harben in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. alex corporate members are dropping like flies as part of the present backlash against that group to the level of influence suddenly dwindling we see in the end of this democracy destroyer also tomorrow members of congress activists and leaders within the movement to overturn citizens united will meet for a summit on capitol hill will be discussed at that summit what do the attendees hope to accomplish or some said joyce from florida's nineteenth district will be at the summit and he's going to be here tonight to tell us more about an intern

ideally take republicans lie their way into office because they can get away with it and no continue to get away with it if no one calls them out so how do we stop these lies from influencing american public opinion. you need to know this today health insurance company blue cross blue shield became the latest member of the american legislative exchange council to sever ties with the koch brothers funded corporate think tank in just one month alone this month now it has lost eleven members after several progressive groups organized a campaign against its corporate sponsors the exodus of alec members comes on the heels of a new report by progress missouri documenting thirty pieces of legislation introduced in the missouri general assembly over the last decade that were written by alec and as many as forty state lawmakers with financial ties to alec and the backlash

against alec has now made it to the pages of the new york times the times editorial board took on alec in an article titled embarrassed by bad law. laws alec has been operating since the early one nine hundred seventy s. but it's only just now receiving the sort of attention that it deserves and all this exposure and pressure coming from progressives is starting to pay off and use breaking this afternoon alec decided to dismantle its task forces that write legislation for so called non economic issues and means no more writing legislation to disenfranchise democratic voters the radical voter id laws and no more giving the no more legislation giving gun owners like george zimmerman a right to shoot first responding to the news common cause president bob edgar said the american public has wised up alex misguided in secretive attempts to co-opt state legislators for corporate profit and holding its public safety elections task forces alec his abandoning under pressure of the most controversial part of its

agenda as an important victory for the american public but is it really even though al of his promising to ditch non economic policies it's actually devoting more resources to economic policies like breaking of unions destroying environmental regulations and pushing for more tax cuts for the romney super rich so it was always mean joining me now is leaf investigative reporter united republics republican report lee welcome back. are you just great are you surprised by alex decision to dismantle the economic task forces. well i'm a little bit skeptical with the news because alec is you know that they lobby they're also kind of a p.r. front they know how to play the media very well i'd like to see the substance is does this decision actually change the internal policy making of al it. will this affect the legislation that's pending in. state legislatures across the country and

what about the current laws that are already on the books oh well lawmakers affiliated with alec stand back and not associate themselves or promote these types of laws it's not clear oh well apropos of that isn't the damage already done i mean twenty five states now have stand your ground issue first laws millions of democratic voters have already been. functionally kicked off the voter rolls by these voter id laws and if they're not going to have committees that come up with these laws are you know presumably they're still going to be pushing them a. well that's exactly the point and you know al it's not a transparent organization i was kicked out violently last august from nic robertson so who knows what's really going on behind closed doors so you know it's a positive step but alec is facing all this pressure and that corporations are

feeling the heat so much so that they're backing away from their support of alec but you know. i'd like to know how does this all affect us how does this affect the people in florida in south carolina and all these other states with new voter id laws if corporations really want to do the right thing they should find efforts to repeal these laws because i mean at the end of the day this is about public policy this is about the laws we all have to live under is there i'm assuming that there isn't any mechanism any institution any organization that can work i mean you know ally for example these laws on the books to get them into the hands of legislators is anybody writing laws that would repeal the bad laws is there any night in a certain i've heard of efforts in some state houses to try to repeal some of these really damaging laws i mean in florida alone i mean. they've enact a law that makes it basically criminal to register other people to vote runs or

damaging laws and i've heard of efforts to repeal them but i don't see a large organization coming in organizing the co-sponsors you know getting this this effort giving it momentum and making sure it actually gets repealed so i don't think it actually excess you were one of the first people to really come out and talk about alec i'm assuming i mean you were doing on this show a long time ago and i'm assuming you were in many other venues as well alec there are genesis goes back to the one nine hundred seventy s. correct me if i'm wrong how did they manage to fly under the radar of the nation that that long. well it's not just al it still many other large corporate interests that never received much publicity you know the u.s. chamber of commerce that existed for under years but around the same time as when alec was founded in the mid seventy's groups like the chamber grew and became much

more partisan became much more influential and started working with with more big businesses i mean you've covered this really well on his show i think a lot of folks who are troubled by that corporatism that's dominating american democracy they have to not just look at these individual corporate lobbyist or these individual policies they have to look at these root causes these and these conservative and pro big business infrastructure organizations if you will that developed legislation that exists it constantly lobby to constantly air ads the constantly funnel actions it's a big problem and the way they do it is becoming but night people walk by the chamber of congress every day macau shrug their shoulders for them because they picked it always been there they weren't there in the time the founders i mean this is something that's been growing and becoming a bigger problem since the mid seventy's since the palmetto basically i mean that was that was the point it was those polls memo that radicalized the chamber of

commerce since but in any case a the the the story of alec being funded by the koch brothers is well known and it seems that between the koch brothers and the late joseph coors and richard mellon scaife and the sarah safe save there's a few hard right wing folks out there who are quite well known and have been funding these things for thirty forty years you know the heritage foundation and the cato institute and the alec and things like that is there and that's that's incredible depth you know a lot of deep. very deep pockets that have brought a lot of money out and changed the face of america in the last thirty forty years is there much breath to it is there much with i mean if these if this small number of very very large funders were to stop funding these organizations with the right

wing machine up and blow away or is there just a never ending supply of of rupert murdoch's out there. well i hate to come onto your show and be so cynical but i think traditionally a lot of the financier's work limited to some of these you know the corps in this case sent a koch brothers but now it's so much bigger corporate america the big publicly traded companies and the private ones they see this as a great investment you know the return on investment is massive based spend you know maybe a couple million every year i mean individual corporations funding groups like alec and they receive you know tax loopholes and special subsidies and laws written only to benefit them in terms of billions of dollars so it's not ending any time soon you know i recently viewed a video from inside alec conference from just two years ago and it was. an executive from glasgow smith and crime of a big pharmaceutical company and he said you know this is the organization that i

meet and i brought all of my lobbyist and all the big executives from my organization to this conference because this is what we need to be funding this is what corporate america needs to be funny and you know i respect about this one executive he was talking about how he sits on many corporate boards and he'll be and he was going back to those other boards and encouraging his colleagues to go to alec and fund alec and encourage alec and this is a big problem and it's encouraging again that ten companies have dropped out of alex membership but there are dozens and dozens more possibly even a hundred more we don't know what will happen in the future. republic report you get your newsletter every day and people can sign up for it over here website i'm i'm assuming yes. i've seen just a mind boggling number of stories lately one of the one of the in the last minute and a half two minutes here that we have what in your mind at the top things that our

viewers need to know about right now. well if you know a lot of americans are just finishing their tax returns. we had a great story by my colleague matt stoller over the weekend about how the company that owns quake in a turbo tax they've lobbied they spent millions of dollars in the past couple of years to make it much more annoying to file your tax returns they've lobbied to california government and the federal government gets three e-file in a software that would automatically create a program or your return extended to you with all the information filled out you would just check it over spend no money and send it back again. this was this is something the government has been capable of doing for a long time this is how it's done in australia is not exactly completely prefer you just put it basically your social security number or their equivalent and you get everything you just check it you send it back well the company that owns quicken in term of taxes a company called into it they spent

a ton of money lobbying to just make your tax it's much more difficult to file so it's a fantastic story not courage folks check it out amazing and of course you know they make money off you buying their software or hiring this incredible. with their public reportedly thanks so much for the great work you're doing. alec has been working in the shadows to undermine democracy for thirty years and now in the face of grassroots activism alec has been exposed for what it really is a corporate political machine let's keep up the pressure. coming up after the break members of congress activists and leaders within the movement to overturn citizens united will meet for a summit tomorrow on capitol hill but will be discussed and could this be the beginning of the end for the citizens united decision.

there hasn't been anything yet on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact. before source material is what helps keep journalism honest we. we want to chip is a. something of. wealthy british

style. sometimes the type of. market finance sunday. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars report on or keep.

it has the rest of the news so what did we learn from monday night's defeat of the buffett rule in the senate well first and foremost we learned the republicans in the senate did exactly what their billionaire campaign toner donors told them to do prevent a tax increase on the romney rich we also learned that a majority of senators can't pass legislation anymore fifty one out of one hundred senators voted for the buffett rule a clear majority that bill failed because a republican filibuster and we also learned that the american people have lost their voice on capitol hill a recent c.n.n. poll found that seventy two percent of americans including a majority of republicans support that very same buffett rule that the republicans blocked in the senate monday night unfortunately those seventy two percent of

americans don't have multi-millionaire lobbyists like multimillionaire grover norquist working for them and therefore they can't buy off lawmakers to listen to them and now thanks to the supreme court citizens united decision a millionaire could walk up to a member of congress and threaten to fund a campaign for their opponent in the next election if he or she doesn't vote the way that millionaire wants that power don't expect the grip on power to loosen at least not until we pass a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united and explicitly say it corporations are not people and that money is property not speech luckily there are some in congress working to do just that tomorrow members of both the senate and the house along with several activists and leaders within the movement to overturn citizens united will need for a summit on capitol hill to discuss getting corporate money out of our politics or the members of congress have to attend that summit is representative ted florida's nineteenth district presented joyce joins me now welcome renee has with us great.

we with you thanks so much else about the summit tomorrow the summit is a milestone in the battle to overturn citizens united we're going to have members of the house and senate who have sponsored proposed constitutional amendments to overturn citizens and i come together with activists from around the country and stand up and start the process of really building a movement we're going to ask people to sign a declaration for democracy we've already seen a huge groundswell of support for this so that elected officials all over the country will be asked to go on record whether they support efforts to overturn citizens united and return our democracy back to the people it's going to start tomorrow it's a really really exciting day that is great what what will the declarations the declaration says that that anyone who cites the declaration is committing to support a constitutional amendment overturning citizens united so that money is not speech

and returning our democracy again back to the people taking an ad in the hands of the special interests and giving it back to the public reports where i so salute you on that what do you think of the failure of the buffett rule in the senate when seventy two percent of americans were on it even even republicans by age think this is i mean. we got closer ronald reagan same you know is it is it a good idea that a millionaire pays a lower tax rate than a bus driver i think that's crazy i mean is this is seems like common sense it is common sense the majority of the senate as you pointed out majority of the senate support of the buffett rule and the overwhelming majority of the american people support the buffett rule it's just a basic question of fairness and whether someone who earns in excess of a million dollars a year ought to be paying the same tax rate as as a middle class american there is this is evidence of why it's so important for us

to chain. that the nature of this and this political system we have so that we have elected officials who do the people's work that's that's why this is also important to look at people who do rather than rather than the work of right here right. as a member of congress. what's the environment like when you know some somebody who's got a lot of cash in their pocket and basically come to you and say ok i'm going to fund your opponent i mean it seems to me like that would be a frightening thing. well we saw in the last election in two thousand and ten we saw a massive increase in the amount of spending by outside groups now we're at the point where heading into this election everyone knows that at the last minute the week before the election two weeks before the election and that one of these outside groups and come in a super pac can come in and they can decide to spend a million dollars or more but they really dictate the outcome of the election i i

think what we've already seen in this election cycle is a growing frustration among the american people of the way these super pacs are trying to take over but i think we're just now seeing the tip of the iceberg as to what's coming and it's going to be awful for democracy and that's why we're trying so hard to fight it so it seems like the upside might be a combination of a certain kind of fatalism ok it's going to come i'm going to do my best and do the right thing anyway and be maybe people will see through what happens and say enough of this already you know we can hope for the best occupy wall street has really changed the dialogue in the united states and there are some within that movement who are concerned that people like yourself politicians who are insiders are suddenly talking about social justice and you know. rational reasonable things

what would you say to them. be the occupy wall street movement raise so many issues that ought to be on the agenda on the agenda in washington income inequality ought to be on each and crushing student loan debt ought to be on the agenda and what we realized is that just as as activists were occupy. wall street cities all across the country we realize that for decades now corporate special interests of occupy washington d.c. and if we want to be able to have the good bait that we need to have so that congress can act in the best interest of the american people then we need to get that corporate money out of politics there are i don't i don't know too many of my colleagues who like the campaign finance system the way that it is and the direction that it's going we were in a position to to be able to do something about it and that's why the number of us have stepped up to try to do good and i just want you to do it it's great the work you're doing thanks so much should we thank you i really appreciate and contact

your member of congress and tell him to join join the movement to keep corporations and the romney super rich out of our ally sions and to move to amend or. thank you for moving on from the middle class getting screwed by romney millionaires not paying their fair share in taxes to the middle class getting screwed by high gas prices today president obama unveiled a fifty two million dollars plan to curb oil speculation on wall street. they were announcing new steps to strengthen oversight of energy markets things that we can do administratively we are doing and i call on congress to pass a package of measures to crack down on illegal activity and hold accountable those who manipulate the market for private gain at the expense of millions of working families since obama can't became president we now drill for more oil domestically than it any other time in this nation's history yet the prices continue to go up because of oil speculation by the banks toure's the president's plan very

straightforward it involves empowering federal regulators to keep a closer eye on the commodity markets and increases the adelies on banks toure's who artificially jack up the price of oil. i think republicans will support it. i don't think so given that they've already blocked efforts to cut off oil subsidies for oil barons and have defunded at blocked regulations to rein in banks there's there's nothing courageous about standing up for the rich and powerful at a time when the middle class is as president democratic president grover cleveland said an eight hundred eighty eight is being trampled beneath the iron heel of corporate power but there's a bigger picture here big goes beyond how wall street is screwing with the prices of gasoline it has to do with how we as a nation should handle our own natural resources argentina has a lot of oil it's not owned by argentina go back during the reagan era argentina's

ronald reagan was a guy by the name of carlos menem and the president he privatized the nation's oil industry along with a whole bunch of other things including its post office i mean he really was like you know a modern day republican argentina's oil industry ended up being owned by a spanish company called repsol. now we have a new president argentina cristina fernandez de kirchner and as she pointed out recently we are there's argentina we're the only country in the americas and nearly the world that doesn't control its own natural resources this is the recuperation of the sovereignty of argentina's natural resources so the argentines are trying to get their oil back now the spanish who owned the or argentinean oil company they've gone crazy they're calling it hostile as if it was almost an act of war the new york banks by the name of boris a girl he called it running close to the shadows as model oh ok but the fact is

that in my view every country should own its own oil i mean are you going to say is he saying that saudi arabia is like shadows say the only road oil or sarah palin's alaska which takes money from their oil and distributes it to their citizens every year argentina's president kirschner is spot on she should nationalize or nations or instead of having a buy her own oil back from a european from a company based in european country and frankly we should be doing the same here nationalize our oil so we don't have to buy it back from british b.p. or dutch royal shop every nation should own and develop their own natural resources their part of the common wealth and the revenue from them should fund social programs like in norway where they pay for health care with their oil money things that help all the people there. i suppose tragically in a bizarre kind of fashion the good news is that the president of argentina is not

nationalizing or nation's oil away from american companies is back with american companies own the oil in iran iraq and venezuela and they nationalized their oil the cia helped overthrow all three democratically elected governors of governments are low in venezuela the coup was very short lived it's time for the us government to stop doing the bidding of trans national oil companies including having you and me pay the full cost of military protection protection for the shipping lanes and fighting wars in foreign countries to help them get more oil we should consider nationalizing our own oil supplies for the benefit of the people instead of people like exxon mobil's lee raymond who got a four hundred million dollar retirement bonus the largest in history a nation's resources should be for the nation not for the billionaires not for the big corporations like exxon mobil or the koch brothers oil company.

crazy alert poltergeists appalled with an ancient pub in birmingham england is being frequented by a creepy customer a groping ghost customers and staff at the one hundred seventy year old queens arms pub report there goes to reside in the pub frequently clinches their bomb and staff have nicknamed the ghost grasper after casper the friendly ghost except grasper is a bit too friendly actually be seen here a waitress at the pub is one of grass. victims still local newspaper quote my instant reaction was that it might have been a sleazy bloke trying his luck but when i spun around ready to give him a piece of my mind there was no one there staff at the pub of called in a team of ghostbusters to investigate grasper and his paranormal pinching so watch out ladies drunken and a not be the only thing to deal with next time you go to a bar. after the break the only national organization focused on the needs of

restaurant workers held a rally here in washington d.c. drawing attention to the struggles these workers face dr jill stein green party candidate for president was at that rally and she's going to join us and tell us more about.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. book. the lead. download the official anti up location q i phone the i pod touch from the i choose ops to. launch all g.'s life on the go.