Hungarian Rhapsody

There’s been rioting in Budapest for two nights now. Well, maybe "vigorous protests" is a better word. Monday night’s protest was a violent one — cobblestones tossed, cars burned and 150 people injured, with 102 of those being police. But Tuesday’s protest, though large, was peaceful, according to the BBC.

Why the rioting? The Hungarians are furious because their Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, lied in order to win re-election. More specifically, in his first term he accomplished absolutely nothing, and someone leaked a tape of Gyurcsany admitting this.

In excerpts broadcast on state radio, Mr Gyurcsany candidly admitted his government had accomplished "nothing" and had been lying for "the last year-and-a-half to two years".

"We lied morning, noon and night," he said in a speech punctuated by obscenities.

Mr Gyurcsany won the elections on a platform of tax cuts, but has since proposed tax increases to deal with a huge budget deficit.

That’s why they’re rioting? A do-nothing administration, a tax increase and a few bad words said in private but caught on tape. . . and they want their leader to resign so badly they’re rioting.

Our president just admitted the existence of secret CIA torture centers across the world. And the only reason taxes haven’t gone up is that we’ve got deficit spending instead. To these and a thousand other governmental sins intrepid Americans, myself included, have responded with indignant blog posts.

You know, I’m glad the streets outside are quiet and my car hasn’t been torched. But I can’t bring myself to look at Budapest and then back home and say it's the Hungarians showing the wrong response.