NEW YORK — President Bush and the Republican Congress show nearly record low ratings while Democrats are viewed much more favorably in their performance on the issues that matter most to Americans, according to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll. Only 31% of those polled approve of Mr. Bush’s job performance and 68% believe the United States is worse off today than it was before Bush became president. Personal evaluations of Mr. Bush are the lowest they’ve ever been during his presidency. On the public’s confidence in Bush’s ability to handle a crisis, 51% had been the previous low in September 2005. That figure is now at 50%. The President’s handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis is tied to that decrease. There is also concern that Mr. Bush is spending too much time on foreign policy issues: 55% think so. Also, on the issues that are most important to Americans, Iraq and gas prices, Bush’s ratings have dropped. On handling the issue of rising gas prices, Bush’s performance rating dropped four percentage points from what it was a month ago (from 17% to 13%). With the Iraq war, Bush’s approval rating dropped one percentage […]
The agreement between soft drinks makers and Bill Clinton to stop sales of high-calorie aerated drinks in public schools has invited praises from some, but skepticism from others. While some feel the move will go a long way in curbing childhood obesity which is threatening the health scenario of the United States, some others point out to the sale of ‘low calorie’ sodas and sports drink that are still available to children. Most, however, have reluctantly applauded the beverage industry which has agreed to let go of part of its profit to do its bit to curb the menace. ‘This one policy can add years and years and years to the lives of a very large number of young people,’ former US President Bill Clinton had said while announcing the deal. The efforts came in wake of different studies that pointed fingers at colas companies as drivers of obesity. A Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) study, called Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks Are Harming America’s Youth was a landmark one that found how rising consumption of soft drinks was driving obesity in children. ‘Soda pop provides the average 12- to 19-year-old boy with about 15 […]
US officials told the UN’s anti-torture body that the United States had held 103 courts martial for mistreatment of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan under a broad clampdown against ill treatment. Another 170 investigations are still under way, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson said during Washington’s first appearance before the UN Committee on Torture since President George W. Bush unleashed a ‘war on terrorism’. The US delegation reiterated that the use of torture or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment by the US military or intelligence services was outlawed, wherever they may be operating. But in response to questions from the 10 legal experts on the UN panel, the officials indicated that Washington had been obliged to act in a broad manner following revelations of ill treatment in recent years. US State Department legal counsel John Bellinger said allegations of mistreatment of detained ‘enemy’ fighters emerged several years ago. ‘I am not trying to minimise their significance in any way at all, but to emphasise that without question our record has improved,’ Bellinger told the panel. ‘We now have more rigorous laws, more rigorous procedures, more rigorous training and more rigorous monitoring […]
Lesbian women respond differently than straight women when exposed to suspected sexual chemicals, according to a new brain imaging study. The finding builds on previous research that suggest that gay men responded in a way more similar to heterosexual women than heterosexual men when exposed to a synthetic chemical. The natural version of this chemical reportedly appears in high concentrations in male sweat. The new study extends the research to homosexual women. It found that lesbians’ brains respond in a fashion more similar to that of heterosexual men than of heterosexual women when exposed to the sweat chemical and a synthetic chemical that has been detected in female urine. ‘Both studies ¦ indicate that the physiological response in brain regions associated with reproduction are different in homo- and heterosexual persons,’ Ivanka Savic, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, said in an email. Savic, who is the lead author of both studies, cautioned that neither study proves people are born gay. The response could be biological or learned. Determining an answer will require further study. The most recent results were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. […]
In September of 1984, an ABC/Washington Post poll asked registered voters whether they preferred a Democrat or a Republican to represent their congressional districts. By a 15-point margin, respondents favored Democrats. On Election Day 1984, Democrats lost 14 seats in the House. In 1996, a similar question produced a 14-point edge for Democrats; in that election they gained 9 House seats. The lesson is that polls are important tools for understanding politics. Except when they’re not. Washington is buzzing with 2006 poll numbers, many of which are self-contradictory. For example, according to a Time magazine poll in March, 49 percent of respondents disapprove of the job Congress is doing, but 63 percent approve of their own representative. When asked which party they would like to see control Congress, respondents gave Democrats an 11-point edge, but when they were asked about the job the parties are doing in Congress, Democrats and Republicans had nearly identical ratings: 39 percent approval and about 50 percent disapproval. But if you sift through the data, some numbers not only make sense but also look a touch familiar. Could 2006 be 1994, all over again? Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the Center […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
