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Two interesting stories in the news have one nexus–the absurdity of animal rights activists (unfortunately, some of them are elected officials in Chicago):
* We’re not normally fans of the litigation explosion. But that doesn’t mean we don’t support lawsuits if the grievance is legitimate. This is one of those cases where it is, indeed.
In April, the Chicago City Council approved a ban on duck and goose liver foie gras–because all problems in Chicago, all crime, all poverty has been solved, and the animal thing was all that was left to address. For the record, I’ve never eaten foie gras (not even sure if one can find kosher foie gras). But, the ban–which went into effect Tuesday–is absurd.

Whatever Happened to Consumer Freedom?
It’s a case of animal rights activists legislating their opinion of what our diet should consist of. First, Chicago, and, next, your neck of the woods. Therefore, we cheer the Illinois Restaurant Association for suing on behalf of diet freedom in America. Let consumers–not busybody animal rights activists–decide for themselves what they eat.
We like the smart way some chefs are getting around the ban. The Chicago City Council chapter of PETA-brains that wrote the law were not smart enough to make it airtight. They simply made it illegal to charge for foie gras. Some chefs are now giving it away for free.
* Again, we’re no fans of animal rights activists. But we can’t help the schadenfreude we’re experiencing over the Humane Society’s attack on Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc. As , Ben & Jerry remain large stockholders in Lever, which bought B&J from them–and they are still advisors/consultants to B&J. And they use their profits . We recall that Ben & Jerry were always bragging how PC and humane they are. Yet, when they were at the helm, they polluted rivers with ice cream pollution.
Now, they are under attack from Humane Society for allegedly buying eggs from a company that “mistreats chickens“–Michael Foods. (But not for long. Today, the company fired the egg producer.)
Since we’re not sure which we dislike less, we can’t figure out for whom to root–the animal rights people or Ben & Jerry’s. We pick the chickens. They have more sense.

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**** UPDATE: Michigan GOP Supreme Court Candidate Marc Shulman . ****
Desperate Republican Party officials do desperate things. Or rather stupid ones do stupid things.
Take Saul Anuzis, Michigan Republican Party Chairman.
Republicans are supposed to be against trial lawyers and the litigation explosion, right? Apparently, Anuzis didn’t get the memo.
He recruited Marc Shulman to run as the GOP nominee to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Michigan GOP Supreme Court Candidate Marc Shulman:

Flanked by Trial Lawyer Buddies Geoffrey Fieger (left) & Sam Bernstein (right)
Problem is, Shulman’s a trial lawyer and an associate of Geoffrey Fieger–Michigan’s most prominent trial attorney and former Michigan Democratic nominee for Governor. Close associates of Geoffrey Fieger say Shulman referred at least one case to Fieger–the former lawyer to “Dr. Death” a/k/a Jack Kevorkian–and likely referred several more. Several prominent trial lawyers in the Detroit area say Shulman referred them several cases . . . and always cashed his checks for the referral fee.
And Shulman’s taken thousands of dollars from Michigan’s second most famous trial lawyer, “1-800-CALL-SAM” a/k/a Sam Bernstein. There is a Sam Bernstein in every state–the sleazy guy who is the biggest advertiser on television, enticing people to call him with their frivolous lawsuits against American businesses via commercials about the millions he’s won for others.
Bernstein’s son, Mark, garnered national attention when he gleefully announced to Michigan Trial Lawyers Association dinner guests that Karl Rove was indicted. (It wasn’t true.) From a Detroit Free Press account:

Sunday, an embarrassed Acker told me he’d passed along the report of Rove’s indictment after hearing it from Mark J. Bernstein, an Ann Arbor lawyer whose resume includes a stint in the Bill Clinton White House.
Bernstein told me he was meeting with Hillary Clinton and several members of her staff in a Hyatt Regency reception room early Saturday evening when “everybody began reaching for their BlackBerrys at roughly the same time.” . . .
He learned the rumor had been disseminated only when his father, prominent personal injury lawyer Sam Bernstein, phoned from the banquet hall downstairs with an excited bulletin: “Karl Rove has just been indicted!”

When Shulman ran for the Michigan House, Sam Bernstein and other far-left trial lawyer fixtures of the Democratic party–Harvey Chayet, Bernie Mindell, and Jules Olsman–headed his Finance Committee and hosted a fundraiser for Shulman. Their names aren’t just in a Phone Book Yellow Pages section near you, they’re also all over Marc Shulman’s campaign finance reports (Sam Bernstein & Family contributions to Shulman here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Bernie Mindell’s contributions to Shulman here, here, here, here, and here; his wife, Judi’s contributions to Shulman here and here; Other Mindell family contributions here, here and here. Chayet contributions here and here. Olsman contribution here.)

That’s why Shulman’s Supreme Court announcement sounds just a tad hypocritical, when it attacks Fieger and the Trial Lawyer bar:

We cannot lower our guard should the Fiegers of the trial bar raise and spend large amounts of money in hopes of altering the election by an 11th hour sneak attack.

Well, it’s highly unlikely the “trial bar” will raise money to “alter” the election against Shulman. Because over the years, he’s taken tens of thousands of dollars from the falsely-named “Michigan Trial Lawyers Association ‘Justice’ PAC” (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) and the partners of Sommers, Schwartz, Silver & Schwartz, which bills itself as “Michigan’s largest plaintiff law firm.” (The Sommers firm even has its site translated into Arabic, for the many Islamist plaintiffs its taken on in the litigation jihad.)
All three of these parties gave in the tens of thousands to Shulman every election cycle during his tenure in the Michigan House, with the Sommers Schwartz firm giving Shulman almost $30,000 in campaign donations. Why would the “trial bar” oppose Shulman when he’s been their man in the Michigan Legislature for years?
And Shulman, himself, is a failed trial lawyer. A doctor who lost his nose to cancer hired Shulman to sue the doctors who failed to find the cancer. Shulman missed the deadline to file the case, and the man–who has no nose–was unable to afford reconstructive surgery. A Black woman who lost her eyesight to glaucoma hired Shulman to sue her eye doctor who missed it. Shulman again missed the deadline. Ditto for a woman whose plastic surgeon disfigured her hand. All three sued Shulman.
Sound like a “Republican” candidate for the Supreme Court to you? More like a Democrat. And that’s the case with many of his most prominent contributors.
Would a Republican candidate for the Michigan Supreme Court take money from Jesse Jackson for President’s Michigan Campaign Manager? Well, Marc Shulman did. He accepted hundreds of dollars from Ismael Ahmed (here, here, here, and here) and his wife Margaret (here). Ahmed, a prominent far-left Democrat, ran Jesse Jackson’s campaign in Michigan. He was a Howard Dean delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
But his full-time job is far more disturbing. He founded and heads –which sponsored the 2002 University of Michigan Divestment (from Israel) Conference, with taxpayer money Shulman helped ACCESS acquire as Chairman of the Michigan House Appropriations Committee.
ACCESS opposed Bill Clinton’s counterterrorism laws against giving money to terrorist groups. The group actively helps Muslim illegal aliens come to America and stay here. And in 2002, under Shulman contributor Ahmed’s leadership, ACCESS was raided by FBI agents for helping pregnant Muslim female foreign nationals defraud Medicaid to have their children delivered here and obtain U.S. citizenship. Still ACCESS continued to get increasing amounts of state money doled out by Shulman’s Appropriations Committee.
Shulman got paid back in spades with a free propaganda trip to the United Arab Emirates, sponsored by ACCESS and the American Arab Chamber of Commerce. Shulman also took money from the husband of Maha Freij, ACCESS’ Chief Financial Officer and head of the anti-Israel Arab American National Museum. (More on .)
And Shulman took money from Ali K. Jawad and Allie Berry. The two co-own Armada Oil, which distributes gas to many gas stations in town. They and their company have sponsored many pro-Hezbollah events in town, and Berry’s wife whined to the Detroit Free Press about having to pay her own way through Syria during the recent war between Hezbollah and Israel. We wonder if Shulman shares their views about Hezbollah. As he’s done with trial lawyers and every other issue, we’re sure Shulman will find a way to take either side of the issue . . . depending on the audience and which way the wind is blowing that day.
Then, there are Rick Weiner (other contribution from him, here), wife Raj Weiner and Faylene Owen. Shulman took hundreds of dollars from them, too. But Rick Weiner was Chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, and Owen’s husband was Michigan Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Larry Owen.
Oh, and Marc Shulman has close ties to Michigan Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm, too. That’s why she recently appointed him to an obscure board. Strangely, he didn’t mention that appointment in his announcement for Supreme Court. Some Republican.
And then, there are questions about whether or not Shulman broke the law to help his wife Lois Shulman become a State Representative when she ran for his term-limited seat (she lost). He has not run for re-election. Yet, thousands of expenditures in 2003 and 2004 on printing, photos, consulting, campaign staff, and other items that Shulman paid for were all made at the time of Lois Shulman’s campaign and strongly appear to be items purchased for her campaign. Yet, the expenditures are not recorded anywhere as donations on Lois Shulman’s campaign finance reports. Even if they were, they appear to far exceed Michigan limits for donations to another campaign.
Apparently, conniving and scamming is a family affair. In her unsuccessful campaign, Lois Shulman claimed that she was an attorney. Problem is, she isn’t one–she flunked the Michigan Bar THREE(!) times. When confronted by a local newspaper, she claimed she was too busy raising children to pass the bar. One little problem: At the time of her three failed bar attempts, she didn’t have any children. She lied about being pro-life to get the Right to Life endorsement. But Right to Life was shown her statement to the Detroit Jewish News that she’s been strongly pro-choice her entire life. She also claimed that she was a researcher for the University of Michigan, but the school has no record of her ever working there.
Shulman’s father-in-law, Meyer Warshawsky, served as a drug judge in Michigan’s Oakland County. He was removed from the bench over allegations that he colluded with prosecutors to fix trials against drug defendants, and claims that he sought dates with female jurors (he is married). At the time he was living in Shulman’s basement.
If trial lawyer and trial bar best buddy Marc Shulman is the best Michigan Republicans can do for the Supreme Court, why have a Republican Party? In Shulman’s case, there is clearly no difference between him and any trial lawyer the Democrats would nominate.
But that’s not why Shulman is running or why Anuzis recruited him. Both know that he cannot possibly beat Justice Michael Cavanaugh, against whom he is running.
Shulman is running as a good Republican sacrificial lamb, with reported promises from Anuzis and other Republicans that President Bush or Dick DeVos (if he wins the race for Michigan Governor) will appoint him to something. Shulman barely lasted a year at his last job at a Detroit area law firm and desperately wants a judgeship, where his lackluster performance won’t matter. And for his run at the Supreme Court, he will get to the bench. It’s Republican cronyism at it’s finest.
But, whether appointed or elected, “Judge Shulman” is a frightening phrase. A phrase the hypocritical Republican Party is trying too hard to make into a reality.
Saul Anuzis did not respond to requests for comment about this very questionable GOP Supreme Court recruit.
****
Full Disclosure: In 1998, I ran against Marc Shulman in the Republican primary for the Michigan House of Representatives. At the time, he told doctors he was for tort reform and lawyers he was against it. He collected money from all of them. Some things never change.
NOT PAID FOR BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE COMMITTEE.

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Cheers for the Phoenix City Council. Jeers to the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association.
On Monday, they voted to put an initiative on the November 7th ballot that would require police and city employees to enforce immigration laws. But The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association opposes the “Protect Our City” proposal, claiming it is “pointless” and represents an unnecessary strain on police.
But the law enforcement group is clueless.
When I spoke at an immigration conference in Maricopa County (the county which contains Phoenix) in November, Maricopa County Prosecutor Andrew Thomas–the host of the event–painstakingly detailed the growing percentage of crimes committed by illegal aliens in the county. If police are truly going to enforce the law and stop crime in Phoenix, they must stem the illegal alien problem simultaneously.

Impotent Immigration Law Enforcement: ICE’s Abu Moskowitz
Abu RuPaul Moskowitz artwork courtesy of David Lunde
The only problem is the Phoenix ballot initiative’s reliance on the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The measure requires Phoenix police to enter into an agreement with DHS. Once the officers arrest and detain illegal aliens, they are at the mercy of ICE to deport them.
As we recently detailed ( and ), ICE Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix, Roberto Medina, is being transferred out because he refused to transport aliens back to the border. Instead, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio had to spend his time and resources to do the job. Thomas, Medina, and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano all spoke out against Medina.
But, as we also noted, the equally political and unhelpful a/k/a “Abu Moskowitz”–currently ICE Special Agent in Charge of Michigan–wants . We forgot to note that . The aliens were set free to the great American abyss.
Once their police force catches illegal aliens, Phoenix residents (“Phoenicians”?) should not rely on Medina, his successor, or any ICE brass to do the job they have already refused to do–take the aliens to the border to say buh-bye to U.S. soil.

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All of the media–particularly the sports media–is fawning over 6-foot, 8-inch giant “Saudi Arabian” first baseman Aaron Durley of the Arabian American team in the Little League World Series.
But let’s be clear. Durley–and most of the rest of the team–is NOT a Saudi. He’s an American. One hint should be that he’s Black. In Saudi Arabia, most Blacks are slaves and/or servants to White Arabs. And even those who are not, are treated despicably. Blacks there are called “abed” (“slave”) or “abeed” (“slaves”)–the racist, common term for Blacks thoughout the Muslim Middle East. It is the Arabic N-word. (Flashback: Saudi Bin Laden to marry Whitney Houston.)
Durley’s team is made up of mostly American kids whose parents are in Saudi Arabia for one reason: they work for oil companies there.

Not a Saudi: Little League Giant Aaron Durley is AMERICAN
So the next time you read headlines like the one in yesterday’s sports section in the print edition of USA Today–“Saudi Arabia’s First Baseman is Big Attraction”–think again.
Aaron Durley is no Saudi Arabian. He is an American kid who is Saudi Arabian only insofar as his physical presence in geography. Other than that, he is 100% American.

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For the gazillionth time in his 1.6 year tenure at the helm of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff a/k/a “Mr. Burns” declared the end of “catch and release“–the waste-of-time policy of catching illegal aliens and then releasing them into the great American abyss.
Apparently, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents didn’t get the memo. Because they say it’s still going on. And Chertoff knows it.
Michael Chertoff . . . all talk, no action. Catch and release continues and illegal alien ranks expand. America lost.

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Remember the America, filed just a month ago by the Islamofascist American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)?
The group tried to soak U.S. taxpayers in court on behalf of Hezbollah supporting “Americans” in Lebanon . . . after they already soaked U.S. taxpayers to evacuate those Hezbollah-loving “Americans” from Lebanon. And just two weeks ago, ADC was .
Yesterday, the absurd lawsuit was dropped, to–surprise! surprise!–hardly a peep compared to the media fanfare surrounding the filing of this prime example of lawsuit abuse.
But regardless of the withdrawal of this suit, U.S. taxpayers have been soaked ad absurdum over the whole Lebanon thing, started by terrorist group Hezbollah.

Islamofascist Lawyer Nabih Ayad: Soldier in the Litigation Jihad
Sources from Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)–a Homeland Security division–told that many, many non-U.S. citizens who were relatives of these Hezbo-supporting “Americans” in Lebanon were granted “parole”–ie., an instant admission golden ticket into the U.S. In other words, terror-supporting non-Americans got into our country out of the goodness of our dumb hearts. And some of them may even be terrorists themselves. CIS sources tell us that the background checks–if done at all–were rushed.
And then U.S. taxpayers paid to fly these terror-sympathizers into the U.S.–many for the first time ever to set foot on our shores. And probably for the last time to ever be seen again–likely to disappear into the great American abyss free of Immigration and Customs Enforcement hassles.
Sources from the Federal Air Marshals Service also inform that they had at least 12 Federal Air Marshals on each flight going out of Cyprus–out of fear by the U.S. Government that these ungrateful Hezbo supporters would try to hijack the planes on the way here.
For all of that, we got sued by the ADC and and lawyer for terrorists, –with his weird twin diamond earrings and facial hair. And sued by his alleged kickback buddies at the ADC. (Accused Al-Qaeda terrorist Omar Abdul-Fattah Al-Shishani, a former Ayad client, told us about the alleged kickbacks scheme over dinner.)
Thankfully, these leaders dropped the BS lawsuit. But they already cost U.S. taxpayers far too much by filing it in the first place.
Only in America–soon to be Islamerica. Give an inch, they’ll take . . . your country.

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You’ve heard about the “moderate” Muslims in Dearbornistan, the ones who wave flags for Hezbollah. If they’re so moderate, why am I getting death threats from them on a daily basis? If they’re so moderate, why hasn’t their “leadership” denounced and called for an end to the death threats? And why wasn’t , Secretary of the Arab American PAC, and a past president of the Arab Students Union at University of Michigan-Dearborn (our own domestic version of Bir Zeit University), denounced and forced to resign for death threats she sent? (And why hasn’t U.S. Attorney “–a Bush judicial nominee–done a damn thing about this? Department of “Justice”? Not for non-Muslims in America.)
Answer: Because they are NOT moderate. They are extremists. And they support e-mail messages like these two I received, last night, from IP Address 141.215.16.161, traced to Dearbornistan:

— michael b mikeb1968@hotmail.com wrote:
From: “michael b” mikeb1968@hotmail.com
To: dschlussel@yahoo.com
Subject: YES I LOVE HEZBOLLAH…AND FUCK YOU..
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:34:47 -0400
HEY WHITE BTICH JEW.FUCK YOU.HEZBOLAAH IS AWSOME.WE WILL NEVER DIE BITCH.WERE GONNA BLOW YOU UP.

***

— michael b mikeb1968@hotmail.com wrote:
From: “michael b” mikeb1968@hotmail.com
To: dschlussel@yahoo.com
Subject: HEY WANNA SUCK MY ARAB COCK??
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:35:33 -0400
FUCK YOU AND YOU WILL SOON BE RAPED AND WILL DIE.

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Football player Eric Butler may be America’s new sex symbol.
But don’t look for him in People Magazine or in provocative poses on pin-up posters. Butler is a symbol of equal rights for the male sex in college and high school sports.
Or, more accurately, he’s a stark example that Title IX–the measure for gender equality in education–doesn’t really mean equal rights in sports. Instead, the federal measure is just a gender-specific katyusha rocket for feminists in the war against men.
Butler’s fight and another case about high school sports in Michigan put the lie to the notion that Title IX has anything to do with equality.
Instead, it’s the “Animal Farm” version of fairness, where all animals in the barn are equal. But some are more equal than others.

Title IX is routinely used to make sure that there are “equal opportunities” for girls and women in sports at colleges and public schools. The Title IX orthodoxy is so strict that the funding, player spots, and even locker room luxuries for women must match to the exact digit those for the men.
But when the shoe is on the other foot–as in Butler’s case–things aren’t exactly equal.
Butler, a former University of Kansas football player, took a year off from college football to take care of his daughter after she was born in 2001. In a day and age when pro and college athletes wantonly father so many children out of wedlock with groupies and girlfriends, it’s admirable that Butler didn’t abandon his child.
But that’s not how Title IX sees it. Under Title IX, female college athletes who become pregnant can take time off and gain up to an extra, sixth year of eligibility for college sports.
But when Butler applied for the same thing, he couldn’t get it. He was told that, under Title IX, only female college athletes get this benefit. Even though he took a year off to take care of his newly-born daughter, the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) says that rule only applies to female athletes. And a federal court won’t issue an injunction to allow him to continue playing this season, while the case is being decided.
So much for equality.
But for a tersely-worded statement, the NCAA isn’t talking or making the tiniest attempt to justify its sexist policies. In the statement the organization said:

The pregnancy exception is explicitly written for female students whose physical condition due to pregnancy prevents their participation in intercollegiate athletics, and therefore is not applicable in this case.

It’s not exactly a way to encourage college athletes who father children to get involved in their lives, instead of abandoning them. And, regardless of the social implications, it’s flat out discriminatory.
But don’t look for Donna Lopiano, head of the Women’s Sports Foundation, to cry over Eric Butler–even though his Mr. Mom act in the midst of a college football career is exactly the type of move feminists swoon over.
Lopiano, the Gloria Steinem of “equality” in women’s sports and a warrior for Title IX orthodoxy, is nowhere to be found on the Eric Butler case. For this usually vociferous “equal rights” whiner, suddenly mum’s the word.
Then there’s the Title IX jihad being fought in the Michigan judicial system, regarding scheduling of boys and girls sports seasons in Michigan public schools. The case against the Michigan High School Athletic Association has implications for every state in the Union and is destined for the Supreme Court.
Feminist sports activists are mad that girls and boys sports don’t play the same sports during the same seasons, each year.
But that’s not a matter of sexism. It’s logic.
Soccer is played on a grassy field that gets muddy and beaten with repeated use. Ditto for men’s baseball and women’s softball. It would hardly serve the interests of high school boys and girls to be playing on these fields at the same time. It would just require more upkeep for overused ground beneath them. And much more expense for school districts that are already overburdened with underfunded budgets.
And there is the question of scheduling. Most schools only have one soccer field and one diamond that serves baseball and softball. How will they schedule after-school practice for both men and women at the same time during the same season? It simply can’t be done.
But logic and logistics, so far, are the big losers in this costly legal fight in the courts. State and federal courts in Michigan have ruled for the feminist sports litigation artists. And Michigan high schools are perplexed on how to comply with this new logistical nightmare as brought to you by Title IX.
Is Title IX really about true equality and fairness in sports?
Eric Butler and Michigan High School athletes can tell you otherwise. To them, it’s just organized sports as run by The Dixie Chicks.

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Kal Penn, best known for his starring role in the motion picture “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” has been cast as a man involved with the leader of a neighborhood mosque on next season’s “24.”
Reports say his character “may be” the key to a terrorist plot in the series’ 6th season. So will the mosque be involved in a terrorist plot, as in real life (Finsbury Mosque, etc.)? Or will next season be yet another “24” whitewash of the “Religion of Peace’s” involvement in terrorism–with FOX making nice to CAIR?
We didn’t like ). Ditto for “24” producers wimping out and diluting the plot to make WASP Americans the major part of the terrorist plot. We’re suspicious of Season 6.
Stay tuned. Kal Penn, we’ll be watching you.

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The man who would be America’s psychologist–but is actually yet another bad Oprah creation that is addling America’s collective psyche–is at it again. Giving us his usual dose of hypocrisy, that is.
Tonight, Dr. Phil a/k/a Philip McGraw and his ever hanging-on wife, Robin, are hosting “Concert for America’s Kids” on CBS. The show is supposed to raise money for and awareness about “latchkey kids”–kids who come home to no-one after school because their parents are working.
But the best thing Dr. Phil could do for latchkey kids is take his garbage show off the air and shut his mouth forever. His show, “Dr. Phil,” begins at 3:00 p.m. in most American markets, just in time for latchkey kids to arrive home for TV trash like his.

PLEASE SHUT UP!
It’s just a tad hypocritical for this mind-musher of America’s latchkey kids to show concern for them with this night-time concert. But we’re sure he’s getting a good-sized paycheck for the gig from sponsor JCPenney and its Afterschool Fund. Ka-ching!
For Dr. Phil, hypocrisy is always easy when the price is right.