The 9/11 Concert for New York City was one of the best concerts ever. It also raised over $35 million. VH-1 will be replaying it on 9/11 from 4 to 10 pm and streaming it on the internet at the same time.

Here's a great 8 minute performance of "Little Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp, joined by Kid Rock around the 6 minute mark. Also don't miss the incredible violinist, particularly around the 5 minute mark. Really stellar.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The intelligence bulletin sent out today about the NY-Washington terror threat didn't reveal much: A possible car bomb at a bridge or tunnel, related to 9/11.

Listening to CNN on Sirius on the way home from work, here's what I learned from Homeland Security Committee Chair Joe Lieberman: It started with a wiretap involving someone whose information had previously proved reliable. But this tip from the wire, while it involved that person, didn't come from that person's conversation. In other words, it wasn't something he said on a wire, it may have been something someone else said who was picked up on his wire.

But another "source" tells Fox News, it was the reliable source who provided the information. "The person who provided the intelligence is known to the U.S. intelligence community and "has a track record," one source said." So Lieberman says they got it through him and another source says he provided it directly. Which is it? If it's the first, why is it credible? [More...]

Obama will be the proverbial Rolling Stone in 2012 if he keeps on his current path. Seniors will throw him under the bus.

How does it feel?
To be on your own?
With no direction home?
...Like a rolling stone ?

Here's another report finding that raising Medicare's eligibility age won't money or cut health care costs. It will just shift the cost to seniors, states and employers. The full report is here.

Raising Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67, which the new Joint Select Committee will likely consider this fall as a deficit-reduction measure, would not only fail to constrain health care costs across the economy; it would increase them.

While this proposal would save the federal government money, it would do so by shifting costs to most of the 65- and 66-year-olds who would lose Medicare coverage, to employers that provide health coverage for their retirees, to Medicare beneficiaries, to younger people who buy insurance through the new health insurance exchanges, and to states.

The report is based on the Kaiser Report I've cited previously: [More....]

Here's President Obama just after he was elected in 2009, promising "reform" of both Medicare and Social Security.

President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare "bargain" with the American people, saying that the nation's long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs.

..."What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further," he said. "We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's."

.... "Social Security, we can solve," he said, waving his left hand. "The big problem is Medicare, which is unsustainable. . . . We can't solve Medicare in isolation from the broader problems of the health-care system."

[More....]

I'm finally learning the meaning of hope and change. Three years ago, hope and change seemed like a slogan to roll your eyes at. No more. Now it's becoming something to strive for. But it's not the hope and change Obama can bring us, he's already failed that test. It's the hope for change we have at the thought of him leaving and taking his ineffective administration with him.

Onto last night's speech. Obama is so transparent. His speech was all about construction workers, teachers, and veterans, and instilling fear of China and South Korea, because they are out to take our jobs. He went for the "heartland." As if all he has to do is proclaim South Koreans should be driving Fords and it will be so.

More importantly, as always, his plan leaves those on the fringe out to dry. And that includes seniors (who according to Obama are causing the health care system to implode by their sheer numbers), those who don't own businesses, and those who need affordable health care more than they need a $1,500 tax break. [More...]

ABC News skipped the analysis after President Obama's speech to cover an unconfirmed but specific terror threat from an outside country connected to 9/11. The target may be Washington or New York. The threat came in Wednesday night. Obama was briefed today.

CBS is covering the speech. NBC went to football.

President Obama has unveiled his $447 billion jobs proposal

President Obama is now speaking. "It's an urgent time." Live blog follows:

Having to watch Boehner behind him ruins it from the outset. Obama says something speechy and gets a standing ovation.

He's sending Congress the American Jobs Act. There's nothing controversial about it. Everything in it will be paid for. Everything. It will create more jobs teachers, construction workers.

It will cut payroll taxes in half for every worker and every small business. It will provide a jolt or a stalled economy. You should pass this jobs plan right away.[More..]

Both BTD and I are busy at work.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The SuperCommittee Henchmen meet today. Raising medicare eligibility to age 67 is on the table for discussions. The Democrats have submitted a memo with various proposed changes and a discussion of each. Here's the memo. Raising the eligibility age appears on page 7.

President Obama proposed raising the Medicare eligibility age as part of the debt-ceiling agreement, but Democrats are hardly united behind the policy.

The Democrats note that it's not going to be a money saver -- it's just going to shift who pays the money. They give the same reasons I gave last month. [More...]

Sorry for being AWOL. Busy. And will be busy for the next few days as well.

Open Thread.

President Obama will give a speech Thursday. He's going to propose a $300 billion job package.

Obama will call on Congress to offset the cost of the short-term jobs measures by raising tax revenue in later years. This would be part of a long-term deficit reduction package, including spending and entitlement cuts as well as revenue increases, that he will present next week to the congressional panel charged with finding ways to reduce the nation’s debt.

Almost half the stimulus would come from tax cuts, which include an extension of a two-percentage-point reduction in the payroll tax paid by workers due to expire Dec. 31 and a new decrease in the portion of the tax paid by employers.

Will he mention raising the age for Medicare eligibility? Jay Carney said yesterday the speech would "include some new proposals that you have not heard us talk about.” We haven't heard Obama talk about raising the age for Medicare eligibility, only reports that he was okay with it. This better not be one of his proposals. If it is, his pink slip is coming.