and then something else here sees some other part of it and realize that everything is. welcome to the big picture.

mr. last night we were all forced to listen to one more republican debate hosted by fox news it was the last time the candidates would be able to sell themselves for the iowa caucuses on january third let's be honest we were a lot less about specific policies this time around than we did about personal attacks coming from the candidates against one another we heard a lot about the threat that iran poses to the united states our ongoing war in afghanistan was completely ignored and there was no mention about some of those damning pieces of legislation and the economic crises either being passed or happening right at this moment right at this moment so it speak to somebody who

once again it was not allowed on that main stage last night joining me to discuss it is a gary johnson former two term governor of new mexico and republican presidential candidate governor i want to thank you for joining us again on the show always a pleasure to have you on and like i said once again you were not on that main stage last night and so as you looked at those candidates are any of those candidates people that you think are qualified to be the president of united states yeah i think ron paul i mean then ron paul. paul in two thousand and eight i thought i would provide stereo speakers to ron paul in in these debates and i think it is a message that resonates with most americans i think the fastest growing segment of the republican party is the libertarian wing of the republican party but i don't know as ron paul is going to be successful and i'll tell you a lot of being excluded from sixteen out of eighteen of these debates has really been a soul fulfilling prophecy for me and that self-fulfilling prophecy basically is

i'm not even running so you're saying that you've completely you've dropped out of the race at this point or you also mention before the you might consider running as a third party candidate a libertarian candidate you know i'm looking at running as a libertarian no i'm so i'm remaining as a republican. time is drawing near but it's the self-fulfilling prophecy part of it is that. supporters that say hey gary like you like what you've got to say you know i haven't seen you in any of the debates and i'm looking at a poll right now where your name's not even in the poll that's been the self-fulfilling prophecy is look at mitt in the debates because i haven't been been in the polls that determine who gets in the debates which by any measurement i think is unfair i want to bring up the we have two clips i want to play tonight from this debate and the first one is rather long but i feel like i really have to

listen to the whole thing and even with that we kind of cut a few pieces together that's what i'm most interesting parts of debate to me where ron paul was talking about iraq are being questioned about it so let's take a listen and we'll talk about it so to be clear. g.o.p. nominee poll would be running left of president obama on the issue of iran but i'd be running with the american people because it would be a much better policy there is no u.n. evidence of that happening klepper at the. in our national security department he says there is no evidence it's no different than it was in two zero three so the fact that they are surrounded they have a desire and how do we treat people when they have a nuclear weapon with a lot more respect what did we do with libya we talk to them we talk them out of their nuclear weapon and then we kill them so it makes more sense to work with people and the whole thing is a nuclear weapons are loaded over there pakistan and india israel has three hundred

of it we have our ships there we've got to get it in a proper context we don't need another war i understood and you make a point. i got a little cut off at the end there but there was say yeah you make that point all the time and to me it just almost seemed like a bit of a condescending tone i mean it really is do we have this right this idea that we don't need another war as a fringe idea. i'd like to point out another thing when it comes to iran and that is that iran is raising its head because it's an unintended consequence of what we did with iraq we take out iraq we take out saddam hussein that's iran's only concern and since we do that now they're able to raise their head well in my opinion there is no military threat from iran now we should remain vigilant to a military threat and we will we have the military surveillance capability to see something like that developing and i also think that israel is an important ally

will remain an important ally i think it's naive to think that israel isn't going to act in conjunction with us to address this kind of situation should in fact all by by taxpayers it's up by surveillance capability you mean like the drone that was downed over iran that was flying over their airspace no i think when i talk about military surveillance capability i'm talking about satellites that if they want to hone in on what you're eating for lunch they're in washington d.c. if they know where you're eating lunch i think they can probably come pretty close to the. gary stop there i am ok get sorry we lost our sound for just one second i want i understand you know a perspective a saying that our military needs to needs to be vigilant we need to have a strong military but what is this obsession right if you look at yesterday and what went on the war in iraq officially as they like to say and it we still have

a ongoing war in afghanistan which is at this point the longest war in u.s. history with barely even a mention at this debate so why this obsession with iran i feel like the republican party or at least the republican candidates aside from solving ron paul have this need to constantly fare longer and just set it up like there's a new enemy in the midst well and it isn't just it isn't just a military policy look a lot i am i'm promising to submit a balanced if i'm elected president promising just that a balanced budget to congress in the year two thousand and thirteen included in that balanced budget is a forty three percent reduction in military spending and that really a to z. do we need to blow up the world nine times or might four times do it think four times my do it five times might do it. but this is fear mongering it's the root of all evil our politicians that want to save us from the illegal immigrant they want to save us from terrorism they want to save us from drugs they want to

you know make sure that we all have health care until the until the day we die it goes on and on and on all in the name of elect me keep me in office. and i'll save you and i'm going to fear monger to do everything i can to get you to cast your vote for me so you're not going to save us is what you're saying is you don't want to fear monger well i'm not a fear monger and i don't think i think people are quick on the uptake if they're if they're presented with. electricians do but this is what politicians do and this is what needs to change you know one of the exam advocating is the fair tax in washington do away with all existing federal tax i think that makes lobbyists i think i think fifty percent to lobbyists in washington get their pink slip when it comes if we enact the fair tax let's get influenced you know away from people who have money to be able to pay for their influence and how much the influence comes from defense spending and the contractors that i have

a real vested interest in making sure that we spend more money and not less money when it comes to the terrorist threat or the military threat of course i know i'm happy that you mentioned lobbyist to you because i want to play a clip from last night where michele bachmann went after you again great still has a lot being or working as a historian as he likes to say for fannie mae and freddie mac. let's take a listen real quick to one of the things he said. the evidence is that speaker gingrich took one point six million dollars you don't need to be within the technical definition of being a lobbyist to still be influence peddling with senior republicans in washington d.c. to get them to do your bidding. i think she has a great point you don't need this technical definition this is why americans are so frustrated that's why there are you know i disapprove of congress in the way everything is run in washington right now why a pew poll says that seventy seven percent of americans think that too few people

with too much money hold too much of the power and do you think that means that those people on the stage or maybe just looking for specifically represent the exact same thing well who that politicians for the most part represent just that politicians have their hands out give me money to to to advance your special interest look i share in the outrage that occupy wall street right now is projecting which is this country doles it out unfairly this country doles it out unfairly as governor of new mexico good government was easy it wasn't hard and when i say good government put the issues first and politics last and i think that we end up constantly with politics first middle and last all in the name of keeping me in office and how much money that takes and give it to me and i'll make sure that your interests are protected let's get rid of that governor lastly when can we

expect an announcement from you as to whether you might run as a third party candidate or not well i'm looking at it really seriously right now it's certainly i don't want to say it's any sort of done deal this and i would be looking at running as a libertarian. and i would if i decided to do that i would go up and work to do that i would try to be the best spokes person possible when it comes to libertarian ideas and the message really doesn't change and for me it's always been about the message and the message really is about liberty and freedom and personal responsibility. insurgency let's balance a federal budget but you know what the government get out of my bedroom don't tell me what i can and can't do when it comes to personal decisions that only affect my life that's an important message and the ability to continue to be able to talk about that message it's always been about changing the world a little bit i think go ron paul is doing that i guess i was trying to provide

a little support in that area but your own words are going about it right least at least we're talking about it here and i do think congressman paul offers that as well a different perspective of these debates ever thank you so much for joining us tonight on a thank you very much. are just ahead tonight fireside friday and then in happy hour one last us company gets very creative and very gross but they're advertising and ready to tell you about a good christmas story so as to come back. into it on your military mechanisms to do the work to bring justice or accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. but i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcomes a big picture. if . i'm flooring mr.

peter to believe the repetition of. one. protesting nobody seems to know. the number of pepper spray to face part of the argument that they're being overly dramatic. to tonight's fireside for your. props. this week you spoke at length about the national defense authorization act the appropriations bill that puts more than six hundred billion of more dollars towards defense for the fiscal year of two thousand and twelve and now in itself the deserves questioning never gets it is a bipartisan congress passes that kind of massive spending calamity year and year

out but what deserves to be highlighted even more this year in particular is of course a bill that codified into law indefinite military detention even making it legally justifiable in the cases of u.s. citizens there's a lot of nuance here some vague and muddled legal language that's raised a lot of questions things that we discussed with various press this week on the show there's the executive branch's interpretation of the u.n. authorization of military force which essentially already allowed the president to have all these powers even the power to execute u.s. citizens abroad without due process as we saw in the case of online on a law or at least that's the way of the obama administration has chosen to interpret that language and now congress is just reaffirming that with a few changes here or there as to how much domestic law enforcement should handle versus the military but i'm not going to get into all these details again at this moment i want to take this time out to address specific concerns arguments that we've seen out there the at the moment the law is just waiting to be signed by the

president the veto threat that he originally issued just a thing of the past and thankfully the overwhelming response to this indefinite detention language from human rights groups the new york times editorial page other publications even many ardent obama supporters has been negative. as it should be visitors another roshon of our constitution of our civil liberties of the rule of law that we supposedly uphold another massive expansion of the war on terror which we apparently live in and will continue to live in every day there's no end in sight but what i've seen is so many cases as a many people think the president caved on this one gave it yet again and i just don't think that's true and in fact if we look at this president's record since the moment that he's stepped into office has become very clear that civil liberties seem to be the last thing on this former constitutional law professors mind and we can start with one ton of obey it was a campaign promise to close the detention facility and the president signed that executive order and his first days in office to close it within

a year and you know what maybe he didn't want it in the close enough for any of the reasons that people thought or better said not for the reasons that anyone hoped maybe you wanted to get this black mark off our record as a nation to stop having a detention facility on an island in another country and a name that will always add fuel to the fire of america's enemies a place now connected to the word torture but that's about national embarrassment that's about trying to move forward and not back as the president likes to say get rid of it and hopefully everybody out there might forget it was never about human rights or the rule of law and a sense of trying to bring justice to those people that we helped some of whom we tortured many of whom never saw a court of law and that was obvious from the get go see this president first deemed fifty or so detainees and tribal as it sorry but we did things so bad to you that now now it's just too big of a mess for us to try and clean it up in court and still justify holding you that he signed a formal order for that indefinite detention and when he tried to push congress to

allow for a good low detainees to be transferred to u.s. soil to a prison in illinois where the indefinite detention part was still to stand it was just about getting them to another prison not bringing them any justice so for those who say the president's hands were tied by congress because they blow. the transfer of give no detainees to u.s. soil something that they reaffirmed by the way in this and da well it's only one part of it they had nothing to do with what the president would have done with these untried bills if they ever got to illinois now you've also heard me rant on about the president deciding that he has the power to kill an american citizen in another country without due process a truly scary and insane amount of power at some point in the hands of this one man now says also the same president let's use the state secrets privilege numerous times to shut people up or shut court cases down when it embarrassed the government because once again a barrister meant seems to hurt the president more than knowing that somebody has been denied fundamental human rights this is the president who justice department

is fighting to erode the need for court warrants in certain situations including allowing the feds to place g.p.s. devices on your vehicle this is the president who is i had no problem going after whistleblowers people that take risks to expose wrongdoing fraud waste and abuse he'd rather have them silenced and use charges of espionage to try and do it let me just go back to my central point here is that those that feel that the president caved on this one well guess what he did it if you examine his record and his actions as president this could have been predicted and expected all along he has no problem with indefinite detention no matter what your citizenship as long as his executive powers to choose are not curtailed so for those that are disappointed in this president's decision and his record because of the many promises that he made during the campaign trail to return to the rule of law first i joined i was disappointed as well i kept hoping that at some point he'll make the right move he might redeem himself but at this point all that hope is lost just be honest with

yourselves don't expect this president to fulfill any of your hopes on a civil libertarian level as an up holder of the constitution as somebody who values these human rights because he doesn't at this point when you stop being disappointed or shocked or thinking of the president kate we just stop hoping. praying that whole change because he won't this is who he is what his actions have shown him to be and he deserves all and even more of the goods in the cup to. ok guys time for happy hour and joining me this evening r.t. correspondent christine for sale and anthony rand director of economic research for the reason foundation thanks for joining me guys happy friday let's start off let's revisit a story that we've done before here on the show and this was when one girl named jill full of it she's been on the show for years should know or found

a note from the t.s.a. here's like an animated reenactment of what happened. that was flying to dublin and checked one of her bags at newark airport. the bag was open for inspection by a t.s.a. agent who found a vibrator and wrote a message to the owner. and is that like get your girl so there's a new story this time rapper freddie gibbs tweeted that t.s.a. found my weed and let me keep it and they just let us know that's a has come on. i'm assuming that guy probably got fired by now they just let the. other guy got to have his staff got to know that we need we need these guys that are going to look at something like ok clearly this is not going to hurt anybody i'm not going to harass or scare and oh it was like you know guys that we need in place and yet at the same time they're making sure that the person knows they didn't get away necessarily with sneaking the weed on they just they saw it and.

what do we do right people at all because we're paying them to write little notes like come on three gun girl why are we why flying through people's bags in the first place. there's no reason to be like cohen stuff out of people socks and what even get me started the t.s.a. that experience is mind numbingly hopefully it's a message to all the other people that are trying to stick in things in their bags that would hurt people and it's going to be saying you know this is message like you can travel to and having you know your bag which hopefully will be trafficking more weight as a nation is because that isn't ok. to go through over the next story this one just kind of warms your heart around christmas time take a look. i was definitely worried about not getting it paid out by the deadline but just in the nick of time one anonymous good samaritan came in and paid the rest of pat's balance and the balance of others as well. so that was at a wal-mart now kmart's are reporting that across the country people anonymous people are coming in and taking off so people can afford their christmas part

presents of they put on layaway they couldn't afford at the moment which is. i think this is such a nice story this is my favorite part about christmas time is all the stories you hear on the radio of nice things and stories on t.v. nice things that people have done for other people especially when it's anonymous but there were a bunch of other situations at k.-mart where somebody was literally standing at the lay away counter stepping in i got it all pay this for you i think it's so sweet but on a side note i don't your heart makes me a little hope in the right there is no way we had layaway still i thought that went away and i was actually my biggest you know right when i read this story that is really the still thing although they're my favorite those story is the like a grandmother who's like walking around k.-mart handing out fifty dollar bills because she just tell her that you know i just have this money is just a my understanding and i think it was it to be honest i probably wouldn't take about money i probably would have looked at and be like oh are you like a little bit crazy here you just hand out money which maybe speaks to the sad part of reality you know are these are these are going to be really one of these days is

so rare that you know this mormon must be crazy if she's handing out money but it is nice at this time of year there's stories like we moving on to other kinds of grandmas this. well my grandma's in sex right to just make you kind of shattering but. comforting company called crosby's molasses is a really just going at it with these new ads so that one says only a lucky few would ever taste grandma's spicy ginger cookies. or when all the men in town would do anything to get in grandma's pantry you know there was just one little taste of grandma's country pie would drive me crazy and my personal favorite men would drive from two towns over just to get a whiff of grandma's muffin. does that make you want to buy some molasses it's a very comfortable right now. because it's very very you know i don't understand what these feelings are inside that i have

a very know just it's all strange and for i guess the way to a man's heart is through his stomach the rights of the molasses is there you just put the blinders on beer goggles what do you agree when you read it you know like i am going to here's a company selling something so simple that everybody needs being creative and making little sexual innuendoes about grandma making people laugh i think it's great ok i want to see more. just that he really. i don't want to be here right now . ok. this one is interesting because some people out there just take it too far with the comments on you tube and facebook and the tweets and they just get obsessive and you're like leave me alone but apparently you can do that there's a guy who spent a lot of time from two thousand and ten harassing a buddhist leader he posted more than eight thousand we're disturbing messages of the guy things like do the world a favor and go kill yourself. have a nice day but a judge dismissed a lawsuit because he said he likened twitter to critical postings on

a public message boards it's not like you're getting harassing phone calls from anybody and and then we have all mr cassilis speech may have inflicted substantial motion to suppress the stress the government's indictment here is directed squarely at protected speech anonymous uncomfortable internet speech addressing religious matters. so i mean no i think it's good i think you can't really do i mean that many but sometimes i think we're going to see more and more cases like this because twitter is still relatively speaking so new and there's going to be a lot of different ways in which people you know abuse it or whatever but i think it's always good when speech is protected yeah absolutely i mean this is this is clearly a free speech issue but there is going to be a lot of stuff in the law over the next decade or so trying to you know cyber bullying for instance like at one point we're going to start recording tweets to facebook you know there's lots of stuff about you know people you know you're saying yes he's going to legislating on what people that don't know what the internet is like is doing with sopa right now are you guys are going to wrap it up have a great weekend thanks for being here that's it for tonight's show thanks for tuning

in and making the connect on monday this weekend marks a three month mark for the occupy movements are going to give you an update on what's happening occupy camps across the country or at least those that are left in the meantime don't get to my family longer show on facebook on twitter you can follow us everything's a you tube dot com slash we want to show and coming up next is when it's.

sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture. the official. called touch from the. life. video on demand.

and feeds with the palm of your. thing in by two american right. with indefinite detention and internet spying and that's only the tip of the iceberg we'll look at the day americans freedoms die. you awoke a lot of people out so that's reality as of this world right and he deserves you know a medal and yet private first class bradley manning is being tried as a criminal charged with handing national secrets over to wiki leaks we'll introduce you to bradley the person and take a look at the hurdles he faces in his upcoming trial. oh let's go and as protesters gather to show.