Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

Coretta Scott King Funeral Watch: Classless King Eulogists Jab President Bush

Technorati Tags: JimmyCarter, GeorgeWBush, CorettaScottKing

Los Angeles Times: Gov.’s Top Aide Was Paid by Developer

And didn’t we RECALL Gray Davis to get rid of these conflicts – pay to play politics?

Governor Schwarzenegger needs to “clean house” quickly or put a fork in him for November.

Technorati Tags: ArnoldSchwarzenegger, SusanKennedy, KeithBrackpool, CadizRealEstate,

News Telegraph: US prepares military blitz against Iran’s nuclear sites

Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran’s nuclear sites as a “last resort” to block Teheran’s efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Oh, how surprising…….

They are reporting to the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, as America updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart the Islamic republic’s nuclear bomb ambitions. Teheran claims that it is developing only a civilian energy programme.

“This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment,” said a senior Pentagon adviser. “This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months.”

A message to Iran’s Mullahs and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: STAND DOWN or……..

The B-2 Spirit Bomber

The prospect of military action could put Washington at odds with Britain which fears that an attack would spark violence across the Middle East, reprisals in the West and may not cripple Teheran’s nuclear programme. But the steady flow of disclosures about Iran’s secret nuclear operations and the virulent anti-Israeli threats of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prompted the fresh assessment of military options by Washington. The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 40,000lb of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices. They would fly from bases in Missouri with mid-air refuelling.

The ball is in the Mullah’s court…….

Stay tuned……

Previous:

Iran Nuclear Watch: Natanz Uranium Processing Plant has Restarted

Iran Nuclear Watch: “MYTH” of the Holcaust Redux

Iran Watch: Iran Paper Holds Holocaust Cartoons Contest

Iran Watch: Iran Paper Plans Holocaust Cartoons

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Tells IAEA to Remove Surveillance Cameras and Seals From Nuclear Sites

Iran Nuclear Watch: Russia Warns Against Iran Conflict

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Ends Cooperation With IAEA and Resumes Uranium Enrichment

Iran Nuclear Watch: IAEA Reports Iran to United Nations Security Council

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Threatens Full-Scale Enrichment Work

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Says BACK OFF Or…

Iran Nuclear Watch: Bush – United States Will Defend Israel Against Iran

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Will Resist “Bully Nations”

Iran Watch: Bush: Iran ‘Held Hostage’ by Clerical Elite

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Documents Point to Nuclear Warheads

Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Threatens End of Diplomacy

Iran Nuclear Watch: Permanent Five Say IAEA Must Report Iran to U.N. Security Council

The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.

Technorati Tags: Iran, Russia, China, SergeiLavrov, UnitedNations, UnitedNationsSecurityCouncil, ZhouWenzhong, NicholasBurns, EuropeanUnion, MahmoudAhmadinejad, ManouchehrMottaki, JacquesChirac, Chirac, France, Iran, Nuclearweapons, nuclear, AbdulQadeerKhan, AliLarijani, CondoleezzaRice, JohnBolton, RezaVaidi

Mirror.co.uk: DENTIST QUEUES BANNED

QUEUES to sign up with new NHS dentists are to be banned by the Government.

Instead, people will have to make an appointment or register by phone to halt the long lines that have embarrassed Labour.

Dentistry minister Rosie Winterton told Primary Care Trusts it was “unacceptable” that people were forced to queue up for hours.

She added: “Of course, we want to consign the queues to history.”

So, rather than fix the abysmal National Health Service system and promote the privatization of British dentistry the Tony Blair Labour government decides it is better to “cover-up” the problem.

Labour has failed on Tony Blair’s 1999 promise that everyone in Britain would able to see a dentist for free within two years.

In some parts of the country, just one in five people have access to an NHS dentist.

Unpopular contracts being introduced by the Government are likely to make the problem worse.

The BBC reported that in parts of the country, NHS dentists who are converting to private practice in protest at the new contracts have been barred from continuing to treat children for free.

An “All or Nothing” mentality with the NHS will sink the entire NHS system.

Is this what British dentistry needs? A revolutionary private system?

You betcha…….

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NHS Dentistry Watch: One in five dentists ready to leave NHS

Dentistry Today: Failed Asylum Seeker Poses as a Dentist

Dentistry Today: Many Dentists “Set to Quit NHS”

NHS Dentistry Watch: Poll Says Dentists Will Still Quit

NHS Dentistry Watch: More Dentists Now, More Dentists Later

NHS Dentistry Watch: Dentists Reject £295 million Scottish Executive Deal

Dentistry Today: NHS Dentistry Near Collapse?

NHS Dentistry Watch: Disaster Warning

National Health Service Watch: The Doctors Complain

NHS Dentistry Watch: Do It Yourself Extraction

Related:

Will dentist reforms make a difference?

Blair ‘powerless over dentists’

NHS dentists ‘disaster’ warning

Shake-up of NHS dentistry planned

Q&A: Dentist reforms

Technorati Tags: dentistry, NHS, NHSdentistry, NationalHealthService, Britishdentistry, UKdentistry, dentist, dental

Cox & Forkum: Undeniable

Iran Nuclear Watch: “MYTH” of the Holcaust Redux

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa comments on President Bush’s lack of communication with his office Thursday, Feb . 9, 2006, during a news conference in Los Angeles City Hall. Villaraigosa said he was blindsided by President Bush’s announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as ‘nonexistent.’ In the background: Assistant Chief of Police James McDonald, Councilmember Wendy Greuel, and Los Angeles Fire Chief William Bamattre.

ASSociated Press: L.A. Mayor, Chief Disagree on Terror Plot

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California’s homeland security chief disagreed Friday over whether the Bush administration mishandled the release of new details about an alleged 2002 terrorist plot aimed at Los Angeles’ tallest building.

Echoing comments from a day earlier, Villaraigosa said he should have been notified directly by the administration that
President Bush would divulge new information about the purported plot in a speech Thursday. By contrast, he said, he was alerted at home last year when the federal government confirmed a credible terrorist threat to the city.

Before Thursday’s speech, “We did not get a direct call from the White House or the Department of
Homeland Security in the way I was accustomed,” the mayor said at a joint appearance with Matt Bettenhausen, California’s top homeland security official.

“I did not overreact,” the mayor added.

But, Mayor AV you were on your treadmill when the President made his speech.

You shoot your mouth off about being “BLINDSIDED” and previously your city staff had communicated with the White House.

But Bettenhausen told reporters there can be differences in the way such information is handled, depending on whether it involves a current threat to a city or details from an investigation years ago.

“I think the terrorist information was handled appropriately,” Bettenhausen said.

There is no dispute that City Hall and the Los Angeles Police Department were notified prior to the speech, but the mayor has said important details were withheld, without providing specifics.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s remarks were a partisan “cheap shot” at President Bush.

Mayor have your facts correct before you shoot your big mouth off again…….

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Global War on Terror Watch: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Says He was “Blindsided”

Global War on Terror Watch: Cooperation Thwarted 2002 Attack

Technorati Tags: AntonioVillaraigosa, globalwaronterror, GeorgeWBush, MattBettenhausen, LosAngeles

A San Jose federal judge on Thursday suggested he may be willing to postpone California’s next scheduled execution later this month so he can hold a full-blown evidentiary hearing to consider a constitutional challenge to the state’s lethal-injection procedure.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel did not rule on convicted killer Michael Morales’ bid to delay his Feb. 21 execution date, but said he would issue a decision by Tuesday on whether his legal challenge to lethal injection deserves more thorough consideration. Morales’ lawyers argue the state’s lethal-injection method amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Noting that similar challenges have been filed on the eve of other recent executions, Fogel indicated the time may be ripe to address the central issues.

“It seems to me that people’s confidence in the integrity of this process may be assisted by some sort of evidentiary proceeding,” Fogel said. ``There is a window of opportunity here.”

If Fogel holds a hearing to consider expert testimony and other evidence related to the constitutionality of lethal injection, it could be no more than a temporary reprieve for Morales. The judge said he believed he could hold such a hearing within 60 to 90 days, so if Morales loses, he could face another execution date later this year.

Window of opportunity for what? Morales was originally convicted of murder which was committed in 1981 – over 25 years ago.

This delay is BS.

Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette, who opposes any delay, said the state would appeal a stay.

Morales was sentenced to die for the 1981 rape and murder of a 17-year-old Lodi girl. He is one of many death row inmates around the nation who argue that the progression of drugs used in executions masks pain and suffering that would violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Most legal experts doubt the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually ban the use of lethal injection, but it could be a year or more before the issue is resolved in the lower courts.

Morales’ lawyers hope to use medical and eyewitness evidence from other California executions to prove problems in the process, one of the reasons the judge is considering the need for testimony and more detailed information. State prosecutors and death penalty supporters say there is no evidence inmates suffer in lethal injection executions.

Meanwhile, Morales’ lawyers on Thursday asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to hold a hearing to consider his request for clemency. Morales has backing from the judge who sentenced him to die, as well as six jurors at his 1983 trial. San Joaquin County prosecutors oppose clemency, saying Morales’ crime was particularly brutal.

More dealy is unwarranted and is simply a tactic to forestall the inevitable – the “BIG JAB” for Morales.

Flap will have more on the six Ventura County jurors in a subsequent post – it seems letters submitted by Morales’ attorneys last week to Gov. Schwarzenegger misstate the feelings of six Ventura County jurors who convicted Morales.

Justice for Terri Lynn Winchell…..

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Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Ventura County Judge Asks California Governor Schwarzenegger for Clemency

Michael Angelo Morales Watch: Kenneth Starr to Assist Death Row Clemency Bid

Technorati Tags: MichaelAngeloMorales,, ArnoldSchwarzenegger,, California,, KennethStarr,, TerriLynnWinchell,, LethalInjection