DON’T MISS THIS: RUNNING THE NUMBERS ON AMERICA

ISRAEL’S INDYMEDIA SAYS PLAN SET FOR ATTACK ON IRAN

TAKE BACK AMERICA POLL BACKS OBAMA
HOW THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES SCAM US
MICHAEL MOORE BOASTS: “I AM MAINSTREAM NOW”

In what was my first full day in New York in nearly a week, the temperature dropped overnight, the rain fell and then the sun came out—three seasons in one day. But there is no rest for the weary. I am off later today for South Africa, a kind of home away from home for many years, to show In Debt We Trust at the big Film Festival in Durban South Africa. I will also celebrate my big birthday, check in on old friends, and find out the latest on the strikes, the struggle and the like.

So what’s new in the news. First, the full extent of Iraq’s devastation thanks to our war for that country’s freedom now has a new statistic according to the UN—read this and weep—NINE MILLION refugees are now FREE to subsist anyway they can.

Back in Washington, our President spent the day veteoing the stem cell research bill while mob violence back in his lone star state led to a man being beaten to death while a black cloud ascended over Las Vegas and, closer to home, a security guard opened fire on another one at Walter Reed Hospital. Is the country becoming unhinged?

That was what William Rivers Pitt of Truthout was also thinking, writing:

There is something happening today in America. With the right kind of ears, you can hear it in the sound of millions of brows slowly furrowing in anger and disgust. It feels like those tense moments just before the eruption of a summer thunderstorm, those moments when the air is electric, the ozone reek of spent lightning fills the world, and you know something very loud is about to happen. What is happening, what can be heard and smelled and sensed all across the land, is the cresting wave of rage, betrayal and fury that is, finally, roaring across the shores of our collective American heart.”

MEANWHILE

Back at the Washington Hilton Hotel where the Take Back America conference was ending, a straw poll of the progressives in attendance by the website Politico reported that Obama seemed to have captivated the crowd.

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, narrowly beating out former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, and decisively knocking official front-runner Hillary Clinton into third place.

Edwards took 26% of the vote and Clinton 17%.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson received 9% of the vote, and 8% wrote in the name of former Vice President Al Gore, who was not listed as a candidate in the straw poll.

The poll results also indicated intense concern about the Iraq war.

“Obama clearly has strength and a base and enthusiasm here among a network of progressive groups and activists,” said pollster Stan Greenberg, whose Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research adminstered the poll.

He noted that both he and Edwards were the clear front-runners.

“If you look at this, you see Obama’s [supporters’] second choice and Edwards [supporters’] second choice are each other — in this group, the two of them form the top tier.”

Obama delivered an uncharacteristically confrontational performance at Take Back America Tuesday. He lashed the Bush Administration for stubbornness and, he said, for not believing in the Constitution. And he attacked Washington’s culture of lobbying.

“They think they own this government but, we are here to tell them today that our government is not for sale and we are taking it back,” Obama said to loud applause.

HILLARY BOOED–BUT WHY?

Hillary Clinton also spoke and attracted some booing, a story that was played big by the Hillary Haters in conservative media. The conference put out a release that said

“What the boos were actually about is likely to be misreported.

Byron York at the National Review writes that the boos began after Clinton said, “The American military has done its job.” A fellow attendee told me he heard Fox News’ Carl Cameron report that she was booed because she said she supports the troops (though I have not been able to confirm Cameron’s remarks.)

That’s flat wrong. The Politics on the Hudson blog gets it right:

“They jeered the Democratic presidential hopeful when she blamed the Iraqi government for the continued violence that has bogged down U.S. troops.”

See the video for yourself, go to 23 minutes and 38 seconds into her emarks.

Why get booed for that?

Because a lot of people are sick and tired of what’s become a stand-by cop-out bipartisan talking point: that the Iraqis are solely to blame for the chaos and de-stablization.

As if the Iraqis invaded and occupied themselves.

RESPONDING TO JOE LIEBERMAN

On another political front, MoveOn boasted that its supporters donated over $355,000 in the past 24 hours to anti-war candidate Tom Allen, as well as Iraq veteran Rep. Patrick Murphy and MoveOn’s Iraq campaign. Rep. Allen is running to replace Senator Susan Collins, a pro-war candidate from Maine. The effort was prompted by Senator Joe Lieberman’s fundraiser to support Sen. Collins.

“We encourage Senator Lieberman to do fundraisers for other Republican Senators who support the Iraq war, so that our members have an opportunity to do this again for other anti-Iraq war candidates,”MoveOn’s Eli Pariser concluded.