i can lay low nischelle at the real headlines with none of the mersey are going to live in washington d.c. now it's not going to take a look at spending what's on the chopping block and what's getting you to fear mongering on iran then representative john garamendi is going to be joining us to talk about the n.b.a. as members of congress are actually trying to get the language that includes american citizens removed and occupy is back in action across the country today with occupy shut down the corporations and we're going to talk about their plans as well as the d h s report on the movement that's been released and the latest stop

so we have all that morphine right who does that happy hour but first take a look at the mainstream media has the front. all right so shocker after yesterday's primaries in michigan and arizona the mainstream media is just going. to night for mitt romney who pulled up double victories in both michigan and arizona running won by a mere three percentage points is that enough romney racks up two more wins but the rest of the candidates are not giving up but romney survived this latest political news death experience fighting talk about the search for a new candidate romney narrowly carried michigan with forty one percent of the vote it was ugly he won by three points that is good and we should get it and i saw some bloggers had referred to it rick santorum. weakly incapable of being disciplined enough to deliver

a stump speech in single digits by the way at seven percent which stage this comeback he's the comeback kid so super tuesday could be his year the comeback kid here in atlanta in tennessee he has to do very well if you does not do very well he will be a lot. the pressure on newt gingrich to finally leave the race. now i know that they do this political horse race coverage every day and i usually criticize them for the inane details they choose to spend hours discussing profit little makes of campaign coverage and then everyone's other favorite fear mongering on iran it's all met with conspicuously absent today defiant iran taunting the west iran is calling it a major achievement its nuclear program scientists have loaded nuclear fuel rods into the core of a research reactor tehran is fueling its centrifuges with nuclear fuel and that is stoking fears that the rogue state is indeed one step closer to an atomic bomb is

this another step potentially on the roans road to potentially making nuclear weapons it is certainly a step down the road towards a nuclear weapon escalating nuclear tensions with iran this morning president mahmoud ahmadinejad is shown supposedly loading nuclear fuel rods into the tehran research reactor it is a huge source of pride for iran but should it be a source of worry for the west or ran as blue state missiles with a range of about one thousand miles obviously putting israel well within reach this is a ron doubling down on moving down the path towards a nuclear weapon. arts that's what we normally see and that was kind of absent today i don't get me wrong there is other iran hoopla there to talk about today we're going to get into that our first interview but i took a moment to zero in on some of the differences that we see between cable television news and print journalism we know the mainstream cable networks are for the most part given up on investigative reporting with the exception of perhaps sixty

minutes is just so much easier and cheaper to fill t.v. airtime with flashy graphics pundits and sit around and stroke each other's egos we do still however see some good work done from organizations are always there when you see me point out the really blatant government teat that. mortgages asians like the new york times and the associated press but lately we've highlighted some of the areas where they did shine babies investigation of the n.y.p.d. surveillance program on muslim communities in the northeast for example or as they grow to be yesterday babies investigation into drone strikes and the resulting civilian casualties in pakistan let's her moment go back to new york times series from two thousand and nine which david gardner won a pulitzer prize here are so detailed the revolving door the lack of transparency the deceitful nature of television networks hiring retired generals as commentators making them paid contributors or just bringing them on as analysts now many of these retired generals or other pentagon employees they aren't just getting checks and networks many of them are also getting checks from defense contractors

something which they don't disclose when they appear on cable networks as the is objective analyst which clearly they're not since they're pushing for certain policies that line their wallets not to mention these are people who have risen up through the pentagon which has given them their career so they clearly benefit from expanding military state and when they go on those cable networks they're not really treated as just the military viewpoints in a debate so much as the all knowing all seeing wise officials who were whose words are the truth plain and simple it was nothing new in this practice and as i said this original new york times piece from two thousand and nine but the point is that it didn't change anything this still goes on. and here's where another interesting bit of information comes in florida kong got a hold of a power point presentation from one general barry mccaffrey who was an n.b.c. analyst and he was one of the worst offenders in this two thousand and nine year times piece and going greenwald wrote about it today detailing how mccaffrey presented a seminar to roughly twenty n.b.c.

executives and producers on january twelfth where he spoke about the creep towards war with iran making it sound like it was only ninety days away he war that will most likely be iran will be the aggressor in the situation and not the u.s. and he said that iran will not under any circumstances be deterred from going nuclear so here you have somebody who obviously has certain financial interests greeting n.b.c. executives so they can figure out how to cover the iran situation and you wonder why the coverage coming from a muslim v.c. and i've received kids with such fear marjorie and ignore is that i reports ignores warnings from the administration people like the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence who say there is no proof that iran has decided to pursue nuclear weapons anyway i want to get too carried away here what i really suggest you all do is go to long dot com glenn greenwald piece including his rebuttal of and he sees rebuttal to his piece for the earth but you probably practice back up to remind everybody of where it really goes on a cable networks which to me is really the ongoing problem with all of this is the

continued lack of transparency or accountability on their parts to disclose the connections of their so called object of analysts to other moneyed interests aka the defense industry and he sees events or response to glenn was a general mccaffrey is but one of many voices that they hear from and whose opinions they value and that's fine but just because you claim to hear from many different people in your editorial meetings doesn't mean that your audience actually gets you on air when you give one individual so much time and they don't disclose their conflicts of interests so anyway this is just a good reminder of what the mainstream media does to keep you in the dark so they can continue to choose to miss. i've got a number of foreign policy issues to discuss tonight take another look at civilian casualties of drone strikes in pakistan yesterday we brought up the not only of the a.p. done they found new evidence of unreported civilian deaths but their previous also

file the case with the u.n. human rights council so we actually see that both somewhere and secretary of defense leon panetta was testifying on capitol hill again today well the areas that are getting come from defense spending are being publicly discussed are there other areas that are quietly being beefed up let's just say that iran might have something to do with it so here to discuss this with me is innocent foreign policy analyst at the cato institute lou thanks so much for coming on the show tonight absolut thank you let's start we're going to get into drone strikes but just really quickly i want to start with the budget because we heard a lot from secretary defense leon panetta over the summer right right after this debt deal was struck and we heard about the trigger mechanism he called it a doomsday you know what it is a. different kind of seem to calm down now they're dealing with the cuts that are coming in stride not the trigger effect yet and then we heard general martin dempsey who for the most part is somebody that i've actually respected lately in his statements because i feel like he's been calling for some cong this eventually

with the situation with the rod and then he said that if we were to suffer another round of defense cuts of this size we would stop to be a leading world power i think a little overkill wouldn't you well i think these are the problems with bureaucracies that you have in general general they always want more money more research is more time especially when it comes to something like the deal with the or when it comes to something like war you're going to always have military and civilian officials who are asking for more time and more resources this is what we saw in iraq were we always turned a corner there was never a corner that was not turned and there's always a justification for more resources so even though we're spending even more now than we did even according to real dollars during the cold war and now you sort of see many officials in the pentagon and also in the white house sort of this. they're backtracking they're trying to sort of save as many programs as they can because it's a huge cash cow for many congressional districts as we know with the military industrial complex and this is something that should always be brought up i mean it's one thing i get it right if you want to save certain projects but to make these statements that we're no longer going to be a leading world power we still spend more than the rest of the world combined on

our military is just ludicrous but one of the things that i do find interesting is that finally you have senators because of the desperate i guess dire situation in their view when it comes to budget cuts actually bringing up the idea of trying to get rid of a few installations abroad and we don't even really know exactly how many bases of there are abroad because military officials they don't know either and you know do you think that that is at least a development or does this mean that they're basically just being shifted around like we also have a new naval installation in the dominican republic that people are complaining about there exactly i don't think anything really gets cut things get you get around and i'm happy that you lead with iran story i mean this is sort of the broader misinformation campaign that's been sold to many americans in the sense that you know we must be everywhere around the world we must have this present sort of primacy in foreign countries especially in regions where we haven't seen war for we're sixty years and i think when we look at those budget priorities that we talk about the priorities of the american people many americans want to focus in on sort

of the home front in terms of our economic issues in terms of bringing those on wall street who are very well financially connected and politically connected to those in the white house and in capitol hill so bringing those sorts of can ability issues to account and i think that's really the focus it's not about you know possibly a war with iran unfortunately this is what we're now seeing in terms of bringing more justification for a bigger defense budgets were there's another conflict in the gulf than certainly there's going to be no people on capitol hill for cutting defense budget i mean that's also a greater worry. would you think the entire situation to the way that it's being built up do you think. we've had conversations on this show. people have argued that maybe it's the media that's even more responsible than you know administration officials are because they're trying to be a little bit more bellow and i think have a little more caution about it right now and then maybe it's the media's doing it even more than lawmakers in this ng with the media is really just chomping at the bit for another conflict and it's incredibly sad especially when you look at the

toll on human life of the cost exorbitant costs that have been imposed on americans i think really what you see is again a deliberate misinformation campaign when you read a lot of the news reports as those of us around in history began in one nine hundred seventy nine doesn't even talk about our overthrow of most american fifty three doesn't talk about our back in the shop for thirty years and so it's definitely a sort of cherry picked information that's been sold to the american people and that's why you see so many americans are not only do they say that they're sort of willing to dislodge the nuclear program from iran but if necessary do it militarily i don't think it's directly related to the misinformation that they're getting from these analysts are so then we see so much focus on that i know at the same time it's going to you know at least this investigation that the a.p. did what i do think that we don't see more focus on drone strikes on the civilian deaths i mean i understand that the secrecy is an element here and that it's really hard to do it's really dangerous to try to go to was there a stand and try to collect statistics on this but they did it why can't others were far away from the conflict were very detached from the human cost and i think it's

really unfortunate especially when you consider that number one because harold caesar of course tragic but we're actually inflaming a great deal of anti-american sentiment that spawns greater militarism and militancy that sort of the the issue that whenever drones come up and comes up on this show the water the other sort of mainstream cable networks you really don't hear about the human cause you don't really hear about how this is inflaming a great deal of anti-american sentiment and so it's largely just swept into the rug and of course you know we learned in economics one of one that when you decrease costs you increase demand and so even though drones are cheaper and you know. there were technically and tapis but they take a great deal of sort of greater human life we're going to probably see greater intervention as we've seen in yemen and somalia because of those costs. do you think that you know as other organizations charity organization reprieve is actually trying to take a case to the u.n. human rights council they've also done a lot of research into seeing the costs on the ground trying to talk to those that

live there in pakistan and they have photo evidence right they have other evidence taking some of un human rights council unfortunately that can result anything i said i don't think so i mean it's the golden rule whoever has the gold makes the rules and unfortunately you know there's a huge industry and there's a huge many lawyers and capitol hill who are going to direction of greater drone operations we've seen the increased sales of drones in of course you know this go to the circuit city issue even though we're increasing the number of drones that we will be deploying and even possibly on the us mexico border in terms of the clarity of the resolution in terms of the accuracy of what we're getting it's deeply in question in fact the wheeler defense expert he just wrote about this recently on peer reviewed journal articles that talk about the fact that we don't have great accuracy with these things with these drones and practiced last april two u.s. marines were killed in afghanistan because they were misidentified as the enemy so i think there are a great deal of problems with these drones and unfortunately we're going to see their increased usage how do you feel about domestic drone surveillance now the

president just signed is that a bill recently and a oh that's going to be used by a law enforcement thing if they're selling it as a way to help find people that are lost in the grid right or i guess media organizations can use that view but i think that there are some serious civil liberties issues here absolutely it's deeply troubling i mean number one the fact that will we be able to have sort of this be without warrants or will this be done without any sort of due process who's to say that someone can you know sort of spy on you when you're at home through your window i mean the limitations on what exactly they can surveil is very much in question and i think that more americans should demand to have more information just like for the run up with the iraq war you know many americans just. of blindly would along with what officials argue i think the same is almost happening now with drones in the sense that all will be used to for search and rescue missions will be used for good purposes but they can always be used for nefarious purposes to go back to one thing that you said earlier to you when you know you mentioned that we had to not only of course in pakistan we

talk about getting talked about somalia and this is a means of intervention if you look at yemen if you look at pakistan too there's there's a lot more involved than just drone strikes right where we're funding these counterterrorism forces there are giving a lot of money in aid do you think it will ever get to the point where they think that just throwing you this is going to be. just doesn't count in that sense that it can come separately from all kinds of money well i certainly think the thing i mean i'm happy you brought this up because a lot of the arguments used for drones is that it's much cheaper than manned aircraft but as you suggest i mean if you begin using drones that that becomes a justification for even deeper intervention so therefore we must have military advisors therefore we must have snatch and grab operations and sort of you saw this expansion in pakistan and you know sort of drones as the entryway for you know eventually raymond davis this affair i could imagine that we're going to see many more of those instances in other countries such as yemen and somalia and who knows where else could point you know. thank you so much for joining us it was a pleasure thank you. our guys aside for a quick for

a fellow with the current occupy size across the country are protesting the influence of operation for our political systems over here all the details on today's last option or with the. same. people calling what you said for free and fair elections. and we're still reporting from the same lines where you can hear behind me louder solutions. gave the.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here's some other part of it and realize that everything you. are is a big. our

guys it's time for you said it i read it right take time to respond to my brilliant engaging viewer comments from facebook twitter and you tube because you've got some to say i listen now first i want to respond to your that watched our discussion on whether or not college was first knobs and indoctrination and dr nation liberal indoctrination of course as is what rick santorum said so can you read my deadpan comment on you tube i'm a business major i never have had a liberal professor. tell you i believe that now the political science and film major u.c. santa cruz i definitely had my fair share of little professors but my friends in

the economics department have all different story. and it's just not true that all professors are liberal universities like the university of chicago bastions for conservative economic thought so once again rick santorum is just flat wrong now next on respond to a commenter that watched our interview on the weekend e-mail us a.t.m. dusty commented on you tube well we can leave is a great idea to make information public they haven't really said anything that should not have already been know the only thing that i have seen is that putting a spin on documents that shows they aren't honest that is one thing it is common sounds like it's familiar even reading or listening to any of the media commentary on the latest wiki leaks release or you only hear two things we think is bad and the information they released is worthless the same thing was said about the wiki leaks state department cable release everything rush to say the cables were useless there was nothing new and then proceeded to write story after story all of them for months and continue to refer to information gleaned from those cables today so regardless of how you feel about leaks their sources their tactics i would urge

everyone to listen to the media national security expert narrative regarding them with caution how about we just wait until all the emails are actually released to say there's no new information in there just an idea and next i want to respond to a diligent viewer who grabbed a screen shot of the show last night joshua are so boring it posted on our facebook page hey alone on a big fan of the show couldn't help but share a good screen shot with a random arm popping out on last night's show so i'm going to take this opportunity to introduce you guys to our wonderful floor director for a great come on out. this is this is the mystery our. break makes everything work on here every single day so thanks frank audience now you're familiar and finally it's time to respond to a proposal series docs can comment excuse me on our facebook page alone or will you marry me i'll be a half decent husband not all you want but better than nothing at all the offer

sounds very enticing and enthusiastic i'm going to have to respectfully say no and for next time i think a bigger go home kind of flowers and fireworks type of girl that's of my rantings and i always back with more as usual next week. it's also another day of action for the occupy movement today with feb twenty ninth going under the banner of shut down the corporate corporations coordinated by occupy portland now according to the web site protests are planned in over ninety five cities to specifically target alec the american legislative exchange council nonprofit policy group that's had a strong hand and drafting legislation targeting and talking to undocumented immigrants and public sector unions and their actions also come on the heels of a leaked v.h.s. report put out as part of the new wiki leaks document from e-mails obtained by stratfor reports show that homeland security was tracking at the occupy movement from the early stages and all the reports simply track the movement by using public media sources has raised a lot of questions as to why it's and who exactly d.h.

has should be keeping an eye on as well as what other undisclosed methods may be out there so let's find out more in occupied continued efforts and reactions joining me from our studio in new york is john neville contributor for salon dot com and co-host of radio dispatch john thanks so much for joining us tonight and i guess if you could just start by giving us a breakdown of what you know in terms of it today's actions of this shutdown of corporations really a success. absolutely great to be here with today's actions meant to highlight as you said was like and today in new york there are actions outside of bank of america that resulted in a temporary shutdown as well as an action outside pfizer that resulted certainly in a disruption of business as usual and and i think that more than anything else it highlighted this sort of shadow we mr eous organization called alec and that of

course stands for the american legislative exchange council which meets in arizona it's comprised of state legislators and corporate executives who get together and quite literally you write bills behind closed doors that the state legislators then take back to their home state present as their own and then the legislatures vote on that and this is known as model bills yeah i don't foresee that you've got something that we see a lot and particularly do you know the occupiers of the people who are participating today take. you know have a problem with exactly the type of legislation that has been pushing. absolutely what you see from alec is a very far right wing pro corporate agenda and in many ways it exemplifies the kind of backdoor dealing there i think

a lot of activists really want to highlight is an example of the like has proposed a lot of privatizing of public schools they're also there one point put forward a state bill that would allow for the use of lethal force if somebody entered your home that bill was associated with the n.r.a. who is a long time supporter and i think that probably a lot of viewers might not be familiar with alec even though they've been around from one nine hundred seventy three that's when they were founded and that's because there is an almost complete media blackout on this organization i did a little bit of looking into this and over the year over two thousand and eleven alec only showed up in the new york times a total of seven times just for to sort of you know gauge that against something else i did a search for charlie sheen because it seemed like the biggest story story of two

thousand and eleven you should have been the new york times over five hundred times so that just gives you an idea of how. significant the blackout is and as far as corporate news goes the networks a.b.c. c.b.s. and n.b.c. you have to go back to two thousand and one that was the last time alec showed up network news yeah the unfortunate world that we live in where charlie sheen is the one makes it into the new york times all the time i really fear is jobs here you know your thoughts on this leave the h.s. report that we got the stratfor e-mails were put out there at first glance you look at it and you see that it's been all put together through open source. tiriel right it's just link to articles from the new york times from the guardian from bloomberg it's really a painfully i guess you could say simple it doesn't really seem to have a whole lot of depth to it but aside from that do you find it troubling i mean

should we have expected that the h.s. was going to be monitoring occupy movement or at the end of day that's still wrong that they were doing it. well i think that this just confirms what a lot of activists already suspected there have been various sightings of p.h.s. bands and suspected agents really from the beginning and it shouldn't come as any surprise considering the national surveillance state that we live in that the d.h.s.s. is monitoring. activist activities as far as whether or not we should be worried about i think we have solution b. i think that there is clearly a coordinated effort among mayors as we saw in the deciding of the encampments and the fact that the n.y.p.d. is getting federal money to to execute its muslim spying on muslim businesses and i think that it's also certainly possible that the local police departments are getting federal funs as far as dealing with occupy goes and i think

that even more broadly speaking this report fits into the social media peening that we've seen from the manhattan d.a. and the boston d.a. and the oregon bill this city oregon bill that tried to essentially criminalize twitter now in oregon that bill would've made it tweeting about an event that where a misdemeanor happened into a felony if three or more people showed up it's essentially a way of making social media organizing a sort of conspiracy or a conspiracy to incite a riot basically so you could be in the bizarre situation of tweeting about an event that results in a misdemeanor and be charged with a felony for that and so the subpoenaing twitter it's to it's to find out where people are signing in where they're using twitter it's possibly to

find private messages that are sent over twitter and more than anything else it's meant to let act. this organizers know that the authorities are watching and that they will use every tool at their disposal to bring it down and i think that this d.g.'s report is just really the tip of the iceberg as far as what the federal oversight as far as i could cry goes definitely seems like they're using every tool because of not forget you have local law enforcement they can deal with peaceful protest movements you have the f.b.i. you don't necessarily bring the department of homeland security which is meant to protect against outside terrorist threats you know into into this kind of mix if you're going to have some measure of one person out there monitoring peaceful movements then you have other departments should be doing it but i guess that will be doing it on a cell like i agree but john thanks so much for joining us tonight yes absolutely my pleasure. i.