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John McCain to Endorse Meg Whitman for California Governor Tomorrow
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., flanked by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, left, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, makes a statement on the economy after an economic roundtable in Cleveland, Ohio, Octoober 27, 2008
In a political tit for tat, Senator John McCain will endorse former eBay CEO Meg Whitman for California Governor tomorrow.Although Whitman hasn’t officially announced her candidacy, McCain will endorse the Republican at a town hall meeting in Orange County and then join her in Fresno for a news conference. Whitman’s spokesman Mitch Zak said that McCain’s support “continues the campaign’s momentum.”
“John McCain is an American hero,” Zak said of the 2008 Republican presidential nominee. “We’re honored and humbled to have his endorsement. We’re looking forward to working with him to improve California.”
Whitman served as national co-chair of McCain’s presidential campaign. She received another endorsement Thursday when House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, announced that he was backing her.
“The state needs a leader with a creative vision, with a formula for success that can address the fiscal challenges that you face and there is no one better than Meg Whitman,” Cantor said in a statement posted on Whitman’s web site. “I’m very honored to be part of her team.”
Meg Whitman has positioned herself well with national GOP leaders McCain, Mitt Romney and Eric Cantor endorsing her before a contested primary. Although this will be a blow to California Republican Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner candidacy it will not necessarily be a fatal one. The other GOP candidate Tom Campbell can only hope that the ad war between Whitman and Poizner turns off California voters.
Steve Poizner continues with an overwhelming majority of endorsements from state GOP leaders but unless he makes a positive case soon, the ads from McCain and Mitt Romney supporting Whitman will simply overwhelm his candidacy.
Update:
Here is video with Eric Cantor endorsing Whitman:
Technorati Tags: John McCain, Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner
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President Obama Turns Up the Heat on Health Care Reform – Obamacare Must Be This Year or Never
President Barack Obama is introduced by American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation Jeffrey Katzenberg at a Democratic National Committee fundraising event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, Wednesday, May 27, 2009
In a plea to his political supporters, President Obama today siad that if Congress does not deliver health care reform legislation by the end of the year the opportunity will be lost.“If we don’t get it done this year, we’re not going to get it done,” Obama told supporters by phone as he flew home on Air Force One from a West Coast fundraising trip.
Obama’s political organization, Organizing for America, invited campaign volunteers to a midday conference call to describe a nationwide June 6 kickoff for its health care campaign. The president’s message to his re-election campaign-in-waiting was simple: If volunteers don’t pressure lawmakers to support the White House’s goal on health care, Washington would drag its feet and nothing would change.
“The election in November, it didn’t bring about change. It gave us an opportunity for change,” Obama said.
The presidential plea came as lawmakers prepare for an aggressive schedule of work aimed at producing comprehensive health care overhaul bills in the House and Senate by August.
But, Obama is leaving the details, including how to pay for his Obamacare reforms, to Congress and there is NO consensus on how to change the health care system.
Obama may have a permanent campaign organization in place but governing is more. The fact is the President has NO definitive plan, especially how costs will be distributed or should I say be redistributed.
My bet is that health care reform (Obamacare) stalls this summer as the economy refuses to quickly improve and the Congress’ attention is diverted there.
And, next year, forget it – it is an election year.
Technorati Tags: Obamacare
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New Report Documents Distribution of California Dentists
No shocking revelations here.There are more dentists in San Francisco area than in remote Modoc or Inyo Counties. But there are some interesting facts nonetheless.
Alpine County has no actively practicing dentists. In San Benito and Inyo counties, there is one dentist for every 5,000 residents. Imperial and Colusa counties have one for every 4,000 residents.
In contrast, San Francisco County has 6.1 licensed dentists for every 5,000 residents, and neighboring Placer County and Marin County have 5.2 and 5.0 per 5,000, respectively.
This distribution illustrates the marketplace. More affluent people with money to pay for private dentistry means more dentists will flock to practice there. No surprise.
But, what is most interesting is the changing demographics of California dentists.
The percentage of dentists who may be nearing retirement age is greater than the percentage of newly licensed dentists. Fifteen percent of active dentists have received their license within the past five years, while 20% have been licensed for 30 or more years. In some counties far fewer are newly licensed and many more are nearing retirement age. Among newly licensed dentists, 45% are female and 91% are generalists. Among those nearing retirement age, however, only 4% are female and 75% are generalists.
So, will there be a shortage of California dentists in the near future as baby boom generation dentists, like Flap, retire from active clinical practice?
And, what will the impact of more women dentists have on dental practice distribution demographics?
Flap has no immediate answers but with California dentists already numbering the most in the nation and with a seemingly dental office on every block in Los Angeles County, my bet is that there will be a gradual shift away from many solo, general practices to more group models.
Technorati Tags: Dentistry, California Dentists
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Poll Watch: Republican Pat Toomey Gaining Ground on Arlen Specter
Pat Toomey, left, is interviewed by news anchor Rob Vaughn at the WFMZ TV studio in Allentown, Pa. on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.. Toomey, was asked about the decision of Sen. Arlen Specter who switched from the Republican to the Democratic party. Toomey was set to challenge Specter for the Republican nomination
The latest Quinnipiac poll shows former Pennsylvania Congressman Pat Toomey trailing incumbent U.S. Senator Arlen Specter by 9 points, 37-46 per cent.That’s better than Toomey’s showing in a May 4 poll, in which he trailed Specter by 20 points immediately following Specter’s party switch — a switch Specter decided to make in large part because polls showed Toomey beating him in the GOP primary race.
The numbers and candidates in the Pennsylvania race are still in a state of flux. Former Republican Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was considered a possible challenger, but he opted not to run earlier this month despite a Quinnipiac survey showing him competitive against Specter in a general election.
Now Toomey is the leading GOP candidate. Another potential Democratic challenger recently dropped out of the race against Specter as well.
And though Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., is expected to challenge Specter in the Democratic primary, the latest Quinnipiac poll shows the lesser known congressman trailing the five-term senator by nearly 30 points.
The GOP must be heartened with this poll since it appears that Rep. Joe Sestak will be running against Specter in a contested Democratic Party primary election. The negatives of this primary campaign undoubtedly will help Toomey who has a clear field now that Tom Ridge has declared he will not be running.
Now, will President Obama who has promised to support Specter for re-election place pressure on Rep. Sestak to withdraw and/or will he campaign directly for the incumbent Senator?
Stay tuned……
Technorati Tags: Pat Toomey, Arlen Specter, Joe Sestak, Barack Obama
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Another Islamic Death Threat for The Jawa Report’s Dr. Rusty Shackleford
My Pet Jawa’s Dr. Rusty Shackleford Photo by Flap
Ho Hum another Islamic death threat for Rusty Shackleford of the Jawa Report.And, the dumbass “Musab” got the wrong photo.
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Nancy Pelosi Wins Stupid Comment of the Day
It is all about the climate change and global warming – whether you like it or not.In answering a question from a student about how Pelosi was going to get Americans to cut back on their carbon emissions, the leading Democratic lawmaker said it was important to educate children on how to conserve energy and for citizens to build more environmentally friendly homes.
“We have so much room for improvement,” she said. “Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory … of how we are taking responsibility.”
Sigh……
And, to think most Americans support limited government.
Technorati Tags: Nancy Pelosi, Global Warming
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Former Clinton Secretary of Defense William Cohen Says Obama Is Wrong on Missile Defense Cuts
Political Cartoon by Michael RamirezWilliam Cohen, Bill Clinton’s former Secretary of Defense and Republican Senator from Maine says that President Obama is sending the wrong signal to rogue regimes.Writing the Washington Times, William Cohen, a Republican senator from Maine who served as President Bill Clinton’s defense secretary from 1997 through 2001, says that President Obama’s decision to reduce the funding commitment to the US missile-defense system by $1.4 billion “sends the signal that we do not take the threats of rogue regimes seriously, and are willing to take the risk that current technologies are sufficient to prevent devastating accidents or miscalculations.”
Given North Korean actions, Cohen says, this is a big mistake.
“Given the disturbing geopolitical events that are now unfolding, it is imperative that we err on the side of safety,” he says. “The consequences are too grave to allow our leadership to claim at some future time that they were taken by surprise.”
Cutting this commitment will “embolden North Korea, Iran and other rogue states to pursue missiles of increasing range. It would also confuse our allies and undermine their trust in America’s security guarantees. If the United States is vulnerable to the threat of a missile attack by a rogue state, allies could lose confidence in America’s nuclear deterrent – which could lead nations such as Japan to pursue a nuclear deterrent of their own.”
Of course, Obama is wrong. But he, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, plus other Senate Democrats have never been fans of missile defense even after the technology has been proven.
“This premise, that one day Kim Jong Il or someone will wake up one morning and say ‘Aha, San Francisco!’ is specious,†Senator Joe Biden told AP in May 2001.
Meanwhile in the Senate, Carl Levin (D., Mich.) offered in June to cut off funds for the ground-based interceptor program that Mr. Bush recently activated in Alaska in anticipation of the North Korean launch. Mr. Levin wants to stop new interceptors from being built, but Senate Republicans wouldn’t bring his proposal up for a vote. Mr. Levin has been waging his own private war against missile defenses for a generation, to the point of outflanking Russian objections on the political left.
In May 2001 the Boston Herald’s Woodlief wrote that John Kerry “wants to croak the hugely costly nuclear missile defense system.†And just one day before the 9/11 attacks Joe Biden (D., Del.) gave a National Press Club speech outlining Democrat opposition to national missile defense.
Cohen makes his point and is the conventional wisdom in defense circles.
But, will Obama stop the DOUBLESPEAK and do what is right?
Previous:
The Partisan Divide on Missile Defense – What is Obama Cutting?
Poll Watch: Strong Support for Missile Defense by Americans Across the Political Spectrum
Obama Dodges And Plays Word Games With America’s National Missile Defense
Technorati Tags: Missile Defense, William Cohen, Barack Obama
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Day By Day by Chris Muir May 28, 2009 – Cackle Cackle
While President Obama is raising campaign cash for Dingy Harry Reid at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and then runs out to Hollywood for a cool $4 Million, Hillary Clinton is left to North Korea.Under President Bush, Flap thought North Korea had negotiated away its nuclear weapons program and agreed to stop missile tests.Now, with an apparent disengaged Obama who has cut funds for national missile defense, North Korea pushes up the military alert for South Korea’s military as the North renounces a 50 year old plus armistice.
Obama is in denial.
North Korea is an imminent threat and Hillary’s cackles have NOT been effective.
Mr.President, you will not be able to deal with Kim Jong-Il via teleprompter and popularity in the polls.
Previous:
Technorati Tags: Day By Day, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, North Korea, Kim Jong-Il
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links for 2009-05-28
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Rush Limbaugh isn't the only one calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist. Newt Gingrich is, too — and he's demanding that Obama's pick to the Supreme Court to withdraw her nomination.
On Twitter, Gingrich pointed to a line in Sotomayor's 2001 speech to a Hispanic group in Berkeley that has drawn fire from some conservatives.
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life," Sotomayor said in that speech, describing how life experience can inform judicial opinions.
On Wednesday, Gingrich tweeted: "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman.' new racism is no better than old racism"
Moments later, he followed up with the message: "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw."
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When the majority of the Justices are interpreting the state constitution in order to evaluate statutory provisions, they can appeal not just to their own majority view but to the authority of the Constitution. But when the majority of the Justices disagrees with the views of voters who are trying to amend that very same Constitution, such an appeal no longer works. All the Justices can say is that they are protecting the rights of the minority, but the whole point of the dispute is that there's disagreement about what those rights should be.
That's why I think the majority's view was correct here
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Indeed, the drafters of the 1849 Constitution, in their message submitting the proposed Constitution to the people of California, expressly described the people's right to alter or reform the Constitution as an “inalienable right.†In like manner, when the people's authority to propose and adopt constitutional amendments by initiative was added to the California Constitution in 1911, the constitutional provision spoke of the initiative “not as a right granted the people, but as a power reserved by them.â€
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In any event, what makes those provisions wrong is not that they are legally "revisions" rather than "amendments" and thus illegal. What makes them wrong is that they are morally wrong and thus immoral. But ultimately that judgment about what is morally wrong, as I mentioned, is under the California Constitution left to the sovereign people, and not the sovereign's servants in the state supreme court.
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This decision is based solely on the California Constitution. Within the federal system, the California Supreme Court's view of the meaning of the California Constitution is final, and the U.S. Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to revisit it. So there can be no federal review of the question whether Prop. 8 violates the California Constitution.
2. Supporters of same-sex marriage rights can of course argue to the U.S. Supreme Court that the U.S. Constitution mandates recognition of same-sex marriage, in all states and under federal law. But it seems unlikely that the Court would accept such an argument at this point, and in any case this case is not a good vehicle for that, since the decision below was all about the California Constitution. (I'm not sure that federal constitutional arguments were even made by the challengers, but in any case they weren't considered by the Court.)
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A federal court entered an order granting Alliance Defense Fund attorneys a motion to intervene Thursday on behalf of ProtectMarriage.com in a lawsuit waged by two men against the United States and the state of California to eliminate California’s state constitutional amendment protecting marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. ADF attorneys filed a motion to intervene last month to defend the intended definition of marriage in a suit alleging that the passage of both Proposition 8 and DOMA violates the U.S. Constitution.
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With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.
Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax — called a value-added tax, or VAT — has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.
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Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, said: "Senior officials of the Chinese government grilled me about whether or not we are going to monetise the actions of our legislature."
"I must have been asked about that a hundred times in China. I was asked at every single meeting about our purchases of Treasuries. That seemed to be the principal preoccupation of those that were invested with their surpluses mostly in the United States," he told the Wall Street Journal.
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