Free Republic

EC's 'sordid accounting' damned in email from top auditorBy Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, European Business Editor(Filed: 15/03/2005) The European Commission has a "chronically sordid" accounting system and is still unable to keep track of the EU's £73billion budget after a decade of financial scandals, according to a top EU insider. An internal email obtained by The Telegraph paints an ugly picture of an autocratic body with an "incestuous esprit de corps" that uses its bureaucratic muscle to "trash" any official who dares to question its methods. It said the Budget Directorate was in "persistent denial of the real nature and depth of...

And you thought you were done with the 2004 election. Today the electoral college formally meets to reelect George W. Bush as president. Barring any last-minute surprises, the vote should be 286 for Bush, 252 for John Kerry. This ratification will elicit yawns instead of the outrage it did in 2000, when the electoral college went for the loser of the popular vote. But don't think 2000 was such an anomaly. The country barely dodged a bullet this time around. Had 59,388 Ohioans switched from Bush to Kerry, 2004 would have repeated the acidic result of the electoral college winner...

"Hi. Are you nuts? "Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of President Bush has been so outrageous that I'm wondering if you have quite literally lost your minds. One of Britain's largest newspapers ran a headline asking "How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?", and commentators in France all seemed to use the same word - bizarre -- to explain the election's outcome to their readers. In Germany the editors of Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that "Bush belongs at a war tribunal - not in the White House." And...

PORTLAND, Maine -- People who live here say there are two different Maines -- the liberal, populous and wealthy southern coast and the conservative, sparsely populated and poorer north. Those different Maines could split its four electoral votes by awarding one candidate three votes and the other candidate the one remaining. That lone electoral vote could determine the election: in 2000, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore 271-266, barely collecting the 270 electoral votes required for victory. Under state law, Maine awards two electoral votes to the statewide winner and one apiece to the winner in each of its congressional...

A poster in my office reads, "77% of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100% of them will never be pregnant." This could have been the caption for the now (in)famous photo of George W. Bush signing the nation's first abortion procedure ban, surrounded by the men who have wielded their political power to restrict access to family planning, emergency contraception and sexual health education — proven means of preventing unintended pregnancy. But last Monday, the picture in Maine was different. On national Back Up Your Birth Control Day, Gov. John Baldacci held a signing ceremony for a new law that will...

<p>WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court's reference to foreign law in a ruling last month that overturned state anti-sodomy statutes stood out as if it were in bold print and capital letters.</p> <p>Writing for the majority in a landmark decision supporting gay civil rights, Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that the European Court of Human Rights and other foreign courts have affirmed the ''rights of homosexual adults to engage in intimate, consensual conduct.''</p>

France given EC deficit deadline Andrew Osborn in Brussels Thursday May 8, 2003 The Guardian France came under unprecedented pressure yesterday to stop flouting the rules that govern the euro after the European commission gave Paris less than six months to tackle its wayward budget deficit or face the consequences. In a humiliating swipe at the French government, the EC ordered Paris to take remedial action to bring its budget deficit below the maximum 3% threshold allowed under EU rules by October 3 at the latest. It also stipulated that any measures taken would have to bear fruit by 2004....

The dramatic events we have all been experiencing over the past two months with the war in Iraq, the rift between Europe and the USA, internal discord within the ranks of the EU itself, and the invalidation of the role of the United Nations, have made us all wiser. They have also confirmed an unavoidable truth: In a world which is changing rapidly — and apparently for the worse — no one can justifiably remain inactive, immovable, stubbornly and rigidly defending their version of the truth. The early anti-war protests, which took place in most countries across the globe, showed...