By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: More at Boycott Watch, which confirms UPS’ Package Apartheid policy and credits this site for exposing and ending it. ****
Now, that UPS has ostensibly ended its package apartheid delivery policy in Israel and claims its Customer Service Representatives were giving out “incorrect” information, in unison, about its policy, I have several questions for UPS. Here are the ones I sent UPS PR person Mark Dickens. We’ll see if he responds with satisfactory answers rather than more well-fertilized denial statements:

From: Debbie Schlussel mailto:dschlussel@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 1:58 PM
To: markdickens@ups.com
Subject: UPS’ Latest Statement on its Israel Delivery Policy

Mark:
So I hear the Brownshirts are calling me–and actually all 7 of your customer service rep employees I called (and many more my readers called)–liars. Since you admitted in your latest “statement” on your delivery policy to Israel that:
“Regrettably, information provided recently by UPS customer service representatives regarding UPS’s [sic] service territory in Israel was incorrect, but this is currently being addressed.”
it begs these questions:
1) How is it that all of your customer service reps–which I and hundreds of my readers called–all read me the same statement that UPS doesn’t deliver to Jewish settlements? Did they just all coincidentally divine the names “Southern Negev Desert” and “Golan Heights” from the air or via osmosis or ESP? Are all UPS customer service reps naturally schooled in Israeli geography (while not being able to pronounce the names correctly) and all part of a conspiracy to defame UPS?
2) Since you claim the info was “incorrect,” how is it that all of the customer service reps were given that info to read on the phone when I asked to ship packages to various Jewish settlements, including Gush and Tekoa? If it is truly UPS policy to deliver to those areas, why did UPS representatives tell me I couldn’t send there via UPS?
3) Who wrote that “incorrect” information and if it is not the UPS policy, why was it written and given to UPS Customer Service Reps to read on the phone to myself and many others who called UPS?
4) When UPS says, “this is currently being addressed,” just what–exactly–does that mean?
5) Since UPS is now claiming it will deliver to Jewish settlements, why did it tell another news source, Israel National News/Arutz Sheva, that it wouldn’t deliver to those place for “economic reasons”? Did those economic reasons miraculously disappear in a day and a half? Or was the UPS press person that spoke with that newssource also “regrettably” providing “information” that was “incorrect”?
I look forward to your response to each of these questions.
Debbie Schlussel

Yup. Unfortunately, when a company gets caught with its pants down and tries to cover its naked butt, instead of coming clean, it raises more questions than it answers.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: More at Boycott Watch, which confirms UPS’ Package Apartheid policy and credits this site for exposing and ending it. ****
On Tuesday, I posted this item about how UPS–the United Parcel Service a/k/a the “Ummah Parcel Service”–refuses to deliver to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. I sent the statement to my friend, best-selling, Israel-based novelist Noami Ragen, who sent it out to her list. Readers of both this site and Naomi’s missives called UPS, and now UPS is backtracking.
Still, the company is lying, demonstrating that you cannot trust the Brownshirts, especially when they are trying to cover their very exposed rears. UPS told a million different stories about what their policy in Israel is and why, and the story kept changing.

UPS: Ending Package Apartheid After Getting Caught
First, UPS confirmed to one news source that, in fact, the company does NOT deliver to those areas, but only–UPS claimed–for economic reasons, not for the political or “security” reasons that were communicated to me by UPS personnel. Hard to explain why it is so economical to deliver to Palestinian areas of the West Bank, but not Jewish ones.
Then, UPS changed its tune and claimed that it has always delivered to all areas of the West Bank and that UPS Customer Service Reps–whom I called 7 times over the last 2.5 days and who read me the same official UPS statement each of those 7 times–were giving customers “incorrect” information. Well, how the heck did each of those Customer Svc. Reps each utter the exact statement about Jewish settlements which also included the names Negev and Golan Heights (these CSRs couldn’t even pronounce the names and have no idea where these places are), if it was “incorrect information”? I’ll tell you how: It was the OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, from which the company is now backtracking, because it has angered my readers and Naomis, as well as Israel supporters and Jews all over the world. Here is the statement I was read 7 times:

UPS service is provided to and from most addresses within Israel and the Palestine [sic] Authority area, except for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a few remote areas in the Golan Heights, and the Southern Negev desert.

Plain and simple, I and reader Ruth G. (who alerted me to the problem in the first place) caught UPS with its pants down, and now Brown is trying to cover its ass. Regardless, we’re glad UPS is changing its tune and policy, even if it is lying about what that tune and policy were before it got caught. Blogs do have results. And in this case, you–the readers of this site–helped me to stop UPS’ Package Delivery Apartheid. Give yourselves a pat on the back.
And check out UPS’ latest story/excuse–an official statement released late yesterday by the company:

UPS offers worldwide express service to and from Israel to both residential and business addresses and a domestic service within Israel through its authorized service contractor, O.P.S.I. International Handling Limited. Regrettably, information provided recently by UPS customer service representatives regarding UPS’s service territory in Israel was incorrect, but this is currently being addressed. [DS Translation: We got caught with our pants down, but now we’re covering our butts.]
Through O.P.S.I., UPS covers 99% of the population in Israel outside the West Bank except for a few remote areas in the Golan Heights and the Negev Desert, where it would be cost prohibitive to provide service. Only remote areas in the West Bank with very low population density are not covered – on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
In the West Bank, UPS’s service reaches over 80% of the population and covers approximately 60% of the territory, including the Gush EtZion area. UPS’s overall coverage area is on par with or even better than our competitors. All packages coming from abroad are delivered into all areas of Yehuda and Shomron, including Gush EtZion. Customers residing in this area do not have to go to Jerusalem to pick up their shipments.
UPS does not tolerate any type of discrimination and would not associate with any parties who do not embrace UPS’s concern for fairness and equality.

Again, dear readers, thank you for contacting UPS to help end the company’s Package Delivery Apartheid in Israel. We will be watching the company closely to make sure it does not revert to the policy it had on Monday of not delivering to Jewish settlements, but delivering to Palestinian areas.
Why did UPS have this policy in the first place? Politics. Although I could not confirm this, I’m told Saudis are significant shareholders in UPS. Whether or not that is true, UPS does business in all of the Arab Muslim countries who enforce the boycott against Israel and force companies that do business there to abide the boycott. So maybe this was UPS’ version of a compromise boycott. Who knows?
What’s important is that we got them to change, even if it petends it did not. And we’ll continue to make a difference.

By Debbie Schlussel
“The Pursuit of Happyness” is one of the great movies of the year (perhaps the decade) and a rare product from Hollywood.
In theaters Friday, the film presents a male character and father in a positive light. And it shows the virtues of merit–not race-based preferences–in America. It is the story of the high hopes–and achievement of those hopes with hard work–that are only possible in this great country.
In a day when men are portrayed as losers and dopes, absentee fathers, and deadbeat sperm-donors who don’t care about their kids, Happyness tells us the real story of most American fathers. They love their children and work hard to give them a good life.

In this case, it’s the real story of Chris Gardner, a down-and-out-on-his-luck bone-scanner salesman who succeeds to become a multi-millionaire, all while raising his young son alone. Gardner’s wife, the mother of his two-year-old son (in the movie, he’s five), has no faith in him. After bitching and moaning endlessly and trying to kill his dreams, she leaves Gardner to raise his son on virtually no money.
Gardner, without a college education, enters an internship for stockbrokers at Dean Witter. But he’s paid no money, and must raise his son and succeed in the internship while homeless. The scenes of Gardner living with his son in homeless shelters, subway station bathrooms, and cheap motel rooms are no exaggeration.
Most of all, Happyness is the story of the love of a father for his son–in the face of incredible difficulties. Every disaster in the world, every bit of bad luck happens to Gardner. The scanners he sells are stolen or fail to work, and he is arrested for unpaid parking tickets on the night before an important interview, evicted from his apartment, evicted from his cheap motel room.
Throughout all of this, it is not just his drive to succeed that motivates him. It is, above all, his love for his son, the custody of whom he refuses to give up. And although Gardner is a Black man, race is never mentioned and never plays a part in the Chris Gardner story.
Still, it is important because the Black fathers we see on television are portrayed most often on venues like the Oprah Winfrey show. To Oprah, Black fathers are absentee millionaire NBA players who cheated on their kids mothers and didn’t pay child support. She’s also portrayed Black fathers largely as extramarital cheaters, gospel singers addicted to porn, spending addicts, married gay men on the “down low”, and assorted other highly unflattering presentations America is shown daily on her syndicated daytime talk show.
The true story of Chris Gardner did not originate on Oprah. It originated on a solid news show that doesn’t engage in male-bashing, ABC’s “20/20.”
Happyness is the story of hard work. Only one person out of many in the Dean Witter internship gets a permanent job. Gardner was the chosen one.
But Gardner did not get a break because of his complexion. He was chosen on merit alone. In the stockbroking business, race-based preferences can’t help you sell stocks and make money for the company. Gardner was chosen because–with his pluck, initiative, and sticktuitiveness–he sold the most stock and financial pacakages for Dean Witter. In the movie–which Gardner says is true to his life (but for the age of his son at the time)–race has nothing to do with it.
Sadly, this message is lost on Happyness star, Will Smith. In an interview with Detroit Free Press film critic Terry Lawson, Smith says he is upset that Michigan voters voted for Proposal Two, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which ends affirmative action in public hiring, contracting, and college admissions. Given his role as Gardner, Smith’s psychobabble is jarring:

As a Black American, I am 100 percent in favor of affirmative action. But Jada [Pinkett Smith, his wife] always talks about the beauty and the pain of the true political process. She believes every paradigm ends in paradox, that the result can be the worst thing and the best thing at the same time.
The very thing that sparks one person can break another. For Chris Gardner, defeat only made him work harder and believe in himself more.

But Chris Gardner didn’t succeed because he got special treatment for being Black. The company he founded, Gardner Rich & Co., didn’t prosper because of race preferences either. He succeeded because of hard work and resulting profits. The movie’s script makes the point that equality of result is not guaranteed–that the Declaration of Independence specifies only the pursuit of happiness as a right, not happiness itself. Gardner succeeded because he was smart, resourceful, hard-working, and dedicated to making a better life for his son.
Those should be the only reasons anyone succeeds in America–not the coincidence of birth with a certain skin tone or set of internal plumbing.
Smith–of all people–should know this. Hollywood is full of unemployed actor-model/waiters of all races. Those few who make it don’t get there because of affirmative action. They made it because they appealed to the audience marketplace on merit and talent alone.
Will Smith did not initially succeed because he was “The Black Prince of Bel Air,” but because he was the talented “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”

By Debbie Schlussel
So, ICE arrested a few hundred illegal aliens at meat packing plants, yesterday. That’s great. But it still leaves the number of illegal aliens arrested at U.S. employers at only a few thousand in an entire year. That’s a speck of dust in comparison to 20 million illegals here and still working with impunity–taking jobs away from Americans. And that’s because the people atop ICE aren’t serious about immigration enforcement.
Given that millions of illegal aliens are roaming free throughout our country, we wonder why Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director of Investigations Marcy Forman-Friedman a/k/a “Peppermint Patty” just received a $45,000 bonus from our tax money, doled out by her boss, ICE chieftess Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess.” (It gives new meaning to the song, “Sisters are Doing it for Themselves.”) Forman is, after all, the woman who wrote this memo telling ICE agents that they should release illegal aliens with no criminal record into the Great American Abyss–never to be seen again (until they murder someone or commit another serious crime).

Julie Myers & Marcy Forman-Friedman:
The ICE Princess Showered Peppermint Patty w/$45K of Our Tax $$$
$45,000 is more than many Americans make in an entire year. It’s more than many Americans working on Wall Street in the private sector get for Christmas bonuses, and many of them actually made money for their clients. In this case, we’ve got a woman who’s lost a lot of illegal aliens for us due to shoddy choices in investigative pursuits in immigration enforcement. And she’s getting a bonues for that?! The fish rots from the head down. And in this case, the rotten fishhead just got rewarded with $45,000 for the rapid rot.
Given this, we wonder who else received tens of thousands of dollars in our tax money from the incompetent, wasteful ICE Princess. How much did The ICE Princess dole out to ICE’s wasteful, evil version of George Costanza, John P. Torres (in addition to the thousands he wasted on a Tommy Lasorda speech and a week-long party in Kansas City)? We also wonder why Myers has $45 K to dole out to Peppermint Patty but not enough money for ICE agents to have oil changes on their government cars, adequate bed space for illegal aliens, and more agents to enforce immigration laws.
We’re not the only ones wondering. So are many outrage, hard-working ICE agents–who are far more deserving of bonuses than these inept so-called “managers” and directors at ICE. Here’s what one of several wrote us:

I work at ICE and would like to report that Marcy Forman, our great investigations director, received a $45,000 bonus for her “outstanding service to ICE”. It is ironic that she is getting a bonus when ICE is at an all time low in morale, our budget is in shambles and agent retention is at an all time low. Not to mention many SACS [DS: Special Agents in Charge] out in the field did not get SES [DS: Senior Executive Status] bonuses and they deserved them. [DS: Hardly. Not Abu Moskowitz and several other incompetent SACs, so I beg to differ here.] Makes me wonder what the bench mark is for getting a bonus. Also, as we are in a budget crunch and can not afford vehicles, travel and many other things, our investigations director gets a bonus?

Good grief. The whole thing is, frankly, disgusting. Bonuses are supposed to go to those who did their job well.

By Debbie Schlussel
Back in August, USA Today devoted its entire op-ed page to Palestinian activist George Bisharat’s absurd claim that the “real victim” of Israel’s responsive war to Hezbollah were the “beauty of Beirut” (which were ruined LONG AGO by his fellow Palestinians, NOT Israel).
Since that didn’t fool anyone, USA Today is at it again. Today, the entire USA Today op-ed page is dedicated to Muslim Souheila Al-Jadda’s absurd article about how “Lebanese Art” (translation: Extremist Islamic “art”) is the real “victim” of the “Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.”

Tragedy: Israel Only Managed to Destroy Part of Ugly Islamic Art; Didn’t Finish Job
Incredible. Two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Hezbollah. They’re probably dead (likely after much torture). Hezbollah increased its decades old bombardment of Israeli with rockets, killing several. And USA Today, devotes two editorial pages to whining about Israel’s alleged destruction of the decrepit Beirut view and some art featuring women in hijabs. We’re supposed to care that some ugly paintings of ugly women were destroyed and the people of Lebanon were saved by the bombs of Israel from having to view this ugliness another day.
I’m waiting for the article about how the evil Jews destroyed Lebanon’s infected pets, insects, weeds, amoebae, and disease-causing bacteria.
Incredibly, there is a “donors’ conference” (translation: U.S. Tax Money!!!!!!) to “compensate” these violent Hezbollah lovers for their “lost” “art.” Un-fricking-believable.
And get this: Al-Jadda, who is–incredibly–on USA Today’s Board of Contributors–glorifies a woman’s song honoring Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. Regrettably, the song and its author were not “victims” of the “Israeli bombardment.” But apparently, USA Today has a new editorial policy: Hezbollah terrorists are no longer just “militants.” They are now “Lebanese resistance fighters.”
Here are some excerpts from this absurd thesis in Islamo-Psychobabblish:

A dozen of the most prominent Lebanese artists, and possibly more, reportedly lost their works in the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon this summer. Their numbers might be small, but the loss of such artworks can have lasting effects on Lebanese society and culture [DS: as apposed to decades of Palestinian and Hezbollah rape, torture, and murder, which had “no” lasting effects]. As in Iraq and other war zones, the nation’s identity falls victim to violence, sometimes to be replaced with a new, wounded culture that carries the resentments of past conflicts. “This war was very hard on us,” [artist Youssef] Ghazawi said in a telephone interview from Beirut. He has had artworks destroyed in conflicts three times during his lifetime. “I couldn’t save them this time.”
Rising Lebanese artist Nour Ballouk also lost her home (left) in Nabatiya and eight of her paintings inside during the war. Her workshop was severely damaged. Ballouk believes this war was partly aimed at erasing Lebanon’s Arab and Lebanese identity by igniting divisions in the country along sectarian, religious and political lines. [DS: So that’s why Israel went in to Lebanon and lost many soldiers–to erase Lebanon’s Arab and Lebanese identity. It had nothing to do with the kidnapping of two soldiers and the decades-long bombardment of Israel with deadly rockets, right?] . . . .
“I will not stop painting,” Ballouk said. “Rather than paint about peace, I will be painting about war, showing what happened in Lebanon.”
Ballouk’s resolve to portray Lebanese history through the arts reminded me of first lady Dolley Madison’s determination to keep American art history alive during the British-American war of 1812. In 1814, before British troops set fire to the White House, she saved the famed Gilbert Stuart portrait of President George Washington from destruction by ordering it removed from the frame and brought to safety. [DS: PUH-LEEZE. Dolley Madison and Gilbert Stuart are turning over in their graves.]
Museums of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Halls of Congress and the White House walls are all lined with similar paintings depicting U.S. history. First lady Madison must have understood the priceless value of the arts to a nation’s heritage. [DS: I repeat, PUH-LEEZE.]
Paintings by famed artists can be worth millions of dollars, such as Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night or one of Wassily Kandinsky’s Compositions. An estimated $100 million worth of artworks were lost in the Sept. 11 attacks. But no dollar amount can be assigned to the loss of a nation’s qualitative cultural and social identity. [DS: Van Gogh, his descendant Theo (murdered by Muslims), and Kandinsky, are turning over in their graves, too.]
How does one quantify the loss to Iraqi civilization after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, when art galleries and museums housing ancient artifacts and paintings were looted or destroyed?
How does one enumerate the damage to the collective conscience of the Palestinian people after Israeli forces raided the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in 2002, destroying and defacing art pieces and artifacts? [DS: Can’t be quantified. The tremendous service the Israelis performed by raiding this propagandist “cultural center” of nursery-school quality “art” is priceless.]
Conflicts can destroy relics of history, but they cannot destroy the human spirit to create a better future on the foundations of an often troubled past.
Saeed, a Palestinian farmer in the Gaza Strip, collects and paints the shrapnel from the hundreds of Israeli missiles that have landed in his fields, turning tools of war into instruments of peace. [DS: People in Israel collect shrapnel and body parts of hundreds of victims of Palestinian homicide bombings. Fortunately, human remains can’t be turned into crappy “art.”] “We should not be depressed by living among the weapons of death around us,” he told Egypt’s Nile TV. “Instead, we decided to use them as toys for children and artwork. … So we started painting the missiles.” [DS: Again, Israelis can’t paint and put on display the bodies of the innocent Jews and Christians murderer by Palestinian homicide bombers. Their “artwork” are the hundreds of headstones dotting cemeteries throughout the nation. And the labels on baggies of remains of blown-up bodies, after DNA testing has been done.] . . .
Perhaps to begin the process of national healing in Iraq, one prominent Iraqi artist, Qasim Sabti, opened his gallery in Baghdad for artists to exhibit their renditions of the Abu Ghraib scandal through sculptures and paintings.
In September, in a southern suburb of Beirut, under tents and atop the rubble of bombed-out buildings, artists showcased their creative works that were inspired by the Israeli-Lebanese war.
Several Lebanese music artists, such as Julia Boutros, composed songs about the war. Boutros released a single and music video, entitled My Loved Ones. The song’s lyrics were adapted from a speech made by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah to Lebanese resistance fighters [DS Translation: terrorists] during the war. . . .
For now, an international donors’ conference is scheduled for January in Paris, where representatives from countries throughout the world will meet to pledge funds to assist Lebanon’s development and reconstruction. Consideration must be given to artists such as Ghazawi and Ballouk to help them recover some of what they’ve lost. [DS Translation: U.S. Tax $$$$ soon to pay-off Hezbo “artists.”]
Such compensation will never bring back any of the destroyed works, but perhaps it could bring some consolation to the art community in Lebanon and the heritage of the Lebanese people.

A page from USA Today that could have come from the Islamic Republic News Agency of Iran.

By Debbie Schlussel

Spineless, inept, intellectually-challenged Detroit Newsistan Editorial Page Editor Nolan Finley and op-ed editor Richard Burr have sunk to a new low. Today, they published the work of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist Mohammed Alomari on the News editorial pages.

For years, Finley and Burr have been running regular anti-Semitic, pro-Ahmadinejad columns by Ayatollah Khomeini protege and the former spiritual leader of Khomeini’s Iranian navy, Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi. Never once has Elahi’s relationship with Iran (he’s close with Ahmadinejad) or Khomeini been identified by the Newsistan. I sent a Christian Broadcast Network reporter to question Finley about why he would give a platform to such a raving Jew-hater.  When he asked Finley why he’d run such blatantly anti-Semitic columns by a known agent of Iran and Hezbollah, Finley’s response was that Elahi is popular and has a following.

Useful Idiot Nolan Finley: the Jihad’s Fave EditorSame for David Duke, Louis Farrakhan, and Bin Laden (and Hitler, too, in his day). We await their Detroit Newsistan columns. Maybe Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust Denial Conference could take place in the Newsistan’s pages.
Today, a new low was achieved by Finley and the Newsistan by publishing Alomari’s “work.” Alomari is the author of “The Secrecy of Evil,” an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory book, which claims that the Jews created America (via the Founding Fathers) as a Zionist conspiracy theory. The book also claims that that the Oval Office is a “female reproductive force.” Alomari’s Daru Salam mosque radio Web site claimed Jews and the United States “organized” the 9/11 attacks (and calls me a “Shyster”–not an anti-Semitic term, right?). Alomari is also the author of an anti-Semitic article identifying Jews in the Bush Administration.

And finally, but most important, Alomari is a paid employee and spokesman for LIFE for Relief and Development, the charity raided by the FBI in September. As I’ve written, LIFE openly gave millions to HAMAS’ Jordanian operations and is believed to be funding insurgent terrorists in Iraq. Since Alomari’s absurd piece in today’s Detroit Newsistan is about Iraq, one would think that at least his employment with LIFE would be mentioned in the article or in the tagline, at the end. It was not.

That’s not the first time. The Detroit Newsistan frequently runs the “work” of Frank Richter, a propagandist on the payroll of the Saudi Arabian royal family. But the Newsistan chose, on several occasions, not to mention that fact, even though Richter was writing about “free elections” in Saudi Arabia (hmmm . . . when did the Saudi royal family abdicate and allow for a democratic republic?). Op-ed editor Burr told me that he didn’t need to identify Richter’s relationship with the Saudis because he had once or twice in the past (he expects brain-addled Newsistan readers to remember this).

If you think this is only a Detroit phenomenon, think again. This is the heart of extremist Islamic America. But the cancer is spreading.
And it’s coming soon to a newspaper near you.

***

Finley and Burr can’t take the heat of this website and are insanely jealous of/obsessed with me, apparently. They wrote an editorial this summer, attacking the fact that I’m on national cable news channels so much (whereas they can’t get arrested). The humorless duo were also disturbed that I called Dearborn by its more appropriate name, “Dearbornistan.” Yes, that’s the kind of stuff they think merits an entire editorial in a newspaper serving a top 11 American market. That, and articles by Shia (Elahi) and Sunni (Alomari) jihadists.

By Debbie Schlussel
Hmmm . . . his FBI refused to allow FBI Special Agent Harry Samit to look at Zacarias Moussaoui’s hard drive, despite gargantuan mounds of evidence he was a terrorist and that a hijacking plot was in the works. (Now, he’s ruining Samit’s career.)
Then, he personally wanted to give an FBI award to a “former” Palestinian terrorist (Imad Hamad), who was (and still is) a subject of several terrorism and immigration investigations by his own agency. (A column by me in the New York Post exposed this embarrassment and stopped the award.)
Now, failed, incompetent FBI Director Robert Mueller–the living monument to what Famous But Incompetent is all about–says he’s going to solve the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance.

We interrupt this post for extreme laughter:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
We loved how he solved the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance, this past summer, digging up a barn (which we paid to rebuild), devoting tons of FBI personnel from offices nationwide, and wasting about $2 million plus in taxpayer money and resources. And Mueller promoted FBI Michigan Special Agent in Charge Daniel Roberts, the man, under whose “leadership” this happened, to Assistant Director of the FBI.
We look forward to the next time the FBI solves the Hoffa disappearance. And we’re taking bets on how much money will be wasted then, how many days ’til the agents give up.
So wait, Rumsfeld goes, but this nincompoop stays?! Huh?
Time for the FBI to give up on Jimmy Hoffa. And for Bush to give up on Robert S. Mueller.

By Debbie Schlussel
It’s long been the position of the incompetent, never-confirmed Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess” and her Bush Admin cronies that her annoying, undeserved recess appointment by President Bush, last year, lasted until the end of next year or even the end of 2008.
Perhaps the U.S. Senate doesn’t buy her or Bush’s cockamamie, Rube Goldberg claims about her nomination. On December 9th, the Senate rejected her nomination and returned it back to the President. Think he’ll finally get the message and nominate someone serious about enforcing our nation’s immigration laws (and with the law enforcement background to do so)?
Here’s what the official Senate record reflects on the much-appreciated, far-too-late rejection of The ICE Princess:

NOMINATIONS FAILED/RETURNED
The following Executive Nominations were returned to the President, pursuant to Senate rules, or were disapproved by the Senate during the current Congress.
Dec 9, 2006 . . .
PN1314 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Julie L. Myers, of Kansas, to be an Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, to which position she was appointed during the last recess of the Senate.

Returned to the President under the provisions of Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6 of the Standing Rules of the Senate.
Does this mean no more taxpayer waste on stupid ICE recruitment videos featuring The ICE Princess, The ICE Princess, Fat Chicks, and The ICE Princess?
Here’s the official Senate floor procedure for what comes next:

Nominations Returned to the President
Nominations that are not confirmed or rejected are returned to the President at the end of a session or when the Senate adjourns or recesses for more than 30 days (Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6). If the President still wants a nominee considered, he must submit a new nomination to the Senate. The Senate can, however, waive this rule by unanimous consent. For example, on November 19, 1999, at the close of the first session of the l06* Congress, Majority Leader Trent Lott asked and received unanimous consent “that all nominations received by the Senate during the 10ChCongress, first session, remain in status quo.”

We sure hope Trent Lott doesn’t screw America with any more “Myers Time,” but aren’t holding our breath. We don’t count on President Bush to do the right thing. Only an idiot would have picked her in the first place (and three idiots–Bush, Chertoff a/k/a “Mr. Burns,” and The ICE Princess, herself–did).
Only in America.

By Debbie Schlussel
Hillary Clinton wouldn’t let Chelsea have one (no, not a mirror). And hundreds of thousands of feminists constantly speak out against Barbie. (I had several as a kid–“Superstar Barbie” was my favorite.)
It’s no big deal to them that there are far worse dolls, like Bratz. And that one toy company recently scrapped plans to make stripper dolls aimed at six-year-olds. They’re dead set against Barbie, mostly because Barbie is thin (and also because she’s feminine).
It’s not like Barbie (full name: Barbara Millicent Roberts) made anyone anorexic. Has the thin Barbie even made a dent in the ever-increasing obese population of American women? Hardly.

Despite all the opposition and villification of Barbie, the doll is the TOP TOY for girls, this holiday season, according to the National REtail Federation (TMX Elmo is tops for boys). Sales of Barbie have been up, this year, for the first time in several years. I think it’s a backlash against feminism and the butchification/masculinization of women, and Mattel’s abandonment of silly Barbie-broke-up-with-Ken-and-is-an-independent-woman stories. (If only Mattel could get the hint and stop turning Ken into a girlie-man.)
Sales of the Rosie O’Donnell doll–not doing too well. The Hillary doll. Ditto.
And BTW, for our readers who may need some holiday shopping tips for kids, here are a couple of hints:
These are for GIRLS (NOT boys) . . .

(I got both of these for Channukah as a kid and enjoyed them.)
These are for BOYS (NOT girls) . . .

I hate these liberals and feminazis who insist on giving their boys effeminate gifts and their girls masculine ones. Way to mess up your kid and cause him/her to grow up to be just like this person . . .

By Debbie Schlussel
Tell USAIR to resist paying off the Six Flying Imams’ shakedown efforts. I received this e-mail from reader Dorothy Carter:

I just phoned US Airways spoke with secretary in executive office Asking them to stand up to 6 Imams vs settle out of court. She said they are being flooded with phone calls world wide asking US Air to not cave to stand up against the Imams. I suggested their message to Imams and other Muslims who might try this stunt should be that this incident backfired on them and their are likely to use more profiling vs. harrassing grandmothers and elderly.

(Artwork by Jeff Holland/Holland Studios)

If you want to phone them, call investor relations no. 480-693-1227 ask to be transferred to executive office to ask them not to cave to 6 Imams. The investor relations person was very helpful and put me through to an extension where a human answered. I suggested they even make a public statement that this publicity stunt the Imams tried backfired and that it is likely to result in more profiling not less and that this tough stance would likely result in Americans preferring to fly on their airline as it would be safer than others who play by P.C. rules and inconvenience travelers every day. The person I spoke with said they had no intentions of giving in to their demands.
yea,
d

I called to voice my concerns. You should, too.
Meanwhile, reader Jeff Holland (of Holland Studios), a very talented professional artist from Scottsdale, created the above movie poster. Very apropos.