Marc JohnsonMar 17, 20155 minThe Appearance of Influence“…this Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the...
Marc JohnsonNov 5, 20144 minThe Winner Is…How far we have come, or perhaps fallen. The Republican romp across the electoral map yesterday may or may not prove to be a defining...
Marc JohnsonApr 4, 20146 minPolitics of the OligarchsThe intersection of money and politics, both at the fringes and at the center of our democracy, has often led to full-blown scandal....
Marc JohnsonOct 9, 20135 minThe End of Spending LimitsThe Court heard arguments yesterday in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, a sort of sequel to the 2010 Citizens United case that...
Marc JohnsonAug 30, 20133 minSeamus Heaney, 1939 – 2013One wonders why Ireland, a country with 4.5 million people, has produced so many of history’s greatest men – yes, mostly men – of...
Marc JohnsonAug 5, 20133 minNothing Succeeds Like ExcessDon’t get me wrong, I love the biggest big city in the world. It’s the capitol of everything from food to finance, but New York is also...
Marc JohnsonMay 28, 20135 minFollowing the MoneyDavid Cay Johnston calls the “unfortunate tendency…to quote people accurately without explaining the underlying context.” The story of...
Marc JohnsonJun 25, 20124 minEndless MoneyCorporations Really Are People While the nation holds its collective breath over the fate of Obamacare (hint, it’s going down) the...
Marc JohnsonJun 15, 20125 minIt’s the Money, StupidOn the presidential campaign trail in 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain regularly invoked Theodore Roosevelt as his role model. “I count...
Marc JohnsonFeb 14, 20121 minWhen in DisgraceThe Bard, we think, wrote his 29th sonnet around about 1592 at a time when he was deeply troubled by something. Perhaps it was the...
Marc JohnsonJan 13, 20121 minColbert Explains ItComedy Central’s Stephen Colbert eased, sort of, into the South Carolina primary on his show last night, but not before first handing off...
Marc JohnsonJan 12, 20125 minFollowing More MoneyIt is rare – very rare – that a state Supreme Court rises up on its hind legs and says to the United States Supreme Court we think you...
Marc JohnsonJan 11, 20123 min$$$$$With two wins in a row in the hip pocket of his blue jeans, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney heads to South Carolina today to...
Marc JohnsonApr 8, 20111 minPoetry MonthIn celebration of National Poetry Month – I love that poetry month coincides with the start of the baseball season – a great little poem...
Marc JohnsonFeb 6, 20112 minMore Billy CollinsMy lanyard wearing mom was born on this day in 1922. I miss her every day. The Lanyard by Billy Collins The other day I was ricocheting...
Marc JohnsonJan 14, 20111 minBilly CollinsWhen I saw the story that Idaho’s State School Superintendent Tom Luna had pulled a pop history quiz on lawmakers on the legislature’s...
Marc JohnsonJan 6, 20102 minThe Poetry of CitiesIt is the birthday of the poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg born January 6, 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois. Twice winner of the...
Marc JohnsonNov 23, 20091 minThe ChoiceFor me the answer is easy – W.B. Yeats. In December 1923, nearly 86 years ago, Yeats won the Nobel Prize for literature and made much of...
Marc JohnsonNov 2, 20091 minAll SoulsOn All Souls Day, a remembrance of those we love and live among us in memory, two poems by John Updike and W.B. Yeats. I can’t get this...