Sour Grapes at ZDF

(By Ray D.)

Seems like ZDF finally figured out why their poll results didn't come out the way they had hoped. Here is an email they sent one of our readers when asked why they removed the poll for president:

Original German:

"Hi,

die Abstimmung haben wir vom Netz genommen, weil wir keine Lust haben, uns von Weblogs wie "Davids Medienkritik" vorführen zu lassen.

Beste Grüße
Stefan Lehmacher
ZDF"

English translation:

"Hi,

We took the poll off the net, because we have no desire to allow ourselves to be led around by the nose by weblogs like "Davids Medienkritik."

Best regards,
Stefan Lehmacher
ZDF"

What he really meant to say was...

"Hi,

Well, those awful people over at "Davids Medienkritik" encouraged a bunch of bad, bad neo-cons to vote on our poll, giving us a result (Kerry had less than 80% of the vote) entirely out of line with our worldview. We had no choice but to pull the poll or face further embarrassment.

Best regards,
Stefan Lehmacher
ZDF"

Ohhhhh...the poor dears at ZDF. It seems our visitors disrupted their cuddly Kerry-love-in. Please...(sob) somebody get me a hanky....

Comments

[Joe N.]

So, Niko...

I think you were just telling us a few weeks ago... Where are you moving from, where did you tell us you were going to move to, and why?

I think the visiting journalist from the 'Wreckage-of-history Gazette' needs to realize that all is not perfect in the worker's paradise of Eutopia...

[Pamela]

Niko, you're really gonna do this? WOO HOO!
You've got my email and you had damn well better stop by for a day or 10.

[Joe N.]

Hey Niko, don't worry - you'll fall madly in love for sure. They're bound to be a little rough on you, just to see if YOU'VE got what it takes to date THEM.
They aren't the patchouli types. And then there's the smell of the southern pines just after the rain.

[Joe]

Niko,

Come on down. We kind of call this the south or the red states......but it sure is nice.

You will find no problem in finding a cute Republican woman. Most of the women of the south overcome their liberalism by the time they graduate. If not by then, after a few years in the work place when they start to see the effects of big government.

They do tend to like a man who knows what he is about. Niko, given this, I think you will have no problems at all.

[Pamela]

Doomed, Niko, you are doomed!

My mother was a Southern Belle, one of the Queens of the Mardis Gras in her day.

Abandon Hope. Unless, of course, her NAME is "Hope", in which case forget I ever said anything.

[Pamela]

Niko, "Virginia" could use you on the 'Anybody but Bush thread.

[amiexpat]

Niko
you ROCK!
good luck in the Land of unlimited superficiality.. (I mean that ironically.. cross between the land of unlimited possibilities and the superficiality we are so often accused of..)
Good luck.. all the best.
steve

[Joe]

Pamela: I have a former 'northern belle' (as it were) for a mother, but I know what you mean! Thankfully, we all tend to lighten up in our dotage. ;-)

Niko: I don' think that's the best uebersetzung, "leading someone by the nose" has the accurate *original* meaning, but the way one most often hears it used, is to imply that someone is decieved or misled.

[Joe N.]

Sorry the above comment is actually from 'Joe N.', not 'Joe'. He's a perfectly decent chap, but i'll never be him, alas, merely his shadow.... with an 'N.', that is.

[Pamela]

Joe N:
> Thankfully, we all tend to lighten up in our dotage. ;-)

Indeed. I went blonde, myself.

[Joe]

Hee hee!

[Joe]

Georgia suffers from a lack of blondes......

[scum of the univ]

I've seen this debate summarized quite nicely, and I think it might even have been here that I read it.

The EU is supposedly the equal, the counter-weight to the US. It is intended to speak with a unified voice, and should not be ignored. Chirac and Schroeder certainly seedm to think so at any rate.

That being the case, why is it "multi-lateralism" when the EU makes a demand the US refuses to meet, but "unilateralism" when the converse is true? Isn't this supposed to be an arrangement between equals? Isn't that what the europeans are constantly telling the US?

[SleepyInSeattle]

"And then I turn my TV, see Rammstein's new video "Amerika" on heavy rotation and at the top of the viewer's choice charts in our music channels and I feel even worse, because this is was a lot of "ordinary Germans" do believe."

Hey Thomas, it's not anti-American, it's anti-Bush, wait no it's quite specifally about the horrible "Amerika", oops. There's a reason that song was made and that's because it's perfectly OK now to be anti-American in Germany.

Anyways, here's the anti-"Bush" (there are definitely no anti-American sentiment in Germany) video Amerika:

Dial-up: http://www.viva.tv/player/player.php?id=11004&fid=23005947&format=media_isdn&focus=off

Broadband:
http://www.viva.tv/player/player.php?id=11004&fid=23004151&format=media_adsl&focus=off

[Gabi]

Thank you for the url, Sleepy.

Danke, Rammstein, endlich hat die deutsche Dummheit ein Lied.

[Wolfgang]

Actually, I like Rammstein alot.

They gave a warning a while ago with " Mein Herz schlägt Links " .

[scum of the univ]

The lyrics to that song can be found at the bottom of each of these pages:

http://www.rammsteinniccage.com/lyrics/singlesenglish.html
http://www.rammsteinniccage.com/lyrics/singlesgerman.html

Rammstein is always rather dystopian even at their most optimistic. The lyrics actually seem fairly harmless. Aside from all the cultural imperialism (which is what 80% of the song seems to be about), this is probably the most focussed verse:

I know the very useful steps
and I will protect you from missteps
and who does not want to dance at the end
does not know that he must dance

If you stop to think about it, that is as much an admission of reality as anything else: if the US were to adopt a completely isolationist policy tomorrow (completely isolationist, no support for Israel, etc.), the other countries would still find that they have to "dance". In fact, they'd actually have to dance a lot faster.

Now, is that what the lyrics were intended to mean? Possibly, but I tend to doubt it. Is that what listeners hear? Almost certainly not.

P.S.: They missed the opportunity to explicitly show the various oppressed tribes featured throught the video in the pinball machine, and to have the US astronauts kick the machine apart in frustration or while fighting over it. I'm also not sure about the whole "moon landing as an event performed on a sound stage" image.

[Erik S]

It's good, I suppose, to be informed about the extent that hegemonic Americans remain ignorant about the world…

Could we please receive a lecture on how informed the tolerant, generous, and world-wise Europeans are about Iraq and about the Iraqis' true feelings about the war, its aftermath, and the despicable "hegemon's" occupation?

Maybe, as the people most concerned, the point of view of the Iraqis (rather than of Schröder and Chirac and the editors of Spiegel and Le Monde) should be taken into consideration once in a while, nichtwar? (And in other aspects than just "Oh, it's just one Iraqi's opinion", bitteschön…)

I'm also curious about how often we hear about Germans only being anti-Putin, anti-Mugabe, anti-Hu, etc, rather than being against the Russian, Zimbabwean, Chinese, etc, peoples. We never do hear much about that, because they are not particularly against either (neither against the foreign leaders nor against the foreign peoples nor even against the leaders' policies, for that matter)… and no wonder; the Germans' leaders, their media outlets, and their citizens are too busy railing against the American "hegemon" and its leader(s)…

Concerning being only anti-Bush, one of the main goals of this weblog, as is that of my own, is to demonstrate how this is a smokescreen that amounts to self-deception. As Niko pointed out, this weblog has over 700 items, as does ¡No Pasarán!, that demonstrate this. However, if you wish not to take our weblogs for granted, I will remind you that the term "hyperpower" was born during Clinton's administration; I suggest you take a look at this International Herald Tribune article…

By the way, not too long ago, one of Europe’s foreign ministers denounced America’s president as the “chief culprit of this war” and went on to bemoan the “American people” for having been betrayed by such an irresponsible leader. Evoking America’s “historically unique and shameless ill treatment of truth and of right” as well as "a country where everything is built on the dollar", a European head of state added that the “so-called” president was “guilty of a series of the worst crimes against international law”and that "first, he incites war, then falsifies the causes, then odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy, and slowly but surely leads mankind to war, not without calling God to witness the honesty of his attack."

But a question arises. Who were the courageous politicians making those stirring statements?…

[N. Hale]

@ Trish

Thanks for expressing what is often experienced by Americans. I can only second what you have said. Keep up the great posting!

[Sandy P]

--The EU is supposedly the equal, the counter-weight to the US. It is intended to speak with a unified voice, and should not be ignored. Chirac and Schroeder certainly seedm to think so at any rate.--

One union, 1 voice - 1 seat at the UN.

[scum of the univ]

You miss my point, Sandy. While I agree with your position, I was making a broader point.

Why is their theoretically single voice "multilateralism" and the US's single voice "unilateralism"?

[Joe]

I agree, Sandy - and also -1- diplomatic mission and -1- vote in the UN General Assembly.

Imagine that on of the pet peeves of the German left is to get a seat on the security council... Has anyone heard any discussion about India?! For heaven's sake, they matter a lot more in terms of strategic and economic issues than germany!

[ohno]

See for yourselves what the anti-Bush squad has set up - a site "where the whole world can vote in the US elections". Sigh.
C'mon, just tilt it a little.
http://betavote.com/

[Nahanni]

For people who claim Americans are so "ignorant" they sure do not know jack about the US. One of the things they should know (if some of these pontificating Euros are so damned smart) is that Americans have a very long memory. The actions of them and their governments over the past 3 years will not be soon forgotten. This is a simple fact that the people of Europe should remember.

You see, we tend to remember who are fair weather friends are. They are only "our friends" as long as they want something from us but when we need some help they kick us in the teeth and spit on us. Heaven help them if they ever need anything out of us ever again.

[Jabba the Nutt]

I was on the Uni Heidelberg 75-76 and took a class in the Foreign Policy of the USA. Just one example of the level of thought, every dollar of foreign aid that went to Africa was just another American Greenback soldier marching in to conquer the continent. That was almost 30 years ago and that was the opinion of the overwhelming and most vocal majority. Let's see, Heidelberg had a wide variety of political choices: Spartacus M/L, KPD, DKP, Jusos, Julis, UKPD and I can't remember all the other commie grouplets out there. This was during the time three of the Baader-Meinhof gang offed themselves in prison. Next day mass demonstration for the terrorists who they knew, were murdered by the police.

Germany has tried every version of socialism that there is for the past 140 years. The time when Germany made the most progress was the 20 years, when it was the least socialist. When I was growing up, Germany was a model and the whole world admired the Economic Miracle. Germany's been stagnating the past two decades. In the 80's alone, the US added West Germany's economy on top of it's own in economic growth. 20 million new jobs were created, compared to zero.

Us hick, stupid and obese Americans must be doing something right.

[Hansi]

That's a great site. I'll take the liberty to put a link to it on my own site.
Best regards, H.H.