From Progressive Future's Kate Drazner:

Two weeks ago, when I first posted my interview with Ben Carter, many people applauded him for having the courage to come forward and talk about his first-hand experience in Iraq with Halliburton subsidiary KBR. He described, in great detail, KBR's negligence in their contract to provide safe non-potable water to the troops.

Hundreds and hundreds responded by e-mailing DoD Chief Financial Officer Tina Jonas, telling her not to give KBR another penny of the government's money until a full public investigation was fulfilled. Note: After receiving an influx of emails from activists, Ms. Jonas blocked her email address. We have now made the action into a petition which will be delivered to her.  We also shared Ben's testimony on the Brave New Films documentary, Iraq For Sale.

Not everyone was supportive. One angry young man responded negatively on the blogs. He said I was presenting heresy as fact, and accused me of not providing enough evidence to back up Ben's claims. I guess he wasn't convinced of Ben's story, even though it perfectly aligned with previous reports in the press, ranging from the breaking of the dirty water story to Senator Clinton's push for an investigation of KBR.

This week, HeathCareForAmerica’s YouTube channel released “Insurance Company Rules,” a video that takes a humorous approach to an issue that many people don’t find funny. Filmed and put together by the comedy ensemble the Public Service Administration, the video argues that when it comes to health care, there are two sets of rules: the ones that apply to health insurance companies, and the ones that apply to everyone else.

“We decided to create the video because we wanted to highlight the outrageous practices of the insurance industry,” Levana Layendecker from Health Care For America told Citizentube. “Insurance companies get to make the rules that maximize their profits. Their profits are skyrocketing at the expense of our health. …We don't think the American people should be left alone to fend for themselves in the unregulated, bureaucratic health insurance market.”

If you're desperate to be John McCain's vice presidential nominee, you better get on TV and start talking up the Surge as the single most important issue in this year's presidential campaign. And if you're serious about getting picked it wouldn't be a bad idea to say John McCain invented the idea of the surge and maybe even coined the word either. In today's episode of TPMtv we check in on some of the wannabes to see just how bad they want it ...

This Saturday, Robert Greenwald will be speaking at DIY Days, a unique film conference in downtown Los Angeles.

What is DIY Days, you ask?

How do we sustain ourselves as filmmakers and storytellers in this day of shifting film distribution systems? How do we monetize our film and get the word out? Presented by From Here to Awesome the Workbook Project and Current TV - DIY DAYS aims to answer these questions with a day of panels, roundtable discussions and workshops: A look at how to fund, create, distribute and sustain.

In addition to Greenwald, there will be some other fascinating speakers and roundtable discussions. Tickets are free if you’d like to go, but you must register in advance.

More info can be found at: diydays.com

Today Now! shares a delicious omelet recipe you can make at home with just a few simple and surreal ingredients.

More at therealnews.com

Joe Lieberman attends conference of the pastor that McCain renounced.

Watch more at www.theyoungturks.com

Also check out Cenk in his newest show: Meet the Bloggers.

Jacob Soboroff wants to see more people voting and isn't afraid to ask the hard questions.

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: In the past week John McCain and his surrogates have done their best to focus the entire McCain-Obama debate on the question of which candidate was right about the troop surge in Iraq. So it was a little surprising to see McCain on the CBS Evening News last night get a basic historical fact about the surge so plainly wrong.

After FOX thwarted Nas' attempt to deliver our 620,000-signature petition in Manhattan yesterday, Nas outfoxed FOX.  Nas took the petition over to The Colbert Report, where he and Colbert lit into FOX for its racist slander against the Obamas as they literally sat on our boxes of petition signatures. 

So many highlights: Nas calling Colbert a gangster host; Colbert dropping rhymes like atom bombs; Colbert declaring Tucker Carlson less qualified than Lil Jon to host the news; Nas ending the show with his anti-FOX anthem, "Sly Fox."  But what really stood out for me was the sight of Nas and Colbert using our petition as a table for their discussion.  What a clear, powerful message that sends about how many people are standing up to FOX's overt racism.   

Tune into MeettheBloggers.org on Friday at 1pm ET/10am PT when our guest will be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).  This week, our panel of bloggers will include Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog, Nico Pitney of The Huffington Post, and Matt Stoller of OpenLeft, who will discuss the energy crisis and the proposal to lift the ban on offshore drilling.

To get the conversation going, Meet the Bloggers host Cenk Uygur has weighed in with his thoughts on offshore drilling over at HuffPo.  Also, don't miss Chris Bowers' piece, Just Let Them Do It, for another excellent take on this debate.

And if you missed last week's premiere of Meet the Bloggers with guest Arianna Huffington, you can check it out here.

This month we've spent time with a member of Congress trying to move voting to the Weekend, and we've chatted with the Speaker of the House, who indicated she would support such legislation.

Last weekend at Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas, Libertarian presidential candidate and former U.S. Representative Bob Barr told Jacob Soboroff he doesn't know why it is we vote on Tuesday, but that he'd support voting on weekends to make voting more convenient.

Barr: "I'll tell you - we need to do something - and we need to do a lot of different things - and that may be one of the things we need to do. As President, I would sign such legislation."

For more: http://whytuesday.org

P.U.M.A is a swift boating organization, and we have proof! Don't let the GOP swift boat a truly remarkable candidate!

http://yestodemocracy.com

When Republican presidential candidate John McCain got in a fight with the New York Times editorial page this week, Fox News was right there to stick to the McCain campaign talking points even when confronted with contradicting facts. To show you what I mean, I put together the several clips in this video.

In a new installment of Bush League Justice today, guest Julian Epstein, former counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, stated that Republicans will admit, off-camera, that the case against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman was fixed.

The segment concentrated on Karl Rove finally giving written answers to questions, NOT under oath, about the Siegelman case. The questions, which were posed by Lamar Smith (R-TX), and answers can be read at Talking Points Memo.

While the general consensus is that the softball questions were a "pathetic attempt to save Karl Rove," the effort appears to have failed. In the video above, Epstein states that Rove actually appears to "incriminate" himself by refusing to answer a specific question about whether he contacted non-state officials.

Marcy Wheeler agrees with Epstein over at emptywheel: "In a classic non-denial denial, Karl Rove makes it clear that he did talk to people about Siegelman's prosecution--even while he denies that he spoke to anyone in DOJ about it." And Larisa Alexandrovna thinks, "This is getting to be rather fun," before proceeding to rip apart Rove's answer with the facts. She also poses six real questions she'd like to see asked of Rove.

Links available at www.hotpotatomash.com

Send Karl Rove to Jail!

Generations of Americans have worked to build a country that is second to none. But now, foreign governments are using billions in oil profits to buy into U.S. companies responsible for our defense, energy and homeland security. And they are using high-powered lobbyists and private buyout firms who don't have to reveal their role in our national security. Tell Congress that we have a right to know when foreign countries buy into American companies vital to our economic prosperity and national defense.

More at the SEIU.

Interviews with Alzheimer's patients indicated that an overwhelming majority are, in fact, perfectly fine.

"Overall, the image of this particular American Democrat in the Mideast, using tough language about terror but weaving it into a broader global vision that includes an emphasis on multilateralism and true energy reform -- even as Republicans are embracing some of his war-on-terror policies -- is an undeniably powerful one," writes Greg Sargent of Talking Points Memo, of Obama's Mideast trip and press conference in Jordan. tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com

During the first press conference of his trip, Obama stated, "There is security progress, but now we need a political solution" in Iraq.

Obama further noted that Iraqi leaders want a clear date for withdrawal of U.S. troops. "They do not want an open-ended presence of U.S. combat forces. The prime minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganization of our troops in Iraq, including their numbers and missions. He stated his hope that U.S. combat forces could be out of Iraq in 2010," Obama said.

The press conference in Jordan came after Obama toured war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he met with U.S. military leaders, Iraqi leaders and U.S. troops.

Senator Jim Webb is one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party. Webb is a decorated Marine who served in Vietnam and was former Secretary of the Navy under the Reagan administration. In 2006, he was elected senator of Virginia after defeating the Republican incumbent George Allen in a tight and closely watched race. I spoke with him today about how he sees the challenges facing America and the future of the Democratic party.