Death threat of David Letterman by jihadist website

David Letterman was the subject of a death threat made Tuesday by a frequent contributor to an online forum said to be popular with radical Muslims -- and it's a death threat the FBI is taking seriously.
A contributor using the name Umar al-Basrawi posted his threat in response to the late-night host's comments about the early June death-by-airstrike of Ilyas Kashmiri, Al Qaeda's alleged new leader after U.S. Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan earlier this year.
"Is there not among you a Sayyid Nosair al-Mairi ... to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever?" Al-Basrawi wrote, referring to El Sayyid Nosair, convicted of the 1990 killing of Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane, and to Letterman, who is not Jewish.
According to the post, one of 1,200 or so on the site by Al-Basrawi (likely an alias), Letterman "showed his evil nature and deep hatred for Islam and Muslims, and said that Ilyas Kashmiri was killed and he joined bin Laden. Then the despicable one put his hand on his neck and demonstrated the way of slaughter!!"
The comment was brought to light by SITE Intelligence Group, a private company that monitors extremist trends, including those in the jihadist movement. SITE is an acronym for "Search for International Terrorist Entities."
The threat was made on Shumukh-al-Islam, an online destination that a SITE analyst described to EW as "a clearing house for al Qaeda material" -- one where messages from the terrorist group often appear first online in the U.S.
“We take every potential threat seriously," said Jim Margolin, spokesman for the FBI's New York office, who said the bureau is looking into the threat. CBS had no comment for the AP or EW.

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‘Rick Perry' : ‘The real bigot here is Ed Schultz’ defended by 'The Daily Show'

After Texas Gov. Rick Perry spoke earlier this week of a “big black cloud that hangs over America,” referring to the nation's enormous debt, MSNBC host Ed Schultz called racism. Schultz was sure the big black cloud Perry spoke of was none other than President Obama.
Wait, rewind.
Schultz later apologized for his interpretation, but “The Daily Show” couldn’t resist pointing out how ludicrous it was. Jon Stewart started out the ribbing with a montage of clearly innocuous statements featuring names of colors before declaring: “The real bigot here is Ed Schultz.”
Stewart also noted that, to be fair, “debt” was only two words after “cloud” in Perry’s comments.
“That’s the thing about clouds,” Stewart joked, “some people see a racist dog whistle, while some people see George Washington wrestling a leprechaun.”
Earlier this week, Stewart stuck up for Rep. Ron Paul, spurring Mediate to write, “Stewart seems to be making a lot more friends in the Republican Party that he has for himself in a while.”

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Nation’s Top-Paid Employees: Los Angeles Firefighter

The Los Angeles labor leader who represents the highest-paid firefighters in the U.S. is running for the City Council on a pledge to preserve public-safety spending even as the city faces $911 million in deficits during the next four years.
Pat McOsker, 51, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City since 2003, set the fastest pace for campaign contributions among 18 candidates and is endorsed by four of the biggest public-worker unions for a special election to fill an open seat Nov. 8.
The nation’s second-largest city wrestled with deficits of about $500 million this year and the preceding one, and will be short a total of $911 million through 2016, according to budget documents. The police and fire departments accounted for 69 percent of unrestricted spending last year.
“It is vital that we protect public safety,” McOsker said in declaring his candidacy last month. “I will fight any cuts to police and fire protection and work to bring long-needed reforms to City Hall.”
Los Angeles firefighters made an average of $126,258 last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, more than twice the national mean. Fifty-three of the city’s 100 top-paid employees in 2010 were firefighters. Each collected more than the $195,869 earned by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In an interview, McOsker said his pay was $145,000.
The mean wage for the nation’s 302,000 salaried firefighters was $47,730 in 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which includes other cities as well as county employees, the figure was $95,000. That compared with $57,360 in the Chicago area, $51,710 in Boston and $66,800 in metropolitan New York.

Overtime Pay

Los Angeles firefighters collect a greater share of overtime pay than other public employees because staffing rules require replacements for those who are sick or on vacation, according to Maritta Aspen, who negotiates with public-safety unions in the city manager’s office.
“This has been going on for years,” said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which advocates for lower taxes. “The public-employee unions are the most powerful force in state and local politics. No politician wants to stand up to them, so they continue this gravy train.”
The City Council has taken steps to reduce fire department expenses, including eliminating 318 positions to save $190 million in the next three years, according to budget documents.

Firefighter Ratio

Los Angeles’s 3,460 firefighters are required to work overtime, some punching the clock as much as 75 hours per week, while firefighters nationally average 48, McOsker said in a telephone interview. Los Angeles has just under one firefighter for every 1,000 residents. The national average in 2009 was 1.72 career firefighters per thousand, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
“We’re dangerously understaffed,” McOsker said.
The son of a firefighter from the blue-collar Los Angeles neighborhood of San Pedro, McOsker has a brother, Mike, who is a retired firefighter and the union’s business representative. Another brother, Tim, served as chief of staff to the previous mayor, James Hahn.
Four of Los Angeles’s six largest public employee unions have endorsed McOsker’s campaign, according to Barbara Maynard, a spokeswoman for the Coalition of Los Angeles City Unions. He was the first of 18 candidates to reach $50,000 in contributions, according to the city’s ethics commission. McOsker said most of the money came from individual donors.

Recall Attempt

McOsker is not beloved by all of his fellow firefighters, some of whom launched an unsuccessful attempt to recall him as union president this year, according to Ron Harmon, a 50-year- old captain who says he started in the same class as the candidate.
McOsker’s tough stance in negotiations over department funding has alienated City Council members, residents and some firefighters, Harmon said.
“This is a guy who is firmly stuck in the early 20th century, being truly antagonistic to anyone who disagrees with him,” Harmon said in a telephone interview. “We don’t live in a vacuum. There was not a sense of responsibility to the guy on the street, the taxpayer.”
Firefighters have made contract concessions by skipping pay raises, lowering pension benefits for new hires and contributing 2 percent of their salaries toward health care in retirement, McOsker said.
“Our pay has stayed stagnant, we’ve made sacrifices, we’re helping the city get through the crisis,” he said.

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Man jailed over $12 theft at police station

ORANGE -- An Athol man has been sentenced to a year in jail for stealing $12.
The prosecutor said that may seem harsh, but it wasn’t the theft was so shocking, but where it happened, and who witnessed it.
Authorities say 37-year-old John Hayes took the money last September from a Jimmy Fund can in the lobby of the police station, in front of his 13-year-old son.

He was sentenced this week after he was found guilty of larceny by a judge.
Police say Hayes was caught on video surveillance taking the can from the counter, walking into the men’s room, and walking out seconds later without the can.
Hayes’ lawyer said his client is remorseful.
The Jimmy Fund raises money for cancer research for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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