The Hollywood Liberal

Remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall
To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a group of world leaders from past and present—including Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Nicolas Sarkozy and Hillary Rodham Clinton—joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday for a stroll through the Brandenberg Gate, which stood between East and West Berlin.  —KA The New York Times: The anniversary has provided Germans and people around the once-divided continent with an opportunity to reflect upon the successful reunification of Germany and the once-unthinkable integration of countries from the former Warsaw Pact into the NATO alliance and the European Union. “It is also possible to overcome the barriers of our own time, just as we succeeded in bringing this about in this divided city in 1989,” Mrs. Merkel told the crowd that had assembled on a rainy Berlin night to mark the anniversary of the fall of the wall on Nov. 9, 1989, calling it “a day of celebration for all of Europe.” “Because of your courage two Berlins are one, two Germanys are one, and now two Europes are one,” Mr. Brown [British Prime Minister Gordon Brown] said. Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a group of world leaders from past and present—including Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Nicolas Sarkozy and Hillary Rodham Clinton—joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday for a stroll through the Brandenberg Gate, which stood between East and West Berlin.? —KA

The New York Times:

The anniversary has provided Germans and people around the once-divided continent with an opportunity to reflect upon the successful reunification of Germany and the once-unthinkable integration of countries from the former Warsaw Pact into the NATO alliance and the European Union.

“It is also possible to overcome the barriers of our own time, just as we succeeded in bringing this about in this divided city in 1989,” Mrs. Merkel told the crowd that had assembled on a rainy Berlin night to mark the anniversary of the fall of the wall on Nov. 9, 1989, calling it “a day of celebration for all of Europe.”

“Because of your courage two Berlins are one, two Germanys are one, and now two Europes are one,” Mr. Brown [British Prime Minister Gordon Brown] said.

Read more

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

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Quick fact: Hume says if Obama had included tax cuts in stimulus, GOP would have supported it — but he did and they didn’t

Brit Hume claimed that if President Obama included tax cuts with the stimulus bill’s “spending extravaganza,” it “would have attracted Republican votes.”

From the November 9 broadcast of Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier:

HUME: [O]n the main issues of this year — the economic stimulus package and the Obama health care plan — Republicans have stood in near unanimous opposition while Democrats have struggled to round up votes despite their large majorities in both houses.

The person most responsible for this is no Republican leader, but President Obama himself. His policies have made it easy for Republicans of all stripes to oppose him. Just think how different it would have been if the President had insisted on mixing in some tax rate cuts with that spending extravaganza in that stimulus bill. That would have attracted Republican votes, allowed the President to claim a bipartisan victory, and provided the Democrats some political cover, not to mention some potential economic benefits.

Fact: The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included $288 billion in tax relief

As Media Matters for America has Making Work Pay tax credit, an annual credit of $400 per individual or $800 for families. In addition, the recovery act included a temporary increase in the earned income tax credit, a temporary increase in the refundable portion of the child tax credit, an increase in the first-time homebuyer tax credit, and tax incentives for businesses.

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