Slow news day

The minimum wage hacks over at Rue89.com have decided to do an in-depth article about the criminal records of American football players with a special emphasis on the criminal records of those involved in today's Super Bowl.

"C'est Le Gauche Sans Le Peuples"

Self-absorbed lefty eliteist Jack Lang's spawn proves much to the dictum: "like father, like son"

She thinks that illegal aliens have rights because some of them pay taxes. How feeble can you get? She's a "populist" who can't figure out an excess in "undocumented" labor might depress wages. But then again, she call herself a champion of the poor and those "without rights."

It's the adolescent pursuit of trying to have the image of a champion.

Selbstvernichtung, Progressive Style

Terminally deterministic educators in Britain might find that dooming kids to meaningless transnationalism (if anything at all.) As we'll found so often before, this has nothing to do with the kids education, but the educators who perceive themselves to be a sort of elite penchance for re-education. That is, if they'll amit that the past even exists in history class...

Three quarters of teachers felt obliged to tell students about the danger of patriotism. The survey suggested neither pupils nor teachers wanted patriotism endorsed by schools.

Historians said last night, however, that it was impossible to teach the subject without patriotism or a recognition that British values were rooted in the past.

Progressive call this progress. Who knew?

Inasmuch that many Britons live cheek by jowl with some in a culture selectively believing that history ended in the 7th century, all I can say that it was nice knowing ya!

Only if we can Carpet-Bomb Your Cities Twice

After months of glorifying Obama, European media have tried to portray his losses to New York Senator Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and Nevada as part of an elaborate conspiracy to keep a black man from becoming the 44th president of the United States.

Brussels Journal has a Obamarama Euro-press roundup which proves again how naïve the scribblers of the continent really are, thinking that they can somehow wish an American candidate into office, even if they don’t know why.

The way Americans conduct their elections is still none of the business of Europeans, no matted how much they rationalize to the contrary. The very notion that they even suggest this to themselves tells you just how unfamiliar they are with the concept of national sovereignty and what makes a society’s pluralism legitimate.

The Obamarama is also looking a little Obamaphobic, considering what the lazy speed-bumps of the European press which is so reflexively critical of any event that happens in the US, even if they previously seemed to want it. Most of all, they would temporarily (for maybe a week or two) lose the fig leaf behind which they would hide their irrational hatred, as:

The [European] Left, which likes to attribute to the United States an imperialist foreign policy and discrimination against blacks and Hispanics, is not as happy about the rise of Obama as one would expect. On sending the message that they are ready to elect an African American, a part of American society is exhibiting an attitude much less prejudiced than is commonly attributed to this country.

In other words, they REALLY need someone to hate for fear of noticing their own prejudice, weakness, their patronizing concept of race as a personality feature, and frankly, the only reason they really have to think that their deluded world view even matters.

What do you expect from people who want to internationalize courts for no clear reason, and undermine a law body’s legitimacy as a feature of something that a society agrees to put on itself? After all, why would they objected to Serbs wanting to try Milosevic under Serbian law? To “Internationalize” the joy of frying him under laws decoupled from those he harmed in the nation that he harmed them in?

In the mean time, the doochie continues to be passed by the left hand side:

In an 800-word rant titled ‘American Primary System Fails to Impress Europeans’, Deutsche Welle implies that if Germans cannot help Americans vote Obama into office, then the US political system itself must be flawed. DW asserts that American democracy is “atavistic. It’s outdated. It doesn’t really reflect democracy in a modern sense.” The story goes on to say that America would be better off if it adopted a parliamentary system, just like the one in (surprise, surprise) Germany.

One which like the EU involves forming a nation without the concent of the population, and an unelected EU "President"... That is when they aren't dusting pluralism and democracy under the rug with such a promising and inspiring start.

Plowing Berlin’s History Under

Berlin’s Tempelhof airport, a facility relevant to the history of the city, the 2nd World War, and the Berlin airlift is imperiled by the wrecking ball. If you can sign the petition, I urge you do so.

Ironically, I will help save an artifact meaningful not just to German history, to Berlin’s past, and to the cold war, but to American history as well.

Most importantly the Airport is a reminder of a contentious phase in the struggle for freedom from tyranny in the 20th century and asks one to reflect on a time when former enemies became friends. “Operation Vittles” as it was known, sustained the still war-ravaged population of over 2 million west Berliners that was surrounded and threatened by the Red Army by flying in everything from food and clothing to medical support and heating fuel. Oddly enough, in the years since postwar reconstruction, very little has physically changed in the immediate neighborhood around Tempelhof, preserving on a large scale the look and the feel of alt-Berlin. That of the style of street layout, the courtyard apartments, even the simplicity of form that the nearby U-bahn stations had about them, and still do.

Observing Herrman has more.

- Note too that when in Berlin a visit
to the recently established Allied Museum (in the
former Army, US MWR movie theater) is worth every moment.

Bent over by Brussels

It looks like the EUvian love-parade is starting out by visit the member-states
paper mills.

The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) said the trading scheme will take £750m out of the European paper industry, effectively wiping out its annual profits.

Next thing you know, the cadres will be hanging banners saying “Property Is Theft”.

I Have a Study That I did Proving that I’m an Umbrella

Really. Never mind the pretense of good intentions, and look at how the spin is spun. It starts with this:

The US Trails Behind on Humanitarian Aid

Scary, hunh? Sure sounds that way. It was the derived conclusion found in a study of what’s called the “Humanitarian Response Index” done by an outfit called “Development Assistance Research Associates” which places the US at number 16.

It turns out that DARA is a Spanish government spin-off that gets its’ funds from the same “look at me, I giving this poor waif a cracker” operations doing something contractual and functional for them like management and working up studies. They are: The Spanish Government, The EU, The UN.

Now, take a look at what that “Humanitarian Response Index” registers. One would think that it has something to do directly with feeding, clothing, protecting, providing medical care... think again:

The established categories and their respective weights in the Index are as follows:
1. Responding to humanitarian needs (30%)
2. Integrating relief and development (20%)
3. Working with humanitarian partners (20%)
4. Implementing international guiding principles (15%)
5. Promoting learning and accountability (15%)

They gage MANAGEMENT, not AID. If they did, they would have to innumerate the heartlessness of most the people listed in their hall ‘o fame.

In other words, the services that DARA offers under contract using nebulous immeasurable indexes like “promoting” something and “partnering”. Stupider still they list among donating nations transnational bodies like the European Commission that aggregate member states’ activities which are also listed. It’s part of the same old gang-bang: Europeans may list themselves individually to pad it with names, and as the EC or EU to pad the scale. It’s no different that the occasional comparison of the population and economy of California to that of France, except in one way: we do it for fun. Americans don’t build news stories and statistical benchmarks that are supposed to be taken seriously. In fact most frequently, the references are used in the context of light entertainment and comedy. Would any EU member state care to compare itself to a US state, knowing that it only represents PART of a nation that they terminally fixated on? Not likely.

Then they dress it us as actually being the aid that they make a living off of managing. Nice trick. Better still the goal in any event is to win a beauty contest of apparent compassion, not with those needing aid, but the public and the repugnant elite at home that think that this sort of index reflects on their own generosity as a society.

But if you want to take the actual rankings seriously, one finds that the greatest difference is still WITHIN the Euro-pantheon of eternal goodness tells you a great deal more about what’s going on. In any event, there is a 18% difference in the indexed score of the 5 low-population European states with everyone below them. The difference between the large states are far more telling. Averaging the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy who in aggregate have a larger population that the US, and also represent the overwhelming majority of the scale of Europe’s people places them greatly below the US. But somehow you still get:

The US Trails Behind on Humanitarian Aid

Yes. Yes. Of course. Tossed in among the other items studied with the same depth in the newspaper... Look here Karl-Heinz, a sale at karstadt!

Hurry! While Supplies Last!

Thank you very much for the prompt and efficient delivery of my stunning new clock. It is a wonder in plastic. Not only is it deafeningly loud but completely fails to colour co-ordinate with anything in my bedroom. Marvellous!

I would still beware the ticking.

Historically Speaking, It’s Par for the Course

It must be something in the water. On the most basic level, very few European politicos are aware of their false modesty, their unsubstantiated claims of having some sort of superlative humanism, and their hypocritical criticism of any other culture’s notion of having rights or the state of their political freedom.

I have come to expect hypersensitivity to criticism, flouting of rules, intolerance of dissent, authoritarianism. But nothing had prepared me for such blatancy.

Hans-Gert openly admitted that the behaviour of his Euro-sceptic opponents was within the rules. And he wasn’t asking to change those rules – a procedure that would take time. No, he simply wanted permission to disregard them. Permission was duly granted, by 20 committee votes to 3.

Never mind what they say, watch what they do. Their impulse is toward despotism. Next thing you’ll know, they’ll get nostalgic for a pogrom.

Layoff the SocGen

Moochers of the World, Unite!

It seems that South American Marxists are beating off so much to their own anti-American chants, that the thrill is lost in all their confusion:

Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua, joined Chávez in his criticism of U.S.-style capitalism, saying "the dictatorship" of global capitalism "has lost control." Three days earlier, Ortega had shouted "Long live the U.S. government" as he inaugurated an American-financed section of highway in his country.

- And the hat tip goes to Mister Happy,
who like Daniel Ortega can be bought.

We Shiver Before Gaia

Git-R-Done!

Let’s say you’re Europe. Let’s say you want to intervene in Darfur. Let’s say that even after dithering for 4 years, you’re mad that the Sudanese government is not inviting you in. Let’s say you don’t have the temerity to invade, in spite of death or walking through the desert being the only way out. How do you get them to act? Here’s a hint: not like this.

They’ve got Fruits and Nuts. You May NOT Take Your Pick.

Further the theme of truly eliminating bio-diversity, there are some humanoids out there looking to thin the herd. The human herd, that is – and they have it in for a Bishop.

After being asked "what is your opinion of homosexuality," by the Spanish newspaper La Opinion de Tenerife, the Bishop stated that people who had the condition for "physiological" reasons were deserving of respect, but went on to say that "it is another question if homosexuality is or isn't a virtue."

That, apparently, is enough to get you sued. Using the court as an instrument, non-authorities can play thought police – which is funny when you think about how these people who seem to hate authority so much seem to use it rather brutally.

The FELGT's complaint follows another similar complaint the group made recently against a protestant minister in the province of Galicia.  Marcos Zapata is accused of having given a talk on how to encourage heterosexual development in children.  The organization has threatened to sue Zapata and has asked the government of Galicia to investigate him because he conducts anti-drug and anti-violence programs in government schools.

It could well be that this Marcos Zapata has rubbed some “NGO” type the wrong way, especially if anti-drug and anti-violence programs crampt their style, as far as how they get a date.

Isn't that a French national pasttime?

Rogue trader threatens to name names.

Il a trop tiré sur la corde

Failure? The US intervention in Iraq is anything but a failure. The real failure was Saddam Hussein's regime.

Saddam Hussein let the world think he had weapons of mass destruction to intimidate Iran and prevent the country from attacking Iraq, according to an FBI agent who interviewed the dictator after his 2003 capture.

I assume he had at least a few seconds to ponder this failure from the end of his rope.

Europe soon to follow the lead of her master's voice

Sounds like BushHitler's AmeriKKKa.

"This is in Frog, what are we supposed to do with it?"

5 months to go before culture shock.

Too much style, too little substance

French style of capitalism stained by bank scandal.

American Elections: Are French Journalists Objective?

"Biased, us?! Of course we're not!! We'll support the Democratic candidate, whoever he (or she) is!"

A world of shit to hit fan tomorrow

Looks like the designated scapegoat has been more than forthcoming during questioning. Me thinks that the SocGen is not going to get off the hook by explaining away this mess as fraud and pointing the finger at one solitary trader.

Le vrai:


Le faux.

Keeping the shitpile that has become SocGen French

Strategic financial incompetency.

Rag tag nation of pathetic losers

The Fwançais find a new hero.

Not much different from the French and their "We are all Americans" bullshit

Needles and Pins.

If he had not been schooled by a French education system that still espouses Marxist theory, he wouldn't sound like such a retard

Who says that the French do not understand how markets work?

SocGen chairman Daniel Bouton almost admitted as much when he said that "these losses could have been gains if the market had climbed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday".

One question: why doesn't he stop banging his well-off editor girlfriend and starting humping some factory worker chick?

Besancenot is looking to create a new Anti-Capitalist Party.

Terminate with extreme prejudice

The French exception. Never mind the piles of corpses piled sky high. French Maoism is alive and well and preached by Alain Badiou to adoring throngs of rag tag students. Just one more extreme example (even by French standards) of French intellectuals' continuing love affair with all things Communist.


Little White Book and user guide for Sarkozy Derangement Syndrome

The Lisbon Strategy forges onward to 2010

The Lisbon Strategy: with the goal of making the UE "the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the environment by 2010".

Strategic yogurt truffle production outta do the trick.

Semper Fi

French former Presidential candidate, Green Party honcho, pacifist, ultra-Left scumbag convicted of beating his main squeeze

Nothing more violent than a French Leftist.

Celui qui joue le tam-tam sur la tête de sa bonne femme

Like all French Leftists, this tough guy likes soft targets

The West is the Best

You just get here. We'll do the rest. Looks like the Bush Doctrine (which is a no-nonsense hardcore version of the Kouchner Doctrine, n'en déplaise aux pédaloïdes de gôchos franchouilles) will live on after January 2009. ... et les smicards qui bossent à Rue89.com souillent le fond de leur culotte achetée chez Tati.

Un franchouille champion du monde

Une fois n'est pas coutume.

Workers of the World, Unite!

31 year old “bidnessman” Jérôme Kerviel has been summarily fired with neither mediation or a tribunal. How dare they! On top of that there might be other heavy handed redundancies by “the man” since Crédit Agricole admitted to €250m in “unauthorized” losses, whatever the hell that supposed to not say. Since losing money isn’t illegal, even in Europe, it got to be another way of admitting to playing hide the salami with le p’ti Nannette’s savings.

They’ve got Fruits and Nuts. Take Your Pick.

EUtopians discover their “Patriot Act”

"The invaders are among us. It is a story that seems like a science fiction film, but it is happening in Europe, under the worried eye of scientists who have long observed the wave of invasions, but had not imagined that it could take on such dimensions." The "invaders" in question? Some 10,670 "alien" plant and animal species. The article cites the findings of an EU-sponsored research program titled "Delivering Alien Invasive Species Inventories for Europe" -- or "DAISIE" for short -- as well as the dire warning of Ladislav Miko of the European Commission's environmental directorate, who repeats the title's contention that the non-indigenous species represent a threat to "biodiversity."

Environmentally, the place is a parking lot, and yet someone can get worked up about squirrels, jellyfish that cyclically scare beachgoers, and anything else that blew out of a ship’s ballast tanks, but fail to grasp the racism of this if you consider the other greenie paroxysm about humans being no better than any other orderly group of cells. After all, why couldn’t they also call immigrants who could care less about the cultures they’ve moved to a sort of negative form of higher order “biodiversity”? I’d love to see that “débat” on one of those horrid chat shows with weird sets. Somehow I don’t think they would really want to think that it’s ”A Vous de Juger” given the astonishingly bigoted and naïve opinions you would really get from the governed masses.

Good luck with all that.

Muddling through

From The Economist:
Despite Mr Sarkozy's campaign talk of a "rupture" with the past, on almost every measure, from the reform of universities to pensions to the labour market, his reforms in office have turned out to be half-hearted.

Meet the Bubble Boys

One of France’s main retail banks who’s big into markets looks like a smoldering dog-pile right now, while the rumor of a potential €28bn debt write-down is still floating out there for Soc Gen, and what do the hacks at Rue89.com worry about?

Davos, NGOs, self-service at Ikea, movie reviews, and their peevish notion that they’re “grooming” Barrack Obama. You will note that they ran the goofiest looking picture of his equally inexperienced opponent that they could. A trip through the way-back machine reminds one that this is how Pravda illustrated any prominent American while it dodged-and-burned the horrendously ugly Leonid Brezhnev into a noble-looking figure. They have since resorted to full time fevered lunacy.

Update: it only took them 36 hours, but they did finally mention SocGen about 24 hours after we and just about every smartass with a blog did. The hitch is that they just happen to mention Société Générale while engaging in anecdotal class-hatred whining about the fact that Nick Leeson is selling his book, and charges a fee for interviews. Strangely enough, those people who run Rue89 even sometimes get paid.

They put it under some loony society column type piece wondering why there aren’t any of the usual dial-a-mob protestors at Davos right now, and why the press is ignoring anti-globalization protestors. Hello! McFly! Here’s a hint: check the weather, and then try to see if they actually have anything to say.

In Turns, both at Fault and Inconsequential

Funny (ha-ha), don’t you think, that the U.S. is somehow the virus that gives Europe a cold when it sneezes? This implies that the US is somehow responsible for economic affairs in the U.S., despite the fact that every morning in New York, traders have to wake up to Europe’s mid-day jitters more often than not.
After all, even Christine Lagarde, who is nearly as North American as she is French, is adding the usual pedantic continental commentary as a show at home to be taken seriously and appear to have social depth while effectively demanding something from others one is largely unable to do oneself.

French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said Tuesday that U.S. President George W. Bush should explain how the 140-billion-U.S.-dollar stimulus package will work to revive economy.

Who’s economy does she think Bush should primarily be concerned with anyway? Suddenly, suddenly the U.S. is commanded to stick to its’ role as the fuel in the locomotive pulling the global economy along, while the caboose only conditionally considers easing up on its brakes if you’ll indulge their delusions, but otherwise act in their interest.

When asked if a U.S. recession will implicate Europe, Lagarde said there are big economic differences between the United States and Europe.
She explained that unemployment rate is on the rise in the United States but is declining in Europe and U.S. economy has begun a slowdown while Europe grows at a steady 2 percent.

Which is especially funny, because they virtually never experience rates of growth as high as 2 percent, while the world worries about the U.S. having that yearly rate now, and ironically trying to call that a “recession.”

The minister also said a U.S. recession will not be a "tragedy" for France as bilateral trade between the two countries only accounts for 8 percent of France's total foreign trade volume.

Hypocrites. Which is to say that they really want the U.S. push through stimulus, give other central banks enough information to profit off of the sectors that it dwells on, but hey!, ya know what? No problem here! We’re BETTER than that! We call the inflation rates/ unemployment rates/ growth rates in France a stellar success, while those same rates in the U.S. are a sign of decay, meltdown, and an inadequate amount of nagging crypto-marxism. Right-o. Got it.
At the same time the Bank of France (whose real authority has been ceded to the ECB) chose a different tack while going into blame mode.

French regulator sees 'partial decoupling' of U.S. and EU economies
While there is increasing evidence that the eurozone economy is slowing, most of the factors that are contributing to the bleak outlook in the United States are not present on the Continent, according to the governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer.

See? Different! That’s a sign of the breadth and richness of their broadmindedness. That famous continental touch, if you will. Their failure to jump onto a decade-long global economic expansion goes unmentioned and nearly never discussed. Their lack of abject stagnation for 2 years somehow points out the failure of two decades of systematic growth in the U.S., and yet if it didn’t, the cultural buzz would try to say that American growth is somehow inimical to humanity – an eco-sin and a decadence of reactionaries that they choose not to take. Until they experience some growth themselves, and get some relief from the state of stagnation normal to their way of life. No, THEN everyone else on earth is an idiot for some other reason.

Got it. We’ll see how different the public zeitgeist looks when thing are different, and America is called another sort of demon.

Everyone knows that the French are too clever to lose money in the markets

When a US bank takes a knock because of subprime investments, the French snicker and say that those Americans got what was coming to them. When the French bank Société Générale (which had previously declared a minimal exposure to US subprimes) gets sucker punched with $7 billion in subprime losses, it declares itself to be the victim of fraud.

Our Gang Comedies

French youths do the Gaza thang at Villiers-Le-Bel... again! French officials assure us that the situation is under control.

International Harvesting

In spite of the fact that in France, that the who-owns-who delusion of Renault-Nissan puts Renault in front of Nissan, Le Monde is abuzz about Renault “introducing” an electric car to Israel, when in fact as the dessin de Pessin gets far more accurately, Nissan is buying up an asset in a market that’s been further along in its’ development that Europeans have.

The Euro-zombies that Play Along

The recent Cuban ‘election’, that great fethtivity of pluralism and demonstration of individual will, actually involves going into a booth and voting for the one listed candidate for each position, or not going at all.

Radio Netherland Wereldomroep’s espaneesh language website and radio channel transmitted to the Americas by satellite. Fails to actually mention this directly.

Children play a special role in the elections in Cuba. When Carlos Lage deposited his ballot in the ballot box, children make the military salute and shouting "INFO!"
Children wear their school uniforms that have the colors of the Cuban flag. In the era of dictator Fulgencio Batista, had the military side of the polls. Now they are innocent children that oversee the proper conduct of the polls. The vice president, Carlos Lage, insists that the elections are democratic in Cuba.

No sign of dictatorship THERE!

At the end of the day the polling stations close and the counting begins.
In a location in Old Havana, the first box is emptied out: 150 votes for the "united vote." An official said he was had no objections. There were 20 blank votes and 7 annulled because there are things written on them. En una de las papeletas se lee: "Abajo Fidel". On one of the ballots read: "Down with Fidel". On another ballot, scissors are drawn in the circle of the "united vote."

And the only comment the item received was from someone criticizing the election process in the US because it costs something. In fact what the Cubans do by pretending that they’re having any sort of election at all is a waste of resources, were it not also the case of even the lies they tell Cubans being nothing more than a profunctory drip-feed that would give them an aneurism should it ever stop.

It is sad that in this country (the USA), which calls itself a champion of democracy, the chances of a candidate to win the presidential election are directly proportional to the amount of money at his disposal to move the propaganda machinery of mass distribution. It's like selling a bad product and then trying to convince the consumer of its’ great quality. The commercials can sell ice to Eskimos! " "People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones"

Underscoring this guy’s absurdity is that there is no mention of the US in the article. With people like this, one can only assume that were it not for his irrational hatred of the US, with that very decadent idea of having more than one candidate to chose from in an election, that he is very likely to pay any attention to the Cuban backwater and its’ abused and abased population.




Then again, what do you expect? Journalism?

March of the Chocolate Makers

21 Jan 2008: EU official urges end to Chad peace force delay

29 Nov 2007: EU deployment in Chad delayed

17 Jul 2007: Chad: Peace Force Planned

15 Oct 2005: EU deployment force set for Darfur border

Mr Solana wrote to AU Commission chair Alpha Oumar Konare during the week ending July 1 to say that EU member states had now consolidated a package of support to the AU offered at an international pledging conference in May (see also Europe Information 2965). He sent the message that the EU was "ready to go"...

- 06 Jul 2005- EU/SUDAN: UNIONS AT ACTION STATIONS
FOR EXPANDED DARFUR MISSION

... and so forth. I wouldn’t count on them. I hope there’s someone left to protect when they get there.

Gaza Sustainability Day

I’m not sure which is higher on the totem pole of leftist pedantry – Gazans being without power, or the vulgar use of ‘fossils’, that so called ‘energy’ (hisssss) to power their televised revolution. Nonetheless, I did find one thing amusing: an excitable Gazan denier-or-anything type was being interviewed by telephone from Gaza. He was trying to assert that there was NO power at all in Gaza, except for the 5-7% of the population served by transmission lines from Egypt, who have also closed their border.

The assertion he was trying to make was that the land-lines from Israel which provide them with 60-70% of their power was cut off too. In other words, the blackout wasn’t just in the areas served by the oil-fired plant in Gaza that had its’ fuel which comes over the border from Israel when it isn’t closed.

No, the really funny thing about this interview was that the BBC guy just wasn’t buying it – it was that one could hear a ringing land-line telephone in the background. This, in a place where the interviewee insisted that Hospitals and essential services also didn’t have power to run generators either. There’s also no way to tell from the Gaza based Palestine Satellite Channel, as their net feed comes in and out.

Too-ra to their fellow travelers too.

I guess that the least we can assume is that the earth goddess, that sparky mamasita, was powering up the telephone exchange. It has to be true because the scientific consensus said so.

Yeah, but it’s just a “League Table,” Right?

Britain now scores below 80 points on a range of key indicators, dropping into the "mostly free" camp with Germany, Japan, Bahrain, Armenia and Trinidad.

The government’s hunrgy , mauling orifice is nearly 45% of the nation’s GDP, and like the days of Callahan, power outages and incessant striking, it once again feels like people want to relave “weak” socialism with “strong” communism. Aren’t they just so cute?

Two eurozone shockers are Italy (64), and Greece (80), now ranked lowered than most of the old Communist bloc.

Surely, Albanians must be surprised.

Excuse Me, Is this Box Car Taken?

In old Europe it looks like old habits are hard to break. Of course that isn’t everywhere. There are places where it isn’t so much a case of behaviour modification, but rather that of role reversal. Right after that ugly business of right and wrong are expelled from the zeitgeist:

Minors burn mayor’s car

Two boys of 14 and 16 years age suspected of arson on January 12 the car of the mayor of Noisy-le-Sec (Seine-Saint-Denis) were referred yesterday to the prosecutor of Bobigny, according to a police source.

Two cars parked near the city hall were burned, including that of the mayor, Nicole Rivoire (Modem) while 200 people were demonstrating in support of an undocumented Algerian who could be sentenced to a 30 year prison term on suspicion of trafficking narcotics after jumping out of a window in his home during a search.

Arrested Wednesday and Thursday, these two young people in Noisy-le-Sec "admitted to burning the mayor’s car" in "retaliation" for the attitude she took to the tragedy.

Residents accused the mayor, Ms. Rivoire, for having shown a lack compassion for the family.

This hybrid “medieval/1941” outlook is rather amusing. From afar, at least.

Willy Wonka Nation

Plant workers display cultural openness, demonstrate why France is so appealing to foreign investment and business startups:

The British director of a French ice-cream factory was held hostage overnight by employees angry at job cuts, and was only freed after police stormed the building.

Such plucky forbearance, I frequently find myself thinking. I mean - for a minute there, they actually owned the means of production, at least the part of it that their sabotage made unproductive. Now, of course, somebody owes them.

"Some employees, despite being caught flagrantly holding a man hostage, physically opposed the police," said Yves Guillot, the local prefect.

"They tried to block a door. The police had to push to get through. There was a scuffle."

However, Alain Didelot, a union representative, said his members were "scared" and shocked" by the police action, adding that they "charged people like myself, aged 57".

A spokesman for Mr Prakesh, who was unavailable for comment, said that he "has been through some very difficult moments" and intented to press charges against one unionist for "xenophobic insults".

European trade union lefties have so much to illuminate the rest of humanity about racism, don’t they? Please, Mistress, may I have another lecture? Just shout me down one more time?

Nitrogen-Rich Politics

”Have i mentioned my eco-sainthood©®™ today?”



If they “care” that much, why did they chose an
Incandescent bulb for their backdrop?

This is not true

This can not be true! Don't you remember?! Islamic terrorist activities against Spain was only directed against Madrid because of Aznar's assistance in Bush's war-mongering and "to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq"?! And because Zapatero's socialists would remove Spain's troops from that country, the calculus was simple: the election of Bambi (three days after the Madrid bombings) would put an end to such activities…

So, there you have it: It simply… cannot… be true!

Court Official in France Declares Sovereignty Unlawful

Being subjects and not citizens, your votes don’t count anyway:

The Immigration Act put into law on November 20 could be rendered unenforceable by the courts. Several of its’ provisions infringe EU directives and international conventions to which Australia was a party, and were discriminatory in nature declared the High Authority against Discrimination and for Equality in a debate before the Government on Tuesday 15 January.

How to Succeed in Europe without Really Trying, Part 2

Further to the practice of guilt-tripping, legalizing, and free-riding, the makers of the Opera web browser is piling it on to Microsoft when the uptake of Opera’s own product is roughly one 12th that of Firefox which is also given away for free, and is just as compatible with websites generated for Windows Internet Explorer as anything else.

This falls under the simple heading of “If you don’t play along, I’ll sue”. Oh, and sour grapes too.

All your Derangement Syndromes Are Belong To Us

Plantu loses his last marble.

The New Aryan Science

”All your history are belong to us”

He also said the symbol of Genk Municipality was a double headed eagle, and added as his conclusive proof, “In the Selçuk tribe, the same symbol was used. One head symbolized Interior Oğuz while the other Exterior Oğuz.”

Apparently, no Russian, Greeks, Etheopians, nor even Lucy were available for comment.

The death of French culture

He's gone and there's no way (Thank God) that you can bring him back.

Royal Family Travesty

The new UK franchise.

The shithole is boiling over

European laxism will be the death of us all.

Panic in Needle Park

Has France become a narco State?

How to Succeed in Europe without Really Trying, Part 1

“We must invent new methods of intervention… we need protection, to defend national and European products in the face of foreign competition… It is time for a real European economic patriotism to be born.”

- Dominique de Villepin, French Prime Minister, in his book “European Man”

Though it has a disturbingly air reminiscent of National Socialism, it’s stood to reason what this amount to: no change in methods, no adaptation to the ways of the world that don’t involve keeping the poorest of the world aid dependant and unable to trade, and hypocritically criticizing the US’s 5% tariffing with:

The EU runs two sets of protectionist policies that could be almost designed to wreck the trading chances of those of the poorest countries that have comparative advantages in food and textiles.

First, there are the trade restrictions. Though the EU has a low industrial tariff of five per cent, its agricultural tariffs are far higher. These average 20 per cent, but rise to a peak of 250 per cent on certain products. For example, the tariff on Bolivian chickens is 46 per cent, and on Bolivian orange juice 34 per cent.

As with everything else. Which brings us to the comparatively inconsequential nature of a suit harassing an American software company. What’s even more repellant is that they see no difference between a potential rigging up of a trade restriction against a struggling farmer as they do with Microsoft. What it appears to show is that they have no passion for the concept of legality, of the possibility that there might be a bump in the road that comes with the freedom to innovate, and that that igniting an hypocritical argument over trade is a perfectly acceptable instrument to protect the secondary members of the political cartel – Europe’s industries.

Who can read this as anything other than a court demanding a bribe or tribute in the manner of a petty dictator who believes in laws only being useful toward their ends?

"'It would have been preferable if these issues could have been resolved amicably with Microsoft,' said Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes. 'But that has not proved to be the case. Therefore we have opened these formal investigations. That does not prove there is a violation. We will only be able to come to a conclusion after investigations.' The legal battle that ended last year involved the bundling of a media player with Windows and the availability of information required to make rival software operate smoothly with Microsoft products. In September, the Court of First Instance, Europe's highest after the European Court of Justice, endorsed the commission's 2004 decision to impose record fines on Microsoft."

THEY state yet Spectrum as a organizational shambles created by nation-state contract manipulation, but still underestimated the over-runs by nearly one-half.

LOSER: Geopositioning

GOAL:To create a 30-satellite geopositioning -system to provide greater accuracy than GPS or GLONASS, generating income from premium services that rely on encoded signals.

WHY IT’S A LOSER: Galileo is way behind schedule and over budget; meanwhile, GPS and GLONASS are -improving, so Galileo will never obtain the competitive edge that would have made it profitable. Also, its organizational structure is too complex. To succeed, it would need a single authority with wide operating latitude.

PLAYERS: The 27-state European Union and the 15-state (not perfectly overlapping) European Space Agency

STAFF: Too numerous and too dispersed to count

BUDGET: €5.4 billion (about US $8 billion) and counting; originally €4 billion

From billions to yet more millions...

According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, industry experts together with EU finance gurus have told their superiors that the current estimated cost of €3.4 billion may be radically exceeded. The final price will be at least €5 billion ($7.4 billion) and could climb to as high as €10 billion, according to the information. SPIEGEL also writes that an expert report produced for the German government likewise claims that even in a "best-case-scenario," the Galileo project will swallow up €1.5 billion ($2.2 billion) more than planned.

Experts say that the cost explosion is the result of a compromise, hammered out in November and December, securing EU-wide funding and dividing responsibilities. The agreement was hailed as the final hurdle still standing in front of the project's final completion, but one Galileo specialist told SPIEGEL that there are still many technical challenges awaiting the project.

Those “technical challenges” include, technically, having a project at all, even if it is 4 times over budget and 6 years late.

In spite of the fact that the system is supposed to benefit THOSE nation-states, and even THOSE INDUSTRIES ginning up the delay and over-runs, they still engage in a feeding frenzy no different than the one banishing farmers in the developing world to a mediocrity they can’t evade. Galileo is for THEM, and they can’t even set aside their vulgar habits.

So when the same extraordinary nagging is used in they notion of what’s acceptable in an assymetrical trade war, so to with the bleating, nagging, and hand-wringing that goes on over the predatory nature of trying to capture hearts and minds not for their own sake, but to take it away from others, and in particular against the United States, ginning up a state of false righteous indignation over extraordinary renditions that they oppose but want for their own protection, to overbearing criticisms of anything else done on the behalf of the stability of the western world of which they are a parasitic and populous free-rider. Using law and emotion as a fig leaf does nothing for the making of a good society, and just further convinces the population that their cynicism, and the lack of the patriotism necessary to develop a social contract that comes with it, is well founded.

In other words, if they don’t believe in the humanity of your decision making, why believe in anyone else’s? Sound like business as usual for something they’re trying to sex up as a brave-new-whatever of “ever closer union.”

Another Great Outpouring of Peace and Love

It might be time to tot up the old FranceUnibodyCount... New Year’s Eve, it seems was more of a Smart Car Frittata than the police were willing to admit.

Quelque 878 véhicules ont été brûlés au cours de la nuit du 31 décembre 2007 au 1er janvier 2008, selon un bilan actualisé à la hausse par le ministère de l'Intérieur après la révélation de nouveaux chiffres par Europe 1 : après son propre comptage ce matin, la radio avançait que "au moins 746 véhicules" avaient été incendiés au cours de cette nuit de la Saint-Sylvestre.

Selon le ministère, le bilan est en "baisse de 9,7%" par rapport à l'année précédente, contrairement à ce qu'indique la radio, qui évoque une hausse de 10%.

Which is to say:

Some 878 vehicles were burned during the night between December 31, 2007 to January 1, 2008, according to an update by the Interior Ministry after the revelation of new figures by Europe 1 [the media outlet]: According to his own count this morning, the radio station argued that "at least 746 vehicles" had been burned on New Years’ Eve.

According to the ministry, the record is showed "a 9.7% decline compared to the previous year, contradicting Europe 1’s statement indicating an increase of 10%.

Which night-for-night is higher that the Fracifada. I mean, where are the damn truthers when there’s a coverup to look into?

Pity the Humorless, for they Want it in Triplicate

In Canada, apparently this isn't hate speech:

Ezra Levant is a piece of shit JEW.
Piece of shit jews and my right to say it.
A recent quote from this fag...

My name is Exra Levant. Before the Government interrogation begins, I will make a statement.

But this is. I guess it’s the lack of homophobia, or however it is that they’ve redefined reason this week, that tipped the scale in favor of a liberalism that coddles Islamists AND hates gays.

Go figure. Interesting too is Ezra Levant’s recent hearing with a Provincial “Human Rights Agent” which quite improbably contained this:

That's the point I was making. And after I made it, Officer McGovern said "you're entitled to your opinions, that's for sure."

Well, actually, I'm not, am I? That's the reason I was sitting there. I don't have the right to my opinions, unless she says I do.

I wouldn’t so much call her an agent per se, as much as I’d call her a “Human Rights Broker” in that she’s trying to figure out who is entitled to speech rights and who isn’t.

Mark Steyn is going through the same thing, even though HIS ‘hate speech’ was basically made up of quotes drawn from the people he’s criticizing. Right-o. Hate speech if Steyn says it, artful expression of man’s inhumanity to man if the fan club of murderous, drooling, intolerant fascists who wants to kill you because you aren’t a fundamentalist Muslim says it. To sum it up:

Who can doubt it? Jihadists promise to "Behead The Enemies Of Islam" and demand the Pope be executed and threaten to rain down a second 9/11 on Europe and call Britain's Tube bombers "the Fantastic Four" - and no-one ever suggests restraining their free speech. On the contrary, in London the guys calling for the beheading of infidels are flanked by constables of the Metropolitan Police so zealous in their defence of jihadist free-speech rights they threaten to arrest any members of the public who get too near.

What's at issue here is the non-jihadists' right to free speech.

Throw the book at 'em

Standing up to the Bolsheviks.

Organ Döner Kebap

Biased BBC touches on a story that’s been kicking around (in the form of an unaknowleded ‘season’) on the BBC: the matter of taking organs from terminally ill patients without them having ever signed up as döners, erm, doners.

"The Spanish organ donor system is a remarkable story of human generosity in the face of grief."

It’s a story ignoring the fact that a patient may not be an organ doner, and it’s floated out there to prop up a proposal by Gordon Brown to do the same.

Behold how taking a patient’s organs without their consent is now being called “Generosity”, much in the way government aid is renamed “charity”, and taxes renamed “contribution” in a fashion intended to impress upon the listener the illusion that there was free will involved.

On Radio 4 there was some awful panel discussion centered around the fact that the patient might change their mind if they knew how dead-like they were, might have neglected to place the organ doner card in their wallet, and so forth. The subject that was willfully and completely ignored was the will of the patient.

There isn’t any free will involved at all. Of course there isn’t. For heaven’s sake this is Europe we’re talking about. The only stories deemed “remarkable in their humanity” anymore involve a apparachik forcing people to do things by compulsion. Perhaps it’s based on the passivity trained into the population by virtue of a century of statist policy and general self-centeredness. Maybe there isn’t any other way to get people who are so distracted by their lauding of their own humanity to give of themselves.

The Subculture’s Motives Might Not Be Openly Stated, But They’re Quite Clear

Daniel Ellsberg, Mr. Pentagon Papers himself is so widely used by those carrying around the trope of ‘questioning reality’ (any answers yet?) that he’s pandering to truthers:

“There is no question in my mind, that there is enough evidence to justify a very comprehensive and hard hitting investigation of the kind we have not seen, with subpoenas, general questioning of people, releasing a lot of documents,” said Daniel Ellsberg, PhD, in a 2006 interview with Jack Blood.

Either that or they’re getting mendacious again.

Corrupt cowardly pedophiles

Bow down before their purple helmets of peace.

The pot calling the kettle black

French freelance journalmalist doesn't want Americans taking part in cherished French pasttime. L'Afrique, ce n'est pas le pré-carré de la Fwance ?

Embarrassing Western Civilization Since 1971

After a decade of mass evacuation the brainiac whiz kids are finally beginning to realize why Netherlands has gone from being merely dreary and pedantic to something teetering between depressing and chilling when this counts as good news:

The politically-correct elite in the Netherlands is no longer able to neutralise dissident views, according to Ayaan Hirsi Ai. "A chasm between the elite and the people has really emerged," she said yesterday in an interview with De Volkskrant.

The fact that they tried to control the at all is enough of a reason to run away, never mind even that the assumption is that Americans are the ones on a cabal-regulated drip feed of truthy news “wisdom”.

Another Proud Example of That “More Socialism Makes for Better People” Argument

And I guess They Think Oceania Will Last 1000 Years Too

In the European war of attrition against the world’s working poor, they also seem to have found the killer app of obstructive protectionism.

Mr Sarkozy urged Brussels to discuss the implications of "unfair competition" by firms outside the EU, which do not have to abide by strict European standards on CO2 emissions.

By taxing goods from counter-revolutionary non-signers of Kyoto.

But hey, don’t feel bad. It will have to stop once they realize that it will only accelerate their own decline faster than it would that of the world’s blue collar manufacturing labor, and their delusions about the United States that it’s meant to abuse.

Nonetheless, “sane provincials” are striking back at this lunacy.

Bucharest on 21 December filed a complaint at the European Court of Justice against a commission decision to slash its 2008-2018 emissions by 20.7 percent and lower its 2007 ceiling by 10 percent.

The move follows similar court action against Brussels by several other member states.

L'ancien FARC déteste qu'on le mette dans le même sac que les "paramilitaires démobilisés"

What with the appearance of an in-depth article about the FARC guerillas (in which the "good" members of Colombia's rebellion, true believers they, are contrasted with the evil mercenary rightists who double as… drug addicts.), the NP post on Colombia's rebellion and hostages has been updated…

When the Saber-Rattling is the Mullahs', It Is Made Light of by Le Monde's Pancho

What would happen if Dubya made what could be called threatening, provocative measures (in the Arabian Sea or elsewhere)? Remember his simply mentioning the Axis of Evil? Wouldn't there be outrage? The left, American and European (not least Pancho himself) would go berserk.



As it happens, t'is Tehran doing the saber-rattling (and much more seriously than just in speeches). And when it's Iran's mullahs doing so, it is considered nothing to be afraid of, it is made light of, almost like a game; au contraire: it's nothing worse than tweaking the nose of the abominable hyperpower…

Readers' Comments on Lemonde.fr's Articles Are Worth Close to Zilch and Will Vanish After a Couple of Days

Apparently, Le Monde's editors have decided that subscribers' comments on certain articles should disappear, totally and without trace, as the article enters its paying mode after a couple of days.

Not that previously, readers had been especially well-treated in the matter — they were (and still are) allowed a limit of two reactions per article with a limit of 500 characters each! Now even those crumbs are to be taken away (after a few days) as the — separate — URL page(s) for readers' opinions, notes, kudos, and/or criticism vanish once the article is no longer free. In other words, only the deeply profound words of Le Monde's wiser-than-thou journalists will remain; the contributions, important or otherwise, of readers will not.

Giddy Up!

Nifty blogatrice Karin from Germany posts on a Frenchman who’s been Svaned.

Today I met – hold your breath – a pro-American French. Yes, this species exists! He even told me that there is pro-American literature in France. He wrote the titles down for me on a little piece of paper (3.3 x 4.7 in). Well, what would you have expected?

And for some absurd reason I’ve spent the better part of a lifetime trying to figure out: it was also probably graph paper.

Man the Barricades! The Investors are Coming !

If anxious EUvians see all economics as warfare, their attempts at “going asymmetrical” are becoming hilarious:

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he wants state-owned bank Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC) to form part of the defence of French companies in the face of attacks by speculative funds.

'In the face of the increasing power of extremely aggressive speculative funds and sovereign funds which do not obey economic logic (France is taking) the political and strategic choice to protect its companies, to give them the means to defend and develop themselves,' Sarkozy said.

'We are going to make the Caisse des Depots a tool in this policy of defence and the promotion of economic interests essential to the nation.'

While their coddled national champions are free to seek investment in foreign companies, not to mention pillaging the third world, as fair game.

Obviously pandering to the public, I don’t think Sarko quite gets that investment from abroad might be a good thing, and money might stop pouring into their little economic booby-hatch of a country.

If Hillary wins, Americans are racist. If Obama wins, Americans are sexist.

Those naive Europeans and their obsession with American electoral politics.

“Economic growth imposes a hectic form of life, producing overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease and… the development of cancer"

In France and Germany, students are being forced to undergo a dangerous indoctrination. Taught that economic principles such as capitalism, free markets, and entrepreneurship are savage, unhealthy, and immoral, these children are raised on a diet of prejudice and bias. Rooting it out may determine whether Europe’s economies prosper or continue to be left behind.

Thus begins Stefan Theil's article in Foreign Policy (merci à RV). Makes you wonder, isn't it about time those oafish, clueless Americans start listening to the brilliant ideas of those more-lucid-than-thou products of the Europe's avant-garde educational system?

“Economic growth imposes a hectic form of life, producing overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease and, according to some, even the development of cancer,” asserts the three-volume Histoire du XXe siècle, a set of texts memorized by countless French high school students as they prepare for entrance exams to Sciences Po and other prestigious French universities. The past 20 years have “doubled wealth, doubled unemployment, poverty, and exclusion, whose ill effects constitute the background for a profound social malaise,” the text continues. Because the 21st century begins with “an awareness of the limits to growth and the risks posed to humanity [by economic growth],” any future prosperity “depends on the regulation of capitalism on a planetary scale.” Capitalism itself is described at various points in the text as “brutal,” “savage,” “neoliberal,” and “American.” This agitprop was published in 2005, not in 1972.

…French students … do not learn economics so much as a very specific, highly biased discourse about economics. When they graduate, they may not know much about supply and demand, or about the workings of a corporation. Instead, they will likely know inside-out the evils of “la McDonaldisation du monde” and the benefits of a “Tobin tax” on the movement of global capital. This kind of anticapitalist, antiglobalization discourse isn’t just the product of a few aging 1968ers writing for Le Monde Diplomatique; it is required learning in today’s French schools.

…Equally popular in Germany today are student workbooks on globalization. One such workbook includes sections headed “The Revival of Manchester Capitalism,” “The Brazilianization of Europe,” and “The Return of the Dark Ages.” India and China are successful, the book explains, because they have large, state-owned sectors and practice protectionism, while the societies with the freest markets lie in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa. Like many French and German books, this text suggests students learn more by contacting the antiglobalization group Attac, best known for organizing messy protests at the annual G-8 summits.

One might expect Europeans to view the world through a slightly left-of-center, social-democratic lens. The surprise is the intensity and depth of the anti-market bias being taught in Europe’s schools. Students learn that private companies destroy jobs while government policy creates them. Employers exploit while the state protects. Free markets offer chaos while government regulation brings order. Globalization is destructive, if not catastrophic. Business is a zero-sum game, the source of a litany of modern social problems.

…A likely alternative scenario may be that the changes wrought by globalization will awaken deeply held resentment against capitalism and, in many countries from Europe to Latin America, provide a fertile ground for populists and demagogues, a trend that is already manifesting itself in the sudden rise of many leftist movements today.

Investor's Business Daily writes that the

European Union, created to be an economic giant, will never fulfill its goal — not as long as two of its biggest economies continue to demonize capitalism and the free market.

More on Training a Generation of Anti-Americans and on The Opinions of 11-Year-Olds…

"ne pas voter pour la beurette"

In a Le Monde article by Jean-Michel Normand, we learn more about the French, and especially about those Frenchmen (i.e., the left and, more specifically, the Socialist Party) who are constantly giving lessons on race relations to the Americans.

Certains de ces ["candidats issus de la diversité"], bien qu'enracinés de longue date, n'en sont pas moins confrontés aux réticences, voire à l'hostilité, des instances locales ou départementales du Parti socialiste. Le premier secrétaire, François Hollande, l'a reconnu : ces engagements, qui ne se sont encore que partiellement concrétisés, confirment l'existence, au sein du parti, de "certains préjugés, réticences et frilosités".

…Le parcours de M. Mammeri au sein du PS aura été moins aisé qu'il y paraît. "Tant que je me contentais de coller des affiches, tout allait pour le mieux mais, une fois devenu candidat, les choses se sont gâtées. L'appareil du parti n'a jamais cherché à me nuire ; c'est au niveau local que j'ai parfois été malmené", témoigne M. Mammeri, navré de devoir faire avec "cette vieille phobie de l'étranger qui étreint une partie du microcosme".

Le "geste" des FARC confirme les relations étroites entre Hugo Chavez et les rebelles, qui disposent de centaines de camps de repli au Venezuela

In a Le Monde article, the former head of the AFP in Colombia and Venezuela, Jacques Thomet, comes clean.

En Colombie, Ingrid [Betancourt] n'a jamais été que l'un des 3 000 Colombiens aux mains des rebelles, et nul n'ignore qu'elle s'était jetée dans la gueule du loup en refusant d'obéir aux objurgations des services secrets de son pays qui l'avaient incitée, en vain, à ne pas poursuivre son chemin vers le repaire de la guérilla le 23 février 2002 (je garde par-devers moi un document secret qui le prouve). L'intervention publique de Jacques Chirac en sa faveur, sous la pression de Dominique de Villepin, a réussi à déformer la vision des médias français sur la tragédie colombienne. La scène y a longtemps opposé un méchant, Alvaro Uribe, à une guérilla "romantique" méprisée par le chef de l'Etat. Dans cette intrigue répétée sans relâche par la famille Betancourt, le président colombien endossait le rôle d'accusé.

Par ailleurs, le

"geste" des FARC [la promesse de libérer de trois otages] confirme les relations étroites entre Hugo Chavez et les rebelles, qui disposent de centaines de camps de repli au Venezuela sur les 2 300 km de frontière commune entre les deux pays.

Un véritable cirque médiatique est alors monté par le président vénézuélien, avec la complicité d'une sénatrice colombienne d'extrême gauche, Piedad Cordoba, [mais la] désillusion est totale … La fourberie des FARC a renforcé Alvaro Uribe, déstabilisé Hugo Chavez - muet depuis ces révélations - et, hélas, ridiculisé tous les pays qui avaient oublié d'imiter Ulysse en ne se faisant pas attacher au mât pour échapper à l'appel de sirènes encore plus dangereuses que dans la mythologie : la sanglante guérilla colombienne.

Update: Marie Delcas has an in-depth article about the FARC guerillas. Needless to say, the "good" guerillas, true believers they, are contrasted with the evil mercenary rightists who double as… drug addicts.

[Un ancien combattant] ne regrette ni ses années de guérilla ni sa décision de déserter. Mais il déteste qu'on le mette dans le même sac que les "paramilitaires démobilisés", ces membres des milices d'extrême droite qui ont abandonné la lutte armée dans le cadre d'un programme gouvernemental – "Des mercenaires qui ont fait la guerre pour du fric et qui se droguent. Nous, on y croyait à la révolution."

What's more, avant-garde lucid people will understand that, in the final analysis, there ain't much to fear from Manuel Marulanda's guerillas, those poor "sons of farmers":

Les combattants ne combattent guère. Ils se lèvent à 4 h 30 du matin. La journée passe entre exercices physiques, organisation de la garde, le bain dans le cours d'eau le plus proche, les corvées, l'instruction militaire ou les cours de marxisme. Les repas sont faits de riz, de lentilles et de haricots rouges. A 19 heures, tout le monde dort, hormis la garde.

And in the field, at least, they were respected, while in (capitalist) society, they are nothing.

"Mais dans le maquis on était respecté, dans la vie civile on n'est rien", résume Atahualpa.

Only at the very end do we get a couple of paragraphs about the drug trafficking that nourishes the movement. The very last sentence (La guerre n'est pas gagnée, mais les FARC ont depuis longtemps perdu) again suggests pity for the movement, suggesting in turn that the anyone who opposes it (the army, the rightists, the Americans, i.e., all the usual scoundrels) are unfair and blinded to continue to use violence on them.

Six weeks later, Marie Delcas is still at it, with more articles on 60 years of guerilla warfare and describing (i.e., accusing) the conservative government (of the 1940s) alone of "repression without mercy", the (today's) government's war on the guerillas as "without mercy", a government response to a attack by the principled guerillas (the "FARCs remain anchored in the misery of the rural world") as "the pretext for a brutal intervention", and the country's "social injustice" as "screaming out", as well as voicing her consternation at the continuing "popularity of President Alvaro Uribe".

Update 2: Laurent Artur du Plessis adds:

Cette libération a fait le jeu d’Hugo Chavez et des FARC. Le président vénézuélien a été à l’origine de cette opération, menée en collaboration avec Bogota et le Comité international de la Croix Rouge (CICR) dans la jungle colombienne. Il en a aussitôt entrepris l’exploitation politique, demandant le retrait des FARC – et de l’ELN (Armée de libération nationale – guévariste) – de la liste des groupes terroristes dans laquelle les États-Unis et l’Europe les ont insérées en 2005.

…En outre, la guérilla n’a guère envie de se départir d’Ingrid Betancourt : sans elle, elle retournera à l’oubli. Chavez, dont le projet de réforme constitutionnelle a été rejeté par 51 % des électeurs le 2 décembre dernier, utilise la libération des otages pour faire oublier ses échecs de politique intérieure.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Joxe strikes back at Jacques Thomet with multiple references to paramilitary rightists to which article Pablo Paisa replies (emphasis mine):

Joxe a raison d'évoquer le problème des paramilitaires mais il omet, ou nie, l'essentiel: Alvaro Uribe, avec le soutien de la vaste majorité des Colombiens, refuse toute concession politique aussi bien aux paramilitaires qu'aux FARC. S'il devait changer cette position, en réponse aux hallucinations de Chavez (improbable) ou à toute pression française, le résultat serait une tragédie pour la Colombie... et le courage de tous les otages n'aurait servi à rien.

And Denis L summarizes Joxe's piece (the Arte "documentary" director seems to be related to former interior/defense minister Pierre Joxe) as follows:

Des rumeurs (une vieille fiche de l'espionnage US, citée par un antiaméricain obsessionnel comme N. Joxe, c'est savoureux), des amalgames, la culpabilité par association familiale (un genre particulièrement nauséabond, qui m'autorise à faire observer que chez les Joxe, l'américanophobie frise la tare). Les faits: la Justice arrête des alliés de M. Uribe: quel meilleur brevet d'Etat de droit? Courage, M.Uribe (trop blanc et anticommuniste pour nos Médias), ne cédez rien aux preneurs d'otages!

Update 3: Following Joxe's article, Colombia's ambassador to Paris, Fernando Cepeda Ulloa, weighs in:

Alvaro Uribe, dans président de la Colombie depuis le 7 août 2002, un criminel ? Un politicien ayant des liens avec le "paramilitarisme" et les mafias ? Quelle ironie ! Quelle injustice et quelle incroyable et inadmissible déformation de la vérité !

Le président Uribe a été lui-même victime d'actes criminels. Son père fut assassiné par les FARC. Son frère, blessé par les FARC. Et lui-même a été la cible de plusieurs attentats auxquels il a échappé par miracle.

Le président Uribe a extradé vers les Etats-Unis plus de 700 criminels, qui, eux, oui, avaient des liens avec les mafias. Et parmi eux, deux membres des FARC qui sont jugés en ce moment dans ce pays pour trafic de drogue.

Le président Uribe a traqué sans répit les "paramilitaires". Pour la première fois, le gouvernement colombien a abattu au combat plus de 1 500 membres des groupes "paramilitaires", du jamais-vu dans les administrations précédentes.

Grâce au processus de paix et à la loi "justice et paix", 31 671 membres des groupes "paramilitaires" d'extrême droite et plus de 10 000 membres des guérillas ont à présent posé les armes et se sont réintégrés dans la société (...). Grâce au soutien du gouvernement, la Cour suprême de justice a reçu tous les moyens techniques et économiques afin de mener les enquêtes et collecter les preuves suffisantes pour émettre des mandats d'arrestation visant les hommes politiques liés aux groupes "paramilitaires".

Les crimes attribués aux membres du Congrès actuellement détenus ont été commis avant l'arrivée au pouvoir de ce gouvernement.

A Nation Asks with Bated Breath: Who Fingered Rashida ?

Severed finger mailed to French justice minister. Rubber glove at eleven. We now return you to your scheduled program.

- Thanky thanky to ¡No Pasarán! reader Shy Guy.

Welcome to readers of Jules Crittenden’s excellent Forward Movement blog. Take off your PPE, put your feet up, and stay awhile.

I hate You, Don’t Leave Me.

EUvians ask: where is the love?

European institutions suffered a big loss of trust among EU citizens in the last six months, despite citizens' support for EU membership reaching the highest in over a decade, according to a Eurobarometer poll published on Tuesday.

Maybe familiarity breeds contempt, or is it something else? Could this be a cyclical expression of the lot that licks the boot that kicks them?

Sebastian Kurpas from the Centre for European Policy Studies labelled the results "remarkable", but had no explanation for this outcome, in particular when bearing in mind that the German EU Presidency, which ended in June 2007, was widely seen as a success.

Actually I find it hugely unremarkable considering the imperial nature of what’s going on. The territory of the realm is expanding through bribery and economic intimidation. After all, can you imagine Romania asking itself what its’ prospects would look like were it to ‘go it alone’ adjacent to a giant economic zone that they would be otherwise restricted from trading with under a tariff regime?