wisconsin democrats sure are unhappy with the state assemblies approval of a plan to curb unions but perhaps that shane should be directed elsewhere will reintroduce you to candidate obama who may just contradict president obama. there's every expectation that with the end of the cold war nato would be disbanded. its still kicking even after the dissolution of the warsaw so what is the point of nato today and who exactly is it benefiting. and you will baby drill

midis tension may make what you pay at the pump painful so could the u.s. look in its own territories for relief. i don't want to learn russian how about a single song in russian here about what inspired this americans to learn the russian their national anthem in just a few days. it's friday february twenty fifth five pm in washington d.c. and christine for us now you're watching our t.v. well all eyes are still on wisconsin as thousands stand strong at the state's capital protesting the republicans plan to curb unions this is an early morning vote in wisconsin state assembly pushed governor scott walker's budget repair bill one step closer to getting passed but protesters and democrats are not giving up in

this fight that is far from over. what you see here democrats and protesters pointing the finger at republican lawmakers making their way through the chamber after the. one am vote this morning now the build will move on to the state senate when that vote will take place remains a mystery because wisconsin's democratic senators are still nowhere to be found and another democrat missing from the action president barack obama which is surprising because during his presidential campaign it seemed there was no doubt he would support the labor movement. and others said this of american workers or be denied their right to organize and collectively vote and when i'm in the white house i'll put on a comparable pair of shoes myself. with us for the. many asking where exactly those conjugal shoes are it's been almost two weeks since the

protesters took to the state's capital and the country hasn't heard much from the president this despite those promises he seems to have made during his presidential campaign to stand on the lines with those workers and it's not just wisconsin the president has to worry about union protesters all over the country have broken out in states like indiana ohio and montana and much much more action is expected this week and. well it has been twenty years since the warsaw pact a military alliance between eight eastern european states was dissolved and within the soviet threat the u.s. and its allies were poised to fight against but the west's equivalent nato is still alive today and has expanded its size and scope in the days in years since the cold war it's the oldest and largest military alliance in the world artie's lauren lyster asks why. it was an alliance born of fear rejoice was defined to

defend western europe against the soviet union but the fall of the verlyn wall changed all that now decades later the military alliance for and against the soviet threat longer product of its enemy has been. the answer fumbling for a clear cut mission the north atlantic treaty organization has been fighting for justifiable reason to be but that hasn't stopped nato from continuing to pursue a global reach it's been twenty years since the warsaw pact formed in response to nato dissolved but even without its main rival nato has continued to aggressively expand and to date it has operation standing several countries with troops and resources in the sudan the mediterranean sea coast of iraq afghanistan and the horn of africa in november they redefined their goals going forward at the summit in lisbon wanting to tackle everything from nuclear disarmament to terrorism and cyber security. it was all adopted and its protests on the streets nato's are

today now out of time we need a world of peace and justice not one of preparing for yet wall warts and already nato members have been divided over the near decade long war in afghanistan it was not prevailed there calling into question the alliance mission. was every expectation that with the end of the cold war nato would be disbanded instead what happened in fact and in violation of even the accords and the agreements at that time was nato aggressively expanded critics say it's the us defense companies benefiting most from this expansion with the sales of weapons to every new nato member and the building of every new base and that growth allows other tools to be used if it's changed altered militarily to become also this very powerful. political entity that is used to pressure countries to bow down to nato is agenda

nato is agenda being primarily a us again it's an agenda from countries see as a threat and critics of that agenda right now us think it's a global expansion must be start i don't believe it was and then we'll just oppose nato has contributed systems. in terms of security and it's an assault to the peace that nato wants pledged was formed to keep lauren mr r. t. new york so we want to broaden this discussion about the relevance of nato today ryan becker is the national coordinator for the answer coalition and ryan let's talk about this we've got the soviet union no longer in existence the warsaw pact has been on for twenty years now and nato is still alive and kicking growing in fact well nato immediately expanded its territory and absorb some of the warsaw pact countries the socialist bloc nations following the dissolution of the soviet union and the socialist plot and we see today for instance in afghanistan there are

one hundred fifty thousand so-called nato troops that are occupying afghanistan nato is the north atlantic treaty organization clearly afghanistan is far away from the north atlantic and i think that by itself shows that nato is simply a fig leaf for us foreign policy and the us pentagon's designs for empire for domination in the in the post world war two era the confrontation was focused in europe it was focused against the socialist bloc countries but clearly now that the warsaw pact has been dissolved it is the twentieth anniversary you see nato expanding in an expanded showing that it is a tool of military aggression and there are a lot of people asking in military aggression who talk about sort of the role of nato as in terms of what benefits and they speak about the military industrial complex you know really benefiting from nato still being. rounds you talk about that well indeed i mean the a.b.c.'s of of militarism in nato was the foremost

expression of militarism is not only war but also economy in the case of the united states the constant need for a pretext for endless military spending becomes a principal part of the us economy that's the a.b.c.'s of militarism united states prepared spears are finally in bali lucky groom and all the biggest corporations including the biggest banks that are behind them they are the beneficiaries that every dollar spent on a missile on a bomb on a team that means that dollars not available for education housing health care the things that human beings need but it is a source of profit for the biggest corporations and banks i'm wondering if you take a look at who is involved in nato today some of the i mean small countries when we think about you know the denmark's countries that would not otherwise be for example in iraq countries that don't necessarily always have the best interest in being a part of the script you see anything changing you know in the next five ten fifteen

years in terms of some of these countries are running out well i think the people in those countries don't want in i think what we have in most of those countries is a dichotomy of class the economy you have the elites the corporate in banking forces within those countries they want to do business with the united states the condition for doing business with the united states is the is the rubber stamp us foreign policy which means to be part of nato so from lithuania to a stone year to bog area to albania to all of the countries of the former socialist in addition to the countries of north atlantic you see the elites of those countries foreseen there are their populations to pay the price of being part of nato to the people in europe who are being imposed with all kinds of austerity to the people in europe who are being hit seen their jobs or wages cut in their benefits do they benefit no i would say just the opposite it's pretty interesting i'm wondering if you know from the precise. of u.s. government do you see any changes do you see any you know elected lawmakers coming

to washington and say hey i think now's the time to talk about this now's the time to talk about disbanding ale but you would think so given the economic situation in the united states given the fact that there is no global threat to the united states posed by russia or the bed purportedly existed during the so-called cold war and during a time when you see cuts and in the state in local areas when you see thirty million americans who are unemployed or underemployed or of start looking forward with things to some of these legislators must come forward but you know what there's a kind of an unofficial religion the altar of military spending before which all the politicians seem to go because they internally become the biggest recipients of campaign monies and all sorts of aggrandizement during the election campaign and beyond part of being part of the american political system means the rubber stamp military spending now almost a trillion dollars each year and it's pretty interesting too because what you say what you see as these lawmakers come forward and they don't say you know hey

americans take a look this budget is enormous they say we need to protect our troops and i mean and even during the cold war the soviet union wanted most of all they have peace i mean the warsaw pact was a defensive reaction to nato the soviets lost between twenty and twenty seven million people when during world war two when germany was reintegrated into their worst are paired just nine years after the end of world war two the soviets and the socialist by countries in eastern and central europe perceive that reasonably as a great threat and so the warsaw pact was built as a defensive reaction now twenty years after the warsaw pact is this are you see nato not contract in but expanding that's the modus operandi for american foreign policy or national coordinator for the answer coalition thanks so much for joining us. well now for the millions of unemployed are or underemployed americans times are already tough and rising oil prices are just adding fuel to the economic fire

experts warn that unrest in the middle east could result in food prices prices skyrocketing as well and whenever there's a crisis there's also room for its exploitation archies danica's offs he explains. oil three little letters. that have dire consequences on any economy and here in the united states while it's sometimes also accompanied by three big groups . and with those three words you've got yourself a politically entrenched powerhouse will drill new wells sure it will drill. drill baby drill and drill. and the crisis in the middle east has only inflamed so what we have now are soaring gas prices and fears of a relapse in the already weak economic recovery we have a world oil market so when one place goes down and one place is in trouble which it seems like libya is today then it is actually oil prices around the world and on

the heels of the nebraska crude is heading for the biggest weekly increase in two years and when oil prices soar the price of food also skyrocket and so a vicious cycle begins for many americans a reality that is once again it rallied the base and its spokespeople perhaps for the wrong reasons and whenever there's a crisis either here at home or abroad it's usually exploited politically i did government or the media it loves to hate khadafi is now threatening to burn up the oil fields experts are predicting a worst case scenario of two hundred twenty dollars a barrel if that happens i don't believe that this this particular interruption of oil supplies will last very long so if you're trying to tie drilling offshore with what's happening in libya i think it's a bit of a stretch a stretch that some are all too willing to make the oil fields are on fire and we have no backup plan while he is lifted the moratorium in the gulf for drilling oil

thanks to cass sunstein no new permits have been issued but permits have backup plans aside. what's really going to happen in an already ravaged economy where we see this in the middle east. and this in our very own midwest. so the last thing you need is the people who are. in the worst economic shape are the first ones to get hit by gas prices and this will cause a lot of discomfort to a lot of people who don't need this bad news bad news recently at code by vladimir putin russia's prime minister said that the unrest in libya has driven crude prices beyond fair market levels in danger in the global economy but here are concerns of violence spreading to other well producing nations in the region have been overshadowed and instead of asking how americans will cope with this are asking the

question that never gets answered at the same time seems to never get old who are our friends and who are our enemies for our tea dina kosofsky and concerning those oil prices it has been a rough ride this week yesterday crude oil prices reached one hundred three dollars a barrel as oil companies shut down production in libya there are the protests there now a lot of investors seem to have become concerned that unrest will spread to other major oil producing countries which could in turn drive up prices even further some for not numbers like five dollars a gallon gas pump steve levine is a contributing editor for foreign policy and also author of this book the oil and the glory pursuit of empire and fortune on the caspian sea and i asked him if oil prices could reach two hundred twenty dollars a barrel in the near future. i do think that the markets have been calm down over the last twenty four hours saudi arabia has gone around and quietly assured

everyone we not only can add more volumes to the market but we have added these these volumes and that's why you've seen oil prices go down and the difference that would create a situation in which prices would really skyrocket if another country went offline so you've lost our million barrels a day it is offline from libya if algeria which is also having trouble if it. gets one point eight million barrels more saudi arabia that would bring saudi arabia right up to his capacity to to substitute a volley and then you would see i'm not sure two hundred twenty i think that's probably an analyst trying to get headlines but maybe a hundred fifty that which is still pretty high why is saudi arabia so nontransparent the single factor that has that has allowed our oil prices to go

through the roof over the last week up and then all the way down which we've seen since the end of the day yesterday is this question can saudi arabia really replace those volumes and your question even if if it does replace the volume's or how long can it do it and then a third question could the unrest that we've seen in neighboring rain wash over into the eastern province of saudi arabia where all of their oil major oil fields are located look at the situation in those days it was the. right in the middle of this war that the united states was embarking on in iraq it was it was during the. war on terror that is a very high and. and here was a state libya willing to renounce weapons of mass destruction to renounce

is its program to develop nuclear weapons and the bush administration and the blair administration was two countries the united states and the united kingdom that hey wait a second lesson in embrace good hockey he does not look under the. nor is terrorist past nor lockerbie why for that reason the terror reason but also because the da he said hey listen i'll let all your oil companies come in they can drill i've asked for the four billion barrels of oil which it does have and incidentally. a lot of them about fourteen fifteen or an oil companies big companies including gas prices right now is steve levine contributing editor with foreign policy and also author of the oil in the glory. well the greasing our

dependence on foreign oil using clean energy and bringing jobs to poor communities these are all good reasons to drill for natural gas in fact gas drilling is experiencing a boom around the united states pennsylvania to colorado however people everywhere are also experiencing the unfortunate side effects there are many from contaminated drinking water to skin infections to no waves recently i travel to dimmick pennsylvania one small town that's been hit especially hard i was an oil and gas companies brought hydraulic fracturing or fracking to their back yards. i think that. for the eally family the problem runs deep. underneath this loyalty in their roots i was born and raised about the stock market there. are many here for march and acres of land a swimming pool a pond and a new generation with roots here too. so it's kind of hard for me to just pack up

and go. everything about me is here but times have changed since they aren't really grew up here for the last year in four months he and his family have been unable to drink their water ever since he agreed to allow cabot oil and gas to drill for natural gas on his property they're one of more than a dozen families in dimmick pennsylvania who have a lot of that looks like this because it's full of methane gas. instead families like that you always have to live on of tanks two hundred fifty gallons of water delivered once a day for a family of five that's what showers. washing dishes and water. what we expect like he says he and his wife signed on only after they were assured it would be a quick safe process clearly that didn't happen. it got so bad that you and his cousin who lives down the street decided to find out what would happen if they let

their water on fire. a lot of flame good come a gal. like was here they were the clay like i like that high. or higher payment and there was never. never any problem but for jim grimsley and his wife am dimmick is where they came to retire the drilling just started on their property but their hope. we get signed on and. not sorry that we did. kind of a poor county so a lot of people did get work and they got jobs and they're making money so to me that's a plus but some good jobs complained about the company and were punished or put on leave most employees are from texas and stay in rented houses or hotels but that's of a department of environmental protection has been out several times and has now decided

to take action. really in the region the e.p.a. has issued orders for cabot to plug three well. they've already drilled which could cost millions of dollars they also have thirty days to install permanent water supplies for families including the who get water delivery if carried doesn't agree to. terms and get it there will be a court seeking a court order to enforce what i just laid out for grimsley what happened is probably simply a rough patch that's like anything i mean i'm sure when there were big and subways in new york city one hundred years ago everybody probably hated them and so who wants them today to move a couple million people a day without in new york she would be here but for easily it's a looming question of whether to opera his family from the only place he has ever known a lot of memories or keep them there with the hope that at some point things will change preparing him to make pennsylvania christine for our team and the issues

surrounding fracking have started to gain momentum especially as they get increased media coverage well one man has been so disturbed by what's going on he wrote a song about it take a listen. to a. new. fact we. wrote. that was thing or earlier i spoke to him singer songwriter mark black he told me why it was important for him to write a song about fracking. at the start of being a really good sounding word to write a song about something that can break your heart if you actually see what it does to people's homes and lives what have you seen i mean what are some of the stories regarding hydraulic fracturing that have really stuck out to you that you found

most disturbing well you know i travel a lot in the first time i really came in contact is when i had a gig out in sullivan county which is actually a near where the original was stuck festival was and. there were people there who were i found out that there were families spiting against spam li and families that were split up because they were they were basically being tortured you know they're getting offered five thousand dollars an acre to lease their land but the problem is you know they're always goes at least for a couple of years but the problem is when they come back the land is useless and of course we've all kind of seen the videos of people turning on their faucet and lighting a match and seeing it explode and i mean let's face it without clean water there's no life very very terrible lot of situations happening to clean with dirty water people getting sick a lot of chemicals in the air i just even read that a mayor at

a small town in texas has decided to leave to say goodbye because his kids were getting back from fact i thought i read i read the great york times the new york times was reporting that it seems to be causing earthquakes in arkansas it's just endless it just seems like the last big greedy land grab on you know carbon carbon based fuel and you think americans really have any idea of you know some of the major issues with frankly no well obviously some do but that's exactly the reason i wrote the song and why we're doing the video and i mean some tremendous players you know agreed to play with me in the song including john sebastian and the great banjo player eric weisberg from dueling banjos i mean everybody one who knows about it wants to help get the word out because i mean it's amazing i was every every place i go like i was talking to some people from new

york city last night they have no idea. that was singer songwriter mark block from tallahassee florida. well to russia with love familiar song of national pride sung by an american the bombing of the domingo airport brought sympathy from around the world but it inspired one american to sing his heart out correspondent ramon dylan no introduces us to an american man in los angeles who put his emotions into a melody. going to see a. familiar to you son half a world away said to russia with love. jersey gated in los angeles resident mercy santo's admits he is not a singer but the national anthem of russia has become this new is law on line i came across the. national anthem for those most amazing thing i ever heard santos stumbled across the anthem trying to find more news on january first terrorist

attack on a moscow airport that heinous act and russia's anthem brought out some raw emotions my first heard the entire song actually and what tears my eyes eyes definitely question by mercy tells me that once he heard the russian national anthem he spent the next three days and three nights learning that in russian it was the least thing that he could do in his mind to show his love and sympathy for the russian people for. their load. the. op was. still up. literally. and he says i just miss inspired me and i listen to every word and listen to the music and know the changes and i.

really was motivated by. the competition seeing the yard was touched and moved by it that was without even. knowing what they were saying. it's not all over. when i saying in the song it was the pure inspiration something says make a few bucks. steere and his lights but it took a terrorist attack to dig deeper into the nation's culture and history is dedicated to the anthem is his way of saying to russians that he stands with them. a felt helpless here so. i can send in the guns missile has to protect anyone so at least i could do was. do something artistic and sing

santo's of former college football player received his greatest inspiration from the tragedies youngest victims. yes. the state the children that were affected. because i come from a family that whereby i lost both parents and i had to know how it was them film of feel now going through life without their parents or parent blood pressure mourns sometimes hopes his song and newly found connection with people in a far off land will be shared and be compassionate here in america as well. we all just my strive for a better country and world to live in. where you are sure that saying roll.