Tag Archives: civil rights

Obama sees more blame now than a year ago, but 51% assign him little to no blame

Gallup Poll

by Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ — Nearly two years into his presidency, 51% of Americans say President Barack Obama bears little to no blame for U.S. economic problems, while 48% assign him a great deal or moderate amount of blame. More Americans now blame Obama than did so a year ago, but a substantially higher percentage, 71%, blame former President George W. Bush.

More specifically, the Aug. 27-30 USA Today/Gallup poll finds 24% of Americans blaming Obama a great deal for the current economic problems, 24% a moderate amount, 25% not much, and 26% not at all. By contrast, 37% blame Bush a great deal, compared with 10% assigning him no blame.

Bush fares poorly on this measure partly because a relatively high proportion of Republicans — 48% — blame him a great deal or moderate amount, as do most Democrats (89%) and independents (73%). By contrast, relatively few Democrats, 19%, blame Obama. These patterns are consistent with Gallup’s findings on the same question in April.

Bottom Line

Americans are far from charitable when it comes to their evaluations of Obama’s performance on the economy. Recent Gallup polling found 38% approving of the job he is doing in this arena — among his worst job scores on the nation’s top issues. However, that still exceeds Bush’s final approval rating on the economy of 27%, measured in February 2008. That was prior to the Wall Street financial crisis that rocked both the economy and consumer confidence later in the year, so Bush’s rating likely fell even further by the time he left office.

Obama’s overall job approval rating was 46% at the time of his latest economic rating, in early August, and continues to hover in the mid- to high 40s in Gallup Daily tracking. The gap between his approval on the economy and his overall approval may be partly explained by Americans’ tendency to believe that the enduring economic problems are at least not of his own making.

Survey MethodsResults for this USA Today/Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Aug. 27-30, 2010, with a random sample of 1,021 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S., selected using random-digit-dial sampling.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones (for respondents with a landline telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell phone-only). Each sample includes a minimum quota of 150 cell phone-only respondents and 850 landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents for gender within region. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, education, region, and phone lines. Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2009 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in continental U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

View methodology, full question results, and trend data.

For more details on Gallup’s polling methodology, visit http://www.gallup.com/.

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RAN …09-30-10 March on DC

09/18/2010 Nativegrl77

March to save America’s mountains. Register today.

On September 27, thousands of Americans will march on the White House to demand an end to mountaintop removal coal mining, a practice that is poisoning the air, water, soil, culture and communities of Appalachia.

Are you disgusted by coal corporations bombing America’s mountains into oblivion?

March with us in D.C. on September 27 to end mountaintop removal mining. Sign up now..

Mountaintop removal is an atrocity that has destroyed over 500 mountains, buried thousands of miles of Appalachian streams and rivers, clear-cut over a million acres and harmed countless Appalachian lives.

It’s time to abolish this horrible practice. Join us for Appalachia Rising..

Our friend Mickey McCoy of Inez, Kentucky summed it up perfectly. “I’d rather not travel to Washington DC. I’d rather not break the law in non-violent civil disobedience. Frankly, I’d like to work in the garden in my retirement…but when 300 million gallons of toxic coal sludge from a Massey Energy impoundment flooded Martin County, my home, I found myself in a fight for the life of my land and community. And with those stakes, you don’t have a choice. The time for action is now!”

After attending Voices from the Mountains, a summit of Appalachians and their allies September 25 & 26, RAN will take to the D.C. streets to march on the White House and demand justice for Appalachia’s communities, culture and environment.

Be there with us. March on the 27th knowing you helped give Appalachia a fighting chance to survive and thrive for generations to come.

		See you in Washington D.C.,
		Scott Parkin Global Finance Campaigner

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Jon Stewart & Steven Colbert announce Rallies on the National Mall 10-30-10

09/17/2010 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Stewart, Colbert ready to rally

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Jon Stewart says he will host a “Rally to Restore Sanity” on October 30
Stephen Colbert counters with a “March to Keep Fear Alive”
The announcements come weeks after much-publicized rallies in nation’s capital

RELATED TOPICS

(CNN) — Two Comedy Central funnymen are apparently entering into the partisan political fray with rallies of their own in the nation’s capital.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have set October 30 as the date for their respective rallies.

On Thursday night’s airing of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” the comedian announced plans for a “Rally to Restore Sanity.”

“See you October 30 on the National Mall to spread the timeless message, ‘Take it down a notch for America,’ ” he said.

Stewart dubbed the event a “clarion call for rationality.”

“A million moderate march, where we take to the streets to send a message to our leaders and our national media that says, ‘We are here! We … are only here until 6 though, because we have a sitter,'” he said.

On “The Colbert Report,” which airs immediately after Stewart’s show, Colbert fired back with plans for his “March to Keep Fear Alive.”

“Now is not the time to take it down a notch. Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom,” Colbert said.

Given both hosts’ penchant for satire, it was unclear whether the rallies would actually take place.

But Stewart was adamant on his Thursday show that he had reserved a spot on the National Mall, saying, “The forms have been filled out, the checks have been written.”

Stewart is known more for commentaries on his 30-minute show than publicity stunts. But Colbert has engaged the public several times outside his show’s New York studio, filing papers to run for president in South Carolina and shaving his head while taping his show in Iraq to show support for troops.

In a nonscientific online poll after the death last year of Walter Cronkite, Time magazine named Stewart “America’s most trusted newscaster.” Stewart captured 44 percent of that vote, with NBC’s Brian Williams finishing a distant second at 29 percent.

See the poll results here

Actual scientific polling in 2007 by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press found Stewart tied for fourth place as viewers’ favorite news person, ranking alongside Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams and CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and just behind Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Bill O’Reilly.

See the Pew poll results here

In a separate Pew survey, 16 percent of Americans said they regularly watched “The Daily Show” or “The Colbert Report.” Those numbers are comparable to some major news programs. For instance, 17 percent said they regularly watched Fox News‘ “The O’Reilly Factor,” and 14 percent watched PBS’ “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” regularly.

See the full survey results

The announcements come less than three weeks after conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck hosted a much-publicized “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall, urging large crowds to “turn back to God” and return America to the values on which it was founded.

That event drew criticism for its timing and location — on the 47th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered in the same place.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson told CNN at the time that Beck was mimicking King and “humiliating the tradition.” And other civil rights activists gathered nearby with the Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network in a “Reclaim the Dream” rally.

Stewart first publicly floated the idea of a counter-rally in a profile in the September 12 edition of New York magazine.

“Maybe we would do a ‘March of the Reasonable,’ on a date of no particular significance,” Stewart says in the article.

Read the New York magazine profile

The website logos and icons created for the Colbert and Stewart rallies mimic Beck’s, using identical typography and similar stylized images.

“We’re looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard,” the website for the “Rally to Restore Sanity” says.

The “March to Keep Fear Alive” site takes a more alarmist approach: “Never forget — ‘Reason’ is just one letter away from ‘Treason.’ Coincidence? Reasonable people would say it is, but America can’t afford to take that chance.”

CNN’s Jim Kavanagh contributed to this report.

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Republicans Vote Against Jobs

09/17/2010 Nativegrl77

The G.O.P. Job-Killing Agenda

When President Obama took office last year, millions of American families and the nation as a whole were facing an economic catastrophe brought on by years of failed Republican fiscal policies. That is why Democrats continue fighting to create American jobs, strengthen our economy, and stand up for the middle class.

In contrast, Republicans are pushing a job-killing agenda that includes opposition to tax cuts for small businesses, opposition to clean energy jobs, and protection for tax loopholes exploited by multinational corporations. The following bills in the 111th Congress are just a few examples of the pro-jobs proposals that Republicans have tried to kill.

Title	Positive Jobs Impact	GOP ‘No’ Votes	Date
Preventing Layoffs of Teachers and First Responders (FMAP)	290,000	93%	8/4/2010
Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act	5,600,000	68%	3/17/2010
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act	3,000,000	93%	2/13/2009
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act	250,000	100%	12/24/2009
Travel Promotion Act	40,000	43%	9/9/2009
Cash for Clunkers	60,000	83%	8/6/2009
Unemployment Insurance Extension	785,000	93%	7/21/2010
Small Business Jobs and Credit Act	500,000	100%	7/29/2010
American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act	1,000,000	98%	6/16/2010
For additional Information: Detailed DPC Vote Data

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Watch this video with Alec Baldwin and Kris Kristofferson

09/16/2010 Nativegrl77

We share a simple but powerful belief: Clean air belongs to all of us.

But right now, big oil, dirty coal and their allies in Congress are busy acting like the air belongs to them. They’ve renewed their multi-million dollar assault on the Clean Air Act — a piece of legislation that has successfully protected public health and the environment by keeping big polluters in check for four decades.

We need more people to get involved and stop them from gutting this crucial law.

That’s why Alec Baldwin, Kris Kristofferson and thousands of supporters are taking part in a new video to help spread the word about our fight to protect clean air.

Watch the new Clean Air Act video today and share it with your friends and family.

Clean air belongs to us -- watch the video

This week marks the 40th anniversary of this crucial law — a day to celebrate 40 years of progress. But if the fossil fuel industry gets its way, we will be helpless to stop polluters from dumping hundreds of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases into the air each year, as if it were an open sewer.

And that’s exactly what they want: a toothless Clean Air Act, a misinformed public and a bottom line that stays fat and secure while the planet chokes on their harmful pollution.

This new video is our rallying cry. It’s a declaration that we won’t stay quiet while we lose our last, best line of defense against big polluters.

And right now, you can help make sure it will be seen by as many people as possible.

Check out our Clean Air Act video and help us spread its vitally important message.

Clean air isn’t just our right — it’s also the legacy we will leave for future generations. Please get involved and help protect the Clean Air Act for today, tomorrow and all of us.

Thanks for taking action today,

Dave Boundy
Campaign Manager
The Climate Protection Action Fund’s Repower America campaign