last week you are t. question morning.

hey guys welcome michelle intel on the ellen show with part of our guest stop to say on the topic now i want to hear. just like you video response or the twitter part of the question that we post on you tube every monday and on thursday the show long response is. ok it's time for tonight's all time award and we must confess some days it's actually hard to find somebody who is worthy of the ward but that's not the case today newt gingrich a man who's looking more and more like a twenty twelve presidential candidate is finally trying to deal with his woman problem and for those of you that are unaware newt's been married three types he's

cheated on multiple wives not really sure how the far right the g.o.p. are going to vote for a male is that a sleazy pass to me supposedly they're all about family values right but newt is determined to be president so he started addressing his failed marriages listen to him talk about his troubled past on the christian broadcast network for no question of the times of my life partially driven by. personally or felt about this country girl i work for through hard and the things that happen in my life that were not appropriate. and what i can tell you is that when i did things were wrong but i wasn't trapped in situation of those things were wrong and you know i was going on what a great way to spin your infidelity you love your country so much that you just couldn't keep it in your pants i mean while it is a totally brilliant move by newt i'm not sure the christian base is going to fall for it but i guess it's worth

a try if anything it shows if this guy can really think outside the box but i'm guessing that he will skip talking about the fact that he left his cancer strict. first wife for another woman who then had multiple sclerosis and then he eventually left her for his current mistress turned white and you get all that youth left to women who have had health issues but again voters he did it all because he loved this country and was working so hard to make america great so it was really patriotic of him god bless you newt retold we forgive you but then again maybe americans shouldn't vote for you because if you're elected we're going to be the reason for your third failed marriage and that's why it's in tonight's tools i wonder is newt gingrich. now the department of defense is on high alert here in the u.s. but it's not because of a possible terrorist attack no they're worried about the hacktivist group anonymous the pentagon is investigating claims that the group has threatened to cause problems at quantico virginia the base where private bradley manning is being

helped manning is suspected of leaking thousands of documents to the web site wiki leaks and he's been locked in quantico since last july and lawyers for manning claim that he's been left in solitary confinement at the base forced to strip naked because military officials believe that he's a threat to himself but his legal team says that's not the case the treatment is inhumane and the financial times reports of the hackers known as anonymous have been seeking to disrupt communications at the u.s. marine base and as you might recall anonymous they're the ones that stage cyber attacks on the web sites of visa master card paper now and others accusing them of withdrawing services to weekly leaks now among the methods of the group is vowing to use is one called posting personal information about the officials on the internet a method known as don't think the group is also threatened to harass the sapphic want to go to quote the points of frustration including a quote complete communications shut down of its internet and phone links so

anonymous has been very successful with all their other targets so the d.o.d. and quantico should probably be on high alert so looks like the d.o.t. really does have reason to be shaking in its boots. now forbes magazine just released their billionaires list tonight and topping it are are mexican billionaire carlos slim halo microsoft c.e.o. bill gates and investor in berkshire hathaway c.e.o. warren buffett but this year we see the emergence of bric countries as key players making up half of this list well the u.s. begins to lose its grip now while we all anxiously await the release of this list annually to get a look at the who's who and get excited and dreaming about what every one of us would do with that much money you can't help but notice the disparities this year is for the list broke some records the total number of billionaires at one thousand two hundred ten and we combined wealth of four point five trillion dollars all right while the wealth gap in the united states is at historic level and while the

top one percent of the population in america own more wealth than the bottom ninety percent combined to hear this class with me as i am hirsch economist at the center for american progress thanks so much for being here thank you i mean first of all these guys are rich over a lot of money they're really rich and you know there's four point five trillion dollars in combined wealth forbes billionaires there's one point five billion people in the world living on one dollar a day or less i mean these billionaires could double the incomes of the one point five billion poor people around the world and they'd still be billionaires and it just doesn't seem right right i mean we're still supposedly reeling from this economic crisis to hit the entire world and right now we're seeing protests all across the world we're seeing rising food prices you know unemployment is high and then the same time these billionaires there are more of them and they're getting richer how does that even happen but i think we have to ask you know why is it that

these people are becoming so rich that there is growth happening around the world especially in the brics the. russia india china. and that's where we see a lot of the growth in the billionaires so there's new rich people being created but so some of that wealth is being spread around the world but around the world the wealth is still being concentrated at people only at the top and when we talk about inequality creasing what that means is that the rich are getting richer while the rest of us are running in place or even falling behind and we have to stop and think about what is it about our society what is it about our economic system that allows. all the gains from this economic growth to be concentrated in so few people and you know i wish there was more billionaires out there like bill gates the thing with incredible to me too is that he would have still been number one had not given away a third of his wealth to you know charitable causes and now he still number three i mean this guy's got

a lot of money you know bill gates is rich there are twelve hundred super rich people on this list of forbes billionaires and. you know some people are doing great things with like bill gates helping fund. drug vaccine research and so on but the question is why the gains from growth not going to the people who are doing the work and that's happening everywhere in the world that's happening in this country in the united states and the trend towards increasing inequality in the united states has actually been going on for longer than i've been alive so people at the bottom which is the say ninety percent of the population in the united states has seen lower no rise in their incomes in a generation at the same time we see the united states you know falling behind globally as we mentioned we see a lot of new billionaires that are making this last coming from the bric countries brazil russia india and china the u.s.

is falling behind and. you've got to wonder how we're falling behind but we still have the richest people in the entire world well the. they're rich because they're in a global marketplace for their businesses so even though. the economy isn't growing so robust in the united states it is growing in other parts of the world where they're conducting business and it shows that the fortunes of those people at the top are no longer connected to what's happening to the fortunes of of the rest of us a country i want to mention one thing that george soros actually said today he was talking about china and said that it's a sad fact that western democracies provide less successful leadership in china but he said that their model of state capitalism you know could pose a danger if he becomes the envy of the world do you think that there are other people out there other countries that are envious of china and they're going to want to make their you know their their program well first of all i disagree with

the premise that the you know the model of the united states is one that is no longer to be envied every people from all over the world they're looking look to the united states has something to emulate and you know china has been quite successful in recent years and so naturally countries and want to find what's going to work for them especially when growth has been so hard to come for many countries in the world even where there has not been the problems of inequality growth has been high doesn't mean there aren't going to stop and give up on democracy and say let's be like china or let's write china you know that their system has some advantages and has produced many years of robust economic growth but it also has some limitations and you know having the flexibility to be able to really to respond to people's wills through to market them a credit political institutions is an important part of an economy as well and i think it's trying to move this forward they're going to start realizing the

limitations of their political system i still i still choose democracy thanks so much for joining us tonight here. last year was the deadliest year for afghan civilians since the war in afghanistan began with a fifteen percent jump and the death toll since two thousand and nine that's according to a u.n. report released today two thousand seven hundred seventy seven people were killed and those are the numbers that we know of insurgents and not i saw forces were responsible for seventy five percent of those deaths and that's a comparison of the pentagon and general david petraeus would like to play off as a positive for the afghanis see it that way this week we saw a major breakdown in relations with hamid karzai rejected an apology from general petraeus for the accidental killing of nine young boys so how long can you keep fighting a war for hearts and minds are the people you're supposed to be rooting of oppressors are the ones that are paying the biggest role with their lives joining me to discuss it is christopher swift a fellow at the university of virginia law school center for national security law

chris thanks so much for being here a pleasure good to see you now do you think that you know afghan civilians do think that it really matters to them if they hear that seventy five percent of these attacks are are ones you know conducted by insurgents rather than i saw forces there dying their family members are dying there people are dying here you know alone one of the difficulties with addressing any question about afghanistan is that we don't really have a good sense of how things are because so much of what public opinion is in afghanistan is really local so in some areas where they've had a really hard time with the taliban insurgency with the local leadership and the local people and most importantly you know let's not forget we're a day after international women's day where local women have had trouble with the taliban insurgents they need be more amenable to really the u.s. argument in that instance but in other areas where there is continued economic deprivation and where there's intertribal struggle or there has been a high degree of difficulty with corruption in the central afghan government. that

argument may be somewhat less persuasive than the u.s. government would hope it would be but what about where you have how many of karzai the president of afghan. coming out in here you know he's not congratulating bysouth forces for the fact that there are you know the the civilian deaths inflicted by them have fallen by twenty percent now quite obvious that he is rejecting a public apology by the president of the united states by general petraeus when it comes to killing nine young boys well let's not forget that in afghanistan everyone is using casualties especially civilian casualties for different political ones right the united states is very keen on showing that they're going to progress in the war but they're winning hearts and minds and that this will you know this conflict will have some kind of a constructive solution i mean karzai is very worried about his position within afghan society he's worried about being attacked by the pashtuns right right that's the base that he has to play to win to the extent that use able to be seen as protecting that constituency from the international forces he's going to play that

up and civilian casualties give him the opportunity to do that and let's not forget that it's all going to it's also using civilian casualties as part of its propaganda campaign and they use them to demonstrate the costs associated with their being a foreign force on afghan territory but they also use it for the purpose of intimidation and with the object of scaring local government officials and forcing the government's rich and setting up shadow governments in the districts where they are happy much of the fact that everyone of course always uses numbers to their advantage general petraeus is doing the exact same thing right now he you know interview with the washington post yesterday gave reporters all kinds of figures about how many insurgents have been killed and recent months but if you think about counterinsurgency strategy and itself it's not supposed to be a numbers game right it's not supposed to be about the number of combatants enemy combatants that you've killed it's about how many civilians you saved how many towns you build out how many friends you may work how do you count your friends

it's not exactly like people in rural afghanistan have accounts on facebook where they can like or not like the contingent right look the. the move towards you know focus on body counts for lack of a better phrase shows a desire on the part of people in the military and also people here in washington d.c. to get some wrap their hands around a situation that's very very compelling it shows a little desperation you know i think it shows actually a bigger problem in terms of how work and socializing the war in afghanistan but it basically breaks down in one of two ways there are those that advocate a counterinsurgency style strategy winning hearts and minds for lack of a better word general david petraeus himself who wrote the book you know now is ramped up the war you know even more violent and then those who advocate a counterterrorism strategy which means different things depending on which people you're talking to the problem is that neither counterinsurgency work counter terrorism is the right answer because depending on which adversary you're facing in afghanistan and depending on what district you're in either one of those strategies

might be appropriate so in some places the counterinsurgency strategy may make sense if there's a good you know good cohesive government on the local level and that's actually something that afghans can fight for a new situation where you've got the quote assurer the heart network or even al qaeda senior leadership it's really hard to win hearts and minds in those districts where those factions are dominant so rather than looking at the whole doctrinal question of whether we're going counterinsurgency or whether we're going charism it makes more sense for us to back off and asked our our methods in afghanistan being effective and i think that's the debate that's not being out of washington right now christopher i want to thank you very much for joining us and we'll see if there is some debate when general petraeus has to testify in front of congress next three for the first time since he actually took over the war here and afghanistan thanks so much good to see you. coming up on tonight's show a public outcry over and over a c.p. award per rocker uses confederate flags in his videos and his concerts are not and then is the da playing politics with marijuana some pot advocates claim the da is

putting big pharmaceutical companies interests ahead of average americans i'll explain it all. let's not forget that we met in a park right here right. on the well. we're never going to show they're going to keep him safe get ready because their freedom. charter here broadcasting live from washington d.c.

coming up today on the big picture. new web site with twenty four seven live streaming news tell us what to do about the ongoing financial part unlimited free fall of the videos for download. and stories you never mainstream. so. the political. parties are touched. by guys welcome michel ancel on the obama show with part of our guests have to say on the topic now i want to hear audience has gotten to video responses are to

twitter for part of the questions that we post on you tube every monday and on thursday the show long response is. no matter how you feel about his music it's undeniable that kid rock has had an impact in the music world since one thousand nine hundred eight kid rock has been a staple on billboard charts with his southern rock and his allegiance for everything redneck in america but kid rock a robert ricci has also expanded his work outside of music and is based a lot of his efforts on his hometown of detroit now says the city has lost a lot of its essence after the decline of the american auto industry and manufacturing which was compounded by the financial crisis in iraq has worked hard to pull his city back onto the road to recovery and he's being recognized for his efforts by the end of. however some people out there are so keen on the southern rocker getting the associations of great expectation award because he often

displays the southern confederate flag at his concerts some are saying that it's disrespectful to weigh this flag and that it's a slap in the face for anyone who's fought for civil rights in the u.s. and in fact a few people are so offended by it and they plan on boycotting the awards ceremony honoring the rock star now kid rock says that he displays you can better fly because it's associated with his style of music and claims that it's not meant to symbolize any sort of hatred and always he is also defending their recipients saying that his work can improve the city of history detroit is notable ceremony takes place in may and that's our kid rock's people have not commented on this issue and frankly knowing him i doubt he'll be deterred by other concerns. is the d.a. playing politics with marijuana all for the benefit of the government and big pharma at the expense of the average american that's of marijuana advocates are arguing after a number of recent developments the da has recently reclassified t.h.c. the psycho active ingredient in marijuana to schedule three subsets of the

marijuana plant itself remains a schedule one substance the guy that carries the harshest criminal penalties and why would they do that well apparently sort of pharmaceutical companies can push products with naturally derived formations of t.h.c. meanwhile dr lyle cracker a professor at the university of massachusetts has dropped his nearly decade long fight to persuade the government to allow him to grow marijuana for medical research so is the government really anti-marijuana or do they just want to keep all the money that can be made from it at the top joining me to discuss it is paul armand deputy director of normal and the co-author of marijuana is safer so why are we driving people to drink thanks so much for joining us now first of all can you give us a little bit more detail on this rescheduling the has said that marijuana has no scientifically proven medical value so why now would they want pharmaceutical companies to be able to get their hands on it. well just to be clear here the d.a. has announced their intent to reschedule the agency and drive.

if the if the t.h.c. appears in f.d.a. approved products i don't want to jump the gun and this is already happening the d.a. is on record saying that they are supportive of letting this change happen now the reason of course they're doing this is because there is interest from several pharmaceutical companies who want to bring pharmaceutical products to market that it derives from in the marijuana because big pharma just like millions of americans and thousands of doctors acknowledge only that marijuana holds in this little. well you in making this change will just typical this sort of political hypocrisy we have regarding what our policy says versus what the science says this will be the equivalent of allowing vitamin c. to be legal and to be marketed while prohibiting incarcerating those who actually

because that's an orange it doesn't make any sense now who really stands to benefit here because if a big pharma is allowed to create products with this naturally derived t.h.c. they probably have to get weed somewhere right and is the government then become their their supplier. you're actually correct as you mentioned earlier. in his soup this allows the monopoly to be maintained that exist right now under federal law are only the federal government can produce marijuana for research purposes and that he has been very clear that no other providers should be licensed for this purpose so if a pharmaceutical company in fact was to bring a drug to market that contains naturally derived t.h.c. they would have to actually get its e.h.c. from the federal government i was curious how much does the government sell weed

for you would have. ok so they're not necessarily spilling all the beans on that i have but i've also heard. in talking about the case of people that are saying that the government's marijuana just isn't potent enough to do the proper medical research on it is that true. well i certainly have not had the privilege of actually trying the government's marijuana but i am told by sources that in fact it is a very or a quality and not the sort of quality that clinical researchers who work with marijuana are ideally we'd want to work with certainly any junior high student can go to their junior high in arguably obtain a better quality of marijuana and that's really the problem with marijuana prohibition in our existing policies so case you know why would the government take such a strong stance when it comes to marijuana where they don't want to put money into

research to see if there might be possible benefits but there may be willing to play with the pharmaceutical companies here. because in this case they're actually responding to the bridge that's been placed upon them by the pharmaceutical companies there are four separate companies that have petitioned own department of health and human services and also the da to make this change the da is not doing this out of the goodness of their art they're not doing this because they have suddenly a knowledge of the literally thousands of years of existing evidence supporting marijuana is used as a period agent doing this because certain companies are leaning on their own to do so and they're responding to that pressure but fifteen states in the u.s. have already legalized medical marijuana i would say that that pressure as well wouldn't you there and get you know if this. if this really goes through this rescheduling those people would still be criminalized. yes of course if if this.

was guided by science or in fact even if it was guided by public opinion as you just know that we would certainly have been much different public policy than the one we have now and were genetically this policy for far too you are not being guided by science nor has it been guided by what the public wants i upon very quickly do you think that it's only a matter of time until they get the seat is her scheduling a real. i certainly do and i don't in and of itself going to rescheduling. goldsman marijuana is better. for the. product based on marijuana the movie is a good thing but we shouldn't be criminalizing patients. ok i want to thank you very much for joining us and we will see if the government does make make a lot of money others i'm very curious you know how much they sell there we thank so much you're welcome. now before we go tonight it's time for our tweets of the

day as we told you earlier newt gingrich is trying to clean out his messy love life ahead of a possible run for the white house he's been married three times and has admitted to some affairs but newt says that he cheated because he worked so hard for this country the that caused him to make those personal mistakes so tonight we think that bill clinton should tweet to newt. i wish i would thought of that that's it for tonight's show thanks for tuning in and make sure you come back tomorrow representative peter king starts his hearings on the radicalization of the american muslim community on capitol hill so we'll debate whether or not he has any legitimate points or if this is just his attempt to marginalize the muslim community in the meantime don't forget to become a fan of the ilona show on facebook and follow us on twitter and if you missed any of tonight's show or any other night you can always catch it all you tube dot com slash q. and a show or oppose the interviews as well as the show in its entirety coming up next is the news with the latest headlines from the u.s. and around the world.

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