Seriously impressed with CNN
by tdaxp ~ January 11th, 2009
CNN has been firing on all cylinders recently. While MSNBC openly joins the Commitee to Re-Elect the President 2012 and FoxNews descends into incoherence, the Cable News Network has been acting with remarkably responsibility.
Just today, CNN aired a version of IOUSA, with commentary. IOUSA is a scare-the-hell-out-of-America documentary about long-term debts and obligations. It’s something that one might have heard coming out of the Republican Party circa 1994. Brilliant, and I especially liked how the commentary implied that programs like mandatory savings programs and and cutting future social security payments are the logical complemen to the Obama stimulus package.
Further, I saw that CNN will be airing Fareed Zakaria GPS twice on Sundays, over the noon-hour (as it has been doing) and again in the early evening. Fareed is the smartest person on CNN, and on Sunday talk generally, and his show typically is half-an-hour of divergent (but not left-right) perspectives, followed by a half-hour interview.
I am seriously impressed with CNN.
The New York Times uses top 1% of income, not wealth. From the legend:...
January 11th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I saw IOUSA during its theatrical run. A must-see. It’s also on the short-list (15 long) for an Oscar nod. We’ll find out next Thursday.
And I agree entirely on the networks. I loved MSNBC until about a year ago.
January 11th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
My fiancee and I have both returned to CNN over the past year. It’s just so much better than the others.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:35 am
SS originally did not have a Trust Fund. Creating one was a big mistake. In the past Obama proposed ending the SS cap (his proposal had a tax-free gap to lessen the pain on upper-middle taxpayers). Doing that, while at the same time ending the Trust Fund, would be a good idea.
They should also look at expanding death taxes – progressive rates to the 90th percentile.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:52 am
I haven’t seen IOUSA, but I will look for it.
Xakaria I find to be overrated. I didn’t real llike the episode of his show I saw a few weeks ago.
Besides, CNN is still up to its old habits [1]. I don’t find them too credible.
[1] http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/09/cnn-republishes-fake-atrocity-video/
January 12th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Courtesy of Imagethief [1], an example of CNN butchering an interview [2].
I would suggest reading the Post-American World [3,4] while ignoring the title before watching Fareed Zakaria GPS. It is kind of a more balanced, audiovisual version of Tom’s ‘Director’s commentary’ [5] (they were classmates at Harvard), just weekly and for a full hour.
Bloomberg has the best morning news show — too bad we don’t get it from Cox cable.
I’m not sure what ‘progressive rates to the 90th percentile’ means.
[1] http://news.imagethief.com/blogs/china/archive/2009/01/12/rebecca-mackinnon-and-cnn-the-un-conspiracy.aspx
[2] http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2009/01/correcting-cnnc.html
[3] http://www.amazon.com/Post-American-World-Fareed-Zakaria/dp/039306235X
[4] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2008/07/09/review-of-the-post-american-world-by-fareed-zakaria.html
[5] http://thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/2009/01/gp_directors_commentary_on_the.html
January 12th, 2009 at 7:43 am
The death tax typically has a large exclusion, and one tax rate – around 50%. So an estate is added up, you subtract the exclusion, and the reminder gets taxed at about 50%.
a simplified example:
10 million gross
minus 3 million exclusion
————-
7 million net
————–
times 50%
————–
3.5 million death tax paid.
—————————–
6.5 million to beneficiaries
=================
Say somebody has a 100 billion gross estate. I’m suggesting the death tax on that should approach 90%, leaving the beneficiaries with a net 10 to 15 billion.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I’ll check out Tom’s link and wait for the paperback of the book.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:47 am
BTW, is there a URL for “THREATS IN THE AGE OF OBAMA”?
January 13th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Update: YES [1,2]
purpleslog,
Threats in the Age of Obama launches with its Amazon page around the inauguration for maximum impact… don’t worry, I will be self-promoting then.
sonofsamphm1c,
Thank you for the clarification!
Is it true that the estate tax costs roughly as much to implement as it makes in revenues?
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Threats-Age-Obama-Michael-Tanji/dp/1934840807
[2] http://www.nimblebooks.com/aom/shop.php?c=Obama&x=Age_of_Obama