Leona "Only the little people pay taxes" Helmsley famously left $12 million to her dog Trouble. We learn today that a judge reduced Trouble's trust fund to a mere $2 million. How is a well-bred poodle to survive with such a meager trust fund? Consider Trouble's expenses:

[Carl] Lekic put Trouble’s annual expenses at $190,000, which includes Lekic’s $60,000 guardian fee, $100,000 for ’round-the-clock security, $8,000 for grooming, $3,000 for miscellaneous expenses, $1,200 for food and anywhere from $2,500 to $18,000 for medical care.

Not to mention the occasional biscuit.

Calling all health insurance and math whizzes: As long as I'm on economics today and I don't know much about health insurance, taxes or math, I'm looking for opinions.

Every year my insurance premium rises even though I'm healthy, have no medical conditions and barely use it. This month I was told my premiums are going up $75 a month to almost $600 a month even though my age bracket is the same and I'm healthy. My choices are to downgrade my plan and pay even more of a copay for doctors and prescriptions or go with an HSA (health savings account) with a "catastrophic" insurance plan. [More...]

All of us old, low information voters remember Harvey Korman. He passed away today. He was 81.

This is not his best scene in Blazing Saddles, a movie I love, but it is funny and somewhat political:

Harrumph! RIP, Harvey Korman.

Update (TL): The commenters here do not speak for TalkLeft or represent the views of TalkLeft, as is stated on our home page and is particularly relevant to the comments to this post by Big Tent Democrat.

****

First of all, this has nothing to do with Barack Obama but I have to ask, what in the world is going on at Chicago's Trinity Church? This is simply outrageous:

I repeat, this has NOTHING to do with Barack Obama, but there is clearly something wrong at Trinity Church in Chicago.

Speaking for me only

Comments closed

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the Gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the mornings hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight,
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.

- Mary Frye*

Link:

“I’ve heard her make that argument before,” Mr. Kennedy said, speaking on his cell phone as he drove to the family compound in Hyannis for the holiday weekend. “It sounds like she was invoking a familiar historical circumstance in support of her argument for continuing her campaign.” . . . [H]is support of Mrs. Clinton has not wavered.

More from RFK, Jr.:

I have heard her make this reference before, also citing her husband's 1992 race, both of which were hard fought through June. I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense."

Update (TL) below:

Former Clinton Super Delegate Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) has decided to support Barack Obama. And of course this is his right as Super delegates can change their minds right up to the Convention. But I found his rationale for the switch wanting:

While I continue to greatly respect and admire Senator Clinton and feel she has made history with her campaign, I believe that Senator Obama will inevitably be our party’s nominee for President.

Um, that's it? That's your big reason for switching. Okay. But he continues, and you'll laugh at this:

I was watching MSNBC, and Chris Matthews was giving Senator Ted Kennedy his due as one of the greatest Senators in the history of the Senate. And then he mentioned that Senator Kennedy was hoping to see in Barack Obama what he had seen from his brother Robert F. Kennedy - the ability to bring the white working class together with African Americans, Latinos, the old and the young. Whether Obama can do do that, and we all hope he can, it brought to mind for me the late great muckraking journalist Jack Newfield, who thought the world of Bobby Kennedy. Jack considered Bobby Kennedy the last candidate of his lifetime to be able to bring the natural coalitions for Democrats and progressives together. Jack probably would have seen the same promise in Obama. Again, whether that will be proven right or not, remains to be seen.

But in 2002, two years before he died, Jack Newfield wrote one of the great articles ever written about Ted Kennedy, the Senator. And I would like to share some of that with you on the flip.

This is bad news:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal lobe. Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma, they said.

His treatment will be decided after more tests but the usual course includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy. His doctors said in a statement released to The Associated Press that he has had no further seizures, is in good spirits and is resting comfortably.

Malignant gliomas are a type of brain cancer diagnosed in about 9,000 Americans a year -- and the most common type among adults. It's a starting diagnosis: How well patients fare depends on what specific tumor type is determined by further testing.

Our thoughts are with the Liberal Lion of the Senate.

Bump and Update(TL): Mass General Hospital is expected to make a statement shortly.

CNN is reporting. Let's hope he is ok. Our thoughts are with you Senator Kennedy.

Update (TL): News report here.

Congratulations to Jenna Bush and Henry Hager for their nuptials today. May they find happiness together.

This is an Open Thread.

Congratulations to Nic, the TL kid. The Colorado Bar Exam results (pdf) came out today. He's officially the newest criminal defense lawyer on the block.

Well done, Nic!