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From this Monday evening's Viewpoint on Current TV, Phil Donahue discusses his 2007 documentary, Body of War, which told the story of paralyzed Iraq vet Tomas Young, who recently penned this heartbreaking letter to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Phil Donahue on the Iraq War: After Vietnam, ‘I thought we’d learned our lesson’ :

Phil Donahue, former TV talk show host and co-director and executive producer of “Body of War,” sits down with Current TV’s John Fugelsang to discuss the 2007 documentary and the impact of the Iraq War. “Body of War” profiles Tomas Young, a veteran who was shot and paralyzed while serving in Iraq in 2004. Nine years later, Young has decided to go on hospice care and is now dying at home.

Donahue describes the “spiritual experience” of telling Young’s story: “None of us had ever been this close to a catastrophic injury — an injury that turns the whole family upside down — and it’s happening behind the closed doors of thousands of homes in this country and nobody sees it.”

Fugelsang asks Donahue whether it will be “harder for the American people to get fooled again the next time they try and run a war like this on us?”

“I thought that would happen after Vietnam,” Donahue says. “I thought we’d learned our lesson.”

For more from Donahue, check out the Web exclusive outtakes from his one-on-one interview with John Fugelsang, in which he shares what it was like being a first-time filmmaker and how he feels about the fact that his MSNBC show was canceled because of his opposition to the Iraq War.

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CNN's Ali Velshi will be hosting a new business show on Al Jazeera America this summer. Here's to hoping we've seen the last of interviews like this one from his final show, where regular Stephen Moore from the Wall Street Journal was there to dumb down the conversation as usual.

Ali Velshi Joining Al Jazeera America As Host:

Ali Velshi is getting a primetime business program on Al Jazeera America, the network announced on Thursday.

"The as yet-to-be named 30-minute magazine-style program will initially launch in a weekly format but is expected to move to a five-days-a-week schedule by year’s end," the network said in a statement.

The host's last day at CNN will be Friday. News of his departure broke on Wednesday. At the time, he said that he was leaving to pursue a project "he couldn’t pass up."

Velshi said in a statement that he was "thrilled" to join Al Jazeera America. “It’s a tremendous opportunity and I look forward to taking advantage of the extraordinary U.S. news-gathering capabilities the channel is building and working with such a diverse and talented group of colleagues to tell compelling stories that matter to Americans," he said.

As they noted, Al Jazeera America is going to replace Current TV's programming soon and they're still hiring staff and searching for on air talent. I haven't read anything yet about whether they're going to keep any of Current's lineup or not. I'd be happy if we find out that Cenk Uygur and John Fugelsang will continue to be employed by the network once they make the change.

I'll be very curious to see how Velshi's show differs when he's no longer working for CNN and if he's got some better guests than those who regularly appeared on his weekend show, Your Money, like Moore, who his network decided to inflict on the public just about every single stinking weekend.

And naturally every wingnut blog that posted anything about this has their comments section full of hate filled posts attacking Velshi for the move. I'm sure we haven't seen anything yet compared to the vitriol we'll be treated to once they actually bring the network on the air in America.

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Rep. Alan Grayson joined the set of Current TV's Viewpoint this Tuesday evening and was asked about former vice presidential nominee and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's widely panned budget proposal just released this week, and as we've come to expect from Congressman Grayson, he didn't mince words with his criticism of just who Ryan is looking out for with his proposals.

Rep. Alan Grayson: Paul Ryan wants sick poor people to die:

While discussing the Republican congressman’s latest budget proposal on Current TV, Grayson accused Ryan of wishing a large swath of Americans would die.

“In one case after another, you look at his principles, you look at his vision, and they’re a nightmare for America,” he said. “He wants Americans to work until they die, he wants poor people who get sick not be able to see a doctor, not to get the care they need, not to get better, he wants them to die, and he wants an America that consists of nothing but cheap labor for his corporate patrons.”

Ryan’s budget would repeal most of Obamacare, partially privatize Medicare, and cut discretionary spending on food stamps and other programs, while lowering the corporate tax rate. Grayson claimed that Ryan also wanted to cut Social Security, citing Ryan’s self-professed admiration for the libertarian novelist Ayn Rand.

“Paul Ryan believes that Social Security is unconstitutional,” Grayson explained. “Just like anyone who follows the writings of Ayn Rand would believe. If you read the Fountianhead, if you read similar fiction — although they don’t regard it as fiction — you come to the conclusion that these are people who believe government itself, anything that does anything for people other than defend the borders, is fundamentally immoral and unconstitutional.”

Grayson didn't mince words as well when it came to President Obama and whether he might be willing to make a deal with Republicans which cuts our social safety nets: Rep. Alan Grayson: ‘There is no fiscal crisis’ and ‘Republicans are crisis junkies’ :

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Current TV's John Fugelsang and progressive talk show host Thom Hartmann discussed Rand Paul and his 13-hour-long filibuster this week, demanding an answer on whether the Obama administration believes that they can authorize drone strikes against Americans on U.S. soil. As Hartmann rightfully noted, though, that filibuster probably had a whole lot more to do with Paul and his political future than any actual concern over our use of drones:

HARTMANN: It was a discussion we have been needing to have ever since the Patriot Act was pushed through in 2002... so to the extent that we have been needing to have that discussion, I'm really pleased. On the other hand, this was Rand Paul kicking off his 2016 presidential bid.

Paul received his answer on the drone strikes and as many have noted, he actually had his answer well before he started his filibuster, but as Hartmann noted here, the question that he should have been asking and to which he did not get an answer is, "What does 'engaged in combat' mean?" when we haven't had a declaration of war since 1941. With the rules in the Patriot Act set so loosely, the executive branch has the freedom to define those terms, as Hartmann put it, pretty well any damn way they want to. With the exception of the neocons, most Americans would not believe that the Constitution grants these rights to the executive branch.

Of course, speaking of neocons, as they also discussed, that's why we saw the likes of Lindsey Graham out there berating Paul and any Republicans who did not mind that the Bush administration was using drones but are now upset that the Obama administration is using those same powers that the Congress ceded to them after 9-11.

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Current TV host John Fugelsang on Monday painted his face orange to point out the absurdity of House Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) Sunday interview with NBC's David Gregory.

Fugelsang played the part of a grumpy Boehner, while Mystery Science Theater 3000's Frank Conniff took the role of mocking Gregory's interviewing style.

"Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask you some very tough questions, followed up by some very limp follow ups," Conniff said as Gregory.

In character as Boehner, Fugelsang asserted that Senate Democrats had not passed plant to avert automatic spending cuts in the so-called sequester, part of a 2011 deal Democrats made with Republicans cut $85 billion and raise the debt ceiling.

"Well, this is where I should bring up that Senate Democrats tried that and got filibustered, but instead, I'm going to ask about revenues," the Gregory character remarked.

"Spending is out of control and I was born in a tavern," Fugelsang quipped. "This president spends like me at Georgetown Applebee's at Happy Hour."

"This is where I'm not going to mention that you raised the debt ceiling seven times for George W. Bush," Conniff noted, lampooning Gregory.

"If you don't change the subject then I'm going to keep saying 'sequester'," Fugelsang grumbled. "If you ask a follow-up question, I'm going to say the word 'Benghazi.'"

"David, haven't you learned by now, you can have information or you have have access," the Current TV host added in his Boehner voice.

"I guess I'll settle for access," Conniff shrugged. "Well, we'll be right be with a look at why both sides are equally to blame for the sequester."

"Good, now go get me a mimosa," Fugelsang concluded.

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From this Tuesday evening's coverage on Current TV of the Republican National Convention, The War Room host and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm reacts to Ohio Gov. John Kasich taking credit for his state's improving economy.

As Granholm and others pointed out, if Kasich were willing to be honest, he'd be thanking President Obama for saving the auto industry and his state's economy, rather than praising and supporting the guy for president, who famously said to let Detroit go bankrupt. If it were up to Willard, Kasich wouldn't have anything to be bragging about right now.

Par for the course for a convention whose entire theme is based on a lie and distortion and taking President Obama's "you didn't build that" remarks out of context.

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This Friday, Current TV's Eliot Spitzer and comedian John Fugelsang took a humorous look back at the week that was, since we could all use a few laughs during a week like this one.

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Comedian and Stephanie Miller regular John Fugelsang has been filling in for Current TV's Eliot Spitzer this week, and he did a nice job during this short segment of reminding us of the struggles we've seen with attempts to get some sort of universal health care coverage passed and how far we still have to go after yesterday' s Supreme Court ruling.

As long as we've still got overpaid CEOs extrecting wealth from the system which is supposed to make sure our medical and health care needs are provided for, the system is still badly broken.

FUGELSANG: It's the year the Titanic sank, Woody Guthrie was born and Theodore Roosevelt quit the Republican Party and ran for president as a third party progressive, calling for universal health care. It's also our number of the day, 1912.

Now the past 100 years have seen a diversity of presidents attempt to promote the general welfare through universal coverage. FDR tried and ended up focusing on Social Security, which I now call FDR-care. LBJ got as far as Medicare and Medicaid. Richard Nixon did try, but things got a little complicated in his life.

Bill Clinton made a bold play and a conservative Heritage Foundation countered his play by proposing a mandate for Americans to buy insurance. Gov. Romney even used that mandate in Massachusetts, that same mandate he now so despises.

And today the Supreme Court voted to uphold the Constitutionality of the American care act. A hundred years since Teddy ran, Republicans are furious that the Republican Supreme Court appointee just upheld a Republican designed health plan which will save Republican lives.

They wanted this thing to die before it could actually help anybody. Now there are things I don't like Obamacare, but I'll take it over the alternative, Republican-can't-care-less, and it's important to remember my friends, the long, slow march for Americans taking care of their own, of having the kind of universal coverage that typically gets called Socialist.

The kind of system all of our capitalist allies have still continues and there's a lot more at stake in this struggle than one man's presidency.

One day we'll have an America where insurance companies executives can't get rich off of somebody else's disease.

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As Current TV's John Fugelsang, filling in for Eliot Spitzer this week reminded us, when average citizens break the law we have to pay fines that might actually act as a deterrent or face jail time and when these bankers and Wall Street commit crimes, they get a slap on the wrist compared to the profit they already extracted and give up their bonuses.

As John noted, you don't go to prison for Wall Street crimes, but you can't say the same for those protesting Wall Street. And he's right, if they cracked down on these bankers stealing the same way they have park zoning laws, there would be no need for an Occupy Wall Street movement.

Barclays to pay more than $450 million in interest-rate settlement:

Barclays Bank PLC has agreed to pay more than $450 million to settle charges it attempted to manipulate key interest rates.

The London-based investment bank announced settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the British Financial Services Authority.

Investigators found the bank manipulated the London InterBank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate, or EURIBOR, benchmark interest rates used in the world's financial markets. [...]

Under the settlements, Barclays would pay the Justice Department a $160-million penalty and cooperate with its ongoing investigation to avoid prosecution. The bank would pay the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission $200 million, with the rest going to the British Financial Services Authority.

In a statement, Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond said he and other top executives would forgo bonuses this year.

“The events which gave rise to today’s resolutions relate to past actions which fell well short of the standards to which Barclays aspires in the conduct of its business," Diamond said. "When we identified those issues, we took prompt action to fix them and cooperated extensively and proactively with the authorities. Nothing is more important to me than having a strong culture at Barclays; I am sorry that some people acted in a manner not consistent with our culture and values."

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Former Florida Rep. Alan Grayson and Blue America candidate Alan Grayson joined Current TV's John Fugelsang in the War Room to discuss the Fast and Furious and what the Republicans are really after with their witch hunt of Attorney General Eric Holder.

Grayson: Fast and Furious ‘circus’ will backfire on Republicans:

Former Florida Rep. Alan Grayson (D) on Wednesday blasted Republicans in Congress for continuing to grill U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder over the “fast and furious” gun-running scandal.

“Why won’t they launch an investigation of why 50 million Americans don’t have health care?” he asked on Current TV. “When are we going to see those investigations?” [...]

Grayson said the documents requested by Republicans could put law enforcement official at risk if released publicly. He described their investigation as a “circus” that was solely intent on harming the Obama administration.

“I think it is already back firing on them,” he said. “People are fed up with the Republicans. They understand the only thing they care about are tax cuts and giving the President a hard time — and I’m talking about tax cuts for the one percent.”