Hillary Clinton Booed Again  —  Sen. Hillary Clinton was booed again this morning at the Take Back America conference, sponsored by the lefty activist group Campaign for America's Future here in Washington.  At this same conference last year, Sen. Clinton was booed for her position on the war in Iraq.

Tribes help U.S. against al-Qaeda  —  BAGHDAD — More than 10 Iraqi tribes in the Baghdad area have reached agreements with U.S. and Iraqi forces for the first time to oppose al-Qaeda, raising the U.S. military's hopes that a trend started in western Iraq is spreading here.

What Hamas Wants  —  THE events in Gaza over the last few days have been described in the West as a coup.  In essence, they have been the opposite.  Eighteen months ago, our Hamas Party won the Palestinian parliamentary elections and entered office under Prime Minister Ismail Haniya …

Barack Obama wins Politico.com Straw Poll  —  Senator Barack Obama scored a victory among progressive activists Wednesday, winning the Politico.com Straw Poll of attendees at the Take Back America Conference in Washington.  —  Obama received 29% of the 720 votes cast in the straw poll …

GIULIANI FOLLOWUP....Remember that Newsday story from yesterday about Rudy Giuliani getting kicked off the Iraq Study Group because he couldn't find the time in his busy schedule to attend their meetings?  You could be excused if you don't, since apparently no one in our press corps considered either …

Bloomberg Severs G.O.P. Ties, Fueling Talk of '08 Bid  —  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced Tuesday that he was dropping his Republican affiliation, a step that could clear the way for him to make an independent bid for the presidency.  —  The announcement was released during …

Simulation finds 9/11 fireproofing key  —  INDIANAPOLIS - A computer simulation of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks supports a federal agency's findings that the initial impact from the hijacked airplanes stripped away crucial fireproofing material and that the weakened towers collapsed under their own weight.

Michael Moore — Irrelevant Even If He's Not Making It Up  —  Kyle Smith of the New York Post writes a nice takedown of Michael Moore's new move "Sicko."  The movie has not yet been released, so we don't yet know for sure whether, like previous Moore films, it will be premised on a lie.

Slim Chance Of Finding an Arabic Speaker at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad  —  Jonathan Karl and Maddy Sauer Report:  —  Of the 1,000 U.S. employees at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, only 10 have a working knowledge of Arabic, according to the State Department.

French officials want their BlackBerrys despite security warning  —  Top French government officials are ignoring warnings to ditch their cherished BlackBerrys — smartphones with e-mail capacity — despite warnings their messages may be intercepted by US spy agencies, a report said Tuesday.

New Taliban Leader Had Been in Afghan Custody; Released in Hostage Deal  —  Maddy Sauer Reports:  —  The Taliban military commander who led the "graduation ceremony" for 300 suicide bombers was one of five men released from an Afghanistan prison earlier this year in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.

In N.C., GOPer Raises, Then Lowers, Voter Fraud Alarms  —  On June 5, less than thirty minutes before the North Carolina State Senate was scheduled to vote on a bill that would allow voters to register up until three days before an election (down from 25), the Republican state auditor sent …

The World In America  —  Here's a great map from a great blog, Strange Maps.  Each state is represented by a foreign country with the same GDP.  I'm struck by one obvious thing.  The District of Columbia has the same GDP as New Zealand.  Now imagine if no one in New Zealand were allowed …

Some Colleges to Drop Out of U.S. News Rankings  —  The presidents of dozens of liberal arts colleges have decided to stop participating in the annual college rankings by U.S. News and World Report.  —  The decision was announced Tuesday at the end of an annual meeting of the Annapolis Group …

Clash Nears in the Senate on Legislation Helping Unions Organize  —  Senate Democratic leaders moved Tuesday to force a vote on organized labor's top legislative priority, a bill that would make it far easier to organize workers.  But Republican leaders vowed to kill the measure …

What "truly motivates" George W. Bush?  —  Salon this morning has published a somewhat lengthy excerpt from my new book, A Tragic Legacy.  The excerpt is here, and it concerns the root premises which have led this country so explicitly to embrace the very policies and practices …

Times Undertakes Multi-Bureau Rupert Murdoch Investigation  —  EDITION OF THE NEW YORK OBSERVER.  —  The New York Times is currently undertaking a major news investigation, led by managing editor Jill Abramson, into News Corp.'s business dealings throughout the world, according to a source with knowledge of the project.