The New York Times Really Does Think You’re a Moron

September 26th, 2012

Right after I talked about how the mainstream media thinks you’re stupid enough to swallow badly skewed polls, Jim Geraghty reports that the New York Times is proving my point all over again by publishing a poll with more Democrats and fewer Republicans in the sample than in 2008 exit polls.

Ohio 2008 exits: 39% Democrat, 31% Republican, 30% Independent.

Ohio New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 35% Democrat, 26% Republican, 35% Independent.

In this sample, the partisan split is D+9 compared to D+8 four years ago, and the GOP is five percentage points smaller than in 2008.

Pennsylvania 2008 exits: 44% Democrat, 37% Republican, 18% Independent.

Pennsylvania New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 39% Democrat, 28% Republican, 27% Independent.

Somehow a D+7 split has turned into D+11 split, and Republicans’ share of the electorate is nine percentage points less than they were four years ago.

Florida 2008 exits: 37% Democrat, 34% Republican, 29% Independent.

Florida New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 36% Democrat, 27% Republican, 33% Independent.

Each party’s share only shifts a few percentage points, but the overall split goes from D+3 to D+9.

One again, the New York Times thinks Republicans are too stupid to figure out the con. If they’re going to be that absurdly biased, why not just cut out the middleman and poll Obama for America staffers directly?

Remember: The business model of The New York Times is to envelop liberals in a soft, warm, comforting cocoon of reassurance that their ideas and leaders are popular. You saw this in 2010, when it dangerously blinded them to the coming Republican wave until too late. The same patterns is repeating itself this year.

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch | No Comments »

A Bit on Polling (or, Why the Media Thinks You’re a Moron)

September 25th, 2012

Remember how how incredibly tight the 1980 election was? How Ronald Reagan managed to edge Jimmy Carter at the last minute despite losing Texas and New York?

Probably not, mainly because that didn’t happen. But as Jeffrey Lord’s story makes clear, that was the narrative the New York Times was pushing most of the fall, and they had “polls” to back it up.

In the pantheon of lies, damn lies, and statistics, polls aren’t even as valid as statistics. At this point, polls by the usual MSM suspects (NYT, PPP, CBS, MS/NBC, Time, Newsweek, NPR, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, just to name a few) aren’t designed to gauge the race, they’re designed to encourage Democrats and discourage Republicans. They are, as Lord notes and Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee admitted to Ed Rollins, offering up “in kind contributions” to the Democrats.

So let’s take a brief look at the many ways in which the MSM is distorting polls for the benefit of Obama and the Democrats.

  • Dick Morris (who knows a thing or two about polling) thinks the idea that an Obama victory is in the offing is bunk. “All of the polling out there uses some variant of the 2008 election turnout as its model for weighting respondents and this overstates the Democratic vote by a huge margin.” He also notes that even the skewed polls show Obama at less than 50%, and “the undecided vote always goes against the incumbent.”
  • By one analysis, pollsters are oversampling Democrats by an average of 6.1%.
  • More evidence that the media is oversampling Democrats.
  • A technical analysis of how that dynamic applies to Pennsylvania.
  • Jay Cost notes that “polls that do a poor job of differentiating enthusiastic non-voters from enthusiastic voters are going to overestimate Obama’s margin.”

    • Every week you see the media going to bat for Obama, and every week we see more evidence of lack of enthusiasm on the part of Democrats compared to 2008. 2010 did happen, no matter how much the media would like to pretend it didn’t. The Tea Party hasn’t gone away, nor suddenly decided that they like Obama’s free-spending ways after all. The fundamentals of our ailing economy and staggering unemployment haven’t gone away either. And remember: Republicans now outnumber Democrats in party identification.

    There’s a lot better chance that this election’s results will look like 1980 than that they will look like 2008.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Republicans | 1 Comment »

    Dick Armey Aims to Unseat Speaker Joe Straus

    September 24th, 2012

    Well, this is very interesting:

    FreedomWorks, which helped insurgent Ted Cruz snatch the GOP nod for U.S. Senate from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said Monday it will put its muscle behind toppling Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio from his leadership post.

    Armey’s one sharp cookie, and he plays hardball. Conservatives came up short when they challenged the moderate Straus before last session, but the incoming Texas House looks to be more conservative, and a lot of Straus’s committee chairs lost in the primary. But Straus is no pushover, and I imagine he still sits on a big pile of legislative IOUs, as well as lobbyist juice and gambling money. Will a disgruntled David Dewhurst throw his still-considerably clout behind his counterpart in the House?

    This promises to be a very interesting fight…

    Update: Here’s the Freedomworks press release, where Brendan Steinhauser says they’re supporting State Rep. Bryan Hughes for Speaker.

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    Posted in Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »

    LinkSwarm for September 23, 2012

    September 23rd, 2012

    Random swarm of interesting links for your amusement and edification:

  • Just in case you didn’t notice, in Obama’s interview with Univision (where he faced much tougher questions that from America’s lapdog media), Obama pretty much admitted that he failed, because “you can’t change Washington from the inside.” Really? I’m sure that platform would have gotten you a lot of votes in 2008.
  • Nice George Will profile of Tea Party-backed Utah congressional candidate Mia Love.
  • Why Wisconsin is in play in 2012.
  • Mitt Romney donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011. Meanwhile, Obama was too busy to donate $400 so his half-brother could eat for a year.
  • Barack Obama is so awesome he can fit 18,000 people in a 5,000 seat arena.
  • In what high esteem to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hold Obama? Take a look:

  • More Shenanigans on the Round Rock ISD board.
  • Don’t read this if you love dogs or have high blood pressure. More of that special quality of service we’ve come to expect from United Airlines.
  • Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Most Embarrassing Emmy Awards Outfit of All Time:

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Republicans | No Comments »

    Texas vs. California: First Day of Fall Edition

    September 21st, 2012

    Time for another Texas vs. California round-up of how the Lone Star State is kicking the not-so-Golden State’s ass in just about every measure except signing NBA free-agents.

  • You know how bad California’s debt was? Well, it’s worse than that. A lot worse. Try “at least $167 billion and as much as $335 billion.”
  • California may see more bankruptcies. (Gee, ya think?) And Jerry Brown’s desperate hunt for money is pushing more cities that way.
  • Texas continues to outperform the rest of the nation in export growth.
  • Is Democrat-run California broke because it’s corrupt? “The governor and Democratic leaders are no more serious about reforming pensions than they are about shuttering state parks. The goal they are serious about is raising taxes.”
  • Bankrupt San Bernandino eliminates almost 100 jobs.
  • You know how some claimed California beat Texas in job growth? Yeah, not so much.
  • How bad has it gotten? Minor league hockey team has “Our City Isn’t Bankrupt Night” to taunt rival Stockton.
  • Texas’ tort reforms worked, doubling the number of Texas doctors between 2000 and 2005.

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas | No Comments »

    Proposed Romney Ad: Burying the American Dream

    September 20th, 2012

    FADE IN: Long shot of funeral.

    CUT TO: Shot of Obama in a black suit standing near an open grave.

    Obama: The American Dream enjoyed over 200 years of life.

    CUT TO: Men with Obama For America t-shirts with shovels picking up dirt from a pile labeled DEFICIT SPENDING and tossing it down into the grave.

    Obama: But it’s time for us to bury it today. It’s outlived its usefulness.

    CUT TO: Several young children at the bottom of the grave, already partially buried, as dirt rains down on their heads.

    Child: Wait, we’re not dead! Stop burying us!

    CUT To: Obama.

    Obama: It was a fine dream, but we have to move on to another dream: Of a government welfare state present at every moment of every American’s lives…

    CUT TO: Men shoveling in more dirt.

    Obama: From the cradle…

    CUT TO: Children in hole.

    Obama:…to the grave.

    Children: Stop! Just give us a chance! We want our dreams too!

    CUT TO: Obama.

    Obama: Farewell American dream. It was nice while it last.

    CUT TO: Children in grave.

    Children: Stop! Stop!

    CUT TO: Long shot of funeral, as the men continue to fill the grave.

    Children: (screaming) STOOOOOOOP!

    FADE OUT

    Anyone know the best way to send this to Romney, Restore Our Future, or American Crossroads?

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Elections | No Comments »

    Benghazi Attack Mastermind Released from Gitmo?

    September 19th, 2012

    According to reports, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Sufyan Ben Qumu (AKA Sofiane Ibrahim Gammu) “was likely involved in the attack [on Benghazi], and even may have led the attack on the consulate.”

    “Qumu—a Libyan—was released from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2007 and transferred to Libyan custody under the condition that he would be kept in jail. He wasn’t.”

    Another glaring example of why Obama’s pie-in-the-sky promises to close Guantanamo Bay were a bad idea. And so far Obama’s response to an act of war that involved the murder of American government officials has been muted and incoherent.

    Like many liberals, Obama just can’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that, whether we want to be or not, we’re at war against radical Islam around the globe. These weren’t “spontaneous protests” by random Arabs mysteriously radicalized by a YouTube video, they were planned attacks by radical Islamic terrorists. That is one of the many reasons Obama makes a singularly poor Commander-in-Chief, and why he should be replaced with Mitt Romney.

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »

    Add LSU to the “Colleges Threatened by Bomb Threats” List

    September 17th, 2012

    “Louisiana State University’s main campus is being evacuated following a bomb threat.”

    Last week was UT, North Dakota State, and Hiram college.

    Islamists? Copycats? Pranksters? Who knows?

    Until they actually set off a bomb, or pull this sort of thing during the Alabama game on November 3, these bomb threats are all turban and no boom.

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    Posted in Crime, Jihad | 2 Comments »

    Map of Muslim Riots Across the Globe

    September 14th, 2012

    Map of Muslim unrest using Google maps. I think this is updated in real time but I’m not 100% sure.

    Update: now embedded:


    View Muslim Protests in a larger map

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | No Comments »

    UT Evacuated Due to Bomb Threat

    September 14th, 2012

    The University of Texas has evacuated campus due to a possibly Jihad-related bomb threat.

    At 8:35 a.m. the university received a call from a male with a middle eastern accent claiming to have placed bombs all over campus. He said he was with Al Qaeda and these bombs would go off in 90 minutes.

    Well, it’s two hours later and no boom. There’s a 99% chance this is an empty threat, since it’s always easier to pick up a phone than to actually make a bomb, as severald dead members of the weather underground can attest.

    A similar threat was made at North Dakota State at Fargo.

    Updated to add: bomb threat also made at Valparaiso University. UT still still under evacuation warning.

    Updated to add 2: UT classes cancelled today and all events cancelled until 5 PM. Buildings can be re-entered as of noon.

    Updated to add 3: Add Hiram College in Ohio to list of schools receiving bomb threats. Pretty obscure for Jihadests. Maybe just copycats.

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    Posted in Austin, Jihad, Texas | 2 Comments »

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