WELCOME, MCADAMS & SYKES READERS. When you've finished, you may want to read this as well.

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Since late in 2001, under the title McCarthyism Watch, Matt Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, has collected and chronicled abuses of civil liberties in the post-9/11 era in the United States.

His book, You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression, tells 82 stories of people caught up in the web of the Patriot Act and other heightened security measures. (Rothschild will speak at a book-signing event Thursday, Sept. 28 at Harry W. Schwartz bookstore, 2559 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee.)

Just 20% said they consider it a positive description to call a candidate politically liberal while 39% would view that description negatively. However, 35% would consider it a positive description to call a candidate politically progressive. Just 18% react negatively to that term. Those figures reflect a huge swing, from a net negative of nineteen points to a net positive of 17 points...

There are, of course, huge partisan differences for each of these terms. Among Democrats, 32% consider the description liberal as positive. That number jumps to 42% for the description of a candidate as progressive. Among Republicans, just 7% say the term liberal is a positive description, but that number jumps to 26% for the term progressive.

-- Rasmussen Reports.