European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 13 March | 149 comments (149 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Gaddafi 'contributed €50m to Sarkozy's 2007 presidential election fund' | World news | The Guardian

Damaging new claims have emerged about the funding of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign and his links with former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi emerged.
The French investigative website Mediapart claims to have seen a confidential note suggesting Gaddafi contributed up to €50m (£42m) to Sarkozy's election fund five years ago.
Similar allegations emerged a year ago when Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam claimed Libya helped finance the 2007 campaign and demanded the French president, who led the war on the Libyan leader, return the money.
In an interview with the Euronews TV channel, Saif al-Islam, who is currently being held in Libya after his father's defeat and death, threatened to make details of the bank transfers public after the French leader threw his weight behind opposition forces.
The latest allegations come at a crucial time for Sarkozy who is seeking a second term in office in a two-round election in under six weeks.

by Nomad on Mon Mar 12th, 2012 at 05:10:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 0)

Hahahaha...just great.
Here and there now we have it in the open who are people/politicians that are leading us (world wide). Scum!!!
No wonder that we are where we are...Oh if we can (God forbid) really see who they are and what they were and are doing (ruining our lives in the process) what exactly we could do anyway?
I am simply not voting as a matter of protest. Cause I do not want to choose between "two evils" and that's what we are pushed to do for a long time. Vote for less evil. Not any more for me.
They say "politic is a whore" and we have to accept all wrong doing because it's a politic. There are no honest people in politic. Ok but I am out of voting...do it without me.
People are either really too stupid or to busy with their own situations to even bother too much. They make their opinion about voting through TV and little talk with friends. But really there is not much choice there so people vote only on the bases of their "class". Some of them simply do not have real picture where they are standing (what "class" they actually belong to ,because of this credit madness). They sometimes find the truth about it when crises like tis kick...

by vbo on Mon Mar 12th, 2012 at 09:23:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (4.00 / 3)

Well, whilst it is always tempting to say that they're all as bad as each other or even that voting ultimately makes no difference, they're not and it does. Otherwise people all over the world would not be fighting and dying for the chance to do that which you so casually discard

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Mar 13th, 2012 at 06:01:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 0)

Well I doubt people all over the world are actually fighting and dying for the chance to vote for one of two nearly identical elite factions.

Still not voting is probably the most useless form of protest.

Von überall könnte das Volk, Urbrut alles Undemokratischen, Zelle des Terrors, über die gewählten Hüter von Wachstum und Wohlstand® kommen. - flatter

by generic on Tue Mar 13th, 2012 at 07:22:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (4.00 / 2)

What people are actually voting for is the chance to get rid of the bums without bloodshed by voting them out.

Violent revolution usually is either put down or results in replacing the old elite faction with a nearly identical elite faction anyway.

There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Mar 13th, 2012 at 07:29:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Usually, but not always. (none / 0)

It's the exceptions which move us all forward.

I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from them Eugene Debs

by redstar on Tue Mar 13th, 2012 at 08:05:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Usually, but not always. (none / 1)

Or maybe it's the interlude which moves us forward.

There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Mar 13th, 2012 at 08:06:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 0)

What people are actually ~~voting~~fighting for

There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Mar 13th, 2012 at 09:26:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 0)

What people are actually voting for is the chance to get rid of the bums without bloodshed by voting them out.

Yes and to replace them with other bums...it's so sickening.

by vbo on Tue Mar 13th, 2012 at 10:56:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 0)

No, it's the best you can hope for. It's called incomplete information and not believing in the great men theory of history.

There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Mar 14th, 2012 at 04:52:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (4.00 / 3)

On this, the voters deserve a large part of the blame: for not looking closely (in particular at alternatives other than the biggest opposition party at the moment) and often making decisions on the basis of ridiculous whims (like "I would have a beer with him" or "he would be a nice son-in-law") and then not learning from the mistake the next time.

(The above was partly informed by my recent reading of an op-ed by a satirist I otherwise admire. He admitted outright of voting for Orbán's Fidesz in 2010 to get rid of the bums in power, then proceeded to trash Orbán's actions in government and claimed that he talked of none of this in the election campaign – yet all of those actions could have been foreseen.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Mar 14th, 2012 at 06:40:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 0)

No, no, it's the elites' fault for not giving the poor, innocent voters, devoid of any agency or responsibility for their own actions, "proper" choices. Oh, and the media. It's the media's fault.

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Mar 14th, 2012 at 06:45:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (4.00 / 4)

A person with a vote has agency, a person with a vote, a fortune, an ownership in media and easy access to politicians and other persons with fortunes and ownership of media has more agency. But searching for whose fault it is misses that it is a system.

I am leaning towards DiGondi's position that representative deomcracy is a oxymoron.

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!

by A swedish kind of death on Wed Mar 14th, 2012 at 09:00:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Europe (none / 0)

Maybe that's why Sarkozy wants to close the borders, because he's afraid that people in the know will come over from Libya and tell on him...

by asdf on Tue Mar 13th, 2012 at 10:36:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 13 March | 149 comments (149 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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