Check out yesterday’s discussion group topic at The Carpetbagger Report, one of the best liberal blogs out there: “Is the national media making a comeback? Are the days of passivity and stenography officially over? Or, conversely, is even the coverage we’re now getting too timid?” “Has the news media turned a corner? Will it last? What prompted the change?” ********** Much food for thought, and I’m interested to know what you all think. Personally, I think...

Some on the Left have accused NBC’s Tim Russert of being a tool of the Right with a GOP bias. Now he’s being accused of being a shill for the Left. (We don’t know why, but that’s deja vu to TMV…)

To some, it’s a clear-cut issue: torture should be banned — period. To others, it’s far more complicated: what if U.S. officials had someone in their hands who knew about an attack that could kill thousands or millions? But the White House made it clear today that its stand on torture is to oppose ruling it out-of-bounds because the U.S. could one day face a worst-case scenario: In an important clarification of President George W. Bush’s earlier statement, a top White House...

If you thought sauerkraut was just that stuff you put on a hotdog or a dish that means you no longer need a Whoopie Cushion, think again: New medical evidence suggests that sauerkraut may be to Bird Flu what chicken soup is to the common cold. And it’s big news all over the world. England’s Telegraph: Sauerkraut, the dish adored in Germany but much maligned in Britain, could prove to be a secret weapon against the threat of bird flu, experts revealed yesterday. Scientists believe that...

…at the new, redesigned Watching America. Watching America has always been one of TMV’s favorite sites, and we have linked to it from time to time. There is no site quite like it on the Internet: it contains excerpts from newspapers and magazines, pieces touching on the United States from all over the world. Many of them are translations of articles that you can’t get anywhere else. It is indispensible if you want to keep track of U.S. foreign policy or, at the very least, America’s...

Just saw some of this program on PBS: Sunday, November 13, 8:00pm CHANNEL 48 (WCET) An examination of whether animals can sense impending natural disasters. The program looks at animal behavior preceding the Indian Ocean tsunami.

A close friend of yours truly who is an entertainer — in fact, the person who convinced me to do a weblog — believes the U.S. is in for much tougher and troublesome economic times ahead. And he points to several things: TRUCKS SEEMINGLY GONE ON SOME MAJOR ROUTES: He drives long distances constantly to musical gigs, often in a vintage car. He will often drive this car at 45 or 50 mph on these major routes late at night, and is constantly being passed by trucks. But in recent months he...

Yet ANOTHER poll, this time from Newsweek, showing President George W. Bush setting another record for his popularity — southward, that is: In the wake of the bombings in Jordan by suspected followers of Iraq’s Al Qaeda chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the indictment of top White House aide I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby and the withdrawal of Harriet Miers’s nomination to the Supreme Court, President George W. Bush is sinking deeper and deeper into political trouble, according to the...

What’s the definition of “dumb?” It’s THIS: ALISO VIEJO, Calif. (AP) – Traffic is so bad along the eastern rim of Los Angeles’ suburban ring that regional planners are considering the once unthinkable – an 11-mile tunnel through a mountain range in earthquake country. Critics question the logic of building a multibillion-dollar project in a region so prone to earthquakes that an alternate proposal for a double-decker highway was deemed too dangerous. The...

TMV’s posts will be fewer today due to logistics: he will spend much of his day traveling from Montana back to his home base of San Diego, CA. But this site’s talented and always independent co-bloggers will likely offer some thoughts throughout the day. So stay tuned…and keep checking back!

King Abdullah of Jordan, who is not at all like Syria’s Bashar Assad, plans to crack down not only on terrorists but also on those who support them.

Yesterday, Joe wrote an excellent response to David Ignatius’s column in the Post on the “rise of the center”. I recommend it highly. I’m not always sure where I position myself politically — these days I seem to be on the center-left, likely pushed there by Republican dominance. If you’re interested, I have a somewhat different take whether or not there is currently a “rise of the center” over at The Reaction. I won’t repost the entire piece,...

Slate’s John Dickerson writes: The news from Iraq is largely bad. The public is smart enough to distrust the nightly news producers. They’re also smart enough to know when they’re not getting straight talk. A little candor might break through that skepticism. Bush and (Senator John) McCain are both desperate to convince Americans that the war is still worth fighting and that the penalties for wavering are indeed severe. It’s just that McCain is the only one who will admit...

Today’s New York Times has an op-ed by Tenzin Gyatso, who happens to be the 14th Dalai Lama: SCIENCE has always fascinated me. As a child in Tibet, I was keenly curious about how things worked. When I got a toy I would play with it a bit, then take it apart to see how it was put together. As I became older, I applied the same scrutiny to a movie projector and an antique automobile… Cross-Posted at Julien’s List.

The Washington Post has a piece that raises a point that has become all-too familiar these days: it contends President George W. Bush’s speech contained a fundamental inaccuracy that some are sure to dismiss as a slight oversight and others will insist represents falsification. You can read about the President’s speech basically saying war critics are undercutting the war effort here (we are reposting yesterday’s post on today’s blog). The Post writes: President Bush and his...

If you’re a political junkie, here’s an important fact to file away; according to the New York Times, under Howard Dean the Democrats are seriously behind the Republicans in the quest to raise vital campaign funds: The Democratic National Committee under Howard Dean is losing the fundraising race against Republicans by nearly 2 to 1, a slow start that is stirring concern among strategists who worry that a cash shortage could hinder the party’s competitiveness in next year’s...

Since Tuesday’s election — generally seen as a debacle for the GOP in general and President George W. Bush in particular — there have been a host of articles suggesting that a resurgence of the political center is underway in American politics. And indeed, it would seem that a backlash may be underway against base-oriented and polarization politics. The latest, perhaps bluntest, assessment comes from the Washington Post’s David Ignatius who, in a piece titled “Rise of...

Some folks say that our chief objective now is to convince moderate Muslims to reclaim their religion from the extremists. I disagree: I think that the reaction to the Jordan bombings proves that they absolutely repudiate terror. Instead, the burden now is on us to destroy terror where it’s achieved a critical mass (and doesn’t need “mainstream” support to survive), and sell our own society so that the moderate Muslims have a viable alternative to Islamic extremism. All these...

A terrorism expert has warned that Israel should brace itself for a major Al Qaeda terrorist attack, according to The Jerusalem Post: It is only a matter of time before Israel becomes the target of a large scale attack launched by al-Qaida, Dr. Yoram Kahati, senior research fellow at the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies in Glilot told The Jerusalem Post. The well coordinated double suicide bomb and car bomb attack that rocked Amman’s hotels on...

TMV is excited to now be a member of the new Government Relations Blog Network. We’ve had people suggest we join other blog networks or groups that are more identified with a specific ideology and we’ve politely declined. This one is for independent blogs and definitely fits what we try to do here — and why this site was started nearly two years ago. One of the blogs involved, Hobnob Blog, is going to run a Friday roundup of links from member blogs. CLICK HERE and you can see the...

Judith Miller, newly divorced from her marriage to the New York Times due to incompatible differences, had a lot to say on Larry King last night: Appearing for a full hour on CNN’s Larry King Live Thursday night, Judith Miller defended herself from criticism for her role in the Plame/CIA leak case and her flawed reporting on WMD in Iraq, but would not discuss Scooter Libby. The former New York Times reporter claimed that she had “never” used Ahmad Chalabi as an anonymous source....

Many conservatives are up in arms over the GOP leadership’s decision not to press for drilling in ANWAR. An excellent compilation of nearly unfiltered reaction to it is available via Michelle Malkin who has a big collection of readers’ letters…and is adding more of them them throughout the day. TMV himself welcomes the decision. But, then, he is a proud, card-carrying member of a group that tries to keep the legacy of THIS REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT alive.

Bull Moose looks at the election results and explains that it signals a resurgence in the power and clout of Democratic governors — a good sign for the Democrats. Read the entire post but here’s the most intriguing quote: Look for a White House intervention by the Bushie Consigliere, Jimmy Baker. Undoubtedly, a 911 call has gone out from Kennebunkport pleading, “Houston, we have a problem.” Junior’s Administration may be put in receivership. In retrospect, it is ironic...

As the inimitable John Harwood reports for The Wall Street Journal, President Bush’s approval rating has continued to slide even through this week. The CIA leak investigation has deepened President George W. Bush’s political problems, driving his approval rating to its lowest-ever point in the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Just 38% of Americans now approve Bush’s job performance, while 57% disapprove, the poll shows. The telephone survey of 1,003 adults, conducted Nov....

House Republicans, still desperately struggling to find the votes to pass the amended budget, seems poised to remove the portion of the bill that would allow companies to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. CQ Today‘s Midday Update (a free email service) has the story. House GOP leaders appear likely to drop a provision opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and make other changes to win votes from reluctant moderates for the budget-savings...