still show for it what happened at the louisiana state republican convention and what do the events of the convention mean for the republican party as a whole also the mainstream media wants you to think that the now infamous miami zombie is drugged out tripping on l.s.d. like drugs there in the brutal attack is that the truth or just another example of the media using scare tactics when it talks about drugs and country clubs caviar and cadillacs three things that are marketed to and usually only be afforded by rich people well you know what else is only for rich people american democracy i'll explain why and i still take. the best of the rest of the news occasionally we here in the united states get a glimpse into parliamentarian chaos and disagreements between lawmakers or

delegates devolve into massive brawls like this one in the ukraine back in two thousand and ten. the full. and while all our fights have not spilled out onto the floor of the united states congress in a very very long time patiently at local political meet ups and caucuses decorum gets thrown out the window case in point the louisiana republican party's state convention last weekend here was the scene had to. do you know you. could. have had you know that my mother had to write a. book. back up in a document because it has got to be going to be going to be easily on you know an

artificial not going on. i need to know what you just saw was some of the chaos following a fractured republican state convention or ron paul supporters attempted to claim what they felt was rightly theirs louisiana delegates but when louisiana republican party officials attempted to marginalize paul's delegate count and ignore the protest by paul supporters things got out of hand leading to violence broken fingers and a dislocated hip from what exactly happened and what i mean for the republican party moving forward stephen see webster joins me now senior editor ross story stephen great to see you again it's a pleasure to be here it's on so what exactly happened in louisiana saturday. louisiana gave us a preview of what may happen in august if all delegates get into the aren't c.m. because the seat it. really did look like

a third world country you are apt to bring up the post if i'm in ukraine because it looks like something that we just don't see in american politics it's so early on years to actually have these people but at the same time it also looks stunningly familiar trying to look like an occupy protest i do say so myself. so i mean what wasn't it. just a just to recap what happened there my read of it was and a lot of this came from your reporting was that the ron paul delegates because they were prevailing in the caucuses they actually could claim a majority and they tried to do so and the republicans who run the state says not so fast do i have that right give me a give me a a summary of what what actually happened that led to the scene that we just saw. that's basically right elizabeth warren who wants to it essentially the ron paul delegates from all of the little parties managed to get a majority almost

a two thirds majority but not quite and so the republican party chairman state decided we were going to pass some rules that allow a quorum or allow the parties business to be conducted with only one thirty but so will the run although it's been quite like that they went ahead but one of their people out if you want the race or rules committee and when commission began the chairman didn't call on it when he called on the rules term and he he called on the former rules here and who was aligned with the more established probably party and they were preparing to go ahead or hammer out the rules through so the rules chairman who had been elected by ron paul supporters stood up and objected he was physically removed by private security or actually local police officers that republican party hired. he was rude on the republican party chairman supporters and several listeners are broken according to ron paul's campaign no

that's necessarily the case that's what they said in their press reports. and then when the delegates really objected to that they decided they were just going to go ahead and hold both then and there to elect a new state party chairman. and i'm not sure that they can actually do that but they did in when they decided upon this gentleman who was actually a sitting republican official already. she tried to call the meeting to order and the majority of state republicans are competent physically turn their backs on the party establishment turn insurers around sat down and face their new chairman or are they just elected on spot. again the party's chairman objects this and asked the police to remove that man and the video shows there where the man was the quote about a state that's so even though the ron paul delegates held a majority of the seats in the in the louisiana republican party they were not

allowed to elect their by with a majority vote they were in fact a substantial majority vote they were not allowed to elect their own guy to run the party and in fact they got physically kicked out do you expect something like this might spill over into tampa. i really have no idea but we've definitely seen ron paul people infiltrating well perhaps infiltrating is the wrong word taking seats according to the republican party's somewhere arcane rules they have tended to know and practice the rules even better than the people who are tasked with forcing so we have these old guard conservatives these individuals who were technically the founders of this new tea party before the neoconservatives moved in with you know koch brothers money and. all the other groups that eventually co-opted these are the folks who really were trying to change the republican party back in two

thousand and seven and. they're still a changing grew up with the party and their vote ron paul guys are traveling in an upside down stephen c. webster great war great reporting thank you so much for being with us tonight i think you don't keep an eye on the republican convention in tampa in a few months things can get really interesting. so sometimes you know what you know sometimes you know what you don't know and sometimes as the fires and theaters as everything you know is wrong and. you know you're right. just make. sure. you go. unless you are stranded on a desert island last week with no forms of communication you probably heard about the so-called miami zombie incident last weekend rudy eugene on the left by all accounts your average guy attacked a homeless man under a miami highway underpass chewing off most of his face in the attack which lasted

twenty minutes while the exact cause of the attack is still unknown police in the mainstream media have been speculating that mr eugene was under the influence of bath salts which they claim are very similar to the drug. if you think the media is right about the cause of the attack in the bath salts or even close to l.s.d. and everything you know is wrong joining me now as is kristen when freelance journalist editorial assistant would alter net kristen welcome thanks for having me water bath salts and how are they different from l.s.d. . bath salts are synthetic cath unknowns or be searched and they act as stimulants typically producing a fax similar not to l.s.d. but to cocaine or methamphetamine and bath salts we know very little about because they are new and they are designer drugs and because they're sold in stores and market not for human consumption. where there are not regulated at all so we don't

even know what it's when they're sold in stores but we know that typically the chemicals they contain r m d p v m are federal which act as stimulants and are nothing at all like l.s.d. no fact feder if i recall comes can be extracted from sour apples do the little crab apples. but why does the mainstream media love to make up stories about people going crazy for drugs you know what do they get out of this. but i guess they get a good headline especially if you see bath salts caused a zombie attack in miami the media seems to especially love that these drugs are somewhat legal because the fact that an emergency ban on them last year but it hasn't worked because either people are still getting it illegally online or they're mixing up the chemicals just a little bit differently and being able to sell them in stores so for the media

this is a perfect opportunity for drug story because they can say not only. that this horrible drug caused someone to eat someone's face but they can also say that oh it's being sold in stores and your kids might be getting it and create this the stereo that they know will get people to buy their papers or click on their head by is there any evidence the bath salts or any other drug actually provoked to this attack or was this just a mentally ill person. there is absolutely no evidence that bath salts or any drugs were involved the media was just repeating one police officer speculation and even has speculation was inaccurate because he said that pass outs are basically a superpole and l.s.d. and like i said that's just simply not true but beyond that there doesn't seem to be any evidence there is no toxicology report no drugs found on the scene to indicate bass off interest in iran reagan famously and free mental health care

in the united states and. produced a an epidemic of homeless people on the streets in the late one nine hundred eighty s. couldn't we say that these so-called zombie cannibal stories are also a consequence of our social safety net being shredded by reaganomics and basically not catching mentally disturbed individuals and treating them appropriately. share and that's a much harder issue for the media tell it to delve into and for people to really consider than to blame it on some terrible drug that we can just ban and do away with so. this is this is sloppy reporting or is this. a narrative that the media really likes. i think it's both i think the media has loved baths for a long time especially in the summer there are many horror stories and anecdotal

tales of people who took bath salts and then did some horrible thing. and then media reporting on them led to bans in many states so i think that they do enjoy the past thoughts stories but that it is also sloppy reporting to say something like this is a super poll and l.s.d. because a police officer said it when just when that chemistry shows that that's just absolutely false yeah it was just very very better for it kristin going thank you so much for for enlightening us about this. thank you for having me again now everything you know about about salts and the drugs scare tactics of the media is right. coming up remember when the american democracy work for everyone from the average joe on main street to your fifth grade school teacher fellows days are gone and we're all up with a democracy that only cares about rich people i'll tell you how we got to this point and it's daily to.

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me fifty feet. if you feet feel. pretty. much.

there's a new maxim on wall street that we're all starting to understand and that is when banks do well their banks or c.e.o.'s collect big paychecks and when banks do poorly their banks are c.e.o.'s collect even bigger paychecks that's right that's the story coming out of wall street where pay for the top c.e.o.'s increased more than twenty percent in two thousand and eleven according to a new report by bloomberg news that follows a twenty six percent pay increase in two thousand and ten as well last year last year revenues profits and stock prices plummeted at thirty three of the fifty biggest financial institutions at the c.e.o.'s still god huge pay raises it's

already well known that there is none zilch zero accountability on wall street the banks has crashed our economy sucks trillions of dollars of wealth out of the middle class fraudulent they foreclosed on millions and millions of americans oh and yet not a single wall street fat cat is in jail for these high crimes and now even when they run their own banks into the ground they still make off like bandits cashing huge bonus checks getting rewarded for bad behavior it's as though wall street exists in a completely different dimension than the rest of us a dimension without business ethics a realm without responsibility in a world where up is down and down is up you just crossed over into the twilight zone. just. as the good the bad and the very very aborted generously ugly the good the walt

disney company disney the owner of the a.b.c. network e.s.p.n. and various other channels will stop airing some junk food ads on their t.v. shows radio programs and their websites aimed at children ads like this. either click congress anything found i know i want to. have fun. i think actually makin me feel good about that but not think you need t.v. last year. the disney company will cut advertising for foods that fail to meet minimum nutritional requirements this move by disney comes just days after new york city mayor michael bloomberg announced his plan to ban large sugary drinks in his city is new c.e.o. bob iger and first lady michelle obama formally announced the plan earlier today almost one third of children in the u.s. are either overweight or obese kudo's to disney for doing their part to stop the

spread of this epidemic the bad the rise in communications horizon america's largest wireless service provider announced plans to cut seven thousand nine hundred jobs it's your buyouts or involuntary layoffs the company must be hurting right. last year of arisan paid c.e.o. lowell mcadam more than twenty two and a half million dollars and has paid its top five executives more than three hundred fifty million dollars over the past five years in two thousand and two thousand nine. hundred twenty six thousand jobs they cut another ten thousand jobs in two thousand and ten and horizon has been fighting with its unionized workers asking for concessions so while the company can magically afford to pay millions hundreds of millions to a handful of employees all the other workers screwed sadly she's all to come up with america today. and the very very ugly north carolina's judicial commission in

north carolina's not enough has buyout politicians you can buy off the entire judicial branch at least that's the thinking behind the north carolina judicial commission a new super pac backed by the millionaire conservatives group is trying to raise unlimited amounts of money from pro-business donors in order to realize north carolina state supreme court justice all new b u b has a history of standing up for corporate america so it's not a surprise that the corporations want to stay right where it is judges are supposed to make their decisions impartially about the influence of money in politics but it appears just as newbie has been bought off by corporate america and will no longer be looking out for you or me that he's very very.

voter purge underway in florida is what's in the news today it's really just one slice of a massive thirty year nationwide effort by conservatives to make democracy only available to rich people and leave the rest of us living without a voice of the newly entrenched corporate oligarchy rather than believing in american democracy and making it easier for all americans who are of age and eligible to vote to actually be able to vote conservatives are instead very methodical about selecting who can vote and who can't those americans who conservatives don't want to vote include minorities college students senior citizens and those who are receiving or have received any kind of federal benefits or the corporations of course in other words people who tend to vote for democrats but rich white guys people like former indiana secretary of state charlie white who was convicted of voter fraud or mitt romney who likely committed voter fraud at nasa choose it's claiming he lived in his son's unfinished basement or newt

gingrich and thaddeus mccotter who committed voter petition fraud none of those guys ever received any attention whatsoever from the very same conservatives who are screaming about voter fraud today and are carrying out massive voter purges around the nation one of the most influential republican strategists of the last thirty years paul way rick who founded the moral majority the heritage foundation and helped run both the reagan and both george bush campaigns said this in one thousand nine hundred eighty when speaking to a group of republicans at a christian political meeting about how conservatives shouldn't want everybody to vote. how many of our christian have what i call them grown good government they want everybody to vote i don't want everybody to vote election won by a majority of people they never have been from the beginning of our country and

they are not now as a matter of fact our leverage in the election is quite candid like go up only populist go down that man you just saw the man who said i don't want everybody to vote paul weyrich he also happened to be one of the co-founders of the american legislative exchange council known as alec in the last few years alec has pushed is a very own piece of legislation written by corporations or republican lawmakers to restrict voting rights to only those americans with photo id this voter id laws been introduced in thirty four states and already passed in seven of them and guess which americans tend not to have photo i.d.'s the poor the elderly and urban or reservation dwelling minorities people who tend to vote for democrats according to a study by the brennan center for justice eleven percent of eligible voters do not have a photo i.d. that's twenty one million americans will be denied their right to vote by paul way rick's alec if they have their way and then there's what's happening in wisconsin

thanks to an obscure election laws passed by republicans in that state last year tens of thousands of college students were ineligible to vote today in wisconsin since the law didn't give them enough time to update their addresses after graduating from school last month again college students tend to vote for democrats which is of course why they're being targeted. and then there's what's happening in texas where so-called voter roll maintenance will kick as many as one and a half a million texas voters off the rolls houston chronicle found that one in ten texas voters have had their registration suspended and among young voters people under thirty voters who tend to vote for democrats the number jumps to one in five between two thousand and eight and two thousand and ten three hundred thousand eligible voters in texas were told they were being removed from the voting rolls requiring them to go out of their way to prove that they are indeed eligible to

vote and guess which sorts of people didn't have to jump through these sort of hoops didn't have to show up at a government office improve their legal citizens prove they're not dead prove their address hasn't changed. you know mostly the rich people. the people who can't afford to show up that's mostly low income americans who are too busy working and raising their kids other words people who tend to vote for democrats. and then of course there's florida do you find it curious that just as conservatives are passing radical anti immigration laws that will likely cost them the hispanic vote this election that at the same time florida governor rick scott has launched a voter purge of mostly hispanic voters under the guise of removing undocumented immigrants from the rolls as the miami herald has reported u.s. citizens with hispanic surnames and other minority democratic voters are being disproportionately targeted in gov rick scott's voter purge while republican voters

have been largely ignored this is very similar to what jeb bush and katherine harris did in florida in two thousand when they purged the florida voter rolls using names of convicted felons who lived in texas why suddenly start looking for convicted texas felons who might be voting just ahead of the election in florida because given the flaws in our criminal justice system a list of convicted felons will be disproportionately full of minorities people who vote for democrats and african-americans have a smaller pool of last names than white americans so there are a lot of good law abiding african-american floridians with similar names to african-american felons in texas so at least eight thousand legal non felon registered african-american floridians were knocked off the voter rolls just before the two thousand election a disaster for al gore but for conservatism florida result in success for george w. bush who officially won the state by little more than five hundred votes even

though later a recount by a consortium of newspapers found that al gore actually won the state of matter which recount criteria was used. if those eight thousand minority voters who were kicked off the rolls had been able to vote in the supreme court would never have been able to help a roving bush steal the two thousand election in the first place it's pretty simple you name the democratic voting bloc and i'll show you a conservative strategy to keep them away from the polls from voter id laws to minority voter purges masquerading as efforts to crack down on voter fraud to voter challenges or republican lawyers stand of the doors to polling places in mostly minority neighborhoods and challenge people's rights to vote throwing many of them onto uncounted provisional ballots democratic constituencies like students hispanics blacks the poor and the elderly are being systematically stripped of their right to vote are becoming like king george's england of the seventeen hundreds in the one we rebelled against and overthrew were only wealthy white

landowners could vote joseph stalin perhaps apocryphally said it doesn't matter who votes it matters who counts the vote well sort of but today the republicans have gone one better there not only having their buddies in the corporate world count the vote but now they're also deciding who votes welcome to the koch brothers new republican kingdom of america only wealthy people need apply to vote. as the big picture for tonight join us tomorrow night for a special wednesday edition of conversations with great minds with author lamar waldron on his latest book watergate the hidden history nixon the mafia and the cia for more information on the stories we covered visit our web sites of thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org and r t dot com also check out our two youtube chip there are links over thom hartmann dot com also a time when i can check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback and don't forget to mock or c. is not a spectator sport as the people in wisconsin showed today democracy begins win or

lose it begins when you show up and participate you have to get accurate if you want to make this country get out there get active tag your it occupy something suitable. there hasn't been anything yet on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact. before the source material is what helps keep journalism on us we. we want to present. something else.

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