Thirty-four days to E-Day... or Hail to the Bail?

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So, the Senate passed the bailout, and now it goes back to the House for a revote.
Hopefully Pelosi won't offend the soft hearted, unassuming, humble, modest, thin skinned republicans this time... yeah.
As I've said I'm just not convinced this is a great or even good thing.
There's all kinds of information out there to read including the actual draft.
There are detailed opinions both for and against it by far more intelligent folk than I am.
I still on a gut level don't like it, it stinks. Might be necessary but it's being forced as the only thing to do.
Who the hell knows. Even with the bail out, even if it works and revives Wall Street... I don't think it changes enough.
The greedy bastards are still in place. What's next? Can we bail everyone out?
Neither party is full of angels by a long shot, the finger pointing is so ridiculous.

So tomorrow (actually later today since I was so late getting to this post) is the Vice Presidential debate.

I'll of course be sitting on top of the tv set watching that one closely.
Should be very interesting. I suppose all either of them have to do is break even.
I have very little expectation for Palin given all her previous interviews.
They probably shouldn't cram too much into her head I don't think she can take it.
Biden should be all right but he tends to talk too much (kinda like Bill Clinton).
He's bright and knowledgeable, has a lot of experience but given the climate of this election.
Who knows?
Maybe we've all been fooled and she'll do great and he'll sound unprepared...
I'll haveta watch em and get back to ya on that! (sorry couldn't resist)

There's also the question of Gwen Ifill who will be the moderator in St. Louis.
She's a professional and respected journalist. I'm sure she can moderate and ask fair questions directed to BOTH of them.
But as with every-damn-thing associated with this election there's of course a new brouhaha.
She's got a book titled "Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama" coming out in January 2009.
::sigh:: It doesn't bother me all that much but everyone out there is arguing over that now too.
It's amazing (and tiring) how things change from hour to hour, morning to evening in this presidential race.

I have to confess that I'm watching this whole election with fascination.
Well, that and a touch of complete horror.
This election has become such a contentious mess.
Both sides are responsible no doubt but McCain's behavior is rather peculiar as of late.
I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude throughout as much as I can
but sometimes collapse into pessimism and cynicism far more often than I'd like to admit.

On a different front-
I hear that President Bush has an approval rating of 23% right now. Wow. Even allowing for sloppy statistics and assuming an overly generous margin for error: that’s pretty bad. Ouch. Can't get too much lower can it? Hmm.
Also said at the moment congress job approval rate is around 15%. Double ouch. Bipartisan no doubt.

I studied statistics in college in math, anthropology, psychology, sociology and social work, along with scientific research and methodology. Validity and reliability are variables that have multitudes of problems that effect the accuracy and predictability of anything studied. Statistics can be and are manipulated everyday. Everything matters such as; how you label your graphs, ask the questions, interpret the results, what scale you choose and who or what are you're studying. Also important is who the people are that are footing the bill for the study.

I had an absolutely fantastic statistics professor a long time ago that would illustrate howt he could present the results to any study to imply almost the opposite what the study actually found. That’s what he wanted us to understand by the end of the class that a true statistician should care about honesty and integrity because their work could be used to influence or illustrate why something should or shouldn’t be done in the real world. There are many honest statisticians and others that aren’t terribly conscientious at all.

I never looked at any newspaper or magazine chart the same way again. You could find studies with major problems printed in professional journals. The joke in statistics is that no one really cares or looks that hard at how the study is conducted in the general public because they’re looking at the information and seeing what they are led to see or want to believe.

I'm looking forward to the next presidential debates too.
It's funny, I usually stay on top of these things but I forgot that last presidential debate October 15th is in Hempstead, NY.
I don't know why I forgot this because I've been to Hofstra University many, many times for many different reasons.
I guess I'll have to chalk it up to having so much on my mind lately personally and politically. Yup, I'm sticking to that.

So G'night
Have a pleasant tomorrow
Don't miss the VP debate, tape it if you have to!
See you later,

Laura


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