Some times being Right doesn’t always make you Feel Good

You may remember back in January that I was not happy and very outspoken about the size of the Obama Stimulus plan. I was not impressed by the content or with the mix between tax cuts and direct government spending. You may recall that the Blue Dogs interminable resistance to do anything that might [...]

Bloggers Under the Bus and Over the Rainbow

I was going to do a nice staid article about the Fed and regulation but frankly it’s a nice sunny, tropical Sunday down here and it just doesn’t seem kind to overwhelm my brain or yours with Barky Frankisms and tales from the crypt of A(ll)yn Greenspan. I scoured my usual sites for inspiration [...]

Our Dysfunctional Government

I used to tell my students down here in New Orleans how smoothly things ran in Minneapolis compared to here until that Interstate Bridge fell into the river. Then I realized we were just the canary in the coal mine.
Still, it’s really hard to describe the degree of dysfunction surrounding all levels of government down [...]

Perspective

One of the first things to go when people get morally outraged is their perspective. Not only do they frequently lose perspective, they also lose sight of bigger issues. A sense of outrage simply overwhelms one’s sense of perspective. The enraged heart overtakes the circumspect mind.
I’ve talked about The Project on Government [...]

On Overlooked Battles and Unsung Heroes

In the midst of so much policy disarray, it is easy to overlook many issues that deserve our attention. I’m beginning to think all the chaos may be angle of hat trick magician relying on slight of hand and misdirection. So, just as I continue to hammer at boring things like bank [...]

A Succinct Answer to Brad DeLong’s Question

Economist Brad Delong’s Question of the Day:

Barack Obama Does Something Really Stupid: Tire Tariffs
Why oh why can’t we have better Democratic presidents?
The answer to the question doesn’t even lie in economics. Dr. Brad DeLong usually wants to know why we can’t get a better press. Well, here at The Confluence, we like [...]

and the Band Played On

So the so-called conservatives are having their so-called freedom event with so-called commentators and news anchors from so-called news stations. It’s all a side show to the real problems of the country. It’s easy to misplace anger in an environment where misinformants rule the airwaves.
So, let me show you where the real theft [...]

And you wonder why we can’t have a Public Option

H/T David Sirota and Open Left
I just got this link via David on Facebook. I’m speechless but not surprised.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the first time yesterday suggested she may be backing off her support of the public option. According to CNN, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid “said they would support any [...]

The Blame Game

It’s amazing to me that so many people can get so worked up about one mid level bureaucrat in the White House who is a repentant communist and says he accidentally signed a 9-11 truther petition thinking it was just a request for more information on what the White House knew prior to those terrorist [...]

Losing Ground

Whatever AxelRahm and POTUS are doing, it’s not working. CNN reports that the majority of registered independents in the country now disapprove of how President Obama is doing his job.
A majority of independent voters disapprove of how Barack Obama’s handling his job as president, according to a new national poll.
Fifty-three percent of independents questioned in [...]