No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for July 21st, 2009

Hey, GOP, Are You Taking Note?, Part II

by @ 13:00. Filed under Elections, Politics - National.

Shoebox ran with a Newsmax story saying that, in terms of percentage, voter turnout went down between the 2004 and 2008 Presidential elections, the first time that has happened since 1996. I decided to try to do some analysis of the numbers the Census Bureau has been collecting since 1980, focusing on the past two elections. The numbers are, shall we say, “interesting”:

  • The number of adult citizens went up 9.1 million, from 197.0 million in 2004 to 206.1 million in 2008, a 4.5% increase.
  • The number of registered voters went up only 4.2 million from 142.1 million in 2004 (72.1% of citizens) to 146.3 million in 2008 (71.0% of citizens), a 3.0% increase. Of note, the number of registered voters as a percentage of citizens went down 2.1 percentage points.
  • The number of those who showed up to vote went up from 125.7 million in 2004 (63.8% of citizens, 88.5% of registered voters) to 131.1 million in 2008 (63.6% of citizens, 89.6% of registered voters). While that is a 0.18 percentage-point drop among citizens, that is also a 1.18 percentage-point increase among registered voters. It also is the highest registered-voter percentage since 1992.
  • In Minnesota in 2008, there were 132,000 more adults (+3.5%), 33,000 more adult citizens (+0.9%), 144,000 fewer registered voters (-4.8%), and 128,000 fewer people who showed up to vote (-4.4%).
  • In Wisconsin in 2008, there were 86,000 more adults (+2.1%), 125,000 more adult citizens (+3.2%), 130,000 fewer registered voters (-4.0%), and 123,000 fewer people who showed up to vote (-4.1%)
  • Four states (Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Georgia) had adult citizen population increases of at least 10%. Three of them (excepting Utah) also had double-digit percentage voter registration increases and double-digit percentage voter turnout increases.
  • Five states (Michigan, Maine, West Virginia, Connecticut and Louisiana) had adult citizen population decreases, with Mighican defying logic with a voter registration increase and Michgan, Connecticut and Louisana defying logic with turnout increases.
  • Five states (Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Virginia, North Carolina) plus the District of Columbia had double-digit percentage voter registration increases, with corresponding double-digit percentage turnout increases.
  • Eighteen states (Pennsylvania, Montana, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, Vermont, Iowa, Maine, North Dakota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Utah) had absolute voter registration decreases, with Louisiana and Missouri having absolute turnout increases, and a couple other states having a significantly-lower turnout decrease than registration decrease.
  • No state had a double-digit registered-voter increase as a percentage of citizens, though Virginia came closest at 7.3% (or 5.08 percentage-point increase), and 12 other states/DC (Rhode Island, Georgia, Mississippi, Connecticut, North Carolina, Louisiana, DC, Michigan, Delaware, Nevada, Maryland and Hawaii) increased their registered-voter/citizen ratio.
  • Ten states/DC (Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Virginia, Mississippi, DC, Arizona, South Carolina, Idaho and Colorado) had double-digit percentage absolute turnout increases, while 18 states (Ohio, Massachusetts, Iowa, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Montana, Oklahoma, Vermont, Maine, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas, Minnesota, Oregon, West Virginia and Utah) had absolute turnout decreases.
  • Mississippi (13.1%, 8.08 percentage points) and Georgia (13.0%, 7.40 percentage points) had the largest turnout increase as a percentage of citizens, and they were joined in the increase by North Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, DC, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, South Carolina, Nebraska, Indiana, California, Hawaii, Tennessee, Nevada, Colorado, Delaware and Michigan.
  • Eighteen states (Wisconsin, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, Ohio, Michigan, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arizona and West Virginia) had turnout decreases as a percentage of registered voters.

There’s a lot more info than I can digest. I did, however, manage to get a state-by-state comparison put into an Excel spreadsheet, which also includes the total number of adults in each state, whether they are citizens, legal aliens, or illegal aliens.

The Natives are Even More Restless Than First Thought!

by @ 11:36. Filed under Global "Warming", Politics - National.

I gave you a video earlier from a town hall meeting in Delaware hosted by Republican Congressman Mike Castle.  The previous video showed him getting grilled about health care reform.  Here’s another piece from the same meeting.  This time the natives are upset about Cap and Trade. 

Listen as Castle tells the forum that the Cap and Trade bill was really too complicated for anyone to “absorb” and that he relied on what Democrat leadership told him about the bill. 

Listen as people laugh at Castle as he states that “he reads all legislation.”

Listen as Castle states that he received more calls in opposition to the bill than for it yet he still voted for the bill!

Folks, the August recess will be here in just a couple of weeks.  Many of your Congresscritters and Senators will be holding similar townhall meetings during this recess.  Make sure and attend these.  If you’re folks have been voting properly, make sure and give them positive reinforcement.  If they haven’t, take some notes from the folks in Delaware!

Finally, note to the GOP:  If you think folks are safe just because we’re so pissed off with the Democrats, think again.  We don’t care what party you belong to.  If you are stupid enough to support the government take over of America, whether it be Cap and Trade, health care, auto manufacturers or any of a number of other areas, repent now because you are just as useless to us as any Democrat!

More Natives are Becoming Restless

by @ 10:52. Filed under Miscellaneous.

This time in Maryland as Senator Ben Cardin holds a town hall.  And this time it’s an African American questioning the wisdom of big government.  It ain’t going well for the Borg Collective!

His Arnold Schwarzenegger Moment

by @ 8:29. Filed under Economy, Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

There’s lots of bad news today for President Obama.  Gallup’s recent polls show that by any measure, President Obama’s policies  are now being considered a failure by the American people:

  • By 49%-47%, those surveyed disapprove of how he is handling the economy, a turnaround from his 55%-42% approval in May. The steepest drop came from conservative and moderate Democrats.
  • By 50%-44%, they disapprove of how he is handling healthcare policy.
  • A 59% majority say his proposals call for too much government spending, and 52% say they call for too much expansion of government power.
  • Expectations of the economy’s turnaround are souring a bit. In February, the average prediction for a recovery was 4.1 years; now it’s 5.5 years.

Some are referring to this sudden drop and his chips all in approach to passing health care reform, as being the President’s Waterloo, the moment at which he wins no more.  I’m betting however, that with his enormous ego and narcissism, if asked, President Obama would refer to this as his Arnold Schwarzenegger moment.  If questioned about whether he might need to change his position on some of these issues I have no doubt the President would answer, “I’ll be Barack!”

Can’t or Won’t?

by @ 5:38. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

One of my roles with a previous employer was to develop compensation plans for various sales groups.  As I would work with the sales management it seemed that invariably they would tell me that if we paid more for a particular aspect of the plan, they would be able to get the sales team to achieve that goal.  Just as invariably, when I would hear their line, I would respond with a question, “Is the problem that you can’t do it unless you get paid more or is the problem that you won’t do it unless you get paid more?”  I think you can see the dilemma this left the sales management folks in.

As he cranks up his rhetoric in an attempt to save his health care reform initiative, President Obama told us today that we need to pass health care because it’s the only way to reduce costs.  His exact quote was:

We all know there are more efficient ways of doing it..

implying that only with the passage of health care reform would costs be reduced.  Ironically, he said this on the same day that it was found that the Agriculture department had paid nearly double the going rate for plain old ham.

It’s interesting that when President Obama refers to cost savings in health care he is referring to cost savings in Medicare and Medicaid.  As the health care debate got started, President Obama identified three areas where money could be saved: blackmailing drug companies via FDA approvals, to reduce drug prices, ration treatment to patients by forcing “increased productivity” of physicians and not paying for run of the mill issues that are treated in emergency rooms.   By doing just these three things, President Obama claims that $313 billion could be saved!

Medicare and Medicaid are programs that are completely administered by the government.  Rates for physicians are dictated by the government, procedures and drugs covered are dictated by the government.  With complete control over these programs wouldn’t it seem to be simple for President Obama to save his $313 billion simply by saying “make it so?”  In fact, the exact changes that President Obama proposes are changes that these programs have implemented to varying degrees in the past.

Continuing to cry that only the nationalization of our health care is the only way to reduce costs leaves me asking just one question of President Obama; are you telling me that without taking more of my money you can’t or won’t save money in health care?

Hey, GOP, Are You Taking Note?

by @ 5:24. Filed under Elections, Politics - Minnesota, Politics - National.

Census: Voter Turnout in 2008 Lowest in 12 8 Years

For all the attention generated by Barack Obama’s candidacy, the share of eligible voters who actually cast ballots in November declined for the first time in a dozen years. The reason: Older whites with little interest in backing either Barack Obama or John McCain stayed home.

The decline in percentage turnout was the first in a presidential election since 1996. At that time, voter participation fell to 58.4 percent — the lowest in decades — as Democrat Bill Clinton won an easy re-election over Republican Bob Dole amid a strong economy.

Class, what did we learn?

1.  Give us “the next guy in line” again and we’ll sit out again!

2.  Give us someone who looks no different than a Democrat on many issues and we’ll sit out again

Oh and:

Minnesota and the District of Columbia had the highest turnout, each with 75 percent.

3.  If you have a crappy GOP candidate, even if we don’t sit out we won’t vote for them.

Revisions/extensions (8:12 am 7/21/2009; steveegg) – Newsmax didn’t exactly fact-check the numbers, which caused the error struck through above. According to the Census Bureau, the 2000 turnout percentage was lower than 2008’s. It still is, however, the first drop in voter turnout percentage since 1996.

Related to that, I’m sifting through the Census Bureau’s turnout numbers going back to 1980.

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