Hopefully U.S.-French relations will improve with a conservative, non anti-American in office: “With 95-point-eight percent of ballots counted as of Monday morning… Sarkozy had won 53-point-one percent of the vote against 46-point-nine percent for Socialist Ségolène Royal…”
In an article at the Asia Times, Riddles and enigmas from North Korea, Andrei Lankov speculates on how governments get intelligence from inside North Korea, and lists some of the other valuable sources of information from the country.
- #From Mainichi and via the Chosun Bimbo, "In his first reported appearance following news of his hospitalization, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il lost his temper while watching a college soccer match, denouncing several players' long hair as "disgusting," according to a source close to the North Korean government. The outburst was followed by a nationwide ban on long hair for men." We'll all be watching the next soccer match to see if it's so.
- #Outward Bound, an international non-profit outdoor education program, is offering fully funded (including transportation to/from sites) outdoor adventure excursions to all OEF/OIF veterans. It doesn't matter what your current military status is (active, inactive, discharged, retired) - you're eligible to attend as long as you deployed in support of OEF/OIF combat operations while in the military.
- #Via AFP: “South Korea has lifted an overseas travel ban on Hwang Jang-Yop, the highest-ranking North Korean defector ever to come here and a harsh critic of the Pyongyang regime. . . Hwang, former secretary of the ruling Workers' Party and an ex-tutor of Kim Jong-Il, defected during a trip to Beijing in 1997.” His travel restriction was due to 10 years of pro-North ROK leadership, now over.
- #
May 9th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Vive La Republique Francaise. Now all we gotta do is get a conservative in Cheong Wa Dae in December.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
… and hope the White House doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
The political shift is amazing.
Right to left in Spain and Italy; The US House & Senate.
Left to right in Germany, Sweden, Canada, and soon to be UK, if elections are called, based on polls and recent local elections.
Frances’ Chirac was conservative, but Anti-American. Thank god the US finally has a chance to get France off it’s ass and heal the divisions of the West, which was lead by France by exploiting America’s unpopular and easily misconstrued response to the very real islamic fundamentalist threat. France’s opportunistic response was the biggest international cheap-shot in recent memory. How many countries are going to become nuclear powers now because America was basically politically neutered to do anything? You can disagree about Iraq, but not at the expense of effectively confronting Iran and NK.
I hope Sarkozy heals things.
There are several parliamentary elections this summer in Europe, including France in June. That is going to determine how much room Sarkozy has to truly push through desperately needed reforms. If he can just convince people to believe and call the reforms something besides “The Anglo-Saxon Model,” that may very well be decisive. haha
The SK Presidential election this December will hopefully bring the GNP back. KJI won’t be able to thumb his nose and extort at will anymore, if that happens. We hope.
The ingredients for policy unity and solidarity on nuclear non-proliferation, as well as human rights, look close.
May 9th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
The French election has made me more optimistic than ever that Hilldabeast will not be my president in November 2008.
I cant for the life of me cant see the American people electing a socialist female when 35 hour work week—4 weeks vacation—entitlement after entitlement socialist France turned down the opportunity to elect a better looking version of Hillary Clinton with a French accent.
I must also say how pround I am of the French that 86% percent of their electorate turned out to vote. While I am one of those Americans who tend to bash the French once in a while, I think we American can learn from French when it comes to not taking your democracy for granted. Its a damn shame you cant even get 50% of American to vote.