Weekend Digest: Partisanship Reaches A 25-Year High
by June 8, 2012 11:43 pm 86 views
BRANDY AND WATER FOR A SHOT U.S. PRESIDENT
Abraham Lincoln had been shot in his box at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. and a doctor rushes in.
The dramatic medical report of what then transpired is the subject of an enticing essay from the Wall Street Journal.
Charles Leale ordered brandy and water to be brought immediately.
Dr. Leale's long-lost report of his efforts to help the mortally wounded president, written just hours after his death, was discovered in a box at the National Archives late last month.
A researcher found the report “packed in a box, stored at the archives and not seen for 147 years.” For historians, it is the rarest of finds.
Could Mr Lincoln perhaps have lived with modern medicine? Read more at this link to find out.
DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN IDEALS MOVING FARTHER APART
If you thought the two parties might actually find some common ground, think again.
A new report in the Washington Post says, “Partisanship in America is at a 25-year high, according to a new Pew Research Center survey, with the majority of that movement to the two ideological extremes coming in just the last decade.”
What’s even more remarkable than that rapid growth in partisanship is the fact that there has been almost no noticeable change in other major demographic categories on Pew’s values question. White/black, men/women, religious/not religious — no matter where you fall in these demographic categories the difference between how you and your opposite broadly conceptualize values has not changed markedly since Pew started polling on this in 1987.
Put simply: The country is growing rapidly more partisan even as our other traditional fault lines — race, gender, education — remain roughly the same size they have always been.
The Pew Research Center data points out that the great divide is not limited to the two major parties, but has infected independents as well.
Even when the definition of the party bases is extended to include these leaning independents, the values gap has doubled between 1987 and 2012,”according to a memo released by Pew describing the findings.
The full Washington Post story, also includes revealing graphics detailing just how far partisanship has moved since 1987, as well as the gap on major issues between Obama voters and Romney voters.
OKLAHOMA LANDS BOEING WHITE-COLLAR EXPANSION
Oklahoma City is where the relocated Seattle, Washington NBA franchise relocated — now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder. Looks like Oklahoma has stolen another treasured Washington state franchise: Boeing.
On Thursday, Boeing officials cut the ribbon on a new six-story building in OKC that will be home to 1,200 new white-collar jobs. In actuality, the jobs are moving mostly from Kansas and California.
The Oklahoman reports:
The company plans to expand its presence in Oklahoma City from 90
0 to 2,100 employees by the end of 2013.
Boeing announced in January that it plans to close its Wichita, Kan., facility, moving about 1,000 jobs to Oklahoma City. The company has moved about 400 of the 500 to 550 employees it plans to move from the West Coast, after moving its B-1 and C-130 programs from Long Beach, Calif., to Oklahoma City.
The jobs are mostly in engineering, but also in finance, site operations, logistics and technical publications.
Read more here.
THE VOUCHER SHIFT IN LOUISIANA
Reuters says starting this fall thousands of Louisiana students from middle class and poor families will begin taking classes under the new voucher system at 120 pre-screened private schools.
It's a move that will shift “tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children.”
“We are changing the way we deliver education,” said Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who muscled the plan through the legislature this spring over fierce objections from Democrats and teachers unions. “We are letting parents decide what's best for their children, not government.”
The concept of opening public schools to competition from the private sector has been widely promoted in recent years by well-funded education reform groups.
Of the plans so far put forward, Louisiana's plan is by far the broadest. This month, eligible families, including those with incomes nearing $60,000 a year, are submitting applications for vouchers to state-approved private schools.
The vouchers will cover the full cost of attending the private schools and the legislation has also established a mini-voucher system for students of any income.
The following year, students of any income will be eligible for mini-vouchers that they can use to pay a range of private-sector vendors for classes and apprenticeships not offered in traditional public schools. The money can go to industry trade groups, businesses, online schools and tutors, among others.
The Reuters post goes on to explain that some of the eligible voucher schools are the most prestigious in Louisiana and that “the teachers union, is weighing a lawsuit accusing the state of improperly diverting funds from public schools to private programs of questionable value.”
3 IS A MAGIC NUMBER
Three dollars. What's so magical about that amount?
There was an interesting story at Marketplace.org this week about how political campaigns and their operatives are constantly soliciting $3 from potential donors.
$3 will get you in a sweepstakes to sit at Sarah Jessica Parker's table at a Pres. Obama fundraiser. Or $3 could get you in a sweepstakes to join Donald Trump at a bash for Mitt Romney.
What's behind the magic of the power of 3? Read more here.