Problem with the Straw Polls (with poll)
Thu Jun 28, 2007 at 07:36:50 AM PDT
No, this is not another "why don't you include Gore?" comment. I was just looking at the straw poll results this morning and realized that they didn't seem to add up. Sure enough, if you add all of the percentages together, you only get 94. Not only that, but a quick analysis in Excel showed that was the case for every poll- heck, January only added up to 91%.
Were candidates being shorted on their vote totals?
Mary Tillman describes Army cover up to Olbermann (and Dan Patrick)
Tue Mar 27, 2007 at 01:05:40 PM PDT
Pat Tillman's mom Mary was on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio today (with Keith Olbermann) from about 2:30 to 2:45. She was discussing what she believes was an Army cover up of the circumstances surrounding Pat's death. After the interview, Dan and Keith discussed it up to the 3:00 hour (when Keith goes off and the Atlanta station switches to local programming). Both were clearly moved and disturbed by her story and I would be stunned if Keith doesn't spend significant time on his show tonight on this story. I don't have any direct quotes (I was driving), but their general conclusion at the end was that Pat Tillman was the Army's "recruiting poster" and they didn't want the truth of the friendly-fire incident to come out right away. Dan added "once a cover up starts it can't stop".
YO! Blair to resign within a year
Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 08:16:21 AM PDT
The coalition of the willing loses another member
http://www.cnn.com/...
Blair's popularity has been sapped by disagreements within his party over domestic reforms, and, most recently, what some Labour MPs criticized as a hands-off approach during the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
But the overriding issue has been his steadfast support for the war in Iraq and his close association with U.S. President George W. Bush, both of which are unpopular among the British public in general and his own party in particular.
"The biggest single thing that has undermined Tony Blair's credibility with the general public has been Iraq," said pollster Peter Kellner. "(His) close relationship with George Bush is undoubtedly costing him support in Britain."
Marriage under attack again! Activist Judges! (UPDATED)
Fri Jun 16, 2006 at 06:03:17 AM PDT
You hear them say it over and over again: "Marriage is between a man and a woman". That all you got? For starters, let's make a real definition of who should get married-
Marriage should be between two people who love each other and want to be together for the rest of their lives*
*(and who are of legal age, not related, and not currently married to anybody else)
Sheesh, liberals are wordy. Funny thing when the conservatives try to do it though- they never include the word "love". I actually want to focus on the last part- the legalese that neither side puts into their arguments because it's generally assumed and understood. OH NO! A court decision yesterday in that heathen state of Colorado could change this whole thing.
Details about the FCC Olympics complaints
Wed Dec 22, 2004 at 07:17:11 AM PDT
Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes does a fantastic job this morning with her story on the complaints received by the FCC about the Olympics ceremonies on NBC (
Opening Ceremony: The IX Olympic Gripes). Wondering what people would have found to complain about? Apparently the latest assault on American culture is...Greek Culture. De Moraes, who can rival Bill in Portland Maine for snark quality, describes the source of their consternation:
Of COURSE Bush can't handle criticism
Thu Oct 14, 2004 at 11:08:17 AM PDT
We all know Bubble Boy has problems dealing with tough questions when he has to venture away from his staff of yes-men and the adoring, pre-screened crowds. But I didn't realize just how easy it would be to rattle him with the most basic criticisms, nor how easy it would be to tell when he was receiving probing analysis of a subject for the first time. Will I share the insight of Dan Froomkin in this diary? Of course!
My idea for the War on Terror(ism)
Thu Sep 30, 2004 at 12:10:24 PM PDT
According to recent news stories,
we face a big difficulty finding enough Arabic translators for the volumes of intel that we're bringing in. Of course, it would be nice if we would stop firing military translators just for being gay. But it would also be nice if our government would stop treating Arab-Americans as assumed criminals.
Anyway, here's my idea: recruit the Arab-American community for people willing to translate low-priority intercepts (the kind which are piling up). Break up the audio into short mp3 files. Then mail them in CDs to the translators at home, who would then email the translations back. It could be part-time work for stay-at-home moms or whoever, and paid on a per-disk basis. Accuracy could be cross-checked by having multiple people translate the same files, or by adding test files of known sentances being spoken.
This idea could also be used to provide jobs to Iraqis. Obviously it would have to be secret, as anybody found to be helping us could face death. But any Iraqi who speaks English and has a computer could be a big help, and it would help to reduce the terrible unemployment rate.
George W. Bush BINGO!
Thu Sep 02, 2004 at 01:15:40 PM PDT
Want to make listening to President Bush less of a brain-killing nightmare? Well aside from drinking games, there's not much you can do...until now!
I created a little perl program that generates bingo sheets using a list of image files. The sheets aren't nearly as detailed as fark flamewar bingo, but it has the advantage of multiple sheets available.
Here is the link for George W. Bush Bingo; additional sheets are linked from that page. More details after the jump...
John Kerry attacked for telling the truth
Mon Aug 30, 2004 at 02:32:41 PM PDT
The "Swift Boat Vets" say they're mad at Kerry for speaking out against the war. This is despite the fact that
everything he said was true. Check out TNR today on
the Winter Soldier Investigation.
To suggest that John Kerry lied in describing American atrocities when he returned home from Vietnam, a number of conservative commentators have noted that he relied on the testimony of the Winter Soldier Investigation, a meeting of antiwar vets that took place in 1971. Last week, National Review editor Rich Lowry described the investigation as a "since-discredited project that gathered first-person accounts of alleged atrocities from American vets."
--snip--
The problem with this line of analysis is that the Winter Soldier Investigation was never discredited. A handful of individual stories may have been called into question, but the main thrust of the soldiers' testimonies--that American atrocities were widespread in Vietnam--is today beyond dispute. Indeed the emergence of new evidence during the last 30 years has only solidified the winter soldiers' overall case.
So they've gone from hating Bill Clinton for lies to hating John Kerry for telling the truth. More after the jump...
More from Grant Wahl on the Iraqi Soccer Team
Tue Aug 24, 2004 at 02:14:55 PM PDT
You probably remember the
story last week where the Iraqi soccer team expressed anger at Our Fearless Misleader for using them in his campaign ads and speeches.
Well it seems some member of the CPA accused him of making up the stories. Wahl, who is one of the best soccer writers I've ever read and a good all-around journalist, got a little ticked: Wahl: Setting the Record Straight
Clark's statement, which was passed along by Eberly, was this: "It seems the story was engineered."
I don't know about you, but I take "engineered" to mean anything from "not on the level" (at best) to "fabricated" (at worst). Curious about Mark Clark's definition of the word, I called him on Monday.
Clark told me two interesting things: 1) When he commented on the SI.com story to Reuters he hadn't yet read it, and 2) he "didn't recall" using the word "engineered" in the Reuters interview. When I asked Reuters reporter Alastair Himmer, who quoted Clark, Himmer said, "He [Clark] told me straight up, mate. I'm not in the business of making up quotes."
We all know how the Republicans will malign anybody who says something they don't like. But Wahl isn't taking it, and the article is a pretty good (if polite) smackdown.
Kerry to be on The Daily Show
Tue Aug 24, 2004 at 10:58:43 AM PDT
Seriously: Kerry on Comedy Central
The Washington Post's excellent Lisa de Moraes covers sets it up with an interview with TDS executive producer Ben Karlin :
"All of us [on 'The Daily Show'] are just blown away by the turn the campaign has taken," Karlin said. "We cannot believe that this is what is being talked about at this juncture. It's so astounding to us. We are trying to work through our amazement and to conduct a meaningful conversation absent of incredulity, because [the interview] is not going to go anywhere if you just say, 'What the [expletive] is going on?' "
Karlin said he will nonetheless suggest that that be the first question Stewart puts to Kerry tonight.
"If you just want to pinpoint the success of the Republican Party and Bush, this is a perfect case study," Karlin continued, "because George W. Bush has put a moratorium on talk about his behavior under the age of 40 and everyone [in the press] is abiding by it. 'Were you or were you not an alcoholic or did you just have a drinking problem?,' 'Were you or were you not a drug abuser?' Meanwhile they're debating whether [Kerry's war] wounds drew blood or were they superficial, or occurred in the same day, or whether he shot a guy wearing a toga. . . . How is that possible?"
Or, as the Kerry campaign spokesman says in the article:
"Jon Stewart understands perfectly all the important issues facing this country right now,"
I think that sums it up pretty well. What are y'all hoping to see from the show tonight?
SI: Iraqi Soccer Team Rejects Bush
Thu Aug 19, 2004 at 10:51:02 AM PDT
Grant Wahl's column today:
"Unwilling Participants"
"Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," [Iraqi midfielder Salih] Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. "He can find another way to advertise himself."
--snip--
To a man, members of the Iraqi Olympic delegation say they are glad that former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein, who was responsible for the serial torture of Iraqi athletes and was killed four months after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, is no longer in power.
But they also find it offensive that Bush is using their team for his own gain when they do not support his administration's actions in Iraq. "My problems are not with the American people," says Iraqi soccer coach Adnan Hamad. "They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"
This comes as a result of Bush campaign ads and stump speeches taking credit for their success. I can hear the radio and Fox News now: "Wow, talk about ungrateful!" Just shows how badly they don't get it.
Admiral Stansfield Turner- Live Online
Wed Aug 11, 2004 at 08:49:27 AM PDT
The Washington Post's Live Online has a discussion this morning about the appointment of Porter Goss to be CIA director with somebody who should know-
former CIA director Stansfield Turner. He makes it very clear in his first paragraph what he thinks of the idea:
This is Stansfield Turner. Let me lay out my basic thoughts on the nomination of Porter Goss to be Diecdtor of Central Intelligence:
- This is an irresponsile lact on the part of the President because it is motivated by partisan politcal, electoral purposes. We cannot afford to play partisan poliotics with our intelligence apparatus.
- Porter Goss has many qualifactions for being DCI. n He has one overriding disqualification. That is that he is a very partisan, political person. We must keep politics and intelligence enirely separate.
- This administration has already jeopardized the public's view of the credibility of our intelligence by its misues of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We cannot afford to make the public even more skeptical of the reliability of our intelligence by having a political figure as its head.
- This is a terrible time to nominate anyone to be DCI. By gthe time Goss is confirfmed, if he is, it will be mid-September, six weeks before the election. No one at the CIA will take the new director seriously until after the election, but John McLaughlin will no longer e in charge. No one will. If Kerry is elected he almost certainly would replace Goss, confusing the situation even more. We should leave McLaughlin there until after the election.
The interview isn't over yet (as I'm typing this), so there's still a chance to submit a question if you like. A couple of posters have been hammering the Admiral for speaking up (how typical). Anyway, he brings up lots of reasons why A) this shouldn't be done now and B) it shouldn't be Porter Goss.
