One might say that the professionalism of the staff at Quai d'Orsay are kept to a higher standard than at the State Department.

Posted at June 26, 2008 8:37 AM in response to At Israel's Parliament, a French Lesson in Leadership for Bush

Many people argue that the issue at stake in this particular case is not the presidential candidate's ability to compromize, but instead much more fundamental rights and principles. This is easy to agree with.

However, what's also at stake right now is the result in the elections in November.

Isn't there a strong reason to believe that Obama's advisors have considered this decision crusial and made this choice based on how they guess the American electorate will react?

The conclusion then, is that tears over Obama's decisions are of no use. What's needed is to change the public opinion. When that's done, any politician interested in their re-election will follow. But first then.

Posted at June 22, 2008 4:35 PM in response to FISA and Bipartisanship - Response to Those Disappointed in Obama

I agree totally with your point, although it has to be remembered that the US part of the continent is not as densely populated as Spain, Germany or France, where the train services are truly excellent.

Nevertheless, a high-speed rail network would be a very good idea, also if one has to take into account that also the cities in Europe are a lot more densely populated, which makes train journeys comparably more advantageous, since the railway stations typically are closer to your final destination than any airport.

The conclusion made after the expansion of the high-speed networks in Spain, France and Germany is that on distances up to 400 miles (650 kilometers) the train can compete with, and beat, the airlines. For longer distances, some travellers will prefer the convenience of trains, including uninterupted phone- and internet connections, and others will prefer the airlines.

With "high speed" I do here mean trains that run 155 miles/hour or faster. For that separate tracks are needed. They are expensive to build. But one wonders for how long America can afford to postpone these projects. In any case, the California High-Speed Rail project is on the right track.

p.s.
Myself, I belong to the bad guys. I make journeys by air every second or third week. I've been able to abstain from airline trips only a few exceptional months of the last years. And I hate it!
I do much prefer trains and ferries, but they are often more expensive, at least when the travel time is included in the calculation.

Posted at June 19, 2008 2:22 PM in response to Railroading An Issue

After the EU's response to Ireland's no vote, I'm probably less likely to vote 'yes' next time around - some of what I considered paranoid in my compatriots' reasons for voting 'no' now looks more like prescience...

And, for sure, not only on Ireland do people make this conclusion, although of course most of all there.

I followed the referenda concerning Finland's and Sweden's entry into the European Union in the early 1990s, and am afraid most people (on both sides) now can conclude that the Eurosceptics made a much better prognosis for how a membership would turn out. This was again repeated during the referenda concerning the currency union in 2003.

The European Union really has a problem here, if it more and more looks like the EU-proposals can be sold to the public only by exaggerations and over-optimistic marketing, and if the solution to the obvious disconnect between people and rulers is to further marginalize and alienate the people. That way only leads to more troubles.

Posted at June 19, 2008 1:38 PM in response to The EU bombers

The result? Growing alienation from the whole EU project by large segments of the European publics.

The EU politicians involved are emboldened by the decades in which they made what they considered great progress without truly involving the people.

What's sometimes called the democracy deficit of the EU has more and more become sort of an Achilles' heel, and at this historical juncture, one may guess that the functionaries of the EU will not ever view democracy issues as serious matters.

The multitude of mothertongues and the lack of an enforced common lingua franca for the Union makes union-wide democratic discussion nearly an impossible task.

And too much of EU's traditions are inter-governmental. It has proven hard to escape from those traditions.

Posted at June 18, 2008 4:12 PM in response to The EU bombers

Many of the prisoners are very dangerous.

In any case, there is no need to kill them secretly. After what they've endured, they are most likely in need of psychiatric care. Maybe the U.S. government could pay for indefinite care of the victims in locked psychiatric wards?

Give them some Haldol and your problems are solved. If it worked for the Russians, why not try it again?

Posted at June 13, 2008 1:09 PM in response to Supreme Court v. Bush

Well, maybe the war criminal process is not really in the cards.

We have too much work to do as a country after getting these monsters out of office. A war crimes trial would be a circus, a distraction, counterproductive.

An error done after the McCarthy-years, the Vietnam War and the Iran-Contras trade was the lack of cleaning and purging, the lack of national self-criticism, and the absence of a national consensus never to do the same mistakes again. The width of the done errors and crimes was thus quickly forgotten by the American people.

Posted at June 9, 2008 6:06 PM in response to Today's Must Read

Obama self stresses the organisatorial aspects: http://ruralvotes.com/thefield/?p=1338
already discussed here at http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/06/organizer-in-chief-because-we.php

p.s.
The need for editing tools seems self-evident, doesn't it?

Posted at June 8, 2008 11:09 PM in response to Reasons for optimism

Also I am judgemental. My judgement is that you is one of the best word-smiths here around.
:-)
Beside being important, your piece is brilliantly written.

...Of course also I salute you for your courage and your thoughtfulness!

Posted at June 8, 2008 8:56 PM in response to Roe V Wade and Obama V McCain and My Choice

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather held a speech last night, see http://www.truthout.org/article/dan-rather-slams-corporate-news-conference for it in completeness:

what has changed, even more than the nature of the presidency, is the character of news ownership. I only found out years after the fact, for example, about the pressure that the Nixon White House put on my then-bosses, during Watergate - pressure to cut down my pieces, to call me off the story, and so on... because, back then, my bosses took the heat, so I didn't have to. They did this so the story could get told, and so the public could be informed.

But it is rare, now, to find a major news organization owned by an individual, someone who can say, in effect, "The buck stops here." The more likely motto now is: "The news stops... with making bucks."

America's biggest, most important news organizations have, over the past 25 years, fallen prey to merger after merger, acquisition after acquisition... to the point where they are, now, tiny parts of immeasurably larger corporate entities - entities whose primary business often has nothing to do with news.

In my humble opinion this is an important factor that would need to be delt with if the democracy is to survive (or be restored).

Posted at June 8, 2008 8:32 PM in response to Tales From Inside the Editorial Board Room