The President of the E.U., Mirek Topolanek (currently the PM of the Czech Republic – the E.U. presidency rotates among member nations), called the direction that the Obama Administration is taking with the economy the “road to hell.”  This is a week before President Obama makes his first European visit as president, including a stop in Prague.  “All of these steps, these combinations and permanency, is the road to hell,” Topolanek said. “The United States did not take the right path.”  In addition to Topolanek, Germany and some other nations are resisting (unlike the Congress here) the encouragment by our administration to spend more on the recovery believing that they would lead to increased debts and inflation.  Juncker, Luxembourg’s PM and head of the coordinating body of euro-using countries, said there was “no question” that the EU would reject requests from Obama to spend more.

So if there are Obama supporters reading this, is this the kind of change to our foreign policy that you defended in the fall claiming to improve our image in the international community?  I doubt it.  For the rest of us, “I told you so” seems accurate but a tad hollow.  Here’s a hint: the word for the button this time is “nová sazba.”

Update: The Topolánek government fell yesterday, another victim of the economic downturn. The Social Democrats will allow them to complete the EU presidency, but it’s not clear what such a lame-duck status will mean. Also, I’d put RESETOVAT on the tlačítko. —ŒV

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.