Blog Profile / The Moderate Voice
| URL : | http://themoderatevoice.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Politics / US Politics | |
| Posts on Regator: | 33214 | |
| Posts / Week: | 122.9 | |
| Archived Since: | March 19, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
Our Hometown, if you come from a small town
My hometown, a tiny village in Indiana, population then and still, 600. Mostly immigrants, refugees, people from west Appalachia, Blacks from the south, longtime farmers, families who know the land still. Bums, oddballs, strange, weird and wondrous people. News today from the newspaper ten miles to the south… Obituaries: [these are written by family members [...]
Republicans: Obama speech a ‘retreat’ from terror fight
Republicans: Obama speech a ‘retreat’ from terror fight (via AFP) Republican lawmakers warned that President Barack Obama capitulated to US enemies in his counterterrorism speech Thursday by renewing his call to close Guantanamo and retreating to a pre-9/11 mindset. Some of his critics on Capitol Hill appeared taken aback that Obama argued that Al-Qaeda in [...]
Yemen welcomes US decision on Guantanamo prisoner transfers
Yemen welcomes US decision on Guantanamo prisoner transfers (via AFP) Yemen welcomed President Barack Obama’s decision to lift a moratorium on transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the Gulf country. Obama announced the move in a major speech outlining a new bid to close the “war on terror” prison, saying history will “cast a harsh [...]
Bridge Collapse In Washington
Breaking news tonight, a bridge over the Skagit River in Washington has collapsed sending cars and people into the water. The bridge is part of Interstate 5 a major artery along the West Coast. Details are scarce at this point but it does appear there may be casualties, we will update as more information becomes [...]
ND Gov. “Link” To The Land And Governing At Best
They say you can’t please all of the people all of the time. But try telling that to Arthur Link. The former two-term North Dakota Governor and Congressman had positions on issues that, at one time or another, were an anathema to all of his state voters. But his governing style, temperament, and warmth made [...]
“Self” Is a Misnomer
[This is the third post in the series Why Everything You Know about Your "Self" Is Wrong. The series explores how our understanding of selfhood affects our sense of individuality, our interpersonal relationships, and our politics.] As suggested in the two preceding posts in this series, selfhood was on the ropes even before postmodernism delivered [...]
The President Explains His ‘Policy Shift’ on Armed Drones
In a major speech at the National Defense University in Washington, President Obama explained and defended his administration’s use of armed drones in the war on terror, outlined the legal basis behind their use and announced steps and standards for selecting targets and for protecting against innocent civilian casualties. The following are what, in this [...]
Brooke First African-American Sen. Since Reconstruction
Edward Brooke was the first African-American to be elected to the Senate since Reconstruction, when, 85 years earlier, Mississippi’s Blanche Bruce would not be reappointed to his Senate seat. The year was 1966 and Brooke capture the seat of retiring Senator Leverett Saltonstall in an electorate that was just 3% black. That wasn’t the remarkable [...]
Obama Tweets About Global Warming
This morning I heard that a group of President Obama’s supporters are doing tweets to “Call Out the Climate Change Deniers.” An excellent project in my view but… What had me gnashing my teeth was the report went on to describe the effort as difficult in political terms because it was framed as Climate Change [...]
Britain ‘resolute’ after Islamist attack on soldier (video added)
Britain ‘resolute’ after Islamist attack on soldier (via AFP) Prime Minister David Cameron vowed on Thursday that Britain would be resolute against violent extremism following the gruesome murder of a soldier by two suspected Islamists on a London street. After chairing a meeting of security chiefs the day after the soldier was hacked to death [...]
Sen. Lamar Alexander Likens Kathleen Sebelius to Iran-Contra Central Figure Oliver North
The Republicans in Washington D. C. are going to fall off a cliff as a result of the ridiculous overreaching they are engaging in over what they ‘perceive’ is wrong with the Obama Administration. Sen. Lamar Alexander is the latest Republican senator to make a reckless claim in which he compares Health and Human Services [...]
Drone Strikes Policy Shift
Yesterday, in a letter to Congressional leaders signed by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., the Obama administration said that in addition to Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was targeted and killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen, three other Americans have been killed, albeit not “specifically targeted”: Samir Khan, [...]
Obama Legacy? Comforter-in Chief Clobbered
When the eight years are over, Barack Obama may go down in history mostly for his grace as America’s designated mourner. This weekend it’s Oklahoma in the endless tour of body-count catastrophes natural and man-made. As the President pursues ministerial duties, everyone else in Washington is consumed with efforts to defrock him for not preventing [...]
Twitter Tightens Account Security, If We Want It
There’s a lot about network security that’s in the hands of unseen engineers. But the part that may be the most vulnerable is in our hands, the everyday (phone, tablet, computer) user. Twitter just made it a little easier for us to protect our accounts, if we choose to. It’s a system called two-factor or [...]
IRS unit head refuses to testify about targeting
IRS unit head refuses to testify about targeting (via AFP) The head of the IRS office that oversees non-profit groups refused to testify at a congressional panel probing abuse at the US tax agency, but defiantly declared she had done nothing wrong. Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations, invoked her Fifth Amendment constitutional rights against [...]
How Far Should Government Go in Investigation of Leaks?
How Far Should Government Go in Investigation of Leaks? (via PBS News Hour) GWEN IFILL: Now to another story that has captured the attention of the news media and of Congress. After new revelations about extensive investigations involving the Associated Press and FOX News, three former Justice Department officials are defending the leak inquiries. Writing [...]
Lonesome Doves: Morse and Gruening Lone Senate Tomkin Gulf Opponents
In 1964, only two Senators would famously oppose voted the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that would launch shortly thereafter, launch America into the Vietnam War. Backgroundwise, Oregon’s Wayne Morse and Alaska’s Ernest Gruening would seem like the last two men to be paired together by history in perpetuity, as both came from very different backgrounds. Morse [...]
Symington Very Nearly JFK’s VP
If Harry Truman had his way, there would have been another President from Missouri in his lifetime. It seemed impractical that the “Show-Me State” could have two White House occupants in eight years but Senator Stuart Symington made a credible, albeit losing bid for the Democratic nomination in 1960, and apparently was closer to the [...]
Breaking: Obama Administration Admits Four Americans Killed in Drone Attacks
The Obama administration formally acknowledged today that the U.S. has killed four Americans in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan In addition to Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen, the administration, in a letter to Congressional leaders, says three other Americans have been [...]
British Soldier Reportedly Beheaded In Probable Teror Attck
To say that this story is horrifying is an understatement