• Polling,  President 2012

    President 2012 GOP Florida Poll Watch: Romney 28% Vs. Cain 24% Vs. Gingrich 10% Vs. Perry 9%

    According to the latest St. Petersburg Times Poll.

    Debates matter. So did Florida’s straw poll. Just ask two guys: Herman Cain and Rick Perry.

    Cain is now running in second place in Florida now that his support surged nearly 19 percentage points after last month’s Republican Party of Florida’s Presidency 5 debate and straw poll, according to a survey of likely Florida voters conducted by Gainesville-based War Room Logistics, which typically polls for Republicans.

    Meantime, Perry’s support plummeted nearly 16 percentage points.

    Perry had been tied as a Florida frontrunner with Mitt Romney at about 25 percent on Sept. 20, dropped to third/fourth place with 9 percent of the vote where he’s statistically tied with Newt Gingrich (10 percent).

    Romney’s support grew a modest 3 percentage points, to 28 percent.

    Romney also remains the best general-election candidate against President Obama, according to the poll. Romney trails him 42-48 – the smallest margin.

    Looks like Texas Governor Rick Perry has crashed and burned. Looks like there will be inordinate pressure on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to enter the race or I am positive Rudy Giuliani will get in – one or the other. Somebody will want to be the anti-Romney candidate and Herman Cain won’t make it.

    Perry is almost done. His fundraising may keep him in the race for a while, but he better light it up at the next debate or put a fork in him.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for October 3rd on 08:00

    These are my links for October 3rd from 08:00 to 12:42:

    • The Bloomberg Hit Piece on the Koch Brothers – Bloomberg Markets has a print cover story on “The SECRET SINS of KOCH INDUSTRIES” (unusual capitalization and italicization choices theirs), which is plugged heavily in a long (nigh interminable) web item headlined:

      “Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales”

      The nut of it is that, in 2008, a newly-hired Koch ethics officer discovered evidence of improper bribes paid by a French subsidiary to secure six different deals in Africa, India, and the Middle East. (I know, I know. But try to contain your shock that doing business in Africa could be anything but above-the-board.) Koch HQ then dispatched a larger investigative team that confirmed the findings and the parties responsible were terminated.

      Fast-forward to over a year later: The ethics officer who first discovered the impropriety, having since been promoted, is let go for emerging performance issues. She files suit against Koch for wrongful termination, and not only loses, but is ordered to pay Koch’s legal fees. Now she’s giving quotes to Bloomberg. Unrelatedly, and this is crucial, the Koch subsidiary also had some business (which has since completely desisted) with Iran at a time when — both Bloomberg and Koch reps seem to agree — that business was perfectly legal under U.S. law. Again, the Iran business was entirely separate from the alleged bribes. But go back and look at that headline. Would you ever know?

      I reached out to the Koch Industries and got this statement from general counsel Mark Holden:

      ======

      Read it all

    • Koch responds to Bloomberg – In an exclusive interview with Right Turn, Koch Industries general counsel Mark Holden responded to a lengthy investigative piece by Bloomberg news citing various legal incidents and allegations of wrongdoing by the industrial conglomerate owned by the billionaire Koch brothers, who have become the target, if not the obsession, of left-wing groups who take issue with their libertarian politics and political activity.

      The two issues featured most prominently by the Bloomberg report, according to Holden, are rife with errors and/or are old, long-since resolved matters.

      ======

      Read it all

      Pretty much answers the Bloomberg attack piece….

    • Do Mother and Baby Risk Factors Predict a Child’s Obesity? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Do Mother and Baby Risk Factors Predict a Child’s Obesity?
    • President 2012: South Carolina Moves GOP Primary Election to January 21 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: South Carolina Moves GOP Primary Election to January 21 #tcot #catcot
    • Social media giving small firms a boost – Laid off after 23 years in the mortgage lending business, Dede Parise couldn't find a job. So she took a marketing class to reinvent her career, and before long she turned an assignment into a company.

      Parise invented the Bandee, a headband women wear while playing golf and other sports. She sells her product mostly on the Internet, working from home.

      Her audience is big, and growing. In a year, using Facebook, she has parlayed her reach into 15,000 fans.

      For small businesses such as Parise's, social media has become a portal to success.

      "It's really important," said Parise, 49, of Weston, Fla. "It's just the way the market has gone."

      No question, the use of social media by businesses is booming.

      According to a recent study by EMarketers, 80% of leading companies will participate in social media marketing in 2011, nearly double the number from three years ago.

      And a 2011 Social Media Marketing report by SocialMediaExaminer.com found that 90% of marketers said social media was important for their business. Eighty-eight percent said it generated more business exposure, and 72% said it increased traffic to their site.

      The most commonly used social media tools, the 2011 report found, are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, in that order.

      =======

      Read it all

    • Flap’s Links and Comments for October 2nd through October 3rd | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 2nd through October 3rd #tcot #catcot
  • GOP,  President 2012

    President 2012: South Carolina Moves GOP Primary Election to January 21

    Well, Florida decided on January 31, 2012 for their Presidential Primary election in violation of Republican National Committee rules and hence moves South Carolina.

    South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary will be held on Jan. 21 of next year, two GOP sources tell CNN.

    South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly will formally announce the date later this morning.

    The move is designed to put space between South Carolina and Florida, which bucked national Republican Party rules last week and decided to hold their primary on Jan. 31.

    The updated calendar is likely to push the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary even earlier into January as they seek to protect their role as the two leadoff contests in the presidential nominating process.

    Nevada has already decided to move its GOP primary caucuses from February 18 to January. No specific date has been selected for Nevada. But, Nevada usually goes on the Saturday after New Hampshire and Iowa primary elections and before South Carolina.

    Get ready for an early primary season for the Republican Presidential field. There will be Christmas/New Year’s campaigning in New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina.

    Who wins in this development?

    Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for October 2nd through October 3rd

    These are my links for October 2nd through October 3rd:

    • House Appropriators take a shot at ObamaCare, Labor and NLRB – The House appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education is attacking funding for Obamacare, the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

      According to subcommittee chairman, Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg, the appropriations bill would prevent the Obama administration from implementing Obamacare until the Supreme Court rules on the case. It also defunds the NLRB’s attempts to implement “quickie elections” for unions and defunds implementation of the NLRB’s “poster rule,” which requires employers nationwide to hang pro-union posters in workplaces.

      The “quickie elections” rule the NLRB recently passed allows unions to hold a workforce election within just seven to ten days after requesting one. For decades, unions has to wait about 45 days or longer after requesting an election to hold one. That ensured workers and the company had enough time to catch up and become fully informed on what was happening, as union leaders usually already know what’s going on because they deal with labor relations issues all the time.

      ======

      Read it all

    • Perry, Romney Embrace a National Right-to-Work Law – Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney both say they support a national right-to-work law.

      Workers outside right-to-work states currently are obligated to pay the union fees as a condition of employment at firms that have unions, which is in accordance with the National Labor Relations Act. But the unions cannot demand membership.

      "Gov. Romney … would sign a national right-to-work law if it came across his desk," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul told TheStreet in an email.

      "Governor Perry would support Senator DeMint's national right to work bill," Perry spokesman Mark Miner told TheStreet in an email.

      Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) introduced the National Right to Work Act in March 2011, which aimed to protect "the free choice of individuals to form, join, or assist labor organizations, or to refrain from such activities."

      DeMint's state has seen a heavy labor dispute that concerns a Boeing plant in North Charleston, S.C., as the National Labor Relations Board general counsel ruled in April that Boeing's decision to build the plant represented an illegal retaliation for a 2008 strike by the International Association of Machinists at one of its plants in Everett, Wash.

      ======

      Read it all

    • Craig Becker and Boeing – For the last few months, Boeing has been clashing with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over its decision to locate a plant in South Carolina. The NLRB argues that the airplane manufacturer illegally moved work from union factories in Washington state to a new $1 billion facility in the right-to-work Palmetto State.
      NLRB lawyers maintain this is straightforward retaliation against union workers, based on comments allegedly made by Boeing executives themselves. Business leaders have denounced this as an unprecedented bit of federal pro-union advocacy, with the House of Representatives last week voting to halt the Boeing case and others like it.
      The battle may soon intensify. Federal financial disclosure forms reveal that Craig Becker, a key union-friendly vote on the NLRB, owned stock in Boeing at the beginning of this year. Becker is one of federal agency's Democratic board members.

      ======

      Read it all

    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-03 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-03 #tcot #catcot
    • Obama Supporters "Occupy" DC
      – YouTube
      – Obama Supporters "Occupy" DC
      – YouTube
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: 2011 Wiggle Waggle for the Pasadena Humane Society – 2011 Wiggle Waggle for the Pasadena Humane Society
    • Occupy DC Protesters Call for Re-election of Obama and for Government to Use Force to Impose Their Ideas | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy DC Protesters Call for Re-election of Obama and for Government to Use Force to Impose Their Ideas #tcot #catcot
    • Obama Supporters "Occupy" DC
      – YouTube
      – I liked a @YouTube video from @adamkokesh Obama Supporters "Occupy" DC
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for October 1st through October 2nd | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 1st through October 2nd #tcot #catcot
  • Twitter

    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-03

    Powered by Twitter Tools