Investigating Jordanian Bombing Continues

120 people have been arrested in connection with the investigation into the bombing of three hotels in Amman, Jordan that killed 57 people. And the Jordanians, who didn't seem to mind when the suicide bombing carnage ripped through Iraq or Israel, suddenly realized that they don't like being on the receiving end:

Thousands of Jordanians, meanwhile, protested across Amman for a second day Friday to condemn the terror attacks and denounce al-Zarqawi.

''Al-Zarqawi you are a coward, Amman will remain safe,'' chanted some 3,000 protesters winding through Amman past the city's al-Husseini Mosque after midday prayers.

Somewhere, Martin Niemoller is smirking. It's okay when suicide bombings happen to the infidels and the Zionists, but when the jihadists start taking on fellow Muslims - Sunni Muslims at that - the terrorists have gone too far. Zarqawi is Jordanian by birth, and he's now striking out at Muslim wedding celebrations that are too Westernized? This is what it has come to for the terrorists?

They can't go after US forces because the terrorists die in large numbers. They resort to IEDs and those have limited effects on tanks and heavily armored vehicles. So, they go after the Iraqi forces, which aren't nearly as heavily armored and protected. When that doesn't deter Iraqis from signing up to join the military, security, and police forces, the terrorists go after schools, restaurants, and shops. Yet that doesn't stop business from going on and people getting on with their lives. So the terrorists try to expand their operations into neighboring Jordan, which has been a fence-sitter for the last two decades. It recognizes Israel, but sided with Iraq in the first Gulf War. It opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but it still remains friendly with the US. It's more Westernized than Saudi Arabia, and for that it had to be punished by Zarqawi and his minions.

UPDATE:
Four Iraqis carried out the bombings, which killed 57 people. And terrorism struck close to home as Andrew Breitbart comments on the death of his friend Rima Akkad.

UPDATE:
The New York Times uses the e-word to describe the suicide bombings in Jordan. Someone will be fired for that offense. LGF has the details.

UPDATE:
The Washington Post buried the Jordanian bomb investigation on page A21. Well, priorities and all that. A story about a woman who robbed four banks all while yapping away on her cellphone deserved higher billing after all.

UPDATE:
Tanker at Ace of Spades notices the following:

Islamist Terrorists who kill Israelis are militants.
Islamist Terrorists who kill Iraqis are insurgents.
Islamist Terrorists who kill Russians are armed gangs.
Islamist Terrorists who kill Londoners near the BBC headquarters are terrorists.

UPDATE:
IRIS Blog tries to put to rest the rumor that Israelis were warned to get away from the hotels where terrorists right before the attacks. From the moment the Ha'aretz story ran, it had urban legend written all over it, but that doesn't stop the media from peddling BS - just look at the nonsense they spew regarding New Orleans' Superdome violence (babies raped and murdered) - when no such acts ever took place.

Veterans' Day 2005

Taken at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial 3/2005.

Lest we forget those who took the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation. Today is a day to thank those who have served this country.

Others noting this important day (and updated throughout the day:
Ralph Bennett, Mudville Gazette, Captain's Quarters, Donald Sensing, Bubblehead, Don Surber, La Shawn Barber, Baldilocks, Basil’s Blog, Outside the Beltway, Dean’s World, Below the Beltway, L’Ombre de l’Olivier, Winds of Change, Michelle Malkin, Stuck on Stupid, The Political Teen, Generation Why?, Antimedia, Democracy Project, The Word Unheard, Two Babes and a Brain, Stop the ACLU, Enlighten NJ, Atlas Shrugged, AJ Strata, MacsMind, The Tar Pit, The Donovan, and many others.

Also, take a moment to visit one of the milbloggers that I've got listed on my blogroll and links lists and thank them for their dedication and service for this grateful nation. Some folks may not appreciate all that they've done, but those that visit this little corner of the Internet should know that they've got my respect and gratitude.

UPDATE:
The Anchoress Online wonders why the media isn't showcasing the fact that there are quite a few people overseas thanking US troops for their blood, sweat, and tears. Namely the Kurds in Iraq who no longer have to fear from Saddam Hussein. She picked up the story from Gateway Pundit.

Thanks For All You've Done

The Marine Corps of the United States is celebrating their 230th Birthday. They're often the front line of defense for the US and are at the tip of the spear. They fight and die so that others can live.

Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, and the historic flag raising left an indeliable and lasting image of Marine heroism in the face of an intractable enemy.

We should honor their memories, those that came before them, and all those that have followed. We should honor those who have given everything in defense of this nation, including the 241 Marines who were murdered by Islamic terrorists in 1983 in Beirut while engaged in peacekeeping operations.

I may not have served in the military, or the Corps, but I can do my part to recognize what the Corps has done to protect and serve this nation. That's one of the reasons I've been involved in the Soldier's Angel Project Valour IT campaign, and there's still time to get your donations in.

Many others are blogging this anniversary, including (updated as necessary) Michelle Malkin, Blackfive, Red State Rant, Donald Sensing, Below the Beltway, Soldier's Angel, The Political Teen, Boots and Sabers, EckerNet, Parkway Rest Stop, Dr. Sanity, Dread Pundit Bluto, and Neddy's Palaver. That's just a small sample of the many bloggers who are paying tribute to the Corps on this day.

Revisiting the Hurricane Zone

Five more NOLA police officers were fired. Big surprise. They join the more than 50 others who were canned as a result of their (in)action during and after the hurricane.

Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina, but not all are believed to have deserted. Some were stranded by high water, and others couldn't make contact because of disabled communication systems.

They can't account for their police force? Who's in charge of the accounting and personnel in New Orleans? Enron?

And the levee failures during and after the hurricanes have resulted in a criminal investigation.

Slidell's Chamber of Commerce is working to obtain grants for local businesses. Noah's Wish is ending its efforts in Slidell on November 15. Habitat Homes is working on building houses and is preparing foundations in Slidell for the parts that are coming Virginia.

The Gulf Coast continues to face environmental problems. Some folks in the media are even noticing that the coverage of New Orleans distorts just how badly affected the rest of the region got hit. Pascagoula residents are concerned about what the charette planners are coming up with for their communties. Then, there's the story of some South Pascagoula residents having their FEMA trailers taken away. At the same time, a FEMA contracted cruise ship is staying in Pascagoula. And folks are staying in a tent city as the rebuilding continues.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; hurricane rita; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour; hurricane rita; hurricane wilma.

The Ghost Villages

Dafur, Sudan has been turned into an area full of ghost villages where the population no longer exists. They've either been killed in the genocide led by the Janjaweed at the behest of the Sudanese government, or they've been turned into refugees that continue to be preyed upon.

The US continues to monitor the situation and notes that the violence hasn't abated at all. Attacks continue, but there are fewer and fewer people left to kill or injure in the area.

Wither the French Riot Coverage

Austin Bay notes that the next few days are critical. If the curfews and increased police presence results in a lessening of violence and criminal activity, then the French may have dodged the bullet. However, if the violence shifts its attention away from torched cars to businesses and other objects, then the French government will be in real serious trouble.

The next three to five days will be critical. If a “second wave” of violence occurs that’s a bad sign, one signaling political support for the rioters and solidifying organization. When will the Left wing commentariat start calling the rioters “the resistance?”

Meanwhile, Chirac says that he has to learn lessons from the riots (does he mean from the rioters?) Here's a quick lesson that should be picked up by most everyone in government. The best way to stop a riot in progress is to do so quickly and with decisive actions before the rioting spins out of control. Reports of violence appear to be decreasing as the police and law enforcement gain control over the situation. Map of the scenes of violence.

One has to wonder why it took so long for the French authorities to gain control over the situation. In the US, we'd be hearing for resignations from everyone from the President all the way down to the head of the agencies responsible for law enforcement. Will that happen in France? Will it even matter?

Now, there's one thing that doesn't quite make sense. We know that thousands of cars have been torched, but relatively few people have been arrested in connection with the violence. What does that say about French justice and law enforcement. These are rioters who got away with destroying property, committing various crimes, and have escaped justice. It is highly likely that they will do it again when given the opportunity.

As for those rioters who were in France illegally, they will be deported.

And just so we're clear, nearly 7,000 cars have been torched in the 2 weeks since the violence started. Chart of the car-nage. No Pasaran also notes that a civil demonstration tomorrow marking the 1st Anniversary of Arafat's death (aka, The air is somehow cleaner and more fit to breathe day) was denied by French authorities.

UPDATE:
Steven Den Beste comments on how this riot may come to an end - it's a battle of attrition that the rioters cannot hope to win because the police can generally count on the military to support them if they get outnumbered. The problem has been the slow response of the police to deal with the rioting, which meant that the number of rioters was not reduced quickly enough to prevent the rioting from spreading. The Brussels Journal notes that the violence is still ongoing, though the media isn't reporting the rioting - though they have to admit that firefighters were called out on numerous occasions to put out car fires.

The authorities prefer not to speak about what is going on because they fear copycat actions from disgruntled “youths.” However, when the authorities cut off information, rumours (not all of them unfounded) will fill the news vacuum. Most of the “isolated incidents” in Brussels appear to be taking place in Sint-Gillis, where stones were thrown at police cars yesterday evening. Sint-Gillis is only a few kilometres from the European Parliament. As Elaib Harvey, our friend and roving correspondent in the European Parliament, wrote on his weblog: “Gloriously of course nothing is officially being talked about here in the Palace of Vanity. Nothing official, however the coffee bars are ablaze with rumour.” Yes, this is Europe in the year 2005.

UPDATE:
Sister Toldjah is among a number of bloggers (including LGF) that notes the media is trying to portray the rioters as engaging in civil disobedience. Do we need to break out a dictionary to remind folks that Rosa Parks engaged in civil disobedience by refusing to give her seat up at the front of the bus and that blowing up cars is not civil disobedience under any circumstances. It's rioting, causing mayhem, and destruction of property. Those are criminal activities, not civil disobedience.

UPDATE:
Westhawk makes a very important observation. Has anyone bothered to check on the weather reports for France lately? While the weather was pretty good over the first two weeks of rioting, the weather was expected to deteriorate:

Weather was fine for rioting on Monday night, although it promises to deteriorate into rain and near freezing temperatures in the days ahead. This could reduce rioting op-tempo.

In other words, the rioting may be slacking off not solely because of law enforcement or curfews, but because the weather sucks.

UPDATE:
Hugh Hewitt is noting that French police are concerned that the rioters may seek to cause mayhem in more affluent areas away from the focus of the rioting thus far. Tel Chai Nation notes the anti-France bias at the BBC.

Cross linked to (cross links updated as necessary): Don Surber, Basil's Blog, Euphoric Reality, Freedom Folks, Political Teen, Real Teen, Stop the ACLU,
Stuck on Stupid, and TMH's Bacon Bits. Donegal Express finds some humor in the situation.

UPDATE:
Demosophist links to a Max Boot op-ed on the riots in France that outlines failed experiment that is multiculturalism in France.

The flaw in this perspective is that it ought to be obvious to even the casual observer that the problem isn't that France has assimilated all of its colonial aspirants into the single "idea" of Gaulic Nationhood, but that it has utterly failed to do so. And the reason, as Boot points out, is also rather obvious: It's easier for an individual from an ethnic or religious minority to think of himself as American than French, because being American isn't a matter of ethnicity, while being French... is. The problem is one of identity.

Worrisome

Uzair Paracha tried to sneak an al Qaeda operative into the US to conduct terrorist attacks:

A Pakistani man living in Brooklyn confessed in "chilling detail" how he tried to sneak an al Qaeda operative into the U.S. to carry out a deadly chemical attack, a prosecutor charged in opening statements yesterday.
Jurors in Manhattan federal court heard how Uzair Paracha, 25, allegedly agreed to further the terror plot during a series of meetings in Pakistan attended by two al Qaeda members and his father, a businessman now held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

Paracha confessed to helping al Qaeda operative Majid Khan in a scheme to obtain U.S. travel documents knowing that Khan sought to carry out terrorist attacks in the US.

UPDATE:
In case it wasn't clear enough, my concern isn't that we're trying Paracha for sneaking terrorists into this country. It's the worry that there are others like Paracha who are successful in getting terrorists into the US that we don't know about. Meanwhile, as reader Sizzle points out in my comments, there are those out there who think that Paracha should be released. They're circulating a petition that claims that his rights are being violated under US law, international law, and anything else that they can think of. They're hoping that something they throw into court papers will somehow stick and get Paracha off, despite the fact that he confessed to taking this action. I'm not quite sure what part of confessed those petitioners think doesn't matter, but this guy tried to bring terrorists into the US. That's criminal activity that undermines US national security and it's something I take seriously and the US government most definitely should take seriously. Of course, Paracha's supporters will somehow try to claim that the confession was coerced or not valid, but that's a long shot.

Get It Done

The passage of the NY Transportation Bond Act sets in motion the city and state's ability to fund the construction of the Second Avenue subway line. This mythical beast has floated around in political circles for more than two generations. The original Second Avenue and Third Avenue lines were elevated lines that were dismantled before an underground replacement could be built. The East Side of Manhattan has thereafter lacked a suitable transportation system. Riders have been forced onto the Lexington Avenue subway, which is the busiest in the system.

The first segment of the line is expected to be completed in 2012 (which would have been great had the 2012 Olympics been held in NYC).

Shovels will break ground next year on the new subway line's first phase, which will run down Second Avenue from 96th Street to 63rd Street, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow said yesterday.

"It is funded," Kalikow said of the project. "It doesn't get any better than this."

Look for him on the line when it opens in 2012 — right around his 70th birthday.

"I'm going to ride through with my half-fare [senior citizen] MetroCard in the first car," Kalikow said. "You'll see me waving if you're in the stations."

The line's first segment is expected to carry 202,000 daily weekday riders.

The line is expected to run up to 125th street and down to the Financial District, including a stop at the South Street Seaport. However, there is no funding available at this time for those segments, nor is there any timetable for when that would happen. The expected cost for the whole line as currently envisioned would be north of $13 billion.

UPDATE:
The Gothamist has more on the trials and tribulations of the 'T' line.

al Qaeda Behind Jordanian Bombings

al Qaeda was behind the Jordanian bombings that killed at least 56 people and wounded more than 100 (the numbers keep being adjusted). That's no surprise. Mass casualty attacks are a hallmark of the al Qaeda suicide bombers, especially when done in coordinated attacks.

The Jordanians are rallying against Zarqawi. That's not quite the reaction that al Qaeda had hoped for. People are getting sick of the suicide bombings and horrendous butchers' bill that the terrorists are racking up, and some countries are finally standing up and refusing to tolerate further actions.

Jeff Harrell of The Shape of Days wonders just how sick you have to be to become a suicide bomber:

But what happened in Jordan today wasn’t an act carried out in the heat of the moment. Nobody builds and dons an explosive vest on impulse. The bombings that happened a few hours ago were coldly premeditated and carefully coordinated. There were no mitigating factors. There were no circumstances that could lessen the severity of these crimes.

But here’s the thing: There are people out there in the world who believe that premeditated, coordinated suicide attacks against innocent people are justified. There are people who think that these sorts of attacks are acceptable under the circumstances, in the same sense that we consider kamikaze attacks or artillery barrages or the bombing of Hiroshima to have been acceptable under the circumstances that prevailed at the time. There are people who think that because there are Americans on holy ground or Protestants in Ireland or our people on their side of some line somewhere, strapping a bomb to your chest and blowing up a whole lot of people is okay. That it’s just part of modern warfare, no different from equipping a Marine with a rifle.

And then there's the people who think that the attacks are justified. That much larger group includes those who put forth arguments based on moral equivalence or discount the attacks as though we somehow deserved them.

And, if you want to see the human toll of this bombing, look no further than Powerline, which has a photo of the family that was having a wedding celebration when the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman was bombed. Look at that picture carefully.

The fathers of both bride and groom, at the far left and right, were murdered. The bride and groom were both wounded, but, thankfully, survived.

That photo was taken just minutes before the bombs went off.

Gateway Pundit has more, including links to video. Iraq the Model puts it succinctly: The people pay for their governments' and media's denial and delusions...as simple and as sad as that. More than a few people, including The Jawa Report have noticed that the terrorist attacks yesterday occurred on 11/9/2005 (month/day/year), which is often written as 9/11/2005 (day/month/year) in many countries. The Jawas also wonder whether the Aussies disrupted a terrorist plot that would have coincided with the Jordan attacks.

Linked to: Mudville Gazette.

UPDATE:
Sister Toldjah is also blogging the story of the media blaming Bush for the suicide bombings in Jordan (as first reported last nite on CNBC and noted by various bloggers).

UPDATE:
Cross linked at Euphoric Reality.

UPDATE:
Not only are the Jordanians demonstrating against Zarqawi, but they're calling for him to burn in hell. I believe the chanting went something like this:

“Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!”

Two Weeks

That's right folks. Two weeks worth of rioting. Despite what the media is saying, things aren't slacking off. The French media is consciously refusing to report the full scale of the torching of vehicles as per the French 3 report. In fact, trying to claim that the riots are subsiding on the basis of the car arson reports is misleading because we're now hearing about the destruction of businesses and other structures throughout France. The rioters are now going after targets far larger than just a few cars.

Meanwhile, firebrand extremist right winger Jean-Marie Le Pen is calling for more extreme measures, including explusion for those who aren't native born French.

French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed Wednesday his National Front party has been "submerged" with prospective members and supportive e-mail since rioting erupted in heavily immigrant communities near Paris.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Le Pen described the recent violence as "just the start" of conflicts caused by "massive immigration from countries of the Third World that is threatening not just France but the whole continent."

Le Pen said people with immigrant backgrounds who commit crimes should be stripped of their French nationality and sent "back to their country of origin."

If the French listen to Le Pen, they'll be in for even more trouble. The rest of Europe is worried about the riots spreading outside France's border. Here's a clue - they already have considering the reports from Belgium and Germany.

The riots are affecting the price of the Euro. Curfews are being imposed along the Riviera. And Muslims are blaming French society for failing to do more. Pot. Meet Kettle.

Carnage in Jordan

The death toll is still being tallied, but it is a grim situation in Amman, Jordan as three bombs went off at hotels throughout the city. At least 18 people were murdered and scores more were injured.

Who would do something like this? Militant Quakers? Nope. Michelle Malkin and Jeff Goldberg both think that it's Zarqawi's al Qaeda minions. Not a big stretch there. I think they're correct. This multiple bombing in Zarqawi's backyard has al Qaeda's bloody fingerprints all over it.

The New York Times notes that at least one of the hotels was targeted by terrorists back in 2000. The hotels affected are the Grand Hyatt, the Raddison, and the Days Inn. They're also popular with Americans and Israelis who visit Israel, so expect that Americans will be among the casualties.

See Malkin's website and LGF for the latest.

UPDATE:
The death toll in the carnage is now up to 57. 115 people were wounded.

A U.S. counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the strong suspicion is that al-Zarqawi was involved because of his known animosity for Jordanian monarchy and the fact that it was a suicide attack, one of his hallmarks.

In February, U.S. intelligence indicated that Osama bin Laden was in contact with al-Zarqawi, enlisting him to conduct attacks outside of Iraq, noted another U.S. counterterrorism official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Jordan has arrested scores of Islamic militants for plotting to carry out attacks and has also sentenced many militants to death in absentia, including al-Zarqawi.

Its capital, Amman, has become a base for Westerners who fly in and out of neighboring Iraq for work. The city's main luxury hotels downtown are often full of American and British officials and contractors enjoying the relative quiet of the city.

"Obviously this is something Jordan is not used to," Muasher, told CNN. "We have been lucky so far in avoiding those incidents." He said most of the casualties appeared to be Jordanians.

Let's hope they take steps to secure the border with Iraq, and to crack down on the Islamists and mullahs who call for jihad and suicide bombings.

UPDATE:
Mary Katherine Ham at Wizbang notes that the terrorists targeted a wedding celebration and used two suicide bombers and a car bomb. The injuries keep piling up as reports are saying more than 300 were hurt by the bombings.

UPDATE:
The Jawa Report has more, and includes some information that I left in the comments related to Hammorabi's cryptic warning. President Bush has condemned the attacks, as noted by bRight and Early. The Counterterrorism Blog has significant updates, including maps and images from the hotels. Jordanian authorities are keying in on Zarqawi's henchmen.

Al-Zarqawi the primary suspect; a native Jordanian and already sentenced to death in absentia there - police already detaining possible suspects. Evan Kohlmann among the premier experts in the world on Al-Zarqawi; see his Iraq leadership chart, his post on Al Qaeda's attempted rocket attack on U.S. warships in Aqaba on August 19, and other information on his site - Matthew Levitt and associate Julie Sawyer wrote last year on "Zarqawi's Jordanian Agenda" on AZ's leading role in terrorism in Jordan.

Also blogging the murderous spree in Jordan (and added to as necessary): Stop the ACLU, Don Surber, T. Longren, Gribbit's Word, The Tar Pit, Red State Rant, Freedom From Terror For All, Coalition of the Swilling, The Dread Pundit Bluto, The Anchoress Online, AJ Strata, and cross linked at Euphoric Reality.

UPDATE:
Two Minute Offense catches an NBC News producer blaming the US and the Bush Administration for the bombings in Jordan. And these are the so called unbiased and fair and balanced media that we rely upon for our news. (HT: The Anchoress Online.)

UPDATE:
Captain Ed has new updates, including some curious information culled from Hugh Hewitt's site about how Israelis were somehow warned and then escorted by Jordanian intelligence agents away from the hotels before the attacks, which would explain the low number of Israelis injured? It sounds way too much like the makings of an urban legend. Captain Ed also notes that the hotels were franchisees owned and operated by local Palestinian families, not directly owned by the US companies. Also being reported is that there have been some arrests made in connection with the bombings.

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 65

The NYT campaign against the rebuilding of office space downtown continues, as they find developers not named Larry Silverstein to provide quotes and soundbites that Lower Manhattan would do just fine without building back all that office space.

Yes, it would be just fine for those developers because they wouldn't have the competition of brand new Class A office space. There are surely complaints about the design of the Freedom Tower, many of which have been catalogued in my prior installments, but people will come back to work at the site.

And if we're talking about the transit hubs and their proximity to the site, one should keep in mind that there hasn't been any transit hub located downtown in the 100+ years of the subway's existence. The rebuilding downtown incorporated a transit hub because of future needs. The WTC is only one part of Lower Manhattan.

But despite the sour tone that the Times has taken, they have to recognize the obvious:

In the past decade, an estimated 11,000 apartments have been built downtown in converted office buildings or new towers, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York. And 4,287 additional units are on the way, most of them scheduled for next year.

The downtown commercial market is improving slowly, but the vacancy rate still hovers at 15 percent, with millions of square feet sitting empty. And the overwhelming majority of the new leases signed downtown this year were for tenants seeking less than 10,000 square feet, not the big companies that fill tall towers.

With the Midtown commercial real estate market tightening up, state officials and real estate executives are hoping that companies will be drawn to Lower Manhattan, where rents are 33 percent cheaper than uptown, even before applying various tax breaks and other incentives.

(emphasis added)

In a related note, the $2.9 billion transportation bond act passed. A significant portion of that money will go to build critical infrastructure around New York City.

Steve Cuozzo slams Bloomberg's seemingly aloofness on rebuilding Lower Manhattan and suggests that he take action to improve the liveability. I'm not so sure that I want Bloomberg butting in even more than he did during the last two weeks of the election. Sure, that was pandering to voters, but his comments undermine the work already done on designing the WTC complex (and construction is already underway on the transporation portion).

UPDATE:
The 9/11 memorial will be open 24/7 said one of the landscape architects in a discussion forum:

The main landscaper of the memorial plaza at the World Trade Center site said yesterday in an online chat that the plaza will be open at all hours and will feature white oaks and sweetgum -- as well as views of the slurry wall.

Visitors, however, will likely have to leave their dogs behind, landscape architect Peter Walker added.

The main features of the Memorial Plaza, designed by Michael Arad, are two large recessed pools. Walker said the plan is to allow the fountain water to flow at all times except during freezing temperatures.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center.

Unlucky Thirteen

Day 13 of the riots in France. The violence continued, despite the curfews and increased police coverage.

And France has finally figured out how to export something in the world of globalization. Of course, we're talking about spreading the riots to Belgium and Germany, but why quibble. And the rioters are taking tips and learning tactics from the Palestinian intifada despite what the media has been reporting. The reporting on who is leading these riots has been deemphasized in favor of reporting about the economic problems facing the African and Muslim communities in France.

Imani Perry wonders why the media is so reluctant to mention the racial components of the rioting.

I thought to myself, and then wondered why it took almost two weeks for the elephant in the room to be mentioned, at least on U.S. television. (And even that was CNN international.)

You mean besides the fact that it took nearly 2 weeks for the media to even recognize that there was rioting ongoing in France?

There is something terribly wrong with the notion that it is impolite to reference race, an idea that seems to have a great deal of currency in the United States. Recognizing race as a mechanism for inequality helps us understand the shared frustration of residents of Los Angeles, France and New Orleans, (and many more places) that lead to such outbursts. Unemployment, desperation, but most of all a strong sense of injustice and inequality, are causal factors.

I would add a religious component to the mix, since the rioters are increasingly referring to Muslim and Islamic slogans that call for the creation of a new Muslim caliphate in France and Europe in general.

Also following the riots: Captain Ed, Gateway Pundit, and The Jawa Report which notes that two French bloggers were arrested for inciting riots through their blog posts.

UPDATE:
The meme of the day will be that the French authorities have gotten things under control because the number of cars torched went down. Tell that to the increasing number of businesses torched, including car dealerships that provided employment to dozens of French workers or the subway station that was firebombed. Instead of attacking cars, thugs are now attacking businesses and critical infrastructure. I'd say that it's a turning point, but not in a direction that anyone should be happy about.

UPDATE:
The Anchoress has a thorough update on the rioting, including the religious component.

UPDATE:
France faces a moment of truth, and one has to wonder whether Chirac, Villepin, et al., are up to the task. I really don't think they are. Their performance from the last two weeks has been woefully inadequate.

Rioters thumbed their noses at the drastic emergency measures late last night as they looted and burned two superstores in Arras, set fire to the Nice-Matin newspaper office in Grasses, and paralyzed Lyon's subway system with a gasoline bomb, according to the Associated Press.

The wire service also reported that nine buses were set ablaze at a bus depot in Dole, and a bus exploded in Bassens near the southwest city of Bordeaux after a gasoline bomb was thrown into it.

UPDATE:
Donald Sensing takes another crack at the Muslim component to the French rioting, as does Barak at the IRIS blog.

UPDATE:
Cross linked to: Don Surber, Adam's Web, Basil's Blog, Bright and Early, and Mudville Gazette. Added Stop the ACLU. And The Political Teen.

UPDATE:
I've been remiss in checking out some of the Iraqi bloggers and their take on the situation in France. After all, these Iraqi bloggers have suffered under unimaginable conditions and are experiencing freedom and violence from the dead-enders and jihadists who want to spread mayhem. Omar of Iraq the Model has some interesting thoughts on the riots and the state of the European continent that bears repeating:

I’m not sure I can write this and make sense but I believe that European governments and large parts of the natives there failed to distinguish between oppressed people and wanted fascist extremists who fled their native countries; the first group fled their original countries looking for a better place where they can live a real life and grant their children a chance for a better future and they do deserve to be given the opportunity to do this in a place other than their dictators-ruled countries while the latter; well, they want to take over in any place they happen to exist in and they want to impose their vision on others without the least respect for their hosts.
If things continue to move the way they’re doing now, I’m afraid Europe will wake up some day to find itself infested with extremism to a degree that could possibly surpass what we see in many of today’s Muslim countries.

It's that latter group that we've got to be worried about yesterday. They're the ones who are going to be tomorrow's jihadists.

UPDATE:
Newsbusters notes that NBC's Jim Maceda doesn't think that the French are appeasing the thugs and rioters fast enough.

In a segment airing on this morning's Today show, Maceda, reporting from Paris, proclaimed that the French government is "getting the message" of the disaffected "French youths." But appeasement is simply taking too long for Maceda's taste:

"The French government promises a hands-on plan [read: more welfare] for the immigrant areas but that could take years, so even if peace does return to these streets few believe it's going to stick."

The Day After

New Jersey's race for governor ended with Jon Corzine winning by 9 percentage points. Now, for those who think that this is some sort of referrendum on the GOP or President Bush, here's a reality check:

New Jersey's voter registration shows that Democrats outnumber Republicans in New Jersey 1,157,177 to 893,854 with 2,760,558 unaffiliated. The official tally from yesterday's election? Corzine had 53%Forrester's 44% with 97% of precincts reporting. In terms of raw votes, Corzine got 1,152,367 votes to Forrester's 948,372.

For comparison's sake, the 2004 Presidential election had Kerry win 1,911,430 votes and Bush won 1,670,003 votes. That's a ratio of 53% for Kerry and 46% for Bush.

In other words, this wasn't a referrendum on Bush, but rather a continuation of relatively closely contested elections that find the Democrats winning because of their natural advantage in registered voters.

What the raw numbers from the 2005 race for governor show is that Forrester didn't get enough independent voters to swing his way while Corzine was able to maintain the Democratic party's advantage in registered voters. Corzine got far fewer independent voters than Forrester, but it wasn't enough to swing the vote.

I'll leave it to others to try and figure out whether the Joanne Corzine commericals did more harm than good for the Forrester campaign.

However, I will gaze into my crystal ball for a couple of new predictions on New Jersey - expect higher taxes in coming months. That gas tax that you heard about in the deep recesses of the newspapers? It will be raised in order to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund. Corporate income taxes? They'll be going up in order to fund the property tax rebates, which wont be as large as Corzine claimed.

Oh, and about that corruption? It will still be there, and Democrats throughout the state will get indicted for their participation. Some will even be close to Corzine himself, but Corzine will be spared of the worst of it.

UPDATE:
Newsbusters is among the websites wondering about the biased nature of headlines and stories that are spinning the results of the elections. (and fixed text in first paragraph).

And Someone Is Celebrating This?

Over at Daily Kos, they're in full frenzied celebration mode because it is possible that it was a Republican who might have been responsible for blowing the cover on the CIA secret detention facilities as was first reported in the Washington Post.

Hastert and Frist want a full fledged investigation into the secret facilities leak, but apparently former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott thinks that it was a GOPer who leaked the information.

Sorry, I don't see it as a reason to celebrate at all. No one in Washington seems to take national security seriously - not Democrats and not Republicans. People have forgotten that loose lips sink ships. People do not realize that we're in the middle of a global war and that actions have consequences. Politics should end at our borders. But for some, the minor political advantages take precedent over the long term national security needs.

If you think that Plamegate was solely about national security, you were wrong. It may have included the outing of a secret agent, but it also was a political hit job disguised as a national security matter. Able Danger is a real national security matter that has been buried in bureaucracy and the media coverage has been inversely related to its significance vis-a-vis Plamegate.

We have seen Sandy Berger turned into the butt of jokes because he violated national security by taking classified documents from the National Archives. Various CIA officials were lambasted for taking computers with sensitive information home with them when that was a violation of national security. Excuses are made, and the violators are given a slap on the wrist.

Mark Tapscott thinks that this might open the way to creating an American Official Secrets Act that would mirror the British version. It could have the effect of a massive and unprecedented crackdown on classified information passed to journalists. This is new territory for journalists, and they should tread carefully. Publius thinks:

that the expansive reading of the Espionage Act will remove a check to corrupt and illegal practices - which is precisely what Frist and Hastert (surely at the direction of others) are trying to do.

Sorry, corrupt and illegal practices start with the leaking of classified data. There is no difference between outing the locations and existence of black facilities and leaking the design plans or flaws of a nuclear submarine (oh wait, the Chinese already got their hands on that).

The fact is that leaking classified information is serious business and should be treated as such, regardless of who is doing the leaking and the reasons behind it.

Protein Wisdom has more.

UPDATE:
Speaking of Able Danger, Rep. Curt Weldon is supposed to have a press conference tomorrow on the subject.

UPDATE:
Ace discounts the Trent Lott statements, but nonetheless thinks that the leaker was none other than J_h_ M_C__n. That's quite the accusation, but it seems to fit considering his recent statements on the use of various tactics on detainees to obtain information.

UPDATE 11/9/2005:
Confederate Yankee is taking the same approach that I've taken regarding this leak, and that is to punish those who leak severely. We're talking about compromising national security, and I don't care what label you attach to your political career - D or R. If you leak classified information, you should have a new label attached to your name - convicted felon.

Decision 2005

The AP is already calling the NJ and VA elections for the Democratic candidates. Expect the media to say that it is somehow a repudiation of the Bush Administration, although there's no sign that that is the case.

Enlighten NJ has more on the election returns in New Jersey.

UPDATE:
Mister Snitch has more, including the official NJ elections website.

Bloomberg won convincingly, though the margin isn't the 30%+ margins we thought. It's about half that amount.

In NJ, Forrester looks like he's going to lose by 10 percentage points, despite polls that had pegged the race to be much closer than that.

Anyone have any ideas why the polling was off?

How to Stop Lawlessness In Seven Easy Steps

In part because so many people are wondering what the heck the French should do to stop the rioting, I'm putting together a list of things that any government should do when facing lawlessness that happens to include rioting.

This is useful in situations where local governments are ineffectual or corrupt and regardless of whether the lawlessness is due to natural disasters (hurricanes, flooding, blizzards), or manmade situations.

1) Act decisively within the first 24 hours. If you're a local government and you know that you don't have the manpower to deal decisively, get the state and federal governments involved immediately. It takes time to get the national governments involved, so the quicker you act, the sooner the national government can respond.

2) Back words up with deeds. If you say that you're not going to tolerate rioting, make sure the world sees that you're not tolerating the violence. Make sure that the media is in a position to see you arresting rioters. Nothing will make the situation worse than saying that you're taking decisive action and the reporting indicates otherwise. Thugs, rioters, and even terrorists will take note of this and plan/respond accordingly.

3) Use a strong response. Curfews. They work. Use them. It's a nonviolent way to get people off the streets and to single out those who are perpetrating the violence.

4) Adopt zero-tolerance for offenders. The rioters are engaged in arson, mayhem, and assaulting law enforcement. Do not let them off the hook just because you think that doing so will relax tensions. All it will do is perpetuate the belief that rioting is an acceptable method of dealing with the government. Most people believe in law and order, even those that don't believe in the current way government behaves. Stress that nonviolent demonstrations are perfectly acceptable, but the moment things turn violent, the response will be swift.

5) If you find yourself in a position where rioting is out of control, take swift action at federal/national level. France has not done so, and the violence has spread to more than 300 villages and cities around the country and is outstripping the speed in which the government can respond effectively. This means that the government response must be even more visible and overwhelming.

6) Containment. At some point, a government must be able to contain the problem. It's a point at which rioting cannot go beyond. If it means bringing in even more law enforcement to keep the peace, it must be done.

7) De-escalation. Once the crisis has been contained, you can then discuss 'root causes' or 'economic programs' or anything else that you think has brought about the rioting in the first place.

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 64

Silverstein Properties is seeking $3.3 billion in Liberty Bonds to rebuild office space at Ground Zero.

Developer Larry Silverstein's bid for $3.3 billion in Liberty Bonds to help build five office towers at the World Trade Center has been scheduled for a public hearing next month — even though City Hall has yet to sign off on the deal.
The city's Industrial Development Agency added the Liberty Bond proposal to its Dec. 8 public hearing at the last minute as talks between the state and city over the best way to use the financing continue to drag on.

Gov. Pataki wants the money to go to Silverstein, who is trying to rebuild all the office space lost on 9/11. Mayor Bloomberg says he wants to include more housing and hotels.

Since Bloomberg appeared to find Ground Zero as an issue only weeks before the election, one can surmise that it was only to slam Assembly Speaker Silver who represents the area because of Silver's actions to torpedo the West Side Stadium project that Bloomberg backed.

One can also hope that Bloomberg will drop the issue of housing at Ground Zero as quickly as he picked it up so that construction can proceed as swiftly as possible. Construction began last week on the transportation portion of the project.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center.

Color Me Surpised

The media is getting it wrong on Iraq again? I'm not surprised.

UPDATE:
Mudville Gazette is also fisking the media reporting of supposed use of chemical weapons in Iraq by the US, particularly during the battle for Fallujah. Greyhawk actually hoists the Independent on its own petard by posting the dozens of links to mainstream media coverage of the battle in the New York Times and Washington Post. Greyhawk refrains from posting to places like Bill Roggio's Fourth Rail, Belmont Club, or even to his own postings on the subject.

UPDATE:
Similarly, Paul at Wizbang takes apart the NBC special on its news coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Brian Williams falls all over himself to say how good his coverage of the hurricane was, yet everywhere you look you find just how bad NBC did in reporting the news - and the network is still getting the facts wrong.

Does anyone know how to fact check?

Twelfth Night

Anyone want to take bets on when the violence will finally end in France? We're on the 12 consecutive night of rioting. And the usual suspects are wondering if Bush is to blame for the riots in France (HT: LGF).

The situation is such a mess because no one is quite sure what to do and the steps the French government have taken thus far have been ineffective, which just fuels further rioting. The military hasn't been called out, nor has a curfew been imposed on the areas where the rioting has been occurring for the past 12 nights. One has to wonder why that is the case? Does the French government have a high tolerance for this kind of activity - one that puts fire and police in harms' way - subject to being firebombed, shot at, and injured by rock throwing thugs without any let up?

So, it's good to hear that the French government is busting out 9,500 cops and instituting a curfew. What took them so long? Such a situation would not have gotten out of control for more than 3 days, which is the same amount of time that it took for the dysfunctional Louisiana government to call in the federal government and US troops to patrol New Orleans in light of the looting following the flooding due to Hurricane Katrina. The Rodney King riots lasted for about a week, but the national guard and federal troops were on the scene within 72 hours of the first rioting. The key to containing and stopping riots is the swift and overwhelmning response by the government. Delaying and putting the issue up for national debate only lets the rioting spread.

And the rioting has spread beyond France's borders. I don't think the Germans will tolerate the rioting for more than 24 hours before they clamp down - hard.

Captain Ed wonders about the demographics issue and how that is playing into the rioting.

Radioblogger has Victor Davis Hanson on the French riot situation.

UPDATE:
Powerline relates an interview on FoxNews with President Clinton's advisor on European affairs who provided only a superficial explanation of the riots.

Professor Charles Kupchan of Georgetown University appeared on Brit Hume's news program tonight to discuss the rioting in France. Kupchan was Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the first Clinton administration, and I'm sure he's a well-respected expert. Still, his analysis of the situation in France struck me as breathtakingly superficial. His only explanation for the riots was the poor effort of the French government to integrate Muslim immigrants. Kupchan never mentioned the possibility that there might be some resistance to integration on French terms. Everything turned, instead, on the need for better outreach on the part of the government, as proposed by de Villepin.

Hume established that many of the rioters are teen-agers, and suggested that they might improve their prospects for intergration into French society by attending school. Kupchan muttered something about how the government needs to do a better job of breaking down the language barrier, but then agreed that, as a group, the rioters speak French.

The New York Times reports that the French are trying to calm fears as the rioting spreads. Sorry, but the best and only way to calm fears is to take the rioting on directly. And we've seen reporting that the French courts are unable to deal with even a modest increase in the number of arrests that have been made thus far - that speaks poorly of the French justice system that they cannot deal with situations such as this. The French police are being accused of being racists, especially in the surburbs where the rioting broke out. Something doesn't quite fit here. We've got first hand information from multiple sources that the police are wary of even entering many of these immigrant communities because of the lawlessness, but on the other hand we're hearing that the French police are racist. It's possible that you can be both wary of entering the areas and are racist in those situations where you come into contact with the thugs and criminal elements. However, there's no excuse for the way the French authorities have delayed in dealing with the current rioting.

If anything, it shows that the French have refused to deal with the issues of racism, economics, and assimilation for far too long. And that goes both ways - the immigrant communities may want to assimilate on their own terms, but the debate has to work both ways. The immigrants cannot impose their view on their host nation unilaterally. But the way the French have gone about things, they've put the situation into a pressure cooker and the rioting was inevitable.

UPDATE:
The NY Post wonders what role the Islamists are playing in the rioting:

So? Is Europe on the brink of a continent-wide civil war as Muslim immigrants rise up in angry protests?

For now, officials insist that the attacks outside France are only "copycat" incidents. Across Europe, however, leaders of nations with large Muslim populations are concerned and nervous.

Because what appeared at first glance to be a spontaneous outburst has now moved to a more organized and deliberate level. Growing Internet chatter is inciting violence across France. And while there's no evidence as yet that the riots were a pre-planned and coordinated attack, do not be surprised if al Qaeda or similar groups quickly attempt to capitalize on the unrest.

Indeed, they may already be players.

That's something I've been saying for more than a week now. The Islamists may not have instigated the rioting, but they're surely taking notes and may be involved in spreading the violence elsewhere as they realize that the French government has not cracked down in any appreciable manner.

Information Regarding Israel's Security (IRIS) believes that the rioting has sure signs of a European intifada, and points to various reporting in support of that claim. Among the reports are those that claim that cars with Muslim or Islamic bumper stickers are being spared from being torched.

More than a few people are wondering why the French government is taking so long to crack down on the rioters. Good question. Hopefully someone will be held accountable for the slow response. Jacques Chirac, here's looking at you!

UPDATE:
About frickin' time. Chirac imposes a state of emergency that sets up the mechanisms for curfews. 12 days into national rioting. That's an impressive feat.

UPDATE:
The New York Sun has a very interesting story on the French riots and also wonders why the government didn't impose strict curfews sooner:

A map published in the afternoon by Le Monde showed that ethnic violence - the "French Intifada," as it is being referred to by some journalists and political leaders - had spread almost all over the country, with the exception of Inner Brittany, western Normandy, and Burgundy, where North African and black communities are small, and Corsica, where a large North African community is held in check by a local nationalist movement that itself is prone to violence. Most major cities, including Lyons, Marseille, Lille, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, have been hit.

Rioting and guerrilla-style street fighting were still rampant in the northern Parisian county of Seine-Saint-Denis - colloquially known as 9-3, after its postal code - where the whole thing started on October 27. The five other Parisian counties were hurt as well. The inner city itself, the ultra-chic City of Paris, was subjected to several ethnic raids over the weekend.

In terms of destruction and casualties, the balance sheet is horrendous. Between Sunday and Monday night, no fewer than 1,408 cars, including buses and trucks, were torched throughout the country. Schools, colleges, sports facilities, factories, shopping arcades, and even two churches - one in Lens, in the north, and one in Sete, on the Mediterranean - were burned. A local resident who attempted to stop a fire was beaten to death in Stains. Elsewhere, a disabled woman narrowly escaped being burned alive in a torched bus. Dozens of firefighters were wounded.

The first question one must ask is why the French government, admittedly one of the strongest and most centralized in the world, and certainly in Europe, did not consider imposing some measure of martial law in the violence-ridden areas much earlier.

UPDATE:
Clive Davis has a thorough roundup of events, and includes a great quote from David Brooks (a NYT writer/editorialist/contributor):

"It has been said that the government of France is a dictatorship interrupted by riots." (David Brooks, The Atlantic, Oct 2003)

That's actually a fair assessment of French political history - riots usually precede a change in government structure, but it's still an open question just as to how much damage these riots will do to the Chirac government.

UPDATE:
The media would like you to think that the rioting isn't widespread. The facts don't lie. HT Atlas Shrugged.

Election Day

By all rights, Corzine should win this election by more than 10-15%. Why do I say this? Because the state's voter rolls favor the Democratic party, especially when you throw in the strong liberal bent of the media outlets that cover the state. A close race would mean that the Independents and unaffiliated voters associated far more strongly with Forrester's corruption message than anything else.

Corzine will win, but Forrester should win.

Did the last week's worth of bad news make this race too close to call? It's highly likely and there's quite a few undecideds out there that make any of the polls simply unreliable at this point.

And regardless of the election outcome, someone better check to make sure that zombies aren't voting. New Jersey expects to see significant use of absentee ballots this year and that's a situation that makes it way to easy for someone to stuff the ballots, especially when the state has failed its obligation to check the voter rolls against the names of those who have died in the past year.

A Hurricane Rebuilding Update

Dr. Shackleford of the Jawa Report went into the heart of the Gulf Coast to help with the recovery efforts and reports back. It's simply amazing to read his report and know that you could repeat his reporting of the devastation for each of the 200+ miles of coastline devastated by Wilma, Katrina, and Rita and only then you would be scratching the surface of the scale and scope of the cleanup. We're more than two months out from Katrina coming ashore, and we're still cleaning up. We haven't even gotten to rebuilding in a lot of areas.

The closer we get the more the war zone analogy becomes apt. Where we were working it was mortar and Howitzer bombardment. Three miles from the beach it is heavy ordinance. It is like the Navy decided to shell the town from some unseen WWII battleship. The once touristy town is almost no more. Traffic lights in working order already, but almost no traffic.

And the closer you get to the coast, the more complete and total the destruction became.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; hurricane rita; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour; hurricane rita; hurricane wilma.

New Jersey Boondoggles

I'm a regular rider on New Jersey Transit's Main/Bergen line. The service is generally acceptable and most of the trains are on time, though the new cars have fewer seats than the older cars. The crews are more likely than not provide updates should there be delays. However, the parking situation at many of the stations in North Jersey is completely unacceptable.

A parking garage was contemplated for Ridgewood, but nothing has come of it or the planned refurbishment of the station that would have included high level platforms to speed entry and exit from the trains.

In River Edge, the train station lost parking spots, which means that fewer people are likely to take the trains into New York City. If people don't think that they can find parking near the train stations, they're less likely to use the trains.

That means more people are going to drive into NYC, increasing the traffic and congestion at the bridges and tunnels and increasing gas usage.

Instead of focusing on the parking needs for the train and bus ridership, the boondoggle that is Secaucus Junction was built at a cost of $450 million, which was several magnitudes of cost higher than initially proposed. And that station doesn't even have parking facilities.

And as bad as the situation is at many North Jersey stations, the situation is even worse on the Northeast Corridor, where stations like Edison have a multiyear wait for a handful of spots. If people want to do the right thing and commute by train, they're thwarted by the lack of parking.

Fix the parking situation, and you make the train and bus systems more attractive for customers.

UNSCAM Claims Another Scalp

India's foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was forced to step down from his post Monday amid allegations that he and the governing Congress Party had illegally benefited from the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Singh's position was deemed untenable after the government began two separate investigations into the alleged deals.

Singh described the allegations, contained in the final report by the committee led by the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, as "farcical" and refused to resign, saying, "I do a good job. I have had tremendous support." Late Monday, however, after a long meeting with the prime minister, Congress party officials announced that he had been demoted.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was named interim foreign minister, and Natwar Singh was given a post as minister without portfolio. He was assured that the position of foreign minister would be returned to him if his name is cleared, officials said.

India was among the countries critical of the US for seeking to enforce UN SCR 1441 et seq. on Iraq. The more the investigations continue, the more we see the relationship between sweetheart deals, politicians on the take, and national policy influenced by the economics of the OFF program.

UPDATE:
And the scalps of both Paul Volcker, who was brought in to investigate the scandal, and Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the UN should be brought to justice as well. Volcker sanitized his findings so that Kofi could skirt on the edge of the precipe, and Kofi's actions throughout the whole mess has been abhorrent. Via Ace of Spades.

UPDATE:
And here's one that has apparently gotten away.

Investigators have identified Alexander Kramar, a for mer member of the U.N. Oil Overseers Board, as the man who may have gotten away — escaping the scrutiny that has entangled hundreds of U.N. officials and international political figures and businessmen in one of the most massive financial scandals in history.

Kramar, who lived in the Riverdale section of The Bronx for nearly a decade before leaving in 2003, has resurfaced in Moscow — with Zarubezhneft, a state-owned oil firm recently cited as the largest and most active participant in the food program, which paid at least $8.7 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime.

The investigation team, headed by ex-Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, learned that Kramar, who was paid $12,000 a month at the United Nations, transferred about $1 million from a New York bank account out of the country.

Technorati: UNSCAM, Oil for Food, and Kofi Annan

Les Enfants Terribles

We're on day 11 of the riots throughout France and there's absolutely no sign that things will be improving. Thousands of cars have been destroyed, and an increasing number of businesses, schools, and other buildings have been damaged by arson.

Police and law enforcement seem completely incapable of stopping the violence or even trying to determine the best course of action.

The Glittering Eye has a map of the violence that has spread through the French countryside over the past 11 days (the map has the locations from the first 10 days of rioting). The French have always thought of the concept of the ugly American, but I think the world is seeing the ugly Frenchman. This is the side of French life that the French government would much rather have been kept an open secret.

The level of violence associated with the rioting has also increased, as police are increasingly coming under gunfire from the rioter. Nearly a dozen police were injured by shotgun blasts, two of them seriously.

The first death associated with the rioting has been reported, and the rioting has spread to at least 300 towns.

As urban unrest spread to neighboring Belgium and possibly Germany, the French government faced growing criticism for its inability to stop the violence, despite massive police deployment and continued calls for calm.

On Sunday night, vandals burned more than 1,400 vehicles, and clashes around the country left 36 police injured, setting a new high for overnight arson and violence since rioting started Oct. 27, Michel Gaudin told a news conference.

Australia, Austria, Britain, Germany and Hungary advised their citizens to exercise care in France, joining the United States and Russia in warning tourists to stay away from violence-hit areas.

In other words, the borders aren't containing the violence, and it is spreading far faster than the French government would like to admit. The seemingly powerlessness of the French government to contain the violence is not going to go unnoticed - both by other countries and by terrorists. The terrorists are watching the situation and keeping score.

And I would like to know what is considered a strong police response, considering the fact that only a day ago did we hear that even a single police helicopter was in the air to survey the carnage and that only 1,200 people have been arrested thus far. If the French authorities were truly serious, we'd be seeing a massive crackdown with thousands of arrests, not a smattering of arrests. Where's the NYPD when the French need them?

The grim milestone of 5,000 cars burned is only a night away.

The Belgravia Dispatch notes the sense of utter helplessness setting in among the French as the government has proven to be ineffectual.

The violence the roving gangs of youth are engaging in is borne of various causes and grievances. This profound alienation needs to be analyzed, to be sure. And at the end of the day, while there is some room for jihadist radicals to play on these sentiments to lure more towards piety, the book and perhaps terror--what this is really about is not some religiosity-infused intifada on the Seine but bread and butter issues of jobs and racism. Sarkozy is right that so called positive discrimination (affirmative action), at least in calibrated fashion, needs to be experimented with. But he is also at least equally right that criminals, even young ones just 18, must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Stoking mayhem cannot be rewarded. Such 'chantage'-like tactics should not be in the cards. And yet, there is reason for some of the fury, and I'd hazard most of it stems from unemployment in the 30% zone among many in their early 20s.

As I've noted over the past few days, the rioting is morphing and changing depending on where and who is involved in the carnage. Some are doing it because of high unemployment and other economic grievances (though other countries with high unemployment have not seen rioting), and others are using this as an opportunity to push the religious sentiments.

Blogger Clive Davis thinks that the focus on the Islamist element in the rioting is overstated and that the economic situation is the trumping issue. I don't discount that as a factor, but the Islamists are most definitely exploiting the situation.

Whatever the reasoning for the thugs involved in the riots, the French government must put an end to the rioting and platitudes about economic opportunities and affirmative action isn't going to cut it. The French need to seriously reconsider the issues of assimilation, economic growth and the underlying economic order in France and their relationships to each other.

On the media front, the Washington Post has an above the fold story, and the New York Times is finally realizing that the situation in France is dire. Took 'em more than a week to realize the significance of the rioting - and that it is far more important than the organized and professional rioting that occurred when Bush visited Argentina.

UPDATE:
Don Surber uncovers Israeli advice for the French intifada, which is:

"First, until this plan is implemented in full, we must insist that the French government acknowledge that there is no military or police solution to the problems of violence in its suburbs, and only through recognizing the legitimacy of the demands of the murderers and rioters outside Paris can the problems be resolved."

Well, while not all the rioters are Muslim, it's certainly sage advice. The French government will certainly not appreciate the advice, but this is where they're at.

UPDATE:
Vodkapundit has more thoughts, including the difficulty of keeping a riot going. More interesting is the fact that the rioters will have learned that they have a dangerous new tool at their disposal to get their way in the future. Don't think for a moment that this fact hasn't been lost on the rioters - and the government hasn't quite realized this.

UPDATE:
Ace castigates the WaPo for essentially saying Riots Just A Way For Youth To Say "I'm Here, Man. I'm Here." You can't make this stuff up. The original headline? Rage of French Youth Is a Fight for Recognition. Here's some more advice.

Listen to the Beastie Boys. Play Fight for Your Right. Loud. At 11. Repeat as necessary. You'll find the urge to riot and pillage diminish as the music takes hold.

UPDATE:
Ace also notes that the French are trying to minimize the violence to only a few provinces. Yeah, that's the ticket. Each night see the violence spiral out of control and into more areas of the country. But the media will buy the offical line of the French government despite the facts clearly burning before them.

UPDATE:
Via LGF comes this amazing tidbit - the French media is going to refrain from posting the numbers of cars torched in an effort to stop the rioting. Are you kidding me?! Anyone have a nighttime overhead shot of France to see all the fires burning?

UPDATE:
Mister Snitch has provided a roundup of the coverage of the French riots among the left leaning blogs in New Jersey. It's a short and sweet review, because they're simply not covering the riots at all. Well, if you consider that it took the NYT more than a week to realize that something was happening in France, and the leftie blogs take their cues from the mainstream media sources, this isn't altogether unexpected. However, I do believe that Daily Kos has had a number of postings on the riots, but the coverage has been limited, especially in comparison to a site like LGF.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin has new updates on the rioting. She finds that one of the key words missing from the news coverage generally was Muslim or Islamists. Not surprising. The media has downplayed the religious aspects in favor of the economic arguments. I'm sure that there is an economic argument to be made somewhere by the goons involved in firebombing thousands of cars and hundreds of businesses, but there is an increasing Islamist element in the rioting - both in terms of who is doing the rioting and who is formenting further attacks. Ace also makes a similar observation.

The Anchoress also makes some interesting observations about the rioting and France in general.

UPDATE:
Wretchard has an interesting observation about the car-b-qs: the French government had opportunities up to the 6th day to contain the violence, and again has a chance to contain the violence, but in each instance, the violence spread because the government failed to take decisive action to put down the riots. As much as the French government bloviates, it doesn't take any real tangible steps.

The French government must demonstrate that it can deliver, for nothing incites contempt so much as to be all hat and no cattle; to bluster and to bluster impotently.

Thus far, this quote symbolizes the entire French government response.

French Riots: Day 10

The riots, which had been spreading through the Parisian surburbs, has now reached Paris proper and the Mediterranean resort communities. Ten days. And the violence is getting worse not subsiding:

The latest violence, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers in suburban Paris, spread west to the Normandy region and south to the Mediterranean and the resort cities of Cannes and Nice, where arson was reported.

By early Sunday, more than 900 cars had been burned, 193 people detained and several police officers and firefighters injured after a 10th night of rioting across France, according to national police spokesman Patrick Hamon.

Thirteen cars were torched in Paris, including several in the Place de la Republique in the central city.

In the Normandy city of Evreux, five police officers and three firefighters were injured when two schools, a post office, a shopping center and 50 cars were burned, Hamon said. A child care center was burned in Lille in northern France.

And the French government is still behind the curve as the violence is spiralling out of control:

Hamon told The Associated Press that arsonists were moving beyond their heavily policed neighborhoods to less protected areas.

"They are very mobile, in cars or scooters. ... It is quite hard to combat," Hamon told AP. "Most are young, very young, we have even seen young minors."

There appeared to be no coordination between separate groups in different areas, Hamon told AP. But within gangs, youths are communicating by cell phones or e-mails. "They organize themselves, arrange meetings, some prepare the Molotov cocktails."

Today marks the 90th anniversary of Ganhdi being arrested for nonviolent demonstrations against the British rule. Compare and contrast with the current violence in France.

CBS Sunday Morning has completely screwed the pooch. They state that the riots were due to the shooting death of two Muslims in France. Can they get their facts straight? We've known for 10 days that they've been electrocuted, and that the French government has stated that the police did nothing wrong. So, why is CBS Sunday Morning saying these things? *** See Update Below ***

And now there's reports that the French authorities have uncovered a bomb factory near Paris.

Police also found a gasoline bomb-making factory in a rundown building in Evry, a southern Paris suburb that contained 150 explosives, more than 100 bottles, gallons of fuel and hoods for hiding rioters' faces, Jean-Marie Huet, a senior Justice Ministry official, said Sunday.

This riot, which may have started spontaneously has now mutated into an organized conflict and the police have not acted quickly enough to stop it.

For the second night in a row, a helicopter equipped with spotlights and video cameras to track bands of marauding youths combed the Paris suburbs from the air and small teams of police were deployed to chase down rioters speeding from one attack to another in cars and on motorbikes.

The violence took a potentially alarming turn with attacks in the well-guarded French capital. Police said 32 cars were set afire there, mostly on the northern and southern edges of the city.

Where to start with this? Where were the helicopters after Day 1? Was the violence so low key that the French police just thought that it would dissipate on its own after a few days? The mindset is absolutely astounding in how laissez faire the police were during the first days of this riot. And still, we're talking about a single helicopter - is that all they have? If the riots are spreading through other cities, one would expect to see police helicopters flying all over the place to make sure that they keep tabs on the rioters.

And for the story to say that the violence took an alarming turn because they're striking in Paris is absurd. The violence is already alarming because it was permitted to spread unchecked for days.

UPDATE:
Mark Steyn is a must read - the French have a war on their hands and they aren't even sure that they want to fight this battle.

UPDATE:
According to Globular Cluster at LGF nearly 1,300 cars were torched last night alone. He also posted a roundup of various news accounts of the violence and damage.

UPDATE:
*** CBS Sunday Morning issued a correction at the end of the program to correct their initial statements on the cause of the riots. They correctly stated at the end of the program that the riots were caused when two youths were electrocuted at a power substation. It makes one wonder how such a blatant error was able to get past all the editors and fact-checkers in the first place.

Chinese Spy Ring Busted

Read it all. This would have been a significant hit to US national security.

UPDATE:
Bill Gertz has the lowdown on the spying that goes to the heart of the US military capabilities - specifically submarine technologies. China is continuing its espionage offensive against the US that started during the 1990s.

Chapomatic wonders if anything can be kept a secret and whether the focus on tourists taking snapshots of stuff, rather than the guys who are getting the technical readouts on submarines and other military equipment. I think we need to be concerned with both - the spy who poses as a tourist to case potential targets and the spies who are trying to obtain the technical data.

Ultraquiet No More fears that we're facing a situation where we'll be outnumbered and compromised on our technology. It's a serious question that demands serious answers. It takes time to invent and bring new technology into the fleet, and if the Chinese were able to make a multigenerational leap due to data obtained from spies that have penetrated the US submarine development community, then we will be facing a far more serious threat far sooner, and with fewer ships at that.

Down to the Wire

With the race for New Jersey's governor coming to a head on Tuesday, the candidates are getting downright chipper. And Corzine definitely appears to be getting rattled. At last night's debate, both candidates had to address the issues raised in the latest commercials and claims over marital infidelity and the use of Joanne Corzine's New York Times comments.

Forrester defended the use of Joanne's comments because they were substantive and directly related to Corzine's fitness to be governor. Corzine decried the use of Joanne's comments because they were airing dirty laundry and personal relationships. Both men are correct, but Forrester's response is more convincing. Joanne wasn't just Corzine's wife, but a key person in Corzine's campaign for the Senate.

Corzine muffed up a question on the drinking age in New Jersey, and it could portray Corzine as out of touch with the reality.

Meanwhile, Enlighten NJ notes that the state has failed in its obligation to remove the dead from the voter rolls. This has a significant impact on absentee ballots which are a major concern for voter fraud.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin also notes the court ruling that found officials did not remove the dead from the voter rolls. She also notes that recent polling suggests that Corzine was pulling ahead, but I think right now that the polling is all over the place and you can't take any of them seriously. Corzine is probably ahead, but likely within the error of margin.