Dem-leaning blogs have been noticeably silent about the CBS "memogate" report, while the Repug ones are crowing. "Proof of liberal media bias!" they say. Hardly. While I don't defend CBS, there are some major flaws in right-wing claims that are worth pointing out.

American City Business Journals has done an analysis of how House seats and electoral votes will shift between states in the next reapportionment. Given the projected population numbers for 2010, they found that there will be a net gain for the red states, and a net loss for the blue.

Red states gaining seats:

Arizona (+1), Florida (+2), Georgia (+1), Nevada (+1), Texas (+3), Utah (+1)

Blue states gaining seats:

California (+1)

Red states losing seats:

Iowa (-1), Louisiana (-1), Missouri (-1), Ohio (-2)

Blue states losing seats:

Illinois (-1), Massachusetts (-1), New York (-2), Pennsylvania (-1)

Net change:

Red states: +4, Blue states: -4

This is a little depressing. It would mean that flipping Ohio to blue would not be enough for a Democratic victory.  We'd need at least one other state to flip.  We could get that with just a one percentage-point gain in Iowa or New Mexico, however.

Unbelievable. The Gallup poll just did a survey on evolution. Seventy-nine years after the Scopes Monkey trial, they found that almost half of all Americans still don't believe humans are the product of evolution.

45% believe God created us in our present form about 10,000 years ago
38% believe we evolved over millions of years, with God guiding
13% believe we evolved, with God playing no part

In addition, when asked whether Darwin's theory of evolution was supported by evidence, only about a third said yes, another third said no, and the rest said they didn't know.

Breaking it down by demographic group:

56% of self-identified liberals believe evolution was supported by evidence. 36% of moderates believe it, and only 26% of conservatives.

38% of Democrats believed it, vs. 29% of Republicans.

47% in the West and 42% in the East (mostly blue states)

Only 29% in the Midwest, and 27% in the South (mostly red states)

Why am I not surprised?