Heather Cirmo, 440 Public Relations, Joe Madison, Joe Madison Show & Brian Darling, Human Events join Thom Hartmann on the Pawlenty tax cuts, Weinergate, the ten commandments monument, the new Muslim "McCarthy" hearings and signs that you probably aren't cut out to be President of the United States.

Economist Dr. Jared Bernstein, former advisor to the Obama Administration, previous Chief Economist and Vice President Joe Biden. He currently is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. You can watch this conversation - as well as other "conversations with great mind at www.ConversationsWithGreatMinds.com

Economist Dr. Jared Bernstein, former advisor to the Obama Administration, previous Chief Economist and Vice President Joe Biden. He currently is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. You can watch this conversation - as well as other "conversations with great mind at www.ConversationsWithGreatMinds.com

Web Description: Thom talks about Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty's tax plan, which increases tax cuts for the wealthy...causing the middle class to pick up the expensive bulk. Later in the show he debates the issue of separation of church and state with Dr. Carol Swain, author of "Be The People: A Call to Reclaim America's Faith and Promise".

Republican Congressman Paul Broun said the other day in a radio interview, that government employees should "find a real job." There used to be a time in America when if you talked that way about government - you could kiss your political career goodbye. As Republican President Dwight Eisenhower said about "New Deal" government programs back in 1954, "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group...a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Matt Wood, Policy Director-Free Press.net joins Thom. The FCC just released a report today saying that local news agencies are not doing their job in holding local governments and schools accountable. Despite the uptick in online news - the report concludes there is a lack of local investigative reporting and this is causing an array of problems including, "scandals not exposed, government waste not discovered, health dangers not identified in time, local elections involving candidates about whom we know little." The FCC recommends that local media outlets create C-SPAN-like broadcasts to inform their communities. Curiously - in the same week this report was released - the FCC gave in to Republicans in the House and also pledged to completely take the Fairness Doctrine off its books.

Republicans in Louisiana are fighting for the right to place a "Ten Commandments" monument on the grounds of the state capitol. I guess they forgot about that "separation of church and state" Thom asks Dr. Carol Swain, Author, Be The People: A Call to Reclaim America's Faith and Promise, If the Deerborne, Michigan city hall wanted to put up a monument to the Koran on it's grounds - would that be ok with you?

Thom discusses a report released from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which highlights how American aid to Afghanistan, totaling near 19 billion dollars has been used in corrupted activities. Later in the show, Thom is joined by his two conservative panelists, Jamie Weinstein and Daniel Halper in the "Lone Liberal" rumble.

Two lobbying giants were pitted against each other in the United States Senate. It was Wal Mart versus Wall Street on the issue of debit card swipe fees. This swipe fee bill has been priority number one in the Senate for quite a while. While you may think our Senate has been hard at work trying to raise the debt ceiling and get people back to work - they've ACTUALLY been working on this swipe card fee bill all year.

It's time for the "Lone Liberal" - when Thom takes on two expert conservative commentators on the big stories of the week. On the panel tonight.. is Daniel Halper Deputy Online Editor at the Weekly Standard & Jamie Weinstein - Senior Editor at the DailyCaller.com

Tim Cavanaugh, Reason Magazine joins Thom Hartmann. A California man and his three small children are bombared in their home by a group of federal agents and a SWAT team! The Department of Education was behind the bust - and they aren't saying why it happened - but it could have something to do with student loans. So could the feds be headed to a door near you?

Beware of the left-wing Sesame Street conspiracy. That's right - move over NPR - some on the right are accusing Sesame Street of being a liberal propaganda outlet. Yes...I'm talking about THE Sesame Street - the one we grew up on and some of us raised our kids on. Lawyer Ben Shapiro is hyping up a new book "Primetime Propaganda" that examines this liberal bias spewing from the like of the Cookie Monster and he joins Thom. Not only does Ben Shapiro go after Bert & Ernie but he also goes after Hollywood for keeping conservatives out. Thom asks Ben - should big government come into the free market to protect conservatives? Should we have quotas and affirmative action for conservatives? Or doesn't this prove - in the marketplace - that people have rejected conservative ideas? Tune in.

Kids will even challenge power without realizing it - remember the story about the little boy who pointed out that the king wasn't wearing any clothes? Remember Art Linkletter? Kids say the darndest things - Middle school yearbook names 5 worst people of all time...Adolph Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney..ohoh...

Norman Soloman - Donna Smith - and Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats for America join Thom Hartmann. The "Healthcare not Warfare" campaign is raising awareness about our deteriorating healthcare system that's bankrupting millions of Americans and leaving them sick with nowhere to go. And while this is going on - our nation is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on endless wars in the Middle East. So the choice is simple - do we keep funding "black hole" wars - or start making Americans healthy again? Please sign "Healthcare not Warfare" petition at bit.ly

For more signs that we are in a Great Depression and not just a Great Recession - consider this fact - today - over 6 million Americans - more than 45% of all the unemployed in our nation - have been out of work for more than 6 months - a higher percentage than during the Great Depression. Not to mention an unknown several million other people - the 99ers - who have been jobless so long they're not eligible to receive unemployment benefits anymore. There are two Americas today - one comprised of the working class that's in the grip of a Second Republican Great Depression - and the other comprised of millionaires and billionaires who are unscathed thanks to the Wall Street bailout. And the news media - filled mostly with millionaires - don't want to discuss this reality. But I do Between 2001 and 2010 - The Bush tax cuts cost our economy two and a half trillion dollars! That's two and a half trillion added on to our debt that Republicans today are screaming is way to high. And that money that SHOULD have been flowing through our government and then through our economy - mostly went into the hands of the very few and the very rich. In fact - nearly a third of all the Bush tax cuts went to the top 1% of Americans. But wait...there's more.