videos for your media projects. are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture it's the first official day of the republican national convention down in tampa florida and so they are and seize biggest stars will be taking the stage get live updates from tampa both inside the convention and outside those protesting also one of the speakers who took the stage earlier today at the r. and c. was congressman tim griffin who really should be sitting in a jail cell right now why's that we'll ask investigative journalist greg palast and while republicans will talk about all things over the next three days one thing they probably won't go near as climate change and that's too bad considering

a new report suggesting that climate change is happening a lot faster than most of us thought. you need to know this mitt romney is officially the republican nominee for president during a roll call vote this afternoon he received enough delegates to secure the nomination so i had some grumbling from ron paul supporters in attendance also today the official republican party platform was approved including a ban on abortions a ban on same sex marriage and a ban on pornography or no business let's get out of the speakers tonight so the republican party's biggest celebrities about to take the stage is speaker of the house john boehner was likely chosen for the early slot so he could speak for a few more cocktails made him to be at the end of the night next up will be rick santorum for those of you who weren't paying attention to. presidential campaign

and are unaware of his extreme positions just google his name and the eight o'clock hour the r. and c. will hear from two of its biggest union busters ohio governor john case in wisconsin governor scott walker also that our virginia governor bob mcdonnell will speak and i remember him as the governor who supported legislation forcing women to have mandatory intrusive ultrasounds before having an abortion and in the nine o'clock hour we're going to the texas tea party senate candidate ted cruz who believes the united nations is trying to outlaw golf courses. that's likely when john boehner will start tearing up and close out today we get ann romney who can tell you people what it's like to own a horse and compete in the olympics and we get new jersey governor chris christie who before yelling at a few people will try to talk about the economy and job creation what he won't mention is that in his state of new jersey currently they have an unemployment rate of nine point six percent well above the national average so that's the schedule

tonight and now joining me for the latest on what's happening right now at the r. and c. eleanor white house correspondent and bureau chief for the talk radio news service . i'm doing. democrat on radio row here at the convention it's got to be fasting first of all happy birthday to you should people still go to go. that's right if you want a birthday present for me i actually started it for my sixtieth birthday last year . and we give. as you know where you are recovering from slavery. from the north of sudan which is now sudan and of course. i hope you have just an absolutely wonderful birthday ellen and very best mitt romney officially won the nomination this evening was there any ruckus about you know with the ron paul delegates well yes actually there

was the ron paul delegation from maine walked out the convention there in the nominating process you know ron paul is kind of like that uncle they want to keep in the closet and they don't really want to talk about his ideas he was here over the weekend and talked about the fact that it wasn't just that they were going to let him but he actually thought the republican party should keep and would be part of that that his view would be the tent that people would eventually fall on. there and you know the mood here well there's three things one the theme of the day and they have these talking points they won't let me take one but i got to see it the talking points are basically that today is who is essentially doing the building this is a take on president obama speech that he gave and talked about who was building america so that's that's one for the other thing is that of course thursday the

national debt goes up to sixteen trillion dollars so they're trying to make a on that and three of course they're pounding away on this economic thing but you're right things like climate change education whereas today we're not hearing this about them is there a sense of enthusiasm you and i have both been a bunch of these things for both parties these annual conventions that you've helped make it possible for me to be at many of them and sometimes you get the sense that there's just genuine enthusiasm as i'm for the candidate i mean like in in denver for barack obama is there a sense of for mitt romney or is it more like i guess will go along no you know i honestly think you can call it anything you want you can call it the economic issues or you can call it unconscious racism which some people are calling it but i have to tell you that they are genuinely dislike barack obama so much that they

look like they're enthusiastic for mitt romney very interesting do you think that tonight's speech by chris christie is going to be his unofficial kickoff of his twenty sixteen presidential campaign. you know yes obviously he's very interested in the new jersey delegation which our friend diane gooch is very involved in that she's not a delegate she's an honorary delegate here they are all excited about chris christie their new haven't parties and whatever i don't know i mean if mitt romney does not win this there's so many want to be that i don't you and i could get rich just counted what what's your sense of. how the republican party will realign itself if mitt romney does not win the presidency. they're going to have to take a very good look at social issues and i think that exit polling is going to have to say why didn't people vote for mitt romney because they're going to have to

understand that it's not just economic issues that affect the older people will vote on social issues but young people are very turned off to a lot of them and particularly with the flash point that these guys are coming up with it's crazy. ok one thing that happened on radio row today sure they are bringing a limp the athletes now i love olympic athletes so i was excited to miss them but they were bringing a limb back athletes in the winter olympics that mitt romney organized to talk about his organization. well of course many other interesting stories from things that you've seen or anecdotes that you think illustrate things that are going on there well i think the most interesting thing is just the kind of talking points that they're doing and how they're trying to get everybody to be in lockstep fashion and for some extent at least this is a full day first full day of the convention they're getting that to happen with the exception of the ron paul delegates and so they're there they've done the unifying

thing and they've actually done a pretty good job of it but you know former congressman bob ney said to me what you look for these conventions is not only the fact cast it's better to look for people and the issue of who's looking at both. carrying to get. those three thousand. jobs that are in what's called the plum book in washington who's going to get state level jobs and that's really what people are angling for teachers and so there's a lot of positioning there right now for you know i'd like to be in the cabinet. or under like. the press secretary or. eleanor honor thanks so much for being with us tonight ellen and happy birthday thank you now to what's going on outside the convention here is medea benjamin co-founder of the human rights group global exchange and the peace group code pink it author of the book drone warfare killing by remote control. great to have you back with us what's the latest that romney

ville. well people have been out and about during the day at various things we started out some of us this morning the n.r.a. believe it or not had its shoot out today bringing delegates from the g.o.p. over to a shooting range and we were outside they are commemorating all the people who have died from gun violence in the united states in calling for gun control that was pretty exciting and then after that there were some marches there was a really really free market we a bunch of us went out to where come to lisa rice was supposed to be speaking and came with our handcuffs and our crime scene tape and called for arresting and condi rice and did it die in front of the event and closed down the doors it turned out that condi rice never showed up i'm not sure if it was because of people outside calling for her arrest and then we were out of the voter suppression

a rally against voter suppression that. was a rally and then a march in the days not over yet to do it's not yesterday when we were talking you said you were going to do a kind of a variation on the billionaires for bush thing. out of the tobacco that was great we were out for about an hour and a half in front of the cuba club last night where marco rubio and a number of the notable is from the g.o.p. were and people were lined up for a long time trying to get inside so we had a lot of interaction with the with the g.o.p. folks we also got a couple of people inside the event and it was quite interesting we had many discussions about tax issues because we were outside with the tax the core is we need more kind of message and. a lot of good a lot of good interaction and it's fascinating how are the police behaved. when the

police are really been incredible i must say we had a discussion with the chief of police and she was extremely nice you know we complained about all the intimidation of the army and the national guard and everybody out there but the police have been coming up to these at these events and saying we want to respect your right to carry test we will allow you to be here until the owners of the building come out and tell you it's private property and once they do that you have to move they have been giving us their phone numbers and saying if we have any problems give them a call so i'm not saying that every place where i've been the police have been treating us to be pretty well that's quite remarkable is that do you have any sense that the demonstrations and messages the demonstrations that you are participating on the outside are being heard on the inside. oh well certainly our folks who get inside it's one of the main things that year and you just see the protesters out there did you see they're calling for the rest of condi rice or do you see them

talking about not paying his taxes so certainly that message is getting heard in a number of these things i mean there's a lot of talk i'm sorry tom there's also we're getting a lot of press all the local papers are filled with make sure it's from the protests and the blogs are full of. issues about the protests and our message is so i would say yes. that's great medea benjamin thanks so much for being with us tonight. keep up the great work. after the break among the first speakers of the r. and c. that i was congressman tim griffin yet another politician who should be sitting in a jail cell right now that's the real story behind him driven and why was he allowed to take center stage in tampa was can best to get a journalist greg palast own up.

here is mitt romney trying to figure out. that thing that you might call a. far left doesn't want the usa to defeat terrorism. the only and the. belief. that you know the corporate media distracts us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells a sensationalistic garbage and calls it breaking news i'm having martin and we're going to break the back.

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 realize everything. you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. of the capitol and now i'm laurin lister.

in screw and news in case it wasn't fitting enough the republicans are hosting their glitzy convention in tampa a city with the nation's highest rate of unemployment and almost us also gave the stage today to a politician who should be in prison as b.b.c. investigative journalist greg palast reports congressman tim griffin who addressed the convention today is also guilty of election fraud in two thousand and seven griffin resigned from george w. bush's justice department after allegations surfaced that he along with karl rove and mitt romney's current adviser matt rhoades engaged in a gene and illegal tactic used to kick voters off the rolls so how exactly has griffin of voided prosecution for these crimes and not only that made it all the way up. speaking in front of the r. and c. this afternoon let's ask the man who's been all over the story right from the beginning greg palast investigative journalist with the b.b.c.

in the guardian and author of the upcoming book billionaires and ballot bandits out of steal an election and nine easy steps greg welcome. glad to be with you again it is grow always great haven't you greg first of all what exactly is voter caging and what drew griffin and rove have to do with. what griffin and rove did and and the after stand for b.b.c. we broke the story because we got their confidential inside e-mails in which they sent to state party chairman lists of voters they mailed those voters letters and when the letters came back they wrote do not forward letters came back on deliverable they said oh my god these are fraudulent voters who are those people that they mailed to who didn't have addresses for that couldn't get their mail at their home registered address the answer was soldiers who are assigned to afghanistan and iraq i have hundreds of names of of of soldiers of color from the

jacksonville naval air station homeless men from the jacksonville state street shelter and we also had students and i want to thank david brancaccio p.b.s. for helping me on this. black traditionally black universities kids who are away for summer vacation but they were legally registered at their university address so they send in the letters letters come back as all here's evidence that these are fraudulent voters they knocked out thousands of voters this way they've repeated the game in wisconsin it in ohio pennsylvania and i think that they're going to go into it big time because the big backers of tim griffin the big backers of tim griffin have a computer program called themis and those backers are called the koch brothers yeah yeah in fact that's how tim griffin became a congressman as it will help. a little help is one way to put it the koch brothers

when tim griffin remember this guy resigned after we caught him caging we have the physical evidence and i had corroboration from a u.s. prosecutor david iglesias of new mexico. griffin hours after a b.b.c. broadcast resigned from the u.s. justice department in tears self was involved in firing prosecutors had him self appointed and then immediately had to resign in disgrace ahead of what should have been an indictment in fact bobby kennedy. wrote the book billionaires in balad bandits with me his offer fessor he said this you know griffin should be in jail with his coconspirators rove and probably his assistant matt rhoades who is the campaign chairman for it and mitt romney so how does this guy in the back in congress two thousand and ten the coax give him one hundred and sixty seven thousand one hundred eighty three dollars that's one of the biggest single gifts

from any one interest to a congressional candidate ever he gets that hundred sixty seven thousand listen your average congressional candidate will wash your car for a hundred sixty seven thousand dollars with their tongues with their tongues so. you know at any rate that's how he ended up back in congress and because he's rove's boy he's the rove bot and the koch boy he is he was picked to be the the keynote for the republican congressional delegation if you can imagine so here's is this freshman from out of nowhere how did he get that slot rove bought a coke toy that's christian. how is a great guy i mean you did this you reported this for the b.b.c. and this and he. resigned. you know the coax got him into congress now you the story is your facts are not in dispute i mean is this stuff has been nailed

down bobby kennedy is you know said this guy should be in jail how is it that the average american has no idea about this. you tell me tom because they don't listen to the thom hartmann show i'm not kidding i mean you've got this brain dead media i will say rarely p.b.s. through david brancaccio did pick it up for now ran our story but other than that it was top of the news front page top of the of the of the net were nightly news at b.b.c. all over the world but not in america that a criminal had helped clean the voter rolls of black soldiers black students elderly people they targeted by the way jewish elderly jewish voters in miami of all things you know it's like the you know the elderly of zion were targets it was all about it that they were jewish is that they were bluish these are democratic voters that help steal the two thousand and four election the problem is they're back it's not covered by the us media and of course george bush's justice

department would not indict their own boy griffin in fact instead what they did was are corroborate or of the evidence david iglesias prosecutor of new mexico who's a republican by the way a strong republican they fired him they fired david iglesias the prosecutor tim griffin was involved in that they cues to a glacis of absenteeism he was absent because he's captain david iglesias of the u.s. naval reserve a top jag. and he was doing the bosnian war a war crimes trial at the demand of his commander in chief george bush when he went to bosnia they fired him for absenteeism amazing and the stop the prosecution of tim griffin thus the prosecution of griffin and worse now because griffin didn't even know that the e-mails were sent from his computer he that he did tell me i believe him karl rove does not have

a computer karl rove knows exactly what those lists are and it really went back to karl rove using his computer there's very. little doubt congressman conyers subpoenaed rove to get him to answer that question did you use griffin's computer to send out these illegal caging lists and rove simply simply refused to appear said i'm not showing up to get amazing now my understanding is the back from the sixty's or seventy's or eighty's somewhere way back there the republican party had a court order that so that they could not do k.g. and that is still in effect who is this yeah was this cage an illegal because of that a court order is that court order still in effect and are they right now as we speak . yes yes yes of the first yes is that they they had signed a agreement with the judge that they would never do it again this was about seventy years ago so they are you know other repeat offenders the republican national

committee the second is that the voting rights act of one thousand nine hundred sixty four written by bobby kennedy's dad. makes it a felony crime because they targeted black and hispanic and jewish voters it is also unfortunately appearing to it seems full of reappeared the voter caging and the way it's being done is through two massive database one is called data trust run by crossroads g.p.s. under karl rove the original perk the second is a another database called themis which is owned and controlled by the koch brothers through what they call americans for prosperity so you have these two massive databases which if they were simply using those databases for targeting and convincing voters to vote for their man romney you know i have no problem ok that's ok but unfortunately it appears that they are back at the old game of using their

databases to challenge voters and play games with the voter rolls and use these profiles of voters for challenges for misleading voters in wisconsin the themis computer apparently was used to target democrats and tell them to send in their absentee ballots to the wrong address at the wrong date that's the type of sick junk that is used it's a kind of twist on the caging. these guys as kennedy said should rove griffin who's in congress not in jail and matt rhoades who's the campaign chairman of the campaign manager for mitt romney i would like to at least see them have to answer about their actions at least the indictment well tim griffin was supposed to be on my radio show today and had confirmed and when the time tame we had an empty chair we had he. was all set to asking these questions greg palast thanks for the

great work you do and greg thanks for being with us tonight. glad to see it ballot bannister out of work thank you yes ballot bandits. from election fraud to a speaking engagement very r. and c. you know that's what republicans would call the american dream. of the global warming front in what could be the smoking gun proving the planet is rapidly changing as a result of climate change sea ice in the arctic ocean is now sitting at its lowest recorded level ever breaking a previous record set in two thousand and seven here's what the ice over the arctic ocean looked like in one nine hundred seventy nine. and this is what it looks like now just thirty two years later and with a few weeks still left in the summer the ice is expected to melt even further according to researchers at the university of colorado at boulder the melting ice is quote a strong signal of long term global warming and and according to climate scientists

michael mann the director of the earth science as earth systems science center at penn state the sea ice decline is perhaps the most profound of those cautionary tales because the models have basically predicted that we shouldn't see what we're seeing now for several decades so not only is climate change happening it's happening faster than we all thought something tells me you won't hear about this tonight at the r n c after all the koch brothers are hanging around. crazy alert birdies going by by most people are aware that would be to try and those in the atlantic ocean near bermuda do you know that there's also a bird bermuda triangle between the villages of thirst weatherby and courses in northern england only says the story from

a group pigeon racers who say that their prized pigeons are continually disappearing in that area and pigeon races we could only thirteen of two hundred thirty two all infections released made it to their destination and this wasn't an isolated incident either way to birds birds off austenland doors pigeons are going missing in the bird bermuda triangle for years some theories have been proposed to explain the loss of the birds like abnormal summer rain showers or increases in solar activity going really has any answers personally i think planet xena starting to recall some of its earlier robotics by bottles replacing them with a new and improved earth spy pigeon bought two point zero which if you've been watching looks a little bit like me and are you crazy or ethnic. growing up despite largely falling out with the republican establishment ron paul made a surprise appearance at the convention floor this afternoon how is his presence of fact in the convention and what's the latest fight brewing between paulie's does

and g.o.p. officials. are all in. the wrong. place. on my. prime. counting on.

i'm lauren lyster. just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old a good job a true. confession i am a get a friend that i love crab and hip hop music and. he was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the role without you she has played.