Fausta's Blog

The trailer for Welcome to New York is no longer available on YouTube, but Gerard Depardieu played the part of Dominique Strauss-Kahn for free,

He’s doing it for the pleasure of working with Abel Ferrara.

And perhaps a cut of the ticket office, no?

Maybe not.

Dèdè

said he took the role because he does not like Strauss-Kahn. During an interview at the time, Depardieu called the former IMF chief “unpleasant” and “arrogant.”

Considering his current avoirdupois, if I were a casting agent, I’d suggest that he play a nice guy, send him a fleece jacket, & have him star as governor of NJ.

Taxes must really be awful in France that the UK’s looking good by comparison,
Sarkozy’s plans ‘to dodge new 75% French tax rate by moving to London with wife Carla and setting up £1bn private equity fund’
Fraud police found details of move and business plan in raid on home
Sarkozy is under investigation for corruption in France
He will be latest Frenchman to escape potential top French tax rate of 75%
Couple would become London’s most high profile Gallic celebrities
Sarkozy would hope for fund support from French entrepreneur Alain Minc

I thought a ‘£1bn private equity fund’ would be more of a Villepin thing, but, hey, we’re living in hard times.

No word if the perineum is getting a workout.

Did he, or didn’t he?

French media reported on Friday that Mr. [Dominique] Straus-Kahn, 63, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, would pay $6 million to the housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo, who accused him of attacking her at a Midtown Manhattan hotel.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, William W. Taylor III, said in a telephone interview on Friday morning that the French reports were “completely false” and that the $6 million figure “is off by orders of magnitude,” but he would not elaborate and details of the agreement could not immediately be determined. One of the people with knowledge of the matter had cautioned on Thursday that no settlement had yet been signed.

The only lesson so far is that the priapic are likely to get sued.

The guys who were firebombed last November over a Mohammed cartoon are at it again,
Charlie Hebdo, Satirical Weekly, Publishes Cartoons Of The Prophet Mohammad. The French government ordered schools and embassies to close on Friday.

This is what the cover looks like,

Gateway Pundit has the definitely-not-suitable-for-work inside cartoons. More NSFW here. It already sold out.

The government issued a statement,

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault reaffirms that the freedom of expression is one of the fundamental principles of our Republic. This freedom is exercised within the framework of the law and under the supervision of the courts when a case is referred to them.

He also reaffirms the principle of laicité [secularism] which, along with the values of tolerance and respect for religious convictions, is at the heart of our Republican Pact.

And this is why, in the current context, the prime minister would like to express his disapproval of any excesses. He urges everyone to demonstrate a spirit of responsibility

Certainly the cops won’t be showing up to take away CH’s editor for questioning.

Taranto says that Paris is defending American values more vigorously than Washington is:

Free speech does not mean government-sanctioned speech, and Fabius’s criticism of the magazine’s editorial decision is an entirely reasonable and prudent one. The qualification, however, is crucially important–and, as we noted last week, it was missing from the statements of President Obama and Fabius’s counterpart, Hillary Clinton, about the YouTube film that the Obama administration blames for the recent anti-American violence in North Africa and elsewhere (though the Washington Examinerreports that the White House press secretary today put in a word for “the freedom of expression that is enshrined in our Constitution”).

Particularly since the riots are not about the video.

Today’s hit-by-reality moment is brought to you by Will Smith,

On France’s TF1 in early May, Smith explained why he supported the idea of paying higher taxes, saying, “I have no issue with paying taxes and whatever needs to be done for my country to grow. I believe very firmly that my ability to sit here — I’m a black man who didn’t go to college, yet I get to travel around the world and sell my movies, and I believe very firmly that America is the only place on Earth that I could exist. So I will pay anything that I need to pay to keep my country growing.”

The interviewer then said, “Do you know how much in France you would have to pay on earnings above 1 million euros [French President Francois Hollande's proposal]? Not 30 percent – 75 percent.”

At that point, Smith said, “75? Yeah, that’s different, that’s different. Yeah, 75. Well, you know, God bless America.”

Ooooh yeah.

The rolling disaster that the European Union has become continues,

Spain downgraded again, at risk of junk status, or close to becoming a new bra size at Victoria’s Secret,

Spain’s sovereign debt rating was slashed three steps Thursday by credit rating agency Fitch, which warned that the nation is at risk of being downgraded into junk bond status.
The nation’s debt rating was cut from “A” all the way to “BBB,” the lowest rating that is considered investment grade. And the new rating was given a negative outlook, meaning it at risk for further downgrades.

France’s new president, François Hollande, must think this is a good thing (if he’s thinking)

France intends to lower the legal retirement age from 62 to 60 for a small class of workers, the government announced Wednesday, maintaining a campaign pledge by the newly elected president, the Socialist François Hollande, and partly undoing a major change by his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.
…
The change will allow people who entered the work force at age 18 or 19 to retire with full state pensions at 60, instead of 62, assuming they have paid into the pension system for 41 or 41.5 years, the period typically required to qualify for full state benefits. Exemptions for short periods of unemployment will be added and those for maternity leave will be extended.
…
The pension change is expected to bring more than 110,000 additional retirements next year, at a cost to the state of more than $1.25 billion, the president’s office said in a statement, but is to be paid for entirely by a 0.1 percent rise in taxes on employees and companies. The decree is expected to take effect in November.

As if France could afford the retirees it has now??

Meanwhile, the only EU economy with annual growth of 7.6% (a whopping FIVE TIMES the euro-zone average) gets dissed by Paul Krugman.

Yes, the death-panels-and-sales-taxes guy whose blog is richly titled The Conscience of a Liberal, who will tell you that “the French have it right” when it comes to healthcare. The very same Krugman who puts to use the good-old “lies, damned lies and statistics”, or, as Bruce McQuain calls it, statistical cherry-picking.

As it turns out, Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves (background here) saw Krugman’s tweet, and, voila! Flame war!

Let’s write about something we know nothing about & be smug, overbearing & patronizing: after all, they’re just wogs: krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/est…

— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) June 6, 2012

Go to the link in this tweet,

OK, something a bit longer than 140 ch. on why we might be a bit peeved. No argumentum ad auctorem: not where but why: hoover.org/publications/p…

— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) June 6, 2012

And maybe, just maybe, you’ll see why austerity may be what has made Estonia grow.

Estonia and Austerity: Another Exploding Cigar for Paul Krugman

Starting the noveau regime off the wrong foot,
France’s new prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault leaves Middle East red-faced… as his name sounds like the Arabic for penis

France’s new prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has triggered confusion and embarrassment in Arabic-speaking countries – because his surname sounds like their word for ‘penis’.
Newsreaders in Arab nations have swiftly come up with a host of strategies to avoid pronouncing his name correctly.
In French, the name is correctly pronounced ‘Eye-ro’.

Now you know the word in Arabic.

Meanwhile, in France,

The French themselves changed the spelling of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s name to ‘Putine’, because it sounded like ‘putain’ – the French word for prostitute

The Spanish, well-deserving their potty-mouths reputations, didn’t bother change Putin, and pronounce it poo-TEEN, thereby calling him “little male whore.”

Which, of course makes me proud of my Iberian ancestors.

French socialist Francois Hollande has won a clear victory in the country’s presidential election.

Mr Hollande has called for a renegotiation of a hard-won European treaty on budget discipline championed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mr Sarkozy.
…
The Socialist candidate has promised to raise taxes on big corporations and people earning more than 1m euros a year.

He wants to raise the minimum wage, hire 60,000 more teachers and lower the retirement age from 62 to 60 for some workers.

The president-elect — who campaigned on the promise of spending more and who, 30 minutes ago, stated forcefully that he was a “socialist” — said that he expects much of Europe to “breathe a sigh of relief” in view of his election to the French presidency and that the European Union will not be all about austerity from now on.

The Ferrari owners are breathing the air in Switzerland,

This photo of a fleet of Ferraris purportedly fleeing to the Swiss border captures the feeling of many rich French people today. The socialist candidate François Hollande has defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy — the first time a socialist has been elected President of France [since] the Mitterand years.

Won’t be the first time that money flees France after a Socialist victory.

UPDATE,
American Power is also blogging on France.

Dominique Strauss-Khan is the gift that keeps on giving, and this time he’s giving bail,
France Probes Ex-IMF Chief for Sex-Ring Link

French magistrates placed former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn under preliminary investigation for his alleged involvement in a French prostitution ring, prosecutors said, putting the onetime presidential hopeful back into a harsh spotlight.

The magistrates on Monday ordered Mr. Strauss-Kahn to refrain from communicating with plaintiffs as well as with anyone else being prosecuted in the investigation, prosecutors from the northern French city of Lille said in a statement. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who wasn’t detained or arrested, was also ordered to pay a €100,000 bail ($133,500).

A lawyer for Mr. Strauss-Kahn said that his client “strongly and firmly” rejected the preliminary charges of “aggravated pimping.”

Prostitution is legal in France, but pimping isn’t. To indict him, prosecutors would have to prove that he played an organizational role in the alleged prostitution ring.
…
Investigators had considered investigating Mr. Strauss-Kahn for allegedly illegally benefiting from prostitutes paid through corporate accounts. At least one company has filed a complaint to prosecutors that corporate funds had been diverted for that purpose by the alleged prostitution ring, the people familiar with the matter said.

But on Monday, the Lille magistrates opted not to probe that allegation, the people familiar with the probe said.

Through lawyers, Mr. Strauss-Kahn has said that he had no knowledge that company funds may have been misappropriated by the alleged ring.

I wouldn’t know if he did, but you can bet he’s p****d off someone who wants him out of the French political scene.

Related,
Depardieu likes Sarkozy and Castro but not Strauss-Kahn

Former French president Chirac convicted of graft, escapes jail time

Popular former French president Jacques Chirac was convicted of graft on Thursday but escaped jail, receiving a suspended two year sentence for running ghost workers at Paris city hall.

The 79-year-old statesman, who was excused from court on medical grounds, was found guilty of influence peddling, breach of trust and embezzlement between 1990 and 1995, when he was mayor of the French capital.

In their ruling, judges said Chirac’s behaviour had cost Paris taxpayers the equivalent of US$1.8-million (1.4-million euros).

Readers of this blog may remember Blacque Jacques sipping piña coladas earlier in the trial; now his lunch money shenanigans while he was mayor of Paris earned him a slap in the wrist while others are in the clink,

He was tried alongside nine alleged accomplices. Two were cleared, but the rest were convicted of helping Chirac run a system at Paris city hall under which political allies were paid municipal salaries for fake jobs.

The city of Paris, which is now run by a Socialist mayor, dropped a case for damages over the case after Chirac and his UMP party agreed to pay 2.2-million euros to cover the embezzled funds.

Chirac — who lives in a luxury Paris flat overlooking the Seine near the Eiffel Tower paid for by the family of the late former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri — repaid 500,000 euros out of his own pocket.

He was convicted of hiring members of his political party for non-existent municipal jobs, using the civic payroll to employ his own campaign staff.

In all, 19 fake jobs were created in Paris and its suburb Nanterre between 1990 and 1995, ahead of Chirac’s successful presidential bid.

Several people were convicted in connection with the ghost worker case in 2004, including Juppe, who was found guilty of mishandling public funds but is now a key figure in the government of Chirac’s successor Sarkozy.

C’est la vie, mon mes amis.