an. welcome to the ilona show where we get the real headlines with none of the mersey who live in washington d.c. now can i really speak to an organizer from occupy seattle whose home was raided by a swat team just yesterday morning so they find they're looking for or is it an intimidation tactic against the movement then you know is described obama's administration as the lethal presidency so we're going to talk to him about how trading targeted killing is morally justifiable will change the way that our leaders approach their job and their responsibility in the future and if you've been wondering which corporations are getting in on the negotiations for the

transpacific partnership agreement well looks like we finally might have our hands on a list so we're going to have all of that and more tonight including a dose of happy hour but first take a look at the mainstream media decided to miss. well today was a let's pander to the black vote day at least definitely was for mitt romney to which we say good luck but the mainstream media even use this as an excuse to finally remember about the plight of minorities in america specifically the incredibly high unemployment numbers. romney addressed in the n.w. c.p. trying to accomplish what many consider a mission impossible making his case to african-american voters mitt romney there at the end of the convention in houston romney went in search of something he had not looked for before the african-american vote when we look at the issue of

unemployment is the president taking the african-american vote for granted given this reality here african-american and latino americans who are disproportionately affected with with job losses and unemployment roll numbers unemployment among african-americans is higher than the national average the latest quinnipiac poll shows ninety two percent of african to. voters support president obama bush as you know grabbed eleven percent of black voters you know for mccain just got to the percentage trying to appeal to an audience that polls will show in large part are great support of president obama gallup tracking poll which you may have seen of black voters that found that only five percent said they support romney when it comes to the african-american community governor romney's not going to make any significant inroads i think the fact. now we all know that the mainstream media does a pretty crafty job of talking about what average americans are going through right

every time that jobs number comes out it's more about how it's going to affect who politically than saying hello people fifteen percent of the population does not have full time employment that means that they're struggling to make ends meet to pay their rent their mortgage to food on the table and so when they fail the population as a whole they especially fail when it comes to talking about black and employment or latino unemployment so today i guess i would like to welcome the mainstream media to reality applaud them for acting like they care for one day now there are specific programs out there that i do think do a commendable job melissa harris perry for example but overall not so much but since we're on the subject of the mainstream media shying away from issues of rates it's talked about one of their favorite topics to ignore shall we the n.y.p.d. is stop and frisk policy a lot of people call it legalized racism and environment of martial law in new york for young poor minority men just last year there were eight hundred sixty eight

thousand stops eighty percent of those stopped were black or latino and this year the numbers are already on par to break last year's record this is a policy that and why that the n.y.p.d. especially n.y.p.d. commissioner ray kelly and mayor michael bloomberg all support claiming that it keeps the streets safe while of course simultaneously completely ignoring the fact that it creates an environment of fear and is racist and is a vile. of civil liberties and the thing is the mainstream media they've been ignoring it all along too when thousands of people came out on the streets of new york just a few weeks ago to march in silence against this policy they didn't give any coverage so why would they bother giving it coverage now that there are some new the developments so this policy is now being challenged by the courts there are a few different lawsuits that are out there different rulings and where they seem to be heading is that well looks like the judges aren't buying the police's arguments it turns out that they may actually end up being the best line of defense for people's rights on this issue since the police the so-called protectors are so

adamant on infringing upon your rights now legal experts told the new york times at the inescapable conclusion is that the city will eventually have to redefine its stop and frisk policy and that those changes whether they be voluntary or forced will fundamentally alter how the police interact with young minority men on the streets now if we use a class action suit in philadelphia as an example the courts could end up supervising and impose system of police monitoring and accountability and of the city of new york goes ahead with planned appeals of all these rulings if you put the policy up for even further scrutiny now personally i think that is a step in the right direction the cable networks the oh so useless mainstream media they choose to miss. on the morning of july tenth a swat team rather than apartment were organizers from occupy seattle live and

according to the warrant the police said that they were looking for an artist material and that they were continuing an ongoing investigation into finding those responsible for mayday riots and in the most peaceful mostly peaceful actions in seattle on may day there were also some businesses that were disturbed or smashed windows and tires that were slashed by the police left the apartment in seattle yesterday without arresting anybody and just a few. bases of seized property that's of course after they busted down the door used a flash bang grenade and tore through the entire apartment so joining me to tell us more about this is one of the people who was in the apartment when the raid happened philip neal he's an occupy seattle organizer and member of the red sparks collective philip thanks for joining us tonight and i guess to start by telling us you know was what happened walk us through this experience yesterday morning well. you know we woke up we were all get up at like five fifty something it was close to you know still close to fourth of july ambulance setting off fireworks so i

actually thought it was fireworks at first and others are really the fireworks and then it clicked within a few minutes what was actually going on i had enough time to basically just get some clothes on and get on my knees with my hands behind my head. right after that night door was opened and. a swat. member of the swat team from the seattle police department came in with this automatic rifle basically stood behind me with automatic rifle trained on my upper back for a few minutes while they searched the rest of the house and my girlfriend was sitting on the bed the same situation with her with another one of the swat team people and then these are tied us took us into the main room. when i was on my knees with my hands behind my head i asked them three or four questions

i said do you have a warrant. he said the detectives will soon i said did you guys break the door and he refused to respond i asked if they knocked first he refused to respond and i asked what precinct where they were they were from and he refused to respond the way i did they end up breaking the door you know was there damage done to the apartment. they broke the door that's going to be a pain we rent their apartment we actually have a code landlord yet. we the door frame is damaged there's pictures online with some of the press releases you can find but you know they broke the door. well i guess what you know what i want to know too is what exactly are leads from what i understand what this war was about is that they were looking for an artist materials from what i read it seems like what they took from this apartment was as they're putting in there were some flyers there is a note i think there was

a collage and a pair of sunglasses i mean are those an artist material is what counts. well i mean that's the thing like it's on the war and that's a quote anarchist materials what does that mean these are things that would have been in anybody's house especially in houses of people who have even just gone to any iraqi meant i mean they were flyers or things that i've done. no what was completely unrelated it was my girlfriend's note on her defenses one of the the arrestees and she's five trial of the occupied of being found not guilty but it was like no it's for her defense there are so these things were were not very strongly related to the anarchist scene whatsoever and they were just clothes and no book and so some fliers it was really absurd what they took. but the you know it communicates to us that there is a deeper ers behind this it's never the thing that they say they're rating for that they're actually rating or it's a form of intimidation it's used like that for

a reason swat teams have been on the increase their use is not an increase even if you look at the s.p.d. chief who was in command during the each year riots norm stamper like you know he's a chief of police i personally don't agree with him on most things but even he points out that swat teams are an absurd thing to use all the time for regular police business and this seemed to be i mean they threw a flash bang grenade into our stairwell they had no way to know that it was a stairwell it went out of the room you know this was exactly interrupted for a second there fell to that right. so you think that this is an intimidation tactic and i would say that yeah showing up with an entire swat team if you want to call question a few people or see what's inside their apartment would qualify as such but do they have do you feel that they had a reason to come search your home the other they're trying to connect to whatever

happened on a day where there are some destruction of property and they want to call it a riot to this with a callous and. occupy organizers that are in it so you know is there a connection or do you think that there are you guys involved in that are they just trying to find occupy organizers i mean the biggest thing here is like you look at the targeting we are many people as has been occupy organizers previously for all of our like major events the biggest thing there is that we're also known for having radical politics personally this the house houses many members of the red spark who are active as you didn't mention earlier were they got it wrong were actually not anarchists so much as communists. but the black baiting language is what they used to get in the door the irony here is that i was just researching the pinkertons in the early twentieth century the infamous like paramilitary stripper

and then basically had that like red scare history burst through my front door at six in the morning and this is because. what because we are so thin we think you feel that you're just being targeted for your just for your political speech that there isn't any actual crime or law breaking that you are being gone after four. i think that. they always try to use an excuse that isn't the thing that they're actually after if you look at civil rights marches for example they use excuses like sanitation and that sort of thing to break down or to crack down on things they use that same so during the occupation they always use something that's unrelated so yes they'll try to attack on charges of like vandalism or assault that's what they do whenever they arrest anybody now they tack on these charges and then they drop and we have that happened in several instances they arrested the photographer ursule been showing you holding his camera and trying to stand up and they arrest him for assault and put him in jail for

a while and then that released without charges and it's. we are openly radical about our politics are openly saying that these you know we're not who are minor reforms that none of that is going to fix things there's something basically wrong with this system and this relates a lot to it i mean you mentioned before i was on here you mentioned the stop and frisk spins in new york and in seattle they have a very similar ordinances with these stay out of drug areas stay out of prostitution area is that allowed under ban entire regions of the city on even minor charges and those people have to show parts of the city that they're banned from. this is at least a sort of situation. and we're under no illusions about well i just wonder i guess that you know if these days the occupy movement isn't selling your faith right there are no physical and cabinets left around the country but we do know obviously

that already is arthur not fans and so i wonder if we might start seeing more actions like that said philip thanks so much for joining us tonight and telling us the whole story. yeah thank you we definitely need to see more actions like this i want everyone to get out on the street see that it's not ok that's the only way that we can make it no we can't let this happen all right thanks. ok guys it's time for our first a break that evening that when we come back i want to spawn in the work comments in another edition of news that i read it and i will speak to esquire author tom you know about the white house's targeted assassination program what he calls the lethal presidency of barack obama. of american power continue. might be. i mean. you were very good ball. game.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you know some other part of it and realize that everything. is a big. story . book and they alone are so you know get the real headline with none of them are the problem with the mainstream media today is that they're completely disconnected from the viewers and what actually matters to those viewers and so that's why young people just don't watch t.v. anymore if they want news they go online and read it but we're trying to take those

stories that people actually care about and transfer them back to t.v. . to the counseling i'm lauren lyster. our guys it's time for you said it i read it where i take time to respond to our brilliance engaging viewer comments from facebook twitter and here too because

we've got some to say i listen to all of our comments tonight actually come from you tube so the first comment is in response to our happy hour discussion about whether or not olympic athletes should advertise fast food chains or so. soda companies i don't i need to said this in response if the advertising around the olympics had no impact and they didn't sell more products on the back of it do they really think that businesses like mcdonald's and coca-cola would spend all that money to secure sponsorship deals and fight so hard to protect their exclusivity now i think you make a good point a lot of people ask if advertising really works of children could really be influenced by what they see on t.v. but it didn't pay off why would companies sense how much money trying to do it right i'm still not saying that olympic athletes should be banned from being sponsored by fast food chains or that that's going to increase the obesity epidemic but we should be realistic realize that commercials can have an influence now speaking of fast food i know we ring up talk o.b.l. lot on the show it looks like dressy mood seven sorry about that want to have

business say about our little fixation entirely too much taco bell comments seems like every episode that comes up you know that governor. that's a russian word everybody fries your body right screws up your hormone levels right thanks for the show otherwise very informative now i know i know we talk about taco bell a lot on the shelves by no means is it endorsement for the company i just have my guilty pleasures in life and she's eager to crunch is definitely one of them but yes it's not good for you you should be to every day but once in a while she's so good and so again for what has gone into the evening rex trek had this to say about the show that alone i love your show i actually feel smarter and more informed after watching it for your thorough reporting and the reality of these stories is depressing me i feel like there is nothing the average person can do now first of all thank you for watching it is always nice to hear from our fans and yeah unfortunately it's not exactly all sunshine and rainbows all the time but

i hope we don't become discouraged that you feel there's nothing the average person can do quite the opposite the more that you know the better informed you are the better you can understand the problems that need to be solved. and then try to address them now might seem like a downer to talk about the erosion of our civil liberties of our wars abroad or the disappearance of the middle class but these are things that are happening and so we have to be aware of them if you sit around and if you do nothing and you become part of the problem they might say that ignorance is bliss but i think that the truth will set you free that's my rantings tonight thanks as always for your comments and i'll be back with more as usual next week. what is a new piece in esquire out this week looking at the obama administration's drone program and targeted killing and labeling it the lethal presidency tom you know right you are a historic figure mr president you are not only the first african-american president you are the first who has made use of your power to target and kill individuals identified as

a threat to the united states throughout your entire term you're the first president to make the killing of targeted individuals the focus of our military operations of our intelligence our national security strategy and some argue of our foreign policy and later he writes your lethality is expansive in both practice and principle you are fighting terrorism with a policy of preemptive execution and claiming not just the legal right to do so but the legal right to do so in secret now this is something you would discuss very often on this show if you ask me isn't discussed enough in a public manner by our media our congress or the commander in chief himself so when will we all start looking at the obama administration as the lethal presidency joining me to discuss this is the author of the piece tom juneau tom thanks so much for joining us tonight and i guess first i kind of just want to ask you not so much why it is the wrote the piece of work specifically why it is that you wrote it in the style that you did because it seems like you were writing

a letter to the president you're addressing him specifically. you know it's just stuart i just started writing and that's the way it is you know that's the way it came out. i originally had started doing the regular third person piece but i started writing it and you know i had supported president obama i'm a democrat or you know a liberal voter and so i think i wrote it directly to him as a pretty heartfelt response to what he was doing when i think that it's something that we need you know more out there but then in that sense when you talk about the irony of the fact that this president of all presidents right the former constitutional law professor from harvard is the one that now is using this program to justify targeted killings who's to blame for that you know i mean are we all enabling that in a certain way is congress enabling it is the media enabling it by not making a bigger deal and the public in general willing or you first off the terrorists i mean that would be that would be there are. you know i think that i think that it's

a complicated series of things that has led us to this point i mean he inherited this power. from the bush administration the bush administration was starting to kick it up at the end of its. bush's second term but obama inherited that and you know did his first drone strike i believe true or three days after his inauguration and really kept at it from then on i mean he expanded it to a level that i don't think that anybody was prepared for. as far as who is who is to blame for that it's you know it's a complicated thing. why i kind of. go back to the first i just want to play a clip too because you were talking about this on monday morning your morning joe and i couldn't do this interview tonight without pointing to that for a little bit so this was you know maybe a seven eight when a long discussion but i just had maybe fifteen or so seconds of harold ford jr have to take a look. also shows we can save money. about putting boots on the ground and

not only save money but we can save lives in the process of killing and capturing those i think the president has been. done some talking about this but it's equally surprising me to dance point that republicans are giving the president credit for these efforts. so these are the arguments we often hear right is that it's cheaper is that you don't have boots on the ground republicans oh my goodness these are the policies that they should be supporting so how can they even criticize the democratic president on that one but can you do that kind of missed the whole point of what it is that you're trying to bring out of people which is saying that this is a moral question that needs to be answered yeah that's exactly right i mean that the conversation of the morning joe read what we directly into politics i mean almost instantly and this story that i wrote i think it's had a. pretty far reaching effect mostly because it is a moral accounting. of this policy. and so in that sense you know you talk about a lot he of course who we've heard so much about but then you bring up. his sixteen

year old son who was also killed in a strike and yemen and so why did you spend so much time focusing on him well basically to show that there are two sides of the coin i mean most people when on moral ask you was killed applauded i mean there were very few people who are shedding tears for and we're all lucky but two weeks later another american citizen was killed it was a lucky son who was never accused of any crimes he was never accused of terrorism and who was now in fact looking for his father was you know miles and miles and miles away from home was saying goodbye to friends that he was staying with that night when a drone strike killed seven or eight teenage boys around a fire. so i basically want to show that you know that you know that the you know the obama administration has basically said that this process this program is so precise so surgical so technologically advanced that there are no mistakes but in

fact there are mistakes there are lots of them and one of those mistakes is killed an american citizen with there are other american citizens namely us being able to know any thing about it they've kept they've spoken a lot about the underwear a lockie killing but they have not said a word about the killing about the iraq war and now they haven't said a word and they haven't shown us the legal memo right they refuse to talk about this when it comes to the courts with on our latinas father trying to fight if they feel you're trying to fight it but the interesting thing too that you know is that we've never actually heard from the president directly on this when i heard about we got osama bin laden yeah we got the locky but other than that he said maybe harold koh he's had the attorney general go out and try to explain this policy how they legally justify it to people would it make a difference if the president came out and talked about it himself since he's taking on these you know these decisions. i mean i think it would i think i mean if

this is a moral question i think that the president should step up and talk about the program for attribution and out front i mean i think that obviously they believe that morally it is the thing to do because from their point of view it saves american lives. and he should be willing to say that not just through surrogates but i think that that's a problem with the obama administration in general obama president obama has next to me to my mind has not forcefully. defended or sold the health care bill the way he should go and he's doing it the same kind of thing with this he's allowing subordinates to carry the ball. do you think you know you talk a lot about the legacy that he's going to leave behind it's going to be the leopold presidency and in certain ways it normalizes this kind of policy which you know some would say is murder and so you know how do you think that we're going to see

it go down the road how is this going to change the way that leaders really approach the subject here to talk about the end of the peace how he's made it so that drones seem like the tool that you have to use unlike a nuclear weapon where you do everything to stop from having to use a nuclear weapon here you have to use one. you know. what i was basically trying to get at least was that. the use of the drone the use of targeted killing to lose the use of lethal operations the really the option of first resort when it comes to counterterrorism the last resort he has talked his surrogates of talk the language of of the program being limited in temporary when in fact they made it permanent and expansive i think that the implications of that are that basically that not a single one of the republican presidential candidates except for ron paul came out

with anything but support for the program and that the obama administration is already talking about sort of passing their process on to other countries that want to use this technology other countries are developing drone technology other oh there are countries are eager to use drone technology the idea that. the obama administration is standing as an example for other countries that want to make use of this is to me rather terrifying do you think that there should be more thought given to targeting an individual rather than just a regular battlefield where there might be mass casualties you know i i've spoken to a lot of people since the story is. i'm out and that seems to be the question that really everybody focuses on. war is hell wars a terrible thing a lot of terrible things happen in war a lot of people say that you know it drone to you know with a drone strike with

a nighttime raid this is precise it is surgical there's much less carnage. you know horrible carnage then there is you know in the course of a war why are we. comfortable with this but i think that the reason that we're not comfortable with it is simply that there is always been a taboo about killing individuals killing people that whose name that you know whose face that you can see and i think that there's. another level of this for with the idea that we're going to be giving a ruler as an obama or somebody else the power to do this it's a it's a it's a lot of people we consider it the ultimate power what it is you know and so i think that there needs to be more public discussion any more letter is written to the president from those that voted for him tom and that wrap it up because i have to take a break but thanks so much for joining us tonight we're having i really appreciate it thanks.