Tag Archives: SPD

Your Tax Euros At Work

July 19, 2012 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

SPD Governor (Rhineland-Palatinate) Kurt Beck just can’t resign, Nürnburgring bankruptcy or not. This is because, well, “he’s been in office longer than any other German governor” out there. Or is that maybe part of the problem?

Nuerburgring GmbH, 90 percent owned by the state, ran into financial trouble amid a dispute with the track’s operator over leasing fees, and Rhineland-Palatinate has sought to restructure the company with the help of a bridge financing package.

„Jetzt wird es Zeit, dass MP Beck selbst politische Insolvenz anmeldet.“

Hallo, ist da jemand?

April 18, 2012 By in Habitudes, Hi-tech, High Art, History Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Is there anybody out there?

I like old Helmut Schmidt, and we’re talking old (93). I like that he goes out of his way to smoke in front of everybody, especially there where you’re not supposed to. I also think it’s cool that he doesn’t have a cell phone and prefers writing something called “letters” with something called “paper and ink.”  And I don’t even mind that he thinks the Internet is “menacing.” I mean, why should he be the only one in Germany who doesn’t think that way?

I do wish, however, that he would take that big leap and finally leave the SPD while he still has the time to do so. I don’t think he ever belonged there in the first place. But maybe that’s just me.

„Ich telefoniere überhaupt nur noch selten. Wahrscheinlich habe ich das auch früher nie wirklich gern getan. Ich habe immer die Schriftform bevorzugt, und zwar die briefliche Schriftform.“

SPD Doesn’t Need Günter’s Help Anymore

April 10, 2012 By in Habitudes, Helections, Helplessness, High Art, History, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

“We can continue to screw up our image just fine all on our own, thank you,” A party spokesman said.

With comrades like these who needs enemies?

“Seine Zeit ist einfach vorbei.”

But At Least He Didn’t Say Nazi

March 15, 2012 By in Habitudes, Helections, Helplessness, High Art, History, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Sigmar Gabriel, the head of the German Social Democratic Party and possible candidate for Chancellor of Germany, finally decided to break with that long and rather tiring SPD tradition of calling dissenters Nazis and tried out something new and refreshingly different instead; labelling the state of Israel an “Apartheid-Regime” on his Facebook page.

And to give the whole thing a little more umpf, he decided to publish this while visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories. Now he gets to pretend to defend his comparison of Israel to a racist state live and in color, right there before those terrible racists themselves (the Israelis, not the Palestinians). I tell ya, you got to have instinct in this business. Go SPD!

“I was just in Hebron. That is a lawless territory there for Palestinians. This is an apartheid regime, for which there is no justification.”

What’s Red And Green And All Over All Over?

October 9, 2011 By in Helections, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Other than Claudia the Clown Lady down there, I mean?

I’ll tell you what’s red and green and all over all over: The Green party’s big plans for taking over the world (here in Germany) with their partners (junior partners?) over at the SPD when the next big federal elections come around. 

Ever since shooting themselves in the foot during coalition negotiations after their less than stellar performance in Berlin’s local elections the other day, it seems as if those carefully prepared Green putsch plans might end up back on the back burner again after all, at least for now. Everyone is licking her wounds and has hurt feelings or something. And is irritable. And a little bit bitchy.

Hey, Fukushima certainly brought you a long, long way, but the Japanese can only do so much. And close only counts in horseshoes and dancing.

“Jetzt in Schwarz-Grün-Fantasien zu schwelgen, wäre der falsche Weg.”

World Domination Plans Suddenly Not Working

October 6, 2011 By in Habitudes, Helections, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

A few months ago everybody thought that the Greens were going to take over the Berlin city government. Now they can’t even form a coalition as junior partner with Mayor Teflon himself, Party Klaus Wowereit (as in SPD).

The issue? It’s a non-issue, as usual. This time it’s a two-mile stretch of Autobahn that everybody in Berlin wants to have, except the Green Shirt ideologues (and the fruitier varieties even further up in outer space). I guess this was supposed to be Berlin’s Stuttgart 21, whatever that was/is (will someone finally explain that to me?).

And what is the Green ideology, you ask? Saying no. Just say no. Say no and ask questions later. And that, liebe Freunde, is why the Greens have become a big fat Volkspartei in Germany, get it? But you can only say no for so long, I guess. Even in Germany. Even in Berlin.

“Eine moderne wirtschaftsfreundliche Infrastruktur ist die Grundlage des Wohlstands in Deutschland, dazu gehören auch Autobahnen, Schienenwege, Stromtrassen und Pipelines. Es ist ein großer Irrtum der Grünen, wenn sie meinen, das alles wäre im 21. Jahrhundert nicht mehr so wichtig.”

Pressing economic and social problems here in Berlin?

September 15, 2011 By in Habitudes, Helections Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Who cares? It’s election time! And that’s the Berlin equivalent to Karnival, sort of.

So what if Berlin’s unemployment rate is twice that of the national average and its schools are the worst in the country and the S-Bahn (the local commuter rail system) is still broken after three or four years and will remain so indefinitely and cars are set ablaze every night by a group of unknown arsonists who aren’t politically motivated in the least, honest, so what? Berlin is still Berlin, whatever that means. And that’s why everyone will be re-electing Klaus Wowereit on Sunday (or so the experts say – they just love to announce election results beforehand here for some reason).

No, he and his SPD aren’t doing anything about the problems here (malicious tongues would say that they are the problem), but what does that matter in the end? They aren’t doing it with style. Sounds vaguely familiar somehow…

Wowereit himself is their program. The whole city has been covered in posters featuring the native Berliner holding hands with a granny, or having his face bitten by a crocodile glove puppet in a child’s hand. His campaign slogan is “Understanding Berlin” — that’s not much of a vision, but Wowereit doesn’t appear to need one.

Holy Water Frightens German Politicians

September 14, 2011 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Large portions of the German political left have announced that they will not attend Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming speech in the Bundestag.

At least half of the Left Party delegates will boycott the visit as will over one quarter of the SPD politicians. The Greens will be protesting around the corner at the Brandenburg Gate during the speech.

“We have nothing against the Pope’s visit per se,” said one anonymous spokesman in clear and palpable angst hooded in black and lurking in the sinister darkness of one of the parliament building’s more eerie delegate seating areas late the other night, “It’s just that we don’t care for all those crosses and the prayer. And the number 7. And the garlic.”

“Er kommt ja nicht ungebeten, sondern alle Fraktionen haben zugestimmt.”

Burning Booming in Berlin

August 19, 2011 By in Habeas Corpus, Hate, Helections, Helplessness Tags: , , , , , , , , 10 Comments

Ah, Berlin. Poor but sexy. And now partly on fire every night.

“The enthusiasm about Berlin as the capital of alternative culture has never been as great as it is these days. EasyJet tourism is booming, as is the real estate market — prices may be rising in Berlin, but beer and apartments are still relatively cheap.”

As are lighting fluid and matches.

Rot-Rot hat Brandstiftern zu lange zugeschaut.

Oh The Outrage Or Something

April 27, 2011 By in Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Remember “evil Thilo” Sarrazin, the “Germany is doing away with itself” best-selling author and purveyor of unpopular popular ideas?

His SPD is certainly trying to forget him. What do you do with a Social Democrat politician (remember that they’re the politically correct ones here) who says things like “I don’t want the land of my grandchildren and great grandchildren to become predominantly Muslim” and won’t stop saying it and won’t resign when you ask him to even when you ask him to un-nicely?

Nothing much, I guess. Not when the vast majority of politically correct (and otherwise) Germans agree with him.

Critics say the SPD’s refusal to expel him was motivated by fears that a large number of grass roots members agree with his theories and that if Mr Sarrazin were ejected, the party would risk losing support.

PS: Remember The Case of the Missing Nuclear Balls? You know, the ones that were never missing in the first place? It turns out that the SPD science minister lady what’s in charge let folks think that the ball thingies were missing even though she knew that they weren’t. But the Fukushima hysteria level was dropping too fast at that moment so I can certainly see where she was coming from.