♪ >> hey. good morning, everybody. it's tuesday march 27th. good to see you today. this is the full court press: the bill press show, the only proudly liberal show anywhere on television. so tilt left this morning. lots of big stories to talk about. to me, the most disgusting is this smear campaign that started against florida teenager trayvon martin led by the police department and the friends of george zimmerman who shot and killed him. they are saying this guy was suspended from school three times.

he might have even tryied pot. maybe he even wore baggy peptaseants. jesus. don't these people have any decency whatsoever? >> one of the stories we will talk about today. first, here in will havelos angeles, up early with the current tv news update, jackie schner. >> good morning. here is what's current this morning. the supreme court continues to hear oral arguments on the constitutionalty of health care reform. today they will target the issue of the individual mandate, the requirement that everybody buy health insurance. opponents say the federal government doesn't have the right to mandate anything. it can't require you to buy health insurance. advocates will remind you everyone is going to need health care at some point. those who don't pay for it now end up putting an extra burden on the taxpayers down the line. we will see howas the arguments continue. trayvon martin's pants are going to attend am forum on hate crimes.

they are not going to testify. their lawyer will. the forum is going to be held. the presidential candidates continue to campaign. the next primary is a week from today in wisconsin, maryland and d.c. mitt romney is out in california. >> that's notthat primary is not until june 5th but he is holding a fundraiser in stockton. santorum in wisconsin. ron paul is laying low but he has a town hall tomorrow. newt gingrich is out there. if you want to get your picture taken with him he is charging $50 for supporters to have a photograph with him. he says he is going to stay in this race until at least april 24th. >> that's the delaware primary. president obama continues his trip in seoul korea. he says nuclear terrorism is one of the most urgent threats to global security. if you want to chat, join us online right now current.com/billpress. we need to talk.

we will be right back. i'm a lobster girl. top quality lobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's lobsterfest. the only time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream i'm laura mclennan and i sea food differently.

as i understand it in radio they can't see you, so this is big for me. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's new morning news block. >>it's completely inappropriate for television. >>sharp tongue, quick wit and about all, politically direct. >>politically direct to me means no bs, the real thing, cutting through the clutter.

my show is the most important show in the world. ♪ >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv. this is the bill press show: >>. >> well, they say the trayvon martin was suspended from school once becausez he had traces of pot in his backpack. so what? good morning, everybody. welcome to the full-court press,: the bill press show on this tuesday, march 27th. coming to you live coast to coast from our radio factory here on capitol hill in washington, d.c., and coming to you live on current tv across the country everyone in this

grant land of ours. great to see you this morning. thank you so much for joining us. you are looking good this morning. we have lots to talk about here on this tuesday edition of the bill press show. all of the big stories here in washington, d.c. where they are lined up again early this morning to get their tickets for day 2 of arguments in the supreme court about obamacare. big, huge realally in sanford, florida last night where the parents of trayvon martin spoke to thousands of people defending their son's reputation in the face of this growing smear attack. president obama a little embarrassed over in the republic of korea when his mic was open when he was talking to the president of russia but he really didn't say anything that he has to worry about. did he? all of that to talk about in taking your calls at 866-55-press. 8667377 with the entire team, team press peter osborn, good

morning. >> good morning. >> dan henning. >> hello, there. >> wow. wow. you guys surprised? look whos here and spirion bold bowling. we have everybody here but the pope. he is in cuba. you know, the real story is, i keep reading the articles. they say he went down there for the message of peace, of anti-communism. we all know he went down there because he is a big fan of the buena vista social club, as am i. ♪ been to see them here at the constitution hall. been to cuba looked for them. great music. dance at breakfast in little cafe cafes. >> we dance at breakfast. >> we dance at brackeakfast. ♪ >> and the pope is going to meet with the president of cuba rauol castro and he is going to

immediate with fidel. >> really. >> he will meet with anybody. i think fidel wants to go to confession. he hasn't been for a while. should be fun. do you think maybe? what a line-up we have got today. ron polyp from families u.s.a., we will join him on the first street down there in just a little bit. randy winegarten is president of the american federation of teachers, the aft joining us as well and fasha tastekier will be joining us as well in studio at that to talk about all that they are up to. peter osborn do you have a news update? >> no. i was saying hang on just a second before we get to the full-court press because we are ready for it. whenever you are ready, we can take it away. >> okay. we will start. so with the smear campaign against trayvon martin: but first this is the full court

press. >> on this tuesday, other headlines making news -- >> a technical glitch. we can handle it. >> no wearings. in sports the new yorkorries. . in sports the new york jets introduced teboq. he said he is good friends with quarterback mark sanchez and there is no problems there. he is not worried about working for a controversial coach, rex ryan and he may not be quarterback since sanchez is the quarter. >> they are talking about he might play some other position. >> running back, i would say? maybe tight end? i don't know. >> he could maybe play tight end. >> he did a lot of running in denver. >> he could sell peanuts in the stand. >> that, too. a restaurant in georgia has talt taken a lot of heat for a new sandwich on its menu fired. with brown beating brianna, shopa

shop was offering a caribbean black and blue sandwich. >> a little bad taste. >> they have pulled the item off the menu and issued a statement saying they do not support domestic violence. >> good for them finally. >> one man we never hear from in the white house but works, pete souza. he spoke out on siriusx xf and he says he is to be invisible, the president is, so much so that one time souza was havingout to lunch where i was having a lunch well schwarz schwarzwards schwarzenegger. the president tried to diffuse that saying souza was in the room but it turns out president obama is just sot used to having him there, he thought souza was there taking pictures when he wasn't. >> i see him there all the time. i don't think i have ever seen the president without him. >> he is a nice guy.

i like pete a lot. by the way, can we say, i forgot to mention: thank you to governor jennifer gran hopefullyholm and the whole gang at the war room for flowers here isn't that nice? a nice boquet. nice to be part of the team she is a real rock star and great, great show. we have been keeping track, of course, in talking about with you and taking your calls for over a week about this trayvon martin case. last night a huge rally down in sanford, florida, led by the reverend al sharpton and jesse jackson and the parents of trayvon martin were there, again, reverend sharpton saying: it is time for some action. yes, peter. okay. a glitch there. >> that's the second glitch. >> not worth the history of this city. you need to redeem this city

right now. >> all right. that's the number rule. three strikes and you are out. buena vista social club. okay. hello, the show has started. >> i hear you. >> all right. good morning. and it was the father of trayvon martin too, tracy martin who is he again said it's time for the police department or the state attorney or somebody to do the right thing. >> >>. >> stanford police department, the city of stanford, the government, the federal government, state, local whatever entity it is needs to do something about it, and needs to do something right now. arrest needs to be made for george michael zimmerman. >> trayvon's parents are going to be in washington. they won't be testifying but their attorney bingenjamin krump will testify beforein front of a judiciary commit hearing on violence and this stand your ground gun law in florida.

meanwhile, while national support is growing for the family and national demands for action in this case are growing you know, all across this country. right? we knew it was going to start. it has started. the smear campaign has started. the backlash has started against it trademark trying to smear him, trying to destroy him, trying to paint him as a thug. it's disgusting, led by the sanford police department by right-wing blockgbloggers, by so-called friends of george zimmerman and, of course, by fox news. they are jumping on it, too. first, it started on fox news friday with geraldo rivera. we played this yesterday. geraldo saying when you are dressed like a thug, what do you expect? >> i have a different take. i believe george zimmerman, the overzealous watch captain should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law and if he is criminally lieable, he should be

period but i am urging the parents of black and latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies. i think the hoodie is as much responsible for trayvon martin's death as george zimmerman was: >> you willunbelievably wrong, the hoodie had nothing to do with prepaid to trayvon martin. that was sort of the beginning, sort of the green light to say okay. go for it. you can smear this kid now. he is dead. after all, he can't talk back. right? so it started. there were photos out there on the web yesterday of trayvon martin wearing sagzygy pants and flipping the bird. right? turns outright wing blockg, they finally, had to admit, it was a fake photo. the next thing that happened there were reports that he was -- trayvon martin a drug dealer. zero evidence of that. there were reports put out on right-wing blogs that he had assaulted a bus driver zero

evidence of that. the county police department finally, said, this kid had no arrest arrests, criminal arrests, no police arrests, no record at all. never. never. never taken in on any offense. and then, of course, the police department reports that he had been suspended from school because they found an empty marijuana back with traces of pot in his briefcase at one point. well hello. he is 17. right? i hope they found traces of pot in his briefcase. but again, so what? what does that mean? it doesn't mean anything. i mean and then, you've got the friends, the so-called friends of george zimmerman who are now claiming and trying to pick uput up evidence, at least there areir reports from george zimmerman that it was actually trayvon that attacked zimmerman and that zimmerman was the victim in this case. they said that zimmerman was

walking back to his car and trayvon jumped him from behind and broke his nose and threw him on the ground and jumped on top of him and was beating his head against the sidewalk and that's why zimmerman took out his gun and shot him in the chest and walked away, of course, and drove away and did nothing about it. it. yeah, you know what? again, that's zero evidence of that. it is all zimmerman's word and the police department leaking this stuff out to try to smear his reputation. you know, we've got to get back to the central facts in this case. the central facts in this case is: george zimmerman belonged to the neighborhood watch there. he had a gun which he was not supposed to have. he got out of his car when he was talked toold not to. he confronted this kid, pursued him when he was told not to, and he shot and killed him. end of story. i mean even if trmentayvon martin did drivetry to defend himself, it

does not matter in my humble opinion. finally, this guy joe oliver, this friend of george zimmerman that you see everyonewhere you turn turn, around on hardball with chris matthews. he is saying he knows george zimmerman was a racist. he said, you know, the problem is, according to what he heard from zimmerman, that trayvon just wasn't nice. right? it's om if only he had said, i am staying with my parents. >> that's why i am here, then nothing would have happened. okay? let's get back to the fact that zimmerman had pursued him when he should not have. not only that, joe oliver said what about that racial epithet that we hear on the tape. i hate to use this word but where he says, zimmerman talking to the police saying, that's the problem, these freaking blank always get away. well joe oliver says he wasn't saying "coon" is he was saying "goon." people call themselves goons

because they lifeke each other. then he told chris matthews last night, "and even if he said "freaking soon," that's okay because that's what people call each other in louisiana they call each other "soon ass" and it's a term of sxweerment. do you think for a second when georgeendearment. do you think for a second when george zimmerman said these f'ing coons always get away do you think that was a term of endearment? this is disgusting. do you think it's going to work? 866-55-press. first thing can i first thing kill him, then they are trying to destroy his reputation. it's sick. >> bill press meets television. now on current tv.

>>this is outrageous! [[vo]]cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the rest of the media seems like, "ho-hum, no big deal." we've have no choice, we've lost our democracy here. just refreshing to hear. no other television show does that. we're keeping it real. ♪

>> on your radio. on t.v. the bill press shoe, new on current tv. >> 24 minutes after the hour, if you will court press here, the bill press show, politically direct on progressive talk radio and now on current tv taking your calls about this smear campaign against trayvon martin. we are now hearing from right-wing bloggers from the sanford police department and, of course, from fox news. greg is calling from houston, texas. hey, greg, what do you say? good morning. >> good morning, bill. >> all right. good. >> first of all, i would like to put at something here. i am not trying to justify what happened to trayvon but do you think this story is covered

subjectively especially by the liberal media? with the pictures they are showing of trayvon. here is trayvon when he was 12, holding a baby. they haven't showed one picture of him as he is today, you know, 6' 3", 17-year-old. >> greg, you are dead wrong. i have seen a lot of pictures of trayvon in his football uniform as he is today. pictures that were taken just within the last couple of months. >> i mean i saw -- >> by the way, and so what's wrong with a picture of trayvon holding his little brother? >> because it's -- you understand what they are trying to do there. right? >> no. no. yeah. you know what they are trying to do? they are trying to show an innocent 17-year-old kid who was shot and killed in cold blooded murder by -- >> when he was 12? >> but even sew, most of the pictures. wait a minute, what is your point? what is your point? most of the pictures that i have seen have been of trayvon, the most recent pictures that he had of him. what do you think? they went back to his childhood

albums and got him, you know in diapers so they could get sympathy. >> with facebook, like they go to every other criminal's facebook, they show the pictures of him flipping people off. >> they showed a picture of him flipping somebody off. it was a fake photo. is that what you want greg? get out of here. get out of here. i mean take it: askedthe kid was shot and killed in cold blooded pushed murder and you are complaining because they shows a picture of him with his baby brother. >> you little pen head. >> all right. calm down. anita from san antonio, texas. hi, anita. >> i just heard greg. maybe a little sympathy from texas. you know, i have a son three-fourths of that aiming and i don't have any pictures of him holding a 9 millimeter or anything. >> how about that one? yeah. >> you know, and the pictures i have are pretty much the same

type. as a matter of fact, i have a picture of my son in a wolverine outfit just like that. gumy comment was about this empty bag with traces of marijuana. marijuana stays in your system for at least 30 days. so trayvon, it's unbelievable but if they took a blood test from trayvon and there was no signs of any drugs, that would have showed up. so he is obviously not a regular drug user. >> first of all, for a kid to experiment with pot is no big surprise and no big deal as far as i am concerned. i did. my kids did. and i was a high school teacher. those kids all did. they did take a toxicology test for trayvon martin. the results of that test have not been released. there might have been some traces of pot in his system. we don't know that yet.

but again, so what if there was? they did not -- i think what's most more important, they did not take a taxoxicology test of george zimmerman so we don't know whether he was on drugs or drink ig ing. >> lee andrewleandra, from massachusetts. >> hi, bill? >> i have never seen so much blame the victim since it was a rape case. >> that's what this is starting to sound like. >> uh-huh. >> if it's okay to shoot somebody because they might have used marijuana earlier in their lives, my entire generation can be executed. >> yeah. what is the point of all -- even if he wore saggy pants? that turned out to be a fake photo. people are getting actway from the facts in this case. george zimmerman was told by the police: stay in your car. do not pursue him, and he was spot not supposed to have a gun.

they say trayvon wasn't the victim? >> this is the bill press show. whether the globe is warming, we're debating things like how much warming will we see in what will be the precise impacts on brought patterns in north america. there are still issues that are being debated, but the fact that we're warming the planet is not one of them. >> all right. that is michael mann with his book, "the hockey stick and the climate wars." coming up the power of public outcry. plus the war on women continues to rage. republicans are now going to even greatest length to take away a women's right to choose. you have to see this. and later we'll head out to the campaign front as we enter the etch-a-sketch of the gop primary.

we're just getting started at the war room and we want you to have a seat at the table. go to current.com/warroom to connect with us and make your voice heard. we'll be right back.

♪ >> listen and watch the bill press show on your favorite radio station and now on current tv. this is the bill press show: . welcome to the spin room. >> 33 minutes after the hour. spin room. on current tv, or ourcheck out my latest column on the bill press show on the trayvon martin case. go to billpressshow.com. my latest book, "the obama hate machine: the lies distortions and personal attacks on the

president and who is behind them." all about the koch brothers and their attacks on president obama. want a signed copy? go to your local bookstore. if you want a signed copy go to billpress billpressshow.com. what you want it signed and what you want me to write in there. we will do it right away and get it out to you. we will go back to your calls about the smear campaign of trayvon martin. first, jumping into the spin room, tim tebow introduced to the world as a new york jet yesterday was yesterday. was this just -- they are hiring him and they had mark sanchez. was it some pig plusublicity showtunt? and tebow says no. they just liked me. >> the jets get a lot of support and they have a lot of great fans. i don't think it has much to do with that. i think it has more to do with just some coaching believeing in me, and hopefully thinking i am an okay football player and i am

just excited i have the opportunity to be a jet. >> there is just something sickly about him that drives me crazy. i don't know. okay. what do you think? i hear that voice and it's like sarah palin's voice to me. >> he drives me netsuts. this whole idea that he is going to really be an offensive performer for the jets. it's pure publicity. >> absolutely. >> they didn't need him. right? yeah, well, what do you say? i don't know. 866-55-press. kay is calling mayfrom muskeagan, michigan. >> bill, i would like to say thank you very much for you're correctness, for your directness. i mean this is not a racial issue. this is this boy was murdered. we need more t.v. programs like you bill. thank you. god bless you.

tell your friends and keep tuning in. we talk about the issues and bring you the truth and tell it like it is and lay it out there. it's great to have that opportunity, kay. appreciate it. down in charleston south carolina, what do you say? ike? >> you know me, i am always ramped up. i am hacked off about this. let me just put it out there for what it is, you right-wing people out there listening to this: here is the deal: you have never gotten over the rally-regulated militia quads in the second amendment. what is going on now is y'all are trying to protect your little gun nut garbage and killing people and free open range with guns and these laws you have passed across this country country where in some states you can walk into a bar with a loaded gun. are you crazy? i'm sorry. your crazy and idiots and bill, i have a question for you: how long until la pierre and the nra hold what do they call those

things? where where. >> a gun show. >> after columbine? how long before they rub salt in the wounds. a lot of us are tired of being shot down by guns. you guns nuts continue to miss the constitutionalty. by the way, where does personal responsibility come into this? you people are a bunch of hypocrites. >> ike, you know what? you are going to get your own talk show. you have got it. i appreciate the call. i have seen some of the nra people out there saying, no, no, no no. leave this guy alone. leave zimmerman alone. he was just doing his duty as a god loving, gun toting citizen. nothing wrong with what he did under the stand your ground law. a friend of chuck schummer, we have a deal to make sure justice is done in this case. we have to look at this so-called stand your ground law in florida which goes, way, way, way beyond where the constitution provides. is it keon? call from sacramento.

hi keyon. good morning. what's your point? >> well, i have a 17-year-old nephew here around the same age. i don't feel that the guy -- what's zimmerman? what's his name? >> georgeorge zimmerman? >> george zimmerman shoots a 17-year-old kid and he basically is not being served with justice. nothing. you know, stand your gun law? you know. some kind of justice needs to be served. this man needs to go to jail bringing up his past saying, he smokes we'd and all of this stuff like that, that's bizarreweed and all of this stuff like that, that's bizarre. >> nothing to do with it. >> nothing to do with it at all weed and all of this stuff like that, that's bizarre. >> nothing to do with it. >> nothing to do with it at all. this is not the first young african-american guy they claim is a criminal because he wears a hoodie. a young white can make himwear a polo

short shirt. >> the whole thing, keon, and i appreciate the call is totally off base and has nothing to do with the facts as we know them. just the fact that the police did not thearrest zimmerman, didn't hold him, i don't know whether they even questioned him. we haven't seen the police report. did no toxicology test did not talk to all, the people who called, made 911 calms and did not take the guy's gun. he said he acted in self defense and they let him go. i want to talk to you about rick santorum and his latest. but first lates say hello to dar darwin out in flint, michigan. hello, darwin you are on the show. talk to me dar, darwin. turn your radio or t.v. down. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. thank you very much. >> yes, sir. >> okay. okay. okay. first of all, i am darwin hamilton from flint, michigan. >> good for you? >> it's an injustice.

george zimmerman needs to be arrested immediately. he shot that young man in cold blood. this is ridiculous. i don't understand what's going on. i pray to god that justice be served against this man. >> that was the models last night in the rally at sanford florida, darwin, appreciate the call. yeah, just jumping in. we will be back to more calls, jumping into politics here in just a second because rick santorum really blew it, really lost because -- lost his cool in front of and against a good friend of ours, a political reporter for the from the "new york times". it started the day before yesterday when rick santorum was giving a speech in wisconsin and he is talking about mitt romney. now, listen, very careful here he is the worst republican in the country to put up against barack obama. why would wisconsin want to vote for someone like that?

peter, we might play that again because i thought i heard him say mitt romney is the worst cran in the country. now, was i just making that up? >> he is the worst republican in the country. >> the wordst republican in the country. so right after that, he is signing autographs and geoff zelleny says you mean to say mitt romney is the worst republican in the country and listen to santorum totally uselose it. >> what speech did you listen to? >> right here, you yoursused the words -- >> stop lying. i said he is the worst republican to run on the issue of obamacare. and that's what i was talking about. i said for every speech i give i say he is sneakingly disqualified to run against barack obama on the issue of health care. would you guys quit distorting what i am saying. >> do you think he is the worst republican.

>> to run against barack obama because he fashioned the blueprint. i have been saying it at every speech. quit distorting my words. if i see it, at this (bleep). >> whoa. >> what are you doing? >> whoa? whoa? this good catholic said bull? santorum did not say -- i played it twice. he did not say mitt romney is the worst republican in the country to run against barack obama on the issue of health care. he might have said that some other time. he did not say it in that speech. you heard exactly what he said. he did not say it in that speech. he might have said it again in another speech. he might have said it in every other speech. on that day, he said, mitt romney is the worst republican in the country to run against barack obama. santorum could have said, oh god, i misspoke them then. i meant to say on health care.

then he attacks the "new york times" and came out the next day and said i am sproutproud of attack attacking the "new york times." you are not a conservative if you haven't attacked the "new york times". this shows desperation. >> you know total desperation. rick santorum knows it's all over. it's done. it's history. he is going to go through the motions. he is never going to win. so he is just starting to flame out. >> the one clip we played is only a snippet he goes on and on and on. >> he keeps signing sfrafz. onphotographs. on and on. rick santorum. just putting him down there with ron paul and newt gingrich and rick santorum, the three of them now. losers. mitt romney is going to be the nominee. he is another lose her. ron pollock is outside the supreme court. we are going to talk to him next about what we can suspect in today's big second day of arguments on obamacare.

>> this is the bill press show. show in the world. as i understand it in radio they can't see you, so this is big for me. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's new morning news block. >>it's completely inappropriate for television. >>sharp tongue, quick wit and about all, politically direct. >>politically direct to me means no bs, the real thing, cutting through the clutter. my show is the most important show in the world.

i'm a lobster girl. top quality lobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's lobsterfest. the only time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream i'm laura mclennan and i sea food differently.

>>i'm a political junkie. this show is my fix. [[vo]]this former two-term governor is ...

♪ >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. >> 13 minutes before the top of the hour here, the full court press show press, live from our nation's capitol. six blocks from where we sit on capitol hill, the supreme court not open yet, but the lines are long in front to get the treasurered tickets for today's arguments on obamacare. in line a good friend of the program, the founding executive

director of families u.s.a. ron pollock was in the studio with us last week to look ahead to what the supreme court might be doing this week. he joins us from the street in front of the supreme court this morning. hey, ron. how are you? >> i am doing all right. it's warmer in your studio than out here. >> it got a little chilly last night. i think it was below freezing last night. >> when i got online it was 39 degrees. >> now, i want to know: did you cam camp out there last night? >> no. i got here at about 5:00 o'clock. and there is a pretty long line. there are two lines. one line was for the general public. the other line for those who are members of the supreme court. i am a member of the supreme court. i have argued cases in front of the supreme court. but both lines are pretty long. >> how many tickets are given out? >> well, they allow the members in first. and they have a larger number. my guess is they are going to allow n terms of members of the

court, something like 70 or 80 people. and then from the public they will probably there will probably be a comparable number. >> i saw one clip yesterday where a police officer was saying, i have got 100 tickets or something and then he was counting people off. how long are they able to stay in the public, members of the public? do they stay for the whole argument? >> yeah, there is actually yet a third line for those people who actually get in for five minutes at a time. >> oh. >> so they kind of come in and out, but the public line and the line for members of the court, they can stay for the entire argument. >> now geoff tubin a friend of mine -- and we see him on cnn and used to be on abc, writes for the new yorker one of the sharpest legal minds, i think in the country, he was quoted saying he thinks this is the biggest case for the supreme

court since bush v. gore. >> i think that's right. the court has had a reputation of being a very activist court. bush v. gore is obviously an example of that. >> right. >> the citizens united case which really opened up the covers from wealth -- coffers from wealthy people to contribute to pacs is another example but i think the ramifications of this case are as large as what we have seen in decades. >> what happensed yesterday? the arguments, i understand yesterday were all procedural, whether or not this was -- the argument for them to take up this case. any indication of what the members of the court felt about that? >> yeah. you know, i kind ofcharacterize the arguments yesterday as the horseor hors douevre and today and tomorrow the real meals. they had arguments called the anti-injunction act.

this was a statute that was passed in 1867 during reconstruction. and what ist, in effect says is that if there is a law that charges a tax, that anyone who wants to contest that has to weight until wait until that tax liability actually falls due. >> right. >> so the tax liability for somebody who can afford health insurance but refuseds to buy it would kick in, in april of 2015. so they would have to delay, you know, any argument and decision about this. >> yeah. >> about this personal responsibility provision for quite a few years. i don't think the court's going to delay it. >> from their questions, it seems to me that they didn't -- they didn't buy that argument. so if we are into the red meat today, ron, the red meat is really the individual mandate. isn't it? >> yeah. i that and the medicaid expansion argument that will come

tomorrow. you know, the best way to characterize this individual responsibility provision is by looking at the example of the lead plaintiff in this case a woman by the name of mary brown. mary brown and her husband said, we don't want to buy insureance. and if we need health care we will pay for it. well, as often happens with people, it's unpredictable when you are going to have a major problem, and mrs. brown's husband needed major health care. he received it. and he had significant bills in north florida, alabama and mississippi, doctors and hospitals and at the same time, they were having problemsa problem with their small business. so they couldn't afford to pay for the bills. so they went bankruptcy which they are entitled to do. but that meant the bills that they owed never got paid. >> i took up -- >> >>. >> that means those of us who have insurance, we see increases in our primeemiums where it gets

passed onto the government and we pay higher taxes so we ended up paying for them because they didn't want to buy health insurance. >> that's the real meat of this whole argument? right? >> that's right. and opponents say this is a matter of freedom. we want the freedom not to buy insurance but what about the freedom freedom for all of us who do buy insurance and we have to pay the bills for those who didn't buy insurance. it seems like the real freedom issue here is to protect those people who actually exercise responsibility. >> ron, it's not freedom. it's free loaders, it sounds like to me. ron pollock is our guest. families u.s.a., founding executive director. you can follow their good work at familiesusa.org and follow ron on twitter twitter handle is @familiesusa. have a good day. thank you for taking time this morning, and just for that, you get to jump two places ahead in line. >> thank you so. >> talk to you later.

♪ >> this is the bill press show.

♪ >> taking your e-mails at any time. this is the bill cresspress show. live and on current tv. >> appreciate all of the e-mails and tweets and your facebook comments as well but this is one i have to focus on this morning. peter, you and i are in deep, deep, deep doo-doo because last week, we said we disagreed that

down in alabama, the school -- no. south carolina, the schools that wanted to make bass fishing a high school support, an official high school sport. julie is not happy with us. she says, i have to disagree with you about tournament bass fishing. it is physically and mentally challenging. bass fishing does not mean sitting and watching a bobber. my husband and i team bass fish all the time. we are up early and on the boat all day and anyin any kind of weather. we have finished in rain, sleet and snow. boats can travel 70 to 80 miles an hour over sometimes very rough water. >> stop it. >> we have to be able to physically endure what could be a very rough driveride sometimes for great distances. the boat requires you to land a bass. so we are on our feet all day. there is a great sense of commaderie with other finsherfishermen.

>> good out of here. >> this is the bill press show.

♪ good. >> good morning, it's tuesday, march 27th. this is the full court press: the bill press show, the only proudly liberal show on morning television anywhere. welcome, welcome. good to see you. thank you for joining us. we've got lots to talk about today. we got into it already a little bit this morning. the most disgusting story of the day is this smear campaign that started from the right-wing blog bloggers from the sanford police department and, of course, from fox news against trayvon martin trying to paint him as the agress agressor, him as the attacker and george zimmerman as a victim

and they are saying stuff like, oh, my god, trayvon martin, he wore baggy pants and once he might have tried to smoke pot and he was suspended from school three times. so what? nothing to do with the facts. he was shot and killed just walking with a bag of candy. i mean don't these people have any deescencydecency? we will get into that and a lot of other stories with you. but first, let's jump out of los angeles and is a good morning to jackie schner here with this current t.v. news update. >> hi, bill. good morning, everybody. here is what canis current. you if you are a candidate on the campaign trail it's the followers who matter. politico is noting newt gingrich has lost the last of his two print reporters that follow him around the country. off the last two embedded reporters have pulled out. ron paul lost the last of his imbeds two weeks ago. at the top of the ticket mitt romney and rickson santorum.

he may not be all that uncomfortable with that position. he was asked on the christian broad broadcasting work if he was asked to be the vice president of romney would he do it? he said yes. santorum at the same time says romney is uniquely disqualified to run against president obama drawing the comparison between national health care reform and the massachusetts plan and bill and ron pollock were talking about it. the supreme court is hearing or oral arguments. interesting study by huffington post pointed out by ryan grim saying if health care were in place, only two % of the population would be affected by the individual mandate that, that most people would continue to get their health care through work or buy subsidies to pay for it. for more about this or anything else join us online.

current.com/bill pressasks current.com/billpress. we will see you there.

as i understand it in radio they can't see you, so this is big for me. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's new morning news block. >>it's completely inappropriate for television. >>sharp tongue, quick wit and about all, politically direct. >>politically direct to me means no bs, the real thing, cutting through the clutter.

my show is the most important show in the world. >> this is the bill press show. >> happy tuesday march 27th. welcome to the full-court press: the bill press show, from our nation's capitol here on this beautiful chilly tuesday morning in washington, d.c. yeah, now that spring is here, it's finally going to be good weather. good to see. thank you for joining us. we've got it all covered he. i am telling you. we have it covered here in washington, d.c. where the supreme court iswill begin in a couple of hours from now its

second day of hearings second day of arguments on the obama obamacare, the president's affordable care act challenged by some states who say the individual mandate is unconstitution unconstitutional. we have got it covered down in sanford, florida, where thousands and thousands of people rallied last night with the parents of trayvon martin to demand justice in this case and where the friends of george zimmerman and the sanford police department has started a smear campaign to try to destroy the reputation and the image of trayvon martin. and we've got it covered in south korea where president obama continues his visits there with the nuclear summit participation in that and bilateral meetings with a lot of the foreign leaders who are present. and he flies back tonight and because of the time change, i think figure it out. travels tomorrow but arrives tonight. i don't know how it is. but at any rate he will backe back in the white house late, late, late tonight.

peter osborn and siprion bowling. >> are we on t.v. >> as of the last hour they might not let us. we are getting lots and lots of congratulations. it's really, really nice. this very nice note here, dear bill, i love your new morning show, witchsh you the best of success. at last at last americans have a true liberal morning show without having to put up with the conservative rantsings of my partner. are you looking for a co-host? amika garage amikabranginski. amika and i are close. how about this one? this e-mail this morning from lisa fox says, congratulations. huh? are you serious? oh, my god. you are responsible for great

americans like glenn beck and rush limbaugh losing sponsors. i hope you and your show just die. die, you scum pig and remove yourself from my t.v. viewer screen. woo >> soundsyou sound like a great american. >> lisa fox. lisa, i got news now turn your t.v. off. or turn the channel. right? i don't need you and you don't need us. all right. we have lots to cover this morning. lots of good friends, randy wine gar winegart winegarten, the president of the american federation of teachers, afc, a great labor leader great american leader faz shakir is in the studio with us as well as men melanie sloan, head of citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. i know that sounds like a contradiction and usually is. but first, this is the

full-court press. >> on this tuesday, a quick check of stuff making news, renewed speculation that the future queen of england is president pregnant. >> queen elizabeth is pregnant. >> the future keenqueen. >> i was half listening there, ben. >> got the magazine now is reporting they are in switzerland on a skiing holiday and they may be using that vacation to start trying for a baby, but -- >> wait a minute. >> bookies in england. >> they haven't tried yet? >> bookies in england believe she already has a bun in the oven. odds have been cut by 15% and bets are going wild that she will have a child. >> they have been predicting she is pregnant since before the wedding. you know come on. >> she would be showing by now. >> i hope she is. >> what do the bookies know. >> mitt romney is a fan of the hunger games. he told cnn he has read the trill okayogy by suzanne collins. he took his grandkids to see the

movie over the weekend, took time off from the campaign trail which, of course took in over $5 million. >> that's a violence kind of movie. >> kids are little. >> do you believe -- >> we will look into it. >> do you believe he took time out during this campaign to read this trilogy? >> he said he has read the trilogy and he went to see the movie. >> no. i'm sorry? >> you will -- wow. >> don't cut out the story. you will enjoy this. the space needle as a giant sling shot used by the popular angry birds game on smartphones and tablets. turn that into a reality. the folks at rovio have hung an angry bird. buzz speed.com has pictures of it to proceed mote the angry

birds space game. it will not be launched but it is fun to look at. >> oh, my god. i want to get it on my iphone. >> i have it on my iphone. >> you do? >> my wife does. we have it on our ipad the new space angry birds. yes. >> why don't i have it yet? >> get on it. >> all right. yeah. iphone. okay. after the show. thank you, dan. now, i can say thank you thank you, dan. president obama got in a little hot water yesterday. it was funny. let's just say this: you know, i made a good living so far and damn it, i hope to continue on the radio and on television with a microphone and the first lesson you learn when or work involves a microphone, whether it's a big job like this orologistor a little one you aware in your

hair or whatever the microphone is always hot. the microphone is always on. it doesn't matter if the engineer says, don't worry about it. we've got it turned down. your mic is off. no. the mic is always hot. it just amazes me how many people forget that particularly people in public life. so president obama forgot yesterday. he was at a meeting with president medvedev. >> that's a hard name to pronounce from russia. i have heard it pronounced 20 different ways. trate, what's funny is the president liens forward like and jorge moves in, too. >> i am pretty sure his name is not jorge. >> dmitri. >> barack leans and they are both of their mics are on.

they are talking about missile defense. russia is upset because, right rightfully sew, i think, because we are still pursuing this nonsensecal star wars system that ronald reagan put in place, and and they want us to take theit out near them particularly in turkey and the united states has been balking but obama says, listen, you and putin just relax. okay? just relax because i am going to get re-elected and after i am re-elected, we will deal with this. i have a lothave a lot more flexibility. here is what it sounded like over the open mic. >> yeah. after my election. yeah. >> and [inaudible.] >> obama said, this is my last election. okay? and after it's over, i am going to have a lot more flexibility meaning i am going to get re-elected and we will dealcan deal

with this. knee dmitri says, i will transmit that information to vladimir putin, the guy who is in charge. so basically, it was an innocent exchange. i mean there was no state secrets involved there at all. but oh, my god, listen to the republican republicans. you would have thought he said oh, you know, you want to know how we build our nuclear weapons? here it is. here is mitt romney yesterday. >> now when the president of the united states is speaking withed with the leader of russia saying he can be more flexible after the election that is an alarm alarming and troubling development. >> oh, my god. alarm alarming? alarm alarming? shocking? the president said things will be a little different after the election. john mccain came out and called obama the etcha-sketch president saying here is my position and after the election, i will shake

it up. give me a freaking break. first of all, i think what this shows is that obama is pretty confident that he is going to win. i think rightfully sew because-- so because mitt romney is going to be the republican con me. he has nothing going well. we have to get through this. okay. number 2, it's true, what he said. it's absolutely true that after he is re-elected, he will have more options,home he will still have a democratic senate and a democratic house of representatives with nancy pelosi back as the speaker of the house and he will have lots more options. even if congress stays the way it is. he will not be up for re-election, and there won't be this mitch mcconnell thing about our number 1 goal to be re-elected. so things will definitely be different. what he said is absolutely true. and the president pointed out

that a little later, when he met with some reporters and they asked him about this and he said, do you remember what it was like when we tried to get that start treaty through, how much cooperation i got from republicans in congress? even republicans who used to be for it, the star treaty when bush was in the white house? >> when you think about the new start treaty dmitri and i were able to hammer out and ultimately get ratified, that was a parents-taking two-year process. i don't think it's any surprise that you can't start that a few months before a presidential and concongressional election of the united states. >> exactly. so, yeah, we do remember how tough it was to get that star treaty passed. the other thing that i find very funny is, they are making a big deal about this open mic of barack obama. well, we remember the open mic that really got people in trouble. we were george bush.

he was still a candidate, i believe, when he is standing alongside with dick cheney and they saw adam climber from the new york sometimes in the crowd, and bush leaned over to cheney and pointed to adam climber and called him a major-league a-hole. yeah, a little more serious than what obama said yesterday. remember last year president sarkozy was talking with obama and benjamin netanyahu, the primary minister of israel walked by and sarkozy said to obama: i don't like him. he is a liar. hello. there have been some more embarrassing ones. of course, the classic was back in 1984, when ronald reagan said -- he was asked to do a mic check. he was about to give a -- record his radio address and he looked at barbara and said i want to announce that i have signed

legislation that will outlaw russia and the bombing begins in five minutes, which iswas not well received, needless to say across the pond. what else? i looked up some other things john major when he was prime minister of the u.k. called members of this cab nitinet bastaddress. those bastards i have to deal with all of those bastards. 2008, four years ago during the presidential campaign, jesse jackson sitting on the set at cnn and he turned to his -- whoever the fellow panelist was and he said how unhappy he was with candidate barack obama because he didn't think barack obama was standing up enough for african issues and jesse jackson said, i want to cut his nuts off. now, i just ask you: do you take those and compare that to hey, dmooet redmitri, this is my

last election. give me time and i will have more flexibility. i would have to say no big deal. what do you think? 866-55-press. but mitt romney says, it is alarm alarming. alarm alarming. yeah. well, what's really alarming is mitt romney is. he is going to have to go back to bane capitol because he is not going to be in the white house.

for the energy to keep you going. who wouldn't want to be a part of that? payday. the sweet taste of energy. i'm a lobster girl. top quality lobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's lobsterfest. the only time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream i'm laura mclennan and i sea food differently. 1c >>this is outrageous! [[vo]]cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the rest of the media seems like, "ho-hum, no big deal." we've have no choice, we've lost our democracy here. just refreshing to hear.

no other television show does that. we're keeping it real. >>the blood is in the water and the sharks are bipartisan. >>you got a bone to pick with that? >> this is the bill press show.

>> 24 minutes after the hour. randy ryanwinegarten in the next segment. taking your calls on president obama caught on an open mic no bfd, joe biden might say. we will get to your calls in just a second. a little rindeminder about identity test. the irs warning people if you file electronically and a lot of us do, you bet are be careful because identity thieves know everything they need to know, your social security number, your employer, your kids' social security number, your home address, all of that stuff is on your returns that you file electronically. so the irs is warning us to be careful about that. yeah, well one thing, it's one thing to have a warning. it's another thing to do something about it. what i have done is sign up for life lock ultimate protection and encourage you to do the same. life lock and i are on a motion to stop identity theft but they

can protectthey can't protect you if you are not a member. i encourage you to call now and mention press 60 for 60 risk-free days of lockife lock ultimate identity theft protection. if you are not happy with what they offer you they will give you a full refund. see likefe lock for details and 1-800-356-5967. correction. 1-800-356-5967. president obama caught on the open mic. and mitt romney says, it's alarm alarming mark, calling from minnesota minnesota map mapsmapz /* min amneapolisminneapolis. >> you and i have been involved in politics for a very, very long sometimetime scav scav. i have run not as a candidate but worked in different levels of the candidacy of men and women run for. it is a full-time job. if either one of the right-wing

people are sayhateing, saying i will have more time. 280% of your day is taken on campaign campaigning. and i commend the president and any other elected official who has to juggle between being a candidate and still doing the job that they are doing. i commend the president because he is doing a familiarbulous job and it's absolutely true. he will have more time after this campaign season is over because he will have full time to devote to the office of the. >> mark, in your experience, you must sometimes scratch your head like i do and say, don't they realize the mic is always open? right? rule number 1? i am sure you have told candidates that, as ihave i. >> after -- after speeches and every debates, you go over the things with the candidate and say what in at a time (bleep) were you thinking. >> i appreciate the call up in

yarmouth, maine, hello, mark. good morning. >> how are you doing? >> good. great. what's your point? >> anything that the president does, they are always going to complain. doesn't matter what it is. >> yeah. >> i believe that the republicans truly dislike and hate democrats. what we have done for the last 50 years, they are trying to tear it down in this country. anything that helps the average man pulls the rug out from under their feet. >> you have got it right. anything, anything -- we have seen this particularly in mitch mcconnell saying this statement that their number 1 goal was to prevent barack obama from getting re-elected. so anything that obama is for, you know, they are just automatically against. and you are right. anything he does, they have got to find fault with. it gets a little tiring sometimes. but it's not alarming mitt romney. randy wine gartgardner is next. >> this is the bill press show.

whether the globe is warming, we're debating things like how much warming will we see in what will be the precise impacts on brought patterns in north america. there are still issues that are being debated, but the fact that we're warming the planet is not one of them. >> all right. that is michael mann with his book, "the hockey stick and the climate wars." coming up the power of public outcry. plus the war on women continues to rage. republicans are now going to even greatest length to take away a women's right to choose. you have to see this. and later we'll head out to the campaign front as we enter the etch-a-sketch of the gop primary. we're just getting started at the war room and we want you to

have a seat at the table. go to current.com/warroom to connect with us and make your voice heard. we'll be right back.

♪ >> this is the bill press show. >> what do you say? 33 minutes after the hour now. tuesday, march 27th, the full court press coming to you live from our nation's capitol around the country on progressive talk radio and now on current tv. so good to be with you. thank you for joining us. in the next hour faz shackir for the center of american progress will join us in the studio as well as melanie sloan, citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington put out a very important report last week about all of the members of congress who are taking advantage of their seats in congress to en wretchrich members

of their families. pretty shocking news. that you may not want to hear but it's important for all of us to know. we are -- as i mentioned, live on current tv. one of the exciting things about being on current tv is the chat room which you can join and a lot of people are in right now talking back and forth and talking about what we are talking about and expanding on those topics find it at billpress billpressshow.com or go to current.com and we encourage you to join the chat room. randy weingarten, meanwhile last night in sanford, florida, huge rally led by reverend al sharp sharpton and the reverend jesse jackson with the parents of trayvon martin still demanding justice. there are no charges filed. here is the reverend al sharpton saying we want to see this man under arrest now.

>> not worth the history of this city. you need to arrest handim and re redeem this city right now. >> shots in warning as the members of the city council that sanford, florida could end up having the reputation of a birmingham, alabama if they didn't move and it's not enough for the police chief simply to resign. they have to take some action. of course, that probably now is up to the state attorney and to the federal department of justice. the father of trayvon martin also calling on any of these authorities to step up and do the right thing. >> stepanford police department, the city of sanford, the government, the federal government, state, local, whatever entity it is needs to do something about it. and needs to do something right now. arrest needs to be made for george michael zimmerman. >> democrats on the house judiciary committee here in

washington are holding a special hearing today where the parents of trayvon martin will be present. they are going to be accompanyied by their attorney been men krump. the parentsare not expected to give testimony today. what's disgusting as we talked a little earlier in the program with all of this swell of national support for trayvon's parents and demands that justice be done, there is now a kind of a backlash campaign that's being started, a smear campaign. let's what youcall it what is really is. a smear campaign against this apart poor kid, a smear campaign led by the sanford police department, unfortunately, leaking little details that kind of make him look like not the innocent victim that he is. a smear campaign led by friends of george scrimzimmerman, a smear campaign led by right-wing blog bloggers and, also a smear campaign which is gleefully

jumped on by fox news and some of the hosts over at fox news. he was suspended because they found traces an empty marijuana bag bag bag in his backpack with traces of pot in it. okay. maybe they did. so what? what does that have to do with his murder? he was 17. i mean what 17-year-old hasn't? right? there were photos put up on a right-wing website of trayvon martin wearing sagging pants and flipping the bird at somebody. turns out it was a fake photo, just another attempt to discredited him. there were reports on one right-wing blog that he had been arrested for assaulting a bus driver. turned out to be totally not true. he has no rimcriminal record at all. it goes on and on and on.

the it started last friday with ger aldo saying on fox news, the problem is, his clothing was responsibility. disgusting. the most disgusting, the friend of george zimmerman's who is quoted as saying that zimmerman told him that he was actually the victim in this case, that he was walking back to his s.u.v. when trayvon martin jumped trimhim from behind, knocked him on the ground, jumped on top of him broke his nose and was beating his head against the sidewalk. now, this is zimmerman's account. we don't know if it's true or not. again, an attempt tom paint zimmerman as the victim, not as the attacker. the facts remain and what these people seem to want us to forget

is that george zimmerman, part of this neighborhood watch, had a gun when he was not supposed to have a gun. no. 2, he got out of the car when he was told not to get out of his car. number 3, he pursued trayvon martin when he was told not to pursue trayvon martin. and, number 4, most importantly, even if he is in a fist fight with this kid who has nothing but a can of ice tea and a bag of candy even if he gets in a fist fight with this kid, it does not just five taking out his gun and shooting him and killing him and then walking away. it does not justify the police department believeing everything he said and doing nothing about it. we are going to take a quick break. randy weingarten arriving here for the full-court press: the bill press show. we will find out just exactly what shape american's schools are in. nobody knows better than randy

weingarten stay with us on progressive t.v. the full covered press. >> this is the bill press show. as i understand it in radio they can't see you, so this is big for me. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's new morning news block. >>it's completely inappropriate for television. >>sharp tongue, quick wit and about all, politically direct. >>politically direct to me means no bs, the real thing, cutting through the clutter. my show is the most important show in the world.

the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. this former two term governor is politically direct.

♪ >> radio meets television the bill press show now on current tv. >> seventeen minutes before the top of the hour, tuesday, march 27th. it is full-court press brought to you today by the aft, the american federation for teachers, the good men and women of the afc and president

weingarten joins us. >> it's great to be here. it's great to be here on day 2. congratulations. >> exactly. here we are. and so -- >> currents t.v. bill press on capitol hill. >> how about it? >> great. >> a match made in heaven. >> exactly. >> i want to talk to you about schools but we were talking about the-update on the trayvon martin case. here seshe is. junior in high school? >> right. >> your teachers teachers around the country have been involved in this. any plans? >> in fact our local down in miami dade because kids our teachers and our members and kids knew him. you know, they actually walked out one day, the kids. >> i saw that. >> because they were so upset and i talked to our local leaders there, and they are as upset as the kids in terms of

four weeks doesn't seem like they are moving. we have an obligation to keep our kids safe when a kid is wearing a hoodie, that doesn't make a kid a criminal. we have to find ways of connected educating people to deeply respect each other. and that's what this tragedy cries out for. it's a tragedy for trayvon. it's a tragedy for his family. but it is a tragedy for the broader community that this is not the dominant conversation now about how do we as american in 2012, be hugely respectful of all people regardless of color of skin, regardless of religion,

regardless of any other thing that may potentially divide us. this is the melting pod. and it-- melting pot and it needs to be the melting pot. >> it must put the fear of god in kids his age? right? >> you hear -- >> and parents with kids his age. >> what's been interesting about -- and i am glad we, you know, in the last two days, nea fta, both national unions and the union in florida put out a strong statement yesterday about not only needing to get to the bottom line of the investigation, but also the larger question of how in our society we make sure there is deep respect and understanding for all of our people. and, you know, so teachers arehave been talking about this, and, you know, you have these amazing conversations with people about

what the effect of racial profileing is. and, you know, and that's what we have to really combat. so i hope that the department of justice does the investigation they must do but the our role as schoolteachers around the country is to keep our children safe and to start teaching. we do it all the time. >> right. >> the dominant -- what should have happen in schools is we should actually stop with the test fixation and start with a learning and a teaching and an understanding fixation. >> that's what our schools should be about. >> that's why we have common public schools. but it is -- it's been it's not just a tragedy. it's both the tragedy as well as this reaction of not wanting to get to the bottom of this. it's also the vigilant e laws like, you know, that's in

florida. >> the stand your granted law in florida? >> exactly. sorry. >> no. i want to ask you what is the state of schools? the president gives the state of the union school. what would you say is the state of schools in america today, our public schools? good shape? >> you know, given the last recession and that the fact that schools are still attempting to do what they should do, you know, we have a lot more to do. but our schools are in far better shape than the naysayers give them credit for. they educate 90% of america's young people. and every time someone comes up with a new-fangled way to do it, whether it's vouchers or charters or now, you know k-12 technology education and then you start looking at the evidence of how do these market-based strategies compare to our schools? our schools always are better

than the new market strategy. charters, a big study a couple of years ago that said while 17% do better 34% do worse. basically, you know, our schools have hadgone through this gripping financial crisis at the same exact time as we actually have a bigger role now about hownot only helping kids get prepared for life and for citizenship but also, all kitsds, not some kids be prepared for 21st century skills. >> right. >> that's where the jobs are. >> the schools have been hammered here it couldn't happen at a worse time? right? with teachers and, you know, money not available to maintain the schools? >> the worst hammering that we have gone through fiscal crisis before. i taught in new york city from

1991 to 1997. we scavenged for chak. you know. our books talked about john kennedy as president. when john kennedy was president when bill clinton was president. the copy machines were our best friends because that's how we put stuff together. those of us who have been around, we have taught through thick and thing. the the demean demonization. teachers have been lionized because they have to do more with less. our budget crisis also suggests when you have something like this last recession, you know, it doesn't just affect our schools. it affects people at home. half the country right now is within 200% of the pinched line poverty line. you have a responsibility to help embrace and help kids

regardless of how they show up. so when -- so when you see thisvillefication rather thanvilification rather than, when you see politicians say it's the teachers' fault or the union's fault or this or that as opposed to how you work together to more andreas schlicker, and the ocd has done a lot. they have they run the international tests and things like that. he put it in an amazing way. we have an obligation to teach kids internationally. we have 20th century teachers meaning we haven't given them the tools to do this and we are in 19th 70 tree schools. >> who. yeah. >> that is the transformative challenge we have to do but we should not bevillefying people.

>> president obama has come up with race top the top with the education secretary to replace no child left behind? is it a better program? is it working? >> well, what happened is no chide leftchild left behind needs to be revamped. you know initially washat this was, was the anti-poverty program that kennedy envisions, johnson put in place that said that kids that have the least should get the motesst. so it was a title i poverty program. it was, you know creating chain chains of mondayey that way. in the '60s and '70s we actually did more to reduce the achievement gap and in the '90s

when you look at the national test, we did more under clinton than we did under bush in terms of no child left behind. this was a testing fixation. >> yeah. >> race to the top has tried to broaden and in some ways has narrowed it but because of the comparative grant as opposed to -- i am give you an example. aerialed early childhood is key. race to the top didn't have anything about early childhood. so we need to actually have systemic programs that actually help all kids. they can't do it all but they are a great lever. >> we need to talk about the role of the parents, too. this is such an -- i don't think there is any more important topic. i don't think there is any more important job in this country than teachers. and i am a former teacher. i have such respect for you and the work you are doing and we have barely scratched the surface and we are out of time? >> i'm sorry.

they are wonderful term. i want them to be respected, not demonized. >> i want you to come back and get into this issue. >> thank you. fantastic. >> randi weingart ner president of the american federation of teachers aft.org. we will be right back. >> this is the bill press show. i'm a lobster girl. top quality lobster is all we catch. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's lobsterfest. the only time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees, like lobster lover's dream i'm laura mclennan and i sea food differently.

>>i'm a political junkie. this show is my fix. [[vo]]this former two-term governor is ... can a >> this is the bill press show. >> in the president's busy schedule in south korea with the time difference he attendsed his first plenary session, took

the official photo, attended a working liverlike. then he had a one on one meeting with the president of tackstanunch. then he had a one on one meeting with the president of tackstan. he, get this, will depart south korea at 6:50 p.m. suestuesday, south korea time and he will arrive back in washington d.c. at andrews air force base at 9:40 p.m. tonight. i don't know how you can do that. it sounds like he's got a spaceship. he will be back at the whitehouse at 10:00 o'clock just any time in time for a late dinner, i guess, with michele and girls. >> in our next hour faz shakir is going to be here to tell us what their latest stories that they are working on. then melanie sloan from crew with all of the members of the house, democrats and republicans who are lining the pockets of their own families. stay tuned. >> this is the bill press show.

♪ >> good morning. it is tuesday, march 27th, welcome to the full-court press: the bill press show the only totally liberal show on television. we talk with the big stories of the day here in our nation's capital, around the country and around the globe. the story that i find most amusing today is that president obama was caught off mic telling the president of russia yesterday at their nuclear sur surmit in south korea if they

wait until after the election the president will have more flexibility to deal with issues like missile defense. mit romney says it's alarming the president would say something like that. guess what: president obama is right. he will have more flexibility. we will take a look at that issue plus the latest on the smear campaign against trayvon martin. just one of the things we will be talking about this morning. first, here in los angeles, jackie schner with us current tv news update. hi, jackie. >> good morning, everybody. thank you for joining us. new mcclassicy meris poll saying if we had an election today president obama would beat mitt romney but it would be close, very close. it would be 46 to 44. the president leads 46 -- excuse me -- by five points if rick santorum were the romney instead of romsantorum. both would beat him by one point amongst independent voters past this point. another poll that's making news this morning as we go into more news about the war in

afghanistan, the "new york times"-cbs poll says 69% of the people in u.s. think we shouldn't be there any more. >> that's up from 53% last november. at home we continue to talking about the shooting of trayvon martin and his parents will be in d.c. today to participate in a forum on hate crimes and racial profileing. they are not going to speak. they will be in the audience. their lawyer plans to speak that forum. it's been about a month now and we are still getting more information every day. daily kos this morning, leaking to the sanford police department -- linking to the website where they had the initial partial police report of the incidents that evening, a month ago, and it doesn't have much detail as to what the witnesses say or saw. but there are witnesses listed on that report. it's been redacted as to their names but there is information that there were witnesses of some sort on the scene. if you go to the sanford, florida, police department for that information, yourself. bill press coming back to you in just a few moments. stay with us. ♪

as i understand it in radio they can't see you, so this is big for me. >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's new morning news block. >>it's completely inappropriate for television. >>sharp tongue, quick wit and about all, politically direct. >>politically direct to me means no bs, the real thing, cutting through the clutter.

my show is the most important show in the world. ♪ broadcasting across the nation, on your and on current tv. this is the bill press show. >> what do you say? welcome to the full-court press: the bill press show, coming to you live from coast to coast from our nation's capitol on progressive radio and on current tv. good to be with you. thank you so much for joining us. check out the chat room on our website at billpressshow.com. join the chat room at billpress billpressshow.com or at current.com and wine have a lot to

talk about today. they get gotinto the meat of the issue, debateing the individual mandate. around the country, down in florida, of course, big, huge rally last night. people demanding justice be done and president obama wrapping up his visit to south korea and flying hope after being caught on the open mic. following those stories with team press peter osborn dan henning. >> good morning. >> and siprion bolding, the man behind the cameras here joining us in studio, grad to have you with us, faz shakira is the head of it thinkprogress.org.

>> great. looks like you have professionalized the operation and i see your producers are wearing pants to the office now. >> yeah. keep those on. >> we had to dress up a little bit. >> we might mention the flowers are a gift of jennifer granholm, governor granholm and the host of the war room current tv. isn't she nice? >> she is very talented on t.v. she is she is a natural, comfortable doing it. >> welcome to the current tv team which i thought was great. speaking about welcome to the team, tim teabo was welcomed to the team yesterday. they had a little news conference with him. one might say, if you alonelisten to the montage put together by espn one might conclude that he is excited to be there. ♪

>> i am so excited about being a jet, so excited about meeting my team mates. i was really excited about that. all right. i am excited. i was excited. that was exciting for me. i am excited to be a jet. i am excited to be here. it's exciting to me. it's exciting for me. i think it's just exciting. i am excited. he was excited excited about working with me. i am excited about working with him. excited about that opportunity. >> 44 times in 35 minutes. >> in the press kongsconference. >> 44 times. >> it might have to do with limited volumecabulary. schz he couldn't figure out another word. >> i think it will be a diversion. >> pilledfilled with excitement. >> he doesn't have a deal with excitement. all right. good to have you with us. from crew, citizens of responsibility andeth ethics in

washington will be joining us. i think to get to what think thinkprogress is working on, but first: >> this is the full court press. >> on tuesday, other news simon cowles' home was broken in while he was home. the photograph reporting a 29-year-old woman was arrested in the music mogul's mansion. he was in bed when he heard her in the bathroom and found her with a brick in her hand. his execute staff held her until the police arrived. >> how did she get that far? where was the security? >> that's what i want to know. >> you are ready, dan. >> that's going to happen to you now that you are on t.v. ? >> right. right. whitney houston's ex-husband bobby brown arrested in vannize vanneise, california. he was intoxicated behind the wheel. he has a previous dui conviction on his record. >> bobby brown may be trouble. >> he may be troubleans you believe. >> a new study says chocolate

lovers are thinner than those who stay away from the treat. >> best news i have heard all day. >> university of california san diego scientists say people who ate moderate of chock laugholate five times a week and exercised had lower body masses there. >> and exercised. >> right but this is compared to people who ate no jockchocolate, also who exercised. doctors do recommend no more than one ounce of alcoholchocolate per day. >> i bring me a snicker's bar for breakfast. >> doctors recommend a box of chocolates and glass of red wine. dan, thank you. first, i want to make sure all of our listeners and our viewers know at the timethe importance of the work you do at think progress. it's no exaggeration. and i know i am speaking for the whole game stephanie miller randy roads, for rachel maddow.

we couldn't do the work without the work. you do the research on the issues and put it out there every day on thinkprogress. >> you give us a greater platform. i have a staff of 25 people who all deserve partial credit here we work together as a great team covering all kinds of issues. so i am glad that other people find the site useful. >> it's great. really, it wasis a great source. i want to encourage our listeners and viewers to check out every day like we do think thinkprogress.org. i think it's safe to say -- i certainly hope we can make this happen that you are going to be a regular on our new current tv -- >> i have notgot nothing better to do. i think it's a great show. i think one of the jobs that you and i are in the business of is trying to make people believe that not only do people want to hear about justice and stories that are right, but that there is a consumer base for this. and i think if we tell the stories that really matter whether it's trayvon martin or a horrific beating in california

and the ramifications of the health care law and the truth about it that these are the kind of stories that people will really want to hear and will gravitate to over time as long as we provide it to them. >> yeti think people are looking for facts. >> that's one of the things we have been trying to do is present the facts of the case not only so people are informed but, they also can see through the lies and the propaganda we hear so much from the other side and that didn't exist before scepter of american progress arrived on the scene. >> thank you. >> i mean that. now, you have been out in front in outlining the facts of the case and now in outlining the smear campaign that's just started the post went viral. it started a cable blitz around this issue. it was around the time that 9-11

tapes were released. we got to learn more details about how ridiculous the story was and then last night, judd posted a round-up whenich the team helped them with do you careing the smear campaign. if you saw his mother trayvon martin -- mrs. martain back talk about this she was distraught and said, they killed my son and now they are trying to damage his reputation. and i think it really underscores how tragic the whole story has become. >> do you think this smear campaign is coordinated, is organized? and if so, who is behind it? >> i don't know it's coordinated person to person. everyone has the message on the right that they feel zimmerman has been assaulted and attacked. >> yes, and. >> now it's time to open up whatever vault you have. i think this came in the wake of the geraldo rivera comment that he was wearing a hoodie: say

what you want. you saw doctored photographs of trayvon circulating and conspiracy therapists that he may have beat a bus driver had an assault record. >> none of which is true? >> as far as we know none of this is true. it's made up out of whole cloth. appear al chirpton had it right when he was standing with trayvon martin's parents and he had said, this is the kind of thing you always see to an african-american who has become the victim which is they try to characterize it around sharplyracial stereotypes. this guy is a thuggy a druggy trying to fit you into what you saw on television about aboutn african-american who havemay have got caught in the wrong business. >> what is the come pus? right? that they can't accept the facts the way they are but they have got to make this kid look like the attacker and zimmerman look like the victim? >> a part of it is --

>> rich lowry who is as conservative as you can get with the national review actually wrote a piece saying, al sharp sharpton finally, got something right, you know. i really vailed that. being honest and basically he was saying let's not try to make this anything other than what it is. >> in this age of hyper politiization, it's the impact of the stand your ground law in florida there is a whole host of important people trying to defend that law leading that charge is the nra alec who has written about it in paul krugman in "the new york times." they have a lot of money and resources and a vested interest in trying to, i think, show that the facts of this case are a certain way. zimmerman apart from them has his allies. you is a you them come out of the woodwork a friend savvy on

television. you wonder where did he come through? throwing out the most outlandish comments. >> he looks like he is a t.v. host, a t.v. veteran or something and just some citizen. >> he is actually. he is, yeah.s, an orlando reporter award winning t.v. reporter a friend of the family who has been tasked apparently going out and make theing the most over zellous accusations. >> the most outrageous of which i have heard is last night on hardball, he said that if -- what about this racial epithet i didn't even say on the air but he is saying it sounds like in his call to the 9-1-1 -- in his call to the police, gary george zim zimmerman is saying, these f'ing soons always get away. and joe oliver is saying, that's a term endearment down here in the south. we call each other soonass. >> yeah, people proudly say that. >> in louisiana.

yeah. if george zimmerman said that, do you think that's what he said about trayvon martin? i like this friend. he is a friend of mine. >> you see joe oliver say this with a completely straight face as if he is just try to be totally honest with you a term of endearment, trying to be nice to the guy. >> faz shakir editor in chief at thinkprogress.org. the other big story as big as that is, the supreme court in what has been called the case of the sentence tree or the biggest case this supreme court has had since bush v. gore. a lot riding on it. >> it's a lot of activity excitement. i think for me as an activist, i am sure you feel the same way, it's nice to see people getting excited about policy in front of the supreme court, chaptering, singing, getting people engaged in the pros. >> rick santorum showed up in front of the court today. >> god bless him. >> to take a stand.

>> i think ultimately in terms of the argument here in the court case, i think a lot of people have forgotten that we have had a number of conservative courts uphold the law. lawrence silverman who was given medal of freedom by president bush harvey wobblingenson, a very conservative justice president bush president bush thought about appointing to the supreme court. people who upheadld the law. >> upheld it? >> and argued vociferously the congress has to have this power if we survive as a republican and there is no context within the constitution that silverman said for this to exist. >> your calls, welcome here at a time affairable care act or obamacare case abovebefore the supreme court 866-55-press. toll he-free number 866-55-press.

here on the chatroom and here on the air. we will get right back to it. seen on current tv this is the bill press show.

m.

>> radio meets television. the bill press show now on current t.v. >> 24 minutes after the hour here on this tuesday march 27th, if you will court press in studio with us faz faz shakir from think progress.org. as i saw this morning, the latest political news, just a sign of the times that -- at his

campaign rallies, newt gingrich is starting to charge to have his photo. classic thing wherever you go, even when i go out somewhere like at some event people want to have their thoetphoto taken with you. for newt gingrich, you have to pay 50 bucks. >> biloxi be the people. the charge he was newt inc and now he is selling his photograph of people. it's embarrassing. >> 50 bucks. >> $50. >> addelson is. >> who would you pay $50 to have a picture with? it certainly wouldn't be newt gingrich. >> it would not be newt gingrich. >> who would you pay 50 bucks? >> there are very few people i would pay 50 bucks to have mypanymy en picture taken within. >> think progress has been reporting on the smear campaign against trayvon martin and the big case in front of the supreme court. let's go to the phones if we can. people want to join our conversation. don is calling from schaumberg

illinois. hi, don. welcome. >> good morning. ideologically and politically i disagree with you on probably virtually everything except this trayvon martin issue. i am a gun owner and still carry permits, the whole, you know, the whole nine yards in that. i don't believe that the stand your grand law is poorly written. i think this young man was killed by another person named zimmerman. he has been trained with a hand you handgun. no one should use handgun you -- it's just tragic. i think we should concentrate, those of us on the right should join with you on the left when it comes to this particular case and say, look. this is a travesty. this is a family who has lost a child in a way that isshould have never happened. zimmerman, as the case laysplays out before us right now has no right to follow somebody down the street, especially when the police police department says, stop.

we don't need you to do that. and he does anyoneway. it looks like manslaughter to me as the kayes lays out as we speak. >> i salute you don for your comments. >> may i ask the caller: would you agree we should arrest zimmerman? i am just interested in your sperpect perspective. >> absolutely. i am a jury of his peer? am i not? a gun owner who is trained in using a handgun in self defense and, you know, if i am a jury of his peer as it speaks right now you do not follow somebody down the road. once the threat is gone, the threat is gone. you call the police add and say he was wearing a blue and yellow pants and purple shoes and walking down 1st and elm. you don't follow him and kill him. you his mother said, they killed my son. i have been in situations where i have gone out and talked to people who were drunk out in front of their house or something. never bringing a firearm with me

ever. ever. >> that's just not the mindset. this man killed trayvon. that's not debateable. >> got it, don. thank you for the call. i want to also remember that the manual said that the members are not supposed to be armed. they are not supposed to carry a gun. >> there is a lot to agree with that don said. i just want to also note that yesterday, the sanford police released information to try to cast this in a totally different light. the sanford police said he had come from behind him and attacked him and it didn't match up with the actual story and what we heard on the phone calls where zimmerman is talking to somebody and is he sesays he is comright at me. >> his girl. >> yeah. >> trayvon. >> he turns around and says, why are you following me? it doesn't add up. >> so good to have you in studio. we want you back at least once a week to do a think progress update. maybe every tuesday? >> i am ready for it. you are on. >> all right. melanie sloan

next. >> this is the bill press show. whether the globe is warming, we're debating things like how much warming will we see in what will be the precise impacts on brought patterns in north america. there are still issues that are being debated, but the fact that we're warming the planet is not one of them. >> all right. that is michael mann with his book, "the hockey stick and the climate wars." coming up the power of public outcry. plus the war on women continues to rage. republicans are now going to even greatest length to take away a women's right to choose. you have to see this. and later we'll head out to the campaign front as we enter the etch-a-sketch of the gop primary. we're just getting started at the war room and we want you to

have a seat at the table. go to current.com/warroom to connect with us and make your voice heard. we'll be right back.

>> heard around the country and seen on current tv the bill press show. >> tuesday march 27th. good to have you with us today as we tackle the issues of the day. ahead of one of -- the head of one of our favorite organizations here in washington, d.c. joining us in studio, melanie sloan, is the head of citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. maybe for some of you current tv watch watch watchers, this is your first exposure to crew but there are people who are working to make sure that theour elected officials here in washington def.c. remember

their ethical obligations. hi, nellmelanie. nice to you soosee you. >> nice to be here. >> i hope you find there are some people who live up to ethical standards. >> absolutely. >> there are some who don't. >> there are some who don't. >> melanie slow in crew's latest says the family affair a lot of members in washington, house and senate remember their families when they get to their positions? especially when it comes to their pay checks? >> absolutethat's right. we put together a report and it took nine months of work by crew's researchers because they went through every single member, all 435. >> not the senate? >> not the senate. just the house. we had to figure out who their family members were in the first place t that's a little tricky. not everyone has same last naturename.

we looked for the family members and to see whether members were using their positions to financially benefit theirmselves. and looked at personal financial disclosure disclosures, how they viewed their official payroll. >> are these campaign expenses or house expenses? >> we looked at both. so there are anti-nepotism rules who say you can't hire someone on your payroll but jerry louis pays his wife a significant amount of money on the official payroll and i believe he can do that because she worksed for him before they were married. >> oh, my god. over all, what did you find? how many? what percentage? let me guess. 10% of house members? >> 248 members in the report. there are 105 democrats and 143 republicans who are included. >> 248 who have had family members on the payroll? >> who have in some way used their position to financially

benefit themselves or their family. >> 248 out of 435? >> yes. let me say -- >> only off by a factor of 25. >> some are much more serious than others. okay? so, you know, everything single thing in here, you know is not a total outrage and a lot of it, let me also say is legal. we are not talking about 240 members of congress doing something illegal. and often the problem in washington and i mangled this quote but it was michael kinsley, i think, the scandal isn't what is illegal. it's legal. >> and also what stinks. right? >> right. >> some of this just doesn't pass the smell test. right? >> that's right. >> that's part of the problem is it's the kind of thing that makes the public so distrustful of members of congress. so so many believe they are there to further their financial interest and not work in the interest of the rest of us. >> my first job was working for a republican, a great republican by the name of peter gbehr and i remember he used to say, it's

not just what askis inappropriate but what looks inappropriate or what seems inappropriate that you have to avoid. >> right. appearances count. >> so give us one of the more e greenous examples. >> well, there are several. >> not to name names? right? >> not that we name names. okay. well, our current presidential candidate ron paul congressman from texas. >> don't tell meet. not ron paul. >> six family members on the campaign payroll and he says that he has paid them a combined amount of $304,000 and that's not includeing the presidential payroll. >> that's only what he hepaid them out of house campaign committee. and he says that's because those are the people he trusts. it's questionable when you are paying your daughter or your step-daughter or your grandchild, you know, people like that. i think people raise the question. >> that's one of the big examples. >> six members of the senate.

>> yes. >> i guess he would make the argument that these are the most talented people he could find and they just happened to be related to him? >> right. so here is the rule. the fcc has rules about hiring family members. the rule is you can hire your family member if you are paying them fair market value for the work and they have the requisite experience for the work. >> that's the thing where we get into trouble. i think there is real questions about whether somebody has the right experience and so to give you an example of another member of congress who is a little question questional, colin peterson, the democrat from minnesota pays his son to be a campaign treasurer and his son happens to live in tennessee and is a church music director. and so i really have to yearquery whether that would be the best person to be your campaign treasurer? when you are from minnesota. >> you said colin peterson is a democrat? >> yeah. >> no? democrats? you saidacy democrat?

>> yeah. $620,000, his explanation is that doesn't count as family. she is just his girl. >> because their not married? >> they are not married. >> what kind of reaction have you -- i will come back to the total again, 248 members? right? >> right. >> is how many democrats? >> 105 democrats and 143 republicans. >> so are you saying that the others are squeaky clean or you didn't get to them? >> no. we looked at all 435. >> okay. >> the others are squeaky clean. some they haven't all done something terrible. an earmark something which a college in which he sits on the board and there are always questions about whether or not you should be earmarking things in which you are personally associated but the college is in his district and there is a lot of reasons to believe it's a good itnstitution, that's the kind of thing we included because earmarks have been such a controversial issue and there

have been problems with members who are earmarking for things that are less up standstanding that colleges, more like charityies that they create. >> right. the namemain thrust of the report are members when have put family members on the payroll? >> memberswell, not just members who put family members on the payroll because we also looked at things like whether members had loaned them -- loaned their cam cal pains money and paid themselves highbrates rates of interest which we have found they did. there is one member of congress from georgia representative paul broun, mr. brown loaned his exam pain over $300,000 and he told the sec he wasn't going to be charging any interest but he is in fact, was charging a significant amount of interest. so i think that's the kind of thing that also we have gotten in our office, a lot of seems from people who are particularly concerned about the loaning your campaign money, paying yourself back at a rate of interest of something like 18%. >> crew is our citizens watchdog

here melanie slowan is the ahead of it head of it. it's the citizens for ethics.org. you can read more about this report a familyair. i am curious. with naming democrats and republicans and you have gotten a lot of publicity on this report, because i have seen you around and read the story in "the new york times". what kind of reaction are you getting from the leadership? do they resent this report? do they say, gee, thanks for pointing this out? >> no one ever says thanks for pointing this out. >> maybe we can cork together? >> right. >> and fix this problem? >> yeah. >> apparently speaker boehner has about it and he hassays he has zero tolerance for ethics problems but attending fundraisers with vern buchanan who is under investigation, for the conrepublican congressional campaign committee and it is a

front group. we looked at all 435 members if you did these things we weren't picking democrats or republicans. whoever was involved is in the report. so ... from the democratic side leader pelosi? >> no comment. no comment so far. >> no comment so far? >> yeah. >> for the record, you are often accused of being just a democrat democratic front group. i don't remember your being so kind to charlie rangel. >> there are many democrats who actually would really quibble with the concept that we are a democratic front group. it was not too long ago we filed an sec complaint against rob andrews, a democrat from new jersey. he has used his campaign funds, for example, to take his family on a trip to scotland for a wedding for somebody he said was a dornneor and used campaign funds also to advance his daughter's theatrical career so there are some questionable things there. >> you know, the question i have, and i would love to hear the comments of our viewers and

listeners at 866-55-press, your questions about any ethical violations you may have heard about here in washington because crew is on top of them. again, it's our citizens watchdog. nell melanie take this question. i will get your answer on the other side is why it's up to you to do this kind of investigation and to point these things out. why isn't the congress, itself and theethics committee and the congress doing this kind of work on behalf of us who are paying their salaries? it's the full-court press here on current tv and progressive radio around the country tuesday, march 27th. always welcome at 866-55-press. on radio and on t.v. the bill press show new on current tv. just refreshing to hear.

no other television show does that. we're keeping it real.

it's completely inappropriate for television. ♪

>> >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> thirteen minutes before the top of the hour. we will be back with melanie sloan here from crew and your calls in just a second. the question is: how much money do you need to earn extra money do you need to earn next month? >> what the folks at income@at at home want to know. their leading home, over eighty countries they are legitimate friends and you can do this, no matter your age, education or experience. you can literally earn money on your own laptop from your kitchen at thattable at home 24/7. all you need is a little spare time and the one on one coaching

that he that the folks at income at home will provide. if you are one of the people sick of living paycheck to paycheck, worried about job security or retirement and you are ready to make extra money from home, part-time or full-time, give them a shot. income at home.com. they are adding my listeners in record numbers and they are giving away a thousand bucks to somebody just for checking thetm out which you can do and should do today visit income@at at home home.com. >> you talk about vern buchanan, head of the republican congressional campaign committee. what's the case on him? >> well, he's under an investigation right now both by the ethics schmidtcommittee in thenit house and the department of justice. there have been a lot of allegations he missused -- forced his employees at car dealerships, one of the wealth wealthiest members of congress and he forced people to contribute to his campaign and then reimbursed them for those

campaigns. >> that's a no-no. >> big no-no. >> it's completely inlel and ishe is under a criminal investigation. >> head of the republican campaign? >> obtain has been in florida and says he has zero tolerance for ethics violations but plenty of tolerance for mr. buchanan. it seems when mr. boehner talks about is any kind of sexual impropriety but money and politics, he doesn't care. >> let's seeay hello to ann from cincinnati. hi, ann. welcome. >> thank you, bill. bill, my question is: where does all of this money come from? that supports these additional people with these congress people? >> good question. i think i know the answer. thanks, ann. >> that's the point. it comes from us. we people around the country make campaign contributions and you make comeampaign contributions often thinking you are advanceing that member's policy interest

and here it is you find out that the money that you have contributed has gone into a family member's positivecket or at its gone to some kind of other charity. and there are all kind of places where members are taking your campaign contributions and spending them. there is so much empa sizthese days on the doneors to come pains campaigns. we think that's important. but there is little focus on how howcam campaigns spend their money and a lot of people would be upset if they understood where they went. >> these are not comeam pan con contributions. some are tax dollars going to pay their sal easier and their costs of running their office? right? in the nation's capitol? >> more is about campaign spending than your official resources but for example, when i said jerry lewis right, that's our official resources and there are certainly other examples of that and certainly whenever members are earmarking to things that they are associated with or their family's businesses, those are taxpayer funds, too. >> ron is calling from loshapoka, alabama. ryan ron, thank you. >> i'm sorry, bill. it's steve.

>> steve? all right. ron, welcome. >> thank you, sir. i love your show. i am asking about the ethics, and i understand speaker boehner has a lot of interest in this keystone pipeline and he has got some financial ties with energy companies. >> well, let's see. i don't know about that, myself. melanie in. >> i was unaware may boehner had any financial ties to energy companies. >> i wouldn't be surprised. >> i don't know anything about it. >> all right. steve? otherwise known as ron, neither do i. now, i want to come back to my question: so i love the work that you do. i think it's just -- you fillulfill an important function but why is it up to an organization like yours to get out there and to blow the whistle on some of these guys? what what the hell is the house ethics committee doing? >> i think as you haveand i have talked about many times over the

years, they are mostly there to provide cover. it says we care about ethics but really the ethics committee just basically will allow almost anything. i want to emphasize a lot of what's in this report is also legal. as i said, you know, these things are not illegal. it's not illegal to use your campaign funds to pay your family members. it's not illegal to charge ex or tant rates of interest on your loans that you make to your campaign as long as you can say they are commercially reasonable. they are there are things people getting away with that are outrageous and would make any regular person think are you kidding? they can get away with that? but it's not illegal. >> wouldn't you think that the leadership -- again i am trying to be totally impartial here, bi-partisan. the democratic leadership and republican leadership, when the members are elected they would say, hey, guys, you know here is one thing. right? here is one rule. we are going to observe. we are not going to put our sons, daughters, wives, girlfriends on the payroll. it just looks bad. >> yeah. well, there is that rule for the official, for the official

resources but there is no such rule for campaigns. there has been a bill in prior years floated to prevent that type of thing. needless to say it doesn't get support. members of congress are never anxious to apply more rules that apply to themselves. >> maybe ron paul would be doing better if he didn't have so many family members on his campaign. >> possible. >> melanie, thank you for coming in today. citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington again citizens for ethics.org and their twitter handle is @crew crew. right? >> yeah. >> @crewcrew. come keep on top of those. i will be back with a quick parting shot. >> this is the bill press show.

it's completely inappropriate for television. ♪

>> >> the parting shot with bill press. this is the bill press show. >> on this tuesday, march 27th, my parting shot for today: well, it's funny to see mitt romney and other republicans trying to make such a big deal about president obama's comments yesterday off mic. the to president medvedev hey don't worry about missile defense, barack obama told dmitri because after the election, i will have more flexibility. we will be able to make a deal. so what's the big deal about that? it shows a lot of confidence on obama's part for one thing. but, also, it's nothing tomcompared to some of what we remember back in 1984, ronald reagan saying he signed legislation to outlaw russia forever. we begin bombing in five

minutes, he said on the open mic or george bush calling adam climber of "the new york times" a major league a-hole or president sacsay of france last year telling president obama that benjamin netanyahu was a big liar or john major when he was prime minister of the u.k. calling members of his cabinet bastard bastards, and who could forget jesse jackson saying about carac barack obama, i want to cut his nuts off. what president obama said was harmless and he should have learned what every talk show host on radio and talk testify.v. learned at the beginning your microphone is hot. be careful what you say. that's my parting shot for today. eliot spitzer going to join us in studio tomorrow as well as dalia space lithwic from slate and major garrett from the national journal. great lane-up. we will see you back here. have a good one. see you back here tomorrow. >> this is the bill press show.