to approve same sex marriage but it's clear it's going to be a long battle before the wider community accepts the idea all that and more coming up next with tom hartman in the big picture. longtime arbonne in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture even though president obama came out in support of marriage equality wednesday becoming the first president in the history of the united states to do so it will still be a long time before the l g b t community gets full civil rights what really needs

to happen in america for marriage equality become a fundamental right also michigan governor rick snyder is trying to turn himself into the world's newest dictator but a coalition of progressive groups are having are they fighting back and trying to give mr danders a say on whether or not their governor can take over a city and scott walker is giving millions of dollars in aid to the people of wisconsin but does he really care about the well being a wisconsin eyes or is this one hundred million dollars payout nothing more than a political stop. you need to know this on the same day that president obama and the nation took a major step forward toward marriage equality republicans in the house of representatives try to drag the nation backwards hours after the president's endorsement of marriage equality house republicans passed a measure in support of the discriminatory defense of marriage act doma has

a federal ban against same sex marriage republican measure also forbids the department of justice from using taxpayer funds to oppose don't you. no wednesday was a historic day for the nation president united states coming out in support of marriage equality for the first time in history it's clear that this will be a long battle before the l g b t q mini community finally gets its full civil rights and will be in the president's leadership until victory is achieved but just as important will also need more grassroots activism pressuring the law makers and even pressure in the president to go another step further here's the bigger picture on this president obama yesterday said gay couples should be able to get married go to him for that but he also said it's a state's right issue bad on him for that we've we've heard that before for example back in one thousand nine hundred one tony pace and mary cox were arrested for having sex in alabama crime was that she was white and he was black the way they

were born they were both sentenced to the state penitentiary for two years under alabama's miseducation laws simply because of how they were born they appealed that to the u.s. supreme court in eight hundred eighty three in a case that as versus alabama the supreme court of the united states two generations after the civil war was over will the tony pace and mary car should go to prison for having had sex while being born of different races as america woke up to the fact that people don't choose their race we're also and we're all just people here things changed but slowly harry truman integrated the u.s. military with an executive order in july of one hundred forty eight but the miseducation laws were still on the books and mixed race couples are still getting arrested simply because of how they were born in one nine hundred fifty four and brown v board of education the supreme court order schools integrated but the miseducation laws were still on the books and mixed race couples were still getting arrested because of how they were born richard and mildred loving he was white she

was black were married in one nine hundred fifty eight in washington d.c. a mixed race marriage was legal but they moved to virginia to live where it was illegal and they were arrested prosecuted and convicted in one. hundred fifty nine simply because of how they were born flashforward in one thousand nine hundred sixty seven and that case very case comes before the u.s. supreme court three years after live in johnson signed the civil rights act it said that people can't be discriminated against simply because of how they're born in the supreme court agreed marriage they said is one of the basic civil rights of man fundamental to our very existence and survival to deny this fundamental freedom and so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes is surely to deprive all the states citizens of liberty without due process of law the fourteenth amendment the supreme court went on to say requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by and videos racial discrimination under our constitution the freedom to marry or not to marry a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the

state another word you can't be denied the right to marry somebody just because of how you were born that's the essence of what president obama said yesterday and he's right it's nothing but pure bigotry to deny people who love each other the right to get married just because of how they were born whether it's their skin color or their nationality or their sexual orientation but to say this is a state's right issue it's just wrong as noted the supreme court went on to say that marriage is one of the basic civil rights and shouldn't only be available to people born a certain way this is a federal issue as well as a states issue and hopefully the administration will clarify that in the coming months. in screwed news a coalition of progressive groups is trying to keep democracy alive in michigan stand up for democracy coalition collected two hundred twenty six thousand

signatures to put republican governor rick snyder's financial managers law on the ballot for repeal in november that's the law that allowed governor snyder to go into a city. fires local elected officials and then appoint a crony making a quarter million bucks a year to take over the city slash budgets cut public service and break union contracts but the efforts by stand up for democracy were squashed when two partisan republican officials of the state board of campuses last month refused to certify the signatures because they said the font size the type size on the petition was the wrong size. two other officials on the board approve the petition but the deadlock prevents the ballot initiative from moving forward now the coalition is fighting back appealing the decision of the state board of canvassers and trying to give michigan to say whether or not their governor can take over a city the latest on what's going on in the wolverine state i'm joined by pastor david bullock president of the detroit chapter of rainbow push and president the

highland park michigan and it's reverend de alexander bill the alexander bull gets like you very much i'm sorry i got it wrong there on the intro. first of all what's the latest on this on this effort to repeal was insane financial managers law well let me say thank you for having us in the studio and on the show and thank you for the coverage that you're there you are giving this issue oh may seventeenth we will be going before the court of appeals in detroit so i think that's next week next thursday and so we hope that the court of appeals will stand with the citizens of michigan will stand with democracy and will not allow this partisan politics to play in michigan where we had two democrats vote for the petition two republicans voted against and clearly the technicality this issue of whether or not the font size on the heading was fourteen point five is a non issue one there were printers we brought printers people who actually in the business running in to the board of canvassers meaning they testified that in fact

it was fourteen point five and then also there is a case on the books there's a legal statute that says it's in the state of michigan that say is no technical difficulty should be utilized to deny the citizens of michigan the right to decide for themselves how they will be determining what the public policy will be and so the technical difficulty is not a legal reason for not allowing the petition drive to go for so a may seventeenth we don't pack that room because our first response we're calling the attorney general all week we're calling the governor's office all week and we have been allies all around the state in indeed. the nation to meet us in detroit michigan on may seventeenth if they can at ten o'clock in the morning and we're going to demand that justice be done that's great that is absolute great wasn't this law illegally passed in the first place with this immediate effect indeed the immediate effect as as we've come to discover now has been used. unscrupulously right in unjustly to pass over five hundred laws many of them anti-union

legislation anti collective bargaining legislation but nothing so heinous as public act for indeed democracy is the strange fruit hanging from the trees as billie holiday would say liberty has been lynch democracy democracy decimated you can see an emergency dictator's and take over a city sit down the city council sit down the mayor you can sit in the school districts and sit the school board down you can fire teachers you can cancel contracts you can sail city assets and this is what is happening not in mississippi but in michigan michigan is the new mississippi if you put public at four together with the voter integrity bills that are in the state house right now bill seven four one two seven four five eight zero three those bills right now no fraud in michigan so we've got voter suppression we've got emergency management all in the name of financial stability but no economic recovery this does not stand to reason and that's why we're fighting back incredibly well and as i was born and raised in

michigan and i'm just astounded by those in places like the chorus benton harbor flood like we've had on this program two or three times now over the last year one of the city council members of our bridges telling the story of this right this is this is not only was it was a. arguably illegal and a highly unconstitutional action but it also looks like there's an undercurrent of hey we want that park you know that's on the waterfront so that we can hand it off to a buddy developer who's a big republican donors i mean just all this weird stuff going on with this thing what cities in danger. when taken over next if rick snyder keeps you know annoying little little dictators will detroit is in danger right now there's a what they're calling a consent agreement in place in detroit and the consent agreement is a middle middle position between democracy and emergency management and so what has happened now is the city of detroit is actually being run by the state but the city

council and mayor of agreed to it and the terms and reasoning for that agreement was that we have to do this sort of the city of detroit doesn't go into bankruptcy although three days ago there was an article in the detroit news that said bankruptcy steel looms for detroit so now under the guise of stopping bankruptcy five elected officials on city council sold the people out turned their back on the petition drive handed the city of detroit over to state occupation in the name of of making sure the city detroit doesn't go bankrupt and now after that agreement has been ain't seated did bankruptcy steal a loan to see to be sure and guess what the condition for a city or municipality in michigan to declare bankruptcy is they have to have an emergency manager and so what city is the next city to get an emergency manager the heartbeat of michigan detroit it's amazing and my recollection is that new york city one bankrupt ones i mean why not just follow mitt romney's advice for the auto

companies and just say ok let detroit go bankrupt and then you know they'll recover from it but at least allow local rule i mean let it let it be done by the local people who are going to let them do whatever they think is best but if they're if they're going to suffer the consequences let them be the decision maker that's right that's right there's no connection between solving a financial crisis and getting rid of democracy this is a make any sense. taking away the right of the city council and the mayor and the citizens to have a voice in the process is not going to put us on the road to economic recovery and even in new york's case that was federal intervention so we don't need financial stability we need. recovery i don't understand how you can cut your way. to growth and revitalization we need investment targeted investment in holland park detroit been harbor flint saginaw inkster we need targeted reinvestment we need an urban and rural policy that doesn't just bail out way make wall street but also a bailout for main street we bailed out the banks we built the insurance companies

. to targeted lending and reinvestment and so now those laws are coming home to roost. thanks so much thank you so much to appreciate it. thank you for those watching in michigan and all around the corner of the country excuse me this matter this movement needs you get out there and fight for democracy. as a governor of wisconsin scott walker just announced a one hundred million dollar investment in milwaukee's poorest areas walker really care about the people of milwaukee and was god so there's a sudden investment just another political ploy. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future

covered. height fifty two meters. weight more than eight thousand tons. skin thickness thirty centimeters a guinness record. commemorating the battle of stalingrad. the mother because. there hasn't been anything good on t.v. if. it is to get the maximum political impact. before the source material is one hopes he journalism on us when. we want to present. something else.

desperate to keep his job in wisconsin recall governor scott walker is now trying

to use tax dollars to bribe voters with his constant having the worst record of job creation in the entire nation and walker losing in the polls to his recall opponent democrat tom barrett walker and i was a one hundred million dollar investment in economic development in the walkies poorest areas that money will be used to reoccupied foreclosed homes and give loans to small businesses it could also give a lot of union workers a job just as union workers workers are organizing against scott walker it's a new push by president obama and championed by democrats in the state but opposed by walker back when his job was safe and he claimed the state didn't know money for job creating investments there responded to the timing of walker's investments saying i question the sincerity of that when it comes thirty six days before the recall election raises the question of whether this is about creating jobs in milwaukee or this is about saving scott walker's job says twenty five million dollars in campaign contributions from oil barons and banks toure's isn't enough so

far to keep walker's job safe he must be hoping that one hundred million dollars in taxpayer money will be enough to do it joining me now for more on this story and the latest on america's labor movement is lisa lindsley director of capital strategies at asked me the american federation of state county and municipal workers lisa great to have you with us thanks for having me tom thanks for joining us the resurgence of the labor movement really i think in some ways you could say started the modern the last few years started in wisconsin with this uprising against walker. is this latest ploy going to going to derail it i think you're right time i think that scott walker added lieberman a great favor by attacking us and wisconsin is the birthplace of my union asked me . i think it's pretty disingenuous of scott walker to try to buy voters with twenty seven days left before the recall election i think that folks in

wisconsin are pretty united against him is this the kind of thing where they're. has there been any polling done or are there are there any indications that the middle of the road the swing voters who are probably going to decide the election that they're turned off by this that they that there are a few even offended by this attempt to just basically bribe the middle as many who are you know i'm sure folks is consarned stupid they can see right through this and if scott walker thought this was so important he could have done it when he was county executive of milwaukee county really just goes way back. far i mean two thousand and ten ok let's let's talk about corporate greed in america the bank of america just had a big shareholder meeting and you know there's always shareholder proposals that are put forward at the at the meeting and very rarely do they ever go anywhere because usually the real business was decided in advance but there was one in particular that didn't it didn't pop over the fifty percent mark but it hit close to thirty as i recall which is amazing i mean usually they're like less than one

percent told us that's right you know we consider thirty percent a huge victory because frankly the the folks who don't want it who are happy with the status quo really control most of the votes which are the investment managers on wall street so a bank of america you know they were they were bailed out they've foreclosed on a lot of people their c.e.o. still making eight million dollars and so so we've formed a coalition and bank of america and thirty nine other companies we put forward shareholder proposal saying that boards of directors should disclose to shareholders how shareholder money how corporate resources are used given to trade associations given to organizations like alec which has been perpetuating the stand your ground law the chamber of commerce you know there was a study that the i.m.f. did after the bailouts that showed that banks like bank of america it was

specifically named. that lobby. they were more likely to need to be bailed out. interesting yeah because they were they were floating on the back of their ability to get preferential tax treatment or something like that. it is on our union and many other unions in civil rights organizations were instrumental in getting the dodd frank wall street reform act passed but we did so you know we were outnumbered outspent a thousand to one by the financial services and this is remarkable c.e.o.'s are now making it depends on whose numbers you're looking at anywhere from two hundred to three hundred fifty seven times their average worker and in some industries it can be a thousand times or even five thousand times on wall street. or in the health care industry what do we do about out of control c.e.o. compensation well one of the things that absent has done together with other investors is that we have gotten investors they say on pay which means that

shareholders get to vote every year to ratify executive pay packages so for example a johnson and johnson we campaigned saying that you know william weldon's twenty seven million dollars was too much for a company that's gotten for well with the f.d.a. and had recalls that cetera et cetera. we also think that jamie diamond six million is too much it was two billion dollars right just and. you have to ask yourself how things are functioning in a country where brain surgeons make around seven hundred thousand dollars a year at the top of their game and and a c.e.o. is making five million i mean it just makes no sense rocket scientists to five thousand a year i mean for actually yes i have a rocket you know an r. and r. members drive ambulances and school buses and pick up garbage cans and they were just as hard as they are so you know this is real work and it's right it's

absolutely is so. so how do working people compete against organizations like al so what we're doing is working people are participants in pension plans the ones who still have any type of retirement benefit the public employees and we're fighting for that as a union and work we're doing it collectively so those working people are shareholders and they really own the company we think that shareholders should have a voice in how the company's cash is is spent and we don't think that all board members are on board with us and we think a lot of them think it's their company to do whatever they want with it so we're trying to do is to stand up and take the fight from the streets of the workroom that's great or on the verge of the first presidential election since citizens united what role do you think labor is going to play versus the hundreds of millions of dollars that karl rove and the koch brothers in the u.s. chamber of commerce are raising specifically to try and take down democrats you

know what labor can do is really a drop in the bucket i think that any. financially right i think that any and any political analyst would say that our real strength is the boots on the ground and we're going to do everything we can but the money that's coming into washington you know to roll back wall street reform to roll back health care reform is very hard to stand up to and i don't think you are i think if you look at what's going on in congress. our elected officials aren't doing a very good job of standing up to the well let's hope that people power prevails over money power which was thank you so much for me thank you tom very great having meanwhile across the pond working people are saying enough is enough to trickle down austerity measures today thousands of police officers marched through the streets of london to protest a budget cuts brought on by conservative prime minister david cameron's government

and as the chair chairman of the police federation. mckeever said if you're cutting our jobs then you're cutting the service we can deliver and the public safety is at risk but cops weren't the only ones out in the streets cordie union leaders as many as four hundred thousand civil servants also took part in the day of action and plan to continue holding strikes and demonstrations throughout the year until cameron ditches his austerity agenda we should pay attention what's going on across the atlantic because conservatives here in the united states are pushing those same sorts of trickle down economic measures that are laying off cops firefighters and teachers in the u.k. it's ruined the british economy which is now in a second recession and will do the same to the us or economy if republicans win in november. now to some news coming out of arizona sure of joe our pios day of racial profiling may be numbered the justice department's that on wednesday that it will file suit against arpaio alleging that america's so-called tell for sure of is

actually violating the civil rights of latinos in settlement negotiations the justice department offered a court appointed monitor trainer bio's officers in how to make constitutional traffic stops without violating civil rights or powers office refuse those making this lawsuit inevitable allegations lodged against arpaio include racially profiling latino's disproportionately responding to racially charged citizens complaints and punishing spanish speaking inmates there's also the separate issue of our pios office failing to investigate more than four hundred sex crimes committed against hispanic women and girls since two thousand and seven our pile likes to call himself america sure but he has no idea what this nation's real values are. it's the good the bad of the very very fit if only ugly the good. good good

american people according to a new poll released wednesday fifty two percent of all likely two thousand and twelve voters say they will not vote for a candidate who will not commit to reduce the money in politics the polls sponsored by the democracy corps public campaign action fund also shows this seventy three percent of americans believe we need commonsense and limits on the amount of money spent in campaigns so what does all this mean it means that more and more americans are fed up with billionaires like the koch brothers pulling strings here in washington d.c. money does not equal free speech let's keep up our efforts and remove money from politics for good the bad mitt romney at a campaign speech at a colorado oil field yesterday mitt romney attacked president obama's energy policies saying grooveyard do is about energy or simply out of date and policies of a post that just don't work out of date now they are out of date is romney and how

much of washington support for big oil which has been receiving government subsidies for the past century let's not forget and other fossil fuels are just that fossil fuels made from decomposed organic material from millions of years ago sorry and that it is time we left oil where it belongs in the past and moved into a cleaner and greener future and the very very ugly richard mourdock shortly after beating senators dick lugar in the indiana republican primary mourdock was asked what current congressman he would like to mentor him if he is elected more occupied senator mike lee. if you're not familiar senator lee is the man who thinks that fema the f.d.a. and medicaid are all unconstitutional and let's not forget he also thinks child labor laws violate the constitution as well more dogs of you for america's war one word children are in the work force dangerous drugs are handed out like candy and.

who are left to suffer and that is very very. after the break corporate fat cats say the corporations are the victims of americans who like to sue too much as a result so called tort reform is desperately needed it's really true of corporations just made it more difficult for americans to get justice when they've been harmed.

and seven thirty am in moscow these are your r.t. headlines the united nations condemns violence in syria calling it a terrorist act urging all parties debuting kofi dogs peace plan is after dozens were killed and hundreds injured its twin suicide car bombs rocked damascus in what's been dubbed the deadliest attack since the conflict started more than a year ago. search and rescue teams have reached the site where a russian airliner prive wednesday morning with forty five passengers aboard rescuers say they found no signs of survivors among the debris on the side of the mckinney's involved kaino. jailed russian businessman victor who talks exclusively to our t.v. from his new york prison giving his take on his case which he says is politically motivated.