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French Workers Strike And March in The Streets – Blame Economic Crisis on the United States
Arcellor Mittal workers demonstrate during a protest march in Marseille January 29, 2009
The French socialist trade unions are at it again.Hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses, factory workers and plumbers marched through French cities on Thursday to demand pay rises and protection for jobs.
The demonstrations were the high point of a nationwide one-day strike called by France’s eight main trade unions to try to persuade President Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to do more to help ordinary people overcome the economic crisis.
But the stoppage, billed as a “Black Thursday,” did not bring France to a halt as previous strikes have done. Public transport continued to run, albeit on a reduced and erratic schedule.
“The government has taken measures for banks but today it is the workers who are suffering,” said Charles Foulard, a technician at a refinery run by energy giant Total.
“This crisis comes from the United States, it’s the financial bubble that is bursting. It’s not for the workers to pay for that,” he said as crowds gathered at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, birthplace of the French Revolution.
Surprised they didn’t blame Bush.
France is just broken – a lesson as to what happens to a social democracy when the left-wing unions call the shots.
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Brigitte Bardot on Trial Watch: CONVICTED of Inciting Hatred Against Muslims
No freedom of speech in France.
France’s 1960s screen icon Brigitte Bardot received a 15,000-euro (23,000 dollar) fine on Tuesday for inciting hatred against Muslims.
In December 2006, the film star-turned-animal rights activist wrote a letter to France’s then interior minister, current President Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing that Muslims should stun animals before slaughtering them during the Aid al-Kabir holiday.
She outraged anti-racist groups by saying: “I’ve had enough of being led by the nose by this whole population which is destroying us, (and) destroying our country by imposing their ways.”
Bardot, now 73 and suffering from arthritis, was absent from Tuesday’s court hearing in Paris. She wrote to the court saying: “I’m sickened by how (these organisations) are harassing me.”
She added: “I will not shut up until stunning is carried out” on animals before their ritual slaughter.
Bardot already has four convictions on similar charges. In 2004 she was fined 5,000 euros for inciting racial hatred in her book “Un Cri Dans le Silence” (A Cry in the Silence).
Now you know what the Founding Fathers wrote the first amendment to the United States Constitution. To think that Flap’s ass would be in court for his publication of the Mohammed Cartoons.
France has taken political correctness to the extreme of abrogating the inalienable right to speak your own mind.
Somehow Flap thinks we have not heard the end of this story.
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Brigitte Bardot on Trial Watch: Freedom of Speech in France?
Brigitte Bardot in earlier and better times
Yeah, Flap knows that is a dated photo of Brigitte Bardot but Flap couldn’t resist – especially a free speech issue.Brigitte Bardot is back on trial in France, facing charges of fanning discrimination and racial hatred against Muslims.
In a Paris court hearing Tuesday, prosecutors said they are seeking a two-month suspended prison sentence and a $23,900 fine against the former screen siren and animal rights campaigner.
Bardot, 73, was not present for the hearing. A verdict is expected June 3.
A leading French anti-racism group known as MRAP filed suit last year over a letter that Bardot sent to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, and which was published in her foundation’s quarterly journal.
In the letter to Sarkozy, now the president, Bardot accused France’s Muslim population of destroying France, and complained about the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
French anti-racism laws prevent inciting hatred and discrimination on racial or religious or racial grounds. Bardot has been convicted four times for inciting racial hatred.
Now you know what the Founding Fathers wrote the first amendment to the United States Constitution. To think that Flap’s ass would be in court for his publication of the Mohammed Cartoons.
France has taken political correctness to the extreme of abrogating the inalienable right to speak your own mind.
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Iran Nuclear Watch: France Preparing for Iran War?
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner walks to a car after news conference in Cairo September 13, 2007. Kouchner said on Sunday his country had to prepare for the possibility of war against Iran over its nuclear program, but he did not believe any such action was imminent.
World should brace for possible war over Iran: France
The world should brace for a possible war over the Iranian nuclear crisis but seeking a solution through talks should take priority, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday.
“We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war,” he said in an interview broadcast on French television and radio.“We must negotiate right to the end,” with Iran, he said, but underlined that if Tehran possessed an atomic weapon, it would represent “a real danger for the whole world.”
“We are trying to put in place plans which are the privilege of chiefs of staff and that is not for tomorrow,” he said, referring to military plans but stressed that although any attack on Iran was far from taking place, “It is normal for us to plan” for any eventuality.
Kouchner said France wanted the European Union to prepare sanctions against Iran, outside the ambit of the UN Security Council, to force Tehran to forsake its nuclear ambitions.
“We have decided that while negotiations are continuing … to prepare eventual sanctions outside the ambit of UN sanctions. Our good friends, the Germans, suggested that,” he said.The next step for the United States and the EU will be sanctions outside the United Nations.
But, Iran is on a short leash .
If these sanctions do not deter the Iranians from their nuclear program (which they won’t) next will be a financial blockade of Iran followed quickly by a physical interdiction of ships carrying gasoline to Iran.
Iran will respond militarily and the war will begin.
Interesting with the election of Nicholas Sarkozy that France is NOW giving the United States cover like a good ally would.
Stay tuned ……
Previous:Iran Nuclear Watch: U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan
Iran Nuclear Watch: Khamenei – Iran Will Outsmart “Drunken and Arrogant†West
Iran Nuclear Watch: Sarkozy – Iranian Bomb or Bomb Iran
Iran Watch: Gas Rationing Spurs Violence in Iran
Michael Ramirez on Iran and the Spread of Islamic Extremism
Technorati Tags: Iran
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France Watch: Nicolas Sarkozy Elected President
President elect Nicolas Sarkozy gives thumbs up after leaving his campaign headquarters in Paris, Sunday May 6, 2007. French voters elected reform-minded Nicolas Sarkozy as their new president on Sunday, giving him a comfortable winning margin, preliminary official results and projections from four polling agencies showed. With more than half of the vote counted, Sarkozy was scoring just over 53 percent to a little more than 46 percent for Socialist Segolene Royal. Polling agencies also had the conservative Sarkozy winning 53 percent of the vote compared to 47 for Royal amid massive turnout of 85 percent.
Sarkozy wins French presidency
Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidency by a comfortable margin Sunday and immediately signalled his victory would mean friendly relations with the United States.
His socialist opponent, Segolene Royal, conceded defeat for her hopes of becoming France’s first woman president. With nearly 70 percent of ballots counted, Sarkozy had just over 53 percent of the vote, according to the Interior Ministry.
Washington can “count on our friendship,” Sarkozy told hundreds of cheering supporters, though he added that “friendship means accepting that friends can have different opinions.”
President Bush swiftly phoned the new president-elect to offer congratulations.
“The United States and France are historic allies and partners. President Bush looks forward to working with President-elect Sarkozy as we continue our strong alliance,” said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
Better for France and the United States?
We will see…….
Technorati Tags: Nicolas Sarkozy, France
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France Watch: Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal in Run-Off
Supporters for France�s UMP political party presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy react to the announcement of results in the first round vote at a theatre in Paris, April 22, 2007. Conservative leader Sarkozy finished first in the opening round of France presidential elections and will meet Socialist rival Royal in a May 6 run-off vote as voters in France turned out in force.
Sarkozy, Royal get most votes in France
Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal appeared headed to a runoff for the French presidency, according to pollsters’ projections from the Sunday vote, setting up a stark choice of left or right for a nation hungry for new direction.
Four polling agencies put Sarkozy ahead of Royal, and both of them in the May 6 run-off, eliminating the 10 other first-round candidates. The projections were based on actual vote counts from representative samples of hundreds of polling stations across the country. Official results from the election that drew a huge turnout were expected later on Sunday evening.
Left vs Right…..A turning point for France?
Let the campaign begin……
Technorati Tags: France, NicolasSarkozy, SegoleneRoyal
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France Watch: Chirac is OUT
French President Jacques Chirac gestures while speaking during a final media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Friday March 9, 2007. European Union leaders drafted an agreement Friday promising to take the lead in the fight against global warming by setting binding targets to cut greenhouse gases and ensure a fifth of the bloc’s energy comes from green power like wind turbines and solar panels.
Technorati Tags: France, JacquesChirac
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Iran Nuclear Watch: Chirac – OK If Iran Has One or Two Nukes?
French President Jacques Chirac (C), Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel review the troops. Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the need to secure Russian energy supplies to the EU were expected to dominate a summit in an elegant chateau north of Paris between the leaders of France, Russia and Germany (September 2006)
New York Times: Chirac Unfazed by Nuclear Iran, Then Backtracks
President Jacques Chirac said this week that if Iran had one or two nuclear weapons, it would not pose a big danger, and that if Iran were to launch a nuclear weapon against a country like Israel, it would lead to the immediate destruction of Tehran.
The remarks, made in an interview on Monday with The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and Le Nouvel Observateur, a weekly magazine, were vastly different from stated French policy and what Mr. Chirac has often said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Chirac summoned the same journalists back to Élysée Palace to retract many of his remarks.
Mr. Chirac said repeatedly during the second interview that he had spoken casually and quickly the day before because he believed he had been talking about Iran off the record.
“I should rather have paid attention to what I was saying and understood that perhaps I was on the record,†he said.
So, President Chirac of France has been complicit with Iran in the STALL GAME that has enabled Iran to advance its uranium enrichment program?
Wonder what the Brits and the rest of the European Union have to say?
And the P-5-Plus-1 talks were WORTHLESS?
But, isn’t that what Flap said the first time……?
French President Jacques Chirac speaks during an interwiev at the French Europe1 radio studios, Monday Sept.18, 2006 in Paris. Chirac said that he has very good relations with U.S. President George W. Bush, while stressing that France cannot be submissive to the United States.
The tape-recorded, on-the-record interview was conducted under an agreement that it would not be published until Thursday, when Le Nouvel Observateur appears on newsstands.
On Monday, Mr. Chirac began by describing as “very dangerous†Iran’s refusal to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used to produce electricity or to make nuclear weapons. Then he made his remarks about a nuclear-armed Iran.
“I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb,†he said. “Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that’s not very dangerous.
“But what is very dangerous is proliferation. This means that if Iran continues in the direction it has taken and totally masters nuclear-generated electricity, the danger does not lie in the bomb it will have, and which will be of no use to it.â€
Mr. Chirac said it would be an act of self-destruction for Iran to use a nuclear weapon against another country.
“Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel?†Mr. Chirac asked. “It would not have gone 200 meters into the atmosphere before Tehran would be razed.â€
Clue One to Chirac:
Tehran may be NUKED anyway. Natanz for sure and Istahan and Bushehr and Arak.
Chirac is either going SENILE, is an imbecilic FOOL or mistakenly gave up his countries secret bottom line on Iran’s nuclear weapons development program. Hell, perhaps France is selling them the material and the technical know-how? They supplied Saddam Hussein, remember?
It was unclear whether Mr. Chirac’s initial remarks reflected what he truly believes. If so, it suggests a growing divide with American policy, which places the highest priority on stopping Iran from gaining the capacity to produce nuclear weapons.
Mr. Chirac has privately expressed the view occasionally in the past year that a nuclear-armed Iran might be inevitable and that it could try to sell the technology to other countries. But publicly the policy has been very different. In fact, Élysée Palace prepared a heavily edited 19-page transcript of the Monday interview that excluded Mr. Chirac’s assessment of a nuclear-armed Iran.
The transcript even inserted a line that Mr. Chirac had not said that read, “I do not see what type of scenario could justify Iran’s recourse to an atomic bomb.â€
Flap bets one thing – Ahamdinejad and the Iranian Mullahs are laughing their asses off at Chirac in Tehran this morning.
And the United States?
Well, we knew we were ALONE with Israel, now didn’t we?
Stay tuned…..
Previous:
Iran Watch: Bush Warns Iran Against Action in Iraq
Iran Nuclear Watch:: Boasts of Nuclear Program Propaganda?
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Currently Installing 3,000 Uranium Enrichment Centrifuges
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Continuing Uranium enrichment
Iran Nuclear Watch: Bolton – United States Iran Policy FLAWED
Iran Nuclear Watch: North Korea Helping Iran With Nuclear Testing
Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Warns Iran – BACK DOWN
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Bars 38 IAEA Inspectors
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Defiant of United Nations Sanctions, Plan Missile War Games
Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadiejad – Iran is Ready for Any Possibility
Iran Nuclear Watch: Russian Missiles Delivered to Iran: Ivanov
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran To Install 3,000 Uranium Enrichment Centrifuges
Iran Nuclear Watch: Next Target Tehran?
Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Has No Plan to Strike Iran?
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Arrests a Nuclear Spy
Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Submarine Collides With Japanese Ship
Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Planning Nuclear Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?
The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
Technorati Tags: Iran, Ahmadinejad AliLarijani, Israel
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Lebanon Watch: France and Germany Call on Syria to Stop Destabilizing Lebanon
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fuad Saniora holds a press conference in front of hundreds from a Beirut delegation who visited the Government House to show support, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday Dec. 5, 2006. Shiites on Tuesday buried a young man killed in street clashes in a Sunni Muslim neighborhood as the country’s army commander warns the military may not be able to contain any further protests linked to Lebanon’s tense political standoff.
AFP: Germany, France urge Syria to ‘stop destabilising Lebanon’
Germany and France have issued a joint call to Syria to “stop supporting forces that seek to destabilise Lebanon and the region”.
“France and Germany call for an end to all interference in the affairs of Lebanon,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday in a joint statement after meeting in Mettlach in western Germany.
“As far as Syria is concerned, we want that country to stop supporting forces that seek to destabilise Lebanon and the region,” the statement said.
They said that in exchange for heeding the call, Syria could hope to “resume normal conduct with the international community and in particular with the countries of the
European Union”.Merkel and Chirac expressed their full support for the embattled Western-backed government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who is facing mass protests and calls for his government to resign.
Oh Please…….
And when Israel was at war against Syria and Iran client state within a state, Hezbollah, where were the Europeans?
Well, they were carping at Israel and then by the end of the war reluctantly offered men and material to the United Nations in order to preserve the peace and prevent the rearming of Hezbollah.
And what has been the result?
Hezbollah is rearming with impunity and attempting with Syria’s help to bring down the democratically elected Saniora government.
Lebanon’s Muslim Shi’ite Amal movement members carry the coffin of Ahmad Mahmoud in the suburbs of Beirut December 5, 2006. Mahmoud was killed on Sunday during clashes between Sunni residents and Shi’ite protesters in the Qasqas neighbourhood in Beirut.
In the meantime, Fouad Siniora vows to stay on despite mounting pressure.
Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora vowed Sunday to remain in office despite opposition supporters camped outside his offices for the third day calling on him to resign. As nationalist songs were blaring from the nearby tents of the opposition in Downtown Beirut, a Mass was held at the Grand Serail to commemorate the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.
Gemayel died in a shooting ambush in a Christian suburb of Beirut last month.
The service was led by Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar and attended by Siniora, his anti-Syrian ministers, Gemayel’s family, and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, as well as other politicians from the March 14 Forces.
Siniora said the protests would not achieve the opposition’s goal, hinting that they might take counter-action if the Hizbullah-led sit-in drags on.
“A solution to any problem does not come through the street because this means might trigger a counter-means and we will not reach any result,” Siniora told reporters after the Mass.
“I will not leave; I am going to stay here for as I enjoy Parliament’s confidence. I am here by the confidence of the Lebanese and the constitutional institutions,” he said.
Siniora and his supporters describe Hizbullah’s campaign as a coup attempt led by Syria and its ally, Iran. “We are used to coups d’etat in Lebanon and the Arab world and we know its results and there was one attempt in 1961 and it failed,” he said, “so why try something that is already known to fail?”
Stay tuned……
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) gestures as she chats with French president Jacques Chirac upon their arrival in Mettlach in western Germany. France and Germany have turned up the pressure on Syria, telling Damascus to stop destabilising Lebanon as mass protests against Prime Minister Fuad Siniora entered a fifth day.
Previous:
Lebanon Watch: Siniora defiant as Pro-Syria Hezbollah Calls Mass Protest to Force Out the Government
Lebanon Watch: Hezbollah Plans to Bring Down Lebanese Government Within A Month
Lebanon Watch: Hundreds of Thousands of Lebanese Mourn Pierre Gemayel – Attend Funeral
Lebanon Watch: Assassinated Lebanese Minister Pierre Gemayel to Be Buried Thursday
Global War on Terror Watch: Hezbollah and Syria Make a MOVE in Lebanon
Technorati Tags: Lebanon, Syria, Hezbollah, IsraelFouadSinora
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France Riot Watch: France Sends Riot Police to Marseille
A man looks at the wreckage of a bus that was set alight in the port city of Marseille. A young woman is in critical condition after a night of gang violence in parts of France that coincided with the first anniversary of the suburban riots that gripped the country.AP: France sends riot police to Marseille
France’s interior minister sent riot police to patrol the southern port city of Marseille on Sunday after a group of marauding teenagers torched a bus, gravely burning a young woman.
French police braced for violence this weekend, the anniversary of last year’s riots in poor neighborhoods where immigrants from former French colonies in Africa live with their French-born children on the fringes of society.
On Saturday, 46 people were taken into custody, most of them in the communities around Paris, and two police officers were slightly injured. The most serious violence was the brutal bus attack in Marseille.
A group of young people burst onto the bus and tossed in a bottle of flammable liquid before fleeing, police said, citing witnesses’ accounts. The resulting fire injured a 26-year-old woman, who suffered second- and third-degree burns on her arms, legs and face and was in a medically induced coma on Sunday.
Why do the French people tolerate this crap from Muslim immigrants?
Michelle Malkin recommends an answer:
David Orland has much more. No Pasaran is in the eye of the firestorm with wall-to-wall coverage–and a link to this Economist cover and story:
Indeed…..
But, France is not going to get there by Dhimmitude.
Previous:
France Riot Watch: One Year Later
France Watch: Muslim Immigrant Youths March Through Paris
France Immigration Watch: France Retreats on Immigrants
Technorati Tags: France, NicolasSarkozy, illegalimmigration
