Sept. 15 - Peaktalk reports that EU Commissioner Nelie Kroes has endorsed Angela Merkel and discusses some of the implications of the results of the German elections for the EU.

I don't keep abreast of politics in Europe as much as I would wish, but it does seem that now that widespread activism against U.S. intervention in Iraq has died down and the EU Constitution has been rejected by the Netherlands and France that there is renewed focus by European nations on their issues and much talk of necessary economic reforms. I really can't make any predictions or informed comments but I tend to always think it a good thing when we survey our own backyards rather than those of our neighbours.

By the way, if you missed yesterday's Instapundit link to Pieter's German Election Primer be sure and read it. Very, very informative.

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June 15 - Italians consider trashing euro, returning to lira:

Roberto Castelli, the silver-haired Italian justice minister from the Northern League, a major coalition partner in the government of Silvio Berlusconi, said his party will present concrete proposals this week for calling a referendum on ditching the euro.

"Does [the British pound] sterling have no economic foundation because it is outside the euro?" he asked. "Is Denmark living in absolute poverty because it is outside the euro? Are Swedes poor because they are outside the euro?"

[...]

Nevertheless, government economists say privately Italy could gain short-term economic benefits from leaving the euro.

By devaluing its currency, Italy could immediately boost exports, jobs and manufacturing investment. The real value of Italy's massive public debt, equivalent to some 105 percent of gross domestic product, could be slashed by devaluation.

EU leaders are furious about rebellious Italian dissatisfaction with the single currency. "It is just inconceivable that a country could envisage dropping out of the euro," said Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of postage-stamp-sized Luxembourg, which is currently the revolving European Union president.

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June 7 - The Daily Telegraph proposes A healthy Constitution which sounds somewhat familiar on first read.

I especially like this part:

VIII Any uncertainty arising from ambiguities in this Treaty shall be resolved in favour of the individual citizen rather than the state, and of national governments rather than European institutions.

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June 3 - Pieter has an insightful post analyzing the results in the referendum on the EU Constitution in Holland. The diversity of opposition revealed a very basic flaw and how it could be addressed:

What is required in all member states is, rather than throwing pre-cooked and complicated documents in front of the voters, a debate about what Europe should look like first.

There's also a look at the vote in France and he also has some links to others' reactions, and a rather gloomy prediction:

Hitler or Mussolini references seem over the top but they do not come out of thin air. They reflect genuine fears on this side of the ocean that once more Americans will be called upon to help sort out another major European mess (from that perspective Bosnia was a telling precursor). As it is, there's very little appetite for a third major effort - in whatever form - on the old continent.

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May 17 - At first I thought this was a joke: Europe unites in hatred of French.

Pollsters asked Europeans to list five words that describe the French and the answers were not very complimentary:

Why the French are the worst company on the planet, a wry take on France by two of its citizens, dredges up all the usual evidence against them. They are crazy drivers, strangers to customer service, obsessed by sex and food and devoid of a sense of humour.

But it doesn't stop there, boasting a breakdown, nation by nation, of what in the French irritates them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as "chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless". ..

For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as "preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it, egocentric bons vivants".

Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty".

The French were also asked about other people:

Another section of the study deals with how the French see the rest of Europe.

"Believe it or not, the English and the French use almost exactly the same adjectives to describe each other - bar the word 'insular'," Mr Coldong said. "So the feelings are mutual."

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May 14 - (retro-posting) It was worth waiting for:

A longtime ally of French President Jacques Chirac and a leading British critic of the Iraq war received huge contracts to resell Iraqi oil from Saddam Hussein under the U.N. oil-for-food program, Senate investigators have found.

In findings being released today, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations charges that former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and British Member of Parliament George Galloway each received the right to market more than 10 million barrels of cut-rate oil from dictator Saddam's Oil Ministry between 1999 and 2003.

Senate investigators, who will air their findings in a hearing next week, based the new report on internal Iraqi documents, Oil Ministry correspondence and interviews with top Saddam-era officials such as detained Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.

Subcommittee Chairman Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, said the findings "paint a disturbing picture of the dark underside of the oil-for-food program." (Emphasis added)

The allegations against Pasqua and Galloway, both outspoken opponents of U.N. sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, have been made before, including in a report last October by U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer.

But Coleman's report provided several new details. It also included information from interviews with former high-ranking officials now in U.S. custody, including former Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.

Among the claims: New evidence suggests that a children's leukemia charity founded by Galloway was in fact used to conceal oil payments.

[...]

The report includes what Coleman said was a copy of a contract from Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization that mentions Mariam's Appeal, a fund Galloway established in 1998 to help a 4-year-old Iraqi girl suffering from leukemia, Mariam Hamze.

It says the fund may have been used to conceal the transfer of 3 million barrels of oil.

By the way, the Washington Times incorrectly states that Galloway quit the Labour Party; Fox correctly reports that he was expelled.

The transfer of oil to Charles Pasqua was handled by his aide, Bernard Guillet, and there was some wrangling over which bank should deliver the oil allocations.

Guillet has troubles of his own; he is under investigation for influence-peddling and receiving misappropriated funds.

Galloway denies the allegations and last month, the Daily Telegraph was granted permission to to appeal (it's unclear whether they are appealing the ruling or the amount awarded to Galloway, although I believe it is the former.)

The Bethnal Green and Bow MP, who was re-elected to parliament last week running for his own Respect party, described the Senate committee as a "lickspittle Republican committee, acting on the wishes of George Bush".

He said: "Let me repeat. I have never traded in a barrel of oil, or any vouchers for it. I have never seen a barrel of oil apart from the one the Sun newspaper deposited in my front garden.

"And no one has acted on my behalf, trading in oil - Middle Eastern, olive, patchouli or any other - or in vouchers, whatever they are.

"Isn't it strange and contrary to natural justice you might think that I have written and emailed repeatedly asking for the opportunity to appear before the committee to provide evidence and rebut their assumptions and they have yet to respond, while apparently making a judgement."

(This is actually from May 12 - I'm doing some retro-posting to catch up.)

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May 7 - Pim Fortuyn was killed 3 years ago Friday, and Peaktalk remembers.

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May 5 - Today marks the 60th anniversary of Liberation Day in Holland, a proud day for the Canadians who freed that country from Nazi rule.

The Canadian vets among military parade to mark Dutch liberation from Nazis were cheered by thousands of spectators:

Some onlookers hung out of windows, cheering loudly, snapping photos and shooting guns of red, white and blue confetti.

Marike Bakker, a 35-year-old homemaker, secured her curb-side position a full eight hours early.

"I feel very emotional," said Bakker, a camera draped around her neck. "I think these veterans are going to die soon, so we as younger people must understand what happened in the Second World War."

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Aprl. 14 - David Brooks has a straight-forward style that I really love. He uses words like "squishier" and phrases like "arcane fudges" that cut across the blather of nuance - which is basically the art of saying nothing but to say it well - and makes his points squarely and unequivocally.

Today's column is a gem (Loudly, With a Big Stick.) In the course of explaining why John Bolton will make a terrific Ambassador to the U.N., (he's there to represent the U.S.A., remember?) he explains why Americans will never accept some lofty world government and, at the risk of breaking a great many trans-nationalist hearts, exposes the primary reasons why people who love liberty and self-rule would never accept it either.

We'll never accept it, first, because it is undemocratic. It is impossible to set up legitimate global authorities because there is no global democracy, no sense of common peoplehood and trust. So multilateral organizations can never look like legislatures, with open debate, up or down votes and the losers accepting majority decisions.

Instead, they look like meetings of unelected elites, of technocrats who make decisions in secret and who rely upon intentionally impenetrable language, who settle differences through arcane fudges. Americans, like most peoples, will never surrender even a bit of their national democracy for the sake of multilateral technocracy.

Second, we will never accept global governance because it inevitably devolves into corruption. The panoply of U.N. scandals flows from a single source: the lack of democratic accountability. These supranational organizations exist in their own insular, self-indulgent aerie.

We will never accept global governance, third, because we love our Constitution and will never grant any other law supremacy over it. Like most peoples (Europeans are the exception), we will never allow transnational organizations to overrule our own laws, regulations and precedents. We think our Constitution is superior to the sloppy authority granted to, say, the International Criminal Court.

Fourth, we understand that these mushy international organizations liberate the barbaric and handcuff the civilized. Bodies like the U.N. can toss hapless resolutions at the Milosevics, the Saddams or the butchers of Darfur, but they can do nothing to restrain them. Meanwhile, the forces of decency can be paralyzed as they wait for "the international community."

Fifth, we know that when push comes to shove, all the grand talk about international norms is often just a cover for opposing the global elite's bêtes noires of the moment - usually the U.S. or Israel. We will never grant legitimacy to forums that are so often manipulated for partisan ends.

Sometimes it takes sharp elbows to assert independence. But this is certain: We will never be so seduced by vapid pieties about global cooperation that we'll join a system that is both unworkable and undemocratic.

With a terrific sense of contrast, Wrethard examines the French disenchantment with the EU Constitution taking a Guardian article as his base line and expands it into a post that parallels the Brooks column which, although they pursue different paths, come to similar conclusions about the sense of what it is to be a "nationality."

He calls passage of the EU Constitution a "Faustian bargain"

{French] People are beginning to understand the document before them but the political salesmen are determined to offer any combination of rebates, coupons, special offers and financing to get the final signature on the contract of sale. Stephen Benet's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" speaks of the belated remorse that so often follows Faustian bargains, though like as not there will be no reprieve from the consequences of this deal.

Although Wretchard explains a great many economic and political reasons why the French might reject the EU Constitution, I believe the answer may be far more basic: they don't want to stop being that indefinable thing that makes them unique which would happen were they to relinquish self-rule.

I think the French (as are the British, Dutch, and most especially the Eastern European countries who are unwilling to trade Soviet dominance for French dominance) are actually expressing a yearning they dare not admit to because it would make them just like us Yanks: love of country, love of those intrinsic matters that define them as unique, and love of being (don't laugh) French.

[Note the final paragraph in the Guardian article! They feel they need to cheat to win, which is most definitely not a sign of confidence.]

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Mar. 29 - I'm referring to the King of Snark, Paul, who has some new posts up. My favourite (because I love it when Paul gets nasty satirical) is This Week in Revisionist History in which Paul notes a number of measures that seem to defraud history, much as air-brushing the cigarette from Satre's lips has done. For example, he wonders about the sudden urge to remove a statue of Franco in Spain:

Don't get me wrong, I can understand when statues are toppled by people during revolutions, and I'm all for that, but when the people can't be bothered to go out and destroy the bloody thing themselves, I find these arbitrary governmental decisions peculiar, especially when, like in this case, it's so long after the man's death, and calling the statue a "symbol of division" seems like a rather flimsy excuse (not to mention that, considering Zapatero's core beliefs, it seems like nothing but a settling of scores with someone who can't fight back; if Franco was alive, I suppose that Zapatero would have gone with his usual drop pants, pass the KY solution).

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1 Ahhh, cheers for the link, luv.

Posted by: Paul Jané at March 29, 2005 05:45 PM (FOtPl)

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Mar. 11 - March 2004 was a bad month. There were a horrific series of terrorist attacks in Iraq and Pakistan targeting Shi'ia observances of Ashura, the Madrid train bombings, terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan and the Phillippines, and, closer to home, a plague of anti-Jewish graffiti in Toronto. Four contractors were murdered and their bodies mutilated and strung up on a bridge outside Fallujah, and Canadian Andy Bradsell was killed in Iraq protecting a convoy of people trying to restore electrical service in Mosul.

Each of those memories are searing and produced responses both good and bad, but I really didn't see this coming: Muslim clerics in the Islamic Commission of Spain have issued a fatwa on Osama bin Laden and declared terrorist acts totally banned:

The commission's secretary general, Mansur Escudero, said the group had consulted with Muslim leaders in other countries, such as Morocco -- home to most of the jailed suspects in the bombings -- Algeria and Libya, and had their support.

"They agree," Escudero said, referring to the Muslim leaders in the three North African countries. "What I want is that they say so publicly."

My initial reaction was to feel how very, very difficult this was for them. Muslims have felt under intense scrutiny since Sept. 11, and although I could never entirely condemn the natural inclincation of many to close ranks thinking to protect themselves, I was frustrated by the "Yes, but" defense as attacks in Iraq targeting Muslims mounted.

There was too common an assumption that the war on terrorism was some kind of codename for a war on Islamic fundamentalists, somehow assuming that terrorism was the unique province of Muslim fanatics and totally overlooking places like N. Ireland, Columbia and Spain.

There were even numerous arguments these past 4 years over the usefulness of labelling this a "war on terror," but its appropriateness has become more and more evident culminating, for me, with the anti-terror demonstrations last year in Columbia after a night spot there was bombed. They got it, even if some of us were slow to do so.

I suspect that it is due to Spain's internal problems with terrorism perpetrated by Basque separatists in the ETA that put the Islamic Commission of Spain in the unique position of being able to credibly denounce terrorism, including that espoused by bin Laden, and the additional fact that they contacted and communicated with those in countries from which the March 11 attackers originated makes this appear to be more than a local fatwa.

I don't know if this will be the first of many fatwas from different countries or if it will dangle indefinitely as a lone example, but it's a good beginning.

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Feb. 20 - Mark Steyn's regular column in The Western Standard was on Canada's least-known person, Paul Desmarais:

... there has indeed been a Canadian making a difference in the world-and if The National wanted to do a 133-part special report on him, for once they’d have enough material. Most of us know Paul Desmarais as the . . . [those ellipses in original] well, let’s hold it there: most Canadians don’t know Paul Desmarais at all. You could stop the first thousand people walking down Yonge Street and I’ll bet no one would know who he is. But the few who do know him know him as the kingmaker behind Trudeau, Mulroney, Chrétien and Martin. Jean Chrétien’s daughter is married to Paul Desmarais’s son. Paul Martin was an employee of M. Desmarais’s Power Corp., and his Canada Steamship Lines was originally a subsidiary of Power Corp. that M. Desmarais put Mr. Martin in charge of. In other words, Paul Martin’s public identity--successful self-made businessman, not just a career pol, knows how to meet payroll, etc.--is entirely derived from the patronage of M. Desmarais.

Imagine if Jenna Bush married the chairman of HalliburtonÂ’s son, and then George W. Bush was succeeded by a president whoÂ’d been an employee of Halliburton: Michael MooreÂ’s next documentary would be buried under wall-to-wall Oscars and Palmes dÂ’Or. But M. Desmarais has managed to turn Ottawa into a company town without anyone being aware of the company. .. Power Corp.Â’s other alumni range from Quebec premiers to CanadaÂ’s most prominent international diplomat, Maurice Strong. In fairness, you donÂ’t have to work for M. Desmarais to reach the top of the greasy pole-Kim Campbell managed it, for about a week and a half.

we’re in the middle of the UN Oil-for-Fraud investigation, the all-time biggest scam, bigger than Enron and Worldcom and all the rest added together. And whaddaya know? The bank that handled all the money from the program turns out to be BNP Paribas, which tends to get designated by Associated Press and co. as a “French bank” but is, as it happens, controlled by one of M. Desmarais’s holding companies. That alone should cause even the droopiest bloodhound to pick up a scent: the UN’s banker for its Iraqi “humanitarian” program turns out to be (to all intents) Saddam’s favourite oilman.

On a (relatively) lighter note, as the President begins his European tour, Mark Steyn asks and answers the burning question of the day: What's US policy on Europe? No giggling.

What does all this mean? Nothing. In victory, magnanimity – and right now Bush can afford to be magnanimous, even if Europe isn't yet ready to acknowledge his victory. On Thursday, in a discussion of "the greater Middle East", the President remarked that Syria was "out of step". And, amazingly, he's right. Not so long ago, Syria was perfectly in step with the Middle East – it was the archetypal squalid stable Arab dictatorship. Two years on, Syria hasn't changed, but Iraq has, and, to varying degrees, the momentum in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon (where the Syrians have overplayed their hand) is also in the Bush direction. Boy Assad finds himself in the position of the unfortunate soldier in Irving Berlin's First World War marching song, "They Were All Out Of Step But Jim".

The EU isn't the Arab League, though for much of the past three years it's been hard to tell the difference. But it, too, is out of step. The question is whether the Europeans are smart enough, like the savvier Sunnis in Iraq, to realise it. The Washington Post's Fred Hiatt compared the President's inaugural speech with Gerhard Schröder's keynote address to the Munich Conference on Security Policy last week and observed that, while both men talked about the Middle East, terrorism and 21st-century security threats, Mr Bush used the word "freedom" 27 times while Herr Schröder uttered it not once; he preferred to emphasise, as if it were still March 2003 and he were Arab League Secretary-General, "stability" – the old realpolitik fetish the Administration has explicitly disavowed. It's not just that the two sides aren't speaking the same language, but that the key phrases of Mr Bush's vocabulary don't seem to exist in Chirac's or Schröder's.

By the Way, SteynOnline is off it's brief (?!) hiatus and open for your one-stop Steyn reading spot.

Feb. 23 - Austin Bay disagrees with Mark Steyn on the death of the West:

Steyn’s “bleakest last sentence” (to quote Roger Simon) is way too fin d’siecle. Steyn writes: “This week we’re toasting the end of an idea: the death of “the West".” Try and tell that to Ukraine and Poland– and for that matter, Denmark. Post- Theo van Gogh Holland may also object.

Feb. 28 - Mark Steyn responds to Austin Bay here (scroll down.) Very worthwhile read.

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Dec. 1 - 10 days!

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine's parliament brought down the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich on Wednesday, approving a no-confidence motion as international mediators gathered in the capital to try to bring the spiraling political crisis to a peaceful resolution.

The dramatic vote came only days after the Election Commission certified Yanukovich as winner of Ukraine's disputed presidential run-off, though opposition leader Victor Yushchenko has said the vote was fraudulent, an allegation backed by Western governments and tens of thousands of opposition supporters.

President Kuchma, who was to step down after the election, "announced he supported holding an entirely new presidential election, not just a revote of the disputed second round."

The Washington Post is speculating that Kuchma is trying to "buy time" and end the mass demonstrations and vigils that have blocked government buildings. That seems about right; they hope to gain some breathing room to try to figure out what should be done next.

16:46 - Captain's Quarters reports on a rumoured compromise and a Reuters story which disputes that story although it allows that some grounds have been reached for agreement between the two contending parties.

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Nov. 30 - Nine days! Ukrainians continue to remain vigilant in an awesome display of idealism and determination. The massive numbers of people who continue to block government buildings in frigid weather is humbling and one has to ask oneself would I be out there given the discomfort much less the risks if we lose? Naturally I say Yes! but I'm not actually there and, accustomed as I am to the leniency of North America when it comes to tolerating demonstrations, confronting tanks on the streets of my hometown is just not really an expectation.

[The more time goes by, the more I doubt such will happen in Kiev mostly because the whole world is watching, but it was certainly in the back of my mind in the early days after the election and it is unlikely that those who gathered outside the government buildings were unaware of the danger.]

Latest news is that the opposition has cancelled talks and, I'm surmising, have wisely chosen to place their confidence in the hands of those who have vowed to not stop blocking the buildings until their demands are met.

According to CNN, these demands are:

The government must admit that the election results were falsified.

Yanukovych's government and the Central Election Commission must step down.

Some action must be taken against three regional governors who threatened to take steps toward autonomy in the wake of the dispute.

Interior Minister Nikolai Bilokon, who they believe was part of the effort to manipulate the election, must be fired.

A third loser is French President Jacques Chirac and those European leaders who want the European Union to be an anti-American counterweight to America. International crises involving Russia tend to remind Europeans that the United States remains a very valuable ally in a dangerous and unpredictable world. Fantasies of a superpower Europe seem insubstantial delusions by comparison with this tested alliance.

I don't expect everyone to take our path but merely support their right to chose their own paths, and it appears that such is exactly what they are doing; that is the defintion of freedom.

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Nov. 26 - Opposition steps up Kiev protest:

In the center of Kiev, protesters stood linked armes and stood five deep in the freezing cold to encircle the Cabinet building, The Associated Press reported. The building holds the offices of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the official winner of Sunday's election.

Foreignnotes, a blog run by an American in Kiev, is atop events there (via The Corner.)

The Command Post Global Recon Page has been on top of the situation as well and updating the news as it comes in.

A Fistful of Euros continues to have round-ups of both news items and information posted by Ukrainian bloggers (via Instapundit.)

Something spectacular has happened: A Fistful of Euros reports that

The showdown may have begun. Victor Katolyk reports that, following a “declaration of truth” by several hundred Ukrainian television employees, several tv stations have begun broadcasting “real” news. While several hundred Policemen appear to have pledged allegiance to the people, and former Deputy Prime Minister Julia Tymoshenko apparently declared the beginning of a seige of Presidential Administration, Cabinet of Ministers, and the Parliament, there are also reports of pressure on Supreme Courst judges and their families to rule in favor of Mr Yanukovich.

I had heard there was to be another vigil last night at the Ukrainian Consulate here in Toronto and although I haven't seen anything on the news to confirm it I would be extremely surprised if there wasn't one. It has been inspiring to behold the surge of determination and pride by ex-pat Ukrainians and, at the risk of being very cliched, we do take so very much for granted here that are elusive dreams for others elsewhere.

May freedom ring!

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Nov. 25 - 'Invisible ink' used in election fraud according to British MP Bruce George:

THE senior British MP in charge of monitoring last Sunday's polls in Ukraine has revealed how the election was undermined by intimidation, fraud and invisible ink.

Bruce George, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee and head of the international Short-Term Observation Commission in Ukraine, told The Times one of the election monitors handed him a suspicious pen from a polling station.

Mr George, a veteran Labour MP who helped to oversee the election in Georgia last year, found that anything written with the pen vanished in 15 minutes. "I saw a pen that had ink that disappeared when it dried," he said.

"People were issued with pens to cast their votes, but their votes would have disappeared after they dropped the paper into the ballot box."

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Nov. 25 - There has been a call for a general strike in Ukraine and Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has filed a complaint to Ukraine's Supreme Court regarding the actions of the Central Election Commission after an election that has been denounced by most Western leaders: Deputy PM Anne McClellan of Canada, U.S. Sec. of State Colin Powell, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Australia.

Dep. PM McClellan also threatened sanctions if there isn't a full and open review of the electoral process.

Lech Walesa addressed a crowd in Kiev and expressed his solidarity and admiration for them.

For a second night, a protest was held in front of the Ukrainian consul in Toronto and today's editorial in the Toronto Sun (one day link) also condemns the fraudulent election:

BRAVO! Canada did the right thing yesterday in refusing to recognize the disputed Ukrainian election result.

In light of widespread reports of voting fraud -- some from Canadian MPs who were there as observers -- this country cannot endorse the purported election of Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin-backed former prime minister.

The leader in the Telegraph (UK) notes the chance of a re-run of the election Ukraine has chance to fulfil its democratic pledge:

Viktor Yanukovich, the prime minister, said he was not interested in a "fictitious" victory and that "no position of authority, no matter how important, is worth a single human life". Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing president, ruled out the use of force. From outside, President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland said he had been asked to mediate, while Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schröder, having spoken by telephone, urged that the crisis be solved by legal means.

The receding prospect of violent confrontation is welcome news in a country whose eastern and western regions have been deeply split electorally over the past decade. Add to this growing secessionist tendencies in Crimea, which was given to Ukraine by Khrushchev in 1954, and you have the potential for national disintegration.

9:54: Via David Frum's Diary, be sure to read Anne Applebaum's column The New Iron Curtain in the Washington Post which takes a critical look at Russia's motives in interfering in Ukrainian politics.

19:56: The Telegraph's Julius Strauss also looks at why the Russians are so determined to install Yanukovych as Ukraine's president:

Mr Putin's immediate aim is to create a single economic zone in the region. Echoing Comecon, the Soviet-era trading bloc, the plan is to form a common market on the territories of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

The Kremlin's hope is that this will be a milestone on the road to raising Russia to the status of the controlling regional power and perhaps eventually regaining its superpower status.

Winning Ukraine is the chief pillar of the Kremlin's ambitions. The 48 million-strong country is the largest in Europe, rich in agriculture and a key transit route for Russian gas to the EU.

Aside: Has Kofi Annan said anything yet about the Ukraine elections?

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Nov. 24 - The official announcement of the results of Ukraine's national election is pending so I have CNN on. (Sleep? as if ...) CNN's website headlines Ukraine poll tensions mount which is one massive understatement.

There are probably hundreds of millions of people in North America who aren't having an on the edge of history moment but I'm not one of them.

A co-worker is from Ukraine. I asked her last night if she was okay, and she took a breath, nodded, and pumped her fist. "So long as the people ..." and I sensed a very familiar feeling, the kind I remembered from 1968 Prague and 1989 Tiananmen Square, and again in Georgia earlier this year which was followed by gratified astonishment ... and I also sensed the one you get when faith in your countrymen and women fills you from head to toe and floods you with resolve, solidarity and strength.

I am worried - very worried - that there may be bloodshed this day. But I also know that there are times when you simply must make your stand because you've come to the Now or Never point and there's just no backing down from that one.

Today's post at Belmont Club is cryptically titled The Ukraine and sums up the situation in typical Belmont Club form (and quotes from a letter from Vaclav Havel supporting Viktor Yuschenko.) Wretchard reports something I hadn't yet heard, namely that Russian special forces were dispatched to Ukraine and were wearing Ukrainian Special forces uniforms (the link is to observer Bob Schaffer's reports. Begin reading from the bottom entry - it's well worth the time to read the entire thing.) Wretchard reports that American, Canadian and European diplomats "all expressed concern at the Kremlin's actions, creating remarkable psychological solidarity which is in stark contrast towards the wrangling over Iraq."

The Washington Times describes the crowds supporting both sides maintaining vigils despite freezing temperatures and there was a demonstration of over 1,000 last night in front of the Ukrainian Consulate in Toronto in solidarity with Yushchenko's supporters in Ukraine. (More here.) Update: Many, many demonstrations worldwide by Ukrainian ex-pats.

The Toronto Star has a story about the illness that has plagued Yushchenko and speculations that he was poisoned.

International reaction to the election has been fairly consistent and centers on the electoral process. There could be unspecified "consequences" if there is not a "complete review of the electoral process," according to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

I haven't located a link to the entirety of Canadian PM Paul Martin's statement (he's in Brazil) but he too expressed dismay over the electoral process.

A statement from the White House expresses President Bush's concerns about "extensive and credible indications of fraud committed in the Ukrainian presidential election. We strongly support efforts to review the conduct of the election and urge Ukrainian authorities not to certify results until investigations of organized fraud are resolved. We call on the Government of Ukraine to respect the will of the Ukrainian people, ... " and urges that violence be avoided.

On the other side, Russian President Putin has "criticized Western assessments of the vote as flawed, stressing the results were not yet official. On a state visit to Portugal, he called for calm and respect for the law in this former Soviet republic."

Bob Schaeffer notes that Putin seems to have backtracked somewhat (see entry at 1:40 MST) from an earlier statement.

10:41 and still waiting. CNN is having continuous coverage of ... travel and weather updates. I know it's Thanksgiving tomorrow, but still.

11:14: Arthur Chrenkoff has the response of Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski to the Ukraine election.

11:34: (Doh! I'd forgotten I had BBC. Much better coverage than CNN.) The Election Commission announced the results of the election declaring Yanukovych the winner. It appears the prospect of holding the election again is slim.

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Nov. 7 - The murder of Theo van Gogh in Holland was somewhat eclipsed by the US presidential campaign and downplayed by most of the MSM but I realised I wasn't overreacting when 8 others were held in his murder. But the same question dominates which was asked after the Madrid train bombings: what conclusions will the Dutch and Europeans draw from this latest murder? (I'm not suggesting that there are any conclusions to be drawn yet, only that this latest killing will have an effect.)

In case you haven't been reading Peaktalk, his coverage of the Theo van Gogh murder has been outstanding. His post A War of Courage highlights the essence of this struggle for Muslims:

It requires guts to line up for a police job in Baghdad and you equally have to be willing to risk your life to walk into an Amsterdam mosque and explain the principles of freedom of expression. Without these courageous Muslims this war can never ever be won. LetÂ’s help them, letÂ’s enlist them, they are the most important ingredient in this struggle for freedom and democracy.

Pieter has a great many posts of the murder of Theo van Gogh from when it was first reported here to an examination of the existence of a Fifth Column here, the reaction of Ayaan Hirsi Ali here, a less than optimistic outlook for Holland here, a translation of the letter pinned to van Gogh here, a more hopeful outlook here, a re-assertion of political correctness in Holland here followed by a re-assertion of Dutch pride here to the most optimistic post I first cited. Read them all, especially as there is a direct correlation of some events in Canada as the public here tries to digest what has happened, tries to make sense of it, and might recognize an implicit threat and hope.

11:59: This post at Belmont Club points to the way political correctness still constrains a meaningful response to the crisis. I would have run additional showings of the movie Submission and commissioned many more murals as my response to attacks on freedom of speech. When possible responses are assertion or appeasement one would like to think the answer was obvious.

There had been an undercurrent of speculation in Canada over the possibility of a Fifth column here which peaked when the notorious Khadrs (We-are-a-terrorist-family) returned to obtain medical treatment for the youngest (who had been wounded, captured and released by US forces) but three recent events (which also were eclipsed by the US elections) occurred which should have re-introduced discussions about the need to find some tangible means of encouraging tolerance in Canada which do not unintentionally breed intolerance.

On October 8, the Toronto Star carried a report that a Canadian had been killed by the Russians in Chechnya. After the usual expressions of disbelief and doubt as to the accuracy of the Russian claims came a report about the leader of the mosque attended by the dead Canadian, Sheik Younus Kathrada, on which Jay Currie reported here and then on October 19 Dr. Mohamad Elmasry, leader of the Canadian Islamic Congress, was a guest on Michael Coren's TV show and said that all Israelis - including seniors and babies - were fair targets for Palestinian terrorists.

Colby Cosh has a column with the National Post that points out the good news and the bad news. The good news is that as early as August, 2002, 20 B.C. Muslims had published an open letter which called upon Kathadra "to recant his teachings and apologize for them" but the bad news is that he didn't feel compelled to re-examine his views in this multicultural, diverse and tolerant country.

It is becoming more usual to read posts that sarcastically ask where the moderate Muslims are when a Nick Berg is beheaded or the head of CARE is kidnapped in Baghdad, and the fact that letters as the one Colby cites are not reported in the mainstream media does more a disservice to Muslims than would an exposure of a debate which may be quietly taking place within Muslim communities.

Dutch Muslims are responding to van Gogh's murder by recognizing they have a problem and if they don't provide strong leadership now the problem will only worsen.

Back in Canada, three forceful body blows struck the Canadian myth of super-tolerance, and much of the Canadian media responded by (what else?) lamenting the stupidity of the American voter. Do not expect strong leadership here so long as the public's attention can be diverted from issues which actually do impact on the average Canadian (and yet they call us stupid? It boggles the mind.)

Nov. 8 20:30: Some Dutch citizens have taken matters into their own hands, I'm sorry to report. An elementary school, for heaven's sake?

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Nov. 6 - EU 'triple axis' gangs up on Blair:

France, Spain and Germany launched a "triple axis" yesterday aimed at taking charge of EU foreign policy and limiting Tony Blair's influence in Europe.

Jacques Chirac, the French president and a harsh critic of the war in Iraq, brushed aside appeals for better transatlantic ties after George W Bush's re-election triumph and instead called for a stronger EU to confront Washington.

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