US President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation’s main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act. That is really change we can believe in. Welcome to the crazy world of politics in which up is down, left is right and change means continuity. But to be fair, during his election campaign, Obama made very clear that he would continue and even extent most anti-terror policies of the bush regime. However, since election campaigns have become a big multi-million dollar party no one was listening to him. The genius of this campaign was that it didn’t really have any contend other than the world “change” and of course that he is black.

When I talk to people of the Nazi generation in Germany, I am wondering what to think about their affirmation that they did not realize what was going on in the country. First I thought they were liars, too embarrassed to admit their mistakes. How could they not realize what was going on when Hitler clearly said and wrote down what he was planning to do. How could they not realize the increasing discrimination of Jews and the political opposition in the country. However, the more I observe modern politics the more I tend to believe them. They were just having this wonderful party, celebrating themselves and their leader who had lead them out of the depression, who had made Germany great. Who cared about the anti-Jewish talking of Hitler. Who cared about all this militarism that the Nazis propagated. Who cared that a lot of people were imprisoned without charges or trial. That was just another proof how genius the politicians were, finding all these bad people and preventing them from doing anything bad. Just like a lot of people in the US today think that the people who are assassinated or tortured are all evil terrorists. Thank god we have this great government finding them all and keeping us save. And since they really find a lot of them it looks like we really have a huge terrorist problem. Today we are even living in the age of the internet where everyone can get all information he needs from his home computer. But during the time of the Nazi regime, mass media was only just invented and was 100% in the hands of the state. If Obama has shown one thing than that a democratic process does not solve any problem. The majority of people just does not care about politics, as long as it is not negatively effecting their own lives. Therefore, they can be easily brainwashed and bought.