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The Morning Flap: May 9, 2012
The Morning Flap: These are my links for May 7th through May 9th:
- Wave of violence in Germany over party’s use of anti-Muslim cartoons– GERMANY is beginning to regret its decision to allow a far-right political party to display anti-Muslim cartoons near mosques as part of an electioneering campaign.Spikes in violence at recent gatherings – including a major riot on Saturday that left two police officers seriously injured with stab wounds – have triggered fears of more bloodshed.Courts in Germany took the view that cartoon images of the Prophet Mohammed and Allah – both outlawed under Islam – were acceptable in a country where freedom of expression is enshrined in the constitution. But with resistance growing to the tactics of the radical Pro NRW party, Germany is looking to defuse tensions.More than 100 people were arrested at the protest in Bonn on Saturday where the police officers were stabbed in the legs; a further 27 officers were injured. One man has been charged with trying to incite the deaths of three policemen among the crowd of 600 Salafist Muslim demonstrators outside the King Fahd Academy in Bonn.The far-right Pro NRW party has said it intends to send activists to 25 mosques in the run-up to the state election in North Rhine-Westphalia on 13 May, staging protests in Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Aachen, Wuppertal and Solingen.
- Roots of Lugar’s Defeat Began Back Home – The tea party, an unsteady movement that was beginning to resemble a wayward ship in 2012, found its north star in Indiana on Tuesday night.
State Treasurer Richard Mourdock defeated six-term Sen. Richard Lugar in the Republican primary, a victory owing to the incumbent’s inept campaign, the outside groups that lashed him on the air, and a story about his out-of-state residency that would not go away. But well before those issues got a foothold, a grassroots-driven, local movement to unseat Lugar was well under way.
Sixteen months ago, a collection of tea party organizers met in the city of Tipton. Their goal was to address flaws in the movement that were exposed in 2010, when infighting and competing agendas largely driven by national groups and consultants hindered its ability to make lasting gains. What resulted was “Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate,” a network of 60 tea party groups dedicated to retiring Lugar.
“We didn’t have the unity [in 2010]. Once we built the foundation of unity, we went out and educated people about Lugar’s voting record,” said Monica Boyer, one of the group’s cofounders.
The group endorsed Mourdock after a September straw poll showed that he was the preferred choice of conservative activists. National groups like the Tea Party Express that in 2010 were responsible for the rise of Christine O’Donnell in Delaware and Joe Miller in Alaska had yet to enter fray in a major way. The national group FreedomWorks had met with Boyer’s organization, but it didn’t jump in with full force until Mourdock emerged as the consensus candidate. - Elizabeth Warren Ancestor Rounded Up Cherokees For Trail of Tears –
- Will gay marriage haunt Obama in November?– Gay marriage is in the news — because Vice President Joe Biden put it there. He let the genie out of the bottle and got ahead of his boss on an issue the president has been trying to straddle for the last year and a half.President Obama’s coalition — minority voters and young voters — have very different views about gay marriage, evidenced in 2008 in California, when young voters came out to oppose an amendment that would ban gay marriage, while African Americans supported it.And then there’s the money, according to the Washington Post, one in six bundlers — the people who raise the big bucks for the Obama campaign — is gay. They are still raising money for a man who continues to twist himself into a pretzel over gay marriage, and whose White House still can’t figure out how to message it. Why? Because they believe wholeheartedly that he actually supports gay marriage, and if re-elected he will come out in full support of it and flip his position.
- Christie won’t say whether he’ll seek re-election –
- Why Dick Lugar lost –
- Lugar unloads on ‘unrelenting’ partisanship –
- Carville: Wake up Democrats; you could lose –
- Obama ‘disappointed’ by North Carolina same-sex marriage ban– President Obama’s campaign said he was “disappointed” that North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state.”The President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples,” Obama North Carolina campaign spokesman Cameron French said, in a Tuesday statement on the vote over Amendment 1.
- Lugar loss has lessons for Republicans, Democrats –
- Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » Day By Day May 7 & 8, 2012 – Base Voters – Day By Day May 7 & 8, 2012 – Base Voters
- Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-05-08 – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-05-08
- Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » Day By Day May 6, 2012 – Phat Future – Day By Day May 6, 2012 – Phat Future
- Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama and Romney in a Dead Heat – President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama and Romney in a Dead Heat
- Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » President 2012 Poll Watch: Race Close in 12 Swing States – President 2012 Poll Watch: Race Close in 12 Swing States
- Capitol Alert: Tobacco firms chip in another $15 million against Prop 29 – RT @CapitolAlert: Tobacco firms chip in another $15 million against Prop 29
- Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog » The Morning Flap: May 7, 2012 – The Morning Flap: May 7, 2012
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The Morning Flap: March 28, 2012
Attorney Paul Clement (R) argues on behalf of respondents challenging the constitutionality of U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law, while standing before members of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, March 27, 2012
These are my links for March 27th through March 28th:
- Argument recap: It is Kennedy’s call – If Justice Anthony M. Kennedy can locate a limiting principle in the federal government’s defense of the new individual health insurance mandate, or can think of one on his own, the mandate may well survive. If he does, he may take Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and a majority along with him. But if he does not, the mandate is gone. That is where Tuesday’s argument wound up — with Kennedy, after first displaying a very deep skepticism, leaving the impression that he might yet be the mandate’s savior.
If the vote had been taken after Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., stepped back from the lectern after the first 56 minutes, and the audience stood up for a mid-argument stretch, the chances were that the most significant feature of the Affordable Care Act would have perished in Kennedy’s concern that it just might alter the fundamental relationship between the American people and their government. But after two arguments by lawyers for the challengers — forceful and creative though they were — at least doubt had set in and expecting the demise of the mandate seemed decidedly premature.
- The Second Day of the Supreme Court’s Hearing on the Health Care Law – After two days of oral arguments, it seems quite likely that the Supreme Court will rule on the ACA, and that the mandate may not survive. The court seems unlikely to dodge the issue by saying that the penalty for failure to carry insurance is a tax about which no one can sue until they have paid it, some time in 2015. And the line is rather clearly drawn between two major issues that will, I think, prove pivotal in how the justices rule on the mandate to carry insurance.
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: March 28, 2012 – The Morning Drill: March 28, 2012
- Untitled (http://getglue.com/Fullosseousflap/stickers/chuvannah?s=ts&ref=Fullosseousflap) – I unlocked the The Daily Rundown sticker on @GetGlue!
- Americans angry with Obama over gas prices
| Reuters – RT @Drudge_Report: POLL: Americans angry at Obama for high gas price… - Presidential Swing States (FL, OH & PA) Poll * March 28, 2012 * Women Favor Obama In Florida, – Quinnipiac University ? Hamden, Connecticut – RT @jameshohmann: New Quinnipiac polls shows Romney performing better against Obama in PA than OH and FL.
- CNN Poll: Majority in GOP say Gingrich and Paul should end bids – CNN Political Ticker – CNN.com Blogs – RT @jameshohmann: In CNN poll, Romney lead grows to 45-30 against Santorum if Paul/Gingrich weren’t in the picture.
- Gingrich Campaign: We Need to Stay in To Prevent Romney Nomination – Jonathan Miller – NationalJournal.com – RT @nationaljournal: Gingrich campaign says conservatives “need Newt to stay in to prevent a Romney nomination.”
- US Supreme Court shuts down live tweeting from healthcare proceedings – A mini-scandal erupted yesterday at the US Supreme Court when right-wing non-profit group the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) was found to be live-tweeting oral arguments on the constitutionality of the ‘Obamacare’ healthcare law. Electronic communication is strictly forbidden from inside the court, but Casey Mattox, a lawyer for ADF, was caught “defending religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage & the family” by way of the Defense Fund’s official Twitter account.
- GOP 12: Gingrich floats spending his own money – RT @GOP12: Gingrich: I’ll spend my own money “if necessary”, and have “no incentive” to get out of the race.
- Democratic Campaign Treasurer Guilty of Embezzlement – RT @politicalwire: Feinstein campaign treasurer will plead guilty to stealing as much as $7 million from clients…
- Santorum Loses His Lead in Pennsylvania – RT @politicalwire: Santorum’s lead over Romney in Pennsylvania collapses…
- James Carville: Court loss ‘best thing’ for Democrats – Overturning President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law would be a political boost for Democrats, veteran Democratic strategist James Carville said Tuesday.
“I think that this will be the best thing that ever happen to the Democratic party because health care costs are gonna escalate unbelievably,” Carville told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer of a possible Supreme Court decision to strike down the law. “I honestly believe this, this is not spin.”
- Santorum’s chances for VP slot slim – Santorum’s chances for VP slot slim
- Senate candidates queasy on healthcare – Senate candidates on both sides of the aisle have avoided embracing their party’s signature healthcare reform policies, a sign that few want to campaign on such a controversial issue.
Many Democratic candidates have sought distance from President Obama’s healthcare overhaul and a number of Republicans have dodged taking a stance on Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposed Medicare reforms — even after Ryan and House GOP leaders tweaked those reforms to include bipartisan policies suggested by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
This comes as healthcare has re-emerged as a hot topic: Obama’s law just hit its two-year anniversary; the Supreme Court is holding hearings on whether it is constitutional; and Ryan introduced a revamped version of his budget from last year that House Republicans are likely to vote on later this week.
- Untitled (http://getglue.com/topics/p/los_angeles_angels_of_anaheim?s=tch&ref=Fullosseousflap) – Spring training game with Giants @GetGlue #LosAngelesAngelsOfAnaheim
- AM750 & 95.5FM News/Talk WSB – Atlanta’s news, weather, traffic | www.wsbradio.com – Individual Mandate in Trouble | Jamie Dupree’s Washington Insider |
- Individual Mandate in Trouble | Jamie Dupree’s Washington Insider | www.wsbradio.com – RT @jamiedupree: Today’s headline from the US Supreme Court – Individual Mandate in Trouble
- Untitled (http://getglue.com/tv_shows/eastbound_down?s=tch&ref=Fullosseousflap) – On the DVR… @GetGlue @hbo
- Relatively few use hospital ranking and doctor review sites. – Hospital and doctor review sites have not yet become health care decision-making tools for most consumers. One national survey found that only 6% of American adults are aware of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid’s Hospital Compare tool.6 Our current survey finds a similarly low usage of such sites among adult internet users, matching trends we first reported in 2009.7
16% of internet users have consulted online rankings or reviews of doctors or other providers.
15% of internet users have consulted online rankings or reviews of hospitals or other medical facilities.
4% of internet users have posted a review online of a doctor.
3% of internet users have posted a review online of a hospital. - Methamphetamine Lab Cleanup is Big Environmental Business | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Methamphetamine Lab Cleanup is Big Environmental Business
- Toobin: Health law ‘looks like it’s going to be struck down’ – POLITICO.com – RT @politico: RT @politico44: CNN’s Toobin: Health care law ‘looks like it’s going to be struck down’
- President 2012: Newt Gives Dropout Date = June 26th after Utah – In Annapolis, Gingrich says he will support Romney after Utah votes on 6/26 if the Bay Stater has a majority.
- The Morning Flap: March 27, 2012 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Morning Flap: March 27, 2012
- Argument recap: It is Kennedy’s call – If Justice Anthony M. Kennedy can locate a limiting principle in the federal government’s defense of the new individual health insurance mandate, or can think of one on his own, the mandate may well survive. If he does, he may take Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and a majority along with him. But if he does not, the mandate is gone. That is where Tuesday’s argument wound up — with Kennedy, after first displaying a very deep skepticism, leaving the impression that he might yet be the mandate’s savior.