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Update: Just about an hour ago we hit the 2/3 mark. It is unbelievable, and truly humbling, the outpouring of support and donations that have come in today in my effort to save Newstalgia and the Archive it depends so heavily on. To you who have donated, you are an incredible gift and further evidence all angels don't have wings. To those of you on the fence, or afraid that what you can give isn't much - no matter how small or large your donation is, it is all desperately important and it is all chipping away at an enormous weight. No matter what you give, every penny makes a huge difference. I am grateful beyond words to those of you who have donated so far. We're almost there, and that's the opposite of where we were this time yesterday. I still need your help. We're getting close. You are making a difference. With your help, we're going to make it.

Staying in the early 20th Century today. Here is an address by the legendary William Jennings Bryan, who may probably be best known for his role in the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925; teaching Evolution in public Schools. Bryan died within hours of the trials end. Although Bryan came to epitomize the Liberal Wing of the Democratic Party, he was a staunch prohibitionist and staunchly anti-Darwin, whose theory of Evolution was the basis for the famous trial. He unsuccessfully ran for President in 1896, 1900 and 1908 and was appointed Secretary of State in the Wilson Administration in 1913.

Here is the last portion of his address to the 1908 Democratic Convention, recorded several days later, on July 21, 1908 for posterity and also to be used for the Bryan campaign.

Later known as the "Ideal Republic" Address, here is the transcript of that speech since, being recorded in 1908, is a little hard to decipher in places:

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(Sam Gibbons - God knows he tried)

(Continuing our reposts on Health Care reform throughout history)

When Congressman Sam Gibbons took over the Ways and Means Tax writing Panel from Dan Rostenkowski in June of 1994, he immediately introduced a bill for Universal Healthcare.

Brian Naylor (NPR News): “Florida Democrat Sam Gibbons, now the acting Chairman of the tax writing Ways and Means panel is wasting no time in trying to have an impact on the Healthcare Reform debate. Gibbons has temporarily taken the reigns of the committee from Dan Rostenkowski, w ho was forced to step aside last week after his indictment. Gibbons plan would insure all Americans would have Health Insurance by 1998”.

So naturally the Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich launched an instant attack on the bill, urging it's early death.

From The Boston Globe - June 17, 1994

WASHINGTON -- The House Republican whip, Newt Gingrich, acknowledged yesterday that he has told GOP members of a key committee considering health care reform to do whatever they can to kill the bill.

"My advice to the Ways and Means Republicans is they should do what they think is effective in keeping the Gibbons bill from passing," Gingrich said, referring to legislation offered by the House Ways and Means chairman, Sam M. Gibbons. "It's a bad bill. Why offer amendments to improve it?"

The Party of No rears its historic head . . .yet again!

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(Sen. Claude Pepper - withstood many attempts at mud-slinging)

It's always interesting (and sometimes gratifying) to hear Sunday Morning talk shows from the past, just as a way of reminding yourself things were never as bad as they are now with mainstream media.

Case in point is certainly Meet The Press. Originally begun in 1946 as a feature on the Mutual Broadcast System Radio Network before switching to NBC in 1947, it was the brainchild of Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak and produced in association with American Mercury Magazine (of which Spivak was Publisher), Meet The Press pulled no punches and offered some serious grilling to whatever guest happened to be invited on. It prided itself in not asking canned questions and sometimes the results were newsworthy in themselves.

This episode, from November 27, 1947 features Senator Claude Pepper (D-Florida), himself an outspoken FDR Democrat, talking about our Post-war foreign aid policy and what needed to be done about it in view of the increasing presence of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Sen. Claude Pepper: “I’m in favor of spreading democracy in every part of the world. But there are many ways to spread democracy. You can’t cram democracy down the throats of people. And you can’t buy them off from Communism. We haven’t got enough money to buy the people of the world off from Communism. The best way, in my opinion, to spread democracy is to establish democracy so firmly here, that we’ll be able to propagate it to all nations and peoples of the world, we’ll be able to help them, we’ll set them a good example and the like . . not to buy them or cram it down their throats. . .

Lawrence Spivak: “ . . but certainly Senator we oughtn’t help those who are spreading totalitarianism . . or should we?

Pepper: Mister Spivak, we and the Communists have been living in this world a good many years together. Karl Marx started talking about Communism as you know in the last century. And it seems to me that unless we are willing to be blown to some other world to get away from a world where communism exists, we’ve got to live in a world with Communism. And they’ve got to live in a world with Capitalism. And the sensible thing to do is to learn to live together. We’ve got to live together whether we like it or not.”

Needless to say, Pepper didn't endear himself to the right wing fear mongers in the Senate, who nicknamed him "Red Pepper" and repeatedly attempted to smear him during the 1950's.

Times have changed - so have the people and so have the politicians.