welcome to the launch show where we get the real headlines with none of the mercy and live in washington d.c. now tonight we're going to take a look at the results of a war game at the pentagon played out if israel were switched on iranian nuclear facilities and their prediction is that the u.s. will inevitably become embroiled in a conflict then supreme court heard arguments today in two cases that are pushing to change the way that we treat juvenile offenders who have been convicted of homicide are the really the kind of country that we want to be where we lock up young people for life with no second chance and ben bernanke he gave the first of

what will be a series of college lectures given by the federal reserve chairman so what do you make of what he set and is getting young people on his side the only way of changing the feds or reputation or to have all that market or night including a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at the mainstream media has decided to meet. so today is according to those watching the horse race that is the g.o.p. presidential campaign trail a critical day and the mainstream media dutifully follow through on its wall to wall coverage of voting in illinois patriotic music playing in the background and all. voters in illinois are at the polls right now but at the end of the day will they provide any more clarity to the republican race for president critical problems presidential hopefuls all polls are now open in illinois fifty four delegates on the line today romney and rick santorum candidates with their fair

share of stumbles trying to right the ship in the latest state along the primary role loaded with twists and turns all eyes on the lake today voters are going to the polls to choose a g.o.p. presidential candidate fifty four delegates at stake no winner take all here delegates are divvied up proportionally at stake today fifty four illinois sixty nine delegates rick santorum needs a victory somewhere that proves he can win a quote an away game mitt romney and rick santorum looking for a big win the former massachusetts governor is spending the day in chicago with romney use illinois the backdrop for a big economic speech he's campaigning in springfield in peoria and talking about jobs and the economy it is still with an unemployment rate above the national average so that nine point four percent. are so there is something i'd like to point out today regarding the way the different candidates are treated share of the mainstream media has given ron paul very much attention all along the way but these days they act like he completely doesn't exist so it might not be all that

surprising that a recent op ed that he wrote has also gone by without any attention paid to it and you might say well so what it's not that people can read it it's not cable television his job to bring it out but the thing is when mitt romney has written op eds in the past they were all over it all over it despite the fact that his most recent and washington post was full of a lot right he called president obama the most feckless president since carter when it comes to his policy on iran and then he went on spreading the theory claiming outright that iran is racing to build a nuclear bomb and he said that despite the fact that assessments by our own intelligence agencies say there is no proof to definitively say that and of lies get plenty of air time. iraq policy i bet on the other hand speaks a much needed truth he looked at attorney general eric holder's recent speech where he attempted to explain why this administration thinks that it can legally kill u.s. citizens abroad with no due process after noting the irony but what he called the perhaps the appropriate location of the speech which was given to law school paul

said that history will likely record this as a turning point and he pointed out the visit ministration arguing to the president himself and bodies due process of i mean that they believe that the president himself is the judge the jury and the executioner have all certainly is not the first definitely not the only one to say that you've heard me say that all the time but it's a point that can't be repeated enough it's one of the most dangerous moves the biggest kick to the constitution that we have ever seen and also makes an interesting comparison he says that it's particularly bizarre to hear the logic of this administration claiming the right to target its citizens and we justified our attacks against iraq and libya because their leader supposedly were targeting their own citizens. now clearly barack obama has not done what saddam was saying or moammar gadhafi did to their people but he said a legal president because one day be used as justification to go down that path and i don't believe that americans would ever stand for it but i hope they wake up sooner rather than later also remind us what it is that real due process is

supposed to meet the judicial review a fair trial those things are all strengths not weaknesses of our system and we have this process in place to guarantee the fundamental right to be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and that is after all one of the things that makes america special right these fundamental rights and protections these are things to be proud of being to be protected and maintained not just dismantled over a fear of terrorism but lastly paul made a really interesting point he said that he's encouraged by what appears to be the beginning of a backlash against the administration claiming this power the sad thing is that he pointed to laura ingram as his example and so this is where we've seen the worst developments of this whole thing had left the democrats have fallen silent when it was george w. bush expanding executive powers there was criticism of plenty now that it's their president their own president that's doing it they suddenly don't care and so now we only see the right wing complaining because it's a democratic president who put this policy into place i mean come on a highly doubt the laura ingram would be so upset about it if there were public and

president keeping americans safe and that's what will ruin it for us all if we allow ourselves to be consumed by partisan rhetoric if we allow these fundamental values to be crushed abused for political gain and not because we all realize the dire consequences of it but the mainstream media are only helping it along if anybody out there over does exploit the right versus left paradigm and it's definitely bent and so issues like this like the assassination of u.s. citizens by their own governments issues like presidential candidates calling attention to this all of that they choose to miss. what would happen if israel were to strike iran's nuclear facilities according to a classified war simulation that was held earlier this month it would lead to a wider regional war and could draw the u.s. could draw in the u.s. and leave hundreds of americans dead in a simulation the u.s.

found itself pulled into the conflict after iranian missiles struck a navy warship in the persian gulf killing about two hundred americans and the u.s. retaliated by carrying out its own strikes on iranian nuclear facilities and all this is according to officials that are familiar with the results of this two week long war game which was called internal look and he spoke to the new york times and it was the same warnings that we've been hearing from intelligence military officials but it differs sharply from how israeli officials see it and fact jeffrey goldberg reported from tel aviv that israeli leaders think that iran would probably pretend this attack never happened and try to cover it up and a matter of which hypothetical you look at so we really just be concerned that it's already gotten to this point in the discussion here discussing with mr maki policy director of the national iranian american council well thanks so much for joining us today or i mean i don't know what do you say the fact that we're already having word games playing out about this in these simulations does that mean that it's kind of reached a point where it seems like it's getting more real than just hypothetical and

certainly reached a dangerous point i think the fact that we're having these war games is actually it's actually really positive because we need to have an honest airing out of what we're with the wrong looks like to understand what the options are you know we've got a systematic effort to take options off the table if that diplomacy is not going to work we need to do sanctions then we did sessions socials are going to work we need to do war now finally we're actually having a conversation about well there is no military solution so maybe we need to go back to square one and figure out what the other options are to actually resolve this conflict instead of to capitulate and create this disastrous conflict. throughout the middle east are you really having that discussion though because i mean and i know that he has to do this politically but i think the president does constantly say is that all options are on the table you will not hesitate to use military force but this is somewhere down the line and he also you know criticizes people and warrants against loose talk of war and so when you think of something like this coming out of the press right of course the classified simulations of some official it decided to leak it you know do you think that they're putting out there or

a reason to try to calm it all down i don't think this is any coincidence that this came out and this echoes what every military official that you talk to says about this there's you go down the line you can't find anybody who actually has gone to war or who would lead this war who are saying you know this is a good option this is a place that where we want to be so i think that this is actually this is the this is not a coincidence this is the administration saying well look this is what the military option actually looks like it should be a tremendous incentive and a way to create political space for a diplomatic option which is exactly what we're gearing up for we have talks coming up in a few weeks hopefully the last time that the iranians and the united states actually met at the table there's intense political pressure in washington to kill those talks because we need to go to the sanctions struck by by presenting the military option for what it really is you know this terrible non-solution hopefully that insulates the diplomacy and provide some political incentive in space for those

talks to actually go forward let's talk about what the simulation actually result if it they say that israel were to iraq or excuse me attack iranian nuclear facilities that undoubtedly the u.s. would get pulled into it and that's because the way that iran would see it is that israel is doing something that's mostly partnering with them it's not obvious the iranians have said this if we are attacked by israel we're going to consider it an attack by the u.s. now some may say the iranians are bluffing they don't want to draw the u.s. into the war that's that's a reasonable point even want to remain where they really want to have a war on their own soil. you know it may not retaliate at all because they want to avoid it we don't we don't know how they would play this but we know that they would they would exploit it in the way that would best serve their interests and so a lot of people have said is actually the iranians wouldn't necessarily mind having a military strike but first of all this is the iranians to expel i inspect years ok leave the n.p.t. leave the nonproliferation treaty and then go full force and actually do what they

haven't decided to do yet which is build a nuclear bomb for a deterrent so that they're not struck again so those are two really bad options for us that i think this wasn't a military solution but every military leader who said we've seen this you know we go in there we strike we delay their program by a couple years and then they actually make a sprint to the ball which is exactly what we don't want to see so the other the other you get more incentive if you can say do you what do you think about this you know what jeffrey goldberg is reporting to that according to israeli leaders they just think that iran would completely try to cover it up and use the example of syria when israel bombed syria's nuclear facilities then and they acted like nothing ever happens and i don't know i don't think that first of all this isn't a one off strike this isn't a clean strike you're going to send in two hundred. into iran to try to take out those facilities there's a question of even whether the israelis can do that can they actually pull that off . i don't know how you hide something like that that's going to be out there in the open people are going to know what happened and for the iranians i think one of

their calculations is going to be we have to save face particularly since this is a this is a strike that wouldn't take out the program entirely which is to lay it the iranians do you need to have a powerful message that this cannot you know you can't attack us and then not expect for there to be consequences because then you get into this cycle of you know then two or three years from now iran reconstitute its program and it's now weaponized we have to go in again we have to go in again and so for the iranians to sit there with her and that's what they've been saying here they've been saying you know we will retaliate thinking of diplomacy president obama released a video out there and we have a little clip of it and so i just want to get your take let's take a look. because of the actions of the iranian regime an electronic curtain is fall in iran iraq a barrier that stops the free flow of information and ideas into the country and denies the rest of the world the benefit of interacting with the iranian people who have so much to offer i want you wanting people to know that america seeks

a dialogue to hear your views and understand your aspirations. this is a happy new year's message it's not the first time the president obama has done this but do you think it's more political this time around you know i mean he was going after iran and saying that you live behind this iron curtain that censorship runs wild and that we're willing to build a deeper relationship with you as long as you know your country is a responsible actor. you know when he released this he actually it's not just talk it's not just rhetoric and this is really positive he actually took an action today to lift sanctions on internet communication tools for iraq because we talk about this this iron curtain of repression internet repression any ron but the government undertakes but the reality is because of sanctions the u.s. actually facility helps with silicate that iron curtain we don't allow certain technology to get into the iranian people and so we're inadvertently playing a hand in that so what he did today was actually to say we're going to lift some of those sanctions not all of them and there's

a lot of work that needs to be done we're going to start with some of those so that we're not a part of the problem and how about you know us speaking of sanctions as well that the state department said that they decided to exclude a number i think it was ten european nations from sanctions because they wanted a lot of them and they are doing a good job of trying to wean themselves off of iranian oil i mean is that the way to beef things were i part of the sanction after sanction well that's the thing the president didn't want these sanctions central bank sanctions you can't do any business with iran they didn't want that they got a waiver where basically countries are cooperating they don't get sanction it's interesting to note though that there are in the china's not on that list india is not on the on that list and those are important actors to how on your side when it comes down to you know economic warfare with the wrong so we're going to see where that goes are we going to actually start sanctioning china and india. have to wait and find out thanks so much for joining us tonight thank you. well if you're going to watching the news or our show for that matter for the past several weeks you might think of the decade long war in afghanistan is going up in flames from late

february thousands of afghans were out of the streets for days to protest the burning of the koran and u.s. soldiers were killed during that backlash and over a dozen afghans drive the violence now is just the beginning last week sixteen afghan civilians including women and children were killed in their homes allegedly at the hands of a single u.s. soldier running out of months of horrifying news from the war one single month but according to general john allen the commander of nato troops in afghanistan who testified to congress today the war is going ok or is quote on track as he described it now while he said the last couple months have been trying he gave absolutely no sign that the u.s. is planning on speeding up the planned withdrawal date rough and stand in two thousand and fourteen should worry millions of americans according to a gallup poll conducted last week fifty percent of americans now think of us should speed up their timetable of withdrawal once again public opinion be damned we've got a losing war to fight but it's not just the will be american people that's routinely

being ignored by our military leaders no it's afghans too and for years afghan people and their government vigorously protested nitrates we've spoken about the subject many times of her on the show it's a practice which has been widely deplored by the locals cherished by military officials to try to claim that it's one of their best tools to fight the taliban now u.s. officials have fought for those rights night raids tooth and nail but the karzai government has made them essential condition as part of the strategic pact with us and so the aftermath of the killing of sixteen civilians it looks like the u.s. might be ready to make a concession that's according to top military officials that have said that they might be ready for a change and a change which is not finalized in any way will subject the raids to afghan state law according to karzai that means applying for a warrant so obeying the laws of another country when you're killing their civilians but a novel idea and it certainly is if you're the u.s. military so while they go she she a. could put a long awaited end on check night raids will have to wait for the actual details of this deal because the general's testimony is any indication the pentagon will

continue to fight for the status quo despite all evidence that it simply isn't working. out so far for is a break even but we come back through three by the supreme court today one sided whether or not the u.s. remains one of only two nations in the world that sentences children for life without parole and speak with huffington post supreme court correspondent mike sat for the very. same. people calling what you said for free and fair elections. and we're still reporting from the same as you can hear behind me loud explosions.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then he lives something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok if you don't know i'm charming welcome to the big picture.

this week we've suddenly seen the mainstream media pick up on a case that encapsulates many of the problems of justice today's america is a florida teen gunned down by a neighborhood watch volunteer carrying nothing but a bag of skittles federal prosecutors and the f.b.i. both investigating the shooting death of seventeen year old trayvon martin and the f.b.i. and justice department are investigating the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in florida by a neighborhood watch captain

a growing outrage over the killing of an unarmed florida teenager the f.b.i. and the justice department are now beginning an investigation of this man george zimmerman says he was forced to shoot martin in self-defense during a confrontation protesters in st john's family say he was targeted because of this race. the case of trayvon martin has struck an emotional chord many americans and it's unfortunate that it's stories like these that make us take a look at how justice is of but what about when it's a juvenile who's not the victim but the killer so we also find more room to forgive he willing to grant a second chance to someone it's still a trial today the supreme court heard oral arguments in two cases now of persons alabama and jackson versus hops each of which deal with a fourteen year old was sentenced to life in prison without parole apparently there are about twenty five hundred canals in the u.s. that have been sentenced this way despite their logical science psychological evidence that proves that young people have more capacity to change are not fully

developed so which way did it sound like the court was going to say well your disgust with me is mike sacks supreme court correspondent for the huffington post i thank so much for joining us tonight i would be quickly can you just give us a few details about these two cases today so the cases emerge out of the courts of alabama in arkansas both of which have mandatory life without parole sentence and schemes for any capital murder those below the age of majority so with with the miller case we had a boy who did a pretty. this crime he and a friend beat him with a baseball bat a neighbor fifty two year old neighbor in his trailer and then set the trailer on fire left to go to die the other case the jackson case coming out of coming out of arkansas concerns a boy who was just an accessory to an attempted robbery and in that robbery the video clerk did not have the money that they wanted so one of the boys who was doing the robbery shot the woman in the face but not about the actual we're going to mention here you have the laugh in part that's crazy to me and it's all because

of these mandatory sentences and also because felony murder is a long. crime you know it's as long as part of the anglo-american common law where if you are if you commit a felony and in pursuit of a murder then you will also be tried for that murder but i think a supreme court has seemed to be. changing things a little bit right recent years two thousand and five they ruled the juveniles cannot be sentenced to death two thousand and ten cases of not homicide you can't be sentenced to life in prison without parole and so judging just by their track record does it seem like they would have to rule the same thing here no it doesn't this case is sort of that middle ground because what you have is that is different in two thousand five cases they said well then you can fall back on life without parole that's that at least gives you some hope for growth. and then in two thousand and ten they said well if you don't committed a murder and if you're under seventy under eighteen you shouldn't be used as life without parole in between those two cases is what happens when you are juvenile

under the age of eighteen who commits a murder but are they using i mean i know that you know in some of the arguments in the past you think use some of the studies that show that young people have the capacity to change that rehabilitation should be an option that you know your frontal lobes that unfold they develop and so you see things differently and we have it i just don't understand. you know if they use that logic in the past i wouldn't have high here because you have a supreme court potential majority that is very skittish to say that someone who murders another person. shouldn't get life without parole they look more at the crime as opposed to the person now the lawyer for the two teenagers who were at the court today there's bryan stevenson he's with the equal justice initiative and he's a big juvenile justice reformer he went forward with this it's just it's you cited and said these are these kids they're not capable of fully understanding the ramifications of what they're doing and we have lots of physics laws and social science about this and if they commit these murders we should be we should not hold

him accountable for the rest of their lives and ruin all chances of growth or redemption or rehabilitation. yeah i mean i guess what i call i have to say is that i you know i agree with him here but you know it's interesting we mentioned that we have the supreme court justice there skittish about this because if you think about it on a global scale and i mentioned this to my audience on friday two or one of two countries that hasn't signed this convention on the rights of a child those i guess in somalia still hand out these sentences and so what is it about you know i think our country our society the way that we try to apply or morally justify these types of a mission i don't know but the supreme court doesn't like or least the allowed majority supreme court always rages against the citing of foreign law. in these cases and i thought it actually pretty exceptional if you were largely today stevenson did not want to mention our higher status in those it in a tree and that was a big tell you realize that that might not actually go this time after there was such outcry against justice kennedy the past two cases where he did cite foreign

law to justify his abolishing the death penalty for minors and. we're all for juveniles and relax already else they do things like us and we hate it when we bring out other international laws as examples of how you know one of the ways then in which this could go they just make a ruling that stops the line at fourteen years old set it going all the way up to eighteen or twenty other options it wasn't clear today if we're going to look at if we're going to use justice kennedy as a bill whether he seemed particularly eager to. all the state laws negatory rule the sentence in the states so if it was up to if there was a we support what you're saying today juries would have an option for life without parole but they would have to be able to take in mitigating circumstances like one's home upbringing one's mental state in order to decide whether or not to sentence that child to. well that's at least a good sign because one of the other things if you look at the statistics in terms

of the way that these things are applied i think that black youth are ten times more likely to get these kinds of sentences of life without parole you know and so even if you look at this case that's right now dominating the airwaves and it's good finally it's so sad that it has to be one of these stories that shows how much race plays a role in our justice system but you know in the case of trayvon martin to realize that. you know that race is a problem here they don't want to buy justice they don't even want to go after the guy and you have this of course we have law in florida but so i mean the idea that you would mandatory. say this without looking at the problems in the system is just crazy to me but i got to start i'm going on a rant about this thanks so much for joining us tonight. are you guys it's time for show and tell him tonight's program and last time we told you about hollywood teaming up with internet service providers to combat piracy when the government try to go after pirates of bills like. there's a burst of interactivity so should we expect the same kind of outcry with the july twelfth plan between our a and i as pete is going to produce

a project that i sent you to find out what you have to say. on the streets of d.c. to tell people in the nation's capital what our viewers had to say on twitter facebook and you tube and see which comments we should keep or delete. so we asked our viewers do you think that this will start up a new round of protesting from internet activists like we saw with the stop online privacy act jon said a copyright needs to be protected the internet should be like everything else if you want to play it you have to pay so do you think that we should be forced to pay for material online absolutely i do you know i strongly believe in copyright. and protecting you know creative work that people have you know put a lot of time to get together and she want to keep it or delete it believe that even if they do charge up charges will just find a way around it someone well do you think we should be forced to pay do you want to

keep it or delete it. i want to believe it i mean he does have a point i mean. you know i mean and i feel like we're as the one he wrote in and said you can do all the laws and actions you want but piracy is unstoppable and will only cause resentment if the tempted you want to keep it or delete it keep it short of like the individual freedom if. i don't think that the government or any company has a right to interfere with what you're doing you're going to get angry because they're used to doing what they're doing you know downloading stuff on the internet and you know it isn't the same uprising samuel believes that corporations will win over people so he wouldn't be surprised if another sopa was put forward do you want to keep it to leave people do you think corporations will win out on this one even if people rightly possibly yes they would while there are a lot of people who put things on line for freier want to get things for free there are a lot of corporations are feeling they own that content and want to get paid for it so it sounds to me like there's another battle brewing.

i will thank you for your responses as usual and here's our next question for you earlier in the show we spoke about how differently the mainstream media treats the candidates that are vying for the republican nomination sharing time analysis on everything that mitt romney says while mostly ignore and ron paul the fact is that romney is going to clear the winner of fourteen out of fifteen states depending on the way the count that or ron paul has fared much worse so why do you think it is the ron paul's failed to win contests you can let us know on facebook twitter and you tube and who knows response just might make it on air. are we talking about more breakdown we returned and her name he is taking to the internet to communicate directly with the american people because take a stab at what his twitter feed might end up looking like and then has the world economy really comes out of this speech and the right after this break.