Eich Bin Ein Berliner

Congratulations Germany--and really all of us--on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Saw a lot of German faces with smiles on today and a lot with tears of joy including the leader Ms. Merkel. Our President? I guess he was too busy to go. Working on a healthcare bill I gather that is still about 6 months away. Oh does anyone want to take the under on that number? I'll be glad to wager with you. Oh and we can even do another bet that the Germans are a little confused why Hilary Clinton is celebrating their 20th anniversary of freedom and not our President. The bet would be something like: "the next time President Obama of the United States comes to speak in Germany the crowd is less than 200,000 like the last time." What do you think his idol JFK would've done today?

 

Well MAYBE the President is working hard on talking with the CIA guys, who apparently knew about this terrorist months ago, that killed and maimed scores of people at Fort Hood,. And thats what that filthy animal is, a terrorist. We aren't going to rush to judgement though as the President says. Until we get all the facts. Well my guess is the President's advisors are telling him NOT to say stuff like he did to the NY Times on March 16, 2007. The Honorable Senator from Illinois said to Times reporter, Nicholos Kristof, "One of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset is the Muslim call to prayer." Now seriously, who says this kind of stuff? Muslims probably do. But it got better when Kristof reported, "then Obama recited in a first class Arabic accent the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer." Now some of you may be angry when I bring these facts up, but I'll make another bet: the Times ain't reprinting that article anytime soon. Maybe the NY Post will or Fox News but not the Times. I'm thinking the Commander in Chief might want to listen to the guys in the field if they say there are more Muslim terrorists in our Armed Forces and, if so, its time for some good old fashion racial profiling. Its getting a little late in the game. Do I have to tell you what happens to the economy if another "US soldier" blows himself up on a bus in Times Square, NYC right before Thanksgiving? Let me get off the soapbox though and state some more facts from our German friends.

 

Kevin Hassett, from bloomberg.com, has written "U.S. Should Try Germany's Unemployment Medicine". Now remember we reported on these pages that the GERMANS, not the US, came up with the "Cash for Clunkers" program earlier in the year. But they bagged it (technical term) when they realized there was all kinds of fraud associated with it and it COST them money. But did we listen and learn? No. We listened to the beginning part and, well, you see what has happened. However, there's a new program that makes so much sense that I'm SURE we won't  try this. Mr Hassett reports that its called, "Kurzarbeit" (was that a sneeze?).

 

Mr. Hassett goes on to say it kind of translates into "short work" and firms that are in trouble in Germany, and might have to cut employees, just cuts back hours for the workers rather than have mass layoffs. If the hours and wages are reduced by 10 percent or more, the government pays the workers 60% of their lost salary. As I contimued to read, I was kicking myself for not coming up with this idea myself. Everybody keeps working but just less until things get better. They are also given a little somethin somethin (technical term) for their time off the job. Then I thought, how about our economists working for the administration? Why didn't THEY come up with this?

 

See the basis is, if a firm fires people it costs them dough, it costs the government dough, and the social ills are huge. Not to mention when the economy eventually comes back, the firm has to rehire workers, probably train them, and most likely miss out on a lot of profits. This way seems to prevent that issue. But in this country, no company thinks of that because there's no incentive to do it.

 

Hassett says it would probably cost the country $10.6bn to implement it and compared to $787bn its gotta be worth a try right? He says its not too late but we are running out of time. Kind of like my example above with the filthy animal that we are paying for to live with doctors watching him around the clock for murdering Americans because they were......Americans. I think we give this Kurzarbeit "short work" a try. Oh the unemployment rate in Germany? Dropping. The U.S.? Not so much. We gotta wake up.  

Comments

[fringedweller]

Have you noted which heads of state have attended commemorative ceremonies in Rwanda in the last 10 years or so?

Of course not. Well, forgeddaboudit. Nuthin' more than a little bout of Selective Indignation.

[fringedweller]

Have you noted which heads of state have attended commemorative ceremonies in Rwanda? Nah, of course not. Well forgeddaboudit, nuthin' more than a little bout of selective indignation.

[nah]

what is it? hasaan, if sleeper cell extremeists can get off attacks on an army base... thats a bit of a problem
.
if it quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck
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im sure the guy is emotionally distrubed but fact is no-one really knows what he has been up to 'obviously' and hes been torturing his poor self for some time.... long enough in fact to yell 'allah ahkbar' while killing US servicmen
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religion has nothing to do with it, if you attack someone with the war cry of the enemy thats pretty messed up
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thats like white kids going around yelling heil hitler and blowing people away durring WWII
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being emotionally indifferent to modern conflict
so that this guy can be downgraded to code yellow is up there with saying zakarias mousawi was not a direct threat to us security
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terrorism is serious in the nth degree
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSidNztOoYw&feature=player_embedded

[anon]

Embarassing, Too busy to show up for 20th anniversary, but not too busy to lobby for Olympics or a unearned Nobel peace prize. Obama thinks we'll gain favor with the Russians(repeating the error of Poland/Chech sellout). This really hurts u.s. credibility in the region.