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Caller has great idea lol having fun listening to this idea. Photo Fox with the Food Channel and other non news agencies interviewing the Pay Czare.
I also heard same thing as previous caller, that Obama was mad about Beck making Obama's USA Serve.gov commercial into a call for Communism. And this is what started the FOX war.
Even though it might be wrong, if I had a ton of money, I would send thousands of yellow roses to President Obama for trying to ban Fox News. As soon as we restore fairer laws to the news industry, then we can stop playing dirty tricks. For goodness sakes-- we are in a street fight with Fox and ordinary rules don't count here, basically because the laws don't actually exist any longer. I love the cunning tactics President Obama isn't afraid to use. He's doing the right thing is so very many ways. He is fighting for the lives of millions of people right now.
"Censorship" complaints from Fox be damned. What a farce they are. But that said, we need to quickly reinstate fairer laws for the news industry. It's very hard on earnest reporters to have their ethics destroyed by corporatists who force hard working journalists to lie or refuse to print stories that the public needs to read.
On a lighter note, the day after Federal agents were told to stop arresting owners of medical marijuana growing operations, I walked from SE Portland to NE Porltand and the streets were filled with the lovely aroma of pot on every other corner. It was hilarious and heartwarming. I don't have the brain chemistry to be able to smoke pot, but I got a little high just walking down the street that night. It was really really cool! We ahve been living in insanity and President Obama is truly chipping away at ignorance to restore some humanity to our country. Fox News can kiss my...
Geeze- Victoria sounds like such a bitch! today- yikes!
The Scype by the way is crystal clear. I had wanted to compliment on this the other day hearing Ellen's voice finally so clear and wonderful.
I haven't been logging in lately because I am so busy but still listen everyday and getting quite politically active. AND after you announced you have 30 million households on Free speech, I figured I could take a break. Also- am learning that Facebook is really an essential and spend more time there. I just joined your Thom Hartmann listeners group now. Had not been sure which group of yours to join, you have so many! Its hard to keep so many windows open during the day, Windows 7 the cure? or just keeping Facebook open.....
P.S.: There are around 52 Blue Dog Dems in the house and a number of Senators who would be the equivalent of Blue Dogs in the Senate.
Thom Hartmann quotes Harry Truman as saying that if voters have a choice between voting for a Republican or a Democrat that votes like a Republican they'll vote for the Republican every time. Thom has referenced that quote many times.
Ironically, Thom used this quote in a conversation about the vulnerability of some of the 52 blue dog Democrats in the next congressional election. Does anyone see the contradiction here? The Blue Dog Dems often vote like Republicans. Voters were given the choice between them and Republicans and voted for the Blue Dog Dems.
Deeper thinking is needed here.
i need help ....................please post more 'additions' to my list and email to everyone! thanks!!! we need to start progressive viral emails!!!
Remember when …..
Remember when TV was free? When you didn’t need cable or a converter to watch?
Remember when the government taxed you to put in the lines for cable, internet and telephone lines to keep the costs low to you, and it did cut the costs?
Remember when postage was low? Before they decided to make the postal service stand alone and profitable so companies like UPS and FedEx, who have limited area coverage, could be allowed to compete in the most profitable parts of the market?
Remember when tariffs paid for all funding required by the Federal government? This worked for over 100 years to protect American jobs and support our country.
Remember when corporations had to prove that they were a benefit to a state annually in order to exist? Remember when states didn’t have to beg, extend tax exemptions and bribe corporations to come or stay in the state, in competition with other states?
Remember when laws and rules were made in our government and not by trade treaties, like WTO, GATT, etc, that give up our rights without our input or representation?
Remember when you couldn’t lie on TV without facing oversight, fines and judgments by the court or by government agencies to protect consumers (us)?
Remember when one income could support a family, with a nice house, a new car every 3 years and pay for college for the kids?
Remember when Unions achieved the changes for no child labor, weekends off, overtime pay, originally provided health care for its members, and increased the pay scale for similar jobs and benefits for white collar workers?
Under the Radar
The Progress Report
HEALTH CARE -- FIFTY-FIVE REPUBLICANS WHO ARE 'STEADFASTLY OPPOSED' TO A PUBLIC OPTION ARE CURRENTLY ON MEDICARE: Yesterday, the office of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) released an internal study showing that 151 members of Congress "currently receive government-funded; government-administered single-payer health care -- Medicare." Of those 151 members, 55 are Republicans who also happen to be "steadfastly opposed [to] other Americans getting the public option, like the one they have chosen." Included on Weiner's list are anti-public option crusaders Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Rep. Peter King (R-NY). Weiner explained that the purpose of this study is to "point out some of the hypocrisy of this debate." "Even in a town known for hypocrisy," Weiner said in a statement yesterday, "this list of 55 Members of Congress deserve some sort of prize. They apparently think the public option is ok for them, but not anyone else." Back in July, Weiner, an outspoken proponent of single-payer health care reform, offered an amendment that would have given these 55 people a chance to end their own public option by eliminating Medicare once and for all. According to Weiner, it was "put-up or shut-up time for the phonies who deride the so-called 'public option.'" Of course, no one voted for the measure. Yet now "you have members of Congress thumping their chest how they’re against government health care," Weiner noted, adding, "and yet when it's time for them to accept Medicare, they're like, 'Sign me up!'"
Re: Yesterday's discussion on Taxes as Punishment
The governor of my own home state apparently disagrees with me. If not actual punishment, it's clear that he (and many others, as I consider the issue further) DO think of taxes as a tool for "social engineering" - i. e., negative feedback for consumption of potentially harmful products.
Mr. Patterson has re-introduced the soda tax bill to NY's congress, proposing an additional sales tax on hi-calorie soft drinks. Add this to added taxes on tobacco products ans alcoholic beverages, and a pattern does emerge.
Of course, with the economy in its current state of "recovery" (so long as you're well on your way to becoming a billionaire) State governments are scrambling for any income stream they can find. So, maybe this is more about grasping at straws than about social engineering.
McCain introduces bill to block Net neutrality
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced a bill in the Senate on Thursday that would effectively allow Internet service providers to slow down or block Internet content or applications of their choosing.
The move came the same day as the federal government decided to move forward on an official Net neutrality policy that would prevent ISPs from making those types of decisions.http://rawstory.com/2009/10/mccain-net-neutrality/
Retired General Slams Cheney As "Incompetent War Fighter"
Retired General Paul Eaton, senior adviser to the National Security Network, has hit back hard at Dick Cheney a day after the former vice president criticized the Obama administration again for "dithering while America's armed forces are in danger." In a speech Wednesday night, Cheney said, "President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/national-security-network_n_330...
Cheney should be careful in what he says; Obama may decide not to continue to block investigations into crimes of the Bush Cheney administration.
New jobless claims rise more than expected to 531K
The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, after falling in five of the past six weeks, as employers remain reluctant to hire even with the economy showing signs of recovery.
The Labor Department said Thursday that new jobless claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 531,000 last week, from an upwardly revised 520,000 the previous week. Wall Street economists had expected only a slight increase, according to Thomson Reuters.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ECONOMY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME
Whether it is in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq or even in the U.S., as we’ve seen in recent years, war takes its heaviest toll on the poorest. It is a profound mistake to believe that military force is a solid foundation for peace.
People, I OPPOSE WAR!!! War creates more problems than they resolve problems. WAR IS OUTMODED!!! Only mature persons can understanding what I am saying. If wars resolve problems, why do we still have wars???
Voices for creative nonviolence speak on war.
http://original.antiwar.com/kelly-pearson/2009/10/22/the-rotten-fruits-o...
I agree with you Brian. I am tired of progressives becoming just as or even more so cynical than the right-wingers. I wish Thom and other progressive talk show hosts would start focusing on positive progressive stories instead of keeping the mood of the entire country in the dog house with the Limbaughtomy gang. We won't get anything done if we don't define the future. If we define the future as pointless then our country will never progress. As Gandhi put is "we need to be the change we want to see in the world."
Saying so doesn’t necessarily make it so, but all of the tax rate statistics Thom threw at Matt Welch does have some sort of point. Welch repeats the hollow shibboleth that the principle motivation of people in a capitalist society is to get rich, and without these visions of great wealth they will cannot be productive—and this motivation will wane if they must pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes. That still leaves the question of does this desire for wealth create jobs and drive the economy.
That may have been true during the peak of the industrial revolution when making things could make people rich beyond all reason. But today, many people want to make lots of money now, they can’t wait. Instead of investing in companies that make things, they spend it on lottery tickets, or phony get-rich-quick real estate schemes. Business graduates would rather play the Wall Street gambling casino that get rich the “old fashioned way.”
Then there is the question of the rich investing their excess in ways that are driving the economy forward. The average Joe or Jane who do so may be investing whatever cash they have available in “safe” companies like Microsoft or IBM; the rich, however, are more often to be found investing in tax exempt bonds, hedge funds, real estate, private equity, private endowments, art work, gold, and if they are feeling particularly generous, start-up companies that for most people seem high risk, since they don’t have access to the “inside” information the rich have. Most of these investments have nothing to do with the potential for job creation, and that could not be more obvious during this period of time when federal bail-out money is failing to do what it was intended to do—help banks help people, instead “helping” the rich stay rich.
Because so many people are out of work, and the spending power of the dollar decreases by the year, the average person cannot be counted on to drive the economy. But if at the same the rich are getting richer, shouldn’t they be expected to pick up the consumer demand slack, if they can buy so much more than you me, let alone the people thrown out of work to subsidized their so-called earnings? Well, that’s just plain silly; they cannot buy ALL the new cars, refrigerators and shoes that the under-paid or jobless do not have the ability to buy.
But does taxing the rich have a positive effective on the economy? It might, in a way people might at first look askance at. While increased taxes help the government stay solvent by paying for needed public services without going excessively into debt, Congressional pork projects also help the economy. Pork may have a bad reputation because people have this idea that it is wasteful (and no doubt some of it is), but most of these projects create work and jobs; more tax income, more pork, more jobs. What’s not to like about that? Isn’t the stimulus package just one big pork project?
Maybe the Peace Abbey is the place and answer for our ailing country and world?
http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/visit-peace-abbey#
The GOP has been notorious for keeping an enemies list!!!!!
Here are some comments from an idiotic GOP senator.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/10/21/alexander/index.html?s...
Cheney has received the "Keeper of the Flame Award." Whenever I hear rhe word flame in politics, I think of the eternal flame in hell. I do not wish for anyone to be the eternal keeper of the flame in hell but the lusting for human blood in the killing of God's children is one way to be the eternal keeper of the flame in hell.
Here is a psycho with his psycho talk, endless psycho talk.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/feature/2009/10/21/cheney/index.h...
I wish to thank you for your comments that seem to understand my plight as an American. I consider myself a patriotic American but I can rub people against the grain at times, probably more often than not.
Paul Craig Roberts is a Republican but he is an objective American writer. Please read his above article very carefully!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/US-Joins-Ranks-of-Failed-S-by-Paul-Crai...
Our nation is a disaster, a total disaster. The above article is from one of my favorite writers.
Most of you are aware that I am 70 years old. At 70 I should be more idealistic but as I observe our failed nation I am both realistic and pessismistic. I await the self-implosion of our fascist-Nazi America. My retirement years are not very enjoyable because the hatred, corruption, and lies are endless in our nation that is wallowing in the abyss of hell.
I have a question. Is not corn syrup better for you than surcrose? Is it not high fructose corn syrup the culprit? Is it not the bonding of the dextrose and sucrose molecules in high fructose corn syrup a occurence that does not exist in nature? I have not had chemistry in 46 years, so I may have forgot something (lol).
DDay,
You already know what makes Stephanie "tick." You're very perceptiive. I really WOULD be telling tales out of school. Just be content that they really would just reinforce what you already know...
I'm sorry, DDay. (More than once I've mentioned things on this blog which I typed before I could stop myself... "diarrhea" fingers, I guess. LOL)