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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (13207)	10/20/2003 5:44:55 PM
From: Elsewhere	Respond to of 793917

Iron Chancellors, Iron Ladies, perhaps an Iron Maiden or two, to set you Germans on the right course. vbg. Hey, a lot of friends had Iron Maiden posters in their rooms... On another funny note there was at least an article on Thatcher in my paper today: Kommt Maggie nach Deutschland? (Does Maggie come to Germany?) Eine selbstbewusste Führungsgestalt wäre Chance und Gefahr zugleich (A strong leader would be a chance and a danger at the same time) archiv.tagesspiegel.de The author has just published a Thatcher book: amazon.de I hesitate strongly to report about German domestic policy currently. It is a chaos - and even if there's a step in the right direction like the Bundestag decision mentioned in your article it will take many months until it becomes reality: the conservatives currently hope to topple Schröder by blocking many political initiatives in the Bundesrat. This deadlock has been going on for years, a decade ago with reversed roles (conservatives in the government, social democrats blocking in the Bundesrat). But I shouldn't complain. Recently Gorbachev criticized Germans for lamenting too much - he would be glad if Russia was able to lament on a similar prosperity level...

To: carranza2 who wrote (13207)	10/20/2003 6:01:19 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793917

Another New Yorker that doesn't get the "little people." Andrew Sullivan ______________________________________________________ TAXES ARE SO INSIGNIFICANT: A classic limo-lib comment from Joan Didion, former prose master, now, sadly, another generational scold: Salon: When you remember your mother, more than 50 years ago, saying that California was too regulated, too taxed and too expensive, isn't that exactly the same emotion that led to the recall? Didion: Exactly. That's what people thought in 1978 when they voted for Prop. 13. I mean, I was amazed this time. I hadn't been out there for a while and I really hadn't gauged the depth of the anger. I didn't think all the people who had signed the petitions would show up at the polls. I just thought they were walking through the parking lot on the way to the car and they thought they could send a message. It was amazing to me that the actual recall happened. Somehow I thought there would be a separation between signing the petition and actually voting. I mean, the car tax. I did not know what the car tax was. I had never heard of the car tax. Finally someone explained to me: It's the vehicle registration fee! It's just so insignificant. Well, at least she recognizes her cocoon. But a big hike in a car tax is, for most people, not exactly "insignificant." On a $30,000 car, the difference is between $195 before the hike and $600 after. On cheaper cars, the tax doubled as well. When you have to fork this out, on most wages, it hurts. andrewsullivan.com