Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in wattann's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, October 14th, 2004
10:02 am	an amusing quote from a NYT article today (the flight attendant part made me laugh): "Mr. Kerry's sonorous pronouncements seemed aimed at projecting calm and reason. His hand motions were fluid, contrasting with Mr. Bush's more jerky style and the varying rhythms of his speech. But at times, Mr. Kerry looked a little like a flight attendant demonstrating how emergency exits and oxygen masks work: when addressing a broader security issue, Mr. Kerry referenced identity-verification technology, pointing to his eyes when he said "iris" scans, and gesturing broadly with his thumbs when mentioning "thumbprint analysis."" (1 Comment |Comment on this)
9:43 am	CNN early poll, their debate blog Here is a quite detailed early poll on the final debate: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/14/snap.poll/index.html I like the sound of the sample (people) they polled: even Dems and Repubs, with a healthy chunk of Inds. I also found the CNN All-in-One debate blog quite interesting to browse through: good for seeing immediate specific reactions from the Crossfire guys, and the comments from the VHI person often made me laugh out loud. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 13th, 2004
4:20 pm	internet and campaign finance laws; teen executions http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/13/internet.politics.ap/index.html This article is about how federal campaign finance laws may need to extend to the internet. Might also see article on CNN about high court considering issue of teen executions (capital punishment of minors)--an issue that hasn't come up, that I can recall, in our discussions thus far. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 23rd, 2004
4:21 pm	U.S. to open oil reserves http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/23/news/economy/oil_spr/index.htm?cnn=yes Good or bad idea?  Political motivation?  Political effects? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2004
9:07 am	recent Kerry speech; 527s http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0920.html This speech has been getting much attention in the press this week; you may wish to devote a journal entry to analyzing it yourself, and/or examining the way the media have been reporting on it. Another good possibility for a journal entry would be following up on our in-class discussion of 527s, such as on the questions of whether you find them legal/ ethical/ desirable.   (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 9th, 2004
4:18 pm	"public agenda"; terrorism publicagenda.org is an excellent resource for learning about public opinion on a variety of issues.  For example, see the following on terrorism, and the "firstchoice2004" for other issues as well. special edition on terrorism: http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/terrorism/terror_pubopinion2.htm For more details about the policy options, download our First Choice 2004 guide on terrorism: http://www.publicagenda.org/firstchoice2004/terrorism.cfm (Comment on this)
9:27 am	from IEEE:Standing Up for a Better E-Ballot Box It won't be ready for this year's U.S. presidential election. It could be ready before the next one, four years hence. We're talking about an IEEE standard that specifies the performance requirements of electronic voting machines. Find out more at <http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/index.jsp?pageID=institute_level1_article&TheCat=2201&article=tionline/legacy/inst2004/sep04/9w.fballot.xml> (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 7th, 2004
9:41 am	latest poll http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/06/presidential.poll/index.html (Comment on this)
Monday, September 6th, 2004
12:27 pm	interesting article about the Muslim American vote, in this year's election and the previous one: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/09/06/muslim.voting.ap/index.html (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 5th, 2004
10:56 am	2 notes 1) I've invited the students who took this course in the spring to drop in on this blog, so you may occasionally see posts or comments from them. 2) The factcheck.org site has a new article about Zell Miller's attacks on Kerry during his convention speech. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 2nd, 2004
12:20 pm	A new quarter--Welcome! And the first posting from a class member can be found on the "Friends" link above. Everyone, remember to establish your account and email me your LiveJournal user name and the URL for your page. Also please post at least a "test" entry. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 23rd, 2004
11:34 am	Demand Grows to Require Paper Trails for Electronic Votes http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/politics/campaign/23vote.html?th (Comment on this)
11:28 am	Environmental Group's Ad Distorts Bush's Record on Florida Drilling http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docid=183 (Comment on this)
11:26 am	Kerry Considers Strategic Delay for Democratic Nomination for campaign financing reasons, he might not officially accept the nomination at the convention: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/22/politics/campaign/22KERR.html?th (And if you haven't yet completed the course evaluation, please do so--thanks! AW) (Comment on this)
Friday, May 21st, 2004
10:29 am	Various Political Topics are covered in this column; you could easily pick one to focus on for a journal entry or comment: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/20/column/index.html (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 18th, 2004
10:08 am	Kerry is compared to a cicada in an RNC ad running only on the Internet. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/17/how.works/index.html Campaigns turn to Internet for political ads; Fewer restrictions on Web advertising (Comment on this)
Monday, May 17th, 2004
9:25 am	Down but Not Out, Kucinich Keeps On Fighting http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/politics/campaign/17kucinich.html?th (Comment on this)
Friday, May 14th, 2004
2:53 pm	Tips for Political Ads from Hardball http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4548790/ The 'Hardball' team investigated the art of political advertising -- by making its own. And offers tips for political ad-making towards the end of the article. We've talked about much of this before, but interesting. (Comment on this)
10:01 am	Wilson, FDR, Truman, Bush: A "messianic militarist" in the White House? It's happened before. http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110005078 An interesting analysis (with a strong rhetorical dimension) from the Wall Street Journal editorial page. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 6th, 2004
9:46 am	Contrast to Gallup poll results: Bush still leading in this one First Read: The day in politics by NBC News for NBC News --------------------------------------------------------- A few poll notes to set the scene. Two pieces of data from the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll depict the broad mood of the country, pollsters Hart/Teeter say: 62% of those surveyed believe the United States is not in control of what's going on in Iraq -- which, Hart suggests, probably reflects feelings about prisoner abuse along with everything else. And, 60% see the economy as headed for trouble because of jobs moving overseas, the growing deficit, and too many jobs lacking health insurance and other benefits. Bush's job ratings -- overall and on the economy and foreign policy -- are his lowest in any NBC/Journal poll, and only 33% believe the country is heading in the right direction. But, helped by his likeability and perceived consistency, as well as mixed feelings about challenger Kerry, such as 49% thinking Kerry straddles on the issues, Bush defeats Kerry by 4 points with Nader in the mix, and by 3 points without Nader. For More: Today's edition of First Read is available now at http://www.FirstRead.MSNBC.com ! (Comment on this)