SADDAM HUSSEIN SENTENCED TO DEATH

November 5, 2006 (BBC) - Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging.

SADDAM TOLD HE SHOULD DIE
BY THE ROPE LIKE A COMMON CRIMINAL
BAGHDAD November 5, 2006 (Telegraph)

SADDAM DEATH SENTENCE SPARKS
DANCING ON STREETS OF BAGHDAD

November 7, 2006 (Telegraph) - Thousands of Iraqis sang, danced and unleashed celebratory bursts of gunfire yesterday as Saddam Hussein finally faced the consequences of his tyrannical rule in a Baghdad courtroom.

IRAQ COURT UPHOLDS SADDAM DEATH SENTENCE
December 26, 2006 (Forbes/AP)

And so the Iraqi courts have given Saddam his measure of justice. [Pause.] And as night follows day, the Euros boo. And boo hoo. Normally boosters of multiculturalism -- they weep that European notional justice is not transnational. Long before the verdict they wept.

SADDAM'S DEATH SENTENCE EXPOSES A RIFT
Opposition To Execution Builds In Europe, While U.S. Is For It

This curious headline and its subhead appear to belong to some other story altogether.

PARIS December 28, 2006 (IHT) - While Saddam Hussein faced death with a letter of farewell, the former Iraqi dictator's looming execution has exposed a deep divide between the United States and Europe, with opposition building in the Continent's major capitals.

... Not all of Europe shares the same doubts about capital punishment. In Eastern Europe, President Lech Kaczynski of Poland, who has sought to revive the death penalty in the European Union, has characterized Saddam's execution as the "only possible verdict."

And the Continent's citizens also appear to take a harsher view. In a survey of 12,570 people in six countries by the new French international broadcaster France 24 and Novartis/Harris Interactive, most participants favored the death sentence for Saddam. ... That position was strongest in Britain and the United States, where 82 percent of the Americans polled supported the penalty, followed by 69 percent of the British, 58 percent of the French, 53 percent of the Germans and 51 percent of the Spanish.

So let's see, there is a rift between high-toned Euro moralists and the primitive American peoples and Euro opposition is growing -- yet all the countries canvassed except for Italy show majorities in favor of the sentence. The rift is between Euro governments and their electorates. The announced "growing opposition" never grows in the story.

In the same rubric.

FRANCE TO REVISE CONSTITUTION
TO SHOW THAT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS OUTLAWED

PARIS December 27, 2006 (IHT) - France's parliament is to vote in January on a bill that would revise the constitution to include the fact the death penalty is illegal, judicial officials said Wednesday.

Another inept headline -- overlong, ambivalent, inaccurate -- from IHT, probably the world media's worst headline writer. France may revise her constitution. France will vote on the revsion. It is not settled that she will revise the constitution.

PFFT (What is this?): Official tears for Saddam 4¾ | Hoi polloi hanky-weep 1 | Rayonnement français 0

Bonjour,

Saddam accusé de la mort de 200 personnes par les Yanks est mort pendu ...
Westmorland , Mac Namara , et compagnie accusés de la mort de 3. 000 000 de personnes dont 2 000 000 de civils au Vietnam dans des condtions abominables finiront leur vie dans leur lit en touchant de confortables retraites.
L' hypocrisie des puritains américains n'est pas un vain mot ...
Répugnant ...

M. AY/AB,

We see you have returned to Pave with a a renewed energy, a renewed screech.

We usually leave your posts because they are indicative of the quality of the French thought, the French thinking, Pave finds so self-admiring, so self-exculpating, so inept, so laughable.

You post and post, yet it is apparent to all -- American, Brit, French -- that you are a joke. To all but yourself. But even you must realize you are a joke.

It is amazing, even in a brief rant, as above, how much you simply have wrong. Are you stupid? We do not believe you misstate the facts because you are unaware of them -- the facts of Saddam's trial, sentence, and appeal are all on plain view in our post. No, we believe you misstate the facts because you live in your navel, where everything -- facts, history, the zeitgeist -- absolutely everything -- is congenial to your fragile and eccentric navel-view.

M. AB/AY, that, as anyone -- American or Brit or franchouille -- will tell you, that is not the real world.

Were you to post under a real name, we wonder, would you still play the crank?

Bonne année,
DGB