persuasive to voters but ultimately what's happening is voters are making the decision who they want to have an office that's the essence of tomato you're suggesting that the essence of democracy is that. if a company never advertises their food products nobody ever goes out and buys it. that doesn't matter people will eventually find it has advertising doesn't work. wow i'm not sure how that plays into what's going on here with the oh i just said the the essence of democracy whoever runs the most ads is going to win mean when you said may or may not work and i'm challenging that assertion and say the reason why advertising is a trillion dollar industry in the united states is because it does work and so if these if the big coal and big oil and these guys are buying ads they are buying votes well they're not out handing twenty dollars bills out from the polling place what they're doing is they're running ads that put a political message out there those political messages may be persuasive that's certainly what they're intended to do but ultimately they have to have an effect on

the voter when a voter goes into what they have to tell you as well crafted ads of course you know so that that has nothing to do with the with a candidate who's a state's person. the message that's being conveyed in the ads has to persuade the voters that this person is worth having that doesn't mean it's a person actually is it just means that the ad agency to put the ad together was successful in convincing the voters who should be deciding who has the qualifications to be in office other than the vote i don't think i don't think a billion dollar trillion dollar corporation or a multi-billion dollar corporation or a billionaire frankly should be making that decision i don't you know i i think it should be up to with the people well it depends on what you think the role of voters is if you think that voters have their minds made up for them by advertising that might be you know i don't know i say i think that the voters i think that the the the people running for political office are that have access to free time on television and radio and you know like like the nixon kennedy debates in one nine hundred sixty were were very very little money was spent on advertising and there

was lots and lots of free media and it worked very very well and you you ended up with candidates who by and large are up to hold and. what the government can't do is tell independent people or outside groups that you've spoken too much about a political candidate actually it can except that the supreme court says it can't know actually going back all the way to. one thousand nine hundred seventy six the supreme court has said that an individual can spend as much as they want to get their political message out there so you know situations like you know we've spoken before all of us hopefully tucker sees ok with it it's not plutocracy because people aren't buying votes that it's only the rich guys can afford to run for office that's right. not only rich guys can afford to vote to run for office it does cost money to get ads on television it costs money to put television shows on the air but that's just part of speaking out to a mass audience there's no way to get around that in our modern information economy well i'll leave you with a last word of thanks a lot for showing thank you very much if you can buy. in my opinion we have to get

money out of our politics if we want our government responsive to we the people again it can be done like a social member this is corporations are not people and money is not speech good will to amend or to get involved. why is there any seemingly endless number of young people showing up at occupy wall street movements first and obvious answer is because this is the first generation since the one nine hundred thirty s. who are coming of age in a world where it's unlikely they'll do as well as their parents thirty years of reaganomics has ripped a hole in the american dream but it's also something to do with the fact that fewer young adults have a job in america than ever before only fifty four percent of americans between the

ages of eighteen and twenty four are employed right now that's the lowest number ever recorded since the tracking began more than sixty years ago and to make matters profoundly worse they're drowning in over a trillion dollars of student loan debt the most ever recorded in the history of this or any other country. reaganomics and clinton omics has created a lost generation of americans which is helping to fill the ranks of the occupy wall street while the choice is simple live in the streets or take to the streets but that doesn't explain why the movement got as big as it did as fast as it did it doesn't explain how a small encampment in zuccotti park with little street mainstream media attention turned into a worldwide movement for that we have to thank the police images like these led to occupy spreading like a wildfire women getting corralled and pepper sprayed in new york the streets of oakland turning into a war zone cops firing tear gas canisters canisters of people's heads and shooting

rubber coated steel bullets students sitting peacefully in protest at the university of california davis well within the rights laid out the first amendment getting doused with chemical weapons in the face these are the images that have inflamed the american part of this revolution and we can thank citizens citizen journalists who took out their cameras when times got dangerous to record these images they needed to make sure that the chance around them were true that the whole world was indeed watching this video is as crucial to the movement as are the horrors of the unemployment figures the ongoing corruption in washington d.c. and the crimes that it looks like wall street bankers are going to get away with scot free but in illinois in chicago where a massive occupy demonstration is scheduled in may with the g eight and nato coming to town to hold joint summits videos like we just saw those kind of images are

illegal according to the illinois eavesdropping act of one thousand nine hundred sixty one it is against the law to record a police officer and those who violate the law could face up to fifteen years prison. with tens if not hundreds of thousands of patriots set to converge on occupy chicago in a few months this could be a big problem luckily one illinois state representative elaine necker its is proposing an amendment to this law under illinois house bill thirty nine forty four which she introduced citizens will have the right to film law enforcement officers in any public space and most of the brutality we've seen from the n.y.p.d. the opi to the u.c. davis police has occurred in public places been able to videotape what's happening is the people's best defense against excessive police force and ironically web cam videos are also the police's best self defense when anarchists begin trashing

things and the police actually have a legal obligation to respond even chicago police superintendent gary mccarthy agrees with us as he told the panel of oil and loyola university recently as far as the use of videotape by certainly endorse it for the protection of the police as well as civilians there's no argument when you can show videotape and can look at what happened and of quote the occupy movement the act white suit they are by wall street movement has been remarkably peaceful in the nearly five months of its existence and the proof is out there in the thousands of hours of videotape that's been recorded showing peaceful demonstrations all across the nation let's hope things are peaceful in may when the movement has to chicago a city that seen its share of violence and police brutality in the past but for self-defense or just for the historic record we just so that we all know just so that we can all look back on these moments the movement needs to have its cameras

handy and legal to make sure the whole world is really watching so if you're in illinois be sure to let your state representatives in your state senators know to support this legislation to amend that nine hundred sixty one. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website to tarver dot com free speech or an hour to dot com also check out our two you tube channels there are links of thom hartmann dot com this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and there's a top urban dot com to download the audio podcast of our daily to new to three radio show and we have a free to thom hartmann i phone and i pad app at the app store you can send us feedback on twitter at tom underscore her on facebook tom underscore her or blogs message boards telephone comment thom hartmann dot com and don't forget it doesn't happen until you show up. this is a constitutionally limited representative democratic republic the representative

part means we elect their representatives and they don't do squat unless we're out there telling them to how do they know what we want if we don't stand a movement politics has always throughout the history of this country from the very beginning movement politics has always driven party politics and national and movement politics begins when you and i show when we get out in the streets when we write the op eds when we call in to talk radio shows when we when we get it when we join movements and participate. so get out there and get active participant occupy so. your it will suit.

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the u.s. gathers a coalition of nations to help bring down the syrian regime indirectly as american weapons reportedly find their way to and as of bourse this. week labor unions stage a two day strike in response to the latest wave of spirit cuts which they say is pushing workers and the economy towards a financial abyss. politically proactive the group of public figures from russia's civil society gather widespread support on their quest to keep the presidential elections fair and transparent. and story in business this hour some of russia's richest people may soon be subject to a one off tax it's a way to close the subject of the privatization of the ninety's journey for

a full business bulletin and twitter there. is not am a russian gavel you're watching our josh welcome to the program the violence in syria is escalating and there's no u.n. backing for foreign intervention so and to ask forces across the world are seeking other means to topple the president the u.s. is setting up an international coalition aimed at supporting rebels in their struggle against damascus so-called friends of democratic syria will involve countries willing to prop up the opposition and pile more pressure on their regime direct military action is ruled out but reports suggest british and qatari special forces are already in the conflict and while the u.s. and its allies criticize russia for supplying military hardware. damascus there are now calls from american lawmakers to arm the opposition in response syrian troops

are trying to stem the flow of weapons already being smuggled in from neighboring countries but as are reports the region has been flooded with american arms for years. at the united nations security council america holds one permanent seat but when it comes to weapons the world's largest arms exporter is often seen as sitting on two chairs they say there isn't an international embargo on arms preventing them from doing that that is a fact but that doesn't change the immorality of supplying a dictatorial regime that is killing its people in massive numbers every day and we are are deeply concerned about that as u.s. officials continue publicly scolding countries over relations with syria critics say the accusations are being thrown from a tremendous glasshouse the us is a hugely difficult in this regard because they've long been the largest arms dealer and most of those weapons the us sold the story clearly more than four hundred

billion dollars worth of since the one nine hundred sixty s. have gone to the middle east and you can't argue. seriously that it's made that region any more stable in the past few years nearly fifty percent of u.s. weapons exports have been flowing to the middle east many countries with the biggest appetite for american weapons have also made headlines for carrying out brutal crackdowns against dissidents and opposition groups if you are are so you know ok in france they are thugs you're not i mean this is for all of us who have been overseas the duplicity in a park or city of american foreign policy is painfully. evident according to congressional figures america has sold one point four billion dollars worth of weapons to bahrain since two thousand and america struck its single biggest arms deal when saudi arabia ordered sixty billion dollars worth of arms the us has long

subsidize the israeli military and recently supplied them with bunker buster bombs experts say this strategic arming of. middle eastern countries is aimed at iran and extending u.s. dominance in the region. is going on boy. you know your own. you know human rights. geopolitical f.b.i. whistle blower sibel edmonds has accused america of playing particularly dirty while leading a campaign for regime change in syria this is not some kind of. simultaneously op rising situation where people are a ballet and then suddenly they are mysteriously arms and mysteriously arms are being smuggled into syria from turkey well who was providing this arms nobody's asking in the us media well these are u.s. arms shipped to turkey this is the u.s.

military complex flush with record revenue continues to lobby its interests on capitol hill arms manufacturers are some of the biggest companies in america there are some of the most powerful lockheed martin not only do they making so much for the defense department around the world there are federal contractor and many other levels are going to vote in elections this statue outside the u.n. headquarters is a symbol of global peace and nonviolence but critics say the idea has been twisted by the u.s. which goes around advocating peace arming countless conflicts all for the sake of profit marina point ny r.t. new york. russia has been trying to mediate a peaceful solution to the syrian conflict for months and wants to host talks between the warring sides but one middle east expert told r.t. that negotiations will be hard to bring about as long as the syrian opposition is rallying for regime change. the meeting with the russian foreign minister sort of

a love of expressed his readiness however the other side is not expressing its readiness there are some members of the syrian opposition who are expressing readiness however there are other sides a lot including the muslim brotherhood who actually don't seem to want to participate in the gauche asians setting pre-conditions or sitting in a lot of them to negotiations last fall and i think that is part of. the whole thing for the west is not about negotiations is about overthrowing a regime which is a part of. which washington or which some western states western powers want to get rid of including israel also wants to get rid of the. greek politicians last minute agreement on fresh plans hasn't exactly been greeted with open arms a forty eight hour strike has been called by the country's two major labor unions and eurozone member states say they will put even more conditions on greece before handing over a second bailout after struggling athens did manage to broker a multiparty yesterday deal which has been demanded by creditors and it was in

place just a matter of hours before you were ministers met in brussels but there is still i'm happy and willing to hand over one hundred thirty billion euros the greek parliament now has to pass a package of cuts and reforms by sunday the journalist giuliana sgrena says to me he says the situation in the country is deteriorating and the consequences could be dangerous. what we get from all these measures. if we have all had to be fought then we are in this situation where we have to face a slow death from starvation in greece the situation in greece you see extreme at the moment we have children playing ping in their school because they don't have proper breakfast and because they don't they don't have enough food so you realize that the she is getting worse and worse we have a lot of people as i told you that they are hungry at the moment first of all they demand the election which i have to tell you here and now they want elections they

want the situation to be changed second they have been wondering whose recipe are we following at the moment increases i mean the greek government the recipe comes from the i.m.f. and there secrete simply doesn't work. it's going to free each whole view of the troika gives their main. orders and you know that we get more and more see in the last two years so far as they say and i agree with them easier to see this time to morrow rice from the west than to see all these orders and all these measures bring us to growth and bring us back to normal life. robert oulds chair of the london based think tank group believes that it's the european currency itself pushing greece to the at. greece is in severe economic difficulties and it's failed to meet many of the targets that the eurozone and the i.m.f. has set it for what it has to do in terms of to be able to reform its finances to

be able to pay back some of the debts that it so that has been largely caused by issues to do with the euro itself and the problem that the euro creates and how it makes the greek economy competitive so basically greece cannot survive while it is in the euro and the more austerity measures which are being forced upon it will just hurt the greek economy even further wages have been cut thirty percent on average in greece pensions of being part of finding it very hard to survive because of the result of the austerity measures and the problems caused by the euro what they're doing at the moment is just throwing more money at the problem and really putting back the day when greece will have to deform will have to leave the euro. and coming your way later in the program in a sense lost in afghanistan find out why the latest here strike has left

afghanistan present and damning foreign troops. and separated spouses why israel is stopping sounds and the palestinians from currently living with israeli families. civil society in russia is moving to the forefront of politics with a mission to keep the upcoming presidential election fair and transparent a group of leading public and proactive figures are joining forces and crucially they seem to have the support of the candidates and the voters are has more. it doesn't take long to find videos of alleged violations during the recent parliamentary vote in russia just a couple of clicks is enough since scores of these files have flooded the internet and even though most of the allegations are still to be proven in court tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets demanding fair elections but marches presidential votes just around the corner events are unfolding quickly

where. people want to vote responsibly and to know where their villages go they want political competition independent courts and media forming the voters' league is not our achievement the idea was floating in the air the voters league was officially founded in january by a group of journalists bloggers activists artists writers and other public figures and statements made tedious like t.v. host and now activists. have already asked for the head of a charity fund and blogger liz idea that bianca also known as dr lisa. cordoning of the blue buckets movement fighting for equal rights on roads for everyone. our league is an opportunity to gather people who are not indifferent to what's happening the more people with a civil position there are the better the league's main goal is to ensure fair elections is published

a list of initiatives on the web divided into groups that everyone can be a part of public discussions and online votes are the key instruments and letters have been sent to all presidential candidates asking them to cooperate with the league and even though the project is less than a month old everyone has so far agreed including prime minister and presidential candidates bludging middleton we fully share your view on the necessity to hold a fair election of the president of russia march fourth we are thankful for your offer. we're sure by uniting our efforts will be able to ensure. that we accept your proposal to. another candidate businessman mikhail prokhorov has already struck a deal with the leak years ago and willing to authorize one hundred fifty thousand league observers we've also arranged to put together a unified database to keep it from the election because according to its founders around ten thousand observers are needed to ensure a fair election in moscow alone. it's great that the civil society wants to be more

active but it's clearly important not to cross the line and observers not only are positioned it is serious so if limitations not to take sides in the political process. it is the league's founders say they'll shut the organisation down if it ever starts turning into a political movement claiming they are keen to work with all candidates equally there's no doubt society has changed more people want to have more influence on russia's political life perhaps that's why it took less than one month for the vote was leaked to establish ties with both the authorities and the opposition and with the help promise from the candidates the league just secure enough access to effectively monitor the vote in march as long as it avoids taking sides and protects its neutrality is going off r t moscow. you can always get all the latest news and updates online by logging on to our website at www dot com here's

what's their way from. iran returns to our q one hundred seventy ground dallas down in samara last year to the united states only now it's playing and about its region it's. also online spoke too soon germany's forces went back to nuclear energy just one year after declaring it was giving out by that wipe out our top. just over a month before we run out of the presidential vote in south the city one of the candidates is in a hospital i'll enjoy that is recovering from a stroke she suffered on thursday when prosecutors arrived to take her in for questioning and she's being cold as a witness to a raid on government offices last year joy's claim victory in november as disputed

presidential election which was. essentially and supreme court of the country's capital was gripped by protests four weeks after the vote joyfull was planning to stage her own inauguration as president this friday which the acting head of the republic hold and attempted coup on a boy who has the latest from the sit room. in the remember last year the city held its first post war presidential elections the results of which were later canceled by the central election commission of violations of the new elections and now scheduled to take place on march twenty fifth and earlier on thursday police security services have raided sure of his house in the capital of south sudan during that raid herself fell unconscious and she's now in a holster to being treated for a minor according to the. interim authority is the main reason for these unexpected

a raid of george's house was bring her in for questioning to the prosecutor's office. some of booker reporting there eight afghan children have been killed by nato airstrike according to the country's president in a statement on a karzai can down the aerial bombing by foreign troops the afghan leader has ordered an investigation into the bombing and the province of keep on wednesday just a week ago the united states announced it could hold combat operations in afghanistan earlier than expected but the strike could worsen an already strained relationship between karzai and washington and the mounting afghan civilian deaths help documentary filmmaker clay clare born things that despite condemnation civilian casualties will continue to rise. he had to put on a certain pretenses to have any viability any legitimacy as an afghan woman or something like this happens but he is basically a tool of the american occupation there so we can expect any real demands to change

from here this kind of thing obviously doesn't win hearts and minds this happens in the same area we're afghans so do you suppose we kill french troops working i think because the us is playing a pull out of the movie next day for him because of the injured are moving their troops out we can expect more airstrikes and more civilian casualties in afghanistan we already saw two thousand and eleven april sixth. two thousand and ten in terms of civilian casualties i'm afraid we're going to see that trend continue in two thousand and twelve precisely because they know that they have to pull out safely because they know that the game is. now to some other stories from around the world germany's finance minister has been caught on tape saying portables bailout plan may need to be revised once a second bailout for greece has been finalised the comments came at a meeting with other.