just to remind that my guest in the studio today was. skeet president of the russian brain and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your say on spotlight or have someone in mind you think i should add to the next start just drop me a line at al gore not at all. and let's keep the show interact will be back with more face time comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t. and take a sip. hungry for the full story we've got it first the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers.

one of russia's most wanted terror suspects has been released after a polish court turned down the prosecutor's request for his forty day detention

however it is still pending a court hearing on whether he can be and over to russian authorities. afghanistan's president hamid karzai has urged citizens to vote in saturday's parliamentary election and ignore threats from the taliban at least twenty four people have been killed and eighteen abducted in election related to towns across the country. a suspected russian mafia boss is being treated in a moscow hospital after an attempt on his life nicknamed grandpa a son he's thought to have fallen victim to a gangland turf war. up next the alyona show this time alyona finds out why the christian right in the u.s. want to try and get god into politics and how it could affect the upcoming midterm elections. welcome to the lower show we'll get the real headlines with one of the marcy can be

live out of washington d.c. parliamentary elections are going to be held this saturday in afghanistan but with over two thousand candidates threats from the taliban and a staggering number of afghans who can't even read how could this be a success what with success even look like i'll speak with foreign policy analyst milou innocent next we're going to tell you about a three day summit where pailin huckabee and bachmann are all rally for emphasis to be taken away from unemployment and the economy and instead to be put into values whatever that means our t. correspondent christine will join me with details on the values voters summit and while those people are rallying around values there are still millions of people suffering because of the stagnant economy it's so dark in fact that george soros simply referred to the current conditions as the law so if soros has lost interest in the us what does that mean for the entire country will speak with business insiders gregory white then we'll tell you about a shocking bill coming out of michigan one representative is proposing roadside

drug test for any questionable drivers and the police will not need a warrant so is this a necessary step to keep the road safe or is this an abuse of police power radio host adam koch cash will weigh in on that issue and a latina reporter is making headlines in the u.s. because she said she felt uncomfortable in the new york jets locker room after being whistled and catcalled that some say she was asking for trouble by wearing tight clothes in a locker room environment i think so we're going to chat with churchill on that one that's going to be at the end of the show but now let's move on to today's top story. parliamentary elections are such a big place in afghanistan on saturday there are more than two thousand five hundred candidates running from the country's thirty four provinces with more than six hundred in kabul alone but the days and weeks leading up to these elections have not been painting a positive picture candidates have been murdered and kidnapped and news came out today that eighteen election workers have also been snatched up add that to threats

of the taliban telling people not to go to the polls or they will quote get hurt and of course that little thing called corruption and fraud which marred last year's presidential election and is sure to play a huge role again tomorrow u.s. officials continue to say that these elections are a sign of progress of the war is on the right track how many more signs do you need to question whether the words afghanistan and democracy can ever go together or earlier i caught up with innocent foreign policy analyst at the cato institute now we weren't even sure where to start afghanistan is a country where eighty percent of the population is estimated to be illiterate or polling stations are either closed or people live in such remote areas that their ballots are transported by mule where there is intimidation and pressure to vote how your tribe. tell you to so i first asked milou whether there really can be a democratic election and

a country like that. i think that's an excellent question anyway i think we really need to define what victory is and what democracy really is and i would be sort of reluctant to listen to a lot of the u.s. policymakers when they make these blanket statements about afghanistan and democracy you'll be hearing a lot of u.s. officials in the next several days if not weeks saying that this is you know moving forward toward the progress of democracy and free and fair elections and all of this rhetoric to sort of buttress the claim of the mission however what you mention is that you know three quarters of the population live in more rural areas not necessarily concentrated in the cities and so their conception of what democracy means or consensus building is much different than what we sort of consider as a top down approach and a top down model and i think that we really need to understand the local realities on the ground and not sort of force our policies on to those realities where the look at those realities to shape our policies and you know i mean that's one of the interesting things to is you're right because officials are already talking about well sure there's going to be a little corruption a little fraud but overall the elections should be successful and you know there

was an official that said also that we should look at the bigger picture you know the fact that the elections actually went through rather than pinpoint what happens on a certain day and perhaps the violence going on so i mean is this all just leading up to convincing people as to why we're still there why we should continue with the troop surge and continue with the war that's been going on for nine years or or do they just not get it do some people in washington just have no idea what this country is you know it's interesting i think it's more the former i think it's more of the policy makers of really believed in the sort of the propaganda and sort of the policy that they're sort of moving forward and they're using this latest election to buttress their overall claim for the mission and its success i think that they do have good intentions i think they really do want to see afghan succeed in in that respect to sort of i'm sympathetic to that argument however once again you sort of to look at thirteen percent of points in terms of polling stations will actually be closed on election day because of the violence and the threats of violence and security these are going to be mostly concentrated in the southern and

eastern province. actions of the country and so there's going to be a great deal of uncertainty and illegitimacy as far as the outcome of the elections and also i mean we have to sort of consider what are the large scale implications of an election that is perceived to be illegitimate but what does that mean for the meaning of democracy in this region and will that make people more critical of the u.s. mission and i think going forward americans especially need to realize that all the things that we're sort of being told about this process isn't as simple as simply stamping american democracy on it and you know i wonder if you and i were just talking about this before it began is that recently there has been a lot of islamophobia here in the u.s. we have people that want to burn the koran and unfortunately you know every single news channel and then you have the taliban that essentially is threatening people telling them not to go out there and vote because this is something that you know colonial invaders are trying to force you to do so do you think that that's that's working that's got that's going to convince some people not to go out there and go to the polls well it sort of bizarre it's interesting because

a lot of the american ignorance about the world is sort of plain out right now i mean a lot of americans probably can't place that gave us an unmarked map a little low know that the rhetoric the sort of phobic rhetoric is actually feeding into intelligent propaganda in the region is actually leading to increased recruits and i think it's important when you look at sort of the amount of emphasis placed on the again sort of the islamic public rhetoric and really when you look at the many locals in this region who may not necessarily even understand a lot of complexities here in the fact that even if we do have freedom of religion and freedom of speech even the freedom to say we burn the koran to burn the american flag our soldiers who are actually out there right now are fighting for that very freedom of sort of a bizarre juxtaposition of rights versus freedoms and i think that plays out on the field a lot more complexities now ask you something if we're talking about internally because just now leading up to the elections we have news not only candidates but also people that are working some of the centers who have been kidnapped there have been candidates that have been killed and one. you know you're sure of course that

this is all the taliban's doing but at the same time there's a lot of candidates rivalry there and this is a really you know a war for certain terms to have control of there so how much of that is the taliban and how much of it really is between one candidate or another right i mean even in talk or problems there is actually a gunfight between the candidates. actually threaten the other candidates with violence as you mentioned so it's not just taliban or insurgent sort of mindset or taliban intimidation a lot of what you see is violence committed on the local level by community members or even family members these are the people that are supposed to be running the government to get elected that's what that's what's so crazy about it exactly and i think sort of were sort of were sort of funding both sides of this war in the sense that we are funding the very afghan government that's actually feeding a great deal of the insurgency that we're seen and so i think when we sort of take a broad you know thirty thousand foot view of this war and everything we must understand that not everything can be painted with the broad brush of taliban and i

think we've sort of conflated terrorist with insurgent those who have a legitimate grievance against the afghan government are necessarily anti-american entire western now tell me this how porton is the younger population in afghanistan because you know they don't have a sense that they're there to really measure exactly but you know they say that about sixty percent of the population is under thirty years old where i mean those are the people that the u.s. really needs to latch onto to turn it to show them that there can be another world out there you know how do they do that it's very difficult i mean i think you're right in the sense that there is sort of this broader demographic demographic youth bulge and it's actually representative of a lot of the muslim world that we've seen how america reaches out to them will be very difficult i think on the one hand you have policy makers who say we must continue with the mission to continue with the occupation to bring about a more effective political and there are those who say we should decrease our present simply because we either we or fermenting more unrest in the process i would agree with the latter but i also think that it's not necessarily zero in fact

i was in cobol and i. talk to some of the workers who lived there and lived there for decades so that they had even greater freedom of movement when it was simply just the taliban in the mujahideen there are verses one the u.s. troops in the western troops who are there because sometimes western troops become a magnet for violence and given areas certainly we can't say that about all areas but in certain pockets of the country it's not simply that you confuse troops and there is greater stability all of the times you use troops in this route or unrest more i e d's and more instability for the people well if we look at you know just the past couple of years and how the violence really has surge since two thousand and one and a good example of that is definitely a messy messy election and you can't just look at it as success or failure makes it too much and then really thanks so much for joining us lou thank you so much for having me. coming up next we're going to introduce you to a group of americans who think that we're too worried about the economy and the unemployed so they're hosting their own summit this weekend to redirect their efforts back to values at the values voter summit r t correspondent christine would join us after the break with all the details.

every month we give you the future we help you understand how to get there and want to bring the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world join your knowledge on r.g.p. for the. we've got. the biggest issues get voice face to face with the news makers. although poverty is pledging america there are some out there who think that we shouldn't be spending all of our time worrying about the less fortunate there the christian right instead of they propose that lawmakers move their efforts away from the economy and from unemployment and place values at the top of the political agenda these concerned americans kicked off their own three day event called the values voter summit right here in washington d.c. our two correspondent christine for south has the story. they say they came to take

america back it isn't our values our shared timeless values that have changed it it's our leaders that have changed. in campaign like speeches they criticized among other things president obama the white house tries to argue that the stimulus has helped. that's a bit like saying that squirting water from a garden hose helps put up a forest fire one day after staggering numbers were released from the u.s. census bureau showing a more than fourteen percent increase of those living below the poverty line powerful organizations and big name politicians came out to spread this message you cannot divorce the social issues from the fiscal and financial issues so just what are these pressing social issues i think you know there are things that make up for the very. first one organization says marriage in america is under attack marriage

is a fundamental right but there is not a fundamental right to marry whoever you want our government our policies have always regulated who you marry or who you may not marry the national organization of marriage wants to keep it that way in other words no gay marriage and speaking of gays tradition family and property works to keep them out of the military when you fight for freedom shouldn't you also want to have freedom. obviously we have we have to fight for freedom and freedom does not mean license to do whatever you want these issues so important to the masses here a new lobbying group has been formed its aim is that republican elected officials to get them to put social issues back at the top of their agenda these are elected officials they were sent to washington to represent the people in their districts and their states many of these people the bottom line is they can't pay their mortgage they don't have a job shouldn't that be the number one focus the thing is is that the issue of the

middle class that's the main issue at stake here the middle class has a number of priorities it's the main class that is the emphasis for social issues well you heard it here first the middle class cares most about social issues a month there is one issue even more important to the participants here god hala avalanche from an almighty god. and then god changed upon the individual power and then the individual in church confirms. that power on the government reserving all that remained of the power themselves for the last two years the most outspoken voices in the conservative movement have come from the tea party tea which stands for taxed enough already well here at the voters value summit perhaps a turning point that things are changing that despite an all time high in already in more than fifteen years at these big name conservative leaders say what america

needs is to ban gay marriage to bring god back and. reported want to christine right now r t. i think mother jones said it best today when they described the value values voters summit as the christian right's annual lollapalooza it's a free for all where they can headbang to god and forget about all the real troubles of the world but what happens when they come back to reality or i guess maybe the better question is will they ever well christine joins me live in the studio now to tell us more about this summit christine you know i'm confused because all we've been hearing because of the poor state of the economy is it because of the high unemployment numbers is that you know obama is perhaps focusing on too many other issues that he's not focusing on the most serious issue most pressing issue at hand right now for americans and that is the economy is what we hear from the right and then now that we've been hearing that the values matter most how did that happen well there's a few different quotes i can bring up along a one of them is from mike pence who's

a congressman from indiana he said you can't print enough money in the world to save america if the family falls apart it was one of his lines he got a standing ovation for that they're starting to connect these things i have some examples this one says we're losing our freedoms because jesus needs to get back into politics another one says to keep our honor clean we must oppose the homosexual agenda for. the military these are just a few things that i picked up today while i was there a lots of people handing lots of things out these were just a couple that i grabbed but they're trying to connect them and some of it's a very very loose connection but they're trying to say that is soon as things like our soldiers become uncomfortable in the military because of other openly gay soldiers will them that will affect the economy too so they're trying to just get rid of the gays and the economy is just going to be perfect in this country and everything else will too according to these now telling us how many tea partiers are there because you know this is an interesting group of individuals that has you

know seen some success lately too in these primary elections and yet social values aren't exactly at the top of their agenda i mean these people just want smaller government so they could be conflicting here they want more freedoms not more restrictions of moral values so you know how do they put those two together right they only want the government to get involved when it comes in to making stricter laws about abortion stricter laws about marriage stricter laws about the military stricter laws about speech that's the only time the government should be involved in that when you ask how many tea partiers were there there's a lot of people that associate themselves both with these values voters and the tea party michele bachmann today said the tea party by the way is not a political party it's not a red party or it's a blue party it's the red white and blue that's what she said so i mean i think really what we started to see today because as you mentioned tea party previously just about taxes i think this could be a turning point of the tea party starting to take on more social issues so you

certainly have people that identify with the tea party and also identify with the republican party now you know one of the words that we keep hearing everywhere is anger that americans are angry and you know the tea party is part of what brought this about to because we saw them coming out in large numbers to protest the bailouts in the health care bill what was the mood like him or would you would you describe it as angry or pacified i don't know i think neither i think these people are for. fired up alone and we cannot underestimate the power that you felt here i mean regardless of sometimes there being a disconnect between what these people are saying and reality these people are motivated they're energized and i have a feeling that these people are going to bring people out to the polls that you can't underestimate even a candidate like christine o'donnell who just won the senate republican nomination indel in delaware a lot of people are saying there's no way she's going to win but you can't underestimate number one the money she's going to raise and number two a lot of the people that are going to come out some of these evangelicals who did

not show up to the polls they were trying to say today for thirty two million evangelicals didn't show up to the polls in the last election we don't need an independent we don't need democrats we just need the really right to show up so these people are energized the anger is a little bit there but a lot of people are fired up because what do we have in just about fifty days we have the midterm elections and these people are very excited about that feeling good about it well you know one of the things they do every year at this conference to is they do a straw poll which many people say you know is a is a prediction for who is going to be the candidate on the republican ballot for the two thousand and twelve elections we don't know those results until over the weekend but we're definitely going to keep our eye out christine thanks so much absolutely still much more to come in tonight's show we're taking another look into poverty in america correspondent lauren lyster takes a look at why blue collar workers are the ones being hit the hardest and speaking of tough times the u.s. economy just can't seem to get out of its slump george soros thinks it's so bad

that he's simply described it as a law so if soros is saying that then is america really in trouble. right. now as we've been reporting poverty levels have reached a high that has not been seen in decades one in seven people in america now live in poverty so we can't help but wonder how it is that they got there as our t. correspondent lauren lyster reports blue collar workers both employed and unemployed are struggling as industrial jobs are becoming obsolete. welcome to silk city. this once was what the industrial revolution looked like in

the united states. now this is what poverty looks like in this town more than twenty percent are poor more than seventeen percent unemployed it means for many here ninety m. is a time to go to work now and i just don't think it's time to head to the food pantry for charity. they are low income folks are some of them have been unemployed for almost two years is what we're seeing but on average it's the underemployed. there are people who can't make ends meet people like jenny like the one who are going to morrow and it's not enough you know it's just not enough to get all those who need it and the numbers are only growing and we saw in two thousand and nine a fifteen percent increase over two thousand and eight numbers and we're anticipating that that number will go up by another ten percent at the end of two

thousand and ten not only here but in the entire u.s. new statistics for two thousand and nine show forty three million people one in seven are living in poverty this is the most people who are in more than fifty years that's when they first began tracking these numbers here you can see one reason why a particular these are few and far between especially in the old urban industrial cities are patterson as in so many cities in the united states manufacturing used to power this one these were still factories that now are decrepit boarded up sitting in disrepair there are signs everywhere here of the u.s. manufacturing jobs that have disappeared or gone overseas factory work all of the low level jobs that these folks with those fields but what about going out. and leaving them lining up in droves for a little heat we now see prepare about twelve hundred meals a day now it will be serving about full. hundred people. three of you and

some of the workers who are some are homeless not surprisingly i was doing. there are twenty percent more mouths to feed here eva's kitchen than a year ago y. ou know we're narrow and some can't work like for one who has an incurable disease there's no furby goes to work or for so many of us used to be told driver yet he still can't afford lunch and experts say the needy are needy or than ever are they more poor yes that i can say it here on the ground for from washington and wall street there is no sign of an economic recovery for these people in sight i don't see recovery. they have no thanks for their politicians i don't know what's going on with the dollar but i don't know was the pres to do or. are these not going there is no gloom red or. islam in the urban decay of silk city

gratitude is reserved for the help with recovery they do know and area. where you share your very character lauren lyster r. t. patterson new jersey. so there you have it forty three million americans are now living in poverty but at least those who have money they should be seizing the opportunity to invest and know that things will get better right well i think oh by the words of one of the world world's richest and most influential and best years and philanthropists doesn't look so good at a conference on wednesday when asked to describe the current state of the us economy george soros only had one word to sum it all up blah that's right blah one single incredibly boring word so when even george soros doesn't see any light or to go there or hear discuss it from our new york studio is a gray. why from the business insider now gregory block like i said not very good

have citing descriptive word if you had one word to sum up the state of the u.s. economy right now what would it be. it would have to be met. not much different than george soros is. the ok i have got already to start hearing these days i mean you know we just we've been discussing how so many americans right now are living in poverty one in seven fact according to the new figures unemployment is so high but you know these are people that are very much affected by the policies the decisions the investments of the rich the powerful so when you have someone like george soros and he's no longer excited about the u.s. economy then you know what does that tell you it's not really bad news. yeah it's terrible news i mean if the people who have the most money in the united states and around the world are not interested in investing in the united states then that means the businesses that need money to grow are not going to get that money or not be able to push forward with new projects and what new projects usually mean or

employment and it's you know it's really disappointing for the future of a lot of americans if that's the way things are headed in terms of investors thinking i do we at least be happy that he used to block kind of middle of the road word and not saying that the u.s. economy is is over it's done with and devastated. i don't know how happy you can be with the word law i mean what you see he's expressing is that we have very low growth you know that and with that low growth we're going to see very small changes in unemployment and very little opportunity for not only investors but for people who live in the united states that are unemployed to really see growth in their incomes and. you know it could be worse he said that there was a going to be a double dip he didn't envision that but blog and low growth is still bad for ten percent of americans that are employed and probably you know ten percent more who are looking for more work. you know one of the other things he said those he thinks of the world has.