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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Taro who wrote (336810)	5/8/2007 7:33:50 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572369

Message 23527065

To: Taro who wrote (336810)	5/8/2007 7:43:54 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572369

Sarkozy victory sets off riots By ANGELA CHARLTON Associated Press Writer © 2007 The Associated Press PARIS — The leader of France's defeated Socialists appealed for calm Tuesday after post-election violence left cars burned and store windows smashed. While the unrest has been relatively minor, it sent a message to Nicolas Sarkozy: He may have won the presidency, but he hasn't won over the many French who consider him — and his free-market reforms and tough line on crime and immigration — frighteningly brutal. Sarkozy, who beat Socialist Segolene Royal in a runoff Sunday, is a divisive figure whose tough language and crackdowns on crime and immigration have angered many on the left — and in the immigrant-heavy suburban housing projects that erupted in riots in 2005. Tuesday night, the third after the election, appeared calmer than the previous nights, with only a few reports of violence. Vandals set fire to a center belonging to Sarkozy's UMP party in the central town of Villeurbanne, causing minor damage, said local official Xavier de Furst. A scuffle with riot police was also reported in the Paris suburb of Grigny. Police patrolled the Place de la Bastille in Paris, where hundreds of people had gathered on previous nights, breaking windows in shops and starting street fires. Some 730 cars were burned nationwide Sunday night and 592 people were arrested. The following night, 373 vehicles were torched and 160 people were taken in for questioning across France, police said. "To all those who can hear me, I ask them to immediately stop all this behavior," Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande said Tuesday on RTL radio. "We are in a republic, where universal suffrage is the only law we know. There can be disappointment, there can be anger, there can be frustration. But the only way to react is to take up your ballots, not other weapons," he said. Royal had warned of renewed violence in case of a Sarkozy victory, and had sought to make the campaign a referendum on Sarkozy's polarizing persona. But voters favored Sarkozy anyway, handing him a mandate for reforms that include tax cuts and new labor rules making it easier to hire and fire to revive the sluggish economy. He faces a big challenge in carrying this out in a country that cherishes its generous social safety net. The troublemakers this week have been mostly white, whereas the 2005 riots involved many black and Arab youth angry over discrimination and alienation from mainstream society. This week's protesters resembled some of the young people who helped bring down a minor labor reform last year through mass demonstrations. Sarkozy's reforms promise to be tougher, and are certain to meet similar street protests. Sarkozy himself was on a yacht in the Mediterranean, taking time to rest before he takes over from Jacques Chirac on May 16. Critics on the left assailed him for his high-budget retreat — the yacht belongs to prominent magnate Vincent Bollore and was outfitted with huge plasma TVs and a whirlpool bath. Hollande was more understanding, though he said he wanted to know who paid for the vacation. "I find it normal that after a campaign that was also difficult for him, he needs rest," he said. The Socialists and Sarkozy's UMP party are now looking ahead to parliamentary elections June 10 and 17. The UMP needs a majority to keep his mandate for reforms. A win by the left would bring "cohabitation" — an awkward power-sharing with a leftist prime minister — which would put a stop to his plans. The Socialists, however, are in disarray, with many calling for an overhaul of a party still attached to Marxist ideas that have lost currency in an era of borderless markets. Hollande sought to shore up his authority by insisting Tuesday that he would lead the party's legislative campaign — not Royal. Sarkozy has drawn up a whirlwind agenda for his first 100 days in office and plans to put big reforms before parliament at an extraordinary session in July. One would make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more. Another would put in place tougher sentencing for repeat offenders, and a third would toughen the criteria for immigrants trying to bring their families to France. chron.com

To: Taro who wrote (336810)	5/8/2007 10:28:23 PM
From: steve harris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572369

I will never agree with the socialist idea that putting talented and gifted students together with students that are not the brightest, will somehow make everyone geniuses. Oh, it will reduce the gap between the best and the worst students, but at what cost? The students that are not the brightest need educators, mentors, and encouragement. Something they will not get from snotty nosed nerds who know more than their tenured unionized teacher does.

To: Taro who wrote (336810)	5/8/2007 11:42:38 PM
From: steve harris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572369

A conservative wants to help the lower performing students by helping the lower performing students improve, knowing confidence and improvement comes with encouragement and knowledge. Liberals think the best way to help the lower performing students is by limiting the brilliance of our most gifted students with the focus having to be be on the "education gap" to substantiate their failed theory. How does it look to the lower performing students, that what they would aspire to become, is held up as the symbol of what is wrong? Same exact same mindset is demonstrated by liberals wanting to help poor people by putting a yoke on the rich. Hence, their necessity for perpetuating the finite pie mantra as proof their socialist idea will work. Conservatives want to help the less skilled people by helping them improve, believing that wealth is created, not redistributed. Why should the poor aspire to greater wealth knowing wealth is held up as the symbol of why they are poor? Seems to be a shallow, warped collection of ideals aimed at creating a socialist state, with the power in the hands of the elitists who's power depends upon everyone being average, and no one excelling.