Guest post by Jared Stancombe Jared Stancombe is a 2009 graduate of Indiana University, where his studies focused on peace and conflict studies in Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. His other academic interests include counterinsurgency and complex military operations. He is currently an analyst for a U.S. government agency responsible for national security and is in the officer selection process...

What Ousted GOP Candidate Endorsing Dem in Messy NY Race Means by Jon Wells The drama over the special election in NY-23 has taken a variety of surprising turns over the past few weeks. The Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, was selected by a county board of GOP supervisors and got a load of initial cash and support from the national Republican establishment. But a plethora of her policy stands made many...

Poking the Cobra Raging Moderate, by Will Durst Now is the time for all good men to put their hands together, pull them apart and rapidly put them back together again, and repeat, to give props to the president for not curling up into a fetal position with a “Kick Me” sign taped to his butt. You know. Like a Democrat. He’s taking it straight to his perceived enemy, calling both Fox News and Rush Limbaugh...

Texas, the Eyes of Justice Are Upon You by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship On October 13, we lost a resolute champion of the law, a man who left his impact on the lives of untold numbers of Americans. His very name made his life’s work almost inevitable, a matter of destiny. William Wayne Justice was a Federal judge for the Eastern District of Texas. That’s right, he was “Justice Justice.”...

Guest post by Frankie Sturm Frankie Sturm is communications director at the Truman National Security Project and a free-lance journalist. I work with veterans on a daily basis. Lately, I’ve been burning the midnight oil as part of Operation FREE, a coalition of veterans groups and national security organizations that are looking to raise awareness about the links between climate change and national security. We’re...

WASHINGTON — Will the young and hopeful abandon the political playing field to older voters who are angry? That is the quiet crisis confronting President Obama and the Democrats. Left unattended, it could become a formidable obstacle for them in next year’s midterm elections. Moreover, the sour mood that has gripped the nation’s politics could only further turn off the young. This means...

WASHINGTON — Now, two people will have to choose. The fate of the health care bill is largely in the hands of Barack Obama and Olympia Snowe. The Finance Committee’s vote on Tuesday to send its bill to the Senate floor vindicated President Obama’s strategy of giving Congress wide latitude to write the early drafts. Major health reform has advanced further than it ever has before. ...

Hello Readers, Dr. Estés here, bringing you another GUEST VOICE by Mr. Elijah Sweete who tells us that Texas Gov. Perry has now replaced a fourth member of the commission investigating death row inmate, C.T. Willingham’s, potential innocence. The Governor has now in the last month, removed four persons from the investigative commission, raising the dark question about whether a sitting Governor is attempting...

Intellectual Conservatism Isn’t Dead: Maintaining a Consistent Philosophy by Rick Moran This is the last in my series on the state of intellectual conservatism. Previous articles can be found in order here, and here, and here, and here. If, as we’ve discovered, intellectual conservatism has been marginalized, and its adherents are in bad odor with much of the base, then conservatism as it is advanced...

Adoption: An Overlooked Crisis by Michael Reagan As our health care system is debated in Congress and we continue to face down pro-choice challenges in the bill, I want to take the time to remind all of us of another vulnerable segment of our population. This is one area in which we should be in full agreement, but still one we too often overlook: the thousands of children in need of adoption by loving families...

Nobel Peace Prize now officially a joke after Obama selection by Jon Wells The Nobel Peace Prize was already flirting with irrelevance after recent selections like Al Gore, Yasser Arafat, and Jimmy Carter, but after the award was yesterday announced as going to President Barack Obama, in office for only nine months and for only 12 days when the nomination period expired, the award can officially be said to...

Intellectual Conservatism Isn’t Dead: It’s On the Margin by Rick Moran This is the 4th in a series of 5 articles on the state of intellectual conservatism. Here’s Part I. Part II. And Part III. There is a terrific exchange of views on the health of conservatism over at Slate between conservative writer Reihan Salam and Sam Tannenhaus (author of Death of Conservatism). Salam is author (with...

Guest post by Rafael Noboa Rivera Rafael Noboa Rivera is a writer and combat veteran. He served in Iraq from April 2003 to March 2004. This post originally appeared at The Hill’s Congress Blog. “You never have 100% certainty. If you wait till you have that, you’ll fail.” The evidence is unmistakable. We have hard choices before us. As the impact of irreversible climate change and the...

Intellectual Conservatism Isn’t Dead: Channel Your Inner Elder by Rick Moran This is the third in a series of 5 articles on the state of intellectual conservatism. Part I can be found here. Part II is here. Few speechwriters of the modern era can match the record of Peggy Noonan when it comes to memorable presidential addresses. Teddy Sorenson was of a different era but managed several significant, and...

by Rick Moran No less than 5 recent articles (and a spirited debate between two very smart conservatives in David Frum and David Horowitz) have taken on the question regarding the demise of intellectual conservatism and the rise of movement or “populist” conservatives. The intellectuals go under several names, depending on which side of the divide you sit. They are “reformers,” or RINO’s,...

I’m bringing you the second GUEST VOICE at TMV by Mr. Elijah Sweete. To give perspective to his article below, of the 1,175 people put to death nationwide since 1977 when executions resumed in the USA, 441 have been in Texas. There have been 39 executions in the USA so far this year 2009, 18 of them in Texas. Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés TEXAS GOV. PERRY THROWS WRENCH INTO INNOCENT EXECUTION INVESTIGATION by...

The Iraqi Army Diaries, Entry 1 (First in a series) By S.D. Liddick In the spring of 2009 I embedded with the U.S. Army’s 1-63 Combined Arms Battalion, in the small town of Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. The town is a cardinal point on what American soldiers have termed the Triangle of Death. Within a month I was offered a de facto embed spot with the Iraqi Army (IA), by General Mohammed, commander...

EDITOR’s NOTE: This column was put on a timer. Due to a technical glitch the PROPER byline that was set up did NOT appear when this first went on the site for the first 90 minutes. Although this does say “Guest Voice” on top, it did NOT show the byline of Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr. It is now fixed. TMV regrets the error. WASHINGTON — The strangest aspect of the debate...

How Not to Get the Swine Flu Raging Moderate, by Will Durst Well, look at the time. Aren’t we expecting the Return of the Bride of the Son of the Swine Flu pretty soon? That’s right. It’s Baaaaack and this time, it’s personal. Scientists predict the virus will be worse this swing through the Northern Hemisphere, but come on, no matter how bad it gets, it’s still not going to be 1919. After all, our...

Guest post by Jessie Daniels Jessie Daniels is a principal of the Truman National Security Project and is currently an independent writer living in New York City. Most recently, she conducted research on future security challenges and multilateral response at the International Peace Institute in New York. Prior to that, she worked for four years as a national security legislative aide to U.S. Senate Majority...

Guest post by Frankie Sturm and Matt Rhoades Frankie Sturm is communications director at the Truman National Security Project and a free-lance journalist. Matt Rhoades works on Operation FREE for the Truman Project, where he is an intern. ********** Operation FREE, a coalition of national security experts and military veterans, has been a leading voice in arguing that climate change and an out-dated energy policy...

Let’s Make a Deal: Beltway Edition by Michael Winship If you ever needed proof that Washington is governed by the Golden Rule – the one that says, he who has the gold, rules – you only have to look at the wagonloads of cash being dumped by big business into crushing President Obama’s domestic agenda. Good gosh, how the money rolls in. And I’m not only talking about the millions...

Stream of Consciousness Saturday by Rick Moran A lot of things have happened this week that have entered the airy cavity sitting atop my neck and floated around waiting to be recognized as conscious thought. I can imagine all these little snippets of inner dialogue waiting patiently in line, bitching about how slow a goose I am at moving them from the dark of my subconscious where they effect my thinking in...

Guest post by Devin Stewart Devin Stewart is Director of the Global Policy Innovations program at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. In this capacity, he edits Policy Innovations and directs several projects on business ethics, trade, and media. He is also a Truman National Security Project fellow. Previously, he was Assistant Director of Studies and Japan Studies Fellow at the Center...

Guest post by Jonathan Powers Jon Powers is the Chief Operating Officer of the Truman National Security Project. He is a veteran of the Gulf War and the founder of War Kids Relief. He was previously Veterans Program Director at the Eleison Group, where he worked on outreach efforts by the progressive community to veterans and military families. This post, co-written with Jon Soltz, was originally published at...