a resolution is to cut back on american civil liberties and they're off to a strong start we'll explain. it's tuesday january third five pm in washington d.c. i'm liz while you're watching r.t. well the countdown to the iowa caucus is on and with the first significant event of the nomination process just hours away three clear front runners have emerged a des moines register poll finds mitt romney leading ron paul and rick santorum so it appears the battle lines have been drawn and one of these three men will win tonight each candidate with a distinctly different following let's take a look at who they are and what they symbolize to voters while mitt romney is in first his big advantages money the candidate takes the cake when it comes to fund raising having huge support from the political establishment and big businesses

romney also considered to be the most electable among the candidates and most closely aligned with the republican establishment then there is ron paul the ron paul surge paul has his dedicated passionate group of followers definitely the most energetic group of supporters they are sick of the status quo not happy with the current state of of the economy and meddling in the wars abroad they believe paul is the only candidate that offers real change and a new candidate is enjoying his time in the limelight rick santorum seeing a significant surge in the hawkeye state his following religious conservatives and pastors in iowa santorum is seen as the most socially conservative pick taking strong stances against abortion and gay marriage. well now that the troops have been lined up behind their candidate who has what it takes to come out on top in iowa talk about this a folks who are his own image a cult seen as

a little earlier to start things up i asked him what he thought was behind the recent santorum surge take a listen i can't i mean i don't know why anyone would would vote for rick santorum rick santorum lost in two thousand and four in pennsylvania i remember back after it was popular to be pro-war so he's a radical in my view that's just my opinion i don't i don't see you know i think if anything it just suggests that people have no idea who they want to lead because they don't like anyone there's no real option do you think that if it. were to win in iowa that it could kind of feeling good in my the importance of the iowa caucus no i don't think i'm no i don't think so i've heard i've heard that that's not it's not it i think it is the legitimate move the exception of ron paul who i happen to like but who i think is not it's not so much not electable that he's not he's not going to unify the country at the end the day there's a lot of stuff that i personally like about ron paul but there's a lot of other people legitimately don't like about ron paul so i don't see it as someone that can lead the country and there is no option in my view because obama

came in he didn't do anything we had three years of nothing basically and now we're faced with an election of g.o.p. candidates the guy who is the front or supposedly is mitt romney who's the establishment pick and what's he going to do he's basically trying to out obama obama saying obama is not pro israel enough obama's not enough faith in favor of wars so it's like i think that the american people just. but there's there's more the pentagon they don't know what to do and i think if paul were to be elected that's what ron paul signifies you signifies basically hitting the panic button because you're like i think's going to pull the plug on the computer it has crashed and i have no hope whatsoever of getting out of this mess with anything that resembles a compromise which is what obama had promised in two thousand and eight and that is what the candidates are trying to do is that they're trying to portray themselves as who is the most anti obama who can change the way things are the current course of washington i want to bring up a quote from rick santorum over the weekend way he criticized president obama for

for being anti-american he called them anti-american activity as he says quote this is the most important election of my life this is where america's freedom is at stake i'm asking you to stand up for your honor so who really is the most different who is the most radical those are the most anti-american obama's the most anti-american and clear what i what that means being anti-american exactly right apparently so. what do you do do you think is the most. the most different from obama in terms of the g.o.p. candidates we have to pick from and that even i don't even i don't. obama i mean i don't know i don't think they're there there's no it's i came in through the worst or not worse it's like a nightmare having to choose between any of those candidates and rich in terms of to see if we can radical i don't know what he's talking about i don't know how anyone could think that seriously how you can say it's so funny these guys came in to run in two thousand and twelve and they stand on the podium they talk about how

obama's been a disaster for the country obama alright yeah he's a disaster the country because he hasn't done what he promised to do but what these guys are promising is what obama promised not to do which is not what i want to have happen and what's not and he's trained american was we don't want more wars we don't want i mean this this just it's absolutely ridiculous so i don't know what's interesting about i mean he's basically like a throwback the bush years like newt gingrich and mitt romney like a softer version of bush. well it sounds like a lot of people think that the answer is like you said people hitting the panic button because he's viewed as the most different somebody wet with the fresh ideas and that's why a lot of young people like him because. when it comes to foreign policy these are quite different from the other candidate and also he does want to legalize the criminality that was pervasive under george bush for eight years which is what obama's been doing which is the most absurd aspect of obama right because he was a constitutional lawyer you could say well he didn't know anything about the economy so he let wall street bankers loose to go back and loot some more but the

fact that he's basically institutionalized the criminality the bush administration by passing these laws and these executive orders and by putting more powers in the executive branch. i mean it's a joke and so ron paul's supporters are placing a lot of a lot of support a lot of hope a lot of energy behind their candidate do you think that ron paul could offer that change that he is promising and that his that his supporters are so energized about . i think that if all of from paul were to be elected like i said it would be like hitting the panic button and i'm not against the scarily. he's the only candidate i would i would elect but it doesn't mean that he i had voted for obama two thousand and eight ok and i don't consider i'm not a progressive if anything i'm more libertarian ok and yet the reason why i would have had obama over ron paul is because i thought obama offered a compromise a solution that could actually move the country towards something away from bush back to something better but that people would ultimately follow ron paul if if

if a lot of ron paul would be elected that's basically like saying we've given up we've given up on the past sixty seven years whatever it is and we're just going to have a disorderly collapse of our of our political system ok i agree with ron paul a lot of the polls that the kerry principles but most of the country doesn't and you can just log jam that in you're going to have massive i mean you can have a lot of teachers that are going to be against having a slashing with a part of education just like that right in any case i just think my personal view is kind of sad is that there really is no hope other than having. the system collapse because that's the only way that anything is going to change and i think a lot of people realize that when they look at iowa when they look at radicals like rick santorum coming out making statements and mitt romney has got the person out of a shoe horn going out and caucusing and you know sound i'm going to be clear you think that collapsed and i think i think it will basically will it will others not mean that what's the reality you've basically got a class of oligarchy who have decided that they can no longer make money legitimately in the system whether it's wall street the military industrial complex

whoever so they will get the executive to consolidate power and to basically say we're going to keep everything and we've given up on democracy we've given up on the constitution and we're going to create a new feudal economy based on our control and everyone else will just be serfs and the reality is history hasn't voted very well for freedom it's put it very well for that peonage and slavery but not liberty so i'd say it's an experiment that unfortunately isn't hasn't. very well during long. so far this campaign has taken a lot of twists and turns a lot of unexpected you know people taking turns in the top tier what is your prediction for tonight a lot at stake. some are saying that this is the most important election. in our history what is your prediction for tonight. i hope rumpole. the g.o.p. because at least i have a real debate. that's me i know a lot of other people feel the same way i certainly don't want if mitt romney

because president i'm just going to shoot myself because i don't know what else i would do and i feel like a lot of i mean metaphorically obviously but i just i just don't know i mean at that point if it's mitt romney and obama who basically already screwed me over after three years after i voted for him twice to him i don't know i'm certainly not going to vote for mitt romney i don't know maybe i'll call ralph nader national. dimitri thank you for sharing your very passionate insights with your frustration i think a lot of americans share that frustration with you that was senior producer for our teeth capital account. and tension heating up in the middle east take a look at this. iran has fired a cruise missile today further straining the country's relationship with the u.s. europe and israel the focus now is in the critical strait of hormuz

a waterway where about six of the world's oil is transported by see this as hawkish rhetoric on both sides suggest another war in the middle east is virtually so when it comes to foreign policy what's in store for two thousand and twelve to discuss a range of foreign policy issues earlier i spoke to pepe escobar and gave me his predictions for the year ahead take a look. two thousand and twelve is going to be a really really hard core either it's brinkmanship and blustering on both sides us and to run. for a gap that on the thirty first of december or past what is reasonably a crew criminalise zation operation of anyone who tries to the deals with the iranian central bank well russia will ignore it china will ignore it south korea which one of the dr importers of energy will ignore all other countries in the middle east and. slaton america or

a central asia like turkmenistan they do on gas webster instance will ignore it the saying is you run is going to be paid for its energy in the third party accounts in different accounts with the banks in turkey for instance in you one by the chinese inventors whether they have already an agreement so this syncs us are not actually going to bite so why have they been approved in what and for what purpose in fact apac israeli lobby once again sold they are trying to ratchet up the rhetoric and ratchet up the economic sanctions against iran trying to push the west in a little extra a year to go to war in iran which is a device are so infinite that you can't really know if there is any small measure of success in the end so it's not going to work basically so this is how we start to thousand and twelve and some call these sanctions an act of war

would you go as far as as a colleague that. yes it's an act of war can imagine if it was the other way around if these sanctions were against american exports of oil or if this sinks us or against china for instance assuming china you know main source of of of foreign exchange for china will be to export energy it is an act of war this ng is how you're going to implemented and who's going to respect that we need europeans like you know today the french foreign ministry pathetically is saying look we have to curb our imports of iranian oil what's going to happen to the european economy if that happens now it's one hundred eighth a barrel so it's going to be one hundred trainee and in one month could be one hundred forty one hundred fifty and you want to recover the economies of the u.s. and europe as well with oil at one hundred fifty it's not going to happen and it's totally counterproductive. law and amendments and the way it's going to be

interpreted by the obama administration i'm not sure they're going to try to provoke a confrontation against south korea for instance an ally with russia china or with countries in south america and central asia for that matter and have elso want to talk more about china where you say the u.s. is in a new cold war what do you mean by that. well it is called war in terms of what happened with hillary clinton's trip to central asia about a month and a half ago obama's trip to south australian sas this month and a half ago more or less and this deployment of marines to darwin in the north in australia and the progressive in the minds of washington of course encircled meant of china in this china sea and the intersection between the indian ocean and the south china sea. this is completely crazy because what is stead of america

proposing a project for celsius. for the countries in the cells trying to see or a vision for the future it's another. dr and the chinese of course because the chinese the aspirants they are extremely powerful in all this solves. so when there is something to be negotiated in the south china sea will be on the table between china and the philippines china and vietnam china and indonesia and not with american military interference so it sounds and it looks like a desperate ploy from a decline in empire once again so we keep repeating the same scenario over and over again you know now i want to shift a little bit to a controversial law recently signed into law by president obama and it's related because you know the us takes launches these wars takes these steps all in the name of fighting terrorism he least recently signed his new piece of legislation into

law it's the national defense authorization act and this act allows for the indefinite detention of u.s. citizens and his justification when he signed this was quote ultimately i decided to sign this bill not only because of the critically important services it provides for our forces and their families and the national security programs it authorizes but also because the congress revised provisions i would otherwise have jeopardize the safety security and liberty of the american people so he is justified but he has said this a moment that he is very weary about some of the controversial things in the bells so. if there is such a controversial aspects of the bill why would he sign it and what are the greater implications of this. absolutely it's crazy he was force this law apac law in congress you have a bunch of people in congress which are these spies by the overwhelming majority of

the american population like congress' approval rate nowadays is what twelve ten twelve percent maximum they force this law to obama he signed reluctantly when they came here to look maybe if something happens it's up to my discretion to apply this or not but the problem is the law is already signed so assuming obama would not do anything in terms of imprisoning americans for ever you have the right to remain detain for the rest of your life that's what it means this law but the next president especially if it's a republican hard core president might well do it and presidents after that as well so this is crazy because now it's the letter of the law so in terms of the whole mist that is being propagated over and over again for in. the declaration of independence that this is a food democracy now it's over and it's for everyone to see even the current

extremely authoritarian can point to the u.s. as a look your own citizens are not even free anymore you can throw the whole population in jail if you want to with the excuse of terrorism so this means another thing the war on terror you was not there when i was there was kewl or not killed a few months ago the loss of their lives on. and i just want to ask you one more question looking at what is in store for two thousand and twelve and do you see more violent complex in the middle east as inevitable at this point. look i've been talking to some people this past few weeks historians university professors of political science majors and that there is a sort of an official consensus that mean we are approaching a nine hundred fourteen situation in two thousand and twelve where you remember saraj in the one nine hundred fourteen that was the beginning of the first world

war the great war for civilization as it was built this is not going to be a great war for civilization on the contrary it would be bad for ism hardcore if you remember that general mike mullen the former head of the joint chiefs of staff his idea to deal with iran was a monster shock and awe was an attack there you know iraq in two thousand and three compared to me it would be like disneyland to completely shatter the communications and the lines of communication of the regime in tehran you merely aided in front of the iranians and then you run as would rally the peoples of the regime and the west to have a new satrapi in the middle east all because this cannot possibly work but still a lot of people in the pentagon neocons and all that they still think it might. and that was asia times correspondent pepe escobar and while some fear what the new year will bring when it comes to foreign policy many of course are setting their new year's resolutions and some are ready to get rid of the dirty laundry of the

year past so what would you bab and two thousand and twelve already harkness take that question to the streets of the big apple. two thousand and twelve is now a rising what would you rid the world of in the new year this week let's talk about that i think wall street protest because it doesn't really help anything at all if you ask me i'm a business student is my fifth year in college and i just i don't know what the point is i understand what they're fighting for and i grieve for but for me i'm like you just taking up space i would probably say that after gambling. the world be a better place without those things yeah i think they would be lots of benefits yeah i agree i think a lot of people would protest though oh i have no doubt a lot of people would protest differently including the government because they are acts of us money out of it it be occupy the liquor store time yes or no will

borders no more borders let's just all be one country yes because it's so difficult to travel around. i like that and then what about what do we do for money do we just have one monetary unit. well with the way the euro is going i don't know if that's such a good idea people trying to score points in politics. make clean up the politics and twenty two out make them do things that are good for the world to not just get to get reelected oh poverty for sure yeah so how do you think the world leader should go about starting that. well distribute the wealth go out definitely bad yeah cause assuming problems as good as it is a cause too many problems benefit the world progression everywhere. if you do you would you legalize anything. argument the speed limits a bit higher there is light. yet let everyone speed up faster because they'd all be

sober yeah that's right only better drivers that yeah we are better in tolerance. the you'd make everyone tolerate all different cultures yeah that's a tall order i know well you asked if i could religion probably ban religion yes all of our spiritual but religion as a religion we think the differences. now. control no matter what you'd like to abolish internationally let's just hope two thousand and twelve brings us a little closer to a better world. and as you just saw laurie was asking people what they would get rid of in the world in two thousand and twelve but the u.s. government may already be ahead of the game helping you ring in the new year with forty thousand new laws from milk to regulating tanning salons to restricting who

can get an abortion the new year brings new laws for states across the country n. they don't stop at the federal government sopa or the stop online piracy act allows the federal government to take down websites that they think are engaging in illegal activity opponents call this censorship and as we discussed earlier the national defense authorization act obama recently signed into law allows the government to detain american citizens indefinitely so what's up with all these new laws and are we starting off two thousand and twelve with less freedoms well to answer just that i spoke to george hammond founder of survive and thrive t.v. and he told me why he's preparing for the worst case scenario take a listen. on the ground here we are just trying to get ready for armageddon i mean i was just talking to a kid yesterday at the coffee shop i think sixteen to twenty nine year olds are sick almost fifty percent unemployment. people just given up hope on finding work

and the government is just continually enacting laws that make no sense whatsoever and you get to the point where you start giving up on the government and. i know this happened in russia where people just lost lost faith in the bureaucracy lost. in the leaders and i think we're getting to that point a lot of people a lot of my followers on my channel started to give up on the whole process of what america is supposed to be and i want to talk to you about sopa this is a very controversial bill critics say it's censorship that restricts freedom of speech on the internet but one public a publication is standing behind this very controversial bill the boston globe states quote free speech and fair use can coexist it's further refinement to ensure that its legal wording precisely matches its legislative intent online piracy as a major problem that imposes

a real economic cost congress needs to take action to protect american jobs from piracy although the proposed legislation may be imperfect it is a strong and decisive step in the right direction so i want to ask you why would the boston globe come out publicly support such a controversial bill. i think it's it's confusion there's two points i want to make on sopa in what is it seems like the users of the internet are the only ones fighting against this kind of. terri in view and shutting down of channels of communication users at home and when that the everybody that would be me that would be well everybody is you and you know google and facebook yahoo these are big corporations that are it gets so but i believe where are the why are they there throwing their money at congress why are i mean why are these big internet companies getting involved in their own in there are ways around financially the

fight against these arcane laws you know the companies that are supporting so our you know our hollywood the motion picture association the music industry. the question is the second wave of this is we're talking about a whole change in the way we view. personal property rights you know we begin in industrial era revolution and now we're heading to a whole new type of society where people share information the internet. copyright the idea of copyright is being put into question and i think what's happening with these laws that are being passed are just the old guard trying to hold on to power and that's all that this is and then what do you think are the greater implications of this bell at. that piracy and illegal behavior online but could it be a greater you know window for the government to come in and gain more control of

the internet or what could this and what could this lead tail. i think what it's going to lead to is eventual either going to use it to shut down web sites you know of course web sites that are hiring probably movies and music but that's the fine line where is it going to be overstepping of that protection of your personal property rights you know if i post a link on a website there's entire huge websites the drudge report there's news agencies that link to copyrighted material. is that a hand into shutting down free speech of course it is and once again the big picture is there's a lot of people a lot of companies that have been. formed on the idea of copyright protection and we're seeing an evolution of it we're cns sharing of information and there's news agencies like yours that are out there that are basically embracing this and they're the ones that are going to survive and thrive in the future of the

companies that understand this new paradigm of sharing information rather than just trying to hold onto it and quickly want to ask you with all these laws forty thousand new laws and some very controversial federal laws are these are all signs of the times of what's to come of a future of more laws and less freedoms. maybe i break it down simply but i'm sure you know people were wondering the same thing when nazi germany came to power and i just i put that as on my thinking i just hate you know what we're in the process of it because our weakness in a comes you war but as that happens you're going to see more towards areas and you're going to see more control you're going to see more government authority getting involved in your lives and what i basically telling my audience is. in your own personal lives do what you want to do you exercise your freedom because eventually we're all responsible we all feed the beast and that's basically with

a message i tell the people of all my general various living as best you can you thank you george for coming on the show that was george hammond your founder of survive and thrive t.v. and that is going to do it for now for more on the stories we've covered that are to dot com slash usa you can also had over to our youtube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at liz while the alona show is coming up in just a half hour tonight alona will have a panel discussion over the importance of the iowa caucuses as well as the hordes of money being dumped into the state so stay tuned for that i'll see you right back here at seven.