Say It Ain't So, Nick…

Nicolas Sarkozy has met with Hubert Védrine and is said to be considering the former foreign minister (praised for his anti-Americanism) for the foreign affairs post again! (Hopefully, it is for another ministry or it is only electoral posturing to present the président as flexible, fair-minded, and open to all courants…)

Update: Michel Leubel has more:

Á l'heure où Védrine a été approché par Sarkozy, n'oublions pas ceci : Védrine incarne en France cette ligne molle initiée par Jimmy Carter qui a produit, malgré l'avertissement khomeyniste et divers attentats, le 11 septembre 2001 ; ligne faite de concessions permanentes et de soutien aux dictatures…

…nous sommes en réalité aveuglés par la propagande anti-américaine qui fait croire que la situation actuelle serait le seul produit des erreurs sur le terrain et du conflit judéo-arabe (ce que pense Védrine) alors qu'elle est le résultat d'un combat qui tourne de plus en plus en faveur du camp démocrate au delà des confusions tactiques, humaines trop humaines…

Dans ce contexte, on comprend de moins en moins quelle mouche tsé-tsé a piqué Sarkozy, l'endormant dans les méandres d'une politique arabe de la France qui n'a produit que des déboires et qui n'obtient aucun résultat tangible.

Read Jane's comment in the PS of the article…

Many of my fellow American soldiers were contemptuous to the point of cruelty … In fact, their behavior appalled me

I was part of the occupation force that moved into [Iraq] shortly after the country's surrender

writes Richard W. Bruner from Budapest (if I got his letter — second from top — to the International Herald Tribune right).

Even as a naïve 19-year-old GI, I kept wondering to myself — while traveling … to [Baghdad] — when would our superiors take the … opportunity to instruct us in how we should behave toward the conquered [Iraqis]?

Although the [Air Force] gave hours of lectures to us enlisted men about the dangers of venereal disease in a foreign culture, it never gave us a single hint about what to expect from ordinary [Iraqis].

Many of my fellow American soldiers were contemptuous to the point of cruelty toward the [Iraqis]. In fact, their behavior appalled me. The lack of instruction had occasional dire results.

The hatred of French pseudo-intellectuals

Literary event in Marseille on May 22 organized by some French writers :



Extasy of Hatred
The news according to Saint Bin Laden
Metaphysical Revolution
Terror Will Save the World

Marxist Babble Butters No Parsnips

The right knows it, and 95% of the left knows it. The remainder think that a degree in Mental Masturbation Studies and a part time job in a used book store entitles you to owning the means of production.

James Tiberius Crank commented to one of the blogsphere's many retrograde Leninists, and to their readers (both of them, in fact):

Lenin, Lenin, Lenin! Here I am trying my damndest to stay a good leftist, and there you are making me feel like an idiot for trying.

You want a jihad? Strap a bomb to your crotch and blow yourself up in the woods.

Personally, I'd have preferred Sego to Sarko. But if you blow up every fairly run election you don't like, it's not a jihad, it's a putsch. Which makes you not only a bad Leninist, but an excellent Nazi.
Or an infidel AlQuaidnik. Those guys would kill you as soon as look at you. Why are you sucking up to them?

Why are you getting your bustle in a hustle? Given enough time bad governments inevitably self-destruct.

I rarely agree with New York’s own Chili Crankenfurter, but when it comes to our Al-Queda’s eager poodles, I don’t have to because we both have the same things to lose: our dignity, our autonomy as individuals, and our necks.

To put it perfectly blunt, we’d rather be free to hate each ideas’ as long as we’re around to do it.

Have a Cranky day, and don’t forget to spare a thought for the exploitation of comrade Roger Clemens.

Des simulations extrêmement périlleuses de simulation déstabilisatrice qui peuvent mettre un adversaire à terre de manière irrémédiable

Il s’agissait pour moi de lui apprendre les rudiments de quelques tours de comédiens, bien connus de la profession et particulièrement nous nous sommes attaché au tour appelé «tour de la saine colère ». Nous avons travaillé cet exercice avec toute la pugnacité qu’il exigeait.

If Philippe Trodétron is to be believed (in his exclusive interview with Namza), the actor coached Ségolène Royal for her debate with Nicolas Sarkozy, "our common enemy". What she and he (Trodétron) failed to understand is that a crucial goal, perhaps the major one, of the debate was to come across as someone willing to hold a brainstorming discussion (with anyone) as well as a leader of national prominence and not, say, as a trickster (as she turns out to have been in the debate) as well as a bully (or a pitbull, as one commentator put it).

…il s’agit d’une simulation extrêmement périlleuse de simulation déstabilisatrice qui, quand elle fonctionne, peut mettre un adversaire à terre de manière irrémédiable.

Q: Lorsqu’elle a interrogé son adversaire au sujet de la répartition de l’énergie nucléaire, là encore, tous avons senti que c’était là le fruit d’une préparation et d’un travail de haute voltige. Y avez-vous participé ?

… Il s’agit d’une autre technique peu utilisée dans nos cours habituels mais qui peut être d’une très grande utilité. Les anciens l’appellent la technique de l’inquisition ou « technique Torquemada ». Il s’agit pour le bateleur d’interroger son interlocuteur de manière violente et directe sur une question appelant une réponse claire et précise. Le ton doit être celui du maître interrogeant un mauvais élève. Et alors de deux choses l’une : soit votre interlocuteur vous répond correctement sans reprendre son souffle auquel cas il apparaît comme un dominé, un esclave servile se pliant à votre exigence, - et vous avez gagné- soit il commence à élaborer sa réponse ce qui vous permet de faire passer ce temps d’attente comme son incapacité à répondre. Vous pouvez alors l’interrompre pendant qu’il construit sa réponse oralement en lui disant par exemple : « Je vois que vous ne connaissez même pas la réponse à cette question » . - et là encore vous gagnez - Mais il vous faut instantanément embrayer sur un autre sujet afin de brouiller les cartes. C’est un exercice périlleux et Ségolène n’y était pas assez préparée. Il nécessite une condition irréductible : connaître soi-même parfaitement la réponse à la question posée, sinon le piège se retourne cruellement contre son instigateur et laisse entrevoir au public le secret du subterfuge.

Europeans Speaking Up for Principles

Unlike the French (it appears), Against Red shows that the Spanish still know who to stand up to, what rights to champion, and which dissidents merit international support.

The majority in the plenary session of the [Madrid] Chamber was against the motion made by the main opposition party, which asked the Spanish Executive to demand from the Cuban government the “immediate” liberation of 134 “political prisoners” condemned “for defending democracy, freedom and human rights” on the island.The text was rejected by a majority which accused the PP of being the “representative” in Spain of the American “empire."

Update: E. Hall chimes in:

I was thinking earlier about the Sarkozy election and what it means to Zapatero in particular. Remember he made a big deal about turning away from the US alliance and towards the French-German "counterweight" axis? Well now that Germany has elected Merkel and France has elected Sarkozy, where does that leave Zap? All he has left is Castro and Chavez, and they are backstabbing him with their support for Evo Morales' nationalization program that seized Spain's gas assets. Somebody should write about this, and I haven't seen it anywhere of note.

Truthers: a bug, not a feature

Entertaining, But in That “Abu Ghreiby” Kind of Way

Much of the time, the unstable family unit at the center of "28 Weeks Later" is under attack from the U.S. armed forces as well as the zombies, and Fresnadillo's images of death and destruction are truly upsetting. But they're upsetting in a way that means something.

Hm. Yes. Of course. Aren’t we smart.

Britons in need of more paranoia in their horror entertainment will find a certain pleasure in having as many buttons pushed as possible. The funny thing is just how telling those buttons are, and how tightly interconnected they are with bad reporting gone too far.



Take three years of bird-flu scares that never materialized, a fear of Americans in uniform, good-old fashioned learned hatred of husbands abusing through abandonment, and an unhealthy fear of non-holistic science-based medicine, and you’ll probably have yourself a barn-burning hit for well educated idiots.

News You Can Really Use

Anti-globalization, Nothing May Exist Without the State, old fashioned failed Communism... whatever you want to call it, it’s small-minded, totalitarian, and hateful. Chavez threatens to nationalize private banks (to only one end,) and default on bonds.

It’s a revival of the long dead “eat the rich” argument. After all, if no-one is permitted to be productive, I guess that makes us all equal.

KGB defector explains Marxist techniques on Demoralizing and Brainwashing the West

Obrigado para Red Tide



Bezmenov continues on demoralization in America



Bezmenov on American mass media



(More in the related column)

A swanky but tattered sofa

Greg Palkot describes the state of France, election night, Ségolène Royal's "infinite wisdom", French “street democracy” on glorious display, and how Socialist Party members reacted when they learned that he and his cameraman worked for Fox News…

I think the Royal folks hit the bottle first. When I came out for one of my live shots, cameraman Barnaby was in shock.

“These guys are tough, Greg,” he complained. Apparently, some of the downtrodden Socialists had spotted us, and our FOX News affiliation, and decided that we were the foreign media sponsor for the winning pro-American conservative.

A fellow in Benjamin Franklin-style designer specs got in my face and began telling me in a high-pitched French rant a thing or two about how terrible Sarkozy was, how bad America was, and how he didn't care too much for me either. As I was about to go on the air for Jamie Colby's show, I was feeling very, shall we say, protective about my space.

Ça bouillonne

Striking students at Tolbiac have voted to resume studies effective tomorrow. Other university student groups are holding votes to decide how to react to Sarkozy's election: the Sorbonne, Paris X-Nanterre, and Toulouse II-Le Mirail. Paris-VIII is setting up a checkpoint to filter access to the campus.

In Chambéry, several thousand workers gathered and demonstrated to defend union rights following a call made by the CGT Miner's union.

School daze

The head of Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne University had decided to close the Tolbiac campus today in response to a wildcat student strike. Approximately 100 wildcat striking students remain inside the campus buildings where they are occupying classrooms. Around 200 students remain outside the campus buildings, some supporting the strike, others waiting for classes to recommence.



Back from the junk heap of history: Trotskyst zombies spotted at Tolbiac University.

"Notre pays doit résoudre les problèmes que d'autres Etats post-communistes ont résolus il y a plus de quinze ans"

Celia Chauffour interviews President Lech Kaczynski of Poland.

Si le poste de ministre des affaires étrangères [de l'Union européenne] devait être créé, les Etats les plus puissants de l'Union continueraient à mener une politique étrangère indépendante, alors que les Etats plus faibles verraient leur liberté d'action tomber à zéro.

Sarkozy apparaît comme quelqu'un de réfléchi, d'intelligent, de pragmatique, qui semble libéré de l'obsession gaulliste de se démarquer des États-Unis

Philippe Gélie interviews Richard Perle.

Dans ce monde dominé par le faux-semblant, la stabilité repose sur un tissu de contradictions subtilement schizophrènes

Bertrand Le Gendre has an article on Nicolas Sarkozy, but the best article on the election related to recent French history is Marc Weitzmann's (almost as good as Thierry Wolton's).

Ce décrochage entre les milieux dits "culturels" ou progressistes (les partisans de "l'ordre juste") et le langage, voire la réflexion historique, mériterait à lui seul une analyse serrée.

Pour essayer de comprendre à la fois cette violence à gauche, et le sentiment de forte cohérence et de nouveauté à droite, peut-être faut-il garder en mémoire les illusions historiques sur lesquelles ont reposé ces termes, droite et gauche, au cours de l'époque qui précède, c'est-à-dire durant la guerre froide.

… La particularité de la France dans ce contexte est d'être la seule à doubler ce travail d'un mythe politique qui la range, malgré la défaite de 1940 et la collaboration, du côté des vainqueurs. Ce mythe est légitimé par les deux partis issus de la Résistance, qui sont aussi les deux principales forces politiques du pays et vont le rester peu ou prou jusqu'à la fin de la guerre froide : d'un côté les gaullistes, de l'autre le Parti communiste.

Deux mouvements révolutionnaires, deux mouvements nationaux reprenant à leurs compte le centralisme d'un Etat fort - deux mouvements antilibéraux, aussi, dont la puissance d'attraction va permettre d'entretenir, malgré la décolonisation, l'illusion de puissance.

A l'intérieur, une droite apaisée accepte grâce à de Gaulle l'idée de République, tandis qu'une gauche communisante sait limiter ses élans révolutionnaires à la fonction publique. … dans ce monde dominé par le faux-semblant, la stabilité repose sur un tissu de contradictions subtilement schizophrènes où se réécrit l'hostilité, sinon la haine traditionnelle du pays vis-à-vis du libéralisme économique.

… La nouveauté de Nicolas Sarkozy n'est-elle pas précisément là ? Le gaullisme a su ramener la droite dans la République, sans pour autant la convertir au libéralisme, alors que le PC maintenait la gauche dans une tradition antilibérale que même François Mitterrand n'est pas parvenu à vaincre. Les douze années que nous a infligées Jacques Chirac sont sans doute l'agonie de cette histoire à droite - agonie dont le point d'orgue aura été l'élection de 2002 - tandis que le PS se prépare à vivre la sienne.

Besancenot's Boyz at Tolbiac are worried about Sarkozy's masterplan

French politics is like a do-it-yourself sitcom. You just need to add your own laughtrack. Wildcat striking students over at Tolbiac are all worked up despite the fact that Sarkozy: 1) Has not started his term 2) Has not yet (how could he?) pushed for any legislation. The kidz are striking based on Sarkozy's election platform. Nothing more. The Socialist Party and the Student Unions are calling for calm. After all, with Sarkozy winning by a 6 point margin with 85% participation, illegitimate is not something you could call this election (although you could use that word to describe Royal & Hollande's kids).

Over at Tolbiac, when they are not busy getting pizza stains off of their Che t-shirts with Mir Express, the revolutionary students are muttering stuff about 1968, anarchy, and neo-situationism (if you have time to kill, Google it: it's a French scam lorded over by guys called Debord, Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, Bourdieu, and Mehdi Belhaj Kacem).

Neo-situationist analysis would dictate that the car in the Plasmatics video below is the French Social Model, that the spray paint represents the media complicity that defaces and defiles the People's voice, that Wendy's sledgehammer is the mediatico-parlementary conspiracy dismantling the People's inherent rights, and that the dynamite used to destroy the vehicle is Sarkozy's neo-capitalist policies forcing the People to become (at best) working poor. I'm not sure, but I think neo-situationist analysis would dictate that the guy in the red, white, and blue crash helmet is supposed to represent Barak Obama. Or something.

News You Can Use

This is why omnipresent PC spin is especially bad: imagine any physician in any other situation trying to the convince the public that only certain special people who are begging for a heart attack “have a healthy body image.”

Unless what you really want is to “thin out the herd.”

The Republicans Benjamin Duffy Supports Most Are McCain and Giuliani

…or maybe not…

"Les Russes ne sont pas en position de modifier le projet de défense antimissile"

Laurent Zecchini interviews Nicholas Burns.

Before you start, you're already beat / She's gonna play you for a fool, yes its true

So this whole Ségolène Royal run for the Presidency was because of her dysfunctional couple with Socialist Party head François "Flanby" Hollande.

In a book to be released on Friday, Femme Fatale, two journalists reveal that Royal's candidacy was prompted by Holland sleeping around and this was her way of getting back at him by preventing him from becoming the Socialist Party candidate himself. To top it off, in October 2006 Ségolène Royal issued a threat to François Hollande, telling him that if he gave his support to Lionel Jospin's candidacy then he would never again see his bastard children.

Hollande and Royal are suing the authors and the publishing company for violation of privacy. No court action has been enacted to suspend the release of the book.

Seen in Malta

Nicolas Sarkozy jogging with a NYPD T-shirt (unless it was a NYFD one)…

Wildcat University Strike

800 university students have voted to strike and block access to the Tolbiac campus in Paris to protest education reform mesures promised by Nicolas Sarkozy during the Presidential election campaign. Extremist elements at the university have opted for an early attack against the future Sarkozy administration because they are convinced that some mesures will be forced through during the summer holiday. In an effort to replicate the 1968 general strike, far-Left students have called on workers to join their movement. Tolbiac is frequented by many ultra-Left radical students and played an important role in the protests against the youth employment contracts that effectively paralysed the Villepin administration and ruined all hopes that Villepin had in running for President. The strike was voted without the backing of the UNEF student union.

The Business of The European Taxpayers is...

Being taken hostage by business.

Rights for Everyone, They Demanded, and Then There Were None

Same ire, same moronic self-indulgences, same everything.

But without basic rights, they contend, he could be sold to someone outside Austria, where the chimp is protected by strict animal cruelty laws.
"If we can get Hiasl declared a person, he would have the right to own property. Then, if people wanted to donate something to him, he'd have the right to receive it," said Theuer, who has vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
Austria isn't the only country where primate rights are being debated. Spain's parliament is considering a bill that would endorse the Great Ape Project, a Seattle-based international initiative to extend "fundamental moral and legal protections" to apes.
If Hiasl gets a guardian, "it will be the first time the species barrier will have been crossed for legal 'personhood,'"

Right after they extend “personhood” to persons themselves, we can talk about taking their accusations seriously.

Belly-Flop of the Would-Be Savior

John Vinocur analyzes Ségolène Royal's defeat to Sarkozy in the International Herald Tribune.

Place de la Bastille, Sunday night

Tear gas, water cannons, burning vehicles, and rioters ripping bricks out of the cobblestone street around the Bastille.

Pays de gagne-petits

French MSM and cable news are providing 24/7 coverage of Nicolas Sarkozy's brief rest stay on a yacht off of the island of Malta in an effort to whip up jealousy in a country where anyone with 2 euros is easily made envious of anyone with 2-and-a-half euros.

Tuesday night fun

The action continues hot and heavy throughout France where Besancenot's Boyz on the extreme-Left are doing their best to keep urban violence on a slow burn.

200 rioters faced off with police in the city center of Lyon and the UMP Party HQ in Villeurbanne was torched. One riot policeman was injured in the Grande-Borne in Grigny (sinister suburban shithole) where small mobile teams of rioters played cat-and-mouse with police.

In Paris, a group of 150 rioters attempted to gain access to the Place de la Bastille but were blocked by riot police. A larger group of 200-300 regrouped later on and gained access to the center of the Place. Riot police sealed off the surrounding streets to prevent looting.

Sarkozy and His Message to America

Many commentators have been making a lot about, and praising (even if the praise has been somewhat reluctant at times), the declaration of friendship to the United States in Sarkozy's speech. Few people besides the Dissident Frogman and E-Nough were skeptical, both of them pointing out that the declaration was immediately followed by a but.

I have been asked whether the declaration of amitié received any applause. It did, including among the masses outside the UMF hall where I was standing, albeit his addendum — that friends should accept criticism (exclusively aimed at Americans accepting criticism from the French, and never the other way around) — received even more. (People were happy to hear that in the future — as ever — a lucid Frenchman could, and would, be around to give the clueless American "friends" a more nuanced view of world events.)

That was a cold shower. As E-Nough (who provided the 53-second link below) says, "plus ça change…"

And yet — attribute it to my optimistic Americanism — I am wont to be optimistic and hope and think that Sarko is trying to be "un rassembleur" and tend a hand to all citizens, including the anti-American racists — after all, Sarkozy is still in campaign mode, and he is so until mid-June which is the date for legislative elections.

Don't forget, either, French leaders' tendency of pulling the wool over the eyes of their audience and forging ahead with an unpopular line of action; the most famous example being Charles de Gaulle's heroic-sounding "Je vous ai compris" to the French ecstatic inhabitants of the Algerian colony (which in reality was and meant nothing and in no way prevented him from doing what he had planned all along, i.e., let Algeria recover her freedom).

Then, of course, back in 1995, I was optimistic when Chirac was elected, because now, I thought, finally, America had a friend in the Élysée palace…

Then again, Sarkozy is the son of a man forced to flee communist Hungary — part of a region that does not look kindly on considering the American superpower akin to the Soviet one. If someone of the caliber of Pierre Lellouche becomes foreign minister, then I will be convinced… Then again, I have my doubts on how long he would be able to hang onto his post…

Then again…

(PS: In case you're wondering — as most French people are wont to do — what's wrong with telling friends your true thoughts, it's the fact that this common-sensical-sounding sentence is applied only with double standards; the French rarely go out of their way to make their feelings and thoughts known to any other actor on the world stage (Russia, China, Iran, Saddam's Iraq), and they rarely ask anybody else — certainly not the Yanks — to tell them their (the Americans') true thoughts let alone feel inclined to respect and honor said thoughts in any meaningful manner.)

No Pasarán Thanks Le Monde

…for putting the photo of one of its webmasters (who doubles as the webmaster of …Le Monde Watch(!)) on the French daily's online website.

More video

Place de la Bastille: Sunday night tear gas

Place de la Bastille: Sunday night water cannon

Ségo for sale on EBay France

Merci à l'auteur de ce commentaire.

French Revolution Drudged

Plenty of time to brush up on their Leninist literature

Three French youths have been sentenced to 6, 3, and 2 month prison sentences for riots that took place Sunday night in Lyon and Rennes. Note that these are not suspended sentences and the time will be served.

En plus de ses crises hormonales carabinées et sa descente d'organes ...

... nous apprenons que Ségolène Royal se trouve désormais sur la Planète Maboule.


If it takes a village, this is the village idiot.

The French have been petulant for the sake of petulance, uncooperative for the sake of uncooperativeness; Quite a bit like Democrats

Cal Thomas on the election:

After decades of socialist influence in France, could the French election be a precursor to a Margaret Thatcher-like comeback for conservatives? Perhaps. Though, on foreign policy, Sarkozy is more pro-American than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, he is still opposed to the Iraq War and doesn't want to seem too pro-American since most of the French remain firmly anti-American. But let's not look a gift horse - French or otherwise - in the mouth. Any turn away from policies that have hurt the French economy and threatened its culture with a flood of immigrants who refuse to assimilate is bound to be an improvement.

Bill Murchison on France before the election:

The main point to take away from a discussion of French behavior and attitudes these past few years is the triviality and silliness of despising America and Americans at a time of growing danger to the West.

So the French didn't -- still don't -- like the war. They have plenty in common with moveon.org and Nancy Pelosi. Does that solve the problem of how to address and overcome Islamofascism? Naturally not. If anything, anti-warriors accord Islamofascism a kind of protected status as over and above those working to reproach it or divert it into another channel. Us, I mean. The Americans.

As long as you don't like the Americans, you don't want to imitate them in any particular, including economic, success. You don't want to cut tax rates. You don't want to deregulate. You don't want to resist labor union power, wielded against the people at large.

The French, in other words, or anyway the top leaders they formerly elected, have been petulant for the sake of petulance, uncooperative for the sake of uncooperativeness. Quite a bit like Democrats.

That may be the most striking point here -- the likeness of America's critics in France and, well, in America itself.

… France, prior to the late election, showed little attachment to competitive capitalism, preferring a model run by and responsible to the state -- not wholly unlike those Americans who fret more about "the rich" than about the need to create more of them.

En voilà un qui se fait serrer

Gotcha! The Brigade Anti-Crime makes an arrest during riots in Marseille on Sunday night.

More Sunday night action in Marseille:

Now that Ségolène Royal is a loser ...

... she has been shitcanned down Hillary's memory hole.

Ce n'est pas tant la gauche qui a abandonné ses certitudes que la droite qui a réussi à se débarrasser du fardeau historique dont on l'a chargée

À bien y réfléchir, les électeurs de gauche qui déplorent la défaite de leur championne devraient plutôt s'en réjouir.

In the best French commentary I have read on the election, Thierry Wolton says that with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French have ended the demonisation of the French right started under World War II by the communists in alliance with …Charles de Gaulle's gaullists! (Read also Marc Weitzmann's viewpoint when you have the time.)

L'histoire, c'est connu, est écrite par les vainqueurs. Selon ce principe, la droite française dans son ensemble a été déclarée coupable de collaboration, de pétainisme, par la mémoire dominante de l'époque, modelée en la circonstance par les gaullistes et les communistes qui, pour des raisons différentes, ont cherché à faire porter la responsabilité de ce qui s'était passé sur cette seule famille politique. La raison en est simple, au sortir de la guerre, les gaullistes avaient besoin des communistes pour asseoir leur légitimité politique quand le PCF voulait incarner le parti de la résistance pour mieux faire oublier sa collaboration à l'ombre du pacte germano-soviétique des années 1939-1941.

L'entente tacite gaullo-communiste qui est née de cette convergence d'intérêt a donné le ton à l'histoire, imprégnant notre conscience collective jusqu'à faire intégrer à la droite, en son for intérieur, sa responsabilité passée quand son comportement général en ces années noires ne fut pas, au fond, plus coupable que celui de la gauche. Les communistes, puis les socialistes lorsqu'ils s'allièrent au PCF pour accéder au pouvoir, ont instrumentalisé cette mauvaise conscience de la droite. Fasciste, collabo, pétainiste furent pendant plus d'un demi-siècle les pires injures politiques que l'on pouvait proférer, disqualifiant ceux à qui elles s'adressaient. Pour ne pas prêter le flan à cet opprobre, la droite a longtemps mis sous le boisseau ses valeurs. L'itinéraire de Jacques Chirac, son comportement offrent de bons exemples de cette démarche. Et c'est ainsi que la droite finit par avoir peur même de son ombre.

… Avec un président qui s'affirme dans ses valeurs et qui devrait maintenant mener la politique pour laquelle il a été élu, le pays peut trouver l'aplomb qui lui a si longtemps manqué, quand le tempo de la vie démocratique était donné par une gauche sûre d'elle-même et dominatrice, au point d'avoir réussi à enfermer le camp adverse dans ses complexes. À l'occasion de cette élection, ce n'est pas tant la gauche qui a abandonné ses certitudes que la droite qui a réussi à se débarrasser du fardeau historique dont on l'a chargée.

The French Left: the fun never stops

The Figaro provides some details on last night's continuing urban violence.

Tear gas was used against rioters in Lyon, Toulouse, and Lille.

François "Flanby" Hollande, Socialist Party head honcho and spineless partner of Ségolène Royal -- the election's loser who undemocratically justified all of this violence beforehand, made a limp-wristed and insincere call to France's far-Left elements to cease the violent demonstrations.

Besancenot goes for broke

If the LCR goes for broke with its calls for street violence, it's because the Party is low on cash. Despite much French preSS blather about the LCR having a good showing at the polls during the first round of voting, the reality is quite different. With fewer than 5% of the vote, the LCR will not be refunded for its campaign costs. LCR coffers are near empty ahead of the legislative elections so the best strategy for Besancenot is a prolonged period of street violence that might wind up creating a few mishaps that can be translated into martyrs and free publicity for the cause. Expect the French preSS to be even more sympathetic to the victims of police violence now that Sarkozy is President-elect.

Make Your Own Dystopia

Via Brussels Journal

More videos from the Sunday night riots

La Bastille:

Where you can see the savages attacking a Modern Art market set up once-a-year along the canal which exits an underground passage at the Bastille (just on the other side of the outside portion of the Métro station). Apparently, unknown artists the sell hardly anything represent some kind of Fascist-Kapitalist threat worthy of Besancenot's and French youths' attentions.



Montpellier:

C'est le troisème tour social acnéique

More fun from the Besancenot Boyz being reported over at 5 Years Later. The LCR flunkies torched the UMP Party HQ in Caen.

Baston à la Bastoche

Streetfighting continued around the Bastille late last night.

The confrontations with riot police are being instigated by supporters of the Trotsyist Party LCR (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire) and their leader Olivier Besancenot (his motto: defeat the Right at the ballot box, or failing that, in the street). Besancenot, a postal worker in the upper crust neighborhood of Neuilly sur Seine (where Sarkozy was Mayor), is a typical phoney blowhard French pseudo-revolutionary. He blathers on about le grand soir but enjoys his cushy lifestyle working as a lifetime-employed-job-secured French functionary before going home to bang his upper-middle-class éditrice girlfriend who works in a very Kapitalist Saint-Germain neighborhood publishing house.

The LCR has distinguished itself by becoming the hotbed of homegrown French anti-Semitism. It's rallies and marches are often punctuated by cries of "Death to Jews" and other such tripe offered up by its street soldier French youth militants.

Hm... I Wonder

Shadow Government Spearheaded by Man Who Plays With Crayons

A suggestion for all you Humorless Gauchos Out There

Apart with some difficulty with this, I’m sure you can channel your disappointments, overraught tirades, tremors of fear for a world where other people still drive cars into some sort of motive energy to salve your disappointment that the “proletariat” knows what a sham the Socialist racket really is.

Go ahead. Join your wierd little friends... as if Canadians really want clockwatchers and goldbrickers anyway.

"I'm backing the Paris jihad the second it hits the streets"

A Leninist comments on Sarkozy's election win.

Into the Death Valley of Attempted Reform

Sarkozy must enter the Death Valley of attempted reform in France. The precedents from that gulch are terrifying.

Thus writes John Vinocur in the International Herald Tribune.

A hedged interpretation marks it as something less than France's full commitment to big change. It argues that, in making the Gaullist a decisive winner over Ségolène Royal, the French merely asserted that the Socialist candidate's mix of vindictive language and fuzzy, confused commitment to greater social protection was scarier than Sarkozy's plan to shake French habit with the challenges of risk, accountability, and harder work.

In a massive irony - but hardly the start of a march down the sawdust path to modernization - an election that was meant to be won through the left's strategy of anything-but-Sarko may well have been decided by a stronger negative vote: aversion to Ségo's divisive and bitter incoherence.

Place de la Bastille, Paris 7:30 this morning

Rue de Lyon, Paris 7AM this morning

Daytime streetfighting

There have been reports of street fighting during the morning hours today around Place de la Nation. Riot police have dispersed the fighters who are now regrouping in the vicinity of Place de la République.

Videos from last night

Demonstration last night in front of the UMP Party (Sarkozy's political party) HQ in Montpellier:

Anti-Sarkozy demonstrations in Rennes:

Lyon:

Place de la Bastille, Paris:

You don't say?!

In an interview, Plantu says that in today's cartoon, he plans to… lionize Ségolène Royal (with hearts galore) while… (get this!) demonizing Sarkozy…

The Spin Has Begun

Online at Spiegel:

The election marks a clear shift to the right in the country. But while Sarkozy likes to present himself as a unifier, the radical political and moral cure he wants to prescribe could instead trigger deep social conflicts in French society.

By modern standards, a 6% margin is immense, and yet they’re already starting with the “divider” routine that they wouldn’t dare mention had the left gotten %50.1 of the vote.

Elsewhere “the critics” think politics is, naturally, about their criticism. NYT starts by trying to script your point of reference: make Sarko quilty in the court of the ether, and expect him to make up for it somehow.

“Sarkozy Wins the Chance to Prove His Critics Wrong”

Arrogant, brutal, an authoritarian demagogue, a “perfect Iago”: the president-elect of France has been called a lot of unpleasant things in recent months and now has five years to prove his critics wrong.

That’s neither a reflection of opinion nor an analysis. Its’ intent is to eclipse any discussion of what the French were looking for in economic, social, and international policy. Sure sounds like they’re giving him a chance, doesn’t it?

I wonder though. Don’t the critics need to somehow prove themselves right?

France's night of violence

Le Figaro provides a rundown. The figures provided are voluntarily hazy: around one hundred vehicles torched and a dozen police injured.

Video from the Gare de Lyon and the Bastille's morning hangover is coming up later on.

Anarchic Outbursts Follow Election

Correction: it seems that things didn't quite settle down by 1:30 a.m.


Photo: AFP

DSK: “This was lost in the first round. We have never been so feeble.” He goes on to say that the Socialists didn’t make the effort to adapt to Social-Democratic outlook as he urged.

What’s driven so much of the social thought which handed Sarkozy the presidency is a public frustration with just how little risk of change it takes to bring angry crowds onto the streets.

Think 70’s America and Britain, and think of those out in the streets tonight trashing property to salve thier feelings of loss. Meet the “dead-enders” of the civilized west.

The sign that the times are changing? The new President called for unity at his party's victory rally. “Je demande que vous tendez la main” in an effort to diffuse rancor and reach out to the Socialist, saying that to respect Royal is to respect the millions who voted for her. In reality there’s not much of a stomach left right now for scorched-earth politics.

Isn’t one Gaza sur Mer Enough?

0dark45: iTele reports anti-democratic outbusts seen at Place de la Bastille, and in the cities of Toulouse and Lyon are flaring up in Marseilles.

100% of the vote is in

According to the Associated Press, with 100% of votes in the results are:

Nicolas Sarkozy 18,983,351 53.06%
Ségolène Royal 16,790,862 46.94%

Place de la Bastille cleared, barricades put up near the Gare de Lyon

The Place de la Bastille was cleared towards 23h45 by riot police. Approximately 300 demonstrators then moved down the rue de Lyon and put up barricades made from burning garbage cans near the Gare de Lyon train station.

Two fire trucks were on the scene awaiting protection from riot police before intervening. An office of the AMF insurance company was ransacked and a car was flipped over. News reporters and cameramen have been targeted by demonstrators and accused of "collaborating with Nicolas Sarkozy".

The demonstrators, mostly 20-something French youths have been chanting "Sarko fascist" and "Sarko, the people will have your hide".

Several motorcycles and a truck were torched at the Place de la Bastille. Bricks have been pried out of the pavement and thrown at police. One news photographer was hit in the face by a brick.

Witch hunt

Defeated French Socialists look to place the blame.

More video from the Bastille

About one hour ago. And there are now reports of fighting around the Vieux Port at Marseille.

The vote tally as of midnight

Unhappy voters

Several towns in Essonne have experienced violence following the Sunday night election results. Open air sporting event structures and schools have been targeted by firebombs in Ris-Orangis, Corbeil-Essonnes et Evry. In Evry, a police patrol was shot at at the Place de la Commune. Unidentified gunmen armed with pump rifles were spotted in the Grande Borne à Grigny.

Place de la Bastille tonight

Thanks to Hervé for the video links.

Place de la Bastille

BFM just showed some live coverage from the Place de la Bastille which seems to have been cleared of most of the demonstrators. Groups of rioters are playing cat-and-mouse with the riot police currently behind their barricade at Boulevard Richard-Lenoir.

The concert continues

The concert at the Place de la Concorde (where one can see across the Seine to a brightly lit up National Assembly) has resumed after Sarkozy's statement. French TV coverage is winding down but LCI, BFM, and i-Tele (cable news channels) are continuing their coverage.

How many cars will be torched?

Show your expertise in all things French.

More on the situation at the Place de la Bastille

Riot police have set up a barricade at the corner of the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir where they are being pelted with bricks and bottles. Around 1000 people are watching the ongoing street battles from the steps of the Bastille Opéra.

After extensive use of tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, riot police started making use of a water canon.

Calls have gone out from extreme-Left web forums calling on demonstrators to converge on the Bastille.

Place de la Concorde

The ongoing concert at the Place de la Concorde has been interrupted so Nicolas Sarkozy can address the crowd.

More violence following Sarkozy's big win

Mohamed Mechmache, President of AC Le Feu -- an association created following the November 2005 riots, has ominously warned that "France did not understand the message sent during the riots in October and November of 2005."

In Lille, just before 22h00, around 200 anarchists French youths with black flags grouped around the Grand Place and chanted "Fascist Sarko, the people will have your hide". After pelting riot police, the demonstrators were dispersed. One demonstrator was injured.

Firemen in the south of Lille have answered 20 alarms for torched vehicles.

Around 100 demonstrators grouped around the Place Kléber in Strasbourg slightly after 21h00 and chanted "Sarkozy fasciste".

Repu

Sarkozy, after a meal with friends at Le Fouquets on the Champs-Elysées, has left the restaurant. His motorcade is heading to the victory concert at the Place de la Concorde.

Violence in Paris at the Place de la Bastille

500 anti-Sarkozy demonstrators, some wearing masks and carrying black flags, are fighting riot police with bricks and bottles at the Place de la Bastille in Paris. Riot police are making use of tear gas.

Violence following Sarkozy's election victory

500 demonstrators, composed of people coming from Ségolène Royal's
headquarters as well as suburban French youth, converged towards a barge docked on the Rhône river that was rented for a Sarkozy victory party. Fully loaded garbage cans were thrown from a nearby bridge, missing the barge. Fights broke out on the riverside shortly shortly after. Riot police surrounded the barge and aimed flash guns at the demonstrators.

At 10PM France2 TV mentions anti-Sarkozy demonstrations by French youths in the city centers of Rennes and Nantes.

Groups of 20-30 French youths have started pelting police in Sevran, Blanc-Mesnil, Aulnay-sous-Bois and Villepinte.

TF1 TV has just shown video of French youths vandalizing the area around the Place de la Bastille in Paris where Ségolène Royal would have had her victory celebration had she won.

It's official

The official 8PM results are in: TF1 and France2 French TV call it Nicolas Sarkozy 53%, Ségolène Royal 47%.

Le Monde Al-Jazeera on the Seine calls it: Nicolas Sarkozy 53.5%, Ségolène Royal 46.5% as does Le Figaro.

20h05: Royal, in s short speech at the Maison de l'Amérique Latine, has conceded the election to Sarkozy.
20h12: Sarkozy has just left his HQ and is heading to the Salle Gaveau where he will make a statement to his supporters before heading to the victory celebration at the Place de la Concorde.

20h22: Sarkozy's motorcade has just arrived at the Salle Gaveau.
20h32: Sarkozy has just appeared on the stage of the Salle Gaveau to deliver his victory speech.
20h39: Sarkozy has just stated that America can count on France as a friend and ally. He also stated that he expects the United States, as the world's leading power, to take the lead in the fight against global warming which he will make a priority during his Presidential term.
21h00: Sarkozy's motorcade leaves the Salle Gaveau and heads over to Le Fouquets restaurant on the Champs-Elysées where he will dine with friends before going to the Place de la Concorde.

Talk about rubbing it in

Stick it in and break it off! France's number 1 Elvis impersonator, Johnny Halliday, is announced by French TV to sing this evening at Sarkozy's victory celebration. Halliday tax-exiled himself to Switzerland and stated that he would consider returning to France if Sarkozy was elected. Hopefully, he'll sing Allumez le feu! and dedicate it to the French youth who are sure to be a bit grumpy this evening.



Four subway stations have been closed off and police reinforcements are being sent to Place de la Concode.

The car burning started last night

34 cars (including a police car) were torched in the Paris area on Saturday night before Sunday's election.

The Mayor of Paris' 1st arrondissement, quoting police reports, stated that some cars were torched in front of polling stations. This information has been confirmed by police who did not want to disrupt election proceedings.

According to an other Paris official, at two thirds of Paris' 50 polling stations had their locked blocked with with glue, matches, cigarette butts, and bits of metal.

Election Watch

Very early exit polls are coming in on the Swiss news site Romandie.com. Too early to be accurate, so take them for what they are worth. Early indications are also being provided by Le Temps in Switzerland and La Libre in Belgium.

17h35 Paris time: All of the above sites are calling it for Sarkozy with 52-54% since slightly before 17h30.
17h40: It's trending up for Sarko. Romandie.com is now saying 53-55%.
17h44: Télé Suisse Romande provides some background on the early exit polls.
17h52: Romandie.com is back to 53-54%.
18h04: The UMP (Sarkozy's political party) is installing equipment at the Place de la Concorde for a victory celebration. The Socialist Party has made no announcement regarding post-election festivities.
18h11: Even the Socialist Party is saying Sarko with 54%.
19h19: Most sources are settling on a 54% victory for Sarkozy. Ségolène Royal is expected to make a statement just a few minutes after 8PM. The crowd around Place de la Concorde is growing steadily in view of celebrating Sarkozy's victory.
19h40: Posting will continue above. Official results will be announced in 20 minutes.



National turnout for the second round of the French Presidential election is announced at 75.11% at 5PM compared to 67.6% for the second round 5 years ago at the same hour.

Elle peut compter sur le vote gouinasse quand même

Ségolène's Female Trouble.

Bobigny Citizen's TV

Direct from the Nine-Three shithole. It will be even better when more of the guests learn to speak proper French. Check out the 6th guest who will not vote for Sarkozy because of "what he might do when he teams up with the Americans".

A hysterical, scatterbrained, hormone-addled, castrating ballbuster was seen running from the voting station at around midnight

Voting in Meslay-du-Maine got off to a late start because all of the Sarkozy ballots were stolen during the night. Local police are investigating.

"Surprising": the Code Word and Its Rough Translation

In a political culture driven entirely by media preoccupations, there’s always that awkward moment when the indignant expectations of the press and the wishes of people who live in the real world diverge. The result is usually described as “surprising,” which is a code word used by editors. The rough translation: “People are dumber than I thought.”

Thus writes Denis Boyles, author of a book on France (merci à François Cœur).

Despite Ségolène Royal’s relentless campaign to become president of French women … and her Obi-Wanish sloganeering — “We do not want to appeal to people’s dark side, but to the light and hope inside them, Luke,” she said (“Luke” added) … — they see a Sarko win looming, and, by gum, this time, it’s not surprising them. It’s just making them sad.

Election Watch

National turnout for the second round of the French Presidential election is announced at 34.11% at noon (29.25% for Paris) compared to 31.21% for the first round 2 weeks ago or 26,2% for the second round 5 years ago at the same hour.

French Expatriates Voting in the U.S.

While the French have started to line up to vote at home, a Frenchwoman in San Francisco tells of her experience of going to vote …in Bush Street.

(Update below)