Maybe next week he'll call Obama "fruity."

With the dearth of advertising available to cover paper something has to take its' place. Apparently anything will do.

This reminds me (painfully) of the times in 2004 when the Bushies were sneering "Kerry looks FRENCH!" and wingnuts were calling him Jean Francois Kerry. Please, let's not go back to the days of "Freedom Fries".

I think pundits just can't believe that a politician would actually follow through on their campaign pledges. That has never happens!

Perhaps Cohen makes over 250K in income.

If you can't think of a coherent argument, just accuse something of being "too French". Doesn't require any thought whatsoever.
It probably never crossed his mind that the budget is so much bigger because Obama is honest about war spending. Oops, that requires a little thought. Too French! Too French! Oo-la-la!

I sort of like the French solution. Get the knitting needles to work on the names of the overpaid executives and sharpen the guillotine.

I have a hard time understanding why the column was even published in the first place.

Hey, those fish won't wrap themselves.

I'm kind of flabbergasted too.

Why in the world do they even hire these people? Good grief.

I have a hard time understanding why the column was even published in the first place.

That's easy. He published it to make himself look clever.

Next question?

cohen is so cutesy, and god knows how many bottles of "french" he swilled entertaining himself -- i'm hot shit now! -- from the beginning to the end of his column...

sorta outta touch...
... ya think?

Many English speakers have problems with egality.

See, they publish crap like this and then they wonder why newspaper readership is down.

Cohen just returned from a lengthy reporting trip to Iran / Tehran. his last column from there thumped his fellow jews and isreal ( and by extension, the usa ) pretty good and he has been taking a lot of heat from the zionists for that column. so, he had to divert everybody's attention and toss some crap into the strobe light.

Here is something we should all keep in mind. The tax increase on folks making more than $250,000 is $40 per thousand on taxable income in excess of $250,000. That is a change from $350 per thousand to $390 per thousand. Of course, there is no increase on taxible income below $250,000. I think the rich will be able to get by without buying cheaper cuts of meat.

Potentially more "troubling" is the proposed increase in the capital gains tax rate, but in today's economy there aren't that many capital assets being sold for a gain.

The hedge fund managers are hit hardest by Obama's proposed changes. They are going to be taxed like the rest of us instead of being taxed like "masters of the universe." I am not too worried, because most of them should feel lucky they aren't going to jail. Many of them seem to have more in common with Madoff's Ponzi scheme than real investments.

Potentially more "troubling" is the proposed increase in the capital gains tax rate - Ron Byers

Why do you say that? Is there a better option for these people? If Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire, they will suffer much more by putting money where it results in interest or dividends. And even if int/div income is taxed at the same rate as cap gains, the lower rates don't justify that option.

I think Cohen's problem is the same as lot of people. He just can't get his head around the numbers. We've passed Dirksonian budget numbers and we headed into uncharted territories. Some people just can't make that leap from talking billions to talking trillions.

Can you blame him?

And it's all Bush's fault.

and there's more than a touch of France in the bash-the-rich righteousness with which the new president cast his plans as "a threat to the status quo in Washington."

Whut th'....?!? Can someone please help Mr. Cohen? He seems to have gotten hisself all tangled.

Seriously, can anybody unwrap this mess and tell me what it's supposed to mean?

Damp, good point.

I've traveled in France a few times in recent years; I also traveled in some of the countries of the old Communist bloc back in the bad old days before the fall of the wall. I notice very little similarity between the atmosphere in France and in pre-1989 East Germany or Czechoslovakia. I do, however, notice that France has excellent public transportation, a high standard of living, and universal health care. So why is "French" such a bad thing? Oh yes -- they were right about Iraq. Can't forgive 'em for that, can we?

That ignorant fuckweed cohen. If it weren't for the French we wouldn't even be a country. Check the history of the birth of this country.

Cohen's column is crap and not worth discussing.

This isn't exactly the right place for this, but what the hell. The thought occurred to me, so here goes:

I am sick and tired of conservatives and yes, even some liberals, talking about the $250K tax bracket like some hard line. To hear people talk about it you would think the moment someone makes $250K they suddenly pay 3% more on everything. That just isn't so. The higher tax rate kicks in just for the income BEYOND $250K. So, a family making $251K would only see the encreased tax rate on the $1K above the line. This is what progressive tax schemes are all about...always have been.

A hard line where you pay a higher rate on every penny the moment you cross the magic line would indeed be unfair and a huge disincentive to making more. Under that kind of scheme a family making a few thousand over the line would actually take home less than a family whose gross income was just under the line.

Fortunately, that insane approach shows no resemblance to the Obama plan. Now if we could only convince everyone to stop talking like it was. Both Cons and Libs are guilty of inaccuracy in this matter. Cons rail on about the "punishment" of the wealthy and how they are rushing to decrease their income to get under the line. Libs scream "so what if a few fat-cats on the line suffer. They should be happy to make so much."

Both stances are terribly innacurate and both reinforce the myth that folks near the $250K line will suffer a grossly disproportionate tax burden.

If Cohen isn't writing for free, he's overpaid.

If Cohen isn't writing for free, he's overpaid.

If Cohen is writing for free, he's overpaid.

Last April 25, the New York Times traded at 21.14 a share for its 52-week high. Today it closed at 4.08.

Mais, quelle surprise!

I have a hard time understanding why the column was even published in the first place. -- Steve Benen

They've gotta publish something. And brace yourself for more, because he now has a regular (twice-a-week, I think) schedule.

As to why he might have written what he'd written... Just Back From Tehran, @15:42, has one plausible explanation. Mine is simpler: pure sour grapes.

See, the only "things French" that Cohen approves of are French wines and French love. Since he's not getting enough of either, it's better for him to say that *all* "things French" are baaaaad.

The GOP is just working up a meaningless phrase. European. French. It doesn't matter. It could have been Ecuadorean or Vulcan.

You read that several times? Jesus I couldn't get through it once.