i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then he glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok if you don't i'm trying hard luck in the big picture. let's not forget that we had an apartheid museum right leg i think iraq is needed and wanted well. whenever

government says they're for keeping safe get ready because you're going to her freedom. for food. for. i. right it is time for show and tell last time we wanted to get your take on what

is going on with the debt ceiling here in washington so we asked you who you think is to blame for the current stalemate on capitol hill well it's you he said let's go to producer patrice and assented to see what you had to say. ladies and gentlemen citizens of all ages what we have here is a circus a media circus with an elephant and a donkey and death defying high wire while all of us in the audience scramble from side to side hoping whatever falls it doesn't hit us on the head it's a dangerous act we're only the audience can be badly hurt. so why real here and whose fault is it anyway well about half of your response is put the blame on just one political party like saeed who believes the blame falls clearly on the republican party robert agreed saying most definitely the republican

party roughly the other how out of you guys who responded agreed with scott who said the blame belongs to all politicians every last one of them then there is one comment from lightpipe or who are we to blame for electing these people to represent us so for the rare moment we are all under the same time politicians and citizens of all shapes and sizes and beliefs now someone needs to tell the elephant to back off that high wire before the whole show comes tumbling down. all right thanks for giving us your input and here is our next question for you now we've talked about the differences between the way norway and the u.s. look at crime and punishment so we want to know which prison system you think is more effective norway or the united states you can listen to my monologue over again if you want to see it as that and let us know what you think which prison systems you think is more effective united states or norway you can respond on facebook twitter and on you tube. your response just might make it on air. now it's

probably one of the last issues that you would ever think would be up for public debate private circumcision back in one thousand nine hundred six a law came into effect that criminalize the cutting of the female genitals under the age of eighteen but now some want that law to expand to boys as well and yes talk of force again has actually divided a city but it's actually united jewish and muslims are working to fight limits that they say would by a late great i'm of religion it's complicated it's personal kind of down and dirty . to san francisco to see how this issue has landed for skin in the national spotlight. it's one of the most colorful cities in america as full of flavor as it is people with home stacked on top of one another like building blocks san francisco california has always been a place where the hills are steep and so too are the issues. this

time around the battle is over circumcisions to be or not to be forced circumcision is fundamentally a human rights violation feel that. children whether boy or girl of a fundamental rights to all the body parts they were born with jonathan conti is part of a group that collected more than seven thousand signatures in favor of banning what they call male genital mutilation within the city limits enough to put the issue on the november ballot if passed and circumcision of anyone under eighteen would be a crime resulting in jail time and a one thousand dollars fine this outraged religious groups who see it as a direct attack on their religious rights jus' like our the poor have joined forces with muslims to defend age old traditions this is a hate fueled campaign to curtail civil liberties in calif and in san francisco she . many argue it's

a parent's choice. the majority of american men are circumcised and according to the world health organization circumcised men have a lower risk of penile cancer sexually transmitted diseases and the sixty percent less chance of contracting hiv but at the center of this debate religion people want to have their kids circumcised they should i mean major religions believe in it for over two or three thousand years so i think it's a little bit of a slap the jews and muslims to just say circumcision is now illegal your freedom to practice religion and someone else's body religion is not a blank check to inflict harm upon your children the vast majority of the world central america south america new zealand australia most of europe the practice is virtually unheard of some have taken it a step further matthew hass the author of the bill is also the creator of the comic for skin man a superhero that saves babies from the evil doctors and parents trying to

circumcise them this comic book has some of the most disgusting vial anti-semitic images that appear to be lifted out of nazi era propaganda the idea they you know force in man is an area i'm looking superhero and he's going to come and save babies from the evil jewish you know blood thirsty rabbi is disgusting the debate over circumcision has polarized this city with people taking sides on both religious and personal grounds who won't come to a head here at san francisco civil court where a judge will decide whether or not the issue will be left up to voters some of whom say they'll vote to leave things as they are if you make a law about it that's you know i think a lot of people a there's a lot of history there but to make their own decisions and let them i trust them to make the right decision for their children to you and others who say they may be children at the time of the procedure but it's a decision they have. to live with when they grow up this is

a. good small baby decision vote or no vote the battle lines over circumcision have now expanded far beyond the borders of san francisco becoming a national debate bringing what was once a purely private issue into the public domain reporting in san francisco christine for zero t.v. . it's an interesting topic and speaking of laws there is one now on the books that really that allows for widespread government spying on americans communications back in two thousand and eight congress passed it protected then president bush is warrantless surveillance program under the law when it was passed and while now it seems everyone in washington is focused on the debt ceiling wired spencer ackerman is reporting on danger room that they might be pulling one over on us they he says a group of senators may be meeting in secret today to consider or new wing that law it's called the amendments act it technically allows spy agencies to monitor

communications related to a foreign power or its agents where the person is believed to be outside of the u.s. but if the other person is inside the u.s. his or her phone and internet records are fair game but the bigger problem is this since the law does not force by agencies to give details about who it wants a botched critics say it is a pathway to blanket surveillance for me now from our new york studio is harvey's executive director of the bill of rights defense committee to tell us how scary this is how scared we should be thank you for being with us. thanks for having me so i want to back up and talk just briefly about this law because there valence experts say that the public has really never gotten an explanation from congress or from the justice department about what the law authorizes in terms of massive surveillance of americans communications but what circumstantial evidence has come out that's been the most compelling that has worried civil liberties groups the

most. there are lots of reasons to be concerned here and i look as much to patriot in the usa patriot act as i would to the foreign intelligence surveillance both of them and you'll recall of an act over the last ten years patriot ten years ago it was only three years ago but in each of these cases we see the executive branch repeatedly extend authority just sort of ram them down the throats of the legislature and at least in the patriot contacts abuse even those expanded authorities and we could look to national security letters here for a perfect example of the government reaching even beyond the extraordinary powers that it secured ten years ago neither patriot nor pfizer have ever been subject to a full and transparent debate the thought is amendments act of two thousand and eight is so aggressive with respect to the bill of rights that every federal court ever to or review the program on its merits has struck it down as unconstitutional

those rulings however of never stood on appeal and so we're left with this act that was essentially passed in secret to authorize secret executive surveillance of law abiding americans enmasse and i think there's plenty of reasons to be concerned especially given the congress seems to be asleep at the switch i think at a switch and yet talking about it under the radar right now during and parry highly publicized debate over the get do you think they're doing that on purpose so that if does not get attention. i wouldn't be surprised i mean there's certainly been other instances in which congress has affirmatively ovoid publicity for its domestic national security acts that impinge on civil liberties one just happened this very week. house voted as the senate did last week to entrench the f.b.i.'s leadership for the first time since j. edgar hoover and director mueller was confirmed by the senate i believe just yesterday and this intrenchments of the bureau's abuses in the face of documented abuses we know that there have been violations of civil liberties and civil rights

we know that those of you says have. and did in recent years and yet still when confronted with an opportunity to force accountability on the executive branch and congress throws up its hands and in this case it threw up its hands very quietly while you know there's this huge partisan fight on the debt ceiling it does seem it does seem to be the case that congress to very very easily transcend the partisan divisions at every opportunity to sell out the rights of the american people to the nation's intelligence services that's a very very provocative point that you make and i want to get to that but i want to back up to something you said earlier when you said that these laws a point beyond what congress intended and one of the things that is been brought to light about this amendment defies the act that some people believe which some senators have now raise a fuss about it saying that this was not that there's a secret part of it it was never intended based on what they you know voted for and julian sanchez from cato these wrote a look wrote written

a lot about this he argues that the circumstantial evidence suggests that this law allows for location tracking of cell phones and he cited a confirmation hearing this week of an intelligence officer it's maybe what you're talking about where one of the senators who is raise a fuss over this repeatedly asked at the intelligence community uses call site data to track the locations of americans inside the country do you think that this is what's going on and this is what this law allows for. it very well might be the case of this is the problem of executive secrecy no one knows and even congress senator wyden whose comments you reference he has this is not the first time he has attempted to gain more information for the public about programs that are essentially secret he had a similar concern when the patriot act was being reauthorized the spring years ago even before the obama administration took office senator wyden who's been on the intelligence committee for some time in the senate said that if americans knew what was happening every day there would be widespread outrage because so much of this

information is hidden from the public. there's insufficient outrage i think there is absolutely a coordinated attempt to hide the ball from the american public i could think of many other examples where government policy isn't really insufficiently transparent and you name some of them but really quickly i want to ask if is there anything yes or no that makes these spy agency both hold then to be more transparent with the public or congress. yeah absolutely not and in fact it's not only the case that there's nothing forcing transparency recalling or seems affirmatively inclined to actively resign what few opportunities it does so force transparency when there are opportunities to for instance challenge the f.b.i. leadership or the n.s.a. leadership or the d.n.i. the director of national intelligence about the way that these laws are being interpreted and used you very rarely say any critical questions come out of congress and even when you do see thoughtful questions when it comes time to vote you know there is no concerns in november that's why they're so are and i want to

thank you for giving us that insight maybe the law they should be debating as one to limit my age and these programs are rampant are forcing them to talk about it thanks for being on the show. thanks for having me. as a come here they often release crazy ads about being a vegetarian and that their latest p.r. move aren't them to night school time employees and stick around for happy hour debt ceiling debate has apparently caused washington to crack a bit called this is comparing to tell that a movie character is in a white house even a referral that's where all are we'll be right back. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so bleak you think you understand it and then you know here's some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charged locums a big issue. and

you know. five. ft. five. in a parked car right. and

. well. we never got there says they're safe get ready because of their freedom. all right it's time for tonight's tool time award and we are giving it to peta people for the ethical treatment of animals for an unethical campaign ad the organization has a long history of some over the top i campaigned we have highlighted some of them here on this show from a t.v. commercial that was bad from the super bowl earlier this year it's not hard.

and the n.p.a. didn't have to run that ad all the publicity and media coverage it got was a plenty and it was free now if you search online you can find plenty of other celebrities who stripped down for peta here's a quick sample of some of those. sexy well known the organization is taking heat yet again but this time it is not for racy ads it's her display that some are finding quite offensive now peta has a new exhibit on the national goal here in washington the title is glass walls the

name comes from the line paul mccartney once said he said if slaughterhouses how glass walls everyone would be vegetarian ok fine mccarty also narrated a documentary about the meat industry called glass walls apparent us here's the weird part the exhibit compares the impression of animals to the oppression of human beings like oh as in slavery exhibit also reportedly shows images of child laborers lynched black people and cambodian genocide victims to make a point about animals and slaughterhouses now peta spokesperson was asked about this and was quoted in ross story as saying what this says is let's stop thinking about whether one victim is more important than another whether one active gratuitous violence is more their balls horrible we condemn them all ok come on are these people in lala land i mean i like animals i worry about slaughterhouses and there are plenty of normal and sane arguments to make the case

to people about what is wrong with slaughterhouses but i think most rational people would make a pretty logical distinction between killing animals that a lot of people eat for food and genocidal and racist atrocities committed against human beings. i don't know we think peta should stick to raise the ads with women getting naked if this is the alternative so for their new offensive and out of touch with reality display on the national mall we are giving tonight's tool time award to peta. all right it's time for happy hour joining me tonight is our t.v. producer jenny churchill and mike reg season associate editor at reason magazine and reason dot com thanks for being here guys. we have some good stuff today the debt debate i think it's getting a little bit. not tense on capitol hill as much as people are going to little loopy

yesterday we told you how house g.o.p. members watched the clip from ben affleck's movie the town for inspiration but now all the holywood comparisons on the hill are continuing today senator mccain cited one of the most well known movies of all time when he was talking about that. then gammon have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements and the cheap party could return to middle earth having defeated more gore ok. and then rand paul actually responded to me cain's comments he said i'd rather be a hobbit then a troll and then they continued sharon abel's got in paul saying the lord of the tarp is sucking up for obama the lord of governing. i honestly don't even know what to say about this it's so bizarre and also i think

calling someone a hobbit as a dig is a little weird you know the hobbits are kind of the heroes of the lord of the series and they're why and through you know harry and so i don't really understand he's obviously going off the stereotype the hobbits aren't unappealing i think it's right to say that people in middle america have big feet i'm just. writing i like conjuring the image of like mental midgets or something which is fascinating because you stump for sharron angle so i don't know where he gets off complaining about her but you know the all the movie in madrid i think shows like the desperation like they're getting down to the caucus the republican caucus is not behaving like people like john mccain and john boehner want to be smoother is going to the sort of movie imagery to inspire people keep their attention yeah yeah maybe it is i am bored now i knew they were lies that everybody is just like oh this is all politics and ridiculous so they're like we have to make people care they don't like you know the lord of the rings series well on that note in our office is

actually sparked a very intellectual conversation about what is the difference between a troll and a hobbit but yet every member station everybody in the newsroom was telling me on the differences i did not oh my god john you know he's going to be really good about this he's got america thinking about the lord of the rings again success ok success or speaking of being loopy speaking. getting a little crazy and bored with this debt debate i think the white house is in on it too so obama has been listening to americans opinions on the debt and. they've been tweeting about it and so the white house in response to a person who was complaining via twitter about how boring this all is they are all fun with it they tweeted back sorry to hear that this cool policy or sorry to hear that you know that your board fiscal policy is important but it can be dry sometimes so here's something more fun and they post a link to this video. the

white house rick rolled a twitter follower. but you know you imagine if you were the person that was like i got recalled by the white house i know there should be that should be like recorded for posterity somewhere but i would argue be on g.m.a. tomorrow yes exactly how did you approach the white house i like torn between being sort of offended day and there's like really important moment that they're making jokes about that's a great song and on the other hand realizing like oh my god maybe this is what we need like maybe i should i feel like people are like on the verge of panic i'm going to visit some family in indiana and like you're really concerned like what's going to happen i was like well just washed actually cause you know less than but i don't think it's going to be far and it's ok in the white house is rickrolling people so that you know everything is as it should maybe it's really good p.r. i'm with you though i think it's really offensive i think so i think the white house is a serious organization ignaty and authority especially in these times where this

thing that they've said i'm going on you know i don't i don't not think they should be rolling ball i was at the white house i think that people need to be able to identify with the white house and feel like they can you know kind of relate on what you are present you can relate to or when you feel i can leave the country out of problems i feel like is a real person that i there pale and is a real person that if you call if you think she's called i'd run. country she doesn't ever recall anybody but she hates the. yankees of our struggle was a really poor girl if we're going to recall someone is supposed to be like deceptive like why are you talking about did you miss this part of the ok the white house credibility by seeming out of touch and slightly behind the trend are rickrolling all right let's move on but let's stick with politics so karl rove's organization called crossroads g.p.s. has just launched a campaign against you're probably not surprised president obama here's what some of the group's most recent ads actually look like obama's eight hundred thirty billion dollars stimulus already was not it's. already spent

fourteen million out of america drowning in debt it's time to. check. ok socorro rose conservative crossroads organization his campaign ads you know i did up a pretty unlikely place it ended up on grindr which if our audience doesn't know what that is it is an app that zine to connect gay and bisexual men by showing where the closest men are to them that are gay and bisexual on that site too so this is the campaign as it's playing under the grinder out but i believe that karl rove groups the response was that you know based on your browsing history this i could show up anywhere it's done through another network i do sort of like you do that either come i do it's great there i think was the only thing up yes shows up on an app that is g.p.s. based i love that you also love the idea because a tipster told the hill this writing that's like a very insider repapered for washington i love the idea that some conservative

inside washington guy who obviously browses a lot of concern to. some there are going to be very public in going to the bathroom i mean it's very dirty state along the lines of the conservative community there is a catholic who kind of sounds like the. michael jackson at the capital what he likes to he's he's described as crazy as homosexuals super culture he likes attractive young men to sit on his lap and then he treats and a trip to the florida keys only problem is that he is archbishop emeritus of miami . and so south florida well actually he doesn't anymore i guess you know here i go you got last year yeah it's the last year i know i knew you were super pumped to talk yet but look i mean the thing that illustrates this story goes on to talk about all the culture and in the catholic church itself for this is like right and i'm not against you i love gay people gays are great letter merry whatever what's

fascinating is that the catholic church like this is still one of their big corps things when they're telling people not to do it use condoms and be gay and there you have it everything where it happens in florida we're going to have to leave it at that this. got rid of all the gay people that's what they said that there can't be anything after that because that's it for tonight show thanks for tuning in make sure to come back tomorrow alex i swallowed from think progress will be joining us for happy hour and coming up next is amber says the man. to gold. bringing you the latest in science technology from around the russian. we've got the future of coverage.

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