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It’s not easy to forget that cold day in November 1998, when I heard Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan speak to about 2,000 Muslims–mostly Arabs–at the Islamic Center of America (North America’s largest mosque). (I wrote about it in The Detroit Newsistan and mentioned it in the Wall Street Journal.)
It was no different than any other Hitler rally. They eagerly drank up his shrieking, ranting, and raving about the “forces of Satan, the Zionists.” They joined him in his shouting about how we evil Zionist Jews control the government–the figure he used was that 48% of government jobs were occupied by these Satanic Jews. He called for a jihad on America, saying America needed to be frightened this way to “waken up.” He said a number of other equally absurd and dangerous things, including, “Saddam Hussein–his people seem to love him,” to this group of thousands of Jew-hating Shi’ites who fled Hussein, who didn’t object to this misstatement because they shared in his wish for the elimination of Jews and Christians from America.

Extremist Love Gaze: Louis Farrakhan and
So, it is in the spirit of those “kind” words, that I read news stories over the weekend of Minister Farrakhan’s impending “Final Call.” In a letter to followers, Louis Eugene Walcott a/k/a Louis X a/k/a Louis Farrakhan a/k/a Calypso Louis said he was “suffering pain like that he had felt in 1998 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer,” and his words indicated that he felt his end was near.
This time, apparently, even the skilled “evil Zionist” (a/k/a Jewish) surgeon who operated on Farrakhan and masterfully saved his life in 1998, can’t keep him alive. You know, the same kind of doctor Farrakhan and his followers accused of infecting Black babies with AIDS. No, this time, no Jew doctor, and not even Allah, himself, can save the man who spread hate throughout Black America like no other figure in U.S. history. This time, millions in “loans” from Muammar Qaddafi and millions in unpaid federal income taxes won’t save him.
More from BBC:

He revealed his health problems in a letter on Friday to Nation of Islam members in its newspaper, the Final Call, in which he compared his health problems to those of Fidel Castro.
The letter, also published on Nation of Islam’s website, goes into graphic detail about his fight against “serious pain”.
He announces that he is “postponing indefinitely all engagements, meetings and appointments”.
“In this period of testing, you can prove to the world that the Nation of Islam is more than the charisma, eloquence and personality of Louis Farrakhan,” he said.

Well, no-one ever accused Louis X of not having an ego.
When I was in grad school at the University of Wisconsin, one of my friends was Christine, a next-door neighbor of Farrakhan in the multi-million dollar neighborhood of Chicago’s Hyde Park. Christine’s father is a Black South African, her mother a White Jewish American. Although their’s was a loving family, Christine and her siblings had to endure the crazy rantings spewed their way from Farrakhan and his children on a regular basis–calling them half-breed children of Satan.

New Nation of Islam Leaders?:
Mustapha Farrakhan & Father Louis, Grandson Mustapha Farrakhan
Now, Farrakhan is feeling the pain that Christine and her family had to endure from him–their crazy, racist neighbor. I only wish that upon his passing, there is an endless feud between the followers and no single successor takes his place to spew his endless racism and hate. As , unfortunately his son, , will probably take his place. But his grandson, , as , is headed for a pro basketball career and has already . He, too, unfortunately, has been schooled in the hatred of his grandfather.
The wicked Black Nazi loon is almost gone. I, for one, will shed no tears when his soul–if he, in fact, possesses one–leaves this world. But I’m still waiting for that spaceship he claims is manned by Black beings superior to us all and from whom he emanated.
Apparently, the mother ship–if it ever returns to Planet Earth–will have to leave without Louis Farrakhan, soon to meet his maker for a well-deserved just “reward.” Unless its inhabitants look for the grave that should bear the epitaph: Here lies a demagogue racist who tried to bring Black America–and everyone else–down.
More on Farrakhan , , , and .

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You’ve heard of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals–PETA (or as we prefer to more accurately describe the group, People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals and humans–PUTAh).
Now meet, Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA), PETA’s Lebanese contingent–headquartered cozily in Hezbollah-controlled Southern Lebanon (we guess they forgot the real location of Beirut, which is not in the South). Given the imprecise appellation, we’re not exactly sure if this group is dedicated to the welfare of Hezbollah members or four-legged furry beings. After all, both fit the definition of animal. But we note that BETA is more concerned with animals than it is the victims of Hezbollah in their own country (Lebanon) and in Israel.
Because we don’t have enough stray animals in America, nor enough Hezbollah-supporting “Americans” who were paroled into the country, this summer, and now roam free with no oversight from ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) and CIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services), we now have to add Lebanon’s stray pets to our nation, thanks to BETA.

In an AP story, Monica Khoury, co-founder of BETA, announced that thousands of abandoned pets from Lebanon will be flown on a private United Arab Emirates cargo plane to Las Vegas, today. Since we know that Islamic terrorists will stop at nothing to smuggle things into the U.S. and to blow up things, what is to stop Hezbollah supporters from smuggling various items, including explosives, inside the body cavities of cats and dogs?
We also note these interesting items from the AP article:
* the animals were originally being housed in an animal shelter right next to a Hezbollah stronghold.
* there is plenty of opportunity for smuggling things in and out of the cargo plane:

There will be two refueling stops–one in Manchester, England, and another at New York’s JFK Airport–before arriving in Las Vegas, where the orphaned pets will be put on Best Friends trucks for the 3.5-hour ride to temporary housing at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, southern Utah.

To sum up:
* Animals in Beirut more important than human victims of Hezbollah.
* Animals–and who knows what else?–being flown to U.S. on cargo planes (which we know are rarely checked), with several convenient “re-fueling” stops.

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Our friend, inimitable Jerusalem Post investigative reporter Michael Freund, has a piece in the paper about Bangladesh’s continued persecution of rare moderate Muslim Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a courageous Muslim newspaper editor with incredible principle.
Choudhury’s crime is advocating ties with Israel and peace with the Jewish people. More from Michael’s article:

A Bangladeshi Muslim journalist arrested in the past for advocating ties with Israel now faces charges of sedition, a crime punishable by death in Bangladesh, and will likely be put on trial by the end of the month, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury: Courageous Muslim Under Repeated Attack

In a court session on Tuesday in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, a state-appointed judge ruled that the government’s case against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury could proceed to trial and that the hearings would commence within 15 days.
As editor of The Weekly Blitz, an English-language newspaper published in Dhaka, Choudhury aroused the ire of Bangladeshi authorities after he printed articles favorable to Israel and critical of Muslim extremism.
Bangladesh does not recognize Israel’s existence and refuses to establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
In November 2003, Choudhury was arrested at Dhaka’s international airport just prior to boarding a flight on his way to Israel, where he was scheduled to deliver an address on promoting understanding between Muslims and Jews. His visit to Israel would have been the first by a Bangladeshi journalist.
Choudhury was charged with sedition, held in prison for 17 months and was reportedly tortured before being freed in April 2005. But the authorities in Bangladesh, which is ruled by a coalition government that includes Islamic extremists, decided to continue pursuing charges against him. . . .
In a May 20, 2005 opinion piece published in the Post, Choudhury wrote: “As a journalist, I counteracted the biased ‘news’ that promoted hatred of Israel and Jews, condemned terrorism, promoted the free exchange of ideas and urged Bangladesh to recognize Israel.”
Describing the moments immediately before his 2003 arrest, he wrote: “Though physically still in Dhaka, my heart ached to kiss Israel’s holy soil.”

Hmmm . . . Sound like a “Religion of Peace” to you? This guy, Choudhury, is a Muslim hero. But predictably, the fake “moderate” Muslims in the U.S. are completely silent about Choudhury’s plight because they aren’t, in fact, moderate at all and support this extremism.
Read the rest. Visit Free Choudhury. Choudhury can be e-mailed here, here, or here. Visit Michael’s insightful blog.

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It’s slim pickins at the box office, this weekend. None of the choices are highly recommend, though “Flyboys” is better than the rest:
* “Flyboys“–This is based on the true story of the Lafayette Escadrille, a battalion of Americans who volunteered to fight for the French during World War II. They train to fly and fight Germans in the air. The star of this movie is the very hot (and Jewish) James Franco, who seems to have a penchant for military and war movies (last year’s “”–a far better war movie–and this year’s “,” “s,” and now this one).

Hot James Franco in “Flyboys”
It’s hard to feel patriotic about this one because it’s about a war that wasn’t really so big in terms of great wars involving America, and this is not about America (though it is about Americans). The movie is way too long, at 2 hours and 20 minutes. I could have done without the irrelevant love story involving Franco’s real-life character, Blaine Rawlings. The airplanes and the scenes involving them seemed stiff in this age of grand, high-tech jet-fighters and computer generated images and special effects. The scenes reminded me of “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.” But those were, in fact, the kind of rudimentary warplanes they used in those days.
Still, the various American characters are likable and the movie does have its various worthy military-buddies-get-broken-in-fight-and-some-die scenes. The best part of the movie is at the end, when the actual photos of the real-life soldiers whose stories are told in the movie are posted on the screen with info about what happened to them after WWI was over.
Not a great movie, but overall recommended. The best of the new movies out today, but that’s not saying much, given the contenders.

Spicoli Plays Fictionalized Huey Long Persona in “All the King’s Men”
* “All The King’s Men“–Leave it to far lefty Sean Penn to star in a movie glorifying a corrupt, sleazy, populist Southern Democrat governor who ripped off taxpayers; a movie that paints big business and wealthy people as the bad guys (for a “change”). This movie is yet another one of those numerous Hollywood remakes that are far worse than the originals, yet another sign of the lack of new ideas and creativity in America–and it’s decline. It’s a redo of 1949 movie with the same name.
Louisiana Governor Willie Stark is based on the real-life Huey Long. If he were alive today, his name would be Bill Clinton. Sean Penn’s portrayal is largely him yelling and screaming in a bad Southern accent and pretending he cares about the underclass. The rest of the accents are terrible, too–Jude Law sounds like a Brit failing miserably to sound like a Louisianan from a wealthy upbringing. Ditto for Kate Winslet. James Gandolfini sounds like–what else?–a New Jersey mobster trying to sound like a Lousianan. And so on, and so on, and so on . . . . Reminded me of the terrible “Arabic” accents on ABC’s TV movie, “,” which all sounded like Russian accents.
The movie is long (2 hours) and disjointed. The first half-hour is confusing, the rest convoluted and silly. While Huey Long, er . . . Willie Stark is shown to be semi-corrupt, he is portrayed largely as an underdog man of the people who cares about “the hicks” in the face of wealthy patricians, judges, and businessmen. Hardly the truth. But fully the agenda of Hollywood, which still sees all liberal politicians opportunistically playing the politics of envy as such exalted heroes, today.
Incredibly, several audience members at the promotional screening I attended clapped at the end of this silver screen slug, proving, once again, that there’s now accounting for good taste–but endless dumbing down–in America.
Long on fashion and style of the day. Short on everything else. That this movie even managed to find a place for pro ice skater Nicole Bobek and her skating (she plays a stripper who skates), tells you what it is: everything but the kitchen sink . . . and a whole lot of broken junk.

George Clooney Galpal Krista Allen in no “Feast” for the Mind
* “Feast“–Need proof that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s “Project Greenlight” movie-making contest should die a quick death? This is it. A horror movie that doesn’t scare at all. Yes, it makes fun of itself and other horror flicks. But that’s not good enough. I was far more scared by “” remake–and even “”–than this cheap exercise in futility. Despite ripping off every failed horror movie attempt at chills–the monsters are even borrowed from “”–this one is a morbid, stupid waste of time.
The most infamous thing about it is that George Clooney’s on-again off-again girlfriend, former “BayWatch” babe Krista Allen, stars. Her cheap, nasty sex scene at the beginning and presence in this trashy pic tells us that it is possible to go lower in an acting career than “BayWatch.” Hardly a lesson we needed to waste a second–let alone 1 hour and 35 minutes–to learn.
Interestingly, the screening I attended was hosted by a Black Detroit radio station for its listeners. Probably the most entertaining–but quickly tiresome and overdone–part about this movie was a Black lady in the audience who felt it was her self-anointed job to talk back to the White people on screen (the Black character is quickly killed at the beginning). It’s doubtful you’ll find another Black lady to be your personal, running play-by-play commentator yelling at Whiteys on the screen at the theater near you.

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Remember the Muslim-dominated trucking school run by Missouri’s West Plains School District? We , when the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force raided one of the schools.
Knight-Ridder Wire reports that, Wednesday, indictments against the Muslim operators of that school and others in Kansas City were handed down.
Here’s an excerpt of what we wrote about the school:

Are potential Islamic terrorists trying to get commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) and hazardous materials hauling certificates? You bet, they are. In droves.

The latest, as reported by Kansas City media, is the South Central Career Center Truck Training Program in West Plains, Missouri, in South Central Missouri. A whopping 60% (SIXTY PERCENT!) of those who took a CDL test there from May 2004 to December 2005 had Mid-East names. Hello? . . .
And, as usual, your tax dollars probably paid the bill. That particular truck driver’s school is run by Missouri’s West Plains public school district, as part of vocational training. . . .
The school district has suspended the director of the truck school AND one of the CDL testers. Previous, similar investigations in other states, like Utah, have uncovered testers helping illegal aliens pass the test.
We’ve noted multiple times that two members of Detroit’s alleged Al-Qaeda cell also took CDL tests and tried to get HazMat hauling certificates. A tax-funded Arab welfare agency, dominated by Muslims, paid thousands in “job-training” money to get the men the lessons. When FBI agents raided the men’s apartment after 9/11, they found a pre-printed cheat sheet with answers to the test.

More from yesterday’s KRT report:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The operators of truck driving schools in Kansas City and southern Missouri conspired to help more than 70 Somali and Bosnian nationals illegally obtain commercial driver’s licenses, federal prosecutors alleged Thursday.
Many of those students went on to obtain certification to haul hazardous materials on the nation’s highways, authorities said in announcing the 62-count grand jury indictment charging 15 defendants with mail fraud, making a false writing and illegally causing identification documents to be produced. . . .
The defendants included Ernest A. “Mustafa” White, 49, of Kansas City, who owned the Muslim Brothers and Sisters trucking company in Kansas City, Kan., and Howard E. Schneider, 39, of Overland Park, owner of H.E. Schneider Trucking Company and co-operator of Muslim Brothers, according to officials. . . .
Also charged were Dean P. Proffitt, 71, superintendent of the South Central Career Center Truck Driver Training School in West Plains, Mo., and Orbin Dale May, 63, a truck driving tester from West Plains.
White, who spent time in prison for second-degree robbery more than a decade ago, was also charged in the indictment with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Individuals seeking a commercial driver’s license, referred to as a CDL, are required to pass both a written test and a comprehensive two-hour driving proficiency test.
White, however, provided answers to the written test to his students in exchange for money, according to the indictment. Many of the students spoke little or no English and utilized interpreters to take the test, officials said.
White then allegedly arranged with Profitt to have Muslim Brothers and Sisters students take the driving test at the facility in West Plains, South Central Career Center Truck Driver Training School, a division of the West Plains R-7 School District. May was authorized by the state of Missouri to give the test as a “third-party tester,” according to the indictment.
Students paid the defendants amounts “far in excess” of the state’s licensing fee, and White’s students were given abbreviated tests, had someone else take the tests for them or, in some cases, did not even travel to West Plains for the testing, prosecutors alleged.
May then allegedly submitted documents to the Missouri Department of Revenue falsely reporting that the students had successfully passed the test.
“This fraud became quite lucrative for May and White,” Schlozman said Thursday.
Profitt allowed May to conduct testing on weekends – a violation of state law – and also assisted him in testing more than the four students per day allowed by the state, the indictment alleges.
Schlozman said that White gained a reputation among those seeking trucking licenses without having to take the test. Students traveled from a number of states, including Minnesota, Ohio, New York, Maine, Tennessee and Texas, to link up with White.
Although the indictment refers to about three dozen test applicants by name, White and May have told investigators that between 200 and 300 students fraudulently got their CDLs through the conspiracy, officials said Thursday.
Of those, 150 to 200 later obtained certification to haul hazardous materials. . . .
The investigation leading up to the indictment began in the fall of 2004 when a confidential informant “reported suspicious activity” at South Central Career Center, Keathley said. Another tip came from the Missouri Department of Revenue, which noted the school’s extraordinarily high pass rate of 99 percent, compared with a statewide average of 83 percent. . . .
Information obtained by the Associated Press under Missouri’s open records law indicated that more than 300 of about 520 people who did not train at the school but took the test there between May 2004 and December 2005 had names that could be Middle Eastern in origin.
“I’m not saying we stopped a terrorist act from occurring,” Debby Stafford, an FBI official, said at the news conference. “But this is a clear example of our preventive efforts and of what we do to make our territory safer.”
FBI agent Mark Wagoner said White converted to Islam while in prison.
“Many of the people he came in contact with were Somali nationals,” he said.
Schlozman said that the awarding of licenses to individuals “from an area as dangerous as Somalia was a matter of particular concern to the community.”
Prosecutors said the other defendants named in the indictment generally helped in the conspiracy by driving students to West Plains for testing or helping to arrange the fake tests. Those other defendants are:
Hiram C. Oliver, 33, Raytown; Osman Abdullahi, 30, a Somali citizen living in San Diego; Elias Mohamed, 25, Ahmed Muhidin Sharif, 27, Abdulfatah Osman Farah, 24, Abdirizak Abdi Mohamed, age unknown, and Yusuf Kalmole, 34, all citizens of Somalia living in Kansas City; Abdiwahab Mohamud Mohamed, 37, a Somali citizen living in Minneapolis; Adil Majlovic, 19, and Mersud Kajtazovic, 31, both citizens of Bosnia living in Kansas City; and Samir Hasanovic, 22, of Arnold, Mo.

Incredibly the FBI is yet again issuing its giant lying echo–“not terrorism related.”

Although the Heart of America Joint Terrorism Task Force handled the investigation, Bradley Schlozman, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, emphasized that the indictment does not allege any of the defendants were involved in terrorism.

Uh-huh. That’s why the JTTF was involved. And the Muslims just wanted CDL’s and HazMat Hauling Certificates for their health.

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**** UPDATE: Thanks to all of my readers who sent me i- and e-cards wishing me a Happy New Year. I regret that I cannot respond to each of you individually, but very much appreciate your good wishes and send them right back at ya! ****
As many of you know, tonight at sundown the Jewish holiday of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, begins. It is one of the most important holidays in Judaism. It is the start of the Aseret Yemay Tshuvah–the Ten Days of Repentance–during which our fate, healthwise, financially, etc.–is decreed in the Book of Life for the next year by G-d.
To my Jewish friends and readers, I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year. Gmar Chatimah Tovah–May You Be Inscribed (in the Book of Life) for (a) Good (Year). Even you, , , and (you, too, have this opportunity to repent for your sins over the past year).

Man Blowing Sounds Out of the Shofar
On Rosh HaShanah, a two day holiday, we pray in synagogue for a good new year of peace, health, and prosperity for ourselves, our people, and the safety of our country, the USA, which has brought us such great opportunity to live in peace and freedom. We also pray for peace in Israel, America’s most loyal ally and the only democracy in the Middle East, too. Unlike in many of America’s (and the world’s) mosques–where hatred of America, Christians, and Jews is the order of the day in sermons, prayers, the Koran, and the Hadiths–there isn’t a single prayer we have that mentions Islam or Muslims.
Given the recent escalation in Islamic intolerance and violence, we also hope that, while we are praying and not bothering anyone, our synagogues are secure from all of those “lone,” “mentally disturbed,” “non-terror related” Muslims who attack Jewish institutions, when they know there will be a large gathering of Jews. We know that in this country–where after 9/11 the Justice Dept. started a special program devoted only to Justice for Muslims and Arabs–authorities aren’t really paying too much attention to the safety and civil rights of Christians and Jews.
I will be praying that our government is restored to people in touch with the real world, that the PC forces running the Depts. of Justice and Homeland Security, the FBI and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will be replaced with common-sense law enforcement officials who care about justice, safety, and security of America, who care about protecting our borders and stopping the malefactors already inside the gate. I’ll be praying for the end to PC movies and TV shows painting Jews and Christians as the villains and extremist Muslims who support terrorism as kind, nice victims of prejudice. Those are just some of the things I’ll be praying for.
On Rosh HaShanah, we also hear hundreds of noises blown from a ram’s horn known as a shofar (can be the horn of certain other animals, too). The shofar is one of the most prominent symbols in Judaism. It’s used like a trumpet, takes a special skill to use, and is the horn that was blown by Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren when the Western Wall in Jerusalem was liberated from Islamists in 1967. Its sounds symbolize alarm and justice, among many other things.
On the holiday, we also eat apples with honey on top, to symbolize the sweet year that we hope to attain from G-d. My favorite are MacIntosh apples.
L’Shanah Tovah–To a Good Year!

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Remember the good old days when then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave Yasser Arafat the boot from a New York concert and refused to let him travel to an event in one of the New York City burroughs?
Giuliani ordered the NYPD not to let Arafat go much of anywhere outside of Turtle Bay. He had the cojones to just say no to an international terrorist madman.

Rudy Giuliani:
Then-NYC Mayor Had Guts to Stop Yasser Arafat’s Stateside Escapades
Compare that to current Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mostly silent reaction and complete inaction, when yesterday and the day before, the loony leaders of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, trotted all around greater Manhattan and the various NYC locales.
Both Arafat and the Ahmadinejad/Chavez twins were in New York for U.N. visits. But Giuliani had the guts, courage, and innovation to use the NYPD to stop Arafat from doing anything beyond his U.N. speech. Where was Bloomberg? Nowhere to be found. He may be good at making money, but as a mayor of America’s most major city, the guy is a joke.
Under Bloomberg’s “leadership,” the two nutcase leaders, Mahmoud and Hugo, were allowed to trot themselves all over the place for interviews with TIME Magazine and CNN’s Anderson Cooper (Ahmadinejad), and speeches at Columbia University (also Ahmadinejad–now cancelled, under pressure from smart alumni and other good Americans), the Mt. Olive Baptist Church (Chavez), and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Chavez).

“Mayor” Michael Bloomberg Meek Around Ahmadinejad, Chavez
Bloomberg allowed these two enemies to all mankind tread all over America’s metropolis, in line with his PC pro-Islamofascist agenda (Bloomberg has allowed extremist Muslims to serve as chaplains in NYC’s jails and appointed other Islamofascists to City Commissions). That’s why Bloomberg will never be a great Mayor. He doesn’t have guts. He doesn’t have dignity. And, above all, he doesn’t have principle.
But for an extramarital affair, Rudolph Giuliani had–and still has–all of those things. If he ran the Big Apple today, Ahmadinejad and Chavez would have been on flights back to Banana Republic Land, long ago.
And that’s why–despite being out of office for almost 5 years, he’ll always be “America’s Mayor.” He may have been Mayor of New York in contemporary times, but when it comes to terrorist madmen and international loons, he took the motto of the Gadsden Flag and many American Revolutionaries very seriously:
Don’t Tread on Me.

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Ever wonder why the Bay of Pigs and the Blockade of Cuba both failed miserably?
Part of the reason might be President John F. Kennedy’s plan, as indicated in his “doodle,” below. The doodle is one of many random drawings by various U.S. Presidents contained in “Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles & Scrawls from the Oval Office,” a new book. According to an AP article on the book, we think we’d prefer Teddy Roosevelt’s and Ronald Reagan’s doodles, which are, respectively, sketches of two dogs staring across a campfire and Regan self-portraits in a cowboy hat. According to the book, if Reagan drew a football player or horse, that meant you bored him.
Also, since Bill Clinton was not mentioned by AP, we think he was probably too busy hosting private “doodling” sessions with Monica and assorted other “girlfriends” (euphemism) to draw anything of note.

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With all the news stories in the world–Ahmadinejad & Chavez Double-Teaming America, Jihad against the Pope, the House Voter ID bill–USA Today chose the most important item of the day as its cover story, today:

New Orleans NFL Homecoming: City Throwing a Party at Restored Superdome

Buried toward the end of the story is the money-shot–an answer to the question we all deserve to know about:
Who paid for the $185 million in improvements, repairs, and reconstruction of the Superdome–the office of millionaires, billionaires, and gazillionaires?

$170 Million of Your Katrina “Relief”
Was it the billionaires who own teams throughout the NFL, including the New Orleans Saints that are housed in the Superdome? NOPE. According to USA Today, the NFL gazillionaires donated only $15 million of the $185 million cost–a drop in the bucket to these fatcats.
Was it the millionaires who play in the Superdome at all Saints’ home games, every football season–and owe their millions to those who come to see the games and buy team merchandise? NOPE.
We can’t have billionaires and millionaires putting money out of their own pockets, their own wallets. That just wouldn’t be right.
So who paid for the newly glimmering Superdome–$170 million of $185 million in Superdome costs?
YOU DID!
Yup. Taxpayers paid money in the name of public assistance programs for relief from Katrina and other disasters. Who knew the “public assistance” was not for poor, homeless, downtrodden hurricane victims, but for . . . NFL gazillionaires?! Should “public assistance” go to improved scoreboards, upgraded suites and club lounges, and “leatherette” upholstery? Taxpayers got soaked.
From the article:

The money being used for this was from the public-assistance program from FEMA on insurance disasters.

Here’s what your money went to pay for. Does this sound like “hurricane relief” or “public assistance” to you?:

Besides repairs, improvements and upgrades were made during construction. About $42 million was spent. The most noticeable change for fans will be new scoreboards.
Scoreboard system
* Two larger (41% bigger) video boards (27 by 48 feet) in the end zones, with high definition quality.
* Four LED ribbon boards, or video halo boards (3 feet, 6 inches by 193 feet).
* Four color scoreboards (8 feet by 44 feet) replace a black-and-white system. Located in four corners in the 400 level.
Concessions
* All 38 concession stands and three kitchens modernized with stainless steel. . . .
Stadium seats
* 8,000 club-level seats and 4,000 box suite seats replaced with leatherette seats.
Future renovations (September 2006-August 2007)
* Four club lounges, each 19,000 square feet (in design) in each of the four corners.
* 137 suites remodeled and refurbished.

Your tax dollars at “work.” USA Today’s headline is incorrect. New Orleans isn’t throwing the party at the Superdome. You are.

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Yesterday, I noted that .
My father reminded me of something funny:
The nerdy tan jacket with huge lapels that Ahmadinejad told TIME is the “Ahmadinejad Jacket,” is actually the “Kramer Jacket,” stolen from Seinfeld’s Kramer.
Remember how Kramer wears the jacket to the Cuban “Embassy” to get Cuban cigars? (There is really no Cuban Embassy, since we don’t have relations with the country.) All the revolutionary Cubans in Fidel Castro’s security detail are fascinated by Kramer’s jacket, and he trades the jacket for the cigars. Revolutionary leftist despots on TV are copied by revolutionary despotic dictators in real-life. Life imitates art . . . .

Ahmadinejad Rips Off the “Kramer Jacket” (Shown @ Cuban “Embassy”)

And then there’s this other similarity:

No Nukes for You:
Soup Nazi, Real Nazi
FYI, the real-life Soup Nazi is Al Yeganeh, a tough talking Middle-Easterner (reportedly Muslim) living in New York. Maybe we could enlist his unique “diplomacy” to deal with Ahmadinejad.