Hour One - The Best of the Rest of the News - Thom's Take

Hour Two - Richard Perle www.aei.org Topic: Is it true that you have now washed your hands of Iraq & deny being "the architect of that war?

Hour Three "Everything You Know is Wrong" Jill Brooke www.firstwivesworld.com Topic: Why divorce rate spikes in January

Guest: Larry Scott: www.vawatchdog.org Topic: Vets issues

Hour One - Robert Moffit www.heritage.org Topic: Thom is asking “free marketer” Robert Moffit - Why shouldn't we drive a stake through the heart of William McGuire's United Health Care? Moffit believes that public/private “competition” is unfair because it pits for-profit private insurers against a government program that need not turn a profit. The government will institute lower rates, taxpayers will assume liability, and private insurers, Moffit warns, will simply go out of business. Thom will be asking – isn’t that a good idea? Healthcare should be part of the “commons” like all other industrialized countries. In Hour Two - Carrie Lukas www.iwf.org is dropping by. Topic: Thomis asking Carrie - Why do you think cutting taxes on rich people will help the county when it never has before? Joining Thom in Hour Three – US Chamber of Commerce Spokesperson TBA Topic: Thom is asking "Why does business oppose the Employee Free Choice Act - "Democracy in the Workplace?"in the Labor Segment" Jon Youngdahl www.seiu.org is here. Topic: Change that Works Campaign and Employee Free Choice Act

Thom’s blog today…

Obama -Don’t Repeat Jerry Ford’s Big Mistake

If Barack Obama intends to prosecute crimes committed in the Bush White House, he’s probably wise to be cagey about it before his Attorney General is confirmed. On the other hand, if he’s going to follow in Bill Clinton’s footsteps and “look forward” instead of“backward” when it comes to crimes of previous administrations, he may well harm this nation far worse than Bush did by establishing Bush/Cheney/Rove as the “new normal” for future administrations.

Gerald Ford set a terrible precedent for the nation when he pardoned Richard Nixon, and Democrats went along with it when they decided not to continue their investigations into the many criminal acts committed in the Nixon White House. Similarly, Bill Clinton did our nation a terrible disservice when he and the Democrats, upon assuming control of the Justice Department in 1992, decided not to pursue criminal investigations into the entire scope of Iran-Contra, from Bill Casey’s alleged 1980 contacts with the Iranians about holding hostages to sink the Carter candidacy to running drugs and weapons years later with money from those same Iranians.

We can’t afford to let another organized crime operation run out of the White House under the cover of “official business” to go uninvestigated (at the very least) and punished (ideally).

If the incoming Congress and/or the Obama administration fail to thoroughly investigate all the crimes of the Bush administration – even if such an investigation will bring discomfort to complicit Democrats – it will certify that forty years of lawlessness in the White House has become the new norm. No matter how ethical and transparent and aboveboard the Obama administration may be, future administrations will believe they can break the law and cover it up as a normal part of presidential politics.

America is watching the unfolding melodrama in Illinois with a morbid fascination, shaking our collective heads at how corrupt the Blagojavich administration has been and how long they’ve gotten away withit. But at least they’re now being brought to justice, and Illinois andthe political process as a whole will be better for it. Our nation deserves no less.

Bill McKibben, environmentalist, author of "Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future" explains how we have passed the safe limit of 350 ppm CO₂ in the atmosphere, which means a freaking emergency. 350.org.

Thom Hartmann interviews Bill McKibben, 06 January 2009