DSK, your 15 minutes are SO over.

It doesn't seem Dominique Strauss-Kahn's MASSIVE ego needs viagra to remain tumescent, as his recent verbal ejaculations interjections in the media have demonstrated.

Strauss-Kahn stated that he believes the highly public undoing that followed his encounter with the housekeeper in the Sofitel hotel's presidential suite, and his imprisonment on charges of attempted rape, were orchestrated by his political opponents.

While he does not believe the incident with Nafissatou Diallo was a setup, he said the subsequent escalation of the events on 14 May into a criminal investigation that destroyed his chances of winning the presidency had been "shaped by those with a political agenda" and that "more was involved here than mere coincidence".

Strauss-Kahn, 63, alleges that he was put under surveillance by French intelligence weeks before he was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting Diallo. He accuses operatives linked to Sarkozy of intercepting phone calls and making sure Diallo went to the New York police, thus sparking an international scandal.

"Perhaps I was politically naive, but I simply did not believe that they would go that far … I didn't think they could find anything that could stop me," Strauss-Kahn told investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein.

"...I didn't think they could find anything that could stop me ..." Here is a man who *commands* his political strategy in the same imperious manner that he uses to subject women to his brutal physical demands.

And what of the criminal charges that he procured the services of prostitutes as an extension of his "duties" accomplished for the IMF? Did he truly believe those actions would not be disclosed and used by his critics?

"Gros bruit, petite queue." - en français, an excellent overview at Le Point.

A tiny chink in the armour of the World Order?

It's not much, but hopefully along with the DSK case, it's a good start.

Another entitled, jet-setting purported sexual predator has been detained by the NYC police, allegedly for sexually abusing a female employee at an expensive and exclusive hotel.

A businessman and former chairman of a major Egyptian bank faces charges of sexually abusing a maid at a luxury Manhattan hotel, just weeks after the arrest of a former International Monetary Fund chief on similar allegations.

Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar was arrested on Monday and is accused of sexually abusing the maid at The Pierre, a luxurious hotel near Central Park and Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, police said.

The maid was called to Omar's room Sunday night to drop off tissues, police said. But once inside the 74-year-old's room, police said Omar would not let her leave and touched her inappropriately. The encounter was not reported until Monday, police said.

Paul Browne, a spokesman for the New York City Police Department, said detectives found the complainant to be credible.

Could this event as well as *L'affaire DSK* be another manifestation of the rise and resurgence of le contre-pouvoir? From here:

In the 1990s, it took a lot of effort for the French justice system to develop the required tools that allowed it to investigate major financial crimes, hiding behind the illegal financing of political activities, as well as corruption in elected officials and the fraudulous accounts of important organizations.

But in the last decade, political power backed by economic power, has killed the emancipatory desire for justice that set out to recalibrate the balance of power in the Republic, democracy and the *elites*.

That elitist World Order is the one that Dubya's shadowy manipulators have established, and which sycophants like Contempt Party leader SHitehead continue to support. The new oligarchy, to which Stevie Spiteful aspires, has become the same-old aristocracy.

This piece illustrates well the multiple sins of DSK.

Let’s consider how the housekeeper from Guinea ended up here in New York. In 2002, this single mother was granted asylum. What drove her here?

It began with the IMF rape of Guinea.

In 2002, the International Monetary Fund cut off capital inflows to this West African nation. Without the blessing of the International Monetary Fund, Guinea, which has up to half the world’s raw material for aluminum, plus oil, uranium, diamonds and gold, could not borrow a dime to develop these resources.

The IMF’s cut-off was, in effect, a foreclosure, and the nation choked and starved while sitting on its astonishing mineral wealth. As in the sub-prime mortgage foreclosures we see today, the IMF moved quickly to seize Guinea’s property.

But the IMF did not seize this nation’s riches for itself. Rather, it forced Guinea to sell off its resources to foreign corporations at prices much like the sale of furniture on the lawn of a foreclosed house.

No wonder the IMF, Koch Industries and China are doing their best to dismantle and outlaw unions, the last recourse of the disenfranchised and the contre-pouvoir.

Feeling IMF'd

Via excellent econblogger Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism, a hilarious song from a US parody group:



This is actually from this song (the lip sync is funny but that is not the singer...):

Two RWNJs shrieeek about Insite.

Yesterday someone asked on Twitter whether Windy Wente was really a columnist.

Our response was that some have presented evidence Mags is an accomplished plagiarist.

And now, Kay Mère steps forward, also clucking and flapping about Insite.

Who knew those two were twins, separated at birth yet both raised to become insufferable defenders of class entitlement and social privilege? They are classic examples of people who vote for the Contempt Party.

Mark my words, those two will next write anti-feminist screeds defending, fawning over the behaviour of Dominique Strauss-Kahn — with Mags helping herself to heaping sentences of glurge written elsewhere. Whereas Babs will proclaim the whole thing is proof of an international anti semitic plot, thus unwittingly allying herself with the loathsome Ann Coulter. (Click on the link, I'm not sending you to her tweet directly.)

A compassionate and moral defense of Insite can be read here, another in support of its efficacity here. And finally, today's Dan Gardner piece about Insite.

The Country that brought you ...

*Liberté-Egalité-Fraternité* unless of course, you happen to be female, a recent immigrant from Africa, working in a fancy NYC hotel cleaning rooms and the alleged target of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's unwanted and unsollicited sexual rage.

Yes. France. And now this:

The Cannes Film Festival premiere of the Jodie Foster-directed The Beaver just ended, and [...] there was a 10-minute standing ovation for the film and its star, Mel Gibson.

Is it official then? In France, Mel Gibson has become the new Jerry Lewis? There's a weird logic there, one that escapes me at the moment though.

Ah. France does not have an extradition treaty with the US. That must be it.

But cheer up, we'll be inflicting this upon them: Creekside: The new face of Canadian diplomacy

Women as collateral damage in politics.

Twitter was all a-twitter yesterday evening as news broke out that Dominique Strauss-Kahn or DSK had been prevented from boarding his Air France flight and was being questioned by the police about a reported sexual assault.

Many elements of this story are troubling; observers of European politics thought DSK would challenge and defeat Sarkozy in the next presidential elections in France and bring the socialist party back to power.

Thus his supporters are claiming the circumstances of this incident are 'un coup monté' - that is, a set-up. It would certainly seem details regarding the alleged crimes were judiciously leaked by his adversaries.

Nonetheless, this man has a history of of similar incidents. The women he allegedly violated or attempted to have sex with - forcibly - are numerous. None ever stepped forward to lay formal charges. DSK is a wealthy man, member of an illustrious family and wrapped in a protective cocoon of class and political privilege.

From here (Google translation):

The issue with the current Dominique Strauss-Kahn incident is that there are too many precedents. Stories were first circulated as gossip: DSK, womanizer; DSK, skirt-chaser; DSK unable to accept no as answer from female journalists ...

Then there were books in which thinly veiled descriptions of a certain unnamed politician obsessed with sex, an insatiable regular at swingers clubs, were alleged to be about him.

For years, this reputation didn't seem to hinder his political career. Only in 2007, with his appointment to the IMF, was the issue raised publicly by Jean Quatremer, a journalist with Liberation:

"The only real problem with Strauss-Kahn is with his relationship to women. Too insistent with his demands, he often flirts with sexual harassment. This is known throughout the media, but nobody speaks up about it - this is France, after all."

As with Julian Assange, it appears that a significant number of ideological sympathizers are eager to proclaim that accusations of sexual assault against their hero and leader are nefarious plots cooked up to bring him down.

DSK should be presumed innocent, until a court of law decides upon the degree of his guilt - or responsibility for his actions - can be proved beyond a doubt.

But it also appears that the current situation may be the result of years of complicity, of DSK being allowed to run roughshod over women, with no family members, advisors or peers attempting to curb his behaviour by telling him that he's a sexual predator and his obsessive pursuit of a perceived 'droit de cuissage' have caused injury and damage to women.

At least one can imagine that, unlike rightwing religious fundamentalist hypocrite Newt Gingrich, DSK won't claim patriotic fervour as justification for his excesses and lying lies.