in our community here in oakland and grew up in oakland and has been here in oakland all his life. welcome, paul cox. it is a pleasure to be here today. great to have you. tell us a little bit about your background. i was born in oak lan, my parents come from oklahoma and mississippi. uh-huh. i was born in oakland, i have attended schools in oakland and i have had the opportunity to travel all over the country as a journalist and as an activist and participant in the civil rights struggle and as an advocate for change. you told me earlier that you had not taken a course in journalism but you are gifted in writing detail is. no, i did not take any courses in journalism, i got great grades and english and writing and composition and i remember as a youngster, i was a spelling bee champion and i have alway scarbbling. when you start to realize you have that gift, what made you to work in the community as you did so. my mother used to tell me i was named after
it was adopted as a week, black history week, but in 1976 it became black history month in many states, and in fact president gerald ford was the first to acknowledge black history as being important. the united kingdom acknowledged it in 1987, canada in 1995. until we have an emphasis on african american who made a contrib to our society because of that. we have that guest who has been here before, we ve had him as a guest back in july so i m please to have him again, paul cob. good to see you again. good to be here. what is your background and history that you ve made? well, you know i was born here in the bay area. i became a reporter with the post newspaper, went to selma to march with dr. king and to record the events and to participate in that historic event. i participated in forming the black caucus which helped elect blacks to public office in the city of oakland and i became a kennedy fellow, worked for robert f. kennedy memorial or foundation, and from there
they believed him when he said if you like your insurance, you can keep it. one woman quoted in the los angeles times put it this way. what we ve heard for three years is if you like your policy, you can keep it. i m infuriated because we were lied to. it s not fair. it s not right. republicans have settled on their latest anti-obama care message. if you like your health plan, you can keep it. and today they got a big boost from bill clinton. i personally believe even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people. drudge immediately seized on the comments. john boehner applauded the statement saying that democrats concerned about the president s broken promise should join republicans in voting to pass the keep your health plan act. that bill would allow insurance companies to continue try and sell that policy in the media, now the roles have been completely reversed. republican lawmakers now ta
republican lawmakers now take their own legislative agenda straight from the conservative media talking point of the day. it s a legislative perfected during the shutdown. when republicans voted based bose nothing could be a more clear example of how the modern gop works. in the past, lawmakers came up with policy and then tried to sell the policy in the media, but now world saw been completely reversed. republican lawmakers now take their own medicine and agenda street from the media talking point of the day. it s a legislative message perfected during the shutdown. when republicans voted based solely on whatever was on fox the previous day. remember, it was the right wing media that flogged the scandal. according to the daily caller, they say this is the first time in history that things have been totally off limits to visitors during shutdown. then house republicans quickly wrote a bill. put up barricades to keep them away from their greater accomplishments is an a
republican lawmakers now take memorials should be open and cancer trials should be funded, they shouldn t have shut down the government in the first place and if they s now their position that people shouldn t have their health insurance plans cancelled, well then, they re a little late to the party. this is lee ioner, if they weren t able to weed you out in the application process, and somehow ended up paying for the operation, they send in lee, their hit man. his job is to get the company s money back any way he can. all he has to do is find one slipup on your application or preexisting condition you didn t know you had. we re going to go of this like it s a murder case. and i mean the whole unit dedicated to going through your health history for the last five years, looking for anything that would indicate that you concealed something, you misrepresented something. so that they can cancel the policy. when robin baiten isn t selling antiques, she s fighting a battle