Posted at Thom Hartmann on Apr. 17, 2005
How Rich is Too Rich For Democracy?
At what point does great wealth held in a few hands actually harm democracy, threatening to turn a democratic republic into an oligarchy?
Posted at Buzzflash on Apr. 3, 2005
"After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order" by Emmanuel Todd Review by Thom Hartmann
In 1976 -- long before American conservatives would claim that Ronald Reagan's 1980s debt-driven massive military spending "bankrupted" the Soviet Union -- French demographer and author Emmanuel Todd wrote a best-selling book titled La Chute finale (The Final Fall), predicting the imminent fall of the USSR. He based his projection, in large part, on a careful study of the increase in infant mortality in that empire, one of the leading indicators of the health of a nation.
Posted at Thom Hartmann on Mar. 20, 2005
Young People: The Key To Republican Single-Party Rule
Democrats and progressives make the mistake of thinking that today's Social Security debate is about Social Security. It's not.
Posted at Thom Hartmann on Mar. 9, 2005
Teresa Heinz Kerry - Hacking the "Mother Machine"?
"Two brothers own 80 percent of the [voting] machines used in the United States," Teresa Heinz Kerry told a group of Seattle guests at a March 7, 2005 lunch for Representative Adam Smith, according to reporter Joel Connelly in an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Connelly noted Heinz Kerry added that it is "very easy to hack into the mother machines."
Posted at Thom Hartmann on Mar. 2, 2005
Moses Didn't Write The Constitution
Two main arguments are being put forward these days about state-sponsored displays of the Ten Commandments. The first is that they are the basis of Anglo-Saxon law, leading to ancient British law, leading to American law. The second is that sometimes the displays of them are purely decorative, part of a larger display of other legal and/or religious symbols (as is seen in the Supreme Court chamber itself).
Posted at Buzzflash on Feb. 26, 2005
"Markings - the spiritual diary of Dag Hammarskjöld"
I was ten years old when Dag Hammarskjöld died in 1961, and I still remember that week. Having grown up with monthly "duck and cover" drills in our elementary school, many of the kids of my generation saw the UN as the great moral force that would prevent the Soviet Union and war hawks in America from plunging the planet into a nuclear holocaust.
Posted at Thom Hartmann on Feb. 21, 2005
When Democracy Failed - 2005
It started when the government, in the midst of an economic crisis, received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely ignored his relatively small efforts. The intelligence services knew, however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed.
Posted at Thom Hartmann on Feb. 9, 2005
Progressives and Democrats: Assert Your Brand!
Politics is all about branding. And brands are not about issues or details - they're about identity.
Posted at Buzzflash on Feb. 5, 2005
"The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image" by Leonard Shlain
Who killed the goddess?And why is it that there are so many men who are frantic about seizing political and economic power, subjugating women, and forcing on others their particular male-god-dominated religion?
Posted at Thom Hartmann on Jan. 31, 2005
Nobles Need Not Pay Taxes
A new aristocracy is taking over not just the United States of America but also the world. ... This is more than just a tax cut story. It's about a fundamental shift in power and wealth from average people and the governments they had formed to represent them, to the capture of those governments and economic enslavement of their people by corporate aristocracies.