Posted on 08/09/2005 10:55:42 AM PDT by stocksthatgoup
Thanks; saw your post late.
Still more reading/analysis to be done on Kosovo
Never heard of him. Is he related to David Broder?
http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/gw.htm
you might find this site interesting....
Germany needs a Ronald Reagan!
What Germany needs is a conservative leader who has the charisma, mandate by the people and vision to push through the needed reforms within Germany. Who was going to stand up against Reagan when he announced his tax plan?
Another issue with German politics is that even the German conservatives are very “social” minded. They are not conservative in the sense that an American defines “Conservatives”. Example, Merkel is talking about increasing the VAT tax in Germany from 16 to 18%.
Germany needs an “Iron Lady”. Germany today lacks leadership in its ruling parties the SPD and Greens. They are led by a corrupt crowd that is void of morals, vision or even talent. Schroeder is a Clinton incarnate. Clinton and Schroeder are so strikingly similar it’s scary! Unfortunately, both men led their nations down a wrong path and through sheer charisma were able to make up for poor decisions with good speeches. Look at Clinton and Somalia, Rwanda, Balkans or OBL and the rise of terror under his tenure. Clinton was a disaster! Besides embarrassing the US with his personal conduct, he made poor decisions which even directly cost Americans their lives. But all is OK if you can talk well, Clinton proved that. Schroeder is no different.
It is important that when Merkel assumes power that she not water down her agenda. The ideological based decision making of the SPD, Greens, PDS has nearly ruined the German economy, alienated it from its friends (Even within Europe), achieved little for the environment and helped create a dangerous security situation within Europe.
Oekosteuer, Islam is our friend (appeasement), Gruener Punkt, Kein Blut fuer Oel, no missile defense (but secretly yes we’ll buy MEADS), Kyoto is dead but the Germans signed, and Gruener Punkt trash is floating around in Indonesia (as I explained to you before), appease the Islamist who will want to kill you anyway, go against the Iraq war, Oekosteuer which punishes consumption. You can’t dream up a worse tax if you want to hurt your economy. Shut down nuclear power plants, subsidize a huge part of your economy-even the coal industry, all but ban genetic engineering........ It is incredible the German economy is holding on as it is! For real, many have expected it to be worse off by now. A lot of this was good election politics, but in the end, these ideological based moves cost the Germans jobs, wealth, security, and friends and did nothing for the environment. Again, in the end, how did Schroeder and his unilateral categorical “Nein!” to the Iraq war help Germany, the US or the Iraqis? It was election politics pure.
I hope Germany returns to the era of “pragmatic” decision making. The Germans historically were viewed as structured, conservative, square people. They were defined as people who live to work; great engineering and stoicism were part of it. Where and when did this die? Fischer, Schroeder, Tritin (The commie), Gregor Gysi (PDS commie) define German politics today.
Kohl, Adenauer even Schmidt were great chancellors, but where did this garbage that is at the wheel today come from? Are the German people seeing the light? Are they realizing there is a cause and effect? Maybe, just possibly their economy is dying because of the poor decisions made? Or can they just shake their finger at the US and blame us for that too?
Is this the beginning of a trend towards a more conservative Germany? Great if it is.
But if your CDU wins the elections, just realize this. You are inheriting a critical patient. He’s already stopped breathing but his heart is still beating, lightly. You won’t have an easy time. Germany has been run into the ground!
Red6
I'm not very optimistic that the CDU will change a lot. The cause for this is our election system. As soon as a party takes over in Berlin they're bound to do as little hurt to the people as possible. Otherwise their party might suffer in the states elections which are held during their legislative period in Berlin.
Germany today:
http://www.w-asg.de/
http://www.dkp.de/
http://www.pds-europa.de/
http://www.gruene.de/index.htm
Then there is the “Other” side:
http://www.dvu.de/
http://www.rep.de/
http://www.npd.de/index.php?sek=0&pfad_id=7
Germany has become much more polarized in the last years. There is a reemergence of the far right (Not in the US conservative style, but the “national socialist” type).
The main stream parties in Germany are in part pandering for the votes for the people who are running in these directions. No doubt that Germany is economically a basket case today. There is “real” poverty. The masses are unhappy and extremism is on the rise. This was obvious in 2002 and even today within the ranks of the SPD and Greens. The whole “Locust Capitalist” babble and more is a direct play to gain the support of this changed demographics.
Truth is, communists and Nazi’s are in the state legislatures already. They even have them as representatives to the European parliament. Of course this is “insignificant” and goes largely unnoticed by our MSM that thinks GITMO or Abu Gahrib to be a much bigger story! For real, there are no kidding NAZI party members in state legislatures.
However, the real danger is from the left! When the wall fell, Germany was over-run. You can’t expect to have the “socialist” mentality to vaporize after the wall fell. Despite the DDR being absorbed, the communist thought, the hate of America, is still there. Germany after 1989 changed politically. It moved left substantially. As evidenced through the changes in German abortion laws (Paragraph 218- http://www.zpr.uni-koeln.de/~petra/p218.html ), the liberalization of women in the armed forces, Arbeitsbeschaffungsmassnahmen ( http://www.arbeitsbeschaffungsmassnahmen.teamarbeit-fuer-deutschland.de/ ) and more.
Germany adopted 17,000,000 people who while they say Honiker was bad, still think that there are a lot of good virtues in “socialism”.
Red6
Damn, those Germans have some pretty long words.
Agreed, mainly, but a Thatcher is as good as a Reagan. The problem is, my own party is fu*king up the whole campaign. The dam-ed start is a total failure. First a prominent state interior minister who wanted to become Minister of Defense has insulted the East Germans, and now one of our "jokers" - the Bavarian Prime Minister - has done a comparable damage. I hope we can fix this, we still got 5 weeks to go, but our dumb leaders need to wake up!
Mistakes are normal, but when you're not liked by the MSM you can't afford any mistakes.
Clinton got away with being a member of an "exclusive" golf club where blacks were not found, cheating on his wife, perjury, a little Somalia, etc. But nothing seemed to hurt him, why? The MSM liked him. He was an excellent speaker, a word twisting lawyer, but the fact that the media was in his corner from the get go helped as well.
You’re no different. Spiegel, Stern, VOX, MTV…..the artsy crowd (musicians, actors etc) are naturally against you (I’m talking generalities). In the last elections in the US nearly 80% of the journalists voted for Kerry, yet they try to tell us they are neutral and say “Look, look FOX is politically right!” As if one slightly right of center cannel among four left oriented ones is a balance.
Really, the media generally favors the political left. This tends to work against the political right. Even in that respect Germany and the US are similar.
I´m very interested in the new polls next week. They´ll show the impact of Stoibers remarks.
Fortunately, we have some right-of-center media (Bild, Welt, FAZ, some regional papers - and in the near future SAT1, Pro7, Kabel1). In a survey 1998, 520 of 542 asked journalists of the WDR told they voted either Green or SPD. That says a lot about our "Rotfunk".
A goal for the next 10 years should be to abolish the GEZ or state-sponsored TV.
Lenin referred to intellectuals as "useful idiots".
The MSM in both the US and Germany are politically left, but you're worse off then us. With us there is some balance. 520 out of 542! Wow, that's worse than our over 80% of journalists that voted Kerry. Yet you notice that the MSM always tries to tell you that they are objective!
Red6
Michael,
What you must understand is that there are real consequences tied to the political gamesmanship of Gerhard Schroeder.
As in 2002 the consequences of such BS are huge.
He is emboldening the Iranians! He is basically telling Iran the West is split; “We will NOT support any action and will even work against it.” As with Saddam in 2002 Schroeder is “LESSENING” the probability of Iran conforming by eliminating the stick. We never had much of a carrot to begin with.
If the US is forced to add a force aspect to this issue Schroeder now just like in 2002 has to go against it. He can’t back peddle. As in 2002 if he tries to go back on his word after the fact, it would crack his coalition. Ironically Germany is not even really a player other than that it’s an aircraft carrier for operations there and is needed politically.
What this all means is that he will work against any military option within the UN, NATO and EU. This means that Germany will be on the sidelines if a military option is necessary. That politically Germany will attack the US if we do conduct a strike in the future. That politically Germany will even work against us and do what it can to undermine the appearance of success, as is the case in Iraq. The German state official will look for angles to attack the legitimacy, success or effect and will focus on the collateral damage, cost and potential side effects. As in Abu Garhib where both Schroeder and Fischer took the opportunity to make statements, Germany will work against us even in this respect.
Words have meaning.
Schroeder has made Germany “de facto” an ally of Iran.
Red6
(oops-sent to myself in error) Michael,
What you must understand is that there are real consequences tied to the political gamesmanship of Gerhard Schroeder.
As in 2002 the consequences of such BS are huge.
He is emboldening the Iranians! He is basically telling Iran the West is split; “We will NOT support any action and will even work against it.” As with Saddam in 2002 Schroeder is “LESSENING” the probability of Iran conforming by eliminating the stick. We never had much of a carrot to begin with.
If the US is forced to add a force aspect to this issue Schroeder now just like in 2002 has to go against it. He can’t back peddle. As in 2002 if he tries to go back on his word after the fact, it would crack his coalition. Ironically Germany is not even really a player other than that it’s an aircraft carrier for operations there and is needed politically.
What this all means is that he will work against any military option within the UN, NATO and EU. This means that Germany will be on the sidelines if a military option is necessary. That politically Germany will attack the US if we do conduct a strike in the future. That politically Germany will even work against us and do what it can to undermine the appearance of success, as is the case in Iraq. The German state official will look for angles to attack the legitimacy, success or effect and will focus on the collateral damage, cost and potential side effects. As in Abu Garhib where both Schroeder and Fischer took the opportunity to make statements, Germany will work against us even in this respect.
Words have meaning.
Schroeder has made Germany “de facto” an ally of Iran.
Red6
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