• Michele Bachmann,  Mitt Romney,  Newt Gingrich,  President 2012

    Video: President 2012 GOP Debate: Newt Gingrich on Immigration

    Bachmann: Newt Soft On Immigration

    Newt Gingrich lost me on this issue. He sounds too much like Senator John McCain and President George W. Bush and their illegal immigrant “Amensty” Plan.

    Also, Gingrich has sold out to the high tech companies who want offshore Graduate Students in science and math to arrange easy immigration visas and Big Agriculture who wants a million guest workers to more cheaply harvest their crops.

    Gingrich’s performance tonight will hurt him in Iowa and look for Michele Bachmann to exploit the issue there.

    Advantage tonight goes to Mitt Romney as Newt Gingrich falters.

  • Pinboard Links,  The Afternoon Flap

    The Afternoon Flap: November 22, 2011

    These are my links for November 22nd from 08:26 to 15:01:

    • 10,000 Expected To Line Up For Free Turkey Dinners In South Los Angeles – Low-income residents and seniors are lining up for free turkey dinners from a local car company.As many as 10,000 people are expected to show up for the “23rd Annual Jackson Limousine Service Turkey Dinner Give-Away”, which started at 8 a.m. Tuesday.Sky2 was overhead Monday night as a line wrapped around the company’s service fleet yard at 3669 West Slauson Ave.Yvette Freeman, one of the first people to pick up a meal Tuesday morning, waited in line for two days with a group of family and friends.

      “It feels good. It feels really good,” says Freeman, who realized she couldn’t afford her own Thanksgiving dinner when she went to the grocery store last weekend.

      “It’s a lot of people, a lot of families from all walks of life,” EJ Jackson, founder and president of Jackson Limousine, told CBS2. “You’ll see them. We love them, but that’s what we are here for; to help one another.”

      Turkey and all the dinner fixings, including cornbread, yams and cranberry sauce, are being given out on a first-come, first-served basis.

    • Blago ally Tony Rezko gets 10 1/2 years, minus time served – A former top fundraiser for Rod Blagojevich was sentenced Tuesday to 10 1/2 years in prison for pressuring businesses for millions in kickbacks, an unusually stiff penalty that could portend a tough day for the former governor when he is sentenced for his own corruption convictions.Antoin “Tony” Rezko spent 3 1/2 years in custody awaiting sentencing on his 2008 convictions for fraud, money laundering and plotting to squeeze $7 million in kickbacks from companies that wanted to do business with the state during Blagojevich’s tenure. He will get credit for time served and will serve 85 percent of his total sentence.Attorneys for the former Chicago real estate developer and fast-food entrepreneur had asked that he be set free, saying he had served more time than others convicted as part of the federal investigation of Blagojevich.But U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve told Rezko his “selfish and corrupt actions” had damaged the trust people have in their government and cited his repeated lies about his role in the schemes.
    • Obama heckled by protesters at New Hampshire speech – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room – President Obama was heckled on Tuesday during an appearance at a New Hampshire high school.Obama had traveled north to the Granite State, which holds the nation’s first presidential primary, to discuss the economy and his proposal to extend a current payroll tax cut.Just as the president started his speech, protesters, apparently from the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, used the “human mic” technique to amplify their voices. It was unclear what the protesters were saying, or what point they were attempting to make.The president smiled through the disruption, saying: “No, it’s OK,” as other parts of the crowd sought to hush the protesters by chanting his name and old campaign slogan, “Yes We Can.”
    • More hacked climate emails surface ahead of UN conference – What’s a United Nations climate conference without an email controversy?A second trove of hacked emails among climate scientists has surfaced, marking the second time in three years that internal emails from a prominent U.K. research institute have been made public ahead of international global warming talks.A file with 5,000 emails that was anonymously posted on the Internet earlier Tuesday appears to have been hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.
      The documents include emails from Michael Mann, a prominent climatologist that currently works at Pennsylvania State University, and other scientists that were at the center of the 2009 email release, the BBC reported Tuesday.A link to the emails went dead Tuesday afternoon.
    • My Radio Assessment of Gingrich’s Chances Against Obama – Last week on my “Hillyer Time” radio show, my opening monologue explained why I think it’s ludicrous to think Newt Gingrich could possible win a general-election battle against Barack Obama – analysis that stands regardless of whether one personally likes the idea of Gingrich in the Oval Office if he should pull off the miracle and win anyway. Some people wanted to be able to read what I said.
      So, slightly adapted from radio notes for reading ease, here’s what I said:  Welcome to Hillyer Time….

      For now, I really need to vent. I am absolutely flabbergasted at what I see in the latest Republican polls for president. What I see looks like a mass political suicide attempt — so determined to commit suicide that it uses too many pills, plus a slit wrist, plus a gun, on the ledge of a 1,000-foot building, just to make sure that at least one of the methods succeeds.

      What I’m talking about is the rise of Newt Gingrich to the front of the Republican pack. If this isn’t mass suicide, is mass amnesia of a particularly dangerous variety. And, politically speaking, if it continues it will be an absolute guarantee of Barack Obama’s re-election next Fall.

      Why? Well, for months I’ve said… … that Mitt Romney was the only legitimate contender the Republicans could choose who could NOT make a case against Obama’s biggest area of weakness, which is Obamacare, because Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health plan was almost the exact model for Obamacare. It doesn’t matter how he spins it, Romney can’t make a cogent case against it.

      But the reason I said Romney was the only one was because I didn’t consider Gingrich a legitimate contender. Well, if he is a serious contender, he becomes the second person who can’t make a case against Obamacare, especially against its individual mandate. Gingrich has supported an individual mandate for almost 18 years, has written in favor of it as recently as 2008, and even several times this year has defended it in concept.

      So Gingrich can’t make a case against Obamacare.

    • Obama’s Economic Quackery – Sometimes the wrong medicine can make a struggling patient far sicker than he would have been had he been allowed to recover naturally. Western medicine began with the premise that the physician either must know how to cure the patient or simply leave him alone — but above all not make him worse through harmful treatment.As 2011 ends, we have discovered how to turn a natural recovery from a near-record recession into a serial slowdown. Almost every haphazard, ad hoc attempt by Barack Obama to jumpstart the economy has only further stalled it. The president has never articulated a diagnosis of why the economy was stalled, never outlined a coherent treatment plan, and so cannot offer a prognosis. If we have a sick budget, a Byzantine tax code, bankrupting entitlements and long-term debt burden, and a costly imported-oil bill, one would never know all that from the president, who has never offered any sort of plan for addressing these crises.
    • Marines Over Medicaid – To the great surprise of nobody, another blue-ribbon panel of Washington’s A-list nabobs has failed at its task: In this case, it is the so-called supercommittee charged with nudging the federal government away from the edge of the debt abyss. Investors despaired at the news, and there was talk of a second downgrade of U.S. Treasury debt.The failure of the supercommittee is a testament to Democrats’ tax obsession. With the supercommittee having fizzled, the next step is the automatic sequestration process, which imposes 50 percent of the cuts on a program that accounts for only 20 percent of spending (national defense) while leaving the entitlements largely untouched. But the country needs the Marines more than it needs Medicaid.
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: California Dental Association Sues the California Department of Healthcare Services Over Medicaid Payments to Dentists – California Dental Association Sues the California Department of Healthcare Services Over Medicaid Payments to Dentists
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: November 22, 2011 – The Morning Drill: November 22, 2011
    • President 2012 Poll Watch: Newt Gingrich Now Leading in Positive Intensity | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: Newt Gingrich Now Leading in Positive Intensity #tcot #catcot
    • Capitol Alert: Rick Perry to raise money at private fundraiser in Sacramento – Money for nothing…..RT @CapitolAlert: Rick Perry to raise money at private fundraiser in Sacramento
    • Who’s More Likely to Beat Obama? – t’s becoming increasingly hard to say whether Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney, the two leading Republican presidential candidates, would fare better against Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows Gingrich trailing Obama by just 6 percentage points — 46 to 40 percent. Less than a month and a half ago, Gingrich trailed Obama by 15 points (49 to 34 percent). Meanwhile, Romney trails Obama by just 1 point — 43 to 42 percent.Taking the longer view, Romney has been remarkably consistent in his matchups with Obama. Across 11 Rasmussen surveys of likely voters over the past six months, Romney has always been within a 6-point range versus Obama — between 38 and 44 percent. Likewise, Obama has always been within a 6-point range versus Romney — between 40 and 46 percent. However, with his slightly higher levels of support, Obama has gone 7-4 versus Romney in these matchups.  Moreover, while Romney and Obama split the first six matchups, Obama has won four of the past five.
    • Dropbox
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    • President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Gingrich 26% Vs. Romney 22% Vs. Cain 14% Vs. Paul 6% Vs. Perry 6% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Gingrich 26% Vs. Romney 22% Vs. Cain 14% Vs. Paul 6% Vs. Perry 6% #tcot #catcot
    • Doctors amputate frostbitten feet of Alaska runner – An All-American distance runner who spent more than two days in freezing winter temperatures without winter gear has had his legs amputated just above the ankles.Marko Cheseto, 28, is one of several Kenyan runners who competed for the University of Alaska Anchorage in cross-country and track. The amputations were reported Monday on the UAA Athletic Department website.Cheseto was seen at about 7 p.m. in a UAA building on Nov. 6, a Sunday night, as two snow storms started to blanket the city. His roommates reported him missing the next morning. The disappearance prompted a citywide search.
    • Occupy L.A. receives offer to decamp – Los Angeles officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters a package of incentives that includes downtown office space and farmland in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their camp outside of City Hall, according to several demonstrators who have been in negotiations with the city.The details of the proposal were revealed Monday during the demonstration’s nightly general assembly meeting by Jim Lafferty, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who has been advocating on behalf of the protest since it began seven weeks ago.Lafferty said city officials have offered protesters a $1-a-year lease on a 10,000-square-foot office space near City Hall. He said officials also promised land elsewhere for protesters who wish to farm, as well as additional housing for the contingent of homeless people who joined the camp.
    • Mitt Romney Is First GOP Presidential Hopeful to Book Hollywood Fundraiser – Polls show that Mitt Romney is first in the hearts of California Republicans, and he’ll be the first of the party’s presidential hopefuls to visit Los Angeles for a fundraiser Dec. 6 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.Hedge fund manager Josh Friedman and his wife, Beth, are the hosts, along with Eva and Marc Stein and Tracy and Gene Sykes of Goldman Sachs.
    • Romney coming after L.A. money – LA Observed – RT @LAObserved: Romney coming after L.A. money.
    • Should Dentists Be Vaccinated Against Influenza and Pertussis? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Should Dentists Be Vaccinated Against Influenza and Pertussis?
    • Rising to top of GOP polls, Gingrich beefs up campaign staff – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room – RT @briefingroom: Rising to top of GOP polls, Gingrich beefs up campaign staff
    • The Morning Flap: November 22, 2011 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: November 22, 2011 #tcot #catcot
  • Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 Poll Watch: Newt Gingrich Now Leading in Positive Intensity



    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    Newt Gingrich now leads all of his Republican presidential rivals in garnering positive image ratings from Republicans and Republican leaners nationwide — marking a first for 2011. His +20 Positive Intensity Score gives Gingrich a sizable lead over Herman Cain, in second with +14, and Mitt Romney, in third with +11.

    There is little doubt that Newt Gingrich has catapulted into the lead in many polls. As Herman Cain has fallen, Gingrich has risen.

    Here is the trend:

    There is a GOP Presidential debate tonight at 8 PM EST which will be televised on CNN. Newt’s rise has in part been attributed to his performance in the debates. Let’s see how he does now and how big of a target he becomes with his rise in the polls.

    Gingrich now represents an entirely different kind candidate — one who can fully recover after almost completely collapsing halfway through the race. Gingrich still has a way to go to convert the warm feelings Republicans have for him into active support for the nomination. As he works on that, he serves as a reminder that it may be premature to write off any of the Republican hopefuls whose positive intensity ratings have faded in recent months, including Perry, Paul, Bachmann, and Cain.

    Perhaps, but it is late in the game and the Iowa Caucuses loom in about 6 weeks.

    Newt Gingrich has perhaps peaked at the right time.

  • Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Gingrich 26% Vs. Romney 22% Vs. Cain 14% Vs. Paul 6% Vs. Perry 6%

    According to the latest Quinnipiac Poll.

    Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich more than doubles his share of the Republican presidential vote to lead the presidential pack with 26 percent and in a head-to-head matchup tops former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 49 – 39 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. But Romney is tied with President Barack Obama.

    Former pizza magnate Herman Cain drops from the top spot with 30 percent in a November 2 national survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University to third place with 14 percent today. Romney goes from 23 percent November 2 to 22 percent.

    Gingrich, who topped out at 10 percent 20 days ago, zooms to the top as he convinces 48 percent of GOP voters that among all GOP contenders he has the knowledge and experience necessary to be president, compared to Romney’s 22 percent. Gingrich leads Romney 34 – 24 percent when GOP voters are asked who is a strong leader, a key quality Americans historically seek in a president. On foreign policy, he is seen as better by GOP voters 46 – 16 percent. But Gingrich trails Romney 32 – 9 percent when voters are asked who has “a strong moral character.”

    But, Mitt Romney does better against President Obama, trailing him by one point 44% Vs. 45% – well within the margin of error. Romney has improved from the November 2nd poll when he trailed Obama 42% Vs. 47%.

    Newt Gingrich does not fare as well as he trails Obama 40% Vs. 49%, whereas he trailed the Preisent 37% Vs. 52% on November 2nd.

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: November 22, 2011

    Michele Bachmann enters at 22:00

    These are my links for November 21st through November 22nd:

    • Michele Bachmann’s Entrance Music On Jimmy Fallon Was Fishbone’s ‘Lyin’ Ass Bitch’ | Mediaite – Earlier this morning, our own Nando Di Fino critiqued Michele Bachmann’s appearance on last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon by saying that that the first half of her segment, when she discussed her family life and Thanksgiving, was much better than her second, where she attempted to make “stale, rehearsed political humor.” However, it now seems that her spot on the show was tainted from the very beginning thanks to a sly commentary from Fallon’s house band, The Roots. In case anyone watching the show was curious why Bachmann’s entrance music appeared to be a rocking ska song, the song’s title, “Lyin’ Ass Bitch,” might explain things.

      Shameful…..

    • MF Global Trustee Says Shortfall Could Exceed $1.2 Billion – The amount of customer money missing from the collapsed trading firm MF Global may be more than $1.2 billion — double previous estimates — the trustee dismantling the firm’s brokerage unit said on Monday.

      But the surprise finding, which caught regulators off guard, may be overstated, according to a person briefed on the investigation. Some regulators say they believe that the trustee double-counted $220 million that had been transferred between units of MF Global, this person said.

      Still, the much higher number highlights the disarray of MF Global’s records and raises significantly the hurdle for tens of thousands of customers seeking to get their money back. The trustee’s estimate represents a significant portion of customer funds held by MF Global.

      Regulators suspect that as investors and customers fled MF Global in the last week of October, the firm used some of the customer money for its own needs — violating Wall Street rules that customers’ money be kept separate from the firm’s funds. Much of that money may never return.

    • Gingrich seeks to show staying power – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich touched down in New Hampshire on Monday to assume the title of surging presidential candidate — and to try to impart to it a staying power that has eluded those who have risen and stumbled before.

      The fifth Republican contender to climb to the top of public polls this year, Gingrich took advantage of the moment to again announce his plans to reform Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and various programs for the poor. Campaign money is coming in, he said, and a staff that shrank to a dozen after an implosion in June has grown to 40. Gingrich is even allowing himself to look ahead to a general-election contest against President Obama, because, he said, “one of the reasons people support me is because they can see me debating Obama.”

    • Mike Huckabee says conservatives may have to get behind Romney – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa presidential caucus with the backing of social conservatives in 2008, is hinting that it may be time for conservative Republicans to get behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s candidacy.

      “Mitt Romney may not be their first choice, but Mitt Romney every day of the week and twice on Sunday is going to be a much more effective president for issues that they care about than Barack Obama,” Huckabee said Sunday in an interview with WABC. “I think sometimes there is this anxiety within the Republican Party of who is the perfect candidate. The answer is there isn’t one.”

      He continued to say that conservatives have to decide “who can survive” the campaign process. “And whoever that is, if it’s Mitt Romney, then I think Republicans and conservatives and the Tea Party need to get behind him and say, ‘You may not be our first choice, but between you and Obama, I’ll vote 40 times to get you elected.'”

    • THE RETURN OF DEBTORS PRISONS: Collection Agencies Now Want Deadbeats Arrested And Sent To The Big House – As if life wasn’t already tense enough for Americans who can’t pay their debts, collection agencies are now taking advantage of archaic state laws to have some debtors arrested and sent to jail.

      More than one-third of US states allow debtors to be arrested and jailed, says Jessica Silver-Greenberg in the Wall Street Journal.

      Judges typically grant arrest warrants when the debtors have failed to show up for court dates or failed to make court-ordered payments.

      Of course, the reason debtors have failed to make court-ordered payments is often the same reason they didn’t pay their debts in the first place: They don’t have any money.

    • The consequences of presidential weakness – The supercommittee is not so much a failure of the legislative branch as it is of the president’s ability to lead the country. Each side in Congress represented its constituents well. It is, however, a very good argument indeed for dumping Obama. As Samuelson puts it, “The president won’t talk specifics, but government consists of specifics. The reason we cannot have a large budget deal is that Americans haven’t been prepared for one. The president hasn’t educated them, and so they can’t support what they don’t understand.”

      Republicans and Democrats in Congress should be crystal-clear: The president’s been AWOL from the most important domestic challenge we face. Frankly, I suspect that a stronger Democratic president would have been able to broker a deal. Actually, a stronger and more courageous president would have embraced Simpson-Bowles. But not Obama. Maybe we should get a president who doesn’t run overseas or finger-point but who leads.

    • Senate Democrats Blame Uber-Lobbyist Grover Norquist For Super Committee Failure – The super committee failed and Senate Democrats are lining up to blame Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist for the committee’s inability to reach a deal.

      In a video, Democrats warn “You didn’t elect Grover Norquist, but he blocked a deficit compromise, pressuring Republicans not to defy him.” It follows with clips of Norquist on 60 Minutes and other news shows taking credit for Republicans opposing a tax increase.

    • Sarah Palin Got Scolded by Roger Ailes for Not Announcing Her Non-Candidacy on Fox News – Sarah Palin’s announcement that she wouldn’t run for president disappointed her legions of admirers — but it infuriated Roger Ailes. The Fox News chief wasn’t angry about the decision itself. Rather, he was livid that Palin made the October 5 announcement on Mark Levin’s conservative talk-radio program, robbing Fox News of an exclusive and a possible ratings bonanza. Fox was relegated to getting a follow-up interview with Palin on Greta Van Susteren’s 10 p.m. show, after the news of Palin’s decision had been drowned out by Steve Jobs’s death. Ailes was so mad, he considered pulling her off the air entirely until her $1 million annual contract expires in 2013.
    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-22 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-22 #tcot #catcot
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Fewer Americans Dying from Oral and Throat Cancer? – Fewer Americans Dying from Oral and Throat Cancer?
    • Photo of the Day: Democrat California Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi’s Booking Photo » Flap’s California Blog – Photo of the Day: Democrat California Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi’s Booking Photo
    • Super Committee Fails to Reach Deficit Agreement – Billy House – NationalJournal.com – Super Committee Fails to Reach Deficit Agreement
    • The Afternoon Flap: November 21, 2011 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Afternoon Flap: November 21, 2011 #tcot #catcot
  • Barack Obama,  Mitt Romney,  President 2012

    Video: President 2012: Mitt Romney Up with His First Ad Attacking President Obama on the Economy

    Mitt Romney: Believe in America

    A good solid ad hitting the President where he is vulnerable – the American economy. The ad is airing in New Hampshire and the buy is modest.

    Mitt Romney previewed his first television ad — set to go on the air in New Hampshire on Tuesday, with a $134,000 buy behind it — to Sean Hannity of Fox News on Monday evening.

    The 60-second spot begins with images of President Obama in New Hampshire as the democratic nominee in 2008, talking about his plans to turn around the economy.

    And, the LEFT is already attacking the ad. Naturally, I won’t link to their attacks, but you can find them at Memeorandum.

  • Twitter

    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-22

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