• Blogger

    California FPPC’s Ann Ravel Backs Off Blogger Campaign Disclosure

    California FPPC Chairwoman Ann Ravel

    California FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) Chairperson Ann Ravel is backing off her proposal to regulate political bloggers.

    The director of California’s political watchdog agency is shelving her proposal to require bloggers to disclose payments they receive from political campaigns.

    Chairwoman Ann Ravel of the Fair Political Practices Commission said she remains committed to holding public debate on mandatory disclosure with the hope that a plan could emerge in the future.

    Ravel said she wants to seek voluntary disclosure by bloggers for the November election, but conceded, “I don’t think there’s going to be a large amount.”

    She said she may ask the FPPC to consider requiring political candidates to publicize any money they pay to bloggers and link to that information on their websites.

    Candidates already are required to disclose payments to bloggers as a campaign expenditure, but the information typically is contained in a long list of expenses and is easily overlooked by voters.

    Just as I thought, the proposal has too many complications with free speech issues vs. mandatory blogger disclosure.

    Voluntary disclosure will go nowhere.

    Political journalists will just have to dig through the candidate’s campaign reports if they want the information.

  • IN-Sen,  Richard Lugar,  Richard Mourdock

    In-Sen: Richard Mourdock Leads Sen. Richard Lugar By 10 Points

    Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaks with reporters off the Senate floor before a series of votes on Capitol Hill in Washington. Lugar’s allies have largely disappeared from the television airwaves just days before Tuesday’s primary, a sign that even friends of the six-term Republican think he’s in trouble and could lose to tea party-backed challenger Richard Mourdock

    According to the Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll.

    A new poll shows Treasurer Richard Mourdock building a commanding lead over Sen. Richard Lugar.

    The Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll, conducted by two prominent Republican and Democratic pollsters, shows Mourdock with a 48 percent to 38 percent lead over Lugar.

    It looks like Senator Lugar is fading under the weight of a vigorous campaign by Richard Mourdock.

    As I have said over and over, Lugar should have gone out a winner and retired.

  • Barack Obama,  Unemployment Rate

    Economic Growth Stalls as Unemployment Decreases to 8.1%

    The Obama economy continues to under perform as the American unemployment rate decreases to 8.1 per cent.

    The nation’s economy added 115,00 jobs in April while the unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of a point to 8.1 percent, according to a report released Friday—the day before President Obama officially launches his campaign.

    The figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are lower than a month ago and were also below what many analysts had expected. They also showed the nation’s labor participation rate dropping to a 30-year low of 63.6 percent, suggesting workers continue to leave the labor force because their job prospects are so grim.

    The dismal numbers  add to the sense that the labor market is cooling down after months of stronger growth, and come as unwelcome news for Obama, whose campaign launch includes rallies in Virginia and Ohio on Saturday.

    Obama’s likely GOP rival Mitt Romney is hammering the president on the economy, which Romney sees as his best argument for reaching the White House.

    This is not good news for President Obama especially with his re-election campaign starting tomorrow.

    Look for Romney to seize the opportunity and begin to run economic-centric ads in key battleground states.

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: May 4, 2012

    These are my links for May 4th from 03:35 to 06:34:

    • ‘Julia’ Becomes Vehicle for Obama’s Messaging– Nearly 20 years ago, a multimillion-dollar ad campaign created a fictional couple — “Harry and Louise” — to dramatize the dangers of President Bill Clinton’s health care reforms.Now, President Obama is trying to use the same Madison Avenue-style technique to demonstrate how his policies would be better for women than would Mitt Romney’s.

      Mr. Obama’s campaign has invented “Julia,” a fictional woman whose life is chronicled in a slick infographic published on the campaign’s Web site on Thursday. Visitors to the site can watch as Julia grows up, receiving benefits from the president’s policies along the way.

      At age 3, Julia is enrolled in Head Start programs, thanks to Mr. Obama. By 22, she’s covered by her parents’ health care because of Mr. Obama’s health reforms. At 42, she’s getting a small-business loan from the government. When she reaches 67, she’s retired and drawing Social Security benefits.

      But if the campaign hoped to put a personal face on the president’s accomplishments, it has also managed to provoke a fury among conservatives, who took to Twitter to mock Julia and to condemn the implication that the fictional young woman should be dependent on government policies throughout her life.

      Within moments of being posted online, the #Julia hashtag began trending on Twitter. The bulk of the comments came from people who expressed outrage the depiction of Julia’s life, like the conservative pundit Michelle Malkin:

    • ‘Julia’ – Via National Review– Alas, Team Obama has omitted a few milestones from the life of Julia:4 months: Julia’s mother decides that giving birth will be hard on her figure. She kills Julia. Under Barack Obama, her right to do so is absolutely nonnegotiable.

      10 years: Trapped in a failing and dangerous public school, Julia (another Julia, not the dead one) is terrified and miserable. Under the Obama administration, protecting the government education monopoly from competition and accountability is almost as sacrosanct as abortion. School-choice programs are severely constrained or eliminated. Julia falls behind.

      21 years: After barely completing her high-school degree in her god-awful school, Julia goes looking for a job. There aren’t many, especially for people without college degrees. Julia kicks around the food-service and hospitality industries for a while, and ends up getting a job as a bartender. Even at her relatively low level of income, she pays a host of direct and indirect taxes to help subsidize Obama donors and supporters at politically connected businesses. She can’t quite figure out why President Obama’s pet millionaires and billionaires need her money more than she does.

    • Who the hell is “Julia,” and why am I paying for her whole life?– In the new Barack Obama campaign piece The Life of Julia, voters can “Take a look at how President Obama’s policies help one woman over her lifetime — and how Mitt Romney would change her story.” It is one of the most brazenly statist pieces of campaign literature I can ever remember seeing.Let’s, for the purposes of this post, set aside the misleading generalizations regarding policy in the ad (no one is innocent on that account, obviously). What we are left with is a celebration of a how a woman can live her entire life by leaning on government intervention, dependency and other people’s money rather than her own initiative or hard work. It is, I’d say, implicitly un-American, in the sense that it celebrates a mindset we have — outwardly, at least — shunned.

      It is also a mindset that women should find offensively patronizing. When they’re old enough, I hope my two daughters will find the notion that their success hinges on the president’s views on college-loan interest rates preposterous. Yet, according to the “Life of Julia,” women are helpless without the guiding hand of Barack Obama.

      Julia can enroll in a Head Start program to help get her ready for school. Because of steps President Obama has taken to improve the program …  Julia can take the SATs because she was trained by the useless “Race to the Top” program, yes, implemented by President Obama …  During college, Julia undergoes surgery, which is thankfully covered by her insurance due to parents’ coverage until she turns 26 … thanks to Obama.

      Julia works as a full-time web designer, and thanks to Obamacare, her health insurance is required to cover birth control and preventive care, “letting Julia focus on her work rather than worry about her health…”

      …because children are bad for your health, obviously.

    • The cradle-to-grave, government-supported existence of “Julia”– Today’s buzz surrounds the rollout of yet another composite character from the imagination of Barack Obama, this one named “Julia.”  Julia represents the arc of a life under the beneficent care of Barack Obama’s policies.  Interestingly, at every stage of Julia’s life, a government program exists to shield her from life’s woes.  And just as interestingly, Julia never gets the bill for all of this government hand-holding.Let’s present a more realistic view of Julia’s life:
    • NBC’s Brian Williams Does Fawning Report On Bill Clinton And Barack Obama– NBC’s presentation of “Rock Center with Brian Williams” last Wednesday night demonstrated that MSNBC’s Chris Matthews isn’t the only one who feels tingles up his leg when he talks with or about President Obama.President Obama’s victory lap and shameless, media-assisted political exploitation of the Navy SEALs’ triumph continued with the program opening with the photograph taken in the White House Situation Room, now apparently open to public tours.

      Administration bigwigs were shown watching the fruits of President George W. Bush’s labors as Navy SEALs, acting on a trail of evidence gathered using enhanced interrogation techniques President Obama opposed, took out Osama bin Laden.

      The president was shown sitting in the corner dressed in casual clothes, as he had rushed there after playing nine holes of golf at Andrews Air Force Base before heading to the Situation Room at around 2 p.m.

      “The picture,” said Williams dramatically, “was actually years in the making. When he was president, Bill Clinton spent 75 cruise missiles trying to kill bin Laden.”

      And missed 75 times, including those launched during the Monica Lewinsky affair and his impeachment. Close, but no cigar.

    • The very public race for veep– They say they don’t want the vice presidency — that they like the jobs they have now, aren’t seeking national office and can’t imagine Mitt Romney would ever pick them.But for the handful of GOP rising stars viewed as potential running mates, actions speak louder than words.
    • President 2012 Poll: Obama Leads Romney in Virginia– President Obama holds a small-but-significant lead over Mitt Romney in potentially-decisive Virginia, according to results of a new Washington Post poll published on Friday.Obama leads Romney among registered voters, 51 percent to 44 percent, according to the poll. That is nearly identical to the last Washington Post poll in the commonwealth one year ago, which showed Obama leading Romney, 50 percent to 44 percent.

      Among Democrats, Obama holds a whopping 93 percent of the vote, while Romney wins 89 percent of Republicans. Self-identified independents favor Obama, 54 percent to 38 percent.

    • Poll: Obama Leads Romney in Va. – Steven Shepard – NationalJournal.com – Poll: Obama leads Romney in Va.

  • Twitter

    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-05-04

    Powered by Twitter Tools