A bleat.  —  I wasn't going to write anything about James Lileks', er, sudden change of assignment.  I mean, talk about your inside baseball.  But reading about the right-wing blog star / Minneapolis Star Tribune "humor" columnist's predicament — abruptly told the paper had other plans for his FTE …

BIG BANG AT THE STAR TRIBUNE  —  Paul Schmelzer and Brian Lambert have been previewing a shakeup among the columnists at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  Despite these rumblings, I find it almost unbelievable that the first evidence of the shakeup is the folding of the daily column by James Lileks.

Strib Shakeup: Amid Columnist Queries, Rumors of Buyouts and a 'Backfence' Departure  —  The Star Tribune has asked its metro columnists to voluntarily give up columns and take over reporting beats, The Rake's Brian Lambert reports — but, according to newsroom insiders, the shakeup won't end there.

Defeated Socialists search for scapegoats  —  Let the finger-pointing begin.  Ségolène Royal's defeat on Sunday night left the French Socialist party in disarray and searching for someone to blame.  There is hardly a shortage of scapegoats.  —  It is the party's third consecutive presidential defeat.

Sarkozy Wins the Chance to Prove His Critics Wrong  —  Arrogant, brutal, an authoritarian demagogue, a "perfect Iago": the president-elect of France has been called a lot of unpleasant things in recent months and now has five years to prove his critics wrong.