but can they alone show up at the real headlines with none of the mersey are going live in washington d.c. now as president obama takes his turn to spark peace in the middle east look at the money that the u.s. throws at this conflict as well as other countries in the region how have we learned that peace can't be bought the next new york city attempts to keep smoking in the butts starting today it will be illegal to smoke in most outdoor public areas but will determine if this anti-smoking legislation is actually a health issue or just the latest example of a nanny state then a lot of prisoners will be getting issued a get out of jail free card thanks to

a recent ruling by the supreme court that says california's overcrowded prisons are unconstitutional but why are they overcrowded in the first place we'll take a look at the business of private prisons and then although fox news has the highest ratings as it also allows for the republican party the two thousand and twelve presidency just think the list of g.o.p. candidates is pretty pathetic and the talking points have only become more radical and then at the end of the show we'll have our monday edition of happy hour but for now let's move on to our top story. just days after president obama made his middle east speech he brought his message to the american israel public affairs committee a powerful pro israel lobby apac held its conference over the weekend here in washington d.c. and while everyone seems to be willing to talk abstractly about peace negotiations nobody has been able to agree on any one concept just yet artie's guy in a church again has more. president obama's calls for peace and

a two state solution fell on deaf ears both with this release for many from the mere mentioning of back to preen nine hundred sixty seven border lines is unacceptable. because. i am with the palestinians who believe there is nothing but words in what the u.s. president has said is that in about a fraction pressure on it you know the prime minister of israel or israel's. it's like cross it's like a lose lose thing like it's very hopeless like we hear the right things no kind of implementation addressing the powerful control it's really lobbying in washington president obama has made sure to be really firm that no pressure would be put on israel to replace the process and he's proposed solution was just the friend's advice cannot be imposed on the parties to the conflict. no vote at the united nations will ever create an independent palestinian state and the united states

will stand up against efforts to single israel out at the united nations and international for israel's legitimacy. and they say the contradiction of words and deeds has been a constant source of global frustration about the u.s. foreign policy in the middle east. one example. the obama administration has called these really settlement expansion illegitimate but when it came to actually voting at the un security council to condemn the settlement expansion is illegal the u.s. veto the resolution the failure of the united states. effectively would be israel palestine issue. double standards for. the president made a very strong case that we should not tolerate civilians being bludgeoned. by their rulers but we do nothing when i mean israelis do all these things. would

cost a war with a pretty high in terms of our credibility and prestige internationally and that's not important a survey suggests president obama's ratings in the muslim world are as low as ever experts say the inconsistency with which the u.s. reacted to different episodes of the arab uprising is to blame president obama's speech on thursday was seen as a way to reach out to the arab or than say the u.s. supports men and women of the street as opposed to suppressive looks but it seems he's worth resulted in more confusion about u.s. policies particularly when it came to these really palestinian conflict we'll see what he said in the last. most of the palestinians feel frustrated about this also i was reading all the. media. they are also seeing it. so i did. the speech that president

obama is facing pressure from both the international community that has long been suggesting the three state solution and the nine hundred sixty seven border lies as part of the solution and it's not like it's really trying that proposal unrealistic president obama's attempts to please both the international community and israel into have resulted in yet another nonstarter in the middle east peace process i'm going to check out reporting from washington. president obama is only one in a long line of us u.s. presidents who have placed a middle east peace high on their foreign policy agenda because the process continues to go nowhere it's become painstakingly clear that words speeches they don't help but perhaps it's time to really analyze the actions of the u.s. and how they've affected the region and by that i mean let's talk about money the u.s. gives israel three billion dollars in aid a year they also give the palestinian authority eight thousand and ten it was two hundred twenty five million dollars worth not even equivalent by any means that clearly peace here hasn't been bought think of egypt yemen tunisia other nations in

the region whom the u.s. government also showers with money and weapons their populations have or are in the process of trying to overthrow the leaders that our money supports so can you really buy peace or does it only allow for more corruption and more extremism to grow here to discuss this with me israel to govern former senior cia analyst ray thanks so much for being here tonight both now when we talk about perceptions and the way that people look at u.s. foreign policy do you think that money actually becomes even more powerful than speeches the president's may give than votes that our country might take of the u.n. when it comes to knowing that israel is the top receiver of u.s. aid and if you get three billion dollars a year how much does that weigh on minds well that is the symptom really that's the proof of how this larger problem she has become. people in muslim world look at that and then any pretense of going to many you or any pretense of equal treatment

these are the figures that you cited here with israel getting three billion and the palestinian authority getting a couple of hundred million i mean that's makes lawyers and when you have people like general petraeus and even secretary clinton herself saying that this agenda vacation this total of unification with israel i suppose trouble it actually increases terrorism one wonders what's going on in their minds that one has ideas but if terrorism increases and the whole objective of this is to get people like roddick or the pakistanis or others to cooperate in the war so-called terrorist i'm well if it's not working one would wonder you know what's afoot here and what's a foot of course is there are people making people profiteering on these sales these are sales for every dollar that the israelis are given half of that goes back to u.s. defense contractors are the same with pakistan so there's a lot of money to be made in this was there or not it helps or hinders the

so-called war on terrorism what would you say that it's helping or it's hindering i mean can you name me one example where peace has been able to block i think some people would say well look at iraq there we tried to pay off a few more lawyers are doing the same thing in afghanistan i wouldn't call either of those successes you know you can't the the classic example of course respect from world war two the marshall plan did come into effect and it did change things in europe very very profoundly but one has to go back almost for it to see a situation where just money will work now there are other tools a promise of course as to the arabs did attack israel and people forget that they did effect st was seventy three the u.s. came up with some very clever proposals look israeli leaders don't want this to happen again so let's have a mutual defense treaty you know but spread of them money i mean. i was going to attack you if you were mutual that literally most people talk about is ruby and not

like they're not of course you need to do to offend some treating people were these really say well no third would prefer to take the money why because you have a treaty with somebody that opposes mutually acceptable obligations not true story wars we've told the other person and it also requires it's a nationally recognized borders and the israelis didn't want any part of that and so they turned to stab their preferred the three billion a year it will hold low the american people knew that well could three billion the ear i mean in this in this district of columbia or in the towns and cities of this country that are having trouble paying their teachers and firefighters their policeman three people you thought it was a year that's a lot of money and i think there are a lot of people across the west are saying that right now if you look at some rasmussen poll some earlier in the year the majority of americans still said that they don't want any foreign aid going to middle eastern countries there was more support than any of the other countries to israel but you're very right in the

sense that americans are being told right now the basic services social services might be on the chopping block here but let's also look at the way that you could say in the region the u.s. also has just and itself with its money in terms of egypt and supporting the mubarak regime also making arms deals with egypt as well but that money never really trickles down and that's why we're seeing these arab spring revolutions right now that when you also was the israel. i mean literally for almost forty years it is true that have to worry about anything and so the border bed is big and that's changed now there's a strategic change and israel is running scared and with good cause and what obama i think is trying to do is say hey look things are really changed now you're going to have to compromise because just look at the events of two weekends ago we were all your supporters servants are not good at the time. the israelis displaced the post and seven hundred thousand of them there were demonstrations or border

infractions on the lebanese border the syrian border some of the borders so there's really not going to have to be able to they're not going to be able to live with that with that but accustomed to obama's trying to move them up what they're going to look like for americans as well if we take this a little bit beyond just israel if we look at egypt if we look at yemen and what's going on like i said with the arab spring if these revolutions are all successful who's going to look like the bad guy we talked about hypocrisy in foreign policy it's the u.s. that has been giving money to these dictators all along well that's true but it's pretty known for a long time. i think that that's not going to matter a great deal who cares about what the yemenis think who cares about the syrian things i care but are authorities don't we talk about the american people i think it's important to make a distinction between the american people and their representatives and their senators who many of them receive inordinate amounts of money from the israel lobby that's right here in washington today so it is obama of course so they are not with

this program and what needs to happen is the american people need to just speak up and say look if we're to buy percy and we need the money here in this country go different you couldn't you couldn't safeguard israel offer him a treaty again i don't advocate that but offer him a treaty and see what they say they'll say no thanks because that would mean you know that would mean a very different strategic situation right now we're very happy please because when i come into washington so it's netanyahu i get at the white house and that's the bully pulpit you know teddy roosevelt used bully pulpit in a different kind of meeting ok and you know use that phrase to be a bully and the question is who's going to get away with it all have to wait and see but i guess in the meantime it seems like throwing money at a lot of our problems does seem to me easier solution for a lot of us politicians rael i thank you very much for him tonight. all right we have much more to come on tonight's show if you have a trip to new york city plan this summer be careful if you're a smoker

a new strict smoking ban takes effect today that curbs where you can light up outside so is this public policy for your own good a little bit on overload and we'll look out the problem of prisons overcrowding in the u.s. how much are private prisons to blame for the track and. let's not forget that we sat in a park right. on the well. we never got the shows here safely get ready because of the freedom.

charter here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture. new website with twenty four seven live streaming news times what to do about the ongoing financial hardship unlimited free high quality videos for download. and stories you never. see. the political ticker. posts aren't much to say.

hey guys welcome michel ancel on the alone a show we've heard with our guests not to say on the topic now we want to hear from our audience just go on to you tube to video response or to twitter for part of the questions that we imposed on you tube every monday and on thursday when the show your responses in the global economy. today is the day that new york's a new smoking ban goes into effect smoking is a long been outlawed in restaurants bars government buildings and offices but this new ban goes after what many see as the last bastion complying with legislation passed in february of this year it's now illegal to smoke in any of new york city's of public parks beaches boardwalks and probably not what is actually going to work some other ag advocacy groups are already planning a smoke in the park from

a twenty eight and protest and why p.d. is leading the enforcement to the parks department which hasn't shown any signs of clamping down so perhaps to really figure out whether this will work or not it's better to go back to the original debate to guess how all of this will play out is this an example of a nanny state at its worst banning smoking for your own good or is this a public health issue that most americans support which gives a voice to those who don't want to suffer the negative effects of smoke joining me to discuss this is jacob sullum senior editor at reason reason magazine and the author of the book for your own good the anti-smoking crusade and the tyranny of public health thank you so much for joining us tonight what do you say is this protecting the rights of non smokers or is this infringing upon the rights of smokers you could say that we're all taxpayers here all of our money contributes to keeping some of these public parks intact but is it always the moralistic argument that ends up winning out i think that we've lost there for

a moment hold on we're trying to get him right back we're going to try to get him back but jacob has done a lot of reporting on this issue and there are a lot of people out there that would say it is indeed the nanny state taking into effect i think we're still waiting for jake of but if you also look at a lot of scientific data there of course we've seen a lot of studies as of late that show that the effects of secondhand smoke even is he back jake and can you hear me now. oh you're ok with a lot of it go yeah we lost you for a minute i'm happy that you're back or did you hear my first question at all is this protecting this protecting the rights of nonsmokers or is this infringing on the rights of smokers i was saying that we all pay taxes so in essence all of our money goes into these public parks and boardwalks to keep them out but is it always the moral argument that wins in the end. well i think if you look at the justification for smoking bans it that we are personally baron's along this usually of a size that is this is to protect bystanders and to protect nonsmokers from the second

hand smoke but i think the real motivation of the real payoff in terms of the public health agenda is to get smokers to quit so in a city like new york where you can't smoke in the workplace you can't slogan bars or restaurants and now you can't smoke in parks or air on beaches or in industry and walkways i guess you can still smoke if you're walking down the middle of the street and so you keep moving it makes it very hard obviously to maintain a habit so it has the not incidental is that getting people to quit smoking and in fact the city's health commissioner said this is what this is the main goal of this is to get people square it's not which i think was was an example where candor on his part i think that really is the main motivation in terms of the public health officials and it's not the act it's a literal public's point of view i think you know they're worried about the nooses primarily they may talk about the long term possible long term health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke but i really don't think that's the main motivation i don't think it was serious it will you know they happen to walk by a guy smoking

a cigar part french that they're going to get lung cancer or heart disease i think to the extent that they are concerned about smoking in public places because they perceive it to be a nuisance or a sort of track it rich kids and you know in a public place that's outdoors it really isn't a very strong just an occasion to limit the nuisance of that because it's so smoke so diluted in the outdoor air really isn't much of a nuisance there are i think in places there indoors things like you know our houses we stations where we are not only in north of where in fact iraq after the fire through a legal process there's a strong argument think of banning smoking altogether or for restricting at the very least since the government owns that property and operates it'll have an ax players it has to the rules so i think it was reasonable that on the set it would. but certainly on public property the government has set some sort of that's in contrast with private property like morris restaurants with really is going to be

patient with government so it was a solution to my view that are we up to be in your property or i'll take it would you know are there anything to take that tell us exactly how many people or what the rates are for people quitting smoking because of these rules and you think that if this was a public health issue they would approach it in terms of education educating people about the negative effects of smoking rather than going through punishment. but i think that the problem is that education had its impacts and it's pretty much gone having its over what we saw at the time the surgeon general's report back in the sixty's was that people do tension it made a difference that these new health effects of smoking being publicized and there was a quite a steady decline in smoking from the burner we're now i think it's under twenty percent of the. still smokes versus it used to be you know in the forty's for women fifty's for mary and. so it's part of the change but what happened is that over the years the people who are most receptive to the helpless use those are the ones who can have the response first and now are left with a smaller minority that is not as receptive that message and therefore you see the

end using more coercive means things like smoking bans or like increasingly punitive and tobacco taxes in new york it's a rather exact look that it provides cigarette taxes in the country with several dollars on each. levied by this but the city and then several more dollars little state on top of the federal we are starting to see smoking advocacy advocacy groups saying that they're planning smoke ins or that i'll just move to other parts that will see how it all works out whether this enforcement really does work take about i thank you very much we have to wrap it up about a few technical issues here thank you. our it is time for show and tell on tonight's program the last time we want to get your input on president obama's middle east speech was vague rhetoric for the decades old conflict between israel and palestine we asked if you thought obama's

speech signals a change in u.s. policy towards the region let's go to patrice are producing a sense of patrice in a sense you to find out what you had to say. after president obama announced a plan for mideast peace talks based on the sixty seven borders he praised the palestinian position i heard israel and generally took the world by surprise was it a smart move your viewers believe it signals a real change in u.s. policy and the most positive opinion that came to us was from twitter from miles he said obama's speech was the first time a u.s. president has proposed something realistic regarding is your own palestine chris agrees he said both parties need to be pragmatic about the situation in order to make progress but tim believes this is all a waste of time speeches rarely change anything he said this one is no different my take when two groups of people just keep arguing the same thing over and over sometimes someone just needs to stand up and shout stop i think the person who

tried to do that was the president of the united states so mr president now that you have everyone's attention we all want to know if actions will follow words. as always thank you for your responses and here's our next topic for you we just discussed new york city's new smoking ban it takes effect today making it illegal to smoke in public parks boardwalks beaches and prominence and it's being treated as a public health issue but some say that this is the nanny state at work so we want to know what you think does new york city's new smoking ban go too far you can respond to us on facebook twitter and who to and who knows your response just might make it on air. now and what could be a big blow to prison systems across the u.s. the supreme court has ruled that california's overcrowded prisons violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment they rejected the straits of quest for more leeway and agree that a prisoner release plan is now necessary in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine analysts found that one hundred twelve california prison inmates die unnecessarily due in adequate medical care but while these prisons are overcrowded

to begin with you can say that it's the war on drugs california's three strikes law at general lock them up and throw away the key mentality are there other forces lurking behind the scenes a lobby for those strict laws and for more prisons the private prison industry not only are these private institutions beginning to spread to more states in the us but they also been found to lobby legislators force direct immigration laws like arizona's as the ten seventy so they can take in more people and make more profit so could this ruling helped thwart the growth of growth of private prisons or could only make it worse so i need to discuss this is actual caballero co-creator of going to me a project of brave new foundation that's launched a nationwide on land online campaign called immigrants for sale axel thank you so much for joining us tonight before we get into just the immigration topic let's talk about private prisons in general you know how much have these private prison industry and say the prison guard lobbies how much of they really forced certain states to take up strict rules when it comes to being tough on crime. i think

they've had a tremendous influence particularly in the immigration case they have gone state to state and this movement this anti immigration reform and that we've seen throughout the country has been directly attributed to the private prison corporations we have c.c.a. lobbying thousands of dollars in arizona in georgia in florida we have the g.a.o. group who has a huge state interest in all of these states so we can say with certainty these private prison corporations have a lot to say in our prison systems are being transformed across the country now obviously for private prisons it's profitable and our prisoners they get the more money they make but how much money exactly would they get if if some of this strict immigration legislation became more acceptable across the board in the u.s. well we can see how much they've profited already already without having the full

array of laws that we are expecting to happen in the next few years a profit over five billion dollars across the board they own over one hundred fifty thousand spaces around the country they're in virtually every state in some shape or another with concentrations in places like arizona and georgia similarly so are arizona georgia are the states that just passed and gratian largest private prison detention centers in georgia stewart detention center and we saw how h.b. eighty seven out of the house so there is a correlation they have one hundred thousand spaces that they have to fill every year and they're certainly devising a lot of strategies to make sure that they build those spaces now i want to talk about the issue of overcrowding again very many obviously you can say that a lot of the stricter legislation is what sends more people to jail but also when i was looking into the practices of these private prisons they only take they refused to take certain prisoners who might have a certain mental sickness or just physical sickness and they push those into the

state run prisons so nonsense are they directly involved or at fault for also making the state run prisons more crowded and inhumane as the supreme court rolls. absolutely i mean. the key here factor is that these are entities for profit these are and there are out there to make money so they will do everything in their power to make sure that they're sure shareholders have a profit that year sometimes that means lesser conditions sometimes that means not taken prisoners sometimes which is the case in story behind a prisoner die because often time and again he came out and said that he had. different health issues and they didn't they didn't attempt to and they actually let him die because they didn't have health service disability so these are prisons that their main purpose is to make money and if that means lower conditions that that means circumventing some of the regulations that the. governor of the prison system has they'll probably do it it's so secret all these contracts and all these

forms of governance that these private prison corporations have around the country are so secretive it is very very hard for the public to have access so that this is why we're launching immigrants for sale campaign to expose these types of issues and to let the public know the big can do something about it also what's in it for the lawmakers and then because you know if you look at recent data that's been put out there by the new york times on arizona's private prison system it turns out it actually ends up costing the state more money to save them any money right now almost every state is going through a budget crisis and you would think it would be in the lawmakers interest to perhaps reform some of the criminal justice system q you know reduce the number of prisons that might have been more votes. actually the opposite way in certain states and here's here's the explanation why a lot of these private prison system they go through lobby groups or interest groups like alec the american legislative exchange council which is

a group that connects both private prison and multinational corporations with legislators and they devise strategies that will be politically advantageous for the legislator as well as a for profit mechanism to the multinational corporations in the case of immigration legislation c.c.a. has invested a lot of money into the pockets of legislators thirty six of the co-sponsors of arizona ten seven iraq had some direct connection with the cia whether it was through a campaign contribution or not but governor in georgia nathan deal got money from c.c.a. so there is both money in their campaigns which now we know that corporations can donate as much as they want and we also have the interest to take to join both the multinational corporation or the private prison corporation in this case with some native is an anti immigrant. been peddling throughout the last few years and they want to marry those two to advance vans legislation.