You can never leave

A recent legal paper by the European Central Bank deals with the subject: “Withdrawal and Expulsion from the EU and EMU: Some reflections”. It has received quite a bit of attention. Unsurprising, perhaps, given the state of the Greek economy (see here, here, and here for example).

It starts of admitting that the EU isn't exactly becoming more popular:

The transfer of an ever-increasing share of [member states'] essential sovereignty to the supranational European institutions, in conjunction with the EU’s declared ambition (unpopular with the public of some Member States) to bring new members within its fold, have created new tensions or exacerbated existing ones, testing the Member States’ commitment to the furtherance of European integration.

It goes on to say that the possibility of "secession" from the EU and the EMU is now worth taking a close look at, given the huge challenges facing some member states (Greece isn't mentioned specifically, but it's clear of which countries the paper speaks):

The increase, under the recently ratified Lisbon Treaty, of the number of policy areas where decisions will be taken by qualified majority voting rather than unanimously, the economic difficulties faced by some euro area economies (and the association made between those difficulties and the euro), the rigors of the Stability and Growth Pact, and the impact of EMU on the Member States’ room for manoeuvre in economic policy at a time of severe financial crisis are all additional reasons why the possibility of secession from the EU or EMU, and its implications, are worth examining.

The paper also gives a worrying indication of how people at the top of the EU - supposedly still an "international organisation" - think about the sovereignty of its member states:

The fact that EU membership is voluntary is not in itself conclusive since sovereignty is … given full expression in the right of any State to join a particular organisation, or not; but once a State decides to enter an organisation it is no longer free, and its own wishes are no longer decisive

Extrordinary, this reasoning seems to imply that a member state is not free to decide for itself weather it wants to leave the EU. This is of course nonsense; a country can simply unilaterally choose to take off - which Greenland did in 1985. The Lisbon Treaty now also provides for this option (But only after the country has asked the other members and the European Parliament for permission. If they disagree, the country can only leave after 2 years. (Article 50 TEU) ).

Turning to the possible succession from the eurozone, the paper goes on to say that "the only way to withdraw from EMU is to withdraw from the EU". It concludes:

A genuinely unilateral right of withdrawal would be unthinkable in the context of EMU, not least on account of its open conflict with the plain language of Articles 4(2), 118 and 123(4) EC and Protocol 24 on the Transition to the Third Stage of Monetary Union and, in particular, with the references therein to the ‘irrevocability’ of the substitution by the euro of the currencies of the participating Member States and to the ‘irreversibility’ of the monetary union proces.

This is all pretty mind-boggling stuff, and reminds us of that old the Eagles song, ending with the line: "You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave!".

In light of what the monetary union has done - and is doing - to the eurozone's 'periphery', causing bubbles in countries such as Ireland and Spain, for example, or locking in structural economic problems in Greece, you would think that now is the time for a serious 'two-way street' debate about the euro. The legal provisions were written at a time when the EMU only existed on paper. As the euro experiement is unfolding in real life, these legal provisions might soon be in need of revision.

News of the Day for Sunday, January 14, 2010

A blindfolded suspected member of the Al Qaeda walks with a policeman after his arrest during a search and raid operation by the Iraqi investigation and criminal office in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad January 23, 2010. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed (I posted this photo because it is noteworthy that Iraqi police continue to conceal their faces. -- C)









Reported Security Incidents

Falluja

One policeman killed, 3 injured by IED attack.

Baghdad

Brig. Sahban Ali al-Waeli, an adviser to the Interior Ministry, died late Saturday of injuries suffered in a bomb attack on his house Friday night.

Mosul

Cab driver killed by a sticky bomb.

Other News of the Day

As British arrest Jim McCormick, managing director of ATSC, for selling fraudulent bomb detection advices to Iraq, Iraqi politicians begin to react. The New York Times reported as long ago as November that these devices, called the "ADE 651" which are hand-held devices purported to be able to detect explosives, are completely useless. Astonishingly, the company claims that they use principles similar to "dowsing" for water, which is of course equally nonsensical. Yet Iraqi security forces rely on them extensively at checkpoints. In spite of the British action, Iraq has yet to halt use of the devices. It is disturbing to think that this British psychopath may have contributed to the success of the massive attacks on Iraqi government infrastructure in order to enrich himself. Riyadh Mohammed reports from Baghdad:

''This company not only caused grave and massive losses of funds, but it has caused grave and massive losses of the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians, by the hundreds and thousands, from attacks that we thought we were immune to because we have this device,'' said Ammar Tuma, a member of the Iraqi parliament's security and defence committee.

But the Ministry of the Interior has not withdrawn the devices from service, and police continue to use them at checkpoints throughout Baghdad.

Iraqi officials said they would begin an investigation into why their Government paid around $US85 million ($A94 million) to the British company, ATSC Ltd, for at least 800 of the bomb detectors.

Eleven bodies, apparently dating to 2007, found in a mass grave near Falluja.

U.S. Marines hand over responsibility for Anbar Province to the U.S. Army, prepare to withdraw from Iraq. The Marines are constituted as a rapid deployment force with a mission of quickly seizing territory, but the shortage of forces after the U.S. invasion of Iraq forced them into an occupation role in Anbar.

Meanwhile, however, many analysts fear that gains in security may be lost if political reconciliation between sects fails, as may well be happening. IRIN reports:

A government move to exclude a number of prominent Sunni candidates from national parliamentary elections on 7 March could re-ignite sectarian violence and create a new humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country, according to some analysts.

"Iraq is on the verge of another humanitarian crisis if the current political situation continues to worsen between the political parties or between Sunnis and Shia over participation in the coming elections," Mohammed Abdul-Aziz Jassim, a political sciences lecturer at the University of Anbar, told IRIN. "Almost all Iraq's humanitarian challenges since 2003 [when the US-led invasion began], such as displacement, poor public services and social problems, are the result of the political and sectarian strife that led to a deteriorated security situation," he said.

In mid-January, a committee tasked by the government to prohibit former members of Saddam Hussein's disbanded Baath Party from government jobs decided to exclude 511 Sunni and Shia candidates from the polls. Although the majority of those on the list are reportedly Shia, they do not have the political clout or tribal standing that the barred Sunnis have, analysts say.

Sunnis are particularly angered that prominent Sunni lawmaker Salih Al-Mutlak is among those excluded. Al-Mutlak's involvement in the political process was instrumental in turning the tide against the insurgency, say analysts.

U.S. VP Joe Biden says Iraq elections must be "fair, credible and transparent" but says the U.S. will not intervene in the issue of banned candidates, according to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. "President Barack Obama and I strongly support the implementation of Article 7 (of Iraq's constitution) that prohibits the Baath party," the vice president said, according to the statement.

DoD identifies a soldier who died in a motor vehicle crash in Mosul on January 20 as Pfc. Gifford E. Hurt, 19, of Yonkers, N.Y.

Ammar al Hakim, head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (the largest Shiite faction) is in Lebanon, where he met with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. (I'm sure the Neocons are loving that. -- C)

Afghanistan Update

NATO reports the deaths of 3 U.S. military personnel in two separate bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan. No further details at this time.

Afghanistan postpones elections for four months, from May to September, citing budgetary, security and logistical problems. I'm sure everything will be just peachy by September. -- C

Pakistan Foreign Office says it is "reaching out to Afghan Taliban. "We don't want to discuss the specifics. There are efforts being made and we are trying to win over those Taliban are reconcilable," Spokesman Abdul Basit said in a press briefing Saturday.

Hamid Karzai is in Turkey to attend a three-way summit of Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Quote of the Day

The fact that the administration's disinformation campaign was entirely successful is evidenced by an October 2004, Harris Poll, taken three weeks before the last presidential election, which reported that 62% of all voters, and 84% of those planning to vote for Bush, still believed that Saddam had ''strong links" to Al Qaeda, and that 41% of all voters, and 52% of Bush backers, believed that Saddam had ''helped plan and support the hijackers" who had attacked the country on 9/11. As we now know, the basis for these allegations were false but the saddest part of the situation is that many Americans are just now beginning to realize that Bush knew the stories were false for more than a year when he cited them as justification for taking the country to war.

Evelyn Pringle

Photo of the Day

This afternoon I walked outside and was greeted with a rainbow so big, I couldn't fit it all in one camera shot! A kiss from heaven...

Will Megan Fox wear the Zennie62.com T-shirt?

After four years of blogging and video-blogging, over 6,500 blog posts, and now several bloggers, Zennie62.com has something it's needed for a long time: a t-shirt. Now, the next objective is to get celebs like Megan Fox and Denzel Washington to wear the soon-to-be-famous t-shirt.

Will Megan Fox wear the Zennie62.com t-shirt? 

The t-shirt's based on the logo design for this blogger's television show "The Blog Report with Zennie62" on CoLoursTV (Saturday at 12:30 PM EST; 9:30 AM PST in January). Local Oakland t-shirt maker Cyrus Phishdad took the original logo and re-created it into a sharper, crisper result.

The black t-shirt celebrates the Zennie62 YouTube channel reaching 11 million viewers; it reads "Zennie62.com. 11 million views, including yours." That t-shirt design will remain until Zennie62 reaches over 20 million views.

The t-shirt is being given to fans who have been supporters of Zennie62, like this one in North Dakota who wrote this YouTube message:

As a means to support you I will always wear it with pride, try to keep it clean, never rob a liqueur store with it on.

I will also try to get a good photo of me wearing it so you will have proof that all the way out in North Dakota you are reaching people with your videos..

also, if I ever get well known and appear on Larry King with you, I will promise to wear it, ...as long as you wear a nice suit and not the "Im with Stupid>" T-shirt you had picked out to wear.

Now if Megan Fox wears it, that's huge. Stay tuned.

Hope for Haiti Now concert performances and update

Last night's Help for Haiti Now concert featured 19 performances from artists like Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, U2, Wyclef Jean, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Sting, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, and Kid Rock Jennifer Hudson, Emeline Michel, The Edge, Dave Matthews and Neil Young.

Here's the AP's video summary:



And Help for Haiti Now attracted stars who worked the phones like Colin Farrell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, Jack Nicholson, Charlize Theron, Steven Spielberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Robert Pattinson, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Halle Berry, and Ben Stiller.

Bill Clinton, United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, and head of the Bush / Clinton Haiti Fund, gave this speech:



The Hope for Haiti Now concert event was in Los Angeles, New York, and Haiti, where CNN's Anderson Cooper is working to report on the country's effort to recover from the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake. Help for Haiti Now was organized by Up In The Air star George Clooney, who said to MTV, "I think it's the same message that everybody does, that churches do, that communities do — which is everybody participate, help out, whatever way you can."

Help For Haiti Now as event planning was put together very rapidly, about the same time as the Haiti Earthquake itself ended. George Clooney explained to MTV how he came to be involved in forming Help For Haiti Now:

"I was in New York the evening it (the Haiti Earthquake) happened. It happened at four or five o'clock, and I got a message from Wyclef that he's gonna go into the Dominican Republic and that it was much worse than what's initially been reported," Clooney explained. "We knew it was bad, but who knew how bad. And he said, 'Is there anything you can do?' So the next morning, I woke up and called (MTV CEO) Judy McGrath at MTV, and Judy said, 'We were thinking about doing something too,' so I said, 'Let's do it.' And I flew back to L.A., and as soon as I landed we got the other networks involved. And now it's every major network, every single one. At some point, it got to a place [when] you couldn't be the network that didn't [join in]."

The list of participating networks was vast: CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic. As of this writing, there's no official estimate of the television viewer count; that should come next week.

Help for Haiti Now may have been the most media-exposed event in history; it was also streamed online at MTV.com, YouTube.com, VH1, and MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo!, Bing.com, BET.com, CNN.com and Rhapsody, and on cell phones by way of Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and FloTV.

Help for Haiti Now

You can still help now by going to www.HopeforHaitinow.org or calling by phone at 877-99-HAITI. You can even text "GIVE" to 50555.

Here are some of the 19 performances from Help for Haiti Now, Friday night:

Alicia Keys (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Stevie Wonder: (video link)

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Shakira (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Coldplay (video link):

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Taylor Swift (video link)

Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Stay tuned.

War News for Saturday, January 23, 2010

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier in an IED attack in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Friday, January 22nd.

The Washington Post is reporting the deaths of two American soldiers in a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, January 23rd.


C.I.A. Deaths Prompt Surge in U.S. Drone Strikes:

US Marine Corps ends role in Iraq:Saudi:

Bodies of 20 soldiers found on Yemen border:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Police found 10 bombs planted on a school bus in the Mansour district of western Baghdad, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a car carrying a brigadier general of the Interior Ministry, Sahban Ali, wounded him and two of his bodyguards near his house in Zayouna district, eastern Baghdad, on Friday night, police said.

#3: A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded two soldiers in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad on Friday night, police said


Mosul:
#1: Policemen on Saturday found the remains of three persons in northern Mosul city, according to a police source in Ninewa. “The remains of bodies of three persons who had been kidnapped and killed in 2007 were found buried in the area of al-Rashidiya, northern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Gunmen killed a civilian in front of his house in western Mosul city on Saturday, said a local security source from Ninewa province. “Gunmen in a vehicle opened drive-by fire on the civilian in front of his house at al-Tanak neighborhood,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: One policeman was wounded on Saturday when two mortars hit a police command headquarters in western Mosul city, a local police source in Ninewa said. “The attack targeted Umm-al-Rabiain police command HQ at al-Sheikh Fatihee area,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A civilian man was wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in al-Haqlaniya district, western al-Anbar province, on Saturday, a local security source said. “A sticky IED attached to a civilian vehicle went off on a road in Haqlaniya, injuring the driver and causing damage to the vehicle,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Militants hiding among demonstrators fired on police Saturday, sparking a gunbattle in the middle of a protest over the deaths of four men in a NATO-Afghan raid, officials said. At least two people were wounded. Protesters have taken to the streets for three straight days and have blocked traffic on a highway that links the major cities of Kabul and Kandahar, forcing trucks and vehicles to wait for hours. The protest Saturday turned violent when armed militants hiding in the crowd began shooting at police, according to the district's chief administrator, Yasouf Saraji Andar. "Policemen also opened fire to defend themselves and two people were wounded," he said.

#2: North of the capital, a NATO helicopter was damaged Saturday when its front rotor blade accidentally struck the ground upon landing in the Parwan province. There were no injuries and no hostile action was involved, the international force said.

#3: A provincial governor also escaped an assassination attempt Friday while traveling to inspect a school southwest of Kabul, but four Afghan soldiers in his convoy were killed in the bombing, a spokesman said. Halim Fidai, the governor of Wardak province, was on his way to the school after meeting with elders in the Jagatu district when the roadside bomb exploded.
The governor was unharmed, but four Afghan soldiers in a different vehicle were killed and another was wounded, according to the governor's spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, who also was in the convoy.

#4: A policeman was killed and another wounded in a gunbattle after suspected Taliban militants ambushed a checkpoint in the Baghlan province, according to the provincial government.

#5: Militants kidnapped a district police chief and two other officers on a nighttime foot patrol Saturday near the eastern border with Pakistan, a senior official said, the latest in a series of attacks against Afghan officials linked to the fight against the Taliban. A search was under way for Jamtullah Khan and two of his men after they were seized in the Shigal district of Kunar province just after 1 a.m., according to the provincial police chief. Gen. Khalilullah Zaiyie said reinforcements had been sent to help with the manhunt.

#6: Militants ambushed Pakistani security forces at checkpoints near the Afghan border Saturday, sparking gunbattles that left 22 insurgents and two troops dead, officials said.

#7: Government officials Mohammad Yasin and Mohammad Naseem said two more troops were wounded in clashes at checkpoints in the Orakzai and Kurram tribal regions. (pakistan)

#8: Elsewhere in the northwest, meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed a police officer and wounded two civilians, police said. (pakistan)

#9: Taliban militants on Saturday attacked and destroyed a fuel tanker in northwest Pakistan supplying NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, police said. A group of 15 armed militants ambushed the truck outside Peshawar and opened fire. "They ordered the driver and the assistant to get down and set the tanker on fire early Saturday morning," senior police official Mohammad Karim Khan told AFP.

#10: Elsewhere, gunmen on a motorbike shot dead two soldiers on Saturday in the oil and gas rich Baluchistan province, which is in the grip of a tribal insurgency and violence linked to Taliban militants, officials said. The incident took place in Khuzdar town, 350 kilometres (217 miles) south of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. "Two armed gunmen chased four army personnel, who were travelling in a vehicle and sprayed bullets on them in a market in Khuzdar, killing two of them and wounding two others," district police chief Nazir Ahmad Kurd said.

#10: Three Afghan women were killed and three other civilians were wounded by insurgent small-arms fire while in a taxi in southeastern Paktika province, the NATO-led force said. The taxi driver brought the wounded to a NATO-led base where they received medical treatment, it said.

#11: Afghan and international forces killed 12 Taliban militants during an operation in the Gereshk district of southern Helmand province on Friday night, district governor Abdul Ahad said.

#12: Two women were wounded when a mortar bomb fired by Pakistani troops at a militant hideout fell on a house in Mohmand, another Pashtun region on the Afghan border, witnesses and government officials said. (pakistan)


DoD: Staff Sgt. Thaddeus S. Montgomery

DoD: Capt. Paul Pena

My Pro-Choice Decision

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My Pro-Choice Decision


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The Commissioner for Everything

Michel Barnier - the man who was handed the crucial Internal Market portfolio in the Commission following a complete miscalculation by Gordon Brown - is definitely on the move. The job as the entire Single Market's (and the City's) Chief Regulator doesn't seem quite big enough for him. Barnier wants more.

Before Christmas he said that he would make sure to "give his opinion" on EU farm policy to the new Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Cioloş, insisting on the need to "preserve farm regulations because feeding people is not a service like any other".

And in thinly veiled criticism of Catherine Ashton's decision not to go to Haiti following the earthquake, he now seems to be setting his eyes on the Commission's foreign policy portfolio as well. On his blog Jean Quatramer reports from a press briefing with Barnier on Wednesday.

After having refused to criticise her directly: [Barnier] let slip a poisonous remark during a press lunch earlier: 'when the tsunami hit in December 2004, I immediately made myself available'. At that time, he was Chirac’s Foreign Minister. Barnier added that at the meetings of the 27 European Commissioners, he would put constant pressure on the leader of European diplomacy (who is also the Vice President of the Commission) on 'issues of foreign policy and defence', implying that there is work to be done.

It seems that for Mr Barnier the world is not enough..

Stormy Weather

From Cathy's Camera

Piner Road Santa Rosa Flooding

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