Will Trump Screw Up Politics In Britain, France And Germany Too?

The top 3 U.S. allies in Europe-- Britain, France and Germany-- all had significant political news over the weekend. With François Hollande's Socialist government flailing hopelessly and in terminal tatters, he hasn't even announced if he will seek a second term and many think that he's so unpopular that he'd be hard-pressed to even win renomination from his own party. The most recent polls show Marine Le Pen of the surging neo-fascist Front national making it through the April 23 first round-- along with the nominee of Les républicains (the new name for the Center-right party formerly knows as the Union for a Popular Movement). There are at least 11 parties that will compete in the first round as well as the potential for as many as half a dozen unaffiliated independents-- like Oscar Temaru, who already was a president, president of French Polynesia.

The second round, if, as is likely, no one wins 50% first time around, is scheduled for May 7 and nearly every poll shows any mainstream politician beating Le Pen, except Hollande, with the 2 most recent polls showing him down 53-47% in a head to head matchup, although no one thinks there's much chance of him making it into the second round. Any of Les républicains would also beat Hollande-- Alain Juppé 70-30%, Nicolas Sarkozy 54-46% and François Fillon 62-38%. All Les républicains are also way ahead of Le Pen, Sarkozy besting her 58-42%, Juppé 64-36% and Fillon 65-35%. Even independent Emmanuel Macron leads Le Pen in a head to head 61-39%.

So going into yesterday's first-even presidential primary for Les républicains it was widely thought that one of the two who made it to the Nov. 27 final primary would be the next president of France. And the two finalists in that contest are 2 former prime ministers, François Fillon (a Thatcherite extremist and homophobe long considered a washed up has-been) and Alain Juppé. Sarkozy was knocked out of the running. Fillon was way ahead with 44.2%, followed by Juppé (28.4%) and Sarkozy trailing with 20.7%, a humiliation-- albeit not totally unexpected-- for the former president. He says he'll vote for Fillon next week, as will Bruno Le Maire, who came in 4th. The 5th biggest vote-getter, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, said she's supporting Juppé.

There was no voting in Germany or the U.K., but there was plenty of election-related news. Angela Merkel announced she would run for a 4th term next September. She and her center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) are the symbol of the status quo and they have taken a string of electoral beatings over her open-door immigration policies. There's been a lot of speculation that she might opt out of running again but she seemed worried that that would make it easier for the wave of populism that's been sweeping Europe-- not to mention Trump, here in the U.S.-- to overtake Germany as well.

"I told the CDU that I was ready to stand again," she said. "This election will be even more difficult than those we have had before as we are facing a strong polarisation" in the community.

She drew a line between Germany and the US in describing as "grotesque" the recent election campaign. Merkel said that for her, political discussion was about engagement not "fighting" and "inciting hatred."

She said that for Germany the values of "democracy, freedom, and respect for human and individual rights," were central pillars of the democratic process.

...Her now famous “Wir schaffen das” ("We can do this") motto, has led to prolonged and at times heated confrontations with her Bavarian sister party, the CSU. Her refugee policies have also boosted the populist, right-wing Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), which draws support through harnessing community fears about migration and Muslims. In state elections this year, the AfD garnered up to a fifth of the popular vote.

But, as the world gears up for a turbulent year ahead, a growing number of German voters want Merkel to stay in office, according to a poll conducted on Sunday: 55 percent of those responded positively, compared to 42 percent in August.

She also received a glowing endorsement from outgoing President Barack Obama in Berlin this week. Germans, he said, should "appreciate" Merkel. If he were German, he added, he would support her. When asked what she made of talk about her being the last defender of the liberal world, Merkel gave one of her typical matter-of-fact responses: No one country could solve everything.

Merkel, on getting the election news

After The Donald won the election last week, she recognized his win-- if not congratulated him-- via Instagram. "Germany and America," read her message, too long for Twitter or Trump's attention span, "are bound by values-- democracy, freedom, as well as respect for the rule of law and the dignity of the individual, regardless of their origin, skin colour, creed, gender, sexual orientation or political views. On the basis of these values, I offer close cooperation to the future president of the United States of America, Donald Trump." It kind of sounded what infuriated Trumpanzee over the weekend when the cast of Hamilton voiced similar thoughts as Mike Pence scurried out of the theater. Trump attacked Merkel and her policies all during the campaign. She's also not a fan of Putin's top European supporter, Vladimir Putin, nor of Trump's protectionist trade agenda.

And the U.K., where the news was distinctly sour. Richard Kerbaj and Tim Shipman broke the story Sunday evening for London's Sunday Times that Tony Blair wants to get back and fuck up British politics some more. The 63 year old former New Labour Prime Minister (yes, the Conservative wing of the Labour Party) is bets remembered as Bush's poodle.

Blair hails from a lower middle class background and studied law after failing as a rock music promoter. He's never been in business as such but somehow his long political career has led him to possess a fortune of at least $90 million. So... it looks like that happens in other countries too.

Blair snuck into office in 1983 by deceiving the voters into believing he was a leftist. He wasn't. He immediately tried redefining socialism in a way that wouldn't conflict with capitalism. From his maiden speech in Parliament: "I am a socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality." His whole career was characterized by misleading anyone and everyone resulting in him eventually being forced out of office over his Iraq War lies. He even sucked up to Rupert Murdoch, stood as godfather to Murdoch and Wendi Deng's child and was later caught having an affair with Deng while she and Murdoch were still married. He's a real lowlife. He "worked" for JPMorgan Chase and other banksters-- as a glorified lobbyist-- after he left government. Many in the U.K. would like to see him tried as a war criminal. Instead, according to The Times report, he's "positioning himself to play a pivotal role in shaping Britain’s Brexit deal" and "scouting out a power base for an institute he's starting in Westminster.

Blair’s move has raised eyebrows among several members of the cabinet, who claim he has used meetings about the Middle East and aid to seek to extract information and influence the government’s Brexit plans.

A source who has discussed Brexit with Blair said: “He’s not impressed with Theresa May. He thinks she’s a total lightweight.

“He thinks Jeremy Corbyn is a nutter and the Tories are screwing up Brexit. He thinks there’s a massive hole in British politics that he can fill.”

Blair’s office denied that he had described either leader in this way.

Blair is due to meet May for coffee soon. But the prime minister’s aides believe he is part of an “unholy alliance” of former ministers who are determined to disrupt Brexit.

Last month Blair wrote in the New European newspaper that “remain” supporters should “mobilise and organise” an insurgency to make the public change its mind about leaving the EU. “Blair wants to show that he’s making a big comeback-- and what better way to do that than to weigh in on Brexit?” one insider said.

The former prime minister has recruited Jim Murphy, the former leader of Scottish Labour, to advise him on merging his charitable and business interests under one roof and “bolster the political clout” of his new organisation.

Blair’s interest in staying on the front line of politics was illustrated last week by his meeting with Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US president-elect Donald Trump.

It can also be revealed Blair has held talks with the former chancellor George Osborne. “Tony and George have been speaking and meeting and have had lots of conversations about the post-Brexit political climate,” a Whitehall source said.

...The two names currently being touted for the organisation are understood to be the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and the Tony Blair Centre for Global Change. After announcing in September the closure of his consultancy businesses-- Windrush Ventures, Firerush Ventures and Tony Blair Associates-- Blair is expected to launch his new organisation in January.

Murphy, who lost his East Renfrewshire seat to the Scottish National Party last year, is said to be receiving more than £200,000 for his role as a senior adviser. He is playing a key role with Catherine Rimmer, Blair’s chief of staff, and Angela Salt, the chief executive of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, in merging Blair’s charitable and commercial operations under one not-for-profit brand.

Blair’s office in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, along with his charity offices in Canary Wharf, east London, and Millbank, in central London, will be relocated to the new site.

A senior official said: “He’s been in and out to see a lot of senior people. He is clearly pushing trying to get an insight into government thinking on Brexit and to influence that.

“He’s trying to suck information out of the system. He wants to come in to talk about development or the Middle East and then he’ll pivot.”

One cabinet minister who received an invitation to visit Blair at his headquarters said: “It felt like a summons.”

An ex-cabinet minister familiar with the former Labour leader’s thinking, said: “Blair does think, as all former prime ministers do, that ministers are bogging up Brexit and if only I were in charge.”

One insider said: “He’s relinquished most of his financial interests because he was done with the negative headlines about his obsession with wealth and he’s remodelling himself. I think it’s fair to say that he sees himself as a global statesman in the Henry Kissinger mould.”

Kissinger, like Blair, is widely reviled as a war criminal, monster and enemy of humanity.

Who Is Grubbier-- France's Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy Or L.A.'s Ex-Sheriff Lee Baca? How About Mississippi Nutcase Chris McDaniel?

What's wrong with voters who allow themselves to be suckered by conservative politicians?

I was listening to an amazing broadcast on KCRW the other night. It was a discussion between an anchor who didn't know it was amazing and a beat reporter who was just as clueless. The reporter was babbling to the anchor about how 6 officials of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department were convicted of obstructing a federal probe into violence against inmates in county jails. She reported that they could get long prison sentences-- like 15 years or more-- but that no one thought they would because, well you know… sheriffs, service, good guys, all that. Well, of course. But that wasn't nuthin' compared to what came next. Everyone in L.A. knows that this leads right to the corrupt, disgraced ex-Sheriff, Lee Baca. But another word you could use to describe Baca along with "corrupt" and "disgraced" would be "connected." The reporter acknowledged the case could easily implicate Baca but that prosecuting him wasn't just a matter of justice but also "a matter of politics" and decisions would have to be made "outside of California." The dumbbell anchor didn't hear anything weird or untoward or worth following up on. OK.

U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said that the 6 criminals "participated in a scheme to thwart a federal grand jury investigation into violations of basic constitutional rights guaranteed to both prisoners and visitors to county jails… While an overwhelming majority of law enforcement officials serve with honor and dignity, these defendants tarnished the badge by acting on the false belief that they were above the law." Yes, above the law, like Lee Baca and like "we" seem to expect our public officials to all perceive themselves. Wednesday morning Brett Logiurato, reporting for Business Insider explained how Mississippi Tea Party extremist Chris McDaniel, a state Senator representing a stretch of south Mississippi skirting US 59 south of Laurel, is now raising money for himself by claiming he has a case against the winner, Senator Thad Cochran. Presumably there are teabaggers who find this credible enough to contribute.

A source on the Cochran campaign fired back in a conversation with Business Insider Wednesday, in which the source dismissed McDaniel as a "clinically diagnosable narcissist" and a scam artist.

"The guy is basically Joel Osteen," the source said of McDaniel in a phone interview Wednesday morning. "He's such a phony, and he's taking advantage of these people to stay in the spotlight. This is such a publicity stunt. He can't stand the fact that he lost… Chris McDaniel is a trial lawyer, and he’s acting like one. He’s throwing out false flags and things that just aren’t true, and trying to get them into the news stream… All this is is a candidate who's a total egomaniac-- I really believe he is a clinically diagnosable narcissist. This is all about him and his 15 minutes in the spotlight. The second he concedes, the circus moves on."

The good news, though, is that this kind of sociopathic behavior isn't unique to conservative politicians in America. Let's take a look at what's going down with an especially slimy conservative politician in France, defeated ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy. French TV is reporting that his political ambitions have dimmed. That's because he was arrested on corruption charges, taking illegal campaign money (around $200,000 in CASH) from a shriveled up and senile L'Oréal billionairess, Liliane Bettencourt, who preferred paying bribes to paying taxes. At the time, Sarkozy had also taken a $65 million bribe from Gaddafi. ("During this investigation, French magistrates wire-tapped conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer and made 'unsettling' discoveries.") He's been planning on running again in 2017.

It is the first time since 1958-- the beginning of the Fifth Republic-- that a French former president has been taken into police custody. He is, however, not the first to face a judge. His mentor in politics, Jacques Chirac, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence for embezzlement.

…To cut a long story short, Sarkozy is alleged to have built a network of informants within the judiciary and the court of cassation who kept him and his lawyers informed of the progress of the Bettencourt investigations and every other sensitive dossier he might be linked to. The former president and his lawyer, who appeared to know that their phone was bugged by the investigative judges, resorted to buying pre-paid mobile phones under fake names. As a result, Sarkozy, his lawyer and two judges from the court of cassation were taken into police custody for questioning on Monday and Tuesday and have now been put under investigation for "abuse of power." Investigators also want to find out if Sarkozy promised top-level jobs in exchange of confidential information.

Sarkozy may well end up being released. However, if nothing else, this new episode is shedding some more light on "le système Sarkozy." Here is a president who never hesitated to call high civil servants in order to grill them and obtain confidential information. Le Monde revealed yesterday how Sarkozy, by calling and interrogating the head of intelligence service on the Gaddafi investigation, put such a senior civil servant in an untenable position.

Sarkozy Fleeing To Britain To Avoid Paying Taxes

It certainly shouldn't have surprised anyone that former insurance industry executive, Nebraska reactionary senator and all-around corporate whore Ben Nelson immediately upon leaving Congress took a job as a lobbyist on K Street. That's what sleazy senators always do. But what about sleazy presidents of France?

I had dinner with my financial advisor Monday and she mentioned she was surprised when she found out recently that Luxembourg-- which has the second highest per capita income (over $82,000) in the world (after Dubai)-- is economically dependent on a shady banking sector. 998 square miles (the smallest state in the U.S., Rhode Island, is 1,545 square miles) and with a population of 524,853, smaller than Wyoming's 576,412, Luxembourg is one of the world's offshore banking capitals. There are 152 banks in the tiny country-- and over 9,000 holding companies. It's the perfect place for sleazy financial predators to do business. But former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, under investigation on numerous corruption charges, decided to start his private capital firm in London instead. He's moving there, though, primarily to avoid paying the higher taxes on millionaires imposed by the man who beat him 51.62- 48.38% last May, François Hollande.

Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing to move to London to set up a billion pounds plus investment fund, it was claimed today.

If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in his home country.

He and his former supermodel third wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy would be likely to settle in an affluent district like South Kensington-- so becoming the most high profile Gallic celebrity couple in the city.

But the former president is under investigation for corruption in France, and if he does cross the Channel there will be outrage.

Details of the planned move were uncovered during a raid by fraud police on Sarkozy’s Paris mansion last June.

It came within weeks of Mr Sarkozy losing his immunity against prosecution after being defeated by Socialist rival Francois Hollande in the May presidential election.

Now the hugely respected investigative news site Mediapart reports that the ‘first draft’ of Mr Sarkozy’s London project was found by detectives examining his computer files.

A judge has since made Sarkozy an assisted witness in the so-called Bettencourt Affair, in which he is accused of using illegal cash from France’s richest woman to fund his 2007 election campaign.

Mr Sarkozy is said to have taken the money from Liliane Bettencourt, the I’ Oreal heiress-- a claim the politician denies, but for which he could still receive a prison sentence.

He is also being investigated over numerous other funding scandals, including one linked to arms sales to Pakistan, and another in which he is said to have used millions in taxpayers’ money to pay friends to produce opinion polls while he was in office.

Mediapart suggests that the planned London move would create a ‘conflict of interest’-- not only because Sarkozy is being investigated, but because a former French president should not choose the UK as a base to make his fortune.

Bernard Arnault, the luxury goods magnate and France’s richest man who owns property in London, and Hollywood star Gerard Depardieu are among Frenchmen who have come under intense criticism for trying to escape Mr Hollande’s new tax regime.

The socialist is introducing a top tax rate of 75 per cent on anyone earning more than 1 million euros a year because he disapproves of the kind of vast profits made by speculators in places like the City of London.

Mr Sarkozy, however, is a committed capitalist, whose close friends include former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has himself earned millions since leaving office.

The French former president’s new private equity fund would aim to raise 1 billion euros-- something he hopes to achieve with the help of French entrepreneur and political advisor Alain Minc.

Mr Sarkozy has recently had meetings with numerous movers and shakers in the world of high finance during high-profile trips to places like Qatar and London. But today Mr Sarkozy played down the Mediapart reports through his aides, with one saying that they were the result of ‘intellectual constructs.'

Like Mr Blair, the former head of state has always been extremely secretive about his financial dealings, and would be unlikely to discuss a wealth fund in public.

Meanwhile, Across The Pond, The Voters Have Tasted Austerity-- And Are Defeating The Politicians Who Are Force-Feeding It To Them

Tomorrow France is electing a president and things look pretty dire for conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. France's Bling Bling president is the only politician on the planet who eats in fancier and more expensive French restaurants than Newt Gingrich and, other than perhaps Mitt Romney, there is no one more clearly identified with the aspirations of the one-percent. He's the most unpopular president since World War II and seems likely to be spending his final days at the Élysée Palace. After is stunning defeat in the first round of voting, he's moved abruptly right-- in the direction of the teabagger (or populist right)-- beyond the traditional concerns of the 1%. And then the accusations of how his first election was funded by Qaddafi has further roiled the waters and added to the mistrust most Frenchmen feel towards him. Yesterday was the final day of campaigning and the big headline is that former candidate, centrist Francois Bayrou, who took almost 10% in the first round, said he's voting for Hollande. Worse news for Sarkozy is that the far right candidate, Marine Le Pen, who came in third, called on her supporters to sit on their hands and not close ranks behind Sarkozy. That was pretty much the death knell for his chances at reelection. Sarkozy's desperate followers are reacting to the impending defeat the way right-wing thugs always react to adversity-- violently.

Meanwhile another Austerity advocate, British Prime Minister David Cameron, saw his party-- and his coalition-- decimated in local elections across the U.K. Cameron apologized to hundreds of Conservative councillors who lost their seats and his coalition partner, Nick Clegg, will be lucky to hold onto the Lib-Dem leadership. Looks like Labor took 823 new Council seats while the Conservatives lost 405 and the Lib-Dems lost 336. The Conservatives wound up with less than a third of the votes cast. The radical right faction within the Conservative Party are claiming that Cameron hasn't been far enough right, even though the BNP (a local Nazi-like party that resembles the GOP lost at least 75% of it's seats). Sound familiar? At the same time, the Lib-Dems feel trapped in a coalition many of them would like to get out of.

Lord Oakeshott, an irritant to the leadership and an adviser to the business secretary, Vince Cable, issued a blunt warning.

He said: "The facts are that two out of every five of our very hard working councillors last year and this year have lost their seats. We have got to face it, we have had another very substantial swath of our crucial activist base wiped away. We have had a few successful rearguard guerrilla actions, but what matters for me is whether we can fight the next election as a nationwide, powerful, independent force. If we have another year like this we will not be able to.

"Two years on from the election the economy is flat on its back, and if we cannot get the economy to grow we cannot get the deficit down. So unless there is a change, both coalition parties and our country are heading for the rocks."

He called for bold action, saying the banks including RBS had to be forced to lend.

He said all that was coming from the Treasury and David Cameron was pussyfooting about. "They talk about it, but they won't act."

The party president, Tim Farron, admitted the two parties believed wildly different things, but they had to co-operate like grownups. But he added "the party had to be a bit more spiky and a bit more independent."

Will American voters need to be further ripped off by the Lords of Austerity before they have the good sense to defeat every Republican and every Blue Dog Democrat running for Congress? That would send a clear message-- although I'm sure the Beltway media would find a way to muddle it.

"President Romney Meets Other World Leaders," as imagined by Calvin Trillin

When President Sarkozy, Chancellor Merkel, and Prime Mininster Cameron no longer have this other guy to deal with, they may be, um, a little surprised by his replacement.

"President Romney looked at the German Chancellor carefully, up and down. 'I'd say you'd go about one-forty, give or take five pounds,' he said. 'Am I in the ballpark?' "

-- from Calvin Trillin's "President Romney Meets Other World Leaders"

by Ken

Somehow I managed to miss, or skip over, several contributions to the presidential election season offered by my favorite living writer, The New Yorker's Calvin Trillin. It took me three months to catch up with this fantasy: "President Romney Meets Other World Leaders." Three months later, however, the piece seems to me that much more pertinent, not to mention funny.

The mayhem-to-come all proceeds from this bit of Willard background from the NYT of December 28, 2011:

When Mitt Romney introduces himself to voters, he has a peculiar habit of guessing their age or nationality, often incorrectly. (A regular query: "Are you French Canadian?")

When making small talk with locals, he peppers the conversation with curious details. . . . Mr. Romney has developed an unlikely penchant for trying to puzzle out everything from voters' personal relationships to their ancestral homelands. . . . Mr. Romney likes to congratulate people. For what, exactly, is not always clear.

In my own mind there are several questions that will need to be resolved before President Willard Inc. takes the oath of office. After all, we've never had a president who was a corporate entity rather than an individual, and so, for example, it's entirely possible that the correct designation and form of address is "President Inc.," as in "President Inc. Willard." (I'm assuming that this wouldn't also call for an "Inc." after the name. "President Inc. Willard Inc. begins to sound like a chant.) Or, what if the Incorporated Willard chooses, in familiar corporate fashion, to attempt to trademark the name. Will we need to add the "TM" to every usage of the titled name? Will payment be required? Who collects those fees?

These aren't Trillin's concerns of the moment, however. He finds more than enough to concern him in just this little NYT blurb. Consider first the first meeting of our new POTUS with his French counterpart.

The moment President Romney entered the room where the opening reception of his first G-8 summit was being held, he was approached by a small man who shook his hand and said, "Je suis Nicolas Sarkozy."

"Are you of French-Canadian origin?" President Romney said, smiling broadly.

"I am French," Sarkozy replied, looking somewhat puzzled. "I am, in fact, the President of France."

"Congratulations," President Romney said. "Lipstick contains a substance made from fish scales."

Poor President Sarkozy is stumped by this combination of the unconnected-to-anything congratulations and the curious detail -- in this case the lipstick thing -- with which our Willard is said to like to pepper his conversation. For better or worse, the new president is promptly thrust into contact with the head of government of another key American ally.

Before Sarkozy could reply -- in fact, before he could think of anything to say on the subject of lipstick manufacturing -- they were approached by Angela Merkel, of Germany, who looked eager to greet the newest leader in the G-8. President Romney peered at her briefly and then said to Sarkozy, "Your aunt? Your mother?"

"This is Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany," Sarkozy said.

Chancellor Merkel looked somewhat taken aback at being mistaken for Sarkozy's aunt. When she'd regained her composure, she said to President Romney, "I know you will have much to add on the question of the debt crisis in the euro zone, Mr. President."

President Romney looked at the German Chancellor carefully, up and down. "I'd say you'd go about one-forty, give or take five pounds," he said. "Am I in the ballpark?"

Chancellor Merkel, hoping she might have misunderstood the President, said, "I believe the future of the euro will dominate our discussions in the coming days."

"The city that has more bridges than any other city in the world is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania," President Romney said. "Congratulations."

"Congratulations to Pittsburgh?" Chancellor Merkel asked.

President Romney thought for a moment. "No," he said. "Just congratulations."

Yet another key allied head of government innocently joins the fray.

Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, joined the group and introduced himself to President Romney.

"Are you of French-Canadian origin?" President Romney said.

"No, I'm not," the Prime Minister replied. "But I am Canadian."

"The state stone of Michigan is the Petoskey stone," the President said.

The president "spot[s] a gentleman standing a few feet away" and mysteriously renews one of his peculiar quests.

He asked, "Are you of French-Canadian origin?"

"No, I am David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom," the man said.

President Romney looked at Cameron and then at Harper and then at Cameron again. "Brothers?" he said. "Cousins? Uncle and aunt?"

"No," Cameron said.

As we will discover in a moment, President Willard Inc. (or whatever we'll be calling him) is still entertaining hope of discovering . . . well, you'll see.

At that point, the group was joined by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, of Japan. He and President Romney were introduced. "What are you -- around fifty-five or sixty?" the President asked. "Am I close?"

"I am fifty-six years of age," the Japanese Prime Minister said, rather formally.

"Yoshihiko sounds French-Canadian," the President said. "I don't suppose you're of French-Canadian origin, are you?"

"No, I am not," the Prime Minister said.

"Congratulations," the President replied. "Saul Rogovin, of the Detroit Tigers, hit a grand-slam home run in 1950, and it wasn't until 2008 that another Jewish pitcher hit a grand-slam home run."

"Congratulations," Chancellor Merkel said.

"Yes," the others murmured. "Congratulations."

And if I may say, congratulations to us, one and all. We surely know how to pick 'em.


TODAY, WORLD LEADERS. TOMORROW . . .

"Which planet do you rule?"
"I'm hoping to get Earth."

#

France's Socialists, Poised To Win The Presidential Election, Have An Alternative To Austerity

Unpopular European Austerity reactionaries

Saturday hundreds of thousands of Portuguese workers took to the streets of Lisbon to protest international capital's demand for a European Austerity Agenda, more and more frequently being seen as a German takeover. To meet German bailout terms, the conservative government there is raising taxes of workers and severely-- like in Mitt Romney-- cutting social programs.

Many were brandishing banners such as "The struggle continues" and "No to exploitation, no to inequality, no to impoverishment."

The CGTP union which called the march estimated 300,000 people took part, while police would not give any figures, in line with their usual practice.

"We are convinced that it is one of the biggest demonstrations in the last 30 years," said Armenio Carlos, general secretary of the CGTP, in a speech at the end of the protest in the landmark Praca do Comercio (Commerce Square).

He launched sharp attacks against the bailout conditions, calling them "a programme of aggression against workers and against the national interest."

"Austerity did not create wealth. The country needs the rope around its neck to be removed so that it can breathe, live and work," the unionist said, calling for a revision to the minimum wage of 485 euros gross.

"Net salary is at 432 euros, while the poverty line is at 434 euros, and that concerns currently ... 400,000 workers" in Portugal, he said.

He vowed that protests will continue in coming weeks, and that fresh demonstrations will be held across the country on February 29.

In exchange for a loan of 78 billion euros ($103 billion) from the EU and the IMF last May, Portugal agreed to sell public companies as well as implement labour reforms such as introducing shorter holidays.

However, many complain their lives have got worse.

"My purchasing power has fallen, young people are unemployed, companies are closing one after another. I don't see a way out," said a Lisbon retiree.

The situation is worse in Greece, where the country's social cohesion is being threatened as the elites agree to a German takeover detested by the Greek people. There, the just agreed upon Austerity agenda Germany dictated dramatically slashes wages, pensions and jobs in return for a bailout of the banksters and social parasites who have run up Greece's debts. Lucas Papademos, the puppet prime minister installed by Germany, threatened that unless his austerity program was accepted, a disorderly default is inevitable and it would "set the country on a disastrous adventure... It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion. The country would be drawn into a vortex of recession, instability, unemployment and protracted misery and this would sooner or later lead the country out of the euro." I wonder if the German's are handing out the same script to their puppet regimes in Italy and Spain as well. Yesterday, Athens on fire, the public order minister resigned-- and the German collaborators passed another Austerity budget, sparking full on rioting. (Photo of the coffee at Starbucks getting extra roasted.)

The government saw 43 deputies rebel in what may be an indication of the difficulties in ensuring politicians stick to the programme, which include a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage – a package critics say condemns the economy to an ever-deeper downward spiral.

Police said 150 shops were looted in the capital and 48 buildings set ablaze. Some 100 people – including 68 police – were wounded and 130 detained, a police official said on Monday.

There was also violence in cities across the country, including Thessaloniki and the islands of Corfu and Crete.

Athenians were shocked at the burnt buildings that included the neoclassical home to the Attikon cinema dating from 1870... Altogether 199 of the 300 lawmakers backed the controversial bill. The 43 who rebelled were immediately expelled by their parties, Pasok and New Democracy.

The French people, on the other hand, are signaling they're not ready to succumb without a fight and seem eager to kick out Austerity cheerleader Nicolas Sarkozy and replace him with Socialist François Hollande.

Giving an impassioned and polished attack on the speculation and profiteering that led to the economic crisis that has engulfed Europe, Hollande told the 20,000-strong crowd: "My enemy is the world of finance." Belatedly, French company directors, investment bankers and market movers are waking up to the growing popularity of a presidential candidate who promises to raise taxes on rich individuals and big business in order to boost growth.

With the first round of the French elections barely two months away, the polls suggest that Hollande is choosing the right adversaries. On the day he visited Dijon one survey suggested he would win a straight contest with President Nicolas Sarkozy, gaining as much as 60% of the vote.

For a politician habitually described as slightly bland, the transformation into a fêted "tribune of the people" must come as something of a shock. Up until this election campaign Hollande, 57, was known for his love of a joke, his portly mastery of the backroom politics of the Socialist party (PS), and his failed marriage to the former siren of French socialism, Ségolène Royale, who lost the presidential election of 2007.

...Hollande unveiled a 60-point programme for government. In recognition of the parlous state of French finances, there is a commitment to reduce the budget deficit to 3% (from well above 5%) by 2013. The list of austerity measures includes a freeze on public sector recruitment. But the route to sound accounts is principally by way of tax rises rather than cuts, and most of them are directed at the upper tiers of French society.

Pledges include raising the top rate of income tax to 45%, capping tax breaks for wealthy individuals at €10,000 (£8,375) and significantly hiking capital gains tax. The biggest companies in France will also be taxed at a higher rate, while smaller companies will pay less.

"Those who have benefited from crazy pay levels will have to make an effort," said Hollande at the document's launch. The revenue generated, says the PS, will be used to promote growth as well as cut the deficit. Hollande promises state-funded apprenticeships for the young, thousands of new teachers, a new public investment bank and new research and innovation programmes. Without growth, his aides insist, deficits will never be brought under control, as governments across Europe are discovering to their dismay.

Is social democracy in one country possible? Since the global banking crisis struck in 2008, centre-left governments in Britain, Spain and Greece have paid the price. The large majority of the 27 governments of the EU are now of the right and all have focused their energies on cutting spending and shrinking the state. Austerity has become the watchword of a continent. But not for the first time, the French may be about to go against the grain.

The language inside the modest Hollande campaign headquarters, five minutes' walk from the Eiffel Tower, has not been heard in a British election campaign for 30 years or more. Benoît Hamon, the PS spokesman, believes that Europe's social democratic parties "gave up too early" on the idea that governments should play a central role in regulating markets, finding people jobs and driving economic growth. "For years there has been this anomaly that in the globalised market it is the markets that govern in place of elected governments. Basta! Enough!

"We're being up front, saying: 'If you're a rich individual or a rich company, yes, you're going to pay more.' We're saying the same to the banks and we're telling them they won't pass the charges on to their clients."

Karine Berger, one of Hollande's most senior economic advisers and a parliamentary candidate for a rural seat in the Alps, rejects the idea that the wealth of the very top earners in France corresponds to benefits they bring to the wider society. "We believe that there are some people who play a more important role than others," she says, "But they are not the people earning stratospheric wages. They are the engineers, the scientists, the people building companies, not necessarily the top executives or the big traders."

What if the executives and traders threaten to up sticks and go elsewhere? Her reply is unequivocal.

"Look, we want to say to France: 'We want everyone on board, especially those people inventing the future.' And our government will be committed to sound finance and getting public debt under control. We are very serious about that. But for those people holding society to ransom, let them leave." She doesn't think they will... Berger admits that some of the big beasts of French business are beginning to warn that they could "make life difficult" for a Hollande presidency.

The French right is panic stricken and are beating up on Sarkozy to start a counterattack. Since he can't very well run on Austerity, which is hated all through the country, his plan is to demonize immigrants and welfare recipients and see if he can open up some wedges in French society. He has a 32% approval rating, something like Mitt Romney's. Angela Merkel has gone on French TV to demand Sarkozy get a second term, which isn't going over as well as the Sarkozy reelection team had hoped.

Random Musings on 2010 (5)

And some people said they couldn't ever replace Larry King! Say hello to Piers Morgan (see no. 2).

by Noah

1. Back in September, Fox’s Monica Crowley, former Nixon PR flak, subbing for Bill O’Lie-ley, interviewed Scooter Libby and called the investigation of his role in exposing Valerie Plame an outrageous “ordeal” and went on to say that Libby deserved a pardon and -- get this -- called him a class act! Hell, all he did was out a CIA agent and her network, many of whom are probably missing by now, at the least. Had Libby done what he did during World War II, he would have ended up swinging from a gallows in a penitentiary yard. Funny how it’s conservatives who yap about the degradation of our country’s “moral fiber” and things like that. I guess at Fox treason in the service of greed and politics is no vice.

2. CNN has announced, without a trace of shame, that British tabloid veteran and America’s Got Talent panelist Piers Morgan is the replacement for Bush Crime Family groupie Larry King, thus answering the question “Can it get any worse?” If they wanted to go the lowbrow, vulgar TMZ-paparazzi route, why didn’t they just get Jerry Springer? Personally, I’d rather see Simon Cowell interview today’s politicians and celebs. Or me. I’d make sure to always have a hatchet at the ready.

CNN might do better if it just ran Larry King’s reruns. In reality, watching CNN is like watching a spycam and waiting for something to happen. I gave up in 2004.

3. Would you like eggs with that? Prince Charles, “The Man Who Would Be Tampon” ("I want to be reincarnated as your tampon," he's been quoted as saying to his better half), and his Mrs. Prince went out for a night on the town in the Queen’s Jubilee Rolls. Here, take the keys! The Roller got splattered with paint and eggs. Some of the windows were broken, and Mrs. Prince got poked with a stick, while at least one rioter repeatedly yelled, “Off with their heads.” Didn’t Mummy warn them not to go downtown?

Naturally, the old folks and the upper crust got all in a tizzy about the incident. As a measure of how genteel and polite British youth are, there was a time in England when the Prince would have met a far worse fate.

I bet his dad didn’t even make him wash the car when he got home. Spoiled, I tell you! Spoiled brat!

4. The French government, under rightist Nicolas Sarkozy, wants to raise the retirement age in France two years. In France, you've been able to retire as early as age 60, with a real pension and real health care, if you earn enough work credits over, say, 40 years. Now it would be 62. This would also increase the number of people in the workforce. More people would be competing for what is only a finite number of jobs, which would, it almost goes without saying, lower individual wages. All part of the plan, lower wages and fewer pensions monies disbursed.

Next, due to wages being driven down, tax revenues coming into the French treasury go down. The result? Social services and benefits go out the window. You work all those years, and you’re left holding a bag that has a great big hole in it. You can almost hear the laughter. These government clowns and pranksters! “You’re old. Die now!” Not even a "please."

See if this all sounds familiar when President Obama, his Alan Simpson-led Catfood Commission, and the entire Republican Party talk about raising the retirement age in our country by not two but five years! Nice folks we have in Washington, eh? As I said, you can almost hear the laughter.

In France, they have general strikes. In England, students riot and throw eggs. Here in the U.S., everyone is too busy watching crap “reality shows” and things like American Idol while eating junk food and getting too damn obese to get up off the couch and out into the streets to throw some eggs, for starters.

5. Tiger Woods: The media always offers up as an excuse for the lack of investigative journalism that they don’t have the staff and money to look into what far more serious chicanery politicians and corporate types and bankers are up to, but when it comes to sports figures and celebrities, and their sex lives, the checkbook is wide open and we get assaulted with things like months of Tiger’s idiocy. If the media spent a third as much on uncovering and informing the public on what real ne’er-do-wells like those in Congress, Wall Street, and our corporate boardrooms are up to, we’d all be better off -- and many of them would be in prison for life.

6. Imagine Glenn Beck as a nutbag scoutmaster leading his troupers deeper and deeper into the dark woods, so deep that they’ll never be able to find their way out.

7. Republicans like to consider government services socialism. Their followers belch on about how they don’t want their taxpayer dollars benefiting anyone else. It’s all about the greed and selfishness. But they have no problem saying, “Hands off my Medicare," and they have no problem collecting Social Security. They also have no problem driving on interstate highways or calling the police or local fire department, all of which are funded by taxes somewhere along the line. So what happens when tax revenues go down so much that your local town asks you to pay a fee if you want fire department service? You have to pay the money one way or the other if you want the local FD to put out a fire in your house.


Recently in Tennessee a family and their local fire department watched their home burn to the ground because the additional charge had not been paid. This family lost their four pets and everything else in their house.

What happens when a whole block or town burns to the ground due to Republican greed and wealth redistribution? Where does the money go? Not for local education, that’s for sure. New York tried it this way back in the 1700s, a time the Repugs would like to take us back to. What happened then? The whole city burned and burned and burned. Such a policy may go into effect in your town, but it won’t be changed until that local mansion on the hill complete with its stolen art collection and all the Republican master’s closet full of high heels are reduced to ashes.

8. One of my favorite quotes of the year came from Stephanie Miller:

“Rich people pay Fox people to get middle class people to blame poor people.”

9. You can’t make this stuff up, but Fox does. The L.A. jetpacks for cops story was a case in point. Sourcing the Weekly World News supermarket tabloid, Fox ran all the way with a story about the city of Los Angeles buying $1 billion worth of jetpacks for its police, fire department, and emergency services people. Nothing seemed odd about this story to the brainectomy patients at Fox & Friends. Only when a couple of callers called in to tell them the story was a joke did they correct themselves. One has to wonder who hired these morons. Could they have even filled out applications?

It all reminds me of Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell’s (a Fox favorite) claim that the government was making mice with “fully functioning human brains.” Apparently, though, someone is doing the opposite and making humans with fully functioning mouse brains, then giving them jobs at Fox.

Then there was the “Obama Is Cracking Up” story. This was a great example of the inmates in the asylum accusing the sane people of insanity. In this case, Fox didn’t make it up; they just borrowed someone else's made-up news because they thought it nicely fit their wackoid agenda. Fox Nation was running with a story from The Onion, the satirical paper-website, about President Obama cracking up and sending out a rambling 75,000-word e-mail to the entire nation. The article even included a bit about the e-mail being so large, at 27 megabytes, that it couldn’t fit in the mailboxes of millions of Americans. No matter to Fox. If you want to believe something, just believe it. And we wonder where Teabaggers learned their approach to life in these times.

Let’s not forget Fox’s annual “War on Christmas” insanity. This year even the NBA was an evildoing anti-Christmas enemy to those who live in Foxworld. Why? It seems the NBA had six games scheduled on Christmas Day. Never mind that they've had games on Christmas Day since the 1950s.

Are firefighters in Foxworld supposed to stay home too, or just say, “Call back tomorrow”? I didn’t see Fox go off the air on Christmas, so does that make them anti-Christmas too? Does all of this indicate that right-wing loons will soon start consuming themselves? Sooner or later your hate has to run out of targets, when you’ve gone after everybody and everything under the sun, doesn’t it? What’s left when you only have yourselves to hate?

I’m thinking of starting a “Guns for Fox” day. My organization will collect guns and deliver them to Fox so that they can be ready when they start accusing each other of being part of the “War on Christmas.” Hey, I’m just being compassionate.

10. What’s in a campaign promise? During the 2010 campaign, Repugs pledged to ban earmarks. In a prime case of Washington follow-through, the new compromise tax bill contains $8 billion in them. Check the link to see some of the fabulous earmarks. Hey, what’s $8 billion? Also, five of the ten points in the latest Republican “Pledge to America” are violated by provisions in the tax compromise bill.

11. Finally, there’s this thought on President Obama. He might as well join the Republican Party at this point. He clearly wants to do in Net Neutrality and Social Security, and it might be nice to see the Republicans so conflicted about having to do a 180 on their 24-hour hate speech, run a black dude for prez, etc. That’s why it would never happen, of course, but the idea of seeing assclowns like Limbaugh and Hannity et al. simply explode would warm my heart.

NOAH'S YEAR 2010 IN REVIEW

10 Random Musings (1)
2010, Looking Back: To Republicans, It Was So Much More Than Just a Speech to Kids
Random Musings on 2010 (2)
Random Musings on 2010 (3)
Random Musings on 2010 (4)

Republicans in Their Own Words --

Quotations of a Party on Crack, 2010 Version
Part 1, The Unemployed
Part 2, When Cousins Marry

And don't forget 2009's 12 Days of Christmas Scorn.

#

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES-- FRENCH PRESIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY HAS PLENTY

France's new right-wing president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has shown himself to be a willing puppet of the Bush Regime. He'll be in DC next week for discussions with his puppeteers. In France, they call him, disparagingly "Sarko the American" and many Europeans are disappointed in his Bush-oriented political stands, especially at a time when the entire Bush agenda is circling the bowl in an historical flush.

Earlier today, something far scarier came out than Sarkozy's snuggling up to the Bush Regime. A scattershot hit piece from Global Research reports that he has been accused of working for the Mossad! Sarkozy is Catholic but his maternal grandfather was Jewish and Sarkozy has had very strong political connections with the French Jewish community, especially as mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, a wealthy Jewish nieghborhood. He does not have strong political connections with the French Muslim community (which is approximately 10 times the size of the Jewish community in France).

As if his marital challenges were not enough cause for concern, "Sarco the Sayan" has suddenly emerged as the most infamous accolade of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The influential French daily Le Figaro last week revealed that the French leader once worked for-- and perhaps still does, it hinted-- Israeli intelligence as a sayan (Hebrew for helper), one of the thousands of Jewish citizens of countries other than Israel who cooperate with the katsas (Mossad case-officers).

A letter dispatched to French police officials late last winter-- long before the presidential election but somehow kept secret-- revealed that Sarkozy was recruited as an Israeli spy. The French police is currently investigating documents concerning Sarkozy's alleged espionage activities on behalf of Mossad, which Le Figaro claims dated as far back as 1983. According to the author of the message, in 1978, Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin ordered the infiltration of the French ruling Gaullist Party, Union pour un Mouvement Populaire. Originally targeted were Patrick Balkany, Patrick Devedjian and Pierre Lellouche. In 1983, they recruited the "young and promising" Sarkozy, the "fourth man."

Ex-Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky describes how sayanim function in By Way Of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer. They are usually reached through relatives in Israel. An Israeli with a relative in France, for instance, might be asked to draft a letter saying the person bearing the letter represents an organisation whose main goal is to help save Jewish people in the Diaspora. Could the French relative help in any way? They perform many different roles. A car sayan, for example, running a rental car agency, could help the Mossad rent a car without having to complete the usual documentation. An apartment sayan would find accommodation without raising suspicions, a bank sayan could fund someone in the middle of the night if needs be, a doctor sayan would treat a bullet wound without reporting it to the police.

And, a political sayan? It's rather obvious what this could mean. The sayanim are a pool of people at the ready who will keep quiet about their actions out of loyalty to "the cause", a non-risk recruitment system that draws from the millions of Jewish people outside Israel.

I'm not saying Sarkozy's visit to Washington is related to this but there are rumors afoot that Bush has given Israel the green light for a massive attack on Hamas. Yeah... let's roil up the Muslim world some more and get them even more paranoid about American intentions. And this is exactly the right time, seein' as Pakistan has nuclear weapons-- and plenty of crazies-- and Bush and Condi have carefully crafted a foreign policy that leaves us with no options there, just lots of unpalatable scenarios. Clinton made it all look so easy-- like we could allow a marginally retarded person into the White House and it wouldn't matter. It does.

LESS THAN REAL MEN GETTING READY TO ATTACK IRAN? DO THE DEMOCRATS HAVE THE CAJONES TO STOP THEM?

Well, now that we've all been reassured that Larry Craig is not gay, we can move on to Bush's nuclear saber rattling at Iran. You remember when you couldn't turn on the TV back in 2002-2003 without hearing some NeoCon hack crowing that "Real men want to go to Tehran," right? Real men like Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Jonah Goldberg, Peter Steinfels, Elliot Abrams, Norman Podhoretz, Richard Perle, Irving Kristol, Robert Zoellick, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Kagen, Gary Schmitt, Frank Gaffney, "Scooter" Libby, Ken Adelman, William Bennett, Michael O'Hanlon, Rich Lowry, Martin Peretz and, of course, Holy Joe Lieberman? Actual real men-- and real women-- have been fighting and dying needlessly in Iraq while these war profiteers have been hooting it up back home. Every single one of them should be tried before a war crimes tribunal-- along with the dimwit who fronts for them.

And today, Dimwit, the lamest of lame ducks, with over a year left for causing mischief in the world and-- if we are to judge by the inability of congressional Democrats to show any resolve, unity or spine--nothing whatsoever to hold him back, was barking about Iran again. He's done such a fabulous job in Iraq. In fact, despite the doubled casualties for American fighting men (the "real men," not the ones he hangs out with) and tripled casualties for Iraqi civilians-- not to mention the complete destruction of their society fro top to bottom-- Dimwit will soon have the most craven of his pet generals declare that his failed and catastrophic policies in Iraq are not just not a disaster but that they are succeeding. Well, by all means, Mr. Presidunce, if you can convince the American public and the idiots who represent them in Congress that Iraq is a success, you have earned the war in Iran you so crave.

Although I have no doubt that if the whole world voted, the United States, and especially the Presidunce in charge of Decidering, would be declared the world's leading terrorist, Bush seems it differently and branded Iran "the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism" and raised the specter of a "nuclear holocaust." I'm in the camp that isn't positive that this is just Bush bluster. Today Raw Story cites a credible study that says Bush is preparing a massive strike against Iran.

The United States has the capacity for and may be prepared to launch without warning a massive assault on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, as well as government buildings and infrastructure, using long-range bombers and missiles, according to a new analysis.

...The study concludes that the US has made military preparations to destroy Iran’s WMD, nuclear energy, regime, armed forces, state apparatus and economic infrastructure within days if not hours of President George W. Bush giving the order. The US is not publicizing the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely. The US retains the option of avoiding war, but using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran’s actions.
• Any attack is likely to be on a massive multi-front scale but avoiding a ground invasion. Attacks focused on WMD facilities would leave Iran too many retaliatory options, leave President Bush open to the charge of using too little force and leave the regime intact.

• US bombers and long range missiles are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours.

• US ground, air and marine forces already in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan can devastate Iranian forces, the regime and the state at short notice.

• Some form of low level US and possibly UK military action as well as armed popular resistance appear underway inside the Iranian provinces or ethnic areas of the Azeri, Balujistan, Kurdistan and Khuzestan. Iran was unable to prevent sabotage of its offshore-to-shore crude oil pipelines in 2005.

• Nuclear weapons are ready, but most unlikely, to be used by the US, the UK and Israel. The human, political and environmental effects would be devastating, while their military value is limited.

• Israel is determined to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons yet has the conventional military capability only to wound Iran’s WMD programmes.

• The attitude of the UK is uncertain, with the Brown government and public opinion opposed psychologically to more war, yet, were Brown to support an attack he would probably carry a vote in Parliament. The UK is adamant that Iran must not acquire the bomb.

• The US is not publicising the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely. The US retains the option of avoiding war, but using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran’s actions.

I GUESS WE'LL GO BACK TO CALLING 'EM FRENCH FRIES

Even though the Brits seem unethusiastic about following Bush and Cheney into Hell, Bush's new French pal Nicholas Sarkozy is ready to sign on. Is O'Reilly still boycotting?

President Sarkozy called Iran’s nuclear ambition the world’s most dangerous problem yesterday and raised the possibility that the country could be bombed if it persisted in building an atomic weapon.

The French leader used tough language towards Tehran in the first broad survey of his plans for extending Gallic influence in the world since the start of his hyperactive presidency in May. President Sarkozy also gave full backing to Bernard Kouchner, his Foreign Minister, who was forced to apologise yesterday for calling for the replacement of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister.

Ostensibly, Obama's response to Bush's bellicose rant today was a slap at the Presidunce. But in actuality it was a reminder that Hillary and Edwards both voted for with a minority of Democrats who supported Bush's criminal attack on Iraq.

There is an eerie echo to the President's words today. Five years ago, he made a misleading case to the American people that the trail to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden somehow led through Iraq, and too many in Washington followed without asking the hard questions that should have been raised. Now we are dealing with the consequences of that failure of candor and judgment, and the President is using the politics of fear to continue a wrong-headed policy. It's time to turn the page on the failed Bush-Cheney strategy and conventional Washington thinking, remove our combat troops from Iraq, mount a long overdue surge of diplomacy, and focus our attention on a resurgent al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.