and sex acts as a way to disciplinary action and you thought a parachute was the only protection needed while skydiving. a british charity organization busted by parliament so what is the scandal in the u.k. have to do with a tory is right wing think tank right here in the united states and answer that after the break. what drives the world the fear mongering you've got politicians decision it's completely breakthrough it will be made who can you trust no one who is in view with noble mission it's having state controlled capitalism it's called satchels when nobody dares to redo our t. question more.

it's. all go back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour conservative think tank alec is at the center of controversy yet again this time with a very questionable connection with a charity in the u.k. was recently shut down a progress report relief up breaks down the scandal just months and g.o.p. presidential candidate herman cain continues to be the conductor behind the cain

crazy train is late as liberal bashing him tonight still eating. there's a scandal brewing in the u.k. that could take down its story as right wing organization here in the united states and no i'm not talking about rupert murdoch's news corp. record happened to any of the scandal involves a shadowy conservative organization known as the american legislative exchange council or alec and its british affiliate known as the atlantic ridge alec is famous for bringing together republican lawmakers c.e.o.'s and lobbyists into the same room and building to collaboratively write custom made legislation to benefit the corporate interests legislation that the legislators then introduce into

various state legislatures around the country and are typically passed in those places where there are republican majorities and in two thousand and three alec began a partnership with the u.k. creating a charity organization fair known as the atlantic bridge but earlier this month the u.k.'s government shut down alex british affiliate after it was discovered that the atlantic bridge was merely operating as a front group for pay to play lobbyists and british lawmakers the scandals went so far out that it led to the resignation of prime minister david cameron's defense secretary leon thoughts so will this incident across the atlantic raise more awareness about the role alec plays here in america for more on this story i'm joined by reporter and water for think progress lee thought we welcome back to us they come to see it great to have you with us let's start of the beginning first of all just a quick recap of our if you want to give us a summary of who they are what they're all about where they came from sure wilder's this thirty year organization of american legislative exchange council i guess it

incorporated as a nonprofit but actually this. self lobbying for basically large fortune five hundred corporations from koch industries and peabody coal to mcdonalds and eighteen t.v. they pay your ship fees and they gain access to these alec conferences where they get together with state lawmakers state senators and state representatives from across the country to write model legislation and almost always it's a giveaway to the corporate benefactors of alec and although this organization has lasted two or three decades it's gained a lot of prominence in the last year because republicans made some of the largest gains at the state level and the entire republican party history in two thousand and ten so now instead of republican primaries last out is the dictate back to lawmakers from alaska to florida it's a amazing so hot alex then go across the atlantic. well it's an interesting history

in one thousand nine hundred seven after the labor party on the u.k. made significant gains the tories the conservatives had to reconfigure their strategy and part of that reconfiguration. had to do with collaborating with the american right liam fox of a very hard right conservative member of parliament across the atlantic started attending alec conferences and realised that the alec approach was a great idea for corporate crony capitalist conservatives and he actually in export of the idea for america to england in two thousand and three he got together with american lobbyist british lobbyists and various conservative politicians everyone from jim de mint from south carolina to some of the top conservative members of parliament in david cameron circle and they set up the atlantic bridge officially in two thousand and three to facilitate the same type of pay to play. law making

that alec does but also just you know creating a dummy organization that can pay for. parties and travel expenses and a host conferences for political policy making you know there's a lot of things that are illegal in europe. anywhere from illegal to frowned upon that here we just kind of seem not to notice i mean if if a if the governor of a of a province or a state or whatever they call him and italy for example had shut down the boat and bus his insured his brother silvio berlusconi became prime minister we'd be screaming you know third world politics you know thinking back to two thousand. in the u.k. for example i believe that the maximum amount of money that a member of parliament can spend for reelection is one hundred thousand pounds thus the elections only run

a few weeks. so. be the rather tight election laws that they have there i mean there is supreme is there if there's supreme court has not done what ours has which is totally in power corporations does that mean that many of the things that alec does here might actually be crimes they are in is that the the essence of the scandal or is that something like missing something else altogether here's the fascinating part of this scandal alec is operated as it is a dummy. front for these corporations after so many years here in the united states but only in the past couple weeks i do british regulators crack down on this organization it's analogous really it atlanta grants and they found it to be violating its tax exempt status by acting as simply a corporate front and. we're only learning now about some of the corporate ties for example the director of atlantic bridge has acted as a lobbyist or

a hedge fund manager with interests in all types of different weapons making kompany used and the same lobbyist associated with it langridge has acted as a high level adviser to the defense secretary in the u.k. liam fox so as this kind of unfolds many lib dems and labor members of parliament are calling for a broader inquiry to follow the money and if you follow the money which we've begun to do at think progress a lot of it leads back to the united states there are a good number of american defense lobbyist that are involved in this actually in september of last year there was a big defense contractor lobbyist party at the mandarin oriental hotel in washington d.c. which was attended by the telegraph reports several united states senators liam fox and various defense contractors so there's a much bigger story brewing but it connects quite nicely back to the american right

are these things that would be that are illegal in the u.k. that's the scandal but not illegal here are these things things that are illegal in the u.s. u.k. and illegal here and the u.k. going after it is illustrating it here in the united states we have just a minute left early. well these laws are very murky because many of them operate in a kind of a legal gray zone and particularly after citizens united where any of these non-profits can act as a corporate front it's tough to say so unfortunately we're really outsourcing aren't i am a credit oversight of the u.k. and hopefully the investigation that it will begin a next few weeks i will shed some light back to our own democracy after we outsourced our our corrupt system to its. that's a remarkably leaf at the center for american progress as think progress or broadly thanks for the incredibly great reporting that you continue to do it's it's always a pleasure having you on thank you so much for having me tom good to see you.

just. as the good the bad and the very and this so. that the silly village the good california medical association despite the fact that the federal government is cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries in california that state's largest group of doctors just adopted a new resolution to support the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes according to the resolution quote it's an open question whether cannabis is useful or not that question can only be answered once it's legalized the more research is done then only and only then can we know what it's really useful for if politicians really don't like the idea of a government stepping into in a patient in their doctor and they should listen to the california medical

association and get out of the way of stopping medical marijuana legalization. bad eric cantor even though cantor is changes to an occupy wall street moving on from calling it a dangerous mob now saying that he sympathizes with them it's clear cantor still doesn't get in an interview yesterday with so-called news gatherers of the best way to address the concerns of the occupy movement is to have more money to the rich but we know in this country right now that there is a complaint about folks at the top end of the income scale that they made so much and too many don't make enough we need to go encourage those at the top of the income scale to actually put their money to work to create more jobs so that we can see a closing of the gap you know we're about eight home mobility and that's what we should be focused on to take care of the income disparity in this country ok let's. give the so-called job creators even more money to go out and hire or more likely to go

out and stash cash in their swiss bank accounts. either way following counters logic we should also rely on defense contractors to end wars oil barons to stop pollution oh and of course we should rely on republicans to address our. and a very very ugly sheriff joe arpaio herman cain has some criticism over the weekend when he suggested that the best way to take care of the illegal immigration problem was to put up an electric fence on the border and kill people who are trying to come across. with no real sense when you see the. electrified. this is things you know you get criticized mr this is it is. isn't it this is it is when you come to the united states. and tell our citizens who the true people

this is. this is. the. cain leader walking back saying he was joking. he said it in a van in tennessee to build an electrified fence on the border kill people because illegal that's a joke but when he jokes about a joke that's a joke that's not a serious but it's not a serious point you've got to be bad enough not what you did that's a joke i've also said america needs to get a sniff that was a joke. the sheriff joe arpaio is joking merrily he thinks the deadly electric fence is a great idea. but i'm sure he was joking but it probably means that he's taking it serious to do something at the border and stop the illegal immigration joking about killing illegal immigrants means cain is taking the immigration problem seriously i'm sure it came with a joke about nuking mexico are would have fallen head over. and that's very very.

after the break herman cain says liberals are out to destroy this country in my daily take on a herman cain where he was out delivering pizzas again. what drives the world with the growing use by politicians who made decisions conclude you didn't create it through the people who can you trust no one who will be seen by you and will blow bold initiatives where we have a state controlled capitalism and score that since we nobody there is to redo our t. question more.

your take my take is this segment of the show when we give you the opportunity to have your questions comments criticisms and opinions heard here on the big picture last week the united states celebrated columbus day with a federal holiday i argued that we should be honoring christopher columbus with a national holiday right because his legacy it was one of rape and murder and shame that a lot of positive feedback on that daily day was to greed to christopher call columbus doesn't deserve a national day of correcting recognition when he was you are also had a suggestion for an entirely new american holiday riva road instead of honoring

columbus about honoring a woman not of our holidays honors american women how about one of the suffragettes i love eleanor roosevelt i know that she is too controversial. i couldn't agree with you more this country has benefited from the. of many influential women in its history and they deserve recognition there are museums and galleries and foundations that all pay tribute to the achievements of various american women but we have yet to honor one with a national holiday i think it's about time we change that. our next comment came from the viewer rant line saying obamacare is buying into the republican negative comments about the affordable healthcare act please quote the name given to it. by law the affordable healthcare act obamacare thank you.

james the actual official name of the law is the affordable care act not health care which i'm sure you'd agree is not quite as memorable as obamacare and personally i don't think there's anything wrong with the term obamacare in fact more and more democrats are starting to use it even the president has used it albeit when quoting republicans and it is a good thing that he gets credit for a landmark and frankly transformational piece of legislation that will save the lives of millions of americans. our final comments a night is from a post on thom hartmann dot com one listener asked tom mentioned a study on one of his radio shows that showed that suicide homicide increased in a conservative governments and decreased under more liberal governments i'd like to know this study anybody have the details the study that i'm talking about on the air was conducted by australian researchers in two thousand and two yes trillian team analyze suicides does this ticks for new south wales between one thousand nine hundred one when the federal government in australia was established and track that

up to one nine hundred ninety eight the researchers took into account periods of drought and major historical events like world war two because of their economic and psychological impact after controlling for these factors the research clearly showed at the highest rates of suicide occurred when both the state and federal governments were being run by conservatives the researchers concluded that when the conservatives ruled both state and federal governments men were seventeen percent more likely to commit suicide and when labor would be the liberals were in power women were forty percent more likely to kill themselves analysis of suicide rates in the u.k. have shown a similar trend and independent study conducted by researchers at cardiff university looked at three different data sets which confirm a downward trend in violent crime rates in the u.k. after the labor party came to power in two thousand and one it was actually a fifteen percent drop and another british study concluded that thirty five thousand brits would not have died in the twentieth century if the conservative

power had never been in power so i'm not exaggerating when i say that conservatives are dangerous for a country's well being that's it for your take my takes and i if you'd like your comments and questions heard on the segment of the big picture was not. we want to know your sense you comment by this in the time alloted facebook page played twitter underscore a problem for any champion on the message boards he will blog and that can also leave him as a young women wanting to achieve by gleason it's thirty three of sixty three these recent odds it's all welcome the number that your comments made the news on the. republican presidential front runner herman cain doesn't like liberals here's what he said about liberals yesterday i meet the press. you've talked as well about

liberals in the country you gave a speech in february where you didn't mince words this is what you said. check some of the liberals who destroy this country to destroy this country how so ever now michael look at this economy david the engine of economic growth is the business sector we are growing at an anemic one one and a half percent but if we allow this economy to continue to go down it would destroy our economic capability and as a result we are now looking at how much and defense we can cut best destroying you the liberals actually seek to do that that that's their mission to destroy the economy that's the conclusion that i have drawn not mismanagement and no it's their mission it is their mission because they do not believe in a strong america in my opinion yes but hurricane frankly isn't alone in thinking liberals are on

a mission to destroy the country there are others. liberals. all. liberals who are destroying. virtually everything. with a touch of hating liberalism we saw a problem we all work together we solve a problem if we get rid of the lobby so of our problem is the liberals who are out so national starbucks windows committing assassination attempts against president since the founding of this nation of course conservatives telling lies about liberals is nothing new but this one might take the cake as a simple inspection of history tells us that every single step forward every major act of progress and every policy that the court the constitution as made our nation a more perfect union was brought about by those dreaded liberals remember it was the liberal democrat woodrow wilson who fought and won world war one it was the

liberal democrat franklin roosevelt who fought and won world war two he was also the liberal who created unemployment insurance so people who were laid off didn't end up on the streets and roosevelt was the liberal who created social security so people who worked their entire lives could have a decent retirement free from poverty he was also a liberal who put in place glass steagall after the crash of twenty nine it rained in the banks and prevented another market panic for more than sixty years and it was liberals who brought democracy to the workplace in the form of labor unions and safety regulations liberals created a safer working environment they kept americans mangling our arms and dangerous machinery were dying in factory fires because the fire exits were walk like at the triangle shirtwaist factory in new york. liberals put in place child labor laws to end the exploitation of nine year olds and liberals work for women to get equal pay

for equal work and are still working to finish the liberals fought for women to have the right to vote liberals fought against institutionalized racism and fought for minorities rights to fully participate in our society and our economy liberals passed the civil rights act liberals passed the voting rights act it was the liberal lyndon johnson who created medicare and medicaid it protected the elderly the disabled and the poor from being destroyed by illness and johnson was the liberal who cut poverty in athen america in a single generation thanks to the great society. liberals brought us the forty hour work week and overtime pay the minimum wage workers compensation safe food and drugs a balanced federal budget and the f.d.i.c to ensure you're back because it's clean air and water the g.i. bill and peace corps student grant and long programs employer paid vacations and sions and medical insurance national parks and municipal fire departments as j.f.k.

said in one nine hundred sixty. what do our own it's need when they apply it was able several yet by liberal they mean it they want people to believe someone who is going to change policies abroad who will against local government and who are going concern with the taxpayer stomach then the record of this body and it not just demonstrate that we are not that kind of liberal but if by a liberal they mean someone who looks like they are not behind someone who welcomes new ideas but i don't really get reactions some i don't care about the welfare of the people their health their home their schools their job their civil right down there to live a decent someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and the big hint that. in our policy the broader it is but they mean by a liberal then i have to say that i'm a liberal. liberals did all those things i like i listed and what were the

conservatives doing the whole time saying no just like they're doing today republicans opposed every single one of those things i just mentioned. well besides trying to undermine each of these accomplishments i just listed conservatives have their own agenda it's conservatives who gave massive irresponsible tax cuts to the top one percent tax cuts that created massive deficits for our children as a reagan triple the national debt and now george w. bush tacked another six trillion dollars on the national debt it's conservatives who drag our country recently into two wars that have bankrupted this nation killed more than six thousand american soldiers and maimed displaced or murdered millions of civilians in the middle east it's conservatives who want to destroy the environmental protection agency and the f.d.a. and the u.s.d.a. because clean and safe food air and water isn't profitable for their corporate overlords it's conservatives like phil gramm who pushed to rick repeal glass

steagall and set the stage for wall street to go crazy and crash our economy with a housing bubble it's conservatives who are trying to destroy labor unions and those have driven middle class wages into stagnation for thirty years while corporate c.e.o. paychecks just get fatter and fatter and fatter leading to the largest wealth inequality in america since the one nine hundred twenty s. right before the conservative policies of presidents harding coolidge and herbert hoover threw our nation into the great depression it's conservatives who want to erase the last century in america and return this nation to a time when the robber barons ran the show and the rest of the of the country the rest of america was the working poor so when herman cain and the rest of the conservatives say liberals are on a mission to destroy the united states they just have to wonder what the hell are they talking about especially herman cain who wouldn't even be able to make a living much less run for president had it not been for liberals of all races and

willing to fight and die for the rights of all. as the famed conservative ideologues william f. buckley famously noted a conservative is a fellow standing athwart history yelling stop oh thanks to liberals look forward mother march of human history hasn't stopped and let's make sure it never does. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered this is our website so tom hartman dot com free speech dot org and our to dot com you can also check out our tribute to trails there are links or votes on our own dot com this entire show and pieces of it are available is free video podcast on i tunes and we have a free thom hartmann i phone and i pad app in the app store you can send us feedback and twitter and tell members who are on facebook tom for the score of our blogs message boards and our telephone comment line it's our been dot com. and

don't forget democracy begins when you show up it begins when you participate it begins when you get involved get out there show up occupy something and your it will see them. down to the official ulti obligation your only phone pulled touch from the shops to . see. the old tomorrow all keys mine field goals. and. now with the palm of your. question on the comb.

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