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Thom Hartmann: Here's what UnAmerican really is!

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tpsbmam Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 11:09 AM
Original message
Thom Hartmann: Here's what UnAmerican really is!
<snip>

It's time to start calling people out - because there's no more room in this critical debate over America's future for individuals who are fundamentally anti-American. That includes the politicians - the so-called newsmen - the phony economists - and the greedy CEOs who have no problem destroying this nation just for a few bucks. They spew poll-tested terms like "job creators" to push for even more tax breaks for transnational corporations that already pay nothing in taxes. While forgetting that this nation was founded as a result of an anti-corporate revolt against the world's largest transnational corporation at the time - the British East India Tea Company. They call up hucksters like Thomas Friedman to tout so-called Free Trade policies that sell off our factories and manufacturing jobs to the lowest bidders around the world. While forgetting that our nation's first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton laid out an 11-point plan literally called "The American Way" that promoted protectionsism and promoted American industires - and NOT so-called Free Trade. They give millionaires and billionaires the power to run amok in our politics - claiming that corporations are people - and as people have a right to free speech - and to dump as much money in our elections as they damn well please. While forgetting that none of the founding fathers considered corporations important enough to not even mention them in our nation's Constitution.

<snip>

Thirty years ago - riding the coattails of Ronald Reagan - these Economic Royalists have returned to power in America - and have been infecting this nation with their anti-American propaganda ever since - trying to clog up everything this nation has accomplished from the New Deal to the Great Society. They are dismantling the very programs and institutions that Americans have fought and died for - from labor unions to the social safety net - to the right to vote itself. And they do it the same way they did it in Roosevelt's time - by hiding behind the flag and the constitution. Even worse - these anti-American cowards beat the drum for war because they know that in times of war - there's money to be made! - and our nation is more vulnerable to an ideological take-over.

They rally around a war criminal like Dick Cheney whose incompetence is only outweighed by his brutality. Here's a man who was head of the anti-terrorism task force in the White House in 2001 - who was warned by former Vice President Al Gore to keep an eye out for Al-Qaeda - and who neglected to hold one meeting on the threat of terrorism - but instead spent his time figuring out how to divvy up and sell off the oil fields of Iraq. We got hit on 9/11 because Dick Cheney dropped the ball - he didn't keep us safe - he's guilty of gross negligence. And to cover up his grotesque mistake - Cheney resorted to war crimes - to torture - and illegal invasions. There's nothing more anti-American than torture. Historian David Fischer explained the sentiment of our founding fathers toward torture during the Revolutionary War by writing, "American leaders believed it was not enough to win the war. They also had to win in a way that was consistent with the values of their society and the principles of their cause." That's why when General George Washington captured 1,000 Hessians in the battle of Trenton during our war of independence - he carefully sent instructions to his soldiers on how to treat the prisoners - writing, "Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren.... Provide everything necessary for them on the road."

<snip>


The summary point is - this is what the billionaires who've seized control of Dwight Eisenhower's once-proud Republican Party are offering us today - this is their vision of America. More wars, more billionaires, and a devastated middle class. For thirty years - they've campaigned and spoken openly about their dislike for our government - that extraordinary gift that was created by the Founding Fathers is, as Reagan said, the "problem and not the solution" to our problems. I beg to differ. I love America and believe in America, and am encouraged by the knowledge that most Americans agree with that sentiment. It's time to quit p*ssy-footing around and call the hustlers running the Republican Party - and their mouthpieces on the right - what they are. They're anti-American.

The rest is certainly worth reading. Here's what UnAmerican really is!



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BlueCaliDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 11:16 AM
Response to Original message
1. An enthusiastic K & R! This piece *should* end up on DU's front page! Why
aren't you getting more rec'ds??
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sabrina 1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 12:15 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. I agree, rec'd
He's absolutely correct. They are traitors and unpatriotic and I don't know why it isn't said more often until it finally penetrates the brains of those who have succumbed to the propaganda from the rightwing, well-funded, propaganda machine.
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Little Star Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 11:21 AM
Response to Original message
2. Good read! k&r
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Riley18 Donating Member (883 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 11:24 AM
Response to Original message
3. They are treasonous bastards
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
4. Great piece - rec'd.
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Arkansas Granny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
5. A must read. K & R.
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senseandsensibility Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 11:33 AM
Response to Original message
6. That would take a President and party with guts.
I'll leave it at that.
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BlueCaliDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 01:42 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. And an engaged, clear thinking electorate to boot. eom
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backscatter712 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 12:11 PM
Response to Original message
7. K&R! We need to be calling the Repubs Unamerican at every opportunity! n/t
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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
9. Thirty years ago ... Thom Hartmann understands and can remember what actually happened
I see some posters here who seem progressive, and say they are progressive, but every now and then the Reagan Democrat built into them oozes out.

I don't think they even realize where these thoughts and ideas originated from?

Don
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saras Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 01:39 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. Reagan Democrat - the first deoxidized oxymoron.
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undergroundpanther Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 03:53 PM
Response to Original message
12. Thom Hartmann
He is AWESOME! I hope more and more people start watching free speech TV,including Obama!
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sad sally Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-04-11 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Link TV is an excellent non-commercial source of free speech.
Here's a program on this weekend that's about the same things Tom Hartman talks about.

Sunday, September 4th 02:30 pm
Monday, September 5th 12:00 am
Monday, September 5th 11:00 am
Wednesday, September 7th 04:00 pm
DIRECTV Channel 375 | DISH Network Channel 9410

Join Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges for an profound new speech - Calling All Rebels. In it, he poignantly argues that American liberalism has been an abject failure in the face of the corporate takeover of the American government. He insists that unless we begin to stand fast around moral imperatives we will be complicit in our self-annihilation.

"As the centers of American power were seized and hijacked by corporations, the media continued to pay deference to systems of power that could no longer be considered honest or democratic. The media treat criminals on Wall Street as responsible members of the ruling class. They treat the criminals in the White House and the Pentagon as statesmen."


http://www.linktv.org/programs/chris-hedges-calling-all-rebels?du
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