FRENCH LEFTIST GETS IT RIGHT

The Socialist frontrunner to succeed French President Jacques Chirac, Segolene Royal, has broken ranks with her party by calling for a crackdown on youth crime - challenging the conservatives on their home turf. "We need a return to the heavy hand," Ms Royal said in a speech delivered in the north Paris suburbs, where an outbreak of street violence has raised fears of a repeat of last year's riots.

Unveiling a crime and security platform that is a break with the Socialists' normal emphasis on tolerance and funding for education, Ms Royal said the tough anti-crime policies of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy - the top conservative contender in next year's election - had failed to prevent an explosion of violence in poor French suburbs.

But in a break with the Socialists, who brand Mr Sarkozy as a hardliner, the mother of four called for "a much firmer approach" to young offenders. "The Left has long underestimated" the crime problem, she said. "Now is the time to tackle it head-on." Military-style academies could be set up for young offenders aged 16 or over, she suggested, steering troubled youths into aid work or apprenticeships, and teaching them "how to behave ascitizens".

For younger offenders, parents would be enrolled in compulsory courses at the first sign of trouble, with social benefits scrapped for those who failed to bring their children into line. Troublemakers under 16 should be removed from school and put in special boarding schools under close supervision by teachers, sports workers and volunteers.

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ELSEWHERE

The big powers united on Iran: "World powers stood shoulder to shoulder yesterday in the clearest sign yet of unity on how to deal with Iran's determination to master nuclear technology. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, just 24 hours after announcing the US would consider direct talks with Tehran for the first time in more than 25 years, joined her counterparts in Vienna to strike the most significant deal yet to try to force Iran's hand. The US, with five other world powers and the European Union, agreed to offer Tehran incentives if it halted its drive for nuclear enrichment, but also threatened unspecified "further steps in the Security Council" if Iran refused. But after months of tortuous diplomacy, perhaps more telling than the communique from the US, Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia was the image of representatives of the world's most powerful nations standing together to deliver it.

Illegals and sex crimes: "Based on a one-year in-depth study, a researcher estimates there are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each. Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta analyzed 1,500 cases from January 1999 through April 2006 that included serial rapes, serial murders, sexual homicides and child molestation committed by illegal immigrants. She found that while the offenders were located in 36 states, most were in states with the highest numbers of illegal immigrants. California had the most offenders, followed by Texas, Arizona, New Jersey, New York and Florida. Schurman-Kauflin concluded that, based on a figure of 12 million illegal immigrants and the fact that more of this population is male than average, sex offenders among illegals make up a higher percentage than offenders in the general population. She arrives at the figure of 240,000 offenders - a conservative estimate, she says - through public records showing about 2 percent of illegals apprehended are sex offenders".



Why Japanese don't like "Americans" (See picture) in their country: "A court has convicted an American sailor of killing a Japanese woman during a robbery near Tokyo and sentenced him to life in prison. A court in the port city of Yokohama convicted Seaman William Reese, 22, who had been based aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, of robbing Yoshie Sato and beating her to death on January 3. Reese pleaded guilty but said he had not intended to kill the woman. Nearly 50,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan under a bilateral security treaty, and issues of crime, pollution and noise associated with the US bases make them highly unpopular with locals. Concerns boiled over into large protests after three US servicemen raped a schoolgirl on the southern island of Okinawa in 1995, but tensions have cooled in recent years."

Homeland "security": "The [British] Halle Orchestra recently cancelled a tour to America after being told that all 120 members would have to report in person to the American Embassy in London, at an allotted time early one morning, and pay 63 pounds for the privilege. No, said embassy officials regretfully, it would not be possible for one member of the orchestra to visit in person, presenting everyone's passport. Given that the orchestra is based in Manchester, this would have meant hiring two coaches and finding overnight accommodation for all 120 players. Bewildered by the rules, the orchestra cancelled the American visit".

Agonizing over raid on corrupt black: "It's been amusing to watch Congress fret over the FBI's decision to raid the office of their colleague, Rep. William Jefferson. Current Speaker Dennis Hastert called it 'the wrong path,' and has demanded a return of the documents seized. An unnamed member told the Washington Post that the tactics was 'unduly aggressive.' Rep. John Conyers called the raid 'an act of tremendous violence.' On Tuesday, Rep. James Sensenbrenner held hearings titled, 'Reckless Justice: Did the Saturday Night Raid of Congress Trample the Constitution?' At those hearings, Sensenbrenner announced his intention to introduce legislation protecting Congress from future, similar police searches. Funny. Congress -- especially GOP leaders like Hastert and Sensenbrenner -- don't seem nearly as concerned when much more violent, confrontational raids happen to their own constituents."

Fat liar sued: "By the time Iraq war veteran Sergeant Peter J. Damon learned he was an unwitting star in Michael Moore's 2004 movie 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' he already had a lot of explaining to do. Relatives wanted to know why the 33-year-old Damon, a staunch supporter of the war effort and President Bush, agreed to be in a movie that was harshly critical of both, his lawyer said yesterday. Friends wanted to know why Damon, who lost both his arms in a helicopter repair accident, was portrayed as a veteran who had been left behind when, in fact, military medical personnel had helped him learn to use his artificial arms and veterans groups had helped build his family a new house in Middleborough, the lawyer said. This week, Damon sued Moore and several film production companies for $85 million and plans to tell a jury exactly what he told his friends and relatives: that Moore included him in the movie without his permission and misrepresented his stand on the war, said his lawyer, Dennis Lynch."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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