I don't see any problem with this. The US fought and paid, both in lives and money, to keep Western Europe and other places free from communism. Their success means that people can express their views freely. The very slight downside is that silly people can say silly things to the rest of us.

Last New Year reception Flemish Socialist president Steve Stevaert (I saw and heard it personally, it was on television) said, to scare, that if Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) would grow further (that’s what he believes) and come into power, then the population would have to suffer from the same policies as president Bush now implements, both internally and externally (see also http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/weekinreview/20smit.html? ). So president Bush can’t be loathed enough.

Only one remark: I would call Flemish Interest hard-right, rather than far-right.

Flanders in Belgium

i think you're being a bit over-sensitive... these sort of things have been around for years. Doesn't anyone remember wiping their arse with 'Margaret Thatcher' loo paper in the mid 80's?

They are at least clever enough not to say:

Go On Piss Me Off.

As Saddam and the Taliban found out, Pissing him off has consequences.

Why not send the “Independance” to the North-See?
The Flemish socialists are “strong”, only because of the support they get from red Wallonia.

Flanders.

Here 's a nice detail: Laurent Winnock, the president of the SP.A's youth branch that is responsible for this particular piece of high-brow Bush-beating, is also an cabinet advisor to Mr Vande Lanotte, Belgium's budget minister and one of the vice-prime-ministers.

The full “story”:
http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/442/

One would think Belgium and the USA would feel like two of a kind. Both are synthetic constructs without any real national cohesion-- the sort based on race. One country is always having to band together against invasion, and the other is constantly banding together to invade.

Lets round up all the socialists in Europe and put them in Belgium. Belgium wouldnt have much to loose, after all.

As long as Vande Lanotte washes his hands before greeting the President, I don't think Bush will be particularly bothered.

Wash his hands? Certainly when Vande Lanotte shat on the President!

What a disgusting bunch of people they are. Their actions are only testament to their ridiculous policies, their childishness and their unfounded contempt for the US. It is good that we are free from the totalitarianism of the past, because the free speech reveals how warped these socialists really are, and it shows to the intelligent wider electorate who not to vote for. Unfortunately Europeans pander to socialist rhetoric, even though the original doctrine from which it is based on is little more than an unscientific theory, which lead to failed states, starvation and misery for the masses.

Aggravating aspect is that in Belgium there is only free speech for these socialists. The others must shut up. The socialist watchdog calls “Thought Police” (Agency for Equal Rights, Centrum voor Gelijkheid van Kansen). The body which legitimized the system calls “Council of Europe”. I am ashamed to be a European.

The left's stupid slogans always make me laugh, they are just so juvenile and pathetic.

Flemish Lion. I don't blame you. It must be humiliating. Thank god I am not a European. I am British.

The tough Belgian hate-speech laws are pernicious in an unexpected way. Of course I can’t proof this but one of the reasons of the towering unemployment among descendants of (Muslim) immigrants is that these are learned to see “racism” everywhere.

They are not willing to understand that natives too get remarks on their labour or sometimes even are fired!

But in that case, which (native) employer still dares to recruit those guys, even when they speak Dutch or have the same diploma as a native? The slightest criticism can end in a trial. One should understand that in an unfriendly dispute with those guys, each word must be pondered.

Vande Lanotte is 'Minister of the North Sea'? What's next? Ministers of Fire, Earth and Air? For God's sake.

It is, as observed by Basil Fawlty, not polite to "remember the war". The Belgians should be remembered for more than one, and I do not mean neither WW1 of 2. Those upstanding little socialists once possessed a colony by the name of Congo, still a festering sore for the world. It is estimated that their colonial rule cost the natives something like 3.000.000s lives. They left no infrastructure to mention when they quitted in the early sixties-the rest is history. Joseph Conrad used belgian Congo as background for his novel, Heart of Darkness.
In a lighter vein, the late Douglas Adams used "Belgium" as a proverbial taboo expression in H2G2. How right he was.

My brother always preferred peeing on Jane Fonda's picture, though he probably enjoyed shooting communist in Vietnam better than peeing on little communists like Jane at home. I wouldn't mind placing a cross hair on a Laurent Winnock urinal poster, and having a nice long shot at his face.

Remember, there are roughly 52 MILLION of us who did NOT vote for him. Where can WE get those stickers?

I didn't vote for Bush either; nevertheless, I can think of more constructive ways to vent my displeasure. American liberals need to distance themselves from this sort of European foolishness, not race to embrace it, because most of these European leftists ARE genuinely anti-American.

Right, I agree with free speech.

I think Bush should nuke the whole continent. why waste taxpayer dollars on this a$$kissing trip. Bush is getting soft.

1) For those who want to piss on Laurent Winnock, Dalila Douifi (member of parliament) and the others of the team:
http://www.s-p-a.be/provinciaal/nieuws/weblog/weblog.asp?iWeblogID=31&iDivisionID=11
To note: this proves that it was a well-hatched plan, no flash in the pan.

2) And why is Vande Lanotte 'Minister of the North Sea'? This is the best proof that ministerial functions in Belgium are distributed by the dominating Walloon socialists (those who wanted to throw Tony Blair out of the Socialist International).They reign thanks to the support of their small Flemish counterpart, so that they are majority in Belgium.

But let’s return to the subject. Since the school reform in French-speaking Belgium, Dutch is no longer second language there. So the only thing most Walloons know about the Flemish is “that they lay at the North Sea and that they are all fascists because they don’t want to transfer any more to the French-speakers those 11,3 billion Eurodollar ($14,8 or £7,9) every year.

This should be seen in the following context:
55% of the Walloons is earning an income. This is composed as follows:
-16% private domain (industry and commerce)
-39% public domain (public administrations, unemployment benefits…)
This is the information N-VA party leader Bart De Wever has found in the official public accounting figures. Some time ago he was on the Flemish television in a discussion program. His opponent, the son of (Walloon) Euro commissar Michel was present, but did not deny the numbers.

Yes and AndyUSA you show just what kind of a pathetic sore-losers you lot truly are in the end. You lost, get over it and work on making sure your guy gets elected. Sitting around and whingeing or pasting lame posters up does no one any good.

Update.
The web-page concerning the team that hatched out the plan (Laurent Winnock, Dalila Douifi MP…)
http://www.s-p-a.be/provinciaal/nieuws/weblog/weblog.asp?iWeblogID=31&iDivisionID=11
was already removed on February 24, 2005).
Perhaps socialists finally got the feeling that it was something not to be proud about?