Obama's FIRST Phone Call and His last!

On January 20, 2009, Obama became president.  Within an hour, he was on the phone to the Palestinian president.  His first phone call as president.

On January 19, 2017, just hours from stepping into private life, he spoke with Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany.  The White House depicted it as a private call, between friends ...

I think there is A LOT more to this story.  Not that it is relevant now that Obama has gone away, but it is still a story ...

Angela Merkel stated publicly that Obama could not be trusted (as per an interview she gave to der Spiegel).  She could not and did not trust him.

Yet, they characterize her and Obama as besties less than two years later!!

I think not.  Me thinks there is more to this, but we won't know for some time.

Eurozone - Collapse Inevitable

The engine that keeps Europe from falling into the abyss, is about to expereince the effects of a recession minus the hundreds of billions it had two years ago.

Analysis: Germany faces recession risk as crisis hits confidence

Wed, Dec 21 2011

By Sarah Marsh

BERLIN (Reuters) - After breezing through the euro zone debt crisis for the past two years, Germany's economy could fall into recession as anxious businesses hold off on investment and exports wither.

Economists who once predicted a mere slowdown in growth for Europe's largest economy are now slashing their forecasts and predicting contraction, possibly for two consecutive quarters, depriving the region of its most powerful motor.

In a sign the government is worried about the darkening economic outlook, Berlin last week resurrected its bank rescue fund and said it could reinstate "Kurzarbeit" subsidies that helped firms pare back working hours without firing staff.

Both measures were first introduced at the height of the global financial crisis, when the German economy suffered its worst annual contraction since World War Two.

"It's not a classical recession, here we are dealing with a large amount of uncertainty due to the euro zone crisis which will weigh on investment and trade," said Felix Huefner, an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, who follows Germany.

"The fundamentals actually look better than in other countries, with little need for fiscal consolidation, solid household debt levels, unemployment at a 20-year low."

Huefner said Germany had nonetheless entered a "mild recession," with the economy likely to contract in the fourth quarter, and stagnate in the first three months of 2012.

Some are much more gloomy: the Duesseldorf-based IMK on Tuesday became the first major German economic institute to predict the economy would shrink over the full year, forecasting contraction of 0.1 percent.

Firms look set to hold back on investment because they are uncertain they will be able to sell their wares with key export markets reducing spending and implementing austerity measures.

This will deprive the economy of what was one of the main drivers of growth. Capital equipment spending contributed 0.2 percentage points to third quarter expansion.

The ZEW index of German analyst and investor sentiment has declined nine times over the past ten months.

"The key factor is the euro crisis which has been getting worse over the last month," said Christian Schulz of Berenberg Bank, which sees the economy contracting 0.1 percent in Q4 and 0.9 in the first quarter of 2012.

"There was hope the EU summit might resolve it, but those hopes were disappointed," he said, referring to a meeting of European leaders on December 9th at which they agreed to move towards a form of "fiscal union" but failed to map out a clear path for shielding big economies like Spain and Italy.

Recent data showed German exports falling in October at their sharpest rate in half a year. A breakdown of unadjusted month-on-month data showed exports to the crisis-hit euro zone dropping 8.5 percent, versus a 6.1 percent overall slide.

Economists say emerging markets, where growth is strong but easing, are unlikely to lend enough support to compensate.

The head of Germany's exporters' association (BDA), Anton Boerner, has likened the euro zone debt crisis to a "sword of Damocles" hanging over the real economy.

The export-dependent manufacturing sector contracted for a third straight month in December on a steep fall in new orders, Markit's purchasing managers' index showed last week.

Several German firms have already fallen victim to the tougher climate. Solar module maker Solon and the world's No.3 printing machine maker Manroland have both filed for insolvency.

Not everyone is so downbeat, however. After reporting a slight rise in its business climate index this week, the Ifo think tank played down the prospects of a recession.

"Europe will end up getting a mild recession while Germany will be able to disconnect from that somewhat. We don't see any signs of a recession for Germany at the moment," Ifo economist Klaus Abberger told Reuters.

WEAK DOMESTIC DEMAND

Private consumption, which grew at its strongest pace in more than a year in the third quarter on a robust labor market, offers a glimmer of hope for the economy.

Unemployment fell more than expected in November and the jobless rate is at a 20-year low. Trade unions have been negotiating higher wages and consumer morale held steady into January on better income expectations and views of the economy.

However, private consumption is taking off from a very low level in Germany where savings levels are traditionally high and consumers wary, and it will not be able to offset the decline in investments and exports.

Economists also see downside risks for consumption because of the euro zone crisis. Metro, the world's No.4 retailer, issued a profit warning this month, saying the crisis was undermining sentiment and Christmas trade had started slowly.

Employment trends lag changes in growth and cautious German unions may be more focused on job security than seeking large wage hikes amid so much economic uncertainty.

Any small wage rises will be offset by inflation, which is stronger in Germany than the euro zone at large, market researchers GfK said, predicting consumers' purchasing power would stagnate next year in real terms.

Thus, this downturn will expose again the imbalances in Germany's economy - its dependency on external demand and the weakness of its domestic sector.

"Germany won't be able to rely on exports to drive growth and business investment will only hold up if there is a recovery in domestic demand," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London.

"So everything hinges on getting domestic demand growing sustainably and there are some formidable obstacles to that."

Tilford said Germany should for example hike wages and ease back on fiscal consolidation - unlikely given Berlin is Europe's fiscal hawk.

"Germans' outlook is better than much of Europe but the idea Germany is on the cusp of a decade of rapid growth is fanciful," he said. "The outlook for German growth is pretty poor."


MEANWHILE, yet another European nation has lost its economic engine -

Hungary is having to pay more to borrow money after the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded the country’s credit score to junk.

Hungary’s rating went down from BB+ to BBB minus. The agency said it had doubts about the central bank there.

S&P said changes in the constitution had undermined the independence of the bank, and Hungary’s policy framework had become more unpredictable.

AND if Hungary wasn't enough - Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain following suit, followed closely by Italy ... the worst possible for the poor French -

'Miracle' if France keeps triple-A rating

 

Dec 20 11:41 AM US/Eastern

It would be a miracle for France to retain its triple-A credit rating, threatened by the eurozone debt crisis, the head of its main market regulator said on Tuesday.
"Keeping it would amount to a miracle, but I'd still like to believe it," said Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the outspoken head of the AMF regulation agency.

Ratings agencies have warned that France is exposed to the sovereign debt crisis gripping southern Europe and have threatened to downgrade its hitherto perfect rating.

The government has protested that it has embarked on an austerity programme backed by a pact with fellow eurozone members to guarantee deficit reduction.

"I find it wholly regrettable that we are accepting the loss of our triple-A with a kind of fatalism. This loss is not banal, because it will have an effect on the interest rates the state pays," he said.

He also warned that if France was downgraded it would weaken the status of the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Stability Mechanism, two instruments set up by eurozone leaders to confront the crisis.

Any suggestion that France's debt of 1.7 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) is becoming unmanageable could send the interest rate it pays on bonds soaring.

Earlier, the French treasury announced that it would need to raise 178 billion euros ($232 billion) in medium and long-term bonds next year.

The Fitch credit rating agency also warned on Tuesday that the eurozone's new bail-out fund could lose its triple-A debt status.

"Fitch Ratings says the 'AAA' rating on debt issues of the European Financial Stability Facility largely depends on France and Germany retaining their 'AAA' status," the company said in a statement.

"The revision of the rating outlook on France to 'negative' last Friday implies that the risk of a downgrade of EFSF debt has increased," it said.

Last week, Fitch "affirmed France's 'AAA' status but warned that there is a slightly greater than 50 percent chance of a downgrade within the next year or two.

"France is the most exposed of the 'AAA' euro member states to a further intensification of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis," it added.

Another agency, Standard and Poor's, has warned that it is re-examining France's rating and it is expected to announce a downgrade soon.

germany

Germany engulfed? or just in flames

Aug 17, 7:59 AM EDT

Vandals in Berlin torch 18 cars

BERLIN (AP) -- Berlin police are offering euro5,000 ($7,180) to anyone able to help them find vandals who set fire to 18 cars parked in residential neighborhoods overnight.

It was the second consecutive night in Berlin to see a jump in arson attacks, after vandals torched 11 cars on Tuesday evening.

Berlin police believe the arsons are politically motivated, possibly linked to Leftist extremists. They have rejected any links to the riots in London.

The Wednesday attacks bring the number of cars burned so far this year in Berlin to more than 300 - more than the total torched in 2010.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
unrest

I knew the left would come up with a fashionable excuse ... I am sure they are already working on a fashionable excuse why the West crashed and Islam dominated.  Naturally they will not be to blame.

Berlin mayor criticizes nostalgia for Berlin Wall

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN

Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:39pm EDT

(Reuters) - Berlin's mayor said on Saturday he was appalled that some Germans were nostalgic for the Berlin Wall and supported a newly fashionable leftist view that there were legitimate reasons for building it in 1961.

At a somber ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's construction, Mayor Klaus Wowereit, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff paid tribute to the 136 people killed trying to get over the Wall to West Berlin.

Wowereit said the Wall, toppled in 1989, should serve as a reminder of freedom and democracy around the world. Church bells peeled while trains and traffic came to a standstill at noon across Berlin for a moment of silence for the victims.

"We don't have any tolerance for those who nostalgically distort the history of the Berlin Wall and Germany's division," Wowereit said at the ceremony in front of a small section of the Wall recently rebuilt for posterity.

"The Wall was part of a dictatorship," he said. "And it's alarming that even today some people argue there were good reasons to build the Wall. No! There's no legitimate reason nor justification for violating human rights and for killings."

Most of the 160-km (100-mile) Wall encircling West Berlin in the heart of Communist East Germany was quickly torn down or chiseled away in the euphoria of 1989. There were only a few remnants of the 3.6-meter-high Wall left when Germany reunited less than a year later.

Now, as growing numbers of tourists come to Berlin each year searching largely in vain for traces of the Wall, the city has re-erected and restored parts. New buildings have gone up on many parts of the former "death strip" and it is sometimes hard to tell where the barrier once stood.

Saturday's ceremony was held at an 800-meter-long piece of the Wall complex on Bernauer Strasse that has been rebuilt. It was the scene of some dramatic escapes after the Wall was built.

People jumped from upper storey windows in buildings on the east side of the Wall to the street on the west. The windows were soon sealed off and the buildings were later demolished.

The shock over the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 is still palpable half a century later.

"We couldn't believe it happened and we all felt numb when we first saw the Wall," said Harry Dieter, 80, a retired West Berlin city official who was on his honeymoon in Italy when the Wall was built but returned a few days later to see it.

"No one ever thought they would do that," he added. "I remember looking at the barbed wire and the cement and hoping that it wouldn't take long for someone to order it taken down. Unfortunately, the order never came."

He and his wife Doris have recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

"It's obviously better that Berlin is Berlin again and we're no longer divided by a Wall," said Doris Dieter, 72. "But unfortunately there is still a bit of an invisible 'Wall' in some people's minds that I fear will last for quite a while."





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
berlin

What could they be saying/doing?

European Moral Idiots

The problem is not with Merkel expressing joy ... it is with the moral idiots who complained.  No wonder your continent is slowly sinking into a muck it will be unable to extricate itself from.  The EU birthrate is so low, your cultures will not exist in 80 years - but his will.

And to believe that - oh but we are better and we do not do what he does ... please, get off your horse before you have no horse and no voice.  Moral idiots are worse than ... well, much else.




Merkel slammed for joy over bin Laden killing


4 May 11 09:06 CET



Several German politicians on Wednesday criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel for expressing joy over the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, saying it sent the wrong message.

Katrin Göring-Eckardt, Green party MP, Bundestag vice president and leading member of the Evangelical Church of Germany, told the Berliner Zeitung she was glad bin Laden was no longer leading a terrorist group. “But you can’t be happy about his death,” she said.

On Monday, Merkel told reporters that bin Laden’s death at the hands of US forces was “good news.”

“I’m glad that killing bin Laden was successful,” she said.

The criticism of Merkel's comments is coming not only from political opposition, but from her own party, echoing discomfort expressed by some observers at the emotional, celebratory reaction of many Americans and foreign politicians around the world after bin Laden’s killing.

Siegfried Kauder, a member of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), slammed her remarks, calling them reminiscent of something a person would say in the “middle ages.”

“I would not have formulated them like this,” he said to the Passauer Neuen Presse, expressing doubts that killing bin Laden was even legal under international law.

Other politicians said they would have preferred to see bin Laden arrested.

Martin Lohmann, in charge of the CDU’s Working Group of Engaged Catholics, said killing anyone, even a terrorist, “can never be cause for joy for a Christian.”

“It would have been better if Osama bin Laden had been arrested and brought to justice,” he added.

Despite the criticism, most German political figures said they were relieved bin Laden would no longer be stirring up trouble.

Meanwhile, German’s BND intelligence chief Ernst Uhrlau said bin Laden’s death didn’t necessarily mean an improvement in the nation's security.

“The security forces must remain very vigilant,” he told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper, though he described the US operation as a success.

Uhrlau emphasized that bin Laden no longer had a day-to-day role in planning terrorist operations, but he acknowledged the man’s power as a “role model” and said terrorists would not easily be able to fill the gap bin Laden’s death leaves.




















moral idiots

German Tolerance and Openness.

Very carefully - the way Euros insert anti-Semitic statements or arguments into conversation.


And once again - why articles that are 8 years old (this one is from November 1, 2002).

Why?  because very nearly every attack and criticism of the US is based on drivel pulled out of someones rusty file cabinet, and or just printed and taken from one of those sites that highlight change and masquerade as lucid while they have no change to spare and clearly need more sense than they have.  I am so tired of contending with ancient wrongs by the US, culled from a media so willing to make available the opinions of reporters, taken for fact by willing accomplices and spread like butter for the masses to swallow. 

If they can do it, I think all these articles, factual and evidenced by sources - are equally as useful to delve into the character of a government or people - as useful as what is so often done by those who are so effortlessly propelled to the highest levels of the media in Europe and the US from where they pontificate their sad and miserable views onto a public who knows only what they hear and read ... from a media so ready to capitalize on the negative.

And if Americans are all racist for X, then most certainly we can use news stories of German efforts to .... maintain, as evidence.  Fair is fair.






Berliners protest move to put 'Jewish' back into street name


Berlin (dpa) - Crowds of angry residents in Berlin Friday protested attempts to return a road to its pre-Nazi-era name of Jewish Street, with several shouting, ;The Jews have made us suffer enough.''

The protest began peacefully enough Friday afternoon when about 40 people turned out to protest the changing of Kinkel Strasse to Jueden Strasse, which had been approved by the Berlin city council.

Local residents, particularly several retailers, said they had not been adequately informed about the name change and they resented the inconvenience of changing business cards and advertisements.

The protest turned ugly, however, when representatives of Berlin's Jewish community arrived for the formal name-changing ceremonies. Then there were chants of ;You Jews have had enough say'' and ;The Jews have made us suffer enough.''

Jewish Community Chairman Alexander Brenner attempted to fend off the attacks as TV camera crews filmed the scene, but as the vehemence rose, he responded, ;You people are siding yourselves with the Nazis with such remarks,'' and turned and left.

Afterward, several retailers said the confrontation had been taken over by neo-Nazis.

I heard someone shout terrible things at him,'' one retailer told SFB television. ;I heard someone say, 'You Jews are to blame for the German plight,' and that is a horrible thing to hear. I was absolutely appalled.''

Other businesspeople said they had come to protest the fact that the street name was being changed at all and were not concerned that it involved a Jewish name.

I've had a business on this street for 39 years and object to having to change all my business cards and make new advertisements now,'' one business owner said. ;I don't care what the city council has decided the new name should be; I just want it to remain as it has been.''

Jueden Strasse was the name of the road until the Nazis changed it in the 1930s to an Aryan name. After World War II, it was changed to Kinkel Strasse in honour of a resistance fighter.

The move to return the street its historical name came after the Social Democrats gained control of the Berlin city government last year.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Germany

German Appetite

Murder is an odd thing.  If you kill someone ... rather, if you take the life of a person who willingly offers their life to you, is it still murder, given the legal definition being the unlawful killing of a human being with malice either express or implied.  Manslaughter is unjustified and inexcusable and intentional WITHOUT deliberation. 

What if you picked up a paper, and found someone in the Wanted Ads who had an ad asking to be killed.

It is certainly premeditated - you read the paper, you called the number, you met the person, and (assuming) agreed to accept their offer - premeditated.  That rules out manslaughter - most especially given that no defense is involved.  Your intended does not intend to defend nor attack.

If not murder and manslaughter, how far down the list of crimes do we go to find something we can convict the guy of?

What if Bob picks up the paper and looks through the ads under cannibals and finds an ad he may be interested in.  Tom put an ad in the paper in the cannibal section - Tom wanted to be eaten, and he was looking for anyone interested in following through and eating him.

Is it murder if Bob meets Tom, Tom and Bob get along and both agree to the deal, Tom informs Bob he must hit him (Tom) with a hammer on the side of the head and quickly follow through to ensure that the meat is tasty and not ... is it manslaughter?  Maybe we get the guy on cannibalism.  For how long?  And then he is out again looking for another meal.  What if he claims in defense that it is his dietary choice to eat people and if they want him to eat them, whats the problem.

Well, in Germany they have to deal with this (or rather, had to 7 or so years ago).  Who knows, he may be out, looking for another meal!!




17 July, 2003
BBC




German 'cannibal' charged with murder





The crime was allegedly carried out with the victim's consent

A German man who confessed to killing and eating a man he met through a website for cannibals has been charged with murder, prosecutors have said.

The 41-year-old suspect, identified as Armin M, is alleged to have killed the 43-year-old victim in March 2001 in the town of Rotenburg in central Germany, after meeting him through the site.

He then carved up and froze portions of the man's flesh, later eating some of it, prosecutors allege.

The crime was apparently carried out with the victim's full consent, however state prosecutor Hans-Manfred Jung told French news agency AFP that the victim's supposed "death wish" did not change the fact that the killer had wanted to commit murder.

The suspect's arrest in December last year caused a sensation in Germany, as the country's tabloids competed to report the most grisly details of the case.

'Sexual enjoyment'

The suspect and victim met in early 2001, after Armin M is said to have posted a personal ad on several websites and in chatrooms asking for "young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter", the German daily newspaper Bild reported at the time of his arrest.

The victim was a 43-year-old Berlin computer technician who had sold his car, written a will and taken the day off work to sort out what he called a "personal" matter.

He then went to Armin M's home, where the pair reportedly agreed to cut off his penis.

The victim was then allegedly stabbed to death - still apparently with his approval - and cut into pieces.

The whole incident was filmed on videotape, and prosecutors say that the whole crime was committed for the purpose of sexual enjoyment.

Authorities were tipped off by internet surfers who found the requests on various sites.

Mr Jung said there was no evidence that Armin M had been involved in further cases, however several people with whom he had been in contact on the internet are still under investigation.

A date for the trial has yet to be set.


















germany

German Justice

Without a subscription (and no desire to crawl through the internet pathways that would allow me access) to the WSJ, I do not have the article to post, but I will include the best bits -



WSJ
Eastern Edition
A14
February 5, 2003

Germany Will Soften Terror Charges

Hamburg, Germany - making an about face, prosecutors no longer plan to pursue charges of accessory to murder against Muslim extremists with known ties to the hijackers responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

With the trial of a man accused of aiding the hijackers winding down, prosecutors have learned how hard it is to link Muslim extremists to the September 11 cell that was based in Hamburg.  That was highlighted yesterday, when presiding judge Albrecht Ment said hamburg's Upper Hanseatic Court might not convict Mounir el Motassadeq of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder.

******************************


When they did finally sort this individual out, he received about 15 years for his assistance in murdering 3,000 human beings.  That works out to nearly 22 days per life taken.

And Germany believes it values human life because it does not impose a death penalty versus the barbaric United States that still imposes the ultimate sanction in a rare few cases.

My question - which position actually respects life.











germany

Germans: US a Nation of Warmongers

At least in 2003.  Today, they may have changed their minds, although one should ask them - 300 million people are still here, probably 290 million were here in 2003 as are here in 2011 (same people).  If in 2003 they were warmongers, how did they suddenly change to become less so (assuming that would be the result today) if the people are the same?  Is it the government and its policies that make us warmongers?  If so, is it correct to believe we are a 'nation of warmongers' if we are not warmongers.  Perhaps they acted too quickly, without much thought.  Perhaps they didn't think about the implications of their responses.  Perhaps they are just another culture, no better or worse, just equal to the rest.


Poll: Germans Believe U.S. a Nation of Warmongers



Mon Feb 10 , 2003


BERLIN (Reuters) - A majority of Germans believe the United States is a nation of warmongers and only six percent think President Bush is interested in keeping the peace, according to a survey published Monday.

The poll by the respected Forsa institute, published in the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper, also found 97 percent of those questioned believed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was ready to go to war.

The survey found 57 percent agreed with the statement: "The United States is a nation of warmongers."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has angered the Bush administration with his outspoken opposition to a war in Iraq, a position that has widespread backing in Germany where six million people were killed during World War II.

Tens of thousands of Germans have taken part in anti-war rallies in recent weeks.

The survey of 1,843 Germans found 93 percent believed Bush was ready to go to war in pursuit of his interests, while 80 percent said the United States wanted war to boost its power.

The poll also found 89 percent believed Schroeder was a "friend of peace."





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
germans

German Rape isn't so serious

If I had any money left after the taxes are deducted, I would send him some money for his defense.


German man castrates teenage daughter's 57-year-old boyfriend


An enraged father who disapproved of his daughter's older boyfriend went to his home and castrated him with a bread knife.



By Allan Hall
Berlin
10:11PM GMT 12 Dec 2010



Helmut Seifert, 47, an ethnic German originally from Russia, was enraged when he heard his 17-year-old daughter was having a relationship with Phillip Genscher, 57.

He went to police in the town of Bielefeld where he lives but officers said they were powerless to intervene.

"The man then recruited two work colleagues at his factory and then went to the house of the victim," said police.

"The man was forced to remove his trousers and, fully conscious, he was castrated. The severed testicles were taken away by the perpetrator."

The man was close to bleeding to death but managed to call police. His life was saved but he remains a eunuch for life.

Seifert pleaded guilty and will be on trial for attempted murder next year. But he has remained silent on who his accomplices were.

He told police: "I received a phone call anonymously that my daughter was involved with a guy 40 years older than her. You said you couldn't stop him - so I did.

"I saw it as my duty as a father."

 
And rightly so.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Germans

What is a Human Being Worth?

Apparently that has been determined ....


Talk about 'sticking' around.



Anatomist sells body parts online




October 22, 2010
By Michelle Martin



BERLIN (Reuters) - Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist famous for his controversial Body World exhibition displaying plastinated bodies, is now selling human and animal body parts -- even as jewelry -- online.

The move has provoked strong condemnation from German churches which accuse him of degrading human dignity.

A whole body from www.plastination-products.com costs about 70,000 euros ($97,400), torsos start at 55,644 euros and heads come in at around 22,000 euros each -- excluding postage and packaging.

For those on a tighter budget, transparent body slices are available from 115 euros each.

But these real body parts -- which have undergone plastination, a process which replaces water and fat with plastic for preservation purposes -- are not available to everyone.

Only "qualified users" who can provide written proof that they intend to use the parts for research, teaching or medical purposes can place an order.

Interested parties who do not fall into this category can buy reproductions of the real body parts -- so-called "Anatomy Glass," which the shop's website describes as "high resolution acrylic glass prints of the original body slices."

Jewelry crafted from animal corpses, including necklaces made from horse slices, wristbands made from giraffe tails and earrings made from bull penises, is also available to the general public.

The online shop has outraged leading members of Germany's religious community. In a joint statement, Protestant regional bishop Ulrich Fischer and Catholic archbishop Robert Zollitsch condemned the online body shop, which they said was "breaking a taboo."

Zollitsch said "human dignity is sacrosanct -- even after death -- so the human body shouldn't be degraded and made into an object of spectacle, or a stock of spare parts."

They said that "Germany must not be allowed to become a hub of the corpse trade."

Von Hagens, 65, is no stranger to controversy. A public autopsy he performed in front of a live audience in 2002 was televised and caused a public outrage, as did his 2004 tour through Germany with his Body Worlds exhibitions.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
human body

Germany: The Constitution NOT Sharia

German Muslims must obey law, not sharia - Merkel


By Stephen Brown
BERLIN
Wed Oct 6, 2010 8:13pm BST



BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday Muslims must obey the constitution and not sharia law if they want to live in Germany, which is debating the integration of its 4 million-strong Muslim population.

In the furore following a German central banker's blunt comments about Muslims failing to integrate, moderate leaders including President Christian Wulff have urged Germans to accept that "Islam also belongs in Germany."

The debate comes against a backdrop of U.S. and British concerns over the threat of terrorist attacks by militant Islamists living in Germany, with Berlin toning down such fears.

Merkel faces corresponding discussions inside her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) about whether she is conservative enough, and the centre-right leader's latest comments seemed directed at those who think Wulff went too far in appeasing the Muslims.

Wulff, who has a largely ceremonial role, used a speech on Sunday celebrating two decades of German reunification to urge harmonious integration of immigrants who until a decade ago were considered "guest workers" who would eventually return home.

But whereas the media stressed Wulff's comments about Islam, Merkel -- the daughter of a Protestant pastor brought up in East Germany, who leads a predominantly Catholic party -- said Wulff had emphasised Germany's "Christian roots and its Jewish roots."

German Christian Democrats often cite shared Judeo-Christian values rooted in the early history of Christianity because of sensitivities about the Holocaust, when the Nazis murdered six million Jews during World War Two.

"Now we obviously also have Muslims in Germany. But it's important in regard to Islam that the values represented by Islam must correspond with our constitution," said Merkel.

"What applies here is the constitution, not sharia."

Merkel said Germany needed imams "educated in Germany and who have their social roots here" and concluded: "Our culture is based on Christian and Jewish values and has been for hundreds of years, not to say thousands."

Opinion polls suggest many Germans sympathise with the views of an outspoken member of Germany's Bundesbank who, in speeches and a book, accused Muslims of sponging off welfare, refusing to integrate and achieving poor levels of education.

Thilo Sarrazin, who also offended Jews with comments about genetics, was forced to quit the central bank. Merkel has tried to accommodate both sides of the debate, saying police should not be afraid of entering immigrant neighbourhoods but also that Germans must accept mosques becoming part of their landscape.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Germany

MULTICULTURALISM HAS FAILED: So says Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium ...

Merkel says German multiculturalism has failed


12:46am BST
By Sabine Siebold


POTSDAM, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's attempt to create a multicultural society has "utterly failed," Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, adding fuel to a debate over immigration and Islam polarising her conservative camp.

Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked in a country that is home to some four million Muslims.

"This (multicultural) approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin.

Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU to take a tougher line on immigrants who don't show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics.

She said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her usual line that they should learn German in order to get by in school and have opportunities on the labour market.

The debate over foreigners in Germany has shifted since former central banker Thilo Sarrazin published a book accusing Muslim immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society.

Sarrazin was censured for his views and dismissed from the Bundesbank, but his book proved highly popular and polls showed a majority of Germans agreed with the thrust of his arguments.

Merkel has tried to accommodate both sides of the debate, talking tough on integration but also telling Germans that they must accept that mosques have become part of their landscape.

She said on Saturday that the education of unemployed Germans should take priority over recruiting workers from abroad, while noting Germany could not get by without skilled foreign workers.

In a weekend newspaper interview, her Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) raised the possibility of lowering barriers to entry for some foreign workers in order to fight the lack of skilled workers in Europe's largest economy.

"For a few years, more people have been leaving our country than entering it," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. "Wherever it is possible, we must lower the entry hurdles for those who bring the country forward."

The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) says Germany lacks about 400,000 skilled workers.

Yet Horst Seehofer, chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's sister party, has rejected any relaxation of immigration laws and said last week there was no room in Germany for more people from "alien cultures.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
germany

The Future of Obama Care: We get a window into the future ... what will we do?

And who thought this was free?  Not only is it not free, but you will not have access to all medical services, nor will you be able to go to a specialist anytime you would like, and you will pay, pay, pay for that service!!  And now that Germany is doing this to pay for its economic woes, Obama will take note.  Charge us 10% of our income and then give us free medical care.  How insane.




Merkel Government to Raise Health-Insurance Premiums in Bid to Cut Deficit


By Rainer Buergin - Jul 6, 2010
Bloomberg


Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition backed higher health-insurance premiums, a move some critics from her own party said will fail to curb rising health-care costs and might undermine the German economic recovery.

Coalition leaders meeting in Berlin today agreed to raise health premiums to 15.5 percent of gross pay from 14.9 percent, Health Minister Philipp Roesler said. Employers will contribute 7.3 percent with 8.2 percent paid by employees.

“We’re including everybody, workers, employers and taxpayers,” Roesler said in a statement distributed to reporters in Berlin.

The measure is part of an overhaul of health care intended to plug an 11-billion euro ($13.8 billion) deficit in the public health-insurance system in 2011. It follows Cabinet agreement on June 29 to cuts in spending on drugs to reduce soaring costs to public health-insurance funds.

Only 3.5 billion euros of the total shortfall next year will be covered by savings in administrative costs at hospitals, dental practices, through vaccinations and drug prescriptions, a Health Ministry document shows.

Merkel’s government “is taking the path of least resistance, ducking away from the Herculean tasks in health services,” Wolfgang Steiger, general secretary of a business lobby group within Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said in an e-mailed statement. “The one-sided financing of health costs via wages has to be stopped.”

Higher Surcharges

The Christian Democrats, their CSU Bavarian allies and Roesler’s Free Democrats also agreed to allow health insurers to levy higher surcharges for health care, paid by the insured person alone, according to the ministry document. Surcharges exceeding 2 percent of an insured’s gross pay will be financed from general tax revenue.

“The planned increase in employer contributions not only contradicts the coalition treaty, but also the most recent promises of the coalition parties not to raise labor costs any further,” Dieter Hundt, head of the BDA employers’ federation, said in an e-mailed statement.

The announcement comes one day before Merkel’s Cabinet considers plans to slash the budget deficit as Germany seeks to lead fellow euro-region countries in stemming the spread of Europe’s debt crisis from Greece.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
healthcare

We are the schmucks of Europe yet again!

So .... all this money for Greece, Portugal, Spain ... and it is to save the Euro




€750bn for Germany's bankrupt neighbours


We are the schmucks of Europe yet again!


11.05.2010 - 10:54 UHR
By Nikolaus Blome

The EU and the Eurozone want to spend a massive €750bn to save the European currency. Germany alone will have to fork out €123bn for its bankrupt neighbours.



But there is now not enough money for the planned tax cuts!

Are we really the schmucks of Europe?

Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “We are protecting the money of people in Germany.”

REALLY?

The vast credit line has been made available by the EU Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Euro states to failing countries including Spain and Portugal. It allows them to borrow money if they cannot do so on the financial markets.

And the lion’s share of that cash – up to €123 billion – is coming from Germany. If it is not paid back, the taxpayer will be left out of pocket.

Just like with the Greek bailout!

In plain language: If more Euro states are forced to their knees under the weight of their debts, the countries which have not lived beyond their means for the last ten years will step in to help out. And above all that means Germany. Moderate wage agreements, moderate pensions schemes – but if needs be then we have to pay the bill.

And there is more falling by the wayside: With reference to ‘emergency’ article 122, governments can sidestep the Euro contract that…

…forbids the raising of credit by the EU Commission for Euro states;

…bars the European Central Bank (ECB) from buying bonds from Euro states;

…bans economically sound countries from helping out those in debt.

IN ORDER TO SAVE THE EURO, POLITICIANS ARE RISKING ITS FUTURE. WHY? WHAT PRESSURES ARE THERE TO DO THIS?

Flashback to the past Friday at an EU summit in Brussels: Until late in the evening the heads of state struggled to agree a deal on the billions in aid. ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet eventually held a metaphorical pistol to their heads, warning – like IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn – of a ‘meltdown’ the following Monday if nothing happened.

On Friday the money markets were hit just like they were before the Lehman Brothers collapse, sending out a red alert.

And so Chancellor Merkel capitulated. She knew that the policy was being pushed by the banks and financial markets. Yet again.

Negotiations on the details took place until Sunday evening. Merkel insisted that the emergency credit would only be available to a country which had become the subject of an IMF austerity programme AND that the majority of the credit (€440bn limited to three years) would be administered by Euro states and not the European Commission.

Nevertheless, barely anything remains from the original Euro stability contract. The stock markets reacted yesterday with a jump upwards (DAX was up 4.5 per cent), while the Euro itself rose only slightly.

Experts remain wary. No one knows what will happen in the long run.

Economics expert Christoph Schmidt told BILD: “We did really not want to have European monetary union like this. It happened the opposite way to what we Germans were told at that time under stable monetary policy and with an independent central bank.

“The Euro funds only bought the government time, nothing more.”

Members of parliament belonging to the two parties in Germany’s ruling coalition, the CDU/CSU and the FDP, are also wary of the ECB’s autonomy. They must decide on the aid package in the Bundestag over the next few weeks.

Ex-FDP head Wolfgang Gerhardt told BILD: “Such firefighting actions by the government like those at the weekend must in the future happen whilst allowing for the autonomy of the ECB.”

The FDP’s Patrick Döring demanded the rapid creation of a European ratings agency and banking charges.

And anyone who still believed there was enough money in Germany for a cut in taxes was put straight at 1:34 pm on Monday, when the Chancellor casually announced in a toneless voice: “Reductions in tax will in the foreseeable future not be achievable.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
germany

Obama, Karzai: US/Afghan Relations, and German Drinking

I think the article is spot on, but for one point.  I don't think Obama wants or needs military victory first - I think he wants to hand over to the Taliban as soon as he can, but for Karzai in the way.  There have been quite a few statements in the past, filed in the blog, that would given support to this claim.




A small point, unrelated to the abysmally poor relations we have with Afghanistan at this time, is the fact the Germans are drinking a lot of alcohol.  This might address how they end up in the wrong situations.



From The Sunday Times
April 11, 2010




Poison swirls around Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama


The Afghan president fears an apparent media campaign to discredit him is a prelude to America abandoning his country



Christina Lamb in Washington


When Hamid Karzai started presenting the victims of British bombings in Helmand with medals commemorating Wazir Akbar Khan, one of the victors of the first Anglo-Afghan war, someone should, perhaps, have wondered which side Afghanistan’s president was really on.

That was in 2006 when he was furious that the British had demanded the removal of Sher Mohammad Akhundzada as governor of Helmand after finding opium in his office. Karzai still insists this move prompted a resurgence of the Taliban.

At the time British officials consoled themselves that he was angry over the bombing of civilians by US forces but could not risk alienating his main backer. Whether or not they were right, there is little love lost now between the presidential palace in Kabul and the White House.

If you commit 100,000 troops to a war, as President Barack Obama will soon have done, you do not want as your partner someone who says that you may be trying to poison him, who flirts with your enemy and threatens to join the very people you are fighting.

America has now lost more than 1,000 lives in Afghanistan and is spending $73 billion there this year. After showing footage last week of Karzai lambasting the West, American talk-show host Jon Stewart spluttered in indignation. “I think the words he was looking for [were] thank you,” he said.

From the start Karzai has not known what to make of Obama but he believes the US president did not want him to win re-election last August. He reacted to a recent White House snub by inviting to Kabul President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who gave a fiery anti-American speech.

Karzai has seen himself described as “mad” and “paranoid” in the US media, which have also carried reports that America wants to put his brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, an alleged drug dealer, on a death list.

Peter Galbraith, a former United Nations official, even intimated Karzai was using drugs. “He’s prone to tirades,” Galbraith said. “In fact, some palace insiders say that he has a certain fondness for some of Afghanistan’s most profitable exports.”

How on earth has this happened? I have known Karzai for 23 years and while he is erratic, with mood swings, he is not mad. He is an extremely proud Afghan, answering to a nation that has defeated all its occupiers and which does not trust the Americans, having been abandoned by them before.

Appeasing both the international community and his own Pashtun tribe, which bears the brunt of fighting in southern and eastern Afghanistan, is a balancing act for which he may not be sufficiently skilled.

Since he is isolated behind high walls and seven layers of security in a palace where many of his predecessors were murdered, it is hardly surprising if he is paranoid.

Sycophantic courtiers feed him rumour and a daily digest of the foreign press with anything negative highlighted in yellow.

Unlike President George W Bush, who called Karzai his buddy and held monthly video conferences with him, Obama has distanced himself. He made his first visit to Kabul as president last week, flying for 26 hours to give Karzai a 25-minute lecture on corruption.

The Karzai family has now hit back, accusing US officials of launching a smear campaign as a prelude to abandoning the country again. “There’s a very bad policy developing towards Afghanistan,” said the president’s brother Mahmoud Karzai, a businessman who lives in Kabul. “They want to discredit the Afghan government in the eyes of the US public. I hope it’s not the beginning of an exit strategy. If it is, God help us, it will be very bad — don’t they remember what happened when they did this before in the Eighties?”

Mahmoud believes the tension goes back to before last summer’s elections. “There was a clear push by a group of US politicians to really hurt him.”

He particularly blames Galbraith, who was then the deputy UN representative, and Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. “They made statements which were really outrageous,” he said. “On the second day of counting, before the results were even known, they said it would go to a second round.

“Ever since there has been a push to undermine the Afghan government. I don’t understand. I see right now the Taliban at the fence. If we continue the good work, the Taliban will be defeated, but if we continue in this way they will not.”

He was incensed by Galbraith’s suggestion that the president was on drugs. “My brother has never smoked a cigarette in his life,” he said. “He doesn’t drink or gamble. For people to make such a ridiculous attack is outrageous.

“We worry that taking sides with certain countries might be the agenda,” Mahmoud added. “Mr Holbrooke is very close to Pakistan.”    [Pakistan - ISI - Taliban]

The biggest sticking point is Ahmed Wali, who runs the family interests in Kandahar and is believed to be a drug dealer. US officials have reportedly said he must be removed before a battle for control of the province.

“They say he is a drug dealer but we’ve never been shown any evidence,” Mahmoud said. “The idea that Ahmed Wali should be removed is generated by those who want to hand over Kandahar to the Taliban.”

As for the Afghan president’s reported threat to join the Taliban if the West kept attacking him, Mahmoud said: “It’s impossible. The Taliban would not allow him.” It is often forgotten that Karzai was once the Taliban’s chief fundraiser.

The argument may come down to differences over how to deal with the Taliban. Like the British, Karzai thinks negotiations should start now. The Americans want a military victory first. This will be the main topic of discussion when Karzai visits Washington next month.

Germans bemoan poor kit

German troops are complaining that they are unable to fight in Afghanistan because of poor training and a lack of proper equipment, writes Bojan Pancevski.

After the deaths of three German soldiers and five Afghan police officers killed by friendly fire last weekend, officers have blamed a shortage of weapons, ammunition, vehicles and helicopters for low morale.

Their spotter drones, needed for surveillance, could not take off in the heat. The new NH90 multi-role helicopters have proved “inappropriate”, as they lack space for machineguns.

Unlike most other Nato troops, the Germans are flying large quantities of alcohol to their Afghan bases. Annual shipments have reached 1.8m pints of beer and 70,000 litres of wine, according to defence ministry figures.










Afghanistan

The French Involvement in the Deaths of Tens of Thousands of Jews

rance








The funny part - even though their legal system has found that the French people were complicit in the murders of tens of thousands of Jews, they are still in denial.




France found responsible for deporting Jews

Ruling adds, though, that post-war reparations have already been made

The Associated Press
Mon., Feb. 16, 2009

PARIS - France's top judicial body on Monday recognized the French government's responsibility for the deportation of Jews during World War II, the clearest such recognition of the state's role in the Holocaust.

The Council of State found that the government of Nazi-occupied France at the time held the "responsibility" for deportations that led to anti-Semitic persecution.

The decision released Monday also found that the deportation had been "compensated for" since 1945, apparently ruling out any reparations for deportees or their families.

[I am curious about this - how do you compensate more than 60,000 Jews - many who were exterminated, when for the last sixty years you have been in denial.  Please, tell me?]


Thousands of Jews were deported from France to Nazi death camps during the occupation. After the war, subsequent French governments took decades to acknowledge any role by the collaborationist Vichy regime in the Holocaust.

A Paris court had sought the Council of State's opinion on a request by the daughter of a deportee who died at Auschwitz for reparations from the French state. She was also asking for material and moral damages for her own personal suffering during and after the occupation.

The council left it up to the Paris court to rule on her request.

But the council in its decision said that it "considers that because the acts and actions by the state led to the deportation of people considered Jews by the Vichy regime, (they) constituted errors and became its responsibility."

The council called for a "solemn recognition of the state's responsibility and of collective prejudice suffered" by the deportees.

Today, France has western Europe's largest Jewish community of approximately 500,000.


There is great irony in this, but I don't have the time in the near future to spend on it.



















Jews

Germans: The End of Obama.

A little premature, but still interesting.



01/21/2010

Spiegel




The World Bids Farewell to Obama



AFP

US President Barack Obama has had a difficult first year.

US President Barack Obama suffered a painful defeat in Massachusetts on Tuesday. With mid-term elections looming, it means that Obama will have to fundamentally re-think his political course. German commentators say it is the end of hope.

US President Barack Obama has had a number of difficult weeks during his first year in the White House. Right after he took office, he had to wade through a week full of partisan bickering over his economic stimulus package combined with a tax scandal surrounding Tom Daschle, the man Obama had hoped would lead his health care reform team.

Then there was the last week of 2009, when a failed terror attack on a flight inbound for Detroit exposed major flaws in US efforts to identify and stop potential terrorists.

This week, though -- a week when Obama should have been celebrating the first anniversary of his inauguration -- may have been the president's worst yet. Scott Brown, an almost unknown Republican member of the Massachusetts Senate, defeated the Democratic candidate Martha Coakley for the US Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. The defeat in a heavily Democratic state not only highlights Obama's massive loss of popular support during his first year in office, but it also could spell doom for his signature effort to reform the US health care system.

There were immediate calls for a suspension of health care votes in the Senate until Brown is sworn in. The loss of the Massachusetts seat means that the Democrats no longer control the 60 Senate seats necessary to avoid a filibuster. Obama's reform package, which aims to provide health insurance to most of the over 40 million Americans currently lacking coverage, may ultimately fail as a result.

More than that, though, the vote shows just how quickly the political pendulum has swung back to the right following Obama's election. The seat Brown won had been in Democratic hands for all but six years since 1926. Now, its new occupant is a man who not only opposes the health care bill, but also favors waterboarding as a method of interrogation for terrorism suspects and rejects carbon cap-and-trade as a means of limiting carbon emissions.

The omen could be a dark one for the Obama administration heading into a mid-term election year. German commentators take a closer look.

Center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes on Thursday:

"Obama made a serious misjudgement. Right at the beginning of his first year in office, he saved the banks, rescued the automobile industry from collapse and passed a huge economic stimulus package. He had hoped that these enormous deeds would give him the space to address those issues which are dearest to him: health care reform, climate change and investment in education."

"Those issues, however, are clearly not priorities for people in the US at the moment. Scott Brown campaigned on two promises, both of which apparently struck a nerve with the electorate. He wants to block health care reform and he wants to find ways to reduce the enormous budget deficit. It is here where the roots of dissatisfaction with Obama are to be found. His reform agenda, in its current form, is highly suspect to Americans. And they have the impression that, if he continues piling up debt, he will be gambling away the country's future."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"For Obama, the election in Massachusetts means that he will have to re-evaluate his political style. He could now focus his concentration on his political base and push through his policy agenda. After all, he still has a majority in Congress -- he could back away from his strategy of bipartisanship ... which would mean giving up much of what he spent his first year in office creating."

"More likely, however, is that Obama will interpret the Massachusetts loss as a signal that he should move further toward the middle and make more concessions to the conservatives -- even if this alienates his base even further, a base which had high expectations from the 'yes we can' candidate."

"For everyone else in the world, this means that they will have to bid farewell to a candidate for whom the hopes were so high. They will have to say goodbye to the charisma they fell in love with. Obama will be staying home after all."

The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung writes:

"In addition to health care reform, Obama's reputation has primarily been harmed by the high unemployment rate and the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan. It will become even more difficult in the future for the president to push projects through successfully. Not just because Republicans now have a means of preventing it, but also because the Democratic camp is deeply divided. Some would like to see the party shift toward the center -- wherever that may be -- whereas others want the party to position itself to the left. Such a battle is hardly a good sign for the mid-term elections in November. Massachusetts could prove to be an omen."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"Of course the president rejects the interpretation that the Massachusetts election was a referendum on his first year in the White House. But he cannot ignore the fact that his health care reform package is not popular, the situation of the country's finances is seen as threatening and many voters blame the high unemployment rate on the party in power -- on the Democrats, led by Obama. The result is a second year in office full of very different challenges than the first. To save what there is to be saved, Obama will have to be prepared to fashion a bipartisan compromise on health care -- a compromise with a Republican Party which has tasted blood and can now dream once again about a return to power."















Germans

Der Spiegel: Obama His Own Worst Enemy

Perhaps he neeeds to show propewr protocol and bow to the Germans and Canadians.  He might make friends that way.





Searching in Vain for the Obama Magic



SPIEGEL ONLINE

12/02/2009 12:58 PM
Opinion
by Gabor Steingart



Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.

One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama's speech would be well-received.

Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond "enthusiastically" to the speech. But it didn't help: The soldiers' reception was cool.

One didn't have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama's speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly.

An additional 30,000 US soldiers are to march into Afghanistan -- and then they will march right back out again. America is going to war -- and from there it will continue ahead to peace. It was the speech of a Nobel War Prize laureate.

Just in Time for the Campaign

For each troop movement, Obama had a number to match. US strength in Afghanistan will be tripled relative to the Bush years, a fact that is sure to impress hawks in America. But just 18 months later, just in time for Obama's re-election campaign, the horror of war is to end and the draw down will begin. The doves of peace will be let free.

The speech continued in that vein. It was as though Obama had taken one of his old campaign speeches and merged it with a text from the library of ex-President George W. Bush. Extremists kill in the name of Islam, he said, before adding that it is one of the "world's great religions." He promised that responsibility for the country's security would soon be transferred to the government of President Hamid Karzai -- a government which he said was "corrupt." The Taliban is dangerous and growing stronger. But "America will have to show our strength in the way that we end wars," he added.

It was a dizzying combination of surge and withdrawal, of marching to and fro. The fast pace was reminiscent of plays about the French revolution: Troops enter from the right to loud cannon fire and then they exit to the left. And at the end, the dead are left on stage.

Obama's Magic No Longer Works

But in this case, the public was more disturbed than entertained. Indeed, one could see the phenomenon in a number of places in recent weeks: Obama's magic no longer works. The allure of his words has grown weaker.

It is not he himself who has changed, but rather the benchmark used to evaluate him. For a president, the unit of measurement is real life. A leader is seen by citizens through the prism of their lives -- their job, their household budget, where they live and suffer. And, in the case of the war on terror, where they sometimes die.

Political dreams and yearnings for the future belong elsewhere. That was where the political charmer Obama was able to successfully capture the imaginations of millions of voters. It is a place where campaigners -- particularly those with a talent for oration -- are fond of taking refuge. It is also where Obama set up his campaign headquarters, in an enormous tent called "Hope."

In his speech on America's new Afghanistan strategy, Obama tried to speak to both places. It was two speeches in one. That is why it felt so false. Both dreamers and realists were left feeling distraught.

The American president doesn't need any opponents at the moment. He's already got himself.









 
 
 
 
 
Obama