Free Republic

If Canada’s “green” media — especially in the Parliamentary Press Gallery — demanded the same standards of accountability of themselves as they do of politicians, they would be killing entire forests right now apologizing to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Why? Because in sidestepping the economically suicidal stampede onto the green energy bandwagon which they relentlessly shilled for, Harper was right and they — along with the Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Greens — were wrong. Today, so-called “green” energy is in retreat all over the developed world, as taxpayers and consumers in countries that blindly raced into it are in open...

The Republicans' Farcical Candidates The US Republican race is dominated by ignorance, lies and scandals. The current crop of candidates have shown such a basic lack of knowledge that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein. The Grand Old Party is ruining the entire country's reputation. Africa is a country. In Libya, the Taliban reigns. Muslims are terrorists; most immigrants are criminal; all Occupy protesters are dirty. And women who feel sexually harassed -- well, they shouldn't make such a big deal about it. Welcome to the wonderful world of the US Republicans. Or rather, to the twisted world...

America's Founding Fathers thought of everything. They wanted to establish several centers of power in Washington rather than just one. They wanted the occupant of the White House to be strong, but Congress was to have the power to check that strength. The friction between Capitol Hill and the White House -- a product of this system of checks and balances -- was to make the decisions of America's leaders cleverer, wiser and better...

Germany has long been the titular and emotional leader of the "Green Movement" in Europe. No country has adopted more so-called environmental friendly policies. The German population has obediently gone along with environmental measures; in fact they have been the model people when it comes to green living. So it is doubly startling when Der Spiegel, the leading left-wing publication in Germany publishes an article entitled: "Is Environmentalism Really Working?" openly questioning the viability and cost of a myriad of green initiatives. Some highlights: Regarding biofuels: Many haven't yet fully realized that E10 [gasoline with 10% biofuel content] is...

Karl Rove was one of President George W. Bush's closest advisers. SPIEGEL spoke with the political analyst about the widespread anger against Barack Obama and the prospects of Tea Party success in the coming midterm elections. SPIEGEL: In the approaching midterm elections, the Republican Party is putting forward several unusually radical candidates, some of whom are not even "qualified to be a dog catcher," as one Republican said. What has happened with your party? Rove: That's nothing unusual. In campaigns from both parties, people get nominated who are not typical, particularly in times of rapid change. For example, the Democrats...

Plenty of people talk these days about core American values, but a German professor of economics in Hamburg may ironically have written the best and most concise explanation of them in Der Spiegel this week. Thomas Straubhaar writes that the problem with the American economy is that it has stopped being very American, and instead has become a lot more European in its approach. Straubhaar warns Americans that this shift undermines our national identity along with our prosperity: Both the behavior of the American government and the Federal Reserve makes one thing clear: They do not see the solution to...

WikiLeaks has done it again. For the second time in less than four months, the shadowy outfit has succeeded in publishing a leak that has completely dominated the news cycle. Even news outlets and commentators that are critical of its posting of tens of thousands of U.S. military reports on the war in Afghanistan are prepared to confer upon WikiLeaks the honorific of a “whistleblower organization.”But is that what it is? In April, WikiLeaks published its first mega-scoop of 2010: the so-called “Collateral Murder” video showing a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter attack in which two Iraqi Reuters employees were...

Read reports on the files at:Der SpiegelThe New York TimesThe GuardianIntro by Der Spiegel:Close to 92,000 US documents have been uncovered that shed new light on the war in Afghanistan. In an unprecedented development, close to 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Guardian have analyzed the raft of mostly classified documents. They expose the true scale of the Western military deployment -- and the problems beleaguering Germany's Bundeswehr in the Hindu Kush. A total of 91,731 reports from United States military databanks relating to the war in...

The West has long been suspicous of Iran's nuclear program. SPIEGEL has obtained new documents on secret tests and leadership structures that call into question Tehran's claims to be exclusively interested in the peaceful use of the technology. (snip) The new information, say American experts, will likely prompt the US government to reassess the risks coming from the mullah-controlled country in the coming days and raise the alarm level from yellow to red. Skeptics who in the past, sometimes justifiably so, treated alarmist reports as Israeli propaganda, are also extremely worried. They include the experts from the United Nations International...

US President Barack Obama suffered a painful defeat in Massachusetts on Tuesday. With mid-term elections looming, it means that Obama will have to fundamentally re-think his political course. German commentators say it is the end of hope.

... It was like listening to the blind talk about art, the deaf about music or eunuchs discussing sex based on hearsay. Because with the exception of the left-wing Die Tageszeitung, the conservative Die Welt and the centrist Die Zeit, every German newspaper and magazine followed the advice of Green Party co-leader Claudia Roth, who said "de-escalation begins at home," and erred on the side of caution by not republishing the cartoons. Prominent German psychoanalyst advised: "The West should refrain from any provocations that produce feelings of debasement or humiliation." Of course, ... left open the question of whether "the...

Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric -- and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught. One can hardly blame the West Point leadership. The academy commanders did their best to ensure that Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama's speech would be well-received. Just minutes before the president took the stage inside Eisenhower Hall, the gathered cadets were asked to respond "enthusiastically" to the speech. But it didn't help: The soldiers' reception was cool. One didn't have to...

"If the rest of the world were to follow the US example in their approach to fossil fuels, the oceans would not only heat up, but would probably soon begin to boil."

Tender, Juicy Obama Fingers Hit the Shelves By Charles Hawley A German frozen food company hopes to raise sales with a new product: Obama fingers. The tender, fried chicken bits come with a tasty curry sauce. The company says it was unaware of the possible racist overtones of the product.Selling products has, of course, become a bit more difficult than usual these days. No wonder then that companies everywhere are turning to optimistic marketing messages in an effort to counteract the steady drum beat of negativity coming from front page headlines around the globe.Many sales executives have drawn the...

A German magazine quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as saying that he backed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months. Nuri al-Maliki told Der Spiegel that he favors a "limited" tenure for coalition troops in Iraq. Nuri al-Maliki told Der Spiegel that he favors a "limited" tenure for coalition troops in Iraq. "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months," he said in an interview with Der Spiegel that was released Saturday. "That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the...

How German Intelligence Helped Justify the US Invasion of Iraq Five years ago, the US government presented what it said was proof that Iraq harbored biological weapons. The information came from a source developed by German intelligence -- and it turned out to be disastrously wrong. But to this day, Germany denies any responsibility......(Der Spiegel)   German Intelligence Was 'Dishonest, Unprofessional and Irresponsible' - Interview with David Kay (Der Spiegel)   'The Germans Share in the Responsibility'- Interview with Lawrence Wilkerson (Der Spiegel)

An informant who provided German authorities with data from a Liechtenstein bank that sparked a massive tax fraud probe has said his life is threatened, two news magazines are to report Monday. "You are putting my life in danger," Heinrich Kieber wrote to German intelligence services, according to German weekly Focus in an article released in advance of publication over the weekend. The informant has blamed the intelligence services for not keeping his identity secret and asked them to provide him with a new identity so that he can relocate to South America. His request has been refused, Focus reported....

The deliberate mangling of the German language by generations of comedians has kept the British laughing since the end of the Second World War. Now the Germans are desperately trying to defend their tongue against a modern English invasion. While the French have been fighting a losing battle against Franglais for years, the Germans are only now beginning to take seriously the threat to their language from the rise of Denglish – the bastard child of Deutsch and English. Angered by the emergence of such phrases as "Das ist cool" (that is cool) and "Eine tolle latte to go" (one...

Wednesday, August 23, 2006 German Muslims: It's a Protestant Crusade Spiegel Online notes that the discovery of the failed Islamic terror plot to bomb German trains has given rise to the usual pathological denial and anti-logical conspiracy theories among the Muslim community of Hamburg: What Terror? The Protestant Crusade Conspiracy. This just in: The Lebanese men suspected of having deposited bombs on German trains last month were hired hands — in the employ of the German government itself. That, at least, is what one 27-year-old from Saudi Arabia believes. “It’s all a Protestant crusade,� the man explains. “All of northern...

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s suggestion to move Israel to Germany is not as absurd as it sounds. If you consider the idea impartially, you can see a historic land reform concept which can be advantageous to all parties. Everyone is attacking the Iranian president again because he suggested moving Israel from the Middle East to Germany, or Austria. Even those who were not outraged about Ahmadinejad’s demand "to wipe Israel off the map" are agitated, because now they see the problem as becoming theirs. As much as a "world without Zionism" is imaginable, a Europe with a Jewish State in...

Ahmad Al-Baghdadi, a professor of political science at the University of Kuwait, recently published an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa and later in the Egyptian government weekly Akhbar Al-Yaum in which he called for outlawing and disbanding the Muslim Brotherhood organization, and confiscating its sources of funding. He also criticized U.S. policy on this subject, claiming that it is too lenient with organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood. The following are excerpts from the article: [1] 'What is Preventing the U.S. from Adding the Muslim Brotherhood to the Terrorist List?' "Three senior Arab political leaders accused the Muslim Brotherhood organization...

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,PB64-SUQ9NDkyNyZucj0x,00.html

Bush Needs Your Help! Why don't you participate in this little opinion poll by Germany's left-left-wing SPIEGEL ONLINE? For three years George W. Bush has been the most powerful man in America - and the world. How would you rate his time in office up to this point (in school grades)? 1 = Bush did a great job as President . . . 6 = Bush did a miserable job as President You need to click "ABSTIMMEN" after selecting a number. As of 5 March, 2004, 1 pm (Berlin time), Bush's results are rather miserable. Only 3.3 per cent for...

SPIEGEL ONLINE With Large Pro-Bush User Base The votes are in. It's official: two thirds of SPIEGEL ONLINE visitors rate President George W. Bush's job performance as "very good" (59 per cent) or "good" (8 per cent). An anonymus SPIEGEL ONLINE source described the results as a "complete surprise to us, comparable only to the demise of comrade Erich Honecker". At this very moment, the left-wing SPIEGEL ONLINE editorial team has convened for a strategy session with their media consultants to determine their future course. "In terms of ideology, everything is now up for grabs," said the source. "We might...

Analysis of US Casualties in Iraq by Week and Month - post Baghdad Liberation Day   April: Post- Baghdad Liberation Day - April 30   Week of Apr. 10 - Apr.16:   Apr.10: One Marine killed 22 wounded securing Baghdad Mosque:  Iraqi regime loyalists, terrorists and paramilitary forces engaged elements of Regimental Combat Team 5 (RCT-5) from the protection of an 8th century Shia Mosque. In over one hour of heavy gunfire exchange, the Marines of RCT-5 cleared the mosque for return to the Iraqi people....Marines quickly assessed the situation. After receiving permission to engage the enemy inside, Marines swiftly defeated the Iraqi...

  Congo "Welcome to sheer folly " The bloodbath continues unrestrained in the district of Ituri even though French soldiers have now arrived. Instead of ending the orgies of terror, the strike force cruises the patrol beat. DER SPIEGEL The United Nations offers up images of misery again. For hours already, manic kid soldiers with Kalashnikovs, mortars and 82 millimeter cannons in Bunia's town center have delivered a rowdy battle. And the Uruguayans from the UN? They're crawling around on the floor of their headquarters like turtles, blue helmeted and in bullet proofed vests, saying Hail Marys. They cart in...