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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Neo-Nazi flash mobs plaguing Germany

Posted by Olog-hai on Sat Aug 18 17:44:54 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Neo-Nazi flash mobs plaguing Germany, posted by Elkeeper on Sat Aug 18 14:56:50 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
The Turks are not the only ones that the neo-Nazis are complaining about.

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(EUEUEUEUEU) dtt-net.com head calls for "special partnership" between Germany and Kosovo

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Aug 19 16:12:00 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
In other words, he's proposing handing Kosovo over to Germany on a silver platter.

EU Observer

Kosovo needs special partnership with Germany

16.08.12 @ 08:44
By Ekrem Krasiniqi
Germany — the EU's strongest economy and the main decision-maker on the euro crisis — should take charge of EU intervention in the Western Balkans by putting Kosovo on its own two feet.

What Berlin 20 years ago proposed the EU should do with Albania, it should now do on the EU's behalf with Kosovo — create a bilateral "special partnership" designed to revive Kosovo's economy and society.

The pact should have at its core a 20-year-long strategy for fully remodeling Kosovo's political and economic landscape.

Germany should install its experts in key Kosovo government departments.

They should focus on economic and social affairs. They should accelerate EU-mandated reforms and strive to attract real investment from EU countries.

Education — in line with Germany's own model of "education in the service of the economy" — must also be a top priority.

The German taskforce should show no mercy in fighting the Kosovar monster of organized crime and corruption.

The EU is currently trying to create a legal base to extend the life of its Kosovo police mission (Eulex) by including it in Kosovo's constitution. But Kosovar politicians and the general public are resisting the move.

The special partnership could push this through.

The time to take the step is now.

The internationally-supervised independence of this new country, which has already consumed billions in EU taxpayers' money, is coming to an end.

But Kosovo is unable to manage its own affairs and lacks any long term political and economic vision.

After 13 years of peace, four years of supervised independence and €5 billion of international aid, Kosovo is the most underdeveloped place on the continent.

Its rift with Serbia over Kosovo's ethnic-Serb-dominated north adds an extra dimension to the problem — the risk of renewed instability in a volatile region.

Too many cooks spoil the broth

There are six reasons for this disaster-in-the-making:
First, a messy international presence originating in the divisions at the UN Security Council over Kosovo's status;

Second, the absence of a mature political generation which is up to the job of handling Kosovo's economy, creating normal state institutions and law and order;

Third, lack of local and international will to fight corruption and organized crime. Both the locals and the internationals are in it up their necks;

Fourth; lack of a credible EU or NATO membership perspective due to non-recognition of Kosovo by five EU and NATO members;

Fifth, mischief-making by Serbia, especially in the north;

Finally: EU enlargement fatigue, made worse by the euro crisis, and evident in almost every EU member state in the de facto downgrading of EU foreign policy objectives.
While Kosovar politicians dream of EU visa liberalization "in the long term," ordinary Kosovars dream of getting the hell out as quickly as possible to go and live in a normal country instead.

Kosovars are grateful for the NATO bombers which brought peace.

But this state of affairs says all one needs to know about what Brussels, Washington, New York (or the UN) and Pristina have achieved here since 1999.

If, with German help, Kosovo makes proper use of its natural resources, it can stop wasting EU money and spend its own money on the people who fought and died here for a better future not long ago.

Meanwhile, the fate of Kosovo is about more than Kosovo itself — it is a measure of the EU's ability to conduct meaningful foreign policy in its most intimate neighborhood.

And the idea of a German-sponsored reform process is not a fantasy.

Berlin actually proposed in 1992 that the EU should do this with Albania, but other EU countries, led by France, rejected the idea. So what do we have instead?

Albania is in the grip of a perpetual political crisis. Bosnia is in the same if not in a worse situation.

Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia also face growing inter-ethnic tensions. And Serbia is manipulating ethnic Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo to sabotage EU state-building. Its new nationalistic leadership does not bode well.

Good neighbors

There is a saying in Kosovo: "Nobody needs a neighbor who has problems."

The EU, which has ever-bigger problems of its own, does not need or want a neighbor like the Western Balkans in its present state. But neither can it pretend the Western Balkans does not exist.

For the sake of its own credibility and for the future stability and prosperity of Europe as a whole, the EU should drastically simplify the way it handles this region.

Get the international mob out of Kosovo. Let Germany do the job.

Ekrem Krasniqi is the owner of Balkans news agency dtt-net.com and a contributor to EUobserver


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(EUEUEUEUEU) Italy's memorial to fascist Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani condemned by Ethiopians

Posted by Olog-hai on Mon Aug 20 01:24:37 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Sheba Post

CONDEMNATION OF ITALIAN MEMORIAL TO WAR CRIMINAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GENOCIDE OF ONE MILLION ETHIOPIANS

Sun, 08/19/2012 – 14:35
The Global Alliance for Justice: The Ethiopian Cause condemns in the strongest terms the Italian government’s construction of an official memorial to the convicted war criminal Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani. During the Italian war on Ethiopia 1936-1941, Italy carried out a systematic mass extermination campaign in Ethiopia with poison gas sprayed from airplanes and other horrific atrocities that claimed the lives of no less than 1,000,000 Ethiopian men, women and children, including 30,000 massacred in only three days in Addis Ababa as well as the reprisal killings of the entire monastic community at the historic Debre Libanos Monastery. In addition, 2,000 churches and 525,000 homes were destroyed by the Italian Fascists. These atrocities were carried out under the direct command of Graziani known as the Butcher of Ethiopia.

Graziani remained loyal to Mussolini until 1945 and served as the Minister of Defense of the puppet Italian Republic in Northern Italy and committed additional war crimes in North Africa. In 1948, a military tribunal sentenced Graziani to 19 years jail, as punishment for his collaboration with the Nazis; but he was released after serving only a few months of the sentence. Now the Italian government has honored him with a mausoleum and memorial park, built at taxpayers' expense, in a village south of Rome. A Vatican representative attended the recent open ceremony of the Graziani memorial.

The Global Alliance for Justice – The Ethiopian Cause advocates for the recognition of the Ethiopian genocide and is chaired by His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile Selassie, the grandson of Emperor Haile-Selassie I who along with Ethiopian patriots liberated the country from the Italians.

The Alliance is also campaigning for a Vatican apology to the Ethiopian people for its complicity with the Italian Fascists, restitution of looted Ethiopian properties, the payment of adequate reparations by the Italian government to Ethiopia as well as the inclusion of the Italian war crimes in Ethiopia in the historic annals of the United Nations.

According to Alliance officials they are calling for condemnation of the Graziani memorial by the United Nations General Assembly, European Union Parliament, and African Union as well as contemplating legal action.


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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Italy's memorial to fascist Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani condemned by Ethiopians

Posted by Spider-Pig on Mon Aug 20 05:10:23 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Italy's memorial to fascist Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani condemned by Ethiopians, posted by Olog-hai on Mon Aug 20 01:24:37 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Communists overthrew Highly Sellasie.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Italy's memorial to fascist Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani condemned by Ethiopians

Posted by Dan Lawrence on Mon Aug 20 07:41:47 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Italy's memorial to fascist Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani condemned by Ethiopians, posted by Olog-hai on Mon Aug 20 01:24:37 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Who cares? You post more crap than the Turtle!!

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(EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by Olog-hai on Fri Aug 24 19:22:30 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
The Local

Politician: gays biggest threat after euro crisis

Published: 23 Aug 12 17:00 CET
A German politician is facing a barrage of criticism after denouncing gay couples as the biggest threat to the country’s prosperity after the euro crisis.

Katherina Reiche, a state secretary for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), laid her cards on the table on Tuesday, telling Bild newspaper that Germany's future “lies in the hands of families, not in same-sex partnerships.”

What she called, “this demographic development”, was “next to the euro crisis, the biggest threat to German prosperity.”

Merkel's Union must, Reiche added, “clearly state that it backs the idea of family, children and marriage, and that society is not held together by small groups but from a stable center.”

Her comments come as the government is caught up in a debate about whether to give gay partnerships the same legal status as traditional marriages.

Certain critics, local paper the Berliner Zeitung said, have reveled in pointing out the hypocrisy in the fact that Reiche herself had two of her three children out of wedlock, while others have taken to Facebook to air their disappointment.

And despite Reiche taking her own Facebook page down after it was flooded with angry comments, some 6,000 gay marriage supporters have moved to a group made specifically for the Berlin-based politician, called No Future with Katherina Reiche.

The webpage is full of members calling Reiche a homophobe and links to an open letter addressed to the 39-year-old, which expresses the disappointment of many in Germany's gay community.

“We expected more from you, because thanks to your illegitimate children, you know that 21st century family does not automatically mean ‘husband + wife + children’,” the letter says. “Your statements are a slap in the face for all families that do not conform to your idea of normal.”

It ends, “Ms. Reiche, you do not see a future for a Germany in which homosexuals have the same rights as heterosexuals and we do not see a future for you in 21st century German politics.”

The author's suggestion about Reiche's future in parliament may not be totally unfounded, as a number of her fellow CDU politicians have spoken out about her views on gay marriage. One even tweeted that she had “gone too far.”

Attracting future voters could prove tricky in her constituency in Potsdam, where the young Christian Democrats issued a press release saying they were disappointed in the politician.

The Bild interview served to shine a brighter light on the current split in the CDU over gay partnerships, and suggests that it could be getting personal, as Reiche's boss — Environment Minister Peter Altmaier — is known for living alone, unmarried, with no children.

A writer for the Taz left-wing newspaper has called on Altmaier to come out, while he has refused to speak about his sexuality, telling Stern magazine on Thursday, he was happy living alone, and refused to be “defined by my sexual identity.”


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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 19:32:22 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by Olog-hai on Fri Aug 24 19:22:30 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Wow ... put that guy on a boat and get HER ass to Tampa ... quick!

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by Elkeeper on Fri Aug 24 21:04:14 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by Olog-hai on Fri Aug 24 19:22:30 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Mighty strange news considering Germany's gay population is over 8%. Must be all of those lederhosen!

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 21:11:51 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by Elkeeper on Fri Aug 24 21:04:14 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Apparently the GOP has infected Germany too. :)

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(978883)

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Aug 24 22:03:23 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 21:11:51 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Gee, they have Batshit Oktober in Germany, too!

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(978888)

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 22:10:44 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Aug 24 22:03:23 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Germany is what the GOP is struggling so hard to be. Why do you suppose the only republicans left are the nazi sympathizers? The sane ones bailed years ago and the crazies pitched the semi-sane ones out. Tax cuts uber alles, bro! :)

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(978890)

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Aug 24 22:14:06 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 22:10:44 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
To they have offshore tax shelters in Deutschland, too?

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 22:15:51 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Aug 24 22:14:06 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Better. Suisse. :)

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Aug 24 22:18:33 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 22:15:51 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Credit is better when it's Suisse!

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 22:27:45 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Aug 24 22:18:33 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
No free use allowed! :)



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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Aug 24 22:29:13 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 22:27:45 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
awww...I loke my money bettah when it's cheddah!

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Fri Aug 24 22:34:24 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) German politician says gays are biggest threat to Germany behind financial crisis, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Aug 24 22:29:13 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
I prefer a broccoli band full of cabbage myself. :)

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EUEUEUEUEU says large companies are better for the economy

Posted by Olog-hai on Wed Aug 29 03:08:08 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Uh-oh. What does that sound like?

EurActiv

Bigger is better: Large companies good for the economy, study finds

Published 29 August 2012
Large companies contribute disproportionately more to a country’s economic performance than smaller ones, according to a new EU-funded survey.

Bigger corporations are more productive, they pay higher wages, enjoy higher profits, and are more successful in international markets, said the report by European Firms in a Global Economy (EFIGE), an EU-funded project.

Therefore, a country's economic performance can be linked to its number of big corporations, says the survey, which was carried out under the supervision of Brussels-based think tank Bruegel.

This is one of the conclusions in EFIGE's new report, Breaking down the barriers to firm growth in Europe. The report systematically explores the interaction between firm and country characteristics through a survey of about 15,000 manufacturers in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Differences in the firm size profile of different European countries are dramatic, according to EFIGE. Companies in Spain and Italy are, for example, on average 40% smaller than those in Germany.

According to the authors of the report, it is important to understand the roots of the differences as they are "key to improving the economic performance of Europe’s lagging economies."

The low-average firm size translates into a chronic lack of large firms. In Spain and Italy a mere 5% of manufacturing firms have more than 250 employees, compared to a much higher 11% in Germany. The average firm size in Spain and Italy is, respectively, 49.3 and 42.7 employees, compared to 76.4 on average in Germany.

Analysts say large companies are more innovative

In all the countries in the survey, the exporting firms are also found to be larger and do more research and development (R&D).

"This suggests that barriers to R&D and trade are the main culprits that slow down firm growth. Countries that face higher trade costs provide fewer opportunities for businesses to become large. And a relative absence of R&D spending puts a break on firm growth, leading to a size distribution skewed towards smaller firms," the report said.

Trade and innovation are not independent, but interact in significant ways. For example, a reduction in trade costs tends to stimulate innovation as it allows firms to become larger. This makes it easier for the firm to bear the fixed costs of R&D.

To identify the barriers to firm growth, the authors behind the report say a model is needed to analyze different factors such as trade costs, innovation costs and tax distortions.

For example, if trade was to be ignored, then the model would predict that both Spain and Italy have high innovation costs. But once trade is introduced, the model finds that the large proportion of small firms in Italy is mainly due to high innovation costs, whereas in Spain it is due to a combination of high trade and high innovation costs.

If Italy wants to reduce the barriers to business growth, the country should mainly focus on promoting innovation. In Spain the emphasis should also be on cutting trade costs and improving access to international markets.


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Re: EUEUEUEUEU says large companies are better for the economy

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Thu Aug 30 00:55:50 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU says large companies are better for the economy, posted by Olog-hai on Wed Aug 29 03:08:08 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Sounds just like those kids having the koolaid party down in Tampa ... the old Reagan thing of "bigness is not badness" and "two hippies in a garage in Palo Alto will never amount to anything." :)

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(EUEUEUEUEU) Rabbi beaten up in broad daylight in Germany; sparks outrage

Posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 00:40:14 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
AFP via Yahoo News

Rabbi beating sparks fury in Germany

By Yannick Pasquet | AFP – Thu, Aug 30, 2012
The brutal daylight beating of a rabbi in front of his six-year-old daughter sparked furious condemnation in Germany Thursday, with some Jewish groups saying they feared a rise in anti-Semitic behavior.

The attack on the 53-year-old by four youths, thought to be Arabs, left him hospitalized and the Jewish community outraged, already up in arms over a court ruling in western Germany that outlaws religious circumcision.

One youth smashed the rabbi in the face several times after asking him if he was Jewish, apparently because he was wearing a traditional head covering, police said.

The assailants fled, but not before aiming death threats at the young girl, according to authorities, who have launched an investigation into the Tuesday attack.

Berlin rabbi Andreas Nachama told AFP that Germany had seen over the past few years "a rising hostility towards Jews due to the conflict in the Middle East."

"Verbal attacks against Jews have increased," said Gideon Joffe, head of the Jewish Community of Berlin, in an interview with local daily Tagesspiegel.

Meanwhile, the rector of the Abraham Geiger College in Berlin, an academic seminary for rabbis, warned his students against wearing the yarmulke, or traditional Jewish head covering.

"If you are no longer seen as a Jewish person, you are safer," Walter Homolka told Friday's edition of the Berliner Morgenpost daily.

Another Berlin-based rabbi, Walter Rothschild, told German radio: "I have been spat on in broad daylight in (the central Berlin square of) Wittenbergplatz and had slogans linked to the Middle East shouted at me."

The attack came amid a fierce row over a ruling by a court in Cologne, western Germany, that circumcision of young boys for religious reasons was tantamount to grievous bodily harm and therefore illegal.

The ruling has prompted fears that religious freedom is being restricted in Germany and has brought Jews and Muslims together in condemning the judgment.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly said the ruling risks making Germany a "laughing stock" and diplomats admit privately it is "disastrous" for the country's image abroad, given its Nazi past.

Other religious leaders also condemned the attack, with Catholic group Pax Christi saying it was an "attack on Jewish life in Germany."

However, the spokesman for the Jewish forum for democracy and against anti-Semitism, Levi Salomon, sought to downplay the problem, saying: "We are shocked (by the attack) but we do not feel unsafe" in Germany.

Nevertheless, he said the atmosphere in Germany had become more difficult given the circumcision row, as well as a public spat following the publication of a poem by German literary figure Gunter Grass lambasting Israel.

The Jewish community in Germany has undergone a renaïssance since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 with a flood of immigrants from the former Soviet bloc.

Often victims of anti-Semitism in their home countries, they were automatically awarded German citizenship.

Since 1989, some 220,000 Jews arrived from the former Soviet Union in Germany, which had only 30,000 Jews before 1989. But before Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, there were 600,000 Jews in Germany.


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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Rabbi beaten up by Arab scum in broad daylight in Germany; sparks outrage

Posted by RockParkMan on Sat Sep 1 01:06:30 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Rabbi beaten up in broad daylight in Germany; sparks outrage, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 00:40:14 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Clear ASSPECT Luvs the Arabs.

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Re: EUEUEUEUEU lies about their cars' emissions figures

Posted by Dyre Dan on Sat Sep 1 02:29:31 2012, in response to Re: EUEUEUEUEU lies about their cars' emissions figures, posted by Dan Lawrence on Sat Apr 28 20:03:54 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Are the U.S. tests more resistant to this kind of trickery?

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(EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPs

Posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 18:19:50 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
And everyone knows that the only job of the MEPs is to form people's opinions. (They can't write laws, even though they're a parliament. Ain't that funny?)

Daily Telegraph

US election 2012: Obama won my support — but it won’t happen again

Both British and US interests would be best served by a victory for Mitt Romney

By Daniel Hannan
7:45PM BST 31 Aug 2012
American pollsters will tell you that the presidential candidate who is in the lead going into the party conventions usually wins. Four polls last week showed a tiny lead for Barack Obama, two for Mitt Romney and one was level; all seven were well within the margin of error.

Another rule is that the Gallup poll taken 100 days before the poll foretells the winner. Only once in the past 60 years — the Bush-Dukakis race of 1988 — did that predictor fail. So, what did Gallup show on the date in question? A dead heat, with both candidates on 46 percent.

Many Europeans wonder why Mr. Obama is not comfortably ahead. Most media, both within the US and abroad, portray him as a serene statesman being shouted at by angry Tea Partiers in 18th-century fancy dress. Viewed solely through the medium of a television screen, he seems bigger than his Republican critics. They are presented as a gaggle of anti-abortionists, stump-toothed mountain men and crackpots hoarding gold against the presumed collapse of paper currencies — an extremist coalition led by a plutocrat. Seen from abroad, it looks like an election between Dr. Hibbert and Montgomery Burns.

Then again, we don’t have to live with Mr. Obama’s domestic policies. We see him doing what he does best: making speeches, carrying out ceremonial duties and reminding the world, simply by holding office, that America had the spirit to move in one generation from the formalized exclusion of black voters to the election of a mixed-race president.

It was largely on these grounds that I supported Mr. Obama four years ago. I was distressed by the Republican Party’s abandonment of free markets for crony capitalism. I thought that Mr. Obama’s election would wipe away the stain of segregation. And, frankly, I enjoyed his speeches.

Four years on, the speeches are starting to grate. Americans are tiring of their leader’s charm, much as we tired of Tony Blair’s. When demanding a trillion-dollar stimulus package at the start of his term, Mr. Obama promised that it would bring unemployment down to below 5.6 percent; today, the figure stands at 8.3 percent. He pledged, in that slightly millenarian manner of his, to halve the deficit. Four years on, the deficit has fallen from $1.3 trillion to, er, $1.2 trillion. America’s credit rating has been downgraded as $5 trillion has been added to the national debt.

These are indescribable sums. There are no superlatives that can adequately convey what a $16 trillion national debt means. But Americans don’t need to wrap their minds around the statistics to know that they are worse off than they were 12 months ago, and will be yet worse off 12 months from now.

The real question is not why Mr. Obama isn’t comfortably ahead, but why Mr. Romney isn’t. When 64 percent of Americans say that they expect their standard of living to decline under Mr. Obama, and when Mr. Romney enjoys a 19-point lead on economic competence, the election ought to be a walkover. Why isn’t it?

Largely because, so far, the campaign hasn’t really been about the economy. Before the Republican convention, the main news story was about a Republican senate candidate called Todd Akin who had made some idiotic remarks about rape — remarks which he immediately withdrew, which were universally condemned by the rest of his party and which concern a subject that is, in any case, wholly beyond the remit of the White House. The week before, the main issue had been gay marriage — again, a topic that has nothing to do with the federal government, being within the jurisdiction of the 50 states.

I can understand why Democrat strategists want to talk about something other than their economic record. As a delegate from Idaho said to me at the Republican convention this week: “Now I know how they must have felt when we kept talking about John Kerry.”

Mr. Romney has been attacked as a shill for Wall Street, a vulture capitalist who takes pleasure in sacking people and (whisper it) a member of a strange cult that baptizes the dead.

On Thursday night, rather late in the campaign, he answered his critics. Members of his congregation stepped forward to tell of the many acts of kindness and generosity that his faith had inspired, including his regular visits to a dying 14-year-old boy. If we didn’t already know about these things, ran the subtext, it was because Mitt Romney was naturally modest. Similarly, entrepreneurs lined up to praise the way his company had got their businesses started. It makes sense: religious toleration is drilled into Americans by their history, their constitution and their natural good manners, and the whispers against Mr. Romney’s Mormonism have prompted a backlash from all creeds. Similarly, the sneers about his business record are starting to jar in a country where making a profit is regarded, I’m glad to say, as laudable rather than culpable.

Mr. Romney’s team want to portray him as a competent, traditional, pro-business Republican. “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet,” Mr. Romney told delegates in Tampa. “My promise is to help you and your family.” It makes sense. If you needed a plumber, would you send for the better orator or the more skilled technician?

Mr. Romney is not a natural speech-maker. Once or twice during his address, I found my attention wandering. Then my eye would fall on the horrifying debt clock hanging over the hall and I’d remember quite how important this election is.

From a British point of view, the choice should be straightforward. Mr. Obama made clear in his book Dreams From My Father that he had a low opinion of us, and has acted accordingly, removing Winston Churchill’s bust from the Oval Office, backing Argentina’s demands for sovereignty talks over the Falklands, and raging at an imaginary company called “British Petroleum” during the Gulf oil spill. Mr. Romney, by contrast, is an old-fashioned Republican when it comes to foreign policy: he knows who America’s friends are.

There is, though, a much stronger reason for wanting him to win. Focused as we are on what the Chancellor calls the “chilling effect” of the euro crisis, we rarely consider the possibility of a similar crisis in the United States. Yet, if we employ the measure used to calculate the Maastricht criteria, the US has a larger national debt than Greece’s. And whereas a Greek default might be managed as a controlled explosion, a collapse in the US would blow the world economy to splinters.

Whether Mitt Romney can eliminate the deficit is not clear. What is beyond doubt, though, is that Mr. Obama cannot. His four years have left America poorer, less happy and less free. As Clint Eastwood told Republican delegates: “Politicians are employees of ours — and if somebody does not do the job, we gotta let ’em go.”

In a television interview after Mr. Romney’s speech, the presenter asked me whether it was possible to win on an austerity message. Hadn’t the Greeks just punished the politicians who suggested deep budget cuts? “Yes,” I told him, “but Americans aren’t Greeks. We expect better of you.”


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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama lost ONE Nazi MEP

Posted by RockParkMan on Sat Sep 1 18:29:00 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPs, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 18:19:50 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
US intrests ARE NOT SERVED by BRITISH interests.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS

Posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 18:35:19 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama lost ONE Nazi MEP, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Sep 1 18:29:00 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
You're the only Nazi here, rocKKKparKKKnazi. To you, the British were the Nazis and the Germans were the Allies back in the 40s, yes? Israel's a bloodthirsty murdering country that wants to exterminate the Palestinians in your view too, right?

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sat Sep 1 19:11:01 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 18:35:19 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
In your little twisted world, that probably sounds right. :(

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama loses ONE MEP

Posted by italianstallion on Sat Sep 1 19:15:53 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPs, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 18:19:50 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Corrected title.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS

Posted by RockParkMan on Sat Sep 1 19:18:25 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 18:35:19 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Nope. In fact the end game of WWII was mishandled. Britain should have had dominion over Western Europe, Russia should have gotten eastern Europe and Germany while the US should have gotten the Pacific Rim. As for Israel, They've got the balls to take out Iran and they will take Iran out. All your Stratfor bullshit is just that, BULLSHIT. America Does have Israel's back, but when all is said and done it will be the IDF who drops the hammer on Reagan's co-conspirators in Iran. now why don't you do the right thing and EAT YOUR GUN.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS

Posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 19:27:53 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Sep 1 19:18:25 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
You seem to understand absolutely nothing about the world, do you.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS

Posted by Dan Lawrence on Sat Sep 1 19:45:55 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 19:27:53 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Either that or all our legs are being pulled on a regular schedule.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS

Posted by RockParkMan on Sat Sep 1 20:12:26 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 19:27:53 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
EAT YOUR GUN, ASSHOLE.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Sat Sep 1 21:44:13 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPS, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Sep 1 20:12:26 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
He can't ... it needs to be boiled first. :)

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPs

Posted by bingbong on Sat Sep 1 21:56:20 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPs, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 18:19:50 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
These guys on't toe in US elections, or react? Move on.....

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPs

Posted by Train Dude on Sun Sep 2 10:32:08 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Obama losing the MEPs, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Sep 1 18:19:50 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Foreign Diplomacy 101:
Never give a Queen a set of DVD's as an official "State Gift". And if you do, be sure that they are of the correct type so that she doesn't have to fly across the Atlantic to watch them. What a bunch of fucking amateurs.

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(EUEUEUEUEU) France and Germany moving towards absolute political union

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Sep 2 21:25:13 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Le régime de Vichy est retourné. (And "malcomprehension"? Is that like "malquoted"?)

EU Observer

France and Germany moving towards closer political union

30.08.12 @ 10:58
By Valentina Pop
BRUSSELS — Last year, Germany went out on a limb by calling for political union in Europe. The idea was met with little enthusiasm elsewhere in the eurozone, but particularly in France.

After the election of French President François Hollande in May, it seemed that views of the EU's foremost political duo could not be further apart.

But the mood has since changed, and serious plans are underway to create — if not a full political union, then something close to it.

Watching the evolution from the inside is Thomas Wieser, an Austrian economist who prepares the regular meetings of the eurozone finance ministers.

"There will be consultations with the member states in the second half of September in Brussels, and I think you will be surprised in the autumn by the degree of movement that will have taken place in some member states,” he tells this website.

“What I have observed is a degree of cooperation between the two (France and Germany) which has increased, even within last week.”

One example is recent announcement by Berlin and Paris that they will establish a bilateral working group between their finance ministries.

"It is a group of colleagues from the two member states and if they prepare for our meetings, our meetings go even smoother,” said Wieser.

Meanwhile, EU council president Herman Van Rompuy and others are drawing up a paper to upgrade the eurozone, which will be discussed by EU leaders at a summit on 18-19 October. It will include elements for a political union, but also for a fiscal union — surrendering more budgetary powers to Brussels — considered key for the survival of the single currency.

One of the key steps along the way is the creation of a eurozone-wide banking supervisor under the authority of the European Central Bank.

Wieser believes that if such a supervisor had been in place five years ago, the euro crisis would already be over.

Unlike the US, where the government forced banks to take a lot of bailout money and get rid of their bad loans in return for a 50-percent stake that the state will gradually sell, European banks were too close to the national supervisors and ministers. They only took "a little money", which did not fix the problem.

"Many people say banking union is about breaking the link between the banks and the budget. This is nonsense. Banking union is about breaking the link between the bank and the supervisor."

"You don't want to have any provincial politician interfering in credit policies.”

Troika in Greece

Meanwhile, a lot of Wieser's daily phone calls are about the Athens inspection of the so-called troika of international lenders — the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.

At stake are €11.5 billion (US$14.5 billion) worth of spending cuts for 2013-2014 that the coalition government of Antonis Samaras needs to spell out in order to get the next tranche of money from the €130 billion ($163 billion) bailout agreed in March.

The cuts should have been agreed by the end of June, but have been delayed by political wrangling.

“What the experts do is that they go through each and every measure and look at all the underlying assumptions. They may say ‘okay, all the calculations are totally sound, we agree with the assumption’. Theoretically, they may come to different results and then they have to discuss with the Greek authorities how to make up for the shortfall.”

As the economy has shrunk more than predicted, Greece is likely to have to stomach further cuts beyond the €11.5 billion. The troika will also determine how large this extra funding gap is.

Greece wants an extension of the budget-cutting deadline, but Wieser says there is not “any appetite” for this among a large group of eurozone members, because “more time equals more money. It is inescapable. There is no magic around it: if you want to finance it for longer, you got to find more money,” the official said.

He brushed off criticism that the troika is not pushing enough for measures with a lower social impact, such as defense budget cuts or lifting tax exemptions for the rich.

“The defense budget has been cut quite significantly. As with so many other things, it takes time. The public sector in Greece has been used as a political machinery in order to give jobs to whomever.”

He held up the Greek railway system as an example, It has 700 kilometers (435 miles) of tracks and employed 1,000 people 30 years ago. This then spiked to 7,000 two decades later, without any increase in railway tracks.

However, Greek euro-exit talk, prevalent in Germany, reflect a “malcomprehension” about the extent of Athens’ progress to date, including “second to none” budget cuts, labor market reforms and liberalization of the transport market.

In the long run, the euro will survive, he believes, “otherwise I would be very stupid to take up this job.”


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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) France and Germany moving towards absolute political union

Posted by Elkeeper on Sun Sep 2 21:32:14 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) France and Germany moving towards absolute political union, posted by Olog-hai on Sun Sep 2 21:25:13 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
I wonder if the Greeks are trying to deport all of those North Africans who came there illegally? That would help with their finances a little.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) France and Germany moving towards absolute political union

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Sep 2 22:35:04 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) France and Germany moving towards absolute political union, posted by Elkeeper on Sun Sep 2 21:32:14 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
The support for the neo-Nazi party "Golden Dawn" is actually on the increase, so deportation may be too much money for them . . .

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(EUEUEUEUEU) CDU dissident calls Merkel's EU-wide power grab bad for democracy

Posted by Olog-hai on Mon Sep 10 21:52:14 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
EuroNews

Merkel’s EU power grab bad for democracy, warns CDU dissident

10/09/12 20:06 CET
In power for almost seven years, the political stature of Angela Merkel is without equal among the leaders of the European Union.

The condition of Germany’s economy and the health of its public finances have reinforced the Chancellor’s position in imposing her way of trying to deal with the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Yet fiscal discipline and the reduction of deficits
have not won her universal approval by any means, not with the social cost of austerity policies, and the rise in unemployment in many partner countries. Merkel’s strict line carries a risk of rejection in a Europe feeling talked-down-to by Berlin.

Among the names she has been called, the ‘Iron Chancellor’ is not the harshest. A photo montage by British magazine the New Statesman speaks a thousand words, even without ‘dangerous’ in the title; in it she is portrayed as ‘Terminator’, from the film.

Not only the media but Merkel’s peers have criticized the cure she prescribes for the crisis as too severe. Pressure was especially pronounced at the G20 summit in Mexico in June, conveyed by the most indebted eurozone countries. Yet she is nothing if not tenacious, as her career has proven.

Born in Hamburg, in July 1954, Angela Merkel was raised in the former East Germany, her father a Lutheran pastor and her mother a teacher.

After German reunification in 1990 she joined the conservative Christian Democratic Union, as a protégé of its leader Helmut Kohl, who appointed her Federal Minister for Women and Youth.

The CDU elected her as its chair before the decade was out.

She became Chancellor in 2005 after a stalemate election and would govern in a grand coalition with the Social Democratic Party, until she won a larger majority in 2009.

Since then, in spite of electoral defeats in regional polls, Merkel’s popularity among Germans has never been higher, with more than two thirds saying they approve of her handling of the euro zone crisis.

Dubbed the world’s ‘most powerful’ woman by Forbes magazine, or the ‘Queen of Europe’ by Germany’s Der Spiegel, while Merkel is riding high in domestic opinion polls, there are rumblings from within her party.

Some members are ‘stomping about with clenched fists stuffed into their pockets,’ claims Professor of literature and political and economic advisor Gertrud Höhler.

In her latest book she describes the “System M” set up by Merkel, calling it “crypto, or invisible-authoritarian”.

Back in the Helmut Kohl era, Höhler was spoken of as a possible minister, and is a well-connected CDU member. She is a strong voice among the marginalized core conservatives, and knows her party inside-out.

She spoke to euronews from Berlin.
euronews: Professor Höhler, you have analyzed the Merkel system. How did you come to the conclusion that Merkel disempowers parliament?

Gertrud Höhler: Yes, she does that in the process of the so called saving of the euro. Disempowerment grows. We now have the decision of the European Central Bank that it does not need parliamentary approval for its bond buying program. That plunges the reach of monetary policy deep into parliamentary democracy in the EU member countries as well as in the European parliament.

Germans now live in a democracy with heavy pressure for consensus — that creates the clenched fists in the pockets of the dissatisfied and angry who do not consent to the style of a one-party state. They know they will be isolated or even lose their jobs. And I have to tell you that such a development where everyone always votes for the same reminds me of totalitarian systems.

euronews: Hollande is a typical French-style state interventionist. Merkel for you is a champion of the centrally-planned economy. Isn’t that the dream team that will lead Europe into what euroskeptics call the “EU-SSR”?

Gertrud Höhler: Yes, indeed, they both largely agree on the point of government interventions in the economy. But what is striking is how Merkel keeps her distance from Hollande. And the reason for that is probably that she does not need a competitor for the distribution of the future top jobs in Europe.

euronews: How does Angela Merkel exploit Europe’s institutions in her fight for power?

Gertrud Höhler: Yes, she creates approval for constructions that nobody really understands. The finance ministers of the EU member countries are all immune. They are sworn to secrecy. We have perpetuity — an anti-democratic model, and at the same time we have the unlimited possibility to disperse money. That’s what they called the Stabilization Mechanism, but in fact that drives the destabilization of Europe. I have to thank you; it is extremely important that we understand that if parliament converts from decider to a mere observer, then it will be extremely dangerous for democracy.



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EUEUEUEUEU offers terror-supporting Egypt over $1.3 billion in aid

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Sep 16 01:03:00 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
European Voice

EU offers Egypt €1 billion

By Andrew Gardner | 14.09.2012 / 09:00 CET

First visit to Brussels by an Egyptian president results in offer of aid and greater trade.

EU leaders yesterday offered Egypt more than €1 billion in aid and the prospect of better terms of trade during the first visit to Brussels by an Egyptian president.

Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, emphasized the importance of consolidating Egypt's transition to democracy, saying: “Success in Egypt would have positive repercussions on the region as a whole.”

After his meeting with Egypt's Mohammad Morsi, Van Rompuy described Egypt “as a friend, a neighbor, a partner” that could count on EU support during its democratic transition.

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission's president, said that Morsi, a long-time leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood who became president on 30 June, had an “unwavering commitment” to democracy.

In his comments, Morsi specifically mentioned his support for Egypt's large Christian minority and for women, whose rights he described as “very important to us”.

The visit to Brussels by Morsi came amid violent anti-US protests that led to the killing of the US ambassador and three other US diplomats in Libya.

Morsi condemned both the spur for the violence — a US film portraying the Prophet Mohammad as a killer and child abuser — but also condemned the killings in Libya.

“We Egyptians reject any kind of assault or insult against our Prophet,” he said, but added: “It is our duty to protect our guests and visitors from abroad.”

“We will not allow such destructive acts in Egypt,” the president said.

On Tuesday (11 September), protesters in Cairo managed to enter the compound of the US embassy.

EU financial support

Barroso said that the EU would make €449 million available to Egypt by 2013 to enable Egypt and its people to “seize the opportunities and build a better future”, and would give €150-200 million to support Egypt's budget.

Egypt in February asked the Commission for aid worth around €500 million.

Barroso also said the EU would be “willing to do much more”, if the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also pledges a substantial loan. Egypt last month asked the IMF for a $4.8 billion (€3.7 billion) loan and hopes to reach agreement by the end of the year. Egypt's foreign-currency reserves plummeted last year amid concern on the part of investors about Egypt's stability.

Barroso also said that the EU is willing to start negotiations on a "deep" free-trade deal. Roughly one-third of Egypt's exports currently go to the EU, making the EU Egypt's largest trading partner.

In 2011, Egypt's exports to the EU were worth €9.4 billion. Its imports from the EU totaled €13.9 billion.


Egypt is particularly keen to develop ties in its agricultural and energy sectors.

A task force created by the two sides is due to meet on 14-15 November to identify areas where the EU could provide more political and economic support.

Egypt is also seeking to recover assets deposited in Europe by Egypt's deposed long-time leader, Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak is thought to have stowed as much as $10 billion (€7.7 billion) abroad.

Morsi has previously traveled to Saudi Arabia, China and Iran. Egypt's prime minister, Hisham Qandil, has also been traveling abroad — to the US — to encourage investment.


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(EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones

Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 25 01:30:55 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
The hypocrisy of it all. The USA's biggest critic and all?

The Local

Air Force calls for armed Euro-made drones

Published: 24 Sep 12 11:14 CET
Some German top Air Force brass want to expand their use of unmanned drones — and arm them in the future. Plans for European drone development are gaining support from those who want more independence from US military technology.

Currently, Germany uses three unarmed drones for reconnaissance purposes in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountain range, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Monday.

But despite a continuing ethical debate over whether or not to use armed drones — as the US military does in its anti-terrorism campaign — there is support in Germany to move in that direction.

The Commander of the German Air Force, or Luftwaffe, maintained in a recent paper called “Air Power 2030” that there should be no question over Germany’s use of the capabilities of unmanned aircraft in “all areas,” including the use of weapons, the newspaper said.

But where Germany will get those future drones remains an open question. The country has a leasing contract for Israeli-built Heron 1 drones that expires at the end of 2014.

Defense Minister Thomas De Maizière and most specialists in the ruling coalition of Christian Democrats (CDU), Free Democrats (FDP), and the Christian Social Union (CSU), as well as some members of the opposition Social Democrats (SPD), want a long-term and multinational collaboration to develop European “unmanned aerial vehicles,” the paper reports.

France and Germany already have signed a corresponding letter of intent.

The Air Force’s Commander, Lieutenant General Karl Müllner, supports a purchase of the US Predator B drones, because they are regularly available, are a proven quantity, and are used by many NATO partners, the Süddeutsche Zeitung said.

But some politicians broth both the CDU and SPD argue that the purchase of US drones would deter development of a European drone, which they hope will reduce German dependence on US technology. The Defense Ministry has allotted €660 million over the next four years for the development of European unmanned aerial vehicles.

The parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces Helmut Königshaus voiced his strong support for armed drones to the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

“If our soldiers had the availability of armed drones, they would no longer have to look on helplessly when our own people are being threatened, but instead could attack and drive out their opponents without harming their own units,” he said.


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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Tue Sep 25 02:02:28 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 25 01:30:55 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
All part of the plan ... even Schwarzenegger has returned as of yesterday. Return to your home, citizen.



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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones

Posted by WillD on Tue Sep 25 04:30:04 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 25 01:30:55 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
So it's not enough that we attempt to dictate the laws of physics to countries like Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan in the name of stability, now we're going to dictate the laws of aerodynamics and tell sovereign, fully functioning democracies what they can and cannot hang on the very same types of weapons systems we're now constructing?

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Tue Sep 25 04:34:08 2012, in response to Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones, posted by WillD on Tue Sep 25 04:30:04 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
And given that Iran is already flying THEIR drones over Syria, seems reasonable to let the Germans fly some over them.

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Re: (EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones

Posted by orange blossom special on Tue Sep 25 10:32:23 2012, in response to (EUEUEUEUEU) Luftwaffe calls for Euro-built *armed* drones, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 25 01:30:55 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Oh boy, Obama's gonna be jealous and have all sorts of ideas.

The good thing about an Obama re-election, there won't be any liberal whining over his continual wiretaps and drone surveillance of American citizens.

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EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time

Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Oct 2 03:33:21 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

fiogf49gjkf0d
EurActiv

Air safety agency proposes new limits on flight duty

Published 01 October 2012
Timothy Spence
Europe’s aviation safety regulator today (1 October) recommended 30 new regulations that agency officials say would make flying safer but acknowledged would not make either airlines or trade unions happy.

The proposed changes to a 2008 EU regulation deal broadly with the hours pilots and flight crews can work. The results cap three years of studies by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which was under pressure from struggling airlines for flexibility and trade unions for tougher limits on duty hours.

“If I were to tell you that our proposals will make everybody happy, I would be wrong,” Jean-Marc Cluzeau, the head of flight safety standards at EASA, told a news conference in Brussels.

Amongst its main recommendations, EASA calls for reducing the time pilots can be on duty if their shift involves nighttime flying from 11 hours and 45 minutes to 11 hours, with a nine-hour cap if duty time involve multiple take-offs and landings that occur at night.

The recommendations also prescribe additional weekly rest times for pilots who have worked “disruptive schedules” – such as those involving periods of long flight delays or multiple start times. And the proposals would ban the growing practice of reserving an economy-class seat for pilots to rest during long-haul flights amid complaints that the practice contributes to fatigue.

A commission official welcomed the proposals and said they would be reviewed in the next few weeks.

“Implementing EASA’s proposals should result in a significant improvement in safety across the EU as a whole,” said Matthew Baldwin, head of air transport the Commission’s transport directorate.

But he admitted that the recommendations are under fire for not being rigorous enough in capping duty times.

“Some stakeholders are already indicating that they are not fully satisfied with the EASA’s proposals and they of course will be making their views public,” Baldwin said, adding: “All I can usefully say at this stage is that we in Commission will listen with great care to each and every view that is presented to us.”

Turbulent year for airlines

With European passenger airlines on course for a loss-making year, airlines have pressed for more flexibility in work rules to control additional staff costs, such as when extra flight and cabin crews must be called in during peak congestion or inclement weather because pilots were nearing maximum flying times. Pilots operating in the EU can now be on duty 13 hours during the day and 11 hours and 45 minutes at night, though airlines can request they work additional time and the flight captain can add extend crew shifts if long delays are expected.

Trade unions representing pilots and cabin crews have pressed EASA to impose far tougher limits on work hours, citing safety concerns about cockpit fatigue.

Philip von Schöppenthau, secretary-general of the European Cockpits Association, told EurActiv recently that the pilots were adamant in holding out for a 10-hour cap on nighttime duty, an hour less than what EASA proposes, and sees little room for middle ground.

The night restrictions are of particular concern, with studies showing the likelihood of accidents rising sharply the longer a pilot spends at the controls.

In November 2008, a study submitted to EASA by Mobeus Aviation consultancy in Zürich argued that pilots can lose awareness after 10 hours and recommended flight duty periods for crew “should not exceed 10 hours overnight.”

The draft standards for flight crews follow what EASA officials said was a vigorous review of dozens of safety studies and medical assessments, as well as analysis of material provided by national aviation safety agencies.

EASA is proposing an 11-hour standard for duty starting times between 5 p.m. and 4:59 a.m. The EASA recommendation also removes the possibility of one-hour extensions for night duty. Most airlines already operate under restrictions carved out in trade union contracts that are far stricter than either EASA or national safety policies.


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Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Tue Oct 2 03:43:40 2012, in response to EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Oct 2 03:33:21 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Shame on them! Pilots should NEVER get any rest periods and be prepared to work 20 hours days 7 days a week so as to satisfy their conservative masters for less money. :(

Ah for the good old days when folks only had to work 8 hours before they could go home. Bless this automated world of leisure! :-\

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Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time

Posted by LuchAAA on Tue Oct 2 03:49:12 2012, in response to Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time, posted by SelkirkTMO on Tue Oct 2 03:43:40 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
yet in civil service, the workforce can't wait to work 7 days a week.

look at Transit. they work penalty jobs and RDO's voluntarily.



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Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Tue Oct 2 04:58:56 2012, in response to Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time, posted by LuchAAA on Tue Oct 2 03:49:12 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
Well ... apparently Olog favors making all that mandatory ... it's the right wing thing to do ... like bringing back "child labor" ... after all, it's all about the money changers, right? Jesus was a commie. :-\

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Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time

Posted by LuchAAA on Tue Oct 2 06:01:29 2012, in response to Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time, posted by SelkirkTMO on Tue Oct 2 04:58:56 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
screw the Germans. they're into fisting and pissing and all that stupid shit..

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Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Tue Oct 2 06:05:20 2012, in response to Re: EUEUEUEUEU aviation safety agency calls for new limits on pilot on-duty time, posted by LuchAAA on Tue Oct 2 06:01:29 2012.

fiogf49gjkf0d
And here's the GOP bringing it over here. :(

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