengers put up resistance to the hijackers.

The attacks claimed several thousands of lives.

Citing Hajek's book, MfD writes that he believes that Al-Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden is nothing but a media fiction.

"I personally tend to believe that Usama (as known to the world from his TV addresses) has never existed," Hajek writes in his book.

Elsewhere in the book he labels former Czech president Vaclav Havel "a radical neo-Marxist" and a staunch left-winger.

In his book Hajek also mentions the police's attack on a peaceful demonstration in Prague on November 17, 1989, which triggered off the "Velvet Revolution" in then communist Czechoslovakia.

"November 17 was quite an unimportant incident. Undoubtedly it was no spontaneous action of people," Hajek writes.

According to him, the November 17 demonstrators were brought into streets by the manipulative media propaganda that had raised their feeling that demonstrations "had become acceptable."

"The year 1989 in Czechoslovakia was no democratic revolution (the less so velvet) or an uprising in support of freedom. It was not people's uprising against an oppressive regime," Hajek says in his book, MfD writes.

It ensues from Hajek's book that the world consists of two groups of people - right-wing admirers of Klaus, and leftist Marxists. Former U.S. president George W.Bush is part of the latter group, according to Hajek.

Addressed by MfD, Klaus said Hajek's book is inventive and immensely useful in certain aspects, such as his opinion about the role of the media.

"Hajek says the layer of media manipulation that surrounds September 11, Usama bin Laden and the bombing of Serbia (in 1999) is huge. This makes everyone think about it. By saying this I don't at all say that I share Hajek's opinion on how the events really occurred or might have occurred," Klaus said.

So, Mr. President, what is your opinion on these subjects. Your disqualifier has strength equal to that of milquetoast, IMHGDO. You either support his 9/11 bullshit or you don't.

A few weeks ago, Hajek attracted public attention by challenging Darwin's theory of evolution, which in his opinion has "much in common" with Marxism.

Too bad this village idiot has such a proctologist's view of Marxists. But for that, BarryO might be inclined to go ahead with the proposed Star Wars project. You know, as a reward for truferism and all that.

Via ČeskéNoviny

They Love Us Now, They Really Love Us!

Obama's surrender to Europe has already begun paying dividends.

Austria rejects US Guantanamo detainee request
Austria said Monday it would not take detainees from the Guantanamo Bay center despite a request by President Barack Obama for help from European nations during his first major international trip as leader.

Austria was worried about the security threat to the European Union posed by the detainees, Interior Minister Maria Fekter told a meeting of her European counterparts.

Obama repeated his request Sunday for European countries to take some of the 60 inmates who will have to go to another country as they could face abuse, imprisonment or death if returned to their homelands. He has ordered the center to close within a year of his taking office.

Several EU countries, including the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, have already declined to take inmates.

"If the detainees are no longer dangerous, why don't they stay in the U.S.," Fekter told the meeting. "For Austria, I cannot accept Guantanamo inmates."

Taking inmates poses a security headache for the EU because 23 of its members share a common passport-free zone. If one of its members takes in a prisoner with a criminal record, all others in the zone will have to be alerted.

Jacques Barrot, the EU's justice and interior affairs commissioner told reporters that U.S. officials told him they intend to take in a share of the 60 prisoners.

"We European countries are now dealing with an American government which is showing good will and this good will is expressed now in the fact that they are willing to resettle some ex-detainees on their own territory," Barrot said.

Barrot said U.S. justice officials aimed to finalize new countries for the detainees by the end of June. He said the EU was receiving "detailed answers" about why the inmates are being detained and the potential security risk they could pose.

Any final decision on taking in detainees remains one for each of the EU nations.

France said Friday that it would be willing to take one of the suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo, while Spain and Portugal have said they too could accept detainees.

About 250 detainees are still held, some without charge, at the Guantanamo Bay center, which was set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

You should've talked to 'em in Austrian, nitwit.

Via Yahoo News

The Wind-bag

Barack Obama really does go on a bit
Isn't it time for him to go home yet? It is good, in theory, that the new President of the United States is taking so much time to tour Europe. He arrived in London last Tuesday, has been to Strasbourg, Prague yesterday and now he's off to Turkey. It shows, I suppose, that he cares about the outside world and that is 'A Good Thing'. But his long stay means that we are hearing rather a lot from him, way too much in fact.

His speeches have long under-delivered, usually leaving a faintly empty sensation in this listener even though I welcomed, moderately, his victory last year as offering the possibility of a fresh start and a boost to confidence.

Yet, we are told that he is a great orator and in one way he certainly is. He does have a preternatural calm in the spotlight and a mastery of the cadences we associate with the notable speakers in US history - such as JFK and MLK. But beyond that, am I alone in finding him increasingly to be something of a bore?

His performance at the first press conference in London with Gordon Brown featured moments in which he sparkled - his riff on loving the Queen was a high-point. But most of the serious answers that I listened to were interminable, windy and not very impressive. At points there were pauses so long that it appeared he had simply lost his train of thought.

Today, we were treated to another set-piece Obama speech, and my didn't he go on a bit? The crowd in Prague was huge, and initially wildly enthusiastic, but what he served up was not any more impressive than his damp squib in Berlin last year. Is there a computer which churns this stuff out for him?

"For over a thousand years, Prague has set itself apart from any other city in any other place. You have known war and peace. You have seen empires rise and fall. You have led revolutions in the arts and science, in politics and poetry. Through it all, the people of Prague have insisted on pursuing their own path, and defining their own destiny. And this city - this Golden City which is both ancient and youthful - stands as a living monument to your unconquerable spirit."

Empires rising and falling, destinies being defined and a Golden City standing as a monument to unconquerable spirit... goodness, what a ham. When he really gets going he's worse than Tony Blair.

But Obama was only warming up. "When I was born," (Everything usually leads back to him, you'll notice)... "the world was divided, and our nations were faced with very different circumstances. Few people would have predicted that someone like me would one day become an American President." (Him again)...

"Few people would have predicted that an American President would one day be permitted to speak to an audience like this in Prague. And few would have imagined that the Czech Republic would become a free nation, a member of NATO, and a leader of a united Europe. Those ideas would have been dismissed as dreams". (Not by Ronald Reagan they wouldn't have been, when most of Obama's Democrat friends thought the then US President's robust approach to the Cold War made him a loony on the loose).

"We are here today because enough people ignored the voices who told them that the world could not change. We are here today because of the courage of those who stood up - and took risks - to say that freedom is a right for all people, no matter what side of a wall they live on, and no matter what they look like... (subtly this time, but right at the end the sentence leads back to him again).

And this was the European speech of the year.

The Obamas have handled their trip well and in their public appearances have been a credit to their country. But I'll wager that within a year or so he'll be marked down as a wind-bag.

Who woulda thunk it, someone worse than the fat hick from Arkansas?

Via The Telegraph

Czechs Won't Take Obama's Gitmo Graduates

Czechs likely to refuse to accept Guantanamo prisoners

The Czech Republic will probably refuse to accept prisoners from the U.S. Guantanamo prison, Mirek Topolanek, outgoing Czech Prime Minister and chairman of the senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS), told the Impuls Radio today.

He said the National Security Council today recommended not to accept the Guantanamo prisoners and added that Guantanamo would be one of the topics during U.S. President Barrack Obama's visit to Prague at the weekend.

Topolanek, whose government offered its resignation last Thursday after the Chamber of Deputies voted no confidence in it two days earlier, said he expected Obama to express the U.S. position on the situation in Afghanistan and the planned missile defence radar base in the Czech Republic during his visit.

{....]

Apart from meeting the heads of 27 EU member states and delivering a speech Obama will also have bilateral talks with Czech representatives.

Topolanek said, however, the talks would be formal.

He said he expected the U.S. request for transferring some of the Guantanamo prisoners to the Czech Republic to be one of the topics during Obama's talks with Czech officials.

Obama intends to shut down the U.S. prison situated in Cuba where people suspected of terrorism are detained.

"Many countries have a similar view. We do not expect to yield to the pressure for accepting the prisoners," Topolanek said on Impuls Radio.

"We held a meeting of the National Security Council today that did not recommend this step. We have no facilities for it. It will bring many problems," Topolanek said.

The planned building of a U.S. missile defence base in the Czech Republic could also be one of the topics, Topolanek said.

"The Americans expect that we are expecting them to express some position on the issue. We are expecting the Americans to announce no fundamental changes [in their position,]" Topolanek said.

He said the U.S. administration was now mainly solving the domestic economic problems.

"The radar is certainly not the number one topic in their foreign policy," he said.

No, it certainly isn't. The foreign policy of Obama is to give a hummer to Amahdinejad, Komrade Hugo and Putin. SecDef Gates says that the US is not prepared to shoot down Kim Jong mentally-Il's ICBM. I strongly suspect that the real reason is that El Jefe' is scared shitless that it would be just like February 28, 2008.

Topolanek added that the installation of the radar in the Czech Republic would probably be delayed.

The Czech government signed two treaties on the construction of a missile defence radar base in the Brdy military district, 90 km southwest of Prague, with the previous U.S. administration of president George Bush.

The Chamber of Deputies has not yet ratified the treaties and the opposition is opposed to them.

Obama is likely to present his key address European speech of the year during his two-day visit to the Czech Republic at Prague Castle around 10:00 on Sunday after his talks with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, according to CTK's unofficial information.

Obama's complete agenda is to be officially released this week.

On Sunday afternoon, Obama will probably meet former Czech president Vaclav Havel.

When you hang your allies out to dry, Barry, don't expect them to do you any favors.

"European speech of the year"

Obama to make "European speech of the year" in Prague

Barack Obama doesn’t arrive in Prague until April 4th, but an “advance team” of advisors are already here to scout out locations for what the Czech prime minister Mirek Topolánek says will be Mr Obama’s “European speech of the year.” Quite what he’ll say in it remains to be seen, with fresh questions raised this week over the future of the planned U.S. missile defence shield in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Early April in Prague is notoriously fickle; some years it’s freezing and grey, others it’s spring in full bloom, with blazing sunshine and clear blue skies. Those involved in Mr Obama’s trip must be hoping for the latter, as the U.S. president could be making his keynote speech – being tipped as his “European speech of the year” – in the open air. An advance team of advisors is already checking out possible locations, with Prague Castle, the Old Town Square and the embankment in front of the Rudolfinum concert hall all apparently in play.

Just what he’ll say is hard to guess. But certainly he’ll be under pressure to say something about plans to build a radar base on Czech soil as part of the missile defence shield, an agreement that was signed with the previous Bush administration. Mr Obama seems less keen on missile defence and – unlike Mr Bush – is certainly in no hurry to start deploying it in earnest.

A progressive defend America and her allies? Such mishegas.

There were fresh worries this week for Mr Topolánek’s centre-right government after it emerged in the Russian and American media that Mr Obama had sent a secret letter to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, reportedly offering to abandon missile defence in exchange for help in stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The White House has not commented publicly on the claims, but if confirmed, they would be a major political embarrassment for Mr Topolánek. He’s spent a good deal of political capital on the radar base, which still lacks approval in the lower house of parliament.

BarryO's letter to Putie's beard was as productive as his video message to Iran.

For now, though, the focus of the Czech media is on Mr Obama’s itinerary. It seems he will arrive in Prague on the evening of Saturday April 4th, to be welcomed by President Václav Klaus. Sunday he’ll apparently have breakfast with former President Václav Havel, before meeting leaders of the EU’s 27 member countries, and making his promised speech.

President Obama is due to be accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as his wife Michelle, something that could cause headaches for the prime minister’s protocol team. Mr Topolánek is separated from his wife and lives with his girlfriend, fellow Civic Democrat MP Lucie Talmanová. For the photo calls either he will appear alone alongside Barack and Michelle Obama, or with Ms Talmanová. The protocol team must decide which – in the absence of a married partner - is the lesser evil.

WTF, ask HRH Hillary how she'd handle it.

Via Radio Prague

Weakling Obama to Eastern Europe: You're On Your Own

Forget protecting and aiding our allies. Obama is ready to throw Poland and the Czech Republic under the bus with the delusional notion Russia will be able to keep Iran from getting nukes, when Russia is the one helping them get there.

Are these people nuts or what?

Note how McClatchy calls weakness and appeasement a softer stance.

The Obama administration has begun to indicate that it's willing to reconsider the Bush administration's push to deploy a ballistic missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland — if Russia helps curb Iran's push to develop nuclear weapons.

Echoing Vice President Joe Biden, who said the new administration wants to push a "reset button" on U.S.- Russia relations, Undersecretary of State William Burns told the Interfax news agency in Moscow last week that, " The United States is quite open to the possibility of new forms of cooperation" with Moscow on missile defense, Iran and "the whole range of security issues with Russia ." His remarks are posted on the Interfax Web site.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to meet her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva, Switzerland next month, paving the way for the first meeting between President Obama and Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev at the Group of Eight economic summit in London in early April.

The meetings come as concerns continue to mount about Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear enrichment programs, as Israeli hard-liners who consider Iran an existential threat gain ground and as Moscow grows more vocal about what it charges are U.S. encroachments on its spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. They also come, however, as falling oil prices and bad investments hammer the once high-flying Russian economy.

Normally, most sane people would call that having leverage. But no, we wouldnt want to embarrass anyone.

For years we've heard the mantra that the world hates us while we were beloved in Eastern Europe. Now indeed that pocket of the world will hate us.

For selling them out to the Communists again.

When A Fwenchman Speaks

Sarkozy jibes leave Czechs furious
French President Nicolas Sarkozy angered the Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency, and drew a frosty response from Britain on Friday over disparaging comments about two key European partners.

Sarkozy, who already ruffled feathers last month by conducting a rival Middle East mission to a Czech-led EU one, caused offence this time by telling French car firms to locate plants at home rather than countries like the Czech Republic.

And his jibe about British tax measures to combat the financial crisis achieving "absolutely nothing" struck a nerve that has had British officials privately fuming.

The Czech Chamber of Commerce accused Sarkozy of encouraging protectionism and undermining the European Union's foundations with his call on Thursday for French car firms to return home.

"By this statement, the French president gave an indirect signal for the deconstruction of the European Union," the organisation said in a statement.

Sarkozy, seeking to reassure French workers about the government's response to the economic crisis, had said he expected French carmakers benefiting from state aid to keep production at home.

"Setting up a Renault factory in India to sell Renaults to Indians is justified," he said. "But when a manufacturer, I won't say any names, sets up a factory in the Czech Republic to sell cars to French people, that's unjustified."

Maybe those manufacturers consider impromptu strikes whenever some Fwenchie feels offended as something that's unjustifed and have moved to where there's a workforce that's dependable.

Sarkozy gave no details, but PSA Peugeot-Citroen has a joint plant with Toyota in the Czech Republic, making small passenger cars.

Read it all at Reuters

EU Constitution Vote Delayed

Czech lawmakers postpone vote on new EU treaty

The lower chamber of the Czech parliament has postponed a vote on the EU reform treaty until Feb. 17.

The Czech Republic, which holds the EU rotating presidency, is the last EU country to vote on the so-called Lisbon Treaty.

The document reforms the structures in the 27-nation EU, and all member states must approve it for it to take effect. The treaty's future is in doubt because Irish voters rejected it in June.

The vote was delayed Wednesday at the request of lawmakers from the conservative Civic Democratic Party of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who cited procedural reasons. The party is split over the issue.

The parliament's upper chamber also is yet to take a vote on the charter, and it needs approval from Euro-skeptic President Vaclav Klaus.

LOL

Via International Herald Tribune

Děkuji vám, al-Gore!

Czech Rep makes billions by selling its clean air
On Tuesday, Environment Minister Martin Bursík signed a memorandum of understanding with Hideaki Kumazawou, Japanese Ambassador to the Czech Republic. That enables the Czech Republic to start trading with its "clean air" and earn dozens of billions of crowns [CZK16.6719 = US$1.00 Ed.].

How is that possible? The Czech Republic does not have any difficulties to fulfill the Kyoto Protocol in which developed countries committed to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions.

The Czech Republic even exceeds its commitment. Countries that have a similar reserve can sell their saved exhaustion to countries that have been unable to fulfill their commitment.

One of those countries is Japan that now wants to buy the saved carbon dioxide in the Czech Republic.

"This memorandum was a basic requirement of the Japanese side for their future purchase of emission units," Jakub Kašpar, spokesperson for the Environment Ministry said.

5 billion worth of clean environment

How many emission units the Japanese state actually buys is up to further discussions. The Czech Republic has 150 million units available while Japan needs more than one billion units.

Besides Japan, the Czech government has held talks with Spain, Austria and New Zealand. Another option would be that the Czech Republic sells its units in an auction.

Uh-oh. Apply free market principles? How eeeevil. Chimpy McHilterBurton must be involved.

Environment Ministry plans to sell two thirds of its free units and keep the rest as a reserve.

"In general, we would like to sell most of our emission units in an auction because their price might be higher due to competition," said Environment Minister Martin Bursík. His Ministry hopes to sign the first agreements this year.

The profit might reach CZK 25 billion [US$1.51 bil Ed.] depending on the market price. Environment Ministry plans to invest the money in building insulation and clean heating.

"We are currently drafting a grant program that would support energy savings, usage of renewable natural resources for heating and hot water in apartments and family houses," Jakub Kašpar said.

Czech Republic among the worst

Based on the recent report by European Commission, the Czech Republic is the fourth worst of 27 European countries. Only Finland, Ireland and Luxembourg are doing worse, while Luxembourg is the European greenhouse record breaker if compared with the number of inhabitants.

In Kyoto, the Czech Republic committed together with the entire European Union to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent between 2012 and 1990. But due to the decrease of industry production, that was a piece of cake. Today, the emissions are 24 percent lower than in 1990.

"The Czech Republic has been fulfilling its commitments set by the Kyoto protocol with a cushion," the Report on the environment conditions informed about 1997. The Czech government will soon have the report available.

Cars and airplanes cause troubles

The same report points out that the emission has been growing slowly in the last couple of years. The main problem is transportation - both automobile and air transportation.

"The emissions stopped decreasing in 2005 when a slow increase started. This negative trend is caused mainly by growing emissions caused by the transportation," the report states.

Paradoxically, the Czech Republic is one of the worst polluters in Europe when counted per capita.

While the share of emissions caused by transportation reached four percent of the entire amount of emission in 1990, today it accounts for almost 13 percent.

Just the air transportation by itself has a four times larger performance that in 1989.

Hmm. Economic prosperity since transformation from a Soviet slave-state to captialist democracy. Rise in transportation-related emissions since making that transformation.

Eureka! Proof-positive that capitalism is eeeeevil.


Via Aktuálně.cz


Photo credit: Ludvík Hradilek