• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for August 1st through August 2nd

    These are my links for August 1st through August 2nd:

    • Jonah Goldberg : To Hell with You People Re: Giffords and "Civility" – Look, I am past exhausted talking about liberal media bias. It’s real, we all know it, and people who deny it aren’t even fooling themselves. But some things just have to be pointed out. This morning I watched the first 15 minutes of the Today Show. I don’t particularly love or even like the program, but I find it useful to see what the producers think is the big news of the day. And sometimes Chuck Todd is on, and I like him. If I sound defensive about watching the show it’s only because I am.

      Anyway, the first ten minutes was about Gabby Giffords’ return to the House yesterday. I’m not sure it merited the full ten minutes or trumped the hard news that later followed, but it’s a great story and everyone is rooting for the lady, so I’m fine with it.

      But think about this for a second. The Giffords shooting sent the media elite in this country into a bout of St. Vitus’s dance that would have warranted an army of exorcists in previous ages. Sarah Palin’s Facebook map was an evil totem that forced some guy to go on a shooting spree. The New York Times, the Washington Post, all three broadcast networks — particularly NBC whose senior foreign-affairs correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, devotes, by my rough reckoning, ten times as much air time to whining about Sarah Palin as she does about anything having to do with foreign affairs — flooded the zone with “Have you no shame” finger wagging. A memo went forth demanding that everyone at MSNBC get their dresses over their heads about the evil “tone” from the right. Media Matters went into overdrive working the interns 24/7 to “prove” that Republicans deliberately foment violence with their evil targets on their evil congressional maps. 

      Everyone “knew” the shooter was a tea partier. Except he wasn’t. He wasn’t even a conservative. He was a sick, demented, nutball. And it still didn’t matter! More bleating and caterwauling about the “tone” followed. More chin stroking and tut-tutting from Meet the Press roundtables and “very special segments” on the Today Show. More pizzas were ordered for the Media Matters galley slaves.

      =====

      Read it all

    • Gov. Jerry Brown signs bill cracking down on prostitution in massage parlors – Gov. Jerry Brown acted Monday to make it harder for massage parlors to operate as fronts for prostitution in California.

      The governor signed the legislation after The Times reported a proliferation in the number of erotic massage parlors in Los Angeles.

      Massage therapists are required to receive 500 hours of training from a massage school in order to get a state certificate to operate in California. But officials say diploma mills have sprung up that provide fraudulent transcripts indicating that therapists have received the required training when they have not.

      Under the new law, police departments will report to the California Massage Therapy Council the identities of massage schools attended by therapists who have been prosecuted for prostitution.

      "Gathering this information in a single location makes it easier for law enforcement to recognize and prosecute fraudulent massage schools," said Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), author of SB 285.

      His bill also makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine up to $2,500, for schools to provide a certificate to a massage therapist knowing that the person has not received the training represented by the certificate.

      ======

      California really needs a part-time Legislature

    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: August 2, 2011 – The Morning Drill: August 2, 2011
    • President 2012 Pennsylvania GOP Poll Watch: Romney 44% Vs. Obama 42% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Pennsylvania GOP Poll Watch: Romney 44% Vs. Obama 42% #tcot #catcot
    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-02 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-02 #tcot #catcot
    • Vice President Joe Biden Denies He Called Tea Party American Lawmakers TERRORISTS | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Vice President Joe Biden Denies He Called Tea Party American Lawmakers TERRORISTS #tcot #catcot
    • House Votes 269 – 161 To Raise Debit Limit and Cut Spending | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – House Votes 269 – 161 To Raise Debit Limit and Cut Spending #tcot #catcot
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for August 1st on 07:32 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for August 1st on 07:32 #tcot #catcot
    • DeMint won’t target GOP yes votes – On Congress – POLITICO.com – RT @politico: Jim DeMint says he's not going to target incumbent Republican senators who back the debt deal: #tcot
  • Dentistry,  Tony Protopappas

    Former California Dentist Tony Protopappas Who Killed Three Patients Is Paroled

    Former dentist Tony Protopappas

    Tony Protopappas came up for parole in December but former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected it. He was ordered released by the Fourth district Court of Appeal in June.

    A former Costa Mesa dentist who served more than a quarter of a century in prison for murder after three of his patients died in his dental chair from improper use of anesthesia in the 1980s was paroled from Folsom Prison Tuesday.

    Tony Protopappas, who made national headlines in the early 1980s when he was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder, was picked up by his brother at the gates of Folsom Prison shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday, said Santa Ana attorney Rich Pfeiffer, Protopappas’s appellate lawyer.

    “He was very, very thankful,” Pfeiffer said. “He was crying tears of joy.”

    Protopappas was ordered released on parole in June by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in June in a ruling that overturned a decision by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010. Schwarzenegger reversed a decision by a state parole board granting Protopappas’ release because he no longer presents a risk of danger to others.

    Pfeiffer then appealed Schwarzenegger’s reversal, insisting that there is no evidence that Protopappas is an unreasonable risk to society, Pfeiffer said Protopappas should have been released from prison last week under the appellate decision, adding that he has filed a writ seeking to hold prosecutors in the state attorney general’s office in contempt of court for not allowing the former dentist to be released on time.

    Protopappas is now 65 years old and will NEVER practice dentistry again. But, three patients are dead and will have no life, because of his grossly negligent conduct.

    Granted he never intended to kill his victims, but he did, and for that he deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison.

    Previous:

    California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Rejects Parole for Deadly Dentist Tony Protopappas

  • Barack Obama,  Mitt Romney,  Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 Pennsylvania GOP Poll Watch: Romney 44% Vs. Obama 42%

    According to the latest Quinnipiac University Poll.

    Pennsylvania voters say 52 – 42 percent that Obama does not deserve to be reelected. Matching the president against possible Republican challengers shows:

    •     Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 44 percent to Obama’s 42 percent;
    •     Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum with 43 percent to Obama’s 45 percent;
    •     Obama leads Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann 47 – 39 percent;
    •     Obama tops Texas Gov. Rick Perry 45 – 39 percent.

    Remember President Obama beat John McCain by 10 points in 2008. In the early Presidential analysis, Pennsylvania was NOT considered an essential key battleground state for the GOP to win in the Electoral College.

    But, the latest poll may be foreshadowing a disastrous trend for the President’s re-election.

    Remember the trend in Pennsylvania first appeared on July 8th in the PPP Poll.

    President Obama won Pennsylvania by 10 points in 2008. If he is in  trouble there and this early, his decline could cascade to other key battleground states.

    Most pundits have not considered Pennsylvania to be in play for 2012 and 20 Electoral College votes are a lot for Obama to make up in Virginia and North Carolina which looks like he must both hold.

    Here is the GOP Pennsylvania race breakdown:

    • Romney – 21%
    • Santorum – 14%
    • Palin – 12%
    • Bachmann – 11%
    • Perry – 8%
    • Paul – 5%
  • Twitter

    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-02

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