Daily Threat Assessment
AGAINST US
CONGRESS WITHHOLDS $1.15 BILLION IN PROMISED AID TO HAITI
With Hurricane Tomas threatening flash floods and mudslides, a recent cholera outbreak killing hundreds and sickening thousands, and 1.3 million people still homeless in and around Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, Congress still won't provide reconstruction aid until U.S. lawmakers are assured funds will be allocated properly. That's a valid concern, but it's been 10 months since the quake, and now Congress? inaction to tragically increase the suffering those dollars were meant to alleviate. Nov. 05
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AGAINST US NEARLY HALF OF GOP FRESHMAN DON’T BELIEVE IN GLOBAL WARMING
Of the 97 new Republicans headed to the House, 45 are ?confirmed climate zombies,? reports Think Progress, and not one of the party's new representatives have gone on record saying they believe the science on climate change and the risks it poses. Roughly the same share of returning GOP incumbents have also expressed doubts. All told, just four House GOPers have taken the public position that global warming is happening. Nov. 4
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WITH US STEWART WINS!
Boosted by the Rally to Restore Sanity and its big Obama interview, The Daily Show was the top-rated late-night show in the all-important Adults 18 — 49 demo in October, with an average viewership of 1.3 million, 100,000 better than Letterman and Leno. It's the first time The Daily Show has won the category, and comes as a further sign of Jon Stewart's seemingly ever-growing cultural reach. Nov. 4
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WITH US TEA PARTY BLOWS CONTROL OF SENATE FOR GOP
As worrisome as the Republicans? huge new House majority is, just think how much damage the party could do had it won the upper chamber, too. And without the Tea Party, that's very likely what would have happened. So thank you, Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, and Christine O?Donnell — and especially Sarah Palin — for producing candidacies so unsettlingly extreme, they wound up sinking amid an otherwise unstoppable GOP wave. Nov. 3
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WITH US ROSANNE CASH CALLS JOHN BOEHNER AN ‘ASSHAT’
In stump speeches, the presumptive next Speaker of the House has been telling a very lame joke: ?Remember when Ronald Reagan was president? We had Bob Hope. We had Johnny Cash. Think about where we are today. We have got President Obama. But we have no hope and we have no cash.? Beyond revealing that the GOP really does want to move the country backward, the quip also insults Cash's progressive politics. His comedian-singer daughter, none too pleased, took to Twitter to ask Boehner to ?stop using my dad's name as a punchline,? tacking on the fitting epithet at the end. Nov. 2
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AGAINST US ANTI-GAY GROUP DRUMS JUDGES WHO LEGALIZED GAY MARRIAGE OUT OF OFFICE
In the nearly four decades since Iowa instituted a system that lets its electorate vote their state Supreme Court judges out of office, that had never happened. On Tuesday, it bounced three of the seven justices who last year legalized gay marriage in the state, following a hate-mongering, $700,000-plus campaign by the likes of the National Organization for Marriage, the American Family Association, the Family Research Council and Citizens United. Nov. 3
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AGAINST US VOTERS VOTE AGAINST THE THINGS THEY SAY THEY ARE VOTING FOR
The American People have spoken, and the message they?ve sent makes no sense. Exit polls from the midterm elections that show that 37 percent of voters feel cutting the deficit is Congress? highest priority?but another 37 percent believes it's ?spending to create jobs.? And yet these same voters swept into power a new GOP House majority that has no clear plan for the former, and won't be passing the new stimulus programs required for the latter. But John Boehner and company will seek to make the Bush tax cuts permanent even for the highest earners?something only 39 percent of midterm voters want to see happen. Nov. 3
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AGAINST US WILL GIANTS’ WORLD SERIES HURT PROP 19?
Already behind in the polls, California's marijuana legalization initiative got a bad break when San Francisco beat the Texas Rangers in Game 5 on Monday night, argues Mother Jones? Adam Weinstein. As the celebration for the team's first title in five decades spills over into election day, the young fans who are also among Prop 19's biggest backers might be too distracted, and/or hung over, to get themselves to a ballot box. Nov. 2
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WITH US SARAH PALIN SPARKS REPUBLICAN CIVIL WAR
Expecting big wins on Tuesday night, GOP elites are looking ahead to 2012 — and freaking out over the prospect that Palin could ruin the party's chances of retaking the White House, reports Politico. But because many of those same party honchos are afraid of Palin, they?ll flatter her in public even as they work behind the scenes to try to undermine her, which could only deepen divisions between the Republican establishment and its far-right (read: Tea Party) wing. Nov. 1
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WITH US CHRISTINE O’DONNELL STRUGGLES TO GET AIRTIME FOR 30-MINUTE AD
The kooky Delaware Senate candidate didn't secure airtime for the infomercial on any local network affiliates, and so had to resort to running it on a community access station at 11:30 p.m. — right before the witching hour (!) — on Halloween night. But the station never showed the long ad. Nor did it air at the rescheduled time of 10 o?clock Monday morning. O?Donnell cried foul, though that may all have been part of some warped plan: The station says that while her campaign did pay for the segment, it didn't deliver the completed footage until 30 minutes before it was supposed to run, which was well, well past the deadline. Nov. 1
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AGAINST US ELECTION NIGHT MIGHT GET EVEN UGLIER THAN EXPECTED
On his FiveThirtyEight blog, Nate Silver breaks down five reasons GOP candidates — whom his model foresees easily retaking the House and coming within one seat in the Senate — may top even those disheartening projections. His arguments are as persuasive as they are depressing. As is his style, Silver also takes pains to stress that the results on Tuesday night might defy the polls, but right now we?re having trouble keeping hope alive. Nov. 1
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WITH US SNOOP DOGG EXPRESSES ‘VERY HIGH’ SUPPORT FOR PROP 19
In the non-surprise of the election season, Snoop has come out in favor of California's marijuana decriminalization initiative, via a video for the League of Young Voters. Also joining the growing pro-Prop 19 coalition: Dave Tosh, son of reggae star Peter Tosh, whose ?Legalize It? has been an anthem for the movement since its release in 1976. Oct. 29.
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AGAINST US THE NEW YORK TIMES HIT PIECE ON WIKILEAKS FOUNDER JULIAN ASSANGE
As Glenn Greenwald and other bloggers make clear, the Paper of Record would never rely on such innuendo and unnamed sources to question the mental health and personal scruples of the government officials and military leaders who started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ironically, the article in question was co-authored by former NYT Baghdad correspondent John Burns, who went out of his way to criticize Rolling Stone for publishing on-the-record comments by Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staff. The bizarre conclusion that Burns reached after reading our profile, he told PBS, is that the press needs to ?change the way we behave in such a way that this sort of thing doesn't happen again.? Oct. 28
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AGAINST US RAND PAUL BACKER WANTS VICTIM TO SAY SHE’S SORRY
Tim Proffit (seen here with Paul) tells a Kentucky TV station that it's MoveOn activist Lauren Valle — whose head he stomped on outside Monday night's Senate debate — who owes HIM an apology. Also, he only used his foot to pin her down because his bad back would have made it too painful to use his hands. Oct. 27.
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AGAINST US ITALIAN MAYOR LUIGI BOBBIO BANS MINISKIRTS
The $415 fine — part of a set of 41 new ?public decorum? rules Luigi Bobbio is pushing for the southern Italian town of Castellammare di Stabia — will apply to skirts so short they show a woman's underwear. Cleavage will be verboten too. We?re guessing Katy Perry will not be scheduling a tour stop here. Oct. 26
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WITH US JUDGE ORDERS RELEASE OF JOE MILLER’S STATE EMPLOYMENT RECORDS
Now we know why the Alaska GOP Senate candidate fought to keep the documents sealed: They confirm that during his tenure as a part-time borough lawyer, the Alaska GOP Senate candidate used three office computers for personal political purposes, then lied about it — twice ?- before finally coming clean. Oct. 26.
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WITH US NEW MAZDA MODEL WILL GET 70 MPG
And the Mazda 2 will do it with a high-tech version of an old-fashioned internal-combustion engine ?- showing that cutting carbon can be done without pricier hybrids. Oct. 2