My name's Dan Flaherty and I'm the owner of The American Sentinel network of weblogs that cover my main interests in politics & sports. I grew up in the Milwaukee area, and later moved to Pittsburgh in 1999. After eight years in the Steel City, I married a great girl from Baltimore now make my home just north of Charm City. And though I've never lived there, the city of Boston carries a special place in my heart, and I believe the city is the cultural and spiritual capital of the Irish Catholic experience in America.

Blue Dog; Red Zone chronicles the political thoughts of one whose deepest sympathies lie with the pre-1968 Democratic Party, the party of the Irish immigrant class and the old big-city bosses. Having come of age in the Reagan era, I still vote Republican at the presidential level, but hold out hopes that the silent majority at the Democratic grass-roots--the ones who still believe in the old-time values--will again find their voice.

The American Sentinel network includes three sports weblogs that cover major league baseball, pro football, along with college football & hoops. The triumvirate reflects my Midwestern heritage, as well as my new home in the East.

You can take the boy out of the Big Ten, but you can't take the Big Ten out of the boy. Big Ten Country is the longest running of any weblog in the American Sentinel network and has carried me to the press box of the Capital One Bowl.

In 1996, I became a Red Sox fan, and the decision rejuvenated my entire interest in baseball. My memories of my last weeks with my late father are from October 2004 and being home to watch all four nights of the incredible comeback against the Yankees. And my new digs nearby Camden Yards and only two hours from New York City are the perfect locale to observe AL East Nation.

There's nothing in my life I've done longer then be a Redskins fan, dating back to an awful Christmas season in 1979 when the 'Skins blew a 17-point lead in Dallas and lost homefield advantage, the division and the playoffs all in one fell swoop--the most consequential regular season defeat in the NFL's modern era. Being in Baltimore, I'm just an hour's drive from both D.C. & Philly and nestled right into NFC East Nation.

When not blogging, I'm an author, whose current book Fulcrum has received the endorsement of former Notre Dame football coach Gerry Faust. Fulcrum tells the story of six teenagers in postwar Irish Boston who see their traditional neighborhood changing and wrestle for a response that will be true to their roots and their conscience. The story is intertwined with an old-style urban mayoral campaign and a Red Sox-Yankees pennant race.