WAHLKAMPF AGAIN. Perhaps you recall former German justice minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin's comparison between Bush and Hitler last September. If not, you can refresh your memories with a Guardian article here. In an ill-judged (but well-documented) aside at a party event, Däubler-Gmelin claimed that Bush was beating the war drums in order to divert attention from domestic issues, and that "Hitler did this as well." Rebukes followed on this side of the Atlantic, from the talking (or typing heads) such as Jonah Goldberg, from members of Congress such as Jesse Helms, and from the Bush administration itself. Däubler-Gmelin resigned after her party won the election.

A story in today's Sueddeutsche Zeitung on a campaign row that is developing in Lower Saxony and Hessen reminds us that German politicians don't just use Nazi comparisons on outsiders.

Hessen and Lower Saxony will hold regional elections in February. Hessian minister Roland Koch (CDU) has created an uproar by invoking the holocaust in a recent debate over tax policy. According to the Sueddeutsche, Koch criticized union leader Frank Bsirske for naming publicly several wealthy Germans. Presumably Bsirske was attempting to bolster a point about the need for a tax hike on the rich. According to Koch, though, the listing was "another form of star on your chest." Critics nailed him for his wildly inappropriate comparison and Koch apologized.

But wait, there's more!

Yesterday, in the legislature of Lower Saxony, the leader of the ruling SPD accused Koch of "calculated misuse of the Holocaust" for partisan purposes, and nearly all of the CDU faction walked out of the building in protest.

As I noted earlier, the SPD won the national elections this fall, but now the mood in Germany is grim, and the SPD looks vulnerable. The regional elections are the first chance for the opposition CDU to cash in on widespread political discontent in the German public. A lot is at stake for both parties. It remains to be seen how the spat in Lower Saxony will affect electoral outcomes.

Earth-Info.net has an interesting note (with good stats and interesting links) on the Grameen Bank, "the original microcredit bank" in Bangladesh.

The German papers report that the government headed by Gerhard Schroeder (SPD) (and in coalition with the Greens) has agreed to allow German AWAC pilots to participate in an eventual war with Iraq. The pilots would be part of the NATO contingent. You may recall that Schroeder won the recent election by opposing American policies with respect to Iraq. Opposition conservatives have charged Schroeder with lying in his campaign. Schroeder has defended the government's decision by drawing distinctions between "active" and "passive" participation in an eventual war.

Der Tagespiegel's Robert von Rimscha defends the chancellor's decision as both "deceiving the electorate -- and correct." Von Rimscha compares Schroeder to the sorcerer's apprentice (a common trope in German writing since Goethe's famous poem); if there is a war, Schroeder may end up in trouble with the electorate. Rimscha notes that one third NATO's AWACs occupants are German; should a war start, the attempt to divide between "active" and "passive" participation will become absurd, and Schroeder will be forced to admit the deception.

According to the Times of India, exit polls predict a win for the BJP in Gujarat. The official vote counts will begin on Sunday, and exit polls are unreliable, so it's not clear what weight to give to the predictions. Assuming the polls are accurate, though, one salient fact emerges from the elections: the BJP majority is far from overwhelming. They're predicted to have anywhere from 93 to 109 of the seats in the 182-member assembly. Of course, the smaller the victory, the less ability Modi will have to claim greater influence within the national BJP.

Election violence also appears to have been localized, which is good.

5 CUTE, SQUIRMING NEWBORNS IN CAIRO. Diario Yucatan's "photo of the day" is, you guessed it, a picture of these adorable, and very confused, quintuplets. The one on the far left is like, "get your stinking hospital hands off of me, man!"

BTW, I am working on some more substantive stuff, but the end of the semester here at SUNY-Oswego has flattened my brain a bit. So, instead of substance, I refer you to "cute." Enjoy life today, will 'ya!

On Saturday, the old Bahncard will die. Read the Sueddeutsche Zeitung's obituary here. Until Saturday, you can still buy the old Bahncard for travel on German railways for next year; it entitles you to 50% reduction on most fares. But after Saturday, the grinch comes to town. The new version, described by the Deutsche Bahn here, will get you only a 25% reduction.

Schade.

Dawn has a good, short article on the state of microfinance in Pakistan. Microfinancing is a promising credit practice in the developing world: banks give small loans to individuals who are attempting to start or improve their businesses. In the case of Pakistan, according to the article, the loans are typically between $100 and $150 (U.S). Microfinance is also billed as a way of improving the lot of poor women in particular. In Pakistan, according to the article, one-third of the loans are to women.

For further reading, you can check out the U.N. Capital Development Fund's Microfinance Page. The World Bank also has an interesting paper that examines five microcredit programs in Indonesia. Indonesia has had microcredit programs for over 100 years. The paper is available in PDF format here.