• Scott Walker,  Wisconsin

    Wisconsin Medical Examining Board Investigating Fraudulant Sick Notes Written By Physicians for Protesting Public Employees

    As tens of thousands of public employees skipped work last week to attend protest rallies outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, many wondered if they would face any disciplinary action for unexcused absences.

    On Saturday, a group of men and women in lab coats purporting to be doctors were handing out medical excuse notes, without examining the ‘patients.’

    You remember the Flap.

    Now, the physicians are under investigation for their wrist slap.

    The state Department of Regulation and Licensing and the Medical Examining Board said Wednesday that they had opened investigations into eight individuals who allegedly wrote doctor excuse notes for protesters at the state Capitol during rallies in February.

    Last month, the Department of Regulation and Licensing said it had identified 11 people who may have provided the medical excuses, and it asked them to submit information about their activities at the Capitol.

    Three members of the Medical Examining Board reviewed the information and decided to open investigations on eight of the 11, according to a department news release.

    The eight being investigated are all licensed physicians, department spokesman David Carlson said.

    Investigations were not opened against three people because the panel concluded no violations had occurred, the news release says.

    The 11 were identified by complaints to the department. Nine of those named are licensed physicians and two are unlicensed, the department said.

    The investigations will include a more extensive fact-finding process to determine if any violations of law occurred, according to the news release.

    At the conclusion of each investigation, recommendations will be made about whether disciplinary action should be pursued.

    The state Department of Regulation and Licensing previously has said disciplinary action could include a reprimand, license limitations, suspension or revocation.

    Looks like a reprimand is coming and I doubt that anything harsher than this will occur.

    Are the physicians wrong?

    Yes, and they are a disgrace to the medical profession.

    I hope they serve a five year probation though and are required to sit through boring classes on medical ethics.

    Now, that will be punishment.

    Previous:


    University of Wisconsin Health is Investigating Fraudulent Sick Notes Written by Physicians for Protesting Public Employees

    Updated: Video: Wisconsin Physicians Distribute Fraudulent Sick Notes to Protesting Public Employees

    Video: Wisconsin Physicians Distribute Fraudulent Sick Notes to Protesting Public Employees

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 16:52

    These are my links for April 20th from 16:52 to 19:31:

    • Wonkette’s Ken Layne, Blogger Jack Stuef’s History of Targeting Kids – In 2008, Wonkette ran a post by Jim Newell, who now works for Gawker, mocking Trig and joking:
      “Little baby Trig must be so glad he wasn’t aborted for this, his first Halloween, because his parents dressed him up like a political party symbol to be carried around at snarling political events. Aww. Isn’t life just grand?”

      ======

      Fairly obvious…..

    • HuffPost bans ‘Trig Truthers’ – Huffington Post appears to have drawn the line on acceptable political debate to exclude theories about the nativity of Sarah Palin's youngest son.

      Palin critic Geoffrey Dunn, who has contributed a long line of attacks on the former Alaska governor to the site, published his version of the "Trig Truther" theory to Business Insider today, after Huffington Post turned the blog post down.

      "We did pass on a submission by Geoffrey Dunn about Trig, as it ran counter to our policy against conspiracy theories," Huffington Post spokesman Mario Ruiz confirmed in an email. 

      There's a solid bipartisan tradition of such purges, which includes in the online era the DailyKos ban on 9/11 Truthers and RedState's Birther ban. But the Trig theorizing had mostly avoided that fate, partly because it never developed the sort of mass following of the others, partly because there's so much vitriol for Palin on the left and partly because its most visible proponent, Andrew Sullivan, is a unique media property with a large audience of his own, valuable enough to the Daily Beast that they'll shrug off the Trig theories as an eccentricity as long as his readers abide it.

      =====

      As they should….

    • Wonkette’s Ken Layne Issues Phony Claim That "Trig Is Cool With Us" – Ken Layne, the owner and lead editor of Wonkette, is in damage control mode over the article by recent college grad Jack Stuef ripping into and mocking Trig Palin.

      Dave Weigel (h/t Instapundit) received this e-mail from Layne:
      I have four kids myself and I wouldn't want them mocked on the Internet by a bunch of cretins on the Internet. And that's just one reason why I wouldn't parade my children around in the media. What kind of mother does that?

      In any case, Jack has been admonished and put on night probation until further notice. Anything involving Palin, I want to make it extra clear that *Palin* is the problem with America. Not her kids. Not her little kid, anyway. The older ones seem to be on their own path and you can't really blame Sarah for it, although she certainly encourages the sleaziest possible behavior from her grown children, which is hardly a very "family values" thing to do. But as far as Jack's future, a few months on the night shift cleaning up the furious, ALLCAPS unmoderated Wonkette comments, without pay, should teach him a thing or two about writing stuff that confuses the target. Trig is cool with us. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is a grave danger to America.
      First of all, Sarah Palin doesn't "parade" her kids around any more than any other politician.  Hey Ken, have you seen all those photos of the Obama kids with their parents on vacation and elsewhere?  I've addressed this phony "prop" charge before.

      But more important, Layne has a very convenient memory.  In 2009, as I documented in my post Wonkette Goes After Trig Palin Again, Layne mocked Trig, including running this photoshop which he took from a posting board:

      =====

      Read it all……Yes, there is a history of Wonkette mocking Sarah and Trig Palin

    • Day By Day April 20, 2011 – Return to Sender | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day April 20, 2011 – Return to Sender #tcot #catcot
    • Mike Murphy on the 2012 presidential election – Right Turn – The Washington Post – Mike Murphy on the 2012 presidential election
    • Wonkette Removes Writer’s Name From Trig Hit Piece UPDATE: Wonkette Deletes Comments – Big Journalism – RT @DLoesch: I see @wonkette removed @stuef 's name from the Trig hit piece:
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 16:31 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 16:31 #tcot #catcot
  • Day By Day,  Federal Budget

    Day By Day April 20, 2011 – Return to Sender

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    Yeah, Chris, the GOP Establishment is NOT real assuring with regards to budget deficits.

    But, I think American taxpayers should make it clear to all incumbent members of Congress – we will vote you out of office if you do not cut government spending. We cannot sustain the debt, nor should we incur it.

    This will be an interesting election season.

    Previous:

    The Day By Day Archive

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 16:31

    These are my links for April 20th from 16:31 to 16:49:

    • Mike Murphy on the 2012 presidential election – Campaign season is upon us. I called my favorite Republican political consultant, Mike Murphy to get his quick-hit takes on all of the possible candidates for president. Murphy has worked for everyone from John Engler to John McCain to Mitt Romney to Meg Whitman. He has a great column in Time magazine on the state of the race that I urge everybody to read. Murphy told me Republicans are doing everything they can to make 2012 a difficult election, but “the best news is, one of them could actually win.” Let’s turn to the candidates:

      Mitt Romney: “Weak front-runner. But as others drop out, he becomes a stronger front-runner. His problems are all real, but he may be a little over-underrated, if you know what I mean. He may not be as vulnerable as the conventional wisdom thinks.”

      Tim Pawlenty: “Understudy. Decent shot to win. He’s in the old Lamar Alexander position, but he’s got a decent path. I watch his ads and I expect a huge alien to be slayed at the end.”

      Mitch Daniels: “Serious, formidable candidate — and not going to run.”

      Haley Barbour: “More campaign manager than candidate. Unknown how well he’ll do. Great operative. I know Haley could run a winning presidential campaign, just don’t know if he’s the candidate. BBQ / Twang-factor could be too high for general-election voters.”

      =======

      Read it all.

      Mike Murphy is an interesting character and this is a funny, yet true analysis.

    • Papa Johns, Huggies, Vanguard Drop Ads on Wonkette Attacking Trig Palin – Three large companies have dropped their advertisements on the liberal, pro-abortion Wonkette blog after it ran a post earlier today bashing pro-life former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

      Conservative political activists are up in arms because the post, which Wonkette has defended, calls Palin’s son trig, who has Down syndrome, “retarded,” “somewhat alive,” and includes crass claims that Palin conceived her son as a victim of incest.

      Below are images of messages each company placed on Twitter responded to people who shared their concerns with the corporations in an impromptu conservative boycott of Wonkette’s advertisers that erupted on Twtter Wednesday afternoon.

      Papa Johns pizza confirmed it would not advertise with Wonkette.

      ======

      Boycott all of Wonkette's advertisers

    • Wonkette Editor Ken Layne Comments on Reprehensible Birthday Greeting to Trig Palin – Political humor website Wonkette has long been trending toward nihilistic snark for snark’s sake, but Jack Stuef’s column “honoring” Trig Palin’s birthday is about the most irredeemably vile, unfunny thing I’ve ever seen. As if jokes about Trig’s Down Syndrome aren’t bad enough on their own, Stuef goes the extra mile to pen kneeslappers about incest, child rape, and fetal alcohol syndrome. I don’t want to reproduce too much of it here, but this quote is fairly representative:

      Today is the day we come together to celebrate the snowbilly grifter’s magical journey from Texas to Alaska to deliver to the America the great gentleman scholar Trig Palin. Is Palin his true mother? Or was Bristol? (And why is it that nobody questions who the father is? Because, either way, Todd definitely did it.)

      ======

      Read it all

      Think I will consider a boycott of anyone who advertises on the Wonkette site.

  • Pinboard Links

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

    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."

      =====

      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.

      =======

      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.

      ======

      Paul Ryan has proposed reforming MEDICARE.

      Guess those leftists at Daily Kos cannot read so well.

  • Barack Obama,  Earth Day,  Lisa Jackson,  Nancy Pelosi,  Powershift,  Van Jones

    Video: Powershift 2011 – How The Obama Administration and Democratic Leaders Encourage Environmental Radicals

    Good Grief.

    I remember when Earth Day started when I was in college. Look at how it has grown into an environmental socialist anti-capitalist revolution.

    Let’s see, Obama EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, former White House Green Jobs Advisor Van Jones, Al Gore and the green jobs industry, what could go wrong?

    Oh yeah – Where are the jobs?

  • Donald Trump,  Michele Bachmann,  Mike Huckabee,  Mitt Romney,  Newt Gingrich,  Polling,  President 2012,  Rudy Giuliani,  Sarah Palin

    President 2012 Iowa GOP Poll Watch: Huckabee 18% Romney 17% Gingrich 12% Trump 10% Bachmann 9% Giuliani 8% Palin 4%

    According to the latest ARG Iowa Poll.

    Interesting to me is how well Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani do in relation to Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann who is a native Iowan.

    But, polling in Iowa is tough because it is a caucus state and not a primary election.

    Mike Huckabee won Iowa in 2008 and continues to lead the race. Will we have a repeat race between Huck and Romney or will Mitt concede Iowa and concentrate on Florida?

  • California Citizens Redistricting Commission,  Dan Lungren,  House 2012,  Ken Calvert

    House 2012: California Rep. Dan Lungren and Ken Calvert Head Top Ten Republicans Most Vulnerable to Redistricting

    California GOP Rep. Dan Lungren (CA-3)

    Rep. Dan Lungren and Rep. Ken Calvert make the top two at the National Journal’s vulnerability list.

    Why?

    While the California Citizens Redistricting Commission works to draw lines for 2012 California Congressional Districts, these Congressman’s districts have changed demographically over the past decade.

    Dan Lungren:

    The incumbent protection plan California passed in 2002 gave this suburban Sacramento district parts of GOP-leaning outlying counties. Now, census results show Sacramento County is large enough to fully contain two districts, which could force Lungren, a nine-term veteran Republican, into a more compact and more Democratic district. In 2010, while many of his GOP colleagues were cruising to reelection, Lungren barely stumbled across the finish line and could be in more serious trouble against the same opponent in 2012.

    And, Lungren’s opponent Dr. Ami Bera has already announced a rematch and has started raising money ($230,000 in the first quarter of 2011).

    California GOP Rep. Ken Calvert (CA-44) with Speaker John Beohner

    Ken Calvert:

    A big surge in Latino voter participation in California’s Riverside County explained why Calvert was almost caught napping in 2008: That year, Calvert barely hung on with 51 percent in a race on no one’s radar screen. This district is now 45 percent Hispanic, and the 10-term Republican could easily find his Corona home in a 55 percent Hispanic district if redistricting commissioners decide one should be drawn. Of course, Calvert could move to a more Republican neighboring district, but he would face a competitive primary.

    Stay tuned……

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 07:28

    These are my links for April 20th from 07:28 to 11:08:

  • Al Gore,  Climate Change,  Global Warming,  Polling

    Poll Watch: Fewer Americans Feel Threatened by Global Warming?

    Yes, and Europeans too, according to the latest Gallup Poll.

    Gallup surveys in 111 countries in 2010 find Americans and Europeans feeling substantially less threatened by climate change than they did a few years ago, while more Latin Americans and sub-Saharan Africans see themselves at risk.

    Only 53% of Americans currently view climate change as a serious personal threat, down from 63% in previous years.

    So, what this mean?

    The feuding between rich and poor nations at climate talks in Bangkok in April demonstrates the obstacles that remain before the world can agree on a climate policy. Gallup’s data show that fewer Americans and Europeans, whose nations are central players in these talks, feel threatened by global warming today than they did in recent years. However, majorities in many of these countries still see climate change as a serious threat, which means the issue remains personally important to them.

    Global warming and climate change have been the cause de celebre in recent years – spurred by former Democratic Vice President Al Gore.

    Looks to me that the science has caught up with the hype and Americans are beginning to understand the difference.