Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

• Obamacare: Passing Out the White Coats to Doctors for White House Photo "OP"
  President Obama yesterday rolled out the red carpet — and handed out doctors' white coats as well, just so nobody missed his hard-sell health-care message.

  In a heavy-handed attempt at reviving support for health-care reform, the White House orchestrated a massive photo op to buttress its claim that front-line physicians support Obama.
  ++++++
  How stupid is this?

  (tags: Obamacare)
• GOP's Kelly Ayottee leads in race for New Hampshire Gregg seat
  Former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (R) leads Rep. Paul Hodes (D) by seven points, according to a new survey, giving the GOP hope of holding on to a seat it once openly worried about losing.

  Ayotte is the choice of 40 percent of voters in the University of New Hampshire’s Granite Poll, sponsored by WMUR-TV, while 33 percent pick Hodes.

  Hodes leads two other Republicans — attorney and former gubernatorial nominee Ovide Lamontagne and Republican National Committeeman Sean Mahoney — by nine points.

  (tags: Kelly_Ayotte)
• Political Landscape Sparks Republicans Recruiting
  The decline in President Obama's poll numbers — and those of his party — over the first eight months of his administration has led to a bumper crop of Republican recruits in the House as GOP candidates who sat on the sidelines for the last two election cycles are now leaping at the opportunity to run.

  The latest example of this environmental recruiting is in Nevada's 3rd district where former state senator Joe Heck (R) will announce today that he is abandoning his gubernatorial bid to pursue a race against freshman Rep. Dina Titus (D) in 2010.

  "The Republicans are starting to become resurgent," said Heck.
  Early returns are promising for Republicans. The Cook Political Report counts 72 Democratic-held seats as marginally competitive as compared to just 35 Republican-held districts while Stu Rothenberg pegs the playing field at 31 competitive Democratic seats and 17 competitive Republican seats.
  +++++++
  Good news for the GOP.

  (tags: GOP)
• In Aftermath of Failed Execution, Ohio Governor Orders Postponement of 2 Others
  The state is looking into backup procedures in case the standard execution techniques fail, as they did on Sept. 15, when technicians at the state prison in Lucasville tried for over two hours to maintain an intravenous connection in order to inject Romell Broom with lethal drugs for the abduction, rape and murder of a teenage girl in 1984. A hearing to consider whether Mr. Broom can be executed in conformity with constitutional requirements is scheduled for Nov. 30.

  “More research and evaluation of backup or alternative procedures is necessary before one or more can be selected,” Mr. Strickland said in his order.
  +++++++
  Lethal injection is becoming a deterrent to capital punishment. How about going back to hanging or the gas chamber?

  (tags: Death_Penalty)
• Obamacare: AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims – Medicare
  Furthermore, the American Medical Association (AMA) has endorsed the public option after an appeal from the President and despite, according to ABC News, the fact that “some member physicians at the group’s annual meeting [in June] likened the notion to communism.”

  Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card. The chart below appears on page 5 of the 16-page report.

  (tags: Obamacare medicare)

Well, Delay has stress fractures in both feet.

Sources tell PEOPLE that the former Republican House Majority Leader will withdraw from Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday’s live results show due to stress fractures in both of his feet.

DeLay was advised by doctors and the show’s producers not to perform on Monday’s show, but decided to go ahead with his samba with partner Cheryl Burke, saying on the broadcast, “What’s a little pain when we can party?”

And, why would Delay want to quit when his partner, Cheryl Burke, is the hottest dancer in the whole-wide world?

The pain must be unbearable.

Linkage of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and more troops are among the recommendations to the President.

Sen. John McCain says Obama administration policy decisions in Afghanistan shouldn’t be based on viewing the insurgent Taliban and the al-Qaida terrorist network as separate and distinct issues.

Interviewed Tuesday morning on NBC’s “Today” program, the Arizona Republican said, “You can’t separate the two. … If the Taliban returns, they will work with al-Qaida. It’s just a historical fact.”

McCain is among a host of key congressional leaders slated to meet later Tuesday at the White House with President Barack Obama. The administration is debating what changes may be necessary in Afghan war-fighting policy amid increasing violence and a call by the U.S. commanding general for thousands of additional fighting forces.

McCain’s recommendations will carry weight and an Obama divergence will heighten the partisan divide on war and peace.

• Taliban Afghan momentum due to lack of U.S. troops – Sec. Defense Gates
  The Taliban has the momentum in Afghanistan now because of the inability of the United States and its allies to put enough troops into the country, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday
  (tags: afghanistan robert_gates)
• FTC: Bloggers must disclose payments for reviews
  The Federal Trade Commission will require bloggers to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.

  It is the first time since 1980 that the commission has revised its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials, and the first time the rules have covered bloggers.

  But the commission stopped short Monday of specifying how bloggers must disclose any conflicts of interest.

  The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. Penalties include up to $11,000 in fines per violation.

  The rules take effect Dec. 1.

  (tags: blogging)
• California Senator Barbara Boxer's Approval is at 41 Percent?
  Barbara Boxer's Approval is at 41 Percent?

  Survey USA released a ton of results Friday, asking voters about about they approve of the president, their governor, and their senators. A couple results that jumped out at me:

  California:

  Sen. Feinstein: 46 / 44
  Sen. Boxer: 41 / 48

  Boxer's numbers are pretty lousy for someone running for reelection next year.
  ++++++++
  Yet another reason for Carly Fiorina to jump into this race.

  (tags: barbara_boxer carly_fiorina)
• Obamacare: States Resist Medicaid Growth – California Senator Dianne Feinstein Cannot Support
  As the reform debate unfolds on the House and Senate floors, health-care negotiators are prepared for a flood of pleadings like the one Reid made that could add up to many billions, forcing reductions to other portions of the bill. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), for one, estimated that the Medicaid expansion could cost his state $8 billion a year. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) underscored those concerns with her own pledge: "I could not support a bill that pushes additional costs on California state government or its counties."
  (tags: Dianne_Feinstein Obamacare)
• Voice of Bush’s Pentagon Becomes Harder to Hear – Petraeus for President?
  Gen. David H. Petraeus, the face of the Iraq troop surge and a favorite of former President George W. Bush, spoke up or was called upon by President Obama “several times” during the big Afghanistan strategy session in the Situation Room last week, one participant says, and will be back for two more meetings this week.
  But the general’s closest associates say that underneath the surface of good relations, the celebrity commander faces a new reality in Mr. Obama’s White House: He is still at the table, but in a very different seat.
  (tags: david_petraeus afghanistan barack_obama)
• Barack Obama furious at General Stanley McChrystal speech on Afghanistan
  The relationship between President Barack Obama and the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan has been put under severe strain by Gen Stanley McChrystal's comments on strategy for the war.
  According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.

  The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago's unsuccessful Olympic bid.

Meg Whitman, the former e-Bay CEO and candidate for California Governor has admitted that she should have been more diligent about voting but her campaign refutes with “the facts” some of the Sacramento Bee’s hit on her on September 24.

Whitman’s campaign writes to the Bee:

    Dear Amy (Chance, an editor at the Sacramento Bee):

    Thank you for our conversations in recent days regarding The Sacramento Bee’s September 24th story on Meg’s voting history.  As we discussed, the campaign has been in the process of reconciling its information and Meg’s recollections with The Bee’s coverage.  So far, we have found a number of disturbing discrepancies that raise serious questions about the quality of The Bee’s reporting and the integrity of your newspaper.

    For starters, The Bee reported that while Meg lived in San Francisco from 1981 to 1989, she was not registered to vote and did not vote.  The problem we have with this is that Meg clearly remembers voting on multiple occasions, including the 1984 and 1988 presidential elections.

    As Meg prepared to enter the race, our campaign requested her voting records from the San Francisco registrar and was told that no records were available from 1981 to 1989.  We have a letter from the registrar confirming that fact.

    After your story ran, we went back to the San Francisco registrar and asked them to confirm your assertion that Meg had not registered or voted in San Francisco between 1981 and 1989.  They could not.  The registrar’s office again confirmed in writing that it no longer has records for voters prior to 1992.  Records from that period were never transferred and they simply don’t have them.

    In an attempt to confirm our findings, we then asked the registrar to provide voting information for several prominent San Franciscans, including Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi.  (Dianne Feinstein was Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988. Nancy Pelosi has lived in San Francisco since 1969 and was elected to Congress in 1987.)  The registrar’s office came back in writing with the same result.  There are no records in any system of Dianne Feinstein or Nancy Pelosi voting in San Francisco prior to 1992.

    Clearly, Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein voted in San Francisco during the 1980s, and so did Meg Whitman.  Based solely on a mysterious unnamed source at the registrar’s office, The Bee conveniently asserts that Meg never voted in San Francisco.  This flies in the face of any information actually available at the San Francisco registrar’s office.

    And the list of errors in your September 24th story goes on and on:

    The Sacramento Bee wrote that Meg was not registered to vote in Ohio.  Yet, we have a letter from the Hamilton County Board of Elections confirming that she was registered to vote there from 1980 to 1982.

    The Sacramento Bee wrote that the first voter registration it found for Meg was in San Mateo County in 2002.  Yet, through voting archives, we have confirmed Meg’s registration in Santa Clara county beginning in February 8, 1999.  The affidavit number for Meg’s registration is 70CE223397.

    The Sacramento Bee stated that Steve Poizner had regularly voted in elections.  Yet, the next day, after our campaign pointed out your mistake, The Bee acknowledged that Poizner failed to vote in statewide primary elections in 1994 and 1998.

    The Sacramento Bee stated that there is no record of Meg voting as a young woman in Suffolk County, New York.  Yet, when we contacted the registrar in Suffolk County multiple times, we were told that there was no conclusive evidence either way.  They did not confirm or deny the registration or voting history.

    Finally, using public records, we have so far been unable to confirm your assertion that Steve Poizner voted regularly during his years in Texas, which is not surprising given the condition of records going back to that period.  However, you appear to have given Poizner the benefit of the doubt.

    When Meg launched her campaign in February, she openly acknowledged that her voting record was far from perfect.  She was open about the facts as she remembered them.  And her campaign collected all the documentation available to support her claims.

    The number of errors in your story, plus the convenient use of a mysterious unnamed source to contradict the information publicly available at the San Francisco registrar’s office, leaves the impression that your newspaper or its sources set out to deliberately misrepresent Meg’s voting history.  While Meg makes no excuses for the votes she missed, the record she does have should be accurately reported.

    We expect The Sacramento Bee to correct the record as soon as possible.  In particular, your newspaper should retract its assertion that Meg never voted in San Francisco or provide a credible on-the-record source to support the claim.

    Regards,

    Tucker Bounds
    Director of Communications
    Meg Whitman for Governor

Listen to Hugh Hewitt’s interview of Amy Chance, the political editor of the Sacramento Bee here.

The facts remain that Meg whitman has not been a diligent voter and should have voted more. Whitman acknowledges this.

Now, with these facts that her acts of voting omission are NOT as egregious as reported by the Sacramento Bee change anything?

I believe it does. Failure to vote from time to time is understandable and rarely has been an absolute disqualifer from office.

So, this question will be answered by the voters of California: Did Whitman’s slender voting record show an INDIFFERENCE to the political process?

If so, then she will not be nominated by the GOP or elected Governor.

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Does Meg Whitman’s Lack of Voting Disqualify Her From California Governor’s Race?