Charles Krauthammer
Friday, December 4th 2009, 4:00 AM

We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills – for 18 months. Then we start packing for home.

We shall never surrender – unless the war gets too expensive, in which case, we shall quote Eisenhower on “the need to maintain balance in and among national programs” and then insist that “we can’t simply afford to ignore the price of these wars.”

The quotes are from President Obama’s West Point speech announcing the Afghanistan troop surge. What a strange speech it was – a call to arms so ambivalent, so tentative, so defensive

Which made his last-minute assertion of “resolve unwavering” so hollow. It was meant to be stirring. It fell flat. In August, he called Afghanistan “a war of necessity.” On Tuesday night, he defined “what’s at stake” as “the common security of the world.” The world, no less. Yet, we begin leaving in July 2011?

Does he think that such ambivalence is not heard by the Taliban, by Afghan peasants deciding which side to choose, by Pakistani generals hedging their bets, by NATO allies already with one foot out of Afghanistan?

Nonetheless, most supporters of the Afghanistan War were satisfied. They got the policy, the liberals got the speech. The hawks got three-quarters of what Gen. Stanley McChrystal wanted – 30,000 additional U.S. troops – and the doves got a few soothing words. Big deal, say the hawks.

But it is a big deal. Words matter because will matters. Success in war depends on three things: a brave and highly skilled soldiery, such as the U.S. military 2009, the finest counterinsurgency force in history; brilliant, battle-tested commanders such as Gens. David Petraeus and McChrystal, fresh from the success of the surge in Iraq; and the will to prevail as personified by the commander in chief.

see the whole article by Charles Krauthammer

And apart from Obama’s own personal commitment is the question of his ability as a wartime leader. If he feels compelled to placate his left with an exit date today – while he is still personally popular, with large majorities in both houses of Congress, and even before the surge begins – how will he stand up to the left when the going gets tough and the casualties mount, and he really has to choose between support from his party and success on the battlefield?

This is what Obama does… he Votes present.. He is still campaigning… he is a Cipher,,, 57 states??? anyway… The man is a fraud.. all style no substance… recycling 40+ yo Socialist ideas… the Smartest President ever??? Really? Really??? yeah and Raising taxes will Spur Economic Growth… I am amazed how Ignorant some are….

John A. (Junior) Gotti has big smile shopping at Toys ‘R’ Us.

Kim Gotti

The New York Post’s always acerbically witty columnist Terry Keenan lines up this year’s Wall Street Turkeys and knocks ‘em down.

The names on the list are fairly predictable even to the lay person, in light of how much ink our favorite captains of finance have recieved nationally this year.  They include Vikram Pandit, Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers, Lloyd Blankfein and Jeffrey Immelt.

Here’s her take on everyone’s favorite part-robot, part interior designer:

John Thain: After being forced out of Bank of America earlier this year and humiliated by reports that he spent millions to decorate his Merrill Lynch office, the man who is derisively called “I-Robot,” is putting out the word that he’s ready to run a public company again. Trouble is, Thain is the only one who seems to have missed his time in the executive suite.

And this come from the NY Post’s PopWrap section of all places. During an interview, Rome actor Kevin McKidd discussed his upcoming projects; one being a spinoff of Rome and the other…a Call of Duty film? Yea.

Here’s more from PopWrap:

On a more animated note, Kevin — who voices Captain “Soap” MacTavish in “Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2″ — says that the hugely successful video game franchise is also eyeing a big screen incarnation.

“They were looking for a rough, Scottish actor in Hollywood they probably couldn’t get Gerard Butler, so they got the No. 2 Gerard Butler, me. I had no idea it would be so huge, and now there are talks of a feature film,” he revealed to PopWrap. Then came the kicker, when asked if he would be bringing Soap to life in the movie, he said, “if the script is good, and Gerard isn’t available [laughs], then absolutely.”

Why we does our spidey sense see a big name director secretly lurking in the shadows of this film? Call it a hunch.

mobster Sciandra

Nearly two dozen alleged mobsters were busted today, including members of the Gambino and Lucchese crime families, as part of a massive probe involving multimillion-dollar sports bookmaking and loansharking operations, authorities said.

The feds busted 22 captains and a Sanitation Department official who was caught on tape calling his relative, Michael Murdrucco, tipping him that the city agency was seeking new concrete barriers, a multi-million dollar contract, that he should try to get, sources told The Post.

Also arrested was reputed Gambino capo Carmine Sciandra, who owns the store Top Tomato in the Travis section of Staten Island

In December 2005, Sciandra was shot inside his produce store during a tussle with former NYPD Officer Patrick Balsamo.

Authorities are expected to hold a news conference later today outlining the arrests and charges.

NY Daily News opened its new printing facilities today. The new presses, by Koenig & Bauer of Germany, and related machinery from Ferag of Switzerland, are far more efficient and computerized than the plant’s original equipment from the mid-1990s. They require less labor and electricity, they generate much less waste paper, and installing printing plates and getting the presses running takes much less time. Automated equipment selects rolls of paper from a rack the height of a three-story building, slides them into presses and later cleans the presses and vacuums paper lint. The new developments should cause an increase in copy sales as predicted by Marc Z. Kramer, chief executive of The Daily News.

This is Carmen.

Her life was perfectly normal until a few months ago, when she was diagnosed with diabetes and a thyroid condition. Unfortunately, her owner could not afford her medication, and so Carmen “attacked” her and her son. And then they called 911.

There are a lot of snarky things that could be sad about this story, but mostly it makes me sad, because it’s eerily similar to what happened to my childhood cat, minus the actual diagnosis. Poor Carmen.

The canary who helped decimate the DeCavalcante mob, the inspiration for “The Sopranos,” is headed back into a cage, The Post has learned.

Vincent “Vinny Ocean” Palermo, 63, had hoped he had seen the last of a prison cell when he and his family were relocated to Texas with new identities as a reward for his decade-long career as a Mafia turncoat.

But Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff this week sentenced him to 1½ years in prison after weighing his long record against his admittedly “off-the-charts” cooperation with the feds.

Palermo recently opened a Penthouse club in Houston, sources said     

Sandra Guzman, an Emmy award winning journalist and former editor at the New York Post, filed a lawsuit against the newspaper for having created a racially hostile work environment and for unlawfully retaliating against Guzman after she complained about the alleged discriminatory treatment and after she publicly opposed a controversial political cartoon about US President Barack Obama.  Guzman was fired from the NY Post on September 29, 2009.

The lawsuit states that “behind the trumpeted headlines and within the four walls of the Post exists a hostile work environment where female employees and employees of color have been subjected to pervasive and systemic discrimination and/or unlawful harassment based on their gender, race, color and/or national origin.  The Post, and its parent corporation, News Corporation maintain, condone, tolerate, directly participate in and contribute to a hostile work environment.”

Guzman accused NY Post editor-in-chief Col Allan of having “actively and directly participated in the discrimination, harassment and unlawful retaliation committed against (Guzman).”  The lawsuit also states that “Allan’s repeated inappropriate and sexist comments and conduct have been widely known throughout the Company.”  For example, the lawsuit accuses Allan of showing Guzman and three other female employees pictures of a naked man on his cellphone and asking them what they thought of the picture.

The lawsuit also accuses Les Goodstein, the Senior Vice President of News Corp., of sexually harassing Guzman by repeatedly telling her that she looked “sexy” and “beautiful” and by referring to her as “Cha Cha #1.”

Guzman alleges that her numerous complaints about the workplace bullying were ignored by company management.

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From the Politico

Sandra Guzman, a former editor at the New York Post, has filed a lawsuit against her former employer with allegations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination and “unlawful employment practices and retaliation.”

Huffington Post has the 36-page complaint, which details instances of sexual harassment involving top editor Col Allan. While those charges will likely get the most attention, Guzman — who spoke up against a controversial Post cartoon earlier this year — claims that the paper is out to get Obama.

    “The Post’s decision to publish the racist cartoon was part of a concerted effort at the Company to undermine President Obama’s authority and attack the first African-American President in this country’s history.”

Guzman also claims that D.C. bureau chief Charlie Hurt  “and a high ranking journalist at the newspaper  had confirmed to [her] that the Post had such a policy in place, telling her that the Post’s ‘goal is to destroy Barack Obama. We don’t want him to succeed.’” (Hurt didn’t respond to HuffPo.)

“This lawsuit has no merit and is based on charges that are groundless,” a Post spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO.  “As previously stated, Ms. Guzman’s position was eliminated when the section she edited was discontinued due to a decline in advertising sales.”

for the full article: http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/n.y.-post-accused-of-anti-obama-bias/

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/1109/ExNY_Post_editor_says_papers_out_to_destroy_Obama_Post_responds.html?showall

More terrible news for the home design industry!  Goodbye Metropolitan Home. Hachette Filipacchi Media has has decided that December will be the last issue of Metropolitan Home magazine. Instead, they will focus their energy into further developing Elle Decor. I have kept every single issue of these magazines (at least of the ones I’ve been reading since I don’t know when).

However, Hachette is not the only publisher feeling a loss. Every major publisher has foreclosed on a shelter magazine in the past 18 months. Unlike with past magazine closings at Hachette, including Elle Girl and Premiere, the company does not plan to keep a Web site up and running. Methome.com will be discontinued. I sure do hope you can keep home design readers and content worshippers alive Elle Decor. Just don’t smother it with too much advertising. Another one bites the dust.

Updated: Sun., Nov. 8, 2009, 9:37 AM
‘She’ is one to see
By V.A. MUSETTO
Last Updated: 9:37 AM, November 8, 2009
Posted: 12:53 AM, November 8, 2009
I am a movie junkie, but there is still a limit to the number of films I can see at a festival; after all, I have to leave time to sleep, eat and party.

During my recent six-day visit to the London Film Festival, I managed to see 10 of the 193 features on display. I can’t say I disliked any of the 10, although some wowed me more than others.

At the top of the wow list was “She, a Chinese,” written and directed by Xiaolu Guo, who was born in China and now resides in London.

It’s the story of Mei, a young woman living in a depressed Chinese town — she’s never been more than a few miles from home — who one day takes off to see the world.

Her journey leads her to London, where she enters into a platonic marriage with an elderly Brit.

Lu Huang is superb as Mei, capturing her every emotion. You might have seen Lu as a woman sold into sex slavery in “Blind Mountain,” which unreeled at Film Forum last year. Perhaps the theater will pick up “She, a Chinese,” too.

Relax, Mama Gotti. The feds’ five-year quest to convict “Junior” won’t likely bear fruit when his latest racketeering trial goes to the jury, say lawyers who’ve worked for the mob scion and other reputed gangsters.

The courtroom veterans say John “Junior” Gotti is almost assured of a fourth hung jury after today’s closing arguments in Manhattan federal court.

Notorious gangster Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano had homosexual relations with a young man before making his way up the ranks of the Gambino crime family, according to a new book proposal currently being shopped.

Authors Laura and Karen Garofalo were just 17 and 25, respectively, when their father, Eddie Garofalo, was murdered by Gravano’s henchmen in 1990. In “Our Father’s Blood

Alphonse “Allie Boy” Persico

What are they going to do, bust his kneecaps?

A Long Island debt-collection law firm is suing the imprisoned boss of the Colombo crime family, Alphonse “Allie Boy” Persico, demanding more than $34,000 in unpaid credit card bills, court records show.

I’d reconsider how badly they want that money,” quipped one veteran lawyer familiar with the Colombo family history.

Two jurors were booted off the John “Junior” Gotti case this afternoon after the judge decided they would not be able to deliberate.

The decision by Manahattan Federal Judge Kevin Castel to remove Juror No. 7 and 11 came two days after those jurors got into a heated squabble.     

The move prompted mob queen Victoria Gotti, Junior’s mother, to shout, “This is a railroad job. Enough! Enough is enough! “They’re railroading you, They’re doing to you what they did to your father!” — a reference to her late-husband, Gambino crime boss John “Dapper Don” Gotti

ESPN baseball analyst and former NY Mets GM Steve Phillips was recently fired by the network after the NY Post ran a story exposing him for an extramarital affair with a 22-year old production manager and coworker named Brooke Hundley. Apparently things got ugly for Phillips after he tried to break it off and Hundley all but boiled his daughter’s rabbit. Anyway, prior to the Post story, Deadspin, a widely read sports blog, had apparently approached ESPN with questions about the affair, but was told there was nothing to the rumors. That obviously wasn’t the case, and when the Post ran what should have been Deadspin’s story, the blog decided to exact some revenge on the “worldwide leader in sports” by posting a series of entries under the tagline, “ESPN Horndog Dossier.” These posts told the stories of several other ESPN employees who allegedly engaged in intra-network sexual relationships. One such relationship even led to a divorce for one ESPN personality. As you might imagine, the network was none-too-pleased with Deadspin’s decision to air its dirty laundry, and eventually released a statement calling Deadspin’s “rumor mongering” despicable.

This is all very juicy and interesting, but what’s the legal issue? Well this isn’t the first time Deadspin has been in the middle of a firestorm over the sexually inappropriate actions of an ESPN employee. Back in 2007, Deadspin posted a series of entries about ESPN NFL analyst Sean Salisbury, claiming that he took pictures of inappropriate parts of his body on his cell phone, then showed those pictures to female coworkers at the network. Salisbury didn’t like it very much, and just recently filed a defamation suit against Gawker Media (owner of Deadspin). The blog may have opened itself up to more litigation of the sort in the aftermath of the Steve Phillips situation. But defamation claims are tough to prove. First of all, Salisbury or anyone else would have to show that what Deadspin wrote was untrue. Then there’s the question of whether the alleged victims are public or private figures. If ESPN personalities are public figures, then they’ll have to show “actual malice” on the part of Deadspin. Clay Travis, a writer at the popular sports blog Fanhouse (and also a graduate of VULS), wrote an interesting analysis of these legal questions.

I’m no defamation expert, but I doubt the folks at Deadspin just made this stuff up, and I bet the lawyers at Gawker feel pretty good about defending the Salisbury suit and any others that may come their way. But still, these stories revealed some embarrassing details about real peoples’ lives, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them decide to lawyer up. So while stories like this may temporarily send Deadspin’s site visits through the roof, the backlash may send their its bills in the same direction.

– Mark Donnell

Image Source

ONE year ago this week, I stood shoulder-to-shoul der with thousands of tearful, hopeful Ameri cans and Oprah Winfrey in Chicago’s windswept Grant Park to witness the coming of a miraculous change: the Age of Obama.

I’m still waiting. ( We are all waiting)

Verdict on O one year later: Nothing doing

To say our youthful president has accomplished little during his first months in office is a gross exaggeration, it pains me to say. He has done virtually nothing.

In the Obama White House, arrogance, vanity and hesitation has replaced action. A level of suspicion unseen since the days of Richard Nixon flourishes at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Ok now heres My 2 cents… well 1.125 cents after wealth redistribution… I agree with Andrea Peyser for the first time ever. Obama has done nothing … Well nothing GOOD… there have been things he done that we Dont hear about … Like giving 900 million of TAXPAYERS money to fund abortions in 3rd world countries was the first thing he signed … How can we not be disgusted by this fake this narcisist Obama ???

Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke probably wakes up dressed for Halloween, but the Oscar-nominated bad boy still went to the trouble of donning some makeup for his Joker inspired costume.