05 Jan 2010: Today's Democracy Now!

Dr. Atul Gawande on Real Healthcare Reform, Why Solitary Confinement Is Torture, and His New Book, "The Checklist Manifesto"
We spend the hour with one of the most influential health policy writers in the country, Dr. Atul Gawande. He is an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, a practicing surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. We speak with him about an influential article on healthcare costs that was cited by President Obama and became “required reading” at the White House, healthcare systems in other industrialized countries, the effect of solitary confinement on prisoners, and his new book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. [includes rush transcript–partial]

Headlines

Jordanian Double Agent Blamed for CIA Base Bombing
General Criticizes State of US Intelligence in Afghanistan
Clinton: Situation in Yemen Threatens Global Stability
Senate and House Democrats to Forgo Committee Process to Reconcile Health Bill
Germany Knew Nothing of Alleged CIA/Blackwater Murder Plot
Israel to Build New Israeli-Only Highway in West Bank
Israeli Military Officers Cancel Trip to Britain Fearing Arrest
Pentagon Resisting Obama’s Plan to Reduce Nuclear Arsenal
New York Lawmakers Rally to Oppose Natural Gas Drilling
Greenpeace Activists Sentenced for Mt. Rushmore Action
Annise Parker Becomes First Lesbian to Head Major City
President Obama Appoints Transgender Woman as Commerce Adviser