Funny you would put this up. I just watched Sicko last night and was thinking what a brilliant man Benn is. Coincidence? I don't think so.

MP, Tony Benn, in the movie Sicko, certainly articulated one of the methods the Oligarchy uses in order to control the great unwashed....."keep them demoralized" and they will not have time to question the delusion of safety and security that is foisted on us everyday by our trustworthy overlords. Now, if I did not have to work three jobs to stay behind I would do something about this mess.....Stop the Shopocalypse from destroying us all. Vote the only candidate with the gumption, track record and wherewithal to take down the Neocons....Dennis Kucinich!! Money Bomb the Kucinich Campaign until your credit card cries!

Nicole, I bought Sicko last week and watched it. I must say I'm utterly amazed at the misinformation and idiocy of any Americans that think they don't want to change their medicare to copy anyone's, including Canada's. I would be ashamed if my child was hurt and I had to decide what medical treatment I could afford. It's incredible that America "finds" any amount of money to kill people, but can't bring itself to give it's citizens healthcare without bankrupting them.

I had never heard of Tony Benn, but we could use a few like him over here in the states.

Want more? www.tonybenn.org

ENJOY!

Caution: Remember all those scary warnings about Socialism you were forced to swallow in history class? Well then, enter at your own risk. Or you can do the correct thing and enter with an open mind.......so9mething America seems to have lost the ability to do or it has been taken away from you.

Fuck yeah

Free healthcare in the United Kingdom isn't as rosey as Michael Moore makes it out to be. Almost 2 billion a year is wasted because of a serious alcohol abuse problem in the United Kingdom amongst teenagers. You're virtually paying for others lack of personal responsibility. I have friends in the UK who've not had to use the NHS in a decade, yet they've been paying for it. Not to forget the number of people who have to go overseas to get treatment due to the waiting times, and the fact that Europe has to hire nurses from Africa because nobody in the UK wants to get into the medical profession because the NHS pays poorly.

Everyone should have affordable healthcare, but Michael Moore overlooked the major problems with the British healthcare system, and makes it sound rosey.

I'd be all for it though if they brought our troops home and used the money on healthcare instead though. Better to be hundreds of billions in debt saving peoples lives than ending lives.

I've seen Tony Benn speak at a Q and A session live. I would kill to be as smart as this guy is now (let alone in his prime) for one day in my life.

radiant @ 8:

Steve @ 3:

MP, Tony Benn, in the movie Sicko, certainly articulated one of the methods the Oligarchy uses in order to control the great unwashed....."keep them demoralized" and they will not have time to question the delusion of safety and security that is foisted on us everyday by our trustworthy overlords. Now, if I did not have to work three jobs to stay behind I would do something about this mess.....Stop the Shopocalypse from destroying us all. Vote the only candidate with the gumption, track record and wherewithal to take down the Neocons....Dennis Kucinich!! Money Bomb the Kucinich Campaign until your credit card cries!

Steve, you are absolutely correct. It's the wisest thing I've heard coming from this site in 6 years.
But unfortunately mate, America doesn't work that way. You need a Brad Pitt look-a-like in the office or blue blood background.

Kucinich speaks in terms of; "diologue is needed between leaders, not ambassadors" ' and "American policy is dictactorial"....the man is practical. It's as close to how John Q. P thinks and it's John Q P who is the bulk of your country....yet, a handful of self-serving a-holes who are hell bent in filling their pockets with corporate blood money, paid for by American soldiers lives who run this country. Think democracy....RISE UP!
Kucinich epitomizes "the little people can be strong...if you band together".

it amazes me when i hear anyone declair hillery clintons one of us, since when? has she ever once done without anything shes wanted? she comes from a stuanch republican familly, backed barry goldwater against the democrats , changed her party only because she married bill clinton , you remember bill dont you, ? hes the guy who delivered nafta for the repigs , sure we had eight yrs of peace and prsoparity even a surplus but its all gone now ,it was only being built up so the republicans could steal it later for the rich ! its kind of like going to the carnival and playing the old shell game , they give you just enough wins till you pull your last dollar from your wallet and place it on the table , then its time to take everything back and leave you walking away scratching your head wondering where you fucked up, you fucked up by playing thier game its all rigged against you, want an honest game ? vote kucinich hes the only unfixed game in town!

The most poignant moment in that clip for me was the lady who mentioned that she's lost more relatives in Iraq in the last 4 years than in the prior 30 years under Saddam.

As for Bolton, it boggles the mind that this @ssclown was our head DIPLOMAT at the UN. One can only imagine all the "diplomacy" he was involved in.

Sorry world. Hangs head in shame...

Wow...

Wow...

I have not gotten literal goosebumps listening to someone talk in a long time...

Unbelievable. He's right on the money, every bit of it.

"We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind"

Does this ideology sound like something the Bush Administration is in step with or does it look like the Administration is marching towards causing a war?

This is the realization.

Bolton and Fieth should get together and start the dumbest frakkin think tank on the planet.

john bolton is as all the repigs in the bush crime familly a douchbag, when and if thiers going to be a history written on these war mongering thieves the true legacy of the bush gang will show just how rotton they all were , the bush library should be built in the shape of a toilet!

Tony Benn, brilliant! Josh Bolton, ridiculous. Bolton is such an intelectual pygmy, I wonder what Bush sees in him. Besides the superior intelect that is....

"Kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns, the public gets what the public wants "- Paul Weller (on Tony Benn website)

It's your choice America. What do you feel your country needs more for its people?

Take one, 2000 lb bomb. What does it cost? What does it do? What else could you do with that money? Now multiply that by 2,000. And that is merely a drop in the bucket.

But alas,.........Tony Benn was loud and clear in saying, "if we can have everyone working during war".........that is the deception.

I too love Tony Benn, what a voice of reason in a storm of idiocy...but it made me literally sick to see how much Bolton has learned from Bush...he's really got good at using the only ability he has (like our great president) to mock others when they speak the truth...he even got the crooks and liar sneer down just right! We really must do something and that is not to vote in another idiot or a corporate or lobby lacky. You all know which candidates I'm talking about.

THANK YOU for this post!!!

I saw Sicko the first show of its opening run in Manhattan and was unfamiliar with but so impressed by Tony Been.

When he said the unforgetable: "If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people," the theater broke out into spontaneous, thunderous applause.

Some wise, progressive organization should book Been for a US speaking tour in advance of the 2008 election. He would persaud and inspire people to take action, IF the party's will give us candidates worthy of the presidency (ie, not Hillary and Rudy).

It's just amazing to me how much of a d-bag Bolton is. Every single time I see him in an interview where someone dares to question his unrelenting hatred, he acts like a little kid. Nice argument "you just prove we were right in the Revolution". Yeah, Bolton, you really won some respect with that one. What a tool.

dewey_m @ 36:

Filthy McMoustache had his ass handed to him handily there. He and the rest of the Bush Crime Family should be brought up on charges of Crimes Against Humanity in the Haag. If the incoming president we elect cowards to this call of necessity and attempts to sweep this travesty of justice under the carpet, we will continue of the downward trajectory Mr. Penn describes and soon become the banana republic we are they are turning us into.

To be fair, I've seen Benn speak live and I don't think there's a person who wouldn't get there ass handed to them by Benn in a debate. He could debate that the sun rose in the west and sat in the east and win.

Bloody good show, eh, what!

Bolton's ass was kicked decidedly. Everything Benn said about war crimes, etc was a fact. Too bad these trypes of shows aren't shown on American TV.

We are a declining empire.

Why is it that every time one mentions the benefits of universal health care that someone always brings up issues around wait times and use of privatized care in a universal health care system. Do you honestly think that people don't die in this country because they have to wait? The difference is that here they wait because they can't pay the copay (if they have insurance) or they wait because they don't have insurance and they are not poor enough or old enough to get Medicare or Medicaid. Get over it! Nothing is perfect but wouldn't it be wonderful to not have to worry all the time about how you will pay if you get sick or worse, how will you pay if your child gets sick. People deserve to know that they can have health care. We spend more, all of us, on health care in this country than any other country in the world. We pay for the 22 billion dollars a year that pharmaceutical companies spend wining and dinning the doctors and their PAs so they will prescribe their drugs. No other country in the world has TV adverts on drugs...this must cost more than 22 billion dollars a year. And lets not even get into the profits of insurance companies! We could afford very good health care for all citizens of this once great country if we wanted to...just like Tony Benn said.

D.G. Bowman @ 32:

Bolton says with a straight face that the U.S. isn't an "imperial nation"? Uh, what about that huge embassy your crime cohorts are building in Iraq, Mustache Boy?

Unreal.

LOL, I laughed when he said that. I seem to remember george the 2nd saying that he wanted to bring "american democracy" to the middle east.

sassafra @ 38:

while it is nice to see bolton being flogged for the dolt that he is, i don't ascribe to mr. benns' notions that america is either an empire or in decline as imperial britian after wwII.
yes, we've hit a real spot of bad business with the bush administration that has put us on the ropes, but like macarthur, "we will be back".

i sure as heck wouldn't mind seeing some *real* heat put on our elected officials by the msm though in the british model.

The "spat of bad business" goes back to Reagan and the 1980 election, and includes the Bush-Clinton-Bush -Clinton? dynasty. When the USSR collapsed, the USA failed to find a motivating international policy of leadership, and corporate global-profiteering filled the vacuum and has taken over American politics/governance with equal help from the Clintons and the Bushes. Our commitments and values may have been irreversible  y eroded. We have lost our moral standing by weakening and even abandoning commitments to international peace, human rights, The Constitution, the government checks and balances, an economic system that addresses the needs of the least as well as the powerful and rich, domestic compassion, the rule of law. This is why so many thinking Democrats and progressives are so opposed to Hillary Clinton's candidacy. It will only continue the trend and sustain the corporate profiteering, war-mongering status quo. We need real change and inspiring, visionary leadership able to persuade a new 21st century, value grounded consensus.

What annoys me about the second video is, they're talking about serious issues (the death of Iraqi citizens and Americas imperialism), and they are all very passionate. Except for Bolton. He attacks Benn and not the issue and he laughs at least four times in the video. Shows what type of scum Bolton really is. A typical conservative.

Can we apply for colony status with Great Britain please? All of the sudden, a queen, healthcare, etc...seems so attractive. I'm fed up with living in Walmart USA.

Bullwinkle @ 48:

It's the opinion of this moose that the Q&A session in the House of Commons is one of the least-mentioned and most important aspects of their form of government. It means that basic grasp of the facts, a quick wit, and deft verbal skills are Darwinian survival tools for any politician who aspires to a certain level of influence. Compare that with the drooling chuckleheads who remain ensconced in the US Senate (Mitch McConnell or Jim Bunning come to mind immediately). John Bolton wouldn't last ten minutes in British politics; he'd be laughed off the floor and into instant retirement.

Not only that, the Q&A provides much more entertainment for the home viewer than anything CSPAN can offer.

Hell, look what George Galloway did to Norm Coleman when he went and testified before the Senate. I mean Galloway is truly despicable but Coleman didn't know what hit him.

"You go right ahead, Mr Benn!"

What a turd Bolton is!

I hear the words of Tony Benn and want to cry. Listen to GWB. Listen to Dick Cheney. Listen to John Bolton. Those make me cry for the opposite reason. Benn hits the nail so squarely on the head all I can think is how pathetic we are.

It's so refreshing to ["see" (hear)] read a conversation of sensible political discourse with such a mundane topic as Health Care; as we have been faced with atrocities and the subversion of THE U S Constitution coming to light in the past weeks... "BAD things are bening done in the name of paying the mortgage!"
I just don't see how the complete destruction of the middle class in this country is going to make us a Nation of better shoppers!?!

Gary @ 13:

Free healthcare in the United Kingdom isn't as rosey as Michael Moore makes it out to be. Almost 2 billion a year is wasted because of a serious alcohol abuse problem in the United Kingdom amongst teenagers. You're virtually paying for others lack of personal responsibility. I have friends in the UK who've not had to use the NHS in a decade, yet they've been paying for it. Not to forget the number of people who have to go overseas to get treatment due to the waiting times, and the fact that Europe has to hire nurses from Africa because nobody in the UK wants to get into the medical profession because the NHS pays poorly.

Let's see Gary, the US doesn't do crap about drug and alcohol abuse and it gets demoralization and crime instead. I see that you have limited knowledge about the workings of addiction and its many tentacles of effects on society as a whole. If a kid needs help, let's just wait until he's convicted to offer drug and alcohol treatment. Jail time will teach him at $40,000 an inmate per year. Pay it now or pay it later. And you talk about responsibility. Give me break.

Furthermore, I haven't had a traffic accident for 10-years now (knock on wood), but I'm sure as hell not going to drop my auto insurance. Poor me that I've got to pay all those premiums year in and year out. That's responsibility.

Finally, Gary my boy, you should live in Florida, were I've worked with Indian and Pakistani doctors and nurses from Columbia, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, Philippines, and China. The pay's not bad, but most hospitals are understaffed. Personally, I wish they unionize, but that's for another conservative talking point.

The main point Gary is you need to understand the nature of a lone voice of reason, Michael Moore, verses the well-heeled orifice of media special interest. Democracy's ideal goal is giving power to the powerless. Bringing the power from the marketplace to the voting both. Demoralization is the greatest danger to democracy. Any universal health care would strengthen democracy. So please take that "responsibility crap" in your pocket and smoke it all so slowly.

Bolton is a pompous ass.

"There is no difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. They both kill innocent people."

Hear hear, Mr. Benn.

Like water off a duck's back for that mad dog! There are two mad dogs in recent US history. One is Curtis LeMay, who at least served in the military, though he wanted nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The other is john bolton. This dog froths at the mouth at the thought of war was long as he doesn't have to fight and possibly die in a rice paddy or desert.

I met Mr. Benn at a small anti-war vigil in London in 2003. He was as sensible, kind, and brilliant then as he is now. He seemed particularly kind to me when we talked briefly that night, perhaps because I was an American protesting my own government in a foreign country. Since then, I have become deeply cynical about politics and politicians, but in that second clip Mr. Benn managed to move me again. In the clip he celebrated the fact that the American people, whom he loves, had defeated the Republicans in the midterm elections. "Whom I love." How could this man love us? After all we have done to violate his deeply held and absolutely correct principles. Sometimes my love for my fellow Americans is utterly shattered by the fact that so many of us supported this monstrous war at one time, and that many of us still do. That our only opposition party is so inept at stopping this insanity. That so many of us are just letting this happen, and saying nothing, doing nothing. That Tony Benn still loves us, in spite of all of that, made me feel good to be an American, a little bit. We really owe it to Tony Benn, MP, to prove worthy of that love. We have to stop this.

Linda @ 70:

Thanks for putting this together, Nicole. Well done. If Benn wanted to be our President, I'd be willing to lift the limitations on having to be born on U.S. soil. Who in the U.S. comes the closest to being in alignment sociopolitically with Benn?

Dennis Kucinich

I feel ashamed that I lived in Britain for 5 years (1996-2001) and learned nothing of Mr. Benn, nor was I even aware of his existence untill just now. What a sharp, articluate, intellingent person. He makes todays politicians look like fools and he ROYALLY handed Bolton his worthless ass and asked him if he wanted a cup of tea with it.

This was obviously shot in Britain as I can't remember the last time I saw politicians confronted like that and it gave me a MASSIVE HARD-ON. I would give up my penis and testicles to see Bush thrown to an audience like that, or Hillary for that matter, rather then the staged, pre-screened questions that the so called "media" "asks" them.

Che's Lounge @ 71:

Linda @ 70:

Thanks for putting this together, Nicole. Well done. If Benn wanted to be our President, I'd be willing to lift the limitations on having to be born on U.S. soil. Who in the U.S. comes the closest to being in alignment sociopolitically with Benn?

Dennis Kucinich

I'm sorry it's stuck in my progressive head. Every time I see the poll numbers on Hillary, I think "We are so screwed."

Bolton was just an embarrassment in that segment, throwing sarcastic barbs at the British in response to being rightfully put in his place with the truth. He is a lying piece of shit and who bullied State Dept employees leading up to the Iraq invasion. Underneath that calm voice is a sick human being!

Pat Ukaleley @ 76:

The reason why Tony Benn says he loves Americans but strongly protests the war is simple - he, like most of the world, including our "ememies" can see the difference between the American nation and the American government. Even the King of Jordan said he has nothing against the American people - its the hypocracy of the American Government with their tedious "do as I say, not do as I do" lecturing that Mr (I agree he is no Ambassador) Bolton is such a part of. The idea that "they" hate us for a freedom is ludicrous - but so many people in the USA buy it. They don't hate us for our freedoms, they hate us for our government - but of course that wouldn't make a good electioneering phrase for our Republican scaremongers now would it?

It would not. Benn clearly values principled leadership over political pandering and expediency. Principled leadership has integrity at it's core, something the Bushcovite hacks and Neocons think are for sissies and weaklings.

Benn for President 2008! Bolton, the really ugly American. Do the worst of us always rise to the top?

Michal Moore keeps repeating the word free. There is no free medical care. Free medical care is a lie. The cost is simply hidden, just like Enron hid debts, just like mortgage debt was repackeaged and sold to investors.

Several years ago, Prime Misnister Tony Blair, in response to the situation in the medical system at that time, said, "how are we going to pay for this?" A more recent comment i read was that an increase in the budget went largely to doctors salaries, rather than to patient care. Moore happily noted in his film, that a doctor was making the equivalent of $200,000 a year.

One of the things in the film, was a list. I forget the exact verbiage of what the list represented. It was joked that the U.S. was 37th on the list, just above Slovenia. What wasn't pointed out, was that right below Slovenia, was Cuba.

This Bolton guy is just insufferable! Who in the name of God ever told him he could be a diplomat?

sundog @ 61:

Gary @ 13:

Free healthcare in the United Kingdom isn't as rosey as Michael Moore makes it out to be. Almost 2 billion a year is wasted because of a serious alcohol abuse problem in the United Kingdom amongst teenagers. You're virtually paying for others lack of personal responsibility. I have friends in the UK who've not had to use the NHS in a decade, yet they've been paying for it. Not to forget the number of people who have to go overseas to get treatment due to the waiting times, and the fact that Europe has to hire nurses from Africa because nobody in the UK wants to get into the medical profession because the NHS pays poorly.

Let's see Gary, the US doesn't do crap about drug and alcohol abuse and it gets demoralization and crime instead. I see that you have limited knowledge about the workings of addiction and its many tentacles of effects on society as a whole. If a kid needs help, let's just wait until he's convicted to offer drug and alcohol treatment. Jail time will teach him at $40,000 an inmate per year. Pay it now or pay it later. And you talk about responsibility. Give me break.

Furthermore, I haven't had a traffic accident for 10-years now (knock on wood), but I'm sure as hell not going to drop my auto insurance. Poor me that I've got to pay all those premiums year in and year out. That's responsibility.

Finally, Gary my boy, you should live in Florida, were I've worked with Indian and Pakistani doctors and nurses from Columbia, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, Philippines, and China. The pay's not bad, but most hospitals are understaffed. Personally, I wish they unionize, but that's for another conservative talking point.

The main point Gary is you need to understand the nature of a lone voice of reason, Michael Moore, verses the well-heeled orifice of media special interest. Democracy's ideal goal is giving power to the powerless. Bringing the power from the marketplace to the voting both. Demoralization is the greatest danger to democracy. Any universal health care would strengthen democracy. So please take that "responsibility crap" in your pocket and smoke it all so slowly.

the bottom line is about being more healthy, physically, socially, mentally, spiritually and environmentally. We can do better, which is a common theme all of Moore's films.

The "we" is all of us and that means that we take personal responsibility for our own health and our children to the extent that each individual can and we take social responsibility for our health environment, it's diagnosis, trauma and treatment services, it's air,water and food services, and so on, to the extent we can.

We all have to take responsibility to make our total health environment work for all of us. If a taxed and funded system is stressed by those that have the ability to make healthier decisions and do not choose those opportunities, it becomes it harder to make things work for all. The marketplace constantly tempts us into unhealthy choices and makes it hard for us to select for healthy options. But any great system of public health quality requires personal responsibility from all. We can not expect much from the afflicted and it is in all our interests to relieve their suffering, but when the degree of affliction can be prevented by responsible personal decisions, it helps both the individual and the system. Obesity is not a right and most who are obese have the means to improve their situation currently.

I have been under the Bush health and retirement plan (don't get sick and work until you die) and I pray that things will be different in the future, but taking personal responsibility by necessity, which has required a lot of discipline and sacrifice, has made me a more self-sufficient and healthier individual. When I am part of social health system, I will be a stronger part of that whole.

I forgot to mention my favorite comment that Mr. Benn made and that was that America is an empire in decline. Say what you will about Bill Clinton but when he left office this country was doing pretty darn well. In just 7 years Bush has run the country in to the ground and I'm not sure we will ever recover. We are no longer a superpower, just a bully with the most guns and bombs.

RickinSF @ 88:

Otay @ 82:

This John Bolton thinks he speaks for me? Or the majority of Americans? This arrogant prick thinks he is a diplomat?

Bolton is the perfect diplomat for the W presidency. He's like a stubborn 4-year-old.

who likes to be part of creating an environment where 1 million Iraqi people die and 4 million Iraqi refugees are a result of an unnecessary war. No I don't know any four year olds that cruel. Bolton lines up with other psychopathic killers.

A vwery guttural, visceral obervation: John Bolton is a walking, talking pile of crap.

Ron.j @ 83:

Michal Moore keeps repeating the word free. There is no free medical care. Free medical care is a lie. The cost is simply hidden, just like Enron hid debts, just like mortgage debt was repackeaged and sold to investors.

Several years ago, Prime Misnister Tony Blair, in response to the situation in the medical system at that time, said, "how are we going to pay for this?" A more recent comment i read was that an increase in the budget went largely to doctors salaries, rather than to patient care. Moore happily noted in his film, that a doctor was making the equivalent of $200,000 a year.

What you are saying is not entirely accurate. Moore has repeatedly said that universal health care, no matter the country, is paid for through taxes. Yes, people do pay more in taxes but their basic and catastrophic health needs are covered in those countries. Moore has also said that what the U.S. should do it is to take the best that each country has to offer for heath care and then try to eliminate those particular flaws in order to being about the best system for the United States. As Moore points out, the worst thing that should happen is to allow the insurance companies to remain as the linchpin for this country's health care system.

Also, I believe the WHO has Cuba ranked 39th not 38th. But the point should be not that Cuba is ranked 39th in that survey but that the most advanced country in the world, the United States of America, is ranked 37th, the worst showing of any industrialized country on this planet. As Moore's film ably demonstrates, it is simply stunning and unconscionable that the United States does not have universal health care for its citizens. There is simply no excuse for that to happen.
One of the things in the film, was a list. I forget the exact verbiage of what the list represented. It was joked that the U.S. was 37th on the list, just above Slovenia. What wasn't pointed out, was that right below Slovenia, was Cuba.

I also just got the Sicko DVD and saw it last night. I'm pleased to say that my son also thought that Benn's comments were a high point of the entire film.

All in all Sicko is a great piece of work by Moore, and well worth it. Buy it and then loan it out to everyone you can!!

Tony Benn recorded his diary on tape while holding several ministerial jobs in the British government. They are played periodically (every year or so, maybe?) on BBC7 Unfortunately, they just played them in the last month or so, so you may have to wait a while...
I don't do file-sharing, but searching for "Benn Tapes" might come up with them.
Michael in SF

I love when people attack Michael Moore. What do they think he gets out of it? Fighting for health care for the US, what a selfish thing to do. Don't attack Bolton, he's helping this country, right? How embarrassing that he was representing the US on this show, he's such a blowhard asshole.

Does anyone know how to watch the whole show?

The below was my post. Sorry it got mixed in with a quote from Gary. This time my sentiments w/o quoting Gary but in reply to post #13 by Gary.

Gary this is the type of rhetoric that is said over and over again. This alcohol problem in the U.K. is probably such a small percent of the total outlay of spending in the NHS program, but this “I’m responsible and your not” attitude is just bunk. Stats will show you in the U.S. the bulk of spending for med costs with folks that have been completely healthy are spent in the last years of their lives. So this argument of responsibility is used to stave off the U.S. having an NHS type system. What a shame and a shamm! The U.K. should throw out the baby with the bathwater?
For all of us as a country, we should not ask, but demand free healthcare for all citizens.
I bought the DVD yesterday and had already seen the movie Sicko. Tony Benn was extraordinary!

You will never see this kind of discussion in America first: Americans are too distracted in other "important" matters.
Second: They are not properly informed and prepared for such a discussion Third: Participants will be accussed of treason, lose their jobs and probably will have an "accident" in their way to work or IRS will investigate them.

It's refreshing to see somebody else with balls!

Gary @ 98:

The drinking issue in the United Kingdom isn't addiction. In the United Kingdom it's seen as a normal thing, where by people who live normal lives by day spend their evenings drinking to excess for fun. If nobodys seen the numbers, it's a huge problem and quite frankly were that ever to occur here, I wouldn't want to pay for it. I don't know why you went into a random rambling on treatment because I certainly didn't raise that issue and you went into your typical left/right label jargon, when really I'm for legalisation of drugs anyway.

I'm talking about the ambulances and medical staff that crowd city streets in london on a friday night because kids drink to excess. Maybe if they had to cover their own bill they'd think twice about putting themselves at risk, and maybe the NHS wouldn't be in the debt it is. 2 Billion is nothing in the United States, but in Britain, it's a heck of a lot.

As a UK citizen, I can assure you that the situation here is no worse than the college parties that you guys have as far as 'drinking to excess for fun' goes. In fact, I live in London and the situation you describe is a very alarmist view of things. The streets aren't crowded by ambulances and medical staff, at least no more so than the party areas of a city like, say, New York on any given night.

My personal view is that the problems we do have here are caused by a combination of long-term factors:

- Up until recently we had an archaic licensing regime whereby all drinking establishments had to stop serving at 11pm sharp. This was a law passed during the First World War to prevent munitions workers from drinking into the early hours and being a danger to themselves, their co-workers and the war effort. Because it was never amended for over 80 years, a culture developed around getting many drinks in just prior to 11 and then having to finish them before closing time at 11:20pm. This is where binge drinking started and it's got a lot to do with why the problem is thought to be less severe on the Continent.

- While we have significantly better amounts of holiday time legislated than the States, recent figures have established that the UK is one of the highest pressure working environments in Europe when it comes to working over hours without overtime. It's seeped into the culture that going out and drinking your troubles away is a legitimate way of handling this. Combine this with the 'get it down before chucking out time' factor and you've got problems.

- The brewing industry and the Government are very closely tied by money and lobbying. The gargantuan profits that the corporate brewing industry makes have pushed down the price of alcohol compared to earnings considerably, and until recently there has been no significant pressure from the Government to curb this practice. Combine this with the fact that while the cost of living is pretty high in the UK even by Western European standards, it's pretty cheap to get bladdered. Worth noting is that outside of the US 'War On Drugs' lobby, the largest proponents of the status quo when it comes to recreational drug use are the brewers.

While this in interesting socially in itself, it's not the burden on the NHS that many would have you believe. Again, I doubt much more so than it is in your country.

Thats fantastic, i'd love to know what it has to do with anything. Did you know there's a MASSIVE shortage of African doctors in Africa because European social healthcare systems have snapped them all up for bargain prices?

That's got more to do with the corporatisation of the NHS, since the Thatcher Government tried to break the NHS Grover Norquist-style in the 1980s by underfunding it massively and putting in a regime of accountants and managers who demanded 'cost-effectiveness' at every level. In fact the NHS is oversubscribed with junior doctors at present, so I doubt we'll be getting too many raw recruits from abroad again any time soon.

You're anti-personal responsibility? So I guess is 100 million Americans woke up tomorrow and decided they didn't want to work anymore they should all go and live off government welfare? Sounds fantastic.. what could go wrong!

I suspect you know that's a straw man argument, because regardless of the healthcare system in place, employers still hold the lion's share of power when it comes to these things. Yes, we do have a welfare system, but not only does it require a significant level of means testing - it also barely finances a subsistence level of living if and when you do qualify. You're as screwed without a regular paycheque here as you are in any Western country, and if you act irresponsibly, you will lose your job.

You don't have to be anti-responsibility to believe in a universal healthcare system, and should something ever go wrong for whatever reason, most of us here are damn glad we've got it, for all its faults.

WOW!!! Another Brit who should be over here having a hand in running our Government. I'd like to know just what Bolton found so fucking amusing with that stupid-ass grin on his face. Tony Benn hit the nail on the head so many times. Especially when he said the U.S. is an empire in decline just like they (U.K.) were. I love my country just as much as the next guy, but quite frankly it might do our country some good to be knocked down a couple of pegs. Maybe then and only then will the pinheads who are running our government be able to stand back and truly see what they done to Iraq and what they have squandered so shamelessly. It breaks my heart to see the complete mess Bush$Co has made of the United States and it's reputation in the world. Terrorists do not need to attack us....our country is being destroyed from within by Cheney and Bush.

You know, the next time some gasbag starts going on about America having 'the greatest health care system in the world,' someone should point out that all the 'socialized' stuff happening in actual civilized nations would be voted out tomorrow if people there didn't love it. But the truth is, as Benn points out, any politician who proposed dismantling the NHS would be committing political suicide. I know when I lived in Canada accusing one's opponents of wanting to 'bring in U.S.-style health care' was considered a smear, like saying he was a sheep fucker.

Bolton should shave his mustache and go back to his singing career. Much "peaceier" message!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXY8Vtnrsxc&feature=related

The average career of most of the American political figures who pass themselves off as «intellectual hawks» wouldn't span longer than a week anywhere in the developed world outside the US.

Al Fabrizio @ 112:

The Superior British healthcare? What a joke that is. You should ask any Briton, or any American who lives here (as I do )about the recent reports indicating fully a third of UK hospitals failed cleanliness standards, or the germ infested NHS hospitals which are killing people, or the fact as recently reported (within the last 2 months) that Britons routinely perform their own dental extractions for lack of dental coverage or affordability? Anyone who thinks the NHS is some kind of model needs to get off the drugs. And Michael Moore is as usual a bullshit propagandist...

October 28 Sunday Times: TECHNOLOGY invented to defend Britain against biological weapons in the cold war is to be used by the NHS to try to destroy superbugs.
The air disinfection units, designed to kill germs circulating in hospitals, have been approved after tests at Porton Down, the government’s bio-warfare research centre in Wiltshire.
Among the first to install the devices will be Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals trust in Kent, where it emerged this month that unhygienic conditions had resulted in the deaths of at least 90 patients from the clostridium difficile (C diff) bug.

Would you rather have the same thing happen to you in the US, and the insurance companies take your entire families savings AFTER they kill you? Hey, the Canadian system may not be perfect, but I would fight tooth and nail with any and all politicians that would try to take it away from me. So would an overwhelming majority of Canadians.

Gregg @ 110:

Ron.j @ 108:

What you are saying is not entirely accurate. ......

If it is not entirely accurate, Mr. Moore should stop repeating the word free, since it isn't.

The point is that Moore ignored that Cuba was 39th, in attacking the U.S. My, how convenient.

Stunning and unconcionable. Is freedom unconcionable? How many strikes are there in France, because they can't have their way? What is the stubbornly high unemployment rate? What happened when the government told transporation workers that they would have to work more years in order to receive their pension? They went on strike, depite the fact the the money simply was not there. People can be taxed only so much. Then the pendulum swings the other way.

nitpicking cause you do not have anything significant to state, must suck having to defend a crappy ideology.

As Tony Benn says if you can fund war, you can fund health care. I do not see the other side complaining about the trillions being spent of our tax dollars on the war.

You are right, people can only be taxed so much ... when they get nothing in return.

--------------------

People are taxed too much when they can no longer afford the cost of government spending programs.
Spending money on something temporary is not the same a spending money on something permanent.

Spending on WW2 ended. Spending on the Vietnam war ended. Social Security and Medicare spending have not ended since they began.

The American health system is being nitpicked by those wanting universal healthcare. What crappy ideology am i defending? There is no free lunch.

Big Ideas That Changed The World, featuring Tony Benn.

Must watch.

Another argument for voting for Kucinich.

Thank you Mr Benn. No more true words have ever been spoken to that pile of crap.
Bravo.

ConcernedCanuck @ 122:

Ron.j @ 119:

Gregg @ 110:

Ron.j @ 108:

Last time I checked, the only thing that is "costing" Canadian taxpayer's the most in healthcare, was "management" of the system. The true cost without the hospital admins, etc, really is not that staggering considering how good the rewards are. Who isn't overtaxed in this world by supposed democratically elected governments? BUT, in Canada we seem to have our priorities a little more in line. What makes more sense? Spending trillions you don't have on military bombs to invade nations that don't kiss your ass, or spend billions on healing your own? Hell, even our military vets are treated better. Why is that? Americans in their "no handout, I worked for what I got" mentality will shell out taxdollars for nukes that may never ever be used, and bombs and military, but SOME froth at the mouth when asked to assist in healing their own. Nasty. Yet SOME don't mind their government propping up and giving billions in military aid to dictatorial regimes all over the globe. I am truly in awe of your thinking.

I agree that Canadians seem to have better priorities, much to our chagrin. I would gladly take all of the money I spent last year in out in out-of-pocket expenses, insurance premiums and deductibles and spend it on a taxed health care system, my tax increase would be far less than what I pay on health care annually now (two or less out-patient doctor visits a year) and I would have a large powerful organization that could negotiate a better price than what the health system reams me for now. There is no free lunch, but there is a cheaper lunch and Americans are coming to that conclusion.

There are three generations of my family, including me, who have worked most of their lives for the military and though my grandfather, father and I, all got our paychecks from the army and navy, we all agree, despite different political beliefs, that the military is overblown and fully corrupt in it's spending practices. Americans are borrowing to fund this war and will continue to pay on that interest after the war is over, not to mention that a major portion of our annual taxes always go to the ongoing military industrial complex. When my taxes go to health care, including admin costs and overhead, I know that it is ultimately helping other people and myself. When my taxes go to the military, I know through history, that it rarely goes to making a positive difference, though sometimes it has. Having been in the position to observe the military contracting process, they make Hollywood wives look like frugal Amish farmers.

Alan Glasser @ 93:

A vwery guttural, visceral obervation: John Bolton is a walking, talking pile of crap.

Come on, Alan, we're all adults here. Youre allowed to say shit. lol

Ron.j @ 119:

The American health system is being nitpicked by those wanting universal healthcare. What crappy ideology am i defending? There is no free lunch.

The american health system is being nitpicked because it's a collosal disaster. And it needs to be more than nitpicked. It needs to be bulldozed.

The lunch that you worked for is being eaten by the health care insurance companies and the HMOS. And they won't even guarantee your care while they're eating your lunch.

Linky no worky on my computer, any ideas?

radiant @ 9:

Want more? www.tonybenn.org

ENJOY!

Caution: Remember all those scary warnings about Socialism you were forced to swallow in history class? Well then, enter at your own risk. Or you can do the correct thing and enter with an open mind.......so9mething America seems to have lost the ability to do or it has been taken away from you.

Rosanne @ 128:

DW @ 63:

Bolton is a pompous ass.

Actually, dw, bolton is a low class prick!! Id love to rip that mustache right off his lip and stuff it in his ear!!!

Mr. Benn really bitchslapped bolton into next week!! Kudos to you, Mr. Benn. I wish you were an american politician.

Actually, if you took off the glasses, Bolton looks a little like Hitler! I wonder if that is why he keeps the mustache?

why was Boltons comments cut off after the last statememts of Benn.

[It's got to end somewhere, Einstein. Note that it's a link to a YouTube clip as well, not one of ours. If you're so concerned about the truth, find more and post the link in this thread. Or on your own website-Sitemonitor]

Bolton is of course a horse's ass, and like his fellow chicken-hawk William Kristol, he seems to think that plastering a look of smug bemusement on his Loony Tunes-like face somehow compensates for a sorry-ass lack of understanding about Iraq and pretty much everything else.

That was as easy as shooting drunken syphilitic walrus in a barrel. The only thing PM Benn missed was the point about not understanding the constitution, and its a good thing we revolted. The proper answer is "you revolted from King George III to create your own constitution 230 years ago. In the short span of 3 years Emperor George II had already destroyed everything any American had ever fought or died for. Bravo Mr. Bolton. You have sold your country, your honor, your good name and your future to oil companies and defense contractors." At which point he should have spat on the TV screen so a large goober could drool down Bolton's face.

Oh, BTW, that fucking pig was a "diplomat" of the US. He was our unapproved ambassador to the UN, and he worked for the state department. Anyone who meets him, immediately hates him. Which is why darth told chimpy to appoint him. There is no quicker way for the US to make enemies and invite attack than to send John Bolton to represent us.

The supreme moment of irony in this clip came when Bolton accused Tony Benn of "not understanding the U.S. Constitution". That was rich!

The next time WE piss and moan over presidential candidates we should show video of that asshat Bolton. Is this the future of our country?

We must eradicate these neo-con douchebags. Our children are counting on us.

Hype-Jersey @ 130:

Johnny Thief @ 14:

"I would be ashamed if my child was hurt and I had to decide what medical treatment I could afford."

I'm a 38 year old tattoo artist, shop owner & gallery owner. My concert poster work appears in Hard Rock Cafes around the world, galleries like Flying Piston in Germany, Outre in Australia, & is used in Guitar Hero 3. I've done work for High Times, Spin, Giant, & dozens of magazines. My resume is 24 years long & I've made a lot of bosses millions of dollars.

I've been on my own since I was 16 & have never had medical insurance. I'm clean & sober 20 years, & despite my appearance, am a tax paying law abiding citizen. I paid for my motorcycle accidents, wisdom teeth, & ER visits out of pocket, digging into savings that would go to taxes or auto repair. When I had bronchitis in 04, I waited until my birthday to see a doctor, & then as a birthday present to myself. (The doctor laughed when I told him this, & gave me all my scripts from the samples the drug companies had dropped off, so I only paid cash for the office time itself.)

I put my ex wife through school, & it was as expensive as buying a Ferrari. I'm overweight, have fillings that have fallen out, & a few minor things I'd love to have checked, just to be safe, but am working a 80 to 100 hour week to clear off debt incurred opening my shop, & have neither the time or money. I'm planning on saving enough over the next few years for a complete physical.

I COULD use that money to produce a series of fine art prints, rent on a gallery to paint, a custom motorcycle, a scholarship for someone to go to art school, or maybe something as adult as some sort of retirement fund,... but this is where I am. If something really serious happns to me, I'd be as screwed as if someone came by & shot me.

Not only are you going to be screwed if something happens to you, but the taxpayers are going to be screwed. I know I'm lecturing, but most people stay healthy through their 30s. You get into your 40s or 50s and you're at a much greater risk of something happening. I know this from experience, being over 40 myself. All of us in the over 40 crowd are falling apart here... it's true what they say, the body ages. ;-) Even if you don't get sick, you start needing more preventative maintenance, more test screeners, more medications etc.

You shouldn't have to 'save up' for a physical. People should have physicals. It's part of maintenance. It's like checking the air in your tires or having your ink guns refurbished. And whatever money you spend for a physical isn't going to do diddly for you if they actually find something because you won't have enough money to walk into a hospital and use the public toilet. One surgery or hospitalization and you're sunk.

Please - You'd be way better off investing in a good health insurance policy with the money you're saving. You're still young and healthy. Invest now while you still can, because no one will take you once even the slightest thing goes wrong. I wouldn't hold my breath when it comes to congress doing something about the healthcare crisis. Good luck, my friend.

Working on it.

BUT,... the part that hammered me all day, while I went to work on a Sunday, was the "shame" part. I couldn't help but think that shame was part of the overall social message to keep the poor from doing exactly what Benn has said.

There was a time when there were bohemians, philanthropists, & volunteers who lived admirable fulfilling lives without amassing tons of wealth or hordes of material items. It's only been very recently in our history has the human life been measured in such shallow terms as "how much are you worth"? You combine that with our former generation, the Baby Boomers, who have tried to disown Generation X with the branding of the word useless, a weird theocratic prosperity movement that can be summarized in the words "Jesus didn't die so you could be poor", & another new generation who is being raised for the first time solely on television & at the mall, & you have some sort of strange mutant hybrid, one that knows more about cheat codes & brand names than they do about history or facts.

It's simply strange how held down we are as a whole. Didn't punk rock cover all of this back in 1982?! Was I the only person listening to Crass & The Dead Kennedys?

"an empire in decline"

priceless.