Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Oh wait, Palin hates kittens. Just the rain and roses part, then.

I had a really lovely weekend, and I hope that you did too. On Sunday, before heading to my buddy Jeff's apartment in BK to watch football on his beautiful television because Wendy was there already watching the REDSKINS WIN (woo!), I visited the fam on the Upper East Side for one of my little cousins' birthdays. He turned 5 and as we stood around the birthday cake and candles were being lit, he said, "Whoever in this room went to the war is my favorite person," and then looked at his mom, my aunt, and clarified definitively, "and he's your father." Our grandfather was in Africa and Italy in WWII and a prominent reporter for the Stars and Stripes newspaper for the duration, which led to his nearly lifelong career at the New York Times upon his return as well as his war memoir which was published recently. He's 88 now and 8 years ago he had a stroke and has been confined to a wheelchair since, and he's really just not the same Pop=pop that I knew growing up. I was a lucky little person. The point is that I almost keeled over from the sweetness of that 5-year-old's sentiment. And also the kid has really great hair.

I didn't read or watch the news all weekend so today when I arrived at work and checked out the CNN website as I usually do, I was greeted by the news that Republicans failed to deliver enough votes to pass the bailout that McCain scrambled to take credit for earlier today (on the GOP side, 133 voted against the bill; 65 for it). My favorite part is that the GOP leaders are faulting Pelosi for making a "partisan" speech right before the vote. Here's Barney Frank's (D-MA) response:
Here’s the story. There’s a terrible crisis affecting the American economy. We have come together on a bill to alleviate the crisis. And because somebody hurt their feelings, they decide to punish the country. I mean, I would not have imputed that degree of pettiness and hypersensitivity. We also — as the leader will tell you, who’s been working with them — don’t believe they had the votes, and I believe they’re covering up the embarrassment of not having the votes. But think about this. Somebody hurt my feelings, so I will punish the country. That’s hardly plausible. And there are 12 Republican members who were ready to stand up for the economic interest of America, but not if anybody insulted them. I’ll make an offer. "Give me those 12 people’s names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they’ll now think about the country.

To further today's barage of uplifting news, an important truth that McCain has finally sort of admitted is the reality of his health plan in an interview with Stephanopoulos. But here's what he doesn't explain, in brief:
1. ELIMINATING TAX EXEMPTION INCREASES PLAN COSTS FOR THE NEEDIEST. Because it means he's equalizing the tax treatment of employer and individual plans, it effectively baits healthy workers into buying cheaper and worse insurance on the individual market instead of through their companies, and increases costs for sicker folks.

2. TAX CREDITS DON'T COVER HEALTH COSTS. McCain's "credits" decrease proportionally to growing premiums, because McCain gauges his initial $5,000 credit on inflation, not premiums and since premiums grow faster than inflation, the effect is a large tax increase on the middle class. Some 5k "gift," eh?

Here's how that works (and I ganked this very helpful explanation from the Wonk Room: http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/09/28/tax-increase-mccain/). For a couple earning 40k and paying $13,800 for insurance, “McCain’s new tax credit would cut their taxes by $50 in 2009, but because the credit quickly falls behind rising premiums that are the basis of the current tax break, the family would pay $1,169 more in taxes in 2013…[and] would pay $2,809 more in taxes by 2018."

I have to put something uplifting in here. So here's my #1 favorite scene from the entire Curb Your Enthusiasm series: