Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

• Al-Arabiya: At least 3 dead in Tehran riots
  The al-Arabiya network has reported at least three people dead in riots that broke out in Tehran following the results of the Iranian elections.

  The report says Iranian security forces have surrounded a neighborhood in which many reformists reside, including former President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

  (tags: Iran)
• After a Disputed Election, Tehran's Streets Become a Battleground
  It's way past midnight in Tehran, but this city is not sleeping. Outside on the streets, people are honking their horns in protest and stretching their hands out of cars making peace signs — a sign of support for Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the opposition candidate apparently defeated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran's presidential election on Friday.
  In neighborhoods across north and central Tehran, shouts of "Death to dictator!" fill the air, mostly in female voices, coming from house windows. There are also shouts of "Allah-o Akbar!" — reminiscent of the revolution — on the urging of a communique from Mousavi's office.
  (tags: Iran Hossein_Mousavi Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad)
• Defeated Ahmadinejad rival Mousavi arrested in Iran
  Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was reportedly arrested Saturday following the reformist's defeat at the polls by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Supporters of Mousavi, the main challenger to Ahmadinejad, have responded to the election with the most serious unrest in Tehran in a decade and claim that the result was the work of a dictatorship.

  There have been a number of contradictory reports from Iran, in large part due to the heavy restrictions imposed on the media in the Islamic Republic and in particular on foreign reporters.

  Mousavi's arrest was reported by an unofficial source, who said that the presidential contender had been arrested en route to the home of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pro-reform Mousavi has denounced the election as rigged and vowed he will not accept defeat. He and key aides could not be reached by phone Saturday.

  (tags: Iran Hossein_Mousavi)
• Ssssshhhhh! President Obama Is Still Backing State Secrets – Just LIke Bush
  President Obama's Justice Department didn't just disappoint some of his liberal supporters by arguing in support of the Defense of Marriage Act this week, disappointing if not angering supporters who also support same sex marriage and were appalled by the comparison of same sex marriage to incestuous ones. The president's lawyers also repeated some of the Bush administration's national security arguments.

  The Obama Justice Department on Friday asked the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to review an earlier appeals court ruling to determine if details about CIA rendition flights coordinated by Jeppesen Dataplan — a division of Boeing — should be protected as "state secrets."

  As a candidate, then-Sen. Obama faulted President Bush for using the "state secrets" argument too often, and too broadly, though as president he has used it in at least three cases:
  ++++++
  Oh My! Cloning into W?

  (tags: barack_obama)
• Joy Behar wants Palin interview, not just liberals On Her New Show
  The Huffington Post checks in with "The View"'s Joy Behar, who, I noted yesterday, will be getting her own HLN talk show that replaces the Lou Dobbs repeat at 9 p.m.

  "I'd love to have Sarah Palin on the show," Behar said. "She would do very well with me, because I'm not out to get Sarah Palin. I want to hear from her; she has things to say."

  Behar, an outspoken liberal, said she wants to invite guests from both sides of the aisle to appear on her show.

  "I don't want to do just a liberal show," she said. "I interviewed Ann Coulter when I was sitting in for Larry King a couple of times, and we have a rapport. I like to talk to her. I think it's interesting to me to talk to people who don't agree with me all the time. Rush Limbaugh, let's get him on the show! Even Dick Cheney is welcome on my show. I'll have a faucet ready for him but he can come."

  (tags: Joy_Behar sarah_palin)
• Wishful thinking from Tehran – Was There Voter Fraud?
  I have been in Iran for exactly one week covering the 2009 Iranian election carnival. Since I arrived, few here doubted that the incumbent firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad would win. My airport cab driver reminded me that the president had visited every province twice in the last four years – "Iran isn't Tehran," he said. Even when I asked Mousavi supporters if their man could really carry more than capital, their responses were filled with an Obamasque provisional optimism – "Yes we can", "I hope so", "If you vote." So the question occupying the international media, "How did Mousavi lose?" seems to be less a problem of the Iranian election commission and more a matter of bad perception rooted in the stubborn refusal to understand the role of religion in Iran.
  (tags: Iran Ahmadinejad)
• Gays decry Obama's stand on gay marriage case – DOMA
  Gay rights groups expressed dismay with the Obama administration Friday over its championing of the Defense of Marriage Act, a law the president pledged to try to repeal while on the campaign trail.

  The government filed a motion late Thursday to dismiss the case of Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer, who are challenging the 1996 federal act. The law prevents couples in states that recognize same-sex unions from securing Social Security spousal benefits, filing joint taxes and other federal rights of marriage.

  U.S. Department of Justice lawyers argued that the act — known informally as DOMA — is constitutional and contended that awarding federal marriage benefits to gays would infringe on the rights of taxpayers in the 30 states that specifically prohibit same-sex marriages.

  "The president made very explicit and emphatic campaign promises that he opposes DOMA and would provide leadership calling on Congress to repeal it," said Jennifer Pizer, marriage project director for Lambda

  (tags: barack_obama gaymarriage)
• Ahmadinejad Re-Elected; Protests Flare In Iran
  The Iranian government declared an outright election victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday morning, and riot police officers fought with supporters of the opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, who insisted that the election had been stolen.
  After a mostly quiet morning in Tehran, Moussavi supporters began filtering onto the streets. By early afternoon, thousands had come together, many of them wearing the trademark green of his campaign, chanting angrily that they would fight on as Mr. Moussavi had urged them to do on Friday night when he claimed that he had won and that there had been voting “irregularities.”

  “I am the absolute winner of the election by a very large margin,” Mr. Moussavi said during a news conference with reporters just after 11 p.m. Friday, adding: “It is our duty to defend people’s votes. There is no turning back.”

  (tags: Iran Ahmadinejad)
• Democrat Illinois Senator Dick Durbin cashed out during big stock collapse – Insider Info?
  As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

  The Illinois senator's 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway's Class B stock, the disclosure shows.

  (tags: dick_durbin)

A supporter of Iran’s moderate presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi holds up a poster of Mousavi during a protest against the election results in Tehran June 13, 2009

Mirhossein Mousavi’s letter to the Iranian people:

In the Name of God

Honorable people of Iran

The reported results of the 10th Iranians residential Election are appalling. The people who witnessed the mixture of votes in long lineups know who they have voted for and observe the wizardry of I.R.I.B (State run TV and Radio) and election officials. Now more than ever before they want to know how and by which officials this game plan has been designed. I object fully to the current procedures and obvious and abundant deviations from law on the day of election and alert people to not surrender to this dangerous plot. Dishonesty and corruption of officials as we have seen will only result in weakening the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran and empowers lies and dictatorships.

I am obliged, due to my religious and national duties, to expose this dangerous plot and to explain its devastating effects on the future of Iran. I am concerned that the continuation of the current situation will transform all key members of this regime into fabulists in confrontation with the nation and seriously jeopardize them in this world and the next.

I advise all officials to halt this agenda at once before it is too late, return to the rule of law and protect the nation’s vote and know that deviation from law renders them illegitimate. They are aware better than anyone else that this country has been through a grand Islamic revolution and the least message of this revolution is that our nation is alert and will oppose anyone who aims to seize the power against the law.

I use this chance to honor the emotions of the nation of Iran and remind them that Iran, this sacred being, belongs to them and not to the fraudulent. It is you who should stay alert. The traitors to the nation’s vote have no fear if this house of Persians burns in flames. We will continue with our green wave of rationality that is inspired by our religious learnings and our love for prophet Mohammad and will confront the rampage of lies that has appeared and marked the image of our nation. However we will not allow our movement to become blind one.

I thank every citizen who took part in spreading this green message by becoming a campaigner and all official and self organized campaigns, I insist that their presence is essential until we achieve results deserving of our country.

[ verse from in Quran: Why not trust in God, who has shown us our ways. We are patient in face of what disturbs us. Our resilience is in god. ]

Mir Hossein Mousavi

The letter in Farsi

Supporters of Iran’s moderate presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi throw stones during clashes with police in Tehran June 13, 2009 during a protest against the election results in Tehran June 13, 2009. Thousands of people clashed with police on Saturday after the disputed election victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked the biggest protests in Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution

It is being reported by multiple sources on Twitter that there have been wide spread riots in the streets of Tehran and that Mr. Mousavi has been arrested.

Stay tuned……especially on Twitter ———>

Update:

Defeated Ahmadinejad rival Mousavi arrested in Iran

Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was reportedly arrested Saturday following the reformist’s defeat at the polls by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Supporters of Mousavi, the main challenger to Ahmadinejad, have responded to the election with the most serious unrest in Tehran in a decade and claim that the result was the work of a dictatorship. There have been a number of contradictory reports from Iran, in large part due to the heavy restrictions imposed on the media in the Islamic Republic and in particular on foreign reporters. Mousavi’s arrest was reported by an unofficial source, who said that the presidential contender had been arrested en route to the home of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pro-reform Mousavi has denounced the election as rigged and vowed he will not accept defeat. He and key aides could not be reached by phone Saturday.

Perhaps.

Sarah Palin would no doubt be horrified by the idea, but there’s a chance she could become the same boon to David Letterman’s career that Hugh Grant was to Jay Leno’s.

Grant’s 1995 appearance on NBC’s “Tonight” show after a prostitution arrest, where Leno famously asked “what were you thinking?,” was seen in retrospect as a turning point in the late-night race. It drew a huge audience and propelled Leno to the top of the ratings, a spot he would not relinquish.

Letterman did not court last week’s battle with Palin, who called him “perverted” for making a joke about her daughter getting “knocked up” by New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, and he said in retrospect the remark was in poor taste.

Palin rebuffed his invitations to appear on the show, but that might not matter. The story had the effect of turning the attention to Letterman at a critical time, during the second week of his new competition with Leno’s replacement, Conan O’Brien.

Well, even with the new Conan O’Brien Show taking over Jay Leno’s Tonight Show spot and the Palin-Letterman Flap, Letterman still lags.

But, the TV by the numbers do show the desperation of CBS and Letterman to fight Conan O’Brien and NBC for that younger age demographic. And, why not do it with sex-laced jokes? And Ridicule?

Oh, the TV Biz…….

Previous:

Day By Day by Chris Muir June 12, 2009 – Contemporaries

Senator John McCain Defends Sarah Palin Against David Letterman’s Jokes

Video: David Letterman Defends Jokes About Sarah Palin and Her Daughters

Sarah and Todd Palin Respond to David Letterman’s Crude Joke About Their Daughter

Audio: Rudy Giuliani on Sarah Palin

NBC’s Early Today Bags on Sarah Palin for Calling David Letterman Pathetic As Letterman Calls Palin’s Daughter a Prostitute

Video: Letterman Stays Classy – Mocks Sarah Palin’s Daughter as “Knocked Up”

Sarah Palin’s Trip to New York – Updating That “SLUTTY” Flight Attendant Look

Day By Day by Chris Muir

The Sarah Palin – David Letterman Flap continues with Palin calling for Letterman to offer up an apology to women.

Sarah Palin says David Letterman owes an apology to young women across the country for his joke about her daughter.

The Alaska governor appeared on NBC’s “Today” show Friday, continuing a feud with the CBS “Late Show” funnyman over his joke earlier this week that Palin’s daughter got “knocked up” by New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez during their recent trip to New York.

Palin also said she doesn’t believe she should be automatically considered the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Asked by Matt Lauer whether Letterman owed her daughter an apology, the former vice presidential candidate broadened it.

“I would like to see him apologize to young women across the country for contributing to kind of that thread that is throughout our culture that makes it sound like it is OK to talk about young girls in that way, where it’s kind of OK, accepted and funny to talk about statutory rape,” she said. “It’s not cool. It’s not funny.”

Indeed, it is NOT cool and NOT funny.

David Letterman hopes this flap blows over but I have a feeling that folks will rise up against David Letterman’s sponsors.

Previous:

The Day By Day Archive

• Ahmadinejad leads Iran vote, challenger defiant
  State media declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of Iran's election but challenger Mirhossein Mousavi alleged irregularities and claimed victory for himself.

  The state election commission said early Saturday that Ahmadinejad, a hardline conservative, was ahead with 66 percent of the votes in Friday's election after 21 million ballots were counted.

  Ahmadinejad's main challenger, moderate former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi, had 31 percent, according to the commission, which is part of the Interior Ministry. It said 61 percent of all ballot boxes had now been counted.

  (tags: Iran Ahmadinejad)
• China Warns Against Force in Carrying Out North Korea Sanctions
  China warned about the dangers involved in inspecting North Korean cargo under United Nations Security Council sanctions approved yesterday, saying countries intercepting vessels should avoid armed action.

  “Under no circumstance should there be the use of force or the threat of use of force” in implementing the sanctions in Resolution 1874, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui said in New York. Inspecting vessels carrying North Korean cargo is “complicated” and “sensitive,” he said.

  The Security Council voted 15 to O to punish North Korea for its May nuclear-bomb test and missile launches. The resolution authorizes stepped-up inspection of air or sea cargoes suspected of being destined for the development of nuclear arms or ballistic missiles. The measure also calls for new restrictions on loans and money transfers to North Korea.

  (tags: north_korea China)
• House Health-Care Bill to Include $600 Billion in Tax Increases and Cuts to Medicare
  Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.

  Democrats will work on the bill’s details next week as they struggle through “what kind of heartburn” it will cause to agree on how to pay for revamping the health-care system, Rangel, a New York Democrat, said today. He also said the measure’s cost will reach beyond the $634 billion President Barack Obama proposed in his budget request to Congress as a down payment for the policy changes.

  Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion, Rangel said, “the answer is yes.”

  (tags: healthcare socialized_medicine Obamacare)
• Obama’s issues crumbling
  Interestingly, Obama’s polling is now the exact opposite of President Clinton’s in the days after Monica Lewinsky. Back then, the president’s approval for handling specific issues was his forte, while his job approval remained high but his personal favorability lagged 20 points behind. Ultimately, it is a politician’s performance on specific issues that determines his electability. Personal favorability withers in the face of issue differences. Obama is about to find out that you cannot rely on image to bolster your presidency when the underlying issues are crumbling.

  All this data suggests that Obama might run out of steam just as he gets to his healthcare agenda. As unemployment mounts, month after month, and Obama’s claims of job creation (or savings) ring hollow, it is possible that he will not have the heft to pass his radical restructuring of the healthcare system. The automaton Democratic majority may pass it anyway, but it will be a one-way ticket to oblivion if they do.

  (tags: barack_obama)
• Obama Angst: Blaming the Guy Who Came Before Doesn’t Work Long
  As President Obama struggles to turn around the moribund economy and confront multiple international issues, he wastes few opportunities to remind the country that the problems are not of his making.
  “The financial crisis this administration inherited is still creating painful challenges for businesses and families alike,” Mr. Obama said this week as he proposed spending limits.

  “We inherited a financial crisis unlike any that we’ve seen in our time,” he said last week as he thrust General Motors into bankruptcy.

  His advisers and allies follow the same script. “The Obama administration inherited a situation at Guantánamo that was intolerable,” James L. Jones, the national security adviser, said of the military prison in Cuba. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended the Obama foreign policy in the same vein. “We inherited a lot of problems,” she said.

  (tags: barack_obama)
• Obama defends DOMA in federal court. Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget. Invokes incest and marrying children
  And before Obama claims he didn't have a choice, he had a choice. Bush, Reagan and Clinton all filed briefs in court opposing current federal law as being unconstitutional (we'll be posting more about that later). Obama could have done the same. But instead he chose to defend DOMA, denigrate our civil rights, go back on his promises, and contradict his own statements that DOMA was "abhorrent." Folks, Obama's lawyers are even trying to diminish the impact of Roemer and Lawrence, our only two big Supreme Court victories. Obama is quite literally destroying our civil rights gains with this brief. He's taking us down for his own benefit.
  (tags: barack_obama gaymarriage gay_politics)
• Obama Gives Up on Resettling Cleared Guantanamo Detainees in U.S., Officials Say
  The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release to live in the United States, administration officials said yesterday, a decision that reflects bipartisan congressional opposition to admitting such prisoners but complicates efforts to persuade European allies to accept them.

  Four Uighur detainees, Chinese Muslims who were incarcerated at the U.S. military prison in Cuba for more than seven years, arrived early yesterday in Bermuda, where they will become foreign guest workers.

  (tags: barack_obama Guantanamo_Bay)
• For Republicans, the Ice Age Cometh – Demographics Driving the Train
  Despairing Republican friends have been asking me what I think we should do to rebuild the GOP and begin our certain and inevitable comeback. My answer disappoints them: "Build an ark."
  I say this because I've made a career out of counting votes, and the numbers tell a clear story; the demographics of America are changing in a way that is deadly for the Republican Party as it exists today. A GOP ice age is on the way.

  Demographic change is irritating to politicos, since it works on elections much as rigged dice do on a Las Vegas craps table: it is a game changer. For years, Republicans won elections because the country was chock-full of white middle-class voters who mostly pulled the GOP lever on Election Day. Today, however, that formula is no longer enough.

  (tags: GOP)
• Shocker: Governor Sarah Palin Not Certain to Run for Reelection in 2010?
  CNN's Peter Hamby reports that Sarah Palin taped an interview with that network and would not commit to running for governor again in 2010.

  If that scenario comes to pass, I will be very, very surprised. There hasn't been much polling of Palin up in Alaska, but one in March had her approval at nearly 60 percent and one in May at 54 percent. Despite the obvious appetite among Democrats to drive her from public office, no top-tier Democratic candidates have committed to challenging her, and the one poll conducted at the end of last year, putting her in a theoretical matchup with former governor Tony Knowles, showed her winning 55 percent to 38 percent. Many Alaska polticians in both parties are indicating that they're interested in the job, but only if there's an open seat race.

  (tags: sarah_palin)