NBC News anchorman got his reward yesterday for comparing the Iranian hostage-takers to the Founders last year and elite American forces to suicide bombers last month: an exclusive interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a Midtown Manhatton hotel.

Here are the interesting exchanges as reported by Williams:-

Brian Williams: How do you think the discussion has been allowed to get that far, that we’re discussing possible war between the U.S. and Iran?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: I think we need to ask this question from American, U.S., politicians. The world has changed. The time for world empires has ended. The U.S. government thinks that it’s still the period after World War II, when they came out as a victor and enjoyed special rights. And can rule, therefore, over the rest of the world. I explicitly say that I am against the policies chosen by the U.S. government to run the world. Because these policies are moving the world towards war.

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Being a European American I’m not very literate about my homelands’ policies or politics but do find the seemingly limitless potential displacement of my ancestral peoples distressing.  Among the key suspects is something called the Schengen Agreement.  I’d like to hear opinions about this agreement for it seems to me it is virtually guaranteed to produce unbridled immigration from all corners of the world into all signatory states.  My reasoning is this:  Since administration of the Schengen Agreement is left up to the states, the effective immigration policy to all of the European States participating in the Agreement is to admit as many immigrants to them as allowed by the signatory state with the most lax border enforcement.  With the proliferation of signatory states it seems inevitable that the degree to which immigrants from around the world are to be admitted to all signatory states is virtually limitless.

22nd April, 2007: 1st round of voting in the French Presidential Election.

22nd May, 2007: 6th May, 2007: 2nd round of voting in French Presidential Election, if required.

6th June, 2007: Trial in Paris on charges of conspiring to justify war crimes and to deny Nazi crimes against humanity.

20th June, 2007: 79th birthday party, possibly even in prison - he faces up to five years and a Euro 45,000 fine.  Unless, of course ...

The news that power corrupts might not surprise too many students of politics.  But electorates tend not to appreciate learning the Actonite truth too suddenly.  There are apt to be colourful consequences.  At least, that was the reaction in Hungary to the news that the elected left-of-centre government, led by blabbermouth Ferenc Gyurcsany, are thieves of power, and Hungarian democracy is a perfect sham.

Hungarian police have used tear gas and water cannon to quell violent overnight protests in Budapest in which buildings were attacked and cars set alight.

The clashes happened following a rally demanding the resignation of PM Ferenc Gyurcsany, after it was revealed his government had lied during an election.

The worst fighting came when protesters stormed the state television building.

Dozens of people were hurt, including many police officers. The city is now said to be calm.

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Vibrancy has truly ascended to the highest reaches of public service in England ... the judiciary.  Constance Briscoe was our first female black Court Recorder (ie someone who works as a part-time judge in the crown and county courts), so a certain interest from the press was to be expected.  One might also expect that a wise head would reflect upon that, consider her responsibilities to the Crown and choose caution in all things.

But nope.  Not for Constance the grey, parchment-dry pursuits of the legal soul.  She desperately wants the world to know she is a tenacious spirit overcoming adversity.  And a successful mother.  And the main woman.

So she wrote “Ugly”.

Now, perceptive readers will guess straight away that this ain’t no legal opus.  Rather, it is a harrowing tale of abused childhood, attempted suicide, courage and what-not, arriving at a triumphant crescendo of something or other.  Lots of sistas bought it - “bought it” being the operative phrase according to some of the Amazon reviews.

One would think that a judge, for pity’s sake, would know about little things like libel trials.  Expensive.  Risky.  To be avoided at all costs.  But England’s first female black Court Recorder apparently did not consider any such possibility, and now she and her publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, are being sued by her alleged childhood tormentor - her mother - in an attempt to clear the family name.

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The “Giving Back Employees” web page of the Californian farm that brought us the current e coli outbreak has these heartwarming passages:

Giving Back Through and To Employees

  It’s impossible to separate a company’s passion from the people who make it an everyday reality. Our employees are proud of Earthbound Farm’s mission:  to bring the benefits of organic food to as many people as possible and serve as a catalyst for positive change…growing healthier food and leaving a healthier planet behind for future generations.
  To further this mission, Earthbound Farm has pledged to support its employees’ passions for other causes as well…

At Earthbound Farm, we realize how important our employees are: they are committed to helping us fulfill our mission to bring the benefits of organic food to as many people as possible and serve as a catalyst for positive change. Some of our employees have even been with us since the earliest days of our company…  they’re almost like family.

Because of this, we have created two renewable scholarships that are awarded each year to two children of our employees who are headed to college or other post-secondary education. We see it as a smart investment in our future—the children’s, the company’s, and the community’s.
 
We are very proud of our 2005 recipients, Gabriel Sumano and Myrna Elena Lopez Garcia.
 
  Gabriel (son of Manuel Sumano Hernandez in Shipping) will attend University of California at Berkeley and plans to be a doctor. He is a recent graduate of Aptos   High School. His father, Manuel, has been an Earthbound Farm employee since the early 1990s.

Myrna (daughter of Columbia Antelo Garcia in Packaged Salads)  will attend Cabrillo   College and plans to be a nurse. She is proud to be the first of her family to graduate for high school and intends to be the first to graduate from college as well. She is a recent graduate of Watsonville High School.

Or very nearly (but for Nordicism).  This afternoon JJR put up a post at Dissecting Leftism that fisked the recent, psychologically creaking “evidence” of Socialist German MP Prof. Dr. Gert Weisskirchen to the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism at Westminster.

The Group’s 100-page report had Herr Professor Doktor wiseacring in good Frankfurt order:-

“Nationalistic or right-wing populist movements are trying to gain a foothold to varying degrees in all European States. Apart from bringing chauvinistic longings up to date, the common elements in their rationale are the emphasis on authoritarian thinking, the stirring up of resentment towards established parties and the mobilization of right-wing extremist attitudes in the form of xenophobia or even open racism and antisemitism.”

... So (writes JJR) “nationalistic or right-wing populist movements” are the prime source of antisemitism.  There is absolutely no mention of Islam or Leftist “antizionism”, which are by far the main forms of antisemitism today. Could the fact that the professor is also a socialist member of the German parliament have something to do with that? ...

More in that style and less of the “Stomp Israel” stuff and I might have enjoyed a more somnulent intellectual life over the last few months.

The death of Oriana Fallaci

The author of La rabbia e l’orgoglio (The Rage and the Pride, 2002), the courageous, indomitable, individualistic Oriana Fallaci, has died in her home town of Florence.  She was 77, and had fought a battle with cancer for several years.  It was, of course, the Italian authorities she really desired to fight over their dhimmi reaction to La rabbia.  A pity she was denied the opportunity.  There is an excellent and affectionate article on the lady from a Times blog here.

German Neo-Nazis poised for “stunning” poll breakthrough

Not exactly a liberal meltdown, though.  A Guardian hack explains:-

Germany’s racist neo-Nazi party is poised to make a stunning breakthrough during elections this weekend, entering a regional parliament for the second time in three years, polls suggest.

According to a poll for ZDF television the far-right National Party of Germany (NPD) is likely to win 7% of the vote in elections on Sunday in the north-east state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Another Infratest poll puts the party on 6%.

The projected result is above Germany’s 5% hurdle - and means the far-right MPs will sit in the parliament for the first time.

Well, we’ll see.

Pope Benedict XVI quotes from 600 years ago.  Muzzies everywhere go bananas.  But it wasn’t Ben’s real opinion.  Honest.

Judge for yourself.  Here’s the full speech.

200 South Asian illegals land at Tenerife

the migrants ... are the first Asians among more than 24,000 migrants to arrive on the Canary Islands from Africa this year.

The boat was boarded by Spanish police on Thursday when it anchored 3km (two miles) south of Tenerife island.

... Spain’s El Pais newspaper says Pakistanis had flown to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and were paying $500 (£266) each to Senegalese traffickers in the hope of continuing their journey by sea to Greece.

... Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the government was going to negotiate a fast repatriation of the new arrivals.

And almost too perfect to be true ...

A number of Nigerian politicians  have been conned out of thousands of dollars by people selling papers purporting to certify them as “corruption-free”.