Thom Hartmann's is challenging Phil Vischer, Creator-"Veggie Tales" who finds the "rebranding" of Christmas traditions as the "holiday season" offensive. Phil attacked Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffee for calling the state's Christmas Tree a "Holiday Tree." Given that there are people in Rhode Island whose taxes paid for that tree who are not Christians, and that it was originally a Pagan symbol that predates Jesus but originally was lit to bring back the sun on the shortest day of the year, isn't Governor Lincoln Chaffee right and Phil's attack bizarre?

The Good! Congressman Barney Frank. If you like seeing Conservative commentators get their lunch handed to them - as they do so often on MY show - then you would have loved to have seen what Barney Frank did to George Will yesterday on ABC's "This Week." The Bad! Bill O'Reilly. GOP TV's favorite talking head weighed in on the Ron Paul presidential candidacy this morning on an interview with NBC. And the very, very ugly...Rush Limbaugh. So guess who Limp-balls is picking on now? Try children living in poverty

In the last election - thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that corporations are people and money is speech - nearly $320 billion was thrown into the 2010 midterms - breaking a record for election spending. And 2012 is on pace to break that record with even more special interest spending. And guess who's taking in as much corporate money as they can...Mitt Romney! In fact - ten percent of all of America's billionaires have donated to the Romney campaign. And a bulk of Romney tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions has come straight from banksters and special interests on Wall Street. I wonder what 1994 Mitt Romney would have to say about 2011 Mitt Romney. But the bigger question is - why does money have such a corrosive influence in our politics - and how do we get rid of it? One person who knows a thing or two about the connection between money and politics is former lobbyist and Washington insider - Jack Abramoff, author, Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America's Most Notorious Lobbyist. Thom also asks about why other lobbyists & members of congress were not arrested.

Between the insecurity of our voting machines - and the right-wing push for strict voter ID laws - the right to vote and have that vote be counted - which is the beating heart of our democracy - is in trouble. That's why today it's more important than ever to listen to what Thomas Paine said about voting rights more than 200 years ago... Paine explained why the right to vote is so important, "To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case. The proposal therefore to disfranchise any class of men is as criminal as the proposal to take away [their] property." Paine said the only time we should ever deny someone the right to vote, "The only ground upon which exclusion from the right of voting is consistent with justice would be to inflict it as a punishment for a certain time upon those who should propose to take away that right from others." In other words, Paine said we should stop Republicans, the Koch Brothers, and Scott Walker from voting!

Brad Friedman, Bradblog.com joins Thom Hartmann. And the hactivist group known as Anonymous may have declared a new target for their digital activism - and it's making the GOP very nervous. Could the next target for the hacktivist group known as Anonymous be the Republican Iowa Caucuses in two weeks? Last month - a video - believed to be made by Anonymous - was uploaded on YouTube warning of a potential cyber threat to the vote counting system used in the Iowa Caucuses. Republican Party officials in Iowa are taking this threat seriously. As the AP reports, "Republican Party officials in Iowa are taking new steps to secure their vote counting systems...Investigators aren't sure whether the video is authentic, but party officials have instructed precinct caucuses to use paper ballots as a backup system and taken other steps to protect the database and website that displays caucus results." So what does this threat - whether it's real or not - say about the security of our voting machines? Is our democracy vulnerable to hacking?

Nathan Schneider, Waging Nonviolence. This weekend - the movement celebrated it's three-month anniversary in New York City by asking for sanctuary. Ever since the movement was kicked out of it's central command in Zuccotti Park more than a month ago - demonstrators have been looking for a new place to set up operations - to build a new encampment. So on Saturday - demonstrators marched to a piece of land owned by Trinity Church - one of the oldest churches in the city - intent on setting up a new camp. Unfortunately - their bid to re-occupy the area failed - as Trinity Church refused to give the movement sanctuary on its property. The NYPD arrived - and arrested 50 demonstrators - many of whom were trying to scale a fence around Duarte Park.

Richard Eskow, Campaign for America's Future joins Thom Hartmann. Tonight - led by the Tea Partiers in the Republican Party - the House of Representatives is expected to vote down a 2-month extension of the payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans. It was an extension agreed on by both Republican and Democratic Senators - one that was approved by the White House - and one that Boehner himself supported when it initially passed on Saturday. Shortly after though - his Tea Party Republicans went into revolt. They're unhappy that the plan is only a 2-month extension - and unhappy that a lot of the far right-wing goodies had been stripped out of the bill in the Senate. So, Tea Party Republicans voted to screw-over 160 million Americans tonight with a $1000 tax hike that kicks in in two weeks, and is ONLY paid by people making less than $106000 a year. You can call it the "Tea Party Tax Increase"

Thom discusses the Tea Party's revolt against the payroll tax cut extension and the potential demise of the Republicans in the upcoming 2012 elections. Later in the show, Thom discusses the corruption of money in politics with former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Debunking the latest myth about the men who ratified the American Constitution.

Eric Burns, Bullfight Strategies & Brian Darling, Human Events & Vince Coglianese, Daily Caller on Government shutdown? Big Polluters and - What is Ron Wyden thinking??

In this week's Conversatiosn with Great Minds - Thom Hartmann is joined by Professor Frances Fox Piven who envisioned the 99 percent movement over a year ago. For the past thirty years - she has been a professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center at The City University of New York. She gained notoriety for an article she co-wrote with sociologist Richard Cloward in 1996 that advocated increased enrollment in social welfare programs in order to collapse the dysfunctional parts of that system and force reforms - leading to a guaranteed annual income. This political strategy is now known as the "Cloward-Piven strategy" and has been a hot topic of discussion in recent years. Professor Piven has served as the President of the American Sociological Association and is currently an honoray chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. And she is one of the people responsible for the fact that you can now register to vote at the DMV - In 1983 she co-founded Human SERVE, an organization with the goal of increasing voter registration by linking vehicle registration with access to social services and voting. Human SERVE's initiative was incorporated into the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 - more commonly known as the "Motor Voter Bill" - and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. In addition to numerous scholarly articles, Professor Piven is the author of a dozen books - the latest being "Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?: The Essential Writings ...

In this week's Conversatiosn with Great Minds - Thom Hartmann is joined by Professor Frances Fox Piven who envisioned the 99 percent movement over a year ago. For the past thirty years - she has been a professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center at The City University of New York. She gained notoriety for an article she co-wrote with sociologist Richard Cloward in 1996 that advocated increased enrollment in social welfare programs in order to collapse the dysfunctional parts of that system and force reforms - leading to a guaranteed annual income. This political strategy is now known as the "Cloward-Piven strategy" and has been a hot topic of discussion in recent years. Professor Piven has served as the President of the American Sociological Association and is currently an honoray chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. And she is one of the people responsible for the fact that you can now register to vote at the DMV - In 1983 she co-founded Human SERVE, an organization with the goal of increasing voter registration by linking vehicle registration with access to social services and voting. Human SERVE's initiative was incorporated into the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 - more commonly known as the "Motor Voter Bill" - and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. In addition to numerous scholarly articles, Professor Piven is the author of a dozen books - the latest being "Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?: The Essential Writings ...

Political Science professor and author of "Who's Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?: The Essential Writings of the Professor Glenn Beck Loves to Hate", Frances Fox Piven joins Thom for the first half hour for Conversations with Great Minds. Later in the show, Thom discusses the last minute budget deal which avoided a government shutdown and the Iowa GOP Presidential candidate debate in the weekly rumble.

Andy Kroll, Mother Jones Magazine joins Thom Hartmann. The recall Governor Scott Walker effort in Wisconsin is about to hit an important milestone. Today - the United Wisconsin coalition - one of the main organizers of the recall campaign - announced that more than 507000 signatures have already been collected - meaning organizers need less than 35000 signatures now to officially trigger a recall election. And they still have more than a month to collect the remaining signatures. That's bad news for Scott Walker. Scott Walker is learning a lesson - and so too should other Republican governors who've gone after union workers - like John Kasich in Ohio and Chris Christie in New Jersey. And that lesson is: Don't mess with working people.