In Case You Missed This... 'Wisconsin Posts Biggest US Job Loss, As Gov. Scott Walker Fights For His

Audaciously, Walker's own statistics showed he increased jobs there..

Check out that Media Matters link at the bottom.

Why does not the public see this?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/governor/wi/wisconsin_governor_recall_election_walker_vs_barrett-3056.html

a sticky business in such an unusual election.

The only poll that's going to count is the formal one run on Tuesday.

Weighting isn't the cause of these results. While the Tuesday election IS what counts you cannot dismiss polls because of weighting. Weighting is done in every scientific survey and is necessary because it is a sample universe.

In order to have fairly accurate polling a company must randomly select individuals to ask questions. When you use a random selection process (such as random phone calls) the sample universe never quite matches up to the real universe. Let's say a county has an adult male population of 47% and a female adult population of 53%. But the random sample universe comes in 50%-50%. The male respondents are weighted down to 47% and the female respondents are weighted up to 53%.

They do this for age, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic categories, education levels, etc. They will also do it for Republican versus Democrat. Now what can be disputed is the actual "real" universe of Rep versus Dem percentages within a county or state. If those numbers are off then weighting can impact the results. But weighting happens in all polling...or it would be non-scientific.

How can one be sure that a better representation results? Well that's done by using the weighting based on past experience, to produce results that fit PAST experience. And in as much as today's experience mirrors the past, such weights can potentially produce better results.

But there is no comparable past for the Wisconsin recall election.

This is the 3rd recall of a governor in US history. Elections for Wisconsin June are unlike history of the past few years, having an election in early june has the potential to wreak havoc on voter registrations of college and university students--in Wisconsin you can register to vote on the same day...but you must be a resident at your registered address for 30 days prior. This has had huge effect on early/absentee voting and bends traditional weightings on voter turn out. The election isn't about traditional democratic vs republican issues, it's about huge objection by a wide swath of the electorate to binge legislating in what can only be called tyrannical completely un-empathetic manner by a state Senate who have greatly overstepped whatever meager mandate their narrow majority reflected. Finally there's the strangeness of the senate special elections where unprecedented amounts of money being spent on state senatorial elections which are essentially the heart of the Wisconsin Recall. The senate elections are every bit as important to stopping the tyranny as is the gubernatorial election. It's unprecedented for state senate elections to exert leverage on the election of the governor. It virtually always works in reverse of that with senators riding the coattails of the gubernatorial outcome.

Bottom line, this isn't a typical election at all. And it's uniqueness presents lots of uncertainty about how to come up with valid weighting for these opinion polls. No one will know what weights are/were correct until after next Tuesday.

The "99%" has been waging this battle against the "1%" since forever...

Despite temporary visionary leaders - from Jesus to MLK, Mother Theresa to Gandhi, even to - dare I say - Barack Obama version 2008, this fight will continue until human beings evolve to truly understand that we are all connected; what happens to the "least" of us affects all of us - sentient AND non-sentient beings; and our own survival depends upon an understanding and integration of this consciousness.

It's truly an uphill battle. I get very tired of it, and disheartened sometimes. Sometimes I have to turn away from it. But getting this larger perspective helps.

And when you gut people's earnings, you REDUCE DEMAND.

This supply side nonsense has proven to be a farce.

God Walker has a creeply smile. Ick.

A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours,
and a recovery is when Scott Walker loses his job!

Does he no longer need to do any campaigning on his behalf because the fix is in?
Is he getting more out-of-state dollars to add to his coffers and defense fund?
Is he more concerned about spreading his Tea Bagging message to other states than maintaining his job?

The amount of money being spent from largely out-of-state sources is unprecedented. Koch and their ilk know this may be a referendum on returning to the days when employees were little more than serfs with no ability to negotiate or demand better pay and benefits.

The right has been very aggressive in trying to convince average Wisconsinites that public employees live in the lap of luxury with salaries way beyond those in the private sector, have benefits that allow them to retire at 50 with $100K per year, free health insurance, etc.

Hopefully enough of the state's electorate are watching and were watching the atrocities promulgated by this Governor and his henchmen in the Legislature to know this is NOT democracy at work. Hopefully enough of the voters will realize that there are other choices that might bright a degree of civility and sanity to state lawmaking.

But while I pray and hope and contribute to the cause, this may be one we don't win. The other news coming out today suggests that even if he survives the recall he may be "recalled" to a federal prison of unknown location. Yes!!!!!