Live Streaming Video- President Obama To Make Statement On Iran Situation

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WTF? Today I oversleep?

French President Sarkozy hospitalized

Good thoughts.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been taken to hospital after becoming ill while exercising, his office said.

The 54-year-old president, elected in 2007, began "feeling faint" while playing sports.

"He was immediately seen to by his doctor. He is currently undergoing extra examinations," his office said.

The incident happened at his weekend retreat near Versailles, outside Paris, AFP news agency reported. Elysee Palace had no further official information.

AFP also reported that he was taken to a military hospital.

Socialist healthcare horror story

I've been meaning to get this out there for you guys to read, since it really hit the mark for me. I'll be emailing it around today, and if you like it, you should too. Here is what I consider the nut graph about Jerome's childs illness, but the whole thing is here.

So, we did not have to spend a single cent. We got support to be available for him. He gets top notch treatment. We never had to wait for anything. And this is available to absolutely everybody in France, irrespective of your job, age or family situation. If you are badly sick or injured, you simply do not have to worry about money at any time, nor about lack of care.

Two passengers on doomed Air France jet had names linked to Islamic terror groups

It's crazy Murdoch's Sky rag, so take it with a grain of salt.

French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31st.

Flight AF447 crashed in mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.

While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out.

Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), the French equivalent of MI6, were dispatched to Brazil.

It was there that they established that two names on the passenger list are also on highly classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic.

Obamas turn down dinner with Sarkozys

Heh, the French are making it sound more like Sarkozy is a dick than Obama snubbed them.

PARIS, June 4 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama has turned down a dinner invitation from French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, and French media are calling it a snub.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, plan to spend Friday night at the U.S. Embassy in Paris after a day in Germany, The Times of London reported. On Saturday, they will participate in ceremonies in Normandy marking the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

(snip)

French newspapers and comedians have chosen to take Obama's refusal of dinner as a snub coming on top of Sarkozy's snub of Queen Elizabeth II, the only living head of state to have served in the military in World War II. In a last-minute face-saver, Prince Charles has agreed to join Obama and Sarkozy in Normandy.

"Sarkozy has pulled off a double hit: insulting Queen Elizabeth and exasperating Obama," the satirical weekly Canard Enchaine said on Wednesday.

VIDEO: Protesters disrupt first lady's trip, force a detour

By GottaLaff

Come on, protesters, it's Michelle. Be sweet:

Protesters in Strasbourg, France, forced a last-minute detour for First Lady Michelle Obama Saturday.

She and spouses of other leaders attending the NATO summit there had planned to tour a hospital. But protests blocked the way to the event, the first lady’s office said, prompting the visit to be scrapped.

She and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and a few others ended up at the Palais Rohan, and eventually, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. What a shame that the hospital got cut:

"Around 1,000 protesters were gathered near the hospital she was supposed to visit."

"An official in the French president's office says the hospital visit was canceled at the last minute on recommendation of police for security reasons. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of presidential policy," reported USA Today.

"Regional police spokesman Pascal Vagnat said it was cancelled for 'timing reasons.'"

This video is from the Associated Press, published April 4, 2009.

President Obama's Full Townhall In Strasbourg

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Raw Video: Obamas Greeted by President Sarkozy

LIVE: Obama holds town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France

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He's going to take questions? This should be interesting

Source: Obama Plays Peacemaker in French-Chinese Smackdown Over Tax Havens

By GottaLaff

What a Communist peace-making hippie:

According to a source inside the room, President Obama just played peacemaker in a spat between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China.

Sarkozy and Hu were having a heated disagreement about tax havens. France and other European nations have been pushing for rules and regulations to apply to various tax havens; Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck has said "these tax havens are also places where unregulated financial market deals are made."

But Chinese leaders fear a crackdown would hurt banking centers in Macao and Hong Kong.

The exchange between Sarkozy and Hu got so heated, the source says, it was threatening the unity of the G-20 leaders' meeting.

But Mr. Obama, according to this account, stepped between the two men, urging them to try to find consensus, and giving them a "pep talk" about the importance of working together.

Governments across Europe tremble as angry people take to the streets

By GottaLaff

One of my alumni, Matt, who I have known for 13 years, is an activist. He is also the most intelligent, well-read, and informed former student I've ever had the pleasure to know. He is soft-spoken, but direct, and when Matt tells me something, I listen. He is not one to exaggerate.

He has given me many a heads-up about protests, anarchist demonstrations, impending revolt, you name it. He's witnessed, and video taped, police brutality, the militarization of our cities, and other assaults on our freedoms. When it happens, Matt is there, or knows someone else who is.

Talk about having a finger on the pulse of growing unrest, he's very well-connected and warns me of events months before they happen.

Matt and I met over Christmas break, and he was clearly disquieted by the building anger churning across Europe. His own agitation made me squirm, as he described scenes of violence and impending "revolution". Matt, you called it:

France paralysed by a wave of strike action, the boulevards of Paris resembling a debris-strewn battlefield. The Hungarian currency sinks to its lowest level ever against the euro, as the unemployment figure rises. Greek farmers block the road into Bulgaria in protest at low prices for their produce. New figures from the biggest bank in the Baltic show that the three post-Soviet states there face the biggest recessions in Europe.

It's a snapshot of a single day – yesterday – in a Europe sinking into the bleakest of times. But while the outlook may be dark in the big wealthy democracies of western Europe, it is in the young, poor, vulnerable states of central and eastern Europe that the trauma of crash, slump and meltdown looks graver.

Exactly 20 years ago, in serial revolutionary rejoicing, they ditched communism to put their faith in a capitalism now in crisis and by which they feel betrayed. The result has been the biggest protests across the former communist bloc since the days of people power.

Europe's time of troubles is gathering depth and scale. Governments are trembling. Revolt is in the air.

The article goes on to break it down geographically. I'll let you all know what Matt says the next time I speak to him.

Le Lookalike de Monsieur Obama

By GottaLaff

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's lookalike Michael Lamar [...] center, and President of the Representative Council of Black Associations in France (CRAN), Patrick Lozes, right, listen to French Socialist lawmaker Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, partly seen at left. [...] CRAN is launching this week a campaign against so-called "face controls" using an Obama lookalike, aiming at raising awareness among citizens and authorities.

Yoan Valat / AP Photo

Mais, oui... oui nous pouvons:

A French black group is parading a Barack Obama-lookalike at the lower house of parliament and in Paris in a campaign to highlight its concerns about alleged racial profiling by police in France.

After a stout "Yes We Can!," American actor Michael Lamar met lawmakers at the National Assembly for Monday's start of a media blitz by the Representative Council of Black Associations.

For years, the group, known by the French acronym CRAN, has raised questions about a country that has championed a colorblind standard that sees all citizens as just French, regardless of ethnic origins - and where collecting racial data is banned. [...]

Lamar, a San Francisco native who now lives in Philadelphia, was being taken - dressed neatly in suit and tie - to a police station and other parts of the capital, and CRAN was filming the reactions of passers-by for an upcoming publicity spot, the group said.

P.E. Obama needs to be cloned. We need at least deux of him.

'Obama Soda' Starts French Buzz

Entrepreneurship at it's finest.

Foreign Poll Favors Obama

Amazing how lopsided it is! Via Taegan.

Eight leading foreign newspapers conducted a poll that finds overwhelming support for Sen. Barack Obama in the United States presidential election. He would win by a landslide in every country surveyed.

Canada: Obama 70%, McCain 14%

France: Obama 68%, McCain 5%

Switzerland: Obama 83%, McCain 7%

Poland: Obama 43%, McCain 26%

Japan: Obama 61%, McCain 13%

Mexico: Obama 46%, McCain 13%

Great Britain: Obama 64%, McCain 15%

Belgium: Obama 62%, McCain 8%

The poll also shows that America "can no longer count on the friendship even of its closest neighbours and allies after eight years of the Bush presidency. Only a minority in the countries surveyed describe relations with the US as friendly."

John Sidney McHypocrite: "I wish every senator would make this same trip."

By GottaLaff

This speaks for itself, via TPM:

Time, March 21st, 2008 ...

Flanked by fellow Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, McCain noted they'd undertaken their week long fact-finding tour of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, England and France as members of Congress's Armed Services committee -- not as some sort of campaign foreign road show. Perhaps, but discussing international affairs with foreign leaders and enhancing McCain's presidential hopes aren't mutually exclusive. Still, McCain acted the apt pupil. "I wish every senator, every senator would make this same trip," McCain said, noting several of the first-hand educational experiences he'd gotten. "They'd be better informed."

Be careful what you wish for, Fraudy McHypocrite.

Au revoir, le Bush, bonjour “La révolution Obama”

By GottaLaff

MoDo had some good sentences today:

• In the French imagination, Barack Obama is already the president.
• The word “elite” is not a pejorative here; it’s a compliment.
• “You kind of wrote my political obituary tonight,” W. teased the French president...
• A Bush organizer asked people sitting in the back of the hall to move to the front, so the empty seats would not be visible on TV.
• “Your Eminence,” [Bush] told the pope, “you’re looking good.”

I've already posted about Fermez Le Bush's French trip, so posting more of the content of Dowd's column would be redundant. But these excerpts were too much fun to pass up.

In France, le Bush = l'ennui

By GottaLaff

Bonjour and bien venu, Monsieur Presi----Yaw-w-wn, z-z-z-z-zzz.

"This is an American president at the end of his mandate who awakens more indifference than passion," the right-leaning French newspaper Le Figaro said on the eve of Bush's arrival here.

Bush himself captured the spirit at the start of his tour in Slovenia when he said, "Lots of people like America. It's possible that they don't necessarily like its president." The left-leaning French newspaper Liberation congratulated him for his lucidity.

Oh-h, le suh-nap! President Pepe le P.U. finally said something credible. Continuez, s'il vous plait:

Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, greeted the Bushes at a dinner at the presidential Elysee Palace.

Still, from cardinals at the Vatican to intellectuals in Paris, the disdain for Bush was never far beneath the surface during his visit.

Just like home, eh Monsieur L'Idiot? What goes around comes around, n'est-ce pas?

Francois Heisbourg, a political thinker and chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the Bush presidency had been "the worst period in transatlantic relations," and people in Paris couldn't be bothered with following his visit.

Vive la France!