wisconsin democrats sure are not happy with the state assemblies approval of a plan to curb unions programs that shame would be directed elsewhere we'll reintroduce you to candidate obama who may just contradict president obama. was the expectation that with the end of the cold war nato would be disbanded but it's still kicking even after the dissolution of the warsaw pact so what's the point of nato today and who exactly is benefiting. and drill baby

drill mideast tension may make what you pay at the pump painful so that the u.s. look at its own territories for relief. will. ever want to learn russian know about sing a song in russian hear what inspired this american to learn the russian national anthem in just a few days. it's friday february twenty fifth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for sound they're watching our t.v. . well all eyes are still on wisconsin as thousands of stand strong at the state capitol protesting the republicans plan to curb it unions this as 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's far from over. these stay 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 bill will move on to the state senate when that vote takes 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 a little surprising because during his presidential campaign it seemed there was no doubt he would support the labor labor movement take a listen. and understand is that the american workers or being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when i'm a white house. comfortable pair of shoes by still. with us president of the state. so people asking where exactly are those comfortable shoes it's been nearly

two weeks and for protesters took to the state's capitol and there has been very little that the president has said this despite the promises he seems to have made during his presidential campaign to stand on the lines with those workers and now it's not just wisconsin it is the union protests are all over the country and states like indiana ohio and montana and much much more action is expected across the country this weekend. well it's been twenty years since the warsaw pact a military alliance between eight eastern european states was dissolved and with it the soviet threat the u.s. and its allies were poised to fight against but the west equivalent nato is still alive today and has expanded x. its size and scope in the days in years since the cold war it's the oldest and largest military alliance in the world are she's laura lister asks why. it was an alliance born of fear originally supposed to define i defend western europe against the soviet union but the fall of the berlin wall changed all that now decades later

the military alliance formed against the soviet threat longer project its enemy has been. the answer bumbling for a clear cut mission the north atlantic treaty organisation 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 a response to nato dissolved but even without its main rival nato has continued to aggressively expand and to date it has operations spending several countries with troops and resources in the sudan the mediterranean sea kosovo iraq afghanistan and the horn of africa in november they redefined their goals going forward at the summit in lisbon wanting to tackle everything for nuclear disarmament to terrorism and cyber security. it was all adopted and it's protests on the streets.

now out of time we need a world of peace and justice is not going to prepare it for yet more wars 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. there's 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 in the agreements at the time was nato aggressively expanded critics say it's u.s. 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 as it's changed altered militarily to become also this very powerful. political entity that is used to pressure countries to bow down to nader's agenda nader's agenda being primarily a u.s.

agenda it's an agenda some countries see as a threat and critics of that agenda right in the u.s. say it's global expansion must be stopped i don't think there's anything that justifies nader's continued existence. in terms of security and peace an assault to the peace that nato wants a pledge that was formed to keep lauren lyster r.t. new york. so we want to broaden this discussion about the relevance of nato today brian becker is the national coordinator for the answer coalition and ryan let's talk about this we've got and the soviet union no longer in existence the worst 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 those socialist bloc nations following the dissolution of the soviet union and the socialists who are 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 because for occasion 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 and expanding its showing that it is a tool of military aggression and there are a lot of people asking a military aggression who talk about sort of the role of nato as in terms of who it benefits and they speak about the military industrial complex you know really benefiting from nato still being around and you talk about that well indeed i mean the a.v. sees of of militarism in nato is 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 u.s. economy that's the a.b.c.'s of militarism the united states taxpayers are funding in bowie lucky groom and all the biggest corporations including the biggest beings that are behind them they are the beneficiaries of every dollar. spent on a missile on a bomb on a take that means that dollar is 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 wonder if you take a look at who is involved in nato today some of the i mean small countries 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 this group do 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 of

people in those countries don't want in i think what we have in most of those countries is a dichotomy a class the economy you have the elites big corporate in banking forces within those home 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 here to bug 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 fourteen there are their populations to to pay the price of being part of nato to the people in europe who are mean imposed with all kinds of austerity do the people in europe who are being seen their jobs no wages benefits do they benefit no i would say just the opposite it's pretty interesting i'm wondering if you know from the perspective of the u.s. government do you see any changes do you see any 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 nato well 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 that purportedly existed during the so-called cold war and during a time when you see cuts and in the state and local areas when you see thirty million americans who are unemployed or underemployed or of stop looking forward to . things to some of these legislators must come forward but you know what there is a kind of an unofficial religion the altar of military spending before which all the politicians seem to borrow because they in turn 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 in the warsaw pact was a defensive reaction to nato the soviets lost between twenty and twenty seven million people during world war two when germany was reintegrated into their worst just nine years after the end of world war two the soviets and the socialist bloc countries in eastern and central europe perceived reasonably as a great threat and so the warsaw pact was built as a defensive reaction oh twenty years after the warsaw pact was dissolved you see nato not contract game 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 it has been a bit of a rough ride for oil prices this week crude oil reached one hundred three dollars a barrel as oil companies shut down production in libya and due to the protests there a lot of investors seem to have become concerned that unrest will spread to other

major oil producing countries earlier i spoke to steve levine contributing editor for foreign policy and also author of the oil and the glory the pursuit of the empire and fortune on the caspian sea i asked him if my own price is quite possibly reach two hundred twenty dollars a barrel in the near future. the question is what kind of a timeframe are you talking about and what event i do think that the markets have been calm down over the last twenty four hours saudi arabia has gone around and rightly assured everyone we not only can add more volumes to the market but we have added these these volumes and that's why you see oil prices go down and a difference that would create a situation in which prices would really skyrocket in another country went offline so you lost a million barrels a day it is offline from libya. algeria which is also having trouble if it's

run at one point eight million barrels more. saudi arabia that would bring saudi arabia right up to its capacity to to substitute the volume then you would see a notch or two hundred twenty i think that's probably an analyst trying to get headlines but but maybe one hundred fifty that that which is still pretty high i want to say and as you mentioned saudi arabia and they really kept calm promising to kick up oil production i know you've written about the fact there you have but to what extent can they keep doing it i mean if the u.s. continues. this is the this is the question one question that i'm exploring today is why is saudi arabia so nontransparent the the the single fact that has that has allowed prices to go through the roof over the last week 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 the problems and your question even if if it does replaced iranians or how long can it do it and then a third question could be unrest that we've seen in neighboring rain washed over into the eastern province of saudi arabia where all of their oil major oil fields are located i want to talk about the interesting relationship between the united states and libya certainly twenty years ago thirty years ago it was a very tense relationship but i think what changed over the last two years and there was say you know that the u.s. has invited libya donkin due to its rich oil supply your thoughts on this and sort of u.s. foreign policy in general as it relates to protests and oil. well just to get that one question one question out of the way first does the united states. renew its

relationship with ridley in two thousand and three because of oil yes. so that's that's that's a fact and i don't think that's to go look at the situation in those days it was. 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 we got a very high and it 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 it was two countries the united states and the united kingdom that. hey wait a second lesson embrace the jockey and he does not look under the.

word is terrorist past your lockerbie why for that reason the terror reason but also because the doctor said hey listen i'll let all your oil companies come in they can drill i've got forty four billion barrels of oil which it does have and incidentally. a lot of about fourteen fifty or no oil companies big big companies including gas prices. but just then taking a little further in terms of very current events i mean do you think you want to spend do you think you know president obama when he decides to speak out say about hosni mubarak stepping down in egypt what does he weigh in terms of ok how is this going to affect oil why do you think this is why we haven't heard as much on libya i mean how much of a factor is or will the u.s. is ability to speak out on all these things. when i

see a little bit the office and i see that the united that obama is not speak out much on mubarak and did speak out on the dock the the calculus there is. how much impact does our relationship with that leader have on the other moving pieces in the middle east in terms of mubarak he seems one dictator there are links to saudi arabia and other countries with which we have very important relationships in the middle east if we pull away precipitously from regard do we tell those other dictators our relationship with you is is. is very very strong now we may drop in tomorrow that was the mubarak out to explain it daffy everybody knew this guy is a rogue the united states obama can very easily stand up immediately and

say you are a rogue staff. do do not crack down on your people keep the silence down and out and out telling his softly essentially to step down because none of the other middle east leaders care about dottie all right stable again contributing editor with foreign policy also author of the book the oil and the glory decreasing our dependence on foreign oil using clean energy and bringing jobs to poor communities are all good reasons to drill for natural gas and that natural gas drilling is experiencing a boom around the united states from pennsylvania to colorado however people everywhere are also experiencing the side effects and there are many from contaminated drinking water to skin infections to nose bleeds i traveled to deny pennsylvania and one small town that's been hit especially hard for some boiling gas companies brought hydraulic fracturing or fracking to their homes. i'm back.

for the ealy family and the problem runs deep. underneath the soil in their roots i was born and raised here brought us up our father. many years ago when watching acres of land a swimming pool a pond and a new generation with roots here to go back here so it's kind of hard you know just to pack up and move it grow. everything obama has here but times have changed since can'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 common oil and gas to drill for natural gas on his property they're one of more than a dozen families in dimock pennsylvania who have water in the works 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 and that's what showers notion of correlate washing dishes and water well a lot of. what we expect like really says he and his wife signed on only after they were assured it would be a quick safe process clearly that didn't happen. they 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 flames were coming out. like let's hear how they were the clay like i like that high. or kept him in town there was never. any never in the world but for jim grimsley and his wife and dimmick is where they came to retire the drilling just started on their property but their home. we did sign on. not sorry that we were out of town to use carnival so

a lot of people didn't work and they got jobs and they're making money so to me that supports like some who got jobs complained about the company and were punished or put on leave most employees are from texas and stay in rented houses or hotels the pennsylvania department of environmental protection has been out several times but has now decided to take action. fairly within the creature the e.p.a. has issued orders for tablets a 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 elite who get water delivery if carrot doesn't agree to the. terms and get it there will be a court seeking a court order to enforce what i've 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 city would be here for easily it's a looming question of whether to off route his family from the only place he has ever known a lot of memories or keep him there with the hope that at some point things will change for affording him to make pennsylvania christine for r.t. and these issues surrounding fracking have started to gain momentum especially as they get increased media coverage well one man has been some disturbed by what's going on he wrote a song about it take a lesson. be we. can we. get you. you know back we back you said. earlier i spoke to singer songwriter mark black he told me why it was important for

him to write songs about fracking. but decided being a really good sounding word to read a song about it 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 in the year where the original woodstock festival worse and. there were people there who were i found out that there were families fighting against family and and families that were split up because they were they were basically being tortured you know they're getting offered by thousand dollars an acre to lease their land but the problem is you know they're only supposed to lease it 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 like very very trail a lot of hand situations happening go clean with dirty water people getting sick a lot of chemicals in the air i just even read that and they are at a small town in texas has decided to leave to say goodbye because his kids were he had back from fact i thought i read i read that too many york times the new york times was reporting it seems to be causing earthquakes in arkansas it's just endless it just seems like the last big greedy land grab you know carbon carbon based fuel and you think americans really had any idea of you know some of the major issues with fracking know it well obviously some do but that's exactly the reason i wrote the song and why we're doing the video in i mean some

tremendous players have you know agreed to play with me on the song including john sebastian and the great banjo player eric weisberg from doing banjos i mean everybody want to 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 how this thing a songwriter mark black joining us from the voter field roadhouse just outside tallahassee florida. well to russia with love a familiar song of national. pride sung by an american and the bombing of the domingo airport brought in sympathy from around the world but it also inspired one american to sing his heart out r.t. correspondent were among the endo introduces us to a man in los angeles who put his emotions into a melody. going to see a city shared a familiar tune some half a world away since

a russia with love by a new jersey native in los angeles resident mercy santo's admits he is not a singer but the national anthem of russia has become his newest lot on line i came across the. national anthem for those most amazing thing i ever heard sample stumbled across the and i'm not trying to find more news than worst terrorist attack on a moscow airport anus and russia's anthem brought out some raw emotions are first heard the entire song actually and what here is miles i was definitely. touched and moved by mercy tells me that once he heard the russian national anthem he spent the next three days and three nights learning it in russian it was the least thing that he could do in his mind to show his love and sympathy for the russian people from. syria over the.

oh no no no. no no. literally. was at it since i just was inspired been like to listen to every word and listen to the music i know the changes and. the really was motivated by the competition scene was there was a question by. that was without even. knowing what they were say. hello to the site when i sang in the song it was just pure inspiration such as has made a cube russians during his lifetime but it took a terrorist attack to really 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. all over the. felt helpless feeling here so. i can send in the guns missiles there to protect anyone so we stop could do was do something artistic and sing santos a former college football player received his greatest inspiration from the tragedies youngest victims. yes he took. me on the street children that were the effects. because i come from a family that when i lost both parents and i just know how those young form of feel now going through life without their parents or parent well russia 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 better country in the world to live in. from that same role. in los angeles. art. as. well that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered going to our team dot com slash usa or check out our youtube page youtube dot com slash r t america and christine have a great night. to sleep below and keep all the preaching about these women the people are suggesting she's told her no she says she's a star.