A reader emailed some interesting observations on the Advertiser’s online poll results regarding Neil Abercrombie’s announcement that he’s running for governor. You’ll recall that only 1/3 of those responding to the poll said they would vote for Abercrombie.

Couple of things about the Abercrombie poll. First off, if you spend much time perusing the comments on Advertiser.com and watching the way polls go, they often skew FAR to the right of where we know Hawaii in general lies. In fact from what I have seen, most newspaper sites’ comments skew far to the right of where we know the whole country lies. I’m not sure why this is, but in at least some cases, there is actual organization behind the skew:

If you have not heard of “freeping,” it is a process by which partisan organization and Web sites rally members to basically “stuff the ballot box” in online polls. It is named for the right-wing activism site Free Republic, which apparently recognized the usefulness of skewing polls. Depending on the type of poll software, it can either be manually stuffed or stuffed by a “bot.”

As news organizations shrink and as they have turned to the Internet for news and commentary (a dubious practice to say the least), the unscientific results of online polls have found their way into more and more legitimate news stories and as a result have become a part of public discourse — and can even move stories themselves.

Given the razor-thin GOP victory in 2004, freeping could very well have made a difference. It is a little-reported but IMHO significant story that this past election cycle, left groups realized the power of freeping and made strong efforts to respond to right-wing freeping, particularly after the debates. Sure enough, the likes of CNN reported Obama ‘winning’ the debates by huge margins thanks to the results of snap online polls. The Advertiser’s polls were routinely freeped, and showed “Hawaii” thought Obama “lost” several of the debates.

Such organized responses can also be targeted at the comments portion of any site that allows them, and the whole thing is really an interesting study in the political power of the internet vs the legitimacy of the information gleaned therefrom.

Bottom line is, I don’t think the Democratic candidate for governor in 2010 can possibly lose the election, given what has happened nationally and how badly Lingle has damaged the Republican brand locally.

And another reader reported criminal attacks on cats on the Windward side. It’s the second report I’ve heard about the situation.

Spayed and neutered felines have been maimed and killed by gunfire at Kapaa Quarry Industrial Park for about a year now. Friends and I have been reporting these crimes to the Hawaiian Humane Society who have turned this matter over to the H.P.D. I feel both departments have dragged their feet, while more cats have gone missing.

He went on to say that the most disturbing thing is that the person allegedly responsible for the shootings works for one of the businesses in the area.

I’ll check in with the Humane Society and see what additional information they can provide on this case.

The Legislature’s Public Access Room sent out a reminder that things will move very swiftly at this point in the legislative session.

By next Friday, March 27, bills with multiple referrals have to have moved to the last committee or they’re likely dead for the session, barring last minute re-referral. So expect these two weeks to be crammed with hearings and committee decisions.

And the House budget worksheets are now online, providing an easily accessible and very detailed look at the current state of the proposed budget.

Welcome to the new week.