Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

Well, DUH. Education, diet and the ability to pay for early childhood dental care are all factors that hurt poor children.

Poor, minority and special needs children are more likely to be affected by toothache, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Toothache is a source of chronic and often severe pain that interferes with a child’s ability to play, eat and pay attention in school,” the authors write as background information in the study. The authors also note that “the most common cause of toothache is dental decay” and the “process of dental decay is one that optimally would be prevented or, at the very least, identified early and then arrested through provision of regular professional dental care. However, for some U.S. children, including those who are Medicaid-insured, access to preventive and restorative dental care is more difficult.”

So, what is the remedy?

Free dental care ala ObamaCare?

More $ millions spent by the government on public health dentistry and dental health education?

Obviously, those remedies are infeasible or have been ineffective.

How about personal responsibility, education and an enforceable federal immigration policy for a start?

Election 2010 Map as of today from electoral-vote.org

The first pundit map is out for the 2102 Presidential race.

As we begin turning our attention to the 2012 presidential contest, we debut our initial presidential battleground map. Note: This is based on where we believe things will be a year from now, with the GOP candidates headed into home stretch in IA. It essentially combines what we know from ’04, ’06, ’08 and ’10, and factors it ALL in. Here’s another way to look at this: The lean Dem states are winnable by a Republican if things break, say, 53%-47% nationally for the nominee. And the lean GOP states are winnable by a Democrat if things break, well, 53%-47% nationally for the president. And you can guarantee BOTH parties will play in every lean and toss-up state so the BIG battleground for 2012 begins with 17 states. We fully expect a David Plouffe to attempt to argue GA and AZ should be in lean. And we expect a GOP strategist to argue they can put one EV in ME and, say, OR in play. But here you go…

Solid Dem: DE, HI, MD, MA, NY, RI, VT
Likely Dem: CA, CT, IL, ME, WA, OR
Lean Dem: IA, MI, MN, NJ, PA
Toss-up: CO, FL, NV, NH, NM, OH, VA, WI
Lean GOP: MO, MT, NE (one EV), NC,
Likely GOP: AL, AR, AZ, GA, IN, LA, MS, NE (four EVs), ND, SC, SD, TX
DC Solid GOP: AK, ID, KS, KY, OK, TN, UT, WV, WY

Of course, this depends entirely on the economy and it will be interesting to revisit this in about a year. But, as of today, I would say the key battleground states will be:

• Ohio – 20 (electoral votes)
• Virginia – 13
• Colorado – 9
• Florida -27
• Nevada – 5
• Wisconsin -10
• New Hampshire – 4
• Indiana – 11
• North Carolina – 15

Remembering Obama/Biden won 365 electoral votes Vs. McCain/Palin 173. The battleground states above would have 114 electoral votes in play. A sufficient number for a GOP contender to flip and win the Presidency.

The race for 2012 has already started.

Stay tuned……

Political Cartoon by Michael Ramirez

Yeah, California which was once the “Golden State” and its voters don’t get it

The midterm elections turned into a sweeping repudiation of the Democrats’ failed status quo — except, that is, in California. There, not only did the Democrats not lose, they gained clout.

Even as voters in other states said they’d had enough of ever bigger, more intrusive and higher-cost government by the Democrats, California voters said, “More please.”

With the exception of the governor’s office, California has been a virtual one-party state since the 1960s. Now, thanks to decades of anti-business policies promulgated by a series of left-leaning legislatures, its economy and finances are a mess, and it’s hemorrhaging jobs, businesses and productive entrepreneurs to other states.

California and the California Republican Party has been broken for some time. Now, it is just more obvious. Read on as the Investors Business Daily lays out the case for “giving up” in Blue California and moving business operations to another state.

How bad has it gotten in California?

• Some 2.3 million Californians are without jobs, for a 12.4% unemployment rate — one of the highest in the country.
• From 2001 to 2010, factory jobs plummeted from 1.87 million to 1.23 million — a loss of 34% of the state’s industrial base. Ask any company, and it’ll tell you the same thing: It’s now almost impossible to build a big factory in California.
• With just 12% of the U.S. population, California has almost a third of the nation’s welfare recipients. Some joke the state motto should be changed from “The Golden State” to “The Welfare State.” Meanwhile, 15.3% of all Californians live in poverty.
• The state budget gap for 2009-10 was $45.5 billion, or 53% of total state spending — the largest in any state’s history.
• The state’s sales tax is the nation’s highest, and its income tax the third-highest, the BusinessInsider.com Web site recently noted. Meanwhile, the Tax Foundation’s “State Business Tax Climate Index” ranks California 48th.
• In a ranking by corporate relocation expert Ronald Pollina of the 50 states based on 31 factors for job creation, California finished dead last.
• In another ranking, this one by the Beacon Hill Institute on state competitiveness, California came in 32nd — down seven spots in just one year.
• California is home to 25% of America’s 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants. A 2004 study estimated that illegals cost the state’s citizens $10.5 billion a year — roughly $1,200 per family.
• Unfunded pension liabilities for California’s state and public employees may be as much as $500 billion — roughly 17% of the nation’s total $3 trillion at the state and local level.

So, that is how bad it is in California. But, what really happened in last Tuesday’s election. Why were California Republicans shellacked or wiped out in every statewide race, except maybe one?

Population demographics for one. Look at Los Angeles County.

A large part of the state’s Democratic tilt comes from its massive Latino population. The Los Angeles Times noted that it made up 22% of the voting pool, “a record tally that mortally wounded many Republicans.”

Indeed, Latinos went for Democrats by 2-to-1 — perhaps ending the naive idea of some in the GOP of a New Majority built on the burgeoning Latino population.

Illegal immigration has been ignored for decades by California and the federal government and these “illegal” Californians have had generations of now “legal” and VOTING Californians. And, they, like African-Americans and Jews vote primarily Democratic. Unfortunately for the GOP this may not change for generations and decades as this Hispanic population assimilates. Or, it may become even more polarized and Latinos may drift towards the African-American lock with the Democrats. Voting blocks that approach 40% of the population are very hard to beat in elections – period.

And, there is more.

Latino voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats Brown and Boxer over their respective Republican rivals Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, according to polls conducted by Latino Decisions and sponsored by the National Council of La Raza, Service Employees International Union and America’s Voice.

Brown won election with nearly 54% of the overall vote, while Boxer took a 52% edge in her race. But their support among Latino voters was in the 80 percents.

What will happen next?

For many, it’s as simple as ABC — Anywhere But California. This is an issue near and dear to our hearts. Investor’s Business Daily was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles — and for a quarter of a century has proudly called California its home.

But we too have been affected by the state’s poisonous, anti-business political environment. With de facto one-party rule in the state since the 1960s and few signs of change anytime soon, our optimism about the state’s future has begun to wane.

As a result, sad to say, much of IBD’s future growth will happen at a new facility in Texas — where local and state authorities have bent over backwards to make us feel welcome.

Many more business enterprises will be of the same opinion and simply give up and leave California. There will be an increasingly burdensome population that either does not work or who are not skilled enough to participate in 21st century business. California will go to the federal government which will be dominated by Republicans for a bailout.

None will be forthcoming and California will either change or slide loudly in to a Greece-like abyss of default and bankruptcy.

California can no longer be considered a “Golden State.”

• NV-Sen: Harrah’s Bosses Put Squeeze on Employees to Vote in Pro-Reid Effort
  Executives at the casino giant Harrah’s pushed company employees to vote early in an all-out effort to help the Harry Reid campaign, according to internal emails obtained by Battle ‘10.

  The stepped-up effort began Wednesday when a Reid staffer sent an email pleading for help to Harrah’s top lobbyist, Jan Jones. Soon after, Marybel Batjer, Harrah’s vice president of public policy and communications, distributed that plea via email to executives throughout the company.
  +++++++
  The new House leadership should cal in Harrah's management and the Culinary Union to testify as to what actually happened – under oath

  (tags: harry_reid Harrah's)
• ObamaCare: Citing health overhaul, AARP hikes employee costs
  AARP's endorsement helped secure passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Now the seniors' lobby is telling its employees their insurance costs will rise partly as a result of the law.

  In an e-mail to employees, AARP says health care premiums will increase by 8 percent to 13 percent next year because of rapidly rising medical costs.

  And AARP adds that it's changing copayments and deductibles to avoid a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans that takes effect in 2018 under the law. Aerospace giant Boeing also has cited the tax in asking its workers to pay more. Shifting costs to employees lowers the value of a health care plan and acts like an escape hatch from the tax.
  +++++++
  AARP are a bunch of leftist morons

  (tags: Obamacare)
• CA-AG: California has 2 million ballots yet to process
  Counties reported today that some 2 million ballots remain from Tuesday's election, which could determine winners in some tight local races and one statewide contest — attorney general.

  The secretary of state's office asked counties to voluntarily report their unprocessed ballot count by the end of business Thursday. The result: 1,935,248 unprocessed ballots, not including San Francisco, Fresno and 11 other smaller counties that have yet to report.

  Of the total, 1.4 million are absentee ballots that were returned to counties in the final days before Election Day or on Election Day that have yet to be opened and counted. Another 451,056 ballots were cast provisionally and have yet to be processed, and 56,652 ballots are either damaged or were diverted by optical scanners for further review.
  +++++++
  This race will be decided for Attorney General may very well go down to the last ballot counted.

  (tags: Steve_Cooley Kamala_Harris)
• CA-Sen: Four More Lessons from the GOP Landslide – More Votes for Pot Than GOP
  California’s big GOP candidates were even less popular than legalized pot. Yes, Prop 19 went down to defeat — but final returns show that the 3,423,145 votes it drew made it more popular than Meg Whitman (3,102,646) and Carly Fiorina (3,170,287), both of whom spent a lot more money for the privilege of losing.
  ++++++++
  California is broken……
  (tags: carly_fiorina marijuana)
• NV-Sen: Comeback: How did Harry Reid do it?
  A lot of people have gone broke betting against Harry Reid over the years, and Tuesday was no exception.

  How, exactly, did the Senate majority leader win a decisive reelection victory after being all but left for dead?

  The answer serves as a textbook-worthy case study of hard and soft campaign science. Reid played every angle. If there was an advantage to be taken, no matter how slim, he seized it. Aided by a top-flight campaign team and prodigious fundraising, he made sure no opportunity went to waste.

  In the end, he captured over 50 percent of the vote to Republican Sharron Angle's 45 percent.
  ++++++
  Read it all

  (tags: harry_reid)
• RIP: Baseball Hall of Fame skipper Sparky Anderson dies at 76
  The white-haired genius who helped make red the pre-eminent color in the National League in the '70s and directed the American League team that roared the loudest in the '80s has passed. Sparky Anderson, the chatty Hall of Famer given to outrageous success and outlandish predictions, joined the great majority on Thursday, two days after he was placed in hospice care at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where he had spent most of his adult life. Death came at age 76 for a man who had spent 42 years in professional baseball, 26 as a manager.
  ++++++
  Sparky was active in the Thousand Oaks community.

  Best to his family and he will be missed.

  (tags: sparky_anderson)
• California Field Poll another big winner on election night
  Democrats Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer weren't the only big winners in California Tuesday night. Mark DiCamillo of the Field Poll also had to be grinning as he watched the results come in.

  In the final days before the election, Field came out with a poll that showed Brown with a 10-point lead over Meg Whitman and Boxer leading Carly Fiorina by eight points.

  The results brought quick blowback from the GOP campaigns, with Whitman herself complaining that "the public polls" were providing a distorted picture of the very, very, very close race.
  ++++++
  You cannot argue with their results

  (tags: field_poll)
• 2012 Poll Watch: Huckabee 52% Vs. Obama 44%
  In a hypothetical 2012 matchup, Huckabee leads Obama 52 – 44 percent, while Romney has a 50-45 point advantage, which is within the poll's sampling error. Obama hold a 49-47 percent margin over Gingrich.

  The poll indicates that four in 10 have a favorable opinion of Palin, with nearly half saying they have an unfavorable view. Romney has a 36 percent favorable rating and a 29 percent unfavorable rating, with 35 percent unsure. Forty-two percent say they see Huckabee in a positive light, with 26 percent saying they hold a negative view and just over three in 10 are unsure. Gingrich has 32 percent favorable rating, with four in 10 saying they have an unfavorable view, and 28 percent unsure.
  +++++++
  But, will Huckabee run?

  (tags: Mike_Huckabee barack_obama)

Sarah Palin has a piece up at National Review re: The Way Forward from the Congressional midterm elections.

Now that the dust has settled on the 2010 midterm elections, it’s slowly becoming clear just how monumental the results really are. We saw an extreme left-wing agenda suffer a crushing defeat. At the ballot box, voters took Obamacare and the stimulus and wrapped them right around the necks of those same House members and senators who had arrogantly dismissed the concerns voiced in countless town halls and Tea Party rallies up and down the country. Voters sent commonsense conservatives a clear mandate to hold the line against the Obama agenda.

Does that mean Republican candidates can look forward with greater confidence to the 2012 elections? Yes and no. Yes, objectively speaking the next electoral cycle should be even more favorable than the one that just ended. A large number of red-state Democratic senators will have to defend their seats; and since Obama will be at the top of the ballot that year, they won’t be able to hide from the fact that their party leader is a detached liberal with a destructive tax-and-spend agenda. Whether Republicans will do as well as they did in this cycle depends on whether they learn the lessons from the 2010 election.

1. Set the Narrative

2. Fight back the lies immediately and consistently

Some candidates assumed that, once they received their party’s nomination, the conservative message would automatically carry the day. Unfortunately, political contests aren’t always about truth and justice. Powerful vested interests will combine to keep bad candidates in place and good candidates out of office. Once they let themselves be defined as “unfit” (decorated war hero Joe Miller) or “heartless” (pro-life, international women’s rights champion Carly Fiorina), good candidates often find it virtually impossible to get their message across. The moral of their stories: You must be prepared to fight for your right to be heard.

3. We will need the mother of all GOTV (Get Out the Vote) efforts if we wish to win in 2012

4. A winning conservative message must always be carefully crafted

Indeed she is correct, especially about the GOTV efforts in battleground states. The Right and Tea Party needs to begin the organization NOW.