liberty requires opportunity to make a living a living decent according to the standard of the time a living which gives man not only enough to live by but something to live for a necessity this man is not a free man so what does that mean basically it means if you have necessities that are not met if you're in need then you're not free if you're hungry and don't have food you're not free if you're homeless you're not free if you don't have health care you're not free if you don't have a job you're not free that's why shortly before he died franklin roosevelt laid out his second bill of rights so that more and more americans could enjoy that freedom that should come with living in the united states. this second bill of rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity and be established peron regardless of state

or rates vary among the how the rate will use will and remunerated who are in the industry or shots bombed by go out on the right to earn enough provide adequate food and clothing and recreate a right of every farm a raise and so is a product and a return which will give him and his family a decent living right of every businessman large and small on the parade in an atmosphere of freedom freedom from non-parent nonprofessional dominate my monopoly at home or abroad on the right of every family decent no right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy i would know the right who added but were perfect. on the economic theory of the moon very

sick men action and unemployment the right to a good day to be. right but no security and while f.d.r.'s second bill of rights never came to fruition his new deal did and so too did lyndon johnson's great society and from after world war two until reagan our nation spent spread freedom to more and more americans by caring for each other by everyone pitching in to create a social safety net including the rich who paid an income tax rate over seventy percent for the first million or so and most of the time about ninety percent and what happened was more and more americans were free to chase down their dreams the artists and inventors to find that perfect job to teach and to build they were free to spend more time with their families and to take vacations they were free to dream and to pursue those dreams and the explosion of innovation and opportunity in

america during the period from the one nine hundred forty s. to the one nine hundred eighty s. was the result of that freedom as because they weren't constantly living on the edge constantly living in need they weren't necessitous men and women they were free to quit a dead end job because they knew it wasn't the only way they could get health insurance which all the states back then required to be offered by nonprofit companies and so was less expensive than today they were free to start a small start a business because they weren't living paycheck to paycheck and they could take a risk without fear that their family would starve if the business went bust and because of all this new freedom provided for by government policies our economy boom and the middle class the arrived and the united states became a superpower and a beacon beacon of freedom to the rest of the world then it all changed. reagan called f.d.r.'s concept of freedom nonsense he called it communism and he pivoted the nation toward a new definition of freedom and one republicans like ron paul and rick perry

promote bill clinton continued the redefinition of freedom and ended welfare as we know it today half the great society has been repealed and the new deal centerpiece of social security is under attack regulations that keep us safe are being repealed taxes on the rich and corporations that pay for the social safety net being dropped and despite republicans like to claim americans are more free from the government than they've ever been since the great depression. and what do we see happening working people's wages are going down more americans are living in poverty than in any other time in this nation's history at least one hundred million americans are unemployed fifty three million americans are without health care more than forty million americans can't afford to put enough food on the table for their families are free all right free to go hungry free to be poor free to be jobless free to breathe toxic air and drink dirty water free to get sick and die and all the while free from the government helping us we need to once again ask ourselves what it

means to be free because for the vast majority of americans this new definition of freedom just isn't working anthropologically speaking historically speaking humans have never bought into this bizarre new republican or iran notion of freedom the thousands of years we've organized ourselves into groups and families and tribes and cities and nations just so we can all collectively provide each other enough basic protections and safety to live more free lives that's the point of a democratic government in a republic like ours to guarantee our freedom both from government intrusion but also from destitution disease and from the corporate predators around us it's in our biology to live in we societies so let's tell rick perry and ron paul and the rest of the republicans to go build their libertarian societies somewhere else like the libertarian paradise of somalia where the government provides only

the most basic of services and the rest of us can be free to recover our society from the damage of reaganomics and restore true freedom here in the united states of america. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website to tom hartman dot com free speech dot org dirty dot com check out our two youtube channel is there a link to thom hartmann dot com its entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and we have a free town arbonne i phone and i pad app in the app store he sent us feedback on twitter tom underscore arbonne facebook it's an underscore i've been blogs message boards and telephone comment line at time problem dot com and don't forget the mocker see begins when you get out there and get active tag you're it.

we can go on. from the.

welcome to the lone shell of the real headlines with none of the mercy from a lot of washington d.c. now it's not going to take a look at a number of things that make it a no good very bad day for president obama and in light of it all is a time to ask if he's done it when it comes to his chances of re-election and despairing is going to join us for that one new report shows the size and scope of the revolving door between washington and k. street so we're going to ask if we need not just new leaders grabs an entire restructuring of our political system and then could the brics be trying to bail out europe after some of the talk is ahead of an i.m.f.

meeting here in washington so we're going to try to sort out if it's even possible and what just the suggestion of that means about the dynamics of our world we're going to have all that morphy tonight including a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at what the mainstream media has decided to miss. you know it's really been quite a week for the mainstream media when it comes to the war in afghanistan i'm beginning to think that i know where they're going to get their figures when they need to tally the amount of coverage they've devoted to the war this year and need to prove it was more than maybe just a pathetic one or two percent now if you can by last year it was only four percent but that's better than one or two i guess right now anyway since there's been a lot of action on the ground in afghanistan this week and the reporters conveniently still happen to be there they stuck with it six guys in a vehicle pulled up five of them were wearing burqas to try to disguise themselves as women to bypass security massive twenty hour battle in kabul is finally over

this morning after a helicopter gunships and afghan police killed the last of a group of insurgents it's a new video you're seeing here you actually yes all the children right there crying because a rocket propelled grenade just exploded near their school van seven afghans including four police officers and three civilians were killed he attacked and others around kabul tuesday killed seven afghans. now again thank you for paying a little bit of attention for a change i really do appreciate it but the serious lack of depth is still a serious problem here and let me explain the economy isn't getting any better president obama's approval ratings are only getting lower in fact his disapproval rating at fifty five percent is the highest it's been according to a new c.n.n. poll that i think the chances of him not being reelected to a second term grow increasingly likely like maybe very likely and not all the more reason that we need to pay serious attention to the g.o.p.

candidates running for president scary as it is one of them just might be heading the executive branch in about a year and a half not only that one of them just may be the commander in chief so since that's the case you would think you would think that the media would want to pay just that tad more attention to their stance on foreign policy and. wars that we're fighting abroad wouldn't show you sure the economy and jobs are the priorities for americans right now but a decade of war and counting very expensive wars that are contributing to our financial woes mind you they should not be low on the totem pole and so if you watched any of the recent republican debates hopefully you've noticed that foreign policy is left to the very end that at best it gets one or two questions not it i'm sure as hell noticed i also noticed the candidates out there have been giving completely inept in vapid answers with the exception of ron paul by the mainstream media oh no they just move along and chatter about the tit for tat who got more burns in between perry and romney i think it's all just fun and games a lot of these people want to be president it's not only an important position it's

a really really powerful one a scarily powerful one but here's the best part and the washington post find this out today shockingly when we checked they were right if you go to the campaign web sites of mitt romney and rick perry and michele bachmann the only ones out there with a possible shot of the white house bachmann still being a clear outlier there and none of them none of them even mention the words iraq or afghanistan on their issue pages now even mention of the words as pretty damn scary if these people want to take over as president of this country but they don't feel that mentioning the longest war in u.s. history isn't important enough to make it to their list of issues and i should send a chill or two younger spine if they're getting away with it because the mainstream media the people who actually have the access to these candidates the ones that actually hold the debates because they're letting it slide now. i don't even know what else to say i'm truly and utterly disturbed by the candidates by our wars and i want the mainstream media chooses to miss when it comes to both.

and today is what you would call a bad day for the president a new c.n.n. polls found of barack obama's disapproval rating has reached a new high fifty five percent think content say that he's fallen short of expectations and just thirty six percent approve of the way he's handling the economy an economy that is supposedly in recovery yet official not real unemployment still at nine point one percent and yesterday we received figures the forty six point two million americans now live below the poverty line now keep in mind the historical statistics that no president since f.d.r. has been reelected to a second term when the unemployment rate on election day top seven point two percent so it looks like a bone might be in some serious trouble another sign could be new york's nine district elections last night which ended in a republican winning for the first time in almost one hundred years add to that the

controversy surrounding cylindrica the solar panel manufacturer which was heavily subsidized by the federal government and which recently went bankrupt and not only put a good light on obama's promise of green jobs but even more damaging white house e-mails made public last night show that the obama administration rushed through approval of a five hundred and thirty five million dollars loan of the company now congress is investigating the close ties between the president's inner circle and a cherry picking of cylinder to get the loan so you can bet republicans are going to ride that went through all the way to the elections next november now these clearly aren't the president's only problems but just looking at this one day and figures and scandals if we have to guess is he done is there anything that he can do to redeem himself and stay in the white house joining me from our studio in los angeles is an experience host of the young turks and i want to thank you so much for joining us tonight and now we're going to break it down between some of these figures some of the scandals here but just overall looking at this bad day for the

president if you had to guess right now do you think he's going to get reelected. i'm very very skeptical and pessimistic when it comes to the reelection of obama because of his approval rating the fact that fifty five percent is his disapproval rating but he does have a little bit of hope because you have to keep in mind that the election is more than a year away and that is a lifetime in the political world and he still has time to redeem himself and you know if you look at his jobs proposal and his jobs bill you see that he's trying and actually his jobs bill was surprisingly good it would raise taxes on the wealthy it would get rid of tax breaks for corporate jets you know the things that we've been begging obama to do for so long he's finally proposing now the question is will that jobs bill pass and does he really want it to pass and i guess we'll see that in upcoming months but he does have a little bit of a shot in terms of getting reelected it all depends on what he does in this next

year and i want to ask you about this formula that people use of course when it comes to the unemployment rate right nobody except for f.d.r. has been elected if it's been above seven point two percent and a seven point two percent mark was for ronald reagan no matter if obama's jobs bill passes or not especially if we consider the crisis going on in europe right now i think it's pretty fair to say that there is no way by november of two thousand and twelve the our unemployment level is going to go down to seven point two percent in fact only go up from where it is now even nine point one so do you think that we can really that we should use that formula that we should pay a lot of attention to it. i think that we should pay attention to it i don't think we should pay a lot of attention to it i think that what we should pay attention to is what the obama administration is going to do at this point after he has proposed this jobs bill is this jobs bill going to pass and if it does pass are we going to see a significant decline in the number of unemployed americans in the united states are we going to see an increase in the amount of jobs created in the united states

because if we do regardless of how many new jobs are created if we do see it increase in the number of jobs created the obama administration could say look we pass this jobs bill we proposed this jobs bill and it is deemed successful to this point i need to be reelected so i can continue this if i don't get reelected we're going to elect a republican who will probably cut taxes on corporations even more and that will be disastrous for our economy but the question is will the obama administration play it right and i guess we'll see how that goes now i want to move into this scandal scandal here is this just the perfect example of what you call the crony capitalism here of the government choosing one firm because maybe if you close ties now we know they rushed through this loan and guess what at the end of the day we the taxpayers lost out. i despise the lack of oversight when it came to this deal i don't think that the government should play the role of a venture capitalist if the government wants to give tax breaks to small businesses

or innovative startup companies i can completely understand that but having the american people loan a company half a billion dollars without any real oversight is just maddening and i think that it's shameful another thing that's a little unrelated but i really wanted to bring up is the amount of money that this government wastes on a yearly basis the new york times recently published an article that said that we have spent one hundred billion dollars ok not a half a billion dollars one hundred billion on private contractors for the war in iraq what are we do we continue to waste money and it's all the taxpayers' money it's on our dime and it just drives me crazy so i definitely think that things like this play a role in obama's disapproval rating because americans are sick of it we're in a horrible economic situation and we continue to waste money yeah and that's a great example you mentioned there we're going to have more on our show tonight when it comes to you know how much or how much money our government spends on contractors not just in iraq but in afghanistan all the way around but those are

the stories that unfortunately don't hear reported enough and so you know even if we look at the way the fox news of course has been covering this so linder scandal that's far i have a feeling and tell me if you agree with me a this is one that republicans of the right wing are going to try to ride all the way out to really pinpoint the president. you have such a great understanding of the media you're totally right about that you already see libertarian websites and you already see fox news making a huge deal out of this situation where was fox news when you when corporations were getting away with these massive tax loopholes how come they're not complaining about that that wastes a lot more money than this particular deal did i mean i'm still angry about the fact that we loaned out five hundred million dollars to a company that went bankrupt but we waste money in so many other directions and a lot of the money was wasted under the bush administration but where was fox news when that happened unfortunately we don't have a counter to this ok when ever democrat messes up republicans are very successful

in getting everyone's attention and telling every single american about it like all of what the obama administration did they wasted so much money but when a republican does that why is it that the democrats are so weak that they can't draw attention to it. good question they're completely with you now i want to talk about some of obama's tactics or strategies and i guess you could say that he's using which is you know the one thing that he really has going for him is that he still is considered likable the c.n.n. polls show that people still like the president they think he's a nice guy he's charismatic we all know that he's a great orator he gives good speeches and so right now he's making stops in small towns in america he's getting good local press you can say that he's going out giving speeches he's shaking hands and you know that definitely always works a little bit but how much how much i can work for him this time around because last time he got especially young people he went to colleges he went to college towns he

got that base excited but shaking hands is that going to be enough this time or just saying hey i proposed a jobs bills that would be enough. i think the jobs bill is much more important in comparison to him going to small towns and shaking hands and having discussions with people there is a recent article written also in the new york times where they were talking about barack obama in columbus ohio and he's basically trying to get young college students to like him again because a lot of college students are disillusioned they're discouraged they're not buying into the hype anymore keep in mind these are the people who supported him so much back in two thousand and eight when he was campaigning this was a candidate that college students were so excited about and now they're looking at obama and they're thinking yet not buying it ok where are jobs why are we spending so much money intuition we don't want to hear him talk about this you want to see some real change that you promised us so you see of very low proven rating comparatively speaking among college students as well only forty seven percent of college students right now or i should say people under the age of thirty approve

of the job that obama has done now forty seven percent you some would argue is still a high number but compared to the number of people who supported him during the two thousand and eight election the number of young people and it's a significant decline in the number of people i just wonder to you know shaking hands free can go out i wonder if this ministration realizes how much trouble there actually and then really quickly we have thirty seconds we don't know who might be able let's say it's romney or perry who do you think is the one that obama has a better chance of going against her who might he actually lose against romney is it is obama in more trouble. i would argue that it's romney i think romney has a lot of supporters and you know if romney wins the primaries obama is in a lot of trouble. and i want to thank you so much for joining us tonight thank you . also ahead tonight is our political system broken and

a report looks minarets capitol hill staffers. and then become lobbyists and if that's the topic and well it was james polis house of the bottom line and reform school long controls over. internet only when there were three mechanisms and you don't work how to bring justice or accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. but i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for the sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here's some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

says. let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here and. i think iraq the bombing be the one to well. whatever government says there keep them safe get ready because you give them your freedom. for.

this thursday texas death row inmate duane headlock will be executed he's the latest prisoner in the state who is set to face the death penalty and is one of four inmates to die by lethal injection over the course of just the next seven days now but buck was sentenced to death i have nine hundred ninety seven killings of debra gardner and kind of butler however during his capital punishment trial a psychologist by the name of dr walter if you had know so that black people have a higher rate of violent behavior and that was used as a key piece of testimony but ultimately led to the jury to sentence buc to death over life in prison and was dr use the same argument in six other capital

punishment trials around the same time as ghats and in those cases the accused were given new trials a bucks case was never retried and in fact the board of pardons and parole voted against recommending clemency for the man so now a lesser governor rick perry decides to delay the execution and request the board of pardons to grant clemency buckel die tomorrow and sadly with texas' staggering death penalty records and rick perry is a man of last hope can't really say what i expect anyone to help but now they according to death penalty info dot org texas was home to three hundred and twenty one death row inmates and beginning of two thousand and eleven just last week perry's capital punishment record moved front and center of attention during the and this and d.c. g.o.p. debate when perry was asked about how he feels about texas killing two hundred and thirty four inmates under his watch more than under any other modern day governor. no sir i never struggled with it all the state of texas has a. very sought for a very clear. process in place you will face the

ultimate justice in the state of texas and that is you will be executed what do you make of. all perry makes no bones about it he feels completely comfortable putting inmates to death even in the case of cameron todd willingham where there's ample evidence of perry executed an innocent man now the state executing another man just a few days ago execution would bring the state's record to two hundred and thirty six deaths that's a statistic that is completely mind boggling and according to lubbock avalanche journal a newspaper based in lubbock texas the average cost of indictments and execution alone adds up to one point two million dollars per person sometimes on trial for these cases are over two hundred thousand dollars so it's a lot of newspapers reported it's far more cost effective and safe to instill a life in prison punishment than it's the death penalty but in fact this looks like rick perry just doesn't play that way. something about the revolving door

corruption cronyism whatever you want to call it it's rampant in our political culture these days and so we have another piece of evidence to prove it according to a study conducted by legist arm nearly five thousand four hundred former congressional staffers have left capitol hill to become federal lobbyists and the past ten years they also found that almost four hundred lawmakers have made that jump from capital to k. street and although not as prominent use the reverse as well six hundred five former lobbyists and taking jobs working for lawmakers in the past decade and that according to jock freely founder of largest army means that for every person the american people have elected to sponsor legislation of public benefits special interests of more than one former legislative advocate now working on the inside in congress thinks feel all warm and fuzzy inside and you wonder why congress has an approval rating of only twelve percent right now but as we gear up for another election in two thousand and twelve that promises to be a fierce battle between the two parties we have to ask if it won't make any difference unless we fundamentally change how washington works which for now is in

the favor of special interests and corporate dominance rather than for the people who are discussed this with me is james fallows host of the bottom line and reform school on p.t.v. james thanks so much for joining us tonight my pleasure can't really say that these figures shocked me i mean it's something that we report on all the time but disturbing yeah it's very disturbing and you know it's gotten to the point where the lobbyists lobby you know virtually a fourth branch of government and unless something fundamental changes in the way that we look at washington what we look to washington to do and what we in the way in which we look for washington to do it we're going to be stuck with it it's only going to grow even bigger there isn't i mean let's think about the arguments they make too though of course because the people who are part of the biggest lobbying firms out there they defend this because they say well this way we have experienced people they know how washington works they have all the right contacts when she rather have somebody with a little experience moving around and you know helping to create legislation and somebody just from the outside well look at what this experience has gotten us right you know i harken.