FBI Report Labels Insane Clown Posse Fans
Potential Gang Threat

post from TPMMuckraker on 28 October 2011 11:01:16 AM. © TPMMuckraker

The FBI thinks that fans of the rap group Insane Clown Posse are a potential gang threat, Spencer Ackerman of Wired reports.

According to the FBI's 2011 report called "National Gang Threat Assessment," Insane Clown Posse's followers, known as the Juggalos, are "a loosely-organized hybrid gang" with subsets that "exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity and violence."

As Ackerman points out, the Juggalos are only identified as fans of Insane Clown Posse in a footnote.

According to the FBI, only four states recognize Juggalos as a gang, but 21 states have identified criminal Juggalo subsets. The Juggalos are particularly drawn to New Mexico, the reports says, because "they are attracted to the tribal and cultural traditions of the Native Americans residing nearby."

Juggalo crime is mostly disorganized and involves assault or drug use, but there have been some instances of more organized "gang-like criminal activity, such as felony assaults, thefts, robberies, and drug sales."

Here's a picture from the report, "Figure 6. Juggalo member":

Read the full report here.

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ne_clown_posse_fans_as_potential_gang_threa.php

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Happy Birthday

post from Talking Points Memo on 28 October 2011 11:00:54 AM. © Talking Points Memo

The Statue of Liberty turns 125 today. Here's a glimpse of her still in utero in Frederick Auguste Bartholdi's Paris studio. [...]

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php

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Anatomy Of A Canard

post from Talking Points Memo on 28 October 2011 11:00:54 AM. © Talking Points Memo

How one of those crazy anti-Obama email chains ends up a talking point of a major GOP presidential candidate. [...]

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nard.php

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Obama fundraising 2012: True, but not accurate

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 28 October 2011 11:00:29 AM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

During the recent Washington Post versus New York Times battle, over whether Barack Obama's reelection campaign did or did not raise more money from Wall Street than Mitt Romney and the other GOP candidates, the Obama campaign and its defenders arrived at a position which while technically true was not accurate.

While the legal entity that is the Obama campaign had raised less money from Wall Street than Mitt Romney, the campaign plus the DNC raised more Wall Street money than all Republican presidential candidates combined. Obama supporters positioned this as very important, since by the letter of the law it was true that Romney had outraised Obama on Wall Street. Of course, given that the DNC's job in 2012 is to help President Obama win re-election, ignoring the money they raise from Wall Street as not being connected to Obama is rather disingenuous.

It seems the New York Times has found another area in which the Obama campaign is technically correct in their messaging, but functionally inaccurate.

Despite a pledge not to take money from lobbyists, President Obama has relied on prominent supporters who are active in the lobbying industry to raise millions of dollars for his re-election bid.

At least 15 of Mr. Obama?s ?bundlers? ? supporters who contribute their own money to his campaign and solicit it from others ? are involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies. They have raised more than $5 million so far for the campaign.

Because the bundlers are not registered as lobbyists with the Senate, the Obama campaign has managed to avoid running afoul of its self-imposed ban on taking money from lobbyists.

The Obama campaign has a self-imposed ban on taking money from lobbyists. There is absolutely nothing illegal about taking political contributions from lobbyists. Even the ethics of taking money from lobbyists are debatable - for example, I would have no problem if the Obama campaign took money from people who lobby on behalf of unionized teachers, nurses, firefighters, and janitors. The point is that there is nothing within the job description of a lobbyist which makes them inherently evil. To put it differently, most political campaigns will vet large donations to make sure that the person who wrote them a check wasn't, say, recently indicted for a felony crime. The reason campaigns do this is that they don't like the optics of taking money from crooks. The Obama campaign has somewhat arbitrarily decided that lobbyists are like crooks and their money is bad, except in cases where the lobbyists don't meet the legal standard of lobbyist, as we see here:

Take Sally Susman. An executive at the drug-maker Pfizer, she has raised more than $500,000 for the president?s re-election and helped organize a $35,800-a-ticket dinner that Mr. Obama attended in Manhattan in June. At the same time, she leads Pfizer?s powerful lobbying shop, and she has visited the White House four times since 2009 ? twice on export issues.

So this individual was meeting with the President while the healthcare bill was being written and some of those meetings were about exporting US-made drugs. Yet by the letter of the law, Susman is not a lobbyist and therefore her money is good!

Oh and those $35,800-a-ticket dinners that Susman put together? Yeah, that money goes to the DNC.

The Obama campaign has a statement responding to the Times story. The basic thrust of it is that the Times is skewering them for letting "the perfect be the enemy of the good, punishing efforts to promote reform." That may be the case and the Obama campaign is right to point out that all Republican candidates make no bones about taking cash from lobbyists and letting lobbyists bundle cash for them.

At the same time, the Obama campaign is trying to convince us that the influence of someone whose job is as a lobbyist giving $5,000 (the legal limit for primary and general election contributions in 2012) is greater than a lobbyist who bundles 100 times that amount. And that is pure bunk.

What's more upsetting is the completely cynical analysis by the Obama campaign which defines the quality of their actions by the letter of the law or the letter of their pledges, while ignoring the larger context within which they occur. They take less money from Wall Street than Romney, but only if you ignore the DNC. They don't take donations from lobbyists, but only if you ignore their bundlers who lobby. And if those bundlers who lobby as executives of major pharmaceutical companies find ways to avoid the rather high threshold to be counted as a lobbyist, well then since they do not meet the definition of lobbyist, the campaign can't be criticized for taking their money.

These two stories, happening a week apart, show that the Obama re-election campaign is committed to a very cynical ploy to be true, while not being accurate, in their descriptions of their fundraising. The danger of this is that the energy of hope and change that fueled the campaign in 2008 will be completely non-existent in 2012. The remedy for that could be providing voters with genuine, honest reform. Or it could be taking more corporate or Wall Street cash. Seeing which course the campaign chooses will be easy enough, so I shall avoid any speculation as to what they will do.

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true-but-not.html

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Scott Olsen Is Awake And Waiting For Brain
Surgery

post from Crooks and Liars on 28 October 2011 11:00:10 AM. © Crooks and Liars

We support the troops for protecting our freedoms, and then we break their heads for actually using them? Iraq war vet Scott Olsen, a Wisconsin native, faces brain surgery as the result of injuries incurred by police actions in Oakland this week:

Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran who suffered serious head injuries after being hit by a projectile fired by police during the Occupy Oakland protests, has woken up and is lucid as he awaits surgery, hospital officials and family members have said.
Olsen, a 24-year-old former US Marine, was struck in the head during anti-Wall Street protests on Tuesday night. He has been upgraded from critical to fair condition.
Olsen "responded with a very large smile" to a visit from his parents, Highland General hospital spokesman Warren Lyons said. "He's able to understand what's going on. He's able to write and hear but has a little difficulty with his speech," Lyons said.
Doctors had not operated on Olsen yet and were waiting to see if swelling in his brain eased, Lyons said.
Olsen's aunt, Kathy Pacconi, told Reuters in an email that her nephew was showing signs of improvement.
Olsen, 24, has become a figurehead of the Occupy Wall Street movement and Oakland organisers have said they will stage a general strike over what a spokeswoman called the "brutal and vicious" treatment of protesters, including the former Marine.
Oakland's police chief, Howard Jordan, has promised a vigorous investigation into the incident which has provoked heavy criticism across the US, sparking solidarity marches in dozens of Occupy camps in the country.

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http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/scott-olsen-awake-and-waiting-brain-s

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Tea Party Group To Bachmann: Quit The
Presidential Race

post from ThinkProgress on 28 October 2011 11:00:02 AM. © ThinkProgress

Tea Party group American Majority offered a directive to the movement’s cheerleader-in-chief: Quit the presidential race. Now. “It’s time for Michele Bachmann to go,” said the group’s president, Ned Ryun, noting that she “has ridden her tea party credentials from obscurity to a national platform like no other.” The group has grown incensed with Bachmann because, as Executive Director Matt Robbins said, “I think it’s pretty obvious that Michele Bachmann is about Michele Bachmann.” “Let’s face it: she’s a back-bencher and has been a back bencher congressperson for years,” he added. “This is not a serious presidential campaign.” Team Bachmann responded by saying that “no single leader speaks” for the Tea Party movement and that “Mr. Ryun, who supports Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is entitled to his own opinion.” But Ryun says he has not “endorsed anybody.” Apparently, the group just can’t get behind Bachmann.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/10/28/355756/tea-party-group-to-bachmann-q
uit-campaign/

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Rep. Adam Smith: GOP Opposition To Tax Increases
Will ‘Crucify’ The Defense Budget

post from ThinkProgress on 28 October 2011 11:00:02 AM. © ThinkProgress

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) took aim at his Republican colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee, warning that GOP opposition to tax increases will inevitably result in big cuts to the defense budget. Smith, speaking on Thursday at the hawkish American Enterprise Institute, said that if committee members don’t engage in the larger budget issues, “defense will be crucified.” Republican members of the committee have become increasingly unwilling to compromise on their opposition to tax hikes and cuts to the defense budget, a position that Smith contends will result in deep cuts to defense spending. Watch it:

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/10/28/355714/rep-adam-smith-gop-opposition
-to-tax-increases-will-crucify-the-defense-budget/

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PHOTOS: Oakland Residents Hold Candlelight Vigil
For Iraq Vet Critically Injured By Police

post from ThinkProgress on 28 October 2011 11:00:02 AM. © ThinkProgress

On October 25th, the Oakland Police Department instituted a harsh crackdown on Occupy Oakland, arresting dozens of people and using tear gas, flash grenades, and rubber bullets. The police also critically wounded Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen, who is now in the hospital for a fractured skull.

Last night, nearly 1300 Oakland residents held a candlelight vigil for Olsen at city hall. Here are some pictures from the vigil:

Yesterday, the intensive care unit where Olsen is being hospitalized upgraded his condition to “fair.” Oakland Mayor Jean Quan visited him as well.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/10/28/355803/oakland-residents-candlelight-
vigil/

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October 28 News: China Solar-Dumping Lawsuit
Moves to EU; BP Gets Its First Post-Disaster Drilling Permit in Gulf

Other key stories below: GE Invests in Spanish Solar Plant with Storage

China Solar Subsidy Storm Heads to Europe

Solarworld AG is preparing an anti-dumping suit against Chinese firms operating in the EU, following a $1 billion action the German company launched in the US earlier this month.

The move reflects mounting concern in Europe and America about subsidised Chinese firms flooding the market with solar PV panels at artificially low cost.
Solarworld AG argues that China?s $30 billion of subsidies to its solar power companies violates global trade rules and constitute an unfair form of retailing below cost price or “dumping.”
?We have dumping files in the European Photovoltaics market as well as in the US market and this is a case, of course, for the European Union,? Milan Nitzschke, a Solarworld AG spokesman told EurActiv by telephone from Bonn.
?Our Chinese competitors are going to Greece and telling people: ?You can buy our products and solar modules and we are here with the Chinese bank of construction and they will give you the money for that,?? Nitzschke explained.
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?This is unfair competition. It is state money or loans borrowed for projects in Europe with the condition that the customers have to buy Chinese products.?
The firm is still investigating several remedial courses of action in Europe to counter a perceived long-term strategy of forcing competitors out of business, and then fixing retail prices for Chinese firms from a monopoly position.

BP gets new Gulf drilling permit

The Interior Department on Wednesday announced it has granted BP its first deepwater drilling permit since last year?s oil spill.
The permit awarded by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is for an exploratory well in the Keathley Canyon map area, located about 246 miles south of Lafayette, La.
The granting of the permit is the latest sign that the British oil giant is climbing back from the political abyss. The embattled company?s political action committee is almost on pace to match what it donated at the federal level during the 2008 presidential election cycle. Between March and August, BP?s PAC made more than $50,000 in federal-level campaign contributions, ranking it among the cycle?s more generous donors.
Interior last week approved BP?s Gulf of Mexico exploration plan; the permitted well was one of those included in that plan.
?BP has met all of the enhanced safety requirements that we have implemented and applied consistently over the past year,? BSEE Director Michael Bromwich said in a statement. ?In addition, BP has adhered to voluntary standards that go beyond the agency?s regulatory requirements.?
The well would be in waters 6,034 feet deep, which is deeper than the company?s doomed 5,000-foot Macondo well that ruptured and sparked a fire on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and led to the biggest spill in U.S. maritime history.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) blasted the decision to issue the permit before BP paid fines stemming from last year?s spill. ?The fact that BP is getting a permit to drill without yet paying a single cent in fines is a disappointment, and does not serve as an effective lesson of deterrence for oil and gas companies,? Markey, the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement.

Earth-observing satellite boosted into orbit to start dual weather, climate change mission

After a years-long delay, an Earth-observing satellite blasted into space early Friday on a dual mission to improve weather forecasts and monitor climate change.
A Delta 2 rocket carrying the NASA satellite lifted off shortly before 3 a.m. from the central California coast. The satellite was boosted into an orbit 500 miles above Earth about an hour after launch.
NASA invited a small group of Twitter followers to watch the pre-dawn launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The satellite joins a fleet already circling the planet, collecting information about the atmosphere, oceans and land. The latest ? about the size of a small SUV ? is more advanced. It carries four new instruments capable of making more precise observations.
Tim Dunn, a launch director for NASA, said in streaming commentary on the agency?s website that the flight ?went terrific? and there ?is a lot of celebration in control room right now.?

Oil spill claims czar: Shrimpers’ pain continues

The administrator of the $20 billion fund set up by BP to compensate individuals and businesses hurt by last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill said Thursday new rules are being formulated to make payouts more generous for hard-hit shrimpers.
Washington attorney Kenneth Feinberg told a House Committee on Natural Resources hearing he hopes to announce the rules within two weeks.
He agreed with concerns from shrimpers that the length and extent of damage they have suffered because of the April 2010 disaster has been more significant than first thought.
“I think we’ve got to do better for the shrimpers,” Feinberg said.
Feinberg remains under fire for the slow pace of payments and for denying many claims. Eighteen months after the spill, the fund has paid $5.5 billion to 213,408 claimants. More than 300,000 other claimants have been denied compensation. Feinberg agreed in July to a Justice Department audit. He said at the hearing the audit hasn’t started. A Justice spokesman said in a statement the agency is receiving input from officials along the Gulf and the audit is expected to start before the end of the year.

GE Unit Invests with Germany’s KGAL in 50-MW Spanish Concentrated Solar Power Plant Featuring Salt Energy Storage

GE Energy Financial Services announced today it and German fund KGAL are jointly investing EUR111.1 million in a 50-megawatt parabolic trough concentrated solar power plant using molten salt energy storage in Torre de Miguel Sesmero, Badajoz, Spain.
The GE unit and KGAL agreed to invest structured equity in Extresol II, developed by Spain-based ACS, Europe’s largest developer, builder and operator of solar thermal power plants. Additional financial details were not disclosed. ACS has built more than EUR2 billion worth of concentrated solar power facilities with molten salt storage in Spain. An ACS subsidiary, Cobra, finished construction of Extresol II in Dec. 2010 and provides operations and maintenance services to the plant.
“This transaction complements our growing European renewables portfolio and brings with it a different technology — concentrated solar power with salt storage — working with strong local partners,” said Andrew Marsden, a managing director and European leader at GE Energy Financial Services. “Such investments also support ecomagination, GE’s business strategy to create value for customers by solving energy, efficiency and water challenges.”

World Bank approves $250 mln for S.Africa’s Eskom

The World Bank on Thursday approved $250 million in funding for South African power utility Eskom to develop a wind and solar plant as part of a push to boost sources of clean energy.
The World Bank said the funding through its Clean Technology Fund will finance a 100-megawatt solar power plant in Upington in the Northern Cape province and a 100-megawatt wind power project at Sere, north of Cape Town.
“The loan will help Eskom to implement two of the largest renewable energy projects ever attempted on the African continent,” the bank said in a statement.
Eskom, a major supplier of energy to South Africa and neighboring countries, is keen to reduce its carbon footprint.
The state-owned utility is spending billions of dollars to build and upgrade existing coal-fired power plants to meet immediate energy needs, and wants to diversify the energy mix toward cleaner sources of energy.

Clean energy in California: On its own sunny path

Jerry Brown started talking about solar power in the 1970s, when he was California?s governor for the first time. He was lampooned for it, but the vision gradually became attractive in a state that is naturally sunny and, especially along the coastline, cares about the environment. So in 2006, under a Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California set a goal to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. This year Mr Brown, governor once again, signed the last bits of that goal into law. And this month the state?s air-quality regulators unanimously voted to adopt its most controversial but crucial component: a cap-and-trade system.
More complex and less elegant (but politically easier) than a simple carbon tax, a cap-and-trade system limits the emissions of dirty industries and puts a price on their remaining pollution so that market forces, in theory, provide an incentive for reductions. In California?s case, starting in 2013 the government will ?cap? the amount of gases (such as carbon dioxide) that industry may emit, and gradually lower that cap. It will also issue permits to companies for their carbon allowance. Firms that reduce their emissions faster than the cap decreases may sell (?trade?) their permits and make money. Firms that pollute beyond their quota must buy credits.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/10/28/355702/china-solar-dumping-lawsuit/

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Kerry Promises To ‘Leave No Question
Unanswered’ On Keystone XL Scandal

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has raised the stakes on the State Department’s approval process for TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. “There’s a lot at stake here and I’ll do my best to leave no question unanswered, including every possible economic and environmental consideration, before a final decision is made,” Kerry said in a statement. The State Department, which has approval authority over the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline, is under increasing scrutiny for allowing TransCanada influence over the environmental impact process and the public hearings, and for potentially undue ties between lobbyists and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/10/28/355918/kerry-promises-to-leave-no-quest
ion-unanswered-on-keystone-xl-scandal/

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