When Gen. Michael Hayden’s confirmation hearings start for CIA director you can expect more fireworks than expected due to a new twist that has now leaked out via this story: The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA Today. The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information...

Which Fox News anchor will Tom Cruise hire to help him create a new image? I mean, we’ve seen this reaction somewhere, haven’t we? Powerful Hollywood friends of Tom Cruise rallied to his defense on Wednesday as a new poll suggested the actor’s odd behavior in recent months may have cost him millions of dollars at the box office. Days after his latest movie, “Mission: Impossible III,” opened to lower-than-expected domestic ticket sales, a USA Today/Gallup poll showed...

And, yes, Skippy, invented that term… But one of the facets of this new medium called blogging is how it’s evolving. To some, perfectly. To others, less perfectly, into seemingly mutually exclusive warring camps. In recent days there has been much debate over the progressive blogosphere. Is it shutting people out for not embracing all generally accepted views? Here’s one MUST READ pointedly put opinion (from a site on our blogroll under Left Voices). NOTE: TMV has been called right...

..at universities in China.

It has begun. They’re heading not for the “last roundup” — but for the pre-election roundup. This time the cowboys are the politicos in the White House and in the GOP in Congress…rounding up the straying base, like the old cowboys of old rounded up the cattle. Question: can they round all of them up in time for November? Yes, if they use things to get back the wandering cattle — and to scare the living daylights out of them. And that, apparently is what is happening...

Now Dean Esmay weighs in on Bill Clinton, what he meant to Democrats and what he should mean. Here’s a small portion of his lively post where he starts out differing from one of our constant contentions: The Bush presidency isn’t of the base, by the base, and for the base for nothing. There has been an outright refusal of the Democratic base to take even the tiniest twig of an offering the Bushies have given them. Indeed, if you look at them on the issues, the truth of the matter is that...

It doesn’t stop there.

We’ll give you a hint. His name begins with “J.”

The St. Petersburg Times notes that love her or hate her Arianna Huffington has beat the odds: In a medium started by guys typing at computers in their bedrooms, she was a glamorous socialite with an A-list address book of investors and endless media coverage. Critics swore Arianna Huffington’s dream – a collection of blogs from the likes of Warren Beatty and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. – would die a quick death in a space where grass roots support and hipster cachet was everything. But...

Being a journalist is a profession that means walking in minefields, according to a new survey — which found that 7 out of 10 journalists had been accused of bias in the past year: More than half of newspaper journalists in a recent survey believe an unethical or unprofessional incident occurred in their newsroom within the past five years, while seven out of 10 said they had been accused of bias in the past 12 months, according to a study released today by the Medill School of Journalism at...

The Washington Post notes that Majority Leader Bill Frist and GOP leaders are planning to use judicial nominations to polarize the Senate — and define the Democrats: SENATE REPUBLICAN leaders have decided to reignite the judicial nomination wars. The reason is politics. Majority Leader Bill Frist’s strategy, with elections coming, is to schedule votes on the most controversial of the president’s remaining appeals court nominees, forcing Democrats to capitulate or filibuster —...

Our periodic linkfest to introduce readers to a WIDE VARIETY of views from all over the ‘Sphere. We do NOT restrict mentioned links to one viewpoint — and views do not necessary reflect the opinion of The Moderate Voice. Academics And Israel: Oxblog’s Patrick Porter looks at proposed academic boycotts in Great Britain of Israeli lecturers and religious institutions that don’t publicly oppose Israel’s policy in the territories. A MUST READ. Here’s a section: The...

Once again it’s time for another gem from TMV’s favorite poet, Michael Silverstein, aka Wall Street Poet: If Jeff and Ken, the Enron guys, don’t end up beating the rap altogether, each may come away from a short stay in a minimum security prison muttering this paean to his own stern stuff… Convictus Trapped by a heartless SEC, Condemned to the pit where the felons board, I thank the lawyers who earned their fees For my undiminished hoard. Caught in the grip of nasty fate I...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and forescore and seven years ago we had nothing to fear but fear itself. But, today, plagiarism is spreading: Andy Borowitz: BIDEN ADMITS COPYING STUMP SPEECH FROM YOUNG ADULT NOVEL Calls Forty Similar Passages ‘An Honest Mistake’ Sen. Joseph Biden’s road to the White House became a little bumpier today as the Delaware Democrat admitted copying significant chunks of his standard stump speech from the young adult novel, How...

If you have a contract with the government and you say you don’t like George Bush you can kiss off — and kiss your contract goodbye. That’s the thinly veiled message U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson apparently tried to send during an April 28 talk in Dallas. In the past it was always assumed talking out of political school could create some problems. But seldom has it been as bluntly spelled out: if you say you don’t like G-W-B your contract will...

TMV will be out of pocket most of today but keep checking back since our always independent co-bloggers will likely have some things to say.

She may have to calibrate her re-election campaign if there is truth to these rumors that this guy may run against her.

Guess which place does that the most?

He’s baaaaaaaack. In the news, that is. Or, rather, at the center of an Op-ed inspired debate among Democrats and others. President Bill Clinton — a Democratic president who did a teeny-weenie thing that many Democrats hadn’t done in a long time (won a presidential election and got re-elected) is being “dissed” and “defended.” But then there’s nothing new about that: he has been disssed and defended on talk shows, television, on blogs, columns and...

How else could you explain Alan Keyes?

On Sunday we reported about the op-ed piece discussing a newly discovered video that purported to show the brutal beheading of Iraqi journalist Atwar Bahjat, who was killed in February. But now, The Jawa Report reports, it turns out that video was a hoax: A gruesome beheading video delivered to the Sunday Times purporting to be of slain journalist Atwar Bahjat is a hoax. On Sunday, May 7th, the Times reported that they had received a low-quality video of Atwar Bahjat being slowly beheaded. That video...

If you’re a reader who is a centrist and you’re sitting around complaining that the center seems to be sagging in America, here is some important news 4 U: This weekend there was a meeting of Centrists in New York City. It has been in the works for a few months now. You can read all about the meeting by CLICKING HERE FOR THIS POST on the centrist blog Centerfield. Our co-blogger Jeremy Dibbell has A REPORT HERE on his great blog Charging Rino. AmbivaBlog also has THIS ACCOUNT of the meeting.

Yet another top CIA official bites the political dust: CIA Director Porter Goss’ No. 3 man at the agency, facing investigation as part of a congressional bribe probe, quit Monday, an official said. Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the CIA’s executive director, announced his resignation in an e-mail message to agency staff, a U.S. official told United Press International on condition of anonymity. His departure follows Goss’ hasty resignation Friday, which some reports have linked...

President George W. Bush’s approval rating continues to slide: he gets little support among Democrats, tepid support from moderates — and he’s losing part of his party’s base. President Bush’s approval rating has slumped to 31% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the lowest of his presidency and a warning sign for Republicans in the November elections. The survey of 1,013 adults, taken Friday through Sunday, shows Bush’s standing down by 3 percentage points in a single...

…why is he asking for a new trial? Answer: he didn’t understand the American system BEFORE (probably before he learned where he’d spend the rest of his life..)