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These are my links for March 8th from 19:49 to 20:01:

• Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th on 19:34 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th on 19:34 #tcot #catcot
• Union Myths – Thomas Sowell – National Review Online – Union Myths by Thomas Sowell
• Obama and the Tea Party, &c. – Jay Nordlinger – National Review Online – Obama and the Tea Party, &c.

These are my links for March 8th from 19:34 to 19:40:

• Obama and the Tea Party, &c. – Like you, probably, I noticed the big news from Kenneth T. Walsh’s new book, about black Americans and the White House. (For an excerpt, go here.) President Obama has said that racism is at least part of what motivates the Tea Party.

  I said “big news,” but it’s not, really: It was kind of written in stone. Who doubted that criticism of Obama, or opposition to him, would be interpreted as racist? For eight years, we heard, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” Sometime in 2008, a reader wrote me, “If Obama wins, dissent will be the highest form of racism.”

  Lo . . .

  =======

  Racism indeed

• Union Myths by Thomas Sowell – The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.

  House Democrats remained AWOL from the Statehouse on Tuesday, and Gov. Mitch Daniels remained peeved.

  "I don't know why we hold elections if people aren't going to respect the outcome. I don't know why people run for office if they are going to pocket the money and walk off the job," he said. "I think everybody involved, starting with the people of Indiana, have shown a lot of patience, and our patience, I suppose, has a limit."

  He noted that if Democrats don't return he will call a special session – "if these folks believe that we will be bullied into submission, I would just recommend they not book any summer travel plans."

  Nothing shows the utter cynicism of the unions and the politicians who do their bidding like the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” that the Obama administration tried to push through Congress. Employees’ free choice as to whether to join a union is precisely what that legislation would destroy.

  ===========

  Read the entire piece

Yeah, INDIANA Democrat Legislators like their colleagues in Wisconsin, have fled the state. But, Indiana GOP Governor Mitch Daniels will just call special sessons of the Legislature over the summer.

House Democrats remained AWOL from the Statehouse on Tuesday, and Gov. Mitch Daniels remained peeved.

“I don’t know why we hold elections if people aren’t going to respect the outcome. I don’t know why people run for office if they are going to pocket the money and walk off the job,” he said. “I think everybody involved, starting with the people of Indiana, have shown a lot of patience, and our patience, I suppose, has a limit.”

He noted that if Democrats don’t return he will call a special session – “if these folks believe that we will be bullied into submission, I would just recommend they not book any summer travel plans.”

Well, I am usually in Indianapolis, a short run/walk from the Capitol over the 4th and will be happy to visit the Dems swelter in the July heat.

Happy Fourth of July, FLEEBAGGERS.

These are my links for March 8th from 17:04 to 17:41:

• Hypocrisy from California Tax Hike Backers? – The Amazon Tax – Capitol Confidential has previously reported on legislation introduced by California Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner that seeks to impose a new, and unconstitutional, tax on out-of-state, online retailers including (ironically) a number of eBay users.  Capitol Confidential has since learned that a prominent corporate sponsor of such efforts is retail giant Target, and that a number of other big retailers back the legislation, too.  According to one source, that group includes Bloomingdale’s.
  So what if neither Target nor Bloomingdale’s collected and remitted sales/use taxes in states where they sell online to customers but in which they maintain no physical presence (the practice Skinner’s bill aims to ban by redefining the concept of “nexus”)?  Based on what appears on both companies’ websites when one inputs an order using the data of a resident of such states, it appears both corporations are willingly taking advantage of the same constitutional case law as the online retailers targeted by Skinner’s legislation to avoid tax liability.
  Here is a screenshot of the “review” page related to a Target transaction input using a Vermont customer’s information. Target’s website indicates that there are no Target stores in Vermont, and this is the final page at which customers can make adjustments, or discard the transaction:

  =================

  Read it all and apparently so.

• Sarah Palin’s Decision to Keynote Speech Same Day as Debate Says Nothing About 2012, Says Staffer – Sarah Palin’s decision to deliver a speech in Colorado the same day as the first GOP presidential primary debate does not signal that she will not run in 2012, says an official with Palin’s PAC.

  “It has nothing to do with a decision [about running for president in 2012]. The Governor said the other day that she will make a decision about that in the coming months,” Tim Crawford, the treasurer of Palin’s PAC, told National Review Online.

  Palin will be the keynote speaker at the Colorado Christian University’s “Tribute to the Troops” event, which the university describes as “a military and veterans appreciation rally and charity benefit.” The benefit will be held in Lakewood, Colo. on May 2, the same day Politico and NBC News have scheduled the first GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

  ==========

  Right.

  Sarah Palin is not going to engage in a debate for an office she will NOT seek.

• Sarah Palin to Attend October’s Testimony Of Faith at Liberty University – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will need strong support from social conservatives to win the Republican nomination for president in 2012 should she decide to run. One indication that Palin is attuned to this reality is her scheduled appearance at Liberty University’s Extraordinary Women Conference.

  The News & Advance, a newspaper in Lynchburg, Virginia, reported Tuesday that Palin will speak at the October 7-8 conference, mere months before presidential primary elections.

  “Extraordinary Women is pleased to announce that Governor Sarah Palin will be sharing her testimony of faith with us at the 2011 Lynchburg Ewomen conference,” the group wrote on its website.

  Palin’s speech will be simulcast to 1,000 churches around the country. Tickets for the event are being sold for between $49 and $89.

  Current Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. wrote in a statement to The News & Advance, “Governor Palin is greatly admired by our Liberty University faculty, staff and students for her patriotism and her determination to stand up for what is right despite vicious and unrelenting attacks against her and her family.”

  =======================
  Will she be a non-announced candidate by then?

  You betcha but you know she will have something to say.

• Gov. Jerry Brown may not have GOP support for budget, but he does have business, police – UPDATE, 4:30 PM: The group of five Republican Senators that have been meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown in the hopes of striking a budget deal — but declared an impasse Monday — just issued this statement:

  "Today we met again with Governor Brown out of a mutual desire to keep the conversation moving forward. Until we are told otherwise, we will be optimistic that the Governor is working hard to find the necessary support for the key reforms we have put forward. But we are realistic. Getting to a constructive agreement involves difficult compromise. Although various interest groups may not have an appetite for real change, we believe that the public is demanding it."

  The group is made up of Senators Tom Berryhill, of Modesto; Sam Blakeslee, of San Luis Obispo; Anthony Cannella, of Ceres (Stanislaus County); Bill Emmerson, of Hemet (Riverside County); and Tom Harman, of Huntington Beach.

  Here's the start of our original post:

  Budget machinations are continuing at the Capitol today, one day after a group of Senate Republicans announced that they had reached an impasse with the Gov. Jerry Brown.

  While the Democratic governor may not yet have Republican votes for his budget plan, he is continuing to win support from two of the GOP's core constituencies: the business community and law enforcement groups.

  ==============

  So, will these State Senators well out the GOP caucus?

  Heads on a stick they go……

• E-mails reveal possible Wis Gov Scott Walker concessions on union bill – Gov. Scott Walker's office released documents Tuesday detailing now stalled talks with Senate Democrats in Illinois about his union bargaining bill, showing his office is willing to give on some aspects of the proposal but also frustrating one senator involved in the confidential talks.

  The e-mails showed ideas and counteroffers made by the Republican governor's aides and two Democrats as they sought some resolution that would allow Democrats to come back to the state. Senate Democrats have been holed up in Illinois since Feb. 17, when they left Wisconsin to block a vote on Walker's budget-repair bill.

  The emails were first released to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through an open-records request and within minutes were then emailed out to other news outlets. The Journal Sentinel also first reported Friday on some of the proposals in the documents.

  The bill as proposed by Walker and approved by the Assembly last month would repeal bargaining by public employee unions over their benefits and work conditions, leaving only bargaining over wages with a cap based on the rate of inflation, barring a referendum. The measure has sparked massive protests at the Capitol in recent weeks.

  The two Democratic senators, Bob Jauch of Poplar and Tim Cullen of Janesville, have met face-to-face in recent days with both Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) and Walker aides.

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  Read it all

  It is politics folks and back and forth, plus compromise.

  Governor Walker is not the boogey man despite what the unions say.

Looks like a possible GOP pick-up according to the latest PPP poll.

Job Approval Vs. Disapproval

• Senator McCaskill 46% Vs. 45%

Favorable Vs. Unfavorable

• Todd Akin 20% Vs. 24%
• Ed Martin 12% Vs. 22%
• Sarah Steelman 22% Vs. 22%
• Ann Wagner 8% Vs. 18%

Heads Up:

• McCaskill 45% Vs Akin 44%
• McCaskill 46% Vs. Martin 40%
• McCaskill 45% Vs. Steelman 42%
• McCaskill 45% Vs Wagner 36%

Missouri is the “Show Me” state with which the GOP wishes to recapture the U.S Senate majority. And, it would certainly be sweet to avenge Claire McCaskill’s bruising win six years ago when she shamelessly used Michael J Fox shaking and baking on “stem cell” televison commercials. Remember?

Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill is certainly vulnerable and is below the magical 50% in job approval.

PPP’s 2nd poll on the 2012 US Senate race in Missouri finds pretty much the same thing as the first one. Voters are closely divided on Claire McCaskill’s job performance and she polls in the mid-40s against all of her prospective Republican opponents. She does have small leads over them that are largely attributable to their lack of name recognition.

46% of Missouri voters approve of the job McCaskill is doing to 45% who disapprove. Her reviews are almost completely polarized along party lines with 85% of Democrats happy with the job she’s doing while 80% of Republicans give her poor marks. The thing of greatest concern for McCaskill should be where she stands with independents- just 36% think she’s doing a good job with 51% dissenting.

Unless the Republicans nominate a nut job as their candidate (which they won’t), this will be a close race leaning toward a GOP pick up.

The entire poll is here.

These are my links for March 8th from 10:53 to 11:25:

• Video: Harry Reid Says to Hell With the National Debt When it Comes to Cowboy Poetry | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Video: Harry Reid Says to Hell With the National Debt When it Comes to Cowboy Poetry #tcot #catcot
• Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th from 10:21 to 10:46 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for March 8th from 10:21 to 10:46 #tcot #catcot
• Dan Walters: Tax debate fact, fancy and fudges – Sacramento Politics – California Politics | Sacramento Bee – California Tax and Budget Debate – Fact, Fancy and Fudges
• 3rd Supe District: FlashReport.org Poll Good News For Chuck DeVore | Red County – Is Chuck DeVore Making A Comeback in OC 3rd Supervisoral District?

I mean, I enjoy Cowboy Poetry like the next guy but having the federal government pay for this, just boggles the mind.

You can REALLY see how serious the Democrat Senate Majority Leader is regarding limiting government spending, now don’t we?