Tuesday October 20th 2009
By Louise
Hour One: Do we sacrifice the future of a middle class in America - and the planet's health - so we can keep buying cheap goods from China? Thom challenges with Sallie James www.cato.org
Hour Two: Is America at risk of turning into Venezuela due to FOX News. Thom debates Mark Finkelstein www.newsbusters.org
Hour Three: Hate Crimes...Why do conservatives and libertarians love terrorism? Thom and Wayne Root "shake it up." www.rootforamerica.com
Comments
#2
Is there some kind of glitch on this blog?
A long post by Mark that had been on today's blog since yesterday and was here earlier this morning has disappeared.
#3
Regarding Sallie James- When Thom said the middle class is disappearing, she responded with "They're disappearing because they're getting richer."
What? WHAT?? I wonder how many rank and file Republicans realize that they're getting richer every day.
#4
Maybe you guys should get some chess clocks. It's tiring to try to listen to guests filibuster. If each person had the same amount of time, or maybe give the guests some bonus time since they're the guests, then perhaps we could cut out the talking over people and really hear all sides.
I doubt that the filibusters would go for it but what the heck.
=====
@Bruce - yer right about the "they're getting richer" remark; I laughed out load litterally at that. Is she that stupid, or does she just think Thom's listerners are that stupid?
#5
i believe stongly in the pwer of words. if we can get progressive magazines and others in unity to declare 2010 the start of the new american renaissance. a revolution of enlightenment and thought in the 21 century.
#6
Thom says a hero needs an anti-hero. Is that why he has all these duels with serial villains?
Oh my hero :x
#7
FOX news is simply insane. They equate Atheists with mass muderers, and the vast majority of their talking points are blatantly manufactured lies meant to scare republican votes out of older people.
However it's also our fault for letting them get away with it so easily by have such a low voter turn out in this country. I don't believe that if everybody got of the couch to vote in 2000 & 2004, that there's anyway a fascait like W. Bush could have even come close to winning.
FOX well knows that the most dependable group of voters are the older, religious, facts over faith crowd, and play into their delusions quite skillfully.
#8
In regard to the conversation with the Cato Institute guest, people who earned $12,000 in a manufacturing job in 1979 made money that went a lot farther than the $24,000 a service industry employee makes in 2009. Remember when what a king-size candy bar is today was regular size, and cost 20 cents? Well, I remember. The only people who are getting richer are the rich.
#9
small businesses must understand that they need a strong middle class to be successful.
#10
Doug is talking out his ass. Republicans vote by block and partisain more than DEMS . . . See http://www.progressivepunch.org .
#11
When I think about FOX TV news, it brings to mind the old children's fairy tale about letting the fox watch over the hen house. Perhaps the updated version is like the fox with his fellow carnivores starting up a corporation called Fox and Friends and convincing the farmers at a town hall meeting to relax because Fox and Friends will take care of the hens and they will inform the farmers whose livelihood depends on the hens what they need to know so they won't have to worry because Fox and Friends will be if there is ever any problems and only tell what they believe the farmers need to know.
#12
Doug always talks out of his ass. He also claims to be retired from 20 years (if I recall) military intelligence in the navy. So if you see a battleship in the middle of the desert you'll know whose intelligence they followed.
#13
where can i get a link to the poll that thom was discussing, comparing the listeners of fox, cnn, msnbc, etc?
#14
Regarding Republicans voting by partisan rout: Thirty (30 outta 40 – and All male BTW) Republican Senators voted against the Franken Amendment and therefore . . . in favor of gang rape, a week ago. Is gang rape a family value OR was this about voting down a Democratic proposition?
Actually that’s not fair . . . This observation regarding 30 Republican Senators voting in favor of gang rape is a bit little understated . . . 30 Republican Senators voted in favor letting corporations squelch any and all investigations of gang rape during any operations taken in our country’s behalf and demanded that the corporations be promptly paid with American tax dollars.
#15
ccatanzaro,
Google: University of Maryland Media Study
#16
Dr. Maddow & Mr. Olbermann basis their opinions largely of FACTS and reality.
FOX News is the only “news” network specifically granted the First Amendment Right to LIE. On August 18, 2003, a Floridia Appeals Court ruled against Jane Akre and Steve Wilson and FOR Fox’s RIGHT TO LIE. See http://www.foxbghsuit.com/ and click on “Resources for Reporters and Others” link.
EVERYTHING broadcast or printed by FAUX Noise must be viewed or listened to through this lens . . .
#17
dday, thank you! i missed the name of the institution that did the study.
#18
Thom,
Thank your for the link http://www.republicansforrape.org/legislators/ and talking about this issue . . . I am sure that my daughter, wife, sister, mother and every other woman will thank you, too.
#19
Richard L. Adlof
That lawsuit didn't have to do with the Fox News Channel. The lawsuit you're referring to was against a local Fox owned and operated station, not the Fox News Channel. Same owner but different entity.
#20
Is it possible that the situation has become unreparable? Does corpofascism have so much power and money that the only hope is a bloody revolution?
#21
Thom might believe the lies that "tea-baggers" tell him to his face, but saying they are not partisan is simply not plausible. They were not around when the Bush administration was passing out that first $350 billion to the banks without any strings attached, or when the Fed was passing out trillions under the Republicans' watch without any accountability. They only came out when when Fox drummed-up its thinly veiled racist notion of a black man with his hands in your white pockets.
#22
GENSLER SPEAKS
Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Institute (CFTC), talks about his involvement 10 years ago (under Clinton) with then-treasury secretary Larry Summers and predecessor Robert Rubin to create "The Commodity Futures Modernization Act" which established no regulation for credit derivatives and helped lead to the current major financial meltdown.
Currently, Gensler is working with congress (Barney Frank, etc.) to address these problems and create more transparency in the market. (Video)
#23
Thom
You've been using the a definition of a "hate crime" as a crime that is aimed at terrorizing a whole segment of society, not at just hurting the victim of the crime.
I disagree and it would be difficult to convict perpetrators of many hate crimes because it would be hard to prove that there intent was to terrorize a particular group. In many cases, it's much easier to prove that the victim was selected because he/she/they was a member or perceived to be a member of a particular group.
The FBI agrees with my definition on their webstie
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/offenses_reported/hate_crime/index.html
Definition
A hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.
#24
Why isn't it recognized as a hate crime when men kill women because they hate all women and want some kind of revenge? (It would apply to women who do this to men as well, although I think that rarely happens.)
#25
@Scott, RE Revolution: Corporations don't bleed. They are not flesh and blood humans . . . No matter what Obama, Roberts, Scalia, Alito and Thomas believe.
#26
It shouldn't be surprising that the contractors operating outside the U.S. in countries where "law and order" is in the hands of anyone with a gun that crimes go largely unpunished. William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies" examined how civilized people act in the absence of restraint. Blackwater "guards" were accused of killing Iraqi civilians, but this came to nothing, and they were never charged, and no one introduced a bill stating that they should be.
It should be noted that many companies have "gag" rules that employees must sign on to. One of these companies is Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions. I recall maybe ten years ago a former employee sued the company for some reason, noting that among other things she had observed that the few male employees were discriminated against and treated like objects. It shouldn't be surprising that Winfrey applied her considerably "weight" to the matter, counter-suing the ex-employee for breaking the clause in the contract that said that current and former employees could not say anything negative about the company.
On a "lighter" note, sports personality Jim Nantz and his wife are in divorce court; she wants $1.5 million a year in child support, but one suspects that this money isn't for their one kid. She apparently has a $1 million a year jewelry habit (kind of like Paul McCartney's ex's $100,000 a month wine bill), and was famous in Connecticut for her jewelry shopping sprees. In court she was asked about one recently purchased and particularly expensive item; she seemed unable to describe why it was so pricey or what impulse made her buy it, but she thought it had a "stone." The sports radio host who related this story noted that it is small wonder why men feel jobbed by the courts in divorce cases.
#27
Wow- Sallie James was simply stunning on your show- I had no idea that the middle class was disappearing because “they are getting richer”. I did not know that the 50% cut in my income actually means I have more! Or that my brother-in-law has become “richer” because he was laid off when his company went under and he is now collecting unemployment.
Honestly, I could not believe the statements she was making. Thanks Thom, for not allowing her mis-information to go unchallenged on your show!
#28
Hello,
I love the show and I wanted to make a comment. Racism does happen to white people also. It is sad for it should not happen to anyone. My two sons are 7 years apart and were going to school in Daly City, CA. My oldest was in junior high. He was bullied by a boy all year. Actually, my son who was almost 6 feet at the time basically ignored the kid. Finally toward the end of the school year, this boy decided to throw a hole puncher at my son's head. My son just pushed the kid to the ground and the next thing he knew, he had 30 Filipino boys on top of him. My other son was in grade school, and almost the same thing happened. It was so sever that when my ex=husband came to me because he wanted to buy a home in Oregon, both boys wanted to go. In addition, when my mom was sick in a hospital in Daly City two years ago, the only way you were guaranteed to be helped by a nurse or nurse's aid was if you were filipino. I know, I spent two months visiting my mom in the hospital, and sometimes she would ring the bell. Finally, after 15 minutes I would go searching and would always find them in a room where a filipino was hospitalized. No one ever talks about this. I have never been racist in my life, yet my kids were affected. I am sorry that anyone has to suffer in this way.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
With His Holiness The Dalai Lama, at His home in Dharamsala, India (Synthesis Dialogues - made into a movie narrated by Harrison Ford)
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann is a creative thinker and committed small-d democrat. He has dealt with a wide range of topics throughout his life, and this book provides an excellent cross section. The Thom Hartmann Reader will make people both angry and motivated to act."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"If you wonder why and when giant corporations got the power to reign supreme over us, here’s the story."
Your guest is wrong about "it is cheaper".
The price-per-good is less but the externalities are greater.
If a polluter in America pours poison into our air, we can do something about it.
If a polluter in China pours poison into our air and it blows over here to Seattle, we can do nothing.