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Edited on Mon Apr-04-05 02:24 PM by Algorem
The show doesn't put a transcript or video or link to any on their web page http://www.wviz.org/feagler/ ,and I can't find it anywhere on net,so I guess it's all right for me to transcribe it and put it here,yes?I mean,what do they care?:(I don't know where those smilies came from,or that saddie either)(I think http://www.kucinich.us relaunches tomorrow?) Feagler:Many of us have been closely following the news from Rome.As of the time we taped this program,at 3'o'clock on Friday,Pope john PaulII was still living but in grave condition.It would seem inappropriate at this point to do anything but wish him peace.And now on to different matters.After logging,uh,some frequent-flyer miles in a run for President,Congressman Dennis Kucinich is back in his district working on issues of concern to Clevelanders.It's been a while since he's had time to sit down with us but he's here now and I'm glad you are.Welcome back,it's been a long time since we've talked Kucinich:It's good to be here. Feagler:I don't know exactly where to start this,but let me start with perhaps,some words about the pope who apparently is in his last and fatal illness,and the case of the young woman who's just died.You were out of town,so you didn't participate in the vote on government interfering in that matter,but I wonder what your thoughts are on that matter? Kucinich:You know,anyone who has gone through a similar situation in their own family knows how wrenching it is.There's nothing that can tear your heart out more than to see a loved one not being able to function any more and being in a vegetative state.I don't think it was an appropriate place for Congress to be.But I also feel that all of us have to be very careful about making judgements about any of the people involved in it.We certainly need to do more in our society to make it possible for people to make their wishes known and also to help families come together over that.Because it is a very tough situation for any family.When my mother was on her deathbed,we brought our family together,and doctors had said,look,she's never going to recover.And we brought together our seven brothers and sisters,and as the oldest I said look this is a family decision,if any one of us objects to discontinuing life support we won't do it.And one did,so we continued to support that one member.I think there has to be a way for families to come together on this so we don't expect government to intervene. Feagler:And of course the crucial thing about this particular case,Schiavo, is that the family was not together at all,and that was the trouble,and I don't want to spend the whole time together talking about this,but it is interesting to see if anything will grow out of this,because it would seem to me that the husband wanted to discontinue the support but the parents said,well,you know,we'll take care of her,let us do it.Maybe there needs to be some adjustment of law,somehow. Kucinich:I don't know,Dick,I think,you know,any time any of us as government officials try to get into specific family matters it always is ugly,and I think that we have to wish her rest in peace and to find a way to calm the troubled hearts of people all over the world who have been moved very deeply by this.And I can understand that.And at the same time there has to be a balance in society of an individual being able to make a choice,or someone who has the legal responsibllity in the case of that person and what are the limits of government to intervene in that.I mean there has to be a balance struck and I'm not sure that we were able to maintain that balance in this country in the last few weeks. Feagler:You know,I think you're right.Let's move along now to other things.All kinds of things to talk about in this time we have,but I want to start with this:I enjoyed your presidential campaign extremely,because you said some things which I don't think anybody else much was saying.What kind of experience was that for you? Kucinich:Well,it was a chance to come to understand the underlying unity which does exist in America.We just talked about an issue that was very polarizing,but I would suggest that across this country there are so many things that do unite the American people.And I had the opportunity to see the "United" in the United States,to be able to see people from different political parties,from different economic groups and to see where their common aspirations are as Americans, Feagler:I've got to interrupt you on that one because I've got to tell you that as far as I'm concerned America right now is more polarized and divided than it's ever been in my lifetime and I go back,as you well know,and so do you,to the Vietnam days,with rioting in the streets.But I've never seen this country,judging by my e-mail,the response I get,what people say and the tone of voice they use,I've never seen it so bitterly divided. Kucinich:Well,it's possible for a political strategy to be executed which would keep people divided,but I would submit to you that it's also possible to find ways of uniting people,and the people are looking here ,there's a hunger for that.Americans do not want to be divided,they want to find unity on all health care matters,they want to find a unity on economic matters so everyone has a chance to survive.They want to find a unity on environmental matters so we can cure our environment.So there's much more unity than our politics would lead us to believe.
Feagler:We want to go very soon to some of these issues,and we want to talk about your Social Security DVD,if that's what they call it,I guess it's a DVD,isn't it?(Kucinich:"Right.")Ah!Well,I want to ask you this:it looks to me,going into this last election,that it was almost a lay-up for the Democrats,I thought that the sentiment against George Bush and his war was so deep that almost anybody,including a German Shepherd,should have been able to win that election,but I was wrong.What are the Democrats doing wrong?They're doing plenty wrong,obviously.
Kucinich:I think there was a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the Democratic leaders about the electorate.First of all,there was a misunderstanding about health care.Our Democratic Party should have been out there advocating health care for all,a universal single-payer system.The party wouldn't do that.There was a misunderstanding about the war.Some of our leaders thought you could actually take the,quote,"take the war off the table",unquote,as an issue,and focus on the economic issues,but the fact of the matter is,we went to war based on a lie.And if the Democrats had been smart enough to continue to pound away at that issue,that,I think would have been a singular reason for replacing the administration.Here we are months after the president's been sworn in,and now we're starting to,you know,the presidential commission's saying(sarcastically)there wasn't the intelligence that was sufficient to make this action.Well,yeah,there's intelligence and then there's intelligence.We knew:Dick,I'm the top Democrat on an oversight subcommittee that handles national security and international relations.There was never any information suggesting that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11,with Al-Quaida's role in 9-11,with the anthrax attacks,or that they were going to attack the country,and everyone in Washington had to know that,except the administration beat the drums to send this country to war.If the Democratic leaders had taken that up and made that an issue they could be sitting in the White House,
Feagler:At the time,not during the elections.
Kucinich:No,during the elections as well.
Feagler:Alright,because it struck me,and I hope I'm wrong on this,you travelled the country and I didn't,but it struck me that during the elections most people by then knew that there were no weapons of mass destruction and knew that Sadaam hadn't been involved in 9-11,but didn't seem to care anymore.
Kucinich:Well,I don't know,I think the American people did care,I think they want to trust their government.And I think there's always a leeriness about challenging the government
when the government decides there is a cause to go to war.People want to support their president,theywant to support their decision-makers but you know what?We know now,and I knew then,that there were no weapons of mass destruction.Dick,300 billion dollars later,thousands of American deaths,casualties that go into tens of thousands,innocent people in Iraq are killed and injured,what are we doing here?And we're staying.You know,when Congress voted two weeks ago an additional 62 billion dollars to continue to keep us in Iraq.
Feagler:Didn't it strike you Congressman,because it certainly did me,and we're both,you're a little younger than I am,but we both went through the Vietnam experience,and when we emerged from that experience,I thought,OK at least now we've learned something,we're never going to do anything even remotely like this ever again.And I thought that was engraved,should have been engraved in Washington on a memorial somewhere-"Don't do anything like this again",but we did,How did that happen?
Kucinich:Well,there's a type of thinking in this country that says that violence is inevitable,it's not only in our international policies,it's in our domestic policies.I mean you look at domestic violence,spousal abuse,child abuse,violence in schools,gang violence,racial violence,violence against gays,all those are symptoms of a belief that violence is inevitable.Well,you know what?One of the reasons I'm working to create a Department of Peace is to show that violence is not inevitable.That we can change the way we relate to one another not only in our own communities and homes but wihin,between nations.
Feagler:I admire the idealism greatly behind that thought but what I'm asking specifically is you have people like Colin Powell,who went to Vietnam,who created The Powell Doctrine in the first Gulf War because we didn't want to repeat the mistakes of Vietnam and then went in front of the UN and,perhaps reluctantly,but was involved in leading us into this fiasco.
Kucinich:Well you have to remember Colin Powell's a good soldier
Feagler:So was McNamara,who's running around the country doing mea culpa,mea culpa.
Kucinich:Well Colin Powell,Colin Powell is the good soldier and he played the good soldier at the UN.And you know,now that he has to take the brunt of criticism,I think it's really unfair.Because you have to go back to what Harry Truman says about the buck stops here at the president's desk.The president of the United States knew,and they went forward anyway with this war against Iraq.The day after 9-11 there was a meeting in the White House where Rumsfeld said let's use this 9-11 to go into Iraq.Now,that's in Woodward's book,"Bush at War",page 48,for the people who,
Feagler:And never been denied,by anyone I've ever read about.
Kucinich:No,it's not denied.so the point is we didn't have to go to war.We didn't have to waste the lives and the money.And we're still there,and they're building bases there,Dick.And while they're spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq we can't meet the basic needs in this country for education,for health care,for housing,and now the administration wants to put Social Security on the skids.
Feagler:...we want to get to that.What do you think of the Social Security attack that's going on in the country,what's the matter with Social Security right now,anything?
Kucinich:Well,uh,Social Security is not going broke.There's a 1.7 trillion dollar surplus according to the Social Security administration's own actuaries.They released a report last week-Social Security will have a surplus of 6.6 trillion dollars by 2028.According to the Social Security's own actuaries they'll be able to pay 100% benefits through 2041 without any changes whatsoever.The Congressional Budget Office,which is bi-partisan,says Social Security will pay 100% of benefits through 2052 without any changes whatsoever.
Feagler:So what in your opinion is behind this privatization drive?
Kucinich:Well a good possibility is they want to try to entice all these young people into supporting Social Security so that the 2 trillion dollars it's going to cost to set up private accounts will be injected into the stock market,pump up the value of stocks,and the young people'd be locked into these private accounts,the value of the stocks will go up,they'll dump the stocks,and some people will walk away with hundreds of billions of dollars and leave a new generation of Americans on the threshold of poverty.
Feagler:What's that thing...show your DVD there,go ahead,show it to the camera.
Kucinich:I am,this is a first in a series of town hall presentations on major issues,this one dealing with Social Security.And this is a 1-hour video in which I go in great detail about Social Security,the plans to privatize,right or wrong,what else the administration is planning with respect to Social Security.And this is something I'm going to be rolling out in the next week or so and also making it available through my website at http://www.kucinich.us which I'm also relaunching in the next week.So,I'm going to be doing a series here...I've done 12 town hall meetings in my district here,but in addition to that the interest in some of these issues is so substantial that I'm basically going to be making this available to about half a million people that I've contacted throughout the last couple of years.And also,you know,making this disk,this is on a DVD.And we're making these available to people all over the country.So this is a chance to get into the debate in a way that's meaningful,and Social Security is the first in a series.We're going to go to the American economy after that,health care,the environment and a whole range of issues.
Feagler:I've got a DVD player,as soon as I learn how to work it I'm going to watch that thing.Let me ask you about (local NASA research facility,Bush trying to lay off 700 there) NASA Glenn,what's the skinny on that?
Kucinich:Well,the administration has decided that it's more important to go to the Moon and Mars and forget civil aviation in the United States,forgetting of course that the reason why we have a space program is because it came through the evolution of flight with civil aviation.So I'm doing everything I can,working with the entire Ohio delegation to try to save 700 jobs at NASA which have been very important in providing the basis of aeronautics in this country to continue to grow.I mean that NASA Glenn facility,Dick,is probably one of the single most important facilities in the world for developing ultra-efficient engines,for de-icing,for many different technologies that relate to aeronautics.
Feagler:Yeah we hope we can save it.I've gotta say that my old buddy George Voinovich,and Mike DeWine(Ohio's Republican Senators),both of whom I respect,but you'd think,with a Republican in office,in the Presidential office,two Republican Senators,and a Republican governor,you ought to be able to save something here,don't you think?
Kucinich:Well,since Ohio put the President over the top,it would be more than passing strange to see one of the first administration decisions result in stripping Ohio of it's claim to being not just the birthplace of flight but America's premier showcase for flight,so,but I will say that we're working together,we have a bi-partisan coalition of members of the House and with Senator Voinovich and Senator DeWine.We've all talked with each other and we're all working together to save this facility.
Feagler:Good job.Well thanks so much for dropping by,it's always a pleasure to see you.Are you going to run again for President next time,I mean for Congressman?
Kucinich:I haven't announced it yet,just yet,Dick.(laughing)
Feagler:Oh,you'll call me first?(laughing
Kucinich:Well I always do.(laughing)
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