New Poll Shows Americans Are "Steve Benen"-Frustrated with Economic Mess... But Not Really Blaming Obama For It

By Steve Benen, Washington Monthly
Posted on June 29, 2011, Printed on June 30, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/626657/new_poll_shows_americans_are_frustrated_with_economic_mess..._but_not_really_blaming_obama_for_it

  At first blush, it appears the new McClatchy-Marist poll will not warm any hearts in the West Wing. While most Americans have a favorable opinion of President Obama, the public is deeply unsatisfied with the nation’s most important issue — a 58% majority disapproves of the president’s handling of the economy, and only 37% approve. It’s the worst rating of Obama’s presidency to date.

And yet, the same McClatchy-Marist poll shows the president leading all of his Republican challengers in hypothetical match-ups. Why? It may have something to do with the fact that as frustrated as Americans are, they’re not blaming Obama for the mess.

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"Kerry Trueman"- Do We Eat Better Than We Did 100 Years Ago?

By Kerry Trueman, AlterNet
Posted on June 24, 2011, Printed on June 30, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151411/do_we_eat_better_than_we_did_100_years_ago

Poor Uncle Sam's got a lot on his plate these days: a curdled economy, an overcooked climate, a soured populace. It's enough to give a national icon a capital case of indigestion. Anti-government sentiment is running so high that half the country seems ready to swap his stars and stripes for tar and feathers.

Sure, Uncle Sam's always been kind of a drag, with his stern face and wagging finger. But to "nanny-state" haters, he's a Beltway busybody in drag, democracy's Mrs. Doubtfire, a Maryland Mary Poppins. If you believe that government is always the problem, never the solution, then you have no use for, say, more stringent food safety regulations, or Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign to combat obesity.

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"Bill Berkowitz" - Falwell's Liberty University Raking in Big-Time Money From America's Taxpayers

By Bill Berkowitz, Talk To Action
Posted on June 29, 2011, Printed on June 30, 2011
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/6/9/143057/2379/Dominionism_in_the_military/Falwell_s_Liberty_University_Raking_in_Big_Time_Money_From_America_s_Taxpayers

One might think that a private, decidedly conservative, and totally evangelical Christian University, that was founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who was openly critical of government programs, would spurn federal dollars.

Au contraire mon ami.

"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!" - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, America Can Be Saved

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"AlterNet"-Nukes at Risk as Floods and Fires From Extreme Weather Make Us Vulnerable

By Tina Gerhardt, AlterNet
Posted on June 30, 2011, Printed on June 30, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151470/nukes_at_risk_as_floods_and_fires_from_extreme_weather_make_us_vulnerable

Numerous nuclear power plants face precarious scenarios as a result of climate change-induced extreme weather. Flooding of the Missouri river is being monitored around the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska. And wildfires have reached the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which houses nuclear-contaminated waste, in New Mexico.

March's disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has raised broader concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants in the U.S. Most nuclear power plants are located near water, which they draw on for cooling. But with the extreme weather this spring, the Mississippi, Missouri and Platte rivers in the Midwest have flooded, in some cases to their highest levels in over 100 years.

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