a day. today at r t they are the few the proud one former marine took his complaints to facebook and was detained for doing it all speak to the marines attorney. you know the saying rules are meant to be broken that's not exactly exactly accurate in fact an increasing number of d.c. elites are helping make the rules then switching to the private companies to bank all those rules will tell you about the revolving door between the public and private sector. and waste not want not what a wonderful montra for the american food industry but the turns out forty percent of u.s. food is wasted each year while one in five americans goes hungry that's what the disparity will question more.

we begin this hour with a former marine who was detained at a psychiatric ward for his facebook post today a judge ordered the release of twenty six year old brandon routh you see there he was sent away for posting anti government messages on his facebook page the police and f.b.i. raided his home in virginia mid august and interrogated him about his online activity he was later transported to a psych ward against his will but a judge today said there is no basis to hold him at the psych ward so why was he ever detained in the first place earlier i was joined by john white had an attorney for the former marine and got his reaction to the judge's order take a listen well we were. actually a bit surprised that the system is very difficult to navigate civil commitments were i would have been here last week last thursday. at least right was driving in

front of his house he was out on the front porch and we had a shorts on and started talking to what. guys i said you post was the controversial things on your facebook page while he was trying to explain yourself they surrounded aim and then went ahead and handcuffed him and let him take you away with him in police car i said what's the crime is that you really committed a crime or not charging with a crime and they're not going to charge him with a crime it was this facebook post they took him to a psychiatric ward in the us fifteen minutes psychological examination had a hearing monday and the special justice who's a lawyer rule that he's a thirty or thirty days. to be in the hospital for evaluation and so we have to feel that a judge today a circuit judge ruled that there was really no factual basis you set for to keeping the psychiatric or what happened was he was playing a game on facebook essentially private grouping his brother and his sister and they were quoting song lyrics from a root cultural members i never listen to the group i read the lyrics summer.

because that are violent lyrics but you know the beatles had a role in. mind but anyway so that was the basis is free speech. and by the way they couldn't get a search warrant because they didn't commit a crime and so the search is on they will they will realize he owns the weapon ok can you john describe more the nature facebook post that started that controversy pilots were interpreted as terrorists or is there anything that you saw that you posted that fits that description. well one of the one of the callers was up your right to start my act but you got to stand he was talking to his brother and sister in the gang call mr illuminati it was a game or play and somehow the government got down loans that and again as authorized to go to rather for a dot org i write articles on surveillance the private corporations are giving over

authorized the permission to the police so anything you do on facebook is got to go to the police so we know that but they conduct surveillance and that's what happened but he targeted no one he's a decorated marine we've been to iraq afghanistan and he's a combat engineer so he owns two businesses in richmond virginia he's a upstanding man is community a decorated marine he owns the weapons so it is hard to know what he eats uncertain about the government he's around all that but there it did he had any violent history none he's never seen a psychotic he's never been on drugs the only time he's ever seen a psychotic is when they put him in this mill institution last thursday so then why was he the tane in the first place i mean what basis was there to justify him being sent to a psychiatric ward all we know this is facebook post they said some people complained about five people is what they listed at the hearing monday and people basically he didn't know except for one person so what this means is it can happen to anybody i

mean there are twenty thousand civil commitments in virginia alone each year so what happened here and it was really key and really important as mother went on facebook and started talking about this case and my son has been taken away and someone contacted us and we provide a little advance most people never get that so they disappear in these institutions now is this the norm i mean does this happen often that a former marine will be sent to a psychiatric ward for saying things like this or is this unprecedented i said look there are about twenty thousand of these civil commitment to reject loan each year about what happened the the other night the veterans groups cons. i could make a cross because koreans said there routinely they're getting complaints divestments you have come back from afghanistan or iraq the f.b.i. and investigating them because of the political views you know if you remember a couple of years ago the department all s.q.r.t. issued two memos the left wing and right wing extremism in the right wing extremism best rooms were listed as threats to america so there seems to be this idea that

friends are some kind of threat that it's a little unnerving if you're in the veterans groups are very very upset seems a little bit ironic that that's what specifically be considered a threat considering they had once thought are some of them had once fought to defend the country. here's the point i've been telling constitutional cases for forty years i said this is the first one of us me the creek they did not charge the man with the crime they just take you must arrest him and took him away no crime i know that you had said before that this is an attack on his first amendment rights do you think do marines are former marines have some kind of special obligation to censor what they say or what they post on line i don't think anybody in america has has a duty to do that i think if you're concerned about your government and he is he should speak out the other right thing is he people like to stick out as most americans don't do if they're too busy watching sporting events or whatever they're doing

this guy here is concerned this country needs speaking out and i got him in trouble but again i said question is this america do we still have first amendment rights if a judge today said we do. john what is next for your client there we're talking to brandon and his mother right now about a possible civil lawsuit against the government for damages they put him through they put this man through hell that was attorney john whitehead. that's a government agency aimed at protecting consumers the consumer finance protection bureau has done some good for citizens reaching multimillion dollar settlement between credit card companies and wrong customers but it also turns out this. is part of this revolving door that's constantly turning between government and the finance sector one of their top guys leonard chan is leaving the agency to go back to a corporate law firm so is this just another example of the cozy ties between corporations and the government to discuss more about this revolving door i was joined by bart

naylor a financial policy advocate at public citizen has a stake. well the revolving door and as is commonly understood is the habit industry regulators government officials going through that door back into the private sector where they appeal for various contributions or regulatory laxity or regulatory favors from the agencies that they just served and how common would you say that's practices. it's so common that it's almost like gravity public citizen counted for example in two thousand and nine that there were nine hundred government officials mostly former staffers for congress or regulatory agencies that were lobbying during the congressional debate over reforming wall street. wow that is quite a large number and want to give

a couple specific notable examples here dick cheney is the first one he is the chief of staff for president ford he was also but i want to also point out that the ones in blue are their public posts the ones in red are their positions held in the private sector dick cheney as i mentioned chief of staff for president ford he was also president bush's senior secretary of defense a public policy research senior fellow back in one thousand nine hundred four he was the c.e.o. of halliburton and he was also vice president for george bush jr and our next example there was jake steward he held several positions in the clinton administration the vice president of the business development at alcoa the counselor to u.s. treasury treasury secretary and he was also the managing director and global head of corporate communications at goldman sachs from two thousand and twelve and he's still still in that position and we have meredith at well baker she was

a legislative affairs she was at the legislative affairs office of the state department back in one nine hundred ninety also the director of program congressional affairs at cellular telecommunications industry association she goes on there to a few more positions and interesting here four months after voting for comcast this the comcast n.b.c. merger baker accepted a job at comcast so i want to ask you why you become part of a government agency if your intent is to go back to the private sector anyways. money is the most obvious explanation one unfortunately. we begin with the federal agents you finish law school or business school you work for a federal agency and then you go to work for the private sector the inner. sex was

overseen by that agency you'll make two to three times as much in that agency. for example one of the higher salaries that you could get at the securities and exchange commission if you were almost the senior head of the head of enforcement about one hundred sixty thousand dollars a year that by the way is what a starving warrior will get if she graduates from harvard law school one of the prominent firms so the lower of money is certainly there but the permission is problem of currying favor with that future employer or advantage in your knowledge of how the agency works for that future employer certainly is is a problem that is a problem for public policy. we need to have more about that how this revolving door does affect public policy well. we see it i focus mostly on the on the banking business and there are are two dynamics that have led

to what is in effect regulatory capture and if i can just step back for a second the wall street crash of two thousand and eight happened in part because our laws were deficient but almost as much because the regulators using the laws that existed were not zealous enough why weren't these that was enough and the true possibilities are that they were. the one explanation is that they were captured by industry why because they were essentially going to work for industry later and where they come from industry and then when we call the stockholm syndrome namely that their exposure the regulators exposure is ninety nine percent to other bankers they get to see us the consumer side very very little and they begin to speak and think like industry as a part now or a financial policy advocate at publix at the same. you might have heard of this story recently according to a study by the natural resources defense council forty percent of the food in the

us goes to waste alarming to say the least but even more so when you take another shocking bit of information into account the latest survey from gallup states one in five americans can't afford food so forty percent of food goes into the trash while one in five americans go hungry how is this possible and what can be done to get this discarded food to the people that really need it all social luzzi policy analyst for the natural resources defense council joins us now he's also a contributor she excuse me is a contributor to the and our d.c. blog switchboard hi there sasha so alarming information you guys put out there america has always been known as a land of plenty but considering the economic times that we're in today you know people trying to do more with less what do you make of this statistic. well that's right liz thanks so much for having me on and so right now i mean imagine you go to

the grocery store and you leave with three big bags of groceries and you just drop one in the parking lot and never bother to stop and pick it up it sounds pretty ridiculous but that's essentially what's happening in america today and that's taking a big toll on our economy it's costing americans one hundred sixty five billion dollars every year in food that just goes right into the garbage for the average american family that's more than two thousand two hundred dollars every year and so at a time when a lot of americans are watching their own budgets it's tough to believe that every month they're they're throwing one hundred fifty dollars in into the garbage maybe maybe unknowingly. really interesting way of describing the picture here the big picture you know in the u.s. we have this mentality that big or bigger is better what can be done to change that to today with kind of culture of consumption. that's right so the bigger and better mentality is kind of pervasive in our system so the waste is happening actually

throughout the supply chain from from the farm all the way to our plates but the two main places where it's happening are in grocery stores and then on the consumer and so in restaurants and in our kitchen and so in grocery stores i'm sure you've gone and you've seen these big piles of fruits and vegetables so the grocery stores want to create this impression of abundance but what that actually means is that a lot of those fruits and vegetables are spoiling before they ever get bought and eaten by anyone first and vegetables are actually what gets wasted most over half of what we grow never get eaten they just spoil and get thrown away. in in our own kitchens you know a lot of times you know where we're tempted to buy in bulk. i like to use a good rule of thumb you know only buy what you eat and eat what you buy that's a good way of sort of shopping smart but unfortunately

a lot of grocery stores offer. you know bigger packages and it seems like you're saving money but really is all that money is going into the garbage can it's actually taking a big hit on your wallet and at restaurants i don't know if your viewers realize this but portion sizes have really gotten out of control they've just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger the average portion size now is over eight times what the government recommends and so you know you go when you eat out at a restaurant and you just can't physically consume that much food and so a lot of it goes right into the garbage a lot of it goes into the garbage and people try to eat what there are now we're seeing this obesity epidemic care so it's a problem on many fronts meanwhile one in five americans can't afford the food any food or you know not enough food and that's a pretty stark contrast to what you would you just described and now we are in this situation we just had this devastating drought so i mean what are the outlook for

food availability what's that looking like. well it's a really interesting finding of our report is that just a fifteen percent reduction in the food that's wasted in america could feed twenty five million americans and what you're saying is absolutely correct today one in six americans are actually food insecure which means they can't afford you know on a on a daily weekly monthly basis to make sure that they have the food that they need so there's lots of things that the grocery stores individuals can be doing to try and reduce some of this food waste we have lots of great tips in our report i'd like to see restaurants start offering smaller portions and all of us as consumers when we go out to eat we can actually start asking for smaller portions we can take that food home in doggy bags and like i was saying we can we can shop smart we can plan our meals ahead of time we can use our freezers almost everything can be frozen and

another another great finding this report i wasn't aware of this i'm not sure if your viewers are aware of this but all those sell by and best buy dates those are actually not federally regulated except for some baby products so what they really are just a manufacturer's recommendation for the peak quality of that product but what we've been telling people is use your nose put your food to us now test to judge whether it's gone bad and hopefully savior save yourself the money now you know we can do our part to try to prevent wasting food but how do we get this brood that is wasted and there's so much of it into the hands or the mouths of the people that really need it. so there is there's lots of things that we can do and some of this has already sort of has already started a lot of restaurants are started donating food to banks we also see that

on the farm a lot of times food gets discarded just because the price the farmer would get paid for is actually not enough to cover their cost of labor so instead we're seeing them organizations that will bring people into the foreign ministry have them harvest some of those fruits and vegetables and take them to banks it's kind of a win win the farmer doesn't have to discard that food and sometimes they get a tax break and who can go to people to people who need it very interesting a very stark contrast there hopefully people can stop wasting and start giving i guess thank you so much for coming on the show that was such a loop the policy analyst for the natural resources defense council she's also a contributor to the and our d.c. blog switchboard well thousands of students taking to the streets in quebec canada protesting tuition hikes demonstrators say it's a renewal of the protests we saw last spring where

a whole things got chaotic in the area with police pepper spraying the crowd and students flooding the streets the demonstrations are ahead of callbacks general election to be held on september fourth voters will decide a premier jean charest liberal party is going to be reelected he has run on a plan to increase tuition fees over eighty two percent over the next seven years organizers of wednesday's protest said it was the largest planned demonstration seen during an electoral campaign and it's a sign that the protest movement is making a comeback there we'll keep you updated on how it all plays out. the republican national convention is just around the corner now and as speakers hone their speeches the city of tampa is preparing for widespread protests and they're apparently doing this by clearing jail cell beds in anticipation of mass arrests the sheriff of hillsborough county has ordered seventeen hundred prison beds to be

cleared that means that relocating some inmates to handle the many arrests they plan on making so what does this mean for protesters freedom of speech and are there already plans to silence up to discuss this kristin lair and kelly benjamin both participants for occupy tampa joining us now welcome there so your reaction to this news seventeen hundred beds cleared to make way for jailed protesters. well i think it's interesting that the only thought that would be in the media from the blaze is about you know. how did. you know not of not of exactly what is the point. and i mean we do have a quote from the mayor that i want to read he says quote there will be arrests the question is how many we are prepared to handle any number of r. and c.

related arrests through our orient road jail we are committed to due process and the rule of law regarding r. and c. related arrests we have procedures and policies in place to ensure an orderly and lawful process for anyone arrested so i mean what do you think about that you mentioned that a little bit earlier that there just seems to be this focus on being able to control the protests do you think that they have the effort is being missed directed i went to the l.g. legal observer training recently and learns that in the state of florida. you know if a cop asked you to turn off the camera you have to turn off the camera and. with all the event regulations i really don't know what they mean by control the protocol but i'm not sure you know what kind of to the side of the matter is this is the stage spectacle that the republican party is showing it's a circus with

a very clear message and they don't want anything to interfere with that message so they're making sure that they're doing everything possible that makes average people who have a grievance to air with the republican party in trying to keep them out of sight out of mind and they will violate people's rights and put them in jail in order to make sure that that message is out there to the american public and that their gender is the one percent their agenda of destroying the middle class and and giving that they're the largest misallocation of resources and putting that large wealth confluence in the hands of the people at the top to make sure that that message goes out there and then they don't care who violate you know here on the ground that's the joy of people coming samples very peaceful they want to get their voices out there and the grievances and that's what this country is founded upon and they're trying to make it out to be that dissent is unpatriotic or dissent is somehow criminal and they're going to put people in jail and violate people's rights and this is happening. at every political conventions in this go on us and

we this is nothing new that's happening and it's just unfortunate that the mayor has used rhetoric like a protest get out of hand we're going to brutalize them in the past and i think that's very unfortunate for democracy built on the free exchange of ideas this is not a robust dialogue that's taking place this is the draft message that they're pumping out in the wings apostles possum as an example of the families have a long history of that conduct especially when it comes to occupying just this last friday we saw them pulling people over and over and searching the harassing and emanating. back earlier than i heard terrible story. absolute resentment already here now kelly there had mentioned that this is nothing new and wanted to bring up some statistics here that kind of highlight the way things have kind of played out at past republican national committee of the r n c in new york in two thousand and four there were eighteen hundred arrests over seventy million dollars spent on security back in two thousand and eight up the r.

and c. in minneapolis over eight hundred arrests were made over seventy eight million dollars spent on security and and now looking to see that is coming up in just a few days they spent fifty million dollars for security and that's just from the federal government so gentlemen is this do you think this is money well spent. the driver's seat or. the city. has one of the most depressed cities in the nation we have some to hide is no amount of foreclosures is on the warmest in the nation. neighborhoods that are desolate. predatory lending in wisconsin would you find me and you know instead of this money going down to the communities we're seeing millions of dollars being spent on landscaping on shrubbery on live being in areas that are already doing pretty good in this. group those are or are removed from the job to

a neighbor who's struggling with this crisis i think that's really the story of america read. this far do you buy it or the one percent is cordy's for the people at the top and it's not true blue down for the rest of the amount of money that there's been enormous. and the american people should be up in arms about this and they know that these are some of the issues you plan to bring to the forefront forefront excuse me during your pint tampa want to ask you both and since the convention is so close what is the more allover there for occupy tampa. it's been much better than it has been the last month or two where fans all kinds of new people newspaper that the park. our general assembly that exploded. it's really motivating just after the convention is over the city has found a way to kick the growth around the bill from the park using code enforcement. which is then leaving the park it's been a debate for a while but. there's

a certainty there which is exciting. all right and i want to ask you now that it is so close kelly i go ask you what exactly do you have planned for the convention. other several marches and rallies planned from the beginning the very first action taking place on sunday is the world's largest party i could not that's how it's being billed in the republican party has taken over the job in the field and with the dems they raised being petersburg it is going to be a march in community visual taking place on that night on sunday and then all the way from monday morning action in a major march on two major marches on monday both leaving from downtown one organized by the coalition marching the r t the second one march organized by the poor people's economic human rights. focusing on economic issues tuesday visible to question marks taking place in our city stores does exist outside of. focusing on

the fact that you know the republican party has made an effort a concerted effort and they reveal this to be make sure that they don't want black and brown people showing up at the polls because the polls and not the party in this has been going on longer or with god our government was elected trying to hurt the voter rolls and they've been doing this in two thousand with the famous saying judges in the voter purges all the way from two thousand or two thousand they do meet again today to make sure that people in minority communities don't show up at the polls and that's one of the ways the polls the way this runs there's about voter fraud but. zero point one. actually they can there's actually when they when they organized labor is actually. you know the final day of the convention where they coordinate the romney team the one percent their nominee. and then they were actually taken by all of the sudden got

a capital might be able to get more information right but we do have a correspondent that is going to keep a close eye over there on the ground and pans out to see how things play out gentlemen thank you so much for coming on the show. and telling us all about what you have in the works that was tristan lior and kelly benjamin both are participants in occupy tampa that's going to do it for tonight both for more of the stories we covered check out our youtube channel youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at liz wall for now have a great night.