Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio host, author, and liberal political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, "The Thom Hartmann Program", airs throughout the United States on Air America Radio and has over 1.5 million unique listeners every week. [ "The Top Talk Radio Audiences", TALKERS Magazine, June 2008. [http://www.talkers.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=34] ] He is a lay scholar of the history and textual analysis of the United States Constitution, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), electronic voting fraud, and environmental issues like global warming. Hartmann's original article "Talking Back To Talk Radio" became part of the original business plan of Air America Radio. He replaced Al Franken on the network on February 19, 2007.

Early life

Hartmann was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and grew up in nearby Lansing. Interested in politics from a young age, he reportedly campaigned for Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential election. By 1967, Hartmann was studying at Michigan State University and working as part-time news announcer at local country music station WITL while protesting the Vietnam War with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). He received his C.H. (Chartered Herbalist) degree from Dominion Herbal College, an M.H. (Master of Herbology) degree from Emerson College, and a Ph.D. in Homeopathic Medicine from Brantridge in England.

Beliefs

Hartmann is considered to have progressive / liberal politics (although he describes himself as part of the radical middle) [ThomHartmann.com "Radical Middle" [http://www.thomhartmann.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=38] ] . He is the author of numerous books including "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and Theft of Human Rights", in which he argues that the 1886 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (118 U.S. 394) did not actually grant corporate personhood, and that this doctrine derives from a mistaken interpretation of a Supreme Court clerk's notes. Hartmann considers this a clear contradiction of the intent of the Founding Fathers of the United States. [ThomHartmann.com "Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann" [http://www.thomhartmann.com/unequalprotection/] ] He has also written on the separation of church and state, drawing upon the Federalist Papers to argue that the Founding Fathers warned against the notion of the United States being a Christian nation. He contends that the 2000 American election and 2004 American election were stolen through electronic tampering, denial of the voting franchise by rigged voting lists, and limiting availability of voting machines. He also accuses the Bush administration of eroding democracy and individual freedoms.

Hartmann is also a vocal critic of the effects of globalization on the U.S. economy, claiming that economic policies enacted during and since the presidency of Ronald Reagan have led, in large part, to many American industrial enterprises being acquired by multinational firms based in overseas countries, leading in many cases to manufacturing jobs - once considered a major foundation of the U.S. economy - being relocated to countries in Asia and other areas where the costs of labor are lower than in the U.S.; and the concurrent reversal of the United States' traditional role of a leading exporter of finished manufactured goods to that of a primary importer of finished manufactured goods (exemplified by massive trade deficits with countries such as China); Hartmannn argues that this phenomenon is leading to the erosion of the American middle class, whose survival Hartmann deems critical to the survival of American democracy. This argument is expressed in Hartmann's 2006 book, "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class and What We Can Do About It." One of the book's main arguments is that media deregulation leads to corporate media shifting the American consensus towards the acceptance of privatization and massive corporate profits — which causes the shrinking of the middle class.

Talk radio career

Hartmann hosted a local talk show in Portland, Oregon from 2005 until early 2007 on KPOJ, an affiliate of Air America Radio owned by Clear Channel Communications. The local show, 6–9 am PT is now hosted by Carl Wolfson with Hartmann as a daily participant only in the third (8-9 AM PT) hour. The show is broadcast on tape delay on XM radio channel 167 America Left.

Following the departure of the Air America network's "The Al Franken Show" on February 15, 2007, Hartmann's national program, on the air since 2003 in the noon-3 PM ET daypart live against Rush Limbaugh, was chosen by Air America to replace Franken on most Air America affiliates. [ [http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/01/29/daily2.html?from_rss=1 Air America sold; Al Franken quitting - Portland Business Journal: ] ] Some stations, such as The Quake in San Francisco, had already dropped or moved Franken for Hartmann, who now is one of America's most popular liberal talkers. The show has live clearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Denver, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Detroit, Pittsburgh and many other cities (all listed on the "affiliate" page of his web site).

He often debates members of the Ayn Rand Institute [ [http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=interviews_hartmann The Ayn Rand Institute: Thom Hartmann Interviews ] ] and conservatives. Several of his debates, including one involving Bill Bennett at The Heritage Foundation, were carried on C-Span, although most of them occur on his own radio program. The only regular guest on the program sympathetic to Hartmann's political views is Sen. Bernie Sanders, who appears every Friday during the first hour of the show, and Ellen Ratner of the Talk Radio News Service, who provides Washington commentary.

When callers to the show ask him how he is, he usually replies, "I'm great, but I'll get better," and he ends each show with the phrase, "Activism begins with you, Democracy begins with you, get out there, get active! Tag, you're it!"

Other areas of notability

Of his various books, the one which won the most critical acclaim is "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight". In 1999 he was invited by the Dalai Lama to spend a week in Dharamsala after reading his book. Hartmann won the Project Censored Award in 2004 for his book "Unequal Protection". As a result of his book on spirituality, "The Prophet's Way", he was invited in 1998 to meet Pope John Paul II.

Trained in the 1970s in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Hartmann popularized some of its concepts in "Cracking the Code" (2007), which argues that Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz made use of them in the 1980s and 1990s for Republican Party causes and advocates using them to advance liberalism.

Leonardo DiCaprio made a web movie titled "Global Warning" that was inspired by "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight", and is available on DiCaprio's website [ [http://www.leonardodicaprio.com L E O N A R D O D I C A P R I O - Official Website ] ] . Hartmann appears in DiCaprio's 2007 documentary "The 11th Hour".

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Hartmann has authored in the area of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and adult attention-deficit disorder (AADD) and he is the creator (first proposed by him in 1978, first published nationally in 1992) of the now well-known hunter vs. farmer theory - that ADD is an expected evolutionary adaptation to hunting lifestyles. These individuals have the ability to rapidly shift their focus and external attention and to hold multiple trains of thought. This causes difficulties when they must live and work in cultures in which "farming" - well-planned, predictable, organized and repetitive behaviours -are typical. Hartmann has established specialized schools for children with ADHD.

Bibliography

*2007 cite book
title = Cracking The Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America's Original Vision
publisher = Berrett-Koehler
id = ISBN 9781576754580
*2006 cite book
title = Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class and What We Can Do About It
publisher = Berrett-Koehler
id = ISBN 1-57675-414-6
*2006 cite book
title = Walking Your Blues Away: Practical Bilateral Therapies for Healing the Mind and Optimizing Emotional Well-Being
publisher = Park Street Press
id = ISBN 1-59477-144-8
*2005 cite book
title = Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK
publisher = Carroll & Graf
id = ISBN 0-7867-1441-7
* 2004 cite book
title = What Would Jefferson Do?
publisher = Harmony Books
id = ISBN 1-8821-0938-4
* 2004 cite book
title = We the People: A Call to Take Back America
illustrator = Neil Cohn
publisher = Coreway Media, Inc.
id = ISBN 1-4000-5208-4
* 2004 (revised ed.): cite book
title = Unequal Protection
publisher = Rodale Books
id = ISBN 1-57954-955-1
* 2004 (revised ed. - first ed. 1998): cite book
title = The Prophet's Way
publisher = Park Street Press
id = ISBN 0-89281-198-6
* 2004 (revised ed. - first ed. 1997): cite book
title = Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight
publisher = Three Rivers Press
id = ISBN 1-4000-5157-6
* 2003: cite book
title = The Edison Gene
publisher = Park Street Press
id = ISBN 0-89281-128-5
* 2000: cite book
title = Thom Hartmann's Complete Guide to ADD
publisher = Underwood Books
id = ISBN 1-887424-52-0
* 2000: cite book
title = The Greatest Spiritual Secret of the Century
publisher = Hampton Roads
id = ISBN 1-57174-166-6
* 1996: cite book
title = Beyond ADD
publisher = Underwood Books
id = ISBN 1-887424-12-1
* 1996: cite book
title = Think Fast!
publisher = Underwood Books
id = ISBN 1-887424-08-3
* 1995: cite book
title = ADD Success Stories
publisher = Underwood Books
id = ISBN 1-887424-03-2
* 1994: cite book
title = Focus Your Energy: Hunting for Success in Business
publisher = Pocket Books
id = ISBN 0-671-51689-2
* 1994: cite book
title = ADHD Secrets of Success: Coaching Yourself to Fulfillment in the Business World
publisher = Select Books
id = ISBN 1-59079-017-0
* 1992 (first edition): cite book
title = ADD: A Different Perception
publisher = Underwood Books
id = ISBN 1-887424-14-8

References

External links

* [http://www.thomhartmann.com/ Hartmann's official site] including pages on "The Radical Middle", "Unequal Protection", ADD, and discussion board.
* [http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=1251628960376247583&q=fascism+america/"When Democracy Fails" Podcast on Google Video]
* [http://www.big-picture.tv/index.php?id=93&cat=&a=269 Big Picture TV] Free video clips of Thom Hartmann
* [http://www.whiterosesociety.org Radio archive at The White Rose Society]
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeftWingRadicals/ LeftWingRadicals yahoogroup, for fans of Thom, and other liberal radio]
* [http://www.myspace.com/thomhartmann Myspace fan profile]
* [http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=352 Thom Hartmann talks about "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class and What We Can Do About It"] , "Fora TV", September 16, 2006 (Video)