Funny you would put this up. I just watched Sicko last night and was thinking what a brilliant man Benn is. Coincidence? I don't think so.

MP, Tony Benn, in the movie Sicko, certainly articulated one of the methods the Oligarchy uses in order to control the great unwashed....."keep them demoralized" and they will not have time to question the delusion of safety and security that is foisted on us everyday by our trustworthy overlords. Now, if I did not have to work three jobs to stay behind I would do something about this mess.....Stop the Shopocalypse from destroying us all. Vote the only candidate with the gumption, track record and wherewithal to take down the Neocons....Dennis Kucinich!! Money Bomb the Kucinich Campaign until your credit card cries!

Nicole, I bought Sicko last week and watched it. I must say I'm utterly amazed at the misinformation and idiocy of any Americans that think they don't want to change their medicare to copy anyone's, including Canada's. I would be ashamed if my child was hurt and I had to decide what medical treatment I could afford. It's incredible that America "finds" any amount of money to kill people, but can't bring itself to give it's citizens healthcare without bankrupting them.

I had never heard of Tony Benn, but we could use a few like him over here in the states.

Want more? www.tonybenn.org

ENJOY!

Caution: Remember all those scary warnings about Socialism you were forced to swallow in history class? Well then, enter at your own risk. Or you can do the correct thing and enter with an open mind.......so9mething America seems to have lost the ability to do or it has been taken away from you.

Fuck yeah

Free healthcare in the United Kingdom isn't as rosey as Michael Moore makes it out to be. Almost 2 billion a year is wasted because of a serious alcohol abuse problem in the United Kingdom amongst teenagers. You're virtually paying for others lack of personal responsibility. I have friends in the UK who've not had to use the NHS in a decade, yet they've been paying for it. Not to forget the number of people who have to go overseas to get treatment due to the waiting times, and the fact that Europe has to hire nurses from Africa because nobody in the UK wants to get into the medical profession because the NHS pays poorly.

Everyone should have affordable healthcare, but Michael Moore overlooked the major problems with the British healthcare system, and makes it sound rosey.

I'd be all for it though if they brought our troops home and used the money on healthcare instead though. Better to be hundreds of billions in debt saving peoples lives than ending lives.

I've seen Tony Benn speak at a Q and A session live. I would kill to be as smart as this guy is now (let alone in his prime) for one day in my life.

radiant @ 8:

Steve @ 3:

MP, Tony Benn, in the movie Sicko, certainly articulated one of the methods the Oligarchy uses in order to control the great unwashed....."keep them demoralized" and they will not have time to question the delusion of safety and security that is foisted on us everyday by our trustworthy overlords. Now, if I did not have to work three jobs to stay behind I would do something about this mess.....Stop the Shopocalypse from destroying us all. Vote the only candidate with the gumption, track record and wherewithal to take down the Neocons....Dennis Kucinich!! Money Bomb the Kucinich Campaign until your credit card cries!

Steve, you are absolutely correct. It's the wisest thing I've heard coming from this site in 6 years.
But unfortunately mate, America doesn't work that way. You need a Brad Pitt look-a-like in the office or blue blood background.

Kucinich speaks in terms of; "diologue is needed between leaders, not ambassadors" ' and "American policy is dictactorial"....the man is practical. It's as close to how John Q. P thinks and it's John Q P who is the bulk of your country....yet, a handful of self-serving a-holes who are hell bent in filling their pockets with corporate blood money, paid for by American soldiers lives who run this country. Think democracy....RISE UP!
Kucinich epitomizes "the little people can be strong...if you band together".

it amazes me when i hear anyone declair hillery clintons one of us, since when? has she ever once done without anything shes wanted? she comes from a stuanch republican familly, backed barry goldwater against the democrats , changed her party only because she married bill clinton , you remember bill dont you, ? hes the guy who delivered nafta for the repigs , sure we had eight yrs of peace and prsoparity even a surplus but its all gone now ,it was only being built up so the republicans could steal it later for the rich ! its kind of like going to the carnival and playing the old shell game , they give you just enough wins till you pull your last dollar from your wallet and place it on the table , then its time to take everything back and leave you walking away scratching your head wondering where you fucked up, you fucked up by playing thier game its all rigged against you, want an honest game ? vote kucinich hes the only unfixed game in town!

The most poignant moment in that clip for me was the lady who mentioned that she's lost more relatives in Iraq in the last 4 years than in the prior 30 years under Saddam.

As for Bolton, it boggles the mind that this @ssclown was our head DIPLOMAT at the UN. One can only imagine all the "diplomacy" he was involved in.

Sorry world. Hangs head in shame...

Wow...

Wow...

I have not gotten literal goosebumps listening to someone talk in a long time...

Unbelievable. He's right on the money, every bit of it.

"We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind"

Does this ideology sound like something the Bush Administration is in step with or does it look like the Administration is marching towards causing a war?

This is the realization.

Bolton and Fieth should get together and start the dumbest frakkin think tank on the planet.

john bolton is as all the repigs in the bush crime familly a douchbag, when and if thiers going to be a history written on these war mongering thieves the true legacy of the bush gang will show just how rotton they all were , the bush library should be built in the shape of a toilet!

Tony Benn, brilliant! Josh Bolton, ridiculous. Bolton is such an intelectual pygmy, I wonder what Bush sees in him. Besides the superior intelect that is....

"Kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns, the public gets what the public wants "- Paul Weller (on Tony Benn website)

It's your choice America. What do you feel your country needs more for its people?

Take one, 2000 lb bomb. What does it cost? What does it do? What else could you do with that money? Now multiply that by 2,000. And that is merely a drop in the bucket.

But alas,.........Tony Benn was loud and clear in saying, "if we can have everyone working during war".........that is the deception.

I too love Tony Benn, what a voice of reason in a storm of idiocy...but it made me literally sick to see how much Bolton has learned from Bush...he's really got good at using the only ability he has (like our great president) to mock others when they speak the truth...he even got the crooks and liar sneer down just right! We really must do something and that is not to vote in another idiot or a corporate or lobby lacky. You all know which candidates I'm talking about.

THANK YOU for this post!!!

I saw Sicko the first show of its opening run in Manhattan and was unfamiliar with but so impressed by Tony Been.

When he said the unforgetable: "If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people," the theater broke out into spontaneous, thunderous applause.

Some wise, progressive organization should book Been for a US speaking tour in advance of the 2008 election. He would persaud and inspire people to take action, IF the party's will give us candidates worthy of the presidency (ie, not Hillary and Rudy).

It's just amazing to me how much of a d-bag Bolton is. Every single time I see him in an interview where someone dares to question his unrelenting hatred, he acts like a little kid. Nice argument "you just prove we were right in the Revolution". Yeah, Bolton, you really won some respect with that one. What a tool.

dewey_m @ 36:

Filthy McMoustache had his ass handed to him handily there. He and the rest of the Bush Crime Family should be brought up on charges of Crimes Against Humanity in the Haag. If the incoming president we elect cowards to this call of necessity and attempts to sweep this travesty of justice under the carpet, we will continue of the downward trajectory Mr. Penn describes and soon become the banana republic we are they are turning us into.

To be fair, I've seen Benn speak live and I don't think there's a person who wouldn't get there ass handed to them by Benn in a debate. He could debate that the sun rose in the west and sat in the east and win.

Bloody good show, eh, what!

Bolton's ass was kicked decidedly. Everything Benn said about war crimes, etc was a fact. Too bad these trypes of shows aren't shown on American TV.

We are a declining empire.

Why is it that every time one mentions the benefits of universal health care that someone always brings up issues around wait times and use of privatized care in a universal health care system. Do you honestly think that people don't die in this country because they have to wait? The difference is that here they wait because they can't pay the copay (if they have insurance) or they wait because they don't have insurance and they are not poor enough or old enough to get Medicare or Medicaid. Get over it! Nothing is perfect but wouldn't it be wonderful to not have to worry all the time about how you will pay if you get sick or worse, how will you pay if your child gets sick. People deserve to know that they can have health care. We spend more, all of us, on health care in this country than any other country in the world. We pay for the 22 billion dollars a year that pharmaceutical companies spend wining and dinning the doctors and their PAs so they will prescribe their drugs. No other country in the world has TV adverts on drugs...this must cost more than 22 billion dollars a year. And lets not even get into the profits of insurance companies! We could afford very good health care for all citizens of this once great country if we wanted to...just like Tony Benn said.

D.G. Bowman @ 32:

Bolton says with a straight face that the U.S. isn't an "imperial nation"? Uh, what about that huge embassy your crime cohorts are building in Iraq, Mustache Boy?

Unreal.

LOL, I laughed when he said that. I seem to remember george the 2nd saying that he wanted to bring "american democracy" to the middle east.

sassafra @ 38:

while it is nice to see bolton being flogged for the dolt that he is, i don't ascribe to mr. benns' notions that america is either an empire or in decline as imperial britian after wwII.
yes, we've hit a real spot of bad business with the bush administration that has put us on the ropes, but like macarthur, "we will be back".

i sure as heck wouldn't mind seeing some *real* heat put on our elected officials by the msm though in the british model.

The "spat of bad business" goes back to Reagan and the 1980 election, and includes the Bush-Clinton-Bush -Clinton? dynasty. When the USSR collapsed, the USA failed to find a motivating international policy of leadership, and corporate global-profiteering filled the vacuum and has taken over American politics/governance with equal help from the Clintons and the Bushes. Our commitments and values may have been irreversible  y eroded. We have lost our moral standing by weakening and even abandoning commitments to international peace, human rights, The Constitution, the government checks and balances, an economic system that addresses the needs of the least as well as the powerful and rich, domestic compassion, the rule of law. This is why so many thinking Democrats and progressives are so opposed to Hillary Clinton's candidacy. It will only continue the trend and sustain the corporate profiteering, war-mongering status quo. We need real change and inspiring, visionary leadership able to persuade a new 21st century, value grounded consensus.

What annoys me about the second video is, they're talking about serious issues (the death of Iraqi citizens and Americas imperialism), and they are all very passionate. Except for Bolton. He attacks Benn and not the issue and he laughs at least four times in the video. Shows what type of scum Bolton really is. A typical conservative.

Can we apply for colony status with Great Britain please? All of the sudden, a queen, healthcare, etc...seems so attractive. I'm fed up with living in Walmart USA.

Bullwinkle @ 48:

It's the opinion of this moose that the Q&A session in the House of Commons is one of the least-mentioned and most important aspects of their form of government. It means that basic grasp of the facts, a quick wit, and deft verbal skills are Darwinian survival tools for any politician who aspires to a certain level of influence. Compare that with the drooling chuckleheads who remain ensconced in the US Senate (Mitch McConnell or Jim Bunning come to mind immediately). John Bolton wouldn't last ten minutes in British politics; he'd be laughed off the floor and into instant retirement.

Not only that, the Q&A provides much more entertainment for the home viewer than anything CSPAN can offer.

Hell, look what George Galloway did to Norm Coleman when he went and testified before the Senate. I mean Galloway is truly despicable but Coleman didn't know what hit him.

"You go right ahead, Mr Benn!"

What a turd Bolton is!

I hear the words of Tony Benn and want to cry. Listen to GWB. Listen to Dick Cheney. Listen to John Bolton. Those make me cry for the opposite reason. Benn hits the nail so squarely on the head all I can think is how pathetic we are.

It's so refreshing to ["see" (hear)] read a conversation of sensible political discourse with such a mundane topic as Health Care; as we have been faced with atrocities and the subversion of THE U S Constitution coming to light in the past weeks... "BAD things are bening done in the name of paying the mortgage!"
I just don't see how the complete destruction of the middle class in this country is going to make us a Nation of better shoppers!?!

Gary @ 13:

Free healthcare in the United Kingdom isn't as rosey as Michael Moore makes it out to be. Almost 2 billion a year is wasted because of a serious alcohol abuse problem in the United Kingdom amongst teenagers. You're virtually paying for others lack of personal responsibility. I have friends in the UK who've not had to use the NHS in a decade, yet they've been paying for it. Not to forget the number of people who have to go overseas to get treatment due to the waiting times, and the fact that Europe has to hire nurses from Africa because nobody in the UK wants to get into the medical profession because the NHS pays poorly.

Let's see Gary, the US doesn't do crap about drug and alcohol abuse and it gets demoralization and crime instead. I see that you have limited knowledge about the workings of addiction and its many tentacles of effects on society as a whole. If a kid needs help, let's just wait until he's convicted to offer drug and alcohol treatment. Jail time will teach him at $40,000 an inmate per year. Pay it now or pay it later. And you talk about responsibility. Give me break.

Furthermore, I haven't had a traffic accident for 10-years now (knock on wood), but I'm sure as hell not going to drop my auto insurance. Poor me that I've got to pay all those premiums year in and year out. That's responsibility.

Finally, Gary my boy, you should live in Florida, were I've worked with Indian and Pakistani doctors and nurses from Columbia, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, Philippines, and China. The pay's not bad, but most hospitals are understaffed. Personally, I wish they unionize, but that's for another conservative talking point.

The main point Gary is you need to understand the nature of a lone voice of reason, Michael Moore, verses the well-heeled orifice of media special interest. Democracy's ideal goal is giving power to the powerless. Bringing the power from the marketplace to the voting both. Demoralization is the greatest danger to democracy. Any universal health care would strengthen democracy. So please take that "responsibility crap" in your pocket and smoke it all so slowly.

Bolton is a pompous ass.

"There is no difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. They both kill innocent people."

Hear hear, Mr. Benn.

Like water off a duck's back for that mad dog! There are two mad dogs in recent US history. One is Curtis LeMay, who at least served in the military, though he wanted nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The other is john bolton. This dog froths at the mouth at the thought of war was long as he doesn't have to fight and possibly die in a rice paddy or desert.

I met Mr. Benn at a small anti-war vigil in London in 2003. He was as sensible, kind, and brilliant then as he is now. He seemed particularly kind to me when we talked briefly that night, perhaps because I was an American protesting my own government in a foreign country. Since then, I have become deeply cynical about politics and politicians, but in that second clip Mr. Benn managed to move me again. In the clip he celebrated the fact that the American people, whom he loves, had defeated the Republicans in the midterm elections. "Whom I love." How could this man love us? After all we have done to violate his deeply held and absolutely correct principles. Sometimes my love for my fellow Americans is utterly shattered by the fact that so many of us supported this monstrous war at one time, and that many of us still do. That our only opposition party is so inept at stopping this insanity. That so many of us are just letting this happen, and saying nothing, doing nothing. That Tony Benn still loves us, in spite of all of that, made me feel good to be an American, a little bit. We really owe it to Tony Benn, MP, to prove worthy of that love. We have to stop this.

Linda @ 70:

Thanks for putting this together, Nicole. Well done. If Benn wanted to be our President, I'd be willing to lift the limitations on having to be born on U.S. soil. Who in the U.S. comes the closest to being in alignment sociopolitically with Benn?

Dennis Kucinich

I feel ashamed that I lived in Britain for 5 years (1996-2001) and learned nothing of Mr. Benn, nor was I even aware of his existence untill just now. What a sharp, articluate, intellingent person. He makes todays politicians look like fools and he ROYALLY handed Bolton his worthless ass and asked him if he wanted a cup of tea with it.

This was obviously shot in Britain as I can't remember the last time I saw politicians confronted like that and it gave me a MASSIVE HARD-ON. I would give up my penis and testicles to see Bush thrown to an audience like that, or Hillary for that matter, rather then the staged, pre-screened questions that the so called "media" "asks" them.

Che's Lounge @ 71:

Linda @ 70:

Thanks for putting this together, Nicole. Well done. If Benn wanted to be our President, I'd be willing to lift the limitations on having to be born on U.S. soil. Who in the U.S. comes the closest to being in alignment sociopolitically with Benn?

Dennis Kucinich

I'm sorry it's stuck in my progressive head. Every time I see the poll numbers on Hillary, I think "We are so screwed."

Bolton was just an embarrassment in that segment, throwing sarcastic barbs at the British in response to being rightfully put in his place with the truth. He is a lying piece of shit and who bullied State Dept employees leading up to the Iraq invasion. Underneath that calm voice is a sick human being!

Pat Ukaleley @ 76:

The reason why Tony Benn says he loves Americans but strongly protests the war is simple - he, like most of the world, including our "ememies" can see the difference between the American nation and the American government. Even the King of Jordan said he has nothing against the American people - its the hypocracy of the American Government with their tedious "do as I say, not do as I do" lecturing that Mr (I agree he is no Ambassador) Bolton is such a part of. The idea that "they" hate us for a freedom is ludicrous - but so many people in the USA buy it. They don't hate us for our freedoms, they hate us for our government - but of course that wouldn't make a good electioneering phrase for our Republican scaremongers now would it?

It would not. Benn clearly values principled leadership over political pandering and expediency. Principled leadership has integrity at it's core, something the Bushcovite hacks and Neocons think are for sissies and weaklings.

Benn for President 2008! Bolton, the really ugly American. Do the worst of us always rise to the top?

Michal Moore keeps repeating the word free. There is no free medical care. Free medical care is a lie. The cost is simply hidden, just like Enron hid debts, just like mortgage debt was repackeaged and sold to investors.

Several years ago, Prime Misnister Tony Blair, in response to the situation in the medical system at that time, said, "how are we going to pay for this?" A more recent comment i read was that an increase in the budget went largely to doctors salaries, rather than to patient care. Moore happily noted in his film, that a doctor was making the equivalent of $200,000 a year.

One of the things in the film, was a list. I forget the exact verbiage of what the list represented. It was joked that the U.S. was 37th on the list, just above Slovenia. What wasn't pointed out, was that right below Slovenia, was Cuba.