Re: Sarkozy: It's already starting. From ABC News:

Police have made 143 arrests during the unrest, Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Residents and opposition politicians have accused Sarkozy of fanning tensions with his tough police tactics and talk including calling troublemakers "scum."

"Sarkozy's language has added oil to the fire. He should really weigh his words," said Kaci, whose daughter lost her gym. "I'm proud to live in France, but this France disappoints me."

Tough police tactics, like arresting criminals.

The report did not address why the youths ran when officers came to the neighborhood, but it said Benna was known to police for having committed robbery with violence and Bouna was among those who had intruded onto the building site.

Oh well. If they can Sarkozy for insensitivity, maybe we have our new FEMA director.

Sarkozy Time: Apropos of the European condition:

Nicolas Sarkozy became France’s most popular politician by promising to restore law and order in the whole of France, including in the areas abandoned by previous governments. Since Sarkozy became Interior Minister he has insisted on more police presence in Muslim neighbourhoods.

It will be intersting to see if Chirac sacks him. Seems to me that, in this scenario, we can think of the no-go areas as the Middle East, and Sarkozy is just being a confrontational Bush-like cowboy, upsetting all the "stability" achieved through generations of willful blindness. Or something.

Link via Meryl.

God help us: Roethlisberger's out for one, possibly two weeks. We now enter the Charlie Batch era.

This is pretty addictive: Shoot, shoot, shoot the zombies! The game is inspired by a HP Lovecraft short story.

My record: Level 16; 202 dead...er undead.

There are a couple nifty tricks that help you kill more efficiently, but since I had to figure them out on my own, so will you.

Good reading: The Vodkapundit, needing to stretch his legs a little, I suppose, take Richard Cohen out for a good fisking. Nicely done, Stephen.

Unpatriotic, I Know . . . but I can't seem to muster a whole lot of schadenfreude for the French this week. Islam and immigration are the hot peppers within this social stew, but don't forget that the economy there is always in the toilet these days, despite the fact that France gets a grossly disproportionate share of EU subsidies. Even the right wing is socialist in France.

Still, it's just hard not to feel bad for Monsieur et Madamoiselle Bourgeois, trying to make a mortgage payment (and perhaps keep a little apartment for Monsieur's mistress) while the citizenry demands economic improvement (plus relief from the wretchedness of the 35-hour workweek) and the immigrant population, legal and otherwise, suggests that the republic could stand a bit of sharia. It's almost enough to make McDonalds, Hollywood, and le hip-hop seem like boons to French society.

Something Fishy: The Globe goes back to a 1971 undergrad paper to praise Alito for backing "privacy and gay rights."

Meanwhile, George Will efficiently debunks the claim that you can't fill a moderate seat with anything but a moderate, saying that "the history of presidential practice -- Democrats should especially study FDR's sweeping alteration of the court's composition -- refutes the rule." He also mentions that Ginsburg herself replaced the conservative "Whizzer" White (so called for the rumor that, in his lower court days, he kept a Sprite bottle under his robe to relieve his bladder during long voir dire).

Finally, I think Chuck Schumer just said Alito might as well be Mussolini's little brother.

Another thing: Who thought up the Democrats' little trick of pre-emptively branding everything "controversial"? Schumer called Alito "controversial" twice (once directly and once implicitly). I don't know of any controversy, other than the fact that the man has a penis and likely sits to the right of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do you?

I'm shocked: Shocked to learn there's shooting in this town.

I don't know if any of these stars have explicitly argued for gun control type legislation, but it sure seems clear they don't want to own up to their own gun-totin' ways.

PISTOL-packing Joe Mantegna is blasting a chink in the politically correct armor
of some Hollywood heavyweights - he says they love to own and shoot guns. The
"Joan of Arcadia" star says that such left-leaning showbiz types as Steven
Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio and playwright David Mamet are all avid shooters.
"Lots of guys in Hollywood love to shoot," Mantegna, a longtime gun sportsman,
tells Fade In magazine. "But they ain't gonna talk to you."

I especially liked this line, from Richard Donner:

"I am anything but a gun enthusiast," he said in a terse statement. "The only
reason I would ever own a gun is for the protection of my home, my environment
or my family under the circumstances in which I am forced to live."

I presume that goes for the rest of the public, too. Unless the circumstances you live in out in Hollywood are that much more dangerous than the rest of the country.

Via Annika, who throws down the gauntlet to one major celeb:

i bet i could totally outshoot Ben Afflack, that pansy.

I wonder: I wonder if plastic surgeons get a lot of cards from their female patients saying: "Thanks for the mammaries."

I roll with 50: Rapper 50 Cent has slapped down Kanye West (about 6 weeks late, but better late than never) for his "Bush doesn't care baout black people comment" post Katrina.

He says, "The New Orleans disaster was meant to happen. It was an act of God.

"I think people responded to it the best way they can.

"What KANYE WEST was saying, I don't know where that came from."

In honor, I will make Wanksta my ringtone fo the day, as a tribute to "Fitty."

Via the Corner

Well, my toes curled that's for sure!: Eno, you may want to check out the one way tickets from Logan to our neighbor to the north. It seems that, despite your best efforts, curling hasn't been receiving its due -- even in Canada. Only one solution to that dilemma: nudity! I'll cover for you with Mrs. Enobarbus -- make up some story of fly fishing or whatnot.

Some Fairly Unrelated Halloween Thoughts: Urban Halloween is a sight to behold. Here are just a few of the unvarnished demographic observations from this rather mixed-ethnicity neighborhood.

Black people will trick or treat and almost any age. A white parent will almost never bring his or her own bag. Almost every black parent does. Some of them say it's for their baby at home. Please. Just admit you want some candy, all right?

Black high school girls are the funniest, becuase they don't say "Trick or treat!" They don't even ring the doorbell. They just stand on the step and beep their cell phones until you come out.

Hispanic mothers bring their sons and push them up the steps, saying, "Go on, baby, you do it." Hispanic fathers bring their little girls, all of whom are dressed as princesses, and hold their hands all the way. It's terribly sweet. You want a friend for life? Tell Julio his little princess looks beautiful. Even better: get your son to say it in Spanish.

Older kids will say thank you, but only as they leave, facing away. The little kids always look in your eye and say it, even if mom or dad has to prompt them.

Jewish homes rarely have chocolate. (This may have something to do with keeping kosher, but I suspect it's mainly revenge for Halloween being the most crypto-religious holiday.) They give out Smarties (predictable jokes are invited).

The Koreans across the street pretend that they don't notice what's going on, but they are clearly freaked out. The older ones anyway. They peer out occasionally, through the blinds, but everyone knows to avoid their houses. Sometimes I wonder if they have a bowl of sweet bean paste cookies, in case some little rugrats brave the darkened front steps.

At my house, I give out the standard Kit-Kat/Reese's assortment, while I nibble the chipotle chocolates. Washed down with port.

Alito Shuffle: Arrrghh! You dick! Can we just agree that this one is qualified? I mean, look, I didn't carp when Ginsburg and Breyer were overwhelmingly confirmed. Sure, they're as liberal as Dick's hatband (note last week's full frontal fellating of Breyer in the New Yorker; fawning doesn't come close), but they were, in fact, qualified. The GOP at least had the glancing familiarity with reality to admit that they lost two straight to His Royal Pantslessness and hence had to roll over for Bill's Supremes picks. But the Dems will fight till the cows come home to convince us that, despite previous Alito's confirmation to the federal bench at 100-0, he is, in fact, an unqualified, dangerous crypto-fascist. So they won't dare let the will of the electorate run its course.

In the end, that's what galls the Democrats so: They just know, dammit, know that they're right. Those dumbasses in the red states should learn that democracy is best when tempered by the judgement of their betters. (See Iran, Islamic Republic of.)

For the Record: Just to forestall any lefty MSM hysteria on Judge Alito, he does NOT believe that women are the property of their husbands.


Which is a shame really.

And Yet . . .

Scooter Takes the Bullet: Reynolds has a good roundup here. And Jeff's "preliminary thoughts" have exploded into a full-blown update-o-rama here.

What is there to say? Nobody on the left will be satisfied with this outcome. On the right, they're in a bind. What are they going to say? That a charge unrelated (or only tangentially related) to the investigation is illegitimate? Explain to me again exactly how Monica's blowjob was related to Whitewater.

I'll bet Scoot will be exonerated, else pardoned as Dubya leaves office. For now, let's have this be the end of the special prosecutor culture in DC. For chrissake, I'm surprised Harriet Miers wasn't indicted for impersonating a judicial nominee.

He knows her heart: Now that the Miers debacle is over with, we can move on to guessing the next nominee (I have my pick, below).

By the way, all this MSM hoo-ha about the "extreme" right wing pushing her out the door, while certainly partially true, as usual, misses the entire point. The "extreme" right wing didn't want her because they were terrified of her incoherent, and let's face it, somewhat lefty-sounding, constitutional "history." But that shouldn't cover up the fact that she was totally unqualified for the job. Sure, Senator Reid wanted her in b/c he was afraid of what is around the corner (some slobbering intelligent design pusher no doubt). He figured Miers would be at worst an O'Connor voter (without you know, the intellect), but at best, Ginsberg's best buddy. Or maybe she and Souter would do a little robe-swapping and hey, things are looking up. Anyway, it would have been an example of sheer political cynicism from both sides. Good riddance.

Anyway, what I'm suggesting is something totally different. Bush still wants to nominate a woman. He still wants to nominate someone he knows and trusts. Hmmm, maybe someone he really knows and trusts! What's that? ... No. No! I wasn't going to say his wife, Laura Bush. Silly (although she does look very poised in that picture).

I meant his daughter, Laura Bush. After all, W has known her for her entire life! Think of the jurisprudence: eradicate the drinking age as unconscion...unscient...inconvenient; inalienable right to lip gloss; eminent domain over keg parties. Specter would crumble before her.

Indictments afoot: How do you know you're about to be indicted? You suffer a traumatic injury to your lower-most extremity.

To wit: Councilman Mariano in my fair city of Philadelphia. Mr. Mariano is being indicted on taking bribes (gasp!) in return for steering business (gasp! gasp!). The fun was last week when the news went public, Mr. Mariano decided to take a tour of the bell tower of City Hall, right across the street from my office. Unfortunately for Mr. Mariano, the observation deck is enclosed in plexiglass. Bonus points, however, for him being a licensed gun-carrier, which caused a mad scramble of police and rescue types. Nonetheless, he calmly walked out and said he was just "clearing his mind" -- a task, that for him, should have been accomplished on his first step up the tower.

Now comes: Scooter Libby. We'll know today for sure, but he took the precaution of hobbling himself just in case.

Me: I'm taping up the ankles.

And Adios, Harriet, For Good Measure: I'm feeling like I should weigh in on this, although there really isn't much to say. (Like that's ever stopped me . . .) There are really only two ways to look at this, two scenarios to explain the mess from the White House.

1. Harriet Miers was, from the start, a sacrificial lamb, intended to show the Jesus-loving base that Bush "gets it." Hence the sloppy defense of her that amounted to religious-flavored nudges and winks. In other words, Bush had someone else in mind, but first he had to say "Well, I tried" to the theocrats. (Sidenote: Bush has always been portrayed as a "strong Christian," but I think a lot of it is show for the invisible friend crowd. He's certainly religious, probably more so than his pop or Reagan, but he's certainly not been a crusader againt abortion or gay rights. One sensed, when he spoke about a marriage amendment, that he was halfhearted. Note, too, the lack of follow through on that issue.) The next nominee will show what the headfake was about.

2. This really was a dropped ball. What with the Plame investigation and the constitutional referendum in Iraq, the administration fumbled and, stupidly, didn't fall on the ball. Bush, distracted, heard some mutterings from the other side that the chick he picked to vet his nominees might be acceptible to Harry Reid, so he jumped at it. He'd hit a home run with Roberts, so he might as well bunt on this one.

Beats me which scenario is closer to the truth. The left wing that thinks of Rove as an evil genius might just buy into the first. I might agree this time, though I generally think of Rove as a poor man's Lee Atwater, and without the good musical taste. But, as I've said before, since Roberts sailed through untouched, the Dems were out for blood. It's as good a time as any to throw a headfake. I mean, surely a candidate with as big a glass jaw as Miers couldn't really get past Rove, Cheney, and Andy Card, right? Again, the next nominee should give us at least some clue what this sad intermezzo was all about.

Withdrawal: For the life of me I don't understand what Bush can be thinking. I don't know anything about Ms. Miers, but, politically speaking this makes absolutely no sense. I mean...

Whoa, sorry there. Force of habit.

So "Trust me" didn't work, eh George. Wow, I can't imagine why.

Some will say that this hurts the Republican party or the conservative movement or some such, but I think this actually is quite a good thing. I think it's good for "parties within the party" to have these dsiputes about what it's priorities really are. The Republican party has gotten incredibly lazy and drunk with power since 1994 and they needed a swift kick in the principles. It was either going to happen now or at the polls in 2006. It may still happen at the polls in 2006, but they can't say they haven't been warned. This was a good shakeup, and it only wasted a few weeks. Compare that to the waste of time we're gonna have now, when Bush nominates Cheney to the SCOTUS.