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Unlike that of the USSR, who only supported foreign Leftists, Putin's Russia is non-partisan, looking for support and influence wherever they can find it. In Germany, for example, thay happen to be particularly successful among the Left (no doubt with the aid of the old Stasi files). In France they supported the supposed rightists.

Western societies aren't immune to corruption — if the price is right — and for years Putin could afford bribes on the scale of millions.

Likewise, their targeting computers of all political parties is not at all surprising. That the GOP runs a tighter ship is not surprising either...

Numbers mean nothing. I said firepower, not useless untrained soldiers. The French greatly leaned on USA during their overthrow of the Libyan government.

If you think the EU is 'big government', what do you think of the national governments?

Not much. Institutions of state should be as small as possible and their employees should be accountable to the taxpayer. That's not the situation in the EU. Why would EU civil servants require immunity unless they know what they are doing is criminal?

I somewhat agree that nuclear is not to be discarded as option, but I wouldn't take Belarus as example of "cheap and safe" just yet. Belarus is not exactly transparent with the pretty concerning accidents and mistakes during construction, not to mention the planning itself is somewhat questionable: https://euobserver.com/opinion...

You got me. It was a membership request that they dropped and yes I apologize for the factual error. Project Fear among other campaigns were certainly social issues, as was the additional debt they would have acquired by joining the EU. here Greenland leaving had some to do with what you claim they benefit from, which is fishing rights. Also we have the expansion of the EU into local politics including banning indigenous people's livelihood (A concern Canada has with EU also).

Of course people claim that they want to rejoin the EU, just like people in the UK started making the same claims right after the leave vote. Media has a funny way of promoting certain ideologies no matter how big or small just to push an agenda. In terms of voters, more Polish and Hungarian people want to leave the EU than people in Greenland and Iceland want to join by way of percentages. That won't get lip service though, because it fails the agenda.

Actually EU nations are and it builds on work from past decades.

Then it's not me you need to convince, it's your fellow countrymen who are homosexual that rank your country incredibly poorly:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl...

https://euobserver.com/beyond-...

I can only go on the data that comes out of your country, and it still seems to show widespread opposition to things like gay marriage, and widespread claims of persecution by people who are actually homosexual and so on and so forth. Maybe you're right, but the data doesn't show it because for whatever reason gay people in your country disagree with you completely.

Really, this is more akin to knocking on someone's door, and the door just falls inward because the hinges, doorknob, and deadbolt is missing and there are several gang members watching you from across the street (ie, FSU / KGB). What these people are really advocating is they would rather that person just walk away at that point, and not even bother to stick their head inside and yell "HEY YOUR FRONT DOOR JUST FELL IN! HELLO? ANYONE HOME?"!

And their also taking the Slovenian Defense Ministry's word that he even HAD a badge. Why did they wait SIX years to arrest him if he really tried to be a "fake cop"? It's been voted the most corrupt country in the EU rated at 96% in 2013 by "3,459 company board members in 36 countries worldwide, including 22 EU member states. " But yeah, go ahead and take their Ministry's version of this hook, line, and sinker. While your at it, you should install the new app "Please spy on me NSA" on all your electronic devices too.

I think that Hawking and the scientific community are pretty much experts on the subject they wrote about: how scientific research is funded and who does it, and how Brexit would affect it. And in my opinion their prediction is head on: it would be a disaster. Research is pretty much an international affair, and doing it without EU grants and with less cooperation from EU scientists is clearly going to make it harder.

Do you really think if some project wanted Hawking or some other noted scientist or that they wanted to participate in some project that it is going to depend on whether or not the UK is part of the EU? As you state, research is an international affair. Even in times or war, scientists have been able to travel to where the research or symposium was.

I think you are making a straw man argument. What I said is that UK scientists will not get EU grants and will have less collaborations with EU scientists. I never said that Hawking or some famous scientists are going to have any problems participating in whichever project they want. Science, however, is not made only by famous people; in fact, the great majority of scientists are not famous (as you probably know). To give you an example of how is life for non-famous scientists, imagine that the EU is funding a project called RAQUEL on randomness and entanglement. The researchers on this field are writing their proposal to get the funding: the research goals, the time span, and crucially, the participants. They know a really good researcher on this field that works in the University of Bristol, Andreas Winter. Now will they sweat to get some extra funding outside the EU to be able to get Andreas Winter on the project, or they will simply choose instead Andris Ambainis, an equally good researcher from the University of Latvia that the EU will be happy to fund? In this imaginary case Andreas will not get the money nor will he be invited to the scientific meetings. In the real world what happened is that both got funded by the project and collaborated.

And I don't see what is your point about scientists being able to travel even in times of war. Did I ever suggest otherwise? I agree with you, it is laughable the idea that Brexit would make it hard for UK scientists to travel wherever they want.

While it is unlikely that the UK will get EU grants, it is not unlikely that UK scientists will be prohibited from participating in EU funded projects. In addition, it is likely that there will be as much funding for UK projects because the UK funding will not be spread over the entire EU.

I think one can get a good idea about what will happen to the UK by looking at what happened to Switzerland after they voted to restrict immigration from the EU. So indeed, they got no EU funding (in particular none of the coveted ERC grants), but they are allowed to participate in EU projects. They actually got less money than before, however, as they were extremely successful in getting research grants (only less successful than the UK, I believe). They paid about €1.6 billion and got back about €1.8 billion.

And keep it monitored. Cement cracks, eventually. Mother Nature is a heavyweight champion.

And being encased in cement makes it real easy to have a look-see or move it if there is a problem. No, wait ... it doesn't.

Oddly, why didn't you suggest a story on how Taxi drives are on strike right now at this very moment over Uber, which you mysteriously, inexplicably failed to mention! http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/84e1... https://www.bostonglobe.com/bu... http://algarvedailynews.com/ne... http://www.chicagobusiness.com... http://www.cbsnews.com/picture... http://www.abc.net.au/news/201... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new... http://www.theguardian.com/tec... https://euobserver.com/connect... http://www.wftv.com/videos/new... http://in-cyprus.com/nicosia-t...

Ironically, Greece had a balanced budget in 2014. Germany did not. Yes, this is true if you compare apples to oranges.

Greece had a small budget surplus if you exclude debt repayments and one off payments such as bank bailouts. Overall it's budget deficit was around 13% (which meant that Greece was no longer in last place with Slovenia something around 15%)

18 European countries kept their deficit within the 3% threshold. Luxembourg posted a small surplus while Germany[1] was balanced.

https://euobserver.com/news/12...

To Greece's credit, balancing the budget excluding debt repayments and one off items was achieved around a year ahead of the agreed austerity plan.

[1] To reconcile this with your claim I can only assume that Germany was very slightly negative. Small enough that most people call it balanced.

There is not going to be any "fiscal union" anytime soon. Actually the monetary union is going to die as soon as France and Italy will likely hold referendums to get out of the eurozone, as three of the main parties in those two countries are asking for (in France Le Pen's Front National, the front runner for the next general french elections, in Italy the Five Star Movement and the Northern League). Just to make an example, the majority of Italians regret switching from the Lira to the euro according to a recent poll: http://euobserver.com/news/126...

One day or another, the bilderberg criminals who have tried to create a corporate-friendly "nation" out of europe without the necessary historical requirements (one main ethnicity, one main culture and one main language) will be hold accountable for it. Nations are born from the will of the masses, not from the alcoholic dreams of corrupt freemasons.

They didn't reject it (or not). They are unable to grant it, so the issue is moot.

No, they actually did reject calling for it in a nonbinding resolution, and they can't force it. (And I find it somewhat odd that they can't force it given the other actions that the EU imposes on its members from time to time.)

MEPs say No to Snowden asylum in Europe

A European Parliament committee on Wednesday (12 February) voted against calling for asylum protection for former US intelligence agency contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

You hear wrongly.
http://euobserver.com/social/121778
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10361971/Britain-admits-it-has-no-figures-on-EU-welfare-tourist-numbers.html

Unproductive immigrants are largely a myth. People who can work themselves up enough to emigrate are not usually the sort of people to shy away from work. Statistically, an immigrant is more likely to be in work than a UK native, and is likely to make greater net payments to the state (paying taxes versus using government services) than a native.

Immigration is a knee-jerk right-wing bugbear. You can argue, if you like, that they're taking our jobs. But you can't also argue that they're all work-shy scroungers. Can't both be true.

European Parliament may be "officially nominating" - but their respective countries have all denied Snowdens asylum requests. Sure sounds like a consolation prize and even if he wins it, it does not let European countries off the hook for their crime. History will judge their actions very poorly - they have done the world a disservice and revealed their deep rooted hypocrisy.

Although there are stronger laws in Europe, I would not bet any money on that. Compare this story on the web (published in 2010) with this story (published in 2012).

For those who don't want to read both articles: Basically, in 2010, Europol was to oversee (secretly) the financial information that was going to be given to the U.S. and the law makers were promised bulk information wouldn't be passed to the U.S. As of 2012, it has been discovered that bulk information is being passed to the U.S. My logic is this: if we can't trust financial data to be passed properly, how can we expect any other information to be passed (or not passed) properly? Frankly, I'm surprised how unhappy Europeans are about how the U.S. is handling Snowden while being strangely quiet over the whole debacle with Morales' plane. That does not pass the sniff test with me.

Disclaimer: I'm an American living in Germany. I cannot read German yet so I don't know specifically what the news is saying concerning this. I do know Snowden is in the German Google headlines more often than in the U.S. Google headlines.

Well, he's had his passport revoked, is being hunted around the world, and is being vilified in almost all public media.

Snowden isn't being hunted around the world because his passport is revoked. He is in Russia. Snowden isn't being vilified in "almost all public media." It is quite the reverse - he is being hailed as a hero by Chinese, Russians, many Europeans, and others across the world.

Well, at least he took refuge in Russia. What use do they have for four laptops full of NSA secrets?

Russia warns Ireland it will retaliate in spy row
Ireland Is Training Base for Russian Spies
As many Russian spies in UK today as in Cold War: Soviet defector
Canadian navy officer sentenced to 20 years for being Russian spy
10 in US held as spies for Russia
Russian spies in Australia at 'near Cold War level'
Germany jails Russian spy couple
Belgian diplomat suspected of being Russian spy
Finnish academic charged of aiding Russian spies
Spies in Sweden mostly from China, Russia, Iran
Estonia shaken by new Russian spy scandal
Georgia: Russian Spy Ring Smashed in Tbilisi -- Officials
Spain-Russia spy row leads to diplomats' expulsion

Russian warplanes breach NATO airspace - British and Norwegian jets intercepted Russian military aircraft ... close to the U.K. and Finland
Russian spy plane flies by Swedish military drill

This report comes after the newspaper wrote on 22 April, 2013 that Russian fighters had made dummy attacks close to Swedish territory during the Easter weekend.

RAF catches Russian bombers in UK airspace
UK jets shadow Russian bombers
Russian bombers’ secret UK missions ‘not a friendly act’
Russian subs stalk Trident in echo of Cold War - ... hunting down British Vanguard boats in a return to Cold War tactics
Russian around - A DESPERATE hunt was on last night for a Russian nuclear submarine lurking off the coast of Britain.

You may call it whatever you want it is still a tax. Germany is facing a "bright" future burning low quality brown coal. I would rather have nuclear and improved air quality thank you. If they had the same criteria of zero emissions for coal power plants they wouldn't be competitive either.

Ireland: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/world/europe/03ireland.html Holland: http://euobserver.com/18/26278 Oddly enough, they never gave the British a vote. I wonder why.

Most likely not as Finnish courts have to abide by rulings from the Union courts: http://euobserver.com/893/32190

So because you don't like how some frank discussions were revealed, you think it's appropriate to cover up killings and who knows what else under a veil of "classified"?

There are procedures for dealing with questionable deaths on the battlefield, both as potential war crimes and for compensating the victim's families. Manning didn't make use of them, but instead collected and distributed secret government documents to do as much damage as he could. Now we are dealing with informants against terrorists being killed, disruption of highly sensitve diplomatic discussions that could lead to open war, and more destabilization of the Middle East.

EU officials give first analysis of WikiLeaks impact

More investment in European External Action Service (EEAS) security, loss of goodwill in the EU's special relationship with the US and heightened tension in the Middle East are all likely consequences of the WikiLeaks scandal, EU insiders say.

Loose lips sink friendly ships

The publishing of the stolen secret documents by Wikileaks makes about as much sense as protesting problems with the Social Security Administration driving some people to suicide due to delays by publishing the social security number of all Americans and exposing them to identity theft, fraud, and other problems.

Wikileaks is worse than that - it's actions will result in people being killed, and maybe a fresh war or two.

Since a number of activists from the anti-software-patent movement joined the Pirate Party, including its first MEP (Christian Engström), I've been following its development closely and at some point even lent them a signature to support their participation in an election in my country (Germany), even though I ultimately didn't vote for them.

I've commented on the Pirate Party's failure to evolve into a serious political force. The EUobserver, an independent website covering European politics, published a streamlined version of my analysis. The original version goes into some more detail and appeared on my blog.

They weren't his words, they were mine. Anyway it's a perfectly cromulent term. Used all the time: http://euobserver.com/843/30103

In related news, France has decided to tax car dealerships to help cover the losses insurance companies suffer as a result of car theft.

A report commissioned by the French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand urges the introduction of a tax on online advertising such as that carried by Google, which would be used to pay the creators of artistic and other works who lose out to online piracy ... The report was written by Patrick Zelnik, Guillaume Cerutti and Jacques Toubon. Zelnik is president of Impala, a network of independent record companies

Yeah, no conflict of interest there.

In their report, the authors also called on the French antitrust regulator, the Authorité de la Concurrence, to look at whether Google has a monopoly on search engine and search advertising services in France, and whether the problems faced by online publishers could in any way be related to Google's business methods.

IOW, the report explored various ways of screwing a foreign company for being too successful in a local market, having previously failed to create a successful competitor even though it had funding from the government to help it along.

Can you please clarify - who is Nazi Gemany, who are Italian fascists, and who are the glorious guerilla freedom fighters, in your, erm, "analogy"?

You were trying to paint the protesters as anti-Western without cause. I was trying to explain that wanting to do harm to allies of your enemy is totally natural in terms you could understand.

If you can further explain what needs to be done by countries listed as "to be bombed/nuked" in the video I've linked so that they get removed from that list by people chanting it, it might help, too.

Let's take a look at the countries you listed.

Bomb, bomb Denmark!

That's on their radar because of the Mohammed drawings. Totally ridiculous, I agree, but then again, I'm an atheist. I guess you could in some way limit the freedom of speech, or just let the debate play out in public if you have the stomach for it.

Bomb, bomb Germany!

Germany is the top arms dealer to Israel - another Western capitalized aggressor that has killed thousands of muslims. They could choose to stop profiting from selling weapons to Israel, but that's up to the Germans.

Bomb, bomb France!

France is another top arms dealer to Israel. Ditto on their plans.

Bomb, bomb Spain!

Spain also dealt a small amount of arms, but I don't know why those in the video (2006) would be angry after they pulled all of their troops out of Iraq in 2004.

I know bribery is accepted practice in the US but here in the EU it is still frowned upon.
I'm sure it is frowned upon, (except in Spain, apparently, see third link), but the EU is hardly the place for a square deal:

• http://archive.corporateeurope.org/cunningbully/index.html
• http://www.euractiv.com/en/enterprise-jobs/commission-warns-bribery-opel-rescue/article-185759
• http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4560
• http://euobserver.com/9/27352
• http://www.thelocal.se/16974/20090116/
• http://blog.brusselssunshine.eu/2009/09/unnamed-french-eu-lobbying-firm-accused.html
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2907087.stm
• http://www.neurope.eu/articles/84689.php

And I could go on. I don't know where you're dreaming up this bizarre notions about the US (I assume you are another US-hating EU idiot, so I won't question it) but bribery is not an accepted practice, politicians are caught up bribery scandals here all the time; the latest being this Jefferson guy: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5AD01Z20091114, as he was just sentenced to 13 years I would hardly call what he did "accepted". You just sort of make up what life is like here based on your own twisted notions of hell and slums and what life must be like wherever you AREN'T, don't you? The moral is, don't write checks with your mouth your EU can't cash.

My question is this: What is the EPA _really_ trying to accomplish with this? Covering CO2 under the Clean Air Act would completely hamstring American businesses, forcing them to severely cut CO2 emissions

This is completely and utterly false. In other words, it isn't true. Case in point: Germany, like many other EU states has implemented a carbon tax to limit CO2 emissions. It's working in that Germany's emissions are now below the Kyoto accord requirements. All this, yet Germany's economy is recovering from their recession, and the recovery is faster than the U.S. recovery is. Lastly, the carbon taxes have all been projected to increase the number of jobs, not "hamstring" businesses like you say:

The positive effects of the ecological tax reform were highlighted by the Federal Environmental Bureau (Umweltbundesamt) in early 200210 when it stated that by the end of that year, its projections showed that ecotaxes would have reduced CO2 emissions by more than 7 million tonnes while at the same time creating almost 60,000 new jobs. Other researchers 11 were even more positive, saying that between 176,000 and 250,000 new jobs would be created. These figures were based on the assumption that the trade unions would moderate their wage demands by linking any increases in gross pay to changes in prices and productivity.

So when you look at the actual evidence, carbon taxes do pretty much precisely exactly the opposite of what you said. Do yourself a favor and stop reading talking points written by Exxon.

Doesn't it help that the EU is comprised of a number of member states with different laws and competing interests so that one country's darling is another country's nemesis? According to this article, there are lobbyists in the EU, so it is not clear to me how MEPs could not be "bought". Anyone from the EU know how lobbying in the EU differs from lobbying in the U.S.?

The members of the Electoral College are duty-bound to vote for the candidate their constituents told them to vote for. So while there is a layer between the voter and the true election, the people's votes count.

Germany doesn't have a Presidential election. Only their representation (sort of a combination between what we would think of as the House of Representatives and the individual State Senates) gets a vote.

EU has a Presidential election in so much that they choose a party. The actual individual is chosen by the Commission from the winning party. Bassrao (the current EU President) is famous for stating that the EU Presidency lacks legitimacy.

Ever heard of Hans-Martin Tillack? His office was raided and his equipment seized by Belgian police because he had the audacity to protect a whistle-blower in a fraud case. He eventually got compensation, but as far as I'm aware he hasn't re-gained his possessions. I would bet money on the whistle-blower having been sacked by now. The whole sorry saga is here. In the mean time the accounts have not been signed off for the thirteenth year running (the Tories are reporting a fourteenth).

I hate it when we Europeans pretend to be so vastly superior to those ghastly Americans out of sheer ignorance.

p.s. I am a Europhile, I just don't think this kind of thing should be covered up out of misguided solidarity with the European Project.

You obviously haven't been to Wendy's (or McDonald's doallar menu which has had a lot removed from it) recently. A lot of the value items have gone from 99c to $1.29. Chips that used to be .99c are now 1.29 as well. Heck, have you read about the rising food prices?

I don't know if it is a development that influenced this move by AAP, but the EC is considering new guidlines on open access to research that is funded by EU-grants:

"The European Commission is preparing new guidelines for the 3 billion a year European scientific publishing industry that could put pressure on major firms such as Elsevier or Oxford University Press to give free access to articles based on EU-funded work. ... The EU should consider establishing a "policy mandating published articles arising from European Community-funded research to be available after a given time period in open access archives" the report states." (EUObserver, 25/01)

Seems reasonable imho... On a personal and self-interested note, I would also like software that is funded by EU & government (through academia) to be open sourced where possible, starting with the named entity recognition software behind News Explorer (which is developed by the EU's Joint Research Center) ;-)

If a British Driving license is a "designated document", I might just have to shenanigan enough to be able to get an Irish Driving license too, come renewal time.

Sooner or later there won't be any distinction between British and Irish driving licenses.

As the voting form requires to vote for all categories it is not a good thing to do this if you have no clue who all these people are. Even I, as a overaddict news consuming European, have no clue what to choose for most of the categories because here in Europe news sources are mostly nation minded and therefore very fragmented.

Oh please, give me a break. There are a huge number of fantastic EU focused news-sites that have excellent coverage on all matters pertaining to the Union. Not to mention the EU's own news pages.

http://euobserver.com/
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/
http://www.european-voice.com/
http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/whatsnew.htm
http://europa.eu.int/newsletter/index_en.htm
http://europa.eu.int/news/index_en.htm
http://www.eubusiness.com/
http://www.eubusiness.com/

And of course most news sites (such as BBC news) have an EU portal. And of course you can use google news with a custom filter for 'European Union' to get your daily fix.

Poland blocks EU software patent directive

Without Poland's backing, those countries that supported the proposal in May now fall short of a qualified majority in the Council of Ministers.

Lacking a qualified majority, the draft will be referred back to the Council, which will have to come up with a new draft to put before the European Parliament next month.

http://www.euobserver.com/?aid=17806

Real Feta cheese is _only_ made from goat's milk; indeed, the Greeks are so pissed off by the feta-style cow's milk cheeses that they are pushing for appellation of origin controls to protect the term "Feta".

I'm particularly fond of soft (unaged) Chèvre goat's cheese; it had a delicious tang that cow's milk cream cheeses lack.

Red Hat have handed Mandrake the desktop baton. The failure of US Justice department to get anywhere near solving the antitrust issues with current desktops pretty well spoiled the opportunity for Linux desktops in the US. Maybe Lindows will fight the defence on behalf of the US consumer.

Mandrake is delivering on the financials. Now lets see what the EU Commission on competition does on helping to create a level playing field. Will the rights of consumers prevail ? Munich is an important proving ground but expect some serious payola to flow to stop other cities. Whats 40 Billion USD work out to be in Euros now ?.

1) So? Come on, get serious.

2) Why we went to war. You've heard the saying that no one is so blind as he who will not see?

3) I assume you're talking about the recession, which started when Clinton was in office, according to official government figures. Well gosh, where to begin.

Service Sector Hiring Hits 3.5-Year High

NASDAQ, Dow Soar on Productivity Gains

For Home Loans, a Steady Market

Two Reports Indicate Recovery Is Taking Hold

Productivity Makes Best Gains in 20 Years

Auto Sales Rise with Economy

Shares Reach 18-Month Highs on Manufacturing News

Holiday Spending Shows Strength

Reports Indicate the Economy is Continuing its Expansion

Economy's Growth Is Revised Upward to 8.2%

U.S. Economic Growth Hits New Records

Number of New Jobless Claims Fell Last Week

Housing Starts In October Near 18-Year High

Economists Expect An Increase of 135,000 Jobs

Consumer Prices Steady After Four-Month Climb

Durable Goods Jump, Jobless Claims Drop

4) Sure. We're going to the moon so Bush can distract us from a bad e-mail bill passed by Congress.

5) Sure. We're going to the moon so Bush can distract us from the RIAA and MPAA.

I could go on ...

I'm sure you could. But I'd rather you didn't. - Alaska Jack

This block of text inserted to overcome Slashdot's stupid average-characters per line rule: WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, i

"but when their Socialist brother Castro locks up dozens of journalists for daring to criticize his regime, there's not a word."