Hi all, I’m Justin Gardner, editor of the centrist blog Donklephant. Joe has been kind enough to invite me to post on TMV and I’m more than happy to oblige. A little background on me…I’m a marketing guy by day and am currently working at a new internet search technology startup. I used to write a left-wing screed/e-newsletter called StayInformed, but I realized that, instead of helping,...

CNN: Bush tries mare’s milk but avoids camels’ spit Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (AP) — The scene was straight out of a Genghis Khan movie. There were Mongol warriors clad in armor and helmets, armed with swords and mounted on the short, stout horses unique to Mongolia. The warriors hoisted colorful battle flags on spears. Dancers in colorful costumes and elaborate masks that resembled the heads of...

Sharon’s new party is bound to have big impacts in Israel. As a supporter of Shinui (Israel’s current centrist party), I would be thrilled if a moderate coalition came to power in Jerusalem. I don’t consider myself to be a big linker, but I went all-out on this reaction post. It’s got links from all across the blogosphere, plus thoughts of my own interspersed between the sea of underlined...

…If the Mongol Hordes Got Bored? 10 Points if you can identify the source. Anyway, Jason Zenegrle mocks President Bush for trumpeting Mongolia’s 120 troop deployment to Iraq. Personally, I think we should be more aggressive in making Mongolia’s presence known in Iraq. If the insurgents have any sense of history, they’ll get the message. (And to folks whose irony-meter is not quite sensitive...

Andrew Sullivan responds to this excellent piece by John Burns in The New York Times. To quote Andrew: “One thing I wish were more insisted upon. It’s not just that we have no interest in seeing Iraq degenerate into a brutal civil and possibly regional war. By removing Saddam, we created this vacuum. We own it. We have a moral responsibility to see this through.” (OxBlog responds.) I sympathize...

At Newsweek, Howard Fineman reports on the past week’s drama in the House, with passions on both sides raising the political temperature to dangerously high levels. But here’s what really happened, what it was all about: The drama on the floor was a shabby — at times, farcical — finale to a season that nevertheless had produced something serious: a transformation of the politics of...

Does he want to “cut and run?” Does he sound like a “coward?” Watch the Meet The Press VIDEO HERE and make up your own mind.

Breaking News – General Motors to cut 30,000 jobs, shut five plants.

From the BBC: “The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) [a leading research firm] ranked 20 countries on 15 indicators of political and civil liberty.” The results are interesting, if predictable: Israel’s at the top, Libya’s at the bottom. And Bush’s Saudi pals are third last. I’ve also got the list here.

It’s like no one’s even paying attention to him anymore. And — with North Korea and China to deal with, two very different but two very serious problems, an emerging nuclear state and an emerging superpower with enormous military and economic might — he’s stuck in his own Iraqi quagmire, unable to provide the statesmanship necessary to lead the international community and provide...

The BBC has the funny (and rather pathetic) story here: “President George W. Bush tried to make a quick exit from a news conference in Beijing on Sunday — only to find himself thwarted by locked doors.” The Post (via Reuters) has it here. Steve Soto calls it a “moment of total buffoonery”. Andrew Sullivan is more sympathetic and notes that Bush looked “shattered” on...

We’ll give you a hint: “Gandelman” isn’t one of them…..

Hey, it sounds just like Southern California…

Maybe he was.

Jews are beginning to speak out against conservative Christian efforts to appropriate everything “religious” to themselves. And “that’s a good thing”

And we agree with him — the trailers look GREAT…

It’s deja vu all over again with yet another announcement that a top Al-Qaeda terrorist — a REALLY top Al-Qaeda terrorist this time — has been reportedly killed. You have to say “reportedly” and hedge your bets, since over the past few years perhaps dozens of Al-Qaeda’s top three terorrists have been reported killed or captured — if you factor in each report saying one...

Cross posted at The Smoking Room If you’re interested in medical ethics surrounding assisted suicide, quality of life and such, two great sources for such news and commentary are Slate’s Will Saletan and bioethics writer Wesley J. Smith. The latter points out that assisted suicide has been carried out on the non-terminally ill — with their representatives sometimes lying to get around terminally-ill...

TMV NOTE: We often repost posts done the night before on the next day’s blog, to make sure they get maximum readership. The post below ran mid-day yesterday — but we’re reposting it today due to some of the important issues involved. Perhaps President George W. Bush has seen some new polls that we haven’t seen yet about the impact of his White House suggesting that those who have questions...

Dennis the Peasant tells his side of the story with respect to Pajamas Media. While it should be read keeping the source in mind, much of what he describes is very consistent with events after he stopped working with those involved in creating OSM, including the erratic communication and changing business plan. — Cross-posted to Random Fate (with slight edits). UPDATE: Ann Althouse has a bit more to...

Two of the interesting developments in recent years has been the rise of the religious right and a generally more muted reaction from other religious groups and organizations about it then you’d expect. No more. A prominent Jewish leader has blasted the religious right in a very public way. The AP: HOUSTON – The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists...

For the spouse who has everything…

The Washington Post, in an editorial, argues that there’s plenty of irresponsibility to go around the controversy surrounding Jack Murtha, the Congress, the White House and Iraq policy. Highlights: It sounds like the final days of a bitter, mud-slinging political campaign. But what is at stake is not an election but a war in which American soldiers are being killed and wounded almost every day and in which...

Our occasional linkfest offering you a guidemap to good reading from DIFFERING viewpoints. Links do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TMV. What FactCheck Says About President George W. Bush And WMD via The Astute Blogger. Reaction To Murtha/House Uproar from The Boston Progressive, who was not pleased with what he saw. The Race For $$$ For The Senate and how both parties are doing is explored by our...

Military blogger Citizen Smash, aka the Indepundit, is one of TMV’s favorites because he just gets down to the issues with a minimum of political rhetoric and doesn’t personally go after people who write things with which he disagrees. And on the controversy over calls for a withdrawal from Iraq Smash again displays why he is worth reading and his opinion worth considering. Read the post IN FULL...