Look at What the Germans are Having to Put Up With...

[King_Crimson]

from www.wsws.org

In advance of Wednesday, February 23, a virtual state of emergency is being imposed in the Rhine-Main area, one of the most heavily populated in Germany.
Four motorways are being completely closed, rail travel restricted, navigation of the rivers Rhine and Main halted, schools and local offices closed down. The historical centre of the city of Mainz will be totally blocked off. Helicopters will fly overhead, while the city is beseiged by police units and snipers.
The rerouting of traffic and closure of the main routes between Frankfurt airport and Mainz will force tens of thousands of employees in the region, including workers at the huge Opel auto works at Russelsheim, to change shifts or take a day's holiday.
Air space over Frankfurt airport is to be closed for nearly an hour. All private airplanes within a radius of 60 kilometres from Mainz are to be grounded for the entire day. For the first time ever, fighter planes of the German Air Force will be on standby to take off and attack in the event of any disturbance of air space.
<snip>

Some 1,300 gully and manhole covers have been welded shut, while free-standing mailboxes, garbage cans, electrical connection boxes, and even bicycles have been removed. City residents have been expressly forbidden from going onto their balconies or looking out an open window. They have been banned from parking their cars either in the street or in their own garages. Many garages have been sealed. The police have warned that they will break into and tow away all vehicles found in the restricted area beginning early Tuesday morning.
<snip>

What could have warranted such extreme measures? Is Mainz targeted on this day for a terrorist attack comparable to September 11? Is war or civil war brewing?
Not at all. It's just that US President George W. Bush is making a stopover in Germany, and will be welcomed at the castle in Mainz by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

more...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/feb2005/bush-f21_prn.shtml

Just when you thought you'd heard it all! :nuke:

[BR_Parkway]

1. All that, and the millions spent on security for the Inauguration but a

whore gets within 25 ft of Shrubbie and asks questions - but no one knows about it because the whore media won't report it.

I am so hoping that one of the foreign press asks him about GanGuck, since ours don't have the balls to.

[murray hill farm]

6. Exactly!!!

and we are the only ones to talk about it!!!! so freaking obvious...yet it is ignored...if they wont give coverage to this as a story that needs to be told and investigated...at the very least, it should be big news as a security issue.

[SmokingJacket]

2. Are the Bushies demanding this kind of security?

If so, some nerve.

Or are the Germans terrified that something might happen to the incredibly unpopular Bush on their turf, and that they'll be held responsible?

[King_Crimson]

3. Oh...theres more than what I listed...

go check the article out. It's ridiculous!:headbang:

[LiberalEsto]

4. And who is paying for all this security?

I guess they think the Germans should feel privileged to have their tax dollars squandered on providing Emperor * with this level of paranoid security.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

7. I read somewhere this morning that a "Town Hall" meeting

with Bush and the German people was canceled because the German Chancellor would not agree to vetting the people and the questions before letting them into the hall. Anyone that could possibly disagree with Chimpy is not invited. Bushy is going to meet and greet with real people, just male prostitutes posing as a reporter.

Guess Bushy just got so used to controlling the media, the news, public appearances he could not believe that everyone doesn't do it too. Just what this country needs - a stupid, "moranic" a$$wipe on a world tour.

[nascarblue]

5. G8 'could call' on 10,000 police

First Minister Jack McConnell has said up to 10,000 police officers could be called in for the G8 summit.
He confirmed all police leave had been cancelled and officers would respond to security requirements at the time.

It has been suggested that up to 200,000 people could travel to the Scottish meeting, many to take part in protests such as the one organised by the Make Poverty History campaign.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4284723.stm

[riverwalker]

8. an embarrassment

"No other American president has required comparable measures. In 1963, when John F. Kennedy spoke in front of the Schöneberg City Hall in West Berlin, he was cheered by an enthusiastic audience and then openly mixed with the crowd. During his last official visit to Berlin, decades later, then-President Bill Clinton made a surprise stop at a Berlin restaurant in the company of Chancellor Schröder and a few bodyguards."

[dandrhesse]

9. ridiculous, they shouldn't accommodate the unreasonable requests, if

bush is that hated, it is of his own doing, if he has to stay holed up inside the office at the white house who cares, other governments and our own shouldn't have to shoulder these exorbitant costs to protect him.

[earth mom]

10. What a Joke! I can't believe Germans would put up with this Bullshit! nt