The GrassCity Gazette

[AK Infinity]

May 18, 2009

GOP Losses Span Nearly All Demographic Groups

Only frequent churchgoers show no decline in support since 2001

by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- The decline in Republican Party affiliation among Americans in recent years is well documented, but a Gallup analysis now shows that this movement away from the GOP has occurred among nearly every major demographic subgroup. Since the first year of George W. Bush's presidency in 2001, the Republican Party has maintained its support only among frequent churchgoers, with conservatives and senior citizens showing minimal decline

So far in 2009, aggregated Gallup Poll data show the divide on leaned party identification is 53% Democratic and 39% Republican -- a marked change from 2001, when the parties were evenly matched, according to an average of all of that year's Gallup Polls. That represents a loss of five points for the Republicans and a gain of eight points for the Democrats.

The parties were also evenly matched on basic party identification in 2001 (which does not take into account the partisan leanings of independents), with 32% identifying themselves as Republicans, 33% as Democrats, and 34% as independents. The 2009 data show the GOP losing five points since then, with identification increasing three points among both Democrats and independents.

As was shown earlier, the GOP's loss in leaned support over this time is evident among nearly every subgroup. The losses are substantial among college graduates, which have shown a decline in GOP support of 10 points. (The losses are even greater -- 13 points -- among the subset of college graduates with postgraduate educations.) This may reflect in part Barack Obama's strong appeal to educated voters, a major component of his winning coalitions in both the Democratic primaries and the general election.

Aside from education, for which the parties were basically at even strength in 2001, the Republicans' losses tend to be greater among groups that were not strong GOP supporters to begin with. These include self-identified liberals and moderates, church non-attenders, and lower-income and young adults. Thus, a big factor in the GOP's overall decline is the Democratic Party's consolidating its support among normally Democratically leaning groups.

In turn, the GOP has generally avoided significant losses among only its most loyal groups, including frequent churchgoers and self-identified conservatives. The Republican Party maintains majority support among these two groups.

Two exceptions to this general pattern are senior citizens, and racial and ethnic minorities. Republican support among blacks and the larger group of nonwhites has not changed much in the past eight years, but these groups have shown only very limited support for the Republican Party. And while Obama's candidacy seemed to attract young voters to the Democratic Party during the 2008 presidential campaign, it did not have the same effect on older voters. As a result, the share of older voters aligned with the Republican Party has generally held steady.

Implications
The Republican Party clearly has lost a lot of support since 2001, the first year of George W. Bush's administration. Most of the loss in support actually occurred beginning in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina and Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court -- both of which created major public relations problems for the administration -- and amid declining support for the Iraq war. By the end of 2008, the party had its worst positioning against the Democrats in nearly two decades.

The GOP may have stemmed those losses for now, as it does not appear to have lost any more support since Obama took office. But as the analysis presented here shows, the losses the GOP has suffered have come among nearly all demographic groups apart from some of the most ardent Republican subgroups.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 7,139 national adults, aged 18 and older, in Gallup polls conducted January-April 2009. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.

Margins of error for subgroups will be larger.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Copyright © 2009 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

[aaronman]

Woman cuffed for not holding handrail

MONTREAL — Anyone who has ridden an escalator and bothered to pay attention has seen – and likely ignored – little signs suggesting riders hold the grimy handrail.

In Montreal's subway system, the friendly advice seems to have taken on the force of law, backed by a $100 fine.

Bela Kosoian, a 38-year-old mother of two, says when she didn't hold the handrail Wednesday she was cuffed, dragged into a small holding cell and fined.

“It was horrible, disgusting behaviour [by police],” said Ms. Kosoian, a 38-year-old student of international law. “I did nothing wrong. They should go find the guys who stole my tires off the balcony.”


Ms. Kosoian, who studies at the Université du Québec à Montreal, was riding an escalator down to catch a 5:30 p.m. subway from the suburb of Laval to an evening class downtown when she started rifling through her backpack looking for a fare.



Ms. Kosoian, who grew up in Georgia when it was still part of the Soviet Union, says she didn't catch the officer's instruction to hold the rail when he first approached.

When he told her again to hang on, she says she replied, “I don't have three hands.” Besides, she had been sick and feared catching a new bug.

That's when the officer demanded identification so he could write her ticket, she said.

Ms. Kosoian started arguing. The officers handcuffed her and threw her into a small holding cell. The officers searched her bag and gave her a $100 ticket for failing to hold the banister and another $320 ticket for obstruction.

The handcuffs bruised Ms. Kosoian's wrists and an officer's boot scraped skin off the top of her foot.

She intends to fight the tickets.

Société de transport de Montréal regulations say “it is forbidden for all persons to disobey a directive or a pictogram posted by the Société.”

At the top of the escalator in the Montmorency station, a small sign indeed shows a stick man holding a railing with the words, “Hold the handrail.”

Montreal's metro system is policed by transit inspectors and local police departments.
Isabelle Tremblay, a spokesperson for the STM, seemed relieved to establish late yesterday that Laval police stopped Ms. Kosoian.

“We were quite surprised to hear about this, we don't give fines for such things,” Ms. Tremblay said.

Laval police were unable to provide an explanation yesterday.

As Ms. Kosoian noted, Montreal's subway takes bicycles, strollers and babies but has few elevators, making banister-holding an unlikely juggling act for many.

Transit systems across Canada have struggled with innocent-sounding behaviour that can cause accidents.

A couple years ago, Toronto transit authorities removed signs urging escalator riders to stand on the right, walk on the left, because walking on escalators caused dozens of injuries. Walkers were not fined.

In the Vancouver region, officials will soon launch a campaign to discourage running, sliding down banisters and other risky behaviour.

“We do tend to tear our hair out sometimes at the ways people get hurt,” said Drew Snider, a spokesman for the regional transportation authority.

In Montreal, 16 students were injured in 2004 when an escalator suddenly stopped.
As for fears of catching another flu, a leading germ expert says you are more likely to fall down an escalator than catch illness from a handrail.

“No matter how dirty your hands become, all you have to do to avoid getting ill is wash your hands,” said Dr. Philip Tierno, the author of The Secret Life of Germs.

“Safety is first. If you break your head or break your neck, you don't have to worry about washing your hands.”

Police state and economy are inversely correlated?

[AK Infinity]

YouTube - On The View, Goldberg calls Beck "lying...

[Dickie4:20]

Frank Schaeffer: Republican Disaster -- The Evangelical/Zionist Anatomy of Meltdown

[aaronman]

Obama to Keep Israel's Nukes a "secret"

Israeli officials breathed a collective sigh of relief today, as a senior Israeli diplomat assured that the nation’s massive nuclear arsenal, well known though never publicly acknowledged, would remain a secret.

Previous speculation was that President Obama might make Israel come clean about its vast arsenal while pursuing an agreement with Iran on its civilian program, but the diplomat claimed assurances that the US would maintain the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.”

Earlier this month, Assistant US Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller made headlines in Israel for suggesting that the administration wanted Israel, among other parties, to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Joining the treaty would oblige Israel to open its arsenal to public scrutiny, after 40 years as a poorly guarded secret. Israel condemned the comments at the time.

Hardly a year goes by when a top Israeli official does not accidentally admit to the arsenal’s existence, yet the United States has had a policy for the past 40 years of keeping the weapons “from becoming an established international fact.” It seems that policy is going to continue.

[Dickie4:20]

The Associated Press: Congress votes to allow guns in national parks

Boo-Boo and Yogi better not swipe any picnic baskets if they know what’s good for them!

[aaronman]

Texas Senate to Allow handguns on Campus


Muahahaha. All you liberals better start running!

[Dickie4:20]

Originally Posted by aaronman

All you liberals better start running!

Or the people on campus...

[aaronman]

Originally Posted by Dickie4:20

Or the people on campus...

Mostly liberals anyways

[wackdeafboy]

AW fuck yes! We're taking America BACK! BITCHES!
Fuck you corps and gov!

Hope this will pass.

[AK Infinity]

YouTube - Mancow Waterboard

[wackdeafboy]

FCC can enter your home without warrant.

Apparently, consumers who own a wireless router, cell phone, baby monitor, or other wireless devices can't refuse the FCC if the commission decides to come into the home for an inspection. In fact, the commission doesn't even need a court order to enter the home and check the equipment, enabling the FCC the ability to come and visit during any time of day or night. Refusing the FCC access to the equipment could lead to a harsh financial penalty.

The FCC's policy was reintroduced to the public earlier this month when the commission went to investigate a private radio station in Boulder, Colorado. Unable to gain access to the equipment, located in a residential home, the FCC investigator left a copy of the 2005 FCC inspection policy taped to the door. “Whether you operate an amateur station or any other radio device, your authorization from the Commission comes with the obligation to allow inspection,” the statement read. Another radio broadcaster refused to allow the FCC access to his [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]radio [COLOR=blue ! important]equipment[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] back in 2007, and was fined a whopping $7,000 by the FCC.

So what gives? Why do these people think they have the right to barge in unannounced? According to Wired, the FCC has enforced this policy for many years, mostly to track down and dismember pirate radio broadcasters. Unfortunately, the FCC reserves the same invasive maneuvers regarding any licensed or unlicensed radio-frequency device, leaving legitimate businesses and consumer wide open for an unwanted, unwelcomed visit.

According to the FCC, the source of its warrantless search power stems from the Communications Act of 1934, and its actions have gone unattested in court for the last 75 years, mainly because technology was limited to ham-radios and CB-radios on the consumer front. However, it's a different world now, the [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Digital[/COLOR][/COLOR] Age, and most businesses and consumers own at least one cell phone, wireless router, or a wireless land line. Now the FCC has a much broader frontier than previous decades, and that has many protesters in an uproar.

“It is a major stretch beyond case law to assert that authority with respect to a private home, which is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure,” says Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Lee Tien. “When it is a private home and when you are talking about an over-powered Wi-Fi antenna--the idea they could just go in is honestly quite bizarre.”

George Washington University professor Orin Kerr, a constitutional law expert, quoted a Supreme Court ruling in 1967, saying that the government cannot make warrantless entries into homes for administrative inspections; the 1967 ruling in fact specified that housing inspectors needed warrants to force their way into private residential homes. Kerr also noted that the FCC conveniently doesn't explain how it works around that ruling, or how it works around the Fourth Amendment in its official FAQ online.

FCC spokesman David Fiske said that the FCC reserves the right to inspect anything using RF energy, to make sure that the device(s) isn't causing interference. “The only right they have is to inspect the equipment,” he said, referring to the FCC inspectors. “If they want to seize, they have to work with the U.S. Attorney’s office.”

Consumers growing marijuana plants on the window sill or storing other illegal drugs within the homes are subject to prosecution, as anything the FCC discovers while inspecting the equipment--although completely unrelated to the current task--can be used against the consumer in court. Ultimately, this means that, should the FCC demand to check your wireless router due to suspicious transmissions, it's best to find a good hiding place for the bong.

[Dickie4:20]

Raw Story » Fear of prosecution caused Cheney to speak out, daughter says

[wackdeafboy]

YouTube - Rachel Maddow: Indefinite detention?...

[aaronman]

YouTube - Raw Video: Police Slam Wrong Man Into a...

Police slam innocent bystander into wall, puts him in a coma.

Cop isn't in jail.