The 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll

This month's 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll begins with tough questions concerning where the upcoming 9/11 trial should take place, as well as where the Guantanamo detainees should be relocated to. Then in deference to the holiday season, we lighten up and ask Americans which movie star they would like to co-star with, and in what type of movie. Then, what superpower they would most like to possess, how they watch TV, and some other dandies you might like to bring up at your too late, too loud, family holiday gathering. Here we go:

• Will the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial make New York more of a terrorist target?

What Do You Think?

 Yes, this is just what al Qaeda wanted
 No, New York is a target anyway

More than 60 percent do not think trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York will make the city any more of a terrorist target than it already is. Nearly 30 percent think it will and that it is just what al Qaeda wanted. If asked, we're confident that 100 percent of respondents would say they hope they never have to find out.

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[libcbs]

They put the questions in the order they want you to say yes to! Notice how the first question gets all the yeses LOL. Oh, but they're fooling us!

[PLS8395]

It would appear that all of you have missed the real question contained in the poll or have chosen to ignore it all together.

The Poll asks "Will the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial make New York more of a terrorist target?" A simple yes/no response is in order but the writers of the poll want to skew the results by adding to the predetermined answers "Yes, this is just what al Qaeda wanted" or "No, New York is a target anyway"

How about "Yes, because through fear, the enemy gains strength" or "No, school children are the real target" or some other baited response? P.T. Barnum would be proud of Vanity Fair's poll...

[PLS8395]

"What do you think the NFL should do about concussions?"
"What Do You Think?
Make better helmets
Tell players to go easier on each other
Football is too dangerous. Soccer is the future
Get rid of helmets"
Since the NFL does not manufacture helmets, I would say the only responses are "Tell players to go easier on each other" and "Get rid of helmets"

[PLS8395]

"Are you happy with your childcare arrangements?"
Responses to the question should be YES or NO. But the author(s) gives subjects several options that could invoke guilt or sympathy.

[leepoe1]

Ah, but Americans always forget. Eisenhower warned that the "military-industrial complex" would find war so profitable that we would be doing it all the time. The last smart Republican, who saw it coming, of course taxes on the rich were in the 90% range then, when the burden of this great capitalist engine's maintenance was on those who profited the most. That too has been forgotten and now the poorest and weakest must pay while the richest go without so much as an estate tax to garner a few pennies from the billions they will inherit this year. Forgetful and funny Americans. No wonder they all want to be rich.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Bull...the poorest and weakest pay nothing, and often get 'refunds' in the form of tax credits.

[bankersvox]

Donkey with papers in his panties....

Well then, going down memory lane, what about Mr. Berger, the top legal aid to President Clinton - putting all those papers about how the EX Pres could have killed Al Queda, but ? did not. He destroyed these important top secret documents, and actually took off with them, shoved down his pants.

What happend to Berger ? a 50 000 fine, no jail time and a "mistake in judgment BS" admission.
Talk about a scandal that was really EQUAL TO WATERGATE, but ignored.

[jackp32]

You mean Sandy Burglar? The average person committing that crime would have received a 30 yr prison term. But a well connected person like Burglar gets off virtually scot free.

[jsadams12542]

Who in the world cares how elephants communicate? Only hopeless liberals could possibly care. In the whole scheme of things how could this possibly be important? Why don't you disclose the taxpayer $$ that are being waisted on this kind of nonsense? Once again 60 minutes proves that they are totally out of touch with the American people!!

Scott Adams

[ibsteve2u]

Actually, if we can figure out why elephants never forget, we might be able to teach the American voter to remember important characteristics of Republican "leadership" the next time they go to the poll.

Like these, as compiled by "The Daily Beast" at http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-06/forgotten-bush-scandals/

1) In March 2006, Claude Allen, Bush's top domestic policy aide, was arrested when he tried to return items he had shoplifted from Target for cash refunds. Allen, who made $161,000 a year, blamed stress from Hurricane Katrina.

2) In 2005, bloggers pricked up their ears when a reporter named Jeff Gannon asked a softball question at a Bush press conference. Some sleuthing turned up nude photos of Gannon?real name: James Guckert?on male escort websites.

3) Randall Tobias, Bush?s AIDS tsar, mandated that organizations must oppose prostitution in order to receive American aid. It later emerged that Tobias purchased services through the notorious D.C. Madam, though Tobias maintained he only bought ?massages.?

4) The Interior Department?s Minerals Management Service would not seem to be the sexiest government agency. But a departmental investigation last year found that officials had ?frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.?

Where?d the Money Go?

5) When testifying before Congress in 2007, L. Paul Bremer, the former head of reconstruction in Iraq, was unable to account for as much as $12 billion?about half of his budget?as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority between May 2003 and June 2004. According to a report by Rep. Henry Waxman, contractors brought bags to meetings in order to collect shrink-wrapped bundles of money.

6) In 2004, Pentagon auditors found that Halliburton had not adequately accounted for $1.8 billion of the bill it sent to the United States government for its work in Iraq and Kuwait.

7) Also that year, Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer, charged that KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, unfairly received billions of dollars worth of no-bid contracts in Iraq. Greenhouse was demoted in 2005.

Disappearances

8) In 2002, Canadian citizen Maher Arar was detained at an airport in New York and spirited away to Syria, where he was tortured and held for 10 months by his captors before being returned home. Canadian officials investigated Arar's case, declared he was innocent, and paid him $9 million in compensation. American officials refused to admit the mistake and instead kept Arar on a terrorist watch list.

9) Army Captain James Yee, a Muslim chaplain in Guantanamo Bay, was hooded, shackled, and detained in solitary confinement for 76 days on charges of espionage. Within a year the case against Yee had collapsed and the Army tried to save face by charging him with hoarding pornography.

All the President?s Wordsmiths

10) In an email to friends, Danielle Crittenden, the wife of White House speechwriter David Frum, bragged that her husband had written Bush?s famous ?Axis of Evil? line. The e-mail leaked to Slate, causing a minor scandal.

[ibsteve2u]

(cont., again from http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-06/forgotten-bush-scandals/full/)

11) Part of the self-created mythology of White House speechwriter Michael Gerson was that he composed his speeches in longhand. But as fellow scribe Matthew Scully later noted: ?At the precise moment when the State of the Union address was being drafted at the White House by John [McConnell] and me, Mike was off pretending to craft the State of the Union in longhand for the benefit of a reporter.?

President Bush Ron Edmonds/AP No Administration Friend Left Behind

12) First there was Columnist Gate: In 2005, USA Today reported that conservative commentator Armstrong Williams received a $240,000 contract from the Department of Education to promote No Child Left Behind on his television show and to sell other African-American journalists on the legislation. Later, The Washington Post uncovered a similar deal with columnist Maggie Gallagher to promote a marriage initiative for the Department of Health.

13) A Defense Department report in 2006 urged the military to end its practice of paying Iraqi journalists to publish pro-American stories in their newspapers, arguing the tactic would "undermine the concept of a free press."

14) According to The New York Times, Karl Rove scored lobbyist Ralph Reed a lucrative contract with Enron in 1997 to gain his support in the 2000 presidential race.

15) David Safavian, the former chief of staff of the General Services Administration, was convicted of helping Jack Abramoff on a shady land deal as well as concealing a "lavish weeklong golf trip" paid for by Abramoff.

16) As head of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz was forced to resign in disgrace after he helped his "female companion," Shaha Riza, score a $60,000 pay raise and promotion?and then tried to cover it up.

Down the Memory Hole

17) Bush fundraiser Lurita Doan's gig as chair of the General Services Administration went down in flames when she was accused of asking agency staff to help Republican candidates win elections. Doan denied any wrongdoing. When witnesses said she asked her staff at a meeting, "How can we use GSA to help our candidates in the next election?" Doan claimed she had no memory of the presentation.

18) Though Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins, who committed suicide in 2008, was suspected of being the anthrax mailer, that didn't keep Bush and Cheney from openly speculating that Al Qaeda was behind the attacks and even going so far as to pressure FBI officials to come up with a bin Laden connection, according to the New York Daily News.

Mission Accomplished

19) In 2003, Bush went to a warehouse in St. Louis to give a speech titled ?Strengthening America?s Economy.? But the boxes laid out before the presidential podium bore the label "Made in China." The labels were then obscured with white paper. The White House blamed an "overzealous advance volunteer.?

The Last Word

20) The administration ethos was nicely summarized during the investigation in the firing of US attorneys, in a testy exchange between former White House Political Director Sara Taylor and Sen. Patrick Leahy. Taylor: "I took an oath to the president?And I believe that taking that oath means that I need to respect, and do respect, my service to the president." Leahy: "No, the oath says that you take an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution of the United States. That is your paramount duty. I know that the president refers to the government being his government?it's not."

So I would say that if finding out how elephants remember can be used to help the America voter remember how dangerous the Republicans are, then it is a matter of national security.