Was Thursday’s election in Afghanistan a step forward for representative democracy in the South Asian nation? What exactly does President Obama aim to accomplish in Afghanistan anyhow? This week’s lineup of commentators explores the possible connections between the CIA and Blackwater and considers the current status of the health care debate.
With the folksy charm of a timeshare salesman, Austan Goolsbee of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers outlines some of the new credit card rules, which began taking effect Thursday.
In this clip from the Associated Press, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill of Scotland announces his country’s decision to release “Lockerbie bomber” Abdel Baset al-Megrahi on Thursday so the terminally ill Libyan can return to his homeland to die.
Ever wonder whether it gets a touch exasperating for politicians to face angry throngs of American citizens at those unruly gatherings everyone quaintly insists on calling “town hall meetings”? Well, witness Barney Frank, here, on the brink of a town hall snap (or two) in this bit from Wednesday’s “Daily Show.”
Like an embarrassing father using the word tight or a mother who think it’s OK to dance to Beyoncé while carpooling, CNN has found yet another way to make your skin crawl by desperately trying to act “hip” as it struggles to find a niche in the cable news wars. Jon Stewart chides the network in a piece that will probably elicit a grimace or two.
Although news wires buzzed Monday with reports that President Obama had changed his tune when it came to pushing for the government to make a public health care option available to give private insurance companies competition, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs begged to differ during a press conference Tuesday.
Reports that President Obama may change his position on his proposal to set up a system of government health care insurance for Americans under 65 caused ripples, mostly on the left, and critics continued to clamor Monday for an alternative to private insurance companies.
Last summer around this time, Barack Obama was entering the busiest phase of his presidential campaign, and now he’s back on the road giving speeches. Here, he talks to a seemingly polite crowd about his health care reform plan at a town-hall-style gathering in Grand Junction, Colo. Updated
President Obama is gambling on America’s readiness to embrace a larger, more comprehensive form of government, but will it take? “Recovering Republican” Arianna Huffington argues that the system Obama favors is currently working best for oligarchs, not those losing their homes or worried about their health care, while Tony Blankley thinks Big Pharma is pitching camp in the White House.
What happened in the few months between the time when Glenn Beck denounced the dismal state of American health care and when he celebrated it as a systemic triumph just a smidge later? And can we replicate this one-man odyssey with a simple tweak of our own remote controls?
Amy Goodman, Chris Hedges and Robert Scheer discuss the present and future of media with the global economic crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the health care debate raging on.
The Nation’s Ari Melber has some ideas about how the president can turn around his slipping poll numbers. First and foremost: Take charge and fight for the public option.
Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films have a simple but compelling health care argument: Compare the obscene earnings of one insurance CEO to the comparatively bargain claims his company has refused to honor. UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley, this clip argues, is personally profiting from the misery of children.
Amy Goodman and Robert Scheer discuss the present and future of media with the global economic crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the health care debate raging on.
There’s a whole lot of Baracknophobia going on when it comes to some folks’ worries about health care reform, but how much of it is based on valid concern and how much is, well, stoked by certain media figures hoping to create a flurry of good ol’ American pseudo-events? In other words, turn off the Glenn Beck, people.
What exactly do those dastardly Democrats mean when they talk about “community standards” vis-à-vis health care reform? Only one thing, of course—death panels! But hold on, Mr. Gingrich and Mme. Palin, where are either of those terms written anywhere in the reform proposals?
Media Matters caught CNN’s Erica Hill asking, “What are the real proposals here for public insurance? And why is it so unpopular?” Not sure where she gets her info, since polls here, here, here, here, here and here say a majority of Americans like the idea.
In this installment of Brave New Films’ “Senator Sanders Unfiltered,” the independent federal legislator from Vermont points out what’s becoming hard to dispute or ignore, however much other members of Congress might do both: Wall Street, along with the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, practically runs Washington.
Will Yemen become a haven for militants? Is President Obama ignoring the warning signs of unrest in this Middle Eastern hot spot? Link TV’s Jamal Dajani looks into the complex problems brewing in Yemen in this week’s “Mosaic Intelligence Report.”
Diplomacy by former President Bill Clinton that brought home two journalists from North Korea offers a moment to reflect on the anniversary of the Hiroshima nuclear attack. Sonia Sotomayor’s been confirmed, but not until after there was a dramatic display of partisan ideology. Plus, is the disruption of health care town halls real or orchestrated?
Michael Snider, a small business owner from Nebraska, stars in a pro-public option ad currently running in opposition to the stand of “conservaDem” Sen. Ben Nelson on health care reform. Snider tells Rachel Maddow that Nelson called him about the ad, but didn’t change his mind.
Should this ever actually happen, The Onion gets credit for its prescient mock-up of a hostile takeover of the American government by a militant, yet strangely familiar, enemy organization bent on ... completely obliterating the ever-increasing U.S. debt.
Does President Obama have it in for senior citizens and Sean Hannity? What’s to become of “high-fructose families” under our socialist president’s alarming new health care system? Stephen Colbert explores all this and more while keeping his enraged forehead remarkably still.
Given that the Wisconsin Constitution explicitly bars same-sex couples from marrying, the state’s newly instituted domestic partnership registry may seem cold comfort, but it does offer some rights, like hospital visitation and property-related benefits. Some couples are ready to sign up although bigger battles remain to be won.
Addicted to Nonsense
