i am. but can be alone a show where over the real headlines with none of the mersey are going to live out of washington d.c. p.j. crowley gets the boot after he speaks out against the inhumane treatment of bradley manning so has obama approved torture and condemned speaking out against it then all eyes are on japan as video continues to come out after the earthquake struck the country will bring you all the latest and we'll look into the confusing information from the mainstream media regarding potential nuclear meltdowns massachusetts residents listen up there's

a new option for voters if you're sick of being labeled as a democrat or as a republican we'll give you details on the newly formed pirate party and why this group could soon become popular and states all across the country and the latest battle on capitol hill is all about money the g.o.p. makes of farm statement regarding the debt ceiling well find out what the threat of defaulting would really mean for the u.s. and is hollywood to blame for the growing us on the phobia in this country we'll speak to a man who says that we can just look at pop culture from the nineteen eighties to explain the radicalization hearings today we'll have those stories and much more but first let's move on to our top story. on friday we told you on this program that state department spokesman p.j. crowley had denounced the conditions of bradley manning's detention when speaking at a seminar and mighty a student in the audience asked him to talk about the elephant in the room and crowley responded that what his colleagues at the defense department were doing was ridiculous and counterproductive and stoop. and i thought that was

a promising sign that not everybody within the obama administration was so blindly following the path that somebody there still realize the holding someone who has not yet been convicted of any crime under such conditions was unreasonable and yet just as we saw that in a flicker it was quickly put out on sunday afternoon crowley abruptly resigned under reported pressure from the white house so where is the president had been up until this point shying away from any responsibility or a clear stance putting it on the pentagon to decide whether manning streeton was appropriate or not by firing crowley has he now made his stance very clear joining me from capitol hill is us congressman dennis kucinich congressman kasich thank you so much for joining us tonight now just first starters here i know that you have put in requests to visit bradley manning yourself so you can check in on his condition on his treatment and so far the access hasn't been granted if you've gotten a firm no already feel like you're getting the run around here it's very clear that

the run around here is owed goes i asked the secretary of defense he sent me a response and to talk to the secretary of the army i talked to the secretary of the army he said talk to the secretary of the navy and since they have control the marines have control over quantity and then the circuitry of the navy said no i have to talk to the secretary of defense so that that's a runaround. now what do you think of you know the whole situation the fact that p.j. crowley did in fact speak out and then just days later he was forced to resign from his position what does that say about this country and about this president. well it says that the administration has great apprehension about the bradley manning case if they did not they wouldn't have insisted that mr crawley leave this post and it also says that the white house is in a quandary because the president is making statements based on assurances that he's receiving from the department of defense and it may be that the president's faith

in those assurances misplaced which is one of the reasons why i want to go and meet with private manning and determine his condition and to see if in fact he is under great mental stress and to question him about being forced to stand naked and to talk to him generally about the conditions under which he's being kept. but by forcing crowley to resign here do you think that the president has taken a clear stance where he's chosen the torture which many have you know that explains the conditions of bradley manning versus those who speak out against it well you know my view is that the secretary of defense has the the responsibility i mean the president's only going you know based on what he's been told i wish the president would find out for himself but the secretary of defense has a clear. line of duty here and he hasn't kept it do i believe there

is torture look i haven't been there to see it but the reports that i'm hearing would indicate that he's being treated in a manner that is unacceptable it sounds like torture when you keep insisting that somebody answer to the question are you ok every moment for sixteen hours every five minutes that is for the throat of her to sixteen hours if you force someone to stand at attention outside of its cell will be stripped naked sounds like torture and the army field manual makes a very specific that you cannot conduct interrogation which presumably that's what they're continuing to do to private manning in a way that forces someone to. be naked that's considered a violation so you know the secretary of defense is has some explaining to do here and i just want to make it clear that you know to the extent that i can determine there is legal recourse here i'm putting the secretary of defense on notice that i'm prepared to take legal action against him personally to see to it that the

rights of private manning are protected. but congressman kasich president obama himself was a constitutional law professor does he really need to be going to the department of defense to robert gates and asking them whether the conditions in the treatment are appropriate shouldn't he know from his own background that pretrial punishment is not allowed well of course you should know except in this case he does have to rely on what he's being told as far as the care of private manning if he had gone himself and i wish he would to quantico to check on the condition of private manning and then he came up with that conclusion that would be a whole different matter but he's hasn't been there and i would invite him to go but he hasn't been there and so the secretary of defense who has the. responsibility here i think has to be held accountable i don't think that the president at this point should be held accountable but that may change as well now

p.j. crowley had said that the views he was expressing was just his own personal opinion but do you think that there is a breakdown within the obama administration some split between the military leadership and the you know the civilian the diplomatic side those people to actually have to deal with the representations of how people around the world see the way that we treat bradley manning and i think that it's obvious all right now congressman kingston if you said to the president for now can't be held accountable but there are a lot of things that this president who promised the most open and transparent administration who promised to close guantanamo bay who promised to really rein in the global war on terror and yet has expanded our shadow wars in yemen and pakistan there are a lot of things that he promised to do that he clearly has not done when he comes for his reelection in two thousand and twelve are you going to support him. but i certainly don't support many of the policies of the obama administration i don't support a continuation of war in iraq their war the war in afghanistan i don't support the keeping guantanamo open and i don't support

a continuation of the national security state which of bush administration brought about i'm very concerned about the fact that many of the policies of the obama administration are indistinguishable from the bush administration as far as who i'm going to support in two thousand and twelve but that's way down the road and a little bit too early to even talk about it ok i want to switch gears very quickly and talk about the fact that last week president obama signed an executive order for indefinite detention at guantanamo bay and continued does that show a clear sign of a good mo is not going anywhere that it's here to stay for a long time and we're still going to be using it well i'm very concerned about that i'm concerned about the fact that president obama made a commitment to close guantanamo and that for whatever reason he is not keeping that commitment but it wasn't only the structure of guantanamo it's we're going to animal represented real the part for basic principles of justice and

and and constitutional principles of recourse for those who are kept in detention and so we're at a point where still another administration must be held accountable for its. its violation of constitutional principles and as a constitutional attorney certainly president obama is aware of the gravity. of the decision that he's made do you think that he has been indicated george w. bush and dick cheney for all of their policies in the war on terror with this move you know that's that's a real problem. so-called global war on terror has led us into an illegal war against iraq war that was based on lies were and were approaching the anniversary of their war. the obama administration really needs to help the american people. move on from.

nine eleven by challenging the bush administration for the lies that were told to take us into war and challenging president george bush president cheney secretary rumsfeld it really does not do the truth very good it actually does violence the truth to continue to give president bush and his. closest advisers and cabinet people. a free pass on the very serious legal issues that are raised about our illegal immigrants in into. iraq and i will say why was it illegal because it was based on lives over a million people die based on lies over four thousand u.s. troops start based on lies over three trillion dollars will be spent based on lies i mean when you think about the worst the accountability so the obama administration i think could go a long way to win more support from the american people and from the world

community by challenging the lies which took us into war they haven't done that yet but i think there's still time to do that do you think that they will do about the obama administration hasn't shown any interest so far and i'm going to continue to encourage them to do that now some people have also compared the treatment of bradley manning in what's going on in this situation to want time of day to abu ghraib what he make of us compared i've made those comparisons to you ok i think that definitely are in agreement that if bradley manning is found guilty and for now we know that he has not been convicted of any crime we know the justice department has not been in any way able to tie him directly to join us and what do you think his punishment should be some people out there have said that he should be executed. i want to be very careful about commenting on the specifics of the case. because you know that's very tricky to get into the details of his guilt or innocence what i'd like to focus right now is on the indisputable fact

that at least indisputable based on a number of witnesses it's that he's being held under conditions that are inhumane and in violation of international law and the army field manual so i'm going to focus on that and i will watch the proceedings of his trial very carefully and it will be easier to comment as the trial is under way so you can see what the government's case there is but i haven't commented nor will i know about you know his guilt or innocence but if he were to be found guilty for passing on these classified documents from the government you think the fact that he's in his act i don't want to speculate on his case i really don't want to do that kurtz and he speculation on his case either way it could violate his rights and i don't want to be one participating in a violation of his rights ok congressman dennis kucinich thank you so much for joining us tonight and please do let us know if you do have your access granted to go see bradley manning and check in on him maybe among the first to know thank you

thank you so much. ok time for show and tell on tonight's program the last time we were speaking about unrest in saudi arabia we told you the police used force on protesters and we want to know how you pop the u.s. should react to these reports of violence against saudi's own people so here's what some of you had to say christopher cooke tweeted his response so there will be no response to saudi arabia killings not even reported in the u.s. logic call also tweeted to us said probably a lot of it's a fluid situation a lot of biden talking about how they're like our best friends from high school on facebook we heard from miles lacey who said the united states won't do anything over the saudi crackdown on protests in saudi arabia because american intervention will mobilize both moderate and fundamentalist muslims who will take great offense at the mere idea of americans turning up and judy kale says since saudi arabia is

the source of so much oil i think the rhetoric and the u.s. position would be different the rebels in libya are being portrayed as sympathy as freedom fighters by the government and the media but if the saudis sought to overturn the saudi arabian monarchy they would be called insurgents and guerrillas or whatever other name would work to dehumanize them and get people to support yet another war and as always we thank you for giving us your input on these issues and here's our next topic for our viewers we just discussed p.j. crowley stepping down after he spoke out in defense of bradley manning calling his imprisonment counterproductive ridiculous and stupid now this is a rare moment we saw a bomber himself take esteemed side when it comes to the treatment of bradley manning so we want to know what you think crowley's firing says about washington stance on leakers do you think that president obama has now taken ownership of the abusive treatment of bradley manning and you can respond to us on facebook twitter and you tube and who knows your response just might make it on air and also to come tonight for information is coming out of japan after last week's worth. they

canceled on me i confusion in the media over what's really out there tonight we ask if cable news is really capable of communicating complicated scientific information on the right path. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right now. i think. read the bill and wonder well. we're never going to says they're going to keep you safe get ready because of the utter freedom.

they charge in here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture a. new website with twenty four seven live streaming news tells what to do about the ongoing financial hardship unlimited free high quality videos for download. and stories you may never find on mainstream news. media the selling of me the political. posturing on our two dogs just stand. by guys welcome michel ancel on the obama show with part. our guests have to say on

the topic now we want to hear our audience is going to use you to video respond or to twitter reply to the question that we impose on you tube every monday and on thursday in the show your responses later global economy. the world continues to watch in horror and the aftermath of friday's devastating eight point nine earthquake that hit japan and send tsunami waves all the way to california they're calling this the worst disaster to hit your pants since world war two the confirmed death toll rising every few hours reached one thousand eight hundred ninety seven today but didn't account for thousands of bodies japan's kyodo news said it been found in the hard hit me og perfect you're on japan's north east coast the number of dead is expected to go up as rescuers reach more hard hit areas and at least three thousand and two people have been reported missing today by the

national police agency public broadcaster and h.k. has reported that four hundred and fifty thousand people are currently living in shelters but the damage doesn't stop there japan also now has a nuclear crisis on its hands at the fukushima perfecter plant and explosion in a building housing the number three reactor at the fukushima daiichi plant injured eleven workers experts believe fuel rods in number three are melting at this time hours later cooling problems at the plants number two reactor allowed nuclear fuel rods to overheat and generate radioactive steam that officials will now have to vent into the atmosphere and a similar explosion over the weekend occurred and reactor number one at the fukushima plant now as we watch this crisis unfold twenty four hour media coverage with one thing there has become very clear with that and that's how little we all really know when it comes to a type of energy that's been used for decades that has lethal and long lasting consequences and as we watch various experts go on and on giving different reports on what it all means well there was reports they change by the minute and so we

have to wonder why right this point why we know so little and why the media isn't helping here to discuss it with me is chris mooney author of unscientific america how scientific illiteracy threatens our future chris thanks so much for joining me here now of course if we look at the situation in japan like i said here we have a twenty four hour. our news cycle and this is a horrible disaster and everybody wants to know what's going on and we just see the headlines and the banners that will tell you that you know word risk of a nuclear meltdown that a fuel rod has now been exposed but i feel like the media doesn't really tell anybody what any of that means it's a big problem in fairness this is a hard thing the cover because the story is changing rapidly and we don't exactly know everything that's going on but the media has big problems coping covering science and it's not getting better it's getting worse actually science journalists are being cut throughout the mainstream media and that's one reason that we have worse coverage and why do you why do you think that is why are science journalists

being how do people just don't think that it's important enough they don't think it's exciting enough well they always learn their lesson when you have a big science story like this one or like bird flu swine flu excuse me but what happens is that with the growth of the internet the media industries business model is changing the specialized journalists are losing their jobs throughout the media you know you saw a c.n.n. credit science unit you see that now the only newspapers only about a third have a daily science section so no one knows how to cover this but do you think that the internet is at least filling that void that people now if they do want to get some kind of information an in-depth analysis of the situation and they would just rather read about it than ever go to the t.v. write that helps a little bit and so people are zooming around web content but it's not necessarily the same as having a really trained staff science crew so i think that's one of the major issues here but there are a lot of other problems with the way the media treats science as well that existed even when there were good science departments but let's talk about one of the issues that comes into play which i feel like you never know who to trust if you're

watching the news and you want some real analysis of the story right because these days everybody has some kind of a vested interest you could have a lobbyist in for the nuclear energy industry and they'll be coming on and telling us that in america it's ok we should still build new nuclear reactors because our technology is perfect because they're not in any kind of danger well you know in fairness. so i think that the plants over in japan are really old and you could do it much safer now but there's one for every expert there is an equal and opposite expert and you need the media to know how to vet their expertise in the term and do they represent what is scientific consensus or are they representing a fringe view and again that's where you need a trained experienced science journalist who's done this for many years those people are harder and harder to find so you get a crisis like this and you might not have adequate vetting going on now you know in your book you talk about in general that america and americans and the media have a general taste for science that we're anti intellectuals why is that what is that

stem from well it's a long history of any intellectual ism in the united states and that's not the only thing that's going on you're americans find science we're different not something they necessarily personally relate to they think scientists are strange others whereas in fact science is central to the economy and central to ensuring that we all have jobs and it's unfortunate people don't understand that and let's talk about other issues i mean as we go forward in the future there are so many problems facing not only this country but the entire world that involves science you know what are some of those aside from climate change as well science is absolutely everywhere and climate is the one of the moment that is the biggest but before that it was stem cells and in the future it will be something else we don't know it could be synthetic biology could be nanotechnology it's going to be scientists can see each in your lives the better we understand how the brain works i was going to change but what we think about ethics criminal justice science is constantly driving within that story is it and why do you think that is i mean you say that there's a deep history right of this and intellectual as in america but also when it comes

to other countries if you are compared to china for example we have so many so fewer children studying sciences and math well other countries realizes this is the road to prosperity and that's something we actually learned sooner earlier in the one nine hundred fifty s. we are racing with the soviets to you know get into space and put a man on the moon all that that's what we were going through our science. and that's what powered our economy for decades afterwards now we've gotten a little bit lazy and others are catching up to the how do we get back to that well you've got to you've got to inspire kids and you've got to make the public see that it is not just some nerdy and over that they can't relate to it's actually something we drive and so relating you know they can relate to the tech industry to some extent and they can see how that through of innovation and so you can make that message clear i think president obama is actually trying to put competitiveness and science know at the center of what he does and we definitely need competitiveness and we definitely need a better understanding when it comes to science so that we can look at the t.v. and actually have an idea of what it is that they're talking about and you know for

the media to take more responsibility there to as you said thanks so much chris for joining us thanks. how do you live in massachusetts and as you know that now if you live in massachusetts you can register to vote as a pirate that's right last week the massachusetts election division approved the pirate party as a political designation in the state and it's not be are are kind of pirates this party is about government transparency personal privacy but in people before corporations and promoting culture and knowledge through copyright reform so could it not be long before we see a growing number of pirates all across america joining me to discuss he is the lead organizer for the massachusetts pirate party james o'keefe james thanks so much for joining us so i just went through a few of the issues of this pirate party but sunny what really makes it so different from from democrats and republicans essentially the only two powerful options that we have out there. james can you hear

me. play here ok great did you hear my question tell me how your party differs from democrats and from republicans. sort of not hearing your audio ok i don't think that james is hearing me i think we might try to get back to him. during a sampling of act it a pirate party also first started in its weeding and now there have been pirate party popping up all across the world changing back i am ok and i was talking about the swedish origin the variational pirate party but tell me about this fire party and massachusetts and how it's different from the democratic and republican parties the massachusetts or the first her party to gain ballots some form of ballots semes two suits anyone can when they register to vote choose to vote as choose to

register as a pirate as opposed to a democrat republican the protests are in the green here we follow similar cuts home to that in sweden we're focusing on openness and personal privacy so we want to open a government to make sure that it meets the needs of people we want to open our culture to make sure and free it from the grip of large corporations as well as who want to open up. open up eliminate the patent system so that we can increase innovation that we're going to need to deal with the various problems that we have be they the cost of medical costs of drugs or to deal with things like will the warming how many members do you have so far. well currently we have about one hundred best wearing a plea now do you think of this is an it could spread in america that we might see popping up and other states has it mainstream and after i can think of thing. i

believe it is certainly it will start small as these things do this already curry's in oklahoma new your oregon and they're starting up in other places as well. and i also just wonder you know your party says that you have your eyes set on taking down certain legislation you mentioned the combat in online infringements and can counterfeit fact right that would allow the federal government to seize domains if they have copyrighted material on there but the thing is even without these laws the federal government is still doing that we have we've seen the department of homeland security through ice easing a lot of jermaine's over the past year so it's a little too late to take them on over these cases it's never too late to stand up for liberty. the fifth amendment guarantees that cannot seize your property without due process what we've seen with the seizure of these domains which are property is the government seizing them and we need believe there will be more court cases

challenging these seizures and challenging the government's unilateral oversight basically they go to judges to rubber stamp their seizing domains and we also believe that it's a free speech issue i mean can you name names silicates free speech so we believe in the first amendment in fifth amendment grounds these attends can be challenging we also think that these can be used a potentially for challenging bill now senator leahy put forward the lame duck session like i said this is a trans national organisation now why do you think it takes so long for the pirate party to really become more of a discussion here in the united states. i'm not sure how to answer that to be honest i mean i only got into it i only got acted in it but a year or two one form or another. i think it's difficult for any

third party to sort out i have a background in the green party here and i was the two thousand and two into their two thousand and two and two thousand and six candidate for treasurer of the commonwealth of massachusetts. so i have some background in this which i think is helps in moving the thrower to massachusetts but i think there's a lot of people. who will work hard through this issue because it is important that we are a youth authority which i think sets us differently so this is a far from the democrats and the republicans and so we're more willing to take risks and be innovated in challenging system that we have for our games and i thank you so much for joining us and i think there's that my lot of people out there in america that you want more options than just the two main parties thanks so much thank you very much for having me on take care. ethel to come tonight he's talking about running for president i keep party congress not men.