Politics

When Google launched its search engine four years ago in China, and bowed down to Chinese authorities who required Google to censor their search results, I was hugely disappointed. I had always been a strong proponent of Google's "don't be evil" motto, and even more so, having worked there for a short time, I firmly believed that Google management actually took their motto seriously. But then, after the entry to the Chinese market, my long discussions with friends and colleagues, trying to convince them Google was indeed not evil, became much more difficult and I seemed to lose quite some credibility. The promise that Google would only remain in China if progress was made on the freedom of speech issues seemed like a poor excuse to harness the lucrative business opportunities gained by entering the world's fastest growing internet nation.

Today, all that has changed. Read on to find out why I believe the recent developments are so important to China's future.

The day after tomorrow Obama will be become the 44th president of the United States of America. His biggest challenge will be to clean up the enormous mess Bush has left behind. If you have forgotten how Bush has transformed the world's mightiest nation into deterioration, or just need to realize the full extent of it, watch Olberman's summary of Bush's 8 years after the jump.

Frankly, I did expect more from the Obama team when they allowed users to post and vote for their most pressing questions a few days ago. It seems rather half-hearted that many of the questions were omitted, and that the answer to the top question was buried somewhere between other answers and given real-estate of a single lonely line. See their blog entry here. Furthermore, the answers did not seem at all personal, as if someone had really sat down and thought about these questions. Instead, standard political answers were given.

Now I don't expect miracles from the president-elect, but if you start such a democratic Q&A, you might as well do it right, and actually respect the vote counts. Here, I feel the most interesting questions were ignored, and those that were answered felt like a quick copy&paste from the campaign book. I may be over-reacting, but I feel gypped.

What do you guys think?

I did not go 'wow' when I read this news today. What I find remarkable though is: The Swiss people decided to do so during a poll - not the politicians. Maybe I should drop some prejudices about this country... So what does it mean for us? We'll probably save some minutes at the border. I guess not very much, because the control procedure has not been very complicated from what I have experienced so far.

With all the enthusiasm surrounding Obama's victory, I feel it only adequate that we reserve some space for the defeated. John McCain has shown some ugly moments in this campaign, but at the same time has always openly stood up against racism and bigotry targeted at Obama. In his speech given last night, he makes no exception. There are no negative comments made towards the winning candidate, or references to a bleak future. No, McCain takes defeat like a man, and gives a constructive outlook to the future. Whether you believe these are his sincere feelings or not, to me McCain will always be associated with his toughest moments, and this surely is one of them. Time and again has shown, that in these moments, John McCain takes the heavy burdens with honor and strength. I will always have respect for this man, and sincerely hope we have not seen the last of him on the political stage.

... and now? I have spent much more time on watching his campaign than I have ever done with any German candidate. In fact, he's one of the political figures I am now most familiar with. And not only because I watched the general election campaigns, but also the primaries and the battle with Hillary. Her voting yesterday reminded me of how long I have been doing this. I don't know exactly when it started. However, I know who's to blame for getting me addicted and I also remember a bit the first video where I think ten Democratic candidates were standing next to each other including John Edwards :-)

The question is now, what I'll do after this is all over and there is no more shocking clip about Sarah Palin. I guess, my hits on the CNN video website will become less, but I if go there, I will check out how Obama is doing in office.

Just to get you in the mood... (thanks to genlog for this):

I think I have witnessed two U.S. elections so far on Digg, and I can now say, that one of the big topics before an election is voter fraud, caused by the electronic voting devices. Apparently, machines tend to "switch" votes if you're voting for the wrong guy. I have never really taken this seriously, but after watching a video of such a machine in action, I must say that their malfunctioning is down-right scary. While I don't believe this to be a scam (if it were, the machine simply wouldn't show the flip of votes on-screen), the buggy interface might result in many votes lost. So to monitor the machines, Americans are spreading the word to video-tape your vote, and publish the results if something goes wrong. The video of the malfunctioning machine after the jump!

I have to admit, I always did like Powell's ability to speak, his open-mindedness, and his clarity. I fondly remember him talking about pre-marital sex on MTV, where I was shocked to learn that a Republican candidate could support anything other than abstinence. Anyway, take 7 minutes of your precious time and check out who Powell will vote for in the upcoming election. ... Right, I gave it away in the title already, but I promise you: He is still very much worth listening to. Video after the jump.

So it seems that McCain and Co. aren't even creative enough to come up with their own slime campaign against Obama. For inspiration it seems they have turned to the man himself. ...That, or Obama is friggin Nostradamus. Have a look: