New Gallup data show confidence in Congress at all time low  —  Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.  —  This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973.

For 2 Years, Bloomberg Aides Prepared for Bid  —  The announcement by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York that he was leaving the Republican Party to become an independent was made after nearly two years in which his aides had laid the groundwork for a potential independent run for president.

President Bush Bucking the Stem Cell Trend?  —  Bush's Veto of a Stem Cell Bill Comes as More People Say They Support Research  —  President Bush's pending veto of stem cell research legislation comes at a time when public support for such research is at an all-time high.

Read the sunspots  —  The mud at the bottom of B.C. fjords reveals that solar output drives climate change - and that we should prepare now for dangerous global cooling  —  Politicians and environmentalists these days convey the impression that climate-change research is an exceptionally dull field with little left to discover.

Good News about CAIR  —  I've talked before about the Council on American-Islamic Relations — most recently because it filed that lawsuit against Americans who reported suspicious behavior by Muslims on a U.S. Airways flight.  Better known just as CAIR, the lobbying group has come under …

Judicial Watch Releases New FBI Documents: Osama bin Laden May Have Chartered Saudi Flight Out of U.S. after 9/11  —  (Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released new documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation …

Political Hiring in Justice Division Probed  —  Karen Stevens, Tovah Calderon and Teresa Kwong had a lot in common.  They had good performance ratings as career lawyers in the Justice Department's civil rights division.  And they were minority women transferred out of their jobs two years ago …

Fatah's last stand: collapse or conspiracy?  —  GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — As they gave up compound after compound to advancing Hamas forces, weary Fatah fighters loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas fell back toward the seaside presidential compound in Gaza to make their last stand.

...Fred Thompson's politics:  —  That about says it all!  —  This music makes my day!  Go Fred!  —  Sorry honey, Fred? already has a trophy wife — and her boobs are bigger than yours!  —  by Jefferson's Child 2007-06-20 12:57:24  —  How about a Fred Thompson/Newt Gingrich ticket?!

The fights on the right  —  WHAT DO liberal Democrats think about the war in Iraq?  That's easy: It was a blunder that has become a debacle, and it should be brought to an end as soon as possible.  —  What do conservative Republicans think about the war?  That's not so easy.

Missing Soldier's Wife Faces Deportation  —  As Military Searches For Kidnapped Soldier In Iraq, U.S. Threatens To Send Wife Back To Dominican Republic  —  (CBS/AP) While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda …

BBC 'risked safety of troops'  —  The BBC was accused last night of risking the safety of British forces in Iraq after trawling for information on troop movements in the war-torn country.  —  Politicians reacted in disbelief to the revelation that for over two hours yesterday …

Happy for the Work  —  It is vacation season once again, giving occasion for the usual homilies about how Europeans are having a much better and healthier time of it than we are when it comes to work.  You've heard it a thousand times: Americans "live to work," while Europeans "work to live."

The drip, drip, drip on Obama  —  Some practitioners in politics, law enforcement and journalism call it "scrubbing": the process of examining someone's past in search of illegalities, or serious embarrassments, or innocent but peculiar actions that will be difficult to explain.

Medical staff held in Libya 'could be freed in weeks'  —  Hopes are rising that five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly infecting children with the HIV will be released within weeks in a deal involving a multimillion-dollar international fund for healthcare to treat the victims.