Daily Topics - Thursday February 10th, 2011
By shawnt56
Thom is live from radio row at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. - www.conservative.org
Hour One: Academy Award winning actor Richard Dreyfuss, Founder-The Dreyfuss Initiative - www.thedreyfussinitiative.org, Plus, CEO of Pajamas Media, Roger Simon - http://pajamasmedia.org
Hour Two: Taking the fight for health care to the GOP - Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX, 2nd district) - http://poe.house.gov
Hour Three: Why do right wingers have Islamophobia? Conservative author/activist Brigitte Gabriel - www.actforamerica.com
Comments
#2
The Crusades? You mean the "War of Muslim Agression"? ;-)
#3
Last month Thom linked to a DU post on the German manufacturer who was being interviewed on a cable news show(?). The interviewer kept returning to Germany's high taxes until he finally said he didn't mind the high taxes, he didn't to be a rich man living in a poor country.
I have been searching but have not found a link to the actual interview, video or transcript but no luck so far. Can anyone help me find this? When I send great stories like this one to people, I want them to be the real deal so people can't just dismiss them as just liberal fibs.
#4
Call you Congressman!
Another vote is likely later today on the "Patriot" act extension.
#5
Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs!
Without tariffs, there's no manufacturing protection.
No manufacturing protection... soon no manufacturing.
No manufacturing... service jobs are left.
Service jobs do not pay enough to live on.
No tariffs = no living wage.
Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs!
N
#6
Professor Hartmann has almost converted another. Watching the video feed, you could see he hadn't done his homework before sitting down with Thom.
#7
HARSH WINTER: Obama To Propose Energy Cuts For The Poor
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/09/obama-poor-energy-cuts-kerry-le...
Good thing Obama is a democrat!
#8
Maxrot, yet Obama continues to support trade agreements that deteriorates that protection.
#9
How did WWII impact unemployment? Maybe drafting 5 million men out of the workforce had something to do with that.
#10
The problem I have with Sirius is only getting to listen to the first hour. I change the channel when the foul-mouthed old woman comes on.
#11
Good job Thom. That guy was giving all the right wing Great Depression talking points. FDR made it worse, Morgenthau said it didnt work. the New Deal stimulus didnt work. etc.
Rightwing propaganda is remarkably consistent. But Thom had correct answers for all. I think the best comeback when they say FDR made it worse is that in 1932 the last year of Hoover the unemployment was 25% but three years later after FDR took office the unemployment was 14% -which was when he started listenign to the deficit hawks and cut back in 1937 causing unemployment to rise to 19% again. But by 1940 it was only 14% again because of increased spending preparing for WW2.
Why cant we consider Global Warming the new enemy to declare a "world war" on?
#12
Obvious ---------------------------------
Thom, in response to your guest who suggested "lowering taxes will save the economy"... just how much in taxes are people paying right now? Between new hires being paid a pittance, and the unemployed paying next to nothing, everyone's taxes can't get much lower than that. Yet, it sure hasn't turbo-charged the economy, has it?
Also, regarding the claim "WWII ended the Depression", I debunked that myth last December with the following video:
#13
Thom -- Thank you for a wonderful conversation with Alex(?) Cortez (?).
Brilliant job. Well done. I will commence use of Edison Factor at once.
#14
RE: Egypt
If only Mubarak had only given everyone a television set and a bag of potato chips, he'd still be in power.
#15
@cmoore68 1st: the trade agreements America has and continues to foster makes me tear my hair out.
2nd: I've never heard (or considered) the argument of taking 5 million men out of the work force thus lowering the unemployment rate to nil at the end of the Great Depression. Not sure if I like that argument or not, because how many people would we have to remove from the job pool now to get the same results? However, it is an excellent point, and you just can't ignore it once you consider it. Heck because of WWII, my Grandmother became a spot welder at the local McDonnell Douglas factory, because of the lack of men to do the work. She was already an employed teacher at the time too, so its not like she was in desperate need for another job. Yes you make a very good (and scary) point with that one.
N
#16
Maxrot Isn't it interesting that the term "America" does not represent the American People, but rather a group of ruling elites?
#17
@DRichards, its even stranger that by saying you're American by default means you're from the US, not Canada, Mexico, Panama, Chile, Brazil, etc... yet in truth they are also Americans. I mean could you imagine a English man declaring he's a European, and by default you're supposed to know he's English? How about an Egyptian, declaring he's African, or a Russian saying he's Asian? So on and so forth. Its strange that not only Americans consider that by default they represent almost the whole western hemisphere, but the world recognizes it too. Canada, Central, and South America by implication just live in our shadow. I know it at least goes back to the Monroe Doctrine, but still, its weird when you think about it.
N
#18
Maxrot, I clearly did not mean that to be a positive. But you cannot ignore the fact that when that large a segment of society is removed it will have a positive affect on unemployment numbers, kind of like the 99's today.
#19
Would it be correct to refer to us as USers?
#20
Re: the John Birch Society
The Constitution & the Ten Commandments, that's an "interesting" mix.
Does the President of the John Birch Society want to live in a Democracy, or a Theocracy? I don't think he can have his cake & eat it too. It's one ot the other.
#21
@DRichards, upon further reflection on you statement, I think it also points to the knee jerk reaction of birthers and those that believe Obama is a Muslim. I believe that in their collective subconscious they can't wrap their mind around a black man being an American, because only white Christians are Americans. I say its subconscious because so many honestly believe they aren't racist (even while holding a photoshop picture of the PResident with a bone through his nose). Sure there are the open racists in the group, but I think that honestly there are quite a few, that are subconsciously re-acting, because their immediate cultural environment is so saturated with such concepts that they can't even recognize it. I bet you could go to a Southern State, go up to the nearest citizen and tell him/her that Mexicans are indeed American... 5 will get you 10, that you will have a fervent argument on your hands.
N
#22
I find it interesting that Sabrina's opening statement was to admit that Republicans were dumbing down the conversation. I think that dumbing down has lead to the Tea Party and a faction within the party that threatens their existence.
#23
@cmoore, I just did a little research and number running on your earlier comment about 5 million going off to war. In 1940, there was about 132 million americans, and about 1 million in uniform at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
If 5 million went to uniform, then that is just a little less the 4% of the population.
At the end of the war, there was just over 12 million in the american military. So by the end of the war about 8% of the population was taken out of the work place, temporarily (remember there was already about a million in the military so I just divided 11 by 132). There was a loss of about a 1/2 million to death outright.
Today there is about 310 million people in the US. So that would equate to about 25 million people that would need to be taken out of the workforce for a similar effect.
Though many people feel that we're at 20% unemployment, which is about 62 million people. So even if we removed 25 million from the workforce that would still leave about 12% unemployed... I guess a major war could employ that many, and if we did get into such a major war, it would be hard to believe that Atomic weapons would not be used, so yea a war could easily get us out of this "Recession", but if that's not a pyrrhic victory, then I don't know what is.
Anyway, I'm sure you didn't mean that the War was a good answer to depression, and I agree, but you sure got me thinking about just what the raw statistics are.
N
#24
Interesting article on Roll Call regarding donations to congressional charities.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/56_81/-203269-1.html?ET=rollcall:e9794:80108599a:&st=email&pos=eam
Article implies corporate and lobbying charitable donations are down for elected members due to disclosure rules implemented in 2008. I believe this has more to do with Citizen's United. Why make a declared donation to a charity or "honor" a member of Congress when you can dump undisclosed amounts of cash into a electioneering front group?
The good ole days of funnelling money to elected officials through charities is no longer fashionable.
#25
Maxrot, you can drop those number considerably. The unemployment rate is based on the civilian labor force 16 and over which is about 50% of the national population. On the flip-side, that means the pecentage of population in the military after WW2 would double. So, I digress.
#26
Pirates are the purest form of modern capitalism. They don't hide behind glossy ad campaigns while stealing your money.
#27
Maxrot, you have identified the dilemma we face. We have become so "efficient" at killing that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iran could not keep us from slipping into a recession.
#28
Most Cons will claim WW2 pulled us out the depression. I would argue it prevented us from sliding back into another depression when those millions of soldiers returned to civilian life. The US became the world's manufacturer because we were not saddle with the burden of reconstruction.
#29
@cmoore, ok 16% of the work force ended up in the military instead of 8% of the population.
And if 20% of the work force is 31 million people. You still need about 25 million people to be taken out of the work force to match what happened in WWII. Which leaves about 5% of the employable population unemployed, and yes a major war would easily soak up that amount.
Still 25 million off to war, or euthanize them... still a pyrrhic victory.
Either way you look at it though, the Great Depression was mainly a result of Conservative policies. I don't know how many starved or died of illnesses related to poverty, all so the wealthy elite in America could have bigger numbers on the bank records. Pretty sickening to think that today's Conservatives think we need to go back to that type of perverse economic model, as though the results will not be the same. We didn't need WWII to get out of the Great Depression, we just needed then as we do now proper financial regulations.
N
#30
Thom Hartmann, you obviously do not know Christianity or Islam. Calling murderers like McVeigh Christians, is an invalid argument. You won't find any of those commands in the bible, yet the Koran and hadith commands muslims to kill, maim, and torture on almost every page.
You should be ashamed of yourself!
#31
@ Our Founding Truth - And the Torah, which is the origin of both Christianity and Islam, promotes torture, rape and murder of infidels. Christianity has a long history of mass murder of members of competing denomination as well as non-conformists all in the name of conversion.
Modern Christianity is rife with congregations espousing hate speech masquerading behind the mask of "God's Wariors" and "Christian Soldiers." Couple that with characters like Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh fomenting about secret muslim agents conspiring to overthrow God's chosen country (America?) and you have the recipe for a misguided or deranged individual to take matters in his own hands.
#32
The Torah is the origin of Christianity? Have you heard of the New Testament? The torah promotes none of what of wrote. God destroyed the Canaanites because they were guilty of sacrificing their babies to Molech. And they aren't around anymore proving the Bible is true.
The only mass murders were done by Catholics to real Christians.
Thom Hartmann is clueless to what Islam and Christianity is. I suggest you go to borders, and buy a Koran.
#33
The economy turned around and the depression ended because when the war started the government took over the economy and it (the economy) came under centralized control. There was a tremendous amount of work in the defense plants and that of course leads to other work selling to and producing for those workers who had money to spend from their new defense plant jobs (demand side economics as was attempted in the WPA and so on).
Also, because the white men were gone fighting the war many opportunities were opened for women and people of color. Women took over many jobs that were traditionally men's jobs and African-Americans moved north to get jobs that were newly made available. All racial minorities found opportunity as a a result of the absence of white men. The first Hispanic baseball players entered the Major Leagues and Jacky Robinson and Ernie Banks two years after the war.
#34
The Muslim religion does in fact embrace the concept of "Holy War" as laid out by Mohammed himself. That is not a bad thing. Islam values justice and the fight (and they mean the FIGHT) for it. Christians don't very much or not very explicitly. They seem to be willing to tolerate a large amount of injustice.
Statistical analysis has shown that the number of suicide bombings in Israel were always directly proportionate to the aggressiveness of Israel's settlement and hyper apartheid policies. When Israel's egregiousness steadily decreased leading up to the Oslo Accords suicide bombings in Israel and occupied territories steadily decreased finally reaching zero for the year of 1993 then steadily increased as it became clear the Oslo Accords were not helpful in any way to the improvement of life in the occuppied territories.
What the new McCarthyism forbids us from saying is that if we want to stop terrorism of Muslims we should consider stopping our own. As Noam Chomsky said, " September 11th was the first time since WW II that the U.S. was the victim rather than the perpetrator of such violence [against civillians] on such a large scale."
The Islam is a religion that values peace and Muslims are peaceful people... but don't fuck with 'em!
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Hr. 1: my favorite Richard Dreyfuss movie was "The Big Fix" with Susan Anspach.
Hr. 3: Right wingers have islamophobia 'cause they cant forget we lost the Crusades, just like some southerners cant forget the civil war. "Forget, Hell!!"