As you may have read, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) has been arrested and held without bail for some alleged offenses in New York City. I may not have this exactly right but these offenses may be sexual assault and holding someone against their will (kidnapping, preventing from exiting a room). Specifically, he is alleged to have come out of the bathroom naked, chased after a hotel maid, cornered her in the bathroom, and forced her to perform oral sex. Serious matters. Granted, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. In the case of DSK, however, there is some "smoke" that has followed him around -- a history or untoward sexual activities.
DSK has been held without bail, and some in France -- I suspect mostly the left wing -- are upset. In their view this violates the principle of the presumption of innocence of the accused. Perhaps. But there is a larger history. Roman Polanski was convicted of a sexual crime under US law -- having sex with a minor (14 year old Nastasia Kinski, if my memory serves me well) -- and fled to France many years ago. France has refused to extradite Mr Polanski to the US. Soooooooo . . . surely this past history of France's harboring of Mr Polanski looms large in the minds of the US judiciary system. Don't expect bail, DSK. Cry as you will, French left wing. It has to be acknowledged that this complicity of France in the harboring of Mr Polanski as a fugitive from US justice is at least partly at fault here.
DSK is a leading member of the French Socialist Party and was thought to be the leading candidate to run on the Socialist ticket in the May 2012 French presidential election. While a lot can happen over a year's time, it was thought that DSK had a serious chance of beating Nicolas Sarkozy, the encumbent French president. DSK further is the Director General of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a very important quasi-governmental position.
I read various French media sources on-line in French, particularly Le Figaro. As is often the case, the comments by French readers on an article on the outrage felt by the French Gauche (left wing) about the holding of DSK without bond and the pictures taken of him in handcuffs and looking dishevelled and fatigued were very interesting. I didn't read all of them, but all of those I read were against the Gauche. They said, for example, that the lax justice system in France is SO much better (sarcasm very palpable). They also said that it was ironic that the same people in France -- the Gauche -- that condemned (and maybe passed a law to forbid, this aspect was unclear to me) negative comments on the French judiciary felt at liberty to disparage and drub the US judiciary procedures. These comments did not reflect very positively on the self-righteous airs taken on by these Gauche commentators.
I think this is going to be interesting cinema to watch in the times ahead. Of course, this has the chance to reflect very negatively on the Socialist Party in France. If it turns out, as it may, that this recent act is just part of a consistent pattern of bad behavior . . . then the question is raised why the Socialist Party has cozened this offense to the rights of women and to equitable relationships among people? They were ignorant of the bad behavior? Does that pass the smell test? Probably not. And . . . and now Nicolas Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni, is expecting a child in perhaps October or November!!! Picture Nicolas Sarkozy posing with a healthy and hale young baby and then picture the socialists depicted as enablers of DSK's behaviors! Pure cinema. It could hardly have been scripted more compellingly! Throw into this the possibility that the baby may not be Nicolas Sarkozy's but instead the child from an extra marrital affair of Bruni . . . This could be the subject matter for a new daytime soap opera!
He takes his lead from Bill Clinton, our serial rapist president.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
