By Debbie Schlussel
**** NOTE to the Humorless, 11/26/08: No, I’m not really being serious here. Of course, I know that “Black Friday” is not racist. I think it’s obvious, this is comedy. ****
Contrary to popular White Guilt voter belief, the election of Barack Hussein Obama did not alleviate the chip on the shoulder of certain segments of Black America. In fact, in many cases, the chip is now a boulder.
And in that vein, I ask the question we’ve all been wondering: Isn’t the term “Black Friday” racist? After all, everything bad always gets termed “dark” or “Black”. Dark Chocolate (all those flavenoids stealing their name from Flava Flav), Black Bart, Black Monday, Black September (evil Muslims killing evil Muslims, then other evil Muslims adopting the name and killing Israeli Olympians), Black licorice and jellybeans (totally racist, since cherry licorice and grape jellybeans taste way better), Jack Black (bad actor–yup, that’s racist), Black and Decker (their appliances are an example of the man oppressing us with da convenience), blacksmiths (they practically work for slave wages), black hats, Black Forest Cake (so many calories, so of course it implies Black chicks are fat), Johnnie Walker Black label (implies Blacks are whinos)–all of these are blatant examples of racist, bigoted Blaxploitation.

Buy This Cool 10-inch TV @ Walgreen’s on White Friday
But the worst is “Black Friday”–which, because of the huge bargains and doorbuster items between 4:00 a.m. and noon at a lot of retailers, implies that only Black people want a bargain.
Therefore, from now on (or at least for today), in the interest of civil rights, affirmative action, healing, and all that jazz, I am calling it White Friday. You know what happens on White Friday, right? No, I’m not talking about the shopping. I’m talking about the leftovers. On White Friday, people eat leftover pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving. Sweet potato pie leftovers?–That’s on Black Friday.
Anyway, my favorite site for looking at Black . . . er, White Friday bargains is bfads.net (they didn’t yet get the memo on the PC name change). Over the weekend, they already had scans of all the White Friday bargains at most major retailers. Check it out.
Of all the things I saw, I liked this ten inch digital TV flat screen at Walgreen’s (pictured above), which is on sale for $99 (after a $20 mail-in rebate). It’s regularly about $180. It’s cute and economical for those who don’t have a lot of space and/or can’t afford a large flat screen digital TV. Or it’s great for your kitchen. It comes with a remote.
But get there early, since at 7:00 a.m. they might all be snapped up. By the way, look at the racist photo of the woman on the TV screen. That’s a clear message to Black people not to buy it. Yup, Michelle Hussein Obama noted, America is a mean country.

By Debbie Schlussel
This has echoes of Shaquille O’Neal’s frequent stint as a cop and Erik Estrada’s & LaToya Jackson’s failed reality TV attempt at it.
But it promises to be more interesting. Where else can you find a half-Jew/half Irish dude from Michigan who thinks he’s Japanese, is an overweight, aging washed up action star, was once married to an English supermodel/actress, and is now a Cajun cop?

A&E is in production on “Steven Seagal: Lawman,” a new Real-Life series that will chronicle martial arts expert and international film star Steven Seagal’s extraordinary life in law enforcement, it was announced today by Robert Sharenow, Senior Vice President Non-Fiction & Alternative Programming, A&E Network.

For almost 20 years, Seagal has been working as a fully-commissioned deputy with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana. In fact, in addition to going out on patrol, Seagal is an expert marksman who has worked with their SWAT team and has instructed Jefferson Parish officers in firearms and hand-to-hand combat.
“I’ve been working as an officer in Jefferson Parish for two decades under most people’s radar,” said Seagal, “I’ve decided to work with A&E on this series now because I believe it’s important to show the nation all the positive work being accomplished here in Louisiana – to see the passion and commitment that comes from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in this post-Katrina environment.”
“Steven is a hero both on and off camera and helps fight crime because he cares about the community,” said Sharenow, “It’s such an amazing revelation that this larger-than-life star has been doing real police work for nearly 20 years.”
Until now, Seagal has never sought publicity for his work with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. However, over a span of almost two decades, he has regularly gone out on patrol and worked major cases. The series will allow fans to ride shotgun with Seagal as he and his hand-selected elite team of deputies respond to crimes-in-progress. Then, when Seagal goes off-duty, the cameras will continue following him as he pursues his many ventures – including musical performances and philanthropic efforts – in Jefferson Parish and New Orleans.
“Steven has a very close relationship with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and I’m proud to have him as part of our team,” said Sheriff Newell Normand, “I cannot tell you how honored I am to not only be affiliated with Steven, but with A&E and all their support in highlighting the efforts, the trials and the tribulations of the men and woman of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.”

Is he gonna make criminals drink his “Steven Seagal’s Lightning Bolt” energy drink? Now, that would be punishment.
And here are the obligatory cheesy questions?: Is he gonna be “Above the Law” and give criminals “Exit Wounds”? Sometimes that happens when they’re “Hard to Kill.” Ba-dum-bum-Ch.
In case you were wondering, Seagal is a lefty:

[He is an] activist for environmentalism and animal rights.

If I had cable, I’d watch this once or twice . . . especially if I wanted to play one of those drinking games.
Since there isn’t any footage available yet, I thought I’d post this great commercial with Seagal, worth watching regardless of what you think about the guy:

Now, this is a reality show I could watch: Seagal v. Van Damme–HILARIOUS!:

Let’s just hope this show is better than “Crouching Cops, Hidden Badges“:

By Debbie Schlussel
It’s not just the Presidential election result, the stock market, and the economy that are out of whack. With everything, up is down, right is left, and red is blue.
Take the case of Texas A&M International University Professor Loye Young, or rather EX-Professor Loye Young. Young was fired by the school because he dared discipline and expose six students of his who cheated. They plagiarized. And they were forewarned. Young’s course syllabus warns that if students plagiarize, their names will be published on his website. I think that’s great.
But Texas A & M does not. The school is hiding behind federal privacy laws prohibiting the publication or release of students’ grades. But Young didn’t publish their grades, only that they plagiarized. That isn’t covered by the Privacy Act. It all comes down to money. The Texas A & M leadership decided it’s more important to gain more state money (which is based on student course passing rates) than to stand up for academic integrity.

The firing of people like Young is the reason we now have a Vice President-Elect who plagiarized on multiple occasions.

A professor at Texas A&M International University in Laredo was fired Nov. 5 for displaying on his course blog the names of six students accused of plagiarism.
Loye Young, formerly an adjunct professor of management information systems, said his course syllabus warned students he would “publicly fail and humiliate” any student caught plagiarizing. This would serve as an additional punishment to the standard university repercussions.
Young was fired for violating laws set by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, said Ray Keck, president of Texas A&M International. The act is a federal law that protects the privacy of students’ educational records by prohibiting their release without proper consent.
“The university is never going to publish a student’s grades on public Web sites,” he said. “It’s a violation of federal law.”
Texas A&M International has a strict policy concerning students who plagiarize on assignments, Keck said. Faculty members can address the situation in several ways, but the university does not condone publicly announcing students’ grades.
The university’s faculty is subject to the laws and rules instituted by the state of Texas and the Texas A&M University system, he said. Any violation of these laws could result in a loss of federal funding for the university.
Young, who formerly was a practicing lawyer, said he did not violate any laws by publishing the names of the accused plagiarizers. He said he analyzed the regulations instituted by FERPA before he issued the syllabus and sent a copy of it to the college’s dean and university provost. Neither of the officials objected to the contents of the syllabus until the students’ names were published.
“It is not surprising that the provost and other faculty there – who are unwilling or unable to read the law – are defending students who are unwilling or unable to read the syllabus,” he said.
The entire situation is political, Young said. The student pass rate is directly related to the amount of state funding the university receives.

And Young isn’t getting any support from academia. “Inside Higher Education” is calling his exposure of plagiarists, “Vigilante Justice.” HUH? Next, they’ll say calling the police when a bank is being robbed is vigilante justice, too. Ridiculous.
It’s a shame there weren’t professors around like Young when Joe Biden plagiarized in law school (and again when he stole a Neil Kinnock speech) and Monica Crowley was in school.
As I’ve repeatedly noted, faux-conservative (real conservatives believe in property rights and don’t steal) Crowley ripped off several whole paragraphs from a Paul Johnson article on Nixon and passed it off as her own for a Wall Street Journal op-ed. The Journal publicly apologized and never ran her work again. There’s a strong belief that her Ph.D. and Masters theses, as well as books on Nixon, were also plagiarized (and other parts fabricated). You don’t start plagiarizing in your 30s. It’s a lifelong habit.
Maybe this is why Serial plagiarist Sean Hannity dropped out of college.
Shame on Texas A & M for firing this brave professor.
Oh, and just watch. These cheating students will sue the school for alleged Privacy Act violations, win tens of thousands of dollars, and get their grades changed upwards.
Plagiarism pays.
***
Read Loye Young’s Blog.

By Debbie Schlussel
This isn’t the first time an Arabic cop illegally accessed the Terror Watch List to help out one of his buddies. And it won’t be the last. But in this case, I have mixed feelings. Clearly, this Arab cop (who may or may not be Muslim–the name indicates the possibility that he isn’t) was using the Terror Watch List to help a friend, which is illegal.
On the other hand, the cop was clearly using the Terror Watch List to stop a suspected (and likely) Islamic terrorist in Canada from getting custody of a child in a divorce matter. And that’s not a bad thing. The Terror Watch List is strictly limited–limited far too much–regarding for what it can be used.

Guys Like This Probably Shouldn’t Get Child Custody
But I’d say it’s in the best interest of the West if divorced wives of a men with jihadist tendencies and likely involvement in terrorist activities are allowed to use this information to keep their ex-husbands from raising and training their kids in this same ideology. That assumes, however, that the ex-wife doesn’t have those
same views–a big assumption. And you know my view about non-Muslim women who marry Muslims and jihadists: they’re complete dummies in need of IQ assessments. On the other hand, I’d rather kids be raised as dummies by dummies than as Islamic terrorists by Islamic terrorists.
What do you think? Here’s the scoop:

A city police sergeant was arrested Thursday on charges of illegally accessing the FBI terrorist watch list to help a Canadian acquaintance win a child-custody dispute.
Sgt. Haytham Khalil, 34, of Brooklyn was released on $20,000 bail after a brief appearance before a federal magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. . . .
Khalil was charged with accessing a computer without authorization in December 2007 to obtain information from the FBI’s National Crime Information Center.
The charge stemmed from a probe that began in April, when a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer told the FBI legal attache in Ottawa that the Canadian force had discovered that a Canadian citizen had a document identifying an individual as being on a terrorist watch list.
The Canadian was identified in court papers only as “Individual 1.”
Investigators traced the document to a computer search that Khalil had made while borrowing the sign-on identification of an officer who was authorized to use the computer database in which the watch list could be found, authorities said.
Last month, the acquaintance of Khalil who received the terrorist watch list document told the FBI that Khalil obtained the information after learning of the custody dispute, according to a court complaint filed by the FBI.
The acquaintance then gave it to a lawyer to be used in the custody proceeding, the complaint said.
The charge of accessing a computer without authorization carries a potential sentence of a year in prison.

Again, what this officer did was illegal. But I’m not so sure it should be. It’s in our best interest to allow this information to be accessed in child custody cases and other matters in which a person’s involvement with terrorism has some very serious bearing.
Sadly, we’ll never change the Terror Watch List to allow this. We are too PC and way too worried about sullying some poor terrorist’s reputation so that he might not be able to raise his sons and daughters with like-minded extremism.
Before 9/11, for instance, we knew that some of the 9/11 hijackers were involved in terrorist activities, and they were under surveillance. Let’s say some dumb, ugly White American woman slept with Mohammed Atta–and more than one did–and she suddenly found herself in a custody fight with him.
While if I were judge in a case like that, I’d send the kid to a foster home or put him up for adoption, at the very least this woman should be able to use Atta’s status as a likely terrorist in her custody fight.
We don’t know the specifics of the Canadian case in question here. But I’d suspect it’s something sort of similar, though involving an Arabic woman as the spouse (given that she is probably a friend of the Arabic cop who snooped on the Terror Watch List).
What do you think?

By Debbie Schlussel
Aren’t you glad they “clarifying” their fake reporting after the election and that they spun the tales before the election? There’s a a fitting male sexual dysfunction term that describes this well:

Despite attracting millions of new contributors to his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama received about the same percentage of his total political funds from small donors as President Bush did in 2004, according to a study released today by the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute.
The analysis undercuts Obama’s claim that his supporters “changed the way campaigns are funded” by reducing the influence of special-interest givers.

“The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama’s finances,” said Michael Malbin, the institute’s executive director. “The reality of Obama’s fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth.”
About $156 million, or a quarter of Obama’s record-shattering campaign account, came from donors of $200 or less, according to the institute’s analysis of federal election reports through Oct. 15. That compares with $205 million, or about a third, from those who gave between $2,300 and $4,600, the maximum allowed by law.
Forty-eight percent of Obama’s total take came from donors of $1,000 or more, compared with 56% for John Kerry and 60% for both Bush and John McCain, the analysis found.
The small-donor percentage is lower than figures previously reported in news stories because the institute’s analysis accounted for people who gave several small donations over the course of the election that added up to a larger sum, Malbin said.

Yup, this man who marketed himself as the “man of the people” is just another average man of the fatcats. Nothin’ special about him except the degree of fertilizer that went unchallenged until it was too late.

By Debbie Schlussel
L-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l! Imagine me making that same high-pitched hyena noise the Arabs do whenever they’re celebrating or happy over us saving their precious Kuwait or them toppling two large American towers with 3,000 Americans in them.
Here’s why. Keep in mind, I’ve been writing about the Holy Land Foundation for over a decade, before most people ever heard of it:

A jury on Monday determined that the Holy Land Foundation and five men who worked with the Muslim charity were guilty of three dozen counts related to the illegal funneling of at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The unanimous verdicts are a complete victory for the government, which streamlined its case after a mistrial last year, and worked hard to carefully educate jurors on the complex evidence presented in the massive case. Guilty verdicts were read on 108 separate charges.

So Sad, Too Bad: Your Hubby/Daddy is a Mass Murderer
Zolfa Elaydi (center), Son Jihad & Daughter Fidaa

Later Monday, the jury determined that Holy Land should forfeit $12.4 million in defendants’ assets because of several convictions on money laundering charges related to the case. . . .
“My dad is not a criminal!” sobbed one courtroom observer after the verdicts were read. “He’s a human!”

So was Jeffrey Dahmer. And he killed fewer people.

But critics of the government case argued that even convictions would carry an asterisk noting that it took untold millions of taxpayer dollars, 15 years of investigation and two long, high-profile trials to finally convince a jury of the defendants’ guilt.

Well, it’s about time the feds actually won one big one in 8 lazy years of barely trying. But actually, they sorta lost this, since it took ’em 15 years to do it, since this was the second trial and three of five defendants who should’ve been punished were acquitted of most charges. Only Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker and three others were convicted, yesterday.
Oh, and then there’s that matter of how the government ignored FBI Agent Robert Wright for years and then demoted and tried to fire him when he insisted the government go after HLF (and after he balked at the U.S. deporting HLF financier and top HAMAS figure Musa Abu Marzook). Wright’s “Operation Vulgar Betrayal” helped start the investigation into Marzook and Holy Land Foundation way back when.
In fact, the feds did not want to pursue HLF, but their hand was forced by Special Agent Wright, often a lone courageous figure, whom they repeatedly persecuted. I wrote about all of this in a 2004 New York Post column.
But, hey, at least it’s something.
The funniest phrase in this article by Dallas Morning News reporters Jason Trahan and Tanya Eiserer is this clueless thought:

[E]fforts at fighting terrorism financing in court have been troubled, even though the flow of funds seems to be effectively shut down.

“Effectively shut down”? Are you fricking kidding me? Hilarious. Puh-leeze. Muslims tied to Hezbollah and HAMAS are sending funds “back home” every single day–funds money-laundered and obtained from cigarette smuggling, Bridge Card/food stamp fraud, mortgage fraud, bank fraud, credit card fraud, real estate fraud, etc., etc., etc.
The only thing that’s been “effectively shut down” is the federal investigation into this stuff, with the elimination of the U.S. Customs Service Office of Investigation and its “Operation Greenquest.” Fortunately, some overtaxed state police agencies are picking up some of the slack, but it’s a drop in the bucket.
Now, the question is whether Federal Judge Jorge A. Solis throws the book at these scumbags who financed mass murder of innocent civilians, or whether he goes soft on them.
We’ll see. Stay tuned.
Rot in Hell, bitches.

By Debbie Schlussel
It’s not just the cheesy but energizing theme song from “The Delta Force” but the cool footage added from another famous set of movies from the ’80s. Makes me wanna work out just that much harder. No, that isn’t an Al-Qaeda training camp. And no, sorry, the Black dude is not Obama. I think he’d be a better Prez, though. And he’d eat Obama for lunch. Thanks to reader Ari for the tip.

By Debbie Schlussel

**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE/Correction ****
Question: When does the funeral of the brother of a racist bureaucrat who holds a G.E.D. and wasted millions in your tax money, qualify as a federal building?
Answer: When that bureaucrat wants to look important to all of her friends and relatives and show them that she’s come a long way in the fake-it-’til-ya-make-it department, and she orders several Federal Protective Service police to guard her brother’s funeral when they are strictly confined to guarding federal buildings.

Blackface Expert, ICE #2 Theresa Bertucci:
Illegally Used FPS Police As Bling @ Bro’s Funeral
(Theresa Bertucci Blackface Image by David Lunde/Lundesigns)
At least that’s the case with Theresa Bertucci, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She has spent her career at ICE cutting the Federal Protective Service–which guards federal buildings–to the bone and cutting FPS agents’ and policemen’s pay. It’s gotten to the point where there are no federal police at federal buildings in places around the country, like Boston (watch the video)–where they are ripe terrorist targets. Only a few such FPS employees guarding buildings in New York. But not today. They’re at a funeral.
And it’s not exactly legal.
Who is Theresa Bertucci?, you ask. Good question. Her biggest accomplishment–other than attaining a G.E.D. after reportedly failing to graduate from high school– is that she served as one of the three judges in an ICE Halloween party costume contest, last year, awarding an employee in blackface, “Best Original Costume.”
For the past three years, I’ve received dozens of complaints about the corrupt Ms. Bertucci. She has tried to surgically emasculate the Federal Protective Service, and succeeded in reducing their pay significantly–Read the memo. And she is single-handedly responsible for millions of dollars in waste and cost overruns at the new ICE headquarters. That’s not to mention the questionable wasteful, multi-million dollar ICE contracts she doled out to cronies at your expense. And don’t forget that blackface costume award at an ICE Halloween party, last year–she is cited in the Congressional investigation of the incident. That would be grounds for termination at any other employer, especially since she oversees ICE’s Equal Employment Opportunity office. But this is the guv’mint.
Yes, while ICE has cut dollars devoted to enforcing immigration laws, and while it has cut severely into the Federal Protective Service (FPS), lowering the number of officers who guard federal buildings and facilities and eliminating many who do security and threat assessments to these edifices, FPS officers have been assigned en masse to guard Theresa Bertucci at her brother’s funeral so she can look hifalutin and all that. Snoop Dogg and Diddy got their peeps and bling, and she needs hers.
Sorry her brother died, but it doesn’t excuse the way she’s behaved over the years and how she’s tried to kill necessary jobs to protect our country. It also doesn’t excuse her need for tax-funded affectation at the funeral.
Here is one of several complaints I got from very concerned FPS employees:

Federal Protective Service is the office within ICE responsible for security and law enforcement operations at approximately 9,000 federal facilities throughout the United States. (http://www.ice.gov/pi/fps/org_hfs.htm)
I thought you be interested to know that, today, FPS is providing “support” at the funeral of Theresa Bertucci’s brother. Apparently, Deputy Assistant Secretary Bertucci’s brother passed away suddenly, and she requested FPS provide a presence at her brother’s funeral. As I write this, two FPS officers in a marked unit are assigned to Saint Raphael’s Church in East Meadow, NY. In addition, the FPS Region 2 Regional Director and Deputy Regional Director are on their way to the service. All of this at government expense.
As FPS is a fee-based agency, which means that tenants of federal agencies pay FPS to provide security and law enforcement services, FPS is limited to protecting federal properties unless the agency requesting assistance reimburses FPS for the service. This is required by law and has been a problem in the past as in the case of FPS conducting security assessments of private residences. Even if FPS were reimbursed, it is unlikely that the detail of FPS personnel to a private funeral for a Deputy Assistant Secretary would be an authorized operation.
FPS continues to struggle to meet Congressionally mandated staffing levels. The New York City Metropolitan Area is extremely short-handed and as a result the safety and security of federal buildings suffer. Yet, FPS has at least two officers and a marked FPS police vehicle assigned to a private funeral detail. The irony of it all is the fact that DAS Bertucci cut the pay of FPS officers by 10%, significantly reduced overtime funding that was necessary to provide coverage due to personnel shortages and put an end to efforts to enhance the retirement benefits of FPS officers all in the name of “fiduciary responsibility” (see attached memo from DAS Bertucci).
As an outspoken critic of ICE, I thought you would be interested in knowing how ICE is using its FPS resources today. I would expect that there are several other senior management officials from ICE in attendance at this funeral, all on the government dime.

Nauseating.
But, wait. Like they say in that old Ginsu Steak Knives commercial, there’s more.
Here are just a few of the many complaints I’ve gotten about Bertucci over the past years–which I’ll be delving into at length in a column in the near future:

Ms.Bertucci is the proud bearer of a GED. That’s right, she doesn’t even have a high school diploma. She is number 3 [DS: Now, she’s number 2!] in the ICE chain of command, after Julie Myers and HS grad Torres. This agency is such a joke. Sources say Ms. Burtucci is responsible for the $50 million dollar budget shortfall for the new ICE HQ building. The money to cover the shortage was moved from the ICE OI [Office of Investigations–that investigates alien smuggling, etc.] budget. Sources also report that Ms. Burtucci is a royal pain in the ass and a moron who feels that she must comment on every issue in the high level staff meetings. Here is an actual example. OI says as part of a work site investigation, they are going to hit 20 McDonald’s restaurants yada yada yada. Ms. Burtucci opens her yap to say, what if a school bus full of children pulls up to the McDonald’s at the same time….yada yada yada. What a joke! No education listed, that is all we need to know. GED, dude!

***

Attached for your review are 3 documents that I believe will shed light on questionable government contracts that ICE entered into with ChoicePoint. It also sheds light on a good ole girls system that has evolved into questionable hiring practices by the participants (Theresa Bertucci).

Like I said, I will be delving into this further and will expose what’s in the documents. FYI, another person allegedly involved in the suspect ChoicePoint deal is another Homeland Security employee named “Nicole Bertucci.” Hmmm . . . I wonder he she got the job. I’m sure the surname is just a coincidence, right?
***
And about the famous Halloween party costume contest:

I hope you will find this information interesting- On Wednesday, Halloween, the A/S Julie Myers, DAS for Management Theresa Bertucci and Chief of Staff Nick Smith were judges at a Halloween Party to kick-off the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). However, the winner chosen by the 3 top executives for ICE was dressed in Dreadlocks, Prison Suit, and Painted Face to represent either an african-american male or hispanic-american male.
I believe this takes levity too far, especially with a recent suit won by an EEO plantiff regarding discrimination at ICE. It seems that this type of behavior is not only permitted from top ICE management but encouraged and equaling shocking that this event took place at event to encourage charitable donations by federal employees to organizations around the country.
I for one, a consistent contributer, will not be contributing this year due to the actions of A/S, Chief of Staff, and DAS for MGT [DS: Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management, Theresa Bertucci].

This woman, Theresa Bertucci, is not just a joke. She is an embarrassment who has cost taxpayers millions, left federal buildings unprotected, gotten in the way of important ICE investigations and raids, and perpetuated racism. And even without all of those things–any one of which should have been grounds for summary dismissal long ago–Bertucci is simply not qualified to hold even a secretarial position at ICE, let alone the #2 job.
Ironically, her friends and cronies at ICE, Michael Chertoff, Julie L. Myers, and John P. Torres, put her on the ICE transition team to transition ICE from the Bush administration to the Obama one. In fact, this moron is the SENIOR ICE Transition officer. Somebody made an extremely boneheaded decision on that one.
Let’s hope Barack Obama has the guts to tell her where to go. But don’t hold your breath.
**** UPDATE/Correction, 11/25/08: One of the messages from ICE personnel, above, identified the ICE employee who received an award from Theresa Bertucci for his blackface costume, as an attorney for ICE. That is not correct. As I’ve noted in the past, the man was an employee of ICE’s Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) division. Everything else is spot on.

By Debbie Schlussel
You know my thing against people who name their kids weird–and let’s face it, mostly pretentious–names. It’s a constant on this site, because idiots naming their kids idiotic names is also a constant. (See my extended commentary on these absurd names and my rules for naming a kid.)
To name a few, there was Moxie Crimefighter (Penn Jillette’s daughter–Jillette and I sorta had it out publicly over this dumb name), Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee’s kid), and Apple (Gwyneth Paltrow). And then there are those people who named their kids “Track” and “Van Palin.” You know who they are.
Now, there’s the latest in this absurd contest for lifelong child abuse (or, at least, until they are 18 and want to go through an annoying, hassle-filled legal process to change it). Pop singers Pete Wentz (he of girlie-manish manner) and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz named their son, Bronx Mowgli Wentz after the jungle kid in the loincloth from “The Jungle Book.”

Pete Wentz & Ashlee Simpson-Wentz Introduce us to
the Melding of Their Low IQs, Bronx Mowgli Wentz of “The Jungle Book”
Just one question: Why?
These parents, like all the others that do this, are extremely selfish and attention-hungry.
I’m actually waiting for one of these brainless couples to name their kid “Rumpelstiltskin” or “Count Chocula” or “Lollipop Licker” (Lolli for short).

By Debbie Schlussel
My friends Mark Fellhauer, Mike Wolters, and Mike Clark of Detroit’s “Mike in the Morning” show on WRIF-FM spoke with the Kenyan Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Ogego and got him to admit, matter-of-factly, that Barack Hussein Obama was, indeed, born in Kenya. He also says they plan to mark his birthplace there. This is not a fake call. These guys don’t do those. (The interview is almost 20 minutes, but the admission starts at 12:30 into the interview.) You can compare Ogego’s voice with this video of a speech he made to verify that it is, indeed, him.

Kenyan Ambassador to U.S. Peter Ogego: Yup, Obama Was Born in Kenya
Although I listen to their show most mornings, thanks to KFAQ Tulsa morning radio host Pat Campbell (on whose show I frequently appear, including this morning) for the alert. Thanks also to Bob McCarty, who also sent the tip and wrote about it.