Live from Austin!

According to an AP poll, 1 in 4 Americans expect the second coming of Jesus Christ to happen in 2007.

I can just about get my head around the number of people who expect it to happen soon; but specifically next year? And 1 in 4 people think this?

Guardian:

More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension — greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good.

Well, that’ll give Richard Dawkins a merry Christmas.

Some results from a USA Today / Gallup poll:

• 66% of people think all Americans should be forced to carry a national ID card.
• 46% think Arabs should have to carry a special ID card, even if they are US citizens. (Hell, why not give ‘em a red crescent badge or tattoo?)
• 48% think the police should be able to stop anyone at random and demand their ID.
• 37% think the government should be free to search the list of books you’ve checked out of the library.

And people wonder how Hitler got elected.

Choice statistics from last week’s CBS poll of the average American:

• 61% disapprove of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq.
• 65% believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.
• 81% think the torture at Abu Ghraib was unjustified.
• 51% think the Pentagon tried to cover it up.
• 20% think the Bush administration has increased jobs, 49% think they’ve decreased jobs.

There’s more in this week’s poll:

• 80% thought Bush was either “hiding something” or “mostly lying” in his statements on Iraq.
• 55% think the war in Iraq has created more anti-American terrorists.
• Only 13% think America is safer as a result of the war.

And rounding off a fairly solid victory for reality, only 29% of people have a favorable opinion of John Kerry.

Guardian today:

A new poll suggested yesterday that Ralph Nader’s independent presidential bid represented a serious threat to the Democratic candidate, Senator John Kerry.

The New York Times and CBS News poll revealed a tight two-man race for the White House between President George Bush and Mr Kerry. Mr Bush had a narrow lead of 46% over Mr Kerry’s 43% — within the poll’s margin of error.

But when Americans were asked about a three-man race including Mr Nader, the 70-year-old consumer activist attracted 7% support, mostly at the expense of the Democrat. In that contest, Mr Bush led Mr Kerry by 46% to 38%.

Mr Nader’s poll ratings are higher than at this point in the 2000 election. […]

Yesterday’s New York Times/CBS poll made bleak reading for the senator for Massachusetts for other reasons. […] Fifty-seven per cent said “most of the time he says what he thinks people want to hear”, while only a third thought he stayed true to his beliefs.

So there we have it. The fact that Kerry is a lying two-faced weasel is so painfully obvious that the voters have already worked it out, and he’s doing even worse than Al Gore. He’s so awful that people would rather vote for Ralph Nader’s pointless ego-trip than support Kerry. The Democrats have chosen self-destruction once again; get ready for four more years of Bush.

A recent opinion poll shows that 48% of voters would vote for the unannounced Democratic presidential candidate, versus 44% for Bush. (Margin of error: 3%.)

Yes, that’s right. Bush losing to an unknown candidate who doesn’t exist yet.

Poll results: “Surprisingly Few Adults Outside of Christianity Have Positive Views of Christians”.

I’d say it was probably only a surprise to the Christians.