Thom Hartmann: And John Cornyn, Republican paranoia has reached a new high. This is tragic. The Texas Senator, the White House has said, has pointed out that there are a lot of lies out there. I’ve been promoting this website for a week, I want to promote it again. Please, 'please' is part of the url, be sure to include the word 'please', PleaseCutTheCrap.com. PleaseCutTheCrap.com is a great website that takes apart some of the Republican lies, basically, that are being circulated in email.

Okay, lets take this to the largest picture. I see two things going on here. Let’s assume for a moment that the people who are promoting the Birther Movement, the ones who are out there aggressively sending the emails like the one I received, saying you know, sign our petition, we need to get a million names on this petition by August 4th, by President Obama’s birthday, so that we can force him into court, etc. etc. etc. Let’s assume for a moment that they’re actually not racists. That the members of Congress are actually not racist.

And the U.S. economy, this is absolutely incredible. I want to share with you, first of all, let’s just broadly talk about what’s happening with the economy in the United States. Elizabeth Warren is the person who is in charge of overseeing the TARP program. And you know, given that job by Congress when they put the thing together. And here she is with her report. This is from about three days ago, three or four days ago [it was uploaded 14 July 2009]. Her report to the nation.

Thom Hartmann:

Thom Hartmann here with you, and one of the great warriors for our country, for our people, for we the people, is Dennis Kucinich. He’s on the line with us. His website kucinich.us of course, and Congressman Kucinich, welcome to the show.

Dennis Kucinich: Thom, it’s always good to be with you, thank you.

Thom Hartmann: So we get mail, I have this very, very thoughtful email that leads, I think is a perfect segue to our next guest. It’s an email from, well I’m not going to name her actually. She didn’t ask me not to, but uh, this is about harassment she is experiencing at work. She says,

Thom Hartmann: Well the astroturf programmes roll on in Congressional districts all across the United States. Dick Armey in the background laughing and wringing his hands with glee, I’m sure, as poor suckers show up and try to heckle and shout down their members of Congress in the House of Representatives. You know, following this brilliant memo. I mean, this is really quite extraordinary, this whole memo.

To start out, I want to share with you this story that CNN carried over the weekend, and this is just a clip from it. This is the set up to it on CNN.

ROBERTS: If your child is obese, morbidly obese in medical terms, are you responsible? Even more, are you criminally responsible?

Well, in the case of Jerri Gray, the state of South Carolina says yes. And take a look why.

Gray gave us this school photo of her 14-year-old son Alexander. He weighs 555 pounds.
As you can imagine, he’s rather large.

The astroturf is rolling on energy reform, phoney letters to Congress coming from lobbying firms presenting themselves as non-profits. We’ve got the teabaggers out in force, that’s being orchestrated by Dick Armey and Freedom Works and several other right-wing groups in the background, to shout members of Congress down all across the country, at their town-hall meetings. Katherine Sibelius also a victim of this. This is amazing. Senator Durbin says, “We will not fall for a sucker-punch like this.”

Thom Hartmann: So, for our weekly labor segment right now, guaranteedhealthcare.org, Martha Kuhl is with us. She is the Vice President of the California Nurses Association, the National Nurses Organizing Committee and Oakland, California Registered Nurse, specializing in pediatric oncology. And it’s, I guess it was a week or so ago, the anniversary of Medicare and the need for healthcare reform, a single payer system. Martha Kuhl, welcome to the program.

Thom Hartmann: The so-called "Birther" movement is planning for Barack Obama’s birthday. I just got a note here from the desk of, actually I got it a few days ago, from the desk of Gary G. Kreep. Gary is the executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, USJF.net is their website. Big picture of Michael Reagan, the chairman of their advisory board, on the front page.

Thom Hartmann: Gavin Newsom is with us, the mayor of San Francisco, among other things, just a great guy and very, very, very, very pleased to have you with us, Gavin, welcome to the show.

Gavin Newsom: Great to be on, Thom, thanks for having me.

Thom Hartmann: Right now, Dean Baker is with us. Dean Baker, one of my favorite economists, he has just written a lot of really, really brilliant stuff. Macro-economist, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research, CEPR.org the website. And Dean, welcome to the show.

Dean Baker: Thanks for having me on.

Thom interviews Ralph Peters about his "the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills" comment, 20 July 2009

Thom: Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters is with us. NY Post, NewYorkPost.com the website that publishes his work. He’s also a Fox News military analyst, and, Lt. Col. Peters, welcome to the show.

Peters: A welcome to the show, Thom.

Thom: You were just on Fox News a little earlier this morning,

Thom interviews Chris Hedges about his book "Empire of Illusion", 21 July 2009