EU – KO

First the French and now the Dutch have delivered a knock out blow to the EU. According to the Prime Minister the Dutch have overwhelmingly defeated the European Union constitution.

Less than an hour after the polls closed, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende conceded defeat in his campaign to ratify the constitution and said the government would respect the results of the overwhelmingly “no” vote on the referendum.

According to the exit poll projections it wasn’t even close forcing the Dutch Parliament to abide by the will of the people.

An exit poll projection broadcast by state-financed NOS television said the referendum failed by a vote of 63 percent to 37 percent. The turnout was 62 percent, exceeding all expectations, the broadcaster said.

Although the referendum was consultative, the high turnout and the decisive margin left no room for the Dutch parliament to turn its back on the people’s verdict. The parliament meets Thursday to discuss the results.

So much for consultive, the people have spoken. What an interesting concept the Dutch people casts their ballots on.

Like the French, many Dutch voters said in interviews that they were concerned the 25-member European Union had grown too much, too fast in recent years and that they feared giving more power to European bureaucrats in Brussels to regulate everyday life across the continent. Others characterized their displeasure as a protest vote against the Dutch government, which had lobbied for passage of the constitution.

“Europe is big now and that’s a good thing,” said Peer van der Wonde, a 52-year-old artist and furniture designer, shortly after he voted “no” at city hall in The Hague.”But we have to be careful. In the last 10 years, the people in Brussels have tried to minimize the input of regular people in democratic decisions.”

All 25 member nations of the European Union must ratify the constitution before it can take effect. Nine countries had approved the charter until Sunday, when France defeated the measure decisively in a national referendum, a devastating political setback that may force the EU to drop or rewrite the document. With the Dutch following suit, European leaders said they would convene in Brussels at a previously scheduled summit June 16-17 to decide what to do next.

Live Blogging with Peaktalk

Hat Tip: Captain’s Quarters, Dutch: We Are The Knights Who Say … Nee (classic)

Update: The BBC chimes in.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the result of the French and Dutch votes “now raises profound questions for all of us about the future direction of Europe”.

It is truly amazing just how far out of the publics mainstream will the Dutch politicians really were. Not even the politicians that were against the EU Constitution even considered the extent of the Popular discontent.

One of the leading “no” campaigners in the Netherlands, right-wing politician Geert Wilders, told reporters he had not expected such a decisive result – which exceeded poll predictions.

“I am extremely happy with it,” he said.

“If you realize that two-thirds of parliament supported the constitution and two out of three people in the land are against, it means a lot is wrong in the country.”

UPDATE II: The net result of the second strike against the EU; euro fell further on Wednesday, slumping to an eight-month low against the US dollar amid rumblings over the long-term future of the eurozone.

The fresh selling was prompted by a report claiming that Hans Eichel, the German finance minister, and Axel Weber, the president of the Bundesbank, were present at a meeting at which the possible break-up of European Monetary Union was discussed.

The German Bundestag is also said to have commissioned a report on the legal repercussions of a country wishing to leave the EMU.

“Our view is that EMU will not break up. That will be way down the line as the last resort because of the political capital everyone has got invested in it,” he said.

Nevertheless Mr Norfield added that if a break-up was to occur, it would be a “disaster” for the euro.

BRAC Blogging – Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

I will be doing continual updates to the BRAC Blogging today as the local community comes out in force to save their shipyard. Today the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and its many workers and supporters finally did what they should have done a long time ago. The anticipated rally was everything an more. The call went out by former shipyard commander Bill McDonough to the area and they came out in droves.

Former shipyard commander Bill McDonough called on Seacoast-area residents to take action and tell the visiting Base Realignment and Closure Commission members why the area’s largest employer should remain open.

Thousands of shipyard workers, friends, family and supports lines the streets of Kittery, Maine to welcome the BRAC commission to give one last plea to “SAVE OUR SHIPYARD“. As critical as I have been in the past of the public lack of support in past rallies; this was impressive. Much more to follow. Check out some of the BRAC video from the local NECN crew I was hanging out with today.

Amnesty International, a Complete Embarrassment

There is only one thing worse than human rights atrocities. That is fabricating human rights atrocities and not only making an ass out of yourselves but demeaning and trivializing the deaths of millions of people who actually suffered real brutality.

Such was the case when Amnesty International reported last week that the prisons at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba were a kin to Soviet-era gulags. President Bush’s called the comments by Amnesty International, “absurd“.

The president, addressing a news conference at the White House, said the Amnesty document was an “absurd report.”

“It’s absurd. It’s an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world,” Bush said of the report, which compared Guantanamo to a Soviet-era gulag.

He said the Amnesty allegations were based on interviews with detainees, who hated America and were trained to lie.

President Bush’s Q&A on topic from his Rose Garden news conference can be seen here via Trey Jackson

The idea that Amnesty International would compare abuse allegations made by detainees who wish to kill Americans to the millions that were killed in the gulags is completely irresponsible.

One day earlier in an interview with CNN’s Larry King Vice President Dick Cheney made similar comments: Video of Dick Cheney’s interview can be seen here via Trey Jackson.

“Frankly, I was offended by it,” Cheney said in the videotaped interview with CNN’s Larry King. “For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don’t take them seriously.”

I am offended that a so-called human rights group would grossly misinterpret possible abuse or torture to get information to the actual deliberate goal of murder that took place in the Russian gulags. It is a slap in the face to the individuals that died in the gulags. Amnesty International has decided to forget history and make this ridiculous comment to further there anti-American agenda.

One would think that a group that proclaims to be concerned about human rights violations would have a sense of relativism and an understanding of history. How does one compare abuse within a prison of relatively few the the abject death of millions? Amnesty International better start doing their homework and tell us how many died in Saddam Hussein’s prisons? Prisons in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and many other countries before they start making such inflammatory statements.

UPDATE: Rusty at The Jawa Report has a masterpiece on “The Gulag Archipelego vs. Amnesty International’s ‘Gulags’”. This should be required reading for Amnesty International that they comprehend the difference between a gulag and a detention center.

Royal Rumble, Buddhist Monk Style

The only thing missing from this bizarre happening in Bangkok Thailand was a WWE sanctioned cage match and Michael Buffer streaming, “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble.” Five Thai Buddhist monks have been defrocked and fined after a brawl with monks from a nearby temple.

The street fight was the culmination of years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms on different sides of a road, the Manager newspaper said.

“When an ordinary person is given a middle-finger sign, he will be mad. So am I,” it quoted one of the defrocked monks, Boonlert Boonpan, as saying after the brawl in the northeastern state of Nong Khai Monday.

Exactly when did Buddhist monks become gang bangers? Some how I must have missed this in my Buddhist history teachings. Buddhism, a religion of violence? Some one must have been very absent during their Three Trainings or Practices classes.

“If senators can fight in parliament, why can’t monks?” he said.

So much for the Buddhist practice of Sila;

Virtue, good conduct, morality. This is based on two fundamental principles: The principle of equality: that all living entities are equal.
The principle of reciprocity: This is the “Golden Rule” in Christianity — to do onto others as you would wish them do onto you. It is found in all major religions.

Looks like maybe the first of The Five Precepts went out the window as well:

Do not kill. This is sometimes translated as “not harming” or an absence of violence.

Ooops.

Social Security Polls Favorable When Topic is Understood

New polls out by John Zogby and the Cato Institute support President Bush’s proposal to let younger workers invest some of their Social Security payroll taxes through personal accounts. In what can only be described as laughable comes the following analysis of the polls. Laughable in the sense that one wonders exactly how most of the polls are given, who they are given to and how they are worded. Look what happens when people given the poll are informed.

The poll by independent pollster John Zogby for the Cato Institute, which is being released today, found that when voters understood the benefits of personal investment accounts, including a better financial rate of return than the current system, the Bush plan was supported by 52 percent of Americans and opposed by 40 percent.

What a novel concept; when people actually understand the benefits of personal accounts they are in favor of them. Go figure. What next when individuals under stand that running in front of on coming traffic may be dangerous they may stop doing that as well?

“The thing that is compelling in this poll is that this is the response you get when you use a positive approach on Social Security reform,” Mr. Zogby said. “If you use the ‘Chicken Little, sky-is-falling’ approach, then voters understand that something has to be done, but don’t see the connection between personal accounts and fundamental reform of Social Security.”

What should send shock waves through the Democratic Party is the fact that opposition to Social Security reform could be a colossal blunder of obstructionism for the 2006 and 2008 elections.

The survey also contained a warning for the Democrats about how their opposition to any reform of the Social Security system is playing with the electorate.

“By an overwhelming 70-22 percent margin, voters believe that opponents of President Bush’s proposals for Social Security reform have an obligation to put out their own plan for reforming the program,” including 55 percent of Democratic voters, Mr. Zogby said in a report of his findings.

So far Democrats have refused to put forth any plan and have only “nay sayed” the President’s one. Not only does this show no leadership on the topic, it flies in the face of what the people seem to want out of their politicians. Maybe this can explain why Congresses job approval ratings are in the tank? In other previous polls from the Rasmussen Reports, Fifty-one percent of American adults said that Social Security needs to be fixed while just 38% opposed the notion to fix Social Security.