Remarks of Senator Barack Obama (as prepared for delivery)"A World that Stands as One"July 24th, 2008Berlin, Germany Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome. I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world. I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British. At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.
'Terrorists nukular terrorists Al Qaeda terrorists mushroom cloud over Paris - boo!'
'Ich bin eine speechmaker'
Plus some stuff about global warming and things that might actually matter.
Seems like a misfire to me. It's too self-consciously faux-Kennedy, and I don't think he quite has the gravitas to make it stick.
What does Germany think?
His Republican opponent John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham followed Obama's words in "Schmidt's Fudge Haus" in Columbus (Ohio).
*Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Has McCain HQ been infiltrated by Obama moles? Is McCain just so plain stupid and deaf that he didn't realise this would be top-rank comedy?
Is The Onion running Campaign McCain?
So many questions. So much chortling and fun yet to happen before we have answers.
its as if its a bad Hollywood comedy and someones about to come in and say "from this point things can only get better". and from here on the disadvantaged loser will go on to win. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
McCain et al WANT TO LOSE! (Oh shit, NOW WHAT?!)
That's right. The fix is in. The neofascists have done enough damage to the US/world, they have accumulated enough resources, everything is in place for a DEPRESSION that will make the '20s/'30s look like the good old days. The Dems will get blamed for gas/food shartages in the US, Americans will be at each others' throats just to survive, and the neofascists will remind us of those good old Bush days (like you hear bullshit about the good old days of Clinton ... NONSENSE! I was there!) and we get a world fascist authoritarian state.
That's what's comin' kids. I said it first, here at ET. I hope I'm wrong; saying "I told you so" in three years (probably not possible; the internet will be co-opted for the cause; communications will be MUCH more restricted) won't feel good (with MY mouth, I'll already be hauled away).
Hopefully metavision will post a 4 and that's it. In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
Having Obama a week into his presidency do a surprise TV presentation where he said that the Reps have robbed everyone blind and concealed the fact. the economies screwed, and due to their torturing foreign nationals theres a shortage goodwill left to help the USA out of its current financial predicament. then roll out a New New Deal to deal with the problem. Place the blame early and with a big boot before the Media gets to do it to him might just be the best plan. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Obama urges global fight against terror - Europe, World - The Independent
Uh, uh, uhbama is no David Hasselhoff.
I just came back from hearing Obama speak near the Victory column here in Berlin. The german crowd was polite, but not enthusiastic. Obama indirectly asked for more german involvment in Afganistan which met with silence. Also his going on about the airlift during the cold-war was a bit much seeing as the cold-war was as much a american made problem as it was a soviet one. This going on about the wall was also a bit much as he was not critical about the newest wall of exclusion namely the walls that the isreallis are builiding about which he said nothing. He mentioned getting rid of all atomic weapons - this after the US government is supporting a deal leading to increased Indian access to nuclear fuel could accelerate the atomic arms race with Pakistan. What the people in Berlin came to hear and expect was an apology from a high US official for the last years of the stupid and criminal Bush gang. What it got instead was a milk-toast speach saying nothing. Complain about this commentPosted by Wim from Berlin | 24.07.08, 20:57 GMT
I just came back from hearing Obama speak near the Victory column here in Berlin. The german crowd was polite, but not enthusiastic. Obama indirectly asked for more german involvment in Afganistan which met with silence. Also his going on about the airlift during the cold-war was a bit much seeing as the cold-war was as much a american made problem as it was a soviet one. This going on about the wall was also a bit much as he was not critical about the newest wall of exclusion namely the walls that the isreallis are builiding about which he said nothing. He mentioned getting rid of all atomic weapons - this after the US government is supporting a deal leading to increased Indian access to nuclear fuel could accelerate the atomic arms race with Pakistan. What the people in Berlin came to hear and expect was an apology from a high US official for the last years of the stupid and criminal Bush gang. What it got instead was a milk-toast speach saying nothing.
Complain about this comment
Posted by Wim from Berlin | 24.07.08, 20:57 GMT
This, on the other hand, is just plain insane.
I wonder if McCain's minions will use another photo-op of his to mobilise the evangelical base: Obama's meeting with Berlin's openly gay major. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The picture of Obama's hand in the crowd reminded me of that.
But I think it is just me ;)
The nationalism over there is scaring me. Am I the only one who has a problem with adulation of a perceived "strong leader"? I mean, are these people BLIND? Don't they see what they're admiring?
Waving flags... chanting... crowds... ohhh, hypnotic, yes, Barack, we BELIEVE!
It's scary as hell.
Thank you guys, again, for seeing it for what it is instead of being mindless morons.
Such frenzy seems telling about the state of the amurkan subconscious. and these are the "good guys." "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
That sound egotistical, and it is, but it also happens to be true.
Obama is a typical demagogue. He has decent manipulative skills, organizational ability, party connections, and sufficient financial backing to win the presidency. Listening to what he says, rather than some Pink Lollipop version, it becomes clear he isn't any big change from George:
It analyses the appearance of "four Obamas" - the restrained Obama, the Transatlantic Bridge-building Obama, the crafty campaigner Obama, and the save-the-world rhetoric Obama.
The article does mention the differential applause: strongest when saying things that "sentences that are actually totally self-evident", when Obama says Americans reject torture, when global warming is mentioned.
At the end, we get an explanation for the critical tone and the intro sentence I quoted in bilingual column above: all of the 40 yournalists invited after the speech were Americans. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Very snarky, perceptive, and dead-on right.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she is looking forward to her meeting with US presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Thursday but will resist any pressure to send more troops to Afghanistan. In a press conference that ran over an hour a day before the Thursday, July 24, meeting with the presumed US Democratic Party's presidential candidate, Merkel responded to numerous questions about Obama as anticipation mounted for the senator's arrival in Berlin. Tens of thousands of spectators were expected to attend his speech Thursday afternoon at the Victory Column in central Berlin. While Berlin was in Obama fever ahead of the visit, political commentators stressed that the main aim of the visit was to boost the senator's fortunes in the US presidential race.
In a press conference that ran over an hour a day before the Thursday, July 24, meeting with the presumed US Democratic Party's presidential candidate, Merkel responded to numerous questions about Obama as anticipation mounted for the senator's arrival in Berlin.
Tens of thousands of spectators were expected to attend his speech Thursday afternoon at the Victory Column in central Berlin.
While Berlin was in Obama fever ahead of the visit, political commentators stressed that the main aim of the visit was to boost the senator's fortunes in the US presidential race.
Obamania took over Berlin Thursday as the US presidential hopeful came to the German capital for meetings with Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier. But his main appointment was scheduled for early evening. US presidential hopeful Barack Obama met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday for talks on key international issues. German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm described the talks as "very open and in depth," adding they were held in a good atmosphere.
US presidential hopeful Barack Obama met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday for talks on key international issues.
German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm described the talks as "very open and in depth," adding they were held in a good atmosphere.
The Democratic candidate for US President embarks today on the second half of a foreign tour designed with two objectives in mind: to convince US voters that he is no innocent abroad and to show his foreign hosts how much more amenable an ally he would be than either George Bush or John McCain. Between now and Saturday, Barack Obama will find out whether the same magic that won him his party's nomination can work for him in Berlin, Paris and London as well. In a well-judged speech before he left the US, Mr Obama pressed all the right buttons for this second, European, section of his journey. He extolled George Marshall and the plan that helped rebuild Europe after the Second World War. He spoke of the need to listen and show respect; he praised the European preference for patient negotiation over force, and he pledged himself to cooperative efforts to combat climate change and to reform - not disband - the United Nations. The contrast with George Bush, especially the first-term George Bush, could hardly have been greater. It is no exaggeration to say that relations with Europe have been among the most egregious, and most avoidable, failures of Mr Bush's presidency. It was not just his hubris over Iraq - although that war served to reinforce European hostility. It was his early US-centrism, his woeful inexperience of abroad, and his apparent lack of interest in how other people perceived the world. The gung-ho language and manners, as he has recently come close to acknowledging, only made matters worse.
The Democratic candidate for US President embarks today on the second half of a foreign tour designed with two objectives in mind: to convince US voters that he is no innocent abroad and to show his foreign hosts how much more amenable an ally he would be than either George Bush or John McCain. Between now and Saturday, Barack Obama will find out whether the same magic that won him his party's nomination can work for him in Berlin, Paris and London as well.
In a well-judged speech before he left the US, Mr Obama pressed all the right buttons for this second, European, section of his journey. He extolled George Marshall and the plan that helped rebuild Europe after the Second World War. He spoke of the need to listen and show respect; he praised the European preference for patient negotiation over force, and he pledged himself to cooperative efforts to combat climate change and to reform - not disband - the United Nations. The contrast with George Bush, especially the first-term George Bush, could hardly have been greater.
It is no exaggeration to say that relations with Europe have been among the most egregious, and most avoidable, failures of Mr Bush's presidency. It was not just his hubris over Iraq - although that war served to reinforce European hostility. It was his early US-centrism, his woeful inexperience of abroad, and his apparent lack of interest in how other people perceived the world. The gung-ho language and manners, as he has recently come close to acknowledging, only made matters worse.
White House hopeful Barack Obama has told Berliners the US and Europe have drifted apart and it is time for them to come together again. "If we're honest... we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart and forgotten our shared destiny," he said. Thousands of people turned out to hear him make the only public speech of his current world tour. His words were broadcast live in Germany, where he is a popular figure.
White House hopeful Barack Obama has told Berliners the US and Europe have drifted apart and it is time for them to come together again.
"If we're honest... we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart and forgotten our shared destiny," he said.
Thousands of people turned out to hear him make the only public speech of his current world tour.
His words were broadcast live in Germany, where he is a popular figure.
Obama looks to Europe to supplement his army.
No nation can face global challenges such as terrorism and climate change alone, Barack Obama told a cheering crowd of some 100,000 in Berlin Thursday, July 24, calling for a new partnership between the US and Europe. In front of a crowd that Berlin police estimated to be as large as 100,000, Obama acknowledged differences between America and Europe, adding that "no doubt there will be differences in the future. "But the burdens of global citizenship bind us together," he said, speaking under the central Berlin landmark of the Victory Column facing towards the Brandenburg Gate. Partnership among nations was not a choice but the only way to protect the security of Europe and the US, the Democratic Party presidential hopeful said.
In front of a crowd that Berlin police estimated to be as large as 100,000, Obama acknowledged differences between America and Europe, adding that "no doubt there will be differences in the future.
"But the burdens of global citizenship bind us together," he said, speaking under the central Berlin landmark of the Victory Column facing towards the Brandenburg Gate.
Partnership among nations was not a choice but the only way to protect the security of Europe and the US, the Democratic Party presidential hopeful said.
Although it appears most of Berlin is heading to Obama's speech today, US Foreign Service personnel will be banned from the event. And they are not happy. The American Foreign Service Association, a union of Foreign Service workers are opposing the rule. Read more from The Washington Post. And watch the speech live here. The U.S. Embassy in Berlin has instructed Foreign Service personnel stationed there not to attend Sen. Barack Obama's public rally today, which the State Department this week labeled a "partisan political activity" prohibited under its regulations for those serving overseas. Government employees serving in the United States are permitted to attend such events under the Hatch Act, which bars other partisan activity, such as contributing money or working in behalf of a candidate...
Although it appears most of Berlin is heading to Obama's speech today, US Foreign Service personnel will be banned from the event. And they are not happy. The American Foreign Service Association, a union of Foreign Service workers are opposing the rule. Read more from The Washington Post. And watch the speech live here.
The U.S. Embassy in Berlin has instructed Foreign Service personnel stationed there not to attend Sen. Barack Obama's public rally today, which the State Department this week labeled a "partisan political activity" prohibited under its regulations for those serving overseas. Government employees serving in the United States are permitted to attend such events under the Hatch Act, which bars other partisan activity, such as contributing money or working in behalf of a candidate...
Government employees serving in the United States are permitted to attend such events under the Hatch Act, which bars other partisan activity, such as contributing money or working in behalf of a candidate...
Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for US president, called for a major rapprochement between Europe and America in his landmark foreign policy speech in Berlin. Speaking before thousands of spectators in central Berlin, he admitted that Europe and America had come to view each other with suspicion and even with derision. "In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common," he said. "In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future". But he said that "now is time to build new bridges across the globe" with America learning from Germany's environmental leadership, and Germany contributing more to American-led NATO efforts in Afghanistan. The speech, which has long been trailed as a defining moment of senator Obama's campaign to become US president, was given outside before a host of mostly admiring spectators.
Speaking before thousands of spectators in central Berlin, he admitted that Europe and America had come to view each other with suspicion and even with derision.
"In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common," he said.
"In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future".
But he said that "now is time to build new bridges across the globe" with America learning from Germany's environmental leadership, and Germany contributing more to American-led NATO efforts in Afghanistan.
The speech, which has long been trailed as a defining moment of senator Obama's campaign to become US president, was given outside before a host of mostly admiring spectators.
Before the Obama speech, the front cover of Stern magazine asked whether Obama was coming as a Messiah or as a seducer - there was not much of either in evidence tonight. The crowd of around 120,000 was in carnival mood. Girls dyed their hair red-white-and blue, people hung from the lampposts first installed by Nazi architect Albert Speer; there were jugglers; some dancing on the fringes. Big television screens were erected with Obama, dwarfed by the Victory Column, impossibly distant for most. For the majority of the young audience, it was familiar terrain, mimicking the sunny days of the 2006 World Cup.
Before the Obama speech, the front cover of Stern magazine asked whether Obama was coming as a Messiah or as a seducer - there was not much of either in evidence tonight.
The crowd of around 120,000 was in carnival mood.
Girls dyed their hair red-white-and blue, people hung from the lampposts first installed by Nazi architect Albert Speer; there were jugglers; some dancing on the fringes. Big television screens were erected with Obama, dwarfed by the Victory Column, impossibly distant for most.
For the majority of the young audience, it was familiar terrain, mimicking the sunny days of the 2006 World Cup.
Huh!? Does this idiot think there was no public lighting in Berlin before the Nazis? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
I mean this one clearly ate Mick Jagger, look at the lips. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
BERLIN: Senator Barack Obama stood before a sprawling sea of people here Thursday evening and issued a trans-Atlantic call for cooperation, imploring America and Europe to bridge differences and rekindle old alliances to restore global stability and security and join forces to confront existing and unforeseen threats. "If we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart and forgotten our shared destiny," Obama said. "In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future." Pausing for a moment, he added: "Both views miss the truth." Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who is on a weeklong international tour, delivered his address at the base of Victory Column in Tiegarten Park. He looked out toward the Brandenburg Gate, where President Ronald Reagan offered his historic remarks about ending the Cold War, and spoke to crowd that the German police estimated at 200,000 people.
BERLIN: Senator Barack Obama stood before a sprawling sea of people here Thursday evening and issued a trans-Atlantic call for cooperation, imploring America and Europe to bridge differences and rekindle old alliances to restore global stability and security and join forces to confront existing and unforeseen threats.
"If we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart and forgotten our shared destiny," Obama said. "In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future."
Pausing for a moment, he added: "Both views miss the truth."
Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who is on a weeklong international tour, delivered his address at the base of Victory Column in Tiegarten Park.
He looked out toward the Brandenburg Gate, where President Ronald Reagan offered his historic remarks about ending the Cold War, and spoke to crowd that the German police estimated at 200,000 people.
"In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common.
And all too justified, sez I. But Obama the High Priest of The Belief in America surely doesn't believe that. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
He wasn't endorsing that view! "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
Please. When you peel away the ponies and the kids with candies, that's what Obama was saying. He may have meant it in the nicest possible not-at-all-evil way. But even so - that's what he said.
Therefore - not sold.
The reality was that Obama was a total dweeb today. He stood up in front of hundreds of thousands of Europeans and built a speech around something that happened sixty years ago to an audience whose parents weren't even born then.
WTF was he thinking? Does he not realise how much Europe has changed? Or how much has happened here? Or how this really isn't the Cold War any more, no matter how many times he says 'nuclear' and 'atom'?
When he wants to talk to a 21st century Europe, we'll listen. But this was just retread posturing for the sake of the crowds back home - good 'ole Imperial condescension towards a colony which is unruly, and could one day turn more rebellious than anyone is expecting.
He has spoken about nuclear disarmement, fine (I think he intents with that as well to address the middle east). But in a country which has no nuclear weapons, the reasonable thing would have been to announce one sided disarment to lets say the level of France or UK, so to be at least not the country with the most weapons of all. This would likely have triggered comments in the US, that he weakens US defence, while Russia or whoever remains nuclear overpowered.
He named climate change, but his plan foresees 80% reduction to 2050, while the German plan foresees as well 80% reduction compared to 1990. So apart from the changes in population size, in 2050 the US, as the country with the higher potential for renewable energies, would still emit nearly 2 times the amount of C02 per capita than the host country. But again in the US he would probably be called a destroyer of the US industry, if he would take tougher goals.
He said, 'we Americans are against torture'. There is a charge against some CIA agents, which have kidnapped Khalid Al Masri. Dependently on how narrow or wide you define the word torture, this man was tortured. He needs help from a psychotherapist. He could have annouced, that he will submit those people to the court or, if Americans prefer that, negotiating these charges on an American court. Ok, he couldn't because he is not yet president, but he could have let slip a sentence, that this being against torture may have retroactive consequences in some form. But then you can find already know find on youtube 'hardball' discussions, where his opponents accuse Obama more or less he would have insulted America by admitting it has been 'unperfect' and not always met expectations. So essentially a number of people in the US takes it as unpatriotic, if an American says, the US may (after all everybody sometimes falls short of expectations) not be the greatest country in the world.
Speaking about the cold war, he still could get cheers, without getting too bad press at home. Most people voting in this year, had already in 2004 the right to vote, and a majority decided for GWB. Is it reasonable to expect from that electorate to appreciate political views held by mainstream Europeans? Don't judge Obama by the standards you would apply to European leaders. Americans just come from another planet back to earth and have to get used to earth behaviour, which takes a time. Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den MenschenVolker Pispers
Obama in Berlin - Moon of Alabama
So why is this U.S. guy campaigning in my home country? The Turkish prime minister was here in February. He rented a soccer stadium in a western industrial city. There he gave a talk to some of the 1.8 million Turks living here. That was fine with me. But there are less than 100,000 U.S. people in my country and some candidate, not even a formal one yet, from across the pond makes a big show at one of the premier historic places in our capital? Why is this in our interest? Said candidate by the way is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on European Affairs. Since he got that job in January 2007 he held no policy hearing and never visted Europe. His real interests seem to be elsewhere.
So why is this U.S. guy campaigning in my home country?
The Turkish prime minister was here in February. He rented a soccer stadium in a western industrial city. There he gave a talk to some of the 1.8 million Turks living here. That was fine with me.
But there are less than 100,000 U.S. people in my country and some candidate, not even a formal one yet, from across the pond makes a big show at one of the premier historic places in our capital?
Why is this in our interest?
Said candidate by the way is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on European Affairs. Since he got that job in January 2007 he held no policy hearing and never visted Europe. His real interests seem to be elsewhere.
There are also some interesting comments.
Well, there were twice as many people who showed up to see him today! If you don't want the circus to come to town, don't go to the circus when it comes to town! Lol. Unbelievable.
Look, I am no true believer in Obama. I don't think he's inherently good or bad. But don't complain when America ignores Europe and then complain when America pays attention to Europe. It makes you come across as chronic complainers and nothing more. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
I don't see how you could have read my sentence being about Americans. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
US people are Americans, correct? "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
Back to Benhard's post: the key sentence is "Why is this in our interest?", which I see he has re-written into the even more explicit "How is this in our, German, interest?" in the meantime. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
"How is this in our, German, interest?" It is in our interest, that McCain isn't elected president of the US, because of his assumed greater international experience. It is kind of deceiving, to cheer for a lesser evil, but if it is the much lesser evil, I would say it is allowed. In the beginning I wasn't sure how bad McCain would really be, but the longer the campaign, the more I have the impression, McCain could be a desaster, not only for the USA, but for the world. Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den MenschenVolker Pispers
We know Europeans are susceptible to spin too: we elected Sarkozy and Berlusconi. Still, spin is spin. And Bush is still not impeached.
The point is that electing Obama does not solve any problems I agree that it stops making them worse, and maybe that's the best one can hope. But the problems are still going to be there. And some WILL be worse: 150,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, yey! In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Or rather, there are problems. In order for them to be solved, America has to be part of the solution. America isn't going to be part of the solution until Obama is in office. Who knows if the problems will be solved. But the first step to solving them is getting Bush and his lackey McCain out of the damn room so the adults can talk. "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
I like Van jones' take that we should not too much on one individual but should count on ourselves.
I'm part of the solution too. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I'm reasonably positive about Obama being the end of "being part of the problem"; I just have no clue about his being part of the solution.
I'm really not convinced of this at all.
First, I think that Obama is going to fold like a chair if he is elected.
Second, I think that if you look at his economic advisers, he's full of half ass solutions that aren't going to work.
Voting for Obama is like taking an aspirin for cancer. It might make you feel better, but it's not going to do a think about the disease that's killing you.
And America's got economic cancer, and it's going to take tougher medicine than Obama's serving up to deal with this.
Domestically, he does nothing to address the healthcare crisis, and he's basically Clintonian in his economic orientation.
As for globalization, he's bought into the market will make everything better talk. When the truth is that until neo-liberal globalization is backed up by something like the (albeit very basic) social contract offered in the acquis communitaire the net effect of further globalization is going tio be the erosion of existing rules and the unleashing of naked capitalism. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
Stopping digging is a good thing, but when you're in such a deep hole, I agree it's not quite enough. I guess we'll all have t osee what comes next (actually, I'm curious as to what will come before the election, on the energy and economic fronts: we're in a lull this week, but I don't expect things to last like this for very long). In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I have never found you to be less than polite.
I think that Obama is go to lose. This was a golden opportunity for change, and the chattering classes got fixated on Iraq. It's as though for many of them (and I'm sure that you met this contingent at the big orange place) that there was no Left before the Iraq War.
At the very least, Obama's electoral collapse will be unique in that he will demonstrate an entirely new way to lose, by picking up states like Virginia and Colorado, in which economic issues like trade and healthcare matter less politically than social issues. And losing a gigantic swath of the Midwest (Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania) where factory jobs have gone poof.
The first block of states is worth about a third of the electoral votes of the latter group.
Again, on the positive side, it will be an opportunity for European broadcasters to try to explain what the Electoral College is.
C'est la vie. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
That's a keeper. (To be applied not just for Obama.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
First hearings on impeachment start in about 7 hours. You can watch them live. Unfortunately, it's actually a non-impeachment impeachment hearing, and Conyers has apparently been threatening to shut it down if witnesses accuse Bush of an impeachable offense. From Indybay
Apparently the rules of Congress are designed to allow impeachable offenses to be discussed only in impeachment hearings. Apparently this didn't occur to Chairman Conyers when he decided to hold a non-impeachment impeachment hearing. As a result, his hearing may be quickly shut down, and he will have a choice of holding a real impeachment hearing, resigning, or dropping the pretense that he intends to resist Cheney and Bush in any way whatsoever.
M of A - Obama in Berlin
Speech is over: First mistake: announced for 7pm and started at 7:20pm. In Germany you are supposed to come punctual or come not at all. Otherwise: Well written speech, good orator. About 70,000 people max. A quarter of them U.S. folks. Started with good touch on the Berlin wall and the 1948 air lift to walls in the rest of the world. Said 9/11 terrorists trained in Hamburg, Kandahar and Karachi? Karachi??? Pakistan, watch out! And what about the flight training they got in the U.S.? That and other "war of terror" talk by Obama did get sparse applause. Other talk about "U.S. bases" in Germany and around the world also. Talk about Afghanistan - applause also very low. Obama called for a "world without nuclear weapons" - BIG applause. Common effort against climate change - BIG applause. Some phrases that sound wired for Germans: "sacrifice" "struggle for freedom" "remake the world" These are empty phrases for Germans. Unlike in the U.S. there is no positive associations with these.
Speech is over:
First mistake: announced for 7pm and started at 7:20pm. In Germany you are supposed to come punctual or come not at all.
Otherwise: Well written speech, good orator.
About 70,000 people max. A quarter of them U.S. folks.
Started with good touch on the Berlin wall and the 1948 air lift to walls in the rest of the world.
Said 9/11 terrorists trained in Hamburg, Kandahar and Karachi? Karachi??? Pakistan, watch out! And what about the flight training they got in the U.S.?
That and other "war of terror" talk by Obama did get sparse applause. Other talk about "U.S. bases" in Germany and around the world also. Talk about Afghanistan - applause also very low.
Obama called for a "world without nuclear weapons" - BIG applause. Common effort against climate change - BIG applause.
Some phrases that sound wired for Germans:
"sacrifice" "struggle for freedom" "remake the world"
These are empty phrases for Germans. Unlike in the U.S. there is no positive associations with these.
Most of the German MSM won't emphasize these (though I already saw an article noting the Pakistan thing). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Obama Keeps it Global - Atlantic Review - Analysis of Transatlantic Relations and U.S. Foreign Policy
One of the first things I picked up in the audience after Obama's speech was 'fast genau eine halbe Stunde' (almost exactly half an hour). The audience was keeping time. After many had waited for two hours or longer, they were perhaps expecting more? Certainly, it took some time to get the people around me to warm up beyond 'polite applause'. About halfway in some big applause lines came on seeking a nuclear free world, taking responsibility to fight climate change and ending the war in Iraq. Of those, only putting the idea of a nuclear free world in the spotlight might be unexpected.
For my part, I don't think that the Afghanistan lines got no applause at all. There was a larger applause than at quite a few other, previous lines. But we might have to review the youtubes to answer this critical (!) question.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama urged Europe and a "strong EU" to stand by the US in a war on extremism in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa, in a poetic speech delivered to 200,000 people in Berlin's Tiergarten Park on Thursday (24 July) evening. "We must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it," he told the huge crowd. "We can...dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman, in London and Bali, in Washington and New York." Obama (l) greets an adoring crowd in Berlin Speaking at times of a new "global" security "partnership" that would involve Russia, Mr Obama focused on a traditional Atlanticist model in which the US and Europe use a mixture of warfare, diplomacy and aid to bring democracy and a market economy to strategic regions. "America has no better partner than Europe," he said, adding "we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad," and calling NATO "the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security."
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama urged Europe and a "strong EU" to stand by the US in a war on extremism in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa, in a poetic speech delivered to 200,000 people in Berlin's Tiergarten Park on Thursday (24 July) evening.
"We must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it," he told the huge crowd. "We can...dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman, in London and Bali, in Washington and New York."
Obama (l) greets an adoring crowd in Berlin
Speaking at times of a new "global" security "partnership" that would involve Russia, Mr Obama focused on a traditional Atlanticist model in which the US and Europe use a mixture of warfare, diplomacy and aid to bring democracy and a market economy to strategic regions.
"America has no better partner than Europe," he said, adding "we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad," and calling NATO "the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security."
What fucking common security for what "us"?
Oh well, hopefully he's just standard issue moderately evil US President rather than crazy cartoon villain evil US President. Which would make him an improvement.
