We have been left with a permanent security state, an islamophobic industry & the two longest wars in history.

Dana Priest, Washington Post, joins Thom Hartmann. This weekend will the ten year anniversary of 9/11 - and a chance for all of us to look back at the last decade and ask the question, "Have we handled things the right way?" There's no question this nation is fundamentally different today that it was ten years ago. There's an unprecedented fear and mistrust of Muslims gripping the nation, two costly wars still raging in the Middle East, and there's the new security state apparatus, warrantless wiretaps and e-mail snoopers in our homes - and a covert military wing of secret prisons and drone strikes all around the world.

Eric Burns, Bullfight Strategies joins Thom Hartmann. Republicans had their chance last night - and President Obama had his chance tonight. Unfortunately - the Republicans squandered their chance to talk jobs during their debate last night - and instead focused on more massive tax breaks for billionaires - calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme - bashing Mitt Romney's successful healthcare program in Massachusetts - denying global warming - and bragging about how many people Rick Perry's executed in Texas.

Thom compares President Obama's projected jobs plan to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's job plan. Later in the show he debates his two conservative guest panelists in the Lone Liberal rumble.

According to a new report from Pew - one in three people who grew up in the middle class in the 1970's have now dropped out of the middle class today and are part of the working poor. They just couldn't cut it anymore in the new America - where billionaires and their bought-off politicians have raised the bar for entry into the middle class higher and higher - until eventually very few people can actually climb over it. And more and more people have just accepted that as the new normal - rather than pushing back against this downsizing of the American Dream - and asking why are we kicking more people OUT of the middle class instead of bringing more people INTO it?

Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress.org joins Thom. Want to know where Islamophobia is coming from? - look no further than Fox so-called News. The Brookings Institute just released a new report - charting Americans' views toward Islam based on their political views and where they get their news. Turns out - those who identify themselves as Republicans, Tea Partiers, or Fox so-called News viewers fear Muslims the most. 52% of Fox viewers believe Muslims want to establish Sharia law in America - compared to just 20% who watch CNN, and 29% who watch MSNBC Also - 60% of Fox viewers believe Islam is not an important part of the America religious community.

So what makes a healthy democracy? Some might say it's high voter turnout. As in - the more people who vote - then the more the will of the country is reflected in its government. However - over the last 50 years - the average voter turnout in US national elections is about 48% - ranking it 38th in the world - behind nations like Poland, India, and Estonia. That's why several organizations have sprung up around America with the sole purpose of registering more and more people to vote - to spur greater participation in our democracy. But Conservatives - have always been weary of high voter turnout. Conservative - Matthew Vadum joins Thom Hartmann.

Jamie Weinstein, Daily Caller and Daniel Halper, Weekly Standard join Thom. Thom debate jobs, the economy, and the radical transformation underway in America with two conservative experts in tonight's Lone Liberal rumble! With "Son of Bitches vs. Mother of all wars" - Thom asks who is winning the Class War?

A Swedish man returned home late last night and came across a most unusual sight - an elk stuck in an apple tree. That's right - a full-grown elk - completely off the ground - tangled up in a tree. So much for all those Swedes who sarcastically made jokes about "when elks can fly." Fire fighters arrived to bend the tree down so the elk can wiggle out of the branches - that's when it became clear exactly how the elk got in the tree to begin with - he was drunk. Drunken elk are common in Sweden during autumn; when apples fall to the ground and begin to ferment - elks enjoy the tasty, alcoholic treats. After he was free, the elk laid on the ground for a few hours to recover from his bender - and then clumsily scampered off back into the woods. In a related story - Speaker of the House John Boehner denies that he has recently been stuck in any trees anywhere, and has no plans to visit Sweden.

Pete Sepp, National Taxpayer's Union, joins Thom. President Obama's stimulus package in 2009 kept our economy from a Great Depression - but it wasn't nearly big enough to re-boot strong job growth. His own economic advisors told him this - but he decided to compromise with Republicans in the Senate by reducing its size and throwing in some tax cuts. As a result - Republicans can make the argument that it failed - and now - it looks like President Obama is making the same mistake twice - with a stimulus package that is too small to work. The reason why is - he's backed himself into a trap...and it's an old trap that Republicans have used often.

Thom talks about the possibility of the United States Postal Office defaulting on their mandatory payment to their employee retirement fund. Later in the show, he debates Mitt Romney's job plan with conservative guest, Brian Darling.

As Warren Buffett put it way back in 2006, "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." But the Right's feigned outrage is rendered even more ridiculous thanks to a new report by Brad Friedman over at Mother Jones magazine who obtained an audio tape of a secret meeting of billionaires back in June in the mountains of Colorado. What you're aot to hear is billionaire oil baron Charles Koch - the same guy who funds right-wing think tanks and AstroTurf Tea Party groups - rally HIS soldiers - our nation's oligarchs - behind a "mother of all wars" to be waged against President Obama - who Koch refers to as Saddam Hussein. Again - that was billionaire Charles Koch calling President Obama "Saddam Hussein" - and urging his rich buddies to prepare for the "mother of all wars." Later - Koch goes on to tell his troops to shell out a million bucks toward that war effort - pocket change to most of the oligarchs in the room. What Charles Koch is referring to is the billionaire's war against working people...

Dr. Helen Caldicott, The Helen Caldicott Foundation/NuclearFreePlanet.org joins Thom from Australia. We're now nearly six month removed from the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan that triggered a global nuclear catastrophe. And while some progress has been made to deal with this never-before-seen nuclear crisis - there's still a long way to go - lots of questions still unanswered - and enormous risk still blanketing the nation of Japan. So much so - that world renowned physician and anti-nuclear advocate Dr. Helen Caldicott recently issued a dire warning to the Japanese people. Not buying into the Japanese government's efforts to downplay the crisis - Dr. Caldicott warned people living in North Japan and around the crippled Fukushima reactors to get the hell out of the area.

Falling behind in the polls - Mitt Romney laid out his plan to create jobs today at an event in Nevada. And like all the other plans put forward by his colleagues on the right - Romney's job creation plan sounds more like a Christmas list for millionaires, billionaires and transnational corporations, and less like an effective way to get Americans back to work. As you might expect - Romney's plan calls for massive tax breaks for US-based corporations. Brian Darling, Human Events joins Thom Hartmann.

Today - the United States has more people in prison - both as a percentage and in absolute numbers - than any other country in the developed world. And it appears the destructive nature of administering our criminal justice system based on the profit motive plays a huge role in our nation's exploding prison population. A fact that seems to allude Ohio Governor John Kasich. So how worrisome is it that corporate power is now creeping into the commons of our criminal justice system? And what are the consequences?