If the Lisbon Treaty addressed issues of special concern to the Irish, such as the country's stance on abortion, taxation and political neutrality, a new poll indicates more "yes" than "no" votes. Irish voters, who had rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum last June, plunging the European Union into a crisis, said they may approve a revised document, according to a TNS poll conducted by the Irish Times. In the poll, the public was asked how they would vote if the treaty was modified to contain opt out clauses for issues of special concern, such as Ireland's abortion laws, which are far more restrictive than most members of the 27 nation bloc and the country's special stance on political neutrality and taxation. The poll, which was carried out for the European Commission and the Irish government last week, surveyed a broad swath of voters. It showed that if such issues were clarified in special declarations, 43% of voters would vote in favour of the treaty and 39% would vote against it, with the remaining respondents expressing no opinion. A representative sampling of 1,000 voters were questioned in face to face interview and is subject to a three percent margin of error.
Irish voters, who had rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum last June, plunging the European Union into a crisis, said they may approve a revised document, according to a TNS poll conducted by the Irish Times.
In the poll, the public was asked how they would vote if the treaty was modified to contain opt out clauses for issues of special concern, such as Ireland's abortion laws, which are far more restrictive than most members of the 27 nation bloc and the country's special stance on political neutrality and taxation.
The poll, which was carried out for the European Commission and the Irish government last week, surveyed a broad swath of voters. It showed that if such issues were clarified in special declarations, 43% of voters would vote in favour of the treaty and 39% would vote against it, with the remaining respondents expressing no opinion. A representative sampling of 1,000 voters were questioned in face to face interview and is subject to a three percent margin of error.
Can you tell me in what way exactly the Nice Treaty is better? And how the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty creates a dynamic that helps make things better?
Here's the dirty secret: the neoliberal elite loves the population to be disaffected and vaguely anti-European, because the central institutions of the EU are the only counterweight against deregulation, even today, and everything that decredibilises "Europe" weakens the centra bureaucracy against the lobbies and the politicians that support them. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Not enacting Lisbon is what erodes Europe - what the "non" campaign is a Europe in crisis, sees as delegitimized. They don't give a dman about the content of the Treatry, only about the process - and they are absolutely right. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
And this was about a simple, one page document with a lot of public commentary (most famous being the Federalist Papers) and a promise of a Bill of Rights, which was fulfilled partially a couple years later, as the wikipedia article states:
Articles III to XII were ratified by 11/14 states (> 75%). Article I, rejected by Delaware, was ratified only by 10/14 States (< 75%), and despite later ratification by Kentucky (11/15 states < 75%), the article has never since received the approval of enough states for it to become part of the Constitution. Article II was ratified by 6/14, later 7/15 states, but did not receive the 3/4 majority of States needed for ratification until 1992 when it became the 27th Amendment.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
Where's Miguel and his "Brussels Consensus" diary when you need it?
A Russian military court will allow public and media access to the trial of three men charged over the murder investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, it ruled in a crucial first hearing. Family members and supporters of the slain Kremlin critic had called for a public trial, though many observers had thought the case would be held behind closed doors. "We will demand that the trial be open," Politkovskaya's son Ilya Politkovsky told the news agency AFP. "My mother was a journalist and I think it's impossible to have... a closed trial." One of the four defendants in the case, Pavel Ryaguzov, is a Federal Security Service agent, meaning special attention will likely go towards keeping the minutia of the case out of public reach. Ryaguzov is suspected of having provided Politkovskaya's home address to her killers and is charged with abuse of office. Three others, including a former police investigator, are also being tried for the killing.
Family members and supporters of the slain Kremlin critic had called for a public trial, though many observers had thought the case would be held behind closed doors.
"We will demand that the trial be open," Politkovskaya's son Ilya Politkovsky told the news agency AFP. "My mother was a journalist and I think it's impossible to have... a closed trial."
One of the four defendants in the case, Pavel Ryaguzov, is a Federal Security Service agent, meaning special attention will likely go towards keeping the minutia of the case out of public reach.
Ryaguzov is suspected of having provided Politkovskaya's home address to her killers and is charged with abuse of office. Three others, including a former police investigator, are also being tried for the killing.
Russia is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists to work in, with 49 killed since 1992
Numbers like that are usually coming from Western NGOs and Western financed experts in Russia and are usually overinflated; I doubt there is a single proven case (as opposed to innuendo, like Politkovskaya's case) of a political murder connected to the federal authorites. However, there are must be a dozen war-related deaths, half a dozen of contract hits connected to the journalistic investigations of the economic crimes and few murders by the Wahabis. Political critics do not threaten any moneyed interests, so they are not worth the trouble of organizing a contract hit.
Kirill Pankratov in his Liars Without Borders piece dissects the ways the number is inflated:
Does anybody really believe that in every other country around the world except the former Soviet Union, journalists never die from car crashes or suspicious suicides, never have untimely heart attacks or other fatal illnesses that can be connected to their work? This is highly unlikely, to say the least. Which points to another obvious explanation for this phenomenon: the criteria applied to Russia and neighboring post-Soviet countries on the one hand, and the rest of the world on the other, are very, very different.
fkriuk had a simular piece at An Audit of the Committee to Protect Journalists Claims:
In summary, CPJ claims that 17 journalists were killed in Russia in since 2000 due to their professional activities. Examination of each case found that out of 17 claims, only 5 were correct (Domnikov, Khasanov, Klebnikov, Makeev, Politkovskaya), 8 were complete falsifications (Skryl, Ivanov, Scott, Shchekochikhin, Sidorov, Kochetkov, Maksimov, Safronov), and 4 were partial falsifications (Yatsina, Yefremov, Markevich, Varisov). If we assign the truthfulness value of 50% to partially falsified claims, the overall truthfulness rate of CPJ, given this sample, is 41%. Clearly, CPJ's definition of "strict journalistic standards" as being only 40% truthful is at variance with what any reasonable person would expect. But it is very much in line with what one would expect from a propaganda outlet.
I don't think I've seen the Liars Without Borders piece before. Thanks. Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Political critics do not threaten any moneyed interests, so they are not worth the trouble of organizing a contract hit.
The European Commission and China agreed Monday to beef up controls on potentially dangerous Chinese products and food exported to the EU in the wake of high profile scares involving Chinese goods. A major scandal involving contaminated milk powder that left at least four infants dead and 53,000 others hospitalized in China provided impetus for the deal, although European officials have been concerned about the safety of products made in China for some time now. Under the agreement, China will now be obliged to inform the European Union about what it is doing to track down dangerous goods. The deal allows for officials from the EU and China to carry out coordinated checks on producers to ensure safety standards are being met. Chinese officials will also be given access to the EU's Rapid Alert System for Feed and Food (RASFF), where authorities can exchange information about what measures are being taken to ensure food safety.
A major scandal involving contaminated milk powder that left at least four infants dead and 53,000 others hospitalized in China provided impetus for the deal, although European officials have been concerned about the safety of products made in China for some time now.
Under the agreement, China will now be obliged to inform the European Union about what it is doing to track down dangerous goods. The deal allows for officials from the EU and China to carry out coordinated checks on producers to ensure safety standards are being met.
Chinese officials will also be given access to the EU's Rapid Alert System for Feed and Food (RASFF), where authorities can exchange information about what measures are being taken to ensure food safety.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Prague and Warsaw have poured cold water on French calls for a moratorium on a planned US missile shield in Europe, with both capitals saying that president Nicolas Sarkozy overstepped his mandate. "I don't think that third countries, even such good friends as France, can have a particular right to express themselves on this issue," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday (15 November). At the NATO summit in Bucharest in April this year, the entire 26-nation Alliance - including France - backed the planned US missile shield in Europe The Polish leader described Mr Sarkozy's comments as his "own point of view, [with] no impact of the future of the project," according to AFP, adding that "The question of the anti-missile shield is governed by an agreement between Poland and the United States." A similar message came from the Czech republic, with the country's deputy prime minister Alexandr Vondra saying he was taken by surprise. "France did not discuss its viewpoint with us ... As far as I know, the French presidency mandate for the EU-Russia summit did not contain a position on the US missile defence system," he said.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Prague and Warsaw have poured cold water on French calls for a moratorium on a planned US missile shield in Europe, with both capitals saying that president Nicolas Sarkozy overstepped his mandate.
"I don't think that third countries, even such good friends as France, can have a particular right to express themselves on this issue," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday (15 November).
At the NATO summit in Bucharest in April this year, the entire 26-nation Alliance - including France - backed the planned US missile shield in Europe
The Polish leader described Mr Sarkozy's comments as his "own point of view, [with] no impact of the future of the project," according to AFP, adding that "The question of the anti-missile shield is governed by an agreement between Poland and the United States."
A similar message came from the Czech republic, with the country's deputy prime minister Alexandr Vondra saying he was taken by surprise.
"France did not discuss its viewpoint with us ... As far as I know, the French presidency mandate for the EU-Russia summit did not contain a position on the US missile defence system," he said.
EUOBSERVER / FOCUS - Extreme right parties, from anti-immigrant and xenophobic populists to outright neo-fascists, are almost certain to increase their presence in the European Parliament after the 2009 elections unless the European Union and mainstream parties wake up to the threat and take action, long-time monitors of far right activities are warning. Far right rally in Germany UK Labour MEP Glyn Ford, one of the parliament's own leading experts on extreme right parties and author of the European Parliament's landmark 1991 inquiry into racism and xenophobia in Europe, has said that ahead of the financial crisis, the various far-right parties were already on track to achieving a rise in their numbers from the current 57 deputies to between 60 and 70 in the June 2009 elections. However, if the financial crisis results in a sharp increase in unemployment across the bloc, Mr Ford worries that such parties will take advantage of the anger and bitterness such economic dislocation causes and achieve an even higher seat count. "The 'Fascist Right' would probably win high twenties to low thirties," given their current levels of support in different member states, Mr Ford predicts. "Equally, the 'Fascist Lite' parties would gain thirty to forty seats."
EUOBSERVER / FOCUS - Extreme right parties, from anti-immigrant and xenophobic populists to outright neo-fascists, are almost certain to increase their presence in the European Parliament after the 2009 elections unless the European Union and mainstream parties wake up to the threat and take action, long-time monitors of far right activities are warning.
Far right rally in Germany
UK Labour MEP Glyn Ford, one of the parliament's own leading experts on extreme right parties and author of the European Parliament's landmark 1991 inquiry into racism and xenophobia in Europe, has said that ahead of the financial crisis, the various far-right parties were already on track to achieving a rise in their numbers from the current 57 deputies to between 60 and 70 in the June 2009 elections.
However, if the financial crisis results in a sharp increase in unemployment across the bloc, Mr Ford worries that such parties will take advantage of the anger and bitterness such economic dislocation causes and achieve an even higher seat count.
"The 'Fascist Right' would probably win high twenties to low thirties," given their current levels of support in different member states, Mr Ford predicts. "Equally, the 'Fascist Lite' parties would gain thirty to forty seats."
For years an Estonian government official has apparently been collecting the most intimate secrets of NATO and the EU -- and passing them on to the Russians. The case is a disaster for Brussels. Communications between the suspected top spy and his commanding officer seemed like a throwback to the Cold War. Investigators allege that in order to send messages to his Russian contact, Herman Simm, 61, used a converted radio which looked like a relic from yesteryear's world of consumer electronics. But there was nothing old-fashioned about what Simm, a high-ranking official in the Estonian Defense Ministry in Tallinn, reportedly transmitted to Moscow over the years. It was the very latest intelligence information. Although Simm was arrested with his wife Heete in the Estonian capital Tallinn on Sept. 21, this spy story -- which has been largely kept under wraps until now -- primarily concerns the European Union and NATO based in faraway Brussels. Since Simm was responsible for dealing with classified information in Tallinn, he had access to nearly all documents exchanged within the EU and NATO. Officials who are familiar with the case assume that "virtually everything" that circulates between EU member states was passed on to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR -- including confidential analyses by NATO on the Kosovo crisis, the war in Georgia and even the missile defense program. Investigators believe that Simm was a "big fish." Estonian capital city Tallinn: For the former Soviet state, the scandal has become the downside of a political success story. Meanwhile, a number of investigative teams from the EU and NATO have flown to Tallinn to probe the extent of the intelligence disaster. The investigation is being led by the NATO Office for Security, which is headed by an American official. As investigators pursue their work, they continue to unearth mounting evidence pointing to the enormity of the betrayal. A German government official has called the situation a "catastrophe," and Jaanus Rahumägi, a member of Estonia's national parliament who heads the parliamentary oversight committee for the government security agency, fears "historic damage."
For years an Estonian government official has apparently been collecting the most intimate secrets of NATO and the EU -- and passing them on to the Russians. The case is a disaster for Brussels.
Communications between the suspected top spy and his commanding officer seemed like a throwback to the Cold War. Investigators allege that in order to send messages to his Russian contact, Herman Simm, 61, used a converted radio which looked like a relic from yesteryear's world of consumer electronics. But there was nothing old-fashioned about what Simm, a high-ranking official in the Estonian Defense Ministry in Tallinn, reportedly transmitted to Moscow over the years. It was the very latest intelligence information.
Although Simm was arrested with his wife Heete in the Estonian capital Tallinn on Sept. 21, this spy story -- which has been largely kept under wraps until now -- primarily concerns the European Union and NATO based in faraway Brussels. Since Simm was responsible for dealing with classified information in Tallinn, he had access to nearly all documents exchanged within the EU and NATO. Officials who are familiar with the case assume that "virtually everything" that circulates between EU member states was passed on to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR -- including confidential analyses by NATO on the Kosovo crisis, the war in Georgia and even the missile defense program. Investigators believe that Simm was a "big fish."
Estonian capital city Tallinn: For the former Soviet state, the scandal has become the downside of a political success story. Meanwhile, a number of investigative teams from the EU and NATO have flown to Tallinn to probe the extent of the intelligence disaster. The investigation is being led by the NATO Office for Security, which is headed by an American official. As investigators pursue their work, they continue to unearth mounting evidence pointing to the enormity of the betrayal. A German government official has called the situation a "catastrophe," and Jaanus Rahumägi, a member of Estonia's national parliament who heads the parliamentary oversight committee for the government security agency, fears "historic damage."
As does anybody think that the Russians could ever have believed that NATO would actually intervene in Georgia, for instance, without the secret information, or that such information would have prevented them from intervening? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
A weekend of strife has brought the French Socialist Party to its knees, setting the stage for a leadership showdown this week between two female enemies: Ségolène Royal, the former presidential candidate, and Martine Aubry, a former leftwing Cabinet minister. The pair emerged in front yesterday from the wreckage of a party conference at Rheims that collapsed into a festival of loathing between Ms Royal's upstart camp and an old guard now backing Ms Aubry, 58. Ms Royal, 55, finished second in last year's presidential election but, for much of the party executive, she remains a lightweight usurper with an evangelical streak. After being drowned out by jeering at the conference, she appealed in vain for an end to the internecine bloodshed. "We will have to forget all the unpleasant and at times violent words, erase them and one day forgive each other," she said. The former presidential contender is popular at the grass roots as a charismatic modern politician - unlike Ms Aubry, who is seen by many as an old-guard warhorse.
A weekend of strife has brought the French Socialist Party to its knees, setting the stage for a leadership showdown this week between two female enemies: Ségolène Royal, the former presidential candidate, and Martine Aubry, a former leftwing Cabinet minister.
The pair emerged in front yesterday from the wreckage of a party conference at Rheims that collapsed into a festival of loathing between Ms Royal's upstart camp and an old guard now backing Ms Aubry, 58.
Ms Royal, 55, finished second in last year's presidential election but, for much of the party executive, she remains a lightweight usurper with an evangelical streak. After being drowned out by jeering at the conference, she appealed in vain for an end to the internecine bloodshed. "We will have to forget all the unpleasant and at times violent words, erase them and one day forgive each other," she said.
The former presidential contender is popular at the grass roots as a charismatic modern politician - unlike Ms Aubry, who is seen by many as an old-guard warhorse.
A UMP MP killed a woman (presumed to be his parner or lover) and then killed himself. I don't know the story behind it, nor care, but the comment about Sarkozy is priceless, given that he uses the opportunity of any highly visible crime to push publicly for new tougher laws (just last week, someone ran off from a psychiatric ward and stabbed someone to death in Grenoble - Sarkozy of course called for a law to toughen conditions in psychaitric wards). In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
