Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
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.
I posted this blog earlier today on mother jones as well, food for thought:
I believe your racism makes you and all other morons like you even more ignorant. If you ever get a chance, turn down your sarah palin self-improvement tapes and, read the constitutional violations inherent to boss hog's wet racist dream. There are no provisions that allow for the discrimination of citizens because of the hue of their skin, there is no such thing as second class citizens (albeit GOP members or Fox News employees). All skin colors must be obliged to carry and present documentation proving their citizenship, everybody has to start wearing badges showing their religious preference, their sexual orientation and a picture of their six toed offspring showing that cousin' lovin is just fine.
Benito Mussolini would be proud!!!
www.pahrumplife.org writes: The so-called bleeding hearts who I know want all peoples to get an even break. An even break to the majority of humanity would be for at least major criminals to have to face real charges and real justice when found guilty. To me the distinguishable criminals if not “distinguished” in the current Arizona “illegal alien crackdown” scenario and indeed throughout the country are those who continue the sentiments and actions of those who originally advertised – spread the word - to Latinos similarly to the manner of the California agricultural growers during the 1930s who through copious flyers promised a land of milk and honey and good clean work for good wages and then exploited the “Grapes of Wrath” marooned throngs who had come to California in great hardship, from Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and who were, amid this purposefully created stiff competition for jobs, able to find tough employment for slave wages and long hours. It was just “too bad” for those who couldn’t find work.
Ask yourself how did this scenario begin? Who was the pretend “cowboy good guy” back in the 1980s that promulgated the word through the modern media that undocumented workers were needed in the USA and would be excused as “undocumented workers”? And why are those who have been allowed by big business delinquents - supported by another presidential pretend cowboy and a presidential playboy (thereby crossing party lines) - to work in the US for so many years now separated from their families and rounded up and thrown into jail? Because of pervasive, detestable, hateful, offensive racial profiling, and in the name of more big business, we taxpayers are and will be hiring and paying more and more police to stop and question every brown-skinned person they encounter (in the name of non-racial profiling).
Apparently most of those arrested as being browned-eyed, brown-skinned and undocumented will eventually be deported but until they are, months or years from now, they will become part of the taxpayer-funded private prison industry system as an asset and a part of the work force and they will make next to nothing in private for-profit prison manufacturing businesses that will rack-up big $$$$ not only in goods but also in per diem rates and transportation rates for moving the prisoners to and from the courts, and eventually on expensive jets to their home borders, again all on the taxpayers. And if these prisoners happen to get in trouble and then are found guilty while in prison, framed or not, they will do more time and cost the taxpayers more and may never be deported.
Woody Guthrie the gritty intrepid migrant hero who wrote "This Land is Your Land", the song who many would like to see become the US national anthem, also wrote the following words in his song "Deportee":
“Goodbye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportee”
The courts are also a business that would have many chargeable court cases and decisions that would require more taxpayer dollar support to pay for possible continued incarceration, poor medical care, poor food, separation from families, negligence and probable deportation. To me this is the result of “bait and switch”, $$$$ livelihood promises turned into taxpayer-supported human trafficking and out and out slavery.
Americans who are screaming “no new taxes” should be screaming “bloody murder” because existing taxes are spent on criminal activities that make the rich richer in order to perpetuate more and more poor to feed their business systems and speed their critical paths to profit. People who consider themselves middle class may soon find out that they are just a commodity in a rich man's game.
Marble hearts may not bleed so easily but may break in the wake of just iron bars. So let’s do what we can to bring these crooked hearts made of stone to justice.
This oil spill incident must be taken seriously. This will not only affect the living organisms of water but it will also affect those people that are earning their living through fishing on that gulf. An attainable scapegoat has been discovered to blame the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill on. BP has taken liability for cleaning up the mess and Transocean has taken a percentage of the responsibility as well, but now the two businesses are looking at Halliburton, a cement firm. The Halliburton oil spill is said to have been a consequence of carelessness on the company who was simply hired to cement the oil well. When the oil well isn't cemented appropriately gasses can leak out triggering an explosion. There were several other oil explosions blamed on this method as well. Halliburton has claimed to have concluded their work merely 20 hours prior to the explosion, but takes no liability for the oil spill or blast that presumably killed 11 people.
We should really look for any possible thiongs that would solve this problem. This will greatly affect the bio-diversity of the gulf. A possible scapegoat has been identified to blame the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill on. BP has taken accountability for cleaning the mess and Transocean has taken some of the obligation too, however both companies are looking at Halliburton, a cement firm. The Halliburton oil spill is considered to have been a result of neglect on the company who was hired to cement the oil well. If the oil well isn't cemented appropriately chemicals can leak out causing an explosion. There have been multiple other oil explosions blamed on this method as well. Halliburton has claimed to have completed their work merely 20 hours ahead of the explosion, but takes no liability for the oil spill or blast that presumably killed 11 people.
This oil spill made me think of a video game that I played once. Squaresoft had it right back when they created Final Fantasy 7. This is a game that starts with a group of eco-terrorists working to blow up a Mako Reactor. You are one of the terrorists that use to work for the government and you help them set the explosives. The reactor is drawing a power source from the earth below. As the game progresses, one of the characters explains why he is doing what he is doing. He says that the Mako Reactors are draining the life blood of the planet. This is a common theme throughout the game.
It makes me think of how we drain oil from the planet. This current oil spill is like hitting a major artery. Too bad most people who played this game don't often think about the issues it presents, but it is one of the most popular Role Playing Video games of all time.
@Maxrot re 71: just drawing a similarity between Boy Scouts and organized religion. {)>
Did Dr. Ott say that BP exceeded depth allowed to drill?
@harry, knots, masturbation and swiming for beer... I'm not sure how those equates to my posts, and I'm sorta' afraid to ask...
N
On the topic of this thread, it seems that America is lost... The Supreme Court confuses corporations and people while Senators confuse due process with executive orders, torture and military tribunals. This is an attmept to create the most basic giant loophole in the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' on the circumstantial and perhaps fraudulent basis of guilt by association.
Many so-called terror convictions are simply for charitable donations (material support of terrorism). Hamas started as a civic/charitable organization and shifted to politics and asymmetric warfare by demand of the oppressed people of Palestine and in response to both PLO and Israeli backlash. The kill ratio since the Intifada has been about 20:1 - ten to twenty times more Palestinians are killed than Israelis and the imprisonment ratio is even more extreme. One must engage in a lot of sophistry or selective blindness about the long-term siege situation in Gaza in order to see Hamas as terrorists rather than as local insurgents or freedom fighters for their neighbors or the elected government that they actually are.
Please notice that these Senators would strip people of their citizenship for donations intended for charity to widows and orphans, while any corporation's expenditures intended to suborn our democracy are protected as free speech (any=domestic/foreign/multinational). The Bill of Rights was intended to protect the people's political speech and activity - now our government is moving to a regime where business activity is the only fully protected form of expression.
America's Way of Life!
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-05-05.asp
I enjoy Ray McGovern's articles.
http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2010/05/05/loose-lips-on-iran-can-sink-america/
@maxrot: wow! same thing happened with me with the Boy Scouts! Thats where I learned to masturbate and swim the river to get beer. those knots came in handy. :D
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
Thom’s listeners want me to be sugar and spice and everything nice. I cannot be what Thom’s listeners want because as I observe the goose-stepping United States of Hell. Here is what I see. Hatred, corruption, and lies are the American way. Our manifest destiny is to kill and maim God’s children. The goose-stepping United States of Hell is the ant-Christ. Americans are into false prophets, lust for money through excessive greed, and our love for nuclear weapons.Women, our country has only boys and no men. The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Yes, women nuclear weapons are very expensive and so our boys never grow up to be men GOOSE-STEPPING AMERICA CAN MAKE OR BREAK ANOTHER COUNTRY. Economic Hit Men
I listened to the John Perkins interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. It was a great interview. America works in three stages to control a country.
Stage One
Economic hit men go into a country and they offer loans to help build up the country. If the country cannot pay back the loan, we take over the majority of the resources for our giant corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton. If the leader of a country does not want to deal with us, we send in the jackals.
Stage Two
The jackals are CIA operatives who are sent into a country to assassinate the leader and overthrow the government. If that does not work, we send in the military.
Stage Three
The military goes into control a country like in Desert Storm. Saddam Hussein did not want to accept loans and become a puppet of the American government. Desert Storm was to soften up Saddam Hussein but he remained a hardliner and so in 2003 shock and awe bombings commenced. I thought it was for the oil but John Perkins said that Iraq also has the water, such as the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. There is also a feeling that the House of Saud is losing control and Iraq would be a good strategic base for American interests. We are really not spreading our democracy we are spreading our corporate influences over these countries.
What is truly amazing is that Stages One, Two, and Three are overt today and not covert. America has accepted Bush as her god and so he can do whatever pleases him.
Americans, for some reason, believe that other countries are corrupt but we are not corrupt and Americans just cannot believe that we are the empire that leads in corruption. America is the most corrupt country on planet, Earth.
America and China are on a collision course toward the end time and the rapture that should make the goose-stepping Americans and Taliban of America very happy. A nuclear holocaust will bring on the end time and the rapture.
May God have mercy on America!
A Nation of Pimps
The United States of Hell is a nation of pimps. Our nation finds whores to screw other countries, like Greece, Iraq, and Iceland. Norway may have also been screwed by us.
As a side note I believe that America should have a national day of reason because in America every ninety seconds is born a stupid American. If we start these national days of reasoning, then in two or three centuries we may have Americans who are not born stupid.
Here is some breaking news!!! Thom Hartmann has been added to the terrorist watch list. The reason for his name on the terrorist watch list is because he has the number one progressive radio show in America and possibly the world.
@Savory: I agree. I've written the production staff and asked them to use Loudon Wainwright's "Tip That Waitress" as bumper music 'cause its my favorite labor song, and each verse can be played as bumper music.
Before TR, Grover Cleveland (a democrat) was saying that government is the only thing protecting us against the iron boot of corporate power. It seems that the republicans were in bed with the corporatists before TR.
@harry, my paper wasn't for or against, it was just an informative report about Atheism (the class was tasked with chosing a religion and doing just that). If I remember correctly I got a C+ (maybe just a C). I do remember I had to prove to my teacher that it fit the category of religion as he had defined it, I was able to, and thus wrote the paper. Winning that debate with him was the victory I cherish most.
N
Re: Religion
I consider spirituality as being different and separate from religion.
The definition of Evangelism or Evangelical is:
1 : of, relating to, or being in agreement with the Christian gospel especially as it is presented in the four Gospels
2 : protestant
3 : emphasizing salvation by faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ through personal conversion, the authority of Scripture, and the importance of preaching as contrasted with ritual
The term "Evangelical Atheism" is invalid!!! It's also an oxymoron and is insulting to the irreligious and Christians. Please remove it from your lexicon.
The Age of Reason during the period of the Enlightlenment and the ideas created from it are what America comes from and owes it's existence to!
Reason cannot be transformed into a belief system because of the very natures of Reason and of Religion. To argue against the recognition/celebration of Reason - the very essence of the idea of America - is to be unreasonable and forgetful of this country's founding.
The ever expanding knowledge of our world is born directly from reason.
Your arguement with your guest was very defensive of unreason and spoke to closed mindedness - in my opinion.
Atheism is NOT a religion just because atheists use reason to determine there is no god. In the face of more and more evidence to the contrary, the religious cling even more to their religion because we are also beings of emotion. It is cognitive dissonance that keeps the emotion out of line with reason. Vatican scientists get over this hump by attributing their awe of the universe as they learn more through science to the grandness and genius of their god.
Keep the discussion going but stop calling Atheists that push a little too hard 'evangelical'.
We should celebrate Labor Day every Friday, with pay.
I appreciate the exploration of the underlying assumptions, that as axioms in our world-view are actually statements of belief or faith. In particular, the idea that pure reason can be generated from our 'wetware' is actually quite open to question but objectivity and reason are articles of faith for atheists and those who 'believe in science'.
McVeigh refused appeals process. Should have just sentenced him to life.
To 141
I think I know what question 142 got right and you got wrong.
Doh!
@Maxrot re paper: was your paper for or against, and what grade did you get?
I had a course in 8th grade that taught you how to do your income tax.
'Course that was then; this is now. I pay a lady to do it.
"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat."
Lilly Tomlin
Atheism, the Belief of Unbelief. I wrote a paper on it in High School (my Catholic High School) for my World Religions class.
That's just the way I roll baby.
N