As you may recall, about two years ago in March 2004, Spanish voters kicked then-prime minister José Maria Aznar and his conservative Partido Populare out of office in favor of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español. This came just days after a terrorist attack in Madrid, and soon after assuming office new Prime Minister José Luis […]
Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias is a senior editor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a former Prospect staff writer, and the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.
Follow @mattyglesias
Posted inArticle
WHAT’S THE MATTER…
WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH CALABRIA? Strange to see that some things are the same, even in Italian politics: “It’s because they hate private property,” Mr. Berlusconi, 69, said, “because they see savings as something that should be taxed.” The prime minister also warned that the center-left alliance, which includes Communists, would reintroduce inheritance taxes, which […]
Posted inArticle
DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH….
DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH. Say what you will about Tom DeLay, I don’t think you can get around the fact that there’s something honorable about the way — contrary to almost every relevant aspect of the American tradition and the basic structure of our political institutions — he built an effective, disciplined legislative caucus. Of course, […]
Posted inArticle
PRIORITIES, PEOPLE. There’s…
PRIORITIES, PEOPLE. There’s a great op-ed in the Post about how Tony Blair‘s government managed to take a big bite out of child poverty and how America should do the same. A conservative, of course, would tell you that whether or not millions of children grow up in poverty is none of the government’s concern, […]
Posted inArticle
THE POLYGAMY THREAT….
THE POLYGAMY THREAT. Jonathan Rauch is all about gay marriage but says polygamy’s no good because it will generate excess unmarried men who bring with them social destruction. This seems a little dubious to me. As things stand, there are excess unmarried women because there are more gays than lesbians, more men die young (war, […]
Posted inArticle
TIME IS ON…
TIME IS ON OUR SIDE. John J. Miller observes that “The person who invented the abomination that is Daylight Saving Time obviously was not responsible for getting children out of bed and off to school.” Indeed, DST is a huge pain in the ass for everyone. So who’s to blame? As is often the case […]
Posted inArticle
A Sore Sport
If April is the cruelest month then March is the most frustrating. My favorite sport — basketball — is still in full swing but, at the same time, mercilessly pushed out of public view in favor of the NCAA Tournament. College ball is, simply put, basketball played badly, and America’s obsession with that game’s absurd […]
Posted inArticle
Godot in Iraq
Another depressing week in the war that won’t end got off to a typical start as I read in Saturday’s Washington Post that “President Bush plans to begin a series of speeches next week again explaining the administration’s strategy for winning the war in Iraq.” The repetitiveness of this White House tactic has gotten so […]
Posted inArticle
Cinematic Distractions
There was no missing a certain left-wing tilt to the films honored at last weekend’s Academy Awards or to the movies released in 2005 more generally. Conservatives, not content to merely run the entire government, are predictably outraged by this turn of events. Once again, it seems, an insidious liberal cabal is running an important […]
Posted inArticle
Port Retort
A company called Dubai Ports World wants to buy a company called the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. P&O has the contracts to manage major terminals at several East Coast ports, including the one in Baltimore, the ideal port of entry for a Capitol-bound nuclear bomb. P&O is a private Britain-based firm. Dubai Ports […]