Daily Topics - Friday March 5th 2010

bernie imagesHour One: "Brunch With Bernie" Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spends the hour with Thom discussing the issues and answering listener questions www.sanders.senate.gov

Upcoming Events with Thom Hartmann:

Friday, March 5th - 6 to 8pm, Denver, CO - AM 760 presents Thom and David Sirota taking opposite sides "Is it Time to Abandon the Democratic Party?"  Tickets are $10 at AM760.net

Comments

Rick in Canadia (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#1

How about Bush on a two-dollar bill?
Didn't that get phased out because of association with vote buying?

You need to get your history taught fairly too. I hear the excuse for the Texas textbook monopoly being 'they are so big'.. Isn't California big? Wouldn't that make some right wing heads explode?
Cheers,
Rick

Rick in Canadia (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#2

Nels,
Sure, you would trade in your old twenties for the new 13..
Sounds about right.. ;-)
Cheers,
Rick

harry ashburn (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#3

@Rick re text books: California cant afford textbooks anymore, so its a moot issue.

Nels (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#4

Careful Rick, that kinda' thinking might lead to Alaska becoming the next Textbook authority, I shudder to think what they would put in (or take out) of the books.

LeMoyne (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#5

Here are a couple reasons to register and vote with the Green Party:

1) The Greens are a party founded on principles.
The Green Platform is built from the Party's Key Values.
As a result and for decades the Greens have consistently taken what are now obviously correct positions:
- We the people need a Constitutional Amendment to strip from corporations the protection intended for natural persons.
This seemingly radical proposition is a restoration of the Spirit of '76. The Founding Fathers knew corporations are not people and that their unnatural advantages over human persons must be vigilantly restricted. A 'property is not people' amendment will create real openings in issues that seem intractable: universal health care and congressional-military-industrial complex. If the Democrats have trouble getting simple majority votes on their own agenda, do you think they will take on their corporate funders when the goals are 2/3 or 3/4 ?

- A universal right to health care.
Move from a for-profit employer-based health insurance system to a national single-payer health care system. Promote a strong public option as the natural organization of the transition to single-payer as an individual choice. The national Democratic party can not produce a stand for even a public option so weak that it will not provide the door to single-payer that >100 milion Americans want and another 40 million Americans need.

- Stop the unbridled military spending. It is obviously at least imperial if not psychotic to spend more than the rest of the world combined on war and warmaking power. The Democrats are precious little help here outside Dennis Kucinich and a few other brave lonely voices.

- Move to a sustainable energy system
For now and for the future develop many types of energy systems that can be applied locally.
The path to national security of energy is to make the supply local and sustainable. Obama's pro-nuclear stance is disconcerting to say the very very least. Mountaintop removal continues.

2) Strong Green candidates cause the Democratic Party to offer candidates that actively work to satisfy their voting base. In the NM 3d district after a Green candidate took the progressive vote from a loser ConservDem, an evangelical Republican won the seat for one term. Since then northern New Mexico has been represented well by an active progressive Democrat pursuing progressive policies. From this path we ALSO have Senator Udall who is a true strong common sense progressive small d Democrat.
We need strong active parties on the left to :--
--: Either make the Democratic Party be a party on the left
(Obama IS an Eisenhower Republican - to the right of Eisenhower)
--: Or replace them with an actual party of the left.

The only vote that is wasted is a vote that isn't cast.
The Greens did not cause W to be elected -it was the people who got neo-conned into voting for Bush and the people who didnt even bother to vote.

Nels (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#6

LeMoyne you're too late, I've been a Green since the late 90's.

harry ashburn (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#7

@Nels:I'm on my way, already my teeth are green.

Nels (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#8

@harry, how 'bout your thumb, lots of people are afflicted with green thumbs.

Captain Bebops (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#9

Interesting that Thom should talk about "9-11 Truthers" as being "right wing" nuts in his second hour. Thom has said he is on the fence about 9-11 himself. And his JFK assassination book might get him lumped in with that group too. He mentioned that the Pentagon shooter story might not get much mainstream play but when I checked online this morning it topped a lot of other stories and helped bury a story the MSM would not like to spread: the riots at Berkeley. That was probably the story that deserved top billing but they don't want to be responsible for creating a trend among US college students who can no longer afford their education.

Unfortunately Thom is beginning sound at bit like a "limousine liberal" these days.

harry ashburn (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#10

@Nels: unfortunately, I can't see my thumb, 'cause its usually where the sun don't shine. :)

Gerald Socha (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#11

Thom had a caller on his show who said there should be talk on who is a real man and who is a real woman. Here is my take on who is a real woman. A real woman possesses two characteristics - nurturing and sensitivity.

Please read this comment on taxes.

I attended a Catholic Caucus meeting and the speaker said something interesting to us. Why should taxes be considered a tax relief to reduce taxes, especially for the multi-millionaire? Maybe we should see taxes as an investment for present and future generations. The taxes would be an investment in education, roads, environment, services in law enforcement, firefighters, libraries, health care, affordable prescription drugs, etc. Taxes can be considered a positive life experience and not a negative experience, especially if the taxes are progressive and fairly applied to the poor, middle class, and the rich. The federal government does not receive $300 billion in taxes per year that she should receive because the rich and the American corporations have offshore accounts that are not taxed and 90% of this money should come from the rich who pay little or no taxes since they have all the tax loopholes and tax shelters. The rich need to pay their fair share in taxes in order to help America. Are the rich really Americans?

We should tax derivitive buying and selling on $900 trillion that are not charged a fee. A quarter of one percent would raise $2 and a quarter trillion in taxes.

The rich and the corporations are screwing average Americans royally.

Gerald Socha (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#12

@moonbat666, when I say God's children, I mean all of us are God's children.
I consider myself a child of God at seventy plus years of age.

Christianity is a beautiful and wonderful religion. Everytime I reflect on Christianity, I am in awe of being a Christian. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Joseph was Jesus' stepfather.

In the Gospel of Matthew, he writes with God all things are possible. In my readings on the historical Jesus, Faith is something you cannot prove or disprove.

A college professor in a Philosophy course made the comment, "I do not know if there is a heaven, but I pray that there is no hell."

Gerald Socha (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#13

When a person addresses me, I will try to comment. There are times that I may miss a comment from a person who is addressing me.

I do not usually read Thom's blog after 6:00 PM (EST). I may read it after 12 Midnight (EST).

Gerald Socha (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#14

@Captain Bebops, when I was ten or eleven, our baseball team was named Bebops.

Deborah Fairbanks (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#15

I believe there is something more sinister going on then just Democrats being unable to get things done. I have believed since the day that I found out about the illegal spying on American citizens by Bush and Cheney, the Dick Cheney has gathered something on each and every member of Congress. Their inability to get anything done has had me feeling like my fears were pretty accurate. Especially their decision not to prosecute any Bush operative for anything. It is now even more believable with Democrats dropping like flies. I have never seen an exodus like this, with little or no protest and no claims to be redeemed and to return....? There is a reason that Dick Cheney has never felt the need to leave the spotlight. I think he is still pulling the strings.

Gerald Socha (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#16

@Deborah Fairbanks, you may be onto something!!!

We will not heal as a nation until we join the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands.

Stuart Smith (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#17

Close the revolving doors, ban all lobbying, restrict benefits to number of years served only, set congress persons age limit of 60 years, establish public campaign finance only, make TV broadcast like C-span available continuously for congress to publicly debate all matters, open all closed door negotiations except national security, allow two hours per day of public comment in all committee hearings.

Captain Bebops (not verified) 16 years 25 weeks ago
#18

Gerald, bebop is a musical term for a form of jazz. The concept is that you leave the last note of the improvisation on the offbeat. That makes it easy to pick up the next phrase or the next soloist to pick up the phase. To end on an onbeat is static and like a period whereas the offbeat is like a comma. The name probably came from the fact that the last few notes sounded like "bebop" in rhythm.

I take the military term "captain" and put it with "bebops" because they are pretty much unrelated causing a "dissonant" NLP effect. It was a nickname I gave a friend (because it fit his character) but decided to use it as a handle on the Internet.

Thom's Blog Is On the Move

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.

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."
Jim Hightower, national radio commentator and author of Swim Against the Current
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
Paul Loeb, author of Soul of a Citizen
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."
Dean Baker, economist and author of Plunder and Blunder, False Profits, and Taking Economics Seriously