Back to the original topic of this thread- why is Obama speaking in Germany? Here is what one German had to say about it, from http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3507071,00.html:
=== Moreover, some residents of Germany's perennially cash-strapped capital have taken umbrage at the fact that Obama's visit will cost a half-million euros ($786,000) -- half of which will be born by German public funds. "How come the German and the Berlin taxpayer has to pony up 250,000 euros so that Obama gets a nice television backdrop for his campaign?" asked one irritated blogger on the website of a local newspaper. === So I ask you, if nearly $400K in funding for a campaign speech- that the Mayor of the host city stated he hoped would get help Obama elected- is not a political contribution, then what is it? Where do you draw the line? Should the Mayor of Berlin be allowed to sponsor an Obama speech in New York? That would clearly be illegal. Why is this legal? What if Silvio Berlusconi decided to sponsor a McCain speech in Washington, DC? That would be illegal, too. What if he sponsored a McCain speech in London, or Rome? Not illegal? Sorry, all of this is out of bounds. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:264471 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
