good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. today, i brought back a panel of experts on latino voters, because, frankly, the latino vote may be the most important block of voters this time around. not only do i know it, but so do presidentç obama and governor romney. tomorrow, mitt romney will be in pennsylvania, holding hands with amigo marco rubio, to follow up with the latinos for romney rolled out this week. so obama had a synchronized set of house parties, featuring a conference call with george lopez, and along with spanish language campaign ads in the key states of colorado, nevada and florida. now, approximate it's simply no

secret, latinos, now 50 million strong in america, will be a deciding factor in this election. as president obama's campaign manager jim massena acknowledged, chicago is well aware that polls out this week show the president is faring well with latino voters, the nbc/wall street journal "poll shows barack obama with a strong lead, 62% to 22% of romney. for the president to hold onto this lead, he has to explain why the promises he made to latino voters have gone by the wayside. particularly, under his leadership, there were a record 396, 906 people deported last year. the pro immigration supporters will be watching as the u.s. supreme court holds hearings over sb 1070. the arizona bill instructs law

enforcement to establish proof of immigration status during any legitimate contact madeç by an official or agency. it's been called the papers, please law. it's considered the most strict immigration law in the country and sb 1070, say critics, is a violation of the civil rights law. and the supreme court hearing will only up the level of political rhetoric surrounding the law, especially since democrats are hoping make play for arizona. usually a reliably red state since 1996. the rnc chairman, reince preibus says it's a democratic fantasy, that the obama team is setting up a mirage that somehow arizona is going to be in play or a battleground. it's a republican state. so florida, new mexico, colorado, virginia, north carolina, and nevada are target states. romney won't be able to etch a

sketch his record on immigration. immigration is one area where he has actually been quite consistent. >> the answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home, because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to allow them to work here. i'm running for office, pete sake. i can't have illegals. if i were elected and congress were to pass the dream act, would i veto it? the answer is yes. >> yeah. okay. so remember last week on "mhp" when we talked about the super sherpa, the guy who leads the candidate up the election mountain? i contend that no super sherpa can guide romney away from those statements. romney can appear with marco rubio all heç wants, but the se of my best friends are latinos strategy won't win over many hearts and minds. maybe i'm right, maybe i'm wrong. with me are israel ortega of libertad.org, spanish language

publication of heritage foundation. raul reyes, and angela maria kelley, vice president of immigration policy and advocacy at the center for american progress. thank you, all, for being here. >> thank you for having us. >> here is my first question. >> yeah. >> is the latino vote actually up for grabs in this election? or is this really just an issue that the president has already won the vast majority of the vote and he has to play a turnout game? or is there seriously a way in which mitt romney might be able to get a substantial portion of the latino vote? >> you mentioned mitt romney and the whole etch-a-sketch thing. it's not that he needs the etch-a-sketch, he needs more like a time machine. not just that he has had these extreme views on immigration. it's that during the primaries, he also attacked other candidates for their moderate views. went after newt gingrich and went after rick perry. so not just that he can move back to the center, which lots of candidates do.

he also have to explain his very aggressive anti-immigration sentiments and that's like a very steep incline for him to climb. >> is the center where latino voters are? he has to move back to the center is that where latino voters are to be captured? >> he's been hostile. just down right hostile, and latinos here that. been up against justice societ y mayor. the company he keeps is chris koback, secretary of state of kansas, and architect of the arizona law, and he is a senior adviser to romney on immigration policy. >> and he has a gem ba jamba endorsement. >> he's not on the side of a mountain, he's deep in a hole. >> trying to get to base camp. >> he would love to be to base camp. he's not there yet.

>> the fact is, president obama has to speak about the fact that deportations have gone up under his administration. he also has to, you know, go back to hispanic voters and say, you know what? when i made the promise about immigration reform, i'm sorry, forgive me. >> the optics here seem to matter. i wanted to listen to obama's sort of latino ad recently, where he's clear about how important he recognizes the latino votes to be. let's take a listen. >> the stories of latino community are stories about the american dream. young people who believed that anything is possible. and parents and grandparents working hard to give their children the chance to succeed. the choice our country makes in november will have huge consequences for the latino community. but, uu?vemember, the outcome o this election is in your hands. >> can't be much clearer than that. the outcome of this election is in your hands. >> besaw ittbestowed a lot of p

latino voters. >> here is the big american story, aç nation of immigrants. is that the right sort of optic that the president needs? >> i think it's what he needs, but one underlying factor, very much in his favfavor. if you look at latino decisions, this poll found that loo la tinos are progressive voters, we support the health care act, we support increasing the size of government to pay for social services. he's out on the right side for many social issues, but economic issues, hispanic unemployment is 10.3%. but last year, 2011, hispanic job growth outpaced other ethnic groups and they are adding twice the rates of whites for jobs. things are going in his direction. >> i want to bring you in here. when i talk about, for example what we know about the

african-american vote. i can look at polling dat skra and see 91% of african-americans supporting president obama the vote has never been a 80%, 70%, 9 0% kind of vote. we have interest in social safety net. but there must also be something else going on with latino voting. if it it's split 60/40 or 50/50. >> a lot of it is who the candidate is. a lot of things that i talk about is looking at the failed policies in latin america and that we have an economic prosperity and an opportunity in this country we didn't have back in our home countries, so supporting those policies that will ensure that our children and grandchildren have those opportunities is a case thatç potentially governor romney can make, depending on how he does it.

>> the problem is he wants to deport all those same people. >> and their grandmother. >> he doesn't want to deport them, self-deportation. >> they will report to self-deport. are they a swing bloc, it's possible. president bush, broke something 44% voting for him. it is possible, but his tone was very different. it was welcoming, respectful, looked for a solution in that way, obamaesque. and that's the footing that romney has never been able to get, he's been so abyssy appebug to the far right. i don't know if he could move enough. he would have to massively etch-a-sketch thinks positions away. >> we heard marco rubio make this very interesting slip. you want to listen to it real quickly here. >> three, four, five, six seven years from now, if i do the job

as vice president -- i'm sorry. as a do a good job as senator, i'll have a chance to do all sorts of things. >> this is a mistake i've never made. in a couple of years, after running nbc universal, right? >> he wants that time machine. >> clearly this is on his mind. it suggests to me the camps have been in conversation. >> of course. >> does that suddenly changeç that optic, if it's marco rubio? >> i think it would generate some excitement in the community, just like sarah palin did generate excitement among women. but marco rubio, look at his record, really on the opposite side of all of the issues that matter to latinos. latinos tend not to vote coethnic. we're voting on policy, and he doesn't you want our policies and i go back to the sotomayor

nominee. at the time, he was running for senator. and he said race and ethnicity shouldn't be chief qualifications, and he did not support sonja sotomayor. he is a junior senator from florida. his one accomplishment so far has been designating september as national spinal cord injury awareness month. i don't think that will excite latinos nationwide. >> it goes back to surrogates and planning people that can speak spanish. marco rubio can speak panic. and i think republicans make a mistake that by putting him on the vice presidential ticket it will lock up the latino vote. it's overly optimistic. >> i'm sorry. i want to pause did you say marco rubio cannot speak spanish? >> he can. >> what just happened here? i didn't want to miss. >> no, he can speak it well too,

because there is a difference between conversational spanish and fluent. >> the totality of my spanish in the intro, that is absolutely all i can do. on the question of speaking span, what i wonder and may even reproduce at thisç moment in t conversation, all right, we'll talk about latino voters, here is a conversation about immigration, a conversation about latino human being in a body, and then here is the question about spanish language, as the totality of what it means to a latino american voter is worried about immigration, looking for someone also latino and be a spanish speaker. >> obviously the community, just like any other community, they care about the economy, jobs, their kids' education and their future. but immigration is a threshold issue in the sense you feel like it's how someone is talking about you. the arizona law is a perfect example. the arizona law says if a police officer has reasonable cause to believe that you are here illegally, they can pull you over and arrest, get you on the

road to being deported. they can't actually deport you. what does that mean to look like you are here illegally? >> that means three out of four of us at this table. >> when my hair is styled differently, main evybe even alr of us. >> it's not even how you look, it's how you speak. we permit 50 states to come up with 50 different laws, all we have done is basically legalize racial profiling. >> and it's exactly that that we'll come back. i want to talk about president obama's record of immigration and deportation. why it may get in his way. and we'll talk about earth day and how it's not just about polar bears. wake up!

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the american people need us to put an end to the petty partisanship that passes for politics in washington and they need us to enact comprehensive immigration reform, once and for all. they need not -- we can't wait 2 20 years from now toç do it, 1 years from now to do it, we need to do it at the end of my first term as president of the united states of america. >> so the first term is not over yet, but let's just pause. that comprehensive immigration reform just did not happen and one could predict that might cost president obama the election this year. in 2008, obama won 67% of the latino vote and will need to stick close to that to keep mitt romney from the 4 40% of latino voters that he needs to win the 2012 election. with me is israel ortega, raul

reyes and angela maria kelley. i want to jump right back in here. starting back again on immigration, and i've been pushing pretty hard on this, and your point, angela, it's -- it's in part -- not the central issue, right? the central issue is economic and jobs and war and health care and all of that, but it does somehow feel important, and david axle rod, just on cnn this morning, talking about it, saying it didn't get done at the end of the first term, mo mostl because of congress, because they were standing in the way, getting done. will they play that sound bite over and over again and try to hold president obama's feet to the fire? >> i think they may try to hold his feet to the fire in that way. one of the by-products, i think the latino community, more than any other period in american

history, is intensely following american politics, soç many, o community, lives of people we know, colleagues, family members, are at stake. latinos know that the chief reason that immigration reform has not gone forward is republican obstructionism. this year the republicans have zero credibility on immigration. they are against so many things that would have moved it forward and now -- some people call it the dream act 2.0, which legalizes people. >> or dreamless act. >> that's what i call it. >> the nightmare act. >> will put people on the path to citizenship. and the argument is something is better than nothing. that's like telling gay people, well, your civil union is better than nothing or african-americans, that separate but equal is better than nothing. people don't buy that. nobody wants that for their kids. >> if i could jump in. two things, one, the president could have broadened immigration

reform, he helped to do health care reform. he uses global capital on that, and second thing, look, where senators -- john tester, moderate democrats, not supporting any kind of immigration reform, so, yes, republicans, by and large will not support something broad, but there are democrats,a(i and the person needs to get democratic support from moderate democrats. >> if they are going to put arizona into play, for example. which they are claiming to. that feels to me, almost more likely to happen around economic issues, arizona hit hard by the housing crisis andç will they

move on sb 1070 versus other kinds of questions. >> because arizona is ground zero for the immigration debate, you see the latino voter paying a lot of attention. a quick story. phoenix city council, underdog democrat ran, danny valenzuela. nobody expected him to win. he won, because there was a 480% increase in the latino vote. that's something. >> nearly 500%. in a local race. >> to swing a local race re-ele

campaign is facing the enthusiasm gap. 2008 found like change america, woo-hoo! and now it feels like, okay, now we need to plod along to re-election. but if, in fact there, say group here that can be motivated with that kind of enthusiasm, either pro re-election or anti election of romney, then that seems to me like it could be even more powerful than the individual vote itself. >> one thing that could be very strong for the democrats. the roundabout way, republicans are motivating latino voters. they have mobilized like never before. and the architect of sb 1070, russell pearce, who was recalled in a special election. lost his office. first time that ever happened. and arizona history.

and partly because latino voters mobilized and said we have had enough. he has wakened the latino vote in that state, which has been very reliablyçç

right now, i want to spruce y introducdçç markets in the

area. if this program is able to change the eating habits of even one student, then i will feel completely thrilled. >> to check out more nora's student farm project, check out our blog. coming up, why farmer is just one way earth warriors are taking back the planet. we'll hear from one of the we'll hear from one of the leading environmentalç [ male announcer ] if you think any battery will do...

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inconvenient truth." hog over antarctica. hog think a little bit closer toç home, about asthmatic children inhaling toxic fumes right here in the united states. the woman living next to a refinery in mississippi who keeps suffering miscarriages, about community of people forced to live next to piles of refuse and pollutants, the rest of us can barely stand to have in ourç

show that poor

this issue affects us. many african-americans, latinos, asians, all people of color are on the front lines of and degradation of the environment. >> it's notç just that some community have trees and lawns, but that often you have latino yard workers, doing that work, standing behind the leaf blower. stand behind the leaf blow err, getting the gas and oil fumes, right? or young people in the city who

are living in places where very low air quality, we have the issue of asthma. talk to me. one thing to say we should have environmental justice. we should have environmental equality. how should we have it? what does it take to move from inequality to equality? >> i have been working the past decade and a half. how do you create projects that improve the environmental and economic quality of life for people who live in our commun y communities? also on class lines. believe me, if you are living near a coal plant, a coal mining operation, chances are they are not particularly dark, but still feeling the impacts of that. >> a lot of americans living in those sorts of community or indigenous people where we have lolly undesirable lands. >> we can create new opportunities for local economic development. provide opportunities for that kind of local job creation that doesn't continue to pollute the environment. right now, i'm really interested in doing things like using real

estate development as a platform for social, environmental, and economic engagement. i believe, one, you can build very green buildings and create new opportunities for mixed income housing and mixed commercial development that provide opportunities for people to become less poor. that kind of structural and development that expects people to move up and out ofç povertyy the create of mechanic models that improves their quality of life. that's a huge goal i'm trying to work on right now. >> i want to talk about the individual policy stuff and the individual acts we can do and the earth and us, and how we manage both of those things. you heard about the gender gap. we'll talk about the green gap, more after the break. ♪ i feel my heart start to tremble whenever you're around ♪ [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪

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i'm still here with ma jora carter, we are talking about working cho change public policy. joining us from san francisco is someone who made going green an individual effort, beth perry, the creator of my plastic free life.com, chicago was hanging out on this morning and author of "plastic free." thank you for joining us, beth. >> hi, melissa. hi, majora, i'm such a fan of yours. >> a lot of green love. i want to talk about your project. tell us about the plastic free life, what it is? >> five years ago, i was just a regular person like anybody else, and i was using plastic on a daily basis, plastic grocery bags, plastic water bottles and throwing them away, and i wasn't really thinking anything about it, even though i considered myself to be an environmentalist and one night i was sitting at my computer and just browsing

around, and i stumbled upon an article about the plastic pollution problem in the ocean, and i saw something that changed my life. and it was a photo of a dead albatross chick. it had -- it's body was completely full of plastic and it was just the carcass, and all you could see was the bones and the body full of plastic, andçt was plastic bottle caps, plastic toothbrush, all the little tiny pieces of plastic that i use on a daily basis, and at that moment, i realized, oh, my god, my actions are having an impact on creatures that i hadn't even previously known existed. and that was the first time i knew something had to change in my life and it changed like that. >> i want to ask about that. part of what i thought was -- sort of an extremely useful part of sort of the initial move toward encouraging, particularly americans, but around the world, to think about environmental

issues, kind of across party lines and all of that, were wild life images, the images of the albatross or we just talked yesterday about the brown pelicans and the bp oil spill who have the oil on them. but i also wonder about how we then put like sort of a connection between the wild life piece and majora and raul, and the work around humans and particularly young folks. majora, weigh in a bit and i want to come back to you, beth, about how do we connect these dots? it shouldn't be separate. sometimes it feels like separate environmental movements. >> they are considered separate right now there are people and then there is the environment. what we want to do is bring them together so folks understand we there is only one place, we are the environment and vice versa. and i see the microcosm in terms of how we build community. literally, our relationships are about real estate, might as well use it to create the kind of world we want to live in. as we use real estate development as a platform for

engagement, we should think aboutç the impact that we're going to be having in terms of the soecial, environmental and economic impact we are going to have. when i think about community, how do you build a community of different economic levels living together? creating the new kind of -- where you are thinking about manufacturing in the 21st century to find jobs. for example, the dress i'm wearing was creating a bronx-born designer named natalia allen that uses rapid pattern techniques, done in a single pass using this amazing technologiful when i think about things like that, how do we use opportunities like that in order to bring back the kind of holistic, local economies that we need that provide opportunities to improve the environment, improve economies and help people feel more whole

in their lives. >> i was listening and reading how you take back the containers we get strawberries and blueberries and have them refill them. talk to me about the approach? >> so upon making that discovery, i decided i was going to try to live without buying any new plastic, and i also decided to start collecting my plastic just to see what my pn in the beginning, i was still using a lot of plastic. right now, this is the amount of plastic i collected for 2011. a regular grocery bag full. and so i have developed a lot of strategies and write about them on my blog and have them in my book. ck to the issue of environmental justice. i want to say plastic is a real environmental justice issue, because plastic is made from fossil fuels, made from oil and natural gas. and those petrochemical factories, like majora was saying, are in the community of

poor and minority people. and so they are getting impacted in that way, getting impacts because a lot of times poor people can't necessarily afford to buy things that are not plastic so they are ending up using plastic, which is toxic and plastic recycling fraught with all kinds of problems as well for disenfranchised people. >> i feel like you want to jump in here. >> one thing that's worth noting, i think too often people think that environmental justice and the interest of -- interests of business are separate. and the economy are separate and they are not. when you look, for example, at green jobs, green jobs are terrific for lower income community and community of color. many green jobs don't require more than a high school diploma and gives people access to a job with a future. green jobs more than average jobs in the workforce tend to lead to careers, not just low-wage, dead end jobs and green jobs outpace in terms of

their growth. outpace other jobs in the economy. green jobs are good business. not saying -- we need to rethink about this, business and environmental justice can go hand in hand and u.s.it's a win. >> the republican party has pretty actively said the epa kills jobs, so i think part of what's amazingç here, environmentalism could be bipartisan, big, broad umbrella, but it ends up feeling like -- >> it's been so politicized. we need to reconnect it with job creation and the environment. then have you something that goes. >> can i jump in here? >> yeah, beth. please do jump in. >> i want to say in trying to live my own life personally without blastic and finding plastic free alternatives, i have discovered so many companies that are really trying to find a solution to the plastic problem and create alternatives to plastic things made out of glass, stainless steel, all kinds of healthy products and those are creating

jobs for people too. so the choices that we make as individuals spur the economy in aç

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what if this morning i told you your childhood fantasy was being whitewashed, the one where the beautiful young maiden is in distress and only a manç whom she's never met but who she loves can save her? this is surefire success for reality tv. "the bachelor" burst onto the scene in 2002 and has been a ratings winner ever since. we tune in to see the latest bachelor with his good hair, strong chin, trim physicique,

except that he has 15 other suitors, remember alex, jesse, jason, ben. every eligible bachelor that the show has had are white. two african-american men who tried out for a spot as the bachelor last summer are suing abc, claiming they were discriminated against during their casting session in tennessee. their lawsuit says "central to this action, the words of the supreme court, is a glaring and inexorable zero. never, over ten years, and a combined total of 23 seasons of the bachelor and bachelorette, have either show featured a personñi of color, in the centr role of the bachelor or bachelorette. in a statement, warner horizon television, one of the show's producers said this complaint is baseless and without merit. in fact, we have had various participants of color throughout the series' history and the

producers have been consistently is vocal about seeking diverse candidates for both programs. we continue seeking out diverse candidates for both the bachelor andç bachelorette. here's the deal. think there is very little evidence that the bachelor's producers have any more than average racial bias, my hunch? they believe an african-american viewer would lead viewers to change the channel and primetime network tv is driven by ratings, and what executives think will bring ratings. my biggest problem with the bachelor is not the leading men thing. it's the whole my bikini, not my wit and intellect will earn me an engagement ring, to, you know, a stranger think. if mr. knavor and mr. johnson want to search for love in front of a national audience, then their race certainly shouldn't hold them back, and if you want abc to cast men in the lead, then you must ask, would i

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as a nation, we've spent the last week wringing our hands about secret service agents soliciting sex from colombian prostitutes. but when it comes to americans behaving badly while serving our country abroad, i think there is another story that needs to be talked about and uncovered. and today, we'll do it right here. in a new report by the pentagon, last year, 3,192 military sexual assaults were reported. an increase of 1% from the previous year, but the defense department said in 2010, that only 14% of sexual assaults in the military were recorded, and the military were recorded, and the real estimate isn

19,000 assaults. that's 19,000 women and men who signed up to defend us against our enemies, but instead have found the enemy is the person standing right beside them. sexual assault in the u.s. military is so pervasive, that addressing it has become a top priorityç for secretary of defense leon panetta, who announced changes to the way that the military deals with sexual assaults within its ranks. >> sexual assault has no place within the military. it's a violation of everything that the u.s. military stands for. we believe that we've developed a set of initiatives that fundamentally change the way that the department deals with this problem. >> much like civilian sexual assault, the victimization of the survivors in the military is two fold. first, the initial attack, and, second, enduring the legal process, or lack thereof, to pursue and punish perpetrator. last year, 68% of sexual

assaults were not prosecuted by military courts, and the pentagon has demonstrated its commitment to victims of sexual assault, but do they go far u a member of congress that has taken the lead on this issue, jackie sphere ier, and arianna and attorney raul reyes. thank you all for being here this morning. congresswoman, i want to start with you. because, you know, obviously leon panetta out was talking about doing more. can you first give me a sense of the scope of sexual assault in the military and tell me whether or not you think that the changes that mr. panetta is suggesting go far enough? >> well, the scope of it is -- is overwhelming. the fact that there are 19,000 cases a year by dod's own estimate, and only 13% or 14%

repjdñ suggest that people don't have confidence that if they report a sexual assault that it will be handled appropriately in the military and as ariana and others will tell you, more often than not, they get marginalized, they are identified as having personality disorders and then they are invol untary dishonorably discharged. to secretary panetta, i do believe they wants to do the right thing. the recommendations he made this week, frankly, don't go far enough. creating a special victims unit already2ezists within the army, has since 2009. and we haven't seen an increase in cases as a result of that. creating a sexual assault database is good. that was something that was recommended in 2009 by the national defense authorization act. and, finally, having it go up the chain of command one more

office, is okay. but i believe that we really need to take it out of chain of command if we were really going to have cases treated appropriately. >> kind of brings up the issue of the chain of command here and that seems to me to be a fundamental aspect of what's happening, that is is a challenge. to come back to the congresswoman in a moment, but i would like to pause, and i'm shaking a little bit. i am a survivor of sexual assault and so my anger as i read your story was palpable, and the more now that i'm sitting with here, the angrier i get as i think about how the circumstances were handled by our military. in the briefest way, if you can tell me a bit about whatç your circumstances were and also how the chain of command meant that you did not get justice. >> right. so in my case, there was a senior officer at my command and his civilian friend came to my house, uninvited at 7:00 in the morning, and threatened me with

death and performed acts that were designed to humiliate me. he felt that he was in a position that he was protected from the command. he had said if i reported it, he would humiliate me and discredit me and that's exactly what he did and the command allowed him to do. you know, the commander can't be the judge of his own cause, and i think that panetta's new proposals will just treat the symptoms, not the disease. in my case it did go to the colonel and three two-star generals signed off. the higher you go in the military, the more the colonel or commander has to lose, so i think they have to take it completely out of chain of command. >> the idea that -- that in the

military, sexual assault survivors are facing a justice system which is within that chain of command, congresswoman, can you tell me how the legislation you're proposing will address this issue in a different way than what the d.o.d. is currently suggesting? >> well, in my legislation it takes it out of chain of command, so a victim would report it to a special officeç staffed with experts, both in terms of prosecution investigation and they will do that evaluation and then whatever they recommend, will stand. it won't be a decision made by the commander. what we have seen really is the number of court martials that have been initiated by commanders, have decreased in the last safr report you just referenced. none of this will change unless we see prosecutions go up and convictions go up in many respects, it's stacked against

the victim, because their sexual conduct or previous sexual conduct is admissible in a hearing. the fact that the military moral character of the assailant is reason for defense to bring that up to mitigate the crime. those would not stand the test in a criminal justice system in the civilian world. >> so in a civilian court, and i think part of what i was appalled at is a couple of things. one, the language that survivors are frequently called basically insane, that they are asked to go in for psychiatric testing when they report. but also that the issue becomes not rape, but adultery. and whether or not -- whether or not there has been adultery and also obscene language, right, rather than issues of the violation of a human being, and particularly of a fellow soldier. i know that you are now involved

in a class action suit. and we as a show reached out to the department of defense, and they said statement. tell us about the class action suit. tell us what you and the other women are hoping do? >> the class action suit is an attempt to effect change. the reprisal that often ensues after a sexual assault is often far more traumatizing than the actual incident. the commander contractually owns you, the military is your entire world and for that world to crush you is -- at a time when you need -- when you have been degraded beyond human comprehension and what you really need is support is never going to happen if they keep it within the chain of command, and our lawsuit, we hope that unlike the last lawsuit that they actually take it to court and let them decide instead of -- they previous dismissed the lawsuit, site citing as rape incident to military service and our hopes is they allow it to go

to civilian courts and let the civilian jury or judge make a decision on whether they are handling sexual assault. >> i want to bring you in here, raul. just on the politics of this. the idea of military matters in civilian courts is very diffict"á for any president, right, to begin, or any department of defense to begin to do. how do we create the pressure to make this possible? >> it does need to go to a civilian court. military culture is a closed culture. above all, military culture rewards loyalty. anyone coming forward, speaking out about abuse or assault, already faces a -- has a huge threshold of just credibility. which is unfair and when we consider these alarming statistics, you know, you have to remember that assaults in the military areç grossly underreported. so there are many people who are too frightened, afraid, and just bury it. the actual incidence is far

higher and what the military is resisting and what they absolutely need if cases are not going to be tried in civilian courts, is to have a civilian component through the whole process. it's totally unacceptable. i think listening to the congresswoman, i remember in 2008, congresswoman jane harmon says a woman who signs up in the military is more likely to suffer sexual abuse by the hands of a soldier, than killed or injured by enemy fire. and that is totally unacceptable. totally -- it's tragic. and so i think we have to force that issue into civilian courts. right now, military courts operate with a degree of secr y secrecy, and it's so injust to the victims. >> that idea that you signed up to serve your country and are more likely to be victimized sexually by fellow soldiers or marines, rather than killed by enemy fire by ann enemy combatat is extraordinary.

i want to pause so we have more opportunity to talk about this this is a different way of thinking about what a war on women is, and we're going to continue this conversation right after the break, so stay right there. when i gave him the bayer. i'm on an aspirin regimen... and i take bayer chewables. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. so he's a success story... [ laughs ] he's my success story. [ male announcer ] learn how to protect your heart at i am proheart on facebook.

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we're back and talking about sexual assault from the u.s. military. still with me is+ congresswoman jackie speier and with me is former u.s. military member and sexual assault victim ariana klay. congresswoman, how receptive is the department of defense to the approach you have been proposing? we're talking about the difficulty of taking it out of the chain ofç command. you have been doing this work a lot with the pentagon, how receptive are they?

>> they are not receptive to changing the culture in terms of the chain of command. they believe strongly you have to retain the chain of command. their solution is taking it, elevating it to the next level. and i just don't believe that in the long run that's going to work. so changing the culture is a much bigger problem. i want to say something about arianna. this young woman was valedictorian in her class. appointed to the naval academy, served in iraq or afghanistan, comes home and is assaulted eight blocks from the u.s. capitol. >> you know, ariana, reading exactly that story about you that the congresswoman was just telling, and what i know of my loved ones who have served in the military, is that it matters so much, that identify. so i want to ask you both, why did you want to be a marine? particularly in war time. who signs up in war time in

particular signs up and says this is what i want to be. i want to serve my country, and as the congresswoman was just saying, what happens not only for you, but for a whole military culture when this is so clearly allowed? >> well, i joined specifically because i felt that the marine corps that had the esprit decorpd decorps and commitment that imented to give to any job i wanted to do. the invocations of having the chain of commandç making the decisions is the chain of command hierarchy is going to make decisions in support of the power structure, not of justice. and there are procedures and policies that appear to be legitimate, such as the inspector general's office, the safro, the eo office, the chain of command you place special trust and confidence in. so in my case, i pursued every avenue available to me, and 650

days later, it's still in the secretary of the navy's office. every avenue of approach failed, and that's why i felt -- i saw this happen to other girls, saw the reprisal and saw the attempt to diagnose a personality disorder, the investigations on the victim. over and over and over again. you know, i was denied -- i requested to go to afghanistan while i was in this unit, where i was harassed and then assaulted. i was denied because i was too critical to the command, but after i made the report, then even in my case, despite no medical evidence, there was a -- a female lawyer who attempted to try to diagnose me with a personality disorder, with no medical training whatsoever. and this happens -- this is adjust a formula they do in all of these cases and we need to improve our transparency. the american public places special trust and confidence in the military, and many of the people within the dod are

exploiting that special trust and confidence. >> i need to say this. that attempt to take survivors and implicate them in their own experience in this way and to lay the blame is, for me, and the fact that it happenedç systemically, is for me this is an act of domestic terrorism. what they are doing, purposely creating a culture that will silence and terrify and harass, simply by allowing it to occur, to occur within full knowledge and to occur -- now, again, we do not have the pentagon here to speak for itself. we did reach out, they have not -- they were not willing to send someone either to the table or to a statement. i cannot read that narrative, that story of the willingness to allow this culture to exist as anything other than a willingness to allow acts of domestic terrorism on our own soldiers, congresswoman, does that mean there is or is not something that the commander in

chief can do here? >> i think this issue is red hot right now, and the lawsuits that susan burke has filed i think are not going to cease, and i can tell you for one member of congress, that i'm not going to settle for anything less than taking these cases out of the chain of command, there is no question i think for the american people, once they are made aware of the fact that the military justice system is not justice, that they are going to demand that we change the way these cases are handled. >> so, raul if congress and the president have a fundamental responsibility perhaps to our military men and women first and then to the rest of us, because they are protecting us, what are our responsibilities to make sure we have congresswomen and congressmen like representative speier andç others that we wana

military that's transparent. >> one of the biggest problems with the military is they do have policies, they do have many procedures that can point to stacks of regulations this is what you do, where it goes. that's all on paper. those are the policies. where you see in the military culture is a huge divide between the policies and the actual reality of where -- of what happens. of what it takes to come forward. the only person in your unit to go to a co and say i have a problem and point a finger and to raise your voice. that is totally not accepted in military culture, and i think that's something that our government, you know, people like the congresswoman, can bring -- can hopefully bring that type of transparency to the military it is needed. right now, you're right. it is a hostile environment for people who are -- have been victims of sexual abuse, men and women. >> and feeling like -- we're at war, right? we are still in international conflict around the world. as a citizen, i want to support my troops, even when i don't

support the entanglements and the engagements we're in, and yet, how do we not have a critical voice about our military in this moment? so what does it mean to be a supporter of the troops and yet need to speak very critically about what's happening here? how do we thread that? >> i think there are many heroes within our military and mostly good people, but these individuals, these commanders who are allowing the sexual assault investigations to play out the way they are, should be held accountable or it should be passed over to a civilian jurisdiction. you know,he 201 safro or pentagon sexual assault report just came out. their office, the sole purpose is to protect military individuals from sexual assault, spent a tremendous amount of effort and resources to on sophisticating theñi data, to

covering up the problem. if that's going on, then what's going on in the military justice system? i think it's just the american public needs to support congress' legislation, such as the stop act that will allow more transparency in the military justice system. >> i think it bears repeating what you said during the break. even what they do regard as convictions are often convictions for vulgar language or adultery. >> or sodomy. >> not consistent with the actual crime. >> the one person who assaulted you -- >> there were two men. >> but one of them. the one for whom there is a conviction. >> one was granted complete immunity in the court martial process, and the other perpetrator was convicted of adultery and indecent language for the death treat and referring to me as a slut in the phone sting. he received 45 days in the brig, it won't go on his personal

record. this is a hard-hitting rape case? that's a joke, and i think they are misleading in presenting their data. >> i appreciate so much you being here and being a voice for this. thank you, congresswoman speier for the work you're doing to shine a light and bring justice on this question and also thank you to raul reyes for hanging out with me today.ç coming up, do texts feel a little quieter, one story didn't get wall to wall coverage like it used to. we'll ask what happened to the tea party. these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right -- whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multi-grain cheerios -- 5 whole grains, 110 calories. creamy, dreamy peanut butter taste in a tempting new cereal. mmm! [ female announcer ] new multi-grain cheerios peanut butter. [ female announcer ] new multi-grain cheerios

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15. the date in the tea party assent starting in 2009, saw tax day turn into tea party day. more than 300 is how many locations saw rallies across the nation in all 50 states, with participant levels estimated at hundreds of thousands of participa participants. 311,460 people, according to nate silver, now with "the new york times," and the 24/7 breaking news national coverage, from this network and others, all there to cover it. and the mad as hell, i'm not going to take it anymore spirit behind the movement, carried it through the regular news cycle and all the way into the voting booth the next year to limited success. 32% in the great republican congressional takeover of 2010, the percentage of candidates claiming the tea party label that won house or senate seats in the november mid term election, which led to 60, how many house members were in the tea party caucus as of july

2011. the last time their founding updated the list on her website and that founder, one michele bachmann, ran for president as you might recall. how many of the five dozen tea party caucus members endorsed her candacy? one. but before anyone goes writing the tea party's obituary just yet, consider this number from just yesterday. 32. the number of votes utah senator orrin hatch fell short by at his party's state convention to secure nomination for a seventh term. asñr tea party activists organid to defeat the long-serving republican. this year's april 15th may not have seen the same kind of tea party demonstrations in the streets as in past years, but on june 26, when orrin hatch faces

his first primary since 1976, the tea party's presence will be clear. so up next, can the movement continue? we're going to drink tea. a smoot plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8.

the rallies are no loaner breaking news and important polls are falling. leaders no longer as visible as they once were, but the tea party isn't dead, at least not in utah. while the senior senator from utah, orrin hatch, trying to highlight a more conservative record, he's being officially challenged with a former state senator who aligns himself with the tea party movement. hatch fell fewer than three dozen votes short of the delegates needed to secure the party's nomination outright. forcing him into a primary june 26th. first primary since he was first elected to the senate in 1976. keep in mind, tea party folks targeted bob bennett in 2010 and defeated him.

is the tea party showing signs of renewed strength? remember, utah is the last primary, and they are alive in utah. >> welcome back israel ortega and angela maria kelley and amy kremer, cofounder of the nonprofit american grassroots coalition. thank you, all, for joining me. >> thank you for having us. >> we have tea. i have amy kremer and tea on the set here. i'm really encouraged are youç here, i am fascinated by where the tea party is going now, and as a movement. and so there is clearly evidence there is still life, but certainly seems like a very different movement today, than it was in 2008. just from your perspective, what is the tea party movement? >> we're still here, but we're online. not out on the streets protesting and having rallies.

you don't see the visuals that you saw back in 2009 in early 2010, butñi what happened yesterday in utah, and we were not involved in that race, but it's evidence that the movement is alive and well and crass roots activism still does make a difference. >> you know, that's a fascinating response. we're online. moved into sort of another aspect of organizing and also feels like as i was saying in the segment before, also in office. which is to say that the tea party moved -- what i thought was breakneck speed from kind of local grassroots, rallies about taxes, to people actually running for office. and, in fact, it seemed so fast that i wondered if those candidates were really from that movement. because it happened so quickly. so talk to me. when you think about folks that did those six dozen congressmen, senators who were there, are you all capable as a movement of holding them accountable

legislatively? >> yes, i think we are. and, you know, we're not -- what people need to understand is that this movement was borne out of frustration with both parties, but especially the republican party. they have gotten away from core principles and values. we are focused on electingç fiscal conservatives. we don't touch social issues whatsoever. we can all agree that washington spending is out of control. so we have gotten behind and supported conservative candidates to send to washington and some of them have done a great job and some of them may not have, and we will hold them accountable. you know, we're focused on taking back the u.s. senate, because we believe that there is no one in washington that's causing more loss that harry reid. we want to send more conservatives to washington to be in the united states senate with rand paul and others that were sent there last cycle. that's what we're focused on and we're not giving up, not going

away. about raipgi ireining in washin because washington is out of control. >> you just said we're fiscal conservatives, we don't touch social issues, but it certainly felt like when the new crop of freshmen, who were really out of that movement, it does sound like a bipartisan movement. people might be angry about government spending for a lot of reasons, but the policies, the things that showed up on legislative agenda were cut the epa. go after women's reproductive rights. >> melissa, that's not true. we're not going after women's reproductive rights. >> someone is. >> no, we are focused on -- that is not what this movement is focused on at all. we don't support obama care, and, yes, we want people to have health insurance, but we want the freedom and liberty to make choices ourselves, not having government make choices for us. think aboutç it this way.

while i don't want the government making decisions for my health care, my family's health care, you know, in president obama -- our president right now, it could go the same way if, you know, social conservatives were elected. would the left want that person? the bottom line -- >> let me push back -- >> we want the freedom to choose ourselves. >> let me push on that a little bit. i think that's fair to say. i want to make my own health care choices. it sounds precisely what we would all want. let me suggest two things that feel very different about what occurred in legislation. one, the affordable care act does not make government in the middle of decisions between doctors and patients the most problematic thing, it's before the court right now. is the individual mandate. it says you have to have health insurance, for the most part, people making decisions about my health care are my hmo, not the

government, and the second piece, the number one thing that young women, women of child bearing age have to make choices about early on are contraception, bearing children, the terms under which all of that will happen and so what we saw was that the very conservative elements of the republican party, many of them carrying tea party labels, went directly to government making health care choices, i.e., making the choice to get in the way of me making a contraceptive or abortion choice. >> the thing is, it's been driven this war on women and that the republicans want to get in the middle of that. that is absolutely not it. what that is about is religious freedom. about the first amendment. if these catholic churches and hospitals don't want to perform procedures or provide certain medicines, then that falls under religious freedom. they shouldn't be mandated by the government. that's what this country is founded upon, it's the constitution and that's one of our constitutional rights. there is no woman out there that

doesn't have access to contraception. >> well, that's simply not true. lots of women don't have access -- in fact, in the state of mississippi, you know which is right next door to where i live in louisiana, there are many women who don't, and the differences are pretty systemic around things like race, things like poverty, things like being young, under 18. so, in fact, women don't often have access to those things and let me declare. there are a lot of things about the tea party i like. particularly in its grassroots formulation. i hated the idea that people said, you lost the election, you have to shut up. in a democracy, if you lose an election, you don't have to shut up. all the more reason. >> you hold them accountable. >> and you keep trying. i want to open it up to other guests, but i'm so fascinated by up on the one hand, as much as i like that manifestation of people having the right to speak it feels like what occurred in terms of legislation was very different than that kind of

grassroots social movement. would either one of you like to weigh in? >> i think that the -- i do agree with you, religious freedom argument. maybe wasn't done well by republicans, and i think ultimately, about religious freedom. >> not at the state level. at the state level, when you are introducing transvaginal ultrasounds, shutting down clinics, those things are notçe willingous freedoms, those are active legislative decisions. >> what about catholic charities who now have to be in a position to go against something that is their faith? that's something that particularly for hispanics, i thought, overwhelmingly, they are catholics, i was hoping that would play out and hoping republican conservatives could talk about how it's about religious freedom, i think the tea party movement is stronger when they are talking about fiscal issues and it's part of what they -- what the tea party has to do i sympathy talk about fiscal issues and as long as runaway spending is there and

the deficit continues to grow, the tea party won't go away. >> the candidates don't talk about just fiscal issues, when we saw sharron angle running against a very unpopular harry reid, there was 90% support in the latino community for harry reid. it wasn't that they love harry reid, it was that sharon engel was offending them. recent polling in florida shows that obama is up and that if you match romney with rubbo, it actually widens obama's lead. it's when you match romney with jeb bush that the lead shrinks. why isa)ñ that? because jeb bush is more moderate. i think the tea party has got a problem, not so much the liberals, but within the republican establishment. you see mccain, mitch daniels,

throwing down for dick luber, because he's in trouble. follow the money and that will show youç where the problems a for the tea party. >> we'll continue our tea party, right after the break. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space. which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd, and you still need to retire.

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we let you be everywhere at once. innovations like these are extending our reach so you can extend yours. and now, even at 30,000 feet you can still touch the ground. a conversation about the present and the futureç of the tea party movement, with israel ortega, angela maria kelley and one of the movement's original leaders, amy kremer of the tea party express. the thing that i like about tea party is the idea that everybody in a democracy gets to have a voice, and the thing that happened then after sort of the mid terms was the occupy movement, beginning to have a voice, and i have been critical of and excited about both. but i wanted to share this nbc/"wall street journal" poll from last week about the -- both the occupy movement and the tea party movement, asking when it

comes to the tea party, has it run its course? and you have 43% of americans saying, yep, it's kind of over, but nearly half saying, no, there is more to go. but on occupy, the question the same, has the occupy movement run its course, and have you 51% of folks. so more people thinking occupy has just sort of petered out, run its course. this will seem odd, but i actually wonder if you have advice for occupy? in part, because i felt like part of what occupy didn't do, it was amazing in its capacity to change our conversation, moved in many ways away from a deficit conversation to an equality conversation. they didn't run anybody for office, and not running anybody for 2012. no occupy candidates. do you have advice for occupy? >> that's exactly where i was going to go. like said, we've moved from the streets to online, and actually if you want to effect change, you have to change the players and that's what we've done, is elect what we believe are true

conservatives, true fiscalñr conservatives, so you can't stand on the sidelines and continue to protest and think it's goingç to change anything. they need to get out and run candidates that they believe in. if they truly want to effect change. >> i want to ask you this question. does the tea party end up being good for president obama and for the down-card democrats? you sort of said nobody loves harry reid, but we all got behind harry reid because sharon angle was so problematic. does the tea party put the republican party in a place where it's harder to win a general? >> yeah, i think so. i think obama thinks that and the republican steakment thinks the same thing. that's why you see so much money poured into dick lugar's race. l lugar is way behind. but mccain and mitch daniels coming out support of him and a

lot of money from political super pacs giving money to dick lugar to keep him in office because he appeals to people. same thing for rubio versus jeb bush. hatch wasn't expected to get through the weekend. >> 36 years. >> the fact that he's still alive is consider the a miracle. the lieutenant in texas, the lieutenant governor. two super pac pouring money in to protect him against the tea party challengers. president obama is smiling because the republican party is having to pour money in to keep a republican center alive. >> dick lugar has been in the senate for ç36 years. he has not lived in the state. he doesn't own a home in the state. how can he represent the citizens of indiana when he is never in there. his home in indiana is a marriott.

our taxpayer dollars is pumping up his marriott rewards account. it's ridiculous, he's out of touch. >> you see this a fundamental question of representation, right? but within the context of fundamental representation is politics. is this bad for the republican party or good, does it give it energy? >> i don't think so. i think republicans can benefit, and talking about the deficit, which is $16 trillion, we are at a crossroads in our country's history, and you start getting people who didn't care about politics, who are now going to start jumping in. with the work that i do with the heritage foundation, i'm working with tea party groups and seeing hispanics come out and join forces. a guy i worked with in florida, part of teat party movement, a guy from columbia, the tea party is great and i want to preserve what's so special about this country. so -- >> i hate to interrupt, because i love this conversation i think there is a lot to be said about how the tea party votes

politically, fiscally, and all the ways it impacts us, and the tea party will keep having more. we'll come back in a but in a moment i'm going to take everybody to the dog house, but first it's a time for a preview of "weekends with whitt whitt." we're monitoring a major storaged up the east coast. strong winds, heavy rains and snow to some parts. from france, the presidentialç election, why should you care? the fight over taxing the rich. the numbers are more staggering, how about a 100% income tax? yeah, it's under way. we'll explain that. it's a baseball oddity in a good way, we'll bring you behind the numbers in one game and how it relates to space travel. and my conversation with rachel maddow continues, here's a preview, check it out. favorite spirit, what is it? >> rye whiskey. >> rye whiskey down south last weekend, no. >> are you in the a whiskey

drinker at all? >> no, i'm a tequila girl. >> i knew i loved you for a reason. >> we'll play the whole interview. rye whiskey, tequila on the table? >> i'm a patron drinker, there's no way i could drink rye whiskey. >> i think we got to go to the cant cantina. >> sounds good. our footnote, is going to the dogs. [ e ngine revs ] [ male announcer ] strip away the styling. strip away the rearview monitors, tv screens, bluetooth... and even the cup holders. you know what's left? the only suv's with american-built f-alpha truck frames. the ruggedly capable pathfinder, xterra, armada. ♪ receive up to twenty-five hundred dollars cash back on select nissan suv's.

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♪ [ lauer ] this is our team. and unlike other countries, it's built by your donations, not government funding. and now, to support our athletes, you can donate a stitch in america's flag for the 2012 olympic games in london. help raise our flag, add your stitch at teamusa.org. my footnote becomes more of a paw note, pardon the easy pun. as this issue is nothing to snarl at. puppy politics after all is serious business. and this week, the presidential campaign went to the dogs. for those counting at home, that's yet another pun. we're going to have to go back to january, when top dog obama

axelrod tweeted this picture and wrote, how loving now axelrod's dig was on mitt romney's much-decried 1983 family road trip, in which seamus the dog, rode in a crate atop the station wagon. critics used the story as evidence a cold-hearted unfeeling mitt romney. me, i said if he had made one of his five sons or say his wife ride on theç roof instead of t dog, that would have been cold-hearted. but with the dog in a crate with a windshield? eh? i'm just saying, i don't think it tells me that much about how a president romney would for example handle a missile crisis in north korea. but let's get back to the bones of the campaign decided to dig up this past week. after a conservative blogger reminded us that in the president's memoirs, he spoke of eating dog meat. romney spokesman eric fehrnstrom

played it up, tweeting about a chilling photo. white house press secretary, jay carney, had the inspired retort that it sounded like someone was trying to get out of the dog house, and even senator john mccain got in on the action, tweeting a picture of his son's dog with a quip -- i'm sorry, mr. president, he's not on the menu. all of this as senator scott brown in the race of his life, took the doggie high road with a new blog dedicated to his beloved coda and snuggles. this canine kerfuffle is not some media creation. top-level staffers for the men running for president are building this dog pile. senators are getting in on it. and i just can't help thinking, y'all suck, seriously? all y'all. it's not just one side, i mean seriously, a flea on both your house, in is the kind of stuff a certain insightful candidate might call silly season. between now and november we as a

nation need to make decisions about the morality of our tax code, about the role of the state in the bodies of women. about the care of the elderly, about our men and womenç servi overseas and fighting in our wars. please, let's not make this contest a dog fight, let's end the silly season early this time. let's up the game, let's up the level of respect for the process. or perhaps you know what, i'm going to put this in words that you strategists might be able to understand -- heel, boys, heel! that's our show for today. thank you to israel ortega and amy kramer for sticking around, and thank you to angela who had to leave because her boys had soccer and thanks to you at home for watching. coming up, "weekends with alex witt." is always headed somewhere. to give it a sense of direction, at&t created a mobile asset solution to protect and track everything. so every piece of equipment knows where it is, how it's doing or where it goes next.

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