Amy Goodman // Current

Over 2,200 US Veterans Died in 2008 Due to Lack of Health Insurance

Democracy Now! takes a look at a new study finding 2200 veterans die from lack of... more

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Capitalism a Love Story and Democracy Now!!!!

Mike Moore is interviewed on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez asking... more

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Ralph Nader on Healthcaare Reform: YOU DON'T CUT DEALS WITH A SYSTEM THAT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED

The Obama administration admitted last week it promised to oppose proposals to let the... more

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Hiroshima Nagasaki 64th Anniversary

http://tomdispatch.com/post/175102/frida_berrigan_64_years_too_late_and_not_a_moment_to... more

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Kucinich: The Democrats' Plan Lets the Insurance Industry to Pick the American People's Pockets

[video at link]

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Congressman Kucinich. What exactly did you get passed?

AMY GOODMAN: And explain exactly what you mean by the single-payer plan that, state by state, it could be adopted.

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, Medicare is a single-payer plan. It’s the government pays the bills. Now, government doesn’t own all the hospitals under the legislation that I wrote with John Conyers, HR 676, that is co-sponsored by eighty-five members of Congress. Government would essentially be the person or the institution that pays the bills.

Right now, we have a system with 50 million people uninsured, another 50 million underinsured, where you have thousands of different insurance companies that are involved in jacking up administrative costs. One out of every three dollars goes for the activities of the for-profit system, for corporate profit, stock option, executive salary, advertising, marketing, and cost of paperwork. You eliminate that $800 billion a year in overhead, and you have enough money to be able to meet the needs of all people in this country. And when you eliminate the overhead at a state level, you can meet the needs of people of a state level.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what is happening right now, Congressman Kucinich? The latest, the possibility that the bill will not be passed by August, which some have taken to mean it’s going to give more time for Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats to water it down. But they’re not even with the public plan. I’d like you to explain what is being offered, even coming close to the idea of single payer.

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, it’s not close to the idea of single payer. It’s mandating that people buy insurance. And it’s telling insurance companies they have to sell insurance. Well, you know who wins in that deal.

The fact of the matter is, this debate is all skewed right now. You know, there are—both political parties are in trouble on the issue of healthcare. Our political system is failing the American people, and it’s a bipartisan affair. So, what we have right now is a mishmash, which is being offered up as reform. Well, no wonder it’s in trouble from all sides.

I mean, if people were offered a clear choice of a single-payer plan or not and told what the advantages are of having the government paying the bills, eliminating the overhead, enabling all Americans to have not just basic coverage with doctor of choice, but vision care, dental care, mental healthcare, prescription drugs, long-term care, all covered, if people knew that was the choice they could have, there wouldn’t even—there wouldn’t be much of a debate at all.

But we’re falling back on old ideological arguments, when the fact of the matter is the insurance companies are running Washington and we have to break their hold. And that’s why the single-payer amendment that I offer that gives states an option is a small step in the direction of trying to give states the ability to be able to determine their own destiny, and then hopefully America will be able to see in these laboratories of states that we can have a single-payer plan that can save people money and protect people’s economic security and their health. Healthcare is a basic right. We still don’t hear of that talked about in the major debate here in Washington about the bill that is being presented.

[more at link][video at link] Welcome to Democracy Now!, Congressman Kucinich. What exactly did... more

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Profit Driven Insurance Claim Denials Kill People: The Bodies Can Be Found!

By Amy Goodman

"Wendell Potter is the health insurance industry’s worst nightmare. He’s a whistle-blower. Potter, the former chief spokesperson for insurance giant CIGNA, recently testified before Congress, “I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick—all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.”

Potter was deeply involved in CIGNA and industrywide strategies for maintaining their profitable grip on U.S. health care. He told me: “The thing they fear most is a single-payer plan. They fear even the public insurance option being proposed; they’ll pull out all the stops they can to defeat that to try to scare people into thinking that embracing a public health insurance option would lead down the slippery slope toward socialism ... putting a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. They’ve used those talking points for years, and they’ve always worked.”

In 2007, CIGNA denied a California teenager, Nataline Sarkisyan, coverage for a liver transplant. Her family went to the media. The California Nurses Association joined in. Under mounting pressure, CIGNA finally granted coverage for the procedure. But it was too late. Two hours later, Nataline died.

While visiting family in Tennessee, Potter stopped at a “medical expedition” in Wise, Va. People drove hours for free care from temporary clinics set up in animal stalls at the local fairground. Potter told me that weeks later, flying on a CIGNA corporate jet with the CEO: “I realized that someone’s premiums were helping me to travel that way ... paying for my lunch on gold-trimmed china. I thought about those men and women I had seen in Wise County ... not having any idea [how] insurance executives lived.” He decided he couldn’t be an industry PR hack anymore.

Insurance executives and their Wall Street investors are addicted to massive profits and double-digit annual rate increases. To squeeze more profit, Potter says, if a person makes a major claim for coverage, the insurer will often scrutinize the person’s original application, looking for any error that would allow it to cancel the policy. Likewise, if a small company’s employees make too many claims, the insurer, Potter says, “very likely will jack up the rates so much that your employer has no alternative but to leave you and your co-workers without insurance.”

This week, as the House and Senate introduce their health care bills, Potter warns, “One thing to remember is that the health insurance industry has been anticipating this debate on health care for many years ... they’ve been positioning themselves to get very close to influential members of Congress in both parties.” Montana Sen. Max Baucus chairs the Senate Finance Committee, key for health care reform. Potter went on, “[T]he insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and others in health care have donated ... millions of dollars to his campaigns over the past few years. But aside from money, it’s relationships that count ... the insurance industry has hired scores and scores of lobbyists, many of whom have worked for members of Congress, and some who are former members of Congress.”

The insurance industry and other health care interests are lobbying hard against a government-sponsored, nonprofit, public health insurance option, and are spending, according to The Washington Post, up to $1.4 million per day to sway Congress and public opinion.

Don’t be fooled. Profit-driven insurance claim denials actually kill people, and Wendell Potter knows where the bodies are buried. His whistle-blowing may be just what’s needed to dump what’s sick in our health care system.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column."

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 750 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times,” recently released in paperback.By Amy Goodman "Wendell Potter is the health insurance industry’s worst... more

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On the 6th Anniversary of the Iraq War, Is Anyone Listening?

Has war reporting improved? Amy Goodman, Dahr Jamail and others on the legacy of the... more

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I want my Democracy Now

Today's Headlines * AIG to Pay Out $450 Million in Bonuses * FMLN’s... more

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Amy Goodman - Jailing Kids for Cash

Jailing Kids for Cash
by Amy Goodman
As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have been found guilty, and up to 2,000 of them jailed, by two corrupt judges who received kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities that benefited. The two judges pleaded guilty in a stunning case of greed and corruption that is still unfolding. Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan received $2.6 million in kickbacks while imprisoning children who often had no access to a lawyer. The case offers an extraordinary glimpse into the shameful private prison industry that is flourishing in the United States.

Take the story of Jamie Quinn. When she was 14 years old, she was imprisoned for almost a year. Jamie, now 18, described the incident that led to her incarceration:

"I got into an argument with one of my friends. And all that happened was just a basic fight. She slapped me in the face, and I did the same thing back. There [were] no marks, no witnesses, nothing. It was just her word against my word."

Jamie was placed in one of the two controversial facilities, PA Child Care, then bounced around to several other locations. The 11-month imprisonment had a devastating impact on her. She told me: "People looked at me different when I came out, thought I was a bad person, because I was gone for so long. My family started splitting up ... because I was away and got locked up. I'm still struggling in school, because the schooling system in facilities like these places [are] just horrible."

She began cutting herself, blaming medication that she was forced to take: "I was never depressed, I was never put on meds before. I went there, and they just started putting meds on me, and I didn't even know what they were. They said if I didn't take them, I wasn't following my program." She was hospitalized three times.

Jamie Quinn is just one of thousands that these two corrupt judges locked up. The Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center got involved when Hillary Transue was sent away for three months for posting a Web site parodying the assistant principal at her school. Hillary clearly marked the Web page as a joke. The assistant principal didn't find it funny, apparently, and Hillary faced the notoriously harsh Judge Ciavarella.

continued....Jailing Kids for Cash by Amy Goodman As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have... more

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9 months ago
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The Big Lie: Why Print Media is Suffering

Conventional wisdom has it that newspapers are dying because of the rise of the... more

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11 months ago
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Independent Media in an Age of Corporate Domination: An Interview with Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now!, and the recent recipient of the Right... more

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11 months ago
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Expanding Nuclear Power Makes Climate Change Worse

Democracy Now! July 16, 2008 There’s one issue that President Bush and... more

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Democracy Now! | Filmmaker Ron Howard on His New Film "Frost/Nixon"

If ya don't read anything else read this, Ron Howard on Democracy Now!, he is... more

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2 TRILLION DOLLAR Sell Out of US Taxpayers by DEMOCRATS & Bush Administration

Yes, it's already happened and Barack will do......nothing?

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1 year ago
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What an Obama Administration will mean for Israeli-Palestinian relations

A Palestinian refugee’s open letter to Obama "Dear President-elect Barack Obama:... more

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1 year ago
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Grassroots Effort Helps New York Mother Avoid Foreclosure

Jocelyne Voltaire, a resident of Queens Village, New York, saw her home go up for... more

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1 year ago
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Murder of independent journalist Brad Will

Mexican authorities have arrested two activists in the murder of the independent journalist Brad Will. Speculation has long centered around police officers and pro-government militants in Will’s death. Some were initially arrested in the months after the shooting, but ultimately released. But today the government is accusing two members of the popular movement APPO, the group opposed to state governor Ulises Ruiz. Will’s family has criticized the charges, calling the arrests a sham.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today in Mexico, where two people have been arrested in the murder of the independent journalist Brad Will. Will was shot and killed on October 27, 2006, while covering the popular uprising in Oaxaca. Will’s own camera captured his shooting.
Footage filmed by Brad Will right up until the moment he was fatally shot. For our radio listeners, you can go to our website at democracynow.org to see the video footage.

Far from satisfying the calls for justice, the arrests have only inflamed the controversy.

Speculation has long centered around police officers and pro-government militants in Will’s death. Some were initially arrested in the months after the shooting, but ultimately released. But today the government is accusing two members of the popular movement APPO, the group opposed to state governor Ulises Ruiz. Will was covering their struggle when he was killed. Will’s family has criticized the charges, calling the arrests a sham. In a statement, Amnesty International also said it’s “gravely concerned” Mexican officials are ignoring critical evidence, including "state agents potentially implicated.”

John Gibler is an independent journalist who has extensively covered the uprising in Oaxaca, where he also knew Brad Will. He’s author of the forthcoming book Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt, which is out in January from City Lights Books. John Gibler joins us now from San Francisco.

John, welcome to Democracy Now! Tell us, how did these arrests happen? How did this whole story unfold to this point?
more@linkMexican authorities have arrested two activists in the murder of the independent... more

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Report: Voter Purging Process Is Shrouded in Secrecy, Prone to Error and Vulnerable to Manipulation

A new study by the Brennan Center for Justice has found voters across the country are... more

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Wall St. crisis should be for Neoliberalism what fall of Berlin Wall was for Communism

As the world reels from the financial crisis on Wall Street and the taxpayer-funded... more

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INCA PICTURES's ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? Wins Accolade Competition

Los Angeles, CA September 30 2008 - Cheyenne Quintanar and Marco Aguilar, of INCA PICTURES, have won a prestigious Honorable Mention from The Accolade Competition. The award was given for Cheyenne Quintanar and Marco Aguilar's exciting political and social documentary ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? Which goes abroad and gives voice to people in other countries of the world to weigh in on US foreign policy, the Bush administration, the US invasion of Iraq, and the rise of anti-Americanism.

ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? features exceptional interviews from KRS-ONE, known as one of the most nfluential and philosophical emcees in hip-hop of our time. KRS-ONE has written three books, produced 15 albums, lectured at over 500 universities, been honored by the United Nations, VH1, and Billboard magazine, and has been recognized by prestigious schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Oxford. One of his most controversial views is that as a citizen of America, he is the Terrorist to someone else in the world.

ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? also features Amy Goodman, an award winning journalist, author, and host of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! Amy has won numerous awards for her documentary and journalism pieces, including a Robert F. Kennedy award for journalism and a George Polk award for her documentary coverage of Chevron Oil Corporation's role in the Niger Delta.She has written three books, one of which was on the New York Times bestseller list, and she is a sought after speaker. Democracy Now! is one of the most internationally syndicated programs in broadcast history today, and they continue to grow in syndication.

ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? affords the audience to get perspectives from everyday people from around the world about their feelings and views regarding The United States policies domestic and international, and their attitude via their actions around the world.

"Working on this project for three years and winning the Accolade film festival makes you feel like your work and the passion that you put into a subject matter, such as this, is all worth it, and that someone else gets it! Even though I have seen clips of my film numerous times while editing, when I sit down to watch it in full, I am still very emotionally moved. It gets your blood pumping, and it makes you wanna do something, you want to help change the world." - Marco Aguilar, One of the Directors, Producers, Writers and Editors of ARE WE STILL THE UGY AMERICAN?

The Accolade recognizes film, television and videography professionals, who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity, and those who produce standout entertainment or contribute to profound social change. Entries are judged by highly qualified professionals in the film and television industry. Information about The Accolade and a list of recent winners can be found at www.theaccolade.net.

In winning an Accolade, INCA PICTURES and their directors, writers, producers; Marco Aguilar and Cheyenne Quintanar join the ranks of other high-profile winners of this internationally respected award. Thomas Baker, Ph.D., who chairs The Accolade, has this to say about the latest winners, "The Accolade is not an easy award to win. Entries are received from around the world. The Accolade helps set the standard for craft and creativity. The judges were please with the exceptionally high quality of entries. The goal for The Accolade is to help winners achieve the recognition they deserve."

For more information call Cheyenne Quintanar at 818-943-5743 or visit INCA PICTURES at www.incapictures.com.

Los Angeles, CA September 30 2008 - Cheyenne Quintanar and Marco Aguilar, of INCA... more

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tagged w/ Amy Goodman

Over 2,200 US Veterans Died in 2008 Due to Lack of Health Insurance

Capitalism a Love Story and Democracy Now!!!!

Ralph Nader on Healthcaare Reform: YOU DON'T CUT DEALS WITH A SYSTEM THAT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED

Hiroshima Nagasaki 64th Anniversary

Kucinich: The Democrats' Plan Lets the Insurance Industry to Pick the American People's Pockets

Profit Driven Insurance Claim Denials Kill People: The Bodies Can Be Found!

On the 6th Anniversary of the Iraq War, Is Anyone Listening?

I want my Democracy Now

Amy Goodman - Jailing Kids for Cash

The Big Lie: Why Print Media is Suffering

Independent Media in an Age of Corporate Domination: An Interview with Amy Goodman

Expanding Nuclear Power Makes Climate Change Worse

Democracy Now! | Filmmaker Ron Howard on His New Film "Frost/Nixon"

2 TRILLION DOLLAR Sell Out of US Taxpayers by DEMOCRATS & Bush Administration

What an Obama Administration will mean for Israeli-Palestinian relations

Grassroots Effort Helps New York Mother Avoid Foreclosure

Murder of independent journalist Brad Will

Report: Voter Purging Process Is Shrouded in Secrecy, Prone to Error and Vulnerable to Manipulation

Wall St. crisis should be for Neoliberalism what fall of Berlin Wall was for Communism

INCA PICTURES's ARE WE STILL THE UGLY AMERICAN? Wins Accolade Competition

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