Perhaps the French Should Have Taken Notice of a Speech in Favor of George W Bush By a… Democrat Senator

And here are parts of the speech by Zell Miller to the Republican convention.

Not only might the French do well to heed some of the words in the speech, they — the very same people who have been predicting a Kerry victory in November — should make a careful note that the speaker is a member of the opposition party, and that this Democrat is in no mood to throw his support in the direction of John Kerry.

…like you, I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush.

In the summer of 1940, I was an 8-year-old boy living in a remote little Appalachian valley. Our country was not yet at war, but even we children knew that there were some crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could.

President Roosevelt, in his speech that summer, told America "all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger."

In 1940, Wendell Wilkie was the Republican nominee.

And there is no better example of someone repealing their "private plans" than this good man. He gave Roosevelt the critical support he needed for a peacetime draft, an unpopular idea at the time.

And he made it clear that he would rather lose the election than make national security a partisan campaign issue.

Shortly before Wilkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between "here lies a president" or "here lies one who contributed to saving freedom," he would prefer the latter.

Where are such statesmen today?

Where is the bipartisanship in this country when we need it most?

…Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today.

Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.

And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.

Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers.

Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.

Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from the Baltics to the Crimea, from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.

Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home.

For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.

It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.

No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.

But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution.

They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.

It is not their patriotism — it is their judgment that has been so sorely lacking. They claimed Carter's pacifism would lead to peace. [Jimmy Carter, of course, is a fellow Georgia Democrat of Zell Miller's.]

They were wrong.

They claimed Reagan's defense buildup would lead to war.

They were wrong.

…In this hour of danger our President has had the courage to stand up. And this Democrat is proud to stand up with him.

Might it be that the comparison with Wendell Wilkie applies as much to opposition figures (like John Kerry) as it does to allied nations (like France)? In that perspective, it should perhaps be noted Willkie never complained that "FDR should allow me to disagree with him" and "FDR shouldn't ask me to be his vassal"…

(Thanks to Gregory Schreiber)

Perhaps the French Should Pay More Attention to the Speeches at the Republican Convention

Perhaps the French should take a break from their endless intellectualizing and pontificating and find out how foreigners — especially Americans — feel about them, specifically, about how their government acted during the Iraq crisis. From Yahoo News:

More than a year after falling out with the United States over the Iraq war, France is still a prime target for the rage of Republicans, who are not showing much amour for the longtime US ally.

Democrat John Kerry may be enemy number one but France is a close number two at the chest-thumping Republican national convention, where the word Paris is code for weakness, indecision and international cooperation.

"Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations," Senator Zell Miller said in a thundering address to the party faithful on Wednesday. "Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending. I want Bush to decide," [the Democrat senator (!)] said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Throughout their four-day gala, Republicans have painted President George W. Bush as the man to trust for national security after September 11 — and Kerry [and, indirectly, France] as a dangerous appeaser.

They have ridiculed his recent talk about a more "sensitive" war on terror, hammered him for trying to vote both sides of issues in the Senate and lambasted his remarks at forging international consensus for US war plans.

"Senator Kerry denounces American action when other countries don't approve, as if the whole object of our foreign policy were to please a few persistent critics," Vice President Dick Cheney said in his speech Wednesday. "He talks about leading a more sensitive war on terror, as though Al-Qaeda will be impressed with our softer side," Cheney said.

But a delegation of half a dozen members of France's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), here to observe the convention, played down the repeated barbs at France.

"You can't take too seriously what you hear in a convention," said Phil[l]ipe Briand, a UMP member of the French parliament. "If you are a little sensitive, you come away somewhat angry," Briand said. "But if you know it's just part of the campaign, it's no big deal."

Might it be that France better wake up to the fact that the anger towards France is real, that America's sense of having been betrayed is real, and that, in general, when Americans talk, it is to say what they mean? Might it be that, before warning that a Frenchman might become angered by what he hears, that Frenchman should ask himself how the other person's words truly reflects how that other person feels (and thinks) and that sometimes, perhaps, the other person has more reason than he to be angry? That, of course, would be asking the French to cease having a (self-serving) viewpoint of Americans that allows them to castigate, ridicule, or (like here) minimize everything Americans say and do…

France helped lead opposition to the Iraq war on the UN Security Council, which set off an orgy of French-bashing nationwide last year.

…The connection between anti-French anger and Kerry's policy statements, which sometimes do not sound much different than what comes out of the French government, has been an easy one for critics to make.

"Just a few months ago, John Kerry kind of leaked out that claim that certain foreign leaders who opposed our removal of Saddam Hussein prefer him," former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani told the convention this week.

"That raises the risk that he might well accommodate his position to their viewpoint," he said…

(Thanks to Gregory Schreiber)

Religion of Pieces	Religion des Pets (car ça sent la merde)
'Foreign' fighters are among the hostage takers in Beslan, Russia. Kill faster. Total war.	Il y a des combattants 'étrangers' parmi les preneurs d'ôtages à Beslan en Russia. Tuer plus vite. Guerre totale.
UPDATE: Children shot in the back and beaten with rifle butts.	DERNIERES INFOS: On a tiré dans le dos des enfants et les a battus à coups de crosses.

Religion of Pieces	Religion des Pets (car ça sent la merde)

French wingnuttery	Loufoqueries franchouilles

Lots of salad tossing going on	Une pluie de pétales de rose
The old streetwalker Marianne, in the person of Foreign Minister Bernier, his bashed-in backdoor so loose he could now easily let a TGV speed through, has been cuddling up to a host of bad boys looking for the ramrod that will make like an 'open sesame'.	Cette vieille catin de Marianne, incarnée par le Ministre des Affaires Etrangères Barnier, dont la rondelle est tellement distendue qu'elle pourrait laisser passer un TGV à travers, fait des calins avec une flopée de voyous infréquentables en vue de tomber sur le braquemart qui fera office de 'sésame'.

Rumors They'll be Freed Soon

The press are widely reporting progress in the negotiations to secure the release of kidnapped French reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. Al-Jazeera says:

Two French journalists who had been taken hostage in Iraq are no longer in the hands of their abductors, French Culture and Communications Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres has said.

"We know that they are alive and no longer in the hands of the abductors who had held them," he told journalists on Thursday in Perpignan, southern France.

The editor of the French publication Le Figaro told Aljazeera that the hostages had been handed over to another group which supported their release.

They're not out of the woods yet so I'd prefer to refrain from speculation for the moment but should they be the only two to survive abduction and threatened execution at the hands of radical Sunni groups in Iraq then this will be a grand revelation about France's presence in the Middle East and its relation to transnational terrorism.

Now they can ask if they are still in their own country	Maintenant ils peuvent se poser la question 'Est-ce qu'on est toujours chez nous?'
France has the permission of Tariq Ramadan, Hamas, and Hezbollah to re-open their own schools. The French French speaking Dhimmis seek Arab help with the beginning of their new school semester revisited under the shroud of the scarf law. Have fun trying to run your own dinky country, shitheads.	La Fwance a obtenu, auprès de Tariq Ramadan, le Hamas, et le Hezbollah, l'autorisation de rouvrir leurs propres écoles. Les franchouilles dhimmis francophones demandent de l'aide auprès de leurs 'partenaires' arabes pendant cette rentrée scolaire revue et corrigée sous l'angle du linceul de la loi du foulard. Amusez-vous à gérer votre propre pays de merde, connards.

But… C'est Injuste! Don't They Realize that the Hostages Are French Friends!?

Let's see, what have we got here?…

The Kidnappers of French Journalists Renew Their Blackmail…
Paris Tries to Isolate the Terrorists…

Wow. "Odious blackmail"! "Terrorists"! Quite different from the bland and straightforward headlines when Americans and other nationalities are kidnapped, huh?

No rightfully angered locals here, no members of the "Iraqi rebellion", no "insurgents", no justification, no "executions", no "Ils l'ont bien mérité" (they deserved it, they had it coming)… Au contraire! Au contraire, as it turns out…

Take a look at Paris Tries to Isolate the Terrorists By Orchestrating Arab Disapproval:

"Maybe [Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot] were kidnapped by mistake [wonders Malbrunot's editor.] Maybe the kidnappers didn't know they were journalists and French citizens."

Is this supposed to mean that it is, perhaps not normal, but to be expected that Americans and other nationalities should be kidnapped (and beheaded)? No mistakes, in those cases? They asked for it, they deserved it? D'accorrrdd…

In her article, Mouna Naïm writes that

France, all as one — the government, media outlets, and public opinion — was convinced that no harm would befall the kidnapped due to the "soundness" of French policy with regards to the Arab world, in general, and of Iraq, in particular

Note how the independent newspaper neatly absolves the politicians from any excessive load of responsability ("la France toute entière"). Some criticism follows, but it is relatively low-key, and it has been neatly deflected.

the idea was to attempt to isolate [the kidnappers], to ask the greatest number of authorities of all types [what is that supposed to mean?!] to distance themselves from the kidnapping, to make the hostagetakers understand their total isolation in order to make them give in.

Of course, if "America's number one friend" does have this capacity, one wonders if, out of pure friendship for Uncle Sam, she might not have tried to use her influence in other kidnappings.

From the Arab League's secretary general … to Al Jazeera television … and Hezbollah television, along with a twice-sounded call from Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, condemnation was unanimous. Journalism unions, party leaders, Arab dailies [and Muslim religious authorities] joined in the chorus, some of whom underlined France's "sympathy" for "Arab causes", others the harm that the kidnappings and threats were doing to Islam and to Muslims in general.

One of the main leaders of the Palestinian radical movement, Islamic Jihad, called on the kidnappers to free their hostages who "are friends of the Palestinian people and have visted Palestine several times". [Mohammed Al-Hindi added that] "the issue of the veil cannot be resolved in that manner, especially since France's position on the American occupation of Iraq has set it apart from that of other Europeans."

In "the interest of Islam" Yasser Al-Serri, director of the London-based Islamic Observatory, the institution which defends [sic] Muslims in the entire world and commands a certain notoriety with Islamists, demanded the liberation of the two journalists "who, through their work, are helping to denounce the American crimes in Irak".

Meanwhile, Jordan's Al-Diyar daily opines that

France remains the European country which sympathizes the most with Arab causes, which it supports, particularly in Palestine and Iraq.

On the media page, our old friend Dominique "Europe needs an enemy and it should be the United States" Dhombres is back from vacation, and he waxes carefully, very carefully about the kidnapping, ending his chronicle with an admiring nod to Al-Jazeera

which took an official stand [for the men's release], which is a first.

How impressive! As usual, the lucid French understand when there is a need for admiration (and when there is not) and who is deserving of admiration (and who is not).

Oh, but wait a minute. It would seem that there is a slight hiccup in the lavish (self-)praise. There is one Muslim leader who, although he has joined in the calling for the release of the hostages, has not joined in lauding France for its support for Arab causes, notably against "the American occupation in Iraq".

Who might he be, I wonder? Oh, he just happens to be the president of Iraq… of course, he just happens to be among the Muslims most concerned by America's presence in Iraq. Is he a stooge, maybe? Well, it just so happens that among the wealth of Arab and Muslim voices calling for the hostages' release due to France's sympathetic leanings and to its righteous position on Iraq, there is not one Iraqi quoted. Not one!

Iyad Allawi was interviewed by Cécile Hennion and five other newspapers the previous day, declaring that the kidnapping of the Frenchmen showed that there was "no possible neutrality" in Iraq and that those who do not fight at the government level can not escape terrorism. "None of the civilized countries can escape," he said, noting "there is no possible neutrality, as shows the kidnapping of the French journalists." "The French deluded themselves if they would hope to stay outside".

And so, returning to the chorus of support on the newspaper's second page, it turns out that it is a bit spoiled by a filler in which the French foreign ministry declares that the words of Mr Allawi are "unacceptable".

"Those declarations of his seem to throw doubt on France's determination in the fight against terrorism [declared the Quai d'Orsay,] France is untiringly leading a resolute action against this scourge and it has always brought its support and its contribution to all of the international community's initiatives in the area"

Except when it comes to using its great influence to try to help bring about the release of the kidnapped nationals of its "allies" (see above).

(Kind of reminds you of Le Monde's editorial calling the doubts about Spanish courage in the wake of the Madrid bombings "a scornful theory", doesn't it? It seems like the French, who proffer intellectual "openness" when it comes to wondering whether America's D-Day landings amounted to a liberation or an occupation, are hardly so open-minded when it comes to putting into doubt their own intentions, or those of their allies.)

Allawi, of course, is the man that the independent newspaper has mocked, dismissed as a CIA stooge, and compared to a mafioso (a scorn Le Monde has never reserved for the above-mentioned authorities "of all types"). That scorn has been absent in the past couple of days; the French seem to be a lot more timid and circumspect when their own citizens' lives are at stake.

Meanwhile, (live) from New York, Patrick Jarreau brings us news of the Republican Convention, notably the opening speeches of John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani. John Kerry bragged that he had the support of foreign leaders, said New York's former mayor, the very same "who opposed the ouster of Saddam Hussein".

"Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war," Le Monde quotes the Arizona senator as saying. "It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents. And certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker." Many of those "who criticize military action", he added, were "ready to do business" with Saddam Hussein. (Some of the above quotes were translated back to English from Le Monde's own French translation.)

Now isn't that strange? These are references to France and the rest of the "peace camp" members, but the independent newspaper — which usually loves to explain the nuances of politicians' speeches and what they left unsaid — refrains from doing so in this case. And that, although it would help to explain why there were no Iraqis to quote from among the chorus of Muslim fawners-for-France. Bizarre, n'est-ce pas?

Hatred as a form of foreign policy	La haine en guise de politique étrangère
Le Monde Al-Jazeera on the Seine recognizes the existence of across-the-board French anti-Americanism. Anti-Americanism? I thought that France was only anti-Bush. 'We have touched the limits of anti-Americanism that seems to too often take the place of French foreign policy.'	Le Monde Al-Jazira sur Seine reconnait qu'il existe un anti-Americanisme universel en Fwance. L'anti-américanisme? Je croyais que la France n'était qu'anti-Bush. 'On touche là aux limites de l'antiaméricanisme qui semble trop souvent tenir lieu de politique étrangère française.'

France Rebuts al-Allawi

From Reuters:

PARIS (Reuters) - France criticized Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi Monday for saying states which did not actively fight terrorists would become their targets, after two Frenchmen were kidnapped in Iraq.

Allawi's comments in Le Monde daily came as France raced against the clock to secure the release of two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq by militants who told Paris to drop its ban on Muslim headscarves in schools by Monday evening.

"The French, like all democratic countries, cannot let themselves be satisfied with adopting a passive position," Allawi told Le Monde in an interview.

"Governments that decide to stay on the defensive will be the next terrorist targets," Allawi said.

"Let me tell you that the French, despite all the noise they are making, (such as) 'We don't want war', will soon have to fight against terrorists," he said, adding that future attacks could happen in French cities as well as in the United States.

The French government, which led the opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, called his comments unacceptable.

"These declarations seem, in effect, to cast doubt on France's determination in the fight against terrorism," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding France had called for a political solution in Iraq since the start of the crisis.

"The French authorities have, for a long time, affirmed the necessity and urgency to mobilize against all forms of terrorism. France, which has itself been a victim of terrorist attacks, leads unrelentingly a determined action against this plague," the ministry said.

Note that the interview in Le Monde was actually given to a pool of papers including WaPo, the Times (London), the LA Times, Knight-Ridder and Corriere della sera. But also note that... argh!!... yet AGAIN!... they've misspelled an English word from the US: it's Knight-Ridder, folks, an enormous and prestigious newspaper company any competent news organization familiar with the US ought to know well. Le Monde spells it Knight-Readers...

Yesterday, the kidnappers prolonged deadline 24 hours	Hier, les preneurs d'ôtage ont prolongé le délai de 24 heures
Guess Barnier gives good head.	Paraît que Barnier suce bien.

Inside Job

First there was the infamous fraud Marie L. Now it appears the arson at Jewish social center last week was an inside job:

The alleged perpetrator of an arson that destroyed a Jewish center in Paris in the night of August 21 to 22 has been arrested.

The police have not revealed his name. According to a police source, the man is a Jewish former employee of the center, aged about fifty years.

Pro-Palestinian group CAPJPO (Coordination of Calls of a Just Peace in the Middle East) and the new party Euro-Palestine jointly react with predictable glee on the anti-globalization Web site Bella Ciao:

Jewish Social Center: CRIF, Media and Government Fall Yet Again into the Same Trap

[...] No new details had been published by midday, particularly as regards the motives for this newest specimen of Jewish anti-Semitism. It will be some time before we learn whether the individual arrested was inspired by Marie L. (the fabulator of the RER D who's been watching a little too much TV), by "Phineas" (the man who desecrated a Jewish cemetery when he found that having attacked an Arab with an axe didn't make front page news), or perhaps by Alexandre Moïse, leader of the Zionist Federation of France who was nabbed several months ago for having lodged a complaint for anti-Jewish threats... of which he was himself the author.

[...]

The French government, along with the highly visible support of one of the opposition's highest-ranking members, Paris mayor Delanoë, found a away to add an even greater degree of ignominy in the rue Popincourt matter.

It rolled out the red carpet for the Israeli minister of foreign affairs, Sylvain Shalom, who demanded to come to Paris the moment he learned of the fire in order to pose as the guardian and protector of the interests of French Jews. Shalom distinguished himself by, among other things, criticizing the supposed laxity of French courts in prosecuting the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts, which constitutes yet another shameless lie.

Like anti-Semitism itself, blackmailing others with accusations of anti-Semitism is a criminal madness, with the aggravating factor that it follows itself a calculating strategy: to prevent the expression of any and all denunciation of the acts of the Israeli government in occupied Palestine.

In addition to the arsonist of the rue Popincourt, let's hope that all those, from the French pro-Israeli institutions (CRIF, LICRA, etc.) to political class and including the sheep-like media, who have created an environment favorable for such acts, shall one day have to explain themselves.

"250,000 Versus 200; Any Questions?"

"They simply wanted to express their opinion like everyone else. They had a permit to march [in New York City] just like everyone else. The only difference...they support Bush and conservative ideals. The result: Members of ProtestWarrior, an organization committed to challenging and confronting left-wing protests, were punched, spit on repeatedly, shouted down, insulted and even maced. But there was one thing the hordes of "peaceful" protesters at Sunday's march could not do to the ProtestWarriors …intimidate them."

Check out Ray's photos

PS: When (s)he's hungry, what's a rabid
anti-corporate, anti-globalization militant to do?

Doing the funky chicken	Gigoter comme un poulet bio
Foreign Affairs Minister Barnier is spreading his butt cheeks in every Arab country he can in an effort to free the French hostages and better explain the reasoning behind the headscarf law.	Ministre des Affaires Etrangères Barnier offre sa rondelle aux quatre coins du monde arabe (mais il est piètre croupion) pour faire libérer les ôtages français et pour mieux expliquer le pourquoi et le comment de la loi sur le foulard.

French TV in full Pravda mode	Télé franchouille turbine à la Pravda
LCI, French cable news channnel, showed the Kerry sisters on the MTV Music Awards with the booing edited out and an added commentary on how Kerry is coronated by American youth.	LCI, a diffusé le passage des soeurs Kerry aux MTV Music Awards en supprimant les huées et en ajoutant un commentaire déclarannt que Kerry est plebiscité par la jeunesse américaine.

Deep friendship? No longer.	Profonde amitié? C'est fini.
27% of Americans view France as an enemy in the War on Terror. Only 18% view France as an ally. 48% say it is somewhere in between.	27% des américains considèrent que la France est un pays ennemi dans la guerre contre le terrorisme. Seulement 18% considèrent que la France est un pays allié. 48% considèrent qu'elle se situe quelque part entre les deux.

Miserable failure	Echec lamentable
Globophobe vermin in retreat.	La vermine globophobe régresse.

All the Brothers Were Valient…Infiltrating New York's Anti-Bush Demonstration

Do you remember when, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of D-Day, one of our number attended the anti-American demonstration along with Davids Medienkritik's Ray D and three Frenchmen, and, for good fun's sake, proceeded to try and crash it?

Well Ray D is back at it again, heading into hostile territory, albeit on another continent. This time he waded through the canyons of the Big Apple, among a shrieking crowd of hundreds of thousands of anti-Bush demonstrators. Overcoming his fear and listening only to his sense of duty, the brave blogger managed to bring back some photos…

But … and here's the best part … it turned out that he was not alone…

From this day to the ending of the world,
but you in it shall be remembered —

You few, you happy few, you band of brothers…

And gentlemen in Europe now abed
shall think themselves accurst they were not here...

"America Has Lost Its Soul"?Again? What Is It This Time?!

As I have pointed out before, with several articles as evidence (and more to come later this week), Le Monde doesn't lose a single instant to fire broadsides at Americans, their society, and their economy. Case in point is America's Olympic basketball team, which lost to Argentina on Friday.

Certainly, there is not much to defend about the team, but listen to how Alain Giraudo ends his chronicle on the front page of the special Olympic supplement (no link available at the time of this writing), and ask yourself if making comparisons with Buenos Aires's financial status (done in because of evil capitalism, naturellement) and evoking America's soul (once again) is not going slightly overboard.

According to the criteria of the IMF and the World Bank, Argentina is a country in a severe bankrupt state. According to our criteria [whose? those of all Frenchmen?], the United States is a country that has lost its basketball shoes [a French expression meaning to lose one's head or one's grip] and therefore its soul.

Islam in France is a huge joke!	L'Islam de France est une vaste plaisanterie!
Authors explain how Islam in France is nothing more than a Green fascism driven by outside forces.	Les auteurs expliquent pourquoi l'Islam en France n'est qu'un fascisme vert piloté par des forces extérieures.

Lionizing French Foreign Policy While Demonizing That of Uncle Sam

It is indispensable that the international community assumes its responsibilities. That it admits to the disastrous results of its lack of action.

Just in case you didn't realize whom Jacques Chirac was referring to when he mentioned "the international community" in regards to the Iraqi situation, Le Monde is helpful enough to provide the translation: "the international community" is a referral to… the United States. Yes, you read that right, what Uncle Sam is guilty of in Iraq — unlike, presumably, the members of the "peace camp" — is "lack of action".

There is not a single word of doubt thereabout in the rest of the article devoted to the French president's speech to the French ambassadors' annual meeting home in Paris, which, instead, is lionized, as usual, by Le Monde's Claire Tréan, who goes on to explain the lucidity and the reasoning in every point in Chirac's speech.

(The previous day, the ambassadors had listened to a speech by France's new foreign minister, in which he not once mentioned the United States, Russia, NATO, Israel, Palestinian, the trans-Atlantic alliance, or September 11. This led the New York Times' Elaine Sciolino to note one ambassador calling Michel Barnier "the anti-de Villepin". ['Mr. de Villepin seemed determined to revive the historic greatness of France. He has a romantic view articulated in his book on Napoleon, "The Hundred Days," that describes the emperor's philosophy as "Victory or death, but glory whatever happens".'] Don't expect a low-spoken foreign minister to be fundamentally any different than his predecessors, though.)

Meanwhile, the independent newspaper sports an article on the man who invented Bush, in which Patrick Jarreau refers, in the first three paragraphs alone, to "that improbable president", to Karl Rove's "puppet", and (in the opening line) to the "fact" that "Nobody [!] believes that George Bush can have made it to the White House by his own means" (i.e., by his own mental prowess).

In the rest of the article concerning Karl Rove, it's the same usual negative-sounding and fear-inducing expressions about who really is "at the helm of the greatest power on the planet": The man "in the shadow of George Bush senior", "that string-puller", "that puppet displayer", "the man who is credited with as much intelligence as the man, to whom he is only officially the advisor, is credited with as little of", "the fundamentals of Karl Rove's job is propaganda and fund collecting by mail", "more a reactionary [the word of death in France] than a conservative", "Karl Rove is followed by a reputation as a trickster and a killer" (!).

He sincerely admires the man he helped to become the most powerful man of the United States, and whom he wants to turn into, in two months' time, a reelected president. In his eyes, George Walker Bush is the only Republican politician who can make his party stay durably in the White House.

Immediately before that paragraph, however, Jarreau had written that Karl Rove

has never been accused of showing a lack of respect for his boss. He is too smart for that.

In other words, someone as intelligent as Karl Rove (or "as us Europeans"?) can only be too aware that Dubya is nothing but a doofus. But he will not say so. I.e., he is an American who is dishonest and untrustworthy (a liar?). Aren't they all?

Still, Jarreau states that to Rove, George Walker Bush is the only republican politician who can make his party endure in the White House. The question that is never asked in this article (the most popular among visitors to Le Monde's website), is if Rove does not truly admire W, and if he truly believes W is such an ignorant bonehead, why doesn't (why didn't) the macchiavellian strategist he is simply settle on a far more intelligent politician in the first place? (Jeb Bush and John McCain come to mind, but surely even an intelligent nobody must make a more attractive solution than the former's big brother.) Surely that would be the simpler solution?

There is no explanation of this. No explanation but the usual fare in French media and in French society: (Most) Americans are ignorant simpletons, incapable of holding a rational thought, or else, they, or their leaders (or the people in the latters' shadows), are dishonest liars.

Meanwhile, the paper's front page sports a Jarreau headline explaining that Christian extremists are on the campaign trail for Bush, while Henri Tincq castigates the evangelists' cocktail of conservatism, patriotism, and religious fervor and sociologist Todd Gitlin tells Corine Lesnes that we are haunted by the fear that Bush might capitalize on any violence. As for Le Monde's editorial [another website favorite], it skewers Bush's "biblical vision of the world" and snorts in disgust at the "people chosen by God", noting that the planet's fundamentalisms (such as Hindu nationalism and Islamism) "are sometimes fed by the aggressivity of Christian groups linked to evangelical or Baptist churches from North America" (good to know who, fundamentally [sic], is the guilty party). "This vision of religion must be denounced".

And so… it's time — again! — for someone as lucid and intelligent (and secular) as Chirac to call on the simple-minded Americans "to assume their responsibilities" and "admit to the disastrous results of their lack of action". Quite convenient, n'est-ce pas?

Update: Following the historic Iraq election, President Ghazi al-Yawer derides one of the central tenets of French foreign policy as "complete nonsense"…

That's why you are in this mess, dickhead	C'est la raison pour laquelle tu te trouves dans ce bazar, ducon
'France has always refused the view of a clash between the West and Islam.', Michel Barnier, French Foreign Minister, licking the nutsack of the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt.	'La France a toujours récusé la vision d'un choc entre l'Occident et l'islam.', Michel Barnier, Ministre des Affaires Etrangères de la Fwance, en train de faire une gâterie aux Frerots Islamiques en Egypte.

Vunce und Vor All?! Aber, Fritz!…

Bitte, Fritz, bleasse. Bleasse but it pack on akain. Ja, I know I know. But der boll iss an imbordant vay off schowing dat … Fritz! … … Ja… Ja… Ja ja, I know! Aber der boll… Fritz? Fritz? Hallo? Are you dere?… Halloooooo……

Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood 4-on-the-floor-for-all	Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité A-quatre-pattes-tout-le-monde
Terrorists 1-0 Ripoublika Franska. Chiraq drops idea of secularism. In a statement just made live to the nation of Ripoublika Franska, Chiraq mentions tolerance, freedom to practice one's religion, and in an effort to appease the savages does not mention the word 'secularism'. Chiraq sends Foreign Minister Barnier to Mow-Mow Land.	Terroristes 1-0 Ripoublika Franska. Chirak laisse béton toute idée de laïcité. Lors d'une déclaration faite en direct à la nation de la Ripoublika Franska, Chirak parle de la tolérance, de la liberté du culte religieux, et en vue de faire des accomodements aux sauvages, ne fait aucune mention du mot 'laïcité'. Chirak envoie Ministre des Affaires Etrangères Barnier aux îles Pataoufnof.

Religion of Pieces to French journalists: Welcome to the World	Religion des Pets (car ça sent la merde) aux journalistes franchouilles: On va vous faire aimer l'an 2000
Clash of Civilisations: French TV calls the terrorist kidnappers 'activists'. Marianne offers her backdoor, but her shit is tired.	Choc des Civilisations: La télé franchouille appelle les ravisseurs terroristes des 'activistes'. Marianne offre sa rondelle, mais elle est piètre croupion.
UPDATE: Ripoublika Franska government claims that French muslims unanimously condemn the kidnappings. Young French Muslims say that the Mossad-did-it.	DERNIERES INFOS: Le gouvernement de la Ripoublika Franska déclare que tous les musulmans français condamnent à l'unaminité ces enlèvements. Jeunes musulmans français déclarent que le Mossad-l'a-fait.

A Locke on Sound Reasoning

Today is the birthday of John Locke, the English philosopher (1632-1704) who wrote that

A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.

An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.

Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.

Don't let it go to your head, guys	Hé les mecs, faut surtout pas avoir la grosse tête
'Islamic Army in Iraq' tells French journalists, 'You ought to be in pictures'.	'l'Armée islamique en Irak' offre aux journalistes franchouilles une carrière cinématographique.

Head scarves and shrouds	Voiles islamiques et linceuls
And they are still punching above their weight. France finds its proper place in the Clash of Civilisations. Look for bomb belts in Sarcelles very soon now.	Des poids coq qui essaient encore de monter chez les poids lourds. La France trouve sa juste place dans le Choc des Civilisations. Il y aura des ceintures d'explosifs à Sarcelles sous peu.