so there was this are not to an attack on a pro regime news channel in syria kill seven off to president assad declares on national t.v. the country is in a state of war. the security operation for the london olympics is on the overshadowing the sport the games organizers are also criticised for flaunting battleships and rockets when it seems the and then people still easily open to attack. and support for joining the sun's keeps flooding in ecuador embassies in britain and the us a bombarded with ten thousand messages asking them to grant the top whistleblower i saw them. i'll be back with another summary for half an hour from now in the meantime we cross to washington d.c. and the i want to show where the latest developments in the case of wiki leaks key source bradley manning is up for discussion stay with us for that.

welcome to the alone show you'll get the real headlines with none of the mersey we're coming live out of washington d.c. my name is christine for the filling in for a loan and today and we have lots to talk about well this goes the latest in the case of private first class bradley manning who's pretrial hearing brought a teeny bit of good news his lawyers will now be able to get access to information they've been asking for plus my bunny ranch owner dennis hopper wants to bring the world's oldest profession prostitution to one of the world's oldest organized sporting events the olympic games will have him on the show to discuss all of all that and more for you tonight including a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at what the mainstream media decided to miss.

all right so all these supreme court rulings handed down yesterday plus the mother of all rulings expected thursday on the affordable care act and president obama and mitt romney well they seem confused about how to respond. there was massive new fallout from the supreme court's decision to arizona's illegal immigration law for health care and immigration to money and politics the supreme court is certainly shaping a lot of the political debate overshadowed yesterday the court strikes down montana's century old campaign finance limits arizona's immigration law was gutted by the u.s. supreme court arizona congressman ben quayle says his state won the shadow of the supreme court looming over a presidential campaign with two candidates mixing reactions to major decisions with direct attacks on the trail given the failure of the immigration policy in this country i would have preferred to see the supreme court give more latitude to

the states new questions are being raised about justices getting political antonin scalia now accused of being a quote politician in a robe but other states with similar laws are now assessing how this ruling will affect their own enforcement when we expect to hear the u.s. supreme court decision on the health. decision on their most arizona's immigration laws was too big to ignore and yet mitt romney tried as any day they're not talking about the economy they believe is a bad day for their campaign but are as you're what is that any day they're not talking about the economy is a bad day for the campaign guess what i think a lot of voters might agree but here's where the problem is and where the media misses time and time again just because the candidates are talking about the economy doesn't mean what they're saying is true and most often doesn't mean it's relevant to the majority of americans. i've had a real job in the real and the real economy i want to bring those skills to america the debate in this election is about how we grow fast and how we create more jobs

and how they pay down our debt cut cap and balance was the right way for america to deal with this financial distress you just can't keep on planning to spend massively more money than you take in so here's what i do number one bring down our corporate and employer tax rates to be competitive with the world number two make our regulatory bureaucratic burden lower building a world class transportation system is one of the reasons that america became an economic superpower in the first place the rate of regulatory burden has increased form. since obama has become very. all right too much regulation is a song often sung by republicans economist dean baker writes about the regulation monster in his column by the same name how red tape and bureaucratic paperwork are strangling businesses and making those job creators hold back and guess what democrats aren't off the hook either according to baker they have their own

mythical creatures as well like for example the confidence fairy apparently according to many on the left the confidence fairy brings investment jobs and growth as a reward to the countries that practice painful austerity these are theories brought up time and time again theories with a ring i'll admit but often times they no longer ring true yet we hear them over and over by our current and potential hopeful lawmakers i would love to hear from the candidates about something regarding the economy that no one is talking about how this new study that just came out from the nonpartizan institute on taxation and economic policy the study compared growth in states with the highest personal income taxes on residents versus states that don't tax their residents incomes at all and said those out on average the economies of states with the highest personal income tax in the united states more than eight percent surpassed or matched the economic growth. of states without personally income tax and that i'm talking about these real issues that real americans want to know about the candidates are simply

pointing fingers and oftentimes that's because those asking the question those in the mainstream media aren't asking the right questions i know i know it's more fun to attend a boxing match than a college lecture but the mainstream media might serve the public a little better if they think a little less about the fun and a little more about finding out what most americans want to have a better handle on focusing on the economy is more than using the word economy in a speech or spouting out false statements and our mainstream media seems to be neglecting its duty to question to fact check and to push harder just another thing i've decided to miss. all right we want to read you the latest now in the case of private first class bradley manning the u.s. soldier accused of leaking classified u.s. diplomatic cables to wiki leaks and let's not forget manning has already spent seven hundred sixty five days behind bars nearly

a year of that in solitary confinement before he was even charge now at fort meade yesterday a one day pretrial hearing for manning brought about some new and i would argue positive developments you see prosecutors in the case just hadn't been playing nice manning's defense attorney david coombs had asked time and time again to have access to evidence prosecutors plan to use were guarding the damage these alleged leaks have caused to national security it's a matter at the heart of the case after all what damage this has caused just probably why several news outlets have also asked to see this evidence and have also been refused well yesterday u.s. military judge agreed with manning's defense and ordered prosecutors to grant manning and his defense more access to the documents that they plan to use as evidence i want to talk about this and a whole lot more joining me is kevin got stolen civil or civil liberties blogger for firedoglake dot com kevin thank you so much for being on the show i know we had some technical difficulties yesterday but let's start with these recent

developments i know up until this point it seems like the u.s. government had been devoting a whole lot of resources to prevent one of its citizens from getting a fair trial talk about what this means. well going all the way back to march the defense had been fighting the judge in order to get damage reports and david coombs mannix defense lawyer had made the case that in order to defend bradley manning properly he needed to see these damage reports that allegedly would show whether any damage was caused to the united states in the aftermath of the leaks and it seemed so far in the trial or the court martial that coombs has been particularly interested in what might have happened and what sort of response the state department would have put together to the u.s. state embassy cables so he's been working to get these reports and it looks like many of them are going to be handed over in some form so that they can be

reviewed for the case yeah it's interesting i'm not an attorney but from what i understand i mean a in most cases both sides have the legal right to you know have access to see the evidence that's going to be presented in the case so it's been really interesting that it's taken this long and it's taken an order by a judge but i know that another concern was that without these this evidence the so-called evidence there was no way to to prove or to confirm that the government was even being honest that they weren't mis were misrepresenting the case that i'm wondering what you think heaven is going to come out of that. well the key here is that there is this office called the office of national counterintelligence executive that's known as six and i think many people who have followed the story of wiki leaks and the way the government responded would be unaware of the fact that this agency took it upon themselves to contact over sixty different agencies

and ask for damages the damage assessment has to be provided to on sex so they themselves could put together their own report now the main headline about the prosecutor's lying to the defense that came out in the past couple of days stems from the fact that the present years were taking it as there's only a working paper there's only a draft of this damage report and so because of this we don't have to turn over this damage report to mannix defense that was the argument that the prosecutors were making but the judge has not brought this she shouldn't buy it and it's a very good that the defense is going to get to look at all of this material certainly the victoria and one small battle that this is a long war ahead regarding this case let's talk about yesterday and i was sort of following this on twitter following some dramas and action going on outside of the courtroom i want to you know fill in our viewers about this apparently on you know the few reporters who actually do show up to cover this we're told they could not

go into the media center where they're usually go so they can you know work on their laptops and record things they had to go if they wanted to they go in the courtroom that they can only bring a pencil and paper why our viewers may be asking could they not go in the media center well apparently there was a retirement party being planned is this real gathering. this is might be the peak of absurdity in the trial or of the court martial bradley manning so far that the military officials are officers at fort meade would book the same space and not be able to on book a. hearing was scheduled for the afternoon i'm yesterday but this is back happened and i think they were also upset that someone found out that it happened quickly a journalist from central or w.l. central dot org her name is alexa o'brien went to the media center to talk to

a public affairs official and found out about the retirement party and it's believed that she should not have found out about it and that's possibly why later many around the world found that she was being detained by a military police officer and almost removed from the premises yeah like so brian certainly been doing some really good reporting on this and i was following her tweets yesterday and it seemed like she was really given a hard time by the police there just one other question about the media can i mean i think i might have seen this in something that you wrote but very few media showing a very few especially mainstream media the new york times i mean how many times as a reporter with the new york times been to cover this case. i think one to two times max and i think that just says a lot about. the sort of interest that an organization like the new york times has at this point i mean they were a wiki leaks partner and had

a fall out but they don't even follow closely what sort of. fall or what sort of consequences they're possible source you know that you provide if bradley manning did commit the leaks they got all the scoops that they published in the past year or so. they got him from bradley manning so the fact that there is such a difference to bradley manning's why the fact that you might be it was a lower and is being prosecuted in this manner is just stunning i want to talk to you about some recent news with wiki leaks itself the founder julian assange i know he has been you know in london he acts as a show here on our t.v. he went to the ecuadorian embassy recently i he's asking for asylum and recently some really prominent americans have written a letter to ecuador as president president asking him to in fact grant asylum to us i know you signed

a letter also filmmakers oliver stone michael moore noam chomsky's name is on there daniel ellsberg glenn greenwald's i want to put a little bit of that letter up on the screen for people to see you know their concerns and i know you're concerned to have and it says we believe mr assad has good reason to fear extradition to sweden as there is a strong likelihood that once in sweden he would be imprisoned and then likely extradited to the united states as u.s. legal expert and commentator glenn greenwald recently noted were assigned to be charged in sweden he would be imprisoned under very oppressive conditions where he would be held incommunicado rather than released on bail just briefly having because we're almost at a time why do you think that ecuador should in fact take a stand. well i think the key here is that people are suggesting there is a lot of paranoia on the part of the sign supporters to another just beating the narcissism of julius and i think the response to this sort of petulant argument is

that there is this why grand jury investigation that is being carried out the f.b.i. has been involved it's impaneled in alexandria virginia they're in besta gating out at least seven to ten civilians from our all over the world including the united states who are founders managers past staff members have ties they're seeking communications they're filing subpoena as they're calling people to testify and i think that julian assange has a lot of valid reasons to fear being moved from the u.k. to sweden and then possibly being extradited to sweden to the united states right kevin has told blogger and fired eight firedoglake appreciate you keeping us updated and really keeping a close eye on bradley manning's case good to have you on the show. all right well it's time for our first break of the evening about when we return although you why a self described a christian libertarian joked about assaulting nuns then we'll have attorney and

blogger debbie hines on to discuss the supreme court decision from yesterday that hasn't received the attention it deserves. cultures that so much different and there's a huge decision a person on the mark when the downing of a turkish military jet by syria may prove to be the tipping point allowing nato to force regime change in damascus the. mission is free accreditation free in-store charges free. range month three. three stooges free. download free blog a lot of videos for your media projects a free media dog r.t. dot com.

would be soon which brightened if you newly bought song from tongues to pressure inside. these friends don't talk don't come. well here in the us we're used to hearing the ravings of outrageous right wing shock jocks from calling birth control users sluts to those repeated homophobic and racist rants and americans routinely turn on the radio for the purpose of hearing this ignorant hostility spewing from the airwaves but last week one d.j. in iowa named jam jan mickelson went beyond the typical vitriol when he called for a violent attack on a group of nuns take a listen. they're. headed towards washington to lobby against the ryan plan

could you guys you have any power to pull that the nuns on the bus or in just a whip them go oh. it's always fun. now you were that correctly mickelson and congressman tom latham if you had the power to order an assault on nuns exercising their first amendment rights now although this was a joke it was very poor taste and laid them out found it funny but what is it about this cross-country tour that gets the christian right so riled up well it's probably because these nuns are highlighting how republican christians preach some pretty unchristian ideas. the work i do as a catholic holding office conforms to the social doctrine as best i could make of it he only talks about individual responsibility and that's only half the story the rest of the story is that we know we can be responsible but only in community we have to have each other's backs that's what the christian faith is about and so i

like to say that because congressman ryan only has half the facts he's a one hundred percent wrong when it comes to interpret in this space. well it's not hard to see why these nuns have such a problem with paul ryan's budget sixty two percent of his five point three trillion dollar deficit reduction plan would come out of programs that serve the poor food stamps medicaid and pell grants to name a few meanwhile ryan is pushing for an additional four point six trillion dollars in tax cuts for the rich while claiming these can be paid for by closing loopholes he hasn't named yet as it stands his plan would raise the after tax income of millionaires by twelve and a half percent while significantly harming the well being of the poor. is that would jesus would do it's not hard to see why these nuns are so upset ryan isn't building up the common good of all he's sharpening class distinctions he purports to oppose and because he's exploiting his religion to push this agenda and being

called out for it other hypocrites on the far right are taking offense people like john mickel says. it's more of just a with them no. it's always fun. well they say that he's evil they say he's a fake catholic they're the ones that threw the first punch. and you know one of these nuns never threw any punches they simply tried to stand up for what they believe how they interpret the bible but nicholson a self-proclaimed christian libertarian apparently thinks that voicing a different opinion is grounds for violence that doesn't really sound like christian behavior to me moreover the nuns never called ryan a fake catholic or evil but maybe mickelson feels the need to lie considering he's defending a disingenuous deficit reduction plan that's really a giveaway to the rich either way it's not surprising to see him get so worked up about these nuns if there were more people of faith standing up to the religious

right hypocrisy the republican party a might find itself in very serious trouble. all right yesterday we discussed in depth some of the rulings that the u.s. supreme court handed down how it overturned three and held one of the provisions of the s.b. ten seventy as immigration law and how it also effectively shut the door for any revisions to its twenty ten citizens united decision that gave cooperate corporations rather the ability to spend without limit on political campaigns and also how the high court ruled that no longer may states require life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for juveniles convicted in murder cases there was a lot of talk about and still is about another case the u.s. supreme court ruled on yesterday the state of maryland no representation without population after twenty one law put into place because of the problems that the numbers from the u.s. census were causing with congressional voting districts now the census counts those

who are incarcerated living in prisons and small rural districts in some of these cases as part of the population of those cities and towns but that massively inflates the population in many cases and since prisoners in maryland can't vote say lawmakers thought they shouldn't be included in the population count for voting districts several conservative groups had challenge this reduced redistricting plan but did so under the guise of discrimination saying maryland's black voters voting strength was being diluted all the state's prison population is majority black the supreme court did not agree that discrimination was a factor here joining me now to talk more about this is attorney and blogger debbie hines founder of legal speaks dot com also a huffington post contributor let's first talk about yesterday's ruling how big of a deal is this oh it's a very big deal it's particularly a big deal for civil rights groups because they got what they wanted which in essence was making the vote fair because in maryland the two districts where most of the prisons are located at the first in the six their majority districts and so

obviously when african-american prisoners leave when they get out of jail they're not going to be voting in those districts they're going to be going back to their home address their legal address and voting so it's an extreme league. the big deal and what the state did is it basically said you know we're going to count their last you know address where they lived as the address where they live in some other states are following suit is that right yes delaware i think california and there's probably going to be others that are going to be following now that the supreme court has ruled favorably on exactly what they've done and of course it's not just redistricting and congressional voting districts let's talk about some other efforts that have been going on in several states in this country it seems to me mostly battleground states like florida and ohio. things have been going on to try to affect the outcome of the election we're talking about voter id laws among others. i mean that's one there's the voter id laws there's and there's so many realms and complexities related to that there's also new laws regarding you know

people who have served their time in prison get out get a job pay their taxes a lot of them having to fight for their right to vote but talk a little bit about these voter id laws what's going on where it's happening and why it should be concerning the voter id laws should be concerning because it's basically just an effort by the republicans to disenfranchise a lot of minority voters not just african-americans but latinos and other non-whites and so what is being done is the justice department has been pretty successful they've looked at the ones that are in the southern states where pursuant to historical efforts they have to have a pre-clearance so they've been successful in alabama that was upheld by the u.s. district court for the district of columbia that alabama's new voting law was not right and so they were pursued other states in texas and south carolina were told by the justice department no way this is definitely discrimination and so texas and south carolina are now suing the justice department and it's going on in one end

and pennsylvania has individual lawsuits statter by some of the citizens there there's a lawsuit that spied the. a.c.l.u. because there are people there that they can although they're going. be provided with a free voter i.d. from the state they can't get the voter i.d. well let me stop you there since you mention pennsylvania because i want to listen there's a pennsylvania state lawmaker who is a republican and he seems to think that this is a really big deal that too many people who aren't citizens are voting so let's hear what he has to say and we can listen close because he seems to take a little while to get to why he thinks voter id laws are so important and by the end the truth kind of comes out. this is about making sure that every voting citizen of the state of pennsylvania has an opportunity to cast years or older to make sure that it's not being defrauded this is about photo identification voter

i.d. which is going to allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania done. so it's about fraud and then it's just about his idea he says i have to show the id when i go you know to buy a six pack of beer i have to show it when i buy sudafed you know but then we get to the real reason he wants what do you think about that i mean he's blatantly saying was a little surprised by that because he's a little off message with the party because the republican party has been saying oh no it's voter fraud it's rampant we've got to do something about it people are voting twice illegal immigrants are voting and now we hear what progressive that been saying all along it's all about winning the election that's it it's so interesting to me because a lot of people for some reason this this issue resonates with a lot of people they're worried like you said that illegal immigrants are voting you know most illegal immigrants in this country don't seem to try to be breaking any laws they seem to be wanting to not be noticed you know they want to come here they want to work and then there's you know the one story out of seventeen million

where a dog gets a voter resits registration card or somebody who's deceased how common is this well even by the republicans own data that they put together it is so rare. i mean what what's being said is that you have a greater chance of being stricken by the like. voter fraud but yet they're pursuing it but i think we're hearing the real reason they are well they're spending they're not just pursuing and spending time they're spending a lot of money trying to do this and we see people like governor rick perry in texas. scaring people making people in his state think that this is a real problem what you think is actually behind this i think what's actually behind it is what the republicans have said all along that their number one goal their number one priority is to see that president barack obama is a one term president but why don't they get a good candidate to run against him or what you know any one of they spend their effort doing that as opposed to trying to cheat every part of the system what doesn't seem like that's the republican's game plan and instead of making their

party more inclusive and bringing more people into the party it seems that they're trying to take away from those that would be voting in the democratic party that's the game plan what is your hope just back to this decision yesterday by the u.s. supreme court affirming maryland's law what is your hope that happens going forward one of the one of the really good things about the case is that hopefully going forward it'll have an impact on how the census bureau counts people because right now that's exactly how the census bureau counts they they set people in the prison population whatever district that is that's where you're counting so hopefully going forward it will have an even greater impact on the census in the next ten years founder of legal speak dot com also a contributor for having to post thanks for breaking it all down for us all to talk about. time now for another short break but don't go away when we come back we'll talk to the moonlight bunny ranch owner dennis hopper who wants to bring prostitution to the olympics in london this summer but does he think he'll be able

to overcome stiff resistance to the plan find out after that. i was.