Lazy Saturday: Slow News Day

Good Afternoon, Conflucians!! Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t find much new and different in the news today. Afghanistan continues to be a clusterf&&k, and I wish we could just bring our troops home. But we all know that isn’t going to happen. I guess it’s good news that if I suddenly decide to [...]

Hindsight allows us to see an Ass more clearly.

So, I’ve just gotten into the West Wing recently, and I’ve plowed through until Season Seven. I just watched the Debate episode last night, and it inspired me (because apparently I’m a MASOCHIST) to re-watch all of the Democratic primary debates from the 2007/08 primaries. I watched them all the first time through, and through [...]

Friday Late Morning News and Views

Hello Conflucians!!! TGIF!! I’ve got a potpourri of articles this morning with no overarching theme. I supposed Elena Kagan’s confirmation is the big story today, but I really can’t get too excited about it. She seems to me to be such a mediocre choice. The Politico says that the vote totals were a shot across [...]

Thursday Afternoon News Update: Ball of Confusion Edition

Good Afternoon, Conflucians!! I didn’t do my morning news post today because WonkTheVote and Riverdaughter beat me to it with three excellent pieces. I just came across a couple of interesting stories, so I thought I’d put up a brief news update. Minutes ago MSNBC reported that Google and Verizon are denying they have had [...]

This just in: Google decides to do evil

From the NYTimes, Google and Verizon Near Deal on Pay Tiers for Web: WASHINGTON — Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege. The charges [...]

First!

No, you are not in an Eschaton comment thread. What first means is that The Confluence was the first blog, formed by Democrats (now mostly Independent Liberals), who saw what was going on in the Democratic party in 2008.  By January 2008, we saw that the party was actively engaged in deep sixing one candidate [...]

Dispersants: An Extended Metaphor for Disaster Capitalism

As gravely disturbing as the use of dispersants is in its own right, it has frequently struck me that the situation is also an overarching metaphor for what is happening to all of our public and private institutions today. Instead of cleaning up the war machine’s mess, the healthcare mess, the financial mess, the environmental [...]

Administration Scientists vs. Independent Scientists: Who are You Going to Believe?

The Obama administration and BP have been busy busy busy for the past week spreading the meme that it’s all over. There’s no more oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Everything is fine and dandy, hunky-dory, and A-Okay. So don’t worry your pretty little heads about it anymore, get out to the mall and go [...]

California’s Gay Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

Finally, California has done what Massachusetts did way back in May, 2004. Judge Vaughn Walker has struck down Proposition 8. Gay marriage is legal in California for now. I certainly hope future appeals will go down in flames, but with the current Supreme Court, you never know. Here is what the judge wrote–from the LA [...]

Wednesday News

Good Morning Conflucians!!! A tragic story toping the news seems to be the mass murder in Connecticut yesterday (the deadliest shooting in that state’s history): As police investigate the deadly shooting spree at Hartford Distributors and prepare to identify its victims, the company will meet Wednesday with employees, some of whom have been with the [...]