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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

More Mischief in Massachusetts

Last week we barely dipped our toe in the torrent of ads blanketing Massachusetts, where voters are going to the polls today to decide who will replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy: Democrat Martha Coakley or Republican Scott Brown. There have been more since in the close race, too many for us to keep up with.
But we found one single-issue flier sent out by the Massachusetts Democratic Party particularly offensive and off-base. The background of the flier shows blurry images of women on which these words are superimposed: "1,736 women were raped in Massachusetts in 2008.

January 19, 2010

The deadliest recorded earthquake in history killed 830,000 people in Shensi Province, China, in 1556.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey

Clueless ‘Columbo’

Q: What’s up with “Columbo” and his questions for Obama?
A: The interrogator in a chain e-mail gets his facts fouled up and makes false accusations.

January 18, 2010

On Nov. 3, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed into law a bill declaring that the third Monday of January, starting in 1986, would be recognized as the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday.

Source: The King Center

January 17, 2010

Haiti declared its independence from France on Jan. 1, 1804. 
Source: CIA World Factbook

January 16, 2010

Thirty-eight percent of Haiti’s 9,035,536 people are aged 14 and younger.
Source: CIA World Factbook

Medicare board: Unrepealable?

Q: Does the Senate’s health bill contain a provision that can’t be repealed?
A: No. It would create an  Independent Medicare Advisory Board that could be repealed by a vote of three-fifths of the Senate.

January 15, 2010

In Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, only 20 percent of the population lives above the poverty line. 
Source: CIA World Factbook

January 14, 2010

Haiti is slightly smaller than the state of Maryland.
Source: CIA World Factbook

Bay State Battle

In the Massachusetts special election campaign for the Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy, the conservative American Future Fund and Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley’s campaign are on the air with misleading attack ads. AFF’s ad uses a Coakley quote, “We need to get taxes up,” to portray her as a tax-hiker. But …