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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 20th on 06:31
These are my links for October 20th from 06:31 to 10:48:
- Cain’s troubles multiply – This time Over Abortion – This is simply bizarre. He’s eloquently described his “pro-life” views as synonymous with the standard pro-choice argument. Santorum leapt, releasing this statement: “Herman Cain said that he believes life begins at conception, but that it’s up to the individual to decide whether or not to terminate that life. And I find it gravely troubling that Herman believes it’s a life, but that he doesn’t consider it a life worth fighting for. As the author of the partial birth abortion ban and other pro-life pieces of legislation, this is the exact mentality myself and other true pro-life advocates fought against. In fact, Herman’s pro-choice position is similar to those held by John Kerry, Barack Obama and many others on the liberal left. No, Herman, it is not ‘whatever they decide,’ this is an innocent human life. It is unconscionable for Herman to run for the nomination of the Party that stands in defense of Life while showing disregard for the sanctity of Life. You cannot be both personally against abortion while condoning it – you can’t have it both ways. We must defend the defenseless, period.”
As with his 9-9-9 plan, it’s not clear Cain understands his own position on abortion. Once again, we have seen, not surprising to many of us, that a total political novice wilts under even mild scrutiny in a presidential race.
Moreover, this one will hurt him badly in Iowa, where his Christian conservative credentials were a major reason many voters supported him. Cain’s stumbles, like those of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, may become one long slide down in the polls. Unfortunately for him, he has neither the money nor the staff to help him correct course.
- Hillary Clinton and Hamid Karzai chuckle over Herman Cain – Secretary of State Clinton and Afghan President Hamid Karzai put international diplomacy aside Thursday during their meeting in Kabul to have a few laughs at Herman Cain’s expense.
According to the Associated Press, the two leaders began their meeting in the Afghanistan capital with a discussion about how the GOP presidential candidate recently responded to how he would handle “gotcha questions” from the media on foreign policy.
“When they ask me who’s the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, I’m gonna say, ‘You know, I don’t know, do you know?’” Cain responded, raising eyebrows about his lack of foreign policy credentials.
Karzai told Clinton that Cain was talking about “all the ‘stans,” to which Clinton laughed and waved her hands, saying, “All the ‘stans places,” the wire said.
“That wasn’t right, but anyway, that’s how politics are,” Karzai responded.
The two leaders moved on to have a more serious discussion. According to the AP, Clinton called for a new partnership between the U.S., Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight insurgents and described a “fight, talk, build” strategy for the three countries.
- Teacher in famous Christie YouTube video running for N.J. Assembly – Marie Corfield didn’t know what to expect when she confronted Gov. Chris Christie at a town hall in Raritan last year.
The 52-year-old art teacher left Robert Hunter Elementary during her lunch break and walked across the street to the municipal building, where Christie was holding court.
"I said ‘Well, now’s my chance. Better go speak my mind,’" Corfield said.
She did, and the ensuing 10-minute argument would soon become a YouTube sensation for Christie, helping him burnish his national image as a tough talking, no nonsense executive. But it also touched off a groundswell of publicity for Corfield, making her a sort of unofficial spokeswoman for aggrieved New Jersey public school teachers and, eventually, a candidate for Assembly.
The September 2010 confrontation reverberated across the internet after the governor’s staff posted it to his YouTube channel. Corfield took to the mic and ripped into the governor’s cuts to school funding and what she saw as his rhetoric against teachers. - Will Moving Out of a Poor Neighborhood Bring Down the Levels of Obesity and Diabetes? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Want to avoid Obesity and Diabetes = MOVE:
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: October 20, 2011 – Today's Health and Dentistry Headlines…..:
- Obama struggling in Ohio – Public Policy Polling – RT @ppppolls: Obama can only hope for a Perry resurgence. Perry's fav in Ohio is 21/61! Obama leads him 50-41:
- 40 balloons for my 40th
– YouTube – > Happy Birthday! RT @justin_hart: Family surprised me with a 40-balloon salute: video here: - Flap’s California Morning Collection: October 20, 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – Today's California Headlines……:
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 19th through October 20th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Today's sad morning American economic headlines….:
- Cain’s troubles multiply – This time Over Abortion – This is simply bizarre. He’s eloquently described his “pro-life” views as synonymous with the standard pro-choice argument. Santorum leapt, releasing this statement: “Herman Cain said that he believes life begins at conception, but that it’s up to the individual to decide whether or not to terminate that life. And I find it gravely troubling that Herman believes it’s a life, but that he doesn’t consider it a life worth fighting for. As the author of the partial birth abortion ban and other pro-life pieces of legislation, this is the exact mentality myself and other true pro-life advocates fought against. In fact, Herman’s pro-choice position is similar to those held by John Kerry, Barack Obama and many others on the liberal left. No, Herman, it is not ‘whatever they decide,’ this is an innocent human life. It is unconscionable for Herman to run for the nomination of the Party that stands in defense of Life while showing disregard for the sanctity of Life. You cannot be both personally against abortion while condoning it – you can’t have it both ways. We must defend the defenseless, period.”
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 19th through October 20th
These are my links for October 19th through October 20th:
- Jobless Claims Straddle Key Level; Big Upturn Still Elusive – New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week and a gauge of labor market trends hit a six-month low, a government report showed on Thursday, pointing to an improvement in the jobs market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 403,000, the Labor Department said, from an upwardly revised 409,000 the prior week.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 400,000 from the previously reported 404,000.
The claims data covered the survey week for the government's closely watched nonfarm payrolls count for October.
- An Unprecedented 26 Million Americans Are Now Underemployed – While the number of unemployed workers has held steady at around 14 million in recent months, another telling measure of frustration in the labor market—the number of underemployed individuals—rose for a third consecutive month in September, by almost a half of a million people.
Almost 9.3 million Americans are considered underemployed, defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as working part-time for economic reasons, such as unfavorable business conditions or seasonal declines in demand.
That's up from just over 8 million in July, but down from a peak of about 9.5 million in September 2010. In addition, about 2.5 million individuals are considered "marginally attached to the labor force," meaning they were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. (They are not counted as unemployed because they had not looked for a job in the past four weeks prior to the survey.)
- US ‘Misery Index’ Rises to Highest Since 1983 – An unofficial gauge of human misery in the United States rose last month to a 28-year high as Americans struggled with rising inflation and high unemployment.
The misery index — which is simply the sum of the country's inflation and unemployment rates — rose to 13.0, pushed up by higher price data the government reported on Wednesday.
The data underscores the extent that Americans continue to suffer even two years after a deep recession ended, with a weak economic recovery imperiling President Barack Obama's hopes of winning reelection next year.
Inez Stallworth, an underwriting assistant for a financial services company, recently gave up her car, in part because of rising costs for gasoline and groceries.
"I can't fit it in," said the 27-year-old Chicago resident, who said most of her extended family was getting by "paycheck-to-paycheck." Consumer prices rose 3.9 percent in the 12 months through September, the fastest pace in three years.
With gasoline prices high, consumers have less to spend on other things.
Moreover, a rise in overall prices saps economic growth, which is typically measured in inflation-adjusted terms.
The last time the misery index was at current levels was in 1983.
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-20 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-20 #tcot #catcot
- Update: Ad Pulled – President 2012: Mitt Romney Releases Rick Perry Debate Blopper Video Which Asks: Is Perry Ready to Lead? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Romney Pulls Perry Attack Ad which ridiculed his debate performance bloopers:
- President 2012: Mitt Romney Releases Rick Perry Debate Blopper Video Which Asks: Is Perry Ready to Lead? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Mitt Romney Releases Rick Perry Debate Blopper Video Which Asks: Is Perry Ready to Lead? #tcot #catcot
- President 2012: Rick Perry Attacks Mitt Romney on Immigration – Really? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Rick Perry Attacks Mitt Romney on Immigration – Really? #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 18th through October 19th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 18th through October 19th #tcot #catcot
- Jobless Claims Straddle Key Level; Big Upturn Still Elusive – New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week and a gauge of labor market trends hit a six-month low, a government report showed on Thursday, pointing to an improvement in the jobs market.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 18th through October 19th
These are my links for October 18th through October 19th:
- Issa: NLRB is Acting as a Rogue Agency – House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa snapped at National Labor Relations Board general counsel Lafe Solomon for openly defying his congressional subpoena.
Not complying with congressional subpoena is technically an illegal act, and Solomon could be charged with contempt of Congress if Issa, a leading Republican, chooses to proceed down that path.
“Your continued personal obstruction, lack of compliance with a validly issued congressional subpoena and false statements to the committee are unacceptable,” Issa said in a Monday letter to Solomon. “The NLRB is acting as a rogue agency that believes it does not have to fully answer to Congress.”
Issa’s subpoenas relate to the NLRB’s ongoing case against the Boeing Company. The NLRB has echoed allegations by the International Association of Machinists union that Boeing committed an “unfair labor practice” by opening a new production plant in South Carolina instead of in Washington State, where the company’s other production lines are located. Since the allegations were made, Boeing has added more jobs in both Washington and South Carolina, but the Machinists union and the NLRB think the company’s chosen location for the new line was a “retaliation” against the union because South Carolina is a right to work state.
- WI Dems kick out reporter during recall Walker training – The campaign to recall Gov. Scott Walker may be a grassroots effort as its organizers insist, but it proved less than transparent Tuesday evening when Wisconsin Reporter showed up to report on a recall training session.
Graeme Zielinski, a Democratic Party spokesman with a history of threats against Wisconsin Reporter, ranted at the news organization’s reporter in attendance by phone and threatened Wisconsin Reporter again.
More than 100 supporters turned out to the event at the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 40 office on Madison’s west side. The session, led by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, is designed to ensure that recall volunteers know how to collect signatures properly.
Within minutes of arriving, however, a Wisconsin Reporter journalist who identified herself as a member of the media was asked to leave by an organizer who cited the campaign’s desire to keep the information out of the media.
The reporter agreed to leave, but asked to speak with the person making the request. The reporter was then put on the phone with Zielinski.
Zielinski called the reporter unprofessional, accused her of sneaking into a party function and then threatened to discuss the incident Wednesday with the statehouse press corps, of which Wisconsin Reporter is a member.
“Get out,” Zielinski shouted. “Don’t come to our party functions anymore.”
He then hung up the phone.
The Wisconsin Reporter staff writer had signed up to attend the event on the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s website, using her name and wisconsinreporter.com email address.
Tuesday wasn’t the first time Zielinski has threatened Wisconsin Reporter. - Amnesty by Any Means – Analysis of a series of leaked memos from within the Department of Homeland Security’s highest ranks shows that the Obama administration has sought for the last year and a half to form a strategy to achieve amnesty for the illegal population without input from Congress. The goal? Ultimately, according to a June 2010 memo, the administration seeks to “reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization.” Well aware of the potential political fallout among both Congress and the American people, the administration provided internal briefs on the pros and cons of varying strategies to gain an administrative amnesty.
The course eventually decided on appears to be the now infamous June 2011 “prosecutorial discretion” memo issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton. This memo, embraced by the White House a few weeks ago, sets a course that prevents the enforcement of immigration law, provides a de facto amnesty, and is effectively worker authorization for much of the current illegal population. The current course of non-enforcement is in contrast to the initial proposed strategies of proactive immigration law rewrites.
In this memo is a thorough analysis of the extent the Obama administration is willing to go to deceive America into accepting unprecedented executive branch immigration law rewrites and changes in immigration processing to get around their federal responsibility to enforce immigration law. Obama administration actions taken to peel back visa interviews abroad, reduce enforcement on our physical borders, replace worksite enforcement to worksite audits, take actions against states seeking to enforce the law but no action against sanctuary cities, and support of only two immigration enforcement programs — Secure Communities and E-Verify — make sense when placed against the backdrop of these memos. On September 29, 2011, more evidence that this agenda is on track came in a Washington Post front page story describing the Obama administration’s overt actions to discourage states from attempting to get their illegal populations under control:
- 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 | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Couple On The Run – > Nice Jeff RT @JeffGalloway: I was honored to write an "afterword" for a great new book about couples running to…:
- Untitled (http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/oct/19/amgen-is-cutting-226-jobs-in-thousand-oaks/) – > Not good news for T.O. ! RT @vcstar: Amgen is cutting 226 jobs in Thousand Oaks, 380 jobs worldwide
- 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 | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- GOP Ad Ties Democrat Rep. John Garamendi to Obama and a Bankrupt Solyndra | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – GOP Ad Ties Democrat Rep. John Garamendi to Obama and a Bankrupt Solyndra #tcot #catcot
- 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 | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Full-Court Press by California Republican Party for State Senate Redistricting Referendum » Flap’s California Blog – Full-Court Press by California Republican Party for State Senate Redistricting Referendum
- 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 | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- MORE Facebook Friends Linked to BIGGER Brain Areas? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – MORE Facebook Friends Linked to BIGGER Brain Areas?
- Dilbert October 19, 2011 – Feed the Werewolf » Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert October 19, 2011 – Feed the Werewolf
- Photo of the Day: Obama’s Canadian Made Bus | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: I think Sen. McCain has been criticized for that as well.
- (500) http://flapsblog.com/2011/10/19/president-2012-gop-poll-watch-one-word-that-comes-to-mind-oh-my-rick-perry/ – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: One Word that Comes to Mind – Oh My Rick Perry! #tcot #catcot
- President 2012: Las Vegas GOP Debate – Winners and Losers | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Las Vegas GOP Debate – Winners and Losers #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: October 19, 2011 – The Morning Drill: October 19, 2011
- Flap’s California Morning Collection: October 19, 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: October 19, 2011
- Day By Day October 19, 2011 – Gaming the System | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day October 19, 2011 – Gaming the System #tcot #catcot
- Politics, Political News – POLITICO.com – Rick Perry vs. Mitt Romney: Now it's personal – Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith –
- Rick Perry vs. Mitt Romney: Now it’s personal – Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith – POLITICO.com – RT @jmartpolitico: With @benpolitico, how Vegas revealed guts of the gop race to come:
- News from The Associated Press – RT @AP: BREAKING: Social Security recipients to receive 3.6 pct. cost-of-living increase, first since 2009: -ldh
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-19 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-19 #tcot #catcot
- CNN.com International – Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News – – Transcripts
- CNN.com – Transcripts – >FWIW RT @michellemalkin: FYI: CNN has full transcript of the GOP brawl in Vegas
- Rick Perry Wrote Letter Urging TARP Passage | National Confidential – RT @mleewelch: Perry's letter: . Santorum's right, and Perry was lying.
- BBC News – John Lennon’s tooth expected to make £10,000 at auction – Tired of the 9-9-9 discussion on the Presidential debate. How about this for raising capital?:
- President 2012: Las Vegas GOP Presidential Debate Tonight | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – I will be covering tonight's 8 PM Las Vegas Presidential debate on Twitter. Follow along @Flap
: - California Conservatives Propose 2012 Initiative to Limit Services to Illegal Immigrants » Flap’s California Blog – California Conservatives Propose 2012 Initiative to Limit Services to Illegal Immigrants
- President 2012: Obama on Occupy Wall Street Protests – “We Are on Their Side” | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Obama on Occupy Wall Street Protests – “We Are on Their Side” #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: First Malaria Vaccine Successful in a Major Clinical Trial – A malaria vaccine – FINALLY. What a wonderful development to fight this disease, especially in Africa.:
- President 2012: When Should Obama Start to Worry About 40% Approval Ratings? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: When Should Obama Start to Worry About 40% Approval Ratings? #tcot #catcot
- Poll Watch: 22% Approve of Occupy Wall Street Movement’s Goals | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: 22% Approve of Occupy Wall Street Movement’s Goals #tcot #catcot
- California “Scope of Practice” Turf War Dogs Veterinarians and Pet-grooming Services Over Canine Dental Hygiene » Flap’s California Blog – California “Scope of Practice” Turf War Dogs Veterinarians and Pet-grooming Services Over Canine Dental Hygiene
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 17th through October 18th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 17th through October 18th #tcot #catcot
- Issa: NLRB is Acting as a Rogue Agency – House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa snapped at National Labor Relations Board general counsel Lafe Solomon for openly defying his congressional subpoena.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 17th through October 18th
These are my links for October 17th through October 18th:
- North Dakota Women Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison for Methamphetamine – A woman accused in North Dakota of running a drug ring that included her 63-year-old mother was sentenced Monday to 23 years in prison.
Authorities say Christeena Barker led the operation that transported about six pounds of methamphetamine from the Minneapolis and Bakersfield, Calif., areas for distribution in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Federal authorities dubbed the investigation "Operation Price is Right."
Barker, 44, of Moorhead, Minn., pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver a controlled substance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Myers called Barker a "career offender-plus" and recommended a sentence of 25 years.
"They moved an enormous amount of methamphetamine in a short period of time into the Fargo-Moorhead area," Myers said during Monday's hearing.
Defense attorney Ross Brandborg asked for a sentence of 15 years. He said his client has lived her life under difficult circumstances, and ultimately cooperated with authorities.
"She was never given a chance," Brandborg said.
Myers said Barker had promised to help with the case after she was arrested in summer 2010. Instead she became a fugitive. She eventually was located in Strasburg in February.
"Agents found her through a bit of luck and a lot of hard work," Myers said.
Barker said in a tearful statement that she fled because she was scared.
"Yes, I've had a drug problem and alcohol abuse. I've never had treatment," she said.
Barker's mother, Betty Ann Schweigert, of Fargo, was sentenced earlier this month to 16 years in prison for her role in the conspiracy. Another one of Schweigert's daughters, Annette Avila, 32, pleaded guilty in July and is set to be sentenced in December.
- ‘Rogue’ NLRB Defied Subpoena by Withholding Documents, Issa Says – The National Labor Relations Board’s acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, broke the law by intentionally withholding documents about Boeing Co., Representative Darrel Issa said.
“Your continued personal obstruction, lack of compliance with a validly issued congressional subpoena and false statements to the committee are unacceptable,” Issa said today in a letter to Solomon. “The NLRB is acting as a rogue agency that believes it does not have to fully answer to Congress.”
Issa, a California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, requested that six NLRB employees submit to transcribed interviews for his investigative panel.
The NLRB’s complaint against Boeing in April said the airplane maker violated labor laws by deciding to build a 787 Dreamliner plant in South Carolina in retaliation for union strikes in Washington state, home to Boeing’s factories. NLRB spokeswoman Nancy Cleeland didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Issa’s letter. Boeing has denied it acted to punish the union.
- Who Besides Solyndra Got Loan Guarantees? – Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison just resigned, as the controversy stubbornly refuses to go away. Seems worth revisiting the loans once again, since I've spent a little time looking more deeply at the program over the past few days.
Supporters of these programs claim that they're a necessary part of winning the green future because these are investments that are too risky, or too big, for private capital to take on.
Of course, if the government is going to be a VC, supporters say, they have to expect a high failure rate. There's a lot of talk about the manufacturing "Valley of Death", where startup manufacturing firms may have difficulty getting capital to commercialize their prototypes. According to proponents of this theory, there's plenty of money for early stage ventures, and plenty of bank loans for established firms, but no money for mass commercialization of new manufacturing ideas. (Hence the "valley"). This valley, they say, is especially wide for energy firms, because the capital costs for starting up are so high.
I've been somewhat skeptical of those claims–why are people pouring money into manufacturing startups if they're inevitably doomed to die at the commercialization stage? But say it's true. I thought it was worth looking at who got the money from these programs, and for what. How well is the government doing in its role of VC/valley of death sherpa?
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-18 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-18 #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 17th on 06:09 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 17th on 06:09 #tcot #catcot
- North Dakota Women Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison for Methamphetamine – A woman accused in North Dakota of running a drug ring that included her 63-year-old mother was sentenced Monday to 23 years in prison.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 17th on 06:09
These are my links for October 17th from 06:09 to 20:39:
- Douglas Schoen: Polling the Occupy Wall Street Crowd – President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement—and it may cost them the 2012 election.
Last week, senior White House adviser David Plouffe said that "the protests you're seeing are the same conversations people are having in living rooms and kitchens all across America. . . . People are frustrated by an economy that does not reward hard work and responsibility, where Wall Street and Main Street don't seem to play by the same set of rules." Nancy Pelosi and others have echoed the message.
Yet the Occupy Wall Street movement reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people—and particularly with swing voters who are largely independent and have been trending away from the president since the debate over health-care reform.
The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies. On Oct. 10 and 11, Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at my polling firm, interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park. Our findings probably represent the first systematic random sample of Occupy Wall Street opinion.
Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn't represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda.
The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%).
An overwhelming majority of demonstrators supported Barack Obama in 2008. Now 51% disapprove of the president while 44% approve, and only 48% say they will vote to re-elect him in 2012, while at least a quarter won't vote.
Fewer than one in three (32%) call themselves Democrats, while roughly the same proportion (33%) say they aren't represented by any political party.
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: 100 Year Old Man Sets Marathon Record – Wow, isn't this marvelous? To think I have another 40 years of running!:
- Dilbert October 17, 2011 – Sizzle » Flap’s California Blog – Oh those sizzling graphs….
: - Breaking: Obama opposes repeal of law so terrible that even his own team abandoned it – So attached is this guy to health-care boondoggles that he can’t bear to part with one that even his own HHS advisors admit is a catastrophe in the making.
Alas, fellow “Princess Bride” fans, it seems the CLASS Act is only … mostly dead.
President Obama is against repealing the health law’s long-term care CLASS Act and might veto Republican efforts to do so, an administration official tells The Hill, despite the government’s announcement Friday that the program was dead in the water.
“We do not support repeal,” the official said Monday. “Repealing the CLASS Act isn’t necessary or productive. What we should be doing is working together to address the long-term care challenges we face in this country.”
Over the weekend, The Hill has learned, an administration official called CLASS Act advocates to reassure them that Obama is still committed to making the program work. That official also told advocates that widespread media reports on the program’s demise were wrong, leaving advocates scratching their heads.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday in a blog post on the liberal Huffington Post web site that the administration did not see a way to make the program sustainable. Sebelius indicated her agency hadn’t been able to figure out a way to ensure the program providing long-term care paid for itself as required by law.
In other words, it’s mathematically impossible to make the CLASS Act work, yet somehow The One’s going to make it work anyway. You’ll never find a sharper illustration of his basic approach to fiscal reality than you’re seeing right here.
- The Tea Party is undermining its own influence – The Tea Party is on solid ground with its embrace of debt reduction and determination to root out ObamaCare and crony capitalism. But its infatuation with incendiary rhetoric and with candidates who give off the whiff of crackpottery is undermining its mission and its importance in candidate selection.
Here are some danger signs: The candidate finds civil rights law unnecessary or oppressive. The candidate is obsessed with MSM coverage of him or his ideas. The candidate proposes that one or more political opponents have committed treason and/or should go to jail. The candidate labels all deal making as a sell out. The candidate is nostalgic for pre-New Deal governance. The candidate (if for president) pooh-poohs the need for substantive knowledge of or experience in national security. Such a candidate is telling the hardcore base what it wants to hear and turning off nearly everyone else. An unprepared or ignorant candidate is heading for a train wreck.
In short, Tea Partyers need to rethink their criteria for high offices. They should recognize that inexperience, ignorance, and obnoxiousness are not virtues. They are danger signs. And if they don’t like the 2012 nominee, they should, in the future, set about finding as verbally polished and technically impressive a candidate as Romney.
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Vaccines Being Developed to Prevent or Treat Addiction – Vaccines Being Developed to Prevent or Treat Addiction
- Occupying Wall Street Energy Primarily a “LEFT” Coast Affair | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupying Wall Street Energy Primarily a “LEFT” Coast Affair #tcot #catcot
- Untitled (http://www.insideradvantage.com/) – President 2012 GOP New Hampshire Poll Watch: Romney 39% Vs. Cain 24% Vs. Paul 11% Vs. Gingrich 5% Vs. Perry 2%:
- CA-24: Rep Elton Gallegly Third Quarter Fundraising Report Reveals $800K Cash on Hand | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – CA-24: Rep Elton Gallegly Third Quarter Fundraising Report Reveals $800K Cash on Hand #tcot #catcot
- Poll Watch: 50% Favor Legalization of Marijuana | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: 50% Favor Legalization of Marijuana #tcot #catcot
- California Law Limits E-Verify and Supports Illegal Immigrant Hiring Practices » Flap’s California Blog – California Law Limits E-Verify and Supports Illegal Immigrant Hiring Practices
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: With all due respect, you have some valid points and many rants/complaints.
What do you propose to change? Spec…
- Day By Day October 17, 2011 – Worth | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Chris Muir and Day By Day discuss the realignment of the Republican Party.:
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Untitled (http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/10/17/oct17.poll.pdf) – RT @ByronYork: New CNN poll: Romney 26%, Cain 25%, Perry 13%. Romney up 5% from month ago, Cain up 19%, Perry down 19%.
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: I am wondering why your Occupy group is not protesting President Obama. He is the biggest corporist there is in t…
- Cold Sore FAQ’s | Josie Dovidio, DDS – RT @SimiDentist: All your questions about cold sores answered! Check back next week for how to treat cold sores
- Untitled (http://static.mgnetwork.com/rtd/pdfs/20111016_poll.pdf) – President 2012 GOP Virginia Poll watch: Romney 44% Vs. Cain 12% Vs. Perry 10%
- President 2012: Obama Targets a Few Key States | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Obama Targets a Few Key States #tcot #catcot
- Poll Watch: Unhealthy American Workers Cost $135 Billion a Year in Lost Productivity | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Poll Watch: Unhealthy American Workers Cost $135 Billion a Year in Lost Productivity
- (500) http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/rulings/promise-broken/ – Obama's Broken Promises – Promise Broken rulings on the The Obameter: #tcot
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: October 17, 2011 – The Morning Drill: October 17, 2011
- DeMint office denies Romney endorsement story – According to Roll Call’s “knowledgeable GOP sources,” conservative stalwart Senator Jim DeMint may endorse Mitt Romney for President:
DeMint, who endorsed the former Massachusetts governor in 2008, made clear in an interview late last week that he has made no decisions on whom he will support in the 2012 primary. But Republican operatives familiar with the DeMint-Romney relationship and privy to the conservative Senator’s private assessment of the GOP field believe Romney is the most likely candidate to receive the backing of the tea party favorite.
“Jim is far more likely to endorse Mitt than anyone else currently in the race,” a Republican with South Carolina ties said. “Jim is a business guy and that’s his background. He’s not really the good ol’ boy conservative type. So Mitt in a lot of ways is a more comfortable fit for him.”
“Jim actually likes Romney,” added a GOP operative based in the Palmetto State. “I think, politically, he had some doubts about his ability to engage conservatives, but it would not surprise me for Jim to endorse Romney at some point.”
According to my knowledgeable on-the-record source Wesley Denton, DeMint’s spokesman, the story is a “fabrication”:
“That story is a fabrication made up of anonymous sources that obviously have no clue what Senator DeMint is thinking. He has said over and over again that he is not leaning toward any candidate yet and may end up not endorsing in the presidential race.”
- Flap’s California Morning Collection: October 17, 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Morning Collection: October 17, 2011
- Poll Watch: U.S. Unemployment Rate Decreases Sharply in Early October to 8.3% – But….. | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: U.S. Unemployment Rate Decreases Sharply in Early October to 8.3% – But….. #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 14th through October 17th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 14th through October 17th #tcot #catcot
- FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Top Headlines from ……:
- Douglas Schoen: Polling the Occupy Wall Street Crowd – President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement—and it may cost them the 2012 election.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 14th through October 17th
These are my links for October 14th through October 17th:
- DeMint May Endorse Romney – Mitt Romney is the favorite to receive Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) much-sought-after endorsement in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to knowledgeable GOP sources.
DeMint, who endorsed the former Massachusetts governor in 2008, made clear in an interview late last week that he has made no decisions on whom he will support in the 2012 primary. But Republican operatives familiar with the DeMint-Romney relationship and privy to the conservative Senator's private assessment of the GOP field believe Romney is the most likely candidate to receive the backing of the tea party favorite.
"Jim is far more likely to endorse Mitt than anyone else currently in the race," a Republican with South Carolina ties said. "Jim is a business guy and that's his background. He's not really the good ol' boy conservative type. So Mitt in a lot of ways is a more comfortable fit for him."
"Jim actually likes Romney," added a GOP operative based in the Palmetto State. "I think, politically, he had some doubts about his ability to engage conservatives, but it would not surprise me for Jim to endorse Romney at some point."
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Probably likely and soon…
- David Axelrod, Obama Strategist, Slams Mitt Romney for Changing Positions – Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod slammed Mitt Romney for changing positions on major issues throughout his political career, questioning the "core principles" of the presumptive front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination.
"I think there's this question about what his core principles are," Axelrod said, citing changes in Romney's positions from earlier in his political career when he was running for U.S. Senate and Massachusetts governor. "Then he was a pro choice, pro gay rights, pro environmental candidate for office. Then he decided to run for president. Did a 180 on all of that."
"So time and time and time again he shifts – and you get the feeling that there is no principle too large for him to throw over in pursuit of political office," Axelrod added.
Axelrod has recently turned a laser-like focus to Romney, holding a conference call last Wednesday to critique Romney's record and his remarks at last Tuesday's GOP debate.
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Flip – Flop Mitt – the argument against Romney
- Journolist 2.0: OccupyDC Emails Show MSM, Dylan Ratigan, Working With Protesters To Craft Message – Big Journalism has learned that the Occupy Washington DC movement is working with well-known media members to craft its demands and messaging while these media members report on the movement. Someone has made the emails from the Occupy D.C. email distro public and searchable. The names in the list are a veritable who’s who in media.
Journolist 2.0 includes well known names such as MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan, Rolling Stone’s Matt Tiabbi who both are actively participating; involvement from other listers such as Bill Moyers and Glenn Greenwald plus well-known radicals like Noam Chomsky, remains unclear. The list also includes a number of Occupy organizers, such as one of the Occupy Wall Street main organizers Kevin Zeese.
In these emails we see MSNBC’s Ratigan, hawking his book in the footnotes, instructing occupiers on how properly to present their demands and messages while simultaneously appearing on television reporting “objectively” on the story (when he’s not taking part in the protests himself as content.)
- (500) http://flapsblog.com/2011/10/17/flap-twitter-updates-for-2011-10-17/ – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-17 #tcot #catcot
- Chuck DeVore Quits California – Moves to Texas | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Chuck DeVore Quits California – Moves to Texas #tcot #catcot
- Coronary Heart Disease Rates Have Decreased Says the CDC | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Coronary Heart Disease Rates Have Decreased Says the CDC
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Dayton Veterans Administration Dental Whistleblower Killed in Car Accident – Probably nothing to it – just an accident but….:
- California Medical Association Calls for Legalization of Marijuana » Flap’s California Blog – California Medical Association Calls for Legalization of Marijuana
- Dilbert October 16, 2011 – Incentive » Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert October 16, 2011 – Incentive
- Day By Day October 16, 2011 – Back to School | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day October 16, 2011 – Back to School #tcot #catcot
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-16 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-16 #tcot #catcot
- foursquare – Post 8 miler with LA Roadrunners – with Alice, Tara and Nancy (@ Ronnie's Diner)
- Twitpic – Share photos and videos on Twitter – Off soon 4 Los Angeles Marathon training with LA Roadrunners in Venice, California – 8 easy miles & Ronnie's
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-15 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-15 #tcot #catcot
- Presidential primary poll in NV shows Romney and Cain close, rest far behind – Politics: Ralston’s Flash – Las Vegas Sun – RT @RalstonFlash: Presidential primary poll in NV shows Romney and Cain close, rest far behind
- Chuck DeVore – RT @ScottWGraves: Chuck DeVore: Good-bye, California, I'm going to Texas… #tcot #teaparty
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 13th through October 14th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 13th through October 14th #tcot #catcot
- DeMint May Endorse Romney – Mitt Romney is the favorite to receive Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) much-sought-after endorsement in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to knowledgeable GOP sources.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 13th through October 14th
These are my links for October 13th through October 14th:
- Rick Perry: Playing the victim card – This is not Perry’s worst problem, but it sure is emblematic of his incompetent campaign. Consider the fact that only when his poll numbers have plummeted and no one much cares does he roll out a jobs plan. He allows the Jeffress issue to fester, irking voters who could be receptive to his message. He was unprepared to defend policies like tuition breaks for illegal immigrants and his enterprise funds that bear an eerie resemblance to Solyndra. (As Kim Strassel writes, “Mr. Perry’s response has been to say that ‘the federal government shouldn’t be involved in that kind of investment, period,’ but that it is ‘fine for states’ to pick winners and losers in the economy.”)
A presidential campaign is not the same as the presidency. We sure learned that with Barack Obama. But if you can’t survive criticism by fellow conservative; prepare for debates; extinguish negative stories and roll out policies on a timely basis, how are you supposed to function as president, let alone win the presidency?
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Put a fork in Perry – He's Done
- Obama pulls plug on part of health overhaul law – The Obama administration Friday pulled the plug on a major program in the president's signature health overhaul law – a long-term care insurance plan dogged from the beginning by doubts over its financial solvency.
Targeted by congressional Republicans for repeal, the program became the first casualty in the political and policy wars over the health care law. It had been expected to launch in 2013.
"This is a victory for the American taxpayer and future generations," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., spearheading opposition in the Senate. "The administration is finally admitting (the long-term care plan) is unsustainable and cannot be implemented."
Proponents, including many groups that fought to pass the health care law, have vowed a vigorous effort to rescue the program, insisting that Congress gave the administration broad authority to make changes. Long-term care includes not only nursing homes, but such services as home health aides for disabled people.
Known as CLASS, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program was a longstanding priority of the late Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
Although sponsored by the government, it was supposed to function as a self-sustaining voluntary insurance plan, open to working adults regardless of age or health. Workers would pay an affordable monthly premium during their careers, and could collect a modest daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled later in life. The money could go for services at home, or to help with nursing home bills.
But a central design flaw dogged CLASS. Unless large numbers of healthy people willingly sign up during their working years, soaring premiums driven by the needs of disabled beneficiaries would destabilize it, eventually requiring a taxpayer bailout.
After months insisting that could be fixed, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, finally admitted Friday she doesn't see how.
"Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time," Sebelius said in a letter to congressional leaders.
The law required the administration to certify that CLASS would remain financially solvent for 75 years before it could be put into place.
But officials said they discovered they could not make CLASS both affordable and financially solvent while keeping it a voluntary program open to virtually all workers, as the law also required.
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-14 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-14 #tcot #catcot
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: Who cares?
Please……
Care to elaborate on your general class warfare mantra.
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: Sorry but color me skeptical….looks and smells like astroturf to me.
- Calling All Ice Cream Sandwich Lovers
– YouTube – RT @google: Give a warm Twitter welcome to @Android… & a new friend who arrived on campus today: - Variations of Oral Bacteria May Signal Pancreatic Cancer | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Variations of Oral Bacteria May Signal Pancreatic Cancer
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Prostate Cancer Experts Condemn USPSTF PSA Test Recommendations – Prostate Cancer Experts Condemn USPSTF PSA Test Recommendations
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 11th through October 13th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 11th through October 13th #tcot #catcot
- Rick Perry: Playing the victim card – This is not Perry’s worst problem, but it sure is emblematic of his incompetent campaign. Consider the fact that only when his poll numbers have plummeted and no one much cares does he roll out a jobs plan. He allows the Jeffress issue to fester, irking voters who could be receptive to his message. He was unprepared to defend policies like tuition breaks for illegal immigrants and his enterprise funds that bear an eerie resemblance to Solyndra. (As Kim Strassel writes, “Mr. Perry’s response has been to say that ‘the federal government shouldn’t be involved in that kind of investment, period,’ but that it is ‘fine for states’ to pick winners and losers in the economy.”)
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 11th through October 13th
These are my links for October 11th through October 13th:
- Occupy Wall Street Protests Peril for Obama – As the early '70s repeat themselves with the chaotic Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in lower Manhattan, we need to grasp what a peril this movement is to President Obama and the entire Democratic Party. It is like the Obama campaign run wild without Obama in it. It is as if the bandwagon has taken off and left the president behind. And he and his party are racing to catch up. "There go my followers," they seem to be saying, "and I must go with them because I am their leader."
Just as the civil rights movement of the late '50s and early '60s and the youthful enthusiasm that animated JFK's candidacy in 1960 energized a generation, so the Obama campaign did in 2008. But just as frustration with Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon and the entire political system turned the idealism of the young into sour cynicism, so the Obama campaign's young enthusiasts have become cynical, bitter opponents of the entire political/economic system. If the Obama campaign harkened back to memories of the civil rights demonstrations of the '60s, so the Occupy Wall Street effort reminds us of SDS, SNCC, hippies, yuppies, the Chicago Seven and Jerry Rubin.
The fact is that Obama is less a socialist than a corporatist. His objective is not government ownership, but government management. To control the economy — and all of our lives — he needs to get rid of small banks and small business and consolidate it all in a few big banks and big corporations; hence his friendliness to Goldman-Sachs and General Motors. When wealthy tycoons go to dinners and give Obama $35,000 donations, they know what they are doing. It is not liberal Democratic masochism at work, it is a conscious investment in central planning where big labor, big government, big business and big banks meet and divvy up the pie, just as they do in Germany and France. That is Obama's game.
His former supporters have taken to the streets to protest his corporatist alliances. Sure, they oppose the Republicans and the conservatives, but they have more in common with the Tea Party than they realize. Both are acting out against big business. Wall Street is as much the enemy of Main Street as it is of college campuses.
The unions and the professional left are scrambling, along with Obama and the Democrats, to head off the stampede among their followers in the Occupy Wall Street movement. They are trying to make up for their pro-Wall Street policies by seeming to take on rich people in their tax program. But the young demonstrators will not be fooled. They invested their dreams for Obama in 2008 and, since then, have gotten only compromises, half-measures, incompetence and a ruined economy in return.
The conservatives and Republicans no longer own the anti-Obama movement. They have to share ownership with disenchanted liberals, those who recognize incompetence when they see it, and the many who are turned off by the growing perception of corruption in the wake of Solyndra. The bad economy has led to an impression of presidential weakness and inability akin to that which took over the image of Jimmy Carter in the late '70s. More and more, the opposition to Obama is based on the outcomes of his policies, not on their ideological bias or their liberal intent.
Will the Republicans drive these new converts to the anti-Obama cause back into the arms of the Democrats? The likes of Mitt Romney won't. Rick Perry might, particularly as he explains his designs on the Social Security system. But even if they are worried by the possibility of a Republican victory in 2012, their more likely reaction is to vote with their feet and stay home. Obama cannot muster the same enthusiasm he did in 2008. It's out there, but it is now opposed to him, not for him. That's what Occupy Wall Street is all about.
- California OKs Political Donations Via Text Message » Flap’s California Blog – Unlimited political contributions via text message, what could go wrong?
: - CA-30 Rep. Howard Berman Hauls in $819 K in Third Quarter Fundraising » Flap’s California Blog – CA-30 Rep. Howard Berman Hauls in $819 K in Third Quarter Fundraising
- Ventura County Democratic Party Adopting Occupy Ventura? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Ventura County Democratic Party Adopting Occupy Ventura? #tcot #catcot
- Log In – The New York Times – Log In – The New York Times
- Log In – The New York Times – Log In – The New York Times
- Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Occupy Wall Street: Who is Behind the Protests? #tcot #catcot
- Log In – The New York Times – Ben Nelson’s Ads May Break New Ground
- “Super PAC’ American Crossroads seeks permission to feature candidates in ads” – Worth reading this WaPo report. Fred Wertheimer predicted this back in Aug. 2010: “In fact, under the new FEC regulation, a Representative or Senator, or other congressional candidate, will be able to sit down with a corporate executive, draft an ad promoting his or her campaign and have the executive’s corporation pay for broadcasting the ad when and where the candidate wants – and none of this constitutes “coordination” in the view of the FEC, so long as the ad is run after the candidate’s primary and more than 90 days before the election, and does not expressly say “vote for” the candidate or its functional equivalent.”
- Ben Nelson’s Ads May Break New Ground – The Nebraska ads, which have cost Democrats more than $600,000 to run so far, could change that practice in a way that has wide implications for the 2012 elections, when 33 Senate seats and all 435 House seats will be up for grabs.
Indeed, American Crossroads — the powerful and well-financed Republican group formed with the help of the former White House aide Karl Rove — filed a request on Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission asking for a formal ruling on whether it could “adopt the tactics” of Mr. Nelson in coordinating footage of politicians up for re-election.
American Crossroads said in its request that it “may wish to produce and distribute similar television and radio advertisements” featuring incumbents in the 2012 campaigns. The group said that because it was “especially sensitive” about rules banning improper coordination with a candidate, it wanted to check with the F.E.C. first to make sure such ads would be legal.
American Crossroads ran into “headaches” in 2010 when it ran ads supporting Rob Portman, then a Senate candidate from Ohio, said Jonathan Collegio, spokesman for the group. To avoid charges of improperly working with Mr. Portman, the group used only publicly available footage of the candidate — yet Democrats still filed a complaint asserting that the advertisements crossed the line.
If the F.E.C. now says outside groups can film candidates and work with them to produce ads — as Mr. Nelson’s do — “that would open up a whole new avenue in advertising and advocacy that previously has not existed for us,” Mr. Collegio said.
The maneuver may ultimately haunt Democrats, Mr. Collegio added. “By trying to be clever in helping Nelson,” he said, “they may be opening up a can of worms they may not have wanted to open up.”
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Read it all
- California Field Poll Watch: Voters Oppose Changes to Initiative Process » Flap’s California Blog – California Field Poll Watch: Voters Oppose Changes to Initiative Process
- (404) http://www.flapsblog.net/2011/10/morning-drill-october-13-2011.html – The Morning Drill: October 13, 2011
- Video: Occupy Wall Street – It is What I Want | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Hey Warren Buffett! Can you help a brother out?:
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: October 13, 2011 – Today's dentistry and health headlines…..:
- Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan: the good, the bad, and the ugly « The Enterprise Blog – RT @JimPethokoukis: Why Cain's tax plan is really an 18% VAT
- President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Cain 29% Vs. Romney 29% Vs. Gingrich 11% – Gingrich Moves Into Show | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Newt Gingrich movin' on up…..:
- (403) http://americanresearchgroup.com/pres2012/primary/rep/fl/ – President 2012 GOP Florida Poll Watch: Cain 34%, Romney 28%, Gingrich 11%, Perry 5% #tcot
- Dilbert October 13, 2011 – Brilliant? » Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert and Scott Adams look at brilliant observations today….
: - The Chicago Way: Two Union Pensions for the Same Job | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Chicago Way: It is ONLY taxpayer money after all….
: - Poll Watch: Support for Death Penalty Falls to 61% – a 39-year low | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Poll Watch: Support for Death Penalty Falls to 61% – a 39-year low #tcot #catcot
- Day By Day October 13, 2011 – Represent | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day October 13, 2011 – Represent #tcot #catcot
- PPP Memo: How NC Democrats took it to the Tea Party…and won: a blueprint for 2012 – Public Policy Polling – > maybe RT @ppppolls Bashing Republicans for Tea Party ties will be a winning issue for Dems nationally in 2012:
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-13 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-13 #tcot #catcot
- foursquare – Pork chops after a 3 mile run 🙂 (@ Chez Cole)
- foursquare
:: Chez Cole
– I just became the mayor of Chez Cole on @foursquare! - Romney Healthcare Adviser: ObamaCare Based Off RomneyCare | RealClearPolitics – Why Herman Cain is looking pretty good: Romney Healthcare Adviser: ObamaCare Based On RomneyCare #tcot
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Video: Dr. Dan Fischer, UltraDent Products and the History of Tissue Management Products – Dr. Dan Fischer discusses Ultradent and the history of his products…:
- President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Cain 27% Vs. Romney 23% Vs. Perry 16% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Another good poll for Herman Cain….
: - Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Marathon Runner Disqualified After Riding Bus to Complete the Race – This fellow collected the bronze medal too….:
- President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Cain 30% Vs. Romney 22% Vs. Gingrich 15% Vs. Perry 14% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Cain 30% Vs. Romney 22% Vs. Gingrich 15% Vs. Perry 14% #tcot #catcot
- President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Romney 23% Vs. Cain 19% Vs. Paul 13% Vs. Perry 10% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Romney 23% Vs. Cain 19% Vs. Paul 13% Vs. Perry 10% #tcot #catcot
- Marty Wilson Heading Over to the California Chamber of Commerce » Flap’s California Blog – Marty Wilson Heading Over to the California Chamber of Commerce
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Daily Extraction: October 12, 2011 – The Daily Extraction: October 12, 2011
- Smokers Suffer Heart Attacks at a Younger Age | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Smokers Suffer Heart Attacks at a Younger Age
- Flap’s California Afternoon Collection: October 12, 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Afternoon Collection: October 12, 2011
- President 2012 Poll Watch: Romney, Perry and Cain All Beat Obama | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Mitt Romney is not the only Republican polling well against Obama…:
- Day By Day October 12, 2011 – Dahling Democrats | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day October 12, 2011 – Dahling Democrats | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog
- Dilbert October 12, 2011 – Working Late » Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert October 12, 2011 – Working Late
- Day By Day October 12, 2011 – Dahling Democrats | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – RE: Yes, Chris, WRH San Simeon style…..
- Vitamin E Supplements May Increase Risk for Prostate Cancer? | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Vitamin E Supplements May Increase Risk for Prostate Cancer?
- Poll Watch: Congress Approval 13% Vs. Disapproval 81% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The political environment is toxic for 2012….:
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: October 12, 2011 – Today's top dentistry and health headlines…..:
- California Cities Warn of Public Safety Crisis Over Prison Realignment » Flap’s California Blog – California Cities Warn of Public Safety Crisis Over Prison Realignment
- Day By Day October 12, 2011 – Dahling Democrats | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day October 12, 2011 – Dahling Democrats #tcot #catcot
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-12 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-12 #tcot #catcot
- Occupy Wall Street Vs. The Tea Party and the Double Standard » Flap’s California Blog – Occupy Wall Street Vs. The Tea Party and the Double Standard
- President 2012: New Hampshire GOP Debate Reaffirms the Polls – Romney Remains Front-Runner As Perry Fades | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: New Hampshire GOP Debate Reaffirms the Polls – Romney Remains Front-Runner As Perry Fades #tcot #catcot
- Bloomberg Television: Live TV – Bloomberg – @Caleb_Luke Bloomberg television or online here:
- Flap’s California Afternoon Collection: October 11, 2011 » Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Afternoon Collection: October 11, 2011
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Florida’s Pinellas County Commission Votes to End Water Fluoridation – Sometimes you cannot mandate good public health…..:
- Occupy Wall Street Protests Peril for Obama – As the early '70s repeat themselves with the chaotic Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in lower Manhattan, we need to grasp what a peril this movement is to President Obama and the entire Democratic Party. It is like the Obama campaign run wild without Obama in it. It is as if the bandwagon has taken off and left the president behind. And he and his party are racing to catch up. "There go my followers," they seem to be saying, "and I must go with them because I am their leader."
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 4th through October 5th
These are my links for October 4th through October 5th:
- Senate Democrats rewrite Obama’s jobs bill– Senate Democrats are rewriting portions of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill to include a new 5 percent tax on income above $1 million — a proposal that is sure to be blocked by Republicans.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday he is changing the plan in an effort to attract more votes from fellow Democrats. He said he plans to bring the bill to the floor next week. Reid, however, wouldn’t predict whether Democratic senators would unite behind the measure, which is unlikely to get any support from Republicans.
The new tax would replace tax increases sought by the president. Obama’s plan called for raising taxes by limiting itemized deductions — including those for charitable donations and mortgage interest — for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000.
Reid said the millionaire’s tax would cover the entire cost of Obama’s jobs bill — about $450 billion over the next decade.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said there was opposition to Obama’s plan because people making $250,000 or $300,000 in high cost areas, like New York, don’t consider themselves rich.
“Drawing a line at $1 million is the right thing to do,” Schumer said.
The top income tax rate is currently 35 percent, on taxable income above $379,150. Under the bill, the new top rate for millionaires would go to 40 percent.
Reid announced plans to move the bill as Obama tried to blame Republicans for Congress’ failure to act.
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Tax the rich enough and they won’t be rich any longer….
- Green Jobs Training Program Falls Short, Should Return Funds– A $500 million green jobs program at the Department of Labor has so far provided only 15 percent of current participants with jobs, leading the agency’s inspector general to recommend that the bulk of the money be returned to the Treasury.The program, which was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aims to find employment for almost 80,000 people by providing grants for labor exchange and job training projects. With those grants expiring over the next 15 months, IG officials concluded that the program would fail to come close to that target.
More than $300 million remains unspent, according to the report (pdf). Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who requested the Labor audit when he was ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said the findings show that Congress should focus on creating jobs in all sectors of the economy.
“This report paints a pretty bleak picture of the program’s effectiveness in job creation,” he said in a statement. “It’s hard to see how leaving $300 million in unused funding for the program in the hands of the Labor Department benefits either the taxpayers or the unemployed.”
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Another busted Obama “Green Jobs” initiative.
Return the damn money to the government…..
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: October 5, 2011 – Today’s top health and dentistry headlines…..:
- Dilbert October 5, 2011 – Room to Grow » Flap’s California Blog – Scott Adams and Dilbert today award Employee of the Month…..an honor?
- Day By Day October 5, 2011 – Numerology | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day October 5, 2011 – Numerology #tcot #catcot
- foursquare – I’m at Rio Hotel & Casino (3700 W Flamingo Rd., at S Valley View Blvd., Las Vegas)
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 3rd through October 4th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 3rd through October 4th #tcot #catcot
- Senate Democrats rewrite Obama’s jobs bill– Senate Democrats are rewriting portions of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill to include a new 5 percent tax on income above $1 million — a proposal that is sure to be blocked by Republicans.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday he is changing the plan in an effort to attract more votes from fellow Democrats. He said he plans to bring the bill to the floor next week. Reid, however, wouldn’t predict whether Democratic senators would unite behind the measure, which is unlikely to get any support from Republicans.
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Flap’s Links and Comments for October 3rd through October 4th
These are my links for October 3rd through October 4th:
- Jerry Brown vetoes home child-care labor bill – In a major blow to organized labor, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation today that would have let unions organize child-care providers who work out of the home.
"Today California, like the nation itself, is facing huge budget challenges," Brown wrote in a veto message. "Given that reality, I am reluctant to embark on a program of this magnitude and potential cost."
The veto was one of six announced today.
Brown's veto comes after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed similar legislation three times. But labor unions who have long sought the right to organize California's more than 40,000 family child-care providers considered Brown, a Democrat, more likely to sign it.
Assembly Bill 101 was sponsored by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union and amended at the legislative deadline to include language by Assembly Speaker John A. Perez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.
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Kudos to Governor Jerry Brown for vetoing this ridiculous legislation that would organize your local babysitter into a union.
- Dan Walters: California must face hard truth about budget – We should make lowering fixed costs a first priority, meaning some serious pension reforms and a freeze on bond debt, including the tens of billions that have been authorized by voters but not yet sold.
We should put the high-speed rail project on indefinite hold, since it would consume nearly $10 billion in bonds and lacks a credible financing plan, rewrite and perhaps suspend a pending water bond issue, and sell only those bonds whose need falls into the emergency category.
Reality bites, but if we don't accept it, California could become the American Greece.
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Dan, Jerry Brown won't push reform. He will muddle along just like Arnold and then retire in 3 years.
- California’s cost of living going up – A new report out today finds that residents of many California counties have experienced double-digit increases in their cost of living since 2008.
Dan Walters reports that the report from the Oakland-based Insight Center for Community Economic Development "provides statistical ammunition not only for advocates of raising minimum wages and other steps to aid the poor, but for conservative anti-tax groups, since the center found that taxes are the largest single element in living cost increases."
- foursquare – All checked in and ready to play (@ Rio Poker Room)
- foursquare – Checking in…. (@ Rio Hotel & Casino w/ 3 others)
- Herman Cain rises, Rick Perry slides in new CBS News poll – Political Hotsheet – CBS News – RT @jamiedupree: New CBS poll has Mitt Romney & Herman Cain tied at 17% each in GOP race with Rick Perry at 12%
- foursquare – Almost to the hills and then State Line Nevada (@ Baker, CA)
- foursquare – Stopped at Starbucks in Barstow. On way to Baker then Vegas (@ Mojave Desert)
- President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Rick Perry Collapses as Herman Cain Gains in Positive Intensity | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 GOP Poll Watch: Rick Perry Collapses as Herman Cain Gains in Positive Intensity #tcot #catcot
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Dentistry is #12 of the 12 Slowest Growing Industries in America – Dentistry is #12 of the 12 Slowest Growing Industries in America
- California Seniors Dependent Upon Social Security Will Face Tough Times » Flap’s California Blog – California Seniors Dependent Upon Social Security Will Face Tough Times
- President 2012: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie – “Now Is Not My Time” | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie – “Now Is Not My Time” #tcot #catcot
- Cainmentum – Public Policy Polling – RT @ppppolls: North Carolina: Cain 27, Romney/Gingrich 17, Perry 15, Paul/Bachmann 6, Santorum/Huntsman 2:
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: October 4, 2011 – The Morning Drill: October 4, 2011
- Chris Christie not running for president in 2012, source says – The Washington Post – RT @washingtonpost: Chris Christie not running for president in 2012, source says
- Dilbert October 4, 2011 – Wrong? » Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert's boss discusses indentured servitude with a buy-out….
: - Day By Day October 4, 2011 – Cake | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day October 4, 2011 – Cake #tcot #catcot
- Mitt Romney’s risky immigration play – Maggie Haberman – POLITICO.com – RT @maggiepolitico: Romney runs hard right on immigration, risks being stuck there. My story today
- Real Republicans Just Aren’t That Excited About Chris Christie – RT @businessinsider: Real Republicans Just Aren't That Excited About Chris Christie by @ZekeJMiller
- GOP 12: Perry continues to fall – RT @GOP12: Romney 25% Perry and Cain 16% Paul 11% Bachmann and Gingrich 7%
- @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-04 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-10-04 #tcot #catcot
- President 2012 GOP Florida Poll Watch: Romney 28% Vs. Cain 24% Vs. Gingrich 10% Vs. Perry 9% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Rick Perry has crash and burned in Florida. Here comes Cain!:
- Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Pennsylvania Teenager Tries to Extract His Own Teeth – Father Pleads Guilty to Reckless Endangerment – The court will put a bite into this father…..:
- School pensions: an argument for not bargaining? – As state and local governments in California face soaring public pension costs, unions insist that cost-cutting changes must be bargained, not imposed by legislation.
But there is one major exception: schools.
Teachers and non-teaching school employees in California are in unions that do not bargain pensions. Instead, their pensions are in big statewide pools that have some of the lowest costs for employers and some of the lowest pension formulas for retirees.
Bargaining for pensions is used extensively only in California and a few other states. One of the first pension reform proposals to include ending bargaining came last month in Rhode Island, where bankrupt Central Falls is drawing national attention.
The Rhode Island auditor general, Dennis Hoyle, said an end to bargaining for pensions and retiree health would make benefits more visible to the public, set a standard and avoid the tendency to save now by pushing employee costs into the future.
In California, particularly in local government, critics say bargaining tends to result in pensions not based on what retirees need or on what governments can afford, but on pensions offered by other government employers.
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Read it all
- Koch responds to Bloomberg – Right Turn – The Washington Post – Koch responds to Bloomberg
- Flap’s Links and Comments for October 3rd on 08:00 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for October 3rd on 08:00 #tcot #catcot
- Jerry Brown vetoes home child-care labor bill – In a major blow to organized labor, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation today that would have let unions organize child-care providers who work out of the home.