[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday june 11. great to see you this morning. here we are on the "full court press" coming to you live on current tv from our nation's capital, washington, d.c. in our studio on capitol hill. poised and ready to -- we've been working on it for the last hour. bring you the news of the day. what's going on around the country, around the globe right here in our nation's capital and take your comments at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number.

1-866-55-press look forward to hearing from you on twitter at bpshow and from our many friends on facebook. thousands and thousands and thousands of friends on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. here in the nation's capital the senate passed a farm bill yesterday. it goes over to the house. the senate began debate on immigration reform yesterday. it looks like they're going to have enough votes to get it off the floor. most of the talk in washington continues to be all the questions about that massive nsa data collection program. some democrats and libertarian republicans from john conyers to rand paul have expressed some questions about that invasion of privacy. but it looks like most democrats and most republicans are okay with it and according to the latest pew poll, so are 56% of

the american people which means nothing is going to change. is that what you want? fell us right here on current tv. (vo) current tv gets the conversation started weekdays at 9 eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. the troops love me. tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit. >> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision" >> oh come on!

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>> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the

minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: has anybody seen edward snowden? he seems to have disappeared. checked out of his hotel room in hong kong. has he checked into a hotel in iceland? good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday june 11. great to see you this morning. you're looking good and here we are on the "full court press." with the news of the day. ready for you.

bring you up to date on what's happening this -- boy, it is a wet and soggy tuesday morning here in our nation's capital. we have had rainstorm after rainstorm after rainstorm. even threats of tornadoes in the area last night. but we're here on the job, ready to tell you what's going on today as you look out across the country, across the globe around here on our nation's capital. we'll not only tell you what's going on, we'll give you a chance to sound off about it and tell you what you think -- tell us what you think about it all. 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. phone lines open for your comments right now. so get in line. we'll talk to as many of you as we can on the air. we'll also -- we look forward to hearing from you on twitter at bpshow and from our thousands of friends on facebook. facebook.com/billpressshow. on this rainy tuesday morning. peter ogborn and dan henning

made it in. >> hey, hey, hey. >> good morning. >> happy tuesday. >> bill: there was a lot of flash flooding yesterday. it was like tropical deluge. >> there was one point i looked outside, i saw my neighbor's cat floating by on a little raft. it was like noah's ark out there. >> bill: could have seen the neighbor's car float by. some streets were closed because of flooding and they kept -- there were two warnings. it was kind of unnerving. one was the tornado warning so they kept saying if you're home in certain areas right, get down to the lowest level in a room that has no windows and then get under something heavy. and if you're driving and i'm thinking here i am driving what do i do? if you're driving find a building you can run into and get down in the basement of the building. so i'm look around. and the other thing is they were saying if you're driving and you

hit a flooded street, don't try to drive through it. because even like a foot of water, rushing water could take your car -- could carry your car. >> it doesn't take much. >> bill: just turn around. it was pretty hairy driving through those conditions. you guys made it. i think i mentioned alichia cruz has the phones covered this morning and cyprian bowlding made it all the way in from the remote parts of maryland. we got hazard pay today for coming to work. >> you said it. >> bill: yeah. all right. there it is. i'll tell you, what's hazardous is playing some of these video games. were they even video games? >> no. >> bill: it wasn't a video game but pat robertson trying to show that he's concerned about the issue of teen suicide and other things, problems, afflicting our teens these days. goes way way back to what he

finds as the cause of it. >> ladies and gentlemen, our children are at risk. they're bulimic there's anorexia, there's all kinds of deemonic games they play. used to be dungeons and dragons they got some new ones now but the pressure on them is just incredible. >> bill: yeah, like 50 years later, they got some new ones. dungeons and dragons. >> dungeons and dragons is so old. >> not a demonic game. >> my parents wouldn't let me play dungeons and dragons because there were like magic and -- >> bill: our kids played dungeons and dragons. >> my parents were wackos so they were a little overprotective. we used to call it nerd poker. it is like a card game. it is not like there was graphic violence. >> bill: just shows -- crazy pat robertson. he keeps going and people keep

watching and people keep sending him money. the number one premier first amendment lawyer in this country, floyd abrams will be joining us later to talk about his take on these issues of freedom of the press and what we have -- people have a right to report and what we, as americans, have a right to know. it is all around nsa and "the associated press" and james rosen from fox. look forward to that conversation. bob cusack from the hill will be here as a "friend of bill" a little bit later. igor volsky our regular tuesday guest from think progress will be here as well. but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> on this tuesday other headlines making news, tim tebow actually has a new job. according to "usa today," the player who has been down and out since getting cut from the jets after a lackluster season will sign a deal with the new england patriots today. a surprise as many thought coach

bill bill belichick did not like tebow. he wears his religion on his sleeve. >> bill: he doesn't do the tebow anymore. >> he hasn't had an opportunity because he hasn't played. >> when he does, he doesn't score. >> he's what? >> bill: he will be like what he was -- they have another back-up quarterback. he will be like third runner-up. >> the jets. >> if he plays at all. >> quarterback. he could play another position. offensive line-up. >> the patriot's coach, bill belichick, he doesn't take a lot of crap. >> bill: i'm surprised he hired him. >> he's got something planned. this isn't a publicity thing. the jets, they love the publicity stuff.

this isn't a publicity move. he's got something planned. i don't know what it is. >> gays can get married in several states now and of course, that means they can get divorced, too. a high profile announcement yesterday, jane lynch star of the hit fox show "glee," announcing she and her wife of three years are calling it quits. they got married in massachusetts in 2010 and live in california which does recognize gay marriages from states where they're legal and therefore, the state will dissolve them. tmz reports there is no prenup and the pair will have to split all assets 50/50 according to california law which means lynch's ex will make out quite nicely. >> bill: california law. if you have a right to get married, you have a right to get divorced. please remember that dan. you've been married a week already. >> friedman says, he believes in gay marriage. he believes gay people have the right to be just as miserable as the rest of us. alas alaska airlines is

making a big change in its airlines between anchorage and fairbanks. people aren't happy for switching from jets to turboprop planes. passengers will have to board from outside on the ground in negative 40 degree temperatures in the winter instead of walking on to the aircraft from those heated jet ways directly from the terminal. >> bill: look, they live in alaska. [ laughter ] don't freakin' complain. you moved to alaska. then you're going to be cold, ya know? that's it! just deal with it. move to florida if you don't like it. all right. what do you say? well, the latest -- boy the buzz about nsa and edward snowden is what has certainly dominated the news. we talked about it yesterday. which it happened, edward snowden and i couldn't wait for the briefing to find out what the official white house response was going to be. i must admit, i was not

surprised to hear jay carney duck the question. the first question. which always comes from "associated press." the first question was what do you think about what does the president think what do you think about what the white house reaction to what edward snowden did. he, of course, is the young man working for booz allen hamilton who revealed the facts of the nsa data collection program phone records and internet transactions revealed that to "the guardian" and to "the washington post." jay carney had his stock answer ready, the same answer we heard last week when we tried to get jay carney to comment on what the justice department had done to "the associated press" and what the justice department had done to fox news reporter james rosen. here he is. >> there is, obviously an investigation underway into this matter. and for that reason, i am not going to be able to discuss

specifically this individual or this investigation. >> bill: will not discuss anything about edward snowden. wouldn't say anything. kept coming back over and over again to that classic dodge yesterday. that's all we got out of jay carney. except for him to say at the same time he would say -- he says that remember, last week in his speech, the president -- friday i'm sorry. friday in san jose, california, when the president took one question, before we knew about it edward snowden took one question on the nsa operation the president defended it. this is healthy. all of this talk about it because we need an open debate on this issue. >> he is interested in having that debate and having this discussed. he believes it is in our interest as a nation to discuss it and debate it and for us to collectively assess where that

balance should be struck. it is one thing to say let's have an open debate about what happens to our privacy and the need keep the country safe and the need for intelligence operations and the need for impairing information on what average americans every american is doing or online but you can only have the debate is the white house is willing to talk about it. every time we ask a question about, is this okay or is that okay or how far can you go or what's wrong with what this reporter did. we got the answer we got from jay carney saying we can't comment on an on-going investigation. so the white house is not saying nothing. and yet they say let's have an open debate. chasing their tail. it is a dead end street here. meanwhile, reaction to what should happen to edward snowden.

he got praise and he got condemnation both yesterday. praise from hero of mine, daniel ellsberg, the man who released the pentagon papers. maybe the role model for edward snowden. here is ellsberg. >> i've been waiting for 40 years to see a high official who really knew the workings of our system as it has evolved and is willing to tell the truth about it. at the cost of his career, at the cost -- very probably of his freedom. >> bill: a lot of americans agree with daniel ellsberg 42,458 have signed a petition on the white house site to free edward snowden. so i haven't signed it yet. >> you'll have to do that. >> bill: can we put up a link on our web site? >> we are. >> bill: you need 100,000 to

get the white house response. we know what the response is going to be. we can't comment on an on-going investigation. but at any rate, a lot of people agree with ellsberg but a lot of americans agree with john boehner. >> he's a traitor. the president outlined last week these are important national security programs to help keep americans safe. and give us tools to fight the terrorist threat that we face. >> bill: all right. there you got it. he's a hero. he's a traitor. what do the american people think about what nsa is doing? two polls this morning that go in totally opposite directions. first of all, "huffington post" asks remember, "huffington post," it leans left. "huffington post" asks its viewers, listeners readers responders, what do you think about the nsa program? 55% on "huffington post" said it is an unnecessary intrusion getting all of the phone data.

unnecessary intrusion into our personal lives. 22% said it was justified. those are -- part me, the people who follow "huffington post". pew research center did a survey of americans nationwide which i think is much more reflective about how americans really feel. i have to say the people who follow "huffington post" are not necessarily your average americans, right? they're mostly progressives and liberals. on pew nationwide, 56% of americans said what nsa is doing is just fine with me. i'll tell you that tells me that after 10, 12 years of the war on terror, americans have just been beat down. they've just finally accepted the fact that this is 1984. we live in a police state. we don't have any right of privacy left and people are

willing to roll over and accept it. i'm not but i think most american people are and it also tells me as long as the american people feel that way and most people say i may not like what nsa is doing but i guess it is necessary because we have to be able to go out and get the bad guys. as long as we have that attitude, nothing is going to change. the patriot act has taken the place of the constitution of the united states. any attempt to amend it or improve it or readjust it, today's realities it is going to fail. people don't be sheep. don't roll over. don't be part of the 56% or are you? you tell me at 1-866-55-press. on the "full court press" this tuesday morning. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." [ male announcer ] it's known that diabetes damages nerves. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers

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cenk off air alright in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks! i think the number 1 thing than viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. they know that i'm not bsing them for some hidden agenda, actually supporting one

party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know i'm going to be the first one to call them out. cenk on air>> what's unacceptable is how washington continues to screw the middle class over. cenk off air i don't want the middle class taking the brunt of the spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

>> bill: 26 minutes after the hour now. edward snowden disappeared. he checked out of his hotel room in hong kong. we know he wanted to head to iceland. and the justice department according to "the new york times" is morning is prepared to file charges against him for espionage. meanwhile, he's got his detractors and supporters. i'm one of his supporters. 56% of the american people according to pew research center say hey, i don't have any problem with the nsa taking all of my -- getting.

>> all of my phone records and internet records. peter? >> on the issue of pardoning edward snowden we've linked the petition on our web site at bpshow at bpshow on our web site ridiculous to encourage the next traitor. and shelly on whether or not they're okay with the snooping on phone records is it okay if it stops a violent attack on innocence? is it okay when corporate america does it? >> bill: no. >> okay. there you go. find us online at bpshow. we're on twitter. >> bill: we're going to link to that white house petition. >> yes, we are. >> bill: i think it would be fun to force the white house to respond. >> absolutely. >> bill: kathleen is calling from flint michigan. what do you say kathleen? good morning. >> caller: good morning. i say that like it's throwing out the baby with the bath water. whatever benefit we get from it

is so minimal we do not realize that what we gain from it is just not worth. >> bill: from this whole collection. >> the bad side of it. >> bill: right. you know, here's what gets me. our local police departments for example right, they cannot come in and search our home unless they have probable cause right. our office our car or whatever. and so if the nsa has probable cause to think that you kathleen, or i are communicating with the terrorists, i'm okay with it, right? but just to get everybody's phone records without some evidence that we're involved somehow with what some link of terrorism, i think it is total overreach on the part of the government. kathleen, appreciate the call. and we'll take more calls while we talk with igor volsky from think progress about this. i gotta tell you, i'm a's trade the way we're going, nothing's

going to happen, nothing's going to change. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." (adam) we're going to places where few others are going. [lady] you have to get out now. >> lots of terrible things happen to people growing marijuana. livelihood. >> i'm being violated by the health care system. (christoff) we go and spend a considerable amount of time getting to know the people and the characters that are actually living these stories. (vo) from the underworld to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

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>> bill: 33 minutes after the hour. the "full court press" coming to you from our nation's capital. joining us as he does every tuesday morning early to get a head start on the news of the day, igor volsky is the managing editor for think progress. welcome back. good to have you here. we want to prove that it's not just edward snowden that we are

talking about. it is not just the nra. that's not the only news story of the day. there are important issues like hillary clinton is now on twitter. >> big story of the morning. hillary clinton is finally here. she's arrived. >> bill: unless you are on twitter, you're not -- >> unless you're following me, that's the other -- >> you really should be following igor at igor volsky. >> bill: you should also be following us at bpshow. >> that's right. >> bill: so hillary tweeted out yesterday she gave credit to the two guys who came back who -- the texts from hillary last year and said okay, i've got basically i'm taking your cue. i'm taking your lead. i'll take it from here. and she put out her bio which raised a lot of comments. her biosays she is wife, mom

lawyer women and kid's advocate -- f-l-first lady. flotus author, dog owner hair icon pantsuit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker and then tbd. uh-oh. what does that mean? >> that is the traveling pants. the sisterhood of the pantsuits. remember during the 2008 convention, that was her line. she called her supporters as the riff on that book/movie -- >> "sisterhood of the traveling pants." yesterday, "buzzfeed" was looking at her twitter bio. she made six changes over the course of one day. like she changed mom and wife

and then she changed the position those were in. women and kid's advocate was moved up higher in the posting. pantsuit fashionista became pantsuit aficionado. >> the most closely criticized twitter -- >> not like we don't know who she is. >> bill: isn't it also -- this is the real story here, it took her so long to get on twitter. her husband has been on twitter for years. >> not that long. >> colbert pushed him into it. and now hillary is there. we'll see how she uses it. >> bill: so bill has 746,262 followers. that's bill clinton, not bill press. hillary yesterday started out with 304,000 followers which i think is more than the pope. >> i think so. we'll have to check.

>> she'll get more than the pope >> bill: igor, we have been talking about a lot about edward snowden who is an independent contractor. several people raised the story. here is the civilian employee. contractor. who has been with booz allen hamilton only three months and yet he has access to all this top security data. you think progress have reported independent contractors, there are a lot of them. >> i have to interrupt because i found out what flor -- first lady of arkansas. that would bug me all day. one of our friends on twitter let us know. sorry to interrupt the conversation. >> bill: okay. right. >> wow. she goes back. >> yeah. >> yes so, what the other kind of shocking piece of this is he's only 29. he never graduated from high school. he was there as you say for

just three months. and it looks like, we don't know for sure it looks like he was an i.t. guy, he was not a national security analyst. he wasn't connected to the policy which may explain some of the misunderstandings in the early reports about this prison program when reporters first said that the agency had direct access to facebook and some of these other accounts. they don't. and so it's kind of shocking. and telling that a lot of these contractors work -- in all places, in the government. and of course, not just in the intelligence community. there is a lot of them in the intelligence community. some half a million folks with these clearances. overall, we have more than four million people with top -- the number from 2011 was like 4.2 million. it is probably more than that

now. so it really raises a lot of concerns of how this system operates particularly when -- >> bill: he'll say. >> particularly when you have this young guy in an i.t. position who has access to a lot of documents. >> bill: here's the deal. i was thinking about this. peter, igor, we live in washington, d.c. right? if 4.2 million people have top security clearances, half of them maybe are in washington d.c. >> this guy is in hawaii. satellite office which makes it even kind of more -- >> bill: some are in the silicon valley too. contractors could be anywhere but there is a good chunk of -- i'll say a million are here in this area. >> that would make sense. >> bill: so let's peregrin,

the little coffee shop or the starbucks down the street. you see the guys on their laptops. >> who knows what they're doing. >> bill: they could be working for nsa. and they probably are. and they've got top security clearance. >> in some respect it kind of feels like -- i'm surprised this didn't come out earlier. the fact that if this kind of guy has some kind of access and so many people are apparently plugged into this program it is surprising in some ways it took this long between 2005 when we first heard about wiretapping under bush to 2013 here under obama. >> especially with twitter and all of that stuff and you know, i mean mistakes get made these days. people put things where they don't mean to put them online. >> bill: to me, the most telling, latest little factoid about this whole nsa matter is the pew research center reporting this morning that they did a survey of americans so

what do you think about nsa spying on you and getting -- again, they're not listening to our phone calls. collecting the data on who we're calling, how long we're talking to them, where they're calling. 56% of americans say i'm okay with it. >> look at the partisan breakout. the partisan breakdown i don't have it in front of me. it looks like democrats are more okay with it than republicans. that might be kind of the obama loyalty speaking but in my view, look we have a history in this country of presidents of all stripes abusing their authority. which is kind of the risk in this whole thing. if this entire system becomes institutionalized, this is the new norm. who knows who we're going to have in a position of power and how they're going to use that power to go after their political opponents, to go after groups that threaten their power. it certainly has happened in the past. >> bill: to me it shows that

after 12 years of the so-called war on terror, americans are just basically beat down. and have come to -- they've been -- they have to accept everything the government says is necessary to keep us safe and as long as they say keep us safe, safe lives national security. they don't have to prove anything. they just -- kind of march ahead. >> i think the hope now -- >> bill: we've become a nation of sheep. >> i think the hope now though is you're gonna -- there seems to be at least some space of lawmakers saying, even dianne feinstein who has defended this program very, very strongly. is now saying let's have hearings let's have open hearings i'm willing to have a hearing every month to make sure there's now some kind of discussion that we can talk and see if the balance we're strike between safety and privacy is the right one and that, at least is a step forward. >> bill: i mentioned earlier

in the show that jay carney has said over and over and the president said we welcome this debate. this is a good, healthy debate. it is a good, healthy debate but also -- i said earlier that to have a good, healthy debate -- the white house has to start -- saying what they think about it. so far all we can get out of jay carney is i can't comment. >> you gotta start declassifying some things. it is hard to talk about a program you don't know that much about. >> bill: the response is we can't talk about it because it is top secret. how can you -- you have to put some exams on the table and say does this go too far or not? this could be a turning point or this could be another time where we kind of duck under the covers. 1-866-55-press. your comments and don't forget, that white house petition, last time i checked, it is up now to 42,955 have signed the white

house petition to free edward snowden. you can do so by going to the site. >> it is at 43,060 right now. got it up on our web site. we've tweeted it at bpshow. >> bill: since we've put it up there, it keeps climbing. we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. this show is about analyzing >> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

>> only on current tv. this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern

(vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything. (cenk) it's go time! it's go time! it's go time! go time. you know what time it is. it's go time. it's go time.

what time is it rob? here comes the young turks go time! it's go time. oh is it? oh, then it's go time. anybody? anybody? what time is it? oh, right. it's go time! >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 13 minutes now before

the top of the hour. michael hirsh from "national journal" joins us in the next hour as does floyd abrams, noted first amendment attorney. right now we're visiting with igor volsky from think progress. managing editor on the news of the day. before we get back to your calls and your comments, identity theft, i tell you about it a lot because it is very serious. i've been a victim of identity theft. i don't want it to happen to you. but it's going on all over the place. here's a story out of new york state. federal authorities say a 25-year-old syracuse woman has been ordered to pay more than $55,000 in restitution and sentenced to five years in prison for falsely using four people's personal identification and information to get credit carts in her name. you have to be protected against identity theft. i am with lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection out there. but lifelock, of course, can't protect you or your bank accounts if you're not a member.

so i encourage you to visit lifelock.com or give a call and mention press 10 and you'll get 10% off your lifelock ultimate membership. the number to call is 1-800-356-5967. for lifelock ultimate. with his eye on the social media, peter? >> yes indeed, we're taking your comments at bpshow at bpshow on twitter. on edward snowed and whether or not we should pardon him and sign the petition, she says bill, you are losing it! that's all she says. >> bill: is that it? >> zoomerang says i'm reaching through my media machine to pull your hair. private industry has big data on you so what's the fuss if the government does. i think your hair looks fine.

and irish boy says bill, you have a three-hour show. spend an hour each day reading animal farm and 1984 outloud so that people can see what we've become. find us on line at bpshow. >> bill: i said the other day i think everybody should reread 1984 once a year. >> story time with bill. good segment. >> bill: we're there baby. this is orwellian beyond orwellian what the nsa is doing. on another issue igor, by the way, we're still at 43,023 signatures. come on, people, get on the web site. the president yesterday in the east room, celebrating a big anniversary. he talked about dan if we can the 50th anniversary of the equal pay act. >> obama: the bill was signed into law. women earned 59 cents for every dollar a man earned on average.

today, it is about 77 cents. >> bill: so we've made progress. but still appalling that it is only 77 cents. >> it is a different world than it was 50 years ago. you now have about four in ten women as the breadwinners in the household. and the problem is if you paid these women so much less -- >> bill: principal breadwinner. >> yes. you're keeping those families down. you're keeping them in kind of a vicious cycle of -- in some cases, poverty. in some cases not letting them rise above. and it seems to me that given what the politics are in this country, this kind of new voter coalition of women now working more of women taking a more active role in politics in general as we saw with women's issues in this 2012 election,

it's going to be hard, i imagine for republicans to ignore this issue for much longer. in april, it was their latest chance to approve the paycheck fairness act. they buckled not a single republican wanted to do so. which is why you have some of the focus now shifting to the states. states like vermont passing equal pay laws. i think in washington, it is really going to be a hard issue for them to ignore. >> bill: here's what i want to say. if we have the equal pay act why don't we have equal pay? >> because it simply doesn't go far enough. the paycheck fairness act, for instance penalizes employers more. it says that they really have to -- they're paying different wages to men and women. they really have to prove why and have reasonable and credible reasons. more transparency for women so they know what men get paid so they can go ahead and contest those wages so there's more reforms that need to be added

on. but let me just say the reason why you see this movement in the states and the reason why, it is going to make sense for lawmakers of any party is because you start paying women more and you begin to see a real stimulative effect in the economy. economists say huge stimulative effect depending on however you go of about 3% to 4% percentage points gdp. it is huge. it is interestings of dollars. you increase women's purchasing power. they purchase more. they stimulate the economy. they become less dependent on entitlement programs, programs like medicaid, the majority of those applicants are women. that's how you start kind of eliminating and reducing spending there. you empower the women to go back into the work force. >> bill: so many good reasons from a progressive or conservative point of view to pass the paycheck fairness act and really realize -- get to the reality of equal pay.

there it is. thinkprogress.org is where to follow think progress and all of the different issues that they're working on. and don't forget, sign up for igor's twitter account at igorvolsky so you don't have to wait until tuesday morning. >> catch up to hillary. >> bill: and you can follow us too, at bpshow. igor, thank you so much for coming in again. >> thank you. >> bill: always great to see you. until next week. i will be back. take a look at some of your e-mails. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." (vo) this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

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this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it.

not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? tonight at 6 eastern (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey bobby white's got a good comment. she said let's hear it for russ feingold the only sane voice in the patriot act squabble. the only senator who voted against it. absolutely my hero, russ feingold. how does this compare to the turmoil bradley manning has endured? he wants to know one cannot be a hero and the other a traitor. that's right. bradley manning and ed snowden free them both if you ask me. richard maxwell says bill, you're right about being a nation of sheep. we've been that for a long time. and barbara says carney, jay carney is at least living up to his oath of office which is to responsibly carry the message of the president unlike your hero, snowden, who narcissistically puts his own opinion over his duty.

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. what do you say? it is tuesday, june 11. freight to see you today. here we go. on another edition of the "full court press" here on current tv. this tuesday morning. a rainy morning here in our nation's capital. where we'll let you know what's going on here in washington. around the country. around the globe. and most importantly give you a chance to get involved in the conversation. you can do so by phone at

1-866-55-press. you can follow us on twitter. with a's been on twitter a long time not like hillary just started yesterday at bpshow. be our friend on facebook at facebook.com. facebook.com/billpressshow i should say. yesterday got a little work done here in washington. the senate passed the great big farm bill they've been working on for a few years under senator debbie stabenow. debate started on the senate floor on immigration reform and even republicans are now saying it looks like they're going to have enough votes to move it over to the house. we'll see what happens there. but most of the conversation yesterday was centered on the big nsa data collection program on phone calls and internet records. some democrats and some libertarian republicans have some real questions about what happens to the right of privacy under this whole program. but it looks like most democrats and republicans are okay with

it. 56% of american people are too. which means probably nothing's going to change. we'll tell you about it on current tv. spending cuts and all the different programs that wind up hurting the middle class. cenk on air you got to go to the local level, the state level and we have to fight hard to make sure they can't buy our politics anymore. cenk off air and they can question if i'm right about that. but i think the audience gets that, i actually mean it. cenk on air 3 trillion dollars in spending cuts! narrator uniquely progressive and always topical the worlds largest online news show is on current tv. cenk off air and i think the audience

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(vo) current tv is the place for compelling true stories. (kaj) jack, how old are you? >> nine. (adam) this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. way inside. (christoff) we're patrolling the area looking for guns, drugs bodies ... (adam) we're going to places where few others are going. [lady] you have to get out now. >> lots of terrible things happen to people growing marijuana. >> this crop to me is my livelihood. >> i'm being violated by the health care system. (christoff) we go and spend a considerable amount of time getting to know the people and the characters that are actually living these stories. (vo) from the underworld to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

>> occupy! >> we will have class warfare. (vo) true stories, current perspective. documentaries. on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hillary clinton joins the pope on twitter. is there anybody who's not on twitter these days? hey, good morning, everybody. we are at bpshow. it is the "full court press." here we go. on your local progressive talk radio station we are there. with you for all three hours. bringing you the news of the day

and taking your calls taking your comments on twitter and facebook and on current tv. we're there with you as well for all three hours every morning so you can listen. you can watch. you can join the conversation. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. give us your comments on twitter at bpshow. on facebook, from our facebook friends, facebook.com/billpressshow. here we go on this tuesday morning. june 11. we'll bring you up to date on what's happening here in our nation's capital our country with the help of peter ogborn and dan henning. >> hey hey hey. >> good morning. >> bill: alichia cruz with the phones covered. cyprian bowlding keeps us looking good on current tv. last night, we had a changing of the guard on the daily show. >> temporarily. >> bill: yeah. jon stewart he's got a movie

deal to direct. his first movie. in the middle east. you have a lot of self-confidence to say i'm going to walk away from my great gig most popular and the best show i think on television these days and go off and do something for three, four months then i'll come back. >> that's wild, man. >> bill: it really is. he left it behind and asked cast member, john olver, very funny guy to do the show for him in the interim. oliver last night said it was kind of strange. >> i'm john john olver. let's acknowledge for a moment that this is weird. this looks weird. it feels weird and it even sounds weird. [ laughter ] it sounds weird to me and this is my actual voice. >> bill: and he said that jon

stewart left him a little message before he took off. >> before jon left, it was very sweet. he was very warm and supportive and he actually gave me this little note here. he said don't worry. you'll be great. that's nice. although subjective. [ laughter ] besides, no big news stories ever break out over the summer. >> bill: nothing ever happens during the summer. here he is right in the middle of it. the other thing is, i know, pet peeve of mine but you know, can't we find an american? >> oh, come on. bill! >> bill: listen, we had to put up with simon cowell and then piers morgan. right? and now john olver. >> i wouldn't put him on the same level as those guys. >> bill: you know what i mean? >> no. i can't say that i do. >> bill: you know. i want an american.

>> god bless america. we're a melting pot. >> some people suggested they should have given stephen colbert an hour. >> i support that idea. >> bill: that would have been good. these brits don't come here to become americans. i know you're married to one. but they come here to take our money and take it back to england. >> oh, come on. [ laughter ] >> bill: ten minutes after the hour now. i'm telling you i'm going to start a white house petition. no more prime time american tv shows to brits. >> to british people. >> bill: michael hirsh starts us off this hour from the "national journal" and then we'll be joined by floyd abrams, top first amendment lawyer. bob cusack from the hill will be here as a "friend of bill" for the next hour. but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news, speaking of television, bristol palin is jumping back into the reality tv game.

>> bill: thank god. just what we need. >> she's going on the abc show celebrity wife swap where she and her sister, willow will trade places for a week with joan and melissa rivers. joan and melissa will care for bristol's 4-year-old son tripp while bristol and willow will take care of melissa rivers' 12-year-old son. the episode airs june 23rd. bristol also will take part in producing joan's show, fashion police, on e! >> both families i could not hear from and be all right. >> bill: bristol will do anything to stay in the news. >> she needs a paycheck. >> get a job. >> bill: whatever happened to her first husband? >> levi johnson. >> bill: he fell off the planet. >> his naked modeling career didn't take off. >> a former nfl player was sentenced to 30 days in jail yesterday for slapping his attorney on the butt.

chad johnson known as chad ochocinco was in court on a displief yesterday when the judge asked him if he was satisfied with his attorney, abc reports he slapped his attorney on the butt in appreciation as football players do on the field and the courtroom erupted in laughter but the broward county florida judge was not amused. she sentenced him to 30 days in jail plus probation on the spot. >> bill: oh, get a life. >> by the way i wouldn't say as football players do. >> they do that. >> they don't do it to women. in the courtroom. >> this is an attorney. it was a guy. >> are you sure? >> yes. >> you're positive? >> it was a female judge. >> okay. still. shouldn't do it in a courtroom. >> the tiger woods/sergio garcia feud may be open as the u.s. open golf tournament gets underway. the two shook hands on the driving range at marion golf

club. they will not be playing together in the early rounds at least. tiger tise off on thursday with mcelroy and sergio ploys with stuart stuart cink but they could be paired up over the weekend. >> bill: seems to be rallying behind the nsa. the white house, leaders of congress all -- both parties all expressing their support for the data collection program which may not bode well for edward snowden. michael hirsch is chief correspondent for the "national journal" joining us on our news line, i think. this morning. no? we have to call him back? >> we lost him. >> bill: we'll get him back. and "the washington post" this morning and several outlets

reporting that the department of justice has not yet filed charges against edward snowden but they are preparing to file. >> by the way, just an update because i know we've talked about it. the petition to pardon edward snowden, 43,320 so it keeps going up every time we check. if my math is correct. 56,680 signatures are needed. which, at this rate, we'll get there. it will get there. >> bill: so again michael hirsch joins us from the "national journal." michael, we were just saying that the department of justice has not yet filed charges against edward ?oatden but it doesn't look like it will be too long from now right? >> no question they'll try to prosecute it. >> bill: under the espionage act? >> that will be the start of it. he will be charged with

violations of that -- i think is 1917 act that's usually what we see in these cases. we'll see if there are any other charges. >> bill: now obviously the first thing they've got to do, right, is number one find him. >> yeah. >> bill: number two, get him back to the united states. how easy is that going to be? >> well, he doesn't seem to have planned his escape very well unless there's more about it that we haven't yet learned about based on the interview he gave in hong kong to "the guardian" newspaper. he seemed to highlight hong kong as a place where he could have freedom of speech and where he seemed to be banking on hopes that the chinese government would not send him back. but of course, hong kong has an extradition treaty with the u.s. and president obama's just completed a fairly warm and fuzzy summit with the new chinese president. it seems very, very unlikely the chinese government would not follow through on an extradition

request. for him. so you know, the question is, was that a ruse? did he leave hong kong entirely and go elsewhere? we just don't know. >> bill: i think -- i agree with what you say about the chinese government is likely to do. that's assuming, of course, he's still in china or still in hong kong. we don't know. the other story that i want to ask you about that i saw this morning is that -- so he's a contractor. civilian contractor, right? only been to booz allen hamilton for three months. he already has access to all of this data which i was surprised at. more surprised to read this morning, there are 500,000 civilian contractors that nsa -- working for nsa who have access to top security data. it is kind of -- the horse is already out of the barn, right? >> very much so. people don't realize the extent

to which most of this surveillance system over the past decade, the one that the nsa has been using, has been built by civilian contractors silicon valley firms the best and the brightest from outside. booz allen hamilton, for which whistle-blower worked for about three months before this happened. gets 99% of its contracts from the government. most of it is from defense and the nsa. so this has been a project on-going for a long time. and we've now witnessed one of the pitfalls of contracting at this business. and i think you know, what you're going to see more than anything else in the months ahead is dramatic rethinking of the vetting procedure clearance procedures. we don't know why he apparently had access to so many high level -- what should have been compartmentalized aspects of the

intelligence surveillance system. it is very possible that, at his level of clearance and with his computer talents he hacked in himself. we don't know. but it's a mystery and you can bet that this is going to prompt very very dramatic look at the whole project. >> bill: you've written about this for the "national journal," the headline, our privatized national security state. and silicon valley a big player in this. >> no question. little bit disingenuous for the main internet companies, the big-name companies, social media companies to be saying we don't know anything about this. it may well be that facebook and google don't but there is a whole culture in silicon valley that specializes in security and intelligence-type work. that have been subcontracted by the nsa to do this. it is difficult to remember but a little over a decade ago, the national security agency was

considered a dinosaur. people said it was going deaf. that was the parlance of the time because they were just this agency that used to observe the soviet union and listen to intelligence from the u.s.s. r. silicon valley stepped in and really helped them. >> bill: under director michael hayden at the time. >> he was a big mover, one of the longest serving directors from 1999 to 2006, he remade the agency. >> bill: so we have this massive security state, made stronger by the patriot act. there are some voices now mark udall among them. senator mark udall saying this is an occasion to revisit the patriot act and see if we need all of the sweeping powers. what do you think the chances are that that's going to happen? >> i would say pretty close to nil. if you look -- udall is out there. obviously ron wyden of oregon

has been out there the other senator. i would point out that widen was on the senate intelligence committee back in 2002 when it criticized the nsa for being too slow. but the bottom line is from the administration, the obama administration to the courts to most members of congress, but the senate and the house what you don't hear is a widespread cry for changing the patriot act or any other parts of the surveillance system. without that, it's not going to happen. >> bill: it was renewed once or how often? >> it was renewed i believe once. in 2006. if i'm not mistaken. i might be mistaken about that. then, of course, you had other updates and laws. 2008, amending of the fisa act that gave the foreign intelligence surveillance courts broader discretion to authorize these kind of programs. so, you know, whether or not

you're morally opposed to this as obviously some people are the fact is that the legal and technical structure is in place to keep it going. >> bill: in place to keep it going and you know, you've probably seen with the pew poll this morning saying 56% of americans are okay with it. making it all the more unlikely that we're going to see any change. excellent reporting on this, david. thank you so much. for your good work. thank you for joining us this morning to talk about it. >> thanks for having me. michael, i'm sorry. thanks michael. michael hirsch. david hirsch was a boss of mine at one time. you know. creeping back into my head. michael hirsch is chief correspondent for the "national journal." we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

>> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view.

>> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern

>> bill: there is another very important story we want you to know about. we haven't had a chance to touch on it this morning. that is the. >> obama: the obama administration has made a very public about face, reversal, a 180 when it comes to the morning after pill the so-called plan b one step. you remember way back, the fda was about to say it was going to allow the morning after pill to be sold across the counter over the counter with no restrictions at all. secretary of health and human

services kathleen sebelius said no. this doesn't make sense. we're going to limit the sales to girls who are 17 or older. then it was dropped to 15 or older. at that limit the president said he strongly was talking about his two daughters. if you recall. he strongly supported secretary sebelius. that decision on the part of the federal government was challenged in federal court and district court judge edward cornyn said the government was wrong by placing a 15-year age limit on it. that there was no supporting that. it was -- they were depriving a lot of young girls who might have been victim of rape or just poor planning or ended up having

sex when maybe they didn't intend to, preventing their access to the drug that might hurt the poor and minorities and the judge overruled the federal government. so up until this time, the department of justice was planning to appeal the judge's decision but yesterday they said nope. we have dropped any thoughts about appealing. we are going to go along with the judge and that morning after pill will be available now over the counter to anybody that wants a bite of any -- that wants to buy it of any age. a statement was put out saluting this decision, welcoming this decision saying "this is a huge break through for access to birth control and a historic moment for women's health and equity." big news. when we come back, a lot of talk these days about first amendment rights. we'll talk to first amendment attorney floyd abrams next on

the "bill press show." guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? go time. you know what time it is. it's go time. it's go time. what time is it rob? here comes the young turks go time! it's go time. oh is it? oh, then it's go time.

anybody? anybody? what time is it? oh, right. it's go time!

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour now. it is "full court press." we're coming to you live from our nation's capital in our studio right here on capitol hill. booming out to you live all the way across this great land of ours. on your local progressive talk radio station. you're lucky if you've got one and on current tv with the news of the day and of course, your comments. a lot of talk these days from "the associated press" case to

the james rosen case and now to this latest weed ward snowden and the nsa i remember in our crossfire days, whenever we got into first amendment issues, we turned to the man who knows the issue better than anyone else in this country. floyd abrams, constitutional attorney. and he's still at it. as am i. floyd also has a new book out just happened to be this month. a book out called "friend of the court, on the front lines with the first amendment." floyd, good to talk to you again. >> good morning. i'm still at it. [ laughter ] >> bill: god bless america. we keep going right? >> that's right. >> bill: i should mention of course, you go back to your days for presenting in "the new york times" in the pentagon papers case. is edward snowden the next daniel ellsberg? >> there really are some

connections. you know, certainly this sort of image of someone with access to highly confidential and top secret information risking all to get the information out. one can approve or disapprove but certainly that image. sort of visage of the whole thing is sort of similar. and both of them certainly took big chances with the rest of their lives. >> bill: and in the case of snowden, he says, at least that he discriminated in terms of what he would release and what he wouldn't. to get information out he thought it was important american people would know it would put lives at risk. >> i would say that distinguishes him from wikileaks, maybe. and from bradley manning.

what daniel ellsberg did i don't think people recall too well is he was held three volumes to the pentagon papers from "the new york times". the so-called negotiating volumes. volumes that dealt with efforts of the u.s. to negotiate an end to the war in vietnam. and he withheld them because he thought they could interfere with on-going negotiations. i always admired him for that. for making that distinction. we don't know mr. snowden, what it is he hasn't made available. but i certainly hope that he made this sort of serious effort to not make material available which would obviously harm national security. of course, the folks in government think he's already done just that. >> bill: of course. the president has said that this is good. now we're having this debate

again about this central issue of national security on the one hand and our right of privacy and our first amendment right as journalists on the other. and maintaining that proper balance. i mean that is a central debate in the history of this country. have we -- where are we today in that debate, do you believe? have we flipped too far on the side of national security? >> it's really hard to answer on a factual level. i put it this way. i don't think we're taking privacy seriously enough. however, one strikes the balance. of course, you have to protect national security. and of course, you have to try to protect privacy. but i think that when the president said no one's listening in on your phone calls, that -- while that is literally correct, it is a very

big deal to have an entity within the u.s. government compiling information about who calls who, how long they're on the phone, where they are and information of that sort. and while we have no reason at this moment to think that information has been misused it is a very big step. and it's well worth the national debate. about how far we're going and the degree to which we are, at the least threatening privacy. >> bill: they say they don't know your name but it's not a big leap to go from knowing every phone call you make and the duration of every phone call and where you're placing it to knowing who's making the call, correct? >> sure. that's really no leap at all. what they say is well, in effect, we're collecting so much

information that you don't have to worry about it. because it is megabytes that we're talking about here. and that doesn't cut it for me. it seems to me one thing to say look, we've got rules. we're following the rules. there was nothing illegal done here. >> bill: right. >> but it is something else to say everything's under control. don't worry about it. that's not the government i know. >> bill: no. it raises concerns with you and with me and yet i look this morning at the -- at the latest pew research poll just taken a couple -- yesterday, i guess or the day before. 56% of americans say they're okay with this nsa massive data collection. what's that tell you? >> it tells me that probably about 86% of the people are saying things on facebook and

the like that indicates they don't care very much about privacy. i also don't think that the public is focusing enough. and on this, there is now for the first time, a sort of national debate, at least beginning. i don't think they're focusing enough on -- you know, on what can happen. it's not a paranoid fantasy to be concerned about the government having this sort of information about us and about the potential of misuse. of that information. >> bill: we're talking to constitutional lawyer, floyd abrams here on this tuesday edition of the "full court press." floyd, we've also seen this administration has been very aggressive about leaks and pursuing leaks and prosecuting leaks. and most recently, the department of justice investigation where they seize the phone records, talk about phone records, right of "the associated press."

and then all of the comings and goings and private e-mails of james rosen from fox news. and james rosen was even classified or called by one fbi agent as a criminal co-conspirator. >> yeah. >> bill: trying to get information. would you say -- overzealous efforts on the part of d.o.j.? >> i certainly would. and i would really say that particularly, with respect to james rosen the idea of saying that because a reporter asked questions because he cajoled a potential source, because in the language of the fbi agent he flattered and appealed to the ego of the individual who had the information. >> bill: that's what we do. >> that's the definition of what you do for a living. that that makes him -- the government's language was, at

the least co-conspirator or an aider and abettor. of a violation of the espionage act. and that's a document filed by the department of justice. this is not a stray fbi agent. and you know, i find that really, really disturbing. on the a.p. front just thinking about the combination of what we learned in the last few days and the a.p. situation the a.p. was 20 phones for about a two-month period. now, we're talking about trillions of telephone calls being traced the same way. they weren't listening in on the a.p.'s phone. all they had there as in this new nsa revelation, all they had

there was the telephone number of who called who and for how long. >> bill: whatever happened to the old-fashioned kind of concept of probable cause right? that they might search our home or our car or our business or our phone records if they had probable cause to think we had some connection to terrorists? >> it is very disturbing. i mean, you know, legally, it is sort of reminiscent of what the framers called a general warrant. just the ability to peruse through without any -- without any authorization at all. again, it has to be said that the program the nsa program was adopted in some fashion by congress. that there has been a level, at least, of judicial involvement with this fisa court. so war not talking about illegality here but we are talking about a major intrusion

into the privacy of all of us. >> bill: absolutely. floyd abrams, so good to talk to you again. new book out "friend of the court, on the front lines with the first amendment" out this month from yale university press. floyd, good to connect again. if you're in washington any time, please get in touch and come by and see us in the studio. >> i'll do it. good to talk to you again. >> bill: thanks for your time this morning, floyd abrams, the best and the most knowledgeable on the first amendment. so good to have him on the show this morning. >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv.

>> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day.

>> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. this show is about being up to date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding.

>> announcer: the "bill press show," now on current tv. >> bill: all right. back to your calls about the current situation with nsa. and what ought to happen weed ward snowden. "the new york times" reporting this morning that the justice department is preparing charges. that's not a surprise really. shoot. they charge everybody wees peenage. the d.o.j. eric holder. he's on the run again after edward snowden preparing to file charges against him. your calls at 1-866-55-press. is he a hero or a traitor? john boehner called him a traitor yesterday. back to the calls in just a minute. speaking of phone records you know, there is this program called -- calling it obama phone.

something that started under george bush to provide phones to lower income individuals. well that program itself now seems to have contributed to identity theft. this story out of nbc news. that the federally subsidized phone service has put tens of thousands of users at risk of identity theft because the records of 170,000 people who get that service were posted online, making all of their personal information available to anyone who might want to use it for identity theft. read a story like that, you realize how you have to be protected against identity theft. i suggest lifelock ultimate. the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection ever. but they can't protect you, of course if you're not a member. visit -- lifelock ultimate.

call 1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. the update on the matter on the nsa matter and edward snowden is, as we are mentioning a little earlier on the program pew research center, out with a new survey on this. showing we know what nsa is up to. seizing the records of every phone call we make and every e-mail we send overseas, doesn't matter whether you've ever been connected with a terrorist or not. trillions and trillions and trillions of phone records 56% of americans say i don't have a problem with that. 56% of americans are as dumb as lindsey graham who said i'm a verizon customer. i don't care if they have my

number. you know, with that attitude, government is just going to roll over more and more and more. on the social media peter? >> you can find us on twitter at bpshow at bpshow. again, we've tweeted out a link to where you can sign the petition at the pous. white house.gov to pardon edward snowden. rodeo gal says we should be -- we should be more upset knowing that corporations have way too much of our personal data and robert says i just don't trust edward snowden. why did he take off to hong kong? and now he wants asylum. wtf. he's a traitor! seems a little strong. >> bill: yeah. i think there's no doubt about why he took off for hong kong. he took off for hong kong because he knew if he didn't, he wouldn't have a day of freedom. >> yeah. he knew he wouldn't get a fair trial. that was his fear. he wouldn't get a fair trial.

>> bill: somebody made this point yesterday in one of our calls. maybe he should have stayed here in the united states and faced the music. he's going to face the music anyhow. let he who is without sin cast the first stone. anthony, las vegas what's up? anthony? >> caller: hey, bill. thank you for taking my call. >> bill: glad you're there and thanks for your patience, too. >> caller: i think it is a pretty sad day when we have john mccain lindsey graham and our constitutional liberal president all in lock step when it comes to the national security spying on us. national defense authorization act with the ability to assassinate americans if they're deemed a terrorist or anything like that. but at the same time what want to say is that regardless whether it is a republican or democrat in office, whoever it is, i think this is a trillion dollar industry that's just here to not simply protect us but to just simply make money. to spy on us.

to continue this war this false war on terror. i don't believe it was ever there to fight al-qaeda. i think what this whole thing was there is to transform our country into a post-constitutional whatever -- whatever we're transforming into. the guise of protection they're going to try to -- they're going to spy on us in order to protect us. i have one thing to say to that. the quote from benjamin franklin. anybody willing to sacrifice liberty for security deserves neither. >> bill: anthony well-said! and i'm not sure -- maybe one slight disagreement. i think it might have started out legitimately as an effort post-9-11 to protect us from al-qaeda and others who wanted to do us harm but it certainly has grown into much more than that today and while the threat has decreased substantially the presence of the national security state has increased

exponentially. and over four million people having access to all of this top security, i mean our intelligence operation has just grown and grown and grown and this is the ultimate, i think manifestation of it. what the nsa is doing and 56% of americans say we don't have a problem with that. i said it before. we have become a nation of sheep. shame on us. we won't have any freedom left unless we fight back. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. alright, in 15 minutes we're you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's

what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? alright, in 15 minutes we're

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"buzzfeed." the president today starting out with the daily briefing this morning at 9:30. and then he'll be talking about immigration reform. in the east room. 10:20 this morning. at 11:00 he has a bilateral meeting with the president of peru. and then he and the vice president meet with the secretary of defense chuck hagel this afternoon. at 4:30. at 5:20, the president is hosting a screening of this new documentary about the chiefs of staff of the white house. all 19 living former chiefs of staff have been interviewed for the president's gatekeepers. 12:30 today. jay carney's news conference. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: on this tuesday morning, hello everybody. good morning, good morning. great to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv. how about it. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. washington, d.c. where the senate yesterday passed a farm bill. working on that for a long time. they started debate yesterday on immigration reform. looks like you're going to have more than 60 votes to hustle that through and get it over to the house of representatives. all of that and more. you'll want to talk about this morning at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. we always like to hear from you about what you think about the issues of the day. we would like to hear from you on twitter as well at bpshow and

of course, on facebook, all of our friends on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. but most of the news, here in our nation's capital, has been all about the nsa data collection program, if you will. and the whistle-blower, edward snowden. some democrats and libertarians are expressing some concerns about this massive data collection in terms of our right of privacy. but most republicans and democrats as well as the president of the united states all go along with it, say it is necessary to keep us safe. and 56% of americans in the latest pew research poll agree with what the nsa is doing. we'll bring you up to date on that and a whole lot more here on current tv.

tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. (vo) sharp tongue. >>excuse me? (vo) quick wit. >> and yes, president obama does smell like cookies and freedom. (vo) and above all, opinion and attitude. >> really?! this is the kind of stuff they say about something they just pulled freshly from their [bleep]. >> you know what those people are like. >> what could possibly go wrong in eight years of george bush? >> my producer just coughed up a hairball. >>sorry. >>just be grateful current tv doesn't come in "smell-o-vision" >> oh come on! the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv.

>> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high.

>> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern

>> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: has anybody seen edward snowden? checked out of his hotel room in hong kong. start checking ray -- iceland that's where he's headed. we're coming to you live on your local progressive talk radio station. and on current tv. bringing you up to date on the news of the day. of course, giving. >> chance to tell us what you think about it at 1-866-55-press. that is our toll free number. on twitter at bpshow. standing by to take your

comments on twitter and on facebook. facebook.com/billpressshow. all of our friends let us hear from you. there's lots to talk about today. we couldn't get through it all by ourselves. it takes a village. we got the help today. a friend, as a "friend of bill," bob cusack, the managing editor of "the hill" newspaper. nice to see you again. if you go to the hill today you will find acology um by me, bill press. so you're my boss i guess now. one of my many bosses. >> this is going to be fun because normally i'm in here with my boss. now you're in here with your boss. >> bill: screw you. >> that's what peter tells me. >> now i can take the heat. >> bill: my column today on the nsa flap and edward snowden. bob, nice to see you. >> nice to see you. >> bill: joining the team

here, peter ogborn and dan henning with alichia cruz on the phones and cyprian bowlding on the video came for our friends on current tv. before we get into it, there is a very important tradition in this country that people going out to party, they always make sure they have a designated driver along. that's the safe thing to do. we've all done it. designated drivers. this is pretty scary. the university of florida did a little study about designated drivers. and they found out that 35% of them tested over the limit. >> geez. >> bill: here is professor down there adam barry from the university of florida. >> you hope that anyone who is going to be on the roadway isn't impaired by alcohol and you especially hope they have a designated driver who probably has a car load of people with them. we were a little surprised. we hoped we wouldn't find anything. that all designated drivers would have a zero blood alcohol concentration but unfortunately

that wasn't the case. >> bill: isn't that stunning? >> not is a safe. >> bill: you can't trust your designated driver, who do you trust? >> yeah. i guess that person's less drunk than the rest of them. still not good. >> i've only had two beers ociffer, i swear. >> bill: kate covers the hill for "buzzfeed" is going to be joining us a little bit later. we'll get right to the latest on the nsa flap and other things but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this tuesday, hillary clinton joins twitter yesterday. her first tweet said thanks to the two guys who started the famous text from hillary meme and she would take things from there. what's more interesting is how she described herself in her twitter bio. calls herself a wife, mom former first lady of the u.s., secretary of state author, dog

owner, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker and tbd. >> what does that mean? >> bill: yeah, to be determined. >> hell of a resume. >> bill: it is. you left out the one thing which was floar which we didn't know. first lady of arkansas. flotus, of course, first lady of the united states. first lady of arkansas. >> tim tebow has a new job. according to "usa today," the player who has been down and out since getting cut from the jets after a lackluster season will sign a deal with the new england patriots today. a surprise as many thought coach phil belichick did not like tim tebow. the former broncos quarterback who wears his religion on his sleeve is expected to join the team's mini camp this afternoon. >> i think this is great.

this gives the patriots a whole new arsenal of offensive weapons. now, they can either throw the ball widely into the stands or crumple behind the offensive line. two things you didn't have before. so they really expanded their offensive weaponry. >> you can have him. good riddance. >> apple unveiled new product at its developer's conference yesterday including a new operating system or iphones and ipads. ios7 includes new fonts and new interactions and they also introduced itunes radio, the new music streaming service set to compete with pandora and users can use a free version with ads or pay $25 a year to have no ads. also siri will be available in a man's voice if you don't like the lady's voice. >> i kind of like siri's voice. >> bill: what do i do now? >> nothing. >> it doesn't come around until like the fall.

>> bill: oh, okay. >> when it happens, we'll have to update our phones then after that, part of the new layout, it will all update itself. you don't have to update your own app. >> bill: oh, that's good because it is a pain to have to go -- >> i'm not sure if i like the new design. it looked a little bit too much like windows, i think. the whole reason i like having an iphone. >> bill: tell me when -- >> i'll let you know. >> bill: bob cusack, you know, we'll talk about this a little bit later. senate passed a farm bill yesterday. senate got busy on immigration reform. there is other stuff going on. the talk has been dominated by nsa. some people suggesting this is the time that we ought to have a serious conversation and take a look at the patriot act and maybe revise the patriot act. do you think that's going to happen? >> no. congress is not -- there will be a debate on it but there will be

nothing passed in congress, no doubt about that. so it is interesting that the white house has not gone after snowden personally. they've let senator feinstein the head of the intelligence committee, john boehner going after him as a traitor. as you know, he's almost -- a cult hero on factions of the left and the right. liberals and libertarians. but the manhunt for this guy is going to be fascinating. how do you apprehend him? that's going to be tricky. >> bill: a friend of mine yesterday mentioned one very -- i hadn't thought about it. tactic that the government has already taken which is to rescind his passport. he has a u.s. passport. he's in hong kong. they can easily say hey he's a traitor to this country and invalidate haase passport which means he wouldn't be able to travel right? >> yeah. wow. that's probably a leading option, you would think. a lot of people saying if he was in hong kong, that was not the best place for him to be, so i

just think that the optics of going after him could be politically tricky. you have to go after him. he broke the law. but that's going to be fascinating. >> bill: it is, indeed. you mentioned the white house. i was eagerly looking forward to the briefing yesterday to hear the white house reaction to what mr. snowden did edward snowden. the very first question from "associated press," of course, was edward snowden has said he's identified himself. he's a whistle-blower. he's the one who told us about the nsa thing. so what does the white house think? jay carney. >> there is, obviously an investigation underway into this matter. and for that reason, i am not going to be able to discuss specifically this individual or this investigation. >> bill: now, that's the same answer we got on "the associated press," that's the same answer we got on james rosen. that's the same answer we get on everything now is i can't comment. >> that's the go to.

>> bill: the hiding behind it. i don't know why they couldn't just come out and say if he broke the law it looks like he broke the law and it was wrong. >> bill, he had -- carney had to walk back the president's comment that every member of congress has seen this. and peter king was on tv yesterday saying well, criticizing other members who say hey, wait a minute, i wasn't briefed on this. he said well the intelligence -- if lawmakers would ask the intelligence committee, i talked to someone who would know and said that the intelligence committee doesn't freely give out this information because if you are on the intelligence committee you like to be on the intelligence committee. you guard that information. so it's not as easy -- even with the nie on iraq, many years ago only about 100 members actually read that. they had to be cleared for that. so a lot more is going to come out of this, i think. >> bill: i think what was pretty apparent from my hearing that conversation yesterday is every member, dianne feinstein said every single member of the senate was sent information

about this program. that is not true in the house because the house intelligence committee did not inform every member of the house as dianne feinstein did inform every single member of the senate. so when the president said every member of congress, he really misspoke. >> yes he did. >> bill: i don't think he deliberately did but he did. so the pew research center, they've been pretty good on their findings is out with a report this morning. with all of the debate about the nsa program getting back to your point about the patriot act, 56% of americans say they're okay with it. >> 56%. it is interesting. you wonder how much that is affected, impacted by the boston marathon bombing. part of the numbers -- >> bill: partly, i think so. >> throughout the decades the u.s. government has done far more than anyone knew. but now that both the white house and congress say wait, wait, this is old news. that's basically what saxby

chambliss said, the ranking republican on the committee. it is not all news to americans. most people didn't know about this. especially when you get into the internet calling of data. and that alarmed some people. but still that, number -- that number is surprising. >> bill: to me, it shows that the american people over the last 12 years have been beaten down by -- in this war on terror. they just come to accept almost anything. take your shoes off at the airport. objection. take my jacket off. what next? take my belt. anything you want. >> bill: cameras everywhere. you know. going to the bathroom, there is a camera. not necessarily but everywhere, cameras and you know, all of this stuff people accept it. >> at some point that's what snowden was getting at is he said, every year, it gets worse. and i think to a certain extent, people okay, i will give up some privacy for protection to be safer. but then how far will you go? and you know other countries that get into bickers with the

united states like china probably enjoying this right about now. we're the ones that the u.s. government is going after someone on potentially chinese soil. >> bill: the other side of it is -- this is something i think we journalists are right in the middle of is the president said and jay carney kept making this point yesterday. this is a good time to have an open debate about this. let's debate this issue about how far we can go, you know, asserting our constitutional right of privacy in light of these threats from terrorists and the need to keep us secure. you know, let's have this debate. the problem i have is that if everything is top secret, how can you have a debate? >> that's right. you can't speak of everything. because there are some things you can't speak about. open government advocates say the u.s. government, whether it is the bush administration, obama administration, they don't

let out -- they classify far too much information. that's the problem. how can you have that debate? that's where you saw senator ron wyden when he was questioning james clapper about certainly widen knew during clapper's confirmation hearing that this program existed. widen put clapper on the spot saying nsa collecting information. clapper was in a tough spot. he either can perjure himself or reveal something he shouldn't reveal. there are parameters that it can only go so far. even the intelligence committee members have to choose their words carefully on television. >> bill: one other aspect of it, we learned this morning. i forget where i read it this morning. maybe it is in the "national journal." edward snowden civilian contractor with booz allen hamilton three months and he's already got access to top -- the

highest level of top security documents. so he's not alone. there are 500,000 according to this article dave hirsch in the "national journal" -- michael hirsch, did it again 500,000 civilian contractors who have that top security clearance. these are military. these are civilian contractors. so the horse is out of the barn, you know? >> these people are all over, especially all over washington. one of them is a neighbor of mine who has been saying this has been going on for a long time. listen, this is something that a lot of people have access to information. this guy was only 29 years old. "the washington post" reporting that his claims of access to information might have been overstated. clearly -- >> bill: they were pretty good documents. >> so i think that's what congress will probably debate about or at least administration, who has access to this? and what do they need? and what about the i.t. guys,

should their access be blocked? that's why they have to go after snowden although it might be politically -- they have to set a precedent. >> bill: i agree. they can't go after manning and not go after snowden. still, as i say in your paper this morning, i think edward snowden has performed a great public service by letting us know, at least what the government is doing. bob cusack here from the hill. your calls welcome at 1-866-55-press. where is edward snowden and what should happen to him? thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything.

thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything.

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>> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. our little roundtable joined by kate from "buzzfeed" in the next segment. right now, bob cusack, managing editor of the hill at the hill.com. if you're going to keep track of all of the comings and goings in our nation's capital, no better place to do it than people of the hill. peter, what do you get? >> last night was the first night for john soller have hosting the -- for john olver hosting the daily show. john olver is filling in. he's british which made you very upset. you said -- >> bill: after piers morgan, for american prime time tv shows, we could find an

american. >> all right. well on twitter where we're tweeting at bpshow, china says your claim of british people coming here to take tv jobs is just as ignorant as right-wingers claiming mexicans take jobs from americans. what a pratt. it is a british putdown. i assume that's not one of the fcc banned words. >> bill: i don't know what it is. >> it is not good. >> bill: i love the mexicans. i just hate the brits. [ laughter ] >> bill! >> okay. so you're okay with a mexican person filling in for jon stewart? >> bill: absolutely. >> did he do well? >> i thought he did very well. i saw clips of it this morning. did he a very good job. one of his things, jokes he had about the whole nsa wiretapping is you know, maybe the amish had it right this whole time of not using phones or anything like that. of having any tapping or

intrusion. just get away from the government. stay away from it. >> bill: does this impact -- is president obama going to get the blame for this, bob? >> i think from his base, yes. absolutely. he's changed. he has evolved on this. he backed a bill that basically did not -- is not consistent with what he's doing now. i think a couple of years ago the whole bush/obama comparison were off. you can make that comparison especially with that program. in fact, on most of the issues, torture being one. the one big exception. >> bill: right down the line. approval rating. >> bill: absolutely. we'll be back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. 33 minutes after the hour. it is tuesday june 11. this is the "full court press." we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. and our studio on capitol hill. to close observers of what's happening on capitol hill. bob cusack is the managing editor of the hill. he's here as a "friend of bill" this hour. we're joined by kate who covers the hill for "buzzfeed." hi kate. nice to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: we had a little action yesterday -- first i've got to ask you with the nsa thing, does this sort of knock last week's scandals off the page?

i mean benghazi, i.r.s., associated press remember all of that stuff? >> i kind of do. it seems like so long ago right? i think it definitely does take some of the heat off of the i.r.s., off of the d.o.j. scandals. everyone is talking about the nsa just because it's so sweeping and it was so surprising to so many members that this is what they want to focus on. you'll still have house members that want to talk about benghazi and want to talk about the i.r.s. and obviously darrell issa will continue to hold hearings. >> bill: harder to get media attention to those issues. >> yeah. you're kind of shouting into the wind at this point at least for this week. democrats are trying to move on. elijah cummings says it is time to move on from the i.r.s. scandal. it is going to be a tough spot for the white house

communication. every day how are we going to play this one? and they must be thinking what's the next thing? >> bill: we do have a tendency or i think we have an inability to focus on more than one story at a time. we tend to go 24/7,24/7 on whatever. >> the attention span is very short. >> bill: the nra thing it took a lot of the gas out of i.r.s. and benghazi. but the senate did get some things done yesterday kate. we passed a farm bill. which has been a long time and coming. >> we did. they passed the farm bill. >> bill: bipartisan. they'll see what happens in the house. if anything happens in the house. the house will pass their own farm bill. they hate the senate bill. they think it is terrible. house conservatives are calling it a food stamp bill and doesn't do much else. so i think you'll see farm bill come out of the house that has you know, a lot less, you know,

for snap, for food stamps and also something that makes cuts in different farm subsidies. so we'll see if the two can come together. they couldn't quite do it last year. >> bill: senator debbie stabenow and the republican -- >> chuck grassley. >> bill: grassley from iowa? >> cochran. >> bill: that's right thad cochran in georgia. >> used to be roberts. cochran replaced him. >> bill: co-authors of it. interesting that we see the senate, used to be the house was the active body passing all of the bills. we talked about the graveyard and the senate. now, the senate seems to be acting on issues and passing stuff over to the house which has become -- sort of the dead end street. >> it is a tough place for boehner and i think we're really going to see this with immigration. the spot where the light shines

on the house. whether they move a bunch of small bills to try to go to a conference with the senate when the senate does pass immigration. and i do think the senate will pass the immigration bill. i think we'll see some amendments to make more republicans happy. and it will pass the senate. but boehner is in a tough spot, you know. he needs conservatives to get on board. he knows that this is probably the best thing for his party. but he also doesn't want another rebellion, you know. another thing to show all of the divisions within his conference. >> quite simply, boehner has to make a lot of tough decisions on a lot of issues. this farm bill probably will be some bipartisan support because frankly, the chairman working with the ranking but if you're going to make major cuts to food stamps, you're not going to get the liberal caucus. once again republicans will have to carry most of the water here to just pass the bill through the house. then you have immigration as kate was mentioning, then you've got the debt limit fight.

>> bill: let's not forget that. >> boehner hit the pause button. some major decisions are loom. >> bill: it seems that for certain, kate, you mentioned this bob, that there will be enough votes in the senate. in fact, it is to keep ratcheting it up so we can get more and more votes. have more momentum going to the house side. >> there is some concern they don't want 70 votes because then it becomes more republican-friendly. the bill is only moving further to the right on border security amendments and the house will do what it's done. house conservatives, they really don't like that immigration bill. really don't like it. i think that there's no way that the house unless there's months of political pressure, will pass. the senate passed immigration bill which will get from 65 to 70 votes. the some activists on the left say we don't need 70 votes. >> bill: what they consider a good -- one thing that surprises me, there have been some voices,

rand paul to a certain extent, maybe that certainly sent john conyers, i'm. >> prized -- i'm surprised there haven't been stronger, louder voices about the nsa program. most members of congress are not going to talk about it or support it. >> they don't really want to talk about it right now. it was interesting. i was at votes last night in the senate. i was walking up to different senators and asking, you know, what do you think about ed snowden? what do you think about the nsa leaks? and well, there's an on-going investigation. we don't know everything yet. especially, you know, the conservative guys that are very angry about it, guys like cruz and lee they didn't want to speak at all. they did not want to comment. and you know, rubio who sits on the intelligence committee is really holding back and holding his fire. the strongest condemnation came from feinstein last night who

said this is treason. he's not a whistle-blower. he's a treasonist guy. so i will be really interested to see if more people start to speak out in support of what he did or you know, the only person i heard that's talked about their supportive of snowden is tom massie in the house who is a big libertarian from kentucky. >> bill: has any democratic senator? >> i haven't heard that. if they have, i haven't seen it. >> bill: bob we miss russ feingold. >> this is going to be an opportunity for some members. rank and file members, not going to be leadership because feinstein is supporting the president. john boehner is supporting the president on this. to step up to the spotlight. members of congress, when they have that opportunity, they don't miss it. so whether it's massey or some on the left, i think they'll be very loud. as we were talking before, congress won't be changing the law on this any time soon.

>> bill: even ron wyden and mark udall who do have some real concerns about the nsa program and have expressed them cryptically, now we know what they were talking about they are not coming out saying snowden did a good job. did the right thing. pardon edwards. i doubt that they've signed the petition on the white house web site. >> that's right. that petition is -- that's kind of like -- it is going to get to 100,000 very soon. be interesting to see how the white house responds to that. they have to respond to it when it hits that level. i don't think we'll see any kind of debate on this. at least on the house and senate floors any time soon in a massive way. >> bill: speaking again of democrats and the house democrats, keith ellison has said he's got some problems with it. i didn't realize tom massey, is he a republican? >> he is a republican, definitely. but he does -- >> bill: rand paul is really the only one who is --

>> tom massey really does fashion himself in a rand paul world view. and was supported by rand when he ran for congress. he has spoken very critically of the patriot act. this confirms all of the worst fierce of the patriot act. the interesting thing to me was how i wrote the story last week. how much bipartisanship this is breeding. you have guys from the very far left, guys like pete welch and peter defazio and guys like justin amash from michigan and tom massey who are much closer together on this issue than i think we've seen in years. >> bill: right. yesterday, coming out saying snowden is a hero. michael moore and glenn beck. and bill press. there you go. [ laughter ] politics doesn't -- but i don't think it is a partisan matter.

to me, it comes down to a legitimate debate about constitutional freedoms and the government's interference with them. and i can see where from the left -- but back to the democrats, there's no doubt in my mind if george bush were president of the united states, you know, they would be calling for his impeachment. they would be calling -- demanding hearings. just like the nsa wiretapping way back. right after 9-11. >> no, that's right. i think that's what -- because president obama will not be president forever and these laws, are still going to be in place. and i think that's what reporters should be holding the feet to the fire of these politicians. all right, have you been consistent with what you said under bush and what you said now? >> bill: too many of them haven't. we're talking nsa farm bill immigration, covering the waterfront here in washington d.c. with bob cusack and kate nocera. we welcome your comments at

1-866-55-press or on twitter at bpshow. >> announcer: get social with bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show." >> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the

other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern

(vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. (vo) she's joy behar. >>current will let me say anything. (cenk) it's go time! it's go time! it's go time! go time. you know what time it is. go time! it's go time. it's go time. what time is it rob? here comes the young turks go time! it's go time. oh is it? oh, then it's go time.

anybody? anybody? what time is it? oh, right. it's go time! >> announcer: seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. 13 minutes now before the top of the hour. bringing you up to date on the latest here from our nation's capital. particularly with the people who who -- spend their life on the

goings on. kate nocera covers the capitol for "buzzfeed" and bob cusack is the managing editor for the hill magazine. bob, reading on your front page today that the white house has informed members of congress, you know that great big thing we have for all of you guys, republicans and democrats we invite you all down to the south lawn. it is a big deal. your families and they always have games and music and lots of great food and everything. it ain't gonna happen this year. >> no. they're holding out hope or they say it might happen in september. they're saying it is not sequester-related. it is schedule-related but i think they had to deal with this. they've been postponing this decision and telling people about this picnic and it has caused irritation for those on capitol hill because they like to bring in their families. it is a bipartisan event. you have to fly them in and if you get plane reservations at

the last second, it is pricy. they kept postponing the decision. they said definitely not going to happen in june when it always happens and it might happen in september but then the kids are back in school in september so it probably won't happen. >> bill: in terms of you know, reaching out to members of congress and the old schmooze fest. >> i think the schmooze is over. i think the charm offensive might be over. >> bill: didn't last very long, did it? >> it didn't. it seemed like it was years ago. >> bill: going to play golf with republicans. right? >> bill: that's right. >> a couple in the senate. play golf with. >> that was it. then you had a couple of dinners. and nothing recently and of course, we have this massive showdown on the debt ceiling that's happening a little bit later this year and we are nowhere close to a grand bargain. >> bill: might have been worth the cost of the picnic to have the picnic. let's say hello to joel calling

from orland park, illinois. good morning. >> caller: good morning. >> bill: do you have a question? >> caller: i have a comment. >> bill: all right. >> caller: i'm going to law school. my brother's got a masters in psychology. he taught me the big-time politicians, what they do is they use labeling fairies in the congress and their meetings and i'm calling in regards to the case that is coming up, the edward snowden he's a whistle-blower hero type of guy or if he's a trait or like the -- traitor like the politicians are saying like boehner. labeling him a traitor. that's the bottom line. there's too many politicians out there using labeling theories and they call somebody a name and they try to ruse the others in the congress meetings to think the same way as they do. >> bill: okay. i got it, joel. the labeling is a shortcut, you

know to what your views are about the person. we have seen that. i don't know that you're going to escape that. dan, you've got john boehner handy there, if we can? joel referenced that. you mentioned it earlier. yesterday, when he was asked about edward snowden he didn't -- john boehner didn't dance around. >> he's a traitor. the president outlined last week that these were important national security programs to help keep americans safe. and give us tools to fight the terrorist threat that we face. >> bill: senator feinstein didn't call him a traitor but said he's a whistle-blower. >> she said what he did was an act of treason. >> bill: that's a traitor. >> nelson said the same thing. i think it's interesting to hear what kind of words -- is he a leaker? is he a source? is he a whistle-blower? discussion everyone has to have. >> bill: totally not related

but also a big story today. don't want to get -- i want our listeners and viewers to know about it. is the obama administration made a big reversal yesterday on the morning after pill. they had said before that they were going to appeal a judge's decision that had to be made available over the counter to girls of all ages. yesterday, bob they dropped the appeal. what happened? >> i think legally, they knew that they were probably going to lose this case. president obama said -- explained his rational months ago saying i'm the father of two daughters, i think there should be restrictions. >> bill: they wanted 125 and above. >> -- they wanted 15 and above. >> kathleen sebelius overruled fda scientists. that showed to some that there were politics at play here. and justice department decided to retreat and they're no longer pursuing it. >> they really angered a lot of women's groups with that decision who were very surprised. >> bill: with the previous decision. >> with the previous decision

when sebelius went over. you heard a lot of them yesterday saying thank god finally time. but president obama senior administration official told "the washington post," i believe, yesterday, that the president himself personally, still feels there should be restrictions. it is just that the d.o.j. was not going to move forward with trying to appeal this. >> bill: you're right. they realized the reality was the writing on the wall, they were not going to win. they didn't want to take the chance of going in and losing. >> this is a story that a lot of parents are going to pay attention to this morning. no doubt about it. >> bill: there we go. more to talk about but we are up against the clock and out of time. caitlin nocera, thank you for coming back in. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you bob. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

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this show is about being up to date, staying in touch with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. in reality it's not like they actually care. this is purely about political grandstanding. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

>> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: you know, it's interesting to see the sides line up for or against edward snowden, that young nsa whistle-blower. there are republicans and democrats who think he's a traitor and we should throw the book at him. including, as we were just discussing, john boehner, dianne feinstein and congressman mike rogers. there are also liberals and conservatives who think he's a hero and we should thank him for speaking out including michael moore and glenn beck and of course me. snowden's critics say that he puts lives at risk but there's zero evidence of that. they also say he broke the law which is true.

but who hasn't exceeded the speed limit on more than one occasion. the weakest argument i've heard against snowden was from a talk show host in san francisco saying snowden had never been elected to anything and was in no position to make a decision to release that information. to which i answer hey if we waited for our elected officials to act, we would never get anything done in this country. hell, we wouldn't even be a country! sometimes it's important that individual citizens be willing to stand up and do the right thing without waiting for permission from politicians. i thought we learned that from our founding fathers. guess not. we'll be back tomorrow. eliot spitzer joins us. cindy boren from "the washington post" and all of you.

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>> stephanie: wow. jacki learned a new song. look at that. hello. [ laughter ] >> it's in honor of summer. i thought i would expand by repertoire from one to two. >> stephanie: that was jazzy. thank you. >> you're welcome. >> stephanie: i think you are feeling perky because we are having another health care corner this morning.