Your Breakfast Read, Served By The Confluence

In Memoriam: Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009 Cronkite’s Signature: Approachable Authority It’s almost impossible to convey the place Walter Cronkite held in American life for the 19 years he spent as the anchor of “The CBS Evening News.” It wasn’t just that he narrated the spikes in modern history, from the Kennedy assassination to the civil rights [...]

How Much are We Paying Larry Summers for Insights Like This?

From Politico: Of all the statistics pouring into the White House every day, top economic adviser Larry Summers highlighted one Friday to make his case that the economic free-fall has ended. The number of people searching for the term “economic depression” on Google is down to normal levels, Summers said. Searches for the term were [...]

It’s Not about Taxes

I live in California, and you may have heard that we’re having a bit of an argle-bargle about a budget in this state. The history, for those who’d like it: Back in the 1970s, enough Californians felt their taxes were too high to limit property taxes by law. The limit is low, (1.5%, I thought, [...]

THE most serious question at Sotomayor’s hearing was asked by… Franken?

Holy Hemiola, Republicans are a repetitive bunch.  Did any one of them ever have an independent thought?  The way they zeroed in on her “wise latina” word combination was like some SETI scientists looking for meaningful patterns in vast field of verbal graffitti, like none of the other billions of words Sotomayor has ever uttered [...]

Friday Morning at The Confluence

Rather than posting lots of links this morning, I decided to highlight just a few stories that interested me. New Jersey Governor’s race First up, a story that will warm the cockles of Riverdaughter’s heart: Jon Corzine’s wealth has deteriorated so much that he has to beg for campaign donations. Karma’s a b&tch, ain’t it? [...]

S.H.I.T. Open Thread

I’m a little too old to get excited about this movie. The G.I Joe I remember had “kung-fu grip” and fought Nazis. I’m sure happy it’s Thursday. What’s on your mind?

Live Blog: Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings, Day Four

From C-Span: On Day Four of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Sen. Judiciary Cmte. completes the second round of questions. Following that, the Cmte. calls the first panel of witnesses. Watch SCOTUS Confirmation Hearings on-line here. Memorable moments from yesterday’s hearings: Senator Al Franken questions SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor [...]

Who sez?

So I’m reading this Huff&Puff piece by Peter Daou about Sarah Palin and I see this line: More recently, she had the audacity to allow her camp to take on a teenage boy while decrying attacks against her own family. That sentence links to this piece by Greg Sargent: You may have heard that Sarah [...]

Thursday Morning at The Confluence: Browsing at Nini’s Corner

In your mind’s eye, join me for a leisurely morning browse through the Nini’s Corner newstand in Harvard Square. Before the internet, it was great place to find local, national, and international newspapers and periodicals. For now the monsoons have stopped and Harvard Square is warm, sunny, and welcoming. We can buy a selection of [...]

News you can use: swine flu and face masks

Have you had the experience when hiking of shifting your way-too-heavy pack a bit and it feels better for a while? I feel like doing that just now. Enough with the hopelessness of getting real health care reform during our one opportunity in a generation. Enough with so-called Democrats, whether they’re warming chairs in the [...]