i'm sam sacks in for tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. the one hundred twelfth congress has done everything in its power to help the rich get richer in america while abandoning everyone else with wars on labor and women's rights and policies that only help the oligarchy is the ten percent approval rating for congress really much of a surprise also thanks to pennsylvania's radical voter suppression id law nearly half the city of philadelphia may not be able to vote in november what are groups doing to fight back against these types of laws and how can we stop conservatives

across the country from rigging the election and for decades now social security has helped millions of americans stay afloat and avoid living in absolute poverty and now conservatives want to do away with social security and them struggling seniors to a life of hardship what's going on here. so remember back in two thousand and ten when for three months we all watched oil gushing into the gulf of mexico as b.p. fumbled around trying to cap the macondo well that was spewing fifty three thousand barrels of crude every single day. we knew that eleven men died on that rig we later saw the images of marine life choking on toxic oil we sell the devastated coastlines along the gulf blanketed in black mock we heard stories of small business owners who made their living on the coast fishing and entice and tourists losing everything as a result of b.p.

now at the time you would have been hard pressed to find a more despised corporation anywhere in america or the world than b.p. b.p. even made banks like goldman sachs of the just crashed our economy a few years earlier taking a bailout and paid their c.e.o.'s outrageous salaries b.p. made them look good after the oil spill and at the height of this disaster b.p.'s approval rating was at sixteen percent and that's pretty crummy paris hilton even at a higher profile rating back in two thousand and five but that was a few years after she released her sex tape but b.p.'s lowly approval rating isn't nearly as crummy as the approval rating of our congress today according to the latest gallup poll released on tuesday congress now has an all time low approval rating of just ten percent just ten percent only one out of ten people are willing to say congress is doing a good job and to put that in perspective before two thousand and seven congress's

approval rating only saying below twenty percent twice just twice but in just the last year congress has never been able to even break that twenty percent mark sure this isn't all that surprising as every single day we see the deadlocks we see the filibusters the show votes the partisan bickering the self-inflicted economic wounds like last year's debt limit debacle no one is surprised hearing that nine out of ten americans think congress is a joke in fact i'd like to meet the one guy who doesn't but here's something to think about. this one hundred twelfth congress was elected in two thousand and ten the first election after the supreme court's citizens united decision before two thousand and ten in the prior three midterm elections outside spending never topped more than sixty million dollars in one thousand nine hundred eight it was about thirteen million dollars in two thousand and two it was about twenty three million dollars in two thousand and six it was about fifty nine million dollars and then

citizens united happened in suddenly outside spending in the two thousand and ten midterm election rose exponentially to two hundred eighty two million dollars that's nearly five times more money spent by outside organizations in the two thousand and ten election and was spent in two thousand and six and it's nearly three times as much money then all the outside money spent in the three previous midterm elections combined in other words two thousand and ten was a political turning point it was an election bought and paid for by the one percent we got tea partiers who were politically naive didn't know what the debt limit was didn't believe in climate change didn't know what socialism means didn't know what comparable compromise means didn't know what being a statesman means thanks to citizens united we got people in power who could who would have had no chance of being elected in any other election had not been for the fact that the corporate elite could spend unlimited amounts of money propping

up their campaign and carpet bombing their districts with negative ads in the weeks leading up to the election to tip the scales that is the genesis of the hundred twelfth congress the best congress money can buy which explains why republicans in the house have held one hundred ninety one votes against the environment averaging one vote per day blocking regulations to keep our air and water safe in blocking action to address global climate change after all you have to give the oil barons returns on their investments excuse me campaign contributions. it explains why republicans ever lightly blocked or defunded even the most watered down minor regulations on wall street after all you have to give bankers returns on their investments excuse me campaign contributions explains why republicans have voted a dozen times including attempts to defund planned parenthood to weaken women's access to contraceptives because after all you have to give the eccentric billionaires who get fired up over social issues or return on their investments

excuse me campaign contributions in other words this congress in particular the house of representatives has been focused on helping only one class of americans the class that paid them in two thousand and ten the one percent while leaving the ninety nine percent behind so is anyone still really surprised about the ten percent approval rating i am it should be one percent and i want to turn it over to david cobb national spokesperson for move to amend the national projects director with democracy unlimited a lawyer and political activists david welcome back to the show thank you sam it's a pleasure and you look good on that side of the extreme thank you for that good to be here so what do you think about the fog this is i just laid out there that this ten percent approval rating is a direct result of citizens united. well i think you're absolutely right and the polling data reflects what i'm saying as i travel around the country on behalf of move to an end and that is that principled liberals and principle conservatives

alike are absolutely disgusted with the corporate takeover of our government the one thing that i would change though is it's not just campaign contributions and frankly it's not just investments let's just cut to the chase and call it what it really is bribes the citizens united case and the doctrine of corporate personhood and money equals speech has basically legalized bribery in this country and that's what most americans know it's the reason the approval rating for congress has plummeted to historic lows and frankly it's the reason that move to amend effort is growing like wildfire across the country because ordinary folks are rolling up our sleeves to take our country back away from these corporate hijackers away from the supreme court who is trying to tell us how our government is going to operate well we say yeah boss anough are right it's our constitution it's our government they're supposed to be our elected representatives and we're going to make it so yeah

absolutely and move to amend is doing a great job as you mentioned what we saw would happen in two thousand and ten what is going to happen over the next few months i mean obviously citizens united is not going to get overturned or person it's not going to get overturned before november what can we expect this election what we're going to see is not just special interest money coming in through the super pacs which is horrific but we're also going to see dark money that is money being raised and spent by people who we don't even know where it's coming from and they're going to flood the so-called swing states now if you live in texas or california or new york the places where the electoral college vote has basically already been cast you will be spared for the most part in less you live in. a super close congressional district where they decide to spend money but in those swing states we're going to see billions of dollars poured in on thirty second it slimy attack ads so much sound

and fury signifying nothing that do nothing more than denigrate our political process it's going to be ugly and it's it's going to be overwhelming we'll we've never seen anything like it as bad as the two thousand and ten electoral cycle was this electoral cycle is going to be the absolute worst in the history of the united states of america yeah here's to congress' approval rating going to five percent next year we want to know the reason might be for this low approval rating might be this two party to our point you you ran for president on the green ticket back in two thousand and four last night show we had joel stein on who's running this year on the green party ticket how can we reform our elections to open up a third party candidates who. will stand for first i would say this let's just acknowledge that principled liberals have been lied to and sold out by the establishment's elite of the democratic party who are basically carrying water for

the same banks toure's and wall street heist heister is that we've talked about but just as surely principled conservatives have been lied to and sold out by the ruling elite of the republican party who are carrying water for the same shysters wall street banks toure's etc i think that what we need to do is build from the bottom up a genuine grassroots movement and frankly i don't care whether somebody is a green a libertarian a democrat or republican it doesn't matter what party label they have i'm actually challenging us to begin to make political demands and the best way to do that i think is to vote for what we want now i think that one of the most exciting things is something that your program has actually helped to spread the word. and that is instant runoff voting which would allow those to actually vote for what they want instead of against what they hate that's one of those concrete things where we

could actually be working together to be creating a new politics in this country and the other thing that we should do if that happens loads ten seconds left. the last thing i want to say is move to a mint dot org depends on you go to that website move to and then sign up so we can help build this movement we so desperately need and so richly deserved well said keep up the great work david cobb also didn't move to amend dot org thanks a lot thank you it's simply put congress's approval rating is so low because it's no longer representing the people or at least ninety nine percent of the people it's representing the wealthy few and that's not a democracy and it's not a republic it's an oligarchy here's tom steak. one hundred years ago a german sociologist by the name of robert michaels came up with what he called the iron law. which said that democracies will always devolve into oligarchy these and plutocracies ruled by the few and ruled by the rich unless the process is interrupted by

a revolution in america we've broken up these oligarchy by periodic revolutions revolutions seven hundred seventy six the civil war the new deal everyone about eighty years apart and it's been eighty years since the new deal started and the oligarchy seem like they're now totally in control they've even taken control of the tea party in congress all one hundred percent of the freshman members of the tea party caucus in the house of representatives have taken big bucks from the banks is that they ran against in the election of two thousand and ten they've taken a total of over six hundred thousand dollars. the tea party caucus in congress is now officially a political arm a wall street the oligarchy the oligarchy investment in these republican members of congress has paid big dividends the tea partiers are among the strongest opponents of any regulations that would protect you and me for months unscrupulous practices by the big banks this is in a very real way all of our key the only way to put a stop to this is to get money out of politics in the united states and to learn

how to do that go to move to amend. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day.

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ok so we're two and a half year half months excuse me away from the election this year and in pennsylvania it might already be rigged on tuesday pennsylvania judge robert simpson up held his state's controversial voter id law passed by republicans that could lead to more than a million eligible voters being turned away from the polls in that state in november according the philadelphia city paper as many as one point six million voters in the state do not have the proper identification to be eligible to vote under this new law and as many as half of all the registered voters in the city of philadelphia will also be kicked off the voting rolls thanks to this republican law again that's half of all the voters in the city of philadelphia in danger of losing their ability to vote in november and it's well known by now why republicans are passing voter id laws and it has nothing to do with voter fraud it has to do with

keeping people who tend to vote for democrats away from the polls as the brennan center for justice uncovered minorities in the young the old in the poor are hardest hit by voter id laws with twenty five percent of blacks not having the proper identification a vote under these new laws nineteen percent of latinos eighteen percent of young people eighteen percent of seniors and fifteen percent of the poor. this point is proven by the fact that voter id law proponents in court were unable to name even one case of voter fraud in the state that would make this law unnecessary however the judge simpson didn't rule on the blatant discrimination he simply ruled that it was well within the power of the pennsylvania state legislature to pass such a law so he upheld it the next step is likely the state supreme court which is currently split three to three between republican appointed judges and democratic pointed judges. whatever happens this voter i.d.

law in pennsylvania as well as the several others passing republican controlled states highlight the need for a federal right to vote in america to prevent states from passing their own politically motivated restrictions on our democracy joining me now is cathy colton gonzales attorney and director of the voter protection program at the advancement project at the welcome back to the show thank you sam so your organization was involved in this pennsylvania the suit to try and get rid of this law what do you make of this judge's decision isn't it just mind blowing the fact that these people don't even present a case of voter probably still rules you know it's with all due respect to judge simpson a very sad day for american democracy we're going to be appealing tomorrow and hope that the state supreme court feels differently so so it will go to the state supreme court do you guys think you'll have a better shot there or we're not really sure but we are going to continue to fight this because as you said over a million pennsylvania voters don't have the proper id there's a clear discriminatory and. and we know that it's going to affect the november

election there is no way in the world that over a million voters can get from a third i.d. before november and so we're planning to appeal and hope that the state supreme court you know will feel differently when they disagree with the world and this will probably be something that will eventually be said about supreme court i'm figuring down the road we'll see but you meant not only is this law discriminate clearly discriminatory but it's poorly crafted as you guys pointed out in the suit there's not enough i.d.'s to even give to everybody you would need a voter id there's not enough information out there to tell people where to get these voter i.d.'s you know the state itself said or the commonwealth of pennsylvania you know admitted during the litigation that you know even if it were to give a new form of free voter i.d. they could give it to less than ten thousand people before november and those people would have to prove that they're indigent and there's no standard as to what's indigent and many people live in counties where there isn't even a hand to go and get the i. so you know basically you know there is no remedy that

could make this a fair election that could stop the disenfranchisement besides overturning the attorney general holder a few weeks back came out and said it flat out this is a poll tax. yeah definitely the one nine hundred sixty five voting rights act was passed against poll taxes and literacy tests are these types of obstacles that make it more difficult for people of color to vote at the polls to get to the polls in the first place and so you know this year we've seen an unprecedented new wave of poll taxes in the form of voter id laws very starch photo id laws that disenfranchise people of color of early voting souls to the polls where african-americans would go to vote in all kinds of other tactics that manipulate the voting rights of people of color so now that this law has been upheld how hard is it for someone to obtain a voter i.d. really especially the indigent as you said it depends on who you are but for over a million people in pennsylvania it's going to be impossible we know that it's

going to take two separate trips to the pendatang we know that it's going to take some money or it's going to take some awfully good proof that you can afford it and you know many people are working too hard to be able to do that or don't have the transportation or they're the elderly who you know can't get a ride to the pound and there are people who don't have a birth certificate and it would cost over thirty dollars to get the birth certificate there are a number of puerto rican so you don't have valid birth certificates in the first place i could go on and on so there's over a million people who are affected and it is impossible for them to get the proper id to vote before election day as you said this affects minorities and we have just the other week we had the former republican party chairman of florida come out and say well we used to have meetings and they said that our job is to suppress the black vote and whatever that seems to be what what they're what they're doing the thing about all these laws being passed around the states is they can get away with it because there really isn't a federal right to vote i mean in bush v gore the supreme court said no you really don't have a right to vote power. so we give how do we make

a right to vote to stop all this advancement project has been working on and we are going to work on getting a constitutional right to vote in a numerated right to vote to make this abundantly clear we do hope to win on appeal because you know the the right to vote is so fundamental that it deserves scrutiny in pennsylvania and elsewhere but we're working on a constitutional amendment next year so this is going to take activism getting signatures to door to door and to be in the streets even that's right thanks for coming at you for having to get worked up now pay no attention to what the right is saying here voter fraud almost never happens in these voter id laws serve one purpose and one purpose alone. to keep democrats from voting but in those few instances when actual voting fraud does occur well it seems to always be coming from one side there's times that. we all know the republicans around the country are passing voter suppression id laws to kick millions of democrats off the rolls before november a salon reporter alex cites wall broke today former republican chairman republican

party chairman in florida jim greer now admits that officials in his party are engaging in voter suppression efforts to quote keep blacks from voting and quote but since republicans can't come out and say that they're instead justifying their efforts by arguing that voter fraud is rampant in fact i have a guest on my show argue the voter fraud is so our ages that even pets like dogs and cats and maybe goldfish are walking into voting booths and casting ballots. we've got pets that are voting how many people have seriously you've had a you've had a pet show up in the polls in pennsylvania. that's correct who haven't had it why are they not in jail. why i don't really know who owned the cat and why they're not in jail they probably said b. c. the reason they're not in jail is because it didn't happen voter fraud is virtually non existant it happens less often than people dying because their t.v.'s fell on

top of them but in those few cases where voter fraud actually does happen seems like it's mostly republicans committed to meet john and right republican candidate for supervisor in an all county arizona and rogers dropped out of the race after accusations surfaced that his companion whom he had lived with for. her death in two thousand and seven has been voting from the grave for the five years since her death. and wright claims he's dropping out of the race for other reasons and denies any role in illegally voting on behalf of his former companion seems fishy though and then there's an coulter one of the most shrill hateful conservative voices on television as reported by brad log in both two thousand and two and two thousand and four coulter illegally cast absentee ballots in connecticut despite her actually being a resident of and living in new york that's voter fraud just like it was voter fraud when former republican presidential candidate jon huntsman voted in two

thousand and ten claiming his governor's mansion in utah has as fisher as his official address even though he was no longer governor and no longer lived in the mansion just like it was voter fraud when indiana's republican secretary of state charlie white the top election fish official in the state was found guilty of several felony charges like lying on voter registration forms voting in the wrong precincts and submitting false ballots. the one i'm most interested in hearing is the explanation from none other than republican mitt romney who likely committed voter fraud back in two thousand and ten when he voted for scott brown in massachusetts by claiming he lived in son's unfinished basement so either quarter billionaire mitt romney who owned mansions in california new hampshire but not in massachusetts was sleeping in his son's unfinished basement without his butler maid or chauffeur all pretty unlikely or he committed voter fraud and should face five years in jail and a ten thousand dollars fine so which is admit yes voter fraud rarely happens but

when it does republicans seem to always be behind it so instead of punishing millions of minorities students seniors and low income americans with voter suppression id laws people who don't actually commit voter fraud we should go after the people who do commit voter fraud from now on let's make prominent republicans present three forms of i.d. plus proof of an address and a d.n.a. sample just prove who they really are and that they are who they say they are how else can we protect the integrity of our elections right. now a new story on the surveillance front it might be time to take the battery out of your cell phone on tuesday the united states court of appeals for the sixth district through the fourth amendment to the constitution out the window ruling that police can track cell phone g.p.s. data and thus track you without a warrant the case of united states v skinner centered on a suspect a suspected drug trafficker who was tracked through a cell phone and arrested by the dea yet the judge in the case john rogers said in

his ruling quote skinner did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data emanating from his cell phone that showed its location he went on to say law enforcement tactics must be allowed to advance with technological changes in order to prevent criminals from circumventing the justice system and there are two pretty interesting things to this decision one the. court ruled in january that cops cannot place g.p.s. tracking on someone's car without a warrant so yesterday's ruling affirms that cops can track cell phones but not cars go figure two the ruling comes on the heels of the discovery of trap wire the massive law enforcement surveillance system that is tracking every american's whereabouts in order to detect terrorist threats or whatever so judge rogers worries about criminals being able to circumvent the judicial system are completely unfounded never before in history has law enforcement had this much surveillance

and technology to keep tabs on americans it is indeed a brave new world. and after the break yesterday marked the seventy seventh anniversary of social security being signed into law and it helped millions of americans seniors and the disabled survive ever since so why do conservatives want to eliminate social security and send millions of more americans into a life of poverty.

wealthy british style. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. mission of free accreditation free zones for charges free arrangements free risk free studio types free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and a free media dog r t v dot com you.