Category: News and politics

While I enjoy having a good rant, I am nowhere when it comes to the masters of the art. Here is an extended nine minute rant from Keith Olbermann on George Bush’s latest misstep in Iraq. Part of me exults at the justness of Olbermann’s rant and part of me weeps at Bush’s idiocy.

Two articles in today’s Guardian illustrate the highs and lows of the quality of their opinion pieces. The high is Terry Jones’ blackly humorous piece on the cost of the war in Iraq. The low is a shrill piece by Tobias Jones (no relation, I hope) on the mythical beasts called the secular fundamentalists.

Riverbend is an Iraqi blogger. She reflects on the year, and on Saddam’s execution. Her voice is worth listening to.

 

(hat tip to Not Saussure for the link)

I see that minutes after it was announced that Gazprom has taken over control from Shell as operator of the Sakhalin project, Putin pops up to announce that the environmental issues that were being used to threaten Shell have mysteriously vanished. Funny, that. Pure coincidence, I’m sure.

Lovely Rita is up to her usual tricks, being at the centre of a political storm once again. I hope she resigns soon, but I fear that the malaise runs deeper than just her. She acts as a lightning rod for something dark and nasty in Dutch society.

For those of you who are not Dutch, but have a passing interest in the outcome of the recent Dutch elections, here’s a useful article about the process that is being followed to form the next Dutch government. The problem that we have is that the parties involved in forming the coalition hold radically opposing views, so don’t expect a new government to be announced any time soon.

 

Oh, and yesterday I had a telephone call from a civil servant at the local townhall to tell me that my application to become a Dutch citizen has been approved. So I can trot down there next week, sign a few papers and pay my 133 Euros and then I’ll have dual nationality. Apparently there’s even going to be some sort of ceremony held the day after my birthday in January to mark the fact. Doubtless there’ll be a little group of disparate people gathered in front of the mayor, who will deliver a little speech at us, followed by coffee and cakes. All very homely, and typically Dutch.

I watched the BBC’s Political Editor, Nick Robinson ask George Bush if he was in denial about Iraq. Bush’s answer reminded me of a fish flopping at the end of a fishing line. I see that the Guardian’s Simon Hoggart had a similar reaction, only with him it seemed like a dead fish twitching on the fishmonger’s slab.

 

But the really grisly thing, which makes the laughter die on the lips, is the reality that Bush and Blair, and the rest of their crew, have given birth to in Iraq. And it’s not as though the results were not foreseen before the invasion. We seem an awful long way from "Mission Accomplished" now.

So, the Dutch Electorate have spoken. Trouble is, they have not spoken with a clear voice. No one party has control, so we’re going to have yet another coalition government. And the ingredients are even more like chalk and cheese, or sodium and water.

 

I’m pleased that the Socialist Party has made substantial gains (added a further 17 seats); dismayed that the far right party of Geert Wilders has won 9 seats, and rolled my eyes that, only in the Netherlands, the party for animal rights has won two seats.

 

I watched the "results debate" on Dutch TV – the leaders of the parties talked about the results together at midnight last night. Wilders was audacious enough to propose that it would be a good idea for Balkende to include his members in the government. You could feel the waves of distaste rolling from everyone else seated around the table. Mark Rutte, leader of the VVD (liberal) party, couldn’t contain himself, and expressed what I’m sure everyone else was thinking. It was, I thought, interesting that Balkende himself kept his counsel, but was happy for Rutte to leap in and say what needed to be said.

 

Some more, and better analysis, here and here and here.

I wrote earlier this month about the intention of the Dutch Government to ban the burqa. It seems as though the lovely Rita Verdonk got her way last week, and the Dutch government are indeed going to press ahead with this ill-conceived idea. Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of discussion about it.

 

Jill, over at Feministe, summarises much better than I could, why the proposed ban is a bad idea. It is not going to help the process of integration one jot, in fact it’s going to make things worse on all sides.

 

Verdonk is a menace. I hope that in tomorrow’s elections, the Dutch electorate will throw a spanner in the works.

We’re in the middle of political campaigning here in The Netherlands, leading up to elections later this month. Since I don’t (yet) have Dutch nationality, I’m not allowed to vote. So I thought I’d bring you a sample of political campaigning from Poland.

 

Here, for your delight, and doubtless extreme puzzlement, is the party political broadcast of one Krzysztof Kononowicz, would-be mayor of Bialystok. I am indebted to Obscene Desserts for this gem. 

Disappointing news that the Dutch government is moving towards a total ban on the niqab and burka. While I happen to think that the garments say more about the odd ways in which women are viewed by one religion (and gawd knows, it ain’t the only one), I don’t think that banning them is going to help one bit towards the avowed intent of integration into Dutch society. It’s more likely to drive the "us and them" wedge further into this society’s hearts and minds.

President Bush at a press conference yesterday: "In my first act of bipartisan outreach since the election, I shared with her [Pelosi] the names of some Republican interior decorators who can help her pick out the the new drapes for her new offices."

 

Er, hello? I think the President’s brain has gone AWOL again… Perhaps he’ll offer her an unwanted neck massage next, à la Angela Merkel.

 

(hat tip to Bitch PhD.)

Steven Poole, over at Unspeak, draws our attention to some of the wilder shores of Dubya’s rhetoric. As if we needed to be reminded that there is a buffoon in the White House.

While it doesn’t come as a complete surprise to me that Cheney doesn’t believe that waterboarding is not torture, and is a technique that is a "no-brainer" to use, I still have to draw a breath at the fact that people such as he hold power in the current administration of the US. How are the mighty fallen…

Some good news today. The Dutch newspapers are reporting that Rita Verdonk, the hardline minister for immigration and integration has done an about face on her position regarding Iranian gays who seek asylum in The Netherlands. She was on record earlier this year as saying that Iranian gays should not be granted asylum, and should be deported back to Iran. This caused heated discussion in the Dutch parliament at the time.

 

Now it appears as though she has seen reason and reversed the decision. 

Keith Olbermann with another rousing piece of oratory – this time on the many lies of President Bush.

Life imitates artlessness… I read the extracts from the Downing Street memo on how Blair should bow out with a dizzy sense of losing my grip on reality. Quote:

Now it appears that it wasn’t a figment of a crazed imagination. Some people actually think this way. Here’s one I made earlier. One down, two to go. Somehow, "euphoria" isn’t quite the word I’m searching for to describe my feelings about this. "Nausea" is probably closer.

This man Keith Olbermann is a magnificent orator speaking words of truth. Pity that his fellow countrymen seem incapable of waking up to it.

Doug Ireland, on his DIRELAND blog, has a report from Alan Platt on the coup in Thailand. It makes interesting reading. Perhaps it is indeed "a step back to make a step forward".

So the perpetrator of the bomb hoax who tried to stop Madonna’s concerts from going ahead this week turns out to be a Dutch priest. The astonishing thing was that he used his home phone to call in the threat. He’s either an idiot or perhaps he thought God would screen his number from the authorities. And it seems likely that he will get off lightly. If I were the judge, I’d throw the book at him. I have no problem in the priest saying that he disapproves of Madonna’s act, but trying to stop other people from seeing it by using a bomb threat is not right.