The collectif antilibérale makes the excellent point that there is no problem with the appointments to the new jobs created by the Lisbon treaty. Two things will control their in-trays, after all - the first is the job of getting a major new institution, the EU external action service, operating and building up its credibility and budget-attracting power, and the second is the eternal one of seeking consensus between the major powers, institutions, and interest groups in a diverse confederation with a small central government. If the EU has an effective diplomatic service and at least a rough consensus on policy, it can't help but be listened to - it's too important for this not to be the case. But if the member states, the institutions, and the interests that underly them don't have a minimum degree of consensus, or the administrative machine doesn't work, it won't be - and it won't matter who gets the job. And, of course, a major reason for the top level changes in the Lisbon treaty is to make it easier to achieve political consensus within the Union.
If the EU has an effective diplomatic service and at least a rough consensus on policy, it can't help but be listened to - it's too important for this not to be the case. But if the member states, the institutions, and the interests that underly them don't have a minimum degree of consensus, or the administrative machine doesn't work, it won't be - and it won't matter who gets the job. And, of course, a major reason for the top level changes in the Lisbon treaty is to make it easier to achieve political consensus within the Union.
The Lisbon Treaty introduces a new form of public participation in European Union policy shaping, the European citizens' initiative, which enables one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of Member States to call directly on the European Commission to bring forward an initiative of interest to them in an area of EU competence. Before citizens can start exercising this new right, a few ground rules and procedures have to be laid down in an EU regulation. Given the importance of this new tool for citizens, civil society and stakeholders across the EU, the Commission has opened a broad public consultation in order to seek the views of all interested parties on how the citizens' initiative should work in practice.
Before citizens can start exercising this new right, a few ground rules and procedures have to be laid down in an EU regulation.
Given the importance of this new tool for citizens, civil society and stakeholders across the EU, the Commission has opened a broad public consultation in order to seek the views of all interested parties on how the citizens' initiative should work in practice.
The scandal drags on over what exactly happened on that night in September when a German soldier called in a deadly air strike in Afghanistan. The German press is scathing in its criticism of the government's handling of the incident and most papers blame the debacle on Berlin's reluctance to admit it is at war. It is a scandal that has already claimed three scalps and that refuses to go away. The repercussions of an air strike called in by a German officer in Afghanistan in early September are still being felt in Berlin. With new details emerging by the day of the circumstances surrounding the attack which killed up to 140 people, including civilians, German Defense Minister Karl-Theoder zu Guttenberg is coming under pressure to reveal exactly what he knows about the air strike. Colonel Georg Klein called in the strike on Sept. 4 after two tankers had been captured by the Taliban not far from a German military base. A classified NATO report obtained by SPIEGEL states that the Klein's real target was the Taliban who had hijacked the vehicles rather than the tankers themselves.
It is a scandal that has already claimed three scalps and that refuses to go away. The repercussions of an air strike called in by a German officer in Afghanistan in early September are still being felt in Berlin. With new details emerging by the day of the circumstances surrounding the attack which killed up to 140 people, including civilians, German Defense Minister Karl-Theoder zu Guttenberg is coming under pressure to reveal exactly what he knows about the air strike.
Colonel Georg Klein called in the strike on Sept. 4 after two tankers had been captured by the Taliban not far from a German military base. A classified NATO report obtained by SPIEGEL states that the Klein's real target was the Taliban who had hijacked the vehicles rather than the tankers themselves.
It's funny to see this roundup given that the rules of engagement for the Americans who carried out the bombardment (or ISAF at large) specify that close air support is to be used only in case troops are under fire, following the new COIN rules set out by McChrystal.
new COIN rules set out by McChrystal
ANDREW EXUM of CNAS posts a copy of General Stanley McChrystal's new counterinsurgency guidance for Afghanistan, which Spencer Ackerman jokes "would make McChrystal look like a dirty hippie if he didn't have four stars on either shoulder." The guidance is probably the least violence-oriented military document you're ever likely to see. It represents the latest in a sea change in strategic thinking that is underway with the rise of COIN (counterinsurgency) proponents to the top levels in the American military. The change is welcome. There is certainly no way to win a counterinsurgency war like Afghanistan without such a shift. The question remains whether it can be won even with the shift, and whether the game is worth the candle.
Losing lots of troops might even help you. Just look at northern Ireland. The Brits lost more soldiers than they managed to kill terrorists, and the day they killed the most people - bloody sunday - was the most counterproductive one during the entire conflict. Still, they ended up winning. Partly because people felt bad for them losing so many soldiers.
* After the debacle in Vietnam, instead of trying to understand COIN (USMC, as usual, had actually gotten a fair way when the war ended) the US armed forces felt so depressed by Vietnam they decided to forget all the hard earned lessons on COIN and instead concentrate on conventional warfare. It has taken them half a decade of active combat against guerilla forces to get a grip on it again. I do actually have pretty good hopes though, and if anyone can pull this off, it's a man with McChrystals background. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Well, your point certainly stands. Not killing people is rule 1 in COIN, watch McChrystals new restrictive rules on CAS.
I also agree that the Afghans won't feel sad for the Americans. Unlike in Northern Ireland, the cultural differences are too big for any real widespread solidarity. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
What Is Counterinsurgency? In his recent speeches, President Obama defines America's objectives in Afghanistan as: 1) suppressing the Taliban and national resistance forces to American occupation and the Karzai regime; 2) eliminating several score members of Al Qaeda; and 3) creating a stable pro-American government and economic infrastructure. David Galula, author of Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (RAND Corporation, 1964) and a recognized authority on the matter, stresses that counterinsurgency includes "building or rebuilding a political apparatus within the population." In this sense any counterinsurgency is, in reality, an insurgency. In Afghanistan, the Taliban ruled for several years until the U.S. and the CIA-backed Northern Alliance drove them out. Obama may define the Taliban as the insurgents, but the Taliban, who control many parts of Afghanistan, view the Americans as backing an insurgency against Taliban rule. Gen. Stanley McChrystal's military strategy for defeating the Taliban is to "protect the people from terror" through the tactic of "clear and hold." To "clear and hold" means to drive the Taliban out of their secure areas in the countryside, which Obama proposes to do through his "surge" of 30,000 troops, and then occupy those areas while systematically killing enough Taliban and nationalist forces (in urban areas as well), so that they no longer resist the occupation. The model for this "clear and hold/surge" strategy is Iraq. According to the conventional wisdom that dominates Official Washington, President George W. Bush's 2007 "surge" and the "clear and hold" strategy "won" the war in Iraq. The reality may have been much different - with a variety of factors including paying off Sunni tribes in 2006 and the grudging U.S. agreement in 2008 to withdraw from Iraq playing bigger roles in the drop in violence - but that is not what Washington's influential neoconservatives and their allies want people to believe. Read more...
In his recent speeches, President Obama defines America's objectives in Afghanistan as: 1) suppressing the Taliban and national resistance forces to American occupation and the Karzai regime; 2) eliminating several score members of Al Qaeda; and 3) creating a stable pro-American government and economic infrastructure.
David Galula, author of Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (RAND Corporation, 1964) and a recognized authority on the matter, stresses that counterinsurgency includes "building or rebuilding a political apparatus within the population."
In this sense any counterinsurgency is, in reality, an insurgency. In Afghanistan, the Taliban ruled for several years until the U.S. and the CIA-backed Northern Alliance drove them out.
Obama may define the Taliban as the insurgents, but the Taliban, who control many parts of Afghanistan, view the Americans as backing an insurgency against Taliban rule.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal's military strategy for defeating the Taliban is to "protect the people from terror" through the tactic of "clear and hold."
To "clear and hold" means to drive the Taliban out of their secure areas in the countryside, which Obama proposes to do through his "surge" of 30,000 troops, and then occupy those areas while systematically killing enough Taliban and nationalist forces (in urban areas as well), so that they no longer resist the occupation.
The model for this "clear and hold/surge" strategy is Iraq. According to the conventional wisdom that dominates Official Washington, President George W. Bush's 2007 "surge" and the "clear and hold" strategy "won" the war in Iraq.
The reality may have been much different - with a variety of factors including paying off Sunni tribes in 2006 and the grudging U.S. agreement in 2008 to withdraw from Iraq playing bigger roles in the drop in violence - but that is not what Washington's influential neoconservatives and their allies want people to believe. Read more...
Peace in the North was bought in hard cash: they addressed most of the underlying inequities and pumped in crap loads of money to raise standards of living for the people that would have been inclined to support the terrorists. Peace came when the terrorists needed to save face because their power base was eroding.
Are you really proposing that people in the North felt sorry for the Brits? Or did you mean people outside the North?
It's much harder to hate people who lose lots of soldiers without getting to kill a lot of people back, versus one who kills hordes of terrorists (and civilians) while losing no soldiers of his own.
COIN is often not about cumulative losses or costs, but about patience. And the people who have the most patience are the locals. The Brits had that patience because they had plenty of locals on their side. The losses and costs were never threatening from any real perspective: the Brits lost 50 times as many people during just the first day of the battle of Somme in 1916. Patience conquers. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
1969 Northern Ireland riots - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The rioting petered out by Sunday, 17 August. Eight people had been killed and 750 injured, of whom 133 (72 Catholics and 61 Protestants) were treated for gunshot wounds. In addition a total of 1,505 Catholic families and 315 Protestant ones were expelled from their homes, either through burning or intimidation. A further 275 commercial premises were badly damaged or destroyed, of which 83% were Catholic. The riots represented the most sustained violence that Northern Ireland had seen since the early 1920s. Protestants and unionists believed the violence showed the true face of the Civil Rights movement - as a front for the IRA and armed insurrection. Catholics, on the other hand, saw the riots, particularly in Belfast, as an assault on their community, in which the forces of the state had appeared as anything but neutral. The disturbances, taken together with the Battle of the Bogside, are often cited as the beginning of the Troubles. Violence escalated sharply in Northern Ireland after these events, with the formation of new paramilitary groups on either side, most notably the Provisional Irish Republican Army in December of that year. On the loyalist side, the Ulster Volunteer Force (formed in 1966) were galvanised by the August riots and in 1971, another paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association was founded out of a coalition of loyalist militants who had been active since August 1969. The largest of these was the Shankill Defence Association, led by John McKeague, which had been responsible for what organisation there was of loyalist violence in the riots of August 1969. In addition, thousands of British Army troops were deployed into Northern Ireland. While the troops were initially seen as a neutral force, they rapidly got dragged into the street violence and by 1971 were devoting most of their attention to combatting republican paramilitaries.
The rioting petered out by Sunday, 17 August. Eight people had been killed and 750 injured, of whom 133 (72 Catholics and 61 Protestants) were treated for gunshot wounds. In addition a total of 1,505 Catholic families and 315 Protestant ones were expelled from their homes, either through burning or intimidation. A further 275 commercial premises were badly damaged or destroyed, of which 83% were Catholic.
The riots represented the most sustained violence that Northern Ireland had seen since the early 1920s. Protestants and unionists believed the violence showed the true face of the Civil Rights movement - as a front for the IRA and armed insurrection. Catholics, on the other hand, saw the riots, particularly in Belfast, as an assault on their community, in which the forces of the state had appeared as anything but neutral. The disturbances, taken together with the Battle of the Bogside, are often cited as the beginning of the Troubles. Violence escalated sharply in Northern Ireland after these events, with the formation of new paramilitary groups on either side, most notably the Provisional Irish Republican Army in December of that year. On the loyalist side, the Ulster Volunteer Force (formed in 1966) were galvanised by the August riots and in 1971, another paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association was founded out of a coalition of loyalist militants who had been active since August 1969. The largest of these was the Shankill Defence Association, led by John McKeague, which had been responsible for what organisation there was of loyalist violence in the riots of August 1969. In addition, thousands of British Army troops were deployed into Northern Ireland. While the troops were initially seen as a neutral force, they rapidly got dragged into the street violence and by 1971 were devoting most of their attention to combatting republican paramilitaries.
Provisional IRA got power-sharing in Northern Ireland, release of their prisoners and reform of the police. Arguably they could have negotiated that much earlier, but then again if the brittish goal was simply to keep northern Ireland, they could have avoided the whole trouble by instituting the same reforms much earlier. If it had be done much much earlier in the whole of Ireland, maybe Ireland would today be part of Great Britain.
But then again, then the brittish upper class would not have had the opportunity to plunder Ireland. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
Speaking on Germany's RTL television network on Sunday evening, Guttenberg said the claims brought against him would not move him to step down as the country's minister of defense. "Even if it gets really stormy, I will stay right where I am," he said. "That's the way I was brought up and that's the way I'm going to deal with it." Earlier, he told public broadcaster ARD that he had not withheld information regarding the September 4 attack, which is believed to have killed and injured dozens of civilians.
"Even if it gets really stormy, I will stay right where I am," he said. "That's the way I was brought up and that's the way I'm going to deal with it."
Earlier, he told public broadcaster ARD that he had not withheld information regarding the September 4 attack, which is believed to have killed and injured dozens of civilians.
Jokes aside, Guttenberg seems to be weathering this decently, so far. Another week and he's through his first real 'test'.
You're right - he's very media-savvy and will probably come through this in pretty good shape. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
It's a rite of passage. The SPIEGEL cover distinctly leaves that impression on me.
Moldovan protesters against alleged election fraud in April were subjected to torture, ill treatment and even beaten to death, but prosecutors and judges failed to follow up on police brutality, the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, has said. The council's report is based on a fact-finding mission carried out in July by experts from the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), a specialised arm of the Strasbourg-based body of which Moldova is a member. It was released on Monday (14 December), after the current pro-European government in Chisinau agreed to its publication.
The council's report is based on a fact-finding mission carried out in July by experts from the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), a specialised arm of the Strasbourg-based body of which Moldova is a member.
It was released on Monday (14 December), after the current pro-European government in Chisinau agreed to its publication.
Turnout in an "informal" referendum on 13 December on whether wealthy Catalonia should secede from Spain fell short of organisers' hopes, but they said enough voters showed up to energise their separatist campaign. About 30% of 700,000 eligible voters in 170 towns and villages in the region's Catalan-language-speaking heartland voted on the question of whether Catalonia should become an independent state within the European Union, organisers said. This was below the 40% target initially mentioned by leaders of the campaign, which aims to put pressure on Catalonia's biggest political parties to call for a real referendum on secession in the future.
About 30% of 700,000 eligible voters in 170 towns and villages in the region's Catalan-language-speaking heartland voted on the question of whether Catalonia should become an independent state within the European Union, organisers said.
This was below the 40% target initially mentioned by leaders of the campaign, which aims to put pressure on Catalonia's biggest political parties to call for a real referendum on secession in the future.
The Spanish government says the constitution would not allow a real referendum on regional independence.
Civil servants working for the Council of Ministers are on strike this morning, but the industrial action over pay has not impeded the meeting of member states' fisheries ministers. The staff unions staged a demonstration today in the atrium of the Council's Justus Lipsius building in Brussels to protest against the refusal by national governments to approve a 3.7% pay rise for EU staff. The Council staff were joined by civil servants from the European Commission and the European Parliament, whose staff are not on strike, though they have given formal notice of their intention to strike. Around 1,000 people attended this morning's rally.
The staff unions staged a demonstration today in the atrium of the Council's Justus Lipsius building in Brussels to protest against the refusal by national governments to approve a 3.7% pay rise for EU staff.
The Council staff were joined by civil servants from the European Commission and the European Parliament, whose staff are not on strike, though they have given formal notice of their intention to strike. Around 1,000 people attended this morning's rally.
The Swedish EU Presidency's proposals for a new justice and home affairs agenda, adopted by European heads of state and government at their meeting in Brussels last week (10-11 December), should lead to much-needed action in areas such as immigration and asylum, experts told EurActiv. The final draft of the programme was described by a European Commission official as the broadest ever "roadmap" of its kind. The point was echoed by UK Socialist MEP Claude Moraes, who said that unlike its Tampere and Hague predecessors, the Stockholm blueprint covers "the entire JHA area".
The final draft of the programme was described by a European Commission official as the broadest ever "roadmap" of its kind.
The point was echoed by UK Socialist MEP Claude Moraes, who said that unlike its Tampere and Hague predecessors, the Stockholm blueprint covers "the entire JHA area".
President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that France would take out a loan to finance a 35-billion-euro spending spree aimed at boosting competitiveness and funding the best universities in the world. "Today, we must prepare France for the challenges of tomorrow so that our country can fully benefit from the recovery, so that it is stronger, more competitive, so that it creates more jobs," he said. Sarkozy argued that by borrowing and spending 35 billion euros (52 billion dollars), France could generate 60 billion euros' worth of state and private investments and leave its year-long recession in better shape than before.
"Today, we must prepare France for the challenges of tomorrow so that our country can fully benefit from the recovery, so that it is stronger, more competitive, so that it creates more jobs," he said.
Sarkozy argued that by borrowing and spending 35 billion euros (52 billion dollars), France could generate 60 billion euros' worth of state and private investments and leave its year-long recession in better shape than before.
The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, will stay in hospital for at least one more day after being hit in the face when a statuette of Milan cathedral was thrown at him during a political rally yesterday.A medical bulletin issued by the San Raffaele hospital in Milan confirmed that Berlusconi sustained a broken nose and two broken teeth.It said he was taking antibiotics and painkillers because the pain was "persistent" and he was having difficulty eating.His personal doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, said surgery would not be necessary but Berlusconi would remain in hospital until at least tomorrow.The attack happened as the 73-year-old Italian leader signed autographs and greeted the crowd outside the cathedral.
The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, will stay in hospital for at least one more day after being hit in the face when a statuette of Milan cathedral was thrown at him during a political rally yesterday.
A medical bulletin issued by the San Raffaele hospital in Milan confirmed that Berlusconi sustained a broken nose and two broken teeth.
It said he was taking antibiotics and painkillers because the pain was "persistent" and he was having difficulty eating.
His personal doctor, Alberto Zangrillo, said surgery would not be necessary but Berlusconi would remain in hospital until at least tomorrow.
The attack happened as the 73-year-old Italian leader signed autographs and greeted the crowd outside the cathedral.
... One of Mr. Berlusconi's most fierce critics, Ezio Mauro, the editor of La Repubblica, wrote that the country had to unite against the spectre of the political violence that plagued Italy in previous decades. "Friends and adversaries, supporters and opponents, need today to show solidarity with the prime minister -- as we do -- without any differentiation," Mr. Mauro wrote. "And they must build a wall against the insanity of this gesture, first and foremost because it is extremely serious in itself and also because it can foster the kind of tragic period that we have already tried and tested, during the worst years of our lives." ...
Grazie, Google Translate. La Chine dorme. Laisse la dormir. Quand la Chine s'éveillera, le monde tremblera.
He is an image-conscious leader who reigns in a media whirlwind of opinion pollsters, special advisers and Facebook pages. But the visibility of Nicolas Sarkozy's "omnipresidency" comes with a price tag. The communications budget of the Elysée palace will be €7.5m (£6.7m) by the end of this year.The estimate, calculated by an investigation at Le Parisien newspaper and confirmed by the Elysée, includes spending on media preparations, opinion polls and website development. France's official financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors, is expected to comb through the figures at the beginning of next year.While the largest chunk of the budget - €2.9m - goes on paying the salaries of the 51 people who work under the umbrella of communications for Sarkozy, the next biggest amount is spent on the commissioning and analysis of opinion polls, a practice that costs almost €1.9m and has already proved controversial this year.
He is an image-conscious leader who reigns in a media whirlwind of opinion pollsters, special advisers and Facebook pages. But the visibility of Nicolas Sarkozy's "omnipresidency" comes with a price tag. The communications budget of the Elysée palace will be €7.5m (£6.7m) by the end of this year.
The estimate, calculated by an investigation at Le Parisien newspaper and confirmed by the Elysée, includes spending on media preparations, opinion polls and website development. France's official financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors, is expected to comb through the figures at the beginning of next year.
While the largest chunk of the budget - €2.9m - goes on paying the salaries of the 51 people who work under the umbrella of communications for Sarkozy, the next biggest amount is spent on the commissioning and analysis of opinion polls, a practice that costs almost €1.9m and has already proved controversial this year.
The Conservatives' lead over Labour has been reduced to single figures, a new Guardian/ICM poll shows today, increasing the pressure on Gordon Brown to call an early general election.While the nine-point lead for the Tories would probably still give David Cameron a narrow Commons majority, it will reinforce the view in both major party leaders' camps that the Tories can still be deprived of victory. This is the first Guardian/ICM poll - indeed the first by ICM for any newspaper - since December 2008 to give the Tories less than a double-digit lead.After 12 months of unbroken Conservative dominance in the polls, today's figures - showing the Tories on 40%, down two, Labour on 31%, up two, and the Liberal Democrats on 18% - are likely to increase calls for Brown to go to the country on 25 March next year, rather than the 6 May polling day that most at Westminster have been expecting.
The Conservatives' lead over Labour has been reduced to single figures, a new Guardian/ICM poll shows today, increasing the pressure on Gordon Brown to call an early general election.
While the nine-point lead for the Tories would probably still give David Cameron a narrow Commons majority, it will reinforce the view in both major party leaders' camps that the Tories can still be deprived of victory. This is the first Guardian/ICM poll - indeed the first by ICM for any newspaper - since December 2008 to give the Tories less than a double-digit lead.
After 12 months of unbroken Conservative dominance in the polls, today's figures - showing the Tories on 40%, down two, Labour on 31%, up two, and the Liberal Democrats on 18% - are likely to increase calls for Brown to go to the country on 25 March next year, rather than the 6 May polling day that most at Westminster have been expecting.
When the opposition believes they can profit from institutional paralysis, is there any point in seeking compromise positions? I guess Obama faces the same dilemma with the Republicans. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
Manuel Fraga being the Founder and Honorary President of the PP.
Autonomy State is Spain's doublespeak for Federal State in all but name.
The Xunta's dossier was substantially similar to the PSOE's electoral platform for the 2004 election.
This sounds strangely similar to the EU Council... Unanimity, little substance, protocol...
Just imagine if the second largest party in the European Union were Eurosceptic and intent on making every European Council end in failure. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
The Circle line never has been nor is ever likely to be London's best-loved Underground route. But at least until yesterday, it was approximately circular. [...] To add to the perplexity, Transport for London (TfL) insists on calling the trains that are going by the long route to Hammersmith "eastbound", although they go south, west and north until they get to Liverpool Street, and then start travelling west. "Westbound" trains between Tower Hill and Gloucester Road, are, in fact, heading east, and "eastbound" trains are heading west. Clear enough? However, there is a reassuring message on the TfL website, telling you that: "It will be easier to plan your journey as trains to and from particular stations will now always stop at the same platform."
[...]
To add to the perplexity, Transport for London (TfL) insists on calling the trains that are going by the long route to Hammersmith "eastbound", although they go south, west and north until they get to Liverpool Street, and then start travelling west. "Westbound" trains between Tower Hill and Gloucester Road, are, in fact, heading east, and "eastbound" trains are heading west. Clear enough? However, there is a reassuring message on the TfL website, telling you that: "It will be easier to plan your journey as trains to and from particular stations will now always stop at the same platform."
Nadine Morano wants her young Muslims clean and tidy
(As an aside, I still need to figure out how to get tables that look as good as the ones I usually see, and how not to have a huge gap between the earlier link and the table).
Of course, none of that is accidental, it is an electoral ploy to get the far-right, Sarko's true constituency, to the urns. But it's terrible to see that France is turning into USA.
Look, what this bulldog (bullbitch should I say?) is barking for wouldn't be asked of a non-Muslim. Should I mention the unemployment rate for youth? That my brother speaks Verlan (yes, it annoys me as a lover of well spoken languages, French included, but how is that relevant to religion or citizenship?), that no-one ever complained that top French tennis players often wear their caps back to front. We are, may I remind you, talking about the Secretary of State for Family and Solidarity
She was answering a young man asking about the compatibility of Islam with the Republic. Knowing how UMP meetings are organised these days, you can be certain that: -The man was a UMP militant -He was requested to ask the question.
And see the Maurice Barrès symbol: he supported the imprisonment of clearly innocent capitaine Dreyfus, who was chosen as a scapegoat because he was a Jew, and is quoted "the nation is stronger in the soul of a rooted than in that of an uprooted". So that's what it's all about. Justice does not matter, but what we are after are people who are not curious of the rest of the world, who feel threatened (and therefore bully) anyone who is different.
And it's now all about Islam. Hello, 50 years ago the ancestors of UMP claimed that Algeria (very Muslim Algeria) WAS France. France is supposed to be secular, so what's with the constant religious reference.
Further in the article, we learn that Justice (Justice!) Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie wants to prevent someone from being French if his wife is fully veiled. So they see Islam as such a disease that now it extends beyond the person to the immediate family. Nice.
Sarkozy is the worst thing to happen to France since 1944. Maybe I'll make that statement into my signature. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
I'm expecting an explanation soon of how the muslims are puppets of International Jewry and the Freemasons. That's pretty much all that's missing as we head straight for a replay of the 1920's, 30's and 40's.
What I want, myself, from the young Muslim, when he is French, is that he ... doesn't speak "Verlan"
I think she could have summarised her thoughts by "I want them to be idealised UMP militants, or out of the country". Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
See, it's only young Muslims who are a threat to the French National IdentityTM. Thanks to Mrs Morano for making that clear. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
You might argue that for a while, Gasquet was without a job, too. And all tennis players bar Benneteau seem to love their country only enough to visit it, while holding residence elsewhere. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
all tennis players bar Benneteau seem to love their country only enough to visit it, while holding residence elsewhere
how to get tables that look as good as the ones I usually see
Fais-les en verlan, tes bletas. ;)
Well, in fact: if you wrote the mark-up yourself, avoid spaces between the link and the table, and within the table mark-up itself (except for within the text, of course). So, for example:
...clean and tidy><a><p><table><tr><td>"Moi, ce que je veux d'un jeune...
...clean and tidy</a><p><table><tr><td>"Moi, ce que je veux d'un jeune...
I would not get them nearly as good without TribExt.
European Tribune - Download ET's own Firefox add-on: TribExt
Do you browse the web on Firefox? Then you can download TribExt, a nifty little add-on, written by ET user someone, to navigate around European Tribune easier. It can also be used on Booman Tribune and Daily Kos.
Though one of the nifty functions, using automatic translations as the first step in translation, does not work for me right now, it is still very very good. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
