culture is the same ultimate players are limited to the likes of c.n.n. the real israel islamist years after the cia back bay of pigs operation the castro dynasty still dominate is it time finally to end the. and here we have the shooter's problem america is addicted to oil. and it's an addiction the us cannot seem to care so one year after the worst oil spill in recent history why hasn't anything changed the director of gas bills bills the crude intentions of big oil corporations. virginia tech and columbine there's some serious things in that they don't allow guns it's always criminals that gets the guns so was openly carrying guns the answer would be for america. and why is cold war thinking tying of trade relations between russia and the u.s.

lawmakers playing politics could be to blame. it brothers coke or using the workplace to promote a political agenda that was corporate election propaganda the wave of the future. and laws against sex crimes against nature how would you have sex in the state of louisiana could put you behind bars but who is this law is really targeting. now it is been exactly a year to date at the b.p. oil spill sent millions of barrels of crude spilling into the gulf of mexico and what was the biggest spill of this kind in history yet with gas prices now averaging three dollars an eighty three cents a gallon that's a dollar more than a year ago go gulf coast lawmakers on both sides are again chanting drill baby drill and despite b.p.'s mistakes that led to that spill are now much as really

changed the oil industry it seems when it comes to new rules one might not be. record breaking profits. are good. you. hope maybe scott roberts knows the answers to some of our questions his new documentary gas hole is about what that oil companies don't want you to know mr roberts thank you so much for joining us in l.a. today now i want to start with b.p. because it is the anniversary of that oil spill and after doing a documentary about the oil industry i want to know what has really changed as far as their business practices or as far as real regulations that have changed things since that bill. well really nothing has changed other than the fact that you and i are pairing a lot more for gas than we did a year ago and you would think that we would be paying these prices last year after the spill rather than paying them now after things that are going on in the middle

east especially libya where we get no oil from an oil well that's an interesting point and there are a lot of theories about why gas and some parts of this country are now still more than four dollars a gallon we just heard president obama blame it on oil speculation on the part of investors we've i've talked to a number of people who blame it on concern over the unrest in the middle east which is a big source of oil what do you think is the reason. well i think it's a little combination of both i mean if you look at two days ago you know opec said that they were going to cut eight hundred thousand barrels per day from saudi arabia because they said we were over supplied and then the next day we hear the crude tops out over one hundred nine dollars per barrel because we're under supplied so who really has the answer well as far as no research you did in your documentary did you get any answers is there any role that the oil industry plays you point out that you know after the b.p. oil spill we didn't see gas prices go that high and now we are. and president obama

is correct it definitely has a lot to do with speculators you know a lot of people don't even realize that we get a majority of our oil from canada we get as much from canada as we do from saudi arabia and venezuela combined so when something happens in the middle east the speculators go crazy in the in the price skyrockets well that's one theory now i want to ask back to the subject of regulation are you surprised that congress had that path major reform in response to the largest environmental accident and you i think three. well after doing so much research for the film nothing really surprises me coming out of washington d.c. from either side of the aisle it's you know a lot of people talk about alternative fuels and they talk about new ways and if you look at our film we go back all the way to president nixon and soundbites from presidents who say we need a comprehensive energy policy we need to be energy independent and it's

a matter of national security and no one republican or democrat has really done anything about it why do you think that is despite the thirty years that let's say . i think it's a lot of money that goes into washington d.c. from the oil and gas industry that's what i really think and you mentioned the lip service paid to alternative energy now purely from an economic standpoint with oil and gas prices going up with concern over foreign oil especially with under arrest in the middle east some of that that you mentioned in the persian gulf why isn't there a push to utilize some of these other energy sources and invest in those and instead to again allow for deep thought of oil and natural gas exploration the same kind that you know crude was the precursor to the deepwater horizon oil spill known to be very dangerous yet it's happening in those waters again why why is this the decisions that are why is that the decision being made. i think it comes down to money i think or oil companies like i said really don't care about the consumer

it's business as usual they're making billions and billions of dollars they throw some money towards the alternative fuel industry and doing research and refill with what we found in the film you know a lot of that is green washing but why change business as usual when you're making billions of dollars so what would need to change in order for business as usual to change as you mentioned i mean with these oil companies and corporations they're running businesses they're always going to keep their profits as the number one concern for them so what would change the tide. we need powerful leadership in washington d.c. who's not afraid to point the finger at the oil industry create new legislation consumers need to find out you know we live in a society where people know more about the american idol contestants than they do their own representatives we all have to get involved we have to push legislation and we have to vote in the people that are going to make a difference and do something about it but it was that idea that democrats and

republicans neither of them will really tackle the oil industry. i'm sorry who who would that be you mentioned that neither democrats nor republicans have the will to tackle the oil industry so what would i can to look like that would be a solution. that's a great question i mean somebody needs to step up from from either party or a different party and make priority number one and then we have to lay it out we have we have to have a natural right project and not the like putting a man on the moon absolutely and something that's been an interesting analogy shows now we just have one more quick minute but i just want to ask you you mentioned americans you mentioned consumers something that's interesting because if you look to europe you see everybody driving these little cars fuel efficient diesel fuel the united states consumers despite the b.p. oil spill despite gas prices rising despite

a lot of concern paid to where oil is coming from in the united states you don't see americans trading in their s.u.v.s and lining up to get in some more fuel efficient smaller cars what do you think that is. americans we like are big stories we really don't want to sacrifice our lifestyle for the better of long term good seems i don't know in the in the car companies are producing cars that s.u.v.s trucks things that really aren't that great on fuel economy we've consumers are buying them so they're going to keep making them and i know in your in your documentary you actually talked about the oil industry perpetuating that cycle but what role have they played. well one of the job dropping things about the film and what people really get surprised about is the fact that we go back thirty sixty years and and have found patents and psych knology with the help even of a retired shell scientist who was the top scientist of inventions that would have

drastically increased fuel economy over the years and they've either bought or suppressed or over over regulation and red tape of cup and from coming to market i thought really interesting that you don't often hear such a multi-faceted issue and meanwhile a year after the b.p. oil spill there's not much going to prevent it from happening again it seems that was scott de roberts director of gasol thank you so much for being with us today andrew explosions under water to those at the barrel of a gun today marks the anniversary of the mass shooting at columbine high school and this month marks the anniversary of the oklahoma city bombing the virginia tech massacre and the siege of the branch davidian compound in waco but despite all that some americans see carrying firearms anywhere and everywhere as the only solution for a safer america are to scale and ford has more. pressing for and spent years here you go in the policy. is to rochester defense.

in virginia he didn't see a reason to put it down being a former pretty sure if i had thought that it was necessary to. obtain a concealed handgun permit to protect myself but this is it want to just conceal this even security it out in the open to me it's the constitutional way to korea firearm. and i think. if you don't exercise your rights eventually you loosen. his waist you drank won't leave the house without her magnum three fifty seven pistol as. sex into this special hand back for packing heat. increase i was not thinking. big but with me. even during the war you know. it was not.

like here when i came here and this. is like the wild west and like i was watching on t.v. . and. walking with a gun on my hip there are two hundred fifty million guns in the hands of american civilians and rutherford estimates he spent more than twenty five thousand dollars on here it's never complete i mean only person shooters that you have. i mean. i sleep on the floor like we did every day each one brings back memories. this was. my grandfather saddam. i wanted to do that when i was you know. arrested for it carries his gun everywhere he legally can and even encourages his daughters and nephew as well and the village just rather very original citizens took on three counts two thousand five hundred members they organize events like

this one at parts of restaurants and other public places where they openly carry loaded weapons in an effort to normalize their critics say and. i believe that you should be able to. carry a firearm in any manner you choose on an airplane and in school virginia tech and columbine are some serious things and they don't allow guns it's always the criminals that gets the guns and you can't have a gun and a gun free zone so that's going to be allowed on campuses there virginia citizens defense league is part of the greater open carry movement a well organized network of gun owners in forty three states the bills called where it is merely one that makes you know makes it basically makes it easier to screw with the message open hers. first some in the open carry movement it's about more than security it's about forming a militia defending themselves from government tyranny and even organizing an insurgency in ford artsy carrollton virginia. meanwhile president obama is

getting sued a lawsuit was filed this week and us court to require president obama to remove a cold war restriction that is still time u.s. russian trade now despite lip service for ending what's called the jackson vanocur amendment for two decades under both democratic and republican presidents still on the books and congress has not acted to get rid of it now the lead plaintiffs in the case include a former soviet dissident who can confirm the important role that jackson bennett once played but says that it no longer does and also anthony an expert on u.s. russia relations and also a former reagan administration official i spoke with him earlier he told me why these old restrictions make no sense today take a listen. for several administrations now. presidents have have you know certified that russia has been in compliance with immigration laws but they no longer need immigration for immigration out of russia and in addition to that

russia is no longer a so-called non market economy which is what it was under the soviet union so the language of the law you know applies to russia that no longer exists and it really applies to the old soviet union when there was you know things like central planning you know nationalization of industry and private property no meaning for a price mechanism so it was a non market economy and that's that's the precondition for the amendment to go into effect first so you cannot market economy and then you have to be imposing undue restrictions on the immigration the food the free travel of people immigration people right now when you need more than one and i'm starting to step on your words but all the reasons that you get are good reasons for why that amendment should no longer exists or doesn't matter anymore why is it still on the books right well you know because all of us old enough up. right it's you know if this is a nourish about the whole thing you know it's you know the obama administration

including the you know the clinton state department you know supports the repeal of x x and that. should should or should be set aside that's absolutely case what we're trying to do in this particular legal action is simply to show that if you put a very straightforward reading of the language of the law clearly indicates that the president has the right to get rid of jackson bennett on his own and that for the congressional action is required a certain culture is built up around jackson benefice is that because the congress you know of in effect force this on a republican administration way back when the gerald ford administration was very interested pursuing they talk of the soviet union in a time of case and kissinger a secular state at the time it was a congressional action and there's a feeling that somehow because the current congress impose it on an unwilling us administration that somehow congress that's the list the law but it doesn't present our message to president obama is yes you can you can go right on authority you can you can lift checks and better some people do have political reservations about

about having a more open attitude towards russia this may reflect as you've indicated some kind of lingering sort of cold war mentality on the part of some people. i you know as a reagan administration official who was you know really supported you know very strongly in at work actively in the kind of you know the anti soviet kind of policy in the closing years of the cold war you know i now have a very different view of all this kind of thing and i think that you know russia is no longer the soviet union and i think russia you know needs to be brought into the into the european family of nations and i think these kinds of old restrictions you know just make no sense now evidence that would be a former reagan administration appointee and a leader in the fight to abolish the jack and bennett amendment now before the november midterm elections if you work for koch industries as in many of the. koch brothers you see the pack in the mail you received this package and

a letter from the president and the president of companies saying that for the first time ever they were sending all u.s. employees what they called a helpful tips for the names of their homes that told them what candidates to vote for and about what koch industries sees as the proper role of business in society earlier i was joined by a michaela he's a labor journalist and he together with mark ams another journalist broke this story in the nation magazine and i asked him if this is evidence that the u.s. is entering a new era of corporate politicking and election propaganda here's part of our conversation. now cooperations under systems united can hold a captive audience meetings with workers hand outsiders like this pressure workers into voting for candidates now this was outlawed by the national labor relations act the corporation now can have employees sit around like something please have misinformation and get a break room and talk to them about politics all day and crow concerns about what's ironic about israel quite open the door for the tappan so if you want to start

politicizing the workplace right and your boss is walking around wearing a republican button and then that kind of profession on you to wear a republican button to you want to raise if you want to go along with a guy you gossip agree with him a little bit do you think that what he did an example that if you find examples of that you're right well certainly we already know from the way they do capital audience meetings and anti-union campaigns i've been involved in many union organizing drives will come in and seventy percent of the people will indicate they want to join a union and then the company will delay the vote for several months and then after several months of these cabinets audience meetings where they bring the slick powerpoint presentations and they tell them they're all going to lose their jobs or they review their performance records workers vote down units because they're afraid of their bosses and this could be a similar case short not every worker is going to feel pressured by this but enough workers that this is an unfair advantage look a union cannot come into a workplace and hold all the meetings about will pick candidates it once is poor but they can vote a labor union meeting and have that same kind of discussion with their members cracked sure but they cannot require their members to attend that meeting a corporation now under citizens united can require their workers to attend long

meetings about voting for republicans now this is very dangerous most voters don't get very much information and if you have you know in the average in to unit campaign they hold eleven capitol audience meetings with the workers now if you have a levin meetings with split power points where you have in charge and all kind of things from not are you talking about you know different statistics somebody is more likely to believe their boss and for centuries i mean for decades this is been outlawed in the united states and oregon just passed a law to outlaw this which makes this particular somewhat interesting because it looks like they may have violated the law it's unclear. that was mike elk labor journalist who wrote that story just today in a nation magazine now it is virtually a commandment in the french quarter try this one in french lay they. say or let the good times roll is what that translate to grab a little something to drink taken to show what a gentlemen's club maybe go back to a hotel with a little something or someone or that's what gets many people on suburban street to

begin with but for a place that sells under the covers fun the police are cracking down on it but you'd never guess who they're busting what they're busting more importantly why archie said workmanship says this story from new orleans louisiana. this is the carnival of colors and sounds. that is new orleans louisiana. a mississippi river port city awash in its southern roots its colorful french creel charms and its overtones of piety the. it's very catholic very catholic very bad just even very few of the a city that lives according to code your lines get stuck in this kind of like puritan mentality that's completely antithetical to everything that's happening people carmen have conventions here because they know there's the french quarter

they know there's strip clubs prostitution. this is bourbon street. for about two hundred bucks you can buy yourself six more specifically straight up intercourse. with a new orleans street walker anything else or start saying all sites can be negotiated but anything else is also. against the law. according to a law called crime against nature it basically prohibits anything other than ordinary intercourse there's no police out there going into a neighborhood saying you can't have you know sex with your husband you can't have oral sex with your wife right and no one's actually enforcing that but it isn't forced and enforced heavily on the prostitutes of new orleans these are people who can least afford to be charged with something like this right now you have to do is have an undercover officer driving around in plain clothes in

a plain in an unmarked car and all of the do is drive around and drive up to people that they believe are are prostitutes are known are known prostitutes. and just ask how much and she answers. she's just opened the huge hole in her life. a huge hall because a crime against nature charges punishable by as much as a twenty year prison sentence incredibly large fines and. you're talking about a woman who's in her early twenty's who has to register as a sex offender for the next fifteen years. for a city whose cell job quietly includes pleasures of the flesh why they need to criminalize sex acts in which just about anyone in gage's and almost all of these cases and up in a plea to probation and finds fines and fees. and the important part about the fines and fees is that's all revenue coming in to pay for the court system to pay

for police to pay for the jail to pay for prosecutors' offices simply put an antiquated nineteenth century law. passed on the guise of christian values we're all on him being used today still to make money it's a five year felony and you can use that to encourage people to plead guilty very quickly it justifies higher bonds the hookers often instead plead guilty to a lesser charge of prostitution leading down to a misdemeanor means you can charge higher fines and fees how do prostitutes who usually can't afford those fines and fees pay for then are paying for it by drinking more prostitution which they get hit again then they get caught again and right they have to engage in more prostitution it's a vicious cycle this is an old law to stupid law it's a law that a lot of people even within the criminal justice system don't agree with now you can see how some are trapped in the carnival that is new orleans. and if you think

they're the only ones. there are others. to be continued. and who are those others will according to a report that some members of the gay and transgender community here to talk to us more about that is jordan flattery player t. he is a community organizer and editor of left turn magazine also author of the book here flood lines community and resistance from katrina to the jenna sex i thank you so much for joining me now we just saw how this law has been used to penalize prostitutes and i want to talk to you more about what was left out of that story which is how it's been used to penalize or target gays in transgenders. thank you for having me on to you for shining a light on this really important issue i talk to folks from the african-american gay and transgender community and almost everyone i spoke to had some kind of incident with the police where they had been targeted they were fighting the police

were specifically hanging out outside the black gay and transgender and arresting people basically according to people i spoke with the feeling was the police after that if someone is black and gay or transgender then they're automatically become enough evidence to arrest. their person told me that they've been arrested and they had been doing nothing but and they had friends around doing nothing other than being in the community and what about this the crimes against nature law which is you know specifically gives harsher punishments for sodomy and oral sex howard that used to target the specific groups that you're talking about marginalize. well talking to public defenders when what i found is the police never seem to have recorded their conversation with a person and when that happens. it seems to be entirely up to the police discretion whether they charge them with prostitution which is

a misdemeanor or the crime against nature charge which is a felony which lead to this registration and a whole number of penalties is printed on their driver's license sex offender they have to register with the state including their address is on the list send a postcard to everyone in their neighborhood telling them that they're a registered sex offender women who i spoke to it said that they had men coming to their house or proposition them because they were on the left. there's a number of limitations including when there's a hurricane they can't evacuate other shelters they have to go to a shelter was just for sex offenders which basically means. if you can try. and that would not be the case that their crimes were were the misdemeanor charge of prostitution is that correct but that's exactly right out there that i think we can be completely different different crime and all of what goes with that kind of nature are these laws that were set up or people who don't work will really work

child molesters and you if you. are. caught up in this web of entanglements now one thing i want to ask one of the allegations made in the story was that the police department prosecutors use this as a way to generate revenue that these are higher fines now our t.v. reached out to the police department they said hey it's our job to enforce the laws that are on the books and i mean that that is a valid point so why aren't legislators working to get these laws off the books if so many people agree that they're antiquated well first of all i recommend anyone look at the new documents that the justice department released a couple of weeks ago one hundred eight page report on police department behavior and they found racial ethnic profiling and lesbian gay bisexual and transgendered their nation basically mentioning the crime against nature law and saying the police are using and so it's not just advocates they're saying that it's the justice department after studying the issue i mean isn't there why it is called on

the books still why hasn't there been an effort to get them off i understand that in some states people make quite an effort to keep them on the books. well you know there's been there's been some legislative effort a lot of last year that and rightly changed that for they don't have to go in the registry only goes for the second offense so there's been some light thinking people are continuing to push in legislature unfortunately for the first time since the reconstruction era our legislature is completely republican controlled and i think those republican candidates have found that anything that can be seen is not something they they want to go now that are democrats and we'd be and have been much better but it seems that they are very mild of a positive answer in terms of criminal justice or soft on crime or soft on the issues of homosexuality i think that's a good point so you think that it it is about targeting gays and kind of condemning

homosexual behavior he can use laws on the books i do but i think if you look at the victims they're mostly african-american and they're mostly gay lesbian transgender or who are women of color who are back to work. they're just not seen as a voting bloc by many of the politicians and i think that they're not seen as a community that they need to represent or they need to look out for and it's an interesting point you're saying they really don't have as much of a voice because because people don't think that they can push as much politically i want to thank you so much for the reporting urging them for bringing us that insight that was jordan flaherty community organizer journalist and author of flood lines community and resistance from katrina to the genesis they got a very yeah thank you so much now that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to our to dot com slash usa check out our you tube page at youtube dot com slash r g america and follow me on twitter please give me a message let me know what you think of our shows you can call me out lauren lister .