If anyone needed any more proof that appeasement of dictatorships backfires, Fidel Castro gave it to the European Union yesterday night.
Although the EU ended its so-called "cocktail wars" with Cuba last February (a disgustingly supine move which banned anyone opposed to Castro's regime from attending EU embassy parties) this has not secured it even the minimum of respect for its European delegates.
Last night, two Polish MEP's were frogmarched to Havana airport for daring to associate with opposition figures there, and sent unceremoniously home.
The EU's de haut en bas contempt for democracy is plain in all it does, so it is unlikely to feel at all strongly about Cuba's insult on that score. But it does possess a fearsomely strong sense of amour propre - which may lead it to react to this provocation. Cocktail swizzle-sticks at dawn, then, and not a moment before time.
EUobserver.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Müntefering Terror Continues
As the regional elections in Nordrhein-Westphalen come to their climax (voting is this Sunday), the Chairman of Germany's ruling SPD party, Chairman Müntefering, continues to flail out at his perceived class enemies.
The Müntefering Terror, as it is called in Germany, has already seen Americans, Jews and capitalists painted into corners as the secret destroyers of Germany's prosperity. Never once has Chairman Müntefering shown any regret for his scandalous and inflammatory allegations. Instead, he revels in thuggery, continually increasing the rhetorical heat.
Yesterday, after a debate between the SPD and CDU candidates, Müntefering entered the fray again. After the opposition CDU candidate had emerged a winner on 3 out of 5 key issues, Chairman Müntefering reduced the debate - and the upcoming vote - to a simple question of personality, or rather, brute power.
He dissed the CDU man, Rüttgers, the strongest way he could: "Nordrhein-Westphalen kann nicht vom Weichei regiert werden," he said. ("NRW cannot be governed by a sissy").
Good old Chairman Müntefering - he may not have anything much in the way of intelligence or a moral sense, but he's ever so handy when the level of debate needs to be torpedoed down to the lowest level, that of the political gutter.
The link is to the (German-only) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.Wahl in NRW: M?ntefering: R?ttgers ist ein ?Weichei? - FAZ.NET - Politik
The Müntefering Terror, as it is called in Germany, has already seen Americans, Jews and capitalists painted into corners as the secret destroyers of Germany's prosperity. Never once has Chairman Müntefering shown any regret for his scandalous and inflammatory allegations. Instead, he revels in thuggery, continually increasing the rhetorical heat.
Yesterday, after a debate between the SPD and CDU candidates, Müntefering entered the fray again. After the opposition CDU candidate had emerged a winner on 3 out of 5 key issues, Chairman Müntefering reduced the debate - and the upcoming vote - to a simple question of personality, or rather, brute power.
He dissed the CDU man, Rüttgers, the strongest way he could: "Nordrhein-Westphalen kann nicht vom Weichei regiert werden," he said. ("NRW cannot be governed by a sissy").
Good old Chairman Müntefering - he may not have anything much in the way of intelligence or a moral sense, but he's ever so handy when the level of debate needs to be torpedoed down to the lowest level, that of the political gutter.
The link is to the (German-only) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.Wahl in NRW: M?ntefering: R?ttgers ist ein ?Weichei? - FAZ.NET - Politik
European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) Accused of Fraud by European Ombudsman
From the Ombudsman's report:
"... OLAF submitted misleading information to the EU's institutional watchdog between March 2002 and March 2003, twisting the facts on allegations that the German journalist (H-M Tillack) had bribed the commission staff."
For the moment, OLAF is denying the ombudsman's charges. It knows that, should they stick, the EU's reputation (such as it is) for fraud-fighting will be a bust flush, all credibility gone.
EUobserver.com
"... OLAF submitted misleading information to the EU's institutional watchdog between March 2002 and March 2003, twisting the facts on allegations that the German journalist (H-M Tillack) had bribed the commission staff."
For the moment, OLAF is denying the ombudsman's charges. It knows that, should they stick, the EU's reputation (such as it is) for fraud-fighting will be a bust flush, all credibility gone.
EUobserver.com
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
EU Communications Commissioner Posts in Swedish Only
Margot Wallström, the EU's Communication Commissioner - has come the most frightful cropper with her speech saying that the EU's draft constitutional document is the only thing standing between Europe and another holocaust.
And now her last posting (last Sunday's) in which she addresses the controversy her cheap and self-serving remarks have caused, is written in Swedish only, thus preventing her many English-speaking fans from understanding what can have got into her.
Clearly, her first priority, in this matter, is to protect her reputation in Sweden in the first instance.
Like all Commissioners, she attaches far more importance to success "at home" than success in Brussels. It is one of the many reasons to be deeply wary of the draft constitutional document, which proposes to increase the power wielded by these embittered people, political rejects at home. Commissioner Wallström's latest posting is an interesting example of this mindset in action. EUROPA - Margot Wallstr?m, Vice-President of the European Commission: my blog
And now her last posting (last Sunday's) in which she addresses the controversy her cheap and self-serving remarks have caused, is written in Swedish only, thus preventing her many English-speaking fans from understanding what can have got into her.
Clearly, her first priority, in this matter, is to protect her reputation in Sweden in the first instance.
Like all Commissioners, she attaches far more importance to success "at home" than success in Brussels. It is one of the many reasons to be deeply wary of the draft constitutional document, which proposes to increase the power wielded by these embittered people, political rejects at home. Commissioner Wallström's latest posting is an interesting example of this mindset in action. EUROPA - Margot Wallstr?m, Vice-President of the European Commission: my blog
Geert Wilders Starts Campaign Against Draft EU Constitution in Holland
Geert Wilders, although under threat of an Islamist fatwa, kicked off his campaign in Venlo yesterday.
The latest Dutch polls (published Friday) gave opponents of the draft constitutional document 40%, supporters 39%, with 80% of voters saying they would vote in the referendum.
de Volkskrant - Wilders? tourNEE is circus voor lijfwachten en media
The latest Dutch polls (published Friday) gave opponents of the draft constitutional document 40%, supporters 39%, with 80% of voters saying they would vote in the referendum.
de Volkskrant - Wilders? tourNEE is circus voor lijfwachten en media
North Korea Flails Japan
North Korea detects the revival of the Japanese "Yamato Spirit", which it defines as an East Asian form of fascism and militarist revival.
News From KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY of DPRK
News From KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY of DPRK
Friday, May 13, 2005
Nothing But Bad News: Week In Review
Nothing but bad news has been coming out of Europe the past week or so. No sooner is Blair re-elected in Britain than Glenda Jackson, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, demands that he resign. He meekly agrees to an "orderly transfer" of power to his successor, whom everyone assumes will be the granite-faced socialist Gordon Brown.
In Germany, the Müntefering Terror continues, with capitalists being spat at and reviled by leftist oafs on the public airwaves as a matter of daily routine. The German Bundestag, with a Stalin-like near-unanimity of 569 out of 594, approves the draft EU constitution, ushering in the end of Germany's short-lived democratic experiment.
Then Edith ("Lea") Rosh, having dug up part of a corpse at Belzec concentration camp, agitates for it to be incorporated into the brand-new Jewish Memorial in Berlin. As a lapsed protestant, she is perhaps unaware that Jews and other civilised people are horrified by such grisly and impious acts. But her personal convictions give primacy to publicity at the expense of a dead person's mortal remains.
And so it goes, on and on.
In Moscow, President Putin allows the German Chancellor, Schröder, to participate in a celebration of the USSR's victory over Germany. Schröder enjoys himself with an enthusiasm that is nauseating, not to say highly suspicious, giving out great bear-like shouts of joy and laughter as the festivities proceed.
The EU, shamed by the blog's successful "Arms to China? Not In Our Name!" campaign, ventures to suggest to China that if Europeans are to lift the arms sanctions, it might be helpful if Beijing could at least play along in the matter of human rights. The Chinese angrily reply that linking the two is "an insult".
More misappropriation of the remembrance of the dead comes from Margot Wallström, the EU's hypnotically attractive Swedish Communications Commissioner. She says that it was the EU which brought down communism. No-one dares to correct her elementary blunder. Encouraged, she goes on to say that the EU's draft constitution is the only thing that stands between Europe and a renewed Nazi onslaught. The constitution, she promises us, will stop the "greed" that caused World War II.
By now, no-one is in any mood to object, united in our hatred of greed, and blinded as we all are by her intense Nordic beauty.
In Germany, the Müntefering Terror continues, with capitalists being spat at and reviled by leftist oafs on the public airwaves as a matter of daily routine. The German Bundestag, with a Stalin-like near-unanimity of 569 out of 594, approves the draft EU constitution, ushering in the end of Germany's short-lived democratic experiment.
Then Edith ("Lea") Rosh, having dug up part of a corpse at Belzec concentration camp, agitates for it to be incorporated into the brand-new Jewish Memorial in Berlin. As a lapsed protestant, she is perhaps unaware that Jews and other civilised people are horrified by such grisly and impious acts. But her personal convictions give primacy to publicity at the expense of a dead person's mortal remains.
And so it goes, on and on.
In Moscow, President Putin allows the German Chancellor, Schröder, to participate in a celebration of the USSR's victory over Germany. Schröder enjoys himself with an enthusiasm that is nauseating, not to say highly suspicious, giving out great bear-like shouts of joy and laughter as the festivities proceed.
The EU, shamed by the blog's successful "Arms to China? Not In Our Name!" campaign, ventures to suggest to China that if Europeans are to lift the arms sanctions, it might be helpful if Beijing could at least play along in the matter of human rights. The Chinese angrily reply that linking the two is "an insult".
More misappropriation of the remembrance of the dead comes from Margot Wallström, the EU's hypnotically attractive Swedish Communications Commissioner. She says that it was the EU which brought down communism. No-one dares to correct her elementary blunder. Encouraged, she goes on to say that the EU's draft constitution is the only thing that stands between Europe and a renewed Nazi onslaught. The constitution, she promises us, will stop the "greed" that caused World War II.
By now, no-one is in any mood to object, united in our hatred of greed, and blinded as we all are by her intense Nordic beauty.
The Voice of Hate: Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris
Extract from a "sermon" preached by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris on Palestinian Authority TV on Friday 13th May 2005:
"...the Jews are a virus resembling AIDS... the day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews."
Palestinian Authority TV is part-funded by money given it by the EU. One wonders what Margot Wallström, the European Commissioner for Communications, will make of Mudeiris' prophecy. Margot, after all, is keen to encourage the notion that Europe is on the threshold of another holocaust.
How appropriate that her own budget is being used to foment precisely that outcome!
The link gives a fuller text of the "sermon."MEMRI TV
"...the Jews are a virus resembling AIDS... the day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews."
Palestinian Authority TV is part-funded by money given it by the EU. One wonders what Margot Wallström, the European Commissioner for Communications, will make of Mudeiris' prophecy. Margot, after all, is keen to encourage the notion that Europe is on the threshold of another holocaust.
How appropriate that her own budget is being used to foment precisely that outcome!
The link gives a fuller text of the "sermon."MEMRI TV
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
"Tony Blair's time is over": Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee, a hard-left writer on the left-wing Guardian in London, says she will "happily" vote for Tony Blair's Labour Party tomorrow, although he is "yesterday's man" and, even if he wins, the only question everyone will ask is "When will he go?". She's already looking forward to the time Gordon Brown, Labour's Chancellor and a man much more palatable to the left than Blair ever was, will succeed him. Everyone assumes Brown will be a shoe-in for the premiership once Blair goes - and both these assumptions are scarcely questioned, which seems a bit worrying, given that the UK, as well as the Labour party, are supposed to be organised along democratic lines.
Looking at it from abroad, it has been a curious election. On the Conservative side, Michael Howard was at one stage being disowned by members of his own party, when he unwisely made heavy weather of the immigration question. He has since moved to more positive issues but if he has struck a chord, it hasn't yet registered with the pollsters. Howard too is seen as a yesterday's man - he served with Margaret Thatcher, for one, and his potential successors are already manoeuvring for his job if he loses.
Tony Blair has lost all trust, partly as a result of his much-publicised fratricidal antics with Brown, partly because he thought himself obliged to lie about the reasons to go to war in Iraq.
The Labour campaign has attacked the Conservatives with posters that verged on the anti-Semitic in their imagery. The voters' distrust of politicians spilled over in loud invective on live TV.
There's bound to be a big protest vote, which will at minimum reduce Labour's lead, but will probably not be enough to result in a hung Parliament or even a Conservative victory.Guardian Unlimited Politics Special Reports Tony Blair's time is over
Looking at it from abroad, it has been a curious election. On the Conservative side, Michael Howard was at one stage being disowned by members of his own party, when he unwisely made heavy weather of the immigration question. He has since moved to more positive issues but if he has struck a chord, it hasn't yet registered with the pollsters. Howard too is seen as a yesterday's man - he served with Margaret Thatcher, for one, and his potential successors are already manoeuvring for his job if he loses.
Tony Blair has lost all trust, partly as a result of his much-publicised fratricidal antics with Brown, partly because he thought himself obliged to lie about the reasons to go to war in Iraq.
The Labour campaign has attacked the Conservatives with posters that verged on the anti-Semitic in their imagery. The voters' distrust of politicians spilled over in loud invective on live TV.
There's bound to be a big protest vote, which will at minimum reduce Labour's lead, but will probably not be enough to result in a hung Parliament or even a Conservative victory.Guardian Unlimited Politics Special Reports Tony Blair's time is over
German Government's Nazi Techniques Isolate Jews and Capitalists
When the historian Michael Wolffsohn entered Germany's laughably-named Kapitalismusdebatte yesterday, setting out some considered historical analogies in the Rheinische Post, the blog breathed a sigh of relief.
For over three weeks we have been writing about the matter and we were beginning to tire. The government's chief demagogue, Chairman Müntefering of the SPD, continued his capitalist-baiting with almost daily eructations of bile. Here is a brief summary of the German government's techniques as used over the past month:
1. Identify a group to blame for society's ills (ie. capitalists);
2. Say that they are part of an international movement which undermines Germany for profit;
3. Compare them to unpleasant animals (eg. " a plague of locusts")
4. Encourage citizens to boycott them;
5. Draw up a blacklist of names of the "guilty" capitalists;
6. When the capitalist victims of this treatment protest, demand that they apologise (see today's papers and this blog).
That is a dispassionate description of what the German government, primarily in the form of Chairman Müntefering, has been up to these last weeks. Now it doesn't take a professor of history to spot a few elementary parallels with the techniques used by the Nazi's to isolate their Jewish "enemies".
Professor Wolffsohn's calm, quietly despairing comments, the blog thought, would show Germans their government's true face, shame their politicians to some semblance of decency, and finally bring the matter to an end, not a moment before time.
But this is not what has happened. Fascinatingly, Germans, instead of turning their backs on the demagoguery of Chairman Müntefering, are rushing to attack Michael Wolffsohn! A senior SPD functionary called Herr Schartau has actually demanded that Wolffsohn apologise for his remarks. An SPD "economic expert", Herr Wend, says "Der Mann hat sie nicht alle" ("That man isn't all there"). Even the opposition FDP leader, to his undying discredit, defends Chairman Müntefering against Wolffsohn's remarks, which he claims are "as unhistorical as hurtful."
On the one hand, a lot of these weird people are bien-pensants who abhor each and every comparison with the Nazis as "lowering the tone of the debate." For them, Nazis are strictly off-limit, and the only time a comparison might be made is when you are dealing with actual neo-Nazis - pasty, unpopular postmodern shadows of the real thing, who represent no serious political threat. But any cool historical comparison, such as that made by Michael Wolffsohn, dealing with mainstream politics and the powerful politicians and political techniques of today, is beyond the political pale. In this way the validity of a living engagement with the past is denied.
On the other hand, even if one can respect the sqeamishness of bien pensant opinion leaders, one has to say they lack imagination in a way that is in itself dangerous. For if one rushes to condemn Prince Harry for wearing Nazi-like fancy dress, but cannot point out that the lethal techniques used by the Nazis to isolate and demonise groups within society are still alive and kicking today, and are being used by the biggest party of government in Germany, then one's political antennae are receiving and responding to a fatally filtered segment of reality.
And the six techniques listed above, as used by the ruling SPD party, have horrified the blog over the past few weeks. What is even worse is that voices who condemn them are attacked for "lowering the tone of the debate" - as if Chairman Müntefering's remarks about "capitalist locusts" truly constituted a debate, as opposed to desperate election polemics.
The German government, and the "debate" it has chosen to start, may not quite have descended to explicit Jew-baiting or pogroms yet, but it is quite happy to condone continued capitalist-baiting. The blog thus recommends that all Jews and capitalists keep a careful eye on the flight and train schedules to Holland and Switzerland, in case we need to go somewhere more civilised, where we're welcome, and don't have to put up with this kind of soul-sapping demagoguery disguised as "debate."
For over three weeks we have been writing about the matter and we were beginning to tire. The government's chief demagogue, Chairman Müntefering of the SPD, continued his capitalist-baiting with almost daily eructations of bile. Here is a brief summary of the German government's techniques as used over the past month:
1. Identify a group to blame for society's ills (ie. capitalists);
2. Say that they are part of an international movement which undermines Germany for profit;
3. Compare them to unpleasant animals (eg. " a plague of locusts")
4. Encourage citizens to boycott them;
5. Draw up a blacklist of names of the "guilty" capitalists;
6. When the capitalist victims of this treatment protest, demand that they apologise (see today's papers and this blog).
That is a dispassionate description of what the German government, primarily in the form of Chairman Müntefering, has been up to these last weeks. Now it doesn't take a professor of history to spot a few elementary parallels with the techniques used by the Nazi's to isolate their Jewish "enemies".
Professor Wolffsohn's calm, quietly despairing comments, the blog thought, would show Germans their government's true face, shame their politicians to some semblance of decency, and finally bring the matter to an end, not a moment before time.
But this is not what has happened. Fascinatingly, Germans, instead of turning their backs on the demagoguery of Chairman Müntefering, are rushing to attack Michael Wolffsohn! A senior SPD functionary called Herr Schartau has actually demanded that Wolffsohn apologise for his remarks. An SPD "economic expert", Herr Wend, says "Der Mann hat sie nicht alle" ("That man isn't all there"). Even the opposition FDP leader, to his undying discredit, defends Chairman Müntefering against Wolffsohn's remarks, which he claims are "as unhistorical as hurtful."
On the one hand, a lot of these weird people are bien-pensants who abhor each and every comparison with the Nazis as "lowering the tone of the debate." For them, Nazis are strictly off-limit, and the only time a comparison might be made is when you are dealing with actual neo-Nazis - pasty, unpopular postmodern shadows of the real thing, who represent no serious political threat. But any cool historical comparison, such as that made by Michael Wolffsohn, dealing with mainstream politics and the powerful politicians and political techniques of today, is beyond the political pale. In this way the validity of a living engagement with the past is denied.
On the other hand, even if one can respect the sqeamishness of bien pensant opinion leaders, one has to say they lack imagination in a way that is in itself dangerous. For if one rushes to condemn Prince Harry for wearing Nazi-like fancy dress, but cannot point out that the lethal techniques used by the Nazis to isolate and demonise groups within society are still alive and kicking today, and are being used by the biggest party of government in Germany, then one's political antennae are receiving and responding to a fatally filtered segment of reality.
And the six techniques listed above, as used by the ruling SPD party, have horrified the blog over the past few weeks. What is even worse is that voices who condemn them are attacked for "lowering the tone of the debate" - as if Chairman Müntefering's remarks about "capitalist locusts" truly constituted a debate, as opposed to desperate election polemics.
The German government, and the "debate" it has chosen to start, may not quite have descended to explicit Jew-baiting or pogroms yet, but it is quite happy to condone continued capitalist-baiting. The blog thus recommends that all Jews and capitalists keep a careful eye on the flight and train schedules to Holland and Switzerland, in case we need to go somewhere more civilised, where we're welcome, and don't have to put up with this kind of soul-sapping demagoguery disguised as "debate."
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Moron Warns Against "Radical Tendencies" of Capitalism
The Chairman of Nordrhein-Westphalen's ruling SPD party, Herr Edgar Moron, warns us against the "radical tendencies" of the opposition parties.
Herr Moron suggests a "massive resistance" against the FDP's mild plans to add a smidgeon of free market reform in to the sclerotic German state.
Moron also warns that, should the opposition succeed in evicting his bankrupt government of hacks and lickspittles, it will mean that "capital" will be the only power ruling in the land ("dem Kapital alleinige Macht überlassen").
This may be a tenable position to take, although the blog suspects that Brussels will have a thing or two to say about it. But no-one in Germany is in the slightest bit interested in Brussels, so Moron's soundbites may well persuade us that there is truly no alternative to government by Moron.
The link is to Herr Moron's site (German only)<a href="http://www.edgar-moron.de/.net/QTPPDPGVZPQQTZDGDVPVP/meldungen/3007/24450.html">Edgar Moron MdL>a
Herr Moron suggests a "massive resistance" against the FDP's mild plans to add a smidgeon of free market reform in to the sclerotic German state.
Moron also warns that, should the opposition succeed in evicting his bankrupt government of hacks and lickspittles, it will mean that "capital" will be the only power ruling in the land ("dem Kapital alleinige Macht überlassen").
This may be a tenable position to take, although the blog suspects that Brussels will have a thing or two to say about it. But no-one in Germany is in the slightest bit interested in Brussels, so Moron's soundbites may well persuade us that there is truly no alternative to government by Moron.
The link is to Herr Moron's site (German only)<a href="http://www.edgar-moron.de/.net/QTPPDPGVZPQQTZDGDVPVP/meldungen/3007/24450.html">Edgar Moron MdL>a
Monday, May 02, 2005
Chairman Müntefering Pelted With Eggs In Kapitalismusdebatte
Chairman Müntefering, of Germany's ruling SPD party, was pelted with eggs as he addressed supporters in Duisburg over the weekend.
It was all part of the exciting "Kapitalismusdebatte" initiated by the Chairman three weeks ago, in which he has been busily branding capitalists as "locusts" who are to blame for Germany's unemployment. The blog has devoted enough space to this sad exercise in political desperation. And now that the latest polls show that the Chairman's ploy has not raked in any more votes for his declining party, it seems the Kapitalismusdebatte has run its course.
Much excitement is generated in Esens when we hear that the Chairman has been bandying about a blacklist containing the names of the guilty capitalists. We scan the list to see if we have been denounced. Alas no, it's a false alarm. The names are all those of American companies. The blog remains free to spawn its capitalist filth for another day.Die Zeit - Politik : Eier gegen M?ntefering
It was all part of the exciting "Kapitalismusdebatte" initiated by the Chairman three weeks ago, in which he has been busily branding capitalists as "locusts" who are to blame for Germany's unemployment. The blog has devoted enough space to this sad exercise in political desperation. And now that the latest polls show that the Chairman's ploy has not raked in any more votes for his declining party, it seems the Kapitalismusdebatte has run its course.
Much excitement is generated in Esens when we hear that the Chairman has been bandying about a blacklist containing the names of the guilty capitalists. We scan the list to see if we have been denounced. Alas no, it's a false alarm. The names are all those of American companies. The blog remains free to spawn its capitalist filth for another day.Die Zeit - Politik : Eier gegen M?ntefering
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