These are my links for August 17th through August 18th:

• AFL-CIO: Labor will stand by Obama – Organized labor won't sit out President Obama's reelection campaign and let a Republican win the presidency, the AFL-CIO's political director said Wednesday.

  Despite the frustration labor activists have expressed toward the administration for the deals it has cut with congressional Republicans, Obama still provides a better alternative to a potential Republican president, said Michael Podhorzer, the labor federation's top politics officer.

  "I don't think that the labor movement will be on the sidelines with President Obama," he said in a sit-down interview with The Hill Wednesday.

  Podhorzer said that the union is likely to announce this fall that it's creating a so-called "super PAC" that can spend and receive unlimited amounts of campaign donations. Podhorzer said the labor federation has been limited by election laws to contacting just its own members but with a super PAC, the AFL-CIO can expand its outreach to non-union voters as well.

  "It's not meant to compete with Karl Rove and raise hundreds of millions of dollars," Podhorzer said.

  It's part of the revamped political strategy first outlined by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka this May, when he said that the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, would reduce its emphasis on directly helping candidates. That announcement was driven, in part, by frustration that labor-supported Democrats failed to deliver on their promises to working voters.

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  Of course, Big Labor will be behind their candidate, President Obama. He is their champion and their soulmate, so to speak.

• Mormons using the Web to control their own image – Try this. Type “church,” “Old Testament” or even “friend” into Google, and the Web site of the LDS church, the Mormons, pops up near the top of the list.

  In the age of the Internet, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has found a way to dominate what is arguably today’s most important information source: the search engine.

  It’s all about Mormons controlling their own image, church officials say. They’ve been doing that for a century or more. And now, with two of their own vying for the Republican nomination in the 2012 presidential race, and a Broadway hit and reality television generating huge interest in the denomination, much is at stake.

  “We’re jumping into the conversation because there is a big one going on about Mormons, and we want to be a part of it,” said Stephen Allen, head of the church’s missionary department. “When someone goes into Google, if the first 10 sites are people who hate us, we lose in terms of our message.”

  Their doctrine requires Mormons to proselytize, and it would be foolish not to strategize at a time of heightened interest, church officials and supporters say.

  There may be other reasons, as well. Recent polls have shown that many Americans hold unfavorable views of Mormons, who number 6 million in the United States, or 1.7 percent of the U.S. adult population. Many evangelicals, who make up a large part of the Republican base, question whether Mormons are Christian.

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  Read it all….

• Wasted Stimulus – Failed Policy: The Obama administration's jobs plan was based on a greening of the economy. But the green jobs aren't materializing, a fact driven home by the recent bankruptcy of a solar power company.

  During the 2008 campaign, candidate Barack Obama said he would create 5 million well-paying "green" jobs within 10 years.

  Politico has reported that "he's spent considerable time since entering the White House trying to make that happen."

  Indeed he has, though there has been no payoff. Yet he refuses give up on his quixotic quest. Last week Obama toured to much fanfare a Johnson Controls plant in Michigan where $300 million in conservation grants produced 150 jobs — at a cost of $2 million per position.

  Stimulus funds intended to boost the green economy haven't been well spent. The latest example of this is Monday's bankruptcy filing by Evergreen Solar Inc.

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  Read it all.

• @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-18 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-08-18 #tcot #catcot
• Dilbert August 17, 2011 – Intuition? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Dilbert August 17, 2011 – Intuition? #tcot #catcot
• Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Disneyland Half Marathon: A Little Over Two Weeks to Go – Twitter and Facebook friends. Please go to or and click my generous ad sponsors. Thanks! #tcot
• Referendum papers filed to challenge new California Legislature State Senate districts – A GOP-backed group has formally started the process of seeking to overturn the new state Senate districts drawn by an independent redistricting panel.

  An attorney representing a coalition called Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting filed referendum papers with the state attorney general's office yesterday. The effort, run by GOP strategist Dave Gilliard, has the backing of the California Republican Party and the Senate Republican Caucus.
  The referendum drive was announced Monday after members of the state's new Citizens Redistricting Commission adopted the political boundaries for congressional, state legislative and Board of Equalization districts that it drafted as part of the decennial redistricting process.

  Referendum proponents, who have taken issue with both the process for drafting the maps and the outcome, will have less than three months to collect the 504,760 valid voter signatures needed to ask voters to reject the Senate boundaries. If the referendum qualifies for the June 2012 ballot, the state Supreme Court would draw new maps or decide which maps to use in the upcoming political races.

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  The Dems will be delighted that the limited funds of the GOP will be used to gather these signatures to only affect a few POLS and a few districts.

  A waste of time and effort really.

• Photo of the Day: Obama’s Canadian Made Bus | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Photo of the Day: Obama’s Canadian Made Bus #tcot #catcot
• Day By Day August 17, 2011 – Vaderama | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day August 17, 2011 – Vaderama #tcot #catcot
• Flap’s Links and Comments for August 16th through August 17th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for August 16th through August 17th #tcot #catcot