Transatlantic Politics

What’s the link between good old count Dracula and pedophilia? In Romania, the country which gave us the famous pop-cult figure with sharp teeth, an American pedophile was released from jail after serving half of his term for writing a book about..Dracula. According to the law, the convict Kurt Treptow was entitled to his early release because his writing counted as work in prison. And contributes to promoting some more "Dracula-turism" in Romania.. hopefully without underage victims..

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The small Baltic country Lithuania is teaming up with Poland in veto-ing an EU-Russia agreement that needs to be signed by the end of this year. Their request - to include tougher clauses on energy relations, so that politicized interruptions in gas and oil supplying are excluded in the future.
Russia refuses to sign an EU Energy Charta which would allow its energy market to open up to foreign investors. More so, Russian foreign minister Serghei Lavrov said EU’s new energy policy (developed by another Balte - the Latvian Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs) imposes “unacceptable” mechanisms for transit and investment. The key to the stalemate is of course Germany, who heads the EU presidency for this first half of 2007 and who has to keep the thin line between its own national interest (the direct pipeline being built from Russia under the Baltic Sea) and the EU interest - less dependency on Gazprom and the oil-pipeline Druzhba. The Poles and Lithuanians already have been imposed sanctions by the Kremlin, so Germany has to use its bigger negotiating power to obtain some compromise from Mr. Putin.

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Yeah, for y’all Pelosi fans out there: just take a closer look to the gloomy economy in Western Europe, where welfare, social security, free health care are the rule.
Paul Belien, the editor of “Brussels Journal” wrote in the yesterday’s Washington Times:

“Those who think that Europe is America’s past, think again.Europe matters to America. It matters more than ever before. Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and the liberal special-interest groups that currently dominate Congress want to reshape America in Europe’s image: socialist, secularist and multicultural.
Americans who want to know what their country will be like 20 years from now if it follows the path its politicians want it to take, need only look at Europe.

First there was the rise of the welfare state, which led to the steady emergence of highly taxed, slow-moving and maladaptive economies that must support growing and eventually unsupportable demands by the citizens.
Second, there was secularism. People who have the state taking care of them from the cradle to the grave no longer need God. The welfare state also intentionally undermined religion to crush the spirit of freedom among its subjects. And it undermined demographics, because people who do not believe in God do not believe in the future and see children as a burden.
Third, a wholly new danger emerged, namely that of welfare immigration — the immigration of people, increasingly from cultures which have not been shaped by the basic forces of European civilization, who come purely for the purpose of claiming benefits.”

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Aren’t they lovely, the European Members of Parliament? Or should I say “EUROCIALISTS”? They just adopted a report on alleged secret CIA prisons in Europe, based on no facts, no proofs, just media reports and allegations. But hey, in Strasbourg, France, the home country of anti-Americanism, who cares about real evidence?
The author of the report, an Italian Socialist by the name of Giovanni Fava said that “We must be vigilant that what has been happening in the past five years may never happen again”. No, indeed. Instead of secret renditions, we prefer terrorist attacks and plots. They’re much safer, really.
Luckily there were some common-sensed people, but unfortunately not in majority. Here the statement of center-right MEP Jas Gavronski (also Italian):

“The EPP-ED Group today…could not support the final report…because of its lack of any proof to sustain the allegations of wrongdoing by Member States. It is disheartening, however, to see that speculations and loose assumptions have been allowed to fill the void where the facts should have been stated.”

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Seems like as soon as they join the EU, Eastern European countries go crazy. Best example: Romania.
Just a one-month old member, the former communist country has put off any reforms and good practices and started an unbelievable campaign against its flagship-reformers.
Most recent case: a Parliament’s resolution requesting the resignation of the Justice Minister. The only minister who got European and US-wide recognition for her bold reforms in a corrupt and politicized justice-system is now being accused of “lacking a reform strategy” and engaging in “political police”. Obviously, Mrs. Macovei has upset some local oligarchs who think that since Romania is in the EU, corruption is no longer an issue and should be quietly overlooked.

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