French President Nicolas Sarkozy:

“I will not have any more contact with the Syrians until… we have received proof of Syria’s intention to let Lebanon designate a president of consensus,” said Sarkozy at a press conference in Cairo after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.) visiting Syria on Sunday:

“The time is right now, and prospects are very good,” Specter told reporters Sunday on his 16th visit to Syria since 1984. “The parties will continue talks through intermediaries, and it’s my hope and expectation at some point, if preliminary progress has been made, the U.S. government would be ready too.”

Who the hell gave Specter the authority to make such a statement. That is not within the realm of his legislative authority!

Here is Partick Kennedy on the jailed dissidents:

Officials are not sure what the motive is at this time, but here is an interesting tidbit:

The same building also houses a foundation that does research on the Holocaust and a law firm that President Nicolas Sarkozy founded with two other people.

Officials stressed, however, that the motive for the attack was unclear.

Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said the bombed lawyer’s office was on the same floor - the fourth - as the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, created in 2000 with an endowment from recovered funds that were confiscated from French Jews during World War II. It supports research and education about the Holocaust and Jewish culture.

Sarkozy’s former law office was opened in 1987, according to the company’s Web site. The practice changed its name from Arnaud Claude-Nicolas Sarkozy after Sarkozy’s election in May, and is now called Arnaud Claude and Associates.

Noel brings up a great point about Scott McClellan’s book:

Without peeking, do you think the now infamous excerpt from White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s not yet written book specifically referred to Valerie Plame Wilson, or anything to do with that scandal?

While you ponder, it is quite conceivable that this entire media frenzy is not only much ado about nothing, but an example of what happens when today’s so-called journalists see what they believe to be Republican blood in the water despite the presence of red dye #2.

As cleverly pointed out by Lee Hempfling Thursday (emphasis added): (follow the link guys and gals..hhere is another clue though

Do you see Valerie Plame Wilson’s name anywhere in this excerpt?

No.

So, why were media outlets - in particular, MSNBC - so quick to conclude that this had anything to do with her?

Yes we did! Don Surber has a must read! Here is a transcript via the NY Sun.

He waved the American flag in a way that would embarrass George M. Cohan.

Seldom has an American politician as unabashedly proud of this nation’s accomplishments.

Sarkozy does not want to just be friends — he wants to emulate us.

Sarkozy singlehandedly disproved the foolish notion by the Democratic Party that Bush made the world hate us.

Remember, Sarkozy is not saying these things to be nice. He is speaking to his nation. He knew going in that every single word he said is being reported and analyzed back home.

The French are his audience.

France’s Sarkozy raises prospect of Iran airstrikes

French Expert Details Failures in System, Compares to U.S. In a nutshell, the system is not sustainable anymore.

“It’s true we really have good access, but what if the system is not sustainable anymore?” says Teil. “It’s going to break. It’s going to blow. And then no more accessibility for anybody.”
Tiel says the cost of France’s socialized health care is growing faster than its economy. Workers pay about fifty percent of their paycheck each month into healthcare, retirement and unemployment and more companies are outsourcing jobs to avoid those costs. Quality of care also suffers in France, says Teil, because hospitals and doctors resist government requirements to report their success and failures.

(…)

By contrast, Tiel says privately-owned hospitals in the U.S. are motivated to measure and report their quality of care, which leads to better care.

Lynn has much more

Little ado was made this week about France’s new Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s trip to Iraq. While in office, Chirac did everything in his power to destroy the relationship that our two countries had. At one point, when Chirac attempted to forge an anti-American triple alliance. Nicolas Sarkozy has made it his mission to repair the fractured relationship France has with the USA and our forty allies that went into Iraq.

Kouchner’s visit, full of symbolism, shatters one of the key points in Al Qaida’s analysis: that the Western powers will never find enough unity to develop a common strategy against terror.

At one point, when Chirac invited German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin to a gathering to forge an anti-American triple alliance, Al Qaida’s analysis appeared to have some basis in reality.

ABC exposes Bush’s secret order to CIA to destabilize Iranian regime

• Mark My Words
• NoisyRoom.net » Blog Archive » Noisy News Around the Web - 5/22/07…
• More Treason From The Media at Conservative Times–Republican GOP news source.
• The Gun Toting Liberal™
• OTA Wednesday

• 

• Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Webloggin, Cao’s Blog, The Amboy Times, Colloquium, Pursuing Holiness, Rightlinx, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, third world county, Wake Up America, Alabama Improper, stikNstein… has no mercy, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Planck’s Constant, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

HMMMM!

With 75 percent of the vote counted, the conservative Sarkozy had 53.35 percent compared to 46.65 percent for Socialist Segolene Royal, according to the Interior Ministry. Turnout was a strong 85 percent.

Royal conceded defeat minutes after the polls closed. “I gave it all my efforts, and will continue,” she told supporters. “Something has risen up that will not stop.”

Sarkozy, more pro-American and pro-Israeli than most French leaders, said the United States can “count on our friendship” but added, “friendship means accepting that friends can have different opinions.”

It looks like some are upset

 How far will the New York Times go to get a neo-con elected in France?

NYT: Already Sniping New ‘Conservative’ French President

Dedicated to AKD…..We aim to please  

Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal received the most votes in a field of 12 candidates that ranged from far left Trotskyite parties to far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Turnout was 84 percent, the highest since 1965.

• During campaigning for the first round, the candidates concentrated on addressing France’s problems, which include unrest among North African immigrants and their descendents, who rioted in poor suburban housing projects in 2005.

The incredibly destructive French riots of 2005 were set off when two “youths” fled from police, broke into an electrical station to hide, and then were electrocuted when they touched the wrong thing. This triggered three weeks of intense violence, with thousand of cars burned and many people injured.  And a few days ago, French presidential candidate Segolene Royal visited the memorial, laid a wreath on it, and commiserated with the parents of the two dead criminals.

Anti-Americanism is nothing new, but as Janet Albrechtsen writes, America deserves better. 

maybe it’s time to check what it is that drives animosity towards the US. It is not anti-American to disagree about US policies in Iraq or on Kyoto or in Guantanamo Bay; reasonable people can differ over how the Bush administration handles critical issues. And if protesting in the streets is your thing, go ahead. Ain’t democracy grand?

Andrei S. Markovits, author of Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America, told The Australian he is a card-carrying progressive signing up to every seminal Left issue. But he cannot stomach the toxic anti-Americanism, a staple of his side of politics.

“European anti-Americanism is becoming an unprecedented Europe-wide lingua franca” - a “key mobilising agent” for a common European identity. It has, quite literally, become the last acceptable prejudice, sanctioned by the highest levels of government. Europeans may bicker over an EU constitution, but they can agree on who they hate. They hate America.

While the powers that be plotted the surrender! Mixing rap music with memories of France’s revolutionary past, youths from poor neighborhoods of largely Muslim and African descent marched through Paris on Wednesday to present a collection of 20,000 complaints to lawmakers.

Note how there is no mention of the youths being Muslims!

The French government yesterday held crisis talks with community leaders in an effort to halt mounting violence in suburbs around Paris, amid news that gangs of youths, mainly of North African descent, were intensifying attacks on police.

… What follows is a brief outline of the thesis put forward by writer Bat Ye’or in her book “Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis.” My information is based on her book (which should be read in full). In addition I have drawn from some of her articles and interviews. I republish the information with her blessing, but this summary is completely my own.

In an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Bat Ye’or explained how French President Charles de Gaulle, disappointed by the loss of the French colonies in Africa and the Middle East as well as with France’s waning influence in the international arena, decided in the 1960’s to create a strategic alliance with the Arab and Muslim world to compete with the dominance of the United States and the Soviet Union.

France’s Chirac Not in Favor of Iran Sanctions

UNITED NATIONS — In a potential break with the Bush administration, French President Jacques Chirac said Monday that he is “never in favor of sanctions” and suggested that the United States and other nations could begin talks with Iran on its nuclear program before Iran formally suspends its nuclear activities. Chirac’s remarks came as President Bush prepared to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday…

Did that article really say a POTENTIAL break with the Bush administration? I see nothing potential about it . . . this is a definite break with the Bush administration. And really, have we come to expect anything different from the illustriuous leader of France? Chirac is never in favor of sanctions…and somehow this is breaking news? To who?

We can count on the French to undermine and oppose any effort to bring world peace by any means other than abject surrender.

That quote belongs to Bryan at Hot Air. One of his commenters said “Bush needs to announce an “axis-of-assholes” with France as the only member”! You know what, they are both right. Today, Chirac managed to stab us in the back, yet again!

Chirac calls for threat of Iran sanctions to be lifted

President Jacques Chirac has broken ranks with the US and Britain by calling for the suspension of UN Security Council action against Iran during negotiations over its nuclear programme.

The French President is the first European leader to state publicly that a freeze by Iran is not a precondition for opening talks. The concession to Iran seems to be linked to events in Lebanon, where there had been concern that French soldiers may be targeted by Iran’s proxy militia, Hizbollah, over France’s previously hardline stance in the nuclear negotiations.

It’s official: FRANCE WILLING TO GO TO WAR IN LEBANON TO UPHOLD UN CEASE FIRE AGREEMENT

French defense minister Alliot-Marie (picture) told the Wall Street Journal that Paris had obtained a very important clarification permitting its troops to use rubber bullets against “anyone standing in their way.”

I was happy to see this

American Congressman Tom Lantos said Sunday he will urge the Bush administration to freeze the $230 million aid program for Lebanon until the country prevents Syria from smuggling weapons to Hizbullah terrorists.
The California Democratic legislator, who also is his party’s leading member on the House International Relations Committee, spoke after meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Israel.” A porous Syrian-Lebanon border will only invite the repetition of Hizbullah attacks in the future,” he explained.

France and Germany Make Way for Muslim Nations

France disappointed the U.N. with its surprise announcement that it is sending only 200 troops instead of the thousands that were anticipated. The absence of the French and the refusal of Germany to place its soldiers in a situation of direct confrontation leaves Muslim nations with a larger percentage of the proposed force.
Indonesia and Malaysia each have offered to send 1,000 troops. Neither country has diplomatic ties with Israel, and Malaysia as recently as last week encouraged the world to cut off diplomatic ties with Jerusalem. Israel has objected to the placement of troops from countries with which it does not have diplomatic relations.
Turkey has offered to send 5,000 men, more than any other country. However, Turkey also has been a major transit point for Hizbullah terrorist weapons, according to Israeli intelligence and comments made at an American State Department briefing Thursday.
Italy has proposed sending between 2,000 and 3,000 soldiers, but has also made statements indicating sympathy for Hizbullah. A government minister termed the terrorists’ kidnapping of IDF soldiers a “military action,” and the government emphasized it would not try to disarm Hizbullah.
Prime Minister Romano Prodi told an Italian news service, “The fact that it won’t be Italy who will disarm Hizbullah militia seems to me to be a moot point, also because I don’t think the attempt would be productive.”
Morocco, which has ties with Israel and has a growing militant Muslim population, has offered to send 1,500-2,000 troops. Like many other nations, it wants a clearer definition from the UN of what is expected of the soldiers and when they are to open fire.

No big surprise that France would back out of the deal. Only question is why?

The French U.N. delegation has joined with Arab nations and is now calling for a complete and immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as a condition of any cease-fire, the sources said.

In addition, the French have reportedly agreed with Arab demands that the Lebanese force be accompanied only by UNIFIL, with no international force to be deployed.

After weeks of protests by the youth of France, Chirac caved into them! Big surprise there!

What caused the protests?

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who devised the law, had faced down protesters for weeks, insisting that its most divisive provision _ a so-called “first job contract” _ was necessary to reduce high unemployment rates among French youths by making it easier for companies to hire and fire young workers.

Fly that white flag proudly Jacques!