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    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 14:10

    These are my links for April 20th from 14:10 to 14:20:

    • MLB Commissioner Bud Selig confirms appointment of Dodgers trustee, investigation into club finances – MLB Commissioner Bud Selig announced Wednesday that his office will assume control of the Dodgers' operations. Owner Frank McCourt needed a personal loan from Fox in order to meet the Dodgers' payroll last week.

      The official statement from Commissioner Bud Selig:

      "Pursuant to my authority as Commissioner, I informed Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt today that I will appoint a representative to oversee all aspects of the business and the day-to-day operations of the Club.  I have taken this action because of my deep concerns regarding the finances and operations of the Dodgers and to protect the best interests of the Club, its great fans and all of Major League Baseball. My office will continue its thorough investigation into the operations and finances of the Dodgers and related entities during the period of Mr. McCourt's ownership.  I will announce the name of my representative in the next several days. The Dodgers have been one of the most prestigious franchises in all of sports, and we owe it to their legion of loyal fans to ensure that this club is being operated properly now and will be guided appropriately in the future."

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      Put a fork in Frank McCourt – he is done.

    • University of Iowa Professor Tells College Republicans to “F” Off – A University of Iowa professor felt the need to reply to a blast email by the College Republicans on Monday morning. Ellen Lewin, a professor of Anthropology and Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies in the Department of Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies, sent a vulgar response to a College Republican email about the group’s, “Conservative Coming Out Week.”

      The College Republican email, which was sent to the entire University of Iowa Community, had been approved by a number of university officials before being sent out.

      Lewin responded to email by writing, “#*@% [F-Word] YOU, REPUBLICANS” from her official university email account.

      Natalie Ginty, a University of Iowa Student and Chairwoman of the Iowa Federation of College Republicans, demanded an apology from Lewin’s supervisors. “We understand that as a faculty member she has the right to express her political opinion, but by leaving her credentials at the bottom of the email she was representing the University of Iowa, not herself alone,” Ginty wrote to James Enloe, the head of the Department of Anthropology.

      “Vile responses like Ellen’s need to end. Demonizing the other party through name-calling only further entrenches feelings of disdain for the other side. I am sure you understand that nothing is ever accomplished by aimless screams of attack,” Ginty concluded.

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      And, then she later tried to apologize as the leftists usually do.

      Pretty standard here.

    • Liberals attack Paul Ryan because his father died young, resulting in survivor benefits – But the Daily Kos blog is now using his father's early death against Ryan. A Daily Kos diary attacks Ryan in a post entitled, “Entitlement-hating Paul Ryan collected Social Security benefits until he was 18.” Never mind that Ryan’s recent budget proposal doesn’t in fact seek to abolish entitlements, much less get rid of Social Security. It merely seeks to cut the rate of growth of exploding Medicare costs by eventually giving its recipients vouchers they can use to shop around for medical care.

      Not all Daily Kos diaries reflect the views of Daily Kos as a whole, but this one does, since it was briefly featured on the top of the front page of Daily Kos, and is still listed as a “recommended” blog post in the sidebar on the right side of Daily Kos's main page. More than 183 Daily Kos readers have commented in response to it – virtually all in agreement with its hateful sentiments.

      Even if Ryan’s recent proposal cut Social Security, rather than just reforming a different program – Medicare — there would be nothing hypocritical about his wanting to rein in the costs of an increasingly costly program simply because he received modest benefits under that program as a child, when financial decisions were presumably made for him by his parent or guardian (people who had themselves paid into that very program with their tax dollars). Social security payments have risen faster than inflation since Ryan was a child, and have increased radically as a percentage of our economy.

      Liberal bloggers frequently smear conservatives and libertarians as hypocrites for seeking to collect social security and other benefits. For example, Ayn Rand was attacked by the liberal blog Balloon Juice as being a “welfare queen” for receiving Medicare benefits even though she had contributed lots of tax money in her lifetime through income and self-employment taxes she paid based on her best-selling books.

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      Paul Ryan has proposed reforming MEDICARE.

      Guess those leftists at Daily Kos cannot read so well.