February 2010

Thom Hartmann: On the line with us, Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor and publisher of The Nation Magazine since 1995, co editor and editor of several books including the most recent, "Going Rouge! Sarah Palin: an American nightmare". And for those of you watching on Free Speech TV, on Dish Network, I’m holding the book up here to the camera. And Katrina, welcome to the show.

Okay, I want to just, I want to channel the Vice President of the United States to you for just a moment and then pick up your phone calls here. Back in 1944, because, and I think this is apropos of today because what’s happened is in ’44, we were in the early stages of the beginning of the New Deal era when the middle class got strong and America became strong and the Fascists, that is the corporatists, the people who wanted to merge corporations and state interests, the Fascists were a minority in the United States, a very small number.

Thom Hartmann: So for the last week or so I’ve been watching this situation in Dubai with the company that George Bush wanted to sell the ports of the United States to. Saying that they’re going to take a holiday from paying interest payments on the debt that they have. And scratching my head. You know, I’ve read probably a dozen articles in the Financial Times about this, other parts of the financial press, you know, poking around the Internet.

You know, every now and then you come across a story that is so shocking that even though you already know it, you already intuit it, you already, you know, broadly understand that yeah this is what’s going on, that when the details are laid out in black and white it’s, it’s just, you know, shocking, is the best word for it. I found one of those, actually three of them I have to share with you today.