oh it's on arbonne in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture so much for shutting down wisconsin governor scott walker's radical agenda last night's recall elections in the badger state livered bad news just for democrats but also for our democracy and i will discuss what we can do to get oligarchy ash out of our elections and the supercommittee gang of twelve starting to come together so looking at the names is there a chance that millionaires and billionaires will be paying their fair share of deficit

reduction like the american people actually watch or are we headed for another gang failure and finally we know hollywood is full of multimillionaires is it but is it also full of discrimination against conservatives on top of the hollywood insider who actually believes the movies coming out of tinseltown are promoting a liberal agenda. you need to know this last night when the polls in wisconsin close to the votes were counted our democracy well wasn't lost it was trembling in what was the largest recall election in the history of this country six republican state senators desperately trying to cling on to their jobs in the face of a surging grassroots movement fueled by workers and middle class families across the state of wisconsin and elsewhere who are fed up with governor scott walker's union. busted agenda and fed up with

a republican pro knees in the senate who rubber stamped it democrats just picked off three of those six republican seats there was constant state senate would flip the democrats control and putting an end to scott walker's radical agenda for good but in the end democrats came up one seat short republicans won the first three races yesterday the democrats won the next two and then both parties turn their bat their attention to the ballots in more keisha county were county clerk kathy nicholas the same person who mysteriously found fourteen thousand uncounted votes during the wisconsin supreme court election a few months ago to put scott walker crony david processor back on the bench was again inexplicably inexplicably late in reporting the results prompted wisconsin democratic party chair mike tate to accuse nicholas of tampering with the votes a claim that he later backed away from finally when it was came forward after the results with the results after midnight showing a republican incumbent alberta darling winning by

a mere five thousand votes the open door to a democratically controlled state senate was slammed shut so what happened here how do we go from an historic round swell of activism and support for organized labor for average working people that shut down the capitol building in madison back in march and that in no time at all collected more than enough signatures to put six republican senators on a recall ballot unprecedented for where we are today defeated how did early polls that show republicans getting swept out of office a few weeks ago translate into republican victories last night the answer cold hard corporate and billionaire catch and a lot of it this was cause a recall election was another major test of the new era in american politics a new era began in january two thousand and ten when the u.s. supreme court ruled in citizens united versus f.e.c. if it. voice of you and me we the people is no longer as important as the voices of

billionaires and transnational corporations so the first round of consequences of the citizens united ruling during the midterm elections last year that's what almost three hundred five million dollars in outside ends to this day mostly unknown spending was dumped into the races propelling republicans to landslide victories compare that with the last the outside spending the last midterm election when only sixty nine million dollars was spent and democrats came up big and now we're seeing the results of another post citizens united election and a bodes ill for both twenty twelve and for the tattered future of our small deed mocker see in this nation's republic a few of america's most notorious olive groves including the coke and they do boast billionaires as well as untraceable millions from donors and could easily be the iranian government. corporations run by them giant american companies who do most

of their business in peoples of the profits outside the us apparently played big in this election i say apparently because the supreme court has ruled that we no longer have the right to know who is really funding our election commercials or even our candidates themselves thanks to an irrational and likely illegal supreme court ruling we have moved into an era in the united states oligarchy run politics as much as forty million dollars of oligarchy money was spent wisconsin and full of local races a testing laboratory for strategies that will now be used against democrats nationwide next year in two thousand and twelve and so now we enter the battle of the our guards that will last over the next fifteen or so months and as the old saying goes when the elephants fight the mice get trampled in this case the mice are just the voters it's democracy it son. america is now demonstrably as we saw in wisconsin over the last couple of weeks just a few years away from the possibility of

a totally corrupted totally billionaire and corporate controlled political system political scientists call it was oligarchy the citizens united election experiment is over and seen as the oligarchy run long live the oligarchy before settling into despair and accepting that american democracy is lost we need to first ask the question is there anything that we the people can do to fight back and it turns out there's actually a lot all around the country likely in your home state there are movements underway to amend the constitution of the united states to strip corporations of the personhood that has been granted to them by the supreme court and declare that money is not a form of free speech essentially overturning the supreme court's citizens united decision and a whole series of ones over the years that led up to it so how do we find out more about this and how do we get involved to answer these questions i'm joined by david

cobb the former green party candidate for president of the united states in two thousand and four and spokes person for the website move to amend or david welcome thank you so much talent always a pleasure to be on your program thank you great to have you with us these six wisconsin races may have been the most expensive in american history with tens of millions spent by billionaires and corporations what can we do as americans to take back our political processes from these oligarchy and foreign corporations. well first of all tom i appreciate the time that you've always taken which is that we never give up and we won't give up we will take our inspiration from the great social movements before us like the women's suffrage movement the abolitionist movement the trade union movement the civil rights movement you don't real movements don't just gauge their success or failure on one alexion or the other they gauge their success on whether or not they are connecting with the american people whether or not they are rodney and eating their message and i'm happy to

tell you that the message that we needed people are going to rise up and take our country back from these are guards is resonating across the country and that's why i'm so excited that the effort it moves to and dato r t the two and then the constitution to make it clear that corporations do not have any legitimate constitutional rights whatsoever is gaining traction so people say that it's impossible to amend the constitution that they're bent and this is a fact there were literally twenty nine thousand attempts since the founding of the republican amendments in his time in congress it's only succeeded twenty seven times what do you say to people who say you know you're you're. well i acknowledge that they're correct and i also acknowledge the fact that if people like me and your viewers had not taken up the challenge anyway then we wouldn't have the nineteenth amendment which guarantees women the right to vote we wouldn't have the thirteenth amendment which abolished slavery we would have the fourteenth

amendment which guaranteed equal protection of the laws in this country the reality is term that virtually the entire fabric this country that makes it a decent and just place the fabric was woven together thread by thread by ordinary people like your viewers who are willing to do the impossible to challenge the oligarchy of their day to band together to believe that they had to cut attentional that their ability to actually transform and shape the culture yes thank knowledge that it's going to be a difficult task but it's no more difficult than the task that the abolitionists faced in ending slavery or that women faced in guaranteeing that they had rights under law or that the civil rights movement faced what a trade union movement based it's a difficult task but one that i not only will undertake but i'll tell you this i undertake it with joy because i know that i carry in my heart the belief that

we can change this country and i know your viewers believe that too why i remember you know the early efforts of jan and bill and california and tomlin's in pennsylvania there have been actually a lot of successes in this battle to deny corporate personhood if not just successes of education in some cases actually successes of law tell us about the successes that we're having where are they what you know what can you give us an aspiration here david absolutely i mean i think first of all we have to acknowledge that across the country literally there are hundreds of examples of either organizations or even local communities passing binding laws that make it clear that we the people do not believe that corporate. should have constitutional rights but in the citizens united case is that only came down in january of two thousand and ten and already there's a movement taking shape you well know time having that in jan and bill and when i read it california that they passed

a resolution against corporate personhood back in two thousand and five there had been little spends spattering examples of that in humboldt county california we passed a binding law that said corporation can't spend money in our local elections and should not be entitled to constitutional rights to overturn the law now that market overturned but this is the thing we're not starting this movement is broadening and deepening and i'm going to invite your viewers to go to the web moved to him and it died over our g. and get connected i will tell you earlier today to earn your viewers crashed our i p it was second popular thing that can result we believe so if your viewers go and can't get on please be patient come back you can also call us at seven zero seven two six nine zero nine eight were and talk to a live human being but here's the thing there are communities passing binding laws asserting their right to protect their environment and saying that corporations

should not be able to claim kantishna rights to overturn their environmental protection are there are communities across the country passing binding laws to protect the integrity of the elections and including a notation that corporation and should not be able to overturn this is happening it we're in conversation with trade unionists and unions trying to convince them to take the same approach brilliant strategy that you absolutely did i'm sorry we're out of time just a quick question here bernie sanders has said of my radio show that he thinks this is a good idea and he's generally willing to support the idea of america station you have any other politicians on board or should our viewers we call in their their elected representatives as well. they should be calling their elected representatives as well and i say this with the exception of bernie sanders and currently dennis considered those congresspeople who are going to pass the constitutional amendment to move to a man are not in congress now but they are already born and many of them are

already serving as your state representatives i say this we reach out to those progressive who had the and the courage to fight back against corporate america and we support it and we elevate it and we move it into congress that's great david cobb thank you so much for being with us tonight. thank you tom think through what you're doing your fifth we are fifteen months away from next year's elections and if what happened last night was causing didn't make it clear enough that our democracies in big trouble the flood of corporate cash next year will if we're going to save our democracy that we have to start fighting back right now against the whole idea of corporate personhood go to move to amend dot org and find out. it's time for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here's today's question citizens united a lot of forty million dollars to be spent wisconsin's recall election is this a testing laboratory to be used against democrats in two thousand and twelve your choices are a political scientists call an oligarchy or be transnational corporations should

have their say in politics log on it's on our docket let us know what you think it will be open till tomorrow morning. coming up next the really bad day on wall street as the dow plunge is more than five hundred points on fears of a budget that includes recession so is this a result of republicans representing grover norquist in his billionaire funders instead of working people in their districts and states all as daniel healthy and jamie weinstein that question in tonight's debate. let's not be given that we had an apartheid regime.

i think the beautiful well. we never got the good shows to keep you safe. because of the. freedom. is why is it that i when i'm alone liberal and go up against two expert political commentators to debate the week's biggest stories our panel tonight daniel helper ebony on line editor of the weekly standard and jamie weinstein senior editor at the daily caller has a nice little piece about me and it gets tuesday and it's very nice any let's get

started. the number one market plunged five hundred nineteen points the second time this week that we've seen these bloodbath crashes over a thousand points i guess it's over fifteen hundred points now for for like the last week and a half or so. we can half a year ago last september three hundred of the world's leading economists a bunch of nobel prize winners wrote to president obama a letter because you're going to have great fun with this this letter said we will put on the screen here a turn by major governments away from the promotion of growth in jobs and to premature focus on deficit reduction could slow growth and increase unemployment and pushes back into a recession history suggests that a tenuous recovery is no time to practice austerity and the great depression franklin roosevelt's new deal generated growth and reduce the unemployment rate from twenty five percent and thirty two to less than ten percent and one hundred thirty seven however the deficit hawks that area persuaded era persuaded president roosevelt to reverse course prematurely and move toward budget balance the result

was a severe recession it caused the economy to contract sharply and sent the unemployment rate soaring ok so that's these economists recapping basically history so why do the republicans want to lead us down the exact same road why the. which we know is going to reduce g.d.p. which will reduce employment in a time of in the case and maybe in the short term but in the long term because business is confidence to invest and they don't let it drop should you be making long term decisions though when you've got good time the fact of the matter is like the president the press which president reagan president president obama did the opposite when he came to office and had a seven hundred billion dollars stimulus package actually eight hundred billion well what did well you know what it is what it was actually five hundred bush actually contracts economy less during during times of contraction recession but here's the point he said that his his economic wizards and their mathematical formulas said that the unemployment rate wouldn't go below eight percent and went

up to ten percent and it stands above nine percent today president obama's approach failed that policy but that approach president obama's approach wasn't didn't go far enough paul krugman who was operating in the new york times at the time and i was saying anybody who is ready could omics would say if you've got a two point seven trillion dollars hole blown in the side of the economy you know put a five hundred billion dollars actually i don't think it's going to make things better but we did go from losing eight hundred thousand jobs a month in your bush to fourteen consecutive months now of good job growth in the private sector. i think i'm not sure what austerity measures you're talking about what the congress has happened just cut his feet is the lowered future spending slightly but it's still above actual current spending so they're actually have been no no others even called inflation there is a thing called inflation and that's the problem that the fed is now creating with quantitative easing and that back up that's that's a sell for rob we shall see that's a separate problem that will also continue to be

a big problem of starr's office and five as far as austerity measures go there actually haven't been austerity measures put in place so the fact that the market went down the fact that the fight that we've had in the last week it's a volatile market doesn't act. really reflect on what happened in the bed and the budget crisis there are many other factors that are now scary i'm going to got what he wanted ninety eight percent of what he had already won he said on he said he got ninety eight percent of what he said i want to consult a plan he said that this is not and that was he said i'm a very happy man i got ninety percent of what i want to be only two percent he didn't there was a plan is a plan has nothing to do with the last week we can volatility in the market that you don't think that this is a look at and look at it in the u.k. when there is a hero security program their g.d.p. dropped by a half a point six there is also been a downgrade over what also been volatility in the european the downgrade there's also is that there's also been various other factors that don't actually have to do with with what your goal your thinking is which is the keynesian model which as

james said has been tried and has failed to do the chinese model we have this truth is we haven't gone away was it we have you know here's the problem here's the problem obama did seven hundred billion now you say you want to do more and get even more in a debt hole where there's going to be some pain there's going to be some time of economic recession but in the age who doesn't have a lot isn't that holds true then the long term we don't see that he in in one thousand nine hundred eighty one corporations are paying forty four percent or forty four point nine percent in income tax now they're paying eleven percent rich people and you know in one thousand sixty one we're paying one of them you can't have it both ways you can't you can do both jane you can say you can let us go back the i.m.f. has a study the i.m.f. has a study showing that raising taxes in a downturn is worse than spending cuts taxes you raise if you raise the taxes of working people you're absolutely right when you raise the taxes of rich people what you're doing is reducing the balance in theirs. and that doesn't affect you or are

also going to hurt an employment rate those people are going to hire fewer poll and get oddly out of a layoff or some say i may have the notion that if i've got an extra million dollars my pocket i'm going to hire you know but somebody's going to i'm sure yes that could be the case but i'm also i'm also going to invest in the market which is investing in various other companies. which boosts the market that's the problem every time they're now this is this is not very one our. entire twentieth century and every time the rate of the top marginal rate was below fifty percent you had market bubbles and whenever it was above fifty percent you didn't because people got somebody on their side that even if we were going to correct a word which it isn't slapping it on in the middle of a session would be dire to the economy actually there's no evidence of that there's absolutely no evidence of that we have we have had recessions with high marginal topper you know everything obama got aboard the against that as well as president kennedy with him during why did ronald reagan raise capital gains tax to twenty eight percent. while he raises the point is this is this sort of a deal but he raised taxes i mean he has it on him to have to do ok.

i gave my take about what happened was constant think that anytime you got forty million dollars spent in six. local senate districts you've got a problem it's a problem for small d democracy or small our republic what's your take who are the biggest funders of democrats unions you are from your union spending lots of money in these districts i think that both unions and corporations should not have personhood rights but they at this moment they do and they both spend lots of money in these races the fact of the matter is you know the results are different to me doesn't mean that what it means to me that democrats want to back the house that doesn't concern i want to have some ocracy by oligarchy we've got i think you're reading it wrong the democrats the democrats overspent the republicans hundred percent it was two to one spending on the democratic side so you're talking about the official party spending you know i'm not i'm talking about no i'm talking outside interest groups we don't know about it but we don't know the numbers what

we do know we don't know the numbers karl rove went into that state and spent we don't know how much we know it was over a million dollars we don't know how much the koch brothers went to state we don't know how much they spent on that they got you got to go and have a nice day sharon asked them democrats spent over spent the republicans to do one of the last so if anything it's as anything that's a win for democracy no is it shows it shows that your point is what it shows is that the party had to spend the money because the outside interests were fun in the public eye true there are other thought have to raise any money because they got over the bad school for the last few months wisconsin has been a rallying cry a clarion call for democratic support this the democratic way has been under assault right this is this is what you've been saying on this show this is what rice by people like scott walker and all the nasty republicans it's been under assault and then an election came the democrats that we are going all in first they called the local representatives they forced the elections begin with and then they said we're going all in and we're going to win this and in fact they lost it and i

think i think if anything it shows that a republican governor it shows and by the way deval patrick in massachusetts is doing the same thing with this fires occurring back. the bargaining rights and showing that it's showing doctors around the country is it so hard to go shit with truth about understand that hard times so hard to this issue you guys don't have a problem with foreign corporations on account of the lives of just commies finish the sons unaccountable corporations unaccountable unions for that matter you guys don't have a problem with outside interests come in and point money to hear the truth or logic i don't believe i do well to you know those ninety eight percent of all elections where the person who spends the most is the person who goes well that's historically both sides both sides were very well funded they both got their message it matches messages out in this case the democrats lost i don't see where this is the old you are you could say the democrats lost actually two democrats one in highly republican districts and one came day so obviously obviously there was

competitive elections both sides are well funded but it's so audiences around here where they worry million dollar what is it because if they were both they were both they would both were well when you're on the edge of a three billion dollar election year first of all it is not wishing you could understand how did how much money did americans spend a potato chips every year i mean i think them i think elections are significant things that people are spending lots of money to get their message out in the election is not where you suppose literature that is working they should if you're looking for a stimulus to the economy is still pretty good stimulus really really does for the t.v. industry it's not just the t.v. industry there are lots of facets to it well run for the record you guys have no problem with people pouring money into a campaign and there are you know transparency has to those of the producers included but i agree that transparency is ok when you think you disagree with the citizens united i'm just pointing out that in this case i'm not you know i just different i mean it's you just agree with or karl rove and go i was just thinking was god i'm just pointing out the unions were totally just pointing out this pointing out that both sides had equal and had well well funded and they got to

make out this is this is obama's team actually the knights were for her push already spent more because the outside. but on the republicans i poured a lot more in the yemeni government over going to they're both well funded you know we had a chance here as well apropos of political spending and the consequences there are political spending and actually of i think probably more austerity this is the fourth night of deadly riots the united kingdom prime minister david cameron finally after three days came home from vacation and said ok and now nothing is off the table nothing off the table for police to confront the rioters presumably you know machine guns are ok eleven hundred people have been arrested some serious damage is done i mean this is this is awful stuff this reminds me and i remember there was the watts riots the detroit riots. but the conservative government's austerity measure some would say share some of the blame for this one of the one of the riders this is the ghetto this is the slums they don't care about us there's no

jobs and so want to benefits there's injustice we had enough we had enough we had the victoria jones on this program last night in london forty four million pounds it's like sixty million dollars was cut from programs for youth in in very very poor areas that were principally community centers and you know and educational programs and. secondary and tertiary education trade schools baseball gone i mean just literally cut and the and the four or five out of out of sixty or seventy of these of these youth centers that were closed before if i was told remained open started charging admission to people who have no money this is it what do you expect this is just justification for who again is a man that's nonsense the idea is it is a symptom of what happens when you become the most uncool society you see was people in the streets who are cleaning up who through no those who are rich people those loser middle class workers who work hard who aren't you aren't getting loads of money from the government but there were sponsible citizens what we saw here is who gives them pure and simple and david cameron is absolutely right increase the amount of police the sixteen thousand from six thousand and they have to take

a hard to measure the police have not been they've been running away they haven't been you know having enough force there they should put it down. fairly hard ok there is and there are hooligans in your your glories all over the world but why is it that spain greece portugal israel china and the middle eastern countries where you're having these problems and they're the countries where you're having a you're not happy when israel is or has great great kidding their great had been seen going to have protests there because males may have great you're saying they have economic problems or they may have had relatively good growth in israel predestine rights are not the same what we're seeing are right these are people who actually or have the means of all the reporter not other reporters i'm sure you can find somewhere examples but the people when they're asked they're saying we're having fun and this is a free hell of it now it was once a spontaneously helen i don't know what more or less yes but this isn't what this is beyond out of a bad thank you could just as easily be good people better than to write better and

take going into shores and breaking windows so you realize that these are those who have the this is the philosophy that you're laying out is is kind of similar to what we were saying in the united states in the eighteen eight hundred seventy s. when the irish were rioting in boston and books are being published about the irish genes genetic or in the eighteenth what gene i think. it's of all races and glad if they're bad people that are going to speculation about why are bad people need to be ninety how do you know if there's a clear difference it was the italians. there's a clear difference you're suggesting i'm a good guy giving a race to this have i ever mentioned race and i'm saying that people generally no matter what race they come from and engaging in this will have you had people yes say it's you know there are bad bad circumstances oh well you has or not you have a little bit of race love this is not equality and this is not since he this is this is this is really michael's inequality in the united kingdom says that this is not lately miserables where he stole a loaf of bread and was sent to prison because he was hungry here's how it was shot through the leader ceiling trainers.