what about the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour republicans head to tampa bay in august to nominate mitt romney is their man to take over the white house ron paul and his supporters have some different ideas what is paul need to do this weekend to get his fifteen minutes of r. and c. fame also democrats are fighting back against the flood of corporate cash being

used against them this election cycle what if they do yesterday and could have force romney backers like karl rove to disclose donor information before the election in november and right now the american economy is struggling as millions of americans find themselves unemployed but could having americans work fewer hours help the economy and send the unemployed back to work i'll tell you all about it and it's really to. like the energizer bunny ron paul keeps going and going and going despite suspending his official campaign in may run paul still has his sights set on the republican national convention in tampa florida next month after winning a plurality of republican delegates from iowa maine minnesota louisiana ron paul needs to win a plurality of nebraska's delegates on sunday in order to secure

a fifteen minute speech at the republican convention a speech he would use to influence the platform of the republican party but taking a barrage of his delegates may not be that easy mitt romney's camp is flooding in nebraska with advertisements and phone calls in an attempt to avoid what could be a major embarrassment and a previous state republican conventions in nevada and louisiana clashes between romney and paul supporters. even resulted in violent confrontations. early. thirty's you're. right. right right right you know that my i'm going to write a. book. that you know that you know the threat of violence like this between the two campaigns has prompted nebraska republican officials to step up security for saturday's convention so will paul and his supporters be able to fend off the romney campaign and take the brassicas delegates on saturday delia

a blow to the republican party at the same time joining me now is austin peterson director of production of freedom works austin welcome thank you very much so first of all that clip that we just saw in that particular convention ron paul actually won his people tried to take over and the official republicans the romney republicans kick these guys out in my room recalling that correctly yes that is the situation that happened but that's been happening not just at that delegation there's been a caucuses all across the united states where ron paul supporters have been egypt did from the proceedings when they were winning and you see back in two thousand a ron paul started the campaign for two thousand and twelve which would show which was a delegate strategy that meant that their job was not necessarily to win the popular vote in these caucuses across the nation and that they should ignore trying to win some of the primary states and focus on states where they could take a majority of delegations in the states because the delegates are the people who actually decide who the candidate will be the popular votes really aren't that

important so when they were actually winning some of the delegations the majority or poor ality of delegates from authority these caucuses the establishment started freaking out and they started shutting down caucuses so that they were not able to have a quorum in order to win that's what happened and this is pretty unseemly i mean is this has to be doing some damage to the republican party absolutely it's causing a lot of tension a lot of frustration and i don't know why the republican a stat. it is doing this if they want to have a nice friendly coronation ceremony for their man mitt romney who even ron paul is that mitt it will win the nomination then they should be embracing a lot of these young people who are coming to these caucuses some of these single mothers from my massachusetts through their disenfranchising right now trying to force them to sign these illegal affidavits before they can you know go to the republican national convention they should be they should be bringing these people in if they know that they already have a majority why are they trying to disenfranchise it what do you well it could be the they're concerned about what ron paul might say for example ron paul is in

favor decriminalizing drugs and prostitution these are not topics that the republicans want brought up before romney comes out and gets you know crowned. and i'm assuming that there are a lot of other things you know his attacks on the fed is attacks in large part on the established order here's mitt romney he's the banks banks for sure but they've got a lot of hatred from him back in the one nine hundred eighty s. when he ran as a libertarian in one thousand nine hundred eight for the president so there's a lot of old bad blood that goes on in there they don't like the fact that he tells the truth about people like ronald reagan who spent way more than republican conservatives would like to admit they don't like the fact that he deals the truth about a lot of the conservatives who are really big government establishment types you know mitt romney's dad was the opposite of the goldwater republicans and now we have the establishment you know winning the day in two thousand and twelve and we were supposed to be the teacher this was the year of the tea party remember this was the year of ron paul this was supposed to be you year of limited government conservatives and what they have and he's picked up for these these states well actually i want to correct you on that because the most of the reports today have

been inaccurate it actually turns out he has a plurality of delegates in not just iowa maine minnesota and louisiana but he also has a plurality in colorado where he has eighteen delegates to mitt romney's sixteen delegates so a lot of people are placing a lot of hope and trust or they're saying that this is ron paul's last stand up brasco but he already has a plurality of delegates in five states i'm sorry from giving the game away for their home talking about. but the reality is is that his son he's already got his speaking he's already got a speaking spot so why are they having this big fight about nebraska and how do you expect this thing to play out well it's because they want less people there at the convention that are shouting out ron paul they want less people there at the platform don't they have the ability to control that simply by the credential and you know what they do actually and that is the worst part about all of this is that at the very end game no matter what the states say even if the states say you know we're going to send an entire slate of ron paul delegates across the nation to go

to the republican national convention the national committee you know convention can just say well we're just going to not credential all these delegates they did it to ron paul delegates in two thousand and i suspect they would do it in two thousand and twelve so how do you expect this all the play out over this weekend and also in tampa for a while i thought i knew for a while i thought that everything was going to go smoothly because rand paul took a major hit senator rand paul ron paul's son took a major hit by endorsing mitt romney and i thought at that point that the republican establishment would stand down and say listen you know there's only going to be a couple hundred ron paul delegates here let's bring them in that's maybe have an audit of the fed inserted into the platform you know perhaps something that a gold commission like one of reagan did for ron paul back in the eighty's you know they would they would throw him a bone and some sense of these police as some sort of bone but that hasn't been what's happened instead instead of they've taken it they've taken the endorsement from senator rand paul and some of the ron paul delegates and they've basically turned around and slapped them across the face so i really don't know what's going

to happen because if these what happened in louisiana is any indication you know i think the rage that could be built up at the convention might explode honestly and i don't want that to happen i think that you know everybody needs to stay calm and they need to see this process out and let the democratic process played out but even ron paul today what did he say on that unless and b. c. or c n n somebody said to someone he said there does come a time when you have to fight there has to was a time when i have to fight back and that fight while happen if the r. and c. doesn't let them in the right will see how it plays a lot of being with you very much or have you stay tuned for the republican national convention next month it could get very interesting. our first comment and i comes from joe in delaware had this take on our electronic voting machine story from last week the excellent take on electronic voting

machines these machines which leave new trail to follow do exactly what those who put them in place expect them to do give the g.o.p. a false record of winning an election read gurlitz of how the people voted that they gave people a camper for receipt of their vote like putting it on a would have more currency type paper then any questions of wrongdoing can be addressed instead they want you to believe they're one hundred percent trustworthy and accurate would you give your money upfront to a contractor with no receipt of the money given and work to be done then expect the contractor to be trustworthy and do the right thing well that's exactly what they want us to believe in these machines thank you joe from delaware. thanks joe yeah sure you're concerned about the machines and it diminishes our

faith in our democracy when people learn that these machines are owned by private corporations that the way they count the votes the way you know if you push a button the way that vote is recorded might be for that person who might be some for somebody else is totally secret and proprietary that there's absolutely no government oversight there's not even any corporate oversight that the politicians running for office can't look look at these things that's bad enough but even worse is the is the whole concept that we have privatized. privatized is the most important cornerstone of our democracy our vote the next comet of the night comes from the lysander spooner post of the time our dot com message boards here's what lysander had to say about government regulations what if i'm willing to take care of myself but if i can plan for my own retirement what if i can take care of my own family but if i don't want the regulations that you want that is what if i feel i don't need the kind of protection from big business that you think i should have

but if i want more or less who decides if the choice is taken away from me does it matter if a democratic majority or a dictator imposes something on me you know what you're putting forward here is the libertarian worldview that each one of us is and in that there is no social we that was iran's main argument is that there's no such thing as society it's a group of individuals and it's flat out wrong it's false it's not true of any mammal is not true of humans it's none of us could make it none of us could make it past birth even if we were able to make it into our into our early adulthood you know with the help of society and family and friends and then went off on our own none of us could make it on our own we are social animals and at some point we have to acknowledge that there is a social contract you can't avoid that but there is a social contract in to a certain extent we are brothers and sisters keepers are final comment of

a night comes from common sense four sixty one at this question if voter id laws disenfranchised minorities to gun control laws disenfranchise minorities from their second amendment rights by requiring id and the purchase of a firearm simple answer no. this is crazy the voter id laws for the for voting are set up for only one sink sink a single and simple purpose and that is to keep people largely democratic constituencies from voting the voter idea or the idea laws the guns you know say hey you gotta identify yourself before you buy a gun or because the only particularly handgun the only reason that anybody would own one has to shoot another person it's just that these are deadly weapons the you can't compare these it's apples and oranges. coming up even though americans are

some of the most overworked people in the world our long hours of work are doing very little to help the economy recover so following the european model by cutting back on the work we actually help our economy and put unemployed americans back to work the answer in tonight's daily to. wealthy british silence on. the tide of the. markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into a report on our. mission

of free accreditation free clothes for charges free arrangement free. three stooges free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects a free media gun to our teeth on tom.

welcome back now on to some more election news democrats are fighting back against the avalanche of secret corporate cash being used against them this election cycle on monday the democratic senatorial campaign committee found they can paint a complaint with the federal election commission arguing the several so-called nonprofit organizations being run by karl rove or the koch brothers among others are in violation of campaign finance laws and are abusing their tax exempt status current i.r.s. law groups like crossroads g.p.s. and americans for prosperity which have spent tens of millions of dollars on ads

attacking democrats this year in claims five a one c. for tax exempt status and keep secret their donors only as long as they air ads in the public good that do not try to influence elections but looking at the ads this election cycle which are pretty blatant attacks against president obama and other democrats the triple c. is arguing that rove and the chamber and others are actually using secret money to subvert the democratic process is one of the recent ads being run by karl rove's crossroads g.p.s. which is clearly a political ad and not one just being run in the interests of the general public good. while using the economy stronger in the seconds it takes to watch this our national debt will increase one point four million in two thousand and eight barack obama said we can't mortgaging our children's future on a mountain of debt and you know he's having four billion in debt every day

borrowing from china for his spending every second growing our dead faster than our economy till obama stung the spending support of the new majority agenda and the new majority agenda dork the way these organizations have been able to skirt the law is that they end their ads with a call to action to support some organization like this new astroturf new majority agenda rather than any of their ads asking people to vote against president obama regardless of how the ad ends the point is the same to defeat the president and other democrats it's blatantly political and not one donor behind that ad has to reveal himself so far ninety one percent of all political ads paid for by outside groups have been funded by these shadowy five a one c four hours not even by the super pacs which we do eventually have to disclose their donors all the democratic senatorial campaign committee could succeed as challenge forcing karl rove u.s.

chamber the koch brothers to disclose just who is behind all that money it's unlikely to happen any time before the two thousand and twelve election so now we might all have to wait until twenty fourteen to see how much money mahmoud ahmadinejad threw into helping mitt romney this year. just. know it's the good the bad of the very very musa lajon asli ugly the good wife the cork ireland city council last night the cork city council became the first local authority in ireland to officially support marriage equality the council unanimously passed a motion supported michael nugent a member of ireland's sinn fein party and a council member said that marriage equality is an essential part of a quality agenda elso said quote the struggle is ongoing for recognition and

equality in society i hope that this is a step in that struggle and similar emotion was passed across the border in belfast northern ireland last week as well government officials across the pond are accepting marriage equality it's about time those in washington and across america did the same thing the bath mat drug the founder of the infamous conservative news site the drudge report is no stranger to promoting far right conspiracy theories but now he's thrown his support behind a truly absurd conspiracy theory which says that president obama was once just secret agent for the cia in pakistan the original story you were channel secret agent obama story in fact was published on the birth or website world net daily and argues that the president might have been a cia officer during his time at columbia university and spent time in pakistan just what americans need another crazy conspiracy theory to waste time arguing

about we should be talking about the issues that actually matter and the very very ugly congressman david dreier last night during the house rules committee debate dreier said he didn't think that people with preexisting conditions should be able to get health care insurance take a listen. i don't think that someone who was diagnosed with a massive tumor should the next day be able to have millions and millions and millions of dollars of health care provided. dreier is not alone in his comments many republicans in washington said that insurance companies shouldn't have to cover those with preexisting conditions like for example brain cancer basically dreier and his colleagues don't want sick americans to be able to get health care they need to survive and that is very very ugly.

forty two a recent c.b.o.t. report president obama's two thousand and nine stimulus package saved up to three million jobs preventing an all out economic catastrophe unfortunately ever since two thousand and nine and the passage of that act republicans have blocked every single stimulus measure radically slowing down our nation's economic recovery republicans are even trying to make things worse by pushing for austerity and spending cuts which cut jobs and republican governors and laid off more than six hundred thousand government employees public workers around the nation results persistently high unemployment and americans of all stripes are calling for more job creation but here's the thing we'll have a wrong it's not jobs we should be talking about it's hours on the job here's what i mean look at the average number of hours worked by each of the o.e.c.d. nations the richest nations in the world you'll notice that at the top of the list

is greece right here where workers on average put in more than two thousand hours a year on the job that dispels the myth that the greeks are in economic trouble because they're lazy they actually work more hours than all the rest of europe. but also near the top of the list is the united states right here where the average worker works over eighteen hundreds hours a year on average now toward the bottom of this list you'll notice fonts and germany. places where workers put in fewer hours on the job each year in germany the average worker is on the job twenty percent fewer hours than in the united states they were one fifth as many hours as americans comes to four hundred more hours of time off for a german worker every year compared to that same worker here in the united states now some might argue that's a bad thing that germany isn't working as hard as the united states and should be

suffering economically for it but that's not the case in germany and the united states were both hammered by the global global economic turn down downturn beginning in two thousand and seven for the united states saw their unemployment rate shoot up four percentage points since the recession germany actually saw their unemployment rate go down two percentage points that's because germany and other nations that commit their workers to shorter work weeks understand something our media won't even talk about is that when people work fewer hours and companies have to hire more people as economist dean baker at the center for economic and policy research wrote there is nothing natural about the length of the average work week or work year and there are in fact large variations across countries average worker in germany in the netherlands puts in twenty percent fewer hours in a year than the average worker in the united states this means that if the us adopted germany's work patterns tomorrow it would immediately eliminate

unemployment in the united states think about it if a company employing five people each working forty hours a week cuts down their hours to thirty five a week at the higher one new person to make up for the last twenty five twenty five hours course the counter argument would be a those who are working forty hours but now are working thirty five hours a week or taking home less money and be companies who get hit with the extra cost of having to hire and train a new employee germany found a solution to the first problem with a program called the kurtz arbeit or short week program during the. session germany told businesses don't lay off workers just cut back on their hours and then the government stepped in and subsidized those who were working fewer hours essentially paying them for a forty hour work week even though they were only working twenty five to thirty five hours that's why germany's economy never really crashed working people stayed on the job were still collecting their full salaries so they could go out and spend their money out of their pocket spending create demand which after all is what

drives economies which is the answer to the second problem about do businesses and all the cost of hiring new employees how they handle a simple answer is that those new cause should be offset by more demand in the economy and thus more revenue for businesses we currently have nearly fifteen million people unemployed or underemployed if work hours were cut back creating new job openings for those millions of unemployed americans it all have more money in their pockets again to spend and stimulate the economy people would be earning salaries again businesses would be making money the economy would be growing and everybody would win back in two thousand france tried this by introducing a thirty five hour work week limit and as the financial times reports france had great success as the french government statistics agency known as in c. estimated the shorter week created between three hundred thousand and three hundred

fifty thousand jobs in the initial years of productivity increased four to five percent not only that worker pay in france increased as well putting the nation up on par with germany's average worker pay despite its success the thirty five hour work week was ditched by the right wing government of nicolas sarkozy a few years back and sure enough unemployment went back up. now the country's in economic turmoil the people there in france have elected a new socialist president to get it back on track and he's promised to both lower the retirement age to sixty and to cut back the workweek both things that will open up many many more jobs and those further reduce the unemployment rate and stimulate the economy frankly this isn't that much different from the american experience back in the one nine hundred sixty s. when unemployment wasn't much of an issue the average husband wife family with children worked fifty three hours a week between the two of them by two thousand and two that number had exploded to

sixty four hours a week sixty seven hours a week for families without kids. the point of all this is pretty simple let's learn basic economics from other successes of other countries and other times like our own time back in the sixty's or france so why not try what some european nations have tried with tremendous success cutting short the work week not only that will add a limb an eight hour unemployment problem but it will also give americans more time to spend with their family and friends and more time to pursue hobbies and leisure activities more vacations and even frankly more inventions and creativity and who could be opposed to that. that's it for the big picture tonight for more information on the stories we covered this our web sites of thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org and our t. dot com also check out our two you tube channels there are links at thom hartmann dot com also a tarpon dot com you can check out all the different ways you can send us our your

feedback create your own blogs participate in our message boards call our rant line all kinds of great ways to interact and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there and get active tag your it will see the hell. is he.

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