• Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont.
• Guest: John Cusack. His new movie, War, Inc..
• "Anything goes" Friday.
• Monday May 26 is Memorial Day; the show will be a 'best of'.

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

Friday 23 May '08 show

• It is Memorial Day on Monday, when we remember those who died in battle, rather than all veterans.
• Quote: "Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country."
  Calvin Coolidge.
• Contest. Before the last segment of the show, go to thomhartmann.com and post a comment in response to today's "On the Program" entry. The winner gets a signed copy of .
  The winner was darylmk4 for:
  

  I always enjoy listening to your program during the week. You've made me more aware of what is actually going on in the Country. My uncle believes George Bush is the best thing that ever happened to not just the U.S., but the WORLD!. Your show has given me talking points to challenge him and attempt to shut him down! It's an entertaining show to listen to, and you learn a lot along the way. I think it's great.

  On most shows tons of time is dedicated to the election, and rightfully so. I haven't listened to your show post election. I'm VERY excited to see what you talk about when the debate hoopla is all said and done!!

• Bumper Music: Nothing On But The Radio, Gary Allan.
• Article: Here're the savings from Arctic drilling — 75 cents a barrel.
• Bumper Music: It's My Life, The Animals.
• Article: Democrats and Our Enemies: My party needs to relearn that we won't achieve peace by being inoffensive, Joe Lieberman, Wall Street Journal, May 21 2008.
• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. GI bill of rights. McCain was not there to vote, spoke against it. The old GI bill was eroded. Thom's dad benefited. Yesterday the Senate passed the bill. Will Bush sign? Rapidly rising prices of gas and oil. July 1 strategic oil reserve bill. Agriculture bill, Enron loophole. Speculation on oil futures. His web site asking about the impact of gas prices. Environment. Oil executives, Bush has not called them in. Department of Energy, domestic oil. Lawsuits against OPEC for restricting? Isn't the United States doing the same by not drilling in ANWR or off Florida? Drilling in ANWR would only reduce gas prices by 75 cents a gallon, in 10 years time. Renewables.

  Veterans. Education. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence. Teach civics. It was Jim Jefford's big issue. Only 5 companies do textbooks, and the State of Texas vets them. Anything Senate can do to support Conyers on the Siegelman case? Siegelman was on the program twice.

  Joe Lieberman op ed, party drifted away, gone soft. Lieberman supports McCain. Trade policies. Democrats are not working for workers, though they are better than Republicans. Iraq disaster, sidetracked from the real fight against international terrorism. Osama bin Laden alive, al Qaeda growing, Afghanistan not going well, America's prestige down. Lieberman will support McCain, Iraq war. He turned against Obama for being to talk with those who disagree. Bush has talked to North Korea. Talk is better than war. Democrats control congress yet they roll over; why not replace the leadership? It reflects the consensus of the Democrats. Democrats differ; they have only a tiny majority including Lieberman. They have not been as strong as they should, but it takes 60 votes in Senate, there have more than 70 "filibusters". They should force true filibusters.

  Speculation, oil company greed. Republicans "Nay, Delay and Doolittle". Low approval rating of Congress. Do people know? Is there a law that lets us indict Billy Townsend who inserted language saying that Medicare is not able to negotiate prices? Enormously powerful corporations. he's feeling much better than for any years, people are beginning to understand. NPR program about recycling of waste energy from steel mills, etc. There's an old landfill in north Vermont providing methane, producing electricity for 5,000 homes. Cow manure. The potential is extraordinary.

• Movie: War, Inc.. John Cusack, opening in Los Angeles and New York today.
  "Recreating his role as a hitman, John Cusack gives a hilarious performance in War, Inc., a political satire set in Turaqistan, a Country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former U.S. Vice President (Dan Aykroyd). In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the war-torn nation offers, the corporation's CEO hires Hauser (Cusack) to kill a Middle Eastern oil minister.

  Now, struggling with his own growing demons, the assassin must pose as the corporation’s Trade Show Producer in order to pull off this latest hit, while maintaining his cover by organizing the high-profile wedding of Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff), an outrageous Central Asian pop star, and keeping a sexy left-wing reporter (Marisa Tomei) in check.

  "
• Guest: John Cusack. His new movie, "War, Inc." Iraq, privatization, neoconservative ideology. The reality is so bad, we can only see it clearly through satire. Corruption, villainy. We're paying Blackwater, not Exxon etc., over there. The politicians who enable them, deny the GI bill of rights. Brilliantly entertaining movie. The quote at the start. Financing and distribution were difficult, the usual corporations and media would not touch it; "don't make us uncomfortable". List of support. The media came late. He's in Europe, where war lords once kept low level wars between castles to keep the serfs in line. Corporations are making a profit torturing people. It's immoral not to call it what it is. Go this weekend to keep it in the theaters. It's at the Landmark in Los Angeles and the Angelica in New York.
• Bumper Music: Til I Go Down, Jackson Browne.
• Bumper Music: I Won't Back Down, Johnny Cash.
• Book: Organizational America PA, William G. Scott, David Kirkwood Hart.
• McCain, polls - this early they are just name recognition. Swiftboater Tim Griffin went to Rove, then to Arkansas as US attorney, now he is doing opposition research for McCain. Wait for the swiftboating, it's going to get real ugly.
• The PNAC site has been down since the 16th May with the message, "This Account Has Been Suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible".
• Madison's first veto was money for a church. Madison thought the church would be corrupted, Jefferson that government would be; now both are true.
• Bumper Music: Anything Goes, Harpers Bizarre.
• Article: Obama vs. Hillary: Punishment or Healing? Thom Hartmann, May 23, 2008. Rant. On the blog and in the chat room, people saying Thom is a hero or an ass. He appreciates the feedback.
• Virtually all Democrats have had to raise corporate money. We are projecting onto Obama the wounds from MLK etc. Projection is not reality. Zeitgeist. We are giving it power. Say it out loud and let go of it.
• Let Bill Clinton serve out Hillary's Senate term?
• On yesterday's CSPAN they showed that somebody had stuck in a word into a bill that would kill it: "promptly". House of representatives motion to recommit. If "promptly", the bill has to go back to committee and start over again, which usually kills it. If "forthwith", it stays on the floor and revoted as an amendment.
• The military uses a lot of gas, so if there were no war, gas prices would be down?
• The nuclear industry is calling itself green. It wants to build in California. Don't lock into a 30 year investment when other technologies are coming along. It is not green. Water shortages cause it problems; plants have to shut down.
• Article: Iraq's ports thriving, now that the government's in charge.
• Origin of left and right? It came from the sides the parties sat in the British Parliament, which in turn came from France.
• Bumper Music: What a Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong. Thanks.
• Upcoming Event: Unity Day in the Bay with Thom Hartmann, May 29th, Redwood City, CA.
  "Join Green960 and fellow listeners of Progressive Talk Radio for a night of Unity featuring Thom Hartmann, Angie Coiro, John Scott along with Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton delegates. Portion of proceeds will be donated to the California Democratic Party." 7pm to 8:30pm.
• Article: President Bush Discusses World Trade Week, May 23, 2008.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Her chutzpah award for the Republicans, talking about Memorial Day and blaming gas prices on the "Pelosi premium". The president's lawn ceremony, talking about free trade, Columbia, Panama, North Korea, export. Export Bush and Cheney, Boehner, Gingrich etc. Defense, provision to require video recordings of torture. Yesterday also Defense requires congressional agreement about Iraq commitments. Oregon superdelegate Jenny Greenleaf endorsed Obama, he's 56 delegates away. May 31st is next Saturday, the day we learn if the Clinton campaign is waging peace or war. RNC short of money in previous years, a couple of other Republican PACs are also short.
• Monday May 26 is Memorial Day; the show will be a 'best of'.