once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day. i know. that our. board of constant decision to burn the qur'an the world's changing should the first amendment always stay the same. we can't afford to keep stop working for a minute. but unless the government agrees to budget cuts that's exactly what's going to happen so are americans worried or is this shutdown all just hype plus in the game of politics or timing is everything and president obama picked the right time to announce his reelection. and he's

a russian citizen arrested in liberia for alleged international drug trafficking so why does content in your single state lie in the hands of the u.s. . it's monday april fourth seven pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for sound and watching our team. i am sorry today following from the actions of one florida man terry jones he is that florida pastor from the dove world outreach center who organized a mock trial that ended with the burning of the qur'an at his church it was a story largely ignored by the u.s. media when it happened back in march but it was news in afghanistan and it was news that sparked a major reaction or several people were killed including an incident in mazar e sharif when protesters overran a united nations compound and killed twelve people and we did hear a response from

a u.n. envoy to afghanistan he said quote freedom of speech does not mean freedom of offending culture religion and traditions especially when there are so many of us both civilians and frankly military in many parts of the world and particularly in afghanistan so i think the main blame we have is about the irresponsible gesture that was made on that case proof is that those who entered our building were actually furiously angry about the issue about the qur'an there was nothing political there and earlier i spoke with michael hall men of longer for the political commentator is there the changing the first amendment for one bad situation i could be a slippery slope for american freedom here's christine i think their. act of early qur'an was. the wrong thing to do you know it's only going to lead to symbols is absolutely the same way that it would be wrong to efface it's all right or just really bible the issue i don't think is one where the united states should

alter the first amendment just freedom of speech it may be more to get to the bottom of why there are such a violent reaction so one man's action in thought but what do you mean get to the bottom of it what do you think this comes from i mean do you think it's specifically over this one man's action i mean we saw what happened over one action with a danish cartoonist or do you think there's something bigger here. i think it's the reaction over one man's action i think that at president karzai didn't do the situation any favors by stirring up the situation. you know i think that freedom of speech in america is is crucial to the way that we live and i think that if you start to change that to serve one situation then where does it end let's say the congress passes something that says burning a qur'an is illegal and now some other actions are as violence that we then stopped

an action so i think that it's a slippery slope and you know the constitution survived for many hundreds of years and i don't know that changing it in this case is the right things a bit and you know general petraeus over these last few days actually sent e-mails to the media saying he condemns the qur'an going to the qur'an burning sees me as not only puts american lives in danger which clearly we firm does not just americans but those working at the u.n. . undermines the entire effort in afghanistan what about this isn't this bigger of what these actions plan and have rubbed it or well again burning a cry and is a terrible act the same way that burning any religious symbol is a terrible act but again. that that one. can not be held responsible for violence erupting throughout its arab country it's just

it's an even cause and effect and again if you do change the rules to take that into consideration and only in some kind of of a climb then what happens when it comes to catholics and three church and and lighting candles sparks a controversy or an attack do you then look at so you know where does it end you know of as you would expect this if you dominated the sunday talk shows yesterday and i want to play a clip from someone who will different from me this is senator lindsey graham ok or a speech is a great idea but we're in a war there are more were to you had limits on what you can say it would inspire the enemy so burning a koran is a terrible thing but it doesn't justify killing someone burning a bible would be a terrible thing but it would justify murder but having said that we need we can push back here in america against actions like this that put our troops at risk war to do it so two points here i mean number one senator graham says maybe we should

think about having rules be a little different i during wartime as they were for example in world war two and the other is and here is you know should there be any action taken against pastor terry jones obviously you know nobody's saying he should be executed and nobody's even really thing he should be arrested but should there be any sort of reprimand here the answer is not and senator graham is a very politically correct senator but at the end of the day i don't believe that burning the qur'an is a military in any greater danger than the orient and again it all gets back to the same issue which is if you. but some kind of a kennel the online act what stops you know their act from creating another penalty and and so on and so on until until rights are just taken away. all over the place you don't our code we have that saying that we have freedom of

speech except yelling fire in a crowded movie theater because dad creates an imminent danger i don't if you work with a pastor did is creating an imminent danger how can i be in imminent danger when people lost their lives i think that's the bigger question why an act of a man in florida creative violent outreach across the world that forced a mob into a u.n. building that was michael hartman blogger for the political commentator. switching gears now to a brawl that's going on we're talking about brawling over the budget in a city never devoid of a good fight for the little money your money and how it will be spent and if there's no agreement well there may be no money and i'm just talking about government workers not getting paychecks or we're talking about people eligible for medicare not being able to enroll hundreds of thousands of you know passport

applications not being processed social security tax won't come sell will it happen and if it does what will the implications be and the american taxpayers what are they think about this are to produce or loans that are filtered through the streets of the nation's capital and find out. there's been a lot of talk over the past couple weeks about a looming government shutdown of congress can't agree on a budget bill simply stop operating but are people on the street really worried about this let's find out if you just want to call the government's going to shut down the rest of the country's going to run does it worry you a little bit because like you know everything's going on you know who's going to run the country or what's going to happen at the end of this week on friday if democrats and republicans can agree on a new budget and the government going to be shut down what does what does that mean to you shut down for how long that's a question until they can agree on a budget. can take a vacation that need nice i think it can and should be avoided i think we've got

bigger problems in this world that we ought to be focusing on and we ought to keep everybody employed and working and we can't afford government to stop working you know for a minute do you think is actually going to happen you know i sometimes hear that they might stop the whole government just because both sides can reach an agreement of course it's sort of for as you know right. does it anger you even that the side can't compromise on something like that magic. maybe just a bit amazed that. in such a democratic country two sides can really find a middle ground so i would say. not such a good example of especially if you're in the countries fighting for democracy in other countries then this definitely doesn't set a very good example for democracy everyone should have to compromise and there's got to be a middle ground that that would at least prevent the government from shutting down here in the u.s.

and our congress and the government can't agree on the budgets we're going to shut down on friday what do you think about that. in england we don't do things that where they do stay open and until they come to some sort of compromise the will really shut down on friday will you don't think they well i'll bet you my bottom dollar to use an americanism. so you think it's all just a lot of hype it's just hot air. it's killing me you know i mean training and services showing them parks people don't have work. to me totally a mix up. but these politicians. their lives and change they still get benefits they still get health care they still get taken care of it's unacceptable that the federal government would even need to come into this. and put all these people at work they don't really care. about. are and so will this doomsday happen and even if it does well people care will they notice what will it all mean kristen

soltis is the director of policy research for the winston group joins us here to talk about this what do you think chris in your prediction on friday will the government shutdown or will i hope not you know there's a lot of folks that are sort of cheering for a government shutdown sort of privately you have democrats that think it's politically good for them in terms of policy you have tea party folks that they don't want to see a compromise they want to see the line get held on government spending and if democrats or republicans can't come to an agreement on cutting spending they want it to shut down so i think that eventually speaker john boehner is going to come up with a sort of solution that will bring everyone to the table right now that there's a deal in the works of a billion dollars in cuts i know a lot of republican. to fifty or sixty billion right now they're really got to figure out what's the bigger battle that's looming and where should they be using their political capital and that's the thing that's really interesting i mean we can talk about any social issue in the book the left tries to claim certain social

issues or they're staying with the right but the fact is the main thing that these lawmakers on capitol hill right down the street from is the main thing that they actually have control over is the budget so this is a big deal to talk about you know how they do that staying true to their base staying true to their campaign promises and staying true to the people of this whole process the reason why this is so controversial is two things one the way that they appropriate money it needs the congress to pass these thirteen different appropriations bills and they failed to do that and so because of that you have the overall number how much money is the appropriations committee going to be allowed to dole out you also have specific riders within the bill that they need to decide on for instance congressional republicans want to defund n.p.r. they want to defund planned parenthood so there's a debate over both the number of how much the cuts will be and in specific that are going to be cut. for time for the money right and this to me is kind of. and that's why we've had already six continuations of these continuing resolutions

every month to keep kicking the can down the road but now we're about to bump up into some much bigger debates and so it's really sort of time i think both sides are recognizing they can't keep just continuing this down the road indefinitely but even cristen if something is passed if we say the government will stay open and you know again there's some serious issues here if it closes people things that people don't think about it's not just government workers not getting paychecks i mean life will seriously be hindered from getting a passport to rolling in medicare for people. but it's not just this if they pass this budget this is not the end of the story no it's not and there are two other very major things that are coming out first of all you have congressman paul ryan chair the budget committee who has a sort of plan for spending for the twenty twelve fiscal year and on and wants to make some serious reforms to them on programs like medicare medicaid social security things of that nature and so that is that we're not just talking about the difference between thirty three billion and sixty billion there i mean we're

talking enormous sums of money over the course of a decade is what this is sort of proposing of course for so this debate is host this budget battle there's sort of these it will happen now is exactly what we're talking about now is there wasn't permanent fund there were some permanent funds set aside for this current fiscal year they've just sort of been temporary stopgap measures what we're talking about now is the bigger plan for the next fiscal year and that's what's creating a big situation you also have the debt limit the treasury just announced today that in need may the government is going to have spent fourteen point three trillion dollars which is our current limit and it means we can't spend or borrow any more and when we hit that limit if we don't extend it there are serious consequences as well and so in order to get members of congress to agree to extend that debt limit republicans are going to ask for some serious concessions in terms of spending to be seen if them across are going to going to concede those or not i just saw the headline here secretary geithner asking for more money. i think it's a really important point that you bring up these discussions you bring up these

huge debates happening in congress right now there are serious issues in raising the debt ceiling this budget and yet this is the day when we have all seen president obama has announced that he will in fact be seeking reelection in twenty two and now this is not a shock to anyone but let's talk about the timing i mean we've got no republican that's officially announced really. i hear president obama i hear he is saying are well on from i had at least what about this timing i think it's unusual timing when americans are expecting their president to be focused on so many other things not only do we have these enormous budget issues looming in washington with national security issue in terms of dealing with libya you know we have on top of those things you had some stories come out today about the trial of khalid sheikh mohammed i mean in one sense you could say maybe there's never an ideal time for a president to play politics instead of policy but if you would this week was particularly ill timed the only reason why i think this was maybe a politically good move on obama's part is that you had some slight improvement in the unemployment numbers last monday and so because of that bob is hoping to ride

that little wave of a bit of good news and say that he's you know moving forward but we are in see launched a website today hope isn't hiring dot com they're sort of going to make the case long term their bomb has not generated the economic growth that we need and therefore does not deserve re-election certainly interesting and you did mention also another announcement lots of announcements today by eric holder. attorney general talking about that these military truck tribunal or there will be military tribunals for the conspirators alleged conspirators of nine eleven we're talking about clichéd mohammed some big names here these will be held at guantanamo bay now this is a place that president obama in two thousand and eight said i'm going to close guantanamo bay having this announcement not only will these trials not be in federal court in new york but they will be at guantanamo bay clearly that means a it's not going to close any time soon and be there conceding to what a lot of members of congress in. other than zero talk about this in terms of the

timing in terms of what happens next year so one of the other big issues for obama is how is he going to put together the coalition that helped him win last time and that involves a lot of folks like young voters that involves a lot of you know he's got he had a big broad coalition and he made so many promises that he didn't like the bush tax cuts in the bush tax cuts are now effectively the obama tax cuts he went to congress and that was a policy that he signed so in terms of fiscal policy he's got issues with the left flank in terms of libya he's got trouble with his left and now this there are so many things that he promised that he ran on he's been unable to execute on in the way that he promised it's not just causing problems for him with the right as you would predict or with the middle but he's losing his other flank as well yeah but i think a lot of people would say i mean at least in terms of the tax cuts that was a huge compromise he got a lot in return from the repeal of don't ask don't tell from the start treaty from a lot of things that he wanted it was yeah sort of the only way you do have a lot of republicans who are sort of upset about that as well i mean it i guess suppose that the definition of

a compromise right when both sides seem to. be doing a good job of kristen soltis there's so much pressure and weighing in as always pushing gears now to a man who was arrested in liberia yet his fate will be decided by a judge and jury in america talking about russian pilot konstantin you're facing trial in new york this afternoon for alleged international drug trafficking lawyers say the case is outside of u.s. jurisdiction due to several violations committed by american officials among them kidnapping torture and rendition are these on associate organized in our new york studio with police. and tell us a little bit about what you've heard whether day one has racked up and went to latest. christine he was definitely wrapped up at the downtown manhattan courthouse we did hear statements from the members of the russian consulate here in new york as well as the wife of constantine you're schenkel make a couple of statements basically the results of this first day of trial was jury

selection which took an entire five rounds to decide some hearings lasted for almost four hours definitely a tough tough hearing for a man who's already been awaiting his trial secure cough for almost ten months and with the consulate that constantine your show is really not feeling well and one of the reasons for that is because he has serious health issues for which pill specific goals that he needs to make him feel better are not legal in the united states so certainly a complicated case and the judge has said that it might take from three to four weeks for this trial to wrap up for our close or look at what this case is really all about let's now go to our report. a legit tons of cocaine a pilot snatched up and brought to a foreign prison and a wrong fax number this is a case of constant senior shango a russian pilot in his forty's scooped up by u.s. officials in liberia last year brought to a manhattan jail and along with four other suspects charged with international drug

trafficking. is now long time he didn't even know where he was when he was brought to the u.s. he was put in solitary confinement and he didn't even know he was in the united states constantine's wife turia just to write to new york she says her husband was kidnapped by american agents while america says your show was smuggling drugs to south america africa and europe mostly from this way la and liberia the pilot has complained he was beaten and tortured following his arrest. try to pick fights with him provoking him constantly close to try to stay away from that he asked them why are you treating me like this i didn't do anything to you and i have not been found guilty with tori believes the case against her husband was fabricated by the u.s. ok i have not also why do this is involved in this is unclear he has never been to the u.s. in his entire life he never had a u.s. visa and wasn't third country up on his arrest him. when constantine your schenkel

was arrested russian officials were not generally notified and moscow cited a breach of international more we have. apologized to russia the state department's excuse we pressed the button on the facts and. to be really for notifying romania instead of russia to observers this seemed a joke and a series of questionable details in this case the idea that there's a bank of buttons that they push and i guess if they push the next one they would have gone to rule rwanda which is next in the alphabetical list so that sounds like a very. strange story and i don't think anyone would buy that your son goes cases often compared to that of victor boot similarly snatched up by the u.s. in thailand and currently on trial in america for arms trafficking some see a tendency here they can use interpol they can use. picking up the phone to russia

and trying to talk about this just going out and kidnapping people i think this is part of the carry over from the bush cheney administration the defense team has long legal but case of provocation and unsuccessfully called for its dismissal the prosecution meanwhile has been fighting to limit the scope of issues that can be addressed during the hearings they want to exclude questions regarding the legality of trying your show in a u.s. court a legit by lesions in the investigations leading up to his arrest and official conduct during and after the pilot's arrest essentially all the mean arguments of the difference after almost ten months constantine your son calls trial date is finally here a jury is deciding his destiny if found guilty he will spend from ten years to a life sentence behind bars and. new york on a thursday i want to bring you back into this discussion here i mean so interesting that you spent some time with constantine your wife what was she like and how is

she dealing with what's happening right now with her husband. well you know christine victoria your wife has only landed in new york a couple of days ago and this is certainly something that has been a rough rough time for her because while her husband has been awaiting trial for these almost ten months she actually in these last couple of days got to see him for the first time in that entire time she got to meet him at this point twice and at the courthouse earlier today and certainly this is a woman that is completely baffled by the fact that her husband is being held in the united states now we have to make sure people understand that both herself and constantine you're shango allege and have pled not guilty but the woman has been saying look if officials feel it's necessary for my husband to be facing trial why not have him tried in russia or in liberia where he was arrested he's a citizen of russia he was arrested in liberia herself including the constantine

you're franco's defense team really don't understand what this trial has to do with the united states and why her husband is being held here for this entire time and certainly it's no joke what the justice system is going to decide since like we mentioned in that report he's facing up to a lifetime behind bars so this question of where he should be tried is certainly no minor detail and this woman is really really shocked by what has happened to her husband throughout this last year and an assessor you're not too far from where this court case took place for the afternoon we're hearing what it's like in terms of media attention i mean this is not a story that i seen on any of the mainstream media now works were there needed there. you know christine there really was absolutely no mainstream media coverage of this case a couple of russian media presence outside the courthouse and you know this is interesting especially when we draw that parallel with the victor boot case where

media coverage has been a lot wider and people have been saying well you know this case is a lot quieter the mainstream media in the united states really does tend to catch onto nicknames and sort of louder pieces and that's what happened with victor boot dubbed the merchant of death he has been getting a lot more coverage on this man as you know as a as a man from a city that's a thousand kilometers away from moscow he has no nickname so you know why would the mainstream media care but speaking of the media we have to note that again the spouse of constant did speak to a couple of media outlets primarily russian ones outside the courthouse and take a listen to what her perception was off today's hearing very interesting take getting richer which the judge keeps laughing all the time i don't understand english and wasn't getting the translation so i don't really know why but he kept on laughing everyone in the u.s. is smiling all the time but you never know when they're actually. but we have to say christine that despite this sort of questioning of what's going on out look

this woman did say that she's really hopeful and she said herself and her thirteen year old daughter really hoping that they're going to be able to bring this man back home with them but we're going to have to wait and see if they get that lucky certainly we do appreciate you keeping an eye on all of this for us our correspondent on the in our new york studio. while much of the three little pigs and the x. presidents of tunisia and egypt and libya leader moammar gadhafi are. apparently more than you think arties were in a fortnight. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to didn't break through get through it if you may who can you trust no one will asian view you with a global mission or is it where we had

a state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. all right well we found we were going to go to about story but we have a break and so we'll do it now and i ask this question to you once more what do the three little pigs the x. presidents of tunisia and egypt and libyan leader moammar gadhafi all have in

common apparently more than you think and this time we will show you the story argues marine a partner. is a cartoon parody starring. birds and our t.v. possibly the best and shortest explanation summarizing the uprisings in two and libya. three big pigs was greeted by russian illustrator igor's who i twenty six year old motivated by technology and politics he wanted to do flesh game i wanted to do a routine on the algorithms i just looked at the records one of my favorite games on the twitter board and i followed them saying the things that are going on with me i thought you'd like put a ripple through evolution and i forget and so on to my shock the students in this

three little pigs remake libyan strongman moammar gadhafi and the ousted leaders of tunisia in egypt form of green pigs hiding in houses angry bird protesters smashed literally and the bark but with libya. i'm going. his so-called freedom fighters achieve victory with the support of an american eagle wearing a for a chat. in less than five days this spiral clip house created a global boss and garnered nearly one million hits on you tube says he will likely make a second video and has already been approached about turning his cartoon into a game colorful metaphors and imagery illustrating the story of revolutions as the world waits to see how the real and game plays out bring up ordinary r.t. . i'm not going to do it for now for more on the stories.