Archive for December, 2009
Posted by Flap in Marijuana
A California budget solution?
A measure to legalize marijuana in California has enough signatures to qualify for the November 2010 ballot, advocates say.
The Tax and Regulate Initiative has far more than the nearly 434,000 signatures needed to make the statewide ballot, said Richard Lee, well-known Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur and the initiative’s main backer. Campaign organizers say they will submit more than 650,000 signatures of registered voters next month.
“People were eager to sign,” Lee told the Chronicle. “We heard they were ripping the petitions out of people’s hands to do it.
Heh….. I bet they were……
Technorati Tags: Marijuana, California
Tags: California, Marijuana
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California Assemblyman and U.S. Senate candidate Chuck DeVore Tweeting
Oops the impeccable conservative as Chuck DeVore likes to call himself has been caught up in another hypocritical FLAP. Remember the last time it was nanny state hypocrisy.
This time the subject is abortion.
DeVore voted to approve the California state budget in 2005 and 2008. Both budgets contained funding for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. Medi-Cal uses state money to subsidize abortion (the use of federal funds for elective abortion within Medicaid is barred under the Hyde Amendment). Both times DeVore voted yes the budgets passed easily, but with non-trivial numbers of GOP no votes. Both times, efforts to separate out the abortion funding from the budgets had already been defeated when the final vote took place. Consequently, the budgets as passed contained abortion funding.
As of 2004, Medi-Cal funded nearly 40 percent of all abortions performed in California. According to the Women’s Health Rights Coalition, that amounts to “an estimated 90,946 induced abortions out of the total 236,000 performed.” Roughly $33 million is spent funding abortions. Wynette Sills of the Coalition to Eliminate Abortion Funding told a pro-life website that 25 percent of the money goes to Planned Parenthood, despite the abortion provider’s reported $1 billion in revenues. At the national level, the health care debate illustrates the importance of having a precise understanding of how legislation could result in taxpayer funding of abortion.
Chuck, if you are sooooo pro-life why did you vote for public funding for abortion?
Why did you vote for these California budgets that included this abortion enabling funding for Planned Parenthood?
Or did you conveniently forget about these votes?
Technorati Tags: Chuck_DeVore, Abortion
Tags: Abortion, Chuck DeVore
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Schwarzenegger urges US to lead fight on climate
Arnold Schwarzenegger has urged the White House to emulate California in taking a lead in the fight against climate change, saying “it would be good for the whole world . . . if the US becomes the power behind the movementâ€.
The California governor told the Financial Times in an interview that he could sympathise with Barack Obama’s struggles in securing backing in Congress for national emissions targets. But Mr Schwarzenegger added “it would be incredible if America makes a commitment†that helps secure a global framework on climate change.
“America within 10 years could get 20 per cent of its power needs from renewables,†he said. “We have sun, wind – you can even now get oil from algae. There is a green revolution [in California] but the whole US could be leading like that.â€
Mr Schwarzenegger, who flies to a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this week, also called on cities, states and other “sub-national†governments, urging them not to wait for a binding deal before taking action to curb emissions.
“International agreements, as critical as they are, will never do enough,†he said he would tell the conference this week.
Well, Arnold has to say something since he has driven the California economy to the depths of despair and has bankrupted the state.
But, his comments about Sarah Palin , the former Governor of Alaska are classic Arnold understatement:
The California governor has become an environmental standard bearer for the Republican party, which is split on the merits of curbing emissions. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, has attacked cap and trade and questioned any link between man-made emissions and global warming.
“You have to ask: what was she trying to accomplish?†said Mr Schwarzenegger. “Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the [Republican] nomination [for president]? You have to take all these things with a grain of salt.â€
Funny how Arnold has had to leave the country to recapture an audience for his political nonsense. Yeah, he has been a worse Governor than Jesse Ventura in Minnesota.
Technorati Tags: Arnold_Schwarzenegger, Sarah_Palin, Climate_Change
Tags: Arnold_Schwarzenegger, Climate_Change
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The former MSM Left writers over at Calbuzz have an analysis of the $15 million cash infusion California Governor candidate Steve Poizner has recently announced.
“He didn’t have any other option,†said one Republican insider. “There were rumors all over Sacramento that he was going to drop out.â€
Poizner’s $15 million move will likely stop the bleeding among the gossip-mongering cognoscenti (which he’s done for the moment, at least to judge by campaign flack Jarrod Agen’s success in getting the entire press corps to write exactly the same story Monday). It also may calm some of his current supporters, whose restiveness in the face of his failure to move the needle in the polls seems to have led to the we-got-her-right-where-we-want-her memo his campaign e-blasted last week, which smacked of desperation.
Having made his move, Poiznergreendollar now faces two other, far more difficult tasks: a) actually writing the check he’s promised (we’ll be watching) and b) figuring out how to spend the dough wisely. We’re also not convinced that $15 million is enough to make the kind of splash – positive, negative or both – he needs.
The fact remains the Poizner candidacy has NOT caught fire in California and he badly trails in the polls to both Meg Whitman and Tom Campbell (who has been rumored ready to drop out and run for the U.S. Senate against Carly Firoina and Chuck DeVore).
Frankly, I can think of a better way to waste $15 million. Poizner is not going to be elected Governor of California and we are not even talking about a run against Democrat Jerry Brown.
So, who quits first? Poizner or Campbell? Or both?
Technorati Tags: Steve_Poizner, Meg_Whitman, Tom_Campbell
Tags: Steve_Poizner
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Day By Day by Chris Muir
Should President Obama NOT be able to persuade his Democrat Party colleagues in the Senate regarding Obamacare, he may be changing his own shorts. Obamacare has changed as the Democrats in the Congress have failed to achieve a consensus as to what health care reform REALLY is.
President Barack Obama will meet with Senate Democrats at the White House Tuesday to press for action at a make-or-break moment for his health care overhaul.
All 60 members of the Democratic caucus have been invited, according to three Democratic officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet public.
The meeting comes as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid works to round up votes to get a sweeping health bill passed before Christmas. The outcome is uncertain with moderates in danger of defecting on issues including abortion and a proposed expansion of Medicare.
The latest proposal ot hit the skids is the Medicare Buy-in Provision.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is prepared to give in to demands from centrists in order to pass the healthcare legislation before Christmas, senators say.
Reid indicated at a closed-door Democratic Conference meeting on Monday that he would drop a controversial Medicare buy-in provision, which was offered as a replacement to the government-run health insurance option, to win the votes of Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).
The public option was eliminated last week.
What really is left? Portability? Increasing medicaid?
And, your grade now, Mr. President?
Technorati Tags: Barack_Obama, Day_By_Day, Obamacare
Tags: Obamacare
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Posted by Flap in Twitter
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Posted by Flap in Dentistry
Dan, I do unexpected dental surgery all week long – well, at least three days anyway.
And, to everyone else there in the Blogosphere and Twitterverse – Flap’s free and unadulterated dental advice is only a tweet or e-mail away.
Hope you are feeling better, Dan.
Tags: Dentistry
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