oh i'm charming in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture first of all herman cain just held a press conference to say that all you had to say to one woman is you're the. lawyer. now let's continue with some real news for a controversial ban on collective bargaining rights for unions in ohio the state of mississippi moving one step closer to criminalizing abortion the super tuesday was not short on big ticket ballots polls around the country get ready to close we'll have the latest on election day twenty one plus trillions biggest polluters will

now have to foot the bill for all of the damage that they're causing to the environment so why can't we hold our corporate polluters just as accountable here in the united states and surprise surprise the corporate media is again one step behind the biggest story to unfold in the united states in years i guess we'll tell you why. you need to know this it's election day also known as the day when voters across the nation can have their say about the radical anti-american agenda being pushed by republicans at the top of the list issues soon to be decided is the fate of s.b. five the law passed by senate republicans to strip public sector workers of their legal rights to collectively park early polling showed harsh anti-union laws headed for repeal today as a majority of ohioans told pollsters that they're against the right wing war on

labor and gov casey overstepped his mandate meanwhile up in maine voters go to the polls to repeal several new laws passed by republicans to make it harder for people to vote is new law. now require vote right any more difficult for people to register and they shorten early voting fraud into reporting from the center for american progress a secret conservative donor is don't take million dollars into the election in that state to make sure that these laws stay on the books but early polling in maine also showed a majority of voters in support of repealing these anti-democratic words so as the votes are being counted right now there's a chance that come tomorrow workers in ohio will be allowed to collectively bargain again and voters in maine will be able to vote unfortunately down in mississippi it looks like voters will give personhood rights to fetuses laying the groundwork for not only prohibiting legal abortion even in the cases of rape incest or the survival of the mother because also prohibits birth control and in vitro

fertilization and make it illegal for a woman as little as one week pregnant who has just been diagnosed with cancer make it illegal for her to receive chemotherapy because that would endanger the microscopic cluster of cells in her womb with the other states in a moment and more from ohio first jim dean of democracy for america is on the ground in ohio and on the phone with us for a quick check in a general can say tom i was just fine great to great to hear from you what democracy for america doing in ohio where we're going to watch a campus is mostly in the cleveland area and i came out you just spent some time with those folks and we've got a bunch of members have i don't fit in all that action campuses that are being done by labor various different labor we're going to stations out here so we certainly want to do what we can to support this great effort and a very optimistic place down and we're just waiting for anybody to come in and what

one of the koch brothers and their many employees and. whatever doing. well that's the real rub their job they put on this judge judy campaign and radio campaign and robo call campaign dock to debate this issue but to confuse the voters on this issue you want to repeal s.b. five and restore collective bargaining rights you vote no on issue two had they been tried to basically switch the wording around and actually mislead the voters into voting yes on his shoe to for the benefit of collective bargaining rights i mean it really is just unbelievable the way they've been doing i said you know they had to stop it without success and they won our campuses and particularly a cleveland we ran into some people primarily older voters who were confused by this issue but as they say nothing better than a canvas or a fallback it's a strain to people out and again we're very optimistic about what's going to happen

today ok that's great jim vande democracy for america dot com jim keep up the very work thanks for checking in with this job this let me now want to turn over to my panel for around the puts the day's big alexion is wild cliff schecter national progressive p.r. strategist at liberty bell see and syndicated columnist and al-jazeera english an author of the book the real mccain and here in the studio amanda beadle reporter marauder and blogger at think progress great to have a great with her thank you thank you. yeah cliff just distant with you you live in ohio you're a resident of ohio what's your sense of what's going on. i mean i do think you know without counting my you know getting too excited every time i meet is going to go go down i mean look the last going to be at all like twenty five points you know fifty seven or thirty two said that this thing was going to be defeated i'm never seem so much grassroots activism as i've seen around this right now you know nobody

here i guess leaving it a lot of firemen and police to skip their hours but no you know it's the courage to have a yes once you sign there you are only ever seen election where that happens you know so you combine all that with what went on to wisconsin and john cusack's of glaurung anything towards you know thirty percent or below the one point three million people that signed you know the petitions to get this thing on the ballot i would say that you know it looks like john cusack's going to have a very bad night and what jim just mentioned that there's a lot of misinformation designed to confuse voters into voting. thinking that they're voting yes to strike down the law when in fact they would be voting has to affirm it or you were running across the juries everywhere i mean jim had it exactly right on the ground just information on t.v. here the human took a t.v. ad where you know a grandmother talked about how she was against a shoot to to help firefighters who took her words and twisted them and turned in

their own ad trying to claim his grandmother was for issue two so there's really nothing they won't do i mean if you know it's the koch brothers right we don't like we haven't run into this before someone president but it just you know better example of what levels these folks will sink to try to trick people and hopefully start working with leaders there seems to be a big cushion and the excitement around here is very powerful that's great and you know we'll we'll all be finding out tomorrow how our how goes on amanda elsewhere in maine voters are here in a poll what's going on there and they in maine they're working on. trying to figure out a better idea was that they're going to decide based on whether or not they're going to put more searches on his going to be allowed to vote i think especially the bigger three main. has to do with same day registration that they have some policies that historically leave us to work we had and some of the politicians who are now campaigning against this have used the same day registration so it's if you want to talk about hypocrisy that's one example well that's you know that's the

whole way we're famously back in the eighty's or things were going to reagan's campaign you know our leverage in the elections goes up as the number of voters goes down and that's been the republican moderate for thirty years that is going to decrease the number of voters so when you've already seen them go out we've already been going after students and this is just further tightening of their election laws and preventing campaign and in mississippi this personhood vote i mentioned some of the possible bizarre side effects what are first of all was i exaggerating or is. that i would say that's not exaggeration at all but it's one of the. huge repercussions and if you think about it that basically had full rights to it since cells as you mentioned is there as it says i go before a woman even though she's pregnant her fetus could have rights and if i remember right the word person appears nine thousand times in the mississippi constitution so you're talking about something that has enormous cost enormous consequences that

in two thousand and eight sixty one thousand women in mississippi. just after birth control and it's going to get back to the women would not be able to access it you know i've heard that if this law passes in mississippi and it looks like it might literally the moment a woman knows that she's pregnant the moment that there's a positive. test. a lawyer could be assigned to her that she could be basically ankle to you know given to some kind of a cough that would determine whether there was any alcohol or any other any other substance in her bloodstream continuously monitoring your bloodstream because she is now basically would be the custodian of a human being that is the. has actually more rights than she does of her life is at risk she has to die to save that life yes if you think about it talking pregnancies there are other medical situations where say for a woman has a. partial miscarriage or

a miscarriage begins but isn't complete they would they would not be able to go in and save her life because of it for basically. the child would out of it would not be viable at that point and. it's it's one of those things that would put such extreme limitations on women and this is taking the specter pre roe v wade that this is this is nothing within the margin of revote is so razor thin but i've seen groups all day nationwide saying you know anyone mississippi encourage them to go vote remind them to vote no trying to get is going to pull out if they can and cliff you i realize you deal with issues nationwide as well as just in ohio but what's in the minute we have left what's your carry home from the elections nationwide today as well as well i mean obviously going down a shooter is huge here you know i think in virginia it's really important because if we lose the state senate democrats to you and you'll have it right when control of bob mcdonnell at the top and the toss up you know from what i've read and what i

know so that is just i think a really important you know in ohio we've seen what can happen in florida in other states when the right wing gets control everything so the state senate is like that one holdout so i think that's a really important election i just you should actually be older and there's a number and obviously what happens dana i want your time i want to ask you if asked as long mississippi with what you said about operations will you know if a zygote is a percival's i don't know if you look aeration to. what some are direct to you know will is i don't have the right to throw an election. and i did not zero in a pregnant woman claim it's actually duction you know from the moment of pregnancy as you know where i'm going with this yeah i mean the well this is this is you know welcome to pandora's box of and the cliff thank you both very. was a slot with the fate of ohio senate bill five breathing its last breaths a new study by the bureau of labor statistics proves that the right wing assault on public sector workers is completely baseless according to the study federal employees make on average twenty six percent less than private sector employees

that's right those dreaded government workers republicans claim are living high off the hog are actually getting screwed so now we know that when republicans rave about public sector employees getting paid too much and i'll pay because they're needed is plain and simple about destroying the last large unions that exist government worker unions and in the process killing off a major supporter of the democratic party. it's time for a duly poll your chance to tell us what you think here's today's question australia's parliament yesterday passed a historic law to tax carbon emissions will a carbon tax be coming to america soon your choices are yes it's long overdue for the us or you know the republicans will never allow a carbon tax to come up for a vote log out of town are going to come to tell us what you think the vote will be open until tomorrow. coming up the party is over for big polluters in australia but

their american counterparts are still in a pretty solid majority to move. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through get through and if we may who can you trust no one who is you know view with the global machinery to see where we hadn't state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do you r t question more.

there was a huge victory for the planet yesterday as australia passed eight you harben tax law australian prime minister julia gillard gerar chilled arctic season played a key role in the walk through the lower chambers of government and in fierce opposition by big pollution interests she said that her nation made history and the law was finally passed beginning next july australia's five hundred biggest polluters will begin paying for the damage that they're causing the tax on every tonne of carbon emissions similar legislation was passed by democrats here in the united states the house of representatives back in two thousand and nine but it died in the senate thanks to republican filibuster former vice president al gore applauded the new australian writing this is

a historic moment but this vote the world has turned a pivotal corner in the collective effort to solve the climate crisis the day we celebrate tomorrow we do everything we can to ensure that this legislation is obsessed for so what does this new law mean and what are the chances of similar carbon taxes coming to the united states for some insight i'm joined by tyson slocum energy director of public citizen and kyle ash senior legislative representative of greenpeace usa welcome to both of you good to be here great to have you with us tyson right why did australia do what provoked this well i think that they're responding to what's going on internationally with continuing climate talks but i think that there is a political movement within australia that recognizes that they're going to have to take a leadership role they're a huge fossil fuel economy they're the largest exporter of coal really fueling china's boom and so there was a coalition of parties there led by the green party that really pushed this through

and what's going to be impressive to see is whether it withstands the continued political challenges as the fossil fuel industry fights. to try and repeal this law i think there's a lot of lessons to be learned with the united states it's a similar type of political situation where you have very influential fossil fuel lobbies with very sympathetic lawmakers to cause it wasn't this the completion of a of a campaign promise basically i mean in order to get the green party along with the with the labor coalition the prime minister had you know had committed in advance that this was going. to get election the prime minister actually had said that she wasn't going to embrace a carbon tax this was really an effort right this is really an effort by the green party which was an essential part of. the coalition coming to power that pushed for within the coalition and so i think it shows the power of the green party in australia and the fact that that even though the polls aren't totally favorable for

this it shows that there is some groundswell. for leadership on this issue kyle your thoughts on greenpeace you're with greenpeace usa green but you know this is happening all around the world there's many other countries that have done this kind of thing or variations on cap and trade relations. what do you think the prospects are here in the united states well that's a good question i mean i think it's important to talk about the australia legislation because it's a good signal. trains are doing it it's nice and mention because they want to be good citizens they're on a me i asked her capita emissions of any developed country. then i think that us is going to see that and they're going to see that the e.u. is moving forward with their emissions trading system they're closing their loopholes they're integrating emissions from aviation for instance they rule be growing pressure on the u.s. and one of the places where this will happen is in the coming climate talks in

durban and south africa. and that's this letters that starts in at the end of november yes for two weeks so so this. is this is a big push for that yet at the same time here in the united states tyson you know very very strong fossil fuel lobby i mean this is that they have power like that back lobby did thirty years ago it's just it's it's how can any politician stand up against well i think you're going to see it a couple of key variables come into play one is going to be beyond going talks the united states about our deficit and debt and as we try to desperately come up with new revenue sources when obama put together the deficit commission up until the last minute there was a carbon tax in a lot of the drafts and there are some principled conservatives in the united states that have signal support for a carbon tax so i think and i think well you've got the american enterprise institute and others that have papers that are those who have. you had several

members of congress that supported. a type of carbon pricing. cap and trade was actually originally a republican idea that's right and then and then you've got susan collins a republican senator from maine that was a co-sponsor of the only bipartisan climate bill in the senate last year which was a cap and dividend which essentially functions like a carbon tax so i'm not saying that the united states is anywhere close i think that that we have a significant domestic debate going on in in the united states talking about the science of climate change where as the rest of the world already recognizes that the science is compelling and clear that we need to take action cullen in health care in the united states what we're seeing is that states are taking the lead arguably massachusetts now a government saying they want single payer things like that is this the kind of thing that could be done on a state by state basis in the united states or is it does it really have to be national or not at all that's a good question especially since you have states like california that sort of are

a signal from the comment that well and they've already sort of done it with regard to carbonation then when they voted their rules for the cap and trade regime. and there's actually some talk about how to integrate the california regime outside of use of the house that's which is a problem but how to integrate that system in with the global system so as a state and a global system not as a state within the united as not as part of it is exactly so it's it's possible in practical terms but if you're talking about actually trying to have a collective global effort to reduce emissions globally on the scale that we need doing it state by state is not going to work so eventually we do need national as legislation in the us right and and from the point of view of greenpeace worldwide increasingly we're hearing that the problem has historically been the developed world but now it's the developing world as well thirty seconds we have left here what do you what's your take on with the developing school i mentioned that the

australian legislation is a good step forward and it's not perfect and needs to be strengthened australia needs to do something similar with regard to its fossil fuel subsidies or give the coal industry twenty four billion dollars last year in terms of subsidies to tax credits the us has the same problem so i think what we need to do through national efforts and also in terms of are our debate in the climate talk is give the industry a good signal for what's a good investment for energy coles a bad investment for energy go and it looks like solar is getting better and better . tyson thank you very much for playing it's been a pleasure issue australia joins the growing list of nations around the world that have recognised that one man made global warming is occurring and two something needs to be done about it conspicuously absent from that list the united states as long as we let oil barons and pseudo scientists funded by the koch brothers dictate our energy strategy and tragically will still be aligned with the rest of the world sees.

yeah i think my movement received a boost yesterday from senior citizens to send a message to congress about plans to cut medicare and social security cuts that will likely come out of the gang of twelve hundreds of senior citizen patriots occupied downtown intersection in chicago they were joined by nearby members of occupy chicago and other grassroots organizations as well as a few members of congress including representatives jan schakowsky and danny davis ultimately police moved in to break up the demonstration all in a way forty seven people mostly senior citizens in handcuffs you can add their names to the growing list of three thousand three hundred sixty two patriots who've been arrested since the occupy movement started more than a month and a half ago but these mass arrests of patriots instead of bank stores don't jive with the attitudes of post the american people the new n.b.c.

wall street journal poll shows occupy wall street popularity has surged to sixty percent of americans supporting the basic sentiments of the occupiers that's twice as much support as the tea party received in similar polls in the past so while more and more americans seem to be getting it when it comes to the ninety nine percent movement there's still one group that's war fully ignorant the corporate corporate media for more on this i'm joined by russ baker investigative journalist and editor of the website who what why dot com as well as author of the book family of secrets the bush dynasty russ welcome back to the program thanks tom great to be here great to have you with us gandhi was rumored to have said first they ignore you then they then then they ridicule you then they fight you then you win. do you does that quote summarize the the arc that occupy wall street is going through with the growth of the corporate media. i it certainly does as you may know

we have a piece up on our website who what why dot com about a remarkable piece in the new york times where the the new york times public editor wrote a column where he was very figure out what in the world is occupy wall street about how should the media cover it and then he reached out to a few colleagues two former top editors who now run journalistic training centers and he asked them how should we cover. occupy wall street and i was just absolutely astounded at what they said may i read a couple of those to you here if they're short and. yes sure ok so here's what this guy who runs a place called the pointer institute former managing editor of the st petersburg times he says to my mind the compelling question is how come these people are so angry and then the other one he quotes he runs another journalism school used to understand as a mercury news he says i can't paint

a picture of typical leaders and followers have i simply not followed it closely enough and then he says are the protesters exit lehman millionaires who lost it all in the meltdown or are they regular people who just can't get jobs this is the this is just astonishing that these guys who are supposed to be the professional question asker is and the narrator's of the american people are so add of touch with the concerns and the traumas that ordinary americans are facing and have been facing for years the seventy students walked out of the harvard economics class being taught by former bush economic advisor greg manque you and they said we're walking out today to join a boston wide march protesting the corporatization of higher education as part of the global occupy wall street movement since the biased nature of economics ten contributes to and symbolizes the increasing economic inequality in america were walking out of your class today both to protest your inadequate discussion of b.c

economic theory and to let our support to a movement that is changing america's discourse and economic justice sounds like this thing really has legs even though the press that you were just citing is clueless. well they really are close one of them says what are they protesting now the recession has been going on for four years and as i point out an article this is not a protest about the recession it's a protest about a system that is increasingly corrupt at its core on so many different levels economically as you just pointed out tom de the educational system increasingly clear that it's not designed to encourage people to think for themselves but to create compliant employees in the corporate world these kinds of things and and that in that places like the new york times don't understand that this is an organic movement that represents all of our concerns on so many different levels

that is really really telling and speaking of organic and you know the idea of crossing the. line shall we say there's been a lot of press attention to protesters versus police and yet down in atlanta something really remarkable has happened to you once i was about that. sure well the as i understand it the people in occupy atlanta had some problems as as other similar protests other cities do staying where they were in at that time they received an e-mail from the wife of a police officer in suburban gwinnett county up on pronouncing that correctly. sorry gwinnett county i used to live in atlanta but you know it had county right and and and she basically said that we are about to be evicted from our home has been a police officer and so occupy atlanta decided well we're going to go occupy their front log and they've gone there in solidarity with this police officer and his

family and they are helping them out and so far they have prevented their effects and i think this is very significant because this idea of police officers. and demonstrators being at each other's throats that's an artificial construct since police officers are working class and they own homes and they suffer just as much as everybody else it's very important to see this not as as i think that the one percent of the one percent would like it which is a bunch of disheveled people against law abiding people but the fact that the people who are the initial group that have gone out there represent a much broader and more diverse group that is central to the entire american experience and that's what i love about this situation there in atlanta where they are finally at least at least symbolically coming together so well said ross baker thanks so much for being with us tonight thank you very much and keep up the great

work it's just the fact that we're already been doing for years and years luckily occupy wall street has been able to grow and flourish despite the lack of reliable coverage in the corporate media let's hope it continues. crazy alert find a new eternal resting place a spanish cemetery is threatening to a vic thousands of people from their supposedly final resting places claiming that their leases are up and their caretakers and relatives need to pay up for some reason many spanish cemeteries no longer allow people to buy gravesites instead they offer leases up to forty nine years which falls well short of the intended move out day you know eternity already the remains of four hundred twenty people have been dug up for failure to pay rent but the backlash is now underway occupants of the graveyard to form their own afterlife political.