Is Tom Friedman prejudice towards the French?

[Wetzelbill]

He always writes some oddly anti-French things in his columns. He comes off snide and dismissively elitist. It is really weird.

[billbuckhead]

1. It's fashionable and Tom Freidman is nothing if not fashionable

:eyes:

[mitchum]

3. Exactly, billbuckhead!

and beautifully said, my friend

[Greyhound]

5. Kudos. Just dust in the wind n/t

[FrenchieCat]

2. He's jel-lOus....

Cause mustaches are "out"...and we told him so. hahahaha!

Actually he hates the fact that France is not pro-Israel, like he is. The fact that the French believe that the Palestinians have rights and fought the Israelies the way that they have (car bombs, etc...) for a logical reason.

Add to that, the fact that the French didn't us to go in Iraq (like he did), and did everything in their power to stop it from happening.....and you have your reasons while Friedman holds the French in such contempt!

[1932]

4. FAIR's counterspin radio show talks about Friedman's book.

It's the June 24-30th show (top of the column on the left), here: It's available on MP3 at http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=5

It's an interview with Amitahb Pal, which is at the end of the show.

You can subscribe to the podcast here: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=29&rss_content=counterspin&rss_format=2.0

[KlatooBNikto]

6. He was recently very scathing on the French vote not to join the EU.

The French said no because they thought it would make them return to a 40 hour week when they work only 35 hours a week. On top of that the French enjoy execellent benefits which are becoming a thing of the past in this country and quite possibly in Europe too.

Friedman is saying that the French do not have the right to vote in their own self interest.If they keep listening to egotistical NYT columnists, they would have lost their shirts. Friedman should stick to his flat earth and Lexus/Olive Tree Metaphors and leave real people alone.

[1932]

7. It would have been in France's best interest to vote for the EU const.

There's power in a uninion, and only a united Europe can stand up against the US and ensure that what America wants for the world isn't what happens to the world.

I am pretty confident that the global slowdown after 2000 was part of the Republican plan to reallocate the distribution of wealth to the wealthy.

Europe had not power to provide an alternative vision by virtue of having a more competitive economy. Instead, Europe has suffered because of political circumstances in the US -- a place where Europe has no democratic say.

There's no way France, alone, could stand up to America, so French people are controlled by DC. However, a united Europe could be economically competitive, and if it were, then Republicans like Bush wouldn't even have the option of trying to slow down the global economy (in order to encourage a Hooverian concentration of wealth in the pockets of the wealthy). Instead, it would be Keynes, 24-7, and the American middle class would be better off, as would Europeans, and Middle Easterners, and Africans and Asians, and South Ameircans.

I couldn't disagree with Friedman more on just about every issue, and I really disagree with his implication that voting for the EU constitution wasn't in the best interest of French citizens.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Friedman is an AIPAC neocon weasel

He prefers his "freedom fries" to french fries.