Friday, August 15, 2003

New Poll Results: Dean Ahead An InsiderAdvantage poll shows Howard Dean ahead for ’04 elections. Here are excerpts from the report: "For the first time, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is leading the Democratic field for the 2004 presidential elections, according to a new tracking poll taken by InsiderAdvantage in conjunction with MWI Research. "Of respondents who said they plan to vote next year for someone other than President Bush, 15.6 percent indicated they would vote for Dean. This nearly doubles his percentage of 8.6 from the previous month’s poll. "The poll was conducted August 6-9. It sampled 500 Americans and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. ""This is an amazing change of circumstances," said Matt Towery, a Creators Syndicate columnist and co-founder of InsiderAdvantage. "Since the inception of our cumulative polling on this race, Joe Lieberman had led the Democratic field of candidates, usually by a comfortable margin. "InsiderAdvantage is conducting a running, monthly tracking poll of the 2004 presidential race and has polled more than 6,000 Americans since early January. The company is known for its accurate polling of political races in the 2002 elections." 2:30:15 PM    comment []

Everything Old Is New Again Screenwriter and director Frank Pierson gave the commencement address to the USC film school graduating class. His commentary on the state of film art and the film business should interest every thoughtful movie-goer. Of more direct political interest is his use of the following quotation, in which he made one change to bring it up to date: "Corporate globalization has left remaining no other connection between man and man than naked self interest, than callous 'cash payment.'. in place of chartered freedoms [it] has set up a single unconscionable freedom called Free Trade. . It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the Priest, the poet, the man of science into its paid wage laborers. By the immensely facilitated means of communication, corporate globalization draws even the most barbarian nations into civilization. The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls. This constant change, uninterrupted disturbance of all social relations, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the present from all past times." Pierson’s change was to substitute "corporate globalization" for the word "bourgeosie."The quotation is from Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto. Read everything Pierson had to say at AlterNet.com 8:44:02 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Arthur Jacobson. Last update: 9/1/03; 9:19:20 AM.