Mark THIS DATE in your book, journalism students, because it's the day blogging has come of age. Today is when a blogger goes to the White House, not as someone being thrown a political bone to meet the President, but on a full-fledged daily press pass... This is truly a day when blogging moves from being an exotic army of boisterous citizens with laptops holding torches as … [Read more...] about Blogging Milestone: White House Issues Press Pass To Blogger

The gloves have come off in the incident involving the wounding of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and the death of an Italian security agent by U.S. forces. She's now flatly suggesting that maybe U.S. forces in effect were out to assassinate her. Each statement Sgrena has made has been stronger, more accusatory, and more political as you can see from the updated AP version … [Read more...] about Wounded Italian Journalist: Victim Of Conspiracy Or Polemecist?

...at Watching America, a MUST DAILY READ for anyone interested in foreign affairs — or how America and American foreign policy is perceived abroad. This well-edited and presented new site is a welcome addition not only to the Internet but to the daily reading routine of anyone who wants to be properly informed. It contains some of the best news articles and opinion … [Read more...] about Take A Peek…..

The Watcher of Weasels Council has announced this week's winning posts. Full results are here. The winning post by a council member was Freedom on the March by Alpha Patriot and non-council member New Sisyphus' The United Kingdom and the United States: Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror. A reminder that anyone can submit a post to this weekly contest. You don't have to be a … [Read more...] about Some Winning Posts

We're Guest Blogging on Dean's World this weekend. If you're new to this site, this means we do all of our posting on Dean's World during this period. We do the same crappy insightful posts there that we do here. Dean Esmay has me back there very weekend, despite reader demands. Regular posts resume here no later than Monday morning, although we'll often resume posts by 9 … [Read more...] about We’re Guest Blogging This Weekend

Yet another flambouyant political analysis for former Clinton friend and now Clinton nemesis Dick Morris. In his latest column he suggests that GWB actually has told Congressional bigwigs to back off changing the rules on fillbusters...so he can propose some hard-right judicial nominees that don't pass: President Bush and Karl Rove probably figured that they did not want the … [Read more...] about The Filibuster “Nuclear Option”: Is The White House Playing A Machiavellian Game?

There are tragedies within tragedies in the Iraq saga — and here's one with both human and political dimensions: THE HUMAN DIMENSION: BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces fired on a car Friday that was carrying a freed Italian hostage, injuring the hostage and at least one other person and killing an Italian intelligence agent, according to military sources. The shooting … [Read more...] about U.S. Forces Fire On Freed Italian Hostage In Iraq

Syria's realistic option list is getting smaller and smaller. President George Bush is rejecting the idea of any kind of a pullout of Syrian from Lebanon except a total one — and also applauding Saudia Arabia for joining in the chorus of international voices clamoring for Syria to leave ASAP. Syrian President Bashar Assad is expected to very soon announce a partial … [Read more...] about Syria’s Isolation Increases And Its Options Shrink

The mystery deepens in the Ukraine, where the Interior Minister has been found dead. It's tantilizing: Ukraine's former interior minister was found dead of an apparent suicide at his home on the day he was to testify about the killing of an opposition journalist, an official said. Sort of coincidental, isn't it? Do you suppose he could have named a bigger name behind it? Just … [Read more...] about Ukranian Interior Minister’s Suicide: Murder Mystery Deepens

Our linkfest from weblogs of varying political views. Opinions expressed do not necessary reflect the always-perfect opinion of The Moderate Voice. "That Son Of A Bitch" is another Stephen Green must read. This time on the Peter Arnett Playboy article alleging Sadaam's late and unlamented son Uday was poised to replace his Dad as the Butcher of Baghdad leader of Iraq. Read the … [Read more...] about Around The ‘Sphere

A fascinating new film is being released today — Gunner Palace. It documents what the troops over there see and do, and lets them tell their own story. I haven't seen the film yet, but I did read an intriguing article and watch a great clip on FilmForce here. Filmforce reports: The film reveals the complex realities of the situation as told first-hand by our troops. … [Read more...] about Perspective On The Iraq War Via Cinema Opens Today: Gunner Palace

To those of you who have websites and are literally counting down to the time when Dan Rather retires from the CBS Evening News, does RatherBiased.com have a gift for YOU: an authentic timer that you can put on your webpage that counts down to the second how much more time DR has before he vacates the anchor seat. Has CBS put it up on their site yet? Click here for the timer … [Read more...] about Dan Rather Retirement Timer For Your Webpage?

The Moderate Voice was mentioned on Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics yesterday. The transcript is here. Here's the section where we were mentioned: TATTON: Another topic here big in Washington today is Social Security, big for the Bush administration right now, you heard earlier in the show. This is The Moderate Voice. This is Joe Gandelman. He is a veteran journalist who … [Read more...] about Thanks For Including TMV, CNN…

We'll let this speak for itself: In a court filing days before the murders of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's relatives, jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale contended authorities owed him and the judge apologies for causing Lefkow and her family "to think that her life was in danger needlessly and wrongly." Saying he had "devoted my life to legal and peaceful change," … [Read more...] about What’s That Jewish Expression? CHUTZPAH

Reason's Michael Young, also opinion editor of Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper, point-by-point corrects a deeply confused former NSC member and Kerry advisor writing in NYT on exactly what is happening between Lebanon and Syria now. In response to the writer's claim that Hezbollah is the largest party in Lebanon's parliament:It is the largest single party bloc, but overall it … [Read more...] about Let’s get Syria-us

I wish DC's mayor was this tactlessly fun. It would give me something to respect about him. … [Read more...] about Hizzoner luvziz booze

A shocking new development in the Jacko trial! … [Read more...] about If Look(alike)s Could Kill

My former alt-paper colleague Steve Barnett, now a first-year law student, has a detailed but accessible examination of Roper v. Simmons, the case the Supreme Court just used to overturn the juvenile death penalty. He disagrees with the decision, but finds most of the reasons for disagreeing with the majority opinion wanting. For the record I'm part of that weird subset of … [Read more...] about How do you solve a problem like Scalia?

Robert Novak appears to believe that the changes in Social Security being pushed by President Bush will not survive passage through Congress without major changes. Is he misunderestimating the President, as has been done by so many others before? Possibly... but Social Security is referred to as the "third rail" of politics for a reason. Could it be that despite the current … [Read more...] about Misunderestimation or prescience?

Is there an impending crackdown on blogging? Blogging has become the unpoliced Wild West of political ideas. Due to campaign financing rulings, will the Federal Election Commission become involved? The answer is: the FEC is ALREADY revving up to start to the tricky task of regulating some aspects of blogging — and the tipoff comes in an interview CNET News conducted … [Read more...] about Are Some Blogging Freedoms Going To Be Curtailed?