Day: October 15, 2010

California NOW Chief Says Whitman Still a ‘Whore’

The president of the National Organization for Women may have said it’s wrong for anyone to call a woman a “whore,” but the head of the California NOW affiliate says Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman still is one.

California NOW President Parry Bellasalma told the TPM blog on Thursday that the description of the Republican candidate for governor of California is accurate.

“Meg Whitman could be described as ‘a political whore.’ Yes, that’s an accurate statement,” Bellasalma said after a TPM blogger called to ask her about a story that appeared on the Daily Caller website.

In the Daily Caller report, Bellasalma said a conversation recorded by a voicemail system after Whitman’s Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown, thought he’d hung up on the Los Angeles Police Protective League demonstrates that Whitman is a sell-out and thus deserving of the description.

“The very troubling issue that is embedded in that call is what prompted the description of Meg as a ‘whore’ is basically that she sold out Californians for an endorsement and a $450,000 independent expenditure campaign,” Bellasalma told the Daily Caller.

Brown’s wife is said to be the voice heard on the recording discussing strategy with her husband after learning that the police group was considering endorsing Whitman. Whitman has said she would protect the pensions of the state’s public safety workers; Brown has not.

Read more here.

New Pakistani Taliban Operative Feared Inside U.S. After Times Square Failure

Senior U.S. officials are concerned over recent intelligence indicating that the Pakistani Taliban, which orchestrated the failed Times Square bombing, may have successfully placed another operative inside the United States to launch a second attack, sources tell Fox News. Authorities, however, know very little about the potential operative or any possible plot.

“[We] don’t know who it is and don’t know where it is,” one source said. “We know the guy’s here, but don’t know anything about him.”

Based on the intelligence, authorities believe the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, would have directed the individual to attempt another Times Square-style operation, but not necessarily in New York City.

A senior intelligence official said the threat stream’s lack of specificity makes it nearly impossible for the counterterrorism community to defend against such an attack. Any possible threat, however, does not seem to be imminent, with a senior counterterrorism official saying he was “unaware” of any “imminent threats” against the U.S. homeland.

Nevertheless, the Pakistani Taliban has been looking to make up for its previous failure. Authorities believe the subject of the latest intelligence would use “a similar mechanism” and the “same modus operandi” employed by 31-year-old Faisal Shahzad in May, mostly “because it’s easily accessible here,” as one source put it.

In the months leading up to his attack, Shahzad purchased fertilizer, propane gas, fireworks and other components from stores in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. But the bomb he ultimately built and packed inside a sport utility vehicle did not detonate properly.

If someone successfully set off such a bomb, the effects would be “devastating,” according to federal prosecutors. In June, FBI agents built and tested a device identical to Shahzad’s, except this time they made sure the bomb actually detonated.

Read more here.