do as they say not as they download last year's bitter battle over anti-piracy legislation led to many lawmakers speaking out against illegal downloads but a new report shows just how prevalent piracy is within the walls of capitol hill will tell you which movies and t.v. series employees couldn't keep their hands off. americans are known for their glow in his habits from food to sweets and everything in between we just can't seem to get enough and that same overconsumption goes for painkillers we'll show you how serious of a problem this help popping addiction really is. and military suicides reached

a record high in two thousand and twelve with one veteran taking their life every eighty minutes on average had we'll examine what the government is doing to protect the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend american values. it's thursday january seventeenth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our team. here at our t.v. been covering top we've been covering the top. bills moving through congress aimed at regulating the internet the most notorious of which is sopa or the stop online privacy act backers of the bill said it was necessary to crack down on online piracy but now a new report says those trying to punish online pirates have been eat legally downloading music t.v. shows and movies on their congressional computers this is according to u.s.

news and world report here's a sample of what they've been downloading. home in a way australian soap opera the voice it's a singing competition show supernatural the ultimate fighter and the graph see the next generation just to name a few interesting lee enough it looks like congress members and staffers themselves may be among those affected by anti-piracy legislation earlier today i spoke with r.t. producer rachel courteous we discussed how it looks as though lawmakers aren't practicing what they preach lawmakers not practicing what they preach live shocker breaking news i think i think that certainly clears we're not sure at this point if it's the lawmakers or just the employees using their computers but either way it's very clear that literally at the exact same time that they were creating this legislation like sopa which would essentially create

a kill switch by which any website that had any sort of copyright information could be taken down they were looking at that copyrighted information in a way on those same websites so they were benefiting from. downloading stuff you literally sure yeah they were using was essentially called bit torrent so people who download any i mean you know if you download a cd full of information you would essentially say torrent you know and then the the artist and then you'd be able to download it pretty easily interesting we went over a few of their favorites there what else are they download and what else are they into i mean it's it's one thing that they're doing something hypocritical i don't think that's really new for congress what was shocking to me was their utter lack of taste you showed some of the biggest things like the voice not i mean not only is that just like kind of a silly show but it's also one that streaming for free on n.b.c. dot com so they're already you know you can you can see it on your users are always on you tube that's true they always are new to but let's say you want to watch the

whole thing you want to see like celo with the cockatiel on his shoulder you can do that for free and i mean so there's also you know they're watching glee there's ten pages right here essentially have all this information they're watching the ice cube television show are we there yet as you saw they're watching australian soap operas in downloading them it's like here's the deal according to the democratic national party to keep congress open for one single work day cost thirty million dollars thirty million two hundred seventy five thousand dollars that's according to the democratic party so then they're using all of these computers that were given to them on capitol hill to download are we there yet the t.v. show right so this is i don't want to go to a double whammy here there are downloading illegal material and on top of that are using you know public public computers yeah there's always time to do that i mean i've looked and i did walk right and at the same time they're also using public time to try and legislate to make this a more criminal behavior and to create more criminal consequences for this behavior

interesting as certainly doesn't make them look very good at all how is all of the new brought to light well essentially happened is that a group came forward and and essentially it's. blick information to kind of be able to look at ip addresses themselves it's really easy to determine ok this is an ip address that is related to the house of representatives so after you look at those ip addresses it's pretty easy to say ok this is what's been going on in the eye on those ip addresses which is again kind of creepy and instead of perhaps trying to legislate all of these things to criminalize looking at these things it might be more useful to actually look into some of these computer privacy laws that they have been left stagnant since one thousand nine hundred six. and you know another another thing about this that's really striking is that a huge reason why people are sir why congress claims they're so very interested in cracking down on copyright laws and things of this nature is because they're decreasing revenues for movie companies and for these big broadcasting companies

but as but as the congressional research service itself showed in a recent report the total gross revenues in box office receipts for u.s. companies over the past fifteen years has actually increased significantly it's doubled so and so has executive pay in fact the only thing that's decreased in regard to these movie companies is hiring so every day people who might otherwise be hired as gaffers or sound people or whatever may be on set aren't aren't getting hired anymore so they don't have those jobs executives have those jobs and these companies have actually increased their revenue significantly less interesting and it makes you wonder what the incentive is behind. wanting to put these live pushing these pieces of legislation like sopa and some of the some of these other bills aimed at cracking down on hackers regulating the internet dopping online piracy things like that we do know that the motion picture association and organizations like that have been some of the biggest lobbyist in terms of vanishing the sludge

and or is it in of the m.p.a. is chris dodd the former senator from connecticut democratic senator who now makes more money than he ever did on capitol hill i mean he's still on capitol hill but he's kind of on the other side of the day. we're now so it is a revolving door because the revolving door we talk about a lot and i think that it's really apparent here but i think that it also shows that even if people are going around the door there are still people right we're all still people who just want to see are we there yet tormented on our computers but do it at home right on your own time and maybe percocet online instead of going right and maybe if you recognize that this isn't something that's going to be very harmful stuff legislating it to make it more criminalized all right well now this is kind of public information i could imagine it embarrassing do you think that it could change them into kind of changing their harsh you know stances toward it and pushing the these pieces of legislation well i hope so i think in particular the fact that there are bittorrent doing the voice and degrassi the next generation

should be a source of embarrassment to them but i don't think in the past we've seen that when congressional members were shown that they were acting hypocritically that it necessarily change them i mean look at people who are say quote unquote pro-family values people who are caught with the d.c. madam or we've been caught in homosexual relationships when when they were very opposed to gay marriage it certainly hasn't changed that maybe they've had to leave office but it doesn't often change the law and i was. practicing what you preach maybe is something that is lacking if there's anything we can take from his story right. right rachael really appreciate you staying on top of that it was our t.v. producer rachel courteous. well we know crack cocaine and even marijuana is criminalized in the u.s. but is the real killer prescription drugs recently mayor bloomberg announced his effort to crack down on the problem in new york city he's calling abuse of painkillers a citywide and national epidemic now

a number of rules are in place to prevent prescription to prevent prescription drug abuse the new policy says patients can't get more than three days worth of powerful painkillers like bike in percocet the policy also bans lost or stolen prescriptions from being refilled so is this an effective way to battle the prescription drug problem problem and what's driving americans to abuse painkillers in the first place to discuss i'm joined by dr jennifer sonce a psychologist with her own practice in new york city welcome dr sonce. i want to ask you first off what has contributed to this problem of painkiller abuse well i believe that it probably has a lot to do with the overprescription or maybe the easy prescription of the painkillers but also i think people want to deal with their problems in an easy way and not necessarily really deal with the problem of

a deeper level ok to get kind of a picture of this problem who exactly abuses them is there a particular demographic that abuses them. i don't actually think there's a particular demographic unfortunately i think that there's all demographics nobody really can be discriminated against there is young people are abusing the painkillers there's you know young adults very young adults older people because it it really affects everybody interesting so it looks like this is crosses demographics generations you have it. what's contributing to this is the problem or part of the problem over prescription of these types of medication. i don't know if it's over it's over prescription it's it definitely is an over prescription of lots of different medications but yes the painkillers are easily prescribed you know it's not like people are using

a lot of alternatives ok some doctors are well i guess first i should say we had mentioned earlier on mayor bloomberg is really tackling this problem in new york city recently he announced a bunch of his plans in order to battle this problem of prescription painkillers the abuse of the some of his some of his proposals including eliminating the number of days you can refill these prescriptions three days at a time that's all you're going to get and you know if somebody says that they lost it or it was stolen that's too bad they're not buying this new policy it will no longer be allowed for this person to this patient to refill their prescription medications what do you think about putting these policies in place such as the one of the mayor is suggesting. i mean i can understand the reasoning behind it to try to control the prescriptions but the problem is is that it just makes it harder and

more inconvenient for people to get the medication that they need and it's not really dealing with the underlying root causes of the problem. alright can you talk more about what those underlying root cause is art. i just think that with addiction and dependence there's not enough education about it to the medical professionals and to lay people about what you know what the differences between use misuse abuse dependence and addiction is and i don't think that people really understand it that much and how it can be better evaluated before given the medication and also how they can better manage it how can medical professionals responsibly give out these powerful painkillers. well i think that knowing that they are so powerful and that there is this possibility for dependence and addiction there needs to be more strict ways to evaluate you know the person

that's going to be getting them and whether or not the person has a history of mental illness or a family history of addiction or any history themselves and also whether or not the person you know how frequently are they being monitored in terms of mentally maybe there should be some kind of requirement that for them to have a psychological evaluation or maybe have some check ins more often in other words doctors physician should use more discretion when they're giving out these drugs more discretion and i think more communication with with each other and with people you know with the people that they're prescribing. you know we would i just talked about there some of the more recent ways mayor bloomberg the way he's trying to handle this problem some doctors are speaking out saying the regulation of the way they dispense drugs isn't the way they go you know that kind of interferes with their doctor patient relationship exactly and i think that it's it's understandable why they want to get

a handle on it but sometimes they think you know doctors might feel offended because they have the expertise to do what they need to do to figure this out and they're getting that control taken away from them but at the same time they really have to do a thorough job so that they can have. that control kept with them right and it makes you wonder when you have these regulations in place and how that could ultimately affect the patient if this person was in a lot of pain and really did lose their prescription or things of that nature. i want to put these statistics that show just how widespread and serious this issue is in the us pain pain reliever use it caused fourteen thousand eight hundred overdose overdose deaths in two thousand and eight u.s. pharmacies dispensed sixty nine tons of pure i guess the translation would be sixty nine tons of pure oxy kowtowed in two thousand and ten and forty five milligram percocet and twenty four five milligram bike ins to every person in the united

states is what is what that translates to so that is i mean that kind of just illustrates just how widespread this is and you know there is a lot of focus on cracking down on illegal drugs you know the more you know the infamous names crack cocaine marijuana but do you think that the problem of prescription drug abuse is under rated. i do think that there are equal problems and i remember when i was teaching substance abuse at john jay we used to talk about you know the difference between all this focus on these you know bad when they say bad illegal drugs versus the if they're prescribed and they must not be that bad and you know a drug is a drug it doesn't really matter whether it's legal or illegal the fact is it's still chemical it's still changes the mood you know it's a mind altering substance and you still it's still addiction is addiction so it

doesn't really matter whether they're legal or legal it's it's the same at the demick and we need to deal with both and kind of last off as a psychologist yourself what kind of advice could you give to fellow psychologists and for those that may be starting these kinds of drugs. for people starting the drugs i mean i think it's really important to be aware of what your vulnerabilities are and also to be very honest with your doctor and also to talk about you know what's going on positive and negative with the drug and make sure that you're being honest with yourself and others about what's happening in iran right really appreciate you coming on the show today that was psychologist dr jennifer songs thank you. well it's agreed that veterans deserve the best health care when they come home from deployment but perhaps that need is greater today as thousands of troops come home plagued with post-traumatic stress disorder but this

demand for health care in the government. is in the government government run excuse me veteran of veterans affairs system it's leading to some lawmakers reevaluating the program or to correspondent christine for south has more. on the battlefield america's soldiers dodge bullets and bombs. when they return home there are new battles to fight ones often run with bureaucracy and backlog when they sign a contract to serve this country we're supposed to take care of those that have borne the battle is one of the few issues democrats and republicans in congress agree upon the need to provide better health care for veterans especially those who reach out for help at the v.a. when i talk about friends their biggest complaint is they want to get it congressman tim walz is the ranking member congressman jeff miller the chairman of the veterans affairs committee on capitol hill most agree changes are necessary as

far as what changes well and nothing's been drawn up in legislation yet but one proposal is to look at opportunities outside of the current system so that if a veteran can get a timely appointment for their health care needs that they can go somewhere other than the v.a. it's their choice it's their life it's an idea that could up end the u.s. health care system for veterans entirely but one that's gaining traction especially in light of the current system which is fraught with long wait times and mental health issues like post-traumatic stress disorder going on treated for far too long if someone coming in with a heart attack or treated immediately if someone's coming in with suicidal tendencies that's a heart attack and that's the way it needs to be treated that's not a headache and that's not just a sprained ankle in two thousand and eleven the v.a. treated about four hundred seventy six thousand veterans across the country for p.t.s.d.

and according to a report released by the veterans health administration office of inspector general just forty nine percent of first time patients got an evaluation within the suggested first fourteen days on average for the remaining patients it took about fifty days to be evaluated still in multiple study. the v.a. was found to have some of the best health care in the country the rand corporation found that the v.a. outperformed the national sample on nearly every measure the nonpartisan congressional budget office had similar findings showing the v.a. with higher scores on quality of care by tri-care and the v.a. but at a time when more members of the military are dying from suicide then from physical combat related injuries it may not be enough the pressing problem of veterans' health issues could change the face of what was one of the most successful examples of government run health care in america and washington christine for is out r.c.

. for more i was joined earlier by dr david rad founder of the national center for veteran studies at the university of utah at the end by asking him if this system of delivering health care to veterans needs to change. well i think the of the indications would suggest that it does i think clearly with the the long wait times are a part of the difficulty a part of what we need is better access and better availability of care the v.a. certainly has been remarkably responses to care and i think all indications are that the v.a. is providing high quality of care but given the number of veterans struggling with psychiatric issues it's difficult to meet that demand hire enough people quickly enough provide access and availability of care in regions in areas of the country where we have high risk alters right and then multiple studies confirm what you just said that the v.a. was found to have some of the best health care in the country but i mean it doesn't

matter how good the health care is you can have the best position working at these v.a. hospitals but if they're understaffed and overwhelmed ultimately it's going to be the quality of care that is going to suffer i think you're right on the money i think that's the issue that that if if they're overwhelmed understaffed not able not able able to meet the needs quickly that's the core issue the other thing that we haven't mentioned is the issue of stigma there are a number of veterans who simply do not believe that the da is going to provide responses meaningful care and we have to take that issue on opening up the availability of care to other providers outside of the v.a. system helps us in a number of ways with that issue. you know going along with that it's not is no secret the v.a. and they're overworked underfunded and we have a long wait times mental health as we had in our report goes untreated for a long amount of time i did a report about how drug abuse is running rampant in these institutions even the one

here in d.c. and one of their main facility is and this is a government run system so dr read this be an example of what a government run system on a national scale. and the alaska look like well i think a part of the problem is that the larger the system the larger the bureaucracy the less flexible the less responsive the health care system is that's why it's important to look at alternatives to look at unique approaches even really to look at can we make your more readily available in some of these rural areas where our veterans are so they don't have to train but we may have a much more flexible nimble responsive system that's what i worry about the larger the organization gets the less flexible the less responsive it can be and you know right off about what comes to mind as obamacare and i guess i know some positions myself that have gone through the v.a. system and have a talk about how just how understaffed they are and how overworked they are. and

compare what obamacare could be to what the situation is in the v.a. which is a very huge massive institution as it is where is the largest health care system in the world i mean the reality is it is the largest system in the world and the nice thing is they provide high quality meaningful care the question is whether or not they can be responsive in these critical incident so if you look at veterans you look at what these needs are the reality is we need people they were can respond quickly when there's a crisis large systems have a hard time doing that more often than not i guess and actually i want to bring up these statistics here that kind of illustrate just how massive this department has two hundred seventy thousand employees one hundred thirty one cemeteries one hundred fifty two hospitals they despise benefits to over four million veterans so

dr despite the enormity of this department it's still just is not enough to meet this to meet this overwhelming demand and i think that that's what these latest numbers speak to i think the reality is if the numbers suggest it we're not beating . the demeanors the numbers suggest that maybe we need to be creative we need to think outside of the box we need to look at other alternatives and even the system needs to of all rather than getting larger we need to look at other options. right i want to bring in these other statistics that show these new figures and military suicides among active duty members of the military and veterans have skyrocketed and reached record levels. three hundred forty nine suicides of active duty personnel in two thousand and twelve that's up fifteen percent from the year before nine hundred fifty suicide attempts per month among veterans being cared for by the v.a. . and then this one i think is a pretty startling us military of u.s.

military vet that are in commit suicide every eighty minutes so clearly the mental health issues of returning soldiers aren't being met i know that you said that something needs to be done we need to look outside of the box so do you think that the answer is perhaps expanding their options outside of the of the v.a. so that they can seek help elsewhere well absolutely i would say that expanding out of the traditional system is what we need to look at we need to look at partnerships with local community providers local agencies they provide a kind of flexibility in a more nimble responsive system if you look at an organization that's based in nashville called not alone one of the things that not alone does is they provide peer they don't coordinate cure for veterans outside of the veterans system and they've been able to get support in other donors that won't fund their care so some individuals are already doing that some people are already out there trying to find

solutions trying to find more flexible alternatives so what of one of the results of this be that veterans would be able to receive care faster. including mental health care. in cases where there are suicide risk in their significant risk of harm in some ways what's critical is how responsive how fast we can provide care and not to lie one of the things we know is when we delay care individuals at high risk that that risk goes up is they wait for care if you look at me these negative outcomes some of these tragic losses that we've experienced it were those were among people waiting for care all right we don't have too much more time but of course cost is always an issue even with obamacare a lot of lawmakers scratching their head as to how this this is going to be funded what expanding it that's health care option to veterans be a cost effective solution well i think it would be if you look at some of the

recent findings so if you look at some of the work that we've done here at the national center for veterans studies you look some of the work that's been funded by the department of defense there are a number of effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder there are number of fictive treatments for suicidality many of those treatments are time limited many of those treatments are restricted in terms of the amount of care that is required and as a result the cost of care so if people will provide the cure that has a new pure bull foundation that's been proven to be effective actually it probably will be less expensive really interesting i really appreciate you coming on the show today that was dr david rad founder of the national center for veteran studies at the university of utah absolutely happy to join and thank you. for the projective six to eight hundred thousand people gathering on the national mall to watch president obama's inauguration all of those out of towners will be looking for the right streets to walk on and places to check out as it most things in this

day and age there's an app for that. the presidential inaugural committee released an album with the latest information about where to stand during the parade and a chance to live stream obama's speech among other things but all that information doesn't come for free the electronic information privacy center pointed out that the fine print for the app states that user information can be shared with almost anyone what kind of information different functions of the app are choir anything from cell phone numbers to e-mail to the ability to track users with g.p.s. just as obama's presidential campaign found great success and data mining potential voters for better turnouts and political donations that activity is bleeding over into the inauguration. that p.i. see is technically a non partisan committee though it's filled with obama campaign veterans this year and democrats have envied the of obama campaigns of wealth of data and wanted

access to it well to the victors to the victors go the spoils and in this case the spoils are your personal information and don't forget to tune in to our t.v. on monday for inauguration coverage. not a recent day of the ball much more than a boring. look at president obama's second term we're going to be even more rude and even more egregious of our privacy given any monday here anywhere twenty first century examined by the president oh no. that's right make sure you join us on monday but that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered head on over to our youtube channel youtube dot com slash r t america check it.