BACK IN THE BED BUSINESS: XAVIERA HOLLANDER.

“I found your book in my parents grandparents house.”
“Alfred Hitchcock liked to dress up as a dead person.”
“Frank Sinatra was very crude, very cheap.”

The “happy hooker” who was deported from America after writing a bestseller about running a New York brothel is “back in the bed business”, as she puts it, this time managing a Dutch bed and breakfast.
Xaviera Hollander has lost none of the frankness or sense of fun for which she became famous after the appearance in 1971 of The Happy Hooker, her account of life as New York’s most successful madame.
“I’m 65 and my boobs are hanging but I’ve just married this man 10 years younger than me,” she said in Amsterdam. “I’m having a great time.”
read on here>>

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De voormalige woordvoerder van het Witte Huis, Scott McClellan, blijft maar verbazen. Nu onthult hij over het rabiaat rechtse tv-netwerk FoxNews dat diens analisten regelmatig van het Witte Huis lijstjes kregen (’talking points’). Daarin werd voorgeschreven hoe bepaalde zaken aan het Amerikaanse volk moesten worden gepresenteerd, op voor de ‘Bush-men’ positieve wijze uiteraard. Lijstjes waar FoxNews coryfeeen als Sean Hannity en Bill O’Reilly zich uitstekend aan wisten te houden, aldus insider McClellan.
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McClellan: Fox News Commentators Use The ‘Talking Points’ That The White House Sends Them

On MSNBC’s Hardball last night, host Chris Matthews asked former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan if he saw “FOX television as a tool” to get the White House’s “message out” while he was in the Bush administration. “Certainly there were commentators and other, pundits at FOX News, that were useful to the White House,” replied McClellan, adding that they were given “talking points.”

Making a distinction between journalists like Brit Hume and commentators like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, McClellan admitted that “certainly” the White House used Fox News talking heads as “spokespeople” with “a script”:

MATTHEWS: So, you wouldn’t use Brit Hume to sell stuff for them, but you’d use some of the nighttime guys?
MCCLELLAN: Yeah, I would separate that out, and certainly I, you know, they’ll say, that’s because they agree with those views in the White House.
MATTHEWS: Well, they didn’t need a script though, did they?
MCCLELLAN: No, well, probably not.

McClellan later told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann that “it was done frequently, especially on high-profile issues” and that Fox often gave the White House “its desired results.”
read on here>>, with video>> (more…)

THERE WAS NO HIDDINK PLACE FOR SAD DUTCH.

Gutted Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink admits Guus Hiddink wrecked his Euro dream
because the wily coach knew his homeland’s gameplan inside out. Dutchman Hiddink led Russia to a stunning 3-1 extra-time victory over Hesselink’s Holland in the 2008 quarter-finals.
Celtic star Jan admits his team were out-thought and said: “We were playing well in the group games. “After beating Italy and France there was a great feeling in the camp. But we just didn’t come out against Russia. It had a lot to do with Hiddink. He knew exactly what we were going to do, focused on that and didn’t let us play.”

Dit stuk in de Israelische krant Haaretz gaat over compensatie te betalen door Duitsland aan Nederlandse Joden die de Tweede Wereldoorlog hebben overleefd. Sinds vorige maand is dit onderwerp weer relevant. Het betreft de overlevenden van het Amsterdamse ghetto. Volgens Duitsland komen zij niet voor compensatie in aanmerking omdat het een open ghetto betrof wiens inwoners formeel vrij waren om te gaan en staan waar ze wilden!?

DUTCH JEWS HIDING FROM NAZI-OCCUPATION SEEK REPARATIONS FROM GERMANY.

As far as Germany is concerned, Dutch Jews deserve no compensation for living in hiding during the Nazi occupation. Reparations negotiators told Haaretz last week they plan to make the issue the focus of the next round of talks with Germany on whether survivors from Holland should be compensated.
Community leaders are also working to lift a stipulation stating that former residents of the Amsterdam Ghetto are not to be compensated for having to live there, because the ghetto is defined in Germany as “an open ghetto” whose inhabitants could leave.
Orly Joseph, a spokeswoman for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, said her organization will bring up the Dutch Jews’ case in the annual negotiations with Germany.
The issue became relevant last month after community leaders succeeded in lifting an exclusion barring Dutch Jews from German reparations.
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Wat deden de beide Amerikaanse presidentskandidaten op donderdag?

Daily Show: Obama in Berlin vs. McCain in the supermarket

Jon Stewart juxtaposes how the two candidates spent their Thursdays.

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“But watching Senator Obama address a crowd of 200,000 in Germany while Senator McCain addresses a crowd of two in the frozen food section…”

That about sums it up.

GIGANTISCHE PLASTIC VUILNISBELT DRIJFT MIDDEN IN STILLE OCEAAN.

Volgens de VN drijft er midden in de Stille Oceaan net onder het wateroppervlak een vuilnisbelt van plastic flessen, zakken en rietjes ter grootte van Frankrijk, Spanje en Portugal samen.

De milieuafdeling van de Verenigde Naties (UNEP) wil in december vanuit San Francisco een onderzoeksschip sturen naar de drijvende vuilnisbelt die midden in de Stille Oceaan is ontstaan uit voornamelijk plastic afval.
De kunststof ‘archipel’ wordt door oceaanstromingen bijeengedreven en zou schadelijk zijn voor zeedieren. Het plastic eilandenrijk, dat net onder het wateroppervlak zweeft, heeft een oppervlak minstens zo groot als Frankrijk, Spanje en Portugal samen. De samengeklonterde afvalberg is tien jaar geleden ontdekt, maar niemand weet hoe hij moet worden opgeruimd.
De vuilnisbelt bevindt zich in het midden van de grote wervelstroom die de Stille Oceaan omringt. Volgens deskundigen zou in de Atlantische Oceaan een vergelijkbare afvalberg kunnen ontstaan. In 2006 toonde een studie van de UNEP aan dat op elke vierkante mijl zee 46 duizend plastic deeltjes zwerven.
Uit onderzoek van de Amerikaanse milieuorganisatie Ocean Conservancy blijkt dat het plastic voor 13 procent uit wegwerpflessen bestaat, voor 9 procent uit plastic zakken en verder uit miljoenen rietjes, deksels van milkshakebekers, in zee geraakt strandspeelgoed, weggewaaid landbouwplastic, frisbees, touw en vislijnen.
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Bush: ‘No regime should ignore the will of its own people’.

In a statement regarding new sanctions against Zimbabwe today, President Bush declares that “no regime should ignore the will of its own people“:

The regime has also continued its ban against NGO activities that would provide assistance to the suffering and vulnerable people of Zimbabwe. No regime should ignore the will of its own people and calls from the international community without consequences.

TPM’s Eric Kleefeld notes the irony of the Bush administration, which proudly ignores public opinion in the United States, instructing other countries to listen to “the will of its own people.” Kleefeld suggests that the administration look at “the direction of polling data at home - not to mention international opinion - showing that people want a timetable to withdraw from Iraq.”

At $648 Billion, Cost Of Iraq War Almost Equal To Vietnam

In his 1999 book, A Charge To Keep, President Bush said he had “learned the lessons of Vietnam” about “never again ask[ing] the military to fight a political war.” After launching the Iraq war, in April 2004, Bush rejected the analogy that Iraq was turning into a quagmire like Vietnam:

Q: How do you answer the Vietnam comparison?BUSH: I think the analogy is false.

Last August, however, President Bush reversed course and embraced the Vietnam analogy, stating Vietnam taught us that “the price of America’s withdrawal” is steep and painful.

In a new report, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reveals that the real similarity between Iraq and Vietnam is in the price of staying. In constant FY2008 dollars, the Vietnam war cost the U.S. $686 billion. The Iraq war, at just over five years old, is priced at $648 billion:

CRS notes, “All estimates are of the costs of military operations only and do not reflect costs of veterans benefits, interest on war-related debt, or assistance to allies.” Thus, the actual costs of the Iraq war are likely much greater, as Nobel Prize economist Joe Stiglitz reported in his book, The Three Trillion Dollar War.
It is unlikely, however, that the White House is concerned about these mounting costs. In October, the CBO conservatively said the wars may cost $2 trillion over the next decade. “I’m not worried about the number,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in response, calling the estimate “pure speculation.”
Indeed, “the price of America’s withdrawal” from Iraq may be an alternative that Bush should strongly consider.

Dit mag dus niet. Dit is fout. Republikeins presidentskandidaat de woorden van het rechtse despootje Bill O’Reilly van FoxNews in de mond leggen. Foei.
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“We’ll do it live!”: The McCain Version

You have to marvel at the creativity spurred by the internet.

Digg It!

Original: Bill O’Reilly Gone Wild: Drops F-Bombs on the set.

U zit in een eetgelegenheid. Plots komt er een auto door het raam naar binnen. Rondvliegend glas, tafels overhoop, schreeuwende mensen. De klanten maken dat ze wegkomen. Wat doet u?
a. U doet hetzelfde.
b. U gaat kijken of de kerel in die auto nog leeft.
c. U zet op uw gemakske uw pet op en vraagt wanneer het dessert komt.

CAR SMASHES THROUGH RESTAURANT WALL

CCTV: Video from a camera mounted inside a Wilkesboro N.C., restaurant shows a car crashing through a wall, knocking a diner out of his booth and pinning him against a counter…

Deze foto laat maar weer eens zien hoe de Thaise politie voortdurend bezig is het de burgers van Thailand naar de zin te maken.

extra income - matichon.

Extra income - Apart from his duty to guard the mob of the members of the PAD, a police spent his free time collecting empty plastic bottles and cans near the Government House. This is for extra money as his income is not sufficient comparing to higher expenses in the current economic slowdown, Matichon Newspaper.

Plame and Wilson on Novak’s hit and run: ‘Take away the keys to his Corvette’.

ThinkProgress received a statement from Amb. Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson on Robert Novak’s collision today, in which he “was cited by police after he hit a pedestrian with his black Corvette in downtown Washington, D.C., Wednesday morning.” From their statement:

Our sympathies go out to the victim of Novak’s action. Once again Novak has demonstrated his callous disregard for the rights of others, as well as his chronic inability to accept responsibility for his actions.
We have long argued that responsible adults should take Novak’s typewriter away. The time has arrived for them to also take away the keys to his Corvette.

Five years ago, Novak outed the identity of Wilson’s wife, undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.

Een peiling FoxNews stijl. Met vragen als: “Sommige mensen denken dat Barack Obama, hoewel hij zegt Christen te zijn, in het geheim een moslim is.” In zo’n soort peiling dus, wordt het presidentschap van George W. Bush nu nog positief gewaardeerd door 27 procent van de Amerikanen.
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DutchComment:
Apparently 1% of respondents of FoxNews poll never heard of Republican Party.

27 percent: Bush hits new approval low in Fox News poll.

In a new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Corp poll, just 27 percent of the country approves of President Bush’s job performance, which is his lowest approval rating yet in that poll:

TPM’s Eric Kleefeld points out that the Fox poll also contained “some rather loaded questions,” such as starting a question by stating that “some people believe Barack Obama, despite his professed Christianity, is secretly a Muslim.”

Hoe graag de mensheid verandering wil, werd vandaag duidelijk in Berlijn, waar volgens Duitse kranten 200.000 mensen afkwamen op de toespraak van senator Barack Obama, presidentskandidaat van de Democratische Partij.
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BARACK OBAMA: “People of Berlin. People of the world. This is our moment. This is our time.“

Senator Obama delivered a soaring speech today in Berlin before an estimated crowd of over 100,000 in which he called for a renewed trans-Atlantic - indeed, trans-global - alliance to fight the common threats we all face. Appealing the ideals America was founded on and has tried to promote since it’s inception, Senator Obama stated that whether it’s terrorism and global warming, or genocide and disease, there is no problem we canot overcome nor enemy we cannot defeat when we are united in common purpose. Watch a few of his remarks below.

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“People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.”

UPDATE: German papers put the crowd at over 200,000

(Read the rest of this story..)

De nieuwe Joden en hoe we hen moeten beschermen

(deel 1: het probleem zien) Hugh Fitzgerald (jihadwatch.org), vertaling Cornelis de Deugd.

We horen steeds vaker dat Moslims “de nieuwe Joden” zijn. Moslims zijn geen “nieuwe Joden.” Het zijn in West Europa zowel de autochtonen alsook alle niet-Islamitische immigranten die de “nieuwe Joden” vormen - met een speciale vermelding voor alle Europese Joden die bij uitstek tot “de nieuwe Joden” behoren.
Het antisemitisme in Europa is immers grotendeels een Islamitische aangelegenheid. 50% van al het antisemitische geweld in West Europa wordt toegeschreven aan Moslims, die overigens gemiddeld maar 5% van de bevolking vertegenwoordigen. Arabieren hebben dan ook vele malen blijk gegeven van Nazi sympathieen - van Rashid Ali in Irak, die een pro Nazi coup pleegde, tot Anwar Sadat die door de Britten is vastgezet voor pro Nazi activiteiten (terwijl Nasser’s zwager zichzelf na de oorlog onsterfelijk gemaakt heeft door Mein Kampf in het Arabisch uit te geven), tot de groot-mufti van Jeruzalem, Amin al-Husseini, die Hitler heeft ontmoet en bijzonder gecharmeerd was van de Endlosung en bovendien mede-oprichter was van een Islamitische, Bosnische SS divisie.
Moslims hebben alle vrijheid gekregen zich in elk West-Europees land te vestigen, dank zij de onwetendheid, de nalatigheid en het simplistische geloof van de politieke en journalistieke elite dat “iedereen in essentie hetzelfde is en ook hetzelfde wil.” Het is de gewone man die als eerste een hoge prijs betaalt voor deze gekte; de elite volgt later. Moslims wijzen de juridische en politieke instituties af van de landen waar ze terecht gekomen zijn, ondanks dat deze landen veel hoger ontwikkeld zijn en, in alle opzichten, veel beter bestuurd worden dan de Islamitische landen van herkomst - landen waarin alle mislukking een direct gevolg zijn van de Islam, mislukking in zowel politiek, economisch, sociaal, moreel en intellectueel opzicht. Eigenlijk vluchten zij van de Islamitische wanorde en wanbestuur, maar in tegenstelling tot degenen die de Nazi’s en de Communisten zijn ontvlucht, zijn zij in het geheel niet dankbaar. Meer nog, zij brengen in hun mentale bagage precies de oorzaak mee van alle mislukking in hun maatschappij van herkomst. Met name het despotisme, het (inshallah) als-God-het-wil-fatalisme, de slechte behandeling van vrouwen en alle niet-Moslims. En al dat andere dat in de praktijk zorgt dat Islam is wat het is en wat wij Ongelovigen wel degelijk herkennen als de tragische puinhoop die het in werkelijkheid is. Ook al begrijpen we de relatie niet helemaal tussen Islam en het gedrag en mentaliteit van Moslims.

Lees hier verder: De nieuwe Joden en hoe we hen moeten beschermen (deel 1).

John Hagee is Moses according to centrist Joe Lieberman.

After John McCain sought Pastor John Hagee’s endorsement and then heaped praise on Hagee when he received it, a slew of publicity surrounding Hagee’s extremist, offensive and outright crazed views forced McCain to repudiate Hagee and rejected his endorsement. But not Joe Lieberman. Last year, the Connecticut neocon spoke at the annual convention for Hagee’s group, Christians United for Israel, and in an indescribably obsequious speech, said this about the radical Pastor:

I would describe Pastor Hagee with the words the Torah uses to describe Moses, he is an “Eesh Elo Kim,” a man of God because those words fit him; and, like Moses he has become the leader of a mighty multitude in pursuit of and defense of Israel.

That Hagee holds views that even John McCain eventually described as “deeply offensive and indefensible” isn’t impeding Joe Lieberman’s close association with Hagee. This week, Hagee’s group is holding its Third Annual Convention in Washington, and here is the line-up for the final night, with the event’s keynote speakers listed:
read on here>> (more…)

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF PINGUINS: GLOBAL WARMING OR OIL SPILL.

The discovery of hundreds of young penguins washing up along the Brazilian shoreline over the past month has sparked a scientific mystery over what may have led the birds thousands of miles astray.
The so-called Magellanic penguins began appearing in late June. Many of them dead or barely alive, they arrived on beaches all over southeastern Brazil about 2,500 miles from their native southern Patagonia..
“The penguin population is intimately linked to their supplies of food, so this suggests something is happening to the population of fish they eat,” said biologist Marcelo Bertellotti at the National Patagonic Center in Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
read on here>> (more…)

Finally dream comes true for journalist Bob ‘PlameGate’ Novak.

Politico reports that conservative pundit Robert Novak “was cited by police after he hit a pedestrian with his black Corvette in downtown Washington, D.C., Wednesday morning.” Novak initially “drove away from the scene,” but turned around when “a bicyclist stopped him and said, ‘You hit someone’.” Novak claimed: “I didn’t know I hit anybody.” But Washington DC’s local ABC affiliate interviewed the bicyclist who saw the incident. WJLA’s Susan Kennedy reported live from the scene:

I just spoke with the bicyclist about three minutes ago. He tells me that the pedestrian was actually splayed across the front of Novak’s convertible, and that there would be absolutely no way Novak would have not known that he had hit someone.

Watch it:

Politico notes that in a 2001 interview with the Washington Post, Novak said, “I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don’t run the country, all I can do is yell at ‘em. The other option is to run ‘em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that.”

“Republicans are panicked about Obama’s trip.”

Barack Obama’s trip overseas is off to a great start - with Prime Minister Maliki endorsing his withdrawal plan and the White House accidentally informing every news organization about it - and Chuck Todd is hearing that Republicans are starting to worry.

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Todd: Republicans are panicked about this trip because they think that this is going to be a home run.
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NEDERLAND IS BETER IN ARMOEDEBESTRIJDING DAN BELGIE.

Nederland is stukken efficienter in zijn armoedebestrijding dan Belgie. Met ongeveer evenveel geld heeft het veel minder armen en de kloof wordt groter.
In Nederland daalde de armoede de afgelopen jaren van 12 tot 10 procent, terwijl ze in Belgie de afgelopen decennia steeg tot bijna 15 procent en al jaren op dat niveau blijft steken. Jaren geleden hadden Nederland en Belgie identieke cijfers.
Cijfers van het Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid (CBS) tonen aan dat Belgie niet minder inspanningen doet, maar minder efficient is. Eerder was al gebleken dat bijna overal in Europa de armoede onder bejaarden en gepensioneerden gedaald is, maar in Belgie steeg ze. (belga/mvl)

Nieuw: Radiohead. Een met lasers gemaakte muziekvideo en de nieuwe song van Radiohead: ‘House of Cards’. Meer muziek in commentaar.
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C&L’s Late Nite Music Club with Radiohead: House of Cards

Wow, this is wild. Check out Radiohead’s new camera free - laser made - music video.

3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data.

Go here to see what you can do to it yourself.
Gizmodo has more…

Did I mention that because this video is pure data instead of images you can manipulate it in real time using a visualizer? Because you can. Also be sure to check out the awesome visualizer, which lets you manipulate the data to adjust the image and rotate around the objects in real-time. The most fun time waster you’ll find all week, guaranteed. [Radiohead]