Threat Assessment: September 19-23
September 19-23
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WARREN DEMOLISHES 'CLASS WARFARE' CHARGE
At a recent campaign stop in Massachusetts, consumer advocate and senate candidate Elizabeth Warren tried to make the case for a fairer economy, including raising taxes on the very rich, per President Obama's recent proposal. And … she killed it! See for yourself.
"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody," she said. "You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along." [TPM]
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CLINTON SLAMS GOP ON CLIMATE
Bill Clinton spoke at the seventh annual Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday, hammering GOP candidates on their opposition to acknowledging man-made climate change. “If you’re an American, the best thing you can do is to make it politically unacceptable for people to engage in denial” about climate change, he said, adding that the candidates make the country "look like a joke." [Politico ]
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BACHMANN WANTS TO LET FOOD SAFETY SLIDE
At a stop at a meatpacking plant in Iowa this week, GOP contender Michele Bachmann called for the goverment to get out of the food-processing industry's business. "That's part of the problem, the overkill [of regulation,]" Bachmann told reporters. "And when they make it complicated, they make it expensive and so then you can no longer stay in business." As AP notes, Bachmann's calls for a looser restrictions on food companies "follows [a recent spate of] high-profile recalls of peanuts, eggs and other tainted food products.” [ThinkProgress]
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$16 MUFFINS AT JUSTICE
Between October 2007 and September 2009, the Department of Justice spent over $490,000 food for conferences, according to a government report cited by Bloomberg. "Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending," the report said. At one conference, $16 muffins were served; at another, $8 cups of coffee and tea. [Politico]
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Obama goes after farm pork
This year, the farming industry is expected to rake in $103.6 billion in net income, up 31 percent from 2010. Yet taxpayers pay $4.7 billion annually in direct cash subsidies. The president's debt reduction plan, unveiled this week, proposes cutting this support by 22 percent. [Politico]
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Rick and Rupe have dinner
During a recent trip to New York City, Rick Perry met with Jewish and Hispanic voters, Donald Trump and News Corp. (and thus Fox News) supremo Rupert Murdoch. The pair dined at The Post House, just a few days after Perry published an op-ed piece in Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal. [New York Times ]
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SEC lawyer had ties to Madoff
David M. Becker, general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was involved in determining the compensation for victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Thing was, he himself received an inheritance from a Madoff account! SEC chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro had kept Becker from testifying to Congress about the case so as to avoid the disclosure of his financial stake in Madoff. A report released this week highlights this and other ethics failings of the SEC. [New York Times]
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FEDS CLOSING IN ON EX-GOLDMAN HONCHO
Federal prosecutors are coming closer to bringing charges against Rajat Gupta, a former director at Goldman Sachs who allegedly leaked inside information about the firm during the financial crisis. The SEC and Manhattan U.S. attorney's office are waiting for the Department of Justice to bring charges against Gupta, sources say. [Wall Street Journal]
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Hikers freed from Iranian jail
Two American hikers have been freed after spending two years in Iranian jail on espionage charges. [New York Times]
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Google blows off Santorum
GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum recently asked Google to help fix his little "problem," whereby a search query for "Santorum" turns up a bunch of stuff about anal sex. Santorum wants the pages taken down; Google says it's not the company's place to be taken pages down and that Santorum needs to go the webmaster of the pages in question. Google's search results, said a company spokesman, are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the web." [Washington Post]
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OBAMA WIELDS THE BIG STICK
A newly combative, no-compromise President Obama, laid out a plan on Monday to reduce the federal budget deficit by more than $3 trillion in the next decade. He also promised to veto any bill that enacts spending cuts without tax increases. “I will not support any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans,” he said during the speech. “We are not going to have a one-sided deal that hurts the folks who are most vulnerable." [New York Times]
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HELPING THE U.S. WON'T GET YOU A GREEN CARD
A sweeping law bars immigrants from permanent residency in the U.S. even if they have worked to aid American interests, leaving thousands of asylum seekers previously granted political asylum or refugee status in this country in limbo thanks to their past affiliations. “It is not fair; I want to stay here,” one green-card applicant, a member of the Iraqi National Congress who worked for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, told the New York Times. "How come they helped me before, but now they say I am a terrorist? I can’t believe this." [New York Times]
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ANTI-DEMOCRATIC SUPREME COURT DECISION HAS AN UPSIDE
Turns out last year's Citizen United Supreme Court case decision allowing nearly unlimited campaign donations from corporations and unions has an democratic upside, too: the ruling upholds disclosure requirements because "transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages." Using the decision, courts have prevented same-sex marriage groups from keeping their donors and spending secret. [New York Times]
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FREE AK-47 WITH THAT?
A credit-card equipment and processing company in Florida has hit upon a new way of enticing customers – by giving away Free AK-47 assault rifles. Based on the size of your order, you can redeem a voucher worth up to $750 toward the cost of a gun. On its website, the Sarasota-based MerchantService.com notes that "one of the most important steps toward ensuring you and your business' well-being is deciding to not be a victim." [ThinkProgress]
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DADT finally expires Tuesday
After almost 18 years, the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rule ended Tuesday. The bill was repealed in December 2010 and, as of midnight on September 20, gay and lesbian troops are able to serve openly. [Washington Post]
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BACHMANN: ARAB SPRING RADICAL (IN A BAD WAY)
In a speech to California GOP activists, presidential contender Michele Bachmann called the Arab Spring "radical" – and she didn't mean it in the Tea Party sense. Even though the revolutionary uprising has ousted three dictators and tapped the democratic aspirations of millions of people throughout the Arab world, Bachmann chose to warn darkly about the "rise of radical elements" across the region. [National Journal]
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W.H. to buy in bulk, save millions
The White House is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to federal spending: a move to buying federal agencies' supplies – printers, scanners, copiers, Blackberries – in bulk will save the government up to $600 million in the next four years. [Washington Post]
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PERRY MADE HIS MONEY THE OLD-FASHIONED POLITICAL WAY
GOP presidential frontrunner Rick Perry is not all that rich by the standards of presidential candidates, but he is worth over a million dollars, and he gained his wealth the time-honored political way – by getting in on profitable deals involving political friends and their businesses. So, for instance, Perry "made more than $800,000 in 2007 reselling a resort development plot he had gotten from a Republican friend in the Legislature," reports the Washington Post. And he cleared $38,000 in 1995 "by flipping stock in a company owned by one of his top campaign donors." [Washington Post]
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Turkish mortuary installs alarms to detect life
A morgue in central Turkey has installed a warning system in its refrigerators to detect signs of life among the bodies inside. Any motion inside will set off an alarm in the morgue, and the refrigerator doors are now equipped with interior handles. [BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15010888]
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D.C. Diplomats rack up $500K in parking and traffic tickets
Foreign diplomats in Washington, D.C. owe over half a million dollars in unpaid tickets from the past 40 years, according to a WTOP/WJLA report. The 7,000-plus tickets total $340,047 in fines, with the majority of tickets accruing late fees. New York City is even worse, says the report: the city is owed over $17.2 million in unpaid diplomat parking tickets. [Politico https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64062.html]
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No, you won't get hit by satellite debris this weekend
NASA has predicted that its 5.7-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will re-enter the atmosphere on Friday, and that some 500 kilograms of debris will fall somewhere on Earth. Not to worry, though: there's only a 1-in-21-trillion chance that the debris will hit any particular person (for context, the chances of getting fatally struck by lightning are 1 in 1.6 billion). [Scientific American https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/09/21/your-friday-forecast-sunny-with-a-1-in-21-trillion-chance-of-getting-hit-by-orbital-debris/]
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Police using outdated law to arrest Wall Street protesters
The Occupy Wall Street protests took over the streets in downtown Manhattan this week, hoping to draw attention to the crimes of banks headquartered there. Despite demonstrating peacefully, at least seven protesters have been arrested using an outdated 1845 law that bans wearing masks in public. The law was updated in 1965 to ban masked gatherings of more than two people (except for masquerade parties). [ThinkProgress https://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/21/325014/new-york-150-years-wall-street-protest/]