Texas Governor Rick Perry

These are my links for April 2nd through April 3rd:

• Perry heard singing in bathroom pre-debate – As for Texas Gov Rick Perry, his 2012 musical moment took place in the bathroom, according to this excerpt from POLITICO’s new e-book, Inside the Circus:

  A bad back doomed any chance Perry stood to break through. It became an open secret that he was using painkillers in sufficient dosages to keep him standing through the two-hour debates. The manager of a rival campaign was at a urinal in an empty bathroom in Hanover, New Hampshire, before the Bloomberg News debate on October 11, when he heard someone come through the door loudly singing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Wondering who was making all the noise, the campaign manager turned his head and saw, to his surprise, the governor of Texas. Perry came down the row of about twenty urinals and stood companionably close by. Nonplussed, the campaign manager made a hasty exit; as the bathroom door closed, he could hear Perry still merrily singing away: “I-I-I’ve been working on the ra-a-i-i-l-road, all-l-l the live-long day . . .”

  Asked about the episode, a top campaign official said, “He whistles. I wouldn’t read anything into it.”

• Flap’s California Morning Collection: April 3, 2012 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: April 3, 2012 via @flap
• Day By Day April 3, 2012 – Vibe | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day April 3, 2012 – Vibe
• Poll Watch: 55 Per Cent of Americans Favor an Anti- Missile Defense System Vs. 16 Per Cent Opposed | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: 55 Per Cent of Americans Favor an Anti- Missile Defense System Vs. 16 Per Cent Opposed
• Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: April 3, 2012 – The Morning Drill: April 3, 2012
• Video: Juan Williams Interviews Sen Marco Rubio | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Video: Juan Williams Interviews Sen Marco Rubio
• William McGurn: Romney’s ‘Women Problem’ – It’s over.

  Mitt Romney has lost the 2012 election, and he’s lost it because women are deserting the GOP over its opposition to ObamaCare’s contraceptive coverage mandate. That’s been the press drumbeat for the last few weeks. Now the argument appears to be backed up by a new USA Today/Gallup poll of swing-state voters. It shows Barack Obama out front for the first time since the poll started last November—largely because of the 2-1 advantage he enjoys over Mr. Romney among women under age 50.

  Leave it to the liberal Salon website to sum up the conventional wisdom: “This is very likely a result of the prominence that contraception and women’s issues have assumed in the public debate since February, when Republicans revolted against the Obama administration’s efforts to make birth control a mandatory component of health insurance coverage.”

  One problem with this explanation: The same USA Today poll reports that 63% of those surveyed say they don’t even know what Mitt Romney’s position on government and birth control is. For that matter, 46% say they don’t know President Obama’s position either

• Mitt Romney image-makers split on strategy – Members of Mitt Romney’s inner circle acknowledge they still have yet to solve the key challenge they face in trying to help him win the presidency — finding a way to make an emotionally remote and fabulously wealthy candidate connect with average voters
• California Relaunches High Speed Rail Plan – Supporters of California’s ambitious high-speed rail project began their hard sell with lawmakers and the public Monday after releasing an updated business plan that scales back the scope of the project and speeds up construction to save money, but still relies heavily on speculative funding sources that might never materialize.

  In addition to money from voter-approved bonds and startup funds from the federal government, the plan hinges on receiving billions more from a skeptical Congress, fees from an untested cap-and-trade system that is at the heart of California’s effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and unnamed private investors to jump aboard and risk their own money once construction begins.

• Obama Will Shred The Paul Ryan Budget In Today’s Big Speech – In an election-year pitch to middle-class voters, President Barack Obama is denouncing a House Republican budget plan as a “Trojan horse,” warning that it represents “an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country” that would hurt the pocketbooks of working families.

  Obama, in a speech to newspaper executives, is sharply criticizing a $3.5 trillion budget proposal pushed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which passed on a near-party-line vote last week and has been embraced by GOP presidential hopefuls. The plan has faced fierce resistance from Democrats, who say it would gut Medicare, slash taxes for the wealthy and lead to deep cuts to crucial programs such as aid to college students and highway and rail projects.

  “It’s a Trojan horse. Disguised as deficit reduction plan, it’s really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country,” Obama said in excerpts of his speech released Tuesday. “It’s nothing but thinly veiled social Darwinism.”

• (404) http://t.co/D – RT @GOP12: By 74%-17%, likely GOP voters in PA view Romney’s shifts in positions as motivated by politics; not principles. …
• The Rubio Assumption – The deepening assumption that Florida Senator Marco Rubio will be his party’s vice presidential nominee is beginning to put Mitt Romney candidate in a box, deepening the expectation of a Hispanic running mate and setting a trap for presumptive Republican presidential candidate should he make another choice.

  “I think there could be backlash, in that Rubio is beloved by many, and Romney is not,” said Javier Manjarres, the editor of the conservative Florida blog The Shark Tank. “Romney would have to try to find someone of Rubio’s caliber to suffice the followers who would be disappointed that he did not pick Rubio.

• @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-04-03 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-04-03
• Another Obama Solar Company Goes Bankrupt …Taxpayers Lose $2 BILLION? – A California solar energy company that was unable to meet a deadline for an Energy Department loan guarantee last year has sought bankruptcy protection in Delaware.

  Solar Trust of America’s Chapter 11 filing on Monday listed assets between $1 million and $10 million, and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.

  The filing comes amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Solyndra, a solar firm that received a half-billion dollar federal loan and was touted by the Obama administration before declaring bankruptcy last year.

• 52% in Wisconsin Support Recall of Governor Walker – A majority of Wisconsin voters now support the effort to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker.

  A new Rasmussen Reports statewide survey shows that, if the recall election was held today, 52% of Likely Voters would vote to recall Governor Walker and remove him from office. Forty-seven percent (47%) would vote against the recall and let him continue to serve as governor.

• Combative Obama warns Supreme Court on health law – US President Barack Obama on Monday challenged the “unelected” Supreme Court not to take the “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” step of overturning his landmark health reform law.

  Though Obama said he was confident the court would uphold the law, the centerpiece of his political legacy, he appeared to be previewing campaign trail arguments should the nine justices strike the legislation down.

  In a highly combative salvo, Obama also staunchly defended the anchor of the law — a requirement that all Americans buy health insurance — as key to giving millions of people access to treatment for the first time.

  “Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama said.

  Pointed comments from Supreme Court justices last week during three days of compelling hearings have convinced many commentators that the court, expected to rule in June, will declare the law, dubbed ObamaCare, unconstitutional.

• GSA chief resigns amid reports of excessive spending – The chief of the General Services Administration resigned, two of her top deputies were fired and four managers were placed on leave Monday amid reports of lavish spending at a conference off the Las Vegas Strip that featured a clown, a mind reader and a $31,208 reception.

  Administrator Martha N. Johnson, in her resignation letter, acknowledged a “significant misstep” at the agency that manages real estate for the federal government. “Taxpayer dollars were squandered,” she wrote. At the start of her tenure in February 2010 she called ethics “a big issue for me.”

  Public Buildings Service chief Robert A. Peck, a fixture in the Washington area real estate community on his second stint running the department, was forced out, along with Johnson’s top adviser, Stephen Leeds. Four GSA managers who organized the four-day conference in October 2010 have been placed on adminstrative leave, officials said.

  The leadership collapse came hours before GSA Inspector General Brian D. Miller released a scathing report on the $823,000 training conference, held for 300 West Coast employees at the M Resort and Casino, an opulent hotel in Henderson, Nev., just south of Las Vegas. From $130,000 in travel expenses for six scouting trips to a $2,000 party in Peck’s loft suite, event planners violated federal limits on conference spending.

  The episode is an embarrassment for the Obama administration at a time when the role and size of government have taken center stage in the presidential campaign. How much government should spend, and on what, will be at the heart of the election-year battles between Democrats and Republicans.

• North Korea Watch: Here We Go Again With Missile Launch | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – North Korea Watch: Here We Go Again With Missile Launch
• President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama 49% Vs. Romney 45% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama 49% Vs. Romney 45%
• Capitol Alert: Judge allows Beth Gaines to call herself ‘small business owner’ – Capitol Alert: Judge allows Beth Gaines to call herself ‘small business owner’
• Court upholds California affirmative action ban – A federal appeals court on Monday upheld California’s ban on using race, ethnicity and gender in admitting students to public colleges and universities.

  The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the state’s landmark voter initiative, Proposition 209, does not violate students’ constitutional rights.

  The ruling is the latest to uphold the ban in a long list of legal challenges seeking to overturn since it was passed by voters in 1996.

  The ruling upholds a previous decision by the same court in 1997.

• Capitol Alert: Judge allows Beth Gaines to call herself ‘small business owner’ – Capitol Alert: Judge allows Beth Gaines to call herself ‘small business owner’
• Capitol Alert: Judge allows Beth Gaines to call herself ‘small business owner’ – Capitol Alert: Judge allows Beth Gaines to call herself ‘small business owner’
• Capitol Alert: Judge allows Beth Gaines to call herself ‘small business owner’ – RT @CapitolAlert: Judge allows Beth Gaines to call herself ‘small business owner’
• (404) http://bit.ly/lS4Z – RT @gallupnews: #Obama Job Approval: Approve 47% (+1) Disapprove 44% (-1). Get the full trend…
• Happening now: Calderon, Obama, Harper in Rose Garden on Twitpic – RT @jaketapper: Happening now: Calderon, Obama, Harper in Rose Garden
• CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog
• CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog
• CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog
• CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog
• CA-26: Handicapping Linda Parks and Tony Strickland | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: @LPUN2KZ4AGZEEIQNC4W3ZSW3HY Linda Parks is not running just in Thousand Oaks any longer and NOT against a termed-…
• The Morning Flap: April 2, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: April 2, 2012