Angry in the Great White North

From Davids Medienkritk:

You won't believe this: In an article in Frankfurter Rundschau, a leading left-wing daily, Germany's environmental minister Jürgen Trittin holds U.S. president George Bush responsible for hurricane Katrina.

Yes, that's right. The hurricane Katrina that killed dozens of people, that destroyed countless homes, flooded parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, that left millions without electricity - it's all Bush's fault, according to a leading member of the German Green party, who happens to be Environmental Minister in Chancellor Schroeder's cabinet. Never mind that statistics don't show a particularly increase in the frequency of hurricanes in the U.S. in the last decades. Germany's general elections are scheduled for September 18, and the German left is in dire need of a neocon scapegoat for every disaster that befalls the world. And George W. Bush is the default villain in German politics and in the German media...

Excerpts of Trittin's article:

By neglecting environmental protection, America’s president shuts his eyes to the economic and human damage that natural catastrophes like Katrina inflict on his country and the world’s economy. ... [M]any Americans have long been unwilling to follow the president’s errant environmental policy. Indications are multiplying that Bush has more than Katrina’s headwind blowing in his face... When reason finally pays a visit to climate-polluter headquarters, the international community has to be prepared to hand America a worked out proposal for the future of international climate protection. The German Government stands ready. (Translation of quote by Richard Bartholomew)

(Here are more reactions in the German media to Katrina)

I suppose there is a guarantee associated with Trittin's offer. If the American government does follow the German "worked out proposal", will the German government pay for all the damage from the next big hurricane that inexplicably hits the US despite all the windmills and solar-powered cars?

Trittin is lucky that George W Bush does not have any real ability to control the weather. If he did, hurricanes wouldn't be smacking into New Orleans. Bremen is on the coast, facing the North Sea, isn't it?

[Michelle Malkin has a round-up of Katrina news.]