I’d meant to mention this today. But I got sidetracked on a few other projects we’re trying to get squared away before the holiday.
If you’re a long-time TPM Reader you know that one of the things we’ve done a lot of over the last few years and particularly during the 2006 cycle has been to get a jump on stories unseen by the national media by relying on tips from readers in the field. One of the things we did a lot on last November (was that really a year ago?) was getting information from folks who’d received push-polls or deliberately offending “robocalls” in the lead up to the election.
One of the great limitations we’ve always labored under though is a simple lack of resources. We’ve never been able to really bring the process to scale to put together tips and from folks who’ve gotten polled in different parts of the country, with different messages and so forth.
But Huffington Post’s ‘Off the Bus’ crowd sourcing venture is putting the concept to work with the kind of technical infrastructure and resources we’ve always envied. It’s called the Polling Project. And they just launched it today. We, along with a number of other online news outlets and blogs, right and left, are cosponsoring it. And you can find out more about it here. Definitely give it a look and share what you’re hearing from those annoying pollsters on the other end of the line.
From the ChiTrib …
Nine days after registering his presidential exploratory committee last November, Rudolph Giuliani appeared in Singapore to help a Las Vegas developer make a pitch for a $3.5 billion casino resort.
Though the bid ultimately failed, and there was nothing illegal about the involvement, it drew Giuliani into a complex partnership with the family of a controversial Hong Kong billionaire who has ties to the regime of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il and has been linked to international organized crime by the U.S. government.
Giuliani’s participation as a security consultant in the Singapore gambling venture illustrates the challenge he faces while attempting to win the Republican presidential nomination with a law-and-order message while maintaining a far-flung, international business portfolio, an unknown portion of which remains in the shadows.
Late Update: Paul Kiel has more on Rudy the “bidnessman” in Today’s Must Read.
M.J. Rosenberg wonders: What’s wrong with mudslinging?
In which Ruth Marcus (recites the DC seriousness catechism: I believe with perfect faith that …) shows you can really go to town on the Social Security issue if you’re clueless about how it’s financed.
Late Update: Krugman has a good response-cum-smackdown here.
Romney’s story on those anti-Mormon ‘push-polls’ just gets fishier and fishier.
And it was already pretty fishy.
The real story of Rudy Giuliani’s post-9/11 foray into the business world has yet to be told. Today we get another glimpse into Rudy the “bidnessman.”
We’re coming up to the end of the year. And here at TPM we’re going to see off 2007 with a contest to recognize things like the biggest bamboozle of 2007. Biggest fib. Most abject loss of dignity in testimony before Congress.
We’re looking for your help on a couple fronts. What should the categories be? And most of all we need your nominations for winners. For more details and how you can participate, check out today’s Holiday Muck-O-Rama episode of TPMtv …
Romney: Thinking I’m behind the push-poll is like being a World Trade Center conspiracy theorist.
As you’ll also see, Romney also suits up for battle in the new War against Thanksgiving. (ed.note: He’s pro-Thanksgiving.)
Sorry, but it looks like Scott McClellan won’t be implicating President Bush for knowingly lying about Plamegate after all.