Doug M.

Pfft. The absolute worst case scenario is Romania losing one (1) year, and joining in January 2008 instead of 2007.

So I’d say Romania is likely to take seriously any accusations made against it.

You’d say that, but you’d be wrong. The Poles are outraged. The Romanians? They’re just shrugging and pretending nothing has happened.

One hesitates to ascribe this to innate differences in national character, but I have the strong vibe the Romanians know they can’t be made for this one. Like the kid who’s already walked out of the store, and who didn’t get caught on the securicam. Does he have anything in his knapsack? Sorry, he doesn’t care to say. You can’t force him to open it now. He knows his rights—and he knows you know them too. Behaving strangely? If you say so. Any other questions? No? Thank you.

The Poles are the kid who’s getting red and yelling about how dare you call me a thief. He’ll still be arguing with you in the parking lot while the Romanian is six blocks away, firing up a joint behind the bleachers with that cute exchange student.

Doug M.

Try this voting essay for some background regarding democracy.

PERIOD.

I remember when it was an american one too.

Can’t you?

“Well, Soru, most people suspect that those planting bombs in train stations were ultimately paid by the CIA.”

In August of this year there was a 25 year remembrance of the Bologna train bombing. Very little of it in the English speaking news that I could find, just four links to the same Italian newspaper. Anyway, when the deputy Prime Minister addressed the crowd he was hissed at and booed.

The other point … the Poet (Peter Dale Scott, who else?) refers to kryptocracy. That is, governance by hidden forces. Isn’t the ‘prisons’ story an example of the kryptocracy coming to the fore because they no longer fear any censure?

If I were to throw someone down an oubliette in my garden, if caught, I think that the ‘censure’ would be quite severe.

Then again, if five black men were to follow someone on to a tube train in London and pin him to the seat while one of them shot several bullets into his head …

I may appear to digress but the common thread is the collapse of the state and its replacement with, well, with something different.

Why? All the normal interrogation centers in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan were full? The interrogators got frequent flyer miles? There was a Pierogi Festival going on?

Ever heard of Ockham’s Razor, John?

It is also a little ironic that Dan shares with Jacques Chirac the misconception that France = EU.

Romania isn’t in the EU yet, and if it pisses off too many people like Frattini within the EU’s ruling class, it won’t be. So I’d say Romania is likely to take seriously any accusations made against it.

You’re banned from commenting for a week to see if it’ll stop you throwing temper tantrums. Any comments you make on my posts over the next week will be deleted as soon as I see them.

Let’s see: ‘Maria and Henry Farrell do not bother to address the considerable evidence of French state complicity in practices which, when practised by the United States, the French state condemns.’

What does that look like?

Mr nd Hnry Frrll d nt bthr t ddrss th cnsdrbl vdnc f Frnch stt cmplcty n prctcs whch, whn prctsd by th Untd Stts, th Frnch stt cndmns

‘This attitude does not speak well of their intellectual honesty.’

‘Ths tttd ds nt spk wll f thr ntllctl hnsty.’

‘Is either of them a paid lobbyist with the EU, and hence rather likely to downplay the involvement of EU governments in torture?’

Ooops. Don’t have time to disemvowell that one. No doubt Henry will, when he’s blown out all seven candles on his birthday cake.

Or, to save you the trouble: ’
‘Frnc s ls cmplct n rndtn nd trtr, nd thrfr t s dply qstnbl whthr ‘dsgst’ s flt by ‘rpn lts’ t sch prctcs.’

I see the point as that, in a number of these countries, many of the people remember what life under a dictatorship was like. Far too many people in the US look at things like the destruction of habeas corpus, secret prisons with no oversight, and a government claiming war powers with no end date in sight, and like it.

Frankly, it’s because they’re scared, ignorant, or fanatical Republicans. They aren’t thinking of the consequences, or are foolishly assuming that the consequences will be controlable: that the GOP will rule for the next few decades, or that a GOP Congress/Supreme Court will strip a Democratic President of those power, or that only ‘terrorists’ will be imprisoned and tortured.

People who’ve lived under dictators, and who feared the secret police, and who had relatives killed or unjustly imprisoned, know better.