[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: hey, good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is a big thursday morning here in our nation's capital. this is the "full court press" coming to you live on current tv -- pardon me, on current tv from our studio on capitol hill in washington, d.c. good to see you this morning and you know how it goes. we will tell you what's going on here in our nation's capital, around the country and around the globe and then we'll open up the phones for your calls at

1-866-55-press. on all of the stories of the day. we'll also look for your comments on twitter. welcome your comments on twitter at bp show and on facebook, become our friend if you're not already, facebook.com/billpressshow. lot going on. president obama coming up to capitol hill yesterday, meeting with house democrats and meeting with senate democrats. where he apparently got a lot of questions about the keystone pipeline and questions about rumors he might consider appointing larry summers, former treasury secretary under bill clinton, appointing larry summers to be the new head of the fed. a lot of members of congress unhappy with that prospect because they had such a terrible time with larry summers when he was treasury secretary. also, on the hill, the nsa came underfire in the senate judiciary committee, republicans and democrats raising serious

questions about the big phone spying program of nsa. we'll bring you up to date on that and a whole lot more 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 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.

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. 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

gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv! >> bill: president obama up on capitol hill rallying the democrats for the second half of 2013. hey, good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is thursday. we're getting close to our favorite day of the week. it is thursday, the first day of august. 2013. can you believe it?

and here we go. with another prize winning edition of the "full court press" coming your way from washington, d.c., bringing you all of the news of the day. we're here on top of it, letting you know what's happening here in our nation's capital, what you're getting for your tax dollars, what's happening around the country and around the globe and of course, giving you a chance to join the conversation, let us know what it all means to you. that is what is most important. good to see you today. we've got some big news for you today, too. that you've been asking about and calling about and e-mailing about. we got it for you today. where you're going to be able to find us after current tv disappears into the history books. we'll tell you all about that here and the team have been working hard on enabling us to stay together. after the demise of current.

it is peter ogborn and dan henning on duty this morning. >> hey, hey, hey. >> good morning. >> bill: nice of you both to come in. rainy morning in our nation's capital. alichia cruz made it down. with cyprian bowlding on tap also as our videographer extraordinaire keeping us look good on current tv. of course, we're sounding good. thanks to all of you and our local progressive talk radio station around the country and salute all of our great affiliates and proud to be your morning line-up. all right, here it is. yes! you'll still -- so, here's the deal. current tv goes away on august 20? >> 15. >> bill: august 15. then there will be a brief hiatus where we will continue to be with you. nothing changes on the radio. we'll continue to be with you on

your local affiliate, progressive talk radio right on through all of this change. but on the tv side, things will change. august 15 is the last day of current tv and then september 3rd, we move to our new home! and here's what's exciting, it's a two-fer. you'll be able to watch us two different ways. online or on tv. on tv, we'll be on either dish network, channel 9415, make a note of that. dish network, channel 9415 or on directv channel 348. peter, these are the two channels on satellite dishes. >> that's right. if you have directv or dish network. >> bill: we've got satellite tv, dish network or directv, there we are. on dish channel 9415 and on directv channel 348. and you may not know those channels but they're great channels. they already carry of some our

really good friends like amy goodman with democracy now, thom hartmann, davie d, they're already there. they have lots of good current affairs series, investigative series and stuff. occupy wall street, take back the american dream conference, all there. they show the networks -- the net roots conference, all of that good stuff. and so that's one way to find us. the other way is online, on your computer, if you don't have a satellite dish, you can watch us online at freespeech.org. >> check it out. it is a very progressive network. we're happy to be a part of it. >> bill: total progressive network. really out for progressive content. we're very proud and happy to be joining them. you can watch us online at free speech.org every morning, all three hours or if you're a

satellite dish customer, the dish network, channel 9415 or directv channel 348. of course, always, always, continuing on your local progressive talk radio station. so there we are. we'll continue to be together. >> i love it. >> bill: starting september 3rd is when the new tv starts. >> yep. >> bill: coming up, congressman john conyers will be here in studio with us. the new director of the hotline will be here as well. and then the head of the natural resources defense counsel or at least their associate director will be here to talk about keystone pipeline but first... >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this thursday. a funny and telling comment from john mccain on two potential 2016 contenders yesterday. when asked by the new republic about a possible match-up between rand paul and hillary clinton, the arizona republican

said it would be a tough choice. he did get into a foreign policy debate with paul on the senate floor over funding, not a big fan. >> bill: for john mccain to say he might vote for hillary clinton -- is john mccain going back to the maverick we once knew and loved? >> george zimmerman was pulled over in texas a couple of days ago for speeding. tmz on be tained dash cam footage where trayvon martin's killer informed the cop he had a load gun in his glove compartment. he spoke with the officer for a couple of minutes, got off with a warning and went off on his way. >> bill: i didn't see his lawyers having a big news conference talking about what a great guy he is. >> president obama set to appear on "the tonight show" next week for the fourth time. the white house says he'll be in burbank, california, tuesday to tape a sit-down with jay leno on nbc as part of his economic agenda tour.

the president was last with leno in october. just a few days before the election. >> bill: i tell ya, leno, seems to be pulling them in. >> going out with a bang. >> bill: he is, indeed, going out with a bang. all right. it is not such a long trip. he doesn't have to go all the way to burbank. it would take him five minutes to get here from the white house with the motorcade, with the motorcycles and everything. ten minutes if you have to stop at the traffic lights. >> i don't think he stops at the traffic lights. the president? >> bill: on his way out to play golf on a saturday, they do. >> are you serious? >> bill: yeah, they do. >> somehow i don't believe that. >> bill: they do. i read the reports. they do. they'll just go out in a couple of suvs and stop at the traffic lights and go play golf. yeah. check it out.

our studio is a lot closer than jay leno. have to let him know, just come on up to capitol hill some morning. we would be glad to see you. and here's the question for you this morning. this dominated the briefing yesterday at the white house. and it drove me crazy. i would love to get your take on it. maybe i'm wrong about this but the question is -- and the question that jay carney got hammered with yesterday, think about this now, do you think that president obama should have something to say about anthony weiner? should he be talking about anthony weiner and should he be talking about bob filner, the mayor of san diego who's been accused by -- i lost track, maybe eight or ten women now of sexual harassment and anthony weiner confessing to sexting and sending selfies to eight or ten

different women. you have coast-to-coast of offenders here, both democrats. should the president himself get involved and condemn their behavior or defend their behavior or defend them and have anything to say about this? 1-866-55-press. the toll free number, of course. now, look, here's my take on this. first of all, this is disgusting behavior. no doubt about it. on the part of both. it's different. you know, one is the flasher and the other is the abuser. but both disgusting behavior. both unacceptable behavior. both democrats but so what. doesn't excuse them at all. i think both of them ought to get out. anthony weiner ought to get out of the race and bob filner ought to resign as mayor of san diego. and a lot of people have called for that. the question is should the

president -- and everybody's talking about it. let's face it, you know. i said this the other day. last weekend, we had friends over for dinner friday night. what did we talk about? anthony weiner. went out to dinner with my brother and his wife and good friends saturday night, what did we talk about? anthony weiner. went out to brunch with some friends on sunday, what did we talk about? anthony weiner, bob filner, both of them. you turn on the cable shows, you turn on talk radio, that's what the panels are talking about, sunday shows all talked about it. everybody's talking about it. but should the president of the united states get involved? it came up at our briefing yesterday over and over and over again. first on the part of the french reporter who makes the point that she says all over the world, people look to the united states, they look to new york city. they see this kind of behavior. isn't it -- isn't it important

that the president talk about this political circus in new york. >> so the need to say anything about the race in new york? >> no, we don't. the president is focused on what we can do here in washington to help the middle class to. help the economy grow. to help regular folks out in the country. >> bill: now, that's a little spin on jay carney's part, of course. but it comes up again so she's saying we have to focus on the important issues. so she's saying don't you feel some compulsion and need to talk about the circus. ary shapiro, member of the white house correspondents' association from npr, he tries to take it to a higher level, to the level of if you have any respect for women, you have to talk about anthony weiner.

>> mr. president, so often speaks for respect for women, createing a place where women can function. is there harassment of women involving the democratic party. doesn't the president's silence say something in and of itself? >> ari, the president is focused on what he can do for the middle class in this country. what we can do to help the economy grow. >> bill: and jay carney added just a footnote here, look, you guys, looking us all in the eye, i understand why you are so titillated by this but give the president a break. >> i understand the allure of issues like this in the media but it is not what -- i do understand it. and i'm not being critical of it but i'm saying that the

president believes his job is not to comment on those issues but to focus on what he can do to get this economy growing faster and creating more jobs. >> bill: what do you think? should the president get involved? should the president have something to say? 1-866-55-press. i gotta tell you, my opinion? no way! i think carney is absolutely right. i think the president's right to say you know what? to me, this is classic washington distraction, change the subject, get off on some scandal or get off on some -- you know, silly sexual topic and let that dominate the news and then that's all anybody talks about and get away from the issues that really count. you know what they want? they want obama to be just another commentator on television. they want to bring -- they want to drag -- i would say this, i don't care who's in the white house. there's some things the president -- the president is not a pundit who's expected to have an opinion at the drop of a microphone on every freaking

issue on the planet. there are some things the president of the united states should not just be involved in. should not be talking about, should not be commenting on. yeah, among his friends, among his aides, fine. but publicly, i would say he's right. stay the hell out of it. it is so seizely. it is just not worth the president of the united states getting involved. i'm sure if he did, he would condemn what they said. there's no need for him, i think, to dignify anthony weiner or bob filner with a comment. i think the president ought to stay the hell out of it and yes, focus, focus on what really matters. focus on jobs. focus on the economy. focus on immigration reform. focus on middle east peace talks. focus on student loans. get those things done. keep the focus on that and don't join the mob with all of the

talk about anthony weiner. agree? disagree. let's talk about it right here on the "full court press." >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." (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.

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'm given to doing anyway, by 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. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. 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? >> announcer: get social with bill press. like us on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: yeah, why won't president obama talk about bob filner? come on, why won't president obama talk about anthony weiner? did you give an address from the oval office?

my fellow americans, i have asked for network time this morning so i can comment on the latest sexting by former congressman anthony weiner. give me a break. some dignity to the oval office. i would hope, remains. your calls welcome at 1-866-55-press. peter, what have we got? >> we're on twitter at bpshow where dottie says the sexual immorality of others is beneath the presidency. the president doesn't need to give haters anything else to work with. however, anita smith says new york city is the most prominent and highly acclaimed city in america. weiner can't be in charge. it looks bad for us all. something needs to be said. >> bill: it is up to the people of new york. >> then, of course, mama for obama weighing in says no. president obama shouldn't say anything about weiner. you're saying quite enough. president obama's message is all about jobs. >> bill: i'm expected to talk about it. i'm a freakin' talk show host.

i have no principles, no morals, no values, i don't believe in anything. >> can i quote you on that? >> bill: i'm scum of the earth. i can talk about anything and everything. please, please, don't drag the president of the united states down to the level of a talk show host. right? >> i agree. >> bill: donna is in atlanta. hi, donna. >> caller: bill, first of all, you're absolutely more than that. come on. but first of all, the president, as american people, we could care less about who's zooming who and weiner. we want to know how to get back to work and jobs. the president of the united states of america, he cannot just point out somebody from every city, every state, let the republicans do. they're doing that anyway. plus, if he wants to comment on that, the republicans would be the first one to go on the mic. why isn't he talking about jobs? why is he talking about weiner?

>> bill: you got that right. you have that right. imagine if he starts down that road, right, so you talk about anthony weiner then who's next? then he's got to talk about david vitter and talk about mark sanford, right? >> come on. we don't have time. we want to know how to get back to work. our president means more to us than that. >> bill: you got it, donna. love you. rose is in ligonier, indiana. hi, rose. >> good morning, bill. they're already trying to drag this in with their war on women with all of the abortion bills, voting rights act, all of this. so they're just trying to bring it down to where they want it in their ballpark. >> bill: yeah, they do. it is all part of that -- same legislation. but in terms of the president's comments, he's got more important fish to fry as we say. and again, i think there is a dignity the oval office here, should the president be commenting about anthony weiner and bob filner?

you tell me. 1-866-55-press. >> 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 there is any chance we'll ever hear the president even say the word "carbon tax"? >> with an opened 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) >> cutting throught the clutter of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buzz words. >> family values, speding, liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things

happen. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

>> bill: it is thursday, august 1. we're coming at you from washington, d.c. the united steelworkers, their

president, leo gerard. for more information about the steelworkers go to usw.org. the good men and women of the steelworkers, north america's largest industrial union representing 1.2 million active and retired members. you know, president obama has put forth what he called a grand bargain or a deal for republican s. tax reform when it comes to corporate taxes and return for money for jobs. exactly what does the president have in mind when he talks about tax reform? kitty richards from the center for american progress joins us in the next segment to tell us all about it. back to other news of the day in just a second. but first, something i strongly recommend and that is emergency link i.d. put it this way, again, imagine you had an accident, you're unconscious. you can't tell the medical team anything because they can't

communicate with you. so all of that important information they need is unavailable. here's what you should think about doing. get emergency link i.d. it is a small tag that you attach to your key ring or put in your wallet or purse that tells emergency responders everything they might need to know. your medical history, your meds, allergies, doctor's contact info and most importantly, whom to notify. so sign up. that could make the difference between life and death. sign up now for emergency link's emergency response service. only costs $10 a year. you'll receive your i.d. kit free. you have to hurry for this limited offer. go to emergencylink.com now and enter press. emergencylink.com and enter press. peter? we'll get to a-rod. >> sure. >> bill: but the president was on capitol hill yesterday.

he met with democrats in the house and then he went over and met with democrats in the senate. they had a very lively exchange, both meetings were close to the press. but things -- you know, leak from meetings like this and apparently he got peppered with a lot of questions, took questions on any topic. senators pressing him on this issue or that issue that they really cared about. and at the end of it, harry reid said boy, what a great meeting. >> i wish that everyone in america could have watched that. the questions were good. they covered a wide range of areas and the president didn't beat around the bush on anything. >> bill: one of the things that the president really got hammered on apparently in the house are rumors that he might appoint former treasury secretary larry summers as the new head of the fed. there are apparently two leading

candidates, ben bernanke, the end of his term and either -- i don't really know, to be honest. whether he could be reappointed for a third term but he's not going to be at any rate. they're talking about a new head of the fed. janet yellon economist, who was at one time a member of the president's team and larry summers, treasury sect under bill clinton and head of the council under president obama. that came up and apparently president obama defended larry summers yesterday and said he really did a good job for me and he's a good person. jay carney repeated that defense of janet yellon at the briefing yesterday but what was very telling, i thought, is that when reporters said okay, jessica yellon, no relation, different spelling from cnn asked jay do you have something nice to say

about janet yellon, all jay carney would say was this is a personal matter and we're not going to comment. so the president said really good things about larry summers but then they declined to say any good thing at all about janet yellon which i don't know. does that indicate that he plans to appoint larry summers? i would hope not. i went back yesterday because this intrigued me after the briefing. and took a look back at larry summers. there is a good reason why the president got so much flak about larry summers among democrats in the congress because this guy does not have a good reputation at all. first of all, he comes right out of wall street, right. he is part of the wall street clack. he's another tim geithner. we've had too many people around president obama, i know a lot of you believe that because we've talked about it here, who let -- we're too logical to let wall street off the hook and not hold them responsible for the financial disaster of 2008

because they all came from wall street. larry summers is right out of that breed, okay? in fact -- he was one back when he was treasury secretary, who said we should not be regulating wall street's use of these derivatives. if we had, we might have -- might not have had that crash in 2008. bill clinton has said as former president now, bill clinton has criticized larry summers in saying larry summers gave him bad advice about not regulating derivatives. larry summers. when he was working there with bill clinton, said the united states should not do anything about global warming. we should not be taking the lead on climate change. we should not take part in the kyoto protocols, the first time all nations of the world got together to take collective action against global warming. larry summers advised against it. larry summers went on to become president of harvard, remember?

at which time, when he was president of harvard, he gave a speech saying there was a good reason why women didn't -- why men had most of the top jobs in science and in engineering because men had better aptitude for science and engineering than women did. classic. for which he got in a lot of hot water. he was forced to resign, you may remember, as president of harvard, when the professors up there, they called for a vote of confidence and they voted no confidence in the president of harvard, larry summers and forced to resign. so is this a guy we really want as head of the fed? you know, die remember any time being -- like an open public campaign for who might be the next head of the fed. but it's happening now. and i think it's a good thing

that's happening if the president has any -- from what i've seen, if the president has any thought about really nominating larry summers for that job, he ought to think twice about it. we have a bit of news that you might want to comment on at 1-866-55-press. it looks like the hammer is about to drop big time in major league baseball for the use of illegal substances, starting with the most -- the most highly-paid player in the league ever, ever. right? >> alex rodriguez from the yankees. a couple of weeks ago, we talked about ryan -- >> bill: he's been out with an injury. >> a couple of weeks ago we talked about ryan braun from the brewers. he got suspension for the rest of the season. and the speculation immediately became well, now, what's going to happen to alex rodriguez because he was tied to this same lab, the biogen sis lab. his name was on all of the same

records that brawn's name was on and people immediately started saying this could be a lifetime ban. not so much for the -- drugs -- >> bill: why a lifetime ban? >> not so much for the use of the drugs that a-rod was using but he interfered in the investigation. major league baseball was looking into this to see if he was actually using the drugs and doping. and he tried to get in the way. and that's one thing you don't do is try to get in the way. >> bill: he told people not to talk and tried to destroy documents and that kind of stuff. allegedly. we don't know. >> this is all sort of -- not speculation. there are some people who sort of have knowledge of the negotiations going on between a-rod and major league baseball but "usa today" is reporting that it's going to be a lifetime ban from baseball. a lifetime ban. which doesn't happen very often. in fact, bud selig, the current commissioner, the only person that he's ever given a lifetime

ban to is marg schott who we remember for being a racist anti-semite. but it doesn't happen very often. >> bill: is a-rod the only one that's going to get nailed? >> well, that's the only name they're talking about now and sort of the way they've been doing this is sort of a slow trickle, right. we've got braun. they'll get a-rod. they haven't named other names that are going to be a part of this suspension but he's certainly the biggest fish. >> bill: and the others, maybe not a lifetime ban, right? >> probably not a lifetime ban. >> bill: $18 million for a-rod? >> i'm not sure what they're paying him but it's serious money. >> bill: it sounds to me like this biogen sis lab, that the owner of the lab must be cooperating, shall we say, huh? >> yeah. part of the reason we learn the

news about ryan braun, you know, when he just got the -- essentially half of the season. >> suspension, he didn't appeal it. and so a lot of people were saying well, this sort of says that maybe he's cooperating and giving up some stuff on a-rod because that major league baseball would be the biggest catch. >> yet to see how the player's union will respond to this, too. >> a-rod's salary is under a five-year, $114 million contract this season. $28 million. >> bill: boy, that's a lot of money to blow, right? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> but look, they're trying to make an example. he's one of the biggest stars in the game. you know. they're trying to make the point that even the biggest guys in the game aren't protected by this. >> bill: can't get away with it. when we come back, president obama pushing tax reform. exactly what are we talking about? kitty richards from the center for american progress to tell us all about it. >> 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. (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.

>> bill: 12 minutes before the top of the hour here on the "full court press." a big hearing in the senate judiciary committee on nsa and some real skepticism about their phone spying program. we'll get into that at the top of the next hour here on the "full court press." right now, president obama making a major speech down in chattanooga, tennessee at an

amazon fulfillment plant on tuesday. where he put forward a deal for republicans. he said a deal that they should not be able to refuse where he would put forward and support corporate tax reform, breaks for -- tax rates for large corporations, in return for more money for jobs and creating jobs in this country. always a little murky when we talk about tax reform, exactly what it means, how it impacts you and how it impacts the middle class in particular. we wanted to get some answers today. we turn to kitty richards, associate tax director for tax policy at the center for american progress. kitty, good morning. thank you for joining us this morning. >> good morning. thanks for having me on, bill. >> bill: when the president says i'm going to put forward this corporate tax reform, a lot of people say so what he's giving them is a break for bringing back money they've got squirreled away overseas. is that it or what's the

mt. proposing? >> you know, i think that's an interesting bit of confusion here. the president is proposing a big, comprehensive tax reform and he said that he's going to use one-time revenues that result from that to invest in jobs here in america. that has caused some confusion because people think that those one-time revenues are coming from some special fee on corporate profits. in reality, what the president is talking about is the natural consequence of any big tax reform. there are a lot of the big deductions and exclusions and loopholes that you would close in order to cue tax reform that has this funny timing associated with them that means that when you shut them down, you get more money up-front than you do in the long-term. and what the president has said is look, we can't count on that up-front money to go on forever and finance the lower corporate rate. we have to take the up-front

money and use it for things that help growth and jobs right now. >> bill: i see. so what is the corporate rate today? >> so the top statutory corporate rate is 35%. >> bill: he would lower it to -- >> he would lower it to 28% in the proposal though i think it's really important that people not grab hold of a rate target too early because getting down to 28% is really hard to do. >> bill: also today, i mean if it's 35%, what are corporations actually paying? a lot less than that, aren't they? >> that's absolutely right because there are so many of these big loopholes and deductions that bring your tax liability down. so the gao recently estimated that just the largest, most profitable corporations in america are currently paying a rate of about 12.5%. that's very different from 35%. >> bill: it is different from

28%, too. so what impact would this -- if the president were to get this -- what impact might this have on the middle class which, of course, is where the president says we have to grow from the middle class, out. >> well, i think the -- >> bill: how much money are we talking about, too? let me ask you that. >> sure. it is hard to say how much money we're talking about when we're not talking about specifics and frankly, we're not yet. but it could be -- you know, tens of billions of dollars and i think the crucial piece here is not the corporate reform for the middle class but the jobs package. and we are very encouraged to see the president pivoting away from grand bargains about deficit and grand bargain about what matters to the middle class and the american economy which is putting the american middle class back to work. >> bill: absolutely. since i've been in diapers, i think, katie, i've heard

republicans talk about we're for lower taxes, lower taxes, cutting taxes, particularly cutting the corporate tax rate. it has always been the mantra, right, of republicans. so how can they reject this when it comes from president obama? this is what they've always been asking for, right? >> i absolutely agree. dave camp, the republican chair of the house, ways and means committee has made clear one of his top priorities is revenue neutral corporate tax reform. when it comes from the president and it is coupled with jobs program that will help the american economy and help the middle class, all of a sudden, they've got a bunch of problems with it. >> bill: unbelievable. it is almost like -- anything that president obama proposes, they have to oppose only because it comes from president obama. well, it is an important program. it's got a lot to offer the american people. a lot to offer the middle class. hopefully we can get enough

republicans in congress to support it. kitty richards, thanks for helping us understand it. >> thank you. >> bill: center for american progress. they do great work. americanprogress.org. kitty is their associate director for tax policy. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." the issues of the day. >> do you think there is any chance we'll ever hear the president even say the word "carbon tax"? >> with an opened 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) of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buzz words. >> family values, speding, liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things

happen. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

(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. (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. (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: take your e-mails on any topic at any time, this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: in the next hour, here on the "full court press,"

we will talk about more and more questions being raised about nsa on capitol hill in the congress. then we'll be joined by josh from the "national journal" hotline on the sex scandals, barbara says no way should our president lower his office by commenting on the lowlifes in either party. absolutely agree, barbara. thank you. yesterday, melanie sloan from crew, citizens for responsibility and ethics joined us. lynn redding says please have melanie sloan on every week to bring us updates with their work. we have much less need of whistle-blowers. and john says bill, please let us know where your show is moving when current goes away. we will, indeed. we did at the top of this hour. we will at the very top of the next hour starting september 3rd. we'll tell you where you can find us after current goes bye-bye.

[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: hey, on a thursday, august 1. good morning, everybody. good to see you this morning. wherever you happen to be in this great land of ours. we're so glad you joined us on this thursday morning. on the "full court press," coming to you live on current tv. still for a couple of weeks. glad to be with you and glad to have you part of the program. we've got lots to talk about. lots that you are going to want to comment on. you know how to do it. you can join us by phone at 1-866-55-press. you can join us on twitter.

send your comments on twitter at bpshow and of course, on facebook. looking for all of the friends we can get at facebook.com/billpressshow. president obama coming up to capitol hill yesterday. meeting with house democrats and senate democrats. reportedly they had very good, very lively sessions, talking about a lot of issues of the day. the president got a lot of questions about the keystone pipeline in the senate. a lot of questions about whether or not he was even considering appointing larry summers as the next head of the fed in the house of representatives. meanwhile, big hearing yesterday in the senate judiciary committee on nsa and its phone-spying program. and nsa got hammered by senators, both republicans and democrats, saying this program had gotten -- had grown too big, had gone too far and really

needed to be reined in. we'll bring you up to date on that and a whole lot more right here on current tv. iq will go way up. (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!

the sweatshirt is nice and all, but i could use a golden lasso. (vo)only on current tv.

(vo) current tv is the place for compelling true stories. (kaj) jack, how old are you? >> nine. (adam) this is what 27 tons of (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: they're talking about a lifetime ban for a-rod and it could come as early as tomorrow. good morning, everybody. welcome, welcome to the "full court press." on this thursday morning. rainy morning here in our nation's capital. august 1. we're coming to you live coast-to-coast on your local progressive talk radio station.

if you're lucky enough to have one. join us. support every one of your sponsors on the program. support that program because they are so important to keeping progressive voices heard across this great land of ours. good to be there on your local progressive talk radio station and also on current tv, at least for another couple of weeks. we'll have something to say about that in just a minute or so. here in our nation's capital, lots going on. we'll tell you about the news from the senate judiciary committee yesterday and about president obama at the caucuses in the house -- democratic caucuses in the house and the senate. and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. your comments welcome at any time on any topic we're talking about. look forward to getting your comments on twitter as well on bpshow and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. team press here in place this

morning. team members, peter ogborn and dan henning. >> hey, hey. >> good morning. >> bill: present and accounted for as well as alichia cruz on the phones and cyprian bowlding on the video cam. keeping us look good on current tv and get the big wave. still a lot of talk, a lot of talk on all of the late night shows. and on cable television and on talk radio about anthony weiner on one coast and bob filner on the other coast. reporters try to get jay carney and the president to drag them down into talking about it yesterday. they wisely resisted. but jay leno can't resist. he's been on this every night. >> more and more people calling for anthony weener to step aside but in a new ad campaign, weiner says quit isn't the way we roll in new york city. it is better than his old slogan, "when in doubt, whip it out."

be. >> bill: it never stops. we have heard, this is important, folks. we've had so many questions. so many comments, so many e-mails, so many phone calls about what's going to happen when current goes away. we'll tell you. every day this week -- or every day between now and when it happens and here we go. it is great news because we will be twice as available on -- by video as we have been before. first, most importantly, talk radio, your local progressive talk radio station, nothing changes. we'll be there. day in, day out. and we're grateful to be there. that's most important. secondly, on the tv side, you'll be able to -- current tv goes away august 15. starting september 3rd, we'll have a new home. so for that two weeks, we'll just be on the radio.

starting september 3rd, a new home and that's on freespeech which is located on either one of the two big satellite channels, satellite dish channels, either dish network. or -- >> directv. >> bill: right. >> check us out there. >> bill: i lost my cheat sheet. dish tv is the chan -- dish network. channel 9415. directv is channel 348. >> yeah. >> bill: so that's on your tv set, right? >> if you have the satellite dish. >> bill: if you don't, you can watch us online at freespeech.org. so very, very proud to be joining this great network. it is a -- an incredible progressive tv network. free speech. been around a long time. they already carry really good friends of ours, thom hartmann,

open line news with davie d and the david pac man show. they do a lot of good investigative reporting, current affairs series, meet the farmer. we'll be the new morning show on dish network channel 9415 and directv channel 348 and then online at free speech.org. >> do check out freespeech.org which has a line-up. it will tell you exactly where to find us if you didn't catch it. there are some options to catch us on tv if you're not a satellite dish user. you can find that out. freespeech.org. it has a map of where you are and how you can listen. go check them out. freespeech.org. >> bill: again on progressive radio. nothing changes. we'll be there day in and day out. five days a week. as always on your local progressive talk radio station. so we'll be around more than

ever. current tv goes away, so what. we will survive and thrive! 11 minutes after the hour now. we'll survive and thrive with john conyers, great congressman from michigan will be in studio with us, the head of the natural resources defense counsel will be here to talk about keystone pipeline and the new head of the "national journal" hotline in studio with us to cover the news of the day. and nsa and the phone tapping system, phone-spying system got a lot of criticism yesterday in the senate judiciary committee. we'll tell you all about it. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this thursday, simon cowell is set to become a father. "us weekly" is reporting the "x factor" judge is expecting a baby with the wife of one of his close friends. lauren silverman is a new york

city socialite who is allegedly ten weeks along and is still technically married to a friend of cowell's though they are getting a divorce. and she and cowell have been spotted together over the last couple of months. he has said many times over the last years that he does not want children. >> i hope his child never reads those comments. >> bill: there is one way not to have children. apparently he wasn't willing to go that far. >> the npr host who broke new social media ground last week by tweeting his own mother's death to his 12 million twitter followers spoke out about it yesterday. >> he didn't have 12 million. >> scott simon telling abc news he has covered ten wars and has been around the world but his mother's final 48 hours were the most emotional of his life. he said he found it soothing in quiet moments to tweet about what was happening, something experts say is a big step in opening the doors to the last

areas of total privacy. death right alongside sex and birth. maybe they're just not off-limits anymore. >> bill: i just have to say this, all right? i don't want anybody texting while having sex with me. and i don't want anybody texting while i'm dying and i don't want to text while i'm having sex and i don't want to text while i'm watching someone else die or watching my mother die. i think this is pretty outrageous. >> put the phone down. be there for your family. >> bill: exactly. you know, maybe now from the icu and at the -- someone's deathbed, they'll have a sign saying leave cell phones outside. >> no tweeting please. >> 1.2 million followers not 12 millions. >> i was going to say. >> my bad.

move the decimal point. in sports, changes are coming to the most irrelevant football game of the year to try and make it somewhat more relevant. the nfl is throwing out the afc versus nfc format of the pro bowl. instead, fans are going to vote for their favorite players overall. the top two vote-getters will become team captains then they will select their own teams. no matter what conference they're from. several changes are happening to increase the quality of play of the annual match-up that takes place after the super bowl in hawaii. >> bill: it is just a waste. just cancel it. >> i agree. i thought they had said that if ratings didn't go up last year, they were going to end it altogether. >> i think you're right. >> make a punt pass, you know, type competition like the nba has the slam dunk competition. have them do a throwing contest. >> they have the nfl skills

challenge but it is not as good as the home run derby. >> let's highlight that. >> bill: here we go. yes, indeed, the big event on the hill yesterday was a hearing in the senate judiciary committee, long-awaited hearing on the nsa and what we now know is massive phone data collection program and boy, the nsa came underfire. this is very interesting. a great development. and i'm not one of those people who ever, i will never, never say i told you so. but let me tell you something. i told you so, damn it! i told you when edward snowden revealed -- first revealed this stuff that this was too far. the nsa was out of control. this is a total violation of our privacy. and we had to rein in the nsa and fight for our constitutional rights. a lot of people accused me, not only edward snowden but me and others like me of being a

traitor for daring raise questions but now, more and more people are raising questions because the more you know about this program, and the more stuff comes out, just -- the more unbelievable it is. the headlines -- we saw that yesterday in the senate judiciary committee. in the beginning, the headlines were all administration defends nsa. senators defend nsa. you couldn't find a senator who would say anything bad about it. now, the more they look at it, look at the headlines this morning in "the new york times." senate panel presses nsa on phone logs. headline in "the washington post," skepticism deepens about nsa program. and it just so happens that yesterday, talk about timing, snowden came out through edward

snowden and glen greenwald at at "the guardian," this one called ex-key score which is the widest-reaching collection of data yet that we just found out about. here's how it is described. it enables the nsa to search with no prior authorization, no prior authorization through vast databases containing e-mails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals. in other words, every single thing you do online, the nsa can capture it. look at it. monitor it. without prior authorization by the fisa court. no wonder there were so many questions raised yesterday.

now, of course, there were the defenders of the program. senator dianne feinstein, democrat, chair of the senate intelligence committee, she says maybe we tweak it a little bit but we still need this. >> i believe, based on what i have seen and i read intelligence regularly, that we would place this nation in jeopardy if we eliminated these two programs. >> bill: john inglis, a deputy director of nsa, he was there. he took most of the heat. but he defended the program and he came back to the old analogy that they use, you know, look, this is like look for the needle in the haystack but you need the haystack. >> we had reasonable suspicion it was associated with something in the united states. i had no idea what it was associated with. so we needed to do a query. we didn't know whether it would be associated with a 217 area coat or 303 area code, grand set

of possibilities was it associated with. in order to find the need that will matched up against that number, we needed the haystack. >> bill: but as a lot of people pointed out, the problem with that analogy is you can have so much hay that you don't -- you can never find the needle or you don't know -- you know, i don't know, whether there is a needle there at all. but at the same time, so those voices were there. but the skepticism came from democrats and republicans, chairman pat leahy saying come on, enough's enough, dude. >> there will always be things to connect. government is already collecting data on millions of innocent americans on a daily basis. based on a secret legal interpretation of a statute that does not appear to authorize this kind of collection. so what's going to be next? when is enough, enough? >> bill: senator dick durbin from illinois saying, you know, you want to look into my phone?

here's all of the different -- you know, records, you're going to have to look at. >> that would mean that for my name, my query, you would accumulate two million phone records. two million. for that one inquiry. now, multiply that in the year 2012 by 300 so we're talking about 600 million phone records. >> bill: even republican conservative senator chuck grassley raised questions about the legality of this program. what do you think? 1-866-55-press. i think we're finally going to see some action to rein in this program. questions raised in the senate and in the house and let me make one final point before we go to a break. we would not be having this conversation if it were not for edward snowden. whatever you think about him, he is the one we should thank for making us aware of what the nsa is up to. now, let's take some action to

rein him in. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." (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. ç]

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. 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 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. the new editor-in-chief of the hotline joining us here in studio in the next segment. we're talking now about the big criticism, bipartisan criticism landed on the nsa yesterday. the senate judiciary committee hearing. peter?

comments? >> you can find us at bpshow on twitter at bpshow. rodeo gal on the nsa says great point, bill. snowden sacrificed his own freedom so that we could fight for ours. let's hope it is not an opportunity wasted. you can join in the conversation at bpshow on twitter. >> bill: the nsa is saying, you know, we have saved hundreds and hundreds of lives, all of the possible terrorist attempts that have been thwarted through this phone data collection program. patrick leahy again chairman of the committee said he had looked at a classified list of terrorist events detected through surveillance. he said it did not show dozens or even several terrorist plots had been thwarted by this program. and he went on to say after that that if this program is not effective, it has to end and so far, i am not convinced by what i have seen.

therese is calling from rockwood, tennessee. hi, teresa. >> caller: hi. >> bill: what's your comment? >> caller: first of all, the nsa has gone way overboard. we had rights. the government wasn't there for a reason. when the government gets -- people need to be strong enough to take back -- >> bill: i agree. i think this is an issue on which people on the left and people on the right ought to come together to protect our right of privacy and remember, this senate hearing yesterday sort of reflects what we saw in the house of representatives last week where republicans and democrats, left and right, almost, almost, they came together and almost with enough votes to defund the entire nsa program and john conyers who headed up that effort will be here in studio with us in the next hour of the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill

press show." 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'm given to doing anyway, by 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. i've worn lots of hats, but i've always kept this going. i've been doing politics now for a dozen years. (vo) he's been called the epic politics man. he's michael shure and his arena is the war room. >> these republicans in congress that think the world ends at the atlantic ocean border and pacific ocean border. the bloggers and the people that are sort of compiling the best of the day. i do a lot of looking at those people as well. 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? 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 there is any chance we'll ever hear the president even say the word "carbon tax"? >> with an opened 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) >> cutting throught the clutter of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buzz words. >> family values, speding, liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things

happen. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

(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: connect with the "bill press show" on twitter. follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 33 minutes after the hour on a thursday, august 1. it is the "full court press." we're coming to you live from our nation's capital and our studio on capitol hill here in washington, d.c. hope you're having a good day wherever you happen to be. rainy day here in our nation's capital. we're brought to you today by ullico, incorporated. under president ed smith. proudly serving the union

workplace for more than 85 years now, providing specialty insurance, risk solutions, investment products and services and more to find out all that they provide, the great unions of this country, visit ullico.com. those of you, regulars here on the program know that usually on a monday morning at 6:45 -- i should say 45 minutes after the hour of our first hour, wherever you happen to be, we check in with the hotline and its editor-in-chief, reid wilson. he is moving on to "the washington post" and stepping up as editor-in-chief with the hotline, josh who joins us in studio this morning. josh, good morning. welcome. you've got big shoes to fill. >> very, very big shoes to fill and reid is moving on to "the

washington post." i worked under chuck todd when he was editor-in-chief of the hotline. i would like to say i learned everything about politics and campaigns from chuck when i first started covering campaigns. so it is a big honor to be filling in those footsteps. it is a lot of fun since we're heading into a really -- 2014 is going to be a pretty significant midterm. the senate is in play. the house might be up for grabs. so it is a good time to be really focused on the elections. >> bill: i've talked off been how important the hotline is and what a major role it plays in the conversation of this town and people keeping on top of what's happening at the white house, at the congress and around the country. before i came to washington and when i was in california, as democratic chair of california, i used to get the hotline faxed to me every morning and i really depended on the hotline for knowing what was going on here in the nation's capital.

were you there under the great doug bailey? >> i wasn't directly under doug. i got to know him fairly well and learn about just his amazing legacy. it is remarkable that in 1987 when he started the hotline, no one thought about putting out a product that would collect, interpret, analyze the political developments across the country. now, you see almost every publication is putting out their own type of hotline or tip sheet, politico and all of the networks. doug bailey was a true innovator. >> bill: a real leader. i was at his memorial service the other night where many, many people here in town paid, rightfully so, paid tribute to his leadership. and his vision. let's get down to the news of the day. president obama making the trek up from the white house to capitol hill yesterday. sitting down with house democrats and senate democrats. anything accomplished? >> you know, i think this is mostly in preparation for what's going to be a very heated fall

congressional session when you're going to have some pretty heated battles over the budget and the debt ceiling as we remember. president obama needs a unified democratic party. they're pretty united in the fact they don't want a government shutdown. they don't want to cut anymore spending. but you know, the president's approval ratings have taken a hit. it is fair to say in the last several months, there are some democrats, perhaps from more moderate districts that might be getting nervous and want to know what's going to be taking place and what the administration strategy is going ahead. >> bill: it's important to shore up the base. hand holding there, if you will. at the white house yesterday, there were questions about apparently -- he got a lot of questions on a lot of issues but two in particular. one was keystone pipeline. and the president -- the white house keeps saying he hasn't made a decision on the keystone

pipeline but he's been pretty critical of it lately. >> i think if you read his comments from the interview he conducted with "the new york times" last week, it sounds to me like he's trying to set the stage for not supporting it and the state department rejecting the keystone pipeline. the telling thing out of the "new york times" interview to me, the fact he said the creation of the pipeline doesn't create that many jobs. it is not really that big of an economic boom. when you're saying that and you're almost giving the opposition a talk point to kind of say you might be dismissive of any type of job creation, to me, that suggests he's leaning in the direction of not approving, not supporting it. >> bill: it looks like it. we were cautioned by jay carney yesterday not to necessarily draw that conclusion. but then again in chattanooga, tennessee on tuesday, the president said the same thing. come on, 50 jobs, right? >> which is, again, i would think if he was going to approve it, he wouldn't want to be

giving talking points to the opposite. see, the other thing is that you know, he has this challenge between the labor group, support the pipeline, environmental groups certainly oppose the creation and the connection of the pipeline. so it is a balance within the democratic party. >> bill: even within the democratic party. by the way, we're going to be talking at the top of the next hour with bob dean who is with the natural resources defense counsel. they've been leading the opposition to the keystone pipeline. we'll find out more about it from him. the other thing the president got questions about yesterday, apparently in the house, particularly was hammered over rumors that he might be considering larry summers as the next head of the fed. you know, josh, you and i have been around this town a long time. i never remember hearing or seeing any public campaign for who was going to lead the federal reserve before but now we've got this -- both sides for larry summers and for janet yellen are out there like

running for president. >> everything has become a political-style campaign in washington. the debate with the democratic party over larry summers is about as intense behind the scenes as i've seen in quite some time. and while the more obama seems inclined at some point, in the fall to pick summers, he still is the front-runner, the more really angry opposition both of summers' record dating back to the clinton administration being from the bob rubin wing of the wall street wing of the party to his comments that he made at harvard. saying women really -- they're not as naturally talented to be engineers or scientists. these are things that still really tick off a lot of democrats, a lot of liberals, a lot of progressives and they're not easily forgotten. and lot of those fights from the last decade are still front and center. >> bill: nancy pelosi. basically, unblocked all of the women of the house -- democratic women of the house of

representatives, came out and said it has to be janet yellen. summers, aside from president obama, does not have a great reputation in this town or a lot of friends. >> he has some loyalists but in terms -- there was a popularity contest in the administrations he served, he would not be at the top of the list. he says what he thinks and he pokes a lot of people the wrong way. >> bill: yesterday, probably the biggest event on the hill was a hearing in the senate judiciary committee about nsa. skepticism on the part of both republicans and democrats, i thought was interesting this morning. right after the nsa program was revealed by edward snowden. thanks to glen greenwald of "the guardian," the initial reaction was on the part of the administration and most democrats who spoke about it and republicans, this is a good program. it is important. keep this country safe. here's a headline in "the washington post." skepticism deepens about nsa program.

what's happened? the interim? >> politics has played a big role. if you look at the public polling over the last year, the amount of americans who are skeptical, who are concerned, who have read the coverage of the leaks and of snowden, we're not in the bush era anymore of how the public views national security versus privacy. there is a much greater emphasis these days on privacy. and in both parties. you saw the vote just last week -- >> bill: in the house. >> it divide both parties almost 50/50. one of our reporters, tim alberta wrote a fascinating piece about how a back binge republican congress went up against the white house, the pentagon and the intelligence community and nearly can't get within six votes of passing legislation, that they were vigorously lobbying against. the politics are in the favor or at least trending in the favor of the critics, of the nsa. the big question to watch is what is the administration going

to do? they're going to make it seem like they're doing something to protect american's privacy, that they're not just doing this carte blanche. >> bill: which is why maybe they released three documents from the nsa saying here's some of the things we're doing. we are transparent. we are open. but there's still a lot, lot, lot that they haven't told us. >> i've been hearing that. both republicans and democrats, house intelligence committee chair mike rogers. very, very much supportive of the program. they do realize there is a political risk to be seeming nonresponsive to the concerns of a lot of americans. i think you're going to see in the coming months, something that will be thrown out there to throw a bone to the critics. >> bill: so one of the republicans leading the criticism of the nsa is rand paul. he's been hammered by a fellow republican, chris christie about this. we'll get into that and a whole lot more here with josh.

i'm going to get it right. from hotline, new editor-in-chief. soon to be of the hotline. your questions and your comments welcome at nationaljournal.com and here at 1-866-55-press. >> 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.

(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: get social with bill press. like us at facebook.com/billpressshow. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: the natural resource defense counsel and the keystone pipeline at the top of the next hour here on the "full court

press." this is thursday morning, august 1. josh krasshaar, third time's the charm, from the "national journal" hotline here in studio with us. good to you have here. we're talking the issues of the day here on capitol hill. peter, what's the comment line? >> quick story, you remember edwin edwards from louisiana, former governor. he went away -- >> bill: i do, indeed. >> he went away to federal prison, released not long ago for his role in a bribery and extortion scheme. congratulations to governor edwards. he is 85 years young and his 34-year-old wife just gave birth to a baby boy this morning. >> bill: unbelievable. >> in defiance of god's will, he somehow impregnated this woman and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. >> bill: how long has he been out of prison?

>> not that long. longer than nine months. >> bill: that's what i was going to say. who's the daddy. >> he is the daddy. >> bill: edwin edwards is the one who famously said that he would be re-elected unless he were caught in bed -- i think i have it right, with a dead girl or a live boy. >> that's it. >> he also famously -- the reason he was governor, he ran against david duke and i believe it was -- >> oh, wow. >> the corrupt politician versus the racist. >> corruption wins. >> bill: i covered that campaign. >> oh, man. >> bill: for kabc tv in los angeles. the burcher sticker was vote for the crook. it's important. the crook. that was the edwin edwards bumper sticker. vote for the crook. he won. oh, my god, i'm telling you, that was a great campaign. i wanted to talk to you about --

so, from the nsa, the one who's really raising a lot of questions about this is rand paul. more than anyone. also about -- he raised questions about the fbi's use of drones. for which he has been criticized by chris christie saying that he's undermining the national security of this country and the reputation of the republican party for being tough on national security. so what's really going on here? >> well so this is the bush cheney wing of the party going up against the rising influence of the libertarian. even the ron paul, rond paul, wing of the party. we were talking about the nsa vote. there are a lot of issues over foreign policy that have come out. foreign aid. belief in intervention. and so on. that are dividing the republican party in half or at least in two. christie, he's not in congress but it is fair to say his public comments, he was on a panel last week where he was embracing the bush/cheney view about the

hawkish, aggressive foreign policy of the fact that you know, we need to be involved in the world. and blasted rand paul for his positions on foreign policy. paul comes back and goes after christie and then all of a sudden, it desolves into a bat -- devolves into a battle over earmarks. it got really personal. and these two are likely presidential candidates. these are the two polls of the republican party, the hawks, the bush wing of the party and the rand paul wing of the party. >> bill: and the latest is that chris christie apparently yesterday said do you think it would be worth having a beer summit where the two of you could sit down and resolve your differences and christie said he didn't have time to have a beer with rand paul. he likes this obviously. >> if rand paul was the nominee for the republican party and hillary clinton say was the democratic nominee, you would have a lot of -- the bill

crystal folks, the hawks might actually like clinton. this could be a problem for the g.o.p. if rand paul continues to get momentum. they're counting on christie. a lot of the traditional republican rank and file are counting on christie and other more traditional members to step up to the plate. >> bill: rand paul of course got elected as a tea party nominee -- candidate from kentucky. you have recently written in the "national journal" about the tea party may have peaked. tell us about that. >> part because they've been so successful. there aren't as many targets to go after. the house has moved so far to the right that there aren't many targets left. but also, you look at some of these -- you look at liz cheney, the two republicans challenging sitting senators. liz cheney who i would argue is not really the tea party type. liz cheney is definitely on the spend more money on defense. she's pro gay marriage.

she doesn't fit the activist type. even against mitch mcconnell, we're talking about this big primary from a wealthy businessman. if you look at his biographer, he sounds more like mitt romney than rand paul in kentucky. he's not exactly -- rand paul for what it's worth is supportive of mitch mcconnell. they've built up this alliance. when we saw the sharon engels, the todd aikens, we're not seeing as many of those crop up in the senate races, the house races. even lindsey graham who has become openly supportive of immigration reform, no one is running against him on the right in south carolina. my column argues we may have seen the peak of the tea party but we may not see all of the interesting, very, very conservative candidates crop up. it may be -- we may have seen the high water point in 2012. >> bill: which may be good for the republican party. josh's piece on the tea party is on -- is linked on our facebook page.

facebook.com/billpressshow. josh, out of time but thanks so much for coming in. great to meet you. look forward to talking to you often here on the "full court press." >> thanks a lot, bill. >> bill: all right. new editor-in-chief of the "national journal" hotline. you can find it at nationaljournal.com. i will be back and tell you what president obama's up to today. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." care about them right?

(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.

(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." >> bill: you get is. in the next hour, congressman john conyers from michigan in studio with us as well as bob

dean from the natural resource defense count sig. president obama has a pretty light morning. no word of what he will be talking about behind closed doors with his senior advisers. he and the vice president have their weekly lunch at 12:45. this afternoon, at 2:15, this is very significant. the press is going to sit down with a group of bipartisan members of congress to talk national security issues in the nsa and the fisa court. then he'll hold a bilateral meeting with the president of the republic of yemen. talk about what's going on over there with the drones. at 5:55 today, host a reception for the 50th anniversary of the lawyers committee for civil rights under the law. jay carney's regular press briefing today at 12:30 and i will be there and tell you all about it tomorrow. back on the keystone pipeline.

[ ♪ theme ] >> bill: hello, friends and neighbors. it is thursday, the first day of august. how about it! here we go. summer's over. school starts this month. can you believe it? good lord. but "full court press" rolls on as always. coming to you live from our nation's capital, bringing you up to date on the news of the day, whatever's happening here on this end of pennsylvania avenue, around the congress, we'll tell you all about it. the other end of pennsylvania

avenue, down at the white house, tell you all about that, too. and take your calls, we want to know what you think about events of the day. your calls welcome at 1-866-55-press. your comments welcome on twitter at bpshow. and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. here on capitol hill, yesterday, the big news was two things. number one, the president came up on the hill, met with house democrats and then went over and met with senate democrats. took questions on a lot of issues, got a lot of questions in the house about larry summers. what is the president doing, thinking about appointing this guy who is such a disaster as treasury secretary under bill clinton, such a disaster as president of harvard. how could the president even be thinking about appointing him as the next head of the fed and over in the senate, the president getting a lot of comments and questions about what he plans -- what he intends to do about the keystone

pipeline and that's where we start off this third hour together this morning on the "full court press." all of that coming up on current tv. 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 there is any chance we'll ever hear the president even say the word "carbon tax"? >> with an opened 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) >> cutting throught the clutter of today's top stories. >> this is the savior of the republican party? i mean really? >> ... with a unique perspective. >> teddy rosevelt was a weak asmatic kid who never played sports until he was a grown up. >> (laughter) >> ... and lots of fancy buzz words. >> family values, speding, liberty, economic freedom, hard-working moms, crushing debt, cute little puppies. if wayne lapierre can make up stuff that sounds logical while making no sense... hey, so can i. once again friends, this is live tv and sometimes these things

happen. >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: yes. bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms has its first director. todd jones. first director since 2006. confirmed yesterday by the united states senate. hey, good morning, everybody. what do you say? it is thursday, august 1. so good to see you today. welcome. welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv and here on your local progressive

talk radio station. coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours from our studio here on capitol hill in washington, d.c. two-way street here. we'll tell you what's going on but we want to hear from you, what you think about it all. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. send us your comments on twitter and join us on twitter at bpshow and of course, become our friend on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. president obama on the hill yesterday meeting with senate democrats and house democrats, taking questions on a whole lot of issues and getting a lot of questions about the keystone pipeline from supporters and from those who think it is a bad idea. bob deans is associate director of communications at the great natural resources defense council and is in studio with us this morning to talk about it. hey, bob, nice to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: it has been leading the charge against the pipeline

for a long time and we want to find out more about all of -- what this project really is and jobs and impact on climate change. glad that you're here. joining our team, peter ogborn and dan henning. >> hey, hey, hey. >> good morning. >> bill: alrefresh shouldn't cruz has the -- alichia cruz has the phones. >> a representative from the airport in moscow where edward snowden has been staying has reported and confirmed that he has left the airport. he had the papers he needed. he has finally left the airport there. we don't know where exactly he's gone. he's been there for more than a month and he is a man about moscow at this point. >> bill: well, i'm just glad he will be able to eat something other than cinnabons. >> and sbarro. >> bill: that's right. >> boiled pizza and cinnamon rolls.

>> bill: all right. we've got some important news for you which is a lot of comments, a lot of questions, a lot of e-mails and phone calls about where are you going to be when current tv goes away. all right? we're going to tell you right now. first of all, remember, we are a radio show. we are on your local, progressive talk radio station and god love them. we're so proud to be part of their morning line-up. that will continue in season, out of season, nothing changes. number one place to find us is your local progressive talk radio station. on the tv side, current tv ends on august 15th. so we've got two more weeks. then that's done. there will be a two-week hiatus and starting september 3rd, we're moving to a new home and what's really exciting is you'll be able to watch us two ways on your tv set or on your computer.

on the tv set, if you've got dish -- satellite dish, we will be on two channels. dish network, channel 9415 and directv, channel 348. you've got two choices on your satellite dish or you can watch us online at freespeech.org. very, very important. so you can watch us online. watch us on your satellite dish. and we're very happy and very excited to be joining free speech tv. a lot of our good friends, amy goodman, thom hartmann have been on free speech for years. it is an all-time 24/7 progressive tv network. you will love it. they've got a lot of good stuff on there. check them out on freespeech.org. >> they have a great web site there. like you mentioned, progressive issues, progressive

documentaries. they have a lot of great stuff up there. >> bill: if you've got satellite dish, we'll be there on tv for you at dish network channel 9415 or directv, channel 348. write it down. we'll remind you about it. if you don't have a satellite dish, you can watch us online at freespeech.org and screen the entire show. we'll be back and talk keystone pipeline but first -- >> this is the "full court press." >> quick check of the headlines making news on this thursday. congressman earl blumen our of oregon had trouble getting intoo the capitol because a new capitol police officer did not recognize the democrat who is a regular guest of ours here but he got in easily because he was walking in with the president of the united states. according to "the hill" newspaper, blumenauer and obama were talking and walking into the capitol at the same time so the president vouched for the congressman at the security checkpoint and got him through. >> bill: i wonder if earl had

his bike out there. remember when he came into our studio the last time -- >> back to the future t-shirt. >> former president bill clinton has been a vegan for three years. he sat down for an interview with aarp magazine. he said he's in the best shape of his life and says it wasn't the meat and fish that was the hardest to give up. it was actually the yogurt and the cheese. clinton says veganism is not for everyone but if we all ate a little healthier, the nation's healthcare system wouldn't be so crippled. >> bill: i'm glad he's a vegan so i don't have to become one. >> i agree with that. >> someone has to do it. >> in hollywood, simon cowell is become being a father. "us weekly" reporting the x factor judge is expecting a baby with the wife of one of his best friends. her name is lauren silverman, a socialite in new york city. she's allegedly ten weeks along. still technically married to

that friend though they are divorcing. >> bill: wait a minute, simon and the friend are divorcing, too. >> who gets simon in the divorce? >> bill: the former friend we should start calling him. so bob dean said keystone pipeline is very much in the news. certainly in the conversation these days. president seems to talk about it everywhere he goes. but this -- the subject came up at our white house briefing yesterday and jay carney said it's still at the state department, still being decided. so what do you hear from the state department number one and what is their deadline? do we know? >> certainly, the state department has the first call on this bill. they are reviewing because this pipeline would cross international border in canada. it is the state department's first call as to whether this is in our national interest. so they'll look at a range of issues on that. >> bill: they haven't been doing it for a couple of years. >> they've been look at it. >> bill: they make a recommendation to the president,

correct? >> that's right. they'll make a recommendation. likely this fall. there is no statutory deadline on this. they're now processing some one million public comments and preparation for a final environmental impact statement that they'll put out. that will be one piece of the decision making. they also look, of course, at our relationship with canada, at the economic impact, of course, the environmental impact as well. >> bill: now, president obama, jay carney keeps telling us, have not made up their mind on this. waiter for the state department to complete its review. twice in the last week, once last friday in an interview with "the new york times" and then tuesday at a speech in chattanooga, tennessee. the president has talked about the pipeline. here he is in chattanooga. >> obama: they keep on talking about this -- an oil pipeline coming down from canada. they've estimated to create about 50 permanent jobs. that's not a jobs plan.

>> bill: 50 jobs in a workforce of 150 million americans. what's it sound like to you? >> the president is the only elected official we have who represents all of the american people. in this case, he's being asked to make a judgment. is there in the best interest of all of the american people, not just the big oil companies, not just the pipe fitters, all of the american people. that's the judgment he's asking. and in these interviews, what he's doing is he's clearly expressing reservations. this started, remember, bill, as georgetown speech about a month ago on climate change when the president laid out a marker and said if this pipeline significantly exacerbates the carbon pollution swarming our planet, it is a no go. he just said very clearly, i'm not going to green light a project that's going to mean a lot more carbon pollution and climate chaos. we think the pipeline fails that test. >> bill: so if he hasn't made up his mind, he certainly has

heard the arguments against the pipeline. and doesn't dismiss them certainly out of hand, right? >> absolutely not. the industry is out here saying this means all kinds of jobs. the fact of the matter is the state department found in its assessment, based on information coming from the pipeline company itself, that we're talking about between 35 and 250 permanent jobs -- 35 and 50 permanent jobs, some of which would be in canada. >> bill: so this entire pipeline, how many miles is it? >> several. it goes from alberta all the way to texas. >> bill: thousands of miles. and once it's built, there will only be 35 to 50 jobs in terms of maintenance? >> that's right. making sure the pumping stations are working. it is pipe. it doesn't need a big staff. >> bill: some of the jobs would be in canada. >> that's right. that's what the company has said itself. some of these would be based in

transcanada, in canada itself. so they're not even all in this country. but again, 35 jobs in exchange for taking some of the dirtiest oil on the planet, piping it through the breadbasket of america so it can be shipped overseas out of the gulf of mexico, it is not a jobs plan or an interview plan, it is big profits for big oil. >> bill: what about the carbon impact? >> carbon impact is horrendous. the state department and environmental agency looked at this. they said this is 81% more carbon intensive than the same amount of conventional crude oil. we're not even looking at the entire footprint. we're looking at the difference between tar sands oil and conventional crude ail. 81% more carbon intensive. over the life of this project, that would put more carbon pollution in our atmosphere than every car in america in an entire year. in other words, we could park every car in this country for an entire year. who wants to do that?

that would offset the carbon increase from this project. terrible idea. it has to be denied. >> bill: 1-866-55-press is our toll free number. you want to join the conversation. we're getting close to a decision point here on the keystone pipeline and a lot is riding on it. i would have to say, bob, i don't know how the president politically could -- i want to see if you agree with this. i don't see how the president politically could approve the pipeline now after what he said about it. >> well, he's clearly expressed reservations, bill. we don't know where his mind is but he's got to make a judgment on behalf of all of us. when you look at this and you look at it and understand that this is one of the dirtiest, most destructive industries anywhere in the world, why would we do that when we can continue to invest in efficiency so we reduce waste, save money, make our economy more efficient and invest in wind, solar and other

renewable fuels which are making headway in this country. >> bill: i was talking to somebody about the pipeline who said that -- because i've been wondering. if the tar sands are in alberta and that's where they're going to pump them out, then why the hell do they have to take it down to texas to refine it and then send it overseas which is, as you point out, that's what we're going to do with it. they said well, because there's some dispute inside of canada about territorial -- getting it from -- that's why they decided to come across the united states. is there anything to that? >> there is. the canadians do not want a pipeline cutting across their wilderness lands, their salmon runs, their tribe bal lands, their water ways. >> bill: they would rather come across the united states instead. >> that's right. >> we don't want it anymore than they do. >> bill: they could do this, not that it would still be a good project.

this could all be done in canada, shipped from canada, nothing to do with the united states, right? >> if you look at a map, that's the most sensible thing. the canadians do not want it crossing their territory. this pipeline, bill, would cross 1400 american waterways from the missouri river to big pine bayou. it crosses across our ranches and farms. a quarter of a million ranches and farms in just the five great plains states this pipeline would transverse. that's where the real jobs are. >> bill: how long to build? >> about two years. >> bill: so we would destroy all of that great territory for getting maybe, maybe 2,000 construction jobs, a lot of them in canada again for a two-year period of time and then 35 jobs maybe and some of those in canada, too. from then on. i think -- i find that harder and harder to make a case for the keystone pipeline. bob deans with the natural

resources defense council here in studio with us. you know our telephone number. 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: connect with the "bill press show." on twitter, follow us at bpshow and tweet using the hashtag watching bp. this is the "bill press show." (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.

(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. >> bill: congressman john conyers joining us in the next hour of the "full court press." we're talking keystone pipeline with bob deans from the n rx dc. >> you can find us on twitter at bp show where mickey power

comments about the pipeline, why the f don't they just build the refinery in canada? why pump it all the way down to texas? >> bill: i think bob just answered that question. >> look at the map. it makes a lot of sense. >> bill: they don't want to muck up texas or i mean canada. they would rather muck up the united states. katherine is calling from chicago. hi, katherine. >> caller: hi, i'm call, i'm wondering what it is the average citizen can be doing to stop this pipeline from being built. it seems like everything is in the hands of the politicians and it seems like overwhelmingly, it shouldn't be built at all. what can we be doing as average citizens. >> bill: excellent question. take your answer on the air, bob, what can people do? >> make sure the president hears from you and that your elected leaders hear from you about this matters, this is important. the reason is they're going to hear from the oil industry. there are about 800 lobbyists in washington alone who get up every single day and do what they can to go to bat for the

shareholders of the oil companies. the president and congress will hear from those people. they need to hear from the host of us about what's good for the rest of the country. >> bill: 800 oil industry lobbyists here. good lord. >> these aren't blue suede shoe guys. about 2/3 have already worked in the government before either on capitol hill or in the administration. these are the best of the best. they're good. they advocate for the shareholders. >> bill: let your member be of congress know, let the white house know. the president's got to hear from this as well. no matter what the state department says, the president has the ultimate decision and congress will have a lot to say about it, too. bob, i want to ask you, there have been reports that, in this very area, in alberta, there is a leak up there with this oil. >> it is an oil spill that's been going on for more than ten weeks and they can't stop it. the industry has no idea how to stop it. they've said that. there were some --

>> bill: this is the very area we're talking about. these are tar sands. this is like a cross between tar and coal. it gets hard as a hockey puck when it's cold. so the industry will drill a deep hole, pump a bunch of steam under pressure heated up by burning natural gas. they press this warm stuff down into the ground to get it loose enough to start moving around and bring it up to the surface but if you've got something a half-mile away, it will find its way out the best way it can. it's seeping out. it has contaminated a lake, it is killing wildlife. it has been going on for ten weeks. they have no idea how to stop it. >> bill: that's a good sign we should not even be dealing with this stuff at all! the keystone pipeline. if you want to find out more about it, go to dnrdc.org. thank you so much, bob deans. what are we going to do about the nsa and about single payer

healthcare? we'll ask john conyers next. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." 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. 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 gets, "this guys to best of his abilities is trying to look out for us." only on current tv!

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: it is 33 minutes after the hour now here on the "full court press" this thursday morning, august 1. we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. our studio on capitol hill. we're brought to you today by afscme. you know, the good men and women of afscme under president lee saunders. the largest public employee and healthcare worker's union in the entire country. find out more about their good work, making america happen at afscme.org. that's afscme.org. you know, we stay right in the middle on this program here.

we don't show our bias one way or the other. we're -- right down the middle and so in the spirit of being right down the middle, let me say introducing our next guest that i believe there are 435 members of congress. if we sent 334 of them home and just had john conyers there and let him make the ultimate decision on everything, every issue that came before the congress, we would be better off as americans. that's how much i agree with congressman john conyers. it is great to see you, congressman. >> top of the morning to you. and that's exactly -- >> bill: why aren't you in charge of everything? >> that's what i try to do. and to me, the wonderful thing about this job, i think got every day -- i thank god every day that i'm able to work on the kinds of issues that i want to work on.

everybody doesn't exactly love their job. people ask me, are you thinking about running again? i said of course, that's my job. to be here, trying to be a good influence on the huge decisions that keep piling up and there's no shortage of them, is there? >> bill: congressman, you love your job be and i love my job. >> wow, that's great. >> bill: let's keep at it. so much i want to ask about. let's start with yesterday, very important -- this is an issue you've been working on. we've talked about before. expanding medicare to the point where we get close to single payer in this country. it is an uphill battle. any light at the end of the tunnel? >> there is increasing understanding with obamacare

being in the spotlight that we really have to simplify how we bring universal healthcare to everybody. we talk about it. but in the end, unfortunately, with medicare and medicaid being distinguished and then there's a little social security piece in there. it can bankrupt and impoverish many families and illness. almost everybody in government says we don't want that to happen. so we're slowly, as we understand how this can be simplified and in the end, what we want to do is the trite saying goes, everybody in, nobody out. we include everybody, that it's

a human right to get the kind of healthcare that one needs. we don't mean cosmetic surgery or anything like that. we mean the basic healthcare should not turn on whether you can afford it or not. or be forced into an emergency room where it is three to five times more than the real costs should be. >> bill: you can reintroduce your legislation, i forget the number of it. >> 676. h.r. 676. >> bill: h.r. 676. is one of the ways to add a public plan option, adding that to obamacare? >> well, it could be. we can approach this thing -- it's like peeling an onion. look, you start off and move forward wherever you can. we're slowly picking up cosponsors but to your original

question, more and more people are look at healthcare and saying why don't we just cover everybody and stop making all of these kinds of definitions and separating everything out. >> bill: which is the beauty in the simplicity of your approach. let's take medicare, which works, which people like, which does provide good coverage, which is cost-effective and just make it accessible and available to every american. we don't have to be 65 to qualify, right? >> more and more people are coming around to that. and i am very grateful and i'm very confident. you know how this business of legislating is. you never can plan when you're going to get a nice start upward. but all of the furor around the

healthcare act, obamacare, as i call it, too, i mean the president to have -- as i call it, which includes millions of more people that would have been cut out, dependency up to age 26. no more claims of pre-existing condition by the insurance company. all of these are important steps forward. and so this is the way we play it and so we're moving ahead. >> bill: you want to take the next step. the headline this morning, congressman, in "the washington post" switching topics here or moving to another important topic, skepticism deepens about nsa program. this headline is about yesterday's hearing in the senate judiciary committee where democrats and republicans

expressed -- had a lot of questions to the nsa and this builds on the vote last week in the house which you led with your colleague from michigan, justin amash, republican, what concerns do you have about this nsa program? >> well, first of all, most of us didn't even know that this was going on. and what we've found now is everybody's phone numbers are being kept whether you're not involved, not anything, it is incredible that we're trading our liberty and turning into a security state without even so much as a discussion about it.

and like -- we came within 12 votes. we would have won the whole thrust of our amendment was to create more transparency and collect the national security and c.i.a. and fbi collecting these records. and all we want to do is make the one word relevant. become applicable. shouldn't be any question about it because the patriot act, out of which this section 215 comes, was about keeping documents relevant activity and not

everybody -- you don't put everybody in the country into the data collection, a meta database that's out of this world and then say well, we'll wait in case something happens then we'll go pick up -- >> bill: keyword "relevant." so the nsa said yesterday, congressman, that the reason they have to do that is because they need to build the haystack so that they can find the needle in the haystack. >> isn't that ludicrous? i mean the whole idea insults our intelligence and disappoints us and lowers our confidence in what the national security administrations and the intelligence agencies and the law enforcement agencies are doing. this is the wrong way. we don't need to create the

haystack to drop in the needle then try to find it. you can get all of this -- they already can get all of this pretty easily anyway. but to take names of everybody who was called, how long the conversation went, is really purples. and it probably slows them down because it has nothing to do with on-going investigations of terrorism. >> bill: too much hay, we might say. congressman john conyers, ranking member of the house judiciary committee. he'll be back as chairman again. we'll be back and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. on the "full court press" this thursday morning.

(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. (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. >> bill: congressman john conyers, ranking member of the house judiciary committee, representing the 13th district of the good state of michigan but really fighting the good fight on behalf of all americans. congressman, honored to have you here this morning. peter, quick comments? >> we're on twitter at bpshow. fred wilder says the new nsa motto should be what goes into a

black hole stays in a black hole. and irish boy offering up maybe we should refer to the nsa as the national snooping agency. find us there at bpshow. >> bill: congressman, president obama is meeting with a group of bipartisan legislators this afternoon at the white house to talk about this very issue that we're talking about. this balance. he says we need to conversation about the balance between national security and privacy. are you invited? >> i am going to be there and i plan to talk with him about exactly what we're talking about is that either we include and use relevancy in the section 215 of the patriot act or we take it -- or we take 215 out altogether and begin to bear

down, hone in on these folks in the snooping business that are overstepping their bounds. and this is -- i want protection. i want good intelligence. and i want good law enforcement. but not at the course of giving up the liberty and democracy that won't turn us into a state where there's no limit to what the government can do. we're getting into a big brother mode and that's what the 204 people that voted with me on my amendment and amash's, is all about. more transparency, more honesty.

remember, this came from a person in their ranks that stole information. we wouldn't have known about this. i'm not giving them credit but if we don't tighten up our act, then we may overreact in the legislature and take out section 215 altogether. >> bill: what do you say to people, the counter argument is -- i've heard the president make this argument. that everything we do is approved by the courts. we don't do it on our own. court says yeah, this is okay. the fisa court. >> well, the fisa court, as you know, is composed of all republican appointees that were picked by the chief justice of the supreme court. i don't think it's balance --

it's a secret court to begin with. so we can't -- you can't walk in and say i want to check the fisa court records. >> bill: or i want to oppose this particular thing. >> or i object. they say please. the door. so look, here's what we're -- how can we be reasonable? now, president obama inherited this program. but that doesn't clear him. he inherited everything. so he's got to step up to this and this is an important meeting this afternoon. in which we determined whether he's seen the light and is going to be marching with the majority of people in the congress or whether we're going to have to -- what he does here and how

we get him to make a turnaround on the drone activities, i lament the fact that we're spreading that military capability and guess what? we make ourselves more vulnerable. we don't really protect ourselves just because we were the first to develop it. >> bill: just about a minute left. can i ask you one final question, any hope for detroit? >> well, there is going to be hope because look, after you go hit the bottom, you start moving up again. the one thing i'm concerned about is that the pensions of all of these detroit retirees whose average pension is $19,000 a year which doesn't get you

very far, is protected. and fortunately, in the constitution of michigan, pension protection is written in there quite plainly. and the rerepublican of the state bill shooty said those pensions cannot be affected. this is a fallout of the wild speculation and wall street, a gambling that has gone on and now they're asking all of us to pay the price. i don't think retirees -- in any place, there are other municipalities that aren't in such great shape. we want to protect those pensions and then start re-organizing. we have an emergency manager and he's a bankruptcy lawyerer.

if you're not paranoid, then you won't feel badly about that. but i was worried about that from the beginning. and what did he do during negotiations? he turned around and put the city in bankruptcy. >> bill: it is a great city. we hope that together, through the federal government and state government, we can bring detroit back. >> we're going to bounce back. >> bill: good. so great to see you. great to have you where you are. you love your job. you continue to fight in the congress. i love my job. we'll continue to fight on the airwaves. we'll get something done. >> the "full court press" goes on. >> bill: congressman john conyers. we'll be right back with a quick parting shot.

(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. (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: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, folks, just time for a very quick parting shot and that is to echo some of the comments that the president heard yesterday. do me a fave. go back and take a look at larry summers' record when he was treasury secretary, when he was president of harvard. you will join me and join many democrats on capitol hill who have said the last thing the president should do would be even to consider appointing larry summers as the next head of the fed. that would be a colossal mistake. and with that, i encourage you to go out and make the most of this thursday. rest up and relax and come back because we'll have another big day here on the "full court press" tomorrow morning and we'll see you then.

[♪ theme music ] >> stephanie: hello, current tvland. hour number 1. what is that you say, jacki schechner? are cat people weird? yes, they are, that is a picture of jacki schechner's cat in a sink. >> cats love sinks. >> i know, and i thought i would send you an emmy in the sink picture to start your august. >> stephanie: thank you very mu