Threat Assessment: November 28th – December 2nd
WITH US
Tea Party support on the slide
Public approval of the Tea Party has dropped to 20 percent of Americans, compared with 27 percent last year, according to a New Research Center poll. The likely reason: Tea Partiers have had a spell in government, and the results haven't been pretty. [Politico]
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AGAINST US
Montreal police "branding" Occupy protesters
Montreal police have confirmed that they are "branding" protesters with a special ink that can only be seen under UV lights, as a means of identifying them to keep them from returning to the city's Occupy site. [Think Progress]
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WITH US
In the works: light bulbs fueled by human waste
Electronics giant Philips is working on developing a new eco-friendly light bulb that puts bioluminescent bacteria inside bulbs–bacteria that feeds on human excrement. [The Week]
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AGAINST US
Phone hacking not only widespread, but encouraged, inquiry learns
A notably unrepentant former deputy editor at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World told a media ethics hearing in the UK parliament that routine phone hacking was only one of the illegal practices that went on at the now-defunct tabloid. [New York Times]
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WITH US
House nixes limits on green cards for skilled workers
In a rare instance of bipartisan agreement, lawmakers voted to end limits on the number of skilled workers receiving green cards from a given country. [Washington Post]
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AGAINST US
NYPD did record number of stop-and-frisks in 2011
New York City cops stopped, questioned and frisked more than a million people between the beginning of the year and September, beating last year's record of 600,000, according to a civil liverties group. [New York Magazine]
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AGAINST US
Arizona Gun club holds 'Santa and Machine Guns' event
The Scottsdale Gun Club put its own spin on the holiday by hosting a "family event" called "Santa and Machine Guns," which invited kids to take photos with St. Nick while toting a variety of firearms. [ThinkProgress ]
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WITH US
Kids make cute PSA about misusing the word 'gay'
As in: "That [thing I don't like]'s so gay." These young kids say it best: "It's mean and it's offensive." [Vulture]
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AGAINST US
American Airlines goes down
American Airlines and its parent company AMR Global have filed for bankruptcy after failing to cut labor and fuel costs. In a statement, the company said it went the Chapter 11 route in hopes of bringing down costs and emerging more competitive. [Reuters]
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WITH US
College students occupying banks' recruiting sessions
The on-campus recruiting efforts of big banks at top universities are being stymied by Occupy-friendly students, who are advising their peers to look into other careers and generally making a bunch of noise. [New York Times]
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AGAINST US
Ann Coulter calls John McCain a 'douchebag' on TV
During an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe, the always-classy conservative pundit seemed to use the word to describe the venerable senator and former presidential candidate. The audio got bleeped out but her words were still fairly obvious to viewers. [Politico]
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WITH US
SEC seeks more power to punish banks
SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, in an open letter to members of Congress, has asked for the authority to impose greater financial penalties on perpetrators of financial fraud – specifically, to seek penalties larger than the investors' losses – to punish misconduct and take fuller account of the fraud's impact on victims. [Wall Street Journal]
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WITH US
NH paper says Romney "represents the 1%," declines to endorse
The New Hampshire Union Leader, an influential newspaper during primary season, chose to endorse Newt Gingrich over Mitt Romney because, according to the paper's publisher, the 2012 election is "going to be Obama’s 99% versus the 1%, and Romney sort of represents the 1%.” [Talking Points Memo]
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AGAINST US
Report: Fed committed $7.77 trillion to rescue big banks
Previously secret dealings between big banks and the federal government have been made public, and the among the information is the bombshell that the Fed had committed over $7 trillion by March 2009 to revive the financial system – that's "more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year," according to the Bloomberg report. [NPR ]
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WITH US
Top Marine: DADT repeal has gone smoothly
Marines General James F. Amos, who had previously argued against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" during wartime, has changed his tune, saying that the Marines have embraced the shift and all has gone smoothly. [AP ]
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AGAINST US
Barney Frank to Bow Out in 2012
After 16 terms in office, Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank has announced he will be retiring from the House. Among other things, he is the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, the co-author of the landmark 2010 financial reform law, and the first member of Congress to come out as gay. [Politico ]
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WITH US
Federal judge strikes down Citigroup settlement with SEC
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff struck down a $285 settlement agreed upon by Citigroup and the SEC; the settlement would have allowed Citi to make charges of misleading investors go away without confirming or denying wrongdoing. Rakoff wrote in his ruling that it is difficult "to discern from the limited information before the court what the SEC is getting from this settlement other than a quick headline." [NPR ]
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AGAINST US
Wisconsin law doesn't protect gays from harassment
Laurie McCallum, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's appointee to the state's Labor and Industry Review Commission, recently ruled that "sexual preference" (in her words) is not protected under state sexual harassment laws, in defiance of three decades of precedent. [ThinkProgress]