almost a diary

Gentle readers, I know I’ve been neglecting this lovely little kind-of diary recently, so, first off, welcome to the 2006 edition of almost a diary. And just in case you were wondering what to avoid this year – here’s my advice: don’t go hunting with Dick Cheney.

Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Texas Accident

“The vice president was concerned,” said Mary Matalin, a Cheney adviser who spoke with him yesterday morning. “He felt badly, obviously. On the other hand, he was not careless or incautious or violate any of the [rules]. He didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to do.”

PR people… He didn’t do anything he wasn’t supposed to? Quite frankly, I bet he wasn’t supposed to shoot the guy. But on the other hand, now we know that Mr Cheney can indeed feel bad about something… or do we?

Dick Cheney is probably a much cooler guy than you thought he is. After a hard day’s work of conspiring with his freshly indicted former Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the man still has time and energy for a jam session with the legendary surf music band “The Surfaris”. Well, one of the two bands using the name, each featuring one member of the original band’s cast (info from surfkraft.de)

Alright, maybe it’s not really Cheney. It could also be Paul Johnson, a surf music veteran, who is, along with Dick Dale, one of the genre’s principal founders and pioneers. At least that’s what his introduction was on stage, and that is also what’s written in the biographical part of the band’s website. He is also credited with the first record to be tagged as “surf music” – Mr. Moto, back in 1962. I wonder if Motorola’s ad agency thought about this when they created their latest campaign… (“hello Moto?”)

As part of their current European tour, the Surfaris stopped in Wiesbaden yesterday. And someone else did too. Standing behind the guy pictured on the left I somehow couldn’t stop thinking about the song Eric Bazilian wrote for Joan Osborne – “What if God was one was of us?“

“… we also honor the important friendship between the United States and Germany. Our nations share beliefs in human rights and dignity, and on this day, I join all Americans in celebrating the bonds that tie our two nations and in reaffirming the importance of our continuing friendship.”

(via germany.info)

Leaving the the podium the President added to a close advisor – “… of course, we can always suspend it unilaterally, hehehe… that Chancellor guy I hate, what’s his name again, does he still rule those folks? Hmm, whatever, now go, get me a Pretzel! And buy some German knives. And guns. Germans know how to make guns. And knives. Oh wait a minute… guns… hmmm… were these folks really always our friends? Whatever… where’s my Pretzel?”

So I’m checking my mail, browse quickly through a newsletter by n-tv, the German news-channel, and I’m suddenly two years younger.

Seriously, tonight I’m being told it’s news that George W. Bush allegedly told Palestinian PM Abbas that God told him to go nation-building in countries he did not even know about before.

Hmm, didn’t I write about this in June 2003? Strange, don’t you think?

Well, maybe not so much – The BBC is just doing such a good PR job for an upcoming documentary that the White House felt the need to once again deny these alligations, which appeared in Haaretz two years ago

Actually, I’m not quite sure why Bush has his spokesperson publicly deny this again. Acknowledging the debate is a lose-lose proposition from a PR standpoint. I mean, everyone who’s hoping he doesn’t literally talk to God about strategic decisions will not be deterred from believing that he actually does by a White House denial. On the other hand, those – currently rather unhappy – parts of his/the Republican constituency which would like it if their President spoke with God as literally as possible, might chose to believe…

Fair enough, American politics is far more complex than many people on this side of the pond are even able to admit. Still,
this week’s Economist asks a seemingly complicated question with a surprisingly simple answer – Pride and Prejudice.

Sometimes both come before the fall. Just ask Jane Austen – or George W. Bush.

Ring out the old, ring in the… old? Doesn’t he look a little like he had a hunch?

Besides, “Die Partei” clearly knows best how to protect expensive campaign material from vandalism…

To bad only 10300 people voted for “Die Partei” which was created by the editorial staff of the German satire magazine “Titanic”. I would have loved to seem in coalition talks. Their most important campaign promise was to rebuild the Berlin Wall. I suppose that might have suited at least the frustated Bavarians around Edmund Stoiber to some extent.

Gregor Gysi gets the second price in the category “most blatantly stupid campaign claim” for the line “Left policy deserves to be trusted because it means developing alternatives with the people.” The first price obviously goes to everyone depicted on a poster with the claim “better for the people.”

It’s a well known fact that property is not something people on the economic left have a lot of sympathy for. So it should not be too surprising to see that Oscar Lafontaine has appropriated Victor Hugo’s realisation that there are times when nothing is more powerful than an idea and put it on the poster in a way that looks lke it was his own… by the way, replying “we’re not mad” to his invitation (scribbled on the poster) was probably wrong – to some extent. While not as many people voted for the Linkspartei.PDS, it was still 8.7% (or 4,086,134 people) of Germans, 4.7% up from 4 years ago.