That Time Jim Webb Killed a Man and Other Observations from the Democratic Debate

That was a surprisingly substance filled debate.  I say surprisingly because after CNN's intro with cheesy graphics, weird hype, and Sheryl Crow national anthem intro, I thought I had mistakenly tuned into Big Brother, the Superbowl, or some kind of professional wrestling match.  As it turns out, I had just tuned into a shitty news network.

A few thoughts on our candidates:

Hillary
 

• Best quote: "No" when asked if she wanted to respond to Lincoln Chafee's criticism of her email scandal.
• Hilary is great at seeming to give a firm position on something while not really committing to anything.  A lawyer through and through.
• Hillary is a woman and she is running for President.
• Worst moment: A tie between Snowden would have been given whistle blower protection and she still can't shake the Iraq war vote.
• Overall, I think she did pretty well at least as far as superficial debate commentary goes.  She had a confident answer for everything, even if it wasn't a good answer she sounded as though she believed it.

Bernie

• Whether you agree with the man or not, you can't deny the man is passionate and sincere.
• He's an unpolished, unapologetic, angry old progressive, which is precisely what I like about him.
• Best quote:  Well I don't have the exact quote handy, but it was pretty great when he went after the media for the obsession over Benghazi and Hillary's emails.
• Worst moment:  He stumbled a little over guns.  Also he hasn't articulated the policy differences between him and Hillary clearly enough. 
• Strong showing, but did enough people see it?

Tommy Carcetti Martin O'Malley

• O'Malley is like the little brother of Hillary and Bernie.  He doesn't really differentiate himself from the other candidates very well.
• Best quote: Can't think of one.
• Worst moment:  He endorsed Hillary.
• Boring.

Lincoln Chafee

• Poor Lincoln Chafee.  Chafee seems like a genuinely likable person, but the man is just out of his league. But hey, he's never had a scandal. 
• Best quote:  When asked about his vote to repeal Glass-Steagall: Chafee "I was appointed to office; it was my very first vote. Anderson Cooper: "Are you saying you didn't know what you were voting for?" Chafee: "I'd just arrived to Senate." Chafee you sly dog you.
• Did I mention he's never had a scandal?  I know that's not something to brag about, but the man did hold office in Rhode Island.
• Get out now Lincoln.

Jim Webb
 

• Admittedly, I had only vague knowledge of Jim Webb.  I knew he was a war hero, a somewhat conservative Democratic Senator from Virginia, and that he had written some books.  What I learned last night is that he also (and I say this with no background in mental health whatsoever), is a tad off.
• Best quote:  This is hands down the best quote of the night.  When asked about what enemies he is proud to have made, "I’d have to say the enemy soldier that threw their grenade that wounded me, but he’s not around right now to talk to."  He should have walked out right there.  Seriously, has any candidate bragged about killing a man before?  Possibly, Andrew Jackson.  In fact, there's a decent chance Andrew Jackson killed someone at a debate. 
• Jim Webb, he's killed before and dammit, he'll do it again. 

You Suck at Data

Welcome to You Suck at Data, what will likely be a multi-part companion series to Today in Moronic Memes, pointing out flawed, misused, and logically inconsistent data usage.

Today's installment brought to us by the New York Times' columnist David Brooks.  Brooks takes on the issue of mass-incarceration and determines that the War on Drugs is not the problem:

The drug war is not even close to being the primary driver behind the sharp rise in incarceration. About 90 percent of America’s prisoners are held in state institutions. Only 17 percent of these inmates are in for a drug-related offense, or less than one in five.

Moreover, the share of people imprisoned for drug offenses is dropping sharply, down by 22 percent between 2006 and 2011. Writing in Slate, Leon Neyfakh emphasized that if you released every drug offender from state prison today, you’d reduce the population only to 1.2 million from 1.5 million.

While I don't dispute the number and I do believe people emphasize non-violent drug offenders too much, Brooks might be surprised to learn that drug possession and drug sales is just one part of the legal problems created by the War on Drugs.  A good rule for drawing conclusions from data, should be that the data needs to matter.