LRC was recorded today before news of Tim Russert's death

June 13, 2008
All of us at Left, Right and Center extend our hearfelt sympathies to the family of Tim Russert. News of his death reached us more than an hour after we recorded our program.

June 13, 2008
Quotable quotes:

Amity Shlaes says economics often lays the path for politics.
Bob Scheer says Hummers didn't drive us to high oil prices.
Arianna Huffington says McCain sounds like Bob Dole -- it's the 80s all over again.
Matt Miller wonders aloud whether the media is destroying democracy.

Congrats to Arianna: Huffington Post has again been named a big Webby Award winner -- 2008 awards go to her for best political blog and favorite People's Voice blog in the political category.

Amity Shlaes is our guest conservative again while Tony is in China (he's back next week). Bob Scheer opens the conversation about the Supreme Court decision in favor of Guantanamo detainees saying that 6 years without any idea of why you've been arrested and without access to a lawyer is much too long, and points out the irony that in defending our freedom, we've undermined the whole notion of freedom thanks to the Bush anti-terrorism policies.

Amity says the decision isn't about right or wrong, but a procedural matter. She says the issue of suspending habeas corpus goes back to Lincoln and even to the founding fathers.

Matt Miller wonders if this puts the Supreme Court at the heart of the election campaign -- Arianna Huffington says, you betcha, it points out the dramatic differences between McCain and Obama -- McCain says he'd reverse Roe v. Wade.

Conversation moves to a discussion of high gas prices and substantive conversation about Social Security, which Obama raised in a speech today, on his economic tour of America.

Bob reminds us that Wolfowitz said Iraqi oil would pay for the war and give us more oil (not like Vietnam, where their chief export was shrimp). But we're actually paying double now, for war debt and higher gas prices

Amity and Matt come down on the same side saying market forces need to drive change; and Amity talks about scholar Pigou and his Pigovian theory that change only happens when things become too expensive.

Then they dissect Obama's proposal to raise taxable income levels for Social Security to $250,000. Amity and Matt demonstrate how this raises the effective tax rate on the self-employed to more than 50%, making taxes higher than Europe.

Then there's some chat about the media, about Hillary and sexism, racism, about Jim Johnson and what his choice by Obama as a VP Vetter says about Obama...then you can enjoy the rants!

Have fun listening.