COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Crackdown and Blowback



The first reports of Sarkozy's immigration reform plan are coming in and already one can see that the opposition is just beginning to mobilise.
France Races to Oust Illegal Immigrants
By ELAINE GANLEY
Saturday, September 22, 2007

As France races to deport 25,000 illegal immigrants by the end of the year _ a quota set by President Nicolas Sarkozy _ tensions are mounting and the crackdown is taking a toll.

Critics say the hunt threatens values in a nation that prides itself on being a cradle of human rights and a land of asylum. Protesters have gathered by the dozens in Paris to protect illegal aliens as police move in.

But with three months left in the year, police have caught at least 11,800 immigrants, less than half the target, so Sarkozy has ordered officials to pick up the pace.

"I want numbers," Sarkozy reportedly told Brice Hortefeux, head of the Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development, which Sarkozy set up after taking office in May. "This is a campaign commitment. The French expect (action) on this."

The Immigration Ministry estimates 200,000 to 400,000, illegal immigrants and Sarkozy wants them deported and a new system put in place to organize and regulate immigration based on annual needs assessments.

As the Sarkozy government moves to implement its identification plan and deportations, injuries to foreigners are being used by human rights groups to build resistance including neighborhood groups and a police union spokesman said that "Reactions are becoming more and more violent." Even the police are chafing at the increased workload of rounding up and deporting 25,000 illegals by the end of the year.

29 comments:

  1. Crackdown! on Jeffs as well!

    "All the homes and other property were kept in a trust" contolled by Jeffs! Sucker owned two whole towns!

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  2. Jeffs may be a prophet without honor in his hometown, but he had a good portfolio.

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  3. Bail set at $2,000 million should cover it, no?

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  4. Geez, if I did the math right (10,000,000/25,000), that crazy Sarko psycho will need 400 years to get the job done. Talk about a cushy election promise.

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  5. As I said the other day, this deportation of mussulmen, is the backdrop to the French sabre rattling vis a vie Iran.

    On FOX they're about to discuss surgical strikes against Iran's infrastructure.
    Spurs that Jingo

    Hannity just does not want to talk about
    3,700 Troops home for Christmass
    Neither does Holmes.

    Not part of either of their storylines

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  6. This was a PR coup. Ahmedinejad dared what Bush will not. Bush doesn't have the cojones to speak at Columbia, or anywhere else there might be free Americans with anti-Republican Party tshirts on.

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  7. I heard Evan Bayh extol the virtues of Hillary on the radio today. Obama is dead in the water. Hillary's got it locked up, unless she has her own bimbo eruption. The Iraq War assures that the Dem nominee will win the top job. And Evan Bayh will be number two. You heard it here first.

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  8. Craig to Crap Out on court appearance, let lawyer do all the talking.

    "Between his June arrest and August guilty plea, Craig also turned up in person at the offices of the Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport Police, seeking contact information 'so his lawyer can speak to someone', according to a report filed by an officer who talked to Craig."

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  9. "Bush doesn't have the cojones to speak at Columbia, or anywhere else there might be free Americans with anti-Republican Party tshirts on."

    Yeah, that's it.

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  10. Cutler said...

    Teresita said... "Bush doesn't have the cojones to speak at Columbia, or anywhere else there might be free Americans with anti-Republican Party tshirts on."

    Yeah, that's it.


    The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against Gregory Jenkins, a former high-level White House staffer who enacted a policy that unlawfully excluded individuals perceived to be critical of the administration from public events where President Bush was present.

    The lawsuit names as plaintiffs Jeff and Nicole Rank, who were arrested at a Fourth of July presidential appearance at the West Virginia State Capitol because they were wearing T-shirts critical of the president, and Alex Young and Leslie Weise, Denver residents who were thrown out of a town hall meeting with President Bush because they had an anti-war bumper sticker on their car.

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  11. Tes,

    Why would that be unlawful? I’m curious just from a legal academic point of view.

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  12. Why would that be unlawful? I’m curious just from a legal academic point of view.

    Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

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  13. What does that have to do with me not wanting you being a at place where I am to give a speech?

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  14. If I give a speech at a conference hall in some hotel and wish to only invite my guests, does the first amendment give you the right to crash in and disturb my speech?

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  15. Aren’t you in fact curtailing my right free speech by condoning this kind of hooliganism?

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  16. If you cut down every law to get at the devil, what do you stand behind when the devil turns on you?

    Wretchard didn't include that in his Man For All Seasons piece.

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  17. We usually think of a town hall meeting here Mat, as a kind of come as you are, whoever you are meeting. Politeness required. That's what it is for, a meeting of a town, in an open hall. And generally a state capital is public domain. If George wants to rent the dome that's his business. I don't know what the format of these events where, but it sounds bad. My wife told me you couldn't get within 10 miles of George, when she happened to be back there during the campaign. Same thing with the democrats I presume. When I watched the campaigns on the tube, they all seemed like robo pubs and robo crats to me. Better to blog, or go fishing.

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  18. Bob,

    Be that as it may, that doesn't address the question. What gives anyone the right heckle and interrupt someone else's, especially the POTUS, right to free speech? Bush obviously wasn't interested in a "debate", that wasn't the venue for that.


    Tes,

    I'm still curious why you would describe Bush's unwillingness to allow potential hoodlums to disrupt his speech as unlawful. What's the legal basis and precedent for such an assertion?

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  19. Moccassin by Nike

    I quess it would be like Ronald Reagan used to say, Mat, "I paid for the microphone"--if it's George's paid for event, well, it's his event. I suppose he could require them all to be dressed like tomatos if he wanted. Or potatos. But not potatos in bikinis, his wife wouldn't have allowed that.

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  20. Tue Sep 25, 11:23:00 PM EDT

    I repeat,

    Yeah, that's it.

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  21. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  22. Bob,

    Peel the skin off and it becomes a public safety issue. There be a riot allowing the potato heads in. :D

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  23. Metuselah: I'm still curious why you would describe Bush's unwillingness to allow potential hoodlums to disrupt his speech as unlawful.

    It is a sad day in America when good old fashioned dissenters are called potential hoodlums who must be whisked away.

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  24. Metuselah: Aren’t you in fact curtailing my right free speech by condoning this kind of hooliganism?

    You're right. And when Hillary gets in there, and gives a speech, I want political background checks on everyone within 800 yards of her podium. What goes around comes around.

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  25. Metuselah: If I give a speech at a conference hall in some hotel and wish to only invite my guests, does the first amendment give you the right to crash in and disturb my speech?

    Hotels are one thing, but taxpayer-funded venues are a horse of a different color. So now let's go back and read the fucking article:

    "The lawsuit names as plaintiffs Jeff and Nicole Rank, who were arrested at a Fourth of July presidential appearance at the West Virginia State Capitol because they were wearing T-shirts critical of the president,

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  26. Tes,

    There are many ways to skin a potato.

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  27. Well, Ms. T., we know with Hillary Things Will Be All Better, For Sure

    And Hillary has Secret Service protection now, but Mr Hsu seemed to have access:)

    Hillary is a crook.

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