IMF managing director arrested, accused of sexual attack

[crikkett]

"slutty"?

Even before the incident, Strauss-Kahn had been dubbed "un grand seducteur" because of his reputation as a free-wheeling ladies man.

I've been exploring the gender-free use of the term recently. When I read the story I latched on to these euphemisms and considered them to be very cynical. It helped cement a prejudgment upon the man. Just like it was supposed to, don't you think?

Julian Assange was slandered as a slut - slutty rapist, in fact.

Barracuda, I don't want to go there, so let's not. Let's talk about how this can maybe be slander, or whether the world's finally stopped another monster, or what this synchromystically means for us. etc.

(some editing for clarity)

[semper occultus]

I really spewed my cornflakes when this was announced on the radio....not that it happened but that he got arrested....& he's got some form hasn't he ?

an internecine Wall Street-Paris op of some sort though doubtless he'll be granted the same generosity as other servants of the hegemonic-demonic monstrosity, a bit like.....

Outrage as 'remorseless' ex-wife of Belgian child killer Marc Dutroux is released from jail to spend next decade in a convent

www.dailymail.co.uk

By Ian Sparks 11th May 2011

The ‘evil’ ex-wife of one of Europe’s most reviled child killers will spend the next ten years in a convent after being released halfway through her 30-year jail term.
Michelle Martin, 51, has served only half her 30-year jail term for complicity in the imprisonment and murder of the young victims of her serial killer husband Marc Dutroux.
Families of Dutroux’s victims have said the Belgian court in Mons is ‘allowing a monster out into society’ by ordering her release.

nice advert run in the banker's house journal the FT recently ( wink wink ):

[seemslikeadream]

Analysis: Strauss-Kahn arrest removes Sarkozy's toughest rival

By Catherine Bremer

PARIS | Sun May 15, 2011 1:35pm EDT

(Reuters) - Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest on sexual assault charges removes the toughest rival to French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the 2012 presidential race, bumping up his chances of re-election to a second term.

News of the charges against the IMF chief for assaulting a New York hotel maid shocked the world on Sunday, and unless the case unravels fast and shows him to be innocent, few can imagine a disgraced Strauss-Kahn running as the left-wing challenger.

The former finance minister will plead not guilty to charges of carrying out a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment. French officials say he must be presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

But even if he is ultimately cleared, the case -- and the sordid publicity it will bring -- could easily run on well beyond the Socialist Party's autumn selection contest.

The charges of serious crimes mean Strauss-Kahn's reputation will not be spared by the French culture of ignoring the sexual behavior of politicians, as it was in 2008 when he emerged unscathed from a scandal over an affair with an IMF economist.

"It's too early to know what happened, but if things are confirmed then this is way beyond what we tolerate in France," said Paul Bacot, a political affairs professor at Sciences Po university in Lyon. "It's unbearable, for everybody."

French politicians were shocked. Socialist leader Martine Aubry called the news a "thunderbolt." Francois Bayrou, a centrist opponent of Strauss-Kahn, said: "If the facts prove true ... it's something degrading for all women. It's terrible for the image of France."

BOON FOR SARKOZY

Removal of the man opinion polls rank as front-runner in the April 2012 race would be a boon for Sarkozy, who is stuck with rock-bottom poll ratings. Other potential Socialist challengers to Sarkozy, such as Aubry and veteran deputy Francois Hollande, have much less weighty profiles.

The scandal could also help far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who likes to paint herself as a woman of the people in contrast to an elitist political boys' club.

"This has turned the campaign completely upside down. It changes the stakes for everyone," said political analyst Jean-Thomas Lesueur at the Institut Thomas More think tank.

"(For Strauss-Kahn) it's finished. It's an axe that's come down on his campaign. It's incredible."

Strauss-Kahn -- managing director since 2007 of the International Monetary Fund and a key player in managing the global economic crisis -- had been seen as close to announcing his candidacy for the Socialists. French business and political circles had viewed him as impeccably qualified.

That was until police pulled him off a Paris-bound plane on the tarmac at New York's John F Kennedy airport on Saturday. They charged him over a complaint by a 32-year-old maid that he chased her naked down a hotel hallway, sexually assaulted her and tried to lock her in a hotel room.

ELECTION RACE IN FLUX

For Sarkozy, who is expected to confirm late in 2011 that he will run for reelection, the affair means a rethink of a campaign that would have focused on beating Le Pen in the first round and Strauss-Kahn in the second.

"This will change the cards. There is no other Socialist candidate to match Strauss-Kahn, so if the runoff is right versus left, Sarkozy's experience will give him more of an advantage than before," said Lesueur.

"It will mean a miserable atmosphere for the campaign, but lots of people could benefit. For Sarkozy, it's a big adversary that disappears and for Le Pen, it gives her a window to say that all men in politics are rotten."

An IFOP survey carried out over May 10-12 and published in Sunday's Journal du Dimanche newspaper found that Strauss-Kahn would have led a presidential first round with 26 percent of the vote, with Le Pen at 22 percent and Sarkozy at 21.5 percent.

If Hollande were the left's candidate instead of Strauss-Kahn, it would be a dead heat.

"Today the 2012 election is in complete flux," said Dominique Paille of the centrist Radical Party. "Everybody thought Strauss-Kahn would run off with it and all it takes is one event for the house of cards to fall."

Sarkozy had yet to react to the news on Sunday, and analysts expect he will say very little about the charges against a man he himself put forward to head the IMF. Government spokesman Francois Baroin said it was important to stay cautious.

Le Pen was quick to comment, saying the case "marked the end" of Strauss-Kahn's presidential ambitions, while Aubry called on the Socialist Party to stand united and respect the presumption of innocence. Hollande said the "terrible news" did not fit with the man he knew.

Analysts expect Hollande to now emerge as the Socialist Party favorite, but he could suffer in the election contest for his weak resume, having never been a government minister.

Aubry has more clout in France, as her party's first female leader, the architect of the 35-hour work week and the daughter of former European Commission president Jacques Delors, but she may struggle to give the impression of having fresh ideas.

"At the moment, the person who would benefit the most from this situation on face value, but not necessarily in terms of popularity, is Francois Hollande," said political analyst Stephane Rozes. "Martine Aubry will have to keep the house in order in this turbulent period."

Analysts now expect Aubry will move relatively fast to announce her candidacy and put a new face on the left-wing bid, in competition with Hollande and Segolene Royal, his former partner who is also in the running.

[Stephen Morgan]

Fair enough.

[cptmarginal]

It's so difficult trying to understand the history of his political and business activities. As anyone who has started to look into the history of French political conspiracies can tell you, it's very complex, internecine & ambiguous. Byzantine, you might say. Check out Picknett & Prince's Sion Revelation for a grounded overview. Italy's P2 gets all the attention, but France had (has?) just as ubiquitous a right-wing anti-communist secret-society underground. de Gaulle's SAC and the Cagoule spring immediately to mind, as does the Solar Temple.

What does it mean that "DSK" started out his political life as a Communist activist, founded a group called "Socialism and Judaism", then became involved in the financial operations of Mitterand's network? Mitterand himself was quite an ambiguous figure. Right-wing Vichy collaborator, turned Resistance activist, turned de Gaulle supporter, then isolated from political scandal and used to supplant de Gaulle. His pseudo-left Socialist party's activities succeeded in eroding support for the Communists.

Right at the time DSK was becoming involved (the early 1980s), Mitterand undertook radical nationalization of key industries and was instrumental in bringing about the European Union. And if you've ever read that Picknett & Prince book I linked to above, you'll realize that implies a lot. For many decades going back to the 19th century at least, highly complex and savvy agitation for a European Union was undertaken by secret societies of all sorts. It was the immediate goal in a longer plan, and it's no wonder that so many people have ended up associating the drive for global government with some kind of pseudo-Masonic conspiracy.

So then, what does it mean that DSK is one of the principal cheerleaders and key figureheads in the global government scheme? And that his father (also a financial advisor) was a member of the Grand Orient de France? The same Grand Orient de France that had Mitterand's brother as Grand Master...

Considering the Protocols of Zion-style anti-Semitic political views slyly espoused by important groups in France's right-wing underground, how does that fit in with Strauss-Kahn being Jewish?

What about this:

In 1994, Raymond Lévy, who was director of Renault, invited him to join the Cercle de l’Industrie, a French industry lobby in Brussels, where he met the billionaire businessman Vincent Bolloré and top manager Louis Schweitzer; Strauss-Kahn served as secretary-general and later as vice-president. This lobbyist activity earned him criticism from the alter-globalization left.

Would that have any relation to Le Cercle documented by the ISGP website?

https://wikispooks.com/ISGP/organisations/Le_Cercle.htm

(OK, that last question is definitely rhetorical.)

[cptmarginal]

While on the topic of Jean Violet and Le Cercle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oil_Sniffer_Hoax

The Great Oil Sniffer Hoax was a 1979 scandal involving French oil company Elf Aquitaine. The company spent millions of dollars to develop a new gravity wave-based oil detection system, which was later revealed to be a scam. Elf lost over $150 million to the hoax.

In 1965, Belgian Count Alain de Villegas met and teamed up with Italian inventor, Aldo Bonassoli. Bonassoli was a telephone company electrician in Ventimiglia, Italy, who had invented a new type of desalination system. De Villegas (who was an ecologist, anti-nuclear, and believed in flying saucers) was interested in the idea and later often said that "We can live without oil, but not without water."[1] When the device proved not to work as expected, the team started work on a related concept, a "water sniffer"; if they couldn't make clean water, perhaps they could find it.

de Villegas was also a member of the Pan-European Union, an anti-communist group with headquarters in Brussels. Through contacts in this group, in 1969 they met Jean Violet, a lawyer who worked for the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE), the French intelligence agency. Violet, who was an influential behind-the-scenes player in the pro-Europe anti-communist world, had formed the Pinay Circle in the 1950s around its titular leader, Antoine Pinay.

...

The story finally broke in December 1983. The junior Secretary for the Treasury publicly accused Beck of forfaiture ("abuse of authority") for destroying the documents. The same week Pierre Péan published a complete history of the story in the satirical magazine Le Canard Enchaîné, apparently tipped off by government insiders. The new president, François Mitterrand, seized on the story to attack his predecessor for his involvement in the "cover up", going on to claim that they had destroyed all of the documents. Giscard d'Estaing responded on television, brandishing another copy of the report which he had in his own possession, and claiming that its existence proved that the entire affair was simply a case of political maneuvering.[2]

This proved to be a bad idea; the report was seized and subsequently published in full. On 2 January 1984 it was released live on television by the new Prime Minister, Pierre Mauroy. Mauroy sarcastically accused Barre and Giscard of trying to cover up the embarrassing story. Giscard appeared on television a second time, attacking Mitterrand for "having allowed his predecessor to be attacked".[2] The Economist claimed that Mitterrand used his influence to have a public investigation into Giscard quashed.

So Dominique Strauss-Kahn's acquittal on specific fraud charges regarding Elf Aquitaine doesn't really do much to clear his name. If anything, it shows (if it even needed to be further shown) that he was tangled up in those behind-the-scenes networks.

[semper occultus]

interesting he's married to a Sinclair....

there's some very serious tectonic shifts underway no doubt....

'Secret, dark debates' fan flames of eurozone turmoil

Political union frays at the edges as tensions and resentments rise ahead of a critical meeting on Monday on the debt crisis in Greece and a bail-out for Portugal.

By Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels and Philip Aldrick 8:15AM BST 15 May 2011
www.telegraph.co.uk

An undercurrent of anger, suspicion and mistrust will per-meate on Monday night's critical meeting of eurozone ministers in Brussels as they grapple with a spiralling Greek debt crisis and try to seal a €78bn (£69bn) bail-out for Portugal. As if the euro's problems were not enough, seething resentments will add a new political dimension to the talks.

The inclement mood was set 10 days earlier beside a gently babbling brook and old water mill that speaks of Europe's troubled past. On Friday May 6, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister and the chairman of the eurogroup of single currency members, called a secret meeting of the European Union's most powerful countries at the picturesque Chateau de Senningen on the outskirts of the tiny Duchy state.
< ...>
As news of the meeting leaked out, financial markets went into spasm sending the euro into a nosedive. In a desperate bid to end the turmoil, Mr Juncker, who had not informed other eurozone finance ministers of the meeting, chose to lie. "I totally deny there is a meeting," said his spokesman, as speculation mounted. Mr Juncker had already horrified many of his counterparts by openly bragging last month that he often "had to lie" to suppress public debate over eurozone economic policies which, he claimed, were too important for open contemplation. "I am for secret, dark debates," he said. "When the going gets tough, you have to lie."
<...>
The mistrust, disarray and bitterness could not have come at a worse time, as problems multiply for the eurozone. The Senningen meeting was sparked by heated words behind-the-scenes at last month's IMF summit in Washington, where America and Canada demanded assurances that IMF loans for Greece, Ireland and Portugal would not be wasted. With Greece due to be assessed for a fifth €3.3bn tranche of the IMF loan in June, they wanted assurances it would not be throwing good money after bad.
<...>
The IMF-EU report on Greece, due to be completed this week and expected to make grim reading, will be used to decide next month whether Athens can no longer comply with the conditions for IMF funds. The answer is expected to be negative, which is why a second rescue is now being discussed.

So severe are the problems that eurozone ministers – including Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's finance minister – are openly contemplating how to restructure Greek debt, fully aware of the risk of financial market turmoil from fears that Ireland and Portugal would also be unable to pay back loans.

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest costs Europe key ally in Greek debt talks

www.telegraph.co.uk

The former French finance minister had been a key ally for the European Union as Greece, Ireland and Portugal all sought billion pound bail-outs to pay their debts.
<…>
Mr Ward said Mr Strauss-Kahn, who has denied the sexual assault charges, had been "crucial" in securing US-backed funding of the rescue deals. "He has steam-rollered any opposition to the European bail-outs and has been a crucial figure," said Mr Ward.

"A person a bit less supportive of the eurozone and we could potentially have already seen a default in one of those struggling economies."

The IMF has already come under pressure from the US Congress to be tougher on European debts. Mr Ward said the arrest could "open the door" to those wanting the IMF to rein in its lending.

[Peachtree Pam]

Now the international cartel of thugs have two positions to fill: head of the IMF and the opponent of Sarkozy. I don't believe that he has been "set up" or "framed" as a German reporter I saw on TV offered. I have been watching France 24 in French all day long, streaming coverage. Of course, the French are trying to minimize the seriousness of the situation, but the French lawyers are saying that they feel he is in an inextricable situation. The French are extremely embarrassed. They have no illusions about the situation he is in. For me, he is a scumbag, like all the "players", who do not expect to ever be challenged and who see themselves as above the law and able to commit crimes with impunity. (George W. Bush and the woman in Sugarland, Texas) Remember, the media in France are just as controlled, but in this case the event is so important that it cannot be hidden.

A few details, the unit which has authority over him, a unit specializing in sexual assault, located in Harlem, is very experienced and able to separate the wheat from the chaff. They are not going to arrest anyone unless they are sure they have a case. They have plenty of other things to do.

Having said that, DSK will certainly not loiter in a US prison. Plea bargains will be made, compensation will be paid, he will change his plea to "guilty" of the least damaging of the accusations (locking her in the room) he will receive a suspended sentence, perhaps requiring him to leave US never to return asap, etc. etc. that's the way it works when you are influential and rich IN ALL COUNTRIES.

Don't cry for DSK.

The following repeats some facts in earlier posts.

Arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn rocks French presidential race

US scandal expected to halt challenge against Nicolas Sarkozy and throw 2012 elections wide open

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 May 2011 17.07 BST


Dominique Strauss-Kahn's spectacular arrest on serious sexual assault charges is an unprecedented scandal in the French presidential race. It has stunned the left, disgusted the right and thrown the 2012 election campaign wide open.

DSK had been consistently predicted to trounce Nicolas Sarkozy and all other contenders in the presidential election next April and May. The economist and former Socialist finance minister was expected to announce his candidacy at the end of June. He was tipped to win the Socialist party primary race in October and take on the record-breakingly unpopular Sarkozy.

Whatever the outcome of the US investigation into the alleged sex attack, Strauss-Kahn's hopes for the 2012 presidency are almost certainly over. French voters are largely immune to politicians' sex lives, which they consider private. But allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape are of a different order, pollsters warned.

The Socialist party leader, Martine Aubry, described the news as a "thunderbolt". The Socialists have time to push another candidate, but it will exacerbate existing tensions. The front-runner is now François Hollande, the jovial former party leader with social democrat tendencies who had already scored a surprise hit in the polls by styling himself as an "ordinary guy" against Strauss-Kahn's ivory tower image. His weak points are a poor record as party leader and a lack of government experience. Hollande's former partner, Ségolène Royal, already beaten once by Sarkozy, still insists on standing in the primaries but she is polling low.

The great unknown is Aubry herself, daughter of the former head of the European commission Jacques Delors. She polls well and many of the party's old guard would like to see her run. But a host of other Socialist faces may now mount challenges, complicating things further.

The Socialist favourites, including Royal and Hollande, were careful not to start mud-slinging against each other yesterday and to respect Strauss-Kahn's presumption of innocence. Hollande called it simply "terrible news".

Strauss-Kahn's lieutenants insisted that the charges of alleged brutal sexual assault bore no resemblance to the man they knew. Some were plain about Strauss-Kahn's well-known reputation for seduction, but suggested this could have been a plot. The Socialist MEP Gilles Savary said "everyone knows Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a libertine" but warned that nothing had been ruled out, including the possibility that the New York allegations were a trap.

Until now, the 2012 race against Sarkozy had been seen as an open goal for the Socialists, if only they could stop fighting each other. Now potential new centrist candidates could benefit. The anti-globalisation extreme left will undoubtedly profit, and the big fear is a fragmentation of the leftwing vote. It risks a nightmare repeat of 2002 when too many contenders split the leftwing vote, allowing the extreme right Jean-Marie Le Pen to knock the Socialists out of the final round.

If the Socialists are eliminated from the May 2012 final round and Sarkozy faces the Front National's Marine Le Pen, the president will be assured a second term.

[Peachtree Pam]

FWIW: More concerning his forcing himself on women

....snip...

Tristane Banon, a French writer, claimed she fended him off with kicks and punches during an alleged encounter, while an anonymous author last year claimed: "He has trouble controlling himself."
....snip...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... rmaid.html

[8bitagent]

Outrage as 'remorseless' ex-wife of Belgian child killer Marc Dutroux is released from jail to spend next decade in a convent

www.dailymail.co.uk

By Ian Sparks 11th May 2011

The ‘evil’ ex-wife of one of Europe’s most reviled child killers will spend the next ten years in a convent after being released halfway through her 30-year jail term.
Michelle Martin, 51, has served only half her 30-year jail term for complicity in the imprisonment and murder of the young victims of her serial killer husband Marc Dutroux.
Families of Dutroux’s victims have said the Belgian court in Mons is ‘allowing a monster out into society’ by ordering her release.

Yeah, too bad all those judges, cops and politicians in the elite occult cabals connected to Dutroux or other Northern European missing people cases are still free. Conspiracy radio personalities and bloggers
kept yammering on about "Skull and Bones" and "Bohemian Grove", when the real hardcore black lodge groups behind the seat of power always avoid scrutiny in any sort of parapolitical discussion.

[8bitagent]

Looks like a lot of volatile moving parts to this news story; and while it's possible its a setup to shut out Sarkozy's main competitor...it also could be a scumbag elite finally got caught what many of them do(at least, thank goodness it was an older female; a lot of the NWO elites love those much much younger) but that also synchronisticly dovetails with a lot of other events shaping right now(like Greece, and other countries under crushing IMF debt) as well as internal deep state French politics

[JackRiddler]

Do we need any more proof that the elites of the world(call them the nwo, bilderbergers, ptb, "they", globalists, etc) are evil psychopaths? After reading Franklin, nothing seems surprising anymore.

Don't see it that way at all. Rape is a problem in all classes, and it is of course a problem primarily of misogyny, male entitlement and cultural denial (with more than a touch of approval, even, as boys will be boys and girls are sluts and God made them to serve Man).

No doubt the sense of unaccountable privilege among the powerful often more easily allows the inner psycho to come out. For all we know, Strauss-Kahn might have restrained himself and thus remained a moral man in spite of violent drives, had he been a carpenter rather than a bankster. Or not. (Understood that it's all allegations and he's innocent until proven guilty, I'm trying to restrain my Schadenfreude here re: IMF and neoliberal scumfucks generally since it does appear a woman was raped.)

The powerful and rich, spooks and mobsters are of course more likely to engage in elaborate group crimes, human smuggling and rape and torture conspiracies like those described in the Franklin allegations. Why? In large part, because they can. Sometimes, as a matter of policy, as with the CIA torture programs going all the way back to MK. But don't delude yourself about the prevalence of rape and violence of the strong against the weak among the non-elite. A rag-tag militia gang-raping pubescent girls in a village may well consist of hungry and oppressed men.

Finally, I shouldn't call THEM any of those things, though I have occasionally made the lazy resort to "PTB." "They" are the ruling classes and power elites of capitalism and the states of the imperialist coalitions. The annual Bilderberg meeting is merely one of the more important among many institutions that factions among them have set up for purposes of consensus-building and coordination. The "NWO" is a fantasy for a counter-populists who don't like to acknowledge the extent to which the real world order remains Apple Pie American; although it is true the power elites regularly make adjustments to the existing old world order (a.k.a. the new world order of 1944-49, following the modifications of 1970-73, 1989-91, 2001-2003 and 2008-present) and all kinds of plans for how to make it even worse than it is.

while it's possible its a setup to shut out Sarkozy's main competitor...

You mean, his colleague in the French power elite? The one "they" were setting up to rotate into the president's seat as a reliable avatar for continuing the neoliberal outrages, given that Sarkozy appears to have rendered himself unviable?



Good riddance.

What I'm wondering is whether the New York cops even knew who they were arresting.

.

[8bitagent]

Do we need any more proof that the elites of the world(call them the nwo, bilderbergers, ptb, "they", globalists, etc) are evil psychopaths? After reading Franklin, nothing seems surprising anymore.

Don't see it that way at all. Rape is a problem in all classes, and it is of course a problem primarily of misogyny, male entitlement and cultural denial (with more than a touch of approval, even, as boys will be boys and girls are sluts and God made them to serve Man).

No doubt the sense of unaccountable privilege among the powerful often more easily allows the inner psycho to come out. For all we know, Strauss-Kahn might have restrained himself and thus remained a moral man in spite of violent drives, had he been a carpenter rather than a bankster. Or not. (Understood that it's all allegations and he's innocent until proven guilty, I'm trying to restrain my Schadenfreude here re: IMF and neoliberal scumfucks generally since it does appear a woman was raped.)

The powerful and rich, spooks and mobsters are of course more likely to engage in elaborate group crimes, human smuggling and rape and torture conspiracies like those described in the Franklin allegations. Why? In large part, because they can. Sometimes, as a matter of policy, as with the CIA torture programs going all the way back to MK. But don't delude yourself about the prevalence of rape and violence of the strong against the weak among the non-elite. A rag-tag militia gang-raping pubescent girls in a village may well consist of hungry and oppressed men.

Finally, I shouldn't call THEM any of those things, though I have occasionally made the lazy resort to "PTB." "They" are the ruling classes and power elites of capitalism and the states of the imperialist coalitions. The annual Bilderberg meeting is merely one of the more important among many institutions that factions among them have set up for purposes of consensus-building and coordination. The "NWO" is a fantasy for a counter-populists who don't like to acknowledge the extent to which the real world order remains Apple Pie American; although it is true the power elites regularly make adjustments to the existing old world order (a.k.a. the new world order of 1944-49, following the modifications of 1970-73, 1989-91, 2001-2003 and 2008-present) and all kinds of plans for how to make it even worse than it is.

.

I agree...let's peel away the "ruling elites" tag...why is it the majority of violence, evil, horror and oppression in this world comes from men? Be it one man, groups of men, or whole networks? This also implies their is at some level wide consent amongst women who support these goons, or the Eva Brahn paradigm. Unless they are all unwilling to this game.

The image captured by passerby's of a deranged man running through the streets with the severed head of a woman in a busy Spanish tourist city speaks both anachronistically to classic literature archtypes but also to the over arching theme presiding over most of human kind: that of the male oppressor and aggressor. In some sci fi franchises, the "Queen" is the ultimate evil, like in the film Aliens. Yet, with a few examples of bloodthirsty female led monarchies; it's been all about the guys.

[8bitagent]

Nice catch Jack! I guess I'm far behind in French politic, as I didn't know he and Sarkozy were so buddy buddy...and once again, the "competition" proves to be another sick pro wrestling scripted joke.

[DrVolin]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the allegations were true and this was a political hit.