Innocent Bystanders

Graham Sells His Party Down the River June 17, 2013

Lindsay Graham tells us that Republicans are doomed if we don’t pass the immigration reform bill:

Republicans are “in a demographic death spiral” and will fail in their effort to win the presidency if the party blocks an immigration overhaul, a leading GOP senator said Sunday.

I refer the Senator to this chart from the Pew Hispanic Research Center:

Now, I may not be a squishy GOP senator who presumably knows a thing or two about elections, but I think I can read a graph. And that there graph says that the best we’ve ever done with Hispanic voters is 2 out of 5 votes, while the average is more like 2 out of 6 votes.

In the last election we got 2 out of 8 votes.

Let’s assume that half of the 11 million-strong illegal immigrant population is eligible for citizenship under the proposed law. If you take the average voting percentage, the Democrats accrue a 1.8 million vote advantage. If it’s anything like the last election, it’s a 2.4 million vote advantage.

The last four elections were settled by an average of 4.5 million votes (yeah, I know that’s the popular vote and not the electoral college results). That makes the 2 million votes Graham wants to hand to the Dems look pretty significant.

We may well be in a “demographic death spiral,” but I see no reason to accelerate it.

Santorum Goes Commie June 17, 2013

Allahpundit posted an excerpt of Rick Santorum’s remonstration of the GOP’s strategy:

“One after another, [business owners who were invited to speak] talked about the business they had built. But not a single—not a single —factory worker went out there,” Santorum told a few hundred conservative activists at an “after-hours session” of the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington. “Not a single janitor, waitress or person who worked in that company! We didn’t care about them. You know what? They built that company too! And we should have had them on that stage.”…

“When all you do is talk to people who are owners, talk to folks who are ‘Type As’ who want to succeed economically, we’re talking to a very small group of people,” he said. “No wonder they don’t think we care about them. No wonder they don’t think we understand them.”

Allahpundit goes on to agree in part, noting that the GOP’s convention and election strategy weren’t well-suited for reaching the Low Information Voter. I can appreciate that, but I have two objections to Santorum’s statement.

1. The entrepreneur is fundamentally different than the employee in the level of risk and commitment to the enterprise. The employees generally didn’t “build that,” they worked there. Santorum’s loose phrasing is basically Marxist.
2. The point of the American system is that anybody – janitors, waitresses, or employees – can become an entrepreneur. When Romney’s campaign reached out to entrepreneurs, an admittedly small subset of the population, they were hopefully reaching out to all of our dreams as well.

And I’m starting to think that Santorum is a Grade A tool.

Andrew Sullivan Denies He Hero-Worships Obama June 14, 2013

Via Twitchy.

Hey, I say we give the poor, love-struck dude’s word for it.

On a totally unrelated note, Andrew Sullivan recently called a radio station to dedicate “Henry Lee” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to President Obama.  (If you aren’t familiar with the tune, give it until the third verse so you at least get the reference.)

Obama’s Gift-Giving Streak Continues June 9, 2013

Really? To the President of China?

I’m completely boggled.

He didn’t even include a six-pack of beer and a bucket of KFC.

[H/T Purple Avenger @AoSHQ]

A Short Documentary of the Work by the Centrifuge Brain Project June 8, 2013

About 4 months old? But certainly worth a few moments of your time to familiarize yourself with this very important research:

Why I’m a Little Queasy About Yesterday’s Job Report June 8, 2013

Yesterday’s Establishment Survey indicated that the economy added 175K jobs last month – not bad, though not reflective of a very strong recovery. But the problem with those jobs is this:

Does that bother you like it bothers me? I’ll admit that I’m an old economy fan, where production forms the core and services are supported by the core. Maybe that notion is obsolete, but I’m sticking with it.

In which case I expect that all the hiring in the service economy will collapse before too long.

The Debacle of Obama’s Manufacturing Jobs Promise June 7, 2013

My new favorite part of the jobs report is trying to see how the President is doing in creating 1 million manufacturing jobs by September 2016. I mean, he promised, right? Just like his promise to double exports by 2015?

So how’s he doing? About like you’d expect:

Poetic Justice, Bolivian Style June 7, 2013

✔ Punishment tailored for the crime?
✔ Guilty party punished commensurate with crime?
✔ Plenty of time for the guilty party to contemplate his sins?

Gruesome, but appropriate:

Villagers in Bolivia’s southern highlands buried a man alive in the grave of the woman he is suspected of having raped and murdered, an official said Thursday.

I just hope he was really guilty.

In related news, here’s a case where I wouldn’t have been able to make any check marks:

Also in Potosi, residents of the Quechua indigenous community of Tres Cruces on Wednesday stoned to death a suspected thief and burned his accomplice alive, Barrios said. The official said the two had earlier robbed a car and killed its driver.

Well, maybe the second check mark.

May 2013 Unemployment Report – Trudging Painfully Forward June 7, 2013

Employment report is out today – I’ve translated it into my full-time employment chart, which compares the number of full-time jobs to the civilian non-institutional population:

Not too bad, if you’re the very, very patient sort.