and welcome back to the big picture i'm sam sacks in for tom hartman coming up in this half hour last week the big bad drone industry came together to talk about how cool and deadly their latest killing machines are but was lost in that gathering was a discussion on the consequences of conducting a war by remote control we'll have that discussion in just a moment and what's the one question that no one is asking that could save our nation will tell you in tonight's daily take. every few weeks our news media informs us of a lethal strike our military carried out in afghanistan or pakistan or yemen or some other country that took the life of

a suspected terrorist that strike more often than not was carried out by an unmanned drone one of an unknown number of such drones flying all around the world armed with hellfire missiles locked and loaded ready to fire with a push of a button by an operator sitting in front of a computer screen stateside far far away from where the missiles are actually falling while we hear about the high profile drone strikes we rarely hear about the more routine ones the hundreds of strikes that are carried out every year in foreign countries that have been that we haven't declared war on drones have become the primary weapon in our nation's more than decade long so-called war on terror and are responsible for the death of thousands and not all those thousands were terrorists. all these weapons are hyped up is far more efficient indiscriminate there's no question that hundreds of civilians or more including women and children have also died in these drone attacks but this collateral damage as well as all the legal questions about targeting individuals in foreign nations for instance that

doesn't seem to faze our military leaders or our political leaders and obviously not the drone industry leaders themselves in fact just last week the drone industry convened its annual convention to talk about just how kick butt their new drones are how fast they fly how much more weaponry they hold and how precisely they kill absent from the convention though any sort of discussion about the consequences of warfare by remote control. next this is medea benjamin co-founder of the human rights group global exchange and the peace group code pink radio welcome back welcome back to the show so first off what is the association of on medical systems international and what do they do in las vegas well it's a big lobby group made up of thousands of manufacturers and they have an annual convention and this year their annual convention is in las vegas so they have discussions they have workshops they have talks by government officials and they

have exhibits so they have hundreds of booths where they're showing off the latest technology and you tried to attend this kind of a difficult time trying to tend in many ways i tried to rent a room because i wrote a new book called drone warfare killing by remote control and i thought some of these people might want to hear about the book because there's thousands of people who attend this they would let me rent a room i try to register as a journalist i write for many publications they wrote back and said i don't satisfy their criteria and wouldn't tell me what the criteria is and so i said i don't fork over the money and i went ahead and i bought a ticket and i got the registration no thank you and come and get your badge i'm standing on line to get my badge and lo and behold somebody comes up to me and plainclothes policemen and says this benjamin come with us and then i'm surrounded by las vegas police security police hotel police convention police and read the riot act that i could not be in that convention center for the four days duration

of the conference seems pretty telling isn't it that they took all these precautions to find out who you are and find out others and you mention others who kind of met the same fate when they tried to return you know some very dangerous people that i hang around with including a eighty year old priest in the seventy five year old priest who walks in a walker the a deal your old priest father louis vitale is known for he used to be in the air force when he was the young man said this is not the way i want to live my life and has dedicated his life to social john. this and he wanted to go in and talk to people about the germans he's a very soft spoken eighty year old priest he was pulled out on the line and also the same kind of thing you come back here and you will immediately go to jail so it it was kind of surreal sam to see that people like us and they were this happened to more people as well including a code pink writer tighe barry who had gotten in got his credential i guess they didn't recognize him with sitting in a room where

a workshop was being held writing notes and they pulled him out and dragged him out of there so yeah they must they must have been working overtime to try to find people who might have some time criticize the drone program by and large keep the drone program secret because that's sort of what is most people don't know this is going on in the old the world war two the whole nation was mobilized in a war effort everybody knew what was going on there was the draft going on everyone nowadays wars is so removed we're told we're giving tax cuts during times of war we're told to go shopping during times of war and with drone wars now even further removed it seems like there is new risk of loss of american lives so people can just continue their day now and not know that we have these drones patrolling all around will what was really strange is while this drone conference was going on in las vegas just forty miles away is the creech air force base where the drone operators are operating drones in afghanistan and killing people there so the next

day we went out to the creech air force base and tried to talk to people as they're commuting to work and they are commuting i mean they can be pressing the kill button by day and going and playing the slot machines by night so it's a crazy thing you're right the orbiter they are totally removed and then as you say we the public are another step removed and i would say that probably i haven't seen a poll of this i would love to see it's and but i would think that over nine. the percent of americans don't know that we are killing people on a regular basis in pakistan that we are using drone attacks in yemen and somalia i think it's totally hidden from them yeah i think i think you're absolutely right and even you know we talked about the end of the iraq war and how afghanistan war in two thousand and thirteen just i mean but there's no end to the drone warfare it seems like but is there a chance we've there's been a lot of talk recently about proliferation of drones within the united states for domestic reasons when that happens will that kind of put this issue on that we just

have thirty seconds left with that put that issue on the forefront and help organizations like your organization who are trying to bring attention that is starting to happen right now and people are becoming aware that by september two thousand and fifteen the f.a.a. it has to open up our airspace to drones and people are starting to worry about that across the political spectrum so yes once you see them flying up or once you hear about your neighbor who got busted because there was a cop drone or solved marijuana plants or something like that right i'm sure this will be a really big issue and eventually thanks a lot of people because banks for having it. if your goal is to reduce terrorism around the world then drone warfare is the worst way to do it instead here's tom showing another way to end religious extremism across the middle east take a look abraham maslow the famous psychologist once said if the only tool you have is a hammer and every problem looks like a nail right now our government believes our only tool to defeat muslim extremism is a hammer of the military but as we as we've seen this decade military force breeds

more extremism it doesn't stop it on the other hand a more effective way to squash this extremism is through education as greg mortenson discovered he's the founder of pennies for peace an organization that is funded one hundred thirty schools educated more than fifty thousand kids in afghanistan and pakistan mostly girls mortenson discovered that in the communities where he built schools for girls. girls who have traditionally been illiterate in both afghanistan and pakistan the people then kicked out the taliban or in some cases taliban members quit the taliban some even became teachers in the schools after having left behind the taliban as incredible as it may sound at first simply by educating women and girls in cultures where traditionally had no access to education you greatly reduce extremism religious extremism after all educated mothers tend to be more effective at dissuading it can be talking their children

out of becoming suicide bombers and educated women have social status and both social and economic power mortenson offers this new way for us to fight the war on terror and we need to listen to him because if we keep using nothing but the hammer of military power our fate will be the same as the past three military empires who tried this in afghanistan before us we need to find another tool and frankly greg mortenson offers one of the best we're spending one hundred sixty billion dollars a year a bomb a country with a core g.d.p. of between two and four billion yes they have rare earth minerals we need to make high tax like things like computers and cell phones so let's stop the military adventures and just buy the minerals from them. and the occupation of afghanistan is doing no good for anybody. and now it's time for knowledge the good the bad in the very very mallard code dermis legally the good alabama citizens for constitutional reform the group met

this weekend as part of their efforts to rewrite alabama state constitution which according to auburn university professor professor wayne flint quote was born in racism to help the rich and disenfranchised poor blacks and whites and quote the group along with the state's constitutional revision commission has spent the last four years tackling a whole overhaul of the state constitution the first victories for the group came in november when three referendum items will be placed on the ballot. the three referendum items having to deal with private corporations and banking already passed the alabama state legislature. updating your constitutional bama just don't let mr originalists antonin scalia know that such a thing is possible. the bad california assemblyman tim donnelly the california assembly is considering an increase in the texting and driving fines that's because

from two thousand and one to two thousand and seven nearly sixteen thousand people were killed by cell phone distracted drivers in california alone but these numbers aren't startling enough for donnelly who railed against the increase saying it's not what the founding fathers intended take a listen. as intelligent rational human beings. who live in a free society. is it too much to ask that we just police ourselves and. it just it just seems that's what the founders intended and i feel like this is just more of the nanny state type government that cost us a lot of money and it ultimately bridges more and more liberty east of course the founding fathers would have been a good against fines for texting and driving after all they didn't find people producing quails and riding a horse at the same time today. moving on and now it's time for the very very ugly the city of meridian mississippi according to the department of justice city and

public school officials in meridian are running a quote school to prison pipeline and quote where teachers and principals send children to juvenile detention centers for things like dress code violations the policy while in play for all children tends to of course discriminate against black and disabled children in a statement the d.o.j. said quote the system established by the city of meridian lauderdale county india y.s. to incarcerate children first school suspensions shocks the conscience resulting in the incarceration of children for a legit offenses such as dress code violations flatulence profanity and disrespect . and there you have it public school in the land of the free. and the land of mississippi i mean now that is very very ugly. after the break there have been a lot of questions flying around this campaign season from the important questions to the absurd questions like where was president obama born but what's the one

question no one's asking that really needs to be answered if our country is going to get back on its feet and thrive again. mr. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know. welcome to the big picture.

pepper spray that just burned your eyes right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything if you buy a lot of. thousands of times we're stronger than any kind of body of ever put. into it only a military mechanisms to do that work to bring justice or accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize obama as

a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. right so not only does a romney ryan ticket campaign on the same thirty year old voodoo economics that have devastated the middle class but it raises the stakes to paul ryan it's not just about winnowing down benefits or raising the retirement age for medicare and social security recipients it's about ending the programs altogether and handing off the care of our seniors to wall street in the private health insurance industry is that just about cutting more taxes on the rich it's about exempting the rich entirely when it comes to financing our government under paul ryan's budget mitt

romney's tax rate would be just point eight two percent which clearly makes mitt romney smile and give away free massages something like that and it's not just about embracing supply side economics it's about taking it a step further and embracing iran objectivism also pulling away whatever's left of the social safety net and watching americans fall into the abyss. looking at the last few decades the paul ryan pick proves republicans have nothing more to offer no new ideas no sympathies for anyone who doesn't have sixty euros in their bank account and if collapse is what you're looking for if a banana republic is what's ideal if the corporatocracy is to reign free in america for another generation and if iran will finally succeed post-mortem to remake america into his zombie paradise of selfishness and ruthlessness and a war of all vs all then yes romney ryan is the dream ticket but if you're not

interested in more of the same not interested in decline to union rates record poverty numbers and record wealth inequality then there's nothing for you in mitt romney and paul ryan the task at hand for all of us who still care about a middle class and shared prosperity is daunting especially when one of the two major political parties has committed itself to the corporate elite while the other has been neutered by the same corporate elite but that task still has to start somewhere and it starts with an important question that's just not being asked right now and that question is the subject of tonight's they only take there are a lot of questions being thrown around this presidential campaign between mitt romney and barack obama questions like how many jobs that romney really destroy as a capital right as a corporate raider over bain capital or how much should the super rich pay on super rich like him pay in taxes his pain by the way the loss of fifteen percent or were

always president obama really born real some questions are important others completely absurd but there's one fundamental question that hasn't been asked yet and then desperately needs to be asked if we're ever going to find our nation's soul again. it was a question that the late billionaire sir james goldsmith asked of charlie rose back in one thousand nine hundred four i'm not for the destruction of one society can you explain what is the purpose of an economy and you abuse it when it's it what is the purpose of an economy think about it for a second why don't we have an economy here was goldsmiths answer to his own question the economy is that is the fundamental needs of society yes which office prosperity yes which are stability yes and which all can come. ok let me repeat

that the purpose of an economy is to serve the fundamental needs of a society which include prosperity stability and contentment back in the one nine hundred thirty s. during the great depression when prosperity stability and content one were pretty hard to come by president franklin roosevelt believed he could restore the true purpose of an economy by establishing a good quality of life for as many people as possible as roosevelt said in one nine hundred thirty six necessitous men are not free men liberty requires the opportunity to make a living a living decent according to the standards of the time a living which gives man not only enough to live by but something to live for roosevelt knew that if someone was hungry and didn't have food or if they were sick and didn't have medical care or if they were broken didn't have a job then in a very real sense they were not free but when our economy provides these basic

essential for freedom that americans would finally find stability and contentment giving them a chance to also take entrepreneurial risks and eventually find prosperity as well remember goldsmiths definition of an economy to provide prosperity stability and contentment to society so to do just that in one thousand forty four franklin roosevelt introduced a second bill of rights. and. so. this right now actually to sort of. average family. all right. f.d.r. then goes on to lay out a new set of rights that all americans should be granted including the right to a job. the right to earn enough to provide adequate food clothing and recreation to

yourself and your family the right of every business person to trade in freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies the right to a decent home a right to adequate medical care a right to adequate protection from the old from old age sickness accidents and unemployment and a right to a good education first of all never succeeded in getting his second bill of rights passed he died of a stroke before we could see that happen but at least his definition of an economy which is something the serves the needs of society and provides the best quality of life for the greatest number of people was accepted for the next several decades by both republicans and democrats who supported labor unions high taxation on the rich and a regulated economy that protect some american jobs and keeps american industry in america. between one nine hundred thirty and one nine hundred eighty america knew the answer to that fundamental question what is the purpose of an economy even republicans do as republican president dwight d.

eisenhower wrote to his brother it is quite clear that the federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear that party again in our political history there is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things among them are a few texas oil millionaires their number is negligible and they are stupid but then with ronald reagan came a new answer to the question of why an economy an answer that we're still stuck with today rather than an economy serving the needs of society reagan in this new breed of supply side he can't be caught in mists and free marketeers believe that society you and me exists to serve the needs of the economy or more specifically the society serves the needs of the leaders within the economy

corporations and their c.e.o.'s or as they called it in fact so-called news job creators which brought us the greed is good mentality the one nine hundred eighty s. when c.e.o.'s were encouraged to cut salaries of their workers bust up unions pollute the skies and gamble on wall street to maximize well the holy grail then came laws to cement this new definition of the economy massive tax cuts for the so called job creators deregulation of wall street's banks toure's and the so-called free trade agreements so that national corporations could have band in america and morph into trans national behemoths that new business model and this entirely new definition of the purpose of an economy is still with us today. and is one in which profit and making money is the ultimate goal and to hell with the government stability and prosperity of society to advance this reagan as footsoldiers redefine

the word freedom to f.d.r. freedom meant freedom from want and destitution freedom at a social safety net but to the reaganites freedom and freedom for banks and hostlers like michael milken and the koch brothers and mitt romney to pursue profits without worrying about or about whether or not they're destroying people's lives or their communities means the freedom to pollute freedom to outsource freedom to take dangerous risks on wall street freedom to illegally foreclose on millions of americans and the freedom to buy our elections basically the freedom to be pirate equity managers and raid american companies laying off thousands of workers to maximize profits. mitt romney is the walking embodiment of this new definition of freedom as well as the lead spokesman for the new answer to the question what is the purpose of an economy and he's running for president not he

and his donors like sheldon adelson karl rove and the koch brothers believe we have an economy so that he is buddies can get filthy rich and stay that way that's why corporations share of tax revenues has plummeted since reagan it working people's share of tax revenue that we pay in taxes has increased that's why the top one percent of seen their income skyrocket two hundred seventy five percent since reagan it the rest of us have seen our incomes barely grow that's why unionization rates have fallen since reagan and along with those rates the middle classes income has also dropped. forty nine million americans in poverty forty five million americans on food stamps fifty three million americans without health insurance. in those situations prosperity stipple stability and contentment for the vast majority of us are pretty much nowhere to be found and this is all happening because we have failed to take a step back and look around we fail to ask ourselves that fundamental question what

is the purpose of an economy if progressives are going to take back america just like they did with the republican teddy roosevelt the early one nine hundred busted up the big corporations with f.d.r. in the one nine hundred thirty s. then it's imperative that we do redefine both the word freedom and the purpose of an economy and that begins with asking the questions what is freedom what is the purpose of an economy everything else of universal health care to the rights of working people to regulations on oil barons and banks there's follows from those questions it's time to go back to earlier definitions of freedom that is the koch brothers have redefined it as the right to pollute and corrupt politicians for really but as f.d.r. defined it as the right for americans to be free to chase their dreams because their basic needs like health care and education and a job are secure it's time to provoke prosperity and stability again by saying the economy is here to serve the needs of society and not to serve the needs of mitt

romney and his buddies but start asking the right questions. and that is the big picture for tonight monday august thirteenth two thousand and twelve join us tomorrow night when we speak with. about trap wire the massive u.s. surveillance system recently discovered by the group's wiki leaks and anonymous and if you missed any of tonight's show catch us out. on hulu at hulu dot com slash the big picture more information on any of the stories we covered visit or websites harvin dot com. dot com also check out our two you tube there are links. also check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback and don't forget as always says democracy begins with you when you get out there and get active and occupy something tag you're it.

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