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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Full Show 12/14/11 Lone Liberal Rumble

Thom debates his conservative guests about the extension of the payroll tax cut, China implementing trade tariffs on American cars, and Ron Paul's stance in the Republican Presidential nominee race.





Lone Liberal Rumble - Tax Cuts & $10,000 Bets



Heather Cirmo,Conservative Strategist & Kris Ullman, Close Up Foundation join Thom Hartmann. for the Republicans were given a chance to help the middle class yesterday and pass a clean extension of the payroll tax cut. But instead - they helped big oil and coal barons. So now we're back to square one. So why are Republicans incapable of doing what's right for the 99%. I'll ask my panel in tonight's Lone Liberal Rumble. Plus - Here's a newsflash to the Free Traders - we're already in a trade war with China - and China is winning. Today - China's Commerce Ministry announced a slew of brand new trade tariffs on American auto manufacturers. So the real question here has to be...Why aren't we protecting our domestic industries here in the US the same way the Chinese protect theirs in China?? Why do they get to be smart and we are stuck being stupid? Time to just drop out of the WTO and all these so-called Free Trade Agreements, right?? And - A new poll by Public Policy Polling shows Ron Paul in second place in Iowa - just one point behind Gingrich.





Is this Don Siegelman's last stand?



Governor Don Siegelman, 51st Governor of Alabama joins Thom Hartmann. Tonight - we have the latest news on the ongoing saga of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. As a Democrat - Siegelman was a political force in Alabama - he was the only man in history to hold the top four seats in the Alabama government - serving as the Secretary of State - the Attorney General - the Lieutenant Governor - and finally as Governor from 1999 until 2003. Then - everything went wrong. In 2004 - Siegelman was indicted on corruption - and in 2006 he was convicted on those charges and sentenced to 7-years in prison. But it soon became obvious that Siegelman didn't commit any crimes - that instead - his only offense was being a Democrat - and being on top of a political hit list made by Karl Rove. And ever since - Siegelman has been fighting for his innocence and trying to expose the truth





Brokeback Iceberg - A Penguin Love Triangle





Is there a progressive challenge to Obama now?



Rocky Anderson, 2012 Presidential Candidate-The Justice Party joins Thom Hartmann. Sadly - the circus freak show that would have been the Donald Trump debate has been cancelled. Every single Republican in the race - except for Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum - declined the Donald's invite - essentially forcing him to cancel. But - as the Donald normally does - rather than fess up that he might have jumped the shark this time - or that he doesn't have as much pull as he thinks he does - Trump is pretending again he may run for President. But as Trump goes on his "it's all about me, me, me" tour - there's an ACTUAL third party candidate jumping in the race this week. And that's Rocky Anderson - the former Mayor of Salt Lake City - who is now running for President on the Justice Party ticket. He joins me now to talk more about his candidacy and what the Justice Party is.





Who is winning the corporate personhood battle?



David Cobb, Move to Amend joins Thom Hartmann. Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement - corporate personhood - something I wrote a book about a decade ago when no one knew what the heck I was talking about - is now a topic EVERYONE is talking about. This month - the City Council of Los Angeles unanimously passed a resolution calling on Congress to amend the Constitution and strip corporations of their personhood. Other cities and counties have taken similar actions including Boulder, Colorado - Missoula, Montana - Madison, Wisconsin - Dane County, Wisconsin - and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And now Democrats in Congress have introduced several amendments tackling corporate personhood. Most recently - Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont introduced an amendment to the constituion overturning the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling - and saying that corporations are not people - and money is not speech. It's the first Constitutional Amendment introduced by Senator Sanders in two decades in office. So where do we the ACTUAL people stand today in the battle against corporate personhood?





The Good, The Bad, and the Very, Very Diversivolently Ugly



The Good! TIME magazine. TIME named its 2011 "Person of the Year" to be the protester. The Bad! Christine O'Donnell. The "I'm not a witch" Republican Senate candidate from Delaware is trying to soak up the last fifteen minutes of fame - going on CNN this morning to defend her endorsement of Mitt Romney for President. O'Donnell trumpeted praise on Mitt saying he is, "consistent." And the very, very ugly...Chuck E. Cheese. According to the San Francisco Chronicle - nine Chuck E. Cheese restaurants in the Bay Area have been fined by the U.S. Department of Labor for violating federal child labor laws.





Do I Fear Big Government? But wait...there's more!



Christmas came early for Conservatives who hate government. This week - a new Gallup Poll came out showing 64% of Americans fear "Big Government." So needless to say - GOP TV - a.k.a Fox so-called News jumped on the story and plastered it across their airwaves all day long. In fact - I was invited on the Fox Business Channel to talk about it. And I actually agreed - I fear big government too...at least the sort of big government George W. Bush and Republicans brought us. But wait...there's more! Republicans missed what this Gallup Poll really pointed out about Big Business & labor.


Full Show 12/13/11: House and Senate agree on Defense Spending Bill

Full Show 12/13/11: House and Senate agree on Defense Spending Bill

Thom breaks down the bigger picture of the GOP's support of the defense
spending bill and how it only benefits the wealthy one percent of the nation.




120 billion rebuilding Iraq or give 62 million poor kids health insurance?


We've spent 120 billion rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan...what could that 120 billion bought for us here in America? Instead - we could have bough six and a half thousand schools in America.

Or - we could have built more than 9,000 new hospitals.

Or - we could have given 62 million poor kids health insurance for a year.

Or - we could have given 15 million kids a one year scholarship to go to college.

Or - we could have converted 52 million homes to solar power.

We the American people need to remind these guys exactly who they work for....and what the values of this nation are. Give their office a call and tell them if we can afford to rebuild Iraq - we can afford to rebuild America - not just our roads and infrastructure...but our values too.




Time to get the oil & coal barons out of our politics



Anthony Swift, NRDC joins Thom Hartmann. Not only did real solutions fail to come out of the UN climate talks in Durbin last week - but Canada announced today that it is dropping out of the Kyoto treaty. Of course - the United States was never in it. But more disturbing news came out about the environment from the insurance company Swiss Re - the world's second biggest reinsurer. According to a new report - 2011 was the second costliest year for natural disasters in the history of the world. From freak mile-wide tornadoes in the U.S. - the flooding of biblical proportions in Australia and Thailand - to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami - insurers are dealing with over $100 billion in wild-weather claims. And today - Republicans are making sure that global warming induced freak weather continues. In the House of Representatives today - Republicans passed their version of the payroll tax cut extension - complete with two poison pills for our environment. One - the fast track approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline - which will ship highly toxic tar sand sludge oil from Canada down to oil barons in Texas - has been referred to as a "ticking time bomb" for the environment. And two - repeal of new regulations on how much pollution coal plants can spew into the air






GOP's love affair with Dr. Strange...Newt



Richard Eskow, Campaign for America's Future joins Thom Hartmann. And Newt Gringrich seems to have become the GOP flavor of the month rather than just the flavor of the week - but are Respublicans really ready to make the strangest candidate in the race their nominee for the White House? Republican Presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich doesn't just want to throw you in jail for smoking pot - he wants to kill you!






Police...drones, lasers and tasers...on US citizens?



Joshua Holland, AlterNet joins Thom Hartmann. High tech weapons meant to combat pirate ships on the open seas may be coming to a street corner protest near you






Crazy Alert! Meet the 1% Cat





The Good, The Bad, and the Very Very Retrorsely Ugly



The Good! The Broward County Commission. Today - the Florida county will take on the issue of Chertoff x-ray porno scanners in airports - and consider banning the use of the body scanners at their primary airport - Fort Lauderdale International Airport. The Bad! Mitt Romney. Trailing badly in the polls to Newt Gingrich - Romney is now using his secret weapon...outright lies. And the very, very ugly...World Net Daily. If there was any doubt that the right wing propaganda machine that calls itself "news" - wasn't actually news - that doubt has disappeared





It's now illegal to know what's in your food



Todd Tucker, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch joins Thom Hartmann. Put down that fork! Do you now what's REALLY on your dinner plate? Well - it's becoming increasingly difficult for you to find out and there may be very little our lawmakers can do about it. Do you know what's in your dinner? Chances are...you probably don't. That's because recent rulings by the World Trade Organization have made it harder and harder for Americans to know if what they're eating is safe - and exactly where it came from. For example - last month - the the WTO struck down a law passed by Congress and signed by the President in 2008 had required labels on all meat so that we know what country the cattle was born, raised, and slaughtered in. Think about that for a second - laws passed by our elected Representatives are being struck down by foreign bureacrats and corporations through the World Trade Organization. Also this year - the WTO struck down dolphin-safe tuna labels - arguing that it would do economic harm to foreign fishing fleets that slaughter dolphins in the process of catching tuna. So why is this? Why is it suddenly illegal for us to know more about what's in the food we eat? And why are we as a nation bending at the will of the WTO?





Liar, Liar...are Politifact's pants on fire?



Why is Politifact going to bat for Paul Ryan - and naming the Democrats' claim that he and his colleagues voted to end Medicare as one of the year's biggest lies?


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