Truthout is proud to bring you an exclusive series from America's No. 1 progressive radio host, Thom Hartmann
By louisehartmann
Truthout is proud to bring you an exclusive series from America's No. 1 progressive radio host, Thom Hartmann. Starting today, we'll be publishing weekly installments of Hartmann's acclaimed new book, "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country." We invite Truthout readers to join us over the next 12 weeks as, chapter by chapter, we explore these groundbreaking ideas for national transformation. We begin today with the book's introduction.
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
Mueller's favorite place to pray (written about in "Prophet's Way"), and the roof of the room where the Last Supper is reputed to have happened.
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."
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."
From Screwed:
"I think many of us recognize that for all but the wealthiest, life in America is getting increasingly hard. Screwed explores why, showing how this is no accidental process, but rather the product of conscious political choices, choices we can change with enough courage and commitment. Like all of Thom’s great work, it helps show us the way forward."
Thom, I have not heard anyone say this. Pundits are claiming that the election was a National Vote, all politics is now national they say; people voted against Congress, against Nancy Pelosi and against Obama. I DO NOT believe that is the whole, or main, story. People voted based on their LOCAL TAXES and blamed the Democrats. Russ Feingold lost because he did not explain why local taxes are ballooning. They sold the voters the explanation that their taxes are going up because Russ Feingold voted 90% of the time with the Democrats. Illogical, I know, but it worked! Lawyers know that to win you have to assign blame to win; that's what they did! All Politics Is Local! People voted AGAINST Dems because their local property taxes, sales taxes and requests for education bonds keep going up! But they dont understand that this happened because Bush's budgets slashed education, infrastructure & social services, the Rebs Senate refused to fund education, infrastructure & social services, ie, the money going to the states. The states cut the same as a result. This passed the costs to the local govts. This hits home! The effects are felt here when our family members and friends are the ones who are on unemployment and Medicaid, losing their houses, losing their construction & transportation jobs, our students are losing their classes and extracurriculars and our schools are collapsing! WE won't let that happen. So LOCAL property taxes, sales taxes. utility taxes, phone taxes, tolls, gasoline taxes, school bond requests go up and so on. These are what hit us. These are what show up on every bill every month! They don't understand the lag time. Dems are in power, so they get blamed. Obama's tax cuts via payroll didn't make a dent because the insurance companies saw an opportunity and gobbled it up by increasing our employer-based insurance premiums and the middle class never saw the tax cut! DID YOU KNOW that the insurance companies and employers are telling employees that this premium increase is because of Health Care Reform, ie, "Obamacare?" Unbelievable! I just hope they keep raising premiums and deductibles. In 2012, we MUST villianize the insurance companies and their exploitation of the loopholes. The got it all along; that's why they agreed to obamacare... and requiring people to buy health care. Btw, why are we fighting that so hard? I know we need everyone covered to make it work and bring down the healthcare costs...I get that. But it would still be a loss to the insurers. And why are they supporting the lawsuits?