Headline of the day from Germany: 'Romney Has Already Disqualified Himself'

ya gotta love it...


from a round-up of german views on romney's big european adventure 

from spiegel online international...

'Romney Has Already Disqualified Himself'

Center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Travel educates. As a result one should assume that Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger of Barack Obama, wants to learn something during his visit to Israel. Wrong! Almost everything that the candidate organized in Jerusalem fuels the impression that he doesn't want to try understanding how complicated the Middle East situation is. Instead, Romney paints the crisis region in black and white: Israel is good and the rest -- the Palestinians and the mullahs in Iran -- are lumped together."

"This one-sided world view is less dumb than it is coldly calculated. Romney is soliciting campaign donations in Jerusalem (the minimum price for two plates at breakfast is $50,000.) And he is ensnaring Jewish voters at home."

"The trip to Israel may help Romney in the short-term. But in the long-term the Republican has done damage. The Middle East needs the US as a mediator. As such, the presidential hopeful has already disqualified himself."

how wonderful that we can send a candidate for arguably the most powerful office in the world to represent us in europe and display his masterful command of foreign affairs and diplomacy... it certainly makes ME lean toward supporting the guy, doesn't it do the same for you...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

When profiteers send gas prices soaring in Germany, all they have to do is press a button

what a concept...

from spiegel online...

Big Oil's Strategy for Jacking Up Gas Prices

Prices have never fluctuated as wildly as they have over the past few months. Last week, the price of premium gasoline reached €1.70 per liter ($8.41 per gallon) nationwide -- a new record for Germany. Sometimes, prices at the pump spike upwards by over 10 euro cents per liter in the space of just minutes, usually followed by a gradual decline.

[...]

The price fluctuations are erratic and apparently without any deeper meaning. But there's no doubt that the oil companies know exactly what they are doing.

The market leaders can only pursue this strategy, though, because they have sophisticated computer systems that allow them to precisely control, right down to the minute, when they increase their prices nationwide, and by how many cents. The prices are not set by the individual franchise holders. Instead, they are centrally controlled -- for example, in the town of Bochum, at headquarters of Aral, a BP subsidiary that is the market leader in Germany.

The price manager merely presses a button and price signs immediately change at all 2,391 Aral service stations in Germany. All filling stations are electronically linked with Bochum via a dedicated network called Rosi. After each price increase, they watch closely to see how the competition reacts and whether they follow suit.

coming soon to a u.s. service station near you...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The view from Germany - The GOP is ruining the entire country's reputation

spiegel...

A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses

The US Republican race is dominated by ignorance, lies and scandals. The current crop of candidates have shown such a basic lack of knowledge that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein. The Grand Old Party is ruining the entire country's reputation.

spending as much time outside of the u.s. as i have over the past years, i am endlessly fascinated and horror-struck by turns at the views of the united states held by people outside the country... sadly, i often find those views to be considerably more honest and accurate than the views of those inside the country...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Occupy Frankfurt

i think it's important to keep in mind that the occupy movement is truly a global phenomenon...

from spiegel...


The "Occupy Frankfurt" protesters have set up camp outside the European Central Bank
in Frankfurt, where dozens of tents have been pitched.

The "Occupy" movement has garnered support from all parts of the world, including Germany, where protestors have set up camp in front of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. [...]

The "Occupy" movement began in earnest in New York, where a group of activists formed under the name " Occupy Wall Street" in mid-September to protest against the sheer power of the financial markets. Since then it has grown to become a global movement, with tens of thousands of participants gathering each week for protests, including several thousand in Frankfurt, the center of "Occupy Germany" activities. Occupy supporters in the German financial center have taken over a small park located directly in front of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Around 100 tents have been pitched in front of the banking city's glass-and-steel skyscrapers. "You occupy the money, we occupy the world," one protest sign reads. During the daytime, working groups discuss capitalism, education and culture. During the afternoons and evenings, an "Asamblea" takes place, a gathering held in an outdoor public space during which speaking time is granted to anyone who wants it and democratic decision-making is made at the grass-roots level. The movement is organized via Facebook and Twitter, and an Occupy website provides information for its supporters. So far, those supporters have been overwhelmingly male, and female visitors to the protest camps are relatively scarce. But few could complain about a lack of support. The media is reporting on Occupy, politicians including Chancellor Angela Merkel have expressed their sympathies, and new people interested in what is happening drop by the ECB campsite each day, with some simultaneously raising their own tents.

Each evening, local bakeries deliver leftover rolls and cakes to the camp's mess tent, where warm meals are cooked and served twice each day. The Occupy protesters have made a point of welcoming their neighbors, including homeless people known to drop by. If you're seeking to create a more just society, they argue, you've got to start at home.

i find it extremely encouraging to see this kind of response across the pond...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Two international views of OWS, one from Germany and the other from IPS

first, ips... pay particular attention to the quote in the last paragraph...

Occupy Times Square by Christian Papesch from IPS Inter Press Service on Vimeo.

More than a month old, OWS feels like a town of its own, one governed intentionally by institutions and actions based on empathetic, egalitarian principles. As a protest, the occupation tactic is successful because of its constant presence and as a base for organising actions.

But at least as important to participants is the opportunity the occupied space provides to organise a microcosm of the society they want to live in. As the movement continues to grow, it is clear that this new society resonates with many people disaffected with the failures of society at large.

"We're dismantling capitalism and building something better right here," said Sheik.

here's a view from germany's spiegel [emphases added]...

Has America Become an Oligarchy?

Inequality in America is greater than it has been in almost a century. Those fortunate enough to belong to the 1 percent, made up of the super-rich, stand on one side of the divide; the remaining 99 percent on the other. Even for a country that has always accepted opposite extremes as part of its identity, the chasm has simply grown too vast.

Those who succeed in the US are congratulated rather than berated. Resenting other people's wealth is viewed as supporting class struggle, which is something very frowned upon.

Still, statistics indicate that the growing disparity is genuinely overwhelming. In fact, the 400 wealthiest Americans now own more than the "lower" 150 million Americans put together.

Nearly two-thirds of net private assets are concentrated in the hands of 5 percent of Americans. In comparison, the upper 5 percent of Germany hold less than half of net assets. In 2009 alone, at the same time as the US was being convulsed by mass layoffs, the number of millionaires in the country skyrocketed.

Indeed, if you look at the reports it compiles on every country in the world, even the CIA has concluded that wealth disparity is greater in the US than in Tunisia or Egypt.

[...]

At least since the beginning of the millennium, it has no longer been a simple matter of two societal extremes drifting further apart. Instead, the development is also accelerating. In the years of economic growth between 2002 and 2007, 65 percent of the income gains went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers. Likewise, although the productivity of the US economy has increased considerably since the beginning of the millennium, most Americans haven't benefited from it, with average annual incomes falling by more than 10 percent, to $49,909 (€35,184).

[...]

In 1980, American CEOs earned 42 times more than the average employee. Today, that figure has skyrocketed to more than 300 times. Last year, 25 of the country's highest-paid CEOs earned more than their companies paid in taxes.

By way of comparison, top executives at the 30 blue-chip companies making up Germany's DAX stock market index rarely earn over 100 times the salaries of their low-level employees, and that figure is often around 30 or 40 times.

nothing new here but still interesting to see how what's going on here is perceived from outside the country...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The US has fallen firmly into the hands of the elite and the country's social disintegration is breathtaking

it's always very instructive to see your own country through the eyes of others... while i share much of the view of the u.s. that's presented in this spiegel opinion piece, i am nonetheless gap-jawed at the picture that's painted...

This week, the United States nearly allowed itself to succumb to economic disaster. Increasingly, the divided country has more in common with a failed state than a democracy. In the face of America's apparent political insanity, Europe must learn to take care of itself.

The word "West" used to have a meaning. It described common goals and values, the dignity of democracy and justice over tyranny and despotism. Now it seems to be a thing of the past. There is no longer a West, and those who would like to use the word -- along with Europe and the United States in the same sentence -- should just hold their breath. By any definition, America is no longer a Western nation.

The US is a country where the system of government has fallen firmly into the hands of the elite. An unruly and aggressive militarism set in motion two costly wars in the past 10 years. Society is not only divided socially and politically -- in its ideological blindness the nation is moving even farther away from the core of democracy. It is losing its ability to compromise.

America has changed. It has drifted away from the West.

The country's social disintegration is breathtaking. Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz recently described the phenomenon. The richest 1 percent of Americans claim one-quarter of the country's total income for themselves -- 25 years ago that figure was 12 percent. It also possesses 40 percent of total wealth, up from 33 percent 25 years ago. Stiglitz claims that in many countries in the so-called Third World, the income gap between the poor and rich has been reduced. In the United States, it has grown.

Economist Paul Krugman, also a Nobel laureate, has written that America's path is leading it down the road to "banana-republic status." The social cynicism and societal indifference once associated primarily with the Third World has now become an American hallmark. This accelerates social decay because the greater the disparity grows, the less likely the rich will be willing to contribute to the common good. When a company like Apple, which with €76 billion in the bank has greater reserves at its disposal than the government in Washington, a European can only shake his head over the Republican resistance to tax increases. We see it as self-destructive.

The same applies to America's broken political culture. The name "United States" seems increasingly less appropriate. Something has become routine in American political culture that has been absent in Germany since Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik policies of rapprochement with East Germany and the Soviet Bloc (in the 1960s and '70s): hate. At the same time, reason has been replaced by delusion. The notion of tax cuts has taken on a cult-like status, and the limited role of the state a leading ideology. In this new American civil war, respect for the country's highest office was sacrificed long ago.

wow...! can you imagine reading an opinion piece like this in ANY traditional u.s. media outlet...? me neither...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 2 comments

The "Kill Team" photos are not unusual and are not the work of "rogue" U.S. soldiers

yes, i know that spiegel is trying to soften the story by blaming it on "rogue" individuals but that's simply not the case... photos are routinely taken by soldiers commemorating their work just as miscellaneous body parts - fingers, toes, etc. - and other "memorabilia" are taken from individuals killed "in the line of duty"...

i personally stood behind a soldier at the post office in a base near kabul who was asking the clerk if it was ok to mail body parts home... i was stunned to say the least... the clerk didn't appear surprised by the question but responded with a clear "no"... when i returned to the u.s., i told the story to my son and daughter-in-law who both work for the va hospital here... they asked around and were told by a va counselor that "harvesting" such "trophies" was fairly common...

i'm not saying that everybody does it or that there aren't a majority who would not only not consider such behavior but would find it morally and ethically repellent... however, it's certainly not the rare occurrence our leaders and the media would have us believe... and, despite the fact that this story was broken by a german publication about u.s. troops, you can be sure there are german soldiers in afghanistan who are doing exactly the same thing...

i am posting the photos that accompanied the spiegel article because i believe they need to be seen and we absolutely need to feel the full impact of what is happening in our collective names...



This image shows the body of Gul Mudin, the son of a farmer, who was killed on Jan. 15, 2010. A member of the "kill team" is posing behind him. SPIEGEL published just three photos out of the some 4,000 images and videos it has seen. Court martial proceedings against the soldiers involved in the killings are to begin soon.


In this image, a different soldier poses with the same corpse. The US Army on Monday apologized for the behavior of the soldiers involved in the "kill team."


Court martial proceedings are currently being prepared against 12 suspects. This image of two "kill team" victims comes from the collection of one of the suspects.

The United States and NATO are concerned that reactions could be intense to the publication of images documenting killings committed by US soldiers in Afghanistan. The images appeared in the most recent edition of SPIEGEL, which hit the newsstands on Monday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already telephoned with her Afghan counterpart to discuss the situation. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon has likewise made contact with officials in Kabul. The case threatens to strain already fragile US-Afghan relations at a time when the two countries are negotiating over the establishment of permanent US military bases in Afghanistan.

In a statement released by Colonel Thomas Collins, the US Army, which is currently preparing a court martial to try a total of 12 suspects in connection with the killings, apologized for the suffering the photos have caused. The actions depicted in the photos, the statement read, are "repugnant to us as human beings and contrary to the standards and values of the United States."

The suspected perpetrators are part of a group of US soldiers accused of several killings. Their court martials are expected to start soon. The photos, the army statement said, stand "in stark contrast to the discipline, professionalism and respect that have characterized our soldiers' performance during nearly 10 years of sustained operations."

saying that these photos and the behavior connected with them "stand in stark contrast" is denial, pure and simple... yes, i understand that's what the military would LIKE to have us believe, but it's simply not true...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 1 comments

Bill Keller and Wikileaks

as good an analysis as i've read anywhere...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Calling Hugh Chávez a populist and thinking it's an epithet

yes, hugo chávez has a big mouth, but calling him a "populist" and thinking you've insulted him is just too funny...

The president of the European Commission has responded to Hugo Chavez's bitter attack on Angela Merkel by describing the Venezuelan president's words against the German chancellor as "inflammatory, populist and aggressive."

ooooooooo... you, you, you, you POPULIST, you...!!!

epithet

Pronunciation:
\ˈe-pə-ˌthet also -thət\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Latin epitheton, from Greek, from neuter of epithetos added, from epitithenai to put on, add, from epi- + tithenai to put — more at do
Date:
1579

1 a: a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing b: a disparaging or abusive word or phrase c: the part of a taxonomic name identifying a subordinate unit within a genus

populist

Pronunciation:
\ˈpä-pyə-list\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Latin populus the people
Date:
1892
1: a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people; especially often capitalized : a member of a United States political party formed in 1891 primarily to represent agrarian interests and to advocate the free coinage of silver and government control of monopolies
2: a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Spiegel on the Clintons - "a powerful political family seeing its empire fall apart" and Hillary - "a sore loser"

as usual, it is a non-u.s. news outlet, germany's spiegel, that offers us one of the more penetrating looks at the meltdown of the clinton dynasty...

Perhaps Clinton really does believe that she still has a chance, or perhaps she is merely bluffing to drive up the price of withdrawing from the race. Meanwhile, America is fascinated by the Hillary Clinton drama, as she falters but refuses to give up. She looks pale, but still as immaculate as ever. She beams as if she could imagine nothing more appealing than this long, dirty and crippling primary campaign, which will end for the Democrats on June 3, when the last two primaries are held.

She no longer stands a chance of winning the party's nomination under her own steam. She can only hope that Obama somehow loses his cool or his campaign machine implodes. Apparently, none of her fellow Democrats can prevent Clinton from sticking it out until the party convention in August. That move would defy all reason and advice, especially now that most of the still undecided super-delegates -- senior party officials who are free to cast their votes as they please and can still determine the outcome of the race -- are leaning toward Obama.

The drama wouldn't be as compelling if it were just about Hillary Clinton. But it's also about a powerful political family seeing its empire fall apart.

[...]

Arrogance was probably the Clintons' greatest enemy. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, an old Clinton friend who defected to Obama's camp, says that they lived under the illusion that the throne was theirs to claim. This probably explains why they didn't take Barack Obama, the 46-year-old son of a Kenyan man and an American woman from Kansas, seriously.

[...]

The Clinton empire began to crumble when old friends like Richardson and Robert Reich switched sides and declared their support for Obama. Reich, a professor of political science and the labor secretary in the first Clinton administration, introduced Hillary and Bill to each other at Yale University in the 1970s. Another defector was Anthony Lake, a quiet scholar who was Bill Clinton's first national security advisor and is now part of Obama's team. Hollywood producer David Geffen was also a welcome guest at the Clinton court in the past. When he turned his back on the Clintons, he said that he did it because he was tired of their lies.

[...]

Today, Hillary Clinton is nothing but a sore loser who steps onto a stage and, like a robot, continues to spit out her rallying cries.

Silence has descended on the Clinton team. Her campaign manager, Terry McAuliffe, seems like a sad clown with a lame joke as he tests the microphone on this evening in Indianapolis: "One, two, three, President Hillary."

i've never cared for hillary... but in my wildest dreams i never thought i would end up calling both her and her husband pathetic figures... how much better it would be for both of them if they could withdraw with grace while they still have a modicum of dignity left...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Jekyll and Hyde: a perspective on Hillary from Germany

first this...

The former first lady bet everything -- and lost. Barring some kind of miracle, Barack Obama will become the Democratic Party's nominee for president. A dramatic finale on Tuesday night brought an end to the Clinton era.


Hillary Clinton and family: The race
is over for the former first lady.

then this...

In the past few years, I have met two outstanding American women. One of them is named Hillary Clinton.

[...]

Hillary Clinton spoke quietly, quieter anyway than one would expect from a former first lady and current senator. At no point did she try to dominate the four-strong group around the table. She was ladylike, confident, reflective -- and she was also a bit of a snob, if the truth be told.

[...]

The other extraordinary American woman I met is also called Hillary Clinton.

[...]

Hillary Clinton II was down to earth and hard as nails. She laughed loudly and could sometimes be mean. She drank beer, not wine and water. In the primaries for the Democratic nomination, she never let up attacking her rival Barack Obama.

She questioned his Christianity, his patriotism, his experience, his judgement and his personal integrity. She labelled him "unrealistic." She made it clear to the voters: I am tough and he is weak. I am real and he is the creation of a speechwriter.

The longer the campaign went on, the more these two Hillarys diverged from one another. One was a great lady, the other nothing less than a great fighter. She pulled out all the stops, resorting to everything, including self denial.

[...]

With her defeat in North Carolina and a narrow lead in Indiana, the race is over for Clinton. Barring a miracle, Barack Obama will become the Democratic Party's nominee. His lead may be narrow, but it's a gap that can no longer be closed.

Hillary Clinton II has come a long way. Now it's time for her to return to her old self.

dontcha wish the u.s. media could offer us some of that kind of perspective...? dontcha wish geese laid golden eggs...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The "carpet-bombing" of Obama continues and has even spread to Germany and France

check out how germany's spiegel seems to have signed up for the destroy-obama campaign...

Hillary Clinton has succeeded: Her rival Barack Obama has lost his shine, and now even he looks susceptible to campaign-season dirty tricks. Both candidates are attacking each other in the hope of a clear victory on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. But are they also handing ammunition to John McCain?

Obama's voice sounds erratic, impatient, almost angry. His microphone fails. "Hello? Hello?" And his voice lacks its usual melody; his orchestrated cascades of words sound dull. At one point he stanches the flow of applause -- "People, listen!"

Obama reads for 20 minutes from a piece of paper, sounding tired and laconic. He evokes, as usual, this "defining moment in history." And he fulminates against "war without end." He condemns "the broken politics of Washington … the politics that's all about tearing each other down when what we need is to lift this country up."

But then that's just what he does. The second half of his speech consists of attacks on his rival, Hillary Clinton. "She has taken more money from Washington lobbyists than any candidate in this campaign," he says. Clinton is running a "negative campaign," just like "the Republicans would do it." And now, when Obama mentions Hillary's name, the crowd boos.

Until now, Obama has stood aloof from political mudfights, renouncing ad hominem attacks and generally playing the grown-up.

But he started to bow deep into the muddy trenches after Clinton finally managed, in the last few weeks, to bring him down with biting personal attacks.

It's having a visible effect on his usually calm demeanor; his lighthearted moments come less often and his bearing is grimmer. He seems to be bearing a weight, perhaps the weight of someone not living up to his own claims.

here's france's afp via breitbart......

Democratic White House contender Barack Obama could not hide his irritation Monday when asked by a reporter what he thought about former president Jimmy Carter's meeting with Hamas last week.

"Why can't I just eat my waffle?" the Illinois senator said as he ate breakfast in Scranton, Pennsylvania, according to MSNBC television pictures.

Pressed again for an answer, he replied: "Just let me eat my waffle."

and, of course, on the domestic scene, fox leads the charge... fortunately, robert greenwald and brave new films are all over fox like flies on shit...

THE FOX IS WRONG! (Obama version)

FOX’s objective is clear: carpet bomb Barack Obama with negative stories, distortions, and smears before the Pennsylvania primary in an attempt to skew the outcome toward the Republicans’ preferred adversary, Hillary Clinton. But did FOX imagine that the “liberal” media would be such willing accomplices?

Check out our latest episode of the gameshow sensation that’s sweeping the nation — THE FOX IS WRONG: OBAMA! Play along as FOX guests and personalities distort and misrepresent the statements of Obama and those around him, only to have that pesky “liberal” media pick up the smears and keep on running! For the finale, watch in wonder and amazement as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos allows Sean Hannity to actually spoon-feed him a question on Hannity’s radio show, then parrots it almost word-for-word a day later during ABC’s infamous Democratic debate in Pennsylvania!

obama's only human, after all... weathering constant, ugly, mean-spirited, attacks 24/7 is something nobody should have to face, but, unfortunately, that's his reality for the time being... the best we can do is to send our encouragement, our good wishes, our warm and unconditional support (money works too!), to let him know that we are behind him and sending good thoughts to help him rise above the tawdriness that characterizes u.s. politics in the modern age, a tawdriness that we are putting our faith in him to dispel...

SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO FOX'S RUPERT MURDOCH HERE

SEND YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT, THOUGHTS AND/OR MONEY TO SENATOR OBAMA HERE

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Spiegel: The Madness of Ben Bernanke

as usual, you have to read the foreign press to get any semblance of truth about what's happening in our own country... (and ya gotta love spiegel's headline...)

The dollar is in a tailspin, the trade deficit is growing and a recession is on the horizon. The American way of life is in serious danger. But the head of the Federal Reserve keeps on pumping easy credit into the system -- a crazy policy that will worsen the crisis.


Ben Bernanke at the G7 meeting
of central bank governors over
the weekend.

Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke have more in common with the big cat entertainers Siegfried & Roy than any of us can be comfortable with.

The Las Vegas magicians call themselves "Masters of the Impossible" and have been fascinating audiences for decades by getting snow-white tigers to leap through burning rings.

The legendary Federal Reserve Chairman and his successor were equally adept at fascinating their audiences -- with a policy of miraculous monetary growth that gave America one of the longest periods of economic expansion in modern times. Many saw them as "Masters of the Universe." It seemed as if the central bankers had tamed predatory capitalism with their constant interest rate cuts.

[...]

The credit-financed consumer boom of recent years is coming to a painful end. Today's American Way of Life has no chance of surviving the coming years undamaged. The virus will continue to ravage its way through the financial system.

The property crisis is likely to spread to credit card providers soon and will then probably infect car manufacturers, furniture makers and all the other firms that owe their sales increases to the growth in credit finance. "The virus will keep on infecting the system," one management board member from a large bank said, requesting anonymity in return for the candour of his analysis.

His argument is that banks that grant mortgages to home buyers virtually unable to pay their bills are unlikely to be especially scrutinizing when it comes to lending cash to the buyers of fridges, cars and furniture. Indeed, a furniture store in Miami recently tried to lure consumers with the following offer: buy now, pay your first credit installment in three years, and no need for a down-payment.

The credit-financed way of life is typical of the US these days. Many people resort to credit to plug the gap between the lifestyle they have become accustomed to and their declining wages.

The borrowed cash is like an anaesthetic against the painful impact of globalisation. Private household debt has been growing by $4 billion each business day for years.

yeah, well, ok, but what spiegel fails to point out is that the financial and credit markets ain't going to hell just in the u.s... it's all well and good to point a finger at the unbelievable mess that the so-called "leaders" of the u.s. corporatocracy have created, but that conveniently ignores the complicity of europe, japan, australia, and the rest of the industrialized world... today's globally-interconnected financial markets have all been operating on an ethos of unrestrained greed and the collapse is happening world-wide, not just in the u.s., even though the u.s. has certainly been a leading role model...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

NATO, led by Germany, may be trying to get out of Afghanistan

nothing to be found on this, naturally, in the u.s. media... it doesn't appear to be imminent but it looks like it's definitely under discussion...

from spiegel online...

So far, little has remained behind closed doors at the NATO summit in Bucharest. Almost every cough from every negotiating session has found its way into the press. But there is one paper that has remained largely in the shadows. NATO diplomats have been working on a far-reaching strategy paper for the ongoing mission in Afghanistan.

The secrecy, some say, is necessary as the dossier contains details that could compromise the safety of NATO troops in Afghanistan. Others have been a bit more direct, saying that the paper is simply too controversial to be made public.

According to diplomats, there are indeed some interesting details to be found. The paper illustrates a new train of thought developing within NATO: For the first time, a step-by-step outline has been sketched -- with substantial help from Germany -- for when the 47,000 NATO troops currently in Afghanistan might be pulled out. According to diplomats, concrete benchmarks are laid out -- though any withdrawl, they make clear, would not be immediate.

It is no accident that Germany has played a big part in the drafting of the paper. It has long been clear in Berlin that Germany's involvement in the mission has a limited shelf-life given widespread opposition among the German populace and growing doubts in parliament. Were there something of a "master plan" for the operation, politicians in the chancellery and defense ministry would be able to offer the prospect of German troops returning from Afghanistan. Benchmarks for what must be achieved before that happens could also be clearly defined.

every german casualty in afghanistan is heavily covered in the german media and german citizens, understandably, are pressuring the government to pull out...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

"I think the Fed is bonkers" - a slightly different view of the Fed rate cut via Germany's Spiegel

there seems to be a lot of this "bonkers" stuff going around these days...

from spiegel online...

Within the space of two weeks, the federal funds rate -- the rate at which banks lend each other money -- has been dropped by 1.25 percentage points. It's a record intervention, one which simultaneously sparks both hopes and fears.

"The Federal Reserve is obviously very nervous about what is going on in the financial system and the housing market," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, in remarks to the Associated Press.

Some analysts were unsparing in their criticism of the move. "I think the Fed is bonkers," Allan Meltzer, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University, told the Los Angeles Times. Fed officials "frequently swear to themselves and to each other that they are not going to ease (interest rates) excessively, and then the economy slows a little and they do just that," he said.

you gotta believe the fed is scared as hell to be doing cuts this drastic and over such a short time interval...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The true face of the Iraq insurgency (hint: he doesn't look like al Qaeda)

spiegel online does us all a great service in today's edition by publishing an article on the angry teenagers who are often the ones pushing the buttons to detonate those improvised explosive devices (ied's)...


Teenagers like Diya Muhammad Hussein, 16,
make up a large portion of the footsoldiers working
for the Iraqi insurgency. He is now in prison after he
attempted to blow up a convoy of US Marines.

check this...

When Diya started preparing his first mission, he had a big network of helpers at his disposal. Rawah is a town like almost every other in Iraq -- everyone knows each other, and everyone knows who has been involved in the fight against the "occupiers" in the last few years. There's scarcely a family that doesn't have at least one son or cousin who worked as a henchman or leader of the local branch of "al-Qaida in Iraq" or other terror groups.

It was Ahmed's brother who told the boys about the weapons stashes, shortly before he was arrested as an insurgent. Diya learned how to use a detonator from Anas Fa'iq, another former fighter. His name is on a long list of wanted Iraqi Qaida members which is hanging in the US Marines' command headquarters.

Diya has been lucky in one respect. The building in which he is incarcerated also houses the company of Marines stationed in Rawah. They all live on the same floor: US Marines, Iraqi police and the prisoners. The Americans guarantee the prisoners at least a minimum of good treatment.

[...]

"We still hate the Americans. In truth no one likes them. Iraq isn't free, that's why we have to keep on fighting," says Diya.

What would he do if he got a visa tomorrow to travel to the US? He would definitely take it, says Diya. Asked if he is aware of how contradictory that sounds, he smiles bashfully and buries his hands deeper into his armpits.

[...]

Asked what he wants to do with his life when he is released, Diya says: "I want to work for the Iraqi police." Asked if he thinks the Iraqi police will take him, he looks up at his interpreter and says, "Perhaps?"

how very interesting... just one more little piece of the puzzle we never hear from our domestic media - labeling the iraqis who want us the hell out of their country as al qaeda... pretty convenient, eh...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Making peace with torture: Spiegel interviews the director of "Taxi to the Dark Side"

more stuff we don't see in our domestic media...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: US President George W. Bush has stressed again and again that "the US does not torture." For your documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" you did a lot of research within the US military and talked to interrogators. Do you agree with Bush?

Alex Gibney: Only when you redefine torture so that it no longer means anything you can look the American people in the eye and say that. That's the only explanation how Bush can sit there and say that. The US administration has worked overtime to redefine torture beyond any common notion. They keep tinkering with the definition.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But hasn't torture been legally defined for decades?

Gibney: Sensory deprivation, psychological assault -- these are the kind of things we prosecuted the Germans for at the Nuremberg trials after World War II.

[...]

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So who is ultimately responsible?

Gibney: I think the individuals at ground level do have to take some responsibility for what they do. They have a responsibility to speak up. The far greater responsibility, however, is what's called command responsibility -- the commanding officers and the administration are responsible. And again, that's what we prosecuted in Nuremberg after World War II.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why doesn't the American public seem to see this? Why isn't there more outrage?

Gibney: At some point the people who are responsible need to be legally held accountable. But that takes more than courage in Congress. We, the American people, have to make it absolutely clear that we understand what torture is and won't do it anymore.

[...]

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Didn't the Abu Ghraib scandal make people suspicious?

Gibney: There was initial outrage about Abu Ghraib. People were genuinely outraged. But the administration very successfully convinced them that that was an aberration, not a policy.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The public can't be that foolish. Have the Americans privately made peace with the concept of torture?

Gibney: I agree. That is a huge problem. Americans have become comfortable with the idea. They see torture as a kind of footnote, as a few bad apples that occasionally crossed the line like in Abu Ghraib. But it is a fundamental aberration of what it used to mean to be an American.

you can visit the website for Gibney's film, Taxi to the Darkside...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The view from Germany: corporate-funded politics

yesiree, THIS is just a little snapshot of what we look like to the rest of the world... it's all about

$$$$$$$

The American presidential candidates are so busy drumming up campaign contributions and grabbing at opportunities to fly around on corporate jets that they have little time left for the people. Fundraising costs run into the millions, which helps explain why half the candidates in the race are already broke.

check out the subtitle that leads the following paragraphs...

Groveling to Get Big

The task of drumming up contributions from potential small donors is probably the least of the candidates' concerns. Big Business is a different story. Soliciting campaign contributions from the senior executives and owners of major corporations is a far more challenging task, one that requires candidates and their staffs to hone and apply the fine art of wooing and cajoling. The road to the White House leads through the living rooms of Hollywood executives, Wall Street financiers, defense industry lobbyists, oil magnates and corporate strategists of every stripe and color. Indeed, groveling is practically a prerequisite for hitting the big time: the country's highest office.

[...]

These major donors, known as "fat cats" in the jargon of campaign managers, hold so much clout that they can sometimes make or break a candidate's political career. Indeed, the bank accounts of the country's economic kingpins contain the raw materials needed to turn politicians into presidents.

The ordinary people are second in line when it comes to being graced by the candidates' presence. But even that isn't always free anymore. Obama, who has raised the most money so far in this year's presidential race, is now charging $25 for tickets to his appearances. But he does offer student discounts.

Political fundraising is now the dominant campaign issue for the public. Who is raising the most money? Who is ahead of whom? What are the candidates' fundraising strategies? It's almost as if the Americans were gearing up to elect the chairman of a nonprofit organization, not a new president.

here's the question that's always asked but never answered...

[W]hy is it that such a wealthy country seems incapable of introducing a clean, public campaign finance system untainted by the odor of corruption?

anyone care to venture a response...? ok... i will... plain and simple, the elites don't want one...

finally, the concluding (and very sad) perspective...

President George W. Bush's 2004 campaign against Democratic candidate John Kerry cost $881 million, which is equal to 0.008 percent of the US national product or 0.04 percent of the government's total budget. Based on these numbers, public campaign financing would weigh in at a cost of $3 per US citizen, once every few years.

By comparison, US per capita spending on pet food amounts to $47 -- a year.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

How Germany sees Petraeus: "The Show Must Go On" while preparing to go to war with Iran

there's no business like show business...

THE PETRAEUS REPORT

The Show Must Go On

Gen. David Petraeus' progress report on Iraq is doing nothing to calm down the debate on the war. He called Monday for "a long-term effort" and only a minimal troop withdrawal. And he laid the groundwork for the next war -- with Iran.

[...]

He mentioned Iran 10 times in his report. Iran, he says, consciously adds fuel to the violence in Iraq by supporting the Iraqi militias: "None of us earlier this year appreciated the extent of Iranian involvement in Iraq." Iran is also trying to transform the militias "into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq."

The Republicans promptly took the bait. Hunter grumbled about the "deadly military equipment (that) continues to flow from Iran." His party colleague Ileana Ros-Lehtinen predicted that "the radical Iranian regime ... will increase its interference in Iraq if the US rapidly withdraws."

in honor of spiegel's well-chosen headline, here's a clip from the movie, "moulin rouge!," featuring jim broadbent delivering an electrifying performance of "the show must go on..."



i must confess, i would have never gone to see moulin rouge! had it not been for the compelling recommendation of my daughter, who so happens to be one of my very best sources for both movie and book recommendations...


Moulin Rouge! (2001) - Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo,
Jim Broadbent, Nicole Kidman

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

"Uppity" developing countries - a headline from Spiegel on the G-8 summit

any country that has the nerve to print this headline has no room to talk about anyone else being "uppity"...

Developing Countries Get Uppity Ahead of the G-8 Summit

[Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva] suggests that rich countries should pay poor countries to preserve their forests if they are so concerned about deforestation. Meanwhile China and India ask why they should have to cut their emissions when developed countries got rich by polluting.

Many experts on climate change have proposed market-oriented approaches to fighting global warming, such as emissions trading or carbon taxes. Now Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has suggested a blindingly simple market-driven solution to deforestation -- if rich countries want poor countries to preserve their forests, they should pay them to do so.

my sympathies lie totally with the developing countries... the g8 countries most certainly DID get rich by polluting and, now that the developing countries want a piece of the pie, we try and curb their development in the name of halting pollution...

what gets obscured here is that a great deal of the "riches" of the g8 came directly from the resources of the developing countries and still do... the g8 countries consume a vastly disproportionate share of global resources, a situation that suits them just fine... calling developing countries "uppity" for daring to point that out really rubs me the wrong way, especially when spiegel attempts to justify it with this...

Lula's comments gloss over the fact that Brazil is itself a rich country -- albeit one with a high level of inequality between rich and poor citizens. According to figures from the International Monetary Fund, Brazil in 2006 had the 10th largest gross domestic product in the world, ahead of G-8 member Russia and other supposedly rich countries such as Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden.

yes, brazil is a VERY rich country and tossing in the aside about the rich-poor gap completely understates the reality... i can't cite a specific percentage, but based on my familiarity with other latin american economies, you can be sure that well over 85% of brazil's total wealth is under the control of less than 5% of the population, and that may be underestimating the situation... talking about brazil having the 10th largest gdp in the world reminds me of the joke i read yesterday... when bill gates walks into a bar, the average income for everyone there rises 10,000%...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments