Cheney, busted

In keeping with the Star Wars references, this isn't the frogmarch we've been looking for.

One of the most controversial vice presidents in U.S. history will have a permanent presence in the halls of power in Washington after a marble bust of Dick Cheney was unveiled Thursday at the U.S. Capitol. (Former president George W.) Bush, Vice President Biden and other dignitaries offered effusive praise — and polite jokes as the sculpture was unveiled.

I think the Darth Vader comparisons are unfair.  The former Anakin Skywalker fought in every war that occurred during his lifetime; Cheney was more than happy to let others fight and die in his place, many times.

The real sculpture also has a difficult time convincing me it's an accurate representation.

So do the plaudits and jokes, especially Joe Biden's.

"The way you have conducted yourself is a model for anyone in high public office," Biden said. "I'm afraid I've blown his cover. I actually like Dick Cheney."

I call bullshit, Joe.

Update: More cringeworthy satire from Slate.  "Honored for ending terrorism"...

However, in retrospect it is hard to say that Cheney's decisions were anything but deeply prescient, and one thing is certain: The invasion ended Islamic terrorism and did not create a civil war that ironically allowed al-Qaida to flourish in an area where it had no prior presence, ultimately begetting an even more dangerous and inhumane splinter group called ISIS that continues to threaten American lives to this day.

[...]

Cheney was also praised for his ethical decision not to arrange for a company which had very recently paid him tens of millions of dollars and in which he had "a continuing financial interest" to become one of the largest beneficiaries of United States federal spending in Iraq. One can only imagine the repercussions if he had actually done something like that.

Competing polls show Turner, King with small leads over each other

Both are, shall we say, non-independent.

The Houston Realty Business Coalition (HRBC) released a poll of 300 active voters today measuring support of Mayoral candidates in the December runoff election.  

Blahblahblah.

In the upcoming runoff election for Mayor, if you had to choose, would you be voting for Bill King or Sylvester Turner?

 

Bill King                      48%

Sylvester Turner          43%

Undecided                     9% 

More at the link if you want it.  Conversely, Sylvester Turner's polling outfit shows him at 47-40, with 13% undecided.

The war of the polls: King touts survey showing he's ahead, Turner's camp rushes to counter #houvote pic.twitter.com/YWenctrSm8

— Rebecca Elliott (@rfelliott) December 3, 2015

Right down to the wire, folks.  Vote early until Tuesday, vote a week from Saturday if you don't.

Update: Sue Davis with the Turner campaign adds this (via email):

The King campaign is pushing a poll today with numbers that are drastically different than ours. But check the methodology before you take what King says at face value. His poll is a 300-sample, notoriously unreliable robo-call poll. It claims a 4% margin of error. However, in a sample size that small, according to our pollsters FM3, the margin of error should be 5.7%.

Additionally, 16% of people only use cell phones (like me). Robo-call polls are not allowed to call cell phones, so King’s poll missed out on a whole segment of voters.