You, too, can take Rep. Morgan Griffith’s ridiculous survey!
I’ve had more response to the column about Rep. Morgan Griffith’s “issues survey” than any other so far this year. The funny thing is, I hadn’t actually seen a copy of the survey until Monday, when reader Les Reynolds of Martinsville scanned his, with his answers, and sent it to me as a PDF. Thanks again, Les.
Apparently, Griffith’s office is mailing these things out in waves, at different times, to different parts of Virginia’s 9th Congressional District. Which is kind of unfair, you know? Why should folks like Les Reynolds and Frank Munley and Michael Bentley and Susan Sweet get to have all the fun of responding? Shouldn’t the rest of us non-constituents get to have that fun, too?
Now you can.
As what you might call a public service, I cleaned up all the answers off Les Reynolds’ copy. Below the jump is a blank survey form that you can use. Simply right click on it, save it to your hard drive and print it out on your own printer.
It’s as convenient as getting your handgun competence certificate from the Concealed Carry Institute — except that it won’t cost you $39.95. And Griffith won’t have to burn any more taxpayer funds sending these ridiculous things out to his district. Don’t let not living in the 9th District stop you. That doesn’t matter. Note the text near the bottom: Names and addresses are optional! So pass this link around to your friends and relatives, liberally.
Fill it out and mail it to Griffith’s office at: Rep. Morgan Griffith, 1108 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515
Be creative and passionate with your answers. And don’t forget to share the best ones in the comments, below!
January 30, 2013 - 11:00 AM
No, Thanks….Already have. In fact, just got off of the phone with his DC office …requesting a time-frame for a town hall meeting. He needs a little time with his `bosses`…As they all do, and ARE going to get.
Oh, and also I just did a re-dial to Congressman Griffiths office and let his secretary know that a wave(albeit small) of garbage was coming their way. Maybe Morgan can drop them off at the Senate…they don`t seem to have anyting to do.
Imagine, ordinary citizens allowed their input on issues facing the country tdoay and a politician actually asking for that input. King Obama has a mandate. No need for anyone’s input there.
Dan,
Seems pretty inocuous to me. Do you or don’t you support ceratin issues. How else is he supposed to know what his constituents think? Ask the Amazing Kreskin?
I, too, have received similar survey from my state and federal elected representatives. Usually, the questions are worded in a very biased way. These questions seem bland and as unbiased as any policitian can ever be. (I know unbiased and politician are words that are mutually exclusive.)
JackJM, shame on you. Apparently you haven’t read my column on this subject!
Morgan Griffith is a Republican, hence Casey’s dislike of the survey.
Apparently Henry likes slanted, biased, badly worded surveys, as long as they’re by Repubs.
Seems to me that feedback from the folks he was elected to represent would be a good thing. It doesn’t really surprise me that the elitist left would be shocked at such a thing… they know what’s better for us.
Uhh, MikeB, this questionnaire is not going to give him honest feedback. Why is that so hard to understand?
gdad, perhaps you’d like to elaborate on why this won’t give him honest feedback. Don’t bother rehashing Mr. Casey’s “complexities” argument because it’s hogwash. It’s intended to give Mr. Griffith a feel for his constituency. He was elected and it’s his job to deal with the “complexities”.
MikeB, give it a rest.
The 9th Congressional District is chock full of social scientists who would have helped the congressman design fairly worded, nonloaded survey question. Griffith instead chose the silly ones on this survey, and he reviewed them personally. The only one that isn’t overtly loaded is the immigration question. The other 6 are.
What this suggests is, he doesn’t care what the true feelings of his constituents are. He merely wants validation for what he already believes. He’s acting like an ugly hag who demands her husband tell her she’s gorgeous (and bills the taxpayers for the answer).
Any half-thinking people who have reviewed this thing can see it for what it is. The fact that you can’t says a lot about you.
Well, well, touched a nerve have I Mr Casey? “Half-thinking” as in anybody that doesn’t agree your liberal viewpoint? Typical response from a liberal.
The fact is any questionaire will have it’s biases. As an example take a look at the loaded questions you propose. The fact remains, you can agree with Mr. Griffith’s questions OR disagree.
MikeB,
The questions I proposed were tongue-in-cheek, to expose the biases in Griffith’s questions. It’s very telling that you can spot the biases in mine but not in his. Methinks you’ve got your blinders on.
You’re wrong when you suggest it’s impossible for a questionnaire to not have it’s biases. But it takes some thought to eliminate them.
As if Griffith would listen to his “constituents” even if 95% of his “surveys” disagreed with him. He is a party man to the bone. He sure has some people fooled. Oddly enough they have no problem saying the same about us (“King Obama”) as they refuse to see themselves in that truth.
I prefer not spending thousands of dollars to employ an army of social scientists just to come up with a simple questionaire. Again, you’ve got the option to agree or disagree. I think that his constituents are adept enough to be able to discern the “complexities” of the issues.
Wow, MikeB, you didn’t even get that Dan’s replacement questions were tongue in cheek? At least that tells us all you need to know about your reading comprehension abilities.
“Don’t bother rehashing Mr. Casey’s “complexities” argument because it’s hogwash.”
I don’t totally agree with ALL of Dan’s complaints about the questionnaire but I will bother with the rehashing because he’s right. Question 5 in particular is completely and totally loaded. It’s little different than me asking if you’ve stopped beating your kids yet.
MikeB,
Are you in favor of a law that could result in your arrest if you didn’t stop beating your wife?
gdad, Mr. Casey,
Putting more restrictions on coal increases the cost of using coal and thus the cost of electricity produced from coal. That’s the purpose of putting restrictions in place…. to use less coal. If you have an argument to refute that, then please state it.
In the meantime if all you have to offer is irrelevant hyperoble, find another thread.
“gdad, Mr. Casey,
Putting more restrictions on coal increases the cost of using coal and thus the cost of electricity produced from coal. That’s the purpose of putting restrictions in place…. to use less coal. If you have an argument to refute that, then please state it.
In the meantime if all you have to offer is irrelevant hyperoble, find another thread.”
–Comment by MikeB
You’re right, MikeB. Environmental measures on mining coal and burning it for electricity tend to discourage the use of coal. However, there are other considerations afoot here, and you know that. And the problem with the way the survey question was phrased is that it ignored those.
For example, mountaintop mining pollutes waterways. Burning coal, without the proper safeguards, pollutes air, and that pollution kills people. And the acid rain that falls from those burnt-coal clouds kills the biodiversity of lakes, ponds and streams.
Moreover, environmental restricts are far from the ONLY thing that discourages burning coal for electricity. And you know that, too. Right now the cheap price of natural gas is causing a lot of electricity producers to switch from coal to gas. That is, gasp!, putting a lot of miners out of work.
Because the electric producers are not buying the coal, for economic reasons.
Here’s a survey question Griffith could have posed:
QUESTION: Do you favor environmental restrictions on fracking that would make natural gas a less economical alternative than coal for producing electricity, thereby keeping more miners working, but making the electric companies pay more, resulting in higher monthly electric bills for your home?
How do you think the residents of the 9th would have answered that loaded question, MikeB?
MikeB, the question is without question loaded and terribly worded if Griffith’d purpose is to get a real, unbiased reading of his constituency. That’s not hyperbole, it’s just plain fact.
But then I guess we shouldn’t expect you to see that when you couldn’t even tell that Dan’s replacement questions were tongue in cheek.
If you’re trying to make the point that the phrasing of a question influences the answer, I don’t think you’ll get much of an argument from anyone. Everyone agrees… so what’s your point?
The question is about adding more restrictions on coal which will raise prices on electricity produced from coal. Agree or Disagree. Simple enough… if your job depended on coal, which would you choose?
“If you’re trying to make the point that the phrasing of a question influences the answer, I don’t think you’ll get much of an argument from anyone. Everyone agrees… so what’s your point?”
–Comment by MikeB
That was the whole point of the column, MikeB — that most of the questions were so horribly skewed that they would only elicit the answers Griffith wanted to hear, rather than was was actually on his constituents’ minds.
In that sense, it was a waste of taxpayers’ money even to send the thing out.
It’s a simple questionaire to get feedback from his constituents! What do you want to see? If I answer ‘support’ to #5, then I’m saying that I’d like to see more regulation and less use of coal and don’t mind paying for it. If I answer ‘oppose’ to #5, I’ve had enough regulation and don’t want to pay for more. The question is about COAL! Not natural gas, not solar, not nuclear. Seems pretty useful to me.
“Do you support or oppose US military action that will get us bogged down in yet another pointless, endless, and expensive Mideast conflict that may or may not ever have an impact on whether Iran gets nukes or not?”
__ Support __ Oppose
“Do you support or oppose firearms restrictions that would keep another classroom full of 6 year olds from getting slaughtered at their desks?”
___ Support ___ Oppose
“Do you support or oppose drilling off the shore of Virginia that would turn our beaches into tar-sullied fields of smelly nastiness?”
___ Support ___Oppose
“Do you support or oppose the EPA’s efforts to keep your air breatheable and your water drinkable?”
___Support __Oppose
Let’s stick to facts Kristen, not opinion.
“Do you favor doing nothing while Iran obtains a nuclear device then passes this technology to terrorist groups who then infiltrate our country and detonate one in Times Square killing 15 million innocent men, women and children”?
___ Support ___ Oppose
“Do you support or oppose more firearm restrictions that only affect law abiding citizens and have no affect on keeping guns out the hands of criminals”?
___ Support ___ Oppose
“Do you support buying more oil from the middle east, increasing our dependence on foreign governments?
__ Support ___ Oppose
Do you support or oppose higher taxes on more unnecessary government regulation?
__ Support ___ Oppose
“Let’s stick to facts Kristen, not opinion.”
LOL
And MikeB…mine was better.
“Do you support buying more oil from the middle east, increasing our dependence on foreign governments?”
And why would even the biased persona ask this when in fact we ARE buying less from the ME and exporting more?
MikeB:
“do you support or oppose me taking $10 out of your wallet?” OPPOSE!!!
But what if I told you that $10 was going to result it long-term benefits in your electricity bill?? SUPPORT!!
The problem with Dan’s column (which, by the way Mr. Casey, I thought was fantastic) is that he used complex, intellectual humor (eg, sarcasm and hyperbole) to make a point and skipped a few steps along the way. Given your responses, and the continued attempts to explain the concept to you, he has thereby proven his point…that no amount of dicing it up into simpler pieces would have worked any better. Simple “support or oppose this thing which I know you already don’t like” isn’t going to gather any information. Each of those questions, like the one I posed above, is very complex.
What is “action” against Iran? How can I know if I support or oppose such a vague concept…aren’t we already taking “action”? Does he mean BOMBING? OMG I don’t know if we should BOMB them…so do I support, or oppose? I just don’t know!”
What other options exist than coal mining? Maybe I support this…if there are no other options…maybe I oppose…I just don’t know!
And so on. The problem with the right in the current state of affairs is they paint everything black and white. Do you or don’t you. Are you for or against. Almost NOTHING is that cut and dried. Everything is shades of grey. “up or down” doesn’t even begin to get at the complexities.
Corey,
Obviously comprehension isn’t one of your strongest qualities is it? The question is “Do you support military action”… seems pretty straight forward to me. The survey is to get his constituents feedback on general issues, it’s his job as their elected representative to make the final decision. Enough said….
Corey,
I apologize for the harsh words but I’m done with this thread. As the elected represetative, the “complexities” are Mr. Griffith’s job to deal with. The survey’s purpose is to give him feedback on general issues and the questions are specific enough to do that as I pointed out above.
MikeB,
The problem with question 6 isn’t that it’s not straightforward, it’s that it ignores the inherent contradiction with question 1. If the US ever adopted the kind of unqualified balanced-budget amendment described in question 1, it would never be able to afford to take any effective military action against Iran.
“Obviously comprehension isn’t one of your strongest qualities is it? ”
Good lord, did MikeB actually write that?
Dan, I’m fine with not having enough dough to fight Iran! A balanced budget would be nice too.
Im under 55 which means Im screwed for Social Security. Oh well….