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"This is not valid logic. Wrong data compared to wrong data can only produce a wrong conclusion."

Not true, it depends on what information you are looking at. Let me use the thermometer example. You got a good one that reads 70 degrees duringthe day than drops to 65 degrees at night. Then you got bad one that is off by 10 degrees. It may read 60 degrees and drop to 55 on the same night as the good one, but they both accurately recorded the 5 degrees drop.

BTW-- CC is only a few months old and our traffic is BOOMING!- but it is not a partisan site....

the truth is that even conservative talk show ratings are starting to go flat.....I think most Americans are truly sick of partisan bickering while nothing gets done....the borders are a perfect example...Iraq is another...

Not true, it depends on what information you are looking at. Let me use the thermometer example. You got a good one that reads 70 degrees duringthe day than drops to 65 degrees at night. Then you got bad one that is off by 10 degrees. It may read 60 degrees and drop to 55 on the same night as the good one, but they both accurately recorded the 5 degrees drop.

But that's a loaded example. A thermometer, unless it is truly wacky, is still made of mercury which must go up or down when heated or cooled. It may not be very accurate, but it will follow that trend every time.

But traffic-measuring tools like Alexa, that depend solely on the behavior of those who have it installed on their browser, could very well move in the opposite direction of a given trend. If the small subset of people with Alexa log off when a big rush of conventional users logs on, Alexa will say traffic is down when, in fact, it's up. Alexa could also say traffic is up when it's down, or that it's up when it's up, and also that it's down when it's down.

In short, I just don't think these measurements are dependable enough to even look at seriously. Any time we start to rely on all our data being 'equally flawed', then it's time to chuck the data out and find another way to measure our hypothesis, IMHO.