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The Morning Flap: February 1, 2012
These are my links for January 30th through February 1st:
- HBO’s Game Change portrays “meltdown” Palin – The latest trailer for HBO’s “Game Change” portrays Sarah Palin as natural disaster mistakenly unleashed by the McCain campaign.”Oh my god what have we done.” Woody Harrelson’s Steve Schmidt says, “I can’t control her anymore.” — “She’s on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown.”
Julianne Moore’s Sarah Palin repeats lines like “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” and “It’s not my fault, I was not properly prepped.” — “I miss my baby, I miss sleeping with my baby.”
At the end she whispers, “We have to win this thing, I so don’t want to go back to Alaska.”
- Ted Olson compares Obama to Nixon, McCarthy – President Obama’s first ad of his reelection campaign didn’t mention David and Charles Koch by name, but everyone knows that they are the “secretive oil billionaires” who “attack President Obama” mentioned in the ad’s opening lines. With so much else going on both domestically and internationally kicking off his reelection campaign with a personal attack on private citizens did seem like an odd choice. But former solicitor general of the United States Ted Olson sees some darker forces involved. He writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:Olson doesn’t mention it, but there is a very simple reason Obama is targeting the Koch’s: he can’t run on his record. With unemployment still higher than when he took office, and the Congressional Budget Office now certifying he will fail to cut the deficit in half as he promised, he has no accomplishments to run on. All he can really do is identify villains and ask his supporters to punish them. That is what Obama’s Buffett Rule is really all about. And that is why he is attacking the Koch’s.
- Greek PM seeks backing for reforms key to bailout – Greece’s prime minister is calling the country’s political leaders in the next few days to seek backing for more austerity after the International Monetary Fund warned this was key to securing the new bailout Athens needs to avoid a messy default.With a long-delayed deal with private sector creditors to cut Greece’s debt mountain by 100 billion euros nearly wrapped up, the government is now racing to complete talks on the 130-billion euro ($170.18 billion) bailout by the end of the week.
To do so, Athens must first persuade the European Union and IMF – which have grown increasingly exasperated with its repeated failures to meet deficit and reform targets – that it will implement long-delayed reforms and slash spending further.
- Dick Lugar: From top target to tea party pal? – Last year, Sen. Dick Lugar was the tea party’s top target — a 35-year veteran who lives in Washington, strays from conservative orthodoxy and even criticized the right-wing movement in the wake of the 2010 elections.But last week, Lugar was the tea party’s dining companion.
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-02-01 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-02-01
- Mitt Romney’s Florida sweep — and how it changes the presidential race – The Washington Post – RT @washingtonpost: Romney’s clear win hurts Gingrich’s try to call race choice between establishment & people:
- FiveThirtyEight: Live-Coverage of the Florida Primary – NYTimes.com – RT @fivethirtyeight: No Edge for Gingrich Along Georgia Border
- Capitol Alert: Assembly changes mind and passes three-strikes legislation – Capitol Alert: Assembly changes mind and passes three-strikes legislation
- Capitol Alert: Assembly changes mind and passes three-strikes legislation – Capitol Alert: Assembly changes mind and passes three-strikes legislation
- SD-27: Bob Hertzberg Decides Not to Run for California State Senate » Flap’s California Blog – SD-27: Bob Hertzberg Decides Not to Run for California State Senate
- Capitol Alert: Assembly changes mind and passes three-strikes legislation – Capitol Alert: Assembly changes mind and passes three-strikes legislation
- Marijuana Mouth Spray: Will Cancer Pain Reliever Be Abused?: Scientific American – RT @sciam: Marijuana Mouth Spray: Will Cancer Pain Reliever Be Abused?
- Capitol Alert: Assembly changes mind and passes three-strikes legislation – RT @CapitolAlert: Assembly changes mind and passes three-strikes legislation
- President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Trouble Ahead for Romney After Florida? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Trouble Ahead for Romney After Florida?
- Flap’s California Morning Collection: January 31, 2012 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: January 31, 2012
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: January 31, 2012 – The Morning Drill: January 31, 2012
- Day By Day January 30, 2012 – Rino Call | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day January 30, 2012 – Rino Call
- (404) http://t.co/Rz – RT @MysteryPollster: Latest FL Pollster update including the final PPP #s: Mitt 41.8, Newt 21.1, Paul 11.8, Santorum 10.9 …
- Florida Primary 2012: Live Updates From The Sunshine State – Latest FL Pollster update including the final PPP #s: Mitt 41.8, Newt 21.1, Paul 11.8, Santorum 10.9
- Poll finds Romney holding steady lead in Florida – The Hill’s Ballot Box – Latest Florida poll has Romney with 8 point lead over Gingrich #tcot #FLGOP #FLprimary
- Romney sees big win in Florida – TheHill.com – Confident Romney sees big win in Florida #tcot #FLGOP #FLprimary #GOP2012
- CBO says federal employees rake in much more pay – Washington Times – CBO says federal employees rake in much more pay.
- Fox News Channel set to make ratings milestone with 10 years atop the Nielsen charts – NY Daily News – Domination: Today marks the 10 straight year Fox News Channel has been the highest rated cable network.
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-31 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-31
- AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race » Flap’s Cali…
- AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race » Flap’s Cali…
- AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race » Flap’s Cali…
- AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race » Flap’s California Blog – RE: Patricia McKeon had better explain what job she did for the extra 50K a year. I am positive she will be asked.M…
- AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race » Flap’s California Blog – AD-38: Patricia McKeon Has Received Washington Defense Lobbyist Money for California Assembly Race
- President 2012 Poll Watch: Republicans Increasingly Unhappy With GOP Presidential Field | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: Republicans Increasingly Unhappy With GOP Presidential Field
- Democrats Take Lead in Congressional Ballot – Uh Oh! For the first time in about two-and-a-half years Democrats Take Lead in Congressional Ballot #tcot
- President 2012 Poll Watch: Romney Viewed as More Presidential Than Gingrich | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: Romney Viewed as More Presidential Than Gingrich
- Michelle Malkin » For Santorum – Lest we forget, this election is not about choosing a showboat candidate to run against John King or Juan Williams or Wolf Blitzer.It’s not about “raging against” some arbitrarily defined GOP “machine.”
For many grass-roots conservatives across the country, Romney and Gingrich are the machine.
And at this point in the game, Rick Santorum represents the most conservative candidate still standing who can articulate both fiscal and social conservative values — and live them.
- Michelle Malkin Endorses Santorum, Torches Newt – For months, super star conservative author and blogger Michelle Malkin has described the Republican presidential primary as a “pageant of the imperfects,” lamenting that the GOP field represents an uninspiring, “nose plugs” choice for conservatives. Despite her public misgivings, she’s finally donned the requisite odor blockers and made her selection: Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. The entire piece is worth a thorough read, but here is a small sampling of Malkin’s pro-Santorum case:
- Untitled (https://plus.google.com/105353644409523560325/posts/DN4NkgETF9Q) – As if Obama needs even more than the $ 1 Billion he has already raised…
- Nevada officials: Luxor guests had Legionnaires’ – Health officials in Las Vegas said Monday that the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease was found in water samples at the Luxor hotel-casino this month after a guest died of the form of pneumonia.The Southern Nevada Health District said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national surveillance program reported three cases in the past year of Luxor guests being diagnosed with the disease caused by Legionella bacteria.
The Las Vegas Strip resort’s water was tested after the first two cases were reported during the spring of last year, but no Legionella bacteria was detected, district officials said. Those guests recovered.
Officials say the Luxor, owned by MGM Resorts International, immediately began a remediation process once the bacteria was found.
MGM Resorts spokesman Gordon Absher said treatment procedures include superheating and super-chlorination of the water system.
- Untitled (https://plus.google.com/105353644409523560325/posts/HhQAyUHgkuW) – The poor Colts as the Patriots take over their practice facility for the Super Bowl
- SD-19 Poll Watch: Mike Stoker Beating Hannah-Beth Jackson in Jason Hodge Sponsored Poll » Flap’s California Blog – SD-19 Poll Watch: Mike Stoker Beating Hannah-Beth Jackson in Jason Hodge Sponsored Poll
- Most Americans Fudge on Weight and Height Surveys? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Most Americans Fudge on Weight and Height Surveys?
- The Morning Flap: January 30, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: January 30, 2012
- HBO’s Game Change portrays “meltdown” Palin – The latest trailer for HBO’s “Game Change” portrays Sarah Palin as natural disaster mistakenly unleashed by the McCain campaign.”Oh my god what have we done.” Woody Harrelson’s Steve Schmidt says, “I can’t control her anymore.” — “She’s on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown.”
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The Evening Flap: January 2, 2012
These are my links for December 29th through January 2nd:
- How Gingrich Blew His Second Chance – Jonathan Martin looks at how Newt Gingrich “learned all the wrong lessons from his campaign’s collapse this summer and none of the right ones from his remarkable comeback.”
“Instead of seizing the moment and making an aggressive case for why the contest was now a two-man race between a movement conservative and flip-flopping moderate — a unique opportunity afforded by the endorsement’s implicit-but-unmistakable critique of Mitt Romney in his firewall state — Gingrich fell back to his familiar habits, a routine marked by too much self-assurance and not enough discipline.”
“Between that and some other key factors — among them, Romney’s super PAC blitzkrieg and his own weak fundraising — a campaign that seemed on the cusp of stealing the nomination barely a month ago now faces an ignominious fourth place finish or worse.”
- Ron Paul’s Secret Plan To Actually Win – Ron Paul — poised to finish strong in the Iowa caucuses – has begun to implement a quiet, complex plan to force a long battle with Mitt Romney for delegates to the Republican National Convention in August. His advantages: Experience, organization, and the legacy of the 2010 Tea Party revival, which convinced Republicans that anti-government figures like Paul just aren’t as weird as they’d thought.
Paul is following the roadmap set by Barack Obama’s 2008 strategy: Start early, learn the rules, and use superior organization and devoted young supporters to dominate the arcane but crucial party procedures in states your rivals are ignoring — states where caucuses and conventions that elect the delegates who will ultimately choose the Republican candidate. The plan begins in places like Minnetonka, Minnesota, a Minneapolis suburb where Paul has based his state headquarters, and where staffers have already begun running “mock-auses” — practice runs for Minnesota’s February 7 caucuses.
Paul’s rivals dismiss his chances. “Ron Paul’s not going to be our nominee,” Mitt Romney said flatly in December. But Paul’s organization is girding for the long haul, and while the 76-year old Texan is vanishingly unlikely to be the nominee — primaries in big states like New York and California could shut him out — observers in the caucus states say they expect Paul to win, and perhaps sweep, dozens of delegates from unexpected corners of the map. Those delegates, in turn, will give him at least a prominent position at the Republican National Convention, and a plausible shot at emerging as a kingmaker if a strong mainstream challenger to Romney emerges.
- @SteveKingIA: I just announced on Simon Conway’s program on WHO Radio that I will not endorse a candidate in the Iowa Caucus. – I just announced on Simon Conway’s program on WHO Radio that I will not endorse a candidate in the Iowa Caucus.
- Sarah Palin Praises Santorum and Trump, Open to VP, Demurs on Late Entry – In Monday afternoon Fox News interview, ex-Alaska Guv praises Santorum again and adds “Donald Trump has a lot to offer.”
Palin: “I did praise Rick Santorum and I’ll praise him again…It’s no surprise that he has the support that he has.”
Adds, “the field is what it is at this point,” and/but will not shut the door on a second VP bid.
- Occupy protest follows 123rd annual Rose Parade – The 2012 Tournament of Roses brought its flowery floats and strutting bands to a worldwide audience Monday under clear blue skies, and in its wake came a scruffier parade – thousands of anti-Wall Street protesters.
The 123rd annual New Year’s Day event, with the theme “Just Imagine,” flowed along downtown Pasadena to the cheers of hundreds of thousands of sidewalk spectators.
An estimated 40 million people viewed this year’s procession of 44 floats, 16 marching bands and 22 equestrian troupes on U.S. television.
There were 10 arrests overnight, including four felonies, as thousands of spectators staked out viewing places along the route but that figure was down from the previous year, police said.
“Everything went very, very well. We’re very pleased,” police Lt. Phlunte Riddle said.
- Sinaloa Cartel Shifting Meth Production to Guatemala – The Sinaloa Cartel, already thought to be the largest supplier of methamphetamine to the US, may be shifting production southwards to Guatemala. This forms part of a larger trend, in which Mexican groups appear to be shifting many of their operations into Central America.
The Associated Press reports that the seizure of precursor chemicals to produce methamphetamine is spiking dramatically in Guatemala. In 2011, authorities seized about 1,600 tons of precursor chemicals, four times the amount seized in 2010. Much of the trade is thought to be controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel.
InSight Analysis
Such reports point to a key trend previously identified by InSight Crime: the shifting of drug production into Central American nations that are not prepared to confront the Mexican cartels. There have already been some signs that drug trafficking organizes have moved their cocaine-processing infrastructure into the region, with laboratories discovered in Honduras and Guatemala. Nicaragua saw its first ever meth lab dismantled in 2009. If Mexico’s meth production is moving southwards into the Northern Triangle, it is one more indication that the region is increasingly seen as a safer environment for the drug trade.
The shift into Guatemala could also be a sign sign that law enforcement efforts in Mexico are working. Both US and Mexican authorities seized a record amount of meth along the US-Mexico border last year. Another deterrent was Mexico’s decision to ban imports of pseudophedrine and ephedine, key ingredients in meth production, in 2008.
The AP report also supports the hypothesis that the Sinaloa Cartel is expanding its hold on the methamphetamine trade. This includes taking over the network once controlled by the Familia Michoacana. The Sinaloans are now thought to be the largest distributors of meth inside the US.
- Day By Day January 2, 2011 – Empire | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day January 2, 2011 – Empire
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-02 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-02
- Stock Investment Research & Education – Business & Financial News – IBD – Investors.com – Obama asleep at 3 AM – Indeed……Michael Ramirez Political Cartoons 12/29/2011 –
- Gregory Flap Cole – Google+ – Obama asleep at 3 AM – Indeed…… – Obama asleep at 3 AM – Indeed……Michael Ramirez Political Cartoons 12/29/2011 –
- Occupy Rose Parade Activist Leader Peter Thottam is a Convicted Thief, 9-11 Truther and Former California Democratic Party Candidate » Flap’s California Blog – Occupy Rose Parade Activist Leader Peter Thottam is a Convicted Thief, 9-11 Truther and Former California Democr…
- Gregory Flap Cole – Google+ – President 2012 GOP Iowa Poll Watch: Ron Paul is at 20%,… – President 2012 GOP Iowa Poll Watch: Ron Paul is at 20%, Mitt Romney at 19%, and Rick Santorum at 18%
- Gregory Flap Cole – Google+ – Occupy Rose Parade led by a convicted thief – Oh My! – Occupy Rose Parade led by a convicted thief – Oh My! Occupy Rose Parade Activist Leader Peter Thottam
- Happy New Year – 2012 » Flap’s California Blog – Happy New Year – 2012
- Day By Day January 1, 2012 – Major League | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day January 1, 2012 – Major League
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Happy New Year – 2012 – Happy New Year – 2012
- Happy New Year – 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Happy New Year – 2012
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-01 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-01-01
- foursquare :: Gregory Flap @ Ronnie’s Diner – Lunch with Tara and Maria Elena after 17 miles of LA Marathon training (@ Ronnie’s Diner w/ 3 others)
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-12-31 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-12-31
- Nintendo, Sony back off of SOPA support | Electronista – About damn time | Nintendo, Sony back off of SOPA support
- Occupy’s Rose Parade float: 70-foot octopus of corporate greed – latimes.com – Who the frak cares? | Occupy’s Rose Parade float: 70-foot octopus of corporate greed
- Iowa kingmaker rips Ron Paul, hints at late endorsement in attempt to stop him – The Hill’s Ballot Box – Iowa kingmaker Rep. Steve King rips Ron Paul, hints at late endorsement in attempt to stop him #tcot
- Gingrich sees Sarah Palin as vice president, Cabinet secretary – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room – Newt needs Sarah’s endorsement like tomorrow | Gingrich sees Sarah Palin as vice president, Cabinet secretary
- Why I Am Endorsing Newt Gingrich for President | Steve Deace – RT @fivethirtyeight: Newtmentum is back! / RT @allahpundit: Steve Deace: Why I Am Endorsing Newt Gingrich for President
- Paul Says He Would Have Trouble Backing GOP Rivals | Fox News – Ron Paul Says He Would Have Trouble Backing GOP Rivals
- California Cities and Redevelopment Agencies To Hope for 2012 Compromise After Supreme Court Decision » Flap’s California Blog – California Cities and Redevelopment Agencies To Hope for 2012 Compromise After Supreme Court Decision
- Occupy lone wolf stirs parade concerns – SGVTribune.com – Occupy Rose Parade: Occupy lone wolf stirs parade concerns #catcot
- Untitled (http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/29/4151646/why-most-californians-need-to.html) – 25 percent of California adults were obese last year, up from 15 percent in 1995 Another 37 percent are overweight
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: California Dentist Arrested for Providing Drugs and Alcohol to Minors – California Dentist Arrested for Providing Drugs and Alcohol to Minors
- At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch – Lauren Goode – News – AllThingsD – At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch| So, get off!
- (404) http://t.co/1uQoLWq5%E2%80%9D – Why, of course they did &who was fired at Verizon?“@verge: Verizon drops $2 ‘convenience fee’ due to customer feedback
- Michele Bachmann’s hard fall – Maggie Haberman – POLITICO.com – Michele Bachmann’s hard fall – #tcot
- The PJ Tatler » America Deserves Answers on the Obama Administration’s Decision to Outsource the Next Generation of Light Attack Aircraft – America Deserves Answers on the Obama Decision to Outsource the Next Generation of Light Attack Aircraft
- Ron Paul Watch: AIDS Patients and Sexual Harassment – Oh My! | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Ron Paul Watch: AIDS Patients and Sexual Harassment – Oh My!
- Day By Day December 30, 2011 – Vercotti Virginia | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day December 30, 2011 – Vercotti Virginia
- Americans Who Have Health Insurance Have Better Health Habits | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Americans Who Have Health Insurance Have Better Health Habits
- Christie: “After Three Years Of Obama, We Are Hopeless And Changeless” | RealClearPolitics – Chris Christie: “After Three Years Of Obama, We Are Hopeless And Changeless” #tcot
- Latest Florida poll: Mitt Romney 27%, Newt Gingrich 26%; no one else in double digits | Saint Petersblog – Latest Florida poll: Mitt Romney 27%, Newt Gingrich 26%; no one else in double digits | Saint Petersblog – #tcot
- First Read – NBC poll: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul neck-and-neck in Iowa; Newt Gingrich in 5th – First Read – NBC poll: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul neck-and-neck in Iowa; Newt Gingrich in 5th –
- TRENDING: In early book, Rep. Ron Paul criticized AIDS patients, minority rights and sexual harassment victims – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs – OMG. Maybe Ron Paul didn’t write his own book either! via @cnn
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-12-30 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-12-30
- Ron Paul does interview with Iranian state TV, bashes Israel, defends Hamas
– YouTube – RT @DanRiehl: Ron Paul does interview with Iranian state TV, bashes Israel, defends Hamas - Ron Paul Watch: Don Black, David Duke, Stormfront.org 2012 Edition | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Ron Paul Watch: Don Black, David Duke, 2012 Edition
- Stormfront – White Nationalist Community – Ron Paul Watch: Don Black, David Duke, 2012 Edition
- President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Romney Now Leading Gingrich in National Poll | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Romney Now Leading Gingrich in National Poll
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Teeth and Gums: The Gateway to Your Body and Health – Teeth and Gums: The Gateway to Your Body and Health
- Obesity in Older Adults Linked to Risk of Falls? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Obesity in Older Adults Linked to Risk of Falls?
- Gregory Flap Cole – Google+ – The web fight against SOPA has just barely started…. – The web fight against SOPA has just barely started…. #tcot #catcot
- No “Occupy Rose Parade” Say Tournament of Roses Parade Organizers » Flap’s California Blog – No “Occupy Rose Parade” Say Tournament of Roses Parade Organizers
- How Gingrich Blew His Second Chance – Jonathan Martin looks at how Newt Gingrich “learned all the wrong lessons from his campaign’s collapse this summer and none of the right ones from his remarkable comeback.”
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The Afternoon Flap: December 7, 2011
These are my links for December 6th through December 7th:
- Alec Baldwin: A Farewell to Common Sense, Style, and Service on American Airlines – First off, I would like to apologize to the other passengers onboard the American Airlines flight that I was thrown off of yesterday. It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my “issue” with a certain flight attendant.
I suppose a part of my frustration lay with the fact that I had flown American for over 20 years and was brand loyal, in the extreme. The ticketing agents and Admiral’s Club staff have always been nothing but abundantly helpful to me, as I have flown hundreds of thousands of miles with the one carrier.
My confusion began when the flight, already a half hour behind schedule, boarded, the door closed, and we proceeded to sit at the gate for another fifteen minutes. I then did what I have nearly always done and that was to pull out my phone to complete any other messaging I had to do before take off. In nearly all other instances, the flight attendants seemed to be unbothered by and said nothing about such activity, by me or anyone else, until we actually were pulling away from the gate.
- Sarah Palin Won’t Endorse Before Iowa Caucuses – Sarah Palin told Fox Business Network today that she will not be endorsing a candidate in the next few weeks.
“Not before Iowa,” Palin said, in an interview set to air at 10 p.m. EST on FBN. “And Iowa’s not the end of the road. It’s the beginning of the road really. Newt Gingrich, I believe, has risen in the polls because he has been a bit more successful than Romney in reaching out to that base of constitutional conservatives who are part of the tea party movement. He hasn’t been afraid of that movement. He has been engaged in that movement most recently in order for them to hear his solutions and there’s been some forgiveness then on the part of Tea Party Patriots for some of the things in Gingrich’s past.”
- Obama administration refuses to relax Plan B restrictions – The federal government Wednesday rejected a request to let young teenage girls buy the controversial morning-after pill Plan B directly off drugstore and supermarket shelves without a prescription.
In a rare public split among federal health officials, the Health and Human Services Department overruled a decision by the Food and Drug Administration to make the drug available to anyone of any age without a restriction.
In a statement, FDA Administrator Margaret A. Hamburg said she had decided the medication could be used safely by girls and women of all ages. But she added that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had rejected the move.
“I agree … there is adequate and reasonable, well-supported, and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for nonprescription use for all females of child-bearing potential,” Hamburg said.
“However, this morning I received a memorandum from the Secretary of Health and Human Services invoking her authority under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to execute its provisions and stating that she does not agree with the Agency’s decision to allow the marketing of Plan B One-Step nonprescription for all females of child-bearing potential,” she said.
- Death penalty dropped against Mumia Abu-Jamal – Prosecutors on Wednesday abandoned their 30-year pursuit of the execution of convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther whose claim that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause celebre.
Abu-Jamal, 58, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison. His writings and radio broadcasts from death row had put him at the center of an international debate over capital punishment.
Flanked by Officer Daniel Faulkner’s widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision two days short of the 30th anniversary of the white policeman’s killing.
He said continuing to seek the death penalty could lead to “an unknowable number of years” of appeals, and that some witnesses have died or are unavailable after nearly three decades.
“There’s never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982,” said Williams, the city’s first black district attorney. “While Abu-Jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, and that is where he belongs.”
Abu-Jamal was originally sentenced to death. His murder conviction was upheld through years of appeals. But in 2008, a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing on the grounds that the instructions given to the jury were potentially misleading.
After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in two months ago, prosecutors were forced to decide whether to pursue the death penalty again or accept a life sentence without parole.
Williams said he reached the decision with the blessing of Faulkner’s widow, Maureen.
- Poll Watch: A Majority of California Voters Favor Governor Jerry Brown’s Pension Reform Plans » Flap’s California Blog – Poll Watch: A Majority of California Voters Favor Governor Jerry Brown’s Pension Reform Plans
- Anti-union “paycheck protection” measure qualifies for Nov. 2012 ballot | Politics Blog | an SFGate.com blog – Anti-union “paycheck protection” measure qualifies for Nov. 2012 California ballot #catcot
- President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Newt Gingrich Leads BIG in 3 Early States – Is Newt the Nominee? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Newt Gingrich Leads BIG in 3 Early States – Is Newt the Nominee? #tcot #catcot
- Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire – RT @pwire: New polls from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida will be out within the hour…
- O’Grady v. Superior Court – 139 Cal. App. 4th 1423, 2006 WL 1452685 (Cal. App. , 6th Dist., May 26, 2006) – Apple Barred From Obtaining Source Of Blog’s Article
Reversing the court below, the California Court of Appeals holds that the Stored Communications Act prohibits an ISP that hosted a blog’s email account from disclosing e-mails sent to the blog in response to a subpoena issued in a civil litigation. The subpoena sought production of e-mails that would permit Apple Computer (“Apple”) to identify the individual(s) who transmitted trade secret information about an as yet unreleased Apple product to the blog/website Power Page, which information was the source of articles Power Page subsequently published on its blog/website.
The Court further held that petitioners, who acted as publishers of, and/or editors or reporters for, the news blogs that published the stories at issue about this Apple product, were entitled to a protective order against their disclosure of the confidential sources of their stories. Notwithstanding Apple’s claim that the information petitioners received from these services constituted trade secrets disclosed in violation of confidentiality agreements each of its employees had signed, the Court held such disclosure barred by both California’s Reporter’s Shield Law and the First Amendment. The Court held that the Shield Law, which prohibits a court from holding in contempt a publisher, editor or reporter of “a newspaper, magazines or other periodical publication” for failing to disclose the source of a published story, protected petitioners, publishers and/or reporters of news blogs, from having to disclose the sources of the stories at issue. The First Amendment similarly provided protection, given Apple’s failure to fully exhaust other avenues of disclosure before pursuing discovery from petitioners.
- Crystal Cox, Oregon Blogger, Isn’t a Journalist, Concludes U.S. Court–Imposes $2.5 Million Judgement on Her – A U.S. District Court judge in Portland has drawn a line in the sand between “journalist” and “blogger.” And for Crystal Cox, a woman on the latter end of that comparison, the distinction has cost her $2.5 million.
Speaking to Seattle Weekly, Cox says that the judgement could have impacts on bloggers everywhere.“This should matter to everyone who writes on the Internet,” she says.
Cox runs several law-centric blogs, like industrywhistleblower.com, judicialhellhole.com, and obsidianfinancesucks.com, and was sued by investment firm Obsidian Finance Group in January for defamation, to the tune of $10 million, for writing several blog posts that were highly critical of the firm and its co-founder Kevin Padrick.
Representing herself in court, Cox had argued that her writing was a mixture of facts, commentary and opinion (like a million other blogs on the web) and moved to have the case dismissed. Dismissed it wasn’t, however, and after throwing out all but one of the blog posts cited by Obsidian Financial, the judge ruled that this single post was indeed defamatory because it was presented, essentially, as more factual in tone than her other posts, and therefore a reasonable person could conclude it was factual.
The judge ruled against Cox on that post and awarded $2.5 million to the investment firm.
- Unlike Oregon, Bloggers Are Journalists in Washington State, Do Qualify for Legal Protections – This morning we told you about the troubling case of Crystal Cox, the Oregon blogger who was successfully sued for defamation, thanks in part to a federal court ruling that she isn’t a “journalist” and therefore doesn’t qualify for the state’s media shield laws. Now, the man who wrote the shield laws in Washington state has weighed in on whether such a ruling would fly here.
Bruce E. H. Johnson, attorney with Davis Wright Tremaine, is a veteran litigator in the field of free speech and media law. In 2006 he drafted Washington state’s media shield legislation, and in 2007 the state legislature passed it into law.He says that had Cox’s case been heard in a Washington court, the outcome (at least in regards to the shield law) would have most likely been different.
“I believe the shield law would have been applied [in Washington state],” Johnson tells Seattle Weekly. “Oregon’s law was probably written before blogging was accounted for
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: December 7, 2011 – The Morning Drill: December 7, 2011
- President 2012: Newt Gingrich the Worst of Both Worlds? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Newt Gingrich the Worst of Both Worlds? #tcot #catcot
- Blagojevich gets 14 years in prison for corruption – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs – RT @PoliticalTicker: BREAKING: Blagojevich sentenced to 14 years in prison –
- Dilbert December 7, 2011 – Lower the Expectations? » Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert December 7, 2011 – Lower the Expectations?
- Day By Day December 7, 2011 – In Your Face Politics | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day December 7, 2011 – In Your Face Politics #tcot #catcot
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-12-07 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-12-07 #tcot #catcot
- Getting to a Brokered Convention | RedState – RT @fivethirtyeight: Some Republican donors still trying to draft new candidate.
- No TR: The Limits of Obama’s Bully Pulpit – 2012 Decoded – Sorry but Prez Obama is NO Teddy Roosevelt – not even close –
- Flap’s California Afternoon Collection: December 6, 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Afternoon Collection: December 6, 2011
- (500) http://flapsblog.com/2011/12/06/the-afternoon-flap-december-6-2011/ – The Afternoon Flap: December 6, 2011 #tcot #catcot
- Heartbreak Awaits Republicans Who Love Gingrich: Ramesh Ponnuru- Bloomberg – Heartbreak Awaits Republicans Who Love Gingrich
- Alec Baldwin: A Farewell to Common Sense, Style, and Service on American Airlines – First off, I would like to apologize to the other passengers onboard the American Airlines flight that I was thrown off of yesterday. It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my “issue” with a certain flight attendant.
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The Morning Flap: November 22, 2011
Michele Bachmann enters at 22:00
These are my links for November 21st through November 22nd:
- Michele Bachmann’s Entrance Music On Jimmy Fallon Was Fishbone’s ‘Lyin’ Ass Bitch’ | Mediaite – Earlier this morning, our own Nando Di Fino critiqued Michele Bachmann’s appearance on last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon by saying that that the first half of her segment, when she discussed her family life and Thanksgiving, was much better than her second, where she attempted to make “stale, rehearsed political humor.” However, it now seems that her spot on the show was tainted from the very beginning thanks to a sly commentary from Fallon’s house band, The Roots. In case anyone watching the show was curious why Bachmann’s entrance music appeared to be a rocking ska song, the song’s title, “Lyin’ Ass Bitch,” might explain things.
Shameful…..
- MF Global Trustee Says Shortfall Could Exceed $1.2 Billion – The amount of customer money missing from the collapsed trading firm MF Global may be more than $1.2 billion — double previous estimates — the trustee dismantling the firm’s brokerage unit said on Monday.
But the surprise finding, which caught regulators off guard, may be overstated, according to a person briefed on the investigation. Some regulators say they believe that the trustee double-counted $220 million that had been transferred between units of MF Global, this person said.
Still, the much higher number highlights the disarray of MF Global’s records and raises significantly the hurdle for tens of thousands of customers seeking to get their money back. The trustee’s estimate represents a significant portion of customer funds held by MF Global.
Regulators suspect that as investors and customers fled MF Global in the last week of October, the firm used some of the customer money for its own needs — violating Wall Street rules that customers’ money be kept separate from the firm’s funds. Much of that money may never return.
- Gingrich seeks to show staying power – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich touched down in New Hampshire on Monday to assume the title of surging presidential candidate — and to try to impart to it a staying power that has eluded those who have risen and stumbled before.
The fifth Republican contender to climb to the top of public polls this year, Gingrich took advantage of the moment to again announce his plans to reform Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and various programs for the poor. Campaign money is coming in, he said, and a staff that shrank to a dozen after an implosion in June has grown to 40. Gingrich is even allowing himself to look ahead to a general-election contest against President Obama, because, he said, “one of the reasons people support me is because they can see me debating Obama.”
- Mike Huckabee says conservatives may have to get behind Romney – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa presidential caucus with the backing of social conservatives in 2008, is hinting that it may be time for conservative Republicans to get behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s candidacy.
“Mitt Romney may not be their first choice, but Mitt Romney every day of the week and twice on Sunday is going to be a much more effective president for issues that they care about than Barack Obama,” Huckabee said Sunday in an interview with WABC. “I think sometimes there is this anxiety within the Republican Party of who is the perfect candidate. The answer is there isn’t one.”
He continued to say that conservatives have to decide “who can survive” the campaign process. “And whoever that is, if it’s Mitt Romney, then I think Republicans and conservatives and the Tea Party need to get behind him and say, ‘You may not be our first choice, but between you and Obama, I’ll vote 40 times to get you elected.'”
- THE RETURN OF DEBTORS PRISONS: Collection Agencies Now Want Deadbeats Arrested And Sent To The Big House – As if life wasn’t already tense enough for Americans who can’t pay their debts, collection agencies are now taking advantage of archaic state laws to have some debtors arrested and sent to jail.
More than one-third of US states allow debtors to be arrested and jailed, says Jessica Silver-Greenberg in the Wall Street Journal.
Judges typically grant arrest warrants when the debtors have failed to show up for court dates or failed to make court-ordered payments.
Of course, the reason debtors have failed to make court-ordered payments is often the same reason they didn’t pay their debts in the first place: They don’t have any money.
- The consequences of presidential weakness – The supercommittee is not so much a failure of the legislative branch as it is of the president’s ability to lead the country. Each side in Congress represented its constituents well. It is, however, a very good argument indeed for dumping Obama. As Samuelson puts it, “The president won’t talk specifics, but government consists of specifics. The reason we cannot have a large budget deal is that Americans haven’t been prepared for one. The president hasn’t educated them, and so they can’t support what they don’t understand.”
Republicans and Democrats in Congress should be crystal-clear: The president’s been AWOL from the most important domestic challenge we face. Frankly, I suspect that a stronger Democratic president would have been able to broker a deal. Actually, a stronger and more courageous president would have embraced Simpson-Bowles. But not Obama. Maybe we should get a president who doesn’t run overseas or finger-point but who leads.
- Senate Democrats Blame Uber-Lobbyist Grover Norquist For Super Committee Failure – The super committee failed and Senate Democrats are lining up to blame Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist for the committee’s inability to reach a deal.
In a video, Democrats warn “You didn’t elect Grover Norquist, but he blocked a deficit compromise, pressuring Republicans not to defy him.” It follows with clips of Norquist on 60 Minutes and other news shows taking credit for Republicans opposing a tax increase.
- Sarah Palin Got Scolded by Roger Ailes for Not Announcing Her Non-Candidacy on Fox News – Sarah Palin’s announcement that she wouldn’t run for president disappointed her legions of admirers — but it infuriated Roger Ailes. The Fox News chief wasn’t angry about the decision itself. Rather, he was livid that Palin made the October 5 announcement on Mark Levin’s conservative talk-radio program, robbing Fox News of an exclusive and a possible ratings bonanza. Fox was relegated to getting a follow-up interview with Palin on Greta Van Susteren’s 10 p.m. show, after the news of Palin’s decision had been drowned out by Steve Jobs’s death. Ailes was so mad, he considered pulling her off the air entirely until her $1 million annual contract expires in 2013.
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-22 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-22 #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Fewer Americans Dying from Oral and Throat Cancer? – Fewer Americans Dying from Oral and Throat Cancer?
- Photo of the Day: Democrat California Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi’s Booking Photo » Flap’s California Blog – Photo of the Day: Democrat California Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi’s Booking Photo
- Super Committee Fails to Reach Deficit Agreement – Billy House – NationalJournal.com – Super Committee Fails to Reach Deficit Agreement
- The Afternoon Flap: November 21, 2011 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Afternoon Flap: November 21, 2011 #tcot #catcot
- Michele Bachmann’s Entrance Music On Jimmy Fallon Was Fishbone’s ‘Lyin’ Ass Bitch’ | Mediaite – Earlier this morning, our own Nando Di Fino critiqued Michele Bachmann’s appearance on last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon by saying that that the first half of her segment, when she discussed her family life and Thanksgiving, was much better than her second, where she attempted to make “stale, rehearsed political humor.” However, it now seems that her spot on the show was tainted from the very beginning thanks to a sly commentary from Fallon’s house band, The Roots. In case anyone watching the show was curious why Bachmann’s entrance music appeared to be a rocking ska song, the song’s title, “Lyin’ Ass Bitch,” might explain things.
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The Afternoon Flap: November 18, 2011
‘RON PAUL’ â?? A Bad Lip Reading SoundBite – watch more funny videosThese are my links for November 17th through November 18th:
- Poll: Romney, Gingrich in statistical dead heat in N.H. – Two things are true about New Hampshire Republican primary voters. They vote for people they know. And they love an underdog with a comeback story.Four years ago it was the weathered but feisty veteran John McCain who revived his once hanging-by-a-thread campaign to win the nation’s leadoff primary.And so it seems almost fated that after political observers have scratched their heads for months wondering who will emerge as the non-Romney candidate in the Granite State, the voters’ eyes should turn to Newt Gingrich, a man who was Speaker of the House during the previous century and whose own campaign was left for dead last summer.
The latest NH Journal poll of likely Republican primary voters conducted by Magellan Strategies shows Romney and Gingrich in a statistical dead heat for the January 10th primary. If the election were held today, Romney would earn 29% of the vote and Gingrich would earn 27%. Texas Congressman Ron Paul continues to show resolve by earning 16%. Herman Cain gets 10%. No other candidate is in double digits.
- Big Labor shells out for GOP friends – For House Republicans, it pays to be a friend of Big Labor.Major unions are giving a heftier slice of campaign donations than usual to pro-labor Republicans this election cycle, even as overall union contributions to members of Congress lags.Labor insiders say there’s extra incentive to support their GOP friends this cycle as unions look to reward lawmakers who rebuff their leadership on key votes, ingratiate themselves to freshman Republicans and ward off primary challengers as many tea party candidates campaign on anti-union platforms.
Overall this cycle, about 13 percent of labor groups’ political action committee contributions — just over $2 million — have gone toward GOP candidates, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. That’s still dwarfed by the nearly $14 million in union cash that’s gone to Democrats this cycle, but the GOP appears to be gaining ground with union donors after receiving only 6 percent of total contributions in 2010 and 8 percent in the 2008 cycle.
- Occupy Wall Street: Anne Hathaway joins protesters but surely she’s in the 1%? – She is one of Hollywood’s highest paid actresses and lives a very privileged lifestyle that 99 per cent of people can only dream of.Still, Anne Hathaway acted as an average Joe and accompanied hundreds of protestors as she joined the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Manhattan’s Union Square.The 29-year-old, who is worth a reported $58 million, was pictured marching with protesters and sticking it to the man yesterday in The Big Apple.
- Sarah Palin: How Congress Occupied Wall Street – Mark Twain famously wrote, “There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” Peter Schweizer’s new book, “Throw Them All Out,” reveals this permanent political class in all its arrogant glory. (Full disclosure: Mr. Schweizer is employed by my political action committee as a foreign-policy adviser.)Mr. Schweizer answers the questions so many of us have asked. I addressed this in a speech in Iowa last Labor Day weekend. How do politicians who arrive in Washington, D.C. as men and women of modest means leave as millionaires? How do they miraculously accumulate wealth at a rate faster than the rest of us? How do politicians’ stock portfolios outperform even the best hedge-fund managers’? I answered the question in that speech: Politicians derive power from the authority of their office and their access to our tax dollars, and they use that power to enrich and shield themselves.
- Ventura County Official Announces Bid in New California District – Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett (D) announced on Wednesday that he will seek California’s new 26th district seat.“I am running for Congress because Ventura County residents deserve common sense leadership that is not locked into rigid ideology at the expense of the common good,” Bennett said in a statement. “I have demonstrated that leadership for Ventura County residents here at the county level for 10 years. We have made major improvements in the fiscal health of Ventura County.”The Ventura-based district race is not expected to feature a current incumbent next year, as Rep. Elton Gallegly (R) was drawn into the neighboring 25th district and has yet to say where or whether he will run.
No Republicans have announced for the seat yet, but two other Democrats have: Moorpark City Councilman David Pollock and former professional tennis player David Cruz Thayne.
- 26th District Democratic Town Hall – The first Congressional Candidates Town Hall meeting is being held tonight for the new 26th district.The Ventura City Democratic Club is hosting the event at the E.P. Foster Library at 7pm.The declared candidates include businessman David Cruz Thayne, Moorpark City Councilman David Pollock and Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett.
- The 10 states that will determine control of the House in 2012 – 2. California: The nation’s biggest state has been an electoral afterthought for some time, going a nearly a decade with only one congressional seat changing hands between 2002 and 2010. That won’t happen again. At least three GOP-held seats are likely to go Democratic in the newly reshuffled map crafted by the state’s new citizen’s redistricting commission. But Democrats think they can run up the score even more, while the GOP strategists believe they can win Democratic-held seats elsewhere to even the score. We could see the results spanning from a total wash to Democrats gaining eight seats. Anything on the top end of that scale would be a major Democratic win.
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-18 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-18 #tcot #catcot
- foursquare :: Gregory Flap @ Los Angeles Chinatown – Heading home after an afternoon at LA auto show (@ Los Angeles Chinatown)
- California Proposition 8 Sponsors Protect Marriage Legally Entitled to Defend Measure » Flap’s California Blog – California Proposition 8 Sponsors Protect Marriage Legally Entitled to Defend Measure
- Lockerz.com : Los Angeles Dodgers’s Photo – RT @Dodgers: Congrats to Clayton Kershaw on winning the #CyYoung! Enjoy your celebratory champagne!
- House Leaders Plan Facebook Hackathon – While House Republican and Democratic leaders are finding it difficult to agree on spending cuts, they are coming together next month for Capitol Hill’s first-ever Facebook Hackathon. The goal is to find new ways to use the social network to make information about the legislative process more transparent and to help members of the public more easily engage with lawmakers.Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican leader, and Representative Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland and his party’s whip, are co-hosting the event, scheduled for Dec. 7 in the U.S. Capitol, which will include Facebook engineers, independent software developers, advocates for the open data movement and members of Congress.Hackathon is a term used to describe an event where programmers come together to build applications in a collaborative process.
“There is a lot of opportunity to improve the process,” said Matt Lira, digital director for Mr. Cantor. “We are going to sit down in a bipartisan way and look at how we can tackle some of these problems. We are hoping to get as many engineers as possible. They will have a unique opportunity to help make democracy work better.”
- Untitled (http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/20111115econToplines.pdf) – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Gingrich 23% Vs. Cain 21% Vs. Romney 19% Vs. Paul 7% Vs. Perry 6%
- In Debates, Newt Gingrich’s Real Target Is Obama – It’s an open question whether Gingrich can defeat Obama in 2012. It’s taken as a truism that he has “too much baggage.” Well, some of the baggage is lighter than it appears. He was cleared by the Clinton-era Internal Revenue Service of wrongdoing in alleged ethics violations stemming from a college course he taught in the 1990s. The charge that he surprised his cancer-stricken first wife with divorce papers has been, at the least, exaggerated.
- (500) http://flapsblog.com/2011/11/17/poll-watch-u-s-unemployment-rate-increases-in-mid-november/ – Poll Watch: U.S. Unemployment Rate Increases in Mid-November #tcot #catcot
- (500) http://smilesforalifetime.com/index.php/2011/11/poll-watch-smoking-rates-range-from-a-high-of-29-in-kentucky-to-low-of-11-in-utah/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=poll-watch-smoking-rates-range-from-a-high-of-29-in-kentucky-to-low-of-11-i – Poll Watch: Smoking Rates Range From a High of 29% in Kentucky to Low of 11% in Utah
- Occupy Wall Street | Liveblog live blogging | Reuters.com – RT @Reuters: Live coverage of Occupy Wall Street #OWS
- Ruling on Prop 8, Same Sex Marriage to Come From California Supreme Court | TheBlaze.com – RT @theblaze: Calif. Supreme Court to Issue Pivotal Gay Marriage Ruling Today via @theblaze
- AD-66: Former California Governor George Deukmejian Endorses Nathan Mintz » Flap’s California Blog – AD-66: Former California Governor George Deukmejian Endorses Nathan Mintz
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: November 17, 2011 – The Morning Drill: November 17, 2011
- (500) http://flapsblog.com/2011/11/17/the-morning-flap-november-17-2011/ – The Morning Flap: November 17, 2011 #tcot #catcot
- Poll: Romney, Gingrich in statistical dead heat in N.H. – Two things are true about New Hampshire Republican primary voters. They vote for people they know. And they love an underdog with a comeback story.Four years ago it was the weathered but feisty veteran John McCain who revived his once hanging-by-a-thread campaign to win the nation’s leadoff primary.And so it seems almost fated that after political observers have scratched their heads for months wondering who will emerge as the non-Romney candidate in the Granite State, the voters’ eyes should turn to Newt Gingrich, a man who was Speaker of the House during the previous century and whose own campaign was left for dead last summer.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for September 28th on 12:17
These are my links for September 28th from 12:17 to 14:18:
- Rick Perry to Newsmax: I Regret ‘Heartless’ Comment on Immigration – Presidential candidate Rick Perry on Wednesday apologized for saying that anyone who opposed giving tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants “did not have a heart.”
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, the Texas governor said he had made a poor choice of words during the Sept. 22 presidential debate, but he stood by his view that the decision in his state to extend tuition breaks was the right one.
“I was probably a bit over-passionate by using that word and it was inappropriate,” Perry admitted. “In Texas in 2001 we had 181 members of the legislature – only four voted against this piece of legislation – because it wasn’t about immigration it was about education.”
During the wide-ranging interview, Perry:
• Opposed the idea of a fence stretching the entire length of the Mexican border;
• Repeated his claim that social security is “a Ponzi scheme,” saying it’s so bad it “would make Bernie Madoff blush;”
• Attacked challenger Mitt Romney as “a flip-flopper;’
• Accused President Barack Obama of sending government agencies to “go to war” against business, and;
• Said most voters want their president to be “a person of faith.” - Big Tobacco knew radioactive particles in cigarettes posed cancer risk but kept quiet, study suggests – Tobacco companies knew that cigarette smoke contained radioactive alpha particles for more than four decades and developed "deep and intimate" knowledge of these particles' cancer-causing potential, but they deliberately kept their findings from the public, according to a new study by UCLA researchers.
- Bristol Palin’s Bar Heckler Apologizes After Negative Media Coverage – The dust finally seems to be settling on the epic verbal battle that unraveled between Bristol Palin and heckler Stephen Hanks. Just days after Hanks got into an altercation with Palin, then reiterated his offensive comments, he is now curiously apologetic.
As you may recall, the 47-year-old attacked Sarah Palin’s oldest daughter last week, calling her mother “evil” and a “whore,” among other unbelievably offensive insults. You can watch the original battle unfold here:
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Read it all….
A little late but accepted…..
- Rick Perry to Newsmax: I Regret ‘Heartless’ Comment on Immigration – Presidential candidate Rick Perry on Wednesday apologized for saying that anyone who opposed giving tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants “did not have a heart.”
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Flap’s Links and Comments for September 15th on 10:20
These are my links for September 15th from 10:20 to 10:31:
- Big Brother Obama is watching – Attack Watch – e careful, if you dare to criticize Citizen Obama, comrade. The Web is watching. This week, President Obama’s re-election team launched “Attack Watch,” an interactive website that allows the president’s registered supporters to report instances of “attacks” against the commander in chief or his record. Citizen snitches are asked to detail who the attacker is, the type of attack, and whether the offending words were actually heard or passed along as second-hand rumors. The “Attack Files” section provides summary responses to some common smears. For example, the site explains that, “President Obama is a friend to Israel, despite unfounded claims to the contrary.” For critics, it represents a handy list of the issues that most infuriate the White House.
The look and feel of the site conveys a sense of foreboding. It’s Web design by Orwell. A black background, stark red headers and white text surround the site’s own attacks. Grainy black-and-white photos depict those on the White House hit list, which includes the likes of Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck. The design is so unconsciously theatrical and amateurish it is hard to believe it is not a parody.
It’s not the first time Mr. Obama has attempted to harness the Internet to create a nation of informants. In August 2009, the White House set up the email address “flag@whitehouse.gov” to gather information during the debate over Obamacare. According to an official press release, people were actually supposed to send a note to the White House “if you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy.” The effort raised serious concern over the appearance that the administration might be compiling an enemies list. As if the privacy implications weren’t bad enough, the address became instant spam bait. After three weeks of withering criticism, the White House abandoned its fishing expedition.
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Orwellian in the extreme
- NY Times Review: Joe McGinniss’s ‘The Rogue,’ on Sarah Palin – Mr. McGinniss explains that he was shocked, just shocked, at the angry response his presence in Wasilla provoked. But “The Rogue” makes the Palins’ widely publicized anger understandable, even to readers who might have defended his right to set up shop in their neighborhood and soak up the local color. Although most of “The Rogue” is dated, petty and easily available to anyone with Internet access, Mr. McGinniss used his time in Alaska to chase caustic, unsubstantiated gossip about the Palins, often from unnamed sources like “one resident” and “a friend.”
And these stories need not be consistent. “The Rogue” suggests that Todd Palin and the young Sarah Heath took drugs. It also says that she lacked boyfriends and was a racist. And it includes this: “A friend says, ‘Sarah and her sisters had a fetish for black guys for a while.’ ” Mr. McGinniss did in 2011 make a phone call to the former N.B.A. basketball player Glen Rice, who is black, and prompted him to acknowledge having fond memories of Sarah Heath. While Mr. Rice avoids specifics and uses the words “respectful” and “a sweetheart,” Mr. McGinniss eggs him on with the kind of flagrantly leading question he seems to have habitually asked. In Mr. Rice’s case: “So you never had the feeling she felt bad about having sex with a black guy?”
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McGinniss is a sensationalist slime ball.
- Yes, cancer sucks. But… – I’m glad Rick Perry is pro-life. But public officials cannot govern based on how they feel. They must think.
Their job is not to mandate life-saving interventions at any cost. Especially if the price is liberty-curtailment. (Listen to further discussion on this point at FreedomWorks radio here.)
“If it saves just one life” is a fiscally imprudent and morally irresponsible justification for massive government intervention — and antithetical to core Tea Party principles.
Moreover, the story now making the rounds is clearly an attempt to shift the spotlight from Perry’s Merck ties.
Just as I criticized Michele Bachmann for unwisely using one mother’s unvetted anecdote to bolster her criticism of Perry, I will repeat the warning against such demagogic tactics as the “erring on the side of life” defense. It’s a path that leads to the kind of heart-tugging Obamacare fables I’ve blasted for the past two years.
While the personal back story now being disseminated by Team Perry supporters may help explain why he did what he did, it does not in any way excuse it.
Nor does it bolster confidence that Perry’s bedrock understanding of the proper role of government in health care decisions is much different than Mitt Romney’s or Barack Obama’s.
That sucks, too.======
Read it all.
What concerns me: Will Rick Perry repeat this policy behavior after he is elected President?
American cannot afford another Obama meddling around with our health care system – crony capitalism notwithstanding.
- Big Brother Obama is watching – Attack Watch – e careful, if you dare to criticize Citizen Obama, comrade. The Web is watching. This week, President Obama’s re-election team launched “Attack Watch,” an interactive website that allows the president’s registered supporters to report instances of “attacks” against the commander in chief or his record. Citizen snitches are asked to detail who the attacker is, the type of attack, and whether the offending words were actually heard or passed along as second-hand rumors. The “Attack Files” section provides summary responses to some common smears. For example, the site explains that, “President Obama is a friend to Israel, despite unfounded claims to the contrary.” For critics, it represents a handy list of the issues that most infuriate the White House.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for September 12th on 20:22
These are my links for September 12th from 20:22 to 20:26:
- Perry doubles down on in-state tuition for illegals in Texas – Another clip via Breitbart TV, which did a bang-up job tonight of posting highlights almost as fast as they happened. Were these the only actual boos (or maybe they’re grumbles of dissent) that Perry got? My thinking on this subject has been that if we’re willing to vote for Bush and McCain, we’re willing to forgive any potential nominee their heresies on immigration — especially since Perry’s position here likely improves his electability by attracting Latino voters in the general. But maybe I’m wrong. None of tonight’s “problem” issues — Social Security, Gardasil, the Texas DREAM Act — is necessarily fatal on its own, but together I think they’ve raised enough doubts to erode some of the white-knight stature he enjoyed when he first declared. Ace’s co-blogger Drew said it well: “I want to like Perry but if you watched these things & didn’t know who was who, no one would ID Perry as the double digit frontrunner.” Indeed. And I think his biggest problem tonight may be less the substance of the attacks than the fact that they came from Bachmann, who’s probably back in the race (at least in Iowa) and may be able to keep Perry from breaking away. A good night for Romney.
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Michele Bachmann is back into the race and maybe even Sarah Palin.
- Palin slams Perry on ‘crony capitalism’ – Sarah Palin took a hard swipe against her friend Rick Perry in a post-debate TV appearance, calling him out by name for “crony capitalism” for his effort to mandate an HPV vaccine for girls in Texas.
Asked by Greta Van Susteren about someone in Perry's office going to work for a drug company that made the vaccine, Palin sought to put a finer point on it: “That someone, as Michele Bachmann pointed out, was Governor Perry’s former chief of staff.”
She went on: “That’s crony capitalism. That’s part of the problem that we have in this country is that people are afraid, even in our own party, to call one another out on that. True reform and fighting the corruption and fighting the crony capitalism is a tough thing to do within your own party. You have to go up against the big guns and they will try to destroy you when you call them out on the mistakes that they have made. Believe me, I know that, I have the bumps and bruises to prove it because that’s what I have been doing for the last 20 years … calling out the corruption in government. Michele Bachmann tried to make that point tonight and she’s going to get potentially crucified.”
Van Susteren asked another question, but Palin wasn’t done: “Let me go back to that issue with Governor Perry,” she said. She pointed out that at the time Perry was boosting the vaccine in Texas, she was opposing it in Alaska, and she thought Perry’s order was strange “because it just didn’t sound like Governor Perry,” who she thought was against big government.
“I knew even at that time something was up with that issue. And now we’re finding out, yeah, something was up with that issue,” she said.======
As she should. It is a weakness for Perry as is illegal immigration.
- Perry doubles down on in-state tuition for illegals in Texas – Another clip via Breitbart TV, which did a bang-up job tonight of posting highlights almost as fast as they happened. Were these the only actual boos (or maybe they’re grumbles of dissent) that Perry got? My thinking on this subject has been that if we’re willing to vote for Bush and McCain, we’re willing to forgive any potential nominee their heresies on immigration — especially since Perry’s position here likely improves his electability by attracting Latino voters in the general. But maybe I’m wrong. None of tonight’s “problem” issues — Social Security, Gardasil, the Texas DREAM Act — is necessarily fatal on its own, but together I think they’ve raised enough doubts to erode some of the white-knight stature he enjoyed when he first declared. Ace’s co-blogger Drew said it well: “I want to like Perry but if you watched these things & didn’t know who was who, no one would ID Perry as the double digit frontrunner.” Indeed. And I think his biggest problem tonight may be less the substance of the attacks than the fact that they came from Bachmann, who’s probably back in the race (at least in Iowa) and may be able to keep Perry from breaking away. A good night for Romney.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for September 2nd on 11:12
These are my links for September 2nd from 11:12 to 11:22:
- The NLRB’s Unlawful Rule – The National Labor Relations Board’s recent rule requiring virtually every employer in America to post a notice describing its employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is reflective of two disturbing trends at the NLRB: first, a myopic and partisan focus on increasing unionization by whatever means, including bold exercises of authority not within the agency’s statutory mandate; and second, a concomitant disregard of protected employee rights to refrain from union activity.
Under the new rule — enacted just a few weeks after the NLRB proposed to radically shorten the time it takes to conduct secret-ballot elections for union representation, so as to limit employers’ right to express their views about unionization to their employees — an estimated 6 million employers will be required to post a notice in every workplace. Further, if the board finds that an employer’s failure to post the notice was “knowing and willful,” this fact may be deemed presumptive evidence of an “unfair labor practice,” or violation of the NLRA.
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Read it allNLRB requiring posters – how ridiculous is this?
- Mr. Obama, tear down those union posters – Just in time for Labor Day, the National Labor Relations Board is making sure that unemployment remains high in America.
Following its attack on Boeing for opening a new plant in South Carolina, and new proposals for quickie union elections, the board will now require employers to put up 11-by-17-inch posters informing workers of their right to unionize.On Thursday, millions of unemployed Americans will be watching President Obama's speech to Congress, desperately waiting to hear the president explain how employers will create more jobs.
Requiring posters won't benefit the 14 million unemployed Americans, but it is another message to employers that the administration regards them with suspicion. Other countries don't require these posters and welcome American businesses to hire their workers.
The rule, to take effect Nov. 14, is a parting gift from Wilma B. Liebman, the former chairwoman, and a board member since 1997, whose term expired Aug. 28. She believes in unions and their ability to raise workers' incomes.
The required poster size is larger than for notices for minimum wage, employee polygraph protection, family medical leave, equal employment opportunity and other employee rights guaranteed by Congress.
If 20 percent or more employees are most comfortable speaking a language other than English, an additional poster in translation must go up. That's two posters.
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Great!
9.1% unemployment and the feds are mandating posters.
- S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley Calls Obama ‘Cowardly’ – South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley blasted President Obama and the National Labor Relations Board today. She called on President Obama to address the NLRB’s unprecedented lawsuit against Boeing during his jobs speech on Sept. 8. The South Carolina governor made the comments during a conference call with bloggers and journalists this morning.
Citing the fact that at least 1,000 jobs and the future of American aircraft manufacturing hang in the balance with the NLRB’s lawsuit against Boeing, Haley called the president’s silence on the issue “cowardly” and “unacceptable.” Haley also cited the fact that the current White House Chief of Staff and Commerce Secretary both served on Boeing’s board at the time the South Carolina plant was approved, and demanded that he speak up and go on the record whether he agrees with the NLRB’s actions or not.
- John Fund: Why Sarah Palin Is Not Running – Rick Perry has already vaunted – at least temporarily – to the front of the GOP presidential pack, leading Mitt Romney by 29% to 22% in the latest Fox News poll that has Palin at 8%. If Sarah Palin decides that 2012 isn’t her year to run, as I firmly believe is the case, but even sweeter revenge could she have on her media adversaries than to give early backing to a kindred conservative spirit who then went on to win the GOP nomination and indeed the presidency?
That’s why I believe Sarah Palin isn’t running, and why she will ultimately endorse Rick Perry. And if her bet pays off and Perry becomes president, don’t be surprised if the next Secretary of Energy is a certain former Alaska governor who has an aggressive agenda to open up America’s energy resources. Such a platform would also be an effective launching pad for her to start refurbishing her political and policy image.
Sarah Palin may yet have the last political laugh over her doubters.
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Agree.
With the polls as they are and at 47 years old, she is better to wait.
- Crony capitalism: Perry’s Achilles heel? – For a time, Sarah Palin and Texas Gov. Rick Perry were kindred spirits. They both cheered the Tea Party and sneered at establishment Republicans. But then Perry entered the presidential race. Lately, Palin seems determined to turn up the heat on the governor. Last month, CBS reported on Palin at the Iowa fair:
Palin also took a subtle shot at Texas governor Rick Perry, who is entering the presidential race on Saturday. Perry is sometimes dismissed as [a] “weak governor” by virtue of the way his state’s government is structured, and Palin seemed to draw out that distinction when asked to contrast their records.
“You have different functions in the state of Texas and the state of Alaska in terms of governing powers from the governor’s office,” she said, “So it’s tough to compare what the executive duties are. We have a very strong governor’s office . . . but, he’s a great guy and I look forward to seeing him in those debates.”
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A problem for Perry which will be aired at next week's Presidential debate
- The NLRB’s Unlawful Rule – The National Labor Relations Board’s recent rule requiring virtually every employer in America to post a notice describing its employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is reflective of two disturbing trends at the NLRB: first, a myopic and partisan focus on increasing unionization by whatever means, including bold exercises of authority not within the agency’s statutory mandate; and second, a concomitant disregard of protected employee rights to refrain from union activity.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for August 25th through August 26th
These are my links for August 25th through August 26th:
- President 2012: My Rick Perry Problem — and Ours – Let’s cut through the clutter: A lot of people on the East and West coasts are bigots and snobs about “flyover types.” They equate funny accents with stupidity, and they automatically assume someone who went to Texas A&M must be dumber than someone who went to Yale. Overt displays of religion trigger their fight-or-flight instincts, causing them to lash out irrationally.
My favorite example? When John McCain picked Palin as his running mate, University of Chicago professor Wendy Doniger wrote that Palin’s “greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman.”
When I read such idiocy, it’s impossible for me not to love Bush, Perry, Palin, et al. for their enemies.
But here’s my problem: I find the prospect of another four or eight years of defending these cultural distinctions to be intensely wearying.
My weariness is hardly a major consideration for anybody, but I think it reflects a larger problem. Conservatism is starting to have an identity-politics problem all its own. I think conservatism needs to spend less time defending candidates for who they are, and more time supporting candidates for what they intend to do.
Bush’s inability to articulate arguments had nothing to do with his Texan-ness or his Christianity, but a lot of folks on the right defended him as if that were the case. “He speaks American, don’t you get it?”
To which I’d reply: “No, he speaks badly.”
Perry’s not a bad speaker, and I’m trying to keep an open mind. I suspect I agree with him more than I did with Bush, whose compassionate conservatism I loathed.
Nor do I mind folksiness per se. Mississippi governor Haley Barbour can talk seriously and colorfully at the same time. But this time around, folksiness isn’t a substitute for seriousness, and I have very little patience for those who pretend otherwise.
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Well said.
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-26 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-26 #tcot #catcot
- President 2012: The Problem With RomneyCare | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: The Problem With RomneyCare #tcot #catcot
- President 2012: Conservative Bloggers Feud Over Perry and Palin – The presidential politics angle to the spat started to become apparent when Erickson wrote an additional blog post, in which he accused conservative blogger Dan Riehl of leaking the email to Politico. As evidence, he noted that Riehl had taken issue with RedState over its disparagement of conservative commentator Michelle Malkin’s condemnation of Perry’s 2007 push, as Texas governor, to mandate the vaccination of young girls with Gardasil — which was developed to prevent HPV, the most common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S.
“I get he’s upset and/or jealous of RedState and thinks, I suppose, that we should be in the tank for Palin or should not have let Perry announce at the RedState Gathering or whatever the reason du jour is,” Erickson wrote of Riehl in an update to his post.
Less than 20 minutes after the original Politico story was published, Erickson also posted an item in which he pointed to recent polling to suggest that Palin’s potential entry into the GOP field “would not shake up the race terribly at this point.”
“All of the above suggests, if Palin got in, it would not be hers for the taking as many of her supporters might think,” Erickson wrote. “Instead, she’d struggle for third place and not be guaranteed, even in Iowa, of a strong finish.”
Eighteen minutes after Erickson’s post went up, Riehl published his own blog item, which he titled “Perry Versus Palin,” and observed “how various voices and forces seem to be aligning themselves as relates to their support for Rick Perry or Sarah Palin.”
“For what it's worth, I'm getting a sense that, within the conservative movement, Perry may come to more represent the old line conservative movement, much of which is seriously compromised as a result of having been established in Washington for so long,” Riehl wrote. “At the same time, I'm getting a sense that if the movement is to truly be re-energized and move forward from something it's been for decades — something already bound up in Washington — it may take a Sarah Palin to move forward along that path. If that does become the case, the two paths do lead to a different place.”
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Read it all.
First thing is Sarah Palin has to enter the arean. Otherwise, this is all just noise.
- For When You Have Too Much to Say – No chance for this tennis coach RT @FlashReport: RT @udrawthelines: New Candidate for Ventura congressional seat
- California Bureau of State Audits Releases Report: Investigations of Improper Activities by State Agencies and Employees – July 2010 Through March 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – California Bureau of State Audits Releases Report: Investigations of Improper Activities by State Agencies and E…
- RealClearPolitics – Rick Perry Assembles Iowa Team – RT @RealClearScott: Rick Perry assembles Iowa team, nabs longtime GOP operative Bob Haus & WH vet Ruth Haus:
- President 2012 GOP Florida Poll Watch: Romney 51% Vs. Obama 43% Or Perry 46% Vs. Obama 45% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Florida Poll Watch: Romney 51% Vs. Obama 43% Or Perry 46% Vs. Obama 45% #tcot #catcot
- California Legislators Push New Internet Sales Tax Bill to Thwart Amazon.com Referendum | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – California Legislators Push New Internet Sales Tax Bill to Thwart Amazon.com Referendum #tcot #catcot
- President 2012 GOP Iowa Poll Watch: Perry 24% Bachmann 22% Romney 19% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Iowa Poll Watch: Perry 24% Bachmann 22% Romney 19% #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: 91 Year Old U.K. Dentist/Athlete Seeks Olympic Bid – 91 Year Old U.K. Dentist/Athlete Seeks Olympic Bid
- American Obesity Rates Remain Higher Than 20% in ALL States | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – American Obesity Rates Remain Higher Than 20% in ALL States
- President 2012: GOP Primary Election Calendar Still NOT Set | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: GOP Primary Election Calendar Still NOT Set #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s California Morning Collection: August 25, 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: August 25, 2011
- Flap’s Links and Comments for August 25th on 08:58 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for August 25th on 08:58 #tcot #catcot
- President 2012: My Rick Perry Problem — and Ours – Let’s cut through the clutter: A lot of people on the East and West coasts are bigots and snobs about “flyover types.” They equate funny accents with stupidity, and they automatically assume someone who went to Texas A&M must be dumber than someone who went to Yale. Overt displays of religion trigger their fight-or-flight instincts, causing them to lash out irrationally.