video on demand. minefield costs. are assessed for each with the palm of your. on the dot com. hello i'm tom arbonne in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture the iraq war is over but sadly our military misadventures elsewhere around the world continue while the middle class here at home is dying so when will our lawmakers understand that the death of the middle class and not terrorists is the biggest threat to america and what's it like being a political prisoner in the united states get the inside story of one journalists during ordeal in police custody along occupy wall street patriots and later to

understand the soul of the republican party we need to take a look at newt gingrich's vision for america painfully will do just that in tonight's daily take. you need to know this today the war in iraq is officially over but began as a shock and awe campaign nearly nine years ago ended quietly this morning with u.s. troops taking down an american flag flying over baghdad over four thousand troops now remain in iraq and they'll all be home by the end of the year one hundred or so remaining to go to the u.s. embassy and but that's it in the end nearly four thousand five hundred u.s. soldiers gave their lives for george bush's war and another thirty thousand were injured hundreds of thousands of civilians iraqi soldiers were killed and millions

more displaced by bush and rove. what we're leaving behind is separate sectarian violence still lingering in the wake of years of foreign occupation we now know that this was an illegal war it was a war that george w. bush was hell bent on starting well before he was even elected president as he told his biographer mickey herskowitz in one thousand nine hundred nine he was going to invade iraq to become a wartime president so he could get enough political capital to privatized social security same way reagan got a bump from the grenada invasion george w. bush got his war and it exacted an incredible toll on our nation soldiers our treasure and our reputation around the world in a ceremony from baghdad secretary of defense leon panetta said we do not forget the lessons of war let's hope not and let's never again let a war criminal president drive us into

a war just to up his approval numbers and now let's remember that we are still fighting a full fledged war in afghanistan we are still fighting a slew of covert wars in far off place far off places around the world from pakistan to somalia to yemen and we still have an empire of nine hundred military bases all over the planet still a long way to go to escape one of our founding fathers james madison's greatest fear when he said of all the enemies of liberty war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises an develops the germ of every other no nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare and of quote his warning is just as relevant today as it was when he said this two hundred years ago with one war down maybe we can begin fork of focusing on the crisis here at home the crisis that still threatens our economy which is massive unemployment and the death of the

middle class. new numbers from the census bureau have just come out and they are grim and one in two americans half the nation are living in poverty or are living in low income lifestyles basically half of this country is poor a survey of twenty nine mirrors around the country found that one in four americans who showed up in need of food assistance and by and large were eligible didn't receive any help since the banks toure's wrecked our economy forward three years ago four million homes have been foreclosed on and each year more than one and a half million children end up homeless perman cain famously said a few months ago this statement and it's been echoed since in words and certainly in tone and intent by several prominent republicans. i don't have facts to back this up but i happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned

and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the obama administration don't blame wall street don't blame the big banks if you don't have a job and you're not rich blame you'll say you don't think the banks so how's the pizza man going to react to this chart. for thirty four straight months there have been more than four unemployed job seekers for every one job opening. it's simple math there just are enough jobs in america anymore. it's really it's quite remarkable when you look at this because you know this is the last two years of the bush administration this obama comes in office the the stimulus act goes into into law we're at about here and really comes into effect right about here and here you see the effect of the stimulus act actually starting to put people back to work but we're still way either higher than we should be earlier this year for example

a million people. showed up when mcdonald's advertise that they're going to hire sixty thousand folks million people shouldn't they have a better chance of getting accepted into harvard university than getting a job mcdonald's when that's true you know something's really functionally wrong with the country meanwhile corporate c.e.o.'s saw as much as a forty percent increase and last year in their pay at twenty five of the biggest corporations in america the c.e.o.'s are paid more than the entire corporation paid in taxes and g.o.p. t.v. still wonders why americans are occupying the streets then there is this article from the front page of today's financial times is titled seven hundred forty billion dollars a gap threaten a threat to u.s. recovery but you get what it says what the article says is that the share of national income goes to workers' wages versus investors' profits has gone from the old traditional fifty sixty three percent down to fifty eight percent this is the

lowest level that they have recorded since world war two in fact the article itself said this is the this is the financial times you know the rich people going to rich people so that if wages were at their post war average rate of sixty three percent workers would earn seven hundred forty billion dollars this year about i thousand dollars per worker can you imagine what an extra five thousand bucks for every worker in the united states not just the families all the way out you've got a lot of two family workers to work or families rather ten thousand dollars what would that do for the average american family that right now is falling out of the middle class it's not like our country is run out of money the money's there but it's been transferred from the working class to the investing class this is really a form of theft and warren buffett says it's class warfare and his classes when. i call it that and it's the reason why people young and old are in the streets. it's

there all around the world but in particular here in america to many we put an end to this economy that's of the rich by the rich and frankly for the rich we need to do something about this for more on how we got to this point and what needs to be done now. now that we're here on turned over to my panel just who are graca journalists occupy wall street participant us with the official word and same sex political writer progressive strategist gentlemen both great to have you here with us thank you jesse i'm curious to do the by and large you've. visited occupy wall street groups literally all over the country. do you think that the average person involved in occupy wall street gets that a lot of what's going on tracks back to reagan's radical changes in our tax policies is his suspension in eighty two for all practical purposes the sherman act

that allowed all these corporations to get so big that there's actually a political basis to this that it was intentional there absolutely is a political basis because the policies that we pushed forward set the priorities for the country and as we've given time spake after tax break i call it a tax bail out to the wealthiest people in society we've created a massive disadvantage we should be getting in advantage of the people who need it most not the people who need it least but the idea that a trickle down system is the pathway to prosperity is totally flawed and the mantis proven it doesn't work so as a loser that warren said that thing you keep doing stop doing it and i feel that if we're going to have a society that's equitable and a place where everyone has a chance to prosper to really participate the american dream then we have to ask everybody to participate and that includes the people who are most capable of doing so and do you think that the average occupy wall street person gets that is that is that a shared as opposed to your personal oh no i think everybody understands that as we

went from an economy that had a surplus and millions of jobs being created under the clinton administration we pursued policies that created tremendous deficits and didn't add any overall value to the average worker since the beginning of the george w. bush administration the average person saw their income decrease at the same time. the wealthiest one percent among this had actually better than ever so it makes it very obvious sam the right wingers would say well it's because nine eleven nine eleven changed everything you know george bush didn't ask for nine eleven to let it happen and well this this isn't anything new here i mean we saw the same thing happen in play out in the one nine hundred twenty s. and roosevelt then called these people economic royalists and what he what he did is he. he redefined the purpose of government and he said government isn't isn't here to make sure the capitalist can make as much money as they want or as he called them economic royalists government is here to create a middle class to create a good prosperous life for the majority of people and the way you do that is

through progressive tax what you do that is through empowering labor unions. you know the right wants to call that redistribution of wealth well if you don't have those things then wealth is reduced tributed but just to the very very top you need a government in place to keep a middle class healthy keep it prosperous and now all those policies that roosevelt put in place after world war two have been rolled back and we're back in that same situation of again of the working poor an economic crash and so the parents of the one east asia who all over again exactly bubble popped and we had the roaring first decade of the twentieth century twenty first century and then when the bubble popped the media narrative jesse have completely shifted since occupy wall street everybody was historical hysterical about the deficit before they were playing out the old june when proposal in the late seventy's that when republicans are in office they should spend like crazy and and then when democrats get in office they should scream about the debt and they they have been so disciplined in doing this

the media had so followed this and so occupy wall street came along do you think that occupy wall street going to be able to keep the focus on. the ninety nine percent rather than you know the history about the debt and what's next for occupy wall street in terms of you know directions or focus all of the focus is eager to be easy casual because inside the beltway there's a different universe when you go into the rest of the country people are very aware of the state of affairs that we have looking at us so it's one of the tips of the tones of so many people that the beltway media and the corporate media folks at fox news they can't make this go away no matter what they want to make up of it now as far as taking the next step i would like to see boots on the ground translate into political cap. i mean at the end of the day mortars are all well and good but we need to change the laws whether it's campaign finance reform whether it's wall street reform a number of issues restoring glass steagall whatever you have a little you know martin luther king never changed the law but because of what he

did laws change so you're talking about influencing legislators or becoming legislators to be honest i think both might be useful tack to take the tea party did an excellent job of exerting their influence over the republican party but what do they get the same corporate as policies that failed this country under reagan through bush and the most hated congress in american history which is quite a bit to achieve i would say that we need to look at both sides to take on the system from the inside and the outside and i tell people you know at the end of the day i think laws need to be changed specifically campaign finance and among a number of issues but we need to have this conversation that's the first step and then taking what the night whatever ideas emerge from that conversation and moving it forward marching the flag further down the field so that the average person can prosper and share in the american dream to me that is the number one goal and i'm very very well said will be back with more on this in particular what our lawmakers are doing about this is that this is just a moment. drives

the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through had sort of the been made who can you trust no one who is in view with a global missionary zeal where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more.

welcome back i'm joined by journalist not by wall street protests when jesse and political writer and progressive strategist sam sacks want to turn now to what was makers on capitol hill are up to what they're doing to confront this economic crisis facing the middle class you know it enormous amounts of economic damage can be done to the middle class if this payroll tax extension doesn't get passed or some kind of stimulus in that we're talking about you know basically a thousand dollars for a family for one hundred sixty million families this is going to be sucked out you know i'm very ambivalent about this i don't think it should be a payroll tax cut to begin with that's a whole other argument but it looks like you know the and the democrats are saying ok. take a little bit of money from the from the millionaires and billionaires and let's give a little to the average person because are absolutely unwilling to go along with

that sam you're chomping at the bit you what do you have to say about i think this debate i mean put aside all of the economics of it put aside all that this debate gets right to the heart of what's going on and why occupy wall street is in the streets and that's if there was a if if there was a proposal to extend the bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires for another two years do you think republicans would be asking for a pay for do you think they'd be trying to attach. you know let's get the pipeline passed. pipeline approval let's repeal it no they want a clean bill let's just pass it so here we have a similar situation in which there's a there's a tax cut that all effect mostly middle class people hundred sixty million americans and republicans you know want to want to jam jam packed full of poison pills essentially and democrats are caving on it nobody seems to be fighting for the middle class right now and i guess the democrats have come out and they said ok no well we'll find a way to pay for it will do spending cuts which is exactly what the republicans wanted all along just massive spending cuts want to put something on the table like

or you don't do millionaire tax well let's repeal the oil subsidies let's let's make republicans choose between multibillion dollar transnational oil corporations or hundred sixty million middle class americans make them have these tough choices they seem so willing to go out there you're assuming that the democrats can be you know organized and disciplined and and you know will rogers famously said i don't belong to a political party i'm a democrat and that was one hundred years ago i mean is but but jesse occupy wall street is even more diffuse disorganized has a negative tone to it but but let's say horizontal then the democratic party and you know. i think was chris matthews actually who said something i thought was profound he said republicans want a leader democrats want to go to a meeting and and i think there's something truth of that and i think that there's actually some good truth to that that the republicans are like you know ok we march in lockstep democrats are like oh yeah prove it to me convince me i think act by

wall street folks are in many cases kind of of that school so you were talking about let's do this and this of this how do you take a movement whether it's the democratic party or whether it's occupy wall street or whether it's progressive democrats of america or you know fill in the blank how do you take movement politics and convert them into into political action particularly when people on the left have a long history of of embrace seen diversity of opinion. i'd say diversity of opinion is a blessing i don't want to be a part of any sort of monolithic world view i think that we should have all the voices that we can on our side at the same time though you know i just disagree with you that respectfully there are people fighting for working class people it's all us it's guys like you it's honest people who are willing to make sacrifices for the change they want to see and it's very moment to end it or i don't want to throw the baby out with the bath with the mothers and the progressive caucus the progressive called as you've got people like bernie sanders are doing the right thing what really makes me laugh about this conversation the way politics

influences economics is great thought the republican party was the tax cut party i thought it was that end of the world if they ever saw a task go up under their watch but it's a guy like me making less than twenty thousand dollars a year we have a break that will but god forbid it ever happens to a billionaire god forbid the richest guy in the room loses a penny now we've got to shut down the whole government and just to address that point and move forward i would say that we need to do more than anything else is talk about what's not working only then can we identify the ideas that have obviously failed and move forward ideas that are going to be prosperous for everybody now very very well said sam a question about medicare and it's a ron wyden came out and basically made you know kissy face with paul ryan and it's making the democrats in oregon crazy of the calls into my radio show or any indication in the minute we have left i'm curious your thoughts about what possible reason could why ron wyden of had to do this could it be that he just got snookered you know that he just wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree or that he did

something really elegant and brilliant we haven't figured it out or that he got bought off or that he's been actually had several people suggest he's been blackmailed that he's planning a change party i don't get it yet and there is i have no idea why you did this except for this there's there's been this president obama has said i'm going to be the first post partisan president and we saw we saw how that worked out i think ron wyden still might think that he can reach across party lines and try and come up to compromise but what he doesn't realize is that. we're dealing with forces within the republican party that are launching this sold on the social safety net that has been present at the hasn't been seen since it's been created when you have forces that are more radical than at any other time your sister you going back almost the civil war and if you want to try and meet those forces halfway then you've already lost and ron wyden has already lost and he's he's handed republicans a real weapon for the next election saying oh yeah well sure we tried to you were to medicare but you know when your progressive senators on our side to is taken away from the democrats the one big wagon they had jesse sam thank you guys both

being with us tonight it's going to much the moving on from what's happening on the streets in the halls of government to what's happening in the bowels of our criminal justice system over five and a half thousand patriots have been arrested for taking part in the occupy wall street movement and one of those patriots joins me now to discuss his ordeal as a temporary political prisoner of the united states i'd like to welcome from our new york studios now john canal independent journalist regular contributor to the faster times and co-host of radio dispatch john walker thank you for having me a pleasure to have you with us i think we have a picture of you here just before getting arrested. in fact here it is what were you doing at that point and what led to your arrest this is you on the ground was it all around you. i was covering the actions for the d twelve which was a solidarity action with the west coast port shutdown and at the time i was

filming arrests that were happening in the winter garden a white shirt which means a lieutenant or higher in the police department turned around and he said you got press credentials i said no he grabbed my arm and he said then get in there he threw me to the ground and my glasses came off and i grabbed them i said you're going to break my glasses and that's where that picture comes from and i was able to get my phone back in my pocket and as a result i actually filmed my own arrest which i then posted to my twitter feed that's remarkable what was like in police custody there in new york city. well the ordeal began and they put me in in cuffs and i was one of seventeen who arrested the woman that i was placed next to immediately actually still had her bass drum on she's

a drummer for the orchestra the mechanical or orchestra of st marching band and she was arrested wearing her bass drum so that really gives you a sort of sense of the absurdism of what we went through i was held for a total of thirty seven hours at one point again a sort of distillation of how. sort of soviet this felt at various points we were transported from the seventh precinct in the dead of night at about four am three am four am in a paddy wagon to central booking now we were brought to this paddy wagon in shackles we were all ten of us to the ten men who were arrested were handcuffed together. our feet were handcuffed put our wrists were handcuffed in pairs of tubes and we were led into a paddy wagon that was in there was no light and that we were driven about you know

we were driven around town and taken to central booking and when we got out actually one of the other cops who was in the paddy wagon with us went around and said oh my gosh you didn't even turn the light on because this one police officer named people eric was giving us a hard time the whole time we were then paraded through central booking it shackled together for about two hours until we were finally put in a holding cell in what's referred to as the tombs while i understand you declined the optional retina scan. scan and why did you decline and what happened. the retinal scan is something that very few people know about and it's very very important to get the word out the retinal scan is a voluntary procedure but it's voluntary only in the most empty sense of the words voluntary unless you decline it which point you will be punished so when we were

initially processed at four five in the morning we said all ten of us said that we would not consent to the retinal scan which is just a further encroachments of the ever pervasive security state that we live in it's a sort of symptom similar to the rapid scan machines that you see in airports everywhere now and if you don't submit to this ever expanding surveillance state you are hassled and intimidated and hurdles are put in your way before you are given your liberty again so we declined the retinal scan the first time now at our arraignment right before our arraignment after we had been in jail for about thirty six hours court was just about over there was only about two hours left in court and one of us a protester and citizen journalist named paul was called into court before he was let in the officers said ok before you can be arraigned you have to take

a retinal scan paul said no i already declined this i'm not going to do it and he was then sent back to the arraignment cell at which point we were told that if we didn't submit to the retina scan we would most likely be held overnight which would have resulted in i don't know how much longer detention would have been but our lawyers the elegy were members of the l.g. the national lawyers guild guild said that if we declined the retina scan we would there was about a ninety percent chance we would be held for another night luckily they were able to leverage their institutional cache if you will to get us out that night but we were very clearly threatened with with another night in jail if we didn't just do what we were told that's absolutely remarkable john thanks so much for coming out and sharing your story with us. thanks very much and for writing the great piece you did you people can read over at salon thank you very much.

praise the a large boston canine camp often dogs bite men rarely men but dogs even rarer dogs shoot men but this week a florida man was shot through the leg with his bulldog elijah's charged a rifle sitting between the man underwent surgery and is now in stable condition oddly though this is the second time in two weeks someone's been shot by their own dog roughly two weeks ago a utah man was shot in the butt when his dog pulled a dick cheney while they were out. he too is recovering so much for being man's best friend right there spike kept guns around the house i'd frankly be a bit concerned about my cat higgens getting ahold of. coming up democrats in wisconsin are gearing up to celebrate a very important milestone tonight find out what it is when we come back.

drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through that sort of being made who can you trust no one who is you in view with a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more.

well go back to the big picture i've been coming up in this half hour wisconsin's governor scott walker is watching the clock and the signature comes as democrats get closer and closer to launching a recall election. not in his favor today and the world's newest country has begun the difficult task of nation building and the role of the women of south sudan will play on the future of their country is at the forefront of meetings taking place right here in washington d.c. and in this week's edition of the key science i'll tell you why water a phony fathers was way ahead of the time of his diet.