Muslim "intifada" in France has inflicted 2,500 casualties on police this year

BREITBART.COM - Hundreds march in French suburb one year after riots:

"French and international media have been scrutinising the Paris suburbs for signs of a new outbreak of violence -- despite warnings that the television cameras could spur young rioters on.

"Around 60 journalists joined Friday's march in Clichy-sous-Bois, where the boys' [Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15 - who broke into an electrical substation to hide from police and electrocuted themselves, sparking last year's riots] families led mourners past their old school to inaugurate a monument in their memory."

The above is from Agence France Press and manages to be fairly upbeat and positive. For example, it mentions that the authorities declared order was restored on November 17 last year, but neglects to point out that was when the police said the level of violence in the Muslim banlieues had returned to normal, which was pretty bad.

Drudge also links a much more interesting story from WorldTribune.com where we learn some really sobering facts. For example, "'We are in a state of civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists,' said Michel Thoomis, secretary general of the Action Police trade union. 'This is not a question of urban violence any more. It is an intifada, with stones and firebombs.'"

According to this article, "The French Interior Ministry has acknowledged the Muslim uprising. The ministry said more than 2,500 police officers have been injured in 2006. This amounts to at least 14 officers each day." It seems drug sellers in the projects have organized the youths so that anytime the cops try to arrest anyone, whole apartment houses empty of young men overwhelming the officers and setting the arrestees free before police reinforcements can arrive. Some of these housing developments are now considered no go areas for police and even social workers.

Murder by arson in California

Calif. wildfire kills 4, burns 24,000 acres - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com:

"Fire officials were mourning the deaths of four U.S. Forest Service firefighters killed while attempting to protect a home close to where the fire began in Cabazon. The flames came so quickly the five-person crew had no time to retreat to its engine or use protective sheltering.

"Authorities said a $100,000 reward would be offered for information leading to the arsonist’s arrest.

“'A deliberately set arson fire that leads to the death of anyone constitutes murder,' [Riverside County fire Chief John Hawkins] Hawkins said."

It is sad when so many brave men die so needlessly.

As I have written before, every firesetter should be treated by the law as committing at least aggravated assault on firefighters.

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

McCartney to tour to pay for millions in alimony | the Daily Mail:
"'Paul is going on a five-month world tour at the end of next year to get over Heather. But it is also rather a convenient way of recouping the losses he will accrue in the divorce courts', said a friend last night."

Maybe Sir Paul could cut a cover of that country tune "She Got The Gold Mine, I Got The Shaft."

Before we all get out our hankies and have a good cry over the "cute" Beatle's current woes, we should remember that this is no destitute Willie Nelson ruined by tax troubles. Under the worst case scenario, Sir Paul McCartney will still have assets of over a half billion pounds which means, with careful management, he should not have to do any heavy lifting if he lives another century and more.

UK: Cabinet promises serious measures to restrict labor migration

�1,000 on the spot fines for migrants | the Daily Mail:

"Four years ago, the Home Office was caught out when it predicted just 13,000 extra migrant workers would arrive when Poland and seven other nations joined. In the event, somewhere between 300,000 and 600,000 flocked to the UK to find better-paid and more available jobs.

"Promising to the Commons that the mistake would not happen again, [Home Secretary] Mr [John] Reid admitted the mass movement of workers had put extra strain on some schools and housing.

"A Whitehall source confirmed the spot fines would be as high as 1,000 [pounds] per person, adding: 'This will be a real deterrent because people will think twice before taking a job that they could end up both losing and walking away without any money.'

"Firms that hire Romanian and Bulgarian workers without a special permit would also be fined 'heavily'. Mr Reid said: 'Employing illegal workers undercuts legitimate business and leads to exploitation. It will not be tolerated.'"

There are several things to note here that have some relevance for our own situation in the US. One is that various economic integration schemes patterned on the EU - NAFTA, Caribbean Basin Initiative, FTAA - will inevitably exacerbate the problem, not solve it.

Another is that Mr. Reid is onto something with the idea of handing the illegal worker a thousand pound fine on the spot. Just ending his career with that company is one thing, but seizing the wages he has coming and leaving him penniless and still owing more to the government might be a real deterrent.

Imagine the howls from the left if some Republican proposed fines of that magnitude for undocumented workers in our country? Come to think of it, for not much more money than that, President Bush wants to sell citizenship to illegal immigrants.

OTOH, government claims that there had been no adverse impact on wages from the prior flood of eastern European EU migrant labor and only local pressure on a few schools is disingenuous.

The assertion that the new immigrants had driven up the cost of English language instruction is an obvious difference from the US experience.

Virginia Voting Machines Provide Novel Example of "Long" Names

Some Voting Machines Chop Off Candidates' Names - washingtonpost.com:
"U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday."

James Webb, at 10 letters and spaces, is about as short a name as you will find. Of course, on the ballot it is supposed to appear as James H. "Jim" Webb (19 lettters spaces and punctuation marks) and does on the page where voters mark their preference for US Senate. The Hart InterCivic system, however, also displays a summary of the voter's choices for review before the vote is tallied. On the summary screen, Webb's name is too long and his last name is omitted.

Fortunately, only three rather small cities - Alexandria and Falls Church in the DC suburbs and Charlottesville my former hometown in the cenral piedmont - are using machines from the Hart company in Austin, Texas which hopes to have this glitch fixed in time for the fall 2007 elections.

You might say they could get rid of candidate's nicknames, but in Virginia that might be even more confusing. I used to know politicians with names like H.D. "Buzz" Dawbarn, A.R. "Pete" Giesen, Raymond R. "Andy" Guest.

And others had rather long names, even without a nickname, like J. Kenneth Robinson and D. French Slaughter, Jr. who represented the seventh district when I lived there. Referring to them on the ballot as J. Kenneth Robi or D. French Slaug might have been a bit confusing even to their friends.

Could you imagine Thomas "Tom" Jefferson showing up on the ballot as Thomas "Tom" Je?

North Korea says U.N. sanctions are a declaration of war

BREITBART.COM - North Korea says U.N. sanctions against the country are a declaration of war:
"'The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war' against the North, also known at the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the statement said."

NEWS FLASH for Kim Jong-Il: Your country has been at war with the United Nations since 1950. The armistice in place since 1953 only halted hostilities during negotiations for a treaty of peace. It should be clear after more than half a century of talks (in which the items successdully negotiated included such weighty matters as the sizes of flags to be displayed on the table in front of each delegation) that no such resolution of the 1950 conflict is forthcoming. The hostilities threatened by the North would just be North Korea vs. The United Nations, Part Two.

Food-Stamp Program Finally Speaks Their Language - Los Angeles Times

Food-Stamp Program Finally Speaks Their Language - Los Angeles Times:

"Advocates say immigrants, if here illegally, are also worried about being deported if they apply for food stamps. Or they fear jeopardizing a pending application for residency or citizenship. Illegal immigrants can apply on behalf of their minor children here legally.

"Other immigrants say they were simply embarrassed.

"'The Mexican man is macho. He doesn't want to come to this country and beg,' said Alfonso Chavez, the Community Action Partnership's outreach coordinator. 'I tell them this is a program that will help the children. The kids are American-born, and they have a right to this program.'"

It seems that the California and Federal governments have finally hit upon a way to increase the state's abysmally low food stamp participation rate - 34% of the working poor in 2003, lowest of any state in the US. By farming out application processing to non-profit advocacy groups they are overcoming illegal immigrants' fear of government.

But notice the nice twist Mr. Chavez puts on things: "The kids are American-born, and they have a right to this program." Of course, this is non-sense. The "kids" are neither the program applicants nor the recipients of payments, the parents are and they are here illegally.

Mr. Chavez' statement also implies that the children may be US citizens when the US Constitution clearly states that they are not. See Amendment XIV, Section 1 - the operative phrase being "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" - foreigners cannot acquire such status for themselves unilaterally, it must be requested of the US and granted by the US. And, they cannot acquire such status for their children simply by coming here illegally and having those children born here.

The child has the status of the parents. If a couple arrive on a tourist visa and happen to have a child while here, the child has their nationality and they can take the child with them when they go home. If a couple enter the US as diplomats, their child born here has diplomatic dependent status. It follows that the child of parents here illegally is here illegally even if that child happens - through no fault or virtue of its own - to have been born here.

Mexico is anxious to push the idea that one can be a citizen of Mexico regardless of their immigration status while living abroad. The want the Bush amnesty plan to give American citizenship to all the Mexicans and other illegals who have arrived here over the last two decades (since the Reagan amnesty) while continuing to recognize those persons as Mexican citizens entitled to vote in Mexican elections. This is a part of the strategy to use the Hispanic population of the US as a Fifth Column to reverse the outcome of the 1846-48 Mexican War.

By the way, Mexican partisans seldom mention that the US government assumed the obligation for $3 million in debts owed by Mexico to US citizens and paid a further $15 million to the Mexican gogernment to buy out its claims to territory - from Texas to California - which Mexico relinquished as a result that war.

Unions win fight to keep felons working at US ports

OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail:
"... clout of the unions who were able to gut the felon ban in the House-Senate conference committee. Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, assured colleagues he would fight for the ban in conference but in reality fought to have it weakened. His staff even called Port of Charleston officials and told them their port would be shut down if the DeMint amendment became law."

US Rep. Jim DeMint (R-SC) deserves credit for trying to write into statute rules to prevent convicted felons from working at America's ports where there is a long-standing problem of smuggling drugs, weapons, illegal aliens, etc., as well as cargo theft. Giving the unions the benefit of the doubt, they probably don't want to perpetuate our vulnerability to terrorist penetration of our ports but they are unwilling to give up their longstanding lucrative sideline businesses of smuggling and theft.