A Blogging Milestone: 5000 Visits

At 5:44pm yesterday, this blog reached another milestone - 5,000 visits.

From its inception on July 31st, 2008, we have covered a wide variety of issues, some of which are listed below.

• The 2008 Election, including our series of Oklahoma-based polls, and our Bought and Paid For: Jim Roth series
• Muskogee-area Politics
• The RNC Chair Race
• The Israeli Parliamentary Elections
• The Continuing Israeli-Arab/Palestinian Conflicts
  
• The OKGOP Chair Race and Caucus Vote
  
• Global Warming, and the rising prominence of Czech Pres. Vaclav Klaus
• KFAQ's Firing of Chris Medlock
  
• The 2010 Gubernatorial Election
• The 2009 Tea Parties

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for reading my blog. Due to your visits, this blog has been ranked as high as 3rd on the BlogNetNews.com/Oklahoma Influence Index, and is currently ranked 10th on the 12-week rolling average - a pretty good accomplishment. You as readers have also left 138 comments.

None of this would have happened without you, and I thank you all again. I hope that you will continue to read this blog in the future.

Sincerely,

Jamison Faught
The Muskogee Politico Blogmaster

Vaclav Klaus: The Hero of Europe

Vaclav Klaus, the fiery president of the Czech Republic (who happens to be the current rotating president of the European Union), offended the liberals in the European Parliament today, essentially comparing the current path of the EU to the former Soviet Union. The free-market advocate, global warming critic, and conservative politician delivered a speech before the EP, which you can read in its entirety here.

Excerpts (emphasis Klaus'):

The present decision making system of the European Union is different from a classic parliamentary democracy, tested and proven by history. In a normal parliamentary system, part of the MPs support the government and part support the opposition. In the European parliament, this arrangement has been missing. Here, only one single alternative is being promoted and those who dare thinking about a different option are labelled as enemies of the European integration. Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives and therefore also no parliamentary opposition. It was through this experience that we learned the bitter lesson that with no opposition, there is no freedom. That is why political alternatives must exist.

And not only that. The relationship between a citizen of one or another member state and a representative of the Union is not a standard relationship between a voter and a politician, representing him or her. There is also a great distance (not only in a geographical sense) between citizens and Union representatives, which is much greater than it is the case inside the member countries. This distance is often described as the democratic deficit, the loss of democratic accountability, the decision making of the unelected – but selected – ones, as bureaucratisation of decision making etc. The proposals to change the current state of affairs – included in the rejected European Constitution or in the not much different Lisbon Treaty – would make this defect even worse.

Since there is no European demos – and no European nation – this defect cannot be solved by strengthening the role of the European parliament either. This would, on the contrary, make the problem worse and lead to an even greater alienation between the citizens of the European countries and Union institutions. The solution will be neither to add fuel to the “melting pot” of the present type of European integration, nor to suppress the role of member states in the name of a new multicultural and multinational European civil society. These are attempts that have failed every time in the past, because they did not reflect the spontaneous historical development.

[At this point, liberal members of the EP began to walk out in protest. You can view this at the 7:35 mark of this video, unfortunately in Czech, not English.]

[...]

We must say openly that the present economic system of the EU is a system of a suppressed market, a system of a permanently strengthening centrally controlled economy. Although history has more than clearly proven that this is a dead end, we find ourselves walking the same path once again. This results in a constant rise in both the extent of government masterminding and constraining of spontaneity of the market processes. In recent months, this trend has been further reinforced by incorrect interpretation of the causes of the present economic and financial crisis, as if it was caused by free market, while in reality it is just the contrary – caused by political manipulation of the market. It is again necessary to point out to the historical experience of our part of Europe and to the lessons we learned from it.

Many of you certainly know the name of the French economist Frederic Bastiat and his famous Petition of the Candlemakers, which has become a well-known and canonical reading, illustrating the absurdity of political interventions in the economy. On 14 November 2008 the European Commission approved a real, not a fictitious Bastiat’s Petition of the Candlemakers, and imposed a 66% tariff on candles imported from China. I would have never believed that a 160-year-old essay could become a reality, but it has happened. An inevitable effect of the extensive implementation of such measures in Europe is economic slowdown, if not a complete halt of economic growth. The only solution is liberalisation and deregulation of the European economy.

There is hope for Europe after all. Here's another video to see, from Nigel Farage (MEP from southeastern England, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, and co-chair of the Independence and Democracy "caucus" of the European Parliament).

UPDATE: Here's an AP article on the issue.

Vaclav Klaus Hits Global Warming Again

Vaclav Klaus, the fiery conservative Czech President, hit global warming again today. Read this article from Breitbart.com.

The Czech Republic currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, giving Klaus a much greater platform.

You can visit the English version of his website here.

The Difference a Day can make, EU-style

The European Union on the current Israel vs. Hamas/Terrorism conflict:

A few day ago...

"The EU condemns the Israeli bombardments as well as rocket attacks from Gaza. It demands that this stops immediately."

"I [Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief] call for an immediate cessation of military actions on both sides. The EU has repeatedly condemned rocket attacks against Israel. The current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians and will only worsen the humanitarian crisis."

... and today:

"At the moment, from the perspective of the last days, we understand this step as a defensive, not offensive, action," said Czech EU presidency spokesman Jiri Potuznik.

Vaclav Klaus, the conservative president of the Czech Republic, has now taken over the rotating presidency of the EU. His views on national sovereignty, global warming, and Israel are counter to much of the liberal governments of Europe. His predecessor in the EU presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy, had a different view on the latest Israeli conflict.

The statement by Vaclav Klaus led France and Great Britain to respond with this:

"France condemns the Israeli ground offensive against Gaza as it condemns the continuation of rocket firing."

"It is not the position of the British government."

I really like this Vaclav Klaus...

Vaclav Klaus - the Next Head of the EU?

Latest news on the European Union:

A Fiery Czech is Poised to be the Face of Europe (excerpts)

PRAGUE — In the 1980s, a Communist secret police agent infiltrated clandestine economics seminars hosted by Vaclav Klaus, a fiery future leader of the Czech Republic, who had come under suspicion for extolling free market virtues. Rather than reporting on Marxist heresy, the agent was most struck by Mr. Klaus’s now famous arrogance.

“His behavior and attitudes reveal that he feels like a rejected genius,” the agent noted in his report, which has since been made public. “He shows that whoever does not agree with his views is stupid and incompetent.”

Decades later, Mr. Klaus, the 67-year-old president of the Czech Republic — an iconoclast with a perfectly clipped mustache — continues to provoke strong reactions. He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an “apostle of arrogance” for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.

Now the Czech Republic is about to assume the rotating presidency of the European Union and there is palpable fear that Mr. Klaus will embarrass the world’s biggest trading bloc and complicate its efforts to address the economic crisis and expand its powers. His role in the Czech Republic is largely ceremonial, but he remains a powerful force here, has devotees throughout Europe and delights in basking in the spotlight.

[...]

To supporters, Mr. Klaus is a brave, lone crusader, a defender of liberty, the only European leader in the mold of the formidable Margaret Thatcher. (Aides say Mr. Klaus has a photo of the former British prime minister in his office near his desk.)

[...]

While even many of the world’s most ardent free marketeers acknowledged the need for the recent coordinated bailout of European banks, Mr. Klaus lambasted it as irresponsible protectionism. He blamed too much — rather than too little — regulation for the crisis.

A fervent critic of the environmental movement, he has called global warming a dangerous “myth,” arguing that the fight against climate change threatens economic growth.

Perhaps his greatest ire has been reserved for the European Union. In 2005, he called for it to be “scrapped.” Now, he is a vocal opponent of the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to help Europe become more of an international player, but which he argues will strip countries of sovereignty.

This is great news for the conservative movement in Europe. Vaclav Klaus is the latest European leader in the type of Margaret Thatcher, standing for free-market capitalism and against the global warming pseudo-science religion.