Jamie wrote a must read post for The Daily Dish (Andrew Sullivan is once again on vacation) about neoconservatism and then especially the frequent use of this word by progressives. Jamie writes: There’s been a lot of discussion on the blog about the use–and abuse–of the label “neo-con.” Which has got me thinking–what is it that causes people to label others this way? And why is it that people who would never consider themselves neo-conservatives are labeled as...

I did not link to this article yet, but if you want to read a bit of my experiences in Turkey, I’d say click on the link and head on over to Turkish Daily News. The history of this article is actually quite funny: it was the first I wrote for TDN and they told me that I should write an article of 5000 characters. Being the idiot I am, I forgot about the ‘characters’ and only remembered the ’5000′ part. Besides that, since I am a student I think in word counts (and if...

Wondering what the photo above depicts? A palace of Saddam Hussein? A palace of one of the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire? A great, gigantic hotel on Hawaii? Nope, it is the new US embassy in Iraq. Although surrounded by destroyed houses, burnt appartment buildings, etc., the (future) inhabitents of the US embassy in Iraq will live in a little paradise on earth. With 42 hectares, it is about the same size as Vatican City. It only cost some $600 million [oops - edited the 'b,' changed it into an 'm']...

When looking for the news of the day I stumbled across this op-ed at the Wall Street Journal. After reading it, I thought that some of you would appreciate me linking to it, so therefore this post. The author of the article, Mary Ann Glendon, lists five books that deal with religion and politics – all five are of an exceptionally high quality according to Ms. Glendon (a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of “A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration...

Bob Herbert writes at the New York Times: You know you’ve stepped into a different universe when you hear a major American labor leader saying matter-of-factly that employer-based health insurance and employer-based pensions are relics of a bygone industrial economy. Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, which has 1.9 million members and is the fastest-growing union in the country, is not your ordinary union leader. With Labor Day approaching, he was reflecting...

Will Bush bail out “hundreds of thousands of borrowers who have been unable to pay off their mortgages”? Why yes, or at least it appears that way. Marc Moore wrote a mighty fine article about Bush’s plan to help these people (and a nice debate followed). I would have cross posted it here if I would have written it myself, but since that is not the case, I thought I’d link to it from here.

Mustafa Akyol wrote yet another fascinating column for Turkish Daily News, this time about a subject that will interest not just people who are interested in Turkish politics, but also those who are interested in religion and Islam (in the world). The subject: the Koran and non-Muslims. Many years ago, I came across a book, which claimed to explain “Israeli terrorism” in the light of the Hebrew Scriptures. It was full of photos showing Israeli soldiers attacking and harassing Palestinians,...

Today I published this post at my own blog, in which I wonder where true conservatives have gone (in America). Since this is The Moderate Voice and not The Conservative Voice I decided not to publish the article in its entirety here, but, instead, to only publish a so-called pointer post (short intro, link). So, if you would like to read this post please click here. Excerpt: When reading The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk this past week, I could not help but think: where have true American conservatives...

And Americans wonder why quite some Turks believe America is extremely hypocritical when it talks about a global war on terrorism: As U.S. officials confirmed that some weapons, originally given to Iraqi security forces by the American military, had been seized by Turkish authorities, the Pentagon said it had not armed and does not arm the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Washington emphasizes is a terrorist group. Serial numbers on pistols and other weapons recovered in Turkey over the...

The New York Times reports that “an independent commission established by Congress to assess Iraq’s security forces will recommend remaking the 26,000-member national police force to purge it of corrupt officers and Shiite militants suspected of complicity in sectarian killings.” In fact, an administration official told the Times that the panel recommends that “we start over” completely. The units of the Iraqi police force have to be “scrapped” and “reshaped...

Potentially bad news for Alberto Gonzales: The Justice Department’s inspector general indicated yesterday that he is investigating whether departing Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales gave false or misleading testimony to Congress, including whether he lied under oath about warrantless surveillance and the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. The disclosure by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine in a letter to Congress signals an expansion of the department’s internal investigations into Gonzales’s...

At Turkish Daily News two columnists are currently debating each other. Mustafa Akyol first criticized fellow TDN columnist Burak Bekdil three days ago. Today, the latter responded to the criticism. Both columns are interesting reads, if for nothing else then to see how respectful both treat each other, while fervently disagreeing at the same time with one another. Of course, there is more to it than that: one could also see this as two wellknown Turkish columnists debating with each other about...

Jonathan Weisman reports for the Washington Post that there seems to be trouble in the Democratic camp. According to Weisman, the Democrats’ failure to “halt President Bush’s most controversial tactics in the fight against terrorism has exposed deep divisions within the party, with many Democrats angry that they cannot defeat even a weakened president on issues that they believe should be front and center.” Again I get the feeling that we are witnessing a battle between the...

It seems that Abdullah Gül has immediately created a debate (and set the tone of it) about what secularism exactly is or should be: President Abdullah Gül described secularism as the rule of social harmony and a model that underpins freedom for different life styles, in his first speech following his election Tuesday. Gül’s statement was welcomed by many as a new description of secularism, but on the other hand drew criticism from secularist circles. “It was a nice speech....

If you want to read my review of The Conservative Mind please click here. Excerpt: Reading The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot by Russell Kirk was one big adventure for me, and for anyone interested in the conservative philosophy. Russell Kirk goes back all the way to British statesman Edmund Burke to determine what the conservative philosophy or theory exactly is, and then spends attention to other conservative in the following centuries such as John Adams (the entire Adams family and several...

Marc Moore writes at The Gazette: The Center for America Progress’ (CAP) recent study entitled “How to Redeploy: Implementing a Responsible Drawdown of U.S. Forces from Iraq” (PDF alert) features a quote from Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War: “No nation has ever benefited from protracted warfare.” This is meant to lead us into the center’s belief that America should abandon Iraq to its own destruction in a year’s time. That’s the thesis of How...

This is very, very interesting; In 2004, history professor Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of research papers on climate change. Examining peer-reviewed papers published on the ISI Web of Science database from 1993 to 2003, she found a majority supported the “consensus view,” defined as humans were having at least some effect on global climate change. Oreskes’ work has been repeatedly cited, but as some of its data is now nearly 15 years old, its conclusions are becoming somewhat...

Spree (Susan) published a post yesterday about an important Democratic fundraiser named Norman Hsu. Hsu started raising money for Democrats three years back or so, and quickly became one of the best fundraisers the Democrats had. He was one of a few fundraisers who were able (and are able) to raise $1 million dollars, which is quite an accomplishment considering that an individual is allowed to give a mere $4600 dollars. There was just one problem: Hsu was [is] a fugitive. At first, the Clinton campaign...

Did General Musharraf agree to step down as head of the Pakistani military? Kevin Sullivan looks at the situation in Pakistan and offers some thoughts of his own.

The Jerusalem Post reports: The teams of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met in Jerusalem Tuesday, ahead of a private meeting between the two leaders. Israel Radio reported that during the extended meeting the Israelis gave their Palestinian counterparts general offers on core issues. An unnamed official was quoted as saying that the points on which the sides reach some degree of accord would then be taken up for detailed negotiations in higher levels… Among...

Providing drug addicts with clean needles: a good or a bad idea? What do you all think? On the one hand it seems to me that this way the government may be able to prevent certain people from getting HIV, on the other hand I also worry that it may make it more easy for people to do drugs.

Please say hello to Turkey’s new President, Abdullah Gül: Beaming as the votes were counted, a veteran government figure with roots in political Islam won a parliamentary vote to become Turkey’s president Tuesday, in defiance of the country’s strongly secular military. Abdullah Gul’s triumph presented Turkey’s generals with a choice: overthrow Gul in what would be a deeply unpopular coup or accommodate the rise of political Islam in the Muslim world’s most...

and Jason Steck (edited to add as co-signatory) Some people seem to think that we may be considering resigning at TMV and simply to continue work at The Gazette. Just to make sure that these rumors will not spread we decided to publish this post as to say that we are not considering doing such a thing. We are proud to be on staff at TMV and plan to contribute here for a long time to come – as long as Joe allows it / TMV exists. There are some things we criticize – mostly in the comment...

Pieter Dorsman wrote a fascinating post at my own blog about – what he calls – culture of death. It is Pieter’s first post for The Gazette (my blog) and, when you read it, I am sure you will understand why I asked him to co-blog (again at my blog not at TMV). A small excerpt in an attempt to persuade you to read the post: Diana’s death accelerated the emergence of a new and very public culture of death, now an integral part of the lives of the ‘commoners’. Personally...

US President George W. Bush is stepping up the rhetoric (directed towards Iran). He said that Iran is playing a destabilizing role in the region and that a nuclear holocaust could be the result of Iran’s nuclear program. Obviously, the US is determined to prevent such a nuclear holocaust from happening. Meanwhile, Raw Story has a fascinating article up: it seems that the US has already done the necessary planning for a military strike against Iran. According to two respected scholars and experts,...