One of these days I'm going to get sick of being right

For any of you who read my June 1st Post entitled I've heard of push polls, but this is ridiculous! You'll enjoy this follow up story about Robbins SCE. (Or as I'm calling them The Little Anti-Liberal Pollster That Could -Ed.)

It all started when I went to nodice.ca on June 1st to check and see if any new polls had come out, I was taken aback when I saw a poll from Robbins SCE that had evaporated the Liberals 9 point lead into an 8 point lead for the Conservatives in the span of 2 days. Now if, in those two days, the Liberals had gone out and gotten drunk, fondled Canada's breasts, and then threw up in the back of Canada's car I would have understood the 17 point swing. But since this wasn't the case I decided to do a little checking into Robbins SCE. As I discovered in my original post they seem to have quite a bias against the Liberals as evidences by some of the headlines on their site.

I took the time to email David MacDonald of nodice to let him know what I had found and revieved this response:

I've heard back from the Robbins SCE polling firm. He assures me that the poll is legit. I've decided to give Robbins SCE the benefit of the doubt, for now. I will keep the poll on the site simply as a source of information.
I think it is important for me to post every poll rather than be selective.
Additionally, I do not feel it is my place to decide for the public which polls to believe - in much the same way that I post news articles from a variety of news sources. Thanks again for taking the time to contact me about this matter.

At that point I considered the matter closed, I didn't agree with his assessment but as a webmaster myself I respected his right to put whatever he chooses onto his site. After that I pretty much forgot about it until today when I went to check the polling numbers again and realized that the Robbins SCE polls had been removed from nodice. A quick google search for Robbins SCE then brought up an interesting message board, in which the apparent owner of Robbins SCE himself was on there trying to defend his company's honor. Here are some tidbits. (Sorry about the snippit job, I just feel like being Gurmant Grewal today.) For the full thread in context go here.

I have had the rather odd pleasure of reading some of the blogs relating to polls, elections, and indeed some of my work. One of the continuing messages that comes up is the word 'scientific'. My question is: what is the bloggers general (or specific) impression of what science in polling is. At ROBBINS we admit to being experimental from time to time, we are in business development.
(Experimental? So they're the Frankenstein of Canadian Polling! -Ed.)

If you go to www.nodice.ca you will see that we are not afraid to post our 'predictions'
(They are now, hopefully thanks to me -Ed.)

Is it any wonder so many mainstream pollsters are accustomed to visiting ROBBINS Sce Research site?
(I visit it too whenever I need a good laugh. -Ed.)

we have the instincts of Nostradamus.
(Do I even need to make fun of this one? -Ed.)

They talked to him for 30 seconds and wouldn't let me on the air.
(Can't imagine why. -Ed.)

These polls are weapons of mass influence, sheer and utter power.
Hitler always said, the bigger the lie the more people will believe it (Classic "Oliver Stone's JFK" Quote -Ed.)

Then he goes on to insult and threaten the sane posters in the forum:

I mean really is this about sticks and stones? I would probably guess that you have a drug and alcohol problem because your blogs are angry and unreasonable. I'll bet your thinking how does he know that?
(Someone has a problem, but I don't think it's the blogger -Ed.)

I'll tell you what. If you give me your full name and address for process service, I will (I have legal standing in BC Supreme Court) commence an action against you for defamation.
(Yeah, I'm sure he wants to give his address to some wackjob so he can stalk him -Ed.)

Then he advocates suicide, and using human skin as a jacket:

I say you don't have the gonads to do it, because cowards like you who will never amount to anything, sit around and send out meaningless blogs. The right and proper thing for you to do and (think seriously about this) you know its true, is to rid the earth of yourself, because (and look at what you are writing) you are truly a waste of good skin that might otherwise be made available to another, or perhaps a jacket for a more worthy citizen.

The Prosecution Rests.........