That would be 13. Newsweek did a search of public records and discovered that in addition to Cindy's vanity-plated Lexus and McCain's Cadillac:

There's a 2005 Volkswagen convertible in the garage along with a 2001 Honda sedan. Otherwise, there's a 2007 half-ton Ford pickup truck, which might come in handy on the Sedona ranch; a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep; a 2008 Jeep Wrangler; a 2000 Lincoln; and a 2001 GMC SUV. The McCains also own three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles, which are bubble-shaped cars popular in retirement communities.

The Obama's have one car, a 2008 Ford Escape hybrid they bought last year to replace a gas-inefficient Chrysler 300C.

Feministing quotes a Salary.com study that claims - based on the tasks and hours involved - a stay-at-home mom's work is worth $116,805 a year. (They don't talk about stay-at-home dads, of course, but I guess we can assume they'd make 25% more?)

Feministing's editor says: I used to think these studies (that usually come out around Mother's Day) were cool - they showed that women's work in the informal economy was worth something. But more recently, it almost seems insulting. As if women who contribute at home get a once-a-year chance to brag about how much they're worth - and then it's back to cleaning up socks with no compensation.

That's a good point. Also, doesn't such a study seem at once to put too low a price on a parent's role in a child's life (which is invaluable) and too high a price on full-time childcare (which even at a living wage wouldn't approach six figures)?

According to WWD.com, Oprah recently did an interview with Black Enterprise magazine in which she revealed some of the counterintuitive secrets of her success. Here are the three business-advice takeaways:

1. Do Not Plan.
Oprah says: "I haven't planned one thing - ever. I have just been led by a strong instinct, and I have made choices based on what was right for me at the time."

2. Don't Care About Money
Oprah says: "I don't care about money. It throws people off all the time in business meetings. They start shuffling papers."

Time Warner Cable is going to start metering subscribers for their internet usage and charging users who go over their allotted gigabytes, reports the AP. The initial test of this new billing system will be tested in Texas starting Thursday.

Time Warner says it will affect very few users, as five percent of subscribers take up half of the cable line capacity. It's an effort to make things more fair for the 95% of subscribers who aren't doing huge uploads and downloads (although those numbers may change as film downloads become more popular with the new services now in the works).

A few other companies are considering metering, so this may be the future of internet access. Does anyone in Europe or from the old days in the U.S. have any thoughts about metering? Is it a step forward in making internet access more fair?

While government credit cards are meant to be used for "improving bureaucratic efficiency," a new audit indicates federal employees really use them for lavish dinners, online dating services, expensive electronics, and sexy nightwear. The audit, carried out by the Government Accountability Office, includes a rather interesting list of which governmental agencies use the credit cards for superfluous and unnecessary purchases.

For instance, a cardholder from the Agriculture Department spent more than $80,000 on a new Toyota Land Cruiser and Toyota Sienna. A total of $642,000 has been abused by the Agriculture Department for personal expenses, such as gambling, car and mortgage payments, and other retail goods. Even NASA took advantage and used the government plastic for two $400 iPods, personalized with engraved names. Four cardholders from the Defense Department spent $77,000 on expensive clothing from Brooks and Brothers, while the Postal Service treated themselves to $13,500 steak dinners and alcohol.

The federal government spends billions of dollars annually through its purchase cards program. In response to the exposure of unacceptable and unnecessary federal spending, the Government Accountability Office claims the "fiscal challenges facing the federal government demand that agencies do everything they can to operate as efficiently as possible."

Will the improper and abusive credit card charges cease to exist after the results of this audit? Where would federal officials find the money to pay for lingerie and dating services?

If you want more stories like this, watch TYT!

Isn't myth-debunking site Snopes the greatest?

Especially useful: their recent post on the misinformation floating around about when stimulus checks are going out.

Apparently, a popular email going around has some truth to it: the IRS will in fact be distributing checks based on the last two digits of taxpayers' social security numbers. But the email also has a flaw: the dates circulating are from 2001.

The reality is that the money will be coming much sooner, between May 16th and July 11th for most. So you know, start yacht-shopping now.

Speaking of which, what are you spending your stimulus check on, if you're getting one? Most people we know are throwing it in the gaping student-loan maw of Sallie Mae rather than doing anything especially stimulating.

A Brooklyn man with $800 in his Commerce Bank account went to make a withdrawal. Imagine his surprise when he was told by a teller that he had more than $5 million available.

Did he correct the agent? No, Benjamin Lovell, 48, withdrew $2 million, reports Reuters, and spent it on a series of bad investments and on jewelry for his girlfriend.

Eventually, of course, the bank realized the error. The cash in fact belonged to another Benjamin Lovell. But, by this point, the first Mr. Lovell only had $500,000 or so left over after his spree to return to the bank. He's now facing charges.

Some say it was the bank's fault and so the bank should pay for the mistake. Others, us among them, will say you have to know that if $5 million suddenly appears in your bank account, there has to be a catch.

So, would you have withdrawn the money, or would you have politely told the teller that you thought there had been a mistake?

In a recent Babble article called "Where, Oh Where Is Superfudge?" Rachel Shukert compared today's children's books to the ones she grew up with. Gen-X books were about clever middle-class kids like Judy Blume's heroes. By contrast:

In the New Children's Literature it's the hapless middle-classes - the normal kids - who ruin the fun, through either graceless social-climbing or trenchantly decrying the excess and shallowness that make being wealthy so delicious, so desirable, so sympathetic.

She makes a pretty great case that kids' entertainment has become all about the rich and beautiful.

A couple of months ago, one of our two cats got sick. We took him to the vet and, before we knew it, we owed $1,300.

Almost every pet owner we know has a similar story about paying hundreds or thousands to save a pet, so we wrote an article about it that's up today on Salon: "What I wouldn't do for my cat: After shelling out $1,300 on a vet bill, I had to wonder: How much is too much to pay for your pet?"

Here's an excerpt:

On a site unfortunately titled "Thrifty Fun," there's a "urinary blockage in cats" thread describing our same predicament, although some of the cat owners in there have already spent thousands. Mixed in with the complaints is some boasting: "What can I say? I love my cat!" is a recurring theme. In a Yahoo chat room on the subject, one person trying to figure out how to help his cat without spending so much money is attacked from all sides. One poster tells him, "You obviously could not care less about your cat or you would get it the medical care that it needs."

There's a story up on Salon right now by our colleague Sarah Hepola called "My big, fat, unpaid credit card debt," about how, without making any major purchases, she came to owe $10,000. Sarah is refreshingly upfront about the taboo subject of personal debt:

I was so broke, in fact, that I actually had no idea how broke I was. The exact number had become a mystery, something hidden (or, rather, stuffed) in the closet: I didn't know how much I owed on those credit cards, or how much was in my bank account, or whether that balance -- were I to check it online, which I did not do that month -- would be positive or negative. I knew I owed several thousand. Five freaking digits.