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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.

Safety Group Urges Airbus Fixes LOS ANGELES -- U.S. aviation safety watchdogs, concerned about severe electrical problems that have blacked out cockpit displays on dozens of Airbus jetliners over the years, urged regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to mandate aircraft fixes and enhanced pilot training to alleviate such hazards. Recommendations released by the National Transportation Safety Board Wednesday cite 49 incidents over the years in which electrical problems caused various cockpit displays on widely-used Airbus A319 and A320 to suddenly stop functioning and temporarily go blank during flight. According to the board, seven of those incidents resulted in...

Barack Obama’s campaign said Thursday that the Illinois senator opted not to visit U.S. troops at military facilities in Germany because it would be “inappropriate” to make such a stop on the campaign-funded leg of his trip.

RUSH: Cookie is working on a couple of audio sound bites and Drive-By Media reaction to the Messiah's speech in Germany. I have an idea what she's going to send. I never know what she's going to send unless I specifically asked for it. But Cookie is so good I seldom have to ask for it. I get what I want anyway. Now, one thing about this speech. I'll wait until we get the bites and see if what I'm expecting in these, citizen of the world stuff. When he started talking about that, that's when the red flags went...

In his 'A WORLD THAT STANDS AS ONE' speech, Obama (somewhat) addressed a variety of issues. In attempt to prove to the world that he is not a Republican or President Bush Obamessiah used the word "new" or "anew" sixteen times, in attempts to drive the point home. The speech was pretty bland for my taste. It was toast without the butter (or jelly for those of you who prefer toast with jelly to toast with butter). There were a few parts of his speech that managed to royally irritate me...aside from the standard 'America needs you foreign nations to...

Barack Obama, calling himself a "Citizen of the World," committed himself to reducing America's Nuclear Defenses in a speech delivered in Berlin, Germany, today -- a city ironically united because Ronald Reagan built up America's Nuclear Arsenal. This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly...

Obama is scheduled to speak in Berlin at the Victory Column sometime between 1 and 1:30 Eastern. All cable networks will cover the speech, live.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/07/obama-lures-massive-german-crowd-with.html

"My German is not real good," he said. "I can speak Bahasi Indonesian but I don't think...there would be a lot of appeal to that."

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...

FReepers are brilliant. So I have an immodest proposal for you all that could work a major coup in knocking Obama off his horse in the upcoming rally at the Victory Column in Berlin. Imagine the scene: Thousands of people, probably a lot of young, mushheaded lefties, probably a lot of swooning. Obama is introduced. The crowd roars. He waves in appreciation, grinning broadly. After a respectable few moments of basking in the adulation, he motions for the crowd to settle down to hear his prophetic words. He begins to speak, warming to a theme of kumbaya fuzzy warm one...

Turkey to negotiate with German joint venture for new submarines Turkey decided to launch talks with German joint venture HDW-MFI to procure new type submarines for the Turkish Navy, Turkey's Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Tuesday. The board decided to start negotiations with Howaldswerke-Deutsche Werft GMBH and Marine Force International LLP (HDW-MFI) for the procurement which is estimated to cost about 2.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion), Gonul told reporters after a defence industry meeting chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. HDW and its partner, Britain-based Marine Force International, will build the type-214 air-independent submarines at the Golcuk shipyard...

Barack Obama's campaign said Sunday he will give a speech on the future of trans-Atlantic relations in front of a Prussian war monument in downtown Berlin _ in view of the historic Brandenburg Gate. The announcement that he will speak at the Victory Column, or Siegessaeule, ended weeks of speculation here. It also triggered criticism that the 226-foot column built in 1873 to celebrate Prussian war victories over Denmark, Austria and France was an inappropriate choice. One of Berlin's best-known monuments, the column is topped by a golden, winged figure representing Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory. It stood in...

Veteran German shooter Ralph Schumann, who is counted among the present day shooting legends, is looking to extend his feat in the Olympic Games that starts next month. At the Munich World Cup this May, the 46-year-old bettered the world record of men’s 25-meter rapid-fire pistol from 788.8 points to 790.0 points. Before that he had held the record with 786.4 and 787.7 points. “My main motivation is to always prove, not that I’m the best, but that I’ve practiced what I’ve learned to the best of my ability during the competition,” he said. Born in Meissen in Saxony, Schumann...

The planned construction of over 180 mosques in Germany is mobilizing right-wing xenophobes but also an increasing number of leftist critics. They fear the Muslim places of worship will facilitate the establishment of a completely parallel society. ... the media reported "turmoil" and an "enraged" audience in a school auditorium in Ehrenfeld, a district of the German city of Cologne. The mood was almost comparable to that of the protest gatherings once held against nuclear missiles or reactors. Instead the outrage was directed at a huge mosque planned for the area. Still, the words used by the project's opponents called...

Paris in the month of May was in full aphrodisiac bloom. The girls were swinging along the boulevards in their short, flowery skirts, their hair flowing loose behind them. On the radio, the singer Tino Rossi - France's answer to Rudolph Valentino - belted out his latest romantic favourite. But a few short weeks later, on June, 14, 1940, the German army marched into the capital and occupied it for four years. France has never forgotten its humiliation - or its bewilderment - in having to adjust to a life of close proximity to the old enemy, with all the...

A court in Stuttgart has convicted and sentenced three Iraqis for the attempted murder of former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. They had planned to attack him during a trip to Berlin in 2004. After a two-year trial, three Iraqi men accused of plotting to kill former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi during an official Berlin visit were handed hefty sentences by a German court on Tuesday.

Conflict over Berlin Visit Becomes US Campaign Issue By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Washington, D.C. The heated debate over Barack Obama's planned appearance in Berlin appears to have crossed the Atlantic to become a campaign issue at home. It's unlikely now that he will appear in front of the Brandenburg Gate. If the American journalists covering the campaign trail didn't know all about the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin before, they certainly do now. On Sunday, Barack Obama mingled on a flight to San Diego with the pack of journalists who have been following him day in and day out. He...

It is fashionable among those on the left to fantasize that they live in a police state, here in the US, and that they virtuously resist by "speaking truth to power". They imagine that they take great risks in doing so as they protest in front of the White House, and feel as if they touch greatness, modern kin of the great leftist revolutionary heroes of lore. It reminds me of something I read a while back, about Gunter Grass. He grew up in Nazi Germany, back in the day. It was written by Tom Wolfe:

A leading German politician is the latest to criticise a tentative plan by Barack Obama to speak at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate. Erwin Huber, the leader of one of the main governing parties, said the Democratic White House hopeful had played no part in German reunification. Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier said it was "a bit odd" that Mr Obama should speak at the Cold War landmark. Mr Obama is to visit Europe and the Middle East in late July. His campaign team said the Brandenburg Gate was one of several locations they had inquired about as the venue for a...

THE Austrian man who locked his daughter in a windowless dungeon for 24 years has asked to be allowed to leave his prison cell for 30 minutes a day. Josef Fritzl, 73, who kept his daughter Elisabeth locked in a cellar in Amstetten, Austria, and fathered her seven children, has demanded his right to be allowed out of his cell, the UK's Telegraph newspaper reported today. After just two months of incarceration and despite his fear of being attacked by fellow prisoners, Fritzl has been having half-hour walks outside his cell in an Austrian prison, the newspaper said. "Mr Fritzl...

At Epcot's German Pavilion, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will highlight his international savvy by wearing what he calls "the everyday clothing of the German people." Reeling from an international misstep, the Obama campaign retreated from a planned speech at Berlin's famed Brandenburg Gate. German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed concern that the event could be considered partisan "electioneering." The site had previously featured historic speeches from presidents Kennedy and Reagan. Obama campaign spokesperson Linda Douglass announced a new venue at a press briefing this morning. "While we thank Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit for his support, we have decided to promote...

Serial rabbit killer uses Google maps to find victims German police are concerned that the person killing rabbits may go on to kill human beings Roger Boyes in Berlin The roll call of victims is growing longer by the day. They have names like Rocco, Fussel, Marianne and Fluffy — and a five-man police unit has a file on each and every one. The so-called “bunny murders” — 40 domestic rabbits killed at night in their hutches, heads and sometimes paws sliced off, their bodies drained of blood — is stunning communities across western Germany. “Nobody knows where the killer...

A row about whether Barack Obama is welcome at Berlin's most famous landmark erupted on Wednesday between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Merkel's spokesman said she opposed a possible appearance by the Democratic presidential candidate at the Brandenburg Gate, while Steinmeier said Germany would be honored by a visit to the city the United States kept free in the Cold War. The Obama campaign said last month the Illinois senator planned to visit Germany, France, Britain and Jordan this summer but no further details have been released. Merkel, the leader of the conservative Christian Democrats, and Steinmeier,...

Barack Obama's Berlin visit sparks German diplomatic row Barack Obama Roger Boyes in Berlin Berlin, a city torn apart by war, is the perfect setting for an American president preaching peace. Ronald Reagan famously stood metres away from the Brandenburg Gate and called on the Soviet Union to tear down the Wall dividing Europe. And President Kennedy used a Cold War visit to the once and future German capital to declare: “ich bin ein Berliner!” Now Barack Obama, the presidential candidate, wants to grandstand there too. But a simmering row between the German Government and the local Berlin authorities could...

Three German tourists kidnapped in eastern Turkey Three German tourists were kidnapped in Turkey's eastern province of Agri, CNNTurk reported on Wednesday. They were kidnapped by terrorists, it added quoting the governor of Agri. (UPDATED) Three German climbers on Mount Ararat were kidnapped in Turkey's eastern province of Agri, CNNTurk reported on Wednesday. The three, who were party of a 13-member team, were kidnapped by terrorists, it added quoting the governor of Agri

Only US presidents have been given the honour of speaking in front of the 18th Century gate, whose chariot of victory overlooked the Berlin Wall and the ecstatic party that followed its destruction in 1989. Angela Merkel's office this week made it clear that Mr Obama would be welcome in Berlin, but no more or less than his rival Senator McCain. "The mayor would be delighted to have Mr Obama take advantage of speaking at the Brandenburg Gate to spread his message," said the mayor's spokesman.

Representatives of Germany’s large Turkish community have criticized a new citizenship test that takes effect in September and are urging Chancellor Merkel’s government to allow Turkish-Germans to hold dual nationality. Kenan Kolat, chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany said in an interview with Cologne-based daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger on Tuesday he was fundamentally opposed to a new citizenship test that will be introduced in September and test applicants' knowledge of the country’s history, politics and society. "We don’t find the test a good idea at all," Kolat said. The German government said last month it was introducing the test as...

BERLIN (AFP) - The German government wants to build up to 30 offshore windfarms in a bid to meet its renewable energy targets, Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said in an interview published Sunday. Tiefensee told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the windfarms would be built in the Baltic and North seas and said some 2,000 windmills should soon be producing 11,000 megawatts of electricity. The government is aiming to obtain "25,000 megawatts of energy from windfarms by 2030", Tiefensee said.

http://msunderestimated.com/2008/07/05/an-unrepentant-proud-american/

Berlin - The United States opened a monumental new embassy in Berlin on Friday, returning the diplomats to their rightful place, 67 years after Washington declared war on the Nazis. Former US president George HW Bush, the ambassador to Germany William Timken, and his wife Sue Timken together cut a ribbon to symbolically let VIP guests enter the 130-million-dollar chancery. The multi-storey building occupies a commanding site between the Holocaust Memorial and Brandenburg Gate. US diplomats had left the site in 1941. During the decades of communism, the empty land had been part of a desolate no-man's land along the...

BERLIN - A GERMAN court sentenced a pair of middle-aged men to more than 12 years in prison on Wednesday for sexually abusing and torturing two young women they held captive for several weeks - part of the time in a dog kennel. The ordeal ended when a third woman taken hostage by the two German men managed to escape her captors and alert police, the court in the northern town of Verden said. In addition to jail sentences, the court ordered the accused, identified as Stephan K., 42, and Bernd K., 55, to pay damages of 150,000 euros (S$323,842)...

Consider the following quotation: "In Mecklenburg at this time a very primitive type of Feudalism existed, known as "Inherited Serfdom". The land owners controlled the economy and ruled their estates with absolute authority. The peasants were dependant entirely on the nobles who could even buy and sell them with or without their property, and the tax rate had to be reviewed every two to three years, and was usually increased at that time. They could not acquire any more land than they already had. Their Landlords produced crops for export from their vast estates by using the labour of these...

PARIS (AFP) - The former German head of aircraft manufacturer Airbus, Gustav Humbert, was detained for questioning by France's financial crime unit Monday in connection with alleged insider trading at Airbus parent EADS, a source close to the matter said. The French financial market regulator, AMF, in April alleged in a report that Humbert sold 160,000 EADS shares in November 2005, earning 1.685 million euros (2.7 million dollars). He is suspected of having benefited from privileged information on EADS' financial prospects as well as delays to the Airbus A380 superjumbo project, which were announced in June 2006 and caused the...

Germany coach Joachim Low generously praised Spain ahead of Sunday's Euro 2008 final in Vienna, pinpointing their consistency throughout the competition. "The Spaniards have been the most constant team here," said Low. "They have shown consistent levels of performance, they are flexible regarding their positioning and they are sure of the passes they make. ..."We have the experience of this kind of tournament. We believe we can win such games - we have a winner's mentality."

Brazil honoured the great Pele on Thursday and the other eight surviving players from its maiden FIFA World Cup™ triumph in 1958, a victory that put the nation on the football map and paved the way for four more titles. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gave the nine men medals of honour at a banquet dedicated to their 5-2 final victory over hosts Sweden 50 years ago. "You helped us understand...we could make Brazil a winner," Lula told the players at the ceremony. Brazil, the most successful football nation with five FIFA World Cup titles, is now in a...

Germany has been commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Berlin airlift, when the Western allies kept the city supplied despite a Soviet blockade. Veterans of the airlift, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s, attended ceremonies in Berlin and Frankfurt. The American and British-led airlift lasted for more than a year, and involved planes delivering everything from coal to sweets. It was one of the biggest humanitarian air relief missions in history. "I find the courage with which this operation was carried out truly admirable," said German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung. A small group of veteran airmen...

The war against free speech is advancing rapidly: Associated Press reported Thursday that “Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council.” Council President Doru-Romulus Costea explained that religious issues can be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense…This council is not prepared to discuss religious matters in depth, consequently we should not do it.” Henceforth only religious scholars would be permitted to broach them.

Siemens ‘too white, German and male’ By Richard Milne in London Published: June 24 2008 23:30 | Last updated: June 24 2008 23:30 Siemens‘ top management is too German for its own good, as well as too white and male, according to its chief executive. Peter Löscher, the Austrian-born chief of the German industrial conglomerate, said the priority for his second year in charge would be to improve the “global diversity” of managers and warned that Germany’s competitiveness could be threatened if it failed to do so. “The management board are all white males. Our top 600 managers are predominantly...

The economic wastelands of the former East Germany are becoming the focus for a rush for reserves of oil as world prices rise to unprecedented levels. Companies from across the globe, including Britain, have been competing to locate and tap oil fields once considered too small to be profitable. But with prices now flirting with a record $140 a barrel, and forecast to keep rising, an oil rush is on to recover every last drop of Germany's energy resources. "In 1990, all oil production was stopped in East Germany as it was not profitable," said Klaus Freytag, from the office...

It was one of the most-amazing sights of the Cold War. By the hundreds, plane after plane thundered into the Berlin airports of Gatow, Tempelhof and Tegel, often arriving at the rate of one every three minutes. The supplies they delivered during the course of about a year sustained over 22,000 Western troops and over two million German civilians huddled in the ruins of the war-ravaged city. That the chief metropolis of a former, enemy nation could suddenly become a symbol of freedom revealed much about the strange, new era the world was entering. It also said much about the...

Today’s Illegals ‘Not Different, Just Newer’ by: Melinda Zosh, June 23, 2008 In 1750, Benjamin Franklin feared that German immigrants would de-Anglicize America. And 250 years later, in a nation where one in six young people under 18 are Hispanic, some politicians fear that Mexicans pose the same threat. But one man says today’s immigrants aren’t “different, they’re just newer.” Jason Riley, author of The Case for Open Borders, spoke at the CATO Institute on June 18 about letting more immigrants into the country. His research shows that Irish and German immigrants faced the same problems as today’s Mexicans. “Franklin...

European air force bases that store U.S. nuclear bombs are failing to meet basic security requirements to safeguard the weapons, according to a report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The U.S. keeps an estimated 350 thermonuclear bombs in six NATO countries. In four of those — Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands — the weapons are stored at the host nation's air bases, where they are guarded by specially trained U.S. military personnel. But according to an internal U.S. Air Force report, the sites are falling short of Department of Defense requirements, with fencing and security systems in...

The history of Islam in Germany goes back as far as the 8th century. From the reign of Charlemagne, to Goethe's literature, to the Turkish guest workers who arrived in the 1950s and 60s and made a home here, the Muslim religion has been a part of German culture for hundreds of years. The history of Islam in Germany is believed to date back to the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. In the fabled tales of "1001 Nights," al-Rashid is said to have wandered the streets of Baghdad at night dressed as a merchant in order to learn about the needs of...

Berlin, Germany (AHN) - A report presented Wednesday by oil giant BP said Germany reduced its energy consumption in 2007 by 5.6 percent. The reduction of use of primary sources of energy such as oil, gas, coal, nuclear and hydro resources was equivalent to 18.5 million tons of oil equivalent. Aside from Germany, two other European nations claimed large cuts in energy consumption at levels even higher than Berlin's. These were Denmark and Azerbaijan. On a global scale, primary energy consumption to increase by 2.4 percent in 2007. The two red-hot Asian economies of China and India accounted for the...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany could elect its first openly gay Lutheran bishop next month, a move conservatives say would alienate many Christians and open divisions in the Church. The July 12 election brings to Germany the question of gay clergy and same-sex unions which has caused rifts in several countries and faiths, including the Anglican community. Horst Gorski, a senior cleric from Hamburg, is standing for the post of bishop of Schleswig in northern Germany against Gerhard Ulrich, a senior cleric from the Schleswig area. The incumbent bishop is retiring in September. Gorski is a widely respected theologian and he...

Whether it has any bearing on Monday's crunch Euro 2008 match between the two countries is debatable but Austria drew first blood on Sunday when their topless women's soccer team beat Germany 10-5. The traditional swapping of shirts afterwards was not an option as the six-a-side teams wore nothing but thongs, with the national colors painted on to their bare skin. The football may not have been of the highest quality but that did not temper the enthusiasm of a mostly male crowd boosted by a sizeable media presence only too happy to desert Euro 2008 training for an hour...

As the twig is bent, so bends the bough. For the Nazis it was important to educate little children in performing the supreme gesture of submission to Adolf Hitler's "Thousand-Year Reich." German sociologist Tilman Allert cites a postmistress who chided two little girls, come to mail a letter, for greeting her with "guten tag." Instruction improving on correction, she led them outside to practice the "heil Hitler" along with the arm lift. To perfect the lift, one kindergarten teacher had the children elevate their right hands to loop their lunch bags over her raised arm. A fairy-tale illustration shows the...

  In a move that will cheer up lovers of vehicles that can travel on both water and (very flat) land, students at a German engineering university have built a one-person hovercraft that uses an air thrust system to move and steer.Folks over at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences use a pneumatic propeller that pushes air through two channels. Each of the channels has a pair of flaps that behave like the thrust-reversing system of a turbo-drive to help a user easily maneuver left or right, go in reverse, and brake.The way the project is set up hints that...