en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/1517142 Comments by FrostyLJC http://biggovernment.com/bshapiro/2012/02/24/breaking-obama-campaign-attacks-koch-brothers-blames-them-for-gas-prices/#IDComment300837325 I suggest we all send $2 to the Koch's with our thanks for the MANY good/decent things the Koch family has done both in their own community, and for the US economy. Obama is a silly man, and has never once been able to take responsibility for his own failures. Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:50:04 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/bshapiro/2012/02/24/breaking-obama-campaign-attacks-koch-brothers-blames-them-for-gas-prices/#IDComment300837325 http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/09/27/dem-governor-hey-lets-suspend-congressional-elections-for-two-years/#IDComment200162129 What Gov Perdue has suggested is exactly what I have feared since Obama was elected. He's built a back-up government with his system of Czars and government agencies who are writing law under the guise of regulations. He's suggested a non-armed forces militia. It is not beyond belief that Gov Perdue's remarks were, indeed, a trial balloon. The blind-eye turned, and the tacit approval of threats of violence made by Union thugs, as well as the building violence among youth gangs may also be the early stages of what could escalate to such proportions that martial law could be exercised. It's like the frog in a pot of water. When you put him in the pot, the water is cold. By the time he realizes that you've turned up the heat, it's too late for him to get out of the pot - he's cooked. Hopefully folks will be alert to any other signals like the one Gov Perdue has provided. Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:16:13 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/09/27/dem-governor-hey-lets-suspend-congressional-elections-for-two-years/#IDComment200162129 http://biggovernment.com/lmeyers/2011/06/19/whats-wrong-with-robert-reich/#IDComment164268223 Excellent article - there is no question that a great portion of our citizenry is poorly informed about how an economy works/fails, and it is easy to mislead with just a few sound-bites. One must always consider the source and remember the question that applies - "How can you tell if Mr Reich is lying?" ...... If his lips are moving you should start checking the veracity of what he's just said. Every time. Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:58:22 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/lmeyers/2011/06/19/whats-wrong-with-robert-reich/#IDComment164268223 http://biggovernment.com/awrhawkins/2011/06/02/can-sarah-palin-really-defeat-barack-obama-you-betcha/#IDComment158641871 I consider Krauthammer and Will to be fairly wise and well informed commentators, but would encourage those of you who trust their assessment of Palin to go back in history a little and read some of their statements about Reagan and others. Today, many of their predictions/remarks have proven to be inaccurate - even wildly wrong in many cases. In particular, the remarks that Dr. Krauthammer made about Barak Obama following his election showed that Charles's knowledge/understanding of BO was completely off the mark - though plenty of accurate, well documented information was available in advance of the election had he chosen to form an understanding instead of an opinion. So I'd suggest that we NOT be sheep blindly following any pundit, commentator or "expert" - even those whom we typically respect - without checking their feet for clay residue. There is enough information available in this day and age to set aside "reputations", (which are often inaccurate), and do our own homework. AVOID OPINIONS - THE INFO IS OUT THERE TO BE USED IN FORMING AN UNDERSTANDING, INSTEAD. Thu, 2 Jun 2011 21:20:08 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/awrhawkins/2011/06/02/can-sarah-palin-really-defeat-barack-obama-you-betcha/#IDComment158641871 http://biggovernment.com/mwarstler/2011/01/04/guaranteed-income-the-christian-solution-to-our-economy/#IDComment119480067 Two thumbs up! Tue, 4 Jan 2011 15:52:45 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/mwarstler/2011/01/04/guaranteed-income-the-christian-solution-to-our-economy/#IDComment119480067 http://biggovernment.com/chorner/2010/12/31/witnessing-the-de-klein/#IDComment119006450 Amen! Sat, 1 Jan 2011 07:44:20 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/chorner/2010/12/31/witnessing-the-de-klein/#IDComment119006450 http://biggovernment.com/chorner/2010/12/31/witnessing-the-de-klein/#IDComment118913363 Ezra Klein has made himself a laughing-stock. (Old term - he may not "get it"). I can't help but wonder what his actual reading comprehension level is. Good news, though - The US House of Representatives is going to start this year's session with a reading of the Constitution, and - if a volunteer tutor can be found - perhaps there is hope for some remedial training for Mr. Klein. I know it's tough for such a callow (old term - he may not "get it") fellow who obvious has taken an overdose of vitamin "I", but if my 9 year old grandson can understand the constitution, maybe Mr. Klein has a chance of catching up on his sadly deficient education. Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:06:26 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/chorner/2010/12/31/witnessing-the-de-klein/#IDComment118913363 http://tv.breitbart.com/krauthammer-voting-for-odonnell-is-self-indulgent-and-irresponsible/#IDComment98790822 I also usually agree with Mr Krauthammer - in fact I look for his input pretty consistently - but I agree that he is wrong this time. Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:05:39 +0000 http://tv.breitbart.com/krauthammer-voting-for-odonnell-is-self-indulgent-and-irresponsible/#IDComment98790822 http://biggovernment.com/srmorse/2010/07/31/how-to-submit-inaccurate-or-incomplete-2010-census-data-and-get-away-with-it/#IDComment90250938 Jaciscully - the proposal to have the Census Bureau accountable directly to the White House was torpedoed. The Census Bureau remains under the umbrella of the Department of Commerce. Don't take my word for it - check it out. Mon, 2 Aug 2010 04:06:07 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/srmorse/2010/07/31/how-to-submit-inaccurate-or-incomplete-2010-census-data-and-get-away-with-it/#IDComment90250938 http://biggovernment.com/srmorse/2010/07/31/how-to-submit-inaccurate-or-incomplete-2010-census-data-and-get-away-with-it/#IDComment90244154 Note: This response is probably only of interest to those who have worked the decennial census So true about the bad supervisors, Snoopcat - in Field Operations we had them mostly in NRFU where incompetent Crew Leaders (CL's) eventually disqualified themselves, and other CL's had to come in and clean up the mess! I got one of those and it was the one task I would have skipped if I could have! In the LCO, we were blessed with great people in Field Operations, Admin or Quality Assurance (and you know who that leaves LOL) - so we were lucky! Maybe it was just our LCO, but as a CL on multiple operations, we were encouraged to weed out cheaters quickly. This became a huge challenge for Crew Leaders during NRFU because we didn't receive ANY of the the tracking reports that - according to our Crew Leader training and manuals - were to have been provided to us on a regular basis. We had been trained to use these reports to assist us in spotting data falsification but the reports never materialized, according to the LCO, because of IT issues. In order to compensate for the lack of tracking reports, the NRFU CL's and Assistants were forced to put in a lot of additional hours. Besides checking for data falsification, we quickly learned that we had to manually track every questionnaire. Since our authorized overtime didn't cover the time it took to compensate for the missing reports, many of us worked dozens of hours each week for which we were not paid. And - officially - of course that didn't happen. On the good news side, we DID terminate anyone caught falsifying data though, and any of their work that could be was redone. We were lucky to be supported by our AMFO/AMQA in weeding out those who were just "pencil whipping" the questionnaires, but I hear you saying that this wasn't your experience and I bet you're not alone. One anomaly we did run into - (and I don't know what could have done to prevent it) - were a handful of respondents and proxies who thought it was clever to give us bogus information and then deny that they'd ever provided it when contacted by the QA team. I had to personally follow up on a few of these cases. One guy admitted to me that he'd given three different sets of information to the original enumerator and two others who were sent to follow up after he denied being the proxy. Go figure :( Mon, 2 Aug 2010 03:01:10 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/srmorse/2010/07/31/how-to-submit-inaccurate-or-incomplete-2010-census-data-and-get-away-with-it/#IDComment90244154 http://biggovernment.com/srmorse/2010/07/31/how-to-submit-inaccurate-or-incomplete-2010-census-data-and-get-away-with-it/#IDComment90173652 The decennial census has more than one systemic problem. From the inside looking out (having worked on this project for the past 18 months), and as a veteran of the non-government business world (both as a small business owner and a corporate employee), it is easy to compare this operation unfavorably with business endeavors in the private sector. The government simply has too many ineffective but entrenched practices that prevent it from being efficient - from the hiring practices, to the planning, to the infrastructure to the management approach - this project was always doomed to be second rate. The second greatest problem IS the lack of effective/efficient electronic support. No project with such such poor planning and sloppy implementation of IT could possibly assemble credible results. And this exists at a time when people as unimportant/insignificant as myself could quickly and easily assemble a small team of talent that could design, build and implement an effective/efficient electronic support system in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost that the Commerce Department has spent to put PBOCS and MARKS (and all the other supporting applications) in place. The third problem is the citizenry. In order to gather accurate information, the citizen must be willing to provide it. For a host of reasons, a large segment of the population has not been cooperative. I know from first hand experience that Census Enumerators are asked to go into dangerous areas where some have come to harm, and others have narrowly escaped. They are expected to gather information from citizens who have no intention of providing it and are tasked by their supervisors to return - over and over - to the same people who become more confrontational because they feel they are being harassed. It is no wonder that fictional data gets submitted. This brings us to the obstacle that undermines the entire effort to enumerate the citizenry. There is a lack of real knowledge on the part of the population as to what IS and what ISN'T the role of the citizen. This is the fault of the US government which has been wishy washy about the obligations of the population and AWOL on enforcement. If citizens are indeed required to answer the questions on their census forms then the government needs to make that perfectly clear and needs to penalize those who do not respond (as the law already allows). If the government is overstepping it's bounds - as much of the population expects - then this needs to be corrected as well. The bottom of the food chain - the Local Census Offices, it's management, it's supervisory and administrative staff, and it's Enumerators - cannot make chicken salad out of chicken poop! The next decennial census will be fraught with the similar problems even though the methodology is bound to be more advanced. It is unlikely that this can be fixed by governmental ideology or (and I use the term VERY loosely) the "business practices" of a government agency. Even in the private sector - where it would likely be managed more efficiently - it could easily fall victim to political agendas. Sun, 1 Aug 2010 17:00:04 +0000 http://biggovernment.com/srmorse/2010/07/31/how-to-submit-inaccurate-or-incomplete-2010-census-data-and-get-away-with-it/#IDComment90173652