(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
WARBLOGGER WATCH
Thursday, August 01, 2002
Andrew Sullivan, master statistician and social scientist, is citing Newsweek polls from October 2001 to show that Americans decisively (81 per cent!) support a war on Iraq. Additional Newsweek polls conducted in October 2001 found that 63 per cent of respondents believed bin Laden was behind the anthrax mailings, suggesting that people were then responding on nothing beyond emotion.
Question for Sullivan: if Americans had “decided” so overwhelmingly back in October to support a “war,” why did a Gallup poll concluded in late June find that just 59 per cent supported such an event. Why did 34 per cent oppose it, up from 20 per cent in November? A "decision" implies finality, though despite your disgusting and ceaseless propagandizing on behalf of the war for the past 11 months, public support for it has dwindled. That shows both that you and your keyboard-bound jingoes are piss-poor propagandists, and that the American public isn't as foolish as Newsweek's October polls depicted it.
The Christian Science Monitor reported on July 17, 2002 that that 59 per cent majority “shrinks to a minority, however, in a scenario where the United States would go it alone - an option administration officials have not ruled out.” Hey, don't let the disappearance of your majority get in the way, not that you're at all interested in facts.
Addendum: Caught the above Sullivanian nonsense via Matt Welch, who I promise to be nicer to in the future. posted by Anonymous8:57 AM
The Watchers
WBW: Keeping track of the war exhortations of the warbloggers.