[Brenda]

FRANCE!!! No way France pays most!
The Netherlands (#1) Germany and Sweden are the biggest net payers of the EU.

France is a net payer, but definitely not one of the biggest!

http://www.eu-consent.net/library/paper ... et_wp7.pdf

[Canadaka]

My Icelandic friend informs me that the party is NOT a socialist party and that Ms. Johanna Sigurdardottir is not the leader of the party. The leader of the party has to undergo cancer treatment, so she appointed this woman to be prime minister.

So the cartoon description has some errors

[Sapio]

Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. Well they are the best three nations in mainland Europe. I thought France was higher up.

[Brenda]

France is only arrogant, and very good at ditching responsibility
We could actually learn from them!

[Axeman]

Sapio wrote:

Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. Well they are the best three nations in mainland Europe. I thought France was higher up.

"Best" is a difficult thing to define, economically, but Switzerland is likely the strongest, per capita, economy in Europe.

[Brenda]

The Netherlands is 5th or 6th richest of the EU, and pays most...

Yeah, Switzerland (no EU member) or Luxembourg...

[Sapio]

Not the "best" but the ones I like the best. Yeah, damn France. I have never liked them.

They are not carrying their weight.

[martin14]

Canadaka wrote:

My Icelandic friend informs me that the party is NOT a socialist party and that Ms. Johanna Sigurdardottir is not the leader of the party. The leader of the party has to undergo cancer treatment, so she appointed this woman to be prime minister.

So the cartoon description has some errors

So that means it's not even the 'B' team,



it's the 'C' team

[Proculation]

Canadaka wrote:

My Icelandic friend informs me that the party is NOT a socialist party and that Ms. Johanna Sigurdardottir is not the leader of the party. The leader of the party has to undergo cancer treatment, so she appointed this woman to be prime minister.

So the cartoon description has some errors

Well, when your logo is that , I call it a socialist party.

[JJ]

She's part of something called the "Social Democratic Alliance" which sound socialist enough to me. She's also clearly the one in charge at the moment, or she wouldn't be PM. "Leader" does not always necessarily mean "formal leader of the party apparatus" the way it does in Canada.

Also, can we not get horribly side-tracked on a discussion of internal EU politics?

[CanadianJeff]

BartSimpson wrote:

commanderkai wrote:

I guess during the US election, for example, there were implications that if Obama lost, it'd be because of his race, and that is...you know, rather shameful implication itself...if that makes sense.

Given that 97% of blacks voted for Obama he clearly won because people voted for him just because he was black. Therefore, if this is acceptable then it is also acceptable to vote against him just because he is black.

I wouldn't doubt that a large portion of African Americans voted for Obama but even if every single African American voted for him they alone can't really elect anyone seeing as how they only make up less then 13% of the population.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

Clearly more then just Blacks wanted him in office judging by the election results. Frankly I can't say I blame them after seeing what Palin was.

[Psudo]

CanadianJeff: What was she?

[CanadianJeff]

Quite simply a madman and an idiot incapable of doing the job she was posted to and in a posistion to end up possibly taking on one of the most important posts in the world.

[Pseudonym]

Madman? Idiot? Incapable? Should I contest these individually or as a whole?

[Psudo]

CanadianJeff: Except for the gender of the pronouns, doesn't that equally describe Dan Quayle or Al Gore?

The thing she was expected to be but wasn't was invisible. That's what Quayle, Gore, and even Cheney (during the 2000 election cycle) had in common. The big failure wasn't the choice of Palin for Veep, but in the assumption that it was the most important thing in the candidacy and should be front-and-center, headline news. If the Republicans had been quiet about their nom, Joe Biden's foot-in-mouth mistakes would have garnered more coverage and the race would've been closer.

I'm no great fan of Palin, but in the company of Obama, Biden, and McCain she fits in just fine. What a lousy election.