FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

The President asked in his address to the nation the other night to show support for our troops.

Please go to this website and do so: http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/.

You will be glad you did!

And after you do that click over to: Soldier’s Angels and join Flap in writing a soldier!

You will be doubly glad you did!

Update #1

Flap obtained his soldier, deployed in Iraq, and has already e-mailed him with a regular letter to follow.

Please join me!

Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarter’s has alerted Flap to the proceedings of this week’s FEC hearings regarding the blogosphere (from RedState.org):

While the FEC hearings this week covered a lot of ground - there are some questions remaining. Since I have a feeling that some of the reformers read RedState (if only to correct me) - I’ll just post them here and let them have at it.

• How does one value a link? Larry Noble claimed that the FEC only applies a dollar figure to something that has “clear market value.” Well, except that isn’t entirely true. When a corporation spends $10 to help raise money for a candidate - the FEC values that contribution equal to the funds raised. So - if a link has any value at all - lets say that a corporation endorses a candidate (which they are allowed to do) and spends .15 to put a link to that candidate’s website on the company homepage - how would they determine the value of that expenditure? (keep in mind that printing an endorsement on a single sheet of paper constitutes an expenditure) Because if you can’t value it at .15 - you have to come up with SOME other amount.
• On the question of incorporated bloggers - the reformers put forth that they should be treated as individuals. Does that mean they concede that bloggers who form an LLC are ipso facto only doing so for liability purposes? What if they receive revenue through that LLC? What if they receive money from consulting? Does “blogging” have to be the only activity? What about a Sub-S corporation?
• When asked a question by Vice Chairman Toner, Trevor Potter added another condition to granting protections for incorporated bloggers - that they be “non profit.” Huh, say again?
• Back in March, Trevor Potter insisted this rulemaking was only going to be about paid ads, and therefore wouldn’t affect bloggers. (blogads, anyone?) But in yesterday’s hearing, when asked by Commissioner Smith if he would promise not to sue if the FEC passed a rule regulating only paid ads. No such promise from Mr. Potter. Why not? Can’t we just stop with the suing to get your way? Why not go back to Congress to fix what you don’t like?
• Speaking of Mr. Potter - why no apology to Brad Smith? After being asked why he accused Smith of spreading misinformation, he denied ever having done so. Of course, Potter wrote back in March - “Commissioner Smith’s interview does a good job at providing misinformation on the subject of the Internet and the FEC, as it was obviously intended to.”

And the fact that Jeralynn Merritt over at Talk Left declared yesterday: “As of yesterday, blogs are dead.”

Flap disagrees and is ready to fight for his blog’s right to freedom of speech without regualtion from the FEC and without a slight of hand such as a name change to an on-line magazine. How stupid!

But, tell this to:

Say hello to the Online Magazine Community. Others joining so far:

• Americablog
• Crooks & Liars
• Sadly, No!
• Swing State Project
• Law Dork
• Dispassionate Liberalism
• Chaos Digest
• The Political Forecast

TalkLeft is joining the community. We are now “the online magazine for liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news.”

Come on Blogosphere!

Let’s FIGHT and NOT play games with the FEC!

Matt over at Blogs for Bush has this excellent piece:

I stand with the Captain on this. I also concur with La Shawn Barber…

La Shawn pointed to this article (story “expired,” alternate version here) which clarifies this whole issue:

Web loggers, who pride themselves on freewheeling political activism, may soon face new federal rules on candidate endorsements, online fundraising and political ads - though bloggers who don’t take money from political groups would not be affected.

The FEC also is considering whether to require Web loggers, called bloggers, to disclose whether they get money from a campaign committee or a candidate and to reveal whether they are being paid to write about certain candidates or solicit contributions on their behalf. [Emphasis added]

Captain Ed expressed his disappointment with what is sure to be a growing trend of bloggers reclassifying themselves as “online magazines” to avoid this FEC nonsense:

Not Captain’s Quarters. I may describe myself in a variety of ways, including citizen journalist, free-lance writer, pundit at large — but foremost in this community, I am a blogger. CQ is a blog, and it will remain a blog. It will undoubtedly evolve over time, offer new concepts to the CQ community, change its look, but at its heart, Captain’s Quarters will be a blog.

B4B was, is, and always will be a blog. OnlineMagazinesForBush.com just won’t cut it. We’ve got nothing to hide. We have not taken money from a campaign—and don’t intend to. This FEC situation does not apply to us, or most of the bloggers who are sweating over this issue.

Flap Disclosure:

Flap like Matt will never nor has he ever accepted money from any candidate or campaign. Flap will not accept money nor has he for any dental product/procedure endorsements.

Spam can clog up your e-mail box but according to a piece published in the American Journal of Health Promotion and coming out of the University of Alberta, it might be beneficial to your health:

A steady diet of e-mails can change people’s outlook and behavior regarding healthier eating and increased physical activity, according to a new study of 2,598 Canadian workers.

Appearing in the July/August issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, the 12-week study looked at the effectiveness of e-mails received at the workplace in promoting healthy exercise and eating regimes.

The research team, led by Ronald Plotnikoff, Ph.D., and Linda J. McCargar, Ph.D, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, divided participants into an intervention group that received health-related e-mails and a control group that did not.

The intervention group alone showed an increase in physical activity levels and also had more confidence in being able to participate in physical activity at study’s end. In addition, the intervention group members recognized more pros and fewer cons to physical activity and were more open to making dietary changes.

In fact, the intervention group actually reduced, although marginally, its mean body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight, over the course of the study. By contrast, the mean BMI for the control group slightly increased.

“E-mail deliveries of health promotion messages can have small yet beneficial effects on health behaviors over a short time frame,” the researchers say, extolling e-mail’s unobtrusiveness, cost-effectiveness and practical appeal.

Ok, nagging about health works!

But, what about those e-mails from Nigeria?

Hat Tip: Medgadget

Preparing for a possible 2006 U.S. Senate run against Hillary Clinton, New York attorney, Edward Cox, husband of former President Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia, has formed an exploratory committee that includes Henry Kissinger and other GOP elders.

The New York lawyer also accused Clinton of being “more concerned about the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire” than the needs of New Yorkers.

“She parachuted into New York solely for the reason of running for the Senate and now she’s running for the presidency,” said Cox. “How can she focus on the problems of New York when she’s really thinking of running for the presidency?”

The exploratory committee includes Kissinger, Nixon’s national security adviser and secretary of state; Theodore Roosevelt IV, former chairman of the League of Conservation Voters and a managing director at Lehman Brothers; and William H. Taft, a former ambassador to NATO and legal adviser to the State Department.

A little competition for Hillary might provide an opening (albeit a small one) for Bayh or Biden. At the very least it might dilute her campaign cash.

Stay tuned.