Bill Moyers on Condi Rice

This is a feature on her appointment as Secretary of State.

Video

It points out her failures as NSA and her testimony to the 9/11 Commission, as well as her various TV appearances promoting the Iraq war.

The Progressive Electorate: And the Democratic establishment can kiss my DFH a$$, too

William K. Wolfrum Chronicles: ""Lazy-ass Americans like being unemployed." A talking point winner for the GOP

The Big Picture: Dylan Ratigan talks reform with Rob Johnson & Josh Rosner

Seeing the Forest: Conservatives caused huge deficits, blame Obama

Sensen No Sen: A sphincter-puckering moment for Rumsfeld...and Cheney

Andy Borowitz: GOP lawmaker demands recall of car that drove him to a gay club!

Bill Moyers had an excellent panel discussion on the only true road to universal health care for our country. It's called: Single Payer Health Insurance.

Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Sidney Wolfe give a very easy explanation of what Single Payer health care means and also take us down memory lane when the fight first started. It's hard to understand President Obama on this issue. He has the bully pulpit and he has the votes for the most part since it won't take 60 votes to pass it, so why is he not in favor of single payer? Yes, I know, it will be tough to pass, but covering Americans with this plan would also save jobs, decrease personal bankruptcies incredibly and save Corporations billions of dollars on health care costs. Talk about a real stimulus. Anyway, back to Moyers.

Health care reform is coming. Both Congress and President Obama have made it a top priority, and many expect a bill by the fall. Now comes the tricky part — designing and funding a plan. President Obama has outlined broad goals, several competing plans have been introduced in the Congress, and the Republican party recently introduced its own plan.

But Dr. David Himmelstein and Dr. Sidney Wolfe tell Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL that President Obama isn't considering a popular plan — single-payer. In a recent town-hall meeting in New Mexico, President Obama said switching to single-payer would be too disruptive.

The term "single-payer" generally means a system in which rather than having private, for-profit insurance companies, the government runs one large non-profit insurance organization. That organization pays all the doctor, drug and hospital bills — it is the "single-payer" of all medical bills. In most single-payer plans, every American would be enrolled and would pay into the fund through taxes...read on

It's an excellent video. It looks like they are trying to force us with a "public option" plan instead of real reform of health care. I'm still sorting out a lot of information on the health care problem, but some of us are working on an action soon.

Howie Klein has a rundown of all the money that the people who are blocking real reform in health care have received from the health care industry.

Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $4,026,933)

Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $2,833,731)

Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $2,758,468)

And when you just go right to Big Insurance, the non-presidential candidates who got the biggest legalized bribes were the 7 senators who have been tasked with the job of killing single-payer:

Ben Nelson (DLC-NE- $1,196,799)

Max Baucus (DLC- MT- $1,184,113)

Joe Lieberman (DLC- CT- $1,036,302)

Arlen Specter (R-D- PA- $1,035,530)

Chuck Schumer (D-NY- $981,400)

Mitch McConnell (R-KY- $929,207)

Chuck Grassley (R-IA- $884,724)

We will be addressing the members of Congress very soon. Thank God for Bernie Sanders. Here's something positive at least.

Right now Sanders is pushing for an incubator program (5 states with single payer) to test it out and show how it works. The Progressive Caucus in the House is still insisting-- some would say tilting-- for a robust national plan that will lead to single payer.

Eighty liberal lawmakers, in a letter sent to House Democratic leaders Friday, forcefully demanded a “robust and affordable” new government-run health insurance plan be part of health care reform.

That would be the Progressive Caucus teaming up with the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus trying to counterbalance the Blue Dogs who oppose a workable public option (although several moderate Blue Dogs freaked out and disassociated themselves from the GOP talking points that were touted as the Blue Dog position). Here's the statement from the Progressive Caucus:...read on

(Guest Blogged by Heather)

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Bill Moyers Journal, which unfortunately is probably not on the top of most Americans TIVO list for Friday nights, dove head on into some of our country's darker days. Days that many in the South would probably prefer to forget, when slavery was no longer legal, but still practiced by an economy addicted to slavery, and unwilling to let it go. Bill Moyers interviewed Douglas Blackmon, author of the book, Slavery by Another Name, and it is truly worth your time to watch the entire interview.

With a Presidential election that has brought the issue of race front and center and forced us to confront the reasons for racial divides, understanding the past and how it relates to the racial tensions that still exist in this country is an important discussion for anyone who would like to finally heal those wounds. Hopefully, one day we may move to a place where race is no longer an issue, or a way to keep a segment of the population from ever achieving equality.

Douglas Blackmon delves into a time that has helped to shape the views of African Americans towards our judicial system, our law enforcement, and our legislators. Open dialogue about what happened during those dark days, and how we move forward to make sure that it does not continue today is a discussion I hope more Americans have as we ponder whether we may have our first black President and what that will mean for our country and the future of race relations.

First Draft: How Karl Rove played politics while people drowned.

Our Future: The Department of Defense (DOD) now employs contractors to keep contractors in check in Iraq, under a new framework for war industry management solidified last month.

No Comment: Where's the Maher Arar report?

The KC Blue Blog: Attention values voters! Yet another Republican child molester added to the endless list of GOP criminals. Maybe asshats like this guy are part of the problem?

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis...One of the "smartest people" Fareed Zakaria knows...The incredible, shrinking newspapers...Hatred for sale...The press takes a look at the Strange World of Black People...Millionaire pundit values...Video and transcript of E&P's Greg Mitchell on Moyers last night...Rush says McSame isn't a real man...NPR's lazy, clueless coverage of Gitmo trials...Speaking of clueless coverage...

Economist's View: Thomas Frank on the culture war

The Daily Banter: Middle East and North Africa update.

Attackerman: 'Bring 'em on," redux

Suburban Guerrilla: Politics makes for strange bedfellows

HOLY CRAP: Bill Moyers talks to Martha Nussbaum about her newest book and her views on the church and state debate..Jesus Junk...God endorsed the Holocaust says Bush pal...Persecution complexes...The FundamentaList...The real expulsions...Scientology is under attack from a faceless cabal of online activists...Prosecuting Polygamy ...Heaven is not the end of the world...Man kicked off plane for refusing to interrupt prayers and sit down for takeoff..Moon, Money and Messiah

Bill Ayers: Turns out the "unrepentant terrorist" that Sean Hannity, the hacks at ABC, and other GOP shills, are so obsessed with, has a blog.

The Curious Capitalist: So, uh, when did Charles Gibson turn into a supply-side nut job?

Fafblog! Another edition of BARACK OBAMA: THE FINAL THROES

Of Two Minds: Hilarious music graphs (h/t apostropher)

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: Bill Moyers says that journalism's mission is to uncover the news that powerful people would prefer to keep hidden. Now somebody tell these guys and these guys...Tim Robbins' no-holds-barred keynote address to the National Association of Broadcasters...Proof of hackery is David Brooks' approval, and James Fallows contempt...The very annoying Washington Post...When the Wall Street Journal puts a "Nude Miss Subways" on page 6...Penetrating analysis...The stupid burns...Torture news strike

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Bill Moyers finds parallels with the degradation of rampant steroid use in baseball to how degraded our country has become by those seeking quick ways to short cut and short circuit level playing fields.

You don't get a level playing field with performance enhancing drugs, any more than you get an honest government with political action committees and bundled contributions, or a fair economy with some derivatives, hedge funds, and private equity managers taxed at rates lower than their janitors. You get a level playing field only when the fans demand it. Suppose people stopped attending games in large numbers, stopped watching on TV, stopped buying the products hyped by the icons. The leveling would happen, or baseball as a money-making business would die. It's not likely to happen. If we can't organize to stop a brutal, bloody war in Iraq, or rectify an economic system that divides us further every day, we can hardly expect collective action from baseball fans.

There was a lesson in George Mitchell's report that I'm not sure even he recognized. The day Americans don't feel strongly enough about the need for level playing fields to fight for them -- the day when cutting corners and seeking an edge become the national pastime -- is the day democracy will be lucky even to find a seat in the bleachers.

The entire transcript available here.

Okay, Ron Paul fans, PBS's NOW is devoting this week's episode to Ron Paul and how the internet is rewriting political campaigns.

And Bill Moyers will have Keith Olbermann as guest to discuss politics and the media as well as how media ownership is making diversity a thing of the past.

For those of you without TVs, both shows will be available online starting Saturday.

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Bill Moyers look at the FCC head Kevin Martin's full tilt toward media consolidation:

On November 2, 2007, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced that the Commission would hold the sixth and final public hearing on media consolidation November 9, 2007 in Seattle, Washington. Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein blasted the Chairman's decision to give the public only five business days notice before the hearing: "With such short notice, many people will be shut out ... This is outrageous and not how important media policy should be made."

You can watch the entire episode on PBS.