• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 24th on 14:42

    These are my links for March 24th from 14:42 to 19:10:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 24th on 14:28

    These are my links for March 24th from 14:28 to 14:31:

    • Democrats Call Koch Industries ‘Extreme,’ but Justify Taking Their Money – Ben Smith reported this morning that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising email, signed by Harry Reid, that tries to ride the anti-Koch bandwagon. Here's the relevant part of the email:

      Senate Democrats are fighting back each and every day. But with only a slim four-seat majority, we have no margin for error. If Republicans can knock just a few bricks free from our firewall, they’ll force through their extreme agenda faster than you can say “Koch brothers.” With the GOP on the attack and with 23 Democratic-held seats to defend, we have no time to spare. We must act now to keep our majority standing strong. I need your help!

      The DSCC must raise $150,371 by our March 31 FEC deadline to keep the Republicans at bay.

      Smith notes the DSCC got about $30,000 from the Koch family in the last election cycle. He also reported back in September that a limited number of Democratic candidates have also received Koch money, including sitting senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. New York's Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, also received $1,000 from Koch Industries in the last election.

      =====

      How do you spell HYPOCRITE?

    • Madison Wisconsin teachers given until April 15 to rescind fake doctors’ notes – Madison teachers who missed school last month to attend protests and turned in fraudulent doctor's notes have been given until April 15 to rescind those notes, officials said Thursday.
      The district received more than 1,000 notes from teachers, human resources director Bob Nadler said. A couple hundred of those were ruled fraudulent because they appeared to be written by doctors at the Capitol protests against Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit collective bargaining.
      Teachers who don't rescind fraudulent notes could receive a disciplinary letter of suspension, the most serious form of discipline aside from termination, Nadler said. The suspension would be considered already served — the time missed during the protests.
      "We didn't want to give anybody more time off," Nadler said. "They can't afford it. We can't afford to have them gone any more. I don't think kids need their teacher gone another two days."
      Teachers who rescind their note would receive a more minor "letter of expectation" and be docked pay at the end of the school year for the four missed days.
      Nadler said the majority of notes came from doctor's offices and the district doesn't plan on calling each one to determine if the excuse was legitimate.

      =====

      Slap on the wrist and if they are honest get docked pay.

      what a system! NOT

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 23rd on 09:13

    These are my links for March 23rd from 09:13 to 09:44:

    • California Prison cell phone bill? Wimpy – State Sen. Alex Padilla, flanked by law enforcement officials, stood on the Capitol's steps Tuesday before an array of cell phones confiscated from prison inmates and declared that smuggling had become an epidemic.

      It is, Padilla said, a "clear and present danger to public safety" as inmates use smuggled phones to harass victims and witnesses and plot other crimes. He called to the podium a woman who said she received harassing calls from her husband's murderer.

      Padilla et al. made a compelling case for a crackdown on smuggling cell phones – nearly 11,000 were confiscated last year. But the bill that cleared the Senate Public Safety Committee two hours later is rather wimpy. It makes smuggling nothing more than a misdemeanor, even for prison employees who are the sources of many illicit phones.

      Last year, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar Padilla bill – the first anti-smuggling bill to reach his desk after several died in the Legislature – on grounds that it was too weak and that smuggling cell phones should be a felony.

      =====

      Of course, this should be a felony. But, do you really expect any public safety laws to pass while Jerry I appointed Rose Bird Chief Justice Brown is Governor?

      I mean really.

      Brown will start letting felons out of the prisons to balance his budget in order to pay of his union cronies.

      And, when these criminals start reoffending, Brown will either shrug it off or blame the Republicans.

    • The Koch Brothers: Anatomy of a Smear – The Center for American Progress is generally regarded as a front for the Obama administration. Its President and CEO is John Podesta, formerly Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff and the chairman of Barack Obama's transition team. CAP is lavishly funded by George Soros and several other left-wing billionaires. It runs, among other things, a web site called Think Progress, which cranks out a steady stream of slimy hit pieces for the benefit of the Obama administration and the far left.

      Soros apparently believes that only left-wing billionaires should be able to participate in public discourse, so his Center for American Progress, through its web site, has carried on a bizarre vendetta against Charles and David Koch and their company, Koch Industries. The Kochs are two of the very few billionaires who are active in politics on the conservative/libertarian side, a phenomenon that apparently drives left-wing billionaires wild with rage. I'm not sure why; maybe they think the Kochs are traitors to their class. In any event,Think Progress has stalked the Koch brothers with video cameras and produced one false, over-the-top attack on the Kochs after another, some of which we have had fun dissecting here.

      =====

      Read it all

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 17th on 10:53

    These are my links for March 17th from 10:53 to 11:36:

    • President 2012 Poll Watch: Sarah Palin trails Charlie Sheen with independents – We've found a lot of brutal poll numbers for Sarah Palin so far in 2011: down in South Dakota, down in South Carolina, down in Arizona, only up by 1 point in Texas, only up by 1 point in Nebraska to name a few. But this has to be the worst- independent voters say they would support Charlie Sheen over Palin for President by a 41/36 margin. Seriously.

      Despite her deficit with independents Palin does lead Sheen 49-29 overall. We also tested Barack Obama against Sheen and the President leads 57-24.

      Sheen is one of the most unpopular figures we've ever polled on. 10% of Americans rate him favorably to 67% with a negative opinion of him. The only people we've ever found worse numbers for are Rod Blagojevich in Illinois (an 8/83 favorability spread), Jesse Jackson Jr. in Illinois (a 10/73 favorability), and Levi Johnston in Alaska (a 6/72 favorability). Sheen's -57 spread ties what we found for John Edwards in North Carolina the last time we polled him (15/72).

      Sheen's unpopularity is pretty universal across party lines so it says something about the level of polarization in the country right now that Democrats would support him by a 44-24 margin for President over Palin and that Republicans would support him 37-28 over Obama. People may not have any respect for Sheen but they still think he'd be a better alternative than their opposing party's leading figure.

      ======

      Kind of funny really.

      But, it points out how unpopular and polarizing Sarah Palin is.

      Sarah Palin nor Charlie sheen will be running for President and that is probably a good thing.

    • Rep. David Wu crashed car in Northwest Portland last year, says he fell asleep – U.S. Rep. David Wu crashed his vehicle into a parked car in Northwest Portland last year, but passed a police field sobriety test and the incident never showed up in a police report.

      No one was injured after the Feb. 19, 2010 incident. The congressman's spokesman, Erik Dorey, said Wu fell asleep while driving.

      Still, the woman who called 9-1-1 to report the incident said she assumed there was "some kind of disability if he was driving on the wrong side of the street." She also said that Wu did not want her to call police.

      "He says he fell asleep," says Karen Fog, in the recording. "I don't believe him."

      The incident, first reported Wednesday in Willamette Week, is the latest in a string of revelations about the congressman's life last year. Wu has apologized for what he calls a rough October, saying he was under extreme professional and personal stress but had received appropriate medication and counseling. In 2008, he was hospitalized for observation after a bad reaction to Ambien and Valium.

      =======

      More embarassing revelations for Rep. Wu.

      Will the Democratic Party ever lean on him to resign or will they have to primary him?

      Obviously, the man is disturbed and has multiple problems.