our guys have time for tonight's tool time award and tonight we're giving it to the current g.o.p. front runner mitt romney may be riding the republican ticket to next november but there are some serious questions about how he matched his wealth and what he's done with it since most recently everybody's been asking about asking him about when he's going to release his tax forms but since he's been dodging that one very well by the way he decided to take a moment to bash newt gingrich last night when it comes to the history of congress . which you listen to in my view and the speaker's rendition of history go back to one hundred seventy eight is involving a washington is in my view a perfect example of why we need to send to washington someone who has not lived in washington but some others live in the real streets of america. lived in the real streets of america with every wall street maybe some beautiful street a gated community i think that we all know that you are the furthest thing from a real american that one could define it just because you worked in the private sector doesn't mean you know anything about what it's like to be an average

american being born into political royalty making millions working at a venture capital firm bain capital doesn't make you understand the experiences of americans neither do huge i'm talking huge houses in utah new hampshire massachusetts and a couple in california and a net worth estimated at around two hundred fifty million dollars but for some reason missing to think that you know taking the ned flanders route will going it's going to help him beat the other candidates and connect with voters take for example this scene from a group chat at a copy house down in florida over the summer. we're going to go the extra also thank you. thank you great thank you very very very weak this great thank you. is on link did ya write that service for the common people now do you also remember

when he made that speech in new hampshire where he said that he too has nightmares about being unemployed i know what it's like to worry whether you're going to get fired or a couple of times i wondered whether i was going to get a pink slip. hey mitt if you're so nervous trying to sell or excuse me if you were so nervous try selling some more of your homes to help you and your family get by but all jokes aside somebody please let him know that we're just not buying it he's a front rather than the g.o.p. because there's nobody else not because he's somebody that people can identify with so i'd say just drop all this ordinary person crap and just be yourself just be be absurdly rich successful mormon from massachusetts who's running for president but i'm not his campaign manager so somebody else needs to let him know that the flip flopping between businessman and ordinary guy is getting really old but in the meantime mitt romney will once again earn our tool time award for continuously trying to be somebody that he's not. well the city of chicago just got a little less free thanks to mayor rahm emanuel emanuel the current mayor and

former chief of staff to president obama has just one approval from the chicago city council for a draconian set of anti protesting ordinances the reason here is to prepare the city for the onslaught of really scary international protesters that are going to flood in for the g eight and nato summit scheduled to take place this spring in chicago or as the police chief describes them quote people who travel around the world as professional an artists and writers and a bunch of wild anti globalist anarchists of course the politicians in chicago chose to conjure up images of the wild and are kids protesters of your and not the peaceful occupy chicago protesters that will also be at the summit but emanuel is really just taking a page out of the playbook of many cities before him drumming up fear to make a grab for power and grab he did it through the ordinances passed this we grant emanuel sweeping new powers including us a little army he's going to have you off there already to deputize law enforcement personnel from the d.a. the f.b.i. the a.t.f. the d.o.j.

the illinois state police and quote other law enforcement agencies determined by the superintendent of police to be necessary for the fulfillment of law enforcement functions and that last part. pretty vague to hire blackwater for example well with language we really don't know which is alarming to say the least and want a proper crackdown be without increase or valence of course this is also going to increase video audio and telecommunications equipment to monitor the city and also increase the minimum fine for resisting arrest from fifty dollars to two hundred dollars but the kicker is that they make sure to throw that in for the purpose of this ordinance where the definition of resist will mean a passive as well as active and what you perhaps the most infuriating part of this new ordinance to average chicago residents is that rahm now has the power to outsource city services to private companies and then provide assurances to that company that taxpayers will foot the bill of any lawsuit associated with those services as bernard harcourt the guardian notes it's

a perfect example of privatizing the profits and socializing the costs now it's truly alarming about this is that most of these nice new powers they want even expire after the summits are over this pacific contracts that involve hosting the nato g eight summit expire but the newly expanded police powers increased video surveillance or changes to the process of acquiring permits well those are unfortunately forever now because of rahm emanuel chicagoans rights to free speech will forever be a little less strong now thankfully the new laws are being challenged by occupy chicago so we will make sure to keep you updated on any developments in this case. well it's now been two here since the supreme court handed down its decision on citizens united allowing the floodgates to open for corporate spending in our political system and today protests took to took place across the country and action called occupy the courts here in d.c. protesters gathered on the steps of the supreme court and were met with the police presence and arrests congressman dennis kucinich meanwhile introduced an amendment

yesterday to have the supreme court decision overturned saying that because of citizens united american democracy has been put up on the auction block. so two years in public opinion soured enough for the overturning of citizens united to actually have a chance joining me from our studio in los angeles is john tomato founder of crooks and liars john i want to thank you for joining me tonight and first of all let me just ask you know we have seen some effects obviously of citizens united specially in the midterm in two thousand and ten more money spent than ever before but do you think that we've seen the worst of it yet or is it just the tip of the iceberg. it's just the tip of the iceberg and thanks for having me on it's really it's really cool to be with you alone and the amount of money that we're going to see coming in the general election is just going to be obscene and you know what's been really good to me larry as and you've even seen it yourself is that newt gingrich has been complaining about mitt romney's super pac money those at this point since

we have the republican primaries going there besh in each other with all these anonymous corporate donations and i mean it flipped the election for romney even though romney now officially didn't win iowa but it destroyed gingrich if the millions and millions of dollars of negative ads run so he's the first recipient of this ruling against the republican and it's truly quite really sickening to be honest with you that myself and there's new polls released today that showing that actually a majority of two thirds of small business owners are really upset with the citizens united ruling that americans are just sick and tired of money ruling politics and running ruling their lives in this decision on the anniversary tomorrow notice in south carolina with their primary goal and that's the anniversary of citizens united well i'm curious about that so you mention of course that mitt romney and newt gingrich have been complaining about citizens united and the influence of outside money john mccain has even said his little piece about it why the

republican suddenly you know suddenly they have a dog in this fight and they're unhappy about it because they finally have seen how it actually works you know mitt romney and newt gingrich's actually have actually been the victims of it or are they trying to play into where public opinion is starting to head. well you know if you followed newt gingrich is very surly he's he's angry all the time and he's made his bones in this campaign basically attacking the media rights of you dare to ask him a question he just immediately turns on his of a asking the question so but i do believe personally because he is trying to win this nomination he's very. upset that the money is being spent against him because he can't match those funds i mean nobody knows where mitt romney's super pac millions and millions of dollars are coming from i mean there could be millions and millions of dollars coming from the mormon church in utah do we know that no where are these donations coming from it's what citizens united did you know and

americans are starting to see is it just it destroyed decades and decades of legislation that tried to stop this corporate money influence in our politics and in our election process we already knew that it was in the legislation process which drove that which drives americans crazy so newt is actually i think has very few areas because it's really florida and at this point but do you think that i mean you know two years ago when the citizens united ruling was made i feel like americans were pretty divided on it sure there was a large group that was incredibly angry and couldn't believe it but there was a lot of support and so now we've seen that change in the public opinion polls now the majority of americans actually know about citizens united think that it's having a negative a fact according to a recent pew research poll do you think the occupy wall street had some effect in changing perceptions. absolutely it's been a great you know that has been a truly grassroots movement outside of the phony tea party astroturf thing that the

koch brothers help start but it definitely is shake up the whole political establishment at this point so now this ruling itself as you saw we've had we had the occupy the supreme court and by the way notice the police presence immediately do you remember during the august tallon halls of the tea party people did you see any police in those meetings where when the politicians and democrats of being spit on they were being chased out of those halls where were the police did you see tasers you see catus does a smoke did you see people getting injured because of the police presence no but suddenly a real grassroots movement. now we have this incredible police presence try to crack down on legal protests so you know it's really a shame but it's the occupy wall street this is a no other aspect that will keep me out of the movie you know percolating because we have the winter going on back east and it's going to be really bad you can't really occupy parks out in the cold all the time but this ruling today there's been

a lot of new groups forming to start pushing for amendments to the constitution whether it's in your state and some states already have them and also the congress itself to do a constitutional amendment to overturn it that might take time but we need to start somewhere and today and tomorrow is the days that people are actually starting to take a real big actually i mean do you think that it's actually doable because as i mentioned there are about a number of amendments already introduced in congress congressman dennis because dennis kucinich has introduced a new one yesterday over fifty three councils across the u.s. have already passed their own resolution so do you think that it's really possible of another amendment to the constitution here. well i mean it is possible it's not going to be easy but at least you know we can start with the occupy movement on the local level and then it percolates up you know i born to a political pac or blue america pac and we raise most of our money online so

basically all the candidates get almost one hundred percent of the money we don't really it's not like a pac that you would say that you know we pay each other it all goes to the candidates and alan grayson who's running for reelection you know when he was in congress he authored a bill that basically said listen if you should be forced to disclose who your donors are and so that would be a great start we can get if we can get these little pieces of legislation passed in congress even if we don't overturn it entirely right away it starts chipping away at it and the public now is seeing the results of what citizens united you know here's a quickie right now there's a real anti-abortion activist randall terry and what he's doing is running for president which he's not doing it to run for president but because it is citizens united ruling he's able to put these disgusting off fetus ads on television forty

five days before an election and they are uncensored and he can get away with it because he's saying he's running for office so the special interest groups are going to start littering our airwaves with political ads that are basically special interest ads that have no censorship and at the stations are forced to run because they can afford to buy the spots i had and i got a chaotic white house he has that as a running out of time gavino you're right i think you're going to start seeing a lot of examples of that at the same time you know the public's mood is shifting and i think that this is a step in the right direction in that sense thanks so much for joining us tonight thank you very much. all right just ahead of the show my fireside friday and then happy hour one of us and we see host isn't too fond of steven called campaign for president in south carolina and one local news station gets creative when they can't bring their cameras into the courtroom you don't want to.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so 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 luck and is a big issue. wealthy british study all. the time to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger on no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports. welcome to

tonight's fireside fridays with your host cops. this week we saw something happen that completely challenge the status quo and the business as usual style here in washington was a massive protest all my on the phones to like congress know that sopa and pipa will not be accepted by the people to let them know that this is taking it a step too far and when you mess with the internet we all notice that we did tell the numbers the names for you on this show of who dropped their support both in the house and the senate and now both of these bills are shelved for the time being even the mainstream media and. republican presidential candidates were forced to take notice just think about what this one day of protest it for starters there is no way that there would have been a question about sopa and pipa at the c.n.n. debate without this and aside from ron paul who's going to get sober from the start you can bet that the answers from the other three candidates on that stage they would have been a lot different had they been asked about of the week ago so it's

a good feeling and although it is a mean of the battle to crush sopa and pipa is completely over i do think that those who participated should feel proud to feel a sense of accomplishment but i think of the challenge now is to look at this protest and see where else and how else it can be applied because we have to ask what else we've seen one single day of protest for so many politicians to change their minds or at least adjust their opinions to reflect those of the public sure and the four months since the occupy movement began we've definitely seen a change of rhetoric the focus has shifted from debt ceiling and deficit talks to inequality and unemployment and what the people actually need but it took four months and there is still a long hard slog of an acting the change that we really want but the push to protests open also didn't happen over just one single day for months we detailed every blog every legal scholar every think tag think tank every major tech firm that started chime in and put the wheels in motion for what january eighteenth would become but it was january eighteenth blackout day that made all the

difference and so i think that we need to start realizing the power of the internet gives us all the accessibility and the ease of it means that you don't have to organize large numbers bus them into a city to take to the streets anymore now that in no way discounts physical public protests i think we need more people to take to the streets but the internet is a really good way to get those who otherwise would have stayed at home would have passed to actually take part in the action some people question whether this was really the power of the people this week that force congress to take notice or the power of one giant industry the tech industry taking on another and to be honest here was probably a combination of both blackout. they wouldn't have been what it was had google and wikipedia and others not taken part and it was about time they did something with it after all this affects their business but it was a joint effort google collected over seven million signatures in an online petition against sopa and pipa thousands of people's called members of congress in some cases even overloaded their websites so what's the stop this from happening again

and for a different cause why can't we mobilize the same numbers on the internet to protest against and this war or corporate money corrupting our political system is the i think that we can't i think that we all need to realize that the tool that we have at our disposal realize that this pressure can still work without millions or billions being spent on lobbying so let this just be the first step in reclaiming our power and reclaiming our influence over what we the people want over those who we elect that are supposed to represent us because even washington can't ignore the internet anymore no matter what they do to try and stop it's continual expansion they're always playing catch up technology will still outrun legislation so let's use that to our advantage and we'll always be one step ahead.

hi guys time for happy hour and joining me this evening is archie producer jenny churchill and sam sacks producer for the big picture with tom hartman thanks for joining me guys so funny so you know if i don't see the other things do you laugh i'm excited and you don't even know that need to get is i know you laugh c.m.i. reputation precedes are you ok let's just start with a little something that chuck todd who we make fun of a lot of us of beefy had a little something to say about stephen colbert there when he was asked about it at a university panel and just take a listen. but what he's doing now. is it is a year to the process yes the process is a mess but he's doing it in a way that feels as if he's trying to influence it with his own agenda that maybe entire. republican party and we have the media covering it is that our women here he's also seems to be doing his best to marginalize the republicans.

and he goes on about how he's making a mockery of the system yada yada yada how they're they act like they're comedians but they're not just comedians anymore and they should be called out for what they do what you get say i thought she even called there was a republican. i mean how do you are someone coming from outside of this race and try to influence this race with money how do you hear they do that because this is such a pure clean says clearly right or marginalize very middle of the road candidates i mean how do you hear someone point out the dumb things people say and the down way it is really makes me just like chuck todd what he's saying is he's like they're making fun of us the media we should be able to critique them until we when he was getting bombed about it it's like you obviously can't take a joke and you don't get the fact that these guys they are comedians and they're providing very necessary satire if you ask me and. this is why you're going to get

made fun of more for making statements like that if you take it so seriously a great group ok. all right let's move on to a puppet court sometimes you know local news needs to cover a story that's taking place in the courts but they don't allow any cameras in and so this local news team got really creative. a wiretap conversation played in court where county employee kevin kelly jokes with jamie devorah about the possibility he picked up from a hooker in vegas for a job of are driven out of everybody's course you will google. what do you like better the herpes or the or the or the muppet puppet i don't think they're mutually exclusive i think it's the puppets talking about herpes really then i don't know you can talk about herpes you know keeping it in you have to bring muppets into it i think so i think it's the best thing i've seen i mean this is the way to do court forget the sketches. he does or through boring your true t.v.

was just blown out of the while who cares about your t.v. now we have a puppet. it was good it was good it was creative a let's move on to these crazy ads that are out there these are put out by a group called physicians committee for responsible medicine and basically they're telling you that if you ever eat cheese you're going to be fat that's your abs on cheese and those are your thighs on she which you know i love cheese i can't live without it she. just goes to nancy ok yeah but you know what it's a lot more things than just cheese that's probably. oh whole other range of things that we are unhealthy it's not exercising might be bad genes you know automatically going to have a stomach this big you can eat cheese i just think it's the wrong message to send well i think this is even i think. this is the first shot fired in what's going to be a war because the american dairy farmers have a lot more money than this one profit group that's right now it's quite accepted it

was my water it is irresponsible medicine i'm sorry first of all really giving children complexes by showing them that and saying this is going to be you and nobody's going to eat string cheese it's devastating like what i'm hearing supposed to pack in lunch it snow and i mean. i just i guess i'm going to want to there are but a lot of plenty of. it's just a little misleading. i think there'll be a rebuttal and you'll have probably women in bathing suits just swimming in nacho cheese like just eating tons of cheese by the american you know i like that idea i wanted to call in tier to be very good now because of this i do eat a couple. i'm addicted. really quickly let's take a look at the new girl lego's that they're making. new lego friends welcome to

you both heartbreak. jessamy i'm going to a party at the new cafe with my friend who lives here. to look at the beauty shop styles and ready to go. cafe is the coolest city. all right the same group is really pissed that they're making gender based a lego is because lego are supposed to be for everybody and how they're how dare they market it to girls. what do you think about the journey well i think it's insane that people are upset that like i was finally paying attention to girls when they've been ignoring them forever with the star wars in the whatever and i loved all that stuff i did we hear a little lego and that didn't bother me i did too but i think that now there's a finally wanting girls you know reaching out for girl spoke like those and people are upset like when are people ever happy as the resident lego expert here i think i completely support this move and would like more women playing with like those which are ok but they don't have to market them specifically to women i think if the playwright we've got to wrap it up as we're out of time thanks for joining us

and i will see you on tuesday no show monday.

both. of them. a wave of online protests from blacked out google and wikipedia pages to a crippling hacker attack on the government websites forced u.s. lawmakers to rethink tough new anti-piracy legislation. u.k.'s broadcasting watchdog revokes iran's press t.v. broadcasting license for breaching a string of regulations a move which the channel calls a clear act of censorship. and in syria thousands of people have taken to the streets of damascus to demand president assad release political prisoners held since the start of the month long uprising this comes that despite a general amnesty earlier this week that saw the early two hundred free.

and broadcasting live direct from the heart of moscow this is r t certainly glad to have you with us let's take a look at your top stories the american government and entertainment industry have come under attack from a group of computer hackers known as anonymous they crashed websites belonging to the f.b.i. the department of justice and universal music the group claims its largest ever attack was in response to the closure of the major file sharing service mega upload which has affected around fifty million daily users the web site's bosses have been arrested and are now facing prison sentences for copyright infringement stringent new legislation to curb illegal downloads under consideration by congress sparked outrage this week thousands of websites including wicked pedia and to.