New Reaction co-blogger Capt. Fogg (of Human Voices) looks at how Dennis Prager and his Fox-friendly ilk attack the foundations of American constitutionalism (most recently with the Ellison-Koran controversy and their attempts to legislate religion). You can find his full post here. … [Read more...] about Does Dennis Prager hate America?

On CBS's Face the Nation yesterday: -- Lieberman: "I believe that America is a mighty enough nation that we should never fear to talk to anyone. But anyone who believes that Iran and Syria really want to help us to succeed in Iraq, just is missing the reality. Asking Iran and Syria to help us succeed in Iraq is like your local fire department asking a couple of arsonists to … [Read more...] about Hagel v. Lieberman

Hugo Chavez has been re-elected in Venezuela, easily defeating challenger Manuel Rosales in yesterday's presidential election. With 78 percent of the vote counted as of last night, Chavez was ahead 61.3 to 38.4. And Chavez was as humble as always: "Long live the socialist revolution! Destiny has been written... We have shown that Venezuela is red!... No one should fear … [Read more...] about Venezuela votes

Given the way politics works, it sounds like New York Senator Hillary Clinton is off and running, according to the New York Times:Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun a calculated series of meetings with top New York Democratic officials to signal that she is likely to run for the presidency in 2008 and to ask for their support if she does, according to one state Democratic … [Read more...] about To Hillary Or Not To Hillary?

“Quick: What is the Bush administration foreign policy?â€? (Sound of my foot tapping as time passes.) “Yup. I thought so. You don’t know what the Bush foreign policy is. That’s because it’s a trick question. The Bush administration doesn’t have a foreign policy.â€? From an historical perspective, this is mighty strange. For many years, presidential election … [Read more...] about Missing in Action: A Bush Foreign Policy

Conservative Judaism's debate on the issue of same-sex sex is a model of how religion can treat controversial and difficult issues with humility and respect. … [Read more...] about Five Teshuvot

Cass Sunstein (a former colleague of Obama's on the University of Chicago Law School faculty) picks up on some of the crucial themes: Obama's speech is noteworthy for at least four reasons. First, he spoke openly and unambiguously about his own religious convictions. ("My faith reminds me that we all are sinners. ... Living His example is the hardest kind of faith--but it is … [Read more...] about Obama’s Speech to Saddleback

I suppose that we each have our own ways of trying to grasp momentous events like the war in Iraq. But as absorbed by and thoroughly read as I am about the war, I still am brought up short when I am reminded of how utterly unnecessary it was. That happened again the other evening. The Dear Friend & Conscience was working on a PowerPoint presentation in connection with a … [Read more...] about A Commentary on The Foghorns of War

The Moderate Voice is supremely pleased to welcome its latest new coblogger, Jason Steck. Steck has been a favorite of TMV and holds a record, of sorts. We have linked to THIS CLASSIC POST on what it means to be a moderate — perhaps the best single explanation we have seen anywhere, in any medium — at LEAST four times. He wrote it on his wonderful, gem-of-a-blog … [Read more...] about Introducing TMV’s Newest Co-Blogger

Yet another sign of an ailing newspaper industry:The Wall Street Journal, whose wide pages and text-rich look have long been an icon of the American newspaper business, is about to undergo several changes that include cutting three inches off its width.But it sounds a lot more profound than that:Along with the size reduction, which is equivalent to about one of its columns, the … [Read more...] about The Wall Street Journal Plans Big Changes

...to keep what's important in perspective. … [Read more...] about One In A While It Doesn’t Hurt

....like a good lip sync: … [Read more...] about Enough Politics: Let’s Look At Something More Interesting

From moderate cartoonist Tom Briscoe: … [Read more...] about You Know It’s Christmas When

One way to explain the concept and process of Centrism is to look to the US Constitution. A group pledging their property, honor and lives needed to craft a mutual operating agreement that justified their risks. They tenaciously negotiated among themselves to find pragmatic mechanisms that could work and stand the test of time. They wanted the most modest organization that … [Read more...] about The US Constitution as a Centrist Manifesto

During a “go to bedâ€? conversation some years ago, Adorable Child (AC) asked Polimom, “Mommy, would our lives be different if we were black?â€? There is no easy answer to such a question from a five-year-old, and I floundered badly. Five years later, though, I realize that I might have better answered her question with one of my own: What about our lives was the same? If … [Read more...] about Mommy, would our lives be different if we were black?

Two desegregation cases are before the Supreme Court, and if we are to believe the radical color-blindness advocates, voluntary desegregation itself is unconstitutional. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I fear that Brown will Rest in Peace at age 62. … [Read more...] about The End of the Road

Michael VDG has put up a couple of smart posts on whether George Walker Bush is the worst president ever, one of which includes a link to a series of WaPo "Outlook" section columns in which historians and other pundits take a stab at that question and perhaps an even more important one at this juncture: What can the president do during the last two years of his second term to … [Read more...] about Another Take on Whether Bush Is the Worst President

The guys at Power Line interviewed Mark Steyn. You can listen to the interview at Power Line. As John writes "Mark is both informative and funny; if you have never heard him expound his views at length, you are in for a treat. Mark Steyn is not just the world's most provocative intellectual; he's the most fun." ... and Say no to AP’s shoddy work. … [Read more...] about Mark Steyn at Power Line

Michelle Malkin has an important post about new software to help bypass Internet censors in countries that censor the World Wide Web. Spread the word. … [Read more...] about Freedom from Censors

Yesterday, I published a post, linking to an article in which Eric Foner asks the question whether George W. Bush is the worst President in U.S. history. One commenter wrote in the comment section of that post:Far be it for me to advise any self censorship here at TMV, but I think posts questioning whether Bush is the "Worst President Ever" come across as overly partisan (even … [Read more...] about The Worst President Ever… Too Early to Call to Say the Least