Could Non-Citizens Decide Mid-Terms?

I told you the other day about North Carolina finding hundreds of non-citizens on the voter rolls, mostly those who are illegals with DACA status.  A full audit was done, and the results…

(WRAL) The NC Board of Elections completed an audit Friday of more than 10,000 voters whose citizenship status had been questioned by a so-called voter watchdog group.

According to a news release, the agency analyzed data provided by the NC Division of Motor Vehicles and the US Department of Homeland Security to flag 1,425 registers voters who are likely non-citizens.

“We are working to ensure that no ballot cast by a non-citizen will count in this or any future election,” said Executive Director Kim Westbrook Strach.

Guidelines are being implemented to challenge improper ballots by non-citizens. And, to be clear, the audit found that it was not hundreds of DACA illegals, but, 109. Let’s also not forget that Democrats shrieked about voter fraud after the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections. They also trotted out the meme to a small degree when they lost the House in 2010. One uber-Conservative neo-con newspaper is overly-hysterical about the potential for voter fraud by non-citizens

Could non-citizens decide the November election?

Could control of the Senate in 2014 be decided by illegal votes cast by non-citizens? Some argue that incidents of voting by non-citizens are so rare as to be inconsequential, with efforts to block fraud a screen for an agenda to prevent poor and minority voters from exercising the franchise, while others define such incidents as a threat to democracy itself. Both sides depend more heavily on anecdotes than data.

In a forthcoming article in the journal Electoral Studies, we bring real data from big social science survey datasets to bear on the question of whether, to what extent, and for whom non-citizens vote in U.S. elections. Most non-citizens do not register, let alone vote. But enough do that their participation can change the outcome of close races.

Our data comes from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES). Its large number of observations (32,800 in 2008 and 55,400 in 2010) provide sufficient samples of the non-immigrant sub-population, with 339 non-citizen respondents in 2008 and 489 in 2010. For the 2008 CCES, we also attempted to match respondents to voter files so that we could verify whether they actually voted.

How many non-citizens participate in U.S. elections? More than 14 percent of non-citizens in both the 2008 and 2010 samples indicated that they were registered to vote. Furthermore, some of these non-citizens voted. Our best guess, based upon extrapolations from the portion of the sample with a verified vote, is that 6.4 percent of non-citizens voted in 2008 and 2.2 percent of non-citizens voted in 2010.

Patterico notes that this should be on the front page of every newspaper. But, it won’t. Heck, there is no footer at the Washington Post article denoting that it is even in a print edition. Patterico goes on

The progressive think tank Center for American Progress puts the number of noncitizens in the U.S. at 22.1 million in 2012. Of these, “13.3 million were legal permanent residents, 11.3 million were unauthorized migrants, and 1.9 million were on temporary visas.” These numbers are roughly consistent with numbers offered by the Department of Homeland Security (.pdf) and Kaiser Health News. So let’s take 22 million as our number of noncitizens.

Richman and Earnest estimate that 6.4% of noncitizens voted in 2008. 6.4% of 22 million is 1,408,000.

That’s 1.4 million illegal votes likely cast in the presidential election of 2008.

Richman and Earnest also estimate that 2.2% of noncitizens voted in 2010. (In off-year elections, such as 2010 and the approaching election in 2014, turnout is obviously lower.) 2.2% of 22 million is 484,000. That’s nearly half a million illegal votes likely cast in the election of 2010 (and the same number could be cast in the upcoming election).

Getting past any notion of whether non-citizens voting, particularly illegal aliens, helps Democrats more than Republicans (it does), what this does is significantly harm our institution of voting. Democrats have called the Right To Vote “sacred”, lately due to having to *gasp* show an ID in order to say “hey, I’m me!” They complain about citizens being disenfranchised (again, lately due to voter ID requirements, without mentioning voter ID requirements in states that heavily vote D, such as Hawaii). Well, every single vote cast by a non-citizen means that a vote by a legal US citizen is cast aside.

I’ll bet right now that liberals will blow these concerns off, as they usually do.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Could Non-Citizens Decide Mid-Terms? »

If All You See…

…is a horrible fossil fueled machine, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Lonely Conservative, with a post wondering if we should ban hatchets.

Read: If All You See… »

Happy Birthday! 9 Years With No Major US Landfalling Hurricanes!

That’s right, folks, it has been 9 years since Hurricane Wilma came ashore in south Florida on October 24th, 2005. Wilma was the last major (category 3+) hurricane to strike the continental United States.

This stands in stark contradiction to Warmist prognostication that the big season of 2005 would be the “new normal”. When they didn’t work out, they started saying that there would be less hurricanes, but they’d be more powerful. Now, of course, they’re claiming “climate change” is reducing hurricanes, both in number and intensity. Come November 22nd, the record for most days without a landfalling US hurricane will be broken at 3316 days, which has stood since the Civil War era. And there is almost no chance of a major hurricane occurring at this point.

Via Stephen Goddard, who notes that the running mean for Florida hurricanes (Wilma came ashore in Florida, of course) has been dropping. There were none this year. Not even a Tropical Storm. The US was only hit with one hurricane (Arthur) this year, a Category 1. Since 2008, there has been only one other true hurricane to make US landfall, Isaac. And land based recordings could create debate whether it was a hurricane at landfall (still dangerous as a TS, though). Sandy was not a hurricane at landfall.

If this is “climate change”, it’s good news. Of course, in reality, what we have going on is a normal Holocene warm period, and just part of the shorter term cycle of hurricane activity. But, we know Warmists like to blame everything on Hotcoldwetdry, because Shut Up You.

More: Dr. Roger Pielke, Jr., discusses all this, and also has a piece in the USA Today on the subject.

Read: Happy Birthday! 9 Years With No Major US Landfalling Hurricanes! »

Hey, Kay Hagan, Is Obama A Strong Leader?

Um, you see, er, well, ah

(Breitbart) On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” MSNBC political correspondent Kasie Hunt interviewed incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC), who is in a tight reelection bod for her seat against Republican senatorial hopeful Thom Tillis.

In that interview, Hunt asked Hagan if she considered Obama to be a strong leader, which was a question Hagan did not respond to directly.

“You know, President Obama has a lot on his plate,” Hagan replied. “And it see, like whether it’s the oil spill that took place earlier a number of years ago in the Gulf, to this Ebola crisis now, to ISIS gaining strength — I mean, you look at all the combination of things like that.”

Hunt continued to press on Hagan on the question and although Hagan said Obama’s responses to those problems left much to be desired, she did not offer a direct response.

Read: Hey, Kay Hagan, Is Obama A Strong Leader? »

Bad News: Cow Killing Blizzard Not Linked To “Climate Change”

Well, this can set our minds at ease

(Inforum)  study conducted by a team of weather experts determined the October 2013 blizzard that devastated parts of western South Dakota and Wyoming isn’t anything to be alarmed about in the near future.

The blizzard accounted for the deaths of an estimated 45,000 head of livestock, reports said.

The team concluded the event couldn’t be tied to climate change, though, because of limited data on severe weather events in the fall. The team included researchers at South Dakota State University, who said the storm is not cause for alarm.

Makes one think about the sanity of people attempting to link rising temperatures from greenhouse gases…in other words, you driving a fossil fueled vehicle to work producing CO2…with significant blizzards. It’s almost like this is some sort of cult.

Read: Bad News: Cow Killing Blizzard Not Linked To “Climate Change” »

Awesome Grandpa Pulls Gun, Shoots Assailants Who Tried To Rob And Rape Family

Democrats would have preferred that they blow a whistle, pee on themselves, and just let The Authorities apprehend the perps later

(Daily Caller) A North Carolina man exchanged fire with three home invaders after they tried to rob his house and rape his granddaughter,reports the Fayetteville Observer.

At his Lumberton home on Monday, Kenneth Byrd, 67, was approached by an individual claiming to have car problems. When Byrd invited the man into his home, he was rushed by two additional assailants wearing black clothes and ski masks.

The home invaders — all three brandishing handguns — corralled Byrd, his wife Judy and their 19-year-old granddaughter and demanded money and other valuables from the family safe.

Byrd initially complied with their demands, but when the men began to beat Judy and attempted to rape his granddaughter, he grabbed a hidden firearm and let loose a flurry of shots at the assailants.

Super-grandpa managed to hit all three. Brandon Carver Stephens, 28, and Jamar Hawkins, 17 went to the hospital with gunshot wounds, and the hospital called the police. Jamie Faison, 20 was found dead of in a stolen Cadillac at his home residence. Yes, grandpa hit him, too.

According to Liberal Theory, law abiding citizens should not be armed: only law enforcement should be armed. Let’s not forget how hard Liberals have pushed to disarm law abiding citizens, leaving them at the mercy of criminals who, by rule, do not care about the law.

Read: Awesome Grandpa Pulls Gun, Shoots Assailants Who Tried To Rob And Rape Family »

Priorities: DHS Raids Kansas City Lingerie Shop

I’m not quite sure whether to be disturbed, amused, or reassured

(Fox News) When two burly men walked into a Missouri women’s underwear store Tuesday, the owners didn’t think much of it — until the pair flashed their Homeland Security badges and confiscated several dozen panties bearing the initials “KC” in honor of the Kansas City Royals.

Danielle Meister, co-owner of Birdies Panties shop, said the undercover agents seized the lingerie, claiming the store violated copyright laws by selling underwear with “Take the Crown” and “KC” printed across the rear. Meister and her business partner, Peregrine Honig, said they wanted to celebrate the success of their hometown team — which on Wednesday night beat the San Francisco Giants to tie the World Series at one game apiece — by designing the panties. (snip)

“It all came crashing down on Tuesday when Homeland Security showed up and said we were committing a crime of copyright infringement,” Meister said. “My initial response was fear. How often does Homeland Security show up to your panty shop?”

Exactly. How often does a federal agency show up armed at a small private business? It could be scary enough having the local, county, or state law enforcement show up, but to have Los Federales appear? Scary and intimidating. It does get worse

Major League Baseball spokesman Matt Bourne said counterfeit merchandise is a serious problem.

“We support [Homeland Security’s] efforts to protect fans from purchasing counterfeit tickets and merchandise while protecting legitimate businesses that are authorized to conduct those activities,” Bourne said.

While certainly MLB wants to protect its brand and the brand of the teams, is it necessary to send in armed federal agents to a small lingerie shop? They couldn’t have placed a call or registered letter, telling them to cease and desist?

The raid itself was carried out by Immigration and Customs enforcement, having apparently solved all the problems with illegal aliens, including ones that are gang members and Bad People.

Meister, in hindsight, described the incident as comical.

“These two tall, strong undercover officers had to stand there and count the panties,” she giggled. “They didn’t not seem to want to carry out their appointed task that day.”

Well, there is that.

On the flip side, they were working to stop the sale of all the counterfeit merchandise, and, more importantly, tickets. Most people buying merchandise will know when it is not real. Tickets, though, can see people out hundreds of dollars, and not allowed in the game.

Still, panties? Happy Friday.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Priorities: DHS Raids Kansas City Lingerie Shop »

Co-founder Of Weather Channel: Climate Change Nothing But A Lie

Of course, John Coleman is going to be personally attacked, as Leftists are wont to do

(Express UK)  John Coleman, who co-founded the Weather Channel, shocked academics by insisting the theory of man-made climate change was no longer scientifically credible.

Instead, what ‘little evidence’ there is for rising global temperatures points to a ‘natural phenomenon’ within a developing eco-system.

In an open letter attacking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he wrote: “The ocean is not rising significantly.

“The polar ice is increasing, not melting away. Polar Bears are increasing in number.

“Heat waves have actually diminished, not increased. There is not an uptick in the number or strength of storms (in fact storms are diminishing).

“I have studied this topic seriously for years. It has become a political and environment agenda item, but the science is not valid.” (snip)

“Efforts to prove the theory that carbon dioxide is a significant greenhouse gas and pollutant causing significant warming or weather effects have failed.

Virtually everything that Warmists have prognosticated have failed, hence the reason they now, mostly, tend to yammer about things that are going to happen in 2050 and 2100.

Climate expert William Happer, from Princeton University, supported Mr Coleman’s claims.

He added: “No chemical compound in the atmosphere has a worse reputation than CO2, thanks to the single-minded demonisation of this natural and essential atmospheric gas by advocates of government control and energy production.

“The incredible list of supposed horrors that increasing carbon dioxide will bring the world is pure belief disguised as science.”

Of course, that belief isn’t strong enough to actually get Believers to act on those beliefs within their own lives.

Read: Co-founder Of Weather Channel: Climate Change Nothing But A Lie »

If All You See…

…is hair that could only be done with evil hair spray and a hair dryer which causes droughtflood, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is White House Dossier, with a post on Ocare dumping patients into Medicaid.

Read: If All You See… »

Hooray! 34 Crowdsourced Ideas To Solve “Climate Change”

Guess what’s missing

MIT’s Climate CoLab has been crowd-sourcing solutions to climate change for four years now. An initiative of the MIT Center For Collective Intelligence, the platform has received thousands of ideas over that time, from the solidly practical to the downright weird (we covered a few here). The 2014 class is no different. Across 18 contests, CoLab received 600 proposals in all, from this plan to harness the power of lightning to this concept ship that powers itself by rocking side-to-side on the waves. Judges shortened the list to 64, before the public voted for 34 winners. Below are a few of our favorites

Carbon labeling

Voicemails from the future

Carbon currency

Food bikes

Climate CoLab will announce a winner in November. See the rest of the finalists here.

Here’s one of my favorites

Settle the carbon debt and release the power of example! /  jan-k

I suggest how to leave the dispute about historical responsibility for climate change behind and unleash the power of example.

Shouldn’t that be The Power Of Example? Oh,  hey, I know what the power of example should be. Can you guess?

Read: Hooray! 34 Crowdsourced Ideas To Solve “Climate Change” »

Pirate's Cove