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Wednesday, 16 November 2005
Bring the Troops HOME!

From Germany!

I mean VE Day was the 8th of May l945.
Isn't 60 years enough time to have finished the job?

If one takes the stance that we had to remain in the European Theater as part of the Cold War, well
On December 8, 1991 the leaders of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian republics met in Belavezhskaya Pushcha to issue a declaration that the Soviet Union was dissolved and replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev became president without a country. On December 25, 1991, he resigned as president of the USSR and turned the powers of his office over to Boris Yeltsin. The next day, the Supreme Soviet voted to dissolve itself and repealed the declaration written in 1922 that had officially established the USSR. By the end of the year, all official Soviet institutions had ceased operations.

So I don't think the USSR will be coming through the Fulda Gap anytime soon in an invasion of Europe.

Why are we still there?

How about Bosnia? Ten years so far, how long
will we continue that quagmire?

Let the Federal Government address these issues before they bother their pointy little heads with Iraq. I mean what is the rush by the Democratic Party to have a time table for withdrawl from Iraq when we still have troops in Germnay and Bosnia?

Besides the fact that it was under Democratic Presidents rather than a Republican President that we went into Germany and Bosnia that is.

Do these words sound familiar?

We have won the War but we are losing the Peace, there was no plan for the Occupation, US prestige has never been lower.


No those are not recent, Mainstream Media quotes but verbage from articles in the New York Times from the GERMAN Occupation 50 years ago.

Go to the Counter Revolutionary website and read jpgs of NYT articles from those days, the Liberal Left Leopards never really change their spots they just recycle the same paradigms over and over again.

Here is an example of how bad things got back then.
I do not recall armored troops ever beig considered to put down food riots in Iraq, do you?





Linked to
third world county at Open Trackbacks?a good thing
Stop the ACLU at King of Spades Open Trackbacks
Diane's Stuff at Wednesday Weekly Open Trackback Alliance Fest II
Stuck on Stupid at Wednesday Open Trackback Party: BYOB

Blogs That Link Here
Stuck On Stupid with Wednesday Open Trackback Party: BYOB
Stuck On Stupid with What Would You Rename Washington DC?

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Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 10:01 PM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Thursday, 17 November 2005 6:42 PM CST
From:
Spirit of America
Jim Hake

Dear Spirit of America donors and friends,

This message is an update on:
* Our projects in Iraq and Afghanistan
* Our "Make Freedom Win" campaign
* Sandy Shapero, new Spirit of America CEO

There is also an update on my new work and role with Spirit of America.

SPIRIT OF AMERICA PROJECTS
At the link below you can find updates on a variety of Spirit of
America projects including backpacks for children, help for orphans
and support for carpentry programs.






"MAKE FREEDOM WIN" CAMPAIGN
We are launching a new campaign to build awareness and support for
Spirit of America's projects in Iraq and Afghanistan. The campaign
features Public Service Announcements (PSAs) by General Tommy Franks
and Senator John McCain. Other PSAs are in development. The theme of
the campaign is "Join us and make freedom win." The PSAs will be used
in an email and Internet campaign and our team is also working on
television broadcast of the PSAs. You can see two of the longer format
PSAs (for use in the Internet campaign) at the links below.

General Tommy Franks video:


Senator John McCain video:

I hope you'll find these PSAs reflect well the work of Spirit of
America that you have supported. If you would like to arrange for
placement of the PSAs on your local radio or television stations,
please email staff@spiritofamerica.net for details.


SANDY SHAPERO, NEW CEO
I'm delighted to announce Dr. Sandy Shapero has recently joined Spirit
of America as Chief Executive Officer. Sandy brings a great background
in growing and managing large non-profit organizations. Before
joining Spirit of America, Sandy enjoyed a long career as an executive
in philanthropic and corporate endeavors. He was formerly Senior Vice
President of Los Angles Orthopaedic Hospital Foundation and Founding
Director of the hospital's Center for Gerontology. Prior to that he
served as President and CEO of the City of Hope National Medical
Center. Early in his career Sandy served as a Chaplain in the U.S.
Navy.


WHAT I'M DOING
Over the last two years I've had the great, great privilege and honor
of founding and leading Spirit of America as a full-time volunteer.
It has been an incredibly rewarding experience. A chance of a
lifetime to make a real difference. I can't thank you enough for your
support and your very kind and encouraging words along the way.

Before Spirit of America I started a couple different companies. Thus,
my background has principally been one of an entrepreneur. I
sometimes say that I was born without the gene (or common sense) that
prevents one from starting something new against overwhelming odds.

I recently started a new business - SignalOne Media - to create
commercial television in emerging markets. Our focus is creating new
commercial channels focused on young adults in specific national
markets in the Middle East. My partner, Ambassador Mark Palmer,
founded a similar enterprise in the 1990s called Central European
Media Enterprises (CETV) that created the first independent,
commercial television stations in the former Soviet Bloc (e.g., the
Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia). The company was and is very
successful. We believe a similar great opportunity exists today in
the Middle East. We've invested our own capital and with the support
of a few other brave souls we are giving it our best shot. Please
wish us luck.

I am deeply committed to Spirit of America's ongoing work. It is
critically important. I will remain Spirit of America's Chairman and
I'll be an active one.

As always, thank you for your support.
Jim Hake
and the Spirit of America team.

|



Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 12:46 AM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Wednesday, 16 November 2005 12:55 AM CST
Tuesday, 15 November 2005
The Open
Trackback Alliance II

Since Tuesday Still Seems To Be Unfilled
I Will Continue Open Tracks One More Day
Enjoy




When I first started upon my journey through the blogverse I created a Statement of Purpose
Now upon reading it, one can realize that I did not hold to every detail of that original statement, but from it's basic premise, I have never swayed, in my belief that the Blogs are in fact the Committees of Correspondence of the Second American Revolution.

And that it is a Revolution of Information, no longer can we afford and allow elite gateways to control what we can see, hear and discuss.

One of the most important discoveries I make in those early days was the website of Samantha Burns, which included a unique informal community of bloggers, who not only linked to each other but actually browsed and read the blogs they linked to.

Later I was honored to be allowed to join another more formal blog community. At that time I decided that while I welcomed blogs that wanted to link to me, I was not that interested in simply joining blogrolls to add links. After that I made no more attempts to join any blog alliances. I have been kept busy supporting the linkages I have and at times I feel guilty that I cannot get around to all the websites on my blogroll as I could when it was smaller.

So why do I welcome this recent invitation to join the Open Trackback Alliance? Have I reconsidered my former decision?

No I am posting and joining this Alliance because it is RIGHT for me to do so.

Because it FULFILLS my original Statement of Purpose that the Blogs are indeed the 21st Century Committees of Correspondence, whose duty and honor it is to SHARE information, thoughts, ideas, news and to discuss the same. To diligently search for the truths that lie behind the distortions and half-truths of the Legacy Media.

What the blogs associated with the Samantha Burns site did informally, and without structure, this Alliance only aids and structures. There is in fact no conflict between what I do now, and what I decided to do sometime ago.

For I believe that those bloggers who find their way, here and in particular from the Blogs associated with Sam.

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.

Some of us are more Serious, some of us are more lighthearted and some post the common ordinary things that make one smile and recall that Life without the simple things to treasure is meaningless.

And it is important that all have a platform from which to speak.

As I understand this process you can link to this post and trackback to this post on ANY subject or post you think important. It is open. I will repeat this every Monday.

The Committees of Correspondence welcomes your intelligent comments. And also welcomes you to join the

OPEN TRACKBACK ALLIANCE



Open Trackback Alliance


Blogs that Trackback to this Post:


On Monday
Diane's Stuff with Dear Folly Fridays
Below The Beltway with I Thought TV Was Bad For Us
Third World County with Oops! Open Trackbacks?!?
The Tar Pit with Jailed Egyptian blogger Abdolkarim is freed!
Stop the ACLU with Alito: Abortion is Not a Right
Third World Country with "Dude, you're like totally stupid."
The Tar Pit wiht Alito: no Constitutional "right to an abortion"
Third World Country with Are you lookin' at me? You lookin' at me?
Those Bastards! with One nation under Wal-Mart: 484 new stores to open next year
Conservative Cat with I've Got Mail: Sam Alito and Abortion Rights

On Tuesday
TMH?s Bacon Bits with l?Histoire se repete?
The Tar Pit with Jordanians outraged at being treated like Jews
Stuck On Stupid with Incarcerate The Judges
Below The Beltway with Jacques Chirac Channels Jimmy Carter
Stuck On Stupid with The Incontinent 911 Discourse Project
Stuck On Stupid with Senate Republicans Go On Offense
The Real Ugly American with Democrats React to Suggestion of Supporting Iraq / Open Trackbacks
Those Bastards! with Let's change "In Go we trust" to "There may or may not be some higher being we trust"
The Tar Pit with Hillary: "inherent" U.S. authority for force in Iraq since 1991
Stuck On Stupid with Dubya Googled
Freedom Folks with Brownshirts & Racists & Fascists...Oh My!
Freedom Folks with A Q 4 Glenn Reynolds
Conservative Cat with Predator Helps Take Out Insurgents
Stuck On Stupid with Wednesday Open Trackback Party: BYOB (Bring Your Own Blog)






Y'al come back now, Y'heah? ;-)

|



Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 12:01 AM CST
| Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Tuesday, 15 November 2005 11:57 PM CST
Monday, 14 November 2005
I Was Rerun


What Peanut's Character are YOU?






Rerun
You are Rerun!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 11:31 PM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Monday, 14 November 2005 11:41 PM CST
Sunday, 13 November 2005
Intifada of Eurabia Day 17
The violence in France, Denmark, Belgium, and Germany appears to have spread to Greece.

This in from !No Pasaran! in What Trotsky meant by "Solidarity"

posted by Joe N. @ 3:19 PM

Prepared to fight to the last innocent bystander, the dependably irritable and violent Greek leftists engage in a sympathy violence:


Greek anarchists attack French schools, back rioters


ATHENS: Groups of anarchists broke windows, threw paint and spray-painted slogans at French cultural institutes in Athens and northern Greece in support of rioters in France, Greek police said on Friday.

About 50 people, wearing hoods and helmets and carrying red and black flags, threw stones, spark plugs and bottles filled with paint at the central Athens French Institute on Friday morning, breaking windows and damaging parked vehicles. Police said there were no injuries and the group dispersed quickly after the attack.

Another group attacked the French institute in the northern city of Thessaloniki on Thursday evening, smashing windows while classrooms were filled with language students. They spray-painted “Rioters Are Right” on the front of the building.

“They just appeared out of nowhere, I think about 70 or 80 of them. They smashed everything and we just sat there terrified,” one student told reporters. Poor French suburbs have been hit by two weeks of rioting. French police have arrested hundreds of people in what is considered the most serious unrest since student-led protests in 1968.>


One question that comes to mind, when on considers the absence of certain words in coverage of these
riots/insurrections and the continual usage of euphemisms such as youths is what could the ethnic and cultural ties be of these anarchists?

Linked to Weekend Trackback Party at Stop The ACLU
Sticky: Weekend Open Trackback Party! at The Uncooperative Blogger

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 12:10 PM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Sunday, 13 November 2005 12:38 PM CST
Saturday, 12 November 2005
For the Greater Good
Should it come as any surprise that in a Socialist leaning Government, the Greater Good can be interpreted as accepting that the safety of the common citizen is expendable, to prevent an advantage to political opponents?

From !No Pasaran!

Now that's what I call Faux News

posted by U*2 @ 4:54 AM

The Managing Director of LCI French cable TV news (owned by TF1) admits to
censuring coverage of the riots in French to avoid helping the extreme right.
The extreme right, mythical (and largely inexistant) bogeyman bandied about by the French preSS, whenever they see fit to tighten the screws on this country of sheep.



French TV boss admits censoring riot coverage



Claire Cozens in Amsterdam
Thursday November 10, 2005

One of France's leading TV news executives has admitted censoring his coverage of the riots in the country for fear of encouraging support for far-right politicians.

Jean-Claude Dassier, the director general of the rolling news service LCI, said the prominence given to the rioters on international news networks had been "excessive" and could even be fanning the flames of the violence.

Mr Dassier said his own channel, which is owned by the private broadcaster TF1, recently decided not to show footage of burning cars.

"Politics in France is heading to the right and I don't want rightwing politicians back in second, or even first place because we showed burning cars on television,"
Mr Dassier told an audience of broadcasters at the News Xchange conference in Amsterdam today.

"Having satellites trained on towns across France 24 hours a day showing the violence would have been wrong and totally disproportionate ... Journalism is not simply a matter of switching on the cameras and letting them roll. You have to think about what you're broadcasting," he said.

Mr Dassier denied he was guilty of "complicity" with the French authorities, which this week invoked an extraordinary state-of-emergency law passed during the country's war with Algeria 50 years ago.

But he admitted his decision was partly motivated by a desire to avoid encouraging the resurgence of extreme rightwing views in France.

French broadcasters have faced criticism for their lack of coverage of the country's worst civil unrest in decades. Public television station France 3 has stopped broadcasting the numbers of torched cars while other TV stations are considering following suit.

"Do we send teams of journalists because cars are burning, or are the cars burning because we sent teams of journalists?" asked Patrick Lecocq, editor-in-chief of France 2.

Rival news organisations today questioned the French broadcasters' decision to temper coverage of the riots.

John Ryley, the executive editor of Sky News, said his channel would have handled a similar story in Britain very differently.

"We would have been all over it like a cheap suit. We would have monstered the story, and I didn't get the impression that happened in France," he said.




Captain Ed expresses appreciation of the clarification by TF1 and LCI on the necessity of reporting lies.

It's good of Dassier to admit the obvious. The American media should take their cue from Dassier, as they have clearly done with his idea of news coverage, and also admit that they want to avoid reporting the story properly in order to keep their consumers from understanding the truth of what's happening in France.

The violence is receding or being hidden behind a cloak of silence?


Will some day in the not too distant future a Politician proclaim in a paraphrase of Winston Churchill's immortal speech in 1946

A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lit by the light of Liberty, Equality and Freedom. A Quran Curtain has fallen across the Continent

Linked to Weekend Trackback Party at Stop the ACLU

OTA and Friends at The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 6:33 AM CST
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Updated: Saturday, 12 November 2005 10:59 AM CST
Friday, 11 November 2005
Peace Has Come To Dafur
Many of us have been playing close attention to the events in France these last few weeks, because we believe it is one of the battle fields in a Global Conflict.

Other battles have been waged in Bali, Madrid, London, New York, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, but of all the battles of the Global Jihad the dearest cost in human lives has been in Sudan.

During a previous episode in Southern Sudan between 1 and 3 million African Pagan Animists and Christians were slaughtered, but the recent conflict has been in the Northern Dafur region waged against African Sufi Sunnis by Arabic Wahhabi Sunni Jihadists.

I read an article by Christopher Hitchens last night, it appears Peace has come to that bloody and torn land.

In Iraq the United States was accused of arrogant and unilateral action, but

this time

"the administration did everything that could have been asked of it. Abandoning any sort of "unilateralism," it pedantically followed the Kofi Annan script of multiparty negotiations and patient diplomacy. It allowed the inspectors more time. It exhausted all avenues short of war and never even threatened the use of force. By the use of sanctions, it kept Sudan "in its box." And it has got exactly what anyone might have predicted for such a strategy. Perhaps that's why there is so little protest. After all, we know that "war is not the answer." And now Sudan has Darfur province in its box."

After all, we know that "war is not the answer.

So Peace has come to Dafur, because? Because there is not really anyone left to protect. The same Peace came to Dafur, that came to Rwanda. It is cold comfort that instead of at the cost of 700 to 800,000 lives it cost this time only about half as many.

"By some reliable estimates, the Sudanese government or "National Islamic Front" has slain as many as 400,000 of its black co-religionists?known contemptuously as zurga ("niggers")?and expelled perhaps 2 million more. This appalling achievement has been made possible by a very simple tactic: The actual killers and cleansers, the Arab janjaweed militias, are a "deniable" arm of the Sudanese authorities. Those authorities pretend to negotiate with the United Nations, the United States, and the African Union, and their negotiating "card" is the control that they can or might exercise over said militias. While this tap is turned on and off, according to different applications of carrot and stick, the militias pretend to go out of control and carry on with their slaughter and deportation. By the time the clock has been run out, the job is done."

The lesson we have given to the world is? That genocide works. All a regime has to do is mouth the words, go through the motions. History isreplete with those who willingly acquiesce to such tactics, Stalin called them useful idiots.

"t looks as if the realists have won the day in the matter of Darfur. Or, to phrase it in another way, it looks as if the ethnic cleansers of that province have made good use of the "negotiation" and "mediation" period to complete their self-appointed task. As my friend Johann Hari put it recently in the London Independent: "At last, some good news from Darfur: the genocide in western Sudan is nearly over. There's only one problem?it's drawing to an end only because there are no black people left to cleanse or kill."

So Peace has come to Dafur.

"the Sudanese government might have gotten away with the whole thing. But we have more than enough filmed and photographic evidence of Sudanese planes and helicopters, flying close support to janjaweed operations, to say with certainty that the relationship between the two is the same as between the Rwandan authorities and the "Hutu Power" mobs who destroyed the Tutsi population. In other words, a Rwanda in slow motion, and in front of the cameras and the diplomats."


For those who protested against the War in Iraq, for those who claim that Diplomacy and Containment should be the only method used to address incidents such as this, for those who truly believe that---


War is never the answer.

I can say to you, that your wishes have been accomplished, Peace has come to Sudan and the only Price is the one that always accompanies the path of appeasement.

It is measured in the slaughter of the innocent, 400,000 this time.

Nonintervention does not mean that nothing happens. It means that something else happens."

Peace has come to Dafur, it should not feel so sickening.

Linked to


Veterans Day Open Trackbacksat third world county

OTA and Friends at The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

Open Trackbacks: Saturday at The Political Teen

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 7:51 AM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Saturday, 12 November 2005 7:36 AM CST
Thursday, 10 November 2005
Unite Against Terror News
If you Love Liberty, Hate Tyranny, then you NEED to checkout this site and it's associated links.

Dear Unite Against Terror signer,

Signatures continue to arrive. Please encourage colleagues and friends to sign.
http://www.unite-against-terror.com


Issue 2 of Democratiya (November-December 2005), the free online review of
books, has reviews of Ted Honderich's
book After Terror by Jon Pike, and Michael Ignatieff's book Ethics in an Age of
Terror by Eve Garrard. Go to http://
www.democratiya.com/

Please consider letting others know about Democratiya.

A new debate on civil society and terror has been opened on Madrid11. Go to
http://www.madrid11.net/content/view/

67/41 to participate.

Yours,

The Organisers of Unite Against Terror


|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 7:17 PM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Thursday, 10 November 2005 7:42 PM CST
Protect Free Speech Online: Stop HR 4194
Just got this update in from The Online Coalition, when you read it, keep in mind the words of Benjamin Franklin, "We must all hang together, or we will most assuredly, hang separately."

But if you are one who thinks standing up for Liberty, and Freedom would "cause trouble"?

I commend to you the words of Samuel Adams'

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace.
We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand
that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity
forget that ye were our countrymen."
?



Dear Friends,



You haven't heard from us in a few months - but we've been working hard
to protect your freedom to speak online. And now we need your help.



Right now - there are TWO bills in Congress that will affect bloggers -
one good, one bad. The bill that deserves our support is HR 1606 - The
Online Freedom of Speech Act.



The other bill - HR 4194 - is a substitute offered by those most
interested in regulating the Internet. Its supporters are engaged in an
aggressive campaign to pass this legislation in Congress, in an effort
to muddy the waters and distract Congress from passing real protections
for bloggers. They're so terrified of your freedom to speak your mind
that they've actually compared giving freedom to bloggers to the scandal
involving Scooter Libby in the White House. (No, we're not making that
up.)



In order to pass the bill we want - we need - to stop the sham
alternative bill, HR 4194.



Their measure, HR 4194 purports to protect "bloggers" from campaign
finance regulation. But, in fact, it is so riddled with exceptions and
exclusions that it is worse that nothing.



Click here to search for your member of Congress by zip
code. Tell them that the blogosphere is not behind HR 4194.



Problems with 4194:



* It offers no guidance as to the treatment of group political
activity, potentially treating all group websites that discuss federal
candidates as political committees




* It would stifle technological innovation. HR 4914 specifically
mentions "blogging," but ignores such as already-widely used
technologies like podcasting, wikis and peer-to-peer networks, let alone
the technologies of tomorrow.



* Its alleged protection to incorporated bloggers offers no real
protection. In comments filed before the FEC, supporters of HR 4194
have stated explicitly that those websites which endorse, expressly
advocate, and urge readers to donate funds to the election of preferred
candidates do not qualify for protection under the law. This would force
bloggers that speak forcefully about politics to seek legal counsel - a
complete disaster.




This measure is a smokescreen designed to confuse the issue and prevent
better laws from passing. Call your Representatives in Congress and
make sure they understand that HR 4194 is unacceptable.


Sincerely,



The Online Coalition

info@onlinecoalition.com


PS - If you're a blogger, make sure your member of Congress knows that
you're telling your readers about HR 4194. And if you post about this issue - please send a trackback to
this post
so we can show Congress what bloggers think about their
watered-down attempts to "protect" free speech online.





Linked Back to Samantha Burns
The Not So Daily, Daily Best Reads

|







Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 7:02 PM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Thursday, 10 November 2005 7:52 PM CST
Tuesday, 8 November 2005
France In Flames
Words fail to give an adequate picture of the present days in France, but this Map despite the fact that it is without doubt dated at this time, does reveal what the media has clouded with smoke and mirrors.




From Leaders fiddle as France burns

By Colin Randall in Paris
(Filed: 08/11/2005)

11am update: France declares state of emergency
In pictures: Paris burns after week of rioting

France was struggling to overcome one of its gravest post-war crises last night as every major city faced the threat of fierce rioting that began 12 nights ago and now seems to have spun out of control.


A mechanic inspects the wreckage of a burned-out car
Despite an assurance from Philippe Douste Blazy, the foreign minister, that France was "not a dangerous country", the spread of violence prompted the Foreign Office in London to warn travellers that trouble could break out "almost anywhere".

Dominique de Villepin, the beleaguered prime minister, announced that officials in riot-hit areas would be authorised to impose late-night curfews "wherever it is necessary" in a bid to halt the disturbances.

He rejected calls by a police union for troops to be sent in but said that 1,500 reservists were being called up and repeated an appeal to parents to keep adolescent rioters off the streets.

Although the disorder began on the intimidating sink estates of Paris's northern suburbs, trouble had been reported yesterday in the early hours from most regions of the country. Even areas such as Brittany, the Loire and Bordeaux, favoured by British holidaymakers and second- home hunters, have now been drawn into the worst wave of unrest in France since the spring revolt of 1968 set in motion the downfall of Gen Charles de Gaulle.


More than 1,400 vehicles were destroyed during a night of increasing violence

Yesterday the violence also claimed its first life. A 61-year-old man died in hospital three days after being beaten unconscious when he left his home in a northern Paris suburb intending to stop rubbish bins being set on fire.

Even before renewed disturbances broke out last night, figures showed that rioters had wrecked 4,700 vehicles, injured more than 100 police and rescue workers, and opened fire in at least six separate incidents


Trends
Trends
The Times of London has a handy table of the numbers of cars burned during each day of the French riots. Tim Blair and Mark Steyn have called this metric the Car-B-Q. A graph showing the numbers of cars Car-B-Qed against day is shown below




Commentary
Two inflection points immediately jump out. The first occurs on Day 6 when the car burnings really took off after trending flat for the previous 5 days. I think this represents the missed opportunity to deal with the riots at an early stage, either with large concessions or large crackdowns. I don't think it mattered which as long as the authorities acted decisively, which they didn't, because this was the period when the French government stood paralyzed like a deer in headlights.

The second inflection point is Day 11, when the graph appears to be flattening out. Appears because Day 11 is also the day in which the modality of the disturbances began to change from Car-B-Qs to arson against churches, schools and buildings combined with shooting attacks against police officers. But clearly it may be the case that the French riots may be running out of steam and therefore susceptible to the countermeasures the government is now putting in place. Let's wait and see.


Early skirmish in the Eurabian civil war

By Mark Steyn
(Filed: 08/11/2005)

According to its Office du Tourisme, the big event in Evreux this past weekend was supposed to be the annual fete de la pomme, du cidre et du fromage at the Place de la Mairie. Instead, in this charmingly smouldering cathedral town in Normandy, a shopping mall, a post office, two schools, upwards of 50 vehicles and, oh yes, the police station were destroyed by - what's the word? - "youths".

Over at the Place de la Mairie, M le Maire himself, Jean-Louis Debre, seemed affronted by the very idea that un soupcon de carnage should be allowed to distract from the cheese-tasting. "A hundred people have smashed everything and strewn desolation," he told reporters. "Well, they don't form part of our universe."

Maybe not, but unfortunately you form part of theirs.


Mr Debre, a close pal of President Chirac's, was a little off on the numbers. There were an estimated 200 "youths" rampaging through Evreux. With baseball bats. They injured, among others, a dozen firemen. "To those responsible for the violence, I want to say: Be serious!" Mr Debre told France Info radio. "If you want to live in a fairer, more fraternal society, this is not how to go about it."

Oh, dear. Who's not "being serious" here? In Normandy, it's not just the cheese that's soft and runny. Granted that France's over-regulated sclerotic economy profoundly obstructs the social mobility of immigrants, even Mr Debris - whoops, sorry - even Mr Debre cannot be so out of touch as to think "seriously" that the rioters are rioting for "a fairer, more fraternal society". But maybe he does. The political class and the media seem to serve as mutual reinforcers of their obsolete illusions. Or as the Washington Post's headline put it: "Rage of French youth is a fight for recognition".

Actually, they're very easy to "recognise": just look out the window, they're the ones torching your Renault 5. I'd wager the "French" "youth" find that headline as hilarious as the Jets in West Side Story half a century ago, when they taunted Officer Krupke with "society's" attempts to "understand" them: we're depraved on account of we're deprived. Perhaps some enterprising Paris impresario will mount a production of West Eid Story with choreographed gangs of North African Muslims sashaying through the Place de la Republique, incinerating as they go.

Let?s pretend we don't see it, and it might disappear




Let?s pretend there isn?t any alarm. More to the point, let?s call it all alarmism. If doesn?t explain the traffic and chatter on the boards that the PR slicks can?t influence. Here?s one of the people out there exposing a corner-store jihadist who has been using chat boards to ply his trade:


Go to !No Pasaran! for the reast of the story.


It is claimed by some that by over reacting we may create a religous war where none yet exists. I am afraid that time has past and on the matter of religous war or no religous war we no longer have a choice.


It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun!


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Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 7:21 PM CST
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Updated: Tuesday, 8 November 2005 9:05 PM CST

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