Good Poll-Reading Advice from FiveThirtyEight.com
Here.
There’s nothing quite so annoying as hearing people spin the polls.
The headline today on MSNBC drew my attention back to the middle east after an overnight rest from it. It says: Israel targets Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut, which is, of course, no surprise due to the course of this conflict. In the narrow sense, this conflict is following the pattern of many before it. There…
I headed out to the polls today to vote in the primary. Since I’m registered independent, it was a short ballot, but nonetheless an important one. One of the things that bothers me in the discussion of politics is the extremely limited discussion of local campaigns and issues. The information available is always limited, and…
This isn’t one of those “oh no the wrong guy(s) won” nor is it a “yay! the right guy(s) won” post. I wouldn’t be writing either of those if the results had been reversed. I’m interested in a few lessons about the way elections work. 1) Those who lead in the polls believe polls. Those…
. . . through which one could easily drive a complete tyranny. MSNBC.com reports: The Supreme Court on Tuesday terminated a lawsuit from a man who claims he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments that state secrets would be revealed if the case were allowed to proceed. Read the…
I’ve been following the news about Hurricane Katrina quite closely, and have noticed a large number of stories about how bureaucracy–generally people from the same offices that were created to aid in case of disaster–has been slowing down the response.
I’m watching the list of GOP legislators who are breaking with President Bush on the war in Iraq with mixed emotions. On the one hand it’s nice to see people realizing that we are trying to force our military to accomplish the impossible. On the other hand, I have to ask why they are doing…