[laughter] [applause] >> let's hear it for gore vidal, ladies and gentlemen.e] okay, that's the show ladies and gentlemen, have a good night. no, no, no. we do have more. that is the antiviral on youtube tomorrow. i can tell that much. now, to present the literary award for outstanding service to the american literary community is samantha hunt. her novel, "the invention of everything else," what a prize and was a finalist for the orange price -- [applause] her book, the seas 15 for 45 awards and has appeared in the new yorker, mcsweeney is, public space, cabinet, esquire, the believer, blind spot, tin house, the new york magazine and on the radio program this american life. it gives me great pleasure to introduce samantha hines. samantha? [applause] >> i was chosen to present the literary award tonight because one of mortal could not crown the achievements of date occurs in this sliver of time allotted. as you can see -- [laughter] i am not on mortal to night. i knew there was something about david early on because soon after we had met my cousin hired a reco

we've got saul landau's book about gore vidal. we are pretty radical around here.we don't think the democratic party is the answer to everything. with a dimes worth of difference before the last election, basically saying there isn't really a dimes worth of difference and many of these between the parties, it got a lot of democrats pretty mad. so we occupy a definite side and i would want to say niche because niche always seems to me very small. but i think we figure we are pretty large and when people say we're more alike than the democratic party then we are the republicans, that's counterpunch. come over here and you can learn a lot about life in the world here at i thought of journalism thinking of my father waking up in the morning. and i was a different era. i mean, i grew up with hot metal tubs and newspapers. and my dad was a writer, a great writer and we're going to publish his

it came to mind what gore vidal said, he said, you have two conservative parties in this country andone. the thing about with the romney plan is that, like any state that has auto insurance -- or you require auto insurance in iowa, we just had that happen to was about three or four years ago. the auto insurance premiums went up 30%. it was exactly the opposite of what they claimed would happen. i like the way this woman talks about all this health care and everything because she seems so thorough. and she has mentioned the massachusetts plan a couple of times. what i do not get is, once you have an external -- an insurance exchange, but it is still a mandate -- you are still going to have the mandate. the insurance companies in the exchange, would inspire them to lower their costs? i do not get it at all. it still seems like a two party system, but one less conservative. it is like we are spoon feeding customers to the insurance companies. guest: i will try to respond to the issues of your concern, about cost containment and what the incentives are. the situation with the exchanges -

it came to mind what gore vidal said, he said, you have two conservative parties in this country and just as conservative than the other one. the thing about with the romney plan is that, like any state that has auto insurance -- or you require auto insurance in iowa, we just had that happen to was about three or four years ago. the auto insurance premiums went up 30%. it was exactly the opposite of what they claimed would happen. i like the way this woman talks about all this health care and everything because she seems so thorough. and she has mentioned the massachusetts plan a couple of times. what i do not get is, once you have an external -- an insurance exchange, but it is still a mandate -- you are still going to have the mandate. the insurance companies in the exchange, would inspire them to lower their costs? i do not get it at all. it still seems like a two party system, but one less conservative. it is like we are spoon feeding customers to the insurance companies. guest: i will try to respond to the issues of your concern, about cost containment and what the incentives ar

it came to mind what gore vidal said, he said, you have two conservative parties in this country and is just as conservative than the other one. the thing about with the romney plan is that, like any state that has auto insurance -- or you require auto insurance in iowa, we just had that happen to was about three or four years ago. the auto insurance premiums went up 30%. it was exactly the opposite of what they claimed would happen. i like the way this woman talks about all this health care and everything because she seems so thorough. and she has mentioned the massachusetts plan a couple of times. what i do not get is, once you have an external -- an insurance exchange, but it is still a mandate -- you are still going to have the mandate. the insurance companies in the exchange, would inspire them to lower their costs? i do not get it at all. it still seems like a two party system, but one less conservative. it is like we are spoon feeding customers to the insurance companies. guest: i will try to respond to the issues of your concern, about cost containment and what the incentives