Loosing a Seat in Congress – What to do?
December 28, 2007
The Berkshire Eagle Online has a story today concerning the low population growth in the state of Massachusetts. As you may or may not know, a states representation in the U.S. House of Representatives is determined by the population of the state.
“You are definitely going to lose a seat up there,” said Clark Bensen, founder and head of Polidata, a political analysis and census data firm in Lake Ridge, Va., that compiled the report. “There’s no way things are going to stay the same.”
So how do you think that state legislators and politicians are dealing with the issue? Might they try to turn the trend around over the next two years to get more people to move to Massachusetts? I doubt it. (Emphasis added)
Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who worked to save the 10 U.S. House of Representative seats in 2000, said he is troubled by the figures but committed to a strong count during the 2010 census.
“It is, as they note, still a projection based on estimates,” Galvin said. “This will be very challenging, because our population growth isn’t robust, but we have unique factors here that I believe might help us up our count.” Galvin pointed to the state’s vast college population — which can be counted if students spend most of the year in state — and to the immigrant community.
“For the size of our state, it’s a remarkable amount,” Galvin said. “We were effective in reaching out to indigenous groups up in Lowell and other locations to make them understand the need to be counted last time.”
Am I reading something into Galvin’s statement? Look, if students are truly residents of the state, that’s fine, but is there any check to ensure that these kids are not being double-counted?
And by the way, what the heck is an indigenous group Mr. Secretary?
On the boston.com Web site, I found an article from October providing some information about the Fifth Congressional District race between Democrat Niki Tsongas and Republican Jim Ogonowski.
Of the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, the Pew Hispanic Center has estimated that 150,000 to 250,000 live in Massachusetts. There are no estimates for how many live in the Fifth District, but Lowell and Lawrence are two of the state’s immigration hubs. According to the US Census, about 38 percent of Lowell residents and 74 percent of Lawrence residents speak a language other than English at home.
Translation: This area is full of illegal aliens, and since these good folks don’t like to call attention to themselves – since they are criminals – they usually don’t like to get officially counted for anything; even attendance figures for sporting events.
The problem here is that Galvin and the state of Massachusetts are not interested in innovative ways to bring new people to the state. Ideas like lowering the tax burden, reducing outrageous business regulations, running a more fiscally responsible government and more personal freedoms are just not on the table at all.
They would rather find innovative ways to count more people.
If You Can’t Afford It…
December 24, 2007
The Hartford Courant – along with a bunch of other MSM outlets – released an AP news story detailing how more and more people are falling behind on their credit card debt.
The value of credit card accounts at least 30 days late jumped 26 percent to $17.3 billion in October from a year earlier at 17 large credit card trusts examined by the AP. That represented more than 4 percent of the total outstanding principal balances owed to the trusts on credit cards that were issued by banks such as Bank of America and Capital One and for retailers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart.
At the same time, defaults — when lenders essentially give up hope of ever being repaid and write off the debt — rose 18 percent to almost $961 million in October from a year ago, according to filings made by the trusts with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Serious delinquencies also are up sharply: Some of the nation’s biggest lenders — including Advanta, GE Money Bank and HSBC — reported increases of 50 percent or more in the value of accounts that were at least 90 days delinquent when compared with the same period a year ago.
Of course…
Experts say these signs of the deterioration of finances of many households are partly a byproduct of the subprime mortgage crisis and could spell more trouble ahead for an already sputtering economy.
Yeah right. Now that the people – who were not smart enough to realize what an ADJUSTABLE rate mortgage is – got the government to force banks to cut them a break, they figure now is the time to start complaining about the high interest and payments that they have on their credit card debt.
Borrowing words from James Tolkan’s character Stinger in Top Gun, “Son, your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.”
And as Michelle Malkin has stated.
Suck. It. Up.
Right on. Maybe these folks should just stop spending money that they don’t have. All indicators tell us there will be a federal bailout coming to cover the credit card payment crisis that is most certainly around the corner. Start spending now!
Huckabee’s Cross to Bear?
December 21, 2007
I’ve had enough of Howie Carr, Peggy Noonan and other columnists and radio personalities going absolutely nuts over – what they perceived after they were told about it – a floating cross during his Christmas TV spot.
It. Was. A. Bookcase.
Everyone admits that they did not see it the first or second time they watched the spot. But once someone asks if you’ve seen that floating cross, you take another look and sure enough, you see it. Then, it’s the talk of the blogosphere and talk radio. Come on folks.
It. Was. A. Bookcase.
I enjoy listening to Howie on the way home but he’s got to give it up; there are many other issues that conservative would like to discuss when it comes to Huckabee including immigration, taxes and pardons.
Shepard Smith is Starting to Annoy Me
December 20, 2007
I like his style. I like his delivery. I generally like Fox News. But Shepard Smith is really starting to blow things out of proportion.
I first noticed this during his Katrina coverage, there have been plenty of stories about how the news media – including Shep when he was in NOLA – was out of control when it came to reporting rumors as facts.
He was the ultimate drama queen through the entire event, and as the weeks passed, more and more of the “big stories” just disappeared from the MSM.
- What happened to that seven year old girl that was raped and had her throat cut?
- What about the hundred bodies that were stacked up in the Superdome’s freezer? The 200 dead?
- What about the gunfire? Snipers shooting at people? Shooting at helicopters?
I just found a March 2006 article written by a collection of editors from Popular Mechanics entitled Debunking the Myths of Hurricane Katrina. It is a must read for everyone and if you’ve already read it, go through it again. I wonder if Shep went through this article and took the time to look back at his coverage and do a self-evaluation?
Probably not, he’s part of the Dive by Media. That’s a term that Rush Limbaugh coined during the past couple of years. It’s simply defined as when the media swoops in to cover a story, goes wall-to-wall with it for hours or days, relays every rumor they hear and interviews anyone they can find that will speculate about the story. Then, they split, never to come back since they have to go find another hot story.
Last week, Shep used the term “bloodbath” when referring to a 167 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. What? Is he nuts? Who writes this stuff for him?
To put this in perspective, that’s a 1.2 percent drop Shep. Come on now. If that’s a bloodbath, what would he call the 6.4 percent gain over the 11 trading days after the Thanksgiving break?
I propose a ban on reporting the point changes in the various stock benchmarks like the DJIA, NASDAQ, S&P 500 and the new Fox 50. Let’s report percentage changes instead, but I guess a 100 point drop sounds more dramatic than a point seven (.7) percent drop.
Related Articles on the Net:
Reports of anarchy at Superdome overstated
Popular Mechanics Takes on Katrina Myths
Katrina: Myths and Reality
The Cost of Education
December 20, 2007
Walter Williams posted his column yesterday that dealt with the average cost paid – per year I assume – by public secondary education schools in the U.S. compared to other countries. He also looks quickly at the academic results posted by the U.S. Department of Education1. We’re not doing all that well; ranked 33rd in industrialized countries when it comes to math and science. (No data is available on reading due to some sort of glitch.)
Of course, democrats want to throw more cash at the problem, but a 2005 study by a good friend at windsorwatch.org clearly indicated that in the town of Windsor, Connecticut – and in the state as a whole – there is absolutely no correlation between the dollars spent per kid and academic results. As a matter of fact, there is no correlation between student to teacher ratios, class size or the number of computers in the classroom either.
The only clear correlation was between test scores and median income of the family. Well isn’t that interesting?
Of course, a democrats answer might be just to give cash directly to families to increase their median income, but we all know that won’t work.
Instead, we should be looking at those outlier towns that spend less per student and get better academic results. What are they doing differently?
1Of course, we all know that there is no authority in the U.S. Constitution to create or fund this department. That responsibility, since it is not listed specifically in the Constitution, is given to the states or the people.
