Justified Right

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Editor's Note:  Below is a piece by Ernesto Cullari, who ably pens the "Justified Right" column in print in the triCityNews in Asbury Park.  Here Ernesto points out the sweet government post enjoyed by the wife of Democrat Congressman and Obamacare sponsor Frank Pallone.  Enjoy!

 

Since the Democrats have taken control of both The White House and the House of Representatives the economy has gone from bad to worse. According to the UK Guardian 14.6 million Americans are unemployed with 6.8 million unemployed for 6 months or longer. A recent Gallup poll finds that nearly 1 in 5 workers is under employed, which is to say that they are either unemployed or working part-time and wanting full-time work. This recession is beginning to look depressing. And what is the reassuring response from the Democrat leadership in regard to the sting of unemployment? Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says, “It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.” The Democrat aristocracy is out of touch with the plight of real Americans.

 

But life isn’t so tough and the financial outlook isn’t so grim for all Americans. For the Democrat leadership political power translates into real career opportunities for themselves and for their family members. For the elite there is no unemployment line, but rather a buffet line leading them from one opportunity and one favor to the next. Our own Congressman Frank Pallone Jr., who is up for re-election by the way, either lives a charmed life, seemingly avoiding the economic malaise that has hit most Americans or he has used his position of power to influence the hiring of his wife Sarah Hospodor-Pallone at the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

Sarah Hospodor-Pallone’s job at the EPA is a prestigious position. She works within the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, where she is Deputy Associate Administrator, responsible for managing the EPA’s relationship with national organizations, State and local governments, as well as small communities. An EPA document dated December 2^nd 2009 and addressed to former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine lists Sarah Hospodor-Pallone as the point person for the governor, an impressive position for someone who seemingly did not work her way up and through the ranks at the EPA.

 

Unlike the demoralizing embarrassment and stress associated with being unemployed, underemployed or just strapped for cash, being employed by the federal government has many sweet perks; sure to make the troubling fears of a stagnant economy fade away. Not only does Democrat Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. enjoy such a carefree existence but now his wife will be lavished with such privileges also. As an employee of the EPA she will enjoy well-appointed fitness centers and stress labs. According to the EPA website employees are offered an “array of classes and workout equipment”; so much for being down with the struggle.

 

Many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and many households are barely keeping themselves above water. People are seeing their life savings being wiped away in a matter of months. In the coming months Americans will experience the largest tax increase in US history care of the president and the Democrat controlled Congress, but not everyone will experience the crisis. Federal employees like Frank and Sarah Pallone can look forward to a Federal Retirement Plan, which includes a Social Security base, a secure annuity based on earnings and an employee’s length of service. Sum that up with a tax deferred savings plan and the Pallones can walk away from government work with a plan that rivals any CEO’s golden parachute. What is more, Sarah Pallone can forward 6 weeks of leave to the next year and add it to her vacation time and her 10 days of paid holidays. It’s no wonder that the Democrats are pushing for a European style Democracy with historically high taxes; they are already living like Eurocrats.   

 

When the tax hikes take effect most Americans will be paying the “Medicine Cabinet Tax”, such that Americans will no longer be able to utilize pre-tax dollars from health savings accounts to pay for non-prescribed and over-the-counter medicines. But the Pallones will have no such worries, because their health benefits program allows them to use pre-tax dollars to pay their entire health insurance premium. The Pallones are raising your taxes while enjoying separate tax cuts for the aristocracy.

 

I contacted Frank Pallone’s campaign and gave them the opportunity to establish whether or not Sarah Hospodor-Pallone received assistance from Congressman Pallone in landing her cushy job at the EPA, but they never returned my inquiry. Congressman Pallone is one of the most powerful men in the country. He single handedly can take credit for drafting and implementing Obamacare and the tax increases that accompany it. He is the senior member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over health care, energy and the environment. It is entirely plausible that as a man with vast influence over the EPA that he could have made calls or sent e-mails on behalf of his wife to the EPA in order to get her the job. Congressman Pallone should answer these questions and more in writing to this publication. Our legislators need to be held accountable for how they use constitutionally granted powers, particularly when most Americans are powerless over the current financial storm that engulfs them.   

 

On The Radio Tonight (7 EST) With Andy Caldwell in California! #tcot

 

Tonight at 7 I'm going to discuss with Andy the vile "Shoot The Guido" game on the Seaside Heights boardwalk (see post below).

You can listen to the show live by clicking here.

"Shoot The Guido." What MTV Has Wrought

Imagine walking along a seaside boardwalk with your children, the smell of the ocean mixing with roasted clams, pizza and French Fries wafting through the air. Wayfaring causally past amusement stands, one of the barkers holding a gun invites your children to play a game of skill.  He yells out the name of his boardwalk memory-maker:

“Shoot the nigger!”

“Shoot the kike!”

“Shoot the spic!”

“Shoot the chink!”

Of course, that couldn’t happen.  While the stereotypes that created those vulgar epithets aren’t wiped out, they’ve become taboo words in popular culture, and we make a pariah of anyone caught using them or similar words. Think Mel Gibson and Jeremiah Wright.

But “Shoot The Guido” is real.  It exists on the Seaside Heights, NJ boardwalk.  People are encouraged to fire a gun at a real man in a rubber suit designed to look like the pop-culture version of the bastardized Italian-American; the stereotype.

Just what is meant by the term "Guido"? It defines a lifestyle where steroid muscles are good, fake orange tans are better and fistfights, club dancing and casual sex with strangers is more important than jobs. Proper enunciation is a low priority.

The problem is that "Guido" is a quintessentialy Italian name, but most people in that lifestyle are not Italian, so our ethnicity gets the unfair stereotype.

No town in America would allow an amusement stand that encouraged people to shoot at another ethnicity, but Seaside Heights, NJ has done it to Italians.

When the barker singled out my son and pestered him to play, I said, “No thanks, we’re Italian.  We find it offensive.”  The barker replied, “But I’m Italian!”  I wondered why he didn’t understand that made it worse, not better.

He persisted by telling me, “Spanish guys have been taking over Italian style, so you can pretend you are shooting a Spanish guy.”  Apparently in his mind, there was a bigot lurking in me somewhere.  I just needed the proper orientation. 

For years Italian-Americans have protested that there is a double standard in popular culture that allows stereotyping of Italians, where that same treatment of any other group would be frowned upon.  Is any more proof of that double standard needed than the existence of “Shoot the Guido” for family entertainment?

While the movie “The Godfather” started it all, MTV’s show “Jersey Shore” has made the problem undeniable.

Before The Godfather, Hollywood movies about mobsters reflected the reality that every ethnicity had organized criminals.  Dutch Shultz, Bugsy Segal and Meyer Lansky were Jews. Dion O’Bannion and Bugs Moran were Irish. Of the Midwest Crime wave including John Dillanger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, “Baby Face” Nelson, “Ma” Barker, Bonnie & Clyde and “Machine Gun” Kelly, none were Italian. Yet because The Godfather was so acclaimed, more than 400 feature films have been made since, where the mobsters are just Italian, despite the historical inaccuracy.

And if an Italian is portrayed in movies, television or commercials and he isn’t a criminal, he’s a dolt and clown.  Think of the character Joey Tribbiani from “Friends.”  Guido never goes to college (in Hollywood, at least).

The Italians who play these parts – DeNiro, Pacino, etc., are the modern day Stepin Fetchit.  The black actor Lincoln Perry who played Fetchit didn’t have many options, but James Gandolfini did, so he shouldn’t have.  The popularity of “The Sopranos” doesn’t justify its creation or airing.  Stepin Fetchit was very popular in its day, but would anyone seriously argue that its popularity justified the damage it did in creating the “shufflin’ negro” stereotype in the American psyche? 

Would HBO remake “Stepin Fetchit” today?  They wouldn’t risk the public opprobrium from the insult to black people.  But they won multiple Emmy awards for the same insult to Italians with “The Sopranos.”  Double standard.

The Italians who embrace the stereotype justify it by claiming, “I knew guys like Soprano back in the old neighborhood.”  No you didn’t.  You’re lying.  You knew no one so disgustingly immoral.  You knew no one who killed weekly, let alone killed his best friend, cousin and nephew as did the fake character Soprano. 

Submission by Italian sell-outs to the stereotype is why our American identifier has gone from real people like Giuliani and Cuomo to fictional people like Corleone.

MTV’s show “Jersey Shore” is less Stepin Fetchit and more Al Jolson’s black-face.  Jolson wasn’t black but pretending to be. Half the actors on “Jersey Shore” are not Italian, only pretending to be.  Reality show?  Certainly not.  Just actors playing a bigoted stereotype.

Did you ever wonder why the show never used the cast member’s last names?  Because half of them aren’t Italian, and MTV wanted to hide that.
 
The actor Ronnie’s last name is Ortiz.  The actor JWoww’s” last name is Farley. The actor Angelina’s last name is “Pivarnick” (what part of Italy is she from)?  And if you think “Snooki” is Italian, you’ve been snookered.  The bulbous little actress is Chilean.

Yet MTV had them pretending to be Italian by painting Italian colors on their garage and having the cast members discuss “Italian family values” (you know, in between all the casual sex and punching people).  Note that the cast members involved in violence weren’t Italian.

Some argue that “Guido” refers not to Italian ancestry, rather a lifestyle choice by people from many backgrounds.  But “Guido” is a quintessentially Italian name.  So when someone tans themselves orange and acts the fool, calling him “Guido” indicts Italians to the exclusion of the actual ethnicity of the clod who is acting that way.  If that lifestyle is not about being Italian, then call it something else.

Stereotypes are hurtful. What is most important for ethnic groups, Italians included, is to assimilate into America – to be thought of as Americans first and our ethnicity second. That being true, then each ethnic group has to obliterate old stereotypes. Culturally you can master the language, clothing, education, business and politics, but a stereotype will be the last lock on the door to assimilation if you can’t pick it. There will always be something that says “outsider” about a group with a widely accepted stereotype.

If you think this is a “sticks and stones” issue with the Italians protesting being soft skinned, you’re wrong.  The stereotype creates a genuine problem for people with Italian last names in courtrooms all over America.

Police and prosecutors have been known to give Italian defendants a nickname in quote marks in the middle of their name.  Even though the person doesn’t call himself that and none of his friends or family call him that, the nickname ends up in the indictment.  Why?  If the jury sees a nickname in quotes, the assumption is the Italian is involved in organized crime and is automatically guilty.  Fair trial?

I have an anecdotal story I often relate: Twenty years ago in when I was in law school, three students were in the next booth from me in a campus restaurant.  One said, “In criminal law we are studying a case where the defendants had these long Italian names.  They were soooo guilty!”  An Italian name = guilty.  Where do you suppose that law student is today?  A judge maybe?  A prosecutor?  A juror?

Hopefully Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino or the 3 other Jersey Shore cast members with Italian surnames (Paul DelVecchio, Sammi Giancola and Vincent Guadagnino) never find themselves in front of a jury where their last names make them soooo guilty.

Hopefully, they will realize that they are adding to that problem, and someone in their family may end up in front of such a jury one day and lose because of what MTV is doing to enforce the Italian stereotype.

I’d rather see them repent. There is still time for every actor on “Jersey Shore” to tell MTV, “I’m sorry I let you talk me into this.  I’m sorry I embarrassed the Italian diaspora.  I’m not doing it anymore.”

They’d be beloved in their own communities if they did, and their popularity would soar.

Proof that Frank Pallone is Worried About Anna Little #tcot

Undeniable proof that Frank Pallone is worried about the challenge from Anna Little:  He's now hanging around Asbury Park.

Read about it at Monmouth County's #1 political website, More Monmouth Musings!

Time To Bomb Switzerland #tcot

The Swiss government is no longer neutral.  They've picked a side.  They've picked a side against America.

Who did they side with?  An admitted pedophile-rapist and fugitive.

The Swiss have decided not to honor an American extradition request for Roman Polanski, who admitted to getting a 13 year old girl altered with champaign and quaalude and then raping her. 

The Swiss gave two phony reasons for letting Polanski go (teen-aged girls beware):

First, they said America couldn't prove that the 42 days Polanski spent in a psych ward before sentencing was his full sentence. The fact that he still hasn't actually been sentenced (he fled his sentencing hearing) seems to have escaped the attention of dim-witted Swiss authorities.

Second, they said that the arrest of Polanski in Zurich was unfair because he "wasn't expecting it."

Someone alert Dog the Bounty Hunter.  Apparently he has to give fugitives a gold engraved invitation before apprehending them so they may expect his arrival.

These reasons are Euro-bull shit.

The Swiss are no longer neutral.  Let's bomb them and take all their fine watches.