Gains for the FN and the Socialists

I'm very angry with myself for the delay in posting this but I became engrossed in the marathon sell-out that took place in Washington yesterday. Unfortunately, I never doubted the bill would pass because I have worked closely with Democrats and I know how they operate. In the public schools whenever there was any kind of labor union vote - say for a building rep., and the results did not go as "planned", they (meaning the leadership of the labor union) simply changed the vote - I saw union members actually change the voting results in order to place on the building committee the people they preferred. There was no way of not signing a petition either - if you refused to sign, they would simply declare that everyone had signed and the results were unanimous, when they were nothing of the sort. Lawsuits against a labor union would have been fruitless for many reasons - you needed a conservative lawyer and they are hard to find, a lawsuit is an emotional drain and you have the whole world against you including your own family members who lack knowledge and understanding of the issues, you are made to feel as if something is "wrong" with you for having stirred up trouble, and finally, as in my case, these people were not worth one bead of sweat more than I already had in the daily routine. So no one ever really put up a fight. They get their way, period. So it was yesterday with "Obamacare". The Dems knew they had the votes from the start; they just had to make it look as if there was opposition, and they had to make the opposition appear to be diabolically opposed to helping the needy. Any Democrat who refused to sign in favor of the bill somehow, mysteriously, changed his mind at the last minute. It was a foregone conclusion for the Dems. It was never really a cliff-hanger after all. The weak Republicans completely underestimated their adversary. Now the country will face the consequences of socialized medicine, something we've dreaded for a long time.

Even though it is too late, here is the post from yesterday. I hope everybody who was interested managed to get some news of France from their local papers:

Here are some election results from Le Salon Beige. they are not necessarily complete, but as many had predicted, the Front National did very well, and Sarkozy's camp was roundly defeated by the unified Left. For the French nationalists, it hardly matters, since, as they have been saying for so long, very little differentiates the UMP from the PS, except that the former is constantly betraying its own principles (assuming it has principles, an arguable point), while the latter is true to its principles, corrupt though they may be:

In all 12 regions where the FN ran in the second round, its scores were higher than in the first round.

Jean-Marie Le Pen received 23% in the PACA region (Provence-Alpes-Côtes-d'Azur), Marine Le Pen received between 20 and 22% in the Nord; (...) Bruno Gollnisch 15% in Rhône-Alpes (...)

The TV channels give a global score of 8.7% to the Front National on a national level, but 17.% globally in the 12 regions where it ran.

Above you can see the results graphically. While the FN may have cause to celebrate, a closer look at the graph reveals that 90.4% of those who voted today (in the entire country) voted either for the PS or the UMP. This is very bad news, indicating that the country is completely in the hands of the "UMPS", despite the gains of the FN which must continue unabated until there is a ground swell of general resistance throughout the country to the official policies of immigration, Islamization, Turkey, and all the other issues of major and urgent concern to the French. It is difficult to imagine how anything will change for the better in the next two years as we head for the presidential elections of 2012. However, something really COULD change at that point. A reliable third candidate, one who is truly committed to helping France instead of deliberately confusing issues, betraying the people's trust and discrediting the very notion of national pride could definitively end the reign of the Chiracs and the Sarkozys. Possibly Marine Le Pen will be the one to do it, possibly not...

If you go to this Figaro page and run your cursor over the map you will see the results region by region. Five examples:

- In the region of PACA, the Front National won 21 seats on the Regional Council, the UMP won 30 seats, the Socialists 72 seats.

- In Lorraine, the Front National won 10 seats, the UMP 17, and the Socialists 46.

- In Poitou-Charente, the UMP won 16 seats and the Socialists, led by Ségolène Royal, won 39 seats. The Socialists received a huge 60.61% of the votes.

- In Nord-Pas de Calais, the Front National, led by Marine Le Pen, won 18 seats, the UMP 22 seats and the Socialists 73.

- In Ile-de-France, which includes Paris, the UMP won 67 seats on the Regional Council, while the Left won 142!

The only regions where the UMP party actually beat the Socialists were Alsace and Guiana! Even Corsica elected the Socialists. Two Corsican nationalist parties won a total of 15 seats, while the Socialists won 24 seats.

Bear in mind that the UMP was a coalition of parties, and the Socialists also included the Greens, the Communists, and other left-wing groups. Therefore the Regional Councils will have representation from numerous parties, but does that help matters at all? The answer is clearly no, except perhaps in small ways, here and there, where a decent elected official manages to bring about some change for the better. The healthy representation of the Front National may be beneficial in the long term if they can influence the way money is spent, or if they can have an impact on the educational and cultural lives of the citizens of the region. They may be able to stop projected mosques or projected Islamic schools. They may be able to make known the crime statistics of the region, and they may be able to ascertain and make known the morale of the citizens with regard to security, purchasing power, Islamization, and other problems that can be overpowering when there is no official representative one can turn to for support.

It will be especially instructive to see if the voters who abstained make their voices heard in other ways, now that the FN has a few more seats on the councils.

Over 48% of eligible voters did NOT vote in the second round.

In short, the regions of France are in the hands of the Socialists for four years. Sarkozy's UMP party would have been no better, possibly worse. But the last word is never said. We just have to follow events as they unfold. The latest news concerns senseless changes Sarkozy is making in the ministries, and the emergence of some potential candidates for the 2012 presidential elections. Also, the labor unions are preparing for strikes. More to come...