Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Selective Memory
Observing Hermann, (written by a very funny chap) based in Berlin has this to stay about living down the old immorality:« In a long-term, multi-generational study (www.zeit-wissen.de), social psychologist Herald Welzer has examined how "family recollections" of the nazi era have been passed down in the native culture. To his astonishment, over two thirds of the randomly questioned test participants reported that their family members were either victims of the regime or actively participated in resistance against it.»
How, then, is it that every German I meet always seems to remember the same moronic boilerplate about the American Indians being awful victims of those big meanies like Tcheorge Poosch? Or big words like Echelon Project, or some screwy thing about fluoride in the water?
You’ll find me linking Hermann who is watching Hermann.
What Trotsky meant by "Solidarity"
Prepared to fight to the last innocent bystander, the dependably irritable and violent Greek leftists engage in a sympathy violence:
Greek anarchists attack French schools, back rioters
With thanks to Tom P. who is given to calling this the "Evian Flu". Why not The “Contrex Flu”, Tom? 
About 50 people, wearing hoods and helmets and carrying red and black flags, threw stones, spark plugs and bottles filled with paint at the central Athens French Institute on Friday morning, breaking windows and damaging parked vehicles. Police said there were no injuries and the group dispersed quickly after the attack.
Another group attacked the French institute in the northern city of Thessaloniki on Thursday evening, smashing windows while classrooms were filled with language students. They spray-painted “Rioters Are Right” on the front of the building.
“They just appeared out of nowhere, I think about 70 or 80 of them. They smashed everything and we just sat there terrified,” one student told reporters. Poor French suburbs have been hit by two weeks of rioting. French police have arrested hundreds of people in what is considered the most serious unrest since student-led protests in 1968.»
Please to deconstruct...
Hm... Do you think that they might be trying to blame Sarkozy? If so, how could that explain 30 years of social malaise if Sarko was only 19?
Also in this special issue: Nuremburg: Les Nazis Faces Leurs Crimes!
Are they after a Gitmo/ Nuremburg bank-shot, or do they want to imply that the subject of their oh-so special edition are actually Nazis?
And what about Naomi?
Tune in next week to another episode of "You've bet your life."
Hey like, no rush, but is that fatwa thing working yet?
The riots in France are increasing a bit, and at the worst possible moment. Police officers unhappy with the way they are being treated by French MSM and the government cabinet (who make it clear that the treatment of filthy animals takes precedent over the people in the front lines fighting this scum) are making their feelings known and the Seine Saint Denis section of France's largest police union has announced that its men will be on minimum duty until further notice.
City center hit by riots
Aside from the nighttime incidents at the Place de la République in Paris last weekend, the riots have not hit a major city center, until late this afternoon. The Lyon city center was rocked twice by rioting youths who faced down police at the Place Bellecour on 2 occasions late this afternoon.
Riot police launched tear gas on the rioters who threw stones and garbage cans. Shops closed up and the Lyon Book Fair ceased operations.
Who needs cops anyway? That fatwa will surely kick in real soon now.
Just when we need these guys the most, the French government -- as hamfisted and maladroit as ever -- insults and then abandons them. Now they are just plain fed up. France's leading police union speaks out against the growing media and government cabinet abuse of French law enforcement while it deals with urban guerilla activity and the premices of a civil war.
Translation of article linked from “Who needs cops anyway? That fatwa will surely kick in real soon now.”
From ¡No Pasaràn!: Who needs cops anyway? That fatwa will surely kick in real soon now. we linked the following from TF1:
“Le "ras-le-bol" des policiers”The "dissatisfaction" of police officers
End of item.
Alliance, the main police union called putting 5 officers under investigation for aggravating a young man in Courneuve "disproportionate and unjust." The same young man was arrested Saturday, suspected of having struck firemen.
On Saturday morning, the young man who had been struck by police officers on Monday in Courneuve was arraigned in his home town of Le Bourget. He is suspected of having thrown stones at firemen on Friday evening. According to Michel Gaudin, the general manager of the national police force, the man, 19 years old, was identified among a group of young people throwing stones at firemen trying to extinguish a car fire in Le Bourget. The day before, five police officers who were put under investigation in Bobigny were filmed by France 2 who broadcast the beating. One of the two officers presumed to have struck the 19 year old was placed in provisional detention. This drew the indignation of the national police force trade union. The four other officers to one degree or another, were placed under legal control.
Alliance, the main Police union stated Saturday that police officers are getting"dissatisfied" that the officers were put under examination, and called for "calm and professionalism" within the force. "There is a very perceptible state of tension in police stations, including ourselves", said Assistant Secretary General of the union, Jean-Claude Delage. "We call on all our colleagues to maintain their calm, dignity, and professionalism that they have shown since the riots began", he added. "It is necessary to continue to ensure the safety of our fellow-citizens and also that of all our fellow officers and gendarmes who are engaged in the fight against these riots.”
For its part, the Aliance police union local 93 announced Saturday that the police officers of Seine-Saint-Denis could only provide "minimum coverage" with his call due to continuous operations dealing with rioters.
Marked Sarkozy "has sacrificed" [ED.: sold out] officers
Alliance also repeated that the court decision concerning the police officers of Courneuve was "disproportionate and unjust," especially that concerning the police officer placed in custody. Jean-Claude Delage asks that the incarcerated officer be placed under legal control, which could "raise morale" of the police nationwide.
Me Gilbert Collard, defender of the police officers implied in the court in Courneuve, has for its part marked Saturday Nicolas Sarkozy "to have sacrificed" these police officers whereas it "leads to the crime" in the suburbs. "On one hand, we finally have an Interior Minister who is really against crime, and on the other hand suspend police officers in a cheap political display", said the lawyer on Europe 1. "It is nevertheless scandalous, when one ties the hands of police officers in a context of a riot, reminding ourselves that we can’t blame an Interior Minister who calls these suburban residents 'riff-raff', and persists to".
Dear readers, since the beginning of the riots, we have have many vistors to our web site. We thank you. But taking into account the number of comments we have received, it has become impossible to publish them and maintain our objectivity quick, in-depth reporting. We thank you for your understanding and loyalty.
The Riots in Facts and Figures; and the Timeline
Here is the (regularly updated) timeline of France's riots in the cités, as well as the unpleasantness in facts and figures and the international coverage thereof……
Anne Applebaum on those lovely Le Monde cartoons
«"Katrina's devastation points the finger at Bush's system ... Issues forgotten for years are back to the fore: poverty, the state's absence, latent racism.»
Quotes writer and Washington Post editorialist Anne Applebaum from Le Monde on 8 September 2005 «The quotation above appeared in a front-page article in France's newspaper of record. Just below was a cartoon
[ED.: below]showing the American president watching TV footage of black corpses floating in the water. "But, what country is this?" the caption had him saying to his generals: "Is it far away? We absolutely have to do something!"
Unfortunately, this column does not come with its own cartoon attached, so I'm forced to describe the one I think Le Monde should print this week: A drawing of the French president, Jacques Chirac, watching black neighborhoods go up in smoke. The president is asking his generals, "But, what country is this? Is it far away? We absolutely have to do something!"
It is in our own interest, then, to be magnanimous and to come up with ways to assist the French. We could, for example, help them to shatter the myth that they live in an enlightened society, insulated from racial tension, by mass-mailing them copies of Le Monde with the word "America" crossed out in all editorials and the word "France" substituted instead.»Désordre profound!!! Ali-bour-tonne!!!
Et pourtant, le pays a un Président élu avec un score de roi nègre
The African press, in their coverage of the riots, tears la Fwance a new one.
Translation of article linked from “Et pourtant, le pays a un Président élu avec un score de roi nègre”
From ¡No Pasaràn!: Et pourtant, le pays a un Président élu avec un score de roi nègre we linked the following from Libération:
“ En Afrique, la presse incendie la France”Seen from Africa, both in the north as wall as in the Sub-Sahara, the suburban revolt is seen as a failure of the integration of second and third generations immigrants. In the French-speaking press of the ex-colonies, one does mince words.
End of item.
For la Nouvelle Expression of Cameroun, France has lost its republican spirit by closing the door to outsiders, both within and without. "the fact that two major incidents occurred almost simultaneously, like repatriation in Morocco of those seeking immigration to Europe (with like principal destination being France), and revolts by the young French seeming like two sides of the same coin", says a lead-in to an article titled "France: breakup of the republic!" Moreover, it continues, "there is a bond between people having difficulty with integration" as immigrants "in the Republic which found their grandfathers and fathers useful as either cannon fodder or as industrial labor, and the other jobs relegated to clandestine immigrants. Their dreams of a better life were dashed. Nicolas Sarkozy’s zero tolerance policy (...) led France at the edge of the explosion."
The Algerian daily El-Watan was indignant. In its pages a lawyer and the author of “Memories of immigrants” "Discusses" the careless attacks of Nicolas Sarkozy, heir according to him to a line colonialist thinking and xenophobia. "As recently as yesterday they called their parents ‘wogs’. Today, one describes them as "riff-raff" from the suburbs (...). As recently as yesterday they cleared out some one colonies with napalm. Today, one wants to clean them in Kärcher. Is this the State that advocates rights? Is this the fatherland of human right and of the democracy in which the suburban young believed in?" The author goes on to pester thos eon the right supporting the ideas le Pen, and against the cowardice of the left: "should one then speak of institutional discrimination? After all, isn’t that what calling many of the people in the suburbs "riff-raff" is? They are citizens of France, they were born there, studied there, pay their taxes there. They have been citizens of this country for several generations. Their exiled parents spent the best years of their lives defending, and helping to build the France of today; they are stripped of their elementary voting rights in local elections as the left promised which was disavowed since, which again raises the question of demagoguery."
Other African newspapers keep a more neutral tone with respect to a friendly government. Le Quotidien of Tunis reconsiders the fifty year history of immigration to France. “The immigrant suffered intolerably. A suffering whose political power, in France and also elsewhere in Europe, was not taken seriously. Now it confronts them brutally and frontally ", the commentator regrets.
In the Ivory Coast there was another alarm: France no longer has an air of moral authority in the country of Laurent Gbagbo, and the occasion is celebrated. "French Rebellion", was the title of Monday’s headline in the pro-government daily newspaper Notre Voie, rather mockingly: "Here thus large France confronted with a rebellion of immigrants who refuse to discuss with Sarkozy, but would readily accept Villepin. Should we proposed to them gracefully that they should follow the model of the Abidjan suburbs?" in a mocking reference to the negotiations of peace between factions in the Ivory Coast held in 2003 at the instigation of then Foreign Minister de Villepin.
Now that's what I call Faux News
The Managing Director of LCI French cable TV news (owned by TF1) admits to censuring coverage of the riots in French to avoid helping the extreme right. The extreme right, mythical (and largely inexistant) bogeyman bandied about by the French preSS, whenever they see fit to tighten the screws on this country of sheep.
Poetic justice
Un journaliste fouille-merde de Libé PropagandaStaffel reçoit un coup de couteau juste au moment où il se trouve à fouiner dans la rue de Palestine à Tunis.
TAIF (Thank Allah it's Friday)
Police State. Unprecedented police presence in the Paris area and around the country. All Paris public transport "under surveillance". Riot cops perched on Champs-Elysées rooftops and public gatherings not sponsored by the State banned until tomorrow morning. Despite the crackdown 502 vehicles were burned yesterday, and 206 arrests were made (a slight increase in violence compared to the day before).
Internet message boards and mobile telephone networks are still buzzing with calls to bring the riots into the French capital.
Friday, November 11, 2005
The exo-rational snowjob is just beginning
And it’s probably cash, and not light that they’re looking for at the end of this tunnel. «In an official statement, the gathering concluded that the last fifteen days violence "expresses the 30 years frustrations with the refusal of recognition of the people living in those areas (...) who have rights under French law but relegated in the minds of the political elite as an unconscious collective who are intellectually and economically, in the category of second-class citizens". At the same time as he "calls for the return to a state of calm in the densely populated districts", the collective initially asks the president and the government "to listen sincerely, in particular to the young people in these districts, in order to effectively fight all the forms of discrimination from which they suffer daily". Can one be French and have the name Mohamed or Sidibé, or without having to be white and catholic?"»
TF1: "What does it mean to be French today?"
And I'm sure these politcal operators would like to do the defining for you as well.
Present at the gathering were the secretary-general of [ED.: the socialist race hustling organization,] MRAP, Mouloud Aounit said: "of course, it will be necessary to bring answers in terms of employment and of housing to this plea for help launched in our suburbs. But it will be especially important to answer a central question: what does it mean to be French today?
Will someone please tell these otherwise entertaining leftist tools that their lack of success isn't entirely the government or society's problem, especially if they direct their social and political energy into blackmailing and guilt-tripping the well intended?
People's heads are still spinning from years of circumlocution about people being nothing if not part of a “group” or “political tribe”, and from deconstructing their society to the point that the disinterested laïques themselves lose track and lose any hope they once had.
The Other Iraq
NARRATOR: Saddam’s goal was to bury every living Kurd…
He failed.
KURD CITIZENS:“Thank you, America.”
Video here (512K)
La nouvelle Intifada française ...
... et l'esprit néo-munichois rampant. Un article de Alexandre Del Valle.
Éditeur manichéen de combat
... pour un pays en guerre civile. Léon Bloy et Maurice G. Dantec passent du côté de l'Underbahn le 18 novembre, suivis de peu par Erik Svane et Guy Millière.
How World War I Illustrates the European Mindset
Not long ago, I read a comment that says a world about the Old World mindset. The comment was about World War I, and it was filled with irony and bitterness. Here is the sentence: 
There was much irony and bitterness in the entire piece, but there is so much packed into this single sentence alone that one needn't even consider the rest of the piece. It's made to sound like there was a barn-raising and those dastardly Yanks didn't arrive until the work was done, or almost done, basically in time for the party. There is no latitude for people who were against America entering the war on that date (or on any date) or for people who had wanted America to enter the war (months, years) earlier. This decision to act in what can only be termed a devious and treacherous way not only reflects on Americans of the time (all of them), it reflects on Americans living today! All Americans living today!…
The Americans didn't enter the war until 1917.
There was much irony and bitterness in the entire piece, but there is so much packed into this single sentence alone that one needn't even consider the rest of the piece. It's made to sound like there was a barn-raising and those dastardly Yanks didn't arrive until the work was done, or almost done, basically in time for the party. There is no latitude for people who were against America entering the war on that date (or on any date) or for people who had wanted America to enter the war (months, years) earlier. This decision to act in what can only be termed a devious and treacherous way not only reflects on Americans of the time (all of them), it reflects on Americans living today! All Americans living today!… 
"Come on in. I'll treat you right. I used to know your daddy"
purrs a sexily-clad "war" madame to "any European youth" in Clarence D Batchelor's Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon on the "Follies of 1936 (starring Hitler Mussolini Stalin)"
The Ancien Régime? France's Image Tarnished by Riots
Blazing cars, street battles and a powderkeg mix of racism and chronic immigrant unemployment: the image of France as shown around the world by two weeks of riots has hardly been the stuff of tourist dreamsThus spaketh the AFP.
Beamed live from Hong Kong to Washington via London, the unrest has put an unforgiving spotlight on a side of society rarely seen outside a nation that, like any other, seeks to cast a cultural, social and political aura.
In the United States, comparisons have been drawn between the unrest in the poor, high-immigrant neighbourhoods with race riots of the 1960s and 1980s.
…for many analysts, the violence has above all exposed an underclass of angry, immigrant youths with little hope and even fewer job prospects, locked in a vaunted system of social integration that has failed them.
"France is sending a lot of negative signals right at this moment," Aurore Wanlin, at the Centre for European Reform in London, told AFP.
The riots showed "the French model doesn't protect those who aren't already part of the system."
In USA Today, an opinion piece said the "civil disobedience should serve as lessons to neighboring countries on how not to treat a minority population."
The violence, the worst France has seen since the 1968 student revolt, has seen more than 6,600 vehicles torched and dozens of buses, schools, gymnasiums, nurseries, libraries, shops and businesses destroyed in arson attacks.
Laurence Parisot, leader of the French employers' organisation Medef, said the country's image was being "deeply damaged."
She warned of "very serious" effects for the economy, notably sectors such as restaurant and hotel businesses and tourism, which rely heavily on foreign visitors.
…"The France of the 21st century makes you think of the ancien régime," said Thomas Schidinger of Vienna's Institute of Political Studies, referring to the pre-revolutionary era of wealthy nobility and impoverished populations.
"It's as if the people in power are saying, a little like Marie-Antoinette, 'not got a job? Take a holiday then'."
Rioters are Muslims, but don't say so
The rioters who have burned out neighborhoods in cities across France for a fortnight are overwhelmingly of North African and Arab ancestry, overwhelmingly young, overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly cut off culturally and economically from the larger French society -- and overwhelmingly Muslimwhisper David R. Sands and Sharon Behn.
But saying they're Muslim is a subject of angry dispute. French officials downplay the religious connections, and some newspapers, particularly in the United States, avoid identifying the rioters as Muslim.While Jacques Chirac points the finger at the rioters' parents, Jean-Marie Le Pen has started to weigh in…
For the moment at least, the frenzy may be subsiding. With curfews in Paris and more than two dozen other cities, and a 12-day state of emergency in effect, French authorities reported yesterday a decline in reports of violence. Car burnings fell by nearly half. But vandals attacked a number of sites, including a large store in the north and a newspaper warehouse near Nice.
…Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin blames the rioting on "structured groups," apparently euphemism for "Muslim," but French officials say they have no evidence that international Muslim radical groups are involved in promoting the violence.
"For the moment, we see no link at all with the networks that we work on," French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Francois Ricard said in Paris. Arrest figures released so far indicate that most of the hoodlums are young and male. About half are younger than 18.
They're technologically savvy. Investigators say the rioters are using the Internet, cell phones and text-messaging to coordinate attacks. Der Spiegel, the German newspaper, quoted one of the text messages from one rioter to another: "We aren't going to let up. The French won't do anything and soon we will be the majority."
Alexis Debat, a former French government counterterrorism analyst, says the ringleaders are "hard-core delinquents" from impoverished Muslim neighborhoods that surround many French cities. They have criminal records that include petty theft, vandalism and drug dealing, but investigators say they see few obvious links to fundamentalist Islamic movements that have declared war on the West.
"This is a problem of poverty and opportunity, not a problem of Islam," he says, noting that there were fewer incidents in neighborhoods where radical Muslim organizations were strongest.
But Mr. Debat says the ringleaders have been joined in the streets by a much larger group of second-generation North African and Arab immigrants who are turning to Islam because they feel alien both in France and their ancestral homes.
"The only possible identification left for many of them is Islam," he said. "They feel betrayed by France, and I don't blame them."
Two weeks of nightly street riots and vandalism have sparked soul-searching in France over the country's vaunted social welfare model and, Mr. Le Pen said, have vindicated his anti-immigrant message.
"The facts support me. The situation is even taking a turn toward perhaps the beginnings of a civil war," Mr. Le Pen said in a statement posted on the Web site of his National Front party.
He told the Associated Press that the party's e-mail system had crashed because so many messages of support had poured in.
He called Mr. Chirac's delayed, low-key response to the riots "pitiable," adding: "Nothing I have seen surprises me. I think that things may even get worse."
This is "stability"
463 vehicles burned, 201 arrests, 7 police injured, and 8 police suspended for doing their job.
In Lyon, 4 police were hurt by thrown rocks. Violence in the greater Paris area ticked up a bit.
12,000 police are being kept on duty through the weekend (including the holiday of 11 November). Calls to riot continue to circulate via SMS, blogs, and Internet bulletin boards.
For young French, the 11 November means something else entirely ...
The French are on top of things this 11 November. Yes indeedy. Look out for French youths celebrating Arafat the AIDS victim (croaked one year today). Un sidaïque clamsé pour une jeunesse frappée de Sida mental. Comme c'est touchant.
Is the French Government trying to censor internet traffic?
When the state of emergency was put into effect de Villepin said that there would be no censorship implemented as is allowed under the law. It probably didn’t seem necessary to the Prime Minister’s office since the imposition of restrain has been trained into the press and the media already.
They are known to stealth edit or even “stealth delete” when they get the sense that the time is right. The internet, though, which seemed to be beyond influence may not have been.One reader notes that beginning late in the afternoon of the 9th of November (right after the government gave itself emergency powers) web users in France found that they couldn't access the most popular websites which are critical of this softly-softly Jihad that a French version of the Gutmensch would call "islamophobic" such as france-echos.com, occidentalis.com, or coranix.com.This was discussed on conservative and techie forums in France, and they found this was a systematic filtering by all the French ISPs.
Our own stats showed a near disappearance of traffic to Wanandoo.com hosted sites for two days, and another correspondent tells me that even a Belgian ISP had some site specific “bozo filtering” take place. The report from Belgian may be a case of the ISP’s traffic being routed through a French internet company that later corrected it’s routing, but all of these things look like the suspicious traces of security measures.
It’s almost certain that the DGSE would be interested in monitoring specific messages out of the waterfall of data which passes through these points, but what we’re hearing about is clearly not that, it’s an attempt to censor. It may also be that the opportunity was taken to perform a field test to cut off traffic in an even worse case scenario. The only way this seems possible is to redirect internet traffic through military servers with filters and interception used as a crisis measure. After all there were at least two days where one some users who routed through proxies could see sites that others couldn’t.Said one observer who wrote to ¡No Pasaràn!: « Note that French "moderate" Muslim sites (complete with hidden jihad call, anti-French, anti-western/anti-US and anti-Semite prejudice,...), islamoleftist (such as the infamous Radio-Islam), and leftists websites still are freely accessible.
There are similarities to China in much of this, since they have been working on information filtering and exclusion methods for years, but I’ve seen no indications that they’ve worked on this together since we’re talking about a system of protocols which are public which are relatively easy to develop independently. In general it is safe to say that security institutions such as these would only take the risk of that level of cooperation when they have no other means of access to something they see as valuable.
The blocked sites are NOT neonazi, they are conservative and "Islamophobic", but the french government has been very afraid of the internet, especially after the "Radikal Web" affair, a rightwing webring of anti-islam and anti-Chirac websites, which was hounded by the "thought police" ("antiracist" & plain leftist hackers and organizations with contacts in the French police), and were later busted when there was a totally unrelated "attempted attempted" assassination against Our Dear Leader.Since then, the gvt has been pressuring Islamophobic webmasters by suing them one after the other.This is only minor, but this needs to be known in the USA that these are the people who wish to control the internet.»
How to lose friends and alienate people:
Thankfully a ghoulish, pixelated image could be had.
Proceeds to support
Canal+ edits "Sarkozy, dirty jew!" to "Sarkozy, fascist!"
«a subtitle strategically placed says "Sarkozy, fasciste!", but according to many French forums listeners (including me), the "youths" actually shout "Sarkozy, sale juif", this is clearly audible, Sarko effectively being part-jewish.
Oddly enough, Canal+ has no trouble promoting gang-banger culture, giving it a kind of glamour that would appeal to adolescents who were mal elevée. Were the two production groups to meet in the charred remains of one of the sites of the riots, would they develop any regrets?
Did the bobo channel Canal+, and especially the TV show involved which is obsessively left-leaning, voluntarily misled the viewers?
Add this to the "allah hu akbar", or the references to Jerusalem or the "mosque" (ex.: the teargas canister supposedly shot into it), and you can see theses riots are purely motivated by poverty and discrimination.
Speaking of the Clichy mosque incident, this was apparently a provocation. The so-called "teargas canister" was a spent shell kicked into the mosque from the outside. and the worrying fact is all the mosque’s pious Muslims, including the one who conveniently filmed the scene with his cell-phone, the ones who were later interviewed on TV, or even the Mejliss/Oumma (main French Muslim forum) moderators who suppressed direct testimonies of the incident, were complicit in this fraud.»
Thursday, November 10, 2005
World War I Film Bashes Bush
On the first Christmas Eve of World War I, three companies of French, Scottish, and German soldiers slowly find the courage to fraternize on the front, leaving their frozen trenches to build trust, wistfully exchange memories, sip wine, bury their dead, play football (soccer), and gather to kneel down together for a common mass. Unable to come to their senses and to share the soldiers' visionary desire to see the dawn of peace, their respective (clueless) generals take things into their hands and punish the soldiers outright or deport them to bloodier fronts.
That is the (true) story of Joyeux Noël, a film by Christian Carion, whose previous movie came close to being a masterpiece in its genre.
Now, you may agree with war or not (war in general or this one, specifically), but older officers not being in the frontlines simply amounts to the fighting being done by a younger generation. Besides, nations wanting to win wars (and their leaders, civilian and military, wanting to be popular) do not do so (and do not remain so) by putting untrained bouffons or cowardly idiots at the head of their armies (which does not mean that one or two don't make it there from time to time).
(Un long dimanche de fiançailles took this a step further, showing "widowed" lovers wreaking personal (and, in the directors' minds, fully justified) vengeance against their loved ones' military officers, killing them in the most sadistic fashion.)
There is nothing bad to be said about the direction, the camera work, the pace, and the actors, all of whose standards range from professional to admirable (particularly Dany Boon).
That leaves us with the story.
A "European propaganda instrument", Le Monde calls the French-German-Belgian-British-Romanian co-production, against (who else?) George W Bush.
The speech is pure Dubya; or, rather, the left's caricatured presentation of Dubya and the neocons.
His eyes flaring, the religious fanatic that the bishop is spits and sputters as he refers to God, to religion, to good and evil, and to the monstrous enemy; from this, he segues naturally into the exhortation to kill. The audience thus accepts that it is wholly natural that a religious man like he should deliver the following "message": Godless Germans should be cut down, every man, woman, and child.
(It will come as a surprise to nobody that the director's brother, Pierre, used to webmaster the (now defunct) Yankee-bashing Rondelles de Saucissons et l'Addition).
As the credits rolled when I saw Merry Christmas at the Cannes film festival, the audience erupted into applause and Bravos. And why wouldn't they? Doesn't the film show exactly what Bush is all about?
What the film doesn't bother to ask, of course, and what its artists don't bother to think about, and what its cheering audiences don't bother to ponder is how the film would work if it were transposed to… World War II.
They have a vision of peace, and the armies stop fighting?
Leaving Hitler's Gestapo and Japan's occupation administration to continue their depradations in Eastern Europe and on the Asian mainland? Dictatorship. Terror. Murder. Mass murder. Genocide. All with impunity.
War is often referred to as murder and insanity. But soldiers, no matter how weak they are and no matter how strong an enemy they face, have weapons and, to a certain extent, can defend themselves and have a chance of surviving beyond the mere will of an all-powerful opponent.
Unarmed civilians and prisoners of conscience in dictatorships have none and cannot.
They had none and couldn't under Hitler, and they had none and could not, more recently, under Saddam Hussein.
Yes, there are things worse than being in a state of war.
Maybe I will have to see Christian Carion's Bush-bashing film again, but as far as I can remember, there is no reference of any kind to the Baathist terror regime in Joyeux Noël.
Total surrender
8 French riot police suspended for roughing up a scum. This is disgusting. These riot police have been working in the most terrible conditions trying to contain the violence (because they still do not have the right to combat it) of these filthy animals and this is how they are treated.
A rioter, who had been held for throwing rocks and then released, came back, heckled the cops, and threw bottles at the police station. He then got roughed up a bit (and rightfully so; he didn't even get one tenth of what was coming to him). The incident was filmed and now Sarkozy is backing down instead of standing up for his men.
All this to avoid these Muslim kids from going apeshit, as if they haven't already. Will the appeasement never stop?
A rioter, who had been held for throwing rocks and then released, came back, heckled the cops, and threw bottles at the police station. He then got roughed up a bit (and rightfully so; he didn't even get one tenth of what was coming to him). The incident was filmed and now Sarkozy is backing down instead of standing up for his men.
All this to avoid these Muslim kids from going apeshit, as if they haven't already. Will the appeasement never stop?
It’s must be the rehab talking
Former drug-addled footballer and leftist idiot Diego Maradona is doing the least challenging, least mentally taxing thing and trying to out do all those Hollywood types by being a thoughtless leftist with Bush Derangement syndrome. Corbusier has an excellent summary of this playground chavista idiot and admirer of an old repressive murderer.
But to really be thoughtless you have to be like this quasi-radical mall punk to admire Maradona for his thoughtless hatreds and hypocracy. He calls himself “a bulldog” but admires an anti-globalization twit because he wore a “Stop Bush” T-shirt. Now there’s a brave and surprising cause. What's amazing is that Maradona gets $10 million per year in endorsements, and somehow rationalizes a hatred of these multi-nationals.
He clearly didn’t read ¡No Pasaràn! or even seem to even notice our masthead when he wrote to us wanting to exchange links.
Tant qu'ils s'étripent entre eux, on va pas se gêner de rigoler un bon coup
Stalker est de retour avec un autre texte qui porte sur la guerre civile française de 2005.
Islamofascism: the French embrace it
Tony Blankley reminds us that it isn't about poverty, no matter how much bleeding hearts and Euro-fetishists try to spin it that way.
They stayed home to watch soccer last nght
394 vehicles burned, 169 arrests, and 5 French departments making use of a curfew.
The government has refused to allow a peace march on the Champs-Elysées this Friday. What the TF1 article linked to above fails to mention is the this march, far from anything peaceful, is the brainchild of the General Union of Palestinian Students and was meant to coincide with the first anniversary of Arafat's death from AIDS (putain, on n'arrête pas de nous faire chier avec ces histoires de sidaïque). Would they have worn bomb belts?
Interior Minister Sarkozy has requested the expulsion of all foreigners convicted of violent acts during the rioting. Moonbat human rights groups have seized upon this proposed measure and are squealing like stuck pigs even though the measure would be more symbolic than anything else. The French simply cannot admit that these rioting scum are not foreigners but their own children, French born and raised.
Not what they were hoping for, I’m sure
Bravo! Les “premiers répondeurs.”
The BBC was interviewing a spokesman for Synergie, the police officers’ union in France on Monday morning, and I couldn’t help but notice this little exchange regarding the history of disturbances in the suburban slums. After some discussion the following exchange came up:
(said it in a tone which almost sounded like he wanted to say: you simpleton, race isn’t everything. Cut it out, will ya?...)Beebster: So do you think that the French are racist?
Spokesman: No, definitely not. These are serious social problems.[ . . . ]
Race is not the only thing. The Americans understand this.
Bravo. Their leadership doesn’t look like they are sure what to do, the population is generally so bizarre, all they can do is think of them as les poulets, rioting gang are shooting at them and pelting them with Molotov cocktails... Sheesh.
They know well enough what the lefty organized-labor and media blackmail operations will make of the first paper cut that seems out of order - It’ll turn into a festival of infantile Police-bashing.
The Beebster spoke with the same lack of imagination as a CNN anchor (I'm told by a reader) who around 22h New York time, referred to the two guys who were electrocuted as "african-americans."
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
The dependably thin-skinned left
From The Telegraph (UK) illustrates what separates the dhimmi who don’t understand the situation, and those forces to tip-toe around their tender egos: President Jacques Chirac faced scathing criticism yesterday after his government declared a state of emergency in an attempt to crack down on rioters who have caused havoc throughout France.
If the Communists are so worried about defending individual liberties (as if they ever have before) the seem perfectly willing to give away other people’s lives to do it.
Political opponents questioned whether the measures were enforceable or said they would only deepen the crisis.
[ . . . ]
Marie-George Buffet, the party leader, said the government was "incapable of stopping these youths".
Police unions, however, welcomed the decree, saying it equipped officers with the additional tools needed to ensure the law was respected.
The leader of the main teaching union, Gérard Aschieri, condemned what he called a "message of war" in which the government was trying to reactivate remedies from a colonial age.
His views were echoed by Algerians on estates outside Paris. Older immigrants bitterly recall the events of Oct 17 1961 when up to 300 Algerians were allegedly massacred by Parisian police while protesting about a curfew ordered in their home country.»
France 3 refusing to publicize Car-beque figures
From France 3: “Violences urbaines : vers l'accalmie ?”
Rioting: tending toward a lull?
Cases of vehicle arson were definitely fewer overnight on Tuesday To discourage more violence, France 3 will no longer publish or present any more the figures on vehicle arson.
End of item.
In four of the five departments of the Nord/Pas-de-Calais Area and Picardy, the number of cased of arson on cars and buildings were definitely fewer. According to firefighting official, only the department of Pas-de-Calais was struck slightly more than the previous nights.
In Pas-de-Calais ,two area making up approximately 6500 m², (Saint-Maclou and Goal) were burned in the area of Arras. Incendiary bombs were found in the basement of the one of the stores. About thirty employees are disrupted with the damage. There were no arrests. In Outreau, a hundred people were evacuated last night because several cars were set ablaze in an underground garage.
In Amiens, there was a curfew for minors from 22h00 to 6h00 not accompanied by an adult. The curfew was imposed in Amiens because 80% of the rioters challenged by Police there were minors according to the prosecutor of Amiens. In the city, the sale of gasoline in containers to minors was banned in certain hot districts of northern Amiens. Nearby businesses and buildings had to be closed during the curfew hours as well. The prefecture commented that the results were positive, and that the curfew was respected strictly. Only two minors were taken back in their parents.
In Oise, the night was found to be calmer in spite of vehicle fires. A mother from Senlis was placed in police custody overnight Monday at the police station in Creil, and was picked up by police for failure to cooperate because her son had been under investigation for attempted vandalism. In Aisne, cars fires have practically ceased.
There was general progress also in the North, but 25 people was detained nonetheless, mainly in and around Lille, for vehicle arson.
La gôche aime tous ceux qui mettent l'Homme l'Enfant au centre
One of the main themes of the MSM coverup taking place in France is that the riots are all about a few kids burning cars. Please. Rioters are adapting their tactics by taking a tip from their Palestinian brothers with a helpful assist from the French legal system. Riot police report that the front line rioters are often minors (10-13 years old in some reports) sent up to the front lines by the organizers who tend to fall back from any initial confrontations. When the children are arrested there is not much that can be done because French law is so lax with regards to detaining and questionning underage children.
Nothing surprising here. Since when did the Arab street care at all about its childrens' lives?
Nothing surprising here. Since when did the Arab street care at all about its childrens' lives?
Translation of article linked from “La gôche aime tous ceux qui mettent l'Homme l'Enfant au centre”
From ¡No Pasaràn!: La gôche aime tous ceux qui mettent l'Homme l'Enfant au centre we linked the following in PUBLICATION NAME:
“Des enfants envoyés en première ligne par des adultes à Evry”Children sent in first behind the adult rioters in Evry
End of item.
2005-11-08, 12:49:39, PARIS (AFP)
Michel Gaudin, general manager of the national police (DGPN) stated that in connection with the discovery of a Molotov cocktail manufacturing and storage operation in Evry, that the operation was "organized by adults who put children in front of them" for protection.
The prefect, made this announcement at a press conference held at the Interior Ministry for the Interior, but did not want to go into further detail.
Six minors were stopped Saturday evening when they left a meeting place in the area of Parc de Hares where 150 incomplete incendiary bombs were discovered, including 50 ready for use, as well as 60 liters of gasoline and their hoods. Asked about the level of organization of the riots, Mr. Gaudin answered that "they don’t have a national organization, but were highly structured", and gave a report of local "organisations "and "a desire to harm uniformly, which shows signs of a city-wide level of organizations". He quoted in particular the case of Evry.
According to a police source, several similar stockpiles were discovered. "I’m not surprised, given the number of cars which have been burned, that there are obviously places where these devised are manufactured ed and stored ", according to this source. Asked about the possible influence of radical islamists orchestrating violence, Mr. Gaudin answered not to have "there is a sense that this is any definite indication of this." When asked he would not go into detail about the arrest of an islamist.
According to sources' involved in the case, the father of one of the accused minors in Evry is known to belong to “tabligh.” "But at this time in the investigation, no relationship is proven" but investigators warned a police officials about it. This man was picked up while rioting, to have highly and violently protested against the arrest of his/her son, a source indicated. Tabligh, a Muslim movement with a worldwide following of one million, mixes active and non-violent proselytism and fundamentalism. In France, after having devoted its efforts to "re-islamization" of immigrant workmen, it concentrates on the young people of the cities.
Translation of article linked in “Since zero hour”
From ¡No Pasaràn!: Since zero hour we linked the following from TF1.fr:
“ Vingt-cinq départements concernés par l'état d'urgence”STATE EMERGERCY IN 25 DERPARTMENTS
End of item.
The state of emergency decree "as of November 9, 2005 to zero hour (midnight)" was published on Wednesday morning by the Official Journal. The Somme prefecture and several towns didn’t wait for the declaration to institute curfews.
The state of emergency law was set to go into effect as of 0h on Wednesday, November 9, 2005 for cities and towns. This gives powers to prefects to restrict or prohibit movement of people and/or vehicles in certain areas.
A second decree limits the decree’s application to whole or part of 25 departments, among which the whole of Ile-de-France including Paris. In these areas, the Ministry of the Interior can make house arrests or seize weapons. The prefects can also provisionallt close theaters, meeting halls, and bars, and order the prohibition of meetings. Lastly, it also empowers localities to do night searches.
Already applied
The Somme prefecture did not wait for the law to order a 22h to 04h curfew in Amiens and about thirty towns for everyone under 16 years of age not accompanied by an adult. Enforcement went into place at midnight. The result is that two minors were picked up and given over to their parents in the night, according to a police source. The prefecture also decided to prohibit the sale of fuel to minors.
In addition to the Somme prefecture, on Tuesday two UMP mayors, Serge Grouard in Orleans, and Jean Marsaudon in Savigny-sur-Orge (Essonne) put in place local by-laws imposing a curfew on minors, like Eric Raoult on Monday in Raincy. The locally implemented measure are not covered under the state-of-emergency law.
Muslim Urban Guerilla Tuesday night results
Tuesday night action saw 573 vehicules burned and 204 arrests. No police injures have been reported as of this morning.
Now that a State of Emergency has been declared (those words were never uttered by Vilepine when he addressed the nation, as they implicitly recognize that France has been brought to her knees by a hord of rioting Muslims) several municipalities have announced plans for curfews.
Nine buses were torched in a garage in Dole. 80 residents were evacuated from an adjacent bulding.
In Grasse, the offices of the Nice-Matin newspaper suffered important damage after being targeted by arsonists. 4 rioters were seen fleeing the scene.
In Arras, 2 large stores were looted and burned (But and St Maclou). Over 10,000 square meters were lost to the flames.
In Lyon, Russian journalists were attacked by rioters and their vehicle was damaged. All Lyon subway traffic was halted Tuesday evening when a fire bomb was discovered next to a train.
In Bassens (a Bordeaux suburb), a bus was stoned, set alight, and exploded.
In Nice, a 53 year old man walking through the Moulins neighborhood was hit on the head by a dumbbell thrown from the 15th floor of a building. He is in critical condition (I can only imagine the grief and humiliaton that would cause a young French muslim to do such a thing and I sympathise with the perpetrator).
Now that a State of Emergency has been declared (those words were never uttered by Vilepine when he addressed the nation, as they implicitly recognize that France has been brought to her knees by a hord of rioting Muslims) several municipalities have announced plans for curfews.
Nine buses were torched in a garage in Dole. 80 residents were evacuated from an adjacent bulding.
In Grasse, the offices of the Nice-Matin newspaper suffered important damage after being targeted by arsonists. 4 rioters were seen fleeing the scene.
In Arras, 2 large stores were looted and burned (But and St Maclou). Over 10,000 square meters were lost to the flames.
In Lyon, Russian journalists were attacked by rioters and their vehicle was damaged. All Lyon subway traffic was halted Tuesday evening when a fire bomb was discovered next to a train.
In Bassens (a Bordeaux suburb), a bus was stoned, set alight, and exploded.
In Nice, a 53 year old man walking through the Moulins neighborhood was hit on the head by a dumbbell thrown from the 15th floor of a building. He is in critical condition (I can only imagine the grief and humiliaton that would cause a young French muslim to do such a thing and I sympathise with the perpetrator).
Let’s pretend we don't see it, and it might disappear
Let’s pretend there isn’t any alarm. More to the point, let’s call it all alarmism. If doesn’t explain the traffic and chatter on the boards that the PR slicks can’t influence. Here’s one of the people out there exposing a corner-store jihadist who has been using chat boards to ply his trade:
«The “Sultan” is a kind of young the Goebbels who prevails on Mejliss (a message board), known for his lies. He’s a young revolutionary islamist who is somewhere between typical and extreme and a Parisian anarchists.
His dream?: the revolution to destroy democracy, and to establish on the ruins of the west a totalitarian Islamic regime. His revolutionary zeal and his deliriously obscure references attracted the friendship of Nouari Khiari:
"Allah will help the Muslims eliminate the gangrenous Zionist, the spreader of evil the day when NS will be ready to sacrifice our lives for an ideal of justice which is Islam"
"my objective, inshaAllah, is to finally finish off the highest in the hierarchy with richness and power which I could assemble from the work of the (muslim) community and to advance it. Projects I have of it already have on my mind."»
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Lou Minatti sums up the general American view of Francifada
Unless you had some illusions were shattered by the last two weeks' mayhem, I think Lou sums up the view of most Americans.
I finally got fed up and told him that I don't give a rat's ass who is rioting. I am simply enjoying the spectacle. For years, the EuroLeft has hectored and spit on America. Now it turns out that the European socialist utopia is a cesspool of racism.
It's wrong for me to enjoy this, I know.
Les émeutiers prennent à une église
An eyewitness report which appears to be corroborated by commenters from the same town: Afro-Moslems rioters attack a Protestant church. «Tonight the Protestant church in Meulan was attacked. The roof is completely destroyed. I do not yet know if the interior is completely destroyed or not. You can’t smoke in a mosque, but trashing a church is less serious.»
Ça caillasse et ça casse
French radio reports a direct confrontation with riot police in Toulouse charging into a group of 50 rioters who were throwing rocks and molotov cocktails. A curfew should be announced shortly and Sarkozy will be in the city later tonight. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: The rioters were out in force as a direct challenge to police just before the announced visit of Sarkozy to the area, hit hard by violence during the past few days. A dozen cars were torched.
UPDATE: The rioters were out in force as a direct challenge to police just before the announced visit of Sarkozy to the area, hit hard by violence during the past few days. A dozen cars were torched.
Crisis schmicis! I've got a state visit!
Trying to ride the coat-tails of the image of what he sees as a higher power, or fiddling while France burns?
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (L) waves while walking together with
French President Jacques Chirac at Elysee palace after their meeting, in
Paris Monday 07 November 2005.
A friend of this blog too notes on a summation of sentiment too: France`s
Le Journal du Dimanche summed up the nation`s dilemma Sunday in just four
words: 'How to Get Out?'
See Monsters and Critics for more.
I laughed so hard I dropped my shot glass of Jameson in my pint of Guiness and, appropriately, made an Irish car bomb
Heavy duty stuff from Mark Steyn: 'Early skirmish in the Eurabian civil war'. Thanks to John_R.
Actually, they're very easy to "recognise": just look out the window, they're the ones torching your Renault 5. I'd wager the "French" "youth" find that headline as hilarious as the Jets in West Side Story half a century ago, when they taunted Officer Krupke with "society's" attempts to "understand" them: we're depraved on account of we're deprived. Perhaps some enterprising Paris impresario will mount a production of West Eid Story with choreographed gangs of North African Muslims sashaying through the Place de la Republique, incinerating as they go.
Ça nous rajeunit pas
Oh man, just gimme that good ole' Zeropean culture. As Johnny Rotten once said, "Culture? That's what grows on the tip of my dick." And here, while it lasts, is "Anarchy in the UK" sung in French ("L'Anarchie pour le U.K."; dig the accordeon arrangement) for the movie "Great Rock n Roll Swindle". It's not "Anarchy in France", just "Anarchy in French", but that's the next best thing. For the real thing, just stick your head out the window.
L’anarchie Pour Le UK - Sex Pistols
Moi, je suis l’antéchrist
Moi, je suis l’anarchiste
Je ne sais pas ce que je
Veux mais je l’aurai
Je veux semer la terreur dans la rue
Car moi, je veux l’anarchie
Anarchie pour UK
ça y est presque déjà
Je désunis Royaume-uni
Avec ces rèves de Prisunic !
Oui, moi, je veux l’anarchie
Le temps de la cité, c’est fini!
Tout est bon pour y arriver
Je prends le meilleur et aussi le reste
Je me sers de mes ennemis
Je me sers de l’anarchie!
Car moi, je veux l’anarchie
Et c’est la seule façon d’ítre!
Est-ce que c’est l’M.P.L.A.?
Ou bien encore l’U.D.A.?
Ou alors c’est peut-être l’I.R.A.?
Moi, j’ai pensais que c’était UK!
Ou un autre pays
On a tous nos bidonvilles
Moi, je suis l’anarchie
Oui, moi, je suis l’anarchie
Et vive l’anarchie
Et moi, je veux être anarchiste
Et être saoul, à en crever !
L’anarchie Pour Le UK - Sex Pistols
Moi, je suis l’antéchrist
Moi, je suis l’anarchiste
Je ne sais pas ce que je
Veux mais je l’aurai
Je veux semer la terreur dans la rue
Car moi, je veux l’anarchie
Anarchie pour UK
ça y est presque déjà
Je désunis Royaume-uni
Avec ces rèves de Prisunic !
Oui, moi, je veux l’anarchie
Le temps de la cité, c’est fini!
Tout est bon pour y arriver
Je prends le meilleur et aussi le reste
Je me sers de mes ennemis
Je me sers de l’anarchie!
Car moi, je veux l’anarchie
Et c’est la seule façon d’ítre!
Est-ce que c’est l’M.P.L.A.?
Ou bien encore l’U.D.A.?
Ou alors c’est peut-être l’I.R.A.?
Moi, j’ai pensais que c’était UK!
Ou un autre pays
On a tous nos bidonvilles
Moi, je suis l’anarchie
Oui, moi, je suis l’anarchie
Et vive l’anarchie
Et moi, je veux être anarchiste
Et être saoul, à en crever !
Le Roi est nu (et la Reine enculée par la caillera)
There is no point in declaring curfews if you have no means to enforce them.
The Ramrod
The "voiture bélier" has made a distinguished appearance during this French Intifada and is being used regularly during the more heavy operations carried out by the rioters. A "voiture bélier" is a vehicle with one or several beams fixed to it so it can be used to smash a wall, gate, or barrier of any kind. Hardly the kind of technique that would be spontaneously used by disenfranchised youth, the "voiture bélier" is the one of the tools of choice used by the armed robbery gangs that operate in Paris' northern suburbs (the same gangs that kickback funding to various Jihad groups around the world) . They have been used efficiently and with spectacular effect to rob upscale Paris jewelery shops in broad daylight. The fact that they are being used regularly by rioters (the rioting started in Paris' northern suburbs) is a good indication about which groups are participating in the current mix of urban guerilla activity.
French sympathy for Muslim terrorists and Arab dictatorships is a vulture that is coming home to roost
…says Robert Tracinski as he points to Craig S Smith's NYT report and to Amir Taheri's NYP commentary, "Why Paris Is Burning"…
Tom Paines Common Sense
Silentrunnung.tvs Shire News Network current podcast features an interview with Carine of E-nough! and asks the burning question Is Paris burning? Also discussed is the law coming down on bloggers for language left on theircomment sections.
[.MP3]
Outburst in Belgium as well
While illusions about their own society disappear, the disease shows signs of spreading.
4 hours ago the Scotsman newspaper reported copycat rioting (more like sympathy actions) in Belgium: Meanwhile, apparent copycat attacks also spread outside France, with five cars torched outside the main train station in Brussels, Belgium. German police were also investigating the burning of five cars in Berlin.
Back in France in Toulouse: Rioters in the France's southern city of Toulouse ordered passengers off a bus and then set it on fire and pelted police with petrol bombs and rocks. Youths also torched another bus in the north-eastern Paris suburb of Stains, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said.
It seeems like too little, too late at this point, but in the past hour Sarkozy has approved the generalized curfew plan.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said he was to meet with his Cabinet to approve curfews "wherever it is necessary" under a state of emergency law.
Police reservists will be deployed as reinforcements to help end the rioting that has spread from Paris' suburbs to nearly 300 cities and towns, Villepin said.
At present, officials are attempting to talk the fear down. Said one: However, Hamon said there was a "considerable decrease" in the number of incidents overnight compared to the night before in the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris.
That bad juju just won’t go away
While the media and press in France play down the severity and urgency of the French insurgency, the UK’s Foreign Office warns travelers to France of the risk thus:Serious and violent disturbances, during which buildings and vehicles have been set on fire and missiles, including stones, petrol bombs and tear gas canisters thrown, continue to affect several Paris suburbs and a large number of other towns and cities throughout mainland France.
The Telegraph (UK) further describes the state of decay indicating a functional collapse of civil authority in many areas altogether:
Leaders fiddle as France burnsFrance was struggling to overcome one of its gravest post-war crises last night as every major city faced the threat of fierce rioting that began 12 nights ago and now seems to have spun out of control.
A country in flames… French cities teeter on the edge of anarchy:Gangs of youths were once again on the rampage across France last night as the guerilla warfare, which has engulfed a string of Paris suburbs for more than a week, took hold in cities throughout the country.
Some of the worst violence is being reported in Toulouse.
Despite a string of emergency meetings and the drafting of 1,500 members of the CRS riot squads into the Paris suburbs, police and politicians have failed to control the worst violence the city has experienced since the riots of May 1968.
In the early hours of yesterday, gangs of youths threw blazing rubbish bins across the streets and set fire to cars, many of which belonged to their own neighbours.
The acrid smell of burning rubber and refuse filled the air and plumes of flames shot skywards, their orange glow illuminating the grim high-rise blocks, which have become France's 21st century ghettos.
Éditeur manichéen de combat ...
... pour un pays en guerre civile. Les premiers titres sortiront le 18 novembre.
French MSM covers up what is, in fact, a pogrom
If you think that French media are downplaying the extent of the actual violence and damage, you are right. Quite a bit of hard news is not being reported both by design and by the circumstances on the ground. State TV has already decided to stop repeating the number of cars burned every day and film crews (particularly white French film crews) are being chased from the suburbs after having their vehicles and equipment torched. The only journalists currently operating freely and without armed escort are from Algerian newspapers (El Watan has been cited as an example).
Callers on talk radio are starting to reveal what MSM is censuring: the racist, Islamist nature of the ongoing uprising.
State TV has already manipulated reports, albeit hamfistedly. The most notable example was the bait-and-switch reports about the handicapped woman doused with gasoline and burned by rioters. Every attempt was made to have viewers believe that race was not an issue.
The Socialist Mayor of Noisy le Grand, speaking on France Culture radio yesterday morning claimed that in his city women were dragged from their cars by their hair and, for all intense and purposes, stoned by rampaging youths (il a employé le terme "quasi lapidées" en fwançais). He also reported that molotov cocktails were thrown into people's homes. He then asked the Army to intervene. The host, somewhat shocked that a Socialist mayor would use such language on a live State radio broadcast, stammered for a few seconds. The reports have since slipped into a French media memory hole.
On a State TV France5 talk show, an Algerian writer living in Paris expressed shock at the scenes coming in from the suburbs where jellaba clad big brothers step in to calm youths and negotiate with police. He stated that such images reminded him of the happenings in Islamist neighborhoods of Algiers circa late 80s and early 90s. These images, very common in the first days of the riots, have now vanished from French TV screens which now favor scenes involving disenfranchised youths who repeat endlessly that they are victims of unemployment and racism.
This party has reached cruising speed
Latest figures place the level of violence a bit higher than earlier reported (heavy handed and manipulatory French MSM are comparing Monday's level of violence to the weekend and stating that it is a slight improvement -- when they should be comparing the figures to last Monday and stating what everyone knows, that it is much worse).
1,173 vehicles were torched, 330 arrests were made, and 12 police were injured. As reported this weekend, buckshot fired from hunting rifles is being used against riot police.
A gymnasium in Villepinte was hit by an arson attack.
In Auxerre, a basement was torched and 15 residents of the building were taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation. A molotov cocktail was thorwn at the police station in Beaucaire (Gard).
1,173 vehicles were torched, 330 arrests were made, and 12 police were injured. As reported this weekend, buckshot fired from hunting rifles is being used against riot police.
A gymnasium in Villepinte was hit by an arson attack.
In Auxerre, a basement was torched and 15 residents of the building were taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation. A molotov cocktail was thorwn at the police station in Beaucaire (Gard).
There goes the neighborhood
What goes around, comes around. France's Zeropean neighbors are starting to wonder about France and ask themselves, "How long do we have to put up with that shitty little country?"
Pretty active for a Monday
French TV news i-tele is reporting the night's numbers at: 814 cars torched, 143 arrests, 4 police injured.
Ça va comme un lundi, quoi
Early evening activity (more to follow later) saw around 14 cars torched in the Yvelines and around 10 in Seine-Saint-Denis with no direct confrontations between rioters and police.
Other regions of France were hit by an increase in violence.
As mentioned in a previous post a bus was torched in Toulouse. Later activity saw 21 cars burned and 2 buses pelted with rocks. All bus traffic was stopped in the Bellefontaine, Mirail and Bagatelle areas of the city which were cut off by riot police. Approximately 200 youths moved from neighborhood to neighborhood. The area was placed under helicopter surveillance. Subway service was interrupted at 8PM between les Arènes and Basso Cambo.
In the north of France, 27 cars were burned by 9PM. 2 schools were torched: one in Lille-Sud and one in Bruay-sur-Escaut, near Valenciennes.
In eastern France, cars were torched in Alsace, Lorraine and Franche-Comté.
18 cars were burned in Strasbourg which was placed under helicopter surveillance.
Even in Haut-Rhin started Monday afternoon with waste disposal equipment and bus shelters being set alight.
In Moselle, 8 cars were torched early in the evening.
In Doubs, firemen saw their rate of intervention go from once every 30 minutes in the early evening to once a minute as the night progressed.
Other regions of France were hit by an increase in violence.
As mentioned in a previous post a bus was torched in Toulouse. Later activity saw 21 cars burned and 2 buses pelted with rocks. All bus traffic was stopped in the Bellefontaine, Mirail and Bagatelle areas of the city which were cut off by riot police. Approximately 200 youths moved from neighborhood to neighborhood. The area was placed under helicopter surveillance. Subway service was interrupted at 8PM between les Arènes and Basso Cambo.
In the north of France, 27 cars were burned by 9PM. 2 schools were torched: one in Lille-Sud and one in Bruay-sur-Escaut, near Valenciennes.
In eastern France, cars were torched in Alsace, Lorraine and Franche-Comté.
18 cars were burned in Strasbourg which was placed under helicopter surveillance.
Even in Haut-Rhin started Monday afternoon with waste disposal equipment and bus shelters being set alight.
In Moselle, 8 cars were torched early in the evening.
In Doubs, firemen saw their rate of intervention go from once every 30 minutes in the early evening to once a minute as the night progressed.
Two birds with one stone
Even when their country looks like shit, even when they are submerged by an endless homegrown Intifada, the French have to get in some Bush bashing to lighten their spirits.
I'd telephone Sarkozy but he might say something stupid.
Survey says: . . .
«The report drawn up by a survey by LH2 (formerly Louis-Harris) is critical of the government’s ability to cope with the present situation. A large majority of the French (71%) find that the government’s approach to "the situation in the suburbs" is going in "the wrong direction", according to LH2’s monthly poll. This survey was carried out on November 4th and 5th.
Another finding is that for 59% of the French the government’s policy toward the fight against violence is going "in the wrong direction", versus 34% who disagree. "It is a spectacular fall of 21%, the first since 2002 when the number of dissatisfied people surveyed outnumbered the number who were satisfied. And safety was the only are where the French recognized the effectiveness of the government" they told François Miquet-Marty, the director of polical studies of Louis-Harris.
Even if in this poll, the popularity of the Prime Minister grew in 2 areas (45% favorability), "the continuation of violence will serve to further doubt in the the effectiveness of the government’s actions", it said. "the political implications to Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister (...) will expose them directly." For François Miquet-Marty, "the Chirac-Villepin executive saw its most difficult period to date.
The survey was conducted by telephone on November 4th and 5th with a sample of 1007 people representative of the French population 18 years and older.»
Somehow, we became more than just over-excitable.
How did that happen?
Special thanks to National Review Online’s Andrew Stuttaford.
Your 5 gallon bucket of ratatouille is in the mail.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Be not afraid
From Ynet News via alert reader Tom P.: French authorities have advised Jews not to let anyone know about their fears, since that could encourage attacks on Jews and their community buildings.
A snapshot of daily life shows that have a great deal to fear: «Jacki Brami, Garges’s rabbi, and his sons have been, "as usual", insulted, according to the anti-Semitism vigilance bureau.
One one level trying to take reasonable fears out of the front of public mind might make them less vulnerable to attack. But since there have been many attacks on Synagogues in France in the past, some friction might be inevitable. The rioters are a little like the classic sociopath in that they certainly don’t seem to share the public’s idea of morality. People who trash their own neighborhoods never do.
“It’s business as usual,” Samy Ghozlan, head of the anti-Semitism vigilance bureau told EJP. “These communities are used to these daily assaults. It’s worrisome, but we fear the worst is still to come.”
“Now that the media decided to reduce coverage of the riots, the thugs may intensify the violence against the Jews, to regain media attention," he added.
French authorities advised Jewish security officials not to publicize their fears, as such declarations could encourage rioters to attack Jews and Jewish community buildings.
The Jewish community has kept a low profile since the violence broke out. The only official reaction came from the chairman of the Paris consistoire, Moise Cohen, who wrote to the head of the French Muslim council Dalil Boubakeur.»
NOT discussing this possibility might just make the vulnerability of Jews less important to the public at large. As a result they might not be forced to consider Jews as citizens who are at risk right now, possibly discount them as a “group” and not seeing them as individuals. On top of that the public may never rethink their own petty prejudices as well.
It's pure foolishness to have to hide oneself as security officials seem to be suggesting, but approach is only right in one sense: this is not a time to show any fear. Individual morality has to intervene where social programs and platitudes have failed. That's always been the only thing that kept a crisis from turning into a panic.
Running on empty
Vilepine announced 1,500 police reinforcements (for the 8,000 already mobilized against the riots) and authorized curfews everywhere that they may be deemed necessary.
An American plot to capture strategic yogurt production
Vladimir Jirinovski, ultra-nationalist Russian politician, has declared that the riots in France are being masterminded by the American CIA in a vast effort to weaken Europe.
Translation of article linked from “Zek est de nouveau parmi nous”
From ¡No Pasaràn!: Zek est de nouveau parmi nous we linked the following from the blog “Zek II: L'exil intérieur” (Zek II: Internal exile):
“ Pourquoi Chirac a peur/ Why Chirac is afraid”The latest offensives ammounted to some kind of "emergency plan for the suburbs", aiming to re-enstate the authority of the republic in the occupied territories.
End of item.
The islamists then consolidated their victories, and benefitted from it to gradually conquer more land.
The message was clear: any incursion of the French State into the territory was punished by riots, fires, and retibution on French nationals. That applied not only to the police force, but also to firemen, doctors, etc. The riot stopped when the government dhimmis accepted, not only to leave islamists a free hand, but to finance them with billions for an "emergency plan for the suburbs".
But, like criminals always leaving their mark, the riots revealed their true objective through their targets: social schools, cribs, centers, community gyms, etc...
In other words they were mainly buildings representing the French Republic, those which symbolized the "policy of integration" the most were most prominently attacked.
These riots didn’t take place because "France refuses to integrate its Moslems", and other banal reasons, but exactly for the opposite reason: because France tries to integrate its Moslems.
What’s written plainly in the rappers’lyrics that the government dhimmis subsidize and find artful, but refuse to read is no different than in the past when they refused to read Mein Kampf.
Urban gangs were used as the avant-garde of the Islamic army by sowing terror in previously calm districts. That made it possible to test the resistance of the local institutions. If one appeared weak then a new territory was ripe to join dar-Al-Islam.
The problem with this strategy, it is that the Moslems themselves were resistant to that Taliban. Some were obstinant enough to send their children to the public school and were themselves “republican”, calling on the doctor rather than with the marabout, and to call the fire department and the police force when cars burned around them. These behaviors eroded the seizure of Talibans on the "suburbs".
It was thus necessary to radicalize the Moslem population, to instill in it the hatred of the dhimmi, so as to swallow Jihad up in whole.
What then to do?
A solution consists in pushing the dhimmis to the point where they will have to choose between the removal of a few troublemakers or complete and final absorption.
Against that vast, coordinated offensive the islamists troops burn and sometimes kill all that they can, until the long awaited collapse takes place. In this case, one can count on a rapid collapse of France under the double shock of the "anger of the insulted Arab street" and new May 1968 revolt of the left "fed up with by police violence".
Failure and chechmate.
Under that assumption:
Either there will not be time for an "emergency plan for the suburbs";
(That is to say this "emergency plan" will not have any alleviating effect on the rabble.)
In any event, there are already indications that this is the only way this will play out: confronted with extreme violence, the police force will be extremely careful in its response, operate within the law, and bear the shootings. The orders are clear: an arab must be avoided at all costs. Let us let Mrs. Michu remain respectable rather than get hit by one of her stonethrowers.
What terrorizes the government, is that the police force will sooner or later cave in, either while refusing to confront violence (to unjustly put their fate in a negligible minority in the legal syndicate), or by being defeat by the riff-raff themselves. The alternative, sending in the army, will not change anything if they’re forced to operate under the same restrictions as the police force.
If the precipitous shooting of a few rioters precipitates either of the outcomes described above, the government’s only choices will be to become either more authoritative or to succumb to the revolution