in the interest to regulate the public airwaves to have a healthy democracy and by these corporations and wealthy individuals being able to funnel in tens of millions of dollars they are centrally controlling the public airwaves and now what it has to do is. of opinion it's not about that you can spend hours or days maybe finding a dissenting opinion it's what people are bombarded with every day that's why they start to believe that global warming is a fraud even though the evidence is all that's why it's wrong you know not everything you know is really. going to go in and are ever. again is what matters here it's the buying of the political process i want to stay with that note here craig i want to go back to you do you think that media is complicit in this is well it's because they make an actually a lot of money off of this i mean these ads are expensive they make money off of it and they would like to see the process go on as long as possible because it's very

profitable for television stations it has nothing to do with journalistic values or democratic hopes or anything else it's about making a lot of money and they're pretty pleased with it they love the primaries. you know you know by the way it's not only the media who's getting rich off these elections off of these super pacs it is also many of the people who are running these super pacs if you take a look at the super pacs since they're unaccountable to any real candidate or political party they tend to hire their own people to do the media work their own colleagues their own partners there is a flood of money go into these super pacs and we find it all being circulated within a very small elite circle of people who are running the super pacs because they lack accountability so it's not only a dangerous trend for elections this is this is ripe for corruption here ok really it's it seems you know why free speech or free markets ok but i mean is this just

buying elections now i mean you crowd out the space with negative. i mean there have been people all around shares of american people aren't shape you know we heard your talking points enough times already yes of course it is about buying elections look i just spent the last three loves here i like i mean to be swayed by i had to know you know as of our poll i talked to hundreds of people all across the country in various cities who were all saying the same things our voice doesn't matter they said things like you can't you're not a corporation unless you have a senator or two in your pocket you know we can't buy the political process like corporations can people across the country raising here is going to say you know. do you have americans one hundred people that is own bought and sold by the corporations and you can go out and find this and i didn't write i was going to get

elected. but it was a free market brother and i received huge amounts of money from wall street barack obama is part of the problem ok i'm not a partisan like you. money has fundamental on the art as a political process that's how wall street that's how wall street. centrally crashing the global economy ok they have bought the political process so they have already. they they were able to buy a huge huge bailout and then they were able to essentially sabotage any sort of finance reform there's been no sort of proper prosecution the democrats and republicans are peas in a pod on this issue and on many other issues you know barack obama has the. climate change talks. craighead joining the most fright. the most frightening aspect about this is super pacs are not just buying elections this time around

they're actually trying to buy the white house and. that's a very frightening prospect here. not only so much money going in there we're seeing super pacs that are really essentially coordinated with the presidential candidates pumping five million ten hundred million to support a presidential candidate whoever is going to be elected president is going to know who he or she owes their election to this is this is a frightening prospect for america i'd like to know you know i want you to do a lot of this. village x.l. pipeline which i think you can tell by the lack of civility. going on right now and how dangerous this is ok gentlemen. which i think is a great example there was a recent vote in the house on the x.l. pipeline in terms of the representatives who voted against approving the x.l. pipeline they had received perhaps about one million dollars from the oil and gas

industry for those who wanted the x.l. pipeline and the vote was pretty close they had received over eight million dollars from the. well and gas is our story so it's going to add that into the buying of the political process. that is going on go ahead jump in excuse me you know just naysaying is why they waste a million dollars second of all money chases ideas it's not the other way around i wasn't a liberal until somebody wrote me a check and then all of a sudden i was a conservative that's absurd the money chases the ideas not the other way around ok craig you know if i could go out and i can't is totally true if i go back to campaign financing you know up until the supreme court decision you know computing campaigns you know there was accountability do you think there's any reason for middle class people to write a check for any candidate these days if so much big money is out there that crowds

out the process being part of the political process and supporting candidates is it's what's the point in doing it i mean if ten dollars is nothing compared to the numbers you just mentioned being part of the political that's a story with the average americans are going to lack of money take. take take a look at the occupy wall street movement the occupy d.c. moment the occupy k. street with the tea party i mean this is where groups citizens of average americans are finding their frustration and many many of these people especially in the occupy wall street movement are actually advocating don't bother voting it doesn't matter anymore we're not going to see it is very easy to do it here in iowa is in the one thousand years i've lived here and they don't have a ton of money wait a minute wait a minute the tea party elected sixty plus republicans in the house live here and they don't have this kind of money so what are you talking about what are you talking about so if you have to. go to.

the others who are out there they had one hundred ninety days that they're out of there is. going to to increase. forty seven percent you. mean i want to say that i really want to spend a they had a ton of money i had a ton of money. and they did and i know the top three tea party groups believe me they'd love to have a ton of money they don't ok that's absurd and i mean this is this is go ahead go ahead. this is essentially the distortion is on it's basically. you know we hear these blatant blame lies at least least on this show that we you know we're able we're able to counter some of these lies but the but the thing about citizens united and what you already have yourself they are able to essentially spew propaganda with no opposition whatsoever and this

and i think it's true that when it was we're going to have as you know no you know i think we should we should he should. fit it like nascar drivers where it shows their sponsors on their suits you know they they should have to wear logos for michael that exxon mobil and the koch brothers ok craig go ahead jump in we're going to see eight eight eight billion dollars spent in the two thousand and twelve elections and we're going to see a decrease in voter turnout because most of that money is going to be very negative it's going to. leave most americans feeling disgusted with our campaign finance system and it is not going to help mobilize or increase the confidence or increase the integrity of the democratic system in the u.s. ok we're in a very dangerous period i want to call that ok see them with the last word twenty seconds. well first of all government was strong we wouldn't have to do all those second of all the reason toto is going to be down is because obama's. magical run

is over and a lot of the new first time voters who never voted but voted for him will be gone next time ok gentlemen very spirited discussion thank you very much many thanks to my guest today in los angeles and in washington and thanks to our viewers for watching us here r.t. see you next time and remember. if you. still. want. to the. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered.

if you. come from some stupid. stunts on t.v. don't come. serious slams an arab league plan to solve the country's crisis with wiring president assad to step down calling it an interference in its internal affairs what's. the e.u. formally adopted while in bargo against iran as part of president the sanctions against the country there are fears that the sanctions may backfire for the details in a few moments. and for a show of votes in favor of joining the debt stricken but a low turnout for the national referendum and some violent protests are exposed to visions within the country.

midnight in moscow i met good to have you with us here on r t our top story syria has rejected an arab league proposal to resolve the country's crisis that requires president assad to relinquish power damascus slammed the plan calling it interference in its internal affairs an attack on its sovereignty has more from damascus. likud president bashar al assad to step down and to hand power of his deputy they also called for the formation of a national unity government and that would be a pretty late early parliamentary and presidential elections now those calls have been vehemently rejected by the syrian government here so you could play grand interference with the internal affairs really the sense here from damascus is that

the government here are working on their own reforms they want the arab league mission to focus on their job of course the problem is you've got countries in the arab league like saudi arabia like qatar now seeing the sense that they're preaching democracy to syria when of course they themselves don't have to vote to see. rush's stances once again that this should be seeking resolution with alice for an intervention now i've actually spoken to the national coordinator council which is the opposition within the country they welcomed the maven again reiterated their felt that as long as there is no move towards foreign military intervention they're very pleased with the response from the arab league mission because you still got observers on the ground it's expected that the mission is actually now going to continue possibly for another month and closely. of their powers and their numbers as well of course what you don't want to see happen now is

that the arab league mission which is really the only route there remains a teacher seeing dialogue in the country to now have blocks put in its way so the question really is how to make the mission the observer mission more effective because as we've been witnessing in the past couple of weeks really at the moment in the country what you want to be thing is the sightedness and not further division. or civilization. or. two to homes the conflict has moved ever closer to the country's capital now many damascus suburbs are also embroiled in the conflicts between government forces and the armed opposition. well this is all that's left of many of the houses now inside just gutted it for anything close you've got bullet holes lining the walls you've got close around the house but people have left them behind fleeing very quickly you can really see here the devastating consequences that this conflict has her

picking up the pieces easy among c.e.o. position themselves there are worrying divisions and as the conflicts become increasingly violent there are now areas of the country where it's unclear exactly is in control what do the people here. think the syrian army having control not or . not. a lot of numbers a number of seats we see the heart of who's in charge and. the could be the diversion of the stuff and league observers look set to remain in the country for another month trying to build the basis for multi-party elections even seen by the international community or that you are your sort of or you are into a position you have to put in your mind that you have to work with the other side working with the other side these don't look. good with thousands kills bringing

the different factions to the negotiating table is going to be a major task. damascus syria do you have imposed pressure of all bans and asset freezes on the syrian regime as punishment for young going violence sara mara circle political analyst from syracuse university thinks the opposition is also part of the debate blame for the bloodshed and that pressure should be put on both sides to get to the negotiating table. of course there are certain parts of the opposition that should share in the responsibility for the there are a good amount of syrians who are dedicated to peaceful demonstrations who have been showing up on the streets and have been you know resisting calls to violence but then there are also many dangerous segments of the opposition who have long used violence we see this as collation more and more especially over the last several months with a lot of weapons coming in through foreign borders to opposition that's becoming

increasingly militarized and carrying out some very devastating attacks on syrian infrastructure syrian government institutions the police and also innocent civilians are getting killed in syria and so really the violence now is a two way street and it's really a failure of the syrian mission the observers if they're not going to the pressure on both sides it's unrealistic to force one side to make all the changes when there is violence coming from both sides what's going to happen to the silent majority of syrians who are not protesting are they going to be attacked by the more militant forms of protesters are they going to be injured in some sort of process that is not going to facilitate dialogue that's going to facilitate chaos. in egypt is one of the countries where people are now seeing the consequences of the democracy. as they really like the old it's revolution and so many egyptians say that it would raise the muslim brotherhood it's more it will be ignored. but first

nations have formally adopted it unprecedented set of sanctions against iran including wider bardot on iranian oil the move targets the country's nuclear program which the islamic republic insists is for peaceful uses russia says he regrets the sanctions saying they undermine diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis. has more from brussels. it's sensually a total oil embargo it will have immediate effect on new contracts but that existing contract will be allowed to run for another six months they've also agreed on a ban on a gold and gold trade and other precious metals with the iranian central bank all of these of course aiming to financially and economically cripple iran over its controversial nuclear program with western leaders still insisting iran is trying to build nuclear weapons while terror ron denies this now the e.u. embargo follow strict new a u.s. sanctions that were passed into law by president obama in january so as far as the

e.u. is concerned by july it will be a full and total implementation of these new sanctions this is unprecedented in terms of the scope and the desire to potential effects on iran but it is also one president in terms of its potential economic impact on the european union itself let's not forget the e.u. imports up to twenty percent of rain in all its second biggest buyer and one of the twenty seven the biggest buyers within that are elite spain and greece the very same countries that are now struggling to deal with that sovereign debt crisis greece in particular heavily dependent on the radio oil with up to one third of its total imports from iran also it's relying on terror for easier credit terms so they will definitely have to find alternatives for these countries these are what their leaders will have to talk about how to cushion the potential economic impacts on the several member states and of course because of all the uncertainty oil markets have already reacted pushing oil prices up and higher oil prices will just mean higher prices of goods. a senior iranian official says if. imposed embargo

affects tehran's oil trade the middle go ahead with its the right to block off the vital strait of hormuz transit routes but james corbett editor of the independent news report says the threat is unlikely to be carried out. i think there is no doubt there is some provocation and some testing of the waters quite literally and figuratively going on right now and certainly with the rands recent threats to to block the strait of hormuz now we see the americans sending ships through there to sort of test the defenses so to speak so so i think there is definitely some cat and mouse going on right now and i think at this point it is saber rattling and testing both sides testing to see how far the other is going to go canned and as i say at this point i would be extremely shocked to see iran actually pulling out the the option of of mining or otherwise blockading the strait of hormuz because that seems to me that that's that's pretty much the last card up their sleeve so i don't think they want to put it on the you know on the table too early oddly enough i think the further that iran is pushed into a corner here than war their position will strengthen over time as they as they

develop alternative routes out for their for their oil exports if they for example increase their trading partnership with china or russia and india as we've seen in recent days they've been scrambling to establish exchanges in other currencies including their local currencies including even asking india to trade in japanese yen so we could see really a fundamental shift in the in the entire dynamic of this that is energy export economy that that's taking place right now and it could actually serve to to benefit iran in the long run from getting them off of their dependence on the petro dollar. stay with us here on r t still to come on the program the twists and turns of russian politics election campaign tense a vice presidential hopeful a lot of your putin wants to get tough on immigration. but first an easy you entry ticket has been approved by the people of croatia the us wasn't as solid as expected with more than half of the croats simply ignoring him to vote in their

national referendum but the country will become the twenty eighth member state by july of next year if it gets the backing of all the other members was split on the issue with those in opposition saying there's nothing to be gained from a bloc currently experiencing its worst ever crisis as artie's tom barton reports the divisions are there to stay after a yes but. violent scenes in the croatian capital it's the country's be the referendum but setting. me up for history being made behind me the police trying to push the protesters away as they take and see protest as a way six way she missed a chance to live in the creation capital and fighting has taken as being time only that it's well now. only. these anti protesters say the government is trying to suppress the dissenting

voices they are joining would surrender croatia's independence to brussels yes i believe that they'll pull in another street nearby the foreign minister is trying to convince people that accession is vital for the croat to come to me that actually with the stability that scout collate it into the credit rating of gratian . that is translated into membership of the union gracious budget would be in serious trouble everywhere you turn in croatia the e.u. is being discussed whereas most of the political class no longer question the europhiles stance public views differ widely in the us italians will come into our sea and catch all our fish and that's our biggest problem you know if you know they're fairly thorough but they told us we have to buy in the e.u. has regulations those they don't want to obey must stop trading here in memphis and

if we have two sons turn employed and maybe because of that i would be prying a secret to most of the symbols were you know all the worries about sovereignty local industry and economic well being a former state and there are still some voices in parliament think the benefits of what joining it would be better than would it were not so. going with our heads high up we're going to our knees because our economy. non-existing our exporting is pretty bad our b d p is very low so we don't really have anything to offer you back out on the streets the arguments quality will not continue with a rough six weeks with such strong emotions it seems unlikely this referendum dissolve the nation's division of the european membership box of rocks. and there still tension in one of the newest e.u. member states romania the country's foreign minister has been fired for criticizing

the protesters angry at the government for more then a week people have been demanding the president ministers step down this is just a backdrop of wage cuts and tax hikes in the second poorest country which is struggling to meet the demands of its international creditors and to watch reports sent in by our teams tom barton who was in the middle of recent violence in bucharest that's on our web site r t dot com. with russia's presidential race just around the corner candidates are ramping up their campaigns prime minister and hopeful writer lattimer putin is embraced proposing stricter immigration rules in his second major newspaper article in the run up to the vote archy's peter all reports. but talking on multiculturalism a migration vladimir putin praised what he sees is russia's long history as a multicultural nation a history he says goes back to the days of the russian empire it said that there have been some very serious problems though when it comes to migration and integration of migrants in russia that these problems over the last twenty years

since the collapse of the soviet union were very serious indeed in our problems that russia is still struggling to to deal with today speaking about what the results can be of migration going wrong he warned of the rise of nationalism the rise of xenophobia these type of issues that we saw acted out in real life eight in moscow in two thousand and ten with ethnic clashes taking place i'm right next to the kremlin in the heart of the russian capital he hits out at those that seem nationalism right he hit out at those who have slogans such as stop feeding and stop funding the caucuses saying well the caucuses are a part of russia talking of multiculturalism he said that russia had a very unique system of multiculturalism something very different to say what happens in europe where he said basically multiculturalism had failed and that russia system was something that had to be he's a very different manner over to me and said that there's no way that you can completely get rid of all illegal immigration into russia but if he's elected

president in the elections in march that he hopes to be able to to make significant cuts to the amount of people that are arriving in russia illegally now he wants to do this by toughening the laws to try and deter people from entering the country illegally he also wants to see a system put in place not just to monitor foreign immigrants coming into russia but also to monitor internal migrants also by twenty thirty he wants to see an exam put in place to those wanting to come and settled and live and work in russia but they have to be able to pass the russian language exam also an exam on russian culture russian history so those are the things that he wants to to put in place to tackle the issue of migration and multiculturalism in russia. as the march of vote approaches r.t. is keeping a close eye on the campaign trail of course you can always find more on our website hard. online right now pre-election scandal there was up around a veteran liberal candidate who could be pushed out of the race because of

violations during the registration process you can find all this and more at our team dot com. and. staying with the voting topic the newly elected parliament in egypt has started its first session most of the seats occupied by members of the muslim brotherhood and other islamic parties who won an overwhelming majority in the first post mubarak poll notion reports many now feel like the brotherhood may have lied its way into power is a growing option here in egypt already that with these with this new policy changes will actually not be as dramatic as people in the revolution demonstrators protesters have expected them to be the muslim brotherhood striven to sponsor has indeed won the first vote in place barak mostly because he had promised people all aid to how would such a transitional transition from ministry to civil how is something people have been calling for how the.