Ezra Klein

In context of a post on post-war Japan, Steve Clemons writes: Bush needs to be careful of trumpeting too much about our experience democratizing Japan — as we were frequently on the side of the anti-democrats. To some degree, Japan democratized despite our promotion of a profound model of structural corruption there — and the […]

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but the Linkin Park/Jay-Z mashups are really much better than they have any right to be. Every time I listen to Numb/Encore I either have to write a polemic or punch someone in the face. Fear of jail time is probably going to mean more posting this week.

The iconography of dissent.

WaPo calls bullshit on the President’s budget: The spending plan does not include future expenses of the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, nor does it include upfront transition costs of restructuring Social Security as Bush has proposed. The administration will submit a separate supplemental request largely for Afghanistan and Iraq operations in the current […]

Tactically, eliminating food stamps through a farm subsidies “bumper shot” would be brilliant, but not really necessary. The attack on the subsidies is a symbolic shout-out to Bush’s conservative base, the CATO’s and Stephen Moore’s of the world. To let that die while simultaneously kidney-punching the poor would win neither the President nor the party […]

One more time, let’s have no question of what Edwards is staking his next run on: In what appeared to be an early start for the 2008 campaign cycle, John Edwards told New Hampshire Democrats on Saturday that poverty was “one of the great moral issues of our time,” and he pledged to help fight […]

I won’t be watching the Superbowl today. Like Steve Clemons, I just can’t get excited about big dudes chasing each other up and down the field. It’s weird, I love football — played it for four years — but, like with all other sports, I have no interest in watching others do the deed. And […]

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

5/13/2002: President Bush on Monday signed a 10-year, $190 billion farm bill that promises to expand subsidies to growers. “This bill is generous and will provide a safety net for farmers, and it will do so without encouraging overproduction and depressing prices,” Bush said at a signing ceremony. “It will allow farmers and ranchers to […]

Is Iran the future of Iraq? With religious Shiite parties poised to take power in the new constitutional assembly, leading Shiite clerics are pushing for Islam to be recognized as the guiding principle of the new constitution. … At the very least, the clerics say, the constitution should ensure that legal measures overseeing personal matters […]