CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Wyatt Cenac on how Europeans tricked us about Obama

"The deal was we give them Obama -- they don't hate us anymore." - Wyatt Cenac

On "the Daily Show", Jon Stewart pokes fun at European protesters and Wyatt Cenac has an epiphany about our relationship with Old Europe.

Watch the following video. The part about Old Europe still disagreeing with us starts at about the 1:24 mark:

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Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, reminds us that there have always been differences between the United States and Old Europe:

• If you go back to the time of the Revolution, there have been differences between Europeans and Americans very reminiscent of things we've seen in more recent years.

• During World War I French Prime Minister George Clemenceau said, America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.

• If you read the diaries and letters of the British and American top political and military leaders in World War II, they were at each other's throats.

• Lord Allenbrook, the British commander, didn't think Dwight Eisenhower was fit to be Supreme Commander or Americans were fit to fight.

• In 1996, during those halcyon days of the Clinton administration's transatlantic relations, former French President Francois Mitterrand said  we are at war with America, a permanent war, a war without death. They are very hard, the Americans. They are voracious. They want undivided power over the world. And that was five years before George Bush was elected president.

The mere election of a liberal left-wing president isn't going to change the fundamental differences between Old Europe and the United States.

No Proof of Secret CIA Prisons

The Associated Press reports the European Union's antiterrorism coordinator says investigations into reports that US agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers have produced no evidence of illegal CIA activities:

''We've heard all kinds of allegations, impressions; we've heard also refutations. It's up to your committee to weigh if they are true. It does not appear to be proven beyond reasonable doubt," he said. ''There has not been, to my knowledge, evidence that these illegal renditions have taken place."

[. . .]

De Vries told the committee no EU-US agreement authorized secret renditions of terror suspects, that hundreds of CIA flights did not occur over Europe as reported by various media organizations, and that he has no news of European countries using intelligence obtained under torture.

The New York Times reminds us that "many European nations were outraged after an article in The Washington Post in November cited unidentified intelligence officials as saying that the C.I.A. had maintained detention centers for terrorism suspects in eight countries, including some in Eastern Europe.

The story earned the Washington Post's Dana Priest a Pulitzer Prize.

In addition to the international uproar caused by Priest's article, government officials have said it did significant damage to relationships between the U.S. and allied intelligence agencies. You likely recall that because of Priest's article, in December Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to remind our European allies that the United State does not violate allies' sovereignty or break international law, and that Europeans that their governments are also fighting against terrorists who have bombed commuters in Madrid and London.

It is ironic that the European Union official announces there is no evidence to support the allegations of illegal CIA activities just as the a CIA officer is fired for leaking information NBC News reported pertained to stories on the CIA’s rumored secret prisons in Eastern Europe and was allegedly provided to Dana Priest.

Some bloggers, such as Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters and Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse, are wondering whether the CIA European detention center story may have been a sting designed to identify the leaker.

Merkel To Be German Chancellor

Three weeks after Germany's election, conservative leader Angela Merkel is set to become Germany’s first female chancellor.

Under the power-sharing agreement, Schroeder’s Social Democrats would get eight seats in the Cabinet, compared with six for Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the Christian Social Union.

The fat lady still hasn't sung in Germany the BBC reports that the power sharing agreement is only be the start of a lengthy and more detailed negotiation on the small print of future government policy. According to the Associated Press, the power sharing deal, even though approved by party leader, must still be approved by party conferences and in parliament. That process could take several more weeks.

The lengthy process of forming the just how difficult it might be for the "grand coalition" to govern. At Fruits and Votes, Matthew Shugart has explained that such a government is appropriate when the electoral results are inconclusive. Germany may need consensus-building more than decisivness, but that comes at a loss of leadership.

France Rejects the European Union's Constitution

Reuters reports that pollsters' projections showed France overwhelmingly rejected the European Union's constitution:

Projections by three polling groups based on partial results from the referendum suggested around 55 percent of voters had opposed the EU's first constitution, designed to simplify decision-making following the Union's enlargement last year.

The conventional wisdom is that voters said no to punish Chirac over unemployment and other economic problems.

Petition Demands Recognition Of Europe's Christian Heritage

The Telegraph reports that more than a million Europeans have signed a petition to European Union leaders calling for changes to the constitution recognizing Europe's Christian heritage:

Refusing to accept a secular "fait accompli" from Brussels, a Christian coalition is demanding that each EU state publish its version of the constitution's preamble, with references to God if desired.

Already armed with 1,149,000 signatures and with thousands more pouring in from Holland since the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh, the group claims that most states want some reference to Christianity but were blocked by France.

The move is keenly backed by Pope John Paul II, who has repeatedly condemned the "moral drift" of Brussels. "One does not cut the roots to one's birthright," he told pilgrims this summer.

Euro-MPs voted this week to back the calls for a change in the text. Petitioners, led by Italy's International Mission Centre, will now take their case to EU governments. The current version of the preamble eschews Christianity, talking vaguely of "the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe".

According to the Telegraph, Former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, deliberately left the issue open when he wrote the document, inviting a petition:

"I have chosen not to insert the reference to the Christian heritage in the constitution,"he said. "Rather I appeal to you to persuade me of its necessity."

What kind of response can the European Christians expect from their petitioned governments? If the response of these officials is any indication, they shouldn't have bothered:

A British official said it was too late to change the preamble, although national parliaments could add a "rider" stressing their country's Christian roots.

An EU official said: "These Christians could at least have the good grace to accept that they lost the argument."