while the congress and president obama mince words over national debt debt and the fiscal cliff the occupy movement is putting its money where its mouth is vying up consumer debt and then immediately for giving it and they're asking the public to help out we'll tell you about tonight's rolling jubilee telephone. and as the tensions in the middle east weren't high enough aggression between israel and gaza just started boiling over and this conflict has the potential to send the entire region into a tailspin we'll bring you the latest information coming out of the struggle and also because of the international implications. congress is finally back in session and not a moment too soon the fiscal cliff might be capturing all of the headlines but cyber legislation could completely rewrite and potentially eliminate your right to

digital privacy and yet again congress can't seem to agree so will president obama have to step in to get things done. well it's thursday november fifteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine and you're watching our t.v. while we we've been telling you about the rolling jubilee the initiative organized by members of occupy wall street to raise money and put it towards buying up people's debt many are calling it the people's bailout and so far they have raised more than two hundred thousand dollars and this evening the group will hold a huge fund raiser a telethon to try to raise that much much more money to help as many people as possible argue correspond on a stasia churkin to has been covering this all week she joins me from our studios in new york i've also got here are the producer adrienne it was so. at all with me

in studio on a thousand let me start with you are what is expected at tonight's telethon hey guys are so finally the days here the telethon starts and of course even days leading up to this enormous amounts of money have already been raised and what we're expecting tonight is really even though the cause is really serious and the debt that they were trying to tackle this is going to be really fun event it's a variety show with lots of different bands and comedians it starts at eight pm eastern and goes on for three hours and of course during this time people will be calling in making donations they will still continue to make donations online and even at the beginning of this week tickets at twenty five bucks a pop were already completely sold out and it's interesting that at this event every ticket has abolishes as much as five hundred dollars worth of debt so for those people who are there they have already contributed for those who missed out there will be a viewing party several minutes away downtown manhattan where people will join to watch the live stream of the telethon and our crews were down there earlier today to check out the preparations and talk to some organizers take

a listen again to the mission of what this rolling jubilee is all about well we're really trying to do is build a global resisters movement and so what this project is really useful is shining a spotlight on different aspects of the way in which is used to bind the ninety nine percent shine a spotlight on different injustices and to hopefully help mobilize that kind of resisters movement that we need to actually create this massive nonviolent non-cooperation with wall street. and you know. in juxtaposition really to what has been going on on wall street it's interesting that the occupy wall street movement with this project is being completely transparent they're promising to show all of the donations online as they have been doing these last several days as well as all the final sums of money that they gather and also promised to show exactly how they distributed and of course like the debt collectors hounding people on the market

none of the occupiers are actually making a profit off of this whole of it let's talk about the occupy angola in this even forums underground of the you know the financial publication they were in an article praising this method they said the headline of the article was finally an occupy wall street idea we can all get behind the rolling jubilee even calling this idea more conservative than anything else talk about the long term impact of this i mean it's very interesting because i mean you know occupy is sort of an interesting inception in sort of an interesting end goal which is a lot of people didn't know what it was a lot of different voices came together and sometimes it was a mismatch you know and people really didn't know what to make of it for all of a long time and now we're seeing sort of you know truth to power you see. things sort of coming and going you're seeing actual change you have you seen change and acted so i think it's very interesting what you know what we heard from one of the organizers right now like the idea to shine

a spotlight to injustices and to have sort of now all of the steam behind this social movement i mean it's very very interesting this is sort of how you get things done really at the grassroots level so this can be just another example of maybe the grassroots coming together so it's very it's something that we should all keep an eye on and so interesting because this has been in the works for quite a while but what we did see a couple weeks ago in the aftermath of superstorm sandy the occupy movement really come together and take the lead organizing help for people that needed it even working with some people is saying even being marilyn fema isn't so really after a year. a lot of messages and discussions some action that we're seeing play out before our very eyes honest let me go to you i know that there has been some mentions a pleasant surprise at this point before the telethon even began that so much money has been raised and is this just from people logging on and pledging money what's going on here yeah you know guys it's been absolutely shocking how much money

occupy has been able to gather already in the days leading up to this movement last time we checked i checked a couple of minutes ago they've already gathered over twenty two hundred thousand dollars two hundred thousand dollars and that's enough to abolish over four millions of dollars in debt and we have to keep in mind when this project we just started talking about it occupy was saying our goal are really fantasy goal is gathering fifty thousand dollars to abolish one million dollars worth of debt so right now they've already got four times more than that of the telethon the main event the main fund raiser has not even started yet and it's just been fascinating to see what a big difference tiny donations have been making there because you know ten dollars as much as two hundred bucks twenty dollars four hundred one hundred dollars two thousand so it's just really been fascinating to see how quickly that money has been donated and gathered by the on their web site in particular later today on the telethon and you know i wouldn't be surprised if we see after this fundraiser

tonight them gather you know maybe enough to abolish half a trillion dollars and it's not forgive me forgive me if you've already answered this earlier in the week i've been reporting on this story a lot but how are they going to choose who's debt gets abolished how are they going to decide. who to target for this short well you know that's one of the kind of most frequently asked questions we've been getting from our viewers particularly because people are like hey we want to find out i have all this debt i don't know how to get rid of it what should i do and the trick here is that occupies doing this kind of in a secret distribution there's really no way for them to donate to any particular. person so you know you can have an occupier for example abolish a friend that for a friend or family member because of the way the system works the distressed debt is really sold and balk and they get very little information about which people in particular they're going to be doing the distressed debt for those people wind up getting the calls and they only find out that they're the ones whose debt was abolished when they get an a call from occupy saying you know you're one of the

lucky few but you know if we talk a little bit more about what to expect next in terms of occupy because this is seen as a really important first step take a listen to how the organizers of this strike that movement explain to us what is happening with this movement next and why this is a good beginning you know last year going to the street occupying our public spaces exercising our first amendment right to peacefully assemble was in and of itself an act of resistance now they suspended our first amendment right with the eviction which happened last year today so i think what we're doing now is analyzing all of the different ways in which wall street is occupying our lives and that is that main intersection between our lives and wall street so we're trying to figure out how to push back so last year they even did us this year we're going to build a movement to hope even to wall street. well of guys so you know this strike that is one of the leaders like you mentioned the hurricane relief efforts you know the

big crowds organizer just talked about to us these are all stages that occupy has been through and with this particular latest fundraiser what they're hoping is this might set a beginning for a bigger project and hopefully if we see them gather enough money to really make some kind of a difference in the you know completely incredibly indebted country here we might see this project continue hopefully and then maybe other similar ones like this rise out so we'll see what happens and i do want to relate what's going on here back to washington and back to some of the policies made here in washington and talk about somebody that we haven't talked about in a while and that is congressman ron paul former presidential candidate he made his sort of farewell speech yesterday on the floor of the house of a forty eight minute speech kind of actually many of the sentiments that and principles that he has really adhere to over the years and one of those was about debt so i want to play really quick what he said take a listen. to the sky poverty is rampant and dependency on the federal government

is no worse than any time in our history most of our world today. depends on debt. now ron i want to focus on the economics so much as the politics and the policy here why has this you know by now pay later attitude become so excepted in washington despite the warnings of you know long term experience congressmen like congressman paul c. i think that's a sort of a misnomer i feel that you know this entire idea that you know it's this entire crisis that we're now was just because there were a couple of people that were trying to live outside their means i mean there is truth to that obviously we didn't get here because you know we were being prudent but however it's a two way street not just people but the government as well and as well so it's sort of interesting because we're in this crisis because there were also banks that were not adhering to those sets and standards as well so instead of being punished for those what they what happened was essentially you know big up the holdout so i

think it's a little bit of a misnomer to say that things are so simple and so black and white all right they are two producer out around it was that oh and in new york are to correspondent on a stasia charge going to thanks guys. well we want to go down to the escalating violence between israel and hamas there have been deaths on both sides and the battlefield has expanded not just to the land and the people but to cyberspace as well the israeli defense force has been live tweeting much of the action including this the i.d.f. has embarked on an operation against hamas an iranian proxy responsible for terror attacks on israel hashtag iran gaza later on they announced the deaths of hamas military leader with a three word tweet ahmed jabari eliminated it was coupled with the picture that you see here now here's a tweet the i.d.f. sent out today recapping the events from the past few days the number since yesterday two hundred fifty terrorist sites targeted by i.d.f. in gaza two hundred seventy four rockets have struck israel one hundred five iron

dome interceptions and here's an interesting little exchange that took place in the twitter verse the i.d.f. wrote me recommend that no hamas operatives whether low level or senior leaders show their faces above ground in the days ahead towards the all kasam brigades responded they are bless the hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are you open to hell gates on yourselves so as you can see the violence has really renewed tensions and escalated fear and once again many are wondering what the end game looks like now the i.d.f. did post this video from earlier today in which they say they've been dropping leaflets which say in arabic quote important announcement for the residents of the gaza strip for your own safety take responsibility for yourselves and avoid being present in the vicinity of hamas operatives and facilities and those of other terror organizations that pose a risk to your safety hamas is once again dragging the region to violence and bloodshed the i.d.f. is determined to defend the residents of the state of israel this announcement is

valid intel quiet is restored to the region israel defense forces command of course no word on where anyone is expected to go by you know staying away many questions here and to talk about all of this i'm joined by r.t. international correspondent tom barton who's in television and tom what a lot of people read about this is it's very clear there is a lack of understanding of the distance that exists between. and televisa i mean how far apart really are these two regions. were just a few hours ago christine there was a very a very real demonstration or an example shown. of actually they are we were sat office here in tel aviv or preparing for

a live broadcast when the air the air raid sirens went off and we were all of first very shocked to hear those arab sirens what are they doing going off in tel aviv this is about sixty kilometers roughly from the very closest point in the gaza strip and then a few seconds later some loud bangs and some two rockets fired the really one of the the militant groups in gaza has not hamas and other one has claimed responsibility for those rocket launchers they hit very close to tell of eve they didn't cause any casualties but it has sent a shock wave of of real surprise and fear through the israeli population and that echoed very quickly throughout the twitter verse and social networks and as many people reacted to this the i.d.f. just being the most official of those voices many people expect this to be perhaps

a catalyst for an escalation in israel's attack on gaza very good point that we wanted people to understand that these are not two very far apart distant lands these are neighboring regions talk to me tom about the mood in the city right now. well at the moment the there's a lot of rumors flying around and there's sort of this coagulates these various rumors. it's very hard to find out officially of course what what the israeli forces are planning and all of the official spokesman although they're putting out some really quite quite strong statements some of these are one israeli defense folks one a few hours ago said it is not going to be a quiet night the head of israel's southern command said that this is just the

beginning of operations and it's widely been said by various spokespeople that it is going to go on for some days yet they won't say precisely what they have in store i mean in the last couple of hours the the bombing of gaza has really peaked in intensity we've seen dozens of explosions going on in under an hour about seventy sites attacked there at the moment throughout the day the casualty figures in gaza have have stayed at about thirteen dead and. obviously a higher number of wounded it's hard to know exactly how many children are involved in those casualty figures but then they're slow to come out of gaza the real question is is there going to be a ground offensive as there was in two thousand and eight to nine operation cast lead this is called operation pillar of defense but it may seem that this turns into

a very offensive pillar of defense indeed tom we're showing some video right now a heart wrenching video of a b.b.c. arabic employees eleven month old son killed by shrapnel during one of israel's air raids in gaza a heart wrenching photo a photo that's making its way around talk to me about the mood. journalists in the area given that even journalists and their families here are in danger. yes well of course earlier we were discussing the social media battle the the twitter war whatever you want to call it and it's all very well having discussions and debates and strong statements on the on social networks but it only takes one interview or one photo like that of a man who was working to try and just present the facts on the ground there and

losing his his baby son and seeing those emotions it really is something like that it just puts it all back into context a little bit that they can be as much fluff and debate as you like on the social networks but this is the reality on the ground is that there are heartbreaking scenes going on there of course not only in gaza we've seen three israelis killed in their home by a rocket fired from gaza earlier today but and all the spokesmen as well have on either side have said obviously no one would want to try and belittle the deaths of civilians but the reality is that with all of this bombing it takes us back to the last attack of this intensity operation cast lead in two thousand and eight to nine when approaching one and a half thousand civilians died in that ground offensive and people are terrified that if another ground offensive is launched even if it's tended to be more limited

then the death toll could rapidly rise and bring all of the death and destruction that we saw four years ago r.t. correspondent tom barton in tel aviv and please are stay safe out there thanks for your reporting. well once again as cyber security legislation is having a tough time in congress yesterday the cyber security act of two thousand and twelve was rejected by the u.s. senate by a vote of fifty one to forty seven any hope of moving this forward now lies in the hands of president obama his administration had already drafted an executive order and now according to a leak made to the washington post is in the form of a directive presidential policy directive number twenty again there's very little that we know about this directive but it may well be key to understanding the future of cyber security and raises a whole lot of additional questions first what about the promise president obama made nearly four years ago the way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable and the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so

the american people can know exactly what decisions are being made how they're being made and whether their interests are being well served the old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the american people that it should not be disclosed that era is now over. so now is the era of transparency over wasn't really ever in place and what will be the consequences of future policies made by the president and eventually by congress argy correspondent liz wahl is live at the u.s. capitol with more liz what are you hearing from capitol hill about cyber security legislation. well i would definitely say that there's a lot of frustration here on capitol hill as you mentioned the cyber security act of two thousand and twelve failed in the senate and this really was a lapse a last ditch effort to get this thing through that means cyber security is likely a dead issue for this congress as you had mentioned it failed and it was defeated

in a fifty one to forty seven vote that is short of the sixty votes that was needed in order for it to pass and what this bill would have done is encourage companies and the government to share information on cyber threats that also would put in a number of standards and i'm a number of cyber security standards in place now this bill of was opposed by many republicans and the u.s. chamber of commerce that said that this would put too many regulations in place you also heard concerns from privacy groups that say that this would result in. internet use dropping but this failure definitely is frustrating for senators that were hoping to pass it in this congress here is senator susan collins she is one of the authors of this bill. i urge work to listen to the wisdom of former homeland security secretary michael chertoff and former n.s.a. chief general michael hayden from the previous ministration from president bush's

administration david wrote the following we carry the burden of knowing that nine eleven might have been averted but the intelligence that existed at the time we do not go. should be in the same position again when those cyber none end of levon him it is not a question of whether there's little happened it is so question of when. well senator collins certainly isn't alone and her cyber fear is as we've seen cyber security has been a very hot topic and washington not only here on capitol hill but we heard from defense secretary leon panetta waiting cyber threats acquitting it to the threat of nine eleven also saying that cyber pearl harbor is looming if congress or

government officials do not take action on cybersecurity is really being hyped as one of the biggest threats to our country at this time saying that cyber threats could cripple our infrastructure and cause widespread chaos and affect everything from the finance sector to communications now this bill was backed by president obama and now that it's not going anywhere in congress it's likely that what's going to happen as you mentioned earlier kristie is that he's going to issue an executive order here is senator lieberman for more on that and what that would entail. i have appealed to the president that if we're not able to hear that he should issue this executive order i'm very encouraged by the work done on it and i'm confident that if we fail to act the president will. i think he is a responsibility to because of we failed to act we're leaving the american people

extruding the extremely vulnerable to a major cyber attack. well you heard it from senator lieberman himself encouraging president obama to issue this executive order said apparently it didn't pass the senate and so this is likely it looks like this is what's going to happen but interestingly enough as we did this just came out even though it happened a couple of months ago that just came out a report in the washington post that shows that president obama actually secretly signed an executive order also related to cyber security and what this order does is enable the u.s. military to respond and thwart cyber attacks but much of that executive order is still still remains a secret and of course we have this other one that is in the works so one thing is for certain it's not going anywhere in congress and look certain that because of that it's going to be the white house that's going to step in here yeah and certainly a whole lot of people could potentially be affected by this you know not piece of

legislation but a directive or piece of paper that the president signed without even knowing what's in it very you know disconcerting for a lot of people live like you want to distinguish cybersecurity active from the feis of the foreign intelligence surveillance act many members of the senate have hinted that they plan to reauthorize five amendments during this lame duck session talk a little bit about what's at stake here. that's very kristie it looks like the senate does hope to reauthorize by such and do it was that this bill this law was. person acted back in the one nine hundred seventy s. and says and we did this law really expand back in two thousand and eight there was an amendment under president bush the place amendment act and what this did was allow the government the national security agency to monitor americans e-mails and phone calls when they are abroad so essentially what that does is allows for

warrantless wiretapping so we really have seen this program expand what's at stake i guess what's at stake is our privacy and because of that this law has been challenged by by the a.c.l.u. and other privacy advocacy groups that are worried about our right to privacy which lives finally i know a journalist david sanger wrote a book recently called confront and conceal and pose an important question i've been very few other people have been asking he wrote this he said what happens when other states catch up with american technology some aready has and turned these weapons on targets inside of the united states or american troops abroad arguing it was washington that set the president for their use in the first place why do you think this hasn't been answered. well i think it's this fear of other countries getting ahead and gaining ground in terms of being able to leverage their or their side their ability to launch cyber threats is this very

fear that justifies that gives lawmakers and the executive branch the justification to really be fobbed our cyber security and invest a lot of money into improving our cyber security infrastructure and we've seen that it really is a top priority now in washington because we want to be prepared for this as we've seen a lot of scary rhetoric of what could happen if we are not prepared for a devastating cyber attack whether it's from an independent terrorist organization or a foreign nation all right our two correspondent liz wahl live in the capital thanks so much. and that's going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r.t. america or check out our website our team dot com slash usa and you can of course follow me on twitter i'm at christine for.

technology innovation all the developments. we. never. more news today valan says once again fled the. scene these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are all day.