I find it somewhat curious that countries that have stood with us in the War on Terror are able to foil plots against them, while countries that have not stood with us are suffering incessantly. As FOXnews reported,

The Australian Federal Police said the men were arrested in Sydney and Melbourne in coordinated raids that also netted evidence including weapons and apparent bomb-making materials. A prosecutor said the cleric, Abdul Nacer Benbrika — also known as Abu Bakr — was the ringleader.
“I was satisfied that this state was under an imminent threat of potentially a catastrophic terrorist act,” said New South Wales Police Minister Carl Scully.
Police commissioner Graeme Morgan said one of the men arrested was shot and wounded by police in the raids, which followed a 16-month investigation.
Police declined to give details of the likely target of the attack, but Victoria state police chief Christine Nixon said that next year’s Commonwealth Games, to be staged in Melbourne, were not a target.

France thought they were able to preclude themselves from Islamofascism, but inevitably they were wrong as they are suffering from lack of leadership, whereas countries such as Australia are able to fend for themselves.

Donkey Stomp says ‘Way to Go!’

Ex-President Bill Clinton took time last week to stroke his incessant ego at the funeral of Rosa Parks. As a guess speaker, Clinton reminisced about his days as a young man,

“I remember as if it were yesterday, that fateful day 50 years ago. I was a 9-year-old southern white boy who rode on a segregated bus every single day of my life.” He goes on to say that it was after Parks refused to give up her seat that he and two friends decided they wouldn’t sit in the front anymore.

The best synopsis I have heard of this statment is that Clinto cannot let anyone have their own moment. Everything, every event has to be about him. Here, Rosa Parks, the courageous individual known for her stand (or sit, actually) against southern segregation cannot be remembered in her own right, ex-President Clinton must also bask in the glory, as well, for he sacrificed, too. In the moment, he must be remembered and cannot pay homage to this great woman, he must also share in the limelight.

Oblogatory Anecdotes discusses his inability to remember when it is convenient.
Politcal Teen: Bubba Lies, Again

PLEASE CONSIDER THIS A ‘STICKY’ POST THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND!

As some of you have no doubt surmised by now, Publius Rendezvous has moved! Please consider this my new home and change your blogroll or links. I should say that I am eternally grateful to TD, over at Right Track blog for his support and aid through the process. Please feel free to submit comments, suggestions and your general thoughts about the new layout, it is a work in progress.

Readers should know the rules by now, but in case you do not, they are quite simple. With this photograph, you simply provide a “caption” in the comments section and I will scrape together the best at the end of the weekend to caption the actual photograph.

Also, if you have any posts or stories you feel warrant a larger audience, please feel free to trackback to this post. Consider this an open forum for any of your posts that you feel has not gotten the attention it deserves over the last week. If you would like, please utilize the ‘trackback’ function, or if you like, you could always do it the old-fashioned way via the ‘comments’ section.

Unfortunately, comprehensive coverage cannot be relied upon by the Mainstream Media (”MSM”) as it relates to the perpetual riots plaguing France throughout the last week. Your humble pundit was somewhat ignorant of the situation for in my own regression I have been out of the blogosphere and have relied upon the MSM in following this story. Alas, it seems as though Michelle Malkin has put me in my proverbial place on this matter with her comprehensive coverage this morning. Mysteriously, it would seem as though cloak has been thrown over the matter to downplay the ramifications and toils France is facing. Rest assured Michelle Malkin has a thorough round-up at her blog, and it is where I found this particular excerpt from Robert Spencer,

Blame for the riots in France has thus far focused on Sarkozy’s tough talk about ending this violence. On October 19 he declared of the suburbs that “they have to be cleaned — we’re going to make them as clean as a whistle.” Six days after this, Muslim protestors threw stones and bottles at him when he visited the suburb of Argenteuil. He has been roundly criticized for calling the rioters “scum”; one of them responded, “We’re not scum. We’re human beings, but we’re neglected.” However, as a solution the same man recommended only more neglect, saying of the Paris riot police: “If they didn’t come here, into our area, nothing would happen. If they come here it’s to provoke us, so we provoke back.” Others complained of rough treatment they have received since 9/11 from police searching for terrorists: “It’s the way they stop and search people, kneeing them between the legs as they put them up against the wall. They get students mixed up with the worst offenders, yet these young people have done nothing wrong.”
But of course, all these problems are exacerbated by the non-assimilation policy that both the French government and the Muslim population have for so long pursued: the rioters are part of a population that has never considered itself French. Nor do French officials seem able or willing to face that this is the core of their problem today. It is likely that the riots will result only in intensification of the problems that caused them: if French officials offer an accommodation to Muslims, it will probably result only in further intensification of the Islamic identity, often in its most radical manifestations, among French Muslims. The French response to the riots is likely to unfold along the lines of a decision by officials in Holland last May: they declined to ban a book called De weg van de Moslim (The Way of the Muslim), even though it calls for homosexuals to be thrown head first off tall buildings. The Amsterdam city council did not want to contravene “the freedom to express opinions.”
That decision is a small example of what the Paris riots demonstrate on a large scale: the abject failure of the multiculturalist philosophy that disparate groups can coexist within a nation without any idea that they must share at least some basic values. The French are paying the price today for blithely assuming that France could absorb a population holding values vastly different from that of the host population without negative consequences for either.

Hopefully, LaShawn Barber is not prophetic in postulating that this will soon be coming to the streets of America. I callously use the word “hopefully” for the dogma that is emanated through being “politically correct,” and our approaches to the Muslim population here in America do not comfort those of us who are concerned with the defiance shown by a large sect of Muslims since 9/11. Common sense illustrates that Barber is somewhat correct for we have taken an approach spearheaded by France here in discouraging assimilation for the sake of remaining politically correct.

Weapons of Mass Destruction provides us with a thorough round-up, as well.
Super Fun Power Hour asserts their leaders have no spines.
Don Surber outlines the issue.
A Blog For All discusses how Paris is still burning.
Basil’s Blog has a daunting analogy.
Conservative Cat discusses how this is different from American rioting.

It seems as though public opinion is slowly beginning to seduce some of the Republicans in the Senate,

The Bush administration clashed with Senate Republicans yesterday over proposals to use oil company profits to beef up heating assistance for low-income households this winter.

I must applaud Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman as he represents the line taken by the Bush Administration. This proposal is utterly asinine in lieu of basic principles of economics. This nothing more than pandering to ensnare as many votes as possible through the worst in politics. Do not misunderstand my assertions as being unsympathetic to the plight shared by all Americans. The price of gasoline is quite the bitter pill to swallow, but this is no reason to implement policies that fly in the face of the basic tenets of the conservative perspective of capitalism.

“In light of record profits and rising energy costs, it seems only logical for the companies to practice good corporate citizenship by helping low-income families and seniors,” said the Iowa Republican, whose state is one of many in the Midwest where heating bills are expected to rise 50 percent on average this winter.

It is sickening to hear words such as these coming from the mouths of republicans.

The sham that once was “The Gang of 14″ seems to be splintering over Judge Sam Alito’s nomination to the Surpreme Court. It seems as though that another “great” compromise could be reached over this nominee even though he has been confirmed twice (unanimously) by the Senate in his illustrious career.

As Oblogatory Anecdotes opines, the term “extenuating circumstances” looks as though it will not be construed to encompass this nominee. Was there any serious merit to this compromise in the first place? It was utterly preposterous and nothing short of absurd to construe this “compromise” as anything but a win for the Democrats in the first place.

Though, tt is quite encouraging that the Republican Senators Graham and DeWine have learned their respective lessons as they approach the confirmation process with this nominee. There actions illustrate that Republican Senators will heed what is demanded by their constiuents.

Unfortunately, your humble pundit has been stifled due to technical difficulties in the last couple of days. These technical difficulties abounded on a crucial morning just a few short days ago. I do not believe that any of those left in my audience would find it surprising that I am a staunch and steadfast supproter of the President’s decision to nominate Judge Samuel Alito, Jr. for the Surpreme Court.

A jurist who I admire a great deal iterated such about the nominee,

“President Bush promised that he would nominate Justices in the mold of Justices Scalia and Thomas. In choosing Judge Alito for the high court, President Bush has done just that. Judge Alito is a top tier judicial pick who is a well known conservative jurist with a lengthy track record of interpreting the Constitution and not legislating from the bench. As a former U.S. Attorney who has spent the last 15 years on the bench at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Judge Alito is extremely well qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court. The nomination of Judge Alito will galvanize conservatives and sets the stage for a critical confirmation process in the Senate. We are committed to working to ensure that Judge Alito is confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.”

I encourage any and all individuals to supprot this candidate as a perfect storm is already beginning to formulate in the Senate. Judge Alito will be highly contested due to his jurisprudential record. It must not be forgotten that this is why we elected this President to a second term in office. President Bush promised to nominate Associate Justices in the mold of Justices Scalia and Thomas.