No Oil for Pacifists: That's Two!

The "nees" have it: with turn-out over 62 percent, exit polls show voters in the Netherlands overwhelmingly rejecting the proposed EU Constitution, with a likely margin of 63 to 37 percent.

EU Referendum captures my mood:

I am not going to gloat.

I am really not going to gloat - to do so would be immature, irresponsible and grossly unkind to Margot.¹ So it is time for a moment of mature reflection.

YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAYAAAAAA.....

There, I told you I wasn't going to gloat.

I lied.

Good news on this side of the Atlantic, says Jonah Goldberg:

Now is the time for unreasonable giddiness, schadenfreude, and rank geopolitical opportunism. Maybe not items one and two, if we're talking about what the offcial US response should be, but for the rest of us, I can't see how this is anything but fantastic news.

Though I do think there's little reason to rejoice about the voter's intentions. If I understand the debate in France correctly, it was about whether or not a refrigerator box or a tree house makes for a better place to hide. Oh, wait, that was a different debate. This debate was about whether or not the proposed new EU constitution would result in "ultraliberalism" AKA as "the American" economic model. In other words, both the yes-ers and the no-ers were voting with anti-American attitudes. One group wanted the EU to stick it to America geopolitically. The other group found that part appealing, but was more afraid of becoming like America culturally and economically. In short, I think France remains largely a write-off to us. The good news, however, is that France is now far less positioned to determine the course of European foreign policy generally -- and that's great news.

Ding-dong, the witch is dead.

More:

According to Zacht Ei and Nos TV: With 99.8 percent of all votes counted, 61.6 percent NO, 38.4 percent yes. The turnout was 62.8; higher than expected.

(via LGF)

Still More:

Tim Hames in the Times (London):

The constitution manages the rare feat of being excessively long and disturbingly ambiguous, simultaneously. It is a cross between the Berlin telephone directory and the prophecies of Nostradamus.

(via Hatless in Hattiesburg)

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¹ EU Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, previously discussed here, the witch incarnate.