Clearly, Social Security "reform" is going to be a monster topic. We say "reform" because some say it is true reform; others contend the real goal of the GOP plan is an  ideological plan to basically gut it. All this comes amid a Washington Post report that Congressional Republicans are divided on the issue and have warned the White House talk about cuts in benefits is not doing their case any good (so does that mean not talk about it, and do it later? Just asking..): Amid...

Someone…namely TiVo, Inc…has finally come up with an idea for tidying up the arrange of video gadgets you use at home to keep up with the latest TV shows — and it will be coming to a living room near you soon: SAN JOSE, Calif. Jan 6, 2005 — TiVo Inc. wants to declutter living rooms and simplify changing channels with its television recorders as it announced plans Thursday to launch models that integrate the converter boxes required by many cable TV companies. Currently,...

An interesting photo essay by Stephen Green, aka Vodka Pundit, about a Christmas vacation where he displayed model behavior as he tried to piece some things together. (I shouldn’t do puns but I can’t Lego of it.)

Justice may take decades…but many times it’s inescapable. And today it seemed like one of those days in Philadelphia, Mississippi — a Mississippi not the same as  it was 41 years ago: PHILADELPHIA, Miss. – A reputed Ku Klux Klansman was arrested Thursday night on murder charges in the 1964 slaying of three voter-registration volunteers, one of the last unsolved mysteries from the civil rights era, officials said. Neshoba County Sheriff Larry Myers told The Associated...

Actor Richard Gere is working hard to get-out-the-vote — among Palestinians in their upcoming Presidential elections, and they’re dismayed. Don’t the Palestinians hate the U.S. enough already? Is there a danger Osama bin Laden will consider Gere’s TV spots an unspeakable outrage against the Arabs? You know what they say about the road to hell being paved with (fill in the rest yourself). But we digress: Well known for his vocal support of Tibet’s Dalai Lama and celebrated...

The Watcher of Weasels Council has announced its weekly winners (The Moderate Voice was invited to sit on the Council; he is and they are squished…) COUNCIL MEMBER WINNING POST: Alpha Patriot’s Spinning The Numbers NON-COUNCIL MEMBERS WINNING POST: La Shawn Barber’s Academic Freedom, Hate Mail and David Horowitz.

  If you thought the Starr Report was lurid, wait until you read this exhaustive account by The Smoking Gun that suggests The King Of Perps Pop could well be going bye-bye for awhile. It’s simply too explicit for us to run on this site but if you’re interested in childrens’ abuse issues you should read it in full. Obviously Jackson’s defense lawyer will have a LOT to say about these allegations but they are quite specific — and many of them are backed up by more...

Earlier today we ran a post reporting that Staples reportedly had pulled its advertising from Sinclair Broadcasting. There’s also this link to Sinclair Action on Media Matters which is apparently what the wires used for their story. But a just-received email from the National Center for Public Policy Research insists  that isn’t so. Here’s their full release: Office supply retailer Staples, Inc. is denying allegations made by a left-wing activist group that Staples is withdrawing...

CNN’s Stan Grant offers a gripping  account of what he saw on the tsunami scene. It’s one more thing that will haunt us, so we offer this large excerpt: We were traveling with a group of Tamil Tigers, who were collecting the bodies of the dead from one area that had been devastated. And we came across a group of bodies in the distance. From where I stood, I could see that they were children. No more than babies really, aged maybe between 1 to 3. From a distance, it just really didn’t...

NOTE: We have been putting many update links at the bottom of our original post on the tsunami (this was the one about the Asian bloggers). Since that post is running very long, we’re starting a new update here. Save this permalink since all updates from Jan 6, 2005 on will go here. (For a complete chronology, go back to our first post). This update roundup will also include recent links from posts on this site. –Here are two haunting American posts on the tsunami. –Secretary of...

Unlike in politics, no one has yet successfully sold their soul on eBay but almost everything else has been up for sale — so why not a school? Well, why not? And one is..AZ Perspective and Junk tipped us to this tale of an Arizona school that is on the bidding block. According to the Winslow Mail: Just about anything in the world can be found on the eBay Web site including vacant municipal buildings and schools. Trying to find buyers for such structures isn’t easy especially in rural...

You should. The reason we ask is that we’ve gotten a few emails from people who knew we were revising it but didn’t see the change (if you look we’ve also done some revisions on the blogroll as well). Typepad has checked around the country and says people should see the changes. We got three emails this morning from people around the country (Kansas, Colorado and Michigan) saying they didn’t see the revision. Here is what Typepad suggests: So my best suggestion for you and...

If you’re a political junkie, this one is stunning news: there is  reportedly a move afoot among "senior Democrats" to keep Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe…as Democratic National Committee Chairman. Yes, that’s right. After all of the hoop-la, all of the candidates coming out and stating their vision for the party, the passionate scenarios where the party should go in the future some top Democrats prefer marching in time to marching foward…apparently...

In yet another sign of strain on the military, the Army Reserve’s head has sent a call to arms to the Pentagon warning them that his 20,000 soldiers are becoming "a broken force." In addition to outlining mobilization and management problems, three star-general Lt. Gen. James R. "Ron" Helmly warns that the Army Reserve is  "in grave danger of being unable to meet" its operational responsibilities if another national emergency takes place. According to the...

Links from varying political perspectives. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Moderate Voice. THE DEAD POOL: The Smart Cop gives you images of the ones he feels won’t be here a year from now. WHAT REALLY CAN GO ON IN A CLASSROOM: A student’s beating by a bully is caught on video tape and The Education Wonks (who know something about this) have something to say about it. Here’s just part: There is an unwritten "code of silence" that every student knows,...

The political war via corporations rages in full throttle with the news that Staples, responding to angry customers, is pulling its advertising from news shows on stations owned by the controverial Sinclair Broadcasting company. And — given the style in 21st Century America – expect to see retaliation from the other side…a kind of right/left war waged through advertising. Not that incarnations of this haven’t happened in the past. The Washington Post reports: Office-supply...

…at memeorandum, a fascinating — and highly addicting — news aggregator. This automated news grouper gives you some top stories, analysis pieces and op-ed pieces. You can click on the original piece. And underneath it, it gives you some links to bloggers representing a wide variety of political view points (The Moderate Voice is one of them from the center) that were selected at random. The net result is a news aggregator that lets you immediately see key issues, top breaking news...

This time it wasn’t Donald Trump, but CNN’s new U.S. Network Executive Jonathan Klein …and if he didn’t say the famous words Donald Trump tried to copyright, it was close: adios to Tucker Carlson and, most likely, to Crossfire itself. And the new CNN chief made it clear — in remarks devastatingly critical — that  Crossfire’s screechfest style isn’t his cup of tea. There have been stories popping up in the media about how Carlson might just jump...

If you’ve been holding your breath to see a smiling Vladimir Putin run a la Julie Andrews in The South of Music through the hills singing the praises of democracy and liberalization you may turn blue due to things such as this: President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday abruptly reduced the responsibilities of a senior adviser who last week issued a sweeping criticism of the Kremlin’s leadership and expressed deep misgivings about the direction in which Russia was headed. In a presidential...

First there’s this: And then there’s this: ANSWER: They’re both albatrosses. Indeed, the Houston Chronicle has finally spit out what many are are quietly asking:"Proof Tom DeLay is now politically radioactive?" Although the GOP has left enough loopholes in ethics regulations to make a succcessful lawyer proud, the House GOP’s recent action reversing itself on a plan that would have protected The Hammer could hardly be interpreted as a sign that the House GOP...

…look at the posts nominated for this week’s Watchers of Weasels Council vote. (And remember you can submit your own post, even if you’re not a council member).

One of the most popular boys names in England and Wales is now Mohammed — yet another climb up the ethnicity ladder in England. According to the BBC: Mohammed has become one of the most popular names for baby boys in England and Wales. It entered the top 20 most commonly chosen names for 2004 baby boys for the first time ever, according to the Office for National Statistics. But there was little change at the top with Jack and Emily retaining their status as the most popular name for newborn...

Links to various topics and posts. Links are NOT selected on the basis of any political ideolgy and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Moderate Voice. THE 40 MOST OBNOXIOUS QUOTES FROM 2004 from a conservative standpoint via Right Wing News. (Some of our readers say this whole blog qualifies..) BAIT AND SWITCH ON TOM DELAY? Corriente suggests the GOP House leader is trying to get off the hook another way. (It does seem a good theory.) BUSH BLEW RESPONSE TO THE TSUNAMI AT FIRST BUT NOW...

The concept of a national ID card is more than a concept in Great Britian now. Alpha Patriot looks at how the National ID is looming there and notes some of the questions in this debate…which eventually could be held in this country as well. He asks a slew of questions about abuse on a large scale…and small scale: Of course there will be official abuse: it is a sociological maxim that information captured will be information abused. Abuse by government officials and friends of the government...

Pop culture icon Will Eisner, the talented comic-book artist who helped create the concept of a greater-than-comic art form called the "graphic novel" — and who was an unsung hero of military training programs — has passed away. He was a comic-culture figure who nudged comics from being a Sunday newspaper art form into something bigger — a form that could tell stories more graphically, artistically, and in greater emotional and plot  detail. The photo above is from...