nato reaches a landmark day in afghanistan equaling the soviet occupation there could the war be as damaging to the u.s. and allied forces as it was to the u.s.s.r. alone and takes a look stay with us. we've got. the biggest issues get the invoice face to face with the news makers. welcome the loner show get the real headlines with none of the mercy or can live out of washington d.c. now afghanistan not only afghanistan excuse me not only has a history with the us but with the soviet union as well and today the us has officially been fighting in the country for as long as the soviets did in the eighty's nine years and fifty days so will this be the graveyard for the american

empire as it was for the soviets we're going to speak with afghan veteran barito and today is black friday the unofficial holiday dedicated to shopping but how do we get to be so shopping in sale obsessed to begin with and with the economic trends that we're seeing all americans ever shop so hard again canadian journalist gordon laird will join me with his thoughts on the topic then we'll ask should congress only be a part time institution louisiana governor bobby jindal raised the question recently and while some call them crazy it does bring up an important discussion how do we make it so the politics does not become a lifelong career we're going to talk about the pros and cons of such a change to congress with political consultant. did you know that november is native american heritage month despite the fact that thanksgiving brings up painful memories for native americans president obama has announced the day after thanksgiving to be native american heritage day so is this a tacky move by the government are going to bait the issue with one lee tate and

then on this black friday we're going to do a little media mash up including shedding light on a phone news focus fox news accidentally thought that the onion's stories or legitimate so they put a link. to their page on their own website so we're going to bring on georgetown professor christopher chambers to talk about that at the end of the show but first we have an update for you on a story that we brought you earlier in the week actually no we're going to our top story afghanistan has been called the graveyard of empires the soviet union being the most recent example but today the u.s. led coalition has officially had been fighting there for as long as the soviets tomorrow we will surpass them what originally was meant to be a quick retaliation for nine eleven a plan to get osama and defeat the taliban has become a conflict now going on for nine years and fifty days where the goal is transformed a number of times from revenge to nation building now to training and transitioning some say that while the time length is the same the war of america the war of the

soviet union and afghanistan couldn't be more different but is that really true when joining me from los angeles to discuss that is afghanistan veteran. jake thanks so much for joining us now you know i've asked you this exact question before but it seems like we keep reaching these new milestones the time he was going on and on and on and on so when you first went to afghanistan did you ever think nine years fifty days later our country would still be fighting there are today. no you know a lot i never imagined that we'd still be there surpassing the soviet occupation and i never thought they would go on this long is one of the odd things about this whole entire exercise is that osama bin laden still hasn't been found an amazing accomplishment there's been five other attacks suicide attacks attempted attacks the united states since then soon clearly the jihadists have not been defeated and there's no end in sight and it's costing the united states something around ten to twelve billion dollars a month it's a made it's an amazing milestone that we're going to build and there is no end in

sight for i don't think the pentagon said that the new plan is to leave in two thousand and fourteen but i don't see that happening there's no way we're going to be able to counter the task by twenty fourteen so i don't know what to say about it yeah well i you know just last week at the nato summit as well they were saying well maybe not twenty fourteen is such a harsh deadline it could go to two thousand and fifteen and beyond there already we've been walking away from that state and tell me this do you think that. our war that we're fighting there currently the war of the soviets fought are all that different essentially they went in and tried to set up a state as well they went in and propped up leaders and they also trained the army and then the second they laughed you know the taliban took control. yeah well you know i mean there are there are similarities in our differences that the similarities that there are polled the same political objectives the soviets wanted to build up we got nation state it was a marxist late nation state and they used military force to prop it up and to sort of get a puppet government in place with knowledgeable of the united states is doing something

similar although karzai is now mark is now that our puppet if you will and we're trying to spread democracy instead send it think that democracy may be. maybe a little bit better but the political objectives are still the same so. i think that there i think there's a real similar as there is military differences though we don't have as many troops we did we're not to doing the same sort of tactics so in that way you could say the united states is. definitely definitely doing things different to militarily but do you think that we have any chances to better train these people better armed the afghan security forces so that when and if you know the nato led coalition does ever leave that they'll be able to actually hold their ground in the country and not let the taliban takeover you no way no way absolutely not i mean i was on larry king last year with general barry mccaffrey wes clark and you know both of those guys agreed that this is attend your operation that's going to cost you it cost

united states an immense amount of dollars and afghans i mean i was in afghanistan used just about six months ago and i was with the afghan army and these these guys you know they're they're hardworking people but they're average people they're not trained military fighters like the taliban or the mujahideen so the likelihood that the afghan army is going to be able to mount to mount and assist us will attack against the insurgency is is fool's errand it's tomfoolery there has to be a diplomatic solution with the insurgency and with that with the karzai government otherwise it's just going to be a debacle for years what do you think about is really is a diplomatic solution i mean consider the news that we heard earlier this week that they always suppose it's second in command taliban you know commander that was willing to negotiate was a phony. yeah i know i can and longer we keep this this military exercise up the more difficult it's going to be to have a diplomatic solution i want to keep the reasons for this is that the quote assura

taliban mullah omar and those that were in charge of afghanistan in the one nine hundred ninety s. knows those forces are slowly but surely being overcounted by new the new taliban which are the younger generation and you can't negotiate with these people there they are there they are fighting to the death they have a new a new fatwa that they've issued a new type of jihadist understanding and so you know there's not going to be any real negotiation with the new taliban so we got to we've got to shore up our efforts quickly make a diplomatic solution would be all taliban and really really do it quickly otherwise it's i'm frightful to say it's going to be it's going to be worse than vietnam. well thank you very much for joining us and now more bad news unfortunately when every and i think thinks. thank you. now very quickly we have an update on a story we brought you last week out of afghanistan tonight's afghan president hamid karzai is chief of staff says that it was the british who are responsible for

bringing a taliban imposture into the presidential palace to negotiate a peace deal they say of the brits brought the man claiming to be more muhammad months or a senior taliban leader to meet karzai last summer but then while they realize that he was he claimed to be afghan investigators said it was later determined that the visitor was actually a shop keeper in this episode is embarrassed afghan and western officials and rightly so the move also undercuts the notion circulated earlier this year by senior u.s. officials that there was some momentum towards possible peace talks now the brits have their embassy in kabul are not commenting but u.s. officials have also said that the fake taliban leader was primarily a british project and that the brits have been much more aggressive than the u.s. and pushing for a political settlement to end the war if you remember afghan and nato officials held three meetings with the man for whom they secured roadways flew to kabul on nato aircraft ushered into the presidential palace and whom they also courting to

officials gave a lot of money to so hate when all else fails just blame it on the brits right why not since the u.s. and afghans will never admit their words a total failure why take any blame for this latest embarrassment just shift it all on to someone else great strategy guys. now most americans have heard about the difficulties soldiers face when they're at war but do they know about the battle soldiers continue to face after the war is over homelessness post-traumatic stress disorder these are just a few issues that seem to play thousands of this nation's veterans archies guy in a chicken has more of the problems facing veterans in this country. each day eighteen american veterans commit suicide in the last few years more u.s. military personnel have taken their own lives than have been killed in either iraq or afghanistan the numbers raise a question where is the battle really happening in the field or at home.

he was only home for eight months before. before his demons took him over. as a goalie mentally he never returned. and he year and a half and his wife was torture. couldn't help. and told him he was number twenty six and. these parents share a similar tragedy one of losing their children who had gone to war in iraq strong and healthy man and came back deeply traumatized and haunted by nightmares. thousands of american troops returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder but many refused to seek help from the government in fear it's going to show on their records and they won't be hired anywhere but even those who do seek help are often neglected i want to apply for

a job. i applied for unemployment benefits. i went to the veterans administration for treatment a year after i was discharged because i was feeling suicidal and i was discharged i was refused treatment actually brian little would served in iraq came to this charity event for homeless veterans because he too was homeless he and dozens of other young man and women here. not only do many come back from war traumatized but are often left without a roof over their head according to the u.s. national coalition on homelessness forty percent of homeless man are veterans and the staggering number of those who see no other option but to kill themselves pushed the country's veterans affairs department to start a suicide prevention hotline they claim they've talked to more than ten thousand veterans out of killing themselves iraq and afghan veterans fuel the epidemic and i share your. you know.

specialist often hear from callers they see no meaning behind the many killings they witnessed any war can be traumatizing for soldiers but the seuss i'd rate among vets in the u.s. is now the highest since the vietnam war there was no similar surge after world war two civilians questioning the motive of the war is now reflected among many young american vets whose own down to drive them even closer to the brink looking at the plight of veterans in the us one can't help asking what is the cost of war is it the one point eight trillion dollars the u.s. bunting iraq and afghanistan last here or is it the shattered lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who come back home to find out their battle for survival has just begun going to shut down all take clinton maryland. still to come on tonight's show it's black friday so that means that shoppers are looking out for great deals

has the us become a nation of shopping addicts who can't stop running up debt come to speak with canadian journalist gordon the laird author of the book the price of a bargain the quest for cheap and the death of globalization and the governor of louisiana says that all lawmakers in congress should be part time so with this actually lead to a better working system in d.c. were discussed that just about. wealthy british soil it's time to go to the front. of the. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy cars report on r.g.p. .

as most people know black friday is considered one of the biggest holidays of the year for shopping that is people across the country stayed up all night waiting in lines all for the sake of getting their hands on those special few gifts for a discounted price but unfortunately in recent years we've seen a new black friday trying to merge and that is crazy shoppers getting violent get this a shopping mall in los angeles had to put its food court on lockdown at two thirty am because a fight broke out a woman in indianapolis wal-mart was arrested after butting in line to check out and a wisconsin woman attempted to make her way to the front of the line and when other customers complained she threatened to shoot that now several ports of stampedes also broke out across the country check out this tempe of the over took

a target in buffalo new york. and that's stampede it wasn't even as bad as the one in two thousand and eight when a security guard was actually killed by crazed black friday shoppers people are so desperate to get their hands on that t.v. or that new toy that they will literally be willing to run people over just to be the first inside didn't we just finish already thanksgiving appreciating all we have to be thankful for so i guess as soon as people digest their turkey they're just off to engage in capitalism at its finest now to me all this violence is just a perfect example as to why this black friday stuff has gotten completely out of control no toy or new gadget is worth people injuring themselves over or dying over by myself avoiding all the madness and i can assure you that all the safely doing my holiday shopping online. now the thing about black friday is not just that our

appetites for deals are so intense that they turn life threatening it's that our appetites as consumers have become our own shackles in the sense that our service economy rose to the heights it did because of consumer demand and now they can't get by without it but with an unemployment rate nearing ten percent americans just can't afford to spend like they used to this christmas but with the federal debt teetering at the edge of fourteen trillion dollars neither can our government so is america still do and i'm an economic crisis the likes of which we've never seen what kind of message exactly have we shopped ourselves into earlier i caught up with canadian journalist gordon laird the author of the price of a bargain the quest for cheap and the death of globalization i first asked him how it is that we became such a shopping obsessed nation. well it some say it started in one nine hundred fifty s. post-war america was booming and one of the reasons it was booming is that technologies

for manufacturing. and for logistics moving stuff around. were introduced and those were no growth world war two to some degree and the economy took off not just because people were buying cars but because they were buying appliances because they were being brought into the world of consumerism which is not just of course shopping it's advertising and the whole supply chain of manufacturing and moving stuff around that now extends around the world. so it's a long story but the short version of the story is that in recent decades that system has started to work for us less and less effectively now you lie you've written about recounting the tragic day in two thousand and eight when on black friday as shoppers stormed a wal-mart and a security guard was even killed because of it he was trampled i mean this is this is really become something crazy and we see videos of it every every year you know today also there were images of

a woman saying that she was going to shoot people if they didn't let her get her spot in line in front of a stormin it's really crazy what this comes to we've also written these say that americans will never shop is hard again why is that. well there's there's there's a couple things happening with this this is that one is that america and to a large degree other western nations are. dependent on consumer spending upwards of seventy percent of their economy directly or indirectly this is a this is an equation that is not built to last we simply cannot just leverage our home equity and max our credit cards as a long term strategy for the economy and you know i think it's fascinating the way that america understands this and doesn't understand this. the lack of full recovery in the wake of the two thousand and eight financial crisis is to my understanding a very very detailed illustration of how this system of moving the economy forward is really not working the way it was supposed to or the way it was intended

and in my book i argue that it's not really set up to work well at all because that is that in a systematic way different parts of this whole system are you know either de globalizing or becoming less available to us for example china allowing the minimum wage to increase very persistently by incrementally persistent increases in the cost of energy impact our transport our cost of plastic so it's not sort of the idea that there's some sort of collapse that just happens all at once is that is that we're being pushed to the edge of unsustainability our ability to spend our way to prosperity. you know that this is something we're just having to come to terms with the twenty first century so america understands that to some degree as in something's not quite working the way it should but in the way that it indicts the whole system as in consumerism as we know it may not be a good long term strategy that's the part i think we're still figuring out but do you think that other nations are to starting to follow saying that say that a lot of european nations also are

a very big consumers and then we have china of course which is the moment a large producing economy right it's kind of this vicious circle that we're all dependent on each other in america of course depends on china to produce the products and they're dependent on us to buy them up but can the chinese population in fact replace american consumers at some point. well i think to be honest that appears to be part of the plan. you know any anyone who talks about china has to sort of qualify their comments knowing not directly any you know insight into the chinese communist party because it's a you know it's a mysterious entity to many of us. but that being said if the chinese made it clear that would prefer to increase to export increasingly by evil things such as i phones as opposed to cheap plastic things is they want to retain more value at home they want to in a sense cull down the mount of cheapness they're exporting or at least retain more value at home and so raising minimum wages is one aspect promoting their middle class and aspects of their consumer economy is another part of it and you know

there's there's questions of currency and the currency wars that happen between china and united states which i think to the eyes of many observers china has you know come out ahead in is that china's is not only asserting itself it's doing its assertion successfully so the you know one one long longer term prediction could be that is that. the pacific rim centered around china in a sense becomes a more integrated trading and consumer bloc is that is that it's clear among the major retailers that united states is a mature economy there's not a lot of group there to be found wal-mart made it clear last year is that most of its growth in new stores is going to be in brazil and china its international markets it it does not forsee significant movement of significant growth in the united states any time soon and and in that industry more than anything else you know growing your dying it's very competitive and you know that is to some degree been the nature of economy so you know i would say the short answer is yes yes

china is the future and what that means to us is something we're finding out i think that's definitely going to be a scary realisation far far america to figure out what it's not like perhaps to to be on top anymore and we'll see if america can again become a nation of savers rather. or than just compulsive shoppers gordon thank you so much for joining us thank you. being a politician it's not meant to be a lifelong profession but it's become one and it's all the anger all the outrage the feeling of the guys up in washington don't really represent the american people and how could they if they spent all their years flying between capitol hill and their fancy mansions and their hometowns while the easy out of governor bobby jindal came up with a solution earlier this week he said that he had things congress should be a part time institution that being a member of congress should just be a part time job and it sounds crazy but at least it brings up a discussion of how to separate experience from never ending rule we're here to

discuss it with me as political consultant check these chuck thanks so much for being here it's been a while it has but thank you for having me but now tell me this you know is making politics a lifelong career really all that bad because in essence what you're doing is you're a public servant you're serving the public something it's supposed to be almost saintly and yet somehow he just has gotten twisted and gone horribly wrong well it's it's good and it's bad the good is expertise you know we send people to washington there is a learning curve that's why there's junior members and senior members so being in washington for a while serving the public for a while is a good thing the bad thing is you tend to get caught in the bubble you tend to become beholden to special interests and you become tone deaf to the people at home so there's a pro and con you know george washington set the standard for presidents when after two terms after eight years even though he would have won by a landslide he said i'm not going to run again this country wasn't meant to have kings we actually formed this country did not have kings so you know there's pros

and cons it's a double edged sword but what do you think of jindal statement here that he thinks that congress should just be a part time job i mean a lot of states already have this their state legislators weren't that way but on a federal level is that really a good idea don't these guys get enough days off already yeah they do actually they need to work harder they need to. work harder and they need to work smarter we've probably all been told that at one point in our careers so no i don't think part time's a good idea i think what's important and maybe what jindal was getting at is that some of these legislators need to spend more time at home they need to spend more time listening to their constituents less time in washington listening to lobbyists listening to potential donors and again inside the bubble so part time no let's actually have members of congress work a forty hour week when nancy pelosi first became speaker she said congress is going to work harder we're going to work four and five day weeks that lasted you know a few months and then it was back to back to business as usual so let's see this congress members work harder they see them work longer our country has multiple

crises right now we have an economic crisis we're fighting two wars we have health care that in some people's minds is unfinished business these guys need to work harder and i'm sure if you ask them they're going to say they're working just as hard as they can but you know there does seem to be this type of outrage right now in the country or at least in the midterm elections i think where a good proof for that the people aren't happy with their government right now one poll after another keep saying that but do you think that there is a difference you know you're saying this is difference between people that are experienced versus someone who just thinks that they're ruling class oh absolutely there are people who come to washington elected officials who work hard and they learn the issues and they listen to their constituents and they find themselves reelected because of that and then there are other people in particular those who are protected in these various gen gerrymandered districts who become kings and become queens and don't really feel the need to pay attention to what their constituents say and in fact if you want to talk about them working long days they

complain that most of their time is spent fundraising so they're working long days but are they working on the right things went out to also said that he thinks that you know there is of congress or once they become a former member of congress they should be banned from becoming the lobbyists what do you say about that because lobbyists are you know they're considered this is the evil brew that comes in and attempts every day. with money which is partly true obviously but they're supposed to also bring experience to the table right and they're the ones that are supposed to know the issues probably better than members of congress and south there are certain members well i don't think it's important to ban members from being lobbyists the question is for how long after you serve should you be required to go back into private life before you become a lobbyist certainly in the obama administration people were required to sign a document that says after you leave you won't lobby the government in the area of expertise in which you worked members of congress work in so many different areas of expertise that putting that limit on it would be impossible but telling members

of congress after you served that for a certain amount of time you shouldn't be turning around the lobbying congress is something that they should be ethically bound to do unfortunately i think would be very difficult to make them legally bound because it would take congress to pass a law to regulate itself and they don't really like that and so you know i mean very quickly you know we had obama who came in and promised change everyone's promises to change the culture of washington and they just kind of give it now we have tea partiers coming in do you think that they'll be able to fight off the washington machine or i don't know did they even mean it to begin with well you could argue that obama didn't change the culture of washington because i think without obama we wouldn't have the tea partiers coming in so in effect he has changed the culture just thought exactly how he anticipated the tea partiers will have an impact we don't actually have the tea partiers just because we had the financial crisis that it didn't really matter who the president would have been well it depends on how the president goes about addressing the crisis so i'm not so sure we would have as many tea partiers as we have right now but the tea partiers

will change the culture here the question is how will there be unintended consequences in the same way that obama changed washington but in an unintended way well we shall see and hopefully they won't be anything for the worse chuck thanks so much for being here thank you now still to come tonight our tour. time winner is rush limbaugh which took his bigotry to a new level this time telling our native americans to tell you what he said in just a moment and as you know that today is native american heritage day. probably have no clue about this day set aside to remember the first settlers of this country starting to discuss it in depth just a moment. seven

thirty am in moscow good to have you with us here on our team using your headline prime minister vladimir putin called pushing for closer ties between russia and the e.u. with the ultimate goal of a free trade zone during his trip to berlin putin also tried to court the german vote the largest bid for the twenty eight thousand football world cup the prime minister also expressed confidence in the euro and said russia might form a joint currency is old one day. three crew members from the international space station safely returned to earth after five and a half months in orbit with the crew conducted science research and before maintenance activities during their stay on the i assessed one astronaut also sent regular twitter updates and posted stunning pictures taken from the space station. and poland welcomes russia's recognition of the one nine hundred forty cotton massacre after the state duma declares the soviet leadership responsible for.