ex-Cigna exec says “Sicko” was right on!

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in an interview with Bill Moyers that aired tonight on PBS, Wendell Potter, former Head of Corporate Communications at CIGNA, admits that Michael Moore nailed it on the head in his movie, Sicko. It’s a 30 minute interview that comes close to a confessional of the health insurance industry’s enslavement to Wall Street, and I really really hope everybody in this country gets to see this. It’s the only thing you’ll ever need to show if anyone ever questions the public option or rambles on about the dangers of government bureaucrats. Video here. IT’S THE ONLY TV YOU’LL EVER NEED TO WATCH TO KNOW THAT WE’VE BEEN COLLECTIVELY GETTING JACKED.

Saturday Big Lebowski roundup

Lebowski Fest returns to Seattle on July 20th & 21st!

The Big Lebowski will be the first film shown in Movies at the Greenspot, a series of free outdoor screenings in downtown Winston-Salem that will start Sunday.

The movies will be shown on a 15-by-9-foot screen in a grassy lot (the “Greenspot”) on the corner of Sixth and Liberty streets. A different movie will be shown each Sunday at 9 p.m.

Rob Riggle, the strapping, self-assured comedian who will be entertaining folks Friday at the Lebowski Fest, loves the Coen Brothers flick so much that he brought The Dude and his partners in sloth halfway across the world with him.

In 2001 and 2002, Riggle served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was sent to Afghanistan.

“I had enough room to take a handful of movies with me,” he said. “This was back in the day before everything went digital. I had one of those little mini-DVD players. I took ‘Boogie Nights,’ ‘The Big Lebowski’ and, I think, ‘Caddyshack.’”

But “Lebowski” had the biggest impact on the big guy.

“I don’t know if I should be embarrassed about this or not, but after I got back from Afghanistan, and after I’d watched ‘Lebowski’ a hundred times, for a year the White Russian was my drink. Everywhere I went: White Russian, White Russian.”

Riggle, who can be currently seen in movie theaters as a cop in the mega-hit “The Hangover,” is clearly comfortable with the fest’s signature cocktail.

Louisville: This year’s Lebowski Fest — movie party at 8 p.m. Friday; bowling party at 8 p.m. Saturday, aka Shabbos — is a festive affair inspired by the 1998 film “The Big Lebowski.”

If you haven’t been paying attention for the past eight years, it’s a trippy little blast that has gotten big enough to be rolled around the country to great success.

This year’s celebration — at Executive Strike and Spare, 911 Phillips Lane, and at the Crowne Plaza, 830 Phillips Lane — features comedian Rob Riggle, the Black Diamond Heavies and Whistle Peak, along with a documentary film about the fans of the fete, “The Achievers: The Story of the Lebowski Fans” (at 3 p.m. Saturday), and a 5 p.m. Saturday garden party.

For more information, ask Maude (“Don’t be fatuous, Jeffrey.”) or visit http://www.lebowskifest.com..