in d.c. outside of political rhetoric and we're going to find out why next will follow secretary of state hillary clinton as she unveils his seven point five billion dollars package an aid to pakistan but what all this money really improve pakistan's image of the u.s. a research associate robbia choudhry and we'll look into the wal-mart ties ation of marijuana if the controversial substance is legalized could it become corporate ties and put mom and pop growers out of business and then we'll debate the more reality of assisted suicides it's an old issue the many people are taking a fresh look at some ask someone who is pro-life why people don't have the right to choose what to do with their own lives including choosing when they want to end them but first. the big story making headlines today is what the washington post calls a top secret america a hidden world that's growing beyond control and intelligence industrial complex although they didn't exactly use that word one that was created in response to the

terrorist attacks on nine eleven and has now become so large so expensive so complicated that we have no idea if it's working partly because it's all able top secret classified now we have no idea whether america is any safer thanks to the fact that there are so many agencies so many intercepted phone calls e-mails documents so much overlap that it's impossible to weed out what actually poses a threat from the average american's correspondence with a coworker or friend now this is why nobody stopped the christmas day bomber or the fort hood shooter but is this breaking news no will this report stop the government from continually expanding their national security web no and that's the scary part well here to discuss it with me is investigative journalist and labor activist tim shahrukh tim thanks so much for being here to tell me this because everybody is just acting like this washington post report which they've investigated for two years is breaking news but this is been going on for

a long time for seven years you yourself have been reporting on it so why isn't treating it like this because it's the washington post because it's the home paper of the capital of the united states everything in the post went from page like to get huge spread but you're right it's not a news story i first started reporting on the outsourcing of intelligence my first story rather than two thousand and five and i developed that story in two thousand and four so i would say the post is about five years behind in reporting this i think it's a sad commentary on the post that they haven't gotten to it until now but i must say that the reporters are very good dana priest is one of their best and there's a lot in this report especially this morning story and i applaud. there is definitely there's a lot in this report but i feel like everyone is focusing on the bureaucratic processes here at hand all the money that's being wasted but is anybody asking you know are they ignore even larger issue at hand which is the fact that there actually is

a top secret america one that is completely like i said put under the veil of of classified of top secret one that is the american people know nothing about well one of the interesting parts of this article i think that people are going to see when they look at the web site that they've put up is how many insulation secret installations there are around the country i spent a fair amount of time in new mexico and you drive from albuquerque to santa fe it's beautiful drive over on the right see this great big building which is an old mansion guarded building which is now one of these centers where they integrate intelligence with local police information and a lot of people don't know that you know local police and law enforcement get intelligence from u.s. intelligence agencies and so we've created an enormous surveillance state in this country since nine eleven but do you think that they're looking at the wrong people are the american people now the enemy because it started you know after nine eleven it started with bush wiretaps but now it seems like everything we do every phone

call we make every click of the mouse that we make is being monitored and it's contents it's the american people that they're monitoring on top of everyone else on top of all of these websites around the world in iraq and afghanistan and these analysts don't even don't even speak those languages they're inexperienced while if you remember when the controversy broke out about president bush's national security agency spying program they first called it a terrorist surveillance program and president bush assured americans that only they were only listening to a telephone call between an american i want and al qaeda member on the other end well that turned out to be complete nonsense because they were basically listening to everybody and probably what's happened is that the n.s.a. very powerful. the agency just north of here in columbia maryland they try to listen and they try to record basically every telephone call made on earth and then they download in this huge database are now building enormous data center in your salt lake city utah where they're going to store all this stuff and then when they

need to break it out and listen to some of it analyze it that's what they'll do so we're just recording everything basically and so there's just too much information way way too much information and too many people too many things and i think they have basically lost control of it and that's part of the focus of this washington post story but how did they ever even rein it in perhaps like you said they had they knew a beforehand about the christmas day bomber they could have looked into records for walter reed to know about the fort hood shooter but how do you weed out what's important when is it when it when there is so much information at hand as well. i haven't been in intelligence but i think that we part of what we're missing is human intelligence in america we've spent huge amounts of money trillions of dollars on sophisticated overhead systems that can see everything can hear everything but we haven't developed the human intelligence of people to get intelligence on the ground listening to people you know maybe perhaps you know if

an american young american kid could infiltrate and get into afghanistan in two thousand and money remember when the so-called american taliban was captured and grievously mistreated by american forces i might add anyway if a kid like that can get in why can an agent you know i just don't think we've really developed the human intelligence and it would some ways we've relied far too much on this technical expertise and that's probably the that's part of the problem where the contractors come in because they come in and they promised the world one of the big projects at the n.s.a. that completely failed one of the biggest contractors it was called s.a.i.c. it's based here in washington now while they spend about five billion dollars on a system to track all the phone calls and analyze them the thing completely failed and they started a new program who got the contract s.a.i.c. because they had done it before and they just decided to pass it on to them and i think these companies come in there and they promise you know all these secret things that they can do and promises that they can track everything and they can do

it but it is not inevitable at let's say in this age when we have things like cyber warfare that are now this is a term that's now being thrown around there's a lot of debate as to whether it's real or not even fighting in this case but there's already a cyber command center there's a lot of money being thrown at it so and essence are we just creating a military industrial complex but now an intelligence industrial complex one that's also going to grow completely out of control thanks to the fact that everything is done on the web now they don't want to use old school recall where spying tactics anymore well. that's part of it yes it's been there has the state's been built but i think i think it's really out of control and there's no way to have oversight over it because you know the talk about in the article today that even the top person coming in to take over intelligence does normally get its hands around this thing you know so there's just there's like i think there's too many agencies trying to do too many things and too many companies promising too much and i think

in large part we can also say that this is part of the american attitude the american way is to try to you there is a quote in the article so try to over do everything we want to oversize everything if we want to do it then we want to go big or go home not necessarily realizing that we might be going about it the wrong way and that having the larger security detail or having more armored vehicles and national security bling as they call it doesn't mean that that's making our country any safer i thank you so much for being here jim thank you are we taking a break but don't go anywhere there's still a lot more to come in tonight's show it's no secret that the u.s. is suffering from employment numbers yet here in d.c. where the lawmakers and government workers live and employment seems to be a non issue in fact most people in washington think the country's you're in just fine so why is that because radio host tom hartman to get his views on d.c. from outside the beltway right after the break.

still to. stick close to see. chris. democrats and republicans have been battling battling it out over whether or not to extend unemployment benefits for weeks now their partisan bickering is left the fate of two point five million long term jobless americans at risk and obama had a few words to say to them about that today. these leaders in the senate who are

advancing a misguided notion that emergency relief somehow discourages people from looking for a job should talk to these folks that attitude i think reflects a lack of faith in the american people because. is it a lack of faith though or is it a lack of understanding the fact that washington just can't relate to the rest of america in fact according to a new political poll forty five percent of quote washington elites said the country and the economy are headed in the right direction while only twenty five percent of the general population said they felt that way and that's because business and the economy in d.c. are booming all the rest of america suffers so is there any way to bring washington back to reality already host tom hartman joins us from oregon tom now it's clear right now that there is

a disconnect between washington and between the rest of america but is this something that has always existed and people are only noticing it now because the economic situation. no i think it's really along a far worse than it's ever been back. prior to the one nine hundred fifty s. to the to what dwight eisenhower warned us about the permanent military industrial complex lobbying was very very rare there were only a few hundred lobbyists in d.c. of any consequence for example when the reagan came into office now just in the ten years the bush administration lobbying in d.c. went from being a one billion dollar industry to almost a four billion dollars a year industry an article that was completely omitted in a recent article by politico titled reality gap us startles d.c. bones it's like the entire corporate media wants to pretend that corporations giant transnational corporations jam monopolies have not taken over d.c. that the whole focus of the article was you know these jobs that are being created

by this bureaucracy that's nothing compared to the money that's been thrown around by lobbyists but can we say that a leaves have always run washington be they the corporate elites of the political only if they're still not the average american. well for a long time and i'm in while arguably there been periods certainly the robber baron era when that was not the case but for much of american history people going to congress anyway the house of representatives have been average americans the number of millionaires in the house of representatives is typically until recently the last couple of decades you know been well below half the son of that was called the millionaire's club and even there there's a lot of people who are millionaires what we've seen really since since reagan's administration. in very very large form is the rise of money in politics and along with that money and people and you keep in mind is just three years ago the supreme court struck down the mccain feingold provision that forbade wealthy people from funding their own campaigns so. although you know twenty years ago that was

not the books but there weren't that many wealthy people interested in politics for one so i really think it's far worse now than it's ever been ok will you say that in large part it's not only the bureaucracy on the federal jobs that obama has created it's also the corporate jobs but in that case and because a lot of people are criticizing obama right now because they're saying that he's building up the federal workforce to such an extent that it's creating this this federal bubble that won't always exist so if it's the corporate bubble the private bubbles that better. no i. can tell excellent point the the two bubbles that i'm concerned about in d.c. that are driving the employment rate and neither one of which was discussed and in politico or has been largely discussed anywhere except in today's washington times washington post front page article on our won this huge national security bubble that as erupted since nine eleven with thousands tens of thousands of people in

d.c. in jobs that literally did not exist the year that george bush was sworn into office and very well paid jobs at that i can say i know one of you know one of my nieces is one of those people in the well so it was jobs and the second is the lobbying business where lobbyists started out at three hundred thousand dollars a year so there's money flooding into d.c. it was just bureaucrats it was just government employees with you know seventy eighty thousand dollar your paychecks and pension you wouldn't see the kind of housing inflation you would see the kind of high end restaurant explosions that you're seen in d.c. this is an orgy of you know feeding frenzy on on the in the military side and the defense side the security side and on the on the lobbying side so what does that mean then tom for the rest of america if the if the lobbying and defense is all so strong right here in this washington bubble i

keep using that word then how is it that lawmakers are supposed to represent their constituents back home how are they are they they're supposed to defeat these interests right here and focus on you know the average americans that are losing their jobs and they need their unemployment benefits extended. it's becoming almost impossible for them to do it alone you've got a few senators from small states like bernie sanders for example he's from vermont there's six hundred thousand people in the state you know he's elected every six years he even pretty much gets a chance to meet everybody in the state you know during his term but you get senators from the larger states i mean look at what's happening in california where carly fiorina is going to come in you know with tens of millions of dollars of her own money and lots of lots of other corporate money and there's no way that barbara boxer can beat all those people in that state and so increasingly as a result of this awful misbehavior by or supreme court increasingly money rules in d.c. and it's not a good thing for democracy or for america do you think that in some sense that

might give politicians a a false sense of security because they're surrounded by all these people here that are also doing well that have jobs in washington that are looking up to a new gallup poll says that eighty five percent of d.c. residents improve the job the barack obama is doing i think it's pretty obvious across america that that's not the case on and in fact all we see is this anti of incumbent anger we see a tea party candidates rising up so do they do they get a false sense security here yeah i think so if if we were seeing the same kind of jobs creation all across america like franklin roosevelt did with the c.c.c. in the w.p.a. in the one nine hundred thirty s. your early thirty's where every community suddenly saw it solved you know. you know with a lot of people working and then people would be saying as they did roosevelt keep in mind is the only guy has been elected president four times in a row in the united states history of people would be really really happy but right

now all the money is flowing in d.c. because of these green court rulings that and because of george bush's giant seemingly permanent security state. well it definitely seems like two different worlds here in washington d.c. where everything is booming and the rest of america where the recession is still very strong and people are indeed suffering tom thanks so much for joining us and slowly are coming up on tonight's show will have we do not mix one o one smaller california marijuana growers are up in arms over the possible masters of mass distribution of the once taboo drug so what will big distribution centers do for the mom pot marijuana shops we'll speak with an expert on the issue after the break. still to. get through the most news in. the. congress.

hungry for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. well everybody knows by now about california's attempts to legalize marijuana through prop nineteen but there's a new twist to this story and see the u.s. patent and trademark office created an entirely new division for naming strains of medicinal marijuana so you can imagine dispensaries and growers all over were rushing to get their favorite strains named and sold only to then find out that the u.s. patent office ultimately reversed their decision so sorry growers that means terms like. mello yello none of those can be trademarked anymore and surely this is got to be a load of one of the most notorious pot smokers in the country snoop dogg for years

the devil o.-g. has made a name for himself and his marijuana and let's not forget the back in the ninety's dr dre were all about the chronic and since then he's gone on to come up with some very creative names for other strains of marijuana things like kush and. he even had a cameo on showtime series and we need to give a very creative name to a stay at home mom supply. but you go well that's what we're about to. go. to the bill. we like it but it is really like. yup you heard right the milk we know you can't trademark that either now i'm no expert on the subject but i have to admit that i kind of think it's better this way let the freedom of expression continue to rain now on that same subject a large part of the reason the prop nineteen has such

a good chance of passing now more than ever in the usually freedom loving california is the economy marijuana advocates are and experts are claiming that this could bring one billion dollars in tax revenue if the people vote to make recreational use legal but for the mom and pop growers across the state prop nineteen is a bit of a catch twenty two because they're fearing the wal-mart as they ship the mcdonald is ation of wheat there for a bit if wheat is legalized industrial scale gardens will simply put them out of business so is this going to be the next corporate playground in america the next industry that people will no longer be able to control well here to discuss it with me here the executive director at the national organization for the reform of marijuana laws thanks so much for being here today tell me this first explain exactly what the wal-mart is ation or mcdonnell is ation of weed it really means sure well i'm california now there are some of these dispensaries that do fifty thousand dollars a day twenty million dollars a year

a business and so some people in the medical cannabis business are afraid that marijuana is going to go corporate. ok ok i get it but they're afraid that it's going to go corporate in the sense that philip morris is going to come in and buy all the land in california and they're going to monopolize the industry or they're afraid that marijuana is going to be sold in cute little packages and happy meals well i think the probably really more for the to be. model more than anything else and well they should back the one nine hundred seventy of the tobacco companies it's a perfect business model they own land they grow and buy vegetable matter they roll it up and they sell it to us in the form of cigarettes so yeah they're definitely out there ready to maybe take part of that market but do you think this is a bit of a catch twenty two for a lot of small growers in california because on the one hand this should be for them you would assume great that now it's no longer the medicinal use and it's the recreational use of marijuana but at the same time it threatens to put their business out of business so are they caught in the having to choose whether they

want to be a business man or woman or whether they want to be a marijuana advocate absolutely the greatest example is in county in places like that in california have been growing marijuana for decades now they're having meetings about what's going to happen when this product this vegetable matter drops down to just a little bit of about its point of production plus taxes not four hundred dollars an ounce for vegetable matter so they see the end coming and realizing they're probably going to have to develop a wind tourist model if you're going to go up there and consume cannabis otherwise most of us are going to go to a store and buy it so they're afraid that their entire livelihood all but will be ruined by risk and what would a wind wind tour model look like probably have a little more munchies than the current wine tours too but it would be the same model that if you're really and it's just a small percentage of the market that would be aficionados enough to want to go so far as to see how these products are produced partake in the same thing with wine very few people go on wine tours but so do you think that can bring more money if

now people are going to go and they're going to buy even more goods because instead of just coming to you to buy marijuana from you they also have to pay for a place to live for for all of the food that all of the munchies are going to necessitate the for everything else that comes in that that's going to be one part of it for sure but that larger corporate model where someone is growing a very large amount bringing the prices down very low those small farmers won't be able to compete and bittersweet leave that. it's rapacious capitalism ok but are they are these farmers seriously against prop rank team do they not want this to happen or well where do they stand just collected in a recent trip to california bumper sticker that says don't legalize marijuana save home bocconi. a little over a great example of that ok do you think that we it will be safer for the public if it becomes to be regulated i don't want a much larger scale one presumes so regarding things like potency right now a child or an adult has no idea where they're getting low potent or super high

potent pot just like we have with alcohol clearly you would know the potency of the pot and just like to use a brand name if you open up a bottle of budweiser and it's not budweiser well both you and budweiser have a big problem on their hands which gets addressed responsibly so arguably yes marijuana will become safer if it's legal so that's a good thing so this is a farmers can't necessarily find themselves arguing against that there are many many good parts about legalizing marijuana no doubt about it one of them is safe for liability control taxation but the small farmer there in jeopardy ok tell me this currently the laws in california there's a very murky very shady process of when it comes to finding out where the marijuana was actually came from how it actually got to the dispensary which is bizarre because if it's already illegal medically then why is that even necessary so are we going to predict maybe the same thing happening a shady process continuing if it's recreationally and legalized well one hopes of

this going to alleviate that gray area where somebody now is going to a doctor in california for one hundred dollars credit card or fifty dollars cash thank you very much you can get a recommendation for writer's block so it's rather farcical now in california maybe four out of five medical consumers in california are actually gaming the system so if they actually became legal it would probably just be a larger good thing and not. necessarily stop patients from having access and we really believe that normal that patients and adults should always be able to grow their own at home just like a beer consumer can brew their own beer just long as they don't sell it but doesn't that also bring problems into the way of people start growing their own marijuana maybe they're not doing it correctly then maybe someone's going to get hard and then it gets a bad name which is no doubt that is definitely happening people grow marijuana big but it's because the vegetable matter is worth three hundred four hundred five hundred dollars an ounce that we're seeing the kind of crime associated with it if it was just cost of production plus taxes we're talking pennies on the pound so

they'd be not be a whole lot of criminality associate with things like parsley and tomatoes and broccoli sprouts all right so how does that the drug war come into play here because obviously that's a large bomb right now in a lot of people are saying at this ultimately could it kill off many of the cartels in mexico because this is their number one money making crop considering how much the federal government for forty years from coal complaining about the south american situation with drugs in militarizing our border all of that is created by america's want to consume these drugs so right now there is no border war over getting beer across our border or wine across our border or tobacco products or pharmaceutical products because they're legal and they're taxed so why does that make the cartels shift to cocaine shift to heroin there's an argument that they could well do that absolutely criminals being criminals they'll find the lowest common denominator but at least they don't we won't have criminalizing thirty to forty million americans and arresting somebody every thirty seven seconds for

marijuana well definitely if prop nineteen passes it could keep a lot of people out of jail and save taxpayers a lot of money in california but at the same time that these small mom and pop growers that currently depend on this for their livelihood while also be out of luck it's definitely interesting and complicated to open a can of this conundrum thank you so much for being accurate are there still a lot more to come on today's show we're going to. into the use of predator drones by the military they were designed to make fighting abroad easier but with all the controversy surrounding them are they actually worth it r t correspondent guy and she got how this will have the story and a secretary of state hillary clinton wraps up her trip in pakistan we'll tell you details about her multimillion dollar aid package and what it means for the region . due to a chilling pitch twist. this morning this only communicate to. keep trying to sleep

and don't communicate to keep going which. you can't see. every month we give you the future we hope you understand how we'll get there and what tomorrow brings the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world. join us. on r.g.p. . and our again this is all see the headlines. of the world's richest nations plan to cut spending in the battle against aids due to the financial crisis demonstrators amazing tufnell called sons of the disease and yet demolishing the vessel that's a straight mint the united nations says funding cuts but seven recent progress made

against the disease which has killed around twenty five million people. corporal punishment in schools come under scrutiny after the suicide also some year old boy reveals that the cane still sometimes for his display at the club has been banned in the country parents are now courting folk criminal penalties for teachers beating pupils. and they said five years since the two cold pull some of those came together it was a space we don't think of the soviet suit use and american import of the space called began a cold person with iran between the two by four countries. let's not go back to the know the show from washington state. well our tool time winner tonight is the sex scandal plagued senator from the state of louisiana you know him as david i got caught with a hooker.