What a piss-off to British and American nationalists. Those damn French! Not only do they seem to be constantly opposing us but on virtually every issue, they are correct and hold the moral high-ground.
At the current G20 Conference on the world economic meltdown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy is in tight alliance with German chancellor Angela Merker in demanding much more of President Obama and PM Brown than either is willing to concede. What is it they are being so obstinate about? Oh, just a little matter of regulating the world financial behemoth. Yeah, the same sorts of things Barack Obama talked up a good game about, during the election process. It's very, very early in the presidency, but anyone who had hoped Obama would actually lead the way on issues like this or prosecuting war crimes (torture) - just admit he won't be such a leader. He's leaving that to the Europeans - specifically France, Spain and Germany.
France and Germany are demanding concrete agreements on financial regulations; agreements that could conceivably bring regulators inside of U.S. borders when huge banking interests or the financial markets seem to be breaking the law. "Without new regulation there will be no confidence. It's a major non-negotiable objective" , Sarkozy said. Merkel added, "We do not want results that have no impact in practice."
Obama is trying to steer clear of this kind of talk, while pushing - you guessed it - stimulus! Now, I'm not passing judgment one way or another on whether the stimulus plans might have some beneficial effects. From what I can tell, France did not go to the G20 to oppose them. They probably won't agree to contribute much to any stimulus plan because their home countries social safety nets are so much stronger than here (another areas where they are right, and moral) that they don't see the need. But they are demanding much more. They want to get to the heart of the issue, while "stimulus" just addresses the symptoms.
“The decisions need to be taken now, today and tomorrow. This has nothing to do with ego. This has nothing to do with temper tantrums. When it comes to historic moments, you can’t circumvent them.” Hey, maybe there is indeed a great, young leader in the world! Viva la France!
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
France gets it right - AGAIN
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5 comments:
Does this mean that we can start eating French Fries again? The Freedom Fries get greasier and greasier every time we serve them.
At least in France they actually asked, "What do we get for our centime (if they still use such things)"?
And more importantly, who is going to PAY and how are they going to do it?
Did you notice that the people who oversaw this financial fiasco and who will oversee it's "repair" walk about guarded, and the people they will shuck down to make it right get whipped on the head by a cop if they are angry about it?
I feel sorry for Obama. There is no telling what the press and the right would do to him were he to come back from Europe having conceded to France. Just picture it.
I feel as if Obama is playing a soccer match, and he started with a losing score of 10 to nothing.
He is in a lose-lose situation.
they are correct and hold the moral high-ground.
Thank you Bush for fucking that one up for us!
Yeah, the same sorts of things Barack Obama talked up a good game about, during the election process. It's very, very early in the presidency, but anyone who had hoped Obama would actually lead the way on issues like this or prosecuting war crimes (torture) - just admit he won't be such a leader. He's leaving that to the Europeans - specifically France, Spain and Germany.
Especially on the torture and all this expanding the Bush administrtation's wire-tapping . . . he is, on several critical fronts, disappointing. More sizzle than steak. And on issues which one would expect better of him, considering he was a constitutional scholar and professor.
I was prepared for him having to play ball in the political arena, but I'm really getting the feeling he's not just making concessions, giving ground in some areas to keep it in others. But that he thinks he's doing the right thing regarding both torture and the infringement of citizens' privacy.
I don't feel as hope-y as I did just a few months, or a few weeks ago.
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