If Sarkozy is elected, which I expect will happen – though it is all confused, one of the last polls I read was that 42 % of voters had not yet decided for whom to vote (that is huge and unprecedented anywhere, anytime; basically all the candidates are sh*t so what to choose? ) – you can forget Europe ever taking a stand against the US. Not that there was much hope to begin with.
– argh don’t want to derail the thread…

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 18 2007 17:38 utc | 3

‘corruption’ and implementing ‘more controls’,
in the newyorker piece (i linked earlier) twas explained that since the world bank was not supposed to involve itself in political allocations these words were just cover for only supporting governments w/’democracy’ and ‘free trade, or privatization..’. or something.
nice post b

Posted by: annie | Apr 18 2007 18:23 utc | 5

noirette
i’m not feeling optimistic at all on that count – the only thing – thaz-t give me a little hope are statistical – that they can’t poll many young people because of mobile telephones & the fact that a great many people have reigstered to vote. un paralleled in fact – but in the end i think anything is possible tho i’d feel quite sick if le pen made it to the second round

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 18 2007 18:50 utc | 7

R giap, yes the polls are not really good indicators, as they are (mostly) done by fixed phone during daylight hours; still will the dispossessed or the young vote different from their elder, established brothers? Who knows. It is one of the mysteries.
Many have told me (nearby France) they will vote Le Pen, or Bayrou. The Main Party-cum-Establishment candidates are rejected. Overall, though, here is Sarko country for the over 45’s, as Sego has apparently not considered that the expat / some provincial vote is worthy of attention, big mistake.
Le Pen will get his usual vote. Can he beat, in the first round, Sego, Sarko, and/or Bayrou? and make it to the second? Doubt it.
But it looks bad, it is pretty certain Sarko will be elected. I keep telling people, forget about the work contracts and look to foreign policy. And they go HAH? What?
What a desperately miserable election, with its empty speeches, flag waving, internal quarrels, media hype about personal stuff, etc. and endless superficial electoral promises.
—————-
sego = Segolène Royal, Socialist
sarko = Nicolas Sarkozy, UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire), conservative (closet neo-con and Zionist, but that is just me)
video comes on right away!
bayrou = Francois Bayrou, UDF, Union for French Democracy, center of the center, as he is positioned between the two others.
Le Pen is internationally known.

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 18 2007 19:31 utc | 9

Wolfowitz’s girlfriend problem | Salon.com

Not only did the World Bank president find his companion Shaha Ali Riza a cushy job in the State Department, but she received a security clearance — unprecedented for a foreign national.

April 19, 2007 | Paul Wolfowitz’s tenure as president of the World Bank has turned into yet another case study of neoconservative government in action. It bears resemblance to the military planning for the invasion of Iraq, during which Wolfowitz, as deputy secretary of defense, arrogantly humiliated Army chief of staff Eric Shinseki for suggesting that the U.S. force level was inadequate. It has similarities to the twisting of intelligence used to justify the war, in which Wolfowitz oversaw the construction of a parallel operation within the Pentagon, the Office of Special Plans, to shunt disinformation directly to the White House, without its being vetted by CIA analysts, about Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties to al-Qaida and his weapons of mass destruction, and sought to fire Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency, for factually reporting before the invasion that Saddam had not revived his nuclear weapons program. Wolfowitz’s regime also uncannily looks like the occupation of Iraq run by the Coalition Provisional Authority, from which Wolfowitz blackballed State Department professionals — instead staffing it with inexperienced ideologues — and to whom Wolfowitz sent daily orders.

Wolfowitz’s World Bank scandal over his girlfriend reveals many of the same qualities that created the wreckage he left in his wake in Iraq: grandiosity, cronyism, self-dealing and lying — followed by an energetic campaign to deflect accountability. As with the war, he has retreated behind his fervent profession of good intentions to excuse himself. The ginning up of the conservative propaganda mill that once disseminated Wolfowitz’s disinformation on WMD to defend him as the innocent victim of a political smear only underlines his tried-and-true methods of operation. The hollowness of his defense echoes in the thunderous absurdity of Monday’s Wall Street Journal editorial: “Paul Wolfowitz, meet the Duke lacrosse team.”

Superficially, Wolfowitz’s arrangement for his girlfriend of a job with a hefty increase in pay in violation of the ethics clauses of his contract and without informing the World Bank board might seem like an all-too-familiar story of a man seeking special favors for a romantic partner. Wolfowitz has tried to cast the scandal as a “painful personal dilemma,” as he described it in an April 12 e-mail to outraged employees of the World Bank, who have taken to calling the neoconservative’s girlfriend his “neoconcubine.” He was, he says, just attempting to “navigate in uncharted waters.” But the fall of Wolfowitz is the final act of a long drama — and love or even self-love may not be the whole subject.

Posted by: Fran | Apr 19 2007 5:02 utc | 11

Wolfowitz Backed Friend for Iraq Contract in ’03

Paul D. Wolfowitz, while serving as deputy secretary of defense, personally recommended that his companion, Shaha Ali Riza, be awarded a contract for travel to Iraq in 2003 to advise on setting up a new government, says a previously undisclosed inquiry by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
…
The disclosure also came on a day of swirling pressure at the bank, where the 24-member executive board met into the evening to discuss the situation amid mounting calls for Mr. Wolfowitz’s resignation.
Bank officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were divulging proceedings that were not supposed to be made public, reported that the rift between employees and the president had become a major distraction from their work, with some employees wearing blue ribbons in a display of defiance against his leadership.
…
In another sign of crumbling support, bank officials and others said that a consensus had emerged among European officials involved with the bank that Mr. Wolfowitz had lost his ability to lead the institution, not so much because of the issue of Ms. Riza but because of other policy disputes over the last two years.
The meeting of the board was called by the panel’s most senior member, Eckhardt Deutscher, of Germany. There was no sign of what the board would do, but Mr. Deutscher gave a speech on Thursday to a German foundation offering a strong though oblique criticism of Mr. Wolfowitz.
…
Bank officials said Mr. Deutscher, who has worked closely with Mr. Wolfowitz on developing the bank’s anticorruption policies, now favors having him step down, a consensus already reached by Britain, France, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries.
…
It was not clear how Mr. Wolfowitz’s verbal recommendation was relayed through the Pentagon hierarchy and nascent occupation authority and then to the contractor, which is known as SAIC.
Earlier this week, a spokeswoman for SAIC said the company was told to contract with Ms. Riza by an official in the office of the under secretary of defense for policy, then headed by Douglas J. Feith.
…
The World Bank board is also examining the contract to see if it complied with bank rules requiring employees to get permission for outside consulting work when it might conflict with their duties at the bank. At the time of the contract, it was against bank policy to have dealings with Iraq, on the ground that it was a country under foreign military occupation.

Posted by: b | Apr 20 2007 7:19 utc | 13

World Bank delays decision on chief

The US is the World Bank’s biggest shareholder, holding 16.4 per cent of total board votes, followed by ally Japan which has 7.9 per cent.
A major decision by the board requires an 85 per cent majority, with the US holding enough votes to block any major decision.

So, if this is the case Wolfowitz cannot be removed. And all this noise was nothing but from the very beginning.
Why is it called the World Bank when “the world” is nothing but a silent partner? Why do the citizens of other nations stand for their pols putting up their cash in a deal they have no control over?
Can Al Jazeerra be the only one of the news media that knows this? Or are all the rest playing us all for suckers? Or is Al Jazzeera flat wrong?
Will they publish the roll-call of the final vote? Will there even be one?

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 20 2007 9:31 utc | 15

@JFL – 15 – voting rights at the world bank board depend on the money the governments put in. The US has some 16% voting rights. European countries and Japan have most of the rest.
—
World Bank may target family planning

Under beleaguered President Paul D. Wolfowitz, the World Bank may be scaling back its long-standing support for family planning, which many countries consider essential to women’s health and the fight against AIDS.
In an internal e-mail, the bank’s team leader for Madagascar indicated that one of two managing directors appointed by Wolfowitz ordered the removal of all references to family planning from a document laying out strategy for the African nation. And a draft of the bank’s long-term health program strategy overseen by the same official makes almost no mention of family planning, suggesting a wider rollback may be underway.
…
The Bush administration has imposed its beliefs about family planning and abortion on other international organizations.
It has cut funding for U.N. agencies that promote family planning, forbidden any group it funds to discuss abortion and pushed abstinence programs.
Bank staff members say the Madagascar plan has been finalized and worry that other country plans may be altered as well.
Daboub said he would send at least 11 country reports, including Benin, Chad and Cameroon, to the board before December. “I respect the freedom of our partner countries to decide” on family planning, he wrote in an e-mail to colleagues meant to quell their anger.
Daboub said he did not ask that family planning be struck from the Madagascar report. “It is not true,” he said.
Yet internal e-mails obtained by the Government Accountability Project appear to indicate otherwise. Referring to Daboub as the “MD,” an acronym for his title as managing director, Madagascar country program coordinator Lilia Burunciuc wrote to colleagues on March 8, 2007: “One of the requests received from the MD was to take out all references to family planning. We did that.”

Posted by: b | Apr 20 2007 10:02 utc | 17

World Bank to Broaden Its Inquiry Into Wolfowitz

With Mr. Wolfowitz’s future clouded, but little appetite on the board to force his ouster, officials at the bank said the board had decided to broaden and lengthen its investigation into Mr. Wolfowitz, possibly into next month, in the hope that he would quit or that the Bush administration would recognize that his situation had become untenable.
…
The Europeans’ hope, according to various officials, is that a delay by the executive board, coupled with its widening investigation, could force the Bush administration to drop its support, perhaps persuading him to leave voluntarily.
“The steady view of the Europeans, led by the Germans, is that Wolfowitz’s position is untenable,” said a senior European official. “They know that people at the Treasury Department agree, but that it will take time to convince George Bush. If the Europeans force the issue now, it becomes a clash.”

Posted by: b | Apr 21 2007 6:47 utc | 19

Why Wolfowitz should depart now

If the bank is to carry out its task of helping the world’s poorest countries, it must have a president who possesses the needed credibility and support. A change in the present method for selecting the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is overdue. In the current emergency, however, the US should be asked to nominate someone demonstrably suitable for that task. That candidate certainly need not be American. But he or she should be possessed of proven managerial competence, understanding of the challenges of development and moral authority.
Whether he goes or stays, Mr Wolfowitz’s presidency is over. Nothing can now make it effective. If the governments of leading countries allow this farce to continue, they will make their protestations of devotion to poverty alleviation meaningless. They must, instead, now ensure the smoothest possible transition to new leadership.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 23 2007 12:34 utc | 21