and wives are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture while the republicans continue to play hardball with the country's debt limit democrats have drawn up their own set of demands so which party will blink first in this trillion dollar tug of war plus the medal of dishonesty goes to general david petraeus i'll talk with the investigative journalist who discovered the lies behind some of the traces so-called accomplishments and the heat is on for anthony weiner to resign and he is

having his own at two a moment to stay or will it go. you need to know this at the white washing of afghanistan continue you might remember last year when general david petraeus touted a successful military operation by special forces in afghanistan led to the capture or killing of over two and a half thousand rank and file taliban fighters in a ninety day period between may and july it was supposed to be a sign the president obama's new military strategy in afghanistan was working but as investigative journalist gareth porter uncovered so in general petraeus is most outed accomplishments against the taliban turned out to be a crock and of the thousands of rank and file fighters he claimed were killed almost ninety percent of them were actually innocent civilians they were released

just days after capture so that our new strategy in afghanistan capture innocent people just to boost the numbers here to dig deeper into this issue is pure thrower investigative journalist policy analyst on u.s. foreign military policy so is the author of four books including peril perils of dominance. imbalance of power and the road to war in vietnam welcome thanks very much to the title of your book about vietnam i remember i'm old enough trick when general westmoreland was there when it was all about body counts and he was gone you know but it turned out later we learned that many of the viet cong that we had killed in the enemy were actually innocent civilians people who were in villages that happen to be bombed women children whatever it was you know just body bags how many body bags were there are we revisiting the experience that we had in vietnam and if so how could we be so stupid as not to have learned from that the parallel i

think is very apt that is to say the numbers that are used to show progress numbers killed and captured in afghanistan just as in vietnam it was really the only killed in vietnam that we had a body counts for but there were both in both cases it was an effort to show progress where in fact otherwise the united states military would have great difficulty showing that they were succeeding in the war and so i do think the parallel is really really quite accurate and in this case i think the trails was quite desperate to show in some fashion to to create a new media narrative that would reflect progress in the war at a moment remember this is mid two thousand and ten when the news media were actually covering afghanistan in a way it was showing its warts it was after the famous battle of marjah this nine city that was presented to the american people as

a city of eighty thousand which the united states had taken over from the taliban and it was very unfavorable coverage which i think petraeus understood unless he could come up with a new striking line he was going to have a great deal of difficulty selling the idea of progress so the idea of this s.o.f. the special ops. missions forces going in an almost in a superhuman manner effectively shutting down the taliban by capturing so many thousands and killing thousands was the way in which you chose to try to me case and how did you learn this was a crock well it's impossible essentially for a journalist to fact check the claim that so many thousands of taliban were actually killed without actually being on the ground and being able to check case by case but with regard to the captures you could check the numbers that he put out against the number of detainees who were actually admitted to the major national detention center at bagram air base that's where all the detainees were funneled in

two thousand and ten within two weeks of their initial capture they were supposed to be and i think in almost all cases were sent to the air base detention center who are released and so we can make that check and finally i got a hold of the documents from the task force for thirty five which is responsible for detainee affairs in afghanistan showing month by month month admissions to the detention center just became a matter of math it became a matter of minutes. to what extent is there a follow the money story here i mean are they pump in this thing and dragging this thing out because they're getting enormous pressure from the guys just you know a half a mile or two away from here we live in thirty five room mansions with with you know live in staff who are the c.e.o.'s or even the senior executives of the defense industry they're making a fortune on these wars for absolutely there's no doubt that the pressure from the

military and its civilian as well as it dust realize he's on to keep this war going you definitely pressure what eisenhower is that's what eisenhower warned us about but i have to say it's not just money it's also prestige it's also the institutional interests of the military not. awning to be tagged with the loss of afghanistan wanting to get the credit for at least having been close to victory and then being able to argue that well was the white house that took it away from them and that it's the politics of the national security state written large which include certainly lots and lots of money but also the prestige of the the fact that you can get more manpower more missions more roles if you can have a war going on and within the military people get promoted a lot faster absolutely or than absolutely that's a big part of the. jury for. ended the vietnam war and yet he's not remembered for that he's not condemned for that even though he arguably had he

been a democrat i'm sure they would have said lost the vietnam war but he basically just pulled the plug in fact i believe congress put the plug to stop the funding for what congress did reduce the funding and what happened was of course the ne ne's had a veto or had a vote on this and their offensive in nineteen seventy five and so it really determine the ending of the war rather than a decision by just is there any kind of peril here to how vietnam ended and how little i think the parallel should be apparent and that parallel should be that the united states ought to be sitting down with the taliban right now and making a deal you and your relations with al qaeda will withdraw our troops on a timetable that's what that's what the taliban are ready to do while i'm at this stage it's not ready to do it yet i've heard that we've been having this kind of we've had conversations but we're not ready to make a deal and fact what we're trying to do is to get them to sit down with the karzai folks without it he couldn't by the united states to withdrawal of all its troops so we have just

a couple seconds left do you think that this is this is really on hold until after the elections it's on hold until after the elections and we just don't know when the president's going to make that decision but he's got to do it eventually yeah but probably after the election so he doesn't end up being painted with the brush of it doesn't last yes kara thanks for the great thanks for coming in this story is similar to what we learned in one of the recent stops about to get money for a handful of prisoners were detained literally because they were wearing the wrong casio watch and the infamous vietnam enemy body counts that included civilians and villages it's time for us to learn the lessons. you know have you noticed for example that the so-called arab spring is only happening in arab countries tunisia egypt successfully that we did not bomb i think this is a really important point the countries that who didn't buy into democracy have just kind of taken you know the people took their country so that's it we're taking our country in october nineteenth one thousand nine hundred sixty six. there was the

you at that point are we've been in vietnam in a serious way for about two years and about six thousand americans have died. and the republican senator from vermont george aiken. gave a speech on the floor of the senate which was written up the next day october one thousand nine hundred twenty and one hundred sixty six new york times in which he basically said to president johnson do you just declare victory and come. first a clear victory and. johnson of course had would have nothing to do with us and an additional fifty thousand americans died and an additional estimated two million vietnamese cambodians and laotians died because all of this stuff about face with your thought it was just talking about you know all of the interest or making a fortune on that war we're just unstoppable essentially at that point in time and the nixon came along and then in the election when he was running against unfree in sixty eight and started maybe ocean with the and he's telling them please

don't in the war i'll give you a better deal after the war b.j. found out about that famously called her son and so this is treason but it never made the press. so anyhow it's this week we didn't have to have that nobody likes their country occupied if canada had invaded the united states after the bush v gore decision to say we're going to liberate you from this awful supreme court decision i think americans of both part of all parties would be out in the streets trying to push the canadians nobody likes their country to be occupied why do we think that the iraqis or the afghans are any different than us you can't force democracy on people they have to get it steal it take it for themselves like they did in egypt and. it's time for a daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here's today's question these are new strategy in afghanistan to capture innocent people just to boost numbers

your choices are yes bring our troops home or no let the white washing of afghanistan continue log on to thom hartmann dot com let us know if you think the poll be open till tomorrow morning. crazy alert take it off and write it off last week in new york state court ruled against an already strip club that was arguing it deserves tax exempt status and why because in new york theaters those dramatic musical art performances enjoy tax exemptions so the manager of the night movies strip club barred alcohol from his club and claimed that just like the ballet his dancers were performing artists club even called for the testimony of an anthropologist who studies exotic dancing to say that lap dances are choreographed dance moves and fortunately a judge didn't agree and night movies was ordered to pay back one hundred twenty five thousand dollars in back taxes you know it all horny guys in congress maybe

they should be lobbying their next and call it a stimulus bill strip club tax exemptions cash for catwalks. them enough democrats are willing to cover. lies are raising the nation's debt ceiling but only on one condition stop stop the tax cuts for the wealthy. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think. even money well.

whenever the government says if it can feel safe get ready because of their freedom . you know sometimes you see the story and the scene so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here's some other part of it and realize everything you saw you don't i'm sorry there's a big. since

republicans in the house are refusing to vote for a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling some democrats are offering up their own list of demands on a debt ceiling increase in budget for next year led by congressman earl blumenauer from oregon or group of democrats and a letter to the white house last week calling for any debt ceiling deals to include an expiration of the bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires letter points out that ending the bush tax cuts will quote stop the growth of the deficit over the next decade and quote on the other hand the enormous spending cuts that

republicans are pushing for will as the letter notes quote risk plunging our economy into a double dip recession that will cause further jobs and ultimately worsen our fiscal situation so the republicans dead set against any new tax increases and seemingly willing to let the economy crash just to get their way and this proposal set forward by congressman blumenauer find any traction here to answer this quote. is congressman earl blumenauer morgan's third congressional district who joins us now from capitol hill congressman welcome back great to see you likewise to thank you with the republicans refusing to compromise on anything that includes attack site what do you hope to accomplish with this letter well it's very important that we don't get caught into this legislative hostage taking as you know a majority of democrats in the house were willing to give speaker boehner both score a clean vote on the debt ceiling so he wouldn't be held hostage to the extreme elements

in his caucus which was set up to fail and rejected by the republicans it's important that we take a step back if we're going to be involved with extensive negotiations at this point it's very important that the white house be clear that we're not going to fall for this parade of. accelerating even further tax cuts making the hole deeper the president has made a stand that he is not going to extend them for the wealthiest it's important that we stick by that and resist efforts to take what are already as you know tom we have had three consecutive years with the lowest tax collection as a percentage of gross domestic product since truman was president and it's critical that we don't bargain away extending tax cuts for the wealthiest as part

of a negotiated settlement with the debt ceiling excellent point and i understand the republicans are pushing a new agricultural appropriations bill which also will cut where women infants and children program food assistance which is funded through the ag bill should we be worried that this is another attack on working families i mean other already well as you know part of what we were for. to do to be able to deal with some of the food assistance early was to cut for children was to have put into law cuts in nutrition far out into the future this three hundred a seven hundred thirty million dollar additional cut for wic funding is outrageous and these are the most vulnerable people in society these are not high income people these are women with infant children who desperately need adequate nutritional support i look at this the negotiations around the farm bill now

the ag appropriations bill now as a precursor to the farm bill you know the irony is that there are some of the tea party republicans who acknowledge that we are giving too much to the wrong people to do the wrong thing with agricultural subsidies we've had a bipartisan effort with strong democratic support in the past i think this is an area that we can actually make some progress it would be terrible if congress rolled over and allowed these deep cuts to nutrition there are others for conservation they have some provisions now for conservation funding that is so low it would require breaking existing conservation contracts this is just outrageous and unacceptable amazing congressman in the minute a half or so we have left i believe that the strategy of the republicans is the star of the economy of oxygen which is why the only allowed one year unemployment

extension for example so really the economy will really hit the skids in two thousand and twelve voters of blame obama elect a republican in the white house is there much of a realization or belief among democrats in your caucus that my particular conspiracy theory might actually be true and if so what whether it's true or not it would seem to be going in that direction what can be done to prevent that kind of well i mean i do. i think it was coincidence that the the provisions that democrats supported for unemployment for example are only one year and the caps cut extension was for two and if you whether you are believe in conspiracy or not it's hard to imagine a strategy that is more likely to create further recessionary pressures than cutting transportation funding by thirty one percent by pulling back on nutritional support things that will go into the economy right away and then the opportunity for a bait and switch with unemployment compensation to the states it was only

a one year extension the republicans if they had their way would enable states to swap it out for any other priority of governor perry or governor scott it's it looks ominous and i think it ought to be resisted at every turn and let's let's hope your caucus can congressman earl blumenauer thanks so much for being with us tonight and thanks for the great work you're doing a pleasure thank you tom thank you a lot of democrats like congresswoman are doing good work to hold the republican agenda of screwing over people working people at bay unfortunately republicans have an advantage here because if nothing is done in this debt limit debate either in the house or the senate and they went case in point the united states senate where practically nothing has been done thanks to a minority of filibustering republicans so far this year the senate has only held eighty seven roll call votes a far cry from two hundred five votes of place to this point in the last session of congress back in two thousand and nine to fill the time the senate has resorted to

endless what are called quorum calls this is just a basic generic procedure of calling the roll for senators to see who's in the building and who's not one third of all the time that senators have spent on the floor of the senate this year has been devoted to these a who is here calls often wasting as much as ten minutes between calling each name system killing time as the senate's official historian quipped it's just a matter of keeping the store lights on when the customers aren't there. now that a majority of republicans have transformed the senate to require a super majority of pass everything something has never happened in the history of this country for major pieces of legislation to get to szell nominees the senate can no longer function and this plays right into the hands of the republican party is trying to crash our economy to beat obama in the twenty's for all the elections as long as the sun camp has legislation to stimulate the economy and everything is going according to plan for the right wingers the only losers working americans.

more winner great photos are released over the weekend in the democratic leadership is throwing one of their own under the bus both house minority leader nancy pelosi and d.n.c. chair debbie wasserman schultz lined up behind the republican party and called on anthony weiner to resign here's what congresswoman wasserman schultz said yesterday on the issue. that the end of the day you know a member of congress makes their own decision in that that's certainly going to be up to anthony weiner but we have made clear that he needs to resign he needs to focus on now on getting his his own personal issues in order to focus on his family and do the right thing. that we were initially said he will not step down but does plan to seek treatment however source of the new york daily news reported yesterday to do the growing calls for his resignation from his colleagues wiener is now considering leaving office best despite the fact that

a wide majority of voters in his district running to stay and despite the fact that senator david vitter who actually did commit multiple crimes by ordering up prostitutes from the senate floor is still in office to this day so democrats once again rollover as an ant and it is an influential politician within the liberal community about to take a hike here to offer her take on this issue is katie helper a comedian an organizer with a group living liberally katie welcome. i thank you for having me thanks for joining us democratic leadership seems to be turning its back on anthony weiner is that the the right move no i think that this is actually exactly why i like wiener so much as a politician because he unlike the rest of the democrats doesn't just roll over and basically do whatever the republican super pacs i mean right now it seems like andrew breitbart and r. and c. are calling the shots for the democrats. well. in the daily beast that it

peter beinart the guy who wrote the dog and i believe and numerous other. places books movies t.v. shows basically just came right there was called i think the title of it was the case for keeping for winter not resigning. you know why he should resign and he basically said you know that the guy was in bad taste to get apparently didn't know was were broken there was no actual sex involved and congress is full of all these people who the republicans have always stuck up for you know john ensign didn't leave until he was you know within twenty four hours of having to testify under oath and you know newt gingrich is is still around i mean he's running for president for goodness sake after you know. after cheating on every single one of us who are yeah except for the except for the you know you've got

a divorce is his first wife who was also his high school geometry teacher which is a little strange when she got cancer divorce a second wife when she. says he's i think it was or something something like that and now his third wife is going to go got a jones with tiffany's i mean. you know if nobody in the republican party is saying that there's something wrong with what what's the deal why is it that the republicans stick up for their people and democrats don't. i don't know i think it's not that i think that the democrats need to bring up dinner more than they're bringing them up they need to ask the republicans why it's ok for better to remain and the senate when he actually did i think that break the law and in terms of moral principles and morality he has a diaper fetish i mean i was joking but now i'm thinking maybe it's the truth that the reason that people are so much more upset at wiener is because maybe like they're disappointed that no action resulted from this text then and facebook ing and i just don't understand why there's this standard i think it's what it is. it's

a double standard i expect that from the republicans i guess i kind of expected from the democrats but i'm really disappointed in them because they should be out there they're saying it's a distraction they're letting this be a distraction how hard is it to say i don't want to talk about winners winner i want to talk about things that are important to the american people like. it that all the. political genius to know how to shift the conversation sure my inner ironically is the one who could do that probably yeah absolutely and has frequently in the past i think you could probably get all you know how to play the media i think you could probably build a strong political case just looking at the politics of it but during the time that he was on his twenty seven television interview denial tour. he was harming the democratic party because he had stopped the narrative of paul paul ryan wants to destroy medicare which was really work for the democrats but now that he's checked into rehab and and he's out of the picture he's right the story is dead in the

media shouldn't the party at this point stop calling for him to resign because basically they got what they want he's not story one anymore and and get on with picking up republicans up side that. i think this shows a real weakness again on the part of the democrats because they're not able to shift the narrative which should be really easy and they're not able to call out of the republicans i think this would be a really good opportunity to do that and to highlight the republicans double standards and of course there's the issue of republicans who actually try to legislate morality they i think have a greater standard to live up to because they need to live by the laws that they would like to impose on the rest of society i actually think that what we did on a personal level is really out appealing i want to like it if he did it to me if i were married to him but it's not a supercritical as when the republicans do these things because it's not running on a campaign against facebook and d.m. and on twitter and he has never presented himself as

a family values. and i just think that there are democrats are going about this in that in the wrong way in their responses and. if you will. but kitty kitty helper thanks so much for being with us today. thanks so much for having me appreciate it it's becoming all too predictable when a republican goes down in scandal the republican party protects their own but unfortunately when a democrat steps so that democrats and the democrat party which for the nearest exit i hate to say it but sometimes it would be useful if democrats acted more like republicans. after the break i'll tell you our governor scott walker is shifted from his war on unions to the battle against small beer a brewer. and what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through a bit through who can you trust no one who is you know in view who would have

lowball machinery see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called satchels when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more.