kevin drum (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Via Matt Yglesias, here is Gillian Tett arguing that a populist backlash against bankers could be headed our way when we have to start getting serious about cutting deficits in 2011-13: Perhaps that will occur when income taxes are hiked above 50 per cent. Or maybe when hospital budgets are cut, or military spending slashed....“Don’t the bankers realise what could be coming?”...
kevin drum (Free subscription) | 3 hours ago
Matt Yglesias writes about the routine use of the filibuster and other delaying tactics in Congress: It’s worth emphasizing how one-sided efficacious minority party obstruction has been. The Bush administration wasn’t able to get its agenda through congress unscathed, but fundamentally they did achieved their main goals in terms of tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, substantially...
The Debate Link (Free subscription) | yesterday
Matt Yglesias has been on this kick, most recently in this post on Hugo Chavez and his weird paeon to Idi Amin (among others), of citing to a Human Rights Watch report on the country in question, then sarcastically dismissing it with something like "but everyone knows that HRW is a non-credible group obsessed with unfair slams on Israel so their criticism of Chavez must somehow be...
feminist blogs (Free subscription) | yesterday
Via Whatever, I found this piece by Matt Yglesias asking why — if vampires are thousands of years old — they don’t act old: Across various fictions, why don’t vampires exhibit more cranky old man characteristics? I’m only 28 and already I feel myself periodically overtaken by a desire to tell the young people all about [...]
Marc Ambinder (Free subscription) | yesterday
... of politically difficult medicine to treat the fiscal problems that are ailing our country." Matt Yglesias isn't impressed. I agree with him that bipartisan commissions, like the base closing resolution , succeed when politicians are in broad agreement but need the commission to hammer out the ugly, and potentially unpopular, details so they can save face on otherwise embarrassing...
A Plain Blog About Politics (Free subscription) | yesterday
... Drum asks , "Sarah Palin: joke or serious threat?" The most sensible thing I've seen is Matt Yglesias's comment : I think we should take the probability of her becoming president at least somewhat seriously. She probably won’t win the GOP nomination (the odds of any particular individual winning are does get the nomination and the economic fundamentals aren’t...
South by Southwest (Free subscription) | yesterday
The future of the public option in any health care reform bill remains as a central question for progressives and for hometown public debate, even with the advent of the Thanksgiving holidays. Senate floor debate resumes after the recess this week. Where senators stand -- Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) supports the public option , according to Matt Yglesias. Several conservative Democrats...
faith in honest doubt (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
Discussing the prospects of passing substantial health care and greenhouse emissions legislation, Matt Yglesias starts out soundly enough: The crucial thing to remember is that Barack Obama didn’t emerge out of the ether with progressive policy proposals. Commitments to things like an aggressive carbon emissions target and a strong public option emerged over the course of a presidential...
Wonkette (Free subscription) | yesterday
... communist, or just flirting? [ Gateway Pundit ] There’s really only two things that arouse Matthew Yglesias: heavy petting and the Central Bank. [ Matt Yglesias ] Andrew Sullivan - Saturn - Republican Party - Central Bank - Liberalism
Steam Powered Opinions (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Hell-acious week, no time for blogging or even following the news really. I was thoroughly entertained by this snark filled dressing down of yet another very stupid Matt Yglesias post . Honestly, I wonder sometimes if he's purposefully trolling his readers just for his own personal bemusement. Also, leave it to The Onion to really get to the heart of matters.
Balloon Juice (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Matt Yglesias claims this isn’t a parody: I love the voice-over guy. Almost NFL Film quality.
Marginal Revolution (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Matt Yglesias writes: The bill contains provisions that have front-loaded positive impacts on the deficit and also have provisions that have back-loaded positive impacts on the deficit. The bill, rather intelligently, seems to balance this out well leading to net...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Ross Douthat has a blog . P.S. I think Matt Yglesias is right to doubt that the unemployment rate will have as much effect on the midterm elections as Douthat thinks it will. As bad as the high-unemployment 1982 elections were for Republicans, for example, we shouldn't forget that it was the first election under the district lines of the 1980s, which were generally more favorable to...
Wonkette (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
More fancy graphics in support of taxing marijuana cigarettes. [Hit & Run] Matt is very worried about nonchalant archeologists digging up nuclear waste just for the fun of it. [Matt Yglesias] Here is your masturbatory WHAT IF? of the day: WHAT IF Barack Obama is fatally electrocuted by a stingray BUT Joe Biden doesn’t want to [...] Barack Obama - Joe Biden - Sarah Palin...
The Debate Link (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
... By comparison, independents weigh in at 72%-18%-10%, and Democrats are 86%-9%-4%. As TPM and Matt Yglesias point out, the comparison to Democratic discontent over Florida in 2000 doesn't really hold -- not just because the difference in the magnitude (less than 600 votes in Florida, versus a 9.5 million vote edge for Obama nationwide), but also because the Florida controversy stemmed...
