Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Sarkozy to IMF chief in 2007: Control yourself

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, right, shakes hands with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as he leaves the presidential Elysee Palace after talks Nov. 17, 2010, in Paris.

(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

While the International Monetary Fund's chief waits in New York's Rikers Island jail for his next court date on charges that he tried to rape a maid in a posh Manhattan hotel, news reports have detailed numerous other allegations of impropriety toward women on the part of the Frenchman.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's reputation in France for aggressively pursuing women was apparently so bad that French President Nicolas Sarkozy personally warned the former finance minister to control himself in Washington before he left France in 2007 to head the IMF, the British newspaper The Times reported ($) Wednesday.
"Over there they don't joke about this sort of thing," The Times quoted Sarkozy saying to Strauss-Kahn then. "Your life will be passed under a magnifying glass. Avoid taking the lift alone with interns. France cannot permit a scandal."

IMF head under constant watch while behind bars
Maid's lawyer: IMF sex assault case no setup
Geithner: Strauss-Kahn not in position to run IMF

After news broke Saturday that the New York Police Department arrested Strauss-Kahn at John F. Kennedy International Airport on suspicion of attempted rape, Sarkozy aides told The Times that the French president rolled his eyes.
"We did warn him," Sarkozy said, according to his aides.

Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty Monday to the charges. News reports indicate his attorneys will pursue a defense that the IMF chief and the maid had sex but that it was consensual.

Jeffrey Shapiro, the maid's attorney, told "Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge Wednesday that there was nothing consensual about Saturday's incident.

"There was nothing about any aspect of this encounter between this young woman and the defendant which was remotely consensual or could be construed as consensual, either physical contact or sexual contact," Shapiro said.

Shapiro characterized Strauss-Kahn's possible strategy as "spinning."

"In effect, what his defense amounts to is attempting to accuse the victim and so she can't step forward," Shapiro said.

No comments:

One of my favorite song lyrics E A G L E S

All alone at the end of the of the evening

And the bright lights have faded to blue

I was thinking 'bout a woman who might have Loved me
and I never knew

You know I've always been a dreamer (spent my life running 'round)

And it's so hard to change (Can't seem to settle down)

But the dreams I've seen lately

Keep on turning out and burning out

And turning out the same

So put me on a highway

And show me a sign And take it to the limit one more time

You can spend all your time making money

You can spend all your love making time

If it all fell to pieces tomorrow

Would you still be mine?

And when you're looking for your freedom

(Nobody seems to care)

And you can't find the door

(Can't find it anywhere)

When there's nothing to believe in

Still you're coming back,
you're running back for more

So put me on a highway
And show me a sign

And take it to the limit one more time
Take it to the limit
Take it to the limit

Take it to the limit one more time

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll

I am the master of my fate

I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

John Wooden, a coach - Words Of Wisdom

1. It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.

2. Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be.

3. What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player.

4. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

5. Never mistake activity for achievement.1. It's the little details that are vital.

Little things make big things happen.

MARTIN LUTHER KING words that made a difference!

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification"

-- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

August 28, 1963