Susan Jacoby, Journalist/Author, "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism," and most recently, "Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age" is tonight's Greatest Mind. Forty years ago - very few politicians flaunted their religious beliefs for personal gain. So what's changed - and what's given rise to the Christian Right in American politics? Her latest piece is - How The Founders Ensured America Would Not Be a Christian Nation.

Thom talks with one of Julian Assange's lawyers (Michael Ratner) about his client's possible asylum in Ecuador. Also discussed: the latest from the Republican's plot against Obama and Holder and why one of our country's two political parties aren't interested in ending rape in US prisons. In tonight's "Daily Take" Thom looks at the blatant sexism in politics from the right.

You might remember last week when Michigan State Representative Lisa Brown said the word "vagina" & so shocked her mostly male Republicans colleagues in the House - that she was banned from speaking on the House floor for the rest of the legislative year. Then a spokesman for the GOP House majority leader claimed the women were having "temper tantrums." Now, in a renewed sexist move by the Michigan Republicans, state Rep. Wayne Schmidt (R) compared the women to children, saying that they were given a "time out" for misbehaving. He said, "You know, as I said to someone up north here, it's like giving the kid a time out for a day. Hey, time out, you went a comment too far, you spoke your piece, we're gonna let these other people have their dissenting comments, and then we'll get back to business. But unfortunately, business has become a sideshow." The war on women and blatant sexism have found a home within the Republican Party platform of late. How do we stop the patriarchy and anti-female bigotry in the Republican Party - and give women more power and freedom in American society?

Marc Harrold, Libertarian Commentator & Author, Observations of White Noise...an 'Acid Test' for the First Amendment vs. Thom Hartmann. Earlier this week - the Department of Justice published new standards to combat the large number of rapes and sexual assaults that occur in America's prisons each year. This is a serious problem. In 2008 - a report by the Justice Department revealed more than 216000 victims of rape and sexual assault in prison. That's just victims - not occurrences. That year - prison rape accounted for a majority of all the rapes in the United States. So something needed to be done to put an end to this rape epidemic in our nation's prisons. And that's exactly what the Department of Justice did - adopting nationwide standards as required by a law signed by George W. Bush in 2003. Those standards include minimum staffing levels at prisons - screenings of prisoners who are at risk of rape - or are suspected rapists - and removing any time limits for an inmate to report a rape. And while most are applauding the new guidelines - they will come with a cost - roughly $7 billion - which is causing Conservatives to be outraged. For example - The American Action Forum - a Wall Street funded right-wing group -released a statement calling the new guidelines too "costly" and "complicated" - while The Weekly Standard piled on - complaining that the costs outweigh the benefits and this new rule is, "undoubtedly an unfunded mandate - and an expensive one that offers ...

The Good! *Rep. David McKinley (R-WV)* McKinley - a Republican from West Virginia - recently sent out a mailer to his constituents. In it - he expresses very similar concerns as Democrats have with Paul Ryan's House GOP Budget. The Bad! *Apple* Apple stores have twice refused to sell Apple products to Iranian-Americans. According to a report by WSB-TV - Sahar Sabet - an Iranian-American - was told by store employees in a Georgia store that it is corporate policy not to sell any goods to Iran without the authorization of the US government. and the Very Very Ugly! *Karl Rove* With his Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads SuperPAC's - Rove has already done enough to help destroy the American democracy - but now he's just flat out making a mockery of it

Mike Papantonio, Attorney/Host-Ring of Fire Radio joins Thom Hartmann. As part of their ongoing Fast and Furious conspiracy theory - Republicans on the House Oversight Committee voted yesterday to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt. When will Democrats wake up and fight back against Republicans and all of their political stunts?

What do you do when you're scared of spiders? You might scream or run away - but your actions probably don't affect the ecosystem. What does new research reveal about frightened grasshoppers and the role they play on changing our entire ecosystem?

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is now spending his third night in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London - out of the reach of British police who are trying to extradite him to Sweden. In Sweden - Assange has been accused of sexual assault - though he has not been formally charged with that crime. And Assange fears if he's extradited to Sweden - he'll then be handed over to authorities in the United States who are building a case against him - alleging that he's guilty of espionage and treason - crimes punishable by death. Fearing for his life - Assange is awaiting a decision from Ecuador as to whether or not they will grant him political asylum - and then give him safe passage out of the UK and into Ecuador. So far - no decision has been made yet by the Ecuadorian government - and if Julian Assange were to leave the Ecuadorian embassy - he'd be arrested immedialy by British authorities. Clearly - the ongoing trials and tribulation of the Wikileaks founder have entered a new phase. Joining Thom to discuss what exactly is going on in London - and the role the United States plays in all of this is Michael Ratner - a lawyer for Julian Assange - and President Emeritus of The Center for Constitutional Rights.

Now for the latest coming out of the Supreme Court. Though the high court did not hand down a ruling on the constitutionality of Obamacare today, it will within the next week. However, we already know who won the battle of public opinion regarding health reform - and that's the big spending corporate oligarchs. The New York Times reports that opponents of Obamacare have massively outspent supporters of Obamacare on the TV airwaves since the Affordable Care Act was signed by President Obama back in 2010. Over $235 million have been spent on TV ads attacking the President's health reform law, while only $69 million have been spent supporting the law. That's well above a 3-to-1 advantage. The Chamber of Commerce alone spent $27 million on attack ads against the law, while Karl Rove's Crossroads SuperPACs spent $24 million, and the Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity has, so far, spent $6 million. But this has nothing to do with healthcare. The Chamber of Commerce, Karl Rove, and the Koch brothers care less about Obamacare - and more about kicking President Obama out of office and replacing him with an oligarch just like them - Mitt Romney. And since President Obama thinks his health reform law is his signature accomplishment - these guys know if they can knock down health reform - then they can knock down President Obama too. That's why they're targeting Obamacare in particular. That point is - advertising works, and the side that's willing or able to spend the ...

The Republican Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee convened a vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress over Holder's refusal to turn over documents related to the DOJ's Fast and Furious program. Those documents could compromise active criminal investigations, and have been withheld by the President using executive. But Issa moved forward anyway - getting all 23 Republicans on his Committee to support the contempt vote, while every single Democrat on the Committee voted no. But the best reaction to Wednesday's vote came from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi - when slammed it as "strictly political" and reminded reporters that when Democrats controlled the House, they could have arrested Karl Rove for contempt of Congress. Pelosi said: "I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day...I'm not kidding. There's a prison here in the Capitol ... If we had spotted him in the Capitol, we could have arrested him." So Republicans hold an Attorney General in contempt over a bizarre conspiracy theory, yet war criminals and operatives who leak names of CIA agents for political retaliation get to walk?

Tonight's "Lone Liberal Rumble" panel discusses Obama's use of executive privilege with the "Fast and Furious" program, the new report that reveals taxes on working Americans would increase under the Paul Ryan budget and what sort of Armageddon-type alien event would have to occur to make Republicans actually work toward fixing the economy. In tonight's "Daily Take" Thom looks at why it's a good investment for the rich to contribute to and support Mitt Romney.

Michael Warren, The Weekly Standard & Lachlan Markay, Heritage Foundation join Thom Hartmann. Republicans want to give the working class in America a tax hike - but surely that violates grover norquist's tax pledge - right? That and more in tonight's lone liberal rumble.

There's a picture floating around of Congressman Paul Ryan and MItt Romney. Congressman Paul Ryan wants to give Mitt Romney a tax break worth millions of dollars. And if Paul Ryan wanted to give you the same sort of tax break - then you'd probably be hugging him too. But he doesn't want to give you a tax break - in fact - he wants to raise your taxes in order to pay for the tax break he wants to give to Mitt Romney. Here's what's going on...The congressional joint economic committee just released a new study on the paul ryan republican budget - which passed out of the house earlier this year thanks to the support of nearly every single republican. And what they found is - millionaires like Mitt Romney would get a 12.5% tax break. Considering Mitt Romney is worth about $260 million bucks and makes tens of millions a year - that comes out to a pretty hefty million tax break courtesy of his buddy Paul Ryan. That goes on top of the sizeable $77000 tax break romney got by writing off his wife's horse as a tax deduction. A side note: Ann Romney really loves horses. Unfortunately for the rest of us, who aren't worth $260 million and don't have an addiction to dressage horses that we can write off as tax deductions - The Ryan plan would actually raise our taxes. As the Washington Post points out: "the tax reform plan that house republicans have advanced would sharply cut taxes for the wealthiest americans and could leave middle-class households facing much larger tax bills ...