dylan ratigan is here. he was in a bunker in burbank, and now he's in boston. good afternoon, dylan. >> but still in a bunker and still a bunker of the famous and some maybe infamous. >> who has been in the boston bunker? who's been in the boston bunker in. >> first, take a look. look at this beautiful bunker, okay? i've got a little table here. can i pick this whole thing right up. like a card table. >> looks like it's dressed in velvet, in a beautiful dark velvet for you, dylan. >> it is, it's a card table wrapped in velvet which is a good way to create the illusion of grandiosity and consequence when really you're talking to people from a car table, but we're off topic. paul revere ran through this room. >> he ran through it? >> literally heading west. >> wow. >> i don't know if you realize it, we are in the hallowed ground or at the very least you can't prove he didn't.

>> that's very true, i cannot, but listen, i know you've got exciting things on your show so stop wasting time and let's get going. >> let's have it. the show starts right now. >> good wednesday afternoon to you from boston, massachusetts. i am dylan ratigan. lovely to be seeing you. today's big story is house of pain. while attorney general eric holder is asleep at the department of justice on the foreclosure crisis, several state attorneys general are stepping up to the plate on behalf of the american people and in nevada they have filed criminal charges and is now teaming with california to go even further. back east, new york currently in the middle of its own probe. a little further south towards d.c., beau biden in the corporate state of delaware,

suing mers, the private national mortgage registry that's owned and funded by the banks and right here in the bay state today where a new leader in this battle has emerged. massachusetts attorney general martha coakley is suing the five largest, as we like to call them affectionately, greedy bastard lenders, as well as the mers folks alleging fraud, this perhaps the most comprehensive piece yet, bank of america, jpmorgan chase, wells fargo citigroup and gmac, all targets of the coakley suit, the first civil action on robo signing. coakley also accuses these banks of forging documents and basically stealing homes by virtue of their inability to legally prove the right to foreclose by virtue of the documents that indicate their ownership. it has actually become impossible in the current system to answer that question, and in retaliation, and this is where it gets fun, gmac and parent company allied financial, get

this, have pulled the majority of their lending out of massachusetts in response to the attorney general's actions, and, remember, your money and mine, 74% of it, of that company, is owned by the american taxpayer thanks to a $17 billion bailout of that company in '0 will 8, so our money is being used to fund a business that is now trying to deprive the people of massachusetts of mortgage support because they don't want to be investigated. talk about a screwed-up situation. coakley now calling for congressional hearings and attorney general martha coakley is our first guest today. if you were to walk us through in brief, the intent of your suit, what do we have to understand about what it is you are trying to achieve in. >> well, we have two clear goals here. first, we do want accountability on the part of the banks. now we haven't had it yet, even though over a year ago, dylan, they admitted they were involved in robo signing. the second thing we want is real

relief for homeowners. we know there are a lot of people for whom a refinance, a loan modification would make a big difference and stay in the home and frankly protect the cities and towns and the economy, so our suit alleges all of those things you just talked about, and i think it's particularly ironic for ally given that they are taxpayer run, they reached agreements when they were bailed out under t.a.r.p., and all we're saying is they really should be following the law here in massachusetts. >> there is an interesting dynamic at work that factors into both money and politics and the political apparatus and the financial situation which is we are all dependant americans on a functioning financial system that can extend and lend credit to small businesses, to individuals and to the states themselves. at the same time there's an abundance of evidence that there's fraud and all sorts of basis for investigation into that system. how is it that we can have the

proper investigation when the financial companies basically wield this power of extortion, not just in a state like massachusetts, but as they did with the federal government back in 2008. >> it certainly begs that question. we at the state level in massachusetts have always been firm consumer advocates. what's more important to a consumer or homeowner that asset that they buy? all we're saying is there should be a level playing field when a mortgage is made, when they are serviced and there seems to be, there seems to have been a widespread just ignorance of that, and the same kinds of things we saw in predatory lending, and then in the securitization of those loans, no documentation, no document, cutting corners, and just ignoring the rules are the same things that we allege in our lawsuit about the ways in which these large banks have been foreclosing illegally, needlessly on people, not just

to the detriment of those consumers, but i would argue to our cities and towns, to the abandoned properties they leave behind and frankly the whole economy. >> i mean, the entire municipal tax base, the teachers, the cops, the judges that depend on the stability of that tax base which is driven by obviously the integrity of our housing market and the intellingtive our labor manchlgts i'm interested in your thoughts on eric holder and do you believe that your actions, the actions of beau biden in delaware, the actions of katherine cortez mastow out in nevada and california getting involved, as you start to really bring the temperature higher, do you get the sense that we'll see a change in posture at the federal level? >> we certainly hoped at the beginning of this with a federal/state approach to getting a resolution on this, particularly with the banks that acknowledged wrongdoing around robo signing that we would get relief and get it quickly.

since this has taken so long and we haven't even gotten an agreement or an agreement that works for massachusetts, and i know my colleagues have expressed some concerns, we hope that it will draw attention to the fact of what we really do need here. what is the accountability of the banks? what is the relief that will make a difference. obviously the federal government has clout and resources that would help us get there. we haven't totally given up that we'll get a resolution, but our belief now is either through court action which we have pursued or if the banks come to the table for appropriate relief, through resolution that way, we are going to proceed and i know many of my colleagues want to get real account blt and real relief for people in massachusetts and indeed the country. >> and how do you define real accountability, and how do you make the decision between a path like the one that we're seeing in nevada which is criminal indictments, potential for jail time for those who are offenders and a civil path where it could become a significant economic

penalty and other potential restructuring? how do you make that decision? >> of course, they are not mutually exclusive either. we've begun because we want to get the facts and extent of damage on wrongful foreclosures, because our first goal right now is to keep people in their homes who should be there, who can be there. every day that we delay on this, of course, people are being foreclosed upon, an they don't need to be. in the course of that investigation, and i know that katherine consider tes mas at the au is a state where 50% of our properties are underwater, is also looking at individual culpability. we don't rule that out but we're focused on trying to get a resolution that will help people stay in their homes and frankly help to start to turn this economy around. >> and if you were to look at your perspective on the housing market's dysfunction in massachusetts over the past few years, how damaging has that been, and is therein a i settlement to how damaging that has been to both the tax base for the municipalities and the

overall mobility of the community here in massachusetts in order to adapt and pursue the economic prosperity and problem solving that we're all anxious to get after? >> well, let me give you an example, for instance, someone who has 147,000 condo who -- who loses a job, can't make the payments. he can afford that, if the bank were to look at an $80,000 or $90,000 reduction in principal, but they won't do that. they will do a short sale, they will foreclose and then they sell that condo for $40,000. that makes no sense to anybody, but this rush to foreclose completely ignores, not just consumers but interests, again, of our cities and towns and community, and it seems to me that as we work with the banks to get them to come to the table, we can work on a solution that will provide for loan modifications, principal reductions, that would make economic sense all around, and this is why it's perplexing. it's frankly why we've gone to file suit because we need to get a resolution to this.

>> attorney general coakley, days like this for people like me and so many others in this country are inspiring because it -- it indicates that those with the authority to investigate, which really i think all people have been asking for the past few years, are not only investigating but are acting, and -- and on behalf of those who are with me on this issue and those who are concerned by this issue, thank you for your efforts. we look forward to seeing a pathway to justice led by attorneys general like yourself. thank you. >> we'll continue to be aggressive on this. thank you, dylan. >> thank you. martha coakley. coming up here on "the d.r. show," the 2012 elections, i mean, the 2012 auction, 94% of the time anyway, and the politics of television. we'll tell you what your favorite shows reveal about your party preferences.

plus a holiday shopping guide. get money out style. don't worry. you can still hit the mall, although it does matter where you go. and later, the darker side of the arab spring as we come up on a one-year anniversary, approaching a year. an egyptian journalist who helped see this when it started, shares with us her ordeal at the hands of her own people. do stay with us. [ male announcer ] take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. apply fixodent once, and it holds all day. ♪ take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. guaranteed, or your money back. ♪

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forget donald trump. he's history, rolled and forget him smothered in a yesterday sauce. the gop, the gop wants a serious debate. they deserve it. bar none, they are the best party in the world that includes space. that is why as of this moment i am officially announcing my own republican debate. stephen colbert's south carolina serious, classy republican debate. >> stephen colbert laughering off donald trump last night, but if you're still scratching your head about why the donald has any relevance in politics, well remember it's not an election, it's an auction. you are thinking that there's a presidential election next year. it's easy to get confused as to why donald trump is relevant when you realize that it is an auction, a fund-raising auction.

donald trump suddenly becomes the keeper of the ultimate political currency, billions of dollars and the ability to influence others. why else do you think republican candidates simply can't get enough of man? let's bring in our wednesday mega panel, imogen, jonathan and rob, and i find, rob, the most confusing things in our political culture make a tremendous amount of sense when you change the prism of that from that of an election to that of an auction. >> that's if you believe trump is actually going to bring you any money. there's a reason that people aren't going on his show, and one of it -- i think romney has said no and i think part of it is because they are not sure that there's going to be anything for their fund-raising brand. >> yeah. if you are to look at jonathan, setting aside the auction election issues, is -- is this really anything more than donald trump playing the same game as sarah palin or for that matter the same game as any other presidential theoretical

individual who has no chance whatsoever but who is looking to exploit the attention. >> well, look, donald trump is looking exploit the attention. he's been exploiting the attention since when was that, march or april, and i put him in a different category than sarah palin who, you know, toyed with the republican primary electorate knowing full way she wasn't going to run for president. i do believe that donald trump thought maybe he would run for president at some point but he's doing -- he's moderating this debate, if you want to call it that, with news max which is a conservative news organization, and it's been done by a network that i haven't heard of and don't know where it is on the dial and it's being done on december 27th. who is going to be watching it to see who is going to be their party's nominee for president and who is watching it to see how much of a train wreck it's

going to be? >> last word to you on this one, imogen. >> oh, you've got to loved donald trump. christmas has come early for us political pundits. it's given us a hook to talk about these endless debates with. donald trump is delusional. look at his hair. it's pretty obvious he's sort of on another planet and i'm finding it quite heartening. just for iowa. could be an important debate, but the second place and third place in the iowa polls at the moment, romney and ron paul have both refused to go. let's face it. it's on another planet. it really is. we can laugh at it just for conversation. >> but it does give us an opportunity to expose the absurd nature of our current political system and as we better understand that collectively it gives us that much more inspiration to engage it, if we can't do it at a federal level on a municipal level and that's exactly what the city of los angeles did this week and in an inspiring move. a quick update to a story that we brought you on monday. we are happy to report that the city of los angeles has passed a

resolution unanimously, i might add, saying that, well, money has to get out of politics. the resolution declares that corporations are not people and passing the res lieutenant governor, the city council president eric garcetti said the flood of money since citizens united is we we hearou loud a clear. yetto have another partner in this expanding circle in this country, our petition and now well in excess of a quarter million signatures. you can learn more and join the cause at getmoneyout.com, and queues kudos to the city of los angeles for observing the obvious. moving on now, it turns out all of us apparently reveal more about our political beliefs than we realize by what we choose to watch on television. a new survey is out showing that we may be programmed by our politics. conservatives tend to like "the bachel bachelor," hawaii five-0" and "the tonight show along with

"the biggest loser," liberals turned into "the daily show," "30 rock," "parks and recreation" and "glee." raise your hand if you feel that you are the best qualified to analyze that data because i have no idea? neither do you guys, what kind of mega panel is this. go ahead, jonathan. >> i watch "parks and recreation," "30 rock" and from time to time jon stewart so i guess that kind of makes me a liberal, surprise, surprise. i don't remember what was -- no, no. >> i don't remember what was on the republican or whatever that one was. >> "the biggest loser," "hawaii five-0," but what makes you more of a liberal is more your liberal views? >> well, yeah. >> i was actually worried -- they didn't include my demographic which would be the sort of "fantasy island," "love boat" libertarian. i like to watch the reruns. it reminds me of the saturday nights when i was a kid.

what does it say about me? i think it is sort of right in between and actually the kind of politics that i grew up with, and i don't see it anymore. >> imogen, tell us what you watch and we'll see where you fit in. >> i was very, very heartened because actually i'm here and i can't vote and here as an independent commentator and i like some things on the republican side and the conservative side, lop "top gear" apparently and adore that show, it's brilliant but have a lot of fun watching "the daily show." okay, this is fine. taking my box to somebody who cannot vote and cannot commentate independently. >> rob and i are going to convene a meeting because my favorite show is "gold rush" on the discovery channel and river monsters. that goonch one when he's in india. we'll have to figure out where we fit. in the mega panel stays. coming up on a bit more serious note, holiday shopping, draegtan show style. you know there's a catch.

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well, we're become here at the velvet card table in boston, and the holidays are almost upon us. we're jumping on the bandwagon to bring you a holiday shopping guide. of course, had one happens to have a "d.r. show" twist because all we want for christmas is to get money out of politics. you see, all that cash we're shelling out at the mall this holiday season frequently ends up funding secret corporate political spending in 2012. retailers, along with credit card companies and others, think walmart, have been upping their political giving and moving that i transparency, doing it more

secretly and dastardly thanks to citizens united. the founder of the coalition for accountability joins us and public spending and he couldn't like these das dardly acts. he's here to debut the group's 2011 holiday shopping guide, name names when it comes to corporate political spending, and this is pretty much what the doctor order, bill. first off, before we get into the names themselves, what does one have to do to either end up on your sort of the goodly, the transparent list and the bad list? what are the criteria? >> dylan, it's really about disclosing political spending and even better restraining political spending. citizens united as you've so rightly pointed out over the last few months is profoundly negative for the future of this democracy, but that doesn't mean dorprations have to follow down the path. they can self-restrain and create their own ruse and internal processes to make sure that they are not doing even more political spending and, of course, disclose it and they put together this guide because we

want consumers, shareholders, citizens to know the difference between companies that are disclosing and those that aren't, and you know what? we can do something about it. >> so i want to -- let's get to the names and i'm going to bring the mega panel in. basically if i want to go christmas shopping for the staff here at "the d.r. show," and i want -- i want to do that, they are an incredible group of people, they deserve a gift, it looks like microsoft is a great place to go for them, victoria's secret, though that could be -- that's probably not best for the professional world, ibm and everybody can get like a laptop or something, i think i'll get the whole staff toothpaste from co colgate/palmolive. bad guys, mastercard, amazon, come on. that's pretty much every transaction right there. walmart, probably half the transactions in mesh. cvs, costco, lowe's, walgreens, sprint, nextel.

walt disney, that's unfortunate, nike, great american brands and fruit of the loom, do you define the bad guys, do you categorize them? >> dial answer, you can actually see the scores at our website, politicalspending.org and when we put together the coalition for accountability and political spending, we said we need to do something about citizens united at the state level. when you go on the website mastercard gets a zero, literally the lowest conceivable score and u.s. bank corp get a good score for transparency. can you get a product like xbox because microsoft has been good about disclosure. you can feel good about victoria's secret. it's obvious their products are revealing but their policies on political spending are revealing, too, and we like

that, so it really gives the breakdown of how each company does and it says the consumers, you've got a role in this. again, so do shareholders and local and state governors. we can contain citizens united a lot of ways, the best way is what you're talking about, the 28th united but meantime we do a lot of citizens. >> imogen, how about it? >> i would love to note company that you're most shocked by, either in a good way or a bad way. >> i have to say it's google. >> gaggle. >> which we've been dealing with now over the last year which has tremendous rhetoric on transparency and openness in a new world of freedom and information, but they will not agree to disclosure and self-restraint. >> wow. >> rob? >> well, i mean, what can we do about it? i mean, apart with voting with our wallets, i suppose that's the stick. i suppose the carrot is -- if you really think about it, people could market themselves as, you know, this is the sort of, i don't know, it's a good housekeeping brand, isn't it? >> that's exactly right. a lot of social marketing out

there. seen all sorts of companies to try to show they are socially conscious and doing good things for people in need. what issue is more important to the future of our democracy than how we handle the citizens united decision so i hope this causes the kind of debate that says here are companies that are actually pro-democracy and companies with something to hide. you don't have to buy their stock or their products. the elected officials should be tough on them. so many ways, pension investment, regulation and procurement, so many ways that state and local governments interact with the corporate sector. let's take all of those government and economic tools, all that consumer and shareholder power and say, hey, if you've got that seal of approval we want to do business with you. if not, you've got to fly right and change your policies or we're not willing to do business with you. >> one of the greatest points of leverage that have been untapped, bill, is the pension system you just referenced passing bylaws on a state level saying the pension for teacher, the pension for cops and for judges simply will not buy the publicly traded securities of

companies that don't disclose their political donations. do you believe we can get momentum around something to that effect? >> absolutely, dylan. that's why our coalition started. in fact, even before we had to threaten any action, we went to some of the biggest financial firms in the country, to goldman sachs, jpmorgan, morgan stanley, citi. we said we want to see disclosure and self-restraint because the pension funds in this country are going to make decisions with that in mine. if you can't see what a company is doing, how are you going to be comfortable to be involved with it? those four companies took major steps in terms of disclosure because of that push. i think there's a lot of companies that do not want to be labeled as bad guys and certainly don't want to poison their relationship with government because they continually hide their activities. >> jonathan? >> bill, can you -- i think i must have missed something here. can you define what disclosure means under the kaposi's tim? is there a floor for how much can be -- how much can be

disclosed or should be disclosed. >> well, jonathan, the first consideration is all the new spending capacity at citizens united granted to corporations. again, 100 years of american history since teddy roosevelt, corporations had severe limits on their spending. citizens united said you can spend as much us a want, in individual races, naming individual candidates. we're saying to companies don't go there, and if you do go there, you better put it out publicly. this is how much we spend on this race, this is how much we spend on the other race. >> every dollar. >> every dollar. >> anything below 100,000, don't worry about it. everything above, that even if it's $1. >> full disclosure further and what they pay on political activities for trade associations, et cetera. look, we think corporations are -- they owe it to the people, they certainly owe it to governments that invest in them through pension funds to be transparent on. many of their activities as investors we want to know why not make clear. if you're choosing to go deep into political spending or loc, put it out there. tell your shareholders why that

matters. if you can't justify, it why are you doing it? >> and -- and to that end, we -- we saw a list today that lists the 30 corporations that have spent more money lobbying in the past year than they did in taxes, and that's -- that will be up on the web and all the rest of it, but think about that. these are 30 american corporations who literally spent more money lobbying than they paid in in taxes. bill, is not the biggest -- one of the big reasons a corporation spends money lob seg to get out of paying taxes? >> exactly right, dylan. they are trying to game the system, and in fact there's been studies by the imf, university of minnesota, harvard law school that say when companies put money into lobbying they are moving away from making a best product, trying to gain the system rather than focusing on the quality what have they do. that's what happened to the auto industry in detroit for decades. they have finally gotten their act together now and we've got

to make clear, this is being shareholders, and i'm on a $40 billion pension board, and when we see companies trend into politics and lobbying, that's a red flag that something is wrong. >> bill, i thank you on many fronts, both for educating us and also making it clear that i need to buy toothpaste for the staff this christmas from colgate palmolive. >> you're a good man, dylan. >> i'm a generous guy. dental hygiene is important. happy holidays to all. >> buy the right things. >> exactly. we'll pit your stuff up on the web and i hope we can continue the conversation about amplifying the pension voice and amplifying the publicly traded companies. you're a champ kroon for that very mission and i'm grateful to have you on the show today. >> thank you, dylan. >> we'll talk to you guys sooner, rather than later. next up here, the day that changed american history 70 years on. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

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the best approach to food is to keep it whole for better nutrition. that's what they do with great grains cereal. they steam and bake the actual whole grain while the other guy's flake is more processed. mmm. great grains. the whole whole grain cereal. the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? ♪ imagine me and you, i do ♪ i think about you day and night ♪

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be the guardians of our truth. >> those the sights and sounds as about 120 pearl harbor survivors join military leaders at the "uss arizona" memorial in hawaii to mark the 70th anniversary of the attack that brought the u.s. into world war ii, and this will be the last year as the pearl harbor survivors association will disband at the end of 2011. so much has changed between then and now. for instance, how differently you and i would have learned about the breaking news that day in 1941. no twitter, no satellite feeds, no live pictures, no red breaking cable news banners, but there were front page headlines. newspapers rushed out to put out special issues on the same day of the attack, but because of the time difference even washington, d.c. and the white house reportedly first were informed of the extent of the early dawn raid at 2:22 p.m.

several hours after it occurred. every newspaper told the story from the morning after, for the "new york times" anniversary article, 104 soldiers died and 300 were wounded as a result of the attack, it read. ultimately the country would learn the true total. 2,400 americans killed with another 1,200 wounded, and the scar left on the pristine hawaiian shores was clear from the sky. this is now. that was then. within 24 hours of the bombing, president fdr would formally ask congress for a declaration of word, uttering these famous words. >> december 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. >> well, five years later, the war was over. 20 years later japan, one of

america's greatest allies, 70 years later an interconnected world looks for a new road ahead. ♪ [ female announcer ] we never forget the nearly 12 million cancer survivors in america today... and the countless lives lost. we owe it to them to protect funding for cancer research, prevention and access to care. congress, make cancer a priority and give millions of americans what they need most.

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severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. well, it's been less than a year, and the arab world is continuing to go through an historic transformation and a path that plays out before our eyes and has a destination that, well, we just don't quite know. egypt under hosni mubarak's rule for 30-plus years is actually holding elections at the same time that its military,

instrumental in mubarak's fall by their decision not to open fire at apex of the original protests, well, that very same military is now being accused of being the equivalent of mubarak and preventing the very freedoms that they seemed to be helping the protesters defend just a few months ago. our next guest in the only witnessed the revolution and helped to explain it to us as it broke out, she also continued to par tis pase pate as a journalist in the ongoing developments and in that process and encountered a level of brutality that it is very hard for any of us to really comprehe comprehend. an egyptian-born journalist, a friend of this show who walked us into this experience just a few months ago, said she was recently detained, sexually assaulted and had her arm broken, along with, i understand, a couple other bones. walk us through the story, mona, and -- and context tour

materialize it your journalism going back to last winter because i assume you have been putting yourself in sort of potentially risky or theoretically exposed situations by virtue of being there, as every journalist is for months now. >> well, it's great to be back with you, dylan, because as we said we experienced this a lot together. this really reminds me of those 18 days >> i went back to egypt in november and i went back actually a few days earlier than i was supposed to be there because of protests that were happening. there were huge protests again in tahrir street and there's a specific street that really drew me there. it was there, the site of confrontations between protesters and security forces, both the police and the military, and i really wanted to be on that street as an egyptian and as a journalist just to pay honor, to pay homage to the courage of these young people who were trying to protect tahrir square from the onslaught of the security forces. i was there and it was the night

or the early morning of the 24th of november. i was beaten brutally. as you can see my left arm is broken and my right hand is broken, i was sexually assaulted and detained for 12 hours by the ministry of the interior and by military intelligence. i was finally let go. i was denied medical treatment during that time, of course, and tomorrow i'm having surgery to fix a displaced bone on my left arm, but i want to emphasize very clearly that what happened to me is tiny compared to what's happened to so many egyptians. the army and the security forces in egypt have been sadistic. so many young men lost their eyes during that week i was in egypt. almost 40 people died. 3,000 people were injured during that time when i was injured, and not all those people have access to mediate way that i do, so i'm very glad to be on your show so that your viewers understand the brutality that we're talking about. it's even more brutal now than under many years under mubarak, but even more importantly as an american an as an egyptian i have to emphasize that a lot of

those bullets, a lot of the tear gas that was used to horrendous levels is provided directly by the united states, so as an egyptian-american i protest most vehemently to the u.s. administration and u.s. arms manufacturers who continue to provide these weapons of brutality to our military junta. >> and it's -- it's interesting that you bring that up, compelling that you bring that up as the data is remarkably shameful when you look at america, and i think a lot of people in this country look at their tax dollars and think i'm okay to pay taxes if it's something that's being invested in the prosperity of our nation and the legitimate security of our nation, but when you see billions of dollars going to these regimes that -- that then purchase weapons from america that are used against people exactly like yourself. >> yeah. >> and like -- and to your point really not like yourself because the vast majority of people simply do not have the ability

to go on national television and share their story, or for that matter to even get out of the middle east where they may be abused, detained, et cetera, to tell this story, do you get the sense that the people of america realize that their tax dollars are being used to purchase assault weaponry to be used to oppress the very people that the american people might align themselves with emotionally as a voice for freedom. >> no. i think that my fellow americans are basically oblivious to what is happening. i mean, we've seen so many pictures of bullets and tear gas canisters that say made in the usa, but i'm hoping that in seeing these, some of those who are familiar to your show and recognizing that this was done by security forces that are funded through the teeth by u.s. tax dollars, they understand and make that connection. up until -- human rights groups released a report, i think it was today or yesterday, that showed that as recent as november the 25th, the day after

i was assaulted, u.s. tear gas was still being shipped to egypt even though we know it was suffocating people by the hundreds in tahrir square. not just, that the u.s. administration gives the u.s. military $1.8 billion in aid every year comprising 40% of the military's budget. that military junta that is new oppressing us and beating us and sexually violating us, in ways worse than mubarak, is being funded by the united states and this must stop. the reason the revolution in egypt began is to stop this kind of brutality. the sexual violence is shameful. mubarak used sexual celebs against female activists and journalist of the. the military used it in when they conducted virginity tests, assaults against fee mail activists and the sexual assault that i faced. we have to look this directly in the eye and have to tell president obama and tell congress. every american must know what our tax dollars are going to. my tax dollars went towards this. as an egyptian and as an american i vehemently protest

against both and this revolution will not be hijacked either by the egyptian military nor by the money and the weapons that the u.s. sells it. >> the rationization that you get from the u.s. administration, not just this administration but all the preceding administrations, is that the aid must be delivered to saudi arabia, to egypt, to these theoretical allies of the united states in the name of stability. it is an interesting picture of stability to look at your wrists. >> stability. >> i don't know how stability is achieved. >> exactly. >> by you paying taxes so that america can pay somebody else to break your arms. it's trajic. >> what kind of civility is that? >> we must never be in the position to choose between freedom and stability. saudi arabia doesn't get aid from the u.s., but saudi arabia, you can believe it, pours millions of dollars into egypt because saudi arabia is one of the darkest counterrevolutionary forces today. together the u.s. and saudi arabia run interested and would like to see this revolution fail

because they buy the lie that the military is the solution to stability. the military is not the solution to stability. the military should be defending us against any outside attacks. the military should not be breaking our bones, and so once again our tax dollars must not go towards hijacking this revolution. the jim people have made it very clear. we want to be free of brutality. we want to be free of outside interference, and we will be free and our tax dollars must not go towards those who want to subvert that freedom. saudi arabia is also funding a lot of the islamist movement in egypt and you'll heart military over the next few weeks point to the islamists because they have done so well in the elections. you see, it's either us or the crazy guys. as an egyptian i say i will have the muslim brotherhood in parliament and i will hold the muslim brotherhood to the same democratic principles that i held mubarak and they know if they tray to dictate egypt or try to repress egypt, we will be out on the street against them as we were against mubarak. >> mona, you opened our eyes

just under a year ago and helped all of us really appreciate the commonality and the reality of the human experience that was what happened in tahrir square, and you have done it in a very profound way once again today. i thank you for it, and i am hopeful that your message is heard by the white house, is heard by the people of america and that we understand that it is for us to resolve the compassion between each other to solve these things, not to fund the brutality that you have suffered at our hands and to the extent to which any of my tax money was involved, which tragically it was, i -- i am sorry. mona, again, journalist, author and really at this point hero. coming up on "hardball," game change. newt now the gop front-runner. chris exploring how president obama will run against the man, but first ari melber with proof that the occupy movement is work. [ male announcer ] if you think tylenol

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well, ari melber is in new york with a rant about new york. >> thanks, dylan. do you remember the hand wringing about whether occupy wall street was working? well, it's working. look at budget deal struck this week in new york where the occupy movement began. governor cuomo xarnd on letting a millionaire's tax expire and for months he said he would keep that promise. that seemed crazy to some of us because there was a $4 billion hole in the budget that could have been covered by the revenue from the millionaire's tax and we even talked about it on this show but the tax was set to expire automatically, so if that's what the governor wanted, basically no way to stop him and

three month ago, except for a couple of labor activists and a few reporters, no one was focused on this issue. it was not front page news. well, it's front page news today in the "new york times." that is because the occupy movement but income inequality on the agenda, which changed the conversation and some protesters spun off to work with local groups on this issue. they even dubbed cuomo governor 1%, and it altered the pressures in albany. now, i told you this was happening at the time, but, look, i only get about two minutes here for my rants, so don't take my word for it. here's what the "new york times" said today. quote, democrats who pressured cuomo lauded the occupy wall street movement for changing the political climate in albany, where lawmakers had planned to allow the millionaires' tax tocito simply expire. and one old labor leader was quick to thank these new school protesters for their role. quote, it's simply a credit to the courage of the occupy protesters, said michael kink, who runs a big labor group here in new york. now, let be clear.

on policy, i still don't think governor kwoeme's revised plan goes far enough. if you look at the proposed brackets, a tiny cut for middle class families arc slightly larger cut for households making over $300,000, that's the top 3%, by the way, and then about the same rate that there was under the millionaires' tax for those households making over 2 million. so on the facts this is basically a center left status quo plan. it doesn't ask more of the millionaires, and it's pretty darn good to the top 3%. meanwhile, new york's been cutting back on teachers and services because of its $4 billion budget shortage. if the state had simply declined to give this new cut to the top 3%, that would literally raise enough money to fill the hole shortage, so i think that this is a good thing, all things considered, but it tells you a lot about our politics that even after protesters took to the streets and got the governor to reverse himself, this is what a populist victory looks like, and now my two minutes are up. dylan?