• Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: April 30, 2012

    These are my links for April 26th through April 30th:

    • Occupy Wall Street plans mass May Day demonstration to shut down NYC – The NYPD is bracing for an attempt by Occupy Wall Street protesters to shut down traffic at arteries across the city during a mass demonstration Tuesday.

      Using websites and pamphlets, OWS organizers are urging people to help block traffic at bridge and tunnel ports to slow people going to work on May Day.

      Protesters — who also plan action in front of several financial buildings — are using the date to strengthen their numbers since the labor movement traditionally holds rallies that day.

      “No work, no school, no shopping, now housework, no compliance,” reads a posting on one OWS-related website. “If you can’t strike call in sick. If you can’t call in sick hold a slow down.”

      Other Occupy websites say protesters will try to blockade city crossings as they did the Brooklyn Bridge in October — when more than 700 people were arrested for marching on the span’s roadway.

      One website also calls for marchers to swarm financial buildings, including the offices of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange.

      Mayor Bloomberg said the city is prepared to thwart any actions that could cause serious delays in people’s commutes.

      He declined to discuss how authorities have been training to handle any OWS action. But sources said the NYPD conducted a major exercise at Floyd Bennett Field on Wednesday.

    • Occupy Wall Street Plans Global Protests in May Day Resurgence – Occupy Wall Street demonstrators, whose anti-greed message spread worldwide during an eight-week encampment in Lower Manhattan last year, plan marches across the globe today calling attention to what they say are abuses of power and wealth.

      Organizers say they hope the coordinated events will mark a spring resurgence of the movement after a quiet winter. Calls for a general strike with no work, no school, no banking and no shopping have sprung up on websites in Toronto, Barcelona, London, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, among hundreds of cities in North America, Europe and Asia.

      In New York, Occupy Wall Street will join scores of labor organizations observing May 1, traditionally recognized as International Workers’ Day. They plan marches from Union Square to Lower Manhattan and a “pop-up occupation” of Bryant Park on Sixth Avenue, across the street from Bank of America’s Corp.’s 55-story tower.

      “We call upon people to refrain from shopping, walk out of class, take the day off of work and other creative forms of resistance disrupting the status quo,” organizers said in an April 26 e-mail.

      Occupy groups across the U.S. have protested economic disparity, decrying high foreclosure and unemployment rates that hurt average Americans while bankers and financial executives received bonuses and taxpayer-funded bailouts. In the past six months, similar groups, using social media and other tools, have sprung up in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » Day By Day April 30, 2012 – Nudge,Nudge – Day By Day April 30, 2012 – Nudge,Nudge
    • After Last Night – WH Correspondent’s Dinner – Politically, the most interesting phenomenon last night was the dog jokes. The President himself made three jokes about eating dogs. This represents a victory for new media and especially for Jim Treacher, since liberal news sources like the New York Times and Jon Stewart had studiously tried to pretend that the dog controversy didn’t exist. Obama and Kimmel evidently recognized that Twitter made such pretense impossible. (The New York Times, however, is still holding out.)

      Events like last night’s always leave me feeling in need of a shower. Partly it is because there some truth to Kimmel’s joke, after noting that the room was full of politicians, members of the media and celebrities, that “Everything that is wrong with America is here in this room.” Partly is is due to the sense that everyone involved in the event is pretending. The politicians pretend to engage in self-deprecation that shows they don’t take themselves too seriously. The comics pretend that they are just trying to be funny, lampooning politicians impartially in search of laughs. But, even though some of the lines are indeed funny, the premise of the event is fundamentally false. In fact, politicians, comedians and even the celebrities present are pursuing an agenda that is both self-aggrandizing and political. That is why, I think, such events always leave me feeling unclean.

    • The Auto Bailout Bust – President Barack Obama has made the auto bailout a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, using it to bash Republican nominee Mitt Romney. But the tactic may backfire as the general election heats up, public opinion surveys suggest.

      Recent polling from Rasmussen indicates that 59 percent view the bailouts as a “failure” and only 44 percent think the bailouts were “good for America.”

      The administration has already written off $7 billion in taxpayer losses in the American takeover of Chrysler and General Motors; those losses are expected to climb as high as $23 billion—27 percent of the $85 billion spent on the bailout.

      While the bailout is widely credited with saving the two companies, increasing taxpayer losses have made it nearly as unpopular in 2012 as it was when Obama was elected. More than half of Americans still disapprove of the auto bailout compared with 61 percent in 2008.

    • On Second Thought, Maybe N.C. Was a Mistake – If national Democratic strategists chose Charlotte, N.C., for the party’s national convention because they liked the facilities, the hotel accommodations or the weather in early September, then I guess I can’t yet quibble with the choice.

      But if David Axelrod and the president’s other political advisers picked the Tar Heel State to make some broader political point, then they goofed.

      Simply put: North Carolina looks like a mess for Democrats.

    • Barnes & Noble to spin off digital Nook business, Microsoft will invest $300 million into it | The Verge – RT @verge: Barnes & Noble to spin off digital Nook business, Microsoft will invest $300 million into it
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-04-30 – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-04-30
    • Untitled (http://getglue.com/Fullosseousflap/stickers/amc/the_killing_openings?s=ts&ref=Fullosseousflap) – I unlocked the The Killing: Openings sticker on @GetGlue!
    • Maybe no housing rebound for a generation: Shiller – The Housing market is likely to remain weak and may take a generation or more to rebound, Yale economics professor Robert Shiller told Reuters Insider on Tuesday.

      Shiller, the co-creator of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, said a weak labor market, high gas prices and a general sense of unease among consumers was outweighing low mortgage rates and would likely keep a lid on prices for the foreseeable future.

    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » Day By Day April 29, 2012 – Man of Steal – Day By Day April 29, 2012 – Man of Steal
    • Sweet revenge: Dentist pulls ALL of ex-boyfriend’s teeth out after getting dumped  – NY Daily News – Sweet revenge: Dentist pulls ALL of ex-boyfriend’s teeth out after getting dumped  – NY Daily News
    • Sweet revenge: Dentist pulls ALL of ex-boyfriend’s teeth out after getting dumped  – NY Daily News – Sweet revenge: Dentist pulls ALL of ex-boyfriend’s teeth out after getting dumped  – NY Daily News
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-04-29 – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-04-29
    • Sweet revenge: Dentist pulls ALL of ex-boyfriend’s teeth out after getting dumped  – NY Daily News – Sweet revenge: Dentist pulls ALL of ex-boyfriend’s teeth out after getting dumped 
    • Sweet revenge: Dentist pulls ALL of ex-boyfriend’s teeth out after getting dumped  – Revenge is a dish best served with novocaine.

      A dentist in Poland, dumped by her boyfriend, got payback by removing all of her former lover’s teeth — leading his new lady to dump him, too.

      Anna Mackowiak could face three years in jail after she agreed to treat her ex-boyfriend, Marek Olszewski, when he asked her to help with a toothache just days after he broke up with her.

      “I tried to be professional and detach myself from my emotions,” Mackowiak, 34, told the Daily Mail. “But when I saw him lying there I just thought, ‘What a bastard.’”

      Mackowiak then allegedly gave Olszewski, 45, a massive dose of anaesthetic and coldly plucked out his teeth one by one.

      She then wrapped his jaw in bandages to prevent him from opening his mouth — and then simply walked away.

      “I knew something was wrong because when I woke up I couldn’t feel any teeth and my jaw was strapped up with bandages,” Olszewski told the British newspaper.

      But he did not realize the horror of what happened until he got back to his Wroclaw apartment.

    • Political Cartoons / Obama is just too cool….. – Obama is just too cool…..
    • Amazon Softens Stance on Taxes – Amazon.com Inc. reached an agreement with Texas officials Friday to begin collecting sales taxes in the state starting in July and appears to be backing away from its long-held opposition to tax collection in states where it has warehouses and other facilities.
      With the deal, the Seattle-based company is on track to collect sales taxes in 12 states, which make up about 40% of the U.S. population, by 2016. Amazon currently collects taxes in five states. Since 2011, it has reached agreements with seven other states, including Texas, to begin tax collection over the next four years.
    • “Amazon tax” struck down in Illinois in boost for affiliates – GeekWire – “Amazon tax” struck down in Illinois in boost for affiliates
    • Amazon settles with Texas over sales tax – Amazon has reached another settlement over state taxes, this time with Texas.

      Reuters reports that the giant e-tailer will start collecting sales tax in Texas come July 1, as part of a settlement that requires Amazon to bring 2,500 jobs and $200 million in capital investment to the state over the next four years.

      In exchange for the jobs and money, Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs is dropping the state’s demand for $269 million to cover sales taxes from 2005 to 2009, Reuters reports.

      Amazon struck a deal with the state of Nevada earlier in the week whereby it will begin collecting sales taxes there on January 1, 2014. It also reached an agreement with California last September that gave it another year before it has to begin collecting sales taxes in that state.

      Things went the other way in Illinois yesterday, when a judge there called unconstitutional a law designed to let the state collect sales tax from out-of-state, online retailers.

    • “Amazon tax” struck down in Illinois in boost for affiliates – The state of Illinois has lost a lawsuit against the state’s attempt to collect sales tax from out-of-state, online retailers — a law often called the “Amazon tax.”

      The Performance Marketing Association, which represents affiliate marketers such as those working with Amazon, had challenged the 2011 law that created the Illinois Affiliate Nexus Tax. A Cook County Circuit judge ruled the law unconstitutional because, according to Crain’s Chicago Business, “simply having an affiliated company in the state that makes sales or refers customers to an online retailer doesn’t create enough of a presence, or nexus, for tax purposes.”

      The judge also said the law was unenforceable because of a federal Internet tax moratorium that is in place through 2014.

    • Gregory Flap @ Ronnie’s Diner – foursquare – 8 miler in the books. Now at Ronnie’s with Alice and Nancy (@ Ronnie’s Diner)
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-04-28 – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-04-28
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » IN-Sen: Sarah Palin Endorses Richard Mourdock – IN-Sen: Sarah Palin Endorses Richard Mourdock
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » Day By Day April 27, 2012 – Fantasy Friday-Public Served – Day By Day April 27, 2012 – Fantasy Friday-Public Served
    • CA-26: NRCC gives 3 ‘contender’ status – The National Republican Congressional Committee has given three GOP House challengers “contender” status, the third out of four steps in the “Young Guns” program to recruit new and viable Republican candidates.

      Republicans Tony Strickland in California, Jason Plummer in Illinois and Matt Doheny in New York were all elevated to the next level of the program Thursday.

      The candidates will face new benchmarks for fundraising and recruiting before attaining “Young Guns” status.

    • CA-26: Dog Is as Dog Does – How a live-free-or-die dude like Strickland came to be a born-again Nanny State zealot, however, is not so mysterious. It turns out he’s now running for a congressional seat in Ventura, and his chief Democratic rival, Julia Brownley, led the charge to ban plastic bags statewide while in the Assembly. Not only that, but Brownley is now pushing a much softer and kinder bill to define what constitutes a reusable bag. Brownley’s bill would require such bags be strong enough to carry 22 pounds more than 100 times for a distance of 175 feet. Rather than require a warning label designed to scare off possible users, Brownley’s bill would mandate bags to come with a tag identifying its country of origin and stating no lead, cadmium, other toxic heavy metals designed to sap one’s wits were used in its manufacture.

      Just remember there are 41 shopping days left between now and the June primary. I’ll do my part by shopping with a cross-contaminated, lead-based bag. You can spot me huffing by the broccoli section at Trader Joe’s. Please do not disturb. I already am.

    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » CA-26: Linda Parks and Her Cable Television ONLY Campaign Strategy – CA-26: Linda Parks and Her Cable Television ONLY Campaign Strategy
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » The Morning Flap: April 26, 2012 – The Morning Flap: April 26, 2012