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The Morning Flap: January 24, 2013
California Senator Dianne Feinstein
These are my links for January 23rd through January 24th:
- Feinstein, Conn. Senators Set To Propose Assault Weapons Ban – Connecticut’s two U.S. senators are joining forces with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and other key senators, proposing a retooled federal ban on assault weapons in the wake of the deadly Newtown school shooting.Sen. Richard Blumenthal told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the proposed legislation, to be unveiled Thursday in Washington, D.C., will more narrowly define what’s considered an assault weapon under a resurrected ban. The bill, he said, will also prohibit high-capacity magazines, limiting them to a capacity of up to nine rounds of ammunition.Blumenthal said the legislation is “one of the most significant” bills to be introduced following the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It also marks the first bill that Blumenthal and Sen. Chris Murphy have worked on together as senators.
- Video: No Budget, No Pay – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Video: No Budget, No Pay #tcot
- If you want bigger government, you need to side with big business | WashingtonExaminer.com – If you want bigger government, you need to side with big business #tcot
- Why Democrats Should Fear Filibuster Reform – The latest word out of the Senate is that if Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t accede to changes in the filibuster rules over the next few days, Harry Reid will invoke the so-called “nuclear option” and change the rules with 51 votes. The most likely outcome would be outlawing the filibuster on motions to proceed, thereby forcing senators to take to the floor to filibuster bills, “Mr. Smith”-style.This move, and the overwhelming progressive enthusiam for it, are head-scratchers. Over the short-to-medium term (and no one can really see beyond that), the filibuster probably helps the Democrats more than it helps the Republicans. Before going any further, let me make clear that the following argument is couched purely in terms of political advantage and ability to move the agenda. I think there’s a lot to be said for what we might call the small-“c” conservative arguments for the filibuster: requiring 60 votes creates the need for some sort of consensus before legislation moves through, and the chances of a destabilizing period of time where parties trade majorities and implement wildly divergent agendas willy-nilly are greatly diminished. In that sense, the filibuster helps the entire country, and both parties should be pleased with it.
- Whole Foods’ CEO Mackey Is Right — ObamaCare Is Like Fascism – In 2009, when Whole Foods CEO John Mackey in a Wall Street Journal op-ed compared the health care “public option” then under consideration by Congress to socialism — a nationalized economic system wherein the government owns the means of production — hardly anyone batted an eyelash.Sure, at the time, the left-wing site Daily Kos called for a boycott. And a Facebook group at the time managed to find a couple hundred users angry about the characterization. Whole Foods set up a special forum for customers to express their views on the op-ed.But it was hardly the response Whole Foods got when on Jan. 16 in an NPR interview, Mackey was asked a follow-up question on what he thought about the current law.After all, the “public option” was never adopted. What came afterward, now known in popular vernacular as ObamaCare, was a mishmash of mandates, regulations and price controls — but fell short of an outright nationalization of the insurance industry.
That was when Mackey used the F-word. No, not that one. The other one.
- Untitled (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/23/antibiotic-resistant-diseases-apocalyptic-threat?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter) – Antibiotic-resistant diseases pose ‘apocalyptic’ threat, top expert says #tcot
- If you want bigger government, you need to side with big business – The media too often see Washington battles as Big Business vs Big Government. This is usually not the case. Often it’s Big Business & Big Government vs. Small Business.Brookings scholar and Clinton, Gore, Mondale advisor William Galston wrote a piece today telling liberals that they need to side with Big Business over small business if they really want to increase the government’s role in the economy. Writing in The New Republic, Galston writes:The Obama administration will need to recognize the fervent opposition of small businesses to its priorities, while taking advantage of large corporations’ willingness to cooperate.Galston is exactly correct about the alignment of interests. Big Business tends to do well when government intervenes. Small business dies.
- The California Flap: January 24, 2013 – Flap’s California Blog – The California Flap: January 24, 2013 – the morning’s California political headlines
- Optimistic State of the State address expected from governor – latimes.com – Optimistic State of the State address expected from governor
- Cal lawmakers propose 72-hour posting of bills before final votes – latimes.com – Cal lawmakers propose 72-hour posting of bills before final votes
- Capitol Weekly: The battle for CEQA – The battle for CEQA
- Day By Day January 24, 2013 – Same Ol – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day January 24, 2013 – Same Ol #tcot
- Bobby Jindal speaking truth to GOP power – RT @TheFix Bobby Jindal tries a bit of tough love for his party.
- GOP Plots Path Back to Powers – With President Obama’s second inauguration still ringing in their ears, Republican national party leaders are hunkering down for three days of soul-searching.The presidential election was the toughest, but not the last indignity. Congressional Republicans were backed into a corner during the negotiations to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff and forced to accept tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans. Still seeking leverage, GOP leaders are backing off a showdown over the debt ceiling. At Monday’s swearing-in, President Obama stuck it to the opposition party by laying out an unapologetically liberal agenda for the next four years.The most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll pegged the Republican Party’s unfavorable rating at 49%, its highest point since 2008. The most obvious hurdle will be improving the party’s image among minorities, women and young voters, who comprise a growing share of the electorate and rejected Republican nominee Mitt Romney as out of date and out of touch.
- Rush Limbaugh was right about Obama – There should have been something for everyone in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address. For liberals, a full-throated call to arms. For conservatives, vindication.Obama settled once and for all the debate over his place on the political spectrum and his political designs. He’s an unabashed liberal determined to shift our politics and our country irrevocably to the left. In other words, Obama’s foes — if you put aside the birthers and sundry other lunatics — always had him pegged correctly.
Continue ReadingIf you listened to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, you got a better appreciation of Obama’s core than by reading the president’s friends and sophisticated interpreters, for whom he was either a moderate or a puzzle yet to be fully worked out. - The GOP Gets Fiscally Tough – House Republicans appear to have gotten some of their mojo back. GOP leaders say they will insist that automatic spending cuts (the “sequester”) scheduled to begin on March 1 will be made and that the House will adopt a budget resolution that would lead to a balanced budget within ten years without raising any more taxes. Just a few months ago, they were singing a different, less fiscally tough tune.On Wednesday, the House suspended the limit on the nation’s debt ceiling. That gives Republican lawmakers nearly four months to sort out what they will demand in exchange for raising it and puts that potentially market-spooking debate off until after budget battles over the scheduled sequester cuts and the expiration on March 27 of a continuing resolution to fund the government. Republicans view the political terrain on those issues as more favorable than that of any confrontation with President Obama and Harry Reid’s Senate over further spending cuts.
- John Boehner: Obama wants to ‘annihilate’ GOP – President Barack Obama is aiming to “annihilate” the GOP during the president’s second term, House Speaker John Boehner says.“And given what we heard yesterday about the President’s vision for his second term, it’s pretty clear to me that he knows he can’t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans,” Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a gathering of the Republican-oriented Ripon Society on Tuesday, a day after President Barack Obama’s second Inaugural address. “So we’re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this Administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party. And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal — to just shove us into the dustbin of history.”
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-01-23 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-01-23
- The California Flap: January 23, 2013 – Flap’s California Blog – The California Flap: January 23, 2013
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-01-22 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2013-01-22
- Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2013-01-23 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2013-01-23 #tcot
- Capitol Alert: Ex-Treasury official Neel Kashkari mulling run for CA office – Capitol Alert: Ex-Treasury official Neel Kashkari mulling run for CA office #tcot
- My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-23 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2013-01-23
- Capitol Alert: Ex-Treasury official Neel Kashkari mulling run for CA office – Capitol Alert: Ex-Treasury official Neel Kashkari mulling run for CA office #tcot
- Capitol Alert: Ex-Treasury official Neel Kashkari mulling run for CA office – Ex-Treasury official Neel Kashkari mulling run for California office
- Capitol Alert: Sacramento GOP consultant files suit against Lance Armstrong – Capitol Alert: Sacramento GOP consultant files suit against Lance Armstrong #tcot
- Panetta to lift ban on women in combat – Women in all branches of the military soon will have unprecedented opportunities to serve on the front lines of the nation’s wars.Leon Panetta, in one of his last acts as President Obama’s defense secretary, is preparing to announce the policy change, which would open hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war, the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday.The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule banning women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta’s decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.
- Capitol Alert: Sacramento GOP consultant files suit against Lance Armstrong – Capitol Alert: Sacramento GOP consultant files suit against Lance Armstrong #tcot
- Capitol Alert: Sacramento GOP consultant files suit against Lance Armstrong – Sacramento GOP consultant files suit against Lance Armstrong
- Court: Putting Prop. 30 on top of ballot was illegal | CalWatchDog – Court: Putting Prop. 30 on top of ballot was illegal
- Conn Carroll: Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | WashingtonExaminer.com – Conn Carroll: Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | #tcot
- Majority of senators back Keystone XL pipeline – Yahoo! News – RT @StewSays: Reuters: Majority of senators back Keystone XL pipeline #bipartisan #KXL4jobs #jobs
- Conn Carroll: Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | WashingtonExaminer.com – Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | #tcot
- Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | WashingtonExaminer.com – Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | #tcot
- Union rosters fall in labor fight states – Kevin Robillard – POLITICO.com – RT @politico: Union rosters fall in labor fight states, @PoliticoKevin reports:
- Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | WashingtonExaminer.com – Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | #tcot
- Why Benghazi Hasn’t Brought Down Hillary Clinton–and Won’t – It’s not that Clinton is blameless for the Benghazi disaster. The attack in Libya cost the lives of four Americans, including a beloved ambassador. It wrecked the aspirations of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who withdrew from consideration as secretary of State. It probably wrecked the aspirations of the president, who seemed like he wanted to nominate Rice. But even if it was Clinton’s State Department that was unprepared, the word “Benghazi” is unlikely to chase the 65-year-old into her next life of books, high-end speeches, public service, needed rest, grandmotherhood (should she be so lucky), and perhaps another run for president.Why is Hillary so invincible now? She prevailed on Benghazi by having taken so many bullets that she became bulletproof, like her husband. At a certain point you’re like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, just letting them bounce off you. Perhaps if Clinton wasn’t on her way out of office, the debacle might have damaged her more. She’s also mastered the art of damage control.
- Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? | WashingtonExaminer.com – Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? #tcot
- Day By Day January 23, 2013 – The Dog Whisperer – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day January 23, 2013 – The Dog Whisperer #tcot
- Will the Democratic Party survive Obama? – Republicans currently control the governors mansion and legislatures of 25 states representing 53 percent of the American population. The Democratic Party enjoys similar control of just 13 states representing just 27 percent of the population. With Obama out of the picture, it is hard to see how Democrats can add to those numbers.
- Untitled (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll030.xml) – RT @jamiedupree: Full debt limit vote now posted at – GOP 199-33 in favor, Dems 86-111
- Sen. Durbin: Democrats lack votes to pass talking filibuster reform – Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), a leading liberal, said Wednesday Democrats do not have enough votes to implement the talking-filibuster reform.He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has suggested a package of more modest reforms to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). They include proposals to eliminate filibusters on motions to proceed to new business and to speed the process for sending legislation to conference negotiations with the House.
- It makes a difference, Secretary Clinton – RT @conncarroll: WaPo: “It makes a difference, Secretary Clinton”
- 9 Things You Want to Know About Hillary Clinton’s Testimony–and 1 You Need to Know – NationalJournal.com – RT @nationaljournal: A guide to Hillary Clinton’s testimony: What you want to know and what you need to know
- Untitled (http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/jan/21/friends-remember-bob-larkin-long-time-republican/?partner) – Untitled (… #tcot
- Hillary Clinton Fails in Benghazi Senate Hearing – Flap’s Blog – Hillary Clinton Fails in Benghazi Senate Hearing #tcot
- Untitled (http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/jan/21/friends-remember-bob-larkin-long-time-republican/?partner=RSS&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter) – Friends remember Bob Larkin, long-time Republican and Simi Valley activist
- Capitol Alert: Assembly Democrat wants grocery store ban on plastic bags – Assembly Democrat wants grocery store ban on plastic bags
- Amazon to build huge distribution center in Tracy – ContraCostaTimes.com – Amazon to build huge distribution center in Tracy
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Will ObamaCare Result in Less Dental Coverage for Patients? – Will ObamaCare Result in Less Dental Coverage for Patients?
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The Morning Flap: November 20, 2012
These are my links for November 19th through November 20th:
- California, Home of the Destitute– Today, California is the most spectacular failure of our time. Its government is broke. Productive citizens have been fleeing for some years now, selling their homes at inflated prices (until recently) and moving to Colorado, Arizona, Texas and even Minnesota, like one of my neighbors. The results of California’s improvident liberalism have been tragically easy to predict: absurd public sector wage and benefit packages, a declining tax base, surging welfare enrollment, falling economic production, ever-increasing deficits. Soon, California politicians will be looking to less glamorous states for bailout money. Things have now devolved to the point where California leads the nation in poverty:The Golden State’s poverty rate is a whopping 23.5 percent – higher than the District of Columbia, at 23.2 percent, and even Florida, and 19.5 percent.This is based on the federal government’s new poverty measure, and California suffered a bit because of its high cost of living, but that is a minor point–by any measure, California is number one in destitution. The cause is obvious: liberal Democrats have held unimpeded sway in California, just as they have in Detroit, Illinois, Miami, the District, and so on. Everywhere, the results have been similar. Where liberal policies are implemented, productive citizens fade away and poverty follows.
- Cows Flee California Seeking a Better Economic Climate– It’s not just millionaires and billionaires who are fleeing the economic madness in California. Even cows are starting to depart for greener pastures. That’s right, 400 bovine refugees shuffled off to Kansas just this month, with more expected to follow as over 100 dairy farms in California close their doors.Why are cows voting with their hooves?
- Opinion: President Obama won, but Obamacare didn’t – Carrie Lukas – POLITICO.com– During the campaign, President Barack Obama minimized discussion of his first term’s most consequential new law: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or what’s commonly referred to as Obamacare.That was no accident. Undoubtedly, the campaign knew that Obamacare is, as it always has been, deeply unpopular with the American people. In fact, Obamacare epitomizes the public’s greatest concerns about this administration: the massive expansion of government and failure to deliver a new era of post-partisanship to Washington, since the law was jammed through using a party line vote and every available legislative trick. Bringing up health care risked stirring the passions that fueled the tea party’s rise and the Democrats’ defeat in 2010.Yet, research conducted by the polling company, inc./WomanTrend for Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) shows that health care was an important concern for Americans on Election Day. The president was reelected in spite of voters’ lingering distaste for Obamacare, and the health care issue will remain a critical issue for voters moving forward.Just a quarter, or 26 percent of those surveyed by the polling company on Election Day supported implementing Obamacare completely. Even less than half (48 percent) of self-identified Democrats want full implementation, suggesting that the health care law remains a liability, even within the president’s party.Forty-three percent of voters surveyed want Congress to either “just repeal the law” (30 percent) or move toward repeal, while pursuing other measures – including defunding, amending, and blocking – to prevent its implementation (13 percent). Another quarter (23 percent) favor amending the law, rather than full repeal.
- Report: Paula Broadwell’s threat to Jill Kelley – Paula Broadwell allegedly threatened to make Jill Kelley “go away,” the New York Daily News reported Tuesday, in the latest twist in a sex scandal that has ensnared top U.S. national security officials.
Broadwell, the ex-mistress of retired Gen. David Petraeus — who stepped down from his post as head of the CIA over his extramarital affair with her — allegedly sent threatening emails to Kelley, a Tampa socialite who is reportedly a friend of Petraeus’s. - Oklahoma is latest to reject state-based health exchange– Add Oklahoma to the list of Republican-led states that won’t implement the key feature of President Obama’s healthcare law.Gov. Mary Fallin said Monday that she won’t set up a state-based insurance exchange — a new portal where people who don’t get insurance through their employers can shop for coverage, often with help from a federal subsidy.”It does not benefit Oklahoma taxpayers to actively support and fund a new government program that will ultimately be under the control of the federal government, that is opposed by a clear majority of Oklahomans, and that will further the implementation of a law that threatens to erode both the quality of American healthcare and the fiscal stability of the nation,” Fallin said in a statement.Republican governors are under pressure from conservatives not to set up their own exchanges. It’s seen as the best chance to stand in the way of the Affordable Care Act now that Obama’s reelection has protected the law from legislative repeal.
- 4 California men allegedly supported Taliban– Jihadist social media postings helped lead to the arrest and charging of four Los Angeles area men, who were allegedly on their way to Afghanistan to train with the Taliban and join al Qaeda, federal officials said.They were also plotting to kill American soldiers and bomb government installations, according to a joint statement Monday by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles.One of the men, a U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan, encouraged two of the others to embrace violent Islamic doctrine by introducing them online to radical teachings, including those of deceased U.S.-born al-Qaeda imam Anwar al-Awlaki.The three exposed their connection to each other and their radical leanings explicitly on Facebook for over a year. And one of them detailed his intentions to participate in jihad in an online chat with an FBI employee.Another man was recruited at a later point to join the other three in their training.
- Tax loopholes alone can’t solve fiscal cliff– Raise revenues and reform the Tax Code? Easy — just eliminate all the tax loopholes, right?Good luck with that.“Eliminating loopholes” sounds a lot better than “raising rates”: The tax rate is what I pay, and a loophole is what the other guy gets.But the biggest loopholes in the U.S. Tax Code — generally referred to as tax expenditures — aren’t just the tricks of the trade for millionaires with offshore bank accounts. For the vast majority of Americans, they’re just how things work: You don’t pay taxes on your health insurance or Medicare benefits; you contribute tax-free to your 401(k); and your mortgage interest pushes down your tax bill each year.And even if you dump the biggest of the set, these tax perks don’t even come close to closing the deficit. At best, the top 10 would pull in an extra $834 billion a year, according to Joint Committee on Taxation figures. Considering the hole lawmakers are trying to fill is several trillion dollars large, it’s clear they wouldn’t even come close
- Red-State Senate Democrats May Be Hard to Corral on Cliff– Senate Democrats, optimistic about prospects for a deficit-reduction deal, may have to contend with wariness from seven members who face 2014 re-election campaigns in states Mitt Romney won Nov. 6.Some of those seven Democrats, including North Carolina’s Kay Hagan and Louisiana ’s Mary Landrieu, say they aren’t ready to commit to President Barack Obama’s proposals for boosting tax revenue. Instead, Hagan isn’t ruling out support for extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for top earners. Landrieu said she opposes eliminating tax breaks for oil companies.Possible Democratic defections heighten the need for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to woo Republican support for a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff — $607 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to begin taking effect in January. Lame-duck Republican Senators Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Richard Lugar of Indiana are potential candidates.
- Portman and Cruz plan to focus on fundraising, recruitment for NRSC– The new vice chairmen of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) have unusually specific tasks heading into 2014: fundraising and recruitment.Both elements are crucial to a successful election cycle, and the early, precise focus by newly elected Chairman Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) demonstrates a shake-up in committee structure meant to avoid the losses that plagued Republicans in 2012.Moran has tasked Sen.-elect Ted Cruz (R-Texas) with grassroots and Hispanic outreach. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has been given the goal of energizing donors fatigued from an election in which they saw a disappointing return on their investments.The trio has met at least twice since the announcement of new NRSC leadership last Wednesday, and a senior Moran aide said the three will continue to meet and discuss plans for 2014 over the phone until they all return to the Senate in January.
- Boehner tightens grip on GOP rank and file ahead of deficit talks– Speaker John Boehner is tightening his grip on the House Republican Conference weeks before an anticipated vote on a deficit deal.The Ohio Republican has smoothed over differences with Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), expanded his powers on the panel that doles out plum committee assignments, shot down a challenge to his earmark moratorium and worked behind the scenes to ensure that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) would win her leadership contest.All of Boehner’s moves are aimed at shoring up his influence over the GOP conference, which in turn maximizes the Speaker’s leverage with President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate.
- Is Rush Limbaugh’s Country Gone?– William Bennett, conservative stalwart, television commentator and secretary of education under President Reagan, complained on the CNN Web site that Democrats have been successful in settingthe parameters and focus of the national and political dialogue as predominantly about gender, race, ethnicity and class. This is the paradigm, the template through which many Americans, probably a majority, more or less view the world, our country, and the election. It is a divisive strategy and Democrats have targeted and exploited those divides. How else can we explain that more young people now favor socialism to capitalism?In fact, the 2011 Pew Research Center poll Bennett cites demonstrates that in many respects conservatives are right to be worried:Not only does a plurality (49-43) of young people hold a favorable view of socialism — and, by a tiny margin (47-46), a negative view of capitalism — so do liberal Democrats, who view socialism positively by a solid 59-33; and African Americans, 55-36. Hispanics are modestly opposed, 49-44, to socialism, but they hold decisively negative attitudes toward capitalism, 55-32.
- The GOP Consultant Class Blames Me– RUSH: Couple of sound bites. First, Mike Murphy. He is a Republican consultant. He was on Meet the Press yesterday, and among other things, he said this.MURPHY: The biggest problem that Romney had was the Republican primary. That’s what’s driving the Republican brand right now to a disaster, and we’ve got to get, kind of, a party view of America that’s not right out of Rush Limbaugh’s dream journal.RUSH: You gotta get a view of the Republican Party that is not right out of my dream journal. What, folks, did I or any of you have to do with the Republican primary? Did not Murphy get the candidate he wanted? All these consultants, do you realize they get rich no matter who wins or loses? Little-known secret. They get rich no matter who wins or loses. But the Republican primary, as far as he’s concerned there were too many conservatives in it saying too many stupid things.We need to get rid of conservatism, is what is he’s saying. We need to get rid of all these people shouting stupid conservative stuff, and that’s where it happened at the primary, and that’s where Romney lost the election because of all the conservatives branding the party. Romney was not able to recover from that. Steve Schmidt. He’s back. He can’t let go of me. This is University of Delaware panel discussion last Wednesday.
- Hostess mediation: Judge delays hearing to allow Hostess, unions to work out issues– Hostess Brands Inc. agreed in court on Monday to enter private mediation with its lenders and leaders of a striking union to try to avert the liquidation of the maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread.Hostess, its lenders and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) agreed to mediation at the urging of Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain of the Southern District of New York, who advised against a more expensive, public hearing regarding the company’s liquidation.”My desire to do this is prompted primarily by the potential loss of over 18,000 jobs as well as my belief that there is a possibility to resolve this matter,” Drain said.The 82-year-old Hostess was seeking permission to liquidate its business, claiming that its operations have been crippled by a bakers strike and that winding down is the best way to preserve its dwindling cash.
- California officials release results of first cap-and-trade auction– The California Air Resources Board today released the results of the state’s inaugural cap-and-trade auction.The auction took place on Wednesday.Cap-and-trade is a system designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California. Under the system, businesses including refineries, power plants and large factories will be capped at 90 percent of current emissions. Those businesses must then buy credits at auction or on the open market in order to be allowed to continue to produce at current levels.Businesses could also meet their regulatory burdens by lowering emissions.Cap-and-trade goes into effect in 2013.The newly-released report on the auction shows businesses purchased all 23.1 million emissions credits that were up for bid.
The settlement price for accepted bids in the auction was $10.09.
CARB has estimated that a $10 price for emissions allowances could add 10 cents to the price of a gallon of gasoline.
- Another Victory for Challengers of HHS Mandate – The HHS contraceptive mandate suffered another loss last Friday—its third loss in the four decisions that have addressed the merits of the claim that the HHS mandate violates the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). In a thorough opinion in Tyndale House Publishers v. Sebelius, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the federal district court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction that bars the federal government from penalizing a publishing house for its religiously based refusal to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives that also operate as abortifacients.
- Exercise Gains Momentum as Psychiatric Treatment– The benefits of exercise in nearly every aspect of physical health are well known, but evidence in recent years suggests a unique effect on some psychiatric disorders, prompting mental health clinicians to rethink treatment strategies and to consider the possibility of exercise not just in therapy but as therapy.”Above and beyond the standard benefits of exercise in healthy living and general well-being, there is strong evidence demonstrating the ability of exercise to in fact treat mental illness and have significant benefits on a neurotrophic, neurobiologic basis,” Douglas Noordsy, MD, told delegates attending Psych Congress 2012: US Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress.Some of the strongest evidence is seen in depression, where psychiatric benefits from exercise have been shown in some cases to match those achieved with pharmacologic interventions and to persist to prevent remission in the long term.
- Asian American voters go heavily for Obama in California– Latino voters are credited with helping swing the vote for Barack Obama, but the rapidly growing Asian American electorate supported the incumbent by an even broader margin. According to Edison Research’s exit polls, 73 percent of Asian Americans nationwide voted for Obama, while 71 percent of Latinos did so. In California, 79 percent of Asian Americans favored Obama.In 1992, 31 percent of Asian Americans preferred the Democratic nominee, but that number has grown in each subsequent election since. The Asian American population, meanwhile, has increased 32 percent over the past decade alone.While they represented just 3.4 percent of the national vote, Asian Americans accounted for 11 percent of the California vote, according to Edison Research. Voter registration tallies show Orange County Asian American voters running nearly 5 points greater than the statewide share, according to Political Data.By 2050, Asian Americans will account for 10 percent of the nation’s voters and at least 20 percent of the state’s voters, according to Taeku Lee, a UC Berkeley political scientist and co-author of the National Asian American Survey.
- Orlando Health eliminates 400 jobs through layoffs and attrition– For the first time in its nearly 100-year history, Orlando Health is reducing its workforce by up to 400 positions starting immediately, hospital officials announced this morning.The elimination of 300 to 400 jobs will occur in two phases, and represents a 2- to 3-percent decrease in the system’s 16,000 employees, said Orlando Health spokeswoman Kena Lewis. The reductions affect all departments and all eight of its hospitals, including Orlando Regional Medical Center and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.The first wave of employees affected by the “labor expense reduction” portion of the initiative received their notices Friday, said Lewis. The next wave of downsizing will happen after the first of the year.
- McClintock: Election will bring pain to CA– Abraham Lincoln said that if the voters get their backsides too close to the fire, they’ll just have to sit on the blisters for a while. After the Nov. 6 election, Californians have some very nasty blisters to sit on.However, after pain, enlightenment usually comes. If not, California pharmacies will be selling out of salve.
- Austin company creates app that helped Obama campaign– Political experts say the just-completed presidential race involved more spending by both sides on information technology than ever before.Some of that spending was on applications for mobile devices as a way to reach out to both supporters and volunteers.That is why a small Austin digital design firm, Thirteen23, found itself working furiously from May through July to create the app the Obama campaign wanted.The Obama campaign had worked with Square Inc., a mobile payments company, on an app that could let supporters contribute to the campaign over their smartphones. When the campaign wanted a bigger, more elaborate app, Square referred them to Thirteen23, which it had previously done work with.The 11-person Austin firm hadn’t done political projects before, but executive director Doug Cook said it liked the challenge of creating a vital two-way online communication link between the campaign and its supporters and volunteers.While some campaigns had already used smartphone apps to push out information to supporters, this application was seen as something far more complex.
“We said, if we are going to build an app, lets make tools that make people effective. Lets give volunteers tools that they can use,” said Ryan Hovenweep, the firm’s creative director.
The app would provide localized information about campaign events to supporters. But it also gave volunteer workers the tools to canvass potential voters house to house and to report back their findings to the campaign’s computers.
“With a smartphone in hand, you can go talk to people and get information,” Hovenweep said. “With the app, they are immediately taking the information from the ground and putting it back into the campaign database.”
With a tight deadline and the order to create an useful, complex app for volunteers, the company threw itself into the project in May and delivered software to the Obama campaign in July. The Obama campaign released the first version of software, for iPhone users, at the end of July. The Android version was delivered a few weeks later.
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The Morning Flap: March 15, 2012
These are my links for March 14th through March 15th:
- CA-25: Life Long Republican Cathie Wright Joins Congressional Race | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-25: Life Long Republican Cathie Wright Joins Congressional Race
- CDC Using Scary Graphic Ads to Combat Smoking – Today Begins Ad Campaign | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – CDC Using Scary Graphic Ads to Combat Smoking – Today Begins Ad Campaign
- Flap’s California Morning Collection: March 15, 2012 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: March 15, 2012
- TAPPER: And that’s not comparable to what Limbaugh said about Sandra Fluke?
-
MAHER: To compare that to Rush is ridiculous – he went after a
civilian about very specific behavior, that was a lie, speaking for a
party that has systematically gone after women’s rights all year, on
the public airwaves. I used a rude word about a public figure who
gives as good as she gets, who’s called people “terrorist” and
“unAmerican.” Sarah Barracuda. The First Amendment was specifically
designed for citizens to insult politicians. Libel laws were written
to protect law students speaking out on political issues from getting
called whores by Oxycontin addicts.TAPPER: What about all the clips of you saying rather “edgy” things –
offensive to many people, no doubt – from your show on HBO, “Real
Time”?MAHER: Of course if you take out of context over 10 years snippets
inside comedy bits you can make anyone look bad – and sometimes, I
have been! Not perfect, but not misogyny. In general, this is an
obvious right wing attempt to dredge up some old shit about me to
deflect from their self-inflicted problems. They are the kings of
false equivalencies.And through it all, I have defended Rush’s right to stay on the air!
Not what he said, that was disgusting – but the right to not disappear
because people who don’t even listen to you don’t like what you said.
That really bothers me. I never hear Rush Limbaugh unless a guy in the
next truck at a stop light has it on; it would be arrogant for me to
say “he has to disappear” and deprive the people who do listen to him
of what they like. We all have different tastes and different
opinions, that’s America. - Why Ron Paul May Cut a Deal With Mitt Romney – For Ron Paul, victory is finally in sight. No, not a swearing-in ceremony next January 20, or even a single statewide win. Halfway through the primary season, Paul has won only a preference poll in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and he is running dead last in delegates among the four GOP candidates for President. He has spent a lot, if not always wisely: the $31.55 he has dropped per vote (more than even Mitt Romney) is a sum that might shock even a Democrat.
But winning the presidency was never Paul’s foremost goal, and as he nears the end of his last presidential crusade, he has one more chance to promote his ideas. The Republican race is a muddled mess. Even after his southern losses, only Romney has a real shot at amassing the 1,144 delegates required to wrap up the nomination, and he would then face the task of unifying the GOP’s warring factions. Which is why Paul’s campaign has sent discreet signals to Camp Romney that the keys to Paul’s shop can be had for the right price.
- Obama’s Top Campaign Bundlers Among State Dinner Guests – – More than three dozen of President Obama’s top re-election campaign financiers are guests at tonight’s White House state dinner in honor of British Prime Minister David Cameron.
They include Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, media mogul Fred Eychaner, Pfizer executive Sally Susman, Stoneyfield Farms president and CEO Gary Hirschberg, and Microsoft executives Suzi Levine and John Frank. Several have each raised more than half a million dollars for 2012, according to estimates provided by Obama’s campaign.
- Racial Quota Fallout – Re: Derrick Bell by Thomas Sowell – Derrick Bell’s options were to be a nobody, living in the shadow of more accomplished legal scholars — or to go off on some wild tangent of his own, and appeal to a radical racial constituency on campus and beyond.
His writings showed clearly that the latter was the path he chose. His previous writings had been those of a sensible man saying sensible things about civil rights issues that he understood from his years of experience as an attorney. But now he wrote all sorts of incoherent speculations and pronouncements, the main drift of which was that white people were the cause of black people’s problems.
Bell even said that he took it as his mission to say things to annoy white people. Perhaps he thought that was better than being insignificant in his academic setting. But it was in fact far worse, because the real damage was to impressionable young blacks who took him seriously, including one who went on to become President of the United States.
- Day By Day March 15, 2012 – Drive-By Theater | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day March 15, 2012 – Drive-By Theater
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-15 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-15
- Initial Claims Beat Expectations For Week Of March 10 – RT @businessinsider: INITIAL CLAIMS BEAT SINKING TO 351K
- Whether Romney or Santorum wins, the road to the nomination will be ugly – The Washington Post – RT @washingtonpost: As #2012 race drags on, #GOP convention could turn from pep rally to brawl
- (404) http://t.co/3PZCF – RT @WestWingReport: Latest polls: 48% approve of #Obama, 45% don’t (Gallup); 47%-52% (Rasmussen). Avg. of all polls in …
- CDC unveils graphic ads to combat smoking –
- Battle of addition: 165 days until GOP convention – Battle of addition: 165 days until GOP convention
- Bill Maher: Rush Limbaugh attacked a ‘civilian’ – Bill Maher: Rush Limbaugh attacked a ‘civilian’
- CDC unveils graphic ads to combat smoking – CNN.com – CDC unveils graphic anti-smoking ads
- Google Gives Search a Refresh – WSJ.com – Google Gives Search a Refresh –
- The Tea Party has drowned – The Tea Party is over. In the way of parties that end, there are still people around. Those who remain search for a return of the old energy and make unconvincing demonstrations of people having a good time. But the central focus, the excitement, the purpose of the thing is dissipating. That is because the bad stuff that its members and boosters put out — lies, slanders, paranoia, ignorance — is losing what grip it had over the minds of people with minds. What’s left, though, is something else, which will not go away: the identification of moral choices blurred and contemporary indifferences ignored.
- Untitled (http://getglue.com/Fullosseousflap/stickers/checkin_rookie?s=ts&ref=Fullosseousflap) – I unlocked the Check-in Rookie sticker on @GetGlue!
- Brokered convention | GOP | Mitt Romney | The Daily Caller – ‘Brokered’ GOP convention? Get ready, say political strategists
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-15 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-15
- Untitled (http://getglue.com/tv_shows/criminal_minds?s=tch&ref=Fullosseousflap) – I’m watching Criminal Minds (1610 others checked-in) @GetGlue @CrimMinds_CBS
- Untitled (http://getglue.com/topics/p/los_angeles_lakers?s=tch&ref=Fullosseousflap) – Almost time for a short run… @GetGlue #LosAngelesLakers
- Untitled (http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i1056_12-0008_(pension_reform).pdf) – RT @JudyLinAP: GOP attorney Tom Hiltachk begins circulating Government Employee Pension Reform Act. ?
- Jerry Brown and Teacher’s Union Reach Compromise Tax Increase Initiative Deal » Flap’s California Blog – Jerry Brown and Teacher’s Union Reach Compromise Tax Increase Initiative Deal
- GRAPH: The escalating cost of Obamacare – So I’ve created the updated graph below. Notice how low the numbers are in the 2010 to 2013 time period and how they quickly soar. All the spending to the right of the black line wasn’t reflected in the CBO’s estimate for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) at the time of passage.
- Untitled (http://getglue.com/tv_shows/special_report_with_bret_baier?s=tch&ref=Fullosseousflap) – I’m watching Special Report with Bret Baier @GetGlue #SpecialReport
- CA-25: Dante Acosta Agrees to Substitute for Rep Buck McKeon for Lunch Auction | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-25: Dante Acosta Agrees to Substitute for Rep Buck McKeon for Lunch Auction
- Football: Oaks Christian Coach Bill Redell announces retirement – latimes.com – RT @latimessports: Oaks Christian football coach Bill Redell retires
- Untitled (http://getglue.com/tv_shows/espn?s=tch&ref=Fullosseousflap) – Mets vs Tigers @GetGlue #ESPN
- President 2012 Poll Watch: In North Carolina President Obama Leading Republican Field | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: In North Carolina President Obama Leading Republican Field
- Stratfor on Methamphetamine Production in Mexico | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Stratfor on Methamphetamine Production in Mexico
- Flap’s California Morning Collection: March 14, 2012 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: March 14, 2012
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: March 14, 2012 – The Morning Drill: March 14, 2012
- The Morning Flap: March 14, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: March 14, 2012
-
The Morning Flap: March 13, 2012
These are my links for March 12th through March 13th:
- Protests, attacks hit Afghanistan in wake of massacre – Thousands of people took to the streets in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday to protest the killing of 16 civilians by a U.S. soldier, burning an effigy of Barack Obama and calling for the killer to be tried in Afghanistan.
Demonstrators in the city of Jalalabad chanted “Death to America — Death to Obama” and blocked the main highway to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported.
“Jihad (holy war) is the only way to get the invading Americans out of Afghanistan,” one banner read, according to the newspaper. - Specter says Obama ditched him after he provided 60th vote to pass health reform – Former Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) writes in a new book that President Obama ditched him in the 2010 election after he helped Obama win the biggest legislative victory of his term by passing healthcare reform.
Specter also claims that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not uphold his promise to grant him seniority accrued over 28 years of service in the Senate as a Republican.
- California’s Greek Tragedy – WSJ.com – Long a harbinger of national trends and an incubator of innovation, cash-strapped California eagerly awaits a temporary revenue surge from Facebook IPO stock options and capital gains. Meanwhile, Stockton may soon become the state’s largest city to go bust. Call it the agony and ecstasy of contemporary California.
California’s rising standards of living and outstanding public schools and universities once attracted millions seeking upward economic mobility. But then something went radically wrong as California legislatures and governors built a welfare state on high tax rates, liberal entitlement benefits, and excessive regulation. The results, though predictable, are nonetheless striking. From the mid-1980s to 2005, California’s population grew by 10 million, while Medicaid recipients soared by seven million; tax filers paying income taxes rose by just 150,000; and the prison population swelled by 115,000.
California’s economy, which used to outperform the rest of the country, now substantially underperforms. The unemployment rate, at 10.9%, is higher than every other state except Nevada and Rhode Island. With 12% of America’s population, California has one third of the nation’s welfare recipients.
- McGurn: Bill Maher’s ‘Fatwa’ – WSJ.com – ‘I don’t like fatwas.”
The words come from Bill Maher. The HBO comedian was tweeting his disapproval of the campaign to deprive Rush Limbaugh of his sponsors. Especially distressing for Mr. Maher is that the campaign continues even though Mr. Limbaugh has apologized for his rude remarks about the Georgetown Law student who had testified before Congress on behalf of the contraceptive mandate.
Mr. Maher’s “defense,” of course, may have more to do with self-defense. For in the midst of the ritual denunciations of Mr. Limbaugh, it has emerged that liberals—Mr. Maher included—have long called conservative women things far more vulgar. That has led to embarrassing explanations of why Mr. Maher gets a pass, and whether the super PAC backing President Obama should return the million dollars that Mr. Maher has donated.
- Republican Donors in Limbo – The extended Republican presidential primary has left many GOP donors paralyzed — unsure of whether to invest in the upcoming battle against President Barack Obama or focus on Congressional races.
Party insiders increasingly believe that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will win the nomination, a development that would likely open the donor spigot for the general election. But a victory by former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) or ex-Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) would probably have the opposite effect. A GOP money machine skeptical of the party’s White House prospects would likely spend instead on House and Senate races as the best hope for a November gain.
- A Mere 80% Say They’re Not Better Off Than Four Years Ago –
- Did GDP and the Unemployment Rate Become De-linked? –
- Father And Daughter Run 100th Marathon Together –
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-13 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-13
- AD-38: Scott Wilk Wins Santa Clarita Valley Republican Assembly Straw Poll » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Scott Wilk Wins Santa Clarita Valley Republican Assembly Straw Poll
- President 2012 Poll Watch: New York Times/CBS Poll Has Obama at 41 Per Cent Approval | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: New York Times/CBS Poll Has Obama at 41 Per Cent Approval
- Red meat is blamed for one in 10 early deaths – Small quantities of processed meat such as bacon, sausages or salami can increase the likelihood of dying by a fifth, researchers from Harvard School of Medicine found. Eating steak increases the risk of dying by 12%.
The study found that cutting the amount of red meat in peoples’ diets to 1.5 ounces (42 grams) a day, equivalent to one large steak a week, could prevent almost one in 10 early deaths in men and one in 13 in women.
The scientists said that the government’s current advice that people should eat no more than 2.5 ounces (70 grams) a day, around around the level the average Briton already consumes, was “generous”.
Dr Frank Hu, co-author of the study, said: “Given the growing evidence that even modest amounts of red meat is associated with increased risk of chronic disease and premature death, 2.5 ounces (70 grams) per day seems generous. The bottom line is that we should make red meat only an occassional rather than regular part of our diet.”
Red meat often contains high amounts of saturated fat, while bacon and salami contain large amounts of salt. Replacing red meat with poultry, fish or vegetables, whole grains and other healthy foods cut the risk of dying by up to one fifth, the study found. - Steve Schmidt: Putting Palin on the ticket taught me there are worse things than losing – Via Mediaite, Exhibit A in why John Podhoretz’s review of “Game Change” is titled “Back Stab.” Actually, scratch that; this is Exhibit Z. Schmidt’s getting more attention for it now because the movie’s getting attention but he’s been dumping on Palin publicly for more than two years and privately for who knows how long. (Leaks from unnamed staffers began less than a week after election day and Palin allies inside the campaign warned weeks earlier that they were coming.) This is his job now, I think — doing sporadic cable-news cameos as some sort of RINO Dr. Frankenstein who created a grassroots monster and has to atone by killing it. Michael Goldfarb, who left the Weekly Standard to join the McCain campaign’s communications team, has had enough:
- Back Stab – Sarah Palin as portrayed by her disloyal staff. – Nicolle Wallace was the onetime consultant to CBS News and media aide to George W. Bush who was assigned to work with Sarah Palin after the Alaska governor was chosen as John McCain’s running mate. It was Wallace who assured the McCain campaign that her dear friend Katie Couric, a committed liberal with a history of interviewing Republicans and conservatives in a quietly nasty way, was the right journalist to conduct a major early interview with the extremely conservative vice-presidential nominee.
Palin has only herself to blame for how horribly she came off, but as she was the most hotly sought-after interview in the world at the time, the McCain campaign could have picked and chosen and been cleverly calculating about which journalist would win the prize. Wallace was responsible for one of the great blunders in political advance work of modern media history.
Now, imagine you’re making a movie about the Palin story, one that demonstrates a modicum of sympathy for Sarah Palin’s excoriation at the hands of the media. (I know, I’m talking crazy, but go with me here.) In such a movie, Nicolle Wallace’s catastrophic guidance could have been portrayed in several ways. It could have been played as a simple goof, a wrongheaded political calculation. Or as an example of a kind of golly-gee naïveté, with Wallace being snowed by a seductive Couric. Or as a careerist move killing two birds with one stone, with Wallace seeking to stay in the good graces of her former colleague Couric despite several years of working for Republicans.
- Michael Goldfarb’s response to ‘A game changer for Palin’s image?’ – I can’t speak to the film, because I can’t bring myself to watch it.
Other loyal McCain staffers I’ve spoken to have had the same reaction. While a few senior aides from the McCain campaign collaborated with the authors of Game Change and painted a picture of John McCain and Sarah Palin as so craven or ill-informed or incompetent that no handler could have gotten them elected, the reality is that John McCain was the better man and would have made a better president.
We lost that campaign partly because of events beyond our control, and partly as a result of bad counsel given by the same people who are apparently so flatteringly portrayed in this movie. John McCain deserved better than to be betrayed by his own top aides, and true to form he has honorably stuck by Gov. Palin even as she’s been smeared in the press over and over again by the same self-serving former staffers. I only hope that the Romney campaign takes notice of what’s happened here.
Halperin and Heilemann have gotten a $5 million contract to do the same thing to Romney that they did to McCain, and they will no doubt be looking for Romney aides the same way a con artist searches for his mark – seeking the emotionally vulnerable, the weak, the insecure, the ones who value the approval of MSNBC analysts more than the respect of their own campaign staff. Unfortunately, every Republican campaign has them – and given the opportunity Halperin and Heilemann are certain to reoffend.
- AD-38: Patricia McKeon Upgrades Website and Lists Endorsements » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Patricia McKeon Upgrades Website and Lists Endorsements
- Villaraigosa declines to back any of three competing tax initiatives – latimes.com – RT @LATPoliticsCA: Villaraigosa declines to back any of tax initiatives on ballot
- President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Approval Rate Reaches 49 Per Cent and Trending Upward | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Approval Rate Reaches 49 Per Cent and Trending Upward
- Center-right leaders, Bush alums form religious conscience group – A collection of prominent center-right leaders, including multiple top Bush administration officials, have founded a new advocacy group to advocate for measures exempting religious organizations from federal rules governing contraception coverage, POLITICO has learned.
Among those involved in planning the group are former presidential adviser Mary Matalin, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, former RNC Chairman and Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, former Rep. Bill Paxon, former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn and New York Rabbi Meir Yaakov Soloveichik.
Their 501(c)4 organization, Conscience Cause, is aimed at “stopping the implementation of a Department of Health and Human Services regulation which would compel people and organizations to pay for drugs and services that violate their faith,” according to a statement shared with POLITICO.
Both Nicholson and Flynn are former ambassadors to the Vatican; Flynn is the lone Democrat in the group, though he has endorsed Mitt Romney for president.
- College board says it is addressing probation issues – The board that oversees Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura colleges has drafted a letter to the commission that put the colleges on probation, outlining what it has done to improve and what more it plans to do.
The Ventura County Community College District board is set to vote on the letter Tuesday..
“We’re trying to specifically respond to their concerns, to show them what we’re doing,” said board President Stephen Blum. “We realize we can’t just tell them what we’re going to do. We have to do what we say we’re going to do. I see this as one of our first steps.”
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges put the three campuses on probation last month, citing problems on the board. The commission noted one trustee’s “disruptive and inappropriate behavior.” Although he is not named in the letter, that trustee is Art Hernandez, who represents Oxnard.
- Gawker more acceptable than conservative talk radio for advertisers? – Given all the attacks on advertisers who advertise on the Rush Limbaugh show or other conservative talk radio shows, one has to wonder why the companies below — who are highlighted on Gawker Media’s advertising page — do not apply such standards of civility and civil discourse to Gawker Media?
Of particular interest was Ford Motor Company, which was included in a list of companies which allegedly had instructed Premier Networks not to run its ads on conservative talk radio for fear of controversy. I have e-mailed Ford both to confirm it will not advertise on conservative talk radio and that it advertises on Gawker Media sites, but have not heard back.
At the end of the day, the point is not that advertisers should quite Gawker, it’s that there is a complete double standard. Sexualized, unapologetic attacks on conservative women simply are part of the accepted landscape.
- California revenues 3.2 percent shy in February – California revenues missed the mark in February by 3.2 percent, or $146.3 million, state Controller John Chiang said Monday.
Chiang, who manages the state’s cash, said the shortfall was likely due to a spike in tax refunds going out earlier than expected in February. Income tax receipts were 5.7 percent, or $99.9 million, below the Department of Finance’s projection.
Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers are anxiously awaiting tax receipts from March and April, two significant revenue months as taxpayers file their returns. The Democratic governor has proposed a budget to close a $9.2 billion deficit, but the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has suggested that Brown’s estimates are overly optimistic and that the deficit is likely higher than that figure.
Though lawmakers have begun to review Brown’s budget in committee, they do not plan to take significant steps on the plan until late spring, closer to the June 15 deadline. Democratic leaders have said they want to see what tax revenues will be like in March and April before deciding how much to cut and where.
- CA-Sen: California Republican Party Endorses Elizabeth Emken for U.S. Senate Race | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-Sen: California Republican Party Endorses Elizabeth Emken for U.S. Senate Race
- Contact | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – @MarkStandriff The website is probably overloaded. You can go here and find my direct text address: First #. Thanks!
- ASICS Support Your Marathoner – 2012 Honda Los Angeles Marathon – Everyone here is the direct link to the Support Your Marathoner Page for me:
- ASICS Support Your Marathoner – 2012 Honda Los Angeles Marathon – @MarkStandriff Mark, is it the support your marathoner link?
- Flapsblog.com Readers: Please Support @Flap – Gregory Flap Cole in the Los Angeles Marathon | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Readers: Please Support @Flap – Gregory Flap Cole in the Los Angeles Marathon
- AD-38: Los Angeles County Republican Party Makes NO Endorsements in Assembly Race » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Los Angeles County Republican Party Makes NO Endorsements in Assembly Race
- Social Demographics: Who’s Using Today’s Biggest Networks – More than 66% of adults are connected to one or more social media platforms, but who exactly are these people?
The infographic below, created by Online MBA, breaks down the demographics, including education level, income, age and gender of social media users, along with other miscellaneous facts.
Some sites’ users are more demographically alike than others. One thing is the same for most social sites — college students, or those who have completed some college, represent the majority on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Digg and Reddit. Among Facebook users, 57% have completed some college, and 24% have earned a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Although, people 45 and older make up 46% of Facebook users.
Social media sites are also seeing a gender split — women use social media more than men. More women are on Facebook and Twitter. About 57% of Facebook and 59% of Twitter users are women.
Women gravitate toward Pinterest and young, techie men hang out on Google+. Pinterest has the heaviest gender imbalance — 82% of users are women, who pin crafts, gift ideas, hobbies, interior design and fashion. On the other spectrum, Google+ is dominated by men (71%) and early adopters, engineers and developers. About 50% of Google+ users are 24 or younger.
LinkedIn reports an even ratio of men and women — 49% over age 45 — who use the site to connect with other business professionals.
Most people use social media to stay in touch with friends and family, and more are doing so while on the go. About 200 million Facebook users check their Timelines from their mobile devices every day.
- Justice Dept opposes Texas voter ID law – The Justice Department’s civil rights division on Monday objected to a new photo ID requirement for voters in Texas because many Hispanic voters lack state-issued identification.
Texas is the second state in recent months to become embroiled in a court battle with the Justice Department over photo ID requirements for voters.
The Justice Department said Texas officials failed to show that the newly enacted law has neither a discriminatory purpose nor effect.
The department had been reviewing the law since last year and discussing the matter with state officials. In January, Texas officials sued U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, seeking a court judgment that the state’s recently enacted voter ID law was not discriminatory in purpose or effect. - Flap’s California Morning Collection: March 12, 2012 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: March 12, 2012
- The Morning Flap: March 12, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: March 12, 2012
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Dayton Ohio Veterans Administration Dental Clinic Has $6.6 Million in Outstanding Malpractice Claims – Dayton Ohio Veterans Administration Dental Clinic Has $6.6 Million in Outstanding Malpractice Claims
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: March 12, 2012 – The Morning Drill: March 12, 2012
- Protests, attacks hit Afghanistan in wake of massacre – Thousands of people took to the streets in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday to protest the killing of 16 civilians by a U.S. soldier, burning an effigy of Barack Obama and calling for the killer to be tried in Afghanistan.
-
The Morning Flap: March 9, 2012
These are my links for March 8th through March 9th:
- Limbaugh attack boomerangs on the White House – Perhaps the left carried on a little too long and a little too loudly regarding Rush Limbaugh’s nasty language about Sandra Fluke. Conservative activist Penny Nance, executive director of Concerned Women for America, has sent a letter to the White House chief of staff demanding President Obama’s super PAC live up to the same standard Democrats have articulated for Republicans and Rush Limbaugh.
- Apple at center of e-book price-fixing allegations – The Justice Department has threatened to sue Apple and major publishers in a high-profile case that could reshape the digital-books market, driving down prices but also potentially shifting market power from publishers to e-commerce giant Amazon.
The government warned Apple and five major book companies that it intends to file a lawsuit accusing them of colluding to boost the prices of e-books, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. Several of the publishers are already in talks to settle the matter, although those discussions appear to be at an early and uncertain stage, the Journal reported.
The publishers in question include Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, Macmillan and HarperCollins Publishers.
- Limbaugh spurns Sleep Train’s bid to resume advertising ties – First it was Sleep Train Mattress Centers that spurned its longtime ally and business partner Rush Limbaugh.
Now Limbaugh is returning the favor – and the split between the Sacramento retailer and the controversial radio host appears to be permanent.
Limbaugh on Thursday rejected Sleep Train’s offer to resume advertising on his national radio show and rehire Limbaugh as a paid spokesman. Limbaugh’s spokesman said the conservative commentator would no longer carry Sleep Train’s ads “in the future.”
Sleep Train stopped advertising on the show last Friday, becoming one of the first sponsors to drop Limbaugh. The company’s decision came two days after Limbaugh called a Georgetown University law student a “slut” and a “prostitute” over her stance on health insurance coverage for contraception.
Limbaugh apologized to the student over the weekend.
Sleep Train’s decision was especially noteworthy because Limbaugh and Sleep Train chief executive Dale Carlsen have known each other since the 1980s, when Sleep Train was a small company and Limbaugh was an on-air personality at Sacramento’s KFBK (1530 AM).
- Kucinich May Still Run from Washington – Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who just lost his re-election bid in a Democratic primary on Tuesday, did not close the door to running for Congress in a new district — in a new state, CBS News reports.
He said “there’s new possibilities that are being born at this moment.”
Should he decide to run again, Washingtion state’s “most appealing choices for a Kucinich run could be the first and sixth congressional districts which lack incumbents because of the retirements of Democratic Reps. Jay Inslee and Norm Dicks.”
- Scandal at The Washington Post: Fraud, Lobbying & Insider Trading –
- Pro-Obama PAC Won’t Give Back Maher’s Money – Current and former White House aides on Thursday rejected demands by a conservative group that a Super PAC supporting President Obama refund a $1 million check from comedian and talk show host Bill Maher because of coarse comments he’s made about Sarah Palin and other Republican women.
While Obama earlier this week denounced similar comments that radio talk show host made about a college student, Sandra Fluke, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters the president is not going to get involved in the Maher battle.
- Romney Really Might Not Have the Delegates by June – The Republican primary has revealed distinct geographic tendencies. Mitt Romney is dominant in New England and in the West. Newt Gingrich has run well in the Deep South, while Rick Santorum has done well in caucus states, the Great Plains, and the peripheral South (it remains to be seen whether his support has bled into Gingrich’s strength in the Deep South). That leaves the Midwest as a battleground between Romney and Santorum.
While Romney had a good night on Super Tuesday, the truth is that he did nothing to alter the basic regional nature of his support. He won handily in New England and the West, essentially tied in the Midwest, and ran poorly in the South.
- I refuse to go to the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner – no one should go –
- AD-38: Scott Wilk and Edward Headington Officially File For California Assembly » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Scott Wilk and Edward Headington Officially File For California Assembly
- Mayor Barrett Indicates When He’ll Decide About Run For Governor – Milwaukee News Story – WISN Milwaukee – Mayor Barrett Indicates When He’ll Decide About Run For Wisconsin Governor
- Mayor Barrett Indicates When He’ll Decide About Run For Wisconsin Governor – There are some new developments in the potential recall race for governor.
For the first time, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is putting a timeframe on his decision whether to enter the race.
He’s running for re-election as mayor but will he also jump into a possible recall race for governor?
He’s not answering that question yet, but now, for the first time, the mayor is indicating when he might make up his mind.
With an election for mayor less than four weeks away, Barrett continued to deflect any questions about a possible run for governor.
“I am certainly considering running for governor, but I haven’t made a decision quite honestly,” Barrett said.
Barrett spoke at a forum sponsored by Wispolitics.com, and afterward, 12 News reporter Kent Wainscott asked him whether Milwaukee voters deserved to know whether he plans to enter a likely governor’s recall race.
“I don’t know what the future holds, and that’s why I didn’t deny that this is something that I’m thinking about, because I am thinking about it, and I think the voters know that,” Barrett said.
- GOP strategist: Appeal to Latino voters is party’s ‘great challenge’ – Republican Party strategist Whit Ayres says a new Fox News poll showing a strong preference for Democrats among Latino voters underscores what he called “the great challenge of the Republican Party going forward” – doing better with non-white voters, especially Latinos and Asians.
- President 2012 Video: Fred Davis on Mitt Romney and How to Win in November | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Video: Fred Davis on Mitt Romney and How to Win in November
- Obama adviser David Axelrod slams Romney for Limbaugh while planning to go on Maher – While slamming Mitt Romney for not standing up to the “strident voices” on his side, a top Obama advisor is planning to spend some quality time with one on his own, The Daily has learned.
David Axelrod, President Obama’s senior campaign strategist, is scheduled to appear on Bill Maher’s late-night talk show within the next few weeks, according to Kelley Carville, an HBO spokesman.
As the controversy over Rush Limbaugh’s comments about Sandra Fluke continued, a former Obama White House official today joined Republicans in pointing out that Maher, who recently donated $1 million to a pro-Obama super PAC, has a history of his misogynistic slurs.
Last year, he was rebuked by the National Organization for Women for calling Sarah Palin a “dumb tw*t.”
“palin is right to point out that bill maher has said some pretty disgusting things about women, comedian or not. they are rush like,” Austan Goolsbee, the former chairman of President Obama’s Council on Economic Advisors, and currently a professor at the University of Chicago, tweeted.
After Obama spoke with Fluke, the Georgetown University Law Student called a “slut” and “prostitute” by Limbaugh, Palin challenged Priorities USA to return Maher’s donation.
“Pres. Obama says he called Sandra Fluke because of his daughters. For the sake of everyone’s daughter, why doesn’t his super PAC return the $1 million he got from a rabid misogynist?,” Palin wrote Tuesday on her Facebook page.
- Senate rejects GOP measure to construct Keystone pipeline, 56-42 – The Senate has rejected a GOP plan to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline after President Obama made personal calls to Democrats urging them to oppose it.
The 56-42 vote staves off an election-year rebuke of Obama, but will give political ammunition to backers of TransCanada Corp.’s plan to build a pipeline connecting Alberta’s massive tar sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries.
Despite Obama’s efforts, 11 Democrats brushed off Obama on the vote and sided with Republicans.
The 11 Democratic defections were Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Bob Casey (Pa.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Jim Webb (Va.).
No Republicans voted against the measure, and 60 votes were needed to move forward.
- AB-38: Scott Wilk Hyping Santa Clarita Valley Republican Assembly Weekend Straw Poll » Flap’s California Blog – AB-38: Scott Wilk Hyping Santa Clarita Valley Republican Assembly Weekend Straw Poll
- CA-26: Democrats Attacking Democrats Over Julia Brownley Carpetbagging Issue | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-26: Democrats Attacking Democrats Over Julia Brownley Carpetbagging Issue
- Bill Bennett: A lesson in how to turn the tables – Bill Bennett had this to say on CNN about the Rush Limbaugh hypocrisy fest: “My question is whether the president will give back the million dollars Bill Maher gave him. I don’t know how he’s going to explain that to Sasha and Malia, when that guy uses language that would make Rush blush.”
The comment is, in a word, perfect. The gentle tone of irony contrasts with the left’s hyperventilating. The matter-of-fact assertion highlights how the left’s “outrage” is reserved for political opponents’ entertainers. And his gentle rebuke to the president — who chose to drag his daughters into a phony political gambit — is the frosting on the well- baked cake.
Notice, in fact, how it is now the representative of the left who wants to move on? The Obama spinners have got as much mileage out of Limbaugh as they can, and if the conversation is now going to turn to their side, well then, for heaven’s sake, it’s time to turn the page! Or, as Dave Weigel put it in reference to David Axelrod’s inanity (“If Romney couldn’t stand up to “the most strident voices in your party, how can he stand up to Ahmadinejad?”): “Axelrod has no case. He’s a nomad flogging a camel to get one last mile out of it after it’s already crossed half the Gobi with no water.”
- Carbonite shoots its business model in the foot – The decline in the price of Carbonite stock since it announced it was dropping its longstanding advertising on the Rush Limbaugh show is not the real story of the damage done to Carbonite.
The price of Carbonite stock has been dropping since October for reasons unrelated to this controversy, although it did fall off a small cliff this week.
The real problem for Carbonite and its shareholders is that in leaving behind 15 million Rush listeners, Carbonite has shot its business model in the foot.
- Video: Why Run the Los Angeles Marathon? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Video: Why Run the Los Angeles Marathon?
- Poll Watch: U.S. Unemployment Rate Increases to 9.1 Per Cent | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: U.S. Unemployment Rate Increases to 9.1 Per Cent
- CA-25: Rep Buck McKeon Proposes Afghanistan Surge | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-25: Rep Buck McKeon Proposes Afghanistan Surge
- SD-19: Republican Mike Stoker to Run for California State Senate » Flap’s California Blog – SD-19: Republican Mike Stoker to Run for California State Senate
- CA-25: The Heat is On Rep Buck McKeon Over Defense Contractor Contributions | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-25: The Heat is On Rep Buck McKeon Over Defense Contractor Contributions
- The Morning Flap: March 8, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: March 8, 2012
- SD-27: Republican Marine Lt. Colonel and LA County Prosecutor to Run for California State Senate » Flap’s California Blog – SD-27: Republican Marine Lt. Colonel and LA County Prosecutor to Run for California State Senate
- Poll Watch: California Governor Jerry Brown’s Tax Increase Proposal in Trouble » Flap’s California Blog – Poll Watch: California Governor Jerry Brown’s Tax Increase Proposal in Trouble
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The Morning Flap: March 8, 2012
These are my links for March 7th through March 8th:
- New poll shows Rick Santorum leading in Alabama GOP primary – A new poll released on the eve of Rick Santorum’s first campaign visit to Alabama shows the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania leading in the state Republican Party presidential primary.
The statewide poll conducted by Alabama State University’s Center for Leadership and Public Policy showed 22.7 percent of likely Republican voters supported Santorum, who is scheduled to make campaign appearances Thursday in Huntsville and Mobile.
Former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney trailed Santorum with 18.7 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House from neighboring Georgia, with 13.8 percent.
- Armed Forces Chairman Levin wants Limbaugh dropped from military radio – The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Wednesday that he would “love” to see controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh dropped from the Armed Forces Network.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) called Limbaugh’s show “offensive” and told CNN he has been “delighted” to see advertisers drop the program in the wake of outrage over Limbaugh calling a Georgetown University law student a “slut” and a “prostitute.” Sandra Fluke, the student, had testified for House Democrats in favor of the White House’s contraception coverage mandate.
- Rubio ‘not concerned’ about long GOP primary, says no one should be told to drop out – Many Republicans are worried about the presidential primary dragging on for weeks or more, a battle that has already inflicted wounds. Not Sen. Marco Rubio.
“We’re all impatient. We all want to know who the nominee is so we can get to work,” he said in an interview with the Buzz. “So certainly, yeah, the sooner the better. But I’m not concerned. This is the process and the process will work its way through. What I think is very important for Republicans is not to talk ourselves into this idea that somehow because we’re having a longer primary than we’ve had in past years that we’re somehow doomed to failure in November. We are going to have a nominee whether it’s next week, next month of three months from now. At that point, the election will be reframed. It will no longer be about the super PACs, or supporting Santorum vs. Romney or Gingrich or Paul. The election will become a choice between two very different people, between two very different views of America. And the election will become about the president’s record.”
Do you think it’s time for Newt Gingrich to drop out?
“I don’t think anybody should be told to drop out. I think people should run until they feel that either they don’t want to continue or they don’t see a path to victory. I’ve never been a believer in asking people to drop out of a race because I had a bunch of people ask me to drop out of a race.”
- Gingrich’s future hangs on successful Southern state strategy – Republican insiders believe Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign is on its last legs and say the former House Speaker could leave the race after Tuesday’s primaries in Alabama and Mississippi.
But they also said the famously unpredictable Gingrich could confound expectations and continue on, despite pleas from some conservatives to step aside and give Rick Santorum a head-to-head matchup with Mitt Romney.
- Dementia To Cost $200 Billion in 2012, Report Finds – Thursday, March 8, 2012 –
- Hispanic Vote Not The Game Changer You Might Think It Is – Thursday, March 8, 2012 – If your family hails from Latin America and you live in a battleground state, brace yourself: politicians have finally woken up to the importance of your vote. President Obama’s re-election, pundits say, may depend on an outpouring of support from the barrios of the West and Southwest.
Yet attracting Hispanic votes may require more investment, in more places, than either party anticipates. For all the hype about the Hispanic vote in 2012, the aftershocks of the recession may have created a logistical barrier in many states for voter registration.
New numbers suggest that previous predictions of between 11 and 12 million Hispanic citizens voting in 2012 might be overly optimistic, said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the William C. Velasquez Institute and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. Barring a major investment in registration, turnout, or both, that’s about 10.5 million votes cast.
- Larry Sabato: Six Days on the Road to Tampa – WSJ.com – Unlike many presidential races in recent history, there probably won’t be a “eureka” moment for this GOP nomination. But there are six decisive days that will be worth watching on the road to the Republican nominating convention in Tampa. Three favor Mitt Romney and three favor his opponents.
• March 13: Primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, caucuses in Hawaii—Mr. Romney not favored.
In the initial nine weeks of primaries, Mr. Romney has shown a political equivalent of Wall Street’s dead-cat bounce: Victories in one week guarantee no momentum in the next. It may be about to happen again. While Mr. Romney may win moderate Hawaii, losses probably loom for him in Alabama and Mississippi.
- Closing Tehran’s Sanctions Loopholes –
- The Chinese Military’s Great Leap Forward – China’s announcement of a more than 11 percent increase in declared military spending – following two full decades of double-digit increases – raises several uncomfortable questions for Asia and the West. It is natural for a rising power like China to develop capabilities to defend its expanding array of interests. On the other hand, China’s ascent has been made possible by a benign security environment that well served China’s goal of “peaceful development.” China’s growing military capabilities now threaten to upset that order in ways that, ironically, could complicate China’s security environment at the same time as slowing economic growth intensifies its internal challenges.
- Republicans fear rough primary could cost them the House and the Senate – Republicans are worried the long, drawn-out presidential primary could cost them the House and the Senate.
For months, Republicans had been bullish about their prospects for widening their margin in the House and picking off Democratic senators. But some are now questioning whether they could be done in if Mitt Romney limps out of the primary a severely weakened nominee.
- Poll: Slim majority support Jerry Brown’s tax plan – Even though most Californians think the budget remains a big problem, just a slim majority of likely voters say they support Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed tax initiative for the November ballot, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California.
Using the Democratic governor’s ballot title and summary for the first time, the poll found 52 percent of likely voters support temporarily raising the state sales tax and income tax on high-wage earners while 40 percent oppose doing so. Another 8 percent said they are undecided. That’s a drop from past surveys,which found majority support for his plan to temporarily raise taxes. PPIC found Brown’s proposal had 68 percent support in January, before the ballot language was finished.
- Rush Limbaugh’s insincere critics—Michael Kinsley – Consumers who are avoiding products by Limbaugh’s advertisers are engaged in what’s known in labor law as a secondary boycott. This means boycotting a company you have no grievance with, except that it does business with someone you do have a grievance with.
Secondary boycotts are generally frowned upon, or in some cases (not this one) actually illegal, on the grounds that enough is enough. There’s sense to that outside the labor context, too. Do we want conservatives organizing boycotts of advertisers on MSNBC, or either side boycotting companies that do business with other companies who advertise on Limbaugh’s show, or Rachel Maddow’s?
As we all know, Limbaugh’s First Amendment rights aren’t involved here — freedom of speech means freedom from interference by the government. But the spirit of the First Amendment, which is that suppressing speech is bad, still applies. If you don’t care for something Rush Limbaugh has said, say why and say it better. If you’re on the side of truth, you have a natural advantage.
And if you’re taking on Rush Limbaugh, you’re probably on the side of truth.
- AD-38: Are Nuclear Weapons Buying a California Assembly Seat for Patricia McKeon? » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Are Nuclear Weapons Buying a California Assembly Seat for Patricia McKeon?
- News from The Associated Press – RT @AP: How does the new iPad compare to the older model? Here’s a look: -EF
- Does Saliva Quality Play an Important Role in Meth Mouth? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Does Saliva Quality Play an Important Role in Meth Mouth?
- More Than 15% Obese in Nearly All U.S. Metro Areas – Adult obesity rates were higher than 15% in all but three of the 190 metropolitan areas that Gallup and Healthways surveyed in 2011. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, residents were the most likely to be obese, at 38.8%, while people living in Boulder, Colo., were the least likely, at 12.1%.
- CA-Sen: Ex- California POL Chuck DeVore Cannot Let Go | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: Chuck, your comment was held in moderation because of the link you posted, which is the same as the original pie…
- Video: No Love Lost Between California Governor Jerry Brown and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom? » Flap’s California Blog – Video: No Love Lost Between California Governor Jerry Brown and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom?
- Pingree Will Not Make Senate Bid – Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) said she won’t run for the U.S. Senate, a decision that could boost the independent Senate bid of former Gov. Angus King (I), the Portland Press Herald reports.
Said Pingree: “This isn’t the right time for me to run for the U.S. Senate.”
“Pingree’s decision was not unexpected. After King said Monday night that he would run as an independent, Pingree acknowledged that she shared widely discussed concerns that she and King might divide the Democratic base, thus paving the way for victory by a Republican contender.”
- 43% Say New Candidate Should Enter GOP Race; Most Republicans Disagree – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney may be winning the Republican presidential race, although he appears to be making himself a little less popular in the process. A plurality of voters think it would be better for the GOP if a new candidate jumped in the race, but most Republicans don’t agree.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters now hold at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Romney, but that includes just nine percent (9%) with a Very Favorable view of him. Forty-nine percent (49%) regard Romney at least somewhat unfavorably, with 23% who share a Very Unfavorable opinion.
- CA-Sen: Ex- California POL Chuck DeVore Cannot Let Go | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @MarkStandriff Hope you enjoy this: Running LA on the 18th
- Flap’s California Morning Collection: March 7, 2012 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: March 7, 2012
- California State Senator Sharon Runner Released from the Hospital » Flap’s California Blog – California State Senator Sharon Runner Released from the Hospital
- The Morning Flap: March 7, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: March 7, 2012
- U.S. Job Creation Declines in February – Hiring Down and Firing Up | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – U.S. Job Creation Declines in February – Hiring Down and Firing Up
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: March 7, 2012 – The Morning Drill: March 7, 2012
- New poll shows Rick Santorum leading in Alabama GOP primary – A new poll released on the eve of Rick Santorum’s first campaign visit to Alabama shows the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania leading in the state Republican Party presidential primary.
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The Morning Flap: March 7, 2012
These are my links for March 6th through March 7th:
- GOP Water Torture: Mitt Romney’s Foes Can’t Win, But They Can Stop Him – It’s far from over. Despite claiming six state wins last night and upping his delegate count to 404, Mitt Romney still does not have a lock on the nomination—or even a clear path to claiming it if his opponents don’t leave the field.
Consider this: if Mitt wins every remaining all-or-nothing state but one, and half of the remaining proportional delegates, he would likely still fall short of the magic nomination number of 1,144—which would force him to rely on unpledged delegates, the Republican version of the infamous Democratic super-delegates in 2008, to claim his party’s mantle.
- Ventura County Area legislators received $14,000 in gifts last year – Six state legislators who represent portions of Ventura County received a total of $14,171 in gifts last year, according to reports filed last week with the Fair Political Practices Commission.
The annual reports detail statements of economic interests and are designed to reveal potential conflicts of interests lawmakers might have relating to income sources, assets and gifts received.
Among the noteworthy gifts listed in the report are $1,445 in hotel accommodations and cultural activities paid for by the government of Vietnam and the Chinese International Affairs Foundation received by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, while on a fact-finding trip to Asia last fall with three other state senators.
- Cantor: Romney alone has ‘clear path’ to nomination –
- Why the bloody GOP primary won’t help Obama in the fall –
- Poll: Romney holds big lead in New York, but running behind Obama –
- Mitt Romney wins Super Tuesday but major questions remain –
- Limbaugh Has Lost 29 Advertisers – Conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh is hemorrhaging advertisers following his harsh comments about a Georgetown University law student last week, with at least 29 halting their commercials on his show, according to Politico. Two stations have dropped him as well. The Atlantic Wire counted 31 advertisers who have abandoned Limbaugh.
- ‘Joe the Plumber’ wins congressional primary –
- Mitt’s Got Trouble. Right Here in River City – Mitt’s Got Trouble. Right Here in River City.
- GOP Hopefuls Losing Ground to Obama Among Latinos, Poll Says –
- Loudly Catholic Santorum loses Ohio Catholics –
- In Upset, Schmidt Goes Down in Ohio – In Upset, Schmidt Goes Down in Ohio
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-07 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-07
- Untitled (https://plus.google.com/114401727024677849167/posts/VFrasUhECKs) – Santorum & Romney close in Ohio search trends
Ohio is a key state to watch in tonight’s race.
- More Sponsors Pull Their Ads from Rush Limbaugh’s Radio Show | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – More Sponsors Pull Their Ads from Rush Limbaugh’s Radio Show
- CA-25: Rep Buck McKeon to Speak at the Reagan Presidential Library | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-25: Rep Buck McKeon to Speak at the Reagan Presidential Library
- Video: Stephen Colbert on the Fluke – Limbaugh Flap | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Video: Stephen Colbert on the Fluke – Limbaugh Flap
- The Morning Flap: March 6, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: March 6, 2012
- President 2012: Will California Make a Difference in GOP Presidential Race? » Flap’s California Blog – President 2012: Will California Make a Difference in GOP Presidential Race?
- AD-38 Video: Patricia McKeon Compares A Plastic Bag Tax to Obama’s Contraception Flap » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38 Video: Patricia McKeon Compares A Plastic Bag Tax to Obama’s Contraception Flap
- Food and Drug Administration Says Soda is Safe – Not Cancer Causing | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Food and Drug Administration Says Soda is Safe – Not Cancer Causing
- President 2012: Super Tuesday on Google Politics and Elections | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Super Tuesday on Google Politics and Elections
- AD-38 Video: Scott Wilk Asks and Receives the Endorsement of the Ventura County Republican Party » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38 Video: Scott Wilk Asks and Receives the Endorsement of the Ventura County Republican Party
- Video: Jon Stewart on the Fluke – Limbaugh Flap | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Video: Jon Stewart on the Fluke – Limbaugh Flap
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Senator Bernard Sanders and America’s Oral Health Crisis – Senator Bernard Sanders and America’s Oral Health Crisis
- Day By Day March 6, 2012 – Costs | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day March 6, 2012 –
- GOP Water Torture: Mitt Romney’s Foes Can’t Win, But They Can Stop Him – It’s far from over. Despite claiming six state wins last night and upping his delegate count to 404, Mitt Romney still does not have a lock on the nomination—or even a clear path to claiming it if his opponents don’t leave the field.
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The Morning Flap: March 6, 2012
These are my links for March 2nd through March 6th:
- Sandra Fluke Argued for Mandatory Coverage for Sex-Change Surgery – Rather belatedly, we are becoming aware that this supposedly typical Georgetown coed is not very typical at all:
[B]irth control is not all that Ms. Fluke believes private health insurance must cover. She also, apparently, believes that it is discrimination deserving of legal action if “gender reassignment” surgeries are not covered by employer provided health insurance. She makes these views clear in an article she co-edited with Karen Hu in the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law.
The title of the article . . . is “Employment Discrimination Against LGBTQ Persons” and was published in the Journal’s 2011 Annual Review.Remember, as Byron York previously reported, Fluke was rejected as a last-minute substitute witness at a Feb. 16 committee hearing because staffers for Chairman Issa were unable to discover Fluke’s claim to expertise relevant to the subject of the hearing. This law school journal article is the sort of thing that might have been discovered about Fluke’s background, had the Democrats who put Fluke forward as a witness done so with the usual 72-hour advance notice.
- Call Them Out By Name: Sandra Fluke, David Gregory and David Friend – After going to an Andrew Breitbart memorial event on Saturday, I am more inspired than ever to fight back against the Left. Three things that were said stood out to me in that regard. Number one, Dana Loesch said we need to follow Breitbart and hit Leftists by “calling them out by name.” Then Brandon Darby mentioned that the Left was taking advantage of our grief and we were losing on Limbaugh. Finally, I’m struck with the image of Breitbart himself in this tribute video looking straight at the camera and simply saying, “War.”
This is war. I am going to defend Limbaugh from the radical Leftists who want to take him off the air. And I am going to call out our opponents by name. Starting with Sandra Fluke, David Gregory and David Friend.
- Sandra Fluke, Gender Reassignment, and Health Insurance – Sandra Fluke is being sold by the left as something she’s not. Namely a random co-ed from Georgetown law who found herself mixed up in the latest front of the culture war who was simply looking to make sure needy women had access to birth control. That, of course, is not the case.
As many have already uncovered Sandra Fluke she is, in reality, a 30 year old long time liberal activist who enrolled at Georgetown with the express purpose of fighting for the school to pay for students’ birth control. She has been pushing for mandated coverage of contraceptives at Georgetown for at least three years according to the Washington Post.
- 2011 total: 254 companies leave California – In 2011, 254 California companies moved some or all of their work and jobs out of state, 26% more than in 2010, according to Irvine business consultant Joe Vranich who has been tracking these departures since 2009.
Twenty-eight of these companies were in Orange County. Seven of them moved or expanded to Texas, three to Mexico, two to Washington and one each to 16 other states, said Vranich, who has changed the name of his business from The Relocation Coach to Spectrum Location Solutions, which helps companies define their goals, find new locations and coordinate the move.The pace is accelerating, Vranich said. An average of 4.9 businesses left California each week of 2011, compared to 3.9 per week (202 total) in 2010 and one a week (51 total) in 2009. In what he calls “disinvestment events,” Vranich counts companies that move jobs, facilities or headquarters out of California and “in carefully selected instances, companies making major capital investments in plants elsewhere that in the past would have been built in California,” Vranich said.
- Contraceptive corporate welfare –
- Flip This White House! –
- GOP focus on control of Congress amid presidential doubts this fall –
- Re: Rush Limbaugh: They don’t want an apology, they want a confession – Ann Althouse gets deep into the weeds on apologies, and finds that some apologies are more equal than others in the eyes of the Democratic Commisariate (emphasis in original):
Now, I believe in general principles, and I want to know what the general principle is about accepting apologies. I’d like to nail down people like Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Eric Boehlert, because their candidate, Barack Obama, is one of the greatest purveyors of apologies in the history of the world!
There is a difference between heartfelt apology, and a political confession. An apology would not be enough to obtain release from prison, while a confession, which is a political statement that has nothing to do with the heart, held out the possibility of getting one out of prison:
- MoveOn.Org – Carbonite CEO tied to : time for conservatives to fight blacklisting?
- Carbonite CEO tied to MoveOn.org: time for conservatives to fight blacklisting? – So. Did you hear about Carbonite and Rush Limbaugh?
No, you didn’t. Not the way you will in a minute. But first?
It’s time to turn the tables.
It’s time to stand up to the bullies.
It’s time to Rally for Rush.
Rush Limbaugh has discussed at length — at length — what Sandra Fluke and her statist cronies are up to. Yes, he used the words “slut” and “prostitute” — using the ludicrous to make his point. Ms. Fluke, in one of the most pathetic, shamelessly whining stories in recent memory, demands to be paid for her sex life because it costs $3,000 for three years of birth control while she’s at law school. She demands that a Catholic university violate its fundamental right to religious liberty so she can have others pay for her sex life. So Rush asked the farcical obvious about somebody who demands that someone else pay her for her apparent, self-admitted prolific sex life. He spent two solid days relating her greed for other people’s money and a lack of personal responsibility to the oldest of principles.
Right on cue, the blacklisting crowd came out of their Stalinist caves. Having driven Lou Dobbs from CNN, cut off Beck’s windpipe at Fox, severed Pat Buchanan from MSNBC, thus emboldened they have now set their sights on Rush.
- Sandra Fluke Defenders Target Rush Limbaugh, Not Bill Maher Or Ed Schultz – When the left savages the right, it’s OK. When America’s top conservative questions why taxpayers must subsidize the sex life of a coed, the sky falls in. Bill Maher, call your office.
When the late, great Andrew Breitbart was asked in a Twitter conversation whether he’d apologize for his website’s posting of a video of a speech by Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod that led to her forced resignation, Breitbart replied, “Apologize for what?”
Breitbart knew the sensitivities and the hypocrisy of the left when their sacred cows and double standards were under attack.
Hell hath no fury, he knew, like a liberal whose dogma stands exposed. He wondered why those on the right always had to apologize for saying liberal emperors had no clothes, when the left never had to apologize for anything no matter how outrageous or offensive.
- Re: Rush Limbaugh – Should Conservatives Make an Example of Carbonite and ProFlowers? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Re: Rush Limbaugh – Should Conservatives Make an Example of Carbonite and ProFlowers? | Flap’s Blog – Fullosseou…
- Video: Occupy Education Protesters “OCCUPY” the California State Capitol » Flap’s California Blog – Video: Occupy Education Protesters “OCCUPY” the California State Capitol
- Re: Rush Limbaugh – Should Conservatives Make an Example of Carbonite and ProFlowers? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: You have a very good point…
- L.A. Times Attempting Suicide – Today the Los Angeles Times is charging for visiting its site online. This is a suicide attempt that will severely damage the paper. Its parent company, Tribune Co., long has been in bankruptcy, running up $233 million in legal fees.
- California Students Protest Education Entitlement Cuts – Middle-aged, greying 1960s radicals, pimply faced kids, teachers, throngs of SEIU members, angry Occupy protestors, and union members of all kinds descended upon the state Capitol Monday. They demanded, “Wall Street and the wealthy 1 percent, pay to refund education, jobs, essential services, and a better future.”
The protest was sponsored by the California Teachers Association and the Occupy movement.
The protest even included roving bands of gang-attired youth probably not connected to education, dreadlock-wearing Rastafarians, earth children and the unmistakable sweet smell of marijuana wafting about. Vapid stares, body odor, anger and an abundant use of the “F” word, some attended the rally with an express purpose in mind, while others appeared less committed and just were there for the chanting and day off of school. “Enough is enough,” came the rally cry from college student body presidents. “We stand in solidarity,” said one speaker as Che Guevara signs waived wildly.
- Conejo Valley development icon Joe Brown dies at 86 – Funeral services will be held Saturday March 10 for a fifth-generation Californian who had a hand in shaping the Conejo Valley.
Services will begin at 12:30 p.m. at St. Paschal Baylon Catholic Church in Thousand Oaks for retired Realtor Joseph “Joe” Brown.
Brown died Thursday in his Thousand Oaks home at age 86 with his wife, Dolly, by his side. He had been suffering from heart problems for some time, but Dolly Brown, 65, said his death was somewhat sudden.
“He was lying in his hospital bed about a week ago and he said, ‘I’m not being very productive,’ ” she said with a smile.
By all accounts, “productive” was an understatement when it came to Joe Brown. Among his many accomplishments was helping to establish Mary Health of the Sick Convalescent Home in Newbury Park, the Conejo Valley Association of Realtors and the Ventura County Community Foundation in Camarillo, to name a few of his efforts.
- Lenny Dykstra gets 3 years in California prison – Disgraced ex-New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra on Monday was sentenced to three years in a California state prison after pleading no contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ulfig sentenced Dykstra after refusing to allow him to withdraw his plea and said the scam to lease high-end automobiles from dealerships by providing fraudulent information and claiming credit through a phony business showed sophistication and extensive planning.
“He obviously didn’t have the money to get the vehicles,” Ulfig said. “His conduct was indeed criminal.”
- New California Legislative Information Website Makes Tracking Bills Easier » Flap’s California Blog – New California Legislative Information Website Makes Tracking Bills Easier
- Thousands of Students Protest Education Cuts … Bill Would Add Options in Evaluating Schools: KQED News | KQED Public Media for Northern CA – RT @KQED: From @KQEDnews: several thousand college students protest education cuts in Sacramento #OccupyCapitol
- GOP Hopefuls Losing Ground to Obama Among Latinos, Poll Says – Despite growing disappointment in his handling of immigration issues, Latino voters favor President Barack Obama by six-to-one over any of the Republican presidential hopefuls, showed a Fox News Latino poll conducted under the direction of Latin Insights and released Monday.
The national poll of likely Latino voters indicated that 73 percent of them approved of Obama’s performance in office, with over half those questioned looking favorably upon his handling of the healthcare debate and the economy, at 66 percent and 58 percent respectively.
Released on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries in the race for the GOP nomination, the Fox News Latino poll shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 35 percent of Latino voter support, to Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s 13 percent, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s 12 percent, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s 9 percent.
- Re: Rush Limbaugh – Should Conservatives Make an Example of Carbonite and ProFlowers? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Re: Rush Limbaugh – Should Conservatives Make an Example of Carbonite and ProFlowers?
- CA-26: Is NPP – No Party Preference a Passing Fad in California Elections? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-26: Is NPP – No Party Preference a Passing Fad in California Elections?
- Scott Walker Video: Promises Kept | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Scott Walker Video: Promises Kept
- Welcome to total political war – Re: Rush Limbaugh – And I’m not talking about the attempt to get advertisers to stop advertising on Rush Limbaugh’s show, or Fox News, although that would be bad enough.
I’m talking about the second-tier of the warfare, the attempt to intimidate those removed by one or more degrees of separation from the dispute, and to use them as tools against the target.
And I’m not talking about the attempt to get advertisers to stop advertising on Rush Limbaugh’s show, or Fox News, although that would be bad enough. I’m talking about the second-tier of the warfare, the attempt to intimidate those removed by one or more degrees of separation from the dispute, and to use them as tools against the target.
I would not be surprised to see a similar reaction from the right to the left’s attacks on advertisers, but that would be a mistake. What is happening goes beyond Obama’s call for people to argue with their neighbors and get in their faces. It goes far beyond Bill Clinton’s politics of personal destruction directed at accusers, and beyond name-calling by right wing pundits. This total war, in which no one is allowed to be non-political and neighbors and clients become mere pressure points, is a dangerous development.
- Breitbart.Com Relaunches | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Relaunches
- AD-44: California Assemblyman Jeff Gorell’s Welcome Home Rescheduled to April 4 » Flap’s California Blog – AD-44: California Assemblyman Jeff Gorell’s Welcome Home Rescheduled to April 4
- Day By Day March 5, 2012 – Star Wars | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day March 5, 2012 – Star Wars
- The China Threat – Increasing Defense Spending – The China Threat – Increasing Defense Spending
- Gingrich: Romney can’t ‘close the deal’ – Gingrich: Romney can’t ‘close the deal’
- GA-2012 Primary: 38% Gingrich, 24% Romney, 22% santorum, 3% Paul (Mason-Dixon 2/29-3/2) – RT @pollsterpolls: GA-2012 Primary: 38% Gingrich, 24% Romney, 22% santorum, 3% Paul (Mason-Dixon 2/29-3/2)
- OH-2012 Primary: 34% Romney 31% Santorum 15% Gingrich 12% Paul (Quinnipiac 3/2-4) – RT @pollsterpolls: OH-2012 Primary: 34% Romney 31% Santorum 15% Gingrich 12% Paul (Quinnipiac 3/2-4)
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-05 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-05
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-05 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-05
- foursquare :: Gregory Flap @ Starbucks Coffee – On the way to San Diego! (@ Starbucks Coffee)
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-04 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-04
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-04 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-04
- Rush: “I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke”; Update: Ironic tweet of the day – I think Rush did the right thing in apologizing to Fluke. However, let’s keep in mind that it was Fluke who made her sexual activity a matter of national political debate by insisting that the government pass laws and regulations forcing employers and insurers to provide her free contraception, and apparently as much as she and others demand. It’s Republicans who believe that contraception should remain a private affair, and that employers and insurers should be free to decide whether to cover contraception for their employees and customers or not. Democrats used Fluke to demand that those choices be stripped from private enterprises and instead be forced by the executive branch to entirely subsidize contraception.
That is the argument we should be making, as Republicans and conservatives. If you want your sexual choices to remain private, don’t use the government to force other people to subsidize them. Then we won’t have to turn the sex lives of Georgetown law school students into topics for political speculation.
- A Statement from Rush – The Rush Limbaugh Show – RT @DanRiehl: A Statement from Rush RT @DavidLimbaugh:
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-03 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-03
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-03 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-03
- AD-38 Video: Patricia McKeon Asks the Ventura County Republican Party For an Endorsement » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38 Video: Patricia McKeon Asks the Ventura County Republican Party For an Endorsement
- Day By Day March 2, 2012 – Think Big, America | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day March 2, 2012 – Think Big, America
- Gallup’s Unadjusted Unemployment Data Suggest Increase in BLS Adjusted Figure – Gallup finds U.S. unemployment, as measured without seasonal adjustment, to be 9.1% in February, based on almost 30,000 interviews with a random sample of Americans. When Gallup applies the 0.5-percentage-point seasonal adjustment that the government applied to its unadjusted data for February last year, it produces an adjusted unemployment rate for February 2012 of 8.6% –a substantial increase from the 8.3% adjusted rate the government reported for January.
- Ohio GOP Race Going Down To The Wire- Quinnipiac University – Ohio GOP Race Going Down To The Wire- Quinnipiac University
- Sandra Fluke’s Appearance Is No Fluke – Sandra Fluke’s Appearance Is No Fluke
- Sandra Fluke is not a “slut.” She’s a femme-agogue tool; DCCC, Emily’s list fund-raise off of Rush –
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-02 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-02
- Kentucky to Settle for Compromise Methamphetamine Legislation? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Kentucky to Settle for Compromise Methamphetamine Legislation? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-02 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-02
- Sandra Fluke Argued for Mandatory Coverage for Sex-Change Surgery – Rather belatedly, we are becoming aware that this supposedly typical Georgetown coed is not very typical at all:
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The Morning Flap: March 1, 2012
These are my links for February 29th through March 1st:
- National GOP: Romney 40%, Santorum 24%, Gingrich 16%, Paul 12% – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, coming off his primary wins in Arizona and Michigan, has jumped to a 16-point lead over Rick Santorum in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters shows Romney with 40% support to 24% for the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. This is Romney’s biggest lead to date and the highest level of support any GOP candidate has earned in regular surveying of the race. Two weeks ago, it was Santorum 39%, Romney 27%.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich earns 16% support, closely followed by Texas Congressman Ron Paul at 12%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided. The new findings mark virtually no change in national support for Gingrich and Paul.
- Day By Day March 1, 2012 – Hot | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day March 1, 2012 – Hot
- Recruiters Solicit Young Patients for Texas Medicaid Dentists Outside Food Stamp Offices | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Recruiters Solicit Young Patients for Texas Medicaid Dentists Outside Food Stamp Offices
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: March 1, 2012 – The Morning Drill: March 1, 2012
- AD-38: Former Congressional Staffer Calls McKeon Campaign an All-Cost Frenzy » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Former Congressional Staffer Calls McKeon Campaign an All-Cost Frenzy
- In Memorium: Andrew Breitbart – R.I.P. | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – In Memorium: Andrew Breitbart – R.I.P.
- RealClearPolitics – As Gingrich’s Hopes Dim, Georgia Offers Potential Spark – RT @RealClearScott: Will Georgia be Newt’s last stand or a spark to revitalize campaign for third time?
- Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-01 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-01
- KQED Radio’s John Myers moving to Sacramento television gig – KQED Radio’s John Myers moving to Sacramento television gig
- Romney Wins in Wyoming – Jonathan Miller – NationalJournal.com – Romney wins in Wyoming
- Obama Holds 100th Reelection Fundraiser – By Jim Geraghty – The Campaign Spot – National Review Online – The president who is demanding a list of Koch donors just held his 100th campaign fundraiser since April.
- If You Disagree With Obama, He Wants to Know Where You Get Your Money – If You Disagree With Obama, He Wants to Know Where You Get Your Money
- Rush Limbaugh blasted for ‘slut’ comment – Rush Limbaugh blasted for ‘slut’ comment
- GOP Slightly Ahead in Voting Enthusiasm – GOP Slightly Ahead in Voting Enthusiasm
- Two U.S. Troops Killed by Afghan Gunmen – Jonathan Miller – NationalJournal.com – Two U.S. troops killed by Afghan colleagues
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-01 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-03-01
- Capitol Alert: Assembly Democrats reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s welfare cuts – Capitol Alert: Assembly Democrats reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s welfare cuts
- Christie slams NYPD over Muslim spying program in N.J. | NJ.com – Gov. Christie lashes out at NYPD for its secret surveillance of NJ mosques and Muslim businesses
- Capitol Alert: Assembly Democrats reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s welfare cuts – RT @CapitolAlert: Assembly Democrats reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s welfare cuts
- Bob Kerrey running for Senate in Nebraska – Climbing down from the fence, Democrat Bob Kerrey said Wednesday that he will run for his old Senate seat from Nebraska, soon to be vacated by retiring Sen. Ben Nelson and a major target for Republicans who hope to win control of the chamber in November.
The decision comes on the heels of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe’s surprise announcement Tuesday to not seek re-election in Maine. And the twin events breathe new life into Democratic hopes of holding onto the Senate.
- CA-26: Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks Re-Registers as Decline to State from Republican | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-26: Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks Re-Registers as Decline to State from Republican
- AD-38: Congressional Candidate Catherine Wright Blasts Patricia McKeon for Receiving Campaign Funds from Husband Rep Buck McKeon » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Congressional Candidate Catherine Wright Blasts Patricia McKeon for Receiving Campaign Funds from Husband…
- Home prices fell in 18 out of 20 major metro areas, but the p… on Twitpic – Home prices fell in 18 out of 20 major metro areas, but the pace of decline appears to be slowing. #infographic
- CA-25: Republican Catherine Wright to Challenge Rep. Buck McKeon | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-25: Republican Catherine Wright to Challenge Rep. Buck McKeon
- Kentucky to Settle for Compromise Methamphetamine Legislation? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Kentucky to Settle for Compromise Methamphetamine Legislation?
- Santorum Leads Big in Tennessee – A new Middle Tennessee State University poll shows Rick Santorum way ahead in next week’s Tennessee GOP primary with 40%, followed by Mitt Romney at 19%, Newt Gingrich at 13% and Ron Paul at 11%.
- Video: Obama Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: Energy Dept Working To Wean U.S. Off Oil, Not Lower Gas Prices | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Video: Obama Secretary of Energy Steven Chu: Energy Dept Working To Wean U.S. Off Oil, Not Lower Gas Prices
- Poll Watch: Obesity and Chronic Diseases Stable Across the United States in 2011 | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Poll Watch: Obesity and Chronic Diseases Stable Across the United States in 2011
- Odds of a Brokered Convention Are Increasing – We’re finally close enough to Super Tuesday to get a sense of how the overall delegate count might work out in the GOP primary. The end result: Assuming that none of the four candidates drops out of the race, it looks increasingly as if no one will be able to claim a majority of the delegates. The candidate with the best chance is Mitt Romney, but he probably wouldn’t be able to wrap up the nomination until May or even June. The other candidates will probably have to hope for a brokered convention.
- US Stocks: Stocks Add to Losses Amid Bernanke Speech – Bernanke said the job market is still “far from normal” and may require the Fed to launch more stimulus measures, in his semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress. (CNBC.com is streaming this event live.)
Bernanke also added rising gasoline prices will likely push up inflation temporarily, while reducing consumers’ purchasing power.
- Home – American Dental Association – ADA.org – ‘No tobacco products should be exempted from oversight’ – American Dental Association –
- Chu: DOE working to wean U.S. off oil, not lower prices – The Energy Department isn’t working to lower gasoline prices directly, Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker scolded him for his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as in Europe.
Instead, DOE is working to promote alternatives such as biofuels and electric vehicles, Chu told House appropriators during a hearing on DOE’s budget.
- News from The Associated Press – RT @AP: Britain says union’s threat to strike during the London Olympics is “unacceptable and unpatriotic.” -EF
- House Democrats have left the Iowa Capitol in protest of gun bills | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs – Iowa House Democrats this morning left the Capitol in protest of two gun bills the Republican majority had planned to debate today that critics contend would make the state part of the “Wild, Wild West.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy accused House Leader Linda Upmeyer of failing to properly inform legislators about planned debate today on the bills. The short notice hindered Democrats from offering amendments to improve the bills, McCarthy said.
But Upmeyer, R-Garner, shot back this morning that Democrats did have adequate warning, and suggested their flight from the Capitol was an attempt to make a political scene.
“Iowans didn’t send us down here just to do easy stuff,” she said. “The Second Amendment is a question that many Iowans would like placed before them. I don’t know why they’re afraid to have a debate on a subject just because they don’t like the subject. That seems ludicrous to me.”
One bill would alter the state constitution to specifically include gun rights. Another would rewrite the law on “reasonable force” so that a person may use force — including deadly force — against someone who they believe threatens to kill or cause serious injury or who is committing a violent felony.
- ‘No tobacco products should be exempted from oversight’ – American Dental Association – ADA.org – The Association urged the U.S. Senate to reject legislation that would exempt “traditional large and premium cigars” from Food and Drug Administration regulation.
In separate communications Feb. 23, ADA officials urged the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to table or vote against S. 1461, and the Association joined dental, other health, religious and social organizations expressing “our strong opposition” to the bill in a letter to the full Senate.
The 2009 ADA-supported Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act authorizes FDA regulation of the manufacture, marketing and distribution of tobacco products. The proposed S. 1461, the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2012, would prohibit the FDA from promulgating any regulations involving certain types of cigars.
“There is a strong association between cigar smoking and mortality from oral (mouth) and pharyngeal (throat) cancers,” the Association told the HELP Committee bipartisan leadership in a letter signed by Dr. William R. Calnon, president, and Dr. Kathleen T. O’Loughlin, executive director. “About 8 out of 10 people with mouth and throat cancers use tobacco. Smokers are many times more likely than non-smokers to develop these cancers and the risk increases with the amount smoked and the duration of the habit. On average, 40 percent of those with the disease will not survive more than five years after being diagnosed.
“Taxpayer dollars would be better spent discouraging the use of cancer-causing products, including traditional large and premium cigars,” the Association said. “It is vital that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration be allowed to retain its strong, effective authority to regulate these products.”
- Scott Walker Recall: Wisconsin Governor Narrowly Trails Likely Opponents In New Poll – A new poll finds Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) trailing two likely opponents in a recall election. However, their narrow leads suggest a long road ahead for Democrats hoping to unseat the embattled governor.
According to PPP, Walker’s two potential contenders, Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk, hold narrow leads over the unpopular governor. The poll shows Barrett with a 49-46 advantage, while Falk has a slight 48-47 edge over Walker.
The poll also found that former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) would have a more commanding lead over Walker than either Barrett or Falk. PPP found that Feingold would hold a 52-45 advantage over the governor. Feingold, however, has said he will not run in the recall election.
- Poll: Wisconsin’s Walker to survive union recall drive – So much for that recall effort. According to a new Rasmussen poll of likely Wisconsin voters, Gov. Scott Walker should survive an effort to throw out his 2010 election, a campaign driven by pro-union activists angered that he limited collective bargaining rights for public employees in a budget-cutting move.
It’s a huge and positive switch for Scott’s fortunes. Opponents made headlines when they easily collected 1 million signatures on a recall petition. Walker this week said he would not challenge the signatures-including names like “Donald Duck”-because there isn’t enough time before the May recall election.
Rasmussen’s poll is the latest done on the election and finds that 54 percent of likely Wisconsin voters at least somewhat approve of the governor’s job, while 46 percent somewhat disapprove. He does good with independents, as 58 percent approve of his performance. The telephone poll of 500 likely voters conducted Monday shows a pro-Walker move, coming days after a Public Policy Polling survey conducted February 22-26 that found the state divided 49 percent-49 percent on the recall.
- The Morning Flap: February 29, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: February 29, 2012
- National GOP: Romney 40%, Santorum 24%, Gingrich 16%, Paul 12% – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, coming off his primary wins in Arizona and Michigan, has jumped to a 16-point lead over Rick Santorum in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters shows Romney with 40% support to 24% for the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. This is Romney’s biggest lead to date and the highest level of support any GOP candidate has earned in regular surveying of the race. Two weeks ago, it was Santorum 39%, Romney 27%.
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The Morning Flap: January 11, 2012
These are my links for January 5th through January 11th:
- Rush Loves Mitt; Hates Newt – Master-talk-master continues finger on the scale for frontrunner on Wednesday’s show.
Praises the Bay Stater: “Romney gave what may be his best speech ever last night.”
And/but: El Rushbo bashes Romney — GM/Obama comparison from CBS “This Morning” Wednesday interview.
Pans Gingrich: “Newt is so ticked off over the negative ad campaign…that right now, he is solely focused on taking Romney out, making sure Romney doesn’t win this thing.”
- Gregory Flap Cole – Google+ – Iran: What me worry?
From Michael Ramirez…… – Iran: What me worry?
From Michael Ramirez……Michael Ramirez Cartoon
- Savings from ‘3 strikes’ reform may be smaller than claimed | California Watch – Savings from California ‘3 strikes’ reform may be smaller than claimed
- Flap’s California Morning Collection: January 11, 2012 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: January 11, 2012
- Will Mindful Eating Help Curb Obesity? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Will Mindful Eating Help Curb Obesity?
- Journalists’ campaign trail secrets revealed – The Washington Post – Journalists’ campaign-trail secrets revealed
- The Bain Capital Bonfire – About the best that can be said about the Republican attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is that President Obama is going to do the same thing eventually, so GOP primary voters might as well know what’s coming. Yet that hardly absolves Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and others for their crude and damaging caricatures of modern business and capitalism.
Bain’s business model is little more than “rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company,” says Mr. Gingrich, whose previous insights into free enterprise include years of defending the taxpayer-fed business of corn ethanol.
A super PAC supporting the former House Speaker plans to spend $3.4 million in TV ads in South Carolina portraying Mr. Romney as Gordon Gekko without the social conscience. The financing for these ads will come from a billionaire who made his money in the casino business, which Mr. Gingrich apparently considers morally superior to investing in companies in the hope of making a profit.
Mr. Perry, who has no problem using taxpayer financing to back his political allies in Texas, chimes in that “I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips, whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out. Because his company Bain Capital, with all the jobs that they killed, I’m sure he was worried he’d run out of pink slips.”
- President 2012: Conservatives Scrambling to Block Romney | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Conservatives Scrambling to Block Romney
- (500) http://flapsblog.com/2012/01/11/day-by-day-janaury-11-2012-reality-show/ – Day By Day Janaury 11, 2012 – Reality Show
- Riehl World View: Romney Has Lied, Maligned And Danced Away For Years, It’s Time He Paid For It – GOP will pay | RT @DanRiehl Romney Has Lied, Maligned And Danced Away For Years, It’s Time He Paid For It
- (404) http://t.co/DqN – RT @jpodhoretz: Romney may win the easiest nomination victory ever–even though he’s as weak a candidate as we’ve seen: …
- In Florida, Obama Trails Mitt By 3, Leads Rick By 2 – By Jim Geraghty – The Campaign Spot – National Review Online – Closer than you would expect RT @jimgeraghty In Florida, Obama Trails Mitt By 3, Leads Rick By 2 #tcot
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-11 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-11
- Log In – The New York Times – Log In – The New York Times
- Log In – The New York Times – Log In – The New York Times
- Log In – The New York Times – As Romney Advances, Private Equity Becomes Part of the Debate
- As Romney Advances, Private Equity Becomes Part of the Debate – A working paper released in September shows that private equity-owned companies shed slightly more jobs than similar companies, though the difference was quite small. In total, they shed about 1 percent more jobs.
The study — by Steven J. Davis of the University of Chicago; John C. Haltiwanger of the University of Maryland; Josh Lerner of Harvard, and Ron S. Jarmin and Javier Miranda of the Census Bureau — looked at about 3,200 buyouts conducted between 1980 and 2005.
It found that companies bought by private equity firms let go a larger proportion of workers than similar firms, shrinking their work forces about 6 percent more over a five-year window. But companies bought by private equity firms also tend to open more new branches, offices and factories and hire more new staff members, partly offsetting the job losses.
Some economists also argue that private equity takeovers make good economic sense in the long term, even if they result in more layoffs in the short term, by making companies more efficient.
- Gingrich’s Own Close Tie to Buyout Industry – Newt Gingrich has ramped up his attacks on Mitt Romney as a heartless leveraged buyout executive for his years at Bain Capital, asking reporters in Manchester on Monday, “Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? Or is that, somehow, a little bit of a flawed system?”
But Mr. Gingrich was himself on an advisory board for a major investment firm that had a similar business model, Forstmann Little, a pioneering private equity firm co-founded in 1978 by Theodore J. Forstmann that was, along with Mr. Romney’s Bain Capital and Henry R. Kravis’s Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts, among the leading private equity firms during the 1980s and 1990s.
Forstmann Little earned billions of dollars in profits from its investments in companies including General Instrument and Gulfstream Aerospace. But the firm shut down most of its operations a decade ago after suffering losses from ill-timed bets on high-flying telecommunications companies at the height of that industry’s bubble.
Mr. Gingrich’s involvement with the firm could complicate his attacks on Mr. Romney.
Still, to be fair, Mr. Forstman bristled at some of the more aggressive tactics of his rivals, and once described them as “barbarians at the gate.” That phrase was used as the title of a bestselling book that detailed Mr. Forstmann’s buyout battle with Mr. Kravis for RJR Nabisco, a contest K.K.R. eventually won.
- President 2012: Mitt Romney Wins New Hampshire But…. | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Mitt Romney Wins New Hampshire But….
- Film Attacking Romney Leaked Early – Film Attacking Romney Leaked Early – 0n to South Carolina #tcot
- (500) http://flapsblog.com/?s=Romney+and+Kennedy&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter – Romney And Kennedy | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog:
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- (500) http://flapsblog.com/2012/01/10/president-2012-when-mitt-romney-came-to-town-or-will-come-crashing-down/ – President 2012: When Mitt Romney Came to Town or Will Come Crashing Down?
- The Wait Is Over: All Time Warner Cable Customers With HBO Can Now Use HBO GO/MAX GO « Time Warner Cable Untangled – RT @jeffTWC: The Wait Is Over: All Time Warner Cable Customers Can Now Use HBO GO/MAX GO – (Please RT)
- CA-26: Rep Elton Gallegly to Retire – Tony Strickland, Steve Bennett and Linda Parks to Run | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-26: Rep Elton Gallegly to Retire – Tony Strickland, Steve Bennett and Linda Parks to Run
- Day By Day January 10, 2012 – Horse | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day January 10, 2012 – Horse
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-10 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-10
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-09 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-09
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-08 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-08
- foursquare :: Gregory Flap @ Harrah’s Laughlin – Eating dinner and then football or poker. What debate? (@ Harrah’s Laughlin w/ 2 others)
- foursquare :: Gregory Flap @ Arizona State line – On the way to Nevada! (@ Arizona State line)
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-07 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-07
- MapMyRUN – Map New Run – MapMyRUN – Map New Run:
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- foursquare :: Gregory Flap @ Santa fe, NM – Leaving Santa Fe in the morning. Laughlin and poker here I come. (@ Santa fe, NM)
- Unemployment Rate Drop Is for Real – now 8.5% – The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.5% in December, while a broader measure dropped even further to 15.2% from 15.6% the prior month, both at their lowest levels since February 2009.
While the unemployment rate has been falling in part due to people leaving the labor force, a large portion of this month’s number appears to come from people finding jobs.
The unemployment rate is calculated based on people who are without jobs, who are available to work and who have actively sought work in the prior four weeks. The “actively looking for work” definition is fairly broad, including people who contacted an employer, employment agency, job center or friends; sent out resumes or filled out applications; or answered or placed ads, among other things. The rate is calculated by dividing that number by the total number of people in the labor force.
In December, the household survey showed the number of people employed rose by 176,000, as the population increased by 143,000 over the month. So even though the labor force — the number of people working or looking for work — fell by 50,000, job growth is outpacing the increase in the population.
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-06 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-06
- Brown Seeks 7% California Spending Boost- Bloomberg – Brown Seeks 7% California Spending Boost
- Brown Seeks 7% California Spending Boost – Governor Jerry Brown proposed $92.6 billion in spending for the year starting in July, an increase of about 7 percent, which will count on voters approving $7 billion of higher taxes in November.
The spending plan foresees a deficit of $9.2 billion through the next 18 months. Almost half of that is in the current fiscal year, he said. He called for $4.2 billion in cuts, mostly to welfare and programs for the poor. If the tax increase isn’t passed, Brown’s plan would cut another $4.8 billion in support for public schools and community colleges.
California is Standard & Poor’s lowest-rated state, at A-, six levels below AAA. Moody’s Investment Service grades it A1, four steps below the top rating, tied with Illinois (STOIL1) for the worst credit rating among states.
- Small Business: Doctors going broke – Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.
This quiet reality, which is spreading nationwide, is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists.
Industry watchers say the trend is worrisome. Half of all doctors in the nation operate a private practice. So if a cash crunch forces the death of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital health care resource.
“A lot of independent practices are starting to see serious financial issues,” said Marc Lion, CEO of Lion & Company CPAs, LLC, which advises independent doctor practices about their finances.
Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising business and drug costs among the factors preventing them from keeping their practices afloat. But some experts counter that doctors’ lack of business acumen is also to blame.
- Employers close door on smokers – More job-seekers are facing an added requirement: no smoking — at work or anytime.
As bans on smoking sweep the USA, an increasing number of employers — primarily hospitals — are also imposing bans on smokers. They won’t hire applicants whose urine tests positive for nicotine use, whether cigarettes, smokeless tobacco or even patches.
Such tobacco-free hiring policies, designed to promote health and reduce insurance premiums, took effect this month at the Baylor Health Care System in Texas and will apply at the Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio, when it opens this year.
- New Pentagon strategy stresses Asia, cyber, drones – President Barack Obama unveiled a defense strategy on Thursday that would expand the U.S. military presence in Asia but shrink the overall size of the force as the Pentagon seeks to reduce spending by nearly half a trillion dollars after a decade of war.
The strategy, if carried out, would significantly reshape the world’s largest military from the one that executed President George W. Bush’s “war on terrorism” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cyberwarfare and unmanned drones would continue to grow in priority, as would countering attempts by China and Iran to block U.S. power projection capabilities in areas like the South China Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.
But the size of the U.S. Army and Marines Corps would shrink. So too might the U.S. nuclear arsenal and the U.S. military footprint in Europe.
- Obama: the US can no longer fight the world’s battles – The mighty American military machine that has for so long secured the country’s status as the world’s only superpower will have to be drastically reduced, Barack Obama warned yesterday as he set out a radical but more modest new set of priorities for the Pentagon over the next decade.
After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that defined the first decade of the 21st century, Mr Obama’s blueprint for the military’s future acknowledged that America will no longer have the resources to conduct two such major operations simultaneously.
Instead, the US military will lose up to half a million troops and will focus on countering terrorism and meeting the new challenges of an emergent Asia dominated by China. America, the President said, was “turning the page on a decade of war” and now faced “a moment of transition”. The country’s armed forces would in future be leaner but, Mr Obama pointedly warned both friends and foes, sufficient to preserve US military superiority over any rival – “agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats”.
- Mitt Romney’s the nominee: The Republican primary race is over. – Is there anyone not annoyed by Mitt Romney’s narrow win in the Iowa caucus? Conservatives are disappointed because they recognize that the former Massachusetts governor, who used to be pro-choice and was for Obamacare before it was called that, is only pretending to be one of them. Seventy-five percent of Iowa’s Republican voters wanted someone further to the right. But because their votes were divided among too many weak and weird candidates, the only moderate running in their state came out on top.
Liberals are bummed because Romney is the strongest potential challenger to President Obama. This shows up clearly in head-to-head polls, which put Romney tied with or slightly ahead of Obama, while other Republican contenders trail by 10 points or more. It was hard for Obama campaign officials to suppress their glee last month when Newt Gingrich, the only even remotely plausible alternative to Romney, briefly ran at the head of the pack. But even they knew this was a momentary aberration. Short of Republicans committing collective suicide by picking someone else, Democrats would like to see Romney win the nomination after a protracted, costly struggle that would deplete his financial resources, sully his image, and drag him further to the right. Today, that scenario looks less likely.
- Richard Cordray & the Use and Abuse of Executive Power – Some think me a zealous advocate of executive power, and often I am when it comes to national security issues. But I think President Obama has exceeded his powers by making a recess appointment for Richard Cordray (whom I respect and have no problems with as a nominee) to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Any private party can challenge this nomination by refusing to obey any regulation issued by the agency as the act of an unconstitutional officer. As a result, this may be the first time that Richard Epstein and I get to represent someone in court together!
- Day By Day January 4, 2012 – Bupkis | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day January 4, 2012 – Bupkis
- Obama Begins 2012 at 46% Job Approval – Obama Begins 2012 at 46% Job Approval
- Obama Begins 2012 at 46% Job Approval – Obama Begins 2012 at 46% Job Approval
- Obama Begins 2012 at 46% Job Approval – RT @gallupnews: Obama Begins 2012 at 46% Job Approval… #Obama #Gallup
- foursquare :: Gregory Flap @ Alburquerque, NM – On to Santa Fe (@ Alburquerque, NM)
- (500) http://flapsblog.com/2012/01/05/flap-twitter-updates-for-2012-01-05/ – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-05
- foursquare :: Gregory Flap @ Grants – Albuquerque here we come (@ Grants)
- Rush Loves Mitt; Hates Newt – Master-talk-master continues finger on the scale for frontrunner on Wednesday’s show.