Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says - Galactic Empire Times
This is great! I love how they got the layout and font to look EXACTLY like The New York Times.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Vermont passes single-payer healthcare bill...
Vermont takes the first step to go above and beyond what is called for in the Affordable Care Act.
In the meantime, New Jersey is gathering information about how to set up the exchange. You can also put your two cents in and complete the Rutgers CSHP survey yourself.
In the meantime, New Jersey is gathering information about how to set up the exchange. You can also put your two cents in and complete the Rutgers CSHP survey yourself.
Friday, May 6, 2011
How many members should be in the House of Representatives?
Ezra Klein had a great post this week about how the number of House members, 435, hasn't increased since 1911! As a result, we have one representative per 709,760 people in the country, the largest it has ever been and larger than all other representative democracies.
This got me thinking, how many members of the House should there be? To alleviate the issue, and make it truly representative, I have a fairly easy solution. Tie it to reapportionment and the census and take the US population divided it by the population of the smallest state. The last census results counted the American population as 308,745,538 people, with Wyoming as the smallest state with a population of 563,626. So, (308,754,538/563,626) = 548 members of the House. It would break down this way:
Alabama - 9
Alaska - 1
Arizona - 11
Arkansas - 5
California - 66
Colorado - 9
Connecticut - 6
Delaware - 2
District of Columbia - 1
Florida - 33
Georgia - 17
Hawaii - 2
Idaho - 3
Illinois - 23
Indiana - 12
Iowa - 5
Kansas - 5
Kentucky - 8
Louisiana - 8
Maine - 2
Maryland - 10
Massachusetts - 12
Michigan - 18
Minnesota - 9
Mississippi - 5
Missouri - 11
Montana - 2
Nebraska - 3
Nevada - 5
New Hampshire - 2
New Jersey - 16
New Mexico - 4
New York - 34
North Carolina - 17
North Dakota - 1
Ohio - 21
Oklahoma - 7
Oregon - 7
Pennsylvania - 23
Rhode Island - 2
South Carolina - 8
South Dakota - 1
Tennessee - 11
Texas - 45
Utah - 5
Vermont - 1
Virginia - 14
Washington - 12
West Virginia - 3
Wisconsin - 10
Wyoming - 1
It breaks down fairly equitably, even giving the District of Columbia one representative of its own. Of course, as I've said before, this makes too much sense, so someone will prevent this from happening.
Also, I haven't done the Red State/Blue State/Purple State breakdown yet. I'd be curious to see how that would change from today.
This got me thinking, how many members of the House should there be? To alleviate the issue, and make it truly representative, I have a fairly easy solution. Tie it to reapportionment and the census and take the US population divided it by the population of the smallest state. The last census results counted the American population as 308,745,538 people, with Wyoming as the smallest state with a population of 563,626. So, (308,754,538/563,626) = 548 members of the House. It would break down this way:
Alabama - 9
Alaska - 1
Arizona - 11
Arkansas - 5
California - 66
Colorado - 9
Connecticut - 6
Delaware - 2
District of Columbia - 1
Florida - 33
Georgia - 17
Hawaii - 2
Idaho - 3
Illinois - 23
Indiana - 12
Iowa - 5
Kansas - 5
Kentucky - 8
Louisiana - 8
Maine - 2
Maryland - 10
Massachusetts - 12
Michigan - 18
Minnesota - 9
Mississippi - 5
Missouri - 11
Montana - 2
Nebraska - 3
Nevada - 5
New Hampshire - 2
New Jersey - 16
New Mexico - 4
New York - 34
North Carolina - 17
North Dakota - 1
Ohio - 21
Oklahoma - 7
Oregon - 7
Pennsylvania - 23
Rhode Island - 2
South Carolina - 8
South Dakota - 1
Tennessee - 11
Texas - 45
Utah - 5
Vermont - 1
Virginia - 14
Washington - 12
West Virginia - 3
Wisconsin - 10
Wyoming - 1
It breaks down fairly equitably, even giving the District of Columbia one representative of its own. Of course, as I've said before, this makes too much sense, so someone will prevent this from happening.
Also, I haven't done the Red State/Blue State/Purple State breakdown yet. I'd be curious to see how that would change from today.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Credit where credit is due: Navy SEALs, then everyone else involved...
I recently commented on an online post:
"Can't give more or less credit to anyone other than the Navy SEALs that pulled this off. What this proves is the vibrancy of our democracy in spite of the polarization of the recent years. The reason this happened is because the Clinton people told the Bush people that bin Laden is known to use couriers, which the Bush people used to identify the couriers and their names, which the Obama people used to find out where the courier lived. Even in the stablest of democracies, it would be rare for leaders of opposing political parties sharing that kind of information."
to which a friend of mine wrote:
"excellent point. seriously, more people need to read what you wrote. been reading too much of Bush vs Obama BS regarding this Osama killing."
So here you go. :-)
"Can't give more or less credit to anyone other than the Navy SEALs that pulled this off. What this proves is the vibrancy of our democracy in spite of the polarization of the recent years. The reason this happened is because the Clinton people told the Bush people that bin Laden is known to use couriers, which the Bush people used to identify the couriers and their names, which the Obama people used to find out where the courier lived. Even in the stablest of democracies, it would be rare for leaders of opposing political parties sharing that kind of information."
to which a friend of mine wrote:
"excellent point. seriously, more people need to read what you wrote. been reading too much of Bush vs Obama BS regarding this Osama killing."
So here you go. :-)
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Would we be asking about the birth certificate if his name was Barry Dunham?
I agree with the premise of this column to some extent.
"This shameful episode has little to do with reality and everything to do with the strangeness of Obama’s background — especially his race. Many Republicans refuse to accept that Obama could come from such an exotic stew and still be “American.” They have to delegitimize him. So, even though the certificate of live birth first made public in 2008 is a legal document that any court would have to recognize, they demanded more.
No American president has ever been so humiliated, and those who think it has nothing to do with race are deluding themselves."
Odd sounding names aren't really questioned with someone like Reince Priebus but even that may have more to do with the combination of his political affiliation and race than just his race or name alone. If former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm ran for president, only a few would initially question it even though she was born in Canada (Vancouver, British Columbia specifically).
The same column even made a similar statement about our 35th President:
“At least one president, John F. Kennedy, came from bootlegging Irish heritage. It was always a side issue, the mist of his father’s past, though nobody ever forced Jack Kennedy to prove he wasn’t a criminal. He looked like most Americans, and that was enough.”
Perhaps the same could be said for a ‘Barry Dunham’? I get asked repeatedly how old I was when I came to this country, only to surprise people with the fact that I was born in Brooklyn, New York and my parents gave a traditional name because they were proud of their heritage.
If Barack Obama was known as Barry Dunham, a guy from Hawai'i that used his mother's maiden name and childhood nickname because he barely knew his own father, would we be having the same birther discussion?
If I ran for President of the United States one day, would I get asked this question repeatedly? I'm not so sure I wouldn't. Of course, I'm not planning to run for President anytime soon but if I do one day, I did get a copy of my birth certificate.
"This shameful episode has little to do with reality and everything to do with the strangeness of Obama’s background — especially his race. Many Republicans refuse to accept that Obama could come from such an exotic stew and still be “American.” They have to delegitimize him. So, even though the certificate of live birth first made public in 2008 is a legal document that any court would have to recognize, they demanded more.
No American president has ever been so humiliated, and those who think it has nothing to do with race are deluding themselves."
Odd sounding names aren't really questioned with someone like Reince Priebus but even that may have more to do with the combination of his political affiliation and race than just his race or name alone. If former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm ran for president, only a few would initially question it even though she was born in Canada (Vancouver, British Columbia specifically).
The same column even made a similar statement about our 35th President:
“At least one president, John F. Kennedy, came from bootlegging Irish heritage. It was always a side issue, the mist of his father’s past, though nobody ever forced Jack Kennedy to prove he wasn’t a criminal. He looked like most Americans, and that was enough.”
Perhaps the same could be said for a ‘Barry Dunham’? I get asked repeatedly how old I was when I came to this country, only to surprise people with the fact that I was born in Brooklyn, New York and my parents gave a traditional name because they were proud of their heritage.
If Barack Obama was known as Barry Dunham, a guy from Hawai'i that used his mother's maiden name and childhood nickname because he barely knew his own father, would we be having the same birther discussion?
If I ran for President of the United States one day, would I get asked this question repeatedly? I'm not so sure I wouldn't. Of course, I'm not planning to run for President anytime soon but if I do one day, I did get a copy of my birth certificate.
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