By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Detroit Free Press star legal reporter David Ashenfelter does a nice write up.
Note that the Freep story is accompanied by dozens of anti-Semitic comments, many by Muslims (you know, the “tolerant” “Religion of Peace”). Note also that the Detroit Newsistan and its reporter Paul Egan, who knew about this, chose NOT to cover the story. ****

A few months ago, I told you about the guilty plea of Mohamad Fouad Abdallah, a Lebanese Shi’ite resident of Dearbornistan, who sent me two e-mails on behalf of Hezbollah, threatening to rape and kill me.
I asked readers to send letter to the Federal Judge, Marianne Battani, to urge a tough sentence on Mr. Abdallah. Thanks for all of your excellent letters. I am humbled and proud by your solid displays of patriotism. Your letters helped a lot, and I think the Judge took them to heart.
I just returned from the sentencing, this afternoon, in USA v. Mohamad Fouad Abdallah, Case Number 2:08-cr-20223, at which I spoke. Despite the theatrics and bad acting job by Abdallah, Judge Battani did not disappoint. She sentenced Abdallah to eight months in federal prison, a lot of community service and probation, and lectured him that “in America, we don’t do this. We don’t do this here. We have the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech.
Just a reminder of Mohamad Fouad Abdallah’s e-mails to me:

— michael b mikeb1968@hotmail.com wrote:
From: “michael b” mikeb1968@hotmail.com
To: dschlussel@yahoo.com
Subject: YES I LOVE HEZBOLLAH…AND FUCK YOU..
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:34:47 -0400
HEY WHITE BTICH JEW.FUCK YOU.HEZBOLAAH IS AWSOME.WE WILL NEVER DIE BITCH.WERE GONNA BLOW YOU UP.

***

— michael b mikeb1968@hotmail.com wrote:
From: “michael b” mikeb1968@hotmail.com
To: dschlussel@yahoo.com
Subject: HEY WANNA SUCK MY ARAB COCK??
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:35:33 -0400
FUCK YOU AND YOU WILL SOON BE RAPED AND WILL DIE.

While I’m disappointed that Judge Battani didn’t give Abdallah the full 12-month sentence recommended under the federal sentencing guidelines (and which he solidly deserved), I’m pretty happy with this and was glad she told this proud Hezbollah Muslim off for trying to silence me and for sending me two violent rape and death threats. I was glad to hear Judge Battani repeatedly tell him how especially disturbed she was with his crime.
As I noted before, I have always thought that Judge Battani–a Clinton appointee–was one of the brighter judges on the federal bench, especially in Detroit. And today reinforced my view on that.
I also was impressed that the judge did not fall for the antics and tactics of Mr. Abdallah, who came to court with an oxygen tank and mask, stating that he needed it to breathe because of diabetes and claimed–through his sleazy attorney–that he needed to stay out of prison because of his health. I asked FBI Special Agent Mike Fitzgerald–a great, hard-working agent who worked on my case–if Abdallah had an oxygen tank when agents raided his home in 2006, after he sent me the e-mails. He said no. Clearly this was a prop.
Abdallah also talked about how he has a 9-year-old daughter and is ashamed of what he did and needs to be with her. The Judge threw that right back in his face saying that she’s worried what the nine-year-old will learn from her father’s e-mailing of death threats. And that she needs to see a lesson, as does the Islamic community, that this kind of threatening behavior cannot be tolerated. Right on and Bravo.
There was also the usual, “I am so remorseful” BS and “I’m sorry, I never felt that way and wouldn’t do anything to her [me]” baloney. “It was totally out of character.” Yeah, right. The guy, Abdallah, went to the University of Michigan-Dearborn computer center to send me these e-mails. It was planned, and he told the Federal Probation Officers he did it because he didn’t like that I was exposing prominent imams and other figures in the Dearborn Muslim community regarding their illicit statements and actions during the Hezbollah-Israel war. Great justification for rape and death threats, habibi [buddy].
The only thing he was remorseful and sorry for was that he got caught and prosecuted. As for his threats to rape and kill me, he relishes the chance. And so do all those in the Dearborn Islamic community who’ve made Mohamad Fouad Abdallah a folk hero for his violent threats to me.
About his sleazy lawyer, Arthur Weiss. As I noted before, I’ve had my dealings with this scummy criminal defense attorney. But today took the cake. In his defense of his client and his attempt to get a lenient sentence, Weiss said that he’s a Jew and that his religion has never been an issue with his client, and that he’s always been nice. He also said that because he’s Jewish, he doesn’t have a problem with Mr. Abdallah, thinks he’s a good guy, and doesn’t think he’s anti-Semitic (despite the fact that Abdallah’s rape and murder threats pointed to me being a Jew).
As I noted to the Judge, Mr. Weiss doesn’t care about whether his many Muslim terror-related criminal clients are anti-Semitic. He only cares if their checks clear.
And speaking of pimps, Mr. Weiss’ ugly, clown-like tie looked suited for one. Very fitting.
Bottom line, there is justice in America, when you holler and scream like I did, and when you have a voice in the media, like I do. If you’re just an average citizen, well then these Muslims get to prevail. And then there’s Lola Elzein-Merhi, another Dearbornistan-area Muslim who sent me violent, anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying rape, torture, and death threats. The feds still won’t prosecute her, even though her e-mails were as bad as Mr. Abdallah’s and even though she tried to get me to meet her for a secluded lunch . . . er, funeral.
Thanks to reasonable and bright Judge Marianne O. Battani for justice meted out, and thanks, again, to the many of you readers who sent notes to the Judge urging a tough sentence.
One other thing: Mohamad Fouad Abdallah was allowed to “self-surrender” to federal authorities to begin his prison sentence. Let’s hope he doesn’t take a one-way trip to Lebanon, first.
After exposing these things–the fraudulent oxygen tank and that attorney Arthur Weiss cares about cha-ching to his bank account, not whether the paying criminal defense client is anti-Semitic, here’s the rest of my statement to the Judge in Court today:

Victim Impact Statement of Deborah K. Schlussel
September 26, 2008
The Honorable Marianne O. Battani
United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Michigan
Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse
231 W. Lafayette Blvd, Room 277
Detroit, MI 48226
RE: Victim Impact Statement
United States of America v. Mohamad Fouad Abdallah
Case Number 2:08-cr-20223
Your Honor:
I am writing this in the hope that you will take this into account when you sentence Mohamad Fouad Abdallah for sending me death and rape threats to my e-mail address. I would like you to know how I have been negatively impacted and affected by Mr. Abadallah’s actions. I am his victim and the object of his hate, Debbie Schlussel.
When I first opened the e-mail from Mr. Abdallah, I was shocked, outraged, and very afraid for my personal safety and that of my family members. That has not changed, to date. Mr. Abdallah’s e-mail, in addition to featuring obscenities and vile language, threatened to rape me and blow me up and that I would soon die. He said he was doing this on behalf of Hezbollah, the terrorist group that murdered over 300 U.S. Marines and civilians in Beirut in 1983 and a hundred at the Jewish Community Center and Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the mid-1990s. It is also the group that is part of the Al-Qaeda network and partnered with Al-Qaeda in the Khobar Towers bombing. As you may know, Your Honor, Hezbollah has a huge cheerleading squad in the Detroit area, centered in Dearborn’s and Dearborn Heights’ Shi’ite Community. They need to be sent a message that this kind of behavior–the death and rape threats sent to me on behalf of the terrorist group by Mr. Abdallah–is completely unacceptable in the United States of America.
For over two years since I received his two e-mails, I have had horrible nightmares of having my residence broken into by the likes of Mr. Abdallah. I have woken up just as my mind was dreaming of masked men pulling out swords and getting ready to behead me–just like on the Al-Qaeda video of Daniel Pearl’s murder– or blow me up, and just like in the threats Mr. Abdallah sent me. That is a dream that haunts me now, constantly, since I’ve received Mohamad Fouad Abdallah’s e-mails.
I have never met with nor have I ever had any contact with Mr. Abdallah, other than being the victim and recipient of his anti-Semitic, bigoted death and rape threats and hate. I never asked him to contact me, and I most certainly wish he had not. It would have saved me almost two years–so far–of nightmares and distress. Two years of headaches and anguish.
I am in a constant state of fear. My residence, which has several windows, has the shades drawn, day and night. I never get to see the sun shine in because I am afraid of snipers shooting at me. I constantly leave through back and side doors and time-consuming alternate routes and am constantly looking all around me on the rare occasions that I travel in and out of my residence. It is, as I said, a constant state of fear and hyper-awareness. And I have to limit my trips outside because I never know when someone like Mr. Abdallah or one of his associates will be looking for me. Any noise, any slight abnormal sound in the middle of the night keeps me up indefinitely because I never know if it is Mr. Abdallah or one of his friends, relatives, or allies. This will never change. Mr. Abdallah changed my life forever, for the worst.
I have had to tell my parents, including my elderly father who had a heart condition about these threats, for their personal safety as they were frequently in my presence. My father has since died of cancer, which he developed within a year of Mr. Abdallah’s e-mail threats. He was not in such a condition before I told him of Mr. Abdallah’s threats to my life and limb. Although there are many causes of deadly illnesses like cancer, stress like that which Mr. Abdallah has caused my family certainly contributed to the health condition of my father.
My grandparents, survived the Holocaust and Nazi-occupied Europe. My mother is an immigrant from that life, who was born in Bergen Belsen Camp in Germany. My family thought they left that life of hatred and violence against Jews behind. But now, with Mr. Abdallah uninvitedly entering our lives, we see that Nazism didn’t die. It just took a new form and a new geographic location.
My experience with this whole disturbing episode that never ends has been extremely negative on the so-called “Justice” side, as well.
It is bad enough that I was a victim of Mr. Abdallah, but I was also victimized by the Justice Department. After I received Mr. Abdallah’s rape and death threats, I immediately called the Detroit office of the FBI. Although agents did a swift investigation over two years ago, I was stonewalled by the Justice Department Office of Civil Rights, who took almost two years to “investigate” further, what was plain as day.
And the reason the Justice Department in Washington had to send lawyers here today, at taxpayer expense, is because a politically correct U.S. Attorney, Stephen Murphy–now one of your colleagues–did not want to upset the Islamic community. Is this what our “Justice” Department has become–an instrument of political correctness at the hands of the religion of the hijackers, the religion of the murderous beheaders of Daniel Pearl, the religion of Hezbollah mass murderers? My case would have died in the great American abyss, but for the fact that I spoke out about it on my website and in media forums. If I did not have a voice, Mr. Abdallah would remain without a criminal indictment, without a criminal record. During the over two years that I have waited for justice against Mr. Abdallah, I’ve watched an extremist imam, Hassan Qazwini, who is an open supporter of terrorism and proud friend of Hezbollah spiritual leader Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, get swift justice against two non-Muslim e-mailers who sent far more benign e-mails to him than that which Mr. Abdallah sent me. I read articles about how Mr. Qazwini’s e-mailers had their homes raided by the FBI–one of them was a quadriplegic veteran–while Mr. Abdallah has been treated with kid gloves.
I watched and waited as the men who e-mailed extremist Imam Qazwini were swiftly indicted within weeks and pled guilty within months, while I had to whine and cajole and complain to deaf ears, finally getting justice years.
Mr. Abdallah, I am told, is Lebanese and I do not know of his citizenship or alien status. But I do know that he is Exhibit A that the so-called “Religion of Peace” is not so peaceful. We were told after the 9/11 attacks that those who committed them were “hijacking their religion,” that this is not Islam. But, in my experience, based on Mr. Abdallah’s actions, it seems that the religion is certainly populated by a disproportionate share of so-called “hijackers of a religion”–and far too many of them have one thing in common: their hatred for Jews and their desire to see them murdered–and first raped–by Hezbollah, as Mr. Abdallah quite expressly said he wants to see happen to me. He sent me that e-mail specifically because he is a Muslim and specifically because I am a Jew, as evidenced by his words in the e-mail, the reference to Hezbollah during the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006 in its subject line, and the content of the e-mail.
Mr. Abdallah got my e-mail address from my well-read website. It was my public address. He wrote me to silence me, to get me to stop writing about Islamic terrorists and thugs like himself, who want to take away our First Amendment rights. It will not work. But since he has certainly instilled fear in me for the safety of myself and my friends and family, he has achieved part of his goal. He may have never contributed to funds for terrorism or planned a bombing–though he says he will blow me up and that I will die, after first being raped–but his e-mails to me are a different kind of terrorism. And we cannot tolerate it here in the United States of America.
Your Honor, Mr. Abdallah is not the type of citizen we want or need in the United States. He needs to be sent a message, as do all Muslims in our country and around the world: Third World bigotry and anti-Semitism is not acceptable on American soil. Islamic barbarism, like Hezbollah’s wholesale murder of Americans and Jews–human beings–is not something to be cheered on and celebrated in our country. It is something to be condemned and punished to the fullest extent of the law. The same goes for Mr. Abdallah’s threats to rape and blow me up and kill me. It is bad enough that he was allowed to plead to only a Misdemeanor, while the benign e-mailers to the Detroit Muslim extremist leader I cited earlier are now convicted felons. I guess when you are a Jew–as I am–and the perpetrator is a Muslim–as Mr. Abdallah is, equal punishment does not exist for the same crime. Now that he has pleaded to a Misdemeanor, please don’t let Mr. Abdallah get off completely without a harsh punishment to fit his crime and the harm it has caused me and my family.
Today, I hope you send a message to Mohamad Fouad Abdallah, to his co-religionists, to the murderers of Americans and Jews in Hezbollah, to all who will learn of this case, that you strongly condemn his actions by sending him to prison and, if he is not a U.S. citizen, doing whatever is necessary so that our authorities at Citizenship and Immigration Services, at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and at the Executive Office of Immigration Review will all know that Mr. Abdallah is not the type of potential citizen who should be welcomed and remain free on American soil. Mr. Abdallah’s continued freedom makes the rest of America–especially his expressed target of rape, explosions, and murder–extremely unsafe. With me, it was two e-mails he sent, with someone else–and apparently me–he may carry out his threats.
Thank you for your time in reading this statement and considering my plight. I hope you will sentence Mohamad Fouad Abdallah to at least a year in prison per the minimum mandatory sentence under the federal sentencing guidelines, if not a much harsher punishment.
Sincerely,
Deborah K. Schlussel

By Debbie Schlussel
The behavior of Six Flags amusement parks in appeasing extremist Muslims allied with terrorists is yet another example of why I tell my fellow Americans and Westerners not to rely on the Jewish community for the kosher seal of approval on what is and isn’t acceptable in the war on terror.
Six Flags, owned by Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and run by Mark Shapiro–both Jews, is kowtowing to Muslims by hosting a special day for them . . . and asking workers not to wear shorts. No shorts at an amusement park when it’s still summer-like weather?

It’s Muslim Day at Six Flags Magic Mountain on Saturday and Santa Clarita resident A.J. Jones is curious to know if the park hosted other religious events in the past.

“Great American” Amusement Park Now Kowtows to Islam

This is Magic Mountain’s first year hosting Muslim Family day. It is far from its first time hosting a religious event, said park spokeswoman Sue Carpenter.
“I think it’s great as long as they open it up to everyone,” said Jones, whose friend works at the park.
Jones is concerned the park’s supervisors asked the employees to wear pants Saturday to cover their legs despite the unusually high heat. “I think its kind of strange,” Jones said. “It’s been so hot for pants.”
But Carpenter said not to worry.
“Out of respect, we request the employees wear their uniform pants, instead of their shorts,” Carpenter said. “It is only a request, it is not mandatory.”
The Islamic Circle of North America requested the day as a celebration for end of Ramadan. Muslim Family Day comes just five days after the end of Ramadan, a Muslim religious observance in which participating Muslims fast from dawn until sunset.
Park officials will try to meet the Muslim group’s needs as it does with any other group, Carpenter said.
“There will be a plethora of things to do for the youth and the entire family including halal food stalls, ethnic bazaar and family entertainment” the event’s Web site states.
The group is hosting Muslim Family and Youth Days in seven other United States cities this fall.

Shorts, today, non-Halal hot dogs, tomorrow. And the next day, the garb of non-Muslim female patrons to the amusement park.
The Islamic Circle of North America openly supports HAMAS and Hezbollah and refuses to condemn them. It has been under investigation for fundraising for and money laundering to Islamic terrorist groups.
Not sure why any amusement park would ask it’s employees to do anything for ICNA “out of respect”. The group deserves none.
This is America. When will we decide to take it back?
If you live in the Washington, DC area, it might be a good idea to let your neighbor, Daniel Snyder, know what you think about this. And think twice about pouring money into his Redskins.
Six Flags calls itself “Six Flags Great America.” But what it’s doing is neither great nor American.

By Debbie Schlussel
To all the blind so-called conservatives who gush over Sarah Palin at every ignorant utterance, I’m sure you’ll continue to gush as Palin demonstrates her complete lack of understanding of the objection to Roe v. Wade as bad law. And I’m sure you gush as she demonstrates that, heck, she can’t think of a single decision by the Supremes that she doesn’t like other than Roe (because she hasn’t a clue).
Palin tells Katie Couric that she believes there’s a “right to privacy” in the U.S. Constitution. But, in fact, that’s the whole conservative objection to Roe v. Wade. Justice Harry Blackmun simple made it up, to legally protect abortion–something he readily admitted to Bob Woodward for a Woodward book. There is no right to privacy in the Constitution. It’s pure fiction. If you believe there is, then you believe in abortion on demand and a whole host of other things strict constructionist conservatives oppose. You don’t make up stuff in the Constitution that ain’t there–it’s that simple. Well, simple for anyone with even the tiniest bit of knowledge about basic national issues, like abortion.

You expect a person running for Vice President–especially one claiming to be a conservative and pro-life–to know these things, like about the right to privacy being created out of wholecloth. She doesn’t because she’s a complete ignoramus. (Oh, and she also opposed a pro-life bill in Alaska. She talks a conservative game, but didn’t follow one.)
You also expect a person running for Vice President to know of a few Supreme Court decisions, other than Roe, with which she disagrees. I can rattle several off the top of my head because I actually read a newspaper and follow the news. She doesn’t, and yet she wants to lead the country.
For instance, I oppose the Supreme Court’s decision to grant habeas corpus petition rights and access to U.S. courts to Guantanamo Bay inmates who aren’t even on U.S. soil and have no nexus to America. For a woman who claims she wants to stop Islamic terrorists, why doesn’t she know about this recent, prominently awful decision? I also oppose the Court’s ruling that a non-adult, no matter how heinous his crime, cannot face the death penalty. The University of Michigan affirmative action cases with opposite resulting decisions, Grutter and Gratz. And there are so many others . . . so many others about which she’s clueless.
Yup, can’t wait until she’s Veep. Don’t look for her to make frequent TV appearances like Dick Cheney, a smart guy who actually knew what the heck he was talking about.
But, hey, she’ll be great at funerals of foreign leaders and cutting ribbons at openings.
Like I said earlier in the week, Sarah Palin can only exceed expectations at the debate tonight. Her performance thus far has been that dismal.
Remember when conservatives objected to Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court? Harriet Miers was supposedly a conservative and a knowledgeable woman. But she simply didn’t have any experience as a Judge nor the qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court. It’s the same deal here, except the woman is question is a gazillion times more ignorant.
Like I said before, the choice in November is between two horrible Marxist blowhards and a liberal-centrist Republican with a complete ignoramus. Good luck, America.

By Debbie Schlussel
As readers know, I am a salmon afficionado, especially Copper River Salmon, which is the best salmon you can eat.
But, now, some eco-statist big brother types are trying to stop people from washing their cars on their driveways, saying it’s killing the salmon.
And they’ve convinced the State of Washington to make it public policy. Oh, and guess who’s supporting this? Shocker–the car wash industry.
Come on:

Along with wild salmon and steelhead trout, the Pacific Northwest soon may have another endangered species – the driveway carwash.
Washing your car or boat in the driveway or street is a residential ritual as American as backyard barbecues. But the state of Washington is telling its local governments they must prohibit home car washing unless residents divert the wash water away from storm drains, where they say it causes water pollution.
“I understand this is something people have done for a long time,” says Bill Moore, water quality specialist with the Washington state Department of Ecology, which is requiring the ban. “It’s not something we should be doing any longer.”
He says the soapy runoff is toxic to salmon and other fish and that small metal particles that wash off cars, such as brake dust, is harmful, too.
Unlike public sanitary sewer systems that clean wastes from water, storm drain systems in most communities empty straight into streams and eventually rivers and oceans. . . .
Mark Muhlhauser, 41, who washes his Toyota Highlander nearly every weekend outside his Vancouver, Wash., home, has a simple message for regulators: Come get him.
“I will wash it this weekend,” he said defiantly. “It’s just totally crazy. I don’t think anybody’s going to follow it. Everybody I’ve talked to, they’re still planning on washing their cars.”
He gets sympathy from Brian Carlson, public works director for Vancouver, a city of 160,000 people just across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore. He says the city is being ordered by state Ecology Department officials to pass an ordinance banning carwash runoff by next year, but that neither he nor other city officials intend to do so.
“We don’t think it’s realistic,” Carlson says. . . .
Those aren’t workable alternatives, some say. Dave Anderson, half of the Mark and Dave radio team on KEX radio in Portland.
“I don’t put in an effort to make my driveway nice, and that’s where I’m going to wash my car,” Anderson says. . . .
Mark Thorsby, executive director of the International Carwash Association, the industry trade group of 25,000 commercial carwashes, said it supports the prohibition.

I think they should ban suntanning and make-up in Washington, too. Cologne and showers also. After all, the soap and oils, etc. all make it into the water eventually. Sprinkler and Slip’N’Slide parties for kids; Slurpees–fuhgedaboutit.
Might hurt the salmon.
And we thought we defeated the Soviet Union. It was actually an untaxed import to Washington State.

By Debbie Schlussel
In the past, I’ve written about Mithal Al-Alusi, the courageous, independent, Sunni member of Iraqi parliament, who supports democracy and wants peace and relations with Israel. He’s also wary of the intense Iranian influence over the Shi’ite ruling figures. For all of this, Al-Alusi has lost two sons to targeted assassination–where he was the primary target.
Now, we see what the “new” Iraq is all about. It’s the same as the old Iraq. It’s intolerant, extreme, and barbaric.
Al-Alusi, because he visited Israel, has had his parliamentary immunity lifted. His fellow “democrats” in the Iraqi parliament voted for this overwhelmingly. With his immunity lifted, he can now be prosecuted and face the death penalty, which was the goal of those who moved to lift it. They want him executed.

Iraqi Legislator Mithal Al-Alusi: He Lost His Sons
For Supporting Peace w/ Israel; Now Could Be Executed

Iraqi legislators said Sunday that parliament had voted to lift the immunity of a Sunni Arab lawmaker who visited Israel.
The parliament has also banned Mithal al-Alusi from traveling outside Iraq or attending parliamentary sessions, they said.
Sunday’s punishment was confirmed by Osama al-Nujeif, a Sunni Arab lawmaker, and Haider al-Ibadi, a Shi’ite lawmaker.
The two men said Alusi’s trip was illegal and a humiliation for Iraqis who see Israel as a historical enemy. Without parliamentary immunity, Alusi could be subject to prosecution.
Alusi, chairman of Iraq’s Democratic Party, Mithal al-Alusi, surprisingly arrived at a conference on terror in Herzliya last Wednesday, calling for the establishment of a joint intelligence network with Israel and the United States.
“In Israel, there is no occupation, there is liberalism,” Alusi said to the sound of roaring applause.
Alusi made his first trip to Israel in September 2004 to participate in a counter-terrorism conference. Apparently as payback, extremists murdered his two sons, 22 and 30.

The next time you hear conservatives or President Bush or anyone else point to the died purple fingers of the Iraqi people voting in elections, remember: This is what they voted for.
Let’s hear it for the new Iraqi “democracy” and “freedom.” This is what over 4,000 of our soldiers died for?
Please tell me how this kind of stuff is different than Saddam’s activities? Oh, it’s Shi’ite instead of Sunni. Same difference.

By Debbie Schlussel
On this site, we’ve discussed the many, many examples of the hypocrisy of the “green” movement and the celebrity eco-hypocrites.
Now, there’s yet another example, based on something we’ve touched on before: various retailers’ elimination of plastic bags–or bags altogether unless you pay for them, as in the case of IKEA–in favor of those permanent coated canvas bags they ask you to buy from them and reuse.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does:
This Is Hardly Our Biggest Enemy/Panacea
It’s a pet peeve of mine. I don’t like it when I’m at IKEA and they ask me to pay a nickel for a bag because the gazillionaire old man who owns the company and lives in the United Empire of Madonnastan (what I call Europe–they love her and Islam) decides I have to subscribe to his politics, not just buy his products and make him rich. Whenever I’m at any retailer that is trying to phase out plastic bags, I make a point for asking for them, and I always say, “I want one because I’m against the environment.” Of course, I’m not. I have to live and breathe the air, too. I just don’t think my plastic bag is the horror of horrors they think it is, and I like to mock them and play the role.
Back to those coated, reusable bags they want you to use. The whole idea is not as “environmentally-friendly” as they’d have you believe, despite the enviro-Nazi politics they try to press upon you. And when you buy them, your money goes to the Chi-Coms:

It’s manufactured in China, shipped thousands of miles overseas, made with plastic and could take years to decompose. It’s also the hot “green” giveaway of the moment: the reusable shopping bag.
The bags usually are printed with environmental slogans as well as corporate logos and pitched as earth-friendly substitutes for the billions of disposable plastic bags that wind up in landfills every year. . . .
But well-meaning companies and consumers are finding that shopping bags, like biofuels, are another area where it’s complicated to go green. “If you don’t reuse them, you’re actually worse off by taking one of them,” says Bob Lilienfeld, author of the Use Less Stuff Report, an online newsletter about waste prevention. And because many of the bags are made from heavier material, they’re also likely to sit longer in landfills than their thinner, disposable cousins, according to Ned Thomas, who heads the department of material science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. . . .
If each bag is used multiple times — at least once a week — four or five reusable bags can replace 520 plastic bags a year, says Nick Sterling, research director at Natural Capitalism Solutions, a nonprofit focused on corporate sustainability issues.

Wow, that’s a big if.

The nonwoven polypropylene bags, made in China, should last about five years, says spokesman Steve Linders [of CVS].
The bags are made in China from nonwoven polypropylene. The materials are recyclable and decompose without contaminating groundwater, says spokeswoman Erin Pensa [of Walmart].
This new bag costs 50 cents but has less recycled content than Wal-Mart’s $1 reusable bag. The company says it wanted to offer shoppers a cheaper option.
The bags are made in China from nonwoven polypropylene that contains 30% recycled material, says spokesman Mike Black [of Staples]. . . .
The nonwoven polypropylene bags, made in China, are part of a larger green initiative, says spokeswoman Kelly Groehler [of Best Buy].

Yup, the common denominator is that China is laughing all the way to the bank at our faux-greenness bizarre-dom.

Many of the cheap, reusable bags that retailers favor are produced in Chinese factories and made from nonwoven polypropylene, a form of plastic that requires about 28 times as much energy to produce as the plastic used in standard disposable bags and eight times as much as a paper sack, according to Mr. Sterling, of Natural Capitalism Solutions.

Hmmm . . . doesn’t exactly sound more eco-friendly to me.

Some, such as the ones sold in Gristedes stores in New York that are printed with the slogan “I used to be a plastic bag,” are misleading. Those bags are also made in China from nonwoven polypropylene and have no recycled content. Stanley Joffe, president of Earthwise Bag Co., the Commerce, Calif., company that designed the bags, says the slogan is meant to point out that the bag itself is reusable, taking the place of a disposable plastic bag.

But get this: The plastic bag Nazis don’t really have as their goal for you not to use plastic bags any more. Nope. Their goal is far more sinister. They want you to get used to using the reusable coated bags and then to get used to less then thorough bathing. It’s used as an analogy, but their goals are severe. The analogy is no accident:
Getting people to actually use the bags is another matter. Maximizing their benefits requires changing deeply ingrained behavior, like getting used to taking 30-second showers to lower one’s energy and water use. At present, many of the bags go unused — remaining stashed instead in consumers’ closets or in the trunks of their cars. . . .
Sarah De Belen, a 35-year-old mother of two from Hoboken, N.J., says she uses about 30 or 40 plastic bags at the grocery store every week. Late last year, she saw a woman at the supermarket with a popular canvas tote by London designer Anya Hindmarch and promptly purchased one online for about $45.
But Ms. De Belen says she soon realized she’d need 12 of them to accommodate an average grocery run. “It can hold, like, a head of lettuce,” she says. Besides, she adds, it’s too nice to load up with diapers or dripping chicken breasts.
Thank G-d Americans aren’t the complete lemmings I thought they were. Disposable plastic bags are not going to be our death. Much less so than worshipping blindly at the PC group-think alter of environmental correctness and faux-green.
Like I said, the ChiComs are laughing at us . . . all the way to the bank.
When we become their China–after generations of such stupidity–they won’t be having us manufacture reusable bags. Bet on it.

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . Or am I right that there’s something wrong with the fact that people started voting in the Presidential election, a couple of weeks ago?
This was before the first Presidential debate, before Sarah Palin talked about seeing Russian Planes flying in the distance to Katie Couric, before much of anything. How on earth can they decide when they haven’t yet seen the whole picture?
Yes, I already know that, at this point, I will vote for the Centrist-Liberal Republican and his Ignoramusette Mom of Van Palin running mate. But I’m waiting until election day. You never know what could happen in 40 days. It’s unlikely there will be a cataclysmic change or set of events that will change most of our votes. But, again, ya never know. Why not wait to vote on election day with the rest of America?

The fact that people are already allowed to cast ballots–and we’re not talking absentee ballots–is symptomatic of the fragmented American experience. And it’s not a good thing.
Whereas we once had a common American culture–a common language, a common national election day, common TV shows (“Who Shot J.R.?” would never be a national phenomenon, today, nor would the radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds”)–we’re now separated by so many choices and gazillion media outlets. That’s, on the one hand, a great thing. No single media source can control what we see and what news were getting. It’s great to have so many choices and options.
On the other hand, it’s now at the point where there are so many Americans who don’t share the same values and don’t know what it is to be an American, can’t even speak English, want to force their old world Mid-Eastern mores on us, for example.
That’s part of why I’m against charter schools. Do you really think kids attending Nation of Islam or Muslim Brotherhood-run charter schools will come out with a common set of American values that are similar to our own? Don’t bet on it.
And so it goes with people voting in the Presidential election a month and a half before it’s time. They won’t have the same experience or clearer picture those of us who vote on election day–the official election day–will. They’re getting a different picture.
And in a future generation, they’ll be part of several different Americas. We have to have some shared experiences as a nation and as a population.
It used to be that you could only vote absentee if you had a legitimate reason you could not be at the polls on election day, like being out of the vicinity or being sidelined by long-term illness or religious observance. But no longer:

In Louisville, Ky., 97 people showed up at the Jefferson County elections office last Thursday to vote for president. In Fairfax County, Va., 244 people voted on Friday, and voting begins in another 11 states and the District of Columbia this week, according to the Pew Center on the States’ electionline.org, which tracks ballot issues.
By the time Election Day arrives, more than half of the voters in some states will have cast early ballots, voting experts say. That will upend the way campaigns typically proceed, because many voters will be casting ballots before the debates. . . .
American Enterprise Institute scholar John Fortier says only about 5% of voters cast absentee ballots in 1980, when many jurisdictions required a voter to have a notarized excuse to get one. In a bid to make voting easier and increase voter turnout, about half the states now offer so-called no-excuse absentee voting, and 23 offer in-person early voting in elections offices and, in some cases, in grocery stores and Wal-Mart stores.
Mr. Fortier calculates that in a dozen states, more than 30% of voters cast ballots before Election Day in 2004, and in five of those, at least half the voters cast early ballots. Oregon has voted completely by mail-in ballot since 1998.
Early-voting turnout could be greatest in some swing states where Republican nominee John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are focusing much of their effort. In 2004, early voting accounted for 53% of ballots cast in Nevada, 47% in Colorado, 51% in New Mexico and 36% in Florida.
Research on early voting suggests it probably doesn’t benefit one candidate or the other. Early voters tend to be those who are most loyal to their party or candidate, and least likely to be swayed by developments in the campaign, says Mr. Fortier.
Making it easier to vote also doesn’t seem to have increased participation. “The same people who voted at polling places are voting at their kitchen tables,” he adds.
But early voting has the potential to alter the way campaigns operate, political analysts say. It takes away some of a candidate’s ability to unveil major initiatives late in the campaign, when voters typically are more attentive. . . .
In both Virginia and Kentucky, early voting actually is beginning late. In Louisville, voting was scheduled to begin Sept. 16, but Hurricane Ike knocked out electricity to the elections office. Virginia elections officials are still proofreading ballots in most jurisdictions. Otherwise, the entire state would be voting already.

What’s their hurry?
Is it so much to ask to wait another month or so to cast your vote?
Maybe in another few generations, they’ll be celebrating Independence Day on another date? Early elections aren’t a good prescription for America.
Time to clamp down on convenience absentee voting. America is not a 7-Eleven. Picking the day you vote shouldn’t be as easy as buying a Slurpee.
Voting at the polls on Election Day is a special experience, that every American should go through on the same day, while coming into contact with other Americans.
Voting is a privilege. It shouldn’t be difficult. But it shouldn’t be so easy and so commoditized that every dummy can vote from home while sniffing keyboard cleaner and watching “The Real World” Season 5,782.

By Debbie Schlussel
As I’ve noted, I get these all the time. Note the guy’s “cute” e-mail address. If he spent half as much time on something substantial, rather than this kind of “creativity” and hate, maybe he’d be someone:

From: Mike Hertz mikelitorishertz@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 3:46 PM
Subject: Fuck you, Jew twat
To: writedebbie@gmail.com
Good riddance to the system, parasite. Good riddance to the Jew-run Fed and Wall Street, from whence your people ran the media and movie industry and foisted nigger-worship on our society nonstop, 24 hours a day. When the niggers are burning the neighborhood your people White Flighted to, remember all your PC BULLSHIT about how wonderful the goddamn african-americans are. And then call your goy friends for help, ha, the goy friends whom you kept insisting accept the niggers overrunning their communities. Call the goy and african police when there’s no law, and see how fast they come running, lol. Too bad people like you, Jew and non-Jew alike, could never accept the homegeneity of Whites the way you insist on homogeneity for YOUR precious people. And go bray to the Magic Book for help, too, LOL.

Me PC? Since when?
Just remember, these White supremacists work hand-in-hand with the jihadists in their plots to destroy the country. It doesn’t just happen in “Sleeper Cell.”

By Debbie Schlussel
Tonight at sundown is the start of one of the most important Jewish holidays of the year, Rosh HaShanah, the New Year. To my Jewish friends and readers, I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year. Thanks to all of my readers who sent me e-mails and i- and e-cards wishing me a Happy New Year. Right Back at Ya!

Jews Eat Apples & Honey on Rosh HaShanah
To all of my readers, I will be out of blog commission for the next two days (Tuesday & Wednesday), in observance of the holiday. However, I’ll try to post more today, time-permitting, and try to have some things for my webmaster to post in my absence. If not, see ya on Thursday.
A little bit about the Jewish New Year excerpted from my post on this in a previous year. My prayers will be the same as they were then, and I will remember my beloved father, H.L. Schlussel, MD, who died on the first day of Rosh HaShanah, last year (hard to believe it’s been a year):

It is the start of the Aseret Yemay Tshuvah–the Ten Days of Repentance–during which our fate, healthwise, financially, etc.–is decreed in the Book of Life for the next year by G-d. . . .

Man Blowing Sounds Out of the Shofar

On Rosh HaShanah, a two day holiday, we pray in synagogue for a good new year of peace, health, and prosperity for ourselves, our people, and the safety of our country, the USA, which has brought us such great opportunity to live in peace and freedom. We also pray for peace in Israel, America’s most loyal ally and the only democracy in the Middle East, too. Unlike in many of America’s (and the world’s) mosques–where hatred of America, Christians, and Jews is the order of the day in sermons, prayers, the Koran, and the Hadiths–there isn’t a single prayer we have that mentions Islam or Muslims.
Given the recent escalation in Islamic intolerance and violence, we also hope that, while we are praying and not bothering anyone, our synagogues are secure from all of those “lone,” “mentally disturbed,” “non-terror related” Muslims who attack Jewish institutions, when they know there will be a large gathering of Jews. We know that in this country–where after 9/11 the Justice Dept. started a special program devoted only to Justice for Muslims and Arabs–authorities aren’t really paying too much attention to the safety and civil rights of Christians and Jews.
I will be praying that our government is restored to people in touch with the real world, that the PC forces running the Depts. of Justice and Homeland Security, the FBI and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will be replaced with common-sense law enforcement officials who care about justice, safety, and security of America, who care about protecting our borders and stopping the malefactors already inside the gate. I’ll be praying for the end to PC movies and TV shows painting Jews and Christians as the villains and extremist Muslims who support terrorism as kind, nice victims of prejudice. Those are just some of the things I’ll be praying for.
On Rosh HaShanah, we also hear hundreds of noises blown from a ram’s horn known as a shofar (can be the horn of certain other animals, too). The shofar is one of the most prominent symbols in Judaism. It’s used like a trumpet, takes a special skill to use, and is the horn that was blown by Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren when the Western Wall in Jerusalem was liberated from Islamists in 1967. Its sounds symbolize alarm and justice, among many other things.
On the holiday, we also eat apples with honey on top, to symbolize the sweet year that we hope to attain from G-d. My favorite are MacIntosh apples.

L’Shanah Tovah–To a Good Year!

By Debbie Schlussel
Remember the old saying, “C Students Run the World”? Well, now it’s looking more and more like D Students Run the World.
Yes, I don’t want the smartest candidates running on either side to win, because that would mean–at least in book smarts–that a Harvard-educated Marxist will win.
Yes, I’m a conservative, and yes, I want a conservative in the White House. But not a complete dummy who happens to regurgitate the right lines, when she’s not stumbling all over the place.
And as we all know, there won’t be a conservative in the White House, no matter who wins the Presidency. Neither McCain nor Obama is a conservative. One is far-left liberal, the other a “moderate” liberal. And the only conservative on the ticket–Veep candidate Sarah Palin–is looking more and more like the empty suit I told you she was. Her interview with Katie Couric was abysmal (video excerpt posted below). I thought I was listening to Miss Junior South Carolina–“U.S. Citizens, The Iraq, Such As. . . .” The SNL skit mocking it (also posted below) was on target.
Sarah Palin Stumbles on Russia and Alaska:

The woman comes off as clueless, not well-spoken. I don’t care if she’s been involved in foreign policy before or negotiations with foreign leaders. But, my G-d, get a clue about how to answer a question with some authority, or at least a tiny clue.
And, yes, she is a conservative and says the right things on terrorism and the Middle East . . . when she recalls the carefully coached rote answers Team McCain tried to teach her. But she projects that she doesn’t know what the heck she’s talking about. And, frankly, in a lot of cases, it’s quite obvious she doesn’t.
I’m hoping that this is the ultimate in Machiavellianism–setting expectations so low for Thursday’s debate that she will come out looking absolutely Einstein-esque. But don’t hold your breath.
I’m not sure why people continue to gush over this woman and expect more. She is, after all, the woman who–as I previously noted went to six different colleges in six years . . . for a journalism degree (usually considered an easy, lightweight degree). And she’s the woman who named her kid Van Palin in honor of her fave rock group–the kid who will never have the legal mental capacity to go to court to have that legally changed. (Thank G-d my parents didn’t name me “Do The”, as in rhymes with “Do The Hustle.”)
Now, we find out that Team McCain is in crisis uber-coaching mode. They’re calling her gaffes “a decline in crispness.” No, that’s what happens to potato chips and apples when they’re past their shelf-life. Let’s face it: This woman was never “crisp.”
And the real Mr. Mom–the real Hockey Mom and lipstick-wearing bulldog–in this case, Todd Palin, is whining to Team McCain that he hasn’t seen his wife. Welcome to Mr. Momhood, Todd. Imagine how much you’ll see her when she’s the Veep and he’s the Second Lady. Don’t say I didn’t warn you about this.

The McCain campaign aims to halt what it sees as a perceived decline in the crispness and precision of Gov. Palin’s latest remarks as well as a fall in recent polls, according to several advisers and party officials. . . .
For his part, Mr. Palin has worried about the frequent separation of his wife from her family, friends and Alaska staff, an adviser said. Accordingly, her family will be with her in Sedona during this week. . . .
Meanwhile, the more experienced advisers assigned to her by the McCain campaign are accustomed to working with seasoned candidates, not someone “completely green on the national stage,” one strategist said. Several Republican backers have griped that the campaign has put the candidate in difficult situations, from sitting for high-profile television interviews to popping into meetings with foreign leaders, some of whom made sexist remarks, said several officials.

Aww. They called her beautiful, and she can’t handle it. Maybe they shoulda called her “ugly.” This reminds me of feminists that whine about whistling construction workers. If that’s your worst problem, and you can’t handle it, are you really suited for politics? If the Paki leader thought she was bright, that would have been the compliment. He was gingerly trying to be nice.

“It’s time to let Palin be Palin — and let it all hang out,” said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist.

Um, isn’t that the problem in the first place. All the conventional pundits say she’s been over-coached and needs to be herself, but they’re wrong. We saw when she was herself. We’ve been seeing it. She’s an ignoramus.

From her campaign’s perspective, Gov. Palin isn’t getting media attention for her contributions. For example, with foreign leaders last week, she had detailed conversations about the national-security and global implications of the energy crisis, one adviser said.

Um, this is a “contribution”? She had tea with a few guys from the Mid-East who ogled her and met a pretentious rock star and that’s a “contribution”? Dr. Jean Kirkpatrick, the late U.N. Ambassador, wasn’t a looker, but she made real contributions and understood the world. Sarah Palin is another story.

In recent days, Gov. Palin flubbed quasi-mock debates in New York City and Philadelphia, some operatives said. Finger-pointing began, and then intensified after her faltering interview with CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric. . . .
Gov. Palin is under considerable pressure to make Thursday’s debate a “game changer,” advisers said. The campaign is sending in Sen. McCain’s debate coach, Brett O’Donnell, to help with her preparation, advisers said. Though he always was expected to help out after Sen. McCain’s debate Friday in Oxford, Miss., Mr. O’Donnell now needs to “undo” much of her previous debate prep, which has resulted in occasional “rote” responses, one adviser said.

Call me a snob. But sometimes, to turn a phrase from Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko, snobbery is good. This is yet another example of the dumbing down of America. Don’t you want better for your country? Don’t you wish that John McCain had done a little more vetting before he picked this woman? Doesn’t it say something that he didn’t?
Remember, Dick Cheney–very unfairly vilified–wasn’t shielded from the media, he didn’t stumble even under friendly Sean Vannity fire, and he always knew what he was talking about. And he actually knew what being a conservative was about. Didn’t need Team McCain to intensely coach him for four days. My how far we’ve gone . . . backwards.
Yup, America, this is the choice in November: Really book smart Marxists versus the centrist-liberal and conservative who is extremely ignorant, but wears a skirt, so “yay.”
Come January, I predict D students will be taking the oath. And once they start their term, all of you who pounce on me for telling the truth about this empty skirt will come to your senses . . . just as you did on George W. Bush.
Sadly, we don’t have another choice.