• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for June 14th on 11:24

    These are my links for June 14th from 11:24 to 17:58:

  • Craig Huey,  Janice Hahn

    Updated: CA-36: Janice Hahn Hearts Gangsters In New Video – Give Us Your Cash, B—ch! – Craig Huey Campaign Denounces Video

    *****Updated*****

    This video has created quite a flap and the Craig Huey Campaign for Congress has denounced the video.

    Huey’s campaign manager, Jimmy Camp, quickly denounced the video, calling it “inappropriate” and “highly offensive” and noting that it has no connection to the campaign.

    LA City Councilwoman Janice Hahn hearts gangsters. Learn more here.

    Thanks to Stacy McCain for this information regarding my friend Craig Huey’s opponent, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, in the California Congressional District 36 special election on July 12th.

    Janice Hahn is the Democrat running for Congress in the July 12 special election in California’s 36th District, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Jane Harman.

    As a member of the Los Angeles City Council, Hahn promoted a program to use taxpayer money to hire convicted criminals as gang intervention specialists. Predictably, Hahns government employment program for gangsters amounted to a taxpayer subsidy for violent crime.

    From the Film Ladd Filmaker:

    I give you, therefore, my latest viral. It’s a rap-video attack ad, launched at Janice Hahn’s prior behavior as an L.A. City Council member. She is now running for Congress in California’s 36th District. She ran a city program that coddled gang members, paid them with taxpayer money, got them out of jail to rape and kill again. She even got policemen fired for daring to arrest her boyz. It was so bad the Mayor of L.A. took the program away from her. He’s a Democrat. She’s a Democrat. That’s bad when your own party takes your goofy program out of your clutches.

    We don’t need any more gangsters in Washington, D.C.

    What she did was completely outrageous.

    Janice Hahn releases a television ad featuring Sarah Palin and Craig Huey, now Craig Huey her Republican opponent should remind voters of Hahn’s outrageous gang intervention program, paid for by taxpayer dollars.

    PWNED

    Here is the background investigative report:

  • Michele Bachmann,  Mitt Romney,  President 2012,  Rick Perry

    President 2012 GOP Watch: California Republicans Organize Fundraising for Texas Governor Rick Perry

    Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks at the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana in this April 9, 2010 photo

    White the Texas Governor says he is thinking about a run for the Presidency, California GOP operatives are starting the pre-requisite fundraising.

    Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is far from making a decision about a White House bid, but a cadre of California Republicans are raising money on his behalf in the meantime by starting a 527 organization.

    California GOP consultant Bob Schuman filed paperwork Monday with the IRS to start Americans for Rick Perry, which aims to raise money and create a grass-roots operation on the governor’s behalf until he makes a decision about running for president.

    Elizabeth Blakemore, a well-known Houston-based GOP fundraiser, is raising money for the group. Schuman said the goal is to bring in $500,000 by Aug. 1.

    “It’s a 527 that we just started to start an independent expenditure campaign for Gov. Perry until he decides what he’s going to do,” Schuman told Roll Call in a phone interview. “We do have fundraisers on board, and they are frantically trying to raise money right now.”

    Perry is far from announcing a campaign for president, but he’s indicated that he is considering a bid and recently scheduled several high-profile appearances at conservative events across the country over the next few weeks. Polls have shown that many GOP primary voters are not satisfied with the current crop of candidates, and without a true Southerner in the hunt, many Republicans see an opening for the governor if he decides to run.

    Sounds like a go for Governor Perry.

    Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann have been fundraiising in the Golden State for some time now.

  • Craig Huey,  Janice Hahn

    CA-36: Janice Hahn Hearts Gangsters In New Video – Give Us Your Cash, B–ch!

    LA City Councilwoman Janice Hahn hearts gangsters. Learn more here.

    Thanks to Stacy McCain for this information regarding my friend Craig Huey’s opponent, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, in the California Congressional District 36 special election on July 12th.

    Janice Hahn is the Democrat running for Congress in the July 12 special election in California’s 36th District, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Jane Harman.

    As a member of the Los Angeles City Council, Hahn promoted a program to use taxpayer money to hire convicted criminals as “gang intervention specialists.” Predictably, Hahn’s government employment program for gangsters amounted to a taxpayer subsidy for violent crime.

    From the Film Ladd Filmaker:

    I give you, therefore, my latest viral. It’s a rap-video attack ad, launched at Janice Hahn’s prior behavior as an L.A. City Council member. She is now running for Congress in California’s 36th District. She ran a city program that coddled gang members, paid them with taxpayer money, got them out of jail to rape and kill again. She even got policemen fired for daring to arrest her boyz. It was so bad the Mayor of L.A. took the program away from her. He’s a Democrat. She’s a Democrat. That’s bad when your own party takes your goofy program out of your clutches.

    We don’t need any more gangsters in Washington, D.C.

    What she did was completely outrageous.

    Janice Hahn releases a television ad featuring Sarah Palin and Craig Huey, now Craig Huey her Republican opponent should remind voters of Hahn’s outrageous gang intervention program, paid for by taxpayer dollars.

    PWNED

    Here is the background investigative report:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for June 14th on 08:45

    These are my links for June 14th from 08:45 to 10:38:

  • Michele Bachmann,  Mitt Romney,  Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Michele Bachmann Starts with Above-Average Recognition and Intensity


    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who formally announced her presidential candidacy at Monday night’s Republican debate in New Hampshire, is currently recognized by 62% of Republicans nationwide. Her Positive Intensity Score of 18 essentially ties the better-known Mitt Romney’s 19.

    These poll results are fitting the DC punditry CW saying while Mitt Romney is the GOP front-runner, Michele Bachmann is an attractive candidate who will give him a race.

    Romney at this juncture is in the strongest position — given his high name recognition, rising Positive Intensity Score, and top position in Gallup’s trial heat measure. Former businessman Cain still generates significantly more positive intensity among Republicans who know him than does Romney, but Cain has only a 41% recognition level and trails Romney and Palin in Republicans’ current nominee preferences. Newly announced candidate Bachmann’s Positive Intensity Score has fallen back slightly in recent weeks, but she still ranks near the top on this measure. Palin has the virtue of nearly universal name recognition, and while her Positive Intensity Score is above average, it trails Romney’s.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for June 13th through June 14th

    These are my links for June 13th through June 14th:

    • Is Every Lesbian Blogger a Middle-Aged Man? – By Mark Steyn – We’re one lesbian away from a bona fide Fleet Street “trend”. Further to yesterday’s post, a lesbian blogger who helped unmask the Syrian lesbian blogger as a middle-aged American male has herself been revealed to be a middle-aged American male:

      In an apology to its readers, one of the other owners, Linda Carbonell, wrote: “The past three days have been devastating for all of us on LezGetReal. ‘Paula Brooks’ has been a part of our lives for three years now.”

      Mr Graber told the Associated Press news agency he set up LezGetReal to advance the gay and lesbian cause. He said he felt he would not be taken seriously as a straight man.

      Yeah, tell me about it.

      Miss Brooks, the founder of LezGetReal, turns out to be Bill Graber, a 58-year old construction worker from Ohio. Mr Graber feels that he should at least receive credit for unmasking yesterday’s faux-lesbian blogger, 40-year old college student Tom McMaster:

      Mr Graber defended his actions, saying he had helped unmask Mr MacMaster by tracking his posts to computer servers in Edinburgh.

      “He would have got away with it if I hadn’t been such a stand-up guy,” Mr Graber told AP.

      =======

      Good grief

    • Veepstakes – Was just chatting with Andrew Langer at the Institute for Liberty for his podcast about last night’s debate, and he asked something along the lines of: If Romney is the frontrunner in the end, will he have to pick Michele Bachmann?

      It’s way too early to consider Romney the nominee, of course — we’ve had one debate and the whole field may not even be in place yet. But I think the vice-presidential choice will not have to do with demographics so much as enthusiasm and inspiration. And if the presidential candidate is eminently steady, an impatient streak in a veep will be appreciated. Rep. Bachmann could have all these things. So could Senator Rubio.

      =======

      Romney – Bachmann would be a viable GOP ticket.

    • Quickie Elections: Rigging the Rules to Favor Big Labor – After the forces of organized labor lost their battle for mandatory card check in Congress, it was widely anticipated that the board would give them the next best thing — “quickie elections,” which are held seven to ten days after a petition is filed. Like card check, quickie elections rig the rules to favor a union outcome. With NLRB chairman Wilma Liebman’s term ending in ten weeks, we may well see something issued soon.

      Imagine a political election in which only one party were given the opportunity to tell voters its side of the story, and could set an election date only days away, all without prior notice to the other side. Sound unfair? This is the model the Obama board intends to impose on American business for union-representation elections.

      One of the cardinal roles of the NLRB is to protect employees’ free and informed decisions on the issue of union representation. Consistent with that goal, the board has over many decades arrived at election procedures that allow for an election window of three to six weeks after a petition is filed. This permits the board to conduct a statutorily required hearing if the parties are unable to reach agreement on certain pre-election issues and to complete other pre-election requirements. The window also gives management the opportunity to learn about the union and either support it or assemble a case against it and make its reasons known to its workers. Organized labor abhors this opportunity because employees are less likely to vote for union representation if they are given the opportunity to consider both sides.

      The current election procedures work. Under this system, union density in the private sector reached 35 percent in the1950s, when the election window was roughly the same or a bit larger.

      Big Labor wants the rules of the game changed.

      ======

      Unions have failed in the marketplace so why not rig the system?

    • Koch Brothers, Grover Norquist Split On Ethanol Subsidies – Opponents of ethanol subsidies got a boost Monday from Koch Industries as the company announced its opposition to the giveaways on the eve of a major vote in the Senate.

      Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is pushing a vote on an amendment Tuesday that would end ethanol subsidies and eliminate tariffs on foreign supplies of the biofuel. That would allow companies to use sugar-based Brazilian ethanol, which is both cheaper and less environmentally damaging than the domestic corn-based variety.

      Ethanol is a key national issue for the GOP because of the importance of Iowa's early caucus to the presidential primary. Former Gov. Jon Huntsman (R-Utah) is skipping the state, he has said, because his opposition to the subsidies is toxic in the state. The issue has split the Republican Party, with free market advocates and deficits hawks pushing for elimination of the subsidies and corn-state politicians fighting back.

      =======

      End the subsidies.

    • Flap’s Links and Comments for June 13th on 10:23 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for June 13th on 10:23 #tcot #catcot
  • Michele Bachmann,  Mitt Romney,  President 2012

    President 2012 GOP Debate: Who Won Last Night?

    As I tweeted during the Republican New Hampshire debate last night, the biggest winner was Michele Bachmann.

    Mitt Romney did fine and I think ultimately this will be a race between Bachmann and Romney unless Texas Governor Rick Perry or Sarah Palin enter the race. Then, all bets are off and a splitting vote scenario would be in play – as long as the campaign cash holds up.

    Most of the D.C. pundits, both Democrats and Republicans agree that last night was all about Bachmann and Romney. The Biggest Loser was Tim Pawlenty, but I never really figured him a viable candidate anyway.

    Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the winner of the first major presidential debate tonight according to a survey of Republican and Democratic political operatives, campaign consultants, and party strategists, in a special National Journal Political Insiders Poll conducted tonight. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann also had a good evening. 

    Asked who was the “biggest winner” in the debate, a slim majority of Republican Insiders picked Romney. Roughly one-third of the Democratic Insiders concurred.

  • California,  California Budget,  Flap's California Morning Collection

    Flap’s California Morning Collection: June 14, 2011

    A morning collection of links and comments about my home, California.

    The California State Budget deadline looms tomorrow for the California Legislature. If a state budget is not passed, legislators have their pay docked – now, you see the urgency. In the meantime, California Republicans are not moving to support tax extensions which means the Democrats who are in the majority may pass a budget with accounting gimmics – like the under former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    Now, the links:

    Faced with loss of pay, Democrats are crafting alternative state budget

    Facing a Wednesday deadline for passing a budget or forfeiting pay, Democrats in the Legislature are quietly drafting a spending plan they could pass without the GOP votes needed for tax increases or extensions.

    The alternative plan would keep paychecks coming even though talks between Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans have snagged on the issue of taxes.

    “We will have a budget,” said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).

    Barankin and others close to the process declined to provide details. But a fallback blueprint would almost certainly rely on accounting moves and other measures that would merely paper over the state’s remaining $10-billion shortfall: Democrats, who have sharply cut back many programs already, have little appetite for further reductions.

    Chronicle will not be pool reporter for Michelle Obama visit

    Remember a couple of weeks ago when The White House got ticked off at Comrade Marinucci for posting video of activists protesting President Obama inside a San Francisco fundraiser? To Team Obama she was violating an unwritten rule on a print reporters posting video and they threatened to exclude The Chronicle from being the pool reporter in the future.

    To other sentient beings, Comrade Marinucci was — and pardon the technical term here — “reporting the news.” News that MANY other non-journalists who were there at the fundraiser were recording with various camera phones. And she was perfectly within her rights to do so, The Chronicle has asserted.

    Why we’re re-telling you this story: First Lady Michelle Obama comes to the Bay Area Tuesday and neither Comrade M — nor anybody at The Chronicle — will be the local pool reporter. Handling that gig will be two reporters from the Oakland Tribune. One is the Trib’s hunky, bearded political reporter Josh Richman and the other is a higher education reporter.

    So just to get this down for the record, we asked the White House what was up. And with all due respect — as we’re sure he’ll do a terrific job — why was a higher ed reporter chosen to do the pool reporting on a political event in San Francisco?

    The White House responded that pool reporters are chosen on a rotating basis.

    More competitive seats under draft political maps, PPIC says

    The number of competitive seats in the Legislature and in California’s congressional delegation would jump significantly under draft maps released Friday, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

    More competitive seats could give Democrats a better chance of securing the two-thirds legislative majority needed to raise state taxes in future years, which would require capturing two additional seats in both the Assembly and Senate.

    Under tentative proposals by California’s new redistricting commission, the number of competitive Assembly seats would rise from nine to 16; competitive state Senate seats, from three to nine; and competitive U.S. House of Representative seats, from four to nine, PPIC concluded.

    No formula is considered foolproof in calculating the number of competitive seats. Analysts use different approaches and reach differing conclusions, serving as grist for lively debate.

    PPIC defined a competitive seat as one that falls between a five-point registration advantage for Republicans and a 10-point advantage for Democrats, which it said reflects the fact that Democrats are more likely to cross party lines.

    Democrats currently hold 52 of 80 seats in the Assembly; 25 of 40 seats in the state Senate, and 34 of 53 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

    Dan Walters: The Big Stakes? Two-thirds Margin

    There are many ways to view the new congressional and legislative district maps released last week by the state’s new independent redistricting commission, from the personal to the cultural to the geographic.

    But to Capitol insiders, the most meaningful aspect is whether the Democrats can gain two-thirds majorities in both legislative houses and thus hegemony over tax policy.

    Democrats are two seats shy of two-thirds in each house now, and that’s why the state budget is, as usual, stalemated. Republicans are refusing to vote for nearly $10 billion a year in tax extensions.

    “We need four Republicans,” Gov. Jerry Brown declared Monday as he assembled a gaggle of business, labor and local government leaders to support extending the temporary taxes a few extra months and then asking voters to continue them for five years.

    However, the tax extensions don’t play very well with voters in recent polling. Some Democratic leaders and their union allies have mused about plugging the budget gap with accounting gimmicks, loans and other one-time revenues, and concentrating political resources on getting two-thirds majorities in 2012 elections.

    Enjoy your morning!

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