By Debbie Schlussel
Barack Obama’s putting in place new “ethics rules” to govern his transition team and telling us about how ethical his administration will be.
Hmmm . . . where have we heard this before? Oh, yeah–a guy named Clinton, who told us his administration would be the most ethical ever . . . and turned out to the be one of the least ever, if not THE least.
President-Elect Obama’s new “ethics code” bars PACs, corporations, and lobbyists from donating to his transition fund that is expected to seek $3.5 million, in addition to the $8.5 million that taxpayers provide:

The Obama transition will be using a new set of ethics rules to guide the selection of team members and others, the president-elect’s staff said Tuesday. The rules will bar political action committees, corporations and lobbyists from donating to the transition fund that Mr. Obama set up. . . . Mr. Podesta said individual donations will be capped at $5,000.
Mr. Podesta said policy hasn’t been set on the fund that will help raise money for Mr. Obama’s inauguration events, which likely will cost several million dollars.

But here’s the catch–it’s the same thing as Barack Obama’s campaign in which $100 million to $200 million in donations are basically untraced and some of which we know for sure came from foreign sources, like three brothers in Gaza in the Palestinian Authority and his illegal alien Aunti Zeituni Onyango. What will make the transition donations and their reporting different from the untraced illegal foreign cash he got for his campaign? It sounds like there will be no difference.
This is the new Obama “ethics.” From Clinton to Obama–with an inept guy from Texas for eight years in between.
New Boss, same as the Old Boss. Don’t get fooled again.
Unfortunately, Americans continue to get fooled . . . 63 million-plus of them.
Oh, and another thing about these new no corporate or lobbyist contribution ethics rules: They don’t govern the Obama Inaugural fund, where you are sure to see gazillions from corporations, PACS, AND lobbyists.
“Ethics”? Not even close.
It’s all carefully-crafted and press-released smoke and mirrors. Nothing more.

By Debbie Schlussel
A couple of videos, via Jimmy Kimmel, that reflect what you can get away with if you are a member of liberal Hollywood and the media.
If you listen closely, lesbian druggie and half-rate movie star Lindsay Lohan is really excited over our “first colored President.” I hear she picked that lingo up at the Whites only lunch counter at Kresge’s, circa 1952. Oh, and part of the reason you can’t hear it that well is that it appears that “Access Hollywood” tried to help good old-fashioned Linds out by editing that, um, racist reference out, but she talks so quickly they couldn’t quite scrub it completely:

Then, there’s CNN’s Rick Sanchez, who “welcomes you Black to CNN”:

Hey, you know what they say about how once you go Black, you never go back . . . .
Now, remember, if Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh had said either of these things, it would be off with their heads. And, since Lohan was using decades old “nomenclature”, I’ll continue you with the theme: You can bet your bippie (whatever a bippie is or was) that neither Coulter nor Limbaugh nor any of the 7 open conservatives in Hollywood would get the benefit of “Access Hollywood” editing to protect them.
Exit Question: Why is CNN using a cheap imitation of the theme song from “Miami Vice”? The ’80s called, and they want their cheesiness back.

By Debbie Schlussel
This morning and tomorrow morning on Rush Limbaugh’s Detroit affiliate, WJR-AM, faux-conservative Paul W. Smith–who is really a liberal in every aspect–is doing his morning radio show from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. And Michigan taxpayers are paying for it. The shows are entirely sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which is supposed to subsidize the creation of jobs in Michigan, but what it really does is pick winners and losers and work against Michigan taxpayers.
And now, it’s apparently the new auxiliary of the Dubai Tourism Ministry. Your tax dollars at work.
I normally don’t listen to Smith, since he’s boring, inane, liberal, uses his show to promote Islam and Hezbollah, and I’m about 40 years too young to be in his demographic. But, this morning, I monitored this heavily promoted gush-fest over Dubai. Listening to his show was painful and, as usual, a waste of time. It was a 4.5 hour commercial for Dubai and its fellow Emirates, all of which boycott Israel, discriminate against Jews and helped the 9/11 terrorists carry out their mass murder of nearly 3,000 Americans. Dubai and the other Emirates also continued to recognize and support the Taliban until months after 9/11. Of course, none of this was mentioned by the pandering, rudderless Smith.

WJR, Smith, & Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum: Detroit’s ABC Radio/Citadel Station Now Tax-funded Mouthpiece for Anti-Semitic Dubai
This is par for the course for Paul W. Smith, the half Lebanese WJR host who is mostly an empty vessel when he’s not shilling for HAMAS-front group CAIR, Hezbollah, Hezbollah’s man in Congress John Dingell, and Hezbollah agent Osama Siblani. Oh, and he’s yet another vessel for White guilt–of which there are many in Detroit. Yesterday, he wrote a blithering column–standard for his “columns”–about how he felt the tears of Jesse Jackson over the joy that a Black President was elected (one wonders when he’ll feel Jesse Jackson’s spittle about “Hymietown” and taste his spit on White people’s salads). That’s what he writes when he’s not doing White-guilt specials for the local PBS station.
So, why are Michigan taxpayers paying for Paul W. Smith to travel to and live large in Dubai and then do nine hours of non-stop hack-work on behalf of rich keffiyeh-encrusted terrorism supporting oil barons?
Because they allow it to happen.
E-mail Paul W. Smith and his boss, Mike Fezzey, and ask them why their station is now the tax-funded ad council for this anti-Semitic nation.
Michigan is in the middle of an economic depression, and our tax money is going to . . . promote rich Arab oil sheikhs?! Incredible.

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . The same question I asked when these comparisons first reared their heads:
Who’ll be Obama’s Marilyn (and multiple other harem members, many of whom doubled as spies for organized crime and our foreign adversaries)?

Yes, that’s what we really need . . . another Kennedy “Camelot.” Uh, no thanks.
As I asked back in June:

Why would we want to return to it? What was so great about it?

Happy Birthday, Mr. President . . . .

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Reader Alex sent the video, below, of HAMAS advisor, er . . . Obama advisor Robert Malley yukking it up with Muslims and attacking Israel. BARF. SCROLL DOWN.
Remember Robert Malley, the pro-HAMAS, rabidly anti-Israel foreign policy advisor whom Barack Obama claimed he fired from his campaign when Malley’s extremist point of view came to light?
Well, not only was that a lie–Malley was NOT fired–but Malley has been making entreaties to HAMAS on behalf of Obama for months. I’m sure all the dummies–Jewish and otherwise–who voted for this man for President won’t care about this latest news, since they weren’t bothered by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers, and Bernadine Dohrn.

Ahmad Yousuf, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s political advisor, said that during the recent US presidential race a secret meeting between senior Islamist group figures and advisors to President-elect Barack Obama was held in Gaza.

Mazel Tov, American Jews!: Obama Hearts HAMAS

“We were in contact with a number of Obama’s aides through the Internet, and later met with some of them in Gaza, but they advised us not to come out with any statements, as they may have a negative effect on his election campaign and be used by Republican candidate John McCain (to attack Obama),” Yousuf said in an interview with London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat, published Tuesday.
Yousuf said Hamas’s contact with Obama’s advisors was ongoing, adding that he was still on good terms with some of the aides he had befriended while residing in the US.

Those “advisors” include Robert Malley–the “fired” Robert Malley–who wasn’t so fired after all.
Obama lied, people will die.
My friend, Jerusalem Post investigative Reporter Michael Freund writes:

There you have it – proof positive that Obama just can’t wait to start talking with Hamas, cuddling up with them, and ultimately appeasing them, despite their bloody record of terror against the Jewish state.
Most American Jews chose to vote for the Democrats, but what they got instead are the Defeatocrats, and ultimately it is Israel that will be made to pay the price.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Sadly, those of us who do care will have to howl at the wind–the wind of 55 million-plus who didn’t vote for HAMAS’ newest BFF (Best Friend Forever).
It’s tragic that on this Veteran’s Day–while our troops continue to serve in harm’s way fighting Islamic terrorists–our future Commander-in-Chief has already been spending months making nice-nice with Islamic terrorists.
G-d help this sinking nation.
***
Oh, and please don’t send me the “But He’s Jewish” e-mails about Malley. Yes, he is, and ironically, Malley’s father was an Egyptian Jew–as in Egypt, the country that expelled tens of thousands of its Jews from their homes and kicked them out of the country for being Jews.
What can I say?–I’ve always known that the Jews’ worst enemies are . . . the Jews, especially the vast majority who’ve forsaken our conservative religion and pride for myopic liberalism and apologism.
Santayana may be over-quoted, but he was right. Too many Jews have doomed themselves to repeating our persecution over and over and over again.
**** VIDEO of Robert Malley, Obama’s “fired”/not-fired pro-HAMAS advisor:

Link:

By Debbie Schlussel
Today is Veteran’s Day. Recognize and remember all of those, living and dead, who serve or served our country as members of the military. Their contributions are immeasurable. Because of them, I am able to freely write as I wish on this site, and you are able to freely read it. It’s trite but true: Freedom isn’t free.
Since I come from a family of military men, I remember my two favorite veterans–my late father, H.L. Schlussel, MD, who was a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, and my late great-uncle Maurice J. Schlussel, MD, a career Army man who became the Army’s chief medical officer over the Pacific after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II and became one of the highest ranking Jews in the U.S. military at the time of his career. I went to visit their graves, yesterday, and again today. (In Judaism, we leave rocks or stones on their headstones as a sign that we visited the dead.)

Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke, Jr., Iraq War Vet, Hugs Pearl Harbor Survivor/WWII Vet Houston James (Graunke Lost a Leg, Hand, and Eye Defusing a Bomb in Iraq)

Wounded American Soldier Salutes President Reagan’s Casket
You’ve seen them here before, but above are my two favorite pictures that I think well document why Veteran’s Day deserves, at the very least, some pause and reflection on the invaluable contributions veterans have made to the establishment and continued existence of this great country. Strangely and sadly, I saw neither hint nor whisper of Veteran’s Day in today’s Wall Street Journal. Wall Street is free because our soldiers serve. The free market exists because our soldiers protect it.
Also, if you are a veteran, did you ever wonder what happened to your fellow soldiers and their families? There’s a new online networking site for veterans, MyVetwork (it’s like MySpace or Facebook). Read more about MyVetwork. Other Veteran’s Day items of interest:
* Abraham Lincoln promised to care for “him who has borne the battle, and his widow and his orphan.”
Read “America Keeps Lincoln’s Promise to Veterans“.
* With today’s technology, veterans who would have died remain alive and in pain. Read “For Some Military Families, a Long Good-bye“.
**** Touching MUST READING: “Bikers Ensure Veterans Not Forgotten“–What happens to our military veterans who die and have no-one to remember them?
An excerpt:

In World War II, Samuel Mazur was a tail gunner on a B-17 bomber that flew over Europe.
Three decades later, he died of cancer–with no family at his side –at a Veterans Administration hospital in Vermont. His cremated remains were sent to a funeral home, where they were placed on a shelf and forgotten.
“He had an interesting life,” said Euclid Farnham, who knew him. “He really did not have anyone.”
Until last week.
On Friday, Mazur got full military honors and was laid to rest along with three other forgotten veterans as part of the Missing in America Project, a volunteer organization that seeks to identify and honor the unclaimed remains of American veterans.
There was no family, but there were dozens of leather-clad, motorcycle-riding veterans and an honor guard at the Vermont Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery.
“The recognition of their service transcends their death, and in places like this cemetery, we will continue to devote ourselves to their cause,” retired U.S. Army colonel Joseph Krawczyk said during the ceremony.
In two years, the group’s volunteers have visited 592 funeral homes, found 6,327 sets of unclaimed remains, identified 491 of them as belonging to veterans and interred 325, said Bruce Turner, the Vermont coordinator.

G-d Bless these bikers and the lonely veterans they remember and honor.
Donate to the Missing in America Project.

By Debbie Schlussel
Is this any lesson to teach “The Apprentice”?
It seems like ancient history, but at one time, billionaire (who might actually only be a millionaire) Donald Trump was the world’s largest debtor. But because he was the world’s largest debtor, his creditors couldn’t afford for him to go under.
Such may yet again end up being the case for him–not the largest debtor part, but the part about the creditors not being able to allow him to go under because they have so much tied up with him. Yes, unlike the rest of us–whose debts are dwarfed in comparison–Donald Trump just can’t be written off by his creditors, so they allow him to float.
Still, even Trump is in trouble. He failed to make good on a $640 million loan on a Chicago skyscraper development. So, he’s responding in the “American way”–he’s suing. Not the kind of thing he teaches on his annoying, egomaniacal, Jumped-the-Shark unreality show, “The Apprentice.” It’s a very Omarosa move.

Trump is now suing his lenders for more time to pay the money back. He’ll cost them a ton of additional money in legal fees, and they’ll have to settle with him anyway because they can’t afford to write off $640 in loans, for which he probably doesn’t have enough collateral and/or property to seize in return.
And then, there is Lamborghini–the fantasy car of many Americans. At $200,000 and just 8-13 miles per gallon, it’s not just a fantasy anymore. It’s gauche. And that’s why the nation’s most prominent and largest Lamborghini dealership just closed its doors. Lamborghinis ain’t selling like they used to:

Lamborghini Orange County–which typically sold 10% of the world’s annual production of Lamborghinis and counted NBA stars Kobe Bryant and Dennis Rodman as clients–has shut its doors. . . .
Lamborghini has sold 657 cars this year, down 15% from 771 cars a year earlier. October was even worse, down 65% from last October.
Other supercars aren’t faring so well either. Ferrari sales are down 2.6%, while Porsche’s car sales are down more than 30%.

While neither of these items helps you out economically, it’s good to know that we’re all in the same boat. Or is it?
Well, there’s no denying that misery still loves company.

By Debbie Schlussel
As readers know, I’ve been following the case of “Crossing Over“, which I call “ICE, The Movie.”
It’s the propaganda film that incorrectly portrays the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) treats illegal aliens. In real life, ICE bends over backward–and forward–for them, contrary to the cold, harsh way their enforcement of immigration laws is portrayed.

Harrison Ford is ICE Special Agent Max Brogan in “Crossing Over”
Both the movie studio–Miramax–and the writer/director–Wayne Kramer–sent me threatening letters from lawyers, letters which didn’t silence me from writing about and exposing their about their awful celluloid screed that has yet to reach actual theater screens, and about Kramer’s own apparent case of immigration fraud.
Well, as I previously told you, the latest date the movie was supposed to come out was October 24th. Then, it was December. And now, it’s been shelved to an undetermined date in 2009–two years after it was supposed to propagandize American moviegoers. Don’t be surprised if it goes straight to video, far better than this piece of pure fiction deserves. The movie has no poster or trailer, a sure sign the studio knows it’s dreck.
As I’ve noted, I read and have a copy of the original script . . . the version before the politically correct Weinstein Brothers a/k/a Miramax–in response to whining from Muslim activists–dumped a scene in which a Muslim ICE agent and his brother honor kill their sister for sleeping with a Hispanic man. Read the entire honor killing scene they dumped.
The rest of the movie is a sob story over Muslim illegal aliens (and other illegals), what good people they are, and how mean we are for deporting them over anti-American sentiment, as if that ever happened. PUH-LEEZE. DHS and ICE officials kowtow to these American-hating Muslims–they fete them. They don’t deport them.
This long, boring movie–starring Harrison Ford as Special Agent Max Brogan, a divorced, and somewhat unsympathetic ICE agent–also tells what is apparently the real story of writer/director Wayne Kramer, a South African Jew, who apparently lied and used false pretenses to get to America and ultimately gain citizenship. He’s using the movie to defame other Jews, because as everyone knows, our biggest immigration problems are not the Muslims who come here to commit terrorism, or the gazillions of Hispanics who roam our borders illegally every day, it’s those lying, deceitful JOOOOOOOS. Right?
The movie also has a few brief scenes with Sean Penn as a Customs and Border Protection agent, working the Southern California border.
Now that Obama has been elected, and Democrats will push through illegal alien amnesty to keep themselves in power, I guess this movie–yet to be released–has already served its purpose.

By Debbie Schlussel
In my ongoing lament of the dumbing down of America and the decline of our great nation and its culture, I constantly salute blurring of gender roles and the masculinization of women as one of the ongoing problems that is both contributory cause and symptom.
Today, I start an occasional feature, “Who Is That Man?” to salute some of these “beauties.” Yes, isn’t is great that men can be women and . . . women can be men? Only in America. Expect a lot more of these Title IX “babes” to “express themselves” now that Obama is President-elect.
Who Is That Man? #1 . . .

Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist Dara Torres
Who Is That Man? #2 . . .

Obamaniac Soon To Lose Half of Her Fortune to Guy Ritchie
One word: Eeeuuuww.

By Debbie Schlussel
Over the weekend, I read the Newsweek magazine extended set of articles that have been getting a lot of attention over the allegations about the intellect and behavior of Sarah Palin. But the Palin stuff–whether true or not–is not among the many highlights and notable item in the articles, seven chapters of what’s called “Secrets of the 2008 Campaign”.
I’ve posted them for you below, since I find them hilarious, sad and telling, especially this one. Gee, I wonder why he lost:

McCain had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military. McCain balked at an ad using images of children that suggested that Obama might not protect them from terrorism; Schmidt vetoed ads suggesting that Obama was soft on crime (no Willie Hortons); and before word even got to McCain, Schmidt and Salter scuttled a “celebrity” ad of Obama dancing with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (the sight of a black man dancing with a lesbian was deemed too provocative).

Too Provocative for McCain Campaign to Mock?
With all of this off the table, what’s left? A losing campaign.
Then, there’s this–the Obama team saying that Sarah Palin would cause violence toward the Obama campaign, and Ms. Thang–Michelle Hussein Obama–wondering why people hate he and hubby. Hmmm . . . might have something to do with the fact that she’s the most overbearing wife in public life since Hillary–only she’s way worse. Or her expressed non-proudness of this “mean” country. Let’s see, they put out a ton of negative ads on McCain, but the Mccain Team isn’t supposed to be negative on them?:

“I’m worried,” Gregory Craig said to a NEWSWEEK reporter in mid-October. He was concerned that the frenzied atmosphere at the Palin rallies would encourage someone to do something violent toward Obama. He was not the only one in the Obama campaign thinking the unthinkable. The campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October. Michelle was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. “Why would they try to make people hate us?” she asked Valerie Jarrett. Several of Obama’s friends in the Senate were shocked by the GOP rabble-rousing.

Shocked? Look in the mirror, dudes. Um, Michelle, no-one needed to try to make people hate you. You did it all on your own.
And finally, there are these items about the Obama Team’s use of Jay-Z, how the media ignored it, and how the Obama campaign considered using bribe money–a/k/a “walking around money”–and the shockingly real statements by a state senator who wanted that money and saw Obama for what he really was:

The campaign wanted to reach out to young black men, but in a way that would not antagonize white voters. The rap artist Jay-Z offered to perform in concert for Obama in October, but the campaign was “nervous,” recalled Jim Messina, the campaign chief of staff. Black leaders from the community in Detroit and Miami pleaded with Obama headquarters, Messina recalled, saying, in effect, “You keep saying to us, ‘Go produce sporadic African-American young voters.’ Give us the tools. Jay-Z is a tool and you have to give him to us.”
Warily, the campaign agreed but still called the rap star’s management to ask him not to say anything about McCain or Palin onstage, for fear that the rapper would make crude or incendiary remarks that would wind up on Fox News. Jay-Z agreed not to riff on the Republican candidates, but he said he wanted to perform a song, “Blue Magic,” that includes the line “Push, money over broads, f— Bush/Chef, guess what I cooked? Made a lot of bread and kept it off the books.”
At a concert on Oct. 5 in Miami, Jay-Z decided to skip the line about Bush, but the crowd, familiar with the words, roared it out anyway, as giant portraits of Bush and Obama lit up the backdrop. The incident passed largely unnoticed by the media–and the Obama campaign registered 10,000 new voters in Miami.
“Walking-around money” is an old and somewhat disreputable political practice of dispensing cash to local pols, grass-roots community leaders and preachers to get out the vote on Election Day, particularly in poorer areas inhabited by racial and ethnic minorities. As money changes hands, a certain amount of winking is typically involved; not all of the funds go to, say, hiring drivers or passing out leaflets, and the recipients are not shy about asking. (During the Robert F. Kennedy campaign for president in 1968, Kennedy operatives made sure not to bid up the going rate for walking-around money, or to hand it out too early, lest they have to pay twice.)
On Oct. 21, Michael Strautmanis was riding, along with a NEWSWEEK reporter, through the streets of Philadelphia. . . . Strautmanis had been a close friend of Michelle and Barack Obama since he worked at the same Chicago law firm. . . .
Next was a meeting with a state senator, who greeted Strautmanis like an old friend, even though they had never met. The state senator said he was in awe of Obama. “He’s the greatest bulls—ter in the world!” the politician exclaimed. “I know he’s bulls—ting me, but it feels good!” Sensing he was perhaps being a little too frank, the state senator said, “I want to be as helpful as I can.” . . . The state senator suggested . . . “street money. I know you guys didn’t do it in the primary, but . . . .”
. . . . After the meeting, Strautmanis admitted to seeing some benefit [to paying “street money”]. “I think we should do it,” the Obama aide told a NEWSWEEK reporter. “It’s just part of the culture here, and what will it cost? A couple of hundred grand? . . . For a lot of people, if they don’t get it, they just flat-out won’t engage.” (The Obama campaign ultimately refused to provide any walking-around money, though as Politico reported, some was provided by local sources.)

Skip Newsweek. This is all you need to know from over 100 pages of blather about the campaign.