::Colored Opinions::

Obama, Ghana, and African oil

2009-07-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

The West African Gulf of Guinea is not only oil rich, but
also the corridor for transporting West African oil to the
rest of the world. Controlling the Gulf of Guinea is a
principal goal of AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command.

Barack Obama's visit to Ghana is, most fundamentally, about West African oil and natural gas, and control of the corridors for transporting it through the Gulf of Guinea, on the West African Coast. Full text at Examiner.com, http://tinyurl.com/lr43qw.

KMEC Radio 101.5: Alberto Torrico on Arnold Schwarzenegger's end game

2009-07-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

Alberto Torrico on Arnold Schwarzenegger's end game.

Cross post from the Op-Ed News, http://www.opednews.com/articles/KMEC-105-1FM--Alberto-Tor-by-Ann-Garrison-090707-368.html.

Marwa el-Sherbini murdered by European anti-Islam racist

2009-07-08T15:22:00.001-07:00

It has now been five days since Marwa el-Sherbini has been murdered by a European racist, still German and Dutch press have not written about the incidents. A German citizen had called Marwa el-Sherbini a terrorist whore. Later, in the courtroom, he stabbed her to death.

This demonstrates again that migrants in Europe have nothing to expect from mainstream politics and media.

Arnold Schwarzenegger threatens California like the IMF threatens Africa

2009-07-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

California, like Africa, is oil rich. Africa has surpassed the Middle

East as a source of U.S. oil imports,and California is third to

Texas and Alaska, as an oil producing state. Yet most Africans enjoy

none of the wealth consequent to oil extraction in their

homeland, much like Californians, who, charge no oil and

natural gas severance tax at the wellhead, unlike any

state in the U.S., and, unlike even any African state.

(Humbold State University map.)

by Ann Garrison

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger now threatens California much as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank threaten debt strangled, resource ransacked, environmentally assaulted, and de facto colonized Africa, and the rest of the Global South. In negotiations over the budget deadlock that now has California operating on CA IOUs, he's demands that majority Democratic California Legislature repeal years of hard won labor and environmental protection in exchange for his signature on a budget that saves at least some of the most basic human services.

If enacted without amendment, his harsh budget cuts will end many California college students' educations, and, sentence the most vulnerable Californians to extreme privation, and, even death; some Californians will literally die without AIDS medication, in home health services, health care for children, and other very basic social services that Schwarzenegger insists California can no longer afford.

Why is California no longer able to afford basic decency and dignity?

Because Schwarzenegger and his Republican minority:

1) Refuse to ask the wealthiest Californians, and corporations, to join in what he himself calls "shared sacrifice."

2) Refuse to ask Big Oil, despite record profits, to join in the "shared sacrifice," by refusing to impose an oil and natural gas tax at the wellhead, in this state which so uniquely charges none.

3) Don't even propose trimming all the State's outright contributions to corporations, in "public private partnerships" for infrastructural development, and/or, subsidies, to California's enormously wealthy utility monopolies, like Pacific Gas'n Electric and Southern California Edison.

California is the world's eighth largest economy, and, the largest state in the U.S.A. If Arnold Schwarzenegger's harsh end game succeeds here, it will no doubt send shock waves of corporatist triumph around the world.

On June 30, 2009, I recorded this KMEC Radio interview with California Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, on Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget and agenda, crossposted here from the Op-Ed News, http://tinyurl.com/mcandh.

Evangelische Utopisten

2009-07-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

In maart sprak Arie Slob, fractievoorzitter van de ChristenUnie, met Henk van Rhee, de voormalige direkteur van het partijbureau van de ChristenUnie. Arie Slob zegt over dit gesprek "Met Henk van Rhee voel ik me ook geestelijk verbonden".

De verbondenheid waar Arie Slob aan refereert lijkt verdacht veel op de droom van Henk van Rhee:

"Ik filosofeer wel eens over een toekomstige fusie tussen de nieuwe generatie SGP'ers en het orthodoxe deel van de ChristenUnie. Misschien verdwijnt de rest van de CU dan naar het CDA. Ook kerkelijk zou er wel eens een herverkaveling kunnen plaatsvinden, waarin orthodoxe mensen elkaar over kerkmuren heen vinden."

Om te begrijpen waarover Henk van Rhee hier filosofeert is het nuttig om het volgende citaat uit een artikel dat verscheen op de opinie-pagina van het Reformatorisch Dagblad er bij te pakken:

"Om het orthodoxe deel van de CU-achterban tevreden te houden, zal er "op de een of andere manier'' een beperking gesteld moeten worden aan homoseksuele relaties bij vertegenwoordigers van de partij.

Voor het 'verlichte' deel van de achterban zal dat aanleiding zijn om hun politieke onderdak elders te zoeken, verwacht Van Rhee."

Het is duidelijk uit bovenstaande interview, dat Henk van Rhee alleen "geestelijke verbondenheid" voelt met een deel van de achterban van de ChristenUnie. Hij streeft er naar een in zijn ogen 'verlichte' deel de partij uit te jagen.

En daarin staat hij duidelijk niet alleen, want de beperking die hij wilde is er inderdaad gekomen:

"Het ChristenUniepartijcongres nam op 14 juni de aanbevelingen uit het rapport over de gedragscode voor CU-vertegenwoordigers over. Wel werd de code gewijzigd. Kiesvereniging Nunspeet scherpte hem aan met een verwijzing naar de Uniefundering en het kernprogramma. Dat laatste werd op verzoek van Barneveld uitgebreid met de passage dat „seksuele omgang onlosmakelijk is verbonden met het huwelijk.”

De "homodiscussie" legt hier een diepere breuklijn in Christelijke politiek bloot. Een belangrijk deel van de ChristenUnie leden streeft een conservatief-evangelisch ideaal na, gebaseerd op het succes van de EO. Daarbij wordt ten onrechte de suggestie gewekt dat diegenen die daarin niet meegaan "progressief", "liberaal", "vrijzinnig" of "links" zijn. Dat blijkt ook uit de suggestie van Henk van Rhee die deze groep graag zou zien vertrekken richting het CDA.

Dat deel van de leden streeft juist niet naar de "evangelische utopie" van Henk van Rhee, maar geeft invulling aan haar burgerschap in lijn met het denkwerk van mensen als Groen van Prinsterer, Abraham Kuyper, Klaas Schilder en anderen die hun bijdrage geleverd hebben aan de fundering van Christelijke politiek in hun tijd.

De "evangelische utopie" van Henk van Rhee doet dan ook geen recht aan de complexe ontstaansgeschiedenis van RPF en GPV. Van Rhee gaat daarmee bovendien volledig voorbij aan de discussie over "kracht en doel" van Christelijke politiek die leidde tot het ontstaan van het GPV in 1948.

Hoe harder "evangelische utopisten" (zoals Henk van Rhee) blijven proberen de complexe realiteit van Christelijke politiek in hun "Evangelisch-conservatieve" keurslijf te dwingen, hoe meer tegenwerking zij tegen zullen komen binnen de ChristenUnie. It's the "burgerschapsvisie" stupid.

Torrico says "No more sequels, Arnold," as the Terminator holds a gun to California's head

2009-07-05T01:20:00.000-07:00

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's

budget is a gun held to California's head.

Cross post from Examiner.com, http://www.examiner.com/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m7d4-Torrico-says-No-more-sequels-Arnold-as-the-Terminator-aims-a-gun-at-Californias-head

Jimi Hendrix Star Spangled Banner, Woodstock, 1969

2009-07-05T00:06:00.001-07:00

by Ann Garrison

Posted five minutes after midnight, July 4th, American Independence Day, 2009, 40 years after Hendrix made history at Woodstock, as the U.S. continues its overt wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its covert wars in Africa, most of all, in D.R. Congo, under the umbrella of Africom, the U.S. Africa Command. I didn't watch the fireworks, but I listened to this, which Hendrix performed at the height of America's War in Vietnam, and the height of global opposition:

Alberto Torrico urges California Democrats to lead

2009-07-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

"If we are not going to take care of the most vulnerable among us, then I see no reason for us to be here in Sacramento."

--Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico

Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico urged California Democrats, a majority in both houses of the state legislature, to discard Arnold Schwarzenegger’s immoral, inhumane budget and present him with their own—so as to negotiate from strength, rather than simply defending this or that program from cuts. Thus far, the State Democrats have failed to follow his lead.

The Schwarzenegger budget is a hugely aggressive attempt to further advance the neoconservative agenda:

1) Shred the social safety net.

2) Privatize anything and everything.

3) Slash personal and corporate income tax.

4) Use state revenues to fund privatization, via “public private” partnerships.

5) Deconstruct environmental and business regulation by defunding enforcement.

That’s a very clear vision, as it has been for a long time. Will State Democrats ever articulate and argue for an equally clear vision, so as to mount more than a feeble defense against such vicious, aggressive neoconservativism? And, against neoliberalism, i.e., neoconservatism with a smiley, civil libertarian, sex tolerant face?

With Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party, on the national level, became the Neoliberal party, virtually indistinguishable from the Republicans, and, at times, on the national level, became even more vicious, as evidenced by the recent overwhelming Democratic vote to fund another $106 billion to fight the global War on Terror, an ideological excuse for unbridled military expansion and corporate plunder of the people and the planet for profit. And, $100 billion to fund the International Monetary Fund, which strangles the Global South in debt for projects more often harmful, and exploitative, of the people who live there, than not.

However, on the state level, the Democratic Party continues to stand, albeit timidly, or, perhaps, halfheartedly, against the Republicans, for community, and commitment to taking care of one another, in opposition to the privatization of everything existing. An oil and gas severance tax, at the wellhead, for oil that belongs to the people of the State of California, is part of the California Democratic Party platform, but Republicans adamantly oppose even a 9.9% tax, despite higher taxes in both Texas and California, the two oil-producing states ahead of California in barrels of crude pumped out of the ground.

Schwarzenegger's cuts will cost billions more in federal funds

Schwarzenegger’s cuts at the state level will cost California more billions in federal funds,

largely funds for human services, than the state cuts themselves. What could make the governor's real agenda more apparent?

If it advances yet further in California, it’s likely to spread, though California is not the first state to have a supermajority rule, Proposition 13, which requires that the entire California State budget be approved by a 2/3 majority, meaning, effectively, by the minority. California Democrats are now four votes shy of a 2/3 majority in the State Assembly; two votes shy in the State Senate.

Sixteen states seem to have some form of supermajority rule regarding revenues, and

supermajority (minority) rule is a national movement, which the Heritage Foundation, a think tank to enrich the rich, has been promoting it since at least 1996,

To protest the California budget, call Arnold Schwarzenegger's office, 916-445-2841.

Call your state legislators.

Protest locally, protest in Sacramento.

Create media; call media; protest any media failing to accurately characterize Arnold Schwarzenegger's agenda.

-Steve Rhodes

17 Arrests at San Francisco protest of Arnold Schwarzenegger's California State Budget; June 24, 2009.

Why should Ahmed Aboutaleb not meet the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco?

2009-07-02T01:39:00.001-07:00

A political row started today between the Mayor of Rotterdam, who visited Cassablanca this week, and the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Verhagen.

Last year, when world media was all on Geert Wilders and the coming out of his film Fitna, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen sent Social Affairs State Secretary Ahmed Aboutaleb to represent the Dutch government at an EU meeting with the Arab League in the Maltese capital Valetta.

Verhagen had asked Aboutaleb to deputise for him, according to Aboutaleb. He gave as a reason that they "sometimes exchange ideas about the Middle East" but acknowledged that the fact that he is an Arab and a Muslim played a role. "It sometimes goes a bit easier if you get it in a word," said the state secretary. He holds Moroccan as well as Dutch citizenship.

Today Verhagen is "very angry" because Ahmed Aboutaleb, who is now the Mayor of Rotterdam, had a meeting with the minister for foreign affairs of Morocco while he was visiting his country of origin.

Apparently Maxime Verhagen, the Foreign Affairs Minister, has become very nervous because of the rise of Geert Wilders in the polls. He apparently needs to start a war of words with this important Dutch politician of Moroccan origin to gain back some of his standing with the xenophobic voters in the gutters of for instance Rotterdam and the Hague.

Or is it frustration because of the fact that Dutch-American relations were better under Bush? Apparently Maxime Verhagen, an important CDA politician, thinks he and his party can gain from attacking this politician of Moroccan origin, who the Guardian labeled "Obama of the Maas", on this unimportant issue. It tells us a lot of how the ruling parties are dealing with Geert Wilders.

Deputy Mayor of The Hague: immigrants from Eastern Europe are not welcome!

2009-07-01T23:16:00.001-07:00

Update: some pictures of the beauty of The Hague to forget about politicians.

Deputy Mayor Marnix Norder writes today in a national newspaper "Trouw" that he fears a new "migrant drama", referring to the book "multicultureel drama" written by social democrat Paul Scheffer. The reason he has fears is that he has listened to "citizens" and has heard a lot of complaints about Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants in the poorer neighbourhoods. He thinks the feelings in the poor neighbourhoods is that the floodgates are opened to foreigners and that explains the rise of Geert Wilders in the European parliamentary elections.

He says "though he is no Eurofoob, this is Brussels fault" and that "an integration course for these immigrants should be mandator. He would prefer "that the borders would be closed for these immigrants".

Apparently politicians of the Dutch Labour Party are in panic because of the European elections results. This guy, Marnix Norder, a career politician, is wildly hitting around thinking he might get back some PVV voters. What strikes me is the lack of legal or statistical backing for his claims.

A report from the CBS (Central Bureau of Statistics) shows that due to international organisations in The Hague the number of western immigrants in The Hague will go up.
The share of western immigrants will go from 10% in 2005 to 20% in 2025. The share of non-western immigrants will stay around 30%. So his claims of a new wave of poor immigrants are only based on what he heard in the neighbourhoods and contradicted by this report.

Secondly the rights of Eastern European immigrants to stay in the Netherlands is guaranteed by European laws, and will not be changed. That is a fact and he should explain the fundamental rights of these citizens to these socalled "citizens" that complain about Eastern Europeans moving. Marnix Norder should go into the neighbourhoods and say: I got news for you, these people are European citizens and have the fundamental right to move in and to speak their own language. They can't be forced to follow some "integration course".

The Dutch Labour Party is riding the wave of xenophobic politics. This will only lead to more division and more unrest. If Marnix Norder really had any concern for his constituency and for the citizens of The Hague he would start by explaining reality, not spreading rumors and inuendo. I hope his constituency in the "City of Peace and Justice" gives him what he deserves at the next election: Defeat!

Kagame: "If Karake Karenzi leaves, Rwanda leaves Darfur"

2009-07-01T03:07:00.000-07:00

(Darfur airlift operations from Kigali by US Airforce)

Rwanda now leading the ONU-AU Force in Darfour

Colette Braeckman asked Paul Kagame in an interview september 2008:

"Rwanda has 2000 soldiers in Darfur, they participate in the mixed ONU-African Union Force. The Rwandan General Karake Karenzi, who is at the head of this Force, is a controversial figure, his name is quoted in the accusations of a Spanish Judge. if he leaves Darfour, how would you react?"

To which Paul Kagame answered:

"I know that the Rwandan soldiers are necessair and appreciated, but we can't win on two tables: Or the commander of the Force is attacked, then also Rwanda itself will feel attacked and will react accordingly. For me, it is clear: If Karenzi has to leave, all the Rwandan soldiers will leave Darfour"

Beginning of June we learned that Karake Karenzi has been replaced by Major General Patrick Nyamvumba who does not figure on the list of arrest warents by the Spanish judge Fernando Merelles against Rwandan high military.

Apparently Rwanda has agreed to replacing Karake Karenzi and get's in return the highest ranking position in the joint ONU-African Union Force. General Patrick Nyamvumba is the new commander of this operation in Darfur.

The South African General Mbutyana Duma Dumisani get's Karake Karenzi's position as deputy commander.

Isn't it ironci that Rwanda is now leading the military force in Darfour while, as George Katito points out

"Kagame's administration has been leading the African Union's opposition to the arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and genocide."

The ethnic composition of the Rwandan army

It's instructive to read about the ethnic composition among high ranking military inside Rwanda on the website of the Belgium French Christian Democrats. Patrick Nyamvumba was a soldier in the Ugandan army in the past. He also was at the head of Rwandan's operation inside the DRC in 1999, as you can read here.
The website www.musabyimana.be however writes about Patrick Nyuamvumba (no 29.) as one of the 17 top criminals inside the RPF:

"He has been named Major General for unsavoury services, alone or in complicty with others he is presumed guilty of crimes of war and crimes against humanity: Lieutenant Colonel at the head of the Unit Simba Mobile, he is responsable during April 1994 of acts of genocides committed by ethnic cleansing of Hutu's in the communities of MURAMBI, RUKARA, MUHURA, MUHAZI and GITI with the goal of creating a Tutsiland and aiming to repatriate Tutsi refugees from Uganda. Estimates attribute him as responsable of the killing of 82.000 innocent civilians."

A report "RPF criminals" has been put together by musabyimana on the basis of different sources.

Patrick Nyamvumba was also president of the military court in 2006 that condemend Major General Laurent Munyakazi to life imprisonment for his presumed role in the 1994 Genocide. Major General Laurent Munyakazi, one of the few Hutu commanders inside the Rwandan army, had been slowly rising within the ranks of the Rwandan army until 2005. This shows that Patrick Nyamvumba has been active in executing Rwandan's strategy to make sure the army does not mix as has been the case in Burundi.

Olivier Nyirubugara, journalist and PhD Student at the University of Amsterdam, quotes Lieutenant Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza in an extensive report on crimes committed by RPF. Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza claims that Patrick Nyamvumba was appointed by Paul Kagame to systematically exterminate Hutu's in several districts of Rwanda. Calling unarmed civlians to a certain place to subsequently exterminate them. Question is off course wheter Abdul Joshua Ruzibiza now also denies this part of his book "The Secret History".

Why do Muslims feel unwelcome in the Netherlands?

2009-07-01T00:17:00.000-07:00

Sadik Harchaoui, director of the multicultural institute Forum says in the article "suddenly Wilders isn't so funny anymore" in NRC:

"It is an overstatement to say that Wilders is responsible for Muslims feeling unwelcome in the Netherlands."

He thinks the mood was set on September 11, 2001:

"Muslims have been living under a magnifying glass ever since. It doesn't matter how well integrated they are, it will be never be enough. The Netherlands has become a lot less attractive for Muslims."

"If you look at the future, at the ageing population, at the increasing urbanisation, it is clear that we are going to need the people who are now in school. If you chase them away, we will be left with only the less-educated immigrants."

Harchaoui believes the discomfort doesn't come from Wilders alone, but increasingly from the other, mainstream parties:

"If the other parties stood up for Muslims, we would have whole a different atmosphere in the Netherlands now."

Umar Mirza, currently studying 'System Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management' at Technical University Delft, & 'People and Society' at Erasmus University of Rotterdam,He's the founder and head of editing board of Wijblijvenhier.nl (we stay here, a Dutch Muslim blog):

"I don't feel represented in Dutch politics. The other politicians are too shy. If it's okay for Wilders to talk like he does, well then the others should do the same." Gounou: "Occasionally someone will stick his neck out, but it is not convincing enough. Wilders can get a lot more radical still; it's time to take up the challenge."

Obama: not my celebrity

2009-06-28T16:52:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's arrogance of power, in Honduras, is tacky, tacky, tacky. A huge ugly cliché for our superficially, sartorially, stylish, celebrity prez. Someone should call Thomas Pink, the exclusive British shirt brand, which commissioned a poll of 3,000 guys and then declared Obama more stylish than Brad Pitt. Call and point out that Obama just generated another wornout, neocolonial, yesterday's headline:

Obama Calls for Order as Honduran Military Arrests President

An American Prez who uses a School of the Americas graduate, in this case Honduran General Romeo Velazquez, to covertly overthrow a Central American prez, in this case Honduran Prez Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, and then, calls for order, as though he himself were the Central American Prez, might as well drive a Cadillac, smoke cigarettes, fart at the dinner table, slap his wife and kids around, hawk clean coal, and, span the globe with military bases, toxic military waste, and a grossly bloated, lethal Armed Forces, while his own people suffer.

Not my president, not my celebrity, not my style.

'Did you want John McCain?' someone's sure to ask.

(Yawn.) Don't be uber-ridiculous.

Or: 'Are you a racist?'

(Snoozzzzzzzzzzz.) Don't be tedious-oroso. I wanted Cynthia McKinney in 2008; I want Huey Freeman, in 2012, to retrieve America's global image from the torture chamber of history, and close both the School of the Americas and the Africa Cener for Strategic Studies , a "Department of Defense Initiative. . . affiliated with the National Defense University" in Washington D.C., a.k.a., the School of the Americas' sister school for teaching assassination, torture, police statesmanship, imperial puppetry, and, coup d'etat management, to Africans.

Why Wouter Bos didn't vote for Thijs Berman

2009-06-28T05:17:00.000-07:00

Wouter Bos said, after the loss of the Dutch Labour Party, that he had voted for a more Eurosceptic candidate at the elections for the European parliament. This revelation is not some accident, as Wouter Bos would like us to believe, but a strategic choice.

Jacques Monash, a former campaign strategist for the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) wanted to become the number one on the electoral list for the European parliamentary election. The party didn't want him. The party elected Thijs Berman, a former Dutch journalist who has been a member of the European parliament for 4 years allready.

Jacques Monash has been visible in Dutch media over the last couple of years claiming that the Dutch Labour Party should move in the direction of Geert Wilders. This week he wrote an article that circled around this same simple theme that low educated immigrants are somehow similar to"rotten apples" .

However the Dutch Labour Party's loss at the elections for the European Parliament was caused by the fact that a large crowd defected in the direction of D66 (a liberal party that gained 3 seats in the EP, previously 1) and GroenLinks (also a liberal green party that gained 3 seats in the EP, previously 2). The loss was apparently not caused by defectors in the direction of the PVV, Geert Wilders.

Just after the elections Wouter Bos said that he had voted for a more Eurosceptic candidate (no. 5 Cuperus). Apparently Wouter Bos wants to accomodate those in his party who, like Jacques Monash, think the Dutch Labour Party should work on getting those PVV voters back inside the ranks so that together they can work on a plan to, as Jacques Monash puts it, get rid of the "rotten appels".

Should the Dutch government avoid the word "allochtoon"?

2009-06-27T02:25:00.000-07:00

Noulo writes on his blog "10 reasons why being Allochtoon is cool", apparently even the immigrant blogosphere in the Netherlands has started discussing this "hot topic".

As Pieter Verbeek, a journalist for the government magazine "Re Public" noticed, Dutch government officials increasinly avoid using the word "allochtoon" in government documents and press releases.

The term "allochtoon" has a clear definition: Every person that has at least one parent that was born outside of the country (Netherlands).

Pieter Verbeek states the example of department of internal affairs spokesperson Vincent van Steen, who explained that "The word allochtoon is excluding too many people. It suggest that it is about people from outside, while usually its just people that are born in the Netherlands". Vincent van Steen replaced the word "allochtoon" by the word "people with a multicultural background".

This discussion among government officials is symptomatic of the Dutch discours on immigrants. In stead of tackling serious issues of social exclusion and xenophobia, this hotshot wants to replace a word while it excludes "TOO MANY" people. In other words, Vincent van Steen has no problem excluding "CERTAIN" people, but just not "too many".

The reason for this discussions is the fact that the debate on integration has become totally poisoned with anti-immigration sentiments within the Dutch Labour Party. Wouter Bos and Eberhard van der Laan, after losing the European elections, have decided to work harder on "fighting Moroccan importbrides". Instead of explaining and defending the concept of European citizenship and it's consequences.

The message is clear, the current Labour Party is refusing to work on a comprehensive policy on diversity just as it is unwilling to explain and defend European citizenship. They want immigrants to just become "Dutch", whatever that may be. And this government official is part of this consensus. He thinks it's "OK" to exclude "certain people", but just not "too many". I would call that a policy of "divide and conquer". It shows lack of creativity and leadership. Or as Jesus Christ said in one of the parabels: this is the guy that received a talent, but was affraid to use it, so he hid it. The Dutch Labour Party is affraid to use the mandate that it has received by it's voters.

As W. Shadid, Professor of intercultural communication at the Katholic University Tilburg, predicted in january in the article
Ethnic division and populism of the Dutch Labour Party on the Dutch Labour Party's policy report “Divided past, Shared future”:

"Immigrants who continue to identify themselves with this political party (PvdA) will sooner or later be disappointed. A socially divided society in the past, and an even wider social division in the future would have been a more suitable title for the integration note of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA)."

So we cannot say we have not been warned.

Two sociologists, Dick Houtman en Peter Achterberg, predict (june 25th in a publication of the scientific institute of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA)) that the "Dutch Labour Party will fall apart". If nothing changes the Dutch Labour Party is heading for the "humpty dumpty" scenario.

So far the only answer from the leader of the Dutch Labour Party (Wouter Bos who recently declared a pair of RayBan sunglasses, 113 euros) came today in a speech to it's members: LOL.

A very insightfull article directly related to the problems the Dutch Labour Party is currently facing was published on the blog "The Brussels Journal" in march 2006 by Paul Belien: "Dutch Socialist Leader in Fear of Muslim Party Members Just after the municipal elections in 2006"

California budget bulldog Arnold Schwarzenegger

2009-06-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is so determined to shred the state's social safety net, and, privatize everything existing, that he's standing bulldoggedly in the way of any revenue hikes, including oil and gas severance taxes that would raise $1 billion this year. And, insisting on $1 billion in budget cuts that will cost the state $5 billion in federal funds.

Cross post from Examiner.com.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gavin Newsom to the right of Sarah Palin?

2009-06-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican vice
presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin increased the severance tax on oil and natural gas in the State of Alaska to 25% in 2007. California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Republicans, however, stand steadfast against an oil and natural gas severance tax, even as California teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. And, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who would be governor, and president, remains silent. Full text at Examiner.com, http://tinyurl.com/l49w4x.

Should Kagame's RPF face justice?

2009-06-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

yesterday Marcia Luyten wrote an article in a leading Dutch newspaper in which she writes that "France and the Tutsi have to face justice in Rwanda too". She obviously writes this in a reply to the open letter by 70 African scolars that was published June 1st:

"More than 70 scholars and human rights advocates issued a joint letter today calling on the United Nations Secretary General, the US President, and the UK Prime Minister to ensure that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) fulfils its mandate by prosecuting soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) who committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rwanda in 1994."

To which Jeroen Corduwener, a Dutch journalist living in Rwanda, responded that justice should not be a goal and that stability of the region is at stake if RPF crimes are investigated.

Both agree on the fact that the RPF have committed crimes. That is what I learn from these two journalists. A year ago a respected newspaper in The Netherlands would never have written such stuff. Apparently Paul Kagame is now considered by mainstream media to be the mass murderer that many fringe journalists online have been claiming for years.

The question wether the RPF should face justice and how is apparently now the subject of debate. Paul Rusesabagina and Robert Krueger have been thinking about this subject too. They have proposed the South African model of "Justice and reconciliation". That model has been advocated, correct me if I am wrong, by the main opposition leader of Rwanda, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who lives in The Netherlands as well.

I am looking forward to hearing her point of view on this.

Flashpoints Radio: oil wars, oil taxes, and California Assembly Bill 656

2009-06-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

Flashpoints Investigative Radio, on KPFA Berkeley 94.1 FM, and webstreaming, on oil wars, oil taxes, and California Asssembly Bill 656. Cross post from Examiner.com.

California needs a Sarah Palin Empowerment Act

2009-06-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

The State of Alaska, famously said to favor the oil and gas industries, drives the world's hardest bargain with its oil and gas companies; they charge a 25% tax at the wellhead. California charges 0%.
California refineries buy crude oil, and natural gas at market price, from drillers in both Alaska and California.
California refineries buy crude oil, and natural gas at market price, from drillers in both Alaska and California. Alaska charges a 25% oil and gas severance tax; California charges none.

Cross post from Examiner.com.

The Dutch Labour Party and Geert Wilders

2009-06-18T06:31:00.001-07:00

Just after having lost the European elections, Eberhard van der Laan (PvdA) stated in a interview that "we should stop the importbrides". In this interview the minister of integration falsely and eronously accuses maroccons of circumventing Dutch immigration laws. Apparently he thinks there is truth to Geert Wilders claims on foreigners and integration. He shows clearly that he, Eberhard van der Laan has to integrate himself, he doesn't even know the nature of EU-law.

His characterisation of the "Belgiumroute" as a way to circumvent Dutch laws is a symptom of Xenophobic politics in the Netherlands. The Labour party has been characterised over the years as the party for immigrants. But this comment brings the Dutch Labour Party, PvdA, and it's use of xenophobic and anti-european discourse to a new level. As I said before, Geert Wilders is a total nobody, the problem is with people like Eberhard van der Laan and the Dutch Labour Parties leader Wouter Bos.

The socalled "Belgiumroute" is based on solid European laws on family-reunification. There are now numerous cases in which the IND, Dutch immigration services, is refusing European citizens their legal rights inside the Netherlands.

The PvdA is speaking with a double tongue when it attacks Geert Wilders. They are pretending they attack Geert Wilders, while at the same time refusing to abide by solid European jurisprudence on family reunification. Personally I don't have any respect for politicians like Wouter Bos and Eberhard van der Laan, with their hypocritical approach.

Immigrants within the ranks of the PvdA are used by Wouter Bos. In 2006 he called immigrants inside the party ranks "incompetent". Now this PvdA minister, Eberhard van der Laan, knowingly misinforms the public on the real issue, which is clear: The Netherlands is refusing to respect European values on family-reunification. And off course they claim that the Netherlands has the right to discriminate against it's own citizens. And even that is false, the IND is also refusing Dutch citizens with a passport of another European country their legal rights. The Dutch government knows they will lose these judicial cases in the end, but they just want to continue with the anti-immigrant politics, because they think they will win elections like that.

Immigrants are being used by the PvdA, that's the clear message we got once again from Eberhard van der Laan. I hope politicians like Wouter Bos and Eberhard van der Laan will get what they worked for, total defeat at the polls in municipal elections.

Last year Wouter Bos still thought Hillary Clinton had the best chances of winning the Presidential elections. Wouter represents the ruling class in the Netherlands. This class still sees immigrants as the "weak in society". That is illustrated by his remarks on Obama's chances. If you see the total lack of vision at the top of such a party, I don't think predicting defeat in 2010 is unrealistic.

Gavin Newsom on Current TV: silent on offshore drilling, oil severance tax, nuclear power, and war

2009-06-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is now running for Governor of California, with obvious aspirations to proceed from there to the White House. Though he claims to be running as an passionate environmentalist, Newsom remains silent on California's largest environmental issues, including offshore oil and gas drilling, an oil and gas severance tax, nuclear power, and California's pollution exports to surrounding states and nations, and the environmentally destructive War on Terror.

Cross-post from Examiner.com.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who now

aspires to be Governor of California, and beyond.

Taxing fossils, to educate for renewables

2009-06-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

Some Californians think the state should reclaim public assets, rather than selling them off, to solve the state's pending bankruptcy. Assembly Bill 656 would finally impose a severance tax on oil and gas, to fund higher education, especially in renewable energy tech.

Cross post from Examiner.com.

California Assembly Member Alberto Torrico proposed California Assembly Bill 656.

California's gifts to Big Oil

2009-06-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

California contributes its oil and gas reserves to the oil industry, with no oil extraction tax, even as the state verges on bankruptcy, and reports of oil violence pour in from all over the Global South and the indigenous world. Cross post from Examiner.com.

Geert Wilders and the Murder of Theo van Gogh

2009-06-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

A ZDF journalist apparently linked the murder of Theo van Gogh to the influence of Geert Wilders in Dutch politics. This leads, predictably to outrage on weblogs that are against Islam or, to use their favorite phrase, in favor of "free speech".

And I disagree with the ZDF journalist on this too. Because in my perception Geert Wilders is a symptom of a larger problem. A problem that European politicians refuse to tackle. European politicians apparently lack backbone and vision.

I still think Mike Huckabee, during his campaign to win the nomination last year, in his speech "paths and priorities in the war on terror" had the best explanation for the murder of Theo van Gogh:

"It is also difficult for us to understand that life for European Muslims is different from life for American Muslims. Muslims in Britain or the Netherlands or Germany are second-class citizens because those countries have more homogenous populations that don’t readily integrate outsiders. Instead of melting pots, Europe has separate pots boiling over with alienation and despair. In some countries, like France, it is more a lack of economic integration, while in others, like Britain, it is more a lack of cultural integration, but whatever the reason, Europe is a much more fertile breeding ground for terror than the United States. Unintentionally, some of our closest allies are producing some of our clearest threats. Because of our special relationship with Britain and all our similarities with them, most Americans don’t realize that it is very different to be a Muslim citizen of Britain than a Muslim citizen of the United States, so we have trouble accepting that doctors in Britain become terrorists. We have to understand that while educated Muslims in Europe may not be materially deprived, many of them feel socially and emotionally deprived by a lack of acceptance. Earlier this month we saw the arrest of German citizens plotting a terror attack against American targets there. Also this month we saw Danish citizens arrested for plotting an imminent bombing. Both plots had links to Al Qaeda. "

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee flanked by Jennifer Beal, left, and Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, takes part in a ceremony honoring Martin Luther King, Monday, Jan. 21, 2008, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert.)