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Thom's blog
28th Amendment - Free Speech for People
In our "you need to know this" news, with the midterm elections tomorrow, the first ever corporate funded campaign season is finally winding down – at least temporarily. And now, many Americans are looking ahead to prevent another onslaught of spending from unknown and foreign sources influencing our future elections. A group of more than fifty legal scholars including former state attorneys general have started the Free Speech for People coalition in hopes of passing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. The proposed 28th Amendment would affirm that the basic right to free speech applies to people, not corporations. Given that 75% of Americans disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling, and a same majority also fear that the Congress will not work to overturn it, the coalition has already started grassroots movements in many states to get local government to pass similar resolutions to eventually put pressure on the federal government to act on passing an amendment. In a similar vein, Representative Peter DeFazio from Oregon wants to prevent future corporate funded rulings on the Supreme Court through another strategy – Impeachment.
Referring to the claim by Justice Stevens that the Citizens United case was not brought before the court in a proper fashion, Representative DeFazio said, "It was the most extraordinary condemnation I've ever read of a perverted majority on the Supreme Court, at least in recent years." DeFazio is also claiming that Chief Justice John Roberts is guilty of perjury for insisting during his Senate confirmation hearing that he would act on legal precedents and not become a judicial activist. John Roberts not an activist judge?! The Citizens United Ruling overturned a century of precedents in campaign reform law and as we talked about last week, the Supreme Court’s support for the Chamber of Commerce has increased dramatically in recent years. Something must be done to combat corporate personhood and this court's radical rulings.
- Thom
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TOMORROW!
Free Speech TV to Provide Live Coverage of the Midterm Elections from Broadcast Centers in New York, Washington, DC and Denver.
Amy Goodman, Thom Hartmann, Laura Flanders, Marc Steiner and Gloria Neal to Host.
Free Speech TV (FSTV) will broadcast live coverage of the upcoming midterm elections from broadcasting centers in New York, Washington, DC and from their headquarters in Denver. The coverage is scheduled to air on November 2nd, 2010 from 8:00 pm - 2:00 am EST on DISH Network channel 9415, DIRECTV channel 348 and streaming online at FREESPEECH.ORG, featuring Facebook, Twitter, live chat interactive tools, and as well as audience-submitted videos. Stream it at thomhartmann.com.
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Watch Thom's new show on the RT channel called the Big Picture, or stream it live from 9 to 10pm, and it repeats at 11. You can catch the shows you have missed on Youtube.
Tonight: Huge amounts of corporate money (foreign & domestic) are flooding election coffers With Stephen Moore, economics columnist for & member of Wall Street Journal editorial board; author w/Arthur Laffer of "Return to Prosperity" & "End of Prosperity". |
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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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The Daily Stack 
Quote: "It is the belief that extremes and excesses of inequality must be reduced so that each person is free to fully develop his or her full potential. This is why we take precious time out of our lives and give it to politics." -- Paul Wellstone.
Hour One: Inequality debate...are you better off with conservatives or liberals in charge? Thom confronts James MacDougald, President of The Free Enterprise Nation.
Plus, do we need a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United? Latest labor news with Doug Cunningham, Producer/Reporter-Worker's Independent News.
Hour Two: Impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for his role in the Citizens United ruling? Thom speaks with U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR, 4th District).
Hour Three: Latest election news White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest joins Thom.
Plus, can your boss fire you for taking time off to vote?! Thom asks Anne Janks, Director, Can My Boss Do That.com.
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Coming up Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program
Hour Two: It's election day...campaigning is over...so, what do the left and the right have in common? I'll challenge Conservative Party USA President Mark Williams, author of " It's Not Right Vs. Left, It's Right Vs. Wrong"...
Hour Three: can the Democrats still pull off a "super Tuesday?" Campaign Strategist David Morey, Vice Chairman of Core Strategy Group and Founder of DMG, author of "The Underdog Advantage", will be here...
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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ROI on education
Jefferson thought that an educated populace was the best defense of liberty and democracy in the new nation he’d helped birth. A highly educated workforce is good for innovation and entrepreneurialism: every one of the top 20 innovative countries in the world – except the USA – offers free or very inexpensive college to qualified students. Ireland took a cue from the pre-Reagan University of California and began offering free college tuition to all citizens and a flat-rate Euro 900 per year registration fee for all EU citizens. The result, decades later, is that Ireland has gone from being a backwater economy that was largely based on agriculture and tourism to becoming one of the high-tech and innovation capitals of the world.
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Peter Beinart - The New McCarthyism - are we in the midst of a national psychosis?
Dan Gainor - What does Fidel Castro know that most Americans don't?
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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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Show Info
Call Thom on the show at 1-866-987-THOM (8466) (0870 974 9686 from the UK, +1 503 796 2324 from outside the US or UK).
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