ALERT -- JIM HIGHTOWER on C-SPAN at 7:45 a.m. EDT

[DemBones DemBones]

Check him out, he's always great. He's promoting his new book, "Thieves in High Places."

Edit: And while we're waiting, I'll add that if you haven't read Hightower's book "If the Gods Had Wanted Us to Vote, They Would Have Given Us Candidates" you really should. It's funny and informative.

I subscribe to Hightower's newsletter and here's the latest, describing the new book, and giving a link to his website:


THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES:
THEY'VE STOLEN OUR COUNTRY AND IT'S TIME TO TAKE IT BACK

Well, here we are: the big day is upon us.

On Monday, my new book, Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our
Country And It's Time To Take It Back, goes on sale across the
country, and I'll be setting off on an unprecedented 30-city
barnstorming tour to take America back from the greedheads and
boneheads.

I'll be hitting NYC first, with stops at these events:

August 18 - Border's Books, 1 p.m.
TrueMajority Roast, 6:30 p.m.

August 19 - Barnes & Noble, 6 p.m.
WBAI Fundraiser, 7:30 p.m.

You can click here for all the details:
http://www.jimhightower.com/road/
You'll also find the whole tour schedule, which includes stops in
Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles,
Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Austin, and
many more.

In every town, I'll be collaborating with local grassroots activist
groups to raise awareness on key issues, plus I'll be teaming with
TrueMajority and GOTV organizers to channel energy from the crowds
into direct political action.

This book is a rallying cry to take our country back from the
corporate and political kleptocrats that are squeezing the heart out
of our America -- small businesses, middle-class workers, family
farmers, and other enterprising, grassroots folks.

My hope is that THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES will awaken readers not only
to what we're losing in America, but more importantly, to the
phenomenal future we have if we only reassert our democratic values
and focus on our grassroots strength. My basic message is one of
hope, that individual citizens can make a difference.

For more information on THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES, visit:
http://www.jimhightower.com/buy/thieves.asp

America is at a historic divide between rulers and rulees and the
rulees are restless. THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES is an epistle to the
American people about vision and choices. The question I'm asking
is: What kind of country do you want America to be? Not only for you,
but for your children and theirs?

In THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES, I take on the Bushites, the Wobblycrats,
and the corporate Kleptocrats, digging up behind-the scenes dirt that
the corporate media overlooks like BushCo's "Friday Night Massacres",
what's happened to our food, and the Bush plan for empire. I expose
invasions of privacy, the military budget (and where the money is
going), sprawl, deregulation, and how Wal-Mart has reshaped the
American business landscape (not for the better). And I show how a
small yet powerful elite in our country have taken control of the
small farmers, main street businesses, consumers, the working class
and the poor.

But it is not all bad news, THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES highlights the
grassroots organizations that are making a difference in this
country, standing up to corporations, fighting to keep libraries open
and taking on Wal-Mart. Drawing on my Rolling Thunder Down-Home
Democracy Tour, I'm continually trying to tap into the thriving
activist networks that are our country's grassroots muscle, and this
book tells their uplifting stories of retaking control of their
communities and how to turn our complaining into positive reforms.

I hope you will join me in taking power back, and I look forward to
seeing you on the road!

Hightower

[revcarol]

1. Please put link so we can do DU and listen/watch at the same time.

Fer us dial-up-ers.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Ack -- I don't know how to do that! I've never tried to listen

to TV online and I haven't a clue.

He's getting in some good comments and has gotten great calls, too. I have TiVo so I just rewound live TV to the start of the show and started recording it and I can transcribe it for you. :-) Stay tuned. . .

[prolesunited]

5. Try this

http://www.cspan.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Series&Code=WJE&ShowVidNum=6&Rot_Cat_CD=WJ&Rot_HT=205&Rot_WD=

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Great! Will this link work anytime for C-SPAN? Thanks a lot!

[XanaDUer]

2. Jim Hightower is doing great!

I already have his books on reserve at the library.

thanks for the heads up.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. No problem! I just lucked into it today. I watch "Washington

Journal" once or twice a week, usually. I need to find out how to find out who's going to be guesting. I'm sure they probably send out a newsletter but I already get so many newsletters it gets hard to keep up with them -- the old information overload problem. (Hightower's newsletter doesn't come out often enough to be any kind of nuisance, IMO.)

[XanaDUer]

6. Of course, the idiot who just called in is from Jacksonville, FL

republican Hell.

:eyes:

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Too true! Lived there long ago. n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

7. Hightower says he hears Osama bin Laden is hiding

about midway down the California recall ballot.

Ba Da Bing!

A woman from Tampa asks Jim to address Chalabi's involvement in Iraq, and several other questions so he ends up talking about Iraq but not mentioning Chalabi (too bad, but he probably forgot due to everything else she said.)

Jim tend to talk in run on sentences, like a lot of people, and it's easy to understand him because he pauses, but not that easy to transcribe.


It goes back to the original point that I was making, and that a number of people are making: We don't seem to have a policy. It is let's just rush in on this, what I think is a political mission by George W. Bush and, again, this kind of hubris that Rumsfeld and this gang seem to have, that we're going to build an American empire to to rule the world w/o any perception of how the world might see that and what the impact might be on us.

My perception is that it is making America a more dangerous place -- here at home -- to be taking this attitude, and so I agree with you that we need somebody in positions of authority and I hope my Democratic Party would be the one to begin to say we need serious investigations into what this is all about and what is guiding this policy, and, then, policy alternatives put forward by those folks, and then, let's have it out next year, in the presidential election. (ALL RIGHT!!!)

Host asks Jim to tell about his plan for energy independence.

In the book, I talk about an enormous opportunity -- this is in the section called Wobblycrats, taking on my own party, saying "Why in the world aren't we standing up more on behalf of the ordinary people?" The Democrats had a terriffic opportunity to rally the people after Sept. 11. George Bush, after Sept. 11th, said essentially to the people -- who were wondering "What can we do?"-- he said "Go shopping." What an insult! Americans are not a cowardly people, we're a brawling, rebellious sort.

Well, one thing we could do, long-term, would be to declare energy independence in America. Do a ten-year moonshot style program in America that says "In a decade, we are not going to be dependent on anyone's oil, not Saudi Arabian oil, not Iraqi, not Kuwaiti, not Arctic Wildlife Refuge Oil, not Exxon Oil, nobody's oil , because we're gonna put our best scientists in a room and lock 'em up until they resolve the few remaining techonological problems with hydrogen enrgy and solar and a number of other alternative sources of energy. We're going to put sheet metal workers and plumbers and machinists to work all across America retrofitting every building in this country for conservation purposes, building solar panels and that sort of thing.

Then he mentions "the Bush ranchette down in Crawford" having energy conservation features and Cheney's mansion in Washington being retrofitted for conservation -- "If it's good enough for George, why isn't it good enough for the rest of us? If it's good enough for Dick, etc."

Talked about getting off the oil habit so we don't have to have a third oil war, another generation of kids having to fight for oil.

Project would put people to work and involve them in actually doing something, instead of merely watching, as they did with the moon shot.

Put the people that Boeing, etc., doesn't need anymore, because it's sent their jobs to China, to work in this project.

Also build a high speed train system in population corridors -- then we've got productive, long-haul railroad jobs, too.

The Democrats have not risen to this challenge but a group called the

Apollo Project led by steelworkers' unions, with environmental groups, several other unions and public interest groups have made such a proposal so we do have a piece of legislation to rally around.

[revcarol]

9. Logged off DU and watched for a while.

He really likes DK, especially his alternative energy plan. Dean got points for going around the Party in financing.Says at least universal health care will be an issue this election.

Wish he had mentioned DK's plan to help rural areas.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

11. not only the hightower segment

bush was being flogged in almost every call during open phones. it was so bad the moderator had to say that there were open lines on the support bush side and invited bush supporters to call in.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. Yep, they cut off at least one woman who was being critical of

Bush* -- the host hung up on her when she started to say that Bush* wasn't really elected.

[sybylla]

13. I get the Hightower Lowdown too.

He cracked me up with the biggest slam I've ever heard in this months front page article. "...a 100,000 sperm and you were the fastest?"

Go Jim! Added the book to my Amazon Wish List today.