Ugly Sentiments Sting American Tourists

USA TODAY ^

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

As an A-list celebrity, actor Vince Vaughn employs an array of weapons to cope with hecklers, from a Saharan wit to a waiting limo. But during a movie shoot recently in England, Vaughn found himself repeatedly reaching for the same comeback. Three totemic words from the attic of history: the Marshall Plan.

"I'd say one in three conversations wound up the same way, basically that 'America is the devil.'

[americanbychoice]

I found this op-ed piece, lengthy, but on the mark.

Allez, Giscard! Europe is not a home for slaves
William Rees-Mogg



The draft Constitution for Europe which was published last Thursday is a shameful document, destructive of democracy, disastrous for Europe, disastrous for Britain and for all the other present and prospective members of the European Union. It has even been drafted in a disorderly and undemocratic way.
I would not want anyone to take my word for it. The website address of the European Commission is www.europa.eu.int. From that website one can get to the home page of the European Convention. The draft Constitution, in its present form, runs to 19 pages, which can be downloaded. Those who do so are likely to be as astonished as I have been, and as horrified. Even a Euro-fanatic such as Peter Hain said that: “The first draft could have been a lot better.”

The draft Constitution would establish a United States of Europe. The main differences between this Constitution and that of the United States of America are that the new Europe would take more power to the centre, leave less independence to the individual states, have fewer and weaker constitutional safeguards and would be undemocratic.

If ratified, the new Constitution would change the whole legal basis of the European Union. The EU would cease to be a confederation of independent states, each retaining its ultimate sovereignty, and would become a new “legal personality”, with common citizenship, a “duty of loyal co-operation”, primacy of its laws over member states, areas of “exclusive competence” — that means power — and dominance in areas of “shared competence”. It would also have areas of “supporting action” and in case all these powers proved insufficient, “flexibility” to add new powers. It would not have a democratic government.

The new state would be responsible for co-ordinating economic policy and for “defining and implementing” foreign and defence policy. That alone would give the European institutions power over three of Britain’s chief offices of state, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary for Defence.

The United States of Europe would have exclusive competencies in six areas, including the movement of persons, goods, services and capital, and competition rules. The EU would decide whether any proposed merger was legal or not. It would also have exclusive competencies, with no democratic recourse, over the customs union, common commercial policy, monetary policy for euro nations — which we would soon have to join — common fisheries and international agreements. That is only the beginning.

The 13 “shared” competencies are almost as powerful as the exclusive ones. The individual nations would be the junior partners in shared competencies, left to do the jobs the European institutions assigned to them. Europe’s powers would include the internal market, freedom, security and justice, agriculture and fisheries, transport, trans-European networks, energy, social policy, economic and social cohesion, environment, public health, consumer protection, research, technology and space, development and human aid. Altogether these powers include virtually of the central matters of modern government. Under the proposed Constitution, they would all be determined by European bureaucrats not by elected national politicians.

Some may think I’m arguing this too much in local national terms. It may be better to put the question in the terms of some other European countries. Do you think that the interests of Denmark will be better cared for by a democratically elected Danish Government or by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels? For “Denmark”, one can read France, Germany, Poland, Spain, or any other of the 25 present or prospective members of the EU. One can, of course, ask the same question about Britain.

Nor is this the lot. The Charter of Fundamental Rights, that self-contradictory bundle of legal aspirations, is to be incorporated into European law, which takes precedence over national law. This hits home to the press. British newspapers may find freedom of speech ranked well below respect for the privacy of Europe’s great statesmen. We shall all have to be extra careful of the tender sensitivities of Chancellor Schröder.

There are also six areas in which the European institutions will be entitled to take “supporting action”. Now that we can see Brussels’s full hunger for power, we should be as reluctant to accept supporting action from the Brussels bureaucrats as from the wolf that ate Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother. These areas include employment, on which the EU’s record is very poor, industry, education, vocational training and youth, culture, sport and the prevention of disasters. These vital areas of public life are added on as an afterthought to the main banquet of powers.

These proposals would destroy European democracy. The European nations would cease to be self-governing. The individual European parliaments are still sovereign; in Britain, the House of Commons, which is democratically elected, is the seat of government. The European Parliament is not sovereign, it is elected on the party list system — which is only too easy to manipulate — and it is not the seat of government. After enlargement, Britain will have approximately 13 per cent of the seats in this weak European Parliament. We would never again be able to change our real government by our own votes. Never. Nor would any other European country. The outrage is that this Constitution would destroy the democracy of all the nations of Europe.

On January 30 Tony Blair lunched with Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the author of this arrogant document. On November 28, 2002, Blair had made a speech in Cardiff which endorsed Giscard’s European approach, if not all the details. Whatever he now says, we cannot afford to trust Tony Blair on the European Constitution. Nor can Conservatives trust Kenneth Clarke, who has already said that he expects to be at odds with his party over the Constitution. If the Tories do decide to change their leader, they cannot and will not accept a leader who wants to destroy British independence and democracy.

The only safeguard would be a referendum. This Constitutional change is too important to be ratified by Parliament under the whips. If we have referendums on Scotland, Wales, local mayors and the euro, the future of our national independence surely requires one as well. That is the only way to force the Government to negotiate on the basis of the reality of British opinion.

This, however, is a great difficulty. Giscard has done his damnedest to destroy European democracy. There is virtually no possibility of negotiating this document down to a level at which it would be acceptable to European democrats, once it has been properly understood, once enough people have downloaded the text or read their newspapers.

The Giscard Constitution stands Europe on its head. In democratic theory, power belongs to the people. They elect their government; the governments make mutually beneficial arrangements to co-operate. That is how the European Union ought to be. In the actual Europe, and in this proposed Constitution, power belongs to the rulers, to a bureaucratic class, of which Giscard is a member, which claims, “L’état, c’est moi”. The answer to that is: “Oh no, it’s not.”

The French Government has suggested that there ought to be Europe-wide referendums on the Constitution, held on the same day. There are strong arguments for that. There is no European country which does not value its own independence and democracy; every country in the EU is democratic at the national level. The Giscard Constitution would, in my view, certainly lose a referendum in Britain. We have a consistent majority against the euro in the polls; this is far worse than the euro.

The French voted for Maastricht by only the narrowest margin; they voted Giscard out when he was President, because they could not stand his condescension. I expect they will do so again. The new members, including Poland, Hungary, and the Czechs, have only recently regained their freedom and do not want to lose it again. Perhaps Giscard’s bureau-Fascist Constitution could win a referendum in Belgium or Luxembourg — I do not know where else. Let all Europe put this nonsense to a vote; the peoples of Europe do not have the mentality of slaves.
ut right on the money.

[vikingcelt]

I've still got a score to settle in Dingle, Ireland. Dick Mack's Pub to be precise where we were viciously attacked for being Americans on September 22, 2001. If the stock market ever rebounds and (therefore) my fortunes improve, I've got a free trip for a couple of ex-military American men who are willing to go over there and kick some decadent Eurotrash ass...all expenses paid.

[lizbet]

I would like to have a T-shirt like that one! That would satisfy me to see what other people's reaction to it.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

The only reason you were attacked was for being American? Why would Irishmen attack Americans? And only 11 days after 911? I don't get it.

[Redleg Duke]

Like someone told me today,

"Talk about irony...The French rebuking us for arrogance and the Germans lecturing us about militarism!"

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

I'm heading to Europe in a few months. We'll see if any of these wannabe tough guys try some of these stunts with me. The scene where Joe Pesci stabs the guy at the bar with a pen in Casino comes to mind...

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

I would like a bumper sticker with nothing else on it but that. I would by a couple hundred and go to the local university. My motto would be: 'If you own a VW, BMW, Audi or Peugot, or if you have any slogans already posted on your vehicle that are left-wing oriented, you get a free bumper sticker'.

[Morrigan]

Europeans may think we are inferior, but at least we have the sense to bathe, brush our teeth, and deoderize every day. I'd rather be perceived as loud and vulgar than dirty with rotten teeth and stinky pits. But what do I know? I'm just a stupid American!

[zook]

I get to be in Beijing in about a month. Wonder if I'll get any crap over there.

[Slings and Arrows]

I spent two weeks in Haifa last year as a visiting scholar. Americans are loved - the Israelis just grateful that you came. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

[Servant of the Nine]

Any American Tourist in Germany or France right now needs to be lynched, if not there, then when the get home.
Both countries depend heavilly on Tourism.

So9

[vikingcelt]

Well, I didn't get it either but it was pretty terrible. It wasn't a physical attack...it was a lot of people verbally attacking us and the United States. And it was only 11 days after 9/11...that made it particularly upsetting. We flew from San Francisco on September 17th for Ireland because that particular trip had been planned for several months. We were there just being ourselves in a country that I happen to love (Ireland) and so it was quite shocking to me and extremely upsetting. It wasn't just Irish people in that wretched pub...there were English people and Scottish people and probably other nationalities of people. We had a great time in lots of other pubs in Ireland but I will never, ever, ever forget that night in Dick Mack's Pub in Dingle. If you ever happen to get to Dingle, stay out of Dick Mack's. When I go back (for the vendetta) I'm wearing my sweatshirt with the flag and the towers and the eagle with the tear in her eye and the ships and the guns and "Payback Is A Bitch" on it. No way am I going to hide the fact that I'm an American and proud of it. And we will see just how much those pathetic whiners like THEIR "payback".

[Democratshavenobrains]

And liberals are surprised that so many Americans never leave the country?

[observer5]

""I'd say one in three conversations wound up the same way, basically that 'America is the devil.'"

Tell them they need not believe everything they see on CNN and BBC.

[observer5]

I think a lot of this is just propaganda using some isloated cases. I know in South America the US and americans are as popular as ever.

[Kip Lange]

I think a lot of this is just propaganda using some isloated cases.

I agree. Which story is the media more likely to run -- "Silent Middle Class Europeans Quietly Support Bush" or "Thousands of Europeans Angrily Spit on Americans"?

Also, folks, I mean, doesn't anybody besides me remember the Reagan years? Or, to phrase it differently: "The last time we actually had a real President"? The same stories were floating around. The no-nukes protesters, the anti-Americanism abroad, Reagan is destroying our world credibility with SDI, blah blah, yada yada, lather, rinse, repeat. We've seen this before, and the result was: Reagan stuck to his guns and won the Cold War.

Doesn't really bother me. I also can't be troubled to boycott products because, given how intertwined economies get, I don't know if I'm ending up hurting people I support (i.e. perhaps I start boycotting a beverage made in France but which uses an American company to supply their bottles). I'm not saying the boycott ideas are bad, just that I'm not doing it (other than switching off movies with celiberals who I can't stand, and that's not boycotting, that's called, "keeping my lunch down", heh).

We've been here before. Last time it ended up giving us sole superpower status. Lord knows what great things it could produce this time. :-)

[Leisler]

So Tony is a 40 year old flight attendent that votes Democrat. Ahem. No, um, significant other, Tony?

[Leisler]

A carnival float shows paper mache figure of German conservative opposition leader Angela Merkel emerging from the buttocks of Uncle Sam during the traditional Rose Monday carnival parade in Duesseldorf, March 3, 2003. Merkel has strongly criticized the German government's anti-Iraq (news - web sites) war stance and recently visited Washington. The Rose Monday parades in Cologne, Mainz and Duesseldorf are the highlight of the German street carnival season. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender

[afz400]

Europeans hate everyone. That's why our ancestors came to America in the first place.