• Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: July 16, 2012

    July 16, 2012 /

    These are my links for July 10th through July 16th:

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: June 29, 2012

    June 29, 2012 /

    These are my links for June 27th through June 29th:

    • Nancy Pelosi Botches Brian Terry’s Name While Addressing Congress on Holder Contempt Charges– House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), while speaking on the House floor opposing the contempt charges of Attorney General Eric Holder, actually botched the name of slain border patrol agent Brian Terry.As she expressed condolences to his family, Pelosi called him “Brian Tay, Tay, Terry” (video follows with transcript and commentary):
    • House could arrest Holder with inherent contempt power– Despite voting to hold Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress, there’s little House Republicans can do in the short term to compel him to turn over documents — unless it wanted to revisit a long-dormant power and arrest him.The thought is shocking, and conjures up a Hollywood-ready standoff scene between House police and the FBI agents who protect the attorney general. It’s a dramatic and unlikely possibility not least because Congress doesn’t even have a jail any longer. But in theory it could happen.Republicans say it’s not even under consideration, with House Speaker John A. Boehner’s spokesman flatly ruling it out.But the process, known as inherent contempt, is well-established by precedent, has been confirmed by multiple Supreme Court rulings, and is available to any Congress willing to force such a confrontation.
    • Holder controversies could weigh on Obama in 2012 race– The contempt vote Thursday against Attorney General Eric Holder could spell trouble for President Obama — not just for his administration’s efforts to lock down Fast and Furious documents, but also for his re-election campaign.Holder over the past three-and-a-half years has become, according to one polling outfit, the most unpopular member of Obama’s Cabinet. The attorney general is associated with a string of controversial decisions — from his response to the Fast and Furious probe to his department’s suits against state immigration laws to the campaign to halt GOP-led voter ID laws in Florida and elsewhere — that have riled conservatives, even some Democrats.The contempt vote, for his critics, is one more notch against Holder. And it could fuel his becoming a divisive figure during the presidential campaign as opponents try to cast him as an albatross around Obama’s neck.”I think that it’s the biggest non-economic story (in 2012),” GOP pollster Adam Geller said of Fast and Furious. “You can bet that it’s going to certainly get some mention, as it should, as a political issue.”
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: June 29, 2012 – The Morning Drill: June 29, 2012
    • Day By Day June 29, 2012 – Eat Your Vegetables – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Day By Day June 29, 2012 – Eat Your Vegetables
    • It’s Up to the Voters Now – The last chance to stop ObamaCare is in November– If there is a modicum of hope in Chief Justice John Roberts’s inglorious one-man opinion Thursday, it is that Americans were reminded again that they cannot count on others to protect their liberty. Certainly judges aren’t reliable. They can be turned by the pressure of the media and the whims of vanity. If Americans want to repeal ObamaCare, their only recourse is to demand it at the ballot box in November.The Affordable Care Act is more unpopular now than when it passed, yet it will grind on toward implementation in a second Obama term. The President made that clear in his remarks Thursday, deploying the usual half-truths he used to jam the law through Congress. He continued to claim that no one will lose his current health insurance, though millions are sure to do so as they are dropped from business coverage and tossed into Medicaid or government exchanges.
    • WashingtonPost – Krauthammer: Why Roberts Did It
    • Congress moves highway, student loan bills | Jamie Dupree Washington Insider – RT @jamiedupree DEEP IN THE DETAILS OF THE HIGHWAY BILL: A section on “Roll-your-own cigarette machines” #tcot
    • GOP 12: Halperin: “Real possibility” tea party could now prove decisive– On MSNBC this morning, Mark Halperin called yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling a “substantive win” for Barack Obama, but nevertheless, a political wildcard.”I’m not sure it’s a long-term political win for him. He lost the midterms largely over this.If you look at Republicans who aren’t focused on Roberts as much as they are on what the political implications are, and they say the tea party giant which had kind of been slumbering is now going to be awakened, and will be that decisive force in this election.I’m not predicting that, but I think it’s a real possibility.”
    • Need a Refill? at Runner’s World – RT @runnersworld Take this hydration refresher course before your next hot run:
    • Krauthammer: Why Roberts Did It– It’s the judiciary’s Nixon-to-China: Chief Justice John Roberts joins the liberal wing of the Supreme Court and upholds the constitutionality of Obamacare. How? By pulling off one of the great constitutional finesses of all time. He managed to uphold the central conservative argument against Obamacare, while at the same time finding a narrow definitional dodge to uphold the law —and thus prevented the court from being seen as having overturned, presumably on political grounds, the signature legislation of this administration.Why did he do it? Because he carries two identities. Jurisprudentially, he is a constitutional conservative. Institutionally, he is chief justice and sees himself as uniquely entrusted with the custodianship of the court’s legitimacy, reputation and stature.
    • Did Republicans lose the health care battle but win the health care war?– But, even as Democrats celebrated, Republicans insisted that their rivals — and members of the media — couldn’t see the forest through the trees.Jonathan Collegio, communications director for American Crossroads, a leading conservative outside group, called the ruling a “millstone” around the neck of any Democrat running for federal office this fall.“The Supreme Court’s decision forces Obamacare to be litigated in the 2012 elections, and in virtually every case where Obamacare has been litigated by voters in an election, the law and its supporters lose,” added Collegio.“This ruling is the kiss of death for the Democrat majority in the U.S . Senate as health care just became a tax increase on the middle class in one of the worst economies Americans have ever faced,” added longtime Republican strategist Chris LaCivita
    • Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s Comments On His Home, California – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-06-29
    • Flap’s California Morning Collection: Waiting for ObamaCare Ruling – Flap’s California Morning Collection: Waiting for ObamaCare Ruling
    • Twitter / Wimbledon: The #Wimbledon grounds are – RT @Wimbledon: The #Wimbledon grounds are at full capacity and the gates are closed.
    • Adelson pledges $10M to Koch effort –
    • Tick tock: Minute-by-minute replay of court’s historic health ruling – TheHill.com – ObamaCare RT @iswanTheHill Tick Tock: A minute-by-minute recap of an historic day:
    • High court gives GOP new weapon on taxes– Republicans have seized on the Supreme Court’s decision that the health insurance mandate is a tax, believing it will help them argue a second term for President Obama would be devastating for the economy.Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney employed the line of attack shortly after the ruling came down, asserting “Obamacare raises taxes on the American people by approximately $500 billion.”Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a top contender to be Romney’s running mate, drove home the point, arguing Obama has been freed to unleash an army of tax collectors on the public.“If you do not buy health insurance, the IRS is going to be on your back and chasing you,” Rubio said.

      The tactic of hitting Obama as tax-raising liberal was used in the wake of an otherwise stinging defeat for conservatives at the hands of Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s liberal wing.

      In a 5-4 decision, Roberts ruled the mandate is a permissible use of Congress’ taxing powers, upholding a law that

      conservatives fought as a breathtaking expansion of the federal government.

      But the ruling on the mandate also provided support for Republicans who had long argued that the mandate was a tax increase in disguise

    • Dems grapple with feelings about Roberts court after health decision– Congressional Democrats who had feared the worst from the Supreme Court were left grappling with a new reality Thursday after Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding vote to uphold President Obama’s landmark healthcare law.Democrats for years have charged that the Roberts Court has made decisions guided more by partisan politics than the Constitution, most notably by ruling in Citizens United that corporations could spend unlimited amounts in political campaigns.After Roberts sided with them on the even more high-profile and politically contentious healthcare ruling, some liberals felt more charitable both about Roberts and the Supreme Court in general.Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), who was holding a sign that read “Obama-Roberts 2012” as he left a Democratic caucus meeting, said Roberts has “rebranded himself” with Thursday’s healthcare ruling.

      “We certainly agree with his, in this case, very principled position. In one fell swoop he’s burnished his legacy,” Ackerman said. “This is almost a revocation of the Bush v. Gore decision, where [conservative justices] went completely the opposite way.

    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-06-29 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-06-29
    • Humor / Oh My! For the man who has everything? – Oh My! For the man who has everything?
    • ObamaCare – The Affordable Care Act Survives Supreme Court Challenge – ObamaCare – The Affordable Care Act Survives Supreme Court Challenge
    • Untitled (http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-210d4e9.pdf) – Supreme Court ObamaCare Affordable Care Act Opinion is here:
    • President Obama Tells Judas Stephanopoulos Health Insurance Mandate IS NOT Tax Increase – YouTube – President Obama Tells Judas Stephanopoulos Health Insurance Mandate IS NOT Tax Increase
    • President Obama Tells Judas Stephanopoulos Health Insurance Mandate IS NOT Tax Increase
      – YouTube       – RT @aviksaroy: Obama telling Stephanopoulos mandate is not a tax:
    • Stockton bankruptcy: Southland cities try to avoid similar fate – latimes.com – RT @LANow: Stockton bankruptcy: Southland cities try to avoid similar fate
    • Untitled (http://www.scotusblog.com/cover-it-live/) – ObamaCare watch: Twitter, Drudge and SCOTUSBlog live blog: #tcot
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: Waiting for the Supreme Court ObamaCare Ruling – The Morning Drill: Waiting for the Supreme Court ObamaCare Ruling
    • Day By Day June 28, 2012 – Profiles in Lavage – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day June 28, 2012 – Profiles in Lavage
    • ‘Fast and Furious’: honesty vs. hypocrisy– The House of Representatives is expected to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress on Thursday for his refusal – backed by President Barack Obama – to provide documents that might explain why Holder’s Justice Department chose to lie to Congress in February 2011 about high-level officials’ involvement in the “Fast and Furious” fiasco, and why it stood by those lies for most of the year.If ever a scandal illustrated political hypocrisy, it is this.We start with the president’s baffling decision to assert executive privilege in denying the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, access to the documents. The White House says it and top Justice Department officials had nothing to do with the “gun-walking” program in which weapons were allowed to be sold to Mexican cartels to try to gain insight into how drug and arms traffickers operate. Then the White House says top administration officials’ deliberative processes need to be kept private on a matter in which they weren’t involved. Huh?
    • How to end the Holder stand-off: Fire him– If he were a first-year law student asked to explain how the president could refuse to allow House oversight on a botched operation in which Americans and Mexicans died and the administration has twice had to cop to providing erroneous information to Congress, Eric Holder’s letter would get an “F.” He doesn’t set out the nature of the document being withheld, the type of privilege being asserted, or the argument as to why it supersedes the right of Congress to oversee executive branch misconduct.Congress is certainly within it rights to hold him in contempt. But really the president should can Holder. He’s a lousy lawyer.
    • Untitled (http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/06/anticipating-the-health-care-decision-in-plain-english/#more-147840) – Anticipating the health-care decision: In Plain English
    • For SCOTUSblog, one goal: ‘Beat everybody’ and break news of health-care ruling – The Washington Post – For SCOTUSblog, one goal: ‘Beat everybody’ and break news of health-care ruling #tcot
    • Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s Comments On His Home, California – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-06-28
    • Flap’s California Morning Collection: June 27, 2012 – Flapsblog.org – Flap’s California Morning Collection: June 27, 2012
    • Untitled (http://www.rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_2/LegislativeText/CRPT-112hrpt-HR4348.pdf) – RT @jamiedupree: Final language of highway bill/student loan deal at – full explanation at
    • Untitled (http://www.rules.house.gov/Media/file/PDF_112_2/PDF/HR4348crJES.pdf) – RT @jamiedupree: Final language of highway bill/student loan deal at – full explanation at
    • Timeline of the health care law – CNN.com – RT @cnnhealth: Timeline of the health care law
    • Uncertainty crippling the struggling economy– Uncertainties are crippling the U.S. economy, and there’s a good chance Thursday’s Supreme Court decision will add to the problem.U.S. businesses are stacking up profits on their balance sheets, but they’re not investing in new workers and plants.The No. 1 reason is that executives just don’t see the demand, but this is compounded by policymakers in Washington and Brussels dithering over taxes and government spending, according to Wall Street analysts.None of this is good news for President Obama, who has had a good fortnight in the presidential race as the topic of discussion has switched to immigration.

      As the subject moves back to the economy and jobs, which it surely will do next week with the release of a June jobs report, the weakness of the underlying economy will retake center stage. And fingers will be pointed at both the White House and Congress.

    • Democrats defect on AG Holder– Several Democrats on Wednesday said they would vote to place Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, giving Republicans an opportunity to tout bipartisan support for the effort against President Obama’s attorney general.At least four Democrats in GOP-leaning districts said they’d side with Republicans and back the contempt measure in the wake of the National Rifle Association’s decision to score the vote.The support from Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and John Barrow (D-Ga.) is key for Republicans as they try to defend the legitimacy of the contempt measure to voters and parry counterattacks from Democrats stating that they are leading a “witch hunt.”The contempt measure is expected to pass mostly along partisan lines, but there is intense pressure on Democrats in conservative-leaning districts to side with the NRA against Obama’s chief law enforcement officer.
    • Five scenarios: Health care options before the justices – CNN.com – Five scenarios: Health care options before the justices
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Comments on Politics, the Dental World and Much More – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-06-28
    • How to Empower Your Dental Practice with Social Media – Flap’s Blog – How to Empower Your Dental Practice with Social Media
    • Why the Whole Health Care Law Is in Jeopardy– The real Supreme Court news on Tuesday wasn’t the Arizona immigration decision or even the summary reversal of the Supreme Court of Montana in the “Citizens United 2” case. It was that the chief justice of the United States didn’t write any of these opinions.This is critically important, because we can now deduce with a reasonably high degree of certainty that John Roberts is writing the lead health care opinion. If we are right about this, then the law is in even deeper trouble that most observers imagined.
    • The Morning Flap: June 27, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: June 27, 2012
    • Texas Attorney General Files Suit Over Dental Medicaid Fraud – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Texas Attorney General Files Suit Over Dental Medicaid Fraud
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: June 27, 2012

    June 27, 2012 /

    These are my links for June 26th through June 27th:

    • Quinnipiac Poll: Presidential Swing States (FL, OH & PA) Poll * June 27, 2012 *– FLORIDA: Obama 45 – Romney 41 OHIO: Obama 47 – Romney 38 PENNSYLVANIA: Obama 45 – Romney 39 Voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania support President Barack Obama’s new immigration policy and are divided on whether the president or Gov. Mitt Romney would be better for their personal economic future, as they give Obama leads in these three critical swing states, a razor thin 4 points in Florida, a healthy 9 points in Ohio and 6 points in Pennsylvania, according to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released today.This compares to the results of a May 3 Swing State Poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University, showing Obama with an 8-point lead in Pennsylvania with Florida and Ohio too close to call.Matching Obama against Romney in each of these key states – no one has won the White House since 1960 without taking at least two of them – shows:

      Florida: Obama edges Romney 45 – 41 percent;
      Ohio: Obama over Romney 47 – 38 percent;
      Pennsylvania: Obama tops Romney 45 – 39 percent.

      “President Barack Obama has decent margins over Gov. Mitt Romney in Ohio and Pennsylvania and a smaller advantage in Florida. If he can keep those leads in all three of these key swing states through election day he would be virtually assured of re-election,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

    • Charles B. Rangel Fends Off Challengers to Win a Congressional Primary – Surviving one of the toughest re-election fights of his career, Representative Charles B. Rangel fended off four challengers on Tuesday to win the Democratic nomination for a 22nd term in Congress.
    • Stockton to file for bankruptcy, will be largest U.S. city to fail– This Gold Rush-era port city, an epicenter of California’s agricultural exports, will become the nation’s largest city to seek protection under the U.S. bankruptcy code after its City Council on Tuesday stopped bond payments, slashed employee health and retirement benefits and adopted a day-to-day survival budget.City Manager Bob Deis likened the process to cutting off an arm to save the body. He is expected to file bankruptcy papers immediately.A Delta wind had scrubbed the Central Valley sky blue as residents gathered hours early for the 5:30 p.m. meeting.

      Most knew what the night held; bankruptcy has been a long time coming. Stockton has been in negotiations with its creditors since late March under AB 506, a new California law requiring mediation before a municipality can file for reorganization of debt. It was the first use of the law, and policy analysts who watched its torturous and tedious progress have titled their report on it “Death by a Thousand Meetings.” Mediations ended Monday at midnight.

    • Waiting on the Supremes – ObamaCare– We’re all waiting to see if Obamacare will be spared, gutted, or tossed into the ash heap of history by the Supreme Court on Thursday. In a new Purple Strategies survey of former Supreme Court clerks and attorneys who have argued before the Court, 57 percent believe the individual mandate, the heart of the law, will die. In April, Obama himself engaged in some gallows humor after the Supreme Court justices roughed up his law in oral argument: “In my first term, we passed health care reform. In my second term, I guess we’ll pass it again.”But if Obamacare vanishes or the individual mandate is eliminated, look for Democrats to panic. There will also be comparisons to Jimmy Carter — the last Democratic president to lose reelection — and his “malaise” period.It’s never good if a president’s central domestic-policy achievement is trashed months before an election, and in this case it could be politically fatal. In a new poll by the GOP-oriented Young Guns Policy Center, independent voters agree by 55 to 37 percent on this point: “President Obama did the wrong thing by focusing on passing health care reform his first year in office. He should have worked harder to get the economy going and creating jobs before moving on to other issues.”
    • WSJ/NBC News Poll: Obama Clings to a Narrow Lead– President Barack Obama has managed to retain a narrow lead in his race for re-election despite a spate of poor economic news and surging GOP optimism about Mitt Romney’s prospects, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.The president outpolls Mr. Romney, his presumed Republican rival, 47% to 44%, a lead within the survey’s margin of error and similar to the advantage he enjoyed a month ago. Mr. Obama’s lead is wider in swing states, where the campaigns have battled most intensely.The poll highlights challenges facing both candidates. While Mr. Obama retains a durable base of support, his standing among white, working-class voters, which was low to start with, continues to erode. Interest in the campaign isn’t nearly as intense as it was four years ago among young people and Latinos, who were important to Mr. Obama’s victory in 2008.
    • Stockton braces for possible bankruptcy as key vote looms– Stockton residents braced for a fateful City Council meeting on Tuesday night that could result in the city declaring bankruptcy.The prospect of insolvency was generating national headlines Tuesday.But on the Central Valley city’s largely African American south side, the spectre of Stockton becoming the largest U.S. city to file for protection from creditors raised little interest.

      “Bankrupt? We’ve been bankrupt,” said the Rev. Dwight Williams of the New Bethel Baptist Church.

      “This church works day and night to pay the PGE bill and keep the lights on. So many in our congregation have lost homes and jobs.

      “But it’s in our DNA to take the bitterness of lemons and made sweet lemonade. We remain optimistic and we will continue to take care of one another but I think most people around here would laugh if you said Stockton was going to be bankrupt.

      The Stockton City Council will discuss whether to seek protection from creditors under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

    • Pew survey finds that 17 percent of US cellphone users go online mostly on their phones – It should hardly come as a surprise that folks are spending more and more of their time online on their cellphones, but a new Pew study released today has shed a bit more light on just how common that’s becoming. According to the research group, 17 percent of all cellphone users (including those without smartphones) go online “mostly” on their cellphone, while 33 percent primarily use another device, and five percent use both equally — a hefty 45 percent still don’t use their phones to go online at all, though. Not surprisingly, those numbers go up when broken down by those who do at least use the internet occasionally on their phone — 31 percent of whom go online primarily on their phone — and there’s an even bigger jump when looking at younger users. Among those 18 to 29 who use the internet on their phones, fully 45 percent use their cellphone for most of their online activities.
    • Overlooked Asian-American voters could tip scales in November election– Politicians predict 2012 will be the “tipping point” year for Asian-Americans, as this once-marginalized demographic overtakes Hispanics as the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, and offers a cache of independent votes for the taking.“I think the time has come and we deserve a seat at the table,” said Manan Trivedi, an Indian-American physician and Iraq war veteran running as a Democrat in Pennsylvania’s 6th district.Trivedi is just one of a record 25 Asian-American candidates running for Congress this year, hoping to capitalize on exploding immigration rates.

      According to a Pew Research Center study released last week, Asian-Americans are now the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the country. With more than 18 million residents, Asian-Americas currently account for 5.8 percent of the total U.S. population.

    • Obama Attacks Romney as Outsourcer in Chief – Flap’s Blog – Obama Attacks Romney as Outsourcer in Chief
    • The Morning Flap: June 26, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: June 26, 2012
    • City of Stockton is the Largest U.S. City to File for Bankruptcy? – City of Stockton is the Largest U.S. City to File for Bankruptcy?
    • AD-48: Is Roger Hernandez Safe for Assembly Re-Election? Flapsblog.org – AD-48: Is Roger Hernandez Safe for Assembly Re-Election?
    • Democrats Cancel Speedway Event at Charlotte Convention- Bloomberg – Democrats Cancel Speedway Event at Charlotte Convention
    • Rielle Hunter and John Edwards No Longer a Couple – Flap’s Blog – Rielle Hunter and John Edwards No Longer a Couple
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: June 26, 2012

    June 26, 2012 /

    These are my links for June 25th through June 26th:

    • Democrats Cancel Speedway Event at Charlotte Convention – Democrats canceled a political convention kick-off event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and will move the activities to Charlotte’s main business district, the convention’s host committee announced.
      “While we regret having to move CarolinaFest away from our great partners at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the City of Concord, we are thrilled with the opportunity that comes with hosting this event in Uptown Charlotte,” said Dan Murrey, the executive director of the Charlotte in 2012 Convention Host Committee.
      The move comes as party planners are grappling with a fundraising deficit of roughly $27 million, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal party politics. With a party ban on direct contributions from corporations, the host committee has raised less than $10 million, well short of its $36.6 million goal, said one of the people.
    • Eric Holder ‘Fast and Furious’ contempt vote to be held Thursday– The House is scheduled to vote on recommendations that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. be held in contempt of Congress on Thursday, according to House Republican aides.Republican leaders plan to bring the issue to the floor on Thursday, meaning lawmakers likely will vote on contempt charges on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to announce its ruling on the constitutionality of the 2010 health-care reform law.The timing likely deprives advocates for contempt charges of the big headlines they might have received if the vote were held another day this week.

      House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Sunday that the vote could still be postponed or scrapped if Holder and Justice Department officials present congressional investigators with documents related to a probe into Operation “Fast and Furious,” the botched gun-running operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives out of its Phoenix offices between 2009 and 2011.

    • Dems seek to recast Holder furor as GOP effort to suppress votes– Democrats are seeking to portray the Republican contempt motion against Attorney General Eric Holder as an assault on minority rights.Republicans have repeatedly accused Holder and the Obama administration of stonewalling Congress, but Democrats are now trying to steer the “Fast and Furious” debate away from transparency and toward voter suppression.
    • Homeland Security suspends immigration agreements with Arizona police– The Obama administration said Monday it is suspending existing agreements with Arizona police over enforcement of federal immigration laws, and said it has issued a directive telling federal authorities to decline many of the calls reporting illegal immigrants that the Homeland Security Department may get from Arizona police.Administration officials, speaking on condition they not be named, told reporters they expect to see an increase in the number of calls they get from Arizona police — but that won’t change President Obama’s decision to limit whom the government actually tries to detain and deport.“We will not be issuing detainers on individuals unless they clearly meet our defined priorities,” one official said in a telephone briefing.

      The official said that despite the increased number of calls, which presumably means more illegal immigrants being reported, the Homeland Security Department is unlikely to detain a significantly higher number of people and won’t be boosting personnel to handle the new calls.

      “We do not plan on putting additional staff on the ground in Arizona,” the official said.

    • Supreme Court split verdict puts immigration center stage in 2012– The Supreme Court scrapped much of Arizona’s immigration law Monday, intensifying the national debate on the issue and making it more likely to be a big factor in November’s presidential election.With both parties vying for a larger piece of the Hispanic vote, President Obama quickly praised the ruling while his GOP rival Mitt Romney criticized it, saying he would have preferred that the court give more latitude to Arizona.In a 5-3 ruling, the court rejected key provisions of the 2010 immigration law, but let stand a central provision allowing police to check the legal status of those stopped on suspicion of unrelated offenses.
    • (404) http://t.co/htGdLa – RT @AP: More on immigration: Supreme Court strikes down most of Arizona crackdown, but police can still check status: …
    • Cover It Live – Scotusblog – RT @libcasey: Immigration SCOTUS decision out!
    • The Morning Flap: June 25, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: June 25, 2012
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: June 25, 2012 – The Morning Drill: June 25, 2012
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: June 25, 2012

    June 25, 2012 /

    These are my links for June 21st through June 25th:

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: June 21, 2012

    June 21, 2012 /

     The United States Supreme Court is under watch for imminent decisions on the constitutionality of ObamaCare – the Affordable Care Act and the Arizona Immigration Law among other cases

    These are my links for June 20th through June 21st:

    • The Private Cost of Public Queues– The measurement of health care waiting times, or the examination of the absolute delay Canadians must endure in order to receive medically necessary care, is only one way of looking at the burden of waiting for health care. We can also calculate the privately borne cost of waiting: the value of the time that is lost while waiting for treatment. One way of estimating the privately borne cost of waiting for care in Canada was originally developed by Steven Globerman and Lorna Hoye (1990). They calculated the cost of waiting by estimating the amount of time that could not be used productively by a patient while waiting for treatment.The estimated cost of waiting for care in Canada for patients who were in the queue in 2011, according to calculations based on the methodology produced by Globerman and Hoye, was $1.08 billion—an average of about $1,144 for each of the estimated 941,321 Canadians waiting for treatment in 2011. Alternatively, that cost works out to roughly $10,399 for each individual among the 11.0% of patients in the queue who were suffering considerable hardship while waiting for care.
    • How Long Do Canadians Wait for Healthcare?– According to a new study by Canada’s Fraser Institute, surgical waitlists are costing the nation about $1 billion each year in lost productivity. The average Canadian can now expect to wait 9.5 weeks for treatment with a medical specialist, this number up from 9.3 weeks last year.While most stories report on the personal pain of waiting for care, Fraser’s new report “The Private Cost of Public Queues,” breaks ground in assigning a specific monetary value to the Canadian economy’s loss each year due to the rationing in its single-payer healthcare system.Based on a 2011 Statistics Canada finding, the study makes the assumption that 11% of patients “were adversely affected by their wait for non-emergency surgery.” Dividing the cost individually, health rationing for Canada’s 941,321 patients seeking specialized surgery came out to $3,500 per patient in lost wage hours.
    • Romney Campaign Said to Ask Scott to Downplay Job Gains– Mitt Romney ’s presidential campaign asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to tone down his statements heralding improvements in the state’s economy because they clash with the presumptive Republican nominee’s message that the nation is suffering under President Barack Obama,according to two people familiar with the matter.Scott, a Republican, was asked to say that the state’s jobless rate could improve faster under a Romney presidency, according to the people, who asked not to be named.What’s unfolding in Florida highlights a dilemma for the Romney campaign: how to allow Republican governors to take credit for economic improvements in their states while faulting Obama’s stewardship of the national economy. Republican governors in Ohio, Virginia , Michigan and Wisconsin also have highlighted improving economies.Scott should follow the advice of the Romney campaign and it won’t undermine his own message, said Mac Stipanovich, a political strategist and lobbyist in Florida.

      “This is one of those situations where you could have it both ways and there’s enough truth in it that it would resonate,” Stipanovich said. “It would be better if everybody was singing from the same hymnal.”

      New Poll Romney’s campaign is eager to sell its economy message in Florida, one of the most competitive electoral battlegrounds, where the past three presidential races were decided by 5 percentage points or less. Obama leads Romney, 46 percent to 42 percent, in a Quinnipiac University poll released today, a shift from May when the Republican was in the lead, 47 percent to 41 percent.

    • Murdered Border Agent’s Family Says President Obama ‘Compounding This Tragedy’ with Executive Privilege Assertion– The family of slain U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed with guns tied to the Fast and Furious program, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon accusing President Obama of compounding their family tragedy by invoking executive privilege.President Obama invoked executive privilege to shield the Justice Department from having to release documents sought by House Republican investigating the secret law enforcement program, wherein weapons smugglers were permitted to buy guns so law enforcement could trace them to drug cartels. Law enforcement lost track of hundreds of the guns, which began showing up at crime scenes, most tragically in December 2010, where Terry was killed.
    • Fast And Furious: Executive Privilege Is Illegitimate to Shield Wrongdoing– As a strong defender of executive power (when properly exercised) and executive privilege (when properly invoked), I am concerned when claims of executive power or privilege are abused for any reason—especially if they are invoked to shield potential wrongdoing. In addition to shielding the wrongdoing, it jeopardizes the very executive power that the President is entrusted with when Congress and the courts react—as they did in the post-Watergate era—to the abuse of power.The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is rightfully investigating the Fast and Furious debacle, in which the Administration allowed thousands of guns to flow across the Mexican border, resulting in the death of one U.S. border patrol agent and at least 200 Mexican citizens—according to the Mexican attorney general. The most glaring violation of executive power in that investigation prior to today was the refusal of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to turn over 1,300 pages of documents subpoenaed by the committee without even an assertion of executive privilege. Attorney General Eric Holder simply refused on his own initiative in a blatant act of stonewalling.
    • Those Fast and Furious documents must be dynamite– My friend Bill Otis was a Justice Department lawyer for many years. He spent a good portion of those years as a prosecutor. He also served as an attorney in the White House Counsel’s shop, so he knows all about dealing with unpleasant congressional inventigations and demands for documents.In short, Bill is extremely very well positioned to comment knowledgably on the dispute between Rep. Issa’s Committee and Eric Holder, and on the White House’s decision to assert executive privilege. Here is what Bill had to say:Even with his fawning press, [Presdient Obama] will pay a price for this one. He knows this, meaning that the documents now to be withheld must be dynamite. They have to show either that Holder knew what was going on with Fast and Furious and approved it, or that he directly committed perjury in his Congressional testimony, or both. I just can’t see any other explanation for such a risky move.Wasn’t the Washington Post just covering big time the 40th anniversary of Watergate? I wonder how much coverage this one will get.
    • Obama weaves Fast and Furious fight into his re-election narrative– President Obama escalated a battle between his administration and the Republican House over Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday in ways that could benefit his reelection campaign.By asserting executive privilege over “Fast and Furious” documents sought by the House GOP, Obama inserted himself directly into the fight between Holder and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman. He also made it easier to run against not only Mitt Romney, but a Republican House he hopes to portray as divisive and overly extreme.
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Comments on Politics, the Dental World and Much More – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-06-21
    • The Morning Flap: June 20, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: June 20, 2012
    • House panel recommends Holder contempt citation – CNN.com – Obama asserts executive privilege on Fast and Furious documents
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: June 20, 2012 – The Morning Drill: June 20, 2012
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    The Morning Flap: June 20, 2012

    June 20, 2012 /

    These are my links for June 19th through June 20th:

    • Obama grants Holder request on ‘Furious’ documents as contempt vote looms– President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off a contempt vote against Holder by Republicans in the House.The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to forge ahead Wednesday morning with its meeting on the contempt resolution anyway.If the vote proceeds, Republicans have more than enough votes on committee to pass the resolution. However, Holder would not be considered held in contempt of Congress unless and until the full House approves the measure.The move by Holder and Obama to lock down some requested documents only complicates the fight over the botched anti-gunrunning operation between the legislative and executive branches.After Holder made the request to Obama via letter on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., on Wednesday informing him that the president has granted the request.
    • Obama asserts executive privilege on Fast and Furious documents– President Barack Obama has asserted executive privilege over documents sought by a House committee investigating the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting, according to a letter to the panel Wednesday from Deputy Attorney Gen. James Cole.The move means the Department of Justice can withhold the documents from the House Oversight Committee, which was scheduled to consider a contempt measure Wednesday against Holder.”I write now to inform you that the president has asserted executive privilege over the relevant post-February 4, 2011, documents,” Cole wrote in a letter to committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California.”We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the committee’s concerns and to accommodate the committee’s legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious,” Cole continued. “Although we are deeply disappointed that the committee appears intent on proceeding with a contempt vote, the department remains willing to work with the Committee to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues.”
    • Food Stamp Fiasco – The Senate refuses to cut $20 billion out of $770 billion– The next time someone moans about Washington “austerity,” tell them about the Senate’s food stamp votes on Tuesday. Democrats and a few Republicans united to block even modest reform in a welfare program that has exploded in the last decade and is set to spend $770 billion in the next 10 years.Yes, $770 billion on a single program. And you wonder why the U.S. had its credit-rating downgraded?When the food stamp program began in the 1970s, it was designed to help about 1 of 50 Americans who were in severe financial distress. But thanks to eligibility changes first by President George W. Bush as part of the 2002 farm bill and then by President Obama in the 2008 stimulus, food stamps are becoming the latest middle-class entitlement.
    • So, What’s up with Marco Rubio? – This morning, I reported that Mitt Romney had not asked Marco Rubio to take the first steps in the vice presidential vetting process. As my report said, “He has not been asked to complete any questionnaires or been asked to turn over any financial documents typically required of potential vice presidential candidates.”
      This afternoon the Washington Post matched that reporting. And in a taped interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Romney brushed off questions about whether Rubio was being vetted.
      “I get a kick out of some of the speculation that goes on,” Romney told Hannity. “And I’m not going to comment on the process, of course. But I can tell you this. Only Beth Myers and I know who’s being vetted.”
      A few hours later, however, Romney called in reporters traveling with him to give an entirely different response.
      “Marco Rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process,” Romney told reporters, adding reports that said Rubio was not being vetted were “entirely false.”
      “There was a story that originated today, apparently at ABC, based on reports of supposedly outside, unnamed advisers of mine,” Romney said. “I can’t imagine who such people are but I can tell you this. They know nothing about the vice presidential selection or evaluation process. There are only two people in this country who know who are being vetted and who are not, and that’s Beth Myers and myself.”
    • Obama’s grandfather Stanley Armour Dunham tortured by the British?– A new biography of Barack Obama has established that his grandfather was not, as is related in the President’s own memoir, detained by the British in Kenya and found that claims that he was tortured were a fabrication.’Barack Obama: The Story’ by David Maraniss catalogues dozens of instances in which Obama deviated significantly from the truth in his book ‘Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance’. The 641-page book punctures the carefully-crafted narrative of Obama’s life.One of the enduring myths of Obama’s ancestry is that his paternal grandfather Hussein Onyango Obama, who served as a cook in the British Army, was imprisoned in 1949 by the British for helping the anti-colonial Mau Mau rebels and held for several months.
    • Elizabeth Warren loses it, lashes out at “right wing extremist” (me)– As you know, Elizabeth Warren has been caught in a series of at best misleading and at worst false responses since The Boston Herald first broke the story in late April that Harvard Law promoted her as Native American in the mid-to-late 1990s.First she played dumb and said she didn’t know why.  But over the course of several weeks digging by bloggers and newspapers punctured Warren’s story, and revealed or forced Warren to admit she listed herself as Native American to get on a list of “Minority Law Teachers” in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, that she informed both Penn Law and Harvard Law that she was Native American for federal reporting purposes, and that she was on a list at Harvard during her “visiting year” of “Women of Color in Legal Academia.”Genealogical tracing of Warren’s alleged Cherokee ancestry by a group of Cherokees led by Twila Barnes has shown that Warren has no Cherokee heritage.  The documentation and research has been posted for all to see.  Anger at Warren extends beyond Cherokees.Yet Warren persists in the claim to this day, raising bizarre defenses such as her Aunt Bea told her her ancestors had high cheekbones “like all the Indians” and that her parents supposedly had to elope because her mother was 1/16 Native American.
    • New RNC ad targeting Hispanics focuses on economic message – The Hill’s Video – RT @thehill: New RNC ad targeting Hispanics focuses on economic message
    • Working-Class Whites a Barrier to a Democratic House – Wednesday, June 20, 2012 – Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill famously remarked that all politics is local. But this year, it’s the rhetoric of John Edwards that rings truer–in assessing the House race landscape, there are indeed two Americas. President Obama believes the way to win a second term is by rallying elements of the party base, but House Democrats trying to take back the majority face the added burden of winning the votes of increasingly disillusioned white working-class voters.
    • Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Comments on Politics, the Dental World and Much More – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-06-20
    • Day By Day June 19, 2012 – Banned Acts – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day June 19, 2012 – Banned Acts
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: June 19, 2012 – The Morning Drill: June 19, 2012
    • The Morning Flap: June 19, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: June 19, 2012
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    The Morning Flap: June 19, 2012

    June 19, 2012 /

    MSNBC mischaracterizes Romney remarks – the full video above

    These are my (Flap) links for June 18th through June 19th:

    • A White House mess– One little-known fact about the world of journalism is that news organizations prepare obituaries of famous people while those people are still alive, so that packages of material will be ready to go when a death is announced.Over the past week, journalists have been writing articles that have the quality of these sorts of pre-obituaries — only the event they’re anticipating isn’t the last breath of an individual but the defeat of President Obama’s re-election bid.Even more striking, these journalists aren’t conservatives indulging in their deepest wish, but rather liberals who admire Obama and want to see him win a second term.Al Hunt, who was for decades the voice of liberal conventional wisdom as the Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, declared yesterday in his Bloomberg column that Obama “needs an intervention.”
    • The Sad Demise of the Occupy Movement– Remember when the Democratic Party saw the Occupy movement as the Left’s equivalent of the Tea Party? That lasted until it became obvious that 1) Occupy wasn’t actually much of a movement, and 2) to the extent it existed, it was an embarrassment. Occupy is in the process of fading away, not with a bang but a whimper, and with more criminal prosecutions to its credit than normal citizens converted to the leftist cause.But, much as a dead frog’s legs will continue kicking for a while, a few remnants of Occupy cling to a fitful existence. To see what the “movement” is up to these days, check out this online diary that documents the Occupy Caravan. The Caravan is a group of nine leftists who are driving, in two minivans, from California to Philadelphia. The diary, by one James Jennison, is hilarious but sad. You can’t help feeling sorry for this ragtag band of misfits who evidently think they are making some kind of political statement
    • Another Ridiculous Lie From Liberal Media – Distorting Romney’s “WAWAs” Hoagie Speech– Another example of how ridiculous the media is in their uncompromising struggle to distort the truth in order to make sure Obama wins and Conservatives lose.Today it’s being widely reported that Romney had a moment were he was amazed at the existence of WAWAs, a convenience/gas store, and the electronic touchtone ordering of sandwiches. They have spun this to make it seem like he’s out of touch – BUT THE VIDEO IS EDITED DECEPTIVELY:
    • MSNBC mischaracterizes Romney remarks– MSNBC aired footage today that inaccurately portrayed Mitt Romney’s remarks at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.Discussing how the public sector suffers from a lack of competition, Romney told the audience about an optometrist who wanted to change his address and subsequently received 33 pages of paperwork from the federal government, which begat a months-long bureaucratic nightmare during which the optometrist in question wasn’t receiving his checks. “That’s how government works,” Romney said.Then, to illustrate the advantages of competition in the private sector, Romney shared an anecdote from his visit to the local WaWa chain store. “I was at WaWas, I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad — you touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier — there’s your sandwich. It’s amazing. People in the private sector have learned how to compete. It’s time to bring some competition to the federal government.”
    • Will GOP demand Plame-style leak investigation?– A lot of lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, are angry about the damaging national security leaks that have come out of the Obama administration. But Republicans are probably angrier, and their feelings can be explained in two words: Valerie Plame.The Plame affair was a complicated, tortured episode in which the George W. Bush White House was accused of having deliberately leaked classified information — the identity of an undercover CIA agent — to score political points during a particularly intense time in the Iraq war. Now, many Republicans believe the Barack Obama White House has deliberately leaked classified information — among other things, details of the U.S. cyberwar against Iran — to score political points during a particularly intense time in the presidential campaign.
    • Dem hopes of taking House dim– Democratic hopes of recapturing the House are dimming as a series of race-by-race setbacks and economic uncertainty suggest that the 25 seats they need to net might be out of reach.The Hill projects that Democrats will net somewhere between 10 and 15 seats, assuming the presidential election remains a close contest.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has given her party a better than 50-50 chance of wresting control of the lower chamber — but missed opportunities in specific races and increasing economic worries have put that prediction in doubt.“The environment certainly isn’t as good as it was six months ago for Democrats,” a senior Democratic strategist who works on House races told The Hill, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to comment candidly.“Democrats are way off track of where they need to be to regain the majority,” said David Wasserman, the House race editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report
    • Marco Rubio Not Being Vetted to Be Mitt Romney’s Running Mate– Even before the Republicans chose a presidential nominee it was widely assumed that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., would be at the top of anybody’s list of vice presidential candidates. The reasons are obvious: Not only is he young, charismatic and wildly popular with conservatives, but he could also help Republicans win a key state (Florida) and make inroads with Hispanics.But knowledgeable Republican sources tell me that Rubio is not being vetted by Mitt Romney’s vice presidential search team. He has not been asked to complete any questionnaires or been asked to turn over any financial documents typically required of potential vice presidential candidates.
    • OOPS – Chris Schauble Does it Again – Flap’s Blog – OOPS – Chris Schauble Does it Again
    • CA-26: Julia Brownley and the “B” List – Flap’s Blog – CA-26: Julia Brownley and the “B” List
    • After spat with former construction management company, officials get projects back on track– Months after the El Monte Union High School District cut ties with its former construction management company, details are emerging about related issues that have come at a hefty expense to the district.A construction update last week revealed that the district is paying the price for design plans that didn’t have the required state approval before the construction work began at several campuses.In one case, work began on a new two-story classroom building without the plans getting state approved, resulting in the district being forced to make extensive revisions.In another a much publicized case, the state didn’t sign off on plans for new heating and air conditioning systems in two high school auditoriums before they were installed. The buildings have been closed for months as officials work to rectify the issue.The projects are part of a $148 million bond measure approved by voters in 2008. After parting ways with its construction management company Alsaleh Project Management (APM) last year and hiring another firm, officials have been working to get projects back on track. But it hasn’t been easy, or cheap.The costs of some construction projects under the bond measure have increased by up to 36 percent over what was originally budgeted, according to last week’s construction update.

      While some of the rising costs were the result of upgrades desired by district leaders, part of the increase is related

    • In U.S., Unadjusted Unemployment Flat So Far in June – RT @gallupnews: In U.S., Unadjusted Unemployment Flat So Far in June…
    • A Guide to How Obama’s New Immigration Policy Will Work, And a Word of Caution– The policy memo directs ICE and Customs to begin using their on-the-ground discretion immediately. Citizenship and Immigration Services is ordered to implement what is known as “deferred action” for this category of immigrants within 60 days. It’s a good sign that the administration is moving quickly. But bear in mind, deferred action is exactly what it sounds like. It means the federal government isn’t placing you in removal proceedings now. In fact, the memo says specifically that the deferral is good for two years before the next re-evaluation. What happens after that is anyone’s guess. “The question becomes: What if the person is granted deferred action and then they turn 30,” Schwamkrug asks. “Does that mean it won’t be renewed?”If it isn’t, and that person doesn’t have some sort of legal status, current policy is to automatically forward them to immigration court for removal proceedings. Two years-worth of work authorization may be small recompense for imminent deportation.Perhaps the biggest wild card here is the November presidential election. Obama’s policy is just that. It doesn’t amount to citizenship, nor is it law, enacted by Congress. You can bet one of Mitt Romney’s first acts as president would be to rescind Napolitano’s memo. And then what? Young people who have lived their lives as Americans announce their presence as undocumented immigrants and become subject to removal proceedings. “You’re luring people out, dangling a carrot of employment authorization in exchange for putting themselves on the radar,” Schwamkrug says. “As attorneys, we’d have to lay everything out to our clients and let the clients make the choice. We can’t tell them what to do. But I personally think there’s cause for concern.”In other words, the undocumented American may rejoice, but must remain mindful that there’s no permanence to Obama’s extended hand. And in just five short months, it may be snatched away altogether.
    • Scalia and Ginsburg Drop Hints about Obamacare’s Fate at the Supreme Court– The Supreme Court is set to issue its ruling on the epic Obamacare case, Florida v. HHS, at the end of June. Two of the High Court’s justices, Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dropped hints this weekend as to what the Court might do. Between what they said, and the scuttlebutt I’ve been hearing, we can start to think about what the Court may do—and when.On Friday, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke at the annual Court review of the American Constitution Society, a group “dedicated to…countering the activist conservative legal movement.” Ginsburg said that she was quite aware of the controversy surrounding the Obamacare case. “Some have described the controversy as unprecedented and they may be right if they mean the number of press conferences, prayer circles, protests, counter protests, going on outside the court while oral argument was under way inside.”
    • Supreme Court’s Super Mondays Don’t Serve Justice- Bloomberg – Supreme Court’s Super Mondays Don’t Serve Justice
    • The Morning Flap: June 18, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: June 18, 2012
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    The Morning Flap: June 18, 2012

    June 18, 2012 /

    I am happy to be back from about ten days of vacation.

    By the way, the Supreme Court will be NOT be announcing their ObamaCare decision this morning!

    These are my links for June 13th through June 18th:

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: June 13, 2012

    June 13, 2012 /

    Romney leaps to poll lead in Wisconsin

    These are my Morning Flap links for June 7th through June 13th: