The Good! Occupy Minnesota. The Bad! The NYPD. The Very Very Ugly! Mitt Romney.

This year - we've seen well over 5000 American patriots hauled away in handcuffs for peaceably protesting against the high crimes on Wall Street. Meanwhile - not one bankster has gone to jail for those very same crimes. So - in the hopes that some of these banksters will be held accountable for their crimes NEXT year - we're going to recap tonight exactly what these guys are guilty of - and how they did such remarkable damage to our nation. To help us with that list - Dave Johnson joins Thom from the Campaign for America's Future.

John W. Whitehead Rutherford Institute joins Thom Hartmann. If you thought your interaction with the TSA was over once you left the airport this weekend - think again! The TSA is expanding it's operations - so what does that mean for our privacy?? TSA Security teams are now roaming the country setting up shop at other transportation depots besides airports. Over 9300 unannounced checkpoints were set up this year at places like train stations, subways, ferries, and other mass transit hubs - costing taxpayers 110 million bucks. So far - there's no proof that the random checkpoints are working to prevent any sort of terrorist attack - yet the TSA is asking for more money - to do even more random checkpoints across the nation. So why is the TSA trampling on the rights of Americans to be presumed innocent for just wanting to get on a bus, train, or plane?

Thom is wondering why when he flew out of Reagan National Airport - where lobbyists & Congresspeople fly out of - he didn't see a single Chertoff Porno Scanner. But coming back from the Portland Airport - every single row had a Chertoff Porno Scanner. Thom said, "I'll take the grope." Find out what happened.

The highly controversial National Defense Authorization Act is still awaiting the President's signature. The act contains an indefinite detention provision - giving the President of the United States the power to use the military to indefinitely detain you without trial if is says that you're a suspected terrorist. There've been protests across the country in response to the Act - including a dozen patriots with Occupy DC being arrested in front of the White House last week. But the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that the President will indeed sign the National Defense Authorization Act into law - although he will also be issuing a signing statement regarding the indefinite detention provision specifically. So what might change in America once this act becomes law? And even though President Obama may try to limit his own new powers regarding indefinite detention with a signing statement - what about the next President? For more on this - Thom Hartmann joined by Scott Horton - a attorney, lecturer at the Columbia Law School, and contributing editor with Harper's Magazine

Brad Friedman, Brag Blog joins Thom Hartmann. Republicans are BIG fans of new voter ID laws...except when those very same lawys bite one of their own. Newt Gingrich just got screwed over by his own party's strict new voting laws. Even though Newt Gingrich has a sizeable lead in Virginia according to the latest polls - his name will not appear on the Virginia ballot. And it's not because Newt didn't get the 10000 signatures necessary to get his name on the ballot...he did. Unfortunately - those signatures weren't "valid." According to a change in the way Republicans run their primary in Virginia this year, they're applying the same rigorous identity standards to primary voters that apply to everybody in the general election. The part of that voter ID law that caught Gingrich was that each signature on the petition must have its address verified to make sure its the same address as listed on their voter registration cards. If it's not - then the signature doesn't count. Republicans did this to throw voters off the rolls and keep them from voting in the next election if there's a minor address discrepancy, or if kids have gone off to college, or if people are low-income and move often in search of work. But in this case - the new law hurts Gingrich's chances to win the Republican nomination - go figure.

John Nichols, The Nation Magazine joins Thom Hartmann. Republicans are making their final push toward Iowa. And with the caucus just one week away - there's a three way tie for the lead. But there's a chance none of them could walk away with a victory. I'll explain what the 99% Movement is up to in Iowa, to derail the first contest in the 2012 race for the White House

So doesn't it just seem to you like the 1% just don't give a damn about anyone else? That they lack basic empathy and compassion? This week - Bank of America got hit with a $335 million settlement for preying on minority homebuyers. Their subsidiary - Countrywide - systematically screwed over blacks and latinos - people who just walked in - looking to buy a home - and walked out with a subprime exploding mortgages - even though they qualified for the non-exploding normal mortgages that white people were getting Banksters looked at these prospective homebuyers not as customers - not as fellow Americans - not as neighbors or friends - but instead as suckers - people they could con into a crooked mortgage and walk away with extra fees. Where's the compassion for your fellow man? Meanwhile - in the House of Representatives - Republicans - nearly half of whom are millionaires - have spent most of this week fighting an extention of the payroll tax cut and extended unemployment benefits for the jobless. They just don't care about what a thousand dollar tax increase on 160 million Americans might mean: To many of them - like Darryl Issa - the second richest man in Congress - that's just pocket change. They don't understand what getting cut off from an unemployment check could do to a family. So they sit on their hands - or call unemployed people lazy - and tell the uninsured to take more responsibility for themselves. Where's the empathy?

Neil McCabe, Editor-Guns n' Patriots, Sam Sacks, Progressive Strategist & Kris Ullman, Conservative Commentator. House Republicans & the tea party caved today - a sign of things to come? and...what's up with Ron Paul?

For tonight's Conversations with Great Minds - Thom Hartmann is joined by Professor Gar Alpervitz. Professor Alpervitz is a historian, political economist, activist and author. He is currently the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and a former Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books on the atomic bomb and atomic diplomacy and his articles have appeared in leading American publications - including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation Magazine, and the Atlantic and he is a frequent featured guest on major cable news programs. After completing his Ph.D. from Canbridge University - Professor Alpervitz served as a legislative director in both houses of Congress and as a special assistant in the State Department. He is also the president of the National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives and is a founding principal of the Democracy Collaborative, a research institution focused on initiatives that promote the democratization of wealth. His latest book is "America Beyind Capitalism" - a book that has been described as "one of the most important books of the decade." Professor Gar Alperovitz goes beyond capitalism with worker coops, public banks and local economies.

For tonight's Conversations with Great Minds - Thom Hartmann is joined by Professor Gar Alpervitz. Professor Alpervitz is a historian, political economist, activist and author. He is currently the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and a former Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books on the atomic bomb and atomic diplomacy and his articles have appeared in leading American publications - including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation Magazine, and the Atlantic and he is a frequent featured guest on major cable news programs. After completing his Ph.D. from Canbridge University - Professor Alpervitz served as a legislative director in both houses of Congress and as a special assistant in the State Department. He is also the president of the National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives and is a founding principal of the Democracy Collaborative, a research institution focused on initiatives that promote the democratization of wealth. His latest book is "America Beyind Capitalism" - a book that has been described as "one of the most important books of the decade." Professor Gar Alperovitz goes beyond capitalism with worker coops, public banks and local economies.

Political economist, professor and author, Gar Alperovitz joins Thom for the first half hour for Conversations with Great Minds. They discuss his new book, "America Beyond Capitalism" and how it relates to the current state of America's fragile economy.

Karen Finney, Democratic Strategist joins Thom Hartmann. We're now just ten days away from the "Tea Party Tax Increase." Speaker of the House in name only - John Boehner - is still terrified by Eric Cantor and the Tea Party - and is still blocking a vote on the Senate's 2-month payroll tax-cut-extension, which was agreed upon last weekend by 90% of the Senate, Democrats AND Republicans. This is the message Republicans are banking on: 1 year vs. 2 month but what Republicans don't want you to know is what "Poison Pills" is in that 1-year extension... -Cuts unemployment benefits from 99 weeks to 59 weeks -Forces construction of Keystone XL pipeline -Lets states drug test the unemployed -Forces the unemployed to take GED classes to receive benefits -Strips EPA regulations on incinerators and boilers - 20000 premature deaths -Cuts $8 billion from preventative healthcare -Freezes pay of federal workers -Forces Federal workers to contribute more to their pensions -Adds $166B to the deficit in FY2012

Democratic Strategist, Karen Finney and Thom discuss the payroll tax cut fight on Capitol Hill and if an agreement will be reached before the close of the year.