The Canadian ::.centre for public opinion and democracy.:: tracks

polls and elections all over the world. Here you can not only find the latest state-wide polls but polls of citizens in other countries!

Unfortunately, the interface isn’t very friendly (even broken in Firefox). Strangely, I found more results from the Centre by searching

Google News for ‘Zogby Interactive Poll‘ (Zogby International itself wants you to pay) than by searching the Centre’s site directly.

See also

the Wall Street Journal’s Flash-based map of battleground states based on Zogby.

Meanwhile, things swing daily at the oft-noted www.electoral-vote.com. mjh

ABQjournal: Gloomy Outlook In N.M., Poll Says By Leslie

Linthicum, Journal Staff Writer

Nearly half of New Mexico voters have a gloomy outlook on the future of the nation, according to a

Journal poll, with 45 percent believing the country is headed down the wrong track. …

Only 39 percent chose the “right direction,”

compared to the 45 percent who said the “wrong track.” Sixteen percent were either undecided, had mixed feelings or didn’t want to share

their answer with a pollster. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

Who’s the most glum?

They are highly educated (53 percent saying things are going sour), Democrats (61 percent), people who live in northern New Mexico (60

percent) and those who make between $40,000 and $60,000 (51 percent).

And the most optimistic about the national direction?

They are Republicans (72 percent) and people who live on the state’s east side (51 percent).

Hispanic voters appeared to have

less faith in the country’s future than Anglos. Twenty-six percent of Hispanics polled said the country was heading in the right

direction compared to 48 percent of Anglos polled. Fifty-six percent of the Hispanics said we’re on the wrong track, compared to 38

percent of the Anglos.

Women were twice as likely as men to be undecided or not say.

ABQjournal: Oh, So Close! Bush has Slight Lead in N.M.By

Andy Lenderman, Albuquerque Journal Politics Writer

President Bush had a slight edge over Democrat John Kerry in a Journal poll of

New Mexico voters, completed as the candidates prepared for the final two months of the campaign.

Bush had 45 percent support

compared to Kerry’s 42 percent in the Aug. 27 to Sept. 1 survey of 908 registered voters statewide.

Campaign coverage needs to read between the

linesby David Shaw, LATimes

Steve Lovelady, managing editor of CampaignDesk.org, says he’s been appalled by the “everyday occurrence”

of this approach by reporters on the campaign trail.

“Reporters seem to think they’ve done an adequate job just because they give

both sides a chance to state their case,” Lovelady says. “But if that’s all you do, you may have satisfied the imagined constraints of

objectivity, but often you haven’t told the reader anything.

“It’s the most common and infuriating flaw in the press today.

said/she said/we say — and here’s why we say it.”

Censored! The 10 big stories the national news media ignore. By Camille T.

Taiara. SF Bay Guardian

1. Wealth inequality in 21st century threatens economy and democracy
2. Ashcroft versus human rights law that

holds corporations accountable
3. Bush administration manipulates science and censors scientists
4. High uranium levels found in troops

and civilians
5. Wholesale giveaway of our natural resources
6. Sale of electoral politics
7. Conservative organization drives

judicial appointments
8. Secrets of Cheney’s energy task force come to light
9. Widow brings RICO case against U.S. government for

9/11
10. New nuke plants: taxpayers support, industry profits

CNN.com – Historians dispute Schwarzenegger’s

convention comments – Sep 3, 2004

In his convention address, Schwarzenegger also said: “As a kid, I saw the Socialist country that

Austria became after the Soviets left” in 1955 and Austria regained its independence.

But Martin Polaschek, a law history scholar and

vice rector of Graz University, told Kurier that Austria was governed by coalition governments, including the conservative People’s

Party and the Social Democratic Party. Between 1945 and 1970, all the nation’s chancellors were conservatives — not Socialists.

What’s more, when Schwarzenegger left in 1968, Austria was run by a conservative government headed by People’s Party

Chancellor Josef Klaus, a staunch Roman Catholic and a sharp critic of both the Socialists and the Communists ruling in countries across

the Iron Curtain.

Schwarzenegger “confuses a free country with a Socialist one,” said Polaschek.

Why Democrats shouldn’t be scared By Michael Moore,

USATODAY.com

Exactly what moment was it during the convention that convinced them that the Republicans had now “connected” with the

majority of Americans and that it was all over? Arnold praising Richard Nixon? Ooooh, that’s a real crowd-pleaser. Elizabeth Dole

decrying the removal of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse wall in Alabama? Yes, that’s a big topic of conversation in the

unemployment line in Akron, Ohio. Georgia Sen. Miller, a Democratic turncoat, looking like Freddy Krueger at an all-girls camp? His

speech — and the look on what you could see of his strangely lit face — was enough for parents to send small children to their

bedrooms.

My friends — and I include all Democrats, independents and recovering Republicans in this salutation — do not be afraid.

Yes, the Bush Republicans huff and they puff, but they blow their own house down.

As many polls confirm, a majority of your fellow

Americans believe in your agenda. They want stronger environmental laws, are strong supporters of women’s rights, favor gun control and

want the war in Iraq to end. …

And there were the Band-Aids. The worst display of how out of touch the Republicans are was those

Purple Heart Band-Aids the delegates wore to mock Kerry over his war wounds, which, for them, did not spill the required amount of

blood.

What they didn’t seem to get is that watching at home might have been millions of war veterans feeling that they were being

ridiculed by a bunch of rich Republicans who would never send their own offspring to die in Fallujah or Danang.

Everyone at the top of the Bush adminstration except the absent Colin Powell actively avoided Vietnam. Hey, I was

certainly thinking about Canada when my number was drawn. But I’m not pounding a podium today saying you didn’t bleed enough and you

are weak. Colossal, mammoth, elephantine hypocrisy. mjh

Text of Schwarzenegger’s

speech Newsday.com

I finally arrived here in 1968. I had empty pockets, but I was full of dreams. The presidential campaign was in

full swing. I remember watching the Nixon and Humphrey presidential race on TV. A friend who spoke German and English, translated for me.

I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like socialism, which is what I had just left. But then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking

about free enterprise, getting government off your back, lowering taxes and strengthening the military. Listening to Nixon speak sounded

more like a breath of fresh air.

I said to my friend, “What party is he?” My friend said, “He’s a Republican.” I said, “Then I am a

Republican!” And I’ve been a Republican ever since!

Nixon ‘a breath of fresh air’? More like ‘smoke blown up your

ass.’ He was a paranoid liar surrounded by thugs. If that’s what brought Arnie into the GOP, no wonder he praises Duhbya.

mjh