PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy challenged former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Saturday to take legal action over his allegation that political enemies scuppered his presidential bid last year by ensuring his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public.
Strauss-Kahn, who was the runaway favorite for the Socialist partys presidential nomination before his arrest last May on sexual abuse charges, told Londons Guardian newspaper he was convinced his political downfall was choreographed by his political enemies.
The Guardians website said that while Strauss-Kahn does not believe his opponents set up the encounter with hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo, he believes operatives linked to Sarkozy played a role in making sure that she went to the police, sparking a major international scandal.
I say to Mr.Strauss-Kahn, explain yourself with judicial authorities and spare the French people your comments, Sarkozy told a rally in the central French town of Clermont-Ferrand ahead of next weekends presidential second round.
In the midst of an electoral campaign, Mr.Strauss-Kahn starts to give morality lessons and indicate that I am the one responsible for what happened to him, its too much!
Amid frustration at economic stagnation and with unemployment running at a 12-year high, Sarkozy trails his Socialist rival Francois Hollande by around 10 percentage points in opinion polls.
Strauss-Kahns dramatic arrest last May as he boarded a plane bound for Europe shattered his hopes of winning the presidency and forced his resignation from the IMF days later.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2012 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's top environmental official in the oil-rich South and Southwest region has resigned after Republicans targeted him over remarks made two years ago when he used the word "crucify" to describe how he would go after companies violating environmental laws.
In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson sent Sunday, Al Armendariz says he regrets his words and stresses that they do not reflect his work as administrator of the five-state region including Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
Actually, they reflect his work perfectly...
Armendariz, who holds a doctorate in environmental engineering, apologized for his remarks last week.
He was sorry if we were offended. That's not an apology.
Whaddya yhave to do to get a doctorate in "Environmental Engineering?" How does an examining board assess an engineered environment?
A senior administration official told The Associated Press that he has since received death threats.
Prove it. Put those threats into the public realm, and have the FBI investigate each and every one. If they prove a single death threat to be real, find and prosecute the person who uttered it. Until I call horse-hockey...
His resignation was effective Monday, when he informed his senior staff.
"I have come to the conclusion that my continued service will distract you and the agency from its important work," Armendariz wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Because even the Obama administration has its limit for the number of quality of doofuses it can employ. And they already have Biden...
He's six or seven of them...
Republicans in Congress had called for Armendariz' firing, after Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe highlighted the May 2010 speech last week as proof of what he refers to as EPA's assault on energy, particularly the technique of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
At a town hall meeting in Washington on Friday, Jackson had said only that she would continue to review the case, calling Armendariz' words "inflammatory" and "wrong". President Obama appointed Armendariz in November 2009, at the urging of Texas-based environmental groups. He is one of a few Latinos in senior leadership at the EPA.
But he's part of the usual gang of leftie environmentalists who canoodle their way into power.
The regional administrator's words "don't comport with either this administration's policy on energy, our policy at EPA on environmental enforcement, nor do they comport with our record as well," Jackson said.
The EPA, perhaps more than any other agency, has found itself in the GOP's crosshairs over its regulation of the gases blamed for global warming, steps it has taken to limit air pollution from coal-fired power plants, and its increased regulation of fracking, which is responsible for a gas drilling boom. Republicans, including presidential contender Mitt Romney -- who has called for Jackson herself to be fired -- have blamed the agency for high gasoline prices and clamping down on American energy.
Get used to it boys and girls, at least until President Romney and new EPI Administrator Palin cleans the house...
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04/30/2012 14:51 ||
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#1
Crucifixion is a very slow, horribly agonizing, form of death by asphyxiation. It could take DAYS. It would definitely be in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
#2
Clinton had a great deal to do with the housing bubble which popped and led to what we have been going through. He pushed for increased home ownership with low to no downpayment and shaky financial positions. Obama has added to our country's problems by spending without restraint. Come November, remember the donks are the party of spending other people's money.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy challenged former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Saturday to take legal action over his allegation that political enemies scuppered his presidential bid last year by ensuring his sexual encounter with a New York maid was made public.
