The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced a so-called comprehensive immigration plan. And, as usual, Democrats conceded to Republican demands in the name of compromise. Over the last five days, the Judiciary Committee members considered over 200 proposed amendments to the plan, and approved several of the most egregious changes to the legislation.
According to one amendment, 100 percent of the Mexican border must be under surveillance, and 90 percent of illegal border crossings must be prevented, before undocumented immigrants can even apply for U.S. Citizenship. And, immigrants will also have to spend 10 years in a provisional status, pay thousands in fines, and meet stringent work requirements. An amendment submitted by Senator Orrin Hatch, and approved by the Committee, will allow tech companies to utilize thousands of new H1B Visas, and remove the requirement that companies must try to find American workers to fill the jobs. Other provisions include authorizing the use of drones along the border, increasing the number of Customs agents, and deploying the National Guard to build a fence along our Southern border.
Yet, despite Republicans getting their way on all those provisions, and more, Senator Patrick Leahy was forced to withdraw his amendment, which would have recognized same-sex couples for the purposes of immigration. So, the GOP got their unattainable benchmarks, their militarization of our border, and a new supply of cheap labor, and Democrats had to give up on LGBT equality. It's no wonder that three Republicans in the Judiciary Committee crossed the isle to support this plan, or that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged to allow a vote on it.
Democrats should not abandon their principles, just to get Republicans to negotiate – especially when the GOP's idea of negotiating is getting everything that they want. This is not compromise, it's hostage taking. The plan will be debated by the full Senate next month, so we still have a chance to stop some of these awful provisions. Call your Senators and tell them to remove the immigration benchmarks, stand up for American workers, and stop the militarization of our border.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL 1600.
I must admit, I've never been to Oklahoma. I have family friends from there, but it's one part of the Great Plains I've managed to avoid in my life. Yet that didn't stop me from feeling quite a bit of empathy with those folks in the Oklahoma cites and towns hit so hard by this week's tornado. On my radio program I suggested that this would be a great time for New Yorkers and those affected by Hurricane Sandy to get behind Oklahoman victims and their families.
This was not, for me, a simple moral calculation (perhaps it should have been). Politically, I figured if New Yorkers, through our lawmakers, made it clear we wanted as much money allocated by the federal government as was needed, maybe those people in the heartland would understand this wasn't about money first. I wondered aloud whether some senator or congressman would, as they did in the wake of Sandy, say in order to send money to the victims of disaster, cuts would have to be made in the federal budget.
It didn't take long. What was surprising was where it came from. The person to turn his back on Oklahoma was in fact, its own senator, Tom Coburn. Like so many deficit hawks, it wasn't about his constituents' suffering, it was about money. And where do you think Coburn might want to make those cuts? Doesn't matter. By taking a position that even some of his GOP buddies found over the top, Coburn was prepared to initiate a process that would have dragged on for months before anyone in his home state got a dime of relief.
Now, if cuts did have to be made, I have two modest suggestions. They certainly wouldn't offset the billions it will take to make those tornado victims whole, but it would be a start. First, lay off some drone strikers. The number of strikes around the world declined in the past year, so either re-assign those who sit in front of computer banks killing those in far off lands, or lay them off. And how about this? Cut the number of congressional days off by half, then reduce their salaries and cut their pension and medical benefits.
After all, many of our lawmakers are millionaires, aren't they? Tom Coburn is retiring from the Senate in 2016. He doesn't really need a government pension, does he? If the people of Oklahoma are being asked to sacrifice, let those who would make them wait for help do the same.
A new CNN poll shows Obama's favorability rating at 53 percent. That's up from 51 percent in April, and up from the 51.1 percent from the poll that really counted last November. Like before the scandals, 45 percent of people disapprove of the job President Obama has done. All that changed is that the nutcases in that number disapprove of him more than ever. All that the scandals have done is to poke an angry dog on a chain with a stick. The dog is the Tea Party, and Obama's approval numbers are the chain.
Lost in all this hang-wringing about the IRS is the fact that George Bush went after his political foes. And he was a lot more effective in attacking them than he was at attacking Iraq. But then he could hardly be worse. Republicans are so confident that nobody remembers what Bush did with the IRS that Fox News can run a headline reading "What if IRS under President Bush targeted liberal groups?" Like that's hypothetical question! The question isn't "What if the Bush IRS targeted liberal groups?" The question is "What about when the Bush IRS targeted liberal groups?"
Karl Rove says that his super PAC, Crossroads GPS, is just like the NAAC because they both promote "social welfare." Evidently there is a disagreement about what constitutes "social welfare." Karl Rove has spent his life helping those who are more fortunate. Yes, Karl Rove's super PAC is all about helping people—if those people are Karl Rove or if they are billionaires. In fact, the biggest mission of Karl Rove's super PAC is to turn Karl Rove into one of those billionaires.
Rand Paul claims that the IRS had a written policy "targeting people who were opposed to the President." This claim is based on evidence Rand Paul uncovered in a dark corner of his own mind. Paul said "we're going to find a written policy that says we were targeting people who were opposed to the President." It has to exist… because Rand Paul really wants it to exist. So somebody should tell Darrell Issa—if he's looking for a smoking gun in this IRS inquiry, maybe he should search through Rand Paul's fantasy world. This is how Republicans gather evidence. First they visualize what they want to find. Then they go on the Sunday talk shows and claim that it really exists.
Glenn Beck claims that "20 percent of the lynchings" done by the KKK "were of white people." Exactly why were all these white people being lynched, Glenn? Did they try to talk to a white woman? Did they drink from a fountain that was labeled "Whites Only"? We can't have white people doing that! Then Glenn said "the white people that were lynched are exactly the kind of people that would be in the Tea Party today." Yes, because nothing angers the KKK more than a sign showing Obama as a witch doctor.
Listen to The Randi Rhodes Show weekdays 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
For over a week, Republicans have refused to focus on anything but so-called scandal. And, it turns out, that's exactly the way they want it. On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, sent a letter to GOP leaders, and told them to avoid working on any legislation that could take the focus off of the Obama Administration.
Michael Needham, the CEO of Heritage Action for America, wrote, "Legislation such as the Internet sales tax, or the FARRM Act, which contains nearly $800 billion in food stamp spending, would give the press a reason to shift their attention away from the failures of the Obama administration to write another 'circular firing squad' article." In other words, they want Republicans to use the media's scandal obsession to keep the focus off of in-fighting within the Party, and to avoid getting any real work done.
It's also important to note that Heritage Action is a registered 501(c)(4) organization. That means you and me are subsidizing the very organization that's telling our lawmakers not to do their job. As if Republicans in Congress ever needed an excuse to do nothing. The fact is, while the GOP obsesses about so-called scandal, the pressing issues facing our nation are being ignored.
Instead of trying to score political points, Republicans could be working to help our economy, create jobs, or to fix our broken immigration system. They were not elected to do the bidding of conservative think tanks. It's time to listen to the American people, put aside political witch-hunts, and start working on the issues that people actually care about.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have made their point – they hate Obamacare. And, just in case anyone didn't get the message the first 36 times they made that point, they're about to waste even more taxpayer time and money on one more attempt to repeal the healthcare law.
According to the Think Progress Blog, since 2011, House Republicans have spent 15 percent of their time – about 90 hours and over $50 million dollars – on the 36 attempts to repeal Obamacare. All of which were doomed to failure because they'd never make it through the Senate, and they'd be subject to a presidential veto. And this latest attempt – which adds another $1.5 million to the tab – isn't any more likely to succeed.
While our nation is struggling to deal with massive Republican austerity, a sluggish economy, and numerous other pressing issues, GOP House members are wasting yet another day on a meaningless vote. This is not service to out country. This is not leadership. This is pure partisan nonsense will not do a damn thing to help the Americans they're supposed to represent.
Perhaps the first time House Republicans held this vote, they could claim they were fighting for the will of their small but loud base. And maybe even the second time, or the third. But this is the 37th time they're wasting our tax money on another meaningless vote. It's time for the House Republicans to knock it off, and get to work.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
The Associated Press has accused the Justice Department of "massive and unprecedented intrusion." That's according to one of the AP's top executives, after learning that the government secretly acquired two months of the news agency's telephone records. In a letter to the AP last Friday, the Justice Department offered no explanation, as to why it sought the records of 20 separate phone lines used by reporters in April and May of last year. However, in previous testimony, government officials said that the U.S. Attorney in Washington was conducting a criminal investigation into the leak of confidential CIA information that was cited in an AP story last year.
AP President and CEO, Gary Pruitt, sent a letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder, writing, "the government has no conceivable right to know" about communications with confidential sources. Normally, news agencies are notified in advance when the government wants these type of records, and there's negotiation between the agency and the government over the requested information. But the Justice Department's letter cited an exemption to that requirement, which waives the notification requirement if it poses "a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation."
It's not clear if the records request was signed off on by a judge or grand jury, or if the request was granted by secret FISA courts. So, the Justice Department has violated our First Amendment without so much as a warning, and refuses to disclose their reason for doing so. This is something we should all be concerned about.
Freedom of the press is one of our most important liberties. The press is our fourth estate, and it is our constitutionally protected way to publicly challenge our government. It was Thomas Jefferson who said "our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." We must protect this liberty, and start demanding some answers from our Justice Department.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
It seems that the Republicans won't stop until their attacks over Benghazi are as vicious as the attack in Benghazi. The Republicans would have you believe that the Obama administration altered the talking points on Benghazi out of political reasons. If you want a perfect example of the pure political manipulation that the Republicans are accusing Obama of, just look at what the Republicans are doing when they accuse him.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates defended the Obama administrations reactions to the attack on Benghazi. Robert Gates served under George Bush—so this is a man who would recognize a serious mistake if he saw one. Gates said that the critics of Obama have "a cartoonish impression of military capabilities." Cartoonish is right. They think that Obama should have reacted to the incident with the kind of contraptions that the Coyote used against the Roadrunner. We could have taught those terrorists a real lesson if we just had a giant rubber band and an anvil from Acme.
Conservatives are talking impeachment. They began their impeachment talk in mid-November of 2008. It just receded for a few months in 2012 when they thought they could get rid of Obama with an election. It turns out that they were completely delusional about their chances of beating Obama in an election—but that's nothing compared to the delusions they have about impeachment. Conservatives have vowed to impeach Obama for anything and everything… and for nothing too! In the Republican mind, Obama should be impeached for being president. If black people all over America routinely get pulled over for "driving while black," it seems that now the GOP wants to impeach Obama for being president while black.
Republicans who aren't attacking Obama over Benghazi are attacking him over the IRS targeting Tea Party groups. Obama has condemned the actions of the IRS as "outrageous." But not as outrageous as the Republican reaction to them. The person running the IRS at the time was a Bush appointee. That's surprising… mostly because I can't believe George Bush made a decent appointment to the IRS.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, Monsanto has the right to control our food supply. In a unanimous ruling released this morning, the nine Justices sided with the agricultural giant, and held that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto's patent by planting seeds produced from genetically modified soybeans. Although the farmer, Vernon Hugh Bowman, acquired the seeds from a grain elevator, they contained Monsanto's patented genes, and thus the court found that planting them was a patent violation.
In Justice Elena Kagan's 10-page opinion, the Court deemed the soybean seeds to be copies of Monsanto's technology. Kagan wrote, "If simple copying were a protected use, a patent would plummet in value after the first sale of the first item containing the invention." And further, the Court reasoned that allowing patented seeds to be used this way, "would result in less incentive for innovation than Congress wanted." Apparently, the Court believes this "incentive for innovation" is important enough to allow one company to control our food supply. Currently, Monsato's seeds account for 93 percent of soybeans and 86 percent of corn grown in our nation.
Less than a week ago, the Think Progress Blog reported on a study that found this Supreme Court to be the most pro-business court in at least 65 years, and this ruling exemplifies that study. By upholding Monsanto's right to have a monopoly on our food supply, the Court has, once again, ruled that profit is more important than people.
If the Courts won't stand up to corporate power, then we must push our elected representatives to start standing up for the people. Call Congress and the White House and tell them that no company has the right to control our food supply.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
Yesterday, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives postponed all floor votes so they could hold their ninth hearing about Benghazi. Instead of working on any number of pressing issues effecting Americans, Republicans spent nine hours on a political witch hunt.
Unsurprisingly, their so-called "whistleblowers," who were supposed to blow the lid off some huge conspiracy, ended up debunking many of the right-wing talking points we've heard about the attack. As the Think Progress Blog explains, yesterday's testimony made clear that F-16s could not have prevented the second wave of attacks, Hilary Clinton did not lie about diplomatic cables, and the only reason a Special Forces Team was told not to deploy to Benghazi, is that another team was already on its way.
So, Republicans wasted nine hours and countless tax-payer dollars on a hearing that confirmed everything they've been told in the previous eight hearings they've held about the attack. The only thing being covered up here is the fact that last year, the GOP voted to cut the U.S. Embassy security funding by $300 million dollars.
Instead of politicizing the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, House Republicans could have focused on our economy, on bringing jobs back from overseas, or reversing the austerity measures that are gutting our vital agencies. But, they won't do any of those things because there's a chance it could help President Obama.
Republicans should stop wasting time and get to work on the issues most Americans actually care about. We get it – you hate the president, and want to prevent Hillary Clinton from running in 2016. Now get to work.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Progarm weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
Oh, you crazy Americans! Here you are, obsessed with guns, thinking you need them to stop some leering thug from invading your home and taking everything you have. Truth be told, you don't have to worry about that nearly as much as, say, 20 years ago. A new Pew Research Center poll says while the gun homicide rate has dropped a substantial 49% since 1993, most Americans (56%) think gun crime is higher now than 20 years ago.
In fact, gun death rates in the last part for the first decade of the 21st century had plunged to a level not seen since the 1960s. So why do so many think we're on the verge of a gun violence apocalypse? There are no easy answers, but a few reasons come to mind. The perceived increase in the frequency of mass shootings may have something to do with it. Perhaps the consequence of allowing too many people who have no business possessing weapons played a contributing role.
An interesting sidebar to the Pew study is this. In answer to virtually every question, blacks and Latinos think gun violence is up at a higher rate than whites. This might be attributed to another sad fact. According to the study, 72% of the gun homicide victims in 2010 were black and Latino. Together, this group made up 29% of the total population.
So could there be another reason why so many Americans have an upside down view of gun violence? At the risk of dogging my own profession, does the media have anything to do with it? Media is, after all, an easy target. People know they can blame the media for just about anything, and they also know the media won't change unless forced to by revenue concerns.
One could take some comfort in the notion that we're not killing each other as often as we did 20 years ago.
Question is, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
Now the abducted women are back with their families. Maybe now people will stop thinking of Cleveland as the butt of jokes and start thinking of it as a really weird and creepy place. This is a story straight out of… wow, I don't think anyone has covered quite this ground before. It has elements of "Silence of the Lambs." I hope these Castro brothers weren't also eating people's brains.
In 2005, the brother who lived in the house, Ariel Castro, had been arrested for beating a woman he has three children with. The woman said that Castro broke her nose twice, her ribs, dislocated her shoulder twice, knocked out a tooth, and caused a blood clot on her brain. It sounds like she would have been better off as one of his captives. The whole family is bizarre. One of Castro's daughters is serving 25 years in prison for attempting to murder her own infant daughter. It sounds like this entire family should just pack up and move to Dagestan.
Should the 911 operator who took Amanda Berry's call have stayed on the line with her until police arrived? She really sounded like she was impatient to get back to work. You're on the phone to a kidnapping victim—this IS your work!
As usual, Rush Limbaugh got right to the heart of this story of the kidnappings in Cleveland—welfare! I'm truly surprised. The suspects are Hispanic. Wouldn't it have been easier to go the anti-immigration route? Before you think that Rush's response was crazy, you should know that Rush linked the story of the captive women to Obama and welfare by citing an episode of Hawaii Five-0. So it's not crazy, it's completely crazy.
Sexual assault in the military is up dramatically. The military is looking for answers, as you may have expected, in all the wrong places. Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh blamed the increase on sexual assault in the military on the "hookup culture" of the kids these days. That makes as much sense as Rush Limbaugh blaming the Cleveland kidnappings on a welfare fraud scheme. Welsh said 20 percent of female recruits report being assaulted before they enter the military. OK... is it asking too much to ask the military not to continue that?
Listen to The Randi Rhodes Show weekdays 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
Shedding light on the 'how', Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath confirmed today that ropes and chains were found in the house where the victims were held...
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew appears to have the right ideas. But, it doesn't seem like any of our elected leaders are listening. On Monday, Secretary Lew sent letters to members of the House financial services committee, urging them to uphold provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that regulate derivatives. Yet, just one day later, a bipartisan group of law makers – including almost two dozen democrats – passed a bill through committee to do just the opposite.
In his letter, Secretary Lew explained that these provisions "constitute an important part of the reforms being put in place to strengthen our financial system by improving transparency and reducing risk for market participants." But, the bipartisan committee advanced legislation that would allow FDIC insured banks to trade in derivatives. That means, if and when they get into trouble, the tax-payers will be on the hook – again – for the bail out. And, legislation like this ignores the fact that derivative trading was what caused our economic collapse in the first place. This is exactly what Jack Lew was warning them about.
Thankfully, this legislation isn't likely to overcome a Senate filibuster, and the White House has expressed opposition. As important as his derivatives warning was, it's not the only important statement our Treasury Secretary made this week. Yesterday, Jack Lew said, "deficit reduction alone is not an economic policy." He called for "expanding our economy and getting people back to work" with an ambitious infrastructure program.
He knows that no nation, in the history of the world, has ever cut its way to prosperity – and we won't be the first. And our legislators need to start heeding his advice. We must invest in our nation, and our people. The question is, will lawmakers ignore Mr. Lew's warnings twice in one week? Let's hope not.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
Last year, five major U.S. Banks and 49 state attorneys general agreed on a $25 billion settlement to compensate victims of abusive bank practices and foreclosure fraud. But, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the banksters are violating the terms of that agreement. The settlement dictated that the banks would pay restitution to victims of illegal foreclosures, modify existing loans to keep people in their homes, and abide by new rules aimed at protecting consumers.
But, Attorney General Schneiderman said that his office alone has documented 210 violations by Wells Fargo and 129 by Bank of America. And, he says he is prepared to file a lawsuit against the banks if the problems aren't corrected. In addition to the issues reported in New York, the settlement monitor, Joseph Smith, says his office has received nearly 6,000 consumer complaints about bank services.
These violations include not meeting loan processing deadlines, not informing borrowers of missing documents, and not making loan decisions in the 30-day period mandated by the settlement. The allegations are practically the same complaints made against the banks before the settlement agreement, and they indicate that the big banks aren't holding up their end of the bargain.
The $25 billion settlement may sound like a huge payout, but only a portion of the fund was meant to repay victims of foreclosure fraud. So, someone who lost their home in an illegal foreclosure could end up with as little as $500. And now the banksters aren't even living up the deal. This is why no settlement agreement should have been made.
The big banks should have been broken up, and held accountable for their illegal practices. If too-big-to-fail means too-big-to-jail, then the big banks are too-big-to-exist. No more fines and settlements over fraud – it's time to break up the banks.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600. Follow Thom on Twitter @Thom_Harttmann.
If you noticed fewer creepy people in your home town this weekend, it could be because the NRA was having its big convention in Houston. Wayne LaPierre delivered one of his trademark arms apocalypse speeches. LaPierre asked "How many Bostonians wish they had a gun two weeks ago?" when cops were hunting for the Boston bombers in Watertown. Wish? I don't know if you realize this, Wayne, but nobody in America is "wishing" for a gun. Thanks to you guys, anybody who wants one can get one at virtually any time. At this point, everyone—and I mean everyone—who wants a gun has a gun. The gun sales are just being driven by the people who want more guns… and more guns. Anyone who ever wished for a gun had the NRA fairy grant their wish ages ago, even if they couldn't pass a background check.
Glenn Beck delivered the keynote speech at the NRA convention. That is one discordant keynote. In one of his typical displays of good taste, Beck brought a pressure cooker as a prop. Glenn referred to the pressure cooker as his "grandmother's pastime." I assume he meant cooking with a pressure cooker, but with Glenn Beck you realize he could have meant his grandmother's pastime was setting off bombs. My favorite point was when Glenn repeatedly yelled "Have we gone insane?" Glenn, if by "we" you mean yourself and the rest of the people at the NRA convention, the answer is an emphatic yes. When Glenn Beck is in front of an audience of gun crazies yelling "Have we gone insane?" you keep waiting for him to add "Have we gone crazy… yet?"
The NRA convention was taking place right after the tragic shooting of a child, but then it would be impossible to schedule an NRA convention that didn't. In this case, a 5-year old shot and killed his 2-year old sister with a gun he was given as a gift that was specifically marketed to children... or as gun enthusiasts refer to it, "an unavoidable incident." The grandmother of the slain 2-year old said "It was God's will. It was her time to go, I guess." Honestly, you may have bumped up "her time to go" by 70 or 80 years when you bought a gun for her 5-year old brother. It's funny how "God's will" always seems to line up so perfectly with the consequences of incredibly stupid decisions taken by people who then cite God's will.
Unregulated capitalism is cancer on our nation. Like tumors, greed has metastasized, strangling once-healthy parts of our economy, and our social safety net. A new piece on Alternet lists several ways this cancer capitalism has taken hold. For starters, the hoarding of wealth by the banksters and the 1% has diverted resources away from nutritional aid programs. Twenty people in our country collected a whopping $73 billion in investment income – all taxed at a lower rate than working Americans. Compare that with the fact that President Obama couldn't even get $1 billion to improve childhood nutrition in our schools.
And, while cancer capitalism has lead to higher-than-ever corporate profits, it hasn't translated into good jobs for college grads. Because of rising tuition costs, the average student graduates with $26,000 of student loan debt, and adding to that burden, high-unemployment allows the corporate elite to underpay workers, and hoard a larger share of profits.
In addition, tax-dodging corporations have drained much-needed revenue out of our society like a tumor choking off the blood supply to our economy. According to Alternet, tax exemptions and corporate loopholes drain nearly a trillion dollars from "the body of our society" every year.
And, the worst parasite of all is the unrestrained corporate purchase of our politicians. Cancer capitalism has left voters feeling weak and powerless, while Congress repeatedly represents only the will of the corporate elite. We must stop this cancer before it spreads into every last inch of our national body.
Just like conquering any type of cancer, we must attack this problem from all sides, from getting money out of politics, to regulating Wall Street, to breaking up the monopolies that have too much power over our government. We can do all this, and we must.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
At least if you live in the top stressed states in the United States! West Virginia takes the top spot this year with almost 50% of the residences saying their stressed on any given day of the year, followed by Rhode Island, Kentucky, Utah, and Massachussets. However, if you happen to live in Hawaii, only 32% of residences would say they are stressed. With those beautiful beaches and everyone who visits referring to the state as "paradise," what could one be stressed about?
For the past five years, Hawaii has consistently ranked as the least stressed state, while West Virginia, Kentucky, and Utah have been among the most stressed states. Despite this, Utah residents join Hawaii residents in reporting among the highest levels of enjoyment in the U.S., while West Virginia and Kentucky residents report some of the lowest levels of enjoyment.
While the relationship between stress and enjoyment is not clear, states with the highest stress levels tend to report less daily enjoyment. Further investigation into what drives stress, how it impacts people, and ways to mitigate its effects are important, as 40% of American adults consistently report experiencing it a lot of the day "yesterday."
This may come as news to some Red state lawmakers, but there's more to the Constitution than the Second and the Tenth Amendments. The background check bill failed the Senate, but that didn't stop several Republican states from passing bills to exempt themselves from federal gun laws.
Earlier this week, the Alabama state senate passed legislation to nullify all federal laws they deem "a violation of the Second Amendment." They weren't the first though, as Mississippi attempted to nullify federal laws back in January, and Kansas passed similar legislation last month. But, the nullification measures in these states are meaningless, as they violate the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, which states that federal laws, "shall be the supreme law of the land." Apparently, these states think they can violate one part of the Constitution to uphold another.
Thankfully, Attorney General Eric Holder is helpfully reminding these states that our Union doesn't operate that way. In a letter to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, Holder wrote, "In purporting to override federal law and to criminalize the official acts of federal officers, [the law] directly conflicts with federal law and is therefore unconstitutional."
These Red states can't pick and choose the parts of the Constitution they want to follow. They can't decide they like the Second and Tenth Amendments and act as if the rest doesn't apply to them. And the Supremacy Clause is one of the Constitution's most important tenants. James Madison himself warned that nullification of federal law would, "speedily put an end to the Union itself."
Republicans constantly tout the importance of our founding fathers, and the Constitution they drafted to form our Union. So, it's about time that those on the Right start respecting all of it.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
A new CBS News/ New York Times poll says Americans are becoming more isolationist regarding foreign adventures. Majorities don't want the US military to get involved in either Syria or North Korea. That's good news. As the Obama Administration contemplates sending lethal aid to the Syrian opposition, we ought to ask ourselves some fundamental questions.
Since the stepped up help seems to be in response to reports that the Syrian government is using chemical weapons, how accurate are those reports? The president seems to have the same qualms. While the opposition says the Assad regime is using sarin gas, there are also reports that the rebels are using chlorine gas. Who are we to believe? Make no mistake. 70,000 lives are estimated to have been lost, and that can't be ignored. And anyone using chemical weapons on innocent people are barbarians unfit to govern.Yet we need to know more, particularly about the opposition. Are they prepared to create a democratic government than that of Assad?
As for North Korea, a majority in the poll say they can be contained without using US military force. Kim Jon Un may act irrationally, but the smart money is he doesn't want to start aware he can't possibly win (no matter his bluster on the subject).
The troubling aspect of the poll is the support so many Americans have for the use of drones in foreign countries. 70% think these remote control strikes are the right thing for America to do. One wonders if they know how many innocent lives have been lost at the hands of these strikes. Aside from the enemies the taking of innocent lives creates, there is a larger question. We have experienced the pain of everything from 9/11 to the Boston Marathon bombings. Are we unable, as the world's greatest superpower, to feel the pain of others?
As anyone who listens to the WWRL Morning Show knows, I have a big problem with drones. There ought to be a way to deal with our countries' enemies without having to say sorry to the families of the dead, and pay them some small compensation for their loss.
There is a better way, isn't there?
You tell me.
Tune in to The RL Morning Show with Mark Riley weekdays 6 AM to 9 AM on WWRL AM 1600. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkRileyMedia and @WWRL_1600.
While many on the Right fear monger about so-called "radical Islam," and it's threat to our nation, a new poll shows that Muslims aren't the ones we should worry about. According to a survey conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University, 44 percent of self-described Republicans believe "an armed revolution might be necessary to protect our liberties." You heard that right – nearly half believe it may be time to overthrow the government. And, if that wasn't concerning enough, only 31 percent of Republicans disagree about an upcoming revolution.
It's not immigrants or Muslims we need to worry about – it's the anti-government extreme right that are currently espousing conspiracy theories and stockpiling weapons. They are the real threat to our nation and to our democracy. Considering that Republicans have actively worked to fight against liberty in the areas of voting rights, women's reproductive health, and economic security, it appears the only so-called liberty they worry about is the Second Amendment.
This poll essentially says that 44 percent of Republicans are willing to mount an armed insurgency against our government to protect the gun-show loophole, which allows criminals and terrorists to buy guns. This shows how conspiracy theories, like FEMA camps and the gun confiscation, really do have dangerous results. Responsible leaders in the Republican party must start working to change this, and quiet the anti-government rhetoric in their party. And right-wing talking heads need to be held accountable for the dangerous conspiracy theories they spout.
It's one thing to protest, and to call for your elected leaders to represent your views...it's another to advocate armed revolution. You can't wave a flag in one hand, point a gun at your government in the other, and still call yourself patriotic.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
It's May Day! May Day is both an ancient pagan holiday, and a day set aside to honor workers in countries all over the world—it's everything the rightwing hates in a nutshell.
Boston police say they have taken into custody three more suspects in the Marathon bombing. The three are college roommates of Dzhokhar who are suspected of removing items from his room after the bombing. If they did, they may have broken the law. In any case, they broke the rules of being a roommate. Don't touch somebody else's stuff!
On MSNBC Jonathon Alter described the same rightwing media "food chain" that we told you about. This is one of the few times that you will see the liberal media saying the same thing, but that's only because this is true. The nice thing about the rightwing food chain is that if you want to know what conservatives are saying, you only have to listen to one of them. All the rest will be saying the same thing.
Glenn Beck said conspiracy theories are flourishing... because people know that they can't get the truth from the government or the media. So... conspiracy theories abound, because there's a conspiracy. Glenn said that nowadays all conspiracy theorists "have to do is plant the seeds of doubt whenever and wherever they can." Replace "they" with "I" in that sentence, and you have Glenn Beck's mission statement. If you think that people are being driven crazy by listening to Glenn Beck, imagine how much crazier it would make a person to actually BE Glenn Beck. His listeners only hear him on the radio—Glenn Beck has to hear Glenn Beck in his head. Glenn Beck is the only person on earth who can never turn Glenn Beck off! No wonder he's going completely insane!
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett says the reason for the unemployment problem in his state is that too many Pennsylvanians are on drugs. Tom, it's not a good idea to think that you're the governor of a state of drug addicts... unless you're the governor of West Virginia, in which case you're probably just being realistic.
Listen to The Randi Rhodes Show weekdays 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
Jon Stewart embarks on a fool's errand: trying to make sense out of Lindsey Graham's dreams of war with Syria...
Most of us are still feeling the effects of a struggling economy, but the corporate elite and the Wall Street banksters are doing better than ever. Many corporations have seen record profits in recent years, which have fueled buying sprees on Wall Street, pushing the DOW Jones to it's all-time high. But, the income gap between workers and CEOs, which has gone up almost 20% since 2009, shows that all that profit is going straight to the top.
This is exactly why many people don't feel the effects of the modest economic recovery - because this recovery is not our recovery – all the gains are going directly to the top 1%. And this is why corporations are actively fighting the part of the Dodd-Frank act, that directs corporations to report the income differential between workers and CEOs. In 1960, the average CEO was paid about 40 times as much as the average worker. By 1990, CEOs were raking in over 100 times the amount that workers received. And by 2011, some corporate executives – like the one who works for JC Penny's – were making more than 1700 times the salary of an average worker.
A Bloomberg analysis indicates that everyday employees are the only ones who are not benefiting from the historic profits seen since the 2008 economic meltdown. This is not only unacceptable, but it's undesirable – without a broad, inclusive economic base, long-term economic growth is impossible. It's time to stop the economic locusts who are sucking every last bit of profit out of our economy for the benefit of themselves alone.
Dodd-Frank is forcing the oligarchs to disclose the income disparity, now let's start working to correct it. Let's implement a Wall Street transaction tax, set limits on executive pay, and start taxing those who are obsessed with hoarding money.
Listen to The Thom Hartmann Program weekdays 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced a so-called comprehensive immigration plan. And, as usual, Democrats conceded to Republican demands in the name of compromise. Over the last five days, the Judiciary Committee members considered over...
I must admit, I've never been to Oklahoma. I have family friends from there, but it's one part of the Great Plains I've managed to avoid in my life. Yet that didn't stop me from feeling quite a bit of empathy with those folks in...
For over a week, Republicans have refused to focus on anything but so-called scandal. And, it turns out, that's exactly the way they want it. On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, sent a letter to...
A new CNN poll shows Obama's favorability rating at 53 percent. That's up from 51 percent in April, and up from the 51.1 percent from the poll that really counted last November. Like before the scandals, 45 percent of people disapprove of the...
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have made their point – they hate Obamacare. And, just in case anyone didn't get the message the first 36 times they made that point, they're about to waste even more taxpayer...
It turns out the IRS was investigating conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status. Duh! And the TSA has been looking at people seeking to get on airplanes. None of the conservative organizations that the IRS was "targeting" were...
The Associated Press has accused the Justice Department of "massive and unprecedented intrusion." That's according to one of the AP's top executives, after learning that the government secretly acquired two months of the news...
It seems that the Republicans won't stop until their attacks over Benghazi are as vicious as the attack in Benghazi. The Republicans would have you believe that the Obama administration altered the talking points on Benghazi out of political...
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, Monsanto has the right to control our food supply. In a unanimous ruling released this morning, the nine Justices sided with the agricultural giant, and held that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto's...
Yesterday, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives postponed all floor votes so they could hold their ninth hearing about Benghazi. Instead of working on any number of pressing issues effecting Americans, Republicans spent nine...
