. >> good morning, i and john goodman, president for the u.s. center for policy analysis and i want to welcome all of you here today. one of the most confusing things about the health reform law that congress passed in the spring is how it will affect senior citizens and others on medicare. in general, the media has done a poor job of covering this issue. now that we are in an election, i understand their tv commercials that are part of various campaigns around the country and many of those commercials seem to bear only a small resemblance to the facts. on the one hand, most people know that health care, the health reform bill is in part paid for by reducing spending on medicare beneficiaries. , more than half the cost of the first 10 years of the reform consists of reductions in medicare spending. there has been no explanation of what that really means. for the government's part, health and human services sent out a pamphlet to every beneficiary on medicare, but most people who looked at the pamphlet said that as propaganda. they said it is not

if you vote for martin sheen and you get john goodman? [laughter] we should have an apostolic succession. if you vote republican, you get republican. that is what you deserve for four years. if you did democrat, you get a democrat. second, note that there is a personal link between the top two executive officials. when the vice presidential seat becomes vacant, the president handpicks his or her successor. this handpicking idea, which is a codification of modern presidential practice, before the 1930's, presidents did not always pick their running mates. through the early 20th century, parties picked running mates. presidential candidates did not hand picked them in -- hand picked them until the 40's -- the 1940's. we have this codification of the hand-picked kind of idea. and it -- candidates are -- presidents are handpicking the secretary of state. this is a constitutional codification that has not completely a merged in 1947 when we get the statute. the statute has been overtaken by the constitutional process. what was truman's idea ab

john mccain gets to walk out. >> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.e begin today with the american hiker sarah shourd who was recently freed from iranian prison after more than a year's imprisonment. in july of 2009, sarah shourd and her now fncÉ sne bauer and their friend joshua fattal were arrested in the iran-iraq border while on a hiking trip. iran accuses them of espionage, but earlier this month sarah shourd was released on humanitarian grounds on half a million dollars bail. with shane bauer and joshua fattal still behind bars, sarah shourd has repeatedly said she is only one-third free. an iranian newspaper reported sunday that in albania delegation arrived in iran to help secure the release of shane bauer and joshua fattal. with larry king, the iranian president ahmadinejad said there was a sl chance the they be released but added he had no sway over the matter. >> as far as the others, there is a chance, but the judge has to take care of the case. i have no influence over its. , but i have suggested for the navy -- i have no influence over i

john and paul and carol is just the beginning. soon we'll be saying hello to senator kelley ayott, to congressman charlie bass, and to congressman frank goodman. [applause] by the way, we saw a great campaign waged by tang. [applause] he brought a lot of energy to the campaign and showed commitment to republican principles by getting behind kelly's campaign and saying let's be united and bring republican values back to washington. thank you so much, obit. [applause] >> and talking about character and courage, thank you john sunu nu for coming back and being chairman of the party. [applause] look, they are getting up for you, john. what a guy. [applause] four more years, john, exactly right. i tell you, the pundits are expecting a -- predicting a big victory for us in november. two years ago, they were singing a different tune and we were listening to their tune, and a lot of us were on our heels. the commentator cast atalking about his legs tingling with the new leadership. the president, by the way, was so confident that he was able to fit in 40 rounds of golf in his first two years. actually, we're probably better off if he's getting advice