Today Saturday Belgian Police arrested two Sudanese men, purported al-Qaeda affiliates, in Zaventem International Airport near Brussels. The cell phone of one of the two contained the name “Usama Bin Laden” in its phone number list. Upon searching their luggage, the police found photos of suicide terrorists. The two entered our country on a flight from Greece. Sorry, no link in English found.

And the Dutch Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD) (General Intelligence and Security Service) claims to have indications that some radical Muslims are preparing terror attacks. The Dutch have a 1,300 strong Infantry contingent in the Iraqi al-Muthanna province, and is therefore at risk for Islamist attacks. Just recently the Dutch government got authorization from Parliament to extend the troops' stay in Iraq till after the January 2005 elections. The AIVD claims to follow 150-200 suspected (read: linked to terrorism) Muslims. The Dutch government is also working on a similar color code based Alert System as the US's one.

As for the Tour de France, today’s ride Châteaubriant/Saint-Brieuc (204,5km) was won by the Italian Filippo Pozzato from the Fassa Bortolo Team. Frenchman Thomas Voeckler still keeps the Yellow Shirt though. For the General Classification look here. Lance is still no. 6. One cyclist, Christophe Brandt, was forced out of the Tour for using non-authorized drugs. Oh yeah, in case you are interested in some in-depth info on the Tour, here’s the official website in English.

MFBB

YEEEEEAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!





Belgian Tom Boonen (the guy in blue right in the middle) wins the sixth ride in the Tour de France 2004. After having been at the spearhead of the ride Bonneval-Angers for most of the time, he broke away from direct competitors Stuart O’Grady and Erik Zabel in the final two hundred meters. Behind him however was the carnage caused by a massive crash in which some twenty rides were involved (no, Tom did not cause it). As a matter of fact, today’s ride from Bonneval to Angers over a distance of 196 kilometers was marred by rain, like Thursday, but this time resulting in quite a few falls. Axel Merckx, yes, son of, went down two times and Lance also (see pic – this was NOT in the final breakdown just mentioned) although he managed to get back on his bike right away. Two important Italian champs, Cippolini and Petacchi, gave up because of injuries.

Maybe I should give you some more info the coming days of the diverse ranking systems and classifications in use. Apart from the daily Ride Score (winner today Tom Boonen) there’s the General Classification upon which is determined who the Yellow Shirt Bearer is (that’s still Frenchman-despite-his-name Thomas Voeckler), the Point Classification, the Mountain Classification, the Team Classification (Danish CSC being first, US Postal/Berry Floor 5th) and the Youth Classification. God knows I still have a business to run, but I’ll try to clarify something over the coming days.

In the General Classification you will notice Lance still on no. 6. Note also that the US Postal Team cyclists are a tight group – they stick together and work for each other – and for King Lance, as it fits. Indeed, the US Postal Team is being described as a well oiled machine and a clockwork. Kevin, you are right, I used the phrasing “cede the Yellow Shirt” in a wrong way two days ago. It’s just that Lance is biding his time. Scott, you were right about the French being pissed off about an American cowboy moving at will on what they still consider as their turf. When Frenchman Thomas Voeckler became Yellow Shirt bearer two days ago French Press was ecstatic, describing it as a miracle and a wonder.

Poor frogeaters. They so desperately try to matter in today's world. Why, apparently, even with a human tragedy looming large over the Sudanese Darfur region and being offered the opportunity to stick for once with the US in confronting the hypocritical Sudanese regime with its complicity in the janjaweed killings, new French Foreign Minister Renaud Muselier still can't bring himself to call a spade a spade. So desperate are they to show their policy does not necessarily reflect the US's, that according to Mr. Muselier (heartthrob Dominique de Villepin is now Interior Minister) the thingy in Sudan is just a civil war and as such an internal affair with both parties carrying the burden of guilt. Sure. Whatever you say Renaud.

Bye,

MFBB

Ha ha ha.

I love it. Richard Riordan made a really stupid comment to a little girl at a public event in California. The racial grievance industry kicked into high gear and immediately began calling for resignations, organizing a protest rally, and saying things like: She is "a little African-American girl. Would he have done that to a white girl?"


The little girl is rather white with blond hair.

The protest has been cancelled and the state Assemblyman who was so outraged isn't returning phone calls.

Ha ha ha.

Bill Clinton was the first black president. Will John Kerry be the first gay president?

Hey, you MUST admit sometimes good news is coming out of Belgium.

Belgian police arrest Dutch resident on terror charges

7 July 2004
AMSTERDAM ? Belgian police have arrested a Dutch resident of Moroccan origin on suspicion of involvement in the Madrid train bombings in March.
The man was arrested on 1 July when the suspect ? identified as El Houcine el H., of the southern Dutch city Weert ? applied for asylum in Belgium, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported on Wednesday.
A spokesman from the federal prosecution office in Brussels said that the suspect was accused of preparing an international terrorist attack from Belgium.

As for the 91st Tour de France, I'm sorry but Lance lost his Yellow Shirt again. Happens when performances from the competing champs are that close. Also the point allocation and classification system is quite tricky (maybe the UN could send monitors). Be that as it may, Wednesday's 4th ride Cambrai-Arras (64,5km) was a so-called Team Time Run which was decisively won by Lance's US Postal - Berry Floor Team. That's why he got the Yellow Shirt yesterday. However, today Thursday July 7 he had to cede it again to the Australian Stuart O'Grady, who won today's ride Amiens-Chartres (200,5km). In the general classification you will notice Lance is sixth. Tomorrow sees the Tour travel from Bonneval to Angers, which is a distance of 196 kilometers.

Maybe I should have provided this link earlier; it's an overview of the participating teams. US Postal's team is composed of:

US Postal (USA)
Team Leader: Johan Bruyneel(BEL)
1. Lance Armstrong (USA),
2. José Azevedo (POR),
3. Manuel Beltran Martinez (SPA),
4. Viatcheslav Ekimov (RUS),
5. George Hincapie (USA),
6. Floyd Landis (USA),
7. Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (SPA),
8. Pavel Padrnos (CZE),
9. José L.Rubiera Vigil (SPA).

Looks like Lance is quite well known among you, even though I guess cycling has much less appeal as a sport in the States. But do the names Hincapie and Landis ring a bell?

Nothing much left to say today, except that Schroeder is having a BAD TIME trying to sell his REFORM 2010 Plan to the powerful German Unions. He has the backing of his SDP Party, but the Union leaders still live in the seventies. Make no mistakes, Schroeder is a socialist but over the past years he has "gotten it" the welfare state at its present level is untenable. Hence his Plan. The corporate sector thinks it's still not far-reaching enough, although they would be glad if it were even partly adopted. I'm sorry but I was unable to find links.

And oh yeah, this weekend my wife and I saw "The day after tomorrow" with Dennis Quaid. Tom, Kerry, Scott, your servant, and Mark and Drazil over there in Colorado are toast, erm, ice cubes if we have to believe it. Only Jamie over there in Alabama and maybe Kevin in Atlanta have a shot at surviving, althoug they face a whopping 400% increase in heating bills. This movie was as politically correct as could be in the present day, with an Arab from KSA (!) expressing, during a Meeting on the Earth's Climate, confusion over the projected Ice Age instead of global warming as predicted by prof Hall, and the Vice President of the US of A rebuking the Prof's grim forecast. Yeah, we all know the Arabs have always been VERY concerned over the greenhouse effect. There's also a funny scene with Americans crossing the Rio Grande illegally to Mexico, on the run for the advancing Ice Front. Let's hope Presidente Fox has an immigration plan similar to Bush's ready, just in case. If Mark does manage to survive, then he can serve tortillas for three bucks a day in some shabby Mexico City restaurant.

Anyway, apart form the lousy political message, the special FX are quite impressive, with LA being levelled by gigantic twisters (Kerry get out of there!!!) and Manhattan flooded by a 70m high tidal wave. The love story sucks, though (and alas, no taataa's).

Bye, MFBB

Michael, we'd gladly exchange these 9 pantywaists for you and your family (not to insult you and your family, of course.)

If you are represented by these jackasses and you have not raised hell in your district, you need to get on it. If our elections were subject to UN approval in 2000, they would have declared the election invalid and posted Kofi Annan as interim president until the committee of free elections, headed up by Iran, decided what to do about it. We'd still be waiting for their judgment today.

The three most important worldwide sports events are: the Olympic Games, the Soccer World Championship and the… Tour de France. Now, while this Tour de France has for most of its existence been an almost purely European event, over the past decade it has won worldwide acclaim because of its growing appeal to truly international sportsmen. So today’s Tours not only attract German, British and Italian champions but also Colombians, Australians, Uzbekistans, Russians and… Americans. I would be very surprised if none of you have not heard yet of your Champ Lance Armstrong, fivefold Tour Winner and as such an enigma, since such an honour was till now only reserved to, ahem, my compatriot Eddy Merckx. Believe it or not, but your Lance has a Belgian teamleader, Johan Bruyneel, whose deputy, Geert Duffeleer, happens to be a client of mine. Lance's US Postal Team has its car park in Brakel, a small town some 15 kloms from where I live.

This years’ Tour, which started last Saturday, will show us whether Lance will break Eddy’s record. Now for a little bit of history:

The Tour de France was the brainchild of a velodrome champion turned editor-of-a-cycling magazine Henri Desgranges and his chief cycling reporter Georges Lefevre, who are said to have had the following conversation at the turn of the 20th Century.

Credit for devising the actual idea appears to have come from the journal's chief cycling reporter, 26-year old Georges Lefèvre. He suggested to Desgrange, "a several-day race, longer than anything now going on, something more on the order of a track six day race, only this time on the road. All the major towns are begging for cycle races, and they are bound to go along with the idea".

- "If I understand you rightly, Géo", someone said, "you are proposing a cycling Tour de France."
- "Well, why not?", replied Lefèvre.

Thus the idea was born.

The very first Tour de France took place between July 1 to July 19 1903 and promised a five francs per day living allowance to the first fifty riders and upped the prize money to 20,000 francs. 60 riders rose to the challenge; 21 were sponsored, the other 39 a rag-bag of the poor, the unemployed and the plain adventurous. It was won by a fellow named Maurice Garin.

Folks, 1903 is a long time ago and a discussion of how the Tour de France became, well, The Tour de France over the decades would push the Fourth of July too much to the background. Suffice to say you can find it all here.

Basic Tour de France 101 is that during three weeks almost every day a ride, typically 200 km long, is undertaken. In doing so, the caravan ventures pretty much in a circular movement around France. Most of the time it’s from point A to B, e.g. this year’s ride Amiens-Chartres (200,5km); sometimes it’s from point A back to A, e.g. the July 24 Besançon/Besançon ride, which is an individual timerun. Famous cyclists throughout the 20th Century were Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Poulidor (nicknamed the Eternal Second) and Jacques Anquetil. I would almost forget your compatriot Greg Lemond, who introduced the US to the Tour. Dreaded are the cols, steep rides in Frances Pyrenées or Alps (e.g. Alpe d’Huez might ring a bell even in Maine).

Now, why do I tell you all this? Well, this year the famed Tour de France will pass right through my hometown Geraardsbergen. You may wonder whether France has annexed Belgium in some sneak attack, since the Tour de France is supposed to be held in… France, right? Well, although the CESM’s would actually like very much to attach our prosperous kingdom to Chiracland, sans King of course, no, that hasn’t happened yet. Also the mighty Belgian Army would see to it that never happens. As a matter of fact, it is not uncommon for the Tour, which lasts three weeks, to hop on occasion into a neighbouring country, e.g. Italy or Belgium. Well, The Tour de France 2004 actually started on Saturday, July 3rd, in the eastern Belgian city of Liège. It spends no less than four days on Belgian soil and becomes a truly French Tour tomorrow, Tuesday… but not before passing through the place where your servant spent the first, extremely exciting part of his hitherto fabulous life – Geraardsbergen. See the map below. You will also notice that Tuesday’s ride starts in… Waterloo, where Nappie got clobbered.




Why does the Tour honor Geraardsbergen on its passing? Well, my hometown sports a low hump, called the Oudenberg (literally translated as Mountain of the Elders), 111m above sea-level. With the town center at 30m height on average, this does not seem to make for an impressive climb… were it not that the last part of the slope, called “De Muur” (The Wall) leading to the Oudenberg’s summit is a 20% climb over not really inviting cobblestones.




The pic below shows a former German champ, Baldinger, member of the Deutsche Telekom Team.




Anyway, so tomorrow the whole circus storms through the place where I was born and raised. Unfortunately, since I have to maintain the welfare state, I will not be able to view the spectacle. But I will keep you updated on tomorrow's events, Inshallah. And of course we have rendez-vous on Sunday July 25th, when the Tour comes to an end on the Champs Elysées in Paris and when we will know whether Mr. Armstrong will have made history by being the first person ever to win the Tour de France 6 times.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY AMERICANOS!!!!!

Huh. Imagine that.

"One official said that Mr. Hussein had implied that ambiguity over whether his government possessed illegal weapons "would keep the neighbors at bay, while the U.S. would be hung up in interminable debate at the U.N."'

Requires login. Use "Downeastblog" for username and password.

Hat tip to The Corner.

This is a damning indictment of American news media.

"As Watson's men pursued the fighters on foot, a grenade arced over the cemetery wall and exploded beneath a Humvee. After the loss of one Humvee a week earlier, sparking a celebration by Sadr's men, the soldiers refused to surrender this one. The resulting firefight turned into a six-hour defense of a burning car.

"We weren't going to let them dance on it for the news," said Capt. Ty Wilson, 31, of Fairfax, Va., who commands "Apache" Company. "Even all the guys they lost that day, that still would have given them victory."

Hat tip to Belmont Club.

Yep, I'm all for an illegal immigrant amnesty. Read this:

"In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens."

Good Lord.

The World turned upside down...

A quote I agree with uttered by John Kerry. No seriously, THE John Kerry.

"'I think that driver's licenses are part of the legality of being here and if you've been here a period of time we may work something out as part of that immigration process, but I wouldn't give somebody who is automatically one year in here illegally all the rights and privileges of being here legally,' Kerry said in the interview.
'I think that's wrong. That defeats the purposes of the law,' he said."'

This REALLY pisses me off:

So, if this hasn't worked, what's the solution? The NDP, which polls indicate may hold the balance of power in Parliament after June 28, has proposed a radical solution: "going across the border to the U.S. and actively engaging in lobbying to have gun -control laws in the U.S. strengthened."

This sounds encouraging:

"At a council of war after Friday prayers at Baghdad's Baratha mosque, the sheiks - or chiefs - of more than 40 of the tribes issued a declaration: they would destroy Falluja, along with neighbouring Ramadi, unless the insurgency leaders they hold responsible for the Shiite deaths are handed over to them - for execution."

I'm doing my part to end our dependency on foreign oil.

Are you?

***SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT***

After considerable delay, my new (non-political) website is up. Check it.

Jonah Goldberg rips me off.

Scroll down to my Saturday, June 26 post and behold my supreme insight. It's more proof that DowneastBlog has the true pulse of the nation. ;)

Ok, this is the pic that should have been posted yesterday. It was a curious glitch.




To the left of the photo you see our new Chairman of the European Commission, read Prime Minister of the European Union, Portuguese PM José Manuel Durao BARROSO. The photo was taken in March 2003 just prior to OIF during the so-called Açores Summit, whereupon Mr. Barroso had invited President Bush, PM Blair and the Spanish PM Aznar. Like I said, Portugals contribution to the liberation of Iraq is rather symbolic (120 policmen), nevertheless Barroso got castigated by the Portuguese for it. He repeatedly angered his countrymen further by vowing not to retreat the officers. His centre-right party was severely punished for this pro-US stance during the recent European elections: with 44% of the votes the rival Socialist Party gained a decisive - and historic - victory.

For taking such an unpopular stance we can certainly forgive him the fact that in his student years he was briefly a member of a Maoist student movement (hey, everyone makes mistakes, even me). It was the early seventies, the final days of the rightwing Portuguese dictatorship, which ended in 1974 with the so-called Carnation Revolution. In 1980 Barroso joined the Social Democratic Party, which in Portugal is center-right. From 1987 till 1992 he was Interior Minister, during which he successfully concluded a Peace Accord which ended 15 years of civil war in the former Portuguese colony of Angola. In 1992, at age 36, he assumed the post of Foreign Minister. The Social Democrats losing the 1995 elections, he briefly lectured law at Washington’s Georgetown University. Back in Portugal, he became Party Leader in 1999. In 2002 he was appointed Prime Minister. His biggest achievement was sanitizing the derailed public finances through strict and sober governance. He is not known as a visionary – Portuguese journalists in Brussels characterize him as “grey” – but he is praised as a tough and tenacious worker.

After the plethora of candidates failed to produce a single all-satisfying Commission Chairman – Barroso’s compatriot, EU Commissioner Vitorino being one of them – Barroso was finally picked as being the ideal consensus candidate – not really angering any fraction and his party a member of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament. This EPP is NOT what the name suggests: a socialist party. The EPP is the Parliament’s Christian Democratic Fraction, which emerged from the June 13 elections as the biggest one. He will assume the EU's most important post on November 1, since Romano Prodi's mandate runs till 31 October. His first task will be supervizing the signing, in November in Rome, of the Constitutional Charter, in short the European Constitution as it is more popularly known. That is the easy part. It then has to be ratified in all member states. In many a country this is bound to happen through referendum, and it can be expected the result in some countries will be "no".

Barroso has literally stated that a unified Europe and the US should be partners rather than adversaries – you will remember that I repeatedly echoed this view. So cheer up, I figure that with the recent enlargement, which further diluted France’s influence, and with Barroso at the helm, a better relationship US/EU can be expected.

Senator Hillary pretty much sums up the leftist view of government: "Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Well, at least she's honest about it.

This is the new EU Chief:




Ok you guys. Time for an EU update. Before I start with the latest developments, a tiny bit of EU Leadership 101. Until now we were stuck with this dual leadership formula that is incomprehensible to all earthlings except the EU apparatchiks themselves and, ahem, your servant.

1° The EU Presidency, being performed by the so-called European Council, i.e. the organ personified by all government leaders of the member states. Until now there was a rotating Presidency of the respective member states with six-month long terms and Chairman being the PM or Head of State of the country in question. For the past six months this has been the Irish PM, Bertie Ahern, whose main tasks were making sure the enlargement with 10 new member states went according to plan, as well as getting this famous EU Constitution on the wheels.

2° The EU Commission, consisting of 25 Commissioners and responsible for the daily decisions. President or Chairman or whatever you want to call it was Romano Prodi, a former socialist Italian PM.

These two institutions make up the EU’s “governing body”, that’s what I meant by dual leadership formula. Some of you may remember that I once likened it to a situation whereby the Chairman of the European Council (Ahern) was responsible for the big picture (planning a new kitchen) and the Chairman of the EU Commission, Prodi, for preparing the daily dish. Another valid comparison is with a President/PM tandem, e.g. Chirac/Sarkozy.

Sheesh, I hope it’s a bit clear. I always wonder how you Americans with your super-simple 2-party system and a single Prez instead of a Head of State and a PM, look upon the European situation, especially during this spring when both Prodi and Ahern paraded the news rather prominently.

Now, this rotating six-month Presidency has become totally obsolete, as it left little time to every EU “president” to work himself in and deliver something resembling a good job towards the end. Also, since there are now 25 member states and more to join in the coming decade (Bulgaria, Turkey, Norway?), it would last too long for everyone to have their turn. So now it has been agreed that every EU “President” will be selected by the European Council members (remember, all PM/Head of States) for a period of 2,5 years, with re-election for one second term possible if he behaves. Thus the Irish Taoiseach (Irish for PM) Ahern will have been the last EU “President” as defined by the old system.

As for the European Commission, until 2014 all member states will delegate a commissioner, as was the case till now, so until that date the daily EU government will consist of 25 ministers. AFTER THAT DATE the number of ministers will be reduced to 18. The reason is simple. The European Commission’s “ministers” are each responsible for their own turf, be it Agriculture, Science, Education, Health Care etc… The EU Commission resembles MOST what you would call a government – forget for awhile about the European Council mentioned above. Well, since the EU is growing bigger, they can hardly keep creating new ministries just to give every incoming minister a fancy job, can they? I mean, such a practice was common for decades in the respective member states, but somehow the gentlemen have realized that it just wouldn’t make sense to create, say, a Ministry for Scandinavian Cruises by the time Norway would join the EU. So in short, by 2014 there will be, basta, only 18 ministers.


Now, that part of the EU’s governing body that gets most of the spotlights is unquestionably the European Commission, and it’s its Chairman who is regarded as EU Chief. The past few weeks have seen bitter EU infighting as to whom would be successor to Prodi. In case you weren’t drunk or completely bored you may have noticed I shed some light on the candidacy of our own Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt(back in 2002 at the EU Nice, France Summit dubbed “Nice Guy”, haha, do you get it?).


At some point he seemed a likely candidate since he had firm backing from both Chirac and Schroeder. Now Verhofstadt has always been a true European federalist, i.e. he really wants the EU to evolve to a Superstate and make the national states subordinate to a European Federal Authority. In that respect I could follow him, were it not that I fear that with him the EU would rather follow a collision course with the USA. Note also that he was strongly against the war and that it was him who organized, right after the successful conclusion of OIF, a European subtop on Defense with Germany, France and Luxembourg (at the time mockingly called by German media “Pralinentop”!). The aim was a NATO-independent European Defense organization. The idea was quickly killed since PM Blair at a very early stage understood the implications for NATO.

To cut a long story short, while Verhofstadt was the ideal candidate for Mssrs. Chirac and Schroeder, it was Blair (together with Berlusconi) who did his undoing. Not only because Blair could not forgive Verhofstadt his heavy anti-war stance (neither can I), but also and maybe more importantly because Blair does not want to go as far as our PM with a federal Europe – as you may know, it’s already hard to get the British to accept the EU as some kind of NAFTA vehicle. A 100% federalist like Verhofstadt, promising even more EU regulation emitting from Brussels would be more than a tough sell for the Brits. Thus, exit Verhofstadt, although Blairs candidate, Chris Patten, EU Commissioner and former Hong Kong governor, also had to quit to make defeat for the Germans and French bearable.

Well, today Tuesday will finally see the appointment of the new EU Commission Chairman in the person of Jose Manuel Durao BARROSO, Portuguese Prime Minister. You will be pleased to note he
is a staunch supporter of the US, calibre Aznar. To be precise, Portugal’s contribution to the Iraqi endeavour is largely symbolic – 120 policemen. (still way better than Belgium’s, which sent a dog with a hat on). Be that as it may, when a poll said 74% of Portugues wanted the immediate withdrawal of the officers, Barroso vowed thay would stay “because in need you have to stand by your friends”. He is 48, married and father of three kids. Politically he’s a centre-right Social Democrat. In 1990, as Interior Minister, he brokered the Angola Peace Accord, ending the 15-year Civil War there. In 1992, at age 36, he became FM. Basically he’s the ideal compromise candidate for EU Chief.

MFBB