Bloomberg Insists He Is Not Running for President  —  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg used his 15 minutes of fame as a Potential Presidential Candidate to showcase one of his pet local projects, the city's 311 Call Center.  —  A day after he announced he was quitting the Republican Party …

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.

Blair May Become Special Mideast Envoy  —  Bush Administration Envisions Role With Focus on Palestinians  —  The Bush administration is laying the groundwork for an announcement of Tony Blair's appointment as a special Middle East envoy for Palestinian governance and economic issues …

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.

Engage With Hamas  —  GAZA CITY, Palestine — The Palestinian National Authority apparently joins the list of elected governments targeted or toppled over the past century by interventionism: nations that had the courage to take American rhetoric at face value and elect whomever they would.

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

Digby speaks  —  The remarkable wisdom of Digby now has a public face.  —  Here are her remarks last night at the Take Back America 2007 conference in Washington.  —  In case you can't view the video, or if you just want it, here's a transcript:  —  Thank you very much, Ned.  That is overwhelming.

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."

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 …

"Fringe liberal bloggers"  —  When establishment journalists speak of the liberal blogosphere, it is virtually an article of faith that it represents the "far left," that it is composed of the radical and fringe elements of liberalism.  This week, the increasingly dishonest Fred Thompson castigated Harry Reid …

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 …