By Debbie Schlussel
Although HAMAS is also taking credit for yesterday’s outrageous mass murder of 8-10 kids and wounding of at least 35 others, as you’ll recall, and as I reported yesterday, Hezbollah is claiming it was a Hezbollah-allied group in Gaza. Al-Jazeera reported later what I reported.
SCHLUSSEL, yesterday:

Schlussel Lebanese Intelligence Sources: My sources say this attack was committed by a new Hezbollah-allied terrorist group in Gaza called Liberators of the Galilee Brigades/Martyrs of Imad Mughnieh and Gaza. My sources say that Al-Manar (Hezbollah TV) is declaring this, also.

Al-Jazeera, later yesterday:

Hezbollah claim
Separately, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV claimed that the perpetrators of the attack were members of the “Phalange of Free Men of Galilee – Groups of the Martyr Imad Moghaniyah and Martyrs of Gaza”, a previously unknown group.
The claim was made in a tag line running across the bottom of the screen.

As I have reported in the past, Hezbollah is now running the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade inside the so-called West Bank and has a big presence throughout the Palestinian populations in both the West Bank and Gaza.
As you know, Hezbollah has murdered hundreds of Americans. Israel’s enemies are also our enemies.

By Debbie Schlussel
Hey married men, whether or not your wife works, you are doing more and more of the work at home. But, apparently, it–not working hard to support your family–is the only way you will get more sex from your wife. Just hope you don’t end up like the husband of the NOW chick (amazing she goes that way).
This same report seems to come out every year, so I’m skeptical about the chores/sex reward ratio:

The average dad has gradually been getting better about picking himself up off the sofa and pitching in, according to a new report in which a psychologist suggests the payoff for doing more chores could be more sex.

The Shrewing of the Tame

The report, released Thursday by the Council on Contemporary Families, summarizes several recent studies on family dynamics. One found that men’s contribution to housework had doubled over the past four decades; another found they tripled the time spent on child care over that span.
“More couples are sharing family tasks than ever before, and the movement toward sharing has been especially significant for full-time dual-earner couples,” the report says. “Men and women may not be fully equal yet, but the rules of the game have been profoundly and irreversibly changed.”
Some couples have forged partnerships they consider fully equitable.
“We’ll both talk about how we’re so lucky to have someone who does more than their share,” said Mary Melchoir, a Washington-based fundraiser for the National Organization for Women, who – like her lawyer husband – works full-time while raising 6-year-old triplets.
“He’s the one who makes breakfast and folds the laundry,” said Melchoir, 47. “I’m the one who fixes things around the house.”
Joshua Coleman, a San Francisco-area psychologist and author of “The Lazy Husband: How to Get Men to Do More Parenting and Housework,” said equitable sharing of housework can lead to a happier marriage and more frequent sex. . . .
The report’s co-authors, sociologists Scott Coltrane of the University of California, Riverside and Oriel Sullivan of Ben Gurion University, said they were addressing a perception that women’s gains in the workplace were not being matched by gains at home.
“The typical punch line of many news stories has been that even though women are working longer hours on the job and cutting back their own housework, men are not picking up the slack,” Coltrane and Sullivan wrote.
They said this perception was based on unrealistic expectations and underestimated the degree of change “going on behind the scenes” since the 1960s. The change, they said, “is too great a break from the past to be dismissed as a slow and grudging evolution.”
Among the findings they cited:
* In the U.S., time-use diary studies show that since the ’60s, men’s contribution to housework doubled from about 15 percent to more than 30 percent of the total. Over the same period, the average working mother reduced her weekly housework load by two hours.
* Between 1965 and 2003, men tripled the amount of time they spent on child care. During the same period, women also increased the time spent with their children, suggesting mutual interest in a more hands-on approach to child-raising.
Sullivan and Coltrane predict men’s contributions will increase further as more women take jobs.

Is this blurring of the gender roles a good thing? Only if you want your men to be women and your women to be men.

By Debbie Schlussel
This video is special to me because it is a column, “Dear World,” that was among my late father’s favorites. He made me like a million copies. You may not like the late author. You might call him an extremist, as many do (although most of his proposed policies have now been adopted by the Israeli left) But you can’t disagree with the points made. Although he did not write the column, it is read allowed for this video by radio talk show host Rich Levin and is a great commentary on today’s terrorist attacks at the Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem, and all of the other terrorist attacks on Israel, and world response to them:

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE #3: Carl in Jerusalem has video on the attacks ****
****UPDATE #2: Schlussel Lebanese Intelligence Sources: My sources say this attack was committed by a new Hezbollah-allied terrorist group in Gaza called Liberators of the Galilee Brigades/Martyrs of Imad Mughnieh and Gaza. My sources say that Al-Manar (Hezbollah TV) is declaring this, also. ****
**** UPDATE: Witnesses say one terrorist fired 500-600 bullets before he was shot. ****
I really wish Bush’s chickie Condi Clueless Rice would stay away from Israel and quit trying to force it into deals with Palestinian Muslim Nazis, as she did yesterday and today.

In the midst of her “peace” negotiations, today, Muslim Arab terrorists murdered at least TEN Jewish students at a Yeshiva [Jewish academy of higher learning].
And they didn’t pick this Yeshiva, the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva (also spelled, “Mercaz HaRav”), by accident. Merkaz HaRav means “Center of the Rabbi,” or “The Rabbi’s Center,” as it was founded in 1924 in Jerusalem by Israel’s First, most famous, and most Zionistic Chief Rabbi, Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, who believed in a Zionist Jewish homeland in Israel, built by Jewish laborers (not Arab Palestinian imports).
Rav Kook was one of the most important figures in Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel, especially among religious Jews. He believed in Jews doing manual labor and building and planting things, that it was good for them to not just be intellectuals but also manual laborers. I have many of Rav Kook’s books and books about him in my library of books from my late father.
The dead terrorists [CORRECTION: Turns out to be ONE terrorist] had explosive vests on, which, thankfully, they failed to detonate. And–no surprise–Palestinians danced in the streets to celebrate. Barbaric animals:

Two Arab terrorists infiltrated Jerusalem’s Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva at around 8:30 Thursday night and murdered eight Jews. At least six people have been wounded; three are in critical condition and a fourth victim was wounded moderately.
The attackers entered from two separate entrances to the yeshiva and opened fire on the students before one of them was gunned down himself by an armed civilian. Witnesses say that the attack began in the seminary’s library.
The second terrorist hid in the yeshiva building, with subsequent reports indicating that the attacker was killed by responding security forces. Police are deployed in the surrounding neighborhood, and scoured the yeshiva and connected buildings. Most students in the building were evacuated after taking cover in the yeshiva’s bomb shelter, according to police spokesmen.
Fifty ambulances responded to the scene, which emergency responders have called “a major incident.” The wounded were evacuated to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital.
In Gaza City, Arab residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in the air in celebration of the attack against the Jews of Jerusalem.
Police forces are on heightened alert throughout the country.
The Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva is located near the entrance to Jerusalem, in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood. The yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Avaraham Yitzchak Kook, is at the heart of the national-religious movement in Israel.

Thanks to readers Ari and Emet M’Tsiyon for the tip.
Will this be the final straw for Ehud Olmert’s reign of insecurity and capitulation resulting in bloodshed and misery for innocent Israeli civilians? Or will it take more murders such as these for Israelis to finally take back their country?
Sadly, it will probably be the latter.
Please pray for these innocent victims of terrorism and their families.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Video Added – “Red Dawn” Trailer and “She’s Like the Wind”; SCROLL DOWN ****
On this site, I’ve been extremely critical of actor Patrick Swayze over the years. That includes his drunken piloting of a plane and then covering it up when it crashed, his claim that he knows the Arab world because he raises Arabian horses (in his critique of the Iraq war), his defense of Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic comments, and his promotion of the Islamic Arab Gulf States (including his project to star as and sanitize the true story of an Arab Muslim Sheikh who was kidnapped from his Anglo parents and forcibly converted to Islam). While I was critical, I felt he did these things out of utter ignorance, not malicious intent against America, like, say, Alec Baldwin, Angelina Jolie, or Sean Penn.

Patrick Swayze (and Charlie Sheen) Starred in “Red Dawn”
That said, despite my utter disagreement with his misguided, ill-advised activities and statements, my prayers are with him as he tries to fight pancreatic cancer. Having just lost my beloved father, H.L. Schlussel, MD–Blessed Be His Memory–to this aggressive and largely terminal form of cancer, I know what it is like to watch someone you love know that he will certainly die very soon from this horrible illness.
As an optimist, I hate to be pessimistic on this kind of thing. Anything is possible, and only G-d knows the future. But, even though Swayze’s spokespeople dispute tabloid reports that he has only five weeks to live, the fact is that almost all of those stricken with pancreatic die within five years. And most die within five or six months.
My father, fortunately, outlived that amount of time, which he was given by doctors as the prognosis for the length of the rest of his lifespan. But he, too, died far too quickly and much before his time. Sadly, there is a Jewish gene, which makes it more likely that Ashkenazic Jews (those generally of European heritage) will develop pancreatic cancer in greater percentages than the general popularion.
I remember that, 24 years ago, Patrick Swayze starred in the great 1984 movie, “Red Dawn,” which showed us what would happen to America in a Communist invasion. That movie, which only recently came out on DVD, was vastly underrated and panned by liberal mainstream media movie critics. But it could easily be remade into “Green Dawn” or “Black Dawn,” an accurate portrayal of what would happen–and may very well happen–when Muslims take over America, as is their declared goal. Hard to believe that movie is nearly a quarter century old.
At the time it came out, we were in the midst of fighting the Soviets and other forces of Communist hegemony in the Cold War. That’s why despite universal critical panning, the movie was a box office success, with Americans paying to see it in droves. It was an important film that embodied the fight Ronald Reagan was preventing in our future by fighting–and beating–it during his Presidency. If only President Bush had done the same in the last 6.5 years, instead of kowtowing to it. Unlike Ronald Reagan, his actions insure that “Black Dawn” will not just be a movie.

From “Red Dawn”:
Soviet Communists Take Over McDonaldsky & Much More
The handsome, talented Swayze was magnificent as the hero who stood for freedom in “Red Dawn.” And he not only starred in big hits like “Dirty Dancing” (which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary), “Ghost,” and the hockey movie, “Youngblood,” but he was a talented, accomplished dancer and singer (don’t forget his hit song, “She’s Like the Wind,” which others pan as cheesy, but which I still like; last year, it was remade into a hit by hip-hoppers). And I loved him as a Confederate soldier in “North & South,” the ’80s ABC Civil War miniseries (remember network miniseries?). He was definitely a showman.
Perhaps his affliction with pancreatic cancer will draw much needed attention to this form of cancer, which has no obvious symptoms, no cure, and does not get the attention other more “sexy” disease, like breast cancer and AIDS, do. There has been very little advance in treatment of pancreatic cancer because it afflicts to few and, therefore, gets little money for research and advancement in finding cures and effective treatments.
Pray for Patrick Swayze. It’s very sad. I hope he recovers and that this is not an obituary. But, unfortunately, the odds are against him. Maybe he will beat them.


Patrick Swayze in “Dirty Dancing,” “Ghost,” and “North and South”
**** UPDATE: Trailer from Patrick Swayze’s “Red Dawn” and Patrick Swayze Video/”She’s Like the Wind”:


**** UPDATE #2: Reader Ari says this comment about pain, from “Roadhouse,” is the best line ever delivered by Patrick Swayze:

By Debbie Schlussel
You know all of those phony show-raids that Julie Myers’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does so that she can go on FOX News and tell us how she won’t tolerate illegal aliens in the country and in the workplace?
Well, here’s more evidence of what a crock those raids are: More than half of the illegal aliens rounded up and arrested by ICE agents at a Massachusetts leather goods factory, a year ago, are still in the United States. Some are even back at that factory working. Shocker.

Do Not Want From MGroves.com
(Julie Myers Diet Coke by David Lunde/Lundesigns)
While most of the aliens that are still here are fighting their deportation in Immigration Court–and for that, ICE bears no responsibility–there are many who are still here and still working. That’s Myers’ a/k/a “The ICE Princess'” fault. Period. But what’s even more nauseating is that Myers applauds and defends those illegal aliens who are fighting in court to stay here with phony asylum cases. She’s applauding their clogging up the courts to delay deportation. Hello . . . ? Anyone inside that skull? What an idiot! I don’t have to wonder what her already extremely demoralized agents think of her encouragement of their detainees to fight deportation. Sick. And stoooopid.
Read it and weep:

A year after federal agents arrested 361 illegal workers at a New Bedford leather-goods factory, more than half of the workers are still believed to be in the United States, an outcome that is raising concerns on both sides of the heated immigration debate about the effectiveness of the operation.
After the raid on March 6, 2007, immigration officials vowed to sweep the detainees out of the country. But as of this week, only 165 — or about 46 percent — had been deported. The rest are fighting for asylum or visas in immigration court, and one man is still in jail in Texas.
The immigration agency cannot account for the whereabouts of 35 people who were processed and released at the scene the day of the raid, but lawyers believe nearly all of those former workers are also still in the country. . . .
“I think the United States made a plan that didn’t work,” said Anibal Lucas, an activisit with the Maya K’iche Organization, a group that advocates for Guatemalans of Mayan descent in New Bedford. “It was a loss and waste of money.” [DS: Darn right, since they’re mostly still here.]
Jessica Vaughan, senior policy analyst with the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which favors limits on immigration, called the delays cause for concern. She said she is unsure who deserves the blame: overwhelmed immigration courts or lawyers clogging up the system with hard-to-win claims. . . .
“I am concerned about the length of time that it’s taking,” she said. “No matter what the outcome is we should be concerned about that. If the outcome is in their favor, or not in their favor, it’s way too long. We ought to be able to provide a swifter resolution to this.”
Julie L. Myers, the assistant secretary of homeland security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pointed out that a significant number of immigrants had been deported. She said it was “appropriate” for the others to be fighting to stay in court, as the law allows.
“I certainly understand the frustration, if there’s frustration on the American public’s part, but that’s certainly the immigration court’s process and I think it’s fair that it plays out,” Myers said during a news conference at the Tip O’Neill Federal Building in Boston today. . . .
Lawyers for immigrants say they believe dozens of people will qualify for asylum. . . . “It’s a significant group of people who are going forward on their cases,” said lawyer John Willshire Carrera, of Greater Boston Legal Services, who, with Nancy Kelly and Catholic Charities, is leading teams of lawyers on the cases. “This crowd is not running.” . . . But the courts are so busy that many hearings will not be scheduled until next year. . . .
Others went back to work illegally, cleaning houses, working in other factories. . . . Already the immigrants are pursuing a class-action lawsuit against Bianco for payment of overtime wages.
A woman in her 30s from a village in El Salvador said she started working a few months ago because her three children were struggling for money. Back home, she had earned $3 a day as a waitress at a restaurant. At Bianco, she earned $8 an hour — a huge leap.
The money made a huge difference back home, she said. . . . She said, she still owes the man who smuggled her across the border part of his $6,000 fee. . . .
A year later, she views the raid, and its outcome, with disbelief. People are scattered, but some are sneaking back in and others are back to work.

Heckuva Job, ICE Princess.
(Thanks to reader Chip for the tip.)

By Debbie Schlussel
When I was a kid and in private school, my teachers selected me for a “gifted and talented program” along with a few others in my class. But, soon after, the parents of kids who were not selected whined about it, and finally, my entire class was in the “gifted and talented program” to appease the whining parents.
That’s essentially what’s happened in the Denver Public Schools, with a twist. They are appeasing not just whining parents, but the “diversity” crowd and the illegal alien crowd, who can’t speak English.
Welcome to the new affirmative action, in response not just to the PC crowd, but also to ACLU lawsuits. It’s absurd:

More minority and poor students in Denver are being classified as highly gifted under a new system that gives extra credit to children who are economically disadvantaged or nonnative English speakers.
Denver Public Schools is trying to fix a disparity in the program that serves its smartest and most talented students – which up until now has drawn mostly white students in a district that is mostly Latino.
“It’s a much more holistic look at the kid,” said Diana Howard, principal at Polaris at Ebert, the district’s sole elementary school for the highly gifted and talented. “I wanted this system to look at much more than test scores. This is going to have a huge impact.” . . .
To determine who gets into the program, the district previously relied on oral tests that measure a student’s reasoning and IQ.
But some educators and social scientists believe those tests are biased against students learning English and poorer students who may not have had the same life experiences as their richer peers.
“They may be bright children but may not know what plaid is,” Howard said. “Or their concept may not have involved a vacation. Or they may have never been on an escalator.” [DS: Um, I didn’t belong to a country club, but I knew what one was as a kid. It’s about knowledge, not exposure to “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous.”]
To make things more equitable, the district now relies on a sum of measures to determine eligibility into the highly gifted program — cognitive tests, annual assessments, reading tests and teacher nominations. Next year, the district will consider artwork and writings.
Also, students get extra points toward entry into the program if English is their second language or if they receive federal meal benefits – a measure of poverty.
For example, a student who scores as low as the 75th percentile on cognitive tests could be considered, Howard said. Previously, that child would not have been admitted.
“We want to find the gifts that these children have, not exclude them,” she said.
Experts in the gifted field say DPS’s change follows a national trend.
“Standardized tests are tipped against children from underserved populations and children from diverse backgrounds,” said Nancy Green, executive director of the National Association for Gifted Children. “We have got to find other ways besides verbal tests to determine whether kids are gifted.”
The American Civil Liberties Union in California last year threatened to sue the Tustin Unified School District over low numbers of Latinos and African-Americans in the district’s gifted programs.
Districts from Miami to New York are giving more credit to smart children from culturally diverse or economically disadvantaged backgrounds, said Joshua Wyner, executive vice president of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.
“If what we are trying to do is measure not accomplishment but giftedness and talent, then putting your thumb on the scale or adding points for kids from low-income backgrounds re-equalizes things,” he said. “The question is how heavy should that thumb be?” [DS: New BS word for the PC dictionary: “re-equalize”]
Wyner said weighting the system carries political risks.
“If there are a limited number of slots in those programs, then the wealthier student who is excluded will always feel wrongly excluded if their test scores were higher than a lower-income student or Hispanic student who was included,” he said.

The Dumbing Down of America continues.

By Debbie Schlussel
Today, at 4:00 pm Eastern, I will make my monthly appearance on the “Culture Shocks,” the radio show of uber-liber, Rev. Barry Lynn. Listen Live.

By Debbie Schlussel
My favorite (now Japanese-owned) American retailer, 7-Eleven, has a new drink mixing a slurpee with capuccino, the Slurpuccino. It’s low fat, milk-free, and relatively low in caffeine:

The Cafe Latte-flavored Slurpuccino is not a milk-based product, but is caffeinated, fat-free and has only 61 calories per 8-ounce serving, unlike most frozen cappuccinos on the market. Prices are similar to any other Slurpee drink, which range from 99 cents for a 12-ounce cup to $1.69 for 40 ounces. . . .
Developed for 7-Eleven® stores by The Coca-Cola Company, the Slurpuccino drink is a new beverage platform with Cafe Latte as the version offered. The coffee- and caramel-flavored frozen drink targets young adults ages 18-34, both male and female. More than 75 percent of Slurpee drinkers are under the age of 34.

Slurpuccino also provides a “better-for-you” alternative for coffee-lovers who want to monitor calories, fat or caffeine in their diets. Compared to some other retailers’ frozen cappuccino drinks, 7-Eleven‚Äôs coffee-flavored Slurpee beverage has approximately one-third the calories, half the sugar and no fat grams. Adding a whipped topping can raise fat content by 20 grams. Compared to a cup of coffee, which contains between 100 and 175 milligrams of caffeine, an 8-ounce Slurpuccino has only 5 mg. . . .
The new drink is expected to be offered in a hazelnut-cappuccino flavor this fall.

I can’t wait to try it.

By Debbie Schlussel
Why is inside baseball at our nation’s immigration enforcement agency important? Because incompetence rises to the top, and illegal aliens need not worry . . .
Great news for those few female agents at ICE who don’t mind sleeping with the married boss to get ahead. Your prayers have been answered.
Proud high school graduate John P. Torres is the new number two at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations overseeing it’s Detention and Removal Operations, Office of Investigations and Federal Protective Service. That means he’s running the place for incompetentette Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess,” but won’t have to go through the Senate confirmation process (kinda like she barely did).

John P. Torres: Costanza “Runs” ICE
Finally, they pick a person with INS experience for the leadership of ICE, but they pick the WORST PERSON possible. Good luck, America. National security just got way worse.
I thought the agency was at its lowest point possible under incompetent ICE Chieftess Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess.”
Sadly, I was wrong. A few days ago, I got an e-mail that The ICE Princess picked a new Prince, a new Deputy Assistant Secretary of ICE. When the person told me the name of the choice, John P. Torres, I thought that person was on crack. But, again, I was wrong. Clearly, the person who chose him, The ICE Princess, is the one on crack.
Despite ethics complaints against him for allegedly sleeping with his assistant who claimed he sexually harassed her, Deputy Assistant Secretary for ICE, John Clark, was allowed to retire from ICE with a full pension and a job with a Fortune 500 company.
I guess, given the fact that she already picked one guy who used ICE as a harem, Myers decided to pick yet another to replace him, Torres.
Readers of this site will remember my multiple columns and postings on John Torres, ICE’s own version of “Seinfeld”‘s George Costanze (with apologies to Costanza). He’s the guy who wasted $50,000 in your tax money–meant for rounding up, jailing, and deporting illegal aliens–to pay baseball’s Tommy Lasorda to speak at a weeklong party Torres hosted. The party–whose purpose was solely to promote Torres (and hey, it worked!)–cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries of ICE personnel, travel costs, food, and hotel bills. You paid for that, too, even though you and your Congressmen and Senators allocated the money for illegal alien deportation, NOT John Torres’ partying.
Torres is also the married guy who used his perch atop ICE’s Detention and Removal Office to pick extra-marital girlfriends who slept with him for key jobs at ICE for which they were not qualified. That’s not just unethical, it’s against the law. Since the man operated ICE as his own personal harem and concubine farm team, I think the title “The ICE Prince” is quite appropriate for Torres. His behavior would make a Saudi prince drool.
Torres has a gazillion ethics complaints against him. He’s hired many cronies who were not only unqualified for positions high atop ICE, and he pushed through people who could NOT PASS a background check for security clearance. Hello . . .? When Torres’ choices for positions at ICE didn’t meet the government-mandated qualifications for experience, he ignored them and formed his own faux hiring committee to rubber stamp his picks. A vindictive, power-mad, Napoleon-type, his behavior is more like Saddam in power than a man who wants to find and deport illegal aliens in our midst. Expect that be exacerbated now that he’s running the show.
One of Torres’ many unqualified hires was a man named Gary Mead, whom he just got Julie Myers to pick as his replacement as Director of Detention and Removal Operations. But Mead, whom some agents tell me is not a bad guy personally, had zero immigration experience when he was hired– about two years ago!–into ICE. He is not even an immigration officer and, as some agents say, couldn’t tell a U.S. citizen from an alien. He worked for the U.S. Marshal Service, and there was a time when he was not going to clear security for the job with ICE because of issues while with the Marshal Service.
It’s monetary wastes like Torres’ Lasorda convention and ineffective running of Detention and Removal Operations that have led to multiple DHS Inspector General reports on failures of his DRO department. Torres never had any experience in detention and removal of aliens. His only experience was as an INS agent in the Office of Investigations under the old INS. Many experienced Detention and Removal people gave him many recommendations on how to make his department run better, how to save money, round up more illegal aliens, and get more jail beds for them. But Torres ignored all of those recommendations, which were all made, yet again, in one or more of the Inspector General reports. Things are so bad that I hear from demoralized DRO agents who worked for Torres, on a daily basis.
It would not matter that he does not have a college degree and is completely uneducated, if he was a respected law enforcement official with top notch experience. Instead, he’s gone from INS assistant district director of investigations in Chicago to running ICE in a short period of five years. That meteoric rise doesn’t reflect competence. It represents promotion without basis. As with everything else at ICE, the manure rises to the top. The best and brightest people are persecuted and remain at the bottom or mid-level.
It’s things like this that are the reason that good, experienced ICE agents are fleeing the agency and retiring early in droves. Look for that hemorhaging to become a flood under Torres. He is unversally hated and disrespected. A huge joke.
One of the reasons Torres was picked for the job is that he’s Hispanic, and Myers has hired no minorities for any leadership positions at ICE. Since ICE mostly picks up Hispanic illegal aliens (and leaves Islamic extremist hotbeds like Dearbornistan largely off-limits), Myers wants a Hispanic face on it to give it the kosher seal of approval. But there are many competent, hard-working Latino agents throughout ICE. He is not one of them. I know several of them who are far more deserving of the position that Torres fell into, and not one respects Torres or likes the idea that he supposedly represents them.
And, as much as I’ve decried the behavior of Marcy M. Forman-Freedman a/k/a “Peppermint Patty,” ICE’s Director of Investigations, at least she had experience in investigations, having run the successful Operation Greenquest at U.S. Customs. Since she and John Torres are mortal enemies, she will likely be pushed out and replaced by yet another incompetent, inexperienced, and unqualified Torres crony. Ah, the spoils of victory.
Recently, I got through reading the boring script for “Crossing Over” a/k/a “ICE, The Movie.” I marveled at how it defamed dedicated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents trying to do their jobs and enforce the law. (Stay tuned for more on that.)
But I was thinking: If they really wanted to make ICE look bad, they needn’t lie about the many great street- and mid-level agents I’ve come to know and respect a great deal. They only need show us the reality of the sorry “leadership” of this agency.
And I would cast Jason Alexander in the part of John Torres.
As one of the many demoralized ICE agents, outraged over Torres’ appointment, told me:

It’s like a bad movie you can’t walk out on.

John Torres Costanza by David Lunde/Lundesigns

(ICEfeld by Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for PhotoShop David Lunde)