Free Republic

<p>Fox news ran stories last night based on some of the things we were tracking right here in this post. Here is their on line story.</p> <p>As unfinished as my research is, I feel compelled to release what I've found so far as the story cannot wait any longer.  I am not looking for a scoop on anyone or anything, but at the same time I don't want anyone thinking I made this stuff up after the fact either.</p>

I am occasionally asked why it is that so many Europeans display reflexive anti-Americanism, and I force myself to choose from a salad of possible answers. One of these is the resentment that I can remember feeling myself when I lived in England in the 1970s: the sheer brute fact that American voters who knew nothing about Europe (and cared less) could pick a president who had more clout than any of our elected prime ministers could exert. America could change our economic climate by means of the Federal Reserve, could use bases in Britain to forward its policies in...

<p>PARIS -- French libraries are said to file their nation's constitutions -- there have been more than a dozen since 1789; the current one is a relatively ancient 49 years old -- under periodicals. Now Nicolas Sarkozy, France's peripatetic new president, has created a commission on constitutional reform. The commission includes Jack Lang who, as minister of culture in 1983 under President Francois Mitterrand, staged a sublimely unserious conference on the (supposed) world economic crisis, featuring the likes of Sophia Loren, Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer.</p>

A leading Democratic lawmaker lashed out at the former leaders of Germany and France, calling former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a `political prostitute.' Germany denounced the remarks by Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as an insult to its people. Lantos' comments about Schroeder and former French President Jacques Chirac, both opponents of the Iraq war, came in a speech Tuesday at the dedication of a monument to victims of communism... "I am so glad that the era of Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder in Germany is now gone," Lantos said to applause. He said when...

"All political careers end in failure," a British statesman once wisely said. Judging by the wreckage of the famous political career that ended this week, he was even wiser than he knew. With the election of a new president of France on Sunday, the lengthy professional life of Jacques Chirac—French president for 12 years, mayor of Paris for 18 years, twice French prime minister for a total of four years—comes to a grinding halt, apparently to the great relief of his compatriots. ... Ponder closely, for example, what Chirac has had to say about Africa, where his country has enormous...

FRANCE was helping prop up a psychotic dictator with its trenchant opposition to an American-led war on Iraq, government backbencher Cameron Thompson said tonight. France, along with Russia, Germany and China, helped sink a new resolution in the United Nations Security Council which would have paved the way for a UN-backed war in Iraq. Instead, France was pushing for UN arms inspectors to be given more time to scour Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. French President Jacques Chirac today condemned plans by the US, Britain and Australia to launch a unilateral strike to disarm Iraq, warning the decision ran...

PARIS - Fear of runaway global warming pushed 46 countries to line up Saturday behind France's appeal for a new environmental body that could single out — and perhaps police — nations that abuse the Earth. "It is our responsibility. The future of humanity demands it," President Jacques Chirac said in an appeal to put the environment at the top of the world's agenda. He spoke at a conference a day after the release in Paris of a grim report from the world's leading climate scientists and government officials that said global warming is so severe that it will "continue...

In the winter of 2002 and the spring of 2003, Jacques Chirac resembled a tornado of political energy focused on a single objective: preventing the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad. The French President deployed all the political and diplomatic forces at his disposal, pushed France's relations with the United States and Britain to the brink, and provoked an open split in the United Nations to keep the Baathist despot in power in Baghdad. But why? This is the question that Eric Aeschimann and Christophe Boltanski, two journalists with the Parisian daily Liberation, pose in their new book that...

Saudi Arabia has given Britain 10 days to halt a fraud investigation into the country's arms trade - or lose a £10 billion Eurofighter contract. The contract supports up to 50,000 British jobs and there are now fears that the deal may go to France. The Saudi government is on the verge of cancelling the contract - an extension of one brokered by Margaret Thatcher 20 year ago - because of a Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations of a slush fund for members of the Saudi royal family, according to authoritative sources. Tony Blair has been told that the...

Peace can never be taken for granted, and the first responsibility of any government is security. That is why France wishes to contribute to a political structuring of the world that averts perils. It wishes to help in the exercise of shared responsibility within the framework of strong, legitimate and accepted international institutions, particularly through reforms of the UN and the security council. It is working to build a political Europe capable of meeting its international responsibilities in the service of peace. The Atlantic alliance has a central place in this project. For 10 years France has been involved in...

The Last Youth Standing - What the West and Islam share are elites detached from their own demographic realities Mark Steyn - November 20, 2006 I was watching Mansbridge One on One the other day. Don't ask me why. May have been an "encore presentation." Or more likely an encore presentation of an encore presentation. For a 24/7 news network, there's an eerie timelessness about CBC Newsworld: one would be only mildly surprised to switch on and find Mansbridge One on One with Lester B. Pearson or Sir Charles Tupper. Anyway, this week, the one he was on was the...

PARIS (Reuters) - Challenging one of the great taboos of French politics, a new book has laid bare the love life of the country's amorous leaders. Sexus Politicus, published on Thursday, reveals decades of philandering, adultery and seduction at the heart of the French state, with politicians of all colours apparently sharing the same passion for extra-marital sex. According to the book, President Jacques Chirac and his predecessors Francois Mitterrand and Valery Giscard D'Estaing have juggled the fate of France, their families and a bevy of lovers with great ease, helped partly by an acquiescent media.

PARIS (Reuters) - France is considering providing only a symbolic force for the United Nations contingent in Lebanon, and not the thousands of troops UN officials had hoped, Le Monde newspaper said on Thursday. If true, such a move could seriously delay the UN mission, seen as vital to securing peace between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas, or even scupper the whole operation. Quoting U.N. and diplomatic sources, Le Monde said France might send just a dozen officers and around 200 personnel from an engineering division for the beefed-up UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). President Jacques Chirac's office said the...

"It’s the revolution!” one of my good friends said when I phoned him from the Paris airport yesterday morning. Students around the country are continuing their “strike” to protest proposed new legislation that would allow employers to fire young people under the age of 26 during the first two years they are on the job. In Aix-en-Provence, hundreds of young people trekked from their trendy provencal campus to the main autoroute on the outskirts of town and shut down traffic this morning. On Tuesday, an estimated two million people took to the streets in dozens of cities across France. The...

Researcher Cliff Kincaid has devoted his life in recent years to studying what is happening at the United Nations. He fortunately has a strong stomach. This amalgamation of nations which continually is envious of the prosperity of the United States convenes to debate new ways that we can be taxed for their benefit. A few months ago the UN had its sights firmly on the Internet. Thanks to Kincaid and others these designs were exposed early on and the UN was forced temporarily to back off taxation of the Internet. The retreat is only tactical - one step back to...

Polish president Lech Kaczynski has said it is too early for the creation of an EU foreign minister post, following calls from Paris for a strengthened role for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Mr Kaczynski made his remarks in an interview with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ahead of a two-day first visit to Berlin on Wednesday and Thursday (8-9 March). It is "too early for a European foreign minister," the Polish leader said, adding that the time is not ripe for the creation of a European diplomatic service either. The Polish stance comes amid French calls for quicker...

Rowdy revelers in France torched 425 vehicles overnight in scattered New Year's Eve unrest that has become an annual problem in troubled neighborhoods, the national police chief said Sunday. Last year, 333 cars were burned. Police Chief Michel Gaudin also said there were no major clashes this year between youths and police overnight, as had been feared. In what has become an annual tradition every New Year's Eve, youths set several hundred cars ablaze in France as festivities get out of hand. Police were especially cautious this time because of the wave three weeks of rioting and car burning that...

Filmmaker Ron Howard says that the upcoming movie based on Dan Brown's mega-hit novel "The Da Vinci Code" will not soften the story's more controversial elements. There will be "no placating," he tells Newsweek in its annual "Who's Next" double issue, which names the up-and-comers in politics, business, science, sports and the arts that will make headlines in 2006. "It would be ludicrous to take on this subject and then try to take the edges off. We're doing this movie because we like the book," he says. Since "The Da Vinci Code" was published in 2003, the book has become...

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Tuesday announced tightened controls on immigration, part of the government's response to riots ... Marriages abroad between French citizens and foreigners will no longer be automatically recognized in France, Villepin said... The measure is to be adopted by parliament in the first half of 2006... The prime minister also said the government should be able to enforce a law outlawing polygamy. There are 8,000-15,000 polygamous families in France... Some French officials cited polygamy as one reason that youths from underprivileged Muslim households joined in the rioting, saying that children from large polygamous families...

“Katrina’s devastation points the finger at Bush’s system. ... Issues forgotten for years are back to the fore: poverty, the state’s absence, latent racism.” — Le Monde, Sept. 8, 2005 WASHINGTON — The quotation above appeared in a front-page article in France’s newspaper of record. Just below was a cartoon showing the American president watching TV footage of black corpses floating in the water. “But, what country is this?” the caption had him saying to his generals: “Is it far away? We absolutely have to do something!” Unfortunately, this column does not come with its own cartoon attached, so I’m...

WHAT do George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Angela Merkel and Helen Clark have in common? They have been having such a difficult time lately that they are widely written off as lame-duck political leaders. Bush's approval rating is at a record low following his inept handling of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. A spy scandal engulfs his administration; his nominee for the Supreme Court quits; and Republican party candidates were beaten in the two governors' races contested last week. Meanwhile, a war rages that America may or may not be winning. Blair had already announced he would resign...

In a stunning turn of events, the French Government today promised to put all the rioters on Double Secret Probation if they don't cease and desist their actions immediately. Jacque Chirac, contacted at his underground bunker somewhere on the outskirts of Paris said he's taking this drastic action because of the refusal of the rioters to stop burning stuff even though the government has told them they'll jump up and down and hold their breath if they don't. This reporter (ahem) contacted members of Delta House regarding this escalation of threats by the French and responded that this is no...

Rioting Spreads to 20 Towns Around Paris By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 3, 2:55 PM ETAULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France - Rampaging youths shot at police and firefighters Thursday after burning car dealerships and public buses and hurling rocks at commuter trains, as eight days of riots over poor conditions in Paris-area housing projects spread to 20 towns. Youths ignored an appeal for calm from President Jacques Chirac, whose government worked feverishly to fend off a political crisis amid criticism that it has ignored problems in neighborhoods heavily populated by first- and second-generation North African and Muslim immigrants.

Sharon travels to Paris, will meet Chirac 'Today we are rebuilding faith and open dialogue with France,' Israel's ambassador said By Diania Bahur-Nir Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has landed in Paris on Tuesday, where he will commence an official state visit and meet with French president Jacques Chirac. Sharon was warmly received in Paris, and Israel’s ambassador in France, Nissim Zvili, said that “today we are rebuilding faith and open dialogue with France.”The visit’s timing seems to be the product of a number of overlapping interests. France is close to national elections and is keen to show its influence on...

Chirac Opens His Big Mouth Again

TONY Blair has started a behind-the-scenes attempt to kill the European Union constitution - defying growing international pressure to carry on with a British referendum. The Prime Minister is heading for a battle with a series of EU leaders as a result of his insistence that the constitution has perished with France's No vote on Sunday, and that it cannot be revived by a British Yes. He is facing angry calls from Greece, Ireland, Spain and Luxembourg to press ahead in the hope that French voters may change their minds in a second vote if the question is phrased differently....

PARIS — The French are in a funk. Now, it is hard to imagine anyone being in a bad mood in the spring sunshine here with the broad Parisian alleys of chestnut trees in full bloom, and the city's golden domes glittering splendidly. Yet, it true. In fact, the French are in such a sulk that they may just vote no on the European Union Constitution in the May 29 referendum — just to stick it to President Jacques Chirac and their other political leaders. It would be supremely ironic were this to happen. The reason for all this bad...

<p>French President Jacques Chirac has been pushing the EU to drop its refusal to consider letting mullahs enrich uranium, EU diplomats say...</p>

Chirac pleads in Tokyo for an international tax in favour of Africa TOKYO - French president Jacques Chirac pled Monday in Tokyo in favour of creation before the end of the year of an international tax on air transports to fight against pandemias in Africa. In front of an economic forum free-Japanese, Mr. Chirac recalled that "together, France and Germany defend creation, by the end of this year, with all the countries which wish it, of a first international taking away of solidarity on the kerosene or the plane tickets in order to finance the fight against the AIDS...

I don't suppose Bashar al-Assad has much in common with Eric Clapton - though, come to think of it, "Layla" is a Lebanese name, and there must be a few of them among the smouldering, raven-tressed, black-eyed Beirut babes so fetchingly demanding their nation's freedom on the covers of this week's Economist, Newsweek, Weekly Standard et al. At any rate, Boy Assad has no desire to find himself wailing, "Layla, you got me on my knees." Nor has he any wish to sing I Shot The Sharif - that would be Khalil Mustafa bin Muhammad Sharif, a prominent Syrian Kurd...

Recent books have raved that the European Union is the way of the future. In contrast, a supposedly exhausted, broke and post-imperial United States chases the terrorist chimera, running up debts and deficits as it tilts at the autocratic windmills of the Arab World. That caricature frames the visit of the President to Europe as transatlantic pundits demand a softer George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. Stop the childish bickering and the tiresome neocon preening, we are lectured ad nauseam by Euro and American elites. Don’t divide Europe, we hear endlessly. Even though the European press, EU leaders, and...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: The President and First Family returned safely from Europe late Thursday. They are spending a quiet weekend in Washington, where GWB went for one of his now-famous "maniac" bike rides this morning. Yesterday, the White House website put up a lot of photos from last week's trip. Most were taken by WH photographers. They frequently show different perspectives from those taken by the media, and many are only available on the WH website. Today and tomorrow, the Dose threads will have a retrospective on the trip, using mostly WH photos. Today's Dose covers the events...

The little flute made the trite racket of meaningless "friendship" and the snakes all looked extremely European. Thus does the grand fence-mending excursion of George W. Bush now happily draw to a close. For a four-night tour, it had everything — fancy dinners, giant-sized photo ops, flatulent rhetoric, and close media analyses of handshakes and asides. In fact, Bush's charm offensive had everything — except charm. That leaves only offensiveness, which of course was provided by the Europeans and their lighthearted media. Columnists and news items blasted Bush and the U.S. — one Guardian ranter: "Why are we welcoming this...

'The change for the moment is more in tone than substance," wrote Alec Russell, reporting on President Bush's European outreach in yesterday's Daily Telegraph. You don't say. My colleague is almost right. In Brussels yesterday, the President's "charm offensive" consisted of saying the same things he always says ¨- on Iraq, Iran, Palestine, the illusion of stability, the benefits of freedom, the need for Egypt and Saudi Arabia to get with the programme, etc. But, tone-wise, the Bush charm offensive did its best to keep the offensiveness reasonably charming ¨C though his references to anti-Semitism and the murder of Theo...

PARIS, Feb 20 (AFP) - When Presidents George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac break bread together in Brussels on Monday, it will be a tough ordeal for two antagonists who know they must suppress a deep mutual disdain in the interest of loftier political purpose. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt and Charles de Gaulle relations between French and American leaders have never been simple. But the instinctive antipathy that divides the current pair transcends the routine transatlantic suspicion of the last half century. In the symbolic highpoint of Bush's first trip to Europe since his reelection in November, both men will...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: On Wednesday, the President hosted the bipartisan Congressional leadership at the White House. It was an opportunity to talk about a range of issues, including the President's upcoming trip to Europe. The President and First Lady, who are spending a quiet day in the White House today, will leave Washington Sunday enroute to their first stop in Brussels, Belgium. The President will hold summit talks with leaders of NATO and the European Union, and will meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian President Vladimir Putin among...

PARIS, Jan 16 (AFP) - French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday invited new Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas to Paris for talks "as soon as possible," pledging support for his efforts to revive the moribund peace process with Israel. Chirac's spokesman, Jerome Bonnafont, said the president telephoned Abbas to tell him: "France will do everything possible to help you in carrying out your mission." He also said French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier would visit Israel and the Palestinian territories at a date yet to be fixed. "The discussion also covered the fight against terrorism and the improvement of economic and social...

PARIS - Sen. John Kerry [related, bio] will meet Friday with French President Jacques Chirac, U.S. and French officials said. The Massachusetts Democrat who lost the November election to incumbent President Bush [related, bio] has relatives in France and speaks French. Kerry's stop in Paris was part of a trip to Europe and the Middle East, the U.S. Embassy in Paris said Thursday. Kerry was also to meet with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier. The senator's office in Washington did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

I should have been an interior decorator because I just adore patterns. Check out these sweet accents: In France, a French court let stand thef conviction of Alain Juppé, Jacques Chirac's loyal sideman, for fraud. But, according to Libération, his sentence was cut in half because the court thought it was unfair for Juppé, a member first-class of the French ruling élite, to have to wait more than a year before returning to the public trough. According to an earlier report in theGuardian, 12 more Chirac cronies may soon be charged with vote-rigging. Juppé resigned as mayor of Bordeaux —...

French president Jacques Chirac now blames America for making the world a more dangerous place. This reminds me of the summer of 2002, when I spent a week in the Paris home of an old friend who loves America but cannot comprehend how we could have elected a trigger-happy cowboy like George W. Bush to be our president. His own leaders, he explained, had a more measured and realistic world view than Bush, who seemed eager to start another war. A year ago I thought about what my friend had said. Reluctant to broach the subject of the war, I...

IN THE summer of 1975, at a party congress in Nice, an energetic and ambitious young French centre-right prime minister introduced to the packed auditorium an equally energetic and ambitious centre-right party youth member. The 20-year-old student had travelled on the overnight train, and had written his first political speech on a single sheet of paper. The prime minister warned him to speak for no more than five minutes. Defiant, intoxicated by the applause, he went on for 20. The prime minister was Jacques Chirac. The young hack was Nicolas Sarkozy. As with fine wine, France likes its politicians to...

"France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country. France has usually been governed by prostitutes." ---Mark Twain "I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me." --- General George S. Patton "Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." --Norman Schwartzkopf "We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it." Marge Simpson "As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure" ---Jacques Chirac, President of France "As far as France is concerned, you're...

Jacques Chirac speaks and those who love freedom can only cringe. Recent statements by the French President make you wonder if the man is not disappointed that the Vichy government no longer exists. If his comments truly reflect French public opinion, then France is an ally we are better off without. In statements made to the BBC, Chirac claimed that Britain has gotten nothing from its participation in the war in Iraq. If we take that statement seriously, then we should be questioning our own involvement in World War I and World War II. What did we get for helping...

The pope's disgraceful tribute to Arafat Posted: November 13, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern From the way world leaders reacted to the death of Yasser Arafat, you could be forgiven if you had mistakenly believed that Mother Theresa had died. Kofi Annan, a man whose diplomatic career has been dedicated to friendship with tyrants and contempt for their victims, declared himself "deeply moved" by Arafat's death and ordered the U.N. flag flown at half-mast. This is not all that surprising given that Annan is the same man who overruled U.N. Gen. Romeo Dallaire in April 1994 and ordered him not to...

Shakespeare writes that “All gold and silver rather turn to dirt!” a fact which the Bard attributes most to “those who worship dirty gods.” What a testimonial it is to the universality of Shakespeare’s observation that its truth shines even among the cheap glitter of Times Square, where a sign flashes the cost of the Iraq War. And what a testimonial it is to the moral and pragmatic cheapness of Liberals and other Democrats that the sign represents the “good works” of a Liberal think tank headed by a former Clintonista. The sign’s despicable message was spoken and written at...

PARIS (Reuters) - France has ordered more troops to Ivory Coast to protect French citizens after nine French soldiers and a U.S. aid worker were killed in a government bombing raid and Ivory Coast troops fired on French forces. French President Jacques Chirac ordered the Ivory Coast planes involved in the Saturday airstrike destroyed and a defense source said French forces would also destroy five Ivorian military helicopters, leaving the country with only one helicopter. Mobs of machete-wielding pro-government supporters rampaged through Abidjan, furious at the French destruction of the planes. Plumes of smoke rose from the plush Cocody suburb....

The big news is that the U.N. has flunked "the global test." And as big as it is, it's a story that isn't likely to find its way into the newspaper that trumpets "All the news that's fit to print" in the upper left corner of its front page every day. To find that "the global community" is made up of a bunch of crooks, that "the global test" is a racket, and that John Kerry is either utterly naïve or in cahoots with these global con artists is something that's just too unfit to think about, let alone broadcast...

A participant on the sidelines of talks in Berlin between Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Richard Holbrooke, a would-be secretary of state in a John Kerry presidency, told a story about the meeting and the theme of how a Kerry-friendly Europe would leap to America's aid in bringing stability to Iraq. (Or maybe hide under the bed.) "Schröder," the American said, "asked Holbrooke what Kerry would do if he were elected. Holbrooke replied one of the first things would be to get on the phone and invite him and President Jacques Chirac to the White House. The chancellor laughed out loud....

...Derrida... was... one of the most famous intellectuals of the past 40 years. His celebrity rivaled that of Jean-Paul Sartre. As the founder, honorary CEO and chief publicist for an abstruse philosophical doctrine he called "deconstruction," Mr. Derrida was celebrated and vilified in about equal measure.... What is deconstruction? ...[D]econstruction comes with a lifetime guarantee to render discussion of any subject completely unintelligible.... the view that the meanings of words are completely arbitrary and that, at bottom, reality is unknowable. [I]f you dress up the idea in a forbidding vocabulary, full of neologisms and recondite references to philosophy, then you...

HANOI - French President Jacques Chirac warned Thursday of a “catastrophe” for global diversity if the United States’ cultural hegemony goes unchallenged. Speaking at a French cultural center in Hanoi ahead of Friday’s opening of a summit of European and Asian leaders, Chirac said France was right to stand up for cultural and linguistic diversity. The outspoken French president warned that the world’s different cultures could be “choked” by US values. This, he said, would lead to a “general world sub-culture” based around the English language, which would be “a real ecological catastrophe”. Citing Hollywood’s stranglehold over the film industry...