greenspan who appeared before the financial crisis this morning saying he never knew what he helped perpetrate. >> the notion that we in any way favored any of them or basically were influenced with respect to policy by what they said other than the facts they gave us, which we always evaluated, i saw no evidence of that in my tenure. >> and may not have the favored among the banks because greenspan was working for all of the banks against you. the bankers, of course, the unrepentant conmen being supported by the federal reserve. >> remember that sting experience, how good you felt? >> so good, getting that money for free. getting away with it. here's how the con went down. the bankers were operating under an implicit guarantee from the godfather, the federal reserve,

in the form of guaranteed interest rates, guaranteed cheap money exclusively for the con men. then, chairman greenspan, the godfather, would agree to hold those rates -- let's say 2% -- for as far as the eye could see. the banks, or bankers, the con men, would borrow that money from the federal reserve, let's say 2%, and turn around and lend it back tour, and let's say 6%. that encouraged the patsies, you and me, to be drawn into the con because 6% looks like a pretty low rate. low rates for houses, low rates for cars. heck, you could join a health club, make that into payments, turn that into bonds, and of course promises of a higher-than-average return for those managing teachers and policemens and judge's pension funds that are buying into the con as well. and here exactly is where the con comes in. as you and i both know, the banks had no money. they were getting it from the federal reserve, which is us.

it's funny money. they had no capital to back up their lending. but that did not matter because they also had no risk in the lending. get the lending paid off, they win. and they won big when they did that because they did it with leverage. top manhattan executives alone paid themselves $121 billion in bonuses over the first part of the decade. now, mind you, when the bank loans failed, they knew they were too big to fail. so the rest of us, you and me, would have to bail them out. ignorant electorate, if you will, the patsies who had no idea, and really still don't, understand how badly they are being conned by our government and our banks. once the banks, however, realized there was no losing, the question was, how do we make the con bigger? how do we get more money through this crazy machine so we can get richer? the question -- or the answer, i

should say, is simple, make more loans, more credit card loans. think of all the credit card applications sent to you over the last ten years. more car loans. it wasn't the cars, it bafs because they were running a financing scheme. home loans, you know the narrative. the person most hurt by this con, the home buyers, teacher, pensioners suckered in by the bait of low credit and high returns in exchange of buying worthless toxic assets manufactured by the bankers, and that's why your pension fund was wiped out and the interest on your savings till this day remains around zero in you're a retiree you know what i'm talking about. it's also why you're now drown failing a mortgage on a house that's worth far less than you owe because the bankers were happy to lend you money they did not have to drive up the price of that house because they knew the more loans the better, but no downside for them, so what's next? higher taxes for us, higher interest rates for us to pay for the bailouts while our government that was

theoretically elected by us refuses to cover the stolen money by the con men or fix the system that allows them to continue to perpetrate the con against you and me. the current financial reform legislation proposed by our government would give the godfather, the federal reserve in this case, even more power to regulate the game, the conmen represent by the wall street bankers of course giving our congress the cust action, $344 million so far lobbying against the bill. second only to health care earnings we saw how well it worked out for special interests on health care. home run. guaranteed customer with no reform. i'm sure the bankers will do pretty well as well, all of this acourse assuring our lawmakers -- many do not understand how the con works in the first place that the financial crisis has been fixed of course with an infinite supply of your money. after all, just check out stocks over the past year. we are back over 10,000 on the dow, thanks to that blank check from the federal reserve. so now as we finally heads

towards congress debating financial reform in our country, the question must be ask asked it make sense for our got give more power to a federal reserve and banker con men who unrepentantly caused this crisis and make money on your expense, on the pension side and on the credit side. that's the current plan. give them more power. joining us now congressman alan grayson, democrat from florida who sponsored the audit in the fed bill with ron paul. congressman, pleasure to see you again and on the phone president of fleckenstein capital and more importantly author of -- does an exceptional job of explaining exactly how the godfather greenspan allowed the banks to perplate to con. and bill profited rather handsomely against the conspacek because knowing it was a bubble. >> i would likely more frustrated than i am that our congress' unwillingness to acknowledge or understand the con or address it.

why does it continue to be so difficult and continues to be difficult for ghb our congress to really deal with. >> i've had the benefit of worked with an economist for for four years before i was electsed to congress and that does give me some insight into how this works. i think a lot people on capitol hill didn't how this works just as you just described. clearly they should be listening to your show. >> if you don't understand that the bank's incentive is to lend as much money as possible without repercussions. the only way they make money is lots of gambling effectively and everybody else's incentive is not to try to get screwed and the congress is feeding the money to those who have a directly adverse incentive. they make money by screwing over pensioners and borrowers and our congress is making that more possible, not less possible. how do we find ourselves in this situation? >> well i think that the fundamental problem is campaign finance reform. i'm not trying to change the subject there. >> no, no, i agree with you.

>> we wouldn't have this problem but lobbyists hand out $5,000 checks. >> bill, explain in this simplest sense why it is that alan greenspan is soap directly responsible for creating this con? >> caller: well, first of all, dylan, yours was one of the most succinct problems that i have heard. because greenspan is ultimately responsible because, a, he was the one who put rates at a level that was too low and then refused in the face of all evidence to do anything to try to retard the potential for an asset possible. he was in denial about the equity bubble and turned around and created the stocks -- sorry, the credit/hughes bubble and till this day refuses to accept any responsibility for it. when prices are held at an artificially too low of level by putting too much money in the

system that money seeps it's way into other places, and if you -- it will end up creating a bubble and the more leverage in the bubble, the more dangerous it becomes. greenspan not only made the interest rates too low, he advocated the possibles and curled for the housing bubem importance. he made a speech where he tried to explain why housing could not possibly be a bubble. so it was not just his conduct of monetary policy it was the things, the speeches, he made and he was held in such higher regard, other people adopted his behavior and philosophies. >> you mentioned campaign finance reform in the need to get the lobbyists out because the bank lobbyists $344 million, a cut of the action on the con goes to congress. are you as cynical as that would suggest? that, basically congress knows that they should create transparency and capital requirements which would end the ability to be a con like this but refuses to do so because

they're afraid of losing those checks? >> i think it's worse that than actually. we lived through an economic disaster and now we're slowly recovering from it. we lost 20% of our national wealth in 18 months, the last 18 months of the bush administration. and housing topped out 3 1/2 years ago. not just in florida, but around the country. and nobody has been held responsible, not alan greenspan, not anybody else. in japan they have a way different solution to these kinds of problems. it's called harry carey. >> i think what confuses people that the point, congressman, and having been talking about this incessantly for a few years now most people, if you look at the polling, understand, at least enough of this, to know that congress works for the banks, not for the american people, and yet congress still seems a phenomenally willing to drag its feet in addressing this. harry carey may be interesting or nice, we're probably not going to see it. we live in a democracy where we're told we elect people who look out for our interests and yet the same people are creating

laws that allow this group to con the american people out of the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world with no consequences. are you suggesting special interests have so much control that our government literally is willing to facilitate that level of wealth transfer with no consequences? >> i think that's a fair statement and i would add to what was said before is we've got the creation of the idea of too big to fail under alan greenspan. we've got him gunning the economy through the y2k money supply increase that led to economic disaster within four months. he made mistake after mistake after mistake and what we never hear from any of these people is, i'm sorry. we don't even hear that and i think it's because the system is enslaved -- yes, that's right. and the senate bill unfortunately does that. the senate bill takes whatever possibility there is, of somebody who is actually looking for the consumer, and puts that, into all places, the federal reserve as the one responsible to do that.

the official reserve which is actually run by big banks, it's governed by big banks. they choose the people who occupy the seats of power in each regional bank. >> go ahead, bill. quick. >> caller: if the american banking system forecast directors and higher-ups there were held personally liable for the problems as in brazil for instance and used to be in this country 70 years ago and then you might get a level of oversight in the banks and have them pursue policies that we would find less differous. >> any chance of that, congressman? >> yes. in fact, we're working on a bill to do exactly that and we've examined what happens in other countries. when they make the kinds of mistakes we've seen in the last few years in america and it's not a pretty picture for the people in charge. either on wall street or in the capitol. >> listen, congressman, we appreciate your efforts on our

behalf to correct for the con and get the money back and fix this system. and, bill, thank you, for your journalism and your efforts to make sure people actually understand how this happened, truly. bill fleckenstein, thank you. coming up here on the "dylan ratigan show" -- new details about the company that owns that upper, big branch mine. stock up fivefold. profits doubled. has safety violations exploded. maybe, maybe or maybe not a correlation there. also can obama succeed where clinton failed? news that president obama may unveil an american plan for peace in the middle east. it's only been a few thousand years. perhaps this man is the man. stayfree® with thermocontrol™ quickly wicks moisture away for exceptional dryness. thermocontrol™ only from stayfree®. i switched to a complete multivitamin with more. only one a day men's 50+ advantage... has gingko for memory and concentration.

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welcome back. breaking news. the fbi arresting a california man for making house calls to house speaker nancy pelosi. he made dozens of calls to pelosi's homes speaking directly to her at least once. we know there's been lots of this and i suspect will be more of it. good to know that they're attempting to address it. also this afternoon, news that the president has seriously considering unveiling his own plan for mideast peace, ending dex aides of conflict in his plan and his mind between israelis and palestinians. "washington post" reports that the plan could be announced by autumn of this year. it would drop the previously incremental approach, if you want to call our recent approach that, in the favor of a more ambitious plan embracing borders the right of return for palestinian refugees, the status of jerusalem. they also say the plan would

emphasize confront, iran, which of course is at the top of israel -- or the israeli government's concerns. here to mix it up, blogger and host of the young turks. and columnist for politics.com matt lewis. it's a pleasure to see you both. cheng, how do you come up with a comprehensive mideast plan that targets iran, et cetera, without dealing with fact that china is one of the primary providers of money to iran as an oil buyer, not to mention iran's role as the arms for heroin dealer in afghanistan? are we kidding ourselves to talk with the middle east, if you don't deal with china and russia? >> well, this is already a comprehensive plan if you want to expand it to china, sure, it will complicate it a little bit more but i think that -- >> but i'm not trying to complicate it. i'm saying if iran gets their money from china and you're saying you want to deal with iran, what's your plan if you're not going to deal with china and they're still going to have all the money and still trading heroin for guns with afghanistan, right? am i crazy? >> well, no, you're not crazy. and it's a fair point. but i haven't seen any news

reports that say we're not considering china. >> fair enough. >> and i think bringing iran into this actually boldened, possibly brilliant. hey, we want to resolve this situation with iran, so it gives them a higher incentive to do these peace talks so i think it's a great move by president obama. >> matt, if you look at it from that perspective if iran is the carrot for israel to play, because that's their number one concern, if obama can figure out a way to corner iran or solve the iran problem, does that then give him a -- some sort of a place to work with the israelis relative to land and palestine? >> first of all, dilan let me say that president obama -- part of the rationale for his election is he was supposed to hope and change stuff. and that other countries would respect us more. and in fact what we've seen, whether it's iran or afghanistan or israel, which we have a

historically bad relationship with israel right now compared to decades with relationship with them, he really hasn't done it. so the notion that he might magically fix things in iran and that that might be the carrot that would get israel to sign on board is preposterous. i don't have faith in president obama to get this hostile regime in iran to obviously be behaving. >> cenk, you get the last word here, what is your view of the prospects of an obama-led peace process compared to anybody who has tried it in the past two, three years? >> i honestly don't understand what is -- at all. it makes perfect sense. what does matt want us to do, not try? that's what bush did for eight years and it was an absolute disaster. president obama's plan makes sense. it's the right-wing government of israel that doesn't want to engage in the peace process so they try to find every excuse and then they blame obama, oh

we've got bad relations because we spit in biden's face. >> and oh by the way, that's worst possible thing to do if you want peace. >> so you don't want to give land at all, right, matt? no land at all, so what do you want to do nothing. >> gaza over to the palestinian authority. hamas took control and started launching rockets to israel. that's what happens. >> gaza is under a blockade. they do not have effective control over that. what's your plan, matt? what's your plan? you're going to give no land, nothing to the palestinians and then what do you -- how -- so you want perpetual war. that's a very anti-israel consideration and i think that you should reconsider. >> what america should into, is first of all, not force its allies to give up land and aquip sodic plan for peace. >> so you don't want peace. >> i would probably be an enemy of america because that's how you get land. it's when you're an ally of united states of america that you get nothing. >> move onto another one here,

virginia's republican governor bob mcdonnell declaring april is confederate month. it sparks anger among civil rights leader and others. mcdonnell saying it will promote state tourism leading up to its 150 athanniversary of the civil war next year. the declaration honors the men, they say, who fought in the war but it makes no mention of slavery, for instance. former virginia governor douglas wilder the grandson of slaves himself, called the omission "mind-boggling." matt, your view on -- whether it's virginia or any formally confederate state that would use a confederate celebration, absent the acknowledgement of slavery is a mechanism to generate tourism revenue. >> virginia i think has four ongoing things that they're honoring right now, including organ donation and child safety month. but april i guess was just to create confederate month here in the commonwealth of virginia. my take is i think it is entirely fitting and proper and

to remember and to honor virginians who died fighting in this civil war, but i also agree with governor wilder. we should have you know, what should have happened is also make a mention of the sacrifices and the wrongs of slavery. so i think that it's appropriate to talk about the sacrifices virginian's made, but just like governor gilmore did years ago you've got to mention slavery and you've got to mention the wrongs that were committed. >> cenk? >> the part i love about this is that mcdonnell said he had a great business plan for bringing more business into virginia, and his great plan is redneck tourism? i mean who could have come to this? i mean that's ridiculous. he said slavery was not included in the commemoration because it was insignificant. >> the next money is green too i bet the governor would tell you. >> a lot of folks in this country i think would probably take umbrage to the notion that it's redneck tourism.

>> if you haven't taken umbrage into this show you're not watching. >> i'm offended. >> listen umbrage is taken across the board. cenk, real quick, something off of your chest. >> he said that slavery was not significant and that's why did not include in the commemoration. basically hanging up a sign saying, i am for white people. and he's obviously appealing to his base, every political analyst agrees and it's kind of sad that the republican base loves that kind of talk and wants to admit talks of slavery and celebrate the confederacy. >> he didn't say slavery wasn't significant. he said many factors that contributed to the civil war. he's actually right about that, but look i'm a conservative and i think that he should mention slavery. >> he did. >> he said slavery wasn't significant to virginia? >> he said slavery was not significant in the context of this commemoration within the context of the confederacy. of course it's significant. what do you mean it's the confederacy. >> i think of nothing else the omission of slavery from the

celebration of the confederation into the civil war will probable cause more people to learn more about the confederation and slavery because of contexts like this so heck, we'll take it. still ahead the pentagon says it can't find its own copy -- surprise, surprise -- of that graphic apache video from iraq showing u.s. forces killing innocent civilians with a 33 millimeter gun. including the pursuant shooting of one of the injured participants well after it was clear they were no longer armed after they decided to shoot them again to ensure they were dead. that, by the way, the army can't find the tape. find the tape. that's today's "busted." i ju can't wait to see all those crunchy flakes in action. i hope i get a chance to put two scoops!™ of raisins in some boxes. you know what will really get us in the spirit? ♪ 99 boxes of raisin bran crunch ♪ ♪ if you're nice to me i'll share some with you ♪ ♪ you take one down ( and pass it around ) ♪ ♪ 98 boxes of raisin bran crunch ♪ three tasty ingredients, one great combination.

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maybe it's because of the recession. no one knows for sure. though doctors say anecdotal friends their parents say concerned about finances. also, historically, bad economic times have signaled the drop in birthrates. during the great depression, for instance, there were two children per woman, a big plunge from the roaring '20s, what the number was then i'm not sure but it was bigger. the oil crisis in the late '70s, dropped to 1.7, the lowest its ever been and in 200 it dropped. the last of the bubble years. curiously enough doctors also report a spike in vasectomies in major sporting events. no joke. guys apparently use the few days of recovery time after the procedure as an excuse to lie around the house watching march madness or in the case of this weekend, the masters. still ahead the case against one of the democratic party's most controversial senators, and to think she's in charge of america derivative regulation,

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these guys that's still in there, they're the ones and you know a lot of my very good buddies. people don't understand the comm camaraderie between goal mind meaners. we would lay in front of a tank or anything to protect the other. >> welcome back. those the words of a survivor of the mine collapse in west virginia. the headline from a press briefing less than an hour ago, dangerous methane gasses in the mine. still too dangerous for searchers to enter and attempt any form of rescue. today rues have been drilling holes in the uner big branch mine trying to release some of that poisonous gas.

the governor says only "sliver of hope now that the miners still in there will be found alive." meantime, more questions about mine owner massey energy and its ceo don blankenship as the company, more than doubled its profits in '09 to $104 million. the stock actually up fivefold from 11 to 55, simultaneous to a massive spike in violations and an incredible political campaign to disable the west virginia government for enforcement, particularly from the unions. at the upper big branch alone, 197 violations in '08. then profits doubled. and the stock price went up fivefold. and there were 515 violations in '09. so about five times as many, four times as many. 124 violations in just the first three months of this year. they say it's the first four months this the data, but we haven't -- it hasn't been four months so that's impossible. serious violations include

ventilation problems, excessive dust and methane gas -- all of which obviously kills people. massey has aggressively fought off hefty fines, by the way, by drowning federal regulators in appeals because coal mining is so profitable, it costs about half of natural gas. you can save a lot of money for lawsuits and lobbying. a bill established to improve mandatory safety standards for coal mining has been stalled in the senate since the last session. it's called the "s" miner act and the house of representatives have passed it but never brought up for a vote in the senate. someone in the senate claims it's because the democrats only had 51 votes at the time. and president bush had threatened to veto this bill. although it doesn't explain why it hasn't been brought up since considering the current president is not president bush, but is president obama and it's been a year and a half. joining us now ellen smith, publisher of "the mine safety and health news." she's been covering mining issues since 1987. why has this "s" miner act not

been brought for a vote in the senate? >> dylan, that's a question for the senate. i mean, one of the things that the "s" miner act deals with is a lot of health issues that weren't addressed in the 2006 miner act. that was passed. that actually has led to us having these rescue chambers that they're hoping -- these four miners got to down in this mine. but dylan, earlier, you know it was interesting, your guest was talking about banking oversight and holding directors personally reliable, and it got meaninging i wonder if we need to do this with mining companies at this point? i mean, massey has had problems, and who goes to jail? who gets the criminal sanctions?

it's foremen, it's supervisors and we're not moving up the chain of command. so just, you know, food for thought there on possible changes, but -- >> but corporate executives -- >> -- as far as what's before the senate. >> whether it's a meaning executive or the banking executive or folks at toyota who were selling cars that they were getting infinite complaints about, as long as there's no personal it's much easier to let people die or transfer risk to governments than it is to have to deal with anything -- you know it's expensive. like, if you actually created mining safety, understanding that coal costs about half of what natural gas costs, it's way more profitable as a power generation fuel, you're talking about really cutting into profits if you make these things safe, you know? >> well, i don't know, dylan. we did a study i worked on an ilo report years ago, and we did a study on safe and profitable mines. and what we found out was that the most profitable mines in the united states were the most productive mines and they were the safest mines and those were energy west out west. formally utah power and light.

some console mines and an ohio valley -- and a mine that's now closed in ohio. but -- because they ran out of coal reserves. but you know basically your theory is not really true. it doesn't hold up. that you've got workers comp goes up, insurance goes up, you've got legal fees. i mean i'm surprised that the stockholders aren't screaming about this. i mean, why is massey paying all of these penalties? that's right. because these profits could go into the stockholder's pocketings and they're not. they're going to pay civil penalties to the government or criminal fines and sanctions. so it really does surprise me that the stockholders themselves are not holding the directors more responsible as well. >> yeah at the end of the day though, the fact that they're not held responsible because once again the government has accommodated the corporate parent company at the expense of everybody else, the power of big coal immune from a lawsuit,

families must prove deliberate intent. i imagine it's harder to prove that you deliberately jammed a mine full of people and then killed them. misconduct, misconduct and negligence don't qualify so there no lawsuit here, fair? >> well, that -- and that's a state law. that's a -- you know, these are worker comp laws, they vary from state to state. you know i'm in new york state, so the people would argue another way in new york state. but in west virginia, yeah, it's really hard for those workers, if not impossible, to sue the parent company. you know though in the aracoma fire that was a massey mine there was a settlement. i mean the families did sue and the companies settled that case. it's a closed settlement. we don't really know. and there were massive criminal finds in that. but, again, you know the head of the company was not necessarily held liable, although certainly his reputation sullied as it is

in this one. but you know this accident might see changes in that, i would think. >> then again we thought therefore going to be changes in the financial system after $23 trillion was taken out. but maybe we'll have more luck with the mines. >> there you go. >> thank you so much, ellerngs for the time again. moving now to a political fight shaping up to be a litmus test for the heart and soul of at least a portion of the democratic party. which special interests do they want to work for? arkansas incumbent blanche lincoln facing a heated opposition, not just from any government tea partiers who effectively work for those who would deregulate things like mining regulation or bank requirements, as opposed to the special interest that control the democrats, which are the ones, of course, the bankers and health care companies that get them to give away our money. either way we lose but it's just a matter of who's taking it. members of our own party, in fact, say her political ads prove she's not a democratic, that's for sure. >> that ad is paid for by a bunch of washington, d.c. unions and they're right, i'm not working for them, i work for

you. >> some in my party didn't like it very much but i approve this message because i don't answer to my party. i answer to arkansas. >> apparently arkansas' being picked off by bankers. i didn't realize this. on top of her swipe at the unions, her opposition to cap and trade and assertions of political independence democrats, most upset with her split health care votes. you'll recall she voted for the main bill but was 1 of 3 senate democrats who voted against the reconciliation fixes that win with it. and you thought that washington politicians were two-faced. democratic lieutenant governor bill halter is mounting a primary challenge for blanche lincoln's senate seat. he joins us now from little rock, arkansas. what makes you think that she's vulnerable from the left from the democratic side of the aisle. >> i think that she's vulnerable to an arkansas democratic who will sound on the side of hard working arkansas families. and you know, what dylan, it's

working. the fact is we're closing these polls. the enthusiasm, the excitement out there is palpable and it's -- you know we've got a head of steam on us and we're looking forward to the primary on may 18th. >> what is your point of view on, for instance, the bank bailouts and the financial regulation, which blanche lincoln is in charge of the derivative reform, and as we know that's the secret chamber in which the banks gamble wildly and we pay off the bets and apparently nobody wants to bring it into public. you think that's a good job to leave that in secret? >> i absolutely don't believe that. but point out first she voted for the wall street bailout despite trying to tell people that she's voted for money for wall street. received over $1.2 million in financial companies, securities companies and so forth. and you're right, she has -- she's on the agriculture committee, she chairs the agricultural committee which has oversight of a derivative's legislation. she's bon that committee for over ten years, and you know, did not provide any oversight of

derivatives and of course as you pointed out earlier in the show, that was a key part of what put us in this financial mess that we're in. >> and they -- and no one at this point in our congress has had the ability to actually come up with the plan to regulate it because the banks apparently control the legislative process. how do you interpret the yes vote and then the no vote on health care, and where do you come down on it? >> well, i said that i would have amended the initial health care bill to make it stronger, make it take on insurance companies even more, but then voted for -- i would have voted for the reconciliation bill. you know senator lincoln voted for the cornhusker kickback in the initial senate bill, and then by voting against the reconciliation bill, she voted against removing that cornhusker kickback. there were improvements in that bill but she clearly didn't didn't want to make them. >> the truth is, and you and i both know this, there is a stunning level of dissatisfaction with all incumbent politicians in this country -- democrat or republican. >> yep. >> at the same time the unknown,

the unfamiliar inherently generates distrust in people. why should they trust you and why should they trust that you are not anymore bought by special interests and the people that may be thrown out for simply being an incumbent, how do you manage that factor when you're running for office like this? >> it's a great question, dylan, address it directly. i've taken on special interests here in arkansas. you know i've fought hard for a massive scholarship program for arkansas students. we had to overcome special interest to get it done. we did so and now this year, arkansas families are going to be benefit to the tune of $5,000 a year for each student that goes to an arkansas college. >> and let me ask you a question, though. >> sure. >> because everybody says they take on special interests and i'm not disputing perhaps you do across the board. >> right. >> but let's say you're taking on all special interests where do you get your money to run your campaign then? >> i tell you we're very gratified by the fact that the vast majority of our campaign finances comes from individuals. over 40,000 of them so far and the average contribution has

been $30 a person, dylan. now, that says that i'm not bought by those special interests. you can look by contrast where senator lincoln is getting her campaign funds. but look, the fact is, i'm standing here ready to take on those special interests who have taken positions on legislation, which is contrary to what they want, and i'll continue do that in d.c. >> i get it. i just eye don't see any politician in this country can keep their job quite -- i'm not trying to make a joke, the system is set up for special interests who control the politicians and it's very -- and if you get on elected you have to spend all of your time raising money from special interests. it's like a hazing process. i don't see how you get around that but i wish you all the best in your efforts. we certainly support them. in town square today a showdown of millionaire versus millionaire. we'll get to that. but just ahead the pentagon apparently lost its copy of that phenomenally graphic video that explicitly shows u.s. forces

using .30-millimeter guns to kill people. that's today's "busted." millionaires versus millionaires why a group of activists want to end the bush era tax cuts? to win. but sometimes even rivals realize they share a common goal. america's beverage companies have removed full-calorie soft drinks from schools, reducing beverage calories by 88%. together with schools, we're helping kids make more balanced choices every day. ♪ ♪ three decadent flavors. 60 calories. it's me o'clock. time for jell-o.

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we're back with "busted." first the military seems to have a hard time finding a very important piece of video. we're talking about the tape from wiki.

shows two journalist and being gunned down by an apache helicopter in 2007. the u.s. military says its cauch the tape, which would fully authenticate the images you are seeing and may well have seen on wikileaks or elsewhere, apparently the tape cannot be found. the world from central command, no reason to hold onto that video but now doing everything that they can to find the footage. according to wikileaks different tapes that shows u.s. military was used to kill innocent civilians. next, a boss that is partially a kudos. first buy party organizers say the police rallies for next day's tax protest. president of freedom works says volunteers at the rallies to remove anyone displaying racist behavior. as you probably know, if you watch this show, we love that part. we have been advocating that from the get-go. what we don't like, however, is that there are tea party folks saying that they are doing this, that they've had to launch this

initiative, because liberal infiltrators are planning to sneak into the rallies and pretend to be racists. trying to taint the movement. in other words, they still do not get it. tea party leaders refuse to accept the reality that a few fringe activist at events in fact have behaved like racist and bigots. they've hurled racial epithets at civil right's legends. they've spat upon serving lawmakers. they have used explicitly antigay slurs. week that the tea party leaders root out the real extremists within their movement instead of looking for their imaginary liberal boogeymen to try to get riled up. up next today's town square why a group of millionaires are fighting to end the tax cuts that help millionaires? and then on "hardball," chris matthews talking to -- about his new biography about

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showdown of the rich. tax freedom day. friday, the day when theoretically all americans have earned enough cash to satisfy their federal, state and local tax obligation and now a group of millionaires is calling on congress to end the bush era tax breaks. something they say helped make them wethjeffer at the expense of struggling americans and our future as a result of the

massive national debt created through the wars obviously and the medicare part "d" giveaway to the drug companies and the voting elderly. joining us now mike lappin. donates his tax refund each year to the organization directing it to fight for tax policies that benefit all americans. nice to see you, mike. how would you define a fair tax policy for america? >> well, you know, a decade ago -- or in 2001, george bush came into office inherited a $5.1 trillion ten-year deficit -- or surplus, excuse me. and he decided to give a lot of that away in tax cuts to people who didn't need them, didn't ask for them. well, some of them did ask for them, but we didn't. those tax cuts have cost $2.5 trillion. about half of that went to people, like me and the top 5% of wealth earned income. and we don't think that's good policy.

we don't think that was the right choice then and we think it's inexcusable that those tax cuts are continuing now. they were set to expire in 2010 and we're trying to make sure through this tax fairness pledge that they do actually exfire 2010. >> there's a huge difference between the tax rate between those who are wealthy and invest money and those who are poor and have to work for their money. we tax workers vastly higher rates than we tax the wealthy in this country on the belief that the lower taxes on the wealthy will insennivize them to invest in our future we we know that all we've created is a gambling parlnornew york for them to use as gambling. how do you deal with that? >> to the extent that tax cuts help create jobs at all which is debatable certainly tax cuts for lower income people are much more effective at creating jobs. >> why? >> well because they spend all

of their money. you know, they don't put it into savings account or send it offshore, whatever else. the other thing is government spending is much more effective at creating jobs. there was a very good study out by peter orszag and joseph stiglets recently that covers that. responsiblewealth.org, people can go in, put in three simple numbers from their tax return, their total taxable income, capital gains, dividends. it'll tell you how much you saved from the bush tax cuts in 2009. we're asking people to pledge to give that away, and if possible, give it to tax fairness organizing to make sure that we have more progressive taxes. it's actually kind of fun to play with. i encourage your listeners to go to responsiblewealth.org and check it out. but imagine that you had half a million dollars in income. >> yeah. >> 200,000 of that is capital gains, 50,000 is dividends. >> yeah zbloouf saved $25,000

last year. >> yeah i got it. >> just from the bush tax cuts. >> yeah it's much easier to make money than rigging the government and we all than and that's why it is so popular. i am dylan ratigan. "hardball" picks up right now. confederacy of dunses. let's play "hardball." good evening i'm chris math eyes. in washington leading off tonight the real republican leadership, mark your calendar today, april 7th, 2010, the new republican party showed its head today. move over mitch mcconnell urascal. move over mr. chip and pugjohn boehner. mau may have the titles but crowns in your party are now in the heads of sarah palin. michelle backman, glenn beck, rush limbaugh and shawn hannity. today on daytime television we saw the wing team dream attempt palin, balkman and hannity.

they have the star power not the backroom schmooz of capitol hill and davis of republicans. cries of succession. got 600,000 men killed back in the 1960s. like jim crowe and george corley wallace. what the world needs now more of this talk, virginia's new republican governor bob mcdonnell has declared april to be confederate history month. to read his proclamation you would think that the war was a joyous war of independence. great stuff all around. got overwhelmed by too much firepower up north. not a word about slavery being the issue or the election of abraham lincoln causing succession. former governor doug water of virginia says the confedate history month stuff is mind-boggling. we're going to talk about what just happened. and will the real john mccain please stand up? never considered himself a maverick. could someone please remind him that he boasted about his