how much confidence do you have in your representatives actually representing you apparently not much and as we found out on capitol hill yesterday they're just starting to listen to the veterans who's afraid of a little pink t. of benjamin of code pink joints jake and i and tell us how death and taxes aren't a certainties but go hand in hand atlas shrugged comes out today and we'll check in with film professor craig that while and sit down with abby alger of the leadership institute and andrew sharp of young americans for liberty about the surge we're seen in objectivism welcome to the last episode of the first week out on versus the

man. they're currently about ninety thousand troops on the ground in afghanistan and that's not counting at least as many non military personnel on our government payroll in that country that we will probably never get a percent number on it costs about one million dollars to keep a single soldier deployed for a year there and according to cost of war dot com the war in afghanistan is nearing four hundred billion dollars and cost by the way iraq has cost us nearly twice that and those estimates are very conservative as they don't include things like base pay for soldiers deployed the interest on the debt that we are incurring or the cost of taking care of the troops when we come home but i'm not here to bore you

with the exact figures we know that the wars are costing us more than a person can really wrap their brain around and yet some of our politicians seem to still think that americans are interested in investing more in afghanistan. we need to be exceedingly cautious about withdrawal of u.s. forces this july as oppression is called for and we should be mindful that perhaps the wisest course of action in july maybe to reinvest troops from more secure to less secure parts of afghanistan i guess you can call it investing when your reelection funds come from defense contractors about mccain you know that even as a veteran himself he has one of the worst voting records in congress on veterans' issues iraq and afghanistan veterans of america i gave him a d. so the american people are convinced that the war in afghanistan is not in our

national interest in a recent washington post poll proves it here we have a chart that shows how public opinion has changed over time people who think the war in afghanistan is worth it from sixty percent in two thousand and seven down to where it currently is thirty one percent while those same think it's not worth it took an interesting turn here and you can see the intersection of these lines quote crisscrossing and then surging apart now sixty four percent of americans believe the war in afghanistan is not worth it. so we have another poll here and this is much more offensive rather another part of the polled do you think the united states should or should not withdraw u.s. combat forces from afghanistan this summer which by the way was one of obama's plans for getting out should seventy three percent should not twenty one percent here's the disturbing part do you think the united states will withdraw u.s.

combat forces from afghanistan the summer talking about pessimism only thirty nine percent have that confidence now i'm actually with them but i think this is what demonstrates the divide between washington and the american people fifty three percent of americans think that we will not get out of afghanistan this summer obviously we can see from this that most americans have little faith in our government to actually do the will of the people fortunately in the case of afghanistan they are at least starting to listen to the veterans and yesterday i had the honor and privilege of catching up with some of the veterans at the veterans for rethinking afghanistan press conference on capitol hill. this is on capitol hill mckenna house office building at the veterans for rethinking afghanistan press conference today i'm joined by jake deliberate matt ho and scott dempsey gentlemen if you would take just a minute please to tell us a little bit about your service and why you think it's important to be here today and to kill a bird so i served with the marines that the invasion of both iraq and afghanistan

probably serve love my country but unfortunately i think it's our politicians have gotten off track taken our military to places where we don't need to be with the wrong strategy and one of those press conferences to bring republicans and to get republicans and democrats together to reunify the both parties around a central mission to defeat al qaeda and protect america for the future and we're going to have members of both parties here i was in the press conference correct yeah that's right there's both republicans and democrats coming out saying thank you scott sure i served as a marine inflation two thousand and five the recent return home from home province in afghanistan imbedded with the marines usaid officer here because that the folks who are fighting right now for our country the marines who are who are fighting and losing their lives were in third grade when nine eleven happened this is the longest war in american history and now there needs to be a serious conversation about the efficacy of the war and the cost of the war because this is the long term debt and long term burden that that the veterans who

are now fighting will eventually have to take on outstanding thank you and matt adam matthew hoh serve the marines of the state department in iraq and with the state department in afghanistan and this is important today because as scotty said we're in the tenth year of the conflict in afghanistan and we have to have a discussion here in this country on what our priorities here we've intervened in someone else's civil war in afghanistan we're now intervening in some of the civil war in libya it's costing us hundreds of billions of dollars a year and we have a discussion here discussion of what our priorities are we going to rebuild this nation and get fourteen million people back to work in this nation or we're going to squander hundreds of billion dollars in other people's civil wars. one person who stood out at the veterans for rethinking afghanistan press conference and she's really quite good at stand out was medea benjamin co-founder of code pink who joined saipan ad to tell us about why she was there but thank you for joining us if you could tell us a little bit about code pink coming to support betters for rethinking afghanistan

at this press conference yesterday. well i'm delighted when anybody is standing up and saying stop the war that we have to stop bleeding on these tax dollars m s a that your friends who put it on were a little afraid when i came in because they saw some posters they said you're not going to happen at prescott. actually we're here to support you and your present standing now jake it's amazing that as a conservative veteran putting together an event like this that you have support you had dana rohrbacher and congressman walter jones two republicans prominent featured at this press conference you had about ten democrats as well maybe a little less surprising than excuse and it was there we know ron paul stands with you on the issues or what's it like having such a broad diverse group of people coming together behind this issue just well i mean i'm in favor of cooperation and collaboration any time that different sides of the political spectrum can get together when some of the folks from the center left

showed up i indeed i was a little nervous to say the least but medea thanks i appreciate you as you were describe yourself the center left but i resent that. pinko commies however you want to say that's fine you know i mean anti american border i mean i just it's whatever but listen there's still enough respect we get when it comes to issues of life and death when it comes to foreign policy when it comes to people die needlessly in wars that we can't afford we it's important that we stand together and we represent the majority center left center right center whatever we represent the american people and if you did you know in a poll and that's the most important thing to know about this issue it is no no longer can the united states afford to spend wasteful dough to wasteful spending on anything whether it be defense afghanistan. western poetry projects toward some government health care programs big systems for my from my point of view foreign aid to abusive dictators in the present only ability all of these issue. they're on

the table and need to be cut and yesterday was not about all those issues but it was about we still stacks dollars being spent and that's what brought such a wide coalition to go and we need to stick to that and stop making issues about us and them it's about who we're for who we're moving towards we're for all americans or women towards a better future is always we start wasting american dollars speaking of the financial issues all the americans today are a lot of americans very rather are looking at what's going on capitol hill the budget debate and media you recent story. and lismore empire your tax dollars at work that death and taxes aren't a certainty is that they go hand in hand you want to tell us a little bit about your perspective on that yeah you know some people say oh could paint gray hypocrites we protested under bush where we under obama we've been fighting these wars under bush and obama and especially when we see obama having a serious in afghanistan well i have to say it is certainly one of the things that

i my are about coping and we're taking or being consistently principled as opposed to a lot of the rest of the anti-war movement let me just call it the left here for a little bit like are you ok extremely upset that the anti-war movement has disappeared they have gone away in a good terms to obama's wars is because so much of the anti-war movement is from the center left what unites us on this issue is the money it's the dollars and the defense will deficit that we have in deficit spending so are you i don't want to hear i mean from anybody anymore i mean we would be wise many people can say what they want but we would be wise to say it's about wasteful spending and leave it at that otherwise we get off track well let me just make a correction here because you know and twelve tea party people come out you have twenty four cameras and i know because i got all the tea party things in this town but when there are ten thousand people coming out against the war as they were in new york this last weekend you don't hear it in the news at all so it's disappeared because the media doesn't cover it or you know you are the you being the left

leaning media has a good cover. the very people in the air time were movies because the inside ring out for anything media and it's not news with. numbers to debate. to say any with the left and right have to come to anything i want to ask you a more pointed question about building anti-war coalitions bringing people together on these issues that are really important people because when the left dominated anti-war movement i've seen this out of code pink and i have taken issue with this no money for war money for jobs education all these other big government spending programs here at home do you think if you were more on issue or more on point you'd be able to guys like to come to some of your events but i'm happy to do it gel ain't event that is just no money for were periods when i did what i know i mean well here now does it also doesn't because i mean i believe i mean i believe as the constitution says we need to provide for the common defense we need a military we need

a strong military and i would be in favor still of the united states spending the most under fence of the entire world but the of the entire well yes nine i would i would still be afraid of in favor of having the most robust and strong military in the world but there is enormous falconer norma's waste and that is what's breaking the bank of united states so so it's not about. no money for war and no money for the military it's about stopping the wasteful spending but when to say no money for the war in afghanistan and maybe we can even add iraq into the we'll let me let me say specifically about afghanistan where a lot of people get get me off track here are still believe that there is a need for a robust anti-terrorist. mobilize force inside of afghanistan and their needs it has nothing to do with occupy and it has nothing to do with war well no it's a legal anti-terrorist effort that is that is constitutional and that the congress has the authority to reign in when the mission is done but we haven't had that

because two reasons one george bush got. confused on the weapons of mass destruction and imperial delusions inside of baghdad and we've got the left which is in my opinion. at accomplishing anything maybe it's a put up or as we will give you the last word here for people advocating against for advocating for peace as coping does and then advocating for what i would call big government social programs here at home based on a forced redistribution of wealth by the government do you think there's a contradiction there no i think what we're calling for is tax the corporations make them pay their fair share make the rich pay their fair share and stop spending our war our money on endless wars and then we would never get it if only it were possible to have a government that could tax fairly i don't think it's possible i don't talk about our in the hands of government you end up with more taxes being paid by the floor

and less by the rich it seems to be the end of the result of all time we have for the panel thank you both so much for being here and for coming together on this most important sort of i guess another day thank you that was medea benjamin co-founder of code pink and j. dilla berger with veterans for rethinking afghanistan. when we come back we'll cover the hottest movie of the summer at least for us libertarian and rand nerds atlas shrugged part one will be talking a professor that while or from paradigm in sunny southern california and sit down with some young activists about how this decades old novel is exerting that new influence you're watching adam vs the man states of.

the world. and yet. like drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to put it through good sort of if you can maybe who can you trust no one will if you know you'll do with a global reach city where we had a state controlled capitalism a school that when nobody dares to ask we do you are a key question morning. welcome back to out on versus the ma'am we'd like to do something with our friday so that

there is something fun to look forward to on the weekend so tonight to celebrate the release of the new film atlas shrugged we'll be discussing the intersection of movies and politics starting with producer author director and pepperdine university professor of film studies craig that wyler craig thank you so much for joining us thank you adam great to be with u.b.s. quite outstanding now hollywood obviously wields a lot of influence in the american political dialogue do you think that influence is justified or over glorified well they certainly have you just say the largest megaphone right i mean both the big screen and the small screen nobody bigger stories that are seen by more people so when we have films like atlas shrugged part one coming out today very exciting how are political films like this that have a real direct political message or a real obvious political theme how are they received compared to your sort of just run of the mill exciting action adventure drama whatever comedy kinds of movies.

well sure everybody is always interested in more than popcorn film right big chases and explosions and but you know political films and been successful all the way back to maybe mr smith goes to washington with jimmy stewart films like they were very popular end and we'll see how atlas shrugged performs this week it ok now on rotten tomatoes there was an interesting obviously we're starting to see numbers now for atlas shrugged we've got there we have a graphic there we go excellent so from the reviewers or the official critics we have a six percent rate i have to give a little coffee out here that is. what is a preliminary number but still huge discrepancy from the audience rating of eighty six percent what do you think explains that had a discrepancy you know particularly if you if you can without

a list rog but in general when you see films that are widely praised by the audience and the general viewing public and then totally dismissed by credits critics how does that happen what is the point of critics if if that's the advice they're given us going to the movies that we're going to love it well to critique it there is always been a goal between critics and the masses i mean some would call critics elitists and certainly some of the institutions and newspapers they write for lean that way i mean i think even just last year right something like the blind side nine if snuck up on hollywood didn't realize how much a flyover district we new york and l.a. would embrace a bill like that but maybe the same thing is going to happen with that list. and have you seen alice rog i'm not going to get out there you were three hours behind you so you know. you guys are only alright i'll say it well hopefully we're going to check in with you again when you've got a chance to see and let us know what you think and what the impact of this film is

because i'm going to go ahead and make a bold prediction and this is the book written in one nine hundred fifty seven is making a comeback now this is going to be one of those timeless movies that has a deep impact on society. definitely i didn't know but we thought we would more than fifty years ago and maybe atlas shrugged or leave it all right well thank you very much that was pepperdine university professor of film studies craig that wyler the novel atlas shrugged by ayn rand was first published in one nine hundred fifty seven and it was the author's last and longest novel weighing in at one thousand three hundred sixty eight pages but when i read it every one of those pages flew by however when it first came out it was dismissed by critics just as the film has been already just on the day of its release. but just like the movie it seems to have had quite a successful run and is currently enjoying a renaissance of sorts as many young readers are picking the book up as i did and immediately having to share with someone at

a spike in its popularity on january thirteenth two thousand and nine eleven surpassed obama's address city of hope for sales at amazon dot com. this story takes place in a vaguely futuristic america and having been written in one thousand eight hundred seven this was one of the challenges before the filmmakers and this most timely film that demonstrates what happens when government is used to stifle productivity joining me now to discuss the impact of the novel and impact we hope this film will have on our generation is andrew sharpe social networking internet young americans for liberty and abby alger director of digital communications at the leadership institute thank you so much for joining us thanks for having me so you've both read atlas shrugged and as you've actually seen the movie already that's right about a month ago tell us about that was a special scream like it was great it was a real small group of people it was at that you streets in america or in d.c. so you know they really called out a bunch of libertarian organizations you know movers and shakers in the libertarian movement and i was just blown away and it was great to see it with all those people

who were so you know influenced by iran and in her message and her philosophy and just raring to go to get the word out and you know the organization with young americans for liberty we've been trying to get the word out it's really galvanized a lot of libertarian organizations to come and revisit her books and her thinking and i think you know you might critique the film for you know certain aspects but in general i think it's a great thing and it's going to do a lot for libertarian libertarian thought in general so i have not seen the film what do we think of the buzz are you excited about this i'm really excited about it i mean i remember when i first read the book just underlining passages and saying oh my gosh think someone's finally explained it you know things that i think i think it's the same way with the movie you know like ender's that it may not be up to par with the hollywood blockbusters we expect but it's not supposed to be it's about the message and seven people who don't make it through thirteen hundred sixty eight pages i think even the part that is supposed to be this the just the core of

the book the captors ayn rand's vision of objectivism in john galt speech is forty pages right longest speech in a book i think yeah this paragraph at birth. you know it's i've got to admit that part of the book was it was a little on the slow side but even then it didn't it didn't really start the flow it all made sense that i flew through all thirteen hundred sixty pages but you're also a fan of the fountain head as i write. yes so how does how do you think that compares what do you think the film had might not have the significance of an impact of. because there are a lot of fans a very around that a lot of fans of objectivism who read that first book and the other that one was the one that was going to have a greater impact but i think that alice try it reaches down to politics and sort of expand beyond the universe the people who are objectivists are even sympathetic to objectivism you know a lot of christians for example are not huge fans of it but they read the parts of alice tried to pertain to business and to government and they recognize the

parallels there and even comparing the movies i mean the fountain had the darker film you know it's it's sort of harsh and almost bleak at times with alice showed a sense of trying out money excitement and you know the lead character is a young woman so that's always interesting and everybody loves that so i think that might explain from the differences at least how well let's open the sub what is objectivism and why is the connection with atlas shrugged and as the epitome of objectivism in a fictional novel having such a resurgence in popularity and a really new relevance for people our roots today that's exactly it is that i think people are looking at this film with a paradigm of you know this is a book that up to adapted to a movie and the book is you know sort of a novel that's supposed to be a romantic novel that's you know a page turner and i think that's how a lot of people come to it when you have to look at it as like she develops her philosophy you know through the writing of this book and through working these

characters out it really is supposed to be an exposition of her philosophy of objectivism that you know you asked about what it is in a space of the you know individual liberty and you know being self-sufficient. and you know the whole movie talks about the looters versus the producers and i mean that's what makes it so. good for today because that's what we're looking at today i mean it actually takes place in the future which makes it even more of a cautionary tale is that you know we need to be thinking of at least if not objectivism other philosophies other coherent philosophies and what better way to do it through these sorts of you know more entertaining more a static ways and that's exactly what the book was it was supposed to be an aesthetic way to get out of philosophy an entire philosophy of not just the statics but metaphysics and politics so you know you're leaving out to porn elements of the novel that are going to be controversial and will see how they are portrayed in the movie but in atlas shrugged and also is a proponent of atheism and suggests a different way of looking at sex in terms of how society handle sex and how we as

individuals relate to sexual relationships how do you think that's going to affect the way that the movie is going to be received with a movie i don't think deals with too much of that and it's not as on its face in the book it really comes across not maybe not so much the atheism but definitely the aspect of sex and i actually have read that when i was asked what does objectivism have to say about sex she said that it's very good that's what is the response but the unit was going to argue with that exactly and it comes from her love of men and her love of humans you know thriving and i think it's a beautiful thing now you know it's hard to say how it's going to come across because in the second and third acts that's where really sort of comes to the fore now it's right we've got to emphasize this for people if they if they don't know this is they they didn't try to put all of the book into a single movie this is part one of three so there's a lot to be said for the second act and the love story really starts to come about and you know how that grows so it will be interesting to see how the public takes

it because i don't think i've seen too much talked about that and in fact people talk about the sex scene as being too tepid you know this was to be a little. very movie you know because of course libertine libertarians are so you know a lot of people in our generation of sort of picking up this book was responsible for the resurgence that kind of peaked in two thousand and nine but it's still very popular today even though the books are not being wrote as much as movies are being watched you have some some hopes for the impact that this movie is going to have especially given the debate in washington so i think so i mean especially because the first portion is so focused on government and on politics and you see an interest in the end of generation especially college students who are graduating and realizing that oh my goodness you know the government can't get me a job or make my life any better because one third of my paycheck is disappearing to pay for things in d.c. i don't even know about so i think yes they will reach out to people and hope it inspires someone to say ok the movie's great where where's the book you know how

can i pick us up and once you start reading you get up very quickly ok so if i've heard that there's been some buzz at the leadership institute about this if people are really excited they're all going to be going and passionate tonight how do you think this is going to help your job and how does it relate to the mission of leadership and it's well you know we're conservative organizations so our president his comment on it is leaving the social issues aside as you point out religion atheism in the fact we are totally on board with the economic message and so as it galvanises a new generation of americans who maybe haven't thought about these issues you name the i'm just having confronted these issues until we've really been through some hard times as a country in the past few years if it reaches out to those people helps them think about what's at stake what you know that's political battle actually need to encourage them to get active that's that's what we care about that's where we come in is is taking people who care about their country and helping them be more effective in saving it excellent andrew for young americans for liberty would say what are your hopes for the film well i think aside from just getting people to

think about this libertarian philosophy and what it means for today and how pressing it is for today i think it also has like every said this political. undertone that actually moves you to action it doesn't just make you want to you know sit down and read the book in fact i'd be surprised if too many people say oh well i just saw the movie know what i really believe but so what exactly does have other shorter novels like and i'm in with a living so you know you don't have to dive right into atlas shrugged but no i think it does have you know those scenes where especially there's a scene where she's talking about the unions and how you know if they don't want to work for me they don't have to and it's like you could grab this out of today's headlines as it's all the time we have it thank you very much both very much for joining us and i really appreciate it and i'll be seeing that list for of this weekend that was andrew sharp social networking internet young americans for liberty and abby alger director of digital communications at the leadership institute and that wraps up our first week of shows i want to thank everyone for tuning in the wonderful production crew here in our to america for making this

possible thanks to everyone who signed up the website adverse is the man dot com and helped make this show better by sharon ideas suggestions and critical feedback and remember if you didn't get your tax returns in today don't worry or generous leaders have decided to give you a full extra weekend to get your paperwork and i know it's friday and i want everyone to go out and have a good time this weekend but first i hope you'll join me in a moment of silence for clay hunt a twenty eight year old texas purple heart veteran of iraq and afghanistan was an outspoken champion of veterans rights until he lost his own battle with p.t.s.d. when he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound last week thank you now go out have a great weekend and join the abundance of freedoms that we still enjoy from the cutting edge of the human experience in washington d.c. i'm out of focus with.