• Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: May 31, 2012

    May 31, 2012 /

    Larry Sabato electoral college map President 2012: Larry Sabato Lays Out the Electoral College Battle for the White House

    Map from Larry Sobato

    These are my links for May 30th through May 31st:

    • Obama and Romney Neck and Neck in Nevada– In the battle for Nevada’s six electoral votes, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are very competitive.  Obama receives 48% to 46% for Mitt Romney, among registered voters in Nevada including those who are undecided yet leaning toward a candidate.  One percent supports another candidate, and 5% are undecided.“President Obama is nowhere near the twelve percentage point victory he had in Nevada four years ago, but at 48%, he remains within striking distance to carry the state,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.  “Drilling down into the numbers, there is a gender gap and a generational divide which may tell the story on Election Day.”
    • Obama and Romney Tied in Iowa– In Iowa, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are in a dead heat.  Among registered voters including those who are undecided yet leaning toward a candidate, Obama receives 44% while Romney garners the same proportion — 44%.  Two percent support another candidate, and 10% are undecided.“Both Obama and Romney are far from fifty percent in Iowa and have a lot of ground to cover,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.  “But, Obama’s supporters are less enthusiastic and less interested than Romney’s, and this poses a special problem for the incumbent president.”
    • Obama and Romney Vie for Lead in Colorado– President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are neck and neck in Colorado, a state Obama won by nine points in 2008.  Among registered voters statewide including those who are undecided yet leaning toward a candidate, Obama receives 46% to 45% for Romney.  One percent plans to vote for someone else, and 8% are undecided.“This is a state George W. Bush carried in 2000 and 2004 and has trended Republican in party registration since 2008,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.  “President Obama broke through four years ago and is countering the partisan difference this time by being plus ten among independents.”
    • NBC-Marist polls: Obama, Romney deadlocked in three key states– President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney are deadlocked in three key presidential battleground states, according to a new round of NBC-Marist polls.In Iowa, the two rivals are tied at 44 percent among registered voters, including those who are undecided but leaning toward a candidate. Ten percent of voters in the Hawkeye State are completely undecided.In Colorado, Obama gets support from 46 percent of registered voters, while Romney gets 45 percent.

      And in Nevada, the president is at 48 percent and Romney is at 46 percent.

      These three states are all battlegrounds that Obama carried in 2008, but George W. Bush won in 2004.

    • Humor / The Blame game…. – The Blame game….
    • Health / NYC Mayor Bloomberg bans “Big” Soda – NYC Mayor Bloomberg bans “Big” Soda
    • Political History / Historical photo: John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father’s coffin along with the honor guard. – Historical photo: John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father’s coffin along with the honor guard.
    • The Associated Press: AP Exclusive: Calif. 9/11 fund raided for deficits – RT @amandacarpenter: AP: California is raiding a fund intended to help victims of 9/11 to pay for deficits
    • Quote of the Day – RT @politicalwire: Biden says he’s been “assigned to” PA, DE, OH, IA, NH and FL. Possible additions: VA, NV, NC…
    • Elizabeth Warren acknowledges telling Harvard, Penn of Native American status– Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren acknowledged for the first time late Wednesday night that she told Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania that she was Native American, but she continued to insist that race played no role in her recruitment.“At some point after I was hired by them, I . . . provided that information to the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard,’’ she said in a statement issued by her campaign. “My Native American heritage is part of who I am, I’m proud of it and I have been open about it.’’Warren’s statement is her first acknowledgment that she identified herself as Native American to the Ivy League schools. While she has said she identified herself as a minority in a legal directory, she has carefully avoided any suggestion during the last month that she took further actions to promote her purported heritage.
    • Berkley, Heller Neck-and-Neck in New Poll – Hotline On Call – RT @HotlineReid NV SEN: Heller (R) 46, Berkley (D) 44. Berkley only up 6 in Clark Co., Heller up 12 in Washoe #tcot
    • Republicans Target Dental Bill That Private Equity Hates #FB– The likes of Jeb Bush, William Frist, Tommy Thompson and Haley Barbour aren’t typically heard from in the office of Thom Tillis, the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives.Yet the four Republican Party stalwarts, none of them a Carolina resident, have contacted Tillis’s office over a little- known bill to toughen state regulation of dental companies. They’ve been joined by Grover Norquist , the Tea Party favorite and anti-tax crusader who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform.“It’s not terribly common to have these types of names” intervening on a state bill, said Jordan Shaw, a spokesman for Tillis.

      Their interest marks the Tar Heel State as the front line in a national struggle over dental management companies. Fueled by Wall Street money, at least six such firms are under scrutiny by two U.S. senators and authorities in five states over allegations that they soak taxpayers through excessive Medicaid billings, abuse patients via needless treatments and run afoul of laws that say only licensed dentists can practice dentistry.

    • News from The Associated Press – Nanny State RT @AP Don’t supersize that: NYC wants to ban sale of extra-large sodas and other sugary drinks: -ldh
    • Nanny State Eatch: Bloomberg Plans a Ban on Large Sodas– New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity.The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces – about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle – would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.
    • MSNBC host: NYC big soda ban a ‘great idea’– On MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning, co-host Mika Brzezinski defended New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to ban sugary drinks larger than 16 oz. from restaurants.”I think it’s a great idea,” she said. “Does anyone want to challenge me on that?”Brzezinski added that there was no reason for kids to get large drinks, pointing out that the large drinks were like “drinking a big glass of sugar, of poison.”

      “Does anyone think their kid should drink this entire thing in the course of the day? How about every day? How about three times a week?” she asked during the segment. “Well, guess what’s happening out there? That’s what’s happening. And that’s why the majority of the nation’s children are obese.”

    • Riehl World View: (Video) MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Exposed, Feels Cheapened Over Man Crush On Obama – RT @DanRiehl: (Video) MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Exposed, Feels Cheapened Over Man Crush On Obama
    • First Read – NBC-Marist polls: Obama, Romney deadlocked in three key states – RT @HotlineJosh New NBC/Marist polls: Romney 44, Obama 44 (IA); Obama 46, Romney 45 (CO), Obama 48, Romney 46 (NV)
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-05-31 – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-05-31
    • Republicans introduce their own version of Dream Act – Washington Times – Panderbear to Hispanic Voters: Republicans introduce their own version of Dream Act #tcot
    • Sports / What every poker player covets….. – What every poker player covets…..
    • Sports / The Vin Scully bobblehead…. – The Vin Scully bobblehead….
    • » Hundreds of Cherokees form new group to challenge Elizabeth Warren – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Hundreds of Cherokees form new group to challenge Elizabeth Warren #tcot
    • (404) http://t.co/3 – RT @LATimescitybeat: New USC/Times poll shows CA voters back Brown’s tax hike plan — but question if $ will be used well: …
    • Poll: Romney gains 21 points in favorability among female voters – The Hill’s Ballot Box – RT @thehill: Poll: Romney gains 21 points in favorability among women
    • Soul Mate
      – YouTube       – New Romney web video: Soul Mate: On World Multiple Sclerosis Day, Ann Romney and her family share their thoughts
    • Walker Maintains Lead in Wisconsin Recall Race – Marquette Law School Poll in WI shows Gov. Scott Walker leading challenger Tom Barrett 52% to 45% among likely voters
    • Auto Jobs: Sign of the Times – US Business News Blogs – CNBC – Drudge Headline: At Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Al more than 20K people have applied for one of the 877 job openings
    • Ted Cruz Favored in Runoff for Texas Senate Seat in Major Tea Party Upset – RT @BreitbartFeed: Ted Cruz Favored in Runoff for Texas Senate Seat in Major Tea Party Upset #tcot
    • The Page by Mark Halperin | Romney Closes Favorability Gap – ABC News/ WAPO Poll: Romney up on Favorability and Obama slips among women voters #tcot
    • The Promise of America
      – YouTube       – Romney campaign releases new web video: The Promise of America #tcot
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » CA-26: Will Republican Voters Game Tony Strickland? – CA-26: Will Republican Voters Game Tony Strickland?
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » The Morning Flap: May 30, 2012 – The Morning Flap: May 30, 2012
    • Tusk Demands U.S. Response to Obama Death Camp Remark- Bloomberg – Polish Premier Demands U.S. Response to Obama Death Camp Remark
    • Obama Nazi death camp gaffe ‘hurt all Poles’: PM – Yahoo! News – Obama Nazi death camp gaffe ‘hurt all Poles’: PM
  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for October 3rd on 08:00

    October 3, 2011 /

    These are my links for October 3rd from 08:00 to 12:42:

    • The Bloomberg Hit Piece on the Koch Brothers – Bloomberg Markets has a print cover story on “The SECRET SINS of KOCH INDUSTRIES” (unusual capitalization and italicization choices theirs), which is plugged heavily in a long (nigh interminable) web item headlined:

      “Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales”

      The nut of it is that, in 2008, a newly-hired Koch ethics officer discovered evidence of improper bribes paid by a French subsidiary to secure six different deals in Africa, India, and the Middle East. (I know, I know. But try to contain your shock that doing business in Africa could be anything but above-the-board.) Koch HQ then dispatched a larger investigative team that confirmed the findings and the parties responsible were terminated.

      Fast-forward to over a year later: The ethics officer who first discovered the impropriety, having since been promoted, is let go for emerging performance issues. She files suit against Koch for wrongful termination, and not only loses, but is ordered to pay Koch’s legal fees. Now she’s giving quotes to Bloomberg. Unrelatedly, and this is crucial, the Koch subsidiary also had some business (which has since completely desisted) with Iran at a time when — both Bloomberg and Koch reps seem to agree — that business was perfectly legal under U.S. law. Again, the Iran business was entirely separate from the alleged bribes. But go back and look at that headline. Would you ever know?

      I reached out to the Koch Industries and got this statement from general counsel Mark Holden:

      ======

      Read it all

    • Koch responds to Bloomberg – In an exclusive interview with Right Turn, Koch Industries general counsel Mark Holden responded to a lengthy investigative piece by Bloomberg news citing various legal incidents and allegations of wrongdoing by the industrial conglomerate owned by the billionaire Koch brothers, who have become the target, if not the obsession, of left-wing groups who take issue with their libertarian politics and political activity.

      The two issues featured most prominently by the Bloomberg report, according to Holden, are rife with errors and/or are old, long-since resolved matters.

      ======

      Read it all

      Pretty much answers the Bloomberg attack piece….

    • Do Mother and Baby Risk Factors Predict a Child’s Obesity? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Do Mother and Baby Risk Factors Predict a Child’s Obesity?
    • President 2012: South Carolina Moves GOP Primary Election to January 21 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: South Carolina Moves GOP Primary Election to January 21 #tcot #catcot
    • Social media giving small firms a boost – Laid off after 23 years in the mortgage lending business, Dede Parise couldn't find a job. So she took a marketing class to reinvent her career, and before long she turned an assignment into a company.

      Parise invented the Bandee, a headband women wear while playing golf and other sports. She sells her product mostly on the Internet, working from home.

      Her audience is big, and growing. In a year, using Facebook, she has parlayed her reach into 15,000 fans.

      For small businesses such as Parise's, social media has become a portal to success.

      "It's really important," said Parise, 49, of Weston, Fla. "It's just the way the market has gone."

      No question, the use of social media by businesses is booming.

      According to a recent study by EMarketers, 80% of leading companies will participate in social media marketing in 2011, nearly double the number from three years ago.

      And a 2011 Social Media Marketing report by SocialMediaExaminer.com found that 90% of marketers said social media was important for their business. Eighty-eight percent said it generated more business exposure, and 72% said it increased traffic to their site.

      The most commonly used social media tools, the 2011 report found, are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, in that order.

      =======

      Read it all

    • Flap’s Links and Comments for October 2nd through October 3rd | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 2nd through October 3rd #tcot #catcot
  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for September 23rd through September 26th

    September 26, 2011 /

    These are my links for September 23rd through September 26th:

    • Here comes another Koch/Tea Party smear – Evidence was found four years ago that other KGF employees had paid bribes to obtain business. An investigation was begun, and Egorova-Farines was one of the investigators. Ultimately, more than two dozen people were either terminated or allowed to resign.

      Koch USA officials say they were as surprised and angered as anybody else when they were first apprised of the bribery allegations, and moved as quickly as possible to get to the bottom of the situation and fix it.

      But, during this period, Egorova-Farines grew progressively unhappy with KGF, allegations of discrimination were lodged, and her case went to the Employment Tribunal of Paris.

      All of Egorova-Farines' claims were dismissed. She appealed and the decision was overturned on a technicality. KGF and Egorova-Farines then settled out of court.

      I spent a lot of my reporting years working with whistleblowers, mainly within the government, and generally find them admirable. But, like the rest of us, they're just human and can have very mixed motives, of which careful journalists must always be aware.

      A former U.S. government official of my acquaintance was approached recently by one of the Bloomberg reporters working on a Koch investigative piece. After some conversation about the French case, the reporter said, "the other interesting thing here is Koch has strong ties to the Tea Party."

      When the official asked what the Tea Party had to do with French bribery allegations, the reporter dropped the topic.

      I've also had occasion to meet a lot of Bloomberg journalists over the years and have been unfailingly impressed by their professionalism. But they're human, too, and can make mistakes.

      Joining the rampant Koch-bashing would be a mistake.

    • Koch addicts seek another hit – As The Washington Examiner reported last week, Bloomberg Markets appears to be on the verge of dropping a lengthy treatise on the Kansas-based energy conglomerate Koch Industries.

      According to an individual interviewed by Bloomberg (who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity), much of the focus will likely be devoted to re-litigating past legal peccadilloes. But the piece may also reveal at least one previously unreported controversy: Koch Industries’ connection to the sale of petroleum industry equipment in Iran in the early-to-mid 2000s.

      Koch currently has a policy prohibiting its subsidiaries from doing business in Iran, and the past sales (some of which likely involved state-owned Iranian companies) appear to have been conducted by a foreign subsidiary of a subsidiary of Koch.

      Still, this comes on the heels of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to the UN General Assembly — and at a time when Tehran’s nuclear ambitions are receiving increased attention.

      All of this, of course, means the story could provide political fodder to Koch’s political enemies — which are legion. (In 2005, you might recall, Halliburton, the company once run by former Vice President Dick Cheney, also came under fire for doing business in Iran.)

      In reality, the revelation isn’t terribly newsworthy. While U.S. law bans American companies from making direct sales in Iran, foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations may do so under certain circumstances. And many of them do.

      Dozens of multinational companies — including household names like General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Hewlett Packard, Caterpillar, and Honeywell — conducted business in Iran during the time period. For example, a 2010 New York Times analysis identified 74 corporations — many of whom received government contracts — that have conducted business in Iran over the last decade.

      Regardless of whether or not one finds this troubling, the fact that the practice was ubiquitous raises an obvious question: Why is Bloomberg singling out Koch?

      The answer seems pretty obvious.

      =======

      Read it all

    • Ryan to put ‘replace’ back in ‘repeal and replace’ | Campaign 2012 – Ryan to put 'replace' back in 'repeal and replace' | Campaign 2012
    • foursquare – 10 miles and now Breakfast at Ronnie's with Alice and Tara (@ Ronnie's Diner)
    • Untitled (https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-dKap5IWFQ8c/Tn3EPSyF02I/AAAAAAAAATg/9blXVHx-dB4/CIMG0150.jpg) – Off soon to LA Marathon training with LA Roadrunners for 10 easy miles. Ronnie's Diner after.
      :
    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-09-24 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-09-24 #tcot #catcot
    • Ryan to put ‘replace’ back in ‘repeal and replace’ | Campaign 2012 – Ryan to put 'replace' back in 'repeal and replace' | Campaign 2012
    • (500) http://flapsblog.org/2011/09/23/dilbert-september-23-2011-listen/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter – Dilbert September 23, 2011 – Listen
    • Ryan to put ‘replace’ back in ‘repeal and replace’ | Campaign 2012 – RT @philipaklein: RT @conncarroll: @RepPaulRyan will give major speech outlining alternative to Obamacare Tuesday
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Los Angeles Roadrunners: My Saturday Mornings for the Next Six Months – Los Angeles Roadrunners: My Saturday Mornings for the Next Six Months
    • Poll Watch: Obama Rated Same or Worse Than Bush – Obama Much Worse Than Clinton | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: Obama Rated Same or Worse Than Bush – Obama Much Worse Than Clinton #tcot #catcot
    • 43% of Twitter Users Access Twitter From a Mobile Phone [Data] – 43% of Twitter Users Access Twitter From a Mobile Phone
    • 43% of Twitter Users Access Twitter From a Mobile Phone – The latest data on mobile phone usage is out, and the numbers show that mobile isn't slowing down. And where inbound marketing is concerned, some of the key mobile data centers around how people are using their phones to access content and social media.

      MarketingCharts' mobile research has found that people are increasingly using their mobile phones to access content on browsers, apps, and social networks:

      In March 2011, nearly 39% of US mobile subscribers were browsing the internet using their mobile device. That's up by 2.2 percentage points from just 3 months prior.
      Mobile apps are almost as popular as browsers; 37% of subscribers used downloaded apps.
      Subscribers are also increasingly using social networks on their phones. In March, 27.3% indicated they used a social network on their mobile phone, up from 24.7% just 3 months prior.

    • Flap’s California Morning Collection: September 23, 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: September 23, 2011
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for September 20th through September 23rd | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for September 20th through September 23rd #tcot #catcot
  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 2nd on 03:02

    May 2, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 2nd from 03:02 to 09:24:

    • The Secret Team That Killed bin Laden – From Ghazi Air Base in Pakistan, the modified MH-60 helicopters made their way to the garrison suburb of Abbottabad, about 30 miles from the center of Islamabad. Aboard were Navy SEALs, flown across the border from Afghanistan, along with tactical signals, intelligence collectors, and navigators using highly classified hyperspectral imagers.

      After bursts of fire over 40 minutes, 22 people were killed or captured. One of the dead was Osama bin Laden, done in by a double tap — boom, boom — to the left side of his face. His body was aboard the choppers that made the trip back. One had experienced mechanical failure and was destroyed by U.S. forces, military and White House officials tell National Journal.

      Were it not for this high-value target, it might have been a routine mission for the specially trained and highly mythologized SEAL Team Six, officially called the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but known even to the locals at their home base Dam Neck in Virginia as just DevGru.

      ======

      Read it all

    • Michael Bloomberg: Send the immigrants to Detroit – Everyone has a solution to the immigration problem these days. (At least until they are actually elected to public office when they seem to forget about it.) Should we build a fence? Have more screeners? Shut down the process entirely? Out in the Big Apple, Mayor Bloomberg thinks he’s come up with a far more creative solution to the problem. We’ll just let all of the immigrants in who want to come, but as soon as they arrive we just ship them all to Detroit.

      Mayor Bloomberg has a fix for the nation’s immigration debate: Send ‘em to Detroit.

      “If I were the federal government,” Bloomberg told David Gregory on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday morning. “Assuming you could wave a magic wand and pull everybody together, you pass a law letting immigrants come in as long as they agree to go to Detroit and live there for five or ten years.”

      ======

      Read it all

      How stupid is Bloomberg?

    • A New Immigration Consensus – Or a Sell Out for Americans? – We believe in the need to secure our borders, make it possible to hold businesses accountable for verifying the status of workers, address the reality that 11 million people are here illegally and cannot be deported en masse—and increase lawful opportunities for those who want to come to this country and contribute to our prosperity. Nevertheless, our nation cannot afford to wait for Washington to get its act together and pass comprehensive immigration reform. There is too much at stake. Our economy demands that we take immediate action on the most urgent—and politically attainable—reform: making it easier for job creators to come and stay here.

      Creating a visa for entrepreneurs who already have funding to start their businesses will lead directly and immediately to American jobs. Visa reforms to improve temporary and permanent pathways for companies to fill the current shortages of engineers, scientists and other specialists—whose annual visa caps are often exhausted within days of becoming available—will spur growth at existing U.S. companies.

      ======

      Read it all.

      Big corporations like Bloomberg would rather import talent from outside the USA then invest in America to develop our own talented entrepeneurs and business people of the future.

      We have a vast underclass of illegal immigrants that need remediation rather than a new importation of immigrants that may or may not stay in America.

      Bloomberg and his cohort would be better to concentrate on education reform and scholarships for American citizens to attend graduate schools.

      The offshore talent should have the same visa requirements as everyone else.

    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-05-02 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-05-02 #tcot #catcot