Mark your calendars:  I'm giving the Vision Series Lecture at George Mason University on Monday, December 8th at 7:00 in the Center for the Arts.  I'm speaking on the topic: "Racial Politics in a "Post-Racial" America." Tickets are free, but required.  I hope you can join us.

The constant refrain from opponents of the health care reform legislation that is making its way through Congress is that it's "socialized" medicine.  The inference, of course, is that socialized medicine is worse than the system we currently have (try telling that to the nearly 50 million Americans without insurance and the millions more that are under-insured). This refrain flies in the face of the facts and, somewhat surprisingly, there are prominent Republicans that are speaking up in favor of reform.  We've heard from notable former Republican elected officials, such as Bob Dole and Bill Frist, argue in favor of much of what is now going through Congress.  Frist is particularly interesting, given his pre-political career as a medical doctor.  Here is a clip of Frist discussing this issue.  I'm sure health care reform opponents can't be happy with his comments.

Jon Stewart exposed hypocrisy in the Senate Republican caucus over the GOP's rush to defund ACORN, while voting against an amendment offered by Senator Al Franken that would prohibit government contractors from inserting language in employee agreements that would preclude workers from suing for mistreatment. The amendment was offered in response to the treatment of Jamie Leigh Jones who, in 2005, was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR co-workers while a contract worker in Iraq; she was locked into a shipping container to prevent her from reporting the incident. Her employment agreement only allows for a private arbitration hearing, not a prosecution in a court of law. Franken's amendment would close that loophole for Halliburton/KBR.

All of the 30 votes against the amendment came from Republicans. They are: Alexander (R-TN), Barrasso (R-WY), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Burr (R-NC), Chambliss (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Ensign (R-NV), Enzi (R-WY), Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA), Wicker (R-MS).

Why are these Senators so protective of Halliburton?

Here's Jon Stewart's take on the opponents of the amendment. Searing!

Van Jones resigned from his staff position at the White House where he worked on "green jobs" issues.  While I was never certain that his position was more than window dressing, I did see his appointment as one with at least superficial importance.  His removal now creates two major problems for the White House. 

First, it is yet another reminder that the Obama vetting operation is shot through with problems.  Everything you need to know about Jones and his political positions is easily available in a short Internet search, so either the White House did not take the time to find out if there was anything in his background that would embarrass the President, or they did not care.  If the latter is true, then they should have defended him when Glenn Beck and his merry band of ignorants rose up to take a chunk out of the progressive movement.

The second problem is that the Jones affair only emboldens the conservative movement to go after those whose views are even slightly controversial.  The Right will now redouble their efforts to stymie the Obama administration by creating mountainous controversies out of molehills.  The unwillingness to fight back in cases like this creates concerns that "Obambi" won't fight his opponents.  That position encourages bullys, so expect more attacks on the administration that look very much like what happened to Jones.

Click here to read an additional perspective on the Jones affair.

I have very few heroes.  Lawrence O'Donnell is among them.  O'Donnell is, perhaps, best known as one of the creative forces behind the long-running NBC series "The West Wing."  He also is a policy wonk of the highest order having once been the chief of staff to the Democratic Finance Committee to cap a long career in government service. 

O'Donnell doesn't play when he guest hosts MSNBC's Hardball.  He's long been on the case for a single-payer health system.  I can remember him saying years ago that we should just amend the current Medicare system to eliminate the "over-65" requirement, thereby making the system available to everyone. O'Donnell continued his public service on the Friday edition of Hardball when he exposed the hypocrisy of Texas Republican Representative John Culberson who sees President Obama's healthcare proposal as socialism, but doesn't want to terminate two other big government programs -- Social Security and Medicare.

I ask that you circulate this video to all concerned about the future of healthcare.