Flap's Blog

These are my links for April 20th from 14:10 to 14:20:

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig confirms appointment of Dodgers trustee, investigation into club finances – MLB Commissioner Bud Selig announced Wednesday that his office will assume control of the Dodgers' operations. Owner Frank McCourt needed a personal loan from Fox in order to meet the Dodgers' payroll last week.
The official statement from Commissioner Bud Selig:

"Pursuant to my authority as Commissioner, I informed Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt today that I will appoint a representative to oversee all aspects of the business and the day-to-day operations of the Club. I have taken this action because of my deep concerns regarding the finances and operations of the Dodgers and to protect the best interests of the Club, its great fans and all of Major League Baseball. My office will continue its thorough investigation into the operations and finances of the Dodgers and related entities during the period of Mr. McCourt's ownership. I will announce the name of my representative in the next several days. The Dodgers have been one of the most prestigious franchises in all of sports, and we owe it to their legion of loyal fans to ensure that this club is being operated properly now and will be guided appropriately in the future."

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Put a fork in Frank McCourt – he is done.
University of Iowa Professor Tells College Republicans to “F” Off – A University of Iowa professor felt the need to reply to a blast email by the College Republicans on Monday morning. Ellen Lewin, a professor of Anthropology and Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies in the Department of Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies, sent a vulgar response to a College Republican email about the group’s, “Conservative Coming Out Week.”
The College Republican email, which was sent to the entire University of Iowa Community, had been approved by a number of university officials before being sent out.

Lewin responded to email by writing, “#*@% [F-Word] YOU, REPUBLICANS” from her official university email account.

Natalie Ginty, a University of Iowa Student and Chairwoman of the Iowa Federation of College Republicans, demanded an apology from Lewin’s supervisors. “We understand that as a faculty member she has the right to express her political opinion, but by leaving her credentials at the bottom of the email she was representing the University of Iowa, not herself alone,” Ginty wrote to James Enloe, the head of the Department of Anthropology.

“Vile responses like Ellen’s need to end. Demonizing the other party through name-calling only further entrenches feelings of disdain for the other side. I am sure you understand that nothing is ever accomplished by aimless screams of attack,” Ginty concluded.

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And, then she later tried to apologize as the leftists usually do.

Pretty standard here.
Liberals attack Paul Ryan because his father died young, resulting in survivor benefits – But the Daily Kos blog is now using his father's early death against Ryan. A Daily Kos diary attacks Ryan in a post entitled, “Entitlement-hating Paul Ryan collected Social Security benefits until he was 18.” Never mind that Ryan’s recent budget proposal doesn’t in fact seek to abolish entitlements, much less get rid of Social Security. It merely seeks to cut the rate of growth of exploding Medicare costs by eventually giving its recipients vouchers they can use to shop around for medical care.
Not all Daily Kos diaries reflect the views of Daily Kos as a whole, but this one does, since it was briefly featured on the top of the front page of Daily Kos, and is still listed as a “recommended” blog post in the sidebar on the right side of Daily Kos's main page. More than 183 Daily Kos readers have commented in response to it – virtually all in agreement with its hateful sentiments.

Even if Ryan’s recent proposal cut Social Security, rather than just reforming a different program – Medicare — there would be nothing hypocritical about his wanting to rein in the costs of an increasingly costly program simply because he received modest benefits under that program as a child, when financial decisions were presumably made for him by his parent or guardian (people who had themselves paid into that very program with their tax dollars). Social security payments have risen faster than inflation since Ryan was a child, and have increased radically as a percentage of our economy.

Liberal bloggers frequently smear conservatives and libertarians as hypocrites for seeking to collect social security and other benefits. For example, Ayn Rand was attacked by the liberal blog Balloon Juice as being a “welfare queen” for receiving Medicare benefits even though she had contributed lots of tax money in her lifetime through income and self-employment taxes she paid based on her best-selling books.

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Paul Ryan has proposed reforming MEDICARE.

Guess those leftists at Daily Kos cannot read so well.

These are my links for April 14th from 13:00 to 13:23:

Gov. Mitch Daniels calls for immigration reform – Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels called on state lawmakers Wednesday to pass a proposal aimed at implementing immigration reforms in the state, adding that changes in the bill were necessary before passage.
Mr. Daniels says a bill aimed at implementing an Arizona-style law should focus more on Indiana employers and less on law enforcement. The Indiana governor is the latest governor to call on state lawmakers to implement immigration reforms.

“I think that legislation will be changed,” Mr. Daniels said Wednesday. “I support this, to drop the law enforcement provisions that have been the ones that have bothered most people.”

The Indiana Republican and potential Republican presidential candidate says he hopes the law enforcement provision is remove, refusing to note whether that provision would cause him to veto the bill.

“The idea I like is to deny them the tax deduction if they’re caught doing it,” he said. “It’s a fairly clean way to get at it, and really employment is the magnet that leads to the illegality.”

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Again, the right will go wild here but Daniels is practical again.

The Arizona law will be declared unconstitutional since the states are precluded from immigration enforcement – it is a federal responsibility.

But, E-verify or state laws that give a disincentive to employers who hire illegal immigrants is a practical and realistic goal.

Daniels should he run for President will be able to elaborate in a debate against the others.

In the meantime, the Tom Tancredo right will go crazy against Mitch.
California Teachers’ Union plan built on emotion – The California Teachers Association this week declared a "State of Emergency" over the state budget and potential deep cuts to schools. It posted a 15-page "plan of action" on its website to help teachers, parents – and apparently children – lobby for tax extensions.
Some of the union's ideas went beyond the usual letter-writing and rallying:

• Attempt to close a major artery into town/cities.

• Turn fire/earthquake drill into crisis response drill to the budget cuts (involve students and the community).

• "Penny drive" where kids empty piggy banks to support teachers and deposit in the state Capitol.

• Pay for everything with $2 bills to show the true impact of teachers.

• Have students create a BIG poster on a school bus that is sent to Sacramento.

• Take mug shots of teachers and students to make the point that prisons receive better funding.

By Wednesday, the more creative ideas on the list had been removed. CTA spokesman Mike Myslinski said the list was "brainstorming" from the union's 800-delegate state council, and that CTA is not suggesting students be used as props.

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Guess some of the leftists in the CTA (California Teacher's Association)thought the Wisconsin protests were a good thing?
Thousands rally at Cal State University campuses to Protest Education Cuts – Decrying what they called an assault on higher education, thousands of faculty and students at California State University campuses across the state rallied, marched and held teach-ins Wednesday to protest steep funding cuts and rising tuition.
Dubbed the Day of Class Action, events were held on all 23 Cal State campuses, featuring speakers, workshops, gospel singers, guerrilla theater and, on one campus, a New Orleans-style "funeral" march.

The protests were largely peaceful and there were no reports of disruptions, although student groups staged sit-ins in hallways outside the offices of presidents Jolene Koester at Cal State Northridge and James M. Rosser at Cal State L.A.

No arrests were made, and students left the buildings by the end of the day. Peaceful sit-ins were also held at campuses in Pomona, San Francisco and the East Bay.

With education funding at risk and higher tuition possible in many states, students and faculty at public universities elsewhere also held rallies and teach-ins Wednesday, including at Portland State in Oregon, Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of Massachusetts' Boston campus.

The goal, organizers said, was to raise public awareness of the consequences of continued disinvestment in higher education and to give faculty and students a greater voice in policy decisions.

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The students and faculty should really direct their protests to the Democrat Governor and Legislature who have been ruling California for decades now.

For every action the left-wing California Legislature takes there is an equal and opposite reaction by private business who vote by their feet – and leave.

Also, for every new entitlement program and cost of living adjustment the California Legislature makes, there is less money for other programs, including a heavily subsidized public university education.

But, true to from the left faculty will try to convince their students that it is the rich who are refusing to pay their fair share or something.

Sometimes the truth is hard.
Texas reporter weighs in on California lawmakers’ visit – "People out here laugh at Perry walking down the main street of Dallas, waving a pistol around and talking about the crazy people in California who want to legalize marijuana," said veteran Democratic political consultant Chris Lehane.
But some facts are clearly on Perry's side. Texas created more jobs last year than any other state: 253,900 vs. California's 89,400.

Texas has no state income tax. It's a right-to-work state, so there are none of the collective-bargaining issues bedeviling states such as Wisconsin and (with high public-employee pensions) California.

In the games that statisticians play, there are numbers favoring California, too.

Texas has higher property taxes and oil extraction taxes. Its jobs pay less. It leads the nation in uninsured people and chemical pollution. And while Texas has created more manufacturing jobs, California's created more in semiconductors, computers, communications equipment and medical equipment.

Texas has the Alamo; California has Disneyland . Texas has Ted Nugent ; California has Charlie Sheen.

Which is to say we're different. So it's no surprise that Texas and California are taking different approaches to solving their budget shortfalls.

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California and Texas are different states with different demographics and priorities.

If they both can learn from each other, this is great.

But, I would not hold my breath.

Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 14:10

Flap’s Links and Comments for April 14th on 13:00