Next up, polls to show that some Americans are complicit in accepting torture?

[ProSense]

Toture is illegal. Torturing suspects is a war crime. Let's go to the polls?

Gallup: Majority support investigation of Bush administration’s interrogation tactics.

Majority = 51%








Edited for clarity.

[DrToast]

1. Those numbers are much lower than the beginning of the year

I think Obama coming out against the investigations have influenced a lot of people.

[ProSense]

2. Agree, but

it's good to see that 51% of Americans aren't swayed by political arguments on prosecuting war crimes.

[Drunken Irishman]

5. Do you have the Gallup numbers from the beginning of the year?

Or were they not Gallup numbers? If they're not, you can never really compare two different polling outlets to one another.

[DrToast]

7. It's Gallup. The poll structure is slightly different

http://www.gallup.com/poll/114580/No-Mandate-Criminal-Probes-Bush-Administration.aspx

62% favor either a criminal investigation or an investigation by an independent panel into torture during interrogations.

[ProSense]

8. They asked a different question for the current poll

New Gallup Torture Poll: Still Asking the Wrong Question:

Would you favor or oppose a government investigation into the use of harsh interrogation techniques of terrorism suspects?

(emphasis added)


Big difference between independent and government, which implies political.

[Clio the Leo]

3. A friend of mine said to me....

.... she's Canadian but her boyfriend is a wingnut so that makes her one by default right? :)

Anyway she said, "I know there are investigations going on as to whether or not water boarding was effective."

And I was like, IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT WAS EFFECTIVE OR NOT! That's BESIDE the point.

Which brings me back to my main contention in all of this. As wrong as it is, I dont think the majority of the American People would be in favor of investigations/prosecution. That's not to say those things shouldn't be done, but it speaks to the giant mess this whole thing is.

[ProSense]

6. Exactly, and the evil of the Bush administration runs deep:

CIA inspector general in 2004 found "no proof harsh techniques stopped terror attacks"

"This bad faith analysis runs through the latest batch of torture memos."

They tortured to justify Iraq war

[spanone]

4. i'm glad we don't rule this nation by polls

[Chuckleberry]

9. Discouraging numbers

A majority believe torture is justifiable in some cases , which is unacceptable.

But then, the people cannot learn much when it is up to the likes of David Broder and Fox News to drive the debate on torture. Mainstream pundits are in agreement that torture must go unpunished, and many readers are influenced by the incessant repetition of the establishment script.

[ProSense]

10. It's one poll, and

it depends on how they skewed the questioned. It's a good thing that most people realize that polling, especially when government lies and media complicity impact public perception, is the worse way to determine the validity of policies that gravely impact who we are as a country: see the illegal invasion of Iraq.

[Spazito]

11. Hmmm, even though the poll breaks down the votes into Dem, Repub and Independent...

it does NOT give a breakdown of the percentages of each within the 1,044 adults interviewed. Without that, the poll has little credibility, imo.

"Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,044 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted April 24-25, 2009, as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points."



I also found this little disclaimer at the very bottom of the poll to be interesting:

"In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls."