A North Carolina man – James Richard Verone – was sent to jail earlier this month after he tried to rob one dollar from a bank. Verone’s motive for the petty crime was simple – he wanted to go to prison so that he could get healthcare. After he was laid off as a delivery driver for Coca Cola – Verone found himself without health insurance and in constant pain due to arthritis. He was repeatedly denied health insurance – and denied disability. So he had no other option to receive medical care – except for prison.

So Verone walked into a bank and slid a note to the teller saying he is robbing them for just one dollar. Unfortunately – there are more than 50 million people just like Verone who don’t have health insurance and thus are blocked from seeing doctors in America. Republicans like to argue that the United States doesn’t go the way of every single other industrialized nation on the planet and offer healthcare as a basic right because we are “an exceptional nation” – we’re not like Canada or France with their “socialized medicine.” But at least in Canada you don’t have to go to prison to get life-saving healthcare.

If serving time just to see a doctor is what being exceptional means – then the conservative vision of America truly has become a nightmare.

-Thom

(How do you think America is exceptional? Tell us here.)

The Daily Stack

Quote: "I do not believe war the most certain means of enforcing principles. Those peaceable coercions which are in the power of every nation, if undertaken in concert and in time of peace, are more likely to produce the desired effect." -- Thomas Jefferson.

Hour One: It's time for our Troops to Come Home Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

Article: "It's Time for Our Troops to Come Home" by Sen. Jeff Merkley.

Article: "US reveals plans to pull out troops from Afghanistan" by Anna Fifield in Washington and Matthew Green in Islamabad.

Article: "Obama to Announce Afghan Drawdown".

Article: "'Armed and extremely dangerous' ex-militia leader hunted after Mont. shootout" by MSNBC.

Article: "Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites" by Jeff Donn.

Full Monty alert: "Cops: Man fires gun to get help with fishhook in buttocks" by WHAG-TV.

Article: "Opium production in Afghanistan" by Wikipedia.

Article: "'Brutality smeared in peanut butter': Why America must stop the war now." by Arundhati Roy.

Hour Two: Why do conservatives want to throw "Obamacare" under the bus? Peter Ferrara, General counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, author

Book: "America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb: How the Looming Debt Crisis Threatens the American Dream-and How We Can Turn the Tide Before It's Too Late" by Peter Ferrara.

Article: "How Obamacare Will Further Explode the Deficit" by Peter Ferrara.

Case: "Marbury v. Madison", 1803.

Article: "Gov. Scott Rejects Millions In Health Aid For Seniors, Children, And Disabled To Grandstand Against Health Law" by Marie Diamond.

Book: "The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind " by Richard E. Leakey and Roger Lewin.

Article: "Lead Poisoning in China: The Hidden Scourge" by Sharon LaFraniere.

Book: "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late" by Thom Hartmann.

Nurses take Mainstreet Message to Wall Street as part of International Day of Action Rose Ann DeMoro, Executive Director - National Nurses United

Article: "Join Nurses to Protest Wall Street June 22" by NNU.

Article: "Stories from Main Street: Tell us where it hurts..." by NNU.

Twilight Zone alert: "Oregon man gives Library of Congress rare, 120-year-old map that shows the Earth is flat" by AP.

Article: "Article 3".

Talk Radio News Segment: Ellen Ratner, Bureau Chief

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Article: "Obama’s Afghanistan Decision Coming Soon" by TRNS.

Article: "Home sales hit 6-month low, supply rises" by Lucia Mutikani.

Article: "McCain Intros Resolution, Gives Obama One Year In Libya" by TRNS.

Article: "Huntsman Enters Presidential Race" by Benny Martinez.

Article: "Gingrich Top Fundraisers Quit in Latest Blow to His Presidential Campaign" by Lisa Lerer.

Article: "Perry Supporter Puts Out Feelers in Iowa" by Caitlin Huey-Burns.

Hour Three: New i-phone video kill switch...threat to democracy? Ginger McCall, Staff Counsel, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Article: "Now Apple wants to block iPhone users from filming live events with their smartphone" by Daily Mail.

"Walmart: Too Big to Sue" Lila Shapiro, Business Writer - Huffington Post

Article: "Walmart: Too Big to Sue" by Lila Shapiro.

Case: "Brown v. Board Of Education", 1954.

Case: "Roe v. Wade", 1973.

Site: "UFCW".

The good: "Straight Talk From Top Enlisted Marine on ‘Don’t Ask’ Repeal" by Nathan Hodge.

The bad: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker To Cut Medicaid Without Public Hearings" by Igor Volsky.

The very, very ugly: "Clarence Thomas Decided Three Cases Where AEI Filed A Brief After AEI Gave Him A $15,000 Gift" by Ian Millhiser.

Article: "Current Event Notification Report" by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Operations Center.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Airspace Over Flooded Nebraska Nuclear Power Plant Still Closed" by Ricky Kreitner.

Article: "Japan Strains to Fix a Reactor Damaged Before Quake" by Hiroko Tabuchi.

Site: "theyrule.net".

Article: "Supreme Court Sides With Wal-Mart In Massive Sex-Discrimination Suit" by Jay Goodman Tamboli.

Article: "Man seeking health care robs Gastonia bank for $1" by Rad Berky.

Article: "FITCH WARNS: US Must Raise The Debt Ceiling By Aug 2, Or Risk Losing Its AAA" by Joe Weisenthal.

Article: "AP IMPACT: US nuke regulators weaken safety rules" by Jeff Donn, AP.

Article: "Christian Conservative Group Demands Vitter’s Resignation, Says GOP ‘Committing Outright Hypocrisy’ By Letting Him Stay" by Alex Seitz-Wald.

Coming up Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program

Hour Two: What is "The Problem With the Republican Party?" Thom challenges Ken Klukowski of The American Civil Rights Union...

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.

Read an excerpt here, and buy the book!