Richard,

What do you think makes him tick? Is it money alone or is he also power-crazy? (I keep wondering why such a professed religious person that he claims to be doesn't see the moral contradiction in his position, or maybe I understand too well...)

In an update to a local story I mentioned here, it appears as if media scrutiny and a multi-million dollar lawsuit has moved authorities to name the police officer who emptied his service revolver into the body of a man armed with an excessive amount of alcohol in his system. The officer is also being charged with first-degree manslaughter. It is my impression however, that this criminal charge is really just play to neutralize the lawsuit; cops are never convicted of such killings. Remember Amadou Diallo? In the white neighborhoods of Albany, it was what was the big deal? “If you've got the police doing all this undercover stuff to clean up the streets, some innocent people might get hurt by it. But over all, it's going to do some good” said one resident. When the cop is acquitted, it is doubtless hoped by the authorities that it will lessen the "credibility" of the lawsuit.

Concerning the upcoming Washington state election, I’ll likely vote for Referendum 71, and certainly against the right-wing stealth King County Executive “intelligent design” candidate Susan Hutchison, because I’m a “progressive.” In regard to the former, it merely reconfirms previously approved domestic partnership legislation—save for the fact that it adds same sex couples to the wording. It’s interesting to note that the gay and lesbian community is putting all domestic partnership statutes at risk in this referendum, instead of merely putting forward a stand-alone referendum that calls for the inclusion of same sex couples--for obvious reasons.

Though I’ll likely vote for 71, it is with some reluctance. The pro-71 television ads have taken to the same disingenuousness and fear-mongering that has been the standard MO of the anti-health care reform ads. The ads feature what the 71 proponents consider the demographic most vulnerable to this kind of propaganda—older white women. These ads never mention the words “gay,” “lesbian” or “same sex.” Instead, they “suggest” that “Golden Girls” like the one portrayed might somehow be split apart by voting no against the measure. Most people with a grain of awareness know what is really being played out here; but older people who fear anything that might make life less hospitable are liable not to get the subtly, and even the suggestion of it creates panic in them. The life of these aged white women will not change if 71 is passed or not; no one is going to “tear” them apart, or take their Medicare or Social Security away. But it might make a difference for their alleged granddaughters, pictured with a all-too suggestively tight embrace.

Frankly, I think Obama should just push for federal legislation mandating same sex marriage and do away with this fraud that is “domestic partnership,” which allows too much abuse and deception.

We must rollback the huge tax breaks.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/10/26/tax_subsidies/index.html...

I have often thought that the key for a better world is for women to be in more power positions in government and the world.

Personally, Obama is a failed president. Thom wants to give him time but he has already showed where he stands on many positions. I am eager to see and read that Brooksley Born will run for president in 2012.

Here are some words from from a woman and it solidifies my belief that women are the key for a better world. This woman fought human rights.

Beginning of the Declaration of Sentiments:
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Hi all, I called in today with the idea to sent cards to the White House reminding people of Brooksley Born and the Frontline episode, "The Warning." Here's the email I sent out. Please pass along if you could... Camille

Hello Folks,

On October 20, 2009 PBS aired a Frontline episode called "The Warning." From the Frontline site: "In the midst of the 1990's bull market, one lone regulator warned about derivatives' dangers -- and overnight became the enemy of some of the most powerful people in Washington..."

That lone regulator was Brooksley Born. She tried to regulate the secretive, multitrillion-dollar derivatives market whose crash helped trigger the financial collapse in the fall of 2008. In trying to regulate these markets, she took on then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who believed that "the market" would take care of fraud, then Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and then Assistant Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

"We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market," says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC]. "They were totally opposed to [regulating the multitrillion-dollar derivatives market]," Born says. "That puzzled me. What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?"

Please take the time to watch Frontline's "The Warning" at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/ and participate in the following action!

"The Warning" starts off a little slow, but wait until you are fully introduced to the heroine, Brooksley Born.

As you will find, many of these same economic powerbrokers and/or their proteges are advising President Obama today and to date there is still NO regulation of these dark markets, as Brooksley Born called them.

First, please prepare a postcard or letter with the following information (include your name and address):

Brooksley Born
Frontline: "The Warning"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/

Then, please send the postcard or letter to:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
ATTN: President Obama

We've posted this action in Frontline's Comments Section below the video, as well as on various talk show message boards, and Camille was on Thom Hartmann's talk show today discussing the action. He thought it was an excellent idea!

We want to send these cards and letters from all areas of the country to focus White House attention on working to enact necessary regulations. Please forward this to concerned citizens everywhere!

We've sent our cards out!

Camille, Tesa, Pansy

They're Baaaaack!

Ex-A.I.G. Chief Is Back, Luring Talent From Rescued Firm

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/business/index.html

Since Thom is venturing into “Coast-to-Coast” territory, NASA, according to one guest on that show, is alleged to be preparing to make a Really Big Announcement, which some believe is the revelation of evidence of a past civilization on the Moon, which is supposed to be where humans originated before departing for Earth. But even this apparent feat of technological know-how doesn’t satisfy some who believe that human advancement had extraterrestrial origins; another guest on the show believes that ETs made occasional visits to Earth to observe and provide assistance in advancing human progress, giving “gifts” such as fire, the wheel and agriculture. Because they abide by a “non-interference” code, they have not shown themselves; but because humans have made such a mess of things with these gifts, they may soon be forced to intervene in human affairs in order to avert global catastrophe. Spiritualists may interpret this as the “second coming.”

George Noory never questions the theories of his guests, no matter how whacky they are, but Art Bell was made of sterner stuff. During a show featuring one of those moon walk debunkers, he probed the guest’s theories with questions that any head-scratcher would ask, and when it was apparent that the “evidence” of a hoax amounted to nothing more than photographic “anomalies,” Bell intoned that it in his opinion, he still believed that man traveled to the moon and back, which left the hapless guest to scramble and tell listeners to buy his book and make their own judgments. When Art Bell tells you your theory is BS on the air, then it is best to find another occupation.

The problem with these moon walk hoax theorists is not unlike that of your average paranormal "specialist"—they talk a good game, but when they are confronted with science, they run for the nearest hill. On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Ron Reagan had on a guest who made the moon walk hoax claim. Then Ron sprung a surprise on him; his next guest was a real scientist who would debunk the hoax theories, and Ron invited the hoax claimer to stay on to debate the issue. His guest immediately took on the aspect of jelly, claiming he wasn’t “prepared” and declined to take up the challenge. Frankly what I would like to see for amusement is one or more of the dozen or so astronauts who actually walked on the moon to "debate" the issue with one of these debunkers.

catsrule,

I share your vision. The problem is that the last period of enlightenment came on the heels of the Dark Ages and the plague. I fear it will take that kind of extreme shock and resulting "thinning of the herd" before a new rationalism will gain currency and spread. I suspect greed and individuality will always pose a challenge to Utopian dreams.

@THOM:

When will Unequal Protection go back into print?

NO! Society is NOT a collection of individuals. A “collection of individuals” is black widow spiders in a box being shaken. There is no animus except to eat one another. HUMANS aren’t spliced together that way.
Society is an entity to itself. Without society is there is no interaction. There is no language. The very horseshit concept he is spewing all over us can not exist in a farging “collection of individuals”.
I hate the Ayn Rand pukes with a passion hotter than a gazillion white hot stars.

DRichards,

Thank you for sharing this! Amen Arianna! I have been trying to say this for some time. You two did.