Politics: October 2008 Archives
A humorous but educational look at the mathematics of randomly-sampled polls -- confidence intervals and margins of error -- and the non-quantifiable errors that have nothing to do with sampling: "What if you have to rely on the balls to report their own color, and some unknown number are probably lying to you? What if you have outsourced the urn-ball counting to part-time temp balls, most of whom happen to be blue? What if the balls inside the urn are listening to you counting out there, and it affects whether they want to be counted, and/or which color they want to be?... [S]o-called scientific "sampling error" is completely meaningless, because it is utterly overwhelmed by unmeasurable non-sampling error. Under these circumstances "margin of error" is a fantasy, a numeric fiction masquerading as a pseudo-scientific fact."
Copious Dissent: Cuba Discovers Oil While Democrats Block Drilling
"Cuba just found 20 billion barrels of oil off its shores in the Gulf of Mexico, and now plans to be one of the top 20 exporting countries in the world. This story alone should disqualify the Democrats from being reelected. Had there not been a moratorium on drilling, that oil would have been ours." (Via Ace.)
Anatomy of a Congressional Leadership Race [The Dirksen Congressional Center]
How Bob Michel (R-IL) beat Guy Vander Jagt (R-MI) to become House Minority Leader in 1982.
Conservative Canon « Marty Andrade
A collection of links to lists of must-read books on political philosophy, economics, culture, etc.
Fannie Mayhem: A History - WSJ.com
Articles and editorials from the Wall Street Journal. As early as 2002, WSJ was calling attention to problems with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Hot Air: Another confirmation that enforcement works
Commenter "rockmom" says that illegal labor made this crisis possible, by driving down wages, facilitating overbuilding, and creating a market for no-documentation mortgages.
What They Said About Fan and Fred - WSJ.com
From the 2005 hearings on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Barney Frank bravely asks the heads of those companies if they feel they "have been substantially under-regulated." Plus quotes from congressmen and senators from 2003, 2004, and 2005 hearings on problems with the Government Supported Enterprises. (Via The Corner.)
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