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I skipped the screening of “Hoot” and didn’t see it. But even Teh Detroit Spews’ liberal (and smart) film critic, Tom Long, says the movie, marketed at your kiddies, encourages breaking the law to save “cute owls” and fight “mean developers.”

Here’s what Long wrote in his critique of this leftist propaganda film for kids(he gave “Hoot” a charitable C-Minus):

“Hoot” is one of those films in which kids break every law in the book, but it’s OK because they have good reasons for all the law-breaking.
The good reasons in “Hoot” are, not surprisingly, cute little owls. These cute little owls live in holes in the ground instead of in trees. And a mean developer is about to plow right through the ground they live in with the intention of building a pancake restaurant.
Mean developers must be stopped, but none of the good citizens of the small Florida town in question know about the cute little owls. Except for one blond runaway boy named, and this is not a joke, Mullet Fingers (Cody Linley).
A new kid named Roy (Logan Lerman) has moved to town and discovered that it is indeed Mullet Fingers who has been committing vandalism in hopes of thwarting the developer. When he, too, spies the cute little owls, he joins forces with Mullet and Mullet’s sister, whose name is not Trout Toes but Beatrice (Brie Larson) to try and stop the developer.
Eventually, they run up charges of not only vandalism, but also of evading arrest, kidnapping and assault. And through it all, young teen Mullet is neither attending school nor receiving adult guidance of any kind. Education and upbringing are apparently irrelevant when you’re named after a fish. . . .
[I]t sends an awful lot of worrisome messages as well. Many Americans hate developers, but it’s doubtful we want to promote adolescents kidnapping and hog-tying them. Or at least probably not.

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Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents who contacted us did not believe a word of ICE chieftess , yesterday. It was more of the same fertilizer and hyperbole, they told us.
Bottom line for America: It’s just a waste of taxpayer time and money, promoting tough talk about stemming the tidal wave of illegal aliens. But more of the same behavior to the contrary.
In fact, one agent said The ICE Princess’ immigration enforcement rhetoric in yesterday’s speech employed so much bluster, you’d think she was Tom Tancredo. Instead, she acts like the anti-Tancredo, forcing agents to release illegal alien workers without verifying their IDs and forcing Detention & Removal Operations to release illegal aliens to make room for her well-televised show arrests of illegals from IFCO systems (most of whom were since released).

Yup, the fertilizer was out in full force.
Here is the first of two good analyses of her speech, which we received from ICE agents:

I am a former INS employee now in ICE. I didn’t see the speech, but I did read the transcipt that came out today. There’s one part where she talked about the reputation ICE has built up for itself over the past three years, and that was all that I could handle. The reputation we’ve got is unresponsive at best and
obstructionist at worst, but I don’t think that’s quite what she was talking about.
The priorities seemed to have very little to do with immigration. It’s always the missions of the other components that got swept into ICE, after the trademark part about all the swell people she met on her most recent trips.
It’s actually kind of funny in a way, because INS people always asked each other, with typical gallows humor, how things in our agency could get any worse.
Now we know.

Here’s the second one:

Debbie,
I’m sure someone has already sent you a copy of the propaganda Julie read today. Although she may believe it, it was the big pile of manure you expected. She regaled us with her tales of travel around the country (which she quickly tired of and stopped) and dropped a few names from all the programs in ICE to let us know she cares about each program. She also sounded like Tom Tancredo talking about how tough we were getting in enforcing immigration laws.
But, what doesn’t come out in the speech is that between her and the rest of the agency is the great Customs Triumvirate of John Clark [DS: ICE Deputy Assistant Secretary], Gary Lang [DS: ICE Chief of Staff], and Marcy Forman [“] and this rhetoric that she spewed for the press gets translated into “We are a Customs Investigations agency and if you’re anything but a legacy Customs investigator, you’re nothing.” FPS is a complete outsider that has only lost money into the black hole of the ICE finance world. DRO, the program that was poised to take on the immigration enforcement for ICE, has been relegated to a red-headed stepchild with a trust fund. Folks like [DS: Name and location of innocent, hard-working ICE agent redacted to protect him/her from persecution by ICE “leadership”–which hates the innocent & hard-working] are considered persona non grata because they want to do their job. Your real story shouldn’t be about Julie, but about those that are really running the agency – into the ground.

****
Note: I’m not taking sides on the Customs v. INS thing here. Both have their points, which is why I never supported the merger and wish they were separate again. I did not get responses about The ICE Princess’ speech from the Legacy Customs agents, which mention their former agency. (If I did, I’d post the best of those, too.)

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I wrote about then-INS Special Agent , who arrested and investigated terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, along with FBI Special Agent , and then-INS Special Agent . (Nordmann and Weess became ICE–Immigration & Customs Enforcement–Agents, when the INS was dissolved and reorganized.)
As I wrote, Nordmann passed away and did not live to see Wednesday’s shameful verdict allowing Moussaoui to live. (Nordmann’s colleagues alerted me that before his death, Nordmann traveled to Rwanda with fellow ICE agents, to help investigate and stop the genocide there.) Agent Nordmann’s niece writes that her uncle would be upset by the verdict:

I just wanted to thank you for the recognition of my uncle, Steven J. Nordmann. Believe it or not, your article was the first to ever recognize him for his actions. He was a true hero to all that do know him, and many more should know. He is definitely missed.

Agent Steven J. Nordmann, RIP
Not a day goes by that I and his whole family don’t think about him. He has done so many goods unto others. I wish more people could follow his example. Thank you for the props to my heroic uncle and digging up the TRUTH. More people need to follow your example. . . .
I . . . read the whole court transcripts, and it truly amazes me how much 911 could have been prevented if our govt would have just listened. It’s kind of odd to me.
As the anniversary of Steve’s death rolls around, and with the [Moussaoui] trial having gone on, it’s definitely not an easy time. It is very frustrating to see the outcome, and I know if Steve was still alive he would have never given up on getting a correct verdict. Not just the verdict, but more protection for all of us Americans. He always cared so much about everyone, even if he didn’t know them, like when he went to Rwanda during the genocide. I wish more people knew how amazing he was.

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Since we recently celebrated “Yom HaShoah,” or Holocaust Remembrance Day, it was moving to receive an important, recently-discovered (2002) 1945 BBC recording of reporter Patrick Gordon Walker at the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp from my cousin, Dan K.
Both sides of my family were mostly wiped out in the Holocaust, and my maternal grandparents, Holocaust survivors, were liberated from their last camp, Bergen Belsen. My mother was born at Belsen after the war (it became a Displaced Persons/Refugee camp, where my grandparents lived until they left for the States). Belsen was also the camp where Ann Frank was taken and perished at the hands of the Nazis.
The recording, now at the Smithsonian Center for American Folklife, can be heard here. Just under four minutes, the broadcast is presented as a feature on NPR (transcript here). And, for once, “National Palestinian Radio” gets it right. (A broken clock is right twice a day.)

Mass Grave of Holocaust Victims @ Bergen Belsen Camp
For those who do not know Hebrew, the song that is sung mid-way through, “HaTikvah” (“The Hope”), became Israel’s national anthem and is known to Jews everywhere. (There is more after the song, so please keep listening even if you don’t care to hear the song.) The song was written in 1886 by Naphtali Herz Imber, from Galicia–an area of Poland, from which my family emanated.
It is especially touching to hear these Holocaust survivors sing the song, when many were close to death and had already seen their entire families murdered by the Nazis. In English, here are the lyrics:

As long as within our hearts, the Jewish soul sings;
As long as forward to the East, To Zion, looks the eye;
Our hope is not yet lost.
It is two thousand years old; To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

Here is a photo of my grandmother and her friends, before they were either sent to their deaths, to Bergen Belsen, or to some other horrible fate. As you can see, they were forced to wear the yellow stars and, expectedly, none of them are smiling. They were slave labor seamstresses, forced to sew and repair Nazi uniforms and clothes. Then, they were sent to the camps. (My grandmother is third from the left, middle row.)

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The Detroit Free Press had a caption contest using this photo. But the paper refused to print any captions involving Monica Lewinsky or Bill Clinton’s sex life, and that’s no fun. Given the man and his pose in the photo, it invites only that kind of caption.
For the record, the portrait of Bill Clinton does NOT feature a wedding ring (though the real-life version standing in front of it is wearing one). What’s your suggested caption? For the time being, we can’t think of any good ones.

(Photo by Haraz N. Ghanbari/Associated Press)
“Yasser Said My Foreign Policy Was This Big; So Did Monica.”
-or-
“My New Life as a Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Contest Judge
is So Much More Fulfilling.”
-or-
“Now That I’ve Removed Soda Machines From America’s Schools, We Can Put ’em in My House. Oval Office Desk or Not, I Dig Visits from Fat Chicks.”
-or-
Basic Instinct 3, Male Co-Star Audition
-or-
“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”

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Perhaps the biggest sign that America has fallen back to sleep regarding terrorism is not the decision to allow Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Mousaoui to live.
Nope. It is the fact that a major newspaper chain has chosen to not just recognize–but do a feature story on–the 5th anniversary of Chandra Levy’s disappearance after her sleazy relationship with an equally sleazy Congressman, Gary Condit.
The story was front and center . . . until 9/11 happened. You’d think after that horrific day, America would have moved on from this tragic–but, let’s admit it, salacious and tawdry–gawker story. But you would be wrong.
This week, Michael Doyle of McClatchy Newspapers did a “Where Are They Now?” Reunion Show-style article. Arnold and Willis . . . er, the Levy parents have forgotten their Oprah-fied World Tour is over. Gary Condit and family are out of the public eye and have moved to Arizona. But that didn’t stop Michael Doyle from showing up on the Condit doorstep (and the family-owned Baskin-Robbins)to hound the Condit clan.

Moussaoui & the Condits/Levys: More Important? Him . . . or Them?
I was critical of both Condit and Levy’s star-struck, new-age, Ben & Jerry’s-era parents who knew of her affair with a much-older, bizarre married man and encouraged it. But they found her body in the woods which seemed to exonerate Condit. So, now, he is just another former, ethically-challenged Congressman who is trying to move on. And we should let him . . . and leave his family in peace. Do we really need to go back there? Not really.
The girl is still dead, and revisiting this five years later–and encouraging Susan and Robert Levy to re-start their rounds on Oprah and Larry–won’t change that or add to our world. (Just like doing a “Diff’rent Strokes” reunion show won’t bring back Dana Plato.)
C’mon, can’t the ever-growing McClatchy media empire come up with more important things to cover? Or as another voice from the past would say, “What’chu Talkin’ Bout, Willis?”!

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On the same day that the Ghost of O.J.’s Jury refused to send terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui to his deserving end, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer granted posthumous pardons for 78 people convicted of sedition during World War I.
Most of those that Schweitzer pardoned were working-class people of German descent, who were convicted of breaking the law and served–on average–19 months in prison for casual comments made in bars, criticizing the U.S. role in WWI, or refusing to buy war bonds.
Contrast that harsh treatment in a time of war for lawful acts with our harsh tolerance during our time of war for unlawful and detrimental ones. Americans during WWI weren’t even fighting the Nazis, but they understood what was going on. 75 men and three women, who did very little, were locked up and undeservedly so. Today, men (and women) who engage in blatantly terrorist activities are acquitted or go free for some other noxious reason.

Janet Smith & Herman Bausch: They Did Time for Mere Spech Against WWI
Today, a jury says we are such a great country because we don’t kill mass-murdering terrorists, as that same jury refused to do to Moussaoui. But there is no glory in not meting out justice. There is no glory in weakness. There is no glory in absolute tolerance. There is only weakness–obtrusive weakness easily exploited by the enemy.
“Look at yourselves. I fight for my belief.” Moussaoui said it. And for once, he is right.

Moussaoui: Though Silent on WWIII Mass-Murder, He Escapes Death

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Who saw JulieVision, this morning?
As we , , Assistant Homeland Security Secretary and head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a/k/a “The ICE Princess,” delivered a highly PR-pimped speech to her ICE minions in our favorite new blind pig, “The Garcia Room.”
Since The ICE Princess is supposed to be the head immigration enforcement figure in the nation, we wondered what she was going to say in the address. Unfortunately, we were otherwise disposed at the time in question and plan to watch all of what we hear was a high-quality Scotts speech, at a later time.

Smell Test: Immigration’s PrincessVision is On the Air
To those of you who did hear The ICE Princess’ delivery, what was your reaction? Please send them here, and we will post the best responses (anonymity promised).
What is her long-term investigative strategy to stem the alien smuggling and phony ID problems? Why has the agency virtually giving up on investigating sham marriages by Muslim foreign nationals and focusing on those practiced by Latinos and others? Did she address why catch-and-release is still going on en masse? Did she say why she ordered release of alien workers that were caught in Galveston, before their IDs were even checked for validity?
Did she say what her long-term plan is? Did she announce when she will take off for maternity leave and what will be done to address our nation’s hemorrhaging illegal alien problem, in her unnoticeable absence? What are her plans for a rudderless agency in a lot of hurt? And what was your assessment of her speech, ie., max-gro (10), nursery plant food (1), or somewhere in between?
If you liked and believed what she had to say, we will print those, too (if we receive any). Tell us why, though.
We look forward to your reaction.

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**** UPDATE: Moussaoui Lives! As we predicted, the U.S. Dept. of Non-Justice failed yet again in prosecuting the War on Terror. Moussaoui: “America, you lost. … I won.” He’s right. And the jury is probably worse than O.J.’s. A shameful day for America.****
Today is Day SEVEN(!) of jury deliberations in the Moussaoui trial. If they cannot reach a decision, Moussaoui will NOT be put to death and will, instead, spend life in prison, where he can recruit new jihadists.
Since a jury week is five business days, we are not coming up on 1.5 weeks of deliberations. As time goes by, it becomes less likely that they will vote for death for Moussaoui. That the jury could not decide within a half-hour to put this conspirator in mass murder to death is bad news, regardless of the verdict. It is yet another failure for the Department of (Non)Justice, which has had a series of monumental failures in prosecuting terrorists.
One wonders what is taking the jury so long. Since their behavior reminds us of the O.J. jury, we have to ask:
Are they spending their time looking for “the real killers”?

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Most male characters in children’s movies are “Casanova’s, criminals, or clowns,” according to a study by USC researcher Stacy Smith, who studied movies targeted at teens, tweens, and children. This anti-male dynamic was present in both animation and movies with live actors.
The study, which looked at 101 top-grossing G-rated films from 1990-2004 also found that White male characters are physcially aggressive in most of the films.
Only 34.6% of parents are male vs. 66.3% who are women. Only 31.9% of men on screen are married or in a committed relationship.
Oddly, the research is sponsored by deposed “” actress, Geena Davis’ See Jane Foundation, which we . Davis is still claiming this is bad for women. She wants half of all characters to be women.

But she doesn’t care that all men portrayed are losers or villains.