five. welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour chaos erupts in wisconsin as a supreme court justice allegedly chokes another justice one of the accused

governor scott walker's right hand man this scandal unravel the governor's radical agenda plus big oil is at it again with their astroturf phony front groups see how the world's biggest polluters are manufacturing support for their anti-american agenda and what is it that corporate c.e.o.'s republicans don't want you to know it's just it's the same thing that any bank robber wouldn't want you to know just how much they're stealing from. students that was causing can forget about a quality education yesterday cockcrow their lapdog governor scott walker signed a new republican budget bill to tackle that state's deficits caused by governor walker's tax breaks for corporations and millionaires and billionaires so how does walker's bill reduce the deficit the republican way of course by cutting aid.

hundred million dollars in public schools in the state and directing those savings to even more corporate tax breaks another two hundred fifty million was cut from state universities seventy million slosh from texas cools that locker may have other problems on his hands beyond a backlash from students walker's right hand man on the state supreme court and in fact his mentor justice david prosser is facing allegations that he choked out of another supreme court justice and walsh brady bradley excuse me in her legal chambers two weeks ago you may remember the processor is the guy who narrowly won reelection to the state's high court last month after twelve thousand votes mysteriously appeared or walk the ship to put him over the top and it was his decisive ruling that allowed governor walker's controversial anti-union law to survive a legal challenge earlier this month so what will this latest controversy over wisconsin supreme court mean for governor walker's agenda and those in wisconsin who are fighting against it for more i'm joined by john nichols washington

correspondent of the nation magazine lives in madison wisconsin and democratic strategist erick knew who grew up in was because you're from wisconsin your family are going about here but my home my family is out there and throw out there i started my work and politics out and now the roll over was constant and john welcome great to have you with us good to be it's so john let me start with you what's a recap this story idea i touched on in the setup but what's the deal here choky one chief one supreme court justice choking another. absolutely it's a pretty remarkable story and of course this whole wisconsin controversy has been remarkable from the start we've had koch brothers phone calls and and secret meetings and scandals and fights and invasions so i guess a strange elation attempt had become eventually what happened who knows about it two weeks ago as justice prosser who was as you suggest governor walker's mentor in

the legislature as justice process was preparing to force through a poor three decision allowing the governor to go ahead with his assaults on labor unions and also pretty much destroyed the open meetings law in wisconsin a meeting was held in the chambers of justice and walsh bradley she's a senior justice and one of the most respected members of the court also very very congenial player who's seen as being a really easy going probably a person that everybody gets along with the best during the course of this meeting in and welsh bradley's chambers. justice process became extremely agitated very angry with bradley she asked him to leave her chambers and at that point according to him last bradley justice prosser lunged at her grabbed her by the neck and held her in a chokehold. and other justices who were there at the time i will remain nameless

this is second hand but other justices who were there at the time will cross the board who say that it was not eight bradley not a joking situation that he appeared to those involved in a violent or at least a very animated angry attack. erica justice prosser has apparently history of anger management problems he's got quite a temper and he was on the record calling he cast a sharlee haven't found a match. or there's. footage of him when he was in the assembly kind of go and walking very aggressively shaking his fist and raising his fist up in the air at another member of this family so he's got quite a temper but i think you know there's a really this is really reflective unfortunately of the divisiveness. the conservatives have had in the state capitol i mean there was constant supreme court is still in the actual building of the wisconsin capitol and that they were you

know supposedly also you know discussing their decision here and that this law has become so divisive has become so polarizing that it would come to the point where one justice would feel so much weight that they would put a hand on another is is really frightening justice has her supposed to be kind of the cooler heads prevail be the wiser you know better thinkers and kind of taking a step back at these kind of things and so to see something so resolutely you know approaching another justice like that putting a hand on the it's not ok shouldn't be tolerated i mean. the she actually. could use the judge with. this might be. you know with the cover up is worse than the actual you know the law is about it is yeah i mean i find it hard to believe personally that if someone was lunging at me that putting my hands out towards their neck would be the best defensive move so i mean i think it absolutely

has i mean he has a documented temper problem he has made comments about both and also before out there kind of about how you know they kind of drive him nuts and make he feels like they push him to kind of make verbal mistakes and i think that particular people with crohn's and even the most angry tea party are out there not a single one of them would ever say that it is ok for some for one justice to put their hands on another so i think that he's going to have a big backlash i think that if that is going to be investigated and it's being about it right now but if they find that that's what happened you. i think that's going to have an outcry and as an organization our response and now that i launched my question today asking for him to resign and a couple hours i can gain thousands and think errors in addition to that john this is a felony if this is what he did is it not i mean isn't it a crime to physically assault a supreme court justice and it was gaza well isn't it is it is solitary what you know and important thing to understand here is this is the second incident any year

in which justice processor has been abusive to the point of what many legal scholars would define it as assault early and now if there is a cli toward a woman or justice and this is the striking thing in both cases both the violent language and followed by a threat remember justice prosser did not just call chief justice abramson the senior member of the court a bitch he also threatened to destroy her and he did that a few months ago and now we have a situation where after using what has been characterized as silent language in lunged apparently bunged toward another woman on the court and visibly assaulted her if we do confirmed this i think it's very hard to imagine how the justice process remains on the court because really the court itself were to hear a case with the same facts and play would rule that an employer not only had

a right or perhaps a responsibility to remove the unstable employee from the workplace so i think ross was in a really bad situation remarkable any updates on the recall elections from the one of the yeah he. is a very interesting figure to accept and put a barrier to the cabin this afternoon one of the key republican candidates for the state senate was disqualified he didn't file enough signatures and so now we have a situation where one of the democrats that was targeted for recall looks like you'll have a very easy reelection up in green bay area. that's a load off the shoulders or the concerns of a lot of democrats may search out a little easier john erica thank you both for being here and for the audience cred with us who knows what will come out of justice processor's case back to governor walker's budget bill you can clearly see where places his priorities are already number one giving corporations that already pay close to nothing in taxes even more tax breaks and way down toward the bottom of walker's priority list educating

wisconsin's children so they can can can can compete for jobs in the twenty first century with kids from countries like china and in europe or colleges free or close to it. for the good the bad of the very very disloyal just sickly ugly good craftsman chris murphy a democrat from connecticut weighed in on the growing ethics questions surrounding supreme court justice clarence thomas thomas murphy introduced legislation to force justices to follow the same code of ethics that apply to all other federal judges and then whether justice thomas is still fit to serve on the bench saying. this is starting to rise to the level where he should start to be some real investigations as to whether kind of times he continued service justice on the supreme court it's

time for congress to step up in performance constitutionally mandated job of keeping an eye on the run amok. in august murphy is doing just that and others need to drive the bad the jersey governor chris christie earlier this month christie caught some flak for this exchange public access program in new jersey to work. you don't tend your children to public schools you send them to private school so i was wondering why you think it's fair to be cutting school funding to public schools what's your name what's your name guys real quick is the governor's talking what is it gail talk to you know you know what first off as though your business i would ask you where you're saying your kids to school don't bother me about where i stand by. christie was given a chance to walk back that comment when i was actually asked about it on meet the press yesterday but he didn't make the most of the opportunity. should a chief executive speak to people that way they are i'm sure are you too abrasive

are you too stubborn are you too tough when it comes to people questioning you with an awful day but i am not a brace of i don't listen i'm an honest. and i wish we had more of it in politics know. how durable and lovable. sometimes we can dismiss a certain republicans bad idea by saying well only if he's a nice guy and go to christie not only is you screwing over the middle class in a state with bad policies but he's being a jerk about it too. and the very very ugly the t.s.a. a ninety five year old woman who is dying of leukemia was ordered by t.s.a. just remove her adult diaper and undergo an invasive pat down search at a florida airport last week agents claim that the a woman's wet diaper was impeding their groping the daughter of the woman described the event as something she couldn't imagine happening on american soil she has since filed a complaint with the department of homeland security so we all feel safer now that

ninety five year olds died of cancer after being humiliated before they board an airplane that's very really. after the break i'll tell you why the iowa energy forum is not what they say. it's. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here in the uk. i think on the beat of one well. we never got that that says stupid can you say get ready because 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 see some other part of it and realize that everything you saw. i'm sorry is a big. anywhere

of the big oil front groups the american petroleum institute which is made up of all the big wigs of the oil industry like exxon mobil b.p. chevron they're up to something in iowa where a handful of republican candidates for president are campaigning right now as investigative reporter relief fund in progress has uncovered it merican petroleum institute has created an astroturf group to get average people to support gave oil without realizing the group known as the iowa energy forum has been hitting up republican presidential candidates and events across iowa to raise support for

a variety of big oil concerns from new pipelines to keeping intact taxpayer subsidies while the group may at first look like it's made up of average concerned citizens it's not it's merely a p.r. gimmick paid for by the american petroleum institute for more on what's going on behind the scenes here i'm joined by lee fung reporter and blogger for think progress we welcome back to the show in town nice to see you thank you another day another front group is this just becoming business as usual on the right. you know i think that would be fair to say this i will energy form is a new group created by the american petroleum institute just a few months ago and as we see the legislative and local lobbying campaign kick into high gear for this keystone x.l. pipeline from canada to houston we'll see a lot more groups just like this i mean remember this is a very dangerous pipeline that. lobbyists are trying to use and it all made to

seize lands and build so it's running a tool a lot of opposition both from environmental groups from local community groups and from how politicians across the board so this very slick. new entity that i will energy form is has been created from to manipulate people to support my point how is this astroturf group this iowa energy forum doing business. well they've got a field stuff of about forty people maybe you can go to these events some of them are wearing a t. shirt that says i want energy form some don't and they go up to candidates and press them and ask them to commit to supporting the pipeline they'll couch it as saying oh this pipeline will bring jobs or will help america get off middle eastern oil and move to more friendly oil like canadian oil and then when the candidate answers a question they continually hammer the candidate to say on camera but they support the pipeline and this is a very innovative strategy but it's not new the coal industry and the health

insurance industry did this to obama and clinton in two thousand and eight they fall the candidates around filled up the town halls with their own paid activists and got them over and over and over again become it on on tape that they would support their goals and the coal industries case that was clean coal back in two thousand and eight why. why are they targeting republicans are republicans are as bad. well i think it's safe to say that most republican candidates parlous point this point anyways but you have to remember this is a very controversial pipeline they're using eminent domain stealing in a sense people's land to build this pipeline so although they're doing to the republican cancer now because there's a great opportunity with the two thousand and twelve primary going through iowa were part of this pipeline would be built i imagine they're going to democrats as well in the they're using eminent domain the fifth amendment which allows government to take land the government has to pay for that land is this pipeline

going to be owned by the government is this something that is is federal or state money. and to and if so who's to whose benefit is it in europe. but it's very complicated question you know carson waxman actually recently sent a letter to trans canada i want to meet operators of the pipeline just find out which other oil companies are involved because i mean this pipeline runs from canadian tar sand production areas to houston and it goes through several different storage areas like a very large storage area in question oklahoma. trance can it has refused to reveal at the different names that identities of the companies involved in this many expected it's large refining companies like coke but has repliers in houston but if you look if you also get into the question about who's paying for the pipeline you know in kansas legislators recently passed a big special tax credit to give the pipeline a ten year exemption for paying sales taxes so the lobbyists are just creating

groups they're also pressuring local governments to give them a tax giveaway so the cyber pipeline can be built absolutely amazing leaf on thanks for the great research that you're doing a great work of your doing. thanks tom thanks for having me here you can bet if this works for the oil oligarchy and i will look for more and more corporate shills to show up at town hall event and ask repeated questions all around the country and what allows these corporate corporations to be so involved in politics when such activity is illegal in most of the rest of the world where it's rightfully referred to as corruption well here's the story arizona for example used to have public financing of their elections that started with maine and actually a number of communities did a portland oregon is to have it and then i went to arizona and got struck down today by the u.s. supreme court not in the hole but basically eviscerated it's not going to work anymore and this is you know in fact when arizona had public financing you had

average citizens running for office because they didn't have to raise all kinds of money the state would provide the money every single day. every other major nation acknowledges climate change now we haven't seen like a stark and sudden shift just consider this for a moment every major nation in the world acknowledges the politicians of every major nation the world knowledge climate change yet here in the united states one hundred percent of the newly elected republicans in the house of representatives one hundred percent of them deny the climate change is happening even as all the science around us is overwhelmingly showing and the news does too now frankly in my opinion it's not because one hundred percent of those republicans are stupid or even anti-science it's because of the money the fact of the matter is the wall other companies call giving politicians money bribery here in the united states our politicians have to spend on average three to five hours

a day at office if they rant outside the capitol building on the phone begging for money now the politicians republicans or democrats frankly most of them would rather not have to do this this was never a light created in a lot. that you know corporations are people in that they in that money is speech and always kind of stuff and that the political process can be corrupted this way it was never created in law by politicians in fact the opposite back in one thousand and seven during the teddy roosevelt administration until an act made it a crime but so no member of the house or senate has ever promoted those no president has ever promoted this in fact they've been speaking out against it since the presidency of james madison and no president has ever signed a lot of support so how did we end up with this dysfunctional corrupted political system it's the supreme court the supreme court has consistently been doing this and it's frankly now we know in one thousand nine hundred six the first time that this really became a big deal with the santa clara county case that several of the supreme court

justices were on the take they were being bribed by the railroads they were claiming that they were people so what the bottom line here all came to us from the supreme court we need to amend the constitution to say corporations are not people and money is not speech so very very wealthy individuals and big corporations and now even foreign corporations can no longer buy american politicians and bring us insane politics or even sponsor phony front groups to try to influence politics which would be a crime in most other countries and if we can't amend the constitution and we need to make sure that there's a democrat in the white house over the next six years over the new with the next coming up election in the event that any of the five right wing crazies are for right wing crazies and swing vote on the court decide to retire or you know god forbid in there should happen so that a rational person can be put into place. corporate

c.e.o.'s have a secret they don't want you to know about and that's how much money they're stealing from their workers and republicans are accomplices in this thievery last year as part of the wall street reform bill passed by congressional democrats and signed by president obama there was a provision foreseen corporations to disclose just how large the pay gap is between their c.e.o.'s and their average workers as you know how much more money the big wig in the corporate office makes sitting on his butt all year versus how much money the factory worker makes boston is bought all year the provision was included in hopes that if people knew just how gross the pay gap was between c.e.o.'s of workers and maybe there'd be more pressure to shrink it as they say sunlight is the best disinfectant and today outrages corporate pay is infecting our economy consider that back in the one nine hundred seventy s. c.e.o.'s made about thirty times more than their average worker as in what they did

was thirty times more valuable to the company than what workers did but since then the numbers of exploded and today c.e.o.'s make as much as four hundred times their average worker and in some cases on wall street for example as much as two thousand times the average worker can find a c.e.o. is really justify that they're two thousand times more valuable to the company that their workers really can't and that's why they don't even know how much money they're taking from their corporate treasure chest to pad their armani pockets and that's why as soon as republicans took control of the house of representatives at the beginning of the year c.e.o.'s from eighty one of the biggest corporations in america including mcdonald's general dynamics of i.b.m. started a massive lobbying effort to repeal the new c.e.o. pay disclosure requirement. and when corporate c.e.o.'s talk republicans listen last week republicans did as they were told and repeal the c.e.o.

pay disclosure provision in a party line vote in a house committee house of representatives republicans don't think you should know that while unemployment is hovering around nine percent average employee wages are sinking lower and lower people like felipe calderon made more than eighty four million dollars last year c.e.o. viacom or the well nearly fifty a million americans languish in poverty where ronnie of occidental petroleum made seventy six million bucks last year or that well more than forty million americans need food stamps just to eat lawrence ellison of oracle made seventy million dollars last year publicans to allow you to know that for every fifteen million dollars a c.e.o. gets is paid for with a thousand dollar pay cut to fifteen thousand workers or that for every thirty million dollars dollar check cut to a c.e.o. they could have instead hired six hundred new workers at fifty thousand dollars

a year and these are the guys that republicans call the job creators in america the guys who'd rather stash thirty million bucks in a swiss bank account untouched collecting interest rather than spend a dime employing one of the twenty five million unemployed people in the united states right now this is more nothing more than stealing these c.e.o.'s are not job creators they're stealing from the people who are the actual job creators people like you and me who buy stuff when the middle class in america has money they buy stuff and the more stuff they buy than the more stuff needs to be made and the more stuff that needs to be made then the more workers need to be hired that's how an economy works but giving a guy who's already worth one hundred million bucks another hundred million dollars is going to create one damn job it wants to mutilate the economy at all. we need to start calling out the republican party for what they are the wholly owned party of the rich c.e.o.'s and not the party of the other ninety nine percent of harry

truman knew this more than sixty years ago. might say a word or two now. but i think the republicans philosophy is. the republican party as i said a while ago favors the privileged few and not the common everyday american. ever since its inception that party has been under they're going to throw a special privilege and they concretely approved it and they ask congress people know the democratic party is the people's party and the republican party is the party of special interests and it always has been the always will be nothing has changed time to shed some light on the wealth inequality in america and expose greedy corporate c.e.o.'s for their blatant robbery of the american dream and expose the republican party as their accomplice. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our web site at samarra dot com.

also check out our youtube page is a youtube dot com slash the big picture r.t. if you tube dot com slash thom hartmann and this entire show is available as a free video podcast on i tunes and don't forget the mocker see begins when you show up when you participate your it will sort of. wealthy british style.