WRONG. Think again.

It’s always sad to hear abut the passing of someone in show business who you liked, not just because they seemed to become a “friend” to you due to their performances — but because you admired the quality of their work. It’s ironic that Eddie Albert, who died of pneumonia Thursday at his home in the Pacific Palisades area, in the presence of caregivers including his son Edward, who was holding his hand at the time, would be known to early 21st century audiences as the...

There’s an increase in violence along the border.

Yes, we’re late today. It is a matter of overlseeping. But we ARE open and will have some posts on this site today…so stay tuned. Note that this is a holiday weekend and while we’re hoping our Guest Bloggers can post, some may have their own problems due to logistics. But we’re hoping. So keep checking back today and tomorrow (Monday will actually not be a problem). PS. We’re also Guest Blogging on Dean’s World which means we put “pointer posts” to...

Yes, we’ve weakened. TMV LOVES cats and has two. But up until today he didn’t have a digital camera, which he now has to use on this site and also on the website that represents his other incarnation. Below you’ll find picture of Clawdette, a 12-year-old feral-born cat who rules TMV’s condo (including his office). This photo was taken by teenage photographer Greg Smith Powell, who will be shooting lots of photos including special photo essays that’ll appear on this site...

Viagra has gotten some bad publicity lately. First there was the news that some states had been unwittingly reimbursing sex offenders for Viagra. Then came the news that in rare cases Viagra could cause blindness. This could mean that in the 21st Century aged mothers would warn their sons: “If you do Viagra you’ll go blind.” And now there’s this news: the market for erectile dysfunction drugs is sagging. Reports Business Week: While the news that federal health officials...

A new poll is good news for Hillary Clinton and bad news (or good news in terms of lots of material) for Rush Limbaugh: a USA Today, CNN/Gallup Poll shows that for the first time a majority of Americans say they’re likely to vote for the former first lady if she runs for President. Can we sense smiles on the faces of many Democrats — and perhaps Secretary of State Condi Rice (who a recent report suggested would like to run if she’s drafted for the GOP nomination)? Here are some...

Then let ‘er rip (click on enter so you can take it in in its entirety. It’s fun to see a show biz trouper enjoy what he does).

Political scientist Steven Taylor, aka Poliblogger, has a superb, stand-back, take-a-deep-breath thoughtful piece pondering the meaning — and importance — of the controversial nuclear option compromise. Read it in full. But we’ll look at some key points here. Taylor notes that the discussion of the compromise over President Bush’s judicial nominees “misses the mark.” He writes: First: the critics on both side (and especially on the right) seem to think that it...

File this one in the Give Me A Break Department: Insurgents in Iraq attached explosives to a dog and tried to blow up a military convoy near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk. The canine bomb went off but the only casualty was the unfortunate animal, said police. The militants wrapped an explosive belt around the dog and detonated it as the convoy passed through Dakuk, 25 miles south of Kirkuk, said the town’s police chief, Col Mohammed Barzaji. “The dog was torn apart by the explosion...

The latest Peggy Noonan lecture column makes us wonder: isn’t it hard typing on your keyboard when that jacket restrains both arms? Ms. Noonan has written yet another one of her wonderfully written, lyrical columns, this time revealing to us that the moderates of both parties who helped nix the “nuclear option” (aren’t we getting sick of that phrase already?) on judicial filibusters are (a)egotistical, (b) pompous, and (c)think they’re right and saving others. And...

The Pentagon is now insisting that the detainee who made the allegation about a the Koran being flushed down the toilet has basically said “Never mind!” The Guantanamo detainee who told an FBI agent in 2002 that U.S. personnel there had flushed a Koran in a toilet retracted his allegation when questioned this month by military investigators, the Pentagon said on Thursday. “We’ve gone back to the detainee who allegedly made the allegation and he has said it didn’t...

…what better way to oppose him than to make fun of his illness and the way he looks to try and score a political point? This is CONTEMPTIBLE. Let The Moderate Voice be quite unmoderate for a moment here: People on the far left AND right don’t realize how reprehensible personal attacks like this totally destroy the credibility of anything they have to say in the future. My reaction? I read both sides. And when I read the article on the American Family Association’s website linked...

…it is important to remember that this involves only federal government funded research. It does not affect privately funded research on stem cells in the United States, regardless of the origin of the stem cells. This is a key point that is lost sometimes, and it may be an important compromise in acknowledging that not all feel the same about the true significance of embryos. Compromise is needed everywhere if we are all to live together.

What is going ON?? I went down to my corner 7-Eleven to get my fix on the weekly tabloids and what did I see? These headlines: The National Enquirer: Katie Couric AT WAR with Matt Laurer The Globe: IT’S OVER! Regis wins war with Kelly….She loses bid to replace him…He’s bringing back Kathie Lee. Our thoughts: Kathie Lee coming back to daily TV would be good news to insulin manufacturers. If she sings, it’ll be great news for blogs like this, as viewers flee from their...

If this is true it may be why little kids who don’t want their noses to grow like Pinocchio’s don’t go into politics. It’s interesting, just one of the many tidbits TMV picks up as he obsessively prowls all four categories of his bloated blogroll…

As our co-blogger Justin Delabar wrote earlier here the nomination of John Bolton for U.S. Ambassador to the UN will be decided real soon. And for many it’s a serious political and emotional issue. How serious? Just watch this MUST VIEW VIDEO HERE at Crooks And Liars showing Republican Senator Voinovich literally crying as he pleads with his colleagues not to approve Bolton.

The saga of Newsweek’s later retracted-under-fire story about accusations that a Koran was flushed down the toilet at Guantnamo continues to rage — this time fueled on by a news report that an FBI agent made the allegation in a 2002 report. This continues to raise the possibility that Newsweek was right about the allegation being out there — but did not have the vital confirmation to back its report up. Details: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An FBI agent wrote in a 2002 document...

This has definitely been Senator John McCain’s shining moment (for some) — but does this mean he is the Senate’s “real leader”? David Broder, often called “the Dean of commentators” (does that mean he screams? APOLOGIES but we can’t resisting making a joke about anyone — and I mean it or my name isn’t Jeff Gannon), thinks so. Highly respected, always thoughtful, incredibly influential in his impact on the newsmedia and the formulation...

TMV says emphatically: he loves animals. He grew up with dogs and now has cats. His sister volunteered to help animals in animal shelters. Her life’s work has been animals and today she works at a prominent nonprofit organization that strives to protect and preserve animals. So you could say the belief that animals are BEINGS with FEELINGS and limited time on this earth (just like humans) is in TMV’s blood — perhaps stemming from his grandfather Nathan Gandelman who loved all living...

The Bolton confirmation fight has now reached the Senate floor. While it doesn’t look overly probable, the anti-diplomat’s confirmation can still be thwarted. Public opinion can help push those senators on the fence to the side of reason and Rockefeller, who’s up now (from what I hear, unfortunately I’m deprived of C-SPAN 2), can drop some hefty information on the chamber if he so wishes. Contacting your senator on this before the final vote is essential. I recently finished...

When in Rome don’t do like the Roman-descended judges do: don’t go after Italian journalists who dare to write things about Islam that Muslims don’t like. Because that’s precisely what’s happening in Italy, where a combination of P.C. mentality and perhaps a tad of political genetics left over from the country’s World War II authortarian past has produced this outrage: A judge has ordered best-selling writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial in her...

The first of President George Bush’s seemingly stuck judicial nominees has been approved by the Senate — the first judge given the green light under the compromise Senate moderates struck to head off a divisive battle over eliminating the filibuster on judicial nominees. The judge: Texan Priscilla Owen. Where she’s going: 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The vote: largely party line, 56 to 43. What’s significant, and what should you watch? This was the first...

Reports continue to indicate a massive effort is underway to capture puportedly injured Iraq Al Qaeda chief Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi — and a Muslim website now suggests he has fled Iraq. Once again, in analyzying these news reports the questions arise as to the authenticity of the claims and the possible political motives behind them. Just because someone posts an explanation on a website doesn’t mean that the info posted is confirmed (Newsweek recently had a crash course in the importance...

Coming on the heels of the surprise check-mate of the administration and its Senate allies by moderates on judicial filibusters, the administration now faces a new incarnation of Congressional defiance: a vote by the House to ease stem cell restrictions. This measure now goes to the Senate where many expect it will pass — and in the end face President George Bush’s veto — a veto that would defy polls indicating widespread public support for stem cell research plus perhaps spur on...