for ten years in afghanistan in iraq for eight women have been called to take jobs as medics and teligent officers and because of the changing way that our wars are fought technically aren't in combat it doesn't mean that they're not actually in it they haven't been losing their lives so should they get the exact same training something that genevieve chase of american women's veterans brought up with us last year. i think the most important thing to to that we need to discuss at this point is whether a panel or whether pundits or whether people back here talking about the issue should talk about what should happen downrange commanders downrange should decide who goes out with that many everybody should be trained. genevieve joins the many female soldiers who say the restrictions placed on them affects their ability to be promoted and keeps them from taking advantages of new opportunities within the military but it looks like the defense department has listen the pentagon has announced today that it will recommend to congress that women can serve closer to the front line of the duty isn't suggesting that women serve with the infantry they

do think that it's acceptable to formally assign women to battalions that might not seem all that significant to you or i but for those who serve they understand the big difference between being attached to a battalion and being assigned to one and the military says that these changes will have the biggest effect on females who serve in the army and the marine corps and it could create as many as fourteen thousand job opportunities for them now those that are opposed to women holding a larger role say that allowing them to be assigned a battalion won't help america's national security and of course we do have to warn you that now this has been presented to congress they still have the option to delay or block the change but for the two hundred thousand women that are in active duty roles this announcement is a step in the right direction and to me that's a glimmer of hope. now this woman here is. a malaysian born stanford university doctoral student and mother she's also on her way to pushing u.s. courts one step closer towards defining the legal limits of the u.s.

flight watch list this is all thanks to an appeal court ruling appeal court ruling in her favor on wednesday now in two thousand and five while trying to fly to san francisco international airport to a stanford sponsored conference in malaysia to present a research paper she was handcuffed and detained for two hours by airport authorities during that time they called everybody from the local police to the department of homeland security to try to get more information and she was eventually allowed to leave with zero explanation but was last too late to present her work so she was also not let back into the country as her visa had been revoked so it would have submitted the form of the t.s.a. to have her name removed from the list so they obliged but they never confirmed that she had originally been on it but she wasn't on there so then she sued the t.s.a. and came up with nothing she then sued the f.b.i. much of that case was thrown out and a court of appeals from the ninth circuit revived the case in two thousand and eight it was quite a long journey but the d.o.j. has argued that by voluntarily leaving the country even him forfeited her right to

make constitutional claims under the first and fifth amendment but yesterday an appeals court disagreed and the majority opinion said that at this point in litigation no court has attempted to determine the merits of either his claims under the first and fifth amendments the parties have not briefed whether her placement on a terror watch list violates the rights to freedom of association equal protection and due process so not only have those things not been ruled out of the courts in regards to abraham situation but they haven't been ruled on by the courts at all there is a huge a gray area when it comes to terror watch lists and no fly lists for example how long can somebody be handcuffed and obtain for investigative purposes is being on a watch list warrant arrest there's also no way of knowing how or why a person is on the no fly list or. who exactly put them on it so we do know through years of court battles that abraham was put on the list by a contractor who was working for the department of homeland security now these questions become all the more important when one looks at the number of people on

these lists often mistakenly the associated press just reported to us last week that the number of people on the no fly list doubled within the last year doubled and yet we still have no real answers as to the process for getting put on the legal limits of detention once on that list or how to properly clear your name once you've been placed on it so the secrecy is seemingly endless and so here's to hoping at this ruling does break some of that down. our guys it's time for show and tell on tonight's program now earlier this week we spoke to chris hedges about the effect of the quote black bloc on the occupy wall street movement and we showed our viewers thoughts last night in the show so we decided to skip tonight's responses since they're basically all the same responses i moved straight on to a new question earlier in the show we spoke about the twenty six billion dollar housing settlement between the government and the five big banks so who do you

think won the day banks or american homeowners let us know a thing on facebook twitter and you two and a nosy response just might make it on their. well this campaign season is reminded many of us of just how complicated and seemingly illogical our presidential elections can be for example why is i with the first caucus in the nation and you have to the first primary the two states aren't exactly what you would call representative of the country as a whole then rick santorum won in three states earlier this week more questions came up what's the point if you don't actually win anything colorado minnesota congresses are non-binding missouri's primary allocates no delegates and then you really have to ask why is the person that wins the seat in the executive branch the one that gets the most votes so there's a movement in this country to enact a national popular vote plan faces fierce republican opposition because it just makes sense joining me to discuss this day it's a road a talk radio host and author of back to our future how the one nine hundred eighty s. explain the world that we live in now david thanks so much for joining us tonight and

i guess that we're going to start you know broadly let's admit it our system is or our entire electoral process is really really confusing sometimes i try to explain it other people i know the live in other countries and i find myself getting confused just you know within my own explanation so this doesn't really feel like a democracy does it it feels like it doesn't even feel like a republican democracy it is feels like a convoluted system that seems to be designed to make sure that the winner of all the votes are the most votes doesn't actually win and the biggest crime against the concept of democracy in america has always been the electoral college which guarantees the possibility that a president can be elected without winning the most votes and that's not only undemocratic it doesn't comport even with the notion of republican small or republican democracy representative democracy is still supposed to be a democracy where the majority it's the biggest amount of sanity in our elections

also we've seen a movement in recent years to a national popular vote plan that a number of states have looked in. to you but there is fierce republican opposition on this and you know you wrote about this a while back to when you said that you were just getting letters from commenters there as really they are just mean as a you decided to address some of the constant arguments that we hear against a national popular vote so i want to go through some of them with you you know often we hear that it's unconstitutional but he say that well it's nonsense of the constitution and deliberately says that each state can decide how to apportion their a lectors if you believe in federalism if you believe in so-called states' rights then you believe that the state should have the right to say that its electors go in the way they decided for them to go many states right now decide that winner takes all that the winner of the popular vote within the state gets all

of the electoral college votes some states say that the electoral college votes in their state are awarded proportionally that if you which is some part of the vote in the state you can get some part of the electoral college votes with the national popular vote plan proposes it at the state level it says and the states that have signed on to say we're not going to apportion our electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular as you get to the part of the popular vote in our state we're going to apportion our electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular vote no matter what happens inside our state and you can be for or against that plan but the notion that it's unconstitutional is preposterous the constitution says that each state is allowed to decide how to question their about their own electoral college votes now in a sense to me as you know if you are running to be the president the united states' right to be in charge of the executive branch that's the highest position that we have in this country so why wouldn't it be you know why wouldn't everybody get

a say why would certain votes count more than other votes but they also bring up that there's constantly this argument that's made over not democracy this is a republic. and that also is an argument for all of the national popular vote but here's the thing a republic means a representative democracy that we don't all vote each of us on every single bill for instance that's before the congress or every single bill before our before our state legislature we both are representatives to go vote on those issues on behalf of us that principle is not in conflict with the notion that the winner of the elections to represent us should be the winner of most of the votes that are cast the majority of the votes that are cast so the whole notion that the electoral college being made to make sure that the winner of the popular vote wins the election the idea that's against republican democracy just misunderstands the very definition of what a republican democracy it's also obvious answer a lot of sense what you're saying so when is it that you think that republicans are

are really afraid of that. well i think they're afraid of the idea that the smaller states can't control the election the problem with with their fear of course is that smaller states right now don't really control the election that in fact if you look at where the presidential candidates go right now they already go to the biggest states they already go there's what eight nine ten eleven twelve swing states that are basically the battleground for the election and that's where the presidential the so-called national elections happen so i think there's a lot of his perceptions out there among republicans i also think frankly that republicans fear the will of the people i think that there's just a basic fear that if the majority of the population gets with what it wants it wouldn't be so good for a party that represents such a narrow small economic interests right and that's one of the things you have to think about because we always hear about you know the two coastal areas they always

hear about urban centers and how they're mostly liberal but i guess why if more people you know live there and actually feel that way that means that a majority of americans actually feel that way but what do you think the chances are that we might actually get this national popular vote plan come in actually i think there's a real chance i mean you've got one hundred seventy some. electoral college votes that are now signed on to the national popular vote plan that is states representing about one hundred seventy plus electoral college votes have side non-selling that if an electoral college majority of states sides onto this plan it will go into action so all it really needs is a few more states to side under this and it will be a reality i think it's going to be a reality i think the arguments against this are pathetic i think they're undemocratic i think they're frankly un-american i think this is going to be a reality i think it's a matter of when not. definitely would be quite

a good and interesting change they have thanks so much for joining us tonight. just ahead on tonight's show the g.o.p. is turning this whole debate around contraceptives into an all out war and a few of the party's darlings are really using strong words against president obama so we're going to have more in our told time and again happy hour we'll get to that story about incest that we teased you so much about yesterday and a steve jobs f.b.i. file has been released so look in there some of the details. are still you. know we're going to get to them on. if you want to have sex go and have sex.

free. education free. free. free. free. free. food free books video for your media. c.e.o. don carty dot com. resistance is not a politics but a culture i. just couldn't.

resist. hi guys it's time for tonight's tools i wore it and tonight we're looking at the grand old party the unless you've been completely tuned out from the news this week you're probably aware of the utter hysteria surrounding the obama administration's decision to require catholic run institutions not churches but institutions to provide an option for birth control within its health care coverage but i think hysteria that my actually be an understatement is the republicans saw an opportunity to claire and obama wore the lead war on religion and they have a rally to the troops with a gusto usually reserved for hating on poor black people take for example senator

marco rubio the darling of c pac the federal government does not have the power to force religious organizations to pay for things but that organization thinks it's. now i was standing in the crowded sea back this morning while rubio was speaking and let me just say that his line about religious freedom that was by far the most applauded line of the entire speech standing ovation whoops hollers the whole nine yards and while the line was a hits it also just wasn't true let's see the health department's decision only requires that the option of contraception exist there's no mention of females being required to take any sort of contraception or for organizations to pay for it is that has to be included under your insurance plan if they want it but the g.o.p. knows that they're on to something and they are letting go specially republican presidential candidate rick santorum so while he was on the campaign trail in texas last night he to say that obama's waging a war against religious americans but he didn't just say the president is violating

your first memory right now he took it like twenty steps further take a face and. why. are you marginalized and i am when you remove the color. god given right what is left is a government that will tell you who you are what you do and when you do. want to live in france. became a good thing. or a gentleman we are a long way from hand but if we do. and follow the path of president obama and his own hostility to faith in america. and we are headed down that mountain. wait what obama's leading religious people to the good team and we did this is a joke i am genuinely really confused about how this entire situation has gotten so

out of hand what century are we in this is birth control they act like obama is making the catholic priest perform abortions with their bare hands during mass now we haven't really touched on this issue during the show before because i thought that this whole controversy of this fake controversy which is what it is was absurd i wake up every morning thinking no there's no way that everyone in the media is actually still talking about this non issue but every day i improve draw die especially love the chorus of male politicians and pundits weighing in with their righteous indignation standing up for the first amendment newsflash nobody is forcing anyone to do anything this is an option an option that would be offered to women so thanks for your input gentlemen but why don't you just sit this one out so let's all just take a step back to be honest with ourselves this isn't an issue about religious freedom or the first amendment it's an issue that just plays well with the g.o.p. voters which i can attest to from my experience at sea back today so everybody in the media let's stop playing along i know the most of the media loves

a good culture war but this isn't even a culture war birth control stop being controversial decades ago so here on my show the g.o.p. gets tonight's full time award for turning a basic women's health initiative into a fake attack on your first amendment rights. hi guys it's time for a happy hour joining me this evening r t producer jenny churchill and alex sites all assistant editor of think progress org hey guys i thought i was joining we. let's first talk about somebody as f.b.i. and this is always like kind of exciting part after someone passes away it's like what is the f.b.i. have written up on them. come on the lad ok saying it's a good thing anyone dieted says that but you know he's going to get to see what their dirt is anyway let's check out. the f.b.i.

has just released a one hundred ninety page file on the late apple c.e.o. steve jobs this is a portion of it it's focused on a background check the interviews with jobs and others in march and april of ninety ninety one when jobs being considered for presidential appointment by president george h.w. bush. so some of the things in jobs file use a lot of drugs l.s.d. parent he was also manipulative manipulative excuse me several individuals question mr jobs honesty saying he will trust the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals and apparently he also abandoned his baby mama i guess i'm really confused i thought all of this was already available knowledge i did not feel as though i learned anything from the f.b.i. which really makes me question how good of a job they're doing why don't they like you have no dirt where's the dirt of the observation i agree that i was not that surprised by the contents but it's one

hundred ninety one pages i thought it was a very in-depth they talk to a ton of people which makes me think every other government official has had some kind of similar background check done on them right so can you imagine what's in like dick cheney's f.b.i. file why that's what i mean it's important though because you know jobs and even he was pretty private is still more of a public persona than most actual government officials at this point right like i think that we know more about jobs and his drug use in the past because he's part of like the tech crowd like nobody cares nobody's going to judge you for it because he doesn't go out and preach certain. solid values or certain policies but. it went point. ok. well it's i don't know how to use this clip right now new hampshire new hampshire has been doing some weird stuff lately they try to pass legislation that said that you don't follow school curriculums anymore they try to pass legislation that all laws should be based on the magna carta not the constitution but the magna carta and now they want to take

a hit at your lunch break. so fairly if this is what they want workers to do from now on is to have to ask for a lunch break because they want to basically ban. businesses from having to give. their employees a lunch break. they claim that everybody already gets one and that if the business were to not try to give them one the people would take to social media and it would make the company feel so bad that they change their policy why isn't that the policy on everything else then why do we have any rules for anything because if now we always levy an advance so late in the world to work then wow we don't need rules at all murder. you know no more murders but i feel like this is like every state or a lot of states are in this like war to outraise each other you know arizona

started off strong with the immigration law then florida wanted to drug test all their welfare recipients but new hampshire has really been making a come from behind dark horse race here but the magna carta stuff they've got this lunch bill thing keep your eye on and i'm sure it just gave us an idea i think we have to start making. some kind of a racing graphic because you're through i have to say though when you're right when i used to work hour early i always had an issue i was forced to take a certain amount of break and if i didn't want to eat lunch for half an hour i was frustrated that i'd go sit somewhere for ten i mean it is true it did happen i don't think i think the slots ridiculous but i mean i was forced to take a break i want to tell you hey at least you got a break. i worked too hard. let's talk about this story that we didn't get to yesterday which this clearly you know if you live in iceland then your chances of dating somebody that you might be related to i guess increase right at the small island the only population of three hundred thousand people and so now there's

a new website there that basically you can you can look up the geological data on the inhabitants and see with your icelandic id number make sure that your potential love interest is not actually related to you. i find this to be actually the strangest thing ever because i don't know here in america and all fifty states. it's you're allowed to marry your second cousin it is completely illegal have you ever known someone who was like oh my gosh that person was my first cousin i didn't know ever ever i know that's not so much about whether it's allowed or not it's like do you want to find out that the person you're dating is always going to ireland is so small and there's only three hundred thousand people like how hard is it really to know your family you never know there to be some shady family secrets . like seems way overkill and like raises some serious civil liberties issues i mean there's this database with everybody and anybody can look into it yeah but on

the other hand from a capitalist point of view i think they're missing out on a huge revenue opportunity matchmaking i mean if there's like five people on the island who aren't related to you which is what it sounds like they should just match up and what if you could see who was searching for you you know oh that person wanted to check if. you're able. to see this last three here to basically this is happening in an l.a. county and it's like. throw a football or a frisbee at an l.a. county beach and you could be fined one thousand dollars the county board of supervisors today raised fines for illegal beach activity yes it is against the law to throw footballs or frisbees. what country do we live in jenny what does that say about your teacher if you have no but i mean seriously is actually insane i think this is clearly an attempt by the volleyball lobbying association to get a you know. monopoly here on the yes because i'm sorry i'm

a little confused on how a frisbee is more abusive than a volleyball can someone explain that it's volleyballs or you know it can be just like people do whatever they want yeah i love that even the local news anchor is like having trouble believing it as she's saying it but the crazy thing is it's was it was already law and now they're just increasing the fine you guys got to wrap it up fortunately thanks for joining us tonight that's it for nicer thanks for tuning in and they come back tomorrow journalist susie cagle is going to back down to talk about activists and an artist of occupy oakland i mean time to follow us on line and coming up next.

more news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images cobol has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are all day.

a split within the ranks of syria's opposition fighters at first they claimed they were behind twin blasts in the country's largest city of aleppo which killed at least twenty eight people but another spokesman denied responsibility just an hour later. gassing bombs on the streets of athens as protesters clashed with police angry at another set of looming cuts to please you credit says it's six ministers already quitting over the deal. and observing political change russia's public figures come together to ensure a fair and free presidential vote while striving not to take sides on the top stories this hour.

international news and comment live from moscow this is r.t. with you twenty four hours a day there are conflicting reports over whether the free syrian army wing of the opposition was behind the attacks in the city of aleppo an hour after one f.s.a. spokesman confirmed this another blame the government the blast have killed at least twenty eight and injured more than one hundred seventy people joining this down and then there are reports from syria aleppo a northern city in syria has been relatively quiet since the anti-government protests took place and march the government claims it's fighting a foreign funded insurgency and as well as it blames terrorist groups for the several bombings that took place in damascus last year the violence has ask awaited in syria for the past week opposition forces claiming assad forces are shelling on several areas including the city up.