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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Politico largely ignored Giuliani-ISG story, still flogging Edwards' haircuts  —  The Politico, which purports to cover "the politics of Capitol Hill and of the presidential campaign ... with enterprise, style, and impact," largely ignored a June 19 Newsday article reporting that former …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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."

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.