Iowa's loss will be Sun Belt's gain following 2010 census
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2007
A little of this and that, nothing special:
A bit of news to me. After the 2010 Census Iowa is likely to lose another seat in the House of Representatives. That's because of heavy immigration, much of it illegal, into states in the south, Arizona, Texas and Florida.
A couple of quirks in census taking and voting make such a change even more interesting. The census counts illegal immigrants as well as natives and naturalized citizens. In a story by June Kronholz in the Arizona Republic, she reports representation in a House reapportionment will be changed eventually by rough census numbers rather than by voter eligibility. Old certainties about the growth of population seem to have expired. Growth, of course, includes children who couldn't vote anyway, but the high tide of undocumented workers who usually don't try to vote would have a big impact anyway simply because of their presence in these states.
Source of the basic information were the Brookings Institution and the Population Reference Bureau. The think tankers estimate as many as nine seats in the House will shift to Sun Belt states. Census rules mandate that "all free persons" be counted.
Pew Research tells us most illegals are concentrated in states that normally vote Republican. If true this would mean Republican voters in states affected by increased alien population would have more power per vote after a reapportionment. Crazy, huh?
The push by Democrats, then, would be to extend voting rights as quickly as possible to all illegal immigrants to overcome a GOP advantage of sorts. One would suppose such voters would favor the Democrats.
- As a person who has trouble hitting the right keys on miniature cell phones, I was astounded by a short story out of New York. A 13-year-old Pennsylvania lad became the new LG National Texting champion by tapping out in 15 seconds "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" on his phone texting device.
While not totally lacking in dexterity, I sometimes reach strangers when I tap out 10 cell numbers. With all the technology now in place, I doubt the boy's skills will be marketable. Too bad but it must have been fun showing how fast his fingers could be commanded to fly.
- Now there's a bird threatening to stop domestic production of energy in our country. So what else is new on the "environmentalism above all" front? Highly productive natural gas fields have been developed in Wyoming and drillers want to expand the search for the clean-burning fuel to public lands in the state. Nothing doing, say the environmentalists.
This bird out there just doesn't like people tramping around its personal homeland. The spoiler in this case is the sage grouse, also known, I understand, as the prairie chicken.
You may recall the huggers used the little spotted owl as justification for shutting down the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest. Turned out, incidentally, that the precious little bird really didn't reside in large numbers where loggers now no longer tread.
In Alaska it's the reindeer that have been used to prevent any further oil drilling on the North Slope. Oil drilling rigs are banned a couple hundred miles, obviously beyond eyesight on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Same goes for California.
It seems to me mainly affluent environmentalists championed by affluent coastal property owners are ruling the roost with haughty indifference to the needs of the country. Not all are rich, of course, but many have dedicated themselves to obstructing any development of resources. As a nation we put up with their fun and games. The day may come when we will wish we hadn't.
- I thought the national media should have shown more restraint in handling the psychotic ravings of the Virginia Tech mass killer. By now you know Cho-Seung Hui sent a packet of his hateful writings, along with photos of him brandishing handguns, to NBC. The network promptly put the incendiary stuff on the air. Other media sources followed suit.
The public learned little other than the student was obviously psychotic and a danger to his classmates and himself -- he killed 30 of them, a professor and himself in his shooting orgy.
From President Bush on down, officials declared we must find ways to prevent such tragedies in the future. That had to be said, I suppose, but the sentiment did nothing to stop future killings. If the sickening diatribe of Cho offered any hints on how to accomplish such a goal I missed it. Plus, he inspired other "disturbed" copycats to make similar threats around the country. As one noted psychologist who specializes in the field of mental illness has been quoted as commenting, "We freed dangerous people from asylums years ago and now don't have a hint about what to do with them and their successors when their tragic maladies cause so much pain, death and grief."
Dean Krenz is a former publisher of The Journal.
A bit of news to me. After the 2010 Census Iowa is likely to lose another seat in the House of Representatives. That's because of heavy immigration, much of it illegal, into states in the south, Arizona, Texas and Florida.
A couple of quirks in census taking and voting make such a change even more interesting. The census counts illegal immigrants as well as natives and naturalized citizens. In a story by June Kronholz in the Arizona Republic, she reports representation in a House reapportionment will be changed eventually by rough census numbers rather than by voter eligibility. Old certainties about the growth of population seem to have expired. Growth, of course, includes children who couldn't vote anyway, but the high tide of undocumented workers who usually don't try to vote would have a big impact anyway simply because of their presence in these states.
Source of the basic information were the Brookings Institution and the Population Reference Bureau. The think tankers estimate as many as nine seats in the House will shift to Sun Belt states. Census rules mandate that "all free persons" be counted.
Pew Research tells us most illegals are concentrated in states that normally vote Republican. If true this would mean Republican voters in states affected by increased alien population would have more power per vote after a reapportionment. Crazy, huh?
The push by Democrats, then, would be to extend voting rights as quickly as possible to all illegal immigrants to overcome a GOP advantage of sorts. One would suppose such voters would favor the Democrats.
- As a person who has trouble hitting the right keys on miniature cell phones, I was astounded by a short story out of New York. A 13-year-old Pennsylvania lad became the new LG National Texting champion by tapping out in 15 seconds "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" on his phone texting device.
While not totally lacking in dexterity, I sometimes reach strangers when I tap out 10 cell numbers. With all the technology now in place, I doubt the boy's skills will be marketable. Too bad but it must have been fun showing how fast his fingers could be commanded to fly.
- Now there's a bird threatening to stop domestic production of energy in our country. So what else is new on the "environmentalism above all" front? Highly productive natural gas fields have been developed in Wyoming and drillers want to expand the search for the clean-burning fuel to public lands in the state. Nothing doing, say the environmentalists.
This bird out there just doesn't like people tramping around its personal homeland. The spoiler in this case is the sage grouse, also known, I understand, as the prairie chicken.
You may recall the huggers used the little spotted owl as justification for shutting down the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest. Turned out, incidentally, that the precious little bird really didn't reside in large numbers where loggers now no longer tread.
In Alaska it's the reindeer that have been used to prevent any further oil drilling on the North Slope. Oil drilling rigs are banned a couple hundred miles, obviously beyond eyesight on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Same goes for California.
It seems to me mainly affluent environmentalists championed by affluent coastal property owners are ruling the roost with haughty indifference to the needs of the country. Not all are rich, of course, but many have dedicated themselves to obstructing any development of resources. As a nation we put up with their fun and games. The day may come when we will wish we hadn't.
- I thought the national media should have shown more restraint in handling the psychotic ravings of the Virginia Tech mass killer. By now you know Cho-Seung Hui sent a packet of his hateful writings, along with photos of him brandishing handguns, to NBC. The network promptly put the incendiary stuff on the air. Other media sources followed suit.
The public learned little other than the student was obviously psychotic and a danger to his classmates and himself -- he killed 30 of them, a professor and himself in his shooting orgy.
From President Bush on down, officials declared we must find ways to prevent such tragedies in the future. That had to be said, I suppose, but the sentiment did nothing to stop future killings. If the sickening diatribe of Cho offered any hints on how to accomplish such a goal I missed it. Plus, he inspired other "disturbed" copycats to make similar threats around the country. As one noted psychologist who specializes in the field of mental illness has been quoted as commenting, "We freed dangerous people from asylums years ago and now don't have a hint about what to do with them and their successors when their tragic maladies cause so much pain, death and grief."
Dean Krenz is a former publisher of The Journal.
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Keith wrote on May 4, 2007 7:38 AM:
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Moderate Observer wrote on Apr 27, 2007 10:28 AM: