Category Archives: American cantos

Health of the Republic: Reset to 50%

Posted on 2009 January 20 by mongreldogs

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this ticker.  And it remains completely arbitrary, of course.  But with a new administration taking hold of the reins, it’s time for some (cautious) optimism about the restoration of the Republic.  I have … Continue reading →

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Dawn Breaks

Posted on 2008 November 4 by mongreldogs

A few minutes ago, Fox News — Fox News! — called the Presidential race for Senator Barack Obama. By now most networks have agreed, and apparently Senator John McCain has conceded the race. Wow. It’s going to take a while … Continue reading →

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Why Bother to Vote?

Posted on 2008 November 3 by mongreldogs

I wrote this at the request of my friend Maureen Leming, who is also Director of Annual Giving and Communications, and who wanted to send it out to the local media. No one bit, but I like it enough that … Continue reading →

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What’s Going Wrong

Posted on 2008 September 30 by mongreldogs

The failure to enact the bailout bill, or indeed, any economic recovery bill, has shaken some people to their core. It’s heightened a sense that our politics is broken and that we as a people no longer have what it … Continue reading →

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Memory in Song (II)

Posted on 2008 September 11 by mongreldogs

More oddly-prescient musings of Jackson Browne. “Lives in the Balance” Jackson Browne Lives in the Balance I’ve been waiting for something to happen For a week or a month or a year With the blood in the ink of the … Continue reading →

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Memory in Song (I)

Posted on 2008 September 11 by mongreldogs

It’s still surprisingly hard to write about 9/11. It galls me to see, again, our national “leaders” exploit this tragedy for political ends. And it saddens me that we don’t seem to have learned any lessons. So it’s really not … Continue reading →

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I am a Values Voter

Posted on 2008 September 7 by mongreldogs

After the election in 2004, we were preached at that George W. Bush won election (not re-election) due to the rejection of John Kerry by “values voters” .. as if the millions who voted for Kerry had no decent values. … Continue reading →

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Recycled: What’s So Wrong About Military Tribunals, Anyway?

Posted on 2007 November 8 by mongreldogs

Another piece written some time ago (circa 2002 January) that reads chillingly a propos today. This was written before the series of judicial rebukes to the President’s overreaching constitutional “doctrine” of unlimited executive power. Sadly, those rebukes have not rendered … Continue reading →

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Waterboarding

Posted on 2007 November 8 by mongreldogs

I don’t like me-too blogs but every once in awhile, someone writes on a topic in a way that exactly captures my own feeling, a way that I could never match, much less trump. This piece by Joe Galloway is … Continue reading →

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Recycled: Just Wrong

Posted on 2007 November 6 by mongreldogs

Long before this blog, I kept an equally-erratic literary journal called A Voice in the Wilderness. And while nothing written there was particularly world-shattering, I don’t want it to get lost in the mists of cyberspace. So to do my … Continue reading →

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