The Hayseeds blog, No. 180 for the week starting October 22, 2006.
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Hayseeds No. 179
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Hayseeds No. 180
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That's what the United States population turned at 7:49 this morning. That is really a reason to give pause.
The USA Today ran a set of opposing viewpoints Op-Eds on the issue of population and immigration just yesterday, that have some interesting thoughts to take a look at. One looks at the problems of growth caused by immigration and another argues that it's a great thing that so many people have come to our country.
One of the articles references back on the famous 1967 Rockefeller Commission on population growth, back when we have 200 million people. It's predictions for growth where pretty dire, though the section on environmental degregation and the costs of mass population are quite interesting.
It's mind boggling even to think about the number 300,000,000. Then you think about all the auto emissions, garbage, sewage, and manure from all the cattle it takes to feed those people. You almost want to regress back to an earlier time, when our country didn't face such great challenges.
I suspect the most dire predictions for population growth are wrong, but we must constantly be aware of the impact that growth is having on our society. Growth and the change it brings comes subtly and many ways not in ways we suspect. Remember, we are told by industry to recycle while we end up tossing more and more garbage as we consume more and more. Those kinds of distractions are what cause the real environmental problems.
It's really hard to say for sure, but it seems that she has gained a few points on Cuomo in the past few weeks, putting her 13% behind Cuomo which is an improvement over 16% the previous week and the approximently 20% the weeks before that.
Getting a bump like this can be really good for your campaign. It gets your base really excited as it at least appears that you can win. When people think you can win, they will be more likely to vote for you (everybody likes to vote for a winner), and even more importantly, they will get out and volunteer for you (as everybody wants to volunteer for a winner).
It is amazing that there are still some true believers in the Spencer camp that say he could beat Hillary in the US Senate race, claiming that a low voter turnout could be good for him. Maybe on any other year, but it seems almost certain that our US Senator will remain Hillary for better or for worst.
Uncle Joe thinks it's the fault of our governor for heading out on such a bad year for Republicans, leading to a perfect storm against Republican incumbents particularly in the State Senate where Democrats are in a position to pick up many new seats.
Everybody knows that Pataki would be running if he had a chance to win. Yet, he's not in that position right now nor was he in that position last year when he decided to become a lame duck and focus on his presidential ambitions.
NPR has a nice rundown of some of the changes in our country since 1967 and the population increasing by a third. They include gas prices about a third higher inflation adjusted ($2/gal in 1967 vs. $2.50/gal now), much lower milk prices inflation adjusted ($6.23/gal vs. $3/gal), smaller households (3.3 in 1967 vs. 2.6 people per house in 2006), and much older (29.5 yr avg vs 36.2 yr on avg).
Those are some interesting factoids, though I have to admit the milk prices one is pretty depressing.
Some other ones I found on the internet include the curren population density in our country is 76 people per square mile or roughly 8 acres per person. That's kind of population distrobution what you'd find in relatively rural hamlet like the one I live in.
Our country is still increadibly rural, particularly when you figure cities soak up roughly 33% of the population—like New York have 26,468 people per mile, Chicago has 12,706 and Philadelphia has 11,233 per square mile. The suburbs around cities have half of the population, and the boondocks everywhere else has the rest. In many rural areas, they are actually losing population.
According to internal polling done by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, they say Gillibrand is polling only one point behind Sweeney, something that was recently confirmed by Congressional Quarterly changing this race from leans Republican to too close to call.
You can say what you want about DCCC polling techniques, but it's just more evidence that this race really has come to a boil and that Sweeney is in real trouble. I suspect it will all come down to a few votes, and things like the weather might just very well decide whose going to be the next Congressman in the 20th Congressional District.
It looks like while Hevesi may be still 20+ points ahead of Callaghan it looks like more and more voters are looking at his opponent as the Ms. Hevesi scandal continues to drag him down as time goes by.
The man who used to be the chair of Real Property Taxation in the Assembly is under federal indictment for stealing money from the state. While many of us feel that thieves are taking all our money by property tax, the idea that Brian McLauglin is such a big theif is surpising.
He always struck me as quite nice, and a really awsome dresser. That said, he had the most awsome genious staff working for him, which I hope continue on with whoever replaces him. It's too bad that he would have stolen so much money.
The infamous Glens Falls Wheelaboro Incinerator yesterday had a bit of a scare when one incomming truck with trash set off an alarm for radio-activity, prompting some people to think about what exactly they are burning in that massive incinerator up in Glens Falls.
Prior to them installing the radio active detector at the incinerator a few months ago, they'd never had known there was any problem. Like is the case with so much solid waste, we really have no idea what's in it and all we can really do is hope that people aren't mixing too many toxins in with it, and that the volume of less-toxic stuff will offset the nasty stuff or in the case of incinerators things like the baghouse and electrostatic precipator will capture everything we know and don't know are killing us.
The Help America Vote Act required New York State to buy voting machines by last year, but as we all know our legislature dilly-dallied on this so long that the federal justice department is threatened to take away the money for the state falling so far behind where they should be.
The GOP is running a really sleezy ad over a $1.25 accidential call by Mike Accuri to a 1-900 number, suggesting that Accuri was dailing for sex while on business with the DA's office in New York City.
It really isn't that clear, particularly in the light of the Siena poll suggesting that Gillibrand is 14 points behind Sweeney, though it seems that she has quite surpisingly made a lot of headway in the northern part of her district. The party polls show the race neck-and-neck while the rank and file pollers all show Sweeney far out and ahead.
The race seems to come down to the old notion of people voting their party line over the candidate, with some of Sweeney's supporters crossing over for Gillibrand. Yet, in a district 2-1 Republican it's hard for a Democrat to win. Certainly we have been out in force, trying to get the message out about Gillibrand, and we need to continue but these poll numbers are bit disconcerning.
There is another unknown but claiming to be unpartisan, Majority Watch puts Gillibrand 14 points ahead of Sweeney, showing that there still is a lot of debate over polling methods and knowing what is really going to happen. Their polling is an autodialer with computerized voices, probably biasing the sample towards more technocratic polls. I doubt people believe Majority Watch's computerized poll as much as they do Siena Poll.
The problem with polls is they tend to dramatically influence how many people want to come out and work for your candidate. Nobody wants to work for a loser, nobody wants to vote for a loser.
Spitzer's office has released a press release saying that his office is not looking into Pirro's wiretapping despite Pirro's claims to the contray.
