An article by the Palm Beach Post:

“With an EU passport, I can live and work in 27 countries,” said Suzanne Mulvehill of Lake Worth. “With a U.S. passport, I can live and work in one.”

Americans can claim citizenship in any of the 27 European countries that are in the EU based on the nationality of their parents, or in some cases, grandparents and great-grandparents. Citizenship in one of those countries allows you to live and work in any EU nation.

Since the United States doesn’t keep statistics on dual citizens, it’s impossible to know exactly how many people have applied for citizenship in Europe. But it’s estimated that more than 40 million Americans are eligible for dual citizenship, and a growing number of Americans want to try their luck elsewhere.

I am not 100% sure whether the criteria as described in the box on the left of the article are profoundly researched – anyone who as a proof of German descent, regardless whether it’s on mother of father’s side, can apply for a German passport as far as I know.
Read more.

then Senator Obama would soon move into the White House. An interesting, partially disturbing survey conducted by the British Telegraph revealed that Obama would receive 52%, whereas John McCain would only receive 15% of European votes. Further results of the survey:

A clear majority of Russians – 56 per cent – believe the US is a “force for evil” in the world. In Britain, only 33 per cent see America as a “force for good”. [...]
Meanwhile, Mr Obama, the only consistent opponent of the Iraq war in the race for the presidency, commands a clear lead. He is especially popular in Italy, where a remarkable 70 per cent would vote for him if they could.

In France, historically the European country with the strongest anti-American sentiment, 65 per cent would back Mr Obama. In Germany, the Democratic Senator would get 67 per cent of the vote – while Mr McCain would receive a derisory six per cent. [...]

The Telegraph poll found that Italy has overtaken Britain to become the most pro-American country out of Europe’s four largest nations. Almost half – 49 per cent – of Italians see America as a “force for good” with only 27 per cent believing Washington is a “force for evil”.

- This research, commissioned by Telegraph.co.uk, was carried out online between May 23 and 29 by YouGov plc. The total sample was 6,256 (broken down into Britain 2,241; France 1,005; Russia 1,001; Italy 1,004; Germany 1,005).

The complete article can be found here.

I’ve just heard about the practice of waterboarding used by the CIA as an an “interrogation technique”:

Water-boarding involves a prisoner being stretched on his back or hung upside down, having a cloth pushed into his mouth and/or plastic film placed over his face and having water poured onto his face. He gags almost immediately.

Apparently, another attempt to ban it just failed; already in March, President Bush vetoed the ban. This is disgusting! Goddamit, USA, you really need some change! What happened to the home country of the citizens’ movement?

Read on BBC: What is Waterboarding

I have been watching the Clinton/Obama web war and the whole issue that was set up around Jeremia Wright with a mix of fascination and disgust – and read Michael Moore’s latest (actually: the first one during the primaries) intervention with some sense of relief. I hope America will be able to rid itself from Republican rule, and I couldn’t agree more:

I know some of you will say, ‘Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?’ That’s a damn good question. In November of ‘06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I’ll tell you why. Because I can’t stand one more friggin’ minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I’m almost at the point where I don’t care if the Democrats don’t have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain’t “Bush” and the word “Republican” is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that’s good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That’s why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters — that big “D” on the ballot.

I hope the majority will go for the D on the ballot (but I am also afraid the elections might be rigged, and that the majority might not count in the end – is the UN thinking of sending some observers?).

But the question I keep hearing is… ‘can he win? Can he win in November?’ In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it’s possible to hear the words “President McCain” on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She’s counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only “three fifths” human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Read Michael Moore’s full article here!

Sniff. I got this video from someone on Facebook, and received it with a warning: “This is a tear jerker”. It is, but should be watched anyway.

As a reminder that one should not look away when one notices signs of abuse (bruises, malnutrition, fractures) in a child (and one must hope that the youth council in charge is not as hesitant as the Youth Council in Bad Herself that I once called – to _absolutely_ no avail; the people there first announced to the family in question that they’d be paying them a visit soon (instead of making an announced visit immediately), and when they still found bruises on the child the left without taking action, feeling satisfied with the explanation that the kid ‘took a tumble’ – just thinking about it makes me so angry all over again…)

With the Obama/Clinton web war gaining momentum (and more momentum), the one thing that worries me is this: What happens if after the Clinton/Obama shoot-out and after the primaries, what happens if the Republican candidate takes it all in the final election? Everybody seems so dead-sure that it’s basically going to be a Him-or-her thing, but: The web war really only concerns the Democrats’ clientèle – the Republicans must surely be laughing up their sleeves?!? Is there no solidarity, not even between Democrats and Democrats? I am afraid this war is never going to end, certainly not under another Republican rule.

Accha, accha, accha, accha, accha, accha – which song or movie was the source for this film? Lallopallo, Nova – can you help? I am sure this will do for the US Indian community what Will.i.am’s Obama video did for white intellectuals.

Thanks to Cabbage for posting about this!

Kosova declared its independence from Serbia and today, Sunday 17 February 2008. The event was accompanied by public gatherings of Kosovarians in all neighbouring states. Here are some pictures taken at Vienna’s Heldenplatz earlier today, also showing the new Kosovarian flag – to me this contrast of black and crimson has a rather worrisome, belligerent appeal…
UPDATE: How embarrassing I didn’t know. The flag in the picture is the Albanian, not the Kosovarian flag. The ethnic majority in Kosovo is Albanian…

Is independence going to bring peace? An excerpt from a Deutsche Welle news report:

Kosovar politicians declared independence from Serbia on Sunday, Feb. 17. Ten years after Belgrade crushed a rebellion in Kosovo, parliamentarians proclaimed the Republic of Kosovo and sovereign state.

The parliament in Kosovo voted in favor of independence from Serbia, bringing the curtain down on a long chapter in the violent break-up of Yugoslavia.

“From today onwards, Kosovo is proud, independent and free,” said Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. “We never lost faith in the dream that one day we would stand among the free nations of the world, and today we do.”

The parliament also approved a new flag for the landlocked state of about 2 million people.

While the United States and several European Union members are quickly expected to recognize the new state, Serbia is infuriated by the move and has been given strong support by Russia.

Serbia’s President Boris Tadic said his country would never recognize the independence of Kosovo.

“Serbia has reacted and will react with all peaceful, diplomatic and legal means to annul this act committed by Kosovo’s institutions,” Tadic said in a statement.

Kosovo police had to stop several hundred former Serbian army reservists — veterans of the 1998-99 Kosovo war — from crossing into the territory ahead of the independence declaration.

Image: un.org

Here is a fun party suggestion from Brandon Berg: Watch this video and have a drink any time somebody says ‘change’!

First encountered here (to where I keep going back as I cannot remember the link but have not yet admitted myself enjoying this, hence no bookmark so far), the Viral Video Chart is now providing a daily moment of diversion to me. Yet I’d really like to now what a Mensvärk is – period pain? People able of the Swedish tongue, please advise!

Yet the most disconcerting of all videos is this snippet from Ahmadinejad’s talk at Columbia university. “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon, I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.”

*Gasp*

It’s shocking to have a situation where certain groups or individuals are forced underground because the regime has imposed capital punishment on THEIR BEING SO – and you find out that this regime REALLY thinks that these individuals do SIMPLY NOT EXIST: “We might have capital punishment for homosexuals, but nobody gets killed because we don’t gave any gays here.” Assuming that what they’ve created is reality. In the German Democratic (who were very good at creating situations and taking them for reality) they believed they didn’t have AIDS (of course they had, but the people with HIV/AIDS just weren’t acknowledged and thus also didn’t get the appropriate treatment).

The only relieving thing about this is the laughter in the audience, telling us that at least in the best we are past the stage where a majority thinks that homosexuality is an aberration. Maybe as an addendum to the Anti-Americanism post yesterday, one should mention that American universities are places where such talks as possible, exposing what kind of a clown Ahmadinejad really is.