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Goldman Sachs: What Hath Fraud Wrought?

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Bill Moyers Journal - By Michael Winship - Apr. 24 (Opinion) - Goldman Sachs is the Blackwater of finance, the latest in a long line of companies you love to hate, like AIG and the Dallas Cowboys.Or, as Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi infamously characterized it last year, the financial behemoth is "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." Honestly, Matt has to cut down on his couch time watching The Discovery Channel.

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Why Can't Democrats Do Anything Right?

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Bill Moyers Journal - By Bill Moyers, Matt Taibbi, Robert Kuttner - Dec. 21 (Interview) - Could a crushing defeat on health reform teach Democrats to stop prioritizing corporate interests?

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Reforming American Health Care

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Bill Moyers - Jul. 18 (Special Report) - Advocate Donna Smith on how our broken system is hurting ordinary Americans. Then, policy analysts and physicians Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen and David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program join Bill Moyers for a frank discussion about the political and logistical feasibility of a single-payer system amidst the troubled economy and a government dominated by lobbyists.

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Interview: Wendell Potter

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bill Moyers Journal - By Bill Moyers - Jul. 11 (Interview) - And in the forward, Robert Kennedy said that one of the president's, one of his favorite quotes was a Dante quote that, "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain a neutrality." And when I read that, I said, "Oh, jeez, I-- you know. I'm headed for that hottest place in hell, unless I say something."

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Why Have The Rich Been Getting Richer?

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bill Moyers Journal - By Bill Moyers, Robert Reich - Jun. 19 (Interview) - The former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich lamented the middle class in this country has really not participated in the growth of the economy, and over the long term we’re not gonna have a recovery until the middle class has the purchasing power it needs to buy again.

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An unprecedented abyss of economic and social turmoil

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bill Moyers Journal - By Bill Moyers, Mike Davis - Mar. 23 (Interview) - Once a meat cutter and a long haul truck driver, nowadays, Mike Davis teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. This recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" has written so many books we can barely get them on the screen for you. Two of his histories of Los Angeles and Southern California, 'City of Quartz' and 'Ecology of Fear' were best-sellers. His latest: 'In Praise of Barbarians: Essays Against Empire.' Mike Davis, welcome to the JOURNAL. MIKE DAVIS: My pleasure, Bill. BILL MOYERS: Did you ever in your life imagine that America's financial system would become insolvent or that our way of life would be in such a sudden freefall? MIKE DAVIS: No. And I found myself in the position of, say, a Jehovah's Witness, who, of course, believes the end is nigh but then one morning wakes up, looks out the window, and the stars are falling from heaven. It's actually happened. Of course, people a lot like myself are famous for I think the phrase is we predicted eleven out of the last three depressions. So, no. BILL MOYERS: But I do think this time most everyone would agree with what you how you've described what we're going through as the mother of all fiscal crisis. Do you have a sense of the people you know being frightened right now? MIKE DAVIS: Oh, people are terrified, particularly where I teach in Riverside County. People have no idea you know, where to turn. UC Riverside is the largest percentage of working-class students in the UC system. And their families have scrimped and saved. And they've worked hard to get into courses that pointed toward stable careers and jobs. And now those futures are incinerated. What kind of choice do you make? You know, what do you study?

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Bill Moyers reflects on Middle East violence

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Bill Moyers Journal - By Bill Moyers - Jan. 09 (Comment) - In a city made noisy by hammers and saws preparing for the inauguration of a new president — a city already reverberating with partisan rancor, and with the constant chattering of the opinionated — it was hard to hear the sound of a single snare drum along Pennsylvania Avenue, between the White House and Capitol Hill, but there it was: a mere handful of men and women, 70 at most, had come out this rain-swept morning to bear witness to the dead - to the victims of war.

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The Controversy Over Wright

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Bill Moyers - Apr. 26 (Special Report) - (VIDEO, transcript, additional resources) Bill Moyers spoke with Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) in Chicago and Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Il) pastor for more than 20 years, who's been embroiled in controversy. "When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they wanna do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a "wackadoodle"... I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ... To put an element of fear and hatred and to stir up the anxiety of Americans who still don't know the African-American tradition, know nothing about the prophetic theology of the African-American experience, who know nothing about the black church, who don't even know how we got a black church." Some have argued that TUCC's "Black Value System," which emphasizes commitment to the "Black community" and "Black family" rather than to communities and families in general, prioritizes racial identity in an inherently racist way. Arguing that Wright himself might be a racist who holds racial animus against certain groups, commentators have pointed to his statement that "white folks' greed runs a world in need" and to his accusation that the U.S. government "invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color." Furthermore, Wright's association with Louis Farrakhan, whose history of anti-semitic and anti-white statements has been condemned, has brought further controversy. In contrast, some have come to the defense of Wright's rhetoric and his notion of "the prophetic theology of the African American experience" and black liberation theology. In today's Dallas Morning News, Gerald Britt dismisses "attempts to delegitimize Dr. Wright and Trinity United Christian Church for its Afrocentric theological emphasis" and argues that the black church "has been admired for its powerful presence within the African-American community; its worship is envied for its emotional freedom."

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Hope in the Congo

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Bill Moyers, David Murdock - Apr. 07 (Special Report) - (VIDEO) Bill Moyers Journal takes viewers on the ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo to follow aid workers and local relief efforts that are bringing hope to a forgotten land. "The aid agencies are almost substituting for a social welfare system that hasn't operated in these areas for decades," says Dominic MacSorley, Emergency Director for Concern Worldwide, an international aid organization. Concern is one of only two aid organizations working in some remote regions of the DCR. The other, Doctors Without Borders entitled its March 12, 2008 field report: "Violence spikes and civilians suffer." It is one more harsh report from a country which has suffered through a devastating history -- recent and remote. Filmmaker David Murdock followed the journey of one sack of dried peas-- sack 43 -- on a three-day journey by bicycle into the interior.

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Reflections on the Kerner Commission

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Bill Moyers - Mar. 29 (Special Report) - You have to go searching deep into their websites, to find out what the presidential candidates think about urban issues. Their speeches on the subject have been few and far between, and during all those debates of the past year, cities were rarely mentioned. Perhaps it's because to talk about cities, we have to think about the very touchy subject of race. Or perhaps the culprit is amnesia; we've simply forgotten the past that produced the urban challenges of today.

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What John McCain's nomination means for conservatism

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

PBS - By Bill Moyers, Matt Welch, Mickey Edwards - Mar. 07 (Interview) - Joining me now to talk about what John McCain's nomination means for conservatism and this country are Matt Welch and Mickey Edwards, whose books you ought to read as this fascinating campaign unfolds. It's often been said that when Mickey Edwards speaks conservatives listen. And that's why they're digging into his new book, published this week, with the title 'Reclaiming conservatism: How a great american political movement got lost, and how it can find it's way back.' In it, he argues that by building an imperial presidency, so-called conservatives have gutted the system of checks and balances, abandoned due process, and trampled upon our civil liberties, strong views from a lifelong conservative. Mickey Edwards served in Congress for 16 years, was national chairman of the American Conservative Union, and a founding trustee of the Heritage Foundation. He's now a vice president of the Aspen Institute.

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Mr. Heath Goes to Washington: Earmarks Exposed

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

PBS - By Bill Moyers - Feb. 24 (Special Report) - Once upon a time an earmark was just that -- a mark farmers made on the ears of livestock for identification. No longer. An earmark is how politicians fund their pet projects -- including some that reward their pet donors. In this year's spending bills alone Congress has inserted 12,881 earmarks worth over 18 billion dollars.

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The Age of Unreason: An Interview With Susan Jacoby

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

PBS - Feb. 15 (Interview) - It remains to be seen, as the current presidential campaign unfolds, whether Americans are willing to consider what the flight from reason has cost us as a people and whether any candidate has the will or the courage to talk about ignorance as a political issue affecting everything from scientific research to decisions about war and peace.

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Tracking "The Missing Class"

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Bill Moyers - Nov. 02 (Interview) - There are over 50 million Americans who are in the missing class or the near poor. And that's quite a bit more than the 37 million who are officially poor. And about whom we worry a lot more in terms of policy. And we should. That the missing class is a very large number of people. And it's over 20 percent of the nation's children as well.

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Bill Moyers on Impeachment

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Bill Moyers - Jul. 14 (News Report) - BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the Journal. -- Impeachment...the word feared and loathed by every sitting president is back. It's in the air and on your computer screen, a growing clamor aimed at both President Bush and Vice-President Cheney.

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Keeping the Faith

Fri, 11 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - By Bill Moyers - May. 11 (Special Report) - Jay Sekulow earned his PhD from Regent arguing that it's okay for judges to decide cases on the basis of their religious beliefs. Sekulow now heads up Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, and was hand-picked by the White House to be an advisor on judicial nominations. Last month, when the ascendant majority on the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on "partial birth" abortion. Sekulow declared victory for the religious right and for Regent.

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Buying the War

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700

PBS - Apr. 25 (Special Report) - Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln and delivered a speech in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. Despite profound questions and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. How did they get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 continue to go largely unreported?

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