Coordinates	32°30′20″N45°49′29″N
Image name	Alan Grayson high res.jpg
name	Alan Grayson
state	Florida
district	8th
term start	January 3, 2009
term end	January 3, 2011
preceded	Ric Keller
succeeded	Daniel Webster
party	Democratic Party
birth date	March 13, 1958
birth place	New York City, New York
alma mater	Harvard College (A.B.)Harvard Kennedy School (M.P.P.)Harvard Law School (J.D.)
profession	Attorney
residence	Orlando, Florida
spouse	Lolita Grayson
website	www.graysonforcongress.com
religion	Judaism

Alan Mark Grayson (born March 13, 1958) is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 2009 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

The district includes just over half of Orlando, including Downtown, Winter Park, significant portions of unincorporated Orange County, as well as Celebration, Walt Disney World and parts of Lake County, Marion County and Ocala. Grayson was defeated for re-election in 2010 by Republican Daniel Webster.

Early life and education

Grayson was born in the Bronx, New York. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science in 1975 and worked his way through Harvard College as a janitor and nightwatchman, graduating with an A.B. ''summa cum laude'' in economics in 1978. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was in the top 1% of his class. He returned to Harvard for graduate studies. In 1983, he earned a J.D. ''magna cum laude'' from Harvard Law School and Masters of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Additionally, he completed the course work and passed the general exams for a Ph.D. in government.

Grayson wrote his masters thesis on gerontology and in 1986, he helped found the non-profit Alliance for Aging Research (AAR) in Washington, D.C., and served as an officer of the organization for more than twenty years.

Law career

Grayson was employed as a law clerk at the Colorado Supreme Court in 1983, and at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals from 1984 to 1985, where he worked with judges Abner Mikva, Robert Bork, and two judges who later joined the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. He was an associate at the Washington D.C. firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson for five years, where he specialized in contract law.

In 1991 he founded the law firm Grayson, Kubli which concentrated on government contract law. He was a lecturer at the George Washington University government contracts program and a frequent speaker on the topic. In the 2000s, he worked as a plaintiffs' attorney specializing in whistleblower fraud cases aimed at Iraq war contractors. One contractor, Custer Battles, employed individuals who were found guilty of making fraudulent statements and submitting fraudulent invoices on two contracts in 2003 the company had with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. On behalf of his clients, Grayson filed suit under the False Claims Act and its ''qui tam'' provisions. The jury verdict was more than $13 million, which was upheld on appeal in April 2009. The case remains the only successful prosecution of those who profited illegally from the war in Iraq. The Iraq war contractor fraud case brought Grayson his first national attention. In 2006, a ''Wall Street Journal'' reporter described Grayson as "waging a one-man war against contractor fraud in Iraq" and as a "fierce critic of the war in Iraq" whose car displayed bumper stickers such as "Bush lied, people died".

President of IDT Corp.

Grayson made his fortune as the first president of IDT Corporation (International Discount Telecom), which pioneered competition and discount pricing in the long-distance telecommunications industry and became a $2-billion-a-year Fortune 1000 company.

U.S. House of Representatives

Grayson is considered a progressive Democrat and he represented a district that was historically Republican. He supported Barack Obama in 2008. He was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which he was vice-chairman.

Committee assignments

Committee on Financial Services

*Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises

Committee on Science and Technology

*Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight

*Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics

Legislation head sponsored by Grayson

Pay For Performance Act (H.R. 1664)

Public Option Act (H.R. 4789)

War Is Making You Poor Act (H.R. 5353)

Shareholder Protection Act (H.R. 4790)

Paid Vacation Act of 2009 (H.R. 2564)

Political positions

Federal Reserve transparency

During his first term in office, Grayson supported Ron Paul's Audit the Fed legislation. Grayson gained attention for exchanges with Federal Reserve System Vice Chairman Donald Kohn and Inspector General Elizabeth A. Coleman. The 5-minute examination of Coleman in the House Financial Services Committee was posted on the Congressman's official YouTube page. As of December 2010, it has been viewed more than 3.4 million times.

In March 2009, following the AIG bonus payments controversy, Grayson joined with fellow freshman Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut to introduce the Grayson-Himes Pay for Performance Act, legislation to require that all bonuses paid by companies that had received funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 be "based on performance". The bill was co-sponsored by eight other members of the House. On March 26, the bill was approved by the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 38-22 and on April 1, the bill was passed by the full House of Representatives by a vote of 247-171.

Grayson was a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, which would provide additional provisions to audit the Federal Reserve, including removing several key exemptions.

Economic stimulus

Grayson made it a priority to increase the amount of federal money coming back to the 8th Congressional District. He often said that people in the 8th District have been "exporting taxes and importing debt." During his first year in office, the amount of federal grant dollars returning to the district nearly doubled (98% increase). The Congressman established a grant notification system. The system notifies subscribers immediately when a federal grant opportunity in their areas of interest becomes available. He also hired a full-time grants coordinator, who focused solely on helping people navigate the federal grants process.

Congressman Grayson twice broke ranks with Democratic leadership and joined Republicans to oppose the raising of the federal debt limit (Roll no. 46, 2/4/10, Roll no. 988 12/16/09). He said at the time of the February vote, "We need to live within our means. We need to eliminate wasteful spending. If we did those two simple things, we would not need to raise the debt limit."

Grayson supported the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and has been outspoken in favor of extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have lost their jobs. The Congressman argues that the government has never cut off unemployment insurance when the unemployment rate was higher than eight percent. Grayson also voted for the FDA Oversight of Tobacco Products, which gives the FDA power to regulate tobacco products.

On a September 2009 ''Alex Jones Show'' segment, Grayson criticized Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke's senior adviser Linda Robertson, saying "Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, this lobbyist, this K-Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics!" Robertson had previously worked as a lobbyist for Enron. Grayson's language was widely criticized as inappropriate, and Grayson apologized.

Health care reform

In response to Republican arguments that the Obama administration's preferred health care bill was too long and complicated, Grayson on March 9, 2010, introduced H.R. 4789, the Public Option Act (sometimes called the Medicare You Can Buy Into Act), a short four-page bill which would allow all citizens and permanent residents of the United States to buy into the public Medicare program at cost. The bill immediately attracted high praise from the progressive blogosphere, and even critics of public health care plans conceded its "nearly irresistible" simplicity. The bill attracted 82 co-sponsors and was referred to the Ways and Means Committee.

Grayson later voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. He voted in support of Eliminating Adjustments of Medicare Rates of Payment. He also voted against Republican substitutes for the health care amendment and insurance law amendments.

Civil rights

Grayson voted in support of the Hate Crimes Expansion Act, which expands the definition of hate crimes and strengthens enforcement of hate crime laws. He also voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Grayson supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that allows victims of wage discrimination to sue for punitive damages.

Environment

Grayson voted for the House's 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act (also known as the Cap and Trade Bill). A main reason he supported it was the promise from the White House and the Speaker of the House for a $50 million "Hurricane Research Center" in Central Florida, paid for with research dollars set aside in the bill. Grayson noted after the passage of the ACES Act his concern about our dependence on foreign oil, the need to promote green technologies and renewable energy sources, and the job creation from the bill (an estimated 95,000 jobs in Florida). "This bill unleashes American ingenuity to solve the energy crisis. It lets us solve our problems by being Americans and thinking our way out of it. We will become an international energy power," he said in a news release.

The BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico affected Florida's number one industry, which is tourism. The lack of a relief well prevented company officials from shutting down the leak immediately. Instead, it took months to drill a new relief well, while millions of gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf each week. In response, Grayson introduced the Emergency Relief Well Act (H.R. 5666). It requires that an emergency relief well be drilled at the same time as any new exploratory well.

Defense

Congressman Grayson has been an outspoken critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In May 2010, he introduced the "War Is Making You Poor Act" (H.R. 5353). The bill requires the President to fund the wars from the Department of Defense's FY '11 base budget of $550 billion. It uses the $159 billion in "supplemental funding" to eliminate federal income taxes for everyone's first $35,000 a year. The bill does not necessitate an end to the wars or mandate a cut-off date. In addition to the tax cuts, the bill cuts the federal deficit by $15.9 billion.

The Congressman has tried to combat wasteful spending by government defense contractors by introducing his "Gold Plating Amendment." The amendment requires that cost or price account for half of the evaluation of bids for defense contracts. The law at the time allowed for cost to account for only one percent of the evaluation. The amendment passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647) in June 2009. However, the language was stripped from the final bill during the conference committee between Senate and House leaders. Congressman Grayson worked successfully to get the amendment inserted into the IMPROVE Acquisition Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on April 28, 2010.

Grayson voted for the 2009-2010 Defense Appropriations, which authorizes $681 billion of appropriations for the Department of Defense. He also supported the 2009-2010 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Authorizations, which provided $46.18 billion in appropriations for 2009-2010.

Combating Federal Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

Grayson has worked to combat federal waste, fraud, and abuse. In the September 6, 2009 edition of The New York Times, columnist Gretchen Morgenson thanked Congressman Grayson for uncovering the fact that, due to the federal bailout of mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae, taxpayer money had been funding the legal defense fees for former top executives at the institution. Grayson requested information about these legal costs after a June 2009 hearing of the House Financial Services Committee. The Congressman’s work uncovered that, between September 6, 2008 and July 21, 2009, taxpayers spent $6.3 million defending Fannie Mae executives Franklin Raines, J. Timothy Howard, and Leanne Spencer. Taxpayers paid an additional $16.8 million to cover legal expenses of workers at the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, Fannie’s former regulator.

In September 2009, Congressman Grayson used a parliamentary maneuver called an “extension of remarks” to provide crucial instruction on H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, a bill that, among other things, included a provision that prohibited funding for ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). Grayson’s extension of remarks directed that the legislation defund ''any'' organization that cheats the federal government, not just ACORN. The defunding measure passed the House with a final vote of 253-171. Grayson also encouraged the public to report companies covered by the bill and set up a method to report offending companies via his Congressional web site.

“Teach the Constitution Week”

On September 14, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Congressman Grayson’s “Teach the Constitution Week” resolution (H.Res. 686). The bill urged high schools to spend one week each September teaching the United States Constitution to high school seniors and also encouraged students to petition the government on an issue of personal importance to them to demonstrate their understanding of their rights and responsibilities as citizens of the United States. The non-partisan resolution was passed by a voice vote and featured 222 co-sponsors.

New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act

On the 40th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Congressman Grayson’s New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2009 (H.R. 2245). The bill asked the President to present Congress’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins, as well as John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Only about 200 medals have ever been awarded in the country’s history. The New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2009 passed the House unanimously on July 20, 2009.

Controversial public remarks

Grayson quickly gained a reputation as an elected official who was "not shy about his opinions." He was unrestrained in his criticism of right-wing positions, politicians, and pundits, particularly those employed by and/or frequently appearing on Fox News Channel. His sharp characterizations in public remarks earned him national attention both positive and negative.

Health care

In September 2009, during the debates leading to the passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act by the House in November, Grayson summed up the "Republican health care plan" as "'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.'" His remarks were widely condemned by Republican politicians but, according to Grayson, were well received by his constituents. Grayson reported that his comments resulted in over 5,000 campaign contributions and that the positive emails he received outnumbered the negative ones by a four-to-one margin; the comments also generated funds from the Democratic National Committee towards his upcoming 2010 campaign race. Grayson raised $347,000 for his reelection campaign during the third quarter, much of it attributed to his remarks.

He defended his comment and in a House Floor speech stated, “I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America." Grayson, who is Jewish by birth, apologized to the Anti-defamation League for those offended by his generic use of "holocaust". He also maintained that Congressional Republicans have failed to offer a feasible plan. In October 2009 he launched www.NamesOfTheDead.com, a website to "memorialize Americans who die because they don’t have health insurance." He subsequently read stories of the dead submitted through the ''Names of the Dead'' site on the House floor.

Political campaigns

Grayson is the second Democrat to represent this district since its formation after the 1970 census (it was the 5th District from 1973 to 1993 and has been the 8th District since 1993). The only other Democrat to represent this district, Bill Gunter, gave it up after only one term to run for the United States Senate in 1974.

2006

In 2006, Grayson first entered into electoral politics, losing the 2006 Democratic primary for Florida's 8th Congressional District to Charlie Stuart, a prominent local businessman and center-right Democrat. Stuart went on to lose the general election to incumbent Republican Congressman Ric Keller. In late 2007, Grayson announced that he would run again for the 8th District seat, and again faced Stuart in the primary. During the primary, his campaign retained the services of Bill Hillsman.

2008

In the August 26, 2008 Democratic primary, Grayson prevailed, receiving 48.5% of the vote. Stuart trailed with 27.5%, with three other candidates splitting the remaining 24%. During the general election campaign, Grayson maintained a consistent lead over Keller, who had barely eked out renomination in the Republican primary over attorney Todd Long. On Election Day, Grayson received 172,854 votes, or 52%, to Keller's 159,490 votes, or 48%. Although Keller won three out of four counties in the district, Grayson won by a margin of 55% to 45% in Orange County, home to Orlando and by far the largest county in the district. Grayson was also helped by a massive voter registration drive by the Democratic Party in the 8th District that gave Democrats a slight edge in registered voters.

2010

Grayson was challenged by Republican nominee Daniel Webster, Florida TEA Party nominee Peg Dunmire, Independent candidate George Metcalfe, and write-in Florida Whig Party candidate Steve Gerritzen.

Grayson ran a September 2010, commercial calling Webster a "draft-dodger," (Webster had received student deferments and a draft classification as medically unfit for service), and a later 30-second commercial calling Webster "Taliban Dan" and warning viewers that "Religious fanatics try to take away our freedom, in Afghanistan, in Iran and right here in Central Florida." Grayson's ads were criticized for editing video mid-sentence to make Webster appear to be saying things he did not say. Grayson released a toned-down version without the edited video or Taliban references in early October.

Grayson was targeted by conservatives and conservative groups in commercials and the media, and on the Internet. On Glenn Beck's radio show, Sarah Palin agreed with a co-host's remark, "It’s okay if the Republicans lose every seat in the Senate and the House except for one. As long as that one is Alan Grayson losing." Conservative Newsweek columnist George Will called Grayson "America's worst politician." Grayson was also heavily targeted in attack ads funded by groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the 60 Plus Association. The Chamber of Commerce ads were in turn criticized by Grayson and his supporters as "deeply dishonest".

Grayson was endorsed by 8th District resident, former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO), who characterized Webster as having "13th-century views" on women's issues. Former DNC Chair and Vermont governor Howard Dean called Grayson a "healthcare hero." Grayson received more votes for "progressive hero" from Democracy for America than any other candidate in the country. Moveon.org, in an appeal to its members, termed Grayson "a populist hero who's never afraid to call out the pernicious corporate influence in Washington."

Grayson conceded the race on the evening of November 2 after Webster showed a clear lead. Election results were: Grayson 38% Webster 56%

2012

On the evening of July 11, 2011, Grayson announced in an e-mail to supporters and via Daily Kos that he planned to run once again for Congress.

Personal life

Grayson was ranked as the 11th-wealthiest member of Congress in 2010, based on financial disclosure forms with a minimum net worth of $31.41 million, according to ''Roll Call''. Grayson disclosed that his attorney fees and costs for the war contractor case had exceeded $4 million.

While pursuing the whistleblower cases, Grayson worked from a home office in Orlando, where he lives with his wife and five children.

References

External links

Alan Grayson for U.S. Congress ''official campaign site''

Alan Grayson: "Bipartisanship Has Become Code Word for Appeasement" - video report by ''Democracy Now!''

Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:American businesspeople Category:American health activists Category:The Bronx High School of Science alumni Category:Florida Democrats Category:Florida lawyers Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives Category:John F. Kennedy School of Government alumni Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Florida Category:Whistleblowing

de:Alan Grayson he:אלן גרייסון pl:Alan Grayson sh:Alan Grayson sv:Alan Grayson

Coordinates	32°30′20″N45°49′29″N
Name	Paul Ryan
State	Wisconsin
District	1st
Party	Republican
Term start	January 3, 1999
Predecessor	Mark Neumann
Successor	Incumbent
Office2	Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget
Term start2	January 3, 2011
Predecessor2	John Spratt
Birthname	Paul Davis Ryan
Birth date	January 29, 1970
Birth place	Janesville, Wisconsin
Religion	Catholic
Spouse	Janna Ryan
Children	3 children
Residence	Janesville, Wisconsin
Alma mater	Miami University (B.A.)
Website	U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan }}

Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1999. He is a member of the Republican Party and has been ranked among the party's most influential voices on conservative economic policy.

Born and raised in Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan graduated from Miami University in Ohio and reportedly worked as a marketing consultant to an earth-moving company run by a branch of his family. In the mid-to-late 1990s he worked as an aide to United States Senator Bob Kasten, as legislative director for Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, and also as a speech writer for former U.S. Representative and 1996 Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Jack Kemp of New York. He won a 1998 election to succeed two-term Representative Mark Neumann in the United States House of Representatives.

Ryan is the chairman of the House Budget Committee, where he played a prominent public role in drafting and promoting the Republican Party's long-term budget proposal. He introduced the plan, ''The Path to Prosperity'', in April 2011 to counter the budget proposal of President Barack Obama. Ryan is one of the three co-founders of the Young Guns Program, an electoral recruitment and campaign effort by House Republicans.

Early life, education and career

The youngest child of Betty and Paul Murray Ryan, a lawyer, Ryan was born and raised in Janesville, Wisconsin. Ryan's mother is an outdoors enthusiast who led her husband and four kids (a sister, Janet, and two brothers, Tobin and Stan) on regular trips to hike and ski in the Colorado Rockies. He is a fifth-generation Wisconsin and Janesville native and a great-grandson of Patrick W. Ryan, who founded the Ryan Incorporated Central construction business in 1884.

Ryan attended Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville and was sixteen years old when he found his father in bed, dead of a heart attack at age 55. Ryan's grandfather had also died of a heart attack at age 57, as had his great-grandfather also similarly died of a heart attack at age 59. Ryan began collecting his Social Security survivor's benefits until age eighteen, which he saved for college tuition and expenses.

Ryan briefly worked during college for the Oscar Mayer meat and cold cut production company as a Wienermobile driver. He went on to graduate from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a B.A. in economics and political science in 1992. Ryan also studied at the Washington Semester program at American University. Ryan was a member of the Delta Tau Delta social fraternity.

Ryan worked within the private sector as a marketing consultant to an earth-moving company run by a branch of his family after he returned to Wisconsin from Washington, D.C. .

Early political career

During his junior year at Miami University, Ryan worked as a college intern opening mail for the foreign affairs advisor assigned to Wisconsin Sen. Bob Kasten. In his early years as a D.C. staffer, Ryan moonlighted on Capitol Hill as a waiter at the Tortilla Coast restaurant and as a fitness trainer at Washington Sport and Health Club, among various other side jobs.

Out of fear that Ryan "...was destined to become a ski bum", Betty Ryan reportedly nudged her son to accept another congressional position as a staff economist attached to the office of U.S. Senator Bob Kasten.

After Kasten was defeated by Democrat Russ Feingold in 1992, Ryan became a speechwriter and a volunteer economic analyst with Empower America, an advocacy group formed by Jack Kemp, former education secretary Bill Bennett, the late diplomat Jeane Kirkpatrick and former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber.

Ryan worked as a speechwriter for Vice-Presidential candidate Kemp during the 1996 United States presidential election and later worked as legislative director for U.S. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas. Ryan then returned to Wisconsin where he worked as a consultant to an earth-moving company and began campaigning for the 1998 U.S. congressional elections.

U.S. House of Representatives

Following his first election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, one of Ryan's priorities as a new congressman was to convert a truck into a rolling district office. This allowed him to keep regular congressional office hours with his constituents at various and far-flung locations across the Wisconsin First U.S. House District.

Ryan is one of the three founding members of the House GOP Young Guns Program.

In 2008, Ryan voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Wall Street bailout that precipitated the Tea Party, and the bailout of GM and Chrysler.

In 2010, ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked Ryan the ninth most influential US conservative. In 2011, Ryan was selected to deliver the Republican response to the State of the Union address.

Committee assignments

Committee on the Budget (Chairman)

Committee on Ways and Means

*Subcommittee on Health

Caucus memberships

Congressional Middle East Economic Partnership Caucus

International Conservation Caucus

Sportsmen's Caucus (Co-Chair)

Roadmap for America's Future

On May 21, 2008, Ryan introduced H.R. 6110, titled "Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2008". This proposed legislation outlined a plan to deal with entitlement issues. Its stated objectives were to ensure universal access to health insurance; strengthen Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; lift the debt from future generations; and promote economic growth and job creation in America. The act would have abolished the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 2010. It did not move past committee.

On April 1, 2009, Ryan introduced his alternative to the 2010 United States federal budget. This proposed alternative would have eliminated the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, lowered the top tax rate to 25%, introduced an 8.5% value-added consumption tax, and imposed a five-year spending freeze on all discretionary spending. It would also have replaced the Medicare system. Instead, it proposed that starting in 2021, the federal government would pay part of the cost of private medical insurance for individuals turning 65. Ryan's proposed budget would also have allowed taxpayers to opt out of the federal income taxation system with itemized deductions, and instead pay a flat 10 percent of adjusted gross income up to $100,000 and 25 percent on any remaining income. Ryan's proposed budget was heavily criticized by opponents for the lack of concrete numbers. It was ultimately rejected in the house by a vote of 293-137, with 38 Republicans in opposition.

In late January 2010, Ryan released a new version of his "Roadmap." It would give across the board tax cuts by reducing income tax rates; eliminating income taxes on capital gains, dividends, and interest; and abolishing the corporate income tax, the estate tax, and the alternative minimum tax. The plan would privatize a portion of Social Security, eliminate the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance, and privatize MediCare.

On April 15, 2011, the House passed the Ryan Plan by a vote of 235-193. No Democrats voted for it, and only four Republicans voted against. A month later, the bill died in the Senate by a vote of 57-40.

Economist and ''New York Times'' columnist Paul Krugman took issue with the contention that Ryan's plan would reduce the deficit, alleging that it only considered proposed spending cuts and failed to take into account the tax changes. According to Krugman, Ryan's plan "would raise taxes for 95 percent of the population" but would produce a $4 trillion revenue loss over ten years because of the tax cuts for the rich. Krugman went on to label the proposed spending cuts a "sham" because they depended on making a severe cut in domestic discretionary spending without specifying the programs to be cut, and on "dismantling Medicare as we know it", which is politically unrealistic.

In response to Krugman, economist and former American Enterprise Institute scholar Ted Gayer was more positive toward the Ryan plan. Gayer agreed that, as written, the plan would cause a $4 trillion revenue shortfall over 10 years. He noted, however, that Ryan had expressed a willingness to consider raising the rates in his tax plan. Gayer concluded that "Ryan’s vision of broad-based tax reform, which essentially would shift us toward a consumption tax, ... makes a useful contribution to this debate."

Ramesh Ponnuru, writing in National Review, argued that the revenue loss to which Krugman refers is based on a comparison between Ryan's plan and current law, which "includes middle-class tax increases...cuts in payment to Medicare providers...[and] the expansion of the Alternative Minimum Tax." He added that "current law automatically raises the tax rates to pre-Bush levels in 2013...so if you're comparing the tax level with current law, Ryan's plan represents a tax cut" and "the CBO's actual projections for the Ryan plan show a debt level in 2021 that is $4.7 trillion lower than its projections for Obama's budgets."

Rick Foster, the chief actuary of Medicare, endorsed Ryan's plan as the best way to save Medicare from going bankrupt: "I would say that the Roadmap has that potential. There is some potential for the Affordable Care Act price reductions, although I'm a little less confident about that."

Political campaigns

Ryan was first elected to the House in 1998 when two-term incumbent Mark Neumann retired from his seat in order to make an unsuccessful bid for the Senate. Ryan won both a Republican primary over 29-year-old pianist Michael J. Logan of Twin Lakes, and the general election against Democratic opponent Lydia Spottswood. Ryan successfully defended his seat against Democratic challenger Jeffrey C. Thomas in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

2008

Ryan defeated Democratic nominee Marge Krupp by a wide margin in the 2008 general election.

2010

Ryan defeated both Democratic nominee John Heckenlively and Libertarian nominee Joseph Kexel by a wide margin in the 2010 general election.

Electoral history

Year			! District	Democrat		Republican		Other
style="text-align: left;">1998
style="text-align: left;"	2000
style="text-align: left;"	2002
style="text-align: left;"	2004
style="text-align: left;"	2006

Personal life

Ryan married Janna Little, a tax attorney, in December 2001. The Ryans live in Janesville with their three children: Elizabeth Anne Ryan, Charles Wilson Ryan, and Samuel Lowery Ryan.

Ryan is a practicing Catholic and is a member of St. John Vianney’s Parish.

References

External links

Congressman Paul Ryan ''official U.S. House site''

Paul Ryan for U.S. Congress ''official campaign site''

A Roadmap for America's Future Paul Ryan's alternative to the United States federal budget

Profile at SourceWatch

Health Care Reform: The Long-Term Perspective at Cato Institute, June 2009

Monitor Breakfast conversation on medicare voucher reform at Christian Science Monitor, December 2010

Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin Category:Miami University alumni Category:People from Janesville, Wisconsin Category:Wisconsin Republicans

de:Paul Ryan (Politiker) it:Paul Ryan ja:ポール・ライアン pl:Paul Ryan (polityk) sh:Paul Ryan (političar) sv:Paul Ryan (politiker)

Coordinates	32°30′20″N45°49′29″N
Name	Ben Stein
Birth name	Benjamin Jeremy Stein
Birth date	November 25, 1944
Birth place	Washington, D.C., United States
Nationality	American
Party	Republican
Occupation	Actor, writer, commentator, lawyer, teacher, humorist
Religion	Jewish
Yearsactive	1970–present
Home page	http://www.benstein.com
Emmyawards	Daytime Emmy - Outstanding Game Show Host 1999 ''Win Ben Stein's Money''with Jimmy Kimmel
Spouse	Alexandra Denman (1968-1974; 1977-present)
Children	Tom (adopted) }}

Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American actor, writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic issues. He attained early success as a speechwriter for American presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Later he entered the entertainment field and became an actor, comedian, and Emmy Award-winning game show host.

Stein has frequently written commentaries on economic, political, and social issues, along with financial advice to individual investors. He is the son of economist and writer Herbert Stein, who worked at the White House under President Nixon. His sister, Rachel, is also a writer. While as a character actor he is well-known for his droning, monotone delivery, in real life he is a public speaker on a wide range of economic and social issues.

Biography

Early years

Stein was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Mildred (née Fishman), a homemaker, and Herbert Stein, a writer, economist, and presidential adviser. He is Jewish and grew up in the Woodside Forest neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland. Stein graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in 1961 along with classmate journalist Carl Bernstein; actress Goldie Hawn (class of 1963) was two years behind. Actor Sylvester Stallone was a schoolmate at Montgomery Hills Junior High School. He went on to major in economics at Columbia University's Columbia College, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi society and the Philolexian Society. After graduating with honors from Columbia in 1966, Stein went to Yale Law School, graduating in June 1970. He says that he did not have the highest grades in his class at Yale, but was voted valedictorian by the students because he was most popular.

Legal and academic career

He was first a poverty lawyer in New Haven, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. before becoming a trial lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission.

Stein's first teaching stint was as an adjunct professor, teaching about the political and social content of mass culture at American University in Washington, D.C. He subsequently taught at University of California, Santa Cruz holding classes on the political and civil rights of the United States Constitution. At Pepperdine University in Southern California, Stein taught libel law and United States securities law and its ethical aspects. He was a professor of law at Pepperdine University Law School, from about 1990 to 1997.

Stein was the commencement speaker for the Liberty University 2009 graduation on Saturday, May 9, at Williams Stadium. At this ceremony, the University awarded him an honorary degree. According to the school, Stein "delivered a message about intelligent design, patriotism, and value for humanity to graduates and their families."

Writing career

Stein writes frequently on a variety of topics, including politics, investing, and economics. He writes a regular column in the conservative magazines ''The American Spectator'' and ''Newsmax''. He has also written for numerous publications including ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The New York Times'', ''New York Magazine'', ''Penthouse'', ''Los Angeles Magazine'', and ''Barron's Magazine'', where his discussion of the Michael Milken Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond situation, as well as the ethical dimensions of management buyouts, attracted heavy US national attention in the 1980s and 1990s. He wrote a regular biweekly column for ''Yahoo! Finance'' online, with his last article dated August 7, 2009. His bestselling books (with investment advisor Phil DeMuth) include ''Yes, You Can Retire Comfortably'', ''Can America Survive?'', and ''Yes, You Can Time the Market''. In 2009, he published a collection of essays, ''The Real Stars''.

Stein was fired from his position as a Sunday Business columnist at ''The New York Times'' in August 2009 due to a policy forbidding writers from performing product endorsements or advertising. Stein had recently become an advertising spokesperson for credit information company FreeScore.com, and according to a ''Times'' statement, had assumed there would be no conflict provided that he did not discuss credit scoring in general or FreeScore.com itself in his column. However, the publication felt that it would be inappropriate for him to write for them while he was involved in advertising, and terminated his contract. Writing in ''The Spectator'', Stein states his belief that the real reasons for his firing were budget cuts at the ''Times'', his criticism of President Obama, and pressure from those critical of ''Expelled'', who "bamboozled some of the high pooh-bahs at the ''Times'' into thinking there was a conflict of interest".

Political career

Stein began his political career as a speechwriter and lawyer for President Richard Nixon, and later for President Gerald Ford. On May 3, 1976, ''Time'' magazine speculated on the possibility of Stein having actually been Deep Throat. Stein responded over the years by not only denying he was Deep Throat, but by going further and accusing journalist Bob Woodward of falsifying the famous secret source. In the May 14–21, 1998 edition of the ''Philadelphia City Paper'', Stein is quoted saying, "Oh, I don't think there was a Deep Throat. That was a fake. I think there were several different sources and some they just made up." After Mark Felt's identity as Deep Throat was revealed, Stein stated that Richard Nixon would have prevented the rise to power of the Khmer Rouge if he had not been forced to resign. For his actions leading to that resignation, Stein said:

In 2005, Stein said in the ''American Spectator'':

On June 24, 2008, Stein received the Freedom of Expression Award at the Entertainment Merchants Association’s Home Entertainment Awards for "his outspoken economic and political beliefs."

Career in the media

Stein became a Hollywood consultant before he moved into acting. His film career was launched by his performance as the monotonous economics teacher in the 1986 movie ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off''. In one scene, he gives an unscripted economics lecture, relying on his own experience in economics. The topics covered in his lecture are the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 and the then-current debate over supply-side economics. The film's director John Hughes told him to speak about something he knew well. The only scripted lines are those in which he calls attendance, repeating "Bueller?...Bueller?" in a monotone voice.

Stein played similarly bland and unemotional characters. He had a recurring role in the TV series ''The Wonder Years'' and played himself in ''Dave''.

He also appeared in several television commercials, most notably for the product "Clear Eyes" throughout the 1990s and 2000s ''("The difference is clear…Clear Eyes." "Clear Eyes, Wow!")''—many ads spoof movies of the day, such as one where Stein is a painter (a play on ''The Da Vinci Code''). Stein's deadpan, monotone deliveries stand in stark contrast to the more typical enthusiasm of commercial personalities. Before this, he appeared for a Godfather's Pizza ad in 1987 and as a bland science teacher in a 1990 ad for Sprinkled Chips Ahoy Cookies.

In 1997, Stein was given his own game show by Comedy Central titled ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' along with co-host Jimmy Kimmel (replaced by Nancy Pimental and later by Sal Iacono). True to its name, the money that contestants won on the show was subtracted from the $5,000 Stein earned per episode (in addition to his salary). The show won five Daytime Emmy Awards before ending its run in 2003.

In 1999, during the height of ''Win Ben Stein's Money'''s popularity, Comedy Central gave Stein another show, a talk show with celebrity guests entitled ''Turn Ben Stein On''. One of the mainstays of the show was Stein's dog, Puppy Wuppy, who had free run of the set.

Other movies and television shows in which Ben Stein has appeared include ''Charles in Charge''; ''Seinfeld''; ''Full House''; ''Casper''; ''Casper: A Spirited Beginning''; ''Casper Meets Wendy''; ''The Mask'' and its sequel, ''Son of the Mask'' as well as the TV show, ''The Mask: The Animated Series''; ''Earthworm Jim''; ''Star Search''; ''MacGyver''; ''Richie Rich''; ''Game Show Moments Gone Bananas''; ''Cavuto on Business''; ''The O'Reilly Factor''; ''CBS News Sunday Morning''; ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles''; ''Family Guy''; the Michael Berger-hosted version of ''Match Game''; ''Fairly Odd Parents''; ''Duckman''; ''Married... with Children''; ''The Emperor's New School''; ''My Girl 2''; and the intelligent design vs. evolution documentary'' Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed''.

In addition, Stein's voice roles include The Pixies, magical creatures on the animated series ''The Fairly OddParents''; Mr. Purutu on the animated Series ''The Emperor's New School''; Professor Wisenstein in ''Bruno the Kid''; the birthday party clown on ''The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius''; and Pip on ''Animaniacs''. Stein also voiced a psychiatrist, again named after himself, in the USA TV series ''Duckman''; he once appeared in the sitcom ''Married with Children'' as a receptionist in the animal afterlife. He also made a cameo appearance in the comic book ''Young Justice'', as Ali Ben Styn. Another cameo appearance was in the ''Family Guy'' episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein". Stein also voiced the character Sam Schmaltz in the 1996 computer adventure game ''Toonstruck''.

In addition, Stein has written for the television industry, including outlines for the TV movie ''Murder in Mississippi'' and for the lengthy ABC miniseries ''Amerika''. He has also contributed to the creation of the well-liked TV comedy ''Fernwood 2 Night''.

Ben Stein hosted a show on VH1 called ''America's Most Smartest Model''. The show aimed to find the smartest among fourteen models through a series of challenges.

On May 14, 2006, during an appearance on the Fox News program ''Your World with Neil Cavuto'', Stein called for a tax increase of 3.5% for wealthy Americans, to be earmarked for soldiers and military initiatives. Indeed, Stein wrote an editorial for ''The New York Times'' critical of those who would rather make money in the world of finance than fight terrorism.

On December 28, 2009, Stein appeared on CNN's Larry King Live with Dr. Ron Paul to discuss the attempted bombing of an American plane on Christmas Day 2009. Stein said that Dr. Paul's stance that the United States were "occupiers" in Iraq and Afghanistan "is the same anti-Semitic argument we've heard over and over again." The comment started a shouting match between the two men and prompted anger from Dr. Paul's supporters and those who believe Stein went too far in calling Paul's argument anti-Semitic. Stein issued an apology on December 30, 2009.

He is an occasional political and economics commentator on CNBC's ''Kudlow & Company''.

Financial and economic commentary

In the period preceding the Late-2000s recession, Stein made frequent and vehement claims that the economy was not in recession, and that the issues in the housing market would not affect the broader economy. On March 18, 2007, in a column for ''CBS News''' online version of ''CBS News Sunday Morning'', Stein famously proclaimed in the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis that the foreclosure problem would "blow over and the people who buy now, in due time, will be glad they did," the economy was "still very strong," and the "smart money" was "now trying to buy — not sell — as much distressed merchandise" in mortgages as possible.

In an August 12, 2007 column in the New York Times titled "Chicken Little’s Brethren, on the Trading Floor", Stein, while acknowledging "I don’t know where the bottom is on subprime. I don’t know how bad the problems are at Bear (Bear Stearns)" claimed that "subprime losses are wildly out of all proportion to the likely damage to the economy from the subprime problems," and "(t)his economy is extremely strong. Profits are superb. The world economy is exploding with growth. To be sure, terrible problems lurk in the future: a slow-motion dollar crisis, huge Medicare deficits and energy shortages. But for now, the sell-off seems extreme, not to say nutty. Some smart, brave people will make a fortune buying in these days, and then we’ll all wonder what the scare was about." That week, the Dow Jones closed at 13,239.54; as of August 2011, the market has yet to return to this level.

On August 18, 2007, on Fox News Channel's ''Cavuto on Business'', Stein appeared with other financial experts dismissing worries of a coming credit crunch. The lone dissenter was Peter Schiff, who predicted that the mortgage sector would create a crisis leading to massive recession, a view that produced laughter from the other experts. Stein strongly recommended investing in then-troubled financial institutions.

Ben Stein: The credit crunch is way overblown. The [financial institutions] are being given away; they're so unbelievably cheap...The subprime problem is a problem, but it's a tiny problem in the context of this economy...It's a buying opportunity, especially for the financials, maybe like I've never seen before in my entire life.

[...]

Peter Schiff: This is just getting started. It's not just subprimes. This is a problem for the entire mortgage industry. It's not just people with bad credit that committed to mortgages they couldn't afford. It's not just people with bad credit who are going to see their home equity vanish... This is going to be an enormous credit crunch...

Neil Cavuto: You must be a laugh-riot at parties.

(LAUGHTER)

[...]

Ben Stein: ...subprime is tiny. Subprime is a tiny, tiny blip.

Peter Schiff: It's not tiny. And again, it's not just subprime. It's the entire mortgage market.

Ben Stein: You're simply wrong about that... Defaults for the whole mortgage market are tiny.

[...]

Ben Stein: I think stocks will be a heck of a lot higher a year from now than they are now.

Thirteen months later, in the Global Financial Crisis of September 2008, global stock markets crashed, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the US government, AIG was bailed out by the Federal Reserve, Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America Corporation, and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs confirmed that they would become traditional bank holding companies.

In a Yahoo! Finance article written on October 17, 2008, Stein explained that his understanding of the debt obligations based on real estate loans was less than the "staggeringly large" amount of obligations that were created through trade in derivatives of those, and so why it wasn't as similar to collapse of junk bond empire in early 1990s as he'd thought it would be: "Where I missed the boat was not realizing how large were the CDS [credit default swaps] based on the junk mortgage bonds."

For these and other perceived errors, Stein has been criticized by other economic writers. Beginning in September 2007, economic blogger Felix Salmon had a feature on his Portfolio.com "Market Movers" blog entitled "Ben Stein Watch," which deconstructed his weekly New York Times opinion columns and generally found them wanting in economic insight. After moving to Reuters.com, Salmon announced that he would end the Ben Stein Watch feature, explaining:

By the time I left Portfolio, the Ben Stein Watch archives... amounted to 60 separate blog entries, totaling 33,776 words. And although they were popular, they never achieved their stated aim: Stein is still writing for the NYT. But I’m putting the BSW to an end right now.

One reason is that Stein’s columns have ceased to be infuriating to me: instead they tend to lie somewhere between boring and incomprehensible. Another reason is that if Stein couldn’t get himself fired from the NYT for making Expelled , there’s simply no way that a lone blogger is going to have any effect.

However, Salmon continues to make criticism of Stein a regular feature of his blog.

Business commentator Henry Blodgett wrote a piece for Business Insider in January 2008 entitled "Ben Stein is an Idiot," stating that Stein's criticism of those with bearish views and positions on the market was either "delusional," or a deliberate and "shrewd" attempt to create false controversy and drive up web traffic.

Political views

Abortion

Stein is a pro-life activist and was given a Pro-Life Award in 2003 by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund.

Larry Craig scandal

In 2007, Stein chastised the police and the GOP leadership for their response to the Larry Craig scandal. Stein said that Craig's sexuality should not be an issue: "A party that believes in individual rights should be rallying to his defense, not making him walk the plank."

Tax code

Though often labeled as a political and economic conservative, Stein has criticized the U.S. tax code for being too lenient on the wealthy. He has repeated the observation made by Warren Buffett, one of the richest individuals in the world (who pays mostly capital gains tax), that Buffett pays a lower overall tax rate than his secretaries (who pay income taxes and payroll taxes). Stein has advocated increasing taxation on the wealthy. However, in 2010, after Obama proposed not extending tax cuts for the highest earning taxpayers, Stein stated he was being punished, saying: "But for what? I don't own slaves. I employ a lot of people full- and part-time and they are all happy with their pay. When charity calls, I almost always write out a check. I don't have a yacht or ponies or a plane. My wife doesn't wear a tiara. I don't gamble."

Other

Ben Stein endorsed Democrat Al Franken in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race, calling him an "impressive guy". That year, he also stated that he would vote for Ralph Nader for President.

Invesco Field interview

Stein drew fire for a 2008 interview with Glenn Beck in which Stein compared U.S. President Barack Obama's campaign rally at Invesco Field to Adolf Hitler's Nazi rallies at Nuremberg. ''The Economist'' called Stein's invocation of Nazism an intentional use of Reductio ad Hitlerum fallacy to distract from the campaign.

Intelligent design

Stein has denounced evolution, which he and other intelligent design advocates call "Darwinism", declaring it to be "a painful, bloody chapter in the history of ideologies," "the most compelling argument yet for Imperialism," and the inspiration for the Holocaust. Stein does not say belief in evolution alone leads to genocide, but that scientific materialism is a necessary component. He co-wrote and stars in ''Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed'', a film that aims to persuade viewers that evolution was instrumental to the rise of the eugenics movement, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, and portrays advocates of intelligent design as victims of intellectual discrimination by the scientific community, which has rejected intelligent design as creationist pseudoscience.

The general media response to the film has been largely unfavorable. It received a 10% meta-score from Rotten Tomatoes. Multiple reviews, including those of ''USA Today'' and ''Scientific American'', have described the film as propaganda. Despite more recent works being listed on his personal website, Stein's own filmography page has not been updated yet to include Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (as of July 2011)''.

In a Trinity Broadcasting Network interview with Paul Crouch Jr. regarding Stein's movie, Stein made the following statement about science and religion:

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers, talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.

Due in part to the notoriety he received for a talk he gave on economics at the University of Vermont, Stein was invited to be the commencement speaker at the graduation ceremony for the class of 2009. After the announcement, university president, Dan Fogel, notified Stein that a number of people had complained about Stein speaking at the commencement and receiving an honorary degree from the school, so that when he came he "would not be blindsided". The complaints were because his views of science were "affronts to the basic tenets of the academy." Due to the furor, Stein declined his commencement invitation.

Personal life

Stein is twice married to entertainment lawyer Alexandra Denman, with whom he has an adopted son. He lives with Denman in Beverly Hills and Malibu, California. Stein also has a summer home in Sandpoint, Idaho. Stein also owns an apartment in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., which he inherited from his parents.

Bibliography

Stein's book titles to date (7 fiction, 21 nonfiction) include:

! Year !! Title !! Publisher !! ISBN
rowspan="2"
''On the Brink: A Novel'' (coauthor: Herbert Stein)	Ballantine Books
	''Dreemz'' (hardcover: ''California Dreemz'')	Ballantine Books
	''The View from Sunset Boulevard: America as brought to you by the people who make television''	Basic Books
	''′ Ludes''	St. Martin's Press
	''Her Only Sin''	St. Martin's Press
	''Hollywood Days, Hollywood Nights: the Diary of a Mad Screenwriter''	Bantam Books
	''A License to Steal: the Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation''	Simon & Schuster
	''How to Ruin Your Life''	Hay House
	''How to Ruin Your Love Life''	Hay House
rowspan="2"	''How to Ruin Your Financial Life''	Hay House
''Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It''	New Beginnings Press
rowspan="2"	''Yes, You Can Be a Successful Income Investor: Reaching for Yield in Today's Market''	New Beginnings Press
''Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably: The Baby-Boom Retirement Crisis and how to Beat It''	New Beginnings Press
	''How Successful People Win: Using "Bunkhouse Logic" to Get What You Want in Life''	Hay House
	''The Real Stars: In Today's America, Who Are the True Heroes?''	New Beginnings Press
	''How to Ruin the United States of America''	New Beginnings Press

References

External links

Ben Stein's Official Website

Ben Stein's column on Yahoo! Finance

Category:1944 births Category:Actors from Washington, D.C. Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American game show hosts Category:Washington, D.C. Republicans Category:American Jews Category:American lawyers Category:The American Spectator people Category:American speechwriters Category:American television actors Category:American University faculty and staff Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Connecticut lawyers Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:Intelligent design advocates Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish American writers Category:Jewish creationists Category:Jewish comedians Category:Living people Category:People from Beverly Hills, California Category:People from Montgomery County, Maryland Category:People from Washington, D.C. Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Category:Washington, D.C. lawyers Category:Watergate figures Category:Writers from California Category:Writers from Maryland Category:Writers from Washington, D.C. Category:Yale Law School alumni Category:People from Silver Spring, Maryland Category:People from Sandpoint, Idaho Category:American pro-life activists

de:Ben Stein fr:Ben Stein nl:Ben Stein ja:ベン・スタイン pt:Ben Stein simple:Ben Stein sv:Ben Stein

Coordinates	32°30′20″N45°49′29″N
name	Jeremy Kyle
birth date	July 07, 1965
birth place	Canning Town, London, England
nationality	British
other names	''Jezza''
known for	''The Jeremy Kyle Show''
education	University of Surrey
employer	''ITV''
years active	1996–present
occupation	Broadcaster
spouse	(divorced)
children	4
website	}}

Jeremy Kyle (born 7 July 1965) is a British radio and television presenter, best known for his British daytime television chat show on ITV, ''The Jeremy Kyle Show''.

Radio career

From 1986 to 1995, Kyle worked as a salesman for life assurance, recruitment, and radio advertising. After a brief stint presenting on Orchard FM in Taunton and Leicester Sound in Leicester, he was signed by Kent's Invicta FM in 1996. In 1997, he joined Birmingham's BRMB, presenting the shows ''Late & Live'' and ''Jezza's Jukebox''.

In 2000, Kyle moved to the Century FM network, taking this format with him. The show was called ''Jezza's Confessions''. It broadcast between 9 pm and 1 am. He won a Sony Award for ''Late & Live'' in 2001. On 1 July 2002, he made his first broadcast on Virgin Radio, presenting ''Jezza's Virgin Confessions'' every weekday 8 pm – Midnight. In mid 2003 he broadcast the show from 9 pm – 1am every weekday and, in January 2004, the show went out 10 pm – 1am Sunday – Thursday. The beginning of June 2004 saw his departure from Virgin Radio.

In July 2004, Capital Radio announced it had signed Kyle to present the ''Confessions'' show on London's Capital FM from 5 September 2004. The new programme aired from Sunday to Thursday 10 pm – 1am including live calls on relationship issues of all kinds. ''Capital Confessions'' came to an end on 22 December 2005, to make way for ''The Jeremy Kyle Show'', a similar show which ran from January 2006 to December 2006, at which point Kyle left radio altogether.

In late 2007, Kyle began a new show (''The Jeremy Kyle Show''), broadcasting across Gcap Media's One Network, of which Orchard FM, Invicta FM and BRMB, his previous employers, are a part. The programme differs from his previous shows in that he now interviews other celebrities. Kyle also began broadcasting a new show, on Essex FM, in November 2007.

In July 2008, it was announced that Kyle would be joining Talksport from 21 September 2008 to present a lunchtime sports show every Sunday called ''The Jeremy Kyle Sunday Sports Show''.

As a result of Talksport's premiership coverage on a Sunday Jeremy's show was cancelled and as a result Jeremy left the station.

TV career

In 2005 Kyle moved his format to ITV, with a programme also entitled ''The Jeremy Kyle Show''. Here Kyle has reached his widest audience to date. His often aggressive manner with guests has been the source of both popularity and criticism. He is seemingly unafraid of reprisal from his guests, believing that speaking his mind is better than holding his peace. Guests sometimes take offence at Kyle's comments, one guest even attempting to throw a chair at him, whilst another threw an envelope at the back of his head, but he often justifies his criticism by claiming that he only wants to help them. Kyle recently claimed on air that his show was watched by 1.8 million viewers, a very high figure for a daytime chat show. The programme has also been parodied in the BBC comedy ''The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle''.

In September 2007, Judge Alan Berg described ''The Jeremy Kyle Show'' as trash which existed to "titillate bored members of the public with nothing better to do". He went on to say "It seems to me that the purpose of this show is to affect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people whose lives are in turmoil" and added that it was "human bear-baiting". The judge so characterised it "after [a] husband was provoked into headbutting [his] wife's lover in front of [Kyle's] studio audience".

In February 2008, ''The Jeremy Kyle Show'' was again criticised in court after a man who found out during the recording of a show that he was not the father of his wife's baby later pointed an air rifle at her.

Other shows Kyle is involved with include ''Kyle's Academy'', a ten part series for ITV1 daytime which first aired on 18 June 2007. A team of experts (life coaches and psychotherapists), headed by Jeremy Kyle take 5 people and work with them over an intensive fortnight to help them on the road to a happier more fulfilled life.

Kyle also presented 6 episodes of the Children's show, Fun House, whilst regular presenter Pat Sharp was on holiday . Kyle has also presented ''Half Ton Hospital'', a show about morbidly obese people in the United States. In December 2009 he played himself in ITV1's comedy-drama ''The Fattest Man in Britain''.

On the 19 April 2011, Kyle began presenting a new documentary series, called ''Military Driving School'' where Kyle visits the Defence School Of Transport in Yorkshire, following a group of new recruits as they undergo training as drivers for the front line.

In July 2011, It was announced that Kyle is to be the presenter of a new ITV1 Game show, titled ''High Stakes.'' Billed as a game of 'knowledge, risk and tension', the premise of the new quiz show involves participants answering questions and stepping on the correct six squares on a grid in order to avoid trap numbers.

Writing career

Kyle writes a column for ''Pick Me Up'', a women's weekly magazine published by IPC. In his column, titled ''Jeremy Kyle Says...'', Kyle adopts a frank style in responding to readers' problems that closely resembles the approach he takes on The Jeremy Kyle Show.

In 2009 Kyle wrote his first book, 'I'm Only Being Honest', about Britain's social problems and his views on how to solve them including recounts of his past and personal life.

Personal life

Kyle was born in the Canning Town area of London. His father was an accountant and personal secretary to the Queen Mother. He attended the independent Reading Blue Coat School in Sonning, Berkshire and studied history and sociology at University of Surrey.

He met his first wife, Kirsty Rowley, in the autumn of 1988, when he was a recruitment consultant in an agency in Bristol. They became a couple within a fortnight, and were engaged two months after that, in December. They married in Almondsbury near Bristol seven months later, in July 1989. Their daughter, Harriet, was born eleven months after that, in June 1990. The marriage ended just five months after that, in November 1990. His wife claims that Kyle had carefully concealed a destructive and expensive gambling habit from her over the course of their marriage. This included stealing money from her bank account, and accumulating thousands of pounds of debt to fund his habit. He is reported to have had several affairs during his short lived marriage.

He met former model Carla Germaine in 1999, when he was presenting on a BRMB radio show, and Germaine entered the controversial ''Two Strangers and a Wedding'' contest hosted by the station. As the winner of the bride part of the contest, her prize was to marry the selected groom, Greg Cordell. Their marriage lasted only three months, after claims that Greg had an affair just days after their honeymoon, and she subsequently married Kyle in 2002. They since have two daughters together named Alice (born January 2004) and Ava (born October 2005) and a son named Henry (born March 2009).

Kyle is a supporter of West Ham United. He suffers from obsessive–compulsive disorder and has stated that he "licks his mobile phone to make sure it's clean", as stated in his book "I'm Only Being Honest".

Kyle has described his opinion on "Broken Britain": :''I think it starts with the breakdown of the family unit. Society should invest more in our kids. There should be community centres and youth clubs. And our benefits system – it's the greatest in the modern world. But there are loopholes and people taking advantage.''

References

External links

''The Jeremy Kyle Show'' at itv.com

Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the University of Surrey Category:British radio DJs Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:English radio personalities Category:English television presenters Category:People from Canning Town Category:Virgin Radio (UK) Category:People of Scottish descent Category:British television talk show hosts Category:People educated at Reading Blue Coat School

cy:Jeremy Kyle

Coordinates	32°30′20″N45°49′29″N
name	Sufjan Stevens
landscape	yes
background	solo_singer
born	July 01, 1975
origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, banjo, sitar, piano, xylophone, vibraphone, English Horn, oboe, drums, recorder
genre	Indie folk, baroque pop, folk rock, alternative, electronica, experimental
occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter
years active	1999–present
label	Asthmatic KittySounds FamilyreOrchard
associated acts	Cryptacize, Danielson Famile, Denison Witmer, Marzuki, My Brightest Diamond, Rosie Thomas, The Welcome Wagon, Jeffrey Lewis, The National
website	www.asthmatickitty.com/sufjan-stevens
notable instruments	}}

Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, ''A Sun Came''. He is best known for his 2005 album, ''Illinois'', which hit number one in the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the song "Chicago".

Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of ''Enjoy Your Rabbit'' and the lo-fi folk of ''Seven Swans'' to the symphonic instrumentation of ''Illinois'' and Christmas-themed ''Songs for Christmas''. Stevens makes use of a variety of instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording, and writes music in various time signatures. He is considered part of the folk revival in indie pop, but his influences are very broad. His music has been likened to electronica and aesthetically compared to the minimalism of Steve Reich. Though he has repeatedly stated an intent to separate his beliefs from his music, Stevens also freely draws from the Bible and other spiritual traditions, incorporating mystical elements into his music often.

Biography

Early life

Stevens was born in Detroit and lived there until the age of nine, when his family moved to Petoskey, Michigan. In Petoskey he attended the Petoskey High School, the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy and graduated from Harbor Light Christian School. He went on to attend Hope College in Holland, Michigan and earned a Master of Fine Arts from The New School in New York City.

''Sufjan'' is a Persian name meaning "comes with a sword". It predates Islam and most famously belonged to Abu Sufyan, a figure from early Islamic history. The name was given to Stevens by the founder of Subud, an inter-faith spiritual community to which his parents belonged when he was born.

A multi-instrumentalist, Stevens is known for his use of the banjo, but also plays guitar, piano, drums, and several other instruments, often playing all of these on his albums through the use of multitrack recording. While in school, he studied the oboe and English horn, which he also plays on his albums. This multitude of instruments, including string and horn orchestrations, figure prominently in his compositions, giving his music a symphonic sound.

Stevens currently lives in Kensington, Brooklyn, in New York City, where he makes up the Brooklyn staff of Asthmatic Kitty Records. His brother Marzuki Stevens is a nationally recognized marathon runner.

Career

Stevens began his musical career as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band from Holland, Michigan. He also played (and continues to play) various instruments for Danielson Famile. While in school at Hope College, Stevens wrote and recorded his debut solo album, ''A Sun Came'', which he released on Asthmatic Kitty Records. He later moved to New York City, where he was enrolled in a writing program at the New School for Social Research.

While in New York, Stevens composed and recorded the music for his second album, ''Enjoy Your Rabbit'', a song cycle based around the animals of the Chinese Zodiac that delved into electronica.

Stevens followed this with the first album to be released as a part of his "Fifty States Project", a collection of folk songs and instrumentals inspired by his home state of Michigan. The result, the expansive ''Michigan'' included odes to cities including Detroit and Flint, the Upper Peninsula, and vacation areas such as Tahquamenon Falls. Melded into the scenic descriptions and characters are his own declarations of faith, sorrow, love, and the regeneration of Michigan.

Following the release of ''Michigan'', Stevens compiled a collection of songs recorded previously into a side project, the album ''Seven Swans'', which was released in March 2004.

Next he released the second in the 50 states project, titled ''Illinois''. Among the subjects explored on ''Illinois'' are the cities of Chicago, Decatur and Jacksonville; the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the state's observance of a holiday in honor of Casimir Pulaski, the poet Carl Sandburg, and the serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Over the 2005 winter holidays, Stevens recorded an album with Rosie Thomas and Denison Witmer playing banjo and providing vocals. In April 2006, Pitchfork erroneously announced that Stevens and Thomas were having a baby together, but were forced to print a retraction. Witmer and Thomas later admitted it was an April Fools' prank. In December 2006, the collaborative recordings were digitally released by Nettwerk as a Rosie Thomas album titled ''These Friends of Mine''. The album was released in physical form on March 13, 2007.

On September 11, 2006, in Nashville, Tennessee, Stevens debuted a new composition, a ten minute-plus piece titled "Majesty Snowbird". On November 21, 2006, a five CD box set Songs for Christmas was released, which contains originals and Christmas standards recorded every year since 2001 (except 2004). Stevens undertook in the project initially as an exercise to make himself 'appreciate' Christmas more. The songs were the work of an annual collaboration between Stevens and different collaborators, including minister Vito Aiuto; the songs themselves were distributed to friends and family.

In April 2007, in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, Stevens made unannounced appearances on Thomas's tour in support of this album. In 2007 he did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon standing on a roof in Cincinnati. In 2007, he played shows sporadically, including playing at the Kennedy Center to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Stage concerts. He was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music to create a "music and film work" titled ''The BQE'', described as "a symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York City's infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway". It premiered at BAM's Next Wave festival on November 1–3, 2007. Stevens has also worked as an essayist, contributing to Asthmatic Kitty Records' "Sidebar" feature and ''Topic Magazine''. He wrote the introduction to the 2007 edition of ''The Best American Nonrequired Reading'', a short story about his early childhood education and learning to read titled ''How I Trumped Rudolf Steiner and Overcame the Tribulations of Illiteracy, One Snickers Bar at a Time''. That winter, he hosted an "Xmas Song Exchange Contest" in which winner Alec Duffy won exclusive rights to the original Stevens song "The Lonely Man of Winter." The track has never been uploaded, and can now only be heard by attending private listening parties at Duffy's home in Brooklyn.

Stevens has contributed to the music of Denison Witmer, Soul Junk, Half-handed Cloud, Brother Danielson, Danielson Famile, Serena Maneesh, Castanets, Will Stratton, Shannon Stephens, Clare & the Reasons, and Liz Janes. In 2007 alone, Stevens played piano on The National's album ''Boxer'', produced and contributed many instrumental tracks to Rosie Thomas's album ''These Friends of Mine'', multiple instruments on Ben + Vesper's album ''All This Could Kill You'' and oboe and vocals to David Garland's new album ''Noise in You''.

He has contributed covers of Tim Buckley ("She Is"), Joni Mitchell ("Free Man in Paris"), Daniel Johnston ("Worried Shoes"), John Fahey ("Variation on 'Commemorative Transfiguration & Communion at Magruder Park"), The Innocence Mission ("The Lakes of Canada"), Bob Dylan ("Ring Them Bells") and The Beatles ("What Goes On") to various tribute albums. His versions of "Free Man in Paris" and "What Goes On" are notable for only retaining the lyrics of the original, as Stevens has taken his own interpretation on the melody and arrangement. His rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" has a similar rearranged melody and arrangement as well as a whole new verse.

His song "The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders" was featured in the 2006 British comedy-drama ''Driving Lessons'', starring ''Harry Potter's'' Julie Walters and Rupert Grint. In 2008, he produced ''Welcome to the Welcome Wagon'', the debut album of Brooklyn-based husband and wife duo Vito and Monique Auito, The Welcome Wagon.

In February 2009, Stevens contributed "You Are the Blood" to the AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization. In April 2009, Stevens uploaded a song about director Sofia Coppola online. This song was written while Stevens was in college, from a series of songs about names.

Stevens recalled:

"[...] A few weeks later, our dog got hit by a snowplow and I forgot all about the problem of names. Until college, when I learned to play the guitar, and, as an exercise, started writing songs (very poorly executed) in the same way that Henry Ford produced the automobile: assembly-line-style. I wrote songs for the days of the week (poor Monday!). Songs for the planets (poor Pluto!). Songs for the Apostles (poor Judas!). And, finally, when all else failed, I started a series of songs for names. [...] Each piece was a rhetorical, philosophical, musical rumination on all the possible names I had entertained years before when my parents had given me the one chance to change my own. Oh fates! I sang these songs in the privacy of my dorm room, behind closed doors, pillows and cushions stuffed in the air vents so no one would hear. And then I almost failed Latin class, my grades plummeted, my social life dissolved into ping pong tournaments in the residence halls, and, gradually, my interest in music (or anything divine, creative, fruitful, enriching) completely waned. I turned to beer. And cigarettes. And TV sitcoms. And candy bars. Oh well! A perfectly good youth wasted on junk food! That is, until a few months ago, when I came across some of the old name songs, stuffed onto tape cassettes, 4-track recorders, forgotten boxes, forgotten shelves, forgotten hard drives. It was like finding an old diary, or a high school yearbook, senior picture with lens flare and pockmarks, slightly cute and embarrassing. What was I thinking? [...]"

In September 2009, Stevens began performing four new songs while on his Fall tour, "All Delighted People", "Impossible Soul", "Too Much" and "Age of Adz". That year Stevens contributed to an album with his step father, Lowell Brams, entitled ''Music For Insomnia''. The album was released December 8, 2009.

In November 2009, Stevens admitted to Exclaim! Magazine, in regard to the fact that he recently called his fifty-state project a joke, that "I don't really have as much faith in my work as I used to, but I think that's healthy. I think it's allowed me to be less precious about how I work and write. And maybe it's okay for us to take it less seriously."

In June 2010, The National's Bryce Dessner claimed Stevens is currently at work on his next full length album and stated the band is playing on the new album.

The Fifty States Project

Beginning with ''Michigan'', Stevens announced an intent to write an album for each of the fifty U.S. states.

Stevens spent the second half of 2004 researching and writing material for the second of these projects, this time focusing his efforts on ''Illinois''. As with ''Michigan'', Stevens used the state of Illinois as a leaping-off point for his more personal explorations of faith, family, love, and location. Though slated for general release on July 5, 2005, the album was briefly delayed by legal issues regarding the use of Superman in the original album cover artwork. In the double vinyl release, a balloon sticker has been placed over Superman on the cover art of the first 5,000 copies. The next printings had an empty space where the Superman image was, as with the CD release.

The widely acclaimed ''Illinois'' was the highest-rated album of 2005 on the Metacritic review aggregator site, based on glowing reviews from ''Pitchfork Media'', ''The Onion A/V Club'', ''Spin'', ''Billboard'', ''Entertainment Weekly'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''The New York Times'', KEXP, and ''The Guardian''. The 2006 PLUG Independent Music Awards awarded Stevens with the Album Of The Year, Best Album Art/Packaging, and Male Artist Of The Year. Pitchfork Media, No Ripcord, and Paste Magazine named ''Illinois'' as the editors' choice for best album of 2005 and Stevens received the 2005 Pantheon prize, awarded to noteworthy albums selling fewer than 500,000 copies, for ''Illinois''. In April 2006, Stevens announced that 21 pieces of music he had culled from the ''Illinois'' recording sessions would be incorporated into a new album, called ''The Avalanche'', which was released on July 11, 2006.

The next states to be taken on in the project have been reported as Oregon and Rhode Island. In late 2005 and early 2006 Stevens played a new instrumental track titled "The Maple River". There are various Maple Rivers in the U.S., in Minnesota, Iowa, North or South Dakota. There is also evidence to suggest the possibility of a New York album. Not only is Stevens's current residence in New York City, but at the footnote of his writing piece titled "Friend Rock", Stevens stated that he was reading a biography on Robert Moses, who is a notable New Yorker. In late 2007, Stevens debuted several new songs about New York, including "BQE", a track about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, one of many urban developments designed and spearheaded by Robert Moses.

Stevens made brief mention to a possible collaboration with Asthmatic Kitty labelmate Rafter on an album about California. Stevens also recorded "The Lord God Bird" about the reported sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to be extinct, in Arkansas (known as the 'lord god' or 'great god' bird because of its breathtaking appearance). This was in connection with a National Public Radio piece in which "independent radio producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister were curious about how Stevens writes his songs."

"Sufjan Stevens is not going to write a record for each of the 50 states after all" was the original text included on the online liner notes for their ''Mews Too: An Asthmatic Kitty Compilation'' disc released on February 7, 2006. This statement was possibly included as a joke, as the text has since been removed and the current liner notes related to Stevens reads, "18. Sufjan Stevens can fold a fitted-sheet (he once worked as a professional folder in a commercial laundromat)."

In an article published on February 24, 2008, in ''New York Magazine'', Stevens implied that New Jersey could be the target of his next state project. After he gave a brief quote about the New Jersey Turnpike, he was asked, "So is this the next musical project?" Sufjan joked, "New Jersey, the musical—an ode to the turnpike."

''The Guardian'' published an interview with Stevens on October 27, 2009, in which he stated in relation to the Fifty States Project: "I have no qualms about admitting it was a promotional gimmick".

''The BQE''

On May 31, 2007, Asthmatic Kitty announced that Stevens would be premiering a new project titled ''The BQE'' in early November 2007. The project, dubbed a "symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York City's infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway", was manifested in a live show. ''The BQE'' featured an original film by Stevens (shot in Super 8 mm film and standard 16 mm), while Stevens and a backing orchestra provided the live soundtrack. The performance used 36 performers which included a small band, a wind and brass ensemble, string players, horn players, and hula hoopers. There were no lyrics to the music. ''The BQE'' was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of their Next Wave Festival and performed on three consecutive nights from November 1–3, 2007.

The performance sold out the 2,109 seat BAM Opera House without any advertising. After three weeks of rehearsing the piece with the three dozen musicians involved, he presented the 30-minute composition. ''The BQE'' was followed by an additional one hour of concert by Stevens and his orchestra. ''The BQE'' won the 2008 Brendan Gill Prize.

The multimedia package was released on October 20, 2009. The release included a CD of the show's soundtrack, a DVD of Brooklyn-Queens Expressway footage that accompanied the original performance (not a film of the performance itself), a 40-page booklet with liner notes and photos, and a stereoscopic 3D View-Master reel. A limited edition version that features the soundtrack on 180-gram vinyl and a 40-page BQE-themed comic book starring the show's hula hooping wonder women, the Hooper Heroes, was also released.

''Run Rabbit Run''

On October 6, 2009 Stevens' label released an album of versions of his 2001 album ''Enjoy Your Rabbit'' rearranged for strings and performed by the Osso String Quartet, entitled ''Run Rabbit Run''.

''All Delighted People'' and ''The Age of Adz''

In 2010 Stevens was featured on The National's album ''High Violet'' in May and sang backing vocals for the band on The Late Show with David Letterman. Following the release of ''High Violet,'' band frontman Matt Berninger mentioned that Stevens was recording a new album in the band's studio and that The National would appear on some of the tracks. In early August, Stevens announced North American tour dates across dozens of cities. On August 20, 2010, Stevens suddenly and unexpectedly released a new collection of tracks, the ''All Delighted People'' EP, for digital download. The EP is built around two versions of the title track, "All Delighted People." The EP surprisingly rose to #27 on the Billboard 200 albums solely through its digital sales. On August 26, Asthmatic Kitty announced that Stevens would release his newest full length album, ''The Age of Adz'', on October 12. NPR streamed the album until it released October 12, 2010.

The two albums featured a wide range of arrangements, from orchestral to electronic. Song lengths were also extended as the track "Djohariah" from ''All Delighted People'' is 17 minutes long while "Impossible Soul" from ''The Age of Adz'' is 25 minutes long. The albums also feature many styles from disco to folk.

In interviews, Stevens has stated that, in 2009/10, he suffered from a mysterious debilitating virus infection that affected his nervous system. He experienced chronic pain, and was forced to stop working on music for several months. He said: "''The Age of Adz'', is, in some ways, a result of that process of working through health issues and getting much more in touch with my physical self. That's why I think the record's really obsessed with sensation and has a hysterical melodrama to it."

On October 12, 2010, Stevens began his North American tour in Montreal featuring virtually all new material from his newly released albums. The tour lasted a month and ended on November 15, 2010 in New York.

Stevens toured Australia and New Zealand in early 2011, featuring as part of The Sydney Festival, and appearing on-stage with The National during the last of three sold-out Auckland shows. He also toured around Europe in April and May 2011; this was the first time he has played there in 5 years. His shows mostly consisted of new material, but he did play many older tracks from ''Seven Swans'' and ''Illinois''.

Themes

Many of his songs have spiritual allusions. He says he does not try to make music for the sake of preaching. "I don't think music media is the real forum for theological discussions," says Stevens. "I think I've said things and sung about things that probably weren't appropriate for this kind of forum. And I just feel like it's not my work or my place to be making claims and statements, because I often think it's misunderstood."

Such themes are most notable on his album ''Seven Swans'', the songs "Abraham", "Seven Swans", "To Be Alone with You", "He Woke Me Up Again", "We Won't Need Legs to Stand" and "The Transfiguration" refer to Christian themes. In "Abraham", Stevens recounts the Old Testament story in the Book of Genesis. The lyrics of "The Transfiguration" appear to follow the Biblical accounts of Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9: 1–8, and Luke 9:28–36. The title of "All the Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands" is a quote from Isaiah 55:12.

During a 2004 interview with Adrian Pannett for ''Comes with a Smile'' magazine, when asked how important faith was to his music, he responded, "I don't like talking about that stuff in the public forum because, I think, certain themes and convictions are meant for personal conversation."

Discography

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |- ! rowspan="2"|Year ! rowspan="2"|Album ! colspan="5"|Peak chart positions |- ! style="width:35px;"|US ! style="width:35px;"|US H.S. ! style="width:35px;"|CAN ! style="width:35px;"|IRL ! style="width:35px;"|UK |- | 2000 | style="text-align:left;"|''A Sun Came'' | – | – | – | – | – |- | 2001 | style="text-align:left;"|''Enjoy Your Rabbit'' | – | – | – | – | – |- | 2003 | style="text-align:left;"|''Michigan'' | – | – | – | – | – |- | 2004 | style="text-align:left;"|''Seven Swans'' | – | – | – | – | – |- | 2005 | style="text-align:left;"|''Illinois'' | 121 | 1 | 23 | – | – |- | 2006 | style="text-align:left;"|''The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album'' | 71 | – | 93 | – | – |- | 2006 | style="text-align:left;"|''Songs for Christmas'' | 122 | – | – | – | – |- | 2009 | style="text-align:left;"|''The BQE'' | – | – | – | – | – |- | 2010 | style="text-align:left;"|''All Delighted People(EP)'' | 27 | – | – | – | – |- | 2010 | style="text-align:left;"|''The Age of Adz'' | 7 | – | 13 | 23 | 30 |}

References

External links

Sufjan Stevens – official site

Asthmatic Kitty – label page

Sounds Familyre – label page

Purevolume – official Purevolume site

Sufjan Stevens – Rateyourmusic

Photos from Town Hall

Interview with Vish Khanna

Interview with Sufjan Stevens by Gerry Visco, New York Press, "Give Me Your Ugly"

"All Quiet on the Midwestern Front," Cover Story by Susan Moll, Stomp & Stammer, September 2005

Sufjan Stevens performance from Austin City Limits, September 17, 2006

Live concert from the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Festival, January 2011 Sufjan Stevens: "Age of Adz", Sydney Opera House, January 2011.

Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:American banjoists Category:American composers Category:American folk musicians Category:American folk singers Category:American folk guitarists Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American oboists Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:Cor anglais players Category:People from Detroit, Michigan Category:People from Holland, Michigan Category:Rough Trade Records artists Category:Waldorf school alumni Category:Winners of the Shortlist Music Prize Category:American performers of Christian music Category:American Episcopalians Category:Musicians from Detroit, Michigan Category:Indie pop musicians Category:American electronic musicians Category:Folk rock musicians Category:Experimental musicians

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