• CA-26,  Julia Brownley,  Tony Strickland

    CA-26 Poll Watch: Julia Brownley Leading Tony Strickland?

    California Democratic Assmeblywoman and CA-26 Congressional candidate Julia Brownley

    According to a Democratic Party/consultant poll.

    Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D) led state Sen. Tony Strickland (R) in the race for the 26th district, according to a poll conducted for the Democrat’s campaign and obtained by Roll Call.

    In a top pickup opportunity for Democrats, Brownley topped Strickland by 4 points, 48 percent to 44 percent, in the competitive battle for this open, Ventura County-based seat. While Brownley’s lead was within the margin of error, Democrats view this poll as a good sign for her in what could be among the closest House races in California.

    It also found President Barack Obama ahead of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, 50 percent to

    45 percent, and Democrats ahead, 46 percent to 42 percent, in the generic Congressional ballot test.

    And, if you believe this spin, I have a briide to sell you.

    In any case, the 400 likely voter sample polling result showing Brownley up by 4 points was within the margin of error, which was 5.9 per cent.

    Republican Tony Strickland has over a $ 1 million in cash on hand and Brownley has been AWOL in doing Ventura County events where she supposedly now lives after moving into the Congressional District from Santa Monica.

    The carpetbagger Brownley is not going to receive a too warm a welcome in conservative Thousand Oaks and Camarillo. And, the Obama driven election turnout will be down from 2008 levels. In other words, the more Democratic vote of Ventura, Oxnard and Santa Paul will not be robust for Brownley.

    By the way, if you are interested Republican California State Senator Tony Strickland is leading a Ventura beach clean up this weekend in the District.

  • California Proposition 37

    California Proposition 37: I Have a Right to Know

    From the Yes on 37 website

    Yes, and Californians also have the RIGHT to be stupid.

    California Proposition 37 is one of those stupid moments. Let’s look at this initiative statute which was placed on the November ballot by California voters via initiative (Voter petition signatures).

    Proposition 37, a Mandatory Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food Initiative, is on the November 6, 2012 ballot in California as an initiated state statute.

    If Proposition 37 is approved by voters, it will:

    •     Require labeling on raw or processed food offered for sale to consumers if the food is made from plants or animals with genetic material changed in specified ways.
    •     Prohibit labeling or advertising such food as “natural.”
    •     Exempt from this requirement foods that are “certified organic; unintentionally produced with genetically engineered material; made from animals fed or injected with genetically engineered material but not genetically engineered themselves; processed with or containing only small amounts of genetically engineered ingredients; administered for treatment of medical conditions; sold for immediate consumption such as in a restaurant; or alcoholic beverages.”

    James Wheaton, who filed the ballot language for the initiative, refers to it as “The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.”

    Now, lets look what the California Legislative Analyst has said about the initiative (the report is embedded below):

    Prop 37 Leg Analysis

    So, what is so wrong about food labeling disclosure? I mean shouldn’t we know what is in our food?

    Yes and the government both federal and state do regulate the agriculture and food industry. But, Proposition 37 is unnecessary in just so many ways AND a costly waste of time and money.

    Let’s look at a major reason – There is NO Risk with Genetically Engineered Food. Look at this post.

    Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are no riskier than their conventionally farmed equivalents, the European Commission’s Chief Scientific Advisor Anne Glover has told EurActiv in an exclusive interview, calling for countries impeding GMO use to be put to proof.

    The endorsement of GMO safety will rattle member states where bans are in place (see background), and represents the CSA’s highest-profile policy intervention since Glover became Commission President José Manuel Barroso’s scientific advisor last December.

    “There is no substantiated case of any adverse impact on human health, animal health or environmental health, so that’s pretty robust evidence, and I would be confident in saying that there is no more risk in eating GMO food than eating conventionally farmed food,” Glover told EurActiv, saying the precautionary principle no longer applies as a result.

    Glover said she was not promoting GMOs, and added that “eating food is risky”, explaining: “Most of us forget that most plants are toxic, and it’s only because we cook them, or the quantity that we eat them in, that makes them suitable.”

    I would say this is a major impediment to the rationale for the initiative, wouldn’t you say?

    In future posts, I will delve into the details of just how ridiculous and poorly written the initiative is. Plus, I will go into the possible motivations of California Proposition 37 proponents.

    Stay tuned….

  • American Dental Association,  Dental Therapists,  Dentistry

    New Study Questions Economic Viability of Dental Therapists

    Aurora Johnson, left, a dental therapist, filled cavities for Paul Towarak, 10, in the village of Unalakleet, Alaska. For more involved procedures, Ms. Johnson refers patients to a dentist. Photo Credit NY Times

    From the press release:

    The American Dental Association today released six reports examining the economic viability of three models of so-called “midlevel” dental providers, the Dental Health Aide Therapists (DHATs) currently providing care in Alaska Native territories, the Dental Therapists (DTs), currently working in Minnesota, and the proposed but as yet unrealized Advanced Dental Hygiene Practitioner (ADHP). The reports raise serious questions about whether these midlevel provider models can sustain themselves economically.

    “These studies represent a new way of examining whether midlevel providers are an economically viable way to improve access to dental care for underserved populations,” said ADA President William R. Calnon, DDS. “They are a first step, and not the last word. But certainly, lawmakers and public health authorities should consider the factors examined in the studies carefully before rushing to create dental providers that may be unable to fulfill their intended purpose of reducing oral health disparities.”

    The studies, performed by ECG Management Consultants, examine practice parameters in five states where adopting one or more of these models has been under discussion in the legislature or the public health community. ECG produced separate reports for the five states,

    Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire and Washington. A five-state summary report also is available.

    The press release continues:

    ECG based its modeling on the length and cost of training of each midlevel position, operating costs, likely salaries, academic debt, and projected revenues. Researchers considered each model in the context of various combinations of public, sliding-scale, and private fee schedules. (The fee schedules varied by state.)

    Of the 45 scenarios modeled (three payer mixes for each of three practice models in five states), only five indicated positive net revenues, ranging from $8,000 in Kansas to $38,000 in Connecticut, assuming a 50/50 mix of public and private fees. Four positive net revenue scenarios involved the Dental Health Aide Therapist model; one involved the Dental Therapist model. The other 40 scenarios showed net losses ranging from $1,000 for a DHAT operating on a 50 public/50 private mix in Washington to $176,000 for an ADHP practicing in the same state, assuming a 75/25 public/sliding revenue mix.

    “It is critical to understand that oral health disparities are a complex set of problems requiring an integrated set of solutions,” said Dr. Calnon. “Medicaid reforms, community water fluoridation, oral health education and helping people overcome cultural, geographic and language barriers are critical components of this. The ADA believes that allowing nondentists to perform irreversible surgical procedures is the wrong way to go. And based on these studies, midlevel dental providers would in most settings be unable to generate sufficient revenue to sustain themselves absent a continual source of financial underwriting. Given the current budget constraints at every level of government, and the already insufficient financing for dental care in most states, midlevel providers do not appear to be viable.

    “Certainly, this research is not all-encompassing. But to our knowledge, no one has considered the question this comprehensively. The ADA encourages all stakeholders to study these models comprehensively, to avoid wasting constrained resources on programs that ultimately are not sustainable. We welcome others who are interested in breaking down barriers to oral health to join us in delving further into how best to maximize limited available resources—and advocating for increased resources—to improve the oral health of the tens of millions of Americans—including as many as one-quarter of the nation’s children—who live without adequate access to regular dental care.”

    I was invited to an American Dental Association webinar and the screencap summary chart above was taken from the presentation.

    A link to the embargoed summary report is here.

    I will have more later, after digesting the reports and the webinar presentation.

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: July 25, 2012

    President Obama thanking Terry Bean

    These are my links for July 24th through July 25th:

    • Obama Thanks ‘Gay-Porn Kingpin’– “I want to thank someone who put so much work into this event, Terry Bean,” President Obama said as the crowd began to cheer. “Give Terry a big round of applause.”Terry Bean is, according to the New York Post, a “gay-porn kingpin.””ONE of the ‘bundlers’ who has raised $50,000 to $100,000 for the Barack Obama presidential campaign is Terrence Bean, who once controlled the biggest producer of gay porn in America,” the Post reported in 2008, during the president’s first run the office. “Bean, the first gay on Sen. Obama’s National Finance Committee, is the sole trustee of the Charles M. Holmes Foundation, which owned Falcon Studios, Jock Studios and Mustang Studios, the producers of about $10 million worth of all-male pornography a year.”

    • Too Big To Fail, Obama and Dodd-Frank– The two-year anniversary of Dodd-Frank has come and gone, and Too Big To Fail is only growing.Sure, President Obama assured us the sweeping law would reform the sleaze and mindless risk-taking of the banking business — but all it’s given us is the certainty of future bailouts.Actually, that’s not fair: It’s also producing reams and reams of rules and regulations that force banks out of certain profitable lines of business, like proprietary trading, that had little to do with the shenanigans that led the financial crisis.But the biggest problem is the expansion of the largest single contributor to the banking collapse: The government’s protection of the remaining big financial institutions, a k a Too Big To Fail.The reason Too Big To Fail is so dangerous is that it provides a level of comfort to the Wall Street risk takers — enabling them to act like riverboat gamblers and simply bet more and more until the system comes crashing down, as it did four years ago. Why fear, when the taxpayer is on the hook for your losses?

      Dodd-Frank was supposed to end the bank-protection racket. Everyone from the president to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (who’s due up on Capitol Hill this week to discuss the law) to its chief sponsors, then-Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, said so.

      They tell us the law makes certain that the next time the big banks take too much risk, there will no taxpayer bailout: The bankers (and those who trusted them) will have to pay for their risk-taking sins in bankruptcy court, just like any other business in America.

      Don’t buy it. A relatively open secret on Wall Street is that the megabanks that survived the financial crisis — JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo — are still very much protected by the federal government and the American taxpayer.

    • California cities’ bankruptcies: Blame the housing bust– The reporting and commentary on the bankruptcies of California cities over the last month haven’t been journalism’s finest hour. From reading the voluminous accounts of the fiscal woes of Stockton and San Bernardino, you’d think that municipal unions and feckless city officials are primarily what led these cities down the path to fiscal ruin.But you’d be wrong. What bankrupted Stockton and San Bernardino were the most severe housing busts in the nation. What bankrupted those two cities were banks peddling subprime mortgages to poorly paid workers.That story has been missing from most accounts of the debacle, which instead focus on the preferred narrative of the right and center-right: that of fiscal irresponsibility and overpaid public employees. “Another city sinks in pension morass,” the Orange County Register editorialized. The problem common to the cities, wrote Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters, is that “elected leaders and appointed managers succumbed to hubris and political pressure, particularly from their employee unions.”Even most of the straightforward reporting has emphasized the errors of city managers and the burdens of having to pay city workers andBut that narrative is “Hamlet” without the prince. Yes, some elected and appointed officials were indifferent or insensible to their city’s fiscal plight. But lots of cities have negligent public officials, and even more have police officers and firefighters with those demonized defined-benefit pensions. What sets Stockton and San Bernardino apart is a far narrower set of circumstances: They were at the epicenters of the American housing bubble and the American housing bust.
    • To Move Polls, Romney Needs to Go Positive– Every once in a blue moon, a pollster asks exactly the right questions and brings some clarity to a number of important “big picture” issues in an election. Such is the case with the latest Pew poll. In particular, this survey helps us answer:– Is this election a choice or a referendum?
    • Marijuana Dispensaries Banned in L.A. Per City Council Vote– The L.A. City Council today voted to put an end to the city’s infamous and numerous marijuana dispensaries, citing neighborhood concerns and court rulings that have questioned a city’s right to regulate the retailers.Most of all, however, the council argued that L.A’s for-profit pot shop scene was never envisioned by state lawmakers whom the City Attorney says wanted to legalize the nonprofit growing and sharing of cannabis among the seriously ill.That interpretation, of course, is up for debate, but …… for now the city of L.A. is having things its way: No more weed retailers in the pot shop capital of the nation. Maybe. (See more below).At one point LA Weekly counted about 550 of them, and in light of a lack of city regulation, it seems that the number has remained fairly constant to us. In fact sources have told us that some rogue shops have taken advantage of City Hall’s lack of action –it has been trying to regulate dispensaries since at least 2007 — to open illicit pop-up shops that come and go quickly.
    • Gov. Scott Walker knocks Mitt Romney’s campaign– Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker criticized Mitt Romney’s campaign Wednesday for being too cautious and for assuming the election could just be a referendum on the president.“I think there’s a lot of caution. I think the mistake that they’ve made is the feeling like it can just be a referendum on the president,” said Walker, a Republican, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It’s certainly a part of it for any incumbent, it’s got to be a referendum on, do you like or dislike, not just the president, but his policies… but there’s got to be something more. People don’t just vote somebody out, they’ve got to vote somebody in
    • Nearly one in 10 employers to drop health coverage– About one in 10 employers plan to drop health coverage when key provisions of the new health care law kick in less than two years from now, according to a survey to be released Tuesday by the consulting company Deloitte.Nine percent of companies said they expect to stop offering coverage
      to their workers in the next one to three years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Around 81 percent said they would continue providing benefits and 10 percent said they weren’t sure.
    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-07-25 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-07-25
    • California Appeals Court Upholds Proposition 13 – Yet Again – California Appeals Court Upholds Proposition 13 – Yet Again
    • Brian Ross at ABC News – Hitting the Lazy Button – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Brian Ross at ABC News – Hitting the Lazy Button
    • Flap’s California Morning Collection: July 24, 2012 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: July 24, 2012
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Daily Extraction: Guatemala Hands On Extraction Courses with Dr. Tommy Murph – The Daily Extraction: Guatemala Hands On Extraction Courses with Dr. Tommy Murph
    • The Morning Flap: July 24, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: July 24, 2012
  • Twitter

    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-07-25

    Powered by Twitter Tools