Does the United States, the real country, exist in the French mind, or has America become a kind of Gallic fantasy, a dark specter to be deployed for political ends, a sort of ultimate negative against which the qualities of France shine?

and Americans use France too often as a bête noir
of course their are silly fantasies about America
but this is the silliness that is all too often found on the British, American, French, Venezuelan etc Left
and it isn't always silly
I particularly admire the way the writer juxtaposes two sentences

The real U.S. unemployment rate, it is preposterously suggested, is not 5.1 percent, but 9 percent. America under Bush has no interest in international law because its sole international aim is "the promotion of the American empire."

the implication of this dovetailing is that because proposition 1 is deeply flawed then proposition 2 is thus equally ridiculous
I would argue that there is a political element in America that is part of a tradition which endorsed "manifest destiny" and that implicitly or explicitly the idea of an "American Empire" is a thread within American political discourse. The idea of the "American Empire" is not seen as quite so risible in many other parts of the world. There is a thrust towards a uni-polar world and restistance towards a multilateral approach. Sometimes others reflect back at you a slightly distorted picture of who you are or how you see yourself but that does not mean that distorted though it may be the image is completely fanciful.
There is an ongoing battle for global hegemony. The West has been winning that struggle since the great age of discovery and Magellan. Europe dominated the world generally through colonialism and the British Empire specifically. The Western ideas of democracy, communism and fascism dominated the planet in the 20th century. Currently the West is at war with the totalitarian model of Islam. This is a struggle it will win. But what sort of West and world will emerge. Will the Western hegemony mean America?
Does it automatically mean empire? No. Could it mean empire? Yes.
In many respects I want and believe in American hegemony. But will the real America please stand up. There are many visions of what America is! Was! Or what it could be!
Does American hegemony mean the rule of law, democracy, free speech, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Berkley, Minnesota, Texas, a Wall-Mart in every town on the planet, napalm, Bush's blindness, the men of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Bastogne? What does it mean? All of those? Only the nice bits and not the KKK redoubts in Montana?

United States as the Anti-France - New York Times

Sinn Fein members have voted to support policing in Northern Ireland for the first time in the party's history.

historic
this (hopefully) is how terrorist/guerrilla wars end

BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Sinn Fein votes to support police

Virginia Sen. John W. Warner's words betray the guilt he still carries about the Vietnam War and help explain why this pillar of the Republican establishment is leading a bipartisan revolt against the war plans of a president in his own party.

Vietnam Shades Warner's Iraq Stand - washingtonpost.com

American politics is ugly these days, and many people wish things were different. For example, Barack Obama recently lamented the fact that “politics has become so bitter and partisan” — which it certainly has.

But he then went on to say that partisanship is why “we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions. And that’s what we have to change first.” Um, no. If history is any guide, what we need are political leaders willing to tackle the big problems despite bitter partisan opposition. If all goes well, we’ll eventually have a new era of bipartisanship — but that will be the end of the story, not the beginning.

Or to put it another way: what we need now is another F.D.R., not another Dwight Eisenhower.

On Being Partisan - New York Times

The most explosive question about the Taliban resurgence here along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is this: Have Pakistani intelligence agencies been promoting the Islamic insurgency?
...
Hamid Gul, the former director general of Pakistani intelligence, remains a public and unapologetic supporter of the Taliban, visiting madrasas and speaking in support of jihad at graduation ceremonies.

Afghan intelligence officials recently produced a captured insurgent who said Mr. Gul facilitated his training and logistics through an office in the Pakistani town of Nowshera, in the North-West Frontier Province, west of the capital, Islamabad.

NATO and American officials in Afghanistan say there is also evidence of support from current midlevel Pakistani intelligence officials. Just how far up that support reaches remains in dispute.

At Border, Signs of Pakistani Role in Taliban Surge - New York Times

On the evening of the fourth of April, 1967, one year to the day (almost to the hour) before his assassination, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walked into Riverside Church in Manhattan and delivered a speech that was among his least well known, yet most controversial.

The Lost Voice of Protest - New York Times

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Wednesday that failure to revive the European Union's constitution would be a ``historic mistake'' that would leave the bloc divided and mired in bureaucracy.

yes but the European project has been pushed by a political elite
it will only succeed in the long term with the full democratic consent of the people in the member states
the French said no and the Dutch (the most pro-European nation in the Union) also said no
the European dream is a generational process
the political elites of Europe must do more to convince the masses and fight the petty nationalists but they don't like their political wisdom being challenged by those they regard as inferior (ie the ordinary people)
the British for one are sceptical but pragmatic but currently there isn't a hope of winning a referendum on an EU constitution here

but even if the project is stalled for 10 or 20 years the essential logic together with big capitalism will eventually drive it forward

i want to see the process move forward but not at the expense of democratic consent -- i believe the exercise of achieving that consent will build a deeper union based on deeper imperatives than that of the moment and better institutions (and at the moment there is a distinct democratic deficit at the heart of the European project which would only be reinforced if the elites roll over the wishes of the people)

Merkel Seeks to Revive European Constitution - New York Times

Dramatic film of a fireman confronting one of the alleged July 21 bombers on a Tube train as other passengers fled in panic was shown to a jury yesterday.

The CCTV footage showed Ramzi Mohammed, 25, wearing a rucksack and boarding the busy Northern Line Tube at Stockwell, south London. He turned his back towards a mother with a child in a pushchair before detonating his device. The detonator exploded, although the main charge, made up of liquid hydrogen peroxide and chapati flour, failed to go off.

As other passengers tried to run, Angus Campbell, an off-duty fireman, stayed and challenged Mohammed as the train continued to Oval station, Woolwich Crown Court heard. The grainy footage showed the pair in the carriage at 12.26pm.

Telegraph | News | Fireman 'confronted bomber on Tube'

Mike the Usurper wrote:

After the trap doors opened, al-Bandar could be seen dangling from the rope. Ibrahim's body was lying on the floor, chest down, his severed head resting several yards away.

Oops. Rope was too long.

the current Iraqi administration seems to lack a vital ingredient -- luck

and/or

the one thing you would have thought the Iraqis could do competantly is kill one another -- they couldn't find an experienced executioner in Iraq?

RE: Iraq hanging video shown to reporters - Yahoo! News

Hundreds of news articles and opinion pieces have described President Bush’s decision to escalate the Iraq war as a “Hail Mary pass.”

But that’s the wrong metaphor.

The Texas Strategy - New York Times