By Debbie Schlussel
Why are we bailing out banks who are hiring and bringing to America thousands of foreign workers to be corporate senior vice presidents, lawyers, junior investment analysts, and human resources specialists?
This is “the work Americans won’t do”? I don’t think so.
But Associated Press found in an exhaustive investigation that the dozen banks receiving the biggest bailout packages requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the last six years for these jobs, from which Americans were let go.
We constantly hear from corporations (and the Wall Street Journal editorial page) pushing Congress for more foreign worker visas, that these are for “skilled” jobs that Americans aren’t qualified for, that they can’t find any Americans who meet the specifications. So, tell me: Does America have a shortage of lawyers? HA! Junior investment analysts? I’ll tell that to my brother, who does just that and has plenty of friends in his profession looking for jobs. Human resources personnel?

PUH-LEEZE.
Protectionism or not, the fact is that the loss of American jobs is a big factor in our sinking economy. People who lose their jobs don’t have money to buy products, and then companies who can’t sell the products cut jobs to cut costs because no one is buying. Then, those new out-of-work employees can’t buy products, which leads to more layoffs and job terminations. It’s a nasty cycle. And hiring foreigners–and bringing them here on visas–to do work Americans can and will do is a big problem. Again, these visas are supposed to be for jobs Americans won’t fill and/or don’t have the required skills for.
Not the case:

Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.
The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.
As the economic collapse worsened last year – with huge numbers of bank employees laid off – the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP’s analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in the 2007 budget year to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.
The AP reviewed visa applications the banks filed with the Labor Department under the H-1B visa program, which allows temporary employment of foreign workers in specialized-skill and advanced-degree positions. Such visas are most often associated with high-tech workers. . . .
During the last three months of 2008, the largest banks that received taxpayer loans announced more than 100,000 layoffs. . . .
David Huber of Chicago is a computer networking engineer who has testified to Congress about losing out on a 2002 job with the former Bank One Corp. He learned later the bank applied to hire dozens of foreign visa holders for work he said he was qualified to do. . . .
“You’re using taxpayer dollars and there’s an expectation that there are benefits to the U.S.,” said Ron Hira, a national expert on foreign employment and assistant public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. “What you’re really doing is leaking away those jobs and benefits that should accrue to the taxpayers.”

And look who’s all for this taxpayer subsidy for stealing American jobs:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes more access to “worldwide talent pools” will better position U.S. financial companies against global competitors, spokesman Andrew Brent said.

Oh, really? Better positioned? For what? A deep depression. That’s what.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to disclose details on foreign workers hired at the banks that have received federal bailouts. The AP has requested the information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

I’m sure the picture won’t be pretty once this info is released.

Nearly all the banks the AP contacted also declined to comment on their foreign hiring practices. . . .
Jennifer Scott of Yreka, Calif., a retired technical systems manager at Bank of America in Concord, Calif., said in 2004 she oversaw foreign employees from a contractor firm that also sent overnight work to employees in India.
“It had nothing to do with a shortage, but they didn’t want to pay the U.S. rate,” she said, adding that the quality of the work was weak. “It’s all about numbers crunching.”

As I’ve noted in the past, there are law firms–like Cohen & Grigsby–that specialize in teaching corporations how to cheat Americans out of jobs and avoid hiring them so they can hire cheap foreigners and bring them here on those visas. Sadly, the feds–while initially investigating one law firm caught on video–declined to prosecute.
And so it continues. We subsidize the elimination of American jobs and the creation of a new class of foreign workers coming here to take our white collar jobs.
More reasons why bail outs don’t work.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Watch the VIDEO of Disney ad featuring criminal thug baby daddy druggie chick-beater Santonio. ****
So, the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl. Big whoop. Now to the more important Supe Post Mortems. . . .
First, the funniest Super Bowl ad was the one saying the Detroit Lions will be winners, next year. No lie, that was a Supe ad here in Detroit, and I assume, nationally, too. Yup, that is the funniest ad I saw tonight. Hiiiiiilaaaaaariiiioooouuuusss. But the humor in that ad won’t make me wanna go out and buy the product. Oh yeah, the product was the Lions. Well, they only gotta win one game to improve upon last season.
Then, there’s the Super Bowl MVP, Santonio Holmes. Dude, what–your mother couldn’t pronounce San Antonio, so she had to combine it into one word to save syllables? Looking forward to hearing about future Super Bowl MVPs, Flauderdale Jones and L’Vegas Smith.

Santonio Holmes: Sordid Super Bowl MVP
Doesn’t Belong in Disney Ad (or Any Other)
In Holmes case, Most Valuable Playah might be a more appropriate title. Here’s a little scoopage on Mr. Holmes. Like most NFL players, he’s the son of a single mother, who had him when she was 16. We can’t fault him for that misfortune. But, sadly, the Santonio Cycle of Skank continues: He’s the baby daddy to at least three out-of-wedlock kids, one (Shaniya) with a woman named LaShae Boone, whom he assaulted, for which he was charged with domestic violence and assault. The other two kids from other different women–Santonio III (I guess they skipped II) and Nicori–are being raised by Holmes’ mother.
But this certified role model for Disney commercial watchers all over America also has a rich criminal history aside from that. As a kid, he was a drug dealer, and just this past October he got arrested for marijuana possession and missed a game because of it. Hey, he and Michael Phelps could do an ad together . . . for their favorite brand of post-toke potato chips.
Oh, and then, there’s Santonio’s predilection for exposing himself to the world (Click below for pic and look only before eating–I posted the censored version.)
Like I said, can’t wait for that Disney ad that every Super Bowl MVP in contemporary years gets to do.

Santonio Flauderdale L’Vegas Holmes, you just won the Super Bowl. What are you gonna do next?
I’m gonna father some out-of-wedlock kids, beat up some hos, get naked, smoke some pot, and then I’m gonna eat all of Disney World.

Hey, at least Disney had some class when three-time murderer Ray Lewis won the Super Bowl and didn’t let him do the ad. Here’s hoping they repeat in this case. **** UPDATE: Incredibly, Disney doesn’t use any discretion and is going with Holmes (and Ben Roethlisberger) for the ad. ****
As I always say, you pluck kids out of the Killing Fields of America, and you’ll usually get thugs. That’s the NFL for ya.
Welcome to declining America’s ever-declining new role models.
***
Lest you think this is a race thing, think again, since I’ve criticized several White players in the NFL from the same background, including Ryan Tucker, Christian Peter, and many others. (And I critiqued Sarah Palin’s kids’ names, too.)

Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel
Alhamdill’Legend–I’m sure the few Muslims watching the Super Bowl (most of them prefer that other “football” more popular in terrorist-host nations a/k/a soccer) are saying “Praise Legend.”
That’s because, as reader Eu alerts us, on today’s Super Bowl Pre-Game Show–at the NFL Tailgate Party, singer John Legend (real name: John Stephens) performed and donned a keffiyeh, the jihadist scarf of death. I don’t think this was an accident. By now, he should know what it stands for. And, living in Michigan, I gotta ask: Is it that cold in Tampa, Florida in February, that a singer has to wear a jihadist scarf at his performance to keep warm?
A question that needs to be asked of the NFL: Is jihadist garb acceptable for the league’s hand-picked, paid performers?

As Eu notes:

Consider that there is NO NEED to wear a muffler in Tampa, Florida, today or any other day. He can’t say he needed something to “keep his throat warm.”

And even if he did, this ain’t the fashion statement to make, John. A Legend in his own mind.

By Debbie Schlussel
This year, the Super Bowl is between two small-market teams, Pittsburgh and Arizona. But even if it were between two more exciting, big-market teams, I couldn’t care less about Super Bowl XLIII a/k/a the “Supe” (I call all Super Bowls, “Supe”). And maybe a lot of America feels that way, since I’ve noticed a decline in the hype over this TV event.
Yes, like most people I’ll watch (while cleaning my apartment and doing laundry). But whoever wins the Super Bowl, it won’t make my life better . . . or yours. It won’t change the world or your personal circumstances. It won’t do a thing. It’ll just be another notch in the belt of the billionaires who own the teams and the multi-millionaires who play for them. It’ll be another step in the endless tax-funding and subsidies to sports teams and their owners from American taxpayers.

Pittsburgh Steelers v. Arizona Cardinals:
Super Sunday Not So Super
Regardless of what happens in tonight’s meaningless “Big Game,” we’ll still be shelling out gazillions to build new stadiums–the workplaces of these most wealthy Americans. And sports teams will continue to offer below-market part time jobs with below-market wages and benefits as a “repayment” for taxpayer largesse. Sadly, even in this horrendous economy, the subsidies won’t end. They continue to date.
If I had to root for one team, it would be Arizona, only because of quarterback Kurt Warner, a religious Christian who went from supermarket bagger to Superbowl repeat visitor (with a comeback from Arena Football in between). I like this guy. On the other hand, the team’s other quarterback is slacker baby daddy/absentee father Matt Leinart. He’s kinda like the junior Tom Brady (Patriots Quarterback)–good-looking, but not much to admire in the character category. It would be hilarious if this baby daddy sperm donor was the game MVP and did that “I’m going to Disney World” ad. If he goes to Disney World, he won’t be taking his SINO–Son In Name Only (against whom he fought paying child support).
And speaking of the ads . . . . As we know, the Super Bowl is just an excuse for Americans to have a party. And that’s a good thing, especially in these times. And most Americans watch just to see the commercials. But for the last several years, the ads have been lame–unfunny, not catchy, and not something you ever care to see again. From what I’ve seen, this year is just another lower point on the downward trajectory.
In fact, I can remember few Super Bowl ads I liked. One, for Holiday Inn, featured a man going to his high school reunion. He meets a gorgeous blonde woman who looks kind of familiar. Then, he realizes the hot chick was a guy in high school. The point of the ad was to highlight the “changes” at Holiday Inn. The ad was a failure–people remembered it but not that it was for Holiday Inn–and didn’t run after the game. The other ad I liked was someone on the street selling talking dolls that say things like, “You’re prettier than your sister.” I can’t remember which company the ad was for. So, it’s a failure, too.
And that’s basically the thing about multi-million dollar superbowl ads, which cost millions to make, in addition to the airtime pricetag: we don’t remember them, and if we do, we rarely remember the company and/or product with which they were associated.
Bottom line: The Super Bowl–I couldn’t care less.
***
Here’s the Superr Bowl ad for CareerBuilder.com. More annoying than funny:

This one for Cash4Gold.com is much better:

***
So, do you care about tonight’s Big Show? Will you be watching? For whom will you be cheering?

By Debbie Schlussel
The story of Tasha Flowers is incredible for two reasons: 1) it shows the extent of the chutzpah of squatters and trespassers to lie, file lawsuits, and use the courts to avoid justice and remain in homes where they don’t belong, and 2) it shows how the mainstream media simply doesn’t do its job and merely regurgitates, rather than doing any actual original reporting.
Tasha Flowers, a Detroit single mom, broke into a foreclosed home in a fancy Detroit neighborhood and squatted there with her SEVEN children. When police came to escort her and the family out, it was done nicely and orderly, according to neighbors and witnesses from the Neighborhood Association. But Flowers filed a lawsuit against Detroit Police claiming that Detroit Police beat her and her family (they have no pictures or hospital records, according to reports), and that they came to “her” house the next day to apologize, along with gift cards to Walmart and Target and $100.
First watch this report by FOX 2 News Detroit’s Andrea Isom, which shows what’s really going on here.

But that’s not how the Detroit media–both newspapers, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit Newsistan–covered it. Posted below are their stories. From the way they “report,” er . . . regurgiatate it, you’d never know that this was a foreclosed home that Ms. Flowers didn’t own, nor did she belong in it, and that she was a squatter. They don’t even report the real reason why police were there–ie., to escort her out. Nope. Both reporters, George Hunter and Zlati Meyer, merely regurgitated what the lawsuit claimed and didn’t do any of their own reporting. Had they done so, as FOX 2 News’ Andrea Isom did, they’d have discovered this woman doesn’t belong in the house. And something’s seriously wrong with the Detroit Police Department’s press people for not telling them about this tiny detail (that the woman was squatting and it isn’t her home).
Even worse, many national media outlets picked up on their phony stories, including the Chicago Tribune, MSNBC, etc., all of whom reported on the alleged Detroit police brutality, and none of whom reported that this woman is a squatter.
Yet another reason why you can’t believe anything you read in the papers.
Detroit Newsistan:

Cash and gift cards from Walmart and Target stores were allegedly offered as bribes to a 36-year-old woman if she agreed to keep quiet about a group of officers who broke into her home and assaulted her and her children, the woman claims in a lawsuit.
Attorneys for Tasha Flowers filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Wayne County Circuit Court, seeking $15 million in damages stemming from the alleged Jan. 3 incident.
Flowers claims in the lawsuit that several Detroit police officers from the department’s Western District responded to a neighbor’s complaint that she was selling drugs in her home on Shrewsbury. The police rushed into Flowers’ home without her permission and without a search warrant.
“They showed up at my door and pointed a gun at me,” Flowers said. “Then the officers pushed past me into my house and started asking me about drugs and guns. They pushed my daughter, and threw me to the ground and twisted my arm. Then the lieutenant grabbed my 14-year-old son in a chokehold until he was unconscious.”
Flowers said the group of about 10 officers began assaulting her other six children, ages 8 to 17, who she said suffered cuts, scrapes and bruises.
Then, the next day, Flowers said the lieutenant in charge of the officers paid a second visit to her home.
“He said he felt bad about what he’d done, and asked if there was anything he could do to make up for it,” Flowers said. “Then he offered me two gift cards: One from Walmart and Target; and $100.”
Flowers said she turned over the money and gift cards to Detroit Police Internal Affairs investigators.
Cmdr. Brian Stair of the Internal Affairs Section acknowledged that investigators are looking into the allegations.

Detroit Free Press:

A Detroit woman and her seven children ages 9-18 are suing the Detroit Police Department for $15 million, because they allege officers attacked them without provocation in their home earlier this month.
Tasha Flowers said Thursday that approximately 14 police officers barged into her home in the 19000 block of Shrewsbury about 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 3 without a search warrant, demanding to know where drugs and guns were. After she explained she didn’t have any, she said they twisted her arm and tried to handcuff her, while her children and two of their friends were there.
The following day, a police officer came back with $25 gift certificates to Wal-Mart and Target, $100 in cash and the promise to bring a cashmere coat because he felt bad about the alleged attack, Flowers said.
“It was awful; it was a nightmare,” she said. “Every time I think about it, I see him punching my kids.”
The officers terrorized the 10 people in the house for close to two hours, court documents indicate.
Sandra Flowers, 13, who suffered bruises to her neck and chest, said officers used the N-word during the attack.
“I saw them beating on them, stomping on them, kicking,” she said.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Wayne County Circuit Court, doesn’t identify any of the officers, except a Lt. Rashawn, because the police department hasn’t released the runs sheets, attorney Karri Mitchell explained.
“It’s under investigation by Internal Affairs,” Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens Bell said Thursday.

Again, proof positive you shouldn’t believe anything you read in the newspapers.

By Debbie Schlussel
Remember back in 2005, when it came to light that three convicted 1993 WTC bombers were recruiting jihadists and planning terrorist schemes from their cells in the Supermax federal prison facility? From what was supposed to be the toughest, most monitored prison we have, these guys sent over 90 letters and made several phone calls recruiting terrorists without the feds bothering to look at their mail, due to a lack in Arabic speaking staff to monitor the letters and calls.
Now, we find out that a former top CIA agent who spied for Russia–and was convicted and sent to prison for it–has been sending more secrets to Russia from his federal prison cell. Since this guy speaks only English, you have to wonder what the excuse is for not catching this earlier. It sounds like a great movie, but if this were a movie script, we wouldn’t believe it would be possible.

A former Central Intelligence Agency official imprisoned for spying for Russia continued to pass information and collect money from his old handlers while behind bars, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Harold & Nathaniel Nicholson: Father & Son Spies for Russia

Harold James Nicholson, 58 years old, used his 24-year-old son, Nathaniel, to restart contacts with Russian spies in Mexico, Peru and Cyprus, according to an indictment against father and son filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore. Both father and son were arraigned Thursday on charges of money laundering and acting as agents of a foreign government.
A Federal Bureau of Investigation agent’s affidavit filed in court provides a spy-novel narrative from 2006 to 2008. U.S. officials claim Harold Nicholson tutored his son in spy tradecraft and Nathaniel Nicholson tried to hide his activities as he reached out to Russian contacts on trips abroad, buying his plane tickets with cash.
Prosecutors allege the elder Mr. Nicholson, who was serving a 23-year sentence, was seeking to recover money, and perhaps a “pension,” that his Russian contacts owed him for past work, in order to help his financially struggling family. Even behind bars, Mr. Nicholson still held value to the Russians, who wanted to figure out how he was caught and how much U.S. investigators knew of Russian spying in the U.S., prosecutors say.
Harold Nicholson was a former CIA station chief in Malaysia and later worked as an instructor for trainees at the agency’s Langley, Va., headquarters. He was convicted of espionage conspiracy under a plea agreement in 1997. Prosecutors say he gave Russian spies the identity of the CIA’s Moscow station chief as well as information on new CIA trainees. Federal agents stopped him as he attempted to fly to Switzerland to hand over classified documents to agents for the SVR, the successor agency to the Soviet Union’s KGB. He is the most senior CIA official ever convicted of spying for a foreign government. . . .
FBI agents monitored the father and son, using email and telephone wiretaps and tracking devices on the son’s car to keep tabs on the 24-year-old’s alleged spy activities, according to documents filed by prosecutors.
Along the way, the father offered proud words of encouragement to his son. A birthday card the father sent the son last year, according to prosecutors, read: “You have been brave enough to step into this new unseen world that is sometimes dangerous but always fascinating. God leads us on our greatest adventures. Keep looking through your new eyes. I understand you and me.”
Federal agents stopped Nathaniel Nicholson as he returned from meeting contacts in Lima, Peru, in December 2007. Without telling him, the agents photocopied a notebook he carried that agents say contained coded notes about his alleged meetings with Russian spies. The notebook also contained instructions for a meeting he later had at a TGI Friday’s restaurant in Nicosia, Cyprus, with a Russian contact, according to the FBI affidavit.

I can just see the ads: “TGI Friday’s . . . Official Meeting Place of International Spies. No Wonder They Call it the Secret Sauce.”

FBI agents monitoring an email account attributed to Nathaniel Nicholson said that in October 2008, he sent a coded email as instructed by his Russian contact, confirming an upcoming meeting in Cyprus.
The email, according to the FBI affidavit, read: “Hola Nancy! It is great to receive your message! I love you too. I hope to see you soon! The best regards from my brother Eugene! – Love Dick”
Prosecutors claim the son collected nearly $36,000 in trips overseas intended to help family members pay off debts. The father expressed hopes of relocating to Russia when he left prison, prosecutors say.
In one letter, the father sent physical data such as his height and weight to his son, and prosecutors think the information was to be used by the Russians to provide him travel documents upon his release.

Glad they caught this guy. But since some more secrets were apparently passed from Nicholson in his jail cell, via his son, to the Russians, they didn’t exactly foil him in time.
One other thing: This guy gave out the identities of our top spies in Russia, and who knows what else. Yet, he was only sentenced to 23 years in prison. Contrast that with Jonathon Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for spying for our ally, Israel.
* Read the Nicholson Indictment.
* Read the fascinating Affidavit of FBI Special Agent Jared J. Garth.

By Debbie Schlussel
I’ve never liked Renee Zellweger. I don’t get the fascination with her. She’s very average looking and perpetually looks like she’s been crying. And she’s just an okay actress, who has been in some big movie bombs, lately–including her awful anti-American “New in Town” (read my review) in theaters today. But there’s nothing remarkable about her.
Apparently, though, she thinks HAMAS advisor Jimmy Carter–out with his latest anti-Israel screed book–is just fabulous (in addition to Obama):

Renee Zellweger has a new man in her life, but he doesn’t know it.
“I have a crush on Jimmy Carter. I admit it,” Zellweger says. “He has an extraordinary mind. He’s an exceptional human being. And he writes poetry, for crying out loud. He’s all good things.”

Mediocre Actress Loves Jimmuh

So wowed was Zellweger that she waited in the blistering Manhattan cold for 21/2 hours on Monday to have the 39th president sign her copy of his latest book, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work.
“It was super-cold,” she says. “I thought he was going to speak or read from his book, but he signed. And that was enough. I was not expecting 21/2 hours in 4-inch heels. That, I did not plan for. I made the ridiculous presumption that the Barnes & Noble people would be really nice and let us wait inside. No, that was not happening, because 10 people at a time had to go through security. I was number five-hundred-something. And I got there early, OK?”
But wait she did, in a line that snaked around the Midtown bookstore, and chatted up a father and daughter and a German tourist shivering with her. Zellweger, 39, an intensely private woman who splits her time between rural Connecticut and Manhattan, relishes moments like these, where she can click with humanity.

Hmmm . . . apparently, she’s still out of touch with humanity, if waiting in line for Jimmuh “HAMAS’ Peanut Farmer” Carter, is the best example she can come up with.

By Debbie Schlussel
Usually January is pet cemetery #2 for bad movies (#1 is August)–where Hollywood puts its lackluster movies to die a quick death and get cremated. But I’ve been surprised at some of the movies out in January 2009. This weekend includes one of the good ones, “Taken.”
* “Taken“: Is Liam Neeson–in his late fifties–the new Dirty Harry/Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson in “Death Wish”) of the 2000s? Could be, if this movie is the success I predict it will be at the box office, this weekend. I liked Neeson as an action hero better than I like Daniel Craig as the new James Bond. I loved this movie.

This is the kind of action thriller we loved a lot, but haven’t seen since the ’80s. And I’m glad it’s made a comeback. It’s the latest of only a few movies that dare try to melt the post-9/11 official Hollywood rule that you can’t make Arabs and Muslims look bad or portray them as terrorists or thugs. More than one of them get their violent comeuppance from the action hero of this movie, and I wanted to cheer out loud (but it’s unseemly at a critics’ screening, so I didn’t; well, actually, I did it as quietly as possible).
Neeson (who was great in this, but could use better hair coloring than the obvious Grecian formula stuff here) plays a CIA agent who retires from the Company, so that he can be closer to his 17-year-old daughter whose childhood he mostly missed while on assignments. But it’s tough to compete with her multi-millionaire stepfather. He is initially resistant when his daughter wants to go to France with a girlfriend. (The movie errs here in having the two teens shadow the U2 European concert tour–what 17-year-old teens are U2 groupies in 2009? That’s for 40-something middle-aged women.) But eventually, he must go to France to rescue his daughter or lose her forever.
Neeson’s daughter is kidnapped in Paris by an Albanian Muslim-run sex slavery operation. And that’s where Hollywood’s “Thou Must Whitewash Islam” rule starts to melt. While they never outright tell us that the Albanian sex slavery mobsters are Muslims, there are several quick, but deliberate shots of the crescent and star tattoos on their hands–yup, the “Religion of Peace.” And then, there are the Arabs who are prominent among the sex slave purchasers. One of them is purchasing the women as concubines for his boss, a big, fat, ugly Arab Muslim Sheikh on a yacht. (I’m sure Mr. Neeson’s agent will be getting a call from CAIR, ADC, and the other Mid-East whine merchants, real soon.)
There is a great scene where all of these evil Arabic-speaking scumbags get sent to a permanent conference call with the 72 virgins. That is the kind of stuff people went to movies to see, and they don’t get to see it much at all anymore. Bring it back and bring it on. Just bring it. And this movie does.
“Taken” was funny, exciting, suspenseful, and it flew by. Though parts of it–like the endless dodging of bullets that surely would hit their target–are not believable, most of it is. And it’s clever, even if some of it is predictable. Some of the things Neeson does to find the men who have his daughter are ingenious. And if you like guns, action, and the bad guys meeting a nice, evil death in your movies, this is your flick.
Despite his choice in mother-in-laws (he’s married to the daughter of pan-terrorist hacktress Vanessa Redgrave), I’ve always like Liam Neeson. He was great in “Darkman.” And he’s great in this.
I’m sure the mainstream liberal movie critics will pan “Taken,” but don’t believe the tripe. It may not be highbrow and deep enough for them. But it’s what it is–a fun action adventure. This is the movie I recommend for this weekend.
One other note: This movie is not for kids. It’s violent and bloody–though the right people are subject to the violence and bloodletting. And there’s, of course, the theme of sex slavery. Don’t take your ten- or even 12-year-old to see it. It’s for, minimum, age 14 and up in my mind.
FOUR REAGANS

* “New in Town“: I saw this movie on TV in 1996, and it was called “Christmas in My Hometown.” This movie has the exact same plot, only it’s not half as good as that schlocky Tim Matheson-Melissa Gilbert production. And it has a gazillion times more snoot.
“New in Town” seethes with the smug, unfunny comedy writing of anti-American Hollywood liberals who can’t stand small town Middle Americans. It’s almost two hours of snobbery and mocking of small town Midwesterners as dumb, backward, ugly, uncultured, and so on and so on and so on.
Renee Zellweger–looking particularly manly in this movie–plays a high-powered executive in corporate America, who lives the good life in Miami. Soon, she’s sent to New Ulm, Minnesota to downsize a company plant and lay off workers. It’s complete culture shock.
In the movie–and as Hollywood sees it–the small town people are disgusting, annoying, boorish, intrusive and nosy, and just plain out of touch with reality. It’s like a repeat of “Northern Exposure” for two onscreen hours. And it mostly just wasn’t funny. I barely laughed. The jokes were more mean than they were laugh inducing. And they were at the expense of most of America–the parts of America that didn’t vote in droves for Barack Obama, the parts of America that still have some semblance of values.
Zellweger’s character can’t stand it in small town Minnesota, and the factory workers aren’t exactly taken with her snobbery and big city manner. She develops a love-hate relationship with the plant’s union rep, Harry Connick, Jr. And you can predict what happens if you saw “Christmas in My Hometown,” “Baby Boom,” or any of a gazillion other movies this one rips off and dumbs down.
Dumb, dopey, sappy, predictable, and too much snobbery to fill a La Jolla country club. Skipworthy. Send New in Town back where it came from.
TWO-AND-A-HALF MARXES


* “The Uninvited“: Don’t let the crappy movie poster for this flick fool you. The movie isn’t dark, but it is a nailbiter. It’s one of those low-budget thrillers that was much better than I expected. While the movie is aimed at teens, I found it engrossing, entertaining, and unpredictable. It’s a guilty pleasure movie you’ll enjoy. I felt kind of ripped off with it’s M. Night Shyamalan type of trickery. But it’s fair trickery, and you’d definitely never predict the ending. The movie is well done.
A young girl returns home (to her wealthy author father’s beachside mansion)from a mental hospital, where she’s being treated for attempting to commit suicide after accidentally killing her ill mother. Or, at least, she’s been led to believe she did it. She constantly has nightmares of what happened and sees ghosts, hinting to her that things aren’t as they soom. Soon, she and her sister suspect their mother’s sexy former nurse (Elizabeth Banks), who is now their father’s girlfriend is behind everything. They must convince their father (David Strathairn) that she’s the real killer before she kills them.
This movie rips off plot points from many other movies just like it, but it’s still good and very clever with it’s ending.
It’s rated PG-13 and deserves it for it’s bloody and violent images.
TWO-AND-A-HALF REAGANS

By Debbie Schlussel
Yes, it’s more expensive. But, according to a new TSA/Department of Homeland Security report, you might want to choose flying over riding the bus or train when you travel.
Over 75% of major railways and bus systems in America are unsafe and vulnerable to attacks. They don’t meet minimum Homeland Security guidelines for preparedness in case of an attack. For example, they don’t include training transit workers in security, running regular security drills, and sharing intelligence with government agencies.

The first federal evaluation of mass-transit security shows that more than 75% of the nation’s major rail and bus systems aren’t meeting Homeland Security guidelines.
By contrast, 96% of airlines are complying with security requirements, according to a new report by the department. The report doesn’t identify which rail and bus systems fell short.

Among the things the bus and rail systems didn’t do:
* Conduct regular security inspections
* Check employee and contractor backgrounds (Ahmed and Mohammed can apply, no prob)
* Limit access to security-related documents
* Write plans to deal with various threats
* Train all employees in security awareness
I’m not sure why TSA and DHS made this report public. But I know I’m not the only one reading it. I’m sure our Islamic terrorist buddies are brushing up on it, also. If I were a terrorist, a train or bus would be the best place to attack. There is none or almost no screening, I could easily get my weapons and/or explosives on board, and based on this report, the rails and buses are completely unprepared for attacks and disasters.
Who is responsible for this? Well, for one thing, the bus and railway companies and public agencies that run and oversee them and public rails. But, then there are the people who oversaw the Department of Homeland Security for the last 5-6 years and did nothing. The fish rots from the head down. And in this case (and many others), the rotten head is Michael Chertoff. He did nothing about this, and instead hung out with extremist Muslim leaders.
Don’t expect Janet Napolitano a/k/a “The Lesbionic Woman” to be much of an improvement.

By Debbie Schlussel
For the record, I do not consume Velveeta. That’s because it’s not kosher, but even if it were, it doesn’t look like I’d like it, and it is quite calorie-laden. Moreover, it’s not even real cheese. It’s a “pasteurized prepared cheese product,” which is a hifalutin’ way of saying, “not cheese, but something like it made out of chemicals and a tiny bit of some cheese derivatives.”
Still, I find Velveeta’s latest Super Bowl marketing idea interesting. Super Bowl Sunday is Velveeta’s biggest day of the year, as hundreds of thousands of Americans (perhaps tens of millions even) consume Velveeta queso dip with chips.
And also on Sunday, 2,500 lucky women (out of 15,000 who applied) will host free house parties, courtesy of Velveeta producer Kraft foods.

Trying to get more consumers to dip their chips into Velveeta, Kraft turned to House Party Inc., an Irvington, N.Y., marketing firm whose specialty is setting up parties to promote clients’ products.

Using its database, House Party emailed Internet-savvy women ages 25 to 50, Velveeta’s target market, offering them the chance to host a game-day party featuring Velveeta. Both House Party and Kraft also promoted the offer on their Web sites. More than 15,000 women applied, and 2,500 Velveeta lovers were chosen.
The hostesses, who won’t be paid for their services, get “party packs” containing a 32-ounce package of Velveeta, take-home plastic Velveeta storage containers for 16 guests, a recipe for chili con queso dip — along with the requisite cans of diced tomatoes and green chilies — a spinach dip recipe, a dip bowl, a couple of bags of Ritz toasted chips, snack-bag clips, Velveeta coupons, Kool-Aid and cups. House Party said it couldn’t estimate the value of the party packs.

Kraft is doing this in the hope that people who sample the free Velveeta at these Super Bowl house parties “after sampling the product, will serve it regularly at home, as well as talk up its taste.” To that, I say, good luck. There are many foods that one might eat at a Super Bowl party that you simply can’t afford to serve every day . . . for the sake of your health.
Kraft admits that sales of Velveeta are on the decline. However, the economy is bad, and it’s far cheaper than real cheddar cheese. So you never know. We are all especially price sensitive.
Since I studied marketing when I earned my MBA degree (and while in business school I and three friends won a national award for our Rogaine advertising campaign), I think I have a better idea.
Even though women are often the buyers of household cooking ingredients, a prime Velveeta target market is single guys. If I were Kraft, I’d look for men to host Velveeta Man Cave parties, with all kinds of quick foods and snacks using Velveeta, which are easy to make and which can translate into an every day after-work or lunchtime meal for a single guy. I don’t think the women’s house parties will do anything for Velveeta, since most women are already aware of the product and possible uses of Velveeta. Single men–that’s the ticket.
In the past Kraft has been successful with Philadelphia cream cheese and Grey Poupon mustard house parties. Now, that’s a party I’d love to host.