Free Republic

Germany's ranking in the Prosperity Index is a validation of those who risked their lives to tear down the Berlin Wall, writes Ryan Streeter. Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall fell. Its collapse marked the beginning of a reunified Germany and the end of the Cold War. On Monday, Berliners knocked down a wall of Styrofoam “dominoes” - more fanciful than foreboding - to commemorate the moment when East Germans began hammering their way to freedom. Dominoes are quite a fitting symbol indeed.

It’s bad enough that President Obama could not be bothered to attend the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But Hillary Clinton’s refusal to even acknowledge the role played by Ronald Reagan in the Wall’s demise as well as the downfall of Communism was highly insulting towards one of the greatest figures of our time, and reeked of petty and partisan mean-spiritedness. The Secretary of State’s remarks yesterday in Berlin completely erased from history the huge contribution played not only by President Reagan but also by the United States in confronting the Soviet Empire....

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a benchmark that made an impression on me as it did for millions of people around the world. The sight of thousands of East Germans pouring into West Berlin, particularly the youth who had never experienced freedom before, was a surreal scene not only for the people of Europe but also for us born in the Middle East. Westerners looked with shock at the peoples of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and the Soviet Union surging against totalitarianism. Central Europeans stared with awe at the countries who never surrendered...

On November 9, 2009, the world will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Naturally, in Germany, there will be commemorations of the event, and the collapse of Communism in Europe. "snip" And given all of this, it is safe to say that Barack Obama will attend the 20th anniversary celebration of the fall of the Wall, right? Wrong. While Candidate Barack Obama was perfectly willing to go to Germany during the 2008 Presidential campaign, President Barack Obama has chosen to skip the 20th anniversary celebrations altogether. Needless to say, this has not elicited much outrage...

There was one world leader absent for today’s commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Surprisingly enough, it’s President Barack Obama, who found time last year to give a campaign speech there last year, which Der Spiegel summed up as “People of the World, Look at Me”. The White House has cited a packed schedule, though looking at it he had nothing much on yesterday (brief chat to reporters about healthcare – by far his biggest priority) and just blah briefings and a bill signing today until a metting this evening with Benjamin Netanyahu. This...

It has been 20 long years since the fall of the Berlin wall. Millions of people who were trapped in their oppressive, government-planned states suffered as a result of collectivism. Over 100 million people died at the hands of sycophantic, megalomaniac leaders that claimed they could bring us a better world than so-called capitalism and individual liberty has brought us. I say "so-called" because nowhere in the world does capitalism truly exist. In the countries where it is allowed to exist in even small proportions, wealth and prosperity reign. However, the collectivists hate even this small proportion of capitalism that...

Barack Obama was quick off the mark last year in heading for Berlin during his election campaign, when he was cheered by a crowd of 200,000 adoring Germans. Yet as president of the United States he has decided to stay away from Berlin as the city commemorates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In contrast, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have both made the trip to Germany, while Obama has decided to send his Secretary of State. It is shameful when the US president can’t even be bothered to show up...

"The president does not plan to travel to Germany to attend the 20th anniversary celebration Monday of the fall of the Berlin Wall, drawing heated criticism from those who say he's ignoring a shining triumph of American-inspired democracy."

Apparently, he only has time to go to Berlin when it's all about him!Rich Lowry points out that: In his first year in office, Barack Obama has visited more foreign countries than any other president. He’s touched ground in 16 countries, easily outpacing Bill Clinton (3) and George W. Bush(11). But there’s one stop Obama won’t make. He has begged off going to Berlin next week to attend ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall. His schedule is reportedly too crowded. Obama had time to fly all the way over to Copenhagen to plead for Chicago to get the...

History comes back to haunt us. Just over 20 years ago, the then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher told Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev: “Britain and western Europe are not interested in the unification of Germany. The words written in the NATO communique may sound different, but disregard them. We do not want the unification of Germany.” She went on to say... About one year after the construction of the wall, Peter Fechter attempted to flee from the GDR together with his friend Helmut Kulbeik. The plan was to hide in a carpenter’s workshop near the wall in Zimmerstrasse and, after...

A profession O and CONgre$$ won't be messing with 'pay' rates anytime soon?

And why should he? After all, 1989 was a very bad year for Obama and his comrades. A bankrupt, enslaving and murderous ideology was shattered to pieces by the freedom loving people of Eastern Europe. Millions and millions of people who lived in fear, poverty and repression regained their freedom and dignity. That's not something a communist like Obama would like to celebrate.

Peace has been an almost fleeting dream since the beginning of history, many died defending it, far more died pursuing it. Perhaps, it would be fitting for Obama to go Norway and accept the Nobel Prize in the name of the over one million American GIs who died during WWI, WWII and other conflicts throughout the world fighting tyranny. Yes, it would be most fitting for President Obama to accept the Nobel Prize in the name of those Americans who gave their lives so the world would enjoy freedom. But, he won't! Such emotions, such admiration, such pride, form no...

It is pretty clear why the president is refusing to accept the personal invitation of the German chancellor and attend festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It would smack of American triumphalism - our success in defeating perhaps the most odious of all the odious ideologies of the 20th century. Obama doesn't do "triumphalism." That would place America above other nations - something that he has explicitly condemned. So he will be conspicuous by his absence. And another European ally has been embarrassed by this president.

BERLIN — Part of Berlin's red-light scene is going green. One bordello, hoping to stave off falling demand in the economic crisis, has begun offering discounts to customers who pedal bicycles to the door. "It's very difficult to find parking around here, and this option is better for our environment," said Thomas Goetz, who owns the brothel Maison d'Envie, or House of Desire. Local residents in Prenzlauer Berg - a part of former East Berlin now home to scores of trendy boutiques, restaurants and clubs - had staunchly supported the Green party in recent elections and have welcomed the bordello's...

(English-language translation) GERMANY - On the 48th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall, this capital today remembers all of its victims and protests against minimizing the history of the defunct German Democratic Republic (GDR). The victims were remembered during a ceremony at the Chapel of Reconciliation in Berlin, which Mayor Klaus Wowereit and government delegate Marianne Birthler (the latter in charge of the documents of the GDR's Stasi secret political police) attended. In the simple chapel located on Bernauer Street where the Wall stood, a candle burned in memory of the dead and a floral arrangement was placed....

BERLIN -An Audi sedan written off by an elderly German woman as stolen two years ago has resurfaced — in her neighbor's garage beneath a thick layer of dust. Police said Thursday the 82-year-old from the northern city of Hildesheim took the car in for repairs two years ago and had the mechanics drive it back to her house and park it in her garage. She got the keys and papers from her mailbox, but when she went to get the car it was nowhere to be found. So she reported it stolen. When her neighbor went to clean up...

In 1989, more than 100,000 East Germans took to Leipzig's streets protesting against their hardline communist rulers and demanding an end to repression. The pro-democracy surge spread rapidly, forcing East Germany's leaders to open the Berlin Wall to the West, before it was finally destroyed. It was a seismic moment that sent shockwaves around the world. Now PETER HITCHENS, who was there at the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Russia, imagines how it could all have gone terribly wrong, and contemplates the repercussions that would have followed...

Contrast this speech that actually changed the world for the better with Obama's Muslim apology speech![video at site]The entire address is worth listening to. But if your time is limited cue to 11:15 on the clip for the segment which contains the famous phrase "Mr. Gorbachev TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!" Last year, I posted on the background that lead to Reagan's demand. Ending the Cold War and removing the last scar left on post World War II Europe was a goal of Ronald Reagan's for decades. Many of Reagan's advisors, including then National Security Advisor Colin Powell, thought the line...

(Planes flew a distance equivalent to flying to the moon and back 63 times) Ceremonies have been taking place in Berlin to mark the 60th anniversary of the ending of the blockade of West Berlin by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. In 1948, Stalin cut off all land links into West Berlin in an attempt to force out British, French and US troops. Instead, the Western nations launched the biggest airlift in history to keep 2.25 million residents from starving. For the next 11 months, planes landed every two minutes, bringing in total more than 2.5m tonnes of supplies. Seventy-eight aircrew...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090429.html Attorney General Eric Holder Delivers Remarks in Berlin on the Closing of Guantanamo Bay Berlin, Germany Wednesday, April 29, 2009 It is my distinct honor to join you at the Hans Arnhold Center of the American Academy of Berlin. The Academy is a fitting caretaker for a building that holds a special place in history as a safe harbor for freedom and a catalyst for cultural exchange. When luminaries like Richard Holbrooke, Richard Von Weizsacker, Fritz Stern and Otto Graf Lambsdorff joined forces to create the American Academy, they knew that we...

Luxury cars targets of meltdown rage 1 Mar 2009 When Berlin resident Simone Klostermann returned from vacation and couldn’t find her Mercedes SLK, she thought it had been towed. Police told her the $45,000 car had been torched. “They’d squirted something flammable into the car’s engine block in the gap between the windshield and the hood,” said Klostermann. The 34-year-old’s experience isn’t unique in the German capital. At least 29 vehicles were destroyed in arson attacks this year, most of them luxury cars, according to police. The number is already about 30% of the total for 2008. The latest to...

GERMAN authorities are preparing to clear hundreds bombs left from World War II that are strewn under Berlin's busiest airport. There are so many explosives - bombs and grenades - that litter the ground around Tegel airport that more than 500 sites will be excavated to finally make it safe for passenger jets if they stray off the tarmac. Berlin's Senator for Urban Development, Ingeborg Junge-Reyer declined to comment on the threat posed by the deadly relics.

Germany has been threatened with attacks for its presence in Afghanistan in a video released yesterday by the US centre for surveillance of Islamist sites (SITE). In the 30 minute Video message, a man calling himself Abu Talha Al-Alamani and presumed to be a member of al Queda says the Germans are "gullible and naive" if they thought they could "escape unscathed when they are the third occupation force in Afghanistan." The man, whose face is hidden by a black turban in the video, adds: "Letting me blow myself up in the name of Allah has been my wish since...

Berlin city officials, summoned by complaints over the noise, found a 60-year-old man sharing his two-room flat with 1,700 budgerigars.

A Berlin politician has come under fire for suggesting that poor people should be encouraged to catch rats by offering them €1 per dead rodent. The intriguing idea entails some gnawing practical problems and has been called "inhuman and cynical". A job opportunity for Berlin's poor? Picture the scene -- hundreds of poor people armed with clubs chasing rats through the streets of Berlin. There's something Dickensian about the notion, but it has been proposed by a Berlin politician who is now being criticized for suggesting that the city's poor should be enlisted to tackle the growing rat infestation in...

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3507071,00.html link only

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama paid a German company nearly $700,000 for staging, sound and lighting services at a time he delivered a speech this summer in which he declared himself a “citizen” of both the U.S. and the world. Billed as a highlight of Mr. Obama's July trip to Europe, the speech - to hundreds of thousands of people in front of the historic Victory Column in Tiergarten - was organized by the Berlin-based company Mediapool, opening much like a rock concert, with warm-up performances from the band Reamonn and reggae singer Patrice. The German company, whose Web...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama paid a German company nearly $700,000 for staging, sound and lighting services at the time [Note] CQ [/NOTE] he delivered a speech this summer in Berlin and declared himself a citizen of both the U.S. and the world. Billed as a highlight of Mr. Obama's July trip to Europe, the speech [-] delivered before hundreds of thousands of people in front of the historic Victory Column in Tiergarten [-] was organized by the Berlin-based company Mediapool, opening much like a rock concert, with warm-up performances from the band Reamonn and reggae singer Patrice. The...

The perfect companion piece to the study released yesterday confirming what Palin’s argued all along: That there is, in fact, a double standard for women candidates by which votes depend partly on their attractiveness. Whether $150,000 in clothes that’ll ultimately be given to charity is a better value under those circumstances than almost three-quarters of a million dollars to feed The One’s ego by staging a speech in front of a foreign audience that did jack for him at home, I leave to you to judge. (Hint: Yes.)

Crammed together in their unwieldy aircraft and utterly dependent on one another, the bomber crews of the Second World War forged friendships that often only death could break. Which is why Pilot Officer Reg Wilson never forgot the night more than 60 years ago when he lost two friends in the night skies over Germany. As he entered his old age - the memories of his youth perhaps more powerful than ever - Mr Wilson began a quest to find their remains. Yesterday he told how at last he had succeeded in finding one of those friends, flight engineer Sergeant...

When I was in junior high school, my bedroom wall was decorated with political memorabilia - campaign posters, bumper stickers and “parchment” copies of political speeches. Among the speeches were some gems from John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy had wonderful speechwriters, and his addresses are filled with memorable quotes. But my all-time favorite Kennedy line is the ambiguous conclusion of a speech he gave in West Berlin in June of 1963. Kennedy, trying to express his solidarity with the people of Berlin, concluded with the words, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Now this can mean one of two things, either “I...

Tonight, there is a reasonable expectation that Obama will perform in front of 75,000 people at Invesco Field. I understand they are shutting down highways and making special arrangements to enable the crowd to get to and from the event, and of course, there is parking to accommodate the crowd at the stadium. When he appears on his podium he will finally see what a crowd of 75,000 actually looks like, and what he will see is about twice the size of what he actually saw in Berlin. What will he think? Will he assume that there are 400,000 people...

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Heidi Krieger proved herself one of the world's top athletes in the 1980s, winning medal after medal in the shot put for East Germany. Andreas Krieger says his body changed soon after he began taking what coaches said were vitamins. Andreas Krieger says his body changed soon after he began taking what coaches said were vitamins. Now, the former sports star looks disdainfully at the awards, dismissing them as "doping medals" and honors that turned a woman into a man. Heidi Krieger, the 1986 European women's shot-put champion, became Andreas Krieger after a sex-change operation in...

Anyone who wants to understand Barack Obama would do well to stay away from the radio and the TV. Obama is a theatrical presence. That's what it means to be "charismatic": To an unnerving degree his appeal relies on sight and sound rather than sense. Better, in my opinion, to stick to the printed word. On paper (or the computer screen) his words can be thought about and chewed over. You can understand him at your own pace, undistracted by that rich baritone, the regal bearing, the excellent drape of his Burberry suits.

Last week I was on the road during Obama’s Berlin Speech. Naturally, the only program I was able to listen to the speech on was Rush Limbaugh, who conveniently gave his commentary while the speech was occurring. To this date, Limbaugh is the only media personality I know of to point out that Obama set the stage to inject race into this election during his speech. At the beginning of the speech, Obama stated,...

The cardinal rule of presidential speechmaking is knowing the audiences you’re talking to – all of them. Sen. Obama failed the test in Berlin. As a former speechwriter for several presidents, cabinet officers and members of Congress, I can attest to the great care given to crafting speeches dealing with national security issues, lest they be misinterpreted by any of the several audiences listening.

The Republican National Committee has launched a new web ad called “Obama TV Ad In Berlin." Set to a techno dance beat, the web ad mocks Obama's appeal to Europeans, highlighting interviews with European Obama fans, including one man who sees parallels between the Democrat and Che Guevara. The ad also flashes the word "Hasselhoff," apparently comparing Obama's draw in Europe to that of the "Baywatch" star. Watch the ad below:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s single most illuminating statement in the course of a just-completed overseas tour was his self-description during the stop in Berlin as a “citizen of the world.” Widely interpreted as nothing more than an innocuous expression of solidarity with his adoring, post-nationalist hosts, this declaration is actually just the latest indication that Senator Obama embraces a vision of his own country and its role in the world that should be exceedingly worrisome to America’s citizenry.

When Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan traveled to Berlin, in 1963 and 1987 respectively, the Western world led by the United States was in the midst of a great global conflict with both ideological and military dimensions. Berlin was a literal symbol of the divide between East and West. It is within this weighty context that these presidents delivered speeches that are remembered today as among the most significant of the Cold War. When Kennedy visited, the Cold War was in full swing. The Soviet Union had recently constructed a wall separating East and West Berlin. Kennedy implored...

Last Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama gave a speech in Berlin to a throng, which hung out to hear him after a rock concert that included free beer. (The mainstream media, which is doing everything to get him elected, didn't tell you the attendance was manipulated in this way, nor that this is far from the first time the Obama campaign has pulled this stunt to manufacture a large audience.) The speech he gave was galling in its moral equivocation, stunning in its factual and historical wrongness and insulting in its belittling of America and her people – the victims of...

The Nation -- The McCain Campaign has finally found its line of attack against Barack Obama's widely heralded global tour. Ever since Obama canceled a trip to visit wounded soldiers in Germany, based on logistical disagreements with the Pentagon, McCain has used the snafu to argue that Obama -- you guessed it -- does not support the troops. A new ad, released on Saturday, assails Obama for prioritizing limelight and exercise over honoring American soldiers. -snip- The ad is running in selected markets in Colorado, Pennsylvania and DC. The campaign would not release the overall ad buy; the limited run...

So now that you know that the rest of the world loves Obama, how about you? I raised that question last Thursday night on my radio talk show at Washington, DC’s 630 WMAL, albeit rather facetiously. Despite what the forces at CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Rueters, The New York Times, and “CNN International” may want me to believe, I don’t assume that “the world loves Obama,” anymore than I assume that “the world hates Bush.” But now that the week of cathartic revelry is behind us and the excitement has subsided a little bit, it’s time for some reflection....

Berlin, Paris, Kalamazoo. He could have given this speech anywhere. Obama goes to Berlin and winds up in Bangor. But maybe that was the point. Unlike JFK, Clinton, or Reagan, Obama's purpose in Berlin was essentially self-serving. The great cause at stake was his own campaign — not the threat of Communism, or adapting to a post-Communist world. The great purpose to which Obama was asking his Berlin audience to rally was his own presidential aspirations. Pretty thin, not the stuff of history books. And so far the American public agrees. All of the hoopla leading up to this moment...

Anyone who wants to understand Barack Obama would do well to stay away from the radio and the TV. Obama is a theatrical presence. That's what it means to be "charismatic": To an unnerving degree his appeal relies on sight and sound rather than sense. Better, in my opinion, to stick to the printed word. On paper (or the computer screen) his words can be thought about and chewed over. You can understand him at your own pace, undistracted by that rich baritone, the regal bearing, the excellent drape of his Burberry suits. The printed word has its problems too,...

No. 44 Has Spoken By Gerhard Spörl Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious -- he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world. It was a ton to absorb -- and what a stupendous ride through world history: the story of his own family, the Berlin Airlift, terrorists, poorly secured nuclear material, the polar caps, World War II, America's errors, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, freedom. It's amazing anyone could pack such a potpourri of issues...

Barack Obama's foreign tour loses him ground back home Tim Reid in Washington Barack Obama denied yesterday that he was ignoring the concerns of ordinary Americans while he tours the world, amid signs that the adulation he is receiving abroad has alienated some US voters. After the Democratic presidential candidate holds meetings with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron in London today, the last leg of his nine-day international tour, he returns home to a general election campaign with new polls showing him in a tightening race against John McCain, the Republican candidate. Mr McCain and his surrogates have...

Fifteen minutes before Obama took the stage, German reporters estimated 20,000. Twenty minutes later, someone else, from the same news outlet, said 100,000. The figure of 200,000 came from Obama's people, and the American press went with that. Compare photos of the Berlin rally with the photos of a rally in Portland, Oregon that drew 75,000. They look pretty close to me.

As Barack Obama launches into a European tour – presumably because the USA alone can’t comprise the “57 states” he said he visited on his campaign - one has to wonder whether citizens of the three countries he’s visiting – Germany, France and England – have any idea what they’re dealing with. But why would they, right? I mean, America sure doesn’t seem to have a clue. While the Democratic-led congress hits a record low 9% approval rating despite high pre-election hopes, the even further left-leaning embodiment of that epic failure is now shuffling around the globe, sending crowds into...

Presumptive Democrat nominee Barack Obama’s trip to Afghanistan, Iraq and Europe is all part and parcel of a full blown media event that most intuitive Americans will view as contrived and overdone; an event to compensate for Sen. Obama’s lack of experience and extraordinarily thin political portfolio. The media has helped orchestrate this publicity stunt to attract attention to their chosen candidate. There is no more doubt that they are in the tank for the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee.