Kiss my Dutch D*ck!

Dutch Voters Reject EU Constitution
By ARTHUR MAXThe Associated PressWednesday, June 1, 2005; 6:18 PM

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Dutch voters worried about social benefits and immigration overwhelmingly rejected the European Union constitution Wednesday in what could be a knockout blow for a charter meant to create a power rivaling the United States.
With four-fifths of the votes counted, the charter was losing 62 percent to 39 percent, an even worse defeat than the 55 percent "no" vote delivered in a French referendum Sunday.
"Naturally, I'm very disappointed," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said in conceding defeat in his campaign for ratification and promised the government would respect the results.
The charter was designed to provide such trappings of statehood as a flag, a president and an anthem on what has largely been an economic bloc while creating a more integrated political entity of 450 million people with a bigger economy than America's.
But the idea has proved increasingly polarizing, with opponents worrying about loss of national control and identity to a strengthened EU bureaucracy at the heart of a superstate.
Nine EU states have ratified, but the charter needs approval from all 25 states to take effect in late 2006, and the "no" vote in both France and the Netherlands - founding members of the bloc -was a clear message that European integration has gone awry.

Uh oh, why don't citizens want to turn their fate over to unelected elites in Brussels? Don't they know what's good for them?