Jerzy and Jeffrey Sachs and I are Trumped or With friends like John McCain . . .

Jerzy and I are in New York. We took the Chinatown bus up to, among other things, hear Jeffrey Sachs and Charlie Rose at the 92nd St Y. Brilliant. I've got lots to share, like the fact that Alex, the cat at the Deli on 49th Street, is alive and well; that Amy's Bakery on 9th Avenue still has the most wonderful cookies around; that Magnolia now has an uptown location!; and that although there's more to "do" in New York than anywhere else in the world, for me it's enough to just "be" here.

I wanted to write about the lecture and Jeffeys Sach's new book, Common Wealth and tell you to read it and become informed so you can tell others and actually do something with the knowledge that global health and well-being promote global health and well-being. I wanted to write about my mother and how she loved Charlie Rose and that she always watched his television program that aired late at night because he was, according to her, "so damn smart".

And I wanted to talk about Jerzy and me getting our ears pierced at a tattoo place on 36th Street where I am considering getting a tattoo that says - "Jerzy and I went to New York and all I got was this stupid tattoo." Jerzy found a key on the ground to add to the key she found in Las Vegas that made up for the one she lost. But I can't tell you that story either because I ran into this about John McCain that came from a chain of links that began at AlterNet and went to FirstRead and from there to, of all places, USA Today. It trumps all.

"For the first time, I have seen Osama bin Laden and General (David) Petraeus in agreement, and, that is, a central battleground in the battle against al-Qaeda is in Iraq today. And that's what bin Laden was saying and that's what General Petraeus is saying and that's what I'm saying, my friends," McCain said.

"And my Democrat opponents who want to pull out of Iraq refuse to understand what's being said and what's happening — and that is the central battleground is Iraq in this struggle against radical Islamic extremism," he added. McCain also said Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were naive and "dead wrong" to want to withdraw troops.

"We're succeeding. I don't care what anybody says. I've seen the facts on the ground," the Arizona senator insisted a day after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone there, and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide. The events transpired as bin Laden called on the people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to "help in support of their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task."

Talk about "dead wrong".