today on our team for the first time since he took refuge in the ecuadorian embassy in london julia saunders speaking out about why he took matters into his own hands we'll tell you why the wiki leaks founder says he is sure that the u.s. is plotting against him straight ahead. america was built by people who said something different. and said yes we can. use it when it was not as i had the privilege of being your president and i would be a yank side you. president obama is out again today looking for support in the minority community this week he's going after the latino vote but as the has the first african-american president forgotten the black community question more. there are three. three areas of the economy that tend to do ok in

a recession alcohol makeup and sex toys. one booming industry sure knows how to stimulate the economy during these tough times the several billion dollar business that mixes business with pleasure that americans can't seem to get enough of we'll tell you why sex toys are thriving in the u.s. even when money's tight. friday june twenty second five pm in washington d.c. i'm abby martin and you're watching our team and a dramatic move to avoid extradition work in expander joining a song just sought asylum in the ecuadorian embassy in britain he's been there for four days so far in a state of limbo and is currently waiting on whether or not he will be granted asylum for an update on from on the ground r.t. correspondent sara for. silly escape avoid things that you're going to hear in the media at the moment relating to stalin just decision what he said this is not about

avoiding the sexual assault allegations against him in sweden far from that is that really this is never about me then it was the fear of what would happen to him once he was in sweden and the involvement of the us. this issue is about a very serious matter. announced by the swedes that i would be detained without charge. immediately on extradition. to come to the u.k. for the past eighteen months despite that absolutely normal procedure and the refusal to explain any matter what. three tracks. from. the united states. if you can really sense really that always leads to the u.s. event saying that there is a grand jury deciding at the moment whether there would be charges brought against

him in the u.s. remember that in the u.s. has been arjun's ceilings a secret carries the death penalty still and then the wiki leaks really see huge amounts of information and the u.s. diplomatic cables that were released in two thousand and ten were huge embarrassment to the u.s. government so i mean there isn't a mistaking the fact that julian a son is a man he certainly from his actions and from what he said is very fearful of what would happen to him in the u.s. officials for his license. they now have a forty eight thousand one hundred thirty five page. statement made in court. manages the. subject on the grand jury seating which is now open. to counsel and subpoenas everywhere to comment on public record about how. grand jury we have received.

the spirit mention my name two people have been detained at the u.s. . gated by the f.b.i. well this is julian assange just chance really to set the record straight he's just spent his third night in the ecuadorian embassy of course this is the latest a massive twist in the own going saugor it's been an eighteen month legal battles ahead and then at the end of last month we saw the u.k. supreme court reject his appeal against the extradition to sweden and the legal team in the science of running out of options really and so he took this that seeking asylum at the ecuadorian embassy says he's hopeful that that's going to be accepted if he were to go to sweden not only is the pretrial detention in sweden extremely harsh he wouldn't have access that he does right now to the media all the same freedoms remember he's been on house arrest in the case more than five hundred days no no clear indication of exactly what the outcome will be and the stakes are

many extremely high i was our to correspondent sara first what has the first black president done for the black community in america nothing according to some just recently obama's been catering to a number of minority communities here in the u.s. versus the l g b t community that it was the immigrant community. this is a temporary stop gap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented driven patriotic young people it is that it is the right thing to do. so what about african-americans obama hasn't made moves to deal with african-american inequalities in this country an op ed titled obama's not the first black president he's the first president who's black wilmer leon describes obama as quote a functionary of a government in the service of wealth and empire dr wellner leon himself joined us earlier to talk about his article i first asked him what he meant by saying that

obama is not the first black president here's his take what i mean by that is as i see in the article that a black president would have come to the oval office with a black agenda he would be using his bully pulpit to articulate an advocate for positions in issues that are specifically relevant to the african-american community for example disproportionate. levels of incarceration in this country disproportionate levels of poverty in terms of the black community in this country health care issues that are specifically targeted to the african african-american community. as the first president who is black president obama is focused more on the national agenda as the president of the united states as a functionary of the united states government as opposed to an individual who came

to the oval office with an agenda that was. created or designed to specifically target issues in the african-american community and i want to be very clear and say that as i say in the article that this has everything to do with policy it has everything to do with an agenda and has absolutely nothing to do with the person or personalities and you also mentioned in your article the n.d.a. . extra digicel judicial assassination and also guantanamo bay how is that part of the black agenda well it's not so much a part of the black agenda as it is i say in the piece that an african-american president would not have signed the two thousand and twelve defense authorization act that in part allows for indefinite detention of american citizens that an african-american president would not have backed the assassination of moammar gadhafi in american presence of an african-american or black president would not

have. had a attorney general come out and say that the united states government can a fascinated americans anywhere in the world in the reason is because a black president would have come into the office with a historical understanding for example of the f.b.i. counterintelligence program a black president would understand how the united states government infiltrated the civil rights organizations. in the sixty's and undermined the efforts of the civil rights organization he would understand how the government has been used over time to undermine efforts for civil rights and civil liberties by african-american organizations so having that historic understanding he would be less inclined to to support legislation or or support ideas that would enable the government to engage in those types of behaviors today do you think that he doesn't have a historical and understanding of what has happened in the civil rights era and

also i'm sure that president obama particularly being a constitutional scholar is very much aware of that history but again because he does not bring that agenda into the oval office that that's not what is controlling his thought process that is not what is controlling his vision he is more concerned with as he says he's the president of everybody and also i want to be very clear to say i'm not saying that he should bring this to to the oval office i'm making the observation that he has not and that it's very important at the end of the day what i believe the african-american community needs to understand that is if we as a community if we as an interest group are looking to have our issues addressed then we have to get we have to make it happen we have to do as roosevelt said to a philip randolph in one thousand thirty six he said yes mr randolph i have i agree

with you go out and make me do it i think there are too many of us in the african-american community that are sitting idly by waiting for president obama to do what we believe needs to be done instead of being in the streets as the gay and lesbian community has been being in the streets as the hispanic community has been we need to be in the streets championing our issues the same way that other organizations such. as a pack there's no way in the world that a pack is going to sit idly by and allow an american president not to focus foreign policy on on israel in the manner in which they want it addressed and so if we have concerns in our community then we need we need to move away from the politics of personality. and start understanding the politics of policy because it's one thing to have an african-american individual sitting in the white house

that's that's wonderful that symbolism is incredibly powerful and incredibly valuable but at the end of the day politics is not about symbolism politics is about policy well now are you surprised i mean obama didn't really grow up in any relation to the black culture he didn't grow up in the ghetto he's always been a very privileged man with a rich family are you surprised that hand kind of invading really honing in on the focus on the african community well first of all the african-american community is much more diverse than than urban and president obama did not grow up wealthy i mean his he was born to a single mother. he grew up his mother worked a number of jobs he grew up with his grandparents true he did not grow up in the traditional will say ask an american community but the point again is not individually focused it's policy focused so whether president obama grew up in

harlem or whether president obama grew up in denver colorado it's still incumbent upon those in the african-american community to ensure that our interests are being articulated and that our interests are being acted upon no matter who is in the white house and i think that that to me is the point that your audience needs to take away from this conversation is that the fact that there is an african-american in the white house is a wonderful thing but for us for too many of us to sit by and expect that because he is african-american he is then going to address the issues that we need addressed is a fallacy we have to be out in the streets we have. the civil rights movement was a movement and it was part of a process and too much of that process has been forgotten and so now because we've had the sixty fourth voting rights act and sixty four civil rights act and sixty

five voting rights act we think that progress. that progress has been made in that so now we don't need to engage in those politics anymore but now is the definite time that we need to as we see the rise of the tea party as we listen to mitt romney as we see that that ryan's budget is looking to cut social programs we have to be in the streets advocating championing championing ensuring that our interests are addressed instead of expecting that someone is going to do so what would you say to people who look at obama and say i voted for him because he's black because that in itself is just such an iconic symbol of progress across the world that we elected the first african-american president and i will continue to vote for and just because he is black even now he's not really making any overtures to change policy that i would say you get what you vote for and you voted for symbolism and you got symbolism now but politics again has to be more than

symbolic it has to be based on policy so there are those of us on the one hand in the again the it's the symbolism is incredibly powerful incredibly valid but politics is about policy and so if we as a community are interested in policy outcome then we have to be putting pressure on the system to ensure that we get it and there are too many people with the champagne bottles left over from two thousand and eight that are walking around still celebrating the fact that we have a president who is black those who have pay models are empty and now we have to invigorate ourselves we have to get back out into the street we have to get back into the process. yes and engage the process to be sure that we get disproportionate incarceration addressed and the other issues that are that are so important to our community and we're i just wanted to elucidate your point

a little bit with visuals on we have a graph right now of showing how americans have twenty two times the amount of wealth i'm sorry white americans have twenty times the amount of wealth and blacks a figure that's doubled since the great depression and when unemployment was at eight percent in this country black unemployment was by far the highest of any race that is an incredible incredible demonstration of the fact that their white americans in this country have over one hundred thousand dollars in wealth that's not salary that's that's tangible assets home stocks bonds cash on hand african-americans have less than five on average five thousand dollars of actual wealth so it's one thing to talk about unemployment at eight point two or eight point three percent but it's another thing to talk about poverty because that is the actual the real systemic problem that has been a drag on this economy much longer than the last four or five years we've been

dealing with this downturn in terms of employment and in the unemployment rate so for a president to be talking about unemployment but to not be specifically talking about poverty that is a perfect example of why we in the african-american community because we are disproportionately impacted by those poverty statistics and by those poverty realities we have to be out there advocating that the ryan budget not be cut as it relates to social programs we have allowed the whole structure of the conversation to shift to be focused on what's not going to be cut instead of taking control of the narrative in understanding we have. to focus the conversation on what's actually going to be spent and where and broadening the perspective of the slogan on the stem mic causes of why this is absolute thank you so much for coming on talking about your op ed it's a it's a great one thank you i was dr wilmer leon political science professor for howard

university remember the days when flying used to be fun days before having to get in there microwave or molested to get on the plane or bloggers expose have virtually anything can be snuck through the naked body scanner machines at the transportation security administration continues to claim that the methods of screening are essential for security so are these machines just a form of security theater there i spoke to the blogger who exposed it all jonathan corbett president of for ten technologies here's his take. be good to be back with you the most recent video has checkpoint footage security cameras at the airport actually used that i got by freedom of information act request in cleveland ohio and i went through quite a process to get that because the t.s.a. is actually telling any airport that i request footage from that they're not allowed to disclose the footage for security reasons this despite the fact that the t.s.a. frequently releases videos of security checkpoints for example when they recently

detained us senator rand paul they released that when they arrested the woman for telling them that they couldn't grow for daughter they released that but any time i requested security sensitive but eventually cleared them back down i got the video that can pretty clearly show me take a metal object that that's in the side pocket straight through the new body scanners and be allowed on my way and what's the worst case scenario that could happen and just kind of elaborate on a hypothetical scenario of what this actually means. sure so the exploit that i found in the body scanners essentially allows any metallic object through so that that could be for example a firearm or it could be anything that you put in a tin can and put on your side so we're talking explosives we're talking any kind of weapon can get through these body scanners and the same can't be said for metal detectors there's no way to using the laws of physics to redirect magnetic waves in a way that's that's not going to be could be detected by

a metal detector you can't wrap your metallic object in something you can't put it on a special place in your body these body scanners on the other hand have blind spots and jonathan you just recently went to the supreme court and presented this evidence talk about what happened. correct so i have sued the t.s.a. back when the scanners came out as primary screening in november two thousand and ten so far the t.s.a. has successfully argued that i don't have the right to a trial if you can if you can imagine that a citizen coming in saying the actions of this government are unconstitutional and the government saying you don't get a trial so i've taken that issue to the u.s. supreme court or we're waiting on a decision to see if they'll accept the case and you mention in your most recent video jonathan that the t.s.a. has actually been threatening media organizations and other entities to not let this information get out alive or it more on that correct correct about a day after i release the march video i started getting e-mails from reporters

telling me that they had been strongly cautioned by the t.s.a. not to cover the story that i was putting forward the t.s.a. apparently does not want to get out that these body scanners are actually completely ineffective because we've been told since they came out that these these are absolutely necessary for for safety if we don't have them people bring bombs to the airport and what comes out is that it's actually easier to get a bomb through a body scanner than it is through a metal detector so why the double speak john here they are saying they're essential to their national security to our national security to have these scanners this billion dollar industry that we've already spent so much money on yet they're so easily defeated as you've shown time and time again in your series of videos why why do they still say that you know. the kind of more happy side of the spectrum the it could just be that they're embarrassed you know they spent a lot of taxpayer dollars on these machines that essentially don't work and they probably don't want to admit that they're a failure on the other side of the spectrum this was a billion dollars that went to government contractors that have significant ties

with with defense spending already one of the companies is owned by a company that ran out of another one of the companies has a lobbyist that was the former head of the t.s.a. so we see a lot of interesting political connections in here and there's. there's certainly a potential the following the money will find you the answer to your question do you think that they could be potentially misappropriating funds just to you know pat pat pat their buddies on the back and kind of throw some cash i mean we already know that the scanners make us less safe not more safe. right and it's hard to believe that the t.s.a. didn't know about the exploit that i published before published it you know i didn't have any access to these machines to do any kind of testing or or quality assurance and the they did these machines have been in testing in development in research for the last about decade and the t.s.a. has had plenty of chance to explore these options and quite honestly think that

they were well aware of exactly the exploit that i brought forward but instead they wanted to rush forward the shiny new technology. to advance their security theater or to reward the contractors that have connections with them and jonathan let's hear a little sound bite of the woman who turned the tables on the t.s.a. . pay back pat down apparently a former t.s.a. agent who was flying from fort myers florida two months ago oversees the pat down that she found intrusive so she apparently demonstrated as you see here to her former supervisor how she was touched now the former agent is facing mr minor battery charges for the hands on display so is this what we should do should we turn the tables on these t.s.a. agents i mean what do you recommend for people to really do. oh it's actually an interesting concept is this is not the first time it's happened often times when when people are surprised by a government agent grabbing their genitals their response is to push them away and

then you know the t.s.a. response and says that that's violence as if the sexual assault was just perpetrated on the traveler does not count as violence so what do we do you know this is just going to get you ended get in handcuffs and end up in jail instead just opt out any time you see a checkpoint that has a body scan or simply tell the agent that you refused to go through that you opt out and they are required to give you a pat down and to let you through the checkpoint without using the body scanner the vanisher this is the pat downs take about five minutes whereas the body scanners take about ten seconds if if every passenger even a tenth of the passengers requested a pat down they'd have to stop using the body scanners because the they wouldn't have the time for it so that's that's the number one tool in our arsenal to make these things stop and the next is obviously congress and making sure that your voice is heard with the people that represent you it's an election year and this is an issue that we should make known jonathan talk about the fact that the this

touching of genitalia is actually required in the t.s.a. training. absolutely if you've ever received a full body pat down they've probably given you a speech before hand where they told you that they're going to touch your leg from the bottom until they meet resistance on your inner thigh and a quick anatomy lesson will show that resistance is actually your genitals the t.s.a. will not actually use any kind of anatomically correct word but their official policy for the pat downs is to go that far and also the put their hands in your pants to check your waistband so so so this this this is what's official policy all travelers have an a so you receive the same pat down just because the t.s.a. screeners hate doing it so a lot of times the t.s.a. screener will take it a little easier so what about the people who don't want to be groped in their genitalia and then they they also don't want to be microwaved i mean it's like if you opt out of the body scanner machines then you're subject to being molested show

or we colloquially call that the double opt out which which i've done many times basically if you go to an airport you can try and get yourself towards a metal detector rather than a body scanner just because there's only several hundred metal body scanners now so there's usually a metal detector line open it doesn't always work and on three different occasions i told them that they can't scan or touch me and if they check to me from the airport one of those times they actually detain me for an hour before letting me leave and do you think that this is just a dehumanizing method it just seems like you know the t.s.a. is someone at it's not the people's fault it's just the training mechanisms and of course these body scanners don't do anything as you've proven so why this dehumanization first the shoes now you know touching your genitals just what do you think about that. absolutely and one hand you have to kind of feel bad for these t.s.a. screeners before two thousand and ten the complaints they get was why do i have to take off my shoes or why can't i bring this water bottle through and afterwards

it's why are you molesting my child so these screeners have a pretty rough job and on the other hand you can't really feel bad for them because they're they're continuing this employment. in oh what's what's the solution it's a policy change the policies come down from above and these screeners have no ability to use any kind of commonsense if they if they use their common sense they're disciplined for it and they also aren't given background checks and i know that you've called to abolish the t.s.a. but to wrap of the segment really quickly what do you think about the t.s.a. expanding to checkpoints and bus depots train stations across the country. i actually saw my first viper team about a month ago at a music festival of all places in detroit these viper teams are coming around to all modes of transportation so if you think you can avoid the t.s.a. touching you just by avoiding airports you should probably react now before they're they end up in your bus station and subways all over absolutely thank you so much

for coming on i was jonathan corbett president of technologies well known over everyone is suffering in this recession there is one industry that's booming sex toys the adult toy industry in america is doing its part and stimulating the economy in tough times christine for the reports. it's waterproof it's battery operated it has multiple patterns of vibration they are pleasure tools with power so it's sort of like several toys in one and it turns out these toys for touching are actually untouchable there's three. three areas of the economy that tend to do ok in a recession alcohol makeup and sex toys. and sugar in baltimore maryland owner jack jones is having her best year of sales ever i used to sell like one or two a month maybe three or four now i'm selling like ten a week there is a little tiny ball inside this ball sales of these lot of balls thanks in part of

the new york times best seller fifty shades of grey but she says sales of just about everything are up this is a trend that's happening all around the world and it's not just brick and mortar stores sales of sex toys online have never been better and it's bringing about new inventions and innovations sex toys have become a seven billion dollar a year industry worldwide and are set to bring in fifty two billion in annual business by the year two thousand and twenty at jimmy jane dot com another thriving business it's not hard to tell the man behind the company has a background in electrical engineering and industrial design so form six is unique in that it is completely waterproof and her chargeable c.e.o. and founder ethan bowden says he's hoping to be the steve jobs of the sex toy industry products that are really designed for extreme of stimulation for clearance stimulation are very popular this one takes the to the next level so what's taken the industry to the next level as the economy plunged more people are staying home

too and it's sort of an investment write something to do at home something people have been doing at home for more than a century this vibrator is from around one nine hundred fourteen the vibrator actually just the fifth electric device to get a u.s. patent it's invention. back in the late one thousand nine hundred is the subject of the new movie hysteria. calling for the dust and because some great sick and that's what was coming today you don't have to ask for them if they knew trojan vibrating tray for your message was out there everywhere from drug store shelves to t.v. commercials so much better don't blow your hair back from taboo to trendy from novelty to necessity it's undeniable the sex toy industry is now producing gratifying profits as well as pleasure. christine.