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Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 05:58

April 20, 2011 /
These are my links for April 20th from 05:58 to 07:27:
- San Francisco Supervisors Pass ‘Twitter Tax Break’ – San Francisco lawmakers approved the mid-Market "Twitter tax break" on Tuesday in a near-empty board chamber, drawing an anticlimactic close to a debate that had polarized the city for two months. The legislation freezes payroll taxes along the mid-Market corridor for six years, a move supervisors hope will keep Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco.
  The Board immediately moved onto the next, thorny question: What should San Francisco do with the rest of its startups that are threatening to leave because of the city’s payroll tax?
  
  Supervisor Mark Farrell introduced legislation Tuesday that would amend the payroll tax code to no longer consider stock options as employee compensation. Since 2004, the city has defined options as payroll to be taxed at 1.5 percent. But only now, as a handful of high-profile tech companies like Twitter and Zynga prepare for their initial public offerings, has the tax emerged as a concern.
  
  In recent weeks a handful of companies including Twitter, Zynga, and Yelp have pressed city officials to amend the tax, saying they would rather relocate than stay in San Francisco and absorb a huge tax hit in the event they go public and their shares soar in value.
  
  =====
  
  If California wishes to retain business they will have to pass more such tax breaks and reduce regulation, plus streamline the process.
  
  To deal with the less revenue, California will also have to cut government spending, including welfare, health and prison reform.
  
  California better get busy.
- President 2012: Why Trump Shouldn’t Be Taken Seriously – But that's not the smell that bothers me. It's the stench of desperation coming up from those fickle souls taking a Trump presidential bid seriously.
  How fickle? Well, not a day goes by when someone doesn't explain that Newt Gingrich can't win because he's damaged goods. And it's certainly true that the former speaker of the House has a lot of baggage – "enough to open a Louis Vuitton store," writes Ramesh Ponnuru in National Review. But surely "The Donald's" baggage would require an army of stevedores and sherpas.
  
  And yet, the thrice-married lothario who says all women are gold diggers – at least when it comes to signing prenuptial agreements with him (and he may have a point there!) – is actually leading among Republican women, according to a CNN poll.
  
  Forget Gingrich. Consider Mitt Romney. Nearly every conservative in Christendom not on Romney's payroll – and some who are – insists that his "Romneycare" law in Massachusetts is a political albatross given its similarities to Obamacare. Well, here's Trump in his book, The America We Deserve: "We must have universal healthcare. Our objective (should be) . . . to find an equivalent of the single-payer plan that is affordable, well-administered, and provides freedom of choice." Trump is flip-flopping now, as he is on his past support for Democrats, raising taxes, etc. And changes of heart are fine. But forgive me if I don't equate the word "Trump" with "sincere."
  Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has been under fire for (foolishly) suggesting a "truce" on cultural issues with the Left. Social conservatives rightly saw this as a call for unilateral disarmament. But somehow gambling and wrestling impresario Trump would make a reliable champion of social issues?
  
  ======
  
  Read it all
  
  But, Trump is serving a useful purpose as a non-serious surrogate who is attacking President Obama every day in a pop culture way.
  
  Trump will certainly drop by the wayside soon but the damage to Obama will be done.
  
  The GOP and America can thanks The Donald for that.
- California Dreamin’ About Texas Jobs – A group of California legislators recently made headlines when they traveled to Texas to learn why the Lone Star State has lately been generating the kind of job growth that the Golden State was once known for, and even luring many companies that once made California their home.
  But every politician in California of either party ought to know that the answer to the state's economic woes lies not in Texas, but in California. Job migration is a very sexy issue, and one blogger, relocation expert Joseph Vranich, is even keeping an online list of firms that have exited California. But migration makes up only a small part of the job gains or losses a state experiences. By contrast, job creation through expansion of businesses and the formation of new companies is far more responsible for job growth. California once knew how to create new jobs and new companies, and a few places in the state still do it fairly well. The answers to California's woes lie in those places, not in Texas.
  
  Over the last 15 years, California ranks as the third worst state in the country in terms of job migration, with a net outflow of jobs that is 1 percent greater than the flow of jobs into the state, according to the National Establishment Time Series database. Texas, by contrast, is 10th best in the nation in that period, with a plus 1.3 percent inflow of jobs from other states. Based on Vranich's anecdotal list, Texas is the biggest beneficiary of jobs leaving California.
  
  =======
  
  Sad but true.
  
  I know many young Californians that have either left or planning to leave the Golden State because the jobs are few and the expenses are great.
  
  California needs to right its budget, re-evaluate business regulations, reform its welfare systems and improve its educational system quickly or the export of jobs and people will continue.
- In Social Media Battle, Republicans Catch Up in Time for 2012 – “The notion that the Internet was owned by liberals, owned by the left in the wake of the Obama victory, has been proven false,” said Patrick Ruffini, a Republican political online strategist who is now advising the exploratory campaign of Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, after working as a digital adviser to President George W. Bush’s campaign in 2004 and later to the Republican National Committee.
  During last year’s midterm elections, Republicans caught up with Democrats in using technology and social networks, and now many Republicans elected to the House and Senate are using these tools more than Democrats, according to several political and technology experts.
  
  “This will be the first election in modern history that both parties are understanding the potential of the technology to change the results of the election,” said Andrew Rasiej, a co-founder of TechPresident.com, a blog that covers politics and technology, and a digital adviser to Democrats since Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004. “Both Republicans and Democrats are ready to use online platforms and are no longer skeptical of its potential.”
  
  =======
  
  And, in many ways, the RIGHT has leaped ahead of the Democrats, especially with Twitter.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for April 18th on 10:17

April 18, 2011 /
These are my links for April 18th from 10:17 to 11:28:
- President Barack Obama coming to Reno on Thursday – President Barack Obama is making a three-day swing to explain his vision for reducing the national debt and it concludes Thursday in Reno.
  The White House issued a press release that day Obama will come to Reno to discuss " the ways the leaders in Washington can come together and meet the expectations of the American people."
  
  It follows town hall meetings on Tuesday in northern Virginia and on Wednesday in Palo Alto, Calif.
  
  ======
  
  Hitting all of the key battleground states – Virginia and Nevada.
  
  Plus, fundraising in California.
  
  Obama does know how to run a campaign. Too bad he sucks as a President.
- Former Sarah Palin aide Frank Bailey writing tell-all book – Due Out in May – When a book is called "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin," you can guess it's not a happy story.
  An imprint of Simon & Schuster announced Monday that it had signed up "Blind Allegiance," a long-rumored tell-all by former Palin aide Frank Bailey. The imprint, Howard Books, will release Bailey's book May 24. Excerpts from an early draft were leaked to reporters earlier this year.
  Bailey worked with Palin while she was governor of Alaska and when she was John McCain's running mate on the Republican presidential ticket in 2008.
  Howard Books is calling "Blind Allegiance" a "chilling expose." Author Ken Morris and Alaska political blogger Jeanne Devon helped write the book.
  
  ======
  
  Now, this should be interesting summer reading – but only if Sarah is running.
- Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Election Snafu Is a National Wake-Up Call – It's been over a decade since the Bush-Gore recount in Florida was supposed to spur a wholesale modernization of our election systems. But a stunning mistake made by a Wisconsin county clerk in a nationally watched state Supreme Court race reminded us of how far we have to go.
  Wisconsin voters went to the polls on April 5 in an election that could have flipped the state Supreme Court's majority from conservative to liberal. On the morning of April 6, liberal challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory by a margin of some 200 votes. But the next day Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus announced that she had excluded some 14,000 votes from the city of Brookfield when she gave her final tally to the Associated Press on election night. The revised tally put conservative incumbent David Prosser more than 7,000 votes ahead of Ms. Kloppenburg, and he has since been verified the clear winner.
  
  Ms. Nickolaus's error could have been easily avoided through transparency. She had ended the prior clerk's practice of reporting election results for individual cities because it was "not her responsibility" and she didn't "have the staff to enter all the data"—an absurd statement given that many smaller counties post such data on their websites. Many states, such as Kentucky, offer user-friendly websites to track returns statewide.
  
  Not so in Wisconsin—and if we don't view this month's mess as a wake-up call, we'll have only ourselves to blame if next year's presidential election turns into a rerun of Florida 2000. Americans know it could happen: The Brookings Institution reports that in a 2004 poll of 37 nations, Americans were more likely than citizens of any country save Russia to say that their elections are "very dishonest."
  
  Mexico—which has a national photo ID requirement for voting—spends roughly 10 times more per capita than the U.S. and has virtually eliminated charges of voter fraud or incompetence. We can vastly improve our system with much smaller investments.
- Why California Should Tax Online Sales? Or Not… – On this “Tax Day” and throughout the year, millions of Californians do their part to sustain the schools, health care, public safety, and other foundations of a healthy state. But projections show today’s collection will come up at least $1 billion short of what is due because most Californians won’t add the sales tax they owe on online purchases to the bottom of their California income tax form. With the state once again facing tough budget times, these dollars could go a long way to close our gaping budget gap.
  Most Californians may not realize that if a retailer fails to collect the sales tax due on a book, a pair of shoes, or other purchase made online, the purchaser still owes the tax. This requirement is nothing new – it’s been part of state law since 1935. The hitch comes in trying to collect the tax. In fact, only 1 percent of those who buy online from out-of-state companies like Amazon.com currently pay the taxes due. As online sales soar, they also take a big, and growing, bite out of the state’s revenue collection.
  
  =======
  
  There is NO good reason and these leftists use the fairness argument to justfy their redistribution schemes and the right of the state to YOUR money.
  
  One problem which I have written about extensively is the loss of jobs and the fact the state of California really won't realize any more revenue.
  
  Oops….
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Flap’s Links and Comments for April 14th on 18:47

April 14, 2011 /
These are my links for April 14th from 18:47 to 20:07:
- Obama blows up the bridge – "Rather than building bridges, he's poisoning wells," said Rep. Paul Ryan, after listening to Barack Obama's scathing attack on his deficit-reduction plan as a shredding of America's social contract with the elderly and poor.
  Ryan is right. Yet, with Obama's partisan savagery, virtually calling the GOP plan immoral, we have clarity.
  
  There will be no grand bipartisan bargain on taxes and spending.
  
  The two parties on Capitol Hill and the president will not be coming together to solve the gravest financial and fiscal crisis America has faced since the Great Depression. Between them today is a high wall and a deep ditch.
  
  The heart of the Ryan plan is to turn Medicaid into block grants to the states, so each can decide for itself how best to use the funds, and to convert Medicare into a program where the U.S. government would provide citizens with the funds and freedom to chose whatever health insurance they wished to buy.
  
  Obama denounced both.
  
  But if the Republican Medicare and Medicaid proposals are dead on arrival in Harry Reid's Senate and Obama's White House, Obama's plan to raise taxes is equally lifeless.
  
  ======
  
  So, did Obama do the GOP a favor with his "political speech" on Paul Ryan's budget proposal?
- Undeclared candidate Mitch Daniels becoming the big man on campus – It might be a stretch to call him the big man on campus. But Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is getting some presidential buzz at colleges across the country.
  Daniels, a Republican, can thank Yale University students Max Eden and Michael Knowles, who launched the Students for Daniels website.
  "He has incredible executive experience, and what's more, he's just very down to earth, very direct. You don't see that from anybody else," Eden said.
  Borrowing a page from the 2008 playbook, the Students for Daniels organization uses social media to spread the word to chapters at 57 colleges and universities. Interest in the group spiked after it released a YouTube video featuring Knowles and former New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan, who coined the phrase: "The rent is too damn high."
  "The deficit is too damn high," McMillan says in the Students for Daniels YouTube video, seizing on the Indiana governor's message on fiscal discipline.
  Eden, who volunteered for the Obama campaign in 2008, says he's disappointed in the president's approach to the mounting national debt.
  
  =====
  
  Read it all…..
- Republican presidential primary: Many top GOP donors remain on the sidelines – Michael Ashner was one of Sen. John McCain's major fundraisers in the 2008 presidential campaign, bringing in $500,000 for the Republican nominee.
  That makes the Oyster Bay, N.Y., real estate investment executive one of the most sought-after bundlers for prospective GOP candidates in 2012. Supporters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have been particularly persistent in wooing him — New York Jets owner Woody Johnson even invited him to take in a game in his private box.
  
  But Ashner is reluctant to sign up with any of the White House hopefuls.
  
  "I'm sort of hiding under my desk when the calls come in," said Ashner, noting he still wanted to learn more about the contenders. "I don't see a dynamic candidate out there yet. A number of them have interesting credentials, but they just strike me as a little lackluster."
  
  Ashner is part of a large swath of top-tier Republican donors still sitting on the sidelines of the 2012 race, according to prominent Republican political operatives and fundraisers, in a reflection both of torn loyalties and ambivalence about the field of candidates.
  
  ======
  
  Unless Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan or Chris Christie run, the donors will stay on the sidelines and help in Senate races.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for April 4th on 11:17

April 4, 2011 /
These are my links for April 4th from 11:17 to 12:41:
- Verizon: Full Steam Ahead on Net Neutrality Lawsuit – Will Re-File Lawsuit – It's full steam ahead for Verizon's judicial challenge to the FCC's controversial network neutrality rules – despite a procedural hiccup on Monday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit tossed out the company's legal challenge because Verizon jumped the gun by submitting it too early.
  A Verizon spokesman blamed the dismissal on the FCC, which he said was unclear about when an appeal should be filed. He confirmed that the telecom giant plans to resubmit its suit, but this time it will wait until the commission publishes its new Internet rules in the federal register next month.
  
  In December, the agency's three Democrats adopted net neutrality safeguards designed to bar Internet providers from blocking or degrading online competitors. Proponents say the move was necessary to protect the Internet from being controlled by major corporations, while critics – including many Republicans – dismiss the action as unecessary government overreach.
  
  ====
  
  As I said the first time.
- Net neutrality rules spared — for now – Although a D.C. appeals court has just thrown out Verizon's lawsuit against the new net neutrality rules, it's worth noting that the suit has not been thrown out for any reason relating to the substance of the case. National Journal reports:
  A D.C. court of appeals has thrown out Verizon’s challenge to recent net neutrality rules, saying the company filed the lawsuit prematurely.
  
  Verizon launched the legal challenge before the rules, which were enacted in December, were filed in the Federal Registry.
  
  =====
  
  So, the litigation will be refiled undoubtedly.
- Smearing Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plans – Liberals are already lining up to attack Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal, even though it won't be released until Tuesday.
  But before getting to that, it's worth clarifying a misunderstanding about what he's actually going to propose with regard to Medicare.
  
  Despite press accounts to the contrary, Ryan made clear on Fox News Sunday that his proposal would not include the idea of converting Medicare into a system in which beneficiaries would receive vouchers for the purchase of private insurance, which was included in his "Roadmap" plan. "That's not what we're proposing," Ryan said. "Our reforms are along the line of what I proposed with Alice Rivlin, the Democrat from the Clinton administration in the fiscal commission, which is a premium support system. That's very different from a voucher. Premium support is exactly the system I as a member of Congress and all federal employees have. It works like the Medicare prescription drug benefit, similar to Medicare Advantage today, which means Medicare puts a list of plans out there that compete against each other for your business, and seniors pick the plan of their choosing, and then Medicare subsidizes that plan. It doesn't go to the person, into the marketplace. It goes to the plan. More for the poor, more for people who get sick, and we don't give as much money to people who are wealthy."(…)
  
  It's also important to note that Medicare as we know it won't be around for future generations anyway, because it's financially unsustainable. So the real policy debate we need to having is whether we want to move in the liberal direction, which relies on higher taxes and more centrally-imposed cost controls, or a more free market approach in which taxes are kept low and health care costs are contained by creating a real consumer-driven market for health care. That debate is beyond the scope of this post, but the important point is that Medicare won't survive in its current form no matter what.
  
  ======
  
  Exactly, correct.
  
  Reform now or a more disastrous result in the future.
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Pros and Cons of Wisdom Teeth Extractions – The Pros and Cons of Wisdom Teeth Extractions
- President 2012: George W. Bush announces running for fourth term – From CBS News:
  Attorney General Eric Holder today will announce that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be tried in a military commission, CBS News has learned. A source says the commission will be held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
  
  Trying Mohammed in a civilian court and closing the Guantanamo prison were once some of the Obama administration's top priorities, but political realities have hamstrung both goals.
  
  This coincides perfectly with Obama's re-election announcement.
  
  ======
  
  Yeah, real change you can believe in —> to win the future.
- Poll Watch: 31% Approve of Republicans, 32% Approve of Democrats in Congress | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: 31% Approve of Republicans, 32% Approve of Democrats in Congress #tcot #catcot
- Mitt Romney’s ongoing health-care travail – Right Turn – The Washington Post – President 2012: Mitt Romney’s ongoing health-care travail
- President 2012: Mitt Romney’s ongoing health-care travail – All-but-declared GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney shot back at President Barack Obama [Saturday] for his increasingly frequent words of praise for the health-care reform law Romney put in place as governor of Massachusetts.
  “He does me the great favor of saying that I was the inspiration for his plan,” Romney said at a speech in Las Vegas. “If that’s the case, why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you ask what was wrong? Why didn’t you ask if this was an experiment, what worked and what didn’t?”
  
  Actually, the president did one better. He consulted with the expert who designed Romney’s Massachusetts plan, MIT professor Jon Gruber.
  
  What is bizarre, however, is Romney’s reference to costs. His plan did nothing to contain costs, a goal that Gruber said was not part of the plan. So is Romney confessing that his own plan would “bankrupt” his state?
  
  I asked a Romney spokesperson:
  
  1. The president did consult with the chief adviser to then-Gov. Romney. What could Romney have told the president that Jon Gruber did not?
  
  2. What were the things that “didn’t work”? That “did work”?
  
  3. Which category is the individual mandate in?
  
  ======
  
  Read it all and yes, Mitt Romney has a hard time defending RomneyCare against President Obama.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 31st on 18:52

March 31, 2011 /
These are my links for March 31st from 18:52 to 18:55:
- Rudy Giuliani Blasts Obama on Libya Action – Rudy Giuliani told Laura Ingraham that "since this whole thing in the Middle East began," the Obama administration "doesn't know what it's doing."
  "This is probably the worst handled national security military action I have ever seen. From announcing — when he didn't know what to do — that Gadhafi must go to then making that speech the other night, which was internally contradictory. You cannot say we're there to protect the Libyan people, but we're not going to be for regime change with Gadhafi because the reason we are there to protect the Libyan people is because of Gadhafi."
  
  ======
  
  Obama does not understand foreign policy and has no experience in it.
- President 2102: Can Obama Lose? – Perhaps – So what combination of factors in this complex system of politics must come together to cause a catastrophe for Obama politically that would result in his defeat?
  Only one Democratic president has lost a reelection bid.
  
  I see three, and all have to be in place and reinforce each other for Obama to lose. First, the economy in 2012 has to be either stagnant or in decline in the 10 or so key electoral states (especially the ones in the Midwest) as he heads into the election. This would mean that the economy is creating very few net jobs in 2012 and that prices (including food and gas) are still rising.
  Second, no new major international crisis arises that causes people to rally behind Obama because of his competent handling of it. And I emphasize the words “new,” “major,” and “competent.” Afghanistan and Iraq devolving again into a problem will not help Obama, and actually may hurt him because our country has basically moved on from the situation in both places.
  Third, a Republican nominee has to emerge who is charismatic; is a very good communicator; is in touch with the country’s economic and social needs; and is a new brand of GOP leader whom many younger voters can connect with. Think of what it took in 1980 to defeat the Democratic incumbent—Ronald Reagan and crises galore.
  All three factors must converge for Obama to lose, and two of them are needed to drive his job approval down to a place, as I have written before, that makes it difficult for him to win. As one can see, these three elements don’t include how much money the Democratic National Committee and Obama have at their disposal; how much cash the Republican National Committee or the Republican nominee raises; the quality of each campaign staff; the legislative machinations of Congress; or the use of modern technology in the campaigns (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). Those are all tactical factors that, ultimately, will have little influence on whether Obama wins or loses.
  
  ======
  
  It will have to be a new GOP candidate like Mitch Daniels or Chris Christie – not a retread like Huckabee or Romney.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 31st on 11:41

March 31, 2011 /
These are my links for March 31st from 11:41 to 11:56:
- President 2012 GOP: S.C. Republicans Escalate Election Calendar Feud – South Carolina Republican Party Chair Karen Floyd today brought into the open the simmering tensions between the traditional early states and the others — particularly Florida — jockeying to break into the primary calendar.
  Floyd's demand: If Florida won't step aside, the RNC should move its convention out of the state.
  
  She writes to fellow RNC members:
  
  Unfortunately, our Party stands on the precipice of our hard work being rendered meaningless, with the very real possibility looming that Florida’s Presidential Preference Primary may be held prior to March 1, in contravention of Party Rules – a move that would precipitate numerous other states similarly violating Party Rules.
  
  As conservatives, we believe in the rule of law, and that rules are made to be followed. To that end, I am sure we all appreciate our state Party counterparts in Florida advocating for the RNC rules being obeyed. But what is disconcerting is the apparent recalcitrance of Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature, which is in effect thumbing its nose at the RNC – and feels emboldened to do so because of the 2012 convention location….
  
  Simply put, if Florida does not respect the process by which our primary calendar was set, the RNC should not be bound to the process by which the convention site was selected.
  
  If Florida refuses to move its primary date into compliance with RNC rules, I am respectfully requesting that the Committee convene a special task force to select a new site for the 2012 Convention outside the state of Florida…
  
  She suggests the labor battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Ohio, or Indiana, Senate battlegrounds of Virginia, Missouri, or Michigan, or the Democratic convention spot of Charlotte as possible alternatives.
  
  ======
  
  Florida is > than South Carolina
- The AARP America Doesn’t Know – An Investigative Report – AARP, formerly known as the American Association of
  Retired Persons, is a tax-exempt non-profit membership
  organization for those aged 50 years and older. As
  such, AARP has long been regarded as a protector and
  advocate of the nation’s senior community.
  What is less known is the extent to which AARP
  operates as a massive for-profit enterprise and how
  that conflicts with its legal requirements to “primarily
  operate to promote the common good and social
  welfare of a community of people.”
  This report highlights AARP’s increasing reliance on
  the “for-profit” sale of insurance, particularly health
  insurance, and the underlying implication for this storied
  “non-profit” organization. In conducting the research,
  one of the central questions became: Why would AARP
  aggressively advocate for the Democrats’ health care
  law last year which contained nearly one half-trillion
  dollars in cuts that independent analysts said would
  negatively impact seniors’ access to affordable health
  care services.
  
  =======
  
  Read it all
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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 25th on 06:38

March 25, 2011 /
These are my links for March 25th from 06:38 to 06:55:
- President 2012: Scapegoating Mitch Daniels – Over the past year, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has been a case study in how not to seek the Republican presidential nomination — if indeed that is his intention.
  Despite having a generally conservative governing record, in the run-up to a possible candidacy, Daniels has managed to alienate all parts of the GOP’s so-called “three-legged” stool. He has rattled economic conservatives by floating the possibility of a VAT tax, unnerved national security hawks by talking about defense cuts and seeming indifferent about foreign policy, and angered values voters by calling for a “truce” on social issues while the country confronts the national emergency of our fiscal crisis.
  It’s the latter comments that have drawn the most heat, giving his potential rivals an easy opening at conservative events to say that yes, social issues are a priority.
  But while Daniels has become a popular target for social conservatives who understandably don’t want to see their issues downplayed, the reality is that Daniels’ crime was to say explicitly what most of the other potential candidates are saying and doing implicitly — that is, emphasizing the importance of economic and fiscal issues over moral matters.
  
  =======
  
  Read it all.
- Sen. Jim DeMint’s Defense of RomneyCare is Ignorant…And Dangerous – Jennifer Rubin alerts me to these disturbing comments Sen. Jim DeMint made to the Hill in defense of RomneyCare:
  “One of the reasons I endorsed Romney [in 2008] is his attempts to make private health insurance available at affordable prices,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.), a GOP kingmaker.
  DeMint blames Democrats in the Massachusetts State Legislature for adding many of the features to Romney’s plan that many on the right decry.
  “It just depends on how he plays it. For me, I think he started with some good ideas that were essentially hijacked by the Democrat Legislature,” DeMint said.
  To start with, blaming everything on the Democratic legislature is simply not an accurate account of what happened. Romney helped craft the basic architecture of the health care plan, and pursued it even though he knew that he was working with an overwhelming Democratic legislature who he knew would override his symbolic line-item vetoes of parts of his bill. He signed the bill with Ted Kennedy at his side, and did so knowing he wasn't seeking reelection and that it would almost certainly fall on a Democratic governor to implement it….
  
  ======
  
  Read it all
  
  Sen. Jim DeMint is turning out to be just another POL.
- President 2012: Tea party leader says he’d endorse Mitch Daniels – Gov. Mitch Daniels: the tea party pick for president?
  That could happen, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said Thursday.
  
  Armey, now the leader of the tea party group FreedomWorks, was in Indiana to begin a three-day campaign-training seminar his group is conducting along with the Indiana-based tea party group America ReFocused.
  
  He met with Daniels privately before a Statehouse ceremony honoring the governor with a "legislative entrepreneur award" and told reporters he encouraged Daniels to "think about the service he could do for this nation as president."
  
  =====
  
  Some on the right are scapegoating Mitch Daniels but Dick Armey knows Daniels is a credible conservative office holder with a track record.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for March 24th on 08:00

March 24, 2011 /
These are my links for March 24th from 08:00 to 09:50:
- How television created and then killed Sarah Palin’s political prospects – It was television that destroyed Sarah Palin, just as it made her. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again – the arrival of Palin as a major political figure in 2008 was an emanation of the reality-TV culture, anchored in the belief that ordinary or “everyday” people, inarticulate though they may be, and with all the baggage of messy personal lives, are truly compelling public figures. Palin was the political equivalent. A figure who refracts national identity as it is shaped by the culture’s most powerful medium. Authentic, populist and dismissive of sophistication in thought and action.
  Then, television duly destroyed the Palin authenticity. The arc of her national political career began with a defining speech at the Republican National Convention in September, 2008, and ended in November, 2010, a few episodes into Sarah Palin’s Alaska. The show, a cringingly inevitable reality-TV series, gave her a huge platform and she blew it. If her exposure on TV in 2008 brought out the authenticity, the show brought out Palin’s inner princess. She talked about being a mom 87 times an episode (I’m exaggerating , but only a little) and made dubious attempts to make political parables linking her family, the outdoors and wildlife. It was ego unbounded. And this after quitting her job as governor of Alaska.
  
  ======
  Interesting enough Sarah Palin's next career will most probably be on television.
- Why is Jon Huntsman running for president? – This is like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) without the war record and without the bona fides on national security. And speaking of which, Huntsman’s hiring “key members from McCain’s team at the helm.” That alone is enough to freak out many in the base, who came to detest the McCain campaign crew for incompetency and disloyalty to its VP pick.
  I’m trying to figure out who a “Huntsman voter” is. Rudy Giuliani attracted moderates before his campaign imploded (fizzled, actually). But he led New York through Sept. 11, governed like a no-nonsense fiscal conservative and offered up conservative positions on school choice, health care and tax policy. And he never served in a liberal president’s administration. Perhaps there is an untapped segment of the electorate to the left of Giuliani who doesn’t think that poorly of Obama. Unfortunately for Huntsman, they likely are Democrats.
  
  You do have to wonder how Huntsman, an intelligent man with business experience, was sold on taking the plunge. And you really have to wonder how thrilled his family will be if he decides to risk a chunk of the family fortune.
  
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  Good question – because he has the massive fortune to do so?
- California must enforce ‘use’ law — now – Or Support Internet Taxes – So be it. Holding affiliates hostage in a desperate effort to continue tax-exempt merchandizing shouldn't be condoned. Barnes & Noble, which does collect the sales tax, has offered to pick up some of the Amazon affiliates. Other online retailers could, too.
  If the tax-free e-tailers retained their affiliate marketers and began collecting the taxes, Skinner estimates, her bill would net between $250 million and $500 million annually for the bleeding state general fund.
  
  But California this year will be stiffed much more: $1.7 billion in taxes that should have been paid on Web purchases, according to a University of Tennessee study.
  
  Another bill, by state Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), would grant the Board of Equalization more power to force tax collections. She estimates it could gain the state more than $1 billion annually.
  
  A key backer is Democratic equalization board member Betty Yee.
  
  "Amazon used to argue that it didn't have the capability to collect the taxes, given the various different tax rates," she says. "They can track individual consumer preferences about products but can't track sales taxes? That's kind of crazy."
  
  Runner says, "The only way to solve this problem is with a national solution. You can't do it piecemeal."
  
  Perhaps. But a lot of California retailers could fold before the feds ride to their rescue. Meanwhile, deficit-plagued states are denied the taxes they're owed.
  
  Sacramento politicians should move swiftly to protect local businesses and demand the state's legal share. They should get off their inertia.
  
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  George Skelton, the LA Times Columnist is an old tax and spend liberal who never met a tax he didn't like.
  
  He supports the loss of jobs to California affiliates of Amazon.com and Overstock.com.
  
  I suggest that those affiliates cancel their paid subscriptions to the Los Angeles Times.
  
  Oh wait, they already read the rag for free on the internet.
  
  Internet taxation is a bad policy for California and America.
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