Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

His Lips Are Moving

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Pumped: It looks real, but it's true, so that's the giveaway that this “McCain Ad” must be a fake:

Posted in Politics: McCain | Comments Off on His Lips Are Moving

I Was Part of the Sample for this Poll

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

The Public Policy Polling (PPP) has released the results of the robopoll that I blogged about taking the other day (see Wasserman Schultz Must Support Taddeo).

Here's how TheBuzz summarizes the results,

“The Democrats crossing over to support McCain are disproportionately older white females, an indication that Hillary Clinton's base may not be completely behind Obama in the Sunshine State.

“Obama has slipped with Hispanic voters in the last month, leading among them just 48-45 after holding a 51-37 advantage in PPP's previous Florida poll. The numbers show an unusual gender gap, with McCain leading by 11 points among women while trailing by 5 points with men. Last month's results similarly showed Obama doing eight points better with men than women, a trend PPP has not seen in any of its other state by state polling. Obama has a large lead among young voters, McCain has a big one with senior citizens, and the candidates are virtually tied with those in between.”

Also some weird U.S. Senate match-ups against Mel Martinez (Bob Graham beating Martinez by 20 pionts and Debbie Wasserman Schultz basically tied).

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment

Latest Obama Ad: “The Original Maverick?”

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Obama's New Ad “Original”

Is this the best they can do? It's not going to stand out much in the clutter of TV ads.

Amazingly ho-hum presentation given how damning the facts are.

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | Comments Off on Latest Obama Ad: “The Original Maverick?”

I’ll Be on Air America at 5:30pm (fixed)

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

It seems I will be on Air America this afternoon at around 5:30pm, discussing Sunday's posting, New Low For McCain Campaign: Obama == The Anti-Christ.

I guess things get slow in August.

Update: If you have an Air America membership, allegedly you can hear the clip via this Ron Kuby archive podcast. Ron Kuby, by the way, has an interesting history.

Posted in The Media | 1 Comment

Wasserman Schultz Must Support Taddeo

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

Daily Kos: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Still Sandbagging Taddeo.

Which reminds me: I got a robophone poll a couple of days ago which asked who I supported in the Presidential election. Then it asked what I think of Sen. Mel Martinez (I think he's doing a terrible job).

Then the poll asked who'd I'd support in an election between Bob Graham and Martinez. I actually think Graham would be a bit old by then to be my candidate of choice, but I said I'd support him. I suppose they include him as he's sort of the gold standard for calibrating support for Democrats in Florida state politics.

Then it got interesting: the robopollster asked who I'd support in a matchup between Martinez and Wasserman Schultz. Panic. I couldn't of course support Martinez. After the way she's dealt with Taddeo, and south Florida in general, I had no desire to support Wasserman Schultz in a poll. But should I say Martinez as a form of protest? Could I say Martinez?

No, I couldn't. So I copped out and said I was undecided.

At that point the robopoll voice switched (and got much softer), as if I'd triggered something, and I got asked some demographic questions, and it was over.

Attention Debbie Wasserman Schultz: what you are doing is not costless behavior. We are taking notes, and we have long memories. And megaphones. And friends.

Posted in Politics: FL-18 | Comments Off on Wasserman Schultz Must Support Taddeo

Offline Wikipedia — Only 3.5GB

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

WikiTaxi offers you an offline snapshot of the Wikipedia. The full English dump is only 3.5GB. (An abridged version is a svelte 25MB.)

Did you ever want to take Wikipedia with you while you are offline? Call on WikiTaxi: It is a portable application that delivers the Wikipedia of your choice to wherever you go.

WikiTaxi enables you to read, search, and browse Wikipedia offline. No Internet connection is needed, all pages are stored in a WikiTaxi database. Because Wikipedia is constantly growing, WikiTaxi uses compression to make sure that the database stays reasonably small.

…

WikiTaxi is up to date. It works with the original Wikipedia database dumps, which are updated regularly every few weeks or so. If you feel that your offline Wikipedia is getting to old, you can go online to download a more recent version or just copy it from a friend.

Not only is this just simply kewl, but I imagine scholars looking for a way to measure changes in the wikipedia will love this.

Posted in Internet | 2 Comments