• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 19:43

    May 12, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 12th from 19:43 to 19:57:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 19:39

    May 12, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 12th from 19:39 to 19:42:

    • The obligatory “still no idea if Mitch Daniels is running for president” post – Remember all those news stories this morning about Mrs. Daniels’s big speech to the Indiana GOP tonight and how it maybe hopefully possibly might finally offer an inkling as to whether the Hoosier Hamlet was ready to jump in?

      Nope:

      At an Indiana GOP dinner featuring first lady Cheri Daniels as keynote speaker, Mitch Daniels spoke for a few minutes — and gave little away about his 2012 plans.

      “This whole business of running for national office … I’m not saying I won’t do it,” he said, talking about how he had planned to go “to some quiet place … [like the] outdoors cable network” after his term as governor was over…

      Cheri Daniels said little that alluded to 2012 in her keynote speech. (Although Daniels fans may want to note that she said: “If Mitch wants me to do something and he thinks the answer’s going to be no, he tells Cindy [Hoye, the executive director of the Indiana State Fair Commission] to ask me.”)

      “Look, just make a decision. It’s time,” grumbled Larry Sabato afterwards.

      =======

      Daniels is running and after the reception he and Cheri received he will soon announce the formation of an exploratory committee.

      Look for it around Memorial Day.

    • Hispanic Students – The Education Crisis Everyone Is Ignoring – Hispanics now constitute 16% of the U.S. population, and the Census Bureau estimates they will account for 30% in 2050. This obviously means the number of Hispanic students in our public schools is increasing as well. From just 2001 to 2008, the percentage of Hispanics in public schools grew from 17% to 21%. In Texas, Hispanics already make up the majority of public school students.

      You'd think those numbers would grab the attention of policymakers and educators and spur action — but you'd be wrong. Our public schools are woefully unprepared to deal with the fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S. Only 17% of Hispanic fourth-graders score proficient or better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (a test given to samples of students each year) while 42% of non-Hispanic white students do. Nationally, the high school graduation rate for Hispanics is just 64%, and only 7% of incoming college students are Hispanic, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education.

      These two tectonic issues — our rocketing Hispanic population and the inadequate education of Hispanic students — are on a collision course that could either end in disaster or in another story of successful assimilation in America. The stakes are clear: how we meet this challenge will impact our politics, economy and our society.

      The Hispanic population boom understandably caught some states, communities and educators flat-footed. Places with few, if any, Hispanic students just a few years ago now have sizable populations. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that in North Carolina 16 of 100 counties are more than 10% Hispanic. Just four were in 2000. In Harrisonburg, Va., a sleepy university town in the Shenandoah Valley, about 40% of students in the city schools are Hispanic English-language learners, a figure that has soared over the past decade.

      Still, the demographic projections are so well known that no one should be surprised.

      =======

      Read it all.

      California is already feeling the budgetary effects and academic performance is very poor.

      One has to wonder where the next generation of California taxpayers are going to come from when very few of the "new" Hispanic majority have the skills or education to work at any high paying jobs.

      California high tech businesses are already moaning about easing VISA restrictions for foreign students to remain in the USA after they finish their educations because there are not sufficient numbers of indigenous highly educated workers.

      The fact is any illegal immigrant amnesty is going to guarantee the Mexican border is secure so that this same dilemma will not present itself again – America will be overrun by the third world if it does.

  • Mitt Romney,  President 2012,  RomneyCare

    President 2012: Mitt Romney Flipping and Flopping Like a Fish on RomneyCare?

    May 12, 2011 /

    One of the main complaints of Mitt Romney’s 2008 Presidential run was his constant shifting of positions on the issues. Now, there is RomneyCare or the Massachusetts Health Care Plan that Romney signed into law while Governor. One with a personal insurance mandate like ObamaCare.

    Romney today delivered a speech that didn’t help. 

    This morning the Wall Street Journal editorial board accused Mitt Romney of being a technocrat and not a conservative. In his speech in Ann Arbor, Mich., today, Romney proved the editorial board correct. You could tell it wasn’t going to be a good outing when it became clear that a tiny room of about 100 invited guests was the setting. Message: Only handpicked friends could be counted on not to boo or laugh. (…)
    In the Q-and-A afterward he got mostly softball questions. But at one point he spoke admiringly of the French health-care system. I’m not kidding.

    Romney is entirely lacking in self-awareness and understanding of the current Republican primary electorate if he thinks this speech is going to help. I’m sure his primary opponents, like many pundits, are dumbstruck that such a capable man could be so dense when it comes to his chosen profession.

    Mitt should have flopped like a fish away from RomneyCare – like he has done many times before on many different issues. He didn’t.

    I say he is done as a Presidential candidate and will be beat up unmercifully by his Republican competitors at the first change they get.

    Romney will NOT be the 2012 GOP Presidential nominee.

  • Chris Christie,  Jeb Bush,  Mitch Daniels,  Mitt Romney,  President 2012

    President 2012: Jeb Bush is Still a NO

    May 12, 2011 /

    He can read the polls too.

    Nothing like a busted Amtrak train to bring me face-to-face with the one man Republicans would love — and I mean LOVE — to get into the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nomination. Former governor Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) and his wife Columba were just a few rows behind me. So, of course, I couldn’t resist asking him a question he has heard myriad times. “Is there any possible way your party could convince you to run for president,” I asked? “I don’t think so,” he said. “A lot of people are asking me that, and it’s flattering. But the Magic Eight Ball says, ‘Outlook not so good.’ ”

    This comes mere hours before former House speaker Newt Gingrich alerts the world via Twitter, Facebook and Fox News that he will seek the 2012 Republican nomination for president. According to Gallup, he will enter the race with high name recognition and low positive intensity. I’d love to say there’s nowhere to go but up for him, but that wouldn’t be true.

    My bet is that Mitch Daniels and/or Chris Christie will jump in very soon.

    After Mitt Romney’s disastrous blow up on RpomneyCare today, he is out and Mike Huckabee is still not showing any effort.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 10:38

    May 12, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 12th from 10:38 to 13:38:

    • Mitt Romney: No apologies for Mass. RomneyCare plan – Mitt Romney offered no apologies and instead delivered a full-throated defense of his Massachusetts health care plan Thursday in a much-anticipated health care policy presentation at the University of Michigan.

      “I recognize that a lot pundits around the nation are saying that I should just stand up and say this whole thing was a mistake, that this was a boneheaded idea, and I should just admit it: it was a mistake, and walk away. I presume that a lot of folks think that if I did that it would be good for me politically, ” Romney said as he flipped through slides of a PowerPoint presentation he prepared himself. “There’s only one problem with that: it wouldn’t be honest.”

      =======

      Mitt Romney is putting lipstick on the pig of RomneyCare….

    • Why Don’t We Hear About Soros’ Ties to Over 30 Major News Organizations? – When liberal investor George Soros gave $1.8 million to National Public Radio , it became part of the firestorm of controversy that jeopardized NPR’s federal funding. But that gift only hints at the widespread influence the controversial billionaire has on the mainstream media. Soros, who spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004, has ties to more than 30 mainstream news outlets – including The New York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC.

      Prominent journalists like ABC’s Christiane Amanpour and former Washington Post editor and now Vice President Len Downie serve on boards of operations that take Soros cash. This despite the Society of Professional Journalists' ethical code stating: “avoid all conflicts real or perceived.”

      This information is part of an upcoming report by the Media Research Centers Business & Media Institute which has been looking into George Soros and his influence on the media.

      The investigative reporting start-up ProPublica is a prime example. ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to “strengthen the progressive infrastructure” – “progressive” being the code word for very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder where that money comes from, the OSF website is www.soros.org. It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those efforts.

      =====

      Read it all

      Because they are too busy going after the Koch Brothers…..ta da….

    • Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 10:28 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 10:28 #tcot #catcot
    • Kochs Get Slammed for Donating Money to Education | The Weekly Standard – Kochs Get Slammed for Donating Money to Education
    • Unlikely Cheri Daniels Will Mention 2012 in Speech Tonight – By Katrina Trinko – The Primary Event – National Review Online – Unlikely Cheri Daniels Will Mention 2012 in Speech Tonight
    • Dilbert May 6, 2011 – Respect and Admiration | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Dilbert May 6, 2011 – Respect and Admiration #tcot #catcot
  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 10:28

    May 12, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 12th from 10:28 to 10:33:

    • Kochs Get Slammed for Donating Money to Education – Have you heard the news? First the nefarious Koch brothers were trying to end education for kids in Wisconsin (well, until they weren’t actually). And, now, if you can believe it, the news is that the Koch brothers are trying to promote education! Some nerve…The phony outrage this time is over a $1.5 million donation that the Koch Foundation gave to Florida State University (FSU) to hire new professors and implement a program that promotes political economy and free enterprise. The agreement was made in 2008 with FSU, and though it was transparent at the time, it went largely unnoticed—that is, until just recently.

      Here’s how an article in the St. Petersburg Times describes the agreement between the Koch Foundation and FSU:

      Under the agreement with the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, however, faculty only retain the illusion of control. The contract specifies that an advisory committee appointed by Koch decides which candidates should be considered. The foundation can also withdraw its funding if it’s not happy with the faculty’s choice or if the hires don’t meet ‘objectives’ set by Koch during annual evaluations.

      So while it gives the impression that the hiring is done by the Kochs, it’s actually highly misleading. But that hasn’t stopped the left, who have created something of bogeymen out of David and Charles Koch, from claiming that this program compromises the academic integrity of the university by allowing for outside sources to dictate to the university which professors can—and cannot—be hired.

      ======

      Read it all.

      More Koch Derangement Syndrome

    • Unlikely Cheri Daniels Will Mention 2012 in Speech Tonight – Indiana first lady Cheri Daniels will be delivering the keynote address at an Indiana GOP dinner tonight. Right before she speaks, Mitch Daniels will deliver brief remarks. Neither the governor or the first lady is expected to mention 2012, according to Indiana GOP insiders.“If Cheri is going to make any headlines tonight, that has been one of the best kept secrets in politics,” a former George W. Bush administration colleague of Mitch Daniels’s tells National Review Online.

      The source adds that Daniels is still interested in a 2012 run, saying, “Given how politically astute he is, I have a hard time believing he’d be doing what he’s been doing lately if he weren’t serious about it.”

      ======

      Agreed but her speech and Mitch’s remarks will be scrutinized. Daniels will announce by Memorial Day.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 09:12

    May 12, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 12th from 09:12 to 09:15:

    • Mitch Daniels solves Cheri problem? – It’s long been public, if in a quiet way, that Mitch Daniels’ wife’s jitters were central to his decision, and that they related to her not wanting media scrutiny on the period in the ’90s when she left him for another guy.Daniels’ hesitation has now forced that story into print this week in the Indianapolis Star, New York Times, AP, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, where a rival campaign aide — in a kind of shot across the family’s bows — even shopped Jason Horowitz the other man’s ex-wife’s contact info. (The Post story doesn’t name or quote her, or her ex-husband, though.)

      I wonder if this doesn’t explain Daniels’s hesitation in another way: The bitter pill has now, at least in part, been swallowed. If a fear of triggering public discussion of a 15 year old marital rift was a reason for Cheri Daniels to veto the run, it’s less of one now, for the simple reason that it’s already underway.

      And unless we can convince Richard Ben Cramer to come back for another round, the political media is actually hardly known for deep biographical dives into spouses or even, really, candidates themselves.

      ======

      We will see tonight, now won’t we?

    • President 2012: Is Cheri Daniels ready to take the plunge? – A year ago, Cheri Daniels envisioned more time on the golf course and monthlong stays at her family’s West Virginia vacation home after her husband leaves the Indiana governor’s office.She brushed off then-budding talk of a presidential candidacy as hype. Asked by an interviewer to rate the likelihood that Mitch Daniels would run, she said 2 — on a scale of 1 to 10.

      What a difference a year makes.

      Anticipation for Mitch Daniels to announce his plans has risen in national political circles. And Cheri Daniels — in a rare step outside the low-key role she has fashioned as Indiana’s first lady — will face her biggest stage yet.

      ======

      Read this profile from the Indy Star.

      I say she is.

    • Mitch Daniels, Weighing Run, Considers Cost to Privacy – Cheri Daniels has made no secret of her distaste for politics. She did not campaign for her husband, Mitch Daniels, during two races for governor. She did not fully move into the governor’s mansion after his election. She has never delivered a political speech.But as leading Republicans step up their efforts to urge Mr. Daniels to run for president, the attention has suddenly turned to Mrs. Daniels, who makes her debut here on Thursday when she delivers a keynote address at the spring dinner of the Indiana Republican Party.

      Her willingness to take on a public role has increased the speculation about his intentions. But it has also come at the price of increased scrutiny on the couple’s private life, something Mr. Daniels had seemed to have on his mind for months as he made it clear that family considerations would weigh heavily on his decision.

      ======

      Read it all

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 12th on 06:53

    May 12, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 12th from 06:53 to 07:09:

    • What Mr. Obama can do to further immigration reform – FOR THE THIRD TIME in as many weeks, President Obama and his top domestic policy advisers hosted a group of prominent Hispanics and immigration experts the other day at the White House. That was followed by a policy speech on immigration reform Tuesday in El Paso. The president’s goal has been twofold: First, and explicitly, it was to reaffirm his support for overhauling the nation’s dysfunctional immigration system, which has produced 11?million undocumented immigrants. Second, and implicitly, it was to galvanize relations with a large and increasingly restless voting bloc whose support was critical to his victory in 2008 and will be again for his prospects in 2012.The restlessness of Hispanic voters is understandable, if not wholly attributable to Mr. Obama. As a candidate, he promised to press, in his first year in office, for comprehensive immigration reform. But the first year came and went with no movement on immigration. And that was before Mr. Obama lost his Democratic majority, along with much of his influence, in the House of Representatives.======

      Read it all.

      Obama is pander first, pander second and pander third….forget about the policy changes.

    • Obama’s lousy immigration record – As for enforcement, Obama has exaggerated his own success on that front. The White House brags that it has doubled the number of border agents since 2004. But who did that? An indignant Capitol Hill Republican e-mails me: “What they don’t tell you is that the doubling all happened before President Obama took office. Remember, it was the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) that included a provision increasing the number of Border Patrol agents by 2,000 annually from FY2006 to FY2010. In other words, they’re bragging on an accomplishment that happened during the *gasp* Bush administration.” This chart nicely illustrates the point (understand that the 2009 increase was determined before Obama entered office).That would be the administration that put forth and fought for its own comprehensive immigration plan. Pretty gutsy. Entirely un-Obama.======

      Watch for Newt Gingrich to attack Obama on immigration very soon.

    • Am I Running? Ask My Wife – The Mitch Daniels Story – More than 1,000 Republicans will pack an Indianapolis ballroom Thursday night to catch the state’s most anticipated political speech in years.The speaker? Not Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, but his wife, Cheri, a woman who famously hates politics and has long shied from the political spotlight.Cheri Daniels’s keynote appearance at the state GOP’s spring dinner is generating buzz—and more than a few TV satellite trucks—for a simple reason: Party leaders see her as the main hurdle to Mr. Daniels’s entry in the 2012 presidential race, a move many top Republicans hope the governor will make.

      “Everyone knows he won’t run unless she gives the go-ahead,” said James Bopp Jr., a prominent Indiana Republican. “That’s what makes this all so intriguing.”

      The Cheri Daniels event is far outselling the group’s ballyhooed speaker last fall, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “This is the biggest crowd we’ve had in at least a generation,” said Pete Seat, the state party’s spokesman.

      =======

      Read it all.

      Will there be a hint of an announcement to come?

      Stay tuned…..

    • Rep. Dan Lungren blasts Obama’s joke about moats and alligators for border security – Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) on Wednesday night said he is “disappointed” that President Obama chose to mock those who are demanding tighter border security in his Tuesday speech in El Paso.Obama angered many by ridiculing demands for beefed up border protection, at a time when law officers and citizens in southwestern states have been injured or killed by drug violence that has leaked over the border from Mexico.”Let me register my disappointment at the demonization of those who might have a disagreement with the president that was expressed by him in his speech yesterday,” Lungren said on the House floor Wednesday night.

      “Talking about moats and talking about alligators and talking about intransigents on the others side of the aisle is not the way to attract bipartisan support to deal with one of the most difficult and important questions of our nation,” he said.

      “I wouldn’t say I’m outraged. I would say I’m disappointed at the tone of those remarks of the president yesterday. If in fact we’re going to work together on issues as important as that, it would seem to me to be important for us to in some way at least accept the fact that there may be legitimate reason for differences, and try and bridge those differences rather than expand them.”

      “Maybe they’ll need a moat,” Obama said. “Maybe they want alligators in the moat. They’ll never be satisfied.”

      ======

      I would say that most Americans understand that Obama is pandering to Hispanic voters in the most cynical way.

      Actually, Obama is just delivering another political speech and playing a race card.

      I don’t think American voters will view it in any other way.

      Plus, Obama will do nothing for the Hispanics and illegal aliens anyway. This is not how he rolls.