Preparing For Domination

The newly appointed leader of the NAACP is 35-year old Ben Jealous, an interesting name. Here are excerpts from an article from the Associated Press:

"There are a small number of groups to whom all black people in this country owe a debt of gratitude, and the NAACP is one of them," Jealous told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "There is work that is undone. The need continues and our children continue to be at great risk in this country." (...)

Among his plans for the group are strengthening its online presence to connect with activists, mobilize public opinion and build a database for tracking racial discrimination and hate crimes; ensuring high voter turnout among blacks in the November election; pushing an aggressive civil rights agenda, regardless of the makeup of the Congress or White House; and retooling the national office to make it more effective at helping local branches affect change in their communities. (...)

Jealous said having the energy of a 35-year-old will be an asset to the organization.

"It means having somebody who is impatient and outraged that race is still a factor in our society," he said.

He added that he can attract 25- to 50-year-olds — the missing demographic among most chapters — back to the organization. And he said he is eager to work with other groups to push his agenda.

"This is the century when white people will become a minority in this country," he said. "What that means is right now, we need to have a clear picture of where we're headed and work together diligently with Latinos, Native Americans, Asians and progessive white groups as if our collective future depends on it. I'm committed to that."

It's a tall order that isn't likely to happen overnight, but Jealous — whose resume doesn't reflect a record of longevity — said he's ready to settle in for the long haul.

Notice he says "progressive whites", i.e. liberals, socialists, feminists. etc... Is he hinting that conservative whites no longer have a place in the America? If conservative whites in America (as in Europe) don't soon pool their energies, redefine their mission along stronger, firmer, more traditionalist lines, and choose party candidates and leaders who are not dhimmis, wimps and sell-outs, Jealous, and people like him, will easily take over the country without a fight.

I realize that the NAACP is a weakened organization, and that this piece of news may not mean the end of the world. But in the current crisis, it is ominous.

A New Light In the Night

A French reader has started his own website (in French of course!) devoted to the culture of traditional France. Entitled Phares Jaunes (yellow headlights) the site aims to preserve for future generations the sights and sounds of the country he loves and hopes will soon see better days. Here is a rendering in English of his opening post:

Why "Yellow Headlights"? Not only is it an image of the France that existed at the time of WWI when our trucks were equipped with yellow headlights to distinguish them from the enemy's white headlights, it is for me also a symbol of La Belle France of our childhood, a magical light at night that bathed and transformed everything, creating a new nocturnal universe, a symbol of the French exception as we faced cultural and economic globalization.

Here, I hope to be able to offer to you, dear readers, the best of our cultural patrimony in photos, videos, articles, etc... We shall not cry over our "beautiful lost France", but rather celebrate and honor her so as to transmit her culture to the generations that will follow us. To those who call us "old-fashioned" I say: How can we judge the present if we don't compare it to the past?

I leave to other blogs the job of dealing with more unpleasant topics. (Note: I think he means me!) They have an important function, of course, and we must not put our heads in the sand, but I find that sometimes we have to take time to look at the flowers and breathe pure air. You will find here a refuge where you can regain your strength from time to time. At least, that is my hope.

It may be true that the sun is setting on the 5th French Republic, but I hope that with the dawn Eternal France will awaken, more beautiful and resplendent than ever. In the meantime, TURN ON YOUR HEADLIGHTS and MAKE SURE THEY ARE YELLOW!

To hear a variety of French music click the big arrow on the right. Or treat yourself to some vintage Brigitte Bardot. I'm sure a lot more will be forthcoming, and we all wish him well in this happy enterprise.

Dauphin, have you told B.B. of your homage to her? She may want to thank you in person.

A Revolution Named Desire

At the homepage of Alain Escada's website there is a cornucopia of articles on the sexual revolution that exploded in 1968 and that has all but destroyed the morality we used to live by in the Western world. This revolution had as its purpose the "normalization" of sexual acts that would, in any sane society, be restricted, banned or denounced. I am presenting here excerpts from several different articles:

In order to understand the importance of
immorality and the banality of pedophilia in left-wing thinking (as expressed during the revolutionary insurrection of May 68), we have to go back to the origins of bolchevism in which the extreme Left has its roots.

Here is the moral code of Smidovitch (a member of the Central Committee of the Bolchevik Party late in 1917):

1 - Each student in the technical schools, even if he is a minor, has the right and the duty to satisfy his sexual needs.

2 - When a man desires a girl, whether she is a student, a worker or even an elementary school pupil, she is bound to yield to this desire, otherwise she will be considered as a bourgeoise and not as an authentic communist.

In Pravda (the official newspaper of the Bolchevik Party) in 1919 we find:

"Between a man and a woman we have only sexual relations, we do not know love. Love is to be disdained like everything else that emerges from "psychologism".

The quotes are from The Sexual Revolution by Wilhelm Reich, one of May 68's icons.

Writer/philosopher Pascal Bruckner gave an interview to L'Express in 2002:

"Everybody had the right to desire. Before, we would interrupt our love-making. It stopped at the last stage ('my parents don't want me to,' 'I want to stay a virgin until marriage'). But now a girl could sleep with whomever she wanted and disobey the societal, parental and family standards (...) Let's say it directly: it was an era when everybody slept with everybody, as much from desire as from curiosity. We were like children let loose in a pastry shop! Finally, you could have everything, sample everything! We said that we could not refuse ourselves anything, not even homosexual experiences."

And this quote, also from Pascal Bruckner:

"We had invented a formidable and mythical enemy - Judeo-Christianity - in order to better highlight the uniqueness of our times. May 68 was the act of emancipation of the individual, an act which undermines the collective morality. Henceforth, we had no orders to take from anyone. Not the Church, not the army, or the bourgeoisie, or the party... And since the individual was free there was no other obstacle to his desires except himself. 'To live without any dull moments, to enjoy unfettered pleasure': it was the marvelous promise of a new world. At that point, a veritable jubilation at the thought of tearing down the order that had marked our childhood became evident. We were going to advance from repression to conquest! May 68 was an anti-authoritarian, anti-traditionalist revolution in which sexuality acted as a beacon. All of a sudden there was an eruption of sensuality! In the 18th century they said "I love you" when they meant "I desire you". This time we said "I desire you" instead of saying "I love you."

Finally, the LCR (Communist Revolutionary League) that participated in May 68, has remained true to the revolutionary spirit of the insurrection. Here is an excerpt from their publication L'Etincelle, February 1981:

"This is not about the mythification of the pedophiliac relationship, nor is it a denial that such a relationship objectively reproduces the relationship of adult-child oppression. But we will not progress to the resolution of contradictions if we repress their reciprocal desires. For this situation (i.e. repression) also creates the worst traumas and in the end re-enforces the power of the adult, since once again, it is he who decides on this repression.

That is why it seems to us that there should be an agreement both in the homosexual movement and in the revolutionary movement on the abolition of any law that represses an adult-child relationship that has been mutually consensual, and the abolition as a consequence of the notion of a legal age of sexual adulthood ("majorité sexuelle").

Big Brother - Update

In September 2007 I posted the following article taken from Yves Daoudal's blog. At the time I posted it I did not realize who "people in transit" were, but I have since learned that they were Roma or gypsies:

Last week, the prefect of Indre-et-Loire, Paul Girod de Langlade was fined 2000 euros for "provoking racial discrimination". Yesterday, at the council of ministers, he was cashiered.

His crime is having said, while speaking of "people in transit": "There are too many of them in the department. We have been too lax for too long. Everybody knows that when they arrive some place, they bring crime."

We don't have to wonder if it's true or not. The fact is, it is forbidden to say it. Period.

A few days ago the following information was left in the comment section of the above post. (A reminder that MRAP is a type of "civil rights" organization that primarily works on behalf of Muslims.) It was apparently left by someone who works on behalf of the Roma and who favors the actions of MRAP:

The trial in the appeals court against Girod de Langlade has resulted in a condemnation for racist remarks with regard to the "Gens du Voyage" ("travelers", i.e. Roma)

The MRAP hopes for a confirmation by verdict.

The 11th Court of Appeals of Paris.
Wednesday May 14 at 13:30.

Thank you for spreading this information and please come out in force to support the action of MRAP.

Evelyne Pommerat

Fnasat-Gens du voyage

59 rue de l'Ourcq

75019 Paris

tel : 01 40 35 12 17

documentation@fnasat.asso.fr

www.fnasat.asso.fr

Another report at the time of the event, from Blog-VA, informs us that when Girod de Langlade was removed from his post he was replaced by Patrick Subremont, former bureau director under Prime Minister Edith Cresson during François Mitterand's presidency, and who later was promoted to a higher post in the Interior Ministry by Jean-Pierre Chevènement, then given the title of Prefect by Daniel Vaillant (...) In other words he is a socialist through and through, and yet he was chosen by President Sarkozy and Interior Minister Alliot-Marie to replace the unfortunate Prefect of Indre-et-Loire.

The Queen's New Look

Click here for the photo of Queen Elizabeth II on her trip to Turkey. I know nothing about the protocol of such a visit, but is a monarch supposed to do this? Bush entered a mosque in his stocking feet, and that was bad enough, but the queen...? The caption explains that the event was a reading of passages from the Koran.

Selling Out

The question of Turkey's probable membership in the EU is in the forefront now that France is preparing to preside over the European Union for half a year, beginning July 1. Prime Minister François Fillon and secretary of State for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet are sending ambiguous messages about the role France intends to play in the process of accepting (or rejecting) Turkey.

Joachim Véliocras writing at Islamisation, using Yves Daoudal as one source, summarizes the most recent remarks by French officials:

François Fillon's remarks about Turkey and the European Union, made during his visit to Cyprus are a true example of muddled speech à la Sarkozy. In a few sentences, he went from refusing Turkey's membership to accepting it.

First sharp words against Turkey for occupying the northern part of Cyprus: "We cannot imagine how any country would want to adhere to the European Union when its army is occupying territory of another EU country."

Then the opposition on principle: "Turkey's membership in Europe is not a good solution."

Followed immediately by its negation: "There still exist too many obstacles to this membership. A privileged partnership between the European Union and this great country that is Turkey is a necessary stage."

Note: By "privileged partnership" he is referring no doubt to Sarkozy's plan for a "Mediterranean Union", a project quashed by Angela Merkel, but reformulated now as the "Union for the Mediterranean."

There are "still today" too many obstacles. If Turkey removes them, it can join the EU. But we take note especially of the new element introduced by François Fillon: the "privileged partnership" is no longer an alternative to membership, as Nicolas Sarkozy led us to believe, it is a "stage" on the road leading inevitably to membership...

Proof? Nicolas Sarkozy is very careful not to shout it on the rooftops, but the French presidency of the European Union goes hand in hand with the opening of new negotiations on Turkey's membership.

Jean-Pierre Jouyet, secretary of State for European Affairs, a socialist and overtly pro-Turkey, has just confirmed this in an article with the Turkish daily Sabah, dated May 6, 2008:

Q - Once France is President of the European Union beginning July 1, will we feel justified in expecting a more neutral position on the Turkish question?

A - The French presidency of the European Union will be, as it should be for any European presidency, objective and federating. We also hope to be in a position to open one or several new chapters of negotiation . That presupposes that Turkey will resolutely and rapidly exert an effort to satisfy the criteria for the opening of these talks.

The juridical framework of negotiations remains the full and entire membership of Turkey... no alternative is provided for by the commissioner on expansion Ollie Rehn, who confided to deputy Paul-Marie Coûteaux that membership will take place in 4 years...

Meanwhile, Le Figaro reported on the message delivered by Queen Elizabeth II to Turkish president Abdullah Gul:

On the occasion of a banquet in her honor hosted by President Abdullah Gul, the queen described Turkey as a "confident and dynamic democracy", and pled for closer ties between Ankara and London.

"In this country, the perspective of accession to the European Union has already inspired changes that are improving the lives of its citizens." (...) "Abroad, Turkey holds a unique position as bridge between East and West at a crucial moment for the European Union and the world in general," she added. The queen, 82, and Prince Philip arrived in Ankara for a four-day State visit to Turkey. (...)

Finally, here are the opening paragraphs of an article posted at EU Observer:

France – one of staunchest opponents of Turkey's EU membership bid – has said it will not hinder the country's accession process during its time at the head of the 27-nation bloc, starting in July.

"France has no intention of breaking up Turkey's negotiation process," French secretary of state for European affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet was quoted as saying on Tuesday (6 May) after meeting Turkish foreign minister Ali Babacan in Ankara.

France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has repeatedly voiced his opposition to Turkey's EU accession, saying that the country does not belong to Europe.

Mr Jouyet underlined, however, that the French presidency of the EU in the second half of this year would be "objective, impartial and balanced," according to French news agency AFP.

The image, from the Karanlik Church in Cappadocia depicts the kiss of Judas and the betrayal of Christ who had gone to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. You can read more here. And check out the whole website of remarkable photos of Turkey by Dick Osseman.

"Rome Will Be Conquered"

I am once again experiencing delays in blogging due to the on-going family problem I spoke of several weeks ago. I hope to resume normal posting within a few days. Until then, it will be sporadic. I am aware of the comments you have sent, as well as some e-mails. I will respond to as many as I can.

I've had this Fox News item in my file for a while. A reader had sent it; now I see that several French websites have also posted it. Terrifying, but all too plausible, in view of recent developments that point once again to Turkey's probable entry into the EU (even sooner than expected - now they're saying within FOUR years!), and America's continued "recruitement" of Muslim immigrants. I'll try to have more on these stories ASAP.

A sermon last Friday (April 11) by a prominent Muslim cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament openly declared that "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital," would soon be conquered by Islam.

The fiery sermon, delivered by Yunis al-Astal and aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, predicted that Rome would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe."

"Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion," al-Astal preached, "so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world.

"Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our prophet Muhammad," he added.

Al-Astal last June preached how it was the duty of Palestinian women to martyr themselves by becoming homicide bombers.

"The most exalted form of jihad is fighting for the sake of Allah, which means sacrificing one's soul by fighting the enemies head-on, even if it leads to martyrdom," he said in a June 23, 2007 interview.

"When jihad becomes an individual duty, it applies to women too, because women do not differ from men when it comes to individual duties," he said, calling Jews "the brothers of apes and pigs" who should "taste the bitterness of death."

Friday's rant repeated that theme: "Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam.

"I believe that our children, or our grandchildren, will inherit our jihad and our sacrifices, and, Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them.

"Today, we instill these good tidings in their souls – and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire at whose brink they stand."

Source: Fox News April 14

Note: We should bear in mind that since this article was published Italy has had an election and returned the conservatives to power. Since Italy has never been as Islamized as France, and appears to be maintaining some loyalty to its heritage, the imam's fulminations may turn out to be idle threats. But even as idle threats they are chilling in that they express so openly the true goals of the jihad - the long-awaited revenge on Europe and America.

Comfort To the Enemy

Here is the reaction of Catholic writer and activist Bernard Antony to the most recent "detail" in the public life of Jean-Marie Le Pen:

From whichever aspect you regard them - political, historical, psychoanalytical, the latest declarations of Jean-Marie Le Pen are troubling for the members of the French national Right, whose ideals and political mission do not include a defense of the structures of the concentration camps of Germany's Third Reich.

A reminder that for us, the Reich was one of the two great ideological and exterminatory abominations of the 20th century; the other one, alas, even worse in scope and duration - communism, still ruling in China.

On the other hand, the remarks uttered by the head of the Front National, which by virtue of their repetition, have little or no impact on the last remaining leaders and workers of the party, are welcomed with delight by the enemies of the national cause. Trying to be, no doubt, as true to his own caricature as possible, Jean-Marie Le Pen provides them once again with the ingredients for their discussions and their habit of associating elements that are disparate and incompatible ("amalgames").

For groups such as MRAP, LICRA and other so-called anti-racist associations, he is a benefactor through his ideological (and even financial!) masochism.

Since nothing points to any potential renewal of the Front National, or to a satisfactory successor, I urge the last party members to join together freely and prepare the necessary and modern confederation of right-wing parties, united on the fundamental principles of defense of life, family, social justice, the fatherland and a Europe that reaffirms the Greco-Latin and Judeo-Christian roots of its civilization.

Le Pen Consistent With Himself

Last month just as the Nouvelle Droite Populaire was forming, Jean-Marie Le Pen was once again attempting to attract bad publicity, the only kind he gets nowadays. Clever as usual, he succeeded in prompting Le Figaro to juxtapose remarks about the gas chambers with criticism of Muslim immigration:

In an interview published in the April 25 edition of the "Breton", a regional magazine, the leader of the Front National repeated that to him it was "obvious that the gas chambers were a detail of the Second World War." He first used the word "detail" in 1987 on RTL radio. In 2005, in an interview with the BBC he used the word again.

In the course of the interview with the journalist of the regional monthly that circulates in Bretagne and the Paris region, Jean-Marie Le Pen used the figure of 50 million to describe the total deaths in the Second World War. The journalist interrupted to say that the "problem is not the number of deaths, but the way in which they were killed, and the fact that they were deported to the camps expressly to be killed." The leader of the FN replied:

"But that's what you believe. I feel no obligation to adhere to that vision. I say that in Auschwitz there was the IG Farben factory, that there were 80,000 workers there. As far as I know, they were not in any case gassed or incinerated."

The journalist retorted that the work of historians of all political stripes has proven the reality of deportations with extermination as the goal. Le Pen replied:

"That isn't the problem. I'm not questioning that. I said it was a detail. Why should that merit 150 million in fines? Is this a free country where one sentence, no matter how controversial, uttered by a public figure, merits 150 million in fines, the blackballing of the person and his party?" This was an allusion to the court proceedings that followed his original comment in 1987.

In the same interview Le Pen made some pertinent remarks about the Muslim presence in France, but when these comments are juxtaposed with the above statements, he comes across as both anti-Semitic and "Islamophobic", two equally condemnable positions in the eyes of the anti-racists and the French media.

He explained that he "is not sure" if France will still exist in 50 years, since "on paper" there will be a Muslim majority" as there already is in "Roubaix, Marseilles, and the Parisian suburbs where, when you come out of the Metro, you find yourself in Timbuktu or Casablanca. The Muslim population in Quimper does not put on the traditional headdress. It puts on the veil. And the Breton woman who lives in that neighborhood of Quimper also puts on the veil, to avoid problems."

For the record Jean-Marie Le Pen insists he ordered the Breton magazine not to publish the interview and he accuses the monthly of having leaked ahead of publication "passages that sound provocative". He claims he even sent a letter by certified mail two weeks before publication forbidding the interview to be printed.

Maybe he did. But he could not possibly have thought they would not publish the interview.

The fallout from this incident has been quick in coming. Several FN leaders have disassociated themselves from their chairman, former Le Pen collaborator Bernard Antony has denounced the comments, and messages at the forums of nationalist websites all point to a feeling of disdain for the man they once believed in.

See my next post.

Thoughts On Le Pen

Recently I posted the announcement of a new political movement called the Nouvelle Droite Populaire (New Popular Right), formed out of necessity, as an attempt to fill the gaping hole in French conservative politics. The UMP party of Nicolas Sarkozy is only intermittently conservative, and chronically reluctant to criticize openly its leader or to take firm stands on anything. The Front National of Jean-Marie Le Pen has suffered electoral reversals, diminished funding and justified bad publicity as a result of Le Pen's mean-spiritedness and deliberate provocations. Marine Le Pen has not yet succeeded in winning over those members who left the FN in anger and frustration.

The troubles that weigh on Le Pen have not, however, deterred him from repeating the very remarks that aroused a furor decades ago and started the party on its self-destructive path.

I must repeat what I've said many times: I do not believe in making speech a criminal act punishable by imprisonment or fines. But we are responsible for what we say, and if we make an error it behooves us not to repeat it over and over. The fact that Le Pen repeats his error to me means that he is doing it deliberately to prove that there is no freedom of speech in France when it comes to criticizing Jews. However, the end result is that he has turned so many people against him that now, nobody cares what he says or why he says it.

The Front National would have had credibility if Le Pen had used his powerful rhetoric only to criticize the Left (including the many Jews who belong to it), rather than bringing up the issue of Hitler's gas chambers, if he had held his anti-Americanism in check, rather than taking the side of Ahmadinenejad, if he had never sought the friendship of or given his friendship to people like Dieudonné or Marxist Alain Soral, both professional anti-Semites and agents provocateurs.

Le Pen played around with his people, now promising them grand old patriotism, now grand old Nazism. So many people were fooled, or hoped he would change, or were willing to put up with his shenanigans, if in the end, he delivered the country from the Left, from May 68. But that was never his intent.

See my next post for more on Le Pen.

Those Who Did Not Fight

According to Le Salon Beige, the last veteran of World War I was no sooner in his grave than Nicolas Sarkozy's secretary of State for Veterans' Affairs, Jean-Marie Bockel, proposed exonerating the 600 soldiers executed during WWI for refusing to fight. Le Figaro reports:

The subject had been discussed ten years ago, in 1998, when Prime Minister Lionel Jospin expressed the wish that "those soldiers, singled out as examples, be fully restored to our national collective memory." But the prime minister had come up against the refusal of Jacques Chirac, who spoke of an "untimely proposal."

The current government and the president, who has also requested that the history of slavery be taught in elementary schools, hopes to relaunch the debate in anticipation of the 90th anniversary of the armistice next November 11. "We are in the process of closely examining the issue together," in order to determine the direction to take between now and November 11, affirmed the secretary of State for Veterans Affairs.

At the end of WWI, more than 3,500 condemnations for refusing to fight were reported. Out of this total, 554 soldiers were sentenced to death. They became known as "examples". However Jean-Marie Bockel has revised this definition, explaining: "Out of the 600 condemned to death, not all were singled out as examples. There were a certain number of men with previous convictions ("droits communs"), and those who were condemned for refusing to fight or for mutiny were not the mutineers of 1917. Some had already been condemned in 1914."

Note: In 1917 after a serious military reversal, desertions increased. Three thousand men were court-martialed. Most of the 450 persons condemned were later pardoned by President Raymond Poincaré. But in the single village of Craonne, 27 mutineers were executed. See Le Figaro.

Between 1914 and 1915, from 450 to 500 soldiers were executed, mainly for self-mutilations. This is why, in the opinion of Jean-Marie Bockel, "There are different situations and all the facts have to be brought to the president's attention in the course of the coming year, if he decides to go through with this gesture of reconciliation (...) These exonerations will take place one case at a time."

Another question: if these soldiers are exculpated, will their names be added to the monuments that honor the war dead?

Secretary Bockel replied that at this stage nothing has been decided.

Slavery in the Curriculum

After his inept attempt to require 5th graders to learn about the holocaust by "adopting" a Jewish child, Nicolas Sarkozy again turns his attention to education. This time it is slavery that will be part of the curriculum of school children 6 to 10 years of age, beginning next September. Le Figaro reports:

The Negro slave trade, and the slavery that France, like many other European countries, practiced for centuries in the colonies, will be part of the elementary school curriculum starting next September.

"The emotion aroused by the death of Aimé Césaire shows the extent to which we are still searching for our history. This history must be written in school texts so that our children can understand what slavery was and measure the suffering slavery caused, the wounds that it left on the soul," explained the president.

"The African slave trade and its abolition will therefore be part of the elementary school programs, " he continued. An initiative that is reminiscent of his desire, last fall, to have the holocaust taught to young children by making each one study the story of a deported child. The government had to partially back off from the project after the negative reactions and opinions of numerous psychiatrists and educators who judged the children to be too young.

The photo shows a demonstration on May 10 of black organizations denouncing the persistence of "prejudice" 160 years after the abolition of slavery.

Commemorating Abolition

On Saturday (May 10), Nicolas Sarkozy designated May 23 as the date for remembering the abolition of slavery. Yves Daoudal comments:

In the Luxembourg Gardens Nicolas Sarkozy presided over the ceremony commemorating the "memory of the Negro slave trade, of slavery and the abolition of both."

And he announced that May 23 would be "a day of commemoration" of the abolition of slavery. The new holiday is for the benefit of groups who represent French persons originally from the Caribbean or Africa and who wish to celebrate the painful past of their ancestors.

In 2005, Jacques Chirac, following the advice of the committee he had appointed for the purpose, decided that the day of commemoration would be May 10: that was the day in 2001 when the National Assembly heroically recognized slavery as a "crime against humanity."

But the Left and the anti-racism lobbies boycotted this May 10 celebration. In their opinion the correct date is May 23, the date in 1998 when 40,000 French from the Antilles, Guiana and Reunion Island organized a march in Paris.

And so, Nicolas Sarkozy yielded to the Left and the lobbies. Not surprising.

One of Daoudal's readers adds:

- This racist commemoration does not take into account the slavery practiced by Muslim countries before, during and after the transatlantic trade. Therefore, this is not an anti-slavery day, but an anti-France day.

Note: It should be added that the socialists objected to May 10 also because it is the date of François Mitterand's first victory in 1981.

WaPo Looks At French Prisons

Here are excerpts from a Washington Post article about Muslims in French prisons. The general drift of the article is that France has not succeeded in integrating its Muslim community or in showing respect for Islam within the prisons:

This prison is majority Muslim -- as is virtually every house of incarceration in France. About 60 to 70 percent of all inmates in the country's prison system are Muslim, according to Muslim leaders, sociologists and researchers, though Muslims make up only about 12 percent of the country's population.

On a continent where immigrants and the children of immigrants are disproportionately represented in almost every prison system, the French figures are the most marked, according to researchers, criminologists and Muslim leaders.

"The high percentage of Muslims in prisons is a direct consequence of the failure of the integration of minorities in France," said Moussa Khedimellah, a sociologist who has spent several years conducting research on Muslims in the French penal system. (...)

French prison officials blame the high numbers on the poverty of people who have moved here from North African and other Islamic countries in recent decades. "Many immigrants arrive in France in difficult financial situations, which make delinquency more frequent," said Jeanne Sautière, director of integration and religious groups for the French prison system. "The most important thing is to say there is no correlation between Islam and delinquency."

But Muslim leaders, sociologists and human rights activists argue that more than in most other European countries, government social policies in France have served to isolate Muslims in impoverished suburbs that have high unemployment, inferior schools and substandard housing. This has helped create a generation of French-born children with little hope of social advancement and even less respect for French authority. (...)

Read more.

H/T: La Yijad en Eurabia, a Spanish-language website.

Obama, the Saviour

Some readers, especially those watching the upcoming American presidential election, may be interested in this discussion about a photograph of Barack Obama that appeared in the New York Times a few days ago. Lawrence Auster and his readers spare no detail in their analysis of the photo and of the Times' propaganda machine. One reader compares the photo to posters of Chairman Mao.

Unhappy Anniversary

Yesterday (May 7) was the first anniversary of Nicolas Sarkozy's election to the presidency. For the event he met with the deputies of his UMP party at Elysée and called on them to support his reforms and to be more "pugnacious" towards his political opponents, while at the same time hurling charges against his predecessor Jacques Chirac and against the press. Yahoo reports:

It was generally agreed that the president, who spoke at length, wanted above all to re-discipline his majority party which he deemed too timorous in the application of reforms, especially institutional reform.

Deputy Benoist Apparu summarized the meeting of 262 deputies (out of 320): "The message was clear: I will make reforms, all reforms, immediately and at the same time. No possibility of changing my strategy. I need your full support and your pugnacity against the Socialist Party."

"Don't be afraid of being on the Right. Public opinion is with you," Sarkozy proclaimed to Valérie Boyer who expressed regret that on the issue of illegal aliens, the UMP politicians "are always taken for the bad guys."

Many elected officials, however, were surprised, even disconcerted, by the president's accusations against his predecessor. According to several participants he blurted out: "It took Chirac 21 years to get elected. I did it on the first try. (...) He made one and a half reforms, his first 7-year term came to an end in December 1995 when he backed down from a reform on special pensions. (...) I am not obsessed with the idea of staying in office a long time, and I move fast."

On the topic of General de Gaulle: "He received only a one-vote majority in 1967."

Some minimized these attacks: "Everybody knows that that's the way he is," asserted some deputies, smiling.

"That's Sarko. Everybody is talking about an annus horribilis for him. He wanted to put things into perspective for the historical record," explained Jean Leonetti.

Others had little taste for these "stinging attacks". In the opinion of Hervé Mariton, he was "rather effective on the issues, but I am going to give him Finkielkraut's book Ingratitude. You have to accept your heritage! He has many advantages, he doesn't have to speak ill of others."

The president accused the press of not having sufficiently spread the news of Ségolène Royal's conviction in the lawsuit brought by her ex-collaborators, citing the following publications: L'Express, Marianne, Le Parisien, AFP and Journal du Dimanche, according to attendees.

(After a decade-long lawsuit that went from one Appeals court to another, she was found guilty of not having paid the wages due two co-workers in her employ at the time she entered the government of Lionel Jospin, in 1997).

Ex-minister Marie-Anne Montchamp declared: "He made a serious accusation against the press when he said that in a country where there is no opposition, the press takes on the role of opposition."

"His message, in substance was: 'I am not helped by the press.' This is the classic reaction in a troubled period," said another deputy.

Note: It may not be fair to judge Sarkozy's behavior from this brief Yahoo summary, but if Jacques Chirac did anything right it was to place provisions in the French Constitution for referendums on the European Constitution and on the entry of new nations into the EU, meaning primarily Turkey. Sarkozy hastened to abolish both referendums, thus betraying two of the most critical promises he had made to the people. However, there had always been signs that he was ambivalent on both issues. Those blinded by hope chose to see him as the only savior France had; others, more realistic, were not surprised when the betrayals began.

As for the story about Ségolène Royal, Sarko seems to be reliving his presidential campaign. Does anyone, other than the interested parties, seriously care about a financial faux pas that goes back ten years?

In a related story, Le Figaro reports that on Tuesday May 6 festivities honoring the first year in office of Nicolas Sarkozy were held at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. The guest of honor sent word at 7:00 p.m. that he could not attend, setting off a palpable sense of disappointment. The guests had to settle for Prime Minister François Fillon who valiantly attempted to revive enthusiasm by intoning "Happy Anniversary":

"The opposition is nervous. The reforms are being carried out. You don't build the future with your eyes riveted on the polls. We are pursuing our goals with the intention of being judged at the end of our term in office, and not before," affirmed the Prime Minister.

The leaders of the UMP party tried to dissipate the doubts created by the continuing unpopularity of Nicolas Sarkozy. General secretary of the party Patrick Devedjian exclaimed: "The honor of a head of State is not to look at himself every morning in the mirror of public opinion, it is to accomplish what is useful to his country."

While these events were going on, a Ferrari sped by outside. From the crowd arose cries of "There's the president!"

Those interested in the assessment by the International Herald Tribune of Sarkozy's first year can click here.

Evaluating the Trends

Economist Gérard Pince has some thoughts on current trends, including the formation of a new protest movement in France:

The election results in Italy and the UK should encourage us to take advantage of the 2009 European elections to provoke the healthy shock our country needs. The defeat of the mayor of London (Ken Livingstone, a.k.a. Red Ken), known for his multiculturalist and pro-Islamic positions, is in this respect emblematic. Keeping in mind that that city's demographics include 30% of visible minorities, for the conservative candidate to be elected he had to win the majority of the white British population. In addition all observers consider these victories to go beyond the traditional political or sociological divisions. They are explained instead by the growing feeling of national identity and the rejection of uncontrolled immigration.(1)

In 2007, the French people also expressed these concerns.(2) Nicolas Sarkozy deceived them and they now find themselves seriously disoriented. Yes, 62% of the French expect a grave political crisis before the end of his term in office, but this anxiety is not necessarily in line with our thinking. For example, the Left has just won the municipal elections and a poll indicates that a large majority (56%) would be in favor of granting foreigners the right to vote in local elections! Conversely, despite the media hype over May 68, the unions are having trouble mobilizing their troops. The confusion reaches its height when the free-market Right and the CGT (a major French labor union) come together to defend illegal aliens, the former in order to keep salaries low, the latter in the hope of creating a potential base for the social demands of ethnic groups. In short, the political situation is still largely unpredictable.

Discontent being the only tangible element, the creation of a vast protest movement would seem to be the best political response. Such an enterprise could come either from right-wing elected officials outside of the establishment, such as the newly created Steering Committee for the New Popular Right (see the preceding post), or from members of the UMP establishment who finally become aware of the impasse they are in, or from new men who arise from the people. Such being the case, only a powerful popular movement could force these different components into major action. When our political cafés are suddenly crowded, when our blogs are used by thousands of readers, then we can presume that such a movement is possible.

We will follow these new developments attentively and lucidly. It is true that certain exceptional developments could accelerate the course of events, but in truth, I see none on the horizon for now.

(1) Votes are more and more ethnic. For example, 90% of the black community is voting en bloc for Barack Hussein Obama. No matter how hard they try to tell us that skin color doesn't matter, it turns out that it is more and more visible on voting day.

(2) Without the immigrant vote that was massively for the socialist candidate, the final tally would have been close to 60/40 in favor of the Right.

A New Movement Forms

After conservative victories in Italy and England, are the French finally finding their way to a new and healthy alternative to both Jean-Marie Le Pen and Nicolas Sarkozy?

The websites are talking about a new movement that has been formed - the Nouvelle Droite Populaire (NDP), composed of defectors from Le Pen's Front National, members of Bruno Mégret's MNR (National Republican Movement), and other nationalist, sovereigntist and regionalist groups, parties and individuals. This is not a political party but an assembly of like-minded individuals who espouse a policy of both decentralization, i.e., regionalism, and nationalism. After an initial meeting on March 29 to lay the groundwork, a second meeting on April 27 adopted the official name which translates as New Popular Right. Their website outlines the group's goals:

This structure is not a political party and has no intention of aggravating existing divisions. It is, on the contrary, an organization for the assembly and mobilization of energies that will work towards the reformation of the national, regional and French-identity based Right. It is possible to belong to the movement without giving up one's membership in a political party or another existing organization.

The fundamental principles of the steering committees are as follows:

1 - Refusal of immigration and Islamization
2 - Defense of regional, national and European identities
3 - Application of national and European preferences
4 - Rehabilitation of family values and fundamental principles of our civilization
5 - Freeing of individual, political and economic energies
6 - Construction of a political, independent and powerful Europe, faithful to its Hellenic and Christian roots

The steering committees for the New Popular Right will hold a national constitutive convention in Paris on June 1 for the purpose of defining its first campaign themes and implementing the structures of this vital new federation.

Note: Some expression were difficult to render into English, e.g., "identitaire" and "force de rassemblement" which I translated as "French-identity based" and "vital new federation" respectively. If you have other suggestions, please feel free. Note that "identitaire" can also relate to regional feelings of identity, such as Breton or Alsatian identities.

The above principles are still too vague to be considered as a strong sign of the rebirth of French patriotic nationalism and regionalism, but this is the first real attempt to bring together those who have been disappointed by Le Pen, betrayed by Sarkozy or just left out of the political debate because the only options open to them were unsatisfactory for whatever reason. Here is a statement from Jean-François Touzé (photo), coordinator of the project:

From reading the innumerable commentaries triggered by the announcement of the creation of the Nouvelle Droite Populaire, from the number of requests for contacts (several hundred in one month), from the growing interest on the part of the media for our effort, it is obvious that what we are setting into motion is fulfilling an immense need, not only among those who are working or who have worked in the organizations of the national Right, but also among a great number of our compatriots as exasperated by the impotence of Sarkozy's regime as by the contradictions and suicidal acts of the Front National.

We said it as early as last June: for those who voted for Nicolas Sarkozy, the moment of truth after so many unfulfilled promises would not be long in coming. But we knew also that this disappointment could not, in any case, lead these voters back - even less lead them towards - the Front National when the FN gave them no sign acknowledging that the message of the need for a complete reexamination of structures, methods and strategies of the Right, that is a genuine modernization, had been understood.

This reexamination did not take place. The Front today is behind us. (...)

Other comments at the website also point to the role played by the Front National in the failure of the Right to achieve anything close to success in the recent elections. Bruno Mégret, who defected from the FN in 1998 to form the MNR, is among the founders of the new NDP. He attempted to reconcile temporarily with Le Pen during the presidential election of 2007, but was ignored by both Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen. His collaborator, Florence Mazole, writes:

As the national party headquarters of the MNR has observed, the strategy of a union with the FN did not meet our expectations despite the advantages that were drawn in terms of media coverage and support from partisans of the national Right. During the presidential election, despite the impartial support we gave to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the MNR was not able to wage a campaign (a reminder that Le Pen prevented Mégret from actively campaigning). During the legislative elections, no agreement was reached and Le Pen and his daughter even placed their own candidate in opposition to Bruno Mégret. They did the same during the municipal elections. No ballot loyal to the union of our parties was ever constituted. (...) A few days before the voting, Le Pen appeared on the evening news and devoted half of his time to attacking Bruno Mégret. As for his daughter, she has stated that she wants the death of the MNR and never ceases to blame its president.

Note: Marine Le Pen has always held Mégret, and his defection from the party, as responsible for the failures of the FN. News reports during the presidential campaign indicated that she was behind the decision to silence Mégret.

An Empty Legacy

Here are some excerpts from an excellent essay on May 68 by a writer named Cyril de Pins. Several French websites have mentioned the article:

We are the heirs of May 1968. It is indubitable. But we no longer see ourselves only in that light. Those, like myself, who were born after 1970, only inherited what was bequeathed to them by the preceding generation, the generation of those who were in their twenties during the springtime festivities regarded by so many as a revolution. And this heritage is indeed impoverished: it consists of a juvenile proclivity to publicly complain and denounce, of an unlimited and blind confidence in youth and in oneself, of a hatred of the principle of authority, and of a hateful rejection of the past.

The Communist Internationale said, "Let us make tabula rasa of the past." May 1968 and its lyrical little soldiers did just that, shouting: "Run, comrade, the old world is behind you."

The least one can say is that they pretty much succeeded: there is no longer a student who knows who Danton or Marat were, who can distinguish a Romanesque church from a wash house, or who can even say who Lenin and Mao were. Students today use history in the same way as their elders: history is good only insofar as it proposes imperfect rough drafts of our modernity.

He describes how spoiled and privileged the generation of May 68 was. How they had never known war, how they had been lavished with the excellent educational resources France then possessed, including knowledge of the regional dialects.

Like all spoiled children, they destroyed what they received, what history had preserved for so long, those languages, those traditions, the instruction inherited from the Jesuits and spread by the Republic. They replaced all of that with their whims, their fantasies and by the memory of their youth.

My gen