After an initial increase in approval after his State of the Union address early last week, President Obama’s approval rating has again fallen precipitously. His approval has matched his former low.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove which Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15. That matches the President’s ratings just before the State-of-the-Union Address. While Obama received a modest bounce in his ratings following the speech, today’s results suggest that the bounce is over.

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Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. That matches the lowest level of overall approval yet measured for this president. Fifty-five percent (55%) now disapprove.

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A British newspaper is reporting that East Anglia police have been interviewing Paul Dennis, a scientist and a colleague of Phil Jones, the man at the center of the Climategate storm.

He caught their attention because he has refused to sign a petition in support of Jones. He has also been emailing scientific material to a climate sceptic.

Dennis told bloggers the police are still laboring under the assumption that Climategate was hacked in order to sabotage Nopenhagen. We’ve concluded weeks ago, Climategate was leaked before it was hacked. Is Paul Dennis our hero? Read at all in …

Norwich Evening News: “Police quiz UEA scientist over climategate scandal”

A scientist colleague of the man at the centre of the University of East Anglia’s climategate scandal has revealed that he has been interviewed by police over the affair – but denied he was responsible for leaking hundreds of emails. (…) >>>

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New Texas gov poll shows Tea Party candidate Debra Medina would defeat Democrat; Perry still leads

A previous Rasmussen survey of likely Republican voters found Perry leading Hutchison 44-29 with Medina trailing at 16.

Now comes word, via a new Rasmussen Reports Poll, that Medina is gaining some traction and today all three of the Republicans lead the likely Democratic challenger, Houston Mayor Bill White.

Hutchison still performs the best, beating White by 13 points, 49-36. Perry is second-best in that hypothetical matchup, defeating White by nine, 48-39.

Boiling Tea

John Zogby

Tea Partiers are not a fringe phenomenon. The political views of those who identify with Tea Partiers from a distance and those who are actively engaged in the movement are very similar. From the perspective of Tea Party detractors, the sympathizers are for the most part as extreme as are actual Tea Party organizers and participants.

And there are plenty of those sympathizers. While people who are official members of Tea Party organizations and those who attend Tea Parties are relatively few, those who are generally sympathetic to their cause are many. In fact, taken together, these three groups comprise 47% of likely voters according to our latest survey. Senator Scott Brown’s assertion that he could not win with a mere support of the Tea Party Movement misses this larger point: Tea Party activists can elect few people but Tea Party supporters can elect many more and winning without at least some of the Tea Party sympathetic vote is, at the present moment, a tall order.

Tea Party Group Plans Political Action Committee

Trying to turn grassroots anger into political power, members of the Tea Party movement who are gathered for their inaugural convention here announced plans to form a political action committee to raise money and provide political consulting and campaign management for conservative candidates.

The organizers said the committee aims to raise $10 million this year, and is hoping to back conservative candidates in five races to start; in the most highly visible, organizers said, they want to run a candidate against Senator Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat. They plan to meet at the end of this month and begin identifying 15 other Congressional races in which they would back candidates.

“Let us not be naïve here,” said Mark Skoda, the leader of the a Tea Party group in Memphis, who said he would be president of the political action committee. “The notion of holding up signs does not get people elected.”

PJTV: Welcome to Nashville: Kicking Off The 2010 National Tea Party Convention

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In the last couple of days IPCC mistakes have been discovered that got the Dutch Environmental Minister to cry out in desperation. Settled science turns out to be a quagmire.

While Greenpeace and Eco Defense keep singing the man-made settled dogma tune, the Labor politician is demanding the IPCC finally clarify the enormities.

NRC: “New mistake found in UN climate report”

The UN climate change panel IPCC not only wrongly predicted Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035, it also put more than half of the Netherlands below sea level. The Dutch environment minister, Jaqueline Cramer, on Wednesday demanded a thorough investigation into the 2007 report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change after a Dutch magazine uncovered it incorrectly states 55 percent of the country lies below sea level. The the Dutch national bureau for environmental analysis has taken responsibility for the incorrect figure cited by the IPCC. Only 26 percent of the Netherlands is really below sea level. (…) >>>

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From Leader Boehenr’s office:

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The Chicago Sun-Times reporting:

The Illinois Supreme Court says limiting damage amounts in medical malpractice cases violates the state’s Constitution.

In an opinion filed Thursday, the court says such caps violate the principle of separation of powers. The court says the limits the Illinois General Assembly adopted in 2005 would infringe on the judicial branch’s power.

The caps were seen as a way to lower medial insurance rates blamed for driving doctors out of the state. The measure limited what victims could collect for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals.

A Cook County judge ruled in 2007 that caps interfered with juries’ power to award appropriate damage awards for medical errors. That sent the issue to the high court.

Today’s opinion sparked significant reaction:

Christopher Hage, attorney in Oak Park, Ill.:

“This opinion is very bad news for the people of downstate Illinois that are once again going to lose access to neurosurgeons and obstetricians.  Before these reforms became law, specialty doctors were fleeing the state.  Pregnant women had to drive long distances to reach their physicians and car accident victims were helicoptered into neighboring states.  The Illinois General Assembly acted to fix the situation on a bipartisan and decisive way.  The failure of the Illinois Supreme Court to uphold that package of medical malpractice reforms shows a profund disrespect for the law-making body of our state.  Once again, the Illinois Supreme Court has ignored the principle of the separation of powers that is essential to our system of government.  Unfortunately, the hospitals and doctors of this state are already reeling from the state’s failure to pay their medicaid bills.  Now many of them are sure to lose their malpractice insurance or see the rates climb dramatically.”

We’ll have more reactions and statements as they become available…

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