Bush is unpopular across the entire country: "This 50-state polling chart compiled by USA Survey is quite telling. Bush's approval rating is above 50% in only 6 states in the entire country, and Texas is not one of them. In 40 out of 50 states -- 80% of the country -- more people disapprove of Bush than approve of him.

Most revealing is Bush's intense and pervasive unpopularity in Ohio, the state which swung the election in his favor. People in Ohio disapprove of Bush's performance by an amazingly lopsided margin of 37-60%. Apparently, they're not happy that they have no jobs, their kids have no health insurance, their neighbors have been stuck and are being killed in an increasingly unpopular, endless and senseless war in Iraq, and the President is surrounded by cronyism and corruption and thinks he has the power to break the law. But at least gay couples can't get married, so that's good."

(Via Crooks and Liars.)

AlterNet: Behind the White House's Billion-Dollar Propaganda Push: "In two years, the Bush administration spent $1.6 billion to paint a prettier picture of its failing policies, even as it cut away the social safety net."

(Via AlterNet.)

AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: American Bar Association v. Bush: "The ABA, whose endorsement of Roberts and Alito, SpinDentist points out, Bush was only too happy to tout, has denounced Bush's spying on Americans. They've also called on Congress to say that No, it's not what we voted for in 2001 and 'to investigate the president's program to determine its legality, the extent of telephone and e-mail spying, and whether information obtained through the program was used in legal proceedings.'

This ain't small potatoes. This is the largest group of American lawyers with 400,000 members demanding that the highest legislative body in the land investigate a possible crime."

(Via AlterNet.)

Martini Republic » BushCo adopts damage-control strategy espoused by idiot: joke about shooting a man: "Here’s why — it’s sorta hard to make real funny cracks about shooting someone and causing a serious injury which has put the victim back into ICU with a heart attack, while a pellet from Cheney’s hilarious little boo-boo reportedly move closer towards the unfortunate man’s heart:

78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot in or touching his heart and he had ‘a silent heart attack’ Tuesday morning, hospital officials said.

Here’s what makes the administration’s yuk-yuk strategy all the more callous and stupid:

Hospital officials said they knew that Whittington had some birdshot near his heart ever since Cheney accidentally shot him Saturday evening while aiming for a quail. The pellet always was at risk of moving closer since scar tissue had not had time to harden and remain in place, they said.

Get that? They knew Whittington’s injuries had the potential to be fatal when Mehlman (or whoever) passed the ‘laugh it off’ talking point around the table."

(Via Martini Republic.)

FT.com / By industry / IT - US group implants electronic tags in workers: "An Ohio company has embedded silicon chips in two of its employees - the first known case in which US workers have been ‘tagged’ electronically as a way of identifying them.

CityWatcher.com, a private video surveillance company, said it was testing the technology as a way of controlling access to a room where it holds security video footage for government agencies and the police.

Embedding slivers of silicon in workers is likely to add to the controversy over RFID technology, widely seen as one of the next big growth industries.

RFID chips – inexpensive radio transmitters that give off a unique identifying signal – have been implanted in pets or attached to goods so they can be tracked in transit.

‘There are very serious privacy and civil liberty issues of having people permanently numbered,’ said Liz McIntyre, who campaigns against the use of identification technology."

(Via Financial Times.)

Schneier on Security: The Militarization of Police Work:

"During the past 15 years, The Post and other media outlets have reported on the unsettling 'militarization' of police departments across the country. Armed with free surplus military gear from the Pentagon, SWAT teams have multiplied at a furious pace. Tactics once reserved for rare, volatile situations such as hostage takings, bank robberies and terrorist incidents increasingly are being used for routine police work."

(Via Schneier on Security.)