The proper way to look at CBS's BS poll

By now you know about the totally crap-encrusted poll that CBS cranked out in an episode of 'Drive By Journalism' as Rush calls it.

CBS didn't even poll voters this time. They polled whoever answered the phone.

Now, given the results of the last election, and well, basic freaking facts, it is pretty much obvious that Rs and Ds are pretty close in numbers. This poll hit 37% Dems, 34% "Independents" and a whopping 26% Republicans. The Anklebiters have more analysis on the breakdown here.

Forget the imbalance of straight Republicans and Democrats, which is already 11% off; does anyone really believe those Indys are not just Democrats who are just too ashamed to admit they're Democrats?

The poll asked incredibly misleading questions, for example:

"After 9/11, President Bush authorized government wiretaps on some phone calls in the US without getting court warrants, saying this was necessary in order to reduce the threat of terrorism. Do you approve or disapprove of the president doing this?"

Now, we should all know this is a biased, leading question. The wiretapping was done on calls made to other countries, for one thing. The question seems to me to actually lie about the wiretaps by saying "...calls in the US..." It is a fact that had we done this before 9/11, we probably would have heard calls pertaining to the attack.

The mainstream media seems to really have ball hammering on the President for months at a time, and then doing a poll to check their work.

Point Five has the proper perspective about this poll. Read it here.

Obligatory 24 post

OK, here we go. What will it be tonight? Is Martha doomed? The Russian Prez? Will Logan sprout a spine? Who is the fresh White House mole?

San Francisco artist promises cash giveaway, chickens out over mob

There appear to be a number of missed lessons here.

More than 500 people -- some who had arrived before noon -- showed up for the 4 p.m. giveaway but walked away empty-handed. Joe Canada, an artist from Novato, spoke to the crowd for about an hour but drove away before he or any of his 20 volunteers could hand out any bills. The size of the crowd might have intimidated him, police said.
"There were too many people," Sgt. Anthony Manfreda said. "He just got spooked."

When you promise to give out $10 bills, shouldn't you expect a few folks to show up?

The crowd began cursing and yelling at Canada and his volunteers.

"This was just a great big joke on us," Steve Hunt said. "He better not show his face here again."

This represents the good nature of the SF Homeless crowd. These guys probably have a union by now.

Jones said Canada, who himself was once homeless, wants to give people on the streets a sense of hope.

Giving people something doesn't give them hope. Remember the whole, "Teach a man to fish..." thing?


Here is the complete SF Gate story.

San Francisco to be powered by crap

OK, this one is too easy. Apparently, SF has figured out there is a good amount of poo going into the landfills.

Pajamas Media has the details here. The Discovery Channel has the complete article.


Now, if they can just harness Berkeley and the 9th Circuit...

CBS Fakes it again

The network of Dan Rather has proved again they can't be trusted.

Tigerhawk has the story here.

This time, they changed the front page of a newspaper from how it was printed. (CBS has apologized this time.) The story was about Ryan Ferguson, who murdered Columbia Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt. CBS seemed to be spinning the story of Ferguson as being wrongly convicted. (Imagine that.) The piece showed the front page of the Columbia Tribune. CBS reproduced the Tribunes' front page using an image of him wearing a suit and tie, apparently to make him more innocent looking, to match the spin. The real front page had an image of Ferguson in an orange prison jumpsuit.

This episode isn't near as serious as the faked (not forged - faked) documents they ginned up last election.

But this seems to match the template of making the story fit their agenda. Remember the Chevy pickup story? NBC's Dateline used model rocket engines to make sure the pickups caught fire in a crash.

Manipulating images isn't new, but it is getting easier every day. I do it all the time on pictures I take - removing a zit, or dust, or power lines. I don't take pictures that are presented as news.

This in and of itself doesn't seem like much - and I don't think changing things like contrast or light levels or color balance in a picture is a big deal, as a rule. But to change the content of a photograph, to match your story, is absolutely scary. It is now possible to produce an absolutely fake photograph, and it has been possible for a while. Anyone with basic Photoshop skills can change major elements of a photograph with very little effort. The temptation to create the shot that makes your story is probably pretty strong.

When you are willing to fake the small stuff, faking the big stuff is just a small step away. (Granted, CBS has already proved that.)

No Golf for Slick Willie

Medway Golf Club in Maidstone, Australia isn't on my short list of golf courses. Of course, I don't have a list, not being a golfer. But I respect these guys these guys for standing up for their members.

Holy places

The mosque damaged in todays bombing is being called one of the holiest Shiite shrines.

Why is it whenever a chip of paint is knocked off an outhouse in the middle east, it is always "One of the middle east's holiest mosques" or "One of islam's holiest sites"? Whenever a town in Iraq is mentioned, it is prefaced with... "the holy city of yada yada yada..."

I don't seem to remember that when the art lovers in Afghanistan destroyed the Budda statues, there being a whole lot of mention of the age of the statues, or their importance to the Hindus. When palestinian maggots decided to visit a certain church in Bethlehem and redecorate, I don't seem to remember anyone screaming about that. Isreal has dozens of places extremely important to Judiasm that the 'Religion of Peace' followers have utterly destroyed.

How about we just target a covey of five-hundred-pounders on the big black cube and work our way down the list of 'holy sites' from there.

Tigerhawk has a look at the Pakistani response to the bombing that might be informative to folks who think it really is the 'Religion of Peace.' (I think I'll buy me a flag making company.)

If Carter is for it...

I just can't get worked up over the whole seaport management thing. I mean, the ports are already wide open, something like 5 percent of cargo is scanned, and there isn't much chance of improving it soon. I don't like the idea of a middle eastern country having anything to do with them, though. I don't think President Bush is infallible, and I am thinking this is a mistake, but a mistake on the scale of trusting Ted Kennedy.

But good ol' Jimmuh has gone and disgorged another pearl of his infinite wisdom.

"My presumption is, and my belief is, that the president and his secretary of state and the Defense Department and others have adequately cleared the Dubai government organization to manage these ports," Carter told CNN. "I don't think there's any particular threat to our security."

Carter gave us the most recent glimpse of his towering stupidity here.

He is all for the deal. That cinches it, it has to be a major whoopsie.






Other blogs with more details.

Michelle Malkin wants to STOP THE PORT SELLOUT

Little Green Footballs calls it a Harriet Miers Moment

Little Green Footballs also notes alarm from the moonbats at their apparent agreement with LGF

Only in California

Last night, or this morning, California was about to execute a convicted murderer. Except that the doctors refused to participate and walked out.

24

OK, so who is the new mole in the White House, or did I imagine that? I thought I heard someone say there was someone else.

I do figure they will waste the Russian prez. I mean, they snuffed a Chinese diplomat last year, and this year needs an international incident, too, right? Maybe Logan will toss Mike to the wolves... but I am getting too far ahead. But is Betsy going to live?

The division guy in charge of CTU, how is his junkie sister going to figure in to all of this?

Why no one watches the Olympics

Viewership of this years Olympic games is down a bunch, according to this AP Story

NBC notes that its viewership is down 22 percent since Nagano in 1998. At the same time, the World Series is down 21 percent, and the Academy Awards down 27 percent proof that big events in general have less pull than they used to, the network said.

On a side note, could the decline in Academy Awards viewership have anything to do with Hollywood producing crap?

One part of the decline is blamed on the fact that there are more channels to choose from, which seems to admit that competition is bad for NBC.

During the last summer Olympics I seem to remember that they couldn't get NBA players to play because of fear of terrorism, fear of injuries, and general laziness. Some players did play, but for other countries teams. That infuriated me, not as a basketball fan, (I'm not) but as an American. These guys would be playing in their driveway (if they had one) in front of their mud huts (if they had one) if they didn't have the opportunities they got in the United States.

The Salt Lake City games were unusually good for NBC. Domestic Olympics typically fare better in the ratings than foreign ones, there was a surge of patriotism following the 2001 terrorist attacks and NBC was the top-rated network, meaning the competition was less fearsome.

Could the fact that it isn't being shown live be the key here? You can check the results on the internet before they air, unless you heard the results on the news already.

Speaking of patriotism, we have American figure skater Johnny Weir wearing a jacket emblazoned with CCCP, the Cyrillic equivalent of USSR - the Soviet Union. Contrast this with the Miracle on Ice.

Then there is the fact that several athletes have already been kicked out for cheating.

To me, the whole Olympics thing just reeks of United Nations. And we all know how popular the UN is. America hasn't been well served by the rest of the world lately, and maybe a lot of folks are just saying screw the whole spirit of competition thing.

On another side note, The Nose on Your Face notes an historic occurance.

The only thing standing between the Israelis and the Iranians having a go at each other during the opening ceremonies was a relatively small contingent of athletes from Ireland. This of course marks the first time in history that a group of Irishmen have served to prevent a fight.

We all need to learn a new word

Ever heard of dhimmitude? The word is explained here by Townhall.com's Diana West. Basically, it is the state of living as a barely tolerated infidel in a Muslim society. You get to pay a special tax to be allowed to be a nonmuslim, and still get to practice your own religion. Sort of.

Islamo-rage roundup

There have been quite a few incidents where the Religion of Peace has decided to be insulted and whipped themselves up into a regular lather. And everyone else backed down.
Wizbang has a great rundown on some of these incidents here.
The Cartoon Jihad is just the latest example.

Poll: America Picks Isreal Over Hamas

Gallup has a new poll analyzing American thought about middle-east peace since Hamas took over. The gist is:

Two thirds of us don't see peace anytime soon in the middle east

No diplomatic recognition unless the palestinians recognize Isreal

No foreign aid while Hamas is in power

The more informed you are, the more you sympathize with Isreal

The less informed you are, the more you sympathize with the palestinians


Any suprises here?

Just how hungry is Gary Busey?

Hollywood is no place for patriots, we all know that. They haven't taken America's side in anything in a long time. The beautiful people like to go across the pond and rip the country that gave them their success.

So it is no suprise when has-been Gary Busey goes to Turkey to film a movie showing American soldiers indiscriminately killing civilians, and A Jewish doctor stealing organs from Iraqi prisoners after they are tortured.

This kind of crap is what keeps the middle east inflamed. This is the kind of stuff that the imams use to breed suicide bombers.

Thanks, Gary.


UPDATE: Turkish crowds cheering Anti American Movie

24 Thread

Open thread for comments on tonight's episode of 24.

AlGore has completely lost it

Evidently no one has mentioned the archaic concept of politics stopping at the water's edge to Al. Or any other democrat, for that matter. Powerline has the details.

From the AP Story:
Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."

So, what would you consider a major charge, given what some of our previous illegal immigrants from Saudi Arabia have done, Al?

It has been said before a hundred times, but maybe this time Al has really lost his last marble.

Here is the AP link

A Christian Theocracy

Bookworm Room has a great article wondering what a Christian Theocracy might look like.

If only

Maybe someday the big Mo could come back and impose these.

Profile: Mohammed

Point Five has this story about a sad little prophet waiting at the gates.

Cindy Sheehan's secret exposed

I always thought that Cindy looked a little familiar.

Get your Mohammed t-shirts here

This guy needs to sell some of these shirts before the "Religion of Peace" pulls a Theo Van Gogh on him.

A story about adoption

I realize most people don't care about adoption, so skip this one if you want.

I have to admit that I am a fan of adoption, being an adoptee. Since 'choice' is legal, I am glad that adoption is out there as one of the choices.

I was told at an early age (fourish) that I was adopted, and I was well adjusted to it. I never really thought much about it, it was just another fact, something like, 'Your Uncle Bill is a dentist' thing. I didn't care, since I got fed no matter what. I am very satisfied with my parents as they are, and I had never intended to explore finding out who my birthparents were. Or are.

As time went on, I wondered sometimes what the circumstances were, but never really thought about it that much.

But I recently got curious about my own birthparents after a conversation with my wife.

She told me my dad had told her some minor things he knew about the adoption. Nothing major, just things like how old she was, and how she came to be in Texas, and where she was from.

My adopted mother died a long time ago, and I suspected my adopted dad would not mind - he seemed to be ready to offer what clues he had to me.

I decided that forty years was long enough to wait.

So I started looking.

I knew that searching for birthparents could be extremely frustrating, could take years, or even decades. There are no guarantees you'll even find anything. I figured it was going to sting some if I figured out the birthparents weren't even looking, and didn't want any contact.

I was ready.

I posted a listing on one of the first reunion sites I found, but didn't see any birthdates that matched mine. I saw a few that were close, but no matches. As I hit the various sites, I noticed the same names coming up again and again, some with desperate pleas for help. This was getting a little depressing. Some of these were pretty old searches.

Then, about an hour and a half into my search, I got an email in response to my post on one of the reunion sites. The email had a name and a birth certificate number. I had seen the name, but the date was wrong. Then I remembered that sometimes they will slide the dates around a bit to keep things a little more, well, hard to uncover. I was suddenly very scared. I had a name. Someone that could be my birthmother. Someone that was obviously looking. What do I do now?

I am not the type to sit and agonize over a decision, so the next day I called her.

We spoke for about an hour, and while we weren't positive, we have no reason to doubt it is a match. Over the last week, more and more details are matching up. We are going to meet next Tuesday.

She has been looking for seventeen years.

I looked for about two hours.



There are people who believe adoption records should be unsealed at their will. While it would be nice for someone who has decided to do this search, what about the other person involved? I know a couple of people who are adopted and who do not know, and their adoptive parents have no intention of ever telling them. Argue all you want if that is a good idea, but how will it be if some stranger shows up one day and breaks this news to them? What about the person who gave up a child, which has to be the most difficult think to ever do, and then moves on? Can you imagine rebuilding after something like that, and then having to come to terms with it all over again?

Both sides should want contact before contact is possible. Your birthparent does not owe you anything, and neither does the kid you gave up. If there is an issue where medical information is desperately needed, there should probably be a way to obtain this information blindly, through a process that covers the identities of both parties.

The internet has no doubt made this kind of search much easier than it was. If both an adoptee and birthparent want to be found, it will probably happen, given the current resources available. If not, it is going to be pretty tough. And it should be.

The system works.



I am glad I looked. It was an easy search, and so far it seems to be a very positive thing. My birthmother seems to be a great person. I have four decades of stories to tell her, and I am sure she has some to tell me. I have a whole new family to meet, and probably some more stories from them. I am so very glad I looked.

I just wish I had looked sooner.

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More here and here.

A must read

Walter Williams gets it right again.

More NYT Hypocrisy

Remember the Elephant Dung/Virgin Mary artpiece? It's back.

Little Green Footballs has the details.

Lefties and funerals

What is it about funerals that attracts moonbats?

Today we had the King funeral, and as just about anyone could predict, it turned into a political event. Is this the proper way to remember anyone?

We saw this with Paul Wellstones funeral, too, and I am thinking there have been a couple of others.

Doesn't seem like these guys are there to remember anyone, they are there because that's where the cameras are.

Contrast this with how classy Ronaldus Magnus' funeral was.

Tonight's 24

OK, tell me this isn't the best thing on TV in decades.

Who saw what coming? I saw the Russian girl killing the old man, but I missed Cummings killing himself.

Your thoughts, please.

Here we go

Well, I guess I gotta try this. Everyone else has a blog. Why not me?

This one will be about nothing. Just like Seinfeld. Except it will be about everything. Stupid behaviour, politics, photography, woodworking, you name it.

A little heads up; I am a conservative. I am not necessarily a republican, but I am sure as hell not a democrat. If you are a moonbat, please go away. If you disagree and want to post, go ahead, but if you are a jerk, I can always just delete it. There is no right to be heard here, just (hopefully) a discussion of ideas, a sounding board for what hacks us all off, a source of news and different angles of view for what is going on, and maybe just a place to vent.