Category Archives: Politics

Zeno has posted a nice, easy-to-understand primer on statistics and polling.

In today’s New York Times. (via Ed Cone)

If you go here and copy and paste the code into your blog, you will get something that looks like this:

Continue reading →

…and Chris is in great form again.

…does not automatically translate into Republican advantage:

Will the new GOP ad make you more or less likely to vote for Republicans?
Less likely 67%
More likely 33%
Total Votes: 82,879

The Hillary machine?
Instead, you can read a real interview here.

Only Diebold can save the Republicans from the voters’ anger in November.
The apparent optimism of Republicans bordering on cockiness makes me nervous – either they are totally delusional, or they are just playing the optimism game, or they know something we don’t.

As the mid-term elections are approaching and the new polls are coming out every day, you may want to refresh your poll-reading skills as well as your general statistics knowledge, plus send your not-as-well-informed readers to learn about it at Echidne’s place: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
When Part 5 (and beyond, if any), gets posted I will link it here in this post for future reference.
Update: Here is Part 5

Revere, Janet and Mike have updates on the dire situation of the Tripoli Six as well as excellent suggestions for what YOU can do about it. Please spread the word by blogging and e-mail.

…will not run for President in 2008.

I knew this was coming but was unable to get to the computer until right now. John Edwards posted a diary on DailyKos and answered the commenters’ questions. If I knew that this was going to be the format, I’d try harder to get on the computer earlier so you could get there in time to ask your own questions. Nevertheless, there are 758 comments on that thread so you’ll have whole night to read the questions, answers and comments there.

Eric is on vacation so jonnybutter is tending the house.

How many countries has NATO intervened in since it was founded?

Prince George and the return of the Sheriff of Nottingham
People are working harder, earning less, and the rich are raking it in. Where’s Robin Hood when we need him?
By Hal Crowther

There was a time when no one could be elected president of the United States without representing himself as the nemesis of Wall Street and Park Avenue, the champion of the dispossessed and downtrodden. A century ago, this was no perfunctory nod to the bleacher seats. On Labor Day 1906, House Speaker Joe Cannon rallied his Republican troops with a speech praising President Theodore Roosevelt: “He is honest and fearless, and able, and stands for the people every time.” At his highest populist pitch, one that rings positively Marxist to our 21st-century ears, Roosevelt sounds like a Robin Hood himself.
“There is not in the world a more ignoble character,” Teddy Roosevelt sermonized, “than the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses–whether these uses be to speculate in stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoundrel of high social position, foreign or native, for his daughter.”
——————-snip—————
But I don’t know how people think anymore. Another friend, who polls focus groups for political candidates, turned up a college student who will vote Republican because “Republicans are for winners, Democrats are for losers, and I don’t want to be a loser.”

…is hard at work.

Seven women are to be stoned to death for “crimes against chastity”. Amnesty International is asking for your help. Read about it here. Sign a petition (or submit your own letter) here. If we do not act fast, this is what will happen:

Under Shari’a law, a prisoner is buried up to her breast, her hands restrained. Rules also specify the size of the stones which can be thrown so that death is painful and not imminent. Both men and women can be sentenced to die by stoning. In practise, however, an overwhelming number of women receive that penalty.

Death penalty is always bad, but this method is absolutely horrifying. You can comment over on Lindsay’s blog.

…on the suspension of habeas corpus. A Must Read.
…and on a lighter note….

Sorry, no Friday Weird Sex Blogging today – as I am feeling quite impotent today, now that I know that I cannot see my lawyer if they come at night and take me away, and neither Congress nor Court has any say about it.

Here is another example of a person who has experienced dictatorship first hand and has decided that last night was the breaking point.
I am not the only one.
Hat-tip: Dr.B

Thanks to Avedon, Mike, Mike, Melissa, Lindsay, Zuzu, John, John, Ekzept, Caitlin and a miniscule rightwing blog that called it “Left Wing Hysteria”, for linking to my morning post (and whoever put it on Redditt). They have more links and comments. Also check what their commenters say. Stay informed.
Update: More Good Links:
Sen.John Edwards
HillWilliam
Start The Revolution
Greenbelt
Bee Policy
Expert Opinion
Crooked Timber
Obsidian Wings
Obsidian Wings
Obsidian Wings
Unqualified Offerings
Unqualified Offerings
Unqualified Offerings
John Scalzi
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald
Shakespeare’s Sister
Shakespeare’s Sister
Charles P. Pierce
Scott Lemieux
Scott Lemieux
Tom Hilton
Paul The Spud
Paul The Spud
Paul The Spud
Paul The Spud
The Vanity Press
Mahablog
Mahablog
Mahablog
Prison Planet
eAlchemy
Brad DeLong
The Poorman
Chris Clarke
Pandagon
Amygdala
Amygdala

Many of my friends and neighbors don’t want to talk about politics because it is boring and “same-old-same-old”.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors don’t follow the news or care to vote because “all of them are the same”.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors enjoy life every day, as if it will always be peace and prosperity.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors have no clue that today USA ceased to be a democracy. They do not realize that Congress and Courts do not have any power to stop Bush from doing whatever he wants. He never cared what they said before and did it anyway. But starting today, it became legal.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors believe that “it cannot happen here”. They do not understand that evangelical-chosen candidates will, by whatever means neccessary, win all the primaries and elections in the future. They have no intention of losing ever. If, by some fluke, they lose an election, they have no intention of conceding. They have tasted the power and they are not letting go. Elections are just kabuki now.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors are beautifully naive about the “innate goodness of the American people”.
Connect this and this.
Many of my friends and neighbors don’t believe that even they may end up in prison with no recourse to justice.
Who decides?
Many of my friends and neighbors have not experienced, like I did in Yugoslavia of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the gradual transformation from a nice, sweet, proseprous, freedom-loving country into a bunch of thugs duking it out over land and religion. Tito was dead for ten years. Prime Minister was Ante Markovic. Thousands of small businesses were starting up every week. Small people were getting rich. There was ebullience in the air.
Then, in a manner eerily reminiscent of BuchCo, thugs like Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic hijacked the government and started a civil war, ending with a break up of one big strong country into six small, economically weak and dependent units.
But that was a small country. Who is going to stop the USA? If you leave for Australia, Europe or Canada, you will just feel the effects a litle later than if you stay.
Glenn is optimistic.
He may be right, if we act right now. If not, within three years, I predict that Americans will be fighting Americans on American soil. Just a hunch. An eerie feeling of deja vu from someone who has seen the same signs fifteen years ago.
Update:
– There are more good links here and here.
– Somebody (not me) put this post on Digg, with more than 100 comments there already. This post is not correctly clasified as ‘news’. Of course, it was imediately tagged as “possibly innacurate”.
– This is not a kind of article that can be accurate or not, it is not a news release – it is a higly personal blog post. Of course I am biased and highly opinionated – it is my blog! I am quite known for making catchy titles. And of course, many Digg readers tend to have ADHD so it is not surprising that some comments reveal that the person has not even read my post let alone the MAIN point of the post which are the links. This post is a vehicle for those links. Read every word in every link before commenting, please. This is a blog for serious readers, not skimmers. And AOL is my public e-mail for the blog – I am not giving you my real addresses, of course.
– This post is not defeatist. If it was not clear from the sentence that mentions Canada etc., I am not going anywhere. I did not go through all the trouble of coming here and becoming a citizen just to leave again. I am staying and fighting to the end.
Update: Also, if you always wanted to do so, but kept forgetting, right now would be a great time to hit my paypal (or amazon) button – thanks…

Target: Leftist Groups:

In addition to the nebulous definition of “enemy combatant,” so too is the definition of “leftist group” entirely vague. Does a blog community qualify as a leftist group? Are only groups that have the means and intent to organize going to be targets of scrutiny? Does organizing a peace protest qualify? Is wielding a “leftist” idea going to be considered as hostile to the United States as wielding a weapon?

Scientists Fight Back! Announcing Scientists and Engineers for America:

Concerned about the ideological and partisan manipulation of science, compromising of scientific integrity and harassment of scientists by the Bush Administration and Congress, leaders in the scientific and engineering communities announced the launch of a new organization on Wednesday, September 27th. The group, called Scientists and Engineers for America, is a 527 political organization that will focus on the need to address the current state of science policy by electing new political leadership.

Read the whole thing…