German federal election (September 18, 2005)

[angus]

article in today's spiegel on-line (english version) saying Schröder has staged the First post-War putsch in Germany:  "He has staged the first putsch in German post-war history, a putsch against reality. On the evening of the election, he announced that he had no intention of allowing Angela Merkel to take the helm of a possible grand coalition between his own party and the CDU...  Suddenly the German political stage has turned into a Las Vegas casino, where everyone furiously plays poker by day and watches Siegfried and Roy, the illusionists, put on their act by night. But in Berlin the illusionists' names are Gerhard Schröder and Franz Müntefering, who, it turns out, have shown themselves adept at transforming mice into elephants, poodles into tigers.  Last Tuesday the two performers stood before the press in Berlin's Reichstag building, two good-humored men who have spent so much time telling themselves that they are champions that they now come across as champions."

Pretty clever.  But not clever enough.  The economic forecast for the immediate future stinks.  You boys need to straighten this out one way or another, Deutsche Telekom is still tanking.  $18.20 today.  I paid $21 something a share last year.  WTF??  We americans don't really give a flying f uck one way or the other who wins, but we'd like to see a winner, so just pick one.  You're as bad as we were in the late fall of 2000.  Jeezus, remember that?  Hmmm, do I invest in munitions or in public transit?  Man, it's the not knowing that kills you.  What does Schroder have over Müntefering anyway?  He's supposed to be the party chief, but comes off more like Gerhard's bitch.  Articles are pointing out how Kohl was BundesKanzler for 16 years, so why not?  but then Kohl wasn't the bumbler that created, then rode, a wave of anti-american sentiment to its limit, now was he?  At some point, you gotta realize that your 11+ percent unemployment rate isn't Dick Cheney's fault.  anyway, like I said, we don't much care whether it's Gerhard, or Angela, or even Max von Sydow who becomes chancellor, but we do know that you people need to get your sh**t straightened out so we can go back to doing business.