Author Archives: mindless

Seventh graders who pay attention in civics class know the difference between “impeachment” and “removal from office.” The Washington Post had a bit of trouble on that front today. The Grey Lady did much better:

It’s difficult to imagine now, with Bush’s approval rating at 22%, but back in 2003, the contenders for the Democratic nomination were scared to challenge Bush. All of them except Howard Dean. And although he’s being snubbed by the incoming … Continue reading →

Joe the Plumber for U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2010.

Sometimes the universe freaks me out a bit. Monday I guest taught “Ms. Stollwerk’s” world history class in the South Bronx. I volunteered to teach the scientific revolution since I took an excellent class (from the inimitable Prof. Manning) on … Continue reading →

I think it’s ridiculous that a bare majority of voters can amend a state constitution, but that’s not the question at issue today in California. Instead, Prop 8 opponents (i.e., the side of justice and equality) have filed suit saying … Continue reading →

For the better part of a year I worked for Google but couldn’t tell people the details of my work because of an NDA. Over the past few months the details of the project have emerged and this weekend the … Continue reading →

In an odd convergence of the universe, my work received three shout outs today — all on completely unrelated topics. So I figure since this site will get a slight boost in traffic today, I should use the attention to … Continue reading →

As a lifelong Orioles fan, I’ve always loathed the New York “Evil Empire” Yankees. The only time I would root for them is when their winning would help the Orioles in a penant race (remember, back in the 1990s, the … Continue reading →

(Cross-posted at the CSDP Election Blog. Extra note below.) Every morning one of my friends IMs me to say either, “We’re winning!!!!” or “We’re losing :( :(.” He bases these conclusions on websites such as electoral-vote.com, which aggregate polls and … Continue reading →

With Obama’s VP announcement imminent via text message, reporters are taking a renewed interest in the study that Allison Dale and I completed last cycle. We found a 3 percentage point intent-to-treat effect for mobilization text messages (with a 4 … Continue reading →