Although the result of Sunday's Parliamentary election seems eerily familiar to Americans, the political realities in Germany (and the EU in general) reveal much bigger problems.

Pam Meister reviews Mark Steyn's take on the state of Europe and makes a sober observation:

It's like a burning car wreck--we can't do anything about it but stare as those involved suffer until the fire truck arrives. Will the fire truck arrive in time?

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I swear. You really have to search - and I mean really search - to find any story on yesterday's historic Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan.

Afghan voters had a 50% turnout, there was no major violence reported and women were pulling off their burqas at the polling stations in celebration. While former Taliban thugs threatened to disrupt the election, the day was a peaceful one.

What patrolling Canadian soldiers witnessed instead on Sunday was a virtual national holiday. Afghans casually strolled down the streets of their two major cities after all non-essential traffic was ordered off the road, on their way to do something they thought would ensure a brighter future -- vote.

"Everyone is so happy. It's like we are waiting for Christmas to come," said Abdullah Shahood, a 22-year-old poll observer for candidate Abdul Razziq.

"Everyone is optimistic."

Hmmm. Now why would the U.S. media be ignoring something so significant? Oh yeah, I forgot. They're too busy covering the big anti-Bush speech that Bill Clinton made yesterday. What the hell was I thinking?

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Now only a fool would completely trust that little buck-toothed punk, Kim Jong Il, at anything he promises, but it turns out that the six-nation negotiations have born at least some fruit - an agreement by North Korea to dismantle its nook-yoo-lar program. Of course, the North Korean dictator was able to extract its pound of flesh from the U.S. and its Asian allies as part of the bargain - simply put, money. And that of course was the whole point of their nuclear blackmail.

What's most amusing however is that I can recall a certain French-looking Democrat Presidential Candidate who went on and on about how a six-nation negotiation was too complicated and the only way the U.S. could succeed was to deal one-on-one with North Korea. What a genius, huh?

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The voters have spoken and the winner is...Angela Merkel and the Christian Democrats with an estimated 36% of the vote. Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats got 33.6%.

The Christian Democrats, the more conservative and pro-American of the two largest German political parties, fell short of the anticipated 40%+ they were expected to get, but this puts Angela Merkel in as the new Chancellor.

Without a majority, Merkel may be forced as chancellor into a coalition with the Social Democrats, probably without Schroeder.

UPDATE: 11:00pm
It's now reported as too close to call with both Schroeder and Merkel claiming victory. Could be be counting "hanging chads" in Dusseldorf?

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German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his Marxist...er I mean Social Democrat Party are fighting down to the wire for whatever votes they can muster in the face of a strong challenge from the Christian Democrats (Germany's more conservative party) in tomorrow's parliamentary elections.

The leader of the Christian Democrats - Angela Merkel - is campaigning on job creation and economic reform. God knows Germany could use some of that these days. It's unemployment rate is 11.4% and economic growth was last recorded at a sluggish 1.6%.

What happened to the German powerhouse that once challenged the U.S. economically? Simple: Socialism. It looks good on paper, but in the real world the enormous welfare state Germany has created is crushing its once prosperous economy. more...

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