This Romney Plan, seems familiar.

Lee Ritenour, George Duke, Marcus Miller, and Vinnie Colaiuta — It’s On, from the Ramsey Lewis Legends of Jazz, Contemporary Jazz episode.

My stepfather, Fred Karger was a film composer and musical supervisor at Columbia, MGM, for Elvis Presley’s goofball oeuvres (Harum Scarum, Kissin’ Cousins, Frankie and Johnny, etc.) and later for a series of campy independent films like Riot on Sunset Strip. He’s best known for the theme songs he wrote: From Here to Eternity, Magnificent Obsession, Gidget, Gidget Goes Hawaiian, and for his love life: He dated Marilyn Monroe for a number of years and was married twice to Jane Wyman. And once to my mom. Fred, who died in 1979, was super cool and a great stepfather. Every day I give thanks for having him in my life, for all the amazing people I met through him, and for showing me you can live life by following your creative dreams.

So when the name Fred Karger first popped up in my inbox during the Proposition 8 campaign, I did a huge double take, it’s a pretty unusual name.

What’s worse than having your picture taken with Saddam Hussein?

If you’re hoping that the Nancy Pelosi’s picks for the Congressional Super Committee have either the wisdom or courage to stand against the job-killing spending cuts Obama and Congress imposed on the nation, you’ll be disappointed.

Fox News spins this as a drop in troops. But it’s an INCREASE relative to current laws and schedules. Fox didn’t bother to point out that there’s a standing status of forces agreement in place with Iraq that stipulates that all US troops will leave that country by the end of the year. The President has referenced this publicly on numerous occasions. It’s something that George W. Bush signed in 2008. Any deviation at all from this would represent a boost from the troops that would otherwise be there.

Torture and abuse has been known to be routine in detention facilities throughout Iraq. Abuses of Iraqi detainees have taken place in facilities run by US and British forces (e.g. Abu Ghraib). Iraqi forces have also killed, tortured and mistreated individuals they have captured or kidnapped. Some of the forces responsible for killing, torture and mistreatment are Iraq police, for example, the “Wolf Brigade,” which Iraq’s Interior Ministry controls and operates.

Basically, Rep. Xavier Becerra and Rep. Chris Van Hollen are trying to deliver the original grand bargain, the one that calls for job creating stimulus ideas in the near term balanced out by deficit reduction, including to cherished programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, in the long term. This is what the Administration thought it would get when they enacted the stimulus, and followed up with a focus on the deficit (including in the Affordable Care Act, which was very deficit-focused).

The number of Americans who think our two party system is seriously broken has edged up slightly to 34 percent, a new high in the Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll.

The White House estimates that Hurricane Irene caused $1.5 billion in damages, virtually assuring that they will have to ask for a disaster relief supplemental sometime in the next couple months.