Tag Archives: thom hartmann

Liberal Talk Show Host Thom Hartmann Says It’s Time for Gay ‘Reparations’

It’s one thing to have liberal guilt, but this is taking it way too far.  In a video posted to YouTube on Aug. 5 , popular liberal talk host Thom Hartmann, identified what he considered was the appropriate way to cope with this guilt type, specifically that of which came with the issue of LGBT rights. Hartmann hails himself as “the 10th most important talk show host in America, and the No. 1 most important progressive host, in their ‘Heavy Hundred’ ranking” according to Talkers Magazine . Hartmann laid out the reasoning chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker used in an Aug. 4 ruling that overturn California’s Proposition 8 gay marriage ban, a ballot initiative approved by over 7 million voters in 2008 . Then he added his own unique solution. “Well yesterday, Judge Vaughn Walker, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, ruled that California’s Proposition 8, which said that it was illegal for gays to get married in that state, was unconstitutional,” Hartmann said. “He said that he based his ruling, although the right-wing is all over him for being gay himself – he said he based his ruling on the preponderance of scientific evidence that was presented to him in court, which indicated that the children of families of gay couples grew up every bit as normal, and in fact in some studies more normal and healthy, psychologically healthy, as the children of straight families and that gay couples and their relationships are every bit as psychologically, and socially, and economically significant and legitimate as are straight couples.” Hartmann, with his psychological expertise in hand, alluded to the reasoning in Walker’s ruling, added that the only basis for such a ban, despite the approval of those people, were “moral and religious views.” “He said that the evidence conclusively shows that moral and religious views form the only basis for the belief that same-sex couples are different from opposite-sex couples,” Hartmann said. “Very, very interesting.” To rectify this situation – Hartmann made the incredible call for reparations, singling out the Mormon Church to pay for gay weddings in the California for the next years. “You know, I – gay people in this country have a long history of discrimination, of hatred, of murder,” he continued. “Matthew Shepard, you know – tortured, dragged, dragged you know dragged at the end of a truck, tied to a fence post left to die in the desert sun for example. I think that we should have reparations for gays. I think that the Mormon Church, which contributed a large chunk, maybe as much half of the money or maybe members of the Mormon church, as much as half of the money from out-of-state to fund Prop 8 for the next 10 years should have to pay for every gay wedding in the state of California.” The next step of this case is for it to be heard by the left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and then would likely be heard by the Supreme Court to determine whether it violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of “equal protection” and “due process.”

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Liberal Talk Show Host Thom Hartmann Says It’s Time for Gay ‘Reparations’

Bozell Column: Obama the Gipper?

The Political Left is in a meltdown. There’s no way to sugarcoat the calamity. It is falling apart. It sees the tide has turned and a possible tsunami is building, ready to crest and explode in November, washing all their dreams away. How could this be happening to them? Could it be that trillion dollar disaster otherwise know as the “stimulus,” that emergency measure needed to save the economy by creating millions of jobs except it’s accomplished absolutely nothing except putting our grandchildren yet another trillion dollars in debt? Or the auto company takeovers, something no one wanted and Congress never authorized as part of the TARP bailout fund? Or the appointment of one radical after another to nanny-state us all, including now the just recess-appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to oversee ObamaCare, a Marxist who proudly calls for the redistribution of wealth and who absolutely adores Britain’s onerous National Health Service, rationing and all? Or any one of a thousand other radical ventures proposed/discussed/enacted by this radical leftist regime? Nah. Thom Hartmann, one of the top munchkins along the Yellow Brick Road of Radioland, told his handful of listeners last week that it’s ludicrous that any conservative would conclude Obama’s a socialist. “As a guy…me, who calls himself a democratic socialist, Obama’s no socialist! He’s a middle-of-the-road Democrat, what in the 1950s was called an Eisenhower progressive, or a Republican, for that matter.” This recalls the early Clinton years, when Bob Woodward quoted Bill Clinton yelling at his staff that they were all just like “Eisenhower Republicans”….as they attempted to pass 1,300 pages of socialist Hillarycare. Government spending and regulations are thoroughly out of control but Hartmann the socialist still sees Republicans destroying democracy in the near term, never mind that the GOP is completely out of power. “I think that the Republican endgame for a small group of ideologues who have an outsized influence, the neocons within the Republican party, is to basically do away with small-d democracy in this republic, and in fact do away with it being even a republic, and turn it into basically an aristocracy.” Lord William Kristol. You have to admit it does have a ring. The dismay was even more grandiose on MSNBC last week, when the executives handed over “The Dylan Ratigan Show” to a man named Cenk Uygur, host of “The Young Turks” radio program. Put your food and drink down. He contends that Obama was more conservative than … ready?  Ronald Reagan. Here’s his formulation: 1. Obama said during the presidential primaries that he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, or North Korea without conditions. But “Republican hawk Ronald Reagan actually did it in March, 1985. At the height of the Cold War, Reagan invited newly-appointed Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the ‘Evil Empire,’ for a summit in Geneva without preconditions.” 2. Reagan “cut and run” from Lebanon in 1983. Now compare that to Obama and his troop surge in Afghanistan. 3. Obama “refused to raise taxes for anyone making less than a quarter of a million dollars,” but Reagan had “four significant tax increases” after his original tax rate cuts. 4. Reagan was “the first to host an openly-gay couple at the White House for an overnight stay?…So which President is the real conservative here?” Luckily for the small flock of strange people viewing MSNBC at home, both of Mr. Uygur’s guests told him he was all wrong. Frank Donatelli, one of President Reagan’s political director, was deliciously blunt. “That’s the silliest thing that I’ve ever heard….It’s an incomplete and distorted picture of everything.” Donatelli calmly related that Reagan cut taxes overall, negotiated with Gorbachev after the little precondition of a complete defense buildup, and he won the Cold War, while “Obama hasn’t won anything.” Even David Weigel, the Palin/Limbaugh/Drudge-insulting commentator beloved by the likes of Keith Olbermann, dismissed the Uygur stupidity. “He’s not a conservative. Come on!” Leftists may be delusional in thinking Barack Obama is some kind of Reaganite. But if that’s delusional, how does one describe Janeane Garofalo? As always, her nuttiness is in a league (institution?) of its own. On The Huffington Post, she groused of conservatives that “They own the media and they dominate the media and they dominate the conversation. But of course liberals are proud. They have everything to be proud of. But they just don’t have much say. You know, they don’t have networks and huge radio networks and megachurches and seats in Congress.” Liberals don’t have the seats in Congress? Garofalo isn’t just wrong, she’s in meltdown.