has taken on the persona of a violent bully the rest of the world despises that is the message cartoonist ted rall is taking across the u.s. to promote his new book he's in this to see a check of the sat down with the outspoken war critic that coming right up. but she's sitting down with award winning editorial columnist and cartoonist ted rall ted thank you so much for meeting up with us today thanks for having me let's get right into it right now you're on a tour for your new book which is called the anti-american manifesto clearly that name is bound to tick off some of the political establishment here in the u.s. for our viewers give them a little bit of a sneak peek into the main message of what it's all about it's a call to arms it is addressing the fact that neither the democrats nor the republicans are able or willing to address the biggest problems facing the united states today which are the economy the environment health care and the wars and now

you have to ask yourself as an american do you want to tolerate the system do you want to tolerate a system that is unresponsive and not going to go anywhere or do you want to change it the anti-american manifesto is not anti-american it's anti the american government or more specifically this american government we can do better and that's what we want to do what i want to do now you're a big critic of america's wars and occupations both in iraq and afghanistan a call to arms really seems like you know an aggressive way to respond to the aggression that the u.s. government is involved in the reason i oppose this particular regime is because it is so in aggressively violent. as the rest of the world knows the united states is always involved in some kind of war of aggression it rarely goes spends an entire year without invading some for some foreign country and that's only part of the story i mean there's the overall economic system that the united states provoked presides over that is incredibly violent and unjust so i'm talking about taking on

this monolith this violent horrible disgusting system that is brutal and is willing to do anything you're going up against them you can't fight these guys with one arm tied behind your your back. probably going to lose anyway but you you have to you have to be serious let me follow up on that we have the united states really liking to criticize other countries and really try to get involved one way or another how come if all the things that you say are true we're not hearing more voices of criticism from across the globe well anti-americanism is rampant throughout the world obviously and not just in the muslim world and much of it is justified unfortunately due to u.s. foreign policy and you know in terms of other countries let's face it you know if you're the president of random republic somewhere in central asia for instance are you really going to challenge or criticize the united states government which is the sole remaining hyper power in the world to the largest exporter of arms and

possesses the large a bigger military presence than the next ten countries combined no i don't think so the rest everyone's afraid of us because we're a bunch of bullies would you say that u.s. military presence across the world is basically the number one priority of american foreign policy well it's certainly the number one. priority of us federal spending fifty four percent of u.s. federal tax dollars go into the military nineteen percent is just the paying off the interest on old wars that are over and we're not fighting anymore so what the united states is all about is about invading other countries and in and exerting foreign military power whether it's through military bases of which that nobody even knows how many there are if you call the pentagon they can't tell you if it's seven hundred eight hundred nine hundred or a thousand bases they don't know how much or how many people they have under arms somewhere between two and three point five million directly or indirectly using

foreign using mercenaries i mean it's a crazy monolithic roman style empire and nobody talks about it including anywhere in the world or here it's not allowed when you bring up a quote from your book the u.s. . terry would not and could not have killed a million plus iraqis if the people who live in the united states had done anything they could to stop do you really think that's the case what could the people have done considering the fact that many americans were opposing and still are opposing these wars and still nothing is being done for the most part the american left has been dormant or nonexistent since the early one nine hundred seventy s. and the big exception was the opposition to the war against iraq and two thousand and three hundreds of thousands of americans marched in the streets there was vocal opposition even members of congress were against it and yet in the end nothing changed and you have to ask yourself what could have gone differently i mean let's say of the million plus americans who marched in the streets during the winter of

two thousand and two to two thousand and three had been more aggressive let's say they had refused to go home let's say they had clashed with the police let's say violence had broken out i think that then the congress would have been required would have been forced to take pause because they knew that this was an unjustified war of aggression it was an optional war it wasn't about defending american interests it wasn't about protecting the united states and therefore it didn't necessarily have to happen you say in your book that the story of the united states is drawing to a clause close and you call the u.s. is the army empire and especially in the light of the recent elections when we see republicans again enjoying their power it really feels like a circle of republican democrats republicans democrats where will that change come from that you talk about well it's certainly not going to come within the existing system what we're seeing now that you just referred to this flip flopping the two

parties are so close together on the overall ideological framework from left to right that there there's not enough differentiation so big swathes of the population are not don't feel represented at all which is why are voters. turnout is among the lowest in the industrialized world the change is not going to come from the d.'s and the r.'s the democrats and the republicans and the fact that people are constantly shifted voting against the party in power is a symptom of that people are frustrated the message they're sending is not right now we support the republicans nor was it in two thousand and eight we support the democrats the message is we hate them both so we're voting no the story of the united states government as the twentieth century invading bullying imperialistic economic and political empire that is coming to a close it is unhealthy for us and it's obviously terrible for the world but you also claimed that it's very likely that the united states could become

a fascist state and this is clearly a statement that is bound to get many people outraged what do you see these traits well i don't think that we're going to see you know brown shirts and nazis stepping in the streets but we have elements of proto fascism in the. american culture today whether you look at the vague nature of the politics of the tea party where you know vagueness political vagueness and a lack of ideological specificity is a trait of extreme right wing politics the cultural back basis of so many americans particularly in the middle of the country and in the south is centered around extreme forms of right wing christian fundamentalism and that religious force is is very nativist racist bigoted zina phobic and anti-feminist anti-gay it's a very it's very narrow minded all of these attributes not to mention the major

attribute of being so militaristic is are elements that we saw in traditional fascism in germany and italy where there are civilian rule. that military is is not worshiped you know we don't have all this rhetoric about the heroes have fallen another fallen hero this is not to say that we should disrespect the military but americans especially since nine eleven have come to fetish eyes the military you get a lot of criticism especially from channels like fox news they say you're not a patriot because you are against this widespread military presence of the united states. are you not a patriot i am more of a patriot than those people ever will be i care about the american people more than i care about about the american government the american government is supposed to be here to serve the american people and because of its leading role in the world also the people of the world we have

a tremendous responsibility because of our political and economic power and we are we are just completely acting irresponsibly and insanely you know i want to ask you one of the latest articles of yours is called obama was bad from the start realistically which of his promises has he kept in the in these last two years has he kept well that's well that's to be a short short answer well he did promise to escalate the war against afghanistan and he has he did try for health care sort of but health care reform turned out to be really creating a system of even worse than what we have now he hasn't kept many promises i mean he promised he would close guantanamo that he would end torture that he would end extraordinary renditions that he would ramp down and pull out of iraq all he did was rename the troops who are in iraq from combat troops to something else assistance force as he is he's

a very cynical guy i want to ask you about following up on afghanistan do you think it could become the graveyard of the u.s. is an empire like many people are predicting since there's not really an end in sight we know the pentagon has come up with twenty fourteen as the timeline but not a deadline what does that mean decades more i thought two thousand and eleven was supposed to be the deadline and now it's two thousand and fourteen and who knows how long this goes on i mean there are so many threats to america's continued status in the world that it's hard to know exactly what will bring it to an end all we know is that it's unsustainable you know it's kind of the united states it's kind of like a why. the man who uses drugs and drinks and commits crimes and beats people up and everyone hates him all you know is it's going to come to a bad end you really can't be sure how but something bad is going to happen you know you've cited the enormous amounts of money that is that is being spent on the

military and u.s. defense if there's so much money available how come it's not being spent to create jobs for millions of jobless people and why do we continue hearing that the country's in a recovery yet it's really crazy you know i mean if you took the one point four trillion dollars that were initially spent just to bail out the banks and you would redistributed that money among all the millions of americans who were who were having problems paying their mortgages and who had just lost their jobs in the previous year or two i remember doing the math and back of the antelope determining that each one would receive a check for three hundred fifty thousand dollars the reason is because the u.s. government does not serve the people and it's not afraid of the people and even though it knows that its actions are shortsighted and will ultimately lead to its demise they cannot help themselves they cannot stop themselves to do all thank you very much for your tennis thank you.

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top stories president would better has admitted the country's democracy is still

imperfect but there are signs of improvement in his latest online video blog address his call for more competitiveness in russian politics system show signs of stagnation. students all over the u.k. are taking to the streets to protest over the government's plans to increase university tuition fees and cut budgets across the channel workers are crying out against crippling austerity measures. he looks at attempts in central asia to regenerate what was once among the world's largest legs but it's now a little more than that the soviet union's plan to grow cotton and the steps so it's trying to dramatically improve how good a prosperous creature. when is it a sport coming up next with. thank you for joining me for this country in the headlines. deborah christian the

penalty. lost sixteen chances off that with one minute typing hakan champions league group. into one bite seven match i x. captain with suarez is suspended from domestic football until february fourth after biting appears to be opponent. for off to federer to come out of the birdie roddick one adult awaits joke a bit later in the well to all finals. under start with football where russian premier league side rubin have kept alive their slim chances of reaching the knockout stage of the champions league after they won one nil a time to copenhagen in a crunch group d. battling to both score to be there went up on the penalty spot on the stroke of half time ensuring go back in the deal of a one point behind their danish opponents head in the last group fixture however rubin will still have to go to meet his boss alone in two weeks' time and get

a better result than copenhagen will host fourth place kind of an i cost meanwhile back to wednesday's games and in group big tel aviv will bottom of facing benfica. a technology versus ball in group c. . and elsewhere in group a defending champions into milan a hosting f c twenty and perhaps the dutch side get to face rafael benitez men at the perfect time it's allianz side are in the middle of a mini crisis having not won in the last five league matches and on and nine points behind syria pacesetters and out rivals ac milan bus despite being hit by injuries to key players such as wesley slide a goalkeeper judases out and defend the mycon into manager believes and his players . turns out physical as. strong very good in an active ball sedations and in counter attacks so we have to be very careful but as i am used to saying if we do our job well we can beat any team. well meanwhile taught them a brimming with confidence going into wednesday's other group

a clash at home to the brave and an impressive three one home win over in sara white hart lane in their last champions league outing that lead to spurs well sets to go through to the last sixteen and three points against further on wednesday will guarantee their passage through to the knockout stages much to the joy of manager harry redknapp. it would be a great achievement you know we will draw was made i looked at the draw of it was a tough draw into malayan vertebrae and twenty good shot i didn't know weak teams in the group you know one of judah groups you look at them and there's a few games that are very almost give me games you know but in this group it was always going to be difficult and if we could come out of it would be it would be a great achievement will be very pleased and in the meantime in group b. leaders are at second place shelter and the french side will qualify for the last sixteen if they win there were draw will be enough for them if third place benfica fail to be happy well meanwhile shelter could also go through with

a victory over leon but they would also need benfica to lose either way at the top of this tight group has plenty of incentive for both sides to get for the way. to win the game that was the case when it faced been figo ahead of that encounter i predicted in an open match i didn't think there would be so many goals but certainly i also must try to win and also have the firm intention of returning home with the three point two rounds to go in the group but let's forget the last game since we have a chance of reaching the next stage now we must seize that opportunity to groups a match to united will be looking to clinch top spot as they're taking all rangers in glasgow wayne rooney is back in the starting line up the united to help his side guarantee a place in the next round. the previous encounter between the two teams at old trafford in september finished goalless united has been a solid form since our. jobs we were done well we don't know very image no problem was a goal year whereas surveys to model. the performance and go inside was. good

user experience very well known and then bursaspor were put up to first class to control the march on finding group d. leaders barcelona are hoping to go straight to the last sixteen as the three time winners are targeting victory at fourth place on the flight also the greek side have recorded just two points from four matches desperately need to be faster to revive their lackluster campaign pep guardiola side are a point clear of copenhagen at the top the manager will have to do with that image of defenders gerard piqué and doug real military wing ahead of the suarez has returned after recovering from a back level ain't guardiola says his team's goal is to finish top of the grid. and i think you all were lame to be the best team we haven't qualified yet so we'll still need to qualify we'll try to be the best possible team in order to win the game and we didn't know how kind of all the other teams would fare well i knew that

they would be very difficult teams like last year and that would have to make much effort to not or to qualify. well meanwhile on choose de marsay ended spotlight's hopes of reaching the knockout stage for the first time in fourteen years after the french side tried strain over the larry coppins ten man team at the luzhniki stadium here in moscow a point against moss i would have let spacek meeting just to be bottom side sure enough to qualify but the visitors opened after eighteen minutes through that year by going up very close made capitalized on a deflection and hit both posts to make it to no after fifty four minutes and the home side were left with a mountain to climb a strike of the littlest sent off ten minutes later brandow quickly made it three nil and that's how it finished ensuring masai progressed as runners up behind chelsea with their better head to head record. machine you were a lot stronger on the pitch and we played with class this squad was better we didn't have key players like alex and pressure of luke so it's not surprising that

my say we're physically better and they won what we need to do now is work harder. elsewhere chelsea confirmed top spot including path of the two one victory over jelena who finished bottom leaving spot accept to finish third and qualify for the round of thirteen in the europa league elsewhere former champions realm of red and ac milan advance into the last sixteen following respective wins that i x. and i was there in a francesco top team scored the eighty fourth minute winning penalty shot round they came from two goals down to win three two at home to group the leaders by and that is closer to the next round so you are side now just means a draw with bottom side to the last one nil at basel and shut have gone top of group h. after they tried to steal it under both parties and while also stick to second after they were upset to melt away to bugger the gunners now a big part is done in two weeks' time to ensure they go three. we played against

a team refused to play. left us the board one to catch us on the contract out. with a lot of push and were not sharp enough to create a car challenge they defended were used every single trick to steal the game down what they did well. staying with football and although it's captain lewis suarez has accepted a seven match ban for biting p.s.v. eindhoven midfielder ottman but all in saturday's goalless dutch need to announce to dump the incident happened in stoppage time after the hopes lies rasmus linger and was sent off for rough talk on playmaker we were him tough away swore as all good was but caught who stood on the year ago and that prompted him to bite the p.s.p. in midfield on the shoulder show the evidence to the referee yes the exchange reaching a decision i consider his rise punishment the dutch football federation said they'd taken the forwards previous conduct into account and he still had a suspended one match ban i know to him to r.s. who has scored seven goals this season when the six lead on one cup game until

february fourth they still have an interest. in tennis now and thomas but it has recaptured the form that saw him reach the wimbledon final as he beat andy roddick in straight sets to pull himself back into contention at the a.t.p. world tour finals the powerful jack showed outstanding attacking and defensive skills and took the first that seventy five for more comfortably taking the second six three to win his first match at the finals. of the six hundred metres level with group a rivals rafael nadal and novak djokovic will meet later on wednesday however that roddick now needs to be just a bitch on friday to have any hope of reaching the semifinals of burdick faces an adult in his final round robin match. let's move to the ice now and in the only game in the k.h. on wednesday a double from shot to shot slavey help solve that you live when for want of struggling metal not because nets like some that i do

a lot of and who also on the scoreboard forget just love because men not when it's the far side. in the eastern conference with forty nine points. cricket now and both australia and england look sets to feel their first choice eleven's in the first ashes test in brisbane on thursday australia skipper ricky ponting declared batsman michael clarke fit to play on the eve of the series opener at the gabba vice captain appears to have recovered from the back problem which prevented him from training with the rest of the squad earlier this week. the model class got through his work particularly well the last couple days about a long solid bet in the nets again today with the against the bowlers and with the coach asking why do tomorrow morning here are a lot to try and feel good. and finally sailing where a russian team synergy has failed to reach the semifinals of the louis vuitton trophy currently underway in dubai synergy turned out to be no match for team new zealand in the second round robin stage the kiwis winning comfortably by one minute

and i team seconds that lopsided race was a far cry from the closely fought final of the previous stage in italy five months ago when you zealand just edged russia by a three two scoreline also making the cut in dubai world leaders b.m.w. oracle italian entry so many latina and the french german boat for one semi finals actually to begin on friday. and that's all the sports news for this bill isn't by for now. hungry for the full story we've got it first hand the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on the. culture is that so much of the moment and there's a huge visitors share of knowledge and find the mark when playing the blame game and where to go from here the west led drive to find a final peace settlement among the palestinians and israelis.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are the day.

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on r t president medvedev calls for more flexibility in competitive competitiveness in russian politics. it is no secret that for some time now signs of stagnation have begun to appear in our political life his dignity has threatened to turn into stagnation. british students march through the country and protests over rising she wishin fees while across the channel workers are crying out against crippling austerity measures. and we look at a time since central asia to regenerate what was once upon the world's largest legs but is now out of all more than a dried out desert. welcomes r.t. from moscow my name is kevin i wanted.