even. if even even if you know even though the banks are not going to take any of that oil it's creating what's called artificial demand in that artificial demand is driving up the price of oil and frankly it's time for us to put an end to that this this oil speculation because it's just wrong so how is so how is this stuff legal richard asco joins me now he is a senior fellow with the campaign for america's future and a former wall street businessman richard welcome hey tom always good to be here great to have you with us what kind of an economic flaw is this banks making massive money gambling over the last twenty years while the rest of us are getting killed at the pump. well you know call it pain capitalism it's it's the idea that financial quote unquote innovation as they call it means making a buck where buchanan if it's gambling speculating betting for the american people's ability to buy oil or against it or both at the same time all of that is

allowable and as long as the government has forces in there kind of withdrawing our eyes and ears from the process it's going to go on whether they're photogram deregulating in two thousand while his wife was working for the industry or the koch brothers funding people trying to declaw and the fang dodd frank so that we can't say look get in there and see what's going on with oil speculation or here in california the oil deregulation that happened in the late ninety's that led to and ron and the rolling blackouts i mean this is the way the game is played and and what they'll do is they'll cover their trail by making sure government can't go in and take a look at what's going on and regulate it and then they'll say you have no proof we're doing something wrong so that's the way the game has been played for a long time and futures derivatives all those types of things that once you know had a good purpose kind of like insurance for the airline you mentioned have now become tools to really potentially break the economy this is just one example of that to

gamble and to hustle and for the record phil gramm the guy who pushed the commodities futures modernization act and bliley which blue glass steagall which is a whole nother hysteria both of which tremendously held one company enron his wife wendi in his work in the industry she was on the board of directors of enron so this is there's a long history to the bizarre corruption here phil gramm who was john mccain's economic adviser and and good buddies with ronald reagan free marketeers say hey anybody should be able to gamble on anything you know. but we historically haven't done that we've had markets that are transparent and that are regulated particular commodities markets how do we get back to that. well you know free marketeers also love to quote adam smith who thought this sort of thing was despicable so this isn't a market in any conceivable sense of the word in a market when the demand for

a commodity goes down the price reacts accordingly this is something else altogether this is gambling it's gambling in secret it's gambling in private in the way you get rid of it is by regulating what needs to be regulated in some cases to it maybe going on with your money and mine being put at risk so you know what you do is you go in and you say this is what you can and can't do is a financial institution particularly one that subject to too big to fail this is what you can and can't do if you're also a supplier of oil like the koch brothers so you're betting on the price of oil and setting the price of oil and you know if these guys are so innocent why have they worked so hard to cover their tracks you go back to what a rational government does and what our government did for decades and decades which is a yet set the rules of fair play in the marketplace well and in fact these guys now are pushing to to dismantle dodd frank and there's a provision that goes into effect i believe it's july twelfth of this year a few months down the road that says that the banks can no longer it's the the

volcker rule but the banks can no longer take money that you and i have deposited there in our checking and savings accounts and use it to gamble in the oil market and you know as if it's their money and then if there's any profit derived from that scheme that off and keep it for themselves and and of course if they crash and burn then they come back to us and ask for another bailout how is it that these and i are also trying they're sorry they're also trying to cut financing for enforcing commodities training regular trade and regulation so yeah they're trying to have it both ways right and it just it just amazes me and batted in the commodity futures modernization excuse me of the whole consumer financial protection bureau they're they're trying they're getting hysterical about so we'll see how this all plays out richard thanks so much for being with us richard as always. happy motoring tom thank you for. you too especially there in l.a. one way one year ago this week wisconsin governor with scott walker found out what

happens when you go after unions in a state where unions were born since then a lot more has happened a massive recall effort ousted two republican senators from office last year and an even bigger recall effort is put walker himself in danger of recall or perhaps most importantly the labor movement has awakened in america joining me now to revisit the uprising in wisconsin on its one year anniversary and where we go from here is john nichols washington correspondent with the nation magazine and author of the new book uprising our wisconsin renew the politics of protest from madison to wall street john welcome why that's the that's the best introduction i've had yet. this is the you were standing in madison a year ago i mean it was you live there i mean i spent most of my time in madison and and i should you know any viewers who knew or tuning in should know that some of the very first interviews i did from madison were with you yeah there were a handful of people recognized early on before things took off that this wasn't the

only labor battle in america by far but this was the one that for a variety of reasons was going to become symbolic battles in states across the country as the crowds grew as the energy grew and and it's a pretty exciting moment since as i think we shared a few of those days yes absolutely and this was just a few months after the republicans crashed the democrats absolutely the tea party in the two thousand and ten midterms so you know what does this say about the cycles in the swings in american politics that's a superb question i think we're going to probably both tom moment and we have a challenging economy we are not broke but we're not in the best of shape and so we have to start to make moral choices about budgeting you can't be casual about it scott walker came to power saying you know we've got to be. fiscally frugal we got to be responsible but his definition of responsibility was

a form of austerity that balances the budget on the backs of public school teachers snowplow drivers nurses and more importantly on the people they serve the communities you know low income kids people with health needs and and when he did that i think he pushed just a little bit too far i hate to say you know that that there are plenty of cases where people maybe even suffering more but wisconsin a strong union state a state with a strong progressive tradition recognized that something real was being threatened and people came to the streets they came out in mass numbers and they recognize something really important something that you talk about a lot and that is that the constitution of the united states outlines a right to assemble and to petition for the redress of grievances that is a right that comes into play after election day not before it the really key thing is that we elect our leaders and then we have tools to hold them to account

wisconsin recognize that the way to hold them to account between elections is to go to the street to surround a capital go into that capital occupy if you must and then begin the process using the great progressive tools of recall and referendum to stop them from doing things that they should not be to stop them from completing a mission they should not be able to complete because if they do they will deconstruct democracy and so yeah do you see this is republican overreach or is it possible that we're even looking into an intergenerational shift in perspective that is that's a very good point i opened the book at a rock concert and a rock concert it was announced you know mid afternoon and by that evening roughly five thousand kids were down in the basement of a convention center with their fists in the year air chanting the union and just these incredible images of young people taking the lead and the first people to march into the capitol were graduate students not you know. you know long term labor union leaders or anything like that so i think there is

a generational shift and i think what's happened is that young people have recognized maybe taken in the critique of corporate power better than a lot of older folks recognize they're going into a future that will either be defined by corporations or it will be defined by the people but to be defined by the people the people have to be able to come together in unions or other organizations where they have the strength to say no to corporate power it seems that coming out of two thousand and eight we were moving in a very progressive direction the election of obama democrats and then there was this tea party moment funded by the billionaires that snatched that back and much of the country in the half a minute or so we have do you do you see that unwinding and unraveling really rapidly or do you think the billionaires are going to throw everything they have into into this election in november i think they're going through everything they've got into it and i think the bottom line is that the only thing we've got to really stop them they'll be some money on the other press aside the real thing is going to be people power in wisconsin more than thirty thousand people participated in the recall petitioning if people like that get out there and keep fighting we

got a chance you got it john mccain ex-pro thank you very much great book uprising. i'll have more on the one year anniversary the wisconsin uprising up later in tonight's tilley take. after the break the republicans war and labor is heating up yet again who are they going after this time and why can't hardworking americans catch a break with conservatives. at first very much is burning gerard's right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything you'd buy off. thousands of times stronger than any kind of bird you ever put you know.

just. give me. the wrong. color sharma's. coming up.

next. welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour republican strike against their war on labor who is the latest victim and why do republicans love to go after them also for genuine is close to passing two highly controversy of bills would greatly reduce women's rights puts the context of these two absurd bills for the put the women of virginia at risk and in tonight's daily

take wisconsin may be the center of the labor struggle for the media the similar fights are being waged throughout the nation how are these fights go and can we win them all the save the middle class. in the us the rest of the news of conservatives war on labor continues lawmakers on capitol hill are close to cutting fifteen billion dollars from federal employees retirement funds to pay for unemployment benefits publicans also want to cut forty five billion from federal employees retirement funds to pay for new road construction and let's not forget the federal employee wages have been frozen for the past two years costing the employees over sixty billion dollars in lost wages so why are federal employees being hit to pay for the mess created by corporate greed and bad governance joining me now to discuss more on the issue is gary swanky

swanky national vice president american federation of government employees jerry i'm sorry jerry welcome welcome thank you to when republicans. go after the salaries of federal employees they make it sound like these guys are already making archives of money we can afford you know we caught what's what's the real story the real stories are dividing and conquering over workers and in middle america all over communities across this country and the real crime is not just that they get one worker you know jealous or vindictive towards another worker the real crime here is that they're taking money out of the economy for every dollar that's not in the federal workers pocket that's one less dollars being spent in a coffee shop that's one less waitress that has a job in middle america that's a whole lot of other multipliers that are not happening in two large real world communities across this country but don't you know from supply side economics that what really matters is how many billions of sorry opposites debate i had last night

with a conservative you're absolutely right and but it also seems to me to the point of you know going after federal employees that you know ever since reagan bizarrely suggested that he wanted to be present a united states because government was the problem you want to be the head of the problem right and that that bashing federal employees has been quite acceptable you know they're they're the new muslims in the old muslims as a worry you know they get the kris kristofferson you know everybody's got to have somebody to look down and chant and in reality they're you know historically and through my lifetime most of my lifetime federal workers made less than people in the public in the private sector who did similar jobs and i think in many cases they still do a lot of the scientists certainly have to make it less and and those few who are making more you know maybe the janitors in federal buildings it's almost like they want to drive their wages they want to drive their wages to it's a race to the bottom absolutely to raise the bottom why i think because it gets the

debate off the notion that for example wal-mart workers don't have a pension why should you why should federal workers employees that have seven eleven don't have a pension why should. federal workers because that's tax money that we could be getting tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires you mention federal employees have paid over sixty billion dollars down the deficit in these last two years meanwhile the billionaires and millionaires in this country have not spent one dime towards the reduction of the deficit in fact they've seen over the last twenty five years two hundred seventy five percent increase their wealth and you know one hundred of the fortune five hundred fortune for the four hundred richest families in america or people in america pay nothing in income taxes mitt romney's paying fifteen percent i mean it's just it's the opposite vision of what president kennedy's call to service in this country was what they're trying to do is to convert it to a consumer model get government government services is cheap is that all possible in many cases privatized and that's the opposite notion of attracting the best and

brightest and most dedicated and call to public service you know there were there was a conspiracy theory during the reagan era among people like me who suggested that he was going to try and break government so that he could then stand there and say see it's broken shouldn't have it let's hire halliburton to do it or blackwater or whatever it is do you think that that's actually being played out i think the military industrial complex is the perfect example of what you're talking about there in the real crime and i think this is something that even conservatives would agree with why are we spending defense dollars on contractors that are corporator overseas that aren't paying taxes in this country i can't think of a more anti-american notion than war dollars being spent on companies that aren't employed in jobs in this country and aren't paying taxes in this country and not only that we're paying them absurdly we're paying these semitic mercenaries one hundred thousand bucks and jihads are doing the same job for twenty and cheery we're out of time and thanks so much for being q. sir and good luck in this but thank you very best moving on now from the republican war on working people to the republican war on women

a republican supermajority in the virginia house of delegates has managed to pass two highly controversial bills regarding women's rights despite furious dissent by democratic members of the first house bill one would redefine personhood by. saying life starts at the very second sperm and egg unite way up in the fallopian tubes days before the zygote implants in the uterus and begins to grow into a fetus the republican controlled house would also it has also passed a bill that would require all women to have a trans of bad gentle ultrasound highly invasive procedure before undergoing abortions talk about big brother republicans since the virginia state senate is controlled by republicans both bills have a very good chance of making it to governor bob mcdonnell desk and he has said that he will sign the personhood bill and is still considering the bad ultrasound bill joining me now to discuss virginia's all out assault on women's rights is sam bennett c.e.o. of the women's campaign fund sam it's great to have you back my pleasure thanks for joining us. first of all can you please describe for us what a transvaginal ultrasounds is. i'm speechless to be honest

what are they talking about it's talking about going in to a woman's vagina right with an ultrasound device that has been designed to make sure that there is no problems with fetuses when they are developing in the womb it's a travesty so this is actually sticking something inside women and you know it means that even about in the state doing it in a state doing it more than that let's let's imagine a scenario where a woman is seeking to terminate a pregnancy because she was raped. and so now that you're going to subject her to this procedure it was as if so you had an e-mail you absolutely inexcusable consequences for personhood my understanding and correct me if i'm wrong because this just seems too bizarre for me that. first of all given that about half of all pregnancies or all sperm and egg natural intensity naturally miscarriage and typically within the first month sometimes after the second or third absolutely

and and does this mean the number one any kind of birth control that prevents implantation is going to become illegal which is most birth control pills number two that women are going to report miscarriages to the police department hey i just came i think i had a miscarriage bring the blood over we got a sample right number three that if that woman had been drinking wine or jumping on a trampoline and didn't know that she was pregnant and has a miscarriage that she can now be prosecuted and slaughter that's right i'm seriously and that does that mean that we're going to notices in bars the say if you are fertile you can drink it's absolutely wild and let's you said something earlier tom i think we have to talk about for a minute eighty one percent of americans agree with this statement individuals need to be making their own important life decisions not the government so here we have a republican party that was swept into office in two thousand and ten right swept in and instead of focusing on jobs bills what have they been focusing on over one

thousand one hundred such bills across the country to take away a basic fundamental american right and on top of that what happened in two thousand and ten tom which i think is the source of all this we have the first backslide in the number of women in elected office that is to less women per state who could help staunch the staunch this and what happened in virginia there is for virginia watts trying to push back this legislation that bob marshall is trying to ram through to say well wait a minute you're not talking about birth control right and they even throw that. out oh yeah yeah absolutely crazy dare i say it today held hearings and you know one of the few members of congress i think maybe the only with a criminal record also richest guy in congress always nice he's a sweet guy and he would not allow women to testify this was about whether and then you had a calendar i was homeless. and carolyn maloney walked out exactly which

raises the question if he was saying because what he said was well we're not going to allow women to testify because this isn't about birth control this is about religious choice and so i'm sitting there when i heard him say that i'm sitting there going separate a minute is he saying that women don't experience religion or don't participate religion or shouldn't have any say in religion well what he's doing is he's doing two things he's blurring the line the sacred line in our country between separation of church and state he's doing that and also he's taking away an individual's right to make again their own important life decisions where is all of this coming from and to be honest i don't know if there is who's behind all this but i can tell you right now a root systemic cost of this is our country being wrong to ninety s. in the world in the number of women in elected office and the fact that we do not have nearly enough women in state legislatures across this country and we must turn

that around and we've got a record number of women running for u.s. congress right now a record number of women running for the senate what we need is if you care about reproductive choices and options and these fundamental rights you need to elect women who support these rights because over to emily's list apps well know emily's list is wonderful but they only support. women that are democratic believe it or not that we need to also support republican women that will protect this right so it's very very important with so times for the women's campaign fund that's right they say i thought oh thanks so much for being with us from the founding of this country until nine hundred twenty women were the legal property of their husband. and up until one nine hundred eighty it was legal in every state in america for a man to rape his wife whenever he wanted republicans clearly want to take us back to their idea of the good old days when women were barefoot pregnant the property their husbands or male relatives fortunately they're increasingly being viewed by americans as the massage cranks and crackpots that they are.

crazy alert would you like fries with that have a heart attack without if you've been a las vegas you probably heard of the heart attack grill it's restaurant in the sign that reads go away it's going to kill you and as waitresses scantily dressed as nurses serving up pounds of greasy goodness restaurant even encourages obesity offering free food to anyone over three hundred fifty pounds on saturday the restaurant served up an actual heart attack a man was in the process of eating the famed triple bypass burger a six thousand calorie behemoths of meat and cheese when he suddenly keeled over and began having a heart attack paramedics were rushed to the restaurant brought the man to a local hospital and someone eventually having a heart attack at the restaurant called the heart attack grill that serves six thousand calorie burgers seemed inevitable it took other patrons at the restaurant by surprise maybe this incident will make the management think twice about shamelessly promoting obesity and death by gluttony. gluttony in other words in

other news rumor has it that a weight watchers has moved in next door. coming up in tonight's daily take everyone knows about the struggle for workers' rights in wisconsin but progressive caucus is doing and pauses during the rest of the country. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old until she told the truth. i'm a contestant i'm a total get of friends that i love traveling hip hop music and. she was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the world without you she has played.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture .

here take my take is your chance to send in your questions comments ransom observations about anything we talk about here on the big picture or during my radio show so i was comments come to us from comedienne roseanne barr as you may know we mentioned her run for president in the green party ticket and a quick part question last night. as you may know comedian roseanne barr is trying to run for president as green party candidate and a public policy poll polling poll between president obama mitt romney and roseanne

roseanne pulled six percent of the vote ahead of undecided of five percent which makes me wonder what parent lee roseann didn't like us talking about her and tweeted about his three times she said was that i watch my formerly fav pundit tom hartman on fs t.v. mention my green party candidacy with all the smug sexism over right winger she also said tom arbonne so that he prefers a seinfeld show a candidate for president but i am on the california ballot and it's not a joke wake up lot of days and finally she said tom hartman was of course speaking with his guests heritage foundation talking heads such as bill maher regulars hey roseanne get over it and use my hashtag tom underscore hartman if you're going to go after me but you know seriously as you know i'm actually a big fan of the green party and of your politics roseanne and i'm glad to hear that you're pushing for a national single payer healthcare system ending nixon's war on drugs and having the government basically declare a jew believe by forgiving homeowner debt and nuking the fed to do it

metaphorically of course and while i think jill stein is going to give you a serious run for your money is it pointed out last night your poll and six percent nationwide which is great you make a hell of a lot better president than mitt romney i wish you the very best my friend. that's it for your take my take tonight if you'd like your comments and questions heard on the second of the big picture listen up we want to know your take send us your comments by visiting the tom hartman facebook page via twitter at tom underscore her or in the chat room on the message boards or through the blog at thom hartmann dot com you can also leave a message on our rant line at two o two five three six fifty three zero six agree disagree sound off it's all welcome but remember that your comments may be used on the air. it's the good the bad and the very very. slowly ugly the good house minority leader nancy pelosi.