Misc: July 2008 Archives

According to NECN.com, a woman in High Ridge, Missouri has discovered the image of Jesus in a crunchy Cheeto.

Most of her family and friends believe it looks like a mini orange sculpture of Jesus on the cross. [Kelly] Ramey and her husband call it "Cheesus." Others see something completely different.

A local minister does not see anything theologically special about the Cheeto, but thinks some good could come from it.

Two things about this story:

1. The printed news report doesn't really say what the "something completely different" might be. It makes me wonder if I'm once again out of loop for not seeing something sexually related or otherwise "cool."
2. Do people really take time to check the artistic image of their Cheetos before they consume them? And, if they do, doesn't that make you want to go work in a Cheeto factory just you can spend your break time shaping small sculptures?

If you're really interested in learning more, there's video at the link above.

I promise this will be the last Yo-Yo update for at least a week. He's just such a great dog and the pictures the oldest daughter and I took of him the back yard turned out so good... too good not to share.

And, yes, I've resorted to using hair product to try and train his facial hair. Snicker about my metrosexual dog if you want. It's not yet long enough for the top knot and at least this is keeping it out of his eyes.

Okay. I get the message. As requested, here are a couple of photos of our new family member, Yo-Yo the Shih Tzu. I'll do my best to post some better ones soon.

No, he's not always this calm and, yes, he really does sleep on his back like that.

Yo-Yo is fitting in great with the family... although he does like to pull dirty clothes around the house. Potty training is going pretty well too.

All-in-all he's a keeper. And, if you ever see Lynda out and about, chances are Yo-Yo is along for the ride.

The big decision now is whether or not to try and keep his coat long. From experience, this will be a lot of work. Also, his facial hair doesn't seem to be angling down as it grows, but continues to do that "fan" thing in front of his eyes. That's not good for him and can lead to eye troubles.

The good news is that a haircut won't affect his personality. Matter-of-fact, it might make him even more playful. But it is great to watch him chasing his toys with all that fur bouncing.

No matter which side of the national immigration debate you're on, this weekend will be a big one in Postville.

On Saturday three members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will visit with community leaders and families affected by the unprecedented May 12 immigration raid and take their findings back to Congress. On Sunday opposing viewpoints in the national immigration debate are expected to collide during a rally designed to call for comprehensive immigration reform.

"I wouldn't say that we are anticipating trouble or violence," said Postville Police Chief Michael Halse in a telephone interview Thursday evening. "But we realize that when you have two groups of people, each passionate about a message, there is a potential for conflict."

Conservative estimates from individuals on both extremes of the debate have the town's current population of 2,300 temporary swelling on Sunday to 3,300 or more. The numbers alone were enough for Halse to contact neighboring law enforcement agencies for assistance.

Halse said he's spoken with both local and state agencies. To his knowledge, there will be no federal presence in Postville on Sunday.

"Our department hasn't requested assistance from any federal agencies," he said.

The rally comes nearly three months after an immigration raid at Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacker and Postville's largest employer. Nearly 400 workers were detained in the raid, most of them from Guatemala. Of those detained, 300 had pleaded guilty to criminal charges within 10 days. Since the raid, three members of middle management have been indicted. Two of those are remanded until a September trial date, but appealing that decision. The third has fled the jurisdiction.

The rally, which was originally organized by Catholic and Jewish groups from Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota, was advertised as a prayer vigil and march through the Postville community.

"[The rally] is a call for social justice," said Sister Mary McCauley, pastoral administrator for the region that includes St. Bridget's Roman Catholic Church in Postville. "This is a call to be faithful to our American and religious values."

The Sunday rally, which was originally made public during a special City Council meeting when Paul Rael, director of the Hispanic Ministry at St. Bridget's, requested permission from elected officials for the event. Since the vigil and subsequent march were planned on property that was either public or owned by the church, Rael was not required to obtain a permit. Organizing groups for the original rally are St. Bridget's; Jewish Community Action of St. Paul, Minn.; and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs of Chicago.

Organizers of the immigration reform rally plan a 1 p.m. meeting at St. Bridget's Roman Catholic Church for a prayer vigil before they begin a march through the community.

Gathering information and reporting the names of the organizations involved with the counter-rally hasn't been as transparent a process.

Since the City of Postville does not currently require waivers or permits for these types of gatherings, there are no documents registered with the city clerk. Halse, however, said that he has been contacted by two groups: St. Bridget's and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Susan Tully, a national field director for FAIR, was a Thursday guest on the Jan Mickelson radio show and indicated that her group is planning a counter-rally. In addition a loose-knit blog coalition, Blogs for Borders, has been attempting to raise funds to send members into Postville on Sunday.

Tully, who did not respond to a media request from Iowa Independent, said in a prepared statement that her organization will be in Postville on Sunday "to show show that millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules applaud efforts to finally enforce our nation's immigration laws."

Organizers of the pro-enforcement rally are also slated to begin at 1 p.m. at Postville City Hall, roughly two blocks north of the church.

5W Public Relations, a New York-based firm hired last month by Agriprocessors, has told PR Week that a comment left on this blog was not fraudulent, but done at the bequest of Uri L'Tzedek, an Orthodox Jewish social group to which it was attributed. It's a charge that the group organizers deny.

"[Co-director Ari Hart] and I had never been in touch with [5W PR CEO Ronn] Torossian until [July 18], and we had certainly never been a client of theirs, nor have we ever instructed them to do anything, nor would we have wanted that," said Shmuly Yanklowitz, Uri L'Tzedek co-director. "We were boycotting the Agriprocessors company, and they are the PR firm for them."

Torossian said that the Uri L'Tzekek press release was given to his organization "in advance of public release" and that his firm was "tasked with its distribution." Torossian, while not indicating that the press release came to them from Agriprocessors, does state that the press release "does not offer any additional or alternate messages than the one that Uri L'Tzedek issued to our client and to the public." Torossian does not name the person that authorized the distribution of the press release.

The comment left on this blog differs from those left on FailedMessiah.com. The comment on Essential Estrogen, while believed to have originated from the home computer of 5W Senior Vice President Juda Engelmayer, provides, as Torossian is quick to point out, the text of a publicly distributed press release from Uri L'Tzedek. In contrast, the posts left at FailedMessiah.com impersonate others and put words in their mouths.

That being said, if it is true that 5W was provided an advance copy of the Uri L'Tzedek press release and told to begin distributing it, why did the comment left on this blog appear nearly 10 hours after a post had already been published in relation to the announcement? Further, why was the comment posted not in response to the information on that subject, but instead was made in reference to a post that detailed the recent indictment of two Agriprocessors plant supervisors?

According to information in the PR Week article, both Heksher Tzedek (Rabbi Morris Allen) and Uri L'Tzedek are now considering legal action against 5W. Menachem Lubinsky, president and chief executive officer of Lubicom Marketing, a firm that continues to represent and serve as spokespersons for Agriprocessors, must have sent PR Week the same non-answer that he sent to Essential Estrogen and Iowa Independent when asked about 5W: "no comment."

As I reported earlier today in an article about misconduct by 5W, a comment left here on Essential Estrogen originated from the same IP address as the one documented by FailedMessiah.com to belong to a home computer of one of the 5W Public Relations senior vice presidents. 5W is a New York-based public relations firm that was hired by Agriprocessors and the Rubashkin family.

In the case of the comment left on this blog, the member of 5W management (Juda Engelmayer) posted fraudulently in the name of a grassroots Jewish organization, Uri L'Tzedek.

Click an image below to enlarge:

The IP address, 207.172.105.37, is located on the bottom right. In addition to logging the IP address, the blog backend also sends me an email notice when a new comment is posted:

When asked about such incidents, 5W CEO Ron Torossian responded with an email that said, in part: "This battle is not about blogging." Damn skippy. Most of the bloggers I know have the intelligence to realize they can be tracked by their IPs.

For the $25,000 per month that Agriprocessors has been rumored to have paid 5W to deal with negative publicity, you'd think that they would have gotten a little less ignorance and a lot more transparency. In the end, perhaps the money would have been better spent on increased wages and new plant equipment.