Free-range turkey and giblet gravy; Prairie Chapel bass; mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup and chiptoles; pan-roasted vegetables with walnuts and apples; cornbread stuffing; pecan and pumpkin pie with Blue Bell ice cream; Patz & Hall "Hyde" chardonnay 2002.

Well, here’s a surprise (not): the EU’s bureaucracy (in this case the EU ‘parliament’s’ legal service) looks as if it has managed to shut down the row over Chirac’s new EU commissioner, Jacques Barrot. This, you may remember, concerned the fact that Barrot didn’t bother to disclose that he had been convicted of involvement in a political funding scandal some years ago.

Barrot’s defense was that he didn’t have to mention the conviction, because he benefited from an amnesty. The EU Parliament’s legal service agrees, and, as matter of strict law, they are probably right. The amnesty effectively nullified Barrot’s conviction so there was, I suppose, literally ‘nothing’ to disclose.

Well, yes and no.

Barrot may not have had to disclose the conviction, but given the (regrettable) importance of the job to which he was being appointed, he had a clear moral obligation to do so.

He should resign.

First Havel comes out in support of the Ukrainian opposition, now Kiev is visited by Lech Walesa, another giant of Eastern Europe’s heroic age:

“Solidarity leader and the first post-communist Polish president Lech Walesa also addressed the crowd, which was in high spirits as it gathered under blue skies on this clear, windless day.Much of central Kyiv is now a solid block of protestors, most bedecked in orange, the signature color of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. A carnival atmosphere predominates.Estimates place the crowd at up to a million.”

The ‘winner’ of the Ukrainian election has now had his swearing in. Foreign Notes, an American blog in Kiev, has more:

”There was a ceremony of sorts yesterday where Yanukovych accepted the presidency. The swearing in is supposed to take place today so it was not his investment ceremony. It was a kind of acceptance ceremony that took place in some room somewhere in Kiev. He was surrounded by people who looked pleased with these events, but there seemed to be less than fifty. They stood and clapped and he had the look of the humble ruler reluctantly assuming power after the people have spoken. But there was something pitiful in this in a way. It was a small gathering indoors. He speaks to fifty inside. Yuschenko speaks to hundreds of thousands outside. And on that outside, Yanukovych has to ship in his supporters from other cities to Kiev to counter the crowds in the downtown square and he can’t get anywhere near the numbers Yuschenko gets who pays no one. With no pay, with no one defraying their expenses in any way to come here, these people make their way to Kiev under their own power to take part in the demonstrations. The give their loyalty freely to Yuschenko and to their country. Inside with Yanukovych, though, it is hard not to believe that those who stood and clapped for him are people who are in that position because they owe him something.”

Here's Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson's take on the Ukrainian elections, with a drawing that blends bile, ignorance, moral cretinism and anti-Americanism to use the Ukrainian elections as yet another excuse to take a run at Bush.

Very classy, Martin. Very classy.

One of the tragedies of Russia after 1991 is its failure to come to terms with the horrors of its Soviet past. There never was a Soviet Nuremberg, something that still burdens that country today. Moscow’s meddling in the Ukrainian elections shows how that old Soviet mindset persists. Failure there might produce a long overdue rethink.

The London Times quotes Konstantin Zatulin, director of the Institute of CIS Countries in Moscow, as saying this, “The Ukrainian election means more for us than for the West...The West will lose practically nothing if its candidate doesn’t win. However, for us, it can mean a reappraisal of values and significant expenses.”

Quite what the “expenses” would be, I cannot imagine, but a “reappraisal of values” is exactly what Russia needs.

By the time you read this, it will be our "Thanksgiving" holiday. This is a day when Americans commemorate the efforts of the original English settelers of this land, who came here in the name of feedom, but at great personal risk and physical danger. It is self-evident that they seldom lived in comfort, but they tamed primitive lands, exhibited a peaceable spirit, and governed themselves by equitable principles rooted in democracy and religious faith. We honor these kinsmen, praise their sacrifices, and share their respect for God. Without their great efforts and ongoing struggles, the cause of freedom may never have realized its triumphant successes. I give thanks for what these forebearers and God have given to me and my family, and I pray that you and you kinsmen will soon realize these same gifts. God bless America and God bless Ukraine!

Slava Ukraini,

The Bush administration has been admirably frank and forceful this week in denouncing the fraud in Ukraine and in making clear to Ukrainians that it is on their side. In the coming days it must drive home the message to Mr. Yanukovych that he will be a pariah in Washington -- notwithstanding his cynical offer to extend the deployment of Ukrainian troops in Iraq -- if he accepts his illegitimate mandate, and that he and all of his governmental and business allies will be held personally responsible for any violence against the opposition. At the same time, President Bush needs to accept that U.S. hopes of cooperation with Russia, in the Middle East or elsewhere, cannot be insulated from Mr. Putin's anti-democratic imperialism in Eastern Europe. The West must take a clear stand against that policy, before it is too late to prevent a redivision of the continent.

- Vaclav Havel has issued a second statement on the situation in Ukraine:

Dear Citizens,

Allow me to address you once again in these turbulent yet hopeful days. I am currently far away in Taiwan. But even here, I can feel the breeze blowing of your civic will, responsibility, and desire for freedom. It very much reminds me of our own Velvet Revolution in the former Czechoslovakia in 1989. Despite the announcement of official election results, may the course of your protests remain peaceful. I know based on my own experience how important it is to not allow oneself to be provoked into violence.

At the same time, I appeal to all of you who work in the mass media: Do not allow yourselves to be intimidated, and write the truth about events in your own country.

Yours, V.H.

(English translation by RFE/RL)

to have children in an age of birth control is an act of pure optimism….for all the talk of dark days, edge of apocalypse etc, raising kids is like shooting skyrockets into the night. and we all like playing with fire.

Mr. Robinson, I'm sure you're getting deluged with emails from nerds like myself, but let me assure you that the boys will be much better off becoming accustomed to the mouse + keyboard than the joystick. The joystick is, indeed, only used for flight sims anymore, and anyone playing a shooter with the joystick will find themselves at a severe disadvantage.

If starwars battle front is a first person perspective shoot em up [it is] then your children are better off using the mouse and keyboard to control it. Joy sticks are used mostly for flight sims and are also popular for playing the mech warrior games. Games companies have been trying for years to create and sell a better input device to control first person shooters and not one of them has managed to top the good old mouse and keyboard.