Friday Funnies

Filed under: Political cartoons , Political cartoons

McCain Camp: It’s Not Over Yet

Wonder Why?

Here are a couple of stories to chew on:

DRUDGE REPORT ZOGBY: MCCAIN MOVES INTO LEAD 48-47 IN ONE DAY POLLING

AP poll: 1 in 7 voters still persuadable

DON’T BELIEVE THE POLLS!

Of course, an Obama loss will be blamed on racism. Erica Jong solemnly warns of Civil War, not the first time I’ve heard that.

Steven M. Warshawskyhas three separate posts at The American Thinker on this general topic, saying Don’t forget the undecided voters, Be skeptical of polls [Ed. - as I always am], and the signs pointing to a McCain victory.

DON’T BELIEVE THE POLLS!

At least, not entirely.

UPDATE: I neglected to include this post by Ace.

Filed under: 2008, Elections, Polls and polling, presidential , 2008 presidential election, Polls and polling

The Dream has ended

Philadelphia Phillies win the World Series.

Thanks to the Rays for a great ride.

I guess I won’t be subscribing to Sports Illustrated this year.

Filed under: Baseball, Sports, Tampa Bay Devil Rays , major league baseball, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays, World Series

Good advice on polls

Jay Cost at RealClearPolitics’ HorseRaceBlog

I would urge caution when interpreting all this polling data. We’re talking about disagreements among good pollsters. I take all of these firms seriously whenever they produce new numbers. They are disagreeing with one another in ways that can’t be chalked up to statistical “noise.” That gives me great pause.

Filed under: Polls and polling , Polls and polling

I got one of those e-mails

Well, I get lots of them actually. This one was a little different because it made claims about Snopes.com, a site I go to often, especially for, well, e-mails like I got today.

Part of the e-mail can be seen at the Urban Legends page on About.com, where I used to go for information, until their interface got slow and laden with pop-ups. Their verdict is that the e-mail is false as is the verdict of TruthorFiction.com, which is referred to in the e-mail.

Here’s what my e-mail contained that the ones on the sites didn’t:

Here’s what I have found:

Snopes was created in 1995 by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a California couple who met on the alt.folklore.urban newsgroup. The Mikkelsons also founded the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society, and were credited as the owners of the site until 2005.  Barbara now works on the site full time, while David, a programmer, works on the site part time.

I too was somewhat suspect of their leftward bent given their take (or lack thereof) on several Obama stories.  An example is their take on the Obama/Ayers connection as opposed to truthorfiction.com’s take on the same subject.  Snopes tends to minimize the connection categorizing the rumor as a “Partial Truth” while www.truthorfiction.com does not downplay the connection at all, calling it a “Truth”, and in fact references a CNN (big surprise) expose of the two, as well as a Wall Street Journal article about their connection.  Snopes not only does not reference either source cited above, but instead lists a quote from an Obama spokesman as it’s main source (obviously spin), leaving one to believe they are mere acquaintances. [NOTE: "truthorfiction.com had a link to the site in both instances above and the bold is mine.]

Read the difference for yourself.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ayers.asp

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/o/obama-ayers.htm

Here’s another comparison of Snopes vs. Truthorfiction’s treatment of the email that has gone out regarding “Obama’s 50 lies”.  Notice that Snopes often adds editorial comments favoring Obama on unproven statements, or even on proven ones where they say he is “taken out of context”.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/50lies.asp

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/o/obama-lies.htm

First of all, there is no discernable left leaning trend at Snopes. At least, not that I could see. There are differences between the two sites, but not that much. The Obama-Ayers article at Snopes is essentially the same as at any fact checking site. TruthandFiction differ, largely because of a CNN story.

About the “Lies” e-mail, both say that there is truth and fiction in the circulating e-mail.

Second there is no connection between the owners of Snopes and Obama, or any left leaning entity. There may be one, but there is no physical link that I found.

I think both sites (as well as About.com) are pretty good. Use them all to get a complete picture.

Filed under: Politics , About.com, fact checking, Snopes, TruthorFiction.com, Urban Legends

Quote of the day – II

OK, it’s the second one today, but Zach truly brought a laugh with this one:

I’ve learned to never underestimate the power of Democrats to lose an election that was theirs to win.

Filed under: Quote of the day , Quote of the day

Game 5 of the World Series

UPDATE: Game 5 suspended with the score 2-2 in the middle of the 6th inning. The weather tomorrow is expected to be worse.

What? They delayed game 3 for an hour and a half and they play this one in conditions that would make a football game sloppy?

Filed under: Sports , 2008 World Series

Folkbum’s running a contest

Answer the following questions either by comment at the post or by sending him an e-mail.

1. Who will win the presidential election?
2. What will be the electoral college outcome? (In 2004, it was Bush 286-Kerry 252. You can use the map at 270towin.com, but don’t forget that there are electoral votes in Maine and Nebraska that might be awarded to the winners in different CDs instead of statewide. That map doesn’t seem to account for those.)
3. What will be the partisan split in the House? (Currently, it’s D235-R199 with one vacancy)
4. What will be the partisan split in the US Senate? (Currently, it’s D49-R49 with two independents; count Lieberman as an independent, please)
5. What will be the partisan split in the Wisconsin State Assembly? (Currently it’s R51-D47 with one independent; if you think Jeff Wood will win, count him as an independent, not a Republican, please)
6. What will be the partisan split in the Wisconsin State Senate? (Currently, it’s D18-R15)

The tie-breaker is the time the AP calls the election (CST)

Filed under: 2008, Elections , 2008 presidential election, US Congress, Wisconsin Assembly

A tie?

Here’s what a tie in the presidential election might look like.

Here are the poll closings of states to watch (The Green Papers excellent chart is recommended. All times are CST–Wisconsin time.):

North Carolina – 6:30 PM (There is an option for polls to stay open till 7:30, but most rural places close at 6:30 PM, which is when the network’s may project.)

Virginia – 6 PM

Pennsylvania – 7 PM

Ohio – 6:30 PM

Florida – 6 PM (but don’t make the mistake the networks did in 2000 by forgetting the mostly Republican CST section of West Florida, which will close at 7 PM.)

Indiana – Who knows? The time zones are so crazy. The polls close at 5 PM in part of the state. Many will close at 6 PM.

If Obama gets any two of these states, McCain is in trouble. If he gets more, it’s landslide city with possibly a filibuster proof Senate.

Filed under: 2008, Elections, presidential , 2008 presidential election, polling times

Quote of the day 10-27-2008

Haven’t done one of these in a while, but my friend  Huckleberry Dumbell came up with this one at Spring City Chronicle,

“… what kind of a loser do you have to be to be a Democrat not endorsed by the [Milwaukee] Journal [Sentinel]?”

Filed under: Quote of the day , Quote of the day