Film Reviews: 'Iron Man 2'

Hollywood Gets It Right, Again

Posted by Chris Yogerst on May 7th, 2010
http://www.frontpagemag.com/

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), our favorite cunning industrialist, is back in top form in Iron Man 2. Just when we think our government can’t lean farther to the Left, Hollywood shows us at least they still know how to get it right on occasion. Now more than ever, the pro-free market, anti-government control concepts in Iron Man 2 are important in our contemporary culture.

The film begins six months later with the oily Senator Stern (Garry Shandling) demanding that Stark hand over his Iron Man weapon to the “proper authorities” (i.e. the government). Stark’s response is simple, “you want my property – you can’t have it!” The Iron Man suit may be a weapon but it is also a clear nuclear deterrent, as Stark defines it. The senator continues to categorize Iron Man out of context in order to push his regulatory agenda.

Iron Man 2 also continues to show the advantages of military innovation, however, the reactor that keeps Stark’s heart beating is now beginning to poison him so he must prepare the company for future success in case of his death. Desperate measures ensue after Stark gives up on trying to fix his heart problem and appoints Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) as CEO of the company. The government is not giving up on trying to once again gain control of national defense. Therefore, Stark wants to make sure he has someone he trusts at the helm of Stark Industries in the event of his untimely death.

The government is not the only problem; however, Hammer Industries’ flaky front man Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) exploits the government’s interest in his company in order to plot against Stark’s reputation. The government’s obsession with controlling Stark rendered them helpless to the villainous Russian Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) who was hired to invent a weapon that would trump Iron Man. Vanko’s only motive was to kill Stark with no concern for possible collateral damage.

As expected, it is the strong-willed, intelligent capitalist that built Iron Man who comes to the rescue and once again keeps America safe from not only its own government but also its enemies overseas. Stark remains a patriot in the truest sense and knows he holds the key to keeping America safe. Instead of trying to save himself, he puts his focus on saving the country and in turn his company from destructive government control, a notion that any small government supporter can appreciate.

It is no secret that the Iron Man character is conservative, creator Stan Lee discusses him in the DVD commentary of the first film:

“It was the height of the Cold War. The readers – the young readers – if there was one thing they hated it was war, it was the military, or, as Eisenhower called it, the military-industrial complex. So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He was a weapons manufacturer. He was providing weapons for the army. He was rich. He was an industrialist. But he was good-looking guy and he was courageous… I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like – that none of our readers would like – and shove him down their throats and make them like him.”

Therefore Lee’s intent was to see if he could make conservatism cool and the wild success of the first film would sure tell us that it worked. Although the Stark character was not without criticism in the first film seeing that he was a bit of a lady-killer. In the sequel, however, he is much more of a social conservative. Stark’s witty and flirtatious ways are still ever present even though is obviously loyal to Pepper in Iron Man 2. Instead of seducing the liberal journalists he avoids them completely.

The media as a whole is pushed aside without remorse in Iron Man 2. Where Stark cared about his image in the first film, he gave up trying to keep a politically correct profile in the sequel and put his full attention towards the future of Stark Industries. There is even a scene where we see Fox News and Bill O’Reilly that doesn’t involve a cheap shot at either of them. We know that the Iron Man films lean right, but it’s difficult to believe the studios let this fly.

Front Page assistant editor David Swindle wrote about the first Iron Man film last year in a piece called Superhero Conservatism:

“Why does the superhero genre bend to right? Quite simply, because the conventions upon which it has been built force such a trajectory. Almost all superhero stories involve a clash between good and evil or order and chaos. The superhero genre acknowledges evil’s existence and the need for it to be opposed, usually with force.”

In Iron Man 2 the enemy is twofold, the primary villain is the U.S. government that is unsuccessfully trying to once again monopolize national defense. Their quest for power left them blind to the motivations of an additional villain, Ivan Vanko, who sought to destroy Stark while proving he could also breach military security in the process. Therefore, showing us that government control is not only unnecessary but it can also be destructive. Instead of attacking America, enemies of the country go after Iron Man because they know they cannot defeat the U.S. with Stark running the show.

The government in the film is reminiscent to the current administration’s continued reckless drive for power and control. The dominant purpose behind health care reform was about control, not the well-being of the American people. This is similar to the way government in the film cares less about national security and more about owning the machine that makes it possible. Iron Man 2 is a useful manifestation of capitalist principles that are ignored by today’s government leaders. The free market will collapse under the weight of big government and Tony Stark knows this better than anyone.

Just like Iron Man, its sequel has all of the elements for a guaranteed commercial success. Acknowledging the fight between good and evil as well as the importance of the free market is something that resonates with many Americans in today’s political climate (and was also proven with the success of the first film). Tony Stark endures as a hip personification of capitalism with his humorous charm and eternal drive for success not to mention interest in national security. Stark Industries has privatized world peace, what could be better?


REVIEW: You’re Going to Love the Imperfect ‘Iron Man 2′

by John Nolte
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/

Though the highly anticipated “Iron Man 2” qualifies as a hilarious, entertaining, irreverent, and openly patriotic summer blockbuster well worth the price of admission (and then some), like most sequels, the continuing story of Tony Stark and company does falls short of its predecessor, especially in what I call the “lift department.” Superhero films that transcend their genre contain an unforgettable moment or two that lifts the hair on the back of your neck, pulls you out of your chair, and urges you to stand and cheer. The original “Iron Man” had a number of those moments. And while the follow-up has a whole lot going for it, this is where it most lacks.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has privatized world peace. Yes, all on his own as Iron Man, Stark has whipped the world into behaving itself and it’s completely gone to his already bloated head. Obviously this wasn’t accomplished through the changing of our enemies’ hearts, but rather through the superior firepower that comes with being Iron Man. This is the reason/excuse our government, led by the oily Senator Stern (a very funny Gary Shandling) uses to demand Stark turn over the suit to the Pentagon. During a hearing televised on CSPAN, Stark can’t bring himself to politely decline. With his ego red-lining, (he has saved the world, after all), he both insults the Senator and dares him to try and take the suit away from him.

Game on.

In this vacuum steps a rival arms dealer, Justin Hammer (a delightfully twitchy Sam Rockwell), who’s desperate to replicate the Iron Man technology and scoop up all that Pentagon money while at the same time fulfilling a desire to humiliate Stark by elbowing Iron Man into irrelevancy. Hope arrives in the form of Ivan Vanko (a quietly menacing Mickey Rourke), a Russian scientist burning with both a hate for Stark and the technical know-how to fulfill Hammer’s mercenary desires.

As a whole, if you look real close, the film’s overall narrative doesn’t hold together all that well. But the individual pieces are so delightfully scripted and performed you don’t really notice… or care. Through the first act and right up until the dynamite initial–and very well staged and shot–encounter between Stark and Vanko, everything pops as all the familiar themes and characters effortlessly pick up right where they left off. And while the second act, except for an awkward and surprisingly claustrophobic sequence involving Stark’s birthday party, never ceases to hold your attention and entertain, the structure just isn’t there, nor is the action.

There is a lot going on with the characters, though maybe too much. The relationship between the luscious Pepper Potts and Stark is as Tracy/Hepburn as ever, but the troubling dynamic between Stark and his deceased father feels artificial, especially when it results in the solving (seemingly out of nowhere) of one of Stark’s biggest problems. One area where you do feel the narrative pieces fall satisfactorily into place is with the arrival of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Much track is laid for the Avenger team Fury’s putting together and you will want to hang around for a post-credit scene.

One area where the sequel improves on the original is with its climax. This time it’s big and lusty and exciting as opposed to rock ‘em sock ‘em robots duking it out on the Hollywood freeway. But back to the lack of lift….

There were three moments in the first “Iron Man” that took my movie-loving breath away. Stark’s initial escape in his crude Iron Man suit, his first flight, and that delicious moment when he figured out that being a superhero means no longer watching helplessly as tragedy plays out on the television. Iron Man flying off to lay waste to those Jihadists terrorizing that village was a moment this country had been collectively waiting for our Hollywood Masters to deliver since the attacks on September 11th.
The best way to describe the sequel is to think about what the original would’ve been like without those moments; worthwhile and fun but far from a classic.

Jon Favreau’s direction and the snappy dialogue, like most of the performances (as Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson is a little in over her head with this cast, but kick some ass she does) are uniformly excellent, and if I haven’t said so before, Robert Downey Jr. is a friggin’ movie star in the very best sense of the word. Is there another actor out there capable of throwing around a character’s rank narcissism and irreverence but never at the expense of sincerity? He’s a marvel to watch, if you’ll pardon the pun.

If anything, this second Iron Man chapter is even more patriotic than the first. The military, as personified by Don Cheadle’s Lt. Col. Rhoades, is treated with utmost respect and Stark’s language about what he’s doing is never qualified with any of that maddening, namby-pamby United NationSpeak that’s plagued every movie made since Bush beat Gore. Stark says with no embarrassment whatsoever that he is “securing America,” and that he’s proud to “serve a great nation.” He even throws a kind word to the Boy Scouts of America. And later, a very funny and not-so-subtle riff on the megalomania surrounding Obama iconography ranks as iconoclastic when compared to what we’re seeing from today’s lockstep film industry.

So go! Have fun. Take the kids. And thank Favreau and company for proving that in the talented hands of those willing you can still make timeless universal themes cool, entertaining, and very profitable.

In the immortal words of Justin Hammer: “God bless Iron Man. God bless America.”

Tags: Iron Man 2, Mickey Rourke, patriotic, robert downey jr., Sam Jackson, Sam Rockwell
Posted May 5th 2010 at 12:55 pm in Film, Reviews


Iron Man 2: A Love Letter to Ronald Reagan?

The film is a big, brash, exciting, and brainy adventure, supercharged by its love for core American values.

by John Boot
http://pajamasmedia.com/
May 7, 2010

America just might have found itself its truest superhero. Who needs Superman when there’s Iron Man 2? Tony Stark isn’t just a patriot and a lifesaver. He’s bold, he’s clever, he’s rich, he’s a capitalist individualist defender of property rights. And he likes to give speeches surrounded by dancing girls.

Iron Man was fun but Iron Man 2 is even better, with a script (by Justin Theroux) so laced with wit that it if you took away the fireballs and just had actors reading it on a bare stage like a Noel Coward piece, it would still be an entertaining evening.

The main flaws of the first film — let’s face it, the finale with Jeff Bridges was a bore, and so was Terrence Howard, the blandest buddy since Robin — are gone in the sequel. This one features nifty fireworks — including a nifty Monte Carlo race scene — plus two excellent yet very different villains (Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke), the superb Don Cheadle stepping in for Howard (who reportedly demanded more money than the producers were willing to pay), just enough Nicky Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to make us want more, and a blowout of an ending.

Oh yeah, and the movie is also a virtual love letter to Ronald Reagan.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., whose performance seems meant to school Christian Bale in the art of playing things loose) finds himself in trouble with a weaselly senator (Garry Shandling). The lawmaker accuses Stark, who has been boasting to the world of his ability to keep the peace, of purposely developing an offensive weapon that he misleadingly calls a defensive weapon.

That this is exactly the argument liberals (and the Soviets) used to excoriate Ronald Reagan and his SDI plan is delicious — but it gets better. As played by Shandling, the senator, who is from Pennsylvania, bears more than a slight resemblance to Arlen Specter, the classic Capitol Hill weasel who called himself a Republican for as long as he found it convenient and is now not only a Democrat but one of the most reliably liberal members of his caucus.

Still better: In front of Congress, which Tony rightly mocks as his intellectual and moral inferiors, he delivers a stout defense of private property when the senator demands that he simply turn over the blueprints to his Iron Man suit. Stark points out that the country is doomed if it has to rely for its defense on the government’s chosen contractor, headed by a corporate tool named Justin Hammer (Rockwell) who thinks he is as smart as Tony but isn’t, quite.

And yet still better: Tony has his own Shepard Fairey-style “Hope” poster. It says “Iron Man” — a cheeky rebuke to an America that can elect a commander in chief who thinks perpetual apologizing is a bargaining position.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world, a terrifyingly single-minded Russian named Ivan (Mickey Rourke, who as he did in The Wrestler uses his wrecked looks to excellent effect), whose deceased father had a blood feud against Tony’s late dad (John Slattery of Mad Men), develops his own knockoff Iron Man suit and comes looking for Tony. He finds him, at the Monte Carlo car race that Tony joins on a lark.

But thanks to the twin high-voltage whips that Ivan can use to strip the side off an armored car, Tony, his bodyguard (director Jon Favreau), and his best girl Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) find themselves in danger of being outgunned by this snarling, almost wordless psycho. Naturally Justin Hammer and Ivan soon join forces — as Tony notices with his typical heedless bravado that a flaw in the power source he uses to operate his mechanical heart is slowly, fatally poisoning him.

That’s a lot of story — and I haven’t even mentioned Tony’s mysterious new assistant (Scarlett Johansson). But it all comes through clearly in Theroux’s fast-moving script. The action scenes are robust, especially the finale at the old World’s Fair site in Queens, N.Y., that also inspired the big finish of Men in Black, and Downey makes his many one-liners zing (he tells Nick Fury he doesn’t want to join his “superhero boy band”). Yet Rockwell is his equal, particularly in a hilarious monologue in which he describes his favorite weapons like “Uncle Gazpacho” (so called for the chunky red mess it tends to make of enemies) and “the ex-wife.”

Iron Man 2 is a big, brash, exciting, and brainy adventure, supercharged by its love for core American values. When the liberals huff that Tony Stark is a “lone gunslinger,” you know what he’s thinking: “Senator Weasel can have the rights to my Iron Man suit just as soon as he pries them out of my cold, dead hands.”

John Boot is the pen name of a conservative writer operating under deep cover in the liberal media.

The Go-Fly List for Terrorists

By Michelle Malkin
http://www.townhall.com/
May 7, 2010

If America's homeland security policies were subject to truth-in-advertising laws, the "no-fly" list would be known around the world by its right and proper name: the "go-fly" list. As in: Go right ahead, jihadists, and fly our planes. All aboard, evil-doers.

While grandmas and grade-schoolers and war heroes patiently pass through a gauntlet of wands, checkpoints and screening obstacles, the nation's safety watchdogs are asleep at the wheel. They've mentally checked out at the check-in counter. And they're in over their heads at federal counterterrorism centers, where "watch list" means putting the names of dangerous operatives into massive databases -- then idly watching potential bombers waltz through our airports and onto our tarmacs.

The federal no-fly scheme was bypassed or breached easily by both the Christmas Day bomb plotter and the Times Square bomb plotter. In the former case, Nigerian terror operative Umar Abdulmutallab had been on the counterterrorism radar screen for his radical jihadi threats (which had been reported by his father to U.S. embassy officials in London). But the young, single, rootless Muslim extremist with suspicious travel patterns -- ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! -- did not meet the standards for watch-listing and didn't even make it onto the second-tier "selectee list" of potential threats who can fly only after additional screening.

By contrast, beleaguered 8-year-old Mikey Hicks of Clifton, N.J., still can't get off the selectee list after years of ridiculous harassment while traveling on family vacations.

In the Times Square case, Team Obama immediately pointed fingers at the airline industry -- and Emirates airlines, in particular -- for failing to check no-fly list updates. The hindsight cops at the White House are now touting ex post facto rules mandating that the airlines check no-fly alerts every two hours instead of every 24 hours.

But law enforcement officials themselves neglected to contact all airlines directly and red-flag the addition of would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad's name to the government no-fly list. Moreover, despite paying cash for his trip to the Middle East and being listed on the Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list since 1999, Shahzad received no extra screening from the Transportation Security Administration (confirming once again the bureaucracy's own inside joke that TSA stands for "Thousands Standing Around").

The tourism industry certainly shares blame for putting travel profits ahead of national security over the years. But in this case, it was only thanks to airline industry compliance with a post-9/11 procedure requiring plane officials to send passenger manifests to the Department of Homeland Security that the feds caught up with Shahzad (whom they had lost track of in Connecticut) before he jetted off to Dubai.

President Obama has had plenty of time to address the enforcement lapses, database loopholes and technological delays of his predecessor. After the Christmas Day bombing debacle, he pledged to be proactive: "We will not rest." But to this day, TSA still doesn't check all domestic and international airline passenger manifests against the no-fly/go-fly list.

The data are only as good as the people entrusted to collect, process and use the information to protect national security. And without the ability to share and access the information across numerous agencies, the data are useless. Nearly nine years after Sept. 11, there is still no functional interoperability among an alphabet soup of national security and criminal databases -- including NAILS, TECS, CLASS, VISAS VIPER, TUSCAN, TIPPIX, IBIS, CIS, APIS, SAVE, IDENT, DACS, AFIS, ENFORCE and the NCIC. The Senate raised questions about understaffed efforts to modernize some of these databases back in March. What are we waiting for? The next jihadi bombing attempt?

The warped priorities of the Obama White House imperil us all. A command-and-control government that squanders its time and our money taking over businesses it has no business running -- health insurance, auto manufacturing, banking, student loans -- is a government neglecting its most fundamental mandate: providing for the common defense.


- Michelle Malkin makes news and waves with a unique combination of investigative journalism and incisive commentary. She is the author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild .

Miranda Warnings and Public Safety

Law-enforcement officers should not Mirandize terrorism suspects until they have all the information they need to protect lives.

By Charles Krauthammer
http://www.nationalreview.com/
May 7, 2010 12:00 A.M.

"[Law enforcement] interviewed Mr. Shahzad . . . under the public-safety exception to the Miranda rule. . . . He was eventually . . . Mirandized and continued talking." — John Pistole, FBI deputy director, May 4

All well and good. But what if Faisal Shahzad, the confessed Times Square bomber, had stopped talking? When you tell someone he has the right to remain silent, there is a distinct possibility that he will remain silent, is there not? And then what?

The authorities deserve full credit for capturing Shahzad within 54 hours. Credit is also due them for obtaining information from him by invoking the “public safety” exception to the Miranda rule.

But then Shahzad was Mirandized. If he had decided to shut up, it would have denied us valuable information — everything he is presumably telling us now about Pakistani contacts, training, plans for other possible plots beyond the Times Square attack.

The public-safety exception is sometimes called the “ticking-time-bomb” exception. But what about information regarding bombs not yet ticking but being planned and readied to kill later?

Think of the reason why we give any suspect Miranda warnings. It is not that you’re prohibited from asking questions before Mirandizing. You can ask a suspect anything you damn well please. You can ask him if he picks his feet in Poughkeepsie — but without Miranda warnings, the answers are not admissible in court.

In this case, however, Miranda warnings were superfluous. Shahzad had confessed to the car-bombing attempt while being interrogated under the public-safety exception. That’s admissible evidence. Plus, he left a treasure trove of physical evidence all over the place — which is how we caught him in two days.

Second, even assuming that by not Mirandizing him we might have jeopardized our chances of getting some convictions — so what? Which is more important: (a) gaining, a year or two hence, the conviction of a pigeon — the last and now least important link in this terror chain — whom we could surely get off the street with explosives and weapons charges, or (b) preventing future terror attacks on Americans by learning from Shahzad what he might know about terror plots in Pakistan and sleeper cells in the United States?

Even posing this choice demonstrates why the very use of the civilian judicial system to interrogate terrorists is misconceived, even if they are, like Shahzad, (naturalized) American citizens. America is the target of an ongoing jihadist campaign. The logical and serious way to defend ourselves is to place captured terrorists in military custody as unlawful enemy combatants. As former anti-terror prosecutor Andrew McCarthy notes in National Review, one of the six World War II German saboteurs captured in the U.S., tried by military commission, and executed was a U.S. citizen. It made no difference.

But let’s assume you’re wedded to the civilian-law-enforcement model, as the Obama administration is. At least make an attempt to expand the public-safety exception to Miranda in a way that takes into account the jihadist war that did not exist when that exception was narrowly drawn by the Supreme Court in the 1984 Quarles case.

The public-safety exception should be enlarged to allow law enforcement to interrogate, without Mirandizing, those arrested in the commission of terrorist crimes (and make the answers admissible) — until law enforcement is satisfied that vital intelligence related to other possible plots and threats to public safety has been sufficiently acquired.

This could be done by congressional statute. Or the administration could, in an actual case, refrain from Mirandizing until it had explored the outer limits of any plot — and then defend its actions before the courts, resting its argument on the Supreme Court’s own logic in the Quarles case: “We conclude that the need for answers to questions in a situation posing a threat to the public safety outweighs the need for the [Miranda] rule.”

Otherwise, we will be left — when a terrorist shuts up, as did the underwear bomber for five weeks — in the absurd position of capturing enemy combatants and then prohibiting ourselves from obtaining the information they have, and we need, to protect innocent lives.

My view is that we should treat enemy combatants as enemy combatants, whether they are U.S. citizens (Shahzad) or not (the underwear bomber). If, however, they are to be treated as ordinary criminals, then at least agree on this: no Miranda rights until we know everything that public safety demands we need to know.

— Charles Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist. © 2010, The Washington Post Writers Group.

Robin Roberts: A 'Phillies treasure'

By PAUL HAGEN
Philadelphia Daily News
hagenp@phillynews.com
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/
May 7, 2010

ON MAY 13, 1954, Robin Roberts gave up a leadoff home run to Cincinnati Reds third baseman Bobby Adams at Connie Mack Stadium. He then retired the next 27 batters he faced.

Warren Giles was the National League president at the time. His 19-year-old son, Bill, was listening to the game on the radio. Among the crowd of 6,856 at 21st and Lehigh was 7-year-old Dave Montgomery.

Years later, Giles was working in the Phillies organization. Montgomery was coaching football at Germantown Academy, whose roster happened to include two of Roberts' sons. Roberts eventually introduced Montgomery, a recent Wharton School graduate, to Giles, who hired him on the spot. Montgomery later succeeded Giles as Phillies president.

It's not really surprising that Roberts, who passed away of natural causes yesterday morning at age 83 at his home in Temple Terrace, Fla., would be the link to that piece of Phillies history. For more than 60 years, he was not only the greatest righthanded pitcher in franchise history but a thread that ran through the organization and baseball, first as a player and later as a beloved ambassador.

He is one of just four former players with a field named after him at the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Fla., and a statue honoring him at Citizens Bank Park. Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton and Rich Ashburn are the others. He was the ace of the 1950 Whiz Kids rotation, the only Phillies team to appear in the postseason between 1915 and 1976. The team retired his number. He was the first inductee to the Phillies Wall of Fame in 1978. He was an occasional visitor to the clubhouse both in spring training and during the regular season and avidly followed the Phillies.

"He would call numerous times. 'Did you see that play Jimmy made last night? That was unbelievable,' " recalled longtime media relations director Larry Shenk, now vice president of alumni relations. "He was a special human being, very special."

Montgomery called him a "Phillies treasure" and added: "I'm very proud of the relationship that Robin had with this club. Yes, he was a Hall of of Fame pitcher and his stats speak for themselves. But first and foremost for all of us here, he was our friend. We will miss him."

He came back to Philadelphia every year to help the organization by meeting and playing golf with sponsors and suiteholders and was scheduled to be in town next month.

He was such an integral part of the organization that he was given a championship ring after the Phillies won the World Series in 2008. "I'm ready for another ring," he told director of team travel Frank Coppenbarger this spring.

He also had a wider impact in the game. Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976, he served on the board of directors and returned without fail to Cooperstown, N.Y., for induction weekend each year. He was also instrumental in helping hire Marvin Miller as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1966.

"Known as one of the greatest pitchers of his era, Robin's legacy extends far beyond the diamond," current executive director Michael Weiner said in a statement. "Robin played an important role in establishing the Major League Baseball Players Association as a bona fide labor organization by helping the players of his day understand the benefits to be gained by standing together as one."

Yet he was also respected by ownership. "Robin truly loved baseball and had its best interests at heart," commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. "We will miss him."

Schmidt thought of him as a friend. "Robin will always be remembered for his Hall of Fame pitching career, but those closest to him will remember him more for his dedication to his family, the players association, the Hall of Fame and his coaching influence on young men at many level," he said. "He was a special guy. Anybody who knew Robin or had a chance to work with him in any way knows what a kind man he was."

Opposing players admired him as well. St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon remembered facing him in 1966 when Roberts was with the Chicago Cubs and in his final season.

Shannon was on his way to being named the National League's Player of the Month for July but, on this day, he went 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly. "He stopped my [10-game] hitting streak. He was finished at the time, but the old man showed the kid who was boss that day, I can tell you that," he said with a laugh.

Baseball is a story told through statistics and Roberts certainly had eye-popping numbers. He made 609 big-league starts and completed almost exactly half of them (305), including 28 straight at one point. He had at least 20 wins and 300 innings pitched for six straight seasons (1950-55). He made the All-Star team 7 straight years. He won 286 games. He pitched 19 years in the majors, the first 14 with the Phillies, before finishing with the Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros and Cubs.

Roberts was both durable and tough, remembered senior adviser Dallas Green.

"I watched Robbie a long time, and the thing I can remember more than anything is with a man on third and less than two outs, he'd kick it up another notch and they didn't score. That's what made him real special," Green said. "And he stayed in the game. He was a pretty good hitter, an excellent fielder. He did everything a pitcher had to do to stay in the game, and, of course, the manager kept him in there.

"Back in those days, that's what you were paid to do. You were paid to go nine innings. These five or six innings we have today . . . Robbie pitched a lot of years with a bad arm. We didn't have the medicine and stuff we have today, so he grit his teeth and did what he did."

Even if he had done nothing else in his career, he would have secured his place in Phillies history for what he did in 1950 when he made three starts in 5 days at the end of the season, including beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in the final game to send his team to the World Series.

"One in a million," said Whiz Kids teammate Bob Miller.

PHILADELPHIA - MAY 06: Jamie Moyer(notes) #50 of the Philadelphia Phillies sits in the dugout next to a jersey of Phillies Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts prior to playing the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park on May 6, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Roberts passed away today at the age of 83. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Said Phillies lefthander Jamie Moyer, who graduated from Souderton Area High School and attended Saint Joseph's: "He's meant a lot to the city. He's meant a lot to this organization. When things happened, in pregame ceremonies, he was always included. People always appreciated him. People knew a lot about him and his career. It wasn't like, 'That was the guy who pitched back then.' He was very well-respected in all walks of life."

Added centerfielder Shane Victorino: "Everybody knows how good he was. He wasn't a Hall of Famer for no reason. People know. We lose another legend in Phillies history. It's unfortunate again. I saw him in spring training. It seemed like he was fine.

"I look up on the scoreboard. I see the Phillies' all-time leaders. In fact, I was looking [Wednesday] when I went out for stretching. You look at some of the numbers and it's like, jeez, just everything he did. Everything around here is him, Schmitty, Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas. These guys are legends in Phillies history. These are guys who made the Phillies who they are."

The organization has planned a variety of tributes. A moment of silence was observed before yesterday afternoon's game and Phanavision played a video highlighting his remarkable career during the second inning.

His No. 36 jersey will hang in the dugout both at home and on the road for the rest of the season. Beginning with tonight's game against the Braves, a No. 36 patch will be worn on the right sleeve of the team's uniform tops.

The Phillies' 1950 National League pennant will fly at half-staff. A black drape will be hung on his Wall of Fame plaque in Ashburn Alley and his portrait in the Hall of Fame Club; his statue at the First Base Gate will be adorned with a wreath.

Roberts was a standout basketball player at Michigan State and became head baseball coach at the University of South Florida after he retired. He also was a roving minor league pitching instructor for the Phillies.

Giles told a story about the day, 60 years ago, when his father was still running the Cincinnati Reds and invited him to drive from the team's training site in Tampa to Clearwater. "He said, 'I want to show you a young pitcher. He just got out of Michigan State University.' It was Robin Roberts. He said, 'He's going to be a great one, Bill,' " Giles said.

"When I think of Robin there is definitely one word that comes quickly to mind: class. He was a class act both on and off the field. The way he lived his life was exemplary."

Roberts' wife, Mary, passed away in 2005. He is survived by four sons: Robin Jr., of Blue Bell; Dan and Jimmy, both of Temple Terrace; and Rick, of Athens, Ga.; one brother, John, of Springfield, Ill.; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

A funeral service is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Temple Terrace. In lieu of flowers, mourners are asked to donate to the church, the Baseball Assistance Team or the Gold Shield Foundation.


Recalling Roberts' 17-inning complete game

By Bill Conlin
Philadelphia Daily News Sports Columnist
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/
May 7, 2010

I SPENT A LOT of time yesterday sifting through the detritus of 62 years to uncover one shining moment that put a high luster on the fabulous baseball career and exemplary life of Robin Roberts.

The last Sunday of the 1950 season is the obvious choice. The Phillies' great righthander was making his third start in the final 5 days of a campaign where the Dodgers relentlessly reeled in Eddie Sawyer's young and depleted ballclub like a fisherman about to land a minnow with a pole rigged for marlin. So Whitey Ashburn threw out Cal Abrams at the plate in the bottom of the ninth to avert a Monday playoff. Dick Sisler bombed a three-run homer off Don Newcombe in the 10th. Robbie reached deep for that little extra he always seemed to have in his breast pocket, and the Phillies went to their first World Series since 1915.

Manager Eddie Sawyer gave his ace off in Game 1, raising eyebrows throughout baseball by starting relief ace Jim Konstanty against the heavily favored Yankees. Roberts started Game 2 Thursday on 3 days' rest. It was his fourth start in 9 days. A fading Joe DiMaggio beat him, 2-1, in the 10th with a homer.

There were brilliant individual games, of course, sprinkled through his time here with a rapidly fading Phillies team like leitmotifs in a gloomy Wagnerian opera.

But let me reach out to the longest afternoon of Robin Roberts' career for a performance that captures the distilled essence of the Hall of Fame legend who died in his Florida home yesterday morning after spending Wednesday night watching the Phillies beat the Cardinals.

On Sept. 6, 1952, Roberts went for his 23rd victory against the tough Boston Braves. It did not go well for Robbie. After eight innings - and why was he still in there? - it was 6-6. Robbie had allowed five earned runs on nine hits.

"Stubborn as a mule," Stan Hochman described him to MLB.com yesterday. He pitched a scoreless ninth and the game staggered into extra innings. In fact, despite allowing nine more hits for a total of 18 in a game the Phils won, 7-6, in the bottom of the 17th on a Del Ennis walkoff, Roberts hung eight more goose eggs on Boston.

Now, I want all you pitch-count advocates to cover your eyes. And if you're coaching your Little League kid to be the next 75-pitch wonder, hide the newspaper, the laptop or the iPod.

When Robin got the final out in a 1-2-3 inning - one of his few clean frames - he had faced 71 batters. With his control and riding four-seamer, the drop-and-drive righthander normally had a ton of pitches fouled off. He struck out only five. So, if you assume a conservative average of five pitches per hitter, you can also assume that Robbie's pitch count was well into the 300s. No, Sawyer didn't use him in the second game of the doubleheader. But he came back on his turn Sept. 11, and beat the Cardinals, 3-2, for No. 24 on his way to 28-7 and 30 complete games.

Roberts was running on fumes by 1961 and manager Gene Mauch was in no mood to bronze fading Hall of Fame careers, not with the dreck he was running out there in his second season. It has been variously reported through the obscuring mists of time that Mauch observed, as Robbie careened toward a 1-10 record and an October sale to the Yankees, "He's pitching like Betsy Ross." Or, "He's pitching like Dolley Madison." I had not heard Hochman's revisionist version, "He's pitching like Molly Putz." When I asked Mauch about the line decades ago, he said he couldn't remember.

Roberts was not a vindictive man by any stretch. But he did have an in-Mauch's-face moment. After being released by the Yankees, Orioles and Astros, he landed with the Cubs in July 1966 in the role of player/pitching coach for manager Leo Durocher. He began working with a tall, young righthander named Ferguson Jenkins, who had been traded to the Cubs by Phils GM John Quinn in the ill-advised acquisition of veteran righthanders Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl. Roberts was blown away by Fergie's talent.

"I went to Leo and said, 'You've got to move this kid out of the bullpen and into the rotation,' " Roberts told the salty Durocher. "He's got a heavy sinker he can throw to either corner, got a late-breaking, hard curve."

On July 15, 1966, Robbie pitched his final career complete-game victory, outpitching the Pirates' Vern Law, 5-4. Durocher gradually worked Jenkins into his rotation. On Sept. 6, Fergie defeated Phillies ace Jim Bunning, 7-2.

"All he did was win at least 20 for the next six seasons pitching in [Wrigley Field]," Robbie said.

In the fractional jargon of baseball, Robin Roberts, 83, passed away with one out in the eighth inning of a magnificently balanced and underrated life that was lived without scandal, controversy or the smallest trace of pettiness. During his 9 years as baseball coach at the University of South Florida, he turned an invisible program into a perennial NCAA Tournament team. He probably could have been an NBA backcourt man after a fabulous career at Michigan State, where he led the Spartans in field-goal percentage all 3 years and was captain as a junior and senior. But pitching was his passion.

If Rich Ashburn was His Whiteness, the pulse and personality of the Phillies' organization, Robin Roberts was its White Knight, an unassuming man who looked like Everyman, but threw the baseball like Superman, even in that long-forgotten game in which his pitch count would have been a felony even in Clark Kent's Metropolis.

Send e-mail to bill1chair@aol.com.

For recent columns, go to http://go.philly.com/conlin.



The Complete Pitcher

By Bill Lyon
For The Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
May 7, 2010

Robin Evan Roberts was a starter.

And his own setup man.

And his own closer.

All in the same game.

Baseball, as played by the Phillies, was this simple back in the halcyon days of the 1950s: The manager would give Robin Roberts the ball and Robin Roberts wouldn't give it back.

He didn't just win 20 a year, he would pitch 20 complete games a year.

And he would do so without the aid of suspicious pharmaceuticals, whatever they were.

Without a pitch count, whatever that was.

Without long toss, whatever that was.

Without four days in between starts, whatever they were. Sometimes without three days in between, whatever they were.

Robin Roberts had an elastic right arm and from it he coaxed 19 big-league seasons and almost 4,700 innings, and if you look up tireless in the dictionary, there is his picture.

I asked him last October, during the World Series, what his secret was, and he replied: "Well, we used our arms a lot."

What a quaint concept.

Robby, gentle soul, passed Thursday. The same thread will run through all the eulogies to come: We have lost a good man and true, a man of grace and quiet dignity, a man who reached the Hall of Fame but remained self-effacing. No one was more unimpressed with Robby than Robby himself.

There was no strut in him, not a shred of ego. He was a master craftsman, and he was more than glad to mentor in the fine art of that craft those who asked, regardless of their station in life. Twenty-game winner or scuffling journeyman, he treated them all the same.

Elsewhere on these pages you will find the numbers he amassed. They are staggering, and they all speak to his stamina, his endurance, his reliability. Give him the ball, lean back and enjoy.

Down in the bullpen they used to say the best day to have a hangover was when Robby's turn came around. You wouldn't even have to get loose.

There was a simple economy to his approach, and there was no wasted effort in his mechanics. He kept the number of moving parts to a minimum and kept his delivery fluid. And most of all he threw strikes.

The hitters knew that, knew he was always around the plate, and they tried to capitalize on it, which is reflected in the home runs he yielded. Had he been the least bit nasty, well . . . But it just wasn't his way to play stick-it-in-their-ear. He was simply too nice.

Besides, all those eager swingers who were rushing to put the ball in play helped keep his pitch count low. Plus, no fielders, after standing there killing grass while waiting for a nibbler to finally wind up, ever complained about playing behind Robby - heads up, line drive coming.

Asked for his routine, he said: "I ran and worked out the day after. Threw some batting practice. Shagged batting practice. Played a lot of pepper."

Quite a contrast to the coddled, baby-armed divas of today.

"I never asked the manager to take me out or leave me in," he said. "I just took the ball."

He finished 14 wins shy of 300, and had his career been spent with good teams he would have breezed past that magic number. As it was, of his 14 seasons with the Phillies, they had losing records in 10 of them.

He was never one to point that out.

The last time we talked, six months ago, in the heart of the postseason, Cole Hamels walked past, slumped in despair, locked in doubt, wondering how it was that the champagne had turned to vinegar. The others were giving him a wide berth, just in case whatever he had was contagious.

But not Robby.

"Hey, Lefthander," he called.

Hamels looked up, warily, braced for yet another critique.

"Don't forget," Robby said, "just how good you are."

Sooner or later, you are pleased to see, class really does reveal itself.

There's a name for it: Gentleman.


Bill Lyon is a retired Inquirer columnist.

OBAMA NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY: HOPE THEIR BOMBS DON'T WORK

By Ann Coulter
http://www.anncoulter.com/
May 5, 2010

It took Faisal Shahzad trying to set a car bomb in Times Square to get President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to finally use the word "terrorism." (And not referring to Tea Party activists!)

This is a major policy shift for a president who spent a month telling Americans not to "jump to conclusions" after Army doctor Nidal Malik Hasan reportedly jumped on a desk, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and began shooting up Fort Hood.

After last weekend, now Obama is even threatening to pronounce it "Pack-i-stan" instead of "Pahk-i-stahn." We know Obama is taking terrorism seriously because he took a break from his "Hope, Change & Chuckles" tour on the comedy circuit to denounce terrorists.

In a bit of macho posturing this week, Obama declared that -- contrary to the terrorists' wishes -- Americans "will not be terrorized, we will not cower in fear, we will not be intimidated."

First of all, having the Transportation Security Administration wanding infants, taking applesauce away from 93-year-old dementia patients, and forcing all Americans to produce their shoes, computers and containers with up to 3 ounces of liquid in Ziploc bags for special screening pretty much blows that "not intimidated" look Obama wants America to adopt.

"Intimidated"? How about "absolutely terrified"?

Second, it would be a little easier for the rest of us not to live in fear if the president's entire national security strategy didn't depend on average citizens happening to notice a smoldering SUV in Times Square or smoke coming from a fellow airline passenger's crotch.

But after the car bomber and the diaper bomber, it has become increasingly clear that Obama's only national defense strategy is: Let's hope their bombs don't work!

If only Dr. Hasan's gun had jammed at Fort Hood, that could have been another huge foreign policy success for Obama.

The administration's fingers-crossed strategy is a follow-up to Obama's earlier and less successful "Let's Make Them Love Us!" plan.

In the past year, Obama has repeatedly apologized to Muslims for America's "mistakes."

He has apologized to Iran for President Eisenhower's taking out loon Mohammad Mossadegh, before Mossadegh turned a comparatively civilized country into a Third World hellhole. You know, like the Ayatollah has.

He has apologized to the entire Muslim world for the French and English colonizing them -- i.e. building them flush toilets.

He promised to shut down Guantanamo. And he ordered the mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to be tried in the same courthouse that tried Martha Stewart.

There was also Obama's 90-degree-bow tour of the East and Middle East. For his next visit, he plans to roll on his back and have his belly scratched like Fido.

Despite favorable reviews in The New York Times, none of this put an end to Islamic terrorism.

So now, I gather, our only strategy is to hope the terrorists' bombs keep fizzling.

There's no other line of defense. In the case of the Times Square car bomber, the Department of Homeland Security failed, the Immigration and Naturalization Service failed, the CIA failed and the TSA failed. (However, the Department of Alert T-Shirt Vendors came through with flying colors, as it always does.)

Only the New York Police Department, a New York street vendor and Shahzad's Rube Goldberg bomb (I do hope he's not offended by how Jewish that sounds -- Obama can apologize) prevented a major explosion in Times Square.

Even after the NYPD de-wired the smoking car bomb, produced enough information to identify the bomb-maker, and handed it all to federal law enforcement authorities tied up in a bow, the federal government's crack "no-fly" list failed to stop Shahzad from boarding a plane to Dubai.

To be fair, at Emirates Airlines, being on a "no-fly" list makes you eligible for pre-boarding.

Perhaps the Department of Homeland Security should consider creating a "Really, REALLY No-Fly" list.

Contrary to the wild excuses being made for the federal government on all the TV networks Monday night, it's now clear that this was not a wily plan of federal investigators to allow Shahzad to board the plane in order to nab his co-conspirators. It was a flub that nearly allowed Shahzad to escape.

Meanwhile, on that same Monday at JFK airport, approximately 100,000 passengers took off their shoes, coats, belts and sunglasses for airport security.

But the "highly trained federal force" The New York Times promised us on Oct. 28, 2001, when the paper demanded that airport security be federalized, failed to stop the only guy they needed to stop at JFK last Monday -- the one who planted a bomb in the middle of Times Square days earlier.

So why were 100,000 other passengers harassed and annoyed by the TSA?

The federal government didn't stop the diaper bomber from nearly detonating a bomb over Detroit. It didn't stop a guy on the "No Fly" list from boarding a plane and coming minutes away from getting out of the country.

If our only defense to terrorism is counting on alert civilians, how about not bothering them before they board airplanes, instead of harassing them with useless airport "security" procedures?

Both of the attempted bombers who sailed through airport security, I note, were young males of the Islamic faith. I wonder if we could develop a security plan based on that information?

And speaking of a "highly trained federal force," who's working at the INS these days? Who on earth made the decision to allow Shahzad the unparalleled privilege of becoming a U.S. citizen in April 2009?

Our "Europeans Need Not Apply" immigration policies were absurd enough before 9/11. But after 19 foreign-born Muslims, legally admitted to the U.S., murdered 3,000 Americans in New York and Washington in a single day, couldn't we tighten up our admission policies toward people from countries still performing stonings and clitorectomies?

The NYPD can't be everyplace.

COPYRIGHT 2010 ANN COULTER

Today's Tune: Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Tell Me

(Click on title to play video)

In England, A Victory for Freedom

By Pamela Geller
http://www.americanthinker.com/
May 05, 2010

In an unprecedented victory for free people everywhere, a monster mosque costing $27 million that had been planned for the English town of Dudley despite overwhelming opposition from the townspeople has been scrapped. Fifty-five thousand locals had signed a petition against the mosque, but the dhimmi government went over their heads and said it was going to be built anyway. But in the end, the Muslims and the government didn't get their way.

That this mosque would have gone ahead at all after the petitions shows a contempt for the people that is breathtaking. But now it has been scrapped after a brilliant protest staged by the courageous English patriots of the much-maligned English Defence League.


Flag-waving: Members of the EDL wave St George's Cross and a flag supporting troops.

The EDL on Sunday occupied and camped out on the rooftop of the abandoned building slated to be turned into the mammoth new mosque.
The EDL's website said that the protesters had "food and water to last them weeks, and a PA system to give speeches." They played the Muslim call to prayer over their PA system, to give the locals a taste of what was in store for them.

Police closed streets as EDL members streamed into Dudley to show support. Riot vans and helicopters converged on the scene, hoping to bring the EDL's protest to a swift end. Muslims also trekked to Dudley to counter the EDL. Senior EDL leadership informed me that thousands of Muslims soon began rioting in Dudley, throwing missiles and objects at the protesters (although they were unable to reach them) -- and in the process, showing the true face of Islam.

EDL leaders also reported that in addition to the thousands of rioting Muslims, numerous Muslim gangs were roaming Dudley. Beatings and stabbings were reported as well. The West Midlands police, the second largest police force in the United Kingdom, could not control the wilding Muslims.

Yet in the mainstream media reports, they held back from reporting on how the Muslims were beating non-Muslims, and they never identified the assailants. What makes this more egregious is that the media has no trouble demonizing the EDL, which, ironically enough, is fighting for the very freedoms those decayed liberal journalist hacks so richly enjoy. Oh, the irony.

The EDL is routinely smeared in the British media, as the Tea Party activists are smeared in the U.S. media. The corrupt, biased media defames any group, person, or organization standing against Islamic supremacism.
They tar, feather, and destroy the good name of good people who stand for life, liberty, and individual rights. Libel and slander like "racist," "fascist," "bigot," etc. color every news report of every counter-jihad action. The quisling media is the propaganda arm of jihad. It's despicable. There is nothing racist, fascist, or bigoted about the EDL.

Nonetheless, the establishment is on the other side. Chief Inspector Matt Markham of the West Midlands Police said, "Our priorities are to minimise any disruption to the local community in Dudley and to prevent any further incidents of disorder from occurring." In other words, Islamic supremacists can destroy a town, a city, a country, ruin their whole way of life, and authorities snuff out any expression of opposition to such a plan. Got that?
The irony abounds.

Even so, in Dudley, the giant fortress, which was set to feature a 65-foot minaret, has now been stopped. The mosque plans have been pulled.

Why protest construction of a mosque? The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once read from an Islamic poem that put it best: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and Muslims our soldiers."

Islamic expert Robert Spencer explains: "Recently we have seen mosques used to preach hatred; to spread exhortations to terrorist activity; to house a bomb factory; to store weapons; to disseminate messages from bin Laden; to demand (in the U.S.) that non-Muslims conform to Islamic dietary restrictions; to fire on American troops; to fire upon Indian troops; to train jihadists; and much more. In light of all that, it is entirely reasonable for free people to oppose the construction of new mosques in non-Muslim countries."

Yet despite the EDL victory, Muslims are still policing the streets in cars around Dudley. And of course the dhimmi Dudley police are doing nothing about it.

The British political establishment has sold its people down the river and suppressed popular dissent. This is self-enforced sharia law.

Free people should support the English Defence League in its efforts to stand for England and the West against the belligerent invaders and Islamic imperialists.

- Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and former associate publisher of the New York Observer. She is the author of The Post-American Presidency (coming July 27 from Simon & Schuster).

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Immigration and Sham Marriages

The jihadists’ deadly path to citizenship

By Michelle Malkin
http://www.nationalreview.com/
Maay 5, 2010


America’s homeland-security amnesia never ceases to amaze. In the aftermath of the botched Times Square terror attack over the weekend, Pakistani-born bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad’s U.S. citizenship status caused a bit of shock and awe. The response of Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for The Atlantic magazine, was typical: “I am struck by the fact that he is a naturalized American citizen, not a recent or temporary visitor.” Well, wake up and smell the deadly deception.

New Yorkers faced tougher, more visible security measures as the arrest of Faisal Shahzad in connection with the Times Square bomb plot and a widening global investigation kept the city on edge. (AFP/Jewel Samad)

Shahzad’s path to American citizenship — he reportedly married an American woman, Huma Mian, in 2008, after spending a decade in the country on foreign-student and employment visas — is a tried-and-true terror formula. Jihadists have been gaming the sham-marriage racket with impunity for years. And immigration-benefit fraud has provided invaluable cover and aid for U.S.-based Islamic plotters, including many other operatives planning attacks on New York City. As I’ve reported previously:

* El Sayyid A. Nosair wed Karen Ann Mills Sweeney to avoid deportation for overstaying his visa. He acquired U.S. citizenship, allowing him to remain in the country, and was later convicted for conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that claimed six lives.

* Ali Mohamed became an American citizen after marrying a woman he met on a plane trip from Egypt to New York. Recently divorced, Linda Lee Sanchez wed Mohamed in Reno, Nev., after a six-week “courtship.” Mohamed became a top aide to Osama bin Laden and was later convicted for his role in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa that killed 12 Americans and more than 200 others.

* Embassy-bombing plotter Khalid Abu al-Dahab obtained citizenship after marrying three different American women.

* Embassy-bombing plotter Wadih el-Hage, Osama bin Laden’s personal secretary, married April Ray in 1985 and became a naturalized citizen in 1989. Ray knew of her husband’s employment with bin Laden, but like many of these women in bogus marriages, she pleaded ignorance about the nature of her husband’s work. El-Hage, she says, was a sweet man, and bin Laden “was a great boss.”

* Lebanon-born Chawki Youssef Hammoud, convicted in a Hezbollah cigarette-smuggling operation based out of Charlotte, N.C., married American citizen Jessica Fortune for a green card to remain in the country.

* Hammoud’s brother, Mohammed Hammoud, married three different American women. After arriving in the United States on a counterfeit visa, being ordered deported, and filing an appeal, he wed Sabina Edwards to gain a green card. Federal immigration officials refused to award him legal status after this first marriage was deemed bogus in 1994. Undaunted, he married Jessica Wedel in May 1997 and, while still wed to her, paid Angela Tsioumas (already married to someone else, too) to marry him in Detroit. The Tsioumas union netted Mohammed Hammoud temporary legal residence to operate the terror-cash scam. He was later convicted on 16 counts that included providing material support to Hezbollah.

* A total of eight Middle Eastern men who plotted to bomb New York landmarks in 1993 — Fadil Abdelgani, Amir Abdelgani, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, Tarig Elhassan, Abdo Mohammed Haggag, Fares Khallafalla, Mohammed Saleh, and Matarawy Mohammed Said Saleh — obtained legal permanent residence by marrying American citizens.

A year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, homeland-security officials cracked a massive illegal alien/Middle Eastern marriage-fraud ring in a sting dubbed “Operation Broken Vows.” Authorities were stunned by the scope of the operations, which stretched from Boston to South Carolina to California. But marriage fraud remains a treacherous path of least resistance. The waiting period for U.S. citizenship is cut by more than half for marriage-visa beneficiaries. Sham-marriage monitoring by backlogged homeland-security investigators is practically nonexistent.

As former federal immigration official Michael Cutler warned years ago: “Immigration benefit fraud is certainly one of the major ‘dots’ that was not connected prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001, and remains a ‘dot’ that is not really being addressed the way it needs to be in order to secure our nation against criminals and terrorists who understand how important it is for them to ‘game’ the system as a part of the embedding process.”

Jihadists have knowingly and deliberately exploited our lax immigration and entrance policies to secure the rights and benefits of American citizenship while they plot mass murder — and we haven’t done a thing to stop them.


— Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies. © 2010 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Denying Jihad — Again

Posted by Robert Spencer on May 5th, 2010
http://frontpagemag.com/

We know now that the car bomb in Times Square was an attempted Islamic jihad attack. But the mainstream media, following its usual pattern, is once again denying, minimizing, or obfuscating this fact.

Writing in The Nation on Monday, Robert Dreyfuss epitomized the mainstream media’s hope that the car bomber would turn out to be a right-wing extremist: “It may be that the Pakistan-based Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has quietly established a Connecticut franchise while we weren’t looking. That’s possible. But it seems far more likely to me that the perpetrator of the bungled Times Square bomb plot was either a lone wolf or a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party, anti-government far right. Which actually exists in Connecticut, where, it seems, the car’s licence plates were stolen.”

In reality, according to Pakistani authorities, Faisal Shahzad, the would-be car bomber, attended a jihad training camp in that country. He spent five months in Pakistan recently, including some time in Peshawar, a center of Al-Qaeda and Taliban activity. A Pakistani Taliban group claimed responsibility for the attack — a claim that American authorities immediately dismissed, but which gained a new claim to serious consideration when Shahzad’s Pakistani connections were revealed.

Shahzad parked his explosives-laden SUV outside the offices of Viacom, the parent company of Comedy Central, which presents South Park, the cartoon whose creators were just threatened with death by Islamic supremacists in New York for daring to lampoon Muhammad. The Muslim group that issued the threat, Revolution Muslim, was proselytizing in Times Square just hours before Shahzad’s car bomb was discovered.

Yet for all this, virtually no media reports are saying anything about Shahzad being a Muslim. Such a reference, however, would hardly be gratuitous: Islamic jihad theology and the death penalty enshrined in Islamic law for anyone who insults Allah or Muhammad are the most likely keys to Shahzad’s motivation. But the politically correct, multiculturalist imperative demands that Islam and Muslims, being (at least in this addled view) non-white and non-Western, must always be portrayed as victims, no matter how imaginative the lengths to which analysts must go in order to find something, anything, to blame for the carnage other than Islam’s doctrines of hatred of and violence against unbelievers.

Ezra Klein in the Washington Post led the way in the imaginative department. Observing that Shahzad defaulted on the mortgage on his home in Connecticut and that the property is now in foreclosure, Klein discovered a hitherto-unnoticed motivated for violent jihad: “foreclosures generate an enormous amount of misery and anxiety and depression that can tip people into all sorts of dangerous behaviors that don’t make headlines but do ruin lives. And for all that we’ve done to save the financial sector, we’ve not done nearly enough to help struggling homeowners.” Help struggling homeowners, or they’ll try to set off car bombs in Times Square!

MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer, meanwhile, may not have had to face the heartbreak of foreclosure, but she had her own reason to feel “an enormous amount of misery and anxiety and depression”: what got Brewer down was that Shahzad turned out to be a Muslim. “There was a part of me,” lamented Brewer once the perpetrator was identified, “that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country.”

Brewer explained that she hoped that Shahzad’s action would not give rise to a resurgence of what she called “outdated bigotry” – voicing the common mainstream media preoccupation with a “backlash” against innocent Muslims. This preoccupation manifests itself in a flood of articles about Muslims fears of this “backlash” every time there is an attempted or successful jihad terror attack in America or Europe; the only thing that never appears is the backlash itself, which remains more a figment of the Leftist media’s imagination than an actual threat against innocent Muslims.

Nonetheless, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was likewise preoccupied with this phantom threat of a backlash, warning New Yorkers several times that any action against Muslims or Pakistanis. Bloomberg ought to be ashamed of himself. He should have been making statements about protecting Americans of all creeds, and calling the Muslim community in America to account for its tolerance of jihadists. There has never been a backlash against innocent Muslims in the U.S. It is a fiction that we only hear about when a Muslim plots mass murder of Americans. And then we hear about it endlessly, as if Muslims were the victims rather than the perpetrators.

Faisal Shahzad and his car bomb is yet another indication of the tenacity and persistence of the jihad against the United States – and of the continuing and even hardening resistance of American officials to the elementary step of even admitting that that jihad is being waged.

Baseball's Arizona Strikeout

The Nation's Pulse

By Aaron Goldstein on 5.5.10 @ 6:08AM
The American Spectator
http://spectator.org/

The biggest obstacle facing Arizona's much maligned new immigration law is not that it could be struck down by the Supreme Court but rather that it could be struck out by Major League Baseball.

Baseball is not only America's pastime but it also generates billions of dollars in revenue across the country. The economic benefits of baseball are seen not only in cities with major league teams but in smaller communities with minor league franchises. Outside of Florida there is perhaps no other state that derives a greater economic benefit from baseball than Arizona where professional baseball is played nearly year round.

Every March, baseball fans converge on Arizona to watch spring training games under the auspices of the Cactus League. Since 1998, the number of teams in the Cactus League has nearly doubled from eight to fifteen. This season, the Cactus League welcomed the Cincinnati Reds to its ranks. In 2009, the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers joined up. The Dodgers were lured to Glendale from Vero Beach, Florida, which had been their spring training home since 1948.

Of course, there are the Arizona Diamondbacks. Remember Luis Gonzalez in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series? But if the D'Backs aren't playing post-season in October then baseball fans can satiate their appetites for extra innings through the middle of November with the Arizona Fall League. It is estimated that Arizona generates more than $350 million in revenue from the Cactus League alone. Not surprisingly those who oppose Arizona's new immigration law are hoping they can persuade MLB to swing into action.

Some want to boycott the D'Backs. This, however, might not be such an effective tactic. Should the D'Backs, who finished in last place in the NL West in 2009, end up playing poorly again this summer, fans will stay away from Chase Field immigration law or no immigration law.

But then there is the 2011 MLB All-Star Game which is set to be held in the aforementioned Chase Field. José Serrano, a Democratic Congressman in New York's 16th District, has called on MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to move the game from Phoenix. Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has said he will not go west if he is asked to take part in the proceedings.

Late last week, Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Michael Weiner issued a statement (pdf) opposing the law:

We hope that the law is repealed or modified promptly. If the current law goes into effect, the MLBPA will consider additional steps necessary to protect the rights and interests of our members.

The same day Weiner issued his statement, the Arizona legislature modified the legislation and these changes were approved by Governor Jan Brewer.

Naturally, I was curious whether these modifications would mollify the MLBPA. If these changes weren't satisfactory, then what suggestions did they have to offer? And what "additional steps" would the MLBPA take if their demands were not met? However, when I spoke with MLBPA Communications Director Greg Bouris over the phone he declined to elaborate beyond what was contained in Weiner's statement.

As of this writing, Commissioner Selig has not issued a statement of his own concerning this matter. However, if Selig were to make a statement concurring with Weiner then all bets are off. While the MLBPA represents the interest of the players the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball represents the owners. If the players and owners are in solidarity in opposition to Senate Bill 1070, this legislation might face an insurmountable obstacle.

If you are a fan of baseball then you will know that Latino players born both within the United States and outside its borders comprise a significant presence in the game. Nearly one out of every four players on major league rosters is Latino. This gives ample room for those who seek to engage in demagoguery. Exhibit A: President Barack Obama. Consider what he said at a town hall meeting in Iowa last week:

But you can imagine, if you are a Hispanic American in Arizona -- your great-grandparents may have been there before Arizona was even a state. But now, suddenly, if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you're going to be harassed. That's something that could potentially happen.

The idea that law enforcement officials in Arizona are going to stake out every Baskin-Robbins along Interstate 17 laying in wait for Hispanic families is not only preposterous but a poorly conceived notion. But when President Obama speaks people listen. No wonder Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cesar Izturis is freaking out. The Venezuelan born veteran infielder recently commented:

Now they're going to go after everybody, not just the people behind the wall. Now they're going to come out on the street. What if you're walking on the street with your family and kids? They're going to go after you.

But why would the police come after Izturis if he is merely walking the street with his family? Unless Izturis is engaging some kind of illegal activity, the only reason the police might stop him is to ask for his autograph. While Izturis is trouble on the baseball field he should have nothing to fear while walking Arizona's straight and narrow streets with his family.

Unfortunately, President Obama and others have taken ownership of the Arizona immigration bill with fallacies and fear instead of facts and figures. If Cesar Izturis honestly believes police are going to go after him, then it is incumbent upon Governor Brewer and State Senator Russell Pearce (the bill's sponsor) to give reassurance that he and others have nothing to fear from Arizona's new immigration law. Then perhaps Izturis will be at ease outside the lines.

Ernie Harwell: Gone now, but never forgotten

BY MITCH ALBOM
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
http://www.freep.com/section/SPORTS
May 5, 2010

The Voice of Summer died in the spring, shortly before the Tigers' first pitch of the evening. That was fitting. Ernie Harwell would never want to interrupt the game.

Gone now. Like the home run that lands in the seats, like the final out of the ninth inning, like the thousands of games he closed with his signature sign-offs, his genteel voice telling us he'd see us tomorrow. Gone now. No more tomorrows. At 92, after a battle with bile duct cancer that stretched into extra innings, Ernie let go of this world and moved on to the higher place from which we were certain he was sent.


AP Photo Lad Strayer

Ernie Harwell in his radio booth at Comerica Park.

Gone now. We knew this was coming. Ernie, in his final grace, prepared us for it. He told us not to worry. We still worried. He told us not to cry. We cried anyhow. He told us he had led the life he'd wanted, that he was ready to say good-bye.

But we were not.

"I know into whose arms I'm gonna fall," he told me in one of our last conversations, on a wide stage in front of a sold-out Fox Theatre, a last, packed-house tribute to a man who became arguably the most popular figure in the history of our state simply by doing the same gentle thing over and over, simply by being there, by remaining consistent, pure, good and true, even as things around him became anything but. Ernie stood out because he stood still. He was reliable as a rock. A soul in a void. A heart in a sometimes heartless world.

As long as there was Ernie, there was still a piece of childhood, of summers gone by, a piece of what baseball was supposed to be about, a pastime, a joyous diversion, youth -- good, sweet, innocent youth. Even after he stopped broadcasting nearly eight years ago, just knowing he was here, seeing him on occasion at the stadium, his hands dug in his back pockets, that wide grin beneath a funny beret, made us feel that things were still OK in baseball, because the Voice of Summer was still around, watching over the game.

Gone now.

A man we all knew so well

And so the time comes to write the piece you never want to write. The one you build for over a career and must punch out in a matter of hours. So unfair, it seems. But then, what can I tell you that you don't already know? Normally, when someone dies, those of us on the inside can share the unique perspective of "a person who knew him." But everybody knew Ernie. If you heard him, you knew him. If you met him, you knew him. He was that rare thing, a man the same on the front side and the back.

Maybe I can tell you a few things. The way he re-enacted games in his early days as a voice of the Atlanta Crackers, following the action on tickertape, then broadcasting with sound effects, as if it happened in front of him. Sometimes, he told me, if the machine broke down, he'd have to invent a reason for the delay.

"Uh-oh, a dog just ran on the field," he'd say, or something like that. Ernie laughed at those memories. But in such moments, he had to use his imagination. And ultimately, that made him more like us. For wasn't imagination a key to listening to baseball on the radio? Didn't you paint pictures to Ernie's words as he called the action -- "the crafty left-hander" on the mound, or, on a nasty strikeout, the batter who "stood there like the house by the side of the road"?

Over time, Ernie's voice became the soundtrack of our internal pictures, until the game became a story -- a story told by a fatherly figure. I once said if baseball could talk, it would sound like Ernie Harwell -- unhurried, slightly southern, as comfortable as an old couch.

It was true then, it is true now.

But you knew that already.

What else can I tell you? That he loved his wife? This is almost too obvious to mention. For 68 years, they were together, acting like kids on their first date. The last time I saw them both, a few months back, in his modest residence at a senior center in Novi, he said, "Lulu, how about some of that butter pecan ice cream?" And she brought us some and we ate it together. I don't know why I remember that line. "How about some of that butter pecan ice cream?" It was just so innocent, so happy, a man in his 90s, asking for a treat. I don't even eat ice cream. I ate it that night. How could you not do what this guy wanted to do?

Ernie. He once wrote that his heroes were sportswriters. I guess we loved him for that. But I can tell you that whenever a new sportswriter or broadcaster came to town, Ernie would greet him as if we were lucky to have him. He never played the kingpin. Never acted like a boss checking out the new kid. Not with journalists. Not with players. He made humility his calling card, he shook hands and drawled, "Welcome to the Tigahs" or "Good to have ya here," and it usually would be someone else who would nudge the new guy and say, "Do you know who that is? That's Ernie Harwell. THE Ernie Harwell."

No one ever earned a "THE" more than him.

Truly one for the ages

There is, in the story of any good man's passing, the laundry list of achievements that should be mentioned, the fact that Harwell was likely the first baseball announcer to be traded for a player (in 1948), the fact that he called games for the Dodgers, Giants, Orioles and Tigers, the fact that he missed just two broadcasts in his 55 years behind the mike -- one because he was being inducted into a hall of fame. The fact that he was there for Jackie Robinson's career as well as Cecil Fielder's, the fact that he did 42 years in Detroit and that the press box in Comerica Park is now named in his honor, the fact that he wrote hundreds of songs and penned a famous baseball poem, the fact that he felt unsatisfied by his path in the 1960s, attended a Bill Graham speech in Florida one night and became a devout Christian, the fact that lived quietly by those precepts for the rest of his days.

An outsider may wonder why so many fans today are singing Ernie's praises, but it was largely because he never sang his own. In a sport full of big egos, Ernie's was invisible. He once told the media, when asked about his retirement, that pretty soon people would say, "Who's that old guy who used to do the Tiger games?"

That was the rare time Ernie Harwell miscalculated. Nobody says that. And we'll all be off this earth before anybody will.

Gone now. Ernie believed in heaven and you can see him in it, because where else could he be? He left this world Tuesday night with his wife and children by his side, and when the news was announced in Minnesota, where the Tigers were playing, fans there gave him a standing ovation. In Minnesota! His body will lie in repose at Comerica Park on Thursday morning, like a head of state, giving fans a chance to say good-bye. I can't remember that ever happening for an announcer.

But then, Harwell was more than an announcer. He was a voice inside of us as well as outside us. A voice you still can hear, even though the world has silenced it. He was a man to admire, an example of life lived purely and honestly. And because of that, Ernie will live on inside everyone who ever met him, shook his hand, gave him a hug, or simply heard his soothing words come through a tiny speaker in a car radio, or through an earphone hidden from the teacher on a school day afternoon.

In his last appearance at the stadium last year, he told the crowd, "The blessed part of (my) journey is that it's going to end here in the great state of Michigan."

And one last time, his call was on the money. Ernie Harwell, the Voice of Summer, is now, as they say in the game he loved, in the books. But his page will be read again and again, and remembered lovingly by any of us lucky enough to have heard, met or known him. Gone now. But not forgotten. Never forgotten. You don't forget your angels. And I'm sure Ernie's one right now, up there, because he was always one down here.

Contact MITCH ALBOM: 313-223-4581 or malbom@freepress.com. Catch "The Mitch Albom Show" 5-7 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760). Also catch "Monday Sports Albom" 7-8 p.m. Mondays on WJR. To read his recent columns, go to www.freep.com/mitch


Ernie Harwell had great optimism, humor


BY DREW SHARP
DETROIT FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
http://www.freep.com/section/SPORTS
May 5, 2010

There will remain a part of our soul where it'll always be summer, a transistor radio in one hand, an attentive ear anxiously hoping that Mickey Lolich will get that called third strike to close out the ninth inning. The vivid tales Ernie Harwell spun with enthusiasm and genuine decency will endure in the hearts of every person he touched.

And, man, there were many.

We knew this day was coming, but that didn't make it any easier when we learned that cancer silenced the voice of every Detroit childhood Tuesday night.


TSN/Zuma Press/Icon SMI

Harwell, seen here with Henry Aaron in April 1974.

Ernie wouldn't want us crying at his passing. He lived 92 long years. That's one heck of an extra innings game. And there aren't many of us who can look back upon their lives and not at least concede one or two regrets along the path.

He always said that it was he who was the fortunate one, finding a city that he loved and that loved him unconditionally.

The mood of the Wings-San Jose playoff hockey game turned somber as word of Harwell's passing filtered through the Joe Louis Arena press box during the first period. Some fans remarked that even the possibility of a series-saving Wings' victory over the Sharks couldn't turn this into a happy day.

But there was a generally shared sentiment -- terrible sadness that someone so entwined to everyone who's called this state home was gone but appreciation that happy memories he gave us will stay with us forever.

We marveled at his indefatigable optimism and ability to mine the tiniest ray of light from the darkest situation.

His longtime friend, Gary Spicer, told me during the Tigers' home opener last month that Ernie wished to do something special for the doctors and health care providers who helped him during these final weeks. Spicer remarked how Harwell, despite the certainty of his fate and the physical discomfort endured, nonetheless lifted the spirits of those entrusted with making him comfortable.

The man had an incredible sense of humor, a dry wit that's often indigenous to journalists.

In one of his final Free Press columns, Ernie recalled his early fears regarding public speaking. He quoted a Jerry Seinfeld stand-up bit in which he cited a poll listing public speaking as the No. 1 fear in the United States.
No. 2 was dying. So the joke goes according to the poll, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than delivering the eulogy.

Laughing at death when you're the one dying is remarkable.

Ernie never took himself too seriously.

He once wrote about how, during his early days as a baseball broadcaster in Baltimore, the team's sponsors would dispatch him for various local speaking engagements if they couldn't land a better known ballplayer, coach, or in Ernie's Georgia drawl "any kind of belly dancer."

It's been often said and written about Ernie, but it bears repeating. The greatest impact in life isn't necessarily reserved for those with the most money, the most brains or the most power. Sometimes, it's those appreciated simply for the sincere sweetness and generosity of their being.
We lost a gentleman Tuesday.

Ernie doesn't want us crying. but we will be because it's is one heck of a loss.

Contact DREW SHARP: 313-223-4055 or dsharp@freepress.com.