watch t.v. anyone 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 in t.v. . you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture .

i was we've been telling you bradley manning's pretrial hearings progressing this week today and yesterday for some really interesting arguments the are made to say the least now the prosecution seems like it's doing everything that it can to stack the deck against manik and this goes way beyond tough legal arguments here today government lawyers said the overclassification shouldn't be an issue yesterday they contended that they shouldn't have to prove that leaked information was even classified so basically manning is being charged with leaking classified information under the espionage act yet the prosecution doesn't think that it's necessary to prove that the information should have been or even is or was classified as not only charging somebody with theft without having to prove that something was stolen and this could actually have very serious consequences on the trial the defense lawyers pointed out of the collateral murder video well that was

actually unclassified so that all sort of goes to show the labyrinth the mannings team has to navigate through to defend their client and the odds of it all against the alleged wiki leaks source from the very start which is another point the manning lawyers brought up yesterday lead counsel david coombs said in jury selection outside civilian pressures should be taken into account so what do you mean by that all top military and civilian officials called vetting a criminal before the trial even started. united states strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information it puts people's lives in danger threatens our national security mr sands can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his sure are doing but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood and show me young soldier or they're going to afghan family. we don't give

a good. lawyer. now as it was disturbing enough that manning was thrown into solitary for months on end his bosses the boss of the jurors well they were intent on judging him without due process meanwhile manning's lawyers are still trying to bring up the blood on his hands argument now that it's been completely debunked prosecutors seem pretty keen to let it die defense lawyers brought up the issue to show that the enemy wasn't aided by wiki leaks a crime that new york times would have committed if you use that same logic there but prosecutors call the matter irrelevant and comes countered saying that it's important when discussing criminal intent and harm assessments are generally important in criminal cases now or to keep your points posted on that crucial point the meanwhile with the leaks itself is also back in the news he joined us on jermaine's of the ecuadorian embassy in london but the website announced plans to

bypass the credit card blockade on the nations they plan on using a french system called carte blue and it's contractually tied to visa and master card around the world and a french nonprofit called the fund for the defense of net neutrality has also set up a fund for wiki leaks so this comes a week after the website won a lawsuit in iceland for a v.z. affiliate was forced to unlock wiki leaks donations by july twenty sixth but the website expects the move to be challenged in court and join the sun has urged donors to please act quickly he said we beat them of ice. and and by god i'll beat them in france as well let them shut it down let them demonstrate to the world that once again they're corrupt pandering to washington we're waiting our lawyers are waiting the whole world is waiting do it now the website says the blockade is deprive them of some twenty million dollars in funds so the government i think can try to stop it all at once stop organizations like we are winning battles here and there but as we've noted to you before there are already similar sites that have popped up out there and i think of the battle for transparency it's not one that

people are going to give up easily. well there's never a dull moment in economic news these days federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he testified on the hill this week let's just say he wasn't exactly positive about the economy he didn't single signal that any new stimulus was in the works and while claiming that he remained apolitical he gave congress a very stern warning not to let the country go off the fiscal cliff next january now we've spoken about before on the program but let me just refresh you on just what the so-called fiscal cliff is the biggest factors are the expiring bush tax cuts which would happen on january first and the expiration of the payroll tax in december that combines with budget cuts that were agreed upon by congress last year so that would be twenty seven billion in cuts each for defense and non-defense spending and twelve billion in cuts to medicare that we've heard from the i.m.f. we've heard from the cvo but of all of these factors combined come january the u.s. could enter a second recession but as usual it's also a lot of politics involved so how do we really think this thing's going to turn out

well here to discuss it with me is dean baker co-director of the center for economic and policy research and author of the end of loser liberalism making markets progressive. back on the show tonight. ok let's start with bernanke he before we get into what's really going on with congress but so here is once again gloomy outlook on the economy sucks we know and when but about it and suffering from it but then he gives this very certain warning to congress about the fiscal cliff and do you think that he actually is getting. political i mean like he's claiming that he's not really getting involved that's kind of a policy decision that you know what i think the guy is totally political i don't mean this and i mean the feds always political you can't help but to be and if you just look at the immediate situation if you saw what was going on there it is very very interesting because the republicans were beating up on bernanke you saying you better not do anything to help the economy and the democrats being as they usually are just saying oh well thank you very much mr bernanke he you know you've done a great job well mr bernanke he should be doing a lot more to help the economy right now the twin mandate is to prevent inflation

and to have full employment we don't have any inflation so you should be doing more to cause them plumber to try to drop but i feel like it's becoming a bit of a finger pointing thing right is that congress will sit around and say well you know what congress is just so gridlocked right now there's so much partisanship that we can't get anything done and so the federal reserve should act then you have ben bernanke saying that will congress really has to act about this fiscal cliff and we're just going to sit back and if we need to then we'll do something if he wants congress to act so bad why doesn't favor thank you just come out and say we will take no further action period well i don't think that's going to force congress to act it's hard for me to see that that would affect congress's actions one way or the other on the fiscal cliff but i mean the point is right now he could be doing more to try and stimulate the economy could say for example target a long term interest rate could target the five year interest rate and say he's going to hold that zero point seven percent for the next year or next two years he could do something he had suggested back then as a professor at princeton a reference japan you could say i'm going to target a higher inflation rate we're going to throw as much money out there as it takes to

get inflation get wage growth up to three four percent a year so he's not doing that he should be feeling pressure on that but getting to the fiscal cliff point understands not really quite a cliff it's not that we fall or if this was right here is i want to have you actually buy into you know the the paramedic that we're hearing you know it's a little silly and it's very clear because what's going on is let's say we do congress's absolutely nothing we get to january first we're going to be spending at a lower rate we're going to be paying taxes at a higher rate they're. angele will have an impact it doesn't have any impact january first it has a little bit january second and it goes on you know as we go through time so it's not a cliff it's sort of a steep hill if we actually get out into two thousand and thirteen and it's you know march april may and we haven't done anything we're paid all paying higher taxes and we've had these big cuts the budget i don't doubt that's going through the economy into a recession but actually i weighs over and i what about the payroll tax write me if anything does go into effect and actually hurt american workers immediately wouldn't be the payroll tax well that would be one things because even even with

apart from the payroll tax we're going to see the income tax would go back to the to the clinton levels which hits mostly hiring people but people earning fifty sixty thousand a year they're going to be paying a thousand fifteen hundred a year more in taxes they'll feel that to no more people at the more moderate and people twenty thirty thousand pretty much unaffected so how do you really think this is going to play out because now we're hearing all of this politicking and i do think that it's kind of interesting now democrats have a plan that they're you know if people want to compare it to the debt ceiling debate. if it's not really that big of a cliff and it's more of just the hill that we're going to maybe it's not a good comparison but democrats are saying ok we'll let all the tax cuts expire and then after that happens we'll hold a vote just on tax cuts for the middle class and then what are republicans opposed to because they have this pledge that so many of them have signed on to not to raise taxes on anyone so we'll let you know who would end up being worst for well i think nothing happens to legal action so the democrats are going to say here's you

know we want to tax cuts for everyone but the richest two percent republicans are going to say no no no so republicans are going to say it has to be everyone democrats or the richest two percent nothing happens to after the election then we see who wins and then then if it looks let's imagine if i had to take a bet you know president obama gets back in the white house republicans will control least the house and they control both you know my guess their point the cards are president obama's hands because he could let the tax cuts expire january first then he comes there. with his bill he says here it is you know everyone gets a tax cut except the richest two percent where asking to vote for a tax cut and not asking vote for a tax increase you're prepared to vote for a tax cut for ninety eight percent of the american people how long the realistically can we keep going with giving tax cuts to ninety eight percent if not well there's no problem right now i mean you can be part of our deficit is not a problem today and frankly we need a bigger one because we need more demand in the economy in the deficit creates

demand in the economy it's pretty basic economics you're putting money in people's pockets that's going to create demand in the economy somewhere down the road we definitely are going to have to talk about reducing the deficit but for better or worse that's not this year not next year probably not two thousand and fourteen that somewhere down the road you could put into law today you have all these people running around saying oh we have to deal with the long term and what i try to remind those people is we can find people in two thousand and twenty that what we think is a good idea we could put it down but that doesn't mean it's going to happen but so then when when the and when the i.m.f. gets involved when you start having these international bodies that are putting their two cents in on the matter what do you say that well for better or worse no one ever takes them seriously united states i mean the rest of the world they do they often have to but the i.m.f. and the united states you know ninety nine percent of people will say who. ok ok so my last question i mean maybe you i'm assuming maybe you gree with me on this but i just can't understand so last year obviously we had to deal with this debt ceiling debacle that almost took us to the brink of a default and it was stressful and painful for everybody to have to watch all of

this happen but so then we had this committee that was supposed to come up with cuts they couldn't do it and so now we have the trigger effects of the sequestration which is part of you know what will eventually have to happen these cuts are going to kick in congress agreed to these cuts themselves they made this deal and so why is it even an option that in january they won't go into effect well you know everything is always up for negotiation of the new congress you know and the new congress isn't but what the old congress decided so you know it's over your old congress is still in power right now very well i mean there's a little well i mean they can say whatever they want but the end of the day the new congress are going to side with their goes into effect i mean the old timers could say ok we want to change that but the new congress is actually going to make that decision and you know that's the way democracy works people go back to november going to so i would happens come january that's true that's true i mean i guess trust is already low you know when it comes to congress but things like that just baffled me because you know this is the deal you made and now you're spending all of our time it is really where it is it is not doing anything else not passing jobs

legislation but just thinking of how you can walk back your actions steve thanks so much for joining us and i think there really. are guys it's time for our last break of the evening when we come back house republicans are abstaining from central policy and they win tonight still time award and would you describe the bush presidency as awesome he did that as some audience any church will be discussing that and more on happy hour. a lot of american power continues. things are. right at the time. that you were very good dog.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charged is a big issue. here is what i wrote a. book and they alone a fellow will 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 in t.v. .

to the capital account i'm lauren lyster. hi guys it's time for tonight's tool time award and i are giving it to house republicans because they just can't seem to keep their promise to stop wasteful government spending and their priorities are way off let me explain here you see the house appropriations committee they released a proposal to cut spending for programs that were underperforming for the two

thousand and thirteen fiscal year and those cuts would affect programs like american or n.p.r. public television planned parenthood and some education programs honestly not that shot the house g.o.p. members are against those programs but then education that's want to commie little bit off guard they'd like to cut obama administration programs like the school improvement grant program and the investing in innovation grant program however other programs will give more money things like title one teacher incentive fund and abstinence only sex education yes that's right the part of the budget hawks would give abstinence only education a fifteen million dollar increase making its two thousand and thirteen budget four times larger around twenty million dollars they went out there think that it's ridiculous that investing innovation and innovation is on the chopping block but abstinence only education actually needs more money and basically what i guess you have to do here is bring out the chalkboard for a minute because it looks like we need to give house republicans

a lesson for starters do you guys know how bad our education system is right now according to the organization for economic cooperation and development the u.s. ranks seventeenth over.

way around it so let's just all agree to teach them safe practices rather than pretend that sex doesn't exist it's all about politics not your children's safety or their education for the g.o.p. it's about keeping your religious right your tea partiers happy the wrong way your country's future aka the children under the bus so for promoting an educational program that doesn't work well howling about government spending like a coyote in heat we're giving house republicans tonight's tool time award. our guide it is time for happy hour and joining me this evening is alone a show senior producer jenny churchill and medicine money roll calls heard on the

hill reporter hello that is in a moment ago and. this person we don't have a clip for but you know i think most people out there i don't know any honey. i don't know what he but he has a i am many more people like g. chat but then some people also skype instant message i hope someone still uses am and i would like to meet that person that was lying here is you know because they're locking themselves clearly because no one else but you know you know get their own data right we grew up with it i had to throw it out there. but if you're using this guy thinks of as being then turns out you're going to screwed so they've acknowledge they have a bug that's affecting their users and the instant messages sent over skype are being sent to run random season random contacts even contacts that you have never ever connected with before and so they're rolling out to try to fix up the issue but really not ok to do that but no seriously one i'm so glad i never figured out how to use sky two what if this happens to teach at my entire life what may i don't

like crumble around me. so young. for me it's like my only contacts and skype or like my parents so we were just immediately be horrible because i never actually chat with anybody on skype it's just like the people that i call yeah. yeah i was on there to see for me really i think this is. because you know i just feel like things are boring lately there's no yeah there's just not enough going on i mean the world so wonderful and i really think that we need some spice in our lives so yeah. i sent my friend talking crap about my other friends to that front i mean do it do it do it please don't do it i mean you only hear it and it was already hilarious of people make mistakes you know they're very but it really takes that are made out if you have too many windows you really want to say it out you know like i want to say something about jenny and then instead of sending it to sam i

sent it to jenny and i read it to you about the regular i don't know how that actually had an article i know but actually one of our guests told me this horrific story where his phone did that it sent like a text to the wrong person it was a text about his girlfriend and it went to it was a it was a disaster and i went to his girlfriend and basically nothing nothing to say nothing of a technology let's go george we just wish them a happy what was the sixty sixth birthday i believe the other week so he just recently did an interview and just take a look at this clip. eight years was awesome and you know i was famous and i was powerful and. but i have i have no desire for framing anymore. and i don't love that he actually like can fade that we're never going to see obama be like yeah that was awesome what only george bush would ever say so but it sounds also like the worst job on the planet not to mention it's hard for you because

you're always in the in. iraq afghanistan there are all these wars and death under this watch i was small arms up yet because. really and daring about george bush equally really had no idea what was going on when he was president he had a twenty two percent approval rating when he left office but it was awesome but he was famous then very wonderful he was the one who ordered it was famous i could see was no more on the in their mind that also being that you could see this president i don't know but also listen he has a fancy plane yeah lots of cars people they cared what he thought yeah you could motor anybody cared what right you know you know that also it mattered what you bought now it's over less is with a little hard news all the words all that there was some for the people in the media that's for sure because they had a gem to work with every single day but i know by winning back to say the bush administration was high time for the media hey i'm sorry consider it was awesome

biggest lie of all time sorry it was awesome for jon stewart also being the downer here and start talking about a modern war. let's just move on to some real roles apparently i think this girl's going to explain to us why why you should be a girl or what russia is all about. russia russia is usually seven to ten days the beginning of every single semester and it has to do with you meaning all of the stories are recognized on your college campus you will meet during the day life events the school hosts or night parties the sorority and a host actually want to party is during last week it's a five story to gatherings to meet people you main goal you see if you connect with these girls. i'm going to pass on that one i don't want her in my sorority who live on every day nori i didn't get to play very well. she was rushing i don't know i never went through this because i didn't i wasn't in

a sorority like way to where you know where that was not a big thing or that none of them are there any more i have no server to answer i recall though. really i bearly it's so competitive these days that you actually need a consultant to tell you how to rush there's a woman samantha on sperling for example she's image consultant in new york and she charges eight thousand dollars for a friday to sunday intensive whatever class what we want to call it on on how to russian giving you advice and what kind of photo to take and all that stuff. but. like i'm sorry but i expect if you're not cool a thousand dollars in a weekend isn't going to make you cool why did you all of popularity. for already pay a ridiculous amount so and then i don't know but could you also pay for me to learn but already have fees for you yeah exactly the same and you have to buy a new t. shirt every week so you can go to the bar in the same future and all the other

girls so many t. shirts apparently none of us understand it but i know you don't really know you saying this but apparently there are a lot of people out there that are total suckers or maybe we don't understand because you don't know how important i think that's true i think you just don't get it and i'm saying that honestly because there are so many of my friends at the office who are sorority had been in sorority stars i know they did it all themselves they didn't have to hire consultants they're all pretty girls but it's a tough world out there and i don't like that anymore and she was wearing the same necklace that you know legally blonde girl was wearing in legally blonde girl in our in our how to read yeah reese witherspoon yes same same necklace. i don't want to. say we're running out and. out of time but rich really quickly just throw this out there because we're talking about living stories all the time but really nobody wants the soccer at the olympics the london olympics had to withdraw five hundred thousand soccer tickets due to

a lack of interest c m how was it was like she was in england i think what's happening is they're marketing it as soccer and everyone of my doesn't know what that is what and you know your big thing. you take me as i grow that is bored but it isn't soccer the most like poppy i mean hello the world cup it for football is the most yeah billers for it not only in the world but also in england has made it also could be because you just made david beckham got snubbed on the british team i don't know oh right answers i own a home you know it does not lead out of i hope that it's not i mean everything in my life i mean i don't know about i'm like what's going on the back here i don't know like to think that is it because of the brain that's the only thing i can think of like i do people have indoor plants that are again anyway and i don't know . when i got a rabbit out of it thanks for joining me tonight that is it for tonight's show thanks for tuning in adventure that you come back tomorrow and in the meantime don't forget to like the lot of you on facebook don't forget to follow us on twitter subscribe to our you tube channel and over get the now can check us out on a blue is well coming up next is in the.

i asked. you you. if .