An MSNBC report on the latest newsweek poll (which has Bush winning with an even 50%) also has this to say.

The anti-Kerry ads may be having an effect, especially with blue-collar, socially conservative white voters. Although pollsters say the sample size is too small to be statistically solid (with a margin of error of plus or minus nine points), in the new poll, labor-union households—part of the Democratic base—are leaning toward Bush 54 percent to 42 percent.

Now this is in spite of basically every union in the country endorsing Kerry. Union workers are socially conservative gun owners, the highest paid nonprofessional workers and taxpayers in the country and tend to have large stock market holdings directly (401ks) or indirectly (union and company pension plans). They are generally not reliant on Social Security for their retirement. The only issue where they have a conflict with the GOP is free trade but the Democrats have supported free trade, too, and since union members are wealthy consumers the apparent free trade conflict is largely an illusion. So, why doesn’t the GOP go out and take this conservative base and elect some union leaders, take over the more conservative unions out in the red states, so the unions will stop giving their members money to the DNC.

How al-Qaeda May End

The past few years have witnessed the utter disappearance of once-formidable and infamous organizations such as Tupac Amaru…..

So maybe Osama will be shot by a West Coast Mullah?

(Note: The fact that I chose to categorize this as humor doesn’t mean that it’s actually good humor. It also shouldn’t be taken as an indication that I would discourage a West Coast Mullah from shooting OBL. )

I haven’t commented on polls before, that I recall anyway, but I’ve noticed that a couple of pollsters are showing Bush ahead by a point in the People’s Republic of Hawaii. I’m guessing that some military base personnel are probably a factor, but regardless that’s beginning to make things look a lot less close than the press would like. Poor Tim Russert may not need his dry erase board.

Bono’s already minimal authority to speak on matters involving numbers is badly hurt by the fact that he counts like this “Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce.” I’m just not comfortable with people who leave out 10 numbers for no apparent reason. And I’m not sure how good that new ipod will work if the math behind the electronics are based on the U2 number system.