that. old. people are sick species. she. told.

welcome back to the big picture i'm starvin coming up in this half hour released felons in the sunshine state and not be smiling when it comes down to casting their votes in two thousand and twelve why one republicans governor is trying to preserve his reelection by revoking the rights of tens of thousands of largely democratic voters in his state and in wisconsin republican senators who supported governor walker's anti union busting efforts may soon be busted out of a job thanks to a statewide recall of a breakdown the numbers of markos moulitsas just i'm. the

wisconsin democratic party claims it has already collected half the signatures necessary to recall eight republican state senators who supported koch lapdog governor scott walker's a union busting legislation that was illegally passed last week but the publicans currently holding one thousand and fourteen edge in the state senate democrats only need to successfully recall three of the eight republicans they're targeting to reclaim the majority and put an end to walkers and coax radical agenda haley code of conduct and polling in each of the eight republican districts targeted for recall here to show chair some of the results of those polls markos moulitsas founder and editor of the daily pose dot com marco it's great to see you again welcome like place to see what was the result of the poll you commission. but we look at districts these are the republicans that are eligible for recall this year . represent the first and third read as districts in the state of wisconsin just as

are safe they're not going anywhere but what we found is that the other six or. three of them already lag behind their democratic nerika opponents that certainly would need to actually take control of the wisconsin senate and in the other three are in competitive races i mean this was actually kind of surprising for us we're hoping we have two or three solid pickup opportunities turns out we actually have six that's that's pretty impressive now on the other side of the coin to torture the metaphor. the koch brothers and dick armey is tea party efforts have been. getting people out to recall the fourteen democrats the so-called a war democratic senators who have gone on oil. how's that. koch brothers ever go yet there are democrats that are also eligible for recall in the state senate

we're not hearing a lot about those recall efforts i mean i don't know if they're not going well or if they're trying to be really stealthy about it but fact is that they are refusing to provide any updates on how those recall efforts are going in and i think i suspect they know why and it's because of those democrats seven of them are in districts that obama won by bill get it including some of the bluest districts in the state interest not a lot of territory for them to pick up at his district the only one in single digits obama won by six points so you know in a worst case it's a fairly democratic leaning district now compared to those republican districts of republicans that are eligible to recall obama won six of those districts mccain were nine others republican or democratic this week so they may be. trying to get the signatures now a lot of territory for them to really work with but i gotta say i hope they get those signatures become very very confident that it be given

a choice that was constant voters are going to ratify the efforts of those democrats and try to stop the lottery kenda i think you're right however what's going to happen when the chamber of commerce comes in with millions and millions of dollars when the election happened i mean what you know right now the question that you're asking in the poll is do you want to throw the bums out or not not do you want to vote for for this bond or for this other person that the chamber of commerce and the crokes and everybody else are going to come in and portray as not just a bomb but also a rapist a mugger when when millions of dollars are getting poured into those campaigns do you think that the the events of the last few weeks have ad enough impact that that no amount of advertising we will push through it. oh they've absolutely had an impact and don't forget that the koch brothers in their friends at fox news and elsewhere and rush limbaugh and even demonizing those wisconsin protesters for the last several weeks it's not as though they've been sleeping these last several

weeks because they've been on. a strong offensive trying to even eighty union thugs they can't duds and it's not working public opinion is with these workers because they realize that this is an issue but protecting the middle class in america so they're not having a lot of effect they got millions already trying to sway public opinion trying to bolster scott walker falling public numbers and it's not working so well it had an effect in the recall election i'm sure but as we're seeing in the hauling people are already taking that into consideration in democrats are far more energized than republicans i mean remember in two thousand and ten one reason it democrats got killed is because we did not turn out because liberals progressives democrats were not that excited about what the democrats had done the previous two years we're going to see that same dynamic but in reverse where democrats are really fired up their route they're willing to walk over broken glass to cast those votes republicans are feeling

a little bit let down because they were promised. obamacare would be destroyed and that it would be eliminated in and all sorts of crazy things that were never never going to happen and so this is not a election that it's favorable for the republicans and people who are a lot of money in behalf of those republicans. i think you're. spot on in a very interesting time to watch over the next few weeks marcus thanks i cannot wait. while this seems to be a case of local politics the national implications of this recall effort are enormous and could serve as a blueprint moving forward as more and more voters experience buyer's remorse or republicans in charge of the. who is the chamber of commerce's new best friend in the supreme court a new study coauthored by court of appeals judge richard posner reveals that the

chamber of commerce has one or one cases these days and part of the highest court in the land the last supreme court term the chamber of commerce which filed for the court briefs in nearly every case involving business interests won thirteen out of sixteen cases thirteen out of sixty this new study corroborates other data showing that today every single justice is more likely to side with the chamber than the justice who held their seat twenty five years ago a pretty good percentage energy justice john roberts who i might add was a bush appointee and made two million bucks a year as a corporate attorney before joining the court so why the sudden uptake in pro business rulings on the supreme court overall here's share some answers in no highs or reporter and blogger at think progress and welcome thank you it's good to be here tom you have a neighborhood that even though highs are great in i'm curious what if first of all the entire court or just the conservatives are shifting toward. eight actually

let me make this a two part question shifting toward the right and b. why do we call going on the conservative side the right what i mean on the corporate side well what we have going on is that the whole court over a period of twenty five years has shifted towards the pro quo or port side whether you want to call it rightor or whatever but the conservatives have some shifted a whole lot faster justice alito who was george w. bush's most recent appointee has voted with the chamber of congress and nearly every single case that he's handled since he became a justice and what's interesting about it is that the record has become so news while there's been a fifteen points like in the percentage of tape cases that go in the chambers way that recently you're seeing business friendly reporters touting the fact that the chamber started to lose a few cases lately they're all really easy cases where it was obvious the chamber was supposed to lose so you can tell that they're there in the someone who's drawn blood here because no one talks about their failures. this brings to mind of the

the locker court record of the early one nine hundred tons the one nine hundred teens right up until f.d.r. and into the first few years of the new deal where they were striking down. child labor laws the court was striking down minimum wage laws is unconstitutional we have republicans now who are arguing those same positions that there are those are all constitutional positions. do you think it's possible that this court could get as as crazy right wing as the walker court was back and back in the pre. f.d.r. in thirty six try to stack the court they are kind of got religion and thirty seven but you know before that i don't think this court well because you there's a twice life we found now in conservative politics you know the same it is the half life or radioactive materials there's a very short twice life where after that period of time the right is twice as crazy as it was before and so you know when george bush was president you certainly this

sort of aggressive pro corporate. mentality was very dominant but this idea that child labor laws would be unconstitutional that social security would be unconstitutional that the minimum wage would be unconstitutional those were ideas that even the right understood were in the dustbin of history but they're being pushed right now yes and senate as we speak exactly and yet here we are two years later and senator mike lee says that child labor laws are unconstitutional so security is unconstitutional senator at all rand paul the chair and civil rights act tom coburn said the pell grants and federal student loans are all unconstitutional so i mean they are moving running to the right so fast you can't keep track of them i'm wondering. to what extent this current swing to the right on the court particularly since the death of her old warren but arguably even bankwest who dissented in some cases you know of the first national bank versus bill oddie i thought his dissent was one of those brilliant i've ever read and he went after the success of her case. the to what extent might this be the result of the

powell memo back in the early seventy's where lewis powell said that the beginning his letter to his next door neighbor and best friend the president chamber of commerce we've got to get into the public sphere we've got to influence people and out of that memo came the heritage foundation the cato institute the federalist society which now has over half the judges in the country this whole huge right wing infrastructure and of course three months later richard nixon put him on the supreme court was that the genesis of this is that the starting point of this or is there some it is they're not even identifiable it's certainly true that the position we're in now where to supreme court is over and over and over again ruling in the favor of corporate law. didn't happen by accident you know in that memo that justice powell wrote forty years ago he said that the chamber needs to employ the best lawyers in the country pay them enough nih that they can get these lawyers of national rapper reputation and here we are forty years later and arguably the best

lawyer in the contrary a man named hard. phillips who's argued more supreme court cases than anyone else recently said that his client the chamber of commerce has more influence and by the supreme court than any other entity except for the solicitor general of the united states where we go in thanks so much wolf and those thank you. it's official sadly our supreme court has gone the way of our congress corruption to the core. in the midst of japan's nuclear crisis could solar energy be a light at the end of the room total war on those inside steel each other. for flimsy low and vacuum i was told the preaching about these women had nothing people are suggesting she's told her no she says she's a stock. serving

time for the crime isn't enough republican florida florida republican governor rick scott in an effort to ensure the convicted felons can't vote in two thousand and twelve scott changed his state's rules imposed a five year wait period on people newly released from prison before many of their rights like the right to vote are restored with one out of every thirty two people in the united states and prisoner under probation any given time by the way the

largest percentage in the world scott proposal would dramatically disenfranchise a massive portion of the electorate in this state florida along with kentucky virginia now have become the most restrictive laws voting rights for former felons a lawyer with the a.c.l.u. howard simon said regarding scott's will be unseemly haste and lack of transparency suggests clearly that this was public would that this is all it takes disguised as public policy so simon right this is just an another effort by the republican party to disenfranchise voters and some further marci here to offer his take his map and great map great to have you with us basically us for joining us. matt blacks are fourteen percent of the state's population of florida because to fifty four percent of the prison population many i'm for being what i call illegal entrepreneurs for trade dealing drugs that. we can't have all these black people voting in the state can wait. i don't necessarily think that that's what the

governor saying i was talking to many people from across the country today about this law you know law is not all that much different than it is in some other states yet twelve states but most states reject this i mean it's. what part of redemption don't you believe them i'm not saying i don't believe in it i believe in the absolute as governor scott. well i think that he thinks that criminals need to pay for the crimes they commit but isn't it also isn't violent criminals need to pay for a longer period of time than not restart an awful story about somebody go bust a personal of a job and the five years and be. so it's ok what he's doing is he's adding five years to the penalty so he doesn't actually believe in the rule of law and justice he's saying that whatever the courts decide whatever the judges whatever the juries decide it's constitutional bodies that the you know the founders put into place in the constitution the fifth sixth seventh and eighth amendments to the constitution

screw that i'm going to add five years he's not the only difference now. and learn we talk about the other well he's the most recent one to do this and i think that the i think that frankly the reason is the same most of the states that have done this have large but white populations and has been promoted by republican politicians and i think that this is an effort to see talking with one another it may i don't know the statistics of kentucky frankly then you know it could have been a test case i don't know but i don't you provided a whole incidence that i could be a single problem is why are so many people in jail in the first place well that's a whole other issue and there has to be any quality poverty discrimination i mean that's that. and that's a great topic for debate but for right now don't you think it's a coincidence that he just arbitrarily pick five years which is going to mean that anybody from this point moment forward who gets out of prison just won't be able to vote against him in the next election jim those same points that i would fall more under the adam putnam model. the secretary of agriculture who's

a republican he said that he would like to have more time to read read this new law through so i would agree with adam putnam and i'm surprised that it rusted through in the way that they did it just seems to me that this is not what america is about that we have always been a nation. as. as added rights we had franchised african-americans we had franchised women. not that we're a country that takes away rights. is here and in fact by doing this what governor scott is suggesting in these in these twelve other states is that voting is a privilege not a right and yet the founders and framers of the constitution you know right down to the federalist papers you know thomas payne is famous quote if you take away a man's right to vote you take away the beating heart of democracy you destroy the being our democracy always consider voting a right. is this are we watching our democracy change written for our republic

change or in front of us i do agree that there are some crimes that you give up some of your rights if you should be judge and jury do that then i mean put them on probation for the next thirty years and say you can't vote while you're on probation as another eighteen states do my reading of the law is that after five years the nonviolent felons go before a probationary board and same thing for violent felons who before the board after seven years which again is the law lot of other states but that is not a right it's not just the it's a very well go a lot of states doesn't make it look like it was overturned by the will people it's one hundred years or so are going to wait one hundred years until we figure out the voting is actually a right and i believe it is a right but there are rights that people give up when they commit violent crimes isn't isn't though. you keep saying violent crimes but this applies i mean that sixty five percent of the of the of the african-americans who are in prison in florida are there for drug crimes and not violent crimes and there are going to be impacted by this this is the same state that in two thousand katherine harris the

secretary of state had a texas company take the names of texas felons and look for florida people who had similar names not even same names you know james jones jimmy jones and just turned out that texas has a lot of black felons florida has a lot of black felons there's a lot of common. ality in african american names it seems and so i mean that that was it i think it's still going on he still used to fighting i say this is were said that he didn't want to count. military votes come from overseas if there is or he should or they should have counted all of us because we're a new york times finally did they found that al gore actually beat george w. bush i've never seen that report every word of it in our time zone of over twelve i don't. read every other report you say that no matter what happened in that recount and al gore has said he lost you know i'm going to let i have all sort of this knowledge of the board talk about the loss of florida he and you know what the battles are you win and we have battles over his seventy thousand blacks were taken

off the voting rolls even though they were not out on the polls is going to come down to this issue and obama is in a lot more trouble than most democrats know what i think that that would this is one piece of a whole larger strategy that republicans generally have been a point ever since the days when when rehnquist was making his chops in the late fifty's in arizona standing at the polls scaring off mostly blacks indians and hispanics by saying you know can you prove you can vote i'm a lawyer and he actually got people to leave the line and not vote he was you know in fact it was written up because of the voter turnout in two thousand. i've ignored voter turnout in two thousand and i don't have it as a load. if it is that is not people point vote is that a well you have a more important question is what was the voter turnout in ohio in those places where you can work well said ok it's a black neighborhood you only get one voting machine oh it's a white neighborhood you get ten voting machines the waiting lines were a half hour in the right words there were ten hours in a black neighborhood and in any case we're out of time out thanks for coming but

push it though. i do to a discussion this is the latest effort my pain by republicans to cut down the number of eligible voters in our nation is they understand full well that when fewer people are special and fewer minority low income voters turn out at the polls republicans have a better shot at winning it's simple the rest of us think a democracy is the best form of government republicans think of it as an obstacle in the way. crazy alert time to skip class later this month michelle are you hypnotized bachmann will be speaking at an event sponsored by the network of iowa christian educators a spokesperson for bachmann claims she's raised five of her own children plus twenty three foster children bachmann and is a big supporter of homeschooling so what kind of school lessons can we expect at

the bachmann school well according to recent comments her students apparently were taught that the revolutionary war started in new hampshire the founding fathers ended slavery hundreds of scientists who won nobel prizes believe in creationism and democrats cause flu outbreaks and i don't kind of books need to be special order for iraqi curriculum looks like but ones outrage over america corps reeducation camps was simply meant to disguise her own didn't reject cation agenda item by students to skip class and for the teachers to take notes.

in the worst case scenario japan may have suffered a triple nuclear meltdown as in three chair ennobles it could send a cloud of radioactive waste sweeping across the pacific ocean of the united states if you want to the worst ecological disasters in the history of mankind this is what we're facing now let's assume this dire situation is resolved in fact let's hope it's result does that mean we can continue the status quo like nothing's happened what lessons should we learn here japan is a highly innovative society and if this meltdown occurs or even of a does given everything that's gone on so far i predict it's going to serve as a rude awakening to the japanese people to leave nuclear energy behind and pursue

alternative energies like solar wind or tidal power and considering how japan is on the cutting edge of technology and supplies the rest of the world with so many of the new little gadgets we use every day a japanese focus on renewable energy could unleash a global power revolution to encourage every nation to keep their dirty coal oil or radioactive energy happy that's the one silver lining in the tragic impossible to lift their event taking place on the other side of the. our nation currently depends on one hundred and four nuclear facilities located around the country including in areas that are prone to earthquakes as well as along the gulf coast that as we learned during katrina is vulnerable to massive flooding would we be naive to believe that what's happening in japan a highly advanced society with enormous wealth couldn't happen to us we're in contract with tokyo tokyo electric power company the same company the same guys who

run the nuclear reactor on the verge of a meltdown in japan and build two new nuclear reactors facilities on the gulf coast of texas i think it's time to reconsider this decision aside from the constant threat of horrific devastation posed by malfunctioning nuclear plants it should be noted that even when they're functioning properly nuclear plants destroy ecosystems in order to cool the reactors these plants must suck up and heat up billions of gallons of water which in turn kills aquatic plants and fish and reduces the water available downstream for agricultural purposes and drinking water in addition there's the issue of nuclear waste and what to do with it after all that's what's on the top of these power plants and japp in japan that are. down and blowing up you have to ask anyone near yucca mountain in nevada or anywhere else in the country for that matter to a nuclear power plant your backyard out of new clear waste facility will tell you

they're not too happy about dumping nuclear waste you know their homes their kids as i said these are the consequences of nuclear plants working as they should work so is it it worth. in the wake of japan switzerland he's considering dropping their use of nuclear power germany is too although they were looking beyond nuclear power way back in one thousand nine hundred nine when they put in place the hundred thousand roof program which subsidized banks to loan money actually didn't subsidize them it just backstop them to loan money to people to put solar panels on their homes to generate their own or tricity and then require the power companies to buy back from the homeowners any excess electricity that was generated from those same solar panels at a premium price that helps pay for the rooftop solar you as a result ten years after the program was implemented by the way this program was

put into place because germany was looking at the need to build one or two more nuclear reactors one to two megawatts of power they needed so they figured ok we'll do this program see how it works ten years they generated eight and a half megawatts eight thousand five hundred megawatts a super eight thousand and eight i had to go out eight thousand five hundred megawatts of solar power that they've added to their national energy grid that's more than eight nuclear plants what. easily more than what a half a dozen nuclear plants get and it didn't cost them a penny oh and solar panels have a life expectancy of about fifty years whereas nuclear reactors last about twenty or thirty years isn't some a no brainer our nation didn't seem to learn lessons from the b.p. oil spill we're pushing ahead nonetheless with drilling in the gulf let's hope we learn from this valuable lesson unfolding in japan the rest of the world is taking notice and we can't afford to be exceptional ones to ignore it let's break our

addiction from pollution and radioactive waste and leave the twenty first century into the new energy revolution. that's the big picture for tonight for more information the stories we covered visit our website at tom hartman dot com and our . entire show is available as a free podcast on i tunes and check out our youtube page at youtube dot com slash big picture r g r t and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active show up tag you're it sitting. down to your social obligation to your. touch from the.