By Debbie Schlussel
. . . I think of this . . .

. . . and I ask, why would we want to return to it? What was so great about it?

By Debbie Schlussel
These companies donated and continue to fund Al Sharpton and his National Action Network. I’d suggest letting these companies know what you think and not buying their products. Oh, and lump in Sean the Plagiarist Hannity, since he appeared at the National Action Network convention and continues to give Sharpton airtime. Ditto for Bill O’Reilly. They all perpetuate his bigotry, by either financing it, or giving it a forum and lending legitimacy to it.
Some people apparently need a refresher on the racist thuggery of this monster. Remember, this is the guy who recently defended two Black men who forced a woman to have sex with her own son:

Anheuser-Busch gave him six figures, Colgate-Palmolive shelled out $50,000 and Macy’s and Pfizer have contributed thousands to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s charity. Almost 50 companies – including PepsiCo, General Motors, Wal-Mart, FedEx, Continental Airlines, Johnson & Johnson and Chase – and some labor unions sponsored Sharpton’s National Action Network annual conference in April.

Weird Al Shakedown Sharpton:
Race Merchant, Coke Dealer & Rapist Defender

Terrified of negative publicity, fearful of a consumer boycott or eager to make nice with the civil-rights activist, CEOs write checks, critics say, to NAN and Sharpton – who brandishes the buying power of African-American consumers. In some cases, they hire him as a consultant.
The cash flows even as the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn has been conducting a grand-jury investigation of NAN’s finances.
A General Motors spokesman told The Post that NAN had repeatedly – and unsuccessfully – asked for contributions for six years, beginning in August 2000.
Then, in December 2006, Sharpton threatened to call a boycott of the carmaker over the closing of an African-American-owned GM dealership in The Bronx, and he picketed outside GM headquarters on Fifth Avenue.
Last year, General Motors gave NAN a $5,000 donation. It gave $5,000 more this year, a spokesman said, calling NAN a ‘worthy’ organization.
In November 2003, Sharpton picketed DaimlerChrysler’s Chicago car show and threatened a boycott over alleged racial bias in car loans.
‘This is institutional racism,’ he bellowed.
In May 2004, Chrysler began supporting NAN’s conferences, which include panels on corporate responsibility and civil rights and a black-tie awards dinner to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Last year, Sharpton gave Chrysler an award for corporate excellence.
In 2003, Sharpton targeted American Honda for not hiring enough African-Americans in management.
‘We support those that support us,’ wrote Sharpton and the Rev. Horace Sheffield III, president of NAN’s Michigan chapter, in a letter to American Honda. ‘We cannot be silent while African-Americans spend hard-earned dollars with a company that does not hire, promote or do business with us in a statistically significant manner.’
Two months after American Honda execs met with Sharpton, the carmaker began to sponsor NAN’s events – and continues to pay ‘a modest amount’ each year, a spokesman said.

So, to sum up, write letters to and don’t buy the products of these sponsors of Al Sharpton’s racism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry:

* Anheuser-Busch
* Colgate-Palmolive
* Macy’s
* Pfizer
* PepsiCo
* General Motors
* Wal-Mart
* FedEx
* Continental Airlines
* Chase
* Johnson & Johnson
* Chrysler
* Honda

If you buy products from these companies, you are the financier of Al Sharpton’s thuggery.
Write these companies and let them know you’ll be voting with your wallet against their alliance with this race merchant. Can you imagine any of these companies sponsoring a neo-Nazi group’s annual convention or giving in to skinhead shakedowns?
So, why are they doing it when the skinhead happens to be Black?

Birds of Feather: Hos and Demagogues Come in All Colors
In 1941, would Sean Vannity appear at the German-American Bund’s annual convention to debate Hitler’s biggest defender? He probably would. And Bill O’Reilly and Vannity would both give him airtime, as he ran over them with his mouth. Why have they remained silent as Sharpton defended the thugs who made the mother have sex with her son under threat of death? These companies and these FOX News personalities lend him legitimacy.
Disgusting.

By Debbie Schlussel
My friend, Lisa Klinghoffer, is the daughter of Leon Klinghoffer, the wheelchair-bound Jewish-American U.S. Army veteran, who was murdered in cold blood by Palestinian Islamic terrorists in 1985.
This helpless man was shot to death by Palestinian terrorists–directed by terrorist mastermind Abu Abbas a/k/a Abul Abbas–who then dumped his body overboard into the ocean from the Achille Lauro cruise ship. Klinghoffer and his wife, Marilyn, were on the cruise to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary, and he was assassinated for the dual crimes of being Jewish and being American. Read the full story here, my 20th anniversary column on that fateful trip.
Lisa wrote me today, and notes that she hope she will finally get some sort of justice:

Leon Klinghoffer: American Hero in Life & Death

Dear Debbie,
Thought you might be interested to know that the Justice Department has captured the terrorist Monzer Al-Kassar for arms trafficking in a sting operation. He was just extradited here, yesterday, and will be indicted at his arraignment on Monday and we were invited to be there. Thought you might be interested! He sold the guns to Abbas, that killed my father. He will be tried in the United States, here in New York, for selling guns recently.
It will be interesting to actually bear witness to one of the terrorists involved in my fathers murder 23 years ago. If my mother was here, she would spit in his face as she did the others. I wish that I had that opportunity, to do that for her. My mother and father were truly wonderful people and here I am missing Leon especially today on Father’s Day.
Love,
Lisa Klinghoffer

Not Smiling Anymore: Syrian Terrorist Arms Dealer Monzer Al-Kassar,
Co-Conspirator in Leon Klinghoffer Murder
Al-Kassar is believed to be involved in the 1994 Hezbollah bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Israeli Embassy there. Read the indictment of Monzer Al-Kassar a/k/a “Abu Munawar,”
a/k/a “El Taous.” I hope that Lisa and her sister, Ilsa Klinghoffer, finally get some justice. Their mother died of cancer not long after their father was brutally murdered by the Islamic terrorists run by Abul Abbas and allied with the P.L.O. And, sadly, Abul Abbas, mysteriously died in U.S. custody, after he was captured in Iraq after the U.S. invasion.
We shall see.
In any event, congrats to the many U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents who lured and captured Syrian arms dealer Monzer Al-Kassar. They did good work and made us proud, the way the former U.S. Customs Service used to.

DEA Agents with Latest Capture,
Terrorist Arms Supplier Al-Kassar

By Debbie Schlussel
On this first Father’s Day without my late father, it is bittersweet. Bitter–because my father is no longer here and because there is so much I want to ask and tell him, but cannot. Sweet–because I know I was so lucky to have such a strong, moral, responsible, caring, and loving father in my life (who was so good to me), when–today–so many American kids do not.
I miss my father, H.L. Schlussel, MD (of Blessed Memory), more than anything. The sadness and pain of not having my father here is not any less than it was when he died, last September. In fact, it is far deeper, because reality has set in. But it was very real, last year on Father’s Day, picking out the card I would give my father, knowing it would probably be the last. I cried at the store.

My Dad, H.L. Schlussel, MD (Center) Receives Award From
Michigan Lions Club for Providing Free Eye Care to the Poor, Blind
Dad was a great father, who sacrificed financial lucre in exchange for spending time with us kids, caring for us, and taking us places–from his delicious omelettes and French toast, to whitewater rafting on the Colorado River, to our appreciation for Copper River Salmon, we knew our father loved us. And he taught us to be kind and charitable to others, especially those less fortunate. Above is a photo of my dad receiving an award from the Lions club, for giving free eyecare to the poor and the blind. My father was a very special person.
To those of you who are lucky enough to still have your father on this earth, I hope you will give him a hug and that he will hug you back. And I hope you appreciate what you have, before it is too late. In many ways, I feel that I did not appreciate my father enough, as I cleaned out his office and went through the thousands of memories–photos, notes, letters, etc. My father was at many times both mother and father to us. He sacrificed his personal happiness for our well-being.
Fathers are so important in our lives, but they do not get the respect they deserve. In our “Sex and the City” culture with a growing matriarchal hegemony, fathers are mostly ridiculed on TV and in the movies–if they are even present at all. As I noted last year, there have been a few recent movies coming out of Hollywood bucking that trend–like “3:10 to Yuma,” “In the Valley of Elah” (whose anti-War message I did not appreciate, but whose loving father I did), and “Resurrecting the Champ.” But that was last fall. And the brief trend hasn’t continued in any notable way.
Good fathers teach their sons how to act like men, and their daughters how to be treated by men. Sadly, the American father has atrophied as a reality in most young Americans’ lives, to the detriment not only of the kids who are lacking in a strong father, but to the detriment of our entire country. We have long known that kids without a father will be more likely to get involved in crime, do poorly in school, and do drugs–to name just a few of the societal maladies that the “Murphy Brown” lifestyle brought America. Single mother households don’t cut it.
So, if you still have your father in your life, tell him how much you love him and appreciate his presence and influence in your life. Make sure he knows that he made a difference and for the better. If you are a father, kudos to you for doing the often thankless hard work some Americans won’t do. You have made a difference in someone’s life and made America better for the effort.
And read this touching piece by Wall Street Journal Senior Editor Kevin Helliker on his father Gerald Robert Helliker, an old-fashioned father who taught his sons to be men. He notes:

A coalition of scholars and psychoanalysts are publishing a book this fall called “The Dead Father: A Psychoanalytic Inquiry,” based in part on the premise that society has suffered as dads have become more maternal and less authoritarian.
“The whole culture needs the father back,” says Lila Kalinich, a Columbia University psychiatrist who served as senior editor for the book. “Fathers substantiate law and order. Fathers can create a sense of womanliness in daughters and bring the male children into manhood.”

Another important read: Juan Williams’ “The Tragedy of America’s Disappearing Fathers.”
While my father is no longer physically present on this earth, I know he is looking down from above, and he is always on my mind. I hope he is reading this. Dad, I love you. And I miss you. Happy Father’s Day to you.
(Read my eulogy to my great father.)

Me and My Dad, H.L. Schlussel, MD

***
Also read Pam Geller’s beautiful tribute to her hard-working father.

By Debbie Schlussel
Remember Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, one half of the Muslim duo caught driving on an obscure highway near Goose Creek, South Carolina in the middle of the night, with pipe bombs, laptops, and Korans, back in August of last year?
The claimed it was “just fireworks” and that they were going to spend a weekend grilling or something. Yup, “grilling” Americans. They were driving near a military installation which stores nuclear weapons and held terrorist enemy combatants. With the Yemeni Mohamed was Yousef Megahed, an Egyptian. They both smiled in their mugshots and in court proceedings.
“Just Fireworks” Terrorist Ahmed Mohamed: That Was Then . . .

This Is Now . . .

I told you there was talk of a plea deal in this case. And today, there’s no more smiling. Mohamed pleaded guilty (read the plea deal here) to material support to terrorists, which means the government must have had a very strong case, and Mohamed a very weak defense.

In the court document, he admits to providing material to support terrorists. He also acknowledges that a YouTube video he produced was to be used in “preparation for or in carrying out the killing of employees of the United States,” including uniformed personnel.

Hmmm . . . where are his friends at CAIR–constantly defending him–now? Where’s CAIR’s Ahmed Bedier, this terrorist’s constant verbal mash-note utterer?
Crickets chirping . . . .
Watch for the other shoe to fall soon on Megahed, if–as he should be required to do–Mohamed testifies against Megadeath, er Megahed. That would usually be a part of any plea deal, but it’s not in Mohamed’s. Though, if he helps, it will be taken into account in his sentencing. Still, never bet on the competence of the Justice Department. This is one of those rare, praiseworthy moments for DoJ in the War against Islamic Terrorism.
See South Florida-based investigator Bill Warner’s site for more info. Bill followed the case closely and uncovered a great deal of info over the last year, some of which I cited here.
The Good News: One smiling “Just Fireworks” terrorist down, one to go. The Bad News: One Islamic terrorism supporter down, hundreds of millions to go.

By Debbie Schlussel
So, liberal reporter, Isiah Carey, shows his true self when a bug flies into his mouth, live on the air. He starts going off on small town American “country.” First, watch the original video, then the hilarious remix. STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING.

By Debbie Schlussel
Two okay–but not spectacular–new movie releases at theaters this weekend:
* “The Incredible Hulk“: The first motion picture installment of Hulk movies was just “Hulk.” Now, this second one–technically not a sequel–is called “The Incredible Hulk.” But there was not much that made it more distinctly “incredible” from the lackluster 2003 version. In fact, the only “incredible” thing I learned from this movie is the TMI about how Bruce Banner is unable to have sex because he’ll get too excited and turn into the Hulk. Gee, thanks for the tip.

I liked the first 2/3rds of the movie in which Bruce Banner is in hiding in Brazil, learning how to keep his heartbeat slow and pulse lowered. How he’s discovered by the U.S. government, isn’t credible, but it’s fun to watch him on the run in Latin America and then the U.S., as he tries to elude General Ross’ men. It’s also a nice update to have Banner, “Mr. Green,” in encrypted e-mail contact with “Mr. Blue,” a professor who is working to help him get rid of his transformative Hulk blood condition. And I liked this tougher, less-introspective and sensitive Hulk, in contrast to the girlie-Hulk in the first movie.
But once Banner starts fighting a dinosaur-like Hulk nemesis, the CGI battles are fake-looking and not to be believed. For most of the fight Hulk is losing and then he suddenly triumphs because . . .? Well, I can’t figure it out, either. Plus, the movie had like five endings and kept on going.
I’m not sure I like Edward Norton’s tiny, nerdy guy version of Bruce Banner, any better than Eric Bana’s taller, darker, handsomer, introspective Bruce Banner. In truth, neither is superior to TV’s Bill Bixby (of whom we get a glimpse in this movie). Liv Tyler’s acting as girlfriend Dr. Betty Ross is thin. She employs the same act as in every movie–soft, wispy baby talk. If I wanted that, I’d watch the box set of “The Bachelorette” starring Trista. Yuck. Jennifer Connelly was far superior in the first, poorly-scripted Hulk movie. Ditto for Sam Elliot, replaced by William hurt as General Ross in this one.
Yes, this Hulk movie is faster paced and far more of an action movie, than the boring girlie-man first edition. But some of the action–especially, again, the extended animated CGI fight between Hulk and his new nemesis, a Hulk-like dinosaur-esque monster, on the streets of Manhattan–was just absurd. And seeing the CGI Hulk say, “Hulk smash,” when he smashes someone is kind of stupid. Aren’t superheroes supposed to be sorta modest?
Nothing objectionable in this movie, and it’s entertaining–you can take your kids. It’s just that it wasn’t all that exciting or magical. And it felt a little long and sluggish. “Iron Man” is the far superior of the Marvel Comics superhero movies, and that’s kind of hinted at in a cool way at the end of the film. Another bonus: A cameo by original TV Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, who decades later looks like he was on TV just yesterday.
Not bad, just not great.
TWO REAGANS.

* “The Happening“: I’ve always thought M. Night Shyamalan was supremely over-rated. His movies are okay. Nothing special. But in Hollywood, everyone believes the hype. And in the wake of this unearned hype, he made a movie into what looks like an extended, substandard episode of “The Outer Limits” or “The Twilight Zone.” Except that “The Twilight Zone” was far better and much tighter. This one was somewhat slow, too.
Oh, and this one has an environmental zealot message. Green politics? No thanks. I’d rather see the color on the Hulk.
In this, the “green” plot is thin and confusing, as if a third-grader made it up and it was cobbled and patched together. Real-life, violent criminal thug Mark Wahlberg stars as a Philadelphia science teacher. Just as he’s teaching his students that we can’t explain every scientific phonemenon–sometimes things just happen in an act of nature–a doomsday bug has hit New York. People are killing themselves all over the place and no-one knows why.
Wahlberg and dull wife Zooey Deschanel–who can’t act to save her life in this movie and sounds like she just read the script for the first time–try to escape to the Pennsylvania countryside. But their train stops. The train “lost contact” even though their cellphones still receive and transmit as do the TVs in a local bar.
They soon escape in cars. But there are dead bodies everywhere. And no-one knows why. Wahlberg thinks it’s the trees and plants transmitting messages and a virus through the wind, but we’re never told for sure. He then surmises that if people travel in smaller groups, they won’t die. Bingo, he’s right–a preposterous and stupid plot. Not sure what the point of the weird old lady hillbilly was, other than to be creepy, which somewhat succeeded.
There have been so many recent doomsday movies, which were far superior, like “28 Days Later,” “Cloverfield,” “I Am Legend,” and “George Romero’s Diary of the Dead,” all of which I liked. This one, for the most part, the movie just seemed to be an excuse for scenes of gratuitous violence–people hanging themselves and pulling the triggers at their heads. And it didn’t really make even the least amount of sense.
Somewhat entertaining and not that much objectionable about it, other than the repeated guesses that this was nature’s way of telling us to stop abusing the planet–cue the Al Gore. But it just wasn’t great.
ONE REAGAN.

By Debbie Schlussel
It’s the pressing issue of our time: Who is taller, actor Verne Troyer or the Stanley Cup?
Click to find out. You know you will.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel
Hmmm . . . isn’t there a law against politicking on public property, such as inside taxpayer-funded buildings? There’s a federal law, but perhaps not a state law in Ohio . . . at least not for Judge James Burge.
The liberal Ohio judge, James Burge of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas, says the state’s method of putting prisoners to death is unconstitutional because he feels the drugs used cause pain and don’t kill quickly enough.
But that’s not the story. The story is the AP photo taken for the story. I guess he feels the Che Guevara method of death is just fine and humane. Ditto for America’s slow, painful death by lethal Barack Hussein Obama injection into the White House.

Ohio Judge James Burge w/ Interesting Posters in His Office
Looking at this photo, if I’m brought up on criminal charges, this is the guy I want deciding my case. He’ll be softer than the Pillsbury Dough Boy’s middle section.
If there isn’t a law against having these posters up in a tax-funded office, then there should at least be a law against such hideous interior decorating.

By Debbie Schlussel
This one needs no explanatory commentary, other than to say that the author of an adultery guide for Black men has come to Detroit to market it, thinking that since Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick is Hizzoner, Detroit men might want to emulate the man they elected:

For three days, he’s been tooling around Detroit in his infidelity mobile, a tricked-out GMC Suburban screenprinted to promote his 240-page guide to cheating “on your woman.” . . .
“Free text messaging to all mayors,” and “The Book Kwame and Eliot (Spitzer) Didn’t Read” are a couple of the slogans stuck to his SUV advertising his “cheat book.” . . .
“I have experience,” he says, “but I’m not an expert.” Once a fan of Detroit’s mayor (“As an African-American man, I noticed this leader of one of our biggest cities”), he’s adapting quickly to the mayor’s slide.

Not surprisingly, Keys’ literary pedigree is grounded in advertising slogans and T-shirts. The owner of a Fayetteville T-shirt shop, he self-published the book. His bestselling T-shirt slogans?
“Um, ah. I can’t say it out loud,” he admits, looking embarrassed, “but they did great at biker conventions.”
The author of “The Black Man’s Guide to How to Cheat on Your Woman,” he seized on current events to add lessons on careful use of text messages. . . .
Skyra James, having read a chapter detailing quirks of “the full-figured woman with high self-esteem,” hands him $15 for the book and thanks him. “Everyone’s fascinated by infidelity,” he says, with a shrug.

A question: Full-figured women have high self-esteem? Well, I guess they do with the explosion of stretchy clothes on QVC and Torrid stores with cross-your-heart hammocks, er . . . bras, and size 34 Golden Gate Bridge-sized thongs.
In any event, I bet this dude gets a lot of takers–or is that, “takas” (“TAY-kuz”)?–for his book.
Exit questions: Why is this book targeted at Black men? Do they cheat in a different way? Is that the new “diversity” and celebrating “our differences”? Why does this guy feel the need to attempt confirm the worst stereotypes about his own ethnic group?
Just askin’.