kristen and i are undertaking a special project which i am calling what would the west wing do and which she will probably call something much more clever.a the basic goal will be well i think the goal is to justify the two of us rewatching and as the later seasons come up watching for the first time in my case the west wing by talking intelligen......
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it seems saturday is a good day for focus on presidentelect barack obamas rumored cabinet perhaps the pundits who read will have talking points on sunday morning. my favorites look a little like this. matthew yglesias on timothy geithner after pointing to several good stories on his subject i think its interesting that hes a career civil servant turned political app......
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great insight from matthew yglesias the thing about this is that if this were generally true if the ceos of the fortune 500 were brilliant economic seers then it would really make a lot of sense to implement socialism. real socialism. not progressive taxation to finance a mildly redistributive welfare state. but lets let vikram pandit and jeff immelt centrally plan the economy ......
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i am sure that youve heard about the rumor or the conservative talking point that the detroit auto workers make 70 an hour. the conservatives will try and tell you that if you figure in all thier benefits it totals that amount. theres only one little problem with that the math is quite frankly wrong. jonathan cohn at tnr explains well heres one reason the fig......
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mark over at publius endures writes in response to matthew yglesias post around the effectiveness of regulation aimed at the recent economic meltdown much principled regulation is inherently reactionary trying to solve yesterdays problems fighting the last war as yglesias suggests. yet the circumstances that caused yesterdays problems are unlikely to reoccur making r......
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as opposed to the kind of magical enjoyment that just cant feel good about i guess. so is this from nestle korea nestle japan no fair peeking .......
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hank paulson is an idiot. people on wall street quietly think hes one of the worst cabinet picks of bushs entire term and while there are no standards for whether the bailout is working theres no way that youre going to hear honest opinions about his performance because very serious people believe that saying what everyone knows is obvious will rattle confiden......
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megan mcardle and matt yglesias are having an interesting argument over the role that punishing ceos ought to have in bailout policy. i think at the end of the day my overall views are slightly more in line with mcardle i dont care about the ceos and i think that bailout policy should have the fundamental aim of helping those people whom unemployment would detract from the......
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first a quick site business note sorry for the lack of posting over the last few days. im out of town but i now have regular internet access here so ill be posting every day but probably more like two posts instead of five through thanksgiving after which point ill return to my normal obsessive levels of posting. todays first post is taking notice of how there8......
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the washington posts chris cilizza has an absurd item about bill richardson emerging as a leading contender for commerce secretary. apparently penny pritzker is out for some sort of thorny crooked business dealings and lets not beat around the bush obama hasnt appointed any latinos to anything. yet richardson is a former u.n. ambassador and energy secretary and is c......
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yglesias on the manufactured fairness doctrine controversy its very strange. political movements mischaracterize the other sides general goals all the time. but ive never heard of anything like the current conservative mania for blocking a particular legislative provision that nobody is trying to enact. part of this blogs continuing coverage of the manufactured fairness doct......
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its very strange. political movements mischaracterize the other sides general goals all the time. but ive never heard of anything like the current conservative mania for blocking a particular legislative provision that nobody is trying to enact. matthew iglesias over the past eight years i have gotten used to the other side saying things that werent true when they actually ......
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conservatives are fleshing out their next generation transportation ideas and matthew yglesias suggests that there could be a pretty big area of overlap between the left and right in this particular policy realm to my way of thinking an enormous amount of good could be done if conservatives were more interested in applying really basic free market principles to transportation poli....
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not only is it an awesome word that i never get to use but it also describes the current state of the healthcare debate. watch the stars align for universal health care 1. sen. max baucus announced his healthcare proposal which essentially calls for universal coverage. 2. word has it that ted kennedy is returning to the senate in january where he will lead on health care from his perch......
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the gen tlemen82 21 at american descent who seem to think that calling me a fag is a reason for highfiving one another then maybe taking a shower together in the american descent locker room . . . have been obsession about the looming return of the fairness doctrine walking monkeewalk step with the voice of their master rush limbaugh ever since obama won two weeks ago. ......
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i like matt yglesias a lot. and while he occasionally makes me chuckle his blog can be on the dry side which is a totally acceptable price to pay for the overall quality of his work. that said its fine to get serious on the somali pirate thing but he doesnt have to act all superior to those of us who have found it all very entertaining . if youd like to learn more a......
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the gen tlemen82 21 at american descent who seem to think that calling me a fag is a reason for highfiving one another then maybe taking a shower together in the american descent locker room . . . have been obsession about the looming return of the fairness doctrine walking monkeewalk step with the voice of their master rush limbaugh ever since obama won two weeks ago. ......
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whats the difference between the current senate membership and convicted felon ted stevens ralaska a court case harry reid whatever little respect i had left for you is now gone. how can you possibly honor a convicted felon on the senate floor what a disgrace. with all due respect to matt yglesias there is no such thing as senatorial courtesty its just a bunch......
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in response to kimberly strassels suggestion that conservatives focus more on urban policy issues matthew yglesias considers what sensible policies they could adopt im not sure exactly what strassel has in mind but to my way of thinking an enormous amount of good could be done if conservatives were more interested in applying really basic free market principles to transporta tion......
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what yglesias says here about conservatives and transportation policy that there are plenty of freemarket reforms that the right could and should be championing but isnt applies to a host of topics. i was on a later panel at the nri event he cites and i tried to make exactly this point on too many issues conservatives have simply avoided the most important emerging debates cha......
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word is janet napolitano the impressive governor of arizona will be heading up the department of homeland security. this would be a good moment to read danas profile of napolitano. and her post on napolitano and homeland security. this means that a republican will probably take arizonas governorship but as matt points out shes getting out as governor of arizona whi......
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if my metric is large media institutions making outlandish claims abut my virtues then its been a pretty good day or two. but as matt yglesias says its a bit unnerving to realize just how much of my career is the product of starting a blog during a very narrow window that spanned from 2001 to early2003. i always say that if i had done the same work on my school paper......
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an enormous amount of good could be done if conservatives were more interested in applying really basic free market principles to transportation policy. for example why not allow developers to build as much or as little parking as they want to build when they launch a new development why not charge market rates for curbside parking on public streets how about fewer restrictions on the perm......
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while one conspicuous pick remains unresolved the rest of obamas cabinet is quickly falling into place. though vetting is ongoing its being reported that obama has tapped arizona governor janet napolitano for secretary of homeland security former senate majority leader tom daschle to head up the department of health and human services and obama national finance chair and very r......
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yglesias and klein both comment on the news that insurers support mandated coverage . the insurers may pretend that covering everybody is a huge burden to their business but it seems to me more like their briar patch . klein in particular points out that insurers want only healthy people in their plans and not sick people. that makes sense to some extent and its especially true......
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