This is the point a lot of folks are wondering about in today’s otherwise good-looking numbers in the monthly jobs report: Population estimates for the household survey are developed by the U.S. Census Bureau. Each year, the Census Bureau updates the estimates to reflect new information and assumptions about the growth of the population during the decade. The change in population reflected in the new estimates results from the introduction of the Census 2010 count as the new population base, adjustments for net international migration, updated vital statistics and other information, and some methodological changes in the estimation process. The vast majority of the population change, however, is due to the change in base population from Census 2000 to Census 2010. Keep reading this post . . .
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Lost City
According to the Census Bureau, 96% of parents classified as poor said their children were never hungry.
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Warren Kozak: The Myth of Starving Americans
ARLINGTON, Va. (The Blaze/AP) — Thousands of grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery may need to be replaced or added to accurately account for the dead, following a meticulous Army review of each of the nearly 260,000 headstones and niche covers on the grounds. In a report to Congress on Thursday, the Army found potential discrepancies between headstones and cemetery paperwork on about 64,000 grave markers – about one in four. Congress ordered the review last year following reports of misidentified and misplaced graves that led to the ouster of the cemetery’s top executives. The report found no further evidence of misplaced graves, though it cautioned that its review is not complete and that some errors could have gone undetected. There are potentially thousands of minor errors, including misspelled names, or incorrect military ranks and dates of birth and death. The Army compared information on every headstone to its internal records, scouring handwritten logs of the dead from the Civil War and a hodgepodge of other records to verify accuracy. In an interview, the cemetery’s executive director, Kathryn Condon, said reviews are ongoing and it’s premature to try to estimate exactly how many headstones may need replacement. To be sure, many of the 64,000 discrepancies will turn up no problem with a headstone – it may be as simple as a typo on an internal record. And in many cases, the discrepancies are not errors at all but reflect past practices at the cemetery that are now considered outdated. One of the biggest surprises uncovered by the review was that in most of the early 20th century, the cemetery did not include the name of a wife on a headstone when she was buried next to her husband. Under current practices, the name of the spouse is etched onto the back of the headstone. Condon said the cemetery will correct that by adding the spouse’s name to the gravesite. She said it is not only the right thing to do but is also required by law. Accounting for the forgotten spouses alone will require thousands of corrections, officials said. In some cases, replacement headstones will be made. In cases where the headstones are considered historic, footstones will be added. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who was critical of the old management team and has been supportive of Condon’s reform efforts, said the cemetery “is now a turnaround story. After we uncovered chronic managerial failure and demanded comprehensive reforms from a new leadership team, I am pleased to receive this report that shows great progress and lays out a plan to finish the job.” But Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the report “raises more questions than it answers,” particularly with the ultimate disposition of those 64,000 discrepancies. He said that while Condon has worked hard to improve management at the cemetery, he is not convinced that the cemetery has fixed its data-management problems. Warner had asked a consortium of northern Virginia technology companies to help the cemetery get a data-management plan in place, and he wants further assurances that the Army took the help that was offered on a pro bono basis. The Army and a team of 70 analysts are undertaking painstaking reviews of every case where they find a potential discrepancy to ensure that records are made accurate. Those reviews are expected to be completed in the summer. The process began with a hand count, using simple mechanical clickers, of every gravesite – 259,978 to be exact. (More than 300,000 people are buried at Arlington, but some grave markers have two or more names.) Then, during the summer, members of the Army’s ceremonial Old Guard unit used iPhones to photograph the front and back of every headstone, so the information could be compared against internal records. Officials cited Christian Keiner, a Civil War veteran from New York who died in 1919, as a typical example. The headstone reflected only his name, but internal records showed that his wife, Caroline Keiner, had also been buried there in 1915. In addition, the internal records spelled Caroline Keiner’s name as “Kiner.” Officials reviewed handwritten Census records from 1900 and Civil war-era military and pension records to confirm that “Keiner” was indeed the correct spelling. The Keiners’ great-granddaughter, 52-year-old Cee Cee Molineaux of Annapolis, Md., was shocked to learn the story of her ancestors Thursday when reached by phone by The Associated Press. She had only passing knowledge of her great-grandparents, and no idea her great-grandfather served in the Civil War. She was gratified that the cemetery is making efforts to commemorate the resting place of her great-grandmother. “It’s absolutely meaningful to me – not just because she’s an ancestor but just for women in general. To not have their final resting place acknowledged is kind of sad,” said Molineaux, who now works for the American Red Cross. John Schrader, co-chair of the Gravesite Accountability Task Force, said recordkeeping methods varied widely over the cemetery’s 147-year history, from handwritten logs to index cards, to typewritten forms and two different computer databases. That sometimes compounded problems, as transcription errors were common. To avoid those problems, all of the old records have been scanned and digitized, rather than transcribed, to avoid introducing further errors, he said. The sheer size of the cemetery also made the task difficult. It is the second-largest cemetery in the country as well as a tourist site that draws more than 4 million visitors a year, all while conducting nearly 30 burials a day, some with full military honors. The most significant part of the review, Condon said, is that the cemetery for the first time has a single, reliable database that will allow officials to fix past mistakes and plan for the future. The cemetery is currently testing an interactive, web-based version of its database that will allow visitors to click on a digital map to see gravesites and learn who is buried there, ensuring the cemetery’s records are open and accessible going forward. “We’ll have 300 million American fact-checkers,” Schrader said.
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Army Report: Up to 64,000 Graves at Arlington Misidentified or Misplaced
Hmmmm. “Operation Vote.” That’s the new name of a Chicago-run voter recruitment drive launched this weekend by Team Obama to target minorities and shore up his left flank. As usual, everything old is new again… Photoshop credit: Leo Alberti Via the Washington Post: President Obama’s campaign is developing an aggressive new program to expand support from ethnic minority groups and other traditional Democratic voters as his team studies an increasingly narrow path to victory in next year’s reelection effort. The program, called “Operation Vote,” underscores how the tide has turned for Obama, whose 2008 brand was built on calls to unite “red and blue America.” Then, he presented himself as a politician who could transcend traditional partisan divisions, and many white centrists were drawn to the coalition that helped elect the country’s first black president. Today, the political realities of a sputtering economy, a more polarized Washington and fast-sinking presidential job approval ratings, particularly among white independents, are forcing the Obama campaign to adjust its tactics. Operation Vote will function as a large, centralized department in the Chicago campaign office for reaching ethnic, religious and other voter groups. It will coordinate recruitment of an ethnic volunteer base and push out targeted messages online and through the media to groups such as blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women, seniors, young people, gays and Asian Americans. Just a few weeks ago, “Operation Vote” was “Project Vote.” And the last time Obama fronted a massive campaign machine coordinating minorities and tied into the Chicago/ACORN social justice machinery it went by the name… “Project Vote.” Obama denied aaaaanything having to do with ACORN and on his campaign’s “Fight the Smears” snitch watch site , he flatly denied any connection between Project Vote and the fraud-plagued ACORN: • Fact: Barack was never an ACORN community organizer. • Fact: ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee. • Fact: ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992. The truth? Well, Project Vote whistleblower Anita MonCrief (now at Emerging Corruption ) has been exposing the racket for years. As the “new” “Operation Vote” gets underway, it’s worth reminding the electorate how the old Project Vote skirted campaign finance, disclosure, and tax laws in its single-minded bid to lock up minority voters. If you weren’t paying attention back then, pay attention now. *** Flashback May 2009: (Photo source: 2008 ACORN slideshow presentation) They thought it would go away. They were wrong. Obama and the Left thought ACORN’s scandalous racket was a dead issue. But whistleblowers, investigative bloggers, and talk radio continue to press for transparency and taxpayer accountability. Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King has renewed efforts for congressional hearings into the financial structure of the massive, publicly subsidized activist group and its non-profit affiliates. Judicial Watch sheds light on ACORN’s partnership with the Census. Keep an eye on ACORN’s propaganda role in the Obama push for a government health care takeover. And Glenn Beck spotlights the left-wing strategy session to rescue ACORN. My column today returns to one of the Obama campaign’s big lies — that Barack Obama “never organized with ACORN” and that ACORN had nothing to do with Project Vote. They were joined at the hip back then and they remain joined at the hip today. Here’s the text of e-mails from ACORN and affiliate staffers patting themselves on the back for their role in Obama’s voter registration drive (click here for the original). Note the addressees, including Frances Piven. Yes, that Frances Piven : From: Kevin Whelan [specialprojects@citizensservices.org] Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 10:54 PM To: mslater@igc.org; ‘Sanford Newman’; poldirect@acorn.org; ‘Frances Piven’; lcm25@columbia.edu Cc: ‘Sarah Massey’; nhendersonjames@projectvote.org; kgillette@projectvote.org; ‘Michael McDunnah’ Subject: RE: Obama’s Voter-registration Drive Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Red This is great! Good work everyone! Kevin ——————————————————————————– From: Michael Slater [mailto:mslater@igc.org] Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 8:39 PM To: ‘Sanford Newman’; poldirect@acorn.org; ‘Kevin Whelan’; ‘Frances Piven’; lcm25@columbia.edu Cc: ‘Sarah Massey’; nhendersonjames@projectvote.org; kgillette@projectvote.org; ‘Michael McDunnah’ Subject: Obama’s Voter-registration Drive Importance: High Some fine quotes from liberal lawyer Sandy Newman and academic and activist Francis Fox Piven: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080901/hayes Find it on news stands now. It’s the coordinated corruption , stupid. And if the GOP doesn’t start fighting back, the consequences will be permanent . *** The truth about ObamACORN by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2009 Left-wing groups in Washington, D.C., are panicked. The New York Times and other Team Obama whitewashers have tried hard to suppress mounting evidence of legally suspect coordination between the Obama presidential campaign, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and Obama’s old employer Project Vote (ACORN’s non-profit canvassing arm). Alas, the truth keeps seeping out. At a closed-door pow-wow hosted Thursday at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, activists discussed how to combat a relentless stream of corruption charges from ACORN/Project Vote whistleblowers. But it’s too late for a reputation bailout. Former Project Vote official and whistleblower Anita MonCrief has harnessed the Internet to crowd-source a massive cache of documents showing ties between Obama staff and the supposedly “non-partisan” ACORN operations. Last fall, the New York Times abandoned an investigation into whether Obama had shared donor lists with Project Vote, a 501(c)(3) organization that is prohibited from engaging in political activity. Public editor Clark Hoyt earlier this month called it “the tip that didn’t pan out.” Critics suggested that the donor lists could have been compiled through public records. But I have obtained the lists — not only of Obama donors, but also lists of Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry contributors. The records [view them here ] include small donors to the Obama campaign who are not disclosed in public campaign finance databases. It’s information only a campaign could supply. MonCrief testified under oath last fall that her then-boss, Karyn Gillette, gave her the Obama donor list and told her the campaign had furnished it. Moreover, e-mail between ACORN, Project Vote, and other affiliates, including ACORN’s subsidiary, Citizens Services, Inc. (CSI), make explicit references to working on “Obama campaign related projects.” [Click here for the e-mail.] The “list of maxed out Obama donors” is explicitly mentioned in staff e-mail. [Click here for the e-mail.] Another message from ACORN/Project Vote official Nathan Henderson-James warns ACORN and affiliated staff to prepare for “conservatives…gearing up a major oppo research project on Obama.” Henderson-James wrote obligatorily, “Understand I’m not suggesting that we gear up to defend a candidate’s campaign.” But that, of course, is exactly what the ACORN enterprise did. Text of full e-mail [click here for original]: From: Nathan Henderson-James [sworddirect@citizensservices.org] Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 5:09 PM To: ‘Zach Polett’; ‘mslater@igc.org’; Kevin Whelan (specialprojects@citizensservices.org) Cc: Karyn Gillette; ‘communications@acorn.org’; Nordette Adams Subject: Oppo Research On Obama Folks, The attached link goes to a story on TPM Muckraker that says that conservatives are gearing up a major oppo research project on Obama. We should prepare for this information being used to tie Obama to the bogus voter fraud charges leveled against PV and ACORN from the last two election cycles. It may or may not gain traction, it may or may not be chosen as a way of attacking him, but I think we cannot afford to ignore the possibility and plan what our response(s) might be (if any). Understand I’m not suggesting that we gear up to defend a candidateís campaign, but prepare for the scrutiny and possible ancillary attacks that will come our way because of this. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/tabula_rasa.php Nathan —– Nathan Henderson-James Director, Strategic Writing and Research Department Citizens’ Services, Inc. 3655 S. Grand Ave #250 Los Angeles, CA 90007 213-747-7202 phone, 213-747-4221 fax, 510-213-1970 cell sworddirect@citzensservices.org www.citizensservices.org Why does this matter? Transparency, tax dollars, and electoral integrity. ACORN’s own lawyer, Elizabeth Kingsley, acknowledged last year that a vast web of tax-exempt ACORN affiliates were shuffling money around – making it difficult to impossible to track whether campaign rules and tax regulations were being followed. ACORN receives 40 percent of its revenues from taxpayers. Americans deserve to know whether and how much commingling of public money with political projects has occurred over the last four decades – and what role the Obama campaign played in this enterprise. Remember: Last August, the Obama team admitted its failure to properly disclose $800,000 in payments to ACORN’s subsidiary, CSI – which works hand-in-hand with Project Vote and the ACORN parent organization. Obama mysteriously re-classified the campaign advance work expenditures as “get-out-the-vote” activities. Nary a peep from electoral integrity watchdogs. Despite heated denials from Team Obama, the links between ACORN, Project Vote, and CSI are inextricable. As Obama himself reminded ACORN leaders after its political action committee endorsed his presidential candidacy in February 2008: I come out of a grassroots organizing background. That’s what I did for three and half years before I went to law school. That’s the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize. So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it. I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work. As I’ve reported before, the Obama campaign’s “Vote for Change” registration drive, running in conjunction with ACORN/Project Vote, was an all-out scramble to scrape up every last unregistered voter sympathetic to Obama’s big-government vision. In an e-mail message to whistleblower MonCrief last summer, New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom told the truth: “The real story to all this is how these myriad entities allow them to shuffle money around so much that no one really knows what’s getting spent on what.” By October 6, 2008, Strom had thrown in the towel in the wake of blistering phone conversations with the Obama campaign. She wrote: “I’m calling a halt to my efforts. I just had two unpleasant calls with the Obama campaign, wherein the spokesman was screaming and yelling and cursing me, calling me a rightwing nut and a conspiracy theorist and everything else…I’d still like to get that file from you when you have a chance to send it. One of these days, the truth is going to come out.” It’s only just begun. *** Yesterday, I posted a few of the e-mails between NYTimes Stephanie Strom and ACORN/Project Vote whistleblower Anita MonCrief. You can download the entire series of message by clicking here . Mike Gaynor has transcriptions of several of the message here , including: 1. “I’m a little miffed with the funders, too. They have to be aware that the grants they make to c(3)s like Project Vote are being funneled to Acorn, which, whether c(4) or simply nonprofit corporation under state law, they aren’t supposed to give money to. ” July 10, 2008 8:18:52 PM 2. “I really want to see 1024 Elysian Fields in New Orleans. It’s the official ‘home’ of something like 50-plus Acorn related entities. The real story to all this is how these myriad entities allow them to shuffle money around so much that no one really knows what’s getting spent on what — and for the charities like the housing orgs, that’s a problem. Charitable money cannot be spent on political activities. It’s a big no-no that can cost organizations their exemptions. July 31, 2008 5:17:49 “When you say the DC Local waives the credit report charges if clients sign up for bank drafts with ACORN, do you mean ACORN actually runs a banking services organization? That would be news to me. The rumor I’ve heard about the chief organizer’s fund is that this is what the Rathkes have used to ‘repay’ Acorn and the two charities that Dale embezzled from. It’s a huge slush bucket controlled by Wade and Maude Hurd, no one else.” July 31, 2008 5:17:49 PM 3. “You are a gold mine! = ).” July 31, 2008 6:06:26 PM 4. “Thanks so much for this. I’m getting a clear picture of what went down last week with the fund raising letter and their scramble to get money somewhere, anyway, in response to my questions. Why not just say they’re having trouble? So are lots of nonprofit groups right now, even those that arent connected to a scandal of any sort. Sometimes the cover up is worse than what’s being covered up.” August 3, 2008 11:51:15 AM 5. “I’m a bit worried about reaching out to Amy if she’s in the process of rejoining Acorn. Doesn’t that mean she’s drunkt the Koolaid?” August 4, 2008 1:40:52 6. “I don’t need to ‘out’ the member who was intimidated. I basically just need her to confirm what I’ve been told. I can then recount the incident as if I know it to be fact.” September 4, 2008 8:59:59 PM 7. “Am also onto the Obama connection, sadly. Would love the donor lists. As for helping the Repubs, they’re already onto this like white on rice. SIGH.” September 7, 2008 1:59 PM 8.”Separately, I’m wondering whether you can give me any more details about the Nov. 2007 meeting with the Obama camp. Where did it take place? Who was involved? Any details would help.” September 12, 2008 3:57 PM 9. “You’re the best. If we could get the names of two or three people who were either sacked or forced out on suspicion of having passed information to me, that would clearly demonstrate the lie. “What a mess.” September 13, 2008 9:43 AM
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A new Chicago-based minority voter outreach program: What could go wrong?
Mark Krikorian’s Center for Immigration Studies unveils a new report that is almost tailor-made for a debate question tonight: A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies examines job growth in Texas. Gov. Rick Perry has pointed to increased employment in Texas during the current economic downturn as one of his main accomplishments. Analysis of the Current Population Survey (CPS) collected by the Census Bureau shows immigrants (legal and illegal) have been the primary beneficiaries of this growth since 2007, and not native-born workers. This is true even though the native-born accounted for the vast majority of growth in the working-age population (age 16 to 65) in Texas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, American women have passed men in gaining advanced college degrees as well as bachelor’s degrees, part of a trend that is helping redefine who goes off to work and who stays home with the kids. Census figures released Tuesday highlight the latest education milestone for women, who began to exceed men in college enrollment in the early 1980s. The findings come amid record shares of women in the workplace and a steady decline in stay-at-home mothers. The educational gains for women are giving them greater access to a wider range of jobs, contributing to a shift of traditional gender roles at home and work. Based on one demographer’s estimate, the number of stay-at-home dads who are the primary caregivers for their children reached nearly 2 million last year, or one in 15 fathers. The official census tally was 154,000, based on a narrower definition that excludes those working part-time or looking for jobs. “The gaps we’re seeing in bachelor’s and advanced degrees mean that women will be better protected against the next recession,” said Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan-Flint who is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “Men now might be the ones more likely to be staying home, doing the more traditional child rearing,” he said. Among adults 25 and older, 10.6 million U.S. women have master’s degrees or higher, compared to 10.5 million men. Measured by shares, about 10.2 percent of women have advanced degrees compared to 10.9 percent of men – a gap steadily narrowing in recent years. Women still trail men in professional subcategories such as business, science and engineering. When it comes to finishing college, roughly 20.1 million women have bachelor’s degrees, compared to nearly 18.7 million men – a gap of more than 1.4 million that has remained steady in recent years. Women first passed men in bachelor’s degrees in 1996. Some researchers including Perry have dubbed the current economic slump a “man-cession” because of the huge job losses in the male-dominated construction and manufacturing industries, which require less schooling. Measured by pay, women with full-time jobs now make 78.2 percent of what men earn, up from about 64 percent in 2000. Unemployment for men currently stands at 9.3 percent compared to 8.3 percent for women, who now make up half of the U.S. work force. The number of stay-at-home moms, meanwhile, dropped last year for a fourth year in a row to 5 million, or roughly one in four married-couple households. That’s down from nearly half of such households in 1969. By the census’ admittedly outmoded measure, the number of stay-at-home dads has remained largely flat in recent years, making up less than 1 percent of married-couple households. Whatever the exact numbers, Census Bureau researchers have detailed a connection between women’s educational attainment and declines in traditional stay-at-home parenting. For instance, they found that stay-at-home mothers today are more likely to be young, foreign-born Hispanics who lack college degrees than professional women who set aside careers for fulltime family life after giving birth. “We’re not saying the census definition of a `stay-at-home’ parent is what reflects families today. We’re simply tracking how many families fit that situation over time,” said Rose Kreider, a family demographer at the Census Bureau. She said in an interview that the bureau’s definition of a stay-at-home parent is based on a 1950s stereotype of a breadwinner-homemaker family that wasn’t necessarily predominant then and isn’t now. Beth Latshaw, an assistant professor of sociology at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., notes the figures are based on a narrow definition in which the wife must be in the labor force for the entire year and the husband be outside the official labor force for the specifically cited reason of “taking care of home and family.” Her own survey found that many fathers who had primary child-care responsibility at home while working part-time or pursuing a degree viewed themselves as stay-at-home fathers. When those factors are included as well as unmarried and single dads, the share of fathers who stay at home to raise children jumps from less than 1 percent to more than 6 percent. Put another way, roughly one of every five stay-at-home parents is a father. The remaining share of households without stay-at-home parents – the majority of U.S. families – are cases where both parents work full-time while their children attend school or day care or are watched by nannies or grandparents, or where fathers work full-time while the mothers work part-time and care for children part-time. “There’s still a pervasive belief that men can’t care for children as well as women can, reinforcing the father-as-breadwinner ideology,” said Latshaw, whose research is being published next month in the peer-reviewed journal “Fathering.” She is urging census to expand its definition to highlight the growing numbers, which she believes will encourage wider use of paternity leave and other family-friendly policies. The new “Mr. Moms” include Todd Krater, 38, of Lakemoor, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Krater has been a self-described stay-at-home dad for the past seven years to his three sons after his wife, who earned a master’s business degree, began to flourish in her career as a software specialist. Krater said he found it difficult adjusting at first and got little support from other mothers who treated him as an outcast at school functions. He eventually started writing a blog, “A Man Among Mommies,” to encourage other fathers to take a larger role in child care and says he now revels in seeing more dads at the park, library and school events. “What was once an uncommon sight of a dad with the kids during the day is becoming more and more prevalent,” said Krater, who is now studying part-time to become a registered nurse. “But many still feel the pressure of gender roles and feel if they don’t make money they are somehow less of a man.” The census numbers come from the government’s Current Population Survey as of March 2010. Among other findings: -Among adults 25 and older, women are more likely than men to have finished high school, 87.6 percent to 86.6 percent. -Broken down by race and ethnicity, 52 percent of Asian-Americans had at least a bachelor’s degree. That’s compared to 33 percent for non-Hispanic whites, 20 percent for blacks and 14 percent for Hispanics. -Thirty percent of foreign-born residents in the U.S. had less than a high school diploma, compared to 10 percent of U.S.-born residents and 19 percent of naturalized citizens. At the same time, the foreign-born population was just as likely as U.S.-born residents to have at least a bachelor’s degree, at roughly 30 percent. Jeremy Adam Smith, author of the 2009 book “The Daddy Shift: How Stay-at-Home Dads, Breadwinning Moms and Shared Parenting are Transforming the American Family,” described a cultural shift as women began to surpass men in college enrollment in the 1980s. The 1983 movie, “Mr. Mom,” openly broached the idea that out-of-work fathers can contribute to families as stay-at-home dads, allowing more men to be accepting of the role in subsequent recessions, he said. “Over the long term, the numbers are just going to keep going up,” Smith said.
