Now Poland Gives EU Treaty the Finger

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This is excellent news. Not much more to say than that.

Elitist bastard.

<Cass rant> ...insert incoherent "you just don't understand" babbling here </>

Though dirty and only half-evolved the Irish may be, my appreciation for those apes who walk as men is growing.

This is hardly final from the Polish, but welcome nonetheless. There's been a growing consesus among the establishment here, although they don't dare spell it out - that there will be a second referendum, probably following some "assurances" from the EU about tax and abortion and stuff like that.

The bad news is that the treaty survived a challenge in the Czech courts, and I think that they will be approving it after all.

Let it be said however that I don't believe that right-wing opinion in America is against this treaty for any other than selfish reasons. Concern for democracy is opportunistic.

So?

Dan says that with a sincere face, as though he is concerned for America.

Well... not really. They want to know why the treaty didn't pass, and they want to know if it's because of lousy marketing, or because of actual problems with the treaty itself.

"Elitist" would be ignoring the Irish vote outright.

Oh, and somebody make a Polish joke already.

I am neither right wing nor concerned for democracy.

I am simply opposed to the centralisation of power in any form.

Barack Obama disagrees!

If it's because of lousy marketing, it's not a problem with the voters. If it's because of the treaty, the correct wording is either "The first priority is to pinpoint the problem with the treaty" or "The first priority is to pinpoint the Irish voters' problem with the treaty". However, English isn't the speaker's first language, so I'm open to the possibility of an honest misstatement.

The mechanics of the sentence are the same in both English and French; if he really meant "problem with the treaty", but wanted to use voters, the correct construction is "the problem for" not "the problem with" - "pour" not "avec".

Now, he may well have meant to say that, in which case I think it's more a case of being unintentionally honest.

The quote in french is:

Indeed "un problème à quelque chose" usually means "a problem with something" (not sure whether this works with "quelqun/somebody" as well), but it can (at least translated literally) mean "the problem to the Irish", in which case it would be closer to "problem for". Async?

Perhaps "problem of the Irish?" In English that translation can either be noble ("the Irish have a problem and let's get past it") or condescending ("the Irish are the problem"), depending on whether "problem" or "Irish" is emphasized.

I await to clarify.

Correct. The best translation of that sentence would be, "Our first priority is to define the outlines of the problem to the Irish." The idea is clearly: "Let's figure out what's bothering them." Any translation that comes across as "Let's figure out what's wrong with them" is false and misleading.

Re: Now Poland Gives EU Treaty the Finger

I'm not against it. If Europe wants to band together and make one new country I say let them.

What I am against is all the undemocratic maneuvering to force the treaty onto people who've voted against it.