Free Republic

Nielsen Media Research has conceded making an error and is performing a recount after the company's ratings on Tuesday initially indicated that ABC's "World News" most likely had its smallest audience ever. The dispute with Nielsen was a downer for the network after the entertainment division—keyed by the National Basketball Association finals—won in the prime-time ratings for the first week since September. It was ABC's most-watched week in the summer in five years, according to Nielsen. ABC asked Nielsen for an investigation after its ratings showed "World News" averaged 6.2 million viewers last week (4.3 rating, 9 share), its worst...

Census Bureau: We’ll Work with ‘Community Organizations’ to Count All Illegal Aliens in 2010 Thursday, April 02, 2009 By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter (CNSNews.com) - The acting director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Thomas Mesenbourg, told CNSNews.com that the bureau intends to work with community organizations to make sure every illegal alien in the United States is counted in the 2010 Census. The Census is used to apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representative. There are 435 House seats that are divided among the states in proportion to their population, which is determined by the decennial census. States...

Another high-ranking official in the Obama administration has had to leave his position, and in this case, one has to wonder how he got the job in the first place. Scott Polakoff, the top bank regulator for the Treasury, has taken a leave of absence after internal audits uncovered his allowance of backdated capital infusions, which could amount to cooking the books for IndyMac and other institutions. But the OTS chief had also been responsible for regulating AIG as well (via The Boss):

UTICA, New York - A majority of likely voters nationwide think Democrat Barack Obama is more intelligent than Republican John McCain, and a plurality believes Obama will come out on top in Friday's first debate of the 2008 general election season, a new Zogby Interactive poll shows. More than four out of 10 voters - 42% - said they think Obama will win the debate Friday, compared to 31% who said they think McCain will come out ahead on points. Another 27% said they are unsure who might win.

Just as U.S. senators are saying publicly that the government has lied to them over Iraq, yesterday’s Barron’s contains an interesting article saying that, “The U.S. government has an inherent bias in its reporting: Inflation is understated and growth is overstated.” Our readers know that our sister publication, Financial Intelligence Report, has long reported that the government inflation figures are misstated to the down side. Mr. Barry Ritholtz, of Ritholtz Research & Analytics, writes in Barron’s that when the Fed first cut rates to half-century lows, “first we reflated, then we inflated.” We agree. Ritholtz goes on to point out...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's popularity has dipped to 35 percent, according to a new CNN poll, with 41 percent of likely voters saying their disapproval of his performance will affect their vote in Tuesday's elections for control of Congress....

Republicans edged ahead in one tightly contested senate race but while the latest Battleground States Poll puts the party on track to retain control of the chamber, several tight races leave the Election night outcome uncertain.

Here's an email we received yesterday morning at 10:26 am: Hey guys, Even though I'm a big fat liberal, I've been a big fan of your site since it first launched, and I visit it every day. It's a terrific resource.However, I do have a criticism regarding the way you posted yesterday's (9/15) AP Piece "Polls Shows GOP Not Making Its Case". That's the way the AP titled it, at least. You guys decided to title it on your site "GOP Gains Ground In Battle For Congress".I understand that there may have been some data in their polling that made...

A Hard-on for Numbers: The Chron tries to stay, uh, abreast of circulation counts Newspapers everywhere are desperate to come up with new ways to produce high circulation figures. If the claims in a Harris County lawsuit are to be believed, the Houston Chronicle is a real leader in that effort. What was the Chron's trick? Offering readers compelling takes on hot topics? Brightening up its dreary pages with lively writing? No. Instead, the paper's reps took the independent auditors who monitor the circulation figures out to titty bars and kept them happy, liquored up and too distracted to count....

The D.C. Chapter of Free Republic invites all FReepers and lurkers in good standing to join us Wednesday morning from 9 a.m. until at least 10 a.m. as we freep the former Vice Perpetraitor Al Gore. Here is the announcement from his host, the Brookings Institution:A Brookings Newsmaker Forum Al Gore to Deliver Economic Policy Speech at Brookings Wednesday, October 02, 2002 10a.m - 11 a.m. Falk Auditorium The Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC   20036 Washington, D.C.—Former Vice President Al Gore will deliver a speech on economic policy issues at the Brookings Institution five weeks before the...