today on our t.v.'s the case that's been pasted on every major news network in the u.s. the death of a seventeen year old african-american has stirred up all new class turns over racism in the u.s. whether it's still alive today and who feels it the most also use the changing face of intolerance this is without question our number one geopolitical foe they fight every cause for the world's worst actors the idea the idea that he has some more flexibility in mind for russia is very very troubling to be president and presidential hopeful mitt romney is adding to his list of enemies this time all of russia but newsflash the cold war is over so why can't we all just get along

politicians you know that if they attempt to speak. they're going to be not just vilified they're going to be defeated well this isn't your average pro israel conference this is j. street where the jewish community rallied to talk about diplomatic solutions to the palestinian conflict and while it's not a star studded as the annual apec conference it sure knows how to make an impression we'll take you inside. it's tuesday march twenty seventh five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching artsy. well two tragedies have ignited a debate in the nation over racism and racial profiling thousands have taken to the streets demanding justice for trayvon martin and an armed black teenager shot dead

by an ever heard watchmen outrage also growing over the death of an iraqi woman in california she was began some death and it reportedly left beside her that said quote go back to your own country now in the wake of the seemingly racially driven incidences we ask is racial. well filing alive and well and america i'm joined now by independent journalist mona kalak to get some answers. welcome ranya so while both of these stories are tragic it seems like only one of the is getting a bit of constant media attention and that is the case of trayvon martin what do you think of behind the. well i think what's particularly setting for most people about the case of trayvon martin is that he that the person that is responsible for shooting him how does not fees that he charges and has not been arrested and people look at that and see a murder of somebody getting away with murder and because trayvon was

a young black man. you know people look at that and they say oh well you know how he couldn't wait chances are in a different the man that shot your abundant black gents is ours. and that this would be a different story and i was there and would be in fact behind bars. so it's just it's visitation that people are angry about is that there's no justice no justice has been. in. interest for you got to spend time. thinking everything is the fact that this and that shot him just that the situation surrounding the case zimmerman is that this twenty eight year old's. man who you know is known to have called the f.b.i. or i'm sorry to have called the police something like forty six times last year to report his people and from those phone calls that have been released to the public most of those were african-americans so we know that this man you know views young

black men or young black people as this vicious and so people are angry because this sort of reigniting the debate about racial profiling and you know this is something the black community has been dealing with or as long as they can remember now i do want to talk a little bit more about the media coverage of these cases we see right wing channels like fox news geraldo said now that the hoodie as responsible as the shooter of the victim was wearing a hoodie at the time and i saw it today on a conservative website they published trayvon tweets before he was killed his tweets not really painting him and a positive light his family is now saying that this is being used as a ploy to destroy his reputation how do you what's your response to a news organization seemingly taking stances on these on this case. well i think that it's interesting what's interesting about this case is that because the police have botched this investigation so badly in sanford it's good luck to them

yet to investigate and scrutinize the account surrounding this case and in terms of the right wing media. you know if it's really outrageous the way they've been trying to smear this that this seventeen year old who's now dead and really an evil to defend himself and but you know it's it's not surprising. because you know they even before the tweet you played think it was yesterday there was a there was a leak accounts about it was leaked that some you know trayvon had been suspended from school for having trace amounts of like marijuana residue in some empty bag in his backpack and somehow this as opposed to you know this is supposed to destroy the credibility of trayvon that your credibility his character like ok well maybe you need a kid is suspicious and was suspicious deserve what happened to i'm right and so you also blame him yes sort of try to blame it like very angry as we've seen from

their comments about obama's comments and saying that you know black politicians are trying to capitalize on the murder of trayvon martin went back into the right wing media outlets generally but not the situation how it has a really hard time confronting reeses someone it's there and when it exists and so . you know it's sort of like their natural way of dealing with it is to be on the side of you know the person who because i was there and i guess now there's the whole sorry guys. start interview there but this both of these cases happened. while a report recently came out that hate groups in the u.s. are at an all time high what do you think is fueling the racism and race all racial profiling in the us and who is responsible. well you know let me be clear. about this it's not just these racist hate groups that racially profile it's everyone everyone does it i mean the word being black in america for

a long time now has been equated to being a criminal you know that's kind of the result of you know it quiet you know after jim crow was dismantled in the sixty's and seventy's and after it was no longer acceptable to use phrases language in the n. word you know mostly conservative politicians had to come up with a different way to sort of insidious three the racist and talk about black people and so that's where the idea of running water and climb comes and so you know for a long time now the past thirty forty years you have a situation where in the news media you know in politics and in in movies and t.v. shows crime is literally the equivalent of being black being glad everybody's idea of a criminal even studies have shown people's idea of a criminal oftentimes a black man so it's sort of a subconscious idea in our minds even those of us who say we're not resistant and

don't want to be racist may have this sort of underlying. underlying tendency to view black people as the specialists and so there is something that is because it's not just hate groups that have this problem obviously that's scary and it's important to talk about he groups but when it comes to racial profiling it's happens in every area of american society whether it's education and education you have black students who are a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers for the same minor infractions and there is no doubt that this is happening that there is intolerance directed toward black people in the u.s. but as we see and this case with the iraqi woman in california that intolerance in hate is also directed at other groups within the u.s. do you think that intolerance is is spreading to other ethnicities what's your take on that. i mean i think that people of color you know whether a black person

a hispanic person or you know an arab person and you didn't really used to be considered you know nonwhite but now if you're september eleventh there's a lot of hatred towards arabs and muslims. yeah there is a lot of intolerance out there and you know the situation happened it's a rocky road and it's so awful and so horrible and i really think that it should break people to this sort of what i would call racial difference that exists among you know people who are necessarily racist or have gracious tendencies but just don't care because. because that's the reason the step as it is allowed to happen i think a lot of it's also the media coverage that he fails to talk about these things that people aren't really aware of them until something all form griddle happens and even in the case of this or locking women she how did receive much media coverage and we are hoping to change that thank you very much trying to have you on the show that was independent journalist trying to colic thank you for having me well in the

past few weeks to jewish lobbying groups how their annual conferences here in washington d.c. each one a vastly different priority apac has been around for decades but j. street has been around for just a few years now both call themselves pro israel one in particular calls for a peaceful resolution to the israeli palestinian conflict yet as you'll see it looks like money the terms of which groups voice rings louder and american politics . again streets a young lobbying group whose focus is to end the israeli palestinian conflict that will magically not militarily free use the settlements. i believe the infrastructure of palestinian state democracy and human rights and justice across the middle east we cannot be saying that unless we're doing everything we can to bring democracy and human rights and justice to the

palestinians it's not just a few weeks ago more than thirteen thousand people gathered here at the washington convention center for apac just a fraction of that number in attendance here for j. street now both groups say they are pro israel but gays resound are more focused on pro peace advocating a two state solution to the israeli palestinian conflict. organizers estimate a turnout of about twenty five hundred at j. street a low key event compared to rival jewish lobbying group apac some say that's because j. street is only a few years old j. street is only four years old so having almost three thousand people queued but many points apacs enormous influence on u.s. politics apac affiliated groups pump exorbitant amounts of money and so political campaigns politicians know that if they attempt to speak up on this issue they're going to be not just vilified they're going to be defeated and it's become an annual tradition for presidents to speak at apac it was no different this year the

united states will always have israel's back up to israel security how the senate in a third of the house made an appearance at apac republican presidential candidates ron paul being the exception all took turns making their pro israel speeches before the lobbying group. and its language like this j. street attendees say that hurts israel i don't. really supporting real peace on the ground now but rather pushing towards the peace that the israeli government has a mind that is not really concrete on the ground it's a concept and not something realistic but with election year under way some say catering to the rich and powerful group is the only way to stay in the game that would be my guess that he just needs to be making sure that he does get the votes he needs. this year despite the pomp and circumstance of apac j.

street attendees say they represent the voice of the jewish mainstream and their voice will only grow louder and stronger and only gave is dying by any means but i think it is on an older generation that is going to be replaced by a generational shift they hope will push the middle east peace process forward and washington liz wahl r.t. well to talk more about this j. street versus a packer earlier i was joined by danny schechter a filmmaker and blogger for news dissected that nat i first asked about how how what he thinks how the these two groups there for years is take. you know first verse of all it's important to realize that apec is is an organisation of organisations there's an organisation of the presidents of the jewish organizations many of them unelected not representative of any particular constituency except financed by a relative handful of people who claim to speak on behalf of the whole jewish

community in america yet when jews are actually polled and surveyed you'll find a majority want peace in the middle east want are willing to trade land for peace are willing to a reach accommodation with palestinians so this is not a very representative force but it's a very powerful force because of the money that it has and the momentum that it has after being in office and being around the congress for so many years and also is affiliated you know kind of not publicly perhaps within the evangelical christian community that is also supportive of the more extreme voices in israel now i have i went about a pack and a straight and by attending both you could see right off about how much more support there is for a pac and how much more money it was a much bigger of that and also a pac is attended by several members of congress president obama spoke at

a packed for every single g.o.p. candidate except for ron paul he gave a speech at apac but not a single one took the time to speak at jason terry why not apparently it's not worth their time. well it's not that it's because they really are not interested necessarily in promoting a peace agenda what they represent their interest in doing is basically being seen by and appealing to certain constituencies and those constituencies as i've indicated are not really necessarily representative of the jewish community or the hopes for peace in the middle east that have been expressed by so many people over so many years and this is sort of standing in the way of a breakthrough here it's called the lobby and the lobby the israeli lobby is very powerful and it's also very belligerent and hostile the people who challenge it including politicians fear that if they question the lobby or challenge it the

lobby will finance or the lobbies friends will finance a primary campaign against them and the like so it's a tool of bullying it's a tool of intimidation often and that's what makes it so dangerous because it's not really a democratic movement now but groups do say that they're pro as every hour j. street as trying to highlight the fact that they are pro peace apac does say that they are pro but are they. everybody's pro peace but what they usually mean is there's a piece of what they don't want to give away a piece of of israel as a consequence. really balance to a very hard line a government that government by the way is not representative it's a collection a coalition of forces with parties you know with with almost a very tiny you know percentage of the votes having one or two votes in the knesset and therefore being able in a sense to dominate politics in

a very non-representative way so you have the problem here is that israel itself is run often by the war cabinet which are the generals it's as much in a way as a organization you know rather of a country dominated by a narrow elite now where you know when i asked them this attendee that gave three the same question about why it is so much more why eight i get so much more attention by political candidates a lot of them occurred it's the fact again street as a young organization but would you say that gay street that they represent the jewish mainstream. i don't think there's been any election or any poll that says that i don't think they can claim that i think they can claim that they certainly represent the aspirations of many jewish communities for peace and a resolution of this issue and i in that respect i think their growth is

significant the fact that they're being treated seriously that they have ideas that they're representing and you know this is a complex set of issues i mean there are many in the middle east who wouldn't support apex approach might perhaps some of the palestinian organizations there's a big debate about is a two state solution even possible anymore or should there be a one state solution but the point is that j. street is attempting to create a forum for a debate apac it's trying to silence any debate that's the difference so would you say that they aren't think that's fallen at least changing the dialogue the discourse over israel well i think they're successful in trying to do that you know they are a young organization they do have to gain their sea legs so to speak they have to be some you know more guts seek members of congress who will speak out and support the need for this type of a debate because as long as israel is controlled by this narrow elite and as long

as israel is committed to a policy of no change really effectively we're not going to see any progress and we need some people to step up to the plate and be willing to question this whole kind of deadlock that's been going on for sixty years danny that all the time we have for today thank you so much for weighing and i was the only factor filmmaker and blogger for news that factor right now. well it turns out of russia as the u.s. is number one enemy at least in the mind of republican presidential candidate mitt romney at all stemmed from this exchange between president obama and russian president dmitry medvedev all caught on camera was . the or was that romney took this opportunity to palance on

president obama for daring to be flexible with russia here's his response on c.n.n. . and if he's planning on doing more and suggest to russia that he has things he's willing to do with them he's not willing to tell the american people this is to russia this is without question our number one geopolitical foe they fight every cause for the world's worst actors the id the idea that he has the more flexibility in mind for russia is very very troubling indeed so if mitt romney in the republican elite sat on bringing back the negative attitudes reminiscent of the cold war to help answer that and more i'm joined now by ivan eland senior fellow for the independent institute welcome to the show ivan so romney a thousand russia is our number one enemy you think you really believe that you know i think it's campaign rhetoric and i think it doesn't really square with the facts you will and i think you probably should be criticizing romney for his lack of knowledge of foreign affairs rather than for rocco bamma saying the obvious in

politicians in america always get in trouble for telling the truth that's when they get in trouble so that's why they don't do it very often in frock obama telling the truth in this case that it's easier to get an agreement after an election than before it is certainly true and certainly that is true and he was just speaking the truth. now this statement that russia is the number one threat in the u.s. i mean obviously al qaeda you would think that it's a no brainer that they would be a bigger threat than russia but so when somebody like give you a presidential candidate romney mitt romney pinned russia up against terrorist groups what do you think that that about his foreign policy views but he does have neoconservative advisors and that's gives us some pause and for concern i think but also romney is proved very flexible in his views on almost everything and that's why the criticism of him so who knows what they'll do in office many times you get

presidents who have an image like richard nixon was an anti-communist and he. he was the first president that went to communist china and opened relations with them many times the republicans in national security because their image is tough or they can sometimes work the back rooms to get a deal so we never know what presidents are going to do when they're in office but of course this is just campaign rhetoric and unfortunately does say something about being able to drag back the cold war in the united states and i'm going to few votes from it so i think that's particularly on the republican side but you even see democrats doing it once in a while to be tough and it's mostly rhetoric i think politicians in office when they have to make the decisions and particularly romney will probably be more pragmatic and i also want to point out the russian leader to get a response to that as he sat quote as for ideological cliches i have already spoken on the subject i always get very cautious when i see

a country resort to phrases such as a our number one enemy and it's very reminiscent of hollywood and a certain period of history so the areas kind of mocking romney for his language is this how people view the g.o.p. candidates well i think it's sort of dangerous because when you talk about countries that have many nuclear weapons and russia and the u.s. combined have ninety five percent of the world's nuclear weapons russia is still a very formidable power and a nuclear superpower and i think when you use this kind of a rhetoric even to get elected or in campaigns it's kind of dangerous and it does it does whip up. russian sentiment even though it's being used probably just to get elected and yet also went on to say that he is twenty twelve not the one nine hundred seventy s. kind of. referred to the cold war era so do you think that this is the rhetoric

that the g.o.p. candidates are going to to continue. sarovar back to well their turn to look for enemies barack obama to kill osama bin laden so he's not quite as vulnerable as many democratic presidents are in national security so you know they've got to come up with something they're working in iran thing that's the number one and now with this comment i think they're going to start working the russian angle you need an enemy when you're trying to get elected and i think they also are looking for things to criticize the president on his being soft on foreign policy because this attack usually works with the republicans in some manner so that i think they're they're pulling out the enemies maybe to be china next week so do you think this is kind of just what the g.o.p. is looking for somebody that is willing to take a very hard line hawkish tough stance is in terms of foreign policy someone that is willing to be partisan well i think this is you have to in the united states there's campaign rhetoric and then there's what they actually do what's more

worrisome to me rather than this rhetoric is the new conservative advisors that romney has and when you have the president captive of one viewpoint and it's a hard line viewpoint i think that's a problem and if you were to get elected i think those people we put in high office and we saw what happened with george w. bush when that happened so that's the real problem those advisors rather than this rhetoric and so do you think so you are worried that this rhetoric can actually transmit into action well i think it will be tempered because the u.s. does in russia do cooperate on the on afghanistan supply routes on fighting islamic radicalism and on the start treaty there's more to be done there deal could be worked out with tack tactical nuclear weapons maybe even missile defense of the two countries you know after the election this could happen now endy i think that this comment by mitt romney however ridiculous it was you think that it helped or hurt his campaign well i think it probably helped his campaign if i were on. obama i

would go after him and say listen that just doesn't square with. the fact that russia is our greatest enemy and then i would show my knowledge of foreign affairs to refute that but obama has done that he's play defense and i think that's a wrong campaign strategy from i think it could be a good campaign strategy to show that mitt romney doesn't know that the cold war is over. better variously is the case i've been pleasure to have you on the show that was ivan eland senior fellow for the independent institute of. meanwhile the pentagon is resurrecting a project former secretary of defense robert gates had taken off the table long ago the u.s. congress and the pentagon have come up with the plants of building newer versions of the b. one bomber the plane used in the libyan air strikes now take a look at this these are are just depictions of what the top what a top secret long range strike bomber will look like the estimated price tag for

these leaner meaner machines five hundred fifty million dollars apiece now the air force has said that the plane may or may not be given a nuclear mission in the future and mary may not need a pilot so in layman's terms a drone carrying a nuclear warhead now defense secretary leon panetta went as far as to call the idea for a newer fleet quote critical to our national security this well he delivered a bleak budget testimony on capitol hill this was last month however critics wonder why such plans are needed at all when our fleet of bombers are currently undergoing a multi billion dollar upgrades and i want to put a graph quickly up for you to demonstrate just how much we have already use that the bombers the b. fifty two used in the cold war the vietnam and gulf war cost about thirty million dollars per aircraft but the one bombers used most recently in libya cost two hundred million each and the b.

two bomber cost of walking three billion each at this pattern of rising cost that made former secretary of defense gates scrapped the plan for a new plane back in two thousand and nine and now that same plan has many worried today the other question on the minds of pentagon pundits is who the intended target is for sledge planes the answer possibly china but considering that the u.s. has spent more money on its military than out of any every other country in the world many believe that this is a huge waste of money. and now that's going to wrap it up for the news let's turn it over to alone to see what's on the agenda on the alona show today what can we look forward to. when we got robert greenwald on the show tonight we're going to talk about this new his poll from the new york times and c.b.s. that shows that a whopping sixty nine percent of americans no longer think that we should be in afghanistan and if you think about it that is actually higher than we've ever seen

the statistics or the polls in terms of discontent that's higher than it was with the war in iraq and so that's a change in the last four months you really have to wonder if this is some final turning point you know it's really a big deal out of the same time we can have another conversation about how young people just aren't interested in cars anymore they're not getting driver's licenses they're not buying cars the same rates maybe it's because they're moving to urban centers but is car culture entirely gone or is is just you know an effect of the economy and something that's temporary g.m. is trying to hire and to actually help them out so they can start marketing to young people again but we'll see if that works and that is a very interesting question to look at i can say that our generation is a lot different that of our parents so that is coming up next on the alone a show that's going to do it now for the news for more of the stories we've covered you can head on over to you to dot com slash our it's here america we also post everything on our website that's r t dot com slash.