Poll shows less fear on health care overhaul

These sentiments seem alot closer to what people around me are feeling, but we never hear about that.

WASHINGTON —With President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in limbo, Americans' fears about its effect on them eased in January, according to a poll released as the president tries to revive sweeping Democratic legislation.

(snip)

"Job numbers continue to lag and nearly a quarter of Americans are still concerned they might lose coverage," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president of the foundation, a philanthropic and research organization that supports health care reform.

The poll found that the proportion of Americans who said they feared their access to doctors and hospitals would get worse under the Democratic plans dropped to 29 percent, from 33 percent who had expressed such concerns in December. In the January poll fewer than 12 percent said that they thought their access would improve.

NEWSFLASH! By reporting threatening poll to Secret Service, I'm looking for fame

By GottaLaff

Yes, yes, it's all about ME! And "Ken" made sure I saw this via a Tweet. What a sweet guy:

The blogger that started this — “GottaLaff,” at the The Political Carnival — is luxuriating in the reflected glow of petty fame from having reported an asshole on Facebook to the Secret Service. I find the triumphalism in the blog posts, and in the comments, over getting the application shut down because it didn’t magically stop anti-Obama extremist rhetoric, more than a little odd and disturbing — in some ways, more odd and disturbing than some anonymous and petty asshole starting a troll poll. Take this post, for example:

If we stopped ONE person from inciting hate or violence, then we’ve done our jobs.

Here’s the thing, Buttercup: not all incitement of violence is illegal. Take, for example, incitement that does not present a clear and present danger of imminent lawless action — hyperbole by idiots on the internet, for example. Nor is most incitement of hate illegal. Do you really think it’s your “job” to go about “stopping” people from hateful speech, like some sort of self-important internet Batman carrying a belt full of ball-gags?

While we are on the subject of inciting hate and violence, let’s take a look at GottaLaff’s tone while discussing this story...

Blahblahblah.

But gee, looks like we hit a nerve. Rant all you want, but the Secret Service was awfully grateful to us... Buttercup.

UPDATE: (quoting two of my Twitter pals) Looks like FreeRepublic is in panic mode, wondering if they "freeped" the poll.

The Freepers think Secret Service planted the poll to entrap them into advocating Treason!

Developer of the Facebook Obama Poll Application Fights Back

By GottaLaff

Apparently, Poll Developer Guy felt the need to defend himself after my post here.

He did his best at Daily Kos:

Hey everyone. I'm the developer of the Facebook Poll Application that hosted the "Should Obama be killed?" poll. You can read about it here.

I'm sure you have all sorts of assumptions about me, my application, and how this went down, but I want to start by listing a series of facts followed by an open-ended Q&A.

I guess he felt as if he needed to explain... again. Wasn't he happy enough with the comments he left on our post?

I wish him the best.

UPDATE: An astute Tweeter reminded me that Developer Guy accused me of wanting my 15 minutes of fame. Pot. Kettle...

H/t: raine1967

NPR: Blogger (TPC) Gets Credit For Blowing Whistle On Vile Poll

By GottaLaff

NPR, thank you. Seriously, thank you:

A blog called The Political Carnival is getting credit this afternoon for calling out the ridiculous "Should Obama be killed?" poll that showed up on Facebook over the weekend (and is now being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service).

GottaLaff, one of the blog's authors, pointed out the offensive post last evening. Today, says GottaLaff, the Secret Service tracked her down to say thanks for having posted a screen grab of the poll.

Facebook, the company, had nothing to do with the poll, according to spokesman Barry Schnitt. It's no longer on the site.

NPR. Link. Go. Give them hits. They deserve it.

Facebook "Should Obama be killed?" pollster responds to TPC post

By GottaLaff

I got a tweet and an e-mail from I'm the developer who built the poll application that I reported to the Secret Service. (Original story is here. The sequel in which I discuss the Secret Service's call back to me here.)

He is not a happy man, and who can blame him? Then again, it seems he thinks I'm reveling in some kind of glory. Not exactly. My only motive was to prevent this kind of thing from happening again, in my tiny little bloggy way. ... although now, every major news outlet is reporting on this story, too (very few credited TPC, by the way). And so, I reported it.

In that way, I do feel rewarded, yes. Glorified? Hardly.

Developer Guy has no connection with Facebook and is asking those who find egregious polls, as he agrees this one was, to contact him directly to have them removed.

Here's what he wrote:

Mostly I want to make sure you understand how these polls work.

Some facts:
1. Polls is a third-party application and are not affiliated with Facebook
2. Polls are created by other users on Facebook, not me or Facebook
3. There is a mechanism for reporting polls and we take action after a
poll has been reported a sufficient number of times
4. If a poll is egregious enough (and this one certainly was), you
should have just contacted me directly. Facebook provides links to
contact the developer (that's me!). I would have deleted the
application in a second.

I've deleted polls in the past that have to do with killing gays, etc.

As it stands now, Facebook has disabled the entire application (not
just that one poll), which is frustrating for me and will be taking up
most of my time for the next few days. I'm sure I'll also get a call
from the Secret Service which will be awesome.

I understand you're enjoying your 15 minutes of blogging fame and are
feeling pretty righteous right now, but keep in mind this could have
been resolved in a much less public and destructive way if you had
taken the time to reach out to me first.

Best,

[Poll Developer Guy]

He did not tell me any of this was off the record, even after I e-mailed back telling him I would post his feelings the way he described them. So, there you go.

The Secret Service just called to thank me

By GottaLaff

NOTE TO READERS: We so, so appreciate everyone who called the Secret Service to report this incident, and hope that will continue when you spot any other such horrific-itude. With that in mind, if we may, if you appreciate the work we do here, and boy do we work, feel free to donate (click on "make a donation" button on upper right side bar) to TPC to help us continue to do our best for you.

Last night I posted about a scary Facebook entry, specifically a poll asking whether Obama should be killed. Go here to read the original post.

Just now, I got a phone call from the Secret Service. Yes, that Secret Service. It was from a very sweet woman with a very sweet voice. She called to thank me for my screen grab of the poll, and said without it, they wouldn't have been able to address the matter.

I asked if the reason the poll was removed was due to the Secret Service following up on my call. She said she couldn't answer that, because it would have been another officer who was working on it, and she simply didn't know. But she thanked me over and over, emphatically, saying that there would be no way for the Secret Service to catch something like this without assistance. The Internets are too vast for that.

Instead, they rely on people like us to help them out. Sounds awfully grassrootsy, doesn't it? Almost community service-like. Imagine that.

Here is what the page looks like now: (h/t: Zerlina)

(click on image to enlarge)

Dear Secret Service,

You are more than welcome.

Love,

Laffy and the Twitterverse, especially Gr8RDH.

FOX News Hypes Bogus Survey Supposedly Showing Rift Between Obama And Military

I am going to pull every hair out of my head by the end of the month the way this crap is going. This useless poll first surfaced on Monday and worked it's way around thru Drudge and the usual suspects to finally excrete itself out in the usual manner, on Fox. Via Newshounds.