Push-polled
I was push-polled yesterday. The poll, ostensibly gathering information about support for Initiative 297, was pretty transparently intended to push one away from voting for Bush. I would never vote for Bush anyway, but it was still pretty funny (and rather insulting, really) how obvious it was.
The last part was something like “Knowing that George W. Bush does not support the removal of 75,000 truckloads of radioactive waste from the highways of Washington State, would you be extremely likely, slightly likely, slightly unlikely, or extremely unlikely to vote for him? And knowing that John Kerry does support the removal of 75,000 truckloads of radioactive waste from the highways of Washington State, would you be extremely likely, slightly likely, slightly unlikely, or extremely unlikely to vote for him?” Uh huh. I suppose Dubya also kicks bunny wabbits and eats endangered pandas with toast for breakfast, too… But, anyway, I guess the poll isn’t really intended for me, but for the swing voters who might actually change their minds based on this sort of thing.
What was funniest was when the surveyor (who had a strong Canadian accent), read a section of the script that referred to Spokane and Puget Sound being terrorized by toxic waste, and she pronounced it “SpoKAIN” and “PUHgget”. I laughed and said “Let me help you here; it’s ‘SpoKAN’ and ‘PYOOjet.'”
“Oh,” she said, “I’ve heard it both ways, SpoKAIN and SpoKAN.” Um. Not from anyone from Washington, you haven’t!
Somehow I think she continued to mispronounce it to everyone else because she didn’t believe me.
Another problem is that their project is pointless. There has been fifty years of disagreement between Washington State and the Atomic Energy Commission/DOE about running Hanford. For the past fifty years DOE has been saying that it was up to them to run Hanford and Washington state had no jurisdiction over the federal site. My dad has worked at Hanford for 30+ years as an environmental chemist and has spent his professional career on the Hanford cleanup. I think these guys are wasting their time and their efforts and money would be better spent fighting Bush directly.
No one says “SpoKAIN”
But it is not as bad as “WARSHington”. Because there is an invisible R in Washington.
The real issue is how Bush and Kerry pronounce “Spokane”. 😉
(And I suppose if it’s a tie, we can try them on Puyallup.)
Yeah, that was a good post. Push polling, how insulting.