action needed all skydiving. coming up a british charity organisation busted by parliament so what does the scandal in the u.k. have to do with a tory is right wing think tanks are here in the united states an answer that after the break. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who made decisions it's completely great kuwait's. who can you trust no one who eats and you with global mission where we had a state controlled capitalism is called south shields we nobody dares to redo our t. question more.

thought about the big picture i'm sorry harben coming up in this half hour and sort of thing say 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 think progress report relief on breaks down the scandal just months and g.o.p. presidential candidate herman cain continues to be the conductor b.i.m. became crazy train is late as the liberal bashing incites deleting.

there's a scandal brewing in the u.k. that could take down and it's tory as right wing organization here in the united states and no i'm not talking about rip of rupert murdoch's news corp although that could happen 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 para known as the atlantic bridge but earlier this month the u.k.'s government shutdown alex a british affiliate afterwards 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 up that it led to the resignation of prime minister david cameron's defense secretary liam fox 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 blogger for the progress of the phone lee welcome back to us become nice to you great to have you with us let's start at the beginning first of all just a quick recap of alec you want to give us a summary of where they are what they're all about where they came from sure well there's this thirty year organization of american legislative exchange council i guess it incorporated as

a nonprofit but actually this. self lobbying front basically a large fortune five hundred corporations from koch industries and peabody coal to mcdonalds and eighteen tea they paid sponsorship 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 gain a lot of prominence in the last year because republicans made some of the largest gains at the state level in the entire republican party history in two thousand and ten so now instead of republican primaries lost out is the key factor lawmaker from the last bits of florida so it's a amazing so how did alec 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 and david cameron circle and they set up the atlantic bridge officially in two thousand and three took 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 but 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 a if the governor of a of a province or a state or whatever they call them in italy for example had shut down the vote and thus has ensured his brother silvio berlusconi became prime minister would 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. the rather tight election

was that they have their i mean their supreme their if their 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 there and is that the the essence of the scandal or is that something i'm missing something else altogether here's the fascinating part of this scandal alec is operated as it is a dummy. fracture 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 billion atlanta bridge 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 for a hedge fund manager with interests in all types of different weapons making

companies and the same lobbyist associated with atlantic bridge has acted as a high level and pfizer to the defense secretary in the u.k. liam fox so as this kind of unfolds many lived and labor members of parliament are calling for a broader inquiry to follow the money and if you follow the money which we began to do i 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's a big defense contractor lobbyist party at the mandarin oriental hotel in washington d.c. which is 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 the 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 and 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 our. democratic oversight to 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 and that's so that's a remarkable you leave father in the center for american progress as think progress or broadly thanks for the incredibly great reporting that you continue to do it's always a pleasure having you on thank you so much for having me tom good to see you.

as the good the bad and the very and this is so good the salie ugly the good the 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 poured into the resolution quote it's an open question whether cat of us is useful or not that question can only be answered dozens of legalized and 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 in between a patient and 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 katter is changes to not occupy wall street moving on from calling it a dangerous mob now saying that he sympathizes with them it's clear candor still doesn't get in an interview yesterday with fox news he had said the best way to address the concerns of the occupy movement is more money to the rich but we know in this country white now that there is a complaint about folks at the top end of the income scale that they made too much in too many don't make enough what we need to go 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 we're about 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 and of course we should rely on republicans to address poverty. and a very very ugly sheriff joe arpaio herman cain drew 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 a real sense. electrified . this. oh this is this is big think you know you get criticized mr this is it is this is it is this is this is it is going to come to the united states. and the citizens and. this

is. this. came later walker back saying he was just joking. he said in an event in tennessee that you would build an electrified fence on the border they could kill people if they tried to cross illegally that's a joke he jokes another joke that's a joke that's not a serious point it's not a serious point you've got to be glad that it does what you did that's a joke i've also said that america needs to get a sense of humor that was a joke. the sheriff joe arpaio isn't joking marilee he thinks that deadly electric fences are great i. am sure he was joking but he probably means that he's taking it serious to do something at the border and stop do you legal immigration but joking about killing illegal immigrants means cain is taking the immigration problems seriously i'm sure if cain want to joke about nuking mexico our would have fallen head over here. and that's very here. after the break herman

cain says liberals are out to destroy this country and ideally take on a current game where she was out delivering pizzas again. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions conclude you've. made who can you trust no one who sees and. we've had lobal nation we've seen where we had a state controlled capitalism and school satchels we nobody there is to redo our t. question more.

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 shouldn't be honoring christopher columbus with a national holiday frankly because his legacy was one of rape and murder and shame that a lot of positive feedback on that day was to agree to christopher call columbus doesn't deserve a national director of recognition one you're also had a suggestion for an entirely new american holiday rima wrote instead of honoring

columbus how about honoring a woman one of our holidays honors american women how about one of the suffragettes i love eleanor roosevelt but know that she is too controversial but we've got i couldn't agree with you more this country has benefited from the. 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 boring you to be republican negative comments about the affordable health care act please quote the meaning given to it. there before about how care 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 one quoting republicans i think it's 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 and that is from a post on tom hartman dot com one listener asked tom mentioned a study on one of his radio shows that showed that suicide homicide increased on 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 yesterday and team analyzed suicide statistics for new south wales between one thousand nine hundred one when the federal government australia was established and tracked that up in 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 queerly 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 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 into power in two thousand and one it was actually up 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 let's not. we want to know your son that you found him by the zeenat aman facebook page played with tom underscore apartment or in the chat room on the message board you see the blog and can also leave a message on when line it would seem likely six thirty three zero six agree disagree sound odd it's all wrong the remember that your comments made news on the . republican presidential front runner herman cain doesn't like liberals here's what he said about liberals yesterday on 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 effective of the liberals is to destroy this country to destroy this country how so economically 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 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 in defense we can cut that's destroying it even liberals actually seek to do that that's their mission to destroy the economy that's the conclusion that i have drawn not mismanagement you know it 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 are discouraged.

liberals are destroying. virtually every. that they touched the feeding liberalism we solve our problem so if we all work together we solve a problem if we get rid of nagai some of our problem is liberals who are out smashing 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 quote 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 gone 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 it was also a liberal who put in place glass steagall after the crash of twenty nine that reigned 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 that kept americans mainly in their arms and dangerous machinery are dying in factory fires because the fire exits were locked like of the triangle shirtwaist factory in new york. liberals put in place child labor laws to end the exploitation of ten year olds 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 half and america in a single generation banks of the great society. liberals brought us the forty hour workweek and overtime pay the minimum wage workers compensation safe food and drugs a balanced federal budget and the f.d.i.c to insure your back deposits clean air and water the g.i. bill and peace corps student grant home long programs employer paid vacations pensions and medical insurance national parks and municipal fire departments as j.f.k. said in one nine hundred sixty. minutes mean when they apply what is legal several

years by little they know that a lot of people who believe someone who really saw him get it policies abroad and will against local government and who would not be concerned with the fact they are no then the record of this body and it's going to demonstrate that we are not that kind of liberal but if by a liberal they mean someone who looks like they are and not behind someone who welcomes new ideas but i read your reactions to someone who cares about the welfare of the people their health their home their schools their job davis they're all right dan didn't they will have a decent standard who believe that we didn't break through the stalemate and begin that rebuttal in our politics that brought it back to what they mean by a liberal then to say that i'm a liberal. liberals did all of those things 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 but 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 that's a reagan triple the national debt and how 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 and 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 rick repealed glass steagall which set the stage for wall street to go crazy and crash our economy with

the 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 through our nation of 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 and 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 fame conservative ideologues

william f. buckley famously noted a conservative is a fellow standing athwart history yelling stop well thanks to liberals the forward 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 it's a tom hartman dot com free speech or there are two dot com you can also check out our two you tube channels along sort of tom are the know how this entire show and pieces of it are available is free video podcast on i tunes and we have a free tom hartman i phone and i pad out in the app store you can send us feedback to twitter of sa members who are going on facebook tom for those who are over our blogs message boards and our telephone comment line it's been dark. 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 sit him. down to the official party how to change your i phone or you pulled touch from the . life on the. video on demand exceeds mine rolled costs and or a sense feeds now in the palm of your. machine on the call.

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