• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for August 22nd on 14:42

    August 22, 2011 /

    These are my links for August 22nd from 14:42 to 14:45:

    • The Imperial Presidency By Mark Steyn – Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has only been in the presidential race for 20 minutes, but he’s already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign:

      “I’ll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.”

      This will be grand news to Schylar Capo, eleven years old, of Virginia, who made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days, and for her pains, was visited by a federal Fish & Wildlife gauleiter (with accompanying state troopers) who charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species and issued her a $535 fine. If the federal child-abuser has that much time on his hands, he should have charged the cat, who was illegally transporting the protected species from his gullet to his intestine.

      =====

      Read it all

    • President 2012: Paul Ryan Won’t Run – After a week of rumors that he was consulting with advisers and family members on a possible presidential run, we have learned from the Ryan camp that the House Budget Committee chair has decided not to throw his hat into the ring. 

      More details soon from Bob Costa.

      UPDATE: Here’s the Ryan statement:

      “I sincerely appreciate the support from those eager to chart a brighter future for the next generation.  While humbled by the encouragement, I have not changed my mind, and therefore I am not seeking our party’s nomination for President.  I remain hopeful that our party will nominate a candidate committed to a pro-growth agenda of reform that restores the promise and prosperity of our exceptional nation.  I remain grateful to those I serve in Southern Wisconsin for the unique opportunity to advance this effort in Congress.”

      =======

      And, Palin will?

    • President 2012 Sarah Palin: ‘She Will Run’ – Political organizer Peter Singleton tells National Review Online that Sarah Palin will likely launch a presidential campaign by the end of September. “I believe that she will run,” he says. “I can’t see her sitting this election out.”

      Palin, a former Alaska governor, is scheduled to address a tea-party rally on September 3 in south-central Iowa. Singleton is one of the forces behind the event, working with grassroots groups. “Labor Day will kick off the Republican campaign for the nomination,” he hints. “She is going to make a major, major speech.”

      Since late last year, Singleton has crisscrossed the Hawkeye State, connecting a network of supporters at rubber-chicken dinners and Republican picnics. He has huddled with county GOP chairmen, spoken with a number of conservative state lawmakers, and assembled a close-knit team of pro-Palin activists.
      All of Singleton’s efforts have been self-directed, with no official involvement from Palin’s political apparatus. Still, he says, “We have not been on a lark. But we are happy, delighted even, to have people think that.”

      GOP presidential contenders, from Rick Perry to Mitt Romney, will be in for a shock when Palin makes her entry, he predicts. “When she gets in the race, I would not want to be the other candidates, who have shamelessly whispered to Iowa Republicans for months that she is not running,” he says. “There will probably be some defections.”

      ======

      Who really knows?

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for August 2nd through August 4th

    August 4, 2011 /

    These are my links for August 2nd through August 4th:

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for June 20th on 15:01

    June 20, 2011 /

    These are my links for June 20th from 15:01 to 15:07:

    • Sarah Palin® Trademarks Her Name – A few months ago, an attorney for Sarah and Bristol Palin put in an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark their names. (One of many things that suggests that profit, and not the presidency, is what's motivating Palin.) For Sarah Palin, the intent was a little less clear cut than it was for her daughter, as this article in Politics Daily made clear:

      For Sarah Palin's application, there are two classes of commercial service for which her name would be a registered trademark. One is for "information about political elections" and "providing a website featuring information about political issues." The second is for "educational and entertainment services … providing motivational speaking services in the field of politics, culture, business and values."

      The "Bristol Palin" application is for "educational and entertainment services, namely, providing motivational speaking services in the field of life choices."

      According to the same reporter, the deadline to challenge Palin's application passed on Friday and — amazingly — nobody seems to have challenged it. So it looks like the Patent and Trademark Office will award both patents in the near future.

      ======

      Why would anyone oppose this?

    • Help for jobless homeowners arrives via Obama Administration – A long-delayed federal program aimed at helping hundreds of unemployed Massachusetts homeowners pay their mortgages is finally being launched today, with $61 million earmarked for the state.

      The US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the nonprofit NeighborWorks America said the program will provide hundreds of local borrowers with interest-free loans of up to $50,000 over a two-year period. In some cases, the money will not have to be paid back.

      The $1 billion national program is expected to benefit 30,000 unemployed homeowners in 27 states and Puerto Rico with financial assistance.

      ======

      Note: In some cases the money will NOT have to be paid back

    • $1 Billion in Homeowner Aid Offered by Obama Administration – Homeowners facing foreclosure can now tap into a $1 billion program of emergency loans to help tide them over a temporary financial crisis, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced.

      Beginning today, homeowners in 27 states can file preliminary applications for the Emergency Homeowner's Loan Program (EHLP). Eligible homeowners can obtain interest-free loans of up to $50,000 to help cover mortgage expenses for up to two years.

      The program is available to homeowners who have seen their incomes fall and who could lose their homes to foreclosure due to circumstances beyond their control, including involuntary unemployment, underemployment, economic conditions or an illness.

      The program is a counterpart to the $7.6 billion Hardest Hit Fund and is available only to homeowners in states not covered by that program. The Hardest Hit Fund provides foreclosure avoidance assistance to homeowners in states that have been most seriously affected by the declining housing market and economic downturn.

      =======

      Borrowing more to shore up re-election.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for June 6th on 19:19

    June 6, 2011 /

    These are my links for June 6th from 19:19 to 19:25:

    • Experts back Sarah Palin’s historical account – Sarah Palin yesterday insisted her claim at the Old North Church last week that Paul Revere “warned the British” during his famed 1775 ride — remarks that Democrats and the media roundly ridiculed — is actually historically accurate. And local historians are backing her up.

      Palin prompted howls of partisan derision when she said on Boston’s Freedom Trail that Revere “warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”

      Palin insisted yesterday on Fox News Sunday she was right: “Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there. That, hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms.”
      In fact, Revere’s own account of the ride in a 1798 letter seems to back up Palin’s claim. Revere describes how after his capture by British officers, he warned them “there would be five hundred Americans there in a

      short time for I had alarmed the Country all the way up.”

      Boston University history professor Brendan McConville said, “Basically when Paul Revere was stopped by the British, he did say to them, ‘Look, there is a mobilization going on that you’ll be confronting,’ and the British are aware as they’re marching down the countryside, they hear church bells ringing — she was right
      about that — and warning shots being fired. Tbout tha. That’s accurate.”

    • Sarah Palin’s Account of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride Gets Shot Down by Historians – Sarah Palin said that Paul Revere warned the British during his midnight ride in 1775. Historians beg to differ.

      "He didn't warn the British," said James Giblin, author of "The Many Rides of Paul Revere." "That's her most obvious blooper."

      During her "One Nation Tour" last week, the former Alaska governor uttered a now-infamous recounting of the Revolutionary War hero's midnight ride, telling reporters that Revere "warned, uh, the … the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells." She defended her explanation on "Fox News Sunday," saying "Part of his ride was to warn the British that we're already there — that, 'Hey, you're not going to succeed. '"

      Experts agree that warning the British — Revere was an American patriot, remember, he was against the folks across the pond — was not crucial to the midnight ride.

    • What Sarah Palin Got Wrong — And We Did, Too – It was a harrowing night for Revere. Meanwhile, our episode is thoroughly absurd. Palin got the story wrong. Big deal. It’s not worth mocking her and saying she’s a dummy. Nor is it worth trying to pull her bacon out of the fire with a lame and halfblind excuse for how she was really correct, sort of, if you look at it from the right angle, while basically ignoring her actual words. Both sides look foolish.

      Palin should have been humble and admitted she got the story wrong. She could have spun it to say that she got the spirit of the thing right. She could have done a lot of things. But persisting in a flashing-neon error as she’s done is prideful, and that kind of pigheadedness is very unattractive in someone vying for public office. Sarah’s sin was in her lack of humility.

      But then there’s us, we who revel in the cheap shot and the takedown. People make mistakes. People say cockamamie things. But high-vaulting and jumping down their throats is rarely called for. Still, we’ve cultivated a whole media culture of such acrobatics. That is also prideful and unattractive.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 31st on 09:43

    May 31, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 31st from 09:43 to 09:48:

    • Palin’s Bus Destinations: The MSM Isn’t Cleared for That Information – I see this comment, from an unnamed Palinite insider to Shushannah Walshe of the Daily Beast: “According to a source with knowledge of Palin’s operation and thinking, keep a careful eye on how long the tour lasts, because it is intended as a way to test the presidential waters. If the road trip ends abruptly, it’s a sign she didn’t get the enthusiastic responses she believes she needs to launch a campaign. If the tour heads to regions outside of the Northeast like Iowa and South Carolina that, the source says, is a “big indicator” that Palin will pull the trigger.”

      ======

      More importantly will be polls next week showing how well she matches up against Romney

    • Economists Downgrade Prospects for Growth – A growing number of forecasters are downgrading their predictions for economic growth, the Wall Street Journal notes, which "raises a deeper question about the economy's health: Has it emerged from the financial turmoil of 2008 and 2009 with a chronic growth problem?"

      "Since the recession officially ended in mid-2009, the economy's annualized growth rate has averaged 2.8%. That's no better than its performance after the much-milder 2001 recession, and far worse than the 7.1% growth rate after the similarly deep 1982 recession."

    • Sarah Palin: The Call at Gettysburg – When I first visited Gettysburg years ago, I was overwhelmed with the sense of sacrifice made to secure our union, but my most recent visit this morning was even more significant as subsequent visits allow reflection on the state of our union today. Striking to me is how ready and willing troops and civilians were in 1863 to lay their lives on the line. Are we as ready and willing to accept the call for sacrifice today in order to keep our union secure?

      Hopefully the kids on school field trips whom we met this morning grasped the poignant irony at the site we toured together: that such a beautiful stretch of the Pennsylvania countryside should have been the site of the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. But perhaps it’s fitting that such a sacred place should be so beautiful now in order to commemorate the terrible sacrifices made to bring about, in the words of Lincoln’s famous address, "a new birth of freedom."

      But this "new birth of freedom" wasn’t fully realized by the generation that paid the price for it. Over 100 years after the battle, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and declared, "Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." It took the struggle for Civil Rights to truly complete what Lincoln called "the unfinished work" for which the heroes of Gettysburg "gave the last full measure of devotion."

      Today, when we speak of "fundamentally restoring all that is good in America," we remember the debt of gratitude we owe to those who sacrificed to create and preserve our union. From the Civil War to the struggle for Civil Rights, generations of Americans have made great sacrifices necessary to pass on to us this great gift of freedom. It’s our duty to them to preserve it, cherish it, and pass it on to our children, so "that these dead shall not have died in vain…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

      When duty calls, are we willing to answer today? Please remember that freedom isn't free – the price paid for our liberty has been great.

      The reminders of the past costs are seen at Gettysburg. The way forward in protecting our unified body is encapsulated in Lincoln's 2nd inaugural address: "…with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."

      – Sarah Palin

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 11th on 13:26

    May 11, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 11th from 13:26 to 14:37:

    • Mitt Romney: As first act, out with ObamaCare – Health care is more than just one-sixth of the American economy. It is a source of well-being for individuals and families. We are blessed with much that is good in American health care. But we have taken a turn for the worse with ObamaCare, with its high taxes and vastly expanded federal control over our lives. I believe the better course is to empower the states to determine their own health care futures.======

      Read it all….

      Go for it Mitt!

    • California High-speed train trip going nowhere – The latest criticism was issued Tuesday by the Legislature’s budget analyst, Mac Taylor, in a report fittingly called “High-Speed Rail Is at a Critical Juncture.”If the project is to have a chance of success, Taylor’s staff concluded, it needs a thorough re-evaluation, a shift from the rail authority to the Department of Transportation, and a business plan that fully identifies costs, ridership and how it could operate without subsidies as state law dictates.

      The report is especially scornful of the proposed track to nowhere in the San Joaquin Valley.

      In other words, Taylor implies, it’s time to either shape up the project or dump it, although the words that his report uses are much more diplomatic, such as “challenging choices.”

      There’s probably no way for California to gather the untold tens of billions of dollars in construction money the system would require and operate bullet trains without subsidies or “revenue guarantees” to private investors.

      However, before the rail authority moves dirt and pushes us into a bottomless money pit, we’d best find out for certain – and have the guts to call it quits if the project doesn’t add up.

      ======

      The business plan needs to be re-evaluated and the project scraped if it does not pencil out.

    • President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Gets a Bounce – Obama – 47% Vs. Romney – 42% | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Gets a Bounce – Obama – 47% Vs. Romney – 42% #tcot #catcot
    • What went wrong with Palin? – Right Turn – The Washington Post – What went wrong with Palin?
    • What went wrong with Palin? – One can’t but feel that Palin was not only snared in the web of resentment but that it determined a particular course for her post-2008 career. She embarked on a particular path, one incompatible with being a serious force on conservative policy and a credible presidential contender. You can understand how easy and alluring (not to mention profitable) became the new role as political martyr. The “lamestream media” perfectly encapsulated the Joan of Arc complex, the blame-game and the focus on herself that swamped her public image.But one can’t really call it a “tragedy” as Green does. She’s attained fame and fortune and she has as loyal a following as any popular figure. But she made a choice — to bear grudges, to forgo serious policy study, to reject the advice of all but a handful of advisers. It is a shame for those who saw a star-quality and enviable political talent. But tragedy? No. She simply chose a different path.

      =======

      Certainly a choice Sarah has made….

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 11th on 07:12

    May 11, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 11th from 07:12 to 07:14:

    • Mitch Daniels signs controversial Planned Parenthood bill into law – Republican Indiana governor and potential 2012 presidential candidate Mitch Daniels signed a bill Tuesday that will cut off significant amounts of federal funds given to his state’s chapter of Planned Parenthood, a move the group fought by filing for a temporary restraining order and injunction with the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.
      The bill, which passed both houses of the state legislature by large margins, imposes some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on abortions, cutting off about $3 million in public funds received for female preventive health services, including birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings and other tests in the Hoosier state.

      Although federal law prevents government funds being used for abortion services, proponents of the bill have said they do not want federal money funneled to an organization that performs abortions.

      =======

      Read it all

      The abortionists will try to demonize Daniels but this bill will actually help him in key battleground states like Florida and North Carolina.

    • Sarah Palin and the Curse of a Thin Skin – In some ways, the story of Palin is a story of temptation. Rather than sticking to her guns and deepening her political credentials and her knowledge base, she embraced her celebrity instead. And in doing so, she didn’t defeat her critics and enemies; she capitulated to them. Listen, it’s her life and her fortune and she is free to do what she wishes with it. And there’s no telling what the future holds for anyone in America. But she had and has more raw political talent than anyone I’ve ever seen, and, alas, as phenoms go, it looks like she is headed for a Darryl Strawberry-like playing career.=======

      Read it all…..

      Agree – but she will have a long and notorious media career.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 10th on 08:44

    May 10, 2011 /

    These are my links for May 10th from 08:44 to 08:50:

    • President 2012: The Tragedy of Sarah Palin? – From the moment Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech electrified the Republican convention, she was seen as an unbending, hard-charging, red-meat ideologue—to which soon was added “thin-skinned” and “vindictive.” But a look at what Palin did while in office in Alaska—the only record she has—shows a very different politician: one who worked with Democrats to tame Big Oil and solve the great problem at the heart of the state’s politics. That Sarah Palin might have set the nation on a different course. What went wrong?======

      An interesting analysis, read it all.

    • Chris Christie praises Mitch Daniels, might back him if he runs – As top Republican fundraisers head to New Jersey in the hopes of persuading Chris Christie to leap into the presidential race, the New Jersey governor is heaping praise on Indiana’s chief executive.Continue Reading
      In a radio interview on Monday morning, Christie said he’d like to see a governor in the Oval Office.

      “He’s certainly somebody who I have enormous respect for and would give real consideration to supporting” Christie told talk radio host Chris Stigall, speaking of Mitch Daniels.

      “If you look at it, governors have tended to be some of our best presidents. That’s why I would lean in that direction,” he said.

      Daniels is weighing a run and is expected to announce his decision soon.

      Stigall — who calls himself an “unabashed, gushing” fan of the New Jersey governor — noted the number of likely candidates courting Chrstie’s support in Princeton.

      He’s already met with Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, and is set to sit down with Jon Huntsman in the coming week.

      =======

      Read it all

      A courtesy shout out but would aid Daniels over the early start of Mitt Romney

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 21st on 14:08

    April 21, 2011 /

    These are my links for April 21st from 14:08 to 16:37:

    • Brutal Mexican drug gang crosses into U.S. – The signature crimes of the most violent drug cartel in Mexico are its beheading and dismemberment of rival gang members, military personnel, law enforcement officers and public officials, and the random kidnappings and killings of civilians who get caught in its butchery and bloodletting.

      But this disparate band of criminals known as Los Zetas is no longer just a concern in Mexico. It has expanded its deadly operations across the southwestern border, establishing footholds and alliances in states from New York to California. Just last year, federal agents tied a cocaine operation in Baltimore to the Zetas.

      “Those of us who live and work along the border know they’re already here,” said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., whose Texas county lies on the Rio Grande 50 miles southeast of the Zetas’ stronghold of Nuevo Laredo. “There’s already been killings and many residents here are living in fear.”

      ======

      Read it all

      Secure the border, Mr. President

    • California’s criminal alien population rises – Costs $34K a Year to Incarcerate – The number of criminal aliens incarcerated in California rose to 102,795 in 2009, a 17 percent increase since 2003, federal auditors reported Thursday.

      This isn't cheap. Nationwide, the Government Accountability Office reports, it costs well over $1.1 billion a year for states to imprison criminal aliens — those who committed a crime after entering the United States illegally. California, moreover, is more expensive than other states. GAO auditors estimated California spends $34,000 to incarcerate a criminal alien for one year; in Texas, it's only $12,000.

      The audit, requested by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, will provide ammunition for states' perennial effort to secure more federal reimbursement dollars.

      More than one in four of the illegal immigrants imprisoned in California are behind bars for drug offenses. Many are also repeat offenders. GAO auditors say that, based on a survey, criminal alien inmates have been arrested an average of seven different times.

      ========

      Secure the border and deport these criminals…..

      Come on now….

    • Wonkette Pulls Offensive Post About Sarah Palin’s Handicapped Son – As NewsBusters reported Wednesday, the liberal website Wonkette published a truly disgraceful piece earlier in the week about Sarah Palin's Down's syndrome son Trig.

      Under intense pressure from readers and advertisers, the site's editor took the post down Thursday:

      A post on this page satirizing Sarah Palin using her baby as a political prop was very badly done and sounded like the author was mocking the child and not just Sarah Palin/Sarah Palin’s followers.

      The writer, Jack Stuef, has apologized for it. And we have decided to remove the post as requested by some people who have nothing to do with Sarah Palin, but who do have an interest in the cause of special needs children. We apologize for the poor comedic judgment.

      ======

      Read it all…..

      Boom! Money speaks…..

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 16:52

    April 20, 2011 /

    These are my links for April 20th from 16:52 to 19:31:

    • Wonkette’s Ken Layne, Blogger Jack Stuef’s History of Targeting Kids – In 2008, Wonkette ran a post by Jim Newell, who now works for Gawker, mocking Trig and joking:
      “Little baby Trig must be so glad he wasn’t aborted for this, his first Halloween, because his parents dressed him up like a political party symbol to be carried around at snarling political events. Aww. Isn’t life just grand?”

      ======

      Fairly obvious…..

    • HuffPost bans ‘Trig Truthers’ – Huffington Post appears to have drawn the line on acceptable political debate to exclude theories about the nativity of Sarah Palin's youngest son.

      Palin critic Geoffrey Dunn, who has contributed a long line of attacks on the former Alaska governor to the site, published his version of the "Trig Truther" theory to Business Insider today, after Huffington Post turned the blog post down.

      "We did pass on a submission by Geoffrey Dunn about Trig, as it ran counter to our policy against conspiracy theories," Huffington Post spokesman Mario Ruiz confirmed in an email. 

      There's a solid bipartisan tradition of such purges, which includes in the online era the DailyKos ban on 9/11 Truthers and RedState's Birther ban. But the Trig theorizing had mostly avoided that fate, partly because it never developed the sort of mass following of the others, partly because there's so much vitriol for Palin on the left and partly because its most visible proponent, Andrew Sullivan, is a unique media property with a large audience of his own, valuable enough to the Daily Beast that they'll shrug off the Trig theories as an eccentricity as long as his readers abide it.

      =====

      As they should….

    • Wonkette’s Ken Layne Issues Phony Claim That "Trig Is Cool With Us" – Ken Layne, the owner and lead editor of Wonkette, is in damage control mode over the article by recent college grad Jack Stuef ripping into and mocking Trig Palin.

      Dave Weigel (h/t Instapundit) received this e-mail from Layne:
      I have four kids myself and I wouldn't want them mocked on the Internet by a bunch of cretins on the Internet. And that's just one reason why I wouldn't parade my children around in the media. What kind of mother does that?

      In any case, Jack has been admonished and put on night probation until further notice. Anything involving Palin, I want to make it extra clear that *Palin* is the problem with America. Not her kids. Not her little kid, anyway. The older ones seem to be on their own path and you can't really blame Sarah for it, although she certainly encourages the sleaziest possible behavior from her grown children, which is hardly a very "family values" thing to do. But as far as Jack's future, a few months on the night shift cleaning up the furious, ALLCAPS unmoderated Wonkette comments, without pay, should teach him a thing or two about writing stuff that confuses the target. Trig is cool with us. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is a grave danger to America.
      First of all, Sarah Palin doesn't "parade" her kids around any more than any other politician.  Hey Ken, have you seen all those photos of the Obama kids with their parents on vacation and elsewhere?  I've addressed this phony "prop" charge before.

      But more important, Layne has a very convenient memory.  In 2009, as I documented in my post Wonkette Goes After Trig Palin Again, Layne mocked Trig, including running this photoshop which he took from a posting board:

      =====

      Read it all……Yes, there is a history of Wonkette mocking Sarah and Trig Palin

    • Day By Day April 20, 2011 – Return to Sender | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day April 20, 2011 – Return to Sender #tcot #catcot
    • Mike Murphy on the 2012 presidential election – Right Turn – The Washington Post – Mike Murphy on the 2012 presidential election
    • Wonkette Removes Writer’s Name From Trig Hit Piece UPDATE: Wonkette Deletes Comments – Big Journalism – RT @DLoesch: I see @wonkette removed @stuef 's name from the Trig hit piece:
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 16:31 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for April 20th on 16:31 #tcot #catcot