Daily Topics - Monday February 20th, 2012
By shawnt56
"Please join us Tuesday evening Feburary 21st as we present a very special edition of The Big Picture "Teach-In to Take Back the American Dream" sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future and Free Speech TV. Guests include: Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Robert Borosage w/Campaign for America's Future, "Patriotic Millionaire" Leo Hindery of Intermedia Partners, Heather McGhee of Demos, and Natalie Foster from Rebuild the Dream. Check your local listings...9pm ET and 11pm ET on FSTV and RT.
Hour Two: Oil prices skyrocket...the speculators are back - Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine
Hour Three: Private prisons...disastrous for inmates & the public? Caroline Isaacs, American Friends Service Committee
Comments
#2
Has Ronald Bailey not heard of short selling? He asked how someone could make money on a falling market.
#3
Regarding the caller Gordon's idea about increasing the number of Congressional representatives, I've been trying to find out what the actual capacity of the House chamber, both with and without the gallery, but have been unable to find a number, or even a diagram of the chair arrangement. The House website has nothing.
The reason I'm looking is that I too have an idea about increasing the size of the House, but by giving each district 5 votes in the House and giving them out proportionately to the candidates in the same way that seats are given to parties in countries with proportional representation systems of electing legislators. I expect under those circumstances that there would be 2.5 to 3 representatives per district, so if we stayed at 435 districts, there would be around 1000-1400 members in total. But if we went back to the ratio given in the Constitution, which was an average of 5 districts per state, we'd have 250 districts, for a total of 1250 votes, and around 625-750 members in the House.
#4
If I were confined in a private prison, I'd ask my lawyer to charge that prison company with kidnapping. Only the government is allowed to restrict my liberty.
#5
Saphrostomously ugly? I'm completely stumped. Apparently there's nothing like that word anywhere on the Internet. I even tried an initial silent p.
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
Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
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 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."
The other aspect that makes me want to keep the Electoral College, as much as I would like to tweak it, is that it keeps any state from attaining an undue influence by inflating its vote totals.