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August 17, 2005 - Survey USA has just released a new 50-state poll on President Bush's approval ratings. Not everyone is a fan of their polling techniques, but it's a useful snapshot, being one of the only polls with a state-by-state breakdown. And the results from the South are very interesting.

August 16, 2005 - The Institute is represented here in cloudy Seattle at the Progressive Legislative Action Network conference, which is being held amidst the annual gathering of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

August 15, 2005 - Blogging will be light over the next couple days as I head off to Seattle for the Progressive Legislative Action Network conference. It promises to be a great event, challenging the right-wing dominance of state legislatures and building up a progressive alternative.

August 15, 2005 - In its latest bid for world domination, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart has announced it plans to open a financial services arm. The bank, headquartered in Utah as an industrial charter bank (ILC), would offer credit and debit cards to help grease sales at Wal-Mart stores -- talk about synergy -- but could expand into mortgages and loans. Wal-Mart Watch offers more background:

August 15, 2005 - The backlash is in full force against Cindy Sheehan, the mother of killed soldier Casey Sheehan looking for face time with our vacationing President. The signs of the backlash are all around:

August 12, 2005 - It blew right by us like a gust of summer heat, but August 10 marked the 6-month anniversary of our patch of progressive blogdom, Facing South. Given the blog pioneers in our midst, that means we're still newbies -- although with thousands of new blogs setting forth daily, we feel older every day.

August 12, 2005 - Well, actually, I do.