oh i. have a. welcome back to the big picture i'm tom arbonne coming up in this half hour in a moment we'll be taking your calls at our new york take my take live segment something to say or ask give us a call it to go to four twenty one thirty four also like father like son mitt romney founded bain capital so son tagg romney had to start his own little shady pirate equity firm to what's the story behind solo marriage capital and what role

is a plane in mitt romney's presidential campaign. welcome to your take by take live our phone lines are now open so if you want to tell me your opinion make a comment shouldn't romney be arrested for buying votes ask a question live on or give us a call into a two nine zero four twenty one thirty four so the first caller the night mariana bethesda maryland a mary ann thanks for calling hello tom you've been doing some wonderful program to advance the corruption gate by laurie corp however they couldn't be getting away with it without a correct court so why don't you do some program kamakura kuharich that's an excellent question marianne thank you for calling i appreciate your raising the topic in fact if you go back in one nine hundred seventy three when louis paul wrote this memo and gave it to his best friend next door neighbor the head of the

u.s. chamber of commerce three months before richard nixon put paul on the supreme court part of paul's memo was we need to stack the courts what came out of that was the federalist society and this whole effort to put these hardcore right wing crazies into our courts and now we're seeing more and more courts around the country more and more judicial positions around the country are aleck did and does it because the citizens united people like koch brothers can come in and basically by the judges by by in the elections even when they're considered not partisan it's something fundamentally wrong you're absolutely right bill in monaco wisconsin a bill what's up. yeah i'd like you to if you're great you got up there on the next i move that mark and richard good well at that pipeline are going from canada right . i'd like to know if romney is the only matter if you got somebody else building that to that you could run over people were over right over there landed and everything else well you know thank you bill i appreciate your taking the time to call in and raise the issue of the trans canada pipeline is is an important one and

here's how it ties into mitt romney i eat i don't think that he owns stock in trans canada or has anything to do with making it happen but i don't know if you noticed last night watch for this listen for this very carefully in the future romney keeps saying that he wants to make north america energy independent isn't say his energy policy is to make the united states energy independent he wants to make north america energy independent so we're going to we are going to buy in raising our raising our trade deficit is we're going to buy dirty toxic oil from canada bringing down a pipeline to texas refine it here so that all the poisons and all the cancers end up in the southern united states and then we're going to ship the refined gasoline down to mexico north america gets energy independent we get the pollution we get the trade deficit the canadians get the money and the mexicans get the gets to get the gasoline we get screwed that's mitt romney's plan just notice he never says

american independence he says north american chontosh if i'm pronouncing that right in philly my apologies if i'm pronouncing your name wrong. yes contrail. how are you. why i wanted to know you're on this view on the whole the situation and how each candidate is approaching their question do you honestly filled with all the negative negativity that they have gone back and forth at each other that are so american really have. going on times they really have challenged views go ahead and make a decision awfully want to vote on yeah that's a great question and i appreciate you calling in and making it i think that we really do have a pretty good sense of who these two people are in the debate formats are kind of hokey they're long form enough frankly for for us to really learn

a lot although i think last night did a better job than the first one. i would like to see longer form debate and like marc harrold said the libertarian was on our panel i'd like to see the third party candidates participate in the debate i think radically expand the topics the topic range that was discussed things that really need to be discussed but that there are clear differences between these two candidates and those differences are becoming more and more evident to everybody and that's a good thing it's a good thing that we can figure out what our what our choices are dr jackson in pensacola florida you're on the air here the center. i went to see. we are in an area. the republican party wrongfully domesticating people and to raise an issue. go back to the voter registration and i believe that all united states citizens need

united states. and this will stop the republicans from land on through. well you can but we don't have any voice in this country but we did put a stop to republicans and get a. united states government. united states here's the problem with dr jackson and that is that their every time they say it takes an idea to register to vote it always has to have to represent yourself in some way that the when you register to vote people believe you and then you know you sign things and then they can your signature only come back but i believe you have the supreme court. there we can. thanks a lot for the call appreciate it the point is that they keep raising the bar you know ok well now you know just having that idea that you registered that's not

enough now you've got to have id when you come to vote and oh by the way it can't just be i.d.'s got to be photo id you know by the way it can't just be photo id it's got to be a particular type of photo id that doesn't work this and i just i just see this is this is i mean we played the clip many times on this program paul weyrich saying the leverage of the republicans goes up as the voting populace goes down that's what they're all about it's very very simple and frankly the idea of a national id card creeps me out i'm i'm with the republicans when bill clinton during his administration they floated the topic of a national id card and all the republicans said was my papers please you want everybody to have to carry their i.d. that's what they did in nazi germany we're not going to do that so. where you have that tailor in ontario canada hey taylor thanks for watching what's on your mind tonight i absolutely love your program. thank you and the point i wanted to bring up is something you touched upon and that has to do with the fact

that they didn't allow. a presidential candidate for the green party. to participate in the debate and i agree one hundred percent with you that it would have been a lot more interesting a lot more informative and along more to the point you know she wasn't dogging the questions that were asked of her in an interview that was on this morning or new york stand off and she made more sense to me then the other two combined yeah and she didn't beat around the bush yeah well said taylor harden a prime yes yes. appreciate your taking the time to call in and make it very very well and in fact dr jill stein and her running mate spent the six hours spent six hours less than clear the time of debate handcuffed to a chair which should tell you something. i would like to see not only the green party that i'd like to see the libertarian party the constitutional party the the

justice party i mean we've got a bunch of parties united states we need to seriously consider instant runoff voting or proportional representation changing our electoral system to crack open american politics so we can have multiple parties here in the united states christine and shana dale pennsylvania christine what's on your mind tonight well in one room it is that the folks in new slogan of smaller government equals directly a new elected corporate control you're absolutely right and i very much appreciate your pointing that out because this is you know the this is the choice they come to and they said you really want the government between you and your doctor well if the answer is no then what's the alternative you know united health care and stephen jay helmsley with his billion dollar paycheck between you and your doctor a feeling that it's if when government goes down when the power of government goes down which is we the people us making our own decisions electing people to do what we want when that goes down something fills that vacuum and typically it's

billionaires and their corporations eduardo in san francisco eduardo thanks for watching the show what's on your mind tonight and i'm so glad you. two comments one that romney is a little bit got off the hook on benghazi because if the white house was going to investigate what happened there as a terrorist operation they would probably not state publicly while the investigation was going on for romney to challenge well the investigation might have been ongoing was this really questionable and he hasn't been slammed hard enough i agree on the other hand i find myself in a bizarre situation of voting for someone who's a confirmed work criminal with their own assassinations going on in five or six different countries because the republican candidate is prospected for making supreme court appointments is so incredibly frightening but we need to see more criticism of what obama is doing from the left that's part of it that's missing i

agree eduardo i appreciate your pointing that out you are so right and this is why movement politics is so important it's why we need to create movements we need to join movements move to amend or go to p.d. america dot org sign up take part and it's also why we need to do the same thing that the hard right did with the republican party and that is show up progressive need to show up as a democratic party means your local democratic party and say hi i'd like to become a precinct committee person because those are the people who pick the candidates who are going to run in the primaries and if you pick all progresses for the primaries guess what you're going have a progressive candidate take back the democratic party marty in chicago in marty what's on your mind today. marty you are on the air a little bit or are you that's a great thank you for being there and taking my call my notes about voting into a corrupt dysfunctional system. actually. validates their corruption and multiplies it. that's all i have to say thank you ok marty thanks

a lot for the call yes to a certain extent participating in a broken system perpetuates the system or you could call it a corrupt system or whatever you want on the other hand not participating in it when that system is our government is even worse that really validates and for a corrupt and broken system that takes it to a whole nother level it basically turns control of the government over to us through the tiny number of people who do show up and vote so we do need to participate and like i said we need to get inside these political parties and take the money that's it for my take your take my take live thank you for all your calls if we didn't get your call the night try is back next week. going up the human race could be on the verge of extinction i mean it's time to panic right. if you're a politician in washington d.c. i'll explain why tonight's deleted.

yes. download the official ati application

itself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's now t.v. is not required to watch on t.v. all you need is your mobile device to watch r.t. in any time any.

into most of the rest of the news is mitt romney responsible for the youth smoking epidemic the huffington post reported this week that while he was at bain romney was consulting with tobacco giant philip morris on how the company could sell more cigarettes it was bain's idea to dramatically slash the price of barbara rose by forty cents a pack down to a buck eighty it's just what philip morris did back in one thousand nine hundred three and it worked a lot more cigarettes were sold especially to young people who previously couldn't afford them according to the centers for disease control smoking among young people increased twenty percent in the years following romney's recommended price cut it was so dramatic the between one nine hundred ninety three and one thousand nine

hundred seven the nation saw the single largest growth in youth smoking since one thousand nine hundred sixty four as matthew meyers the president for the campaign for tobacco free kids price is the single most important factor in the number of young people who smoke price increases have been proven to drive down youth tobacco use and price decreases translate immediately we've been privy to several dark bain capital stories like these since mitt romney began his bid for the white house but we haven't been privy to stories about another pirate equity firm is closely affiliated to mitt romney and that's solo mayer capital solo mare was quote formed by a group of influential business leaders to leverage their industry expertise to access it executes a period of private investments and was founded by romney's son tagg romney with a lot of help from mit and shit should mitt win the white house solo mayor and the

network of corporations and plutocrats affiliated with soul america stands to win big for more on the shadowy company and what role of might play in a mitt romney white house i'm joined by lee font contributing writer porting fellow for the investigative fund at the nation institute we welcome back. hey tom thanks for having me thanks for joining us so what in seoul american apple. well solar capital differs a little bit from normal private equity firms from normal private equity firms. analyze and buy businesses what so america specializes in is forming and investment relationships with elite private equity firms so solar capital has a network of about twenty private equity firms and they allow their investors to colin best along with these private equity firms so you have a very small firm solar capital partnering with very big private equity firms and basically giving it a chance to get

a stake in their deals that's that's sweet i would think that they have the average person off the street or even the average banker with some kind of decent reputation or to say i'm going to do this and go to a whole bunch of big big private equity firms and say hey you know give me a piece of your action they'd laugh at him how did how tagg romney pull this off. well this company solar capital is a run as you mentioned by tag romney as well as by spencer swick who's the tag who's the romney campaign chief fundraiser and a very close aide to mitt romney's been called the sick son of the romney family well neither spencer zwick nor tag romney has any experience in private equity they kind of started this firm out of the blue two thousand and eight after mitt romney lost his campaign for the presidency to john mccain. and it was started with ten million dollars with mitt romney's money and those special

relationships formed with these very elite private equity firms well these elite private equity firms many of them are run by mitt romney's allies actually one of those twenty firms is bain capital itself so while mitt romney tries to distance himself from his old firm saying that he doesn't sit in on management decisions and investment deals that are happening today like the infamous sin saga. deal in illinois actually so america has it has a special arrangement where they're meeting on a regular basis with all of these private equity firms and getting inside knowledge on what they're working on what is the scooter store fit in alt. well that's kind of the lead to my story. you know many of these private equity firms that are partnering with tag romney owned businesses that have have business or have deals with the government and many of these businesses have been accused of misusing

taxpayer money so for example the scooter store is this company that sells motorized wheelchairs and they have commercials that you can see on late night television they promise basically free scooters to anyone medicare age well h i g capital which is one of these so america private equity firms. recently bought the scooter stewart even though it's being investigated by medicare for defrauding the government for giving away these motorized scooters and billing medicare even though it's not medically necessary for many of these patients but i g. capital is betting that they can fight all of these regulatory challenges and continue making a profit and that raises the very important question where does tagg romney come in on this if he has a business relationship with the owners of the scooter store or is he going to get inside information from what the a romney administration would do in terms of changing the billing practices of

medicare changing these new fraud investigations that the obama administration has kicked off even to help even the health reform law has special provisions on reforming the motorized wheelchair. business so. we if romney decides to repeal health reform is he going to keep this card that reports that part of the business we don't know and if he doesn't if he does repeal obamacare and does away with that part the reforms the business then his son tagg makes millions of dollars more. right right well you know what lobbyists often do and watching all they do they're often paid just for providing information before it's made public can you imagine the type of access your company would have if you're doing business with the president's son and his chief fundraiser just that type of information it's just better than gold yeah it's the exact same thing that you know neil bush was doing at silverado savings and loan when his dad was vice

president you know back in eighty six when when that s n l went down in flames and he could leave that off of the pile of money and and didn't go to jail and how we fund thanks so much for being with us and for the great investigative reporting thank some. the human race may very well die out and no one's talking about it the fact that we've now gone through three presidential and vice presidential debates and not once has global climate change been brought up should be to paraphrase thomas jefferson an alarm bell in the night for all of us especially because this last september was the hottest september ever recorded in the civilized history of the human race not only that this last september produced the smallest amount of arctic

ice ever recorded in the civilized history of the human race our planet is rapidly changing scientists across the world are freaking out flyers are getting hysterical and in many countries committing suicide in mass numbers and yet our two presidential candidates are fighting about who's going to pump more carbon pollution into the atmosphere. yes we still continue to open up new areas for drilling the president cut in half the number of licenses and permits for drilling on federal lands and in federal waters what we don't need is to have the president keeping us from taking advantage of oil coal and gas i'll get america and north america energy independent i'll do it by more drilling more permits and licenses i will fight for all coal and natural gas i'm all for pipelines i'm all for oil production that would have the perfect time for candy crowley to chime in and say hey guys what about the climate change crisis that's being worsened by all is

drilling and coal but she did and then romney bashed the president over not approving the keystone x.l. pipeline we're going to bring that pipeline in from canada how in the world the president said no to that pipeline i will never know actually the president did approve the keystone pipeline at least a large portion of it and he'll likely approve the rest if he wins a second term right now members of the tar sands blockade camped out in east texas engaging in civil disobedience to try to stop this foreign corporation trans canada as bulldozers from clearing trees to make room for that very same keystone x.l. pipeline that pipeline that romney said the president blocked is being built and trans canada a foreign corporation will make huge profits by having it run toxic tar sand oil across our nation leaving us with the danger of the spills yako for contamination and the asthma and cancer inducing pollution from refining that stuff pulitzer

prize winning journalist chris hedges called the keystone pipeline part of the final phase of extreme exploitation by the corporate state and climate scientists james han't james hansen warned that completion of the pipeline would be game over for the climate. and yet in the debate we have mitt romney criticizing the president for not building it while the president is building trade is the very reasonable question these guys really that out of touch with what's going on on this planet tragically the answer is no they're just scared as hell big oil and the power big oil has in this election thanks to the u.s. supreme court since citizens united trashed any limits on corporate spending this election big oil has moved to spend huge amounts of money promoting their industry and taking down any politician who doesn't over the line as the new york times

reports coal and oil interest groups have spent more than one hundred fifty million dollars on nearly one hundred forty different advertisements that have run tens of thousands of times as election year promoting their interests and criticizing the president's clean energy agenda big coal and big oil of spend four times as much money in this election as have clean energy advocates. so barack obama and mitt romney know that if they say one bad word about coal or oil and they're going to be hit with an avalanche a big oil spill that part of that obama's already good even though he's increased domestic oil production every year he's been in office and brain and climate change forget about it it's political suicide in the post citizens united era since the supreme court has said that corporations can use unlimited slush funds to punish politicians that's why the elephant in the room climate change is being ignored in these debates the supreme court has created

a political climate in the united states where increasingly we're seen unmistakably changing planet there will render farm lands in the american midwest sterile that will submerge coastal cities underwater and turn forests in a wildfire traps thanks to its citizens united ruling five right wing corporate sponsored justices on the u.s. supreme court are responsible for the destruction of our planet and the only way we can reach a tipping point of elected lawmakers talking about climate change and actually doing something about it is to end the insanity that citizens united ruling that so that corporations are people and money is speech the fact is corporations are not people and money is property not speech and to stop the supreme court we need to amend our constitution to simply and plainly say so go to move to amend or get involved and that's the way it is tonight wednesday october seventeenth two thousand and twelve for more information check out our website at tom arbonne dot

com free speech or r t v dot com and hulu dot com slash the big picture and don't forget democracy begins when you get out there get active today your suitable. well. science technology innovation all the list of melamine still around russia we've got the huge earth covered. emission and free cretaceous and free transport charges free. range minced free. free stew type free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media and on

to our t. dot com. more news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are all over the day.