Politics

While I did get a few chuckles out of the video posted below, it is quite shocking to see both Bush and McCain proud of being bad in school. I guess it is their way to put further emphasis on the fear that an Obama victory would lead to an elitist government (as if that were something bad). Anyway, have a look:

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read it: On July 24th Obama will be giving a speech in Berlin. This however has caused some controversy among politicians as there are rumors that Obama would like to give the speech at the Brandenburger Gate. While Merkel says, she feels "alienated" by the fact that someone is using the historical monument as campaigning grounds, Minister Steinmeier believes that the Gate is a central part of German-American friendship, and Obama's request should be welcomed.

For what it's worth, I have to go with Steinmeier on this one. Not because I am such an Obama fan, but because I think the use of the site is justified: Many high ranking politicians and non-politicians have been giving speeches there, from Kennedy to Clinton to the Dalai Lama. If a potential American president, that stands for hope and change, would like to express his thoughts there, I believe he has every right to do so. I think it underlines the basis of democracy. That being said, I also believe that John McCain should be permitted to speak there, if he wanted to.

Though I would recommend him not to. Because Germany, as many surveys show, is Obama land. Whether or not "Unter den Linden" will be transformed into an Obama Fan-Meile on July 24th remains to be seen. I, for one, now need a reason to be in Berlin on the 24th.

If you are having a bad day, it is probably best you skipped this. It definitely got to me. Here is a soldier recounting the horrible actions he and his friends have committed in Iraq. I believe this video is so tragic as it is so difficult to point fingers. I guess it is the whole concept of war that shows its true face here.

It seems the tides have turned, and suddenly Obama receives all the negative press. In the past days, I've been seeing YouTube clips, that focus on the most ridiculous aspects, in order to give the man a bad image. Granted, he did mess up on a few things. But I wonder what switch was hit at the media, that suddenly everything related to Obama should be bad. Here he is at a press conference, where a reporter suggests he may look too good to be a president. His answer is almost desperate, and you can feel the anger he has towards the press.

BTW, to those who missed it: The bowling issue Obama is referring to is actually as ridiculous as it sounds. The media questioned Obama's presidential abilities due to his low bowling scores, I kid not. Here he clarifies that he actually let kids bowl for him, but none of that was reported. How sad that he should have to justify himself for that!

It has been a long time since the U.S. Elections 2008 were a topic here. To get warmed up for the primaries in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, watch this short video here showing once again how eloquent and humorous Obama is.

Barack Obama has often stressed the power of words. And although that resonates well with many of the voters (and people like me), words can lose their power quickly, if you don't back them up with actions. But in Obama's case, he (unlike the current president) is just so good with words. If you have ever seen him give a speech, you'll agree that he is a great speaker, even if you do not agree with what he says. So it comes as no surprise that Obama would stress the importance of words, given his talents.

However, even the liberal digg community has sometimes wondered, whether Obama's words really meant something, or if it was just a cover-up for his inexperience in the political world. Well, just today, I got a glimpse of just how strongly Obama sticks to his words.

Just a quick note to all Obama fans: It looks like while we were sleeping here in Europe, many of the American democrats did their duty and voted for their party candidate in the beautiful state of Maine.

Again winning a large majority of the votes, it looks like Obama has finally managed to pass ahead of Clinton. Meanwhile, Clinton has fired her campaign manager and friend Patti Doyle... It looks like someone is getting nervous.

It's a rare occasion when anything web 2.0 materializes in that other place, the "real world". Were it so, the next president's name would be Ron Paul, Hillary would have transformed to Darth Vader, lolcats would be on TV screens, oh yeah, and l33tsp33k would be a widely used language. However, yesterday all over the world something from the online world swept over to reality: The wish to put an end to the Scientology organization.

A little follow-up on the Dalai-Lama situation in here in Germany. As I reported before, German chancellor Merkel had an official meeting with the spiritual leader in the chancellery. Since then, China has been showing its opposition to the meeting by cancelling just about every upcoming meeting. For days now, China has not commented on the actual reason for the cancellation, but merely stated "technical difficulties". That is, until today, when the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jian Yu finally spoke what everyone knew already. So, as there was an official statement, it is always interesting to see what the newspapers have to say. Even more interesting is the comparison of mainland news with Hong Kong news, which can be said to have a free press.

Merkel's meeting with Dalai Lama was not only a rude interference into China's internal affairs and strongly hurt the feelings and emotions of the Chinese people, but also gravely harmed China-Germany relations, Jiang stressed.

It is almost ironic that a German chancellor under the socialist/green government sold nuclear plants to china, while the current conservative chancellor Merkel decides to invite His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the chancellery. She is the first chancellor to do so, and China is not at all happy: Another meeting with the minister of Justice with the Chinese government was cancelled from China's side "for technical reasons."