Venting re Republican (In)action

Thom Hartmann has been venting this week on the deliberate and harmful Republican obstructionism in Congress and I reposted on Facebook a Jimmy Carter quote, "If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't." I followed up by venting in a reply comment and it needs more airing. So I re-vent here:

The Republican politicians have created havoc in Congress -- nothing is being done to help ordinary people or our environment. But the polls show only 49 percent of the people know they are in charge of the House and probably fewer know they are obstructing the Senate. The GOP expect the Dems will be blamed by voters for most of our country's problems and sadly they are probably correct. Meanwhile our citizens see their jobs shipped overseas while companies continue to get tax breaks for this. The Dems tried to reverse this and the GOPS stopped it. They are playing politics and people are starving and our environment is being decimated. Scary times. Not Christian and not ethical.

Did Anonymous stop Karl Rove from Stealing Ohio again?

Thom Hartmann speaks about the Voter Integrity people's concern with Ohio where they anticipated voter theft would happen (again) in 2012. Did Anonymous prevent it? Thom references both an article in Wonkette and a report in Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman's FreePress.org site entitled Why Rove failed to deliver Ohio on Election Day: What happened in Ohio – this time around. Curiouser and curiouser.

Comment re FOX

Considering the manufactured brouhaha over "Fast and Furious", I think instead of FOX so-called News, as Thom Hartmann refers to them, it is high time we start saying FOX Propaganda Network. [also posted to my Facebook page]

Agribusiness Fights to Allow Children to Work in Manure Pits

Lee Fang was a guest on Thom Hartmann today. Republic Report is his new gig and we should be sure to check in on a regular basis. This article is but one fascinating example from the site: Agribusiness Fights to Allow Children to Work in Manure Pits. They are for getting the corrupting influence of money OUT of politics. More info also at United Republic and by following them on Twitter as @unitedrep.

Thom Hartmann & Robert Reich: Ransom Paid...

Thom Hartmann elicits more insight from Robert Reich on President Obama and the GOP debt ceiling fiasco.

Thom Hartmann & Robert Parry: October Surprise Evidence Surfaces

Hartmann guest Robert Parry reported on information uncovered that Republicans will even stoop to treason, as candidate Richard Nixon did, for political gain - Lyndon B. Johnson knew but didn't tell because it would have so totally disillusioned the American people to politics. [On his show Thom Hartmann noted that when Nixon was pardoned for Watergate, the phrasing Ford used also pardoned him from this crime of colluding with the Vietnamese against LBJ's peace talks. -- Peace would have highly benefited the Hubert Humphrey campaign.]

Ralph Nader: Corporate takeover of America. Pt. 1

Thom Hartmann has been doing some good stuff for RT. Here he interviews Ralph Nader. RT is also something to watch/follow. On YouTube.com subscribe to TheBigPictureRT but you can also stream it live. Good stuff, indeed! (And you can also read descriptions and catch up with The Big Picture.)

Thom Hartmann at Fighting Bob Fest

Author and radio/TV host Thom Hartmann was in Baraboo, WI, earlier this month for the 9th Annual Fighting Bob Fest. Couldn't be there in person but have been seeking a video and have found it, thanks to Karen, YouTube.com's user OnTheEarthProduction -- also with a website to bookmark: On the Earth Productions. (Good stuff!) Thom's talk dealt with corporate personhood, how it was based on a headnote that was NOT in the judges ruling (the 1886 Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railrood decision), and the importance of action to restore what's left of our democracy. We need to negate the effects of the recent outrageous extremist Citizens United decision. Tell our congress critters that we want them to add the word NATURAL before person in the 14th amendment of the constitution. (See MoveToAmend.org)

I just bought Thom's new book, Rebooting the American Dream. Listen, read Thom's stuff, and check out ThomHartmann.com (as well as other stuff from Karen).

Corporate Personhood - The Floodgates were Opened Today

IMPORTANT. The Citizens United v. FEC decision impacts worse than Dred Scott. Listen to Thom Hartmann's explanation. (The corporate media isn't saying much of course.) Corporations can truly buy our politicians, even foreign-controlled corporations. When are we taking to the streets?

Sen.Sanders: Private Health Care Companies are NOT about Supplying Healthcare

Senator Bernie Sanders has this right. Insurance companies are about profit, not healthcare. They deny needed services and put road blocks in the way of those they purport to serve. We must get the profit motive out of healthcare. Make a living, yes, but not a killing!

"The function of healthcare is not to make insurance companies rich. It's to provide the best quality healthcare at the lowest possible price to all of our people." -- Senator Bernie Sanders, on Thom Hartmann, 03/27/09

Republicans don't help the little guy

Thanks to caller Robert, Thom Hartmann renewed his challenge for people to provide one piece of legislation offered by Republicans to help real people -- not corporations, not rich people. Thom said that he had earlier posed a similar question to then Congressman Tom Tancredo. "Can you please name for me one piece of legislation that the Republicans have sponsored that has become law whose primary beneficiary was the average person in America as opposed to a corporation or the rich?" He couldn't.

Thom said he had a contest for the better part of two years and to the best of his knowledge no one ever came up with an answer. Something that primarily benefits the middle class, the working poor, or people out of work altogether? Can you? Think about it.

Thom Hartmann: GOP 2:1 Presence on TV

Why are the Republicans still two to one on TV, even since Obama has become president? Perhaps we should be directing this question to the TV networks, particularly since in the Bush days when we asked about GOP domination in guest spots they told us it was because the Republicans were in power. They are not in power now but the Republicans are still being given the benefits of the bully pulpit. Boo hiss! But don't just bitch, speak up!

Thom Hartmann, On Privatization

"I'm telling you the reason why Republicans want to privatize all this stuff is because they want to get their hands on our money."
-- Thom Hartmann, 01/23/09

Obama - Biden

My son didn't get his 3 AM text message but I am happy to learn that Joe Biden is Barack Obama's choice for vice president. Thom Hartmann has been pushing the possible candidacy all week and there is a lot of good that Joe brings to the ticket. A little baggage aside (and they ALL have baggage), Obama-Biden is a ticket I can campaign for and that is a good thing.

Velvet Revolution Interviews Stephen Spoonamore

This is the first segment, but watch the series from the Velvet Revolution of Stephen Spoonamore, former CEO of Cybrinth, discussing Diebold electronic voting machines and their inherent flaws which threaten what is left of our democracy. Mark Crispin Miller was on Thom Hartmann's August 19, 2008, show discussing Spoonamore's whistleblowing on election fraud. Great stuff. Get out there and discuss this issue with friends, associates, and political representatives.

Play and Feed: FreeRice.Com

Thom Hartmann was interviewing someone at the United Nations this week who mentioned a learning/food giving site associated with Poverty.com called aptly FreeRice.com. It is vocabulary building for child, student, adult, and senior, and it will automatically set and adjust your level by how you answer or you can manually adjust the settings.

You are given a word and four definitions. If you are correct, 20 grains of rice are donated by the sponsors whose banners are displayed. (You see the rice mount up.) There is a little speaker which will pronounce the word if you click it, helpful. (I've been mispronouncing or perhaps alternatively pronouncing some words: AARgh!) I keep a running list of missed words or words I want to check further. The FAQ says the highest level is 60 but most don't get past 50. So far my best level has been 48 -- but I've only been playing two days. More important, I've help donate over 4000 grains of rice! Beat me!

I've added a smaller button to my side bar for your/my ease when this post gets buried, but try it now:

Bush Lied to Congress

On Monday Thom Hartmann cited this letter from George W. Bush to Congress stating Iraq's involvement with 9-11 as justification for the Iraq invasion:

Presidential Letter
Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate


March 18, 2003

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

Consistent with section 3(b) of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243), and based on information available to me, including that in the enclosed document, I determine that:

(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and

(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

Sincerely,

GEORGE W. BUSH

(Of course New Yorkers without internet access are in the dark because WWRL has discontinued Hartmann to put on Ed Schultz in the noon to three spot -- this on the so-called flagship station! ARGH!!)

Economy or Society First?

"Does the economy exist to serve society or does society exist to serve the economy?"
-- Thom Hartmann, various times

Thom discusses variations on this topic frequently. Check out his Air America Radio show's descriptions. Essentially, however, the liberal point of view is that America and America's government should be focused on "We the People" -- and not on corporations and the betterment of the economy over the rights of everyday working Americans.

Madison: War is the Enemy to Public Liberty

Best Madison quote, per Thom Hartmann at Demos, NYC, 11-14-07:

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people... [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and... degeneracy of manners and of morals... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare..."

-- President James Madison

[Thanks.]