Bill SprichtJust another WordPress weblog

You know that Germany’s Der Spiegel and others are convinced — or, probably more accurately, pretend to be convinced — that the U.S. media is gleichgeschaltet, meaning it tows the U.S. government’s line. They like to suggest that there is no opposition media in the United States. I say “suggest”, because these intelligent German “elites” know full well that there is more variety in the U.S. media than the Germans could even dream of having in their own country.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the excellent Kiev News Blog: “Poll Says Russian Spin Doctors Bracing for ‘Velvet Revolution’”. Snippet:

Read the rest of this entry »

Try not to cringe when you read this release from the Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP) titled “Non, Nee, Ne, Nie or No – Consequences, Options, and Recommendations if the Constitution is Rejected” (PDF). I know nothing about the CAP, though from a quick jaunt around their website I would say they look like a more than respectable European think tank. Here’s their “Key Points” summary, but you should read the whole thing:

Read the rest of this entry »

Isn’t this interesting?

Read the rest of this entry »

How left can a German Social Dem get? Apparently very, very left. The SPD’s former chairman, Oskar Lafontaine, is leaving his party after 39 years to join up with other lefties in what I cheerfully translate as a “Lefty League” (Linksbündnis). The central party in the Lefty League is the so-called “Party of Democratic Socialism” (PDS), more accurately called the German Communists or perhaps the “inheritors of the Worker’s and Farmer’s Paradise”.

Read the rest of this entry »

DEM 0,00. That’s the amount of money that the unified German republic gave out to the Stasi’s victims, including those who spent years behind bars for trying to leave the country or for saying or doing things considered politically dangerous. Contrast that with the pensions enjoyed today by former “civil servants” of the East German Communist Dictatorship. Frau Honecker, I imagine, lives large in Chile, a real Pensionistin enjoying her last years.

Read the rest of this entry »

This one is from a book I am reading about East Germany, Mary Fulbrook’s Anatomy of a Dictatorship (US, UK). It begins the section named “Coercion and Control: Stasi, Police and Military”:

Read the rest of this entry »

Kosmoblog has a nice summary of the major players in the next (we hope) German government. Is Angela Merkel a new name to you? Then go check out his blog entry.

These are people we can deal with. I talked about Ms. Merkel a few times in 2003.

A hat tip to Ulrich Speck of Kosmoblog for pointing me to this Spectator article about Germany (free reg required) by Wolfgang Munchau. A snipped is below, but also visit Kosmoblog’s entry for the footnotes. Snippet:

Read the rest of this entry »