Daily Topics - Friday April 8th, 2011

Get the new IPhone App for Thom Hartmann
Check out the new movie I AM (Thom is in it) here and see an interview here and here....
Watch the TRUE Story of the Tea Party here!
Please welcome radio host David Sirota, Denver's AM 760 in for Thom today!
Hour One: Qadaffi's Harvard connection... Paul Barett, Businessweek
Hour Three: Not your father's Republican presidential candidate... Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson / Plus, can the business of college sports survive? Dr. Andrew Zimbalist, Smith College
Comments

As David noted the War Powers Act is limited to authorizing military action only when the US is at risk.
There is reason for this - under UN treaty we have agreed to a prohibition against war except in self-defense. By treaty - which under our Constitution is higher law than law passed by Congress - war other than self defense is only legal 1) when authorized by the Security Council or 2) when required to prevent genocide or atrocities as defined by the UN Charter and/or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
By ratifying the UN Charter and the Human Rights Declaration - Congress has delegated its war making power - except in the case of self-defense.
Despite my misgivings - it appears that the President is under sound constitutional grounds when using military action on humanitarian grounds with Security Council approval.
Personally I think we already have our plate full with two asian wars and should let the rest of the world take this one.

one for all all for one to help the weak to guide the strong to leave no one behind Ode to Joy

Great people of history understood Dependant origination.

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Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico:
Gary Johnson was a disaster. He cannot be considered for President.
It was a quaint idea to elect a political neophyte as governor that had no ties to any special interests and was independently wealthy and didn’t need to make money from the position. My dad always said this made the best type of politician. But then we found out how he made his millions at Intel in Albuquerque by stuffing a worker into a pipe with running water to lower the pressure and pass a plumbing inspection to get a bank draw-down. Risking that man’s life for money.
This was the first of many deceptions; in fact, he promised during the campaign to be a one term governor which didn’t happen. I met with Gary Johnson six times in meetings and found out a lot about who he really is; an egomaniac-liar.
On one occasion, a man who was standing in line with him at the Division of Motor Vehicles who had encouraged him to run for governor, shared with our group the libertarian and anti-government views that he and the future governor shared. This is disqualification enough—you want to change government by destroying it. Then why participate in government if you do not have altruistic motives?
Those 700 vetoes, the veto record---were damaging, one was the line item veto of 24 of the 26 Constitutional Amendments developed over six years by the nonpartisan Constitutional Revision Commission a work in progress since the 1969 Constitutional Convention that failed (nearly 100 years of work down the drain). Another veto was the Tax Overhaul Bill that Rep. Jerry Sanderson and the bipartisan Tax Study Committee worked on for nine years. They brought the 45 tax exemptions and 54 tax deduction special interests into a room and put everything on the table. Then they crafted a bill in the best interests of the state. If the bill had not been vetoed by Johnson it had triggers in it that would avoid the economic downturn we faced in 2008-2009. Thanks Gary for our recession! Enough said…..
But I believe he was penny wise and pound foolish. His cabinet people like Heather Wilson touted that they were saving money by turning in their official cars (thus saving $25,000). Then promptly spent over $110,000.00 to remodel an office in Albuquerque so she could stay there and not commute to Santa Fe (the seat of government).
On another occasion federal funds were misspent so the feds started an audit that Senator Domenici was asked to call off. He told DHHS that if they wanted to preserve their budget they would stop the audit.
I wrote a 110 page book about these misdeeds. As an employee, I actually met five times with him at his "Open Door at Four" for five-10 minutes each and I gave him cost savings ideas that he just couldn't get. He said that sounds good then didn’t follow up.

Sirota was such a douche today in his defense of kadaffi. He was rude and condescending. I normally like when he fills in but not today. Come back soon Thom!!!



Check out the Huffington Post note worthy print of Wisconsin's missing data found on Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus personal computer that was added to the vote count;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/07/david-prosser-wisconsin-supreme-court_n_846431.html