The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Category: Health of the Republic

  • Recycled: Just Wrong

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    mongreldogs
    in , ,

    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 part to save the planet, I’m going to recycle and reuse that content, putting the…

  • Worrisome Phrase

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    mongreldogs
    in ,

    In reading this AP News story on the upcoming speech by the President, I came across the following: Bush and his senior advisers are likely to hear the initial thinking from Ryan Crocker, Bush’s envoy in Baghdad [emphasis added] Isn’t Ryan Crocker the accredited ambassador to Iraq? Confirmed and empowered, one would hope, by the…

  • Health of the Republic: Down 10% to 15%

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    mongreldogs
    in ,

    With exactly 18 months left to go in office, this President has made a sweeping and unprecedented play for unchecked power. According to a Washington Post article, the President intends to claim that Congress cannot pursue its investigation into the political firing of 9 US Attorneys, because the President has exerted a broad “executive privilege”…

  • Health of the Republic down, 4% to 25%

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    mongreldogs
    in ,

    The Health of the Republic bar has dropped another 4% in recent weeks. This is largely due to the unfolding three scandals at the Department of Justice: The blatantly-political firing of eight US prosecutors The new revelations about presidential interference in the internal DOJ audit of the warrantless wiretapping program The rampant abuse of National…

  • Health of the Republic down, 1% to 29%

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    by

    mongreldogs
    in ,

    The Health of the Republic bar has shifted downward another percentage point. This follows the promulgation of a presidential decree that gives the White House a greater say over the issuance of policy guidelines by agencies. Previously most such documents were crafted by civil servants but now, they must pass through a politically-appointed gatekeeper (a…

  • Health of the Republic down 3.3%, to 30%

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    mongreldogs
    in ,

    After hearing that the President of the United States has asserted his untrammeled power to read even physical mail, without warrant or other legal constraint, I have decided to move the Health of the Republic bar to 30%. It’s only a 3% shift because in the end this is only slightly more outrageous than the…