Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker raises $13 Million since January

These are my links for April 30th through May 1st:

• Ex-CIA counterterror chief says Pelosi ‘reinventing the truth’ about waterboarding – In an explosive memoir released today, former CIA counterterrorism chief Jose Rodriguez provides new evidence that Rep. Nancy Pelosi lied when she declared she had not been briefed about the use of waterboarding.

  Recall that in a Capitol Hill news conference three years ago, Pelosi (D-Calif.) vehemently denied being told about the use of waterboarding at a CIA briefing in September 2002. “We were not — I repeat — were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used,” Pelosi said. She later changed her story, telling reporters, “We were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used.” She claimed she learned about the use of waterboarding the following year, only after other lawmakers were told by the CIA. “I wasn’t briefed, I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it,” she said.

• Elizabeth Warren’s embattled campaign: Cherokee tie found 5 generations ago – Desperately scrambling to validate Democrat Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage amid questions about whether she used her minority status to further her career, the Harvard Law professor’s campaign last night finally came up with what they claim is a Cherokee connection — her great-great-great-grandmother.

  “She would be 1⁄32nd of Elizabeth Warren’s total ancestry,” noted genealogist Christopher Child said, referring to the candidate’s great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith, who is listed on an Oklahoma marriage certificate as Cherokee. Smith is an ancestor on Warren’s mother’s side, Child said.

  The missing link comes after Warren’s embattled campaign faced sharp questions about her Native American background in the wake of Herald stories that showed both Harvard Law School and Warren herself had touted her tribal lineage and claimed she was a member of a minority for years.

• Norman Ornstein to the Press Corps: Stop Covering the GOP Fairly to Stop Their Success – Norman Ornstein is the in house pet liberal at the American Enterprise Institute who they let out of his cage once in a while to lament the free market, conservatives, and the like. I’m not sure why groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute ever allow their supposed scholars to team up with the Brookings Institute, but whenever they do it results in intellectual underwear stains for both organizations.

  In today’s quasi-bipartisan inane ramblings, Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute and Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institute want the Washington Press Corps to know the GOP is extremist, destroying the country, and they should all stop paying attention to the GOP or treating them with balance.

  Nothing says marginal extremism like holding the US House, most statehouses, most governorships, and a plurality of national party ID.

• Elizabeth Warren has lost her standing as chief female savior – Oh Liz, Liz, my heart is broken.

  We on the Estrogen Express thought we’d finally found our Golden Girl.

  And now?

  This could be your Seamus moment.

  This could be the beginning of your end — like when Rim Tim Tim Murray rope-a-doped about releasing his cellphone calls.

  I just can’t shake the ridiculous image of you, Liz — a blue-eyed blonde almost as pasty white as me — letting yourself be described as a minority professor, a Native American, for years.

  You’ve played the Indian card. You’ve grabbed for minority cred without enduring the minority grief. It’s poached diversity. It’s glommed onto, what, five generations removed, assuming there were some facts way, way back when, as your campaign aides claimed last night.

  How long before wise guys in feathered headdresses start dancing around parking lots at your events? Somebody told me yesterday your campaign needs to lie low and “circle the wagons.” Whoops. That same someone quickly realized it was the pioneers who circled the wagons when your Cherokee ancestors were blazing across the prairie on the warpath.

  Here’s the problem for you, Liz: We’re not talking some elaborate, arcane, confusing financial irregularity here that nobody can understand. Everybody gets this. It’s letting everyone think you’re something that you’re not. It’s letting stand the idea that you’re part of an aggrieved class of people. It’s a sin of omission, which is not as bad as a sin of commission — like, you know, the typical political ploy of pumping up resumes with fake claims of combat heroism and purple hearts. But it’s a huge problem nonetheless.

• IN-Sen: Indiana – Is it already over? – The PAC that was supporting Richard Lugar, the American Action Network, has pulled its ads. They officially come down today. “We’ve decied to let this race play out,” Dan Conston, spokesman for the group, confirms. The group spent about two-thirds of the $600,000 it booked. Republican thinking is that they are coming to grips with the idea that state Treasurer Richard Mourdock is the very likely nominee, and the party now doesn’t want to damage him. Strategists say Lugar didn’t started campaigning in earnest until too late and waited too long to define Mourdock. They didn’t know what to do with him.
• Walker raises $13 million since January – Gov. Scott Walker raised an unprecedented $13.2 million over three months to fight off the recall bid against him, outdistancing his Democratic challengers and driving home the challenge they will have in beating the Republican incumbent.

  Crisscrossing the country on fundraising trips, Walker has raised more than $25 million since January 2011 and has $4.9 million in cash on hand – numbers unlike any that have been seen for a political candidate in Wisconsin. Two-thirds of Walker’s money came from out of state.

  His stores of cash dwarf what his Democratic rivals have raised. But a report filed Monday showed an independent group supporting Democrat Kathleen Falk received $4.5 million, nearly all of it from unions and about a third of it from out of state.

  Walker’s fundraising is on par with that of second-tier presidential candidates. For instance, Rick Santorum raised $18.5 million between Jan. 1 and March 31, and Newt Gingrich raised a little less than $10 million during that period.

  Walker has been able to raise so much because of the national appeal he developed with conservatives after his high-profile fight with labor unions and a quirk in Wisconsin law that allows unlimited fundraising while recalls are pending.

  Conservative billionaire Diane Hendricks gave Walker $500,000. Hendricks co-founded Beloit-based ABC Supply, a roofing wholesaler and siding distributor, with her husband, Ken, who died in a 2007 fall.

  Her donation was the single largest ever to a gubernatorial candidate in the state and tied the $500,000 given to Walker over recent months by Bob Perry, owner of Houston-based Perry Homes and a chief backer of the Swift Boat Veterans ads against Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 race for president.

• Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on New Facebook Organ Donation Tool – ABC News – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on New Facebook Organ Donation Tool – ABC News
• Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: May 1, 2012 – The Morning Drill: May 1, 2012
• Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: May 1, 2012 – Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: May 1, 2012
• Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on New Facebook Organ Donation Tool – ABC News – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on New Facebook Organ Donation Tool – ABC News
• McCain on Bin Laden raid: ‘The thing about heroes, they don’t brag’ – Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continued to hammer the Obama re-election team over its use of the death of Osama bin Laden in a campaign commercial, echoing Mitt Romney’s statement that any president – including Jimmy Carter – would have made the same call.

  “I say any president, Jimmy Carter, anybody, any president would have, obviously, under those circumstances, done the same thing.  And to now take credit for something that any president would do is indicative of take over campaign we’re under — we’re — we’re seeing…So all I can say is that this is going to be a very rough campaign,” McCain told Fox News in an interview set to air Monday night. “And I’ve had the great honor of serving in the company of heroes.  And, you know the thing about heroes, they don’t brag.”

• Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » Day By Day May 1, 2012 – DrEvil – Day By Day May 1, 2012 – DrEvil
• Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on New Facebook Organ Donation Tool – ABC News – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on New Facebook Organ Donation Tool – ABC News
• British lawmakers: Rupert Murdoch ‘not a fit person’ to lead – Darius Dixon – POLITICO.com – RT @politico: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run News Corp., British lawmakers say:
• The Tea Party’s Moment – The Tea Party movement shook up the Congressional campaign landscape in 2010, electing a slew of unconventional candidates, pushing Republican candidates rightward, all while upsetting a few establishment favorites in the process.

  But the next month could prove to be even more consequential for the movement, with major Senate primaries coming up, pitting conservative favorites against candidates backed by the GOP establishment. Already Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., is looking like the underdog against Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock in the state’s May 8 primary. Meanwhile, three other insurgent conservatives are looking to pull off upsets by winning their party’s nomination in Texas, Utah, and Nebraska

• Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on New Facebook Organ Donation Tool – ABC News – RT @jaketapper: RT @rickklein: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg on New Facebook Organ Donation Tool ( …
• Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-05-01 – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-05-01
• Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: April 30, 2012 – The Morning Drill: April 30, 2012
• Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » President 2012: Romney Might Convince Me to Accept Vice Presidency – Chris Christie – President 2012: Romney Might Convince Me to Accept Vice Presidency – Chris Christie
• Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » President 2012: Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani Team Up on Bin Laden Anniversary Date – President 2012: Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani Team Up on Bin Laden Anniversary Date
• Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » CA-30: Rep Howard Berman Receives Two Important Endorsements Today – CA-30: Rep Howard Berman Receives Two Important Endorsements Today
• Occupy Wall Street Plans Global Protests in May Day Resurgence- Bloomberg – Occupy Wall Street Plans Global Protests in May Day Resurgence
• Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » The Morning Flap: April 30, 2012 – The Morning Flap: April 30, 2012