well i'm starvin in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture this steam is running out on board the republican crazy train i'll tell you which state supreme courts are firing back against the republican governors by shooting down the radical agenda of congress extent of the patriot act just in the nick of time tonight but there was one man who gave it its all to protect our constitution rand paul even a broken clock is right twice a day and the lone star state is putting their boot down against intrusive act

details behind a bill that could jail t.s.a. screeners. you need to know this the backlash against union busting republicans is in full swing that a federal judge in wisconsin struck down scott walker's anti-union bill that was passed in the dead of night with little notice of the public a judge ruled that the way the bill was passed violated the state's open meeting laws by not giving the proper twenty four hour notice for the public to review that bill in her ruling judge marion so he wrote the court must consider the potential damage to public trust and confidence in government if the legislature is not held to the same rules of transparency that it has created for other governmental bodies our form of government depends on citizens trust and confidence in the process by

which our elected officials make laws at all levels of government state supreme court will take up the case next week meanwhile in nearby ohio there's a bad news for another union busting governor former fox news talking head john face a just a half a year. he was elected office in just a few months after he signed a controversial anti-union bill into law a new poll by public policy polling shows that if the election were held begin today case it would be blown out by twenty five points a new poll also puts casey disapproval rating at a lofty fifty six per person tying him with florida governor rick scott as the most unpopular governor in america whether it's the union busting or stripping away our social safety nets it took less than six months for these radical republicans to wear out their welcome with voters so will today's outrages translate into a democratic surge in the polls next year here to talk about this issue is john nichols washington correspondent at the nation magazine john walker it's great to

be with you it's great to have you back john thank you very much what does it mean that this law in wisconsin was struck down what it one of the consequences of this going to be and you know down the road the longer the larger a longer meeting. it was a big deal to levels first this means that now more than three months into the fight governor scott walker has not been able to implement his agenda and the core part of his agenda is to shut down the state's public employee unions to make it impossible for them to collect dues and to really function not merely in the workplace but in a political sphere so that's a big deal he clearly did not know and boy even if the republicans try to bring it back at some point in future he's very very significant that's one level the second level is the public image their public impression you have a very respected jurist somebody who has not been seen as a big liberal stepping out and saying that he walk or administration and its allies

attending to break the law in fact have roca a lot of wisconsin in order to push their radical agenda that helps a lot i think for those who are trying to suggest that this governor and his allies have gone too far can you give us the the ten or twenty second version of what this law was that got struck down and what it would done had it not been struck. sure the governor tried through a budget repair bill i.e. a bill that didn't add a little bit of money move it around to put in radical the construction of labor unions in wisconsin what the law would have done had it gone into effect would be to strip unions of most of their collective bargaining rights and also to make it almost impossible for them to function both in the workplace and in a political setting as an ongoing and so it's very destructive unions but it also had a lot of other components of great power grab by the governor that allowed him to

take over programs like senior care and badger those are medicare pays their medicaid patients out there are programs that really dial them down and also to sew up public plans to contributors without a bidding process so a lot has been shut down here. it was a sweetener any attempt to grab power and to take power away from his own ok so now this goes from what essentially was an appeals court to the state supreme court if i have this right and and you know this republican judge i mean it's not a partisan election but this walker friend mr prosser just won reelection to that court and he's the swing vote is isn't a problem although when this hits the state supreme court the scott walker is going to get his victory. i don't know that talk first restart another day or so to figure out whether that supreme court race is settled i join cop and challenge justice process or is still considering whether to file

a legal challenge to the process and to argue that there were so many irregularities that a judge should look at it that might be late at the scene of justice process that we don't know it certainly remains in some conflict beyond that i think we have to be careful about presuming that the three or four conservative justices on this court will necessarily vote to essentially got the open meetings law in wisconsin just to judge sunni's ruling was very very clear and very very small d. democratic government i suspect there's at least a possibility that even some conservative justices might go along with it we all need to remember earl warren for example were appointed as i recall by eisenhower you know a good conservative republican appointed the koch daddy and then the john birch society hate him and what's the latest. yeah what's the latest on the wisconsin recall actions. there's

a lot going on through the recalls have been sort of by these are efforts to remove republican state senators who align themselves with the walker agenda and three. key votes came from republicans who represent districts they could very easily elect a democrat in those cases that recalls have been certified they're going to go ahead three more recalls of republican senators are now in play and likely to go ok additionally there are three potential recalls of democratic senators those are still being what it all adds up to tom is the likelihood that on july twelfth or thereabouts we will have elections that process was constant that will quit governor walker's agenda to the chest if you change really remove his supporters john thank you so much for being with here with us tonight it's a good story a good story tom thanks for having me on i appreciate it on union busting let's not forget what happened in tuesday's election in new york's twenty sixth district where voters rejected the republicans radical plan to privatise medicare fellow

republicans have already forgotten them like yesterday just one day after their plan to privatized medicare was rejected by the voters of new york state all the republicans in the united states senate except for five voted to privatized medicare and paul ryan budget plan was rejected in the senate on wednesday but not before republicans lined up to sign their name to it all in all only nine republicans out of two hundred eighty eight in both the senate and the house had the courage to say no to any medicare as we know it now it's up to the democrats to make those these republicans who want to throw grandma off the cliff where their votes are around their neck into next year's elections. the patriot act was set to expire for the first time in nearly ten years president obama and congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle and system that this

extension of the patriot act must get done but they were ran into a snag earlier this week all week the man standing in the way of the patriot act renewal was rand paul who offered up eleven amendments to the bill leaving it stalled in the senate up until just a few hours ago and it should be noted that other courageous senate democrats rand paul of course republican defied harry reid in expressing their concerns in opposition to the patriot act senators ron wyden and mark udall for example pointed out the both the bush and obama administrations have secret interpretations of the patriot act that make it even more toxic to transparency and a mocker see but it was rand paul who spoke out the loudest ultimately rand paul was defeated and a patriot act extension was passed just before the deadline in both the house and the senate as i speak that bill is being loaded on to a military jet that can fly faster than the speed of sound over to france to be and delivered the president to sign right before the clock strikes midnight here in

washington d.c. that means four more years of big brother government but i want to recognize rand paul here for a moment and share with you some of the words he had to say yesterday during debate on the floor of the somers. this is pretty pretty straightforward stuff he started out by talking about how the constitution of the united states as we stood all these years right up until nine eleven the bush hysteria the anthrax attacks right up until then we the constitution made it through the the war of eight hundred twelve the votes in america to war the civil war the spanish-american war the world war one world war two vietnam i mean the constitution has been attacked now we've got to blow it up as a records it. is just a douche and strong enough that we could actually capture terrorism can't capture terrorists and protect our liberties at the same tone should we have some rules

that say before they come into your house before they go into your banking records then a judge should be ask for permission there should be judicial review too we want a lawless land do we want to land that is so much without restraint of government without restraint that it any point in time they can come into your house we were very worried about that that's why our country was founded on principles such as the fourth amendment to protect and speaking of the fourth amendment the fourth amendment explicitly says this is the language of it and it's imperative it's a one sentence amendment to the constitution it says the right of the people to be secure in their persons houses papers and effects and you could argue that these days and the fact most people do with these days papers is the same thing as you know what's on your computer but the right of the people to be secure in their persons houses papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall

not be violent and no warrants shall be issued. but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized in other words you cannot invade someone's home or their papers or their privacy without somebody swear under oath before a judge that they believe that a crime has been committed and then the judge issues the warrant and this is what rand paul had to say about that. i believe that we would stop terrorism but do it in a constitutional fashion where you would have a warrant issued by a judge sometimes it would on have time to do them at three in the morning judges are routinely called when someone is accused of rape when some was accused of murder when there is an alleged crime we get warrants and it works and it's worked for two hundred twenty five years until we decided to throw out the constitution we now if we're going to blow up the fourth amendment the legal way to do that is to

actually amend the constitution to say you know fourth remember doesn't count anymore but to amend the constitution requires a two thirds vote of congress and then it has to be submitted to the states and three quarters of the states have to ratify it that obviously is not what happened today in the united states house and so the rand paul correctly pointed this out. we threw out the constitution with the patriot act because we changed the constitution not by two thirds in this body voting for it and not by three fourths of the state but by a scared fifty one percent to throughout their liberties they said make me say i want to be safe i'm afraid make me safe but they gave up their liberties i think it was a mistake and i think so and i think it was a mistake too and while i disagree vehemently with rand paul on things like his desire you know he voted against the. paul ryan amendment to the privatized

medicare because he didn't figure what part of he wanted to just do away with medicare he wants to just do away with social security you know i don't typically he's a libertarian and you know as i've always said libertarians are republicans who want to smoke dope and get laid they want to legal decriminalize drugs and prostitution but basically there are republicans but on the constitution rand paul and his father ron at least in this case i should just say at least i mean with regard to war powers also these guys are spot on now they don't understand what the phrase general welfare means which is in the constitution the general welfare clause that says that basically you know the the job of congress is to raise taxes and spend money to promote the general welfare of the people things like public schools that are opposed to put on this issue this patriot act these guys were spot on as were a number of other courageous democrats and you know when we were putting this thing

together this morning and it looked like he may actually block it because it was going to expire right. when i was first organizing this grant my thought was to say please call your member of congress and tell them to vote with rand paul and with you know ron wyden and mark udall and the others who were striving to stop the patriot act bernie sanders are saying. right now it's a done deal nonetheless i would still urge you to contact your two senators your member of the house of representatives and call the white house comment line and just express your disappointment. that our constitution has been shattered or at least a whole has been ripped out of it by the patriot act in the hopes that maybe some change in legislation can come down the road over the next year to something like that or that if further unconstitutional legislation comes forward that they will

think twice before the just blow up our rights like this this is just fundamentally wrong and we all need to be citizen lobbyists on behalf of the constitution what you know what happened after nine eleven basically it was that it you know and after the anthrax attacks and before the anthrax attacks the two senators that this thing had to go through tom daschle and pat leahy pat leahy of the judiciary committee tom daschle running the senate they were both expressing a lot of reservations anthrax came everyone got frightened it's time for us to tell our legislators you guys don't need to be afraid anymore the constitution is strong we can respect. coming up don't mess with texas i'll tell you why lawmakers down there proposed a bill to arrest t.s.a. screeners.

let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think. beat up on the well. whenever the government says they're going to keep you safe get ready because you give them their freedom. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you

glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture . for.

i hope you don't have plans to fly to texas for a summer vacation if so it may be time to reconsider that texas independent streak is showing itself again as these texas state legislature is considering a bill that allows state police to arrest t.s.a. screeners and throw them in jail for up to one year for their intrusive groping act outs the bill is radically unconstitutional as a puts restrictions on federal agents of doing their jobs and the u.s. department of justice issued a warning to texas yesterday saying that if the laws were adopted then quote t.s.a. would likely be required to cancel any flights or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew and translate that into english you can't fly an airplane out of texas now i know most of us have a problem with the growing checks in the church or no x. ray scanners that is what texas is doing really the best remedy here offer his take is texas state representative david simpson is joining us from the capitol building

in austin texas representative simpson welcome to the program. thank you for having me is this the best way to confront the t.s.a. certainly with you in spirit here but. i'm not sure that well your take well is certainly the best was actually at the duty of texas legislature legislators to do this that we swore an oath to the u.s. constitution and the state constitution both that would. have parts of the constitution that requires to protect citizens from under reasonable searches and. the fourth amendment just says that we're protected against unreasonable searches of our persons or effects our papers. and i don't think there's any federal law that requires or allows. agents of the federal government to touch us in our

private parts without probable cause and this would be sexual assault in any other context and we put a defense in the bill but if there is a federal dollars federal statute passed by congress that's constitutional and they have and agent acts in accordance with that law it's a defense to prosecution we're not trying to pick a fight with the feds but we are intent on upholding the u.s. and texas constitution which protect citizens from under reasonable searches and the state and federal government should be heeding those statutes representative i flew to and from germany of about two three months ago and there were no chertoff porno x. ray scanners and when i asked the people of the you know where they are we put your x. your bags to the x. or machine essentially take off my shoes the woman who's doing the screening

laughed and said no we're not afraid like you are in america. i think the u.k. is the only other country that is still doing this and and these charities chertoff no x. ray scanners i think we're the only country that has them. isn't and so a.j. we're letting flights in from europe and other countries that don't do this be a couple of weeks ago i went to the correspondents' dinner here in washington d.c. spent two hours in the room with the president of the united states of his wife and all i had to do to get through security to do that was walk through a metal detector and get winded if i if i triggered it they even asked me to take my shoes off doesn't this all show that this is not real security that this is security. theater i agree about a month ago a t.s.a. agent undercover agent went through that the f.b.i. is scanners five times over the course of the week with a handgun and was never detected if they had gone through the metal detectors would have been found every time so what they're proposing is an effective and you

know if they really want to be effective shut down the scanners and stop groping people who don't want to be seen neck if they're treating not wanting to be seen neck and or irradiated has a reasonable suspicion so they parachuted out and it's not a pat down i mean it's an invasive touching of breasts lifting lifting them up touching the genitals it's absolutely unreasonable to send them through the detectors would be much more reasonable yeah that's what other countries do and it's i just you know for me when i when i went to the correspondence center this is just this giant haha you know that. all these members of congress michael chertoff and sufis sitting ten feet from me through the dinner i mean he walked through and he didn't have to go through one of the foreign scanners that he's a lobbyist for already selling any how do you think that the department of justice is bluffing when they say that they're going to restrict air travel in and out of texas if he has passed this law i certainly do. first of all didn't even read

the legislation they said we were going to shut down all searches that's absolutely false we're going to draw a line that we're in a search without probable cause like a performance in airports or to the courthouse or to the capitol here or any public place where you access for transportation or a public building that you can't touch their price your privates without probable cause that it's either got to be there or a body cavity and i think it's completely reasonable and it doesn't by any federal statute yeah and that's that's the other absurdity of it is is that you know as we speak right now there are people on airplanes someplace who are smuggling either drugs or diamonds stuffed into body cavities and it could just as easily be c. four plastic explosive and so what's next you know bend over here is the case i

mean you know i'm getting too graphic here but it's like this just this seems like a really weird slope that we're going down. to run away what's what's the timeline we just have a minute left here so what's the timeline for the legislation. well regrettably last night was the normal deadline there are a possibility we can attach this legislation to other legislation and see it get to the still passed out of the senate and it did pass completely unanimously and second and third reading out of the house that we had thirty thirty one almost complete unanimous support and the senate and then about twelve senators fell off when the department of justice sent their false and misleading letter and they didn't have time to evaluate it but i'm still hoping that we can pass it with other legislation or that the governor might. call a special session for redistricting and perhaps identify this is emergency

legislation ok representative said simpson keep us updated thank you for being with us tonight thank you for having me it's t.s.a. has a legitimate problem on their hands of intrusive pat downs for but for once can republicans do something productive and constitutional to solve the problem with rick perry in charge of four but we'll see where this thing goes. it's the good the bad of the very very when soon to see notably the good mason the dog back head april twenty seventh in alabama tornadoes snatched the mason out of his family's garage and swept to far away mason's owners have given up on hearing

that he was killed and it's right there on monday more than three weeks after the storm yes i'm sure that back at home base. he's got two broken legs and they're just a radio owner fractures they've not been able to be in alignment so neither one of them the field so he had to call on two broken legs to get home. mason is healing now and there are talks of making him a mascot for storm survivors who says that we can learn a lot from our four legged free runs the bad dick cheney the former vice president and man without a pulse gave a keynote address at an energy conference yesterday during a question and answer session cheney was asked what he thought about paul ryan his plans to privatized medicare and he had this response. worship the ground that paul ryan walks and i think it's an enormously talented

individual and he's trying to do the right thing and this serves to support the support we can provide. cheney worships the ground before ryan walks up for anyone who is on the fence about the ryan plan but let's hope that endorsement from dick cheney convinces you it's a bad idea and a very very ugly for a congressman dan webster in a recent radio interview the ford. republican play the ultimate trump card in the debate over president obama's plans for peace in israel claiming god may turn on us he said well i like foreign aid sometimes but not everything and i don't like him and oil meese but i love giving money to israel and so i think there's there's a picture there that people realize that we stop helping israel and we lose god's hand and we're in big time trouble is right look i know the israel issue is complex and needs a lot of debate can we not place apocalypse apocalyptic consequences on it leave

the doomsday talk to glenn beck and other right wing lunatics who are very very out . coming out the bulk of our summer seafood supply usually comes from overseas but it light of a new radioactive leak at the fukushima plant in japan or we should save to indulge our shrimp salads and crab cakes. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here in the. i think the rock from the beautiful and.