Daily Topics - Tuesday - March 2 2010
Quote: "If we doctors threw all our medicines into the sea, it would be that much better for our Patients and that much worse for the fishes." Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes, MD
Hour One - Is taxing unhealthy food more effective than subsidizing healthy food? Matt Welch Editor in Chief, Reason Magazine www.reason.com
Hour Two - Larry Pratt Executive Director of Gun Owners of America www.gunowners.org
Hour Three - Shouldn’t our health care be about safety and security and not about some people getting rich and others getting screwed? Dr. Scott Barbour www.Docs4PatientCare.org
Comments
Thom – I would like to suggest that whenever you have a robust debate with a right wing guest that you follow up with an analysis of their talking points and the code they use to linguistically manipulate us to believe their twisted point of view.
Jim Bunning’s obstruction antics in the U.S. Senate should be seen as just another juvenile stunt by Republics, like children who can’t get their way. Bunning was probably selected by the Republican leadership to perform this function because he is a lame-duck senator who is not running for another term in 2010; no Republican up for re-election has the guts to alienate millions of unemployed in a down economy for the sake of cheap political partisanship.
Meanwhile, it seems that some people in Arizona are fed-up with being the victims of Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio’s racism, and have staged mass marches demanding “Joe must go.” Almost all are Latinos, of course. As attorney Michael Manning (who successfully won damages for five deaths in Arpaio’s jails) points out, Arpaio “masterfully” plays on the bigotry against “Mexicans”—illegal or not—and white voters who repeatedly re-elect him share the blame for fostering an atmosphere of brutality within his “system,” and racial prejudice outside of it. Arpaio and his principle henchman, Maricopa prosecutor Andrew Thomas, are also under fire for conducting politically-motivated vendettas against politicians and judges who oppose their “methods.”
This past weekend, MSNBC aired a special on race and “ethnicity” in some town hall special called “Obama’s America,” ostensibly about the current state of race relations since Obama’s election. “Ethnicity” of course is the current euphemism for Latinos, which is a deliberate mechanism for demoting the current predilection toward scapegoating and xenophobia, served with a portion of “rational discrimination” at a table where both whites and blacks can find a place. The problem is that Latinos can be white, indigenous, black or mixed race—the latter three of which don’t fit very easily into the category of “ethnicity.” We have to remember that the people that “real” Americans are prejudicial to are the same ones that Latinos of European descent are prejudicial toward. Racism is a powerful factor in the political, economic and social fabric of Latin America.
Even a story on Arpaio’s crimes seemed bent on deliberately sabotaging their racist effect. The report did note that Arpaio and his police goons have been stripped of their federal immigration arrest authority because of abuse of that authority, and despite that continue to raid Latino neighborhoods on the slightest pretext. Yet rather than focus on the violation of the civil rights of Latinos who are U.S. citizens, and who have been under constant harassment by Arpaio, all the video shown was of Mexicans climbing fences, running through the desert, or being handcuffed. While Arpaio now claims to have “inherent” federal enforcement rights to do anything he damn well pleases, the Justice Department is also twiddling its thumbs.
Other than a story on teen pregnancy, always an issue for people fearful that Latinos are multiplying like rabbits, or rats, the entire show focused solely on the black/white issue, and unlike its treatment of Latinos, avoided any negative stereotypes. There was nothing about the Shenandoah police chief and two of his officers under federal indictment for civil rights violations and conspiracy in the murder of a Latino immigrant, nothing about what the Southern Poverty Law Center refers to as a “civil rights crisis” in regard to dealings with Latinos regardless of legal status in the south—which isn’t hard to do, since as I have pointed out here before, the vast majority of Latinos residing in this country are legal residents, and 85 percent of those are U.S. citizens.
I don’t want sound completely negative, although it is hard to find where the “positives” are hiding. The only “positive” development I can think of just now is that the departure of Lou Dobbs has led to a noticeable decrease in the frequency of anti-Latino propaganda on CNN.
SUPPORT THE U.S. POST OFFICE AT THE EXPENSE OF BANKSTERS
Stop throwing away the envelopes that credit card offers come in. They are typically metered envelopes and the post office gets paid when the envelope is returned. Be sure to remove any material that has your name or any other personal information. Add some scrap paper to increase the weight. (if you happen to be in Las Vegas, mail the leaflets for Girls, Girls, Girls that are handed out on the street corners) Seal the envelope and drop it in a remote mailbox. The Banksters will be charged by the U.S.P.O. and get nothing in return.
I have been doing this for years. It feels great to help support good union jobs here in the United States at the expense of the Banksters.
Libertarian Idiot on right now - "It's good for society when people die."
He's not even very good at economics but it's his sociopathy that is funniest.
Real-world example of elderly contributing to society:
My friend Steve's retired mother-in-law visited for a month.
She cared for Steve's child during the day, so Steve didn't pay for daycare.
The GDP went DOWN by the amount of the daycare money saved.
The WEALTH of our nation INCREASED (but not in a measurable way) by the amount of the retired mother-in-law's daycare labor (...which was also a labor of love, but that's another matter ...)
Taxing junk food would be an extremely regressive tax, targeting those who could least afford it.
Rather, I would support price subsidies for healthier diets. Perhaps we could support community kitchens, or other ways of pooling resources.
Thom, check your email. I just sent you an old radio ad from 1947 saying "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette."
Re: Libertarian Idiot....I'd like to remind everyone that "Libertarians are anarchists who wat police protection from their slaves"
As for Bernanke's claim that we need to import skilled workers, I have to question whether the issue is the training or the pay they're willing to accept.
There's plenty of American programmers looking for work and more being trained every day. The problem is their families are here in the USA where living costs are high, instead of in nations where the costs are lower, so companies want the cheaper workers and the heck with America.
And let's not forget that imported workers are more "disciplined" because if they offend their boss, they can lose their job and therefore their visa and back home they go.
And of course Thom's major point is good. Nations that subsidize graduate study have a huge advantage over us, since we saddle graduate students with huge debt.
Warning on this web=site: beginning yesterday, there was an error message on my computer when I tried to access this website. A warning of an unsecure web-site, and a recommendation not to open it. I opened it anyway. Anybody else encounter this?
Harry, same thing here...except I wasn't here yesterday, just noticed it today.
I did Harry. It appeared that an accreditation for this website had expired.
THOM and friends need to update their web-site certificate . . . The latest Mircosquish security updates are farging with whole bunches of web-sites.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler will fill in for Yoo and Bybee at Leahy's hearing on Friday. I can imagine how this will go:
"When John Yoo says that a president can crush testicles, massacre villages, and nuke cities, Mr. Grindler, are there limits to that? Would a president have to stop after eight cities? Nine cities? Where's the line, if there is one?"
"I don't know," Senator. "I imagine you'd have to ask Professor Yoo. But to do that you'd need to stop being too chickens**t to enforce your own subpoenas, since we're not going to help you. We encourage you instead to go dick cheney yourself. With all due respect, sir."
"Understood, Acting Deputy Attorney General, but let me follow up if you don't mind with this question. If Mr. Yoo's contention is that it is legal for a president to do such things, would he maintain that it might conceivably be legal for another nation's president to do the same, including to our cities and villages and (if we had any) testicles? And, given that Professor Yoo has argued explicitly that neither international nor domestic law can be a constraint on such presidential prerogatives, isn't it almost a certainty that other nation's presidents must have the same prerogatives, unless there is something unique about our nation? What would that be, sir? And if there is not a satisfactory answer to that question, and if it is legal for presidents to destroy all human life, then it would seem to be legal to eliminate all law, since law will die with the human race. Can the elimination of law really be considered legal?"
"With all due respect, Senator, there's a Muslim behind your chair. Ha! Made you look. Oh god, that was a good one. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm. Senator? Are you . . . Somebody pick him up. Somebody. Oh, Jesus, call 911. Call 911!"
-David Swanson- from Why Leahy Is Afraid to Subpoena Yoo
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17858
A lot of obesity is due to hormones as well...and gee...where are those coming from?
If we're taxing "junk food" it's a different type of consumption tax than a tax on an actual material like tobacco. The incremental tax system on the production lines seems messy. Why don't we just tax the corn syrup up the production line. I know it doesn't solve the problem entirely, can make a food unhealthy without modifying it significantly + not all processed food is unhealthy, and food processing is a dynamic industry that is not directly related to the health of food, so I feel that system of taxation would expand beyond the realm of "junk food". Taxing corn syrup would not solve the "junk food" problem, but it would help, and would strike the problem directly, rather than obtuse solution, that would have an effect on realms outside of health & wellness.
(I didn't have a chance to proofread! I hope I'm making sense! Great show Thom.)
Oh, and my girlfriend is living on a houseboat and I think I saw Adam & Steve yesterday morning!
Yet more, Astroturf proof . . .
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/tea_party_leader_was_i...
Texas gov. clears man wrongfully convicted of rape
By BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press Writer
LUBBOCK, Texas -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday pardoned a man who died in prison after serving more than 13 years for a wrongful rape conviction.
Perry granted the state's first posthumous pardon to Tim Cole in Austin after receiving a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Cole was convicted of a 1985 rape of a Texas Tech University student in Lubbock. The Army veteran was cleared by DNA evidence in 2008, nine years after he died in prison of complications from asthma at age 39.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/01/1507133/texas-gov-clears-man-wrong...
*******************************
OK, skip the obvious comments on the Texas judicial system, the need for effective defense for everyone brought before the bar of justice, and just think about: died in prison of complications from asthma at age 39. At 39. Dead in prison...from asthma.
Thom,
As a person of faith, I thought you were the best person to ask this question. I am not Christian, so sometimes the subtleties elude me.
When exactly did the definition of good Christian stop including caring for the sick, the poor, and the prisoner? Wasn't caring for the least among us a core tenant of Christianity? Not to hear those screaming against health care, apparently.
Today it seems all that is needed to be Christian is to be anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-evolution. Was this the another piece of the Reagan revolution? Was this part of the change in consciousness that moved us away from a we-society to the me-society?
Please help me understand. And Thanks for your smart, funny and thoughtful show.
PS. Every week you ask for politicians to wear their sponsors' logos like a NASCAR driver. I posted six such pics in my blog on your site.
Harry,
Ditto for warnings regarding this website. I also came anyway.
Hooray! The Gun Nut admitted that regulating machine guns is a mistake LOL!
Corn King is a great doc to watch to understand our nations cheap food policy- under the Carter Admin. Typical food costs used to be about 50% of an average Americans paycheck. This was changed to 15% while freeing up time. However, we do need to re-visit the high price of cheap as all this did was transfer costs elsewhere.
Just a little re-iteration that we need to get progressive talk radio on more of the "big sticks." As I mentioned in the chat room, I was interviewed by Scheizer Fernsehen (Swiss Public Television), last Thursday evening, at my DL meeting. Later, while I was chatting with the correspondent, who is based in NYC I mentioned Thom's program. The correspondent had never heard of Thom Hartmann. I said Thom is the most popular progressive talk show host in the nation, and the program is disseminated internationally. The correspondent said, "Oh! A liberal Limbaugh?" I told him that wasn't really a valid comparison. He seemed interested, and said he would look into it a little more, at least.
I guess I'm just saying that I was a little surprised (or, maybe not) that a correspondent with foreign medium, interviewing people at a Drinking Liberally meeting, had never been exposed to much progressive media in this country. This is really a problem with "visibility."
Of course, I should mention that there is no progressive radio broadcast (except for one hour Mon. - Thurs. evenings) in this market, and I have to get my Hartmann, Miller, Schultz, and Malloy fixes over internet streaming.
What a world we live in.
I own guns and would fight for my rights but only after I have time to clean those guns. Personally, I think wicks and matches should be outlawed since this country is a powder kep
Powder Keg. (sorry)
Cheap Food: at the Expense of Health
King Corn (2007) documents the affects of President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of Agriculture’s policies in the latter 1970’s. During this time, the portion of the cost of food came down from 50% of an average laborer’s paycheck to 15% of the worker’s net income. These policies favored monoculture over polyculture.
However, the expense has simply shifted the burden onto the health care system. “Two trillion dollars a year is spent on America's current health care system,” continues Pollen. “Seventy-five percent of this is preventable through diet. Our poor are obese because good food is more expensive than bad food. A 1200 calorie food from a fast food restaurant may be less expensive than a head of broccoli.”
In 2009, the health share of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have increased 1.1 percentage points to 17.3 percent. Truffer et al (2010). Per PBS.org Frontline’s Sick Around the World, the average GDP for health care of other industrialized countries are at ~ 8 percent.
Read more at Suite101: Polyculture: Food Activists Poised for Fight: Socioeconomic Liberty, Wellness, Justice and Prosperity http://environmental-activism.suite101.com/article.cfm/polyculture-food-...
Thom,
Sure the GOPhers are obstructionists, but let's face it, OBAMAcrats are only enablers.
Consider Obama supporting the firing of the entire staff of a struggling school in R.I., in Arne Duncan's efforts to privatize K-12 education.
Consider Roberts Gates exhorting the Europeans to spend more on military and less on social spending.
Consider Chris Hedges' most recent:
Ralph Nader Was Right About Barack Obama
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/01-0
Interestingly, the 2nd Amendment doesn't keep the government from restricting the manufacture and sale of arms.
@emotionalproblems I had to make my living on 100% commission a number of times in my life. I think progressives and liberals do not value salesmanship. I too, thought salespeople were all slime, until I realized that to a certain extent, we are always selling ourselves, and that salespeople, as the merchants of ancient and modern history do make the world go round. The skill of salesmanship and a grasping of how vital and valuable salespeople are should really be re-assessed by the progressives. There are certain sales training styles out there that are ethical. In fact, I read a book from a woman who retired in Sedona, AZ about one such style.
In a nutshell, We should never assume people have heard of Thom. In fact every time I speak to a staffer of a congressperson etc, I am careful to let them know how I learned about the issue. IN this way, someday, the politicians will be answering to Thom, and NOT Rush Limbaugh.
Also, I have talked to limosine liberals who do not get that tuning in everyday is a vital locker room unifier. They tell me, 'I want to watch FOX so I know what the other side is thinking.' Sigh-
We need to tune in to get the ammo we need and to strengthen our resolve to gain courage, to feel supported.
Given time and motivation too pursue a line of thought, the farther we walk down any line of reasoning, the close we are to biting our self in the butt. That is why Christian values, Republican Values, Democratic Values and all other systems of thought, change with the generations. This includes why our U.S.A. constitution has become just a shell of its original self.
Were is this report . . .?????? GIVE THE WEB-SITE, AGAIN.
@Zero G: "GOPhers" - :D :D
And yet . . .
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/02/28/what_raises_...
Uncommon Knowledge
What raises murder rates
Surprising insights from the social sciences
By Kevin Lewis
February 28, 2010
A recent analysis of global homicide rates came up with some interesting conclusions. It turns out that the proportion of young males, population density, degree of urbanization, and income inequality are not significant predictors of the homicide rate. Instead, ethnic and linguistic diversity, education, and the quality of governing institutions were the most significant factors. Although it’s not surprising that ethnic strife and law enforcement matter for the homicide rate, there was a surprising effect found for education: An extra year of school for the average female increased the homicide rate almost as much as one less year of school for the average male.
I finally got the nerve to log in despite the Microsoft warning. I noticed the https: was in red with a slash running through it.
As I have mentioned before, I would like to defend corn syrup. Corn syrup is not the problem. The problem is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS does exist in nature, and is the ungodly combination of a dextrose and sucrose molecule.
Today is Texas Independence Day, to commemorate our fighting and dying for the right to own slaves.
I was born in Texas, but my citizenship was revoked back in '88 'cause I forgot the Alamo. ;D (thanx to Woody Allen).
The reason the multi-millionare Republicans don't care about the unemployment benefits is because they don't care if they lose their jobs. They will make more money out of office. None of this matters to them personally.
"An extra year of school for the average female increased the homicide rate almost as much as one less year of school for the average male."
Is the above statement saying anything about who the perpetrator and the victim are. For example, Perhaps an educated woman and a lesser educated male?
.....that won't take out the garbage? lol- kidding, kidding....
@Chuckle8: Only your can't buy non-high fructose corn syrup anymore in large numbers of grocery stores . . . SO corn syrup IS high fructose corn syrup.
I doubt the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Gun Nuts. The Right-Wing needs to keep it as a wedge issue, same as with the abortion issue.
Isn’t Senator Brush Back just pitching inside for Senator Kyle’s wet dream – repeal of the estate tax?
“An extra year of school for the average female increased the homicide rate almost as much as one less year of school for the average male.”
To what degree of increase? 1%, .1% or .00001%?
Any professional (such as this doctor on right now) who doesn't know what an "elevator speech" is ... is an idiot.
TAJ - bingo, except it's Kyl...
SCOTUS and The Slippery Slope to End States' Rights
I can't seem to find the video clip that corresponds to this, but I heard a discussion on MSNBC this a.m. that some political "observers" are positing that this SCOTUS gun rights decision may have ramifications regarding states' rights in general. This, along with the health "reform" proposal to let people buy across state lines, thereby starting a race to the bottom of state protections and regulations, looks like a concerted push by the corporatists to do away with any meaningful legal protections for citizens of this country.
I hope Thom's guests are right when they say this looks like it will be a narrow decision.
Isn't "states' rights" one of those historic Repug. issues? I guess they pick and choose their talking points when it suits them.
I am sure that medicine has advanced in other countries as well since the 1930s- not just advancements in America. This guy is so bought.
Is it just me or does Jim Bunning look a lot like the Grinch who stole Congress?
You're a mean one, Mr. Bunning.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel...
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
It would seem most logical to me that the key to taking back our country is to begin with wrestling the megaphone out of the hands of the extreme right wing radicals.
Putting immense pressure on Pres. Obama – all together, all at once might persuade him to “Shemanate” the giant media monopolies. Until then they will always drown out our message with their lies.