By Debbie Schlussel
Not only did he appear on Rush Limbaugh’s national syndicated radio show, today, but in a bid to promote “Rambo” (out in theaters, today–my review here), Sylvester Stallone is telling America he doesn’t like the War in Iraq and didn’t vote for Bush in 2004. He’s also praising HGH to Time Magazine and proudly proclaims he’s a user (you’ll recall he had some legal problems with that in “The Land Down Under,” last year).
We already know he likes illegal aliens, but is Stallone a liberal?:

Unlike the rest of Hollywood, Stallone was smart enough to make an antiwar movie that’s not about the Middle East. And he wasn’t about to make a pro-Iraq-war film; 2004 was the first year he didn’t vote for a Republican presidential candidate, even though the man was born on the same day as he was and has pecs almost as big. Stallone’s particularly galled by Bush’s tough talk. “You see Bush, and you see the obstinacy and the arrogance. Go out there and ride in a humvee 10 times, and then I’ll listen to you. Take the ride. Have your bowels go into a square knot. Then I’ll respect you.” Stallone is awesome at tough talk. . . .
[Rambo], Stallone thinks, has always been misunderstood, even by Reagan. “I never saw Rambo as a Republican,” Stallone says, though he liked the President too much to make an issue of it. “We watched Escape to Victory on folding chairs in the White House. It was really makeshift. You had a better sound system in your pickup truck.” . . .
Playing a guy who acts with only his eyes and his biceps is harder than playing a fast-talking, earnest boxer, especially on a 61-year-old body. Which was one of the reasons Stallone wanted to do it. He pumped up to a freakish 209 lbs. (95 kg); in Rambo II he weighed only 168 (76 kg). And, he insists, he did it without steroids, though with the help of a prescription testosterone. “HGH [human growth hormone] is nothing. Anyone who calls it a steroid is grossly misinformed,” he says. “Testosterone to me is so important for a sense of well-being when you get older. Everyone over 40 years old would be wise to investigate it because it increases the quality of your life. Mark my words. In 10 years it will be over the counter.” He was in such great shape, it freaked out his co-star, Julie Benz. “I’m a runner. I sprint. And I’m extremely competitive. And he blew past me every time. And he doesn’t run at all. He’s that focused,” she says.

Um, Sly, tell it to Lyle Alzado. Stallone also wants to remake “Death Wish.” Could be interesting. But, hmmm. . . for Alzado taking HGH was a remake of “Death Wish.”

Say It Ain’t So, Sly

By Debbie Schlussel
They’re Americans just like us and love this country, they keep telling us.
But if the experience of Matthew Keller, 74, is any indication–and it is–they really don’t like America too much. Not exactly a shocker to those of us who know they are not here out of love but out of economic interest and–more important–a jihadist agenda.
Keller walks with a giant American flag through Dearbornistan. Here are the reactions he’s gotten on the Muslim-dominated East end of the city:

In the beginning, some passing motorists would jeer, Keller said. . . . “It’s been almost six months that anyone’s given me the finger,” he said.

Yes, the American flag is not very welcome in occupied Dearbornistan.

Interestingly, Dearborn is hosting an essay contest, asking residents to write a 75-word essay on why they love Dearborn and why people should move there. It’s a sales pitch to get people to move to Michigan’s first (of many) Islamistan. Who needs the 75 words? I think Matthew Keller’s statement is a great essay on life in Dearbornistan:

It’s been almost six months that anyone’s given me the finger [over the American flag].

Maybe their fingers are getting tired (after all that work eating the shawarmeh).
Oh, by the way, there is a flag that won’t get the finger there, the flag of Lebanon, a proxy for Hezbollah. Since they know it looks bad to have the Hezbollah flags in front of their homes, Shi’ite Muslims have the Lebanese flag, which is a surrogate for that yellow flag they think it stands for.

By Debbie Schlussel
Many readers–both in the Detroit area and even around the world–have asked me why I haven’t commented on yesterday’s Detroit Free Press front-page story about the apparent perjury of Detroit’s Pimp-Daddy Mayor, Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick, and his extra-marital lover/chief of staff Christine Beatty.
The Free Press posted steamy SkyPager text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty, proving that they had a sexual affair AND that they orchestrated the firing of top Detroit police detectives who were investigating a party at the Mayoral Manoogian Mansion that resulted in the assassination of two strippers. Both had denied on the stand that they had such a relationship (Ms. Beatty rolled her eyes in the most exaggerated manner possible), and both denied they orchestrated the firings of the police officers. Their testimony took place at the trial of a lawsuit against the City of Detroit, brought by the fired police officers. It resulted in a multi-million dollar judgment and later settlement for which taxpayers–and not just those in Detroit, a city which gets a ton of federal and state money–will foot the bill.

The reason I haven’t commented is that I really don’t think it’s news. It’s not news because most of us with any sanity–and even most of the racist Detroiters who voted for Kwame when he played the race card–knew that Kwame and Beatty were lying. We knew they were sleeping together. And we knew they ordered the firings. Their claims otherwise–Beatty claimed she got an unsigned memo that told her to fire them and that she shredded it–were obvious lies, then.
Some of Kwame’s 21-plus bodyguards–more than any other mayor in America since his harem and his ego are larger than that of any other Mayor in America–testified that they guarded Kwame and Beatty, while they were en flagrante delicto. They testified that when Beatty’s husband was returning home, they wondered (in jest?) whether they should shoot him to keep him from discovering the little love nest.
Was this not enough proof? Why did you need to see the proof to know these corruptocratic thugs were frauds and liars? I certainly didn’t.
The only thing this story does is show us that this pair were even dumber than I thought–that they texted each other in explicit detail (the Free Pres did not print many of the dirtier e-mails, so much for the public’s right to know) on a city-owned telecommunications device, which they knew could be FOIA’d by third parties at any time.
So the news here is not that Kilpatrick and his WNBA-looking girlie-girl are liars and scuzbuckets. It’s that they are dumb liars and scuzbuckets.
Oh, and as a lawyer, Kilpatrick ain’t too smart either. In order to prove that he committed perjury, the text messages will have to be authenticated as coming from his pager and as typed by him. But, in his statement released Wednesday Night, he stated that the messages were from a bad time in his life and that he and his wife have made their peace. That’s pretty much tantamount to an admission that the text messages were his.
All of this means nothing, though, as I have repeatedly pointed out, because the people of the City of Detroit–being the mostly racists that they are–do not care about how the Mayor that they have twice put in the Manoogian Mansion defecates upon them and laughs about it repeatedly. When he plays his favorite game of cards–the Race Card–they are more easily baited than a fly to honey. They have chosen this Pimp-Daddy, who dresses and behaves as a Pimp-Daddy, to head up their posse, called Detroit. And they get what they deserve.

The Pimp-Daddy Bill & Hillary of Detroit: Kwame & Carlita Kilpatrick
Kilpatrick and the Missus, Carlita Kilpatrick, while not nearly as smart as the Clintons, play by the Clinton playbook better than the once-Arkansan couple. Like Hillary, Mrs. Kilpatrick goes along with her husband’s infidelities because she likes being first lady. Remember Bill and Hillary’s bathing suit “impromptu” dance on the beach after the whole Monica thing? Yesterday, Carlita posed with Kwame kissing her.
When Hillary’s hubby lied under oath about a sexual relationship with “that woman,” she blamed a “vast right wing conspiracy out to get my husband.” When Carlita’s hubby lied under oath about a sexual relationship with Christine Beatty, hubby himself–Kwame– and his mommy, Congresswoman Caroline Cheeks-Kilpatrick (an anti-Semitic Black Muslim) blamed the “vast WHITE wing conspiracy” out to get him. “Turn off that television, Y’all. Get out and help your boy!” she shrieked in a well-known press conference. Then her husband, another corrupt politico, trotted out the Holocaust, saying his son, Kwame, was like a victim of it.
Desperate to win re-election, Kilpatrick called his bi-racial opponent “the White suburb’s man.” He ran ads in a Detroit Black newspaper, The Michigan Chronicle, showing lynchings and suggesting that’s what would happen if the other Black Mayoral candidate–the “White suburb’s man”–won.
But instead of objecting to all of the extra-marital girlfriends Kilpatrick’s bodyguards testified to wrangling for him and all of the corruption–much of which I haven’t mentioned here–the largely Black electorate of Detroit re-elected the Kingpin to his tax-paid perch. So, no, this isn’t news. And it won’t change a thing. While letters in Detroit’s major papers call for this criminal’s resignation from office, they are all from the suburbs. In contrast, most Black Detroiters quoted in the papers don’t seem to think it matter that their sleazebag Mayor is a liar and a fraud. And a criminal. They didn’t care on election day. Why care now?
It has long been known that Kwame was a thug and a criminal. It’s not new. In 2003, on my popular Detroit talk radio show, I discussed information I got from Detroit cops working undercover investigations in narcotics. They were not shocked when drug kingpins they were tailing attended Kwame Kilpatrick fundraisers. They and Kwame were old friends who went way back to the days when they were all part of the gang of thugs called “The NFL”–“The N*****s of Forest Lawn” (Forest Lawn is a Detroit neighborhood). On my show, I always called Kilpatrick, “The Kingpin,” and played the appropriate background music–Kool & the Gang’s “Get Down On It.”
The people of Detroit like this. They like Kwame’s diamond earrings and gangsta suits. Readers of this site have seen these photos I’ve posted several times on my site of the clown-garb this Mayor wears. It’s clothes that make the man. But it’s also clothes that make the Gangsta Maya who thinks he’s a Playa. When you vote for a pimp, you obviously enjoy being pimped out. Because, hey, he’s a “Brother.” The electoral marketplace has spoken. And it will speak the same again, unless Kwame goes to prison, which I bet he slides from. A slithering snake is good at crawling out of tight places. That’s his job . . . or at least the one the voters of Detroit told him they like.
And then there are the White citizens in the suburbs who enable Kwame further by electing and re-electing corruptocrats like Republican Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox. Cox and Kwame’s father, Bernard Kilpatrick, came out of the same corrupt Edward McNamara machine. (So did Michigan’s failed Governor Jennifer “Gran-HO” Granholm.)
Edward McNamara was the executive of Wayne County–the country containing Detroit–who was indicted (but died and never faced trial). He was involved in fraud at metro Detroit Airport and fraud throughout the county. At the time he became County Executive, he had almost no money. But at the time he left–after an annual salary that never topped $150,000–he had tens of millions of dollars. Gee, how did he get it? Bernard Kilpatrick, Kwame’s dad, was his chief of staff. And Mike Cox was one of his prosecutors.
After becoming Attorney General, Mike Cox refused to investigate the airport fraud and corruption of his old, corrupt mentor, McNamara. And when allegations came out in 2004 about a party at the Manoogian Mayoral Mansion, after which a stripper who performed for “Kwame” was gunned down in a drive-by shooting (after the second try–there was a drive-by shooting of her other car right before), Cox managed to snatch the criminal investigation for himself and cleared Kilpatrick, claiming the party never happened.
A year before the story came out, I first reported it to Detroit on my radio show in 2003. All of the details were the same as those that have spread throughout Detroit over the years. I reported the stripper’s stage name, “Strawberry,” the story of what happened at the mansion, and the details of her drive-by assassination. All of those details are accurate. And I believe the party happened. My information came from several current and former Detroit police officers whom I trust far more than these sleazy politicians.
What I don’t believe is Mike Cox, who whitewashed it. He is running for Governor of Michigan in 2010. He will never get my vote. But he will, sadly, continue to get the vote of the many sheep-like suburbanites who claim they are angry about Kwame Kilpatrick, but continue to elevate those, like Cox, who enable Hizzoner the Mayor, and let him get away with it.
That’s not news either. But I sure wish it would be.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
I always warn people: Don’t eat at Middle-Eastern restaurants owned by Muslims. It’s a cash biz, and you don’t know where your money is going after the point of payment. Often it is going to Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad, and not just at La Shish.
Then, there’s the other crime Islamic restaurant owners are involved with. I’ve written about Noureddine Hachem, who owned a Detroit-area restaurant, The Sheik. He went to prison for running an international auto theft ring, and some of the profits apparently went to Hezbollah. Waiters at his restaurant cheered on the 9/11 attacks, and he lost a lawsuit claiming that was untrue.
Now, there’s yet another Dearbornistan Muslim restaurateur whose criminal activities are financing who knows which Hezbollah activity, with his use of counterfeit money to purchase goods in New York and New Jersey. And his “relationship” with his half-sister sounds very incestuous . . . er, Islamist:

Radhwan “Tareck” Al-Marsoumi & Glenda Al-Marsoumi:
He Counterfeits, She Sharp-Shoots

A Michigan man printed thousands of dollars in counterfeit cash in a township motel room that he shared with the teenage half-sister with whom he was recently reunited, police said Thursday.
Radhwan Al-Marsoumi of Dearborn, Mich. [DS: he also goes by the name, Radhwan “Tareck” Al-Marsoumi], was arrested Wednesday after he tried paying his rent at the Stagecoach Motel – where he was staying with half-sister Glenda – with the $20 bills that he forged, Sgt. Robert Kaiser said.
“The owner said it didn’t feel right, the money,” Kaiser said. “[Al-Marsoumi] said, ‘OK, I’ll come back later then,’ and we were called in.”
Kaiser later spotted Al-Marsoumi and his 19-year-old half-sister walking toward a bus stop along Route 46.
The 26-year-old was arrested after police found forgery equipment and $1,500 in counterfeit $20 bills inside the motel room that the pair had been sharing since Saturday, Kaiser said. She has not been charged, police said.
The pair told police they’d been staying together in the metropolitan area ever since celebrating New Year’s Eve in Times Square.
“They said they were in the area looking for an apartment together,” Kaiser said.
The siblings were reunited last summer in Wilmington, N.C., where Glenda Al-Marsoumi graduated from high school last year — after spending nearly their entire lives apart.
Al-Marsoumi “spent most of his adolescent years living in Baghdad after his dad snatched him off a school bus in Englewood, N.J., for a ‘magic carpet’ ride with Aladdin,” according to a June 9 story in the Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News that profiled their reunion, a copy of which police found among Al-Marsoumi’s possessions. . . .
South Hackensack police said it was unclear when Al-Marsoumi returned to the United States.
According to the article, he is a restaurant owner in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit. . . .
On Wednesday, the siblings told police that they’ve been staying in area motels since late December – first at the Airport Hotel in Teterboro and then at the Stagecoach, located down the street on Route 46.
Investigators found a laser-jet printer inside the motel room, along with ink cartridges, razors and 75 counterfeit $20 bills, Kaiser said. Al-Marsoumi later admitted to printing more than $6,000 in counterfeit cash, Kaiser said.
“He would apparently go to stores and purchase items, and the following day he’d return the stuff with a receipt for real cash,” Kaiser said.
Radhwan Al-Marsoumi carried out the scheme in places such as the Virgin Megastore in Times Square, police said. He also purchased items at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Little Ferry and the Burger King in South Hackensack, they said.
Radhwan Al-Marsoumi, who was being held on $40,000 bail at the Bergen County Jail, was charged with forgery, possession of a forgery device and theft by deception, police said.

I couldn’t find the name of the restaurant, but I did find that Al-Marsoumi recently incorporated “Almarsoumi Transport, Inc.” in Michigan, this past November. Just how much fake money did he plan to “transport”?
Thanks to reader Mike for the tip.
**** UPDATE: In another article about Al-Marsoumi, he discusses his life in Baghdad and his sisters plans to join America’s military to become a sniper. Wish I could say those plans are now out, since she was involved in this counterfeiting scam, but Glenda Al-Marsoumi has not been charged along with her brother. She is an award-winning sharp-shooter, an excellent skill for any criminal . . . or terrorist:

Glenda’s a state champion rifle shooter. . . .
He spent most of his adolescent years living in Baghdad after his dad snatched him off a school bus in Englewood, N.J., for a “magic carpet” ride with Aladdin, he said. At age 7, he watched his father call his mother from a hotel room and tell her he had died in the Iran-Iraq War.
“Kids threw rocks at me because I didn’t know Arabic,” Radhwan said about his initial experience in Iraq. “They thought I was a spy. First, it was hard. You adapt to it. That’s all.” . . .
Her goal is to join the Army and become a sniper. If that plan is derailed, her second choice is joining the Marine Corps.

Yup, the ideal Army sniper–a Muslim counterfeiter.

By Debbie Schlussel
Figuring out how to cut ingredients to reduce the amount of a dish you are cooking for two instead of eight? Trying to figure out a third of the distance down a wall to figure where to place furniture?
You know how to do this if you have even a modicum of proficiency in fractions and division. But if your kids are taught math according to the principles of renowned University of Pennsylvania math professor Dennis DeTurck, they won’t be able to do these things without an electronic gizmo to think for them. DeTurck, also dean of the college of arts and sciences at Penn, wants to get rid of fractions. He also wants to banish division, square roots, and multiplication.

Weird Science: Math Prof Dennis DeTurck Wants to Abolish Fractions
That’s right, say good-bye to real math. It’s a liberal’s outcome-based education wet dream. And it’s gaining acceptance as Profesor DeTurck gets ready to release a new book attacking traditional math taught in schools. Just as our students are failing even more versus the rest of the world in math and the inextricably-linked science, we need to make them more dumb and ignorant in those disciplines? Yes, if Dr. DeTurck gets his way. They can do it on a calculator on their cellphone, apparently. And he says they can use decimals, instead:

A few years ago, Dennis DeTurck, an award-winning professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, stood at an outdoor podium on campus and proclaimed, “Down with fractions!”
“Fractions have had their day, being useful for by-hand calculation,” DeTurck said as part of a 60-second lecture series. “But in this digital age, they’re as obsolete as Roman numerals are.” . . .
DeTurck is stirring the pot again, this time in a book scheduled to be published this year. Not only does he favor the teaching of decimals over fractions to elementary school students, he’s also taking on long division, the calculation of square roots and by-hand multiplication of long numbers. . . .
Questioning the wisdom of teaching fractions to young students doesn’t compute with people such as George Andrews, a professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania State University and president-elect of the American Mathematical Society. “All of this is absurd,” Andrews said. “No wonder mathematical achievements in the country are so abysmal.
“Arithmetic is the basic skill. . . . It’s fine to talk about it, but this is not a good pedagogy.” . . .
DeTurck does not want to abolish the teaching of fractions and long division altogether. He believes fractions are important for high-level mathematics and scientific research. But it could be that the study of fractions should be delayed until it can be understood, perhaps after a student learns calculus, he said. Long division has its uses, too, but maybe it doesn’t need to be taught as intensely.
Penn State mathematician Andrews says he believes DeTurck’s ideas will “unfortunately” gain traction because of the misguided belief that math education can somehow be made easy:
“Math is hard. The idea that somehow we’re going to make math just fun is just a dream.”

Glad to see that some academics don’t buy this intellectually bankrupt tripe.
Heaven help us, if there is ever another massive power outage as there was in 2003, and a cellphone calculator is unavailable when the battery wears out. Or what about a Katrina-like flood? If we turn out more ignoramuses who can’t divide or multiply in their heads or on paper, it could be fatal in a disaster. You cannot rely on machines to replace your intellect.
Dumbing America Down and Defining Math Down Will Be Our Death. Welcome to “Idiocracy.” Just like the movie.

By Debbie Schlussel
This weekend’s box office releases include the much-buzzed about “Rambo” and “Untraceable.” I cannot recommend either they are pointless cinematic outings in torture porn and snuff that reach “Saw” levels of graphic violence and dismemberment. Neither is for kids. Not even teens. Adults should know better.
* “Rambo“: Like a jilted lover who won’t realize it’s over, Sylvester Stallone said he wanted to have closure on his Rambo series of movies. Well, sometimes closure is a bad idea. And this is one of those times. His “Rocky Balboa” finish to the “Rocky” series was classy, touching, and inspirational. His “Rambo” finale was better left unmade.
There are only two good things about this movie:

1) It is short, about an hour and twenty minutes.
But even that amount is too long for this non-stop, pointless snuff and dismemberment film. The level of blood, violence, in your face shooting-off of heads, dismemberments, and other graphic gore is at the levels of the movie, “Saw”–perhaps, worse. It is simply disgusting without a purpose. Bodies cut in half, limbs shot off, instant beheadings, etc. Completely unsettling and gross.
2) It shows liberal, leftie American missionaries and how stupid they are in insisting on non-violence against terrorists who are about to kill them. Eventually, they, too, kill terrorists in the interest of self-preservation.
The story: John Rambo is now a snake wrangler in Thailand, collecting cobras and pythons for a snake show. He operates a boat and reluctantly agrees to take foolish, liberal Christian missionaries into a terrorist-dominated area of Burma/Myanmar. The Burmese terrorists capture them and torture them, after they’ve brutally wiped out a whole town. Members of the missionaries’ church hire mercenaries who come to rescue them from the terrorists. Rambo takes them to the area with his boat. The cynical, conceited mercenaries soon learn that they are way out of their league. It is up to Rambo to save the day.
Stallone employs the same technique he used in “Rocky Balboa,” as there are flashbacks to the previous “Rambo” movies in this one. A dream sequence, however, engages in the typical “Rambo”-esque revisionist history on Vietnam and Rambo feels guilt over killing “innocent” people there. “You killed for yourself, not for your country,” he tells himself. Sorry, but I’m sick of this fairy tale defamation of our brave men who fought and died against the evil VietCong there. Haven’t we had enough?
Then, there’s the fact that the entire movie shows non-Muslim Asian terrorists engaged in all kinds of torture, rape of boys and women, dismemberment, and murder, all things Muslims engage in, in that region of the world (and others). Yet, Stallone did the PC-thing and use Burmese terrorists instead of Islamic ones. His various excuses for wimping out and not doing so are lame. He’s as PC as anyone in Hollywood. That’s the real reason.
As I said, one of the best parts is when terrorists approach Rambo and the missionaries on his boat. They want the female missionary handed over. But Rambo kills them all, instead. The male leader of the missionaries screams at him for killing. Rambo tells him, “They would have raped her 50 times over, and they would have cut all your heads off.” Later, the male missionary leader threatens to report Rambo for the killings. But, soon, fleeing captivity, this missionary who bragged about not having weapons is shooting Burmese terrorists dead to save himself.
That’s great, but not nearly great enough to justify seeing this blood-and-dismemberment fest, which has ample more shock value than any real redeeming value.
* “Untraceable“: More like, “Ten Ways to Torture an FBI Agent to Death.” Absolutely disgusting and vile. A two-hour long torture porn and snuff film, in which various Americans, including an FBI agent, are tortured to death, televised on the Internet for all of the world to watch–a plot point ripped off from the almost-as-horrid WWE “film,” “The Condemned.” This movie is extremely graphic and disgusting but is well worth the ten bucks, if you are a psychotic serial murderer looking for new, more sadistic techniques. Shame on Diane Lane for appearing in this sicko-fest. Several people angrily walked out on the screening. Good for them. One woman shouted, “How can you show this torture?”
Lane plays an FBI agent working in the cyber crimes unit. She stumbles onto a site operated by a person who tortures his cat to death and televises it on the internet. Soon, he is torturing people to death on the internet. The more people that watch, the faster they are murdered in sick, disgusting ways, that are all shown very graphically. Lane and her partner try to figure out the identity of the madman mastermind and capture him, but they are racing against time, with each new kill. And now, she and her daughter are the targets.
Absolutely pointless and hypocritical: A movie that pontificates against torture porn on the internet, but serves up the most graphic, disgusting version of it on the silver screen. I can’t imagine the FBI likes this kind of silver screen PR. When an FBI agent–or any American–is kidnapped and tortured using one of the novel new methods in this movie, they can thank Diane Lane for it.
In a move of incredible chutzpah, if you go to the URL of the killer’s website from the movie, KillWithMe.com, the site tells you that entering the site will result in killing of innocent people. Then, if you enter, it asks you, “Where are your morals?” That’s a question the makers of and actors in this movie should be asking themselves, not me or you. It won’t be a surprise if innocent people do, indeed, get tortured to death by sickos inspired by this dreck.
Please skip this garbage, and send Hollywood a message.

By Debbie Schlussel
Last year, I told you about Frances Semler. At age 74, she is a member of the Minutemen, who perform a valuable service in monitoring our porous borders. Semler was appointed by Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser to serve on the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board. It was very controversial due to liberal outrage, but the courageous Mayor Funkhouser stuck to his guns.
Sadly, Ms. Semler resigned from the parks board because she felt her involvement had become too contentious. Why? Well, the National Council of La Raza and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference canceled plans to hold their national conventions in Kansas City because of Ms. Semler’s presence on the parks board, solely because she is a member of the Minutemen.
I wish Ms. Semler hadn’t resigned, but she was under constant attack by intolerant open borders advocates:

Frances Semler: Classy Minuteman Lady Under Attack

In a statement faxed to area media outlets, including The Kansas City Star, Semler writes “ENOUGH, I am resigning.” In the letter she cites repeated and ongoing personal attacks against her character as a reason, and blasts her most vocal opponents and levels her own criticisms at Kansas City Police Chief Jim Corwin and unnamed City Council members, saying some on the council have made “vicious, false and irresponsible claims about me.”
Also apparently, in recent days, Semler has taken issue with comments made in published reports by Mayor Mark Funkhouser and his wife, Gloria Squitiro.
“I do believe I have been a positive asset. There are many projects I eagerly wanted to pursue,” Semler writes. But after reading quotes from Funkhouser in the The Star last week, “I feel BETRAYED.” . . .
The appointment triggered sharp protests from several minority organizations, including the National Council of La Raza, In October, of La Raza voted to pull its convention from Kansas City, at a projected loss of $5 million, because of Semler’s connection to the Minutemen, a divisive group that takes a hardline stance on immigration issues.
On Jan. 15, the leader if the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said that the SCLC had decided to move it’s convention from Kansas City to New Orleans and would call for a boycott of Kansas City if Semler was not removed from the park board.
Rita Valenciano, head of the local Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, said Semler’s decision to step down was a welcome outcome. But she, added, she would have preferred if the mayor had taken action himself.
Semler had offered to resign last year when controversy first erupted over her appointment, but Funkhouser declined the notion and publicly backed her appointment. . . .
Before launching into her criticisms of city officials, Semler writes “as a United States citizen I have always felt able to express my views freely. Out of respect for the Mayor, I have allowed my voice to be stilled. No longer.”
While referring to illegal immigration as a “well-organized invasion of illegals,” she defends the Minutemen as an unjustly attacked group dedicated to the enforcement of immigration laws.

The disgusting level of attacks on this brave 74-year-old woman, who merely cares about safe and secure borders, is disturbing. But Frances Semler has the class and dignity her intolerant, liberal detractors do not. This is yet another casualty of liberal “tolerance” of “diversity.” Kudos to her for sticking around and putting up with vicious attacks for this long.
The New McCarthyism has taken hold. Take back our country.

By Debbie Schlussel
Each year, I plan to release my list of best and worst movies of the year just ended earlier, and I’m getting there. I figured this week, with Oscar nominations being announced, would be the ideal week. As you can see, none of my choices match those that got awards. That’s because Hollywood–including the Motion Picture Academy voters–are out of touch with the rest of America. I think my choices match more of what America is thinking. And the market bears that out on several of my choices, which topped the box office.
About my choices: While I could easily narrow down my favorite top ten movies of the year, there were so many bad ones, I decided to offer a top 25 of the worst (skip them all or be sorry). And, yes, there are some ties. I put an asterisk next to “Blade Runner: The Final Cut,” because it’s not really an original 2007 release, but a touch-up/re-release and mostly-perfected version of a movie from 25 years ago. Still, it’s up there, and had it never before been released, it would tie “3:10 to Yuma” as the best movie of 2007 on my list. “3:10 to Yuma” just came out on DVD a few weeks ago, and I highly recommend purchasing a copy.

Also note that I’ve added new categories, this year, in addition to the Best and Worst. Although I picked my favorites overall, I also liked those that appear under Best Animation, Best (Most Non-Annoying) Chick Flick, Best Action Flicks, Biggest Lie, and Pan-Terrorist Dishonorable Mentions.
Remember: I sat through all of these movies and many, many more so that you could save time and money and wouldn’t have to sit through the theatrical tripe that pours out of LaLa-Land every week.
Click on the bolded titles of the movies to view my complete, original reviews.
BEST
1) “3:10 to Yuma“: A remake of a late 1950s Elmore Leonard original, the great American western is back. And so are strong, honest father figures. Magnificent actor Christian Bale deserves an Oscar for his performance as a down-and-out rancher who refuses to sacrifice his integrity for money he desperately needs.
*1a) “Blade Runner: The Final Cut“: Director Ridley Scott updates special effects and ties up loose ends in this final cut of his 1982 original. This futuristic movie, starring Harrison Ford, was ahead of its time then and 25 years later remains one of my favorite movies, still ahead of its time. I could watch this over and over.
Set in the future, Ford is Detective Rick Deckard, who hunts down android criminals called “Replicants,” who are out to destroy humans and prolong their lives. Beautifully shot, cool detail, and great Vangelis soundtrack. Even after 2019, it will still be timeless. Many hidden meanings and interpretations.
Best to buy the limited edition complete DVD set, which comes with the various versions of this movie, a metal origami unicorn, Blade Runner police car, and other cool things, in a silver briefcase.
2) “In the Shadow of the Moon“: Meet the living astronauts who went to the moon and see a time when America was revered and applauded throughout the world. They feared and were awed by us, because our astronauts had spunk, were proud to be Americans, and had a great sense of humor, in addition to reaching the Moon first and landing nine times over the years. Tremendously patriotic and positive movie. Great to watch with your family.
3) “The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters“: In addition to “Moon,” this is one of my favorite documentaries of all time. It is funny, entertaining, and a light, relaxing movie, pitting real-life heroes and villains in the contest to be the world champion of Donkey Kong. Hilarious and so much fun.
4) “300“: The Battle of Thermopylae is presented in high-tech CGI using real actors. The brave Leonidas fights against all odds for freedom versus slavery under Persian King Xerxes. Graphic and bloody, but for a good reason. The original “Give me liberty or give me death.”
5) “The Kite Runner“: A privileged Afghan boy wrongs his family’s peasant servant just before the Soviet Invasion. Years later, as a secular American immigrant, he returns to Taliban, Islamofascist Afghanistan to right a wrong. The year’s most powerful movie and a great statement on the harm Islam can do to a family, a country, a world.
6) “Disturbia“: A hip, high-tech, teen update of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, “Rear Window,” this movie is exciting and fun. It has action, suspense, and a murder mystery. So many twists and turns, it makes you second-guess yourself. Tight, modern, and well done.
7) “The Namesake“: The story of a Hindu Indian family’s arrival and absorption into America, its second generation’s struggle to adapt to America while holding onto Indian heritage. But this could be the story of most legal American immigrants (other than Muslim ones) who want to be Americans. This is the story of the kind of immigrants we want in America. It is also the story of the love of a father for his kids and their belated demonstration of love for him. Kal Penn is fantastic as the son, Gogol. Touching and colorful, while also sad.
8) “National Treasure: Book of Secrets“: A great adventure starring Nicholas Cage returning as a treasure hunter in this sequel. Mixes action and mystery with American history and historical sites. Patriotic AND fun. Can be used as a great tool to teach your kids American history.
9) “Enchanted“: An animated fairy tale princess with traditional values turns human, when landing in modern New York. She attempts to return to her Kingdom and find her fiance Prince. In the meantime, she meets a jaded divorce lawyer and charms him, too. Meant for kids, very entertaining for adults. Charming to the nth.
10a)(TIE) “Lars & the Real Girl“: A lonely, small-town Midwestern guy believes an anatomically correct mannequin is a real-life girlfriend. The great thing in this movie is the hilarious way in which PC townspeople act as if the dummy is human, too. In many ways, they are infected with Lars’ insanity. Reminds me of the way many PC Americans act as if Muslims in America are “peaceful” and pose no threat. The Emperor Wears No Clothing meets 2007.
10b) “Resurrecting the Champ“: Based on a true story, a loving father and sportswriter wants to impress his son and advance his career. He meets a homeless man he believes is a former boxing champion. He writes a feature article on it and while he becomes a star, a twist brings his life tumbling around him. Forgiveness, redemption, righting wrongs, a dedicated father who truly cares about his son but gets a little carried away–all of that is in this movie.
Best Animation:
1) “Ratatouille“: A rat dreams of becoming a great chef and is inspired by the ghost of his favorite famous chef. But he’s a rat, so he helps a young man succeed in whipping up the coolest of culinary creations at France’s top restaurant. Charming, fun, colorful animation, and entertaining for adults as much as it is for kids.
2) “The Ten Commandments“: A great animated version of the Biblical story of the Jews as slaves for Pharoah in Egypt and their exodus to Israel. Accurate to the letter and very entertaining and appealing to kids (and all those who enjoy the story of Passover).
Best (Most Non-Annoying) Chick Flick:
“Broken English“: A pretty New York 30-something has bad luck with men. All of her friends have married and she is stuck alone. When she finally meets the right guy, she lets him go back to France. Then, like trying to find a needle in a haystack, she searches for him in Paris. Charming, ends just at the right point, and very entertaining. More fun than chick-flickish. Guys, this one you can stand, in the event your girlfriend or wife wants to watch a romance.
Best Action Flicks:
1) “Live Free or Die Hard“: Detective John McClain is back in this very exciting action thriller. The only flaw–the cyberterrorist is not a Muslim, but a disgruntled DHS employee. Some stunts are not believable. But it’s heart-pounding and entertaining each and every second.
2) “Beowulf“: The boring poem you read in high school is boring no more. Beowulf comes to rescue the Nordic Kingdom from the killer demon Grendel and his mother. Lots of swashbuckling and funny stuff. A parody of itself. This new style of 3-D CGI is very cool, if sometimes headache-inducing. The weapons and characters are right in your face. Best watched in a theater with 3-D glasses, so I don’t know how it’ll translate into home rental/viewing.
WORST (Skip these at all cost.:
1) “Redacted“: Brian DePalma and Mark Cuban defame our troops in Iraq in the worst way imaginable. They are portrayed as scumbags, liars, perverted rapists, and cold-hearted murderers.
2) “Severance“: British employees of an arms company which works for a defense contractor are on a retreat in Eastern Europe. They are hacked up and murdered in the most sadistic, bloody, and graphic of ways. Beheaded heads rolling around. Not funny. Just sick.
3) “Smokin’ Aces“: A bloody, disgusting, pointless race by mobster criminals and FBI agents to reach a drug-addicted snitch. Dismememberment central coupled with Andy Garcia engaging in a bad Brooklyn accent. Violence and graphic murder for no redeeming reason.
4) “David & Layla“: Most groanworthy flick of the year. Smart Kurdish director who knows better makes absolutely awful moral equivalency movie about Jews and Muslims. Scratch that. No moral equivalency. The Muslims are classy, refined people. The Jews are sex-obsessed–every single one of them, except the gay one–garish, and obnoxious. Oh, and idiotic and classless, too. And they patronize prostitutes. Jewish David, who does a local cable show about sex, meets classy Muslim dancer Layla. They fall in love. We are the World. “Can’t we all just get along?” for dummies.
5) “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead“: A drug-addicted scumbage brother convinces his younger brother to rob their parents jewelry store. It goes horribly wrong. Everyone is cheating on each other, cheating each other, and killing each other. Oh, and doing drugs. No wonder Hollywood loves it. Not depressed enough. Waste two hours watching this. It’ll do the trick.
6) “The Condemned“: WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) gives us two hours of torture porn. A mogul puts ten killers and hardened criminals on an island to kill each other. The last one alive lives, and it’s all broadcast on pay-per-view TV. All are wearing explosive devices. Rapes, human explosions, hackings, and other graphic maiming and killing. Stone Cold Steve Austin proves he doesn’t just beat wives, he subjects Americans to visual torture at the movies. Sadistic to the nth.
7) “The Ten“: Disgusting, absurd abomination allegedly based on the Ten Commandments. Supposedly a comedy. Just warped.
8) “The Lookout“: A formerly popular high school jock from a wealthy family gets into a tragic car accident while driving drunk. He kills his friends and, himself, loses all short-term memory. As a janitor at the bank, he is preyed upon by criminal thugs who convince him to let them rob the bank. Evil, disgusting, sad, and disturbing. Ugh.
9) “Margot at the Wedding“: An uglied-up Nicole Kidman masturbating and Jack Black’s naked butt. Images I will never get out of my mind. Selfish and dysfunctional writer Margot aims to stop her dysfunctional sister’s wedding to a loser. Constant graphic discussions about sex, where the women are ugly and every other word is the f-word. Both have loser kids and all are weird. Oy.
10) “Reno 911! Miami“: Far worse than the already horrid TV show. Unfunny comedy about gross police officers from Reno who come to Miami to save the day from terrorists. Jokes are completely sick or stupid or both.
11) “Death at a Funeral“: Two sons of a departed man fight over who delivers their father’s eulogy. Meanwhile, at the funeral, lots of digusting and stupid things happen with the guests, including gross fecal material release, a drug-OD’d naked man, and a gay midget with blackmail photos. Nail the coffin on this one.
12) “Knocked Up“: Completely disgusting, sophomoric movie about a loser who impregnates a pretty loser who is just becoming successful. Together, they make an immature loser couple. Not funny. Just uber-crass and groanworthy.
13) “Georgia Rule“: Messed up women Lindsay Lohan and Jane Fonda star in the feel-good seduce a Mormon missionary movie of the year. Makes comedy of child-molestation. Completely warped and silly.
14) “Inland Empire“: David Lynch makes his most non-sensical absurd movie yet. Wish I could tell you what it was about, but after 2.5 hours of the 3 total, I walked out. Was tired of thinking, “HUH? HUH? HUH? . . .” Anyone who claims to understand this movie is lying. High-brow movie intellect equals pretense to the nth here.
15) “Romance & Cigarettes“: Susan Sarandon plays a working-class woman whose husband cheats on her with a dirty-mouthed woman. It’s a musical. Need I say more. Disaster on screen.
16) “Because I Said So“: Diane Keaton needed a paycheck and got more annoying than usual as she tries to marry off her caterer daughter. Bigger bomb than Heroshima.
17) “Wild Hogs“: Proof that Oprah can elevate bad taste to atrocious taste. She over-promoted this dumb movie about fat John Travolta, dumb Martin Lawrence, and unfunny Tim Allen trying to escape the grind of upper-class life with a cross-country motorcycle trip. Believe me, that sounds way better than it is. Filled with sophomoric and stupid jokes that backfire. Anything with the two bald ugly twins from MTV’s failed 1990’s “Apartment 2F” as twin hick sheriffs with bad Southern accents is bound to be a stinker. And this definitely was.
18) “Brothers Solomon“: Two dumb brothers set out to father a kid for their dying dad. Stars the two Wills of SNL fame. That’s a hint that it’s too lame.
19) “Feast of Love“: A chick flick filled with the dumbest of relationships and moralizing. Please make it stop. Greg Kinnear, are you nuts? Morgan Freeman, hope you liked that paycheck, dude.
20) “Love in a Time of Cholera“: Love in a time of stupidity. Latino movie based on popular Oprah book of the month novel is the lamest of the lame. Too stupid for words. A poor, illegitimate son of a single mother sets his sights on a beautiful wealthy girl. Her father splits them up and she dumps him and marries someone else. After being raped, he spends his life sleeping with as many women as Wilt Chamberlain and documents it in his black book. Yes, Oprah, you would like this dreck. For the rest of us, there are sleeping pills.
21) “Mr. Woodcock“: A successful self-help author comes home to find out that his mother is dating his boyhood nemesis, the coach. Sadistic, silly, and pointless. Sorry, Stifler. Billy Bob Thornton needed a paycheck.
22) “Rendition“: Legally Blonde goes Legally Dhimmi. Reese Witherspoon gets her star turn at making a bomb of an anti-war propaganda film. The thesis of this one: Muslim Arabs who are kidnapped by the CIA for rendition are not really terrorists, but kind and loving American fathers who are completely innocent. The end.
23) “Gracie“: Title IX propaganda for young girls comes to the big screen, with Elisabeth Shue to make it look purty.
24) “Perfect Stranger“: Halle Berry is in a preposterous “thriller” with Bruce Willis, in which she suspects him of killing her friend. Completely preposterous plot, the ending even more so. Berry’s other 2007 flick, “Things We Lost in the Fire,” was almost as bad and pointless, too. Looks can’t carry you forever, chickie.
25) “Jane Austen Book Club“: Five of the most annoying women and a girlie-man get together to whine about how men suck and why they love Jane Austen’s books. Not even good enough for the Lifetime Network. Jane Austen is turning over in her grave.
Biggest Lie:
“Rescue Dawn“: Starring the talented Christian Bale as heroic Vietnam Vet and German-American pilot Dieter Dengler, this was, after I originally saw it, my pick for best picture of the year. But I soon learned that the movie was a lie–that it defamed an American P.O.W. Gene DeBruin, who was also a hero, as a Charles Manson nutcase and traitor, a complete falsity. Don’t bother with this.
Pan-Terrorist Dishonorable Mentions:
* “A Mighty Heart“: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt do kumbaya with the Islamic terrorists who beheaded and dismembered Brad Pitt. “Can’t we all just get along?” New lesson: Muslims weren’t the extremists who murdered Daniel Pearl because he was a Jew. They were the peaceful ones who helped find his killers. Riiiight.
* “The Kingdom“: The many fictions that Saudi Arabia wants you to believe, including that they allowed FBI agents in to investigate the Khobar Towers terrorist attacks on Americans (they didn’t), that they allow American women to galivant around the country in short sleeves and uncovered hair (they don’t), and that Islamic terrorist mass-murderers of Americans are morally equivalent to the FBI agents that hunt them. One other falsehood: That the FBI hates extremist Muslims and wants to go down fighting them. More like, wants to go down eating poisoned falafel with them at an outreach luncheon at Ahmed’s Shawarmeh Hut.
* “Civic Duty“: You know the Muslim Arab alien grad student who is your neighbor? Yeah, the guy that gets his schooling paid for by an extremist Islamic charity? The one who has suspicious meetings in the middle of the night and has strange paraphernalia in his apartment for putting chemicals into water or on something else? The guy who, with his friends, is collecting envelopes from different ATM machines?
Well, he’s not a terrorist at all. You’re just a nutjob for not ignoring all the red flags. Being suspicious of glaring inconsistencies = being a bigot. The end.
Read my picks for Best and Worst Movies in previous years:
* 2006
* 2005

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . Islamic Terrorists or American Citizens?
If you answered the former, think again. If you answered the latter, you know our America’s neighbors to the north, well.
The fact is that while thousands of Muslims with terrorist backgrounds continue to flood into Canada, due to its lax immigration laws and lack of sufficient background checks (even more lax than our own in America), Canadians are getting tough on the evil, dangerous . . . Americans!:

Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to get into Canada, as border agents with better access to American criminal databases are turning people back for offenses ranging from assault to drunken driving to shoplifting. . . .
“An indiscretion can be anything from a DUI to when you were 18 and scalped tickets to a Red Wings game.” . . .

Photo From Ray’s Ride For Cancer

Randy Kutter, a firefighter from Princeton, Minn., had been taking fishing trips to Canada his entire life. But Canadian border agents barred him in 2005 because of two DUI convictions in the 1980s.
“I couldn’t fault any nation for trying to protect their borders,” Kutter said. “I think that people who have paid their debt to society need to be forgiven at some point.”
Although the United States has similar access to Canadian records the policy here does not appear to be as stringent. Michael Friel, a spokesman with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, says convictions for crimes like DUI, simple assault, disorderly conduct and breaking and entering do not make a person inadmissible to the United States.

Yup, this is the country that allowed many malefactors, like the Khadrs–a family of Bin Laden advisors and mujahideen (one of whom, Omar Khadr, is at Gitmo for trying to murder Americans), to enter, no questions asked. But when it comes to Americans, if you stole a pack of gum when you were 15, stay home, eh?!
If only our border agents, the guys from Customs and Border Protection, were allowed by higher-ups to be this tough. Or at least tougher on admitting Muslims–a significant portion of whom wish to do harm–into our midst.
Well, no-one ever accused Canad of not having a problem setting its national security priorities straight. This is the country, after all, that recently hauled conservative Ezra Levant to a star chamber to be inquisitioned over publishing Danish Mohammed cartoons.
Priorities, priorities.
“(Un)Welcome to Canada.”

By Debbie Schlussel
It’s official. Breaking news in the Paris/Britney age. Rush Limbaugh (not that he’s anything like Paris and Britney–I know and like the brilliant and insightful Rush a great deal) introduced his sexy new girlfriend to the world.
For years, liberals have accused Rush of being “intolerant” or “bigoted.” But if his new girl–Kathryn Rogers–is any indication, he’s far more tolerant than they are. This is clearly a “mixed” relationship, as she worked in fundraising for the evil empire of the United Nations–UNICEF. Hopefully, Rush has helped her see the light since then.
But it sounds like she’s not exactly a conservative:

She confesses they “do talk about politics.”
“We don’t have arguments, but I have my own opinions.”

New Rush GalPal Kathryn Rogers With the King of Talk Radio
Well, they do have football in common. Rush is a tremendous football fan and very knowledgeable about the game, the reason he was so popular on ESPN and should still be on the network. She works for the South Florida Superbowl Host Committee. But, uh-oh, her dad went to school with Rush nemesis John McCain. If she’s a McCainiac, it could be interesting.
I’m surprised Rush–usually wisely mum about his private life–discussed this with the media. But it’s better to “own” your story than have someone else report on it “their” way.
Donald Trump and Al Franken, eat your hearts out.
How long until David Brooks and Frank Rich write about this? How long until jealous, ugly feminists from the Hillary first wives club attack? 3-2-1 . . . .