The leftist surge in Latin America continues. Last week it was Chile. On Sunday it was Bolivia: Exit polls from Bolivia's presidential election suggest a clear victory for left-wing Aymara Indian candidate Evo Morales — though not an outright win. Several polls give him 42-45% of the vote ahead of his nearest challenger, former President Jorge Quiroga who, the polls say, … [Read more...] about Bolivia moves to the left

Jonathan Alter, writing in Newsweek, says his sources tell him President George W. Bush tried to get the New York Times from running the story about the NSA wiretaps on American citizens. Alter makes it clear where he stands in his piece's lead:Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus … [Read more...] about Bush Tried To Get Times Bigwigs To Kill Snooping Story

...at Random Fate, for what it is worth. … [Read more...] about Post #1759…

The Washington Post says the FBI monitored the animal rights group People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals as a terrorist threat: FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes, the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new FBI records that it said … [Read more...] about FBI Papers Show PETA Was Watched As Potential Terrorist Threat

Let's call it The Pajamas Media Factor (uh, oh, O'Reilly will sue...). … [Read more...] about A New Complication In Blog Rankings

A Miami seaplane crashes. … [Read more...] about A Harrowing Video

More here from The Mighty Middle. Our personal view? It is nowhere near where Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton were. And impeachment is not in the cards, although some Democrats (particularly those from the party's left) are talking about it. But some form of Congressional hearings — perhaps a lot more difficult than the White House thinks — will likely be in the … [Read more...] about Reagan Justice Official Raises Impeachment

The question continues to rage: on one side, President George W. Bush who says what he did was legal. But on the other side we're now seeing an array of legal experts saying "NOT!"....plus some politicos who don't confirm the White House version of events. But watch some videos courtesy of Crooks And Liars and judge for yourself (we'll include a few of C&L's non-video … [Read more...] about Did The NSA Wiretaps Violate The Law?

Has the GOP leadership overreached in its latest ploy to get federal authorization to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by super-gluing it to a defense spending bill — to, in essence, blackmail members of Congress to choose between voting to oppose it and denying funding to the troops or passing the big bill and letting it go through? Perhaps, even if … [Read more...] about Senate Democrats Could Filibuster GOP Arctic Oil Drilling Ploy

A military blogger is murdered. (His blog is here.) … [Read more...] about Tragedy In The Real World And In Blogtopia

Is this the executed murderer's real legacy? … [Read more...] about More On Tookie Williams

...at one of TMV's favorite weblogs. … [Read more...] about A True Milestone

Cross-posted to Random Fate. --- Amid all the sound and fury over the revelation of NSA monitoring of international communications of US citizens without warrants, something fundamental is being overlooked as the usual suspects give their usually suspect blatherings that are more predictible than the rising of the sun in the east every morning. The situation is summarized … [Read more...] about NSA wiretaps: Why was the existing secret warrant system circumvented?

...but not Santas. An incident described as "Santarchy." … [Read more...] about We Expect Christmas Decorations To Be Lit Up

Yet another sign that Iran is regressing: Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned Western music from Iran's radio and TV stations, reviving one of the harshest cultural decrees from the early days of 1979 Islamic Revolution. Songs such as George Michael's "Careless Whisper," Eric Clapton's "Rush" and the Eagles' "Hotel California" have regularly accompanied Iranian … [Read more...] about Iran President Bans Western Music From TV And Radio

One of the most notable aspects of President George W. Bush's latest speech on the war in Iraq was how in several ways it seemed to be throwing out the old playbook:It was from the Oval Office. For some weird reason this President and his staff have underused that setting for his speeches. The Oval Office as a setting tends to envelop its occupant as he speaks (even Richard … [Read more...] about Bush’s War Speech: Throwing Out The Old Playbook?

You could get a government visitor. … [Read more...] about Be Careful What Books You Check Out

What do you do when your highly controversial proposal to drill for oil in the for-centuries-pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge runs into political trouble? What if Democrats, environmentalists and moderates in your own party have grouped together to keep the measure from going through? What is a friend of the oil industry to DO? Here's an idea: attach it to a DEFENSE … [Read more...] about GOP Attaches Arctic Drilling To Defense Spending Bill

The Wizbang 2005 Weblog Awards results have been announced. And while TMV didn't win for Best Group Blog we were genuinely thrilled at being nominated (because anyone who knows TMV personally knows how this blog is literally done on the run all the time). We were pleased to find out that TMV was named Best Moderate Blog in the 2005 LOSLI Blog Awards. (How did they take that … [Read more...] about Blog Awards And More Blog Awards

You can find it here. I gave it a "B". Not bad by any stretch, but it still remained mired in what I believe are the major flaws in Bush's Iraq perspective: a refusal to address criticisms on their merits (as opposed to caricatures), and an inability to transcend partisan concerns in building and maintaining support for his programs. … [Read more...] about My Reaction To Bush’s Speech