War Movie Weekend Open Thread

Cable television is honoring our fallen troops this weekend by showing every war movie ever made. John Wayne never served in our armed forces, but he made some great war movies. The theme song from Kelly’s Heroes was performed by the Mike Curb Congregation – Mike later became Lt. Governor of California What’s your favorite [...]

Your Breakfast Read, Served By The Confluence (Memorial Day Edition)

They died for you 10 things Americans should know about World War II The first thing to know about World War II is that it was a big war, a war that lasted 2,174 days and claimed an average of 27,600 lives every day, or 1,150 an hour, or 19 a minute, or one death [...]

Memorial Day: For the Union Dead

Memorial Day was first observed in 1865 as Decoration Day by liberated slaves, who independently set up, decorated and proclaimed an ad-hoc graveyard – a field of “passionless mounds” – to honor dead Union soldiers. In 1868, General John A. Logan issued the original order for Memorial Day. Learning about the history of Memorial Day [...]

Your Breakfast Read, Served By The Confluence

Barack We Hardly Knew Ye Nuance Is a Fine Word Until It’s Pronounced Flip-Flop In short, Mr. Obama argued, what seemed like a reversal wasn’t a reversal at all. [...] It is a tactic Mr. Obama has employed repeatedly as president, as he has recalibrated his approach to positions on any number of issues. He [...]

Saturday night at the ballpark

The Somerset Patriots just scored a home run. We are playing the Lawn Guyland Ducks. I’m sitting in a field box on the third base line, sipping a Newcastle brown ale. The BFF is hunting the elusive hot dog. It’s a beautiful night in Jersey. Fireworks at the end of the game. It doesn’t get [...]

Your Breakfast Read, Served By The Confluence

Obama = Bush 44? Obama’s “progressive” base is wondering: President’s Detention Plan Tests American Legal Tradition President Obama’s proposal for a new legal system in which terrorism suspects could be held in “prolonged detention” inside the United States without trial would be a departure from the way this country sees itself, as a place where [...]

What’s Missing from the Credit Card “Reform” Bill

Today President Obama signed the so-called “credit card reform bill” into law along with his usual prissy lecture about how Americans have to learn how to behave themselves. “We’re not going to give people a free pass, and we expect consumers to live within their means and pay what they owe, but we also expect [...]

Saying “I Told You So” Never Gets Old

We PUMAs have said from the beginning that Barack Obama is no different from George W Bush, and of course, no one listened. After all, we are just a bunch of old, unattractive, uneducated, Peruvian lesbians. Who cares what we have to say? But now even Politico has noted Dear Leader’s mimicking of his predecessor [...]

Friday: Haggle

Paul Krugman takes on the healthcare insurance industry this morning. That’s not entirely accurate.  Paul Krugman takes on Obama’s lack of willingness to take on the healthcare insurance industry this morning.  No one who has been reading this blog in the past 16 months will be surprised that Obama is not a fighter and I [...]

Your Breakfast Read, Served By The Confluence

Tale of Two Speeches Conflicting Views on Terror Fight Get Capitol Airing Obama Said U.S. Went ‘Off Course’ With Harsh Interrogations; Cheney Said They Were ‘Legal, Essential, Justified’ Speaking for me only, Obama’s speech was fairly nuanced. It had to be, considering the fence-straddling he has boxed himself into. He had to differentiate himself from [...]