Monthly Archives: April 2012

Fact is Dead?

Posted on by

Driving home from the store, a story came on about how Facts have died.  So I googled it.  Rex Huppke, a Chicago Tribune reporter wrote the story,

Leading with a headline:

Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012

In memoriam: After years of health problems, Facts has finally died.

April 19, 2012  By Rex W. Huppke, Chicago Tribune reporter
He wrote:
“To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official cause of death was from injuries suffered last week when Florida Republican Rep. Allen West steadfastly declared that as many as 81 of his fellow members of the U.S. House of Representatives are communists….

Facts is survived by two brothers, Rumor and Innuendo, and a sister, Emphatic Assertion.  Services are alleged to be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that mourners make a donation to their favorite super PAC.”

Article can be found at: Facts is Dead

Continue reading »

State Governments: Seen More Favorably than Federal Government

Posted on by

PEW reported today: “The gap between favorable ratings of the federal government and state and local governments is wider than ever. Just a third of Americans have a favorable opinion of the federal government, the lowest positive rating in 15 years. Yet opinions about state and local governments, on balance, remain favorable.

The favorable rating for the federal government has fallen to just 33%; while nearly twice as many (62%) have an unfavorable view, according to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, conducted April 4-15. By contrast, ratings of state governments remain in positive territory, with 52% offering a favorable and 42% and unfavorable opinion of their state government. Local governments are viewed positively by roughly a two-to-one margin.

Ten years ago, roughly two thirds of Americans offered favorable assessments of all three levels of government: federal, state and local.”

Find report at:Growing Gap

A Reminder: Headlines Might Not Really Tell the Story

Posted on by

The NY Times led with a headline “Exxon Mobil Earnings Disappoint,” (April 27, 2012). stop calls from canadian pharmacy Just cialis half life glancing at the headline, you might think think the oil corporation had done poorly or had not made much of a profit. However, that is not the case although the data is a bit confusing. Yes, they viagra triangle bars say their net income dropped 11 percent for the quarter. They posted a $9.45 billion profit as compared to $10.7 a year earlier. However, their revenue rose 8.8 percent to $124.1 billion. The “disappointment” was becauseExxon did not meet Wall Street expectations of: 1) earing $124.8 billion in revenues, and 2) the price per side effects viagra pills share was only $2 rather than an expected $2.10. Most of the article was about how well Shell was doing. Not really about public administration, but it is a good reminder that just glancing at headlines–as I often do–can be misleading. Find NY viagra o cialis Times Article here  

Federal Income Tax Receipt–2012

Posted on by

The National Priorities Project has provided a report on our federal tax dollars at work.

“While you may not get a receipt from the IRS any time soon, National Priorities Project went ahead and wrote one up. This receipt shows where $2,654 in income taxes was spent by the government in fiscal 2011. That’s an estimate of the taxes paid by a single person earning around $30,000 annually.”

It should be noted that they do not include payroll taxes that are designated for Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds.

Still, it is an interesting way to present budget data.

Source: National Priorities Project: Your Tax Receipt

What the Public Knows about the Political Parties

Posted on by

PEW has a quiz: what do you know about U.S. major political parties? Take the Quiz.  It’s fun.

The quiz goes with the report PEW just released:  What the Public Knows About the Political Partie–report

They lead off saying:

“Most Americans can correctly identify the relative positions of the Republican and Democratic parties on the major issues of the day. But a review of what Americans know about the political parties shows that the public is better informed about the partisan affiliations of two popular recent presidents – Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton – than it is about the positions of the parties on key issues that dominate the current national debate.”

It also provides some analysis based on age, education, and political identification.