The Thom Hartmann Program - Aug 26th 2008
August 25th - September 5th 2008 Radio Guest Highlights for theWeek
Thom will be“live” from The Democratic and Republican Conventions – radio row. Guestsinclude Rep. John Conyers, David Sirota, Tom Hayden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, TerryJeffries, Christy Harvy, Rep Linda Sanchez, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and more…
Thom's Travel & Events Coming Up…
Democratic Convention Events – Thom willbe on radio row
Monday -August 25th 2pm–3pm SEACHANGE IDEAS FORUMPresents…Progressive/Conservative Debate
Air America’s ThomHartmann debates conservative political commentator Dennis Prager about the keyissues facing the candidates in the 2008 Presidential election.
Thom Hartmann (Air America Host)
Dennis Prager (Salem Radio Talk Show Host and Author)
Monday – August 25th 3pm – 6pm AIRAMERICA MEDIA & PROGRESSIVE BOOK CLUB ARE PROUD TO HOST…The contest:Progressives vs. Conservatives
Moderator: Thom Hartmann, Air America
Paul Krugman, The Conscience of aLiberal
Arianna Huffington, Right is Wrong
John Podesta, The Power of Progress
David Sirota, The Uprising
Sponsored by Green Mountain CoffeeRoasters
The Big Tent (Corner of 15th & Wynkoop Streets)
Tuesday –August 26th 6pm - Denver, CO -Thom is giving a talk and signing books-Border's Books in Lone Tree Colorado in the Park Meadows Mall. 8557 ParkMeadows Center Dr. Lone Tree, CO 80124 303.708.1735 (AM 760, Colorado'sProgressive Talk) www.am760.net
Republican Convention Events – Thom willbe on radio row
Monday - September 1 – SEIU’s Take Back Labor Day Festival -Harriet IslandMinneapolis Hip Hop acts Atmosphere and Lupe Fiasco, actor/ musician MosDef and British rocker Billy Bragg are joining the line-up at the ServiceEmployees International Union’s (SEIU) Take Back Labor Day Festival at the footof the Republican National Convention. Thefestival will run from noon to 7 p.m. on Sept. 1, Labor Day, at Harriet IslandRegional Park in the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul. The festival will feature musiciansSteve Earle, Allison Moorer and Tom Morello, SEIU President Andy Stern andChange to Win Chair Anna Burger, and Air America radio host Thom Hartmann (timeTBA). Purchase tickets @ www.ticketmaster.com
Tuesday - September 2 - AM950 The Voice of Minnesota- Invites You to TheParty for Change Join: Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Jim Ward, ChrisLavoie, Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, and Jon Elliott, Book signings: ThomHartmann and Bill Press,5:30 pm doors open. Party till 9:30 pm, Where:Black Bear Crossing on the Lake, located in the Historic Como LakesidePavilion, 1360 North Lexington Parkway,St. Paul, Minnesota $10 purchase ticketsat door only. www.am950ktnf.com
To Thom Hartmann
Yet Another Example Exposing the Dishonest, Hypocritical, and Vindictive Left
Last week, during one of your radio programs, you and your listeners decided to mock and degrade McCain's heroism as a Naval Aviator held captive by the North Vietnamese. Among some of the most egregious and mean-spirited of statements was McCain's appearance in propaganda films made the North Vietnamese, "singing like a canary," as a listener, who called in, put it. It may have been this same listener, who also stated how the North Vietnamese offered all American POWs the opportunity to leave prison, if they denounced their fellow prisoners and the U.S. war effort, as if McCain's decision to refuse this offer was no big deal. You obviously agreed, saying nothing to either correct or admonish the listener and often chiming in with your own comments in support of this baseless and toddler-like rant.
Engaging in this sort of slander and character assassination is not only wrong, it's also slimy and cowardly in the extreme. For unless you and the deluded sycophants, whose thinking is as illogical and twisted as yours, have been a POW, neither you nor they have any business disparaging McCain's heroic behavior as a POW in North Vietnam.
To begin with, North Vietnam subjected POWs to months and even years of unspeakable torture for no other reason than to use them as props in propaganda films, even though such acts flagrantly violated the Geneva Convention (1). Under these circumstances, it was common for POWs to appear in such films. They did so to ease the torture but also because they knew the world would dismiss these films as having been made under duress and how the POWs could use the films to communicate the horrible conditions under which they lived, using code or other means (2).
These conditions were all the more deplorable, when one considers how the North Vietnamese housed the prisoners. Typically this involved placing no more than two to a cell to psychologically isolate the prisoners and, thus, make the torture more effective and communication more difficult. So, even if the North Vietnamese offered all the POWs an early release, if they denounced their fellow POWs and the U.S. (which isn't true), neither McCain nor his cell mate would necessarily have known about this offer, or if they did, the number of POWs, to whom the offer was made.
Even so, it's irrelevant whether the North Vietnamese made this offer to only one prisoner or all of them. The fact remains that McCain chose to stay and undergo even worse torture for doing so, out of solidarity with his fellow POWs and the military's code, in which the first captured is the first released. As everyone knows, McCain was not the first.
This extremely brave and honorable behavior exhibited in the face of savage torture inflicted by an unjust, brutal, and tyrannical enemy, stands in stark contrast to the dishonest, hypocritical, narcissistic and childish behavior exhibited by the left in the freest and most humane country the world has ever known. For it's highly unlikely that such a sorry, puerile, and pathetic pack of losers, of which the left is now comprised and you are among the most prominent, would display even a tiny fraction of the fortitude displayed by McCain, even if the cause was something in which the left believed.
So your actions and those of your drone-like followers to make light of McCain's war-time sacrifice says far more about you and the left, than it does about McCain. Indeed, the baseless and mean-spirited comments made by you and the delusional dolts, who agree with you, shows how the left will stoop to anything - no matter how vile, disgusting, scummy, and low - if it can destroy those, who stand between the left and power, something the left has no business having, given its daily trafficking in half truths and outright lies.
But to you and the left, I'm fairly certain this criticism means nothing. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the left finds such criticism funny, since to the left, dishonesty, hypocrisy, and slander is just Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
(1) There's no moral equivalency or comparison, whatsoever, with the beastly torture inflicted by the North Vietnamese on American POWs for purely propaganda purposes and the waterboarding we used on two to three terrorists (for no more than 30 minutes each) captured in Afghanistan to obtain information that saved thousands of innocent lives. Unlike the North Vietnamese, we implemented the latter after much debate between factions in the Administration, review by legal scholars, and notification to select members of Congress. Thereafter, the debate occurred much more publically, involving all branches of government and the public. Being a totalitarian dictatorship, the North Vietnamese carried out nothing even remotely like this.
(2) During one film, an American POW blinked his eyes in Morse Code to spell out the word, "torture."
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By SheddAugust 25, 2008 - 11:54pmWhere You There?
I didn't think so.
Dr. Phillip Butler was there and here's his report on what actually happened:
"People often ask if I was a Prisoner of War with John McCain. My answer is always "No - John McCain was a POW with me." The reason is I was there for 8 years and John got there 2 ½ years later, so he was a POW for 5 ½ years. And we have our own seniority system, based on time as a POW.
John's treatment as a POW:
1) Was he tortured for 5 years? No. He was subjected to torture and maltreatment during his first 2 years, from September of 1967 to September of 1969. After September of 1969 the Vietnamese stopped the torture and gave us increased food and rudimentary health care. Several hundred of us were captured much earlier. I got there April 20, 1965 so my bad treatment period lasted 4 1/2 years. President Ho Chi Minh died on September 9, 1969, and the new regime that replaced him and his policies was more pragmatic. They realized we were worth a lot as bargaining chips if we were alive. And they were right because eventually Americans gave up on the war and agreed to trade our POW's for their country. A damn good trade in my opinion! But my point here is that John allows the media to make him out to be THE hero POW, which he knows is absolutely not true, to further his political goals.
2) John was badly injured when he was shot down. Both arms were broken and he had other wounds from his ejection. Unfortunately this was often the case - new POW's arriving with broken bones and serious combat injuries. Many died from their wounds. Medical care was non-existent to rudimentary. Relief from pain was almost never given and often the wounds were used as an available way to torture the POW. Because John's father was the Naval Commander in the Pacific theater, he was exploited with TV interviews while wounded. These film clips have now been widely seen. But it must be known that many POW's suffered similarly, not just John. And many were similarly exploited for political propaganda.
3) John was offered, and refused, "early release." Many of us were given this offer. It meant speaking out against your country and lying about your treatment to the press. You had to "admit" that the U.S. was criminal and that our treatment was "lenient and humane." So I, like numerous others, refused the offer. This was obviously something none of us could accept. Besides, we were bound by our service regulations, Geneva Conventions and loyalties to refuse early release until all the POW's were released, with the sick and wounded going first.
4) John was awarded a Silver Star and Purple Heart for heroism and wounds in combat. This heroism has been played up in the press and in his various political campaigns. But it should be known that there were approximately 600 military POW's in Vietnam. Among all of us, decorations awarded have recently been totaled to the following: Medals of Honor - 8, Service Crosses - 42, Silver Stars - 590, Bronze Stars - 958 and Purple Hearts - 1,249. John certainly performed courageously and well. But it must be remembered that he was one hero among many - not uniquely so as his campaigns would have people believe.
John McCain served his time as a POW with great courage, loyalty and tenacity. More that 600 of us did the same. After our repatriation a census showed that 95% of us had been tortured at least once. The Vietnamese were quite democratic about it. There were many heroes in North Vietnam. I saw heroism every day there. And we motivated each other to endure and succeed far beyond what any of us thought we had in ourselves. Succeeding as a POW is a group sport, not an individual one. We all supported and encouraged each other to survive and succeed. John knows that. He was not an individual POW hero. He was a POW who surmounted the odds with the help of many comrades, as all of us did.
I furthermore believe that having been a POW is no special qualification for being President of the United States. The two jobs are not the same, and POW experience is not, in my opinion, something I would look for in a presidential candidate.
Most of us who survived that experience are now in our late 60's and 70's. Sadly, we have died and are dying off at a greater rate than our non-POW contemporaries. We experienced injuries and malnutrition that are coming home to roost. So I believe John's age (73) and survival expectation are not good for being elected to serve as our President for 4 or more years.
I can verify that John has an infamous reputation for being a hot head. He has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button.
It is also disappointing to see him take on and support Bush's war in Iraq, even stating we might be there for another 100 years. For me John represents the entrenched and bankrupt policies of Washington-as-usual. The past 7 years have proven to be disastrous for our country. And I believe John's views on war, foreign policy, economics, environment, health care, education, national infrastructure and other important areas are much the same as those of the Bush administration.
I'm disappointed to see John represent himself politically in ways that are not accurate. He is not a moderate Republican. On some issues he is a maverick. But his voting record is far to the right. I fear for his nominations to our Supreme Court, and the consequent continuing loss of individual freedoms, especially regarding moral and religious issues. John is not a religious person, but he has taken every opportunity to ally himself with some really obnoxious and crazy fundamentalist ministers lately. I was also disappointed to see him cozy up to Bush because I know he hates that man. He disingenuously and famously put his arm around the guy, even after Bush had intensely disrespected him with lies and slander. So on these and many other instances, I don't see that John is the "straight talk express" . . . ."
http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,164859_1,00.html
McCain wants to use his POW status as an excuse for every mistake he makes. It'stime for the truth to be told.
I am sick and tired of this attitude that we have no right to question McCain's mediocre military service. McCain ran for president; his entire military record should be released, not hidden.
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By AmericanInsurgentAugust 26, 2008 - 11:13am88 years ago today the USA became a democracy
Eighty-eight years ago the United States of America joined 26 other countries, including the Muslim republic of Azerbaijan, in granting women the right to vote. I look back in awe to the women at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848 who dared to demand the right to vote, along with many other rights.
Susan B. Anthony spent 50 years of her life crisscrossing this country by train, horse and buggy, and horse-drawn sleigh. Speaking anywhere and everywhere she could on the “natural rights” of women and rarely spending more than one full day in any one place. When she voted in 1872 she was arrested and charged with voting illegally even though she had registered to vote. The judge would not allow her to speak at her trial, he refused to allow the jury to render an opinion, and he found her guilty.
Alice Paul led the suffragists who picketed the White House starting in 1916. They held up banners that quoted President Wilson's speeches on democracy and asking why he refused to back voting rights for women. They were accused of treason by the pundits of the time. They were beaten by mobs while the police looked on or the women themselves were arrested. They were held in jail for days without being allowed to contact anyone outside. Their friends and lawyers who tried to locate them were lied to by the police and jail officials. They were given months of prison time. Some were beaten by their jailers, some were put in solitary confinement. They went on hunger strikes, and were force fed. When word of their treatment eventually leaked out public opinion changed from derisiveness to outrage at their treatment and admiration for their courage. And in 1920 President Woodrow Wilson, who had fought tooth and nail against it, signed the 19th Amendment into law.
Because of the strength and courage of these women and hundreds of thousands like them I can never take voting rights lightly. No barriers to voter registration, all registered voters must be allowed to vote, and all votes must be counted.
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By JHUCAugust 26, 2008 - 2:07pmHillary's speech
I saw Hillary's speech live on C-SPAN and it was awesome! She absolutely got across how important it is to all of us that Obama is elected president. I haven't watched any of the pundits so I hope I don't insult any of them by saying that anybody who saw that speech as anything less than a call to all of us to do everything in our power to elect Obama/Biden is wearing their tinfoil hat too tight. Perhaps because their neighbor's dog told them to?!?!
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By JHUCAugust 27, 2008 - 12:00pmThom just asked what good Republicans have done since 1880
As much as it pains me to write this. The Republicans in the Congress and state legislatures were the force behind the passage of the 19th Amendment which gives women the right to vote. Also it was Republicans that included sex discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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By JHUCAugust 28, 2008 - 11:43amDisgusting Comment
On his August 29th show, while talking about John McCain’s
choice for Vice President, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Thom Hartmann made the observation to a fellow show participant, “she (Sarah Palin) has a 17 year old daughter that is pregnant and she is not married”. A few seconds later he observed that “she has a son with downs syndrome too”. What twisted mind, but Thom Hartmann’s, could possibly find any rational for those disgusting statements, and the fact that Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin has been chosen as John McCain’s Vice President candidate
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By TedescoAugust 29, 2008 - 3:56pm