I was so happy to hear you describing and quoting from Hobbes and Locke today. In my professional life as a history teacher I taught modern European history to 10th graders, and they read both of these important political thinkers (as well as Burke, Mill, and Marx). I consider the lack of European history in schools now a major reason why our citizens cannot think rationally about politics. US history does not start with events in the US. The English Civil War and its aftermath, as well as the l9th century experience in England is critical to an understanding of our current day politics. If kids studied that history, they would know the meaning of liberalism, socialism, and Marxism and have a deeper way of thinking about democracy, as well as a greater understanding of what is different about the US.

Don't we just want to teach them about the 1% trying to take over the country?

European history is just a whole lot of examples.

Does anyone know what the "problem" was that Reagan was blaming government for?

Nancy Pelosi and Obama presented lots of solutions to Reagan's fascism. The senate blocked them. Can you conceive any person who could have done more. A few examples of the Obama/Pelosi policies that could have made a difference

Card check

Penalties against China for currency manipulation.

No waivers for the Buy America act of 1936.

Full disclosure of political contributions.

"Collective action" Obama said. That is just a nice way of saying your taxes are going up. All taxes. After four years of "tax the rich" and "fair share" now that Obama received his tax the top two percent increase the truth is coming out it isn't even going to put a dent into the massive spending he has done. So hang on the only way out of this mess is to take from the middle and lower income classes. Do you really believe Obama is going to convince the weathly into going under the matress and spend their money. I doubt it. Until someone can your in trouble. God bless America you are going to need him.

I also love the way North Americans talks about how great Europe is. Eight weeks holidays but you live in a 400 sq/ft apartment, no yard, no car, no RV, no boat, etc etc they can have it.

Didn't one of your Presidents say "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" or something like that. what happened to leaders like that. Now it seems its don't work hard just find a way to steal it from someone else it's so much easier.

My Mom taught me. "The only helping hand I truly have is at the end of my arm" it's done me really well. Try it maybe it will work for you.

tThank you for your commentary Thom. And thank you president Obama. I little light, a little sun in a dark and cloudy time.

Thank you for educating us and providing your audience with factual truths. I recently lived in SW Texas and I secretly chuckled when I talked to Republicans without disclosing my political orientation as a Progressive. I would discuss facts and they “always” agreed with me. For example, the CEO of United Health Care banking billions of money and increasing health care costs (legally) the last year. In the past, when I come across as a liberal they instantly reject my ideas. Though your show and pod cast I learn facts and I can debate the truth without disclosing my political orientation or emotional name calling! I also get likes on my FB from Republicans. So thank you again for educating us Thom!

Palindromedary~I must thank you for your brilliant summery you composed for Ken Ware yesterday. I think we all benefited from your vast knowledge in this area. My hat is off to you. I myself read the post at least three times and I believe I learned something new each time. It was quite a spoonful of info to digest at once.

As far as war crimes are concerned we must ask ourselves if the US is capable of murdering 3k of its citizens to enrich its corporations and Banks.

I have a certain bias to history concerning our bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. First, my father was in WWII. He was stationed in England toward the end of the war. After the Battle of the Bulge, he was selected as a replacement in the infantry for a casualty. He was loaded aboard a personnel carrier with a platoon of other soldiers and sent of in an invasion force to Japan. He described to me when I was a child the sheer terror shared among the passengers on that personnel carrier as it headed toward the shores of Japan.

Halfway across the Pacific Ocean the ship received the news that a new weapon was successfully used on Japan that brought an end to the war. The ship turned around and the crew was obviously besides themselves with joy and relief. "Drowsy with peace" if you will. If it wasn't for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki I might not exist. I might not be writing this right now. You might think that wow, I certainly have no business whatsoever criticizing the US handling of the end of the war in the Pacific theater. Then, please allow me the privileged of using my unique perspective to criticize the US handling of the end of the war in the Pacific theater.

I have often thought, if Hitler was such a "Bad Guy" for sending innocent Jews by the thousands to death in ovens, how is the US a "Good Guy" for incinerating hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian people in Dresden, Germany, Nagasaki and Hiroshima Japan. Dresden during an intense bombing campaign intended to create a fire storm and kill everyone in a city, and in Japan in a nuclear holocaust. How many more innocent lives fell at the hands of the US than Hitler and the SS?

I have also frequently wondered why Truman didn't detonate a bomb off shore, telling the Japanese government to watch? Also, why did he have to bomb two cities? Wasn't one enough? For that matter, why didn't he just send copies of the film recording the first detonation test. It scared the hell out of me when I watched it. Certainly it would have had an impact on the Emperor.

Do you realize that of all the nations in the world right now that have nuclear weapons, only the US has ever saw fit to use them to kill anyone?

Firestorms and killing innocent civilians? Ken can probably elaborate on that more than I, but I am aware of frequent use of Napalm and Agent Orange on civilian populations in Vietnam.

I'm also aware that our Government once experimented on college students with psychoactive substances; and, intentionally injected syphilis into its own military to study how long it took them to die and how many people they could infect and kill as well.

With these historic facts, no, I don't believe it is beyond the capacity of the US to have intentionally planned and implemented the attacks on 9/11. In fact, in addition to the facts that Bush had prior warnings and ignored them, the air force defense was on stand down, Bin Laden's family was having breakfast with Bush's father, when all air travel was grounded Bush signed an Executive Order so the Bin Laden family could leave the country, the debris (evidence) was collected and destroyed without a thorough examination, during the "official" investigation Bush refused to swear an oath to tell the truth and the judicial system allowed that to happen, and they also allowed Chaney to testify with him--not unlike a ventriloquist with his dummy.

The best most honest opinion I have about the whole affair is, "I Don't Know." Simple, honest and accurate. I don't know. In addition, I don't what to know the truth if the suspicion is true. It would make me infuriated and sick to my stomach. However, the truth must be known. I'll take the ills of the facts. Knowing the truth is in the best interest of the Country. I'll get over it.

Interesting, David Abbot, that you mention Ronald Willson (The Beast 666) Reagan as being an actor and hypocrite.

"Also, Reagan was a hypocrite. He said government was the problem and then he used government to help drug cartels murder people, and used the government's School of the Americas to teach Central and South American government people how to terrorize, torture, and murder their own citizens, resulting in the murders of who knows how many tens of thousands of innocent people."

In a way, it kinda makes the words I shared before by the Saint, Thomas Aquinas a bit prophetic don't you think:

(PG 48) No one, indeed, can be more truly called a hypocrite than the man who assumes the office of king and acts like a tyrant, for a hypocrite is one who mimics the person of another, as is done on the stage. Hence God permits tyrants to get into power to punish the sins of the subjects.

Maybe if President Obama's words will ring true this does mean and end to the torment of Reaganism. Perhaps we as a people have succeeded in ceasing our sins enough to receive a redeemer.

(PG 29) But to deserve to secure this benefit from God, the people must desist from sin, for it is by divine permission that wicked men receive power to rule as a punishment for sin, as the Lord says by the Prophet Osee: "I will give thee a King in my wrath" and it is said in Job that he "maketh a man that is a hypocite to reign for the sins of the people." Sin must therefore be done away with in order that the scourge of tyrants may cease.

To this end let us all support and believe in President Obama as well as pray!

Historywriter - Kend is not concerned with credibility, he is Canadian. Just kidding with you my Canadian friend! I have a question for the more conservative commenters out there. You want to cut social welfare for those who need it the most, such as the poor and the older retired Americans. But you never mention the corporate welfare system the government supports with all the tax loop holes that allowed G.E. to actually get a multi-million dollar refund and allow non-agricultural corporations to play the tax code to get tax breaks with the Farm Bill. Obama caved in and agreed to a paltry 5% increase in Capital Gains when the actually tax liability would have gone up to a maximum of 38.5% and not the 20% the Democrats agreed upon. The wealthy and the corporations actually had the audacity to lobby for a "Repatriation" of profits back to the U.S. from off shore banks with no taxation of the billions or even trillions they have stashed in off shore banks! And with the way Obama has kissed their _ _ _, for the last four years they might even get it. The Republicans who represent the wealthy based on their actions in Congress want social welfare (as they call it) cut, but want corporate welfare to go on with even greater tax cuts in the future. The politicians have even passed tax laws that actually give the corporations a tax break for moving their company’s off shore! How is it possible for the Americans that vote for these Republican criminals in Washington not realize they are being screwed by the conservatives and continue to line up to be screwed over and over. It does not sound logical, but is it possible the Americans that vote for these criminals have a different strain of D.N.A. that allows them to live in a state of denial or is it just plain old brain washing from birth and they are simply born into these families that enjoy being betrayed by the people they vote for. Social welfare or corporate welfare, I will choose what is good for society over the profits of the business world and their corporate thugs. We will have to wait and see if Obama meant what he said or whether it is just another political speech by a politician who has yet to keep the promises he made four years ago.

Ya mean there's a Greater Force!?!? One that hedges its bets on both sides???A power so super dooper its universal and most are unaware they support it, and refuse to believe that their Lord - I mean government - would be so beligerant towards its own.

Look, look...It's the sun of God!!!

Most people do not understand what Republicans mean by "big government". If a particular job is done by civil servants, it is "government". If it is contracted to the private sector, it is OK. None of them feel that the actual function being performed is unnecessary, but only that it should be farmed out to private industry.

What they always fail to ask is "Who can do it cheaper AND guarantee performance ?" For purely administrative functions Government is always cheaper because they do not tack "Profit" on top of the overall cost. Clearly Medicare and Medicaid can be provided much more cheaply by government than by industry because the "Government" is not actually providing the medical procedures. As it turns out, almost every function which can be farmed out to private industry is farmed out. Almost all of "big government" are private industry contract administrators.

Why not farm out Social Security? It would be done in a second IF AND ONLY IF private industry was willing to GUARANTEE payouts which we all contribute to. However, since corporations can declare bankruptcy and thereby reneg on their resposibility, we still have to count on "government" to bail them out. So why pay someone who is unwilling to guarantee returns and who demands profit, to take in our contributions and dole it out later? It is simply stupid.

If you want to compare apples to apples, let's look at how many people the government requires to do a particular job to how many people a contracted company employs to do the same job. Define 'people' as all those (including managers and executives) who charge time to the contract. Across the board, 'government' will employ fewer people to do a given job than will private industry.

The next time a dumbass republican tries to use the US Postal Service as an example of big government (which they are really not) inefficiency, ask them to send a letter (or small parcel) to Marble, CO by UPS, Fedex, and USPS and see who does it cheaper.

"Big Government" is a completly fabricated concept by corporations who want to suck as much money out of US taxpayers as they can.

Kend wrote: "I worked with a guy who's last name was Island so I think you are wrong."

Ah Kend, now your trying to crack me up. The best to you and your noble employee, Island. If you can't move in with him, don't worry, we Americans won't slit our wrists to spite our faces. We will surly insure that your business here is solvent and prosperous.

By the way, from the bottom of our collective heart, thank you for doing business in our Country. I for one am very grateful.

Abbot and DeAnnMarc - Are you two so twisted and hateful towards America that you have not bothered to read your history and why these bombings were necessary. You both seem to ignore the fact that we were in a World War with an enemy whose goal was the destruction of American and Europe for Empirical domination of the World! I could go on for a whole page, but you cannot be so ignorant, as not to have read about the way World War ll was about survival or the death of Democracy. You two get off taking stabs into the back of America every time you get a chance. The statements you have made and agreed upon show a degree of loathing for America and the West that I thought was only demonstrated in the propaganda of those who hated America. I will not go on nor will I take the time to rebut any of your loathsome comments concerning this country and what had to be done to save Democracy and American lives. Please try to do some research before you make such asinine comments. Do some reading or research and maybe you might, though I doubt, appreciate what American and its Allies went through in the last World War. It is really disgusting to read this trash you two spit out so casually. I guess it is true what I have read about Americans, they have no appreciation for the history of what happened in the first part of this century. And please don't bother to reply in your pious attitude about the horror of war, because we did not start that conflict, it was the Germany Government and its people who gained by the enslaving of millions and the Japanese Government and people who enjoyed the natural resources they stole and sent back to the home nation. To make condescending remarks about this country and its role in the bombing of the nations that occurred to win the War over Fascism and the horrors that the Axis powers dealt to countries from China, Russia to France and a vast number of European countries that suffered inhuman atrocities at the hands of these people is below you both. The people in these nations we bombed knew exactly what their governments were doing and supported their actions on a daily basis. If there would have been an alternative action that would have prevented these bombings of civilians they would have been taken, unfortunately there were none. When you go to war against nations that are out to enslave the World it is necessary to destroy the nation that supports the military machine that has a sole objective and that is too enslave the countries they capture. Wake up and educate yourselves, your remarks are embarrassing to read. I really dislike armchair warriors, especially those who are intelligent enough to realize what they are ranting about, without bothering to read the history behind the acts that were committed in the name of saving the World from Fascists. Germany, Japan and Italy were out to remake the World in their image and had no regard for the sovereignty of other nations and inflicted such atrocities against the countries they invaded it is almost unimaginable. I really wish there were time machines to transport you back to witness the horror and pain these countries inflicted on the people they enslaved for the gain of their countries so you would have some appreciation for what these nations did to the rest of the World and why the bombings were the only action we had available to end the nightmare they imposed on others.

When you were talking today about the historical background for the Republicans trying to take over, gerymander, etc and justifying it by saying that they see us as (which guy?) people, when left to themselves live lives which are nasty, brutish and short. i.e., left to themselves, the ordinary man has no clue regarding self-government. So I was trying to fit that together with the Tea Party's emphasis on individualism and liberty, and small government which DOESN'T guide people re what to do. Maybe those are "different kinds?" of Republicans? I didn't dare call, and I was looking for a place to send you a note but I came up against some problems so I just went back to listening and not-listening. Say, could we have something we could check off when we like something someone says, like they do on Yahoo Answers?

Abbot-DeAnneMarc - Who do you think helped rebuild these countries into the Democracies they are today, Stalin? You two sound more and more like Marxists from the 1940's and get off bashing America. It appears any action America took in WWll was wrong. Again I ask, who do you two think started these Wars? Oh, I get it we started the wars by not adhering to the demands that Japan, Germany and Italy made and therefore our government was the real cause of the Nazi's attacking other European countries and Imperial Japan bombing Manchuria and enslaving China and the Asian nations in the East. The concentration camps in Europe and Asia were clever American tricks to take over the World and enslave tens of millions of people across the globe. Get real and admit your ambition is to make sure everyone sees America as the enemy of the World that you two perceive it as being!

WOW!! David Abbot, I thought we were making progress with Ken. What went wrong? Would you like to handle this one? I've never seen him this pissed off. I believe I only stated fact. I wasn't trying to bash my Country. Was I? Does this look like a twisted, hateful, ignorant, assinine enemy of America?

http://timemeoutbloggosphere.blogspot.com/

I still fly that flag proudly in our new home. I will never dicard it.

Help me! Was it something I said?

Whooooo! Thanks Palindromedary! Obviously you are much better at dealing with... "Stubborn" people than I am. My gratitude!

David. I was run over many times in my life you have no idea. But never did I expect anyone to make my life better. I knew I was the only one who could make it better and I did. Thank you very much. You basically just told my life story. Less the politics are you forgetting we both live in a country that gives us the freedom to accomplish anything we want. Take advantage of it.

Yo KEND! So you're okay with the way Wall St. "accomplished" fraud? You are not concerned with a corrupt two teared Justice System???
It doesn't affect you? You don't hold those who ran you over accountable in anyway? Just pick yourself back up, dust off, and move on...I saw nothing, I heard nothing. As if life is just a cheap sport???A shoe commercial!

Hmmm...Something tells me you are not being completely honest.

No I don't trust anyone on Wall Street they are all crooks. I never would invest with any of them. Remember I am Canadian I am not sure about your justice system. No those who ran over me regreted it later.

I have been called a lot of things but never dishonest. I have always been a straight up guy.

Excellent job Palindromedary... Poor ol KEN WARE...No doubt he is a proud Patriotic American...As many of us are. I too have served my country; I am an Iraq War Vet; the only difference between vets like Ken and vets like me...Ken hasn't yet come to grips with the fact that the American Imperial War Machine is no different than Hitler's War Machine...Wanting to Rule the World with a "the ends justify 'any' means neccessary"...Including the destruction of U.S. citizens that try to stand in the way refrencing the U.S. Constitution, and Human Rights, and Justice for All.
That isn't why our Founding Fathers and first Americans couragously declaired their Independence from England, Fought the Revolutionary War, established the U.S. Constitution and its first ten ammendments. They didn't do those things so that we could Police the world and meddle in the political affairs of other soverning nattions.
You mentioned Howard Zinn...My absolute favorite American History Author and Civil/Anti War Activist. Zinn joined the Air Force during WWII at the tender age of 19, flew many Bomb missions in Europe; mainly France and Germany. He talk in great detail of his experience both during his time in WWII and after. In every book of his I've read or any interview where he shares his experiences and anticdotes about WWII he always says that for him fighting fascism was the right thing to do...HOWEVER...He later learned of the U.S. Government's real agenda wasn't all that different from fascist Germany's...A fine line between Fudalism and Capitalism; pretty much the same...Capitalism is just a wee bit easier to exploit since any snake oil salesman can tag "equal opportunity" to it...Which really isn't true for the little guy.

KEN, if I may suggest reading Howard Zinn's book "The Bomb" also "Passionate Declaration (essays on War and Justice)". Of course I never leave out his most noted book "A Peoples History of the United States" Don't worry it won't brainwash you, it won't make you unAmerican, but it will provoke thought, raise questions, and enlighten you with answers regarding the creation of "The American Way". Lastly watch the documantary "You Can't Be Nutral On A Moving Train".

DAnneMarc: Have you seen that commercial on TV..the guy wrote his arguments out on the palm of his hand and went in to make his demands to a salesperson. the woman salesperson he's talking to gives him everything he wanted right off the bat. he wipes his palm across his forehead not knowing that he smeared the ink onto his forehead. the woman says..."you've got something up there!" pointing to his forehead. The guy says with a straight face:.."I like to think so!"
I love that commercial...so funny..I don't even know what they are selling but it is a funny skit!

Made several reply comments,,,Time to respond to the blog Hartmann wrote.

President Barrack H. Obama - a.k.a. President Obamney - can indeed give a great speach' he makes you feel like he is listening to "us", the middle and poor working class. After his done giving a speach I feel like I should "sleep" with him...BUT!, we all know speach or no speach, we're getting screwed in the end.

There hasn't been one great U.S. leader (president) in my life time; which starts with Nixion. Carter was close; at least he acknowledged the importance of cutting back on being wasteful consumers, and saw the great need to write a new energy policy; one that would have put us as leaders in Solar and Wind energy. As well he believed in practicing nonviolent conflict resolution.
In my oppinion had Carter not become president on the heels of the political atrocity known as Viet-F'en-nam, and been successful in rescuing the American hostages in Iran, he would have went on to another 4 year term in office and more than likely started to change our hostle foreign policy to a more peaceful and diplomatic one. Had that happened our relationship with the Middle East would be much much different...I'd say it would be peacceful and friendly.
But that's not how it went so here we are 33yrs later deep in the mucky muck, still burning the candle at both ends. Americans are the dumbest kids on the block!
...As far as Obama...He's nothing more than a Corporatist puppet for the Plutocrate Party. His speach...Empty words! Sure he sounds sincer, but he has his bosses on Wall St to answer to and they don't care about us pawns down on Main St.

P.S. Put the Solar Pannels back up!!!

So many great posts here that are totally right on. In New Mexico, we have a group called the

Rio Grande Foundation (a right wing Think Tank) and they are featuring “Thirty Days on Regulatory Reform.” So each day they post a regulation which should be rescinded and I post a rebuttal that points out their basic fundamental ignorance of why the regulation was created.

Regulatory Reform is a valid part of continuing government and should be in place permanently. This Rio Grande Foundation project is a valiant effort but in many ways shows a great naivety about both the purpose of government and the functions of government. Disclaimer, I am a retired State of New Mexico employee and have written regulations as well as participated in past government Regulatory Reform efforts. Over the years, in both state and federal governmental efforts, there have been some good attempts and some doomed from the start to fail. But the key to understanding regulations is that they are an attempt to clarify what is not specified in law by Congress or our own N.M. State Legislature. Very often regulations are made by boards and commissions who are political animals of their own making. They are contributors to political campaigns and receive appointments on this basis; not necessarily on how much they know about an industry or how much they care about good government. So their self interest is to protect their own industry to regulate or eliminate competition in the market place by a consensus of those engaging in that business. They do make it harder to break into the industry.

So this is the environment, now let's talk about some past efforts made at the federal government.

Our best national answer to “Regulatory Reform” would have been to elect Al Gore. I know that we elected "the guy we most would likely have a beer with" George W. Bush and we rejected the stiff caricature of an egg-headed Al Gore, a policy wonk. But while Clinton was doing his thing with Monica, he let VP Al Gore have free rein of government. Clinton gave Gore a marching order to “streamline government” and to provide a laboratory for state and local governments to follow (which Gore posted to the Internet---but there is another joke we can laugh at). If we had elected Gore, he would have cut 300,000 more federal employees and $300 billion more dollars to a total of 600,000 and $600 billion. Gore’s streamlining of regulations and tax simplification would have blown all our minds. He expanded the role of VP more than any other President (Until Bush let Cheney run amok). Gore set up programs that I studied as a state government employee because we need to improve our dysfunctional bureaucracy. The Reinvention of Government Initiative, the Trust Initiative, the Plain English requirement for writing regulations, the Performance Review, Streamlining,---just many, many programs. In three years, they cut 300,000 jobs and $300 billion dollars annually from the budget. Employees were paid bonuses on ideas they had to trim regulations, eliminate red tape and to streaming process. They set up "senior leaders program" where good performers were shuffled into the poorest performing areas and given a bonus if they could "turn-it around." They created citizen-led committees that oversaw government operations and made quality management recommendations. They created government award programs and grant programs that federal agencies could access for personnel bonuses if they achieved cost savings (like 5% of the cost savings could go to you in a one-time bonus if you saved the 100%). Employees who once were "rewarded" for squandering budget hold-over money from year-to-year (say with bigger offices and new furniture that was unnecessary) were turning it in. 250,000 pages of regulations were eliminated. They created parking lots were citizens could park up front instead of one mile away, they create email citizen complaint lines, One Stop Shop, etc., etc. This was all written up in a 350 page report I have somewhere. All undone by George W. Bush who stopped all the programs and hired an estimated 6-7 million more federal employees through privatization and the creation of Homeland Security. Managers were hired like Michael Brown the Arabian Horse Association President who let Katrina happen at his watch at FEMA. The political hacks they put in like Bill Bennett who got a $14.9 million contract to design a "No Child Left Behind" test (at a per test copy of $250 which is part of a kickback to Bennett, the $8 million dollar a year gambler, when the tests could be photocopied at about a $1 price tag. The Bushes ended the nuclear reclamation program in Russia (started by Bush's dad) which allowed 25 nukes to fall into the hands of the Russian Mafia. So we went from competence to lunacy in the name of TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT (yet, the federal government expanded to the largest it has ever been under G.W. Bush---it was only GOP lip service).

The spirit of this Reinvention Program is virtually dead and forgotten. I know of no one talking about it. So electing a Democrat like Obama didn't get us back on track. Bush took down the "First Government" websites and virtually destroyed the library of reports. The War in Iraq consumed our national interest in becoming a more efficient government. Unfortunately, if we had it in place it could of taken us out of the recession and we wouldn't be having this posting/discussion to the Blog Facebook. Alas.....

Interesting points WilliamHenryMee. The Department of Homeland Security as I recently found out is a BIG EXPENSIVE JOKE! I actually recently had cause to suspect what may have been nefarious activities in a Bank that had been committed by people with Arab sounding names. (As it turned out it was nothing.) I thought, having a friend in The Department of Homeland Security that this was a matter they should be aware of and we could help each other.

When I called her I was told that the agency only investigates other federal agencies and their employees. Allow me to repeat that! THEY ONLY INVESTIGATE OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES AND THEIR EMPLOYEES!!! She very politely suggested I call my local police department. I almost fell off my chair.