Leno Jay Walking
EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
90 comments:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/investigative/090309_Brooklyn_Catering_Hall
This is like an Agudah fresser convention yeden nacht.
JWB says:
July 03, 2009
Matter Of Trust
Andrew A. Buerger
Publisher Baltimore Jewish Times
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/article/matter_of_trust/
(excerpt)
In his recent book “Losing My Religion,” author William Lobdell chronicled his journey from being a Born-Again Christian to the edge of converting to Catholicism. As a religion writer for the Los Angeles Times, he covered several priests who had molested scores of young boys. Instead of following its religious obligation to truth, the Catholic Church worked hard to cover up illegal behaviors that ruined children’s lives.
After 12 years as a religious Christian, Lobdell abandoned his faith, the painful price of witnessing so much un-godlike behavior from supposedly religious people. He couldn’t reconcile how an organized religion would systematically allow child molesters to be protected and unpunished.
I fear this will happen with Judaism. The scandals in the Catholic Church have gone on for decades. Until the past decade or so, people were afraid to come forward.
Baltimore’s Jewish religious leadership is obligated to send a strong, unwavering signal to sexual criminals: This will not be tolerated in Judaism; we value the lives of the victims.
As you know, the JEWISH TIMES has uncovered almost a half-dozen rabbinic sexual predators in Baltimore alone. There are likely more here than we know about; nationally, there has to be at least 10 times that amount.
We like to say that Baltimore sets the tone for the national Jewish agenda. Let’s do it again by letting convicted sex offenders know they are not welcome in our synagogues, our funeral homes and our schools — or wherever these crimes have taken place.
Were an ordinary person known to be a child molester, there would be a community uprising against him or her. Because the Rabbi Max situation involves a charismatic person, people want to give him some slack. Likewise, some local Jewish institutions are still protecting child molesters.
It’s an outrage that we allow people who have traumatized minors to get a free pass because of rabbinic ordination. It should be the opposite: Those who take advantage of trust and power to violate innocent children should be treated even more harshly.
Let’s not repeat the moral failings of the Catholic Church. Let’s act like the Chosen People and take a stand against sexual abuse among our clergy.
Rabbi Max was convicted. He also was fortunate that despite a behavior that went on for decades, the judge showed leniency by not putting him in jail at his advanced age.
Now, he must face the punishment for his behavior that ruined the lives of several young women. Quite simply, he should not be associated with any local Jewish institutions.
JWB says:
July 10, 2009
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/article/peculiar_malady/
Peculiar Malady
Editor:
In your most recent Publisher’s Notes column “Matter of Trust,” you proudly note that the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES has “uncovered almost a half-dozen rabbinic sexual predators in Baltimore alone.” The victims of Rabbi Jacob Max (who is practicing modern Orthodox, but was ordained at the Haredi Ner Israel) were women, but were not the others same-sex child molesters?
Unless I am mistaken, aren’t all of them Orthodox, specifically Haredi, (i.e. “fervently Orthodox)?
As a matter of truth in journalism, should not this salient circumstance have been pointed out? Which is to say that the problem is not so much a community-wide or across-the-board trans-denominational disgrace, but — at least in Baltimore — a malady peculiar to the hyper-frum community!
In the words of New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, as reported in the Forward, “If you’re a pedophile, the best place for you to come to are some of the [fervently Orthodox] Jewish communities. Why? Because you can be a pedophile and no one’s going to do anything.”
To shield and obfuscate is to enable. And, no, reminding readers of this documented fact does not constitute “Orthodox-bashing”!
Steve Weissman
Baltimore
JWB says let him starve:
Read it and weep
From The Jewish Chronicle
James Brewster
July 9, 2009
http://www.thejc.com/articles/read-it-and-weep
A sex attacker who claims he could be killed by red onions in the Irish prison diet if extradited from the UK to serve his sentence in Dublin has been sent packing by top judges.
Peter Ivan Dunne — also known as Ivan Gan — claimed his past experiences of Irish prison food showed that his dietary needs were "routinely ignored", exposing him to a potentially fatal allergic reaction from eating red onions.
Dunne, originally from Coventry, and a convert to Judaism, alleged staff had also sidelined the strict dietary requirements of his faith, denying him onion-free and kosher meals.
His lawyers urged judges at London's High Court to halt his extradition to Ireland on grounds that it would violate his rights to life, and freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment — safeguarded by Articles Two and Three of the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, Mrs Justice Rafferty, sitting with Lord Justice Leveson, threw out his complaints, saying: "The absence of evidence that prison staff in Ireland will guarantee service of exclusively onion-free kosher food does not amount to a real risk of inhuman and degrading treatment."
Dunne now faces extradition to an Irish jail within 17 days.
Mrs Justice Rafferty explained that Dunne, 45, was convicted in his absence at Kilkenny Circuit Court in October 2007 of having sex with a "mentally impaired person". He denied the crime, which dated from July 2001, insisting he had no recollection of the incident.
Dunne fled Ireland during his trial and faces sentence for his crime when he returns there.
Along with the alleged red onion threat to his life, Dunne claimed prison staff had insulted his Judaism, making "religiously offensive jokes" and even ordering him to eat pork.
And he also claimed to have become a target for Republican revenge attacks due to incidents dating back to the 1980's.
But Mrs Justice Rafferty ruled that the High Court "lacked jurisdiction" to hear Dunne's appeal because he had failed to serve notice on the Crown Prosecution Service or the Dublin High Court of his challenge. In any event none of his complaints were "tenable", she concluded.
Dunne, who is currently being held in Wandsworth Prison, also claimed to have experienced dietary problems within the English prison system.
JWB says the Jewish Times sticks it to the pedophile protecting Star-K:
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/cover_story/hebrew_national_kosher_politics/13402
Hebrew National & Kosher Politics
What’s kosher about answering to a higher authority?
July 10, 2009
Kenneth Lasson
Special to the Jewish Time
(Excerpts)
...
‘Kashrut Mafia’
...
The response was different, however, from the “Kashrus Hotline” of the Baltimore-based Star-K organization. “You should not eat Hebrew National.” When asked why, she said the Triangle K “is not considered reliable.”
Rabbi Aharon Abadi speaks bluntly about the multimillion-dollar kosher supervision business. “You want to do business in this industry, you need to follow the rules of the ‘Kashrut Mafia,’” he said. “Most are just businesses with a touch of religion. Just enough to use it to bully us into following their program. Ask anyone in the food industry. They know. Try getting an outside hashgachah in an area that is already someone’s turf.”
...
“Do you remember when Drakes [a widely marketed brand of snack cakes] was under Rabbi Ralbag?” asked Rabbi Abadi. “It was treife [unkosher] according to some of these guys. Then the establishment organization got the account, now it’s kosher. Do you think they went out and kashered the whole plant, changed all the ingredients and so on? Please!”
According to Rabbi Ralbag, various Orthodox authorities summarily banned Coca-Cola when it was supervised by Triangle K in the early 1990s — but immediately accepted it as kosher the moment it was taken over by the OU (without any change in formula or processing). He says that Triangle K follows the traditional rules set down in the Shulchan Aruch, the code of Jewish law, and that its seal of approval is accepted categorically by the chief rabbi of Israel, where a large number of its products are widely distributed.
No Full Skinny
One local caterer who requested anonymity said, “You’ll never get the full skinny on kashrut supervision” — intimating that political and monetary considerations are paramount to candor.
Trustworthiness can be very subjective. The same Orthodox Baltimoreans who believe that Triangle K is not reliable because of past indiscretions broadly accept Star-K, even though it once certified a local non-Jewish caterer that served treife food on a “kosher” cruise.
The OU and Star-K have had numerous disputes over specific products. Each, for example, has had a policy prohibiting caterers under its supervision from using meats certified by the other.
Fans of kosher hot dogs might find this policy particularly egregious. Caterers under Star-K are currently forbidden to serve two brands of miniature hot-dogs-in-blankets, as well as 999 kosher hot dogs, all under the OU.
Star-K also bans sauerkraut marketed with the OU seal. (Consumers calling the Star-K’s kosher hotline are told that “we don’t have information” on those products. When asked if they can be used, the receptionist says, “I guess not.”)
...
JWB says:
Does anyone have any information as to what happened in the Emanuel Yegutkin case?
JWB says:
Emanuel Yegutkin's next court appearance is August 11, 2009 in the Kings Supreme Court - Criminal before Judge J.K. Mckay.
With all due respect to Rabbi Abadi, Ralbag does use all kinds of kulos, basically every daas yochid he can find among Rishonim and Achronim, that no one else poskens like.
There is a kosher mafia, but he's not making the point by coming to Ralbag's defense.
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/shame/090506_UPS_Stores_and_Insurance_Money
One of the rebbeim in Long Beach yeshiva defends Leib Pinter so I figured I could get away with genevos too.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/10/philly.pool.response/index.html
This happened because of the bad hashpaah from the Philadelphia yeshiva.
Pigs at risk from people as new flu spreads
LONDON (Reuters) – There is a growing risk that pigs will catch the new H1N1 flu strain -- commonly known as swine flu -- from humans, German researchers said on Thursday.
Widespread transmission from people to pigs could mix up virus strains further, leading to unpredictable changes in the disease.
Top 10 excuses for 'the presidential peek'
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- It had to happen.
An unguarded moment? A bad camera angle? Or an honest-to-goodness presidential ogling?
It doesn't matter, because it's there for everyone to see and interpret for themselves. A news photo of the Commander in Chief seeming to be focused a bit too much on a young woman passing by.
If had been were Clinton, the press would just laugh it off.
If it had been Bush the 43rd, he'd just look silly and awkward, nothing out of the ordinary.
But here we have the sharp, smooth, faithful, erudite -- at least when the teleprompters work -- leader of the free world acting like just another ordinary male of the species.
It's not like he did anything "technically" wrong.
But that's not really the point.
He violated the precepts of his image.
He betrayed his wife, with a glance.
And instead of GM, or the G-8, everybody's got something else on their minds.
If the White House is lucky, and it usually is, it'll all die down in a half a news cycle.
Still, the president is going to need a few talking points to get through the one interview that he can't possibly avoid.
So here are 10 excuses he might try starting with:
1.I was just being polite. You know...when in Rome ...
2.It was an honest mistake. She said her name was Lulu so I naturally assumed she was the president of Brazil.
3.Honestly, Honey, if you had to have as many meetings with Nancy Pelosi as I do...
4.Blame it on Rio.
5.You think I'm bad, wait till you hear what Berlusconi did.
6.No, dear, I think you're mistaken. Gov. Sanford's friend is from Argentina. This young lady is from Brazil.
7.Honestly honey, if you had to have as many meetings with Hillary as I do ...
8.OK! OK! OK! I'll cancel the state visit to Brazil.
9.Really, Honey, if you had to have as many meetings with Joe Biden as I do....
10.Hey, at least it wasn't Brüno!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/12somalis.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
20 young Americans who are the focus of what may be the most significant domestic terrorism investigation since Sept. 11. One of the men, Shirwa Ahmed, blew himself up in Somalia in October, becoming the first known American suicide bomber. The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert M. Mueller, has said Mr. Ahmed was “radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota.”
Most of the men are Somali refugees who left the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul
May the efforts of the Rajchenbach family bear fruit. The city of Chicago should be gebentched with Torah, Shalom, and Achdus. This new kollel should be a true kollel for everyone in the community to feel comfortable being a part of.
Chicago should continue growing in the Deracheha Darchei Noam approach of its founders. Your city should no longer feel the klalos of Redifus, and there should be ach shalom veshalvah.
Besuros Tovos,
Rav Mattisyahu Solomon
Mashgiach BMG of Lakewood
Jack,
Congratulations on founding the NEW AND IMPROVED community kollel in Chicago. Chaim should succeed in selecting quality guys who are committed to the harmonic growth of our city. Most importantly, when they finally leave kollel they should continue the shalom in the city. They shouldn't God forbid think they are a "special asset" and cause Sinas Chinam in our midst.
We wish you the heights of success,
Your Partners
JWB,
Of course the Star K's hashgocho is far superior than any other. They only hire the most chashuve mashgichim, such as convicted child molester Yisroel Shapiro.
http://news.aol.com/article/kids-deny-abuse/567348
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/07/12/1006432/residents-struggle-to-counter-violent-religious-coercion-in-beit-shemesh
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (JTA) -- The 15-year-old girl remembers a roar of male voices, a blur of bearded faces and being kicked from behind as she was pelted with raw eggs.
She was with two other girlfriends who, like her, are Modern Orthodox, and they had been walking on a Friday night through a fervently Orthodox neighborhood of Beit Shemesh known for being hostile to outsiders -- including fellow observant Jews like themselves.
But things had been quiet for months and the girls shrugged off any concerns. Then a mob approached.
“They were screaming at us, ‘Shame on yourselves! Get out of here!’ ” said the girl, who did not want to give her name. “There were about 50 men screaming on the top of their lungs.”
The incident was among the more recent examples of violence by a pocket of fervently Orthodox Jews in Beit Shemesh who employ sporadic violence, threaten business owners and post street signs warning women not to walk on certain sidewalks to impose an uncompromising brand of religious fundamentalism on their community.
http://nymag.com/news/features/57891/
Charles Kushner—everyone calls him Charlie—is, by any measure, a remarkable man. The child of Holocaust survivors, he has an engulfing charm and a palpable hunger for attention, and pushed himself to become a gifted businessman and Jersey kingmaker. “He loved being the Don Corleone of the community,” says a family friend. “He loved that when he walks into a synagogue the rabbis run over to him. Charlie saw himself as the Jewish Kennedy.” But beneath the charm there is a coiled aggressiveness. “Charlie’s good points are incredibly good,” a former employee says, “but if you cross him he becomes maniacal. He will crush you.”
Charlie was also a demanding boss who could be abusive if things went wrong. It would be cheaper to pay for a monkey than pay you! Charlie is said to have told a senior executive. Employees especially feared meetings where Jared was present. Charlie berated his executives in front of his son, to teach him how to handle the help, as one company observer says.
He was famously generous, doling out jobs to friends and putting the Kushner name sometimes in Trump-size letters on synagogues, schools, and Jewish charities. As time went on, charity became a strategic instrument to advance his interests and a weapon if he didn’t get his way. Starting in the mid-nineties, Charlie pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Democratic politics. He was Jim McGreevey’s largest donor in his campaigns, raising $1.5 million. Charlie hired Golan Cipel, McGreevey’s Israeli lover, and sponsored his work permit. After McGreevey won, he rewarded Charlie by appointing him to the board of the Port Authority and later tried to make him chair, which would have given him huge influence over billions of dollars of development contracts. Over the years, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, and Bibi Netanyahu all stopped by to see Charlie during swings through the state.
http://nymag.com/news/features/57891/
Charlie saw himself as a special man, a leader. The epic generosity is one aspect of this. Another is a sense of personal martyrdom no one realizes how hard he’s worked, what’s he’s given, how much he’s sacrificed. And some of his persecutors were in his own family specifically his brother Murray, who he increasingly came to believe was a hindrance in his business. In 1999, Murray backed out of Charlie’s bid to acquire Berkshire Realty, a firm with 24,000 apartments, which would have vaulted the Kushners into the first rank of privately held real-estate firms. Charles pushed forward with another deal that Murray had dragged his feet on and made a profit of $40 million.
Charlie also questioned Murray’s family life. Charlie’s parents took their Jewishness seriously, but Murray had married an assimilated Jew, an attractive blonde named Lee, a fact that Charlie didn’t let them forget.
By the late nineties, the families barely spoke, and the conflict worked its way into the business and their charity work. Charlie threatened to fire one of his employees when his wife offered to help Lee, who had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, promote an MS benefit gala. Friends and members of the synagogue were forced to take sides.
In the spring of 2000, over Passover at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, the Kushners tried to reconcile. But as they chatted in chaises longues, their dispute boiled over. Charlie, still angry over the Berkshire deal, told Murray they shouldn’t do business anymore.
If we can’t be partners, we can’t be brothers, Murray said.
Lee defended her husband, drawing Charlie’s rage. Charlie complained that they never appreciated all he had done for the Kushner name.
You think your son got into Penn? Charlie said, glowering at Lee. I got him in.
Murray had to restrain Lee from leaping out of his lap. We’re out of here, Lee snapped.
Murray and Lee refused to show up to Passover the following year when Charlie and his sisters, Esther and Linda, held the annual family Seder again at the Fontainebleau. Amazingly, it was even worse. Charlie was furious that Esther took Murray’s side in the feud (later Charlie learned she had cooperated with the FBI’s investigation). In front of 40 guests in a private dining room, Charlie started berating Esther and her husband, Billy Schulder, one of Charlie’s former business partners. Charlie hated Billy too. He never forgave Billy after he had an office romance with another employee years earlier. Charlie exploded when he thought Billy and his son Jacob were snickering during the Seder.
You’re so pious, Charlie fumed. Go on, Billy, and tell your kids how pious you are.
Everyone knew Charlie was talking about Billy’s affair. Don’t say any more, Esther pleaded. Billy and Jacob shouted back.
You’re a fucking putz! Charlie yelled. How can you be so rude?
They’re not worth yelling about, Jared said. Esther and her daughter Jessie stormed out. The family split was final.
A few months later, Murray sued Charlie, claiming that Charlie owed him money from their real-estate partnerships (the suit was settled in arbitration and sealed). The timing, on the eve of Jim McGreevey’s election, couldn’t have been worse. Then, in November 2002, Bob Yontef, a Kushner Companies bookkeeper, filed a second lawsuit raising allegations about Charlie’s political contributions. The following February, Yontef filed a third lawsuit in federal court, a couple of months before McGreevey was going to make good on his campaign promise and promote Charlie to chair the Port Authority. The suits caught the attention of Christopher J. Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey and a Republican with political ambitions of his own (Christie is currently running for governor). He launched an investigation into Yontef’s allegations.
Charlie blamed Murray and Esther for bringing on the investigation. He told synagogue members that Murray was a moser, an informant.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/mrs_panstreppon/2009/07/bernie-madoff-lucky-duck-gets.php
Bernie Madoff cuts deal to go to Otisville in return for massering on everyone on Wall Street. Leib Glanz getting a job at Otisville too.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=profanity-bleeps-physical-pain-09-07-13
Profanity Bleeps Physical Pain
A study in the journal NeuroReport finds that using socially unacceptable "swear words" has physical effects that enable the swearer to tolerate pain better.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l780BaM_siw/SkyPajpM-dI/AAAAAAAAA0c/fB-jKRtJ9RY/s320/Isaac+Ebstein.png
The Queens Vaad won't let him in the bakery but maybe he can still fulfill all the functions that Ephraim Bryks does like running mikvaos and giving shiurim.
Farkert. Jews have German names.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2416116/
To find unaffiliated Jewish people in Spokane, the two young rabbis look in the phone book. They cold-call people with Jewish-sounding names.
They have encountered a piece of Eastern Washington history while cold-calling: More than 100 years ago, German families settled here to farm the Palouse.
"Many (German) people have Jewish-sounding names, because back in the family, someone was Jewish," Singer explains.
The young rabbis also hang out in public places and search for people who look Jewish. Or they ask people whether they know any Jewish folks.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090711/NEWS/907110316
Anita Altman, who has property next to Machne Bnos Square, said the place has gotten steadily worse. She filed a complaint with the town in April 2008, and she says there are several deteriorating and empty bungalows that she believes are fire hazards.
Vos maint a gentelman's club? Isn't Bais Medrash Govoha's coffee room good enough?
This property, at the corner of Main Street and Clifton, which is owned by a member of our community, is currently seeking approvals to become a bar and gentlemans night club. It is at the busiest intersection of our town. Isn't our downtown enough of an embarrassment already? What more can we do to destroy our town? This plan is brought to you by the same realtor from another Shore town that has single handedly created the undesirable atmosphere of our downtown area.
Do you think they care whether they rent their properties to a strip club or to Section 8 violent criminals? They couldn't care less about the neighborhood or what used to be the holy "Ir Hatorah". It's now become the unholy city of greed.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090713/NEWS/907130320
The Nevele Grande Resort & Country Club is closed — possibly for good.
Pinched by overdue bills, hefty lawsuits, state fines and other financial trouble, the storied hotel closed its doors earlier this month. Employees, many of whom are disgruntled because they say they haven't been paid in three weeks, say the hotel is likely closed for good unless its Long Island owner can sell it.
This past weekend the only employee left on the grounds was a 24/7 security guard who did not identify himself, but confirmed the Nevele's demise.
"They shut it down, they shut it down," he said, shaking his head sadly. He's been working by the stone-arched entrance for seven years. "That's nothing. Many people have been here 25 years."
In September, state labor records show the Nevele had 121 employees.
Owner Joel Hoffman, whose Stratford Business Corp. bought the 500-acre property in 2000 for $15.8 million, did not return calls. His lawyer, Joseph O'Connor, said the hotel was going to be "closed for a period of weeks," but he didn't know why. O'Connor said he hadn't talked to Hoffman in two weeks and was unaware of his plans.
Hoffman has been trying to sell the Nevele for roughly $20 million.
Signs of the end are everywhere — in court papers, the removal of hotel equipment and the physical appearance of the grounds.
In April, the state fined Nevele owners $40,000 for not carrying workers compensation insurance. The hotel had a hard time paying utilities, employees and other creditors. Hoffman's former partner, Mitchell Wolf, is suing for millions in unpaid business commitments.
Employees say a John Deere dealer came to the grounds last week and repossessed the Nevele's mowers and tractors. The hotel got rid of its 75 golf carts, and the security guard said management is preparing to remove the trail horses from their stables this week.
The grass is mowed in the front of the hotel, but the back looks like a hay field. Greens on the golf course have grown to the length of the rough.
"The golf course hasn't been mowed in more than a month," said former Nevele golf course superintendent Bob Dipalma. "It's a real shame."
In its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, the 432-room Nevele Grande was a prime destination for fine dining, golf and top-notch celebrity entertainment. Now a receptionist answering the telephone says the hotel is closed, not accepting guests.
have something to say about the agudah fresser? go to agudahfreesers.blogspot.com .
http://www.agudahfressers.blogspot.com/
Monday, July 13, 2009
So here is the million dollar question. is Agudath Israel of America helping the klal or hurting? I invite my readers to share their thoughts on this topic
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532241,00.html
I think that they need to stop before he seriously hurts or kills someone," said Brad Carter, who runs the Web site phonelosers.com and has been following Dex's activity.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nine months into the fiscal year, the federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time ever.
http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2009-06/47535412.jpg
"The Howard Stern Show" personality and comedian Artie Lange, 41, was charged with driving under the influence of an intoxicant and with careless driving Friday in New Jersey, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Lange moonlights as the designated person who leads bentching at the Agudah convention. It's reported that the Novominsker Rebbe took one look at him (picture at link) and said he is the man for the job.
July 12, 2009
Taxpayers forked over $5.5 million to a crackhead rendered a paraplegic while fleeing from police.
Manuel Martinez, now 29, received one of the top city personal-injury payouts this year after being hit by an NYPD car and left unable to walk during a Brooklyn chase in 1998.
To Agudah Fresser editor (Avi L. Shafran)
The self-centered askanim are Oskim B’Tzarchei ATZMAM. All they care about is their selfish needs for popularity and power. They use the Moetzes as a bully pulpit to crush opposition, by declaring all their personal decisions “Daas Tairah”. There is no Daas in Agudath Israel, and even less Torah.
They stick their noses into every aspect of governance in the country, without knowing the impacts of their statements. They unleash their golem Public Relations Director to spread their “Daas Tairah”. Agudath Israel has caused the frum community to lose the respect of any politician worth their salt and pepper. The politicians can tell schizophrenic organizations from organizations with a clear message.
The Agudah SERVED its purpose during the World War II years, and under the influence of Moshe Sherer and R’Herman Neuberger. When these giants of askanus for THE KLAL AND NOT THEMSELVES passed Agudath Israel should have shuttered their doors. Instead the selfish “askanim” bullies took over, and have destroyed the image of Orthodox Jews all across our country. It’s a real shame they destroyed themselves so badly.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=599544
Where are the defenders of "the cause" when you need them? When an actual social tragedy occurs, where are the self-titled leaders of the black movement? I'll answer my own question: They're busy fighting for an interview or a microphone during all of the Michael Jackson festivities.
While Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were competing for the most on-camera interviews and vying for preeminence at Michael Jackson's memorial service on the West Coast, Frank Lombard -- a white, homosexual Duke University employee -- was being arrested on the East Coast for allegedly molesting his five-year-old black adopted son.
No planes were chartered, no press conferences were held to condemn Lombard's alleged behavior. No marches stopped traffic, no black shirts or berets were donned, and no fists were held high. Not that I necessarily approve of this behavior -- but my point is, you have a white homosexual male who admitted online that he was "into incest" and had adopted two black children (males) because they were easier to get than their white counterparts. This man was arrested for repeatedly abusing these children, he posted the attacks online because he's sick, and his alleged victims happened to be black -- but the crickets are chirping.
Mainstream media will not even report that the man is a homosexual or, in some instances, even that the children are black. They won't report that Frank Lombard had a live-in partner in a community that includes other homosexual couples with black adopted children.
Black Americans, do you wonder why our "leaders" aren't getting involved? The answer is: they can't. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton especially have aligned themselves in cause with the homosexual movement. When homosexuals began demanding civil rights and comparing their plight to that of black Americans, Sharpton agreed.
This would be a perfect opportunity for the black community to stand up and demand that black children be treated with the same care as whites when being placed into adoptive families. But the opportunity is wasted because black leaders are forced to keep quiet due to the homosexual component of this story.
Where is Hazel Dukes, NAACP New York president? Where are the members of the Congressional Black Caucus? Where is Rep. John Lewis of Georgia -- or Rep. Shelia Jackson-Lee of Texas? Let's not forget the lashing they all gave Rep. Peter King of New York for expressing his opinions about Michael Jackson, not one of which incidentally referred to his race. The Congressional Black Caucus demanded that King apologize to the Jackson family for his remarks. He hasn't -- and good for him! King should apologize when Al Sharpton -- along with every member of the Congressional Black Caucus -- apologizes for looking away while the door remains open for more sexual deviants to adopt and molest black children.
It's tame compared to the evil emanating from 42 Broadway but didn't R' Yaakov zl have a problem with Agudah askanuss even during Sherer's days?
The Jerusalem district prosecutor on Monday issued the first indictment in an investigation into alleged travel expense fraud by Ehud Olmert, bringing charges against the former prime minister's foreign travel coordinator Rachael Risby-Raz.
Olmert is suspected of taking funding from multiple sources for the same flights, and of allegedly using the surplus money to finance family trips abroad.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099876.html
A newly-created task force dealing with illegal immigration arrested one of the FBI's 100 most wanted criminals on Sunday when they apprehended Micky Louis Mayon in Tel Aviv.
Mayon, 33, is wanted in the U.S. for many federal crimes , among them membership in the notoriously racist organization the Ku Klux Klan, the burning of vehicles belonging to federal judges and several charges of severe violence.
Intelligence transferred to Israel by Interpol suggests that Mayon had entered Israel illegally in 2008 and has changed his location every two days since his arrival.
Rav Solomon is very pleased with the new Gentlemens Club opening up in the heart of town. It will cause less batallah by allowing the chevra hakollel to relax and make it back on time for seder. Until now they used to have shlep to Neptune and elsewhere. Mammash gevaldik, a true Kiddush Hashem!!!
http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=15340
I didn't know that Sanford Bernstein of investment banking fame was the money behind the Avi Chai Foundation.
Is it Marvin Schick that decides where the funds are allocated, like all this money going to Vladimir Putin's Lubavitcher puppet Berel Lazar?
(IsraelNN.com) The Education Ministry is considering closure of the Belz Yeshiva in Haifa after the kitchen failed two health inspections this week, according to News One. The first inspection was ordered after a number of students suffered food poisoning on Shabat.
A number of the sanitary shortcomings have been corrected, but that might not be enough for the Education Ministry to keep the kitchen open. The heads of the Belz institutions have asked Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman to step in.
Rabbi Weinberger (5 Towns) related an incident that happened to Rav Yisroel Spira, zt’l, the late Bluzhever Rebbe, who was interned at various concentration camps and was one of 11 people who survived among 3,000 inmates.
One night, he was called out by a kapo who handed the Rebbe a crumpled envelope containing a piece of paper on which was written a hurriedly scribbled note. Since the writer knew that he would soon be killed—as was his wife—he asked the Rebbe that if he settles in Eretz Yisrael, he should put a marker on that holy soil as a remembrance of them; perhaps he could even have a sefer Torah written in their memory.
The man wrote that he must hurry since they are being ordered to remove their clothes, but when he gets to the Next World, he will convey greetings to the Rebbe’s ancestors and ask them to intercede on the Rebbe’s behalf so his days may be long and happy. An old $50 bill fell out of the envelope. From that time on, the Rebbe carried the letter with him, and in 1946 he read it before a crowd and appealed to everyone to help him fulfill the writer’s wish. Those present responded, although few were well-to-do. Ultimately, a sefer Torah was written and placed in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath.
Old TV, sounds like a nice maaselah, but anything that comes out of Five Towns Weinberger's mouth, is either exaggerated or plain old nonsense.
He has a serious problem with the truth!
Shmarya has been advocating for these Black shmucks, regardless of whether they are Christian or Muslim (and possibly al Qaeda sleeper cells). Mr. Failed Diarrhea has excoriated not just rabbis, but the seculars as well for not absorbing Black illegal aliens at taxpayer expense (of course Shmarya may not have a clue what it means to work for a living and pay taxes).
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099575.html
Sudanese migrant workers attack immigration officers in Tel Aviv
By Dana Weiler-Pollak, Haaretz Correspondent
Immigration officers were beaten by migrant workers in Tel Aviv Sunday evening, for the second time in a week.
The attack occurred at south Tel Aviv's Levinsky Park during a routine check of documents, after an inspector from the newly created "Oz" task force stopped a Sudanese national who did not have the necessary papers on him.
The Sudanese man refused to accompany the officers and - together with five Sudanese friends - began to attack the inspection team.
The head of an Orthodox Jewish group has agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge stemming from what prosecutors say was a decade-long tax fraud and money laundering scheme.
Naftali Tzi Weisz could face up to five years in prison after signing a plea agreement last week that is contingent on other co-defendants also pleading guilty to various charges.
An e-mail message left for Weisz's attorneys was not immediately returned Monday.
Prosecutors say Weisz and others helped donors avoid paying federal income taxes by having them make contributions to charitable groups run by Spinka, a New York-based Orthodox Jewish group led by Weisz.]
U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek says an agreement with the charitable organizations is almost finished.
http://somd.com/news/headlines/2009/10243.shtml
Paul Anthony Pinter, 24, of Hollywood was arrested by TFC M. A. Moore on an Arrest Warrant (T3-14012) issued by the District Court in Leonardtown on July 4. The original charge was Burglary 2nd Degree, Unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, Malicious Destruction of Property under $500.00 and Theft over $500.00. Mr. Pinter was apprehended and transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center where he was held pending the initial appearance with the District Court Commissioner.
http://www.thechadronnews.com/articles/2009/06/23/chadron/headlines/doc4a257feb23537563757588.txt
Jeremy Osmotherly and Zeke Pinter were both sentenced last week for their role in breaking into the Fort Robinson maintenance shop . Osmotherly was sentenced to eight months in the Dawes County Jail, while Pinter received six months in the Dawes County facility on two separate counts and up to 36 months in the Nebraska Department of Corrections.
Pinter’s sentence was more extreme based on his past record. His attorney, Michael Varn, pointed out that Pinter wasn’t involved in the break-in but did help those who were get rid of the evidence. Varn acknowledged his client’s poor record and asked the judge to sentence him to more than two years. County attorney Vance Haug said Pinter has always admitted his guilt to the court whenever he’s been in trouble.
“Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to change his lifestyle,” Haug said when asking for incarceration.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/nation/ap/48688602.html
An FBI official says a notorious terrorist suspected of aiding the insurgency in Iraq will be added to the agency's list of its most wanted terrorists.
The official said Monday that an FBI committee recommended this month that 73-year-old Palestinian Abu Ibrahim be placed on the list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision wasn't official.
An investigation by The Associated Press had revealed the terrorist was still alive and had fled to Syria.
Ibrahim has been indicted in the 1982 bombing of Pam Am Flight 830. The explosion killed a 16-year-old boy and wounded more than a dozen passengers as the plane headed to Honolulu from Tokyo.
His Austrian-born wife, Christine Pinter, is still a fugitive. Authorities say she helped out carry out the attack that left a gaping hole in the 747's cabin floor but failed to bring down the plane.
http://www.shawangunkjournal.com/2009/07/09/news/09070910.html
Oil, Vey!
"High Noon" for Homowack as Oil Spill Causes Chaos
By Tod Westlake
SPRING GLEN - An oil spill at the old Homowack Lodge in Spring Glen caused a multi-agency response this past Thursday, with officials from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the Sullivan County Regional Department of Health, and the Sullivan County Department of Public Safety descending upon the dilapidated resort.
DEC police who responded to the scene cited the resort for a number of violations related to the oil spill, including: one count of failure to report a petroleum spill; one count of depositing a noisome or unwholesome substance on or near a public roadway; and five counts of failure to register a bulk storage tank. The latter of these charges - all of which are misdemeanors - could result in substantial fines, with the penalty ranging anywhere from $3,750 up to $37,500 per day for each of the five counts.
There is also the issue of the current residents - who are members of a Hasidic sect - operating a camp for children without a special-use permit from the town planning board. The lack of such a permit would mean that the camp is operating illegally and could be creating an enormous liability problem for both the owners and the town. There is also some question as to whether the current occupants have the proper insurance. It appears that the owners will have until Monday to correct the list of as many as ten violations; however, the Journal has thus far been unable to obtain this list as Mamakating offices are closed on Fridays.
And in another late wrinkle to this story, Luzon Environmental Services, a Woodridge company specializing in toxic spill mitigation hired by the owners to handle cleanup of the oil spill, has pulled its work crews off the site. The reason for this, according to Luzon's owner, Robert Halperin, is that the owners of the property still owe Luzon a $15,000 judgment for previous spill mitigation done at the property.
“We were misled last [Thursday] night. We were told that there were new owners, so we took a check for $1,500 and did $1,500 worth of work,” Halperin said.
Halperin went on to say that he would not do any more work until the owners paid the money owed for the previous work.
“We're not going back,” he said.
A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Health said that apparently none of the residents were exposed to the leaked oil. She went on to say, however, that the department has cited several violations of state sanitary code, including improper maintenance of the drinking water supply, improper maintenance of the fire-suppression system, and a lack of hot water for the occupants. There are also concerns about the state of at least one of the buildings on the site, which apparently may have a problem with black mold.
Once considered an elegant and exclusive resort, the Homowack, like many resorts in the Catskills region, has fallen on hard times in recent years, changing hands a number of times. The property is currently listed in the tax registry as belonging to Ahavas Chaverim Gemilas Chesed, Inc., a Svker Hasidic sect based in New City, NY. The group purchased the resort several years ago with plans to establish a Hasidic community similar to Kiryas Joel in the Town of Monroe.
http://www.shawangunkjournal.com/cgi-bin/gunk?g=cs&cid=09070910
As Chief of the Summitville Fire Co. # 1 I was the ICO on this sene and I can say that there are so many hazardist conditions at this complex that I wouldn't let my dog stay in this building.
There is health issues fire safty issues ,and quality of life issues.
If it was up to me as Fire Chief I would close this complex no questions asked,,PERIOD!!!!
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/13/best-prisons-cushiest-madoff-personal-finance-lockups_slide_11.html
Federal Correctional Institution at Otisville, N.Y.
Bernie Madoff's desired retirement home. It is often requested as a destination by observant Jewish cons, thanks to its full-time rabbi and availability of kosher food. Bernie, like many inmates from the Big Apple, just wants to be close to his family. A commuter train takes passengers from the New York City area to the village of Otisville in a bit more than an hour.
Madoff Is Headed for Prison in Butner, NC, Sources Say
13 Jul 2009 | 04:22 PM ET
Convicted swindler Bernie Madoff is on his way to federal prison in Butner, NC, where he is sentenced to spend the next 150 years, CNBC has learned.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Web site, the Butner facility houses a total of about 3,400 inmates.
Madoff will be joining several other well-known inmates at Butner.
They include Omar Abdel-Rahman, the terrorist known as the "Blind Sheik" who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and former Adelphia Commmunications Chief Executive Officer John Rigas.
Also incarcerated there: former U.S. Naval Intelligence Analyst and convicted spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard; former Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico; and Russell Weston, the perpetrator of a 1998 U.S. Capitol shooting that left two U.S. Capitol Police officers dead.
Madoff, 71, was sentenced on June 29 to an effective life sentence for masterminding the largest ponzi scheme in history. The disgraced financier had been jailed in a cell close to the Manhattan federal court where he pleaded guilty in March to criminal charges, including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury.
His sentence was the stiffest handed down for big-time white collar crime, compared with corporate scandals of recent years involving executives of WorldCom, Enron and Adelphia, Refco and the Bayou hedge fund.
From rubbing elbows with millionaires to sharing a prison yard with drug dealers and gangsters, Bernard Madoff's life is about to change dramatically.
Madoff will find himself earning pennies a day sweeping floors, cleaning toilets or manning a stove in the prison kitchen. Like all prisoners, corrections officers will shine a light in his face twice in the middle of the night as part of six or seven daily checks.
"One of the most difficult things to deal with in prison is the reality that you are powerless," said Jonathan Richards, author of "Federal Prison - A Comprehensive Survival Guide," who served time in a Federal Medical Center, which is similar to a low-security prison. "Your whole life you basically eat when you want to eat, sleep when you want to sleep, wear what you want to wear. Then, suddenly, this daily freedom is taken away."
Although Madoff will likely have air conditioning when the weather demands it, nearly all of the perks of the high life he's accustomed to will disappear, regardless of whether he is sent to a low or medium security prison.
On arrival at the federal lock-up, Madoff will quickly see for himself that designer soaps aren't among the items included in his prison-issued hygiene kit. Instead, he'll get a tiny bar of soap, a tooth brush, a comb and a razor.
"This bar of soap is like the size of a matchbook," said Larry Levine, the founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants, who spent 10 years in federal prison. "The razor—you can barely shave with it."
The chances of Madoff running his own investment club inside the prison are slim, but—when he isn't working—he should have plenty of time to read, write, exercise, and even network with other prisoners, if he chooses. Some inmates learn new skills like painting.
He can write and receive letters, make limited phone calls for 25 cents a minute, and it is possible he will have access to email, although his messages can be monitored.
Visitors' Regulations: Click Here for Guidelines from Butner
Once Madoff is settled, his friends and family can visit, but conjugal visits are forbidden.
"You can hug, you can kiss, but they can't give you anything," said Levine, who served in high, medium, low and minimum security prisons. "You aren't permitted to go to the vending machine and get snacks yourself—they have to get them for you. And before you know it, the visit is over."
—Reuters contributed to this report.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_12761585
Samuel "Mouli" Cohen, who until recently lived a lavish lifestyle in Belvedere, has been slapped with two lawsuits alleging that he defrauded investors, including actor Danny Glover, out of more than $28 million.
His wife, Stacy Cohen, who in 2007 published a cookbook entitled, "The Kosher Billionaire's Secret Recipe," is named as a defendant in both suits.
A small Woodacre nonprofit that provides grants to quadriplegics, In Spirit, says it lost $300,000, forcing it to cut in half the money it gives to its 17 local clients to pay for in-home care.
On his Web site, the Israel-born Cohen describes himself as an entrepreneur, "one of the few to have success in biotechnology and high technology," and he claims to have "generated well over $3 billion in shareholder value."
On the site, Cohen also says that the first President Bush awarded him the first-ever "millionaire residency" with full citizenship status.
In 2002, during a party Cohen threw to celebrate the completion of his new house in Belvedere, he ingratiated himself with Glover, according to the lawsuits. The suits say that Cohen told Glover that he wanted to do something to help the Vanguard Public Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit dedicated to advancing the causes of civil rights and social justice. The foundation was formed by Glover and actor Harry Belafonte.
The suits say Cohen proposed selling them shares in Ecast, a privately owned, San Francisco-based company that he founded in 1999. Ecast delivers digital music, games, information and interactive advertising to bars and nightclubs.
Plaintiffs allege that "Cohen induced this investment through a series of false representations, including that Microsoft was on the verge of acquiring E-cast at a very favorable exchange rate," and "that the transaction would close in a matter of months."
Next, the plaintiffs claim, Cohen told them that the Microsoft deal had been finalized and the acquisition agreement executed; in fact, the share exchange ratio had been set at a "1-to-1 peg," meaning that based on the then-current stock price of Microsoft, their investment was now worth approximately $60 million to $70 million, or roughly 10 times their initial investment.
However, the plaintiffs say Cohen told them there was still a problem: European Union regulatory appeal still needed to be secured. The investors were obligated to pay their share of certain fees and expenses related to the transaction, such as contract fees, stamping fees and holding fees.
According to the suits, the Vanguard investors paid out an additional $22 million between late 2004 and early 2007.
The plaintiffs allege that Cohen maintained control over them "by providing elaborate - but fictitious - detail regarding the status of the transaction and the regulatory approval, as well as the meetings, negotiations and personalities allegedly involved."
The suits say Cohen cautioned the investors that the Ecast deal with Microsoft was confidential and thus "could not and should not be discussed with anyone outside the donor group." The plaintiffs say they only recently discovered and confirmed that the Microsoft deal was pure fiction.
The plaintiffs allege that Cohen stashed their money in hidden bank accounts, used to it make purchases and distributed it to his family members, including his wife, Stacy Cohen.
Public records show that Cohen was sued twice before in 2003 and 2004 by investors who alleged that he induced them to buy Ecast stock by telling them that the company was about to be purchased by Microsoft or some other large company. Both suits were settled out of court.
Cohen no longer resides at the Belvedere address at 433 Golden Gate Ave. Vanguard president Dillon says Cohen never owned the house.
"Our lawyers tried to attach the property," Dillon said.
J. David Black, the Mills' lawyer, said he has been unable to locate Cohen.
"We have tried our best to track him down so we could serve him," Black said. "We can't find him."
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DCGOA_RlajQ/SluqDSWD7uI/AAAAAAAAD28/_8o0y6OrAJk/s1600-h/webber.jpg
I wish this hazmana was from Belsky so there would be no chiyuv lehalacha to listen.
Below is a piece from Max Prager's website. He is the father of the well known media personality, Dennis Prager. He tells his life story on the site. It's fascinating !! The yeshiva that he went to and is writing about is Yeshiva Torah Voddath. I knew that for years Hebrew National had a sterling Hashgacha. I knew a mashgiach who used to work in one of their plants. And he told me that they were great when it came to Kashrus !! As you can see, the charedeim and the "yeshiva world" screwed things up even at that time.
Max Prager's entry :
I went to yeshiva on Monday thru Thursday from 9 in the morning to 7 at night; on Friday and eruv yom-tov (the day preceding a Jewish holiday), from 9 to 12 noon; on Sunday I went from 9 to 6:30. Since I had to travel by trolley, I left the house each morning at 8 and returned at 8 in the evening. It was a ritual every Sunday that I receive 15 cents for lunch to buy a hot pastrami sandwich. My parents and siblings would either go visiting or indulge themselves in other pleasures, so I was placated with delicatessen food that I enjoyed. Every shabbos my mother would reward my brother and me for reading the sedra (biblical portion of the week) called “maver sedra”. The incentive was a hot pastrami sandwich for each of us purchased on the corner delicatessen dispensing Bronfman meat products. My yeshiva cautioned us not to buy other meat processors products i:e: Isaac Gelles or Hebrew National. Several years later, Bronfman was indicted for selling horse meat, so much for “hashgocha” (supervision).
Tuesday night the Nassau County legislature voted unanimously in favor of a bill by Legis. David Mejias (D-Farmingdale) to stop registered sex offenders from participating in online social networking sites.
http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2009/07/pawnbrokers_see_increase_in_lo.html
Kollel veiber pawning their jewelry
Who needs online chats when you can soon get the real stuff right in the heart of Lakewood?
While your poor daughter works to support me in kollel, I'm getting special "shimush"!!!
The Rye Town Hilton in Westchester is also a Pesach fresser hot spot for the modern orthodox crowd.
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-convention-organizer-dead,0,6208987.story
The son of the founder of Florida's famous Fontainbleau Hotel, who was in New York for a convention he had organized, has been found murdered in his hotel room, according to police.
Ben Novack Jr., 53, was found brutally beaten Sunday morning at the Hilton Rye Town, about 20 miles north of Manhattan. His wife told police she had found his lifeless body on the floor next to the bed after she returned home from breakfast at 8 a.m.
Authorities said the attack does not appear random and made clear no valuables appeared to be missing.
"We feel the person who did this was not a stranger who anonymously, randomly picked him, but had some sort of connection which we haven't determined yet," said Rye Brook Police Chief Gregory Austin.
Ben Novack, who lived in Fort Lauderdale, was president and CEO of Convention Concepts Unlimited. He had reportedly organized a weekend convention at the Hilton for Amway Global.
Novack was the son of Ben Novack Sr. - who owned the Fountainbleau in Miami Beach from its inception in 1954 until he filed for bankruptcy protection in 1977. The hotel has been used in such Hollywood flicks as "Goldfinger" and Scarface" and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
A 20 month old SY boy, Avraham Mizrachi of Long Branch NJ, was killed this morning when he somehow got out of his house alone and wandered into a neighbor's driveway where he was killed by an SUV pulling in to park.
Baruch dayan haemet
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aeirzxDUdXAQ
June 25 (Bloomberg) - Cerberus Capital Management LP and Centerbridge Partners LP were accused in a suit of being part of a scheme to induce David Lichtenstein to put his Extended Stay Hotels in bankruptcy to push out junior loan holders and take over, with senior lenders, the chain’s 680 properties.
Two owners of the mezzanine debt made the accusation in a complaint filed yesterday in New York state court seeking $314 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Cerberus and Centerbridge, New York-based private-equity firms, agreed to a plan to indemnify Lichtenstein against $100 million in liabilities that he faced if the hotel went into bankruptcy, according to the complaint. The plan also called for him to be provided with equity in the restructured entities and a $5 million “litigation defense war chest” to fight claims by the junior lenders, Line Trust Corp. and Deuce Properties Ltd. said in their complaint.
The provisions were “part of a comprehensive scheme designed to induce Lichtenstein to do that which the senior lender defendants themselves promised all other lenders, under the express terms of the intercreditor agreement, they would never do -- cause the borrowers to file for bankruptcy protection,” according to the complaint.
Midpriced Hotels
Extended Stay, operator of midpriced hotels acquired at the peak of the commercial real-estate market for $8 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection June 15. Lichtenstein’s Lightstone Group LLC, of Lakewood, New Jersey, bought the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based chain from Blackstone Group LP in April 2007 with $7.4 billion in financing. That included $3.3 billion in junior debt.
Line Trust and Deuce yesterday filed an objection in bankruptcy court to block Extended Stay’s request to use cash earmarked as collateral for loans. A hearing on the use of cash is scheduled for June 29.
Line Trust and Deuce, which together bought $214 million of the debt for Extended Stay’s acquisition, said in their lawsuit that they and other junior lenders had “offered to convert all mezzanine loans into tranched preferred equity positions in the holding company owning the borrowers,” which would have reduced Extended Stay’s debt from $7.4 billion to $4.1 billion.
‘Equity Kicker’
“The senior lender defendants were not content merely to reorganize borrowers so they were stable and solvent, but rather insisted upon themselves being able to ‘steal’ the valuable hotel properties and wipe out plaintiffs and other junior mezzanine lenders (while at the same time reinstating their cohort, Lichtenstein, in equity via a management agreement containing an ‘equity kicker,’” Line Trust and Deuce said in the complaint.
Line Trust and Deuce said the original lenders turned to the bankruptcy option only after another plan to cheat the mezzanine lenders failed. Lichtenstein conspired with the original lenders to “manufacture an event of default” by not paying $3.5 million in operating expenses, according to the complaint, filed by Stephen Meister and Stacey Ashby of New York law firm Meister Seelig & Fein LLP.
Under the loan documents, Lichtenstein and the senior lenders had a deadline of June 12, the date the loans matured, to make that scheme work, according to the complaint. The plan was foiled when, on June 3, New York state Judge Richard Lowe issued a restraining order that was still in effect on June 12.
“After stopping that brazen plan, we learned that hedge funds Cerberus and Centerbridge offered Lichtenstein immense protections and inducements to file bankruptcy,” Meister said in an e-mailed statement.
Where's that coward & hypocrite Shmarya who was all over Leib Glanz like a fly on a shtick dreck? Will he say one word about a Black warden at Rikers Island giving special treatment to Black rapper criminals?
http://livesteez.com/news/read/Hip-Hop-Star-Papoose-Blamed-for-Violence-in-NY-Prison/2102.html
Hip Hop star "Papoose" has been accused of triggering gang violence at New York's Rikers Island prison.
Officials have been investigating the prison facility after a scandal exposed certain inmates were given partial treatment while incarcerated.
Emmanuel Baily, a jail warden, who is also a fan of the rapper booked Papoose for a two-hour show in May of 2006.
The rapper, whose legal name is Shamele Makcie was battling a former friend and Bloods gang member Miguel "Dough Boy" Jeffery, who accused Mackie of shorting him in the recording studio.
According to the The New York Post, Dough Boy retaliated and fired shots at Mackie's entourage, in addition to stealing a $40,00 gold chain from the one of the rapper's relatives.
Dough Boy, who is currently serving 12 years for armed robbery and assault was not allowed to attend the concert because officials were aware of the violent history between the two.
Before Papoose left the stage, he taunted Dough Boy by shouting him out, which fueled the tension between the gangs.
Authorities believe that the verbal altercation launched a series of violent attacks within the jail, resulting in eight stabbings and a total of 13 assaults for throughout the year.
Baily was later reprimanded for failing to get proper approval for the concert, reports AllHipHop.com
The news comes amidst accusations that a Jewish rabbi named Leib Glanz controlled various prisons in New York and gave preferential treatment to orthodox Jews in the prison.
Both Correction’s Chief Peter Curcio and prison Chaplain Leib Glanz have since resigned due to the controversy.
National Council of Young Israel President Steve Mostofsky Esq. has a long history of covering up for child abusers and trying to silence his critics.
http://hamptonroads.com/node/148891
Steve's brother Michael Mostofsky davens at the OU shul in Norfolk, Virginia.
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/federal-judge-rules-wextrust-civil-suit-can-proceed
In a separate case, a former officer of WexTrust's brokerage firm in Norfolk (Shereshevsky's ponzi scheme) is seeking to recover $590,000 in unsecured claims from the WexTrust estate.
Michael Mostofsky, who had been director of WexTrust Securities' Private Equity Group, is one of 120 unsecured creditors who filed claims with the court-appointed receiver responsible for overseeing WexTrust assets.
http://wextrustinvestors.blogspot.com/2008/08/is-this-guy-guilty-too-michael.html
Michael Mostofsky - Director of Private Equity for Wextrust Capital: Is this guy involved too????
He was the one who 'sold' us on Wextrust investments, as well as the one of those Wextrust Employees who gave us excuses when the funds for a sold/closed investment never arrived.
---------------------
Is Michael Mostofsky just putting on an act after helping perpertrate the fraud? Did he have Shereshevsky send his private plane to Jamaica so that his brother, Michael Hersh's lawyer Steve Mostofsky, could keep tabs on Dr. Pelcovitz and the kidnapped boy?
http://www.insidebiz.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications::Article&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=D81AAC90CCD7430389EE9B51D3977CE6
Shereshevsky had an appetite for luxury travel, evidence of which can be seen from e-mails uncovered by the investigation in which he complained to his secretary that the private jet he was flying in wasn’t big enough.
Additional funds could be paid back depending on the outcome of the criminal allegations Shereshevsky and Byers are facing, through which investors could receive some criminal restitution out of whatever is left of the defendants’ personal assets.
And some money could come from “professionals” who had been involved with WexTrust and “should have done a better job,” Coleman said. One such possible professional Coleman mentioned is Michael Mostofsky, a local WexTrust employee who solicited investors and appeared on the Crunchman’s show on certain occasions.
http://www.jewishberkshires.org/page.aspx?id=203132
Secular chilonim upset that they can't park in the Old City on Shabbos, attacked 3 frum Jews on Shabbos, stabbing two and beating the third.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/11/ap/world/main5152458.shtml
The assailants fled without being caught.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/36872/Reaching+New+Lows+in+Kiryat+Yovel+-+Now+During+the+3+Weeks.html
Shmarya doesn't report it but reports with glee about 4 kollel guys who beat up a Lubavitcher.
http://lohud.com/article/20090714/NEWS02/907140353
Novack's unusual upbringing took place in one of the most glitzy settings imaginable. The Fontainebleau was legendary not only for its splendor, but also for its celebrity - it was featured in dozens of hit films, from the original "Rat Pack" version of "Ocean's Eleven" to Al Pacino's "Scarface."
"It was a glamorous life," Novack told the Miami Herald in April, when his mother, a former model, died.
The hotel was the center of the world for Novack, and certainly so for his industrious father.
Ben Novack Sr., a Brooklyn-bred retailer, relocated to Miami Beach in the years after World War II, part of a group of investors wishing to cash in on the growing post-war tourist trade.
Novack hired architect Morris Lapidus for the Fontainebleau in 1954. But the collaboration sparked a feud that continued with Ben Novack Jr., said Lapidus' son, author Alan Lapidus.
Alan Lapidus, whose 2007 book, "Everything by Design," details his father's dealings with the elder Novack, said the feud was so intense that Morris Lapidus designed a competing hotel next door, the Eden Roc.
Novack retaliated.
"That's when Novack built the addition to the Fontainebleu, with the bare wall facing the Eden Roc, solely for the purpose of casting a shadow on the Eden Roc's pool deck," Alan Lapidus said.
"Ultimately, of course, the hotel couldn't sustain the additional rooms," he said. "And so to get more money Ben went to the (Mafia) boys, which is why Frank Sinatra and the whole 'Rat Pack' not only stayed there, but made movies there, because they were the ones that actually owned it at that point."
Morris Lapidus grew particularly incensed when Ben Novack Jr. continued the dispute after his father died in 1985.
"When Novack said it, that didn't disturb my father so much," Alan Lapidus said. "But then after Novack died, when the son kept on doing it, I remember my father tearing around the house saying, 'Will this never end?' "
The younger Novack was also immersed in controversy after his father's death. His father's companion of five years, a former Uruguayan beauty queen, claimed that Novack Jr. had oversedated his father to take control of his estate, valued at $1 million - a claim he vehemently denied.
So the Eden Roc hotel is oyver on nizkei shecheynim?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA
We The People Stimulus Package
Bob Basso author of "Common Sense" plays the role of Thomas Paine
Another brother, Sholom Mostofsky, also lives in Norfolk VA where he is head of NCSY and chief mashgiach at the Tidewater Vaad Hakashrus.
It's no surpise that an actor should come to boro park. after all is it not a community full of actors~!? to vent about agudah go to agudahfressers.blogspot.com
Bim Bam & Ho Ho Holder prefer that al Qaeda terrorists run around free to kill more Americans.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124736381913627661.html
JULY 14, 2009
CIA Had Secret Al Qaeda Plan
Initiative at Heart of Spat With Congress Examined Ways to Seize, Kill Terror Chiefs
By SIOBHAN GORMAN
WASHINGTON -- A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.
Amid the high alert following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a small CIA unit examined the potential for targeted assassinations of al Qaeda operatives, according to the three former officials. The Ford administration had banned assassinations in the response to investigations into intelligence abuses in the 1970s. Some officials who advocated the approach were seeking to build teams of CIA and military Special Forces commandos to emulate what the Israelis did after the Munich Olympics terrorist attacks, said another former intelligence official.
"It was straight out of the movies," one of the former intelligence officials said. "It was like: Let's kill them all."
Attorney General Eric Holder is considering whether to order a criminal probe into whether treatment of terrorism detainees exceeded guidelines set by the Justice Department, administration officials said.
By PETER FERRARA
The federal income tax code is now so mangled that we can probably increase federal revenues with a 0% income tax rate for a majority of Americans.
Long before President Barack Obama took office, the bottom 40% of income earners paid no federal income taxes. Because of refundable income tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), in 2006 these bottom 40% as a group actually received net payments equal to 3.6% of total income tax revenues, according to the latest Congressional Budget Office data. The actual middle class, the middle 20% of income earners, pay only 4.4% of total federal income tax revenues. That means the bottom 60% together pay less than 1% of income tax revenues.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753106668435899.html
The Obama Democrats pick income redistribution over job creation and economic growth.
Jason Furman owes an apology to Michael Boskin, the Stanford economist who wrote a year ago on these pages that Barack Obama would raise American income tax rates nearly to 60%. Mr. Furman, then in the Obama campaign and now at the White House, claimed this was wrong and that Democrats would merely raise taxes back to their Clinton-era level.
House Democrats are now proving that Mr. Boskin had it right, and before it's over even he may have underestimated how high taxes will go. In the middle of a recession and with rising unemployment, Democrats have been letting it leak that they want to raise U.S. tax rates higher than they've been in nearly 30 years in order to finance government health care.
Every detail isn't known, but late last week Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel disclosed that his draft bill would impose a "surtax" on individuals with adjusted gross income of more than $280,000 a year. This would hit job creators especially hard because more than six of every 10 who earn that much are small business owners, operators or investors, according to a 2007 Treasury study.
In addition, many more smaller business owners with lower profits would be hit by the Rangel plan's payroll tax surcharge. That surcharge would apply to all firms with 25 or more workers that don't offer health insurance to their employees, and it would amount to an astonishing eight percentage point fee above the current 15% payroll levy.
Here's the ugly income-tax math. First, Mr. Obama has promised to let the lower Bush tax rates expire after 2010. This would raise the top personal income tax rate to 39.6% from 35%, and the next rate to 36% from 33%. The Bush expiration would also phase out various tax deductions and exemptions, bringing the top marginal rate to as high as 41%.
Then add the Rangel Surtax of one percentage point, starting at $280,000 ($350,000 for couples), plus another percentage point at $400,000 ($500,000 for couples), rising to three points on more than $800,000 ($1 million) in 2011. But wait, there's more. The surcharge could rise by two more percentage points in 2013 if health-care costs are larger than advertised -- which is a near-certainty. Add all of this up and the top marginal tax rate would climb to 46%, which hasn't been seen in the U.S. since the Reagan tax reform of 1986 cut the top rate to 28% from 50%.
States have also been raising their income tax rates, so in California and New York City the top rate would be around 58%. The Tax Foundation reports that at least half of all states would have combined state-federal tax rates of more than 50%.
Mr. Rangel also wants to apply his surcharges to investment income like capital gains. So the combined effect of repealing the Bush tax cuts and the new surcharges would be to raise the tax on stock appreciation by at least 60% -- to as high as 24% from 15% today. President Obama has been worrying about a capital squeeze on small businesses, but raising the capital gains tax would only further starve them of funds.
Democrats claim these tax increases on the rich won't do any economic harm. They should read the work of Christina Romer before she became chief White House economist. Ms. Romer and her husband, David Romer, a Berkeley economist, have published multiple studies on the impact of tax policy changes over the past 100 years. One of their findings is that "tax increases appear to have a very large, sustained and highly significant negative impact on output." In other words, tax hikes are an antistimulus.
Another implication of the Rangel plan is that America's successful small businesses would pay higher tax rates than the Fortune 500, and for that matter than most companies around the world. The corporate federal-state tax rate applied to General Electric and Google is about 39% in the U.S., and the business tax rate is about 25% in the OECD countries. So the U.S. would have close to the most punitive taxes on small business income anywhere on the globe.
Mr. Rangel and House Democrats are also banking on the idea that raising tax rates by 20% will raise 20% more tax revenue, but that's like telling Wal-Mart it can raise prices by 20% and get 20% more profit. When taxes on the rich rise, their reported income tends to decline. The last time the top federal income tax rate was 50%, the richest 1% paid only about 25% of all income taxes. Today, at a 35% rate they pay nearly 40%.
A new study by the Kaufman Foundation finds that small business entrepreneurs have led America out of its last seven post-World War II recessions. They also generate about two of every three new jobs during a recovery. The more the Obama Democrats reveal of their policies, the more it's clear that they prize income redistribution above all else, including job creation and economic growth.
Charlie ( I got the Ways, to Tax Your Means) Rangel still got a whole lot 'esplainin to do regarding his failure to pay taxes on various real estates he owns.
Whasa-matter Charlie, usted no habla ingles?
Never mind Charlie Rangel. Pretty much anyone with ties to Obama is a tax deadbeat.
http://www.mostlymusic.com/volume2-p-3686.html
Potyi Lipschitz who lives on Dolson in Monsey and is formerly from Frankel's shul in Flatbush is in siruv after being mechalel shem shomoyim by ignoring hazmonos ledin.
Why are people buying his chazzonus tapes?
He has stolen from people and touched kids for decades too but this is the only thing that a beis din nailed him on when he sent the Sheriff to throw a frum family out of a house that he was taking title of, ignoring the ikkul beis din issued against him.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the unemployment rate at its highest in two decades, the U.S. House of Representatives will work to extend jobless benefits, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.
http://agudahfressers.blogspot.com/2009/07/gevirim-conondrum.html
TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2009
THE "GEVIRIM" CONONDRUM
On the one hand they are very generous. While not true for all gevirim, I think that the ones affiliated with Agudah are all big supporters or our mosdos. Otherwise Agudah wouldn't look at them. And that is to their credit. Problem is that they are way too sure of their superior intellect, which is usually non existant. Aside from that they also have an extreme affinity for power. Which means that if you want to be friends(get money) you had better listen to my ideas.
So we have huge Baalei ga'ava telling the leadership what to do. And I can cite examples by the hundreds of this phenominon. And so can you.
PART 1 OF 2:
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Most of his sinful life the mobster Yitzchok Feuereisen has been spying on innocent Jewish children fishing out for future blackmailing their and their families harmful personal information for the managing hucksters of Ner Israel Rabbinical College. Yet when I read this past February about a Jewish World Review reporter "Robert Feuereisen" who was detained by the Secret Service for climbing over the media cordon in a frantic attempt to get Obama's autograph I foolishly couldn't even dream up that he and Ner Israel scamp "Yitzchok Feuereisen" were one and the same. I kid you not: recently I had to be at Ner Israel once again and verified this thing!!!
All of us who were at Ner Israel in Baltimore in the 70s knew a sneaky sycophant Yitzchok (Yitzchak) Feuereisen: an "alter bocher" running a "shabbos table" for yeshiva kids. Of course with a "blessing" of the Ner management. Feuereisen then moved in with his spinster sister in NYC but was making a buck as a proprietor of a bus service to Baltimore where he spent weekends. On my visits to Ner Israel after I got married I again always saw that man and his giant "shabbos table" with dozens of high school kids sitting around it. Ner Israel management never raised a finger against this obvious intrusion into THEIR right to coach THEIR kids. Guess why.....
We then knew little of the cover-ups at Ner though we knew that some rebbeim and many guys at the office were not so ehrlich but that's a different story. There were sickening whispers that Feuereisen had orgies with the high school children (Yitzchok Feuereisen was a perpetual "alter bocher" who had his own room in the packed Ner Israel high school dorm where he lived for years up until he was in his 40s!) and we heard that he was in bed with the compulsive liar and pedophile rabbi Moshe Eisemann and also a secret spy of the Ner mesivta principal rabbi Joseph "Yossi" Tendler & Associates and other stuff, but at that time that was weird and unbelievable at least to me.
PART 2 OF 2
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Thereabout in the 90s the "alter bocher" Yitzchok Feuereisen at last married a shady Australian woman but continued (and continues now!) with his shabbos-spying&grooming-table: this time both at yeshiva and his newly built lavish mansion located one minute walking distance from the yeshiva dorm. This White House jumping incident first made me think what the hell else we could be expecting from a philanderer who was never able to hold his dick in his pants, who spied on kids wholly screwing their innocent lives and families with his falsified dossiers, who never kept shabbos while hiding behind his "shabbos table": to uncivilly chase after President Obama to fetch his autograph!
Yet I spoke about this stuff with my good buddy who has worked for the military for the past 20 years and knows Feuereisen too. This is what I heard: "Yitzchok (Feuereisen) has always been a bozo racist and sexist. Of course he came up to Mr. President whose skin color he absolutely loathes just because he wanted Obama to remember him and so have a trouble-free access to him or his team in the future. In matter of fact "journalism" is just a cover for Feuereisen: like the "vending machines" he has to let others see that his riches don't appear out of thin air. And yes he is spying: maybe for NIRC, maybe for some intelligence agency, or maybe even for himself: big-time trading of the White House insider secrets to the Mafia or fat cats of Big Business."
There is something spooky that for more than 10 years that Feuereisen was a JWR reporter at the White House (JWR editor is one more Ner affiliate Binyamin Jolkovsky) no pieces of writing came out in print under the name "Robert Feuereisen"!!! So what was he actually doing at the White House all that years, how did he even get into the White House??? For Feuereisen spying on powerless yeshiva kids was NOT enough, molesting kids at the dorm was NOT enough, covering up for super bastards was NOT enough: Ner Israel has to have their FBI man inside the White House!
NOBODY DARES TO SAY IT SO I WILL: IF YOU STILL HAVE A CHILD AT NER ISRAEL TELL HIM TO STAY AWAY FROM THE DANGEROUS PHONY RABBI YITZCHOK ROBERT FEUEREISEN AND HIS "FREE" COKE AND CAKE: UNLESS YOU WANT TO FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF WHAT IN REALITY THE WORD "FREE" MEANS AT NER ISRAEL!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/us/15episcopal.html
Episcopal Church Moves to End Ban on Gay Bishops
http://www.usaspending.gov/fpds/tables.php?tabtype=t2&subtype=t&year=2009
UOJ is probably wondering what Cerberus did that we were able to bill Uncle Sam for over half a billion dollars so far in 2009 alone.
Fetter Shmiel sure does pay good with you suckers footing the bill with your tax dollars.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443809923&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
I don't see anywhere on the video that Leno is on 13th Ave.
J'lem: Man hurt in haredi protest against 'child starving' mother's arrest
By JPOST.COM STAFF
A man was lightly wounded in Jerusalem on Tuesday night when he was hit on the head by a stone during a protest against the arrest of a Neturei Karta woman suspected of nearly starving her three-year-old son to death.
The man was struck at the corner of Bar Ilan and Tzefania streets as he tried to move a burning garbage bin. He was evacuated to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.
Rabbis from the haredi community issued calls for the demonstrators to disperse.
July 14, 2009
NY AG: Facelift Firm Placed Bogus Online Reviews
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:03 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- The online journal gave a chatty account of a problem-free face lift. ''You will never regret it,'' the patient wrote.
But the seemingly satisfied customer actually was an employee of the firm behind the Lifestyle Lift, writing as part of a company campaign to plant plugs for the procedure online, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in announcing a $300,000 settlement with the company Tuesday.
His office said the settlement appeared to be one of the first to address so-called astroturf marketing, or creating a bogus grassroots buzz about a product.
Does UOJ have any other source making these allegations against Feuereisen?
And I wasn't aware that Binyomin Jolkovsky was affiliated with Ner. He's from a suburb of Washington, not Baltimore and he learned in various NY yeshivos including chassidish ones.
http://orthowatch.blogspot.com/2009/03/yeshiva-world-editor-yehuda-eckstein-in.html
Eckstein "broke his spine" in an ATV accident?
http://vidyid.com/atv-accident-in-catskills-owner-of-jewish-news-site-in-serious-condition.html
Monticello, Hurleyville, Catskills, New York – 2:15PM: There is an ATV accident at Anawanna Lake Road and Old Liberty Road near Whittaker Road. Hatzolah is enroute on a code 1. Requesting a Medevac chopper on StandBy. There are serious injuries reported. The ATV overturned.
Update – 3:00PM: The patient is a long-time Hatzoloh member. He was transported to Harris hospital. They might transport him to the city later.
Update – 3:30PM: It was a Flatbush Yungerman that was Shabbos in the mountains and was invovled in a accident today with a 3 wheel ATV.
Please be Mispallel for Yehuda Baruch ben Tzirel, he is former F-121 of Flatbush Hatzolah and a big Askan.
As per a voice conversation with him, he said ”I kindly ask all my friends to please stop calling me now I will iy’h be A-OK”
Update – 7:00PM: The patient has been flown by helicopter to Westchester Medical Center.
Orthowatch
March 23, 2009
Anonymous: I spoke to my Rosh Yeshiva about his site. My Rosh Yeshiva is in constant contact with most of the Rabbonim on the Moetzes, and is a well known and recognized authority himself. He told me straight out that the big Rabbonim have been trying to shut down Yeshiva World for months. When he mentions Rabbonim, it means people such as R’ Shmuel Kaminetsky, R’ Ahron Schechter, R’ Malkiel Kotler, R’ Matisyahu Soloman, and others of their caliber. So yes, Eckstein might have one Rabbi somewhere who backs him up, but the big Rabbonim are firmly against his site
Does UOJ have any other source making these allegations against Feuereisen?
**********
No. Feel free to verify for yourselves.
With such "smart" citizens this country has, it's no wonder why we ended up with Obama for president.
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