Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats

GasBandit

Staff member
Then you haven't been paying attention since 9/11.
Again, I'm of the opinion you're exaggerating. If that was the case, we'd have been seeing more sooner, not doubled this year from previous years... as xenophobia would have been even higher early in the decade. That was something that changed 10 years ago... this happened in the last year... allowing for time lag between events and government records of a year or two, what happened in the last couple years? The economic collapse.
 
That sounds logical to me - probably what this is a measure of is immigrants going back home because of the economy... but terminating their citizenship means they don't expect to come back if and when things improve.
It is such a small sampling of people, that the number means absolutely nothing.

400+ one year and 1,500 the next basically means that nobody did it the first year and nearly nobody did it the following. (stolen from a comment on the blog.)
 
Well, it is possible to determine the statistical likelihood with a trend analysis. It is possible that this represents a random fluctuation but it may be statistically significant too. It really depends on what the baseline for random fluctuations is. If similarly large changes have occurred before, then this is meaningless. Without the actual data I couldn't say one way or the other, though.
 
Maybe it is an exaggeration. All I know is two years ago we didn't have muslim radicalization hearings being held by our representatives. That doesn't target illegal aliens, but U.S. citizens and creates a heightened sense of fear and mistrust.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Maybe it is an exaggeration. All I know is two years ago we didn't have muslim radicalization hearings being held by our representatives. That doesn't target illegal aliens, but U.S. citizens and creates a heightened sense of fear and mistrust.
We didn't have them last year either, which is where the jump was. Now, as Mind Detective says, I'd like to have a wider data window (the graph in the link only shows back through 2004, though from 2004-2008 the 5 year trend seemed to be going downward, or steady if you include 2009 in the figure, but I still wish the graph went back decades).
 
That's true. Even if there is a genuine change in the trend, it probably is a very small effect size, meaning it might be a real (non-random) change but still a very subtle one.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
John Conyers has spilled the beans. Conyers admits that ObamaCare is a "platform" for creating a single-payer healthcare system in the United States.

It's been a relatively quiet couple of months for Marco Rubio as he gets his feet wet in the Senate. But what he is coming to find .. he doesn't like. Specifically, this asinine pattern that has emerged when it comes to our budget.

Thanks to Dick Durbin and the financial reform bill, banks are about to restrict the number of and amount of daily debit card purchases you can make.

What are Republicans really worried about? Making English the official language of the United States.

Elections have consequences ... unless liberals lose.

Ever heard of the "Mainstreet Fairness Bill"? I'm sure you have if you live in Illinois. Well here's a little reminder that taxes have consequences.

Is there constitutional justification for the Department of Education? Well if there is, Education Secretary Arne Duncan can't tell you where it exists.

Obama's latest critic? Bill Clinton. The issue? The asinine drilling moratorium.

Corporations have an "infinite" amount of resources to contribute to campaigns? That is according to a high-ranking labor official.

It seems they needed to hire a few new police officers in Dayton, so they had a little test that they gave to potential recruits. There was a problem with the test. You see, the Department of Justice is a little unhappy with the number of blacks who failed this exam. So the Obama administration has decreed that the test will be given again, and this time the passing score will be lowered so that more blacks will pass.

Economist Milton Friedman explains the dynamics that naturally lead toward collectivism and away from the far preferable state of individual liberty.

George Will's latest column: The Supreme Court and the health-care mandate muddle.

Here are three essential facts that we all better face up to, and fast.

Michigan's governor is proposing slashing business taxes in order to generate economic growth. Take a look at the response from Michigan businesses.

Jesse Jackson calls Scott Walker's action in Wisconsin a "Confederate agenda."

A group of GOP senators has introduced "right-to-work" legislation.

Here's a great article on teachers unions and their resistance to school choice.

Take a look at how the state of Massachusetts is turning a call for an ambulance into a politically correct charade.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Dennis Kucinich (D) wants impeachment of Obama because of our participation on strikes into Libya??

Speaking of moonbats, Michael Moore tweeted over the weekend that Obama should return his Nobel Peace Prize on the same issue.

A $2.3 trillion error. That's one helluva "oops." But that's exactly what has happened to the Obama administration. The CBO finally released an analysis of Obama's 2012 budget and the bottom line is this: the Obama administration's budget was off by a whopping $2.3 trillion. And the kicker ... this is the second time that the White House has made a $2 trillion mistake in its estimates.

Over the weekend, Palestinian militants fired some 50 mortar shells into Israel.

Who has stepped up in a big way to help the people of Japan? The Japanese mafia.

Here's how ObamaCare could eventually force hundreds of badly needed U.S. hospitals to shut their doors.

Wisconsin's unions are now resorting to thug-like behavior against political opponents: innocent business owners.

Scott Walker released the email reaction he received throughout his standoff with the government employee unions and the Democrat Senators who fled the state.

The Cato Institute argues that Bush was not a conservative. I guess they finally got my e-mail.

Three Republican lawmakers are seeking to force the federal government to sell about 3.3 million acres of land to help pay down the national debt.

Say what? During a fundraiser on Friday, Joe Biden apparently compared Republicans' economic policies to insensitivity toward rape victims.

A video of SEIU thugs doing what they do best ...

Obama's DOJ to white male bullying victims: Tough luck.
 
Gasbandit said:
Wisconsin's unions are now resorting to thug-like behavior against political opponents: innocent business owners.
Boo-fucking-hoo. You don't like being boycotted? Don't support a fuck-tard for a governor. You're either for capitalism, or you aren't. I never expected people on the right to be whining that people are using their pocket books support or not support businesses based on politics. Fucking hypocrites.
 
Boo-fucking-hoo. You don't like being boycotted? Don't support a fuck-tard for a governor. You're either for capitalism, or you aren't. I never expected people on the right to be whining that people are using their pocket books support or not support businesses based on politics. Fucking hypocrites.
Wait, the "thug-like behavior" is boycotting businesses? Are you kidding me?!

I didn't realize that the free market was giving every business enough money, each according to their need.
 
Entire article, along with the mentally challenged commentary by the wonderfully biased 'reporter'.

The shit brained article said:
Union leaders can dress it up and use innocuous-sounding phrases like “voluntary consumer activism,” but the bottom line is that Wisconsin’s unions are now resorting to thug-like behavior against political opponents, real or imagined.
The state’s largest teachers union, Wisconsin Education Association Council, along with the Green Bay Education Association, Madison Teachers Inc. and a handful of other public employee unions are carrying their fight over collective bargaining to innocent business owners.
News accounts reveal that the Fox Valley chapter of WEAC has e-mailed local businesses, asking them to show their support for collective bargaining privileges by putting a poster in their business’ window. The union’s e-mail suggests the posters will help members with “substantially less discretionary money to spend” know where to shop.
This is a thinly-veiled threat from a bunch of thugs if there ever was one. First there were the Gangs of New York. Then there were the Gangs of Chicago. Now we see the Gangs of Wisconsin.
The fact that Wisconsin’s teachers unions are now intimidating innocent business owners reveals the depth of the union’s political radicalism. It also reinforces old stereotypes of union members behaving like lawless gangsters.
This behavior is unworthy of teachers who are entrusted with educating Wisconsin’s children. They might as well be demanding protection money, just like Al Capone.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that WEAC is having its summer strategy meetings at Little Bohemia.
 
I'm not particularly liking the death threats or vandalism, however.
Tell that to Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics.

I'm not saying vandalism and death threats are ok. That behavior is wrong and should be punished. But bitching that people are threatening to boycott businesses is typical 'I'm a victim' behavior we've been seeing so much lately. Want to support that moron who wants to cut education by 9% while giving tax cuts to businesses? Don't be surprised when people decide your shit is no longer worth it.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Tell that to Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics.

I'm not saying vandalism and death threats are ok.
Just when they're insinuated aggressively in person and not explicitly, right? I mean, this is a nice place you got here, it'd be a shame if something happened to it. Maybe you should show support for the unions, capisce?
 
Just when they're insinuated aggressively in person and not explicitly, right? I mean, this is a nice place you got here, it'd be a shame if something happened to it. Maybe you should show support for the unions, capisce?
Wrong, douchnozzle. it wasn't ok for the Democrat who yelled that someone should die during the parlor trick pulled by Republicans during the House vote. He apologized, she accepted. Move on to a new talking point, will ya?
 
I mean, this is a nice place you got here, it'd be a shame if something happened to it.
What, like people not buying their stuff? Because that's the only things either the original article or the article you linked have implied. All that either one actually says has happened is union members saying that they'll recommend businesses that support their cause to their friends.
Added at: 12:38
Maybe you should show support for the unions, capisce?
Also, I gotta say, it's hard to take seriously anyone who equates these people with the Jersey mob.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Obama's "Abu Ghraib?"

So Newsweek gave over 1,000 Americans a citizenship quiz to answer basic questions about our government. Now you can take the quiz for yourself .. but you should know that 38% of your peers flat-out failed the test, and you only needed to get 60% of the questions right in order to pass. Maybe the test should have concerned reality TV or NCAA basketball, then we'd have had better results.

Rand Paul has a plan to balance the budget in 5 years.

Government efficiency: A commissioned bronze statue of Rosa Parks has been sitting in a crate in the middle of a large bus station in downtown Flint, Mi.... for TWO YEARS.

Here's a must-read on the "differences" between Obama's actions in Libya compared to Bush's handling of Iraq.

An in-depth look at the media coverage of Iraq versus Libya

Flashback! When Joe Biden was a senator, he argued that the president could not use force without prior congressional authorization unless it was necessary to "repel a sudden attack." Oops! Barack Obama said almost the exact same thing when he was a senator.

Democrat Rep. Ed Markey never lets a good crisis go to waste. He explains how we got involved in Libya because of oil.

Here's a very serious question to consider: Is there a Chavez terror network on America's doorstep?

We are never going to fix Social Security, anyway, until it is broke. What does "broke" mean? It does not mean that Social Security itself would be broke; it would mean that the government was broke.

Think of Washington's initial 2011 budget fights as spring training -- for a season about to open in a hailstorm.

When it comes to reporting union thuggary, the Obama-supporting media turns a blind eye.
Added at: 11:57
Wrong, douchnozzle. it wasn't ok for the Democrat who yelled that someone should die during the parlor trick pulled by Republicans during the House vote. He apologized, she accepted. Move on to a new talking point, will ya?
What I'm talking about is being told to make a declaration of support so you can get a poster that lets union members know what windows not to break where to shop. Yeah, that's it. Where to shop.
 
What color is the sky in your world, Gas? The only way to read a threat of violence into their request for support is to look for one. It is a threat. Of boycott. If that is thuggish tactics, then you're more of an anti-consumer/worker shill than I ever thought.

EDIT: You realize you are casting school teachers as equivalent to the mob, right? School teachers. People who teach children. With criminal. What the HELL is your problem? Did you really not like going to school as a kid or something?
 
It doesn't even seem really a boycott so much as a "we'll promote you in our newsletter if you support us" kind of deal, which businesses do all the time.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
What color is the sky in your world, Gas? The only way to read a threat of violence into their request for support is to look for one. It is a threat. Of boycott. If that is thuggish tactics, then you're more of an anti-consumer/worker shill than I ever thought.

EDIT: You realize you are casting school teachers as equivalent to the mob, right? School teachers. People who teach children. With criminal. What the HELL is your problem? Did you really not like going to school as a kid or something?
They stop being "just teachers" when they start putting the union before the kids. And it's definitely about the unions here, not the kids. The LAST thing teachers' unions want is what's best for your kids.

On to today's links -

Last week SEIU boss Stephen Lerner (the most common repeat visitor to the oval office during Obama's first year, btw) spoke at a forum at Pace University called "Towards a Politics of Solidarity." Someone attending that forum happened to record his lecture and ... tada! ... we have a former official of one of the largest and most powerful labor unions in the country calling for the destruction of Wall Street and the stock market and the inevitable redistribution of wealth. Yup, according to this former union goon, the only way to return the $17 trillion that Wall Street supposedly "stole" from the middle class is to "destabilize the country." And Lerner has a scheme on just how to do that ... a scheme he eagerly shared with the students at Pace. It all starts with JPMorgan and a "strike" on the mortgage loan industry. However, Lerner is careful to point out that this attack cannot be seen as being organized by labor unions but instead must be run by ... community organizations! Here's a partial transcript so you can read his words for yourself.

Remember that newsweek link I gave you yesterday about how stupid Americans are? Here's a further breakdown - turns out centrists are stupidest.

The United States is on a fiscal path towards insolvency and policymakers are at a "tipping point," a Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday.

When all is said and done, Fukushima will probably be mostly harmless, misunderstood by the media, and a rallying point for anti-nuclear activists.

A great article in Reason Magazine: The endless expansion of big government.

Rep. Ron Paul says what Obama is doing in Libya is unconstitutional and agrees it is an impeachable offense.

A Media Research Center review of the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts finds virtually no network interest in Obama's bypassing of Congress -- an attitude in stark contrast to their approach to the Bush administration during the run-up to the Iraq war.

The CEO of Starbucks supported ObamaCare last year. Now? Not so much.

Here's the story of an eminent domain battle happening in California.

A judge in Tampa chooses to proceed on a case "under Ecclesiastical Islamic Law"?

Capitalism may be to blame for the lack of life on the planet Mars. That is according to Hugo Chavez.
 
And it's definitely about the unions here, not the kids.
That's the first correct thing you've said on the topic. The rest of us figured that out when Walker and the Repubs stripped out all the fiscal measures from the bill just so they could pass an anti-collective bargaining clause off as a law.
 
That's the first correct thing you've said on the topic. The rest of us figured that out when Walker and the Repubs stripped out all the fiscal measures from the bill just so they could pass an anti-collective bargaining clause off as a law.
Which they swore up and down was important for the budget.

Gas, if you are worried about the kids, how about paying teachers what they are worth and not sticking it to them just so more tax cuts can be given to corporations, eh?
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Which they swore up and down was important for the budget.

Gas, if you are worried about the kids, how about paying teachers what they are worth and not sticking it to them just so more tax cuts can be given to corporations, eh?
The average milwaukee schoolteacher gets a +$100k compensation package. 55k in salary, 45k in benefits.

But if you want to talk about paying people what they're worth, I'm all for that - unions are NOT.
 
From the article about sharia law...
Two Florida Republicans, Sen. Alan Hays and Rep. Larry Metz, this month announced legislation to prevent Islamic law, or any foreign legal code, from being applied in state courts.
Do these idiots ever think about what they are doing/saying?

Our courts go into foreign law all the time, Common Law from Britain, Spanish Law for TX and FL, Napoleonic Code for LA.

You go tossing out foreign legal code, you will throw out court rulings based on the 10 commandments and Deuteronomy...
 
Between 50-60k + benefits for someone with a Masters degree doesn't seem excessive. Also, I'd like to see that woman-in-the-video's actual numbers. And the standard deviation. And whether the "per capita" income number in that video included, as it usually does, children, the elderly, and the unemployed.
 
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