June 11 2009 show notes

  • The hate wars have begun. The shooting at the Holocaust Memorial. Two assassinations - terrorist acts on American soil. Both the left and the right have their crazies involved in acts of violence. What's the difference? Those on the left have gone off the rails about things that most Americans would agree on, for example SLA for civil rights, or the environment, or Weather Underground for ending the Vietnam war. The ones on the right are about hating people.
  • Article: Hey freerepublic, O'reilly, Beck et al... Bin Laden doesn't "actually kill" anyone either, jmondine.
  • Bumper Music: Walk Tall, John Mellencamp.
  • Guest: Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center, Director of their Intelligence Project, monitoring hate and extremist activity, long list of hate crimes. The rise of hate groups. Right wing vs. left wing crazies. The right wing is crazy about Obama. They think the good should only apply to whites. Limbaugh etc. saying that their hate filled rhetoric does not lead anyone to violence. Jmondine's blog pointing out to O'Reilly, etc., that bin Laden didn't actually kill anyone either. He does give orders, though. Keith Luke killed people the day after the inauguration, the results of months spent on white supremacists web sites. What is the state of right wing hate? They are relatively disorganized, but pretty significant groups, 54% growth, thanks to their focusing on immigration rather than races, Jews. In the last year there have been two extra factors - the election of Obama and the crumbling economy. Their leaders hold them back. The Census Bureau is predicting the loss of the white majority. What do we do? Be aware, it is a movement not just psychopaths. The Bush Administration's DHS report is attacked right across the board, Janet Napolitano apologized for it, she had no reason to. They are appealing to returning Iraq vets.
  • Bumper Music: What if I came knocking?, John Mellencamp.
  • Clip:
    "It's a bloodthirsty religion that's practiced over there by a bunch of throwbacks, and we're to kill 'em." Michael Savage.
  • Should the definition of incitement to violence stop shock jocks having no consequences? There is a delicate line with Hannity etc. They are creating an environment where people go to these web sites. Freedom of speech. What if Alberto Gonzales overlooked Thom's show? Michael Savage's call to violence.
  • Nuts are nuts. Some FBI agents on TV said it is not organized hate groups we have to worry about as they are infiltrated, it is the lone wolves. Tim McVeigh had friends, Terry Nichols, in jail.
  • Bumper Music: Won't Get Fooled Again, The Who.
  • Bumper Music: Dizzy, Tommy Roe.
  • Article: Israeli woman trashes $1M mattress.
  • Narrator: "Our heroes were heading swiftly down the river and out to sea."
    Rocky: "Bullwinkle, we're headin' swiftly down the river and out to sea!"
    Bullwinkle: "Ok, I heard the man!"
  • American Nazis, National Geographic.
  • Article: Charles Krauthammer: Fox News "Created An Alternate Reality".
  • Nut jobs can be directed to violence because they are told others are subhuman, a different species, part of a conspiracy, etc. Survivors of the holocaust were productive members of society, yet we had the Columbine kids. As population increases violence increases. John Ratey said that the generations that have suffered privation tend to be more resilient than those who encounter no serious hardships.
  • Article: The Left Won't Let This Shooting Go to Waste, Matthew Vadum.
    "An alleged extremist named James Wenneker von Brunn shot a security guard at the United States Holocaust Museum here in Washington, D.C. The shooter, who was himself shot by police, is reportedly in critical condition and, sadly, the security guard he shot has died.

    This shooting is, of course, a terrible crime committed on sacred ground that all reasonable people should condemn.

    But the left-wingers in the blogosphere and the commentariat are already claiming that because the shooter was an alleged right-wing extremist, specifically a racist neo-Nazi, Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security was right to identify conservatives, libertarians, and returning veterans as potential terrorists in the controversial (and recently withdrawn) directive to law enforcement officials across the country.

    This is the worst kind of smear but it's par for the course for the left.

    "
  • Report: Leftwing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyber Attacks over the Coming Decade, Department of Homeland Security, 26 January 2009.
  • Report: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, Department of Homeland Security, 7 April 2009.
    "Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."
  • Guest: Thom challenges Matthew Vadum, Senior Editor, Capital Research Center on the Museum shooting…left claims vindication on “malicious DHS report”. His article, "The Left Won't Let This Shooting Go to Waste". Report: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, Department of Homeland Security. He said the report lumped people who wanted conservative values with all sorts of skinheads, etc. There was a report on the left as well. The right wing report does not say conservatives.Left wing crazies are better than right wing crazies? The tea parties.
  • Bumper Music: Stuck in the Middle With You, Stealers Wheel.
  • Bumper Music: Simply The Best, Tina Turner (video).
  • Caught you doing something right: Michelle Obama's closet is fur-free. France's first lady's is too.
  • Clip:
    "Everybody got it? Dissent, fine; undermining, you're a traitor. Got it? So, all those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care, couldn't care less." Bill O'Reilly.
  • Clip:
    "You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops and I am for the President — chase them all over the world, if it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord."
    Jerry Falwell, CNN Late Edition, 24 October 2004.
  • Bumper Music: Mona Lisa (When The World Comes Down), All American Rejects (video).
  • Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
  • Article: Conn. police: Swine flu claim used to stall arrest.
  • Article: Biden is Confronted with Scientific Paper on Explosives Found in 9/11 Dust.
  • There will be no serious follow up to 9/11. We know they had lots of warnings. The left's 9/11 conspiracy theories not going to lead to assassination, nor eco-violence against property. Weather Underground was trying to avoid deaths, and it was mostly them who died when bombs went off accidentally. Gandhi, Jesus, MLK right, non violence best, more powerful in the long term like gravity.
  • Book: Ultimate Sacrifice, Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann.
  • Was Oswald a lefty assassin? Read "Ultimate Sacrifice".
  • Bumper Music: The Revolution Starts Now, Steve Earle (video).
  • Successful advertiser segment: Guest: Massoud Kazemzadeh, Kay's Naturals.
    "Kay’s is dedicated to bringing a better alternative to traditional snacks and cereals to the health and fitness conscious consumer. Our products are delicious, made with all-natural soy protein and high-fiber. These products can help to sustain energy, manage weight loss, and stabilize blood sugar. They are an option for all ages and lifestyles and for anyone seeking sources of protein in their diets, including people with diabetes, bariatric patients, body builders, vegetarians, the elderly, and children. They are ideal for the office, sports, on the road, and at home." As well as diabetics, they have products for celiacs like Thom.
  • Right wing extremist hate groups, The killer of Tiller belonged to the Montana Freemen. Over at the web site Stormfront, one of the leading militia white group separatist web sites they claim 10,000 new registrations every month. Some of the threads that have been started there say that von Brunn, and the entire race, are victims of Jewish extremism, they are the ultimate destroyers. "Heroes refuse to go out with a whimper". Is the KKK still a threat to America?
  • Guest: Brian Tackett, former Grand Dragon of the KKK. His new book, “Inside the Ku Klux Klan”. He spent 12 years in prison, it saved his life. What is the status of the KKK? It has had 3 revivals. The Klan world view, traditions, hierarchy were adopted by other extremist groups, but the others seek publicity. What drew him to the KKK? It was mostly white where he grew up, he did some work for the imperial wizard outside the Klan, he brought him in. He then realized it was hard to get out without losing your life. Oath. A lot went on that was not in the trial. He wrote the book, but was not going to publish for many years. He decided to clear the record. Major hotbeds for recruiting are within prisons and the military, does he have any experience of that? None of the military. Racism is much more rampant in the penitentiary. They recruit kids from late high school, college, they can make donations. The Air Force Academy Christian takeover. It is vets who are being aggressively recruited. Skinheads have a different ideology, open violence. Does he have any suggestions, how to wake America out of this insanity, killing? Educate kids about extremism in schools.
  • Bumper Music: "A Thing Called Love", Jewel Aken.
  • Geeky science segment...
  • People in the chat room watching Thomvision noticed that Thom had shaved. He has never shaved his entire face in his life, Deuteronomy and Leviticus say not to, but he has less stubble, and shaved off his mustache last week.
  • Article: Low Levels Of Vitamin D In Patients With Autoimmune Disease May Be Result, Not Cause, Of The Disease.
    "Deficiency in vitamin D has been widely regarded as contributing to autoimmune disease, but a review appearing in Autoimmunity Reviews explains that low levels of vitamin D in patients with autoimmune disease may be a result rather than a cause of disease and that supplementing with vitamin D may actually exacerbate autoimmune disease."
  • Article: Animals can tell right from wrong.
    "Animals possess a sense of morality that allows them to tell the difference between right and wrong, according to a controversial new book."
  • Thom wrote about red deer and other animals in "What Would Jefferson Do?". Like the wolves in the article, humans used to have a maximum group size of about 150. Were the Neanderthals killed off by us because they were less willing to kill?
  • Article: GPS shoes for Alzheimer's patients.
  • Bumper Music: Working For The Man, Roy Orbison.
  • Conservative alert: email from Newt Gingrich about Obama's speeches abroad saying that the U.S> has one of the largest Muslim populations, and that it is no longer a Christian nation. The founders were mostly deists. He has written a book. He said that President John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." But Adams was one of worst presidents; he threw opponents in jail. Gingrich wants donations. Rediscovering God in America. There are no left wing organizations that would buy Thom's books at cost to give them new members, as right wing organizations do for right wing authors.
  • We should have asked the world for help getting the criminals after 9/11. We need a vigil this weekend to support the family of the guard who died at the Holocaust Museum? It was closed down in respect today, but will not be intimidated.
  • Clip:
    " I also strongly believe that one of the options in the Exchange should be a public insurance option – because if the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down."
    Remarks of President Barack Obama, Health Care Town Hall, Thursday, June 11, 2009, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
  • A commentator said that Obama was the first minority president, but Kennedy was as a Catholic.
  • Karl Rove's testimony at the judiciary hearing? Not heard anything.
  • Bumper Music: Working On A Dream, Bruce Springsteen (video).
  • Article: Slain Museum Guard's Son Speaks About his Father.
    "Slain security guard Stephen T. Johns's young son spoke briefly to reporters about his father this morning, accompanied by a relative.

    "To me he was a pretty great guy, and he was always there for me," said Stephen Johns Jr., who television news reports identified as an 11-year old. "When I had heard about what happened I was just ... sad. Mad at the guy that shot him."

    "
  • Member of day was Katey in Hudson, MA who won a copy of a DVD of 11th Hour Banner in which Thom appears, for saying on today's blog,

    I just sent a donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center in honor of Stephen Tyrone Johns. Sending a donation to ANY anti-discrimination group would be a way to support groups that work so hard to end these hate mongering groups.

  • Article: American Medical Association tries to walk back its public-plan opposition.
  • Article: The Latest Public Option Bamboozle, and How to Recognize the Real Thing.
  • Article: Petraeus: Afghanistan attacks at high.
    "The past week was the highest level of security incidents in Afghanistan's history, at least that post-liberation history."
  • Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. The president was in Green Bay, Wisconsin, health care push, moral imperative, competition will keep them honest, lower costs. The AMA is against a public option saying it threatens to restrict patient choice. They got blowback? Now clarified. Only 24% of doctors are AMA members. AMA's programs are heavily subsidized by pharma. Physicians for a National Health Program. Robert Reich calls the latest public option bamboozle. Death by 1,000 paper cuts. Kent Conrad, Baucus, Grassley. It is up to Obama, his speech was a good start, he needs to pound, fighting on 4 fronts, this, Sotomayor, the energy bill, the economy where he has negative numbers. Thom is going to do an hour on it. Petraeus speech to Center of American Security, saying that Afghan experienced the most incidents. LBJ was a good president but was hated for the Vietnam war. Prisons terrorist universities, reduce rates of recidivism.

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