Une blague pour le blog

Lorsque Dieu créa le monde, il décida de concéder deux vertus aux hommes de chaque peuple afin qu'ils prospèrent. Par exemple il rendit: - Les Suisses précis et pacifistes,
- Les Anglais flegmatiques et ironiques,
- Les Japonais travailleurs et réalistes,
- Les Italiens joyeux et humanistes.

Quant aux Français, il dit :
- Les Français seront intelligents, honnêtes et sarkozistes.

Lorsque le monde fut achevé, l'ange qui avait été chargé de la distribution des vertus demanda à Dieu : "Seigneur, tu as dit que tu octroyais deux vertus à chaque peuple, mais les Français en ont trois. Est-ce pour cela qu'ils se placent au dessus des autres ? "

"En vérité, Je te le dis, chaque peuple a deux vertus y compris les Français, car chacun d'entre eux ne pourra en posséder que deux à la fois. "

Ce qui veut dire que :
- si un Français est sarkoziste et honnête, il ne sera pas intelligent,
- s'il est sarkoziste et intelligent, il ne sera pas honnête,
- s'il est intelligent et honnête, il ne peut pas être sarkoziste.

AMERICALOVE IT and LEAVE IT!

2 + 2 still equals 4

Check out some very serious propaganda in today's Guardian Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iran. Of course, the money quotes all come from an unnamed "senor administrion official in Baghdad."I am still pretty sure that Cheney and George will strike against Iran b/f they leave office. It may be that Gordon Brown's reversal on British troop levels in Iraq is related to this plan. I'm not following things as much as I was before, but I still think that Cheney's self-interest and Bush's "logic" almost require them to do this. Cheney knows it is now-or-never and George has god on his side.

We'll see.

Energy Mercantalism Revisited

I noted a few months back Russia's energy nationalism as a harbinger of the end of "free market" fundamentalism (The End of Neo-liberalism and the New Energy Mercantalism). More recently Hugo Chavez has raised the flage on what was Venezuela's last privately run oil field.

Yesterday, finally, George responded to these dramatic developments. Yes, George has got a word for these kind of people: terrorists. According to today's White House Watch (see Dan Froomkin), Cox News Service reports on George's appearance before the Associated General Contractors meeting in DC. George said:

"...'You can attack a nation several ways. One, you can get 19 kids to fly airplanes into buildings, or you can gain control of something a country needs and deny that country access to that, in this case, oil, and run the price of oil up, all attempting to inflict serious economic damage.'"

Frightening stuff. We now know where the twins will not be going for spring breakk 2008.

Fatal Attraction II

French Elections, Round 2

The Times They are a Changin, Sort Of

Come gather round voters
With your mouths full of foam
And admit that your wallets
Are dry to the bone
And just accept it now
That you’ll soon loose your home
Pray your I-R-A
Is worth savin’
Then you better start laughin
Else you’ll die with a moan
For the times they are a changing, sort of

Come talking heads and pundits
Who think like a herd
Be as dumb as you want
Cause your paid by the word
Remember the louder you scream
The better you’ll be heard
There’s no end to your childish
Name-callin
And the dumbest one now
Will just be called back again
For the times they are a changing, kind of

Come senators and congressman
In search of a buck
Don’t pass legislation
That’ll compromise your luck
And the sign on your desk
Says fuck and get fucked
By the lobbyists outside
A ragin’
But your pimping ways
Lacks the dignity of a whore!
Yes the times they are a changing, sort of

Come Iraqi veterans
Who can’t pay the rent
And forget that already
Next month’s paycheck is spent
For what matters most is that
We invade Iran
The Iraqi War is
Rapidly aging
Please join us in the new one
If you’ve still got two hands
For the times they are a changing, kind of

A line it is snorted
The beer can makes a blast
Old Dubya is off
On the war path
One more roll of the dice
Try and salvage his past
Common sense is
Rapidly fading
And the dead one’s now
Will never come back
For the times they are a changing, sort of

Who says political science is not an experimental science?

Here is an excellent real-world test of the Democrats' commitment to being the anti-war party. It is from Congressman Walter B. Jones (R) of North Carolina’s 3rd district and is reproduced below. If the Democrats genuinely wanted to prevent Cheney from attacking Iran they would be 100% supportive of this joint resolution. not surprisingly, Nancy Pelosi has been described as non-committal about it. I give it about a 1% chance of getting to the House floor for an actual vote and a 0.1% chance of being passed.

JOINT RESOLUTION

Concerning the use of military force by the United States against Iran.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING THE USE OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAN.

(a) Rule of Construction- No provision of law enacted before the date of the enactment of this joint resolution shall be construed to authorize the use of military force by the United States against Iran.

(b) Requirements- Absent a national emergency created by attack by Iran, or a demonstrably imminent attack by Iran, upon the United States, its territories or possessions or its armed forces, the President shall consult with Congress, and receive specific authorization pursuant to law from Congress, prior to initiating any use of military force against Iran.