welcome back to the big picture i'm tom marvin coming up in this half hour ever since the citizens united decision states have been trying to find ways to fight back against the billionaire takeover of our democracy well rhode island is passed a new bill trying to put transparency back into american politics will this be the start of a nationwide trend also americans love their furry feline friends with over eighty four million cats and households across the country but new research suggests our love for cats might actually be driving women insane more on that in tonight's geeky science and what happened to the american politician who played up to working class citizens instead of flaunting money and wealth in their faces the time in this country when those in washington who wanted to be like the average joe but not anymore i'll explain in tonight's daily take.

the best of the us the news back in two thousand and eight when candidate barack obama trounced john mccain in the state of rhode island scooping up sixty three percent of the vote beating mccain by nearly thirty points. but despite the beat down republicans were hoping to make rhode island a battleground state this year maybe not for the presidency at least for senate races but allen is worth four electoral votes which may not sound like a lot but every vote will count this year was shaping up to be a very very close election but unfortunately for republicans their chances of picking up seats in that state just got slimmer that's because rhode island became the first state in the nation to pass a new law requiring political groups airing ads in that state to reveal their donors means or crawl roll over the koch brothers want to bring their corporate slush funds to rhode island and start financing attack ads against president obama progressives and they better be ready to reveal who they're getting their money from as one of the co-sponsors of the new disclosure law state representative chris

said without infringing on anyone's right to express their views this legislation provides the public with information about whose message it is that they're hearing it doesn't say they can't spread their message it just says they have to identify themselves to the public so what effect will this new law have on the republican electoral strategy in two thousand and twelve what are the chances other states may jump on board with this to answer that question is leaf on senior investigative reporter with united republican republic report lee welcome back and thanks for having me great to have you with us what what will the impact be do you think well as you mentioned in rhode island it might not be a pivotal state in the presidential election but there is one contested house race congressman cecily facing a spirited challenge from a republican brendan doherty and one of the outside groups the big money groups coming in to help doherty win the seat is the chamber of commerce and under this new law all the chamber which is very secretive historically has never disclosed

its donors according to this new law they would have to disclose their donors if they wanted to run ads so they've they began running ads earlier this year it will be intriguing interesting to see if they'll actually continue them through the summer just. supplied to super pacs as well as to the five a one c three and c. for the so-called nonprofit groups that karl rove has been particularly good at this hiding donors you know the super pacs are not actually a new thing because they're actually disclosed the very similar to the five twenty seven's we saw in two thousand and four which revolutionary about this bill is that it does apply to these five a one c. groups like the chamber like some of these euphemistically named groups like american action form that are completely secret and that's how corporate money has been dumped into our elections using these one hundred percent secret five a one c. groups. radio waves don't respect state boundaries or television waves you know arguably in one hundred percent cable universe there could be some geographic

distinctions but the odds are really high that ads that are run in states nearby rhode island will be received by people in rhode island does that mean that these groups could be hit with this law if their ads are being seen in rhode island even if they're originating in a nearby state i think a court will have to decide i think there will be lawsuits obviously any of these big money nonprofits these political action groups that hide their donors they will fight tooth and nail to defend their right to keep their donors secret and you know the providence media market blends in with boston you know this will come up as an issue of so it's yet to be seen yeah that's that's very interesting what are the possibilities that other states are there any other states that are seriously looking at this kind of legislation and and how is this related to the disclose act that the republicans shut down in the sun it mirrors the federal legislation that would make this at google all across the country and actually allow the citizens of this country to know who's buying all these ads on the state level is the only

place we'll see action because as you mentioned republicans have blocked any federal movement on this type of bill in california there's a grassroots movement to pass it it keeps being killed by the usual suspects of the republican caucus and a small number of conservative democrats that voted down over and over and over again in committee in connecticut they passed this law but the democratic governor governor malloy vetoed it i believe two and a half weeks ago. there are other states mostly in new england that are moving similar laws. through the legislature it's yet to be seen if any of it will be signed there's some talk in new york that they'd like to move something forward but governor cuomo says that he'd prefer secrecy and addition to public financing that's kind of how he even the cart there but it's tough to see. because a lot of republicans in the past have said they support unlimited giving but with disclosure but with the recent campaign landscape they've backed up and said you

know we support unlimited giving and it's secret would it be safe to say that there's been kind of a cycle created here that citizens united and really not just citizens and i mean when you go back to buckley or before bloddy i mean there's several supreme court cases in the last three decades that that in any case set the stage for the corruption of politicians and then we'll just call it that you know the campaign donations whatever and that those politicians then of both parties. clearly the majority the republican party the minority the democratic party but still in both parties those politicians then may give lip service to transparency but at the end of the day when it comes time to close that loop and bring full transparency forward they've been corrupted already and so they're afraid to allow this to come out or the biggest example is president obama he campaigned on disclosure he campaigned on transparency in cleaning up this dark money problem in this book he described that this is the problem the big money interests will will

hide behind lobbyists and influence policy decisions and it corrupts the whole system while president obama could issue an executive order today that mandates that companies that receive federal tax dollars have to disclose their campaign donations and that would include basically every chamber member that would include the koch brothers because koch industries receives federal contracts it would really apply to all the big players but he hasn't done it because lobbyists have threatened him and they've basically bought out politicians on both sides of the aisle because in congress they're moving forward a bill that would take the president's ability to even issue this this executive order away whoa i mean he could stop this entire process he could clean it up with the stroke of a pen but the lobbyists have made this their biggest priority the chamber of commerce said that if you did this it would be like libya comparing. bob it took about three they would go to war. and is there any. substantial movement to pressure president obama to do this while there are some good government groups

like public service and you know hats off to them they've done the best organizing around this but this is this is something that all reporters should be upset about because if you want to really cover the presidential race you have to know who's financing it and that's the big question for this year absolutely fund thank you for the great work you're doing thank you that was that was brilliant and other election news something interesting is happening in mexico that nation is headed for a recount in this presidential election the pre party which ran mexico for more than four generations looked like it was headed for an easy win collecting thirty eight percent of the vote in the recent election but due to inconsistency in the vote tallies more than half of all the ballots will be recounted the front runner in the contest is refusing to concede defeat until after the full recount recount is taking place in that allegations that the pre party bought boats with prepaid gift cards to news reports shortly after the election thousands of mexico city residents when i was shopping spree with gift cards they said were given to them by the pre

party which is accused of spending five million dollars on the gift cards seems obviously wrong to americans to do all of us but here's a question is it really any different than shadowy groups dropping hundreds of millions of dollars in big as gifts into t.v. stations and networks via advertising purchases. i don't think so thanks to citizens united we no longer have a democracy that sets an example for the rest of the world and if a billion dollars in mostly undisclosed money won't tilt the upcoming elections in favor republicans in the nationwide effort to suppress democratic voters might take a look at this map created by mother jones the states in red are the states that have introduced legislation to restrict voter access. to the polls in the last year as of april of this year twenty four states of attempted to do this and nine states including texas wisconsin iowa and several others have passed new laws requiring

voter i.d.'s just to vote these laws will affect three point eight million voters but here's the bigger picture exactly who are these voters who are going to be most affected by these voter id laws take a look at this chart compiled from data by the brannock brennan center for justice it shows the populations who are going to be most affected by the by the head of the photo id laws who doesn't have right now a valid photo i.d. twenty five percent of the african-american population twenty percent of the asian population one thousand percent of the latino's eighteen percent of eighteen to twenty four year olds eighteen eighteen percent of seniors fifteen percent of all people earning less than thirty five thousand dollars a year eleven percent of all voters eight percent whites notice a small these are these are mostly republican voters these are mostly democratic voters altogether these demographics make up a majority of those who don't have photo i.d.'s and those won't be able to vote

thanks to the new voting laws and gets what else is important about these demographics these are minorities poor people and seniors they all tend to vote for democrats what we're seeing nationwide is an effort not just to suppress with voters. but to suppress democratic voters in particular republicans argue this has to be done to fight back against rampant voter fraud that groups like acorn are rigging elections in favor of democrats that may sound like a real threat but it's not it's a lie voter fraud doesn't happen at least not nearly in the frequency the republicans claim it happens and certainly not for go enough to justify kicking millions of largely democratic voters off the rolls consider these numbers between two thousand and two thousand and ten six hundred forty nine million votes were cast in the general election during that same time there were forty seven thousand u.f.o.

sightings and four hundred forty one americans were killed by lightning but guess how many credible credible cases there were of in person voter fraud thirteen that's right there were more people exponentially more people killed by lightning strikes and even more people claiming they saw a u.f.o. and the number of people who committed voter fraud plain and simple this whole voter fraud thing is a scam the republicans hope they can continue it through november and win the election based on that. coming up way back when politicians in this country tried to make themselves look like average everyday citizens even nixon tried to make himself look like part of the american middle class. low days are a long lot i'll explain in tonight's village it.

is easy to. meet. wealthy british style. that's not on the title of. markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our.

it's thursday time to get toxoplasma gondii in america alone there are eighty six point four million at cats thirty three percent of u.s.

households own at least one for a feline louise and i have three or selves and while it's great that america is addicted to cute cuddly cats and all the joy they bring they could literally be driving women and maybe even men crazy according to a new study published in the archives a general psychiatry women infected with toxoplasma gondii a parasite found mostly in that group have a greater risk of attempting suicide. as it's more commonly known as the chief cause of disease called toxoplasmosis which usually has subtle and minor side effects but can have serious effects on a fetus whose mother contracts the disease during pregnancy and the parasite enters the body it enters the cells in forms cysts in the tissue of the muscles and of the brain because the cysts are contained within the cells the immune system can't fight them off the study of forty five thousand women in denmark found that those infected with t. gondii were one and a half times more likely to attempt suicide and those women who were not infected

and the risk of women attempting suicide rose if they had higher levels of t. gondii antibodies in their bodies senior author of the study said we can't say with certainty the t. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves but we did find a predictive association between infection and suicide attempts layer life that warrants additional studies a separate study of god he conducted by scientists at charles university in the czech republic those infected with the parasite had significantly lower reaction times. and much greater risks of being in a traffic accident so all these studies shouldn't persuade you from get your own for a friend they should serve as a wake up call ladies and possibly men time to let others clean out the litter box or the very least actually the most important thing since the study was done on women when they have yet studied men. results are probably going to be the same it's a better time to start wearing gloves when cleaning up after your cat. just

. that's the good the bad of the very very chaz mo philly asli ugly the good are tour . and italian police officer is being called a hero because he paid for stolen candy that a woman took from a supermarket just couldn't go the woman was obviously very scared and was shaking like a leaf he also said quote i realize she was not wealthy but one of those people who struggles to make it through the first week of the month and that's can deal isn't the only good samaritan police officer in italy across the nation there's been numerous reports of other officers pain for the stolen goods that shoplifters are taking to feed their families but that nation being swallowed into the european financial crisis it's nice to see police officers like. helping out the italian

citizens who are struggling to get by the bad congressman bill young yesterday young was asked by a constituent a fourth of july parade whether he would support the democratic proposal of raising the federal minimum wage to ten dollars an hour. when asked by the constituent young he said he would probably not support the polls and then when the constituent replied saying that the raise would ensure americans a living wage i replied that i would get a job fairly young as unaware of the fact that millions of minimum wage workers in america like the constituent he spoke to do work but are still unable to live off the low wages that they make and let's not forget young and his colleagues are doing all they can to keep our economy down makes it very hard for americans who don't have a job to find one. and the very very ugly governmental louis louis the founder of christian identity ministries in alabama is holding an annual conference this week the only people invited to attend according to the circulated flyer are

all white christian wrote that apologize for this racist hate speech who said this just. breaking any laws were not violating any ordinances we're bringing the word of god to people who. want it obviously or they wouldn't be here to write well of their they're part of the chosen race it shouldn't surprise you that among the attendees of the conference was the k.k.k. looseness colleagues are trying to take america back to the era of southern segregation and are openly spreading racist hate speech in this country and that is very very. you know it used to be that politicians presented themselves as being just average people part of the american middle class or as in the case of a rich guy like f.d.r.

at least understanding the needs of the middle class and working people. the idea that a rich donor by give money to a candidates campaign and then expect that candidate devote their way was shocking it was considered bribery in one hundred fifty two when senator richard nixon was running for vice president democrats pointed out that he'd taken eight hundred thousand dollars and one hundred fifty grand in today's money from some fat cat donors americans were so shocked by that allegation that nixon had to go on national television to address them it was a second most famous speech of all time right behind his i am not a crook speech as he tried to reassure americans that he would never ever cast a vote in a particular way or and rich him self because of his position as a senator i'm sure that you have read the charge and you've heard but i senator and it took eighteen thousand dollars from

a group of my supporters let me point out and i want to make this particularly put that no contributor to this bill no contributor to any of my. has ever received any consideration that he would not have received as an ordinary constituent. i just don't believe him and i we also like to candidates who are average people or at least could understand average people harry truman for example drove to missouri after his presidency lived in a modest home until his death jimmy carter walked to his inaugural as the washington post noted right afterwards but what undoubtedly will be most remembered about jimmy carter's inauguration was that long walk from the capitol to the executive mansion took in forty minutes to cover a mile and a half as he walked along with amy prancing jumping and dancing along at his side he was shattering recent presidential practice and legend the idea that

a president must be remote and removed from the people after he left the white house jimmy carter chose not to get rich but instead to build habitat for humanity houses and work for world peace even richard nixon knew how important it was to seem like an average american when running for public office i am going if it's time to give to the television radio audience audience a complete financial history. everything i ever everything i've spent everything i own. and i want you to know i should say this that doesn't have a mink coat but she does have a respectable republican cloth coat we did get something a bit after the election. a man down in texas on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog we got

a message from union station baltimore saying they had a package for. it went down to get. you know what it was it was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate and all the way you x. . the checkers speech then came reagan and greed is good with lavish inaugural balls costing millions paid for by millionaires and billionaires it was beamed by satellite to one hundred cities where other rich people had a parallel reagan inaugural balls to paraphrase john steinbeck after the reagan era american working class people began to believe that they're merely temporarily inconvenienced millionaires and so today we have a quarter billionaire mitt romney who refuses to reveal the last decade of his tax returns or the full details of his net wealth although vanity fair is found that he has bank and brokerage accounts in a variety of tax havens that includes an account in bermuda the value of which was

not disclosed in his tax returns and also includes an account thirty million dollars stashed away in the cayman islands where there are no taxes and there's three million dollars tucked away in a swiss bank account and romney also has an undisclosed amount of money sitting in bank accounts in luxembourg and ireland as well devon dwyer of a.b.c. news and notes that what little we do know about romney's efforts to hide his wealth both from the american people and from the i.r.s. are pretty surprising the company in question san katy high yield asset investors limited is described by government a financial documents as a bermuda corp wholly own by w. mitt romney yet as both vanity fair and the associated press note in new reports it has never appeared on the candidates financial disclosure forms limited details on

its existence only came to light recently when romney released his two thousand and ten tax returns under public pressure. as nicholas shaxson writes for vanity fair even after examining that return we have no idea what it is in this company but it could be valuable meaning that it's possible romney's wealth is even greater than previous estimates while the romneys spokespeople insist the couple couple has paid all the taxes required by law investments in tax havens such as bermuda raise many questions because they're in jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance as one miami based offshore lawyer put it. well that was how he put it so now the romney coke rove pitch is keep our tax breaks and cayman accounts because when you hit it rich you'll want them to it'll be interesting to see if working class americans why this line you know that we're

all one of these days going to become millionaires if they do and it means that the mass hypnosis the working people have been under since reagan came along with a whole greed is good thing that all of us will be rich one day but that massive gnosis is still unbreakable but if they don't if mitt romney is held to account and called out for what he really is a pirate capitalist who cares more about finding tax loopholes and increasing profits and what's good for our nation then it could be our nation's first big step forward toward cracking down on all of arcs and banks toure's like mitt romney who dragged the united states into financial crisis. stay tuned. that's it for tonight for the big picture now an announcement on tomorrow night's show we've brought you stories on the ongoing fukushima nuclear crisis in japan and tomorrow night we're going to have a special extended discussion on nuclear power would guests paul gunter and kevin

camps of beyond the players and don't forget democracy begins when you show up it is not a spectator sport we all need to be participating it's movement politics that make things happen and how does that happen you get out there and occupy something you get out there and participate it's your it suitable. there hasn't been anything good on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact. the full source material is what helps keep journalism honest we.

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