• Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 30, 2012

    October 30, 2012 /

    Mitt Romney campaigning

    These are my links for October 25th through October 30th:

    • Gallup: Obama’s Early Vote Advantage Collapses 22-Points Over 2008 – My pal Guy Benson found a juicy nugget that helps to bring more clarity to the news from Gallup yesterday that shows Romney leading Obama in the early vote by a full seven points, 52-45%. Almost exactly four years ago (October 28, 2008),  according to Gallup, Obama was massacring John McCain among early voters with a fifteen-point lead, 55-40%. That means, at least according to Gallup, that Obama’s early vote advantage has dropped 22 points when compared to ’08.
    • NPR: 8-point swing puts Romney in front– A new National Public Radio poll, which had President Obama leading Mitt Romney 51 percent to 44 percent four weeks ago, now has Mitt Romney on top, 48 percent to 47 percent, with the Republican benefiting from his debate performances.The poll found that among likely voters, 34 percent said Romney’s debate performances made them more likely to vote for the challenger while 28 percent said they now are more likely to vote for the president. Among critical independent voters, though, Romney won big, with 37 percent saying they are now more likely to chose him compared to 21 percent for Obama.
    • AUTO BAILOUT BOMBSHELL: Fiat Says Chrysler, Jeep Production May Move to Italy– Coming hot on the heels of speculation that some Jeep production may be moved to China comes a bombshell from a Bloomberg report. Fiat is now considering moving Chrysler and Jeep production to Italy.According to the piece, “To counter the severe slump in European sales, (Fiat CEO Sergio) Marchionne is considering building Chrysler models in Italy, including Jeeps, for export to North America. The Italian government is evaluating tax rebates on export goods to help Fiat. Marchionne may announce details of his plan as soon as Oct. 30, the people said.”So, let’s be real clear here, we are talking about vehicles that will be built in Italy and exported to America. The evidence is clear that Fiat is looking at ways to move production of vehicles from the US to elsewhere, whether it be China or Italy, costing American jobs. This is becoming indisputable, despite outcries from certain parties to the contrary.
    • Presidential Race Dead Even; Romney Maintains Turnout Edge | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press – Presidential Race Dead Even; Romney Maintains Turnout Edge | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press #tcot
    • Day By Day October 29 & 30, 2012 – Mommie Dearest and Trick – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day October 29 & 30, 2012 – Mommie Dearest and Trick #tcot
    • AD-48: More Trouble for Roger Hernandez – Woman Files for Protective Order – AD-48: More Trouble for Roger Hernandez – Woman Files for Protective Order
    • Presidential Race Dead Even; Romney Maintains Turnout Edge | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press – Presidential Race Dead Even; Romney Maintains Turnout Edge #tcot
    • Barack Obama and Other Has-Beens –– And so to Barack Obama.When the history of this administration is written, maybe someone will note the dissonance between the president’s hip persona and his retro ideology. Here was a man who promised a “transformative” presidency. Yet when transformation came, it amounted to a two-pronged attempt to impose, from one side, a version of European social democracy by way of ObamaCare, and from the other side a version of Chinese state-directed “capitalism” by way of the stimulus.As a political matter it may have been Mr. Obama’s good luck that the bankruptcy of both models became obvious only after he had gotten his way legislatively on both. Yet the president’s sagging fortunes have everything to do with his buying into an ideological enthusiasm too late. In a different age, Mr. Obama would have been the guy who went out and bought an Edsel. In this age, Mr. Obama is the guy demanding that you buy an Edsel, too. That car is today called the Volt.Mr. Obama might still squeak by. He has, in addition to incumbency and a vestige of likability, the benefit of a challenger who only found his stride very late in the campaign. But a second term will mean four years of spent ideas packaged in shopworn rhetoric, to be shoved down the national throat by a president with nothing politically to lose.

      Sound appealing?

    • Presidential Race Dead Even; Romney Maintains Turnout Edge– As the presidential campaign enters its final week, Barack Obama has failed to regain much of the support he lost in the days following the first presidential debate and the race is now even among likely voters: 47% favor Obama while an identical percentage supports Mitt Romney.The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 24-28 among 1,678 registered voters, including 1,495 likely voters, finds Obama holding a statistically insignificant two-point edge among registered voters: 47% to 45%. This is little different from the 46% to 46% standoff among registered voters observed in early October, in the days following the first debate.When the sample is narrowed to likely voters, the balance of opinion shifts slightly in Romney’s direction, as it did in early October. This reflects Romney’s turnout advantage over Obama, which could loom larger as Election Day approaches. In both October surveys, more Republicans and Republican leaners than Democrats and Democratic leaners are predicted to be likely voters. In September, the gap was more modest.
    • Mark Halperin: Democrats Are Playing Defense On Electoral Map – YouTube – RT @PounderFile VIDEO: Mark Halperin: Democrats Are Playing Defense On Electoral Map #tcot
    • Poll: Romney, Obama locked in 49-49 tie– President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney are tied with only a week left before election day, according to the latest Washington Post/ABC News daily tracking poll.The new poll finds each candidate receiving support from 49 percent of likely voters. That represents a 1-point bump for the president who trailed Romney 49-48 in Sunday’s numbers.Romney also has the edge among independent voters who back him 53 to 43 for the president.
    • Early voting 2012: Poll: Neither has edge – Fifteen percent of registered voters have already cast their ballots, according to a poll released Tuesday.
      Neither candidate has an edge among early voters nationally, the Gallup survey found. One-third of Barack Obama backers plan to vote early, as do 34 percent of Romney supporters. So far, 15 percent of Obama voters have shown up at the polls, compared to 17 percent of Romney voters.
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-29 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-29
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-29 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-29 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-29 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-29
    • In U.S., 15% of Registered Voters Have Already Cast Ballots – Gallup: Romney currently leads Obama 52% to 45% among voters who say they have already cast their ballots #tcot
    • GetGlue – Your app for TV, Movies, and Sports – Co-watching the World Series of Poker final table. #GetGlue #MondayNightFootball
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Canadian Dentistry Expose: Money Where Your Mouth Is – Canadian Dentistry Expose: Money Where Your Mouth Is
    • CA-26: Julia Brownley Ups Staff Pay While California Budget Deficit Soars – Flap’s Blog – CA-26: Julia Brownley Ups Staff Pay While California Budget Deficit Soars #tcot
    • House elections spell a Republican story and victory– President Obama remains at least an even bet to win reelection. Democrats are favored to hold on to the Senate — an outcome few prognosticators envisioned at the beginning of the year. And yet, with a little more than a week to go, the party holds almost no chance of winning back the House.“They called the fight. It’s over. We’re going to have a House next year that’s going to look an awful lot like the last House,” Stuart Rothenberg, the independent analyst who runs the Rothenberg Political Report, said.The outlines of a comeback for Democrats seemed possible. From its opening act, the 112th Congress was dominated by a raucous class of House freshmen who pushed Washington to the brink of several government shutdowns and almost prompted a first-ever default on the federal debt. It became the most unpopular Congress in the history of polling and, by some measures, the least productive.
    • Changing Demographics Won’t Mean the End of Republican Party– When reading one of the endless stories about a just-released poll Thursday night, a pair of numbers struck my eye: 60 and 37.Those were the percentages of white voters supporting Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in the ABC/Washington Post tracking poll. Overall, the poll showed Romney leading Obama 50 to 47 percent.The reason those two numbers struck my eye is that they are identical to the percentages of white voters supporting Republicans and Democrats in elections for the House of Representatives in the 2010 exit poll. Overall, Republicans won the House popular vote by a margin of 52 to 45 percent, tied with 1994 for the best Republican showing since 1946.In fact, it’s the Republicans’ biggest margin among white voters in House elections ever since the party was formed in 1854. Republican presidential candidates have won by bigger margins among whites only in 1920, 1972 and 1984.

      Some will ascribe this to racism. But Barack Obama won enough votes from whites to win with 53 percent in 2008, more than any other Democratic nominee except Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

      Why are whites more one-sidedly partisan than just about ever before? Maybe because they’re constantly being told that they’re headed toward becoming a minority of the electorate. Self-conscious minorities tend to vote more cohesively.

      Or because they’re the objects of racial discrimination in, among other things, university admissions, as documented by Richard Sandler and Stuart Taylor in their recent book, “Mismatch.”

    • Obama’s Independent Problem– President Obama has a problem with independents. And it’s not a small problem.In the last three releases of the tracking poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, Obama has trailed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney among independent voters by between 16 and 20 percentage points.That’s a striking reversal from 2008, when Obama won independent voters, who made up 29 percent of the electorate, by eight points over Sen. John McCain of Arizona.And if Romney’s large margin among independents holds, it will be a break not just from 2008 but also from 2000 and 2004. In 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush won independents by 47 percent to 45 percent over Vice President Al Gore. Four years later, Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts essentially split unaffiliated voters, according to exit polls — 48 percent for Bush to 49 percent for Kerry. (Independents made up 27 percent of the vote in 2000 and 26 percent in 2004.)
    • GOP surprise? Party says Pennsylvania in play– The Republican campaign bus roared into the party headquarters parking lot in this northwestern Pennsylvania town on a chilly afternoon for a rally that had all the trappings of a close contest.Hundreds of people, wearing Romney/Ryan buttons and hats plus one man carrying a “NObama” sign crammed inside the headquarters and cheered loudly as party officials blasted President Barack Obama. Volunteers busily manned telephone banks imploring people to vote.Why the Republican hubbub in a state that’s voted Democratic in presidential elections for two decades? They think it might be in play. Obama leads Romney in Pennsylvania polls by an average of 4.8 percentage points, according to the nonpartisan Web site RealClearPolitics.com. He led by as much as 12 points earlier this year. And he led by 10.8 points at this stage four years ago.
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-28 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-28
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-28 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-28 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-28 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-28
    • Photo by owenpaun • Instagram – Congratulations! RT @owenpaun: She said yes! (w/ Nansi Ninova)
    • Gallup daily: Romney leads Obama 50-46 among likely voters– Mitt Romney leads President Obama by 4 points, according to the latest Gallup daily tracking poll, released Sunday.The survey finds Romney at 50 percent support among likely voters to Obama’s 46. The numbers show a 1-point drop over Saturday’s 51 to 46 lead for the GOP nominee.The poll finds Obama up among registered voters, though, with a 48-47 advantage. That figure reflects a 1-point loss for Romney from Saturday, where the two presidential contenders were tied at 48 percent.Gallup’s poll is a rolling seven-day average through Saturday Oct. 27 and includes 5 days of survey data after the third and final presidential debate held last Monday in Boca Raton, Fla.

      The Gallup survey has shown larger leads for Romney compared to other polls of likely voters, with surveys putting Romney ahead by 5 to 7 points for much of last week.

      The Real Clear Politics Average of polls on Sunday showed Romney ahead, but by a slimmer 47.9 percent to 47 margin.

    • Day By Day October 28, 2012 – Call Forward – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day October 28, 2012 – Call Forward #tcot
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-27 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-27
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-27 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-27 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-27 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-27
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-26 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-26
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-26 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-26 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-26 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-26
    • Political Cartoons / Disgraceful…..but not surprising! – Disgraceful…..but not surprising! via @pinterest #tcot
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-25 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-25
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-25 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-25 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-25 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-25
    • Capitol Alert: Food labeling initiative Proposition 37 sliding in the polls – Capitol Alert: Food labeling initiative Proposition 37 sliding in the polls #tcot
    • Food labeling initiative Proposition 37 sliding in the polls– Proposition 37, which asks voters to require labels on genetically engineered food sold in California, is dropping in the polls as the well-funded opposition campaign pounds airwaves and mailboxes with arguments against the measure.A USC Dornsife / Los Angeles Times poll released today shows 44 percent of surveyed voters support the initiative, down from 61 percent in September. The same poll shows those opposing it growing from 25 percent to 42 percent.Those results are similar to recent polls released by Pepperdine University and the California Business Round Table, which showed support this month at 48 percent, down from 67 percent in September.The No on 37 campaign has raised $35.6 million, according to MapLight, while the Yes campaign has raised $7.7 million. The opposition is funded largely by companies that make pesticides and genetically modified seeds that contain pesticides. They are running multiple television ads arguing that Proposition 37 would raise grocery prices and that genetically engineered food is safe.

      In response to the polls, the No campaign sent a press release saying, “the more voters know about what Prop 37 would really do, the more they take a dim view of it.”

    • The Morning Flap: October 25, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: October 25, 2012 #tcot
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 24, 2012

    October 24, 2012 /

    [youtube]http://youtu.be/klXTb-s7d9A[/youtube]

    These are my links for October 23rd through October 24th:

    • Clint Eastwood: ‘Obama’s Second Term Would be a Rerun of the First’– Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood says “when someone doesn’t get the job done, you gotta hold them accountable” in a new ad from conservative super PAC American Crossroads. Eastwood famously endorsed Mitt Romney earlier this year at the Republican National Convention with an unconventional address.”Obama’s second term would be a rerun of the first, and our country just couldn’t survive that,” Eastwood says. “We need someone who can turn it around fast, and that man is Mitt Romney.”The New York Times reports that the ad will be airing on TV in seven critical swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Virginia.
    • Study: People Who Exercise Have Larger Brains Later in Life – Lindsay Abrams – The Atlantic – The Big Head RT @TheAtlanticHLTH Study: Exercise minimizes brain shrinkage.
    • Des Moines Register editor: Obama off-the-record comments deserve to be shared with voters– The Des Moines Register’s publisher and I spoke with President Barack Obama this morning — but we can’t tell you what he said.Just four days before the Register’s presidential endorsement is released, Laura Hollingsworth and I received a phone call from the president. He was calling from Florida, on the heels of a morning campaign appearance and about 14 hours after his debate with GOP nominee Mitt Romney at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.The conference call lasted nearly 30 minutes and was an incredibly informative exchange of questions, answers and an insightful glimpse into the president’s vision for a second term. He made a genuine and passionate case for our endorsement and for reelection.Just two weeks before Election Day, the discussion, I believe, would have been valuable to all voters, but especially those in Iowa and around the country who have yet to decide between the incumbent Democrat and his Republican opponent.

      Unfortunately, what we discussed was off-the-record. It was a condition, we were told, set by the White House.

    • White House told of militant claim two hours after Libya attack: emails– Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the Benghazi assault, which President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials ultimately acknowledged was a “terrorist” attack carried out by militants with suspected links to al Qaeda affiliates or sympathizers.
    • Gallup: Gender Gap in Election Fueled More by Men Than Women – Despite the great attention paid to the importance of the women’s vote in the 2012 election, there has been a larger change in men’s than in women’s preferences compared with 2008. Barack Obama’s support is down seven percentage points among men versus three points among women. In Gallup’s latest 21-day rolling average of likely voter preferences, based on interviewing conducted Oct. 1-21, Romney leads Obama by 14 points among men, whereas Obama and John McCain were tied among men in Gallup’s final pre-election estimate in 2008. Obama currently leads Romney by eight percentage points among women, whereas he led McCain by 14 among women in 2008.
    • Senate Control May Hinge on Presidential Race – NationalJournal.com – RT @HotlineJosh The 4 prez battlegrounds to decide control: NV, WI, VA, OH –with PA as a possible sleeper (2/2) #tcot
    • Clint Eastwood Is Back in a Campaign Ad for Romney– Clint Eastwood is back on the Republican stage. But this time there’s a script, a 30-second time limit and none of the potential tripwires of live television.Mr. Eastwood, whose long and sometimes incoherent monologue at the Republican National Convention in August left many ardent Republicans cheering but others dumbfounded, is the star of a new commercial from the “super PAC” American Crossroads.But if he was all jokes in Tampa, Fla., Mr. Eastwood is nothing but serious in this new advertisement, in which he indicts President Obama’s term as a failure and urges people to vote for Mitt Romney.“Obama’s second term would be a rerun of the first, and our country just couldn’t survive that,” he says. “We need someone who could turn it around fast, and that man is Mitt Romney. There’s not much time left, and the future of our country is at stake.”

      Steven Law, the president of American Crossroads, said he had heard before the convention that Mr. Eastwood might be interested in starring in an ad. But he said he did not actually pursue the acclaimed director and actor until after his performance in Tampa.

    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-23 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-23
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-23 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-23 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-23 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-23
    • Shouldn’t Jack O’Connell Pay the State for His Hearst Castle Birthday Party? – Flap’s Blog – Shouldn’t Jack O’Connell Pay the State for His Hearst Castle Birthday Party? #tcot
    • Trooth.Com – The Tate Viehweg DMD Interview Part Two – Flap’s Blog – – The Tate Viehweg DMD Interview Part Two #tcot
    • The Morning Flap: October 23, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: October 23, 2012 #tcot
    • Day By Day October 23, 2012 – Foreigner – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day October 23, 2012 – Foreigner #tcot
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 23, 2012

    October 23, 2012 /

    Romney State of the Race October 23 2012From 270towin.com

    These are my links for October 22nd through October 23rd:

    • 2012: The battle for 7 states – Jonathan Martin – POLITICO.com – RT @jmartpolitico: A grudging consensus in Boca: the 7 states where the election will be decided >
    • Josh Kraushaar’s post on Capitol Hill Insiders | Latest updates on Sulia – Per @mikeallen, this is Romney map. They think they’re up 271-261 (with IA tossup) …
    • Krauthammer: Romney Won Unequivocally; Obama’s Responses Were Petty– I think it’s unequivocal, Romney won. And he didn’t just win tactically, but strategically. Strategically, all he needed to do is basically draw. He needed to continue the momentum he’s had since the first debate, and this will continue it. Tactically, he simply had to get up there and show that he’s a competent man, somebody who you could trust as commander in chief, a who knows every area of the globe and he gave interesting extra details, like the Haqqani network, which gave the impression he knows what he’s talking about. But there is a third level here, and that is what actually happened in the debate.We can argue about the small points and the debating points. Romney went large, Obama went very, very small, shockingly small. Romney made a strategic decision not go after the president on Libya, or Syria, or other areas where Obama could accuse him of being a Bush-like war monger. Now I would have gone after Obama on Libya like a baseball bat, but that’s why Romney has won elections and I’ve never had to even contested them. He decided to stay away from the and I think that might have actually worked for him
    • Obama may have won the Boca debate battle but he knows he is losing the election war to Romney– If you had been on an extended vacation for the past four years, you would have been forgiven for watching this debate and thinking you were viewing a President Mitt Romney being challenged by a pretender called Barack Obama. It’s not that Obama did not have command of foreign policy issues or did not make some telling points against an opponent who was vague at times and occasionally uncertain. But Obama clearly came into the debate believing he had to score points and change the dynamic of the race.In short, Obama started the 90 minutes here in Boca Raton, Florida believing he was losing his bid for re-election.Romney, by contrast, felt he could play things safe. He was a kinder, gentler presence than he was in the second debate in Hempstead, New York, when he fought back hard against a hyper Obama desperate to make up for his catastrophic performance in the first debate in Denver.By and large, Romney succeeded in Boca. He came across as knowledgeable and reasonable and made no mistakes. In short, he passed the commander-in-chief test. Having proved in the first debate he had the backbone, policy expertise and determination to try to tackle America’s economic woes, tonight he showed that he was a plausile commander-in-chief.It was not an especially high bar, but he cleared it.
    • A Perfectly Plausible President– Mitt Romney needed to pass the usual tests for Republican presidential candidates in his debate Monday night with President Obama.There was the Ford test (alternatively known as the Palin/Cain/Perry test): Would Mr. Romney say something so obviously misinformed, so manifestly silly, so revealingly ignorant as to disqualify him from serious consideration as a prospective commander-in-chief? He said nothing of the sort.There was the Goldwater test (unfairly named, but reputations are stubborn things): Did Mr. Romney make pronouncements so belligerent as to make ordinary people fear for their children’s safety—or at least provide David Axelrod a chance to make it seem as if he did? He did not, though that won’t stop Mr. Axelrod from trying.And there was the Bush test (not unfairly named but mistakenly understood to mean ideology when it ought to be about consistency): Would Mr. Romney find a deft way to define his foreign policy as something other than a retread of the 43rd president—but also as something defensible, distinctive, and (not least) identifiably Republican?On this score, Mr. Romney succeeded, too, if only in a manner coyly calculated to raise the hackles of every conservative who has harbored doubts all along about the Massachusetts governor.
    • Obama wins final debate, but does it matter?– Three debates down and two weeks of campaigning to go.A forceful President Barack Obama put Republican challenger Mitt Romney on the defensive on foreign policy on Monday night, with analysts and an immediate poll giving him the victory in their final debate just 15 days before the November 6 vote.Now the candidates hit the road for the final sprint to Election Day, focusing on the handful of battleground states considered still up for grabs and therefore vital to both their chances in a razor’s edge race.Obama kicks off his “America Forward” tour on Tuesday with events in Florida and Ohio, where he will be joined by Vice President Joe Biden, while Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, campaign in Nevada and Colorado.On Monday, Obama displayed the experience of a commander-in-chief in explaining U.S. policy under his leadership and attacking the views and proposals of Romney, a former Massachusetts governor with less experience on international issues.

      Romney ended up supporting most of the Obama administration’s steps involving hotspots, such as the civil war in Syria, and preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, giving the president the advantage in a debate in which his GOP rival needed to question foreign policy of the past four years.

      Analysts agreed that Obama won on points, but questioned if the result would have a big impact on voters and the race as a whole.

    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-22 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-22
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-22 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-22 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-22 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-22
    • Obama and Romney duke it out on foreign policy – Right Turn – The Washington Post – RT @JRubinBlogger: Romney nails Obama on apology tour, education, Iran.. Obama major gaffe on navy .. Romney sails on
    • CA-26: Early Vote By Mail Report Favoring GOP’s Tony Strickland – CA-26: Early Vote By Mail Report Favoring GOP’s Tony Strickland #tcot
    • Trooth.Com – The Tate Viehweg DMD Interview Part One – Flap’s Blog – – The Tate Viehweg DMD Interview Part One #tcot
    • Day By Day October 22, 2012 – Try Hard – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day October 22, 2012 – Try Hard #tcot
    • Untitled (http://www.rgj.com/needlogin?type=login&redirecturl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rgj.com%2Farticle%2F2012102) – Untitled (… #tcot
    • The Morning Flap: October 22, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: October 22, 2012 #tcot
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 22, 2012

    October 22, 2012 /

    Obama and Romney Campaigning

    President Obama and Governor Romney campaign prior to tonight’s debate

    These are my links for October 19th through October 22nd:

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 19, 2012

    October 19, 2012 /

    Obama Speaks to Jon StewartThese are my links for October 18th through October 19th:

    • Barack Obama on Benghazi: ‘If four Americans get killed, it’s not OPTIMAL’: Obama’s extraordinary response to security fiasco after Benghazi massacre– President Barack Obama, during an interview to be shown on Comedy Central, has responded to a question about his administration’s confused communication after the Benghazi attack, by saying: ‘If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal.’Obama was speaking to Jon Stewart of The Daily Show for a programme to be broadcast tonight.Stewart, a liberal whose young audience is full of potential voters prized by the Obama campaign, asked the president about his handling of the aftermath of the Benghazi attack.Ambassador Chris Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith and security men and former U.S. Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were killed by terrorists on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 – an attack that the White House initially blamed on a spontaneous protest about an anti-Islam movie made in California.

      Stewart asked: ‘Is part of the investigation helping the communication between these divisions? ‘Not just what happened in Benghazi, but what happened within.

      ‘Because I would say, even you would admit, it was not the optimal response, at least to the American people, as far as all of us being on the same page.’

      Obama responded: ‘Here’s what I’ll say. If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal.’

      He continued: ‘We’re going to fix it. All of it. And what happens, during the course of a presidency, is that the government is a big operation and any given time something screws up.

      ‘And you make sure that you find out what’s broken and you fix it.

      ‘Whatever else I have done throughout the course of my presidency the one thing that I’ve been absolutely clear about is that America’s security comes, and the American people need to know exactly how I make decisions when it comes to war, peace, security, and protecting Americans.

      ‘And they will continue to get that over the next four years of my presidency.’

      The word ‘optimal’ was first used by Stewart in the question. But Obama’s use of it in a sound bite that could be used to portray him as somewhat casual about the deaths, lit up conservatives on twitter after it was first reported in a White House pool report by Mike Memoli of the ‘Los AngelesTimes’.

      Obama’s slip could help Mitt Romney recover from an awkward moment in the presidential debate in Long Island, New York on Tuesday when he challenged Obama over whether he had initially characterised the Benghazi attack as terrorism.

    [youtube]http://youtu.be/BlA8jBSdT9w[/youtube]

    • ‘Hating Breitbart’ to open this weekend– After a protracted battle with Hollywood censors over the politically-motivated “R” rating imposed on it by ex-Democrat Senator Chris Dodd’s MPAA that delayed its release, the long-awaited documentary film, “Hating Breitbart” opens at a limited number of movie theaters this weekend. The film chronicles the life and very strange times of crusading arch-conservative activist, web journalist, and new media promoter Andrew Breitbart who died suddenly and unexpectedly this past spring at the age of 43. DC area screenings will initially take place exclusively at the Regal Cinema in Ballston Commons Mall in Arlington.Like Dinesh D’Souza’s runaway documentary hit, “2016,” the Breitbart documentary will begin its rollout in limited release, gradually opening greater numbers of theaters on successive weekends. The limited release idea, as with the D’Souza film on the background of Barack Obama, is meant to thwart the usual preplanned barrage of negative reviews typically prepared in advance by left-wing critics who have yet to actually see the film in pre-screenings. Such coordinated attacks are routinely deployed to torpedo opening weekend box office receipts of newly released conservative films.
    • The Great Gaffe at Hofstra – – Krauthammer– Fight night at Hofstra. The two boxers, confined within a ring of spectators —circling, feinting, taunting, staring each other down — come several times, by my reckoning, no more than one provocation away from actual fisticuffs, of the kind that on occasion so delightfully break out in the Taiwanese parliament. Think of it: The Secret Service storming the ring, pinning Mitt Romney to the canvas as Candy Crowley administers the ten count.The actual outcome was somewhat more pedestrian. President Obama gained a narrow victory on points, as borne out by several flash polls. The margin was small, paling in comparison to Romney’s 52-point victory in the first debate.At Hofstra, Obama emerged from his previous coma to score enough jabs to outweigh Romney’s haymaker, his dazzling takedown of the Obama record when answering a disappointed 2008 Obama voter.That one answer might account for the fact that in two early flash polls Romney beat Obama on the economy by 18 points in one poll, 31 in the other. That being the overriding issue, the debate is likely to have minimal effect on the dynamics of the race.
    • Obama spinning toward a loss– President Obama is losing. So says the latest Gallup poll, and so do those swelling numbers in key states like Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia and Ohio.Democrats say wait, he won the second debate. They are holding their breath, hoping polls next week will show that this week’s debate brought the herky-jerk of the campaign back full swing, with Obama back to his September lead in the swing states and poised to win. But with two weeks to go, a sudden surge in voter support for a president as unpopular as this one, in an economy this weak, is simply hard to believe. Conservatives like Karl Rove note that this late in October, no candidate with support higher than 50 percent (see Mitt Romney: Gallup) has ever gone on to lose.Perhaps Obama lost the presidency weeks ago, on Oct. 3, when he sleepwalked and scribbled through the first debate and helped make Romney a new candidate overnight. It was Obama’s night to finish Romney off; behind in the polls, even Romney likely woke up that morning thinking it was over. But Obama underestimated the task, the challenger and the electorate — all in 90 minutes. So a win this week was critical but perhaps not decisive. There is no obvious reason for Obama’s performance to reverse the course of the campaign and blunt Romney now. And though there is one final debate next week, a back-and-forth on national security and foreign policy isn’t likely to make the sale for anyone who still cannot make up his or her mind.Romney is arguing Obama has still failed to articulate a reason, plan or purpose for a second term. He is correct. But Obama has indeed, late in the game, come up with a more forceful defense of his first term, and an argument about the economy growing from the middle out instead of the top down.
    • Obama on Benghazi attack: ‘When four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal’– President Obama vowed Thursday to fix any problems that contributed to the deaths of four American foreign service personnel during last month’s attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, saying that “when four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal.”Obama’s comments, referring to the Sept. 11 terror attack, came during an interview with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. The interview, first reported in a White House media pool report, airs Thursday night.Stewart asked Obama whether the investigation would address communication problems that contributed to confusion about the circumstances of the attack in Benghazi.”Because I would say, even you would admit, it was not the optimal response, at least to the American people, as far as all of us being on the same page,” Stewart said.

      “Here’s what I’ll say. When four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal. We’re going to fix it. All of it,” Obama replied.

      “The government is a big operation and any given time something screws up. And you make sure that you find out what’s broken and you fix it.

      “Whatever else I have done throughout the course of my presidency, the one thing that I’ve been absolutely clear about is that America’s security comes first, and the American people need to know exactly how I make decisions when it comes to war, peace, security, and protecting Americans. And they will continue to get that over the next four years of my presidency.”

      Since the attack, Republicans have accused the Obama administration of hiding key details such as how and why the attack started. The GOP has also questioned whether a failure to address security concerns at the consulate contributed its vulnerability.

    • GOP Points to Early Vote Gains in Ohio– They got smoked in the early voting game in 2008, but this time around Republicans are closing the gap with Democrats.Most observers here expect the early vote to tilt toward President Barack Obama, as it did in 2008. The Obama campaign has worked overtime to get their supporters to vote early and successfully sued the Ohio secretary of state to keep early voting locations open through the weekend preceding Election Day.Since early and absentee voting began on October 2, more than 1.4 million Ohio voters have voted or requested an absentee ballot. Almost a third of Ohio voted early in 2008, and Democrats expect that number to be even higher in 2012.But Republicans have polished their early vote operation since 2008.

      Four years ago, Democrats made up about 42% of the early and absentee vote while Republicans made up 22% — a dismal 20-point deficit that contributed to Sen. John McCain’s defeat in Ohio.

      Through Wednesday, however, the margin has narrowed: Democrats account for 36% of the early and absentee vote while Republicans make up for 29%.

      Republicans are outperforming their voter registration in several of the state’s biggest counties.

    • LAPD probing Manson family link to 12 unsolved homicides– The Los Angeles Police Department disclosed Thursday that it has open investigations on a dozen unsolved homicides that occurred near places where the Manson family operated during its slew of murders four decades ago.The Police Department made the revelation amid a legal battle to obtain hours of audio tapes recorded in 1969 between Charles Manson follower Charles “Tex” Watson and his attorney. The LAPD has said detectives believe tapes could shed more light on the activities of Manson’s group.Watson has been fighting to limit the LAPD’s access to the tapes. This month, a federal judge in Texas granted an emergency order preventing the police from executing a search warrant at an office where the tapes are kept.
    • 12 Unsolved Murders Possibly Linked to Manson– The LAPD on Thursday announced it has open investigations on a dozen unsolved homicides near known Manson Family hangouts around Los Angeles.The revelation came amid a legal battle to obtain hours of audio tape recordings between former Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer Charles “Tex” Watson and his lawyer.”We have an obligation to the families of these victims,” Cmdr. Andy Smith told NBC4. “Our detectives need to listen to these tapes. The tapes might help with solving these murders.”News of the open investigation was first reported by the Los Angeles Times Thursday and confirmed to NBC4 by LAPD officials. Smith told the Times the 12 murders they are investigating “are similar to some of the Manson killings.”

      Manson and his followers shot to infamy in 1969 after the murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others at a Benedict Canyon home in the hills above Los Angeles. That rampage was followed the next night by the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Feliz home.

      The unheard recordings sought by the LAPD were made more than four decades ago, after Watson’s arrest for his role in the Tate-LaBianca slayings.

    • CIA found militant links a day after Libya attack– he CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington within 24 hours of last month’s deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate that there was evidence it was carried out by militants, not a spontaneous mob upset about an American-made video ridiculing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, U.S. officials have told The Associated Press.It is unclear who, if anyone, saw the cable outside the CIA at that point and how high up in the agency the information went. The Obama administration maintained publicly for a week that the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was a result of the mobs that staged less-deadly protests across the Muslim world around the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S.Those statements have become highly charged political fodder as the presidential election approaches. A Republican-led House committee questioned State Department officials for hours about what GOP lawmakers said was lax security at the consulate, given the growth of extremist Islamic militants in North Africa.
    • Obama under pressure to spell out his agenda for a second term– President Obama is taking heat from his Republican rivals and some members of his own party for being vague about his agenda for a second term.On Thursday, Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan told a crowd at a campaign event in Florida that Obama “is not telling you what his second-term plan would be.”“He’s not saying that he is offering anything new,” the Wisconsin lawmaker said during a town hall. “All he is offering is four more years of the same.”Republicans are using the critique to parry Democratic attacks against Romney’s tax-reform plan, but they aren’t the only ones questioning what Obama’s priorities would be on Day One of term two.

      “What would make my heart leap is to see him offer a forward-looking speech that encompasses all the things that he’s been talking about in little bits into a big thematic package, and one, big, second-term-agenda speech,” said Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons.

    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-18 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-18
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-18 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-18 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-18 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-18
    • Poll shows Romney leading in blue Pennsylvania | WashingtonExaminer.com – Poll shows Romney leading in blue Pennsylvania | #tcot
    • Poll Watch: Romney Takes the Lead in the Electoral College for First Time – Poll Watch: Romney Takes the Lead in the Electoral College for First Time #tcot
    • Poll shows Romney leading in blue Pennsylvania– A new poll shows Republican Mitt Romney leading in Pennsylvania, a state that Republicans had all but written off just weeks ago but which is now listed as a toss up by the Real Clear Politics website.Susquehanna Polling and Research provided The Washington Examiner with a poll it conducted for state party officials that shows Romney with a 49 percent to 45 percent lead over President Obama.It’s the first poll to show Romney leading among likely voters in the Keystone State.”The polling is very clear that the race is certainly up for grabs and Republicans have a tendency to never believe it,” Susquehanna President James Lee told The Examiner.
    • Must-see: Special preview of ‘Hating Breitbart’ to stream at Big Hollywood tonight | Twitchy – RT @michellemalkin Must-see: Special preview of @HatingBreitbart to stream at Big Hollywood tonight ==> #tcot
    • Election 2012 Likely Voters Trial Heat: Obama vs. Romney – Gallup Presidential Tracking Poll: Romney now leading Obama 52% Vs. 45% – 7 point lead . #tcot
    • Welfare spending jumps 32% in four years– Welfare spending has grown substantially over the past four years, reaching $746 billion in 2011 — or more than Social Security, basic defense spending or any other single chunk of the federal government — according to a new memo by the Congressional Research Service.The steady rise in welfare spending, which covers more than 80 programs primarily designed to help low-income Americans, got a big boost from the 2009 stimulus and has grown, albeit somewhat more slowly, in 2010 and 2011. One reason is that more people are qualifying in the weak economy, but the federal government also has broadened eligibility so that more people qualify for programs.Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, who requested the Congressional Research Service report, said it underscores a fundamental shift in welfare, moving away from a Band-Aid and toward a more permanent crutch.
    • Heller leads comfortably in two new polls – The Hill’s Ballot Box – NV-Senate RT @thehill: .@DeanHeller leads comfortably in two new polls (by @cam_joseph) #tcot
    • Trooth.Com – The David Nicholls DDS Interview Part Three – Flap’s Blog – – The David Nicholls DDS Interview Part Three #tcot
    • The Morning Flap: October 18, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: October 18, 2012 #tcot
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 18, 2012

    October 18, 2012 /

    Drudge Screencap: Newsweek Out of Print

    These are my links for October 17th through October 18th:

    • Obama needs to win back the hearts of the country – Obama Needs to Win the Not-So-Optomistic– Barack Obama won the hope vote in 2008. Now, to keep the White House, President Obama needs to win back the disappointed.Michael Jones is one of them. Jones, one of the questioners during Tuesday night’s debate, wanted to know what the president has done to earn his support in 2012. This time around, “I’m not that optimistic,” said Jones.Obama’s answer to a critical voter concern was one of his weakest and one of challenger Mitt Romney’s strongest. It’s partly because Obama never got a chance to respond to his rival, but also because Obama didn’t seize the opportunity when Jones first presented to him.You could picture Bill Clinton telling the citizen-questioner in deeply personal terms how hard he is working on his behalf and how hard he would continue to work in a second term. Candidate Clinton showed how that’s done in a 1992 town hall debate that came to symbolize his unique ability to connect viscerally with ordinary people — even as it illustrated President George H.W. Bush’s inability to do so.
    • Rove: Obama Won the Debate but Is Losing the Argument– Americans on Tuesday night watched what was the most ferocious presidential debate ever. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney circled and interrupted each other, jabbed fingers, got into each other’s space, and exchanged verbal body blows for 90 minutes at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.Yet it did not change the campaign’s dynamic. President Obama won the postdebate polls, but he’s losing the argument.In CNN’s insta-poll, 46% said Mr. Obama did the “best job” while 39% chose Mr. Romney. And in CBS’s survey of uncommitted voters, 37% said Mr. Obama won the night while 30% gave it to Mr. Romney. But to reverse the GOP challenger’s momentum, the president required nearly as big a victory Tuesday as Mr. Romney had last week. He didn’t get it.
    • Massive study finds only 3.4% of American adults identify as LGBT– A massive new survey published this morning reveals that only 3.4% of American adults publicly identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, with the highest percentage coming among the younger, less-educated non-whites.The new Gallup Poll of more than 121,000 adult, the largest of its kind on record, wass conducted during the past four months. It finds the percentage of self-reported LGBT Americans to be much smaller than a general impression derived from their presence in popular culture and their perceived influence in liberal American politics.The special report found 3.4% of adult Americans publicly reporting themselves as personally identifying with those categories, 92.2% saying they do not and 4.4% refusing to say or claiming not to know.Given the stigma often attached by some to those categories, some unknown portion of the Didn’t Say’s and No’s presumably are choosing to remain in the closet, holding down the LGBT number somewhat.

      “This initial analysis,” Gallup reports, “reveals new insights into the composition of the LGBT community in the U.S. In particular, the findings challenge both media and cultural stereotypes to reveal that the LGBT population is in a number of ways not that different from the broader U.S. population.”

    • In full-page newspaper ad, 13 Iowa voters apologize for supporting Obama in 2008– A full-page Mitt Romney campaign ad in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette takes the form of an open letter from 13 Iowans who say they voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 but regret their choice and won’t do so again in 2012.The letter is phrased as an apology, and lays out a case for why Romney, the Republican nominee is a better choice this time around.“Mitt Romney will deliver the real recovery that President Obama has failed to bring, he’ll get Americans working again, and he’ll turn our economy around,” the letter says
    • Report: Obama campaign turning grim on Florida, Virginia, North Carolina — and Colorado? – It’s not that Romney has insurmountable leads in FL, VA, and NC, it’s that Team O has to decide how to allocate what’s left of its campaign treasury down the stretch and there are better bets for them than those three states. Triage, in other words. Mitt’s up 4.7 points on average in North Carolina, which would be tough for O to make up, and 2.5 points in Florida, which might be doable but would be hugely expensive in terms of reserving enough ad time to make a dent. I’m a little surprised to see Virginia included — O actually leads there by eight-tenths of a point, although Romney’s (narrowly) won the last three polls, so maybe Obama’s campaign figures it’s not worth resisting that momentum in a state they don’t really need. They do kind of need Colorado, though, and that actually looks tougher than Virginia for them at the moment: Romney leads by seven-tenths of a point and has won six of the nine polls taken since the first debate. If I had to guess, I’d bet they’re looking at Virginia and Colorado now as an either/or situation; if Romney’s lead opens a bit in one rather than the other, that one will be written off and an investment made in the closer state.
    • Terrorist arrested after trying to ‘destroy America’ with Fed Reserve Bank attack– A young Bangladeshi on a mission to “destroy America” tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan Wednesday with what he thought was a 1,000-pound van bomb, according to a criminal complaint.Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, allegedly wanted to kill scores of people, wreak havoc on the US economy and stop the presidential election when he parked on Liberty Street around 8 a.m. and repeatedly dialed into the cellphone detonator from a nearby hotel room.But all he did was set off an indicator in the van that proved he tried to set off the explosion. He was promptly arrested, with his grand plans up in smoke.“I don’t want something that’s like small. I just want something big,” Nafis, 21, told an undercover agent during a recorded August meeting in Central Park.

      “Something very big. Very very very very big, that will shake the whole country . . . that will make us one step closer to run the whole world. I want to do something that brothers coming after us can be inspired by us.”

      The al Qaeda-obsessed terrorist — who was living with relatives in Queens — also recorded a video addressed to Americans right before he tried to detonate the bomb.

    • A Turn of the Page for Newsweek – Out of Print– We are announcing this morning an important development at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format in early 2013. As part of this transition, the last print edition in the United States will be our Dec. 31 issue.Meanwhile, Newsweek will expand its rapidly growing tablet and online presence, as well as its successful global partnerships and events business.Newsweek Global, as the all-digital publication will be named, will be a single, worldwide edition targeted for a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context. Newsweek Global will be supported by paid subscription and will be available through e-readers for both tablet and the Web, with select content available on The Daily Beast.Four years ago we launched The Daily Beast. Two years later, we merged our business with the iconic Newsweek magazine—which The Washington Post Company had sold to Dr. Sidney Harman. Since the merger, both The Daily Beast and Newsweek have continued to post and publish distinctive journalism and have demonstrated explosive online growth in the process. The Daily Beast now attracts more than 15 million unique visitors a month, a 70 percent increase in the past year alone—a healthy portion of this traffic generated each week by Newsweek’s strong original journalism.
    • Scott Adams Blog: Firing Offense – Endorses Romney– Romney is likely to continue the same drug policies as the Obama administration. But he’s enough of a chameleon and a pragmatist that one can’t be sure. And I’m fairly certain he’d want a second term. He might find it “economical” to use federal resources in other ways than attacking California voters. And he is vocal about promoting states’ rights, so he’s got political cover for ignoring dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal.So while I don’t agree with Romney’s positions on most topics, I’m endorsing him for president starting today. I think we need to set a minimum standard for presidential behavior, and jailing American citizens for political gain simply has to be a firing offense no matter how awesome you might be in other ways.
    • The schedule becomes the story– e are at the point now in the race for the White House where decisions must be made by both campaigns on where to spend precious time in the final days of this race, as what seems like a simple decision not to campaign in a certain state can quickly blossom into a major story.The number of swing states I have been watching is ten – New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.With 19 days until Election Day, how many times will the President and Mitt Romney get to those states? Will any of them go wanting?The President spent the day after the second Obama-Romney debate in Iowa and Ohio; as I wrote earlier in the week, don’t underestimate the importance of Iowa’s six Electoral Votes.

      “We’re in Iowa and Ohio today specifically because early voting has already started,” Obama Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One. “As you know, that’s a key part of our strategy.”

      Reporters then asked about speculation that the Obama campaign might be easing off the pedal in some southern states – specifically, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

      “The same states that were in play and that we’re competing in every single day are the same states today as they were three weeks ago,” Psaki said. “And that includes Florida, and that includes North Carolina.”

      But the schedule already tells a story about North Carolina.

    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-17 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-17
    • Gallup: Mid-October U.S. Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.3 Per Cent – Flap’s Blog – Gallup: Mid-October U.S. Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.3 Per Cent #tcot
    • The Morning Flap: October 17, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: October 17, 2012 #tcot
    • Trooth.Com – The David Nicholls DDS Interview Part Two – Flap’s Blog – – The David Nicholls DDS Interview Part Two #tcot
    • A President Without a Plan– President Obama bounced off the canvas with a more spirited debate at Hofstra University on Tuesday night, as everyone expected he would. He was animated and on the attack. The question we kept asking as the evening wore on, however, is what does he want to do for the next four years?At least two questioners put the point directly, yet Mr. Obama never provided much of an answer. Sure, he wants to hire 100,000 more teachers, as if there is the money to hire them or it would make much difference to student outcomes.He wants to invest in “solar and wind and biofuels, energy-efficient cars,” which probably means more Solyndras and A123s (see nearby). He wants to raise taxes on the rich—that’s one thing he’s really passionate about. Oh, and he does want to pass the immigration reform he said he’d propose four years ago but never did propose in his first two years when his party controlled Congress and he might have passed it.But otherwise, what’s his case for four more years? Judging by Tuesday’s debate, the President’s argument for re-election is basically this: He’s not as awful as Mitt Romney. Mr. Obama spent most of his time attacking either Mr. Romney himself (he invests in Chinese companies), his tax plan as a favor for the rich (“that’s been his history”) or this or that statement he has made over the last year (“the 47%,” which Mr. Obama saved for the closing word of the entire debate).
    • Record High Enrollment for Food Stamps: 46,681,833 Million– Food stamps enrollment has hit a new record high. 46,681,833 million are now enrolled in the social welfare program, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, the federal department that runs the program.As the chart shows, when President Obama took office, enrollment in the food stamps program was 31.98 million. Now, not even four years later, it’s a whopping 46.48 million. (In 2002, as the chart states, “19.1 million Americans received food stamps.”)In fact, the newly released data represents enrollment in July (the last month for which data is available). Assuming the program remained on its projected path, the number of those enrolled in food stamps is likely now larger by several hundreds of thousands.”USDA has engaged in an aggressive outreach and promotional campaign to boost food stamp enrollment. Among these efforts are an ongoing partnership with the Mexican government to advertise food stamps to Mexican nationals, migrant workers, and non-citizen immigrants. Partly as a result of these efforts, the number of non-citizens on food stamps has quadrupled since 2001,” explains the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee.

      And the cost, the committee explains, is astronomical. “Total spending on food stamps is projected to reach nearly $800 billion over the next 10 years, with no fewer than 1 in 9 people on the program at any given time. Neither food stamp participation nor spending on the program are ever projected to return to pre-recession levels at any point in the next 10 years.”

    • A new, improved Barack Obama shows up for the second debate but fails to halt Mitt Romney’s momentum– President Barack Obama needed a game-changing night here in Hampstead, New York and Mitt Romney made sure he didn’t get it. Over the 90 minutes, Obama might have edged it – just – but strategically he did little if anything to blunt Romney’s growing advantage.Just as Al Gore over-compensated for his poor first debate in 2000, we saw a completely different Obama this time around. He had clearly had some intensive coaching from his debate prep team and was acting under orders to do change everything. Romney strategist Stuart Stevens quipped afterwards that he became ‘Joe Biden without the charm’.The problem is that the difference was so stark it was jarring. And by throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Romney – we had tax rates, Bain, big bird and the 47 per cent – there was more than a whiff of desperation. While Obama flung mud, Romney was intent on dismantling Obama’s record in office.
    • Windows Pushes Into the Tablet Age – WSJ.com – Windows Pushes Into the Tablet Age – #tcot
    • ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports – RT @darrenrovell BREAKING: Nike has terminated the contract of Lance Armstrong. More to come on .
    • Twitter / waltmossberg: Here’s a visual guide to the … – Here’s a visual guide to the new Windows 8 interface. Read my full review at .
    • Windows Pushes Into the Tablet Age – WSJ.com – Here’s a visual guide to the new Windows 8 interface. Read my full review at .
    • The Hill’s 50 races to watch – The Hill’s Ballot Box – RT @thehill The Hill’s 50 congressional races to watch #tcot
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 17, 2012

    October 17, 2012 /

    Obama and Romney Debate

    President Obama and Mitt Romney debate last night, October 16, 2012

    These are my links for October 16th through October 17th:

    • Internet Takes Off With Mitt Romney’s ‘Binders Full of Women’– Despite all the fireworks over taxes, oil and Libya, the most buzz-worthy social media moment of Tuesday night’s presidential debate was Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s comment about “binders full of women.”The inadvertently funny comment came in response to a question about pay equity for women from a member of the audience of the debate between Romney and President Obama at Hofstra University.Romney was explaining that as the governor of Massachusetts searching for qualified women to fill cabinet posts, women’s groups brought him “binders full of women” who were good candidates.“And I said, ‘Well, gosh, can’t we — can’t we find some — some women that are also qualified?” Romney said. “I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”The response was swift.

      “‘They brought me whole binders full of women’ Did I just hear that? #debate,” tweeted @MichaelAusiello.”

      “‘They brought us binders full of women,’ doesn’t sound good in any setting,” added the New York Times’ Nick Bilton.

      It wasn’t long before the internet took the comment and ran with it.

      A new “Tumblr” account popped up with images inspired by the comment, including one from the now-famous “Texts from Hillary” meme.

    • CNN Poll: Slight Edge to Obama in Debate– Hempstead, New York (CNN) – Give a slight edge to President Barack Obama.Forty-six percent of voters who watched Tuesday night’s presidential debate said that the president won the showdown, according to a CNN/ORC International nationwide poll conducted right after Tuesday night’s faceoff here at Hofstra University on New York’s Long Island. Thirty-nine percent questioned said Republican nominee Mitt Romney did the better job.Obama’s seven-point advantage came among a debate audience that was somewhat more Republican than the country as a whole and is within the survey’s sampling error.The president’s edge on the question of who won the debate appears to be the result of his much better than expected performance and his advantage on likeability. But the poll also indicates that debate watchers said Romney would do a better job on economic issues. And the two candidates were tied on an important measure — whether the showdown would affect how the debate watchers will vote. Nearly half said the debate did not make them more likely to vote for either candidate, with the other half evenly divided between both men.
    • CBS Poll: Obama Edges Romney in Debate– Moments following the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., 37 percent of voters polled said the president won, 30 percent awarded the victory to Romney, and 33 percent called it a tie. After some particularly animated exchanges between the two candidates, 55 percent of voters said Mr. Obama gave direct answers, but 49 percent also said that about Romney.As for who would do a better job of handling the economy, the president made some headway on closing that gap. Before the debate, 71 percent said they believed Romney would, while only 27 percent said they thought Obama would; after the debate, 34 percent said the president would better handle the economy, with 65 percent saying Romney would.Obama would also be more likely to help the middle class, according to 56 percent of voters after the debate, compared with 43 percent who said that about Romney.The survey polled 525 voters who are undecided or who may still change their minds. Most of these uncommitted voters are not affiliated with a political party: 56 percent describe themselves as politically independent, 21 percent identify as Republicans, and 23 percent are Democrats.
    • Candy Crowley: He Was Right – Romney on Libya– After the debate, debate moderator Candy Crowley said Republican nominee Mitt Romney was “right in the main” but “picked the wrong word” on the Obama administration’s immediate response to the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.Crowley interrupted Romney during the debate, insisting that President Obama had in fact called the attack an “act of terror.”ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.OBAMA: Get the transcript.CROWLEY: It — it — it — he did in fact, sir. So let me — let me call it an act of terror…

      OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?

      CROWLEY: He — he did call it an act of terror. It did as well take — it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. You are correct about that.

      In a statement given in the Rose Garden on Sept. 12, Obama emphasized an anti-Islam video, before saying that “no acts of terror would shake the resolve of this great nation.”

      The administration’s narrative on the attack over the next two weeks was muddled.

    • Crowley skews hard for Obama in disastrous debate– Another debate, another debacle for America’s media.In the runup to the second presidential debate, CNN’s Candy Crowley declared that she would not just be a “fly on the wall” as she played the tiny role of moderator, that she would step in whenever she chose to say, “Hey, wait a second, what about X, Y, Z?”And boy did she, cutting off Republican Mitt Romney repeatedly and often throwing the floor to President Obama with an open “let me give the president a chance here.”More, she alone decided the topics for the debate, picking questions from the 80 so-called “undecided” voters chosen by the Gallup polling organization. Her selections were tailor-made for Mr. Obama — Mitt Romney’s tax plan, women’s rights and contraception, outsourcing, immigration, the Libya debacle (which gave Mr. Obama to finally say that the buck stops with him, not, as Hillary Clinton said, with her).She even chose this question, directed to both men: “I do attribute much of America’s economic and international problems to the failings and missteps of the Bush administration. Since both of you are Republicans, I fear the return to the policies of those years should you win this election. What is the biggest difference between you and George W. Bush, and how do you differentiate yourself from George W. Bush?”
    • Obama Scores the Most Debate Points, but Verdict Uncertain – Wednesday, October 17, 2012– Like two roughnecks squared off on a playground, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney invaded each other’s personal space, raised their voices, and fought. “It is just not true,” the president said. “It is true,” his rival replied. You could almost hear both men thinking: “Same to you and more of it.”If you like to see presidential candidates fight for the job, if you want a passionate dialogue over big issues that matter, you got what you wanted on Tuesday night. If it’s civility you seek, you’re sunk.Who won? The answer may be Obama, because his goal following a catastrophically sluggish first debate was so clear: Show some life. And, indeed, the president aggressively criticized Romney, labeling him a hypocrite and a liar who favors the rich at the expense of the middle class and poor.But Romney got his licks in, too, wrapping a miserable economy around the incumbent’s neck. “The middle class is getting crushed by the policies of a president who does not understand what it takes to get the economy working again,” Romney said.Bottom line: Obama and Romney scored points while turning off independent voters with their point-scoring. Democratic and Republican partisans will find reason to celebrate the debate but it likely did nothing to reshape the closely fought race.
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-16 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-16 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-16 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-16
    • Remarks by the President on the Deaths of U.S. Embassy Staff in Libya | The White House – RT @EWErickson: Here’s the Rose Garden transcript. President blamed a video, not terrorists.
    • Gallup Poll: Obama Losing Momentum With Voters – Flap’s Blog – Gallup Poll: Obama Losing Momentum With Voters #tcot
    • Trooth.Com – The Billboard – Flap’s Blog – – The Billboard #tcot
    • CA-26: Stalking Continues To Plague Tony Strickland – Flap’s Blog – CA-26: Stalking Continues To Plague Tony Strickland #tcot
    • Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California – Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California #tcot
    • California: Botched Abortion Sends Bakersfield Woman to Hospital | LifeNews.com – Horrible! RT @StevenErtelt: California: Botched Abortion Sends Bakersfield Woman to Hospital #tcot
    • Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California – Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California #tcot
    • Quote of the Day – RT @politicalwire: Former Obama aide: “It’s stunning that he’s in politics, because he really doesn’t like people.”
    • Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California – Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California #tcot
    • Trooth.Com – The David Nicholls DDS Interview Part One – Flap’s Blog – – The David Nicholls DDS Interview Part One #tcot
    • Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California – Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California #tcot
    • The Morning Flap: October 16, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: October 16, 2012 #tcot
    • Civic Report 72 | THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California – THE NAYS HAVE IT: When Public Sector Unions Win in California #tcot
    • Daily Kos: Daily Kos/SEIU State of the Nation poll: Romney’s best numbers of the week – Even the LEFT RT @ppppolls: This week’s Daily Kos/SEIU/PPP national poll finds Mitt Romney leading Barack Obama 50-46:
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 15, 2012

    October 15, 2012 /

    The Man Who Fell to Earth

    The Man Who Fell to Earth

    These are my links for October 11th through October 15th:

    • The Unraveling of Affirmative Action– For more than 40 years, the debate over affirmative action in admissions has focused on whether it amounts to unfair and unconstitutional reverse discrimination against whites (and now Asians). The implicit premise for most people on both sides has been that racial preferences bring only benefits and no costs, apart from the possible stigma of being deemed “affirmative-action admits,” to their black and Hispanic recipients. This premise was enough to make the two of us uncritical supporters of racial preferences until we began to examine the underlying facts.Key to nurturing the myth that racial preferences can only help their recipients has been a strong norm among college administrators to play down both the size of preferences they use and the difficulties these students encounter down the road. This concealment has had the unfortunate effect of misleading students and shielding preference policies from close scrutiny.
    • Elizabeth Warren obtained federal fee waivers despite high 6-figure income and 8-figure net worth– Elizabeth Warren has built her progressive rock star image and her campaign by attacking the wealthy factory owners and others who supposedly do not pay their “fair share” and take advantage of loopholes to live off of infrastructure paid for by others.Yet Warren appears to be one of those people who takes advantage.Warren falsely and without any legitimate legal basis claimed to be Cherokee for employment purposes. Warren also chintzed by failing to register for the Massachusetts Bar despite an active practice of law in Cambridge since the mid-1990s, thereby evading Bar registration dues. Howie Carr has a great column today about Warren’s class warfare phoniness.

      Add another example to the long list: Warren obtained fee waivers from at least 50 federal bankruptcy courts so she would not have to pay for access to the federal PACER system, even in years when she had a high 6-figure income and an 8-figure net worth.

    • PPP caught doing advocacy polling on race– PPP, a Democratic polling outfit, has long been viewed by suspicion by not only conservatives but by independent, credible pollsters. Now there is all the more reason to discount its “polling” as shoddy partisanship.I spoke by phone today with Wisconsin voter Dave Summers, who lives in the Madison area. He told me, “I got a survey. I don’t normally answer these calls, but I did [this time]. I started out pretty normal — President, Senate.” However, he said it then got weirder. The automatic survey asked if he had a favorable or unfavorable impression of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. He said he was greatly disturbed when the automated call then asked, “Do you believe conservative media want white people to think Barack Obama hates them?” He said, “That bugged me.”I called Tom Jensen of PPP. He said that it was his poll. I asked whether this wasn’t a classic advocacy poll designed to get a specific answer. He demurred, “Well, we were asking a series of questions about conservative media.” He said that this call followed the posting on Drudge of the 2007 video in which then-Sen. Barack Obama (D- Ill.) talks about Hurricane Katrina and denying aid to residents. He claimed that since conservative media were trying to make an issue of this (in fact most conservative outlets downplayed or ignored the issue), it was important to see whether that effort (to poison the thinking of white voters, I suppose) was “successful.”

      The questions on conservative media and on white people were asked at the very end of the poll.

    • The 3 states that may decide the election– With less than a month until Election Day, the primary battlefields for the presidential campaign can be found in just three states: Ohio, Florida and Virginia.In these big three, home to a combined 60 electoral votes, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are spending both the most money and the most time. Over the past two weeks, the candidates and their allies have aired the most TV ads in Ohio, Florida and Virginia, in that order. And over the same period, Obama and Romney have held more than three times as many campaign events in the Big Three than they have in the other six swing states combined.
    • In second debate, Obama faces challenges on key issues– Losing ground to Republican Mitt Romney on a host of issues, President Barack Obama faces a serious challenge to put his re-election bid back on track when the two men face off on Tuesday in their second debate.Obama’s passive performance in their first debate two weeks ago and Romney’s subsequent surge have raised expectations for a more fiery encounter at New York’s Hofstra University.The Democratic president’s team has been encouraged by the feisty performance of Vice President Joe Biden last week in his debate against Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

      Now, with Romney having virtually erased Obama’s lead in national polls just three weeks before the November 6 election, Obama is hoping to take advantage of the town hall-style format in Tuesday’s debate to make a direct pitch to voters

    • Axelrod Refuses to Say Whether Obama Met with Nat’l Security Team Before Heading to Las Vegas– After David Axelrod’s repeated assurances this morning on Fox News Sunday that “there isn’t anybody on this planet” who feels a greater sense of responsibility for our diplomats than this President, Chris Wallace asked how soon after the Benghazi attacks the President actually met with his national security team.Wallace followed up on Axelrod’s non-answer by asking whether the President managed to squeeze in a meeting with the National Security Council before jetting off to Las Vegas for a campaign rally. Given Axelrod’s inability to produce a straightforward answer to the questions, it’s pretty clear the answer is “no.”Amusing in this exchange is Axelrod’s contention that “anybody” would have said what the administration and Ambassador Rice said after the attack.
    • Axelrod bobs and weaves over Obama’s level of engagement the day of the Benghazi attack – Today on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace pressed David Axelrod on the question of how soon, and in what ways, President Obama tried to get to the bottom of the nature of the attack in Benghazi. As a predicate for the question, Wallace pointed out that on the day of the attack, the State Department and the intelligence community were presenting conflicting views about whether the attack was spontaneous or planned. An engaged president would immediately have tried to sort this matter out so he would know what the U.S. was dealing with.
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-14 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Digest for 2012-10-14
    • Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-14 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Blog @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-14 #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-14 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-14
    • GetGlue – Your app for TV, Movies, and Sports – I unlocked the FOX MLB: Giants vs. Cardinals sticker on #GetGlue!
    • GetGlue – Your app for TV, Movies, and Sports – Go Cards.. #GetGlue #MajorLeagueBaseballOnFOX
    • NRCC Launches More Than $6 Million Worth of Ads | At the Races – RT @rollcall: NRCC launches $6M worth of TV ads in more than a dozen race, via @jm_dc
    • GetGlue – Your app for TV, Movies, and Sports – I unlocked the Hollywood Extra sticker on #GetGlue! @intel
    • GetGlue – Your app for TV, Movies, and Sports – Brody becomes the terrorist errand boy… #GetGlue @SHO_homeland
    • Wisdom Teeth Turf War Erupts in Utah – Flap’s Blog – Wisdom Teeth Turf War Erupts in Utah #tcot
    • Destinations / The space shuttle Endeavour moves north on Bill Robertson Lane in front of the Coliseum in Los Angeles Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012. In thousands of Earth orbits, the space shuttle Endeavour traveled 123 million miles. But the last few miles of it – The space shuttle Endeavour moves north on Bill Robertson Lane in front of the Coliseum in LA Sunday. via @pinterest
    • Dilbert for October 14, 2012 – Scoot Over – Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert for October 14, 2012 – Scoot Over
    • GetGlue – Your app for TV, Movies, and Sports – Enjoying the Sunday NFL action… #GetGlue #NFLRedZone
    • Many Dentists Violating Child Abuse Reporting Laws? – Flap’s Blog – Many Dentists Violating Child Abuse Reporting Laws? #tcot
    • Sprint reportedly agrees to sell 70 percent stake to Softbank– Sprint Nextel has reportedly reached an agreement to sell 70 percent of the wireless carrier to Japanese mobile carrier Softbank for $20 billion.Both companies’ respective boards have approved the deal, which is expected to be announced tomorrow, sources tell CNBC. Under the deal, Softbank will buy $8 billion in stock directly from Sprint, with another $12 billion purchased from existing stockholders.The tender offer’s price per share is reportedly $7.30, a 27 percent premium over the carrier’s closing stock price Friday of $5.73.

      CNET has contacted Sprint for comment and will update this report when we lean more.

      Sprint had previously confirmed that it was in discussions with Softbank regarding a “substantial investment ” by the Japanese mobile carrier.

    • Humor / Alice is mocking you….. – Today’s Dilbert:Alice is mocking you….. via @pinterest
    • ObamaCare is bad for small business– By January 2014, the states and the District must either establish their own health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), combine with other states to form a regional exchange or have the federal government set up an exchange for them.The District has opted for the first option, and this month it moved ahead with a model unlike anything pursued by any state in the nation, with the exception of Vermont: On Oct. 3, the D.C. Health Exchange Authority’s executive board unanimously approved a plan that would abolish the marketplace as we know it for firms with 50 employees or fewer and force them to obtain health insurance for their workers from the government-run exchange. Companies and associations with 100 employees or fewer would have to do so by 2016.If virtually everyone else is choosing a more cautious approach, I am compelled to ask: Is the District so much smarter than everyone else?
    • Election May Well Come Down to Colorado– Exactly 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency. And that win may well come down to Colorado — specifically, Jefferson and Arapahoe counties.Both are at the center of the 7th Congressional District race between incumbent Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat, and challenger Joe Coors, a Republican.If businessman Coors has a good night on Nov. 6, so will Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, likely not only in Colorado but nationwide.
    • Live Broadcast | Red Bull Stratos – RT @NASA Congratulations to Felix Baumgartner and @RedBullStratos on a record-breaking leap from the edge of space!
    • News from The Associated Press – RT @AP #Skydiver Felix #Baumgartner lands safely after 24-mile leap to Earth in bid to break sound barrier: -MM
    • Untitled (http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/oct/14/longtime-gop-senate-moderate-arlen-specter-dies/) – R. I. P. RT @vcstar Longtime GOP Senate moderate Arlen Specter dies
    • @ Flap Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-12 – Flap’s California Blog – @ Flap Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-12
    • @ Flap Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-13 – Flap’s California Blog – @ Flap Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-13
    • @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-13 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-13 #tcot
    • Day By Day October 13, 2012 – Liar, Liar – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day October 13, 2012 – Liar, Liar #tcot
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-13 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-13
    • My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-12 – Locum Tenens (Temporary) Dentist – Gregory Cole, D.D.S. – My Daily Twitter Digest for 2012-10-12
    • @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-12 to 2012-10-12 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-12 to 2012-10-12 #tcot
    • @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-11 to 2012-10-11 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @ Flap Twitter Daily Digest for 2012-10-11 to 2012-10-11 #tcot
    • Why Dems Loved Biden’s Boorish Behavior– The morning after the vice presidential debate, Democrats are delighted. Vice President Joe Biden’s obnoxious display was exactly what was needed to cheer them up after a week of morose speculation about why President Obama was so passive and uninspired at last week’s first presidential debate with Mitt Romney. Indeed, the more Biden giggled, smirked and interrupted Paul Ryan, the better they liked it. While his condescending and bullying behavior contradicted liberal doctrine about conservatives being the ones guilty of polluting the public square with political incivility, it embodied their complete contempt for both Republicans and their ideas. Biden’s nastiness may have re-invigorated a Democratic base that wanted nothing so much as to tell their opponents to shut up, even if it may have also alienated a great many independents. But with the main focus of the election still on the remaining two presidential debates, it’s not clear that President Obama can profit from Biden’s example.The reason for this is not very complicated. The Democrats cheering on Biden’s bullying, while ignoring the fact that he had nothing to offer on the future of entitlements and his disgraceful alibis about Libya, did so because at bottom they really do not feel Republicans or conservatives are worthy of respect or decency. Though they rarely own up to it, they don’t think Republicans are so much wrong as they are bad. By contrast, most Republicans think Democrats are wrong, not evil. Ryan, whose polite behavior was entirely proper but was made to appear passive and even weak when compared to his bloviating opponent, demonstrated this paradigm by patiently trying to explain his positions even when he was constantly interrupted.
    • Political Cartoons / What is so funny, “Slow” Joe Plagiarizing Biden? – What is so funny, “Slow” Joe Plagiarizing Biden? via @pinterest
    • Day By Day October 12, 2012 – Joker – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day October 12, 2012 – Joker #tcot
    • White House defends Biden on Libya– The White House is defending Vice President Biden over his debate statement that “we weren’t told” about requests for more security at a U.S. Consulate in Libya before the Sept. 11 attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others.White House press secretary Jay Carney said Biden was referring to President Obama, the White House and himself, as opposed to the State Department and other parts of the government.Biden “was speaking directly for himself and the president,” Carney said. “He meant the White House.”
    • Poll: Romney Opens 7-Point Lead in Florida– Mitt Romney’s 7-point lead in the TBT/Herald/Mason-Dixon poll is the latest sign of a Florida surge:The survey conducted this week found 51 percent of likely Florida voters supporting Romney, 44 percent backing Obama and 4 percent undecided. That’s a major shift from a month ago when the same poll showed Obama leading 48 percent to 47 percent — and a direct result of what Obama himself called a “bad night” at the first debate.The debate prompted 5 percent of previously undecided voters and 2 percent of Obama backers to move to Romney. Another 2 percent of Obama supporters said they are now undecided because of the debate.
    • Biden’s Benghazi Gaffe Makes Admin Scramble to Duck Responsibility – Was there an embarrassing gaffe in Thursday night’s debate? Vice President Biden gave a bungled and misleading answer about the situation in Benghazi in which he stated that “we” did not know security requests had been made. Biden’s statement is being artfully spun this morning in a way that rescues the vice president from himself at the expense of the State Department and, quite possibly, the truth.
    • Introducing the 2012 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index – RT @philipaklein: Here’s a link to the Cook Report’s new partisan voting index of all the congressional districts
    • Romney takes seven-point lead in new Florida poll – RT @cmarinucci: RT @FixAaron: Romney takes seven-point lead in new Florida poll – The Fix
    • Capitol Alert: Molly Munger says Jerry Brown using ‘impostor strategy’ to win votes – Molly Munger Vs. Jerry Brown – says Governor using an “impostor strategy” #tcot #catcot
    • Twitter / dannysullivan: Bored in the dentist’s chair … – Better bored than…RT @dannysullivan: Bored in the dentist’s chair 🙂
    • Montana poll shows Montana senate race a remains tight; Fox leads in attorney general’s race – Montana Sen: Denny Rehberg (R) 43% Vs. Sen. Jon Tester (D) 40% #tcot
    • Poll Watch: California Proposition 37 in Free Fall – Flap’s Blog – Poll Watch: California Proposition 37 in Free Fall #tcot
    • Pre-Debate Poll Watch: Ryan and Biden Both With Lackluster Favorability – Pre-Debate Poll Watch: Ryan and Biden Both With Lackluster Favorability #tcot
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 11, 2012

    October 11, 2012 /

    VP Biden Rope A Dope

    These are my links for October 9th through October 11th:

    • Biden: ‘You Ever See Me Rope-a-Dope?’– Joe Biden, on his way to tonight’s vice presidential debate in Kentucky, asks the press, “You ever see me rope-a-dope?”From the pool report:Vice President Biden arrived at about 10:50 a.m. at New Castle Airport. He climbed out of a gray SUV, greeted some military (see below) and then walked toward the press gathered near the wing.Asked about tonight’s debate he said, “Looking forward to it.”

      Asked about his strategy, whether it was rope-a-dope, he responded:
      “You ever see me rope-a-dope?”

      A bunch of Bidens are joining the VP, including: sons Hunter and Beau, daughter Ashley, sister Valerie. Debate partner Rep. Chris Van Hollen and former Sen. Ted Kaufman are on board, as is Shaleigh Murray, who played moderator Martha Raddatz in debate practice.

    • GOP Turnout Effort Tests Obama Campaign’s Prowess– Republicans are narrowing Democrats’ organizational advantage in critical swing states, but the latter say they are on track to improve upon President Obama’s 2008 early-vote count.Now that the election has moved full-throttle into get-out-the-vote mode, both campaigns are tracking the daily tabulation of absentee ballots requested in key battlegrounds along with the number of early votes already cast. In half of the most critical swing states — Colorado, Florida and North Carolina — Republicans have requested more absentee ballots than have their counterparts. And in Nevada, the two sides are nearly even.
    • ObamaCare: Health Care Direction Awaits Verdict of Presidential Race– Joyce Beck, who runs a small hospital and network of medical clinics in rural Nebraska, is reluctant to plan for the future until voters decide between President Obama and Mitt Romney. The candidates’ sharply divergent proposals for Medicare, Medicaid and coverage of the uninsured have created too much uncertainty, she explained.“We are all on hold, waiting to see what the election brings,” said Ms. Beck, chief executive of Thayer County Health Services in Hebron, Neb.When Americans go to the polls next month, they will cast a vote not just for president but for one of two profoundly different visions for the future of the country’s health care system. With an Obama victory on Nov. 6, the president’s signature health care law — including the contentious requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance or pay a tax penalty — will almost certainly come into full force, becoming the largest expansion of the safety net since President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through his Great Society programs almost half a century ago.If Mr. Romney wins and Republicans capture the Senate, much of the law could be repealed — or its financing cut back — and the president’s goal of achieving near-universal coverage could take a back seat to Mr. Romney’s top priority, controlling medical costs.

      Given the starkness of the choice, historians and policy makers believe this election could be the most significant referendum on a piece of social legislation since 1936, when the Republican Alf M. Landon ran against Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal programs. (Nearly eight decades have passed, but the debate sounds strikingly familiar: Landon described the Social Security Act, passed in 1935, as “the largest tax bill in history” and called for its repeal.)

    • California gas prices are a warning– California’s record gasoline prices and long service station lines are a warning to all of us about what green energy can do to our pocketbooks.On Monday, California gasoline cost $4.67 per gallon, compared with the $3.81 U.S. average. California’s environmental standards are the most stringent in the country, and Californians are paying the price.The price spike started with an August fire in Chevron’s Richmond refinery. Then, two other refineries, operated by Tesoro and Exxon Mobil, went down for maintenance. Because California requires different blends of gasoline from other states, and pipelines across the Rockies are limited, gasoline can’t be shipped in from elsewhere.On Sunday, in an attempt to lower gasoline prices, Gov. Jerry Brown suspended the environmental regulations that kept California prices above those in the rest of the United States.
    • Hating Breitbart – The Documentary in Select Theaters Soon – Hating Breitbart – The Documentary in Select Theaters Soon #tcot
    • Rove: The Dividends of Romney’s Debate Victory– How big an impact did Mitt Romney’s performance in last week’s debate have? Huge. Mr. Romney not only won the night, he changed the arc of the election—and perhaps its outcome. Surveys have him leading the RealClearPolitics average of polls for the first time since securing the GOP nomination in mid-April.Prior to Oct. 3, Mr. Romney trailed President Barack Obama by an average of 3.1 points in national polls tallied by RealClearPolitics. Since the debate, Mr. Romney now leads Mr. Obama in the RCP average by a point, 48.2% to 47.2%, and the bounce is likely to grow. By comparison, Sen. John Kerry was widely seen to have bested President George W. Bush in the first 2004 debate (held on Sept. 30 of that year), but he never led in the RCP average in October.In seven of the past nine presidential debate series, the challenger has gained more in the polls than the incumbent (or the candidate of the party in power). The first debate generally frames the series and establishes whether the bounce will be large or modest. Mr. Romney’s bounce is significant.
    • Greek Unemployment Rises Above 25 per cent– The unemployment rate in Greece rose to 25.1 percent in July, from 24.8 percent the month before, as the financial crisis continued to destroy jobs.Greece’s statistical authority says in a statement Thursday that 1.26 million Greeks were jobless in July, with more than 1,000 jobs lost every day over the past year.In the worst-affected 15-24 age group, unemployment was 54.2 percent.In July 2008, a year before Greece’s acute financial crisis broke, there were only about 364,000 registered unemployed.

      Greece is surviving on international bailout loans, granted on condition of harsh austerity measures to curtail the country’s large budget deficits. The economy is set to enter a sixth year of recession in 2013.

    • CBS 5 Poll: Romney Gains 8 Points On Faltering Obama In California– The effects of President Barack Obama’s falter in the first debate with Mitt Romney are not just being felt in battleground states, according to KPIX-TV CBS 5?s latest tracking poll of California which shows Romney slicing eight points off Obama’s lead.Obama had led by 22 points in the CBS 5 tracking poll released four weeks ago. Obama now leads by only 14 points, an 8-point improvement for Romney. At the same time, the poll found U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s support for her re-election bid remained largely unchanged, month-on-month, suggesting that the erosion in Democratic support is not across-the-board, but contained to Obama. Unclear is whether the Obama erosion is fleeting or long-lasting.
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-11 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-11
    • Poll: Most troubled by Libya claim – Kevin Robillard – POLITICO.com – RT @politico Poll: 46 percent of voters disapprove of how Obama is handling Libya: #tcot
    • AP IMPACT: Cartels flood US with cheap meth – Another Obama failure RT @AP Mexican meth pours into US cities, negates effort to curb US drug production: #tcot
    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-11 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-11 #tcot
    • “The Lid”: UPDATE: Video of Lara Logan’s Obama is Lying Speech – RT @yidwithlid: @ali Video of Lara Logan’s Obama is Lying to Us About the Middle East Speech
    • Good Oral Hygiene Prevents Tooth Loss | Josie Dovidio, DDS – RT @SimiDentist: Learn how to keep your teeth into your golden years.
    • Vice President Debate Moderator Martha Raddatz Has Ties to Obama – Vice President Debate Moderator Martha Raddatz Has Ties to Obama #tcot
    • Video: The Obama White House Disinformation Campaign On Libya – Flap’s Blog – Video: The Obama White House Disinformation Campaign On Libya #tcot
    • Capitol Alert: Molly Munger opens separate committee to attack Prop. 30 – Tax increases are both going to fail RT @CapitolAlert: Molly Munger opens separate committee to attack Prop. 30
    • Bill Clinton works Las Vegas crowd, criticizing Romney for Obama – latimes.com – Bubba Bill Clinton mocks Mitt Romney in order to save Obama’s ass in Las Vegas #tcot
    • 11 Of Lance Armstrong’s Teammates Testified Against Him To The USADA– The USADA is releasing a full report of evidence that Lance Armstrong was doping during his cycling career.Eleven of Armstrong’s former teammates testified against the seven-time Tour de France winner saying he used performance enhancing drugs.The teammates who testified against Armstrong were: Frankie Andreu, Michael Barry, Tom Danielson, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Stephen Swart, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters, and David Zabriskie.
    • Lawyer who filed complaint has ties to multiple anti-ALEC groups– The lawyer who filed an IRS whistleblower complaint against the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on behalf of a shadowy organization known as “Clergy Voice” has ties to Common Cause, the liberal government watchdog group and renowned ALEC foe.Marcus Owens, former director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS from 1990 to 2000, filed a whistleblower complaint in July against ALEC, alleging the group was violating IRS tax law.“ALEC has deliberately and repeatedly failed to comply with some of the most fundamental federal tax requirements applicable to public charities,” Owens wrote in his complaint against the influential free-market group. “The information in this submission also suggests, quite strongly, that the conduct of ALEC and certain of its representatives violates other civil and criminal tax laws and may violate other federal and state criminal statutes as well.”As reported by the Free Beacon, the “grassroots” movement against ALEC is a well-coordinated campaign orchestrated by well-funded and often secretive progressive groups.
    • Frank Schubert and the Fight Against Gay Marriage – NYTimes.com – One Man Guides the Fight Against Gay Marriage: Frank Schubert #tcot
    • Wynn On Obama: “I’ll Be Damned If I Want To Have Him Lecture Me” | RealClearPolitics – Las Vegas’ Steve Wynn On Obama: “I’ll Be Damned If I Want To Have Him Lecture Me”
      #tcot
    • Review & Outlook: Big Bird, Small President – WSJ.com – Big Bird, Small President – As of fiscal 2011, Sesame Workshop had assets of $289 million #tcot
    • Pelosi offers debate advice to Biden – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room – This ought to be good! | Pelosi offers debate advice to Biden #tcot
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: The Morning Drill: October 10, 2012 – The Morning Drill: October 10, 2012
    • Barack Obama, VP debate moderator wedding guest– President Barack Obama was a guest at the 1991 wedding of ABC senior foreign correspondent and vice presidential debate moderator Martha Raddatz, The Daily Caller has learned. Obama and groom Julius Genachowski, whom Obama would later tap to head the Federal Communications Commission, were Harvard Law School classmates at the time and members of the Harvard Law Review.After TheDC made preliminary inquiries Monday to confirm Obama’s attendance at the wedding, ABC leaked a pre-emptive statement to liberal-leaning news outlets including Politico and The Daily Beast Tuesday, revealing what may have been internal network pressure felt just days before Raddatz was scheduled to moderate the one and only vice-presidential debate Thursday night.
    • Day By Day October 10, 2012 – Close Enough for Government – Flap’s Blog – Day By Day October 10, 2012 – Close Enough for Government #tcot
    • Obama Campaign Stands By Big Bird Ad – NationalJournal.com – RT @nationaljournal Obama campaign appears to be standing by its Big Bird ad. #tcot
    • Suffolk pollster: We’re not polling Florida, Virginia, or North Carolina anymore, because Romney’s going to win them « Hot Air – RT @TabithaHale Suffolk pollster: We’re not polling FL, Virginia, or NC anymore, because Romney’s going to win them
    • Jack Welch: I Was Right About That Strange Jobs Report– Imagine a country where challenging the ruling authorities—questioning, say, a piece of data released by central headquarters—would result in mobs of administration sympathizers claiming you should feel “embarrassed” and labeling you a fool, or worse.Soviet Russia perhaps? Communist China? Nope, that would be the United States right now, when a person (like me, for instance) suggests that a certain government datum (like the September unemployment rate of 7.8%) doesn’t make sense.Unfortunately for those who would like me to pipe down, the 7.8% unemployment figure released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) last week is downright implausible. And that’s why I made a stink about it.Before I explain why the number is questionable, though, a few words about where I’m coming from. Contrary to some of the sound-and-fury last week, I do not work for the Mitt Romney campaign. I am definitely not a surrogate. My wife, Suzy, is not associated with the campaign, either. She worked at Bain Consulting (not Bain Capital) right after business school, in 1988 and 1989, and had no contact with Mr. Romney.

      The Obama campaign and its supporters, including bigwigs like David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, along with several cable TV anchors, would like you to believe that BLS data are handled like the gold in Fort Knox, with gun-carrying guards watching their every move, and highly trained, white-gloved super-agents counting and recounting hourly.

      Let’s get real. The unemployment data reported each month are gathered over a one-week period by census workers, by phone in 70% of the cases, and the rest through home visits. In sum, they try to contact 60,000 households, asking a list of questions and recording the responses.

    • State Dept reveals new details of Benghazi attack– All was quiet outside the U.S. Consulate as evening fell on Benghazi and President Barack Obama’s envoy to Libya was retiring after a day of diplomatic meetings.There was no indication of the harrowing events that night would bring: assailants storming the compound and setting its buildings aflame, American security agents taking fire across more than a mile of the city, the ambassador and three employees killed and others forced into a daring car escape against traffic.Senior State Department officials on Tuesday revealed for the first time certain details of last month’s tragedy in the former Libyan rebel stronghold, such as the efforts of a quick reaction force that rushed onto the scene and led the evacuation in a fierce gun battle that continued into the streets. The briefing was provided a day before department officials were to testify to a House committee about the most serious attack on a U.S. diplomatic installation since al-Qaida bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 14 years ago.The account answers some questions and leaves others unanswered. Chief among them is why for several days the Obama administration said the assault stemmed from a protest against an American-made Internet video ridiculing Islam, and whether the consulate had adequate security.
    • Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-10 – Flap’s California Blog – Flap’s California Blog @ Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-10
    • State Department: No video protest at the Benghazi consulate– Prior to the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi late in the evening on Sept. 11, there was no protest outside the compound, a senior State Department official confirmed today, contradicting initial administration statements suggesting that the attack was an opportunistic reaction to unrest caused by an anti-Islam video.In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, two senior State Department officials gave a detailed accounting of the events that lead to the death of Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The officials said that prior to the massive attack on the Benghazi compound by dozens of militants carrying heavy weaponry, there was no unrest outside the walls of the compound and no protest that anyone inside the compound was aware of.
    • The liberal media loved Obama to death – It was in Denver one week ago that the long-running romance between Barack Obama and the national press — aka the “Slobbering Love Affair,” as Bernard Goldberg put it — hit the wall. The motel bill, unpaid these many long months and ages, at long last came due.
      It had been the real thing, not a commonplace fling with your generic Democrat, but the love of a lifetime, the genuine article, the sum of all dreams: He was not just a Democrat, he was also a liberal. He was not just a liberal, he also biracial, also multinational; also hip, cool, and clever. He was themselves as they wanted to be. Like them, he was gifted at writing and talking (and, as it turned out, not much beyond that), like them, he stood up for Metro America; like them, he viewed the people outside it with a not-very-measured disdain. “I divide people into people who talk like us and people who don’t talk like us,” said David Brooks, speaking for all of them. “You could see him as a New Republic writer … he’s more talented than anyone in my lifetime … he IS pretty dazzling when he walks into a room.”Dazzled indeed, they turned on their old flames, Bill and Hillary Clinton. They dumped John McCain, with whom they had flirted; and when Romney appeared — rich, square, and looking like Dad in a mid-50s sitcom — it was clear the long knives would be out.
    • The LEFT melts down over Obama Debate Performance– Let me suggest something that many conservatives realized after the debate: Obama did not do that badly. For Obama. He was the same listless, droning, exhausted-of-ideas scold we have seen for at least two years now (and maybe three).He was Obama. This is what he is. He is not quick-witted. He is not, as I think I saw Mickey Kaus note, a wonk. He has never been a wonk, a detailed-policy guy.He is a guy who speaks vacuously of hopes and dreams and change and fairness.He always has been.

      The problem, for the liberals, is not Obama. This is what you bought. This is your guy. It wasn’t his A game, but it was something close to his B+ game.

      The problem was Romney, who was commanding, fluent, reasonable, articulate, sharp-witted, warm, occasionally funny, full of ideas, full of facts, full of thoughtful, detailed criticisms of Obama policy (who the hell expected him to bring up, as an afterthought, Dodd-Frank’s failure to specify what a “reasonably qualified” mortgage applicant was, and how that chilled lending? Obama sure didn’t!), and, therefore, ultimately, full of qualification for the job and yes, full of gravitas.

      That’s the problem.

      Not Obama. I repeat: This is who Obama is. He has never been this brilliant intellect and keen policy analysts liberals have, in their BubbleWorld, dreamed him as.

    • After Debate, Obama Protection Dam Breaks– President Obama might think sagging polls are his biggest post-debate problem. But it’s really people like Buzz Bissinger, Stacey Dash and Bill Maher showing it’s now acceptable in polite society to attack The One.In an eye-opening piece Monday on the Daily Beast, “Friday Night Lights” author and lifelong Democrat Buzz Bissinger announced he was voting for Romney.The tipping point, he wrote, “was last week’s debate in Denver,” which showed Obama out of energy and out of ideas. Obama is “no longer the chosen one. He is just too cool for school in a country desperate for the infectiousness of rejuvenation.”
    • Angst grows among Obama supporters– First came the nausea. Then came the anxiety.After months of watching Mitt Romney twist in the media glare, a growing number of President Barack Obama’s supporters — though confined for now to a noisy minority of liberals — are peering into the Obama-might-actually-lose abyss for the first time after last week’s disastrous first debate.
    • ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’ Turns 30 – Speakeasy – WSJ – RT @WSJ “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” was released 30 years ago It remains the 4th most successful U.S. film of all time
    • NASA – NASATV – RT @NASA on @SpaceX #Dragon capture: “Looks like we’ve tamed the Dragon. We’re happy she’s on-board with us.”
    • Rep. Issa closes in on Clinton on Libya– Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is setting his sights on his biggest political target yet: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is treading more carefully than he did with his investigation of Attorney General Eric Holder and the Fast and Furious gun-tracking program, which led to a House vote placing Holder in contempt.Issa has not called on Clinton to testify at a hearing Wednesday morning meant to investigate security lapses at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.Issa’s staff has also praised Clinton for vowing to cooperate with the investigation of how an attack on the consulate left U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other American diplomats dead.

      “After dealing with the Department of Justice’s stonewalling in Operation Fast and Furious, the State Department and Secretary Clinton have been a breath of fresh air,” said Frederick Hill, a spokesman for Issa, in an interview with The Hill. “They pledged their cooperation when we

    • Josh Kraushaar’s post on Election 2012 | Latest updates on Sulia – Pres. Obama himself incorrectly blamed Libya attacks on video 9 days later in Univision forum, AFTER Susan Rice
    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-10 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-10 #tcot
    • RealClearPolitics – Election 2004 – General Election: Bush vs. Kerry – RealClearPolitics – Election 2004 – General Election: Bush vs. Kerry #tcot
    • Obama Steps Into It with Big Bird Campaign Ad – Flap’s Blog – Obama Steps Into It with Big Bird Campaign Ad #tcot
  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: October 2, 2012

    October 2, 2012 /

    Obama Says debate prep is a dragThese are my links for October 1st through October 2nd:

    • Obama calls debate prep ‘a drag’– President Obama played some hookey from his intense debate preparation early this week in Las Vegas, visiting a campaign field office in nearby Henderson and chatting with volunteers for his re-election effort.Campaign traveling press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters later that the president viewed visiting with voters and volunteers as important during his time in Nevada, a crucial swing state in Novemeber.”Obviously, as you know, he just went and took a break, and went to a local campaign office to rally and excite volunteers and our campaign staff, because at the same time, we’re focused on early vote and we’re focused on getting people out to vote as soon as they have the opportunity to,” Psaki said. “So there’s a balance we’re striking here as well while we’re in Nevada.””It’s very nice. Although basically they’re keeping me indoors all the time. It’s a drag. They’re making me do my homework,” Obama joked with volunteer Andrea Stinger.
    • Gov. Jerry Brown hands illegal immigrants less than they had hoped– This year’s legislative battle over immigration seemed to come to a draw when Gov. Jerry Brown signed one key bill but vetoed another.Immigration rights advocates, however, said Monday that the political give-and-take was largely an illusion. They lost.The bill that Brown signed, which lets some young immigrants have driver’s licenses, allows nothing beyond what is permitted under a new federal program granting a two-year reprieve from deportation.But the bill that Brown vetoed — the Trust Act — was among the most closely watched pieces of immigration legislation in the country. It would have barred local law enforcement officials from cooperating with federal authorities in detaining suspected illegal immigrants, except in the cases of serious or violent crime.

      Brown said he was open to working on the legislation further to fix its faults. But immigrant rights groups remained suspicious about his intentions, questioning why he had not raised concerns sooner.

      “Gov. Brown waited until the eleventh hour to veto the most … impactful bill that would bring tremendous relief for the immigrant community,” said Carlos Amador of Dream Team Los Angeles. “But he decided to sign a symbolic and hollow bill that doesn’t bring anything more than what we already had … to apply for a driver’s license.”

      Brown’s actions amounted to a setback for illegal immigrants, said Yale law professor Michael Wishnie.

      “I’m signing this bill that’s unnecessary … and that somehow balances out” the Trust Act? “It doesn’t add up,” Wishnie said.

    • California Proposition 37 Poll finds strong — but shaky — support for labeling genetically engineered food– An overwhelming majority of California voters favor Proposition 37, which would require new labels on genetically engineered foods, according to a poll released today. But support is likely to erode in the next month as Californians are exposed to more ads against the measure, says the study by agricultural economists at Oklahoma State University.The poll, which was paid for by a university endowment, found that 76.8 percent of California voters said they plan to vote “yes” on Proposition 37 to require more labeling of food. But almost half of those people (46 percent) switched to a “no” vote when asked if they would still support the measure if it increased food prices. Support also diminished after poll respondents were shown an ad urging they vote against Proposition 37.It’s likely Californians will see and hear a lot more ads against Proposition 37 than for it in the weeks before the Nov. 6 election. Opponents have raised $34.5 million, mostly from companies that make pesticides and genetically engineered seeds — including Monsanto, DuPont and Bayer — as well as major soda and snack food companies including Pepsi, Coke, Nestle and General Mills. Supporters have raised $4.6 million, mostly from alternative health website Mercola.com, organic food companies, and natural products such as Dr. Bronners soap.
    • Driver licenses for undocumented Californians get lukewarm response– A law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown late Sunday night qualifying hundreds of thousands of undocumented Californians for drivers’ licenses found a lukewarm response from the young immigrants it is supposed to benefit.”We’re tired of being used — as Dreamers, as immigrant youth — as a political football,” said Carlos Amador, who said the bill was symbolic and does little that is not long-standing policy at the state Department of Motor Vehicles.The bill, AB 2189, was one of the last of hundreds Brown signed before his midnight Sunday deadline and made national news within hours. It links California to a new Obama administration “deferred action” deportation relief policy granting work permits to illegal immigrants no older than 30 who came to the United States as children.The California bill makes clear that anyone approved for an Obama administration work permit can now get a state driver’s license.

      “President Obama has recognized the unique status of these students, and making them eligible to apply for driver’s licenses is an obvious next step,” said Brown spokesman Gil Duran, in a written release Monday.

      Some 400,000 Californians could be eligible for the federal work permits, but experts and activists said they probably didn’t need the new legislation to get a license.

      “They almost positively could have gotten driver’s licenses regardless,” said Angela Chan of the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus. “In California, you
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      need a Social Security number (to get a license), and with deferred action you can get a Social Security number.”

      Many of the activists are upset that Brown appealed to immigrant and Latino communities with a passable but seemingly unnecessary license bill while simultaneously vetoing more controversial legislation, such as two bills proposed by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, that would have expanded the labor rights of domestic workers and restricted deportations of people arrested for minor crimes.

      “Good for you on the driver’s licenses,” said Ammiano, but “lip service is not what we want. We want real policy.”

    • Barack Obama’s big vulnerbility: His Policies– In pundit circles, the hot talking point of the past couple of months is that President Obama may be spared defeat because things have been bad for so long that Americans may view the country’s parlous condition as “the new normal.”This is an honest effort to make sense of polling data that are hard to reconcile with what we know about voters in the past and their attitudes toward sitting presidents during economic woes.No president has been re-elected with unemployment above 7.4 percent; the unemployment rate is now 8.1 percent. No president has been re-elected with a significant majority of Americans saying the country is on the wrong track; that number’s between three-fifths and two-thirds of all Americans. No president’s been re-elected with the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index below 90; it’s hovering around 70.
    • The truth about Obamacare in Mississippi– When the Supreme Court ruled on the Obama administration’s health care reform law a few months ago, the court upheld the right of the states to decline Medicaid expansion.States throughout the nation are now looking at the enormous and growing percentage of their budgets already consumed by Medicaid expenses, and many simply cannot fathom shouldering the additional burden of even more Medicaid spending. Mississippi is certainly among those states opposed to expanding the program.Beyond differences in philosophies on the role of government, beyond Obamacare’s superficial approach to righting the issues in America’s health care system and beyond this law’s inability to put Americans to work in jobs with decent wages and health care benefits, one fact is certain: Government programs come with a price.People tend to forget that government has no dollar that it has not gained through taxation or borrowing. Even the Obama administration cannot pay for its massive health care law without raiding funding from other programs and levying taxes against the American people. After all, the bills for these expansions will come due, and the money has to come from somewhere.

      Mississippi, too, must decide where it would get the money to pay for more and more Medicaid. Do we drain money from public safety and education? Do we tax money out of private revenues and family checking accounts? As governor, I say we reject the expansion and find a better solution.

    • Disgusting… Obama Supporters Begin Phone Call Campaign Attacking Mitt Romney’s Mormon Faith– Obama supporters are making calls attacking Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith and deceiving Christian voters on Barack Obama’s pro-abortion record.Barack Obama is the most anti-Catholic pro-abortion president in US history.
    • Obama ad says Bain investment exploited ‘sweatshop conditions’ in China – The Hill’s Video– President Obama’s campaign released a new commercial Monday challenging Mitt Romney on the issue of Chinese outsourcing, renewing attacks on the Republican nominee’s tenure at Bain Capital while extending a spat between the candidates over their records dealing with China.The new ad — which will air in New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada — highlights Global Tech, a Chinese company invested in by Bain Capital during Romney’s tenure there.
    • Romney Would Permit Obama Waivers for Children of Illegal Immigrants– If he is elected, Mitt Romney would allow the children of illegal immigrants who receive temporary work permits under an executive order issued by President Obama earlier this year to stay in the country, Romney told The Denver Post on Monday.”The people who have received the special visa that the president has put in place, which is a two-year visa, should expect that the visa would continue to be valid. I’m not going to take something that they’ve purchased,” Romney told the Post. “Before those visas have expired we will have the full immigration reform plan that I’ve proposed.”Obama issued a controversial executive order in June that would award work permits to children of illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements, such as graduating from a U.S. high school and obeying the law, allowing them to stay in the country temporarily.This shift in immigration policy has been criticized for bypassing Congress after lawmakers did not pass the DREAM Act, which would have provided young illegal immigrants a path to citizenship by serving in the military or going to college.

      Romney also said he would work with Congress during the first year of his presidency to pass permanent immigration reform, but didn’t offer details. He has previously supported a path to citizenship for students who serve in the military.

    • Speaker Boehner uses Rove-like strategy to hold House majority– he Speaker is limited to donating $10,000 to the state parties, so he often raises the money for the NRCC, which subsequently transmits the donations to the state parties directly. It is then up to the state party to staff, operate and run the victory centers.These centers are small storefronts in strip malls with 20 to 25 volunteers manning phone banks and a coordinator at the helm sending people out door to door with clipboards and walk lists, said a staffer familiar with the operation.The key is the metrics that can be analyzed from the phone calls volunteers make to independent or swing voters, transmitted over Voice Over Internet Protocol phones connected to the massive RNC voter file database in D.C.For example, the volunteer asks if the person will vote for such-and-such congressional candidate; whether he or she approves of the job that President Obama is doing; and if he or she will vote for GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. For each response, the volunteer hits a button on the phone to send the respective answer to the RNC.

      Once the phone banks have collected the information from their outreach calls, the Victory Centers know how to follow up with the individuals contacted.

    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-02 – Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2012-10-02 #tcot
    • No on California Proposition 37 Say Three Southern California – No on California Proposition 37 Say Three Southern California Newspapers #tcot
    • The Morning Flap: October 1, 2012 – Flap’s Blog – The Morning Flap: October 1, 2012 #tcot