"As the health care debate enters this critical period, listeners should be aware that I have in recent years given paid speeches or paid advice to doctor groups, hospitals, pharmaceutical firms and insurance companies, as well as to low income advocacy groups promoting universal coverage. In all of these contexts I have offered the same views of public policy that can be found in my books, columns, articles and commentary on Left Right &Center."
-- Matt Miller
Provocative, up-to-the-minute, alive and witty, KCRW's weekly confrontation over politics, policy and popular culture proves those with impeccable credentials needn't lack personality. This weekly "love-hate relationship of the air" features four of the most insightful news analysts anywhere.
Photo from L-R: Matt Miller, Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley, Robert Scheer
Photo credit: Marc Goldstein
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There’s a strong feeling that Congress is bucking Obama and isn’t being called to task for it. For the first time, Obama’s approval ratings are below 50% (Gallup poll says) and calls for Treasury Secretary Geithner’s resignation are growing louder. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin’s managed to suck up a good deal of media oxygen. Also, the healthcare debate – or vote about whether or not to bring it to debate – is where we stand this week. Finally, Bob's 'rant' in praise of KCRW's departing General Manager Ruth Seymour.
Should trails of the alleged masterminds of 9/11 even take place? What will President Obama do in Afhganistan? An upcoming job summit may not be enough for Democrats in the next round of elections. Finally, the truth about Fort Hood, Take Two. (Arianna Huffington is away.)
The horror at Fort Hood raises questions of religion, education and mental health. Also, unemployment tops 10%, the GOP’s big election week, and healthcare comes to a vote.
Consumer spending drives the real economy and it is down. The healthcare reform bills presented by both Houses of Congress make this an historic moment. Did Hillary Clinton make things worse in Pakistan? A political wrap up on the elections in New Jersey, Virginia and New York, and the implications for the Obama era. (Arianna Huffington is away.)
Back by popular demand, Arianna Huffington, Matt Miller, Robert Scheer and Tony Blankley return to the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica with their wildly popular political week-in-review, Left, Right & Center. This special live broadcast will also be streamed live as an audio and video webcast at KCRW.com from 6-7pm PDT. It will be available for on-demand viewing and podcasts after noon on Tuesday, October 27.
Does government have the right to limit the pay of executives when taxpayers hold a majority interest in the company? The public option is sneaking back onto the table in the healthcare reform game. The Obama Administration takes a hard-core stance on Fox News. Plus, the Washington Post's Len Downie proposes public funding for journalism. (Mike Gonzalez, Communications Director at the Heritage Foundation, sits in for Tony Blankley, who is away.)
Wall Street versus Main Street, healthcare marches on, and Balloon Boy. Truth of fiction?
The Nobel Peace Prize has been, stunningly and unexpectedly, given to President Barack Obama. Plus, at long last, a vote is due in the Senate Finance Committee on something resembling healthcare reform. Finally, is the dollar still holding its own as the world's leading currency?
Obama's bid for Chi-town Olympic glory did nothing to aid America's cause. Is this a massive political failure or much ado about hardly anything? The economy, touted as recovering, continues to be a jobless recovery; unemployment's at 9.8%. Do we or don't we go into Afghanistan; is Obama in a box thanks to campaign promises? And SEX! Polanski, Ensign, Letterman – is there a double standard for the elite?
Revelations about Iran's secret nuclear power plant. Can the G-20 save the world economy? Global warming, which Tony declares a phony issue, and fresh jitters on Afghanistan...
Obama's big move on missile defense, the Baucus plan and healthcare's next big step. Pus, financial reform one year after Lehman's collapse, and the Glenn Becking of America....
A substantive discussion of Swiss and Massachusetts' models for healthcare, and personal and political reactions to the Obama speech to the Joint Session of Congress this week. With House Speaker Pelosi saying she won't support a troop increase for Afghanistan, what’s a President on the verge of a quagmire to do? Plus, on the eighth anniversary of 9/11, is the country any safer? Is terrorism on the wane, or did we blow all the global goodwill and sympathy with our follow-up actions around the world? (Arianna Huffington is away.)
Happy Labor Day as unemployment hits 9.7%. A new plan for Afghanistan. Healthcare gets real. And Obama's scheme to make your child a communist.
Ted Kennedy, the "Lion of the Senate" has been laid to rest. Is Obama the next LBJ? Plus, a special prosecutor for the CIA. And, our WEB EXCLUSIVE Left, Right & Center rants!
Lawrence O'Donnell sits in for a vacationing Matt Miller.
With Bob Scheer in the moderator's seat again today, we engage in a deep discussion about our mission in Afghanistan. Bob ties some of this back to the allegations about Blackwater assassinations for hire. Also, a pretty deep and divisive discussion about the free market, public options and what healthcare reform really is or should be.
Arianna Huffington (independent progressive) is the editor of the Webby Award-wining online newpaper, Huffington Post, a nationally syndicated columnist and author of twelve books, most recently Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe.
Tony Blankley (Right), who served as press secretary to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, is a syndicated columnist and former editorial page editor of the Washington Times. He is Executive Vice President of Edelman Public Relations in Washington, DC and a visiting senior fellow in national security communications at the Heritage Foundation. He is also the author, most recently, of American Grit: What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century, published by Regnery.
Matt Miller (center/moderator) is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress; a columnist for the Daily Beast, and a contributing editor at Fortune. and an award-winning contributor to The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Magazine and many other publications. A former aide in the Clinton White House, Miller's first book, The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America's Problems In Ways Liberals And Conservatives Can Love, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. His next book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, was published by Henry Holt/Times Books in Winter, 2009.
Robert Scheer (Left) is Editor of the Webby Award-winning political website TruthDig.com. He was a national correspondent and columnist for 19 years at the Los Angeles Times where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Currently a columnist represented by Creators Syndicate, Scheer is a clinical professor in communications at the University of Southern California. He has authored eight books most recently most recently The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America. His new book, The Great American Stickup: Greedy Bankers and the Politicians Who Love Them, will be published by Nation books in the spring.
Live
A CD copy of Left, Right & Center is available by calling 1.888.600.5279
Transcripts are not available.
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