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Last May, on the night of the second turn of the presidential election that saw Nicolas "Energizer" Sarkozy crush François Hollande's hermaphrodite pet, I was watching the video feed of TF1's election night show with a friend. On the set, were a bunch of top ranking officials of all parties, many of them being the same shiny faces masking ugly souls inflicted upon us for the last, oh, 15 to 20 years.At one point in the evening, my friend turned to me and said:
Do you realize that all these guys have been, at one point or another, involved, accused, indicted or convicted in some corruption affair?To which I answered "Yes. But you shouldn't cut on your Prozac without seeking medical advice, you sneaky antisocial anarchist you."
Then we watched how names like Juppe's (164th Prime Minister of France, convicted to 14 month of suspended prison sentence for fraud and embezzlement, unapologetic and patronizing asshole nevertheless) were already floating in the air for a job in Nicholas Sarkozy's new administration.
Without surprise, Juppe is now Sarkozy's Minister of "Environment, Sustainable Development and Energy — and Generally Speaking Throwing Money Through the Window on Horseshit Ideas for Feel good Concepts".
But as long as the French don't cut on their daily dose of Prozac, they'll be a-ok.
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Comments thread (4)
1984 - 2hotel9
2hotel9 Western Pennsylvania
That sounds somewhat familiar. Tell me, did any former Clinton Admin advisors get consultants gigs in France during the last 6 years?
1985 - the dissident frogman
the dissident frogman France
I shouldn't think so, for a very simple reason: even the lowest French politico has nothing to learn from your Democrats in terms of fraud and corruption. And I do mean nothing. You know, François Mitterrand was already shagging extra maritally when Clinton was but a glint in the milkman's eye.
Seriously, I like you guys and I'm fascinated by your achievements in all fields, but you should accept the fact you just can't be #1 in everything.
And this is a French specialty, if there was any.
1986 - 2hotel9
2hotel9 Western Pennsylvania
Hell, Billy Jeff has been outsourced, and his posse has been scuttling about in the dark corners of just about EVERYBODY"S politics, and they are such great admirers of Euro-Socialism, I thought perhaps it was a Lend-Lease kinda operation.
1989 - Grimmy
Grimmy Where I'm at.
Actually, the US isn't all that big on having to be #1 at stuff historically. Most of that comes from the competition with USSR.
Prior to that we were just fine going along on our own path. We also, historically, dont like keeping a large standing military. That's another result of standing off against the USSR for so long.
What the US (and most Americans) do enjoy and respond well to is challenge. We like competition. Its when we are not challenged by competition that we tend to let things get slack and slow down.