Thom Hartmann: In 2006, Don Siegelman, the Governor of Alabama, was convicted on corruption charges. There’s been an on-going controversy due to counter accusations that his prosecution was intentionally wrongful, that it was engineered by Presidential advisor Karl Rove and officials of the Bush Justice Department to gain political advantage.

Thom Hartmann: John Perkins is with us. Let me grab his book here. This is extraordinary. John, one of my heroes, he’s written some incredible stuff. And "Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why The World Financial Markets Imploded-and What We Need To Do To Remake Them". John, welcome.

John Perkins: Thanks Thom. It's great to be here with you.

Thom Hartmann: Up next, what’s the new information that we’ve just uncovered in the last few months that ties together Dick Cheney, Watergate burglars, and the JFK assassination?

Thom Hartmann: Up next, my old Conservative friend Bob Barr, who is not terrified of trying the 9/11 criminals. Bob Barr, Libertarian party candidate for President and former Federal prosecutor, former US Congressman, a Republican from Georgia’s seventh district. Bobbarr.org I believe is his website. Bob, welcome to the show.

Bob Barr: Thank you. That is indeed the website and it’s good to be with you today again.

Thom Hartmann: Why don’t the frightened wing of the Conservative and neo-Conservative movements think the US Constitution is strong enough to protect Americans from the 9/11 criminals? And what do they think of the brave wing of Conservatives who have issued a statement asking the frightened wing to back off? In our second segment our old friend former Congressman Bob Barr will be here to explain why he's not afraid of the terrorists and he believes in American criminal justice and our court system.

Thom Hartmann: So, what can we do to put back together our economy? Jonathan Tasini is one of our best economists and has a great understanding of where we are, how we got here and how we can get out of the mess 30 years of Reaganomics has put us into. And you’re not gonna wanna miss this discussion as it’ll open your eyes and, if we can awaken enough people, could help save our Nation.

But in our first hour, do we really have the best democracy money can buy and is it better to be respected or feared? I want to take on these two memes. Over the past 30 years lobbyists have taken over the job of writing major parts of most legislation. Now they’re even writing the speeches for our legislators to give on the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate and to insert into the Congressional record. I’m gonna document what’s happened to our democracy, what we may be able to do about it.

Thom Hartmann: Broadcasting live today from Barcelona, Spain, where I will be keynoting at an environmental conference. It’s called the NOW conference, tomorrow, and then doing the same on Friday in Madrid.

Should we bring back the era of big government?

What stands between us and the power of big corporations? There are only two things that stand between you and me and the Enrons of the world, and the United Health Cares of the world, and the, you know, fill in the blank. Even the Ford Pintos of the world: trial lawyers who will sue on our behalf and whip companies into behaving properly because it hurts them financially if they don’t, and big government.

I wanted to share with you a couple of news stories apropos of this whole conversation of left / right corporate control. What’s driving the tea party movement, what’s driving the so-called grass roots of the right, and what has happened to the grass roots of the left? See, on the left, we don’t have a Dick Armey. We don’t have a Koch Industries. We don’t have a Scaife Foundation.

Thom Hartmann: Ok, who has as their top twenty contributors for this campaign cycle, Eli, among them, the American Health Care Association number two, the Eli Lilly & Co number three, Abbott Laboratories number five, tied with Allergan Inc, the American College of Cardiology, Amgen Inc, and Johnson & Johnson.

Are you ready for the lottery? The health care lottery? Yeah, it’s the “Wheel of Fortune.”

Thom Hartmann: As his website, at ImpeachObamaCampaign.com points out, Floyd Brown himself says he was the guy behind the Willy Horton ad that sunk the Dukakis campaign, he was behind the Vince Foster hysteria that you know, 'the Clinton’s killed Vince Foster', that, oh, there was a really interesting quote here, that George Stephanopoulos said that he, well I can’t find it. In any case, you got some good enemies here, Floyd. Floyd Brown is here with us. He’s on Skype, coming in on Skype.

Thom Hartmann: Welcome back to our program, Thom Hartmann here with you. You know, we get a lot of books and videos pitched to us to go on the show here, I mean literally a lot, we get about a cubic foot, sometimes two cubic feet of mail a day. And at least half of it is books and CDs. And it’s very rare that I pop one into my CD player and within 10 minutes am so mesmerized that I have to sit, I’m stuck in the chair for the hour. And that’s what happened to me with this Frontline report.

Thom Hartmann: And greetings my friends, patriots, lovers of democracy, truth and justice, believers in peace, freedom and the American Way. Thom Hartmann here with you. The Financial Times reporting banks made 38 billion dollars. This is just US banks. Actually most banks around the world can’t do this, it’s illegal in most countries.