Reasons for the Decline

Writing about the political decline of the FDP, one certainly has to investigate the reasons for it.
Just to briefly sum them up, the reasons inter alia are:


- no agreement within the coalition on several aspects (tax policy, health care, military service...)

- immature behavior of Guido Westerwelle
--> chairman of party vs secretary of state
--> "late Roman decadence", "social freeloaders"

- political turbulence in the middle classes
Rudzio: "fluctuation of voters & pluralism of interests"
--> Grüne reached a record level of 18%

- lack of decisiveness on the part of Merkel
--> no strict guidance as one would imagine it of a chancellor
--> financial crisis, Greece in debt


These are just some of the reasons, others will follow, but I am still in the process of developing and structuring ;)


See this article for background information:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/pers-j18.shtml

The Rise and Fall of the FDP

Introduction

This essay deals with the rise and fall of the German Free Democratic Party in since the Bundestag election of 2009. A special focus will be put on the FDP itself considering its political power according to the percentage points especially after the Landtag election 2010 in North-rhine-Westphalia. The Landtag election took place on May 9th, 2010 and the FDP came off badly compared to the Bundestag election men-tioned above. Guido Westerwelle, party leader of the FDP since 2001, hoped for "10 % plus X". This shows the transformation from a party being given governmental strength into a skeleton trying to capture the five-percent threshold. Another point of interest will be put on the chair-man of the FDP himself and to what extent he might be responsible for the decline of votes. As diversity is the main topic of this essay, I try to cover as many fields of diversity in relation to the FDP and the German politics in general as possible.

PRESELECTION RESTART... DOWNLOAD COMPLETED ... INSTALLATION DONE

I am taking blogging up again - why? Only because I have to? No, that is not the only reason. I somehow really missed it. I think Sveta could write a book about it.

Of course the main topic is "Presidential Elections" again, but with a slightly different perspective. It is shifted to a German view and the blog will mainly function as a platform to publish my essay on the FDP. Since I am taking this semester´s seminar for Vertiefung Heterogenität and have to write an essay on a topic somehow related to Diversity, I thought it would be a nice idea to publish passages of the essay bit by bit.

I will keep you guys up-2-date about the most recent developments concerning the essay.

Best!

Thanks to Svetlana!

I was shocked when I read your blog entry "Why I Stopped Blogging"! I mean... No! I got the idea of this by you and you somehow showed all of us how we can efficiently deal with new media tools, showed us what other search engines exist apart from Google, what other (to that date unknown) tools there are on the web and so on and so forth!
But it is not time to complain, I am sure you have your reasons, as you mentioned it in your entry.

No, I would like to thank you for the semester with us, that you dealt with us so patiently, even on this early Tuesday morning!

Thanks A Lot!
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_149/1179390533k3VOh8.jpg

MoZ: Can One Do Justice To Barack Obama In Only One Session?

(www.libraryjournal.com)


Finally, we´re getting to talk about US President Barack Obama! He is actually one of the main reasons why I (and many others, I suppose) chose this particular seminar "Presidential Elections".
Save The Best For Last!

The question is: Can one do justice to Barack Obama in only one session?
I mean there is so much to talk about, he has already done so much that is worth discussing and we have got only 90 minutes for this? We are doubtlessly a powerful and efficient class and we will face the challenge! Can we do it? YES WE CAN!

I am really looking forward to tomorrow´s session, it will be fun experiencing "YouTub-ing", present our blogs and share experience with this.

As preparation for class or in retrospect, you might want to watch this:

MoZ: Yesterday Email, Today Interconnectivity, Tomorrow ???

Since I signed up on Twitter, I discovered that a new level of Web pace and interconnectivity has been reached (although I am a bit late ;) ). Twitter offers a list of "Trending Topics" and Google Chrome OS is ranked in the first place. Google Chrome? Why the hell is Google Chrome, a more or less ordinary browser ranked on top of the list??

But one has to be precise: it is Chrome OS! This is not the browser, it is an operating system, as the abbreviation indicates. Google is building up a rivel to Microsoft´s Windows!
Now I do not want to talk about Google Chrome OS, what it is in detail, who it developed and what it can do or whatever, my focus is on the pace the online world has been taking the last years.
When emailing became popular and accessible for the vast majority, everyone was astonished the world over. Then instant messengers and social online networks appeared - that was the next stage. In a previous blog entry, I reported about Google Wave, a new web interface that allows real time emailing, editing, working, chatting and so on and so forth. This is real interconnectivity. Twitter even took this to the next level: there are so many people involved that any rumour anywhere in the world is transported to an online community that spreads this rumour further. I think it can be called a Ponzi scheme.
The reason why I mention this is that Google Chrome OS, being ranked in the first place, caught my attention on Twitter. I get new information and rumours via other sources, but Twitter can do this a lot faster.
Here is an example how such a rumour can be spread: http://www.massenpublikum.de/blog/?p=1134
It is about Michael Ballack, a German soccer player, who might join the HSV and leave Chelsea London. This man in the link listened to some guys in a train, lawyers and mentors of soccer players, and he directly twittered this rumour! This caused quite a stir as you can imagine. Just a day after that, all the big newspapers reported about this - maybe this is just a newspaper hoax, but this example vividly shows how amazingly fast the Internet has become!
If we call the status today "interconnectivity", what will it be like in 5 or 10 years time?? "Beam Me Up, Scotty?"


(http://cenblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/beam_me_up_scotty.jpg)

!!Kal Penn for Obama!! - The White House Sitcom

Hey guys,
I´ve known this fact (call it disturbing, astonishing, amazing, boring, surprising or whatever) for several months, but as we were talking about Obama, his personality and charisma in class today I directly thought back to that: Kal Penn is about to work for Barack Obama in the White House - as a "full" member of staff.
For those of you who do not know him: Here is first of all a picture - that is him (taken from http://www.emeriandjonahscloset.com/ejc/aj/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/kal-penn.jpg).
Looks quite serious, doesn´t he?? A young serious man who can take his tasks and fulfill them!
Hehe - yes! But...


But there is also another side of Kal Penn (not that negatively connotated as it may sound now):
He used to work as an actor - okay, nothing special, you may think, but!!
Most of you might know him from the series Dr. House (I love it by the way, alothough I liked the first two seasons best). He played the young Dr. Lawrence Kutner working for Dr. House´s team. After being invited by Obama to work for him, the figure Kutner had to commit suicide as both jobs at the same time were incompatible. This was the more serious part of his work, but now let´s turn to some movies he made that are even less compatible with his future job:

They are still quite unknown here, but one must have seen them. It is firstly Harold & Kumar - Go to White Castle and secondly the sequel to it: Harold & Kumar - Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
In these movies, Kal Penn (which is actually only a stage name; his real one is Kalpen Modi) plays Kumar, a weed smoking, lazy young man who is forced to study medicine by his father. His purpose in life is having fun and smoking as much weed as he can get, together with his friend Harold (a Korean man - also a weedhead, but a little bit more reasonable), alone or with his Jewish friends. This is what it look like then (taken from flixster.com:



Now the question: Can such a man really take such a responsibility and work for the White House? At first glance he can absolutely NOT - I mean he is a weedhead who does not do anything with his life!
But: Barack Obama will not have chosen an unreliable man to work for him who could crash all his previous work. By the way - what is Modi´s job then? He is supposed to be some kind of a mediator between the American government and Asian immigrants and artists. He does not expect to get special treatment, but he would like to be regarded as any other member of staff and he does not want to take advantage of his former career as an actor.


Here is an online source reporting about this, but there are many other comparable ones, just google it, since you know how search engines work :)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aFXnt_hqV._8&refer=muse

If you are interested in his movies, here is a trailer of the first movie where they try to get some burgers at White Castle ;)




This is an interview with Kalpen Modi; at first summarizing what he has done so far and then he talks about what his tasks are in the White House, and he is not only a "weedhead". Check it out!