NYT: Maureen Dowd's Column From 2008.09.21

September 21, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet

By MAUREEN DOWD

Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.

BARTLET Senator.

OBAMA Mr. President.

BARTLET You seem startled.

OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.

BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET Come on in.

BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.

BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.

OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.

BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —

OBAMA Look —

BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?

OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.

BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?

OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.

BARTLET I can’t give it to you.

OBAMA Why not?

BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.

OBAMA Why?

BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.

OBAMA O.K. —

BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?

OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.

BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.

OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.

BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.

OBAMA Which was?

BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.

OBAMA And?

BARTLET I was.

OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?

BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.

OBAMA What do you mean?

BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.

OBAMA I’m asleep?

BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET I mean tons.

OBAMA I understand.

BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.

OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?

BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.

OBAMA How did you do it?

BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.

OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?

BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”

OBAMA That would make it easier.

BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.

OBAMA What the hell does that mean?

BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.

OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.

BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?

OBAMA Sir —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?

BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?

OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.

BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.

OBAMA What’s the second step?

BARTLET I don’t care.

OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?

BARTLET “Break’s over.”

Riders On The Storm, Featuring Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of The Doors - September 20, 2008 at The House of Blues, Chicago

The show was much better than I anticipated last night. I had low expectations after hearing some samples of the new lead singer (Brett Scallions [ex-Fuel] replaced Ian Astbury [The Cult] in 2007) on YouTube and elsewhere. The crowd was very much into the show and very loud, burying Scallions's vocals a bit. I have some suspicions that his vocals were also buried a bit in the mix according to Manzarek's instructions (he definitely seems to be in charge of the venture) - but of course I can't prove that. The venue's doors opened at 7:30, so people had about an hour and forty minutes of the access to the bar before the show even started at 9:10 or so. That may have helped the general impression as well.

Ray Manzarek played up his Southside Chicago roots throughout the night, and even had members of his elementary school (Everett) in attendance at the side of the stage (they all had earplugs in, and some looked happier than others during the performance - some nodded their heads and tapped their feet, while others obviously yearned for stronger hearing protection, crossed their arms, and stared at the audience).

As for the individual songs - Love Me Two Times and Break On Through were solid, although Scallions especially seemed a little timid - perhaps cautious about the crowd's reaction to him.

When The Music's Over was excellent for the most part, until the mood was broken a bit in the "I hear a very gentle sound..." section with some humor between Ray and Brett, but I suppose that's the moment when Jim Morrison regularly chose to burp into the microphone during Doors shows - so perhaps it was by design.

Peace Frog was a little shaky, but one of my favorite tracks, so I'm glad they played it. Predictably, a big cheer went up for the "Blood on the streets in the town of Chicago" lines.

I thought Waiting For The Sun was quite strong - it sounded really heavy, just like it should. Alabama Song was never one of my favorites, but the converted old German song had a lot of positive feedback from the Manzarek elementary school contingent...

Gloria (G-L-O-R-I-A) was something that a girl in the audience had apparently begged the singer to play while talking with him before the show. The Van Morrison/Them track used to be a regular in The Doors' sets.

Krieger's intro to Spanish Caravan and the song itself were done pretty well, but one of the real highlights was Soft Parade. They even repeated the ending portion ("...calling on the dogs...") after the conclusion of the song, to the delight of those in the audience. This was one of the songs that benefitted from having an actual bass player as opposed to the Fender Rhodes keyboard bass that Ray used to employ (in the classic Doors lineup, he played the Fender with his left hand and a Vox organ with his right).

Touch Me had a kind of odd "Sex Machine" (James Brown) introduction, but it was one of the better tracks on the night once it got underway.

The regular set ended with a pretty decent rendition L.A. Woman and the band left the stage, Mr. Mojo Risin' having risen again. They re-entered to the sounds of rolling thunder, and one guy in front of me was already writing 'Riders on...' when the first tinkling keyboard came in. Manzarek made a big show of being indecisive on whether to wrap things up after that, but of course they stayed. After a Morrison-like "whaddaya guys wanna hear?" - the crowd coalesced behind a chant of "Light - My - Fire, LIGHT - MY - FIRE" and that's exactly what they played. Ray did his customary right-foot-on-the-keyboard move as part of his time in the spotlight and the call-and-response keyboard-guitar battle with Robby. The only weird part came during the long instrumental middle section when bassist Phil Chen took a solo, which seemed out of place. This was very un-Doors-like, due to their never having a bass player on stage.

Manzarek brought his cheering section out into the middle of the stage after Light My Fire. It was kind of cute to see a bunch of old people (who aren't rock stars) waving to the crowd. Not sure if Ray wanted to hang out with them afterward, since many of them looked ready to get to bed.

Ray was in good spirits most of the evening, but he didn't do as much talking as I've seen/heard him do; he was very cognizant of the boisterous crowd and sensed that they just wanted to hear the hits, and he made sure they heard most of them. The setlists for the band change from night to night, but last night's crowd didn't seem to want to hear things like My Eyes Have Seen You, Love Street, The Spy, or other songs like that, so I suppose considering that, the set was fitting.

Robby moved around the stage quite a bit and really soaked up energy from the crowd. The guy's 62 (although he looks about ten years older), but he definitely seemed to be enjoying himself and moved around a lot. He came to our side of the stage (we were in front of Ray on the left side, about 3-4 rows back) quite often. Krieger is still very fluid and fluent on his Gibson SG. The classical/flamenco guitar on an acoustic/electric as an introduction to Spanish Caravan is a nice touch. (see a similar performance here, from Edmonton last year)

It was difficult for me to evaluate Brett Scallions. He has unquestionable charisma and rockstar-type moves, but as I indicated above, his vocals were hard to make out much of the time. I saw him grimace one time when his voice cracked (either WTMO or Peace Frog - can't remember now), looking upset with himself, but other than that he seemed to sing well. His voice is simply different from what I'm used to on Doors tracks (I even got used to Astbury by watching their L.A. Woman DVD from a few years ago, during which the band played that album [minus Crawling King Snake, which can be heard only during the end credits]). From what I could judge, he did fairly well. He's got a tough job, and I'm sure there will be many that are critical of him.

Of course, that assumes that any critics are really evaluating these shows. I would guess that the band has been written off, grouped by most into that cadre of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foghat that might tour extensively behind an established name but have few members from the classic core lineup. I had a great time though, and I think most of the audience did as well. In the end, I guess that's what matters.

As you can see from the picture, there was a bit of a struggle over the setlist after the show. Laura and I were actually competing with some other guy without knowing we were competing against each other. I believe they opened with Love Me Two Times and Break on Through, so the full setlist would be:

Love Me Two Times
Break On Through
When The Music's Over
Peace Frog
Waiting For The Sun
Alabama Song
Gloria
-Robby's Flamenco Introduction-
Spanish Caravan
The Soft Parade
Touch Me
L.A. Woman

-Encore Break-
Riders On The Storm
Light My Fire
*(Roadhouse Blues was not played, despite being on the list)

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of Ray (or anyone other than Robby, for that matter). The ticket clearly stated "No Cameras" but there were times when I believed I was the only one without one. The pictures you see were taken with my phone (a practice I normally loathe, but we were close enough to the stage for these moderately shitty images). The only one I took of Ray was very blurry and soon after that, my battery was basically dead.

Some background on the current lineup of musicians:

I had seen Manzarek and Krieger as part of 'The Doors of the 21st Century' (or D21C, as they were sometimes called) at the third show of their D21C incarnation in Fall of '02 in Barrie, Ontario at Molson Park on September 29, 2002. A few 'deeper cuts' were heard at that show (in contrast to last night's).

Apparently Manzarek was originally keen to tour simply as The Doors, but was sued by John Densmore (drummer for The Doors), as well as the estate of Jim Morrison... thus the first change of name. Back then, they had Stewart Copeland on drums (from The Police), Ian Astbury on vocals (of The Cult), and a bass player named Angelo Barbera, who played with Krieger's band. The lineup has changed quite a bit since that time. Stewart Copeland was out by early 2003 after breaking an arm. He promptly sued the band for breach of contract and the parties eventually reached a settlement. The original suit (brought by Densmore and the Morrison estate) eventually resulted in no damages awarded, but a ruling that Manzarek and Krieger cannot use The Doors logo, name, or images of Jim Morrison to promote their new band.

Changes since that day in 2002:
Ty Dennis (formerly of the Robby Krieger Band) assumed the drum stool immediately from Copeland and has been with the group since early 2003. Angelo Barbera is out, replaced by Phil Chen (who has worked with Rod Stewart and others) in 2005. Ian Astbury left the band in early 2007 to re-join The Cult full-time. Astbury was replaced by Brett Scallions, formerly of the band Fuel. While the British-born Astbury was definitely channeling Morrison at certain times (not to mention growing out his hair and wearing Morrison-esque shades), Scallions is decidedly not much of a Morrison clone. Astbury seemed to be chosen with the specific intent of having stoned audience members squint and see The Lizard King. When Scallions joined the band, he had blond spiky hair. He has since grown it out a bit, but his voice is certainly further away from Jim's voice than Astbury's ever was - which isn't necessarily a bad thing if these guys ever decide on trying to create new music. However, it doesn't seem like that's the objective right now.

"Nothin'" from Bonnaroo (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Featuring T-Bone Burnett)

One of my favorite songs from the Raising Sand album, this Townes Van Zandt track has a different arrangement in concert. Here is the performance I saw at Bonnaroo, June 15, 2008.

Sarah Palin, My Gal (George Saunders at The New Yorker)

I should warn you that if you find humor in the column below, you must obviously be an elitist snob. You must be someone who sips Chablis and eats arugula after buying it at Whole Foods Market and driving home in your Prius.

Or not. But of course that's how many Obama supporters are routinely caricatured on cable news. There are so many ridiculous imagined voting blocs... Reagan Democrats, Lunch-Bucket Democrats, NASCAR dads, soccer moms, hockey moms, Wal*Mart moms, wine-drinkers, beer-drinkers. The discussions frequently tread into the the land of the absurd.

The satire below reflects the Palin interview with Charles (or Charlie, as Palin repeatedly called him during their conversations) Gibson, and her standard stump speech, which has been minimally altered since the Republican convention. Anyway, read and enjoy.

My Gal

by George Saunders September 22, 2008

Explaining how she felt when John McCain offered her the Vice-Presidential spot, my Vice-Presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, said something very profound: “I answered him ‘Yes’ because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink. So I didn’t blink then even when asked to run as his running mate.”

Isn’t that so true? I know that many times, in my life, while living it, someone would come up and, because of I had good readiness, in terms of how I was wired, when they asked that—whatever they asked—I would just not blink, because, knowing that, if I did blink, or even wink, that is weakness, therefore you can’t, you just don’t. You could, but no—you aren’t.

That is just how I am.

Do you know the difference between me and a Hockey Mom who has forgot her lipstick?

A dog collar.

Do you know the difference between me and a dog collar smeared with lipstick?

Not a damn thing.

We are essentially wired identical.

So, when Barack Obama says he will put some lipstick on my pig, I am, like, Are you calling me a pig? If so, thanks! Pigs are the most non-Élite of all barnyard animals. And also, if you put lipstick on my pig, do you know what the difference will be between that pig and a pit bull? I’ll tell you: a pit bull can easily kill a pig. And, as the pig dies, guess what the Hockey Mom is doing? Going to her car, putting on more lipstick, so that, upon returning, finding that pig dead, she once again looks identical to that pit bull, which, staying on mission, the two of them step over the dead pig, looking exactly like twins, except the pit bull is scratching his lower ass with one frantic leg, whereas the Hockey Mom is carrying an extra hockey stick in case Todd breaks his again. But both are going, like, Ha ha, where’s that dumb pig now? Dead, that’s who, and also: not a smidge of lipstick.

A lose-lose for the pig.

There’s a lesson in that, I think.

Who does that pig represent, and that collar, and that Hockey Mom, and that pit bull?

You figure it out. Then give me a call.

Seriously, give me a call.

Now, let us discuss the Élites. There are two kinds of folks: Élites and Regulars. Why people love Sarah Palin is, she is a Regular. That is also why they love me. She did not go to some Élite Ivy League college, which I also did not. Her and me, actually, did not go to the very same Ivy League school. Although she is younger than me, so therefore she didn’t go there slightly earlier than I didn’t go there. But, had I been younger, we possibly could have not graduated in the exact same class. That would have been fun. Sarah Palin is hot. Hot for a politician. Or someone you just see in a store. But, happily, I did not go to college at all, having not finished high school, due to I killed a man. But had I gone to college, trust me, it would not have been some Ivy League Élite-breeding factory but, rather, a community college in danger of losing its accreditation, built right on a fault zone, riddled with asbestos, and also, the crack-addicted professors are all dyslexic.

Sarah Palin was also the mayor of a very small town. To tell the truth, this is where my qualifications begin to outstrip even hers. I have never been the mayor of anything. I can’t even spell right. I had help with the above, but now— Murray, note to Murray: do not correct what follows. Lets shoe the people how I rilly spel Mooray and punshuate so thay can c how reglar I am, and ther 4 fit to leed the nashun, do to: not sum mistir fansy pans.

OK Mooray. Get corecting agin!

Thanks, Murray, you’re fabulous. Very good at what you do. Actually, Murray, come to think of it, you are so good, I suspect you are some kind of Élite. You are fired, Murray, as soon as this article is done. I’m going to hire someone Regular, who is not so excellent, and lives off the salt of the land and the fat of his brow and the sweat of his earth. Although I hope he’s not a screw-up.

I’m finding it hard to concentrate, as my eyes are killing me, due to I have not blinked since I started writing this. And, me being Regular, it takes a long time for me to write something this long.

Where was I? Ah, yes: I hate Élites. Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery, which is sometimes necessary due to all my non-blinking, I always hire some random Regular guy, with shaking hands if possible, who is also a drunk, scared of the sight of blood, and harbors a secret dislike for me.

Now, let’s talk about slogans. Ours is: Country First. Think about it. When you think of what should come first, what does? Us ourselves? No. That would be selfish. Our personal families? Selfish. God? God is good, I love Him, but, as our slogan suggests, no, sorry, God, You are not First. No, you don’t, Lord! How about: the common good of all mankind! Is that First? Don’t make me laugh with your weak blinking! No! Mercy is not First and wisdom is not First and love is super but way near the back, and ditto with patience and discernment and compassion and all that happy crap, they are all back behind Country, in the back of my S.U.V., which— Here is an example! Say I am about to run over a nun or orphan, or an orphan who grew up to become a nun—which I admire that, that is cool, good bootstrapping there, Sister—but then God or whomever goes, “It is My will that you hit that orphaned nun, do not ask Me why, don’t you dare, and I say unto thee, if you do not hit that nun, via a skillful swerve, your Country is going to suffer, and don’t ask Me how, specifically, as I have not decided that yet!” Well, I am going to do my best to get that nun in one felt swope, because, at the Convention, at which my Vice-Presidential candidate kicked mucho butt, what did the signs there say? Did they say “Orphaned Nuns First” and then there is a picture of a sad little nun with a hobo pack?

Not in my purview.

Sarah Palin knows a little something about God’s will, knowing God quite well, from their work together on that natural-gas pipeline, and what God wills is: Country First. And not just any country! There was a slight error on our signage. Other countries, such as that one they have in France, reading our slogan, if they can even read real words, might be all, like, “Hey, bonjour, they are saying we can put our country, France, first!” Non, non, non, France! What we are saying is, you’d better put our country first, you merde-heads, or soon there will be so much lipstick on your pit bulls it will make your berets spin!

In summary: Because my candidate, unlike your winking/blinking Vice-Presidential candidate, who, though, yes, he did run as the running mate when the one asking him to run did ask him to run, which that I admire, one thing he did not do, with his bare hands or otherwise, is, did he ever kill a moose? No, but ours did. And I would. Please bring a moose to me, over by me, and down that moose will go, and, if I had a kid, I would take a picture of me showing my kid that dead moose, going, like, Uh, sweetie, no, he is not resting, he is dead, due to I shot him, and now I am going to eat him, and so are you, oh yes you are, which is responsible, as God put this moose here for us to shoot and eat and take a photo of, although I did not, at that time, know why God did, but in years to come, God’s will was revealed, which is: Hey, that is a cool photo for hunters about to vote to see, plus what an honor for that moose, to be on the Internet.

How does the moose feel about it? Who knows? Probably not great. But do you know what the difference is between a dead moose with lipstick on and a dead moose without lipstick?

Lipstick.

Think about it.

Moose are, truth be told, Élites. They are big and fast and sort of rule the forest. Sarah took that one down a notch. Who’s Élite now, Bullwinkle?

Not Sarah.

She’s just Regular as heck.

Closer Look at McCain's Health Care Plan

McCain’s Radical Agenda
By BOB HERBERT

Talk about a shock to the system. Has anyone bothered to notice the radical changes that John McCain and Sarah Palin are planning for the nation’s health insurance system?

These are changes that will set in motion nothing less than the dismantling of the employer-based coverage that protects most American families.

A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.

There is nothing secret about Senator McCain’s far-reaching proposals, but they haven’t gotten much attention because the chatter in this campaign has mostly been about nonsense — lipstick, celebrities and “Drill, baby, drill!”

For starters, the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.

“It means your employer is going to have to make an estimate on how much the employer is paying for health insurance on your behalf, and you are going to have to pay taxes on that money,” said Sherry Glied, an economist who chairs the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Ms. Glied is one of the four scholars who have just completed an independent joint study of the plan. Their findings are being published on the Web site of the policy journal, Health Affairs.

According to the study: “The McCain plan will force millions of Americans into the weakest segment of the private insurance system — the nongroup market — where cost-sharing is high, covered services are limited and people will lose access to benefits they have now.”

The net effect of the plan, the study said, “almost certainly will be to increase family costs for medical care.”

Under the McCain plan (now the McCain-Palin plan) employees who continue to receive employer-paid health benefits would look at their pay stubs each week or each month and find that additional money had been withheld to cover the taxes on the value of their benefits.

While there might be less money in the paycheck, that would not be anything to worry about, according to Senator McCain. That’s because the government would be offering all taxpayers a refundable tax credit — $2,500 for a single worker and $5,000 per family — to be used “to help pay for your health care.”

You may think this is a good move or a bad one — but it’s a monumental change in the way health coverage would be provided to scores of millions of Americans. Why not more attention?

The whole idea of the McCain plan is to get families out of employer-paid health coverage and into the health insurance marketplace, where naked competition is supposed to take care of all ills. (We’re seeing in the Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch fiascos just how well the unfettered marketplace has been working.)

Taxing employer-paid health benefits is the first step in this transition, the equivalent of injecting poison into the system. It’s the beginning of the end.

When younger, healthier workers start seeing additional taxes taken out of their paychecks, some (perhaps many) will opt out of the employer-based plans — either to buy cheaper insurance on their own or to go without coverage.

That will leave employers with a pool of older, less healthy workers to cover. That coverage will necessarily be more expensive, which will encourage more and more employers to give up on the idea of providing coverage at all.

The upshot is that many more Americans — millions more — will find themselves on their own in the bewildering and often treacherous health insurance marketplace. As Senator McCain has said: “I believe the key to real reform is to restore control over our health care system to the patients themselves.”

Yet another radical element of McCain’s plan is his proposal to undermine state health insurance regulations by allowing consumers to buy insurance from sellers anywhere in the country. So a requirement in one state that insurers cover, for example, vaccinations, or annual physicals, or breast examinations, would essentially be meaningless.

In a refrain we’ve heard many times in recent years, Mr. McCain said he is committed to ridding the market of these “needless and costly” insurance regulations.

This entire McCain health insurance transformation is right out of the right-wing Republicans’ ideological playbook: fewer regulations; let the market decide; and send unsophisticated consumers into the crucible alone.

You would think that with some of the most venerable houses on Wall Street crumbling like sand castles right before our eyes, we’d be a little wary about spreading this toxic formula even further into the health care system.

But we’re not even paying much attention.

Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd at Live8 in 2005)

Pink Floyd coming together one last time in 2005 for Live8 is even more important now in light of Rick Wright's passing.

Wearing The Inside Out (Gilmour & Wright 2006)

From 1994's Division Bell

Richard Wright with David Gilmour - Breakthrough (2002)

Astronomy Domine - Pink Floyd on BBC TV, 1967

Posting a couple videos in honor of Rick Wright's passing...

Poor Hans Keller doesn't understand 'The Pink Floyd' - "why does it all have to be so terribly loud." I love how he introduces the group; he says that he doesn't want to prejudice his viewers one way or the other, and then goes on to thrash them. It's quite amusing.

Rick Wright, Founding Member of Pink Floyd, has Gone on to The Great Gig in the Sky

By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; B05

Rick Wright, 65, who helped start the British rock band Pink Floyd and whose keyboard skills brought a haunting quality to its most successful albums, "The Dark Side of the Moon," "Wish You Were Here" and "The Wall," died of cancer Sept. 15 at his home in London.

Starting in the late 1960s, Pink Floyd challenged the Rolling Stones and the Beatles as dynamic English musical exports. Decades later, Pink Floyd's citation for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said the band "carried rock and roll into a dimension that was more cerebral and conceptual than what preceded it."

Brooding, drug-fueled lyrics, "space-rock" sound effects and mesmerizing visual flourishes in concert turned Pink Floyd into a cult favorite during a peak counterculture moment. Filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni ("Zabriskie Point," 1970) hired the band to create a psychedelic mood that simulated the mind-altering effects of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs.

Subsequent albums exploring bleak messages about societal alienation -- as well as aging, money and time -- catapulted the band to the front rank of commercial success while showing that rock music could address serious adult themes. "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973) was on Billboard magazine's list of top long-playing releases for more than 500 weeks.

Mr. Wright shared writing credit on songs including "Time" and "Us and Them" for "The Dark Side of the Moon." He also helped compose "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" for the album "Wish You Were Here" (1975), a work meant to pay tribute to former bandmate Syd Barrett.

Singer-guitarist Barrett, whose already fragile mental health was devastated by drug use, left the group in the late 1960s and was replaced by David Gilmour. Besides Mr. Wright and Gilmour, Pink Floyd's principal lineup included songwriter Roger Waters on bass and Nick Mason on drums.

With the group's popularity surging by the late 1970s, Mr. Wright attempted a solo album, "Wet Dream" (1978), that leaned heavily on Pink Floyd's slow, meditative trademark sound.

The recording sold poorly, and he was back the next year to make "The Wall." He formally left the band during production, citing artistic tensions with Waters, but in an unusual agreement came back to Pink Floyd as a contract musician.

"Roger's ego was getting bigger and bigger," he told the Boston Globe in 1997. "He said he wanted me out because I hadn't produced any material: 'If he doesn't leave, I'm going to withdraw "The Wall" and make it a solo project.' Dave and Nick Mason, the drummer, were very scared, too. It was a nightmare for all us."

Waters eventually went in his own direction and sued unsuccessfully when the others formed a post-Waters version of the rock band under the same name in the late 1980s.

Mr. Wright continued an affiliation with Pink Floyd that lasted on and off for several more years and worked on its releases "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" (1987), and "The Division Bell" (1994).

Despite the acrimony between Waters and the others, all four Pink Floyd bandmates reunited in July 2005 to perform at the Live 8 benefit concert in London's Hyde Park.

The band was inducted later that year into the UK Music Hall of Fame, but Mr. Wright was unable to attend because of cataract surgery. Waters, citing rehearsals for his opera in Rome, also was absent, but he expressed his goodwill with a joke.

"Rick actually hasn't had an eye operation," he told the audience. "He and I have eloped to Rome and we're living happily in a small apartment off the Via Veneto."

Richard George Wright, whose father was a biochemist, was born July 28, 1943, in London. A self-taught musician, he was studying at Regent Street Polytechnic when he joined a rock band that included fellow architecture students Mason and Waters.

Barrett, a childhood friend of Waters, joined the group and wrote many of the group's early songs, inspired mostly by prodigious drug use and an astronomical atlas he carried everywhere. Barrett also renamed the band, formerly the Screaming Abdabs, after two obscure American bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd "Dipper Boy" Council. He died in 2006.

In the mid-1980s, Mr. Wright formed a short-lived duo called Zee with Dave Harris of the rock band Fashion, but largely worked as a solo artist. In 1996, he completed the meditative album "Broken China," which he said was inspired by his third wife's battle with clinical depression. Sinéad O'Connor sang two of the album's songs, "Reaching for the Rail" and "Breakthrough."

His marriages to Juliette Gale and Franka Wright ended in divorce.

Survivors include his third wife, Millie Hobbs Wright; two children from his first marriage; and a son from his third marriage.

Sarah Palin: "Maverick"? No, She's a Liar

Well, it seems that actual facts, presented in writing, are not enough to dissuade people from continuing to make false claims. Despite the fact that Palin was a supporter of the "Bridge to Nowhere" project in Alaska, and the fact that Palin hired lobbyists to secure just under $27 million in earmarks for her small town of Wasilla while she was a mayor, both McCain and Palin have been touting her "maverick" and "reformer" credentials (and specifically misrepresenting her stand on the bridge) in campaign advertisements and at various campaign events.

So, perhaps now that video is available to refute the false claims the Republicans are making, maybe now we'll get a little pushback. I admit, the laughter at the end is a bit much. Let's focus on what McCain and Palin are actually saying.

Maybe you heard McCain has claiming that Palin sold the state's private plane on eBay, for a profit. Palin herself was careful in her speech at the RNC to say that she "put it on eBay" and did not mention selling it. The reason for such reticence? Well, she listed the plane on eBay three times and failed to sell it. The aircraft was finally sold at a loss.

Maybe you heard McCain claim that Palin has foreign policy experience because Alaska is next to Russia (across the Bering Strait) and she has "commanded the Alaskan National Guard." Well, the thing is - Sarah Palin never issued any orders to the National Guard in her state.

I won't use this post to address Palin's belief in creationism or to talk about her church's stance on praying away homosexuality, but you may do your own research.

MSNBC Succumbs to Bullying from McCain Campaign

This is a shame, because Laura and I both tend to enjoy watching MSNBC over CNN (and obviously over FauxNewsChannel). Funny that they try to compare Olbermann and O'Reilly as anchors though. As though it makes much of a difference who sits in Fox's anchor chair. I suppose Brit Hume is supposed to be impartial? Laughable.

September 8, 2008

MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat

By BRIAN STELTER

MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.

That experiment appears to be over.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.

“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.

Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.

The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately.

“In a rapidly changing media environment, this is the great philosophical debate,” Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, said in a telephone interview Saturday. Fighting the ratings game, he added, “the bottom line is that we’re experiencing incredible success.”

But as the past two weeks have shown, that success has a downside. When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly chanted “NBC.”

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

The employee, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not permit it people to speak to the media without authorization. (The New York Times and NBC News have a content-sharing arrangement exclusively for political coverage.)

Mr. Olbermann, a 49-year-old former sportscaster, has become the face of the more aggressive MSNBC, and the lightning rod for much of the criticism. His program “Countdown,” now a liberal institution, was created by Mr. Olbermann in 2003 but it found its voice in his gnawing dissent regarding the Bush administration, often in the form of “special comment” segments.

As Mr. Olbermann raised his voice, his ratings rose as well, and he now reaches more than one million viewers a night, a higher television rating than any other show in the troubled 12-year history of the network. As a result, his identity largely defines MSNBC. “They have banked the entirety of the network on Keith Olbermann,” one employee said.

In January, Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews, the host of “Hardball,” began co-anchoring primary night coverage, drawing an audience that enjoyed the pair’s “SportsCenter”-style show. While some critics argued that the assignment was akin to having the Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly anchor on election night — something that has never happened — MSNBC insisted that Mr. Olbermann knew the difference between news and commentary.

But in the past two weeks, that line has been blurred. On the final night of the Republican convention, after MSNBC televised the party’s video “tribute to the victims of 9/11,” including graphic footage of the World Trade Center attacks, Mr. Olbermann abruptly took off his journalistic hat.

“I’m sorry, it’s necessary to say this,” he began. After saying that the video had exploited the memories of the dead, he directly apologized to viewers who were offended. Then, sounding like a network executive, he said it was “probably not appropriate to be shown.”

In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Olbermann said that moment — and the perception that he is “not utterly neutral” — restarted months-old conversations about his role on political nights.

“I found it ironic and instructive that I could have easily said exactly what I did say, exactly when I did say it, if I had been wearing a different hat, and nobody would have taken any issue,” he said.

“Countdown” will still be shown before the three fall debates and a second edition will be shown sometime afterwards, following the program anchored by Mr. Gregory.

The change casts new doubt on what some staff members believe is an effective programming strategy: prime-time talk of a liberal sort. A like-minded talk show will now follow “Countdown” at 9 p.m.: “The Rachel Maddow Show,” hosted by the liberal radio host, begins Monday.

Mr. Griffin, MSNBC’s president, denies that it has an ideology. “I think ideology means we think one way, and we don’t,” he said. Rather than label MSNBC’s prime time as left-leaning, he says it has passion and point of view.

But MSNBC is the cable arm of NBC News, the dispassionate news division of NBC Universal. MSNBC, “Today” and “NBC Nightly News” share some staff members, workspace and content. And some critics are claiming they also share a political affiliation.

The McCain campaign has filed letters of complaint to the news division about its coverage and openly tied MSNBC to it. Tension between the network and the campaign hit an apex the day Mr. McCain announced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. MSNBC had reported Friday morning that Ms. Palin’s plane was enroute to the announcement and she was likely the pick. But McCain campaign officials warned the network off, with one official going so far as to say that all of the candidates on the short list were on their way — which MSNBC then reported.

“The fact that it was reported in real time was very embarrassing,” said a senior MSNBC official. “We were told, ‘No, it’s not Sarah Palin and you don’t know who it is.’ ”

Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams, the past and present anchors of “NBC Nightly News,” have told friends and colleagues that they are finding it tougher and tougher to defend the cable arm of the news division, even while they anchored daytime hours of convention coverage on MSNBC and contributed commentary each evening.

Mr. Williams did not respond to a request for comment and Mr. Brokaw declined to comment. At a panel discussion in Denver, Mr. Brokaw acknowledged that Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews had “gone too far” at times, but emphasized they were “not the only voices” on MSNBC, according to The Washington Post.

Al Hunt, the executive Washington bureau chief of Bloomberg News, said that the entire news division was being singled out by Republicans because of the work of partisans like Mr. Olbermann. “To go and tar the whole news network and Brokaw and Mitchell is grossly unfair,” he said, referring to the NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

Some tensions have spilled out on-screen. On the first night in Denver, as the fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough talked about the resurgence of the McCain campaign, Mr. Olbermann dismissed it by saying: “Jesus, Joe, why don’t you get a shovel?”

The following night, Mr. Olbermann and his co-anchor for convention coverage, Mr. Matthews, had their own squabble after Mr. Olbermann observed that Mr. Matthews had talked too long.

Some staff members said the tension led to the network’s decision to keep Mr. Olbermann in New York for the Republican convention, after he ran the desk in Denver during the Democratic convention. MSNBC said that he stayed in New York to anchor coverage of Hurricane Gustav. But some workers say there were other reasons — namely, that Mr. Olbermann was concerned about his safety in St. Paul, given the loud crowds at MSNBC’s set in Denver.

NBC Universal executives are also known to be concerned about the perception that MSNBC’s partisan tilt in prime time is bleeding into the rest of the programming day. On a recent Friday afternoon, a graphic labeled “Breaking News” asked: “How many houses does Palin add to the Republican ticket?” Mr. Griffin called the graphic “an embarrassment.”

According to three staff members, Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, and Steve Capus, president of NBC News, considered flying to the Republican convention in Minnesota last week to address the lingering tensions.

Up to now, the company’s public support for MSNBC’s strategy has been enthusiastic. At an anniversary party for Mr. Olbermann in April, Mr. Zucker called “Countdown” “one of the signature brands of the entire company.”

Just last year, Mr. Olbermann signed a four-year, $4-million-a-year contract with MSNBC. NBC is close to supplementing that contract with Mr. Olbermann, extending his deal through 2013 — and ensuring that he will be on MSNBC through the next election.

Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting for this article.

Thompson & Liebermann = Foghorn Leghorn & Droopy Dog

Sarah Palin!

Hypocrisy?

Rove, O'Reilly, Morris weigh in...

Brilliant stuff from The Daily Show.

Crowd Shot from Led Zeppelin 2007-12-10 at The O2

Finally found a picture with Laura and I in it, and it's on Ross Halfin's site. Ross is a professional photographer of great renown, and also seems to be Jimmy Page's best friend (they go everywhere together). His site can be found here.

In the image, my head is somewhat visible behind the guy with huge mutton chops holding the Thank You sign, and Laura is to the right. Although it looks like that could be her arm raised, it belongs to a guy behind her. Kind of cool. I sent it to Laura and of course am ribbed immediately... she asks, "does this validate your fandom, honey??" Ah, well...

CNN Larry King - Democratic Response?

Just had to post about this, since I did a quick Google search and failed to find anything. Larry King had a panel chock full of Republicans on every evening after the Democratic National Convention. True, some were billed as Republicans who had not officially endorsed McCain as of yet.

Quite the contrast tonight when the situation was reversed; after tonight's session of the Republican National Convention, with the on-screen tagline of "Dems' Take on GOP Convention," Larry had a full segment with a panel consisting of Jesse Ventura, DL Hughley, and Dee Dee Myers. Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota under the banner of the 'Reform Party' (Ventura was the keynote speaker at today's Ron Paul 'counter-convention' in MN, and indicated that he could not support Obama or any Democrat because they would raise his taxes). Hughley is an actor/comedian and self-professed cynic that admitted he was not impressed with either party or candidate (he said that since the choice was between one guy who is half-black and another who is half-dead, he'll be voting for Obama). Myers was press secretary for Clinton, and the only actual 'Democrat' on the panel.

This didn't stop CNN from labeling the whole segment "Dems' Take on GOP Convention" though. Why?

Sunday Night at The Wine Cellar

Time with Abigail

This is Aaron & Nikki's daughter, Abigail. She is four months old.

Post-Reception

Ben and Felicia changed in our hotel room after the reception, and then walked over to the Cherry Lounge.

Again with the red-eye...

Winding Down at Moon Brook

Had to do a lot of red-eye reduction on many of these photos. The one below is especially noticeable.

Turck Wedding Reception at Moon Brook

Merriment

Not sure who this guy is, but he really got into it when the DJ played "I'm Too Sexy..."

NT & LC

Turck's Wedding!

McCain & Bush - Wonderful World

Bill Hicks - 'Lost Hour'

Bill Hicks - Lost Hour
Uploaded by poomanjoe

Bill: "...a weekly half-hour show I will host entitled 'Let's Hunt and Kill Billy Ray Cyrus'..."

Swift Boat Author is Back with More Lies for 2008

Here

From Crooks and Liars:

"John Kerry swiftboater Jerome Corsi is at it again. After writing a book back in 2004 which sought to sink John Kerry’s Presidential hopes by calling into question his heroic Vietnam service, Corsi has now set hs sights on Barack Obama. With all the secret-Muslim/unpatriotic/radical-black-liberation-theologist smears already circulating, you might think his job would be easier this time around."

The Obama campaign has put out a 40-page rebuttal to Corsi's book which refutes all of the more ridiculous lies, distortions, and various falsehoods. It can be found here. Unfortunately it looks like they rushed this just a bit... I was skimming it last night and found a few typos; the types of things that spell-check doesn't pick up. However, the point is that they have facts to back up everything that they challenge in Corsi's piece of trash.

Obama Tax Plan

The Obama Tax Plan

By JASON FURMAN and AUSTAN GOOLSBEE
August 14, 2008; Page A13

Even as Barack Obama proposes fiscally responsible tax reform to strengthen our economy and restore the balance that has been lost in recent years, we hear the familiar protests and distortions from the guardians of the broken status quo.

Many of these very same critics made many of these same overheated predictions in previous elections. They said President Clinton's 1993 deficit-reduction plan would wreck the economy. Eight years and 23 million new jobs later, the economy proved them wrong. Now they are making the same claims about Sen. Obama's tax plan, which has even lower taxes than prevailed in the 1990s -- including lower taxes on middle-class families, lower taxes for capital gains, and lower taxes for dividends.

Overall, Sen. Obama's middle-class tax cuts are larger than his partial rollbacks for families earning over $250,000, making the proposal as a whole a net tax cut and reducing revenues to less than 18.2% of GDP -- the level of taxes that prevailed under President Reagan.

Both candidates for president have proposed tax plans. But they are starkly different in their approaches and their economic impact. Sen. Obama is focused on cutting taxes for middle-class families and small businesses, and investing in key areas like health, innovation and education. He would do this while cutting unnecessary spending, paying for his proposals and bringing down the budget deficit.

In contrast, John McCain offers what would essentially be a third Bush term, with his economic speeches outlining $3.4 trillion of tax cuts over 10 years beyond what President Bush has already proposed and geared even more to high-income earners. The McCain plan would lead to deficits the likes of which we have never seen in this country. It would take money from the middle class and from future generations so that the wealthy can live better today.

Sen. Obama believes a focus on the middle class is appropriate in the wake of the first economic expansion on record where the typical family's income fell by almost $1,000. The Obama plan would cut taxes for 95% of workers and their families with a tax cut of $500 for workers or $1,000 for working couples. In addition, Sen. Obama is proposing tax cuts for low- and middle-income seniors, homeowners, the uninsured, and families sending a child to college or looking to save and accumulate wealth.

The Obama plan would dramatically simplify taxes by consolidating existing tax credits, eliminating the need for millions of senior citizens to file tax forms, and enabling as many as 40 million middle-class filers to do their own taxes in less than five minutes and not have to hire an accountant.

Sen. Obama also recognizes that small businesses are the engine of job growth in the economy. That is why he is proposing additional tax cuts, including a tax credit for small businesses that provide health care, and the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups. The vast majority of small businesses would face lower taxes under the Obama plan than under the McCain plan. In addition, Sen. Obama supports reforming corporate taxes in a manner that would help create jobs in America and simplify the tax code by eliminating distortions and special preferences.

Sen. Obama believes that responsible candidates must put forward specific ideas of how they would pay for their proposals. That is why he would repeal a portion of the tax cuts passed in the last eight years for families making over $250,000. But to be clear: He would leave their tax rates at or below where they were in the 1990s.

- The top two income-tax brackets would return to their 1990s levels of 36% and 39.6% (including the exemption and deduction phase-outs). All other brackets would remain as they are today.

- The top capital-gains rate for families making more than $250,000 would return to 20% -- the lowest rate that existed in the 1990s and the rate President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut. A 20% rate is almost a third lower than the rate President Reagan set in 1986.

- The tax rate on dividends would also be 20% for families making more than $250,000, rather than returning to the ordinary income rate. This rate would be 39% lower than the rate President Bush proposed in his 2001 tax cut and would be lower than all but five of the last 92 years we have been taxing dividends.

- The estate tax would be effectively repealed for 99.7% of estates, and retained at a 45% rate for estates valued at over $7 million per couple. This would cut the number of estates covered by the tax by 84% relative to 2000.

Overall, in an Obama administration, the top 1% of households -- people with an average income of $1.6 million per year -- would see their average federal income and payroll tax rate increase from 21% today to 24%, less than the 25% these households would have paid under the tax laws of the late 1990s.

Sen. Obama believes that one of the principal problems facing the economy today is the lack of discretionary income for middle-class wage earners. That's why his plan would not raise any taxes on couples making less than $250,000 a year, nor on any single person with income under $200,000 -- not income taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend or payroll taxes.

In contrast, Sen. McCain's tax plan largely leaves the middle class behind. His one and only middle-class tax cut -- a slow phase-in of a bigger dependent exemption -- would provide no benefit whatsoever to 101 million families who do not have children or other dependents, or who have a low income.

But Sen. McCain's plan does include one new proposal that would result in higher taxes on the middle class. As even Sen. McCain's advisers have acknowledged, his health-care plan would impose a $3.6 trillion tax increase over 10 years on workers. Sen. McCain's plan will count the health care you get from your employer as if it were taxable cash income. Even after accounting for Sen. McCain's proposed health-care tax credits, this plan would eventually leave tens of millions of middle-class families paying higher taxes. In addition, as the Congressional Budget Office has shown, this kind of plan would push people into higher tax brackets and increase the taxes people pay as their compensation rises, raising marginal tax rates by even more than if we let the entire Bush tax-cut plan expire tomorrow.

The McCain plan represents Bush economics on steroids. It has $3.4 trillion more in tax cuts than President Bush is proposing, largely directed at corporations and the most affluent. Sen. McCain would implement these cuts without proposing any meaningful steps to simplify taxes or eliminate distortions and loopholes. In addition, Sen. McCain has floated over $1 trillion in new spending increases but barely any specific spending cuts.

As previously mentioned, the Obama plan is a net tax cut -- his middle-class tax cuts are larger than the rollbacks he has proposed for families making over $250,000. Sen. Obama would pay for this tax cut by cutting spending -- including responsibly ending the war in Iraq, reducing excessive payments to private plans in Medicare, limiting payments for high-income farmers, reducing subsidies for banks that make student loans, reforming earmarks, ending no-bid contracts, and eliminating other wasteful and unnecessary programs.

While Sen. Obama would shrink the deficit from its current record levels, he recognizes that it is even more important to confront our long-term fiscal challenges, including the growth of health costs in the public and private sector. He also believes it is critical to work with members of Congress from both parties to strengthen Social Security while protecting middle-class families from tax increases or benefit cuts. He has done what few presidential candidates have been willing to do by making a politically risky proposal to strengthen solvency by asking those making over $250,000 to contribute a bit more to Social Security to keep it sound.

Sen. Obama does not support uncapping the full payroll tax of 12.4% rate. Instead, he is considering plans that would ask those making over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2% to 4% more in total (combined employer and employee). This change to Social Security would start a decade or more from now and is similar to the rate increases floated by Sen. McCain's close adviser Lindsey Graham, and that Sen. McCain has previously said he "could" support.

In contrast, Sen. McCain has put forward the most fiscally reckless presidential platform in modern memory. The likely results of his Bush-plus policies are clear. As Berkeley economist Brad Delong has estimated, the McCain plan, as compared to the Obama plan, would lower annual incomes by $300 billion or more in real terms by 2017, costing the typical worker $1,800 or more due to the effect of large deficits on national savings and thus capital formation. Sen. McCain's neglect of critical public investments would further impede economic growth for decades to come.

Do not take the critics' word for it. Go look at the plans for yourself at www.barackobama.com/taxes¹. Get the facts and you will see the real priorities at stake in this election. America cannot afford another eight years like these.

Messrs. Furman and Goolsbee are, respectively, economic policy director and senior economic adviser at Obama for America.

Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins - Rock and Roll (Pro-shot Footage)

Professionally-shot footage of Page and Jonesy joining the Foos at Wembley Stadium, London, June 7, 2008. Taylor takes vocals here while Grohl moves to the drums. They switched for the next song, Ramble On. The performances will be released on the Foo Fighters Wembley Live DVD, coming out August 26th. Now if only the Zeppelin show at the O2 would be released...

Olympic News: Jimmy Page to Perform with Leona Lewis at Closing Ceremony

David Beckham and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page to close Beijing Olympics

By Laurie Hanna 14/08/2008

David Beckham will star at the Olympics closing ceremony in Beijing as the handover to London 2012 gets under way.

The spectacular event on August 24 will also see Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page performing a duet with pop star Leona Lewis.

And an incredible finale will feature Becks, 33, arriving on top of one of London's iconic red double-decker buses - before he kicks a football into the crowd to celebrate.

Hundreds of dancers from the UK will then perform ballet and break-dancing routines as the countdown to 2012 begins.

An insider said: "It is set to be one of the most mind-blowing spectacles ever. David was elated to be asked to take part, as was everyone who has been invited.

"Having a rock god like Jimmy Page and a singer like Leona Lewis performing together for the first time will certainly be something to remember.

"The amount of planning is staggering. It will be truly momentous - and a fitting send-off as London takes up the 2012 challenge."

At the end of each Olympics, the next host puts on an eight-minute show. Organisers had already confirmed that dancers from urban group ZooNation will be joined by performers from the Royal Ballet and CandoCo, a disabled dance company.

The cost for the segment, and a similar one held at the end of the Paralympic Games, will be up to £2million.

The source added: "The performers are the best of British and that is what 2012 will be all about."

McCain: Dazed & Confused

Know-Nothing Politics

August 8, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Know-Nothing Politics

By PAUL KRUGMAN

So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.

What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.

Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French.

Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”

It wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina — when the heckuva job done by the man of whom Ms. Noonan said, “if there’s a fire on the block, he’ll run out and help” revealed the true costs of obliviousness — that the cult began to fade.

What’s more, the politics of stupidity didn’t just appeal to the poorly informed. Bear in mind that members of the political and media elites were more pro-war than the public at large in the fall of 2002, even though the flimsiness of the case for invading Iraq should have been even more obvious to those paying close attention to the issue than it was to the average voter.

Why were the elite so hawkish? Well, I heard a number of people express privately the argument that some influential commentators made publicly — that the war was a good idea, not because Iraq posed a real threat, but because beating up someone in the Middle East, never mind who, would show Muslims that we mean business. In other words, even alleged wise men bought into the idea of macho posturing as policy.

All this is in the past. But the state of the energy debate shows that Republicans, despite Mr. Bush’s plunge into record unpopularity and their defeat in 2006, still think that know-nothing politics works. And they may be right.

Sad to say, the current drill-and-burn campaign is getting some political traction. According to one recent poll, 69 percent of Americans now favor expanded offshore drilling — and 51 percent of them believe that removing restrictions on drilling would reduce gas prices within a year.

The headway Republicans are making on this issue won’t prevent Democrats from expanding their majority in Congress, but it might limit their gains — and could conceivably swing the presidential election, where the polls show a much closer race.

In any case, remember this the next time someone calls for an end to partisanship, for working together to solve the country’s problems. It’s not going to happen — not as long as one of America’s two great parties believes that when it comes to politics, stupidity is the best policy.