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So conservatives make great religious leaders...but lousy civic leaders
Republicans are showing their true colors. Rand Paul took a tough line against Bill Clinton on Monday, going after him with a below-the-belt attack focused on Clinton's encounter with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Responding to Clinton's campaign efforts for his Democratic rival Jack Conway earlier in the day, Rand Paul said, "I'm not sure I would trust a guy who had had sexual relations with an intern. I mean, do you think he's an honorable person?" Also, appearing on Fox News Sunday, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) revealed just how "over the top" a GOP candidate needs to be in order to be cast aside by their own party's leadership. Reacting to Ohio GOP Congressional candidate Rich Iott’s membership in a Nazi reenactment group that “salute[s]” Nazi sympathizers who viewed the Third Reich as “the protector of personal freedom and their very way of life,” Cantor repudiated Iott’s candidacy in an exchange with Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL). So, now we know what's not too extreme for the Republicans is, stripping away social security from millions of the elderly, wiping out medicare, taking away the right to elect Senators, stripping away the right to be a US ciitzen, dropping out of the UN, dabbling in witchcraft, and the elimination of all sex and forcing children who have been raped to have their rapist's babies. What is too extreme for the GOP? Nazi Reenactments. What all these stories have in common is that they show the difference in what's considered "morality" by conservatives and by liberals. For liberals, a nation can't call itself moral if there are homeless or hungry or unjustly imprisoned or impoverished people among its ranks. Liberals' main concern about "morality" is what we're all doing in public - they don't so much care about what people do in private. Conservatives, on the other hand, don't give a rats patootie about the public good - they care about what individuals are doing, particularly in their private lives. Who is sleeping with whom? And in what position? And what gender? And what are they smoking? Liberals work to make society better because they believe we're all born good and it's possible to have a society that works; conservatives work to keep individual behaviors in line because they believe that we're all born evil and the only way to make society work is to keep a tight eye on every individual and punish him or her when they stray in their private lives. So conservatives make great religious leaders, but lousy civic leaders.
-Thom
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"If you're looking for something that connects the dots between the BP oil disaster, the harm it's done to the Gulf of Mexico and the people paying the price, this book is it. In a clear and compelling voice, it explains the worst environmental catastrophe of our time, then shows the way forward to protect this national treasure, safeguard our future and break our destructive addiction to oil."
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Thom and Louise Hartmann founded the New England Salem Children's Village in New Hampshire in 1979. With states delaying payment for the children they entrust to the village, they need help with cash flow urgently. Please help if you can.
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The Daily Stack
Quote: "I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being." -- Abraham Lincoln.
Hour One: News you need to know: How extreme will the GOP get?
Event: " Should Corporations Decide Our Elections?", 15 October 7-9pm, All Souls Unitarian Church, NYC. A discussion of how the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision affects elections, lobbying, and the mixture of money and politics. Q&A period will follow. Admission is free. With panelists: Thom Hartmann, Lawrence Lessig, & Zephyr Teachout. Moderated by: Laura Flanders of GRITtv. by Big Apple Coffee Party.
Hour Two: Ayn Rand conservatism at work...should the "private" fire department be sued for allowing pets to die? Thom confronts Don Watkins of the Ayn Rand Institute.
Animal rights groups call for resignation of Obion's Mayor and Fire Chief Thom is joined by Zaid Jilani, Reporter/Blogger - Think Progress.org.
Hour Three: Are we on the brink of a global food crisis? Thom speaks with Australian Science Journalist Julian Cribb about his new book and the reality of global food shortages.
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Coming up on The Thom Hartmann Program
Hour Two: What does radical Islam have in common with radical right wing tea partiers? Thom has a rumble with conservative Dan Gainor of the Business and Media Institute.
Hour Three: Everything You Know is Wrong...about Facebook?! Thom talks with Peter Moore, Editor of Men's Health Magazine, about the "dark side of Facebook".
And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...
The Thom Hartmann Program... your media support group for we the people.
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Enable manufacturers to compete internationally
What we have in America today is a trend of higher profits for insurance companies, higher premiums for employers and employees and an increasing number of small business owners and entrepreneurs worrying about the health care costs of doing business.
But in every other First World country (and many that are considered below that threshold, like Costa Rica), entrepreneurs don’t have to take such risks. And the result is that the United States is being hammered in the area of innovation by countries that have stronger social safety nets. The Economist magazine, in April 2009, published a study sponsored by Cisco Systems titled “A New Ranking of the World’s Most Innovative Countries.”
The year the study was done, every country in the top 20, including No. 19, Slovenia, had a national health care system that covers every citizen regardless of employment – except the United States. Japan, Switzerland, and Finland beat us out, and right on our heels were Sweden, Germany, Taiwan, and The Netherlands. The study noted, “The high rank for three small wealthy European states reflects the fact that their economic, social and political conditions favour innovation. … The slippage of the US confirms the gradual erosion in recent years of that country’s traditional position as the world’s technological leader – a trend we expect to continue.”
The country that brought the world Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse and Andrew Carnegie has now slid in innovation, in part because of our lack of a strong social safety net.
Learn more about how to make it easier for American manufacturers to compete internationally again in chapter five, "Medicare “Part E” – For Everybody" of " Rebooting the American Dream" (On Kindle too)
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Dan Gainor - What does Fidel Castro know that most Americans don't?
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