rather can it seems their 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 seven pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our t.v. well the countdown to the iowa caucus is on and with the first significant event of the nomination process less than an hour away three clear front runners have emerged in the morning in a register poll it 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 mitt romney in first his big advantage money the candidate takes the cake when it comes to fund raising

having huge support from the political establishment and big business says romney also considered to be the most electable among the candidates and most closely aligned with the republican establishment and then there is 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 the cause 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. meanwhile ron paul is getting some celebrity endorsement the first winner of american idol kelly clarkson tweeted

her support for paul and it was apparently a great career move for her because since that tweet her cd shot up in the charts almost cracking the top ten also endorsing paul active duty soldiers serving abroad and some girls from the moonlight bunny ranch brothel and nevada they are given for paul. well now that the troops have lined up behind their candidates what's in store for the iowa caucus now just moments away artie's on domestic openness joined me earlier to weigh in 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 eyes 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 that i think it's just the legitimately with the exception of ron paul who i happen to like but who i think is not it's not so much not electable and 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 i were 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 but one of 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 want to pull the plug on the computer that 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 him an 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 he said was the most radical always the most anti-american obama is the most anti-american unclear what i what that means being anti-american exactly right apparently so. what do you who 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 which any sane american wants 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 power 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 that 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 the preparing principles but most of the country doesn't he 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 don't think it is i think it will basically will it will others not mean that what's the reality you've basically got a class of all of our acts 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 work with 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 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 well during. 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 yet the most important election in our history what is your prediction for tonight. i hope rumpole. i will be with the g.o.p. because of the sparrow have a real debate like i said i'm a panic button 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 me metaphorically obviously but i just i just don't know me at that point if it's mitt romney and obama who basically already screwed me over after three years of very voted for him twice to him i don't know i'm sure that i'm going to vote for mitt romney i don't know maybe i'll call ralph nader nuts with. dmitri 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. well iran test fired a cruise missile today further straining the country's relationship with the u.s. europe and israel the focus now and 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 a nother war in the middle east is brewing so when it comes to foreign policy what is in store for two thousand and twelve to discuss a range of foreign policy issues earlier i spoke to pay escobar and he gave me his predictions for the new year 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 obama passed what is basically a cruel criminalise zation operation of anyone who tries to 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 it all other countries in the middle east then slaton america or a central asia like turkmenistan they do on gas whaps or instance will ignore it the saying is you run is going to be paid for its energy in third party accounts in different accounts with the banks in turkey for instance in new one by the chinese inventors whether they have already an agreement so these sanctions are not actually going to bite so why have they been approved in what and for what purpose

in fact they crack 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 dissing is how you're going to implemented and who's going to respect that being made 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 you know now it's one hundred eight the 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 is not going to happen and it's a 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 which china or which countries in south america or in central asia for that matter and have elso want to talk more about china where you say the u.s. is 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 seas australian sas a month and a half ago more or less and this deployment of marines to darwin in northern australia and the progressive in the mines 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 some other military drive and the chinese of course because the chinese just bruce they are extremely powerful in all this solves. so when there's 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 that he was force this law apac law in congress you have a bunch of people in congress which are decent buys 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

detained 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 i 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 best a few weeks historians university professors of political science majors and that there is a sort of only official consensus that me be we are approaching a nineteen fourteen situation in two thousand and twelve where you remember saraj of all in one thousand 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 it would be like disneyland to completely shafter the communications and the lines of communication of the regime in tehran you miliard it in front of

your own ears and then your own ears 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 this do think it might. times correspondent pepe escobar. and while some fear what the new year will bring when it comes to foreign policy many of them of course are setting those new year's resolutions and some are ready to get rid of the dirty laundry of the year past so what would you ban in two thousand and twelve laurie harvin as takes that question to the streets of the big apple. two thousand and twelve is now arriving what would you rid the world of in the new year this week let's talk about that i think wall street protesting 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 the whole gambling. the world be a better place without those things yeah i think they would probably be lots of benefits yeah i agree i think a lot of people would protest about oh i have no doubt a lot of people would protest differently including the government because they make so much money out of it it be occupy the liquor store time yeah that's right noble borders and more borders let's just all be one country yeah 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. with the way the euro is going i don't know if that's such a good idea people turn a school put seem politics. make clean up politics and twenty two out made it into 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 yes. definitely bad yeah cause a tsunami problems that's as good as it is a cause too many problems benefit the world progression everywhere. do you would you legalize anything. argument the speed limits a bit higher. and yet let everyone speed up faster because they'd all be sober yeah that's right actually going to drive is the. intolerance. the you'd make everyone tolerate all different cultures. that's a tall order i know well you ask if i could religion probably ban religion all of a spiritual but religion as a religion we think the difference is. no. 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. well as you just saw laurie was asking people what they would read of in the world in two thousand and twelve but the u.s. government is already ahead of the game helping you ring in the new year with forty thousand new laws from outlawing raw milk to regulating tanning salons to restricting who can get an abortion the new year brings new laws for states across the nation and they don't stop at the federal government or these stop online piracy act allows the federal government to take down sites 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 heaven 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 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 publication is standing behind this very controversial bill the boston globe states quote free speech and fair use can coexist while the n.c. piracy bill still needs 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 need 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. terry and you and shutting down of channels of communication users at home and when that the everybody that would be me that would be you well everybody has you in 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 it 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 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 to. 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 of yours entire huge websites the drudge report there's news agencies

that link to copyrighted material. is that a hand in the 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 the 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 of the empire we've missed it many times you war but as that happens you're going to see more toilet 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 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 chiro various living as best you can here thank you george for coming on the show that was george hammond or founder of survive and thrive t.v. . well that is going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to our to tout com slash usa and you can check out our you tube page it's you tube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter as well be sure to stay tuned

for our eight pm shall speak to one georgia minister who is sure ron paul has the iowa caucus in the back seat right back here and half hour. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. download the official auntie application to go on the phone on pod touch from the choose ops to. watch on t.v. life on the go. video.