Daily Topics - Thursday - March 11th 2010
By Louise
Quote: "Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." -- Theodore Roosevelt
Hour One - Tancredo says Obama won because we lack a ‘literacy test before people can vote in this country. Tom Tancredo www.therockymountainfoundation.org
Hour Two - How do we stop foreign corporations from having control over US elections? Bob Fertik www.Democrats.com
Hour Three - Thom and Tony debate "Is Our Government Really Broken?" Tony Blankley www.townhall.com
Plus....Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) on Filibuster Reform www.stabenow.senate.gov
Upcoming Events with Thom Hartmann: Friday, March 19th, 6-8pm Demos and the New York Law School Chapter of the American Constitution Society present an evening with Thom Hartmann - "When Corporations Became People." Thom will also talk about his updated book "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights"...event is at New York Law School Auditorium, 185 W Broadway, New York, NY...free tickets atwww.demos.org (and click on events)
Comments
#2
if people used to be property, and property is now people, is soylent green people?
#3
Blankley said Corporations didn't exist until the 1800s?
He's just ignorant.
#4
@ Zero G. - How many times does he have to be forceably removed by a CIA coup only to be reinstalled when the people of his country revolt.
#5
Blankley keeps brushing aside facts with "just statistics ..."
He's dishonest. The only question is whether he's a lackey for the corporations or just locked into his ideology
#6
@Zero G re: Chavez: Even given the biased MSM reporting on Chavez, he looks like a dictator to me. As Lord Acton said, power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think that usually, the more humble your beginnings before you come to power, the more quickly and completely you succumb.
#7
@glenn n: I could classify many of the people I know as such.
#8
Oops, an alleged CIA-backed coup.
#9
Good on Dennis. Maybe the Dems will give in to the Democrats instead of the GOPhers.
#10
@harry
"looks like a dictator to me." What kind of glasses are you wearing?
Yeah, one who was reinstated by popular demand, after a coup.
Sure, he tried to redistribute a small portion of the oil wealth back to the people, and took on the oligarchy owned media companies in his country, but he has consistantly run in elections, and when one of his referenda lost, he respected that.
#11
General Patton got a lot of flack when he said (after the war) that the Nazi party of Germany was a political party not much different then the Republican party in the USA. His point was that not every German was a Nazi. If I have it right, it was in regards to a question put to him about using Germans in official capacities to rebuild Germany.
Of course the issue the press had, was that he was saying that Republicans were like Nazi's. Although it can be debated if he meant it that way, it sure seems he was right on target even way back then.
#12
Simple way to override the effect of corporate personhood:
It would seem simple, on a federal and then on state-by-state levels, to change corporate charters, which I believe need to be reinstated each year, to include a simple sentence, such as...
'This corporation will follow all campaign finance rules that may apply to natural persons'.
#13
This via Twitter:
@RepHankJohnson My staff reports literally hundreds of calls per hour for Health Care Reform. At the White House now meeting... http://fb.me/KueFO47HB
Keep up the pressure!!! Call Congress and make your voice heard!
#14
The good news about the citizens united decision.
The shills that will be elected can use a small part of our trillion dollar budget to sub contract their re-election.
Finally, government funded elections!
#15
@Zero G: Chavez got the rules changed to allow his reelection. Perhaps the majority approved. If you'll remember the crowds after our own revolution called for George Washington to become king. Luckily for us, Washington declined. Would Hugo? I don't thiink so.
#16
Monopoly is no game, end it before it kills more people
#17
Harry are you sure? We got John Adams.
#18
Sorry chuckle8, I don't get the connection.
#19
Taiwan has a national ID card as a condition of their healthcare system. The cards are linked to a database managed by the government. Taiwan has the lowest administrative healthcare costs.
#20
When I was in high school in the 50's, they taught civics. I remember in our BS talks, that it seemed the only workable government would be a benevolent dictator.
#21
@harry,
Yeah well, remember Washington became president after the Constitution was ratified, not after the revolution.
The Constitutional convention was convened because there were concerns about the need to put down revolts like Shay's Rebellion, where tenant farmers were blockading the courthouse to keep from being forclosed on, after the revolution.
#22
should be "convened, in part..."
#23
@Harry: If George Washington would have served to his death we never would have had John Adams. John Adams the only president worse than dubya.
#24
By the way, how much do we pay the military to subsidize oil companies, trade routes, etc. We're also subsidizing foreign countries for these services.
#25
Of course I am 100% behind Tom's feelings about the Citizens United case. First it was "money = speech", and now it's "corporations = people". Scary.
However, I can't agree with his take on judicial power. The Supreme Court's power to rule on the Constitutionality of legislation IS, in fact, enumerated in the Constitution:
"The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution,.."
Tom's view seems to forget that the Constitution itself is law. If the legislature makes a law establishing a national religion, that would be an illegal law. The Constitution, the higher law, tells us so. A court of law is where you go to make your complaint about the injustice.
Jefferson got it exactly backward, IMHO. Without this check on the legislator, THEN the Constitution is but a useless piece of wax. Legislators could simply ignore the Constitution, completely, if they so chose.
#26
@chuckle 8: what if Nixon, Reagan, Bush had served until their deaths?
b ut anyway, I'll try to find an unbiased report on Chavez' recent behavior, and suggest you do the same.:)
#27
Unbiased? But anyway,
Free press? Venezuela beats the US
Of course Chávez's new media law is bad. But it won't make a dent in the huge amount of press freedom in Venezuela
Mark Weisbrot guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 August 2009 18.03 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/04/venezuela-media-free...
#28
thanx Zero G, I'll check it out.
#29
Tom Tancredo said he didn't even think his comment would be taken as rascist? Bologna, he has had a little time to craft his answers so he doesn't sound blatantly rascist but just like Limbaugh he knew excactly what he was implying.
#30
@Harry: Very scary
#31
@Zero G: here's mine.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/annualreport.php?id=ar&yr=2009&c=VEN
#32
@harry
Compare that report to the one Amnesty issued for the USA for the same year - would you call the USA a dictatatorship? Alright, I may have been guily of calling Bush a dictator (I don't recall that), certainly I called him a fascist.
2009 Annual Report for Venezuela
Head of state and government Hugo Chávez Frías
Death penalty abolitionist for all crimes
Population 28.1 million
Life expectancy 73.2 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f) 24/19 per 1,000
Adult literacy 93 per cent
Attacks on journalists were widespread. Human rights defenders continued to suffer harassment. Prison conditions provoked hunger strikes in facilities across the country. Some significant steps were taken to implement the 2007 law on violence against women but there was a lack of commitment from many of the authorities responsible. Lack of arms control contributed to high levels of violence and public insecurity.
compared to
2009 Annual Report for USA
Head of state and government George W. Bush
Death penalty retentionist
Population 308.8 million
Life expectancy 77.9 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f) 8/8 per 1,000
The Pentagon announced the release from the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, of 22 non-US nationals held there, bringing the number held in the base at the end of the year to approximately 250. One detainee was transferred from secret CIA custody to Guantánamo in March. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the Guantánamo detainees had the constitutional right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention in US federal courts. By the end of the year there had been rulings in the cases of only eight detainees contesting their detention as “enemy combatants” in habeas corpus petitions. The first two trials by military commission were held at Guantánamo and several others, some of which could potentially result in death sentences, remained pending at the end of the year.
There were continued reports of police brutality and ill-treatment in prisons, jails and immigration detention facilities. Dozens of people died after police used Tasers (electro-shock weapons) against them. The first successful prosecution in a US court for torture committed outside the USA took place in October. There were 37 executions during the year, the lowest annual total for 15 years.
***************************************************
Those were just the highlights of the reports. Did you ever hear the NYTimes or any other news media talk about the USA as a dictatorship?
As far as the treatment of journalists in the US, look what happens to (some) people who try to pry back the veil:
We All Failed Gary Webb
By Robert Parry
December 10, 2008 (A Special Report)
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/120908.html
You might also check out Carl Bernstein's "CIA and the Media, Rolling Stone Magazine" written after he left the Washington Post. Look it up.
#33
Speaking of US in bed with the CIA, maybe Thom can comment sometime on Tad Szulc...
#34
US journalists in bed with the CIA...
#35
@harry ashburn, thank you for your thoughts and words. I prefer to give people the truth. Yes, the truth can hurt. People who refuse to accept the truth are remaining in their state of denial. The truth can shake people out of their comfort zone and that removal is very upsetting. I feel better being honest with people. It will not make me popular but at my age I am not commenting and posting to win a popularity contest.
@harry ashburn, I was able to listen to Thom for his first two hours and than I had to leave for an appointment. As great as Thom is he made case today for an America without a future. I know that Thom tries hard to give us hope but I can tell he appears to be very frustrated about the direction where America is heading.
#36
he made MY case today!
#37
@Zero G: I agree with you wholeheartedly; but I feel the USA is sliding into fascism, with the corporations calling all the shots. That doesn't excuse Chavez for his excesses.
#38
@ Gerald re: listening to Thom: If I miss the live show, I can listen 2-5 pm CST at http://www.chicagoprogressivetalk.com/programs/weekdays.php
#39
@harry ashburn, thank you for the info on Thom's 2-5 PM show (CST). I have added it to my favorites' column.
#40
@ TAJ - Thanks for the link to Alan Grayson's bill for Medicare buy-in. Just went over, signed the letter, forwarded it to e-mail contacts. Then went to donate to Grayson's re-election. Today's his birthday - 52 - so donated $52.
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How many elections does Hugo Chavez have to win before he stops being labeled a dictator?