serve their time back their rights so do you think the power of power to pardon is under used by governors but a producer for treason a sente to find out what you have to say. to pardon is one of the most powerful tools the head of state has in his or arsenal at a state level and allows governors to not only for a give a crime but also their respective sentence and also fully reinstate the person's rights such as the right to vote or the right to bear arms it's intended for those who are wrongfully convicted or have served out their debt to society just last week former governor haley barbour caused an uproar when he pardoned over two hundred prisoners as he left office a majority of which already served their sentence however this list included a number of gray pants and murderers which was the real reason for the outcry so you have to ask how much power should a governor on his way out of office have been deciding the fate of convicted criminals and should other governors be using this power often go really fixated considering the u.s. has more than half of the entire world's prison population

a prison overcrowding problem to boot governors should definitely extend more pardons to at least nonviolent criminals to help bring down our massive incarceration levels now and political told us the power to pardon is used enough but not properly governors should look to those cases where conviction lacked physical evidence or the evidence was weak but it's enough barbour made some terrible choices now rick pointed out it was definitely underused in the case of tory davis and probably has been for many others who were wrongfully convicted and smith added we might consider pardons as one way to empty prisons out of nonviolent offenders that would save money for the states who are strapped for cash now barbour defended his pardons by saying that they gave prisons prisoners are transferred jobs an opportunity to have their rights restored as a citizen the point he seemed to ignore was that while most people do not have a problem granting pardons they do care about the pardon go still. now

as always we appreciate responses and here's our next question for you earlier in the show we told you about a new model for college tuition that's being proposed in california but it's just one of many ideas to think thrown around as a potential solution to the ballooning student debt so what do you think that schools and governments across the country can do to address the exploding student debt let us know on facebook twitter and you tube and who knows your response just might make. this. come to. be singing. it's night we have a glimmer of hope when it comes to keeping law enforcement in check so in the past we've told you about countless incidents around the country where police have arrested civilians that are trying to film them in action even when it was legal in that state cops are increasingly going after bystanders for attempting to keep the men in blue honest when they're on the job is not only have some of the amateur

photographers been faced with jail time but on occasion they've been faced with felony charges in the three states where it's actually illegal to film the police because of the massachusetts maryland and illinois however one of these three states just might be changing their ways if he cops are calling protected in illinois under their eavesdropping law which prohibits anybody from recording audio of public conversations without the permission of everybody that's involved in that interaction so anybody who violates that law could face up to fifteen years in prison so as you can imagine most illinois police are all in favor of being protected under the current rules and the fraternal order of fraternal order of police backs the law saying that it keeps the public from making baseless accusations against officers and then attempting to back their false claims through at the video now i find their fear of baseless claims being made against them well a bit hollow seeing how citizens are the ones that are subject to baseless claims made against them by cops all the time more recording of police to citizen interactions would almost certainly prevent this but it looks of the cause. cops

are only interested in protecting the baseless claims against themselves and not the ones against average citizens we see leslie of the recent cases of bras outdated he's dropping one of the spotlight take for example illinois resident michael allison he filmed police in action and then was slapped with five felony charges for violating the dropping lot each of those five charges could have been met with fifteen years in jail so allison was potentially facing seventy five years behind bars making his crime facing a similar punishment as that of rapists in the state of illinois. that's my concern and. for one thing the statute as it's written can be interpreted any which way. it is right the law doesn't make any sense but alison isn't alone here there are several cases piling up in counties across the state where individuals are taking their cell phone record of encounters with cops to the courts and one state representative is now taking notice that elaine neck race has proposed a bill that would challenge the current standing eavesdropping law making it legal

for people to film cops without their consent and our interview with the chicago tribune said i believe that the existing statute is a significant intrusion into first amendment rights so with the prosecutions and the court cases that have been reported about it it just seems that this is a problem in need of a swift solution so thank god the necker to step forward because there have been far too many and incidents out there where citizens of found themselves in legal trouble for trying to keep cops in check the policing is as the rules like this are in place for officers protection but what about the protection for the public from the police here's a reminder of just a few incidents where police have been caught on film behaving improperly to say the least while on duty. i. thank. god.

i didn't hear sir. first of all. number one i'm leaving and i meet a lot of the. form this side saying. i'm allowed to stand in my yard i'm going to stand on this board can we don't feel safe with you standing right behind them and go into the house. where it's my right to be in my yard and i'm sorry that you don't feel safe all i have is a camera and clearly wearing nothing i have no weapons not matter. several of those incidents across the country of and in police department taking action against their own officers and despite the fact that there is proof that filming cops is a good thing there are still states that want to keep cops away from the camera lens but for an illinois lawmakers to step forward and attempt a change that we think is a true glimmer of hope. now is just the other day that we were talking about the

expanding label of terrorism and how it's being applied animal rights activists through the animal enterprise terrorism act we told you at the center for constitutional rights was challenging it in court something that chills the free speech of activists but it turns out the activists aren't the only one of the government is targeting that in these days where the labels of terrorist or extremist are thrown around so easily journalists also say so i guess i learned this the hard way after covering a story prosecutors later used his story in court and labeled him an extremist so joining me to discuss this is will potter author of green is the new red. well thanks so much for joining us tonight a lot of things for overnight give us a little breakdown of what exactly happened there was a raid that was happening at an animal rights activist home he called you you rush to the scene to go cover this story and then you know where to go from there actually let me back up a little bit ok. there is an animal rights activists in utah named jordan halladay who was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury which are often used to. social movements and force activists

to testify about their beliefs and how they refused to testify. in this investigation under the animal enterprise terrorism act which you just mentioned so then flash forward to he was imprisoned once for this then he was imprisoned again all reform refusing to name names in the government's argument so why he should receive such a harsh prison sentence that's where the my story comes into play i had written about this f.b.i. raid of an activist house in utah in the caption on the photo on the website i see it was a photo received from jordan how did this activists prosecutors say the most damning evidence they have against this guy over how he's associated with extremists is that his name appeared on an extremist website on my site in the photo caption where did i where did they get this primate have you been to label that extremist before or do you know i mean you mentioned perhaps a bit on the list that the government has looked at you but they're trying to use that to actually convict somebody to put them behind bars my website exclusively

focuses on civil liberties and how the war on terrorism is being used to chill free speech and to target animal rights environmental activists terrorists and what that means for a first amendment rights and it's really unfortunate to me that the f.b.i. would consider something like that to be extremists holding people in power accountable and advocating checks and balances on the government but that's exactly what's going on in the case what's especially troubling to me i mean my name is come up in different court cases and counterterrorism unit documents and things like that but this is a bit different because it's. having your work used to someone who is facing the full weight of the government weighing down the problem for asserting his rights and that's what really makes me sick to my stomach to see the f.b.i. manipulated journalism in this way and so i do in that sense this is something that all journalists should be concerned about right it's not just if they're reporting on your body and they're looking into the rights activists and civil liberties. that means that all of them somehow their sources could somehow be in jeopardy if

they think that the government is going to go after them absolutely i mean really the two things in my opinion you have to have to do meaningful investigative journalism as well and trust with your sources which is paramount into some kind of reasonable confidence that what you write will not be met with retribution or retaliation and this flies in the face of both of those things i mean it instills fear and distrust to anyone who is going to be featured on my website and it makes me worry on a personal level you know it doesn't feel really good to have your name be listed as a stream ist in a terrorism cork so in both those fronts i think this is really a threat to freedom of the press and how loosely these terms of extremist or terrorist are really applied these days because if you're writing about civil liberties that makes you an extremist then you know that means all of us are in trouble we talk about civil liberties all the time here on the show a number of you know of the of the bloggers and the other journalists that we talk to you are the same way but let's go back to this specific incident to really quick

you said that there are a number of assumptions that can be made by the way they used your name in court because you had this photo caption on your website can you explain that for us all part of the reason they said it was extremely website and they were for refer to jordan holiday this way is because i classified what was going on with the target as an f.b.i. raid. the prosecution really took offense to this and i would ask the question take offense because you're just you're not supposed to talk about how did to have me i don't think you're supposed to talk about it you're certainly no supposed to talk about it as it's happening but i would question what else you're going to call it when armed agents enter your whole search through your property take laptops in political documents what is that a real appropriation of property i don't know if a nice way to classify that as a journalist i think a great is a fairly accurate assessment but they really took umbrage at that you know as part of the reason this was listed as extremism all right let's also talk about you know you brought up that jordan how here was also prosecuted under the animal terrorist

excuse me animal enterprise terrorism act and there is this lawsuit that right now is going on for the center for constitutional rights it's not going anywhere do you have any updates on it i think it's really positive exciting development i mean the basis for this lawsuit is that the head of the enterprise terrorism act has expressly outlawed first amendment activity but it's chilled it through examples like this and there are many many more that are much worse than anything that i've experienced personally it's made people worry about their personal safety and their right to express themselves and do things like undercover investigations which have been labeled by the f.b.i. as terrors so the center for constitutional rights to say this is unconstitutional because it's make people afraid of using their rights you know it remains to be seen in this but the national defense authorization act with f.b.i. documents like this with the crack down on the around the country it's hard to know where it will go but we'll have to start fighting about now is really scary and the absurdity too of this and a lot of guys terrorism act was that if you by any means. hinder the finances of

this company right then you could be prosecuted under it so basically if you're just picketing with a little sign and it was made a joke on the show that says one person is affected you know could they try to use that broadly against you well you heard our business the supporters of the law totally dismissed concerns like that when i testified before congress about. but come to find out the f.b.i. has investigated undercover investigators just people who are filming what goes on behind closed doors as terrorists so i don't think absurd situations like that are out of the question this is really about protecting corporate profits at the expense of our first amendment right to just outlaw fog in parts of california that's going to radically this is a label to arizona to these issues are going to mean strict or more people care about things like this as this crackdown is taking place about people who actually act on those beliefs well you know it is a lot of really scary developments out there but the good thing is that you haven't been chilled by this you know and you haven't been scared away and that you

continue to write about it and i think that's what everybody has to do all journalists out there have to do is keep reporting on these issues and you know not allow themselves to be bullied or intimidated by the government well thanks so much for joining us but if you. are coming up tonight one person tied to the american family association is calling on eric holder to get rid of a lot to protect people from being victims of a hate crime because we detail high school time and happy hour things are just campaign might take another hit after one of his ex-wives speaks out in a news interview and already had it going to introduce you to one very very very cute little head oh we can. this is. all in sync.

present. mixing reality. into this. mystery of super. size. hi guys it's time for tonight's tool time award and tonight he goes to gary glen of the michigan branch of the american family association he's run the set of the crusades protect those who bully and commit hate crimes commission the anti-gay

activists cloaked in the robe of religious freedom have been peddling in state houses across the country now we reported to you about gary's efforts to water down anti bullying legislation with religious exemptions in michigan last year and unfortunately he's not alone in tennessee anti-gay activists are fighting for a provision to be added to a bullying law that exempts a person if they are practicing religious political or philosophical freedom when they bully somebody which basically means anything political philosophical now gary is trying his luck once again at the courthouse though talking points memo reports that glenn along with three michigan ministers are suing eric holder to overturn federal hate crime protections were created under the two thousand and six law title the matthew shepard and james byrd jr hate crimes protection prevention act so in a moving plea for equality the plaintive evoked in our wally in a world where a special class of people example gay people are more equal than others they also

argue that the government elevates those engaged in certain deviant behaviors to a special protected class of persons under federal law yeah you know the government always step again to protect those deviants but i think in my favor argument there is as the bill criminalizes certain ideas beliefs and opinions which is just simply not true it was acknowledged the first time that this lawsuit was there. now in september of two thousand and ten there colder stated then the act does not prescribe speech it prohibits only violent conduct and includes specific provisions and sure even it may not be applied to infringe any rights guaranteed by the first amendment so is the act criminalize hate speech or is going to thrive described thought crimes i'm pretty sure the gary and his cohorts would have been thrown in federal prison a long time ago i know that i've been harping on this each time with these stories but what really disgusts me is that gary and his fellow christian activists claim of the government is creating special protection for gays and homosexuals but then what they actually want instead is for the government to greatest special protection for that they want to be able to bully and commit violent crimes and

then claim that their religious beliefs entitle them to breaking the law if that's not special treatment but i really don't know what it is another piece of the narrative the republicans are weaving and there is a war on religion. the bigotry question goes both ways and there's a lot more anti-christian bigotry today than there is concerning the other sharks and none of the good thank you. if that's not a war on religion i don't know what it is and this is ministry. are you guys i have news for you there is no war on religion there is a long overdue effort by the government to protect those that are discriminated against and yeah that includes the gates so for preaching about the government creating a special class of more equal people while fighting for his own special protections gary glen of the michigan branch of the american family association is tonight's tool time with.

hi guys it's time for happy hour joining me this evening as our key correspondent christine for us out and kevin glass managing editor at hall thanks for joining guys going to be here all right so yesterday i think it was right before i was going on the show drudge report was saying huge breaking story is going to come out about newt gingrich but everybody is freaking out and it turns out it's just some other ex-wife to take a look. at the book a better thing from the point of view people are looking at those campaign about character but he's got forgiveness and that he believes the same pew marriage. would want to dump her was an open marriage she came to her and said i want to stay married do you have to have an affair with close to its current wife. i mean does anybody even find this stuff shocking it's not that i think it's important because he's not only yes he's asked for forgiveness or whatever but this is a person who continues to go on the campaign trail

a different sauce and talk about marriage not only the things he of marriage but the things he of traditional marriage ok so what is traditional about an open marriage if you're going to preach against gay marriage should we. if you want to open marriage after you've already been married for a while do you it's like can we change the rules up a little bit they were half way through there has to be the most revealing thing about this is that no one was surprised you know this mary and sat down for this interview with a.b.c. news it's airing tonight. and you know no one at this point finds newt gingrich's past sexual behaviors shocking and you know they say it's going to be just i find. they're just noxious and kind of sleazy and he's the guy they claim that he cheated because he loved this country so much it's like you know but i don't think you would change things a little tiny bit to have it actually coming from the voice of somebody who did this to us i think it's you ought to. take down it'll make for an interesting debate tonight no matter what. it will be examined about it bring it up all right

let's move on to somebody else. well back in the good old days he was marky mark where he didn't seem all that tough but i think he thought he was. mark walberg school animal. i'm a former you guys know me. talk to some animals. i. just going. i want you for that looks really great. all right different clip that i was talking about but mark wahlberg oh mark wahlberg so he's had to apologize because in an interview that he gave to men's journal he's talking about how he was supposed to be on one of the flights that actually ended up going into the world trade center on nine eleven and he said if i was on that plane it with my kids it wouldn't have went down like it did there would have been a lot of blood in that first class cabin and then me saying ok we're going to land somewhere safely don't worry if you found this obviously to be completely

inappropriate and immediately he had to apologize and you know i find his critics on this to be absolutely correct you know it's kind of thing you know i just like just i am. sure it's just absolutely whimsy going to the people who were all in the play of course absolutely and i totally see that point of view to hear that oh if marky mark would have been there all of my family members would have still been alive today that is offensive however and perhaps i'm just defending him because of his amazing abs but. when you look back to nine eleven and you think about where we are now as a society and what we think about if that happened today and somebody started threatening the pilots or the or the flight attendants any one of us would have done something because we have you know the benefit of hindsight we have the benefit of looking back so i'm sure marky mark just thought oh you know knowing what i know now i would have gotten up but hopefully it was or not he's a he's a hollywood director with no professional brain or. he gets up in charge of the

cockpit he is not going to survive i don't know you know what he actually flipped me off one time driving in l.a. so i don't think you. know he was driving really slow and so i honk if he was blocking the road and let me off and he was you know it's like you know blue bentley or whatever mark mark i think that you're full of it oh crap and good thing that you apologize because that was not a good thing to make ok let's move on to this video that really has nothing to do with anything other than this little eight year old girl's really cute. i had some people i think she just might bring heart far back. everyone goes through a phase in their lives and she's obviously just going through

a metal phase a little early like her a lover she reminds me of a little girl who did super bass and also in a british accent i guess i was a brit i don't know you guys i know it's metal it's still robot cooler though like being able to rap when you're a little kid or being able to i think they're all i think the rapping was more impressive definitely the fast pace that it's coming out that she's you know just screaming along with the words and her dog and her fish is all right where we grew out of the last story really quick so the hill had a report today talking to a number of lobbying firms are saying they're just licking their chops right now because so far they're already twenty five senators and congress members that are going to be retiring at the end of the year and so they just can't wait to try to scoop these people up there's even somebody. it's like why it's a good class it's not a great class of certain things happen it's like wind so they can't wait to go and court these people i thought they had to wait a year. does that mean that they can start getting all the all the negotiations

they were my story when we were the road crew are rushing to show up at the high schools of kids when they're in tenth grade to see their skills on the football team and they start making big promises i think what you actually might see is some republicans getting behind some lobbying reform efforts because you see people like peter or zach from the administration going straight to citi group you see people like chris dodd going to be the head of the n.p.a. and then being an incredibly powerful voice in the debate over saying he wouldn't lobby exactly yeah well hopefully maybe toledo a couple outrage i got to wrap it up that's about as long as you know how washington works for sarah true very true thanks for joining me that's it for a night show you guys thanks for tuning in make you connect tomorrow is the third anniversary of obama taking office and the second anniversary of that is united talk about that coming up next.

right. from pundits to. t.v. dot com. james bond a london admits in electronics rock found in moscow six years ago belonged to her majesty's secret service. the voice caused a storm of controversy at the time of the plane from downing street the story was absurd all the details from london in just a few moments. the f.b.i. website becomes the latest victim of hackers within the anonymous group as they wage the largest attack ever on the u.s. government and music industry websites this comes after the u.s. authorities shot a popular illegal downloads and charged seven people with copyright crime.

more tough new sanctions against the syrian regime are in the pipeline as the arab league observers mission prepares its final report into how to stop the daily deadly violence. and broadcasting live direct from the heart of moscow this is r t i'm sean thomas let's get right to your top stories. the u.k. has finally admitted to spying on moscow after years in denial a former senior government official has confirmed they were startled when the f.s.b. discovered their surveillance equipment. reports from london and my six were literally rocked by the revelations. it's not exactly the most glamorous of james bond gadgets but hidden in the.