Postmodern Conservative.

Omar al-Bashir: An O.J. for Our Time

Sudan's president says he would not [...] allow [his indictment on genocide charges] to distract him from the search for peace in troubled Darfur. -- CNN

More EU Muscle-Flexing

Bulgaria: punished for corruption. It seems piddly by American standards of sovereignty, but it's another in a series of steps toward the consolidation of eastern central Europe within a zone of law that's variegated, yes (as it should be), but has an important bottom line. And I'll say again, a little more forcefully, that corruption is the biggest worldwide story of the year. Not that the EU's some great alternative on that count. But, often, it's better. Welcome to the Era of Low Bars.

In Which I Praise the NYT Editorial Staff

China, no matter how cool we think it is, or how cool we think it is to think it's cool, is no place to be a citizen. Pepsi's "Go Red for China!" campaign [see below] is but the most absurd of a whole series of wretched capitalist ploys to make a buck or ten off of every Chinaman. I mean to be crass here -- the fawning attention paid to a country deep into the world's biggest Pink Police State trip is profane, stupid, ridiculous, and transparently lame. The dross of world-heartedness and good feeling that's been branded with such frightening choreography across every platform and product that straddles the globe leaves me with The Fear, and the only redemption I can see in it is that at least all this cheapskate marketing is reallocating piles of wealth in 'our', American, direction. Bah!

That said, this seems to hit the right notes to me. And now:

Serbia: One Step Closer to Destiny

Any way you slice it, the capture and surrender of Radovan Karadzic makes Serbia's integration into the EU that much more of a foregone conclusion. Of course, anything can happen. But will it? As I've been suggesting about post-Yugoslavia, that's not likely. 

China: Reminds Me of Nazi Germany

How long before people stop calling China communist and start calling it fascist? Corporate-fascist, that is, as were all good fascist governments? How long before the grim connection between the pink police state and Occupied Paris becomes clear? Will it show on the new and improved IMAX scale being designed and implemented for Occupied Beijing, where communo-fascistic-nationalistic-American-as-fried-apple-pie billboards and ads are visible from any and all street locations, visible out every high-rise window? 

This may sound like rank hyperbole, but I read this article and I think, this is the New Normal?

Earlier this year, Pepsi even painted its familiar blue cans red for a limited edition "Go Red for China" promotion.

[...] The promise of selling a billion bottles of Coke to China's 1.3 billion people is no longer a pipe dream; last year, 24 billion bottles of Coca-Cola were sold in China. KFC, a unit of Yum Brands, has more than 2,000 stores here. McDonald's and Starbucks are ubiquitous.

[...] A Volkswagen campaign encourages people to "honk for China"; McDonald's ads say "I'm Lovin' It When China Wins"; and Nike, though not an Olympic sponsor, is the official outfitter of more than 20 of China's teams.

[...] a print advertising campaign by Anta, one of China's biggest sportswear companies, shows a crowd of flag-waving youths gesturing like wild revolutionaries in a state of Olympic euphoria. Many of Anta's television ads include the song lyrics "I love you, China."

Ads by the dairy producer Yili feature young people and the tag line, "I Make China Strong!"

Saying Someone Reminds You of a Nazi: Still Off the Table

I'm no fan of hate speech codes, and what Goebbels said does make for a clear, powerful comparison. But the Third Reich was just a little too horrible to compare to trade negotiations. And at least the Brazilians could've done their homework:

Brazil's foreign minister said rich countries' deception in trade talks reminded him of tactics used by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

His comments drew a sharp rebuke from the United States, whose chief trade negotiator, Susan Schwab, is the daughter of Jewish Holocaust survivors. Her spokesman described the reference to Goebbels as "incredibly wrong."

Serbia, Thy Name is Destiny

Ironically, your destiny involves losing all that oomph of your national name. I rarely have occasion to hand out a straight-up told you so, but in this instance, turns out I was right that an independent Kosovo would lead both Pristina and Belgrade into the EU, not into chaos and conflict. Hmm.

Thru Erin Wildermuth.

MORE...Daniel, to my great satisfaction, is not declaring defeat, insisting that the EU shall not have its druthers and that partition "has only just begun to have its effects on the region and the rest of the international system." He is of course quite right that the article I linked to above is a bit of a self-congratulatory trip down memory-zapping lane, but when I read the following, I detect something less than the steely Serbian defiance Daniel senses:

Cvetkovic said he would fight to ensure that Kosovo remains part of Serbia. He said Belgrade would continue to provide economic support for ethnic Serbs in the territory, which declared independence in February.

Yes, opposition to an independent Kosovo remains "intense." But when that feeling cashes out officially in the form of welfare benefits for Serbs left behind, I wonder, again, whether the writing isn't on the wall.

Ho Boy

What is there to say about this from Michael Ledeen?

Some Cold War!

David Ignatius, who at last account was still in the running for editor of the WaPo, gives us this today:

"In the new cold war between America and Iran..."

Does killing hundreds of Americans count as a hot war, or what?

No, man, it doesn't. Arming our enemies is very uncool, but it isn't war. By Ledeen's measure, I shudder to think how many hot wars the United States has been in -- or started -- during, yes, the Cold War! Ah, but that was the Cold War, so I suppose it doesn't count. I ain't got time for this jibber-jabber.

PS. Whatever cold war there might be between America and Iran started in 1979 -- about as new as I am.

Memo to EU: Subsidiarity Now!

Things are looking grimmer than ever for the EU's telic destiny:

In a newspaper interview published Tuesday, Mr. Kaczynski said it would “pointless” to sign the Lisbon Treaty in light of the Irish rejection.

And just in time, too, for France, the only European country that can lead the EU into any kind of future, to take the helm:

In Germany, ratification is also being delayed, with the President, Horst Koehler, saying he would wait to sign the treaty until after the country's highest court had delivered a ruling on legal challenges.

The document is meant to streamline EU decision-making following enlargement of the bloc. It is also meant to create a new EU president and foreign affairs chief, appointments which France is supposed to oversee at the end of its tenure.

[...] Speaking on France 3, Mr Sarkozy said: "Something isn't right. Something isn't right at all."

To fix things, Sarkozy needs to promote the abandonment of a 'one-Europe' model of the EU. It's obvious that the nation-states of Europe do not want to march in lockstep toward a common goal. but it's equally obvious that many states do want to -- and should -- drift or migrate toward a set of common goals. Europe has an unparalleled historical opportunity to develop new forms of shared and unshared sovereignty. Countries that want to press forward with closer political and military union should do so. Countries that do not can maintain their status in the EU at their own pace. This is messy at the micro level, but it is the only answer at the macro level.

Europe is already well-accustomed to reams and reams of microregulations. What some Europeans don't want is to see them centralized in Brussels. The EU really only needs to centralize three things: its borders policy, its foreign policy, and its shared military pool. Everything else is quite open to subsidiarity. And the development of EU law over time will keep that manageable. (Even if the result would not look anything like subsidiarity to American eyes.)

The EU only looks like a developing failure if viewed through the distorting lens of sovereign statehood. Indeed, if Europe becomes trapped in the perspective that lens affords, failure will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Illmatic

Helen in her blushworthy gratitude grants me one wish: that Kim Jong-Il start a blog. The reclusive weirdbag apparently prefers to post excerpts from IM conversations with teh prezidunt, among others. Enjoy.