in america every year it's clear that something needs to be done and the department of justice has taken action the conservatives are saying that the d.o.j. actions coming tuesday were price republicans really willing to put a price on someone's health and safety also what do you do when you're scared of spiders you might scream or run away but your actions probably wouldn't affect the ecosystem what does new research reveal about how frightened grasshoppers and the role they play on changing our entire ecosystem and for months republicans have been waging a relentless war on women and showing america their troop patriarchal nature and we stop that will stop all the blatant sexism in congress and restore power to america's wealth to entice due to. news earlier this week the department of justice publish new standards to combat the large number of rapes and sexual assaults that occur in america's prisons every year this is a serious problem in two thousand and eight

a report by the justice department revealed more than two hundred sixteen thousand victims of rape and sexual assault in prison and that's just victims not occurences that year prison rape accounted for a majority of all the rapes in the united states. so something needed to be done to put an end to this rape epidemic in our nation's prisons and that's exactly what the justice department did dr nationwide standards as required by a law signed by george w. bush in two thousand and three those standards include minimum staffing levels of prisons screening of prisoners who are at risk of rape or are suspected rapists and removing any time limits for an inmate to report a rape and while most are applauding the new guidelines they will come with a cost roughly seven billion dollars which is causing conservatives to be outraged for example the american action forum a wall street funded right wing group released a statement calling the new guidelines to costly and complicated we should probably

remember that wall street funds a lot of these private prisons while the weekly standard piled on complaining that the costs outweigh the benefits and that this new rule is undoubtedly an unfunded mandate and an expensive one that offers fewer assurances of success over the total expected cost of the new standard is less than one percent of the overall cost of the nation's prison system and according to the new york times actually saves money by avoiding the medical costs of soft injuries suffered by rape victims. so are conservatives really ok with letting thousands of prison inmates get raped each year hundreds of thousands here to answer that is marc harrold libertarian commentator attorney and author of the book observations of white noise an acid test for the first amendment marc welcome back thank you very much. why don't. why why do why are these republicans in congress saying that they don't want to protect prison inmates from being raped i don't get it i don't get that either and

i don't know if it's because somehow they think and this is not the case that this is somehow a soft on crime measure the problem here is we just have too many people in prison bed space isn't just a bit over crowding is not just about dead space it's also about being able to to control and watch and keep safe the people that you take in there is a very large responsibility when the government takes custody of someone and so is this too costly it can't be too costly these individuals are actually incarcerated to the point where there is a high level of risk in the numbers seem to bear that out you have to do something now this took a long time this law was passed in two thousand and three like you said took nine years it's more at this point best practices than a solid plan but that's just by the nature of it they're going to have to implement this to see if it's too complicated you have to implement this to see if it works so if somebody says it's complicated maybe that's a valid criticism but then want to do something about this i read the d.o.j. report of a six seven pages you can see it online and and it's really pretty startling and a lot of the stuff that they're recommending is just really commonsense things and as you said there is

a horrible prison overcrowding problem in the united states and you know i mean half of our inmates are there for for drug offenses for example which should be a medical thing i think we agree on that a lot of medical if it was not a not a not a legal one but but. we're always going to have somebody in prison well absolutely and and. so i'm back to the question why are these republicans saying i'm sorry as to cause the only answer i can come up with mark and just lay this right out is that. a lot of these people are getting a lot of money from the private prison industry the private presidents in history is now a multi-billion dollar industry they're the main block or one of the main blocks to any relieving of our palos for example you know i mean it's just this is this industry has so much power in this town so many lobbyists in this town and and what these regulations will do is make them slightly less profitable right now they can cram four people into a cell six people into a cell just go away have one guy over oversee an entire cell block with

a couple of video cameras. they can make more money under these standards they're going to have to reduce the number of present prisoners per cell and we're going to have to increase the observation could it just be that this is all about an industry that wants to make a profit and the politicians that they buy it could be and it's not just in this town it's not just in d.c. they're this state legislatures the lobbyists the state level is also very high for the private prison companies and it is very profitable you know the i think it has to do with this idea that when you get into a balancing and someone says something is too costly you have to really look at what they're trying to prevent in this case it's very damaging i think part of this too is maybe this idea maybe it's become too socially acceptable or maybe people have to glib a feeling about what happens in prison there was a back in two thousand and two there was that horrible seven-up bad that actually sort of joked and mocked about this and i'm not saying that's everybody i'm not saying every conservative feels that way but i think sometimes people have maybe come to accept that this is just what happens do prison and i'm usually for small government in this is a big government program but the bottom line here is the small government needs to

come in how many people we incarcerate reforming the one nine hundred seventy controlled substance act getting rid of mandatory minimums that's how you lessen government in this area you need to prioritize who you put in jail but you got to keep them safe no matter what they did you've got to keep them safe i mean ultimately this is and in fact apropos of your your comment i i remember just the last six months watching i think was c s i was one of those comedy shows basically and you know the guy is like you're going to end up in a cell with a guy named bubba and you know it was so obvious you know you were threatening you with rape and that that's a bizarre mentality i don't get why i do get it i understand the but i don't but it's wrong it's just it's just wrong threatening somebody with the nature of the infection i mean that's not how we should be doing law enforcement. are you suggesting that you know libertarians by and large say prison is something that should be privatized this is one of those areas where government shouldn't be shouldn't exist basically are you suggesting that actually prisons are part of the

commons and that we should collect. of lee run them in a way that is only for the purpose of maintaining a safe society rather than somebody making a buck when i'm not a i'm not as much of a small government libertarians i am a necessary government libertarian corrections is an area that the government has to be involved in i'm wary of privatizing prisons i know most libertarians on i'm a little bit wary of that but there's no doubt that if they are privatized they have to be regulated by the government again you've invited me on one of those things that i seem an libertarian tonight when i'm talking about more regulation but again when you take somebody into custody when you put them in jail and you take responsibility for them whether you like it or not that is a big responsibility and it's one that if the government takes on and has decide what to criminalize and who to put in jail and how to prioritize but if you decide to put somebody in jail part of standing behind that law and saying it's a real societal harm again we've got to reform drug laws but if you say some of the real societal societal harm you cannot leave that person in public you've got to put them behind bars that's a responsibility there's eight the mimic concerns and absolutely prison rape we can't joke about it can never be part of someone sort of the passive part of

someone sends it second it shouldn't happen and this is something in addition to that that's being done in our names and it's painted on with our tax dollars absolutely and so how do we speak to the to the these republicans in congress who are saying sorry seven billion dollars is too much to prevent two hundred thousand individuals from being raped a year i mean they have legitimate concerns if they say the cost is too high if we get into this and it doesn't work then obviously the maybe the costs are too high if that if there's no market improvement but the bottom line here is is that not anything to do with cost being too high if these are the measures that it takes to have a safe prison and that's what these measures cost it's not a matter of too high that's not like this why this is an option is beyond me why the idea of whether we are or are not going to take the best make the best steps we can the best practices we have to make people safe in jail like that some kind of an option like we'll either do it or we won't you have to do it if you're going to run a prison if you're going to have a penal system you absolutely have to do these things and whatever they cost that's

part of it what you. i have to do is you need fewer laws you gotta reform drug laws you have way too many people in prison for drug possession you let those folks out you can prioritize on the people that are there and that's it but this isn't really an option if we have the means if this is the best intelligence we have this is what you've got to do it's not an optional part of running prisons it's part of running prisons mark i agree and there you get me on here and we agree. marc harrold thank you just because someone is thrown in prison doesn't mean they lose all their human rights like the right not to be raped we shouldn't be a society considers rape to be just part of the punishment to mention many innocent people are wrongfully convicted and end up in prison should they have to suffer rape to know we're all people here. now for the latest coming out of the supreme court though the high court did not hand down a ruling on the constitutionality of obamacare today it will within the next week however we already know who won the battle of public opinion regarding health reform and that's the big corporate spend big spending corporate oligarchy new york

times reports that opponents of obamacare have massively outspent supporters of obamacare on the t.v. airwaves since the affordable care act was signed by president obama back in two thousand and ten over two hundred thirty five million dollars has been spent on t.v. ads attacking the president's health reform law only sixty nine million dollars has been spent supporting that law that's well above it three to one advantage chamber of commerce alone spent twenty seven million dollars on attack ads against the law and karl rove's crossroads super pac crossroads is so perfect spent twenty four million dollars and the koch brothers funded americans for prosperity has so far spent six million dollars but this has nothing to do with health care the chamber of commerce karl rove and the koch brothers they care less about obamacare . they care more about kicking president obama out of office and replacing him with an oligarchy just like them mitt romney and since president obama thinks is

healthier for the health reform law is his signature accomplishment and in the mind of most americans it is these guys know if they can knock down health reform then in the process they knock down the president that's why they're targeting obamacare in particular the biggest point and problem is that advertising works and the side is willing or able to spend the most money on advertising usually wins we saw this play out in two thousand and ten midterms when corporate money catapulted tea party republicans in the congress we saw this again earlier this month when governor scott walker outspent his opponent nine to one or more to survive a recall election in wisconsin in post citizens united america big money almost always wins now we just have to see if the most political supreme court in recent memory will go along with the olive growers and deal a critical blow to president obama just ahead of the election. coming up the war on

women and blatant sexism have found a home within the republican party. how do we stop the patriarchy and anti-female bigotry in the republican party and give women more power and freedom in american society.

it's thursday so let's get geeky and grasshoppers were the web of life or the idea that our thoughts change our bodies and the world around us but it's far more complicated complicated and complex than you ever imagined researchers at yale university and he were university in israel have discovered that grasshoppers who die frightened have a huge effect on our ecosystem according to researchers a grasshopper that is scared by an attack or like a spider will become stressed and eat larger amounts of carbohydrates and sugar rich plants similar the way people tend to eat more sweets when they're stressed when the grasshopper eats more car bridge plants this change in diet causes chemical changes in the grasshopper and its excretions which in turn affect the entire ecosystem that it in happens after

a scared grasshopper dies its body which now contains a less nitrogen than a non scared grasshopper because of the dietary change has a negative effect on the microbes in the ground the breakdown declaim decaying plants and animals since there's less nitrogen available the microbes decompose plant and other organic material at a slower rate basically the research has shown that a fear of predators by grasshoppers and other living things presumably can slow down the decomposition of complex organic materials decomposition that is necessary for plant growth. so how did researchers make this amazing discovery factor drawer hell when of if he were university along with his yale university colleagues x. posed grasshoppers to spiders in order to create a stressful environment they also had a control group of non stressed grasshoppers the stressed grasshoppers had a higher carbon nitrogen ratio in their bodies than the non-stress grasshoppers and

in further tests when the and his team tested the remains of the two groups of grasshoppers in soil after microbes in the soil had consumed the grasshopper remains researchers added plants to that soil and they discovered that the d. cup was issued a rate of plants in areas of soil with stress free grasshoppers was sixty two to two hundred times faster than in areas of soil with stressed grasshoppers according to dr hell we know the experiments and the results showed that we are dealing here with an absolutely new kind of mechanism whereby every small chemical change in a creature can regulate the natural cycle thus in effect affecting the ecology in total such as the amount of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere through the composition and field crop productivity now and also went on to say that the research conducted will be a vehicle that will allow scientists to better predict and understand changes in

the biological system as a result of human created phenomena like overfishing hunting or even global warming we can harm the entire ecosystem as research truly goes to show how the smallest change or action can have profound and lasting effects on our entire environment. just. the good the bad of the very very catawampus lee ugly good. representative david mckinley mckinley a republican from west virginia recently sent out a mailer to his constituents energy expressed very similar concerns as those the democrats have with paul ryan's house g.o.p. budget the mailer says mckinley voted against paul ryan's republican budget because of quote the plan's negative impact on northern west virginia seniors and because

it harms in title on programs like social security and medicare in time when the republican party has shifted to the far right i see that there are still one or two in the grand old party want to stand up and do the right thing the american people . the bad. apple apple stores have now twice refused to sell apple products to a reigning in americans according to a report by w.s.p. t.v. so harsh and iranian american is told by store employees in a georgia store that it's corporate policy not to sell any goods to iran without authorization of the u.s. government said it repeatedly told the story ploys that she was just and rainy in america but it didn't matter and in a store in virginia zach just farzad he was wasn't allowed to purchase an i phone because workers heard him speaking farsi to a friend. there's already enough intolerance and hate hatred of the muslim community in america apple should not feed. and the very very ugly karl

rove with his g.o.p. is crossroads g.p.s. american crossroads super pacs rove has already done enough to help weaken american democracy but now he's just flat out making a mockery of rove will be attending and speaking to mitt romney retreat this weekend for high end donors which is reportedly an opportunity to strategize and fraternize among the new backers probes super pacs plan to spend plan to spend upwards of three hundred million dollars to help romney beat president obama in november but by law they can't associate or coordinate with mitt romney or is official campaign so it seems like by attending the event rove is breaking the law course he doesn't care this is the guy who dared nancy pelosi to arrest him for years who helped commit treason by outing a cia officer and who participated in lyon our nation into two bloody expensive and unnecessary wars just for political gain and now he's making

a mockery of the few laws left to protect our electoral system. that it's very clear. you may remember last week when michigan state representative lisa brown said this during a debate over an anti-abortion bill being pushed by republicans i have asked you to adapt and here to my religious beliefs why are you asking me to adopt yours. and finally mr speaker i'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina but no means now. her comments are perhaps just using the word vagina so shocked are

mostly male republican colleagues in the house but she was banned from speaking on the house floor for the rest of the legislative year which runs through the summer into the fall here's one of those male republicans representative wayne schmidt giving his take on why representative brown was banned from speaking yeah and no means no. and it's you know they put on a i'm going up north here and it's like you're going to get high and i'll share it day and i'll say you want to comment hard. but unless he's out of people has there's something common yes i mean we'll get back. to becoming. he's a represented in wayne schmidt from traverse city time out. there. and it should make women angry i mean that guy must have been horrified when nancy pelosi was the speaker that was so here we have an elected female representative

speaking out on behalf of her female constituents rights issues and because she said something her male colleagues didn't like she's described as having a temper tantrum and in need of a time out i mean that's how you talk to five year olds and then she's barred from speaking again on the house floor for the rest of the legislative year that's played six sexism and it's apparently found a cozy little rough refuge within the republican party the most powerful bashing of patriarchy in america you might have seen this picture it's an old viral e-mail that's now all over the web in different variations comparing republican women to democratic women. notice the flattering pictures of the female republicans compared to the very unflattering pictures of democrats point of pictures simple republican women are better than democratic women basically because they're hotter

than democratic women you see in the republican mind women are only valuable to republican men when they're attractive and they become unattractive when they're speaking their mind about protecting women's rights or the rights of working people or even the rights of minorities so you don't so much hear such things coming out of the mollies republican women especially over on roger ailes is g.o.p. t.v. i mean if you ever watched fox so-called news the point is if we want our nation to be all it can be women must be full members of society and have full power in both the political and the economic realms and because they are women and it's a perspective that's crucial to our national debate in fact other countries of figured this out are very united states now ranks seventy eighth in the world in female representation in government wanted which ranks first in the world as women making up fifty three percent of its government and women have been instrumental in

rebuilding and healing that nation which lost a tenth of its population in just one hundred days of male starter to male executed genocide back in one thousand nine hundred four in the united states we have just seventeen percent female representation in our government other nations are not so backward sweden finland the netherlands norway iceland denmark spain germany canada you're gay the list actually goes on and on of nations that have more female representation in government and thus achieve better results than the united states when it comes to health care wealthy and equality poverty reduction educational outcomes overall life satisfaction you name. and of the top twenty countries that have the highest female representation in government seventeen of them broke up centuries of patriarchy by using

a quota system the sledgehammer of a quota system that requires a certain percentage of women to become part of government as recent un report on women in politics found out of the fifty nine countries that held elections last year seventeen of them have legislated quote it is in those countries women gain twenty seven percent of parliamentary seats compared to sixteen percent in countries with quotas recent study out of the university of oregon found that nations with more women in government have even lower carbon dioxide emissions another study out of the world bank found that the higher the levels of female participation in government the lower the levels of corruption are funny thing is the first americans those people who were living in north america before the europeans showed up five hundred years ago we'd already figured this out. within the iroquois confederacy upon which our founding fathers largely modeled our democracy women enjoyed freedom and a lot of power the result was a federation

a nation that pretty much had no war they played a weeklong games of lacrosse to resolve conflicts and a nation that provided a very high quality of life for all its members you're quite women on land and were largely responsible for shaping the communities social economic and spiritual direction and while the saddam's the tribal elders who travelled from nation to nation were normally men they were nominated and elected to office and held to account by women who in four of the five year coordinations were the only ones who could vote compared to their colonial counterparts you're quite women enjoyed a far more freedom and power than in the american colonies and it's time they have more freedom and power today in our current government. but that means we need to call out these republican men who think it's appropriate to give their female colleagues the time out for temperature patra. this republican men are quite simply

dinosaurs as well as being anti female bigots and eventually their war on women is going to catch up. for the big picture and for more information the stories we covered visit our web sites of tamari dot com free speech dot org and to dot com also check out our two you tube channels or a link to thom hartmann dot com also there you can check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active tag your it occupy something suitable.

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