Bleeding Kansas

I started reading Paul Krugman as a junior in college in an international political economy class where we were assigned to read a book edited by Krugman. I later found that he writes a regular column in the New York Times and have read it ever since. The guy is a Princeton economics professor and an excellent writer... absolutely brilliant. He has also assailed President Bush and his allies on a number of policies. He attacks the President's policies logically and very thoroughly.

When I saw the headline for today's column was "Kansas On My Mind," I assumed it was about Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline demanding the complete medical records of women who have had late-term abortions. He says he needs the records for criminal prosecutions. Right. This is the same Attorney General who tried to require state employees to report sexual activity by minors under the age of 16. Alas, I was wrong about the subject of the column

Instead, it was about USA Next's efforts to sabatoge and destroy the AARP, a la the Swift Boat ads of this summer, because the AARP doesn't support privatizing Medicare. Krugman has written several columns about the Medicare issue directly, ranging from how the numbers don't add up in the plan to how Bush's tactics in this battle are eerily similar to how he sold invading Iraq to the American people (through a lot of deception and lies, is basically Krugman's argument).

Silly me for guessing the wrong Republican agenda item.