Re: the GOP is at best greedy and evil and at worst, insane.

It seems to me that most of the mega rich are addicts; they are addicted to greed. Most addicts would not be called evil, or insane. We do need to confront these people regarding their addiction though; addiction is a sickness, and these people need help!

How about an Intervention-style reality show where the GOP are approached individually and convinced to go into rehab for greed? The proceeds could go to Planned Parenthood and other necessary social programs.

@DRichards, greed is an addiction and so is war an addiction.

Things aren't always so rosy Down Under. A paragraph from Wikipedia on Australia's own Scott Walker figure, John Howard, Prime Minister no less:

With the 1996 election of the Federal Government under Prime Minister John Howard increasing pressure was brought to bear on industrial relations reforms to reduce the industrial power of Australian trade unions. This has included the introduction of Australian Workplace Agreements — individual contractual agreements on pay and conditions between an employee and employer — and the reduction of minimum conditions contained in Industrial awards. One of the first targets of the conservative Government was to undermine the power of the Maritime Union of Australia, through breaking its closed shop on waterfront labour. The 1998 Australian waterfront dispute resulted with stevedoring firm, Patrick Corporation under CEO Chris Corrigan, attempting to sack its entire waterfront workforce of 1400 people through company restructuring. The Australian Council of Trade Unions condemned the sacking as a gross act of collusion between Patrick, the Government, and the National Farmers Federation, and with the threat of legal action against the Government and Patrick Corporation, a settlement was negotiated to allow some reform with the MUA retaining its effective closed shop.

Greedy, mean and stupid. I think that pretty much sums up whatever they call themselves, tea party, republicans, conservatives. I think they are trully hiding the ball. Even if there were away to make the defecit disappear without raising taxes and keep all the programs as they are they would not be happy. Their problem is not that we can't afford it, they love spending. Look how much debt during the Reagan and Bush presidencies. The fact that social security and medicare exist is the problem. It is their goal to get rid of these programs, whatever it takes. They should be forced at every opportunity to admit to this position. To be honest with the people who elect them.

great words! nice signature too!

Hearing Thom gushing over just another good speech from Obama, makes me sick. You're suckling on the Washington Power Teat, Thom. I have guarded optimism, at best.
Stop searching for justification of your hopes for Obama. Instead, you should be challenging your opinions against those who are More Progressive Than You. How else do you expect to grow?

If we can’t understand the reality around us then we cannot even use the word hope. You have to respond to the real not the imaginary.

You've become too establishment oriented. What happened to the Anti-Establishment Thom Hartmann? The one who was skeptical but optimistic. Hope, without action, is useless.

Do you believe this culture is going to undergo a voluntary transformation to a sane and sustainable existence?

I am going to reread Ravi Batra's, "The New Golden Age". It's a little like reading Tom Clancy in the early 2000's, except it's non-fiction. I think he was right on the mark - the times, they are a changing.

The age of acquisition is nearing its end. It will come years sooner if Obama knows what he's doing.

He talked about no tax cuts for the rich again as if he just didn't give them (on his own accord mind you)--another Bush Tax Cut which he benefitted just a few months ago. Said before coming into office he wouldn't do it. Now he's saying it again in office. He's the reason they're rushing to deadlines to cut program spending on Americans now because of this increased deficit alone. Gotta be a crisis to push wealth benefits to the wealthy. He appears to be satisfied with his tax cut and doesn't need another $200K. Never had so much money-can live without another guilty conscience. He plays to several audiences at once including across seas. Hell with him. He doesn't help me.

He implies all Americans must make some future sacrifices. Guess things ain't bad enough yet.

In Buddhist terms- deluded is exactly the correct word to use for those addicted to greed.

In terms of clinical psychiatry the use of the term deluded is almost certainly correct as well, except that the delusions in question are exceptionally well encapsulated, and on the surface appear to have adaptive value for those in the thrall of these delusions.

Thom , As usual, " Great show. Bring it home!

Anybody else noticed how the fatigue rises as the threat of despair grows?

The moral bankruptcy of the Ayn Rand enclave cannot be over-estimated. Note, for example, that the great love relationship in "The Fountainhead" begins with a rape. I've always believed that was a critical insight into Ayn Rand's mind.

A few days ago, I was called by a young friend, the father of two small children and our church's former board chair. He asked me whether I'd ever seen a bumper sticker that read, "Atlas is Shrugging" and whether I knew what it meant. I explained - and I've been deeply troubled ever since.

As so many of us have heard, and perhaps even thought, "where are the moderate Muslims to critique the policies of radical Islam?" is the time right for us, who are Liberals in the midst of the revisions of Christianity that have arisen since the beautiful indignation of the mid 1960's, to step up and challenge the covetous greed of this generation's quasi-Christian political MadMen, and look again to Union Theological Seminary for the moral leadership that powered the coalition of the Civil Rights movement and the Anti-Vietnam war movements?

Help us, Thom. It's time, isn't it, to take the moral decay, and the decayed so-called Christianity that lets Republicans keep reciting, "fairness isn't the issue!," and "it's a spending problem, not a revenue problem," as though they have every right to lie, cheat and steal, and being born where they are is proof that God is on their side and Jesus got it wrong?? ! ?

When I heard about that Kansas representative tea-bagger state that it would, I paraphrase here, be a good idea to shoot "Illegals" from helicopters, a redo of Palin shooting elk or moose from one, I kinda figured that we are dealing not with humans here, but with craven homeopaths! These people are dangerous! Literally!

If this man can state this in OUR house of representatives, today, in 2011, what does that tell you about the civilizing process of these quasi-human fanatics? Another question - what about the people who elected this buffoon? What does that tell you about the civilizing process of those voters? And this man has not resigned!

These people, I can wager, are all probably Christian white folk who make it a fanatical ritual to go to a Christian church at least 3 times a week and wear their religion on their sleeves like a badge!

And yet they elect a man who wants to shoot and kill humans from helicopters! America, this is the type of individual, teabaggers, who are now running our country! Do you believe they have any, ANY, compunction to do right by America? These are fanatics, zealots, and fundamentalists who, without any shame whatsoever, state publically in one of our highest house of government state that it would be a good idea to shoot human beings from helicopters! Just think what they must tell each other when they meet in their private conclaves!

This is the EVIL side of human nature. There is an iconic Picture of a Lynching of a ‘Black Man’, taken in the South back 70-80 years ago. And there surrounding this poor man, are a group of white folk, their faces ecstatic, glorying in their ‘Kill”. They are literally rejoicing in this murderous lynching, surely not any different a rejoicing than when they attend their Sunday morning Christian services and feel the spirit coming into them!

When I first saw this picture I was aghast! Surely this is not a normal human attribute, I told myself. This has to be an exception to the rule!

That was back in my high school days. And sad to say I now know it is not an exception. When given the opportunity, when the shackles of morality are loosened, when it becomes the Christian or whatever religious persuasion you belong to ‘Right’ thing to do, decent god-fearing people do becomes murderous and evil, and do murderous and evil things.

So if you think that these teabaggers are going to do right by America I suggest you start reading more history. These people are crazy, and crazy people cannot be reasoned with. And they will do crazy things. Until the 2012 elections, America is in for a radical crazy roller coaster ride with these fanatics who are dead set on destroying America, not saving it!

How soon will the tide turn? Well, that depends partly on whether Obama's latest speech is just another bunch of lies and/or promises that he doesn't have the character to keep, which is what all of his major promises from his first presidential campaign have turned out to be. No wonder he's not trying to use the same grassroots people who got him elected: he has betrayed their trust, and rather than admitting that blatantly obvious fact, he is pretending- like the politician he is- that it never happened, because now that corporate America knows that THEY can trust him, they will- if need be- help him cheat his way back into the offal office.

Frankly, I think that Obama is George Bush with a better vocabulary and better organizational skills. But if all I wanted was a candidate with a good vocabulary, I would have voted for my 9th grade English teacher. And if all I wanted was a candidate with good organizational skills, I would have voted for that traitor Jack Welch who used his organizational skills to turn G.E. into a tax-dodging, job outsourcing, ego-centric hack of a corporation, and who is so blind to what he has done that he actually wrote a book so he could brag about it to more people.

Obama has not closed Guantanimo, rendition continues unabated, military criminals are not prosecuted on his watch, he spends more money on war than Bush, and to make sure that he is doing it properly, he even started his own nice little war in Libya, which, coincidentally, is sitting on a lot of oil that some multinational corporations want to steal, and those multinational corporations own most of the senators and representatives in our congress, as well as our president and virtually all of his hand-picked cabinet, and a majority of our supreme court. Obama has had three years to start taxing the wealthy, but it wasn't until now, when, coincidentally, he is running for re-election, that he has even mentioned taxing the wealthy. It's like he's saying, "If you want me to keep any of the promises I made to you when I was running for president the first time, you'll have to RE-elect me." If you think that is good behavior, just ask yourself, how would your wife or husband react if you treated them that way? How would your kids react if you treated them that way? How would Obama's own wife and kids react if he treated them that way? Having seen a bit of his wife, I rather suspect that she would divorce him. In other words, Obama is treating US- the country that he swore to protect- in ways that he would not dare treat his own family. That is the definition of base hypocrisy, and in a man as intelligent as Obama, we can only assume that it is intentional, rather than a mostly unconscious expression of severe mental illness, as was the case with George Bush.

If Obama has done anything, he has re-affirmed my belief that with a few notable exceptions like Paul Wellstone and Bernie Sanders, virtually anyone who wants to run for a political office is, by definition, morally unqualified to do the job. So I say to Mr. Obama and the other republicans who are currently running this country, you need to consider how many more lies you can tell us and how many more promises you can make and break, before we force a return to paper ballots and start electing third-party presidents.

So, I guess he rejected Clintonomics or Rubinomics also since that is what Reaganomics morphed into. He could start by getting rid of any Clinton advisors and stop being a Clinton corporatist. However, I would like to see Robert Reich in his administration. I'm a bit skeptical since The Great Equivocator wasn't talking about raising taxes sooner.

GOP creed is and has been since 1981 Reaganomics deregulation- Bush Cheney Goldman Fed / Paulson 2008 crash 700 Billion TARP / edge of depresion is to bring another ' GIlded Age ' when Robber Barons ruled everything. Con courts did their part with the disgraceful 'Citizens United'. that should have been named ' Robber Barons United' The GOP will bully, lie, they will do / say anything to crush Obama, to stop his policies' Ruthless & cold like pods that take over our soul when we sleep .Ryan,Walker, Newt, & GOP Bagger loyal followers have that look in their eyes.. that says ' Get out of my way ' small people '.I will run you over if I have to '

I agree with drichards, lalsphere, making progress and others here smart enough to step back and take a deep breath after an Obama speech. Thom, you're way too easy. It's just a speech. Candidate Obama has arisen from the ashes. Yippee.

There's a rule in Washington that "A porcupine with his quills down is just another fat rodent."

And that is the point of Obama's speech - a soothing message for progressives in order to coax them into putting their quills down. It works, at least on you, Thom. It worked on me too - for about ten minutes.

Thom - we all know how wicked the Republicans are. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to keep your quills up, and those of your listeners, as this soothsayer does his magic. Focus on Obama, understand that what you see is real, what you hear is not.