News roundup from Tuesday, April 24, including stories and links about the François Hollande, European financial crisis, austerity, ALEC, Grover Norquist, Leon Panetta, Texas Board of Education, Brazilian dam, Cuba, honeybees, BP, Frankenfood, foreclosures, white killer whale and more.

I think most Progressives, Liberals or any other stripe of DFH’s often despair at how seemingly clueless the majority of our nation is. After all, there are things the political Right spouts, which are clearly crazy. Many of us have decried the ideas of the United States being a “Christian country” or any of the kind of revisionist history that the Right continually spouts, yet it seems to find fertile ground with many Americans. Where does this kind of thinking seep into our national consciousness?