Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Martin DyckmanJuly 7, 2015

It is amusing, in a wry sort of way, to witness the tantrums and hear the gnashing of teeth in right-wing circles over the several big cases they have just lost at the U.S. Supreme Court. Spare them no sympathy. You might think that losing has become more than they can bear. But in fact, […]

Martin DyckmanJuly 1, 2015

Those who flaunt the Confederate flag insist that it symbolizes “heritage,” not hate. Call it what they will, but that heritage is a heritage of hate. The slave owners and their politicians fancied themselves good, decent, God-fearing people. How could they square that with the countless hideous brutalities they inflicted on their human chattels? They […]

Bill PrescottJune 30, 2015

Those who flaunt the Confederate flag insist that it symbolizes “heritage,” not hate. Call it what they will, but that heritage is a heritage of hate. The slave owners and their politicians fancied themselves good, decent, God-fearing people. How could they square that with the countless hideous brutalities they inflicted on their human chattels? They […]

Jac VerSteegJune 28, 2015

It’s hard to be a straight-down-the-line Catholic and maintain logical consistency. It’s easier to be a cafeteria Catholic, picking and choosing which church positions to embrace. It’s even easier to be – as I am – a cafeteria non-Catholic; we don’t have to feel guilty about diverging from the Vatican’s official line. The Most Rev. […]

Peter SchorschJune 14, 2015

Other than soliciting millions of dollars in his unannounced campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination, few things have gone as planned for Jeb Bush. Now it seems we can add one more. Although it’s true that the former Florida governor – just hours away from officially launching a White House bid – already raised boatloads […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 10, 2015

Matthew Carr’s new book, Sherman’s Ghosts: Soldiers, Civilians, and the American Way of War, is presented as “an antimilitarist military history” – that is, half of it is a history of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s conduct during the U.S. Civil War, and half of it is an attempt to trace echoes of Sherman through major […]

Marc YachtJuly 2, 2014

Happy Birthday America — 238 years old and going strong! One cannot deny the nation’s power and strength. America has survived its worst politicians. Thankfully, there have also been some good ones, including 56 nervous patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776. George Washington, the Father of our country, had a […]

Guest AuthorJune 16, 2014

In 1862, the most important naval battle of the Civil War took place in Hampton Roads, Va., the clash between the Monitor and the Merrimac. My relative, John L. Porter, was the engineer who designed and constructed the Confederacy’s first ironclad ship, the Merrimac. Naval records show that the Merrimac destroyed a fleet of wooden […]

Guest AuthorMay 14, 2014

Nothing like the juxtaposition of the split-rail fences of the Manassas battlefields and the sprawl of suburban D.C. to remind one that Americans are willing to kill each other to make a point. A family wedding took me away from Key West recently. I flew to Washington, D.C. and then drove a rental car through […]

Martin DyckmanSeptember 30, 2013

If a foreign power set out to eliminate the United States as an economic, military and political rival, it couldn’t come up with a better scheme than the one playing out in Washington right now. This would be the strategy: Infiltrate the government. Then cripple it to keep it from paying its bills or honor […]

Tag: Civil War

Martin Dyckman: Supreme Court more often goes astray

Martin Dyckman: The time is now to take it down

Martin Dyckman: The time is now to take it down

Jac Wilder VerSteeg: Archbishop draws strange parallel between Dred Scott, gay marriage

Is Pickett’s Charge the right comparison for the Jeb Bush campaign?

David Swanson: Exporting Sherman's March

Marc Yacht: Happy Birthday America! More prosperity lies ahead

Bob Porter: What my grandfather taught me about strategy

Linda Cunningham: Intransigence caused Civil War; it threatens the nation again

Martin Dyckman: GOP radicals in the House are disloyal sore losers