Violent Youths Threaten to Hijack Demonstrations in Paris

That's the headline from the New York Times - decide for yourself if you think it's accurate or not. One thing is for sure, I'm not heading to Paris anytime soon - FUCK THAT. That place is basically in flames, and has been in flames for months now. I guess, if given the choice, I'd rather go to Paris than Baghdad, but it's not much of a choice. The answer, of course, is to withdraw that fucked-up ass law. All of this violence and bloodshed and unrest and property damage and terrorism is totally and completely on one man - Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. He can stop it all with the stroke of a pen. He was, after all, the one who started it all with the stroke of a pen.

UPDATE: The IHT says that the protestors might not yet know it, but they are probably leading a prophetic fight against American-style 'savage capitalism' - or, as the IHT says simply, 'Capitalism under fire'.

UPDATE: As this NYT's piece makes clear, the French government is just watching the country burn. I guess that's how the government does things in France - or, does not do things, as it were.

One part of me says, 'WTF?!', but another part of me says, 'Good! I hope the whole entire French government falls completely - I hope the entire French State collapses, and a new, better government arises out of it'. Of course, the latter case is scary. The former case - of the government just allowing for the entire country to come to a standstill, for tens/hundreds/thousands of citizens to be terrorized by roaming gangs of thugs - it just doesn't seem right to me - call me crazy. Pretty much the same thing that happened during the riots a few months ago - the government just chilled and smoked their cigars and drank their expensive whiskeys while the country burned. There's gotta be a better way. But I think it's awesome that the people aren't giving in so easily.

UPDATE: This OhmyNews article relates the unrest in France to the lack of true democracy there - as in the UK, the US, and other countries whose leaders like to praise their long and storied traditions of democracy. This article refers to the Power Inquiry report, out of the UK, which we referred to here.

UPDATE: One option I didn't think of for France was Anarchism. What if no new government arose from the ashes of Chirac/Villepin's government? I suppose neighboring countries would try to conquer people in various sections of the former France, but that doesn't mean that they'd succeed.

UPDATE: Pictured at right is a snapshot of protestors blocking railroad tracks somewhere in France, presumably. Sorry, my French is 'non'-existent. Looks like Chirac is going to sign the jobs bill into law. Shit might get crazy tomorrow (Friday). Pic is from the Paris IndyMedia.

UPDATE: Paris motorist drives through a crowd of protesters, injuring 7. The protesters overturn his car and smash some of its windows out. Apparently, the man escaped uninjured. He's lucky I wasn't there to greet him.

...car bomb kills one in northern Paris.

...protestor beaten unconscious - then beaten some more. This is one of the most horrible pictures we've ever seen. The photographer has a few shots of the events. The dude who is knocked out, unconscious was apparently drunk. The white dude kicked the drunk dude to knock him down. He managed to get up, but the black dude cold clocked him and knocked him out. This picture shows the black dude about to pull his best David Beckham impression - on a dude who he's already helped to beat unconscious. Did this kick kill him?

The photographer has more shots.

I hope, though don't expect, that they'll be able to find these guys and arrest them and lock them up for a long, long time. And those cowards standing around while this dude gets murdered in broad daylight - they should be locked up too. I've seen this kind of stuff happen in protests - not as bad, but I've seen the harassment, the intimidation of large gangs of kids moving through the crowd, robbing people, grabbing girls, punching guys, etc. It's tough to stop, no doubt, but when they're about to execute someone in front of you, it's time to step up - everyone.

This is all on Villepin and Chirac - all of it.