they're completely disconnected from the viewers and what actually matters to those viewers and so that's why young people just don't watch t.v. anymore if they want news they go online and read it but we're trying to take those stories that people actually care about and transfer them back to t.v. . you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else hears you some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry is a big issue. is

. the light will come down. so much choir's will be saying. well today we have a glimmer of hope in the fight to allow the public to film law enforcement there are currently three states illinois massachusetts and maryland who still rely on archaic wiretapping laws to make filming police illegal now today we're going to focus on maryland where the d.o.j. is weighing in on a civil suit that sems back to two thousand and ten maryland resident christopher sharp was at the preakness stakes when he saw a girl being punched by police from melting off check out how another camera caught sharp getting in trouble. for recording this incident of police brutality. and i

think once you. make a caveat ok david ok. she's doing. ok. they. say. needless to say when baltimore police realized the shark was recording they took us phone deleted all of his videos and according to sharpe removed him from the race track now with the help of the a.c.l.u. sharp has filed a civil suit against the baltimore police department and the d.o.j. has weighed in on the case the department's civil rights division sent a statement directly to the judge presiding over the suit back in january saying that the cops have violated the public's constitutional rights which was seen a good news at the time a letter even provoked police to issue a general order to its officers saying that people do have the right to film that

while an action but that general order was taken with a grain of salt and baltimore cops quickly began finding other excuses to hide the cameras from sight take for example this incident that happened shortly after the general order was issued. and. really. the source or are you guys to know you have a standing order to allow people to record it was real you are armed we remember. what. i'm leaving turn around and walk. or realizing their initial statement didn't change a thing the d.o.j. sent another letter this time directly to baltimore police to try to finally end with been dubbed a war on photography i've got it right here it's actually eleven pages the d.o.j.

condemns the charge the charm city cops for allowing the harassment to continue i'm going to give you a few snippets from this long letter it says members of the press and members of the general public enjoy the same rights in any area accessible to the general public no individual is required to display press credentials in order to exercise his right to observe photograph or record police activity taking place in an area accessible to the public and lastly because recording police officers in the public discharge of their duties is protected by the first amendment policy should prohibit interference with reporting of police activities except in narrowly circumscribed situations more particularly policy should instruct officers that except under limited circumstances officers must not search or seize a camera or recording device without a warrant officer should be advised not to threaten intimidate or otherwise discourage an individual from recording police officer and force in activities or intentionally block or obstruct cameras or recording devices while finally it's

refreshing to see the department of justice sided with the people because you know what they're right is a violation of your first and fourth amendment rights when the cops ban you from filming them now this statement won't necessarily mean that the police department policies are going to change but it's going to be tough to continue what they're doing when the federal government is watching closely so for the d.o.j. standing up to the police to reaffirm that the public does have the right to record police this is a true glimmer of hope. so we're going back to something we talked about earlier in the show the ruling on the national defense authorization act and talk about it a little more in-depth this is a case most people considered a long shot it was brought forth by a group of scholars activists and journalists who argued they would be directly impacted by the n.d.a. and could be at risk of indefinite detention themselves simply for doing their jobs they include people like noam chomsky daniel ellsberg naomi wolf alexis o'brien and

chris hedges the case was actually called the hedges v obama and joining me to discuss this is chris hedges himself author and pilger prize winning reporter and senior fellow at the nation institute he's also the author of several books including the world as it is just balances on the myth of human progress hey there chris i know you've probably had a busy day thanks for being on the show i guess just tell me what does this ruling mean for this country in other words how is today different than yesterday. well it's huge because it invalidates a law that was of course signed by the president new years eve and permitted the u.s. military for i mean overturning about two hundred years of domestic law to engage in domestic policing to seize u.s. citizens to hold them in military facilities including our are sure penal colonies to strip them of due process and to detain them in the language of section ten

twenty one which is the section we challenge in till the end of hostilities whenever that is and i guess in an age of permanent war that's a really long time so it is really really important ruling very courageous ruling by a federal judge catherine forrest she rejected all of the government's arguments. and the government now has sixty days in which they can appeal that would take it to an appellate court. or they can do what the lawyers carle mayor and bruce have called on them to do and that is to accept the injunction which essentially kills off this provision and just real quick chris for people who haven't been following us because we have certainly covered this time and time again just break down really quickly as a foreign correspondent i know that you had a direct contact many many times with people considered to be terrorists from meeting interviews dinner is just break down really quick why you think that you

may have been a target or could have been a target based on the law as it stood before today. well the judge sure did not question my stand and she felt as i did i could be swept up in this law and indeed at the end of the trial she asked the government lawyers five different times whether or not they could guarantee that the activities of the plaintiffs would not . bring this form of legislation to bear upon them and they couldn't do that. we went through the state department terrorism list and in the course of my twenty years as a foreign correspondent most of them of the new york times i had direct contact with seventeen of those groups including al qaida. and there's no exemption in this provision for journalists yeah i thought i thought it was so interesting as you mentioned the justice department questioned five times they were asked time and

time again i can you guarantee that this would you know exempt people you know freedom of expression using first amendment activities they couldn't answer the justice department also given the opportunity to sort of go into detail because really chris a lot of this provision is how vague it is and so the justice department was asked to go into more detail what does it mean to substantially support what does it mean to be an associated force and they just had no desire to be more definitive to be more specific. well because it was written that way it was written the language was on purpose associated force so and the judge pointed this out that there are in the authorization to use military force act and other acts of the language is quite specific as to who gets covered these this category called covered persons here it was and i think one of the interesting points in the trial was when the plaintiff aleck's o'brien one of the founders of us to ridge submitted to the court some of

the e-mails that had been exposed by wiki leaks of the private security company staffer where they were tending to link us days of rage with al qaeda and that was always our fear that if these provisions were submitted into law and instability and public dissent and public protest grew. by by linking legitimate dissent to terrorist organizations the military could be used to crush any kind of protest and this was our fear and that's why we set out to challenge it and fortunately that's what we want you mentioned a little bit kind of some of the legal steps add as a you know in the future they could try to appeal this or they could just accept the ruling what about here in d.c. i mean just today congress started the liberating on many amendments that were

offered. to n.d.a. and there's even a bipartisan effort out there. what's next for congress. you know in all of this. well let's remember there are only two senators opposed this the two senators from oregon everybody else including senator bernie sanders from vermont voted for it oh this was a bipartisan. bill it was sponsored by carl levin democrat and senator john mccain when dianne feinstein proposed language that would exempt u.s. citizens from essentially the stripping of due process and ability to be detained and held by the military both the obama white house and the democratic party rejected it so look they were very cognizant of what it is they were pushing through that's why obama signed it into law on new year's eve when no it was looking i don't hold out a lot of hope for congress they they failed us miserably when the law was written

especially when they were presented with the opportunity to. to write in a provision that would exempt u.s. citizens and they rejected that provision presents really interesting we did this kind of at the top of the show when we talked about what you were likely to see if you had it on c.n.n. with anything today a whole lot of stuff about john travolta's charges being dropped a whole lot of stuff about john edwards is case i didn't see much about n.d.a. or why is that. well because celebrity gossip and sex sells and you know real news shows. is a diminishing commodity especially on the commercial airwaves. you know unfortunately it's kind of a sad commentary and to the level to which national discourse has fallen i mean it was amazing how the entire n.b.a. was just not covered by the new york times the new york times wrote no story about

this today the washington post had something on the web site usa today actually out a piece of. the wall street journal out of these but it is just remarkable to me how. if it is accepted by the democrats and accepted by the republicans it's sort of a non issue even within the traditional. for those days although chris who were following this. there was a brief period of time where there was a lot of hope people are very hopeful that you know maybe courts will start ruling you know on the side of justice on the side of rights for people but i do have to say not so fast a district court new york today denied a freedom of information request to the new york times and the a.c.l.u. they were trying to find out more information about exactly how the f.b.i. has been using the patriot act for surveillance purposes they were denied of course the reason that the government gave was national security at the common reason so

do you think your case is going to be you know the exception. there already is the exception you're very correct that the. reason tradition of the federal courts has been appalling judges have a centrally written opinions in essence explaining why they can't implement the law the supreme court whether it's citizens united whether it's even something like the strip searching decision which should permit discretions officers and police to carry out strip searches even against people who are innocent because the person who brought the case was not charged with a crime and was strip searched even though he had committed a crime. you know you can't the supreme court rules that you can't question. the activities of corrections officers and police i mean this is a complete inversion of law whereby you have no legal recourse to the abuse of authority so. yes this is that's what makes this such

a monumental decision because it is one of the very few i mean frankly i can't think of another one like it where our federal judge has stepped up categorically to denounce this agree just assault against civil liberties remember we have the fires amendment act which sure was passed by congress has not been challenged so i guess we are at where having some audio trouble present at a time anyways monumental you say that's a great word to describe this ruling appreciate it pulitzer prize winning journalist author plaintive and hedges the obama thanks so much. thank you. we're taking one last break but when we come back a congressman is trying to pass an anti abortion law that isn't even directed at his constituents he wins tonight's told a war then gays you haven't heard there was a metro sexual abraham lincoln in the white house talking about that on tonight's doe's happy hour so sit tight for

a lot of american power continue. might be time. i mean. you were very good. review. 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. here is what i. love and they alone are so they'll get the real headline with none

of them are the problem with the mainstream media today is that they're completely disconnected from the viewers and what actually matters to those viewers and so that's why young people just don't watch t.v. anymore if they want news they go online and read it but we're trying to take those stories that people actually care about and transfer them back in t.v. . welcome to the capital account i'm lauren lyster.

all right guys it's time to give our nightly tool time award tonight the honor goes to arizona congressman trent franks chair of the house judiciary subcommittee on the constitution today frank oversaw a controversial hearing even by washington d.c. standards and that's because the hearing was about d.c. sovereignty itself as you probably know this city is neither a state nor belongs to one so congress has the authority to meddle in this city's affairs it's something trent franks is trying to do in a major way you see he's one of abortion rights biggest opponents so franks is trying to abuse his authority to restrict a woman's right to choose in a jurisdiction he doesn't even represent washington d.c. of course it's something that republicans have done a number of times since taking back the house in two thousand and eleven and then january franks introduced the district of columbia pain capable unborn child protection act a proposed law that would mandate

a maximum two year prison sentence for any d.c. doctor that performs an abortion after twenty weeks of pregnancy his reasoning is fetuses feel pain after twenty weeks a theory that has no basis in peer reviewed science but it gets worse the only exception to this rule would be if the mother's life is in danger so women in d.c. who are victims of rape they'd be unable to have abortions after twenty weeks frank frank has his way the proposed law is even more restrictive than abortion laws in his own state of arizona but guess what it gets worse d.c. only has one representative in both houses congresswoman eleanor holmes norton and she is unable to participate in full house votes so considering the fact that legislators are usually allowed to testify on bills that affect their constituents you'd expect that holmes norton would be allowed to testify any objections mr chairman. the representative from d.c. eleanor holmes norton has asked to speak at that hearing since it is

a hearing only about her city the answer from house republicans is no here you have a bill that affects only my district when says you women will not be subject to the constitutional mandate of roe versus wade you alone can have an abortion only until twenty weeks by the way don't talk to us about how this is a violation of the fourteenth amendment as well not only are we going to try to impose that on you but we don't want to hear from the only voice you have in the sit in the house and you have no voice in the senate. and that's right from franks wants to ram is bill through committee so desperately he doesn't even want to hear from d.c.'s only official representative the reason he wants to do this isn't to save unborn babies this bill which exclusively targets reproductive rights in d.c. has no hope of passing the senate or being signed by the president trying franks merely wants to pander to the religious right but he's too scared to introduce legislation that would apply to the whole country so we also pick on a powerless city that has no patience for his fundamentalist fanatic and it's

frightening for those of us in d.c. and it shows how congresspeople from gerrymandered districts out in the sticks can try to bully us however they please by proposing a whack job laws and it's frightening for the rest of the same. of america as well so for trying to impose laws more hor harsh than in his own state on washingtonians for not even allowing the city's representatives to have her say and for opening up a new front on the war on women trent franks wins tonight's tool time award. joining me for the happy hour tonight is alone a show producer sam at night and they've got nice reporter with politico i'm so lucky it's me on the fellas tonight it was day guys all right let's start off with a group of high profile republican strategists they are working very hard on

something a conservative billion with a conservative billionaire on a proposal to mount one of the most provocative campaigns of this new era that we're in this super pac era and attack president obama in ways that republicans have so far shied away from so in the works that still awaiting approval but it calls for running commercials linking mr obama to incendiary cut incendiary comments made by his former spiritual advisor we remember from the two thousand and eight campaign reverend jeremiah wright. i guess we don't have this yet because it's still in the works oh we do have it ok let's see it really includes a lot of reverend wright i mean it begins with that but then it goes into i'm really trying to persuade american voters that they were essentially sold a bill of goods four years ago with president obama the team of republicans. all right guys what do you think about this it seems kind of silly it seems sort of like you know i mean for example arguing that

a team isn't going to win the two thousand and fourteen world cup based on the team that had at the two thousand and ten world cup so i don't know it just seems kind of like why well remember john mccain rejected going there in two thousand and eight his advisers presented this to him and he said no we're not playing the race card others can do the germ my right thing we're not going to this because this world of super pacs this isn't even the romney camp this is individual millionaires that are trying to make the decision should we go there mitt romney first came out today and said he wasn't going he was you know sort of condemning it but then dems said he didn't condemn it fast enough i don't think this is where romney wants to go he wants to be about the economy if it's only about the economy ron is that a pretty strong position if he gets into race i just think that's you know well that's and that's another thing proposed by this group is they want to have you know a bunch of articulate african-americans to come and speak out there even proposing that one of the terms they call the president is metrosexual black abe lincoln i

mean that's sort of like i don't know what does that make mitt romney i mean like a mormon asset stripping jefferson davis. was good i was trying to think of what the opposite of that i think it's bad news i think the fact that it was leaked to the new york times shows that someone's trying to kill this a republican got a hold of this is that this is a bad idea let's try to kill this plan because as you said it's a proposal before it gets implemented. i think it's it's really dicey territory for a moment and it could give conservatives a new view on citizens united i mean i don't know you have limited airwaves you know romney's people distance themselves from it so just because a bunch of people have a bunch of money and they want to you know they got jeremih right again. wishful thinking. let's move on when was the last time you guys have been in an airport for me it was just a few weeks ago oh all right. well as you know there's a little security that you have to go through is really really harsh and i want to

put a little example i mean the t.s.a. is certainly you know everyone is included and the elderly people in wheelchairs and small children. it happened tuesday night at the airport in fort lauderdale brianna and her parents had just boarded a jet blue flight they were heading home to new jersey they say that's when a jet blue employee told them they have to get off the plane and i said for what and he said. well it's not you or your husband your daughter was flying as no fly i said excuse me. all right so this toddler is flag but meanwhile this is the best part it turns out there's been a dead man working for the t.s.a. a man who actually stole the identity he was an illegal immigrant came to this country i think back in the eighty's and stole the idea of somebody call themselves jerry thomas even though his real name was bimbo although. anyways he's been working at newark airport. and was finally we're in jersey for us

here and i know i know i'm saying there's so many travelers that come through newark airport and the t.s.a. can target these toddlers but not their own workers well looks like someone's going to have to strap on a rubber glove and inspect the t.s.a. . the t.s.a. is the one agency that sort of can bridge the partisan divide everybody hates the t.s.a. if you've been to an airport you see these poor old people you see kids that don't understand and they're patting them down so now you see t.s.a. workers who aren't always the most professional sometimes aren't paying attention and you've got to wonder you're taking your shoes off you're taking your belt off they're going through and then sometimes they're not even watching the the thing so i think there's like bipartisan agreement everyone's fed up with the t.s.a. and this is just more evidence that they've got their own problems and we're almost out of time so i just want to one more very very very quick story facebook co-founder eduardo saverin has decided to give up his u.s.

citizenship he's been apparently partying in singapore facebook in public today so a lot of people saying he won't have to pay his taxes and that's why he left where you guys think i think it's kind of ironic i mean a lot. public money went into the development of the internet itself and you know obviously where would facebook be without that and you know it comes time for him to sort of annie up and you know contribute to the kitty and you know he's nowhere to be found do you think he should be barred from coming back into the country no i think he was he was a sympathetic character in the movie well. now he's the bad one so i'm perplexed by i don't know if you know all right guys i'm so sorry i read nearly anything we wanted to you want one that's going to do it for tonight's show thanks so much for tuning in and make sure to come back tomorrow joe weisenthal deputy editor of the business insider will be on the show to explain why he thinks if mitt romney loses the economy will implode and the meantime don't forget to become a fan of the face deal on a show on facebook and follow us on twitter and if you missed any of tonight's show

or any other nights you can always catch it all on youtube dot com and watch the ilana show thanks for watching have a great night. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.

download the official anti up location on the phone oh i pod touch from the i choose ops to. watch on t.v. life on the go. video on demand on t.v.'s my old comes and says feeds now in the palm of your. questions on the dot com. news today violence has once again flared up the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china.