History shows the Republicans had no problem using the filibuster when they didn’t like a judicial nominee, Rutgers University historian David Greenberg writes in the Los Angeles Times: To justify banning Senate filibusters in judicial nomination debates, Republicans are claiming support from history. Until now, say Republicans such as Sen. John Kyl and former Sen. Bob Dole, no one has used filibusters to block nominees to the federal courts. Because Democrats have broken an unwritten rule,...

Ommmmmmmmm..mmmmy God! A new study says Transcendental Meditation, a form of meditation that became “in” during the Beatle’s era to the point of becoming a fad in the United States with a relatively long shelf life, can actually extend lives. To some, this may be shocking. But to true devotees of yoga everywhere, it’s yet another confirmation. The New York Times reports: According to a paper published yesterday in The American Journal of Cardiology, Transcendental Meditation,...

Our Republican friends and readers (but not the libertarians) have been emailing us repeatedly insisting that the GOP’s threatened “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominees does NOT really represent changing any rules or setting any new precedent. So we found this quote by Senator Bill Frist in USA Today interesting: “There are times in history where you have to change either the rules or the precedent based on external behavior,” he said Friday.

An intriguing — literally — post comes from Spain’s Barcepundit, who chronicles questions being raised in his country about whether the then-opposition Socialist party manipulated information in the immediate aftermath of the March 2004 terrorist train bombings in Madrid. The Socialists went on to trounce the ruling Popular Party in the elections — election results that some have interpreted as Spain giving in to terrorist fears and/or backlash against the Popular Party...

The Education Wonks features a post citing a Boulder Daily Camera article that announces that hugging has been banned at a North Boulder middle school. Here’s our favorite part of the newspaper report: Centennial Assistant Principal Becky Escamilla said that some concerned sixth-grade teachers asked the administration to spell out policies surrounding “PDAs” – jargon for public displays of affection. “There was some sixth-grade romance going on,” she said. Escamilla...

Our occasional linkfest of items from sites representing MANY different viewpoints. We do NOT restrict the links to one political party or philosophy. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Moderate Voice or its Guest Bloggers. ARE BUSH’S PRESENT POLITICAL PROBLEMS DUE TO KARL ROVE CHANGING HIS JOB? Here’s one view. AND IS GEORGE BUSH STARTING TO RESEMBLE HIS FATHER? Bull Moose thinks so. Read his post in full. A small taste: Laura Bush’s superb performance...

What was the effect of blogs/online activists in the last election? That was the topic of a panel discussion at The Bay Area Law School Technolgy Conference at Stanford University on April 9th. Panelists: Panelists: Joe Gandelman (moderator), Aaron Swartz, Mike Krempasky, Dave Kopel. You can listen to a Real Audio on-line recording of this session by clicking here. It runs roughly 90 minutes.

And all the experts were predicting this love affair couldn’t last — that the bride saying she was kidnapped and it turning out that she simply had cold feet would mean this couple’s marriage was doomed. NO! Love conquers all. Because the jilted Georgia groom now says he not only still loves her but he wants to marry her:”"Haven’t we all made mistakes?” he asks. Here’s a bit more from the AP’s Love Conquers All story involving John Mason and Jennifer...

If it turns out the Republican party loses moderates and centrists this is the kind of over-the-top rhetoric people will look back one day and say was responsible: Federal judges are a more serious threat to America than Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed yesterday. “Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that’s held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings,” Robertson...

…how will the heirs to Jonathan Swift even be recognized?

An explosion in a hidden weapons cache cut short 28 lives in Afghanistan, a country still undergoing stabilization — and making progress on many fronts. First, here’s the bad news from the AP via ABC News: An arms cache hidden by an Afghan warlord exploded in a bunker beneath his home early Monday, killing 28 people, injuring at least 70 and devastating surrounding buildings, officials said. The weapons were stored in Bashgah, a remote village in Baghlan province, 75 miles north of the...

….especially in this part of the world.

So what do you think?

In case you thought various press reports in recent weeks mentioning competitive tensions between Senator John Kerry and Senator Hillary Clinton over the 2008 Democratic nomination were just a bunch of speculative horse-race handicapping, think again. The bottom line is that too many of these little factoids have been emerging — including this one reporting how Kerry was irked when someone expressed their preference for Mrs. Clinton — to be journalistic tale-weaving. There is a pattern....

Could be…

Attention hermits, anti-social or lonely people: if you value your health you’ll get some people in your life NOW. The reason: a new study concludes that if you’re a man and don’t have a group of close friends, family or aren’t connected with other people it could heighten your risk of heart attack. How could this happen? As Health Talk notes, it has to do with blood markers: Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston found that men who are socially isolated...

Tonight was a milestone in prime-time cartoons on the major networks: “The Simpsons” passed its 350th episode and “Family Guy” returned three years after cancellation because of audience demand. Sadly, Fox misjudged how much penance it should pay “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane and went ahead with his latest project, which I review here.

Here’s another lesson in not assuming what people in other countries would want, based on our Western notions. As Iraq gets cell networks up and running, the towers need to go somewhere – and Iraqis are glad to be picked by the companies to put them on their houses: 1-The phone company would pay the house owner (the host) 500 $ per month for allowing the company to install the tower in on his house’s roof or in the garden. 2-The deal would also include installing a diesel power...

Laura Rozen talks about how the Bush administration has softened its stance on the Sudanese government in regards to Darfur, preferring political expediency over human rights concerns. One thing thats left out of the analysis, however, is the impact of oil. China has been cozying up to Bashir’s regime for awhile now, primarily because Sudan is teeming with underdeveloped oil stores. It’s one reason why a Security Council resolution on Darfur, even if the US or EU wanted it, would never...

The LA Times comes in for criticism regularly in the blogosphere, but a couple recent mistakes on their part deserve closer scrutiny. LA-based Patterico shows Times editors removed (from the Reuters wire story) possibly the most noteworthy development in the shooting of the car in Iraq that killed an Italian agent and the newly free Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena – the car’s speed as measured by satellite: The Reuters story reported that investigators using satellite footage of...

Cross-posted at Random Fate. GRENOBLE, France - Over a week ago, I wrote here at The Moderate Voice on the television appearance by French President Jacques Chirac to promote a “oui” vote on the EU Constitution. I concluded with the following: So, in the end, even though the polls look like Chirac had no effect on public opinion after his televised discussion of the EU constitution, don’t be surprised if another razor-thin victory is pulled out by the government in favor of the...

The group Free Muslims Against Terrorism is leading a rally in DC on Saturday, May 14: Join us in sending a message to radical Muslims and supporters of terrorism that we reject them and that we will do all we can to defeat them. We also want to send a message of hope to the people of the Muslim world and the Middle East who seek freedom, democracy and who reject radical Islam that we are with them and that we will do all we can to support them. The rally is open to people of all and no faiths,...

Are the origins of the likely rejection due to effects of the industrial revolution?

Several American Presidents have learned the “hard way” that it’s extremely difficult regaining credibility after it has been lost. And now, it seems, it’s time for Great Britain’s Tony Blair to learn the same (painful) lesson. You can monitor any number of news reports and newspaper stories on the new controversy raging in England on the eve of elections there and reach these conclusions: Blair is on the defensive on this issue. It probably won’t cost him the...

Can Palestinian Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas get Hamas to go along with the game plan? Do you want to take bets now?