Moving this blog--again!

Sorry folks--I've decided we need to have more direct control of our blog articles again, so we're moving our content from Blogger back to our own server.  We're also using new software for publishing (WordPress) to help gain some traffic we'd lost since Blogger discontinued support for blogs posted on users' own servers.

So our new blog location is now here:
http://scpatriotsclub.com/blog/

Please contact me us if you have any difficulties accessing the new blog--and don't forget to update your bookmarks to this new location.

Custer County Caucus Tonight

The caucus is tonight at 7:00 PM, and the Southern Colorado Patriots Club needs your help in electing delegates that represent YOU!  You can select the list of uncommitted delegates listed below.  We want a good selection of candidates available for the primaries in August, which is what the folks below plan to ensure if elected as delegates.

Republican Precinct #1
Please see Patriot board member Jeff Mowry if you have questions:

Delegates to nominate and elect: Twila Geroux, Mike Hess, Jeff Mowry, Harold & Lisa Frank, Toloa Pearl and Cindy Howard.


Republican Precinct #3
Please see Patriot board member Joe Cascarelli:

Delegates to nominate and elect:  Joe Cascarelli, Mel & Doris Porth, Larry Luikart, Dan Fox, George Adams, Wayne & Dee Dee Riddering, and Katherine Brenchley.

(We received no volunteers for Republican Precinct #2 nor any Democrat precincts.)

I'll post an image to a precinct map below, but unfortunately the details are difficult to see.  You can download a larger version here.  Follow the color codes on this map, and DISREGARD THE BLACK LINE BORDERS (which are for commissioner districts, and NOT voter precincts.)  If you have any question about where to go for your precinct, call the Custer County Courthouse at (719) 783-2441 or check your voter ID card for which precinct you're in.

According to assembly locations as published in the Wet Mountain Tribune:
Republicans:
Precinct 1, County Courthouse
Precinct 2, Wetmore Firehouse
Precinct 3, Custer County School, Multi-Purpose Room

Democrats:
Precinct 1, Library Community Room (Westcliffe)
Precinct 2, Wetmore Community Building
Precinct 3, County Courthouse, Commissioners' Room

I'd recommend arriving early in case things are busier than usual.

Colorado Congressional Candidates

We'd like to start getting attention on the various candidates for local offices here in southern Colorado, and to do so, I'll post snippets of information about these candidates when I find them.

Here's an article posted at RightOSphere regarding candidate Bob McConnell, running for Congress in Colorado's third district against incumbent John Salazar.  Much of this article contrasts McConnell with the other candidate for this seat, Scott Tipton.  An excerpt:

If you're not familiar with Mr. McConnell (not to be confused with Gov. Bob McDonnell of VA), he's running for Congress in Colorado's 3rd District against incumbent Blue Dog John Salazar (brother of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar). This seat leans consistently Republican, and should be one of our top targets considering the high profile of the incumbent - but it's not. The Colorado GOP has largely abandoned the seat in favor of pursuing the state's 6th and 7th districts - and what little effort they have invested was to prop up the campaign of State Rep. Scott Tipton. I have nothing aganst Tipton per se, but he's has taken a shot a Salazar before with disatrous results. In 2006, a decently-funded Tipton recieved only 36.5% of the vote to Salazar's 61.6% - giving Salazar the biggest win of his congressional  career. Even the 2008 sacrificial lamb, Wayne Wolf, managed to garner a higher percentage.

Take a look, inform yourself, and vote your conscience.  I'll post more information as I find it, and as usual, please let me know if you find some good candidate information to post.

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U.S. Congress--Nice Work, If You Can Get It

Most people, when shown how much our most honorable servants in Congress make each year for part-time work, demonstrate expressions somewhere between shock and rage.

Care to guess how much they make?  (No, I mean how much the taxpayers pay them, not what the lobbyists and other folks pay them beyond taxpayer money.)  What do they make officially?

The lowest paid this year will be $174,000 (!).  Not bad, eh?  And that's not including the fat benefits paid to federal employees.  How about Madam Pelosi?  The Speaker of the House makes $223,500.  Again, this is the official salary, and with all the recesses they take, it's for part-time work, according to TheCapitol.Net.  It's also for the only branch of our federal government with approval ratings (think "performance review") staying near 20% these past few years!

I get this information from a nice article posted at About.com, if you'd like to read more details.

How Much, Really, Is A Trillion Dollars?

Do you know what a trillion dollars looks like?  We've seen plenty of billions of dollars thrown around in recent years, and lately are hearing talk of budget deficits in the trillions of dollars.

Assuming stacks of $100 bills, this PowerPoint file shows what a million, billion, and eventually--what a trillion dollars looks like.  (Imagine if the stacks were single dollars!)  Feel free to point others to this blog and to this PowerPoint file.  If the PowerPoint format doesn't work out well for you, check out the web format of this presentation at pagetutor.com is posted here.

I think it helps to visualize what these huge numbers actually mean.  After all, the gross domestic product of the entire American economy only makes up 13 to 14 of these trillion dollar piles in a given year!

(Note:  I generally give credit for anything mentioned in this blog space, but was entirely unable to track down the original source for this PowerPoint file.  If anyone can find the author/source of this file, please let me know so I can give proper credit.)

2010 Census More Than Mere Enumeration?

According to our Constitution, Congress is to enumerate (count) the citizens every ten years.  Here's what is actually stated in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution:

The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three.

The first sentence quoted above covers what is to be done, and we get a sense of why it is to be done by what follows--this has to do with proper representation of the citizens in changing state populations.

It seems odd, then, that the census in its current state does so much more than merely enumerate the citizens.  In fact, the video clip below by Jerry Day (Matrix News Network), reveals a bit more of what we can expect to see on this year's census.  But is it constitutional?  Or is it asking much more than what is required to merely enumerate the citizens?

I found a sample of the 10-question census form for 2010 in PDF format here.  It seems to me that nine out of those ten questions are illegitimate according to the charter for such a device as is found in the Constitution.  You might not have a problem with answering the questions, which is fine.  But I've got a problem with these questions being asked without authority to do so.  I don't see how my sex, age, and race fit into the enumeration requirements that confine the business of the census to its rightful scope.

But according to the 2010 Census web site, answering all the questions will "paint a portrait of America".  That's nice.  It's also expensive.  In another area of the Census Bureau web site, we see how expensive counting 300 million people (and painting portraits) can be:

The life cycle cost for the Reengineered 2010 Census was estimated at $11.8 billion in the FY 2009 Budget Request, including $1.8 billion for the American Community Survey which replaced the long-form. The new estimated life cycle cost for the 2010 Census is $13.7 to $14.5 billion.

Since the 1970 Decennial Census, costs have risen substantially from one decennial to the next. In 2010 dollars, the 2000 Census life cycle would have cost approximately $8.2 billion; a 100 percent increase over the 1990 Census ($4.1 billion); which was about a 58 percent increase over the 1980 Census ($2.6 billion); which was a 160 percent increase over the 1970 Census ($1.0 billion).

Funny how the costs keep rising every ten years.  Is that inflation, or perhaps getting distracted with "painting portraits"--or both?  Did you know that according to this new estimate of $14.5 billion for the census, that comes to $47.69 per person counted  (see PDF spreadsheet here for population numbers and sources for numbers).  What a bargain.  I'm fairly confident I could contract my official counting services to Uncle Sam for that amount and end up a multi-millionaire for my efforts (and that's including paying workers a fat wage to run around and count people, too!).

Enjoy the video clip: