the polls are open the people are voting and in a few hours from now wisconsin will know the outcome of a historical recall election record amounts of money of flowed into the state many are calling this a litmus test for november so what does this battle and the dairyland say about the polarization here in the u.s. . and bigger may be better but in america's case it isn't about being big it's about being the uncontested champion of the macho contest from blimps to bombers the u.s. military can be outdone will introduce you to the newest vehicle to join the fully . plus who's afraid of the d.o.j.

there's a few reasons good reasons why you should be with the flick of a pen the government can strong arm their way into invading your privacy and the best part is would have no idea it ever happened so be careful what you say because someone is probably listening all explained. it's tuesday june fifth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r t. well if you're tuned into any mainstream channel earlier today chances are all you saw were the lavish festivities of the queen's jubilee apparently that is the top story of today are you sick of it if you were born into the trappings of royalty and don't care about those that are and want to know the real news that affects you you come to the right place arts you will not be covering the queen's jubilee. oh it turned out to be historic recall

election happening today in wisconsin tensions running high in the state as the fate of governor scott walker's job is decided a rare recall election has polarized the state with some hailing walker as a hero and others demonizing him as a villain behind walker is enormous sums of cash from wealthy republican supporters his opponent milwaukee mayor tom barrett pales in comparison when it comes to funds but he has political leaders and unions behind him at stake is the at stake in the state as workers' rights and what happens today can have huge implications for the rest of the country and set the tone for the upcoming presidential election joining us now for more on this is labor journalist mike elk. mike welcome nice to see you so things there and less carbs and very tense turned out to be a very divisive issue is this a sample of a polarized america. i shouldn't think it is

a sample will rise to america but it's also a sample of america that's a breed of each other the big issue in this situation it seems is that so many foods are resentful what public sector workers have to research with their neighbors because they don't have children really against that many situations so i think that's a lot of what's going on you know what's going on is that scott walker has outspent at a point to one now if you have eight to one ability to dominate the airwaves. you know brainwash people clearly when people your message but that's just something really bad about scott walker he's outspending use of one eight to one but only leading by two or three points in the polls. so with so much money behind walker do you think it stands a chance considering the lack of funding that he has in his campaign. well it's certainly up there in the polling with scott walker and i think he has organized labor with the ground game behind them and i think they're trying to organize labor

obviously you know they've been hurt in wisconsin with what's happened but i've spent a lot of time in wisconsin over the last year and people there are upset and there are people that will do anything to get out the problem i think is that the g.o.p. base in the last month has been energized as for the last year you know union members have been working their tails up so i think a lot of them are worried about. want to play this was his opponent mayor tom barrett released this campaign ad take a listen. isn't it time to end the civil war in wisconsin scott walker has to buy did are state and while he's pursued his ideological agenda last year to last more jobs than any state in the country we can't afford to have a governor who says it's my way or the highway. he says what's going on and wisconsin has turned out to a civil war you know and congress lawmakers say that they've never seen

a more divisive congress so could this be a preview of what's to come on a national scale certainly i think the presidential election is going to be very close the reason why tom barrett and the democrats are winning this thing is that the democratic party hasn't really done much. wages are down by two percent last year jobs are still at eight percent unemployment and most people don't see president obama the democratic party is doing i think if they were doing more to help regular people people would be so resentful about it if. they're presented with this limited window. and helping out other people is not one of those choices . like let's talk about what exactly is at stake there and wisconsin in terms of workers' rights and what's at stake here is you have a. you know the governor of the state backlash departing right republican leaders.

we should study only about a. union members that were members of wisconsin are still union members because of the. ice he's also cut funding for education funding disability so much generally that governor scott walker is the only. governor who has a large criminal defense fund and has been called to testify in a grand jury which many people who do many legal experts say that he is the target . and you know what welker's backers say is that he has taken on slashing big government that he has fulfilled that promise what do you say to that i mean yeah you can see that but at the same time he's only helped big corporations get a lot bigger and i think that's what the real problem is is that the corporate power in this country is very high let the workers rate is increasing in the last year and all kind of key to why this economy is not only pastors that were have enough

money to buy stuff it shouldn't commies you make so there's nobody to buy. you know like what's happening right now it's just one state the state of wisconsin . what are the implications nationally why should people care. across the across the country if scott walker wins i think many people are going to see it as a referendum on the ability. if guilty of union busters across the country to push a radical agenda against organized labor they're going to see a lot more attacks on organized labor and i think the way houses and under this and i think it's also going to hurt. even though president obama has not invested any time. so you think that this could kind of serve as a catalyst kind of the beginning of the end of organized labor. all right and finally mike what do you think that this could mean for the upcoming

presidential race some people are calling this race in wisconsin the second most important race of the year the most i think it's more. a referendum on you need to write in a referendum whether or not president obama it's very clear they will lose this election. and organized labor is not going to be. the democratic party not as a big win this election but i think it's going to scare a lot of i think this is. a right mike thank you for coming on the show that was labor journalist michael. well still ahead here on r.s.b. up up and away the u.s. military budget is the only thing that bloated or almost all of it toys from the blue to the b. fifty two bomber to its new list. or really better. r t is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like.

russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. at first very much as spring dries right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. much stronger than anything it's the biopsy to these thousands of times was stronger than any kind of ever put.

well bigger is always better seems to be the case for the u.s. military back in the one nine hundred thirty s. the u.s. constructed a seven hundred eighty five foot long helium balloon airship that was meant to rival germany's air fleet it was the biggest airship ever to be built in america up to that point although it did not end up crashing no one really knows why air excuse me it did a crashing nobody really knows why or how moving along now the be bullied is another testament to the bigger is better mentality the b. seventeen bomber was known as the flying fortress because it can supposedly survive massive damage and still land safely its cousin the b. twenty nine bomber up the ante it was used in world war two and the korean war in the famous b. fifty two strato fortress bomber made the u.s. all the more powerful with its long range jet powered bomber but it doesn't stop there take a look at what they recently launched it's a massive drone the biggest in existence you are looking at the phantom i launching

from nasa research research center last week the military is hoping that this mega drone will be able to soar at sixty five thousand feet for ninety six hours at a time that's four days the enormity of this drone made by boeing what allow four hundred fifty pounds of sensors cameras and all kinds of nifty spying devices on board now that's a far cry from what the drone actually did during the test flight it was only airborne for about a half hour but it's the first step for the military sending the biggest by machine to hover in our skies one that can keep a close eye on cities for days at a time so what does this mean for your privacy to have one of these. loitering above to discuss this i'm joined now by john glasser says an editor for antiwar dot com. welcome yana so i let fly bigger is always better in the military

where you have this actually gets to the spirit of what the military industrial complex and imperial grand strategy for the united states has been for decades primarily among those was to prevent any other peer competitor in the world from gaining their own dominance or independence from any american dominated system and that plays out in all kinds of ways i mean. take take defense budgets the obama administration and both parties in congress have been lying through their teeth for years now about the doom that our national security would face if we decreased the rate of growth in the projected defense spending that's a key phrase because of course they talk about cuts to defense taking an ask axe to defense budgets but all that's being talked about is decreasing the rate of growth in projected defense spending and now when you think about these this drone war

what we're facing now is that drones have become a tool for war but the war makers don't need to declare war and so again this is about total dominance nobody can face against us and that's the nature of what it's like to be in washington and the heart of the war party now that we've reported a lot on his rounds and plenty around but what exactly is this new magazine around capable of. well this this mega drone which is far bigger than the type of drones that are now flying over pakistan or somalia or in the war zones for a war zone in iraq and afghanistan it's far bigger it can fly fly far higher at sixty five thousand feet the other ones where only a few thousand and it can stay in the air without being refueled for up to four days so what this means is an expanded power to. spy on and

perhaps drop bombs on people below. and the fact that these drones and they are unmanned they can hover and there for days at a time why should people be concerned about that and is there a possibility that this can be used the mastic lead to monitor u.s. cities. well people should be concerned about it because drones in general are already representing a significant expansion of power that is unchecked government power that is unchecked goes on accountability with unaccountability no transparency it's secret we're not allowed to know about it but they have incredible behind power behind them essentially like i said the power of the clear war without actually declaring it the reason americans should be concerned about it is that is that you know police departments are now getting more in touch with the drone technology and that's happening all throughout the country the f.a.a.

is started to lease licenses for drone use and it'll get to surveillance and perhaps weaponized drones in some amount of time all right and i do want to go and sue drones and the use of drones by the u.s. military has been controversial lately especially the way they've been used in pakistan anchor angering the people of countries abroad a u.s. official says a drone strike in pakistan's northwest tribal region has killed al qaeda second and command what does this say about our a lot rocky relationship with pakistan as well as president obama's drone campaign for pakistan has repeatedly asked us to stop bombing their country they talk about their own sovereignty and we have not declared war on them and it's a non war zone technically and they've repeatedly demanded that we stop pakistan after these latest set of drone bombings and in the tribal regions pakistan

today some in the u.s. envoy to the foreign ministry to lodge a formal protest with him over the series of drone strikes that pakistan repeatedly has asked to be ended. and yes. you know as you had mentioned earlier john defense cuts are supposed to be put in place in order to adhere to a tighter budget but how can the fence justify splurging this big fancy drone and does the u.s. really need it no the u.s. doesn't really need it you could cut the defense budget in half and still and still the united states would outspend most of the world probably all of the world considering the vast amount of military bases we have across the world and all of the advanced military technology that we have and i would spend you know the rest of the world we don't need this stuff it's dangerous and it represents. serious

legal problems when the administration starts to use them with no accountability. you know john to kind of put it from the military's perspective can you blame them for wanting to have the biggest and the best in wanting to be the most well equipped well yes i can again that this is part of the mentality behind a foreign policy that is inherently expansive and inherently seeks to dominate the entire world and doesn't take into account stuff like civilian casualties in this drone war so yes i can blame them they should be held accountable for this kind of reckless behavior all right john thank you very much for coming on the shell that was john glaser assistant editor for antiwar dot com. well still ahead on our team if you thought that by some hip us or system or a scary thing you don't want to know what already

a law or how many people are already being spied on and have no idea it's happening that's an order writ in invisible ink that signs a regular right to privacy we'll tell you all about it next. it's part of american power continuing. things that are. might actually be revolution. and it turns out that a killer drink or starbucks or the phrase it can really hear. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made who can you trust no one who is you know maybe you with a global missionary zeal where are we heading state controlled capitalism is called

sessions when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. well how do you feel about the government being able to get ahold of mass amounts of information about you and complete secrecy well it happens and the law from decades ago enables this to go further that you can imagine a recent study from the federal judicial center of bills that a federal docket that handles tens of thousands of secret cases each year and what you may find troubling about these cases that it allows for electronic surveillance we're talking cell phones e-mail and any other information stored on your computer or what you do on line now this is all regulated by the electronic communications privacy. fact of nineteen eighty six and privacy groups are saying this law is way outdated especially since the way we communicate has evolved drastically over the

decades many privacy groups are now pushing for this law to be updated i want to discuss this kate crawford privacy rights for court nater for these civil american civil liberties union welcome katie so how far can this law if the electronics communication act privacy act that is how far can i go well i'm really glad that you mentioned that the law was passed in one thousand nine hundred six i was three years old in one nine hundred eighty six i'm sure many of you remember that if you were you know my age at the time didn't really exist if you will didn't have cell phones they were about this. you know they would like bricks. people didn't use email in the way that we do now didn't exist storing our information in the digital cloud was completely unheard of these are things that we are now every day we move most of our lives in the digital realm our banking information is all

online increasingly our health records are online we communicate very very private important information via e-mail direct message on services like twitter via web chat skype. congress needs to update. i was three years old when the ag vote was passed it is now twenty twelve the world is a totally different plates and this magistrate judges report is incredibly important because it really illustrates an aspect of what's problematic with that we hadn't been aware of previously. judges are issuing these orders you know he said up to thirty thousand a year many of these orders are secret forever because if the government asks a magistrate judge for an order to read your email under act and they never charge

you with a crime you might actually never find out the government agents were reading your e-mail so we had the a.c.l.u. are part of a very large coalition it's called the digital due process coalition and it's not just civil liberties groups that are invested in changing in reforming act but it's also companies like microsoft and a.o.l. and apple because these companies want people to trust the digital cloud they want people to trust that when they put their information online when they store it with third party content holders like them that it's going to be safe from from government interference you know if that's improper so you know it's not just us there's a huge range of corporations and government advocacy groups that are calling on congress to reform act but in this report is just a very timely reminder and shot congress into action to do that as the legislation stands now can the government obtain this information without a warrant. so

a part of the electronic communications privacy act is called the storage communications act and under the stored communications act those are a piece of that called subsection of section twenty seven zero three which basically allows the government to submit what's called section d. orders so it's actually it's somewhere in between a warrant and a subpoena subpoena as many of you probably know is simply a form that a prosecutor fills out and submit to you know the holder of some content but it wants information from the judge overseas that order a warrant is a much stricter standard there are probable cause requirements for warrants that the stored communications act do you order sit somewhere in the middle it's not exactly a warrant it's not a subpoena but what what this judge magistrates report shows is that the rules that . are put in place twenty perhaps over twenty five years ago. are

woefully inadequate primarily because they don't allow even congress let alone the general public to know how many of these orders are being issued because there are gag sealed and blindfold provisions which prevent people from even knowing how many of these orders are out there so what can be done now and what parts of this law need to be updated in order to reflect you know the times and the way that we communicate today. sure so the judge magistrate stephen smith who issued this really important report i encourage people to read it you can go to my web site privacy s.o.s. or the latest blog entry links to the report and i talk about it he basically is asking that congress reform act to mandate judges and judge magistrates to provide some kind of notice alternately to to the people who are targets of

these of these orders because a key piece of what we need to realize here is that you know it. my emails the e-mails that i sent to my friends to you know my lower my coworkers whatever i don't actually possess them you know if i use google or g. mail to send e-mails it's it's google or g. mail that possesses my e-mails so the government doesn't have to go to mean you can completely ignore me if it wants information about what i'm talking about or one talking to and go to google instead so the number of issues one is transparency we need to know how many of these orders are being issued another is accountability so that you know if if if if a magistrate agrees with a prosecutor and issues an order for my communications information you know i should be notified at some point so that i can challenge that order under the under the under act as it stands according to his report people do not have the ability to challenge these orders so you know we're this is a this is

a very troubling situation in which tons of people are potentially being watched by the government without our knowledge ever people might never find out so there needs to be transparency there needs to be accountability and we need to update the law to reflect the fact that many of us use third party content providers to spread our information around to communicate online ok and to kind of wrap it up here as you mentioned kind of at the heart of this is transparency the lack of transparency how does this pose a danger to us that ascends people like you and i sure i mean you know. it's perfectly clear to us at the a.c.l.u. and frankly to many americans that over the past ten years since nine eleven there have been a series of was including the patriot act which would actually reformed a key part of the story communications act for the worst from the worst that sort of a. a more complicated subject but many of these laws have essentially put us in

a situation where the government of the united states of america knows one too much about us and we know very little about what the government is doing so that relationship meets what we actually as citizens of this country and residents of this country should be able to know what the government is doing why the government should be held to account for its surveillance practices you know there are sometimes the government needs needs to surveil people will break the law there are there are dangerous people on here as we need to be able to do its job but it's absolutely unacceptable for this kind of pervasive long term secrecy to prevail in a country of law. kate thank you very much a very interesting especially in this day and age that was kay. craig craig crawford excuse me privacy rights corner for the american civil liberties union thing that's going to do are for now for more on the stories we covered you can check out our you tube channel it's youtube dot com slash r t america or check out

our web site that's our teeth out com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at liz wall we'll be right back here at five. there hasn't been anything good on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact possible. before source material is what helps keep journalism honest we. we want to present. something else. me if eve if. you

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