Bush the Fool

Bush Says He Harbors No Bitterness Toward Chirac

Sat Feb 19, 2:03 PM ET

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) says he has no bitterness toward French President Jacques Chirac after their tussle over Iraq (news - web sites), but he is taking issue with a Chirac notion that a united Europe would serve as a counterbalance to the United States. In run-up to his trip to Europe, Bush underscored in media interviews with European journalists his second-term drive to foster improved trans-Atlantic relations and work on common problems like Iraqi reconstruction, Iran, Syria and the Middle East peace process.

AFP/File Photo Reuters Slideshow: President Bush

"I know we had a difference of opinion," Bush said of U.S.-European strains over the Iraq war. "And it was a big difference of opinion on Iraq. But now is the time for us to set aside that difference and to move forward in areas where we can work together."

Bush did not shy away from some differences with Europe, but he did seem to strike a less confrontational tone than he has in the past.

"I don't feel bitter, personally," Bush said of Chirac, who was the chief Iraq war opponent in Europe. Bush and Chirac will have a working dinner in Brussels.

Bush questioned the Chirac-advocated idea of the need for a "multipolar world," diplomatic code language for a united Europe balancing out the United States.

"Some have said, 'Well, we must have a unified Europe to balance America.' Why, when in fact we share values and goals? ... Why don't we view this as a moment where we can move forward in a concerted fashion to achieve those goals?"

Bush said in his weekly radio address that America and Europe had much in common as "pillars of the free world."

"We do not accept a false caricature that divides the Western world between an idealistic United States and a cynical Europe," he said. In the media interviews, Bush did, however, take exception to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's recent comment that NATO (news - web sites) was no longer "the primary venue" for trans-Atlantic dialogue. Schroeder called for outside experts to suggest how the alliance could be more relevant in the post-Cold War world.

"I think NATO is vital," Bush said. "And I think it's a vital relationship and one that we'll work to keep strong."

As for Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), Bush said he will ask him to explain decisions that have raised concerns he is backsliding on democracy and centralizing power.

Bush, who will meet with Putin in Bratislava, Slovakia on Thursday, said his "good relationship" with the Russian leader would "give me a chance to say in private -- ask him why he's been making some of the decisions he's been making."

"He's done some things that has concerned people," Bush told Slovak state television.

Bush, in the radio address, also discussed concerns he would raise with European Union (news - web sites) leaders over trade barriers on farm goods.

"I will make clear that one of my top priorities is to reduce the remaining European barriers to U.S. agricultural goods," he said.

International farm subsidies are a central point of contention in the Doha round talks of the World Trade Organization (news - web sites). The talks, named after the Qatari city where they were launched in 2001, are running well behind schedule. (Additional reporting by Adam Entous and Caren Bohan)

Berlin Shows There's No Business Like Porn Business

Mon Feb 14,11:39 AM ET

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Pornography has been elevated to an art form as never before at the Berlin Film Festival, which has spotlighted the industry and its commercial success.

After the leading actress in last year's festival-winning film was hounded to tears by German tabloids when it emerged she had a history in hard-core, the Berlinale turned the controversy on its head by making porn a centerpiece this year.

Several films focusing on sexual repression, especially in the United States, have drawn large and appreciative audiences in Berlin, one of the world's top festivals with a liberal tradition in a city governed by a popular gay mayor.

And not only is the topic a critical hit. Porn, driven by pay-television, the internet and DVDs, boasts annual revenues of over $10 billion, equal to Hollywood's mainstream output.

Journalists, film buyers and the public crowded into a theater Sunday to see a documentary, "Inside Deep Throat," about a history-making 1972 U.S. film featuring what has been described as "extreme fellatio" that made porn mainstream.

"Deep Throat" was one of the most commercially successful films ever, grossing a estimated $600 million after costing $25,000 to make. In 2002, 11,000 porn films were made, the documentary says, compared with less than 500 Hollywood films.

There are other Berlin films on sex, including an explicit documentary looking at gay porn in Los Angeles and the sad lives of former porn stars. There is also a competition drama about Alfred Kinsey, the pioneering U.S. sex researcher.

Young filmmakers attending the festival's "Talent Campus" were treated to an unusual seminar Sunday entitled "Directing Sex." French director Catherine Breillat gave a lecture on "ways of directing intimacy for the screen."

Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick, who like most Germans is not bothered by "Head-On" actress Sibel Kekilli's earlier porn career, said examining sexual repression was not a special tribute to the German woman of Turkish origin.

"It's always good to talk about sex -- and to see it on the screen," Kosslick told Reuters. "'Kinsey' is about an enlightened man in sexually repressed America. 'Inside Deep Throat' shows what a business the film was and how people were ruined by it."

"DEEP THROAT" BROUGHT SEX OUT OF CLOSET

The documentary "Inside Deep Throat," which cost $1 million to make, was one of the most coveted tickets at the festival.

Journalists and buyers lined up for hours for a seat to its late night screening yet there were still inelegant battles at the entrance as the crowd rushed forward when the doors opened.

The documentary tracks the efforts of U.S. President Richard Nixon's government to ban "Deep Throat" on grounds it violated obscenity laws. It ended up making the film more popular and sparked a long debate on freedom of expression.

The film spawned the phrase "Deep Throat," used not only by comedians but also by journalists as the name of a high level source they relied on for their Watergate investigation -- which ultimately led to Nixon's resignation.

"We thought we were making a film about 1972 but as we were making it we realized it was also a film about the present," said co-director Randy Barbato after the screening.

"Sex came out of the closet for a while but it's back in the closet now," added co-director Fenton Bailey. "Americans are still very uncomfortable about sex. Even though it is everywhere it's also nowhere. America is sexually dysfunctional."

Barbato said American conservatives tended to speak more about "moral values" and against pornography in public, but demand and sales of porn was highest in conservative states.

"There's so much hypocrisy," he said.

With a 1970s pop music soundtrack, "Inside Deep Throat" includes graphic scenes from the original with its 23-year-old star Linda Lovelace performing her unusual technique on Harry Reems, who plays a wacky doctor.

He was later convicted for conspiracy to transport obscenity across state lines.

Before "Deep Throat," which was made by a hairdresser named Gerard Damiano, pornographic films were usually limited to short 10-minute "loops" seen in clubs or backrooms of book stores.

"Deep Throat" was an hour and included a plot. Screened first in New York, its popularity spread amid attempts to ban it.

European Press: Dresden's Marred Anniversary | Press Reviews & Opinion | Deutsche Welle |

14.02.2005
European Press: Dresden's Marred Anniversary
A day after the 60th anniversary of the fierce Allied bombing of Dresden, European newspapers reflected on a massive demonstration by neo-Nazis at the ceremony.

German newspapers on Monday largely played down the significance of the far-right demonstration on Sunday in Dresden, thought to have been the largest in post-war Germany.

Berlin-based Die Welt wrote that despite the brash slogans of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and their potential for violence, "this Feb. 13 was a total flop for them." But, it added, at the same time, "countless people" in Dresden and beyond remembered the 35,000 victims of "the cruel bombing" of the city. "Such remembrance cannot be 'overshadowed' by NPD marches," the paper wrote. "It was supposed to become their great day, but they have merely demonstrated that they are nothing but a fringe group."

Freiburg's Badische Zeitung focused on the role of Dresden's residents. "The Dresdeners used more than just a sea of candles to respond to the perverse distortion of history by the neo-Nazis," the daily wrote. "In addition, the Dresdeners made clear that they very well know that the reason for the destruction of Dresden lay in the criminally offensive war waged by Hitler Germany," the paper said. "Thus the remembrance ceremony on Sunday turned into an intensive coming to terms with history. That was more than expected," it concluded.

Another German paper, Der Tagesspiegel, agreed that the far right "did not win". The paper observed that the demonstration failed to receive backing from the wider public. "No Dresdeners joined it: the city's citizens realized that the 'march of mourning' was a propaganda show staged by people who misrepresent history."

"Silent remembrance shown by 50,000 Dresdeners yesterday in memory of their parents, siblings and friends, was the only fitting answer to demonstrations by far-right groups," wrote Regensburg-based Mittelbayerische Zeitung. At the same time the paper stressed that democratic parties in Germany must in future pay more attention to political content and the worries of the younger generation.

Newspapers elsewhere in Europe were harsher in condemning Germany's far-right party and its attempt to distort the historical significance of the 60th anniversary of the Allied bombings of Dresden to their own purpose.

In France, Le Monde said many Germans -- and not only those on the far right -- believe the time has come to lament their own misfortunes, after a period of "guilty conscience". The paper wrote that the German authorities have been ineffectual in dealing with the neo-Nazi NPD, attempting first to ban it and now to limit its right to demonstrate. "But bans are not enough to resolve the problem," it insisted.

Spain's El Pais newspaper said the neo-Nazi demonstration on Dresden amounted to mocking the victims of the World War II. "It's a torture for Europe to have to watch 5,000 right-wing extremists marching through the city and wanting to manipulate history," it wrote and added that both Germany and Europe should resolutely counter the imperviousness of the neo-Nazis and make clear who was to blame for the tragic events 60 years ago. "The rise of Neo-Nazism means that democracy has failed. Now it's the responsibility of the Democrats to take on the phantom and ensure that such ghostly marches such as the one in Dresden don't repeat themselves," the paper warned.

Britain's conservative newspaper The Times said Sunday's march was the biggest "show of strength" put on by Neo-Nazis since the World War II, even though the 6,000 demonstrators behaved in a disciplined manner. "It ridiculed the message of forgiveness and reconciliation that was heard in front of the pulpits of the Dresden church," the paper wrote. "But, as it became dark, the inhabitants of Dresden began to realize that the neo-Nazis had stolen their day of tragedy."

Author DW staff (sp)
http://www.dw-world.de © Deutsche Welle