Political discourse drops yet another notch as the Virginia gubernatorial race heats up. Is it too much to ask that when a politician wishes to invoke the Holocaust (something they should be cautious about doing in any case), they take the time to ensure that they aren’t offending the bulk of the Jewish community in the process? This was a really low shot by the Kilgore campaign.

Just file this one in the Hmmmmmmmmmm Department: Ms. Miller spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify and reveal her confidential source, then relented. On Sept. 30, she told the grand jury that her source was I. Lewis Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff. But she said he did not reveal Ms. Plame’s name. And when the prosecutor in the case asked her to explain how “Valerie Flame” appeared in the same notebook she used in interviewing Mr. Libby, Ms. Miller said...

The screamingly funny folks at Jib Jab have done it again. They have a new one! And guess who they take on this time?

The big vote in Iraq on the country’s future — over the constitution — is over and now come the hard part: counting the votes, declaring the results, implementing the constitution and getting ready for possible new violence by those who want to show that the vote means nothing: BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s deeply divided Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds voted at heavily guarded polling stations across the country Saturday, deciding whether to support a new constitution aimed...

Has the controversy over press reports describing President Bush’s purportedly spontaneous talk with soldiers as a stage managed event abated? No, despite the blog post of a soldier who was in on that highly controversial talk President Bush gave to some military folks, allegations that it was staged not only have not abated — but are being reinforced. The latest not-too-helpful-for-the-White-House-twist is summarized by Crooks And Liars here, which cites a Village Voice piece indicating...

An interesting follow up on the controversy swirling around President Bush’s talk with members of the military: Sgt. Ron Long was there…in the front…one of the soldiers and he gives his perspective on his blog. Read it all, but here’s a small part: First of all, we were told that we would be speaking with the President of the United States, our Commander-in-Chief, President Bush, so I believe that it would have been totally irresponsible for us NOT to prepare some ideas, facts...

The White House spin machine (but not the same folks that managed the military photo-op) will have to shift into emergency gear, given this latest poll that says most Americans now view the Bush presidency as an unsuccessful one: WASHINGTON – For the first time, more people say George W. Bush’s presidency will be judged as unsuccessful than say it will be seen as a success, a poll finds. Forty-one percent of respondents said Bush’s presidency will be seen as unsuccessful in the...

Wait: someone’s saying we’re rude? What the $&!@$!!%!!! do they mean by that? The AP: From road rage in the morning commute to high decibel cell-phone conversations that ruin dinner out, men and women behaving badly has become the hallmark of a hurry-up world. An increasing informality — flip-flops at the White House, even — combined with self-absorbed communication gadgets and a demand for instant gratification have strained common courtesies to the breaking point. “All...

Was it staged, or merely advance work? You’d think by now that the last thing the Bush administration would want would be yet another instance where it’s caught in a controversy involving truth…but, then think again. The new controversy-of-the-day, the new catastrophic-moment-of-imagery (except to hardcore Bush loyalists — and that category doesn’t include his entire party anymore) swirls around a Bush teleconference call and whether it entailed routine White House advance...

Dean Esmay challenges a bit of modern American conventional wisdom: There is a belief in widespread circulation, mostly spread by conservative pundits and general hawks (Mark Steyn and the Little Green Footballs crew spring immediately to mind) that Islam is an inherently intolerant, slavery-oriented religion incompatible with democratic pluralism. The picture they paint is often of a dying West allowing the growing cancer of Islam to spread, with liberalism having weakened us to the point where...

Earlier we commented on THIS POLL that shows President Bush’s approval rating has sunk to 39 percent. But Tim Russert, on NBC’s Today Show, pointed out some additional facts about this poll — politically devastating ones for the White House: Swing voters have deserted Bush and his administration. Only 2 percent of African Americans polled approve of Bush’s leadership — perhaps a new record, for any American President. Remember that the big push for the GOP in recent...

This is a mother whose kids put her on a pedestal: LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Michelle Duggar just delivered her 16th child, and she’s already thinking about doing it again. Johannah Faith Duggar was born at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and weighed 7 pounds, 6.5 ounces. The baby’s father, Jim Bob Duggar, a former state representative, said Wednesday that mother and child were doing well. He said Johannah’s birth was especially exciting because it was the first time in eight years the family...

If Harriet Miers is confirmed to the Supreme Court — as is generally expected, despite the hub-bub over her credentials and lack of paper trial — it’s increasingly clear that her confirmation is going to leave some bitterness in its wake. If anything, the controversy seems to be growing. The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund has a new piece in which he not only blasts Bush’s nominee and Bush’s selection, but suggests Miers’ confirmation would not be good for...

At the new, totally revamped tabloid Sploid. We’ve always loved Sploid, a site in Nick Denton’s Gawker media stable. It’s just what it sounds like: an online tabloid. And who better to edit it, than Ken Layne? When Sploid first came out it was addicting enough, with its SCREAMING HEADLINES and quickly updated stories. Its one drawback was a design that seemingly limited its number of stories. It seemed to fall a mite short of its potential as an alternative to the You Know Who Report...

The polling news isn’t getting any better for President George Bush in light of some positive news for the White House, plus the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court: WASHINGTON – It has been weeks since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast; since gas prices began spiking to record highs; and since Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, held her antiwar vigil outside President Bush’s Texas ranch. But, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal...

From the BBC: The remains of the world’s oldest noodles have been unearthed in China. The 50cm-long, yellow strands were found in a pot that had probably been buried during a catastrophic flood. Radiocarbon dating of the material taken from the Lajia archaeological site on the Yellow River indicates the food was about 4,000 years old…

Currently showing at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center 3900 Harewood Road, NE, Washington, DC 20017 (202) 635-5400 A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People

Our linkfest of good reading from sites representing many different viewpoints. Links do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TMV. Remember That “Non-Partisan” Group That Said Democrats Suppressed The Vote More Than Republicans? We ran THIS POST — the only one we apologized for within the same post…because it turned out that the group was actually a Republican front group. Now The Brad Blog runs THIS FASCINATING POST that shows the “non-partisan” group has a...

The right-wing has loved to construct this myth of liberal blame-Americanism so they can continually bash it to pieces. They’re always on the prowl for an example–and when they find one, they’ll prop it up on a pedestal and proclaim to the world that this is what every Democrat feels about our great nation. It’s not true of course–the examples they give (when they’re even accurate, more on that later) are the anomalies, and the rule is that Democrats are well aware...

Josh Marshall points to this AP piece that he suggests looks like a political obituary. It most certainly does. TMV wrote for and worked on newspapers and he can flatly say: this looks as if the AP is expecting something to happen soon involving Karl Rove. Like an indictment, perhaps? Newspapers don’t usually run this kind of timeline unless there is a news PEG. It is basically a fact-sheet SIDEBAR to something bigger. As of this writing, there is no monster Rove story out there. So something...

Was it a rushed nomination? Did Miers herself want more time? Are conservative White House staffers upset and up in arms? Read this item on the conservative website Red State by Eric in full and you’ll get the full picture from a writer who seems to have inside sources. Here’s just a small taste: Part of the Miers pick seems to be a confused process and a rush job, which adds credibility to the rumor of a last minute back out. But, the White House conservatives and outside parties all...

Each day it gets curiouser and curiouser, don’t it, Mommy? In two appearances before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative’s name, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, did not disclose a crucial conversation that he had with New York Times reporter Judith Miller in June 2003 about the operative, Valerie Plame, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of his sworn testimony. Libby also did not disclose the June 23 conversation...

Spencer Overton talks of his experiences selling a house. It’s a two-parter, for the first post, see here, for the second, see here. While the underlying legal question (is there any way the state can regulate racial discrimination amongst house buyers?) is interesting to a legal geek like me, the story itself should be thought-provoking for all readers. Go forth and read, young ones.

First Lady Laura Bush has waded into the controversy over her husband’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court — suggesting that there may be sexism at play in the opposition to Miers: Joining her husband in defense of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, Laura Bush today called her a “role model for young women around the country” and suggested that sexism was a “possible” reason for the heavy criticism of the nomination. “I know Harriet well,”...

If Richard Nixon had his group of “plumbers,” George Bush may need a whole city of firemen to douse the political firestorm raging on his right due to his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court — and the question now becomes: no matter what happens on this nomination, does it signal some kind of party realignment? The answer: anything can happen and it’s hard to believe that Miers being voted in, withdrawing, or being yanked as a nominee would erase the unleashed...