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

Leave it to CNN to spin this one in favor of John Kerry. The Bush campaign puts together an ad complaining about the fact that George Bush has been compared to Hitler by several leading Democrats and Democratic organizations. In this ad, they show the "Bush is Hitler" images from moveon.org interspersed with some of the more hysterical recent democratic campaign speeches. What's the headline? "Hitler Image Used in Bush Campaign Web Ad." True, this is not technically a lie, but the intellectual dishonesty is painfully obvious. The rest of the article is worded in such a way as to make it seem like the Bush campaign simply interspersed some Hitler footage in with footage of leading Democrats, rather than making it clear that the Hitler images are from the moveon.org ad.

I realize that it's easy to sound like a paranoid partisan when you complain of media bias, but anyone who can't see the spin here is either an idiot or is simply choosing to ignore fact. The Bush ad is pretty weak and could have made its point much more effectively, to be sure. But are we supposed to believe that the Bush campaign has somehow done something more inappropriate than the people who made the moveon.org ad or who gave those speeches? I guess the use of Hitler is now kind of like the "N" word; Democrats can use it freely but if Republicans use it, even when paraphrasing Democrats, they have crossed the line.

We've touched on the whole "real news vs. editorials" thing a few times on this site. Here's the only difference: Editorials are honest about the fact that they are giving an opinion about the news.

The US backs down on its position regarding the ICC. Isn't this just lovely. According to this article, Kofi Annan personally stepped in to give us the shaft:

"He urged members to oppose the resolution, questioned the legality of an exemption and warned against dividing the council."

I love the "questioned the legality" part. So the US asserts that it's not under the jurisdiction of this little tribunal put together by the UN, and we're somehow breaking the law? Guess what Kofi: we never signed up to begin with. Just because these muppets see themselves as the sovereigns of the world doesn't mean they can force us to participate in their little charade of a court. Anyone who believes this wouldn't be used as another tool to "keep the US in line" is a damned fool. If we signed on for this, you can bet your arse that George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and half the command structure of the US military would be put on trial with some Hans Blix clone as the judge.

Assuming John Kerry isn't elected and we don't sign the most gross violation of US sovereignty in history, it will be really amusing watching the masters of the ICC try to bring Americans to trial. What are you going to do, Kofi, draft 12 resolutions against us?

A couple of weeks ago we were all up to our eyeballs in Reagan nostalgia. As might be expected, there were cries from some on the right that some liberal journalists were trying to rewrite Reagan's legacy, and in some cases they had a point (I found it interesting that all three of the major network news anchors complained publicly about the over-coverage of Reagan's funeral when we were still in the midst of a month long media orgy over Abu Ghraib.) Now we have Clinton's new book, and to nobody's surprise the media is all over this like a cheap suit. So what are the pundits on the right doing? The same damn thing their counterparts on the left did with Reagan. The fight is now over Clinton's legacy; the only difference is Clinton is still around to tell his side. To paraphrase Jaques Chirac (what the hell am I doing), the pundits on the right missed a great opportunity to keep their mouths shut. All they are doing is adding to Clinton's spotlight, and looking extremely biased and petty in the process. I've heard all day about Clinton "losing it" in a BBC interview, and because of this I was suckered into watching a 40 minute stream of this interview from the BBC website. You know what? It's no big deal. He gets a little pissed off, but he's far from "losing it" in my opinion. Other than those few moments, it's classic Bill Clinton, spinning effortlessly and getting away pretty much unscathed. The fact that some conservatives are all gaga over this interview shows how starved they are for revenge for some of the attacks on Reagan. It's too bad, because had they mostly ignored this whole thing, it would have blown over far sooner, and they would have looked much better in the end.

I'm pretty ambivalent about Bill Clinton. I don't think he was a great president, but I don't share the seething hatred for the guy that many on the right do. If he was that bad, history will figure it out. Trying to out shout the Clinton worshipers in the media just puts more money in Clinton's pocket and more shine on his legacy. Enough already.

What happened to intelligent, civil political debate in America? It was never here.

Kevin, someone? Can you possibly defend/explain non-citizen voting to me? This just COMPLETELY boggles my mind.

Gulp? What's going on???

1°) Clinton backs Bush

Noting that Bush had to be "reeling" in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Clinton said Bush's first priority was to keep al Qaeda and other terrorist networks from obtaining "chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material."
"That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for," Clinton said in reference to Iraq and the fact that U.N. weapons inspectors left the country in 1998.

Wonder how JFK II will welcome this news.


2°) McCain backs Bush

(CBS/AP) Before cheering troops, President Bush got a strong endorsement on Iraq and a boost for his re-election campaign Friday from Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican courted by Democrat John Kerry to be his running mate.

Invited by the White House to accompany Mr. Bush, McCain introduced the president, saying, "he has led this country with moral clarity about the stakes involved and with firm resolve to achieve unconditional victory," reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller.

So much for a Kerry/McCain ticket.


3°) Putin backs Bush

ASTANA, Kazakhstan - Russia gave the Bush administration intelligence before the Iraq war that suggested Saddam Hussein's regime was preparing attacks against the United States and its interests abroad, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Not bad from Pootie-Poot.


Does all this have to do with the realization among The Powers That Be that the whole world is in for the long haul with regards to The War on Terror and that we are better off with a unwavering President who has shown that he's got guts and knows how to handle the crisis? I tend to think so. I read Blackfive, Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Jarvis plus the major media outlets today and, like it or not, I guess we will all have to get used to the fact that Islamism has revealed itself to be the 21st Century Communism. True, they don't field the Warsaw Pact's massive armies. But a dirty bomb in, say, Denver, or a civil war in KSA - for which the current regime would only have itself to blame - can distrupt our lives more than Brezhnevs USSR ever did. Apart from the civilian loss, the world economy could take a devastating blow and all of us could be plunged in a crisis dwarfing the 1929 recession.

Islam is a body being taken over by Islamism. Europe is in very grave peril and can possibly not muster the courage anymore to face its homegrown monster. If you think I'm drooling go read LGF for starters. That is why the US's effort to democratize the ME has become of paramount importance to the Free World. I don't believe Kerry is the person to maintain the momentum in Iraq, and, judging from the above articles, neither do Clinton, Putin or McCain. In 1940 Winston Churchill, upon the RAF's final victory during the Battle of Britain, famously remarked "Never before in the history of mankind have so many depended on the actions of so few". Well, without much exaggeration one could say the welfare of the world's populations dependson those Americans who will vote GOP come November.

Our deepest sympathies to the family of Paul Johnson. At least it seems that the Saudis got the bastards that did this.

I haven't managed to update you on the European elections yet, partly because it's a difficult task: there's no general line. Basically people did not vote for any high-spirited European idea but used the poll to express their disgust with national policies.

Like I said, European politicians fail to make the broader purpose of a USE clear to the public.

Related to all this is the fact the Belgian PM, Guy Verhofstadt, just was screwed by the Brits in his bid to become the next Chairman of the European Commission.

At the back of my mind I must admit that I, being a (nutty) Belgian, would have been somewhat proud to see our PM as the "European President", because that's what it's meant to be(come).

On the other hand, and this sentiment gains the upper hand, I say: Well done Brits! To be sure, Verhofstadt was once my hero. He literally re-crafted the (Flemish) Liberal Party. Now mind you, in years now gone "Liberal" in Europe meant (moderate) rightwing, whereas we call our leftwingers socialists. Remember how we use the term "High School" differently on both sides of the Atlantic. Anyway, Verhofstadt has been an enigma in Belgian politics for almost two decades. He reinvigoured the party while he was only 27, held the very important post of Minister of Budget in 1983 at 33 (!) and distinguished himself by his energy, intellect and ability to inspire people. He has been Prime Minister since 1999, when the ruling Christian Democratic Party CVP succumbed in the wake of a food scandal.

While his first term (1999-2003) could be called a moderate success, he screwed up completely, IMNSHO, during his second term. I don't have the time to elaborate on his tenure. Ministers from his party - formerly mine - did achieve successes in lowering taxes for companies, and providing some sorely needed rectifications in the social status of entrepreneurs and owners of businesses (enabling you to benefit from some SS support after only 1 month if you become invalid, as opposed to three months, improving the social status of co-working wives of self-employed people etc. etc.). In other fields some progress was made too.

Nevertheless, over the past year I grew increasingly frustrated with Mr. Verhofstadt because of the following reasons:

1° Opposing the US-led Operation Iraqi Freedom
2° Allowing a pompous lunatic like our so-called Foreign Minister Louis Michel to bash the US at every conceivable opportunity
3° Ditto for our Secretary of Defense, make that Asshole of Surrender, André Flahaut
4° Waiting much too long to abolish the INSANE so-called "Genocide Law", under which Belgian Maoists filed suit against former President Bush, a.o.
5° At a time when we ought to stand firm within the NATO framework with you, our allies, organize a Defense Top in Brussels with France, Germany and Luxembourg (!) about a separate European Defense

and lastly, and this is what really did it for me:

6° Allow Socialist/Green dominated parliament to pass a law granting immigrants who do not even want to assume our nationality the right to vote in municipal councils.

Upon that folly, I quit Verhofstadts party (and mine for nearly twenty years), the VLD, and joined the Vlaams Blok. Tony Blair is a Socialist, but I would rather vote for him than for my erstwhile "hero".

Hey, Scott posted an excellent article from VDH just before mine. I do not want to appear as claiming too much attention, just thought this was really an important event to follow - there's a fierce battle going on for Head of the EU. So if you haven't, go back and follow the VDH link provided my Mr. Frizzle.

MFBB

This pretty much sums up the war on terror better than anything I've ever read. Read it. If you don't agree, read it again. If you still don't agree, please leave the country at your earliest convenience.

EUROPEAN ELECTIONS – JUNE 13, 2004-06-13

Today was an important day for the European Union, as it is the culmination of a four-day voting process in which about 14,670 candidates all across Europe compete for 732 5-year EP seats. Officially the elections kicked off on Friday in the UK, the Netherlands, Latvia, Malta, the Czech Republic and Ireland. Today, “Super Sunday”, it’s the turn to the remaining 19 countries (the EU currently consists of 25 countries with some 455 million people).

The pic I took this morning, below, shows you a row of Euroweenies awaiting their turn to cast their vote (in Belgium voting is compulsory). Location is a decrepit school in Deux-Acren, Wallonia. Belgium will send 24 MP's to the European Parliament, 15 of which are Flemings and 9 Wallonians.






I mentioned earlier that in general Europeans are rather lukewarm to participate in these elections. I fear that this is still largely due to our politicians, since most of them still focus on national politics, and hence the European Parliament, or the Commission (the EU’s “government”), for that matter, almost invariably attract second-rank personages, who are as yet unable to present the broader population with a sound perspective of the EU’s purpose and why it is, or should be, good for all of us. The lack of vision was apparent in the slogans with which the candidates campaigned: e.g. Flemish Liberal Annemie Neyts with Woman of the World – Woman for Europe, Spirit (green-red nutcases) minister Bert Anciaux with "For a warm Europe".(!)

A phenomenon that has been marring national elections throughout Europe for the last ten years is the emergence of public showbiz figures, TV anchors, sports stars etc… in politics. Well, this time it looks like the trend has moved to the European scene. If you Americans were a trifle embarrassed with Miz Carey showing up during the California Recall, well, don’t bother, since we Europeans had our own Dolly Buster, a Czech porn star. At first you’d think that this is evened out by the candidacy of her compatriot Vladimir Remek, former Czech astronaut… only the asshat is coming up on the KSCM list, the Czech Communists. Estonia brings up supermodel Carmen Kass, in France the Chairman of Radio France, Jean-Marie Cavada, has stepped down to be able to participate in the elections on UDF’s list – Chirac’s party. And in Italy, popular RAI journalist Lilli Gruber appears on Romano Prodi’s cartel list. Slovenia sport a.o. a soccer champion. In Poland Lech Walesa's son, Jaroslav Walesa, bids for a seat in the EP too, claiming to be a "real liberal". Ouch.

So up until now we have the fuzzy agenda of Europes traditional parties, the presence of high-profile entertainment figures on the lists… are there any other striking characteristics? Well, there seem to be. I mentioned that in six countries elections took place on Friday already. It looks like the parties that inisisted on supporting the US’s policy in Iraq are being punished, given the results of the polls in the UK and The Netherlands. The European public simply does not comprehend that, again, America is fighting its wars, since an American success in Iraq – imposing democracy and encourage it to spread to the neighbouring countires – will in time positively affect the ever increasing flood of malcontent backward Muslim immigrants to the European nannystates. Europeans have generally become absolute wimps, self-possessed, snobby, "sophisticated" (or so they kid themselves), and preoccupied mainly with their social security, wages, tan, holidays or sex life. If you ask me, it will have to become much worse before it gets better.

So I fear that the Parti Socialiste do-gooders, some of whom are depîcted below, are gonna gain again. These are the fine gentlemen who turned Wallonia into an impoverished region where ONE-IN-THREE of the "active" persons is in some kind of state service. I myself voted for the Front National, a Wallonian rightwing party with an anti-immigration agenda. So did my wife.






Results are to be expected in Brussels at 7pm local time, that would early afternoon for you Mainers. I’ll keep you updated.


UPDATE:

Not much to say yet, except that according to the most recent poll results in Belgium, in Flanders the Vlaams Blok gains strong. This is not so incongruous as it seems given my earlier assessment of the Left gaining decisively the upper hand. First of all, the term "gaining strong" in our country does NOT mean a landslide victory - positions are too entrenched and the "swing voter" is not so important as he is in The States. The Vlaams Blok is merely consolidating its position, and the other parties will keep isolating it by vowing never to cooperate with it. Secondly, Iraq was not an issue in Belgium, as it was in the UK, Poland or The Netherlands, since our government chose not to support the US. If the leading party in Belgium, the VLD, is punished, it's mainly because it allowed the others to pass legislation that grants immigrants who refuse to assume our nationality or to assimilate, the right to vote in municipal councils.

In a couple of hours I'll try to give the broader European picture.

Hey you jerks out there, don't wanna keep annoying you but they leave me no choice:

BELGIUM IS LAUNCH PAD FOR TERRORISTS


"The report(from the Belgian Parliament's intelligence committee) said most of the recruits were second and even third generation immigrants, chiefly from North Africa, who appeared to have rejected the Belgian way of life, even though Belgium, like neighbouring Holland, had tried to serve as a model of tolerant integration.

The report concluded that Belgium had become "a logistical support base" for terrorist groups abroad - favoured by bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network, the Algerian Armed Islamic Group GIA, the Wabahi Tabligh movement and the Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood.

The FBI complained bitterly after September 11 that the Belgian judiciary was withholding key information needed to track down al-Qa'eda activists before the intelligence leads turned cold.

It has since come to light that leading terrorists have been travelling the world on Belgian passports, either stolen or sold by corrupt officials.

One of the killers of Gen Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, carried Belgian documents.

Filip Deman, a leader of the growing anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok movement and a member of the parliamentary investigation, said Belgium's elite coalitions had been brushing the Muslim problem under the carpet for years.

He said: "It was taboo to even talk about it under our code of political correctness, but this report cannot be ignored.""

Never heard about this report in our press. Figure not much was done with it.

But what should I care, soon the Vlaams Blok and its members are going to be outlawed for being racists...

MFBB

The final nail in the coffin of the "No War for Oil" argument.

Joining the Reagan Frenzy

Well, it seems I spoke a little to soon in my earlier comments about the press keeping things classy in regards to Ronald Reagan. The spinfest has begun, with both sides trying to out shout the other so they can put their stamp, or smear as the case may be, on the Reagan legacy. While many on the right are getting pretty heated up about the attempts to degrade Reagan's place in history, I see this as inevitable. In a society as politically polarized as America's is, it is impossible to have a great impact on the world and not infuriate around 50% of the population in the process. Anyone who actually manages to influence real change, as Reagan did, is going to become a demon to half of us.

Is all this debate about a dead president important? You bet it is. While many will write off the back and forth in the media as simple partisan background noise, what's happening here is a struggle to write history. I know first hand how important this is, because for a long time I took as fact many of the things that Reagan's opponents had forced into the public consciousness. Years ago I took for granted that Reagan was pretty stupid, that he personally said it was OK to consider ketchup as a vegetable on school lunch menus, that he was just fine with $500 toilet seats for the military, and that he was seriously outclassed by the wily Gorbachev in their many summit meetings. I specifically remember that last point being pounded home in a PBS documentary. The line went something like this: "a study in contrasts; the sophisticated, worldly Gorbachev, and the awkward bumbling Reagan." Combined with some well edited shots of Reagan looking confused and Gorbachev looking relaxed and confident, that was enough to convince a fairly intelligent 18 year old that the 40th president wasn't all he was cracked up to be. Unfortunately, I had been duped, and it took a lot of years for me to figure it out. When I was older, I caught another documentary on Reagan and Gorbachev on the History Channel. This one relied very heavily on actual interviews with the people involved in the summit meetings (imagine that) rather than an omnipotent voice over to help you to understand what was going on. I was stunned to hear the Russian generals state over and over how they felt as if Reagan took control of the meetings from the very start and that Gorbachev never seemed to get his footing. They also admitted that they thought Jimmy Carter was a complete joke, and that they toyed with him by pretending to be interested in his disarmament ideas just to get him to concede them whatever they wanted. When Reagan was elected, they knew the jig was up.

As with any account of history, there is more than one side to the Reagan legacy. Many of Reagan's critics bring up sound points: Were there illegal dealings in the Iran contra scandal? It's likely there were. Was Reagan slipping a little towards the end of his second term? Maybe. Did he delegate important decisions that he should have been more involved in? Perhaps. These things should be debated and investigated, because we can't learn from our mistakes if we can't figure out if they were ever made or not. But let's not be so petty that we can't accept simple, provable fact. The desperation on the part of some to deny Reagan credit for ending the cold war, among other things, is simply laughable. He did it. There were cameras. There are documents. Accept it and move on. There's plenty not to like about Ronald Reagan, or anyone else for that matter, without having to make things up.

How many men have had a song titled "The Man Who Made Those Pussyfooters and Weaklings Feel Ashamed." written about him by people from a country he helped free?

Ronald Reagan did.

Now THIS is art. I bought this fine triple portrait at a discount store in the early 90's for $5. It was one of about 200 in the box. I know I could get at least $3.50 for it now. This wonderful Sally Evans pastel was very useful for confusing crunchy art students who saw it in my apartment when I was in art school in the early 90's. Since then it has adorned the men's room at Artifact, my former company in Atlanta, GA. It now resides in my permanent collection of high art in my office.

It's nice to see that Reagan's legacy seems to be surviving the onslaught to make him look like he was an inept fool while in The White House. There's a lot of people who's ideological universes don't make sense with an intelligent Ronald Reagan in existence. As for me, I think he is one of the best examples of the right man at the right time in American history.

Art.

George Tenet resigns. Not that you can blame all of the bad things that have happened on his watch on him, but this has been a long time coming. You have to think there was more than a little suggestion going on within the Bush admin to get Tenet out before the election. I'll bet this guy's blood pressure drops 80 points after he is officially out.

Abolish War

My family and I went to our local Memorial Day parade in Brunswick, Maine on Monday. In addition to the usual military representatives, high school bands, local clubs, etc. marching in the parade, there was one float titled "Peace is Patriotic." I couldn't tell who the sponsor of the float was, but suffice it to say it was some kind of peace activist organization. They were all wearing black, and their float consisted of a black flatbed covered in a grid of white crosses, simulating a cemetery. While I was sort of amused by the cone of silence that overcame the crowd as the float passed by (pretty much every other float was getting at least polite applause) I really didn't have much of a problem with this float. They were displaying the American flag, which surprised me, and they refrained from the immature "Bush is Hitler" type slogans. A message of peace doesn't seem contradictory to the celebration of Memorial Day, even if these folks were pushing their agenda as opposed to honoring the true spirit of the day.

One thing that did bother me (you knew there had to be something) was a banner that some of the members of this group carried. Written on the banner were the words "Abolish War." The more I thought about it, the more this irritated me. Just what the hell does "Abolish War" mean anyway? Do these people really think that is some kind of solution? That's kind of like saying "make happiness mandatory." Nice thought, but completely outside of reality, and not a solution to anything. (The question comes to mind that if you pass a law abolishing war, and someone breaks it, how do you enforce the law? Perhaps a UN resolution?)

I don't know too many people who actually like war. While I realize political slogans are often oversimplified for impact, it's scary to think there are people out there that vote who think that the world is so simple that you can just be completely passive and all of the evil bastards around the globe will have a revelation and give up their Jihads based on your fine example. Pacifism is nice for winning little moral victories inside your own head, but historically its track record for encouraging evil is frightening. Abolish war? Let's abolish stupidity first.

------------------

This is what you get when you work a 14 hour day and are too wired to sleep. Hopefully I won't regret this in the morning...

Ok, normally I don't elaborate this long on a given subject but since the following upset me very much at the time it happened I thought I'd answer these questions from Larry:

1.)Is this devastation of free speech indicative of your surrounding EU members?

Well, in May 2002 there was this Dutch rightwing politican Pim Fortuyn who dared say that The Netherlands were "full" (having absorbed more than its share of non-integrating immigrants and with 16,000,000 people crammed on 36,000 square kloms, I can understand that).


He was shot dead by Volkert Van Der Graaff, a 32-year old Radical Green-Left activist.

"Fortuyn, 54, was shot in the head and chest at least three times at close range at 6 p.m. Monday as he was leaving a radio station in Hilversum, 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Amsterdam."

"Fortuyn, an openly gay former TV analyst, was a plain-speaking politician who targeted fears over immigration. Saying that the Netherlands was "full up," he criticized Muslims for not embracing Dutch culture."

Members of Fortuyn's party apparently had reason to be afraid too.

Okay, it's old news now, but it is says a lot of the way things have become for anyone who dares challenge the established views of the politically correct elites. But slowly, times are changing: France recently banned some extremsit clerics, Denmark put legislation into effect restricting the influx of radical Imams, and the Dutch will expel 26,000 illegals over the coming three years (it really, really has become too bad over there). From what I see, it's rather Belgium that, as so often, is at the tail of the movement to address the immigrant problem in a thorough way.


2.) Michael- I find this information mind-boggling.
Stephen Pollard's site mentioned the Vlaams Blok(VB)party advocates secession from Belgium and the establishment of a Republic of Flanders...Could you elaborate a little on that?
Where will conservatives seek refuge when sharia law is instituted if secession is not realized?

Well, I'm glad you bring that one up Larry. It is indeed true that the Vlaams Blok advocates nothing less than the breakup of Belgium as a nation and the creation of an independent Flanders. To be sure, I am against that. We are already so small a country, why divide it even further? It is however important to consider their rationale for such a bold claim. Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, DOES transfer huge sums of Social Security money to sick brother Wallonia, the southern, French-speaking, purely socialist run part of Belgium. I think the amount per 4-person household has been calculated as being something in the neighborhood of the price of a small family car, say a Ford Orion, every four years.

Basically Flanders keeps Wallonia afloat through an imbalanced redistribution of federal funds. The federal government is raking in much more from Flanders than it does from Wallonia and then diverts it mostly to Wallonia - small wonder, in Wallonia 1 active person in three "works" for the state, the other two depend on social security. Marc Dutroux, this horrible child molester and murderer, who was just dandy, had somehow managed to get himself declared unfit for work and got 80,000 Belgian francs per month (some 2,000 US$) from Social Security - NOT KIDDING!!!

Still I think breaking up Belgium would be a bad idea. You might ask why I have joined the Vlaams Blok. Well, because it was the only party that vehemently OPPOSED granting the right to vote for municipal councils to non-Belgian immigrants - read the hundreds of thousands of Moroccans, Tunisians, Algerians and Turks who live here since decades but of whom a majority still does not speak our language, of whom many don't abide by our laws (slaughtering animals at home during Ramadan, e.g., although law says they should do it in one of the designated slaughterhouses etc...).

For me the point about the voting right is right now much more important than the Vlaams Blok's unrealistic claim that Belgium should cease to exist - it will never happen, a grand majority of Belgians like it just as it is.

I ran across this today, and I feel compelled to make an announcement: McDonald's isn't bad. Their food isn't really even bad for you, believe it or not. Like so many other things demonized as being "bad" (fast food, TV, video games, etc.) by those who seek to remove all fun from life, it is the excessive consumption of said item that can lead to problems. You will die faster on an all broccoli diet than you will on an all Big Mac diet, so where is the anti broccoli movement? The fact that the children in this story were denied a little treat just so a few pompous asses could proudly display their moral superiority is particularly infuriating. I suppose simply not accepting the food vouchers of using them to purchase a salad simply wasn't acceptable. Better to force everyone to accept your great wisdom than to allow people to make their own choices.

Yeah, I know, this isn't exactly a world changing event, but you see this kind of thought, or lack thereof, all the time and it's total bullshit. As someone wise once said, it's amazing how many people see democracy as a way to turn their own personal prejudices into laws.

Larry F. wrote: “Michael, what are the chances of you starting your own "talk-radio" show in Flanders?”

Zilch Larry. The following is a story about a fellow who had a talk-radio show of his own (scroll down till you get to "Kritishe talkshow afgevoerd"). I’m talking about Jurgen Verstrepen, whose show “Zwart of Wit” (Black or White) was broadcast every Sunday afternoon on Radio Contact and LibertyTV. The motto of his talkshow was “Freedom of Speech by all means”. The show gave, a.o., a voice to the many disgruntled Belgians living in Brussels or Antwerp neighborhoods with a majority of foreigners. Sometime in February, Radio Contact decided not to broadcast the show anymore, and LibertyTV stated that it does want to cooperate further with Mr. Verstrepen, but only when non-political issues are treated. I might add that Mr. verstrepen’s talkshow’s format followed a pattern which seems to be popular in the States: a multitude of telephonic interventions by listeners, followed by anitmated studio discussions with a political panel.

This is the second time that Mr. Verstrepen’s voice is stifled: the previous version of his show, broadcast on Kanaal2 and TopRadio, was suspended in 2001. Here’s a comment on that by NRC Handelsblad, which is a widely respected Dutch newspaper (yes, the news was important enough to be reported in The Netherlands): “But Verstrepen also writes political commentaries on an Internet newssite. Or rather: wrote. Because he’s stopped with that just lately. There was pressure on him, he says, by the Prime Minister’s circle. If Verstrepen should continue with his “shitty business in those columns”, so he was assured by left and right, then “the Prime Minister would make sure not a single political authority would appear in his TV show”.

Anyway, Mr. Verstrepen apparently had to shut up for introducing people on a radio show who dared to say that immigrants should assimilate and that if not they could return. Somewhere in March Mr. Verstrepen joined the Vlaams Blok, a Flemish nationalistic party which the political establishment over here demonises as “extreme right” but which has an agenda that has actually quite a few similarities to the one of the Republican Party in the States. Some of you may remember that I actually joined the Vlaams Blok back in February, because all other parties had agreed to grant the right to non-Belgian immigrants to vote in municipal elections (which implies that if you happen to live as a Belgian in a neighbourhood with a majority of, say, Moroccans or Tunisians, you’re likely to see your tax euros go to a new mosque rather than to that desperately needed municipal playground.






The photo shows him during the press-conference, where he was sided by Filip Dewinter and Frank Vanhecke, leading figures of the Vlaams Blok. Behind him you can just make out part of the slogan “13 juni, een kwestie van vrije meningsuiting” (June 13, a matter of Free Speech), the motto under which the Vlaams Blok participates in the upcoming June 13 European elections.

But alas, Mr. Verstrepen again had no luck. Hardly had he joined the ranks of the Vlaams Blok, or, surprise: the Court of Appeal in Ghent ruled that the Vlaams Blok was a racist organization (arrest from April 2004). To be sure, the Vlaams Blok welcomes any immigrant who wants to integrate in our society, i.e. that he/she learns our language, behaves like agood citizen and contributes to our wealth. Non-assimilating ones should return or stay home, simply put. Anyway, for having had the audacity to say that, the Vlaams Blok was rewarded with the (heavy) fining of three of its supporting organizations, and steps are now being taken to make the distribution of Party publications, leaflets etc… via the Belgian Postal System impossible. In a later stadium the financing of the Party by the state (in Belgium political parties receive a donation from the state) will be suspended – although that may take some years yet. Find out more about the story on Stephen Pollard's blog: I've seen the future: it's scary and it's Belgian. Recommended reading.

Interesting to note that the Vlaams Blok threatens to be declared a criminal organization while the Antwerp-based Arab European League, led by former Hezbollah member Dyab Abu Jahjah, can freely threaten the Antwerp Jewish-owned Diamond Sector with bomb attacks by Hamas.

They also wanted to get a militant Pakistani cleric with al-Qaeda ties to Antwerp to give a speech, but luckily the guy intended to visit The Netherlands first. As could be expected the Dutch government refused the fucker a visa, upon which the Belgian government was somehow able to muster sufficient courage to do the same. But only barely. Hear the AEL whine about the affair over here.

This is Belgium Larry. No, I'm not gonna start a radio talk show.

With all of the talk of another major attack on our soil this summer, I thought it would be an appropriate time for a little reflection. Below are two links to articles written by Thomas Sowell a couple days after the attacks of 9/11. They will certainly bring you back, which I believe is a good thing. So many people have forgotten the essence of that day, or have reworked it in their minds to better fit their ideology. Sowell nails a few predictions in these pieces while dispensing his usual wisdom in the process. My favorite prediction:

"No doubt any further acts of terror after the administration's response will be blamed on that response, even though such terrorist acts were probably already planned before the administration did anything. But escaping blame is a major preoccupation in Washington, so the response may be inadequate, for fear of being considered excessive by "world opinion." But when members of your family are dying, you don't worry about what the neighbors will say."

Sept. 13, 2001

Sept. 14, 2001

Here's one from the "you won't see this in the mainstream news" file. Why talk about this when we can show those Abu Ghraib pictures for the hundredth time...

Here's another installment from our new pal Kevin...

Hi everyone. Thanks for letting me participate. It's been
fun...gulp...sharing different ideas and perspectives with everyone. Next
up, I'll tell ya' why Bush is going to lose the election...


MY POINTS AND IDEAS/SOLUTIONS

Okay, here are a few of the points I have made today in our discussion. I'd
like to summarize so you don't think my postings were "pointless", and per
Frizzle's request, list some general ideas that could help change things:

-THERE IS A COST FOR EVERYTHING. My point is that everything has a ying and
yang. Every single thing we do affects others in some way. So, knowing
this and keeping it in our conscious mind when making decisions goes a long
way to improving everything...everywhere. This is just basic personal
responsibility, but brought into corporate boardrooms, as well. SOLUTIONS:
We should put as much thought into the consequences of our actions as we do
energy into the actions themselves. Alternatives will never show themselves
unless necessity dictates or we put great effort into improvements.

-THE LARGER THE COMPANY, THE MORE DISCONNECTED ARE THE DECISION-MAKERS. I
think this is inevitable with large companies, so they have to work even
harder to stay in touch with what got you to that place. Most small
businesses don't have a problem, because they have their hands on their
products every day and are talking with their customers. It's not so easy
for large companies. SOLUTIONS: How about doing it like UPS does it? Every
couple of years, every employee at any level has to go and work a couple
days at a shipping plant...unloading trucks, moving boxes, etc. This is a
great "out of the box" idea that some companies would laugh at, but it's
worked well for UPS for a century. I talk to employees all the time who
don't even know their own products as well as I know them...sad. I don't
get this at mom and pop shops...

-SOME REGULATIONS SUCH AS ZONING AREN'T BAD AS LONG AS THEY ARE EQUAL FOR
EVERYONE. It's like putting a salary cap on the NFL teams...competition is
no worse off with it. Matter of fact, it is the most competitive league in
pro sports. As long as everyone plays by the same rules, I think it's okay
to make or even remake the rules to achieve other goals like smart growth,
beautification projects, etc. SOLUTIONS: ALWAYS be consistent across the
board when changing or putting down new rules/laws. Do not create so many
that it takes away the entrepreneurial spirit and ability for businesses to
function/maintain profitability. (Profitability...not 100x.)

-A COMMUNITY OF SMALL BUSINESSES VS A SUPER-BUSINESS. I still think it is
far healthier for a community to have several hardware stores, several
coffee shops and several movie theaters versus a Starbucks, a Home Depot and
a Megaplex. You may pay a few more cents at a small place, but it is
CONNECTED to your community. (See above.) The decision-makers are living
next door to you. This has to be better...maybe not cheaper, but better.
SOLUTIONS: Local and state governments should stop with such HUGE incentives
for the big boys and instead give the tax breaks to the small businesses.
Every town should have some sort of incubator program for small, homegrown
businesses, rather than giving enormous breaks to Walmart. (But they'll
employ 100's? Yeah, the same 100 people they are putting out of work from
the local small shops.)

-FRIZZLE CAN'T SPELL TERRORISM. SOLUTION? Send that boy to school. Oh and
Frizz, for the record? I think you have it wrong in saying (in jest)
Americans are ignorant. Blinded by riches and wealth? Maybe, but not
ignorant.


PS-I didn't do this to "throw water on the fire." This was a planned email
from weeks ago and just coincidentally was sent after our debate today. :-)

Hi Kevin, welcome aboard. I'm the nutty Belgian. On the pic below you see me with my late uncle (PBU). Some evil character on this blog likes to accuse me of wearing a cheesy hairpiece but you can clearly see that ain't the case. The bozos who run this place hired me back in November to provide them with, hahaaaaa, fasten your seatbelts, useful info on the EU and stuff and boy did they wish they could turn back time!

Kevin, don't get intimidated by these shameful greedy slimeballs. I for one recognized a soulmate. These are the quotes the dimwits failed to notice:

"I love making money..."

"I know all you guys are very pro-big business. That's fine..."

"Big biz is great..."


Son, I NEVER confused you with the likes of Chris Martin (ecofella who wed Gwyneth Paltrow and who also sings), who put this ephemeral wisdom on his CD (A Rush of Blood to the Head) (the only thing making sense in this title being Rush):

"For countries to develop or even survive they need to be able to trade fairly. At the moment poorer countries are strangled by ridiculous international trade laws and ruthless western businesses, keeping millions trapped in poverty and widening the gap between rich and poor."

ROFLMAOPIMPTIME!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, like me Kevin is NOT a Chris Martin aficionado, (well... except for his music maybe because the fella has talent in that field). Kevin is like me, he wants to put a humane face on big development and capitalism WITHOUT making it impossible for it to thrive. In one of the previous comments I elaborated a little on the concept of "Ruimtelijjke Ordening" (again, how would you call that in your language?). Fact is, whereas twenty-five years ago businesses great and small in Flanders could do just about anything (like storing a huge deadly cocktail of dangerous chemicals and explosives in the heart of Ghent), they are now mostly grouped together on neat industrial zonings. This required legislation, true. It required financial efforts - from the authorities (buying and readying the terrains) - and from the companies (relocating). But guess what? Today investors great and small wouldn't want to be anywhere else than on these zonings. Access is easy (delivering raw materials, transporting finished stuff), the personnel can get there much more easily using public transport (bus stops in the zonings), and to some extent there is mutual enrichment. Of course we shouldn't forget the additional bonuses of not having the city clogged by heavy transport, plus that the visual pollution is kept to a minimum (zonings shielded off by shrub and larger trees), preservation of our scarce landscapes elsewhere.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I can't help but thinking that you, me and Kevin are basically on the same side of the fence, one only being a little more radical than the other. Big business' role as a nationwide provider of jobs, wealth and added value should be recognized and preserved. If they weren't there the socialist charities would have nothing to distribute (a fact they often tend to forget). On the other hand, if our companies can sustain it, why not gently require them - make that encourage them - to help us to make our countries not only rich but also pleasant to live in. Lke Scott said, living and working in a suburban sprawl ain't fun.

MFBB

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Kevin (his last name has been witheld to protect the innocent.) He's been lurking on our site for a while and is making his debut post today in reaction to my comments below regarding Atlanta, development, etc. Please welcome Kevin to the mix; he's sure to provide a different point of view on many topics. Let the debate begin!

Here's Kevin's post:

The overdevelopment of Atlanta and many other cities is a great example (and
product of) the downside of extreme wealth in this country and the focus on
money, money, money. I love making money...but at what expense? If
anything, we Americans know that there is COST FOR EVERYTHING!

All businesses begin by smart, hardworking people that take on an area that
they know something about and do it better and/or cheaper than everyone
else. But, as they accumulate wealth, it's quite natural to get more distant
from what got them there in the first place. The more distant...the more
soulless, imo. Suddenly, it's all about profits ONLY and there is no
cultural or personal return.

As they make more, they can venture into other businesses for profit only,
where they really have no experience, skills, or love of the concept. But
they do have money, so they can afford to make mistakes, burn bridges and
piss people off. None of this would ever work with a small business.

Years ago, people would work on the places they lived...the places they
walked by each day. These days, developers are so disconnected from the
area, that there is no real pride in the work and what their work does for
people, but instead a sole focus on money. How many developers do you think
live in the area that they developed? How many of these developers are even
based in Atlanta?? I bet very, very few. What do they care about the city?
As long as their execs can buy that Hummer they've been eyeing...

So, I know all you guys are very pro-big business. That's fine. But, we
reap what we sow, and we can't forget that. Atlanta is a great example of
how relatively few people made a ton of money while developing the hell out
of a city. Stand still too long and you'll have a billboard painted on your
ass.

I now live in Raleigh...a place where zoning has outlawed all billboards.
There are none in this city. And yet...all the businesses are still on a
level/equal playing field and the place is beautiful. Competition is just
as alive here, but without all the visual pollution. How is this zoning
bad?

Big biz is great, but don't any of you get frustrated with the many negative
products it puts out? I sure do. Are we all certain that our way is the
best way? We are the richest, aren't we? Is that better?

Brought down to a human level...I see a whole lot of corporate clowns every
day that are far richer than me...but, I wouldn't trade places with them for
anything. Ya' think there are countries out there that think that way about
us?

Ok, so I just got back from 6 days in Atlanta, GA for my brother's wedding. I was going to post a history of Atlanta, but I don't think I could equal Michael's brilliance, so you'll just have to look it up. I will say that one of my heroes, William Tecumseh Sherman, burned the city down in the civil war. This event is still blamed for Atlanta being somewhat of a cultural wasteland in the eyes of some.

As far as the trip goes, I'm glad it's over. I had to give the best man's speech, which means I was not able to relax all week until the speech was over. I think I did pretty well; I even got away with a Jewish joke in front of a mostly Jewish crowd: "The name Frizzle is actually an old Yiddish word that loosely translates into 'gentiles from the north.'" I got laughs.

I lived in Atlanta for 9 years, and I can confidently say that overall I am glad that I left. Not that Atlanta doesn't have a lot going for it, but it's just too damned hot for too damned long, and has some of the worst suburban sprawl you could ever imagine. Our hotel was right in the middle of this mess, and it is depressing as hell to face that every day. I had forgotten what road rage was like until I had to face 8 lanes of motionless traffic again. Too many people living too close together. Good barbecue and Mexican food, though.

Anyway, I'm back and ready to blog. I've also decided that it should be a law that all homes and public places have wireless internet. I REALLY missed that.

'Only nuclear power can now halt global warming'. And this from a greenie. This ought to throw the enviroweenies into a tizzy.

POLISH JOURNEY - PART I - SOME HISTORY.

As some of you may know by now, I’m married to a Polish girl from Wroclaw, which is Poland’s fourth largest city (pop. appr. 600,000), located in the southwest. Every year in April we go there to visit my mother-in-law and brother-in-law and to celebrate Easter. I thought I’d share some hard info plus some personal experiences with you, as, after all, in the present struggle in Iraq Poland is still one of your key allies. Also, Poland recently joined the EU (May 1st), together with nine other countries, and since somehow the emerging EU will be a reality the US will increasingly have to take into account, rather than the separate constituent nations, this is another reason Poland deserves some attention.




Poland is a republic with capital Warsaw, a surface of 312,685 square kloms and a population of 38,6 million, thus making it about three quarters the size of California, but with California, on the other hand, having only roughly three quarters of Polands population.


Polands history begins in 966 with Prince Mieszko I converting to Christianity (the word “Poland” stems from the Polish word “Pole”, which means field or plain). King Kazimierz The Great (Kazimierz Wielki, 1333-1370) established a.o. the famous University of Krakow (1364). The year 1386 saw the birth of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under King Wladyslaw Jagiello. This Commonwealth officially became the Polish-Lithuanian United Republic in 1596 and was the greatest European Kingdom at the time, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The pre-1500 period saw struggles with the Teutonic Knights, the Germans being then already a rather trigger-happy folk. Economically, politically and culturally Poland knew its golden age in the 16th Century.


An important document from this era is the so-called Privilege of Radom (1505), a document issued by King Aleksander granting rights and privileges, somewhat comparable to the English Magna Carta (1215). Another very important document is the Parliamentary Constitution of 1543, written in that year in a Sejm session in Krakow (the old seat of the Polish Kings - today the Polish Parliament is still called “Sejm”). And yet another very liberal evolution came about with the Warsaw Confederation (Jan. 28, 1573), a charter granting absolute religious freedom. An important King in this time frame is King Sigismund I (1506-1548).

The 17th and 18th Century saw the Kingdom gradually weakened as a result of internal turmoils (an important King being Jan III Sobieski, latter half of the 17th Century - the chap got immortalized with his name being taken for a famous brand of cigarettes). By the end of the 18th Century Poland had become so unstable that it was an easy prey for the three upcoming superpowers of the time, Prussia under Frederick The Great, Russia under Catharina The Great and Austria's Maria Theresia. The process of the cutting up of Poland is known as the Polish Divisions, the first one in 1772 and the second one in 1793. Polish patriotism spawning a figure like Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a revolt took place the year after, which even knew a resounding military victory over the Russians during the Battle of Raclawica (1794), impressively depicted in the famous 360° mural painting exhibited in the Panorama Raclawica in Wroclaw, which I was able to see during my first visit to Poland. Worldwide there's only a handful of such paintings (another one being in Waterloo in my country), so if you happen to visit Wroclaw, don't miss it.

This Polish victory over the Russians was short-lived however, because 1795 saw the Third Division take place and thus the final demise of the great Polish-Lithuanian nation, an event that was formally "ratified" at the 1815 Vienna Congress.

Poland had to wait till 1918 before emerging as a nation again. The Poland of the interbellum (the years between the First and Second World Wars) had a shape which was distinctively different from the shape on the map above, namely 200km further to the east and the eastern portion jutting out northwards. A famous strongman was Marshal Pilsudski, who led Polands armies succesfully in a war with Ukraine in the early 1920s, Poland even briefly occupying Kiev. It was also Pilsudski who at a very early stage saw the intrinsic danger of Nazi Germany, urging France and the UK to wage a preemptive war in 1935 already. Too bad political correctness is not only a phenomenon of our times, so Poland got carved up a fourth time in 1939 between Hitler and Stalin, despite heroic resistance with outdated equipment. Poland suffered greatly in the Second World War, with nearly 6 million Poles killed. However, many of its soldiers fought on major European fronts and in key battles (Monte Cassino, Arnhem).

After WWII Poland shifted two hundred kilometres to the West and got its shape as shown in the above map. A.o. large portions of German Silesia became Polish, as well as the key city of Breslau, which became... Wroclaw. The photo below shows Wroclaws Main Square, Rynek in Polish.





Th most important head of State of the post-Stalin era was Party Leader Gomulka, who was initially relatively liberal-minded. Student revolts in 1968 and a workers revolt in 1970 in Gdansk forced him to step down and in his place came the pragmatic Edward Gierek, who sought an opening to the West and was a man of compromise but who nevertheless remained loyal to Moscow. 1980 saw the emergence of the Free Union "Solidarnosc" under Gdansk shipyard electrician Lech Walesa. His demands met initially with few resistance from the government, until General Jaruzelski brutally assumed power in 1981, declared martial law and imprisoned the key members of the new movement. It is said that by doing so he prevented a Russian invasion.

...(to be continued)...

BWEEEUUUUUAAAAARRRRRKKKK!!!!!

Ok, I've had it. Send in a Blackhawk. Like I said, bank sharply north over Paris; continue for some 250 kloms; prominent terrain features are two low hills and a river. I'll light a big fire in my garden. We would like to take our cat with us too.

The UAW loses another one. Let's hope this is one more nail in the coffin of this dinosaur.

For those who were participating in the conversation about the FairTax below, here's the response I received from one of their representatives regarding the repeal of the 16th amendment:

Dear Scott,

       Hello, I'm District Coordinator for the 18th Congressional District in PA and your question was forwarded to me for a response.

       With respect to the 16th Amendment.........there are several points we need to cover.  I understand your concern......and shared it at one time......but I now believe it to be unfounded.

       First,  You correctly observe that there is nothing stopping the government from implementing a sales tax while retaining / maintaining the income tax now.  Indirect, consumption based taxation (National Sales Tax) was in fact what the Founders envisioned for the US......and it's written into the body of the Constitution.  All the 16th Amendment really does is permit the Fed's to go further, and allows for the DIRECT, UNAPPORTIONED taxation of our income.  The 16th Amendment is what allows them to reach into your paycheck before you've seen a dime of it, and feast on the first fruits of your labor....and it must be repealed, in time.

       Second, you also correctly observe that HR 25 does not repeal the 16th Amendment directly because only a simple majority is required to pass this tax act........but a SUPER majority is required to pass a Constitutional Amendment.  We don't want to stall the passage of this bill, which will abolish the IRS and the Internal Revenue Code  (those are two very important goals of HR 25) while waiting for a Constitutional Amendment to pass.  So, you are correct, passage of HR 25 without the repeal of the 16th Amendment will leave the door open to future, direct, unapportioned, taxation of income.

       Third,  We have been told by House Majority Leader, Tom Delay, that he will use some procedural device, which I confess I do not fully understand, to link the two bills (HR 25 and Repeal of the 16th Amendment) so that effectively one will not become law without the other.  I confess to having a disagreement of opinion on this point........as I believe that the abolition of the IRS and repeal of Title 26 of the US Code (Internal Revenue Code) are laudable goals in their own right.  Even if, you assume for sake of argument, that the US Congress decided to re-impose the Income tax on some disfavored group........it couldn't possibly be any worse than what we have today. 

       I passed the CPA exam in 1992, and for the last 5 years I've been a student at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh........studying Taxation and Law.  God willing, I will graduate next June with a dual degree......MS Taxation and a J.D.  I've spent a lot of time and money studying this monstrosity.........and I am absolutely convinced that if you set about the task of designing a complex, convoluted, inefficient, burdensome system of taxation.........you couldn't do any better than what we currently inflict upon ourselves.  In my humble opinion, Title 26 and the IRS must go even if we do not repeal the 16th Amendment immediately.

       Worst case scenario as I see it, is that HR 25 fails to pass, and we are left with this mess.  A slightly better scenario involves passage of HR 25 and the imposition of a sales tax with a significantly streamlined income tax (Remember, HR 25 repeals all but a small piece of Title 26), better yet......a sales tax with no income tax in place but with the 16th amendment in place.......best solution.........a sales tax concurrent with repeal of the 16th.  There is a spectrum of possibilities here.  I guess the best analogy I can use is to a war with a series of battles........I think we need to fight each battle in turn........and win the war by winning the battles...hence we need to pass HR 25 if at all possible.

       I hope I've answered your question.......if not, please feel free to reply. 

All the best,  Betty Male, PA - 18th Congressional District Coordinator

Liberals believe that Fox News must be stopped becuase of it's right wing slant. They are wrong. Fox News must be stopped because they keep Geraldo Rivera on the air. What a clown...

I once saw a Twilight Zone episode where some people in a normal, everyday American town become convinced that aliens (the outer space kind, not the kind that get amnesty) have landed near their neighborhood. As time goes on they become increasingly paranoid, and as night falls they begin to turn on each other, even though nobody can be sure if they have actually seen an alien. The episode ended with two aliens observing the interaction of the humans, and they say something to the effect of "you see, we will just let them destroy themselves." I can't help but think we're doing them same thing sometimes in the war on terror. Victor Davis Hanson echos this sentiment here.