Ezra Klein

Lindsay Beyerstein has a thoughtful response* to my post on Lakoff from a few days back. Yes, I said from a few days back. Which is kinda important because blog posts have the lifespan of fruitflies** — come each dawn, the bell is tolling for all those words you wrote the day before, which kinda […]

With the Schiavo memos proven to be from a Republican source and Powerline not apologizing for their truthless innuendo and slander, it’s time to break out the popcorn and see if Big Trunk and Hindrocket can clear the shark. Odds are on massive carnage, but they might just end up laughing stocks. For that, see […]

Looking at the latest DeLay scandals in the continuing excavation of DeLay’s immorality, Hilzoy writes: Why can’t these people just live on their salaries? Tom DeLay has an answer: “I challenge anyone to live on my salary.” Reportedly, when he said that, his salary was $158,000 a year. Despite the obvious fantasy world DeLay lives […]

Pelosi’s really on the right track here (See Matt? I show the love). If Bush is denying the legitimacy of US Treasury Bonds, then that, not Social Security, is the real issue here. What’s happened that America cannot pay back its debts? If our situation was truly so dire, shouldn’t our president have known that […]

Yahoo News has an AP headline entitled “French Secularists Criticize Pope Observance“. Wow. I mean, really, wow. From O’Reilly’s mouth to their ears.

This is scary — oil production in most on the non-OPEC nations is already in accelerating decline, and OPEC looks to be nearing it’s maximum. Ouch. So, by the way, is this Rolling Stone excerpt from the The Long Emergency that’s been flitting through the blogosphere. Hell, that one’s not scary, it’s totally terrifying. It […]

I agree with basically all of this. And it’s one of the things I find most galling about Blair’s support for Bush, and Bush’s complete unwillingness to moderate key policies to help Blair. Tony has been one of the left’s brighter lights in recent years, leading a resurgence of Labour and creating a clear and […]

Saul Bellow has died. Just a day or two after Prince Rainier of Monaco. Who passed just after the Pope. Who faded right after Terry Schiavo, whose feeding tube was pulled not long after a host of other luminaries and bright lights were extinguished. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t remember so much death […]

Kevin and Duncan* both point out that the VAT (see post below) is somewhat regressive. True ’nuff. So why do it? Mostly because it’s safer than the alternatives. Reasoning below the fold.

Movement conservative Bruce Bartlett has penned one of those responsible Republican op-eds Democrats are coming to know and love; and he’s written a real one, not a Brooksian poison pill. He argues that Republicans have neither the will nor the desire to seriously shrink government spending, in fact, they’ve proved themselves as bad as Democrats. […]