By Debbie Schlussel

If you’ve ever trusted ratings on Yelp, here’s why you shouldn’t: some federal judges ruled that the online rating site is allowed to manipulate and lower the ratings of businesses that don’t pay Yelp to advertise on the site.

Late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said that while you are entitled to your opinion, you are not entitled to your facts. But, now, Yelp has gotten a federal appeals court judge to allow Yelp to lie about opinion, and, therefore, create its own facts. The Federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Franciso says Yelp is allowed to lower and manipulate ratings of businesses that don’t advertise on Yelp. The Appeals Court judges said that no laws are broken if Yelp lowers and/or manipulates the ratings of non-advertising businesses. I guess the judges never heard of “truth in advertising” laws, laws against fraud, and consumer protection laws–all of which are broken if Yelp is doing this.

Businesses alleged the San Francisco company manipulated their ratings on Yelp to extort them to buy ads. Yelp denies advertisers get more favorable treatment on its popular review service. It says its software that filters reviews to determine ratings does not distinguish between those who advertise and those who don’t. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled this week that it doesn’t matter anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

Late again with my movie reviews, but you didn’t miss much.

* “The Trip to Italy“: This is one of those relaxing, entertaining movies that you go see to get some beautiful views of the Italian coast, while listening to two comedians do endless impressions. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the greatest movie ever. It’s fun, enjoyable and escapist.

Two British comedians, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon travel to Italy for restaurant review columns they write for a British newspaper. They go to various restaurants and Italian sites and make jokes and impressions throughout during their conversations with each other over food and scenery (including petrified bodies at Pompeii). This also includes discussions of Alanis Morissette music and impressions of famous actors in movies, most notably “The Godfather” films. This is a sequel to 2010’s “The Trip,” but you needn’t have seen that (I didn’t) to know what’s going on here or to enjoy this. Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES ****

A number of people have sent me the phony story repeated all over the mainstream media claiming that ISIS’ leftist “Jewish” beheadee prayed and fasted on Yom Kippur while in captivity with ISIS. The story is completely false and unsubstantiated.

The story, originally published by left-wing, anti-Israel Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot (or as a friend calls it, Idiot Ahronot), is based on the claims of an “anonymous” alleged friend of Sotloff’s who claims he/she/it was in ISIS captivity along with Sotloff. The portion of the dubious story that has now been repeated a gazillion times by the rest of the media is below. There are so many holes in the story, it would make a great colander for halal spaghetti dinner. Sadly, the story has been repeated far and wide by many Jews and Westerners who want to make this Islamopanderer and cheerleader for Islamic terrorists into a martyr for the Jewish people. He is and was no such thing, and, again, the story is bunk. But the mainstream and Jewish media have repeated the BS as fact all over the Net and it has taken on a life of its own.

A friend who was with Sotloff in captivity told Ynet’s sister-print publication Yedioth Aharonoth that Sotloff was Jewish – a fact he hid from his captors – and even managed to observe the Yom Kippur fast while in Islamic State captivity. “He told them he was sick and didn’t want to eat, even though we were served eggs that day,” the friend said. “He used to pray secretly in the direction of Jerusalem. He would see in which direction (his Muslim captors) were praying and then adjust the angle.”

*** UPDATE: But there are only a handful of documented cases of any hostages released/freed by ISIS (even for large amounts of ransom), except for Nicolas Henin, who now says he was held ISIS but says only that he was held with James Foley, NOT Steven Sotloff. He was held together with three other French journalists and they were all chained together for a large portion of that time. And while they’ve talked publicly about Foley being beaten, none has publicly stated anything about Sotloff. And it’s unlikely if they did so, they’d choose to be anonymous, since they haven’t been anonymous in their statements thus far about the rest of their experiences in ISIS captivity. There is absolutely no evidence that any of the very few hostages released by ISIS ever saw Steven Sotloff pray on Yom Kippur or do any of the things in the fairy tale story of an “anonymous source” quoted in Idiot Ahronot. END UPDATE *** But there are a lot of people who barely knew him trying to glom onto the story (see fake “Mossad agent” Gregg Roman, who told me both he and Sotloff were Mossad agents–not true–and who described Sotloff as “the Jewish Indiana Jones”–even more blatant baloney).

The same reporter for the same anti-Israel Israeli newspaper who wrote the phony baloney Yom Kippur story on Sotloff now has a story up about Sotloff’s self-proclaimed “heroic” left-wing friends (most of whom didn’t actually know Sotloff), including fake Mossad agent Gregg Roman (who barely knew Sotloff if at all). The reporter is clearly easily manipulated into fake “scoops” without any verification whatsoever, by people who are interested in rehabilitating Sotloff’s reputation.

Anyone who believes this fantastic fairy tale is an incredibly naive and easily duped fool who ignores the facts about Steven Sotloff. A number of people who’ve sent me the story are Jews who don’t want to face the facts that Sotloff was a documented lover of Islam and a cheerleader of Islamic “rebels” a/k/a terrorists of every dangerous stripe. They want to believe he died as a religious Jew, when he never ever was one and was a documented HAMAS and ISIS lover. Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

Very sad to hear of the death of comedienne extraordinaire Joan Rivers. She was a proud American, proud pro-Israel Jew, and one of the very few female comedians who was actually funny. I had the great privilege of meeting her and getting to know her for about an hour, way back when, and she was nice and classy and nothing like she was on the air. She was also a lot more conservative than people realize, totally anti-PC, and she is the one who first called Barack Obama, “America’s First Gay President.”

Joan Rivers Defends Israel on TMZ – Fabulous! . . .

Joan Rivers on Israel on Splash News – EXCELLENT! . . .

Joan Rivers on the Obamas, PETA, CNN . .

In September 1999, in my very first national TV appearance on ABC’s “Politically Incorrect,” I met Joan Rivers. I was on the show with her, Alan Dershowitz, and singer Edwin McCain. Joan and I met in the green room, and she was so nice and friendly, very unassuming. And, as always, she was dressed, coiffed, and bejeweled perfectly, looking like a million bucks. This was, I think, two faces ago–I can say that because Rivers famously joked all the time about her obvious plastic surgery, though at the time it wasn’t as obvious. On the show, we ganged up on Dershowitz who continued to defend O.J. Simpson, Bill Clinton’s impeachment-getting behavior in the White House, race-based affirmative action, and the WNBA. Joan Rivers was on my side on all of these things. Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

**** UPDATE: Steven Sotloff Story About Praying, Fasting on Yom Kippur is Fake, BS – Totally Debunked ****

*** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE – Sotloff family says Steven Sotloff was “Martyr for allah” and that the koran is “peaceful” ***

Even after their Islamo-pandering son was brutally beheaded by Muslims, Steven Sotloff’s parents can’t stop sucking up to his ISIS murderers. Yesterday, they delivered a statement in Arabic to ISIS, addressing its leader as “the Caliph.” The man they used to deliver their statement, Barak Barfi, is a friend of Steven Sotloff’s who identifies himself as “a brother of Islam speaking in the name of Islam,” which can only mean he, too, converted to Islam like Sotloff did. What the hell kind of family does this after Muslims have beheaded their son? (Barfi, who speaks fluent Arabic and has an Israeli name, is a pan-Arabist from the far-left New America Foundation think tank but he was well known as an anti-Israel correspondent for AP and producer for ABC News.)

In the statement, the Sotloffs also said their son didn’t want to become “Lawrence of Arabia,” which is funny because that was his favorite movie, and everything they said about their son–that he wanted to help “oppressed Muslims” overthrow “tyrants” is exactly what Lawrence of Arabia set out to do, also.

The grieving family of U.S. journalist Steven Joel Sotloff, who was beheaded by the militants of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in a video released Tuesday, released a statement on Wednesday carefully addressing both Western and Arab media outlets. Sotloff family spokesman Barak Barfi spoke on behalf of the family — in both English and Arabic. . . . Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

I’ll be on KABC 790 AM Los Angeles, this afternoon, at 2:05 p.m. Pacific Time to discuss the ISIS/ISIL/The Islamic State beheading of Steven Sotloff. The show I will be on is “Mid-Day LA,” hosted by John Phillips and Jillian Barberie. Listen live here at the appointed time. My posts detailing Sotloff’s sympathies with HAMAS and ISIS, his hatred of Israel, and his conversion to Islam are here and here.

Also, don’t forget to listen to me every Friday morning on “The Pat Campbell Show” on KFAQ 1170 AM Tulsa at 7:35 am Eastern and on “The Mike Church Show” on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 after 8:05 am Eastern (lately, though, my time has been 7:05 am. I do my movie reviews on both, as well as some discussion of current political issues and pop culture topics on both shows. Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

**** UPDATE #2: Steven Sotloff Story About Praying, Fasting on Yom Kippur is Fake, BS – Totally Debunked ****

**** UPDATE: Even After Beheading, Sotloffs Still Sucking Up to ISIS: “Steven Was Martyr for allah;” Muslim Family Spokesman

Steven Sotloff, ISIS’ latest beheadee, converted to Islam years ago.

Yesterday, I told you all the inside scoop on ISIS’ latest beheadee Steven Sotloff: how he was extremely pro-HAMAS and anti-Israel all through his four years of studying and living in Israel; how he “deeply loved Islam” and “Islamic culture” and lived in Yemen for years; how he was an apologist for jihadists of every stripe, including ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood, in addition to HAMAS.

In my piece, I said I wouldn’t be surprised if Sotloff had voluntarily converted to Islam, long before his captivity with ISIS.

All of this makes you wonder, did Steven Sotloff convert to Islam? Don’t bet against it. Like I said, he lost his head before ISIS took it from him.

And my instincts were correct. He converted to Islam several years ago in Egypt while “covering” a/k/a cheering on the Muslim Brotherhood revolutionaries in Tahrir Square. It’s like a Jew taking the SS oath and joining the Gestapo while pretending to be an objective journalist covering the Holocaust and World War II. His friend, Oren Kessler, an Israeli-American journalist, formerly of the Jerusalem Post, confirms it:

In Egypt, Kessler said, Sotloff once allowed locals to give him a “quickie conversion,” a 10-minute ceremony meant to return him to his purported Islamic roots. Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

**** UPDATE 3: Steven Sotloff Story About Praying, Fasting on Yom Kippur is Fake, BS – Totally Debunked ****

**** UPDATE #2: Even After Beheading, Sotloffs Still Sucking Up to ISIS: “Steven Was Martyr for allah;” Muslim Family Spokesman ****

**** UPDATE: Steven Sotloff: ISIS’ Beheaded Anti-Israel Jew Converted to Islam Years Ago; “Hated” Israel ****

The newly-beheaded Steven Sotloff lost his head long ago. He was an Islamopandering schmuck who learned Arabic, bragged about loving “Islamic culture” (an oxymoron), loved HAMAS and ISIS, and was an Arab Spring Breaker (my name for all the reporters hanging out in the Middle East cheering on various Muslim rebels and their disastrous consequences). Everything he did was part of his vocation: serving as an apologist for jihad and supporting not just Muslims, but the most extreme Muslims he could find, especially the terrorist variety. Even as he was living and studying in Israel, Sotloff praised the election of HAMAS into power and made a habit of attacking Israel at every chance. I know this because a little over a week ago, I was contacted by some of his friends, many of them anti-American, far-left schmucks. And then I learned more from others who knew him even better (see the letter I received below).

A little over a week ago, I was phoned by an arrogant, smug guy who identified himself as Gregg Roman and as the spokesmodel for the Sotloff family. He implied he was from the Mossad and told me that Sotloff was “one of the good guys” and working for the Mossad, too. Those claims, by the way, are pure fiction, and here’s a tip: real Mossad operatives never brag about being from the Mossad. Ever. Roman told me he was a longtime good friend of Sotloff and had studied with him in Israel at IDC, the Interdisciplinary Center–an Israeli University in Herzliya. That part is true (Sotloff studied at IDC from 2005-2008). While it is true that some IDC students are recruited to work in the Mossad, er . . . “The Prime Minister’s Office,” none of them was ever named Sotloff or Roman. And, in fact, the two were far leftists. Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

There are 58,000 foreign student visa holders who’ve violated their visas, and of those at least 6,000 foreign students are missing in the United States and have been determined by Homeland Security to be “of heightened concern.” That’s at least 6,000 potential terrorists in our midst. How many of them are from ISIS or Al-Qaeda?

Watch the video . . .

Watch more news videos | Latest from the US

Don’t forget that all of these visa violators would get amnesty under the proposals on which Barack Obama is considering taking executive action after the November elections. Also, don’t forget that Congress enacted law to computer track all of these student visa holders before 2000. But Republican Senator Spencer Abraham (Michigan) and Congressman Darrell Issa a/k/a “Jihad Darrell” (California)–both of them Arabs doing the bidding of Muslims–stopped the program in its tracks, with Abraham starving the program and refusing to fund it and Issa strongly opposing it. It bears noting that Abraham’s key staffer on the Senate Immigration Committee at all relevant times was Ann Coulter–yup, the same chick who pretends to be a hawk on immigration today but never was when it counted and she was in a key position to do something about it. And, as I noted on this site in 2011, the Obama Administration expanded the number of foreign students it refused to track.

9/11 hijacker Hani Hanjour, who flew the plane that hit the Pentagon, was here on a student visa, but he never ever attended. Yet, he showed phony paperwork that indicated he attended class at a school in Oakland, California, where he claimed to be enrolled in ESL (English as a Second Language) courses. But, despite 3,000 American lives lost on that day, these scams continue unfettered. And, like I said, all of these visa scammers would be rewarded with amnesty under Obama’s post-November plans.

Even before 9/11 and ever since, I’ve highlighted many, many instances of Muslim foreign students in the U.S. who’ve gone missing for years and some of whom have turned up in what appear to be tests of the system and dry runs for terrorist attacks, such as this missing Saudi student who terrorized a Madison, Wisconsin hotel. And I’ve detailed the story of hundreds of Muslim aliens from Al-Qaeda splinter group Al-Shabab, who obtained green cards and citizenship through fraud, and whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can’t find and has never located. I’ve also written about schools that ran visa scams bringing foreigners here who never went to school and had no classroom experiences whatsoever, just like 9/11 pilot of death Hanjour.

That’s not to mention the California student who “attended class” and took tests for money, posing as mostly Middle Eastern, Muslim foreign students (and he even posed as female foreign students). ICE never found a lot of the student visa violators whose identities he assumed for money, while they disappeared into the great American abyss. Don’t forget, also, that in 2006, the FBI began “Project Strike Back,” an investigation into foreign student visa violators with ties to terrorism, who bilked federal financial aid programs to finance terrorism. The investigation started with much fanfare, but it was all for show and the FBI quickly abandoned it.

As I’ve asked many, many times over the years, why on earth are we considering troops on the ground over there (and why did we have thousands of troops on the ground over there for years) if we won’t fight to secure our borders over here? Now we see, as indicated in the scary report below, that the U.S. government continues to grant visas to foreign students going to schools that have a documented record of visa fraud, including beauty and massage schools. What exactly is the reason we are in desperate need of foreigners to come here to learn cosmetology and Shiatsu massage?

The Department of Homeland Security has lost track of more than 6,000 foreign nationals who entered the United States on student visas, overstayed their welcome, and essentially vanished — exploiting a security gap that was supposed to be fixed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. “My greatest concern is that they could be doing anything,” said Peter Edge, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who oversees investigations into visa violators. “Some of them could be here to do us harm.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Debbie Schlussel

Didn’t get to the rest of my movie reviews for this weekend until now because I’ve been experiencing one of my horrible migraine headaches. In any event, the only movie I really liked, this weekend, was a small-budget, arthouse movie that might not be playing in your neighborhood, but which you probably can already order online at this point. Oh, and did I mention that one of the new movies is a bore by a lesbian Palestinian who takes false digs at Israel?

* “The November Man“: Read my complete review of Pierce Brosnan’s disgusting love letter to Islamic terrorists, chock full of absurd America hatred.

FOUR MARXES PLUS FOUR BIN LADENS PLUS FOUR ISIS FLAGS PLUS FOUR ISIS BEHEADINGS

* “Life of Crime“: This movie, based on Elmore Leonard’s novel, “Switch,” seems dated. And I’m not referring to the late’70s setting. The plot seems like I’ve seen it before, and I have. It’s a mild re-run of the far superior 1986 movie, “Ruthless People.” Read the rest of this entry »