The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Author: mongreldogs

  • One month to go…

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    mongreldogs
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    … until the US Presidential election. Barack Obama seems to have the momentum now, gaining about 1 point in national tracking polls every three days. Nate Silver at 538 has a model predicting that Senator Obama will win about 340 electoral votes — over the required total by 70, a landslide by any measure. So…

  • What’s Going Wrong

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    mongreldogs
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    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 takes. Someone wrote something at Political Animal that stirred in me a passionate response, and…

  • A devestating campaign ad….

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    mongreldogs
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    … even if it’s one we’ll not see on TV. (It’s not from the Obama campign.) It makes the right connection between the mess we’re in and the so-called “maverick” who’s done nothing in 26 years to help fix it. http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=wJThPjvscFs It’s on YouTube and I’d embed it if I had time to figure out…

  • Memory in Song (II)

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    mongreldogs
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    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 headlines And the sound of the crowd in my ear You might ask what it…

  • Memory in Song (I)

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    mongreldogs
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    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 in me to pen something deep and insightful. Instead, I’ll fall back on the melodic…

  • I am a Values Voter

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    mongreldogs
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    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. That spurred me to write the following, which I still embrace today. In this election,…

  • Lying Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them

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    mongreldogs
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    In case you — like me — watched Sarah Palin’s speech from the Republican National Convention and keep saying — like me — “I know that’s a lie”, but were unable to point to a source, let me offer this post by Hilzoy over at Political Animal @ the Washington Monthly. It sums up the…

  • McCain’s VP

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    mongreldogs
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    So, Senator John McCain has chosen Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate. Wow. It’s taken me a while to get my head around this. Sarah Palin is a political neophyte — if your main charge is that Barack Obama is inexperienced, then you have to see Sarah Palin as INEXPERIENCED. All of…

  • Senator Clinton’s Speech

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    mongreldogs
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    Senator Hilary Clinton has finished her address to the Democratic National Convention. My personal response: She didn’t hit it out of the park but she definitely got some extra bases and maybe batted some runs in. I think she delivered a full-throated, crystal clear indictment of the past eight years and of John McCain’s alignment…

  • Review: Marc Cohn at the Westhampton Beach Peforming Arts Center

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    mongreldogs
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    Marc Cohn & band Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center Sunday 2008 August 24 8:30 PM It’s my habit to see Marc Cohn every chance I get during the New York leg of his tours. This explains why, three days after my last Cohn concert, I schlepped all the way out along Long Island’s southern shore…