in the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour. the white is the white house is fighting a new battle and believe it or not it involves tinseltown how republicans are accusing president obama of using bin laden's death to gain applause from the american people and hollywood and texas governor rick perry is hoping to lasso a new title mr president it daily take the night on why fair is perry's biggest endorser let us into the two thousand and eight recession and could lead us into another financial meltdown. that republicans have started their latest which on against president obama on this one involves hollywood last week in new york times columnist maureen dowd said that the obama administration is sharing classified information about the osama bin laden raid to oscar winning filmmaker kathryn bigelow who is currently three years

into working on a film about bin laden dowd wrote the white house is counting on the big screen version of the killing of bin laden to counter obama's growing reputation as ineffectual the movie is scheduled to open on october twelfth two thousand and twelve perfectly timed to give a home stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher the movie makers are getting top level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the bush administration. upon reading this republican chair of the house homeland security committee peter king put aside his answer i muslim hearings and pounced he wrote a letter to the department of defense of the cia calling for an investigation saying the administration's first duty in declassifying material is to provide full reporting to congress and the american battle in an effort to build public trust or transparency in government in contrast this alleged collaboration belies a despite a desire of transparent transparency in favor of

a senate some cinematographic senate idea or say that would send a graphic view of history if the white house responded simply by saying that this movie has been in the works for three years and the director kathryn bigelow has received help from previous administrations as well including george w. bush's and bill clinton's so threatening to the story and what exactly is the dynamic between hollywood and the pentagon when the subject matter of a film is the u.s. military here to offer some answers to these questions is david sirota cinema syndicated columnist salon dot com host of the david serota radio show and author of several books including his latest back to our future david welcome thank you what sort of unintended consequences might peter king's investigation bring about. peter king it through a serendipitous alignment of partisan politics here the president trying to run for reelection the peter king a republican trying to score points against him in that election that serendipitous

alignment of partisan interests has now inadvertently i think raised deeper questions about what i would call what i was a cop military entertainment complex how the military the pentagon the national security apparatus works hand in hand with hollywood to promote movies in particular that make militarism and war look as good as possible what the pentagon is in the business of doing a pentagon still office is in the business of doing is basically awarding and denying access to military hardware and military facilities and military in from information awarding were denied access to filmmakers literally the basis of what the filmmakers plan to do with it how they plan to portray the military white literally filmmakers are required to submit their scripts to the pentagon for

a ride it in if those filmmakers access to this public are where this public information and this public hargraves public information the military hardware is comes at of course the taxpayer subsidized rate so literally the pentagon is using taxpayer subsidized public material like tanks lights planes they top down in order to coerce hollywood to produce movies and entertainment products that only align with the pentagon's message is this a recent development is this something that came about in the last few decades or back to world war two or you know how long has this been going on. well the first academy award was given to the movie wings in one thousand nine hundred seven which was a military support still i argue in my book back to our future that while the pentagon at that point the board apartment had been working with hollywood on and off and we saw a lessening of that during the during and after b.

at nama there were fewer war movies but in the one nine hundred eighty s. this really became something of the norm that an unspecific top gun movie top gun which paid all who think about this only one point eight million total dollars for the use of all of that military hardware after that happened it really changed the financial the nam dynamics in hollywood in my book i wrote one of the people who work on the hunt for red october who said after talking to happen more and more studios wanted to work with the pentagon having to get approval of their search of the pentagon and that studios sent down the message to screenwriters either get the approval of the pentagon or your pictures will not be made so this is why for every one anti war movie or one entertainer product that questions the military you get scores and scores of other entertainment products that are promoting militarism or boating the military promoting or as the answer to all of our profits and in fact

it seems like any serious movie that was dealing with issues of war from sample you know robert greenwald's recent documentary rethink afghanistan. i would guess that if he went to the pentagon and said you know we'd like some access to your footage or whatever for your hardware they would laugh him out of the room. i would guess that as well the pentagon is very open about its i wrote my book the pentagon film office setting. we were jet your screenplay if you do not. comply with the message that we want and here's a crazy example of how it really works and how extreme it really is the movie thirteen days which is a movie about the cuban missile crisis one of the pentagon had asked for acts. yes to some to some file footage and the pentagon said no because they were the screenplay they said and the enter interchange between the president the joint chiefs of staff has made the military look too bellicose and the screenwriter said excuse me our dialogue is quite literally a transcript of the recordings in the white house it's literally

a historically accurate transcript word for word and the military still so i'm sorry you cannot have access to military hardware because that's not the way we want to be portrayed so what's the difference then david between what hollywood is producing when it is in collaboration with the pentagon and propaganda. there is no clear cut that's exactly right there is absolutely no difference and what's so insidious about this is that viewers don't really know in most cases they don't watch the pentagon to subsidize propaganda if you watch all the way to the credits and you get to the bottom of the credits of the movie that you see for instance the movie exit which was quite literally sponsored by the army you might see a one line says thanks to the pentagon thanks to this or that based q. or does it really necessarily know if this is almost the equivalent of a pentagon produced newsreel and that's exactly the point the pentagon invest so much money in this because they know as opposed to delivering a message in

a political arena where the fewer knows that what they're hearing is part political commercial a political radio show political t.v. show the pentagon knows that is much more powerful to the liver an ideological pro-war pro-military message inside of a pop culture product where the viewers filter for political messages is churned out david we just have twenty thirty seconds but this is probably a self-evident question but now these types of movies promote heroic stereotypes that guarantee that we're going to have future wars and future volunteer warriors because they don't show that war really is hell. absolutely if you look at accident i encourage everybody to go look at some live somebody at's if you are he did in conjunction with accident which it sponsored and what you'll see is they interspersed footage of soldiers and troops american soldiers and troops with footage from the movie of superheroes suggesting that the war experience is as safe and as exciting and it's caught on as being a superhero in a movie amazing david thank you very much thank you anymore conversations in

america about the power of the military industrial complex and its ability to influence us all through the media. it's the good the bad and the very cold liquid silly to look closely ugly the good congressman james clyburn a democrat from south carolina and most powerful house democrats serving on the gang of twelve pledged to make closing the growing wealth inequality in america his first priority as he enters negotiations to figure out a way to reduce the deficit byron said in two thousand and eleven the gap continues to grow wider between those who enjoy great wealth and those who struggle to get by with little thought of ever getting ahead too often the human side gets lost in the washington abates about our nation's debt and deficit so i will seek to keep those

interests on the table so voices like congressman james clyburn is dictate the conversation at the gang of twelve committee to the bad rick perry in his first stump speech speech for president on saturday rick perry let it be known that he plans to target the poor in america speaking to the millions of americans who don't make enough money to pay an income taxes perry said this were dismayed at the injustices nearly half of all americans don't even pay any income tax and you know one in the liberals out there saying that we need to pay more. by we must be referring to rich people like himself he's right poor people don't pay income taxes why should they live in poverty but they still pay sales taxes payroll taxes and in some cases property taxes or even indirectly through their rent and as a percentage of their income they pay even more in taxes than you probably do so the only injustice here is all the millionaires and billionaires the guys running

rick perry's campaign who aren't contributing their fair share and the very very ugly michele bachmann. fresh off winning the straw poll bachmann showed that she like the rest of her party plans to only cater to millionaires and billionaires in an interview with n.b.c.'s today bachmann called for further deficit causing tax cuts for billion dollar trans national corporations but when asked if unemployment should be extended for americans most in need bachmann suddenly got stingy. what about extending jobless benefits for people who are out of work you think that's unnecessary stuff i think it would be very difficult for us to do because we frankly don't have the money i mean that's that's the bottom line in the united states we are now according to mark stein he wrote a book called after america and in his book he says we have the procrustes nation in history is that. we have enough money to funnel billions in tax cuts to corporations that will just sit on the extra cash over two trillion we don't have

enough money to help people who are literally starving homeless thanks to the recession so much for compassion that's very clearly. coming up texas governor rick perry now presidential candidate learned about all he knows about the economy from phil gramm why that very fact should frighten us all of the earth. but drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions complete to break through get through to be made who can you trust no one who is you know you with a global missionary to see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called satchels when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more.

your take my take is the segment of the show where you have the opportunity to make yourself heard here on the big picture it's your chance to share your questions comments rants and observations and i'll try to address them as best i can our first comment comes from a caller on the viewer rant line and forgot to give us his first name or last year

when senate minority leader mitch mcconnell probably proclaimed what his number one goal is. top political priority over the next two years should be to deny approach the obama's second term well our caller in numbers and he had this question. i warre aren't. the statements of mitch mcconnell better known as mitch make lipless chinless who said his main job is to make sure obama is not a future president. being pushed more because he sure changed the entire american economy by doing nothing but hurting every plan obama's tried. that's a great question and you're right mcconnell and the republicans have sabotaged every single agenda item put forward by president obama to get our economy back on track republican governors of laid off nearly a half million people since obama came into office rather than raise taxes on the

rich if they hadn't done just that one thing unemployment right now would be below eight percent but instead they're cutting more and more and republicans at the federal level are pushing hard for even more cuts and the sad part is it's working the president's poll numbers are plunging in the face of this unemployment and you gallup poll shows the president approve approval rating at an all time low just thirty nine percent and while many democrats have called out the republican strategy of crashing the economy to more easily beat president obama in front of twelve most americans are blissfully unaware of what the republicans are up to and so they seem to be getting away with your may remember at the beginning of last year president obama famously said this to diane sawyer about a second term. and the one thing i'm clear is that i would rather be a really good one term president than a mediocre to prosper. unfortunately he's on the verge of being neither and if president obama doesn't start acting like harry truman soon and taking on the

republicans in congress rather than appeasing them then he will not just be a one termer like jimmy carter will be the nation's next herbert hoover which would be a disaster for all of us let's hope he gets the message. our next comment comes from the message boards of tom hartman dot com spent a good chunk of both my radio show and this television show ranting about the supreme court now they've become kings above and beyond our democracy so great white had this question for me since the us supreme court was never supposed to make laws a veto of laws that exist then what is the role of the us supreme court supposed to be the only educated guesses to advise the executive and legislative branches maybe by telling them what is unconstitutional and constitutional by their understanding of what the usa constitution says. here's the role of the supreme court as the founding fathers envisioned it first of all there are some specific responsibilities that the supreme court has that that they be you know in cases of

admiralty law and disputes between nations and between states and things like that but generally they're basically the court of last resort the you know there is no if two people are suing each other eventually it has to end up someplace and that's where it ends up but the idea of constitutionality is not given to the court in the constitution read article three the constitution is nowhere in there constitutionality lies with the people the decision of what's constitutional or not constitutional is made by you and me through a process called elections the notion of judicial review which means that the supreme court can decide whether or not a law is constitutional and judicial supremacy which means that the supreme court is more powerful than the legislative or the executive branch of congress of the president and therefore can strike down laws that they made and signed is not in the constitution chief justice john marshall took that power to himself in the supreme court in nine hundred three in a case called marbury vs madison. and frankly if you believe in judicial review and

judicial supremacy which tragically most americans do it really means that we believe that nine wise elders or kings sitting ruling here in washington d.c. in black robes and uttering the final word on every single law that we've come to believe you know that kings are best and we don't believe in democracy. course our next commentator may not agree with me derek on twitter said this about my objections to today's supreme court he said while tom tom hartman is very scary he's advocating mob rule instead of the rule of law in his position against the supreme court. well you know model is what james madison john adams used to refer to as the mockers what i really advocating is thomas jefferson's vision of our democracy after the supreme court's decision in marbury vs madison jefferson

who was then president went ballistic and eighteen zero four he wrote the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not not only for themselves in their sphere of action but for the legislative and executive also in their spears would make the judiciary a despotic branch jefferson also seven eighteen nineteen if the judiciary is the last resort in relation to the other departments of the government then indeed is our constitution a complete fill it is so that's latin for a suicide pact the constitution jefferson said this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they may please and today they twisted that ball of wax into a corporate charter for the conquest of america in eight hundred twenty jefferson wrote this about where the true power in our democracy lays he wrote you seem to consider the judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions of very

dangerous doctrine indeed and one which would place us under the despotic under the despotism of an oligarchy when the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity as in elections the exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough i know of no say for posits wary of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves so when i go after the supreme court which is far too powerful today i'm not advocating mob rule i'm saying what thomas jefferson believed in a society where ultimate powers along with we the people not nine unelected justices sitting over the supreme court building. our final comment for the day comes once again from our viewer here's what to carl and unemployed man had to say about watching the show. yes i am a public television watcher i watch macneil lehrer news hour i love public

television but boil it till you are watching that and watching this it's almost like night and day the questions the answers the information so again i just want to thank you and please keep going i've been unemployed for two years but my mind isn't good and i'm going to tell you thank you for keeping hope alive. thanks for the nice work words to carlow and i'll continue to keep hope alive on my end as you do the same on your end these actually are very very difficult times for america as the carla knows firsthand and what i try to do on this show is not just air complaint t.v. as in republicans or the economy's in the tank millionaires and billionaires to take it over let's all despair it would be too easy instead i try to give answers to give some direction to people who are lost or people who just want to get involved in making america better and i hope it's working as we want to know your take send us your comments by visiting the thom hartmann facebook page by

a twitter at tom underscore her for in the chat room on the message boards or through the blog at tom hartman dot com you can also leave a message on our rant line at two o two five three six fifty three zero six agree disagree sound off its all welcome or remember that your comments may be used on the air. well the texas government who governor who likes acting like a cowboy and has a penchant for executing people has finally jumped into the race for the white house now not about this guy guy. this. this guy. that's right it's this governor rick perry you know is that saturday that he's running for president take a look. i'm trying to get america working again and that's why with the support

of my family and unwavering belief in the goodness of america i declare to you today as a candidate for president of the united states. i guess he's hoping the country is already forgotten the last time we like the texas cowboy as president. putting his they have and rick perry takes his boots to the white house then hold on to your hats because we're all in for another gigantic financial disaster why because within hours of perry's announcement he received an indorsement from this guy phil gramm phil gramm you may not know him but bill graham is the man most responsible for the two thousand and eight economic meltdown in fact time magazine described him as one of the twenty five most responsible. literally back in two thousand and one as a senator from texas phil gramm slipped the commodity futures modernization act.

passed through congress last texas governor to be president george w. bush happily signed it into law but this act to did is keep the government from regulating derivatives markets which allowed banks to use to create all sorts of complex financial instruments like credit default swaps collateralized debt obligations and inflated the housing bubble made them all tons of money basically creating things that were bets and then bets on those bets and then bets on those bets on those bets until we end up with hundred literally hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of these bets out there. that never existed before phil gramm created this law that made them possible it made the legal that made it possible for the banks to get and in addition to that blowing up was legal and then what happened some of the underlying mortgages start to fall apart as could have been predicted and the bets went bad the insurance went bad and then the bets on the bets went bad

in the bets on the bets on the bets went bad and it all crashed because if this one piece of legislation responsible for this crisis we're in today it's the commodity futures modernization act and bill graham is the guy who wrote it so why would the disgraced phil gramm former senator phil gramm want rick perry to be president well because rick perry learned everything you knows about markets and the economy from guess who phil gramm as a student of texas a and m. university perry took classes taught by phil gramm phil gramm who called unemployed people whiners his exact words were back when he this is back when he was john mccain's economic advisor in two thousand and eight he said we have sort of become a nation of whiners is here this constant whining complaining about loss of competitive those american decline end of quote phil gramm the guy who put into law the commodities futures modernization act and another piece of

legislation called graham leach bliley which end of glass steagall and set up are too big to fail banks which both by the way helped his wife wendy make a fortune as a member of the board of directors of enron graham's legislative masterpiece is often called the enron loophole and much of perry's wonderful economy in texas is the result of oil prices triple in the last decade and texas is the home to lots and lots of oil refineries so many in fact that texas produces more pollution than any other state in the union. great way to jump start the economy rick it's almost like you're channeling the enron c.e.o. ken lay and conveniently die just before he can testify at his own trial and spill the beans about phil and wendy gramm phil gramm helped make fortunes in his home state of texas both when he was a congressman from there and

a senator and when his wife helped run enron even coauthored ronald reagan's first budget which cut taxes on billionaires raise taxes on working people and began the death spiral of today's american working class so i guess after destroying the american middle class advising george w. bush cram wants to finish the job with his protege rick perry. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website at thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org and archie dot com you can also check out our two you tube channels there are links to tom hartman dot com and the entire show is available as a free video podcast on i tunes and we have a free tom hartman i phone i pad app or the app store you can send a speed back to twitter at underscore her on facebook at thomas where are our blogs message boards and telephone comment lines over time part of that. and don't forget

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