If you're online today and looking for a place to chat, here you go.

And don't believe the rumors I'm seeing on other threads about the Denver Convention being canceled or scaled back to a single day due to lack of funds. The only thing canceled was the media walk-through for this coming week -- and the Sunday night parties are being combined into a single event.

For the latest, check the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post. The fundraising is being done by the Denver Host Committee, not the DNC or the DNCC. What's the difference?

The Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee is a non-profit organization charged with generating the funding to pay for the 2008 Democratic Convention; organizing a volunteer base; and providing hospitality to delegates and credentialed media. Our mission is to showcase Denver and the Rocky Mountain West, to include all aspects of the community and culture of the entire region, and to emphasize environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable development.

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Tim Russert's passing reminds me that this Obama-McCain matchup was the election the Media dreamed of. This was the one that was going to change politics.

Well, anyone watching the first week of the campaign since the departure of Hillary Clinton must have noticed that in fact what we have gotten is more of the same. John Mercurio writes:

[L]isten closely to the debate this week over the campaign's No. 1 issue, and you'll hear how comfortably Obama and McCain conform to their parties' tried-and-true orthodoxies, the ones that repeatedly set the stage for a sharply divided -- and static -- electoral map.

As a Democrat, I am glad to see the Obama team understands that Obama can not change politics, that he must engage in it. A sharply partisan campaign is very much to Obama's favor and the first rule in politics is you win before you can transform. Others have noticed the pedestrian nature of the campaign:

9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski has declared a mistrial and recused himself from presiding over an obscenity trial following revelations this week that he had s!xually expl!cit material on his own personal website. (TChris' background is here.)

"In light of the public controversy surrounding my involvement in this case, I have concluded that there is a manifest necessity to declare a mistrial," said Alex Kozinski, chief judge for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "I will recuse myself from further participation in the case and will ask the chief judge of the district court to reassign it to another judge."

Barack Obama dissed the "New Rochelle train" and commuting to work.

David Mendell's Obama: From Promise to Power, p. 148-149:

"[Obama] always talked about the New Rochelle train, the trains that took commuters to and from New York City, and he didn't want to be on one of those trains every day," said Jerry Kellman, the community organizer who enticed Obama to Chicago from his Manhattan office job. "The image of a life, not a dynamic life, of going through the motions... that was scary to him."

....There's nothing wrong with saying, "that life, taking the New Rochelle train, just isn't for me."

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According to Tim Russert's son Luke, his dad's favorite music was what Russert called "geezer rock" and included “Springsteen, Fogerty, Van Morrison and James Taylor.”

Watching the media coverage tonight, you can't help but feel touched by how much his colleagues respected him and will miss him. This is for them.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Susan Atkins has spent 37 years in prison for her role in the horrific murders of Sharon Tate and Gary Hinman. I've written a few times about why she should be paroled (same for Leslie Van Houton.)

Atkins is dying of brain cancer and had a leg amputated. With less than six months to live, she has received initial approval for compassionate release so she can die outside of prison.

Even former Manson prosecutor Vicent Bugliosi does not object:

"She has paid substantially, though not completely, for her horrendous crimes. Paying completely would mean imposing the death penalty," Bugliosi said. "But given that she has six months to live, and the loss of her leg, I don't have an objection to her being released."

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RIP, Tim Russert.

Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after a sudden heart attack at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.

Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said.

Those who follow crime in the news may be interested in the verdict that has finally been rendered in the drawn-out and highly publicized prosecution of R. Kelly:

A jury acquitted R. Kelly on all counts of child pornography after less than a day of deliberations Friday, ending an ordeal for the R&B superstar that began when he was charged six years ago.

Calling all health insurance and math whizzes: As long as I'm on economics today and I don't know much about health insurance, taxes or math, I'm looking for opinions.

Every year my insurance premium rises even though I'm healthy, have no medical conditions and barely use it. This month I was told my premiums are going up $75 a month to almost $600 a month even though my age bracket is the same and I'm healthy. My choices are to downgrade my plan and pay even more of a copay for doctors and prescriptions or go with an HSA (health savings account) with a "catastrophic" insurance plan. [More...]

This sad story is just one of thousands that resulted from the war in Iraq.

Sen. Barack Obama says if elected, he will require people who make over $250k a year to pay FICA (social security) taxes on the amount in excess of $250k. (I think he means he will ask Congress to pass such a law.)

Under Obama's plan, like now, you would pay taxes on amounts up to the cap of $102k. Under his plan, you wouldn't pay taxes on amounts between $102k and $250k. But over $250k, and you pay.

The 6.2 percent payroll tax is now applied to all income up to $102,000 a year, which covers the entire amount for most Americans. Under Obama's plan, the tax would not apply to incomes between that amount and $250,000. But all annual income above the quarter-million-dollar amount would be taxed under his plan.

Obama has talked before of establishing such a "doughnut hole" in the amount of income subject to the Social Security tax. Friday marked the first time he named a restart level: $250,000 and above.

Here's an ambiguity, at least in the news article. Compare [More...]: