Friday night (10 July, 2009) Bill Moyer’s Journal exposed Health care. It was especially good and should be required viewing. The three videos below are the complete show (all three combined are 51 minutes and 31 seconds long) and they are a must see, especially the second one…Take your blood pressure medicine before you view them.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch.html (11 minutes, 17 seconds)

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html (36 minutes, 30 seconds)

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch3.html (3 minutes, 44 seconds)

This is unbelievable…

In the first video, watch for the parts where Congressmen Stupak and Barton ask the questions. They are an eyeopener.

In the second video, in the interview with ex CIGNA Head of Corporate Communications, Wendell Potter, we learn that Michael Moore’s film Sicko was dead accurate and that the health insurance industry threatened the Democratic Party with a return to minority party status if they endorsed the film in the slightest way. The part on the outdoor clinic in Virginia was not only disheartening but it reminded me of the third world nation that we are quickly becoming.

The third video is a commentary by Bill Moyers on the media and in particular on a member of the media, the publisher of THE WASHINGTON POST Katharine Weymouth, and her way of capitalizing on the plan to reform health care.

Welcome to Fascist America.

Please forward this to everyone because it needs the widest possible exposure.

Here are some pictures Bob Kincaid passed along from today’s protest at Marsh Fork Elementary. For the full details on the events of the day, you can grab Bob’s archive for June 23, 2009 at The White Rose Society!

When Bob passed along the first picture, I became curious as to which existed first – the school or the mining operation. Bob replied: “School was there first. Then came the plant. Then came the law. The plant was “grandfathered in.” Then came the MTR job above.” Remember the ‘Country Roads’ Parody video, where in the lyrics Bob penned he stated “We lose more by law here, than if they used a gun”? This is what he was talking about.

Here’s the sniper on the school’s roof, as Bob noted.

The H.O.R.N.’s favorite intern, Ferg, protesting the destruction of his home.

H.O.R.N. intern Ferg taking video of the performers, who were no doubt singing about the evils of mountain removal.

H.O.R.N. den mother Agnes, and intern Ferg, take time to participate in an interview.

This is the one who shouted the whole time. (I can smell him from here. Oh — am I being an “Outside Agitator” Mr. Big Mouth? Tough!) That audio will be available as soon as it’s processed.

Here are the hogs the fiends of coal rode in on, and revved the entire time. In fact, a lot of their behavior can be related to barnyard animals.

Here’s one now – Moooooo! (Love ya! – The Outside Agitator)

Banjo player Morgan O’Kane (pictured below with singer/producer Jen Osha) is the fellow Bob told us about, that had an air horn blasted right in his ear by a fiend of coal. To check out or purchase the benefit CD they participated in to raise money for the fight against mountain removal, please visit http://www.auroralights.org/journey. You’ll be glad you did!

Dr. James Hansen, arrested today, tried to warn us years ago.

Reverend Jim Lewis had to shout a prayer over the sound of motorcycle engines being gunned.

This is Matt Sherman. You simply must listen to Bob’s archive to get all the details about his speech!

Awww, does someone need a hug? (Love ya! – The Outside Agitator)

Uncle Sam doesn’t like mountain removal. Apparently his stilts were a security threat.

Let’s not forget why people gathered here today. It’s to ensure the students at Marsh Fork Elementary School have a safe and clean environment to learn in. In a matter of weeks, children will be sent inside a building that is only yards away from BILLIONS of gallons of deadly coal sludge, that sit in a measly earthen dam. If that dam breaks, those children will be killed.

So, how clear is your conscience?

One week after re-paying its TARP bailout loan, Goldman Sachs predicts being able to pay employees record bonuses this year. In fact, they’re predicting their most profitable year ever.

Isn’t this special? Once the Obama administration told these companies getting the TARP money that not only will their salaries be limited, but they could also kiss their bonuses goodbye, that they are now able to pay all of that money back, AND estimate record profits.

Is it just me, or does this stink to high heaven?

Reuters has a short article about it here, as reported by The Guardian.

On May 28, 2009, I called into Bob Kincaid’s program to refute the FAUX news lie, that Democrats were targeting republican-owned car dealerships for closure. I relayed the local news articles which stated how very large, long-time dealerships were having their franchises pulled, while the dealerships republican Ohio State Senate President Bill Harris founded, were able to keep both their GM and Chrysler licenses.

One dealership I expressed utter confusion over having their franchise pulled, was a company called Spitzer. It’s nearest location is in the county directly beside the one I live in. I grew up listening to their ads on the radio.  Their presence in this part of Ohio is quite large. Frankly, I was outraged to learn that Spitzer was losing its Chrysler franchise, when the little rinky-dink franchise Bill Harris’s namesake bears was keeping theirs.

Be it known to all and sundry, that I no longer feel this way.

This afternoon, I ran across an AP article, which talked about some 14 Chrysler dealers testifying in court, questioning the decision to close their franchises. Among those were Alan Spitzer, whose family began the Spitzer dealership over 100 years ago. Initially, I was happy to read that he was there, and standing up to what I surely thought were closings based on political influence, since after all, he’s not the President of the Ohio State Senate. In fact, I was so impressed with his activism, that I decided to swing past his website and find an email address, so I could let him know that I was rooting for him.

When I got to his website, that’s when my love affair with Alan Spitzer ended.

At the top of his website, there is a message to their Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep customers, stating their business plan to continue providing service for them. But the very last sentence shook me back to reality, just like a needle being pulled across an old vinyl record. That sentence reads:

Please contact President Obama and tell him to stop these closings and let the free market, which makes America great, control their fate.

At first I thought “He couldn’t possibly be blaming the loss of his Chrysler franchises on President Obama, could he??” I then noticed a link to a “special” message to that same group of customers. I clicked on it, and quickly got my answer. It reads, in part:

Auto Dealer Jack Fitzgerald from the DC area stated it very well. You can see his complete interview with Greta Van Susteren from On the Record seen on Fox News.

<snip>

(Referring to President Obama again) Ask him to listen to you, the people. Ask him to watch or listen to the Jack Fitzgerald interview.  We need to make him aware of the grave mistake they will make if they continue down this course of action.

(The video Spitzer talks about is here)

Perhaps Mr. Spitzer needs to take another look at this video, because Mr. Fitzgerald lays the blame at the feet of Chrysler’s management, where it rightfully belongs, rather than trying to pin it on President Obama. What’s also surprising, since this is a FAUX news piece, is that there is NO union bashing or blaming. Mr. Fitzgerald does well to point out that Ford Motor Company is NOT in the same boat as Chrysler and GM.

Incidentally, and this is often an overlooked fact, while the UAW (United Auto Workers) are always blamed as being the downfall of General Motors, Chrysler employs UAW members as well, and they’re never cited as being part of Chrysler’s downfall. Ford also employs UAW members, and Ford is not seeking a bailout, or a bankruptcy, nor are they closing any of their dealerships. So how can the UAW screw up GM so badly, but when it comes to Chrysler’s demise, the same UAW isn’t even mentioned, and the same UAW gets no credit for Ford being on seemingly stable ground? If you need more proof that these companies are driven by management decisions, and not the old evil unions, I wouldn’t know where else to tell you to go look for it.

But back to Spitzer. His attempt to blame President Obama for losing his franchise is, when you cut through all the hyperbole, nothing more than tax day TEA party crap. Spitzer’s repeated “free market” mantra is proof that he clearly blames all that’s wrong in his world on the “big guvmint libruls”, and everything that’s right in his world is because he’s a “self-made” man. I’d be willing to bet that Mr. Spitzer would claim that losing his franchises is proof of the Obama administration “micro-managing” the automobile industry.

Here’s a brief connection: Keith Olbermann slammed Ohio repiglican Congressman Jim Jordan for saying that because of Obama’s micro-management of the car industry, that the GM plant in Ontario, Ohio (Mansfield) is closing. Jordan then wanted Obama to exercise some of the micro-managing he was just complaining about, and keep the plant open. Yeah, really. It’s enough to make you rub your eyes. Mansfield, Ohio is home to one of the Spitzer Chrysler dealerships that has lost its franchise. It must be something in the water. Spitzer, by asking people to contact President Obama, rather than Chrysler Corporation, obviously feels the President has some power to micro-manage the auto industry. In a way, I wish Obama would do what he’s being accused of. Then he could set the salaries for car dealers too, just like he did for the Wall Street banksters. He’d keep your business open, but he’d tell you what a fair salary is. Is that a deal, Mr. Spitzer?

I’ll try to wrap this up. (I heard that!)

I had previously thought that republican Ohio Senate President Bill Harris’s dealerships got to keep their franchises, because of his political clout, and that the Spitzer dealerships were a victim of that. While that may very well still be true, the fact remains that Harris and Spitzer are two hucksters, working the same side of the street. Both are ardent free marketeer supporters. The free market’s goal is to push down wages, while driving maximum profits to those at the top, as tax-free as possible. Both are quick to blame the Democratic Party for failed economic policies that didn’t work when Ronnie Raygun implemented them, and stood no chance of working when Bushco decided it was time to try it again. He who lives by the sword, shall die by it.

Mr. Spitzer, the “free market” you endorse is just chuck full of business opportunities, or at least that’s what you’d have us believe. If losing your franchises is going to impact your ability to earn a living, then perhaps you should do what millions of workers have had to do, as a result of your “free market” philosophy – find a new job!

As for this Buckeye, you couldn’t get me to buy a gumdrop from you, if you were the last one selling them.

-Sue and the Ranting Keyboard

General Motors, the nation’s largest automaker, today stood on the brink of bankruptcy and an effective government takeover. President Obama will address the nation at 11:30 a.m. ET Monday to discuss the bankruptcy, two officials close to the situation told CNN. It is expected that GM will detail some 20,000 job cuts and the closure of about a dozen plants by the end of 2010.

The impact of GM’s bankruptcy, which follows a Chapter 11 filing by Chrysler on April 30, will ripple across the nation to dealers, suppliers and other businesses large and small that work in the sector.

The company, once the country’s largest private sector employer, has only a fraction of its former staff. Its 80,000 hourly and salaried U.S. employees are half the number it had as recently as 2001.

Nearly 500,000 U.S. retirees, as well as more than 150,000 of their family members, depend on GM health insurance and pension plans. Retirees will see cuts in their health care coverage, although the company’s underfunded pension plans are not expected to be affected by a bankruptcy filing.

Full article continues at CNN.

YouTube Link

Updates at Mountain Justice.

Courtesy The Hollywood Reporter:

The hostility between Fox News Channel and MSNBC reached a fever pitch Wednesday when a Fox producer infiltrated the GE shareholders meeting.

Just before GE re-elected board members, company brass were hit with questions from shareholders critical of an alleged leftward political slant at MSNBC.

But one of those questions came from Jesse Waters, a producer on “The O’Reilly Factor” whose criticisms were cut short when his microphone was cut off, according to several attendees. Waters apparently did not publicly identify himself as a Fox employee.

Waters has built a reputation as an ambush interviewer, specializing in on-the-street confrontations. But this is arguably the boldest move by a Fox newsie to utilize the tactic inside their chief rival’s tent, as it were.

O’Reilly and MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann have been involved in a running feud for several years, but the pissing match between the two has of late started to envelope other parts of the News Corp. and GE empires.

GE pointed out that Waters had Fox News cameras waiting outside the Orlando meeting.

-Article Continues…

By Ryan J. Donmoyer, Bloomberg

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) — Eighty-three of the 100 largest publicly traded U.S. companies, including Citigroup Inc., PepsiCo Inc. and General Motors Corp., had units in multiple tax havens in 2007, a government study said. Among those companies were some recipients of federal bailout money.

The Government Accountability Office said in a report dated Dec. 18 and released today by two senators that four companies, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America Corp., and News Corp., had more than 100 subsidiaries in low-tax or no-tax countries. The first three companies received or will receive shares of a $700 billion financial rescue package approved by Congress.

“We should take action to shut down these tax dodgers and we will be introducing legislation to do just that,” said North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat who released the report with Michigan Senator Carl Levin, also a Democrat.

Citigroup had 427 subsidiaries in tax-haven countries and Morgan Stanley had 273, the GAO said. News Corp. and Bank of America had 152 and 115, respectively.

Of the 83 companies, 74 held federal contracts, including General Motors with 11 subsidiaries in countries such as Barbados, Bermuda, Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore and the Cayman Islands.

Click to read the full article here.