Jacques Chirac....No respect!

[Glenn B]

Talking Points Memo
France and the War on Terror
The Factor continues to boycott French goods and services--France was the only country who attempted to derail the UN resolution supporting the new Iraqi government. Today we learned that French president Jacques Chirac will not attend the funeral of Ronald Reagan, even though he is in the country for the G8 Summit at Sea Island, Georgia. Chirac is anti-American, and this is just another slap in the face to the United States.

http://www.billoreilly.com/pg/jsp/community/tvshow.jsp

What an ass. Very sorry excuse for a head of state.

Glenn

[ladywolf]

he can go kiss a dead skunks butt for all i care......its kinda like spain pulling out of iraq, just because the iraqi's kidnapped a couple of their soldiers.....if you are gonna support the coalition, and go in....you better help out! the US spec ops just rescued some ?polish and italian? soldiers IIRC, do unto others....we'll see what happens when france gets into some bind....i wish the pres would tell him to shove off!

Kris

[Gil BullyKatz]

Well... Not taking Spain's side by any case...
BUT-2-3 days before their elections they received those subway station bombings that were blamed on extremists against their involvement in Iraq.
Result? new government and first course of action? You guessed it-Pull out.
The spanish population voted and by doing so voted in favor of getting the hell outa dodge.
The effect a terrorist act can have on a civilian population is amazing... Military types are prepared and have accepted certain "risks" but Joe Public is a bit more "impressionable"
To play Devil's advocate, imagine a terrorist act committed on a big scale (ex. 911) 2-3 days before presidential elections and blaming the current administration for it-specifically. What would our population do?
Forgive me for being cynical and jaded but I have no faith in the intestinal fortitude of modern America.

The French...? Ah hell...Let them rollover and let the next conquerors roll into Paris uncontested. France has already been invaded, like most of Europe, 'cept the hordes have "student" or "work" visas.

Frell 'Em!

[Danno]

One of my friends had to go to Italy to look at some printing equipment for the company he works for. The flight was delayed and he got shuttled into Orly airport during a French air traffic controllers strike. The French were, as usual, very rude to him once they found out he was American. A couple of days later, when he finally arrived in Rome he was NOT happy with the French. His Italian contact picked him up and was taking him to the hotel as Randy complained about his trip. Finally the Italian turned to him and said (Italian accent here) "Do you know why all the French boulevards are lined by trees?" Randy said, "No". "That's so the Germans can march in the shade!". True story.....

[sidriptide]

one more reason to NEVER BUY MICHELIN......

mike

[8Mud]

You remember why France pulled out of NATO, because France wanted there generals in charge. I can guess how that would have turned out, after changing sides a dozen times, they´d want America to bail them out again. Think about the position of France today, they want the Iraqi Government to have control over the American military, smells like sour grapes to me. Remember when they refused overfly rights, during the punitive raid into Libya, for the Lockerby catasrophy.
Sorry (or glad to say) when traveling north to south in Europe, I religiously make a detour around France, even if it costs more. Have been following this policy for 30 years. After a few very untastefull, encounters with French customs/Police and generally treated like dog dew, by the population in general, figured the least I could do, is spend my money someplace else.
As far as I´m concerned, the only good thing, to ever come out of France is a horny skunk called Pepe`Le Pew. Funny, as long as he isn´t messing with MY cat.
Thank somebody, I´m not a Congressman, my first bill would be to repatriate, the American fallen, from French soil and then ignore them as much as humanly possible. Put them somewhere between Cuba and Iran, on our list of friends.
France has kind of an inflated self image, about the same population, as the three most western states combined and a slightly higher GDP, than California, the last time I checked the demographics (been awhile).
Compair Cherac with President Reagan, polish/image versus substance/intergrity, maybe he isn´t making the trip, because he fears the comparison.
Schröder has his head so far up Chirac´s exhaust opening, he doesn´t know whether it´s day or night. Schröders party has taken some serious hits , in regional elections. Many of the Germans are not to happy about the relationship either.

[Ghost]

IMHO France should be removed from all aid packags (if they get any from us) and all Americans should boycott all French products and the entire country! And if Germany wants to anex them for the third time so be it! The American peole have bailed them out at least twice in the last centry and this is the appreciation we get! :( :mad:

[yellowxj]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/06/10/france.suvs/index.html
And the frogs dont know what a real jeep is either...

Denis Baupin, a leading Green party councilor who tabled the resolution, says the designer jeeps are "not suited to towns" and he could not understand why people drove the fashionable "off-roaders."
"They're polluters, they're space-occupiers, they're dangerous for pedestrians and other road users. They're a caricature of a car."
and the brits might not enjoy suv's so much either...how do I get my xj to London???
follows similar remarks by the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who in May month described SUVs as "bad for London -- completely unnecessary" and called their owners "complete idiots."

[ECKSJAY]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/06/08/dday.lost/index.html

[GSequoia]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/06/08/dday.lost/index.html

That's cool man.

As for the SUV's in the EU, well part of me says "Dont F$%# with my vehicle!" while another part does see the logic. I'd say it all depends on the implimentation of it (bad spelling!). Them cities aren't large car friendly, hell I live in L.A. and would love to see a hell've a lot less large cars (of course our large cars are larger than theirs).

As for the calling them jeeps, notice the lack of a capital letter. Jeep is just what they call any 4x4 in most of the world, so I wouldn't beef that issue.

[8Mud]

As for the Veteran rescued by Chirac, I´d hope the hug wasn´t a little to closs or too friendly and I´d check to see if I still had my wallet after it was finished. Maybe it was a come on, give him a ride in his jet, a glass of wine, maybe Chirac has a thing for old guys.
Haven´t noticed any lack, of big old four door Mercedes Benz, with 400 or 5000 HP around. As a matter of fact, they are more common than the Jeep around here. The restrictions don´t apply to the rich, same with the gas prices and the extra taxes to get the gas guzzlers off the road. Can´t see how a 6000 pound Mercedes, with double the horses of most SUV´s, can be more acceptable, economical or ecologicaly friendly.
Pay your whole life, for the road system and be forced to drive a 1000 lb. death trap, to save energy, unless your rich enough to ignore the cost. Last study I read, said there has been a 6.2% increase in fatalities, attributed to more people driving down sized vehicles. I can´t really tell much of a difference between a station wagon and a SUV, except the extra differential.
I find the Germans and others to be thinking at cross purposes often, the price of insurance and the licensing procedures became so strict in Germany in the last ten years, they have run the motorcycle drivers off of the roads. The logic was, motorcycles are too dangerous and scare the grandma`s. Ten years later, they are trying to get everybody to drive 1200 lb. tin cans, that are supposed to be safer and figuring out ways to make them go fast, so they can sell them.
They recently banned grill protectors, because they were dangerous to pedestrians. Though every third vehicle on the roads is a truck and trailer.
Good intentions gone haywire. :cheers:

[GSequoia]

Things do go nuts with over legislation, I know that! That's one thing that goes on me. Any city/state/country that is urging people to go smaller for pollution and space concerns really should embrace motorcyclists, I mean c'mon, bikes get the same mileage as most hybrids and are smaller too! Plus, if you get enough people on bikes it's suddenly that much more safer to ride, more bikes = more motorcyclist awareness..

:twak:!

[Matthew Currie]

What Gall (or Gaul I guess in this case) for the French to talk about caricatures of cars!http://nerv.org.uk/photos/cars/citroen.jpg

By the way, if you do a google image search for "citroen" the first image is a rather ummmm...interesting....rendition of the Citroen logo. Not suitable for children or work.

[8Mud]

I tried the google search about Citroen, maybe I should check my spelling, maybe not, but I got a site, telling of the virtues of the lemon.
Wife had one of those things when we first got married, always thought it was just another reason to call the French frogs. Though the hydrolic hiegth adjustment for the suspension was kind of neat.
I had to remove the fenders, the grill, the clip, the radiator the spare tire and some other stuff to change the water pump.
Tried to adjust the parking brake, could see a big old wing nut, absolutly no way to get my hand on it, without taking something serious off of the motor. Took it to the Citreon specialist, he said parking brake adjsutment, no problem, put it on a lift, took out an angle grinder and cut a hole in the sheet metal pan under the motor. Boy, I was really glad, she wrecked that master work, of French engineering.
Citroen, has another model they call the Duck, during a trip to North Africa, ran across one broken down in the desert. Looked like a bent frame. Figured, I could do something, have had some experience in baja. Took a look, I had brought the wrong tools, needed nails and a claw hammer, no kidding the frame was 2X4`s, wood. Tent poles and bailing wire, was actually stronger than the original. This produced by the same race, that couldn´t resist on commenting, on how my Olds 98 was extravigant, ugly and wasteful.

[Ralph]

I tried the google search about Citroen, maybe I should check my spelling, Do an "image" search on Google.

[8Mud]

Uh! OK! Looks kind of like instructions/directions for a 2nd leutenant, enough right answers, so it´s almost impossible for him to get lost. Thataway :arrowl: :arrowr:

[2offroad]

click on the 1st image and look at some of the other images in the list.