Our periodic linkfest pointing you to interesting posts from DIFFERING viewpoints. These viewpoints do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Moderate Voice or its co-bloggers.
CBS’s Bob Schieffer Blasts The White House on the Rove/Plume affair. Watch the VIDEO HERE. Note that Schieffer it has long been reported that Schieffer was one of the journalists a bit more sympathetic to George Bush so the cliche about this being typical mainstream media mantra, he always hated Bush, he was being ordered from above is merely this. This isn’t quite as significant as Walter Cronkite breaking with LBJ on the Vietnam war, but it’s a sign that Mr. Bush is losing credibility among some people in the center.
On The Other Hand Some May Disagree such as The Astute Blogger who gives us this detailed list to support his contention that the mainstream media and the left are going after GWB with little real justification.
And GOPers On Meet The Press cast the Rove/Plume scandal in a different light. For the video and conservative point of view on this visit Trey Jackson. NOTE: TMV doesn’t agree. He doesn’t belong to either party and thinks these are valid issues being rasied against Mr. Rove — but we won’t know the extent of what happened and whether it violates the law until the Special Prosecutor has made some decisions.
Has The Smoking Gun Emerged To Prove That The Terrorists In Last Year’s Bombing In Spain Sought To Defeat The Ruling Party? Read Barcepundit. If this isn’t a smoking gun, it’s a loaded gun. And if this was their intent, let’s admit it: it worked. Make sure you read his WHOLE POST…right down to the last line (the kicker).
Did George Bush Err In His Reaction To The London Bombing? The inimitable James Wolcott thinks so. Read his post in full. But he argues that Americans didn’t react to the British terrorist attack the way they would want and expect the British to react to an American terrorist attack:
The Bush/Rush/Fox News/Ann Coulter/National Review mindless blare of American exceptionalism and entitlement has helped enlist millions of Americans into the ranks of selfish bastards. “We are all Britons” blogtalk is cheap, like wearing another one of those goddam colored wristbands to signal that you nominally support a cause (sympathy as kitsch). Yet again the American eagle has exposed its chicken feathers and rubber beak in the face of adversity…..
We are quite willing to stand by our British brothers and sisters, as long as we can stand a good safe distance and still do our shopping. To me, the greatest insult to the British and their losses was delivered today, all the more insulting because it was thoughtless and unintentional. I was watching the news of the two minutes of silence held for the victims of the London bombings, a silent vigil held not just in London but across Europe….
Has the United States or even simply Washington, DC held a silent moment for the victims of the London bombings? Has any national gesture of solidarity been proposed? If so, I haven’t seen or heard of it. We’re just going about our business while insisting that the world perpetually acknowledge our scars and trauma from September 11th as our justification to wage whatever aggressive action we deem necessary to ensure it never happens again.
Did You Hear About Who Sen. Arlen Specter wants to see on the Supreme Court? You have now..
Another Centrist Views Rovegate: Mathew at Centerfield has a post that should be read in full. Part of it 4 U:
Maybe what Rove did technically wasn’t illegal, maybe the accusations that he is a threat to national security are overblown, and certainly the call for criminal proceedings are premature at best; however, that doesn’t change the fact that his discussion with Cooper was inappropriate, irresponsible, unethical, and wrong. Furthermore, what he did certainly goes against the spirit of what the President and his Press Secretary previously claimed was the standard for the administration. To me, the words “Valerie Plame” have little meaning…. For a senior adviser of the most powerful office in the world to have a discussion with a news reporter about the work of a CIA agent, regardless of the seriousness or importance of that work, is the action of a man who clearly sees politics at any cost as a means to an end.
Some of us voted for then Governor Bush in 2000 in large part because of Clinton fatigue and a desire to move our country away from this sort of political gaming. To say that Karl Rove has not lived up to Bush’s promise to “change the culture in Washington” is an understatement, and for that IMHO, he should be fired.
On Ronald Reagan’s Intellect: Oxblog’s David Adesnik has a intriguing post about the slew of books exploring Ronald Reagan, his agenda and underlying intellect. This is a MUST READ but here’s a little:
The question of Reagan’s intellect is so important because it is the skeleton key that unlocks the riddle of whether America’s great triumphs in the 1980s are better described as a fortunate accident or as the direct result of Reagan’s controversial policies, both foreign and domestic.
Unsurprisingly, liberals prefer the former interpretation while conservatives prefer the latter. However, this partisan divide tends to obscure the fact that not all that long ago, the relevant question was not whether Reagan deserved credit for the triumphs of his decade, but whether Reagan’s profligate spending had eviscerated the American way of life, or whether things were destined to get better….
Although I have considerable respect for Reagan’s intellect, I would resist any effort to describe Reagan’s many pronouncments as expressions of an underlying and coherent policy agenda. Although there was a strong ideological and philosophical core to Reagan’s politics, there floated around this core numerous ideas that were not fully developed and often contradicted one another….
Is There A Double Standard When It Comes To Tragic Deaths? Latino Pundit thinks so.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.