Posted by Chainsaw on 2013-03-03 23:27:13

Ezra Klein is a good pundit. Sadly there are very few.

Most are shills.

Posted by fidius on 2013-03-03 23:48:14

I (used to) follow US politics closely, too -- enough to know that Klein is the very definition of a shill (contributor to Maddow, Matthews, and <LOL> Keith Olbermann!). If this is what you call "calling it down the middle" (ie: blame Republicans), you must be talking relative to his usual -- because there's nothing balanced about this nonsense. It's more or less a pinch-hit for the government's press unit. Ask yourself what part of this article is something Obama himself would not say.

Where did all the independent minds go in your country? How come all the mainstream journalists are pro-government now? What happened to "speaking truth to power"? What happened to "dissent as patriotism"?

From what I understand, sequestration itself was Obama's idea, and if that's true, you're all being taken for a ride. Lowering spending by 2% is crazy when you have $17 tril in debt I guess!

Posted by licker on 2013-03-04 00:57:10

Not going to read worthless blather...

We are screwed, well and truly. Neither side (dems/reps) have any interest in doing anything other than trying to beat the other side.

It brings to mind the image of Nero doing his fiddling.

Though in his case he probably wasn't worried about the next terms elections.

The solution is probably to implement hard term limits on all government offices. No longer should serving the public good be looked at as a career where the end goal is enriching oneself along with ones cronies.

One term, that's it. If you run again, you are executed, gungam style.

Posted by neoliminal on 2013-03-04 01:13:06

The US is simply continuing down the path it was already well entrenched in.

Posted by happygrue on 2013-03-04 03:18:19

Sorry for any confusion fidius, there was a typo in my original which read "...down the middle on this on.", which I have fixed. I mean just that - I'm well aware that he comes down on the left. I read a mix of sources from the right, left and center. You are angry, you said some stuff - and yet you didn't actually try to contradict any of what was in the article... That is my point. I think Ezra called this one right. It hardly matters who thought up the idea of sequestration, because it was plan C (after the grand bargain and supercommittee) and "never going to happen". I think the fact that we're going down this path illustrates Ezra's larger point nicely: The parties are talking past each other, and in this case Republicans seem to be ignoring/unaware of concessions that Obama has made in public. I have issues with the president too, but this piece was very much focused on why we didn't get a deal to avert the sequestration and I think it's on target.

Posted by Severedunit on 2013-03-04 05:48:48

Rated 1 for sucking and having no business on this site.

Posted by Beerox on 2013-03-04 05:53:25

Idk know how much it would matter, but it wouldn't hurt if the man grew a pair.

Posted by The_Murker on 2013-03-04 17:52:18

News media often makes the mistake of devoting 50% of air time to each side of an argument, as if we lived in fairy land and each side of a disagreement always had just as many valid points as the other side. Sometimes Republicans are just plain wrong. Dumb even. It would pretty gutless for a (political) journalist to go out of their way to make sure he gives equal coverage and/or criticism to each party, no matter how stupid one side's messages or excuses are.

Why are Repiblicans so against raised taxes for wealthy individuals? It's pretty sickening. There isn't one valid argument against.

Takers vs. Makers? How stupid do they think the voters are? (best not answer that)