2006 Archives

Posted at Thom Hartmann on Apr. 26, 2006

The Story of Carl - On Workers Memorial Day

Carl loved books and loved history and, after spending two years in the army as part of the American occupation forces in Japan immediately after World War II, was hoping to graduate from college and teach history, perhaps even at the university level if he could hang on to the GI Bill and his day job in a camera store long enough to get his Ph.D.

Posted at Buzzflash on Apr. 18, 2006

"The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More Than Ever" by Cass R. Sunstein. Thom Hartmann's "Independent Thinker" Book of the Month Review

In his recent book, The Shield and the Cloak, Gary Hart notes that "When every child in America is secure, then America will be secure." He frames social and economic security as not only equal to national military security, but as the foundation of national security. Hart is right. But he is not the first to have suggested this concept.

Posted at Thom Hartmann on Apr. 10, 2006

Democracy Be Damned - Republicans Need Another War

George W. Bush is at it again. This time, reports Sy Hersh in The New Yorker, it'll be Iran. (Those of us who guessed it would have been Syria first apparently underestimated his hubris.) And this time he wants to be able to use nukes.

Posted at Thom Hartmann on Mar. 28, 2006

Today's Immigration Battle Corporatists vs. Racists (and Labor is Left Behind)

The corporatist Republicans ("amnesty!") are fighting with the racist Republicans ("fence!"), and it provides an opportunity for progressives to step forward with a clear solution to the immigration problem facing America. Both the corporatists and the racists are fond of the mantra, "There are some jobs Americans won't do." It's a lie.

Posted at Buzzflash on Mar. 18, 2006

Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution, by Stephen Breyer

On February 14, 2006, the Associated Press quoted U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, while addressing the Federalist Society in Puerto Rico, as criticizing "those who believe in what he called the 'living Constitution.'"

Posted at Thom Hartmann on Mar. 7, 2006

Illegal Workers: the Con's Secret Weapon

Conservatives are all atwitter about illegal immigrants. Some want to give them amnesty. Others want to reinstitute the old Bracero program. Others want to build a wall around America, like the communists did around East Berlin

Posted at Thom Hartmann on Feb. 26, 2006

When Americans No Longer Own America

The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.

Posted at Thom Hartmann on Feb. 12, 2006

Rumsfeld and Cheney Revive Their 70's Terror Playbook

Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are at it again. Last week, Rumsfeld told the press we should be preparing for "the Long War," saying of the war this administration has stirred up with its attack on Iraq that, "Just as the Cold War lasted a long time, this war is something that is not going to go away."

Posted at Buzzflash on Feb. 5, 2006

Thomas Paine and the Promise of America, by Harvey J. Kaye

It would not be an exaggeration to say that without Thomas Paine there may not have been an American Revolution. At the very least, it may well have been of a substantially different nature and character, and our government may be far more plutocratic than it was designed to be.

Posted at Thom Hartmann on Jan. 28, 2006

Alito - It's the Constitution That's At Stake

Samuel Alito is a big booster of presidential power. Other "constitutional scholars" have been less sanguine. On April 20, 1795, James Madison, who had just helped shepherd through the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and would become President of the United States in the following decade, wrote: