US shadow regime in Berlin ;-)

[myschkin]

Who´s the president?

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,336644,00.html

[KurtNYC]

1. Dieses ist auf Deutsche

Wir sind nicht deutsche sprechers, bitte.

[myschkin]

2. Guess

you know the names of "Fischer" and "Schröder"...

[NationalEnquirer]

3. In Germany?

I dont know, I mean, the Germans are great, but I'd prefer another country, some place that doesn't have a history with Facism, especially when we are comparing Bush with Hitler.. just doesn't come across right.
How about Denmark or some other nice little country, Switzerland?

[rockedthevoteinMA]

4. but aren't germans now pacifists? Isn't there government

now the equivalent of our green party? They seem to have learned from their past mistakes. (from what I have heard anyway)

[JBear]

5. Switzerland??? Are you serious?

The "neutral" Suisse have long been the financiers of the worst of the worst. Switzerland is where the money trail goes. For me, I will take your first suggestion of Denmark - WONEERFUL place and great people too.

Of course, I will spend the national day of mourning (*'s day) in Canada this year! I won't think about it now. Tomorrow is yet another day!

:bounce:

[Karenina]

8. Oh, how ignorant and prejudiced ...

FACT: GERMANY is the ONLY NATION in the whole DAMNED WORLD that has confronted its history head-on IN TOTO. THE ONLY ONE. PUNKT!

Reading Der Spiegel as a non-native speaker is quite the challenge. I do so wish my skills were better because this bit is some VERY FUNNY SHIT! There are nuances built into the language that really cannot be translated properly. Rest assured that those who lived through the horror are not just talking into a copped hat when they set off the SIRENS AND KLAXONS!

[Lydia Guerra]

14. Lydia's Turn

So, you're judging Germany from your recliner in a country with a history of horrible slavery? Back up: So, you're judging Germany from your swivel chair in a country founded on genocide of the people who already lived on the continent before it was "discovered"?

People who live in glass houses ...
or
Check the log in your own eye ...

Just thought I'd put in my 2 centavos

[myschkin]

6. Sorry

Kerry visited Berlin yesterday after his trip in Iraq and met with Bundeskanzler Schröder and foreign minister Fischer.

Made a mistake in the header... :-(

[SaveAmerica]

7. Let me translate,

Kerry heimlich bei Schröder und Fischer

(this says Kerry was choking and was given the heimlich maneuver by Schroeder und Fisher)

Kerry: Lebhafte Erinnerungen an Berlin
Berlin - Die Gäste im Restaurant "Borchardt" staunten nicht schlecht, als sie am Mittwochabend zu Tisch saßen.

(This says they ate at a restaurant called 'Borchardt' on Wednesday evening, apparently where the choking took place.)

Für den früheren Herausforderer von Präsident George W. Bush ist die Hauptstadt vertrautes Gelände.

(This says George Bush is the Fuhrer.)

ps the only German I know is food, the ordering of and enjoying.

[bobbieinok]

22. assume you're joking 'heimlich' means 'secretly'

Für den früheren Herausforderer von Präsident George W. Bush means for the former challenger of GWBush

[RevCheesehead]

9. English translation, bitte.

Meine Deutsche is nicht sehr gut, und ich moechte das denn verstehen.
Danke.

[Catamount]

11. This german isn't quite right....

But I did read that Kerry spent a lot of time in Berlin in his early years, because his father was stationed there as a diplomat.
When he was eleven Kerry spent a lot of time biking through some parts of the city, including the eastern zones, where the war damage was worst. (PS> I GREW UP THERE TOO)
I think you all got the gist of the rest, but it does seem that he's making peace-talks among world leaders, who refuse to deal with * first hand.

[Munich Democrat]

10. English Translation

Only a Google translation...


Kerry meeting with Schroeder and Fischer

By Severin Weiland

Former US presidency candidate John F. Kerry is in Berlin for a secret short visit. He met minister of foreign affairs Fischer and chancellor Schroeder. Kerry remembers the city lively- during the cold war he went to the eastern part and thereby caused a family crisis.
The guests of the restaurant "Borchardt" were astonished at wednesday evening. While primarily German celebrities from politics and culture meet there, John F. Kerry showed up. When the former Democratic presidency candidate left the restaurant in Berlin, photographers already waited for him. The US senator makes a short visit on the way back from his journey to the Middle East. On thursday at noon, Kerry attended a discussion with Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer, as a spokeswoman of the Foreign Office now confirmed. In the late afternoon, Kerry and US Ambassador Daniel Coats met the Federal Chancellor. The discussion was about the situation in the Middle East. Kerry talked about his numerous discussions which he led in Palestine, Egypt and in other states of the region. The Chancellor made clear that a peaceful solution of the conflict is the key for a durable solution in the whole region. This, in the opinion of the Chancellor, will only be possible with an engaged participation of the United States.
For Kerry, who visited the Palestinian autonomy areas recently, it is the first visit to Berlin since his defeat in November 2004. According to the US embasy Kerry visited Berlin in his function as a US senator. Kerry will leave Berlin on Thursday. For the former challenger of President George W. Bush, the capital is familiar area, for Kerry knows Berlin from his youth. His father Richard and his family lived in a mansion in Dahlem from 1954 to 1956. Kerrys father, a diplomat, worked for the American High Council at that time. Young John F., at that time eleven years old, was educated in a Swiss boarding school. But Kerry was often in Berlin - where he was underways on his bicycle, visited the Grunewald and the center of the heavily destroyed city. It, however, lay in the eastern part of Berlin. When he proudly told about his attendance of the Soviet occupied zone, he caused an internal family conflict. If he had been arrested there, this could have led to an international crisis. His angry father therefore extracted the passport from him and imposed house arrest on him - youth experiences which Kerry did not forget and about which he talked in the US election campaign. After his nomination in July 2004 he tried to use his experiences for a message to his compatriots: "What I saw there will accompyny me for my whole life", he said. He experienced how different the life was in the different parts of the same city. "I saw", so Kerry about the east, "the fear in the eyes of humans who were not free."

[zann725]

18. That's my President! Maybe if enough world leaders start talking?

n/t :think:

[demo dutch]

12. Love it!

[Lydia Guerra]

13. The following text from an anonymous observer.

Lydia shares the following from a friend:

Sometimes it's just really nauseating, and if people wonder why I periodically just throw my hands up in despair thinking there is absolutely no hope for this country, well, there you have it.

German-American History Lesson: From an Anonymous Observer

It’s interesting to observe the way the same ignorance and arrogance of the American mainstream consistently trickles into this supposedly progressive forum, where Hopi prayers are called up at the touch of a button and posted as needed in (mock?) reverence, but where any serious confrontation with the facts of American (and German) history is conveniently “whited out.”

On the subject of Germany after WWII, consider this statement made in the early 90s by journalist William Greider.

“German social consciousness was anchored in the country’s tragic knowledge of guilt and defeat, a humbling encounter with self-doubt that Americans have so far evaded in their national history...American history did provide ample basis for humility and social introspection: slavery and the enduring wounds of race, ‘winning’ the West by armed conquest, Hiroshima and the nuclear potential for mass destruction, the bloody failure of the neocolonialist war in Vietnam...The social meaning of these experiences was usually deflected, however, and repackaged by the optimistic American culture as stories of triumph...Thus Americans generally managed to evade any national sense of guilt or defeat. Critical reflection on the national character was discouraged, ridiculed as ‘un-American.’ William Greider, One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism,” (p.368)

Consider in this light also the following *documented* FACTS:

Nazi Germany¹s “Nuremberg Racial Laws” (1938), were modeled DIRECTLY after racial segregation laws in the US (forbidding mixed-race marriages, forced sterilization of minority women , etc.)

Adolf Hitler repeatedly expressed admiration for America’s handling of The “Indian question” and saw this as its model for handing its own “Jewish Question”

Holocaust denial is outlawed in Germany; it is a criminal offense‹this is why German neo-Nazis need to host their anti-semitic and racist crap on American ISPs

Display of the Nazi Swastika is a punishable offense in Germany (but for god’s sake don¹t ever mess with a confederate flag in the US!)

Y'all need to take a serious look in the mirror: barring that, get an HONEST history lesson on genocide from an international, comparative perspective.

Someone from Europe does you the favor of posting an interesting foreign language publication and all you can do is complain that you lack the linguistic skills to understand (well, send the damn thing through Babelfish, but don’t go after the messenger for your own lack of education).

Do you not see that expecting the whole world to speak YOUR language in order to communicate with you is one part of the whole arrogant, ignorant, lazy and just plain stupid REPUBLICAN NEW WORLD ORDER?

Change YOURSELVES and look at your own pathologies before you start worrying about what the Germans did 50 years ago. Look at what the Germans are doing now: For one thing, they are seeking to try Rummie for war crimes in Iraq: here, a nice little summary in a language you can understand.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1413907,00.html

Some days, it¹s really embarrassing to be an American. This is one of them.

[rumpel]

15. Hat Spiegel auch ueber Voter Fraud geschrieben?

I wrote them some time ago, that they have be at the Conyers hearing...

[myschkin]

16. Far far away world

Unfortunately not. It´s far far away from them...

They have a big online editorial staff - i wrote them many times - but rien... They just wrote small stories - for example one time of the Berkeley Study but always with the undertone: This change nothing... Bush won for sure.

Their correspondents just read NYT...

Write them here: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

[Pooka Fey]

17. This actually makes me crazy to hear Kerry is busy "politicking" in the DR

while America is sliding deeper and deeper into fascism. He has completely distanced himself from Conyers, the Congressional Black Caucus, Cobb, all who are questioning the validity of the election. Repug J.D. Hayworth quoted John Kerry's entire concession speech to highlight how "ridiculous" it was for the only real patriots we have in Congress to question the election results.

Kerry runs away to the other end of the world to play "President", thinking this will help him in 2008. It won't. Jeb Bush is our next "pResident". Some Massachusetts democrats have stated that they plan to make sure Kerry is finished as their senator. I hope so.

Yes, I am angry at Kerry because in order to protect his own career, he betrayed our democratic government. He used to be a great man, a hero, and I had nothing but admiration and respect for him. The Repugs treated him like crap during the election and it was abhorrent. That doesn't excuse him for what he did when he folded less than 24 hours after the fix was in. Flame away, Kerry apologists, if you must.

[zann725]

19. I do NOT believe now that he's "running away." This trip of his

is QUITE encouraging. Patience...'til it plays out.

[Pooka Fey]

21. For reading while we wait: Newsweek Exclusive: J. Kerry on Why Bush Won

From Jan. 10, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6777696/site/newsweek

blurb: "Kerry has become deeply fascinated by the task of rebuilding the Democratic Party from the grass roots up, say his advisers."

With all the energy so many of us poured into electing him - Election Protection groups, Video the Vote, MoveOn, local democratic parties, phone banking, GOTVers, volunteers, fund-raisers, AirAmerica radio, etc, etc, etc, --------aren't your feelings just a little bit hurt by the implication that his loss is OUR failure - a failure at the grass-roots level? Sorry, apparently I'm having trouble letting JFK go - it's like a bad breakup. Peace. :hi:

[myschkin]

23. Quote

"Until about 7 p.m. that night, it felt great to be the 44th president of the United States."

[Pooka Fey]

24. ??? - Ich verstehe jetz. :-)

I understand now. It felt great to be president, but it would feel horrible to be the candidate saying "I was cheated".

Americans are used to feeling good all the time. Ukrainians don't have this expectation, which is why their candidate didn't bolt away from his supporters.

[suffragette]

20. Tuscaloosa news has a short piece on the visit

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050114/API/501140692