• Obama's economic speech today.


• The Two Santa Claus Theory - spending government money and giving away tax cuts, bankrupting the country in the process. Transcript of the whole hour.


• Guest: Tina Brown. "The Daily Beast" website.


• Guest: Former CIA strategist Retired Air Force Colonel Robert Chandle, author, "Shadow World: The Secret War Against America".


• Guest: Christy Harvey, Director of Strategic Communications at the Center for American Progress, MicCheckradio.org. "News Under the Radar".

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

• The Best of the the Rest of the News.


• Guest: Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Pssst, the Economy Is Collapsing -- Don't Tell Congress.


• Guest: Adam Michaelson, "The Foreclosure of America: The Inside Story of the Rise and Fall of Countrywide Home Loans, the Mortgage Crisis, and the Default of the American Dream".


• The Two Santa Claus Theory.


• Guest: "Everything You Know is Wrong": Jim Rubens, author, "OverSuccess: Healing the American Obsession with Wealth, Fame, Power, and Perfection".


• Thom's book, "Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture", is available for pre-order. It is due to be published July 23, 2009.

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

Hour One - Robert Moffit www.heritage.org Topic: Thom is asking “free marketer” Robert Moffit - Why shouldn't we drive a stake through the heart of William McGuire's United Health Care? Moffit believes that public/private “competition” is unfair because it pits for-profit private insurers against a government program that need not turn a profit. The government will institute lower rates, taxpayers will assume liability, and private insurers, Moffit warns, will simply go out of business. Thom will be asking – isn’t that a good idea? Healthcare should be part of the “commons” like all other industrialized countries. In Hour Two - Carrie Lukas www.iwf.org is dropping by. Topic: Thomis asking Carrie - Why do you think cutting taxes on rich people will help the county when it never has before? Joining Thom in Hour Three – US Chamber of Commerce Spokesperson TBA Topic: Thom is asking "Why does business oppose the Employee Free Choice Act - "Democracy in the Workplace?"in the Labor Segment" Jon Youngdahl www.seiu.org is here. Topic: Change that Works Campaign and Employee Free Choice Act

Thom’s blog today…

Obama -Don’t Repeat Jerry Ford’s Big Mistake

If Barack Obama intends to prosecute crimes committed in the Bush White House, he’s probably wise to be cagey about it before his Attorney General is confirmed. On the other hand, if he’s going to follow in Bill Clinton’s footsteps and “look forward” instead of“backward” when it comes to crimes of previous administrations, he may well harm this nation far worse than Bush did by establishing Bush/Cheney/Rove as the “new normal” for future administrations.

Gerald Ford set a terrible precedent for the nation when he pardoned Richard Nixon, and Democrats went along with it when they decided not to continue their investigations into the many criminal acts committed in the Nixon White House. Similarly, Bill Clinton did our nation a terrible disservice when he and the Democrats, upon assuming control of the Justice Department in 1992, decided not to pursue criminal investigations into the entire scope of Iran-Contra, from Bill Casey’s alleged 1980 contacts with the Iranians about holding hostages to sink the Carter candidacy to running drugs and weapons years later with money from those same Iranians.

We can’t afford to let another organized crime operation run out of the White House under the cover of “official business” to go uninvestigated (at the very least) and punished (ideally).

If the incoming Congress and/or the Obama administration fail to thoroughly investigate all the crimes of the Bush administration – even if such an investigation will bring discomfort to complicit Democrats – it will certify that forty years of lawlessness in the White House has become the new norm. No matter how ethical and transparent and aboveboard the Obama administration may be, future administrations will believe they can break the law and cover it up as a normal part of presidential politics.

America is watching the unfolding melodrama in Illinois with a morbid fascination, shaking our collective heads at how corrupt the Blagojavich administration has been and how long they’ve gotten away withit. But at least they’re now being brought to justice, and Illinois andthe political process as a whole will be better for it. Our nation deserves no less.

• The economy.


• Best of the rest of the news.


• Guest: Ron Reagan, supporting chimps in spite of the fact that a chimp peed on him when he was on the Air America Cruise. "Chimp Haven".


• Guest: Russ Baker, Author of "Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America".


• Guest: Bill McKibben, environmentalist, author of "Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future" explains how we have passed the safe limit of 350 ppm CO₂ in the atmosphere, which means a freaking emergency.

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

Bill McKibben, environmentalist, author of "Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future" explains how we have passed the safe limit of 350 ppm CO₂ in the atmosphere, which means a freaking emergency. 350.org.

Thom Hartmann interviews Bill McKibben, 06 January 2009

"AnythingGoes Friday"

Hour One "BrunchWith Bernie" Senator Bernie Sanders www.sanders.senate.gov

Hour Two "TakingOur Country Back" Tom Geoghegan www.geogheganforcongress.com Topic: Running for Rahm Emanuel's House Seat (specialelection 3/3/09)

Thom comments on Barack Obama's economic speech today and explains how the Republicans deliberately have played the Two Santa Claus Theory - spending government money and giving away tax cuts, bankrupting the country in the process.

Thom Hartmann on Obama's Economic Speech and the Two Santa Claus Theory, 08 January 2009

• Guest: Jeremy Ben-Ami, Executive Director, J Street, the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement.
  
• Guest: Ray Hanania. Award winning journalist, stand up comedian & author (hosts a daily radio show on Chicago's WJJG 1530AM). A Palestinian American "Defining the moderate Palestinian Arab voice, offering reason to the American, Israeli and Arab publics. He has been a participant in peace talks in the past, meeting Yasser Arafat.


• Guest: Carrie Lukas, Vice President for Policy and Economics, Independent Women's Forum. What should be included in the '09 economic stimulus package?


• Guest: Andy Barr, Communications Director for Al Franken. Not one bit of effort was wasted, it is so close. The board will meet in hour and half, and is expected to declare Al the winner.


• Guest: Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation magazine. New book, "The Nation Guide to The Nation.


• Guest: Bill Samuel. AFL-CIO and the new Administration. They are launching a green jobs for America programme.

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont.


• Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.


• Guest: Lamar Waldron, author, with Thom, of "Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK" and "Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination".

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

Quote:"It's not too late to seek a newer world."- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Hour One - Executive Director JStreet Jeremy Ben-Ami www.jstreet.org & Palestinian Journalist Ray Hanania www.themediaoasis.com Topic: Gaza...Israeli ground attacks

Hour Two - Carrie Lukas www.iwf.org Topic:Thom and Carrie debate - What should be included in the '09 economic stimuluspackage?

Hour Three - Karina Vanden Huevel www.thenation.org Topic: newbook "The Nation Guide to The Nation"

Guest: Bill Samuel www.aflcio.org Topic: AFL-CIO and the new Administration

• New Year's Eve.


• Gaza.


• Guest: Ray Hanania. Award winning journalist, stand up comedian & author (hosts a daily radio show on Chicago's WJJG 1530AM). A Palestinian American "Defining the moderate Palestinian Arab voice, offering reason to the American, Israeli and Arab publics.


• Guest: Former U.S.Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, American Enterprise Institute.


• Guest: Gerald Celente, Director of the Trends Research Institute. Trends Journal: Top Trends 2009.


• Guest: "Everything You Know is Wrong": Kat Tansey. Author, "Choosing to Be: Lessons in Living from a Feline Zen Master".

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.