Zogby/Ziegler Poll: Funny Yet Sad

Thanks to my friend, Pat, for sending me this.



It's from this site. What the crafters of the video did was to collect anecdotal evidence based on questions from this Zogby Poll conducted on behalf of John Ziegler. Ziegler got attacked for the poll with charges that it's a "push poll". Zogby stepped up to explain why it wasn't:

We stand by the results our survey work on behalf of John Ziegler, as we stand by all of our work. We reject the notion that this was a push poll because it very simply wasn't. It was a legitimate effort to test the knowledge of voters who cast ballots for Barack Obama in the Nov. 4 election. Push polls are a malicious effort to sway public opinion one way or the other, while message and knowledge testing is quite another effort of public opinion research that is legitimate inquiry and has value in the public square. In this case, the respondents were given a full range of responses and were not pressured or influenced to respond in one way or another. This poll was not designed to hurt anyone, which is obvious as it was conducted after the election. The client is free to draw his own conclusions about the research, as are bloggers and other members of society. But Zogby International is a neutral party in this matter. We were hired to test public opinion on a particular subject and with no ax to grind, that's exactly what we did. We don't have to agree or disagree with the questions, we simply ask them and provide the client with a fair and accurate set of data reflecting public opinion.

Of course, Ziegler was also attacked fiercely by people like this left-wing hack. Here's Ziegler's must-read response. Excerpt:

[accusation] "You were just out to make Obama voters look stupid and you are probably a racist"

Nothing could be further from the truth. We went out of our way to find articulate people who thought they were informed about the election. I did not even choose the subjects myself (for whatever it is worth, they were chosen by a black female). The reason there are slightly more blacks than whites in the video is that we went to a "black" area of town in the morning when we had more light and then it got dark faster than I expected in the "white" area.

The point of all this is to direct the finger at the news media, not so much at the voters. There are plenty of idiots on both sides of the political divide, but my concern here is that the news media coverage failed to make the electorate educated enough to produce a legitimately informed vote.

It's funny how the left can be so angry even when their guy wins. After all, when we are told that Bush and McCain voters are a bunch of toothless gun-happy dumb-asses, we laugh. Don't we?

For the record, I think this is a great job at exposing the influence that the media has and misuses. But Ziegler's conclusion at the end that the election was "illegitimate" goes a little far. John McCain's failing to find a coherent focus throughout his campaign can't be counted out. Bush fought against the same media and prevailed.

Features the perennially popular "Groin Kick" around 2:06

Loved this short.



Obviously these homeys o' mine are amateurs, but they are extremely talented amateurs and, better yet, they have a tireless work ethic. They also realize something that many professionals do not, viz: a fight scene is not complete without at least one groin kick.

Don't Forget to Wash Your Hands

Chilling. This lady contracted a "brain worm".

Obviously this is all President George W. Bush's fault. Somehow.

Gouvernement du peuple, par le peuple et pour le peuple

Today is the 145th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, so here it is for all y'all.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

"The Crow" by Steve Martin

Wow.

I saw Bela Fleck around 1991 or so in Pittsburgh.

"You can have a strange haircut"

Fun.