PunditGuy

Former U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy died today, aged 89. Probably best known for an insurgent campaign against President Lyndon B. Johnson for the Democratic nomination during the debate over Vietnam in 1968, McCarthy died in his sleep at an assisted living home in Georgetown.

Out of 110 on board, at least 103 are dead.

A Nigerian jetliner carrying 110 people crashed in stormy weather Saturday while landing in this delta oil port.

Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Sam Adurogboye said early reports indicated that seven people survived the crash of the Sosoliso Airlines’ McDonnell Douglas DC-9, which left the capital, Abuja.

“They were breathing and were taken to the hospital. They are responding to treatment,” he said.

He did not say if the survivors were passengers or crew members.

The crash was Nigeria’s second airplane accident in seven weeks — raising questions about air safety in Africa’s most populous nation. In October, an Abuja-bound Boeing 737-200 crashed after taking off from the airport at Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, killing 117 people on board the Bellview Airlines flight.

At least 75 of those traveling were kids heading home for Christmas.

More: Sosoliso Airlines | BBC |

This would be an interesting story if it wasn’t so unbelievable. Until the “three people present for the meeting that day” come forward and identify themselves, I’ll consider this a little slice of heaven from Doug Thompson’s Fantasy Island.

Via CNet

A Google engineer has warned that if the performance per watt of today’s computers doesn’t improve, the electrical costs of running them could end up far greater than the initial hardware price tag. That situation that wouldn’t bode well for Google, which relies on thousands of its own servers.

So then they’ll just buy California Edition. Problem solved.

The Washington Times released a story today which calls into question the pollster behind the poll. You may remember a poll released last week which concluded that a majority of Americans believe that “Wal-Mart is bad for America”. The poll receive a lot of media attention because of the pollster himself, John Zogby. Given his solid reputation, the poll was reported largely ‘as is’ and remained unchallenged until the Washington Time decided to peel back a few layers and have a look-see.

It wasn’t pretty. Turns out that all dirty laundry looks and smells the same, no matter who it comes from.

In recent years, Mr. Zogby has pocketed roughly $90,000 to serve as an expert witness for individuals suing Wal-Mart, according to testimony he gave in a deposition last year in an Arizona case. Nowhere is Mr. Zogby’s prior work on behalf of plaintiffs mentioned in the press release announcing the poll results.

During a 45-minute phone interview for this column, Mr. Zogby willingly acknowledged when asked about his work on behalf of the various plaintiffs. He repeatedly requested that the column reflect his honesty, which shows that he understands the relevance of his past work.

So, as is usually the case, it all comes down to disclosure, and that’s what is most surprising about the actions of Mr. Zogby. Why would he risk his so-called “sterling reputation” by aiding and abetting Big Labor in their quest to kill Wal-Mart? People make stupid mistakes all the time, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who would accept an apology from Zogby if he admitted that this was one of those misjudgement moments. But no matter how many apologies he receives, it still doesn’t change the fact that a big question remains.

If John Zogby was willing to take $90K to back his friends and then conduct a dubious poll, how many other polls has he profited from in the same way? What about other pollsters? This deserves a little pokin’ and proddin’.

Regardless of whether or not Mr. Zogby is a cash chasin’ bank paddin’ fixed poll makin’ fool, it still won’t change the effectiveness of polls. A poll is powerful, not for what it finds, but for those who benefit from it. I’m sure the folks at WakeUpWalMart.com could have had anyone conduct a poll, and do it pro bono for the publicity alone. But they knew they had to have someone influential. They needed a poll with the kind of caliber only John Zogby could provide. Why? Because they needed the media to pick it up, and they knew that if their poll came from Zogby it would go largely unvetted. And that’s the real problem.

Polls work because most Americans take them at face value. When a poll says that 53% of Americans believe the President Bush is doing a poor job in office, most people don’t think about the wording of the question that elicited the response. And let’s face it, a lot of Americans are completely ignorant of what is happening outside of their own lives and the lives of their inner circle of friends and family. Just listen to Jay Leno do his ‘man on the street’ interviews and you’ll see what I mean. We’re not engaged, and poll questions are geared to take advantage of this. Yet, the main stream media reports the findings and treats them like front-page news.

And as long as the MSM continues to spoon feed questionable polling data to the soft smooshy brains of ‘Joe’ public, politicians and political action committees will commission more biased polls. And now that Zogby is on the take, how many other pollsters are willing to profit, either directly or indirectly from the polls they create?

Wal-Mart isn’t the one who needs to wake up. It’s Americans who need to smarten up.

Others: Mark Tapscott – “Why Does Mainstream Media Blindly Accept Anti-Wal-Mart ‘Facts’”?

Shut up.

There’s absolutely no way one can confuse the meaning of these two words when they’re put together. Well, unless you’re Howard Dean, that is.

North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy is accusing Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean of overstepping his bounds, saying the former presidential candidate should not give up on the war in Iraq. On Monday, Dean likened the war in Iraq to Vietnam and said, “The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong.”

“My words to Howard Dean are simple – shut up,” Pomeroy told WDAY Radio in North Dakota on Thursday. Pomeroy later told the Associated Press that he is tired “of the overblown rhetoric on both sides.”

“We have young men and women with their lives on the line,” he added. “The debate has fallen far short of what they deserve.” Pomeroy said Dean wasn’t representing Democrats like him when he discussed the war.

“He is not hired to make major policy announcements on behalf of all the Democrats,” Pomeroy said. “As our party chairman I believe he needs to focus on the nuts and bolts of winning elections.”

Dean backtracked on his statements somewhat Thursday, saying his assertion that the United States cannot win the war was reported “a little out of context,” and that Democrats believe a new U.S. strategy is needed to succeed there.

There it is, Dean’s little auto-eject button – the all inclusive “out of context” excuse. He uses this when he knows his message isn’t ‘resonating’ with the constituency.

Oh, and somehow I don’t think Howard believes he was elected party chairman to focus on nuts and bolts. As far as Dean is concerned, he’s the only hope the Democrats have, so he reaches for every piece of media attention he can get. Without a microphone or a camera, he becomes irrelevant.

What Howard doesn’t know is, in many ways he’s already irrelevant.

Too bad the Democrats don’t see this. Oh they will eventually, but it will be too late by then. Howard Dean won’t stop until he’ successfully flushed the party down the political toilet. He won’t take the blame though because of that “out of context” thing. 

Hey, it’s cheap entertainment. I hope it lasts.

A Southwest Airlines jet landed and slipped off the end of the runway at Midway Airport in Chicago tonight. The passenger jet came to rest at the corner of 55th and Cicero after sliding through a fence and crashing into a car. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been sitting in a rental car at that very corner.

A young boy died at the scene.

A 6-year-old boy in one of the vehicles was killed, authorities said. He was among eight people hurt on the ground. Two passengers on the plane suffered minor injuries, Aviation Department spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said.

Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 from Baltimore was landing at Midway International Airport with 98 passengers and five crew around 7:15 Thursday night when it slid through the fence. The airport area had 7 inches of snow, but Abrams said runway conditions at the time were acceptable.

The landing seemed normal at first, passenger Larry Vazzano said. “There was a bump. I saw snow rush over the wing, then there was a big bump,” said Vazzano, 54, of Baltimore. “I braced myself on the seat in front of me.”

Mike Abate, 35, of suburban Milwaukee, said he could see from the plane that a man was carrying an injured child and that other people were being taken away in an ambulance. “We were safe on the plane,” Abate said. “The toughest part was to realize that someone was under the belly of the plane.”

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said the plane had circled Midway for 30 to 35 minutes because of the weather and the flight traffic before it was cleared for landing on the airport’s 6,500-foot runway.

He would not speculate on what could have caused the accident but said the plane’s captain had been flying for about 10 years.

“There are no indications that there are any maintenance problems with that aircraft whatsoever,” Kelly said. He said the plane had just had a service check in Phoenix on Wednesday.

More at The Travel Bloggers.
Video

Homes of the Billionaires 2005 over at Forbes.

Here he goes again.

AP – Senator John Kerry says US needs to reduce its forces in Iraq by at least 100,000 by the end of 2006.

He says such a move will send a message to the Middle East that Americans aren’t interested in maintaining a permanent military presence in that country.

In a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations, Kerry said the goal should be to have a force of 30-to-40,000 in Iraq by the end of next year.

However, he said any troop withdrawal should be linked to a timetable set by what he calls “a series of benchmarks of accomplishment.”

In a speech sometimes reminiscent of his 2004 run for the White House, Kerry focused most of his criticism at the Bush administration.

So, let me get this straight. To take 100,000 of our troops out of Iraq, all we need to do is set a timetable with benchmarks of accomplishment. OK, let’s pretend that Bush agrees to Kerry’s plan. First we need to determine what constitutes accomplishment. Oops, plan failure. The Democrats will never agree with Republicans on a practical definition of ‘accomplishment’, so we’re back to square one.

Nice try John.

I can’t wait to see this. Too bad it’s only going to be released to the web and not broadcast television. Although, now that I think about it, the Swifties sure didn’t need much TV time to be effective.

UPDATE: Video