Text 24496, 108 rader
Skriven 2008-11-25 19:21:27 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 24008 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Diana, the Beautiful
============================
23 Nov 08 09:17, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:

 RW>> Are you aware of the indictment brought against VP Cheney these past
 RW>> few weeks? I'll bet it never even made Der Spiegel...

 RB> Possible, since I hadn't heard of it, but on the other hand, I've
 RB> been remiss in reading the news the past weeks - so much of it has
 RB> been bad, and I'm depressed enough from the gray in gray weather.

Oh, the story on Cheney wouldn't add to your depression. It's one of the
lighter moments in the news.

 RB> Did the guy he once shot on a hunting trip finally get around to
 RB> suing him?

Oh, hell no. There is a crazy District Attorney in a county down in the
valley (city of Raymond) by Brownsville. He got caught in some illegal
shenanigans during the election, and to divert attention away from
himself, he indicted Cheney and the former AG, Gonsolaz?...on charges that
their ownership of shares in the company who runs a detention center
there, are/were responsible for the ill-treatment of prisoners. He even
got the Grand Jury to believe him and so they indicted the two and a few
others on those charges. Then, there's the local judge who's hearing the
case who won't recuse himself by request of the DA, because he's the judge
who brought charges against the DA during the election. You probably won't
find this 'funny' story in any national newspapers, since it's a Texas
joke perpetrated by that particular 'crazy' DA. Of course, he's a
Democrat, so what else is new...

 RB>>> The only way you can really get comprehensive news in the States is
 RB>>> by Internet, and even then it's best if you can read a couple of
 RB>>> foreign languages for the foreign websites.

 RW>> The German news I subscribe to (RSS) offers it in
 RW>> English/Spanish/French and Arabic. The British RSS also prints
 RW>> theirs in English.

 RB> RSS? Is that an Internet website, or perhaps a newsgroup? Can't say
 RB> I've ever heard of it.

It's an internet news feed that one subscribes to, read with your browser.
No website to speak of... I've been using my Blackberry (hand held
portablilty) more than my computer for this.

 RW>> What affects Americans is what they want to know about and so, the
 RW>> news is oriented toward that aim.

 RB> Probably no different here, and I take the local paper mostly for the
 RB> first few pages with mainly local and regional news.

I do the same. The Harold-Zeitung (HZ). Although it averages about 10
pages, it has some national and world news in the side margins. But mostly
it's what I want to read from local interest, since it's amost entirely
local news.

 RB> But still, the balance is different - I've often thought that's
 RB> because Germany is, geographically, right in the middle of things,
 RB> whereas the US is fairly isolated by the two oceans. It's only
 RB> natural to concentrate on home doings under those circumstances.

I can get a copy of the San Antonio Express at the same places I can get
the HZ, same price. It doesn't hold as much interest as the HZ though.

 RW>> What happens in say, Germany, has no interest unless it's of
 RW>> interest to the local German community, who're too tied up with
 RW>> local German events to pay attention to anything outside this
 RW>> community.

 RB> And at the moment, the news from Germany isn't any brighter than that
 RB> from the States: financial crisis, rising unemployment, crists in the
 RB> auto industry now extending to the automotive suppliers. Not anything
 RB> you'd want to read to be uplifted.

Heh...the CEOs of the 'big three' have vowed not to return to Washington
via private jet. On their next trip, they're going to drive econoboxes.:o)

 RB> Unfortunately, we don't even have an Obama in sight, someone who even
 RB> _promises_ change.

Well, so much for promises. His idea of change was to go back to the
Clinton WH.

 RB> Just the same old tired, hot air-filled bunch of politicians who can
 RB> only agree on raising taxes, increasing their own salaries, invading
 RB> the privacy of their subjects aka "voters" and otherwise sit on their
 RB> hands hoping the crisis will blow over.

As they say in DC; Home Sweet Home...

 RB> I only hope we won't see such a massive "flight from the center" in
 RB> politics as occurred in the last years of the Weimar Republic, when
 RB> the bulk of the voters ignored the centralist parties and instead
 RB> voted communist or NSDAP. But the beginnings of such a development
 RB> are unmistakeable - the "major" centralist parties are losing members
 RB> and support daily and we now have a new "leftist" party with lots of
 RB> unfulfillable promises and an increasing vote. So far there's been no
 RB> renaissance of any rightest party, at least not on a national scale,
 RB> but that may come too if things don't get better fairly quick. The
 RB> situation is worrisome.

Hopefully, there's not another Adolph in your future.

                R\%/itt



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