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Nederland: maak het maar kapot!

Mensen die de minister van Financiën dood willen rijden. Mensen die de premier dood willen rijden. Mensen die niet meer snappen dat de minister en de premier dat niet snappen. Mensen die vinden dat de koningin maar op moet donderen omdat ze iets verstandigs zegt. Lekker makkelijk ook: de koningin mag niets terugzeggen. Prijsschieten. Mensen die liever hebben dat hun stad in de fik wordt gezet, in plaats van dat voorkomen wordt dat de stad dus de fik in gaat. Mensen die vinden dat alles wat met een accent praat in principe geitenneukers zijn, en die dan heel verrast zijn dat de beledigden in kwestie boos worden. Mensen die vandaag nog – wat, gisteren! – alle ongelovigen het liefst zouden onthoofden. Sterf maar. Mensen die niet willen dat anderen plezier hebben. Mensen die zichzelf tekort gedaan voelen. Mensen die niet willen dat anderen, die misschien niet zo hard werken als zij, toch een leuk salaris verdienen. Mensen die niet willen dat anderen, die veel harder werken dan zij en ook nog eens heel veel meer verantwoordelijkheden hebben, heel veel meer verdienen. Mensen die drie keer per jaar op vakantie gaan. Mensen die zouden willen dat ze zich één keer per 5 jaar een vakantie konden veroorloven – in Limburg. Limburg, dat wenst dat mensen zich wat vaker dan die ene keer per 5 jaar een vakantie konden verloorloven – een vakantie in Limburg. Mensen die A willen ten koste van B, kortom, terwijl C mag doodvallen ten faveure van D.

Het is en blijft knap, zo’n scala aan verschillende meningen in één klein landje. Dat is zeker. Nu alleen nog de trots en de terugkeer van fatsoen.

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Analyses US elections

Kumbaya now, death to all tomorrow

Observing the media coverage of the primary war for the Democratic nomination, I can’t help but watch in amazement how the collective mainstream media press has apparently decided to dance around candidate Barack Obama, singing ‘Kumbaya’ loudly and farting in the general direction of the Clintons and John Edwards in the process. Amazement, because it won’t last.

Right now, any attack by the Clintons (or Edwards, or anybody else for that matter) is either completely ignored, or berated as something close to Pure Evil by the MSM. Whatever Bill Clinton says, it is now ‘racist’ or meant to ‘damage Obama’. Even when Clinton calls Obama’s candidacy so far “a fairy tale”, by which Clinton obviously means the non-critical, out-of-this-world aura the MSM has bestowed upon the Senator from Illinois, Clinton is attacked by hissing snakes. The Obama campaign doesn’t have to do squat.

Sure, now you’re thinking that I believe that Bill Clinton isn’t purposely throwing in the race-thing. Of course he is, but get this: that’s not my point. The point is that if/when Obama (or one of his surrogates) throws in some coded sentence that could be interpreted as racially tinged, but also could not, Obama is left alone.

But whenever Clinton says something that could be racially tinged, oh boy – there comes the Cavalry of the 1st Hypocrites Regiment, stormin’ out Fortress Moral Outrage!

Yet what I want to know is: will the press corps still defend Obama against the attack of Republican X during the general election campaign? Will the same press people hiss and harr-umph against a Republican campaign surrogate if/when he says that Obama may have a hidden agenda? Will the same press corps storm out of the fortress again to bash the GOP candidate?

Of course they won’t. As with every long-winded campaign, the dynamics in this campaign will have changed as well within three months or so. Why? Because journalists are human, believe it or not.

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The donkey is biting the hand that feeds it

The number of Democratic politicians that is lining up to endorse Barack Obama — and not Hillary Clinton — is impressive. Despite Clinton’s surprise win in New Hampshire, which must have caused a blow to confidence in Camp Obama, some pretty high-ranking Democrats are leaning to endorse Obama. John Kerry was the latest high-profile Democrat to throw his support (and sponsors!) to Obama. So what’s going on? Why is Hillary, a prominent Democratic Senator and wife of the man who is seen as the virtual leader of the Democratic Party, suddenly the least popular gal on prom night?

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So what about Rwanda, Hillary?

Hillary Clinton is asking for the American vote, so that she can become the new president of the US. She beats up George W Bush for the things he did, but what about the things her husband didn’t do? Such as Rwanda? Apparently, the black people of Rwanda — more specifically, the Tutsi population — could go fuck themselves f0r all the Clintons cared. Do we really want the Clintons to be able to make that kind of choice again? The Clintons obviously did not care about the mass killings in Rwanda. So why should anybody care about the Clintons?

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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As expected, Hillary talks down Iowa’s importance

As predicted (read here), Team Clinton has started talking down the importance of Iowa. On ABC with George Stephanopoulous, Clinton said that she never really expected to surpass Barack Obama and John Edwards, who had double-digit leads over her in the local polls for the Democratic caucuses, to be held there on January 3. On Iowa, Clinton now says “I’m not expecting anything.”

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Pyromaan in ’t Zandt? Zelfs het leger wordt ingezet. Maar in Slotervaart…?

FirefireVreemd. Eén man steekt regelmatig lege schuren en leegstaade huizen in de fik ergens in Groningen, en de politie zet er een rechercheteam van 40(!) man op, mobiliseert een heel politiekorps, laat het dorp infiltreren door 10 ‘stillen’, en zelfs het leger wordt erbij gehaald met nachtzichtkijkers. De man wordt gepakt en de hele dag gaat het nergens anders over, van ’s ochtends vroeg tot ’s avonds laat in alle nieuwsuitzendingen en actualiteitenprogramma’s. Dat was dus in en rond het dorp ’t Zandt, waar schuren in de regel veilig waren, want honderden meters verwijderd van woningen.

Maar nu! Wat nu als een tiental gefrustreerde etters in een dichtbevolkte woonwijk auto’s de fik steken die vlakbij een dichtbevolkt appartementencomplex staan? Dan wordt er géén 40-koppig rechercheteam op gezet, er wordt géén politiekorps gemobiliseerd, en er wordt al helemaal geen enkele soldaat bijgehaald. Resultaat: de politie heeft nog steeds niet achterhaald wie die auto’s nu precies in de fik heeft gezet. En als er al iemand gearresteerd wordt, dan staan ze binnen 24 uur toch weer op straat…

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Forget Iowa: It’s New Hampshire, Stupid!

Memo to pundits, political junkies and reporters: with less than three weeks to go to the Iowa caucuses, expect the Clinton campaign to start downtalking the importance of Iowa while beefing up New Hampshire. The reasoning: the Clintons were never that strong in Iowa, but New Hampshire has always been the ‘litmus state’ for any Clinton campaign since 1992. And contrary to Iowa, losing that state in the primary is not an option.

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John Edwards, king|queenmaker

John EdwardsHe’ll never admit it until the proper time comes — which could be any time of his choosing — but John Edwards in the back of his mind must know by now that he’s not going to win the nomination to be the Democratic Party’s candidate for the US presidency in 2008. In Iowa, New Hampshire and even South Carolina, Edwards has fallen back to third place in the polls. If he comes in third in Iowa, his entire strategy will have failed and he will have no other option than to drop out. And so the $1 million question then is: who will John Edwards endorse? Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?

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Don’t worry, global warming will end automatically…

There’s no need to panic, everything will be alright. Mother Nature will do her best to help the planet, and we’ll all be better for it. Of course, there will be a billion or two fewer of us and many animal species will have died out, not to mention entire parts of continents uninhabitable (‘Waterworld’ vs ‘Desertworld’), but in the end, global warming and the resulting climate change will stop without us having to do a whole lot about it. It may take a few generations but we can be sure that a lot more people will know how to swim — even the offspring of people currently living in deserts will get to see more water than their grandparents bargained for.

Naturally, the first to suffer will be the poor, those living in the countries which — unfortunately — also stand to be the new Biggest Polluters of the world, as the governments seek prosperity which will finally be in reach. Or so they thought…