• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont.
• To whose benefit do our political and economic systems accrue?
• Ways to fix the world’s financial system. Gordon Brown.
• Guest: Nancy Skinner. Michigan.
• Taxes rant.

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

Friday 25 January '08 National show

• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. Senate came back last Tuesday. He was in Morocco, Ghana and Ivory Coast looking into child labor. There's a positive program in Morocco that keeps kids who were slave labor in school; the kids were excited to be in school. In Ghana and Ivory Coast he looked at how chocolate is made, they get pitiful payment. Mars is a very rich family who are against the estate tax. 10 days ago he was in Florida. Tomatoes in fast food come from there in winter, they are the most exploited workers in Florida. There have been indictments for slavery. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Last week in north Vermont he was at a meeting with workers who deal with immigration forms. It has been privatized, the workers get lower pay.

  Why is an unemployment benefits extension not part of the economic stimulus package? It's just tax rebates. He wants LIHEAP improvements too. How to get other independents in government? Some states have barriers. $12 billion a month is spent on Iraq. What after the economic stimulus package? What is the long term solution?. 'Big bad government' has to bail them out. We need very systemic changes in economic policy. Trickle down should be out. Renewable energy. Fund more westernization. Get active. Expansion of Supreme Court? Unions being disbanded, factories closing.

• Bumper Music: Fire It Up, Modest Mouse.
• The question of the day/week/year/century/since the founding of country: to whose benefit do our political and economic systems accrue?
• Rant on Gordon Brown's article, homeostatic economies. Insight into internationalist perspective. Every country should be homeostatic.
• Article: Ways to fix the world’s financial system. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the UK.
  "While financial flows and therefore risks have crossed borders effortlessly and reside in global companies, their supervisors and regulators are largely national. The world has no effective early warning system and no common approach to handling major global market disruptions. Many of the problems were identified in advance but were not acted upon. We need a clearer, more authoritative watchdog. Regulators need to be enabled to overcome their boundaries with common principles, shared analyses and information, and collaborative management of crises...

  The International Monetary Fund should be at the heart of this reform. It was built for the era of national, not global, economics – for dealing with local balance of payments crises, not global flows of capital. To be effective for a new era, the IMF should act with the same independence as a central bank – responsible for the surveillance of the world economy, for informing and educating markets, and for enforcing transparency through the system.

  "
• Bumper Music: Anything Goes, Harpers Bizarre.
• Guest: Nancy Skinner. Vote for her in the "2008 Grassroots All-Star Now" competition at Democracy for America. She is currently in first place, the top 3 when this round ends on Sunday go forward to a runoff vote next week. Last year she was second, the winner won their seat. Her first race was against Obama. Later he endorsed her. The incumbent Joe Knollenberg she is running against is anti environment. She campaigns on global warming in the home of Michigan's auto industry. Last time it was 47/51, even though she was outspent 7 to 1. Primary. Machine putting a moderate against her.
• Bumper Music: So Serious, ELO.
• Thom has had a pile of email asking for the source of yesterday's statistics. It was "THE LEGACY OF GEORGE W. BUSH’S PRESIDENCY: The Country He Inherited, The Country He Leaves Behind" from the Democratic Caucus.
• Bumper Music: I'm A Nazi, Rush Limbaugh / WNNX-FM (Atlanta, GA).
• Article: Limbaugh: Clinton, "the most cheated-on woman in the world," now "surrounded" by her "white female new castrati male base".
• Book: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776.
• Book: Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith, 1759.
• Book: None Dare Call It Treason, John A. Stormer. It started the John Birch Society.
• Caller Ralph asked, 'Are nation states dying?' You could argue it began with Milton Friedman, even as far back as the late 1790s. "Wealth of Nations". "Theory of Moral Sentiments". Smith argued that a nation should only engage in international trade if it benefited, and was not hurt by it. Gordon Brown, "Our prosperity, the credibility of the multilateral system and a chance for millions of poor people to break out of poverty are at stake." There are six billion people on the planet, of whom 5 million are profoundly poor. He's only talking about economics. Violence not the monopoly of the state. Al Qaeda. Private armies. NGOs such as Doctors without Borders. Are we progressing not just towards globalization of finance, but of all of us? Hopefully we will end up thinking of ourselves as human beings. Who will end up in charge? Corporations? Taking over then saying, "we'll let you be like us". Freedom. We the people, worldwide? Nations should focus on making selves self sufficient; look at their own geography, psychology. "None Dare Call It Treason". The UN was set up to prevent wars, economic bodies like WTO represent threats.
• Bumper Music: Talk to me, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac.
• European graduation rates compared to the US. Regulation v. disclosure. The greatest despots, including empires, always said they were doing it for peace and to benefit the world. Get corporations out of government.
• Yesterday's thomhartmann.com blog comment winner was glennlab for " I just realized I owe George Bush an apology. It seems he is not the antichrist, according to the book of Revelations, the antichrist will only rule for 7 years").
• Why did Dennis Kucinich in Iowa tell people to go for Obama?
• Taxes rant.
• Taxes = investing in our communities. America needs to be rebuilt. Framing.
• Bumper Music: What a Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong. Thanks.
• Caller Ray, whose son died because he had no health care, helped lobby local politicians and got a law passed in New York State.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. New and improved web site, more improvements to come. Pelosi and Reid spoke at the Press Club today. Reid outdid himself - FDR, so many people in Iraq yet Osama bin Laden still free, al Qaeda stronger, harness our power economically, militarily and morally. Start by announcing that America does not torture, close Guantanamo. The president's Peace Corps promises have gone unfulfilled. Cuba and Venezuela send teachers and doctors all over the southern hemisphere. Work on energy. Military stretched, combat wearing out $1 billion a month in vehicles. 1 out of 6 have PTSD. We need a new GI bill. The president squandered an opportunity to bring the world together after 9/11. They should double the number of intelligence officers hunting for bin Laden. Iranian diplomacy.

  Pelosi talked about 100 million people saved by the new economic stimulus bill. 5.5 billion dollars in cancer research = 2 weeks in Iraq. $330m per day in Iraq. Boehner, conference, they are going to focus on earmarks to look like reform party. Interview with Debbie Stabanauer. In the Senate part of the bill, they will try to increase food stamps and unemployment benefits. Mukasey is hopeful of Senate looking at FISA next week, Monday before the State of the Union address. Call Congress (callcongress.org).