Thom Hartmann: Roger Pilon is with us, from the Cato Institute. He is the Vice President for Legal Affairs, the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies, Director at the Center for Constitutional Studies at the CATO Institute, cato.org, of course their web site. And we have been talking about the Citizens United vs. FEC case, the initial arguments were just concluded.

Thom Hartmann: Mind-boggling news. Max Baucus, the wholly-owned appendage of the health insurance industry, apparently has a piece of legislation that is going to be coming out of the Senate Finance Committee. And according to Robert Gibbs, the folks on K Street saw it before the White House did. What a surprise! I would suggest probably the folks on K Street wrote it. In any case there’s a Supreme Court case coming up, Citizens United vs.

I want to share with you, well really, I want to share with you some insights that Matt Taibbi put together brilliantly over at Rolling Stone, about where we’re at with this healthcare legislation.

I want to talk about swine flu because my email load is starting to explode with this. In large part it’s my right wing email load. I’m also, you know, I’m on multiple email lists and you know I’ve got a giant pile of right wing email every day as well as the left wing or liberal email. I would say the average American email. But without getting into that debate.

Thom Hartmann: Well you know how sometimes you know what you know is right, and sometimes you know what you know is wrong, and sometimes you think you know what you know, and sometimes you think you don’t know what you don’t know, and sometimes what you know you don’t know, you know, all that kind of stuff.

Thom Hartmann: Sam Tanenhaus is with us. Sam is the author of a new book "The Death of Conservatism".

Thom Hartmann: Myron Ebell is with us, back with us, a regular guest. He is the director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, CEI.org. Myron, welcome back to the show.

Myron Ebell: Thanks for having me, Thom. It's good to hear your voice.

Our quote for the day, from Franklin Roosevelt: “I’m neither bitter,” he says, “nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking."

I want to talk about the immaturity of the political thinking of the current administration. And I think that they caught a lot of this from the Clinton Administration. There was a big whoop-de-do, falderal done when Barack Obama was first nominated and more importantly when he was elected.

Thom Hartmann: And pleased to have with me in the studio one of my favorite people, Bill McKibben. And Bill is going to be introduced by another friend of ours, Bill Bradbury, our Secretary of State in Oregon, and 7 o'clock tonight at the Muddy Boot Organic Festival here in Portland.

Is the Conservative movement dead?

After the break Sam Tanenhaus is going to drop by. He’s got a new book out called “The Death of Conservatism”.

Thom Hartmann: Dr. John Lott on the line. I’ve laid out for you my cash for geezers programme. John has read my op-ed – Want to stimulate the economy? Lower the retirement to 55 now.

Thom Hartmann: Heather Higgins on the line, she is the new chair, it says chairman, of the Independent Women’s Forum. Is that the title you use?

Heather Higgins: Chairman, yes. I don’t believe in politicized language.

Thom Hartmann: Ok.

Heather Higgins: Chairman is fine.

Thom Hartmann: All right. But you’re a woman.

Heather Higgins: I’m a woman. Last time I checked.

Thom talks to Pamela Aden of the Aden Forecast about finance, 27 August 2009

Thom Hartmann: -- Moving forward, I am fascinated by the story of Angie's List. It's like intense democracy in the workplace. Right after the break.

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Thom Hartmann: David Ray Griffin is with us. David Ray Griffin the author of an upcoming book, out next month, “The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7: Why the Final Official Report About 9/11 Is Unscientific and False”. David Ray Griffin, welcome back to our program.

David Ray Griffin: Good to be back with you Thom.