[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> hey. good morning, everybody. it is friday june the 8th. how about it. welcome to the full-court press, your new show on the full-court press. good to see you as we go into the weekend. we have a lot to talk about first. we will do it right here and take your calls at 866-55-press. on our morning menu this morning, how about this? first they made us wear seat belts. then they made us put our kids in car seats. now guess what. now they are talking about

making us put seat belts on our pets. yes. doggy seat belts. really? maybe we just put name cage on top of the car. maybe mitt romney was right after all. we will talk about that. let's say good morning to jacki schechner with today's current news update. >> good morning, bill. good morning everyone. tensions in syria escalate today. u.n. observers are blocked in hama. special envoy kofi anan will only escalate without key international players. he is pushing for a to working group for russia, china and possibly iran. secretary secretary of state will meet with him today. it is russia and china are insisting

no military intervention. >> back here on the political front, mitt romney has the endorsement of rand paul. paul says his dad is his first choice, the kentucky senator says he is impressed with mitt romney romney's principles on foreign values, family values and closer oversight of the federal reserve. he has been mentioned as a presidential pick. his dad, ron paul has basically ended his run but still aims to have an impact on the g.o.p. platform. while jeb bush has made it very clear he does not want to be the vice presidential pick he does know who should be or at least who he thinks he should be, senator marco rubio from florida. he says while rubio is the most articulate conservative elected official on the scene today and he would give the romney campaign more energy. we are online right now live in chat.

you should join us, current.com/billpress. more of the show after the break. don't miss this week's "the gavin newsom show" with special guest: hollywood icon oliver stone. >> i'm not an activist, i'm outspoken. i'm a dramatist. [ male announcer ] cookies with smooth caramel and chocolate. ♪ ♪ hmm twix. also available in peanut butter.

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>>(narrator) independent unflinching, and above all politically direct. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> in the immortal words of mayor richard daley: they have attacked me. they have cruise crucified me. they have even criticized me. what do you say? hello, everybody. it is friday. ♪ alleluia. >> it's friday, june 8th. alleluia. >> boy do we love fridays. ♪alleluia. >> oh, my god. great to see you today.

so good to get into the weekend, big chicago weekend for me. very, very excited about that. and a lot to talk about before we hop out to national airport and hop on united airlines to chicago. >> that's why it's good to see you today. glad you joined us to tackle the big stories of the day as we do every day here on the full court press on current tv on sirius satellite xm. this first hour together this morning, sadly, only the first hour together because they are so dumb at sirius xm they don't cover the entire program. but the entire program covered on your talk station. we are glad to be there. however, whichever way you are joining the show, glad to be there for you and glad you are there for us and look forward to talking to you at 866-55-press. >> that's our toll number, toll-free number 866-55-7377, your way to join the

conversation and how about it? the entire team assembled back together again this morning, peter ogburn never goes anywhere. >> hi, there. >> dan henning back from his beer run. >> here i am. >> took you a long time for that beer run. >> a week-long beer run. >> he came back with no beer. >> at least we could expect one of the big pitchers we had at the beer fest. >> i didn't want to take the rick of having the beer explode in my luggage. i went over with some bottles -- actually my brother wanted some bottles of america steak sauce. i bought him three bottles. one exploded all over my luggage first day i got there. i didn't want the same thing to handle to bottles of beer. no beer for anyone. >> you could have brought us some steak sauce. >> right. >> let's not for get sip ran boulding there at the tricaster the videographer. >> hard at work.

>> exactly. did you have any feeling about the german economy. >> the german economy, yes is doing well but they are struggling because greece. greece is taking them down. the germans hate the greeks. >> let's not start an international incident. don't say the germans hate the greeks. >> that was a little strong. >> conversations around the beer steins are about the greeks are bringing us down. >> the germans feel they are the only ones who have the money to bail out the greeks. >> greek beer is awful. >> greek food is pretty good. >> greek food is very good. >> absolutely. so much to get into. we have to talk sports a little bit. by the way, did you hear about peter's spurs? >> yes. the spurs that lost. >> why would you twist that knife two days after they lose. how dare you. >> and the other team that peter thought was going to win was the heat. and last night, they showed a little new life.

>> yeah. >> just hold to it. that will be fall game. there will be a game 7 at american airlines arena on miami, saturday, the final score, the heat 98. the celtics, 79. what a performance here by one mr. lebron james. >> i am surprised in these playoffs, some of the games are not close at all. >> lebron james scored 45 points last night. >> did he? >> i cannot stand the guy. i think everything that's wrong with sports, you can see in lebron james. >> i know he is on your hate list. >> that's impressive. he is this generation's jordan. >> he is indeed. and, you know, he has given us a lot of reasons not to like him. >> that's right. >> and a lot of reasons to love him. >> what a show we have coming up to you for you. we are going to talk pot. we are going to talk pets. we are going to talk periolo

from the sent of american progress on the latest on pot and pets. wait until you hear. and, yes, i am still big pilloried over "the star-spang he will star-spangled banner." >> in eng lir. >> i can do this in english. a lot of people are wondering if anthony boreurdain is selling out. the t.v. hosts a new reality cooking show with british food with migelit lawson. if you go to abc's website and look at the casting calls, it makes it sound a lot like any other cooking competition that happens to be on t.v. >> cnn and abc? good agent i guess. >> here is the thing i will say. right? he and lawson are both legit

tallets events -- talents. >> there is over-exposure. >> we are learning more details about joe biden being father of the bride at his daughter's wedding last weekend. people magazine this week blood pressuring a photo of the vice president doing the hora the traditional jewish wedding dance. his daughter's new husband is of the jewish faith and also reportedly tiered up several times during that ceremony -- -- -- . >> john boehner teared up hearing about it. >> brandon jakeobs tweeted add picture of a letter from a 6-year-old boy nu-washington who was upset about the that trade and asked his mom to explain why jacobs was traded for the giants. she told him a team continue afford him any more. the boy mailed $3 and $0.36 to the nfl star and said he is

going to reach out to that boy and take him to chucky cheese's. >> i don't know. a 6-year-old kid who has been to the -- into these trades? nfl trades? >> that's sort of -- >> cute. his own life savings. >> he is not going to get it back. >> i think his parents should tell him there are more important things. >> his mom should have said he is a greedy bastard and see if the kid sends his allowance. >> teachable moment. >> exactly. >> as we start our show this morning, please stand. everybody stand. please stand for the "star-spangled banner." ♪ 0, say can you see by the dawn's early light

♪ what so proudly we hail ♪ at the twilight's last gleaming. >> all right, rose anne barr. thank you for making my point about the star-spangled banner. >> that's the problem. we have to do it. we started this week of shows, monday, on the star-spangled banner. and boy, i never expected it, but it has blown up all week. so let's just end the show by putting this whole thing into perspective. you probably have caught up. everywhere i have gone in the last few days, somebody has said, you have to sing the star-spangled banner. the right-wing blogs picked up my comments they need a new national anthem. they ran with it. it was picked up. somebody told me by drudge. yes see it. fishbowldc and media ice ran articles. yesterday morning went nuts.

the night before sean hannity talked about it. i think bill o'reilly talked about it, all attacking me of course, and yesterday morning, i was on cnn with carol cristelo. before i was on, ynn ran a poll asking people to call until asking if they agreed with me or not. then fox and friends -- fox and friends brings in michelle malkin, talk with gretchen carlson about what a terrible terrible person i am because i dared suggest that the star-spangled banner is unsingable and we would be better off with something like "god bless america." >> what's most telling to me is just the radical progressive reaction of american exceptionalism. the news cal critique? fine. he can't sing more than an octave. call the whambulance. but it's this idea that he

rejects that america has exhibited more bravery than other countries on this planet. and i think -- i think there is a teachable moment there about how much hostility -- how fast of host i willty these people very long for pate preon theism and a and a teachable moment for young people. when i teach my kids. >> gretchen carlson. >> or anyone else does, i am not thinking, wow let's make sure we tell them all of the other countries think they have brave people, too. no. i am thinking, wow. we are so lucky to live in this amazing country. and let's say and sing these words with dignity. >> that's what i am thinking. >> so over the top. >> exactly. bill press go ahead and the apologist, citizen of the world anthem. see how many people are going to sing that at the next baseball game. >> it's so over the top. i said, of course, on current

t.v. with cenk yygur. >> that's like being attacked by a gnat or a flea. give me a break. first of all, the main point i made about being unsingable about being militaristic. on the bank thing, does she think americans -- are we the only brave people on the face of the earth? i don't want to make too much of this, but don't you think the brits were pretty brave during world war ii? they were getting the hell bombed out of them? we weren't. don't you think the french -- not all of them of course. some caved in to the nazi occupation? don't you think the people who defied saddam hussein in iraq were pretty brave. on and on. don't you think nelson mandela was pretty brave? come on.

let's admit it. we are a great country. i love this country. we are not the only brave people on the planet. criticism and the attacks and the personal attacks and last night, cenk read a lot of the e-mails we have received. we will do some more of those a little bit later in this hour. but i just want to back up. i had a chance with cenk last night on "the young turks." at the end of the week, trying to go back when are i started on monday, which is just to make the point. let's remember how this started. 60 minutes did a people that said that 22% of americans think bruce springsteen should be asked to write the new national anthem. yes, bruce, i would vote for him. i made the point, that operating rooms that americans think we need a new national anthem which i think we do because the star-spangled banner is unsingable. the words are militaristic.

i think the words are dumb. it's only been around since 1931. it's no big deal. it wasn't written in the constitution. and it's put to the music of an old english drinking song. i ran into a friend who is a professional vocalist. he makes a living sinking concerts. he was pointing out to me it's an old drinking song. he said, yeah, you can sing it, but you have got to be drunk to sing it. that was his point. he is a professional. so my point, also, was we have so many great alternatives. we played some on monday. god bless america, indicate smith, america the beautiful, ray charles. this land is your land, you know, woodie guthrie. you can go on and on. so the idea that you are being -- i'm being unpatriotic or i don't love america or i don't believe in american ex exceptionalism because i say

that the star-spangled banner is not the best and we ought to have a better and we have got a lot of better choices for a national anthem, you know what? they want me to apologize. hell no. i am make nothing apology because no apology is necessary. what do you say? 866-55-press. you are damn right i love my country. i love our country. i would love it more if we had a national anthem we could all sing rosanne. >> this is the bill press show. "the gavin newsom show" [ hollywood icon oliver stone. >> i'm not an activist, i'm outspoken. i'm a dramatist.

>>(narrator) we are the trailblazers, the truth seekers. we are the idea no one wants to hear until it grabs you and won't let go. we push, we prod until the truth reveals itself. we are fearless, independent trendsetters, problem solvers, and above all, we are politically direct. the young turks with cenk uygur at 7, viewpoint with eliot spitzer at 8, the war room with jennifer granholm at 9, the gavin newsom show fridays at 11. and there's only one place you'll find us: weeknights on current tv. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ]

>> heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> twenty-four minutes after the hour. if -- just so you know not everybody, not everybody disagrees with me. not even all of the conservatives the yesterday, neil bortz, who just announced his resignation after a great career said he agrees 100% with me, that the star-spangled banner should be replaced. those who disagree, however, far outnumbered those. this is from william: move your ass to china. you will fit in scum. francis scott key with an e -- i don't think that's her name. since you don't like the national anthem, i pray you get aids. >> boy, they racheted it up

there. >> good christian, you know. >> charlie haran says i bet you never served your country in any manner whatever except bomb it on the air waves. you don't deserve america. please move elsewhere. i truly wish you evil. get a life. kevin from palm springs. what do you say kevin. >> good morning, bill. i feel like you are my brother from another mother. you have michelle and let's over take her hairline. >> i as wanted to get in a fight with her. i hate her. i don't hate her but she is -- go ahead. >> she makes me not want to root for manny packpacheo. >> you are sending joe scarborough back into politics. >> that's our goal, kevin. yeah. morning bill, take it over

morning joe. i love palm springs. i wish i were out there with you my friend, my brother. jimmy from albuquerque, new mexico. what do you say. >> good morning. >> yeah. >> i wanted to let you know, back in the '70s al burped brooks released "comedy minus one" and onet entities rewriting the national anthem. he talked like talking -- he talked about having burt bacarac do it. he said have open auditions for everybody to come in and do the national anthem. and he does a little thing where he is playing the piano plays pomp and circumstance and some guy from ohio makes up the words. it's hilarious. >> we have to find that, peter. you know, somebody september me an e-mail yesterday and i never had enough time to look it up. but it must be online somewhere. right? >> i am sure you could find it. comedy minus one is the album. >> albert brooks. we will play some on monday. good to hear from you.

glen, glen is in milwaukee wisconsin. hi, glen. >> how are you doing? >> i am all right. good. thank you. >> you know, i was listening to that and i have to laugh because, you know, these people are insane. if it was rush limbaugh who brought this up we would be on bended knee saying god, yes, we need to change the national anthem. it's just ridiculous. >> by the way, i didn't say it like dump it and have no national anthem. what's wrong with "god bless america"? and what's so unpatriotic about saying i love to sing "america beautiful" or "my country, at this of thee" that gets me going. i could have said something really unpatriotic, un-american, like like: the president of the united states was not born in america. he is illegal. he is not legitimate.

i could have said that. >> this is the bill press show. >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>the guys in the middle-class the guys at the lower-end got screwed again! i think you know which one we're talking about. >>overwhelming majority of the county says: "tax the rich don't go to war." i just wanted to clarify.

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> thirty-three minutes after the hour. here we are, the full court press on a beautiful friday morning, june 8th. coming to you life, coast to coast, brought to you today by the international association of iron workers, the men and women of iron workers under walter wise the sky is the limit. you can check out their good work at the website

www.ironworkers.org. and tomorrow, don't forget if you are anywhere in the chicago area looking forward to seeing you on saturday afternoon two to 4ty frugal muse bookstore in darren darren, illinois. we can talk about my new book, "the obama hate machine". i will sign copies for you. we will talk about about politics, 2012. no price of admission. get the exact information from our website, billpressshow.com or wcpt.com. if we don't have at least 10,000 people tomorrow, i will be disappointed. so i think the darian police department, they have cordoned off a six-block area around the bookstore. there will be plenty of room. don't worry about that. a lot of excitement in the sports world the last few days with the nba playoffs motepeter

ogburn's san antonio spurs going all the way. >> come on. >> it's going to be the thunder but big playoffs between the heat and the celtics. we wanted to check in with sports editor for the nation magazine, dave zyron, good friend of the program. dave, did morning. >> great to be here. i have my post-lebron hangover. so i am all ready to talk to you here. >> how about that? you have to hand it to him for last night's gang? >> absolutely. it's long been said, this is at spurs reference but if lebron james had steven jackson's heart, you would have the ultimate basketball machine. and last night, you saw a lebron james with steven jackson's heart. every single time the celtics made a run lebron was there t reminded me of "a perfect storm" with george clooney driving the boat into the tidal waive. but cloonek wins. the celtics kept coming.

the entire team was abysmal cents for lebron. every time they made a run, the crowd was getting into it the boston faithful were screaming their boston heads off. there was lebron answering the call time and again. i felt like i was watching a remake of "enter the dragon" with bruce lee just by himself taking out everybody. it was an amazing thing to watch. even lebron haters have to doff their hats. >> i did this morning. i am a not otherous lebron hater. >> i think you are the head of the hate lebron club. >> you could say that but my god, last night was unreal. >> last night was unrear. particularly when you know about lebron's history in that aireen appear and in that city, which has been anything but auspicious, when you think about the pressure he was under and what people would have said if they would have lost.

this is a franchise. >> right. >> that said that they would win, as they put it, not one, not two, not three, but more championships and if they had lost last night, the heat would have been taken apart f they lose game 7 in miami, this team will be taken apart. eric solstra will hand you a resume. it will be scattered to the winds. >> psychologically, what does this do to the celtics? having to go back to miami for game number 7. >> they are so tough. i mean i don't think they would be if they had to go into beirut for game 7. this team has been there and back again. for over 10 years in minnesota. game in, game out. just be very happy to go somewhere where there is sunshine. it's like playing like they have

been liberated from a sib other than camp. he is going to be very very happy these guys have been there so many times in so many pressure situations. i think they foley bron can play that way again paul pierce went 4 for 18. this is a team that if they get their druthers right, lebron can be superman but the narrative is that lebron needs help if the heat are going to make their way to play the seattle zomby sonics in the final. >> all right. we will see how that plays out tomorrow. dave zyron, sports editor for "the nation magazine." dave, before when we were together we talked about this horrific history of brain

injuries. it's come together in a major lawsuit now. tell us about it. >> a major lawsuit is right. the largest lawsuit in the history of professional sports. >> really? wow. >> the amount asked and the number of players involved. we have never seen anything like this in sports history. you are talking about 90 different lawsuits that have all come together involving about 2500 former players. >> woe. >> including people who absolutely you would have heard of people like jim mcmahon, gary clark, wide receiver for the skins, dorsey levins. a lot of players are in on this. they are allegingly the same thing. they have come together because there is some things that are not in dispute. we know for years the nfl operated on a tough guy system where if you got a concussion, if you got your bell wrong as they say you were out p making sure not being able to walk, you could go out there and play. the question is: these of did teams themselves like the tobacco companies, did the

teams, themselves the doctors know that they were putting players in the kind of harm's way that if the players had known about the repercussions of repeated con discussions, they would not have the gone back onto the field? were they knowingly put into the kinds of danger nobody agrees to when they sign an nfl contract and says, i want alzheimer's when i am 45 or i don't want to be able to remember my kids when i am 50? these are things that if -- i will tell you, this is what keeps roger goodell up at night, the commissioner of the nfl, the idea that like big tobacco you will have a whistle blower or a doctor or something who comes forward and said i knew what the reprealeutians. >> and i sent them out there. right? and was told not to say anything that could be devastating. >> it would be less devastating

about the money. the nfl has more money than the mint. it's not about their inability to settle this. it's about this is the real deal here that they are not -- >> what could -- >> here -- >> yeah. what could it mean about the future of professional football? >> exactly. exactly. it's the fear that generations of parents will turn football into the 21st sent re version of boxing, you know, at the time when boxing was the most popular sport in the united states. we now have generations of parents who sent their children away from the boxing ring. and the results are that now it's a niche sport. boxing gyms are shuttered around the country. and you would see, that's the fear that you would see something similar with football. >> chick be hens come come home to roost peter. >> is there anything the nfl could do if they acknowledge yes, we know this is causing major harm to your brain. what could they do?

it's not like they could mail make helmets out of nerf. >> you ask the right question because this is a sport with a 100% injury rate and this is a sport whose very essence is about creating these kinds of hits and these kinds of collisions. there is nothing that they can do and the best that they can do is be completely open, not just with players but also with fans families. remember that is family-friendly business. it's always been sold that way. the idea that look, these are the real risks of playing this game. it's not just about having hip replacement surgery. it's about things that are more brave than that. this is what they are loathe to come to grips with. >> that's why you see things like the huge fines for big hits from the nfl and all of their estimate. they want to create illusion that the violence can somehow be

regulated. but i don't think that's true at all. >> very important stuff. hey, dave. thank you so, so much for joining us again this morning. you can follow dave at: edge of sports.com, his own blog or the nation.com. talk to you again soon. thanks. >> my privilege, guys. >> we have been talking about all of the flap and all of the right-wing pounding on me over my comments on the national anthem. we will get back to your calls on that when we cambium back here on the full-court press, frilled morning, june 8, 866-55 press. your ticket to talk. >>republicans of course didn't >> on your radio, and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >>do it, for america. what makes hershey's s'mores special? pure chocolate goodness jennifer granholm is politically direct on current tv. >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) granholm is live in the war room. >> what should women be doing?

>> electing women to office. (vo) she's a political trailblazer. >>republicans of course didn't let facts get in the way of spin. >>do it, for america. what makes hershey's s'mores special? pure chocolate goodness that brings people together. hershey's makes it a s'more... you make it special. pure hershey's.

don't miss this week's "the gavin newsom show" with special guest: hollywood icon oliver stone. >> i'm not an activist, i'm i'm a dramatist. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ]

>> this is the bill press show. >> you bet. 13 minutes before the top of the hour. we are going to give you our favorite clips of the week here but first, one more person chiming in on the national anthem all the way from newport beach, california. hey, bob. >> good morning to you. >> thank you. what do you think? >> you know, we should just do the jimi hendrix version at all of the ball games. i would stand and cheer and wave. >> or whitney houston's version, too, which was pretty daln good. >> pretty damn good but not as good as jimi hendrix. >> that's the point, bob, which is if you have got to go and find the one person or maybe the two people who really could sing it who have a voice that can do

two octaves, that's fine but it doesn't do much for all of the rest of us. >> there were no words to jimi's version. he talked to his guitar. he stuck with his guitar. >> we played that version. >> i know. i truly appreciated it. >> last all right. >> i applaud you for bringing this up into the national -- >> i didn't intend to make a crusade. i mentioned it morning. >> everybody should just get over it. >> so do i. the weekend is coming up. let's get over it. thanks action bob. have a good weekend on the beautiful newport beach. friday, as we said. every friday, we like to take a look back at some point during the show at our favorite sound bytes of the week and bring you the very top 5. we start at the bottom and work our way to the top. the hottest song is "call me maybe." it's so hot even barack

obama has his own version of it ♪ hey hi, there. ♪ call me. maybe. ♪ here is my number. ♪ so call me. ♪ maybe. >> very clever video put together by some 19-year-old kid. it's online and gone viral and crazy. ms. ohio is up for miss u.s.a. she has asked who was your role model in films? oops. >> number 4. >> do you think women are depicted in movies and on television in an accurate and positive way? and please give us an example. >> i think it depends upon the movie. i think there are some movies that depict women in a very positive role and some movies put them in a little bit more of a negative role but by the end

of the movie, they show that woman power i know we all have such as movies pretty woman. we had a wonderful, beautiful julia roberts, and she was having a rough time. but you know what? she came out on top and she didn't let anybody stay in her path. thank you. >> julia roberts who played a prostitute and, therefore, is a wonderful role model for young women in america. i love the way she says, and we had a wonderful woman julia robertssss. >> nobody got in her path. >> big smile on her face, you know. i am sure is heshe said look how smart i am. right? the judges said, no. she is not miss u.s.a. the first lady in many ways was michelle obama was on david letterman reading the top 10. here are a couple.

>> number 5. >> later this year, the supreme court are finally, rule on tomato versus tomato. >> thank god. get that taken care of. >> number 4. >> if you have an actual green thumb, it might be scurvy. >> it could be scurvy. number 3. >> lettuce 96% water and 4% lettuce. >> that's right. >> sorry. i am having a really hard time that we did a countdown within a count down. my head hurts. >> right. i was -- i had the same feeling losing track. i thought we did. and speaking about the first lady, the president out in los angeles the other night at a fundraiser was talking about her doing or not doing push ups all the way. some people say -- all right. i will play the clip. you listen.

>> number 2. >> i want to thank my wonderful friend who accepts a little bit of teasing about michelle. >> ellen degeneres. >> but i think she claims michelle didn't go all the way down. >> that's what i heard. so the -- i just want -- i want to set the record straight michelle out does me in push-ups as well. >> was the president making a sexual reference there to not going down all the way? just ask him. >> and finally, number 1, lbj, as president, making sure he gets his chance.

>> another thing, the crotch down where your nuts hang is always a little too tight. so give me a piece that i can let out there because they cut me. it's like riding a wire fence. these are almost -- these are the best i have had anywhere in the united states, but when i gain a little weight, they cut me under there. so leave me -- you never do have much margin there. see if you can't leave me about an inch from where the zipper ends around under my -- back to my bum hole so i can let it out there if i need to. >> needs a little extra room where your nuts hang back to your bun hole. >> that's why he looked so good. he had that extra inch back to his bun hole. wow is right. how could you follow that?

let's just take a break. >> heard around the country, and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. and chocolate. ♪ ♪ hmm twix. also available in peanut butter.

and everyone likes 50% more cash -- well, except her. no! but, i'm about to change that. ♪ every little baby wants 50% more cash... ♪ phhht! fine, you try. [ strings breaking wood splintering ] ha ha. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? ♪ ♪ what's in your...your... ♪ you've heard bill's views, now let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time.

>>join the debate now. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> taking your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv. >> okay. how about the final round of anti-bill press e-mails on the national anthem? john says, if the national

anthem upsets you so much move to another country. >> generaljeanine ellis says if you don't like our national anthem get the hell out of our country. how much have you been paid? >> clyde hellwic wanted me to know that michael medve said and a caller said bill press doesn't know the story of the national anthem and how it tells the story about the american revolution. the american revolution was not the war of 1812. they are such idiots. how about it being adopted in 1931 by her bart hoover. finally, mark says, in my opinion, bill, you are an abomination to the human race. you are a dirt bag >> this is the bill press show.

♪ [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> good morning, everybody. happy friday. friday, june 8th here on the full-court press. welcome to the program this morning. i am bill press, a liberal and proud of it. good to have all of you fellow progressives with me so we can take a look at what's happening here in our nation's capitol, around the country and around the globe, talk about what it all means. you do that by giving us a call at 866-55-press. lots of interesting stuff to talk about today.

pot and pets and tom periola is going to join us. drive whiteright-wingers. suggest we replace the national anthem with "god bless america." i ain't going anywhere except out to los angeles to say good morning to jacki schechner standing by with today's current news updates. hello, jacki. >> good morning, bill. you are more than welcome here good morning, everyone. this segment is brought to you by the number 9, as in the 9 states that are front and center as the general election lets up. the "new york times" reports this election could be the one during which the most money was spent to try and influence the fewest number of voters. small and mediaium t.v. markets in iowa, colorado and village are getting a significant money dump. in southern nevada general e elections have run 6,000 times in and around las vegas. an analysis shows that boils down to $5 million.

north carolina new hampshire, ohio, pennsylvania and florida round out the 9. in past e elections, the number has been higher, the presidential candidates targeted more. the obama campaign is now going after mitt romney for refusing to move his holdings into a federal blind trust unless he is elected president. we know mitt romney's net worth is between 190 and $250 million. many of his assets are in blind trusts but they are not as strict as the rules for federal blind trusts. president obama adopted a blind trust. he says it raises questions about romwhy romney won't abide by stricter revolution and the wide breadth of offshore investments. mitt romney's involvement with

bain capital, he took in $2 million from bain in 2011. join us in chat online current.com/billpress. hollywood icon oliver stone. >> i'm not an activist, i'm outspoken. i'm a dramatist. really? no. it comes with a hat. see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... [ man ] there's never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn't it? but that won't happen with the capital one venture card. you can book any airline, anytime. hey, i just said that. after all, isn't traveling hard enough? ow! [ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? uh, it's ok. i've played a pilot before.

vanguard: the documentary series that redefined tv journalism. >>we're going to places where

few others are going. >>it doesn't get anymore real than this. >>occupy! "vanguard" new episodes coming soon. only on current tv. ♪ [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> fired up and ready to go and ready to go to chicago. how about it? friday, june 8th, great to see you today. thank you for being part of the program, the full court press here on current tv and on your local progressive talk radio station, wherever you happen to be in this great land of ours. good to have you with us today with lots to talk about before we get into the weekend. you can do that by giving us a call at 866-55-press.

we will tell you what's happening here in our nation's capitol where we are. on capitol hill washington, d.c. down street from the united states capital building. i will tell you what's happening here in town and across the country and around the globe and take your calls at 866-55-7377. hail, hail, the gang is all here this morning, everybody back in place, peter ogburn. >> hi, there. >> with dan henning back from germany. >> good morning. >> good morning, dan. good to have you with us. >> thanks. >> cyprian boulding, as always our good videographer. we have our own foreign policy here on the full-court press. every once in a while, we have to dispatch one of our team to a hot spot in the world. >> god help us if he was our secretary of state. >> i chose germany. it was a good week. >> good. >> he doesn't remember any of it. >> did you represent us as well?

>> i did. i had a great time. >> no ugly americanism over there? >> no. no. great americanism and the germans love some americans. they love president obama, ask him about all the time. they are scared about mitt romney. >> they should. he hates germans. >> i don't know if you know this. >> well known, mormons hate germans. >> mitt romney is german. you would think he would like it. yeah. >> mitt rommel. >> wow. >> he is not related to rommel. we could start that. >> you are on a roll buddy. >> we could start that rumor. and we are for thenot going to get mitt romney. barack obama was out yesterday in las vegas at the university of of las vegas putting apply through students that they can't let student loan rates pop up,

double just 1. here is the president. >> tell congress now is not the time to double the interest rate on your student loans. now is the time to double down to the middle class, to build an america last, now is the time to work together to put people back to work. >> now is the time to get something done in congress instead of the silly bills they pass that they know going nowhere and ignore real problems like the violence against women act. we are going to move on to get in a lot of issues. pot, yes, coming up this hour. pets? yes. coming up to the top of the hour. and then tom periolo at the top of the next hour but first: >> this is the full court press. >> on this friday, other headlines making news, big sports night last night, the miami height-boston celtics series. heat tied by winning 98 to 79.

lebron james scored 45 of the points. they will pay the thunder starting in weeks. >> absolutely. >> roseanne barr. >> saturday i will be at the book signing. i have to find a bar with a t.v. >> the celtics are a scrappy term. they are older. >> experienced tough. >> yeah. they have been here before rosanne bar wants to do a show on fox news. the activist and noted national anthem singer told the new york observer this week if the network wants to live up to its slogan of fair and balanced, heshe she had be part of the line-up. she disagrees with sean hannity and has talked with the network in the past about a possible program but says the timing was wrong. >> she is sucking up to fox. let me tell you something.

there is one thing roger ailes is not going to do, higher. >> i thought she was part of the five but it turns out it was bob beck he will. i thought it was rosanne. but it was bob beck he will. >> you can answer when bob beckel calls. >> an embarrassing moment for starbucks in europe, the irish twitter feed ran a contest on twitter and asked followers what makes them proud to be british for a chance to win that contest. >> no. >> huffington post reports it asked in conjunction with the queen's celebration one thing you never do is confuse a brit and an irishman. soon after they issued apology was supposed to go out on their england feed. >> trouble t as they call it. >> what's great is if you go into the starbucks in ireland and order a tall latte, they

give you a glass of whiskey. sang thing. whisk whiskey. americano, whiskey. >> you have insulted more people today. you have insulted germans, greeks and now the irish. >> i did not insult the germans. how dare you. >> kaks . >> i am sure that's what they are called the kaks. >> all right. now, where are we going here this hour? all right. good. just shut up. all right. this is a friday. this may not be the most serious topic of the hour or the week. but i think it raises all kind of questions. i want to ask you about -- restraints for your pet in your car. necessary or is this one more

time, too much nanny state, too much big brother? we know it's been a process they make us have air bags front, back air bags, whatever they should. they have come up with bigger and better car seats for kids where you have to -- kids have to be in the backseat for a certain time, got to be facing backwards and then face forwards and then he can get a bigger seat and a booster seat but then against the law, which it should be to put your kid unrestrained in a car even if you are going a couple of blocks. you don't do it anymore. you do not do it. you can't wear your -- can't not wear your seat belt, can't leave it off even if you are going a few blocks. the latest question is and this has been raised more and more: what about pets in the car? and i have to tell you: i see

them all the time, people driving down the street with a dog's head out the window or out the back window of the car. i am sure those who live in rural areas see dogs in pickup trucks or maybe with a leash but that doesn't mean they are necessarily safe. so more and more states and more and more auto experts, the aaa and department of transportation under secretary ray lahood have been talking about now requiring, requiring restraints on pets in cars. again, good idea or too much big brother? 866-55-press. what has prompted this is a recent survey by the -- i believe it was by -- yeah, by aaa where 90% -- 90%. sorry.

20% of drivers admitted that they drive with a dog in their lap. dog in their lap. okay? 31% of drivers admitted that they have been distracted while they are driving, distracted by their pets. we are talking mainly. most people don't take cats in cars. but anyway, that's -- think about it one out of every five drivers admit they drive along with their dog in their lap. even if the dog is not in your lap, even if the dog is in the backseat or in the front seat but unrestrained, i saw a video the other night, what brought my attention to this, on abc news where these crash tests, right? and they showed dog in the backseat, car going 35 miles an hour, not that fast. down a residential street, bangs into another car and that dog in the backseat goes flying like a

flying missile and went right up into the windshield and then back and slammed on -- slammed the driver. you never know what's going to happen, a, to the dog b, to the driver. certainly if you have that dog in your lap, you are not paying attention to the road. i mean there is no way. so what do you think about this? what experience have you had is my question, 866-55-press. some states, as you know have already taken some action on this line. in new jersey, an officer can stop a driver that they believe is improperly transporting animal, tickets range from 250 bucks to 1,000 bucks. hawaii has a law that says you cannot hold a pet in your lap. it's against the law. the only state where i know it's against the law. arizona, connecticut, and maine distracted driving laws can be used to charge drivers with pets on their laps. so what the aaa and ray lahood,

garment of secretary of transportation are recommending is a couple of things: a dog harness, and they have got them where you put the harness around the dog and you clip it to the seat belts like on the backseat so the dog is restrained but still has some movement. but it's not going to fly if you have an accident. dog safety seats like kids' safety seats where you actually kind of buckle them in and there they sit restrained while you are driving. or crates for the dog like these creates that you use to take on an airplane that you put in the backseat and you would have to strap that in, too, but the dog will be -- the dog will be inside and, therefore, safe even for those trips. i may not have thought about it before, but you are going to hear more and more about it. we thought we would talk about it this morning. bip, nobody by the way, nobody is saying you should take your dog crate

and put it on top of the car and drive 12 hours. >> well, one person is saying that. >> that's right. >> just one. >> well, two. >> right. right. >> mitt and ann say shamus loved it. shamus is dead so we will never know what he he thought about it. other than mitt and ann romney, nobody is saying take take that dog crate and put it on top of the car. pet restraints seat belts for your dog. this is coming up next. it's just too much big government? you have probably got an experience to share, 866-55-press. every day on our street here i see somebody stopped at the red light or somebody just going down the street who is a dumb-ass dog's head sticking out the window of the car because they are sitting on the driver's seat. watch out. 866-557-7377. >> radio meets television, the bill press show now on current

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theme[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> this is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv. >> so frank grisso, the superintendent of the new jersey society for the prevention of cruelty to animals says quote, you wouldn't put your child in a car unrestrained, so you shouldn't put your pet in the car unrestrained either. i think that makes sense. >> i am not saying your pet is

as important as your child. but certainly if your child could go flying your dog could go flying. >> that makes more sense. >> for either one to go flying not good. i rene is calling from winona, maryland. >> thank you for taking my call. very interesting, my husband read to me the other day about the new jersey law. >> right. >> at first, big brother is at us again. >> exactly. >> but when you sit down and you think about the whole picture, you see so many times where the animals are in a car and they are either jumping around or they are in an owner's lap and you wind up thinking to yourself, yeah you know, at first, you think the dog is cute da da did a. but if there is an accident and

that animal goes flying or the animal creates the accident by distraction distraction. it's rough. you say in the beginning you wouldn't put your child in a car untethered. neither would you put animal. and i firmly believe we have to do that to keep the people who -- people -- a lot of people don't think. it leaves things open to tragedy for the child, which i believe in seats. for our animal, we have a seat for our westie. she loves it. the door goes open. i tether her in and. >> you have an actual seat like a car seat? >> it's a seat for the dog, yes, uh-huh. >> i haven't seen this? >> made for the dermatology. the seatbelt comes around underneath and holds it in really secure, and then she has straps on top that she -- i put

a harness on her and she is strapped in. the worst thing that can do is she might bounce around in the seat. >> right. >> but she loves it. >> all right. all right. look, it makes sense. i remember we had a dog once that used to bar at passing cars. so it would just go back and forth, you know, or people on the side of the street and talk about a distraction. didn't think anything of it then. but i am sure, i am sure that i have driven with a dog on my lap. we don't have a dog right now. so i don't remember. i am sure i did. >> i know i did. we used to have a small dog when i was growing up and it came with me to college. yeah. i used to have her in my lap all the time. >> i have seen so dogs so big you don't see the driver. all you see is the dog's head. marie from encino california. is this a good idea or not? >> i think it's a great idea. i have been doing it for years.

>> you are way ahead of us here. how do you do it? >> i put a harness on my dog and attach it around the seat the backseat and also with a seatbelt. >> a specially made harness like a dog harness you bought? >> no. just a regular dog harness. she wears it all the time. and i feel like to some people their pet is their child. and i think that they need to be protected the same as anyone else in the car. >> you know -- yeah, when you think about it, marie, it's protecting the animal. it's also protecting you. and it's also protecting other drivers in the sense that, you know, helping prevent you from causing an accident by being distracted. >> to me, it's a win all around. >> absolutely. marie, appreciate it. west coast, man, up and add them this morning, andy from huntington beach, cavb. hi, andy. >> how are you doing bill?

>> i love huntington beach. >> it's a great town. i am a member of the dogs against romney club. i have a sticker on the back of my car and i open my back door of the car my dog jumps in the floor of the backseat, jumps on the seat and jumps in to a box that i have hooked to the backseat. and he sits in that and i am going to rethink this and make sure he can't fly out of the top, thanks to your suggestions. >> well, it's not necessarily my suggestion. i appreciate that. but i think it's the aaa and good ray lahood is very strong on distractions and now he is talking about restraints on animals. andy and the rest of you if you saw that identifyvideo i saw on a crash vehicle on abc, you would be scared.

>> this is the bill press show. lieutenant governor of california, and former mayor of san francisco is on current tv. >>every night on cable news networks everyone's focusing on what's wrong. i want this show to move past that. i love creative people, and with all the vexing problems we have we need creative thinking. >>(narrator) with interviews with notables from silicon valley, hollywood, and beyond. >>at the end of the day this show's simple. it's about ideas. ideas are the best politics. ideas can bring us together. >>(narrator) the gavin newsom show. tonight at 11 eastern/8 pacific. only on current tv.

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work at ulico, i want to remind you one more time if you are in the chicago area listening on wcpt or at its affiliate stations or watching on current tv around chicago, come on out to darian illinoisnd a the frugal muse bookstore. i can't wait to see that place. i will be there tomorrow afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. we will be talking about politics 2012. if you want to buy a copy of the obama hate machine they will be available. my latest book about the koch brothers who are still at it pumped a lot of money in to help scott walker beat the recall in wisconsin. he is their guy. come out tomorrow afternoon to the frugal myself darian illinois, frugal muse. we will talk pot this last half hour, our next half hour on the full court press with alan saint pierre in studio with us who is the executive director of

normal. he gets up early every morning. good to come in again alan. >> good to see you. >> did you light up? >> about 4:20 p.m. >> minimum. so i really was glad you cam in today because i want to ask you what's happening in new york city where andrew cuomo. he is a liberal but not a wild liberal said we ought to reduce the penaltities for possession of may juan a? >> the former attorney general, somebody who knows a little bit about law and order. mr. cuomo, lawrence o'donnell is setting the table potentially for a run in 2016. i am thinking we must have had some really strong reform over the last couple of years if this is getting your bon a fides

ready ready. new york state had de decriminalized marijuana in 1978. the city from the 1998 went from a 2,000 to 58,000 marijuana arrests. >> no. really? >> yes. >> under bloomberg we assumed wrongly those numbers would go down. there have been around 50,000 making new york number 1 in the united states p what triggered cuomo is a 9 to 1 ratio of blacks and minorities being arrested to whites and how the police were tricking people young males mainly to pull the marijuana out of their pocket or backpack. they weren't smoking it in the street park or walking down the street. mr. kelley and new york pd police chief and mr. bloomberg for the last three years were just giving nice talk to

reforming these laws. i think mr. cuomo put their two heads together and said we are going to move forward into reform, this nitwitery in new york city. >> the reform entails? >> treating the private position he thinks of marijuana as it should be, a $100 and not to arrest somebody for two or three hours and bring them into the criminal justice system. >> don't treat them like a dealer? >> exactly. >> two competing bills. the governor has put his weight behind this along with the mayor. so one operating rooms one of these two bills are going to revail. >> the mayor is behind it as well? >> he is now. >> i mean you think prospects are good? >> absolutely. i think this is a feta compli. >> is new york leading the way in the northeast? >> well one things the west is

the place where thes talked about. >> wherever salt -- >> is there a big crop in new york. >> not. >> the finger lakes? come on. you have to tell me. there has to be some pot down there. >> a couple of marijuana plants going along those gorges. new england is amazing. it's almost the entire 7-state region has moved towards reform. if you look at the united states, all of the west coast has moved toward reform. >> going to be there for a long time. >> new england leading the way? >> this very weak, rhode island has moved to decriminalized marijuana. new hampshire voted to have medical mir juan a. vermont, maine, new hampshire, massachusetts, my home state, they will vote on the a binding vetter initiative for medical marijuana. the only running bet at normal is it will pass at a higher percentage than the de decriminalization did which was

65%. we think this will probably pass by the 70th percentile in massachusetts. >> 65% to decriminal eyes it. >> we think marijuanayor medical marijuana is going to pass by a higher margin. sign up. sign up at health and find out what's happening in your state as well. when are we going to see or have we seen anywhere the full legalization. >> these are all steps toward. right? >> the numbers that are important, there are 14 states that have decriminalized marijuana including huge states like new york and calf. we have 17 states in the district of columbia that have medical marijuana law. this year we have colorado and washington vote okay straight-up legalization. it's going to happen. >> i'm sorry? >> colorado and washington state state. >> uh-huh? >> as you well know

californians rejected. >> i voted for it. just so you know. >> feta com. pli, that will put up this terrific friction between the federal government. >> i am just curious. is the ply for marijuana home grown in this country, or bringing it in? >> i am in mid 40s in my youth or maybe you were in your prime running around in california that about 80% of the marijuana then in the '70s was about -- coming from thephon places, mexico, panama, et cetera. this is reversed in our lifetimes. now about 80% of the marijuana is grown outdoors and indoors domestically in the united states. >> out and indoors? >> the indoor hydroponic industry is huge.

>> any particular areas? is it mainly in the west? reporter: >> wherever the geography supports it, arizona, california hawaii and they are the states that produce the most because of their great weather. >> i have been told marijuana as a cash crop is bigger than grapes. >> the fourth largest cash crop in the united states and number 1 in 14 of our states. so when you drive through the huge expansive area marijuana under prohibition is a more profitable describe. >> the idea up wipe it out is ab absurd absurd. >> yeah. by the way, the government attempts to do this by eradicate eradicating between 60 and 800 million marijuana plants a year. of course, nothing but creates a price support for the sucor for

the illegality of it. >> user or non-user? 866-55-press. now, at the same time, while we see this movinge movement on the part of the states, it looks like that the obama administration from the stories i see from california is cracking down more and more on medical marijuana, these dependaries. >> yeah. starting in november of this past year, about 200 to 250 dependaries have been rated here. >> what grounds? >> federal law all of this activity is illegal. since 1996 when californians started this movement is set up the africas between the state and federal governments. antipodes said he would do something different. he has been stuck between a rock and a hard place. had they not cracked down one could argue his political opponents would have triangulated they had de facto

legalized marijuana. that would not been too hard to have them hung out to try dry on. >> i expected that from ashcroft. right? when he started it? when i raul. >> yeah. >> but not from holder holder. >> or not from -- >> mr. holder was mr. clinton's lawyer who went out to california in the 1990s to argue against californians having access to medical marijuana. i would say blessedly, thankfully, he lost those battles. >> it's a law. in california, it's illegal. >> yes. >> is there a federal law against it? >> yes. since 1970. there are literally 14 people in the united states who can legally possess. four. >> that program is down to four? >> right. >> the federal government grows and supplies them? >> 300 pre-rolled a month. four ounces, a quarter pound a month. >> 300 a month? >> yeah.

>> 10 a day? >> yeah. yeah. they do ervin rosenfield is probably the greatest living exemption where he leaves his trading desk, goes out to his car. >> a broker? >> yes. and he then he smoekdz. >> a broker and a together. >> that you and i pay forkes. >> a broker and a together. >> that you and i pay for. >> a broker and a and aker. >> that you and i pay for. >> a broker and a. >> i would love to get investment advice from him. >> i never would have bought that face book. pot and more with alan saint pierre from normal 866-55-press. we will come back and continue our conversation and get you involved in the pot talk as well here on the full court press friday morning. talking about. >> on your radio, and on current tv, this is the bill press show.

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>> this is the full court press, the bill press show, live on your radio and on current tv. >> tom perielo from the newcra republic, but right now we have alan saint pierre from formal talking about what's happening in new york with relaxation of penalties of possession of marijuana and what's happening in many states. particularly up in the new england states, northeast and in the west, and alan, you were saying during the break here,

david marenth as a new biography of the early obama years where they really talk about he was a pretty active pot user in hawaii. >> he was no doubt. >> he said that in his own boog. >> he acknowledged in the first book he had used it to the sway degree he was an affiianado, around how he would use marijuana, terms around going up on the roof and using goofy terms to describe it which demonstrates this was not a passing thing in his life. >> he doesn't do anything half-ass? >> all the way. >> rich calling from kinosha,wic. thank you for joining us. >> yes, sir. what's up. >> i live in wisconsin here a lot of if farmers and that, wisconsin, the number 2 cash

crop is marijuana. most of the pot that is sold in wisconsin is home grown. >> another state. you were talking about the midwest, alan? >> yeah. >> we do have -- i guess marijuana is decriminalized some here. >> in the greater madison area. >> if you get caught with like an ounce of pot, you pay a fine and they take pot away. >> that's it. >> that's correct. >> if you go to middleton, pittsburgh, and what not, then you go to jail. >> yeah. what you are describing is what happens around a lot of the country wherever there is a large -- this will shock you. a large flagship university always decriminalized marijuana laws. students know. >> i assume the number 1 cash crop in wisconsin are cows.

i should have asked him. >> agriculture. >> apples. >> cheese heads? has to be dairy. >> peter. >> hi, bill. i want to know if you consider marijuana a gateway drug. >> no, i in my mid 40s but no desire to use lsd hair juan a. for every 100 people who use marijuana, one, will go on. one. >> been proven by federal studies? >> data this past week, this national survey that comes out of the university of mixer household furniture. it indicated this data has been consistent for 35 years. >> let me add my name to the list. all right? never, i seldom smoke marijuana

now but i have in my youth and in my adulthood but never any desire to try anything. >> you and i would not be an end of one study but to be honest, it's not something that follows logically in my life. >> part of it is i would be afraid of what happened happen. >> pharmacology matters. >> yeah. it does. jim is in boston mass. hi, jim. >> hey. good morning. >> you have to be careful with the corporations and the pharmaceutical companies because of everything else, due pont was the one that had the corporations outlaw marijuana. you know, reefer madden and all of this stuff. you can make injury. you can make clothes. you can make food and everything else out of it. i don't see why the government is basically trying to outlaw it

other than just to make money. they should just let it grow. >> that's an interesting take. in other words, competition for the pharmaceutical companies? >> yeah. his points is well taken whether it's for farm sued cal fodder, fuel. you can convert cannabis into fuel. the idea we could grow our way out of -- >> we don't have to use corn which is such an important food protect. marijuana could replace corn as ethanol's base. >> the point he is make, the pharmaceutical company would not want marijuana legalized because some people might -- it's easier and more soothing and more relaxing than taking some powerful antidepressants. >> there is the pharmaceuticalization of marijuana to take outcomeponents of it and put it in patented drugs. the first drug that will be in the market is likely a drug you

spray, a sibling wal spray called fativez, probably the first one that will get through the fda. >> wow. alan, love having you come in studio and keep us up to date on, you know, the good news about pot around the country. we are getting there little by little, we are getting to beyond de decriminalization. >> happy traps in chicago. >> thank you. >> all right. maybe if obama were to find -- >> this is the bill press show.

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>> this is the bill press show. >> from the isn'ter of american progress, former congressman from virginia up here. president obama back in town, came in late last night. he and the vice president will meet for lunch today and then he has a busy afternoon meeting, a bilateral meeting, president kino of the philippines at 2:00 o'clock. they will meet for about an hour. then the president goes -- on the south lawn actually. they have to be out there, i guess, such a big crowd warbilling the super bowl champions, new york giants to the white house, congratulating them and later this afternoon early this evening, he will be over at the jefferson hotel for yet another campaign event. and jay carney will be conducting his briefing at 10:15 this morning. i will be on a plain to chicago. >> this is the bill press show.

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>> hello, everybody. good friday morning, friday, june 8th, the full court press on current tv, your new morning show your new progressive show on current tv and the only progressive show anywhere on national television. great to be with you today. a lot to talk about to start the weekend. we will get into all of the issues here in our nation's capitol and around the country and take your calls at 866-55-press. what about this? first they made us wear seat belts and put our kids in car

seats. now, think about this. now they are talking about makig us put our dogs in car seats or seat belts. why not put them in a cage on top of the car? maybe mitt romney was right after all. we will talk about that and more. but first the latest from jacki schechner out in los angeles standing by with today's current news update. hello, jacki. >> good morning, bill. good morning, everyone. the supreme court is set to rule on the constitutionality of healthcare reform at some point this month. a new national survey says 51% of americans oppose the law but only a third are against it because it's too liberal. one in six says it doesn't go far enough. a separate poll found 41% of those want the supreme court to overturn the affordable care act. 47, just the mandate. at the same time 37% say the law goes too far inand 27 it

doesn't go far enough. you have to look at the questions asked to get an idea of what's going on. the fact that only 28% of people say that they have a detailed knowledge of the act and 44% say they only have some knowledge of the affordable care act and some is not defined. the romney campaign is out today with a new advertisement that's trying to recap his massachusetts record in a more positive light. >> mitt romney on day 1, the difference is strong leadership. >> romney likes that day 1 theme. the add brings up some good points about his term as governor but the stats in it are misleading. 5.6 to 4.7. we know a lot of people left the work force and left the state actually. and, also massachusetts ranks 47th out of 50th. and the add says he closed a

$3 billion shortfall without raising taxes. he did raise taxes. he just called them fees. we are back with more after the break. with special guest: hollywood icon oliver stone. >> i'm not an activist, i'm outspoken. i'm a dramatist. the new slogan should be "we own wall street." that's my view.

vanguard: the documentary series that redefined tv journalism. >>we're going to places where few others are going. >>it doesn't get anymore real than this.

>>occupy! "vanguard" new episodes coming soon. only on current tv. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> they have attacked me. they have crucified me. they have even criticized me. >> that's what former mayor richard daley said in chicago. they are not going to shut me up. i may be bloodied but i am unbowed. hello, everybody. good to see you today.

welcome to the special friday edition of the full-court press here on friday june 8th. good to see you today. thank you so much for joining us. we are coming to you live, of course, from our nation's capitol booming out to you all the way across this great land of ours. it to remind you one more time if you are not there, you are going to miss a big time in the chick area. come by to dairian illinois to the frugal muse bookstore from 2 to 2:00 to 4:00. the city of darian illinois has declared it a national holiday or city holiday. the police have cordoned off probably a 10-block square area. it keeps growing, the amount of space. >> i like that. >> i think that's smart. >> fusional myself bookstore will be signing copies of the obama hate machine talking politics 2012 anywhere in the chicago area. come on by and say hello and

look who popped in, tom parilo, a good friend of the program. it's good to see you. welcome. >> good to see you, too, good morning. >> i had lunch with a friend of yours, sister suemon campbell doing a great job with a very smart, powerful activist group of nuns fighting the paul ryan picture. >> they are and fighting unprecedented poverty and fight our own bishop at the same time. >> i know. >> who should be commending them for actually being the ones not only living out the gospel but, you know, bringing pride to those of us who are catholic. instead, going the other way. it's a pretty appalling situation. she and the other sisters continue to inspire and persist and stay through to their faith and it is an inspiration. >> absolutely. >> that's the subject of my

column this week. you could find at bill press show.com, nuns on the run and nuns on the bus. they are fighting back. again, great to see you today. happy to join the conversation. we are welcome you at any time at 866-55-press. and tom, we are joined by our regular team press here, peter ogburn. >> hi, there. >> dan henning, back from a few days in germany? >> good morning. >> just, you know, off across the pond? >> a little bit. >> for a vacation. cyprian boulding, our videographer. yesterday, it was the first lady was down in your home state of virginia. she was at detail city, village and saying, you know, we have got to get out and round them up and make sure everybody gets out to vote. >> veg sister those voters those folks who are registered. find them. shake them. get them ready. >> yeah. shake them. >> when she comes after you, you know, you have got to -- you have got to respond or else. right? >> yeah.

she is great. she is a live wire. i love her. >> she is. you know, we are really excited about the common wealth being in play for the president, and, also, great senate race? >> yeah. tim kaine is in and he is allegations ahead. >> i want to ask you about virginia when we start off here. so we will be dealing with tom pence riala, the scepter for american progress and attempts to suppress the vote around the country, particularly in the state of florida. and we are joined by tim noah who has a new book about income inequality but first: this is the full court press. >> big headlines of the day. >> other headlines on this friday as we get closer to the weekend, in sports big horse racing day tomorrow, the third leg of the triple crown will be run. it will be the running of the bullmont states i'll have another could be the 12th horse to try since 19878 who tried and

failed. >> i don't know. what we have seen so far, it sounds like he is a pretty good bet. >> i put my money on mr. ed. he told me he was going to win. >> another new gig for anthony bourdain eater.com reporting the new deal for a travel show host will host a cooking show with british food personality nijella lawson. if you check out the abc's casting call website for the program, it makes it sound just like any other cooking competition out there now. >> wicked enter peter ogburn. >> right. >> it sounds like he is taking lennie bruce's at vice, growing up and selling out. not typical of the bourdain model. >> we ought to enter you for team press here. >> sure. >> all right? >> i can microwave a back of popcorn like thomas. >> the master heat boston celtics going to game 7

tomorrow. tying things up bebeating the celtics 98-79 last night. lebron james posted 45. >> that's almost half of the points in that game that the heat scored, 45 points by himself last night. the winner of this series will then play the oklahoma city thunder who pete petebeat peter's san antonio spurs. >> you are loving that. you bring that up every chance you can. >> at least once an hour. that's going to be a hot game tomorrow night, dan. thank you and welcome back. welcome back to tom perielo as well. we want to talk about virginia first. the latest from huffington post yesterday, president obama leading mitt romney by five points in virginia, boosted by women voters. so we carried virginia last time. blue, blah blue, blue? >>. >> seems to be headed that way. i think everyone knows it will be a fight to the end in virginia. campaign there has an incredible

ground game being run that's already being set up. i think you are seeing a tremendous gender gap open up in the virginia suburbs and around the country with wanting to roll us back decades of mitt romney and conservatives are wanting to do. that opened up that gap. you also see the economy being better in virginia unemployment rate is a couple of points lower and i think people feel that, you know the president has been a big part of saying, hey, we are not going to let agression happen on our watch but it will be tough in virginia. >> northern village, more and more is determining the way virginia goes. >> northern research as well as, you know, you have a crescent through richmond and the hampton roads/norfolk area. the president is doing better with current military and veterans for a lot of work he has done. but the parts of the state that i called home, central and southern research that will be interesting has well, both in seeing how much young people and african-americans come out, how

much the conservative base does or doesn't get excited about romney or excited about defeating the president. but, again ig as long as there is a focus on two competing economic visions, one for the % middle class and social mobility and the other to lock in the concentration of wealth and power we have, that is a choice that will work well for barack obama. >> tim kaine against george alan, that's going to be tight, too? >> it is going to be tight. tim kaine has pulled ahead by a couple of points in the last few poems an i think one of the things you find is even at a time people hate politics and hate politicians, tim has a tremendous amount of respect as a man for integrity, had to make tough decisions because the national and global economy were tanking. i want to go around the state. there is a lot of good will there among republicans for someone who really has tried to be there make tough decisions and keep the common wealth going

forward. so i think that, you know, that's going to bode well for tim kaine. george allen obviously was a rising star 10 years ago. you know a potential presidential front pruner and i think has seen much as taking the state backwards and not forwards. >> i know what george had to say. he had his time in the united states senate, no big scandals there but i don't think he distinguished himself in terms of a legislative record. strange it seems to me for the people of virg to put a medioc ter senator when they could have a star tim kaine. he is a mover, shaker. >> you see in the polls while people and in conversations while people want us to be looking forward, not backwards, it's not lost, what got us into this mess, george allen senator allen voted for all of the things that turned surplus into deficit, took us into wars that cost us a lot of money and more importantly a lot of blood and

great souls. and i think what you are seeing here is the situation where you have someone who got us into this mess. in tim kaine, someone who helped get virginia out of that mess. >> that's not lost on folks. >> one of the things on the senator for american progress and think progress has been on top of and i appreciate your good work there. it's been very helpful to us putting the show together are these efforts that haven't gotten as much attention. voter suppression all across the country in state after state after state last year. no where worse in the state of florida where even the justice department had to stand up and say what are you doing, trying to do this voter purge? are they going to get away with it? >> you know i agree with you. i am shocked the mainstream media has not had the guts to take on this story appalling story of taking us back to some of the worst moments in american history poor vote,tude events,

young people and what's absolutely clear because so many people have documented this, this is not a response to voter fraud. it's a response to voter success. the thing that scared the conservatives was that people were starting to vote more. they don't want to see working and middle class folks vote more. what you see in the purges is when we were making rules, a bi-partisan effort to do things like, say, hey if you need to vote absentee because you are working two jobs or come in on the weeked because maybe you are a senior who doesn't have your own car, these new efforts to allow more flexibility for everyone in the 99%, to make sure voting was working, and that was meaning that the true will of the american people was being heard and that was not acceptable to certain republican leaders and, you know, governor scott has been ready to stick by this effort to purge legitimate

voters in the polls. we have shown these are legitimate voters. we have veterans of world war ii being kicked off of the roles, people who voted every year for 40 years. this is nothing more than a partisan power grab by the conservatives to try to steal florida again. and i think what's interesting, the count hey level, we have gone out and seen a lot of these republican local officials saying, i am not going to implement a law i know is unconstit actualliesal and immoral. the department of justice has backed that up and governor scott is not backing down. >> so you mentioned florida stealing the election again. right? i was going to ask you about that because to me, it's very déjà vu all over again in 2000. there was catherine harris a secretary of state under jeb bush. they had this big purge of the voter roles and so they set up, right, the situation in florida

where obviously the supreme court, the one that finally decided it t that there were more people purged than the margin by which george bush supposedly won. is holder going to crack down? i know he told them until -- they had until two days ago to cease and desist. what's the outcome of that? >> we are continuing to see nothing but resistance from the governor's office on this. in some ways, it's worse than what we saw in 2000 where elected officials were reacting. this is a pro-active decision. >> yeah. >> of the governor to try to kick people off of the roles to try to rig an election. i think that's obviously un-american, and highly problematic when we see, you know, we are still getting reports from wisconsin of people who were toldcalled and told you don't need to vote today if you signed the petition. all of that needs to be investigated. sometimes those are election day

rumors. sometimes they are real. here, you are seeing a decision made by a governor, not in the heat of political battle. >> yay. >> but in a calm collected way saying hey we have people voting who i don't like who don't support me and i am going to try to figure out a way to make it impossible or more difficult for them to vote are. >> you mentioned absentee ballots, for example. it seems to me there are so many ways that we can make it more convenient and easier for people to vote, thereby encouraging people to exercise their fundamental right to vote. having e elections on weekends sister on a tuesday being able to register to vote when you show up to vote. absentee ballots. i remember the day when getting an absentee ballot, you had to have a doctor's excuse or prove you were lame or incapacitated somehow. now, i vote absentee in california every single election just because i know i may not be able to get to the poll. or voting on line eventually or

voting by mail which they do in oregon. everybody votes by mail. we should be moving in that direction and yet these republican governors moving in the exact opposite direction. correct? >> right. again, i think it's important to note they are responding to voter success, not voter fraud. you saw, i saw personally in the e elections i was involved in, in 2008 and 2010, this since just macro numbers of oh, my goodness an attempt to rig an election in a republican direction. the look on the faces of those who were able to come in and vote on a saturday or. >> or early voting. >> early voting meant so much for them to feel en franchised and to do so maybe imposing a little less on their friends and neighbors and others because it's a little easier to get in there. there are so many people living lives now where they are working two jobs instead of one, where their not working in their hometown because there are no

jobs there so they have to commute out to where an uncle lives. people are in tough times. one of the thins that we should be able to do that with that is maybe sure those folks having such a tough time in the scamp should have an easier time when it comes to voting. i think you saw that. we are talking about twitchily 2012. we are talking about us still voting where it's one day over a certain number of hours. if what we saw was voter fraud, if we saw something like that, you would want to the department of justice to be first in line. when study after study has shown the system was getting better and you see efforts to reverse that. you see the same kind of rigging in campaign financing. >> let me interrupt you. we will get back into it if we have time. we are talking to tom pehiella, from the action fund.

and remember your invitation to join the conversation any time at 86 s-55 press here on this friday, june 8th. ♪ >> radio meets television, the bill press show now on current tv. don't miss this week's "the gavin newsom show" with special guest: hollywood icon oliver stone. >> i'm not an activist, i'm outspoken. i'm a dramatist. break the ice with breath-freshening cooling crystals. ice breakers. while you're out catching a movie.

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>>(narrator) the sheriff of wall street. >>the leadership of high finance just doesn't get it. >>(narrator) the former governor of new york, eliot spitzer is on current tv. >>somebody somewhere can listen, record, track, gather this data. >>arrangements were made. >>(narrator) independent unflinching. >>there is a wild west quality to it that permits them to do

whatever they wish. politically direct. >>facts are stubborn things. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> this is the bill press show. >> tom periello. it's unfair we have just a little less than a minute. what have we learned about campaign finance reform, its

impact on this election? what can we do. >> we are seeing an absolute onslaught, 8 to 1 advantages, 20 to 1 from money and politics. 9 out of the 10 top donors are for the conservatives. this is not an equal battlefield where you have billion airs on both sides. this is switched from e ideological conservatives to return on investment. it's the healthcare industry, the dirty polluter industry and the financial speculators are the three groups pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars and these guys want toa return on the investment. it's not going to work for the middle class, about protecting special tax loopholes for the high end, about protecting polluters' rights, consumers pick up the tab. the middle class picks up the tab. that's not what the american dream is supposed to be about. >> that's it. it's all citizens united. tom periello. thank you for coming in. >> thank you so. >> this is the bill press show.

lieutenant governor of california, and former mayor of san francisco is on current tv. >>every night on cable news networks everyone's focusing on what's wrong. i want this show to move past that. i love creative people, and with all the vexing problems we have we need creative thinking. >>(narrator) with interviews with notables from silicon valley, hollywood, and beyond. >>at the end of the day this show's simple. it's about ideas. ideas are the best politics. ideas can bring us together. >>(narrator) the gavin newsom show. tonight at 11 eastern/8 pacific. only on current tv.

innovation matters now more than ever.

her unique mix of comedy and politics to current tv. >> it's like a reality show, they're just turning cameras on and we just do our thing. >>politically direct to me means no b.s., the real thing, cutting through the clutter. i'm energized to start my show everyday because it's fun, because i care about what's going on in this country, rather than some sort of tired banter it is actual water cooler talk it's the way people really talk about these issues. we've always considered ourselves a comedy show. let me just say i am not ready for my close up. i think it's important to laugh. i think it will be exciting, because you can't script three hours of radio. what is going on? i can't tell you how many times right wingers call the show and say, "i don't agree with anything you say, but your show is funny as hell." the only thing that can save america now, current tv.

can i say that? [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] heard around the country seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> 33 minutes after the hour now on this friday june 8th. it is the full court press booming out to you live, coast to coast from our amdation radio factory, book factory and t.v. factory here on cap to me hill in washington, d.c. president obama has said that income inequality is the defining issue of our time. i think he is right. if so, nobody is more on top than timothy nila, the senior

editor of the new republic, which i am probably one of the longest-serving subscribers of the new republic around. i can't remember when i first subscribe to it. great magazine. tim is a good friend. his new book is called "the great die virg devergence". >> thanks for having me. >> how did you get on to this? >> this is a story really for my entire working life. i became -- i graduated from college in the summer of 1980. i became a journalist and came to work for the new republic and came back 29 years later. this was already underway this trend toward growing growing income inequality. >> the gap? >> right. at first, people scratched their heads and said, this must be some sort of fluke.

then they realized it was a friend and you heard a lot of contradictory explanations for what was causing it. he was interested. what is causing this? finally, we started to be -- i observed, you know, people were starting to arrive at some reasonably definitive answers as to what was causing this growing gap. i decided to pull these together for a magazine series in slate where i worked and now for the book. it's really possible to look back now on the last 33 years of history. i think of this book as partly a history, and understand what has caused this growth in income inequality. i should caveat that by saying, a lot of people think growing income inequality can that's capital capitalism.

capitalism: but we saw encloses growing more equal in this country for most of the 20th sent re. this was a real change. >> how bad -- tell us first of all before we get into the causes, how bad is it today or what is the reality today? >> if you look at it comparatively comepared to other economies, you find income inequality is greater than just about all of the others. >> uh-huh. >> also, that it is increasing faster. this is a global trend. we have had a trend but it's worse in the united states. whenever i say it's a global trend, i always try to include the asterisk that it's global but not universal. there are a number of advanced industrial democracies where we don't see income equality. france probably being the best example. latin america famous has been in general moving in the right direction, towards greater

equality. >> in this country, are we talking about top 1% versus the in that in9 and how much is at the top? >> we are talking about two simultaneous trends. there is the 1% versus the 99%. that is a fairly simple trend where you just have encloses taking off like a rocket at the top because of two things. one is the out of control ceo pay. the loss of accountability for corporate compensation and the financialization of the economy, de deregulation on wall street, the growth of the too big to fail banks, the movement of investment banks from partnerships into corporations. >> that's driving the 1% versus the 99% phenomenon. at the same time, you have a divide between skilled labor and unskilled labor, between high

school graduates and college graduates and increasingly graduate schools graduates. there is something called the college premium that has evolved into the graduate school premium. if you are a skilled worker there is a shortsage of such people relative to the manned. therefore, their price has been bid up. part of that story is the decline of our education system because we stopped producing more high school graduates in the 1970s and part of the story is the declimb of the labor movement we have been hearing about so much the last few days. >> i am sure you know tom fraifrningz or you have read tom franks and "what's wrong with kansas"? great book and the latest, presidenty the billionair. tom has been in here. we talked about this a little bit. what puzzles me is that given this growing income gap and income inequality, that there is not more outrage about it and people still vote against their

own economic self interests and apologized that are going to make it easier for the 1% to grow and tougher for them to make it. >> yeah. >> but i have two things to say about that. one is that we are seeing more discussion of this issue now than has occurred during the past. >> good. >> i am hoping it's not -- >> more with a great dievergensdivergens. >> occupy wall street alan krueger who has produced some important work showing that there seems to be a relationship between growing income and inequality and declining upward mobility. so, you know, it's a little different now. how far it's going to go is hard to say. >> yeah. >> until now, there has been very little interest in this topic. >> is the occupy movement, is that the vehicle? >> they are the ones who have popularized the 1% versus the

99% which comes to us from a paper in 2 bow 03 by tomas paceti who looked at irs data and discovered that the 1% income share was much larger than anyone had marged that it downhilled between 1979 and 2012 toughly 2005. >> in a real way, what can you say that -- what problems does this divergence or income inequality cause for this country in terms of moving forward? it's not healthy? >> right. >> so much at the very top and the middle class maybe sinking? >> yeah. it's a big problem. when i get asked why should we care, i preface it by saying this is a question that never used to get asked. nobody asked it because it was

obvious that there was a great deal of unrest and we were closer 100 years ago to insureppingtion than we have ever been before or since attorney attorney general's house was blown up we had the palmer raid. the elites well understood that they had to be concerned about the distribution of income or else they might see the overthrow of the government. half a sent tree ago action people didn't ask this question because the sglufrnings was battling with the soviet union for the hearts and minds of third-world countries and we had to put forth a good example. today, there is no cold war. there is no armed insurrection in the streets, you know, when people say class warfare, they mean people discussing the existence of social class. it doesn't mean blood shed in the streets. so the question is asked. >> that's a long line to the answer which is i think there is a political answer and an economic answer.

the political answer is that there is a great deal of alienation between the middle class and the appear fluent. documented interestingly by charles murray in his book "coming apart" a few months ago. i disagree with him about the cause. he seems to thinking it all has something to do with the 1960s. i think it's obvious it has to do with economics. but, you know, the middle class and the affluent have become separate hostile cultures and we see that in the virulent anti-elitism that drives our politics for both lipberals and conservatives. the target is most often president obama because he is just the most famous member of the elite. moment people don't know what jaymie diamond look like. but everybody knows who the president of the united states is. >> isn't mitt romney representing the elite more so than community organizationer barracks obama. romney attracts resentment too

and a lot of the white house's strategy is in the coming election is going to be to take advantage of that resentment. there is an comic reason to care. and that is, you know, you hear a lot about how we need to insent vise the job creators at the top but we need to insent vise those at the middle. median income has declined slightly over the last seven years. those people need a reason to care there is rapid increase in productivity in recent years and none of that bittered is going to the middle class. if i am a member of the middle class, i am not seeing an income gain from my productivity increase, what reason do i have other than fear of being fired. >> right. what reason do you have to pitch in, to be part of this country? i mean to care about the prosperity of the nation. >> exactly. not to mention that things like that we need to keep going, it seems to me -- i mean, i

haven't -- you have written the book, but parks or schools or roads or brishz. >> right. >> that's the part of our kind of common en hair tensed. the most shock can statistic came out too late for me to dlu in the book manual saez found that during 2010, 93% of the recovery ended up in the pockets of the 1%. it was kind of a members-only recovery. >> 93%. this, it is, it is the number 1 issue of our day. we should be talking more about it and we should be demanding action. to correct it, we will talk about it when we come back some of the specific things that you recommend in terms of what we can do about it. timothy, noah, our guest, the great divergence is his book. we will take your calls at

866-55-press here on the full-court press. >> this is the bell press show live on your radio and current tv. >> i'm not an activist, i'm outspoken. i'm a dramatist.

jennifer granholm is politically direct on current tv. >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) granholm is live in the war room. >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. (vo) she's a political trailblazer. >>republicans of course didn't let facts get in the way of spin. >>do it, for america.

>> on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> all right. last warning, going to -- for the people in chicago, come on out to darian, illinois, tomorrow afternoon. you have to be there. don't miss it. i will be there at the frugal muse bookstore from 2:00 to 4:00 talking about my latest book, "the obama hate machine." hope to see you there.

timothy noah talking about his first book, very important book, the great die virg divergence. what can we do about it? >> there was always that final chapter. i just decided, look. let's talk about real solutions rather than solutions that can pass congress in the next 6 months. i allotted the suggestions. i make our be political difficult to impossible right now but i think we need to start talking about them. some are not so politically difficult. i think we should restore the clinton era tax rates. that may happen. it will happen automatically if congress does nothing. in addition to that, and this meeting more difficult, and

warrenbut buffett has talked about this as well. i would toss in another rate for incomes above 20 million. and i think we need to raise those marginal rates up to a maximum of 70% which is what the maximum rate was when ronald reagan was elected president. about twice what it is today. people say how will we live with that rate? we lived with that rate before the 19 sentence and about that, some of the greatest prospairerity this country has known. i would make that tax change. i would create a new wpa, a government jobs program. you know, the stimulus program, we are hearing that from the obama administration, they were supposed to create $3.6 million in two years. harry hopkins, when he ran the forerunner to the wpa in 1933 created four million jobs in

four months. four million jobs in those days was a much bigger part of the united states economy. >> absolutely. >> i think, you know, there are many reasons why it's different today. but one reason is those direct federal jobs. it's just the federal government hiring people. there is plenty to do. the we need to universal pre-k education. >> that's not so controversial. obama has campaigned on that. everybody i know sends their 3-year-old to pre-school but only about a quarter of all four-year-olds go to preschool. just as the united states decided at the beginning of the 20th sent re everybody had to go to high school, i think we need to decide today everybody needs to go to pre-school. we need to reregulate wall street. we need to break up the big banks, i think. we need to empower shareholders when it comes to ceo pay. we need to bring in more skilled labor with h 1 b visas.

>> that's one rare suggestion i think business will like. i think we need to put a -- we need to impose some government price controls on college tuition. >> a bold bold and important to do list. let's take a quick moment to say hello to joy calling from a. ero, colorado. >> good morning. >> thank you. >>. >> i wanted to point out again how people -- it's just incredible how people are so willing to vote against their best interests but i also am amazed at who did vote for walker. and i just feel that there is a camera even between the people who have -- the meager and the people who have the $70,000 up to 150,000 dollar income families. they are so willing to alienate

themselves from the have-nots, the 50,000 dollar, 60,000 dollar brackets that are eking by. >> got your point, joy. maybe people in the middle think they will be at the top. is that right what it is? >> the old saying, those who are rich and those who expect to get rich. i haven't followed the wisconsin situation closely but i have noted in the news coverage that a lot of the people in the exit poll said they don't like mechanisms of recall. principal if you are a recall you shouldn't like recalls because because it's a little while like the filibuster one of the ways people throw sand in the gears of government. he elections are one thing but recalling politicians are green government. >> that was a factor there. the book, again, is the great

divergeentions divergence, america's growing inequality crisis. we have reached the end of our time together, which is not fair, but there we are. thank you so much. congratulations on the book, good luck with it. we will put a link up on our website. got to read this book. this is what it's all about. >> thanks so much. >> this is the bill press

current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> the parting shot with bill press. this is the bill press show. >> hey breaking news.

president obama is giving a statement in the brady press briefing room at 10:15 this morning. i am sure you can catch it on c-span. my parting shot, just a very quick one. it's not just one war on women going on today. there are two. there is a republican war on women led by republicans in congress and there is the war by catholic bishops against nuns in this country. the vatican and the bishops trying to crack down on nuns who are doing the lord's work and it may be embarrassing the bishops. that's why they are cracking down. find out more about it. read my column at billpressshow.com. nuns on the run and nuns on the bus. again, president obama in the briefing room at 10:15. i, at that time, will be on my way to chicago. we will see you right back here on monday! >> this is the bill press show.