Quote: " I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.". -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"PROPOSED FEDERAL HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION...PROTECTION OR MORE DISCRIMINATION?" Thom asks Pastor Bill Keller. President of Bill Keller Ministries which owns Liveprayer.Com...God got Bill's attention in 1989 when he became involved in insider trading of the stock market, was convicted, lost everything, and spent the next 2 1/2 years in Federal Prison. The Violent Control and Law Enforcement Act is before Congress, being amended to add gender. Why are he and so many Christians opposed to terrorist legislation? The sin of sexuality in the Bible, gays say he is inciting violence and will come after him for terrorism. He did a show for 5 years, CAIR hated it that he said Islam is a false religion. The first amendment protects from government, not CBS. He thinks Michael Jackson is in hell, and tat if you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan. The IRS is after him to take away his tax exemption. You and Thom are paying for his taxes.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Amendment I of the United States Constitution.
Article: The Devil’s Advocate with Bill Keller, Vol. 3: Gays and Hate Crimes By Eric Snider.
Article: World's Leading Internet Evangelist Claims Michael Jackson is in Hell by Pastor Bill Keller.
Article: The Devil’s Advocate talks to Bill Keller, Vol. 1 by Eric Snider.
Bill Keller's Wikipedia entry.
Article: Florida televangelist Bill Keller loses show after Muslims complain AP.
Article: Separation of Church and State and Tax Exemptions.
Bumper Music: Straight White Middle Class Male, Dave Lippman.
Movie: Brüno.
Bumper Music: Novocaine, Little Big Town.
Bumper Music: Dizzy, Tommy Roe.
Article: Zoo penguin couple breaks up By: Katie Worth. Harry, Pepper, Linda.
Movie: Slumdog Millionaire.
Bumper Music: It's all About the Money, Travis Tritt.
Upcoming Events: Thom's book tour for "Threshold":
July 27th - Portland, OR - Baghdad Theater & Powell's Books 7p
July 30th - Seattle, WA - Town Hall. Details TBA
Aug 4th - San Francisco, CA - World Affairs Council. Details TBA
Aug 5th - Santa Monica, CA - Santa Monica Library. Details TBA
Aug 17th - Minneapolis, MN - details TBA
Aug 19th - Chicago, IL - details TBA
Aug 21st - Madison, WI - details TBA
Clip:
"Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal"
Richard Nixon in a televised interview with David Frost (19 May 1977).
Article: Independent’s Day: Obama doesn't want to look back, but Attorney General Eric Holder may probe Bush-era torture anyway By Daniel Klaidman.
Article: The Holder trial balloon: Abu Ghraib redux by Glenn Greenwald.
If we don't start holding our presidents and vice presidents accountable for breaking the law, we will have done far more violence and damage to the United States that has already been done. Gerald Ford set a terrible precedent, then Bill Clinton on Iran Contra, election theft by Bill Casey. A long Newsweek article, suggesting that Eric Holder is seriously considering prosecuting. Talk to his wife. Interrogations called homicides. He was a very strict sentencer as judge. Horrified. The Department of Justice is an exception, one cabinet level office, AG chief law enforcement, has to be separate enough to be able to go after the president. Janet Reno appointed a special prosecutor to look into Bill Clinton. But Alberto Gonzales was a toady. Trial balloon or spin? The good news is that he is discovering it. The bad news is that the the devil is in the details, maybe he will only prosecute those who went outside the memos, not the writers etc., in which case he is vindicating the memos. Glenn Greenwald redux article.
Bumper Music: Rockin' in the Free World, Neil Young.
Article: U.S. Inaction Seen After Taliban P.O.W.’s Died, By James Risen.
"After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations."
General Dotsum. Their kin would be furious, even if they did not agree with their kin's siding with the Taleban. Arundhati Roy was the main rational voice against going in to Afghanistan, long before Iraq, and Thom as writing and speaking against it. There's no way you can win. The Taleban offered to hand over Osama bin Laden to a third country for trial and the Bush administration said no. Former Congressman Bob Ney spoke Farsi and was approached by the Swiss ambassador, acting as emissary for Iran, with a letter from Ahmadinejad for the Bush administration saying they would recognize Israel's right to exist, stop finding Hezbollah, and allow unlimited access to their nuclear program, if the United States would stop vilifying them, take them off the international terrorist list, stop the economic embargoes. Bush did this to Libya. The message was completely ignored and they found a valid, but unrelated, reason to put Bob Ney in jail.
Article: Ensign Favors Stimulus of his Package: Urges ‘Long, Hard' Look at Proposal.
Article: Boiling the Frog By Paul Krugman.
Article: Rebuilding Something Better By Barack Obama.
Article: Obama Ghana Speech: FULL TEXT.
"But despite the progress that has been made - and there has been considerable progress in parts of Africa - we also know that much of that promise has yet to be fulfilled. Countries like Kenya, which had a per capita economy larger than South Korea's when I was born, have been badly outpaced. Disease and conflict have ravaged parts of the African continent. In many places, the hope of my father's generation gave way to cynicism, even despair."
Goldman Sachs record profits. They created 6 bubbles, 2 great depressions, bailed out, their alumni have been in several administrations including the current one. Pail Krugman today writing about the frog. Obama on Sunday - said 2 years for the stimulus to work. Obama speech in Ghana the day before yesterday. South Korea's average income grew because of protectionism. Do did Japan's. So does China's. Help Afghanistan rebuild, they used to be a major exporter of food, now it is heroin and war.
Upcoming Event: Aug 8th - Seattle, WA AM1090 Presents - "Embracing Change: Moving Forward As The Majority" with Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, Mike Malloy and Ron Reagan - Tickets are just $22 for Reserved Seating, $32 for Premium Reserved Seating, and $47 for VIP Floor Seating. Tickets go on sale Saturday June 27th @ 10AM. Purchase yours at the ShoWareCenter Box Office, or by phone at 253-856-6999. Doors open at 5pm, the panel discussion runs from 6-9pm. (not to be confused with the July 30th Seattle book signing).
Article: New Info Brings More Questions On Secret CIA Program.
Article: Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project By Scott Shane.
The secret CIA program concerns Thom tremendously. Sy Hersh said he saw reports of photos of torture by the CIA and contractors. Obama concealing photos. The CIA destroyed the videos. Earlier this year Sy said Cheney had a secret assassination squad, no trial, murder. More information has come out. Panetta has admitted it. From 2001 until recently, Cheney had an off the shelf assassination squad. We ratified FISA, amnesty for telcos. If McCain / Palin had won, America might now be a police state. We are still inches away. It is important for Holder to purge the Department of Justice of Bush administration appointees like all other administrations do. Investigate and prosecute the Bush administration for war crimes and misdemeanors.
There is a lot of angst among Democrats when Republicans say you are socialist. The DLC was started by members of "the family". A pundit said that America is a center right nation. Thom says that is wrong, the only Democrat president elected 4 times in row was the socialist FDR. He took on big money.
Where in the world would Barack Obama be considered a "conservative?!"
"WHY DOES NORWAY THINK OBAMA IS A "RIGHT WINGER?!". Thom talks to George Lakey, Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues in Social Change at Swarthmore College; Director Emeritus of Training for Change; activist; co-author of "Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership". He has been working on a project which took him to Norway, which has single payer. Thom's paternal grandparents came from Norway. Truman proposed single payer in 1947 but was beaten back. He went in 1959 to marry a Norwegian. He got free tuition at the University of Oslo and universal health care. He recently met Kristin Clement there, she's a leading conservative politician and leader of a right wing think tank who said that there Obama would be called right wing. It was the same in Denmark when Thom was there. Storing electricity in car batteries. The only difference, issues of immigration by non Danes - the right wing is against, and the left wing is strongly opposed to unrestrained building in cities - they want urban planning. But they are agreed on health care, capital punishment, gay rights. Norway 1992 real estate bubble, banks were about to fail, they had broad agreement that the banks should be seized, fired the senior management, sent shareholders packing.
Article: Seeing Obama as Norwegians See Him by George Lakey.
Full Monty alert.
Article: German brothel offers discounts to cyclists.
Just imagine a cycle, a circle if you will. And at the top of the circle we are consuming goods and services. Even our politicians refer to us as consumers. All day long we make stuff so that at the bottom of the wheel we can be paid enough so that we can buy more. And in the process of this wheel, what spins off from it is safety and security. Unfortunately it's a really inefficient way to do it. One out of five (18%) kids in America is living below the poverty level. About 8% of all Americans experienced true hunger last year; they could not afford food. People are dying for lack of health insurance, but there is great wealth at the top. In Norway and Western Europe there is a different cycle, not so much in the UK, they put safety and security top: free education, stipend, health care, unemployment.
Bumper Music: World Hold On, Bob Sinclar (video).
Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
Article: Police: Man seeks ride from detective after heist (AP).
The show is being offered to not for profit stations, the first one joined this week from Tennessee. There are no commercials and it includes labor news.
LABOR UPDATE. Doug Cunningham of Workers Independent News. was here with all the news from the labor front. Target stores anti union video got out. The reason for the Employee Free Choice Act. Employer saying unions not necessary. Target complains in its anti-union ad that it is the target of unions. Helmets to hard hats, July 2 agreement, expansion. Unemployment about 17%. The Employee Free Choice Act, they are concentrating on health first, but delicate negotiations. The Taft-Hartley Act. The Wagner Act.
Article: Target complains in anti-union ad that it is target of unions By Doug Cunningham.
Email from Don Siegelman, the word on the street is that there has been a deal struck by Alabama senators to allow the same prosecutors to stay on his case.
Bumper Music: Democracy is coming to the USA, Leonard Cohen.
Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. White House press briefing, question about the CIA and Cheney's program. Panetta in the Wall Street Journal today, plan to kill or capture al Qaeda operatives. He would not get into details about if Obama was briefed, may not have known, may not now.The Wall Street Journal said there was planning and training, but not operational - after 8 years. Separate to what Sy Hersh heard of? New Surgeon General, Dr Regina Benjamin. Health care, costs of Medicare and medicaid - new theme. Going to allow them to negotiate? Good. Cut back payments? concerning. Cheney Secret Service protection extended. Rare, threats must not have lessened, or his perception thereof.
