@Meet John Doh! - OK - Thom's plan DOES have a hole in it regarding the undocumented folks who are already here - I get that. What are they to do, how do they get by once those who would give them illegal jobs are gone? Ummm - maybe they could go back home?

Thom runs his show VERY differently from most other hosts on the left. We all know how the FOX network and their stooges have created a right-wing echo chamber where the only guests who are allowed to voice opinions are those who hold the APPROVED opinion. Most left wing hosts adhere to the same kind of format, essentially creating a LEFT-wing echo chamber. Thom does not feel that helps advance the cause. The 3 words at the top of his home page are "News, Opinion, DEBATE". That last word, DEBATE, implies that a difference of opinion must exist. I'm aware that it drives a lot of people crazy that the majority of Thom's guests are from the Con side, but who the heck ELSE can he debate - someone who AGREES with him??

The "illegal employers", the folk who employ the undocumented workers (note my terminology - IMHO, there's no such thing as an illegal person) claim that Citizens simply will not do the jobs that the undocumented folks will, but these claims originated in a nation with 5% unemployment. Perhaps, now that unemployment is in the 15% neighborhood, we need to test that assertion again.

Let me make my feelings clear - Arizona's new law is INSANE, but it is an attempt to address a problem that is REAL. I've heard the argument that "the first thing these people do in the USA is break the law!" Yes, but what is their infraction? In most states, it's a Class D misdemeanor, classified similarly to such "major" crimes as vagrancy and loitering - i. e., a crime of poverty. Aside from that, they KNOW that they are here illegally, and thus try to keep a very low profile, so, as a rule, they DO NOT BREAK OTHER LAWS.

Arizonans say that they need a way to stop these people. I'm willing to take them at their word - I know what my state's economy looks like right now - their's can't be much better. They come for the jobs. Discouraging employers from offering such jobs would go a long way towards stemming this flow, and it seems to me the ONLY sane way to accomplish that end.

I posted this video during the peak of the violence in Iraq:

Iraqi girls as young as six forced into prostitution (2007)

I think the neo cons would be having wet dreams imagining Hugo Chavez at the controls of the drones.

Yeah! God saved a bunch of gays! What's up with that?

I just saw a NBC show "Friday Night Lights" preview. If ya'll don't know, Friday Night Lights is about the trials and tribulations of a Texas high school football team. it reminded me of asking ya'll for your "stupid local media anchor-person story". Can you top this? Friday Night Lights airs during the week during football season, then, in December, it runs on Friday nights. last December, when the schedule change was announced, the sock puppets started laughing about "why didnt it show on Friday nights in the fall? " It didn't even occur to them that, during the fall, the intended audience was attending the football game on Fri nights. After the season was over, it switched to Fri. Anybody got a denser sock puppet on your local channel?

I was lucky to have Mobil Oil Co.'s "Texas History Movies" books when I was a kid. They were little cartoon books portraying Texas history. Im guessing they were distributed in the '50's. They showed Mexicans in the most stereotypical memes, including shouts of "Caramba!". i'm sure theyre worth a fortune today., they were passed on to my younger cousins in the '50's. The stereotypes were so extreme (including "darkies") that even at that young age I recognized them as satire. Despite the slant, I still learned a LOT about Texas history, and wish I still had those books.

Deportees special version

I think it was last Thursday (may have been Wednesday) late in the show that a caller reminded Thom and listeners about the history of U.S. interventions in Mexico and "Latin America". He also brought up the fact that the U.S. has been dumping its agricultural and industrial products in those countries thereby undermining the economies of those countries (including their farmers and small business people). The caller ended by saying that the people coming to this country are human beings.

Thom responded by saying that he knows they're human beings; that's why he's calling for arresting the employers, not the workers here illegal, totally missing the point. What will happen to the immigrants who left their homes, families, culture etc in the depsperate hope that they could eek out a living here and send money to their families back home? Where is the humanity in this position? Maybe it doesn't matter if you are an "America Firster" like Thom proclaimed he is to Pat Buchanan on the Thom Hartmann Show.

In 1928, Woody Guthrie read a newspaper account of a plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon in California. Guthrie was struck by the fact that news reports only named the members of the flight crew and the security guard on the plane, but not the 28 migrant workers who died on the plane as they were being deported from the United States. They were only referred to as "deportees".

There are many version of the song on YouTube and I've selected a version by Joseph Cormier for you to listen to because it's one of the shorter versions and his voice is somewhat like mine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjrfyyneaig&feature=related

I've been listening to The Thom Hartmann Show since the day Thom took over the slot vacated by Al Franken. In all that time, Thom has taken the position that

We don't have an illegal immigrant problem; we have an illegal employer problem. Put a few illegal employers in prison and the problem will go away (and so will the illegal immigrants).

In honor of Thom's compassionate proservatism, I've taken the liberty of rewriting the chorus of the song. I was inspired to do this my observation that: While Thom was heading back from the Talkers Magazine event in New York on the weekend of March 19 - 21, there was a rally for immigration reform in Washington, DC,. News reports varied from tens of thousands of attendies to two hundred thousand attendies. Thom has talked about how major progressive rallies get little coverage, but when it came to this rally, there wasn't a peep from Thom. This past weekend, there were May Day rallies aroud the country. These rallies put the call for immigration reform at the top of their agendas. Again, not a mumble from Thom. And in the years that I've been listening to Thom, I can't think of a single Latino who Thom has talked to about the topic, although Latinos play a central role in issue. He has, however, spoken with numerous right wing swine like Pat Buchanan & his sister Bay, Tom Tancredo, Roger Hedgecock, etc.

Here's my updated version of Deportees (inspired by Thom Hartmann). If this blog would allow the post of media files, I would have recorded my version and posted it here.

Deportees

Good-bye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita

Adios mis amigos Jesus y Maria

You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane

And all they will call you will be deportees

Good-bye to my Juan...

(Spoken) Little Juanito, he's nine years old. He always wanted to be a pilot when he grew up. But one day he heard a man on the radio, talking about EVERYTHING, and he said "that's what I want to do when I'm big"

(Sing) Good-bye to my Juan, good-bye Rosalita

(Spoken) Rosalita, she's eleven; gets straight A's in school and loves to learn about the planets and stars, galaxies and black holes. She wants to be an astronomer.

(Sing) Good-bye Rosalita, Thom Hartmann says we had a war and we beat ya. There isn't a place for you here in OUR country, and all the will call you will be deportees

(Spoken) and they call themselves progressive

Actually I learned about Spotty Lincoln at my public Jr College. So called because he wanted to see the spot on the map where American blood was spilled on American soil, in reference to US troops that were killed when they entered disputed territory between Mexico and Texas (as ordered), to incite an incident. Lincoln wanted the spot pointed out, because it would show that the troops were in the disputed area and were being provacative. Maybe my professor was just more thorough than others. It was a standard American History class, met required gen ed units.

N

@mstaggerlee and maxrot: I think it was George Carlin who talked about the new party snack, nipples!. 'Hey! ....these are..responding!!!"

@Maxrot: Keep me abreast!

@Nels & Harry - Now THAT's a kind of worship a guy can really sink his teeth into ...

Gently, though. :D :D :D :D

ME gusta Gary Larson!

Okay here is the Tweet and we should get on all social networking and begin providing the link to the Hawaii Resolution. We should get people to print it out and fax it in actually. Letters have to go through Homeland Security and can take over a month to get to the reps office.

FoodFascist @thom_hartmann Unequal Protection Revolt Faxathon! http://bit.ly/aQyMN4 @alancolmes @halsparks @wegoted @normangoldman @whitehouse @presssec

No ex post facto law problem with $10 Billion liability, nor will BP be exempt from the higher limit, because it deals with liability damages, not punitive damages which is all that the $75 Million limitation covers, or at least that is the legal opinion Menendez expressed on the Rachel Maddow Show yesterday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/36927939#36927939

I'm not a lawyer, but until I hear Papantonio comment on whether Menendez's distinction isa relevant one, I'm considering the question of BP's maximum "exposure" open.