f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

one-breath punditry:

— It looks like the American Antitrust Institute called this election correctly:  joint exit                     

polling has led once again to massive errors.  The consequences surely could have been

mitigated were there competing sources of exit poll results.  [Dick Morris and Howard Klein,

(through Bainbridge), see conspiracies; “Republicans complain exit polls were erroneous”,

Wash.Times, Nov. 4, 2004]  Warren Mitofsky’s expanations tonight on the PBS News Hour

seem lame.   Will the DOJ Antitrust Division finally investigate? (our prior post  is here; and

see AntiTrustProf.)

don’t cry, insects!
we’re all headed
for the same exit

update (Nov. 9, 2004): Larry Lessig says free the exit poll data: “

“The Exit Polls have done enough damage to this election. My bet is that it was incompetence at Edison/Mitofsky. But those firms owe it to this Nation to release their data totally, so that a wide range of competent statisticians can evaluate whether and where the problem was.

“And more importantly for the blog space: If blogs are going to be something more than the CB radios of journalism, we need an ethic to treat this sort of question ethically. “

I have often agreed with D.C. Bar President John C. Keeney, Jr., on ways to make

the legal profession more responsible.  However, I can only scoff at his latest suggestion on

how to change “the public’s bad image of lawyers,” which can only backfire:

“[T]reat our profession (but never ourselves) more seriously, and join me

in refusing to laugh at lawyer jokes.”  [emphasis added; our perspective here]

On the other hand, I wish cranky Letter Writer Dennis B. Wilson would prescribe constructive

ways to alleviate the tyranny of billable-hours quotas, rather than suggesting that John Keeney can’t

authoritatively promote more pro bono because he didn’t undergo enough “tangible sacrifices” while making

partner. (letters, Washington Lawyer, Nov. 2004)

TaxLawProf seems to be mistaking server hits with “visitors”  (as we discuss here, and there, where

we confess “When this weblog has a 1000 page-hit day, I literally have no idea whether the number represents

20 actual human beings looking in or 200, but I know that it is unlikely to be more than 200.”).   Before concluding

that the 7-month old weblog has “crossed the 200,000 visitor mark,” we suggest an audit.

a splash of spiced sake
for his wrinkled face…
laughter

crawl and laugh–
from this morning on
a two year old!

all haiku by Issa, translated by D.G.Lanoue