The Foundry: In Pictures: Bush Vs. Obama On Gas Prices
New Zeal: Is There a Frighteningly Simple Explanation For This?
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Breaking News at The PJ Tatler:
Iranian Official Admits Aiding Hezbollah, Says All Middle East Oil Will Be Cut Off To the West
Sepah News (the house organ of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard) reports:
On Wednesday, March 2nd, Commander of the Basij organization, Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi spoke at a conference of specialist working groups of Basiji corps of engineers. “Seventy percent of the world’s fossil fuel reserve is under the feet of the soldiers of the Supreme Leadership and soon oil and gas fields belonging to Muslims, which is now in the hands of America will fall into the hands of the people; that will be the time when all those overlords will have sanctions put on them.” He added: “The enemy is heavily dependent on this energy and the events in the region has them quite agitated, this of course provides us with a hopeful future.”
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A timely guest post at Legal Insurrection: Polling 101 – How People Answer Polls by Matthew Knee, “a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University specializing in campaigns and elections, ethnic voting patterns, public opinion, and quantitative and experimental approaches to political science.”:
Analyzing polls with only what polling companies release is a tricky business. Near-ideal poll analysis requires a database of actual, person-by-person responses, expensive software, and advanced mathematics. Ideal poll analysis requires actually being the pollster and having an overstuffed budget. However, there are a number of rules, tips, and tricks that anyone – with a bit of logic and a calculator – can use to draw meaningful conclusions from flawed polls and incomplete information.
I will be addressing these issues in three stages. In the first section, I will talk a bit about how people answer polling questions. In the second, I will discuss samples and biases. In the third, I will discuss techniques for evaluating the seriousness of bias.
All-purpose disclaimer: This series will include approximations and simplifications. It is for understanding media polls, not for writing articles for scholarly journals. It is also not exhaustive. The list of specific problems that can arise, especially in poll wording, is, obviously, enormously long.
How People Answer Polls
1. Most People Probably Don’t Think About Politics Like You Do
Keep reading….
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On the Rush Limbaugh Show today, Rush discusses the “gorilla” in the room in the 2012 elections aka - Obama’s Socialism, and the sad fact that none of the Republican contenders are going to have the stones to reference it, focusing instead on policy. The problem with that of course is – people need to understand why the policies Obama has pursued have been so disastrous, because the left will continue to blame Bush/Republicans for everything that has gone wrong.
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Michael Barone: It’s the union work rules, stupid
In response to my Sunday Examiner column blaming the late Frederick W. Taylor for the plight of labor unions (if the connection doesn’t seem obvious to you, read the piece), engineer and private space exploration advocate Rand Simberg to remind me of his excellent December 2008 Pajamas Media blogpost on UAW work rules.
It appears the progressive New York Times is running an ugly campaign of character assassination against a real-life American hero who saved lives and helped to safeguard the nation’s sacred democratic process. The man with the bull’s eye on his back is Brandon Darby, formerly a far-left community organizer. The Old Gray Lady has accused Darby of encouraging a plot to firebomb Republicans at the 2008 nominating convention, when in fact he was instrumental in thwarting the conspiracy and saving the lives of Republican delegates and police officers.
Darby stands accused by the New York Times and by angry radical groups of acting as an agent provocateur. In the article Anarchist Ties Seen in ’08 Bombing of Texas Governor’s Mansion published February 23, 2011, the paper said Darby urged two radicals to firebomb the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. According to NYT reporter James C. McKinley Jr.:
Yet federal agents accused two men from these circles of plotting to make firebombs and hurl them at police cars during the convention. An F.B.I informant from Austin, Brandon Darby, was traveling with the group and told the authorities of the plot, which he had encouraged. [emphasis added]
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota this is absolutely, demonstrably untrue.
She is a University of Washington undergrad and she has been missing since Saturday afternoon, when she left the Rainier Beach neighborhood headed to the UW Seattle campus. Her parents have been trying to reach her all weekend; she apparently never made it to campus and has not been heard from by phone/Internet. They’ve filed a missing persons report with the Seattle Police Department. Hospitals have been alerted, according to family members, and bus and train routes have been checked. No sign.
Mary Katharine Ham: The New F***ing Tone Is Here – Watch the video at AoSHQ.
New f***ing tone also f***ing here.
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Gateway Pundit: TEAM OBAMA FOLDS: Gitmo Terror Trials to Resume
Well, that was two years we’ll never have back.
Obama halted Guantanamo war crimes trials the day he took office.
Today, the Obama Administration announced that terror trials will resume at Gitmo.
FOX News reported:President Obama announced Monday that military trials will resume for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, saying the tribunals are an “important tool in combating international terrorists.”
Not so cocky, now, are we?
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Jennifer Rubin, Right Turn: EXCLUSIVE: New Chris Christie Video
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Missouri Watchdog: McCaskill to Democrats: ‘It’s time for us to fight’:
Watch videos of Missouri’s top Democrats: Senator Claire McCaskill, and Gov Jay Nixon, (both of whom are up for re-election in 2012), Rep Russ Carnahan, who barely squeaked by in 2010, his sis Robin Carnahan, who blamed low voter turnout for the disastrous results at the polls, and others who made equally inane utterances at Missouri’s first Democratic Convention.
Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks
