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Thom's blog
Hey Mr. President...Transparency Applies To the TPP too!
Transparency belongs in all parts of a democracy.
This morning, President Obama announced that back in January we accidentally killed two hostages, including one American a U.S with a drone during a counterterrorism operation targeting Al Qaeda operatives in a compound along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border .
The hostages, American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto, were apparently in the compound when it was hit by the drone strike.
Officials are saying that they had no idea Weinstein and Lo Porto were in the compound at the time of the attack.
The strike also killed two American-born Al Qaeda operatives, Adam Gadahn and Ahmed Farouq.
Speaking about the tragic deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto, President Obama said that, “As president and as Commander-in-Chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni.”
The president then talked about why the government had chosen to make the operation and its tragic results public.
He said that, “As soon as we determined the cause of their deaths, I directed that the existence of this operation be declassified and disclosed publicly. I did so because the Weinstein and Lo Porto families deserved to know the truth. And I did so because, even as certain aspects of our national security efforts have to remain secret in order to succeed, the United States is a democracy, committed to openness in good times and in bad.”
President Obama is absolutely right. The United States is a democracy, and transparency is an absolutely necessary prerequisite for a democracy to properly function.
But when it comes to transparency you can’t play pick and choose.
You can’t be transparent about a counterterrorism operation that went horribly wrong, but then be incredibly secretive about something like…the TPP.
Earlier this week, President Obama was interviewed by Chris Matthews. One of the major topics of that discussion was the TPP.
In his interview with Matthews, President Obama continued to tout the TPP, saying that he wouldn't promote something that would hurt our economy and hurt working-class Americans.
President Obama also called out TPP opponents like Senator Elizabeth Warren, saying that she and others are wrong about the facts of the deal.
But here's the problem. It’s hard to know who’s right or wrong about the facts of the TPP because it’s been negotiated largely in secret behind closed doors.
Any information we do have about it is from leaks, and there is still a great deal we don’t know about the agreement.
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Caroline Fredrickson, "Under the Bus: How Working Women Are Being Run Over" (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
 Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners
Join Thom in London, England - June 22-26, 2015 - for a special week long course - Saving the World From Extinction — How to Create a World That Works for All - follow the link to Schumacher College for details!
Daily Take: Hey Mr. President...Transparency Applies To the TPP too!
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Thursday's Daily Stack 
Hour One: It's "Brunch With Bernie"... the honorable Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joins Thom with all the news from our nation's capitol and as always he'll be spending the hour taking your calls and answering your questions too... Follow Bernie:     campaign site.
Article: " 10th Amendment" " The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people".
Speech: " A Rendezvous With Destiny", 27 June 1936 acceptance speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt. " An old English judge once said: "Necessitous men are not free men.""
Hour Three: Anything Goes Thursday!
Quote: "But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." - Thomas Jefferson", Notes on the State of Virginia (1781–1783). The very, very ugly: Sen. Lindsey Graham: "The people in Guantanamo Bay are probably going to die in jail, and that's okay with me".
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Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET
It's anything goes with Actor/comedian/ Hal Sparks, host of The Hal Sparks Radio Program MEGA World Wide on WCPT.
And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...
The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"
And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...
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Thom's Poll
Will the U.S. learn from Greece and reverse austerity measures?
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Rumble: Hillary to Topple The 1%?
Thom Hartmann on How Things Are And How They Could Be
The Prison "Pay to Play" System Exposed
The Solar Power Battle Now Being Fought
Rumble: America doesn’t need competition-killing Big Biz
Corporations to America - "We own you”
The Good - The Bad - and the Very Very Matroclinously Ugly
Or watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 4/22/15: Elizabeth Warren Vs. Comcast-Time Warner Merger
Tonight’s Rumble talks the potential merger of Comcast and Time Warner, why Obama is continuing to support the TPP despite outrage from both sides, and whether Hillary Clinton with topple the 1%. Thom discusses how the private prison industry is benefiting from our failed immigration system with the Advancement Project’s Flavia Jimenez and how utility companies in Hawaii are threatening the state’s solar growth with Vote Solar’s Adam Browning. In tonight’s Daily Take Thom discusses how Republicans are trying to turn business owners into modern day kings.
Thom: The Constitution is NOT a Sacred Document...
Sheriff Mack: Thom, Why the Blind Loyalty to the Democrats?
Brunch With Bernie: April 23, 2015
Caller: Thom, You're Wrong About Obama on TPP...
Caller: Obama People part of the Commercial Club of Chicago...
Michigan Republicans Outsource Sex Ed...
Paul LePage Gives Millions to a Failing Corporation...
Reaganism is the 1981 Version of Hardingism...
How AEI's Mark Perry is Celebrating Earth Day...
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