the. rules. are a sense feed now with the palm of your. comb . oh i'm charging a washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture because brothers have their hands in just about everything even with a pedia i'll explain what they're up to and why because of their efforts you need to be careful about believing anything you read on the internet plus how can this nation the richest in the world not provide clean drinking water consumer advocate and author erin brockovich joins me for this discussion but first a dramatic turn of events in wisconsin. this is

a violation of law this is not just the rule is it is your. will is the chair in. it was god says the senate republicans used what they claim is a loophole in the law to officially cut from state employees nearly all collective bargaining rights tonight how this latest move is part of a larger plan to destroy our democracy. you dated oh this late last night governor scott walker and republicans in wisconsin proved to the world what we all suspected that their union stripping agenda had absolutely nothing to do with the budget it was caught by democrats still a wall of public opinion turning against him walker you. used the nuclear option

wisconsin senate republicans convened a special session last night and stripped the budget bill of all the stuff related to an actual budget so they could ram it through without the necessary quorum of democrats the resulting bill was pretty much nothing more than a way to screw over public unions including stripping most of their collective bargaining rights away and to sell off public utilities to the rich funders of the republicans republicans passed the bill with no democrats present as one of the filibustering democratic senators chris larsen said about the move last night it obviously wasn't about any kind of financing it was an attack on working families and senate minority leader mark miller said in thirty minutes eighteen states senators and did fifty years of civil rights in wisconsin. and needless to say governor walker reignited the labor protests in madison last night and today we'll take a look at some of these scenes. to

top it all off what republicans did last night was probably illegal and it may have violated the state's open meeting laws which require the legislature to give a twenty four hour notice before any new sessions or convene a democratic minority leader in the state assembly house. house and peter barka tried to make this point known last night was largely ignored by republican senate majority leader scott fitzgerald take a look. here mean this is a violation of law this is not just. those the chairman this is the incredible the state assembly did their part today and wrapped up as in this illegal bill a massive protests are going on both inside the capitol rotunda and outside the building the building now goes to governor walker for signature there will be more

protests over the weekend a possible nationwide walk out of high school students at two pm friday afternoon and possibly even a labor strike but here's the thing this isn't just about wisconsin or the war against unions this isn't just about the illegal tactics used by republicans or the labor strikes or the philip fourteen filibustering democrats this is a war against democracy itself a war against the institutions in our nation to give you and i the right to elect our leaders and determine our own future this is about republicans who are lapdogs to giant corporations and billionaires crushing political rivals of the me as their corporate overlords like the koch brothers in an effort to defeat president obama in two thousand and twelve and bring about one party rule in america. and don't take my word for it take wisconsin republican scott fitzgerald's word for it he's the guy who undermine democracy in convene the illegal session last night to pass the anti-union bill and he had this to say yesterday just hours before the vote.

they flipped the state senate which is obviously obviously the goal with eight recalls going on right now they can take control of the labor unions if we win this battle and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions certainly what you're going to find is president obama is going to have a much difficult a much more difficult time getting elected in and winning the state of wisconsin well there it is right there you guys admitting this is all about disabling the democratic party crippling president obama's chances of winning next year it's not just about destroying the unions it's about destroying our two party system and if they get away with the communities that you and i live in all across america will be transformed dramatically this is our little city over here democracy bill usa and a few minutes i'm going to show you what will happen to the city and in your city if republicans like scott walker are successful but first for more on the latest of

what's going on in wisconsin i'm joined from wisconsin by the reverend jesse jackson reverend jackson welcome to our program. where the markers. or where the markers well i'm a true people you know but they're going to fight back over reverend jackson you've seen a lot of protests in your day from anti-war to civil rights but is this movement have in common with past movements. will the south this week have some themselves this past on the for the six years ago b.b. group and we turn our pain towel and soul from blood. in the first march to august big article you expect now there will be a big election. if people there come a liar fire passion in great numbers because the myths about the supreme court about the county expect that's one thing the second thing you want is. in

alabama was paid to right to work states rights and power of collective bargaining well basically states rights and. elect them obviously from lawless to walk straight pattern here undemanding basic sense of social justice podcast patient the work of must think with a plan just as grows but that there be a new deal. and jobs they start to for the bottom are therapy a good deal a good deal for the american worker what we see now is the very wealthy the will to people are increasingly clear to people by increasing the look which is strictly limited a bigger and better deal for the american worker agreed during the vietnam and civil rights era as on the other side there were big defense contractors and

businesses that benefited from the war and also big companies that benefited from cheap exploitable african american labor who are the puppet masters behind this generation of republican politicians will if you. have major companies real a trillion dollars spent money in lebanon they are still getting struck me the trillion dollar the war machine in afghan. rock a one point two trillion whispered in afghanistan to begin dollars. we pay a lot of bankers not linked to limiting not the reinvestment so home for those on the rise we see the move in with the last we did this just text. for the wealth of america then peace symbol of tulip full of modern twenty billion dollars . all of the state budget deficits compare and then deal.

flow into states. how can we best take these people on average as. well as the vix must be made accountable for taking a break the last must be some way to get them to reinvent and for the urban america back to expect rumors. in the woman must be direct to purchase from the will because they were just a lot and cheaper spending the planets. the deal is there people who lost their spirit in the lead the brown can be taken over and so we need to be needed to there we can do that and come april so it seems the state may have taken a mammogram ianal and get a little in in the was they can live the richest and good illustration they can be a big mess so you read descriptions go to champaign in the mix when a fire can make a statement it was caught so they will be heard around the country as

a stand alone inspection but if they prefer it could be. and it seems like it might actually even happen reverend jesse jackson thanks so much for being with us today thank you very much. now i want to go to somebody else with boots on the ground in madison lisa graves is the executive director at the center for media and democracy and formerly the deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal policy of the u.s. justice department of justice she joins me now lisa welcome to the program thanks tom so what's the latest on the ground there in madison. well he wrote that happened this afternoon the assembly was a vote that was nearly shouted down by shouts of shame people throughout the capitol outside the capitol were shouting shame on those members and one of the surprising things that happened in that vote was it was an absolutely partisan right wing vote to strip unions of their rights and there were a couple of republicans that joined all of the democrats in going against this

deplorable and really quite frankly immoral bill so the crowd was stunned they're going to rest over the last twenty four hours at the behest of walker and the fitzgerald brothers who are the leaders of the senate and the house as you pointed out scott fitzgerald talked about how you know they were they were intent on destroying the labor rights of people in this state in order to make partisan political gains in the twenty twelve presidential elections and so i think the scales have fallen off the eyes of many people the crowds are every age across the spectrum there from all classes in this in this state and i think there's going to be a huge huge backlash but you guys lisa speaking of backlash how goes the recall. it's gaining steam i think that you know you saw the maneuvers last night where the republican leadership couldn't even honor basic open records basic sunshine in government law by having

a properly noticed vote they want to do this in the dark of night it's a shameful act they can't seem to follow the law they basically act by yacht you know it's not a democracy here this is what corruption looks like and i think that the recall efforts are gaining tremendous steam the numbers that we're hearing are really large the numbers on the other side are look pretty anemic in terms of the effort to recall democratic senators who dared to stand up to this fiasco and so i think that some of the republicans are concerned about their political future and by the looks of the numbers they really should be. doing very quickly what's the status of the state capitol is it in lockdown are they keeping people out or have the police become who have been fairly friendly to the protesters at this point become adversarial. well the capital was closing down we got word about fifteen minutes ago it was going to close for the business day but there were there are many people outside the capital people are preparing for

a walk out tomorrow people are preparing for the next stage and an enormous protest on that day a lot of the police who've been there have been have continued to be supported some of them you know are clearly under orders to guard for example the rat hole that scott walker and his cronies have been entering through by the m. and i bank building. the guard that some of the some of the new police are more armed than we've ever seen before. the people are standing strong and i think that this this is one battle that people are ready for the long the long battle and it's war very good thank you very much for being with us and i'm sure sure we're coming all n.p.r. watch dot org great thank you lisa n.p.r. watch that or check it out there being conflicting reports about what the filibustering democratic senators who have been across state lines for weeks now will actually do in the aftermath of governor walker's and the republicans illegal tactics whether they come home in the next few days and what options are left for

them to stand up for the workings constituents and strike down this bill not only strips workers their basic rights but also undermines our democracy for more of this i'm joined by one of those democratic senators chris lawrence chris welcome to the program. thank you for having me great to have you with us did the republicans in wisconsin just undo fifty years of labor rights as one of your colleagues. exactly and unfortunately did in a very short time frame this is something where they have the opportunity to hear the people the people try to be trying to speak out and unfortunately they decided they were just going to shut them out time and time again and what we saw yesterday was a move where in just a couple of hours just two hours they gave notice before the public for the public to actually reacted what happened was they just g.m. this bill through they took all the other stuff off the table and it was just the collective bargaining rights the workers' rights and they decided to attack. it and we leaving everything else aside it was

a also what throw in selling off public utilities. i'm not sure that they did i think it was just a non physical items that were in it because if there was anything else besides that you would not be constitutional they have to have twenty members for a poor room in order to do what you think it has a physical impact the republicans claim that this is something that doesn't have a direct physical impact which it does so they think they just they just as the part about so given even given how scott walker was bragging to the guy that he thought was david koch about how he was going to lure you guys back see it as you know whole switcheroo and pass the bill i'm assuming the guys are assuming that he's still got that up his sleeve and he's planning on it given that i mean and feel free to correct me if i'm wrong are you guys planning on returning a wisconsin anyday. we like we will soon at this point we're focusing on the fact that this bill passed senate what it contains we look we left three weeks ago

with the intention of bringing attention to this trojan horse bill and all the provisions that were in it bringing attention to the people of wisconsin of what this bill will do to workers' rights to no bid contracts for public utilities and politicizing thirty seven positions as well as the attacks that medicaid medicare senior care and two hundred other current changes they try to be jammed through in about seventy two hours we try to bring attention to that we were successful to a degree we never thought possible everyone in wisconsin now knows what visibility is in its act on workers' rights and furthermore the people in the country now know the clear division between what a democrat it is and what a republican it was and where they stand when push comes to shove you know democrats were willing to stay out of the state for three weeks away from our family our friends our homes our loved ones have to stand up for workers' rights and put everything on the line and at the same time republicans used every trick in the book to try and lure us back to try to shut out the public opinion shutting

down the public hearing shutting off the legislative hotline because they heard a number of people shutting down the public aid in the assembly in jamming the bill through even though they had enough votes they jammed it through in the middle of the night and they shut down the capitol a lot everybody out and then they took over our offices and then this where they jammed it through yesterday with just two hours notice for the public they drag people out of the assembly today in private g.m. this thing senator larceny do you have any recourse legally to overturn what walker and republicans did. well representative barca is for to watch suits to try and stop it under all the meetings law under state law you have to have twenty four hours notice if you're going to break have an open meeting they did not do that they had two hours notice so that's going. be moving forward and so we'll be watching with great interest what happens with that lawsuit but the big thing to remember is what happens next with all these people there's going to be

a big rally on saturday and i think after that people are going to turn in their protest signs for boards and people move to the street to get involved in democracy in these recall efforts against republicans and get involved in the future in voting getting their friends to vote in perhaps running for office and so this is buyer's remorse on steroids senator thanks so much for being with us thank you so much remember this is not just about the unions and in just a minute i'll show you how this will affect all of us all across the nation. that brings us to our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think was governor walker and the republicans union stripping agenda all about here are your choices a one party rule be the end of democracy see president obama not being real life good or d. all of the evolve so far the results are around eighty five percent d.

all of the above is the time to vote it's our dot com let us know you think the poll be open until tomorrow morning. up next your hometown part of the fabric that makes america but what will happen to it if republicans get their way next i'll demonstrate using this little town what could happen. for flimsy low and back even as told the preacher about using women has nothing evil are suggesting she's told her no she says she's a stock. welcome

to democracy ville usa it could be any town you and i live anywhere in the nation this over here is the public sector our homes are public parks are public schools are fire stations police stations public utilities septic systems city hall our government it's part of the commons part of our public areas and this is the private sector of the businesses big businesses medium size businesses small

businesses. i want to talk about what how these relate and what's really going on in wisconsin as part of this larger frame let's start at the beginning with the founding of the country when the founders and the framers wrote the constitution they laid out the preamble the constitution a very simple statement of why they were creating this nation they said we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union number one coming together right it's all of us to establish justice some sort of a system where everybody is equal under the law to insure domestic tranquility and this was the happiness that jefferson talked about in the declaration of independence to provide for the common defense and notice how defensive not capitalized back in those days they capitalized the most important things provide for the common defense course we have to do that promote the general welfare and welfare is capitalized and secure the blessings of liberty to our cost to ourselves

and our posterity to our children our grandchildren our great grandchild you're doing establish this constitution for the united states of america now one of the guys who helped write the constitution and who actually along with ben franklin edited the end john j. edited the first draft of the declaration of independence the thomas jefferson wrote was our second president john adams in seven hundred seventy six as we were going to war this is what john adams said about the purpose of government why do we have decent government is instituted for the common good for the protection safety prosperity and happiness of the people and not for profit honor or private interest of any one man family or class of men so it's pretty clear why we have government what it's all about at least in the minds of the founders. it wasn't about making the rich richer that it was about providing for the general

welfare promoting domestic tranquility for providing for the common defense basically making a nation that works all of these things together that work the stablish mean the establishing a nation state statements of our nation so what do we have here first of all this the public areas most of this is what we call the commons the commons is the stuff that we all we all own in common we have good the police department the fire department the publics the public schools in our commons we have you know the the parking meters the bike paths the public parks there's a public park over here the government city hall all of these things the septic systems the and the things that you can see here that we couldn't quite illustrate with these blocks but are very much a part of the commons the air we breathe but water we drink it whether or not our food is clean whether or not our drugs are safe those kinds of things this this is

all the stuff that basically government was established to do on a not per profit basis nobody was to make any money off this because this is about us taking care of us. pretty straightforward stuff then of course we have the private sector and private sector was established you know the constitution provides for every state actually more provides for the word corporation doesn't appear in the constitution but people were allowed to engage in commerce as long as it was prove it wasn't in direct but didn't represent a direct danger to the commons. and what has happened over time is that the big businesses used to be by the way we had these laws like the sherman antitrust act in one thousand nine hundred one there were other state laws they went back before that all the way to the phone in this country that said that you know a business can basically only do one thing that it can only last thirty forty years in every state union in forty years is the maximum summer twenty or thirty years in

fact up until the in ninety s. that businesses have to serve the public good you know it just all is basic stuff so what happens is these big companies now in the absence of these regulations since ronald reagan became president and stopped in one thousand nine hundred to stop enforcing the sherman antitrust act the big companies reached out and just started eating in the medium sized companies and the smaller companies and eight of the town to the point where you know before reagan became president if you went into any mile in america any little shopping center every store would be locally on now you could drop out of a plant sixty thousand feet land in any city in america not have any idea where you are look around and still not have any idea where you are because every ball is the same every store is the same they're all these national chains so what has happened is this has all come under the power of the giant corporations we have an

oligopoly basically in our media in our food supply in our drug supply in pretty much any sector in manufacturing a hole in the defense you have a small handful of large corporations that own them but then that wasn't enough these large corporations and many of the very very wealthy people who made their money from them through them. or inherited their money from them through them started to reach out for the common so they started looking over there going you know there's a lot of money flowing through here about between thirty and forty percent i think right now it's forty one percent of the entire g.d.p. of the united states is happening over here and you know it's like people providing for their own police to part of their own fire department their public schools their their their public parks the bike paths the the septic systems the water systems of our systems forty percent of g.d.p. is a heck of a lot. so these companies started saying you know let's reach out and grab

some of these let's let's let's nail down the natural monopolies first things like you know cable systems into people's holes how many cables can you have in your house basically one ok so that's it in france by the way they get a law that says of the wire coming in your house is irrelevant enki evil company can provide cable to you it's a cable is about thirty bucks a month in france how much do you pay and by the way that includes all those channels plus telephone plus all kinds of calls to get parking meter chicago privatized their parking meters bypass public parks they're reaching out and basically buying these things off the the public areas the public lands then they said ok let's start privatizing the public schools and so they started these p.r. campaigns about how charter schools were better and public schools are failing at the same time that they were buying politicians and lobbying really hard to to basically starve public schools so that they could turn this into

a profit center there as actually towns that have privatized their fire departments there are companies that are offering this we have huge a huge private security industry that is now supplying our police departments with equipment with training and in many cases like in new orleans after hurricane katrina guess who showed up to police the city blackwater they're looking at the water the septic the power systems this is what scott walker wants to so off in wisconsin privatized all of these things and then ultimately this is the big enchilada this is the one that they've been working on for quite a while and they're they're really as you can see from what's going on in wisconsin and pretty much there by city hall as true as this happens one you've got in wisconsin for example you know republicans and all over the country republicans obviously doing what these guys want them to do but in michigan governor snyder is even saying that if city hall is having a hard time raising money. or they might think about doing something like raising

taxes oh my god we can't have that that they can simply he can simply as the governor simply dissolve city hall dissolve the town and replace it with our burdon blackwater blackwater after all prince came out of michigan i mean could be with with a manager that could be from a for profit corporation so all of this stuff ends up all of it comes ends up being the property of and controlled by big business including democracy which just falls over. still to come in the big picture two very wealthy brothers have been arrested in london in connection with the collapse of the icelandic bank and we're going to do the same thing here at stores next. lindsey lowe and he has told them.