Daily Topics - Thursday March 31st, 2011
By shawnt56
Truthout proudly presents Thom Hartmann's book, "Unequal Protection" Click here for the latest chapter
Hour One: Democracy for sale? Dr. Ed Shadid / Plus, latest on the war on democracy - John Nichols, The Nation Magazine
Two: "Brunch With Bernie" special Thursday edition - Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) takes your calls
Hour Three: Are the Tea Party's days numbered? Mark Williams, MarkTalk / Plus, fighting back against the corporate machine - Professor Francis Fox Pivens, Fight Back Teach-in
Comments
#2
Ambush propagandist gets spanked: Lawyer For Ex-ACORN Employee To James O'Keefe: You're No Ashton Kutcher
#3
GOPer points out that making six times the poverty level is not enough and the RNC is pissed that Americans might figure out that he is correct: GOPers Demand Sean Duffy Salary Tape Be Pulled From The Internet (VIDEO)
#4
Is Nobel Peace Prize Winner Obama More Brutal than Bush?
...The American voters asked for change. Instead, we got a different branch of the exact same Wall Street/military-industrial complex/Big Energy (BP, GE)/Big Pharma party.
#5
Here's an anecdote on how privatization addresses state budget issues:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/03/michigan_spends_mill...
Basically, the state is paying a firm $182,500 per employee because it can't compete for entry level talent when private industry's $52,000 entry level Information technology salary is compared with the state's $42,000 entry level wage.
Rather than spend another $10,000 per employee to compete, it spends $14.5 million to put 80 contract employees on the job.
#6
I've had a lurking suspicion about those Re-thugs governors. They are all using the same union-busting, benefit-slashing, dictatorial approaches. They are all funded from the same source. They are happy to act in an in-your-face way to the people, knowing and enjoying the hatred they invoke. This is high-profile agitating, with intention of scoring a high-profile game-changing win.
My guess? They WANT their anti-union measure to reach the SCOTUS. I believe it is well understood by the govs and RNC that their tactics will be rubber-stamped by the Fascist 4 at the minimum, with Kagan recusing. This is why Scalia and Thomas meets with Conversative groups behind closed doors, that is why Citizen's United was put in place and one of many reasons Ginni Thomas can work as bag-woman collecting the vig for her husband's future rulings.
I know this is cynical - but I usually trust my sense of smell.
#7
Perhaps folk should all realize that the United States of America in a member of the United Nations and a signatory of NATO . . . That means that we actually have a lawful reason to be involved in Libya.
#8
Although the marked tendency of the White House is to do what the Republicans desire, the Obama Administration threatens to do the right and righteous thing instead . . .: White House Threatens To Veto Key Legislation Over Union Busting Provision
#9
Mark Williams occurs in the universe as an jack_hole . . . I am not saying that he is a jack_hole; it is just that every sound that spews forth from his mouth is could just as easily fall fall-out of what lives between the 'jack' and the 'hole.
In short, an adult would work to earn more and not take kids and women and the middle-class out to the woodshed. If Teabaggers were sent to bee the adults in Congress, they would be demanding to raise taxes on MNE and multi-millionaires.
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
At Mondragon - both the mountain and the cooperative city - in Spain (written about in "Threshold" book)
Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"With the ever-growing influence of corporate CEOs and their right-wing allies in all aspects of American life, Hartmann’s work is more relevant than ever. Throughout his career, Hartmann has spoken compellingly about the value of people-centered democracy and the challenges that millions of ordinary Americans face today as a result of a dogma dedicated to putting profit above all else. This collection is a rousing call for Americans to work together and put people first again."
From Cracking the Code:
"Thom Hartmann ought to be bronzed. His new book sets off from the same high plane as the last and offers explicit tools and how-to advice that will allow you to see, hear, and feel propaganda when it's directed at you and use the same techniques to refute it. His book would make a deaf-mute a better communicator. I want him on my reading table every day, and if you try one of his books, so will you."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Through compelling personal stories, Hartmann presents a dramatic and deeply disturbing picture of humans as a profoundly troubled species. Hope lies in his inspiring vision of our enormous unrealized potential and his description of the path to its realization."
Yesterday, I was forced to listen to Rush Limbaugh for about 15 minutes. In that time I heard 2 blatant lies. One was that Pres. Obama's approval rating is only 42%. I had already heard from an actual news source that it was 50%. (Limbaugh then felt it necessary to exaggerate from his own lie and say that the 42% is close to the worst approval rating for a President ever, which I'm pretty sure is 29% or less.) The other lie was that a Congress had never failed to produce a budget. Really? Then what was that whole shutdown thing in 1995?
Speaking of the budget process, I'd love it if Thom interviewed an expert to explain why things are set up to risk a government shutdown every year. It seems like a stupid system. It would seem to me that since appropriations (other than for the military) can be made for indefinite periods of time, those appropriations shouldn't have to be renewed every year. Or is there only some category of expenditures that has to be renewed?