back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour a new study out shows a startling relationship between soda consumption and the risk of one of the most common health issues that affects men when will americans wised up to the negative health effects of soda and start looking out for their health and we the people have allowed this nation's war on terror to get out of control with innocent american citizens being treated like terrorists and criminal masterminds so how do we the people bring an end to this nonsense and start and stop this war on terror and tearing apart our society.

been screwed news i've said on this show before and i'll keep saying it ever since republicans learned last november that they can't win elections fair and square they've committed themselves to rigging elections just this week republicans in the virginia state senate which is currently split fifty fifty between democrats and republicans sneak a redistricting bill through that would increase the number of safe republican districts and give them an advantage in future elections they get this through an evenly divided senate you might ask well they waited until one of the democrats a former civil rights leader left town to attend president obama's inauguration and then they immediately held the vote for this election election rigging doesn't compare to what republicans in pennsylvania are doing trying to change how their stake outs electoral votes which would give future republican presidential candidates a huge advantage republicans are considering similar changes in the wisconsin ohio

and michigan and if they're successful they could make it virtually impossible for any democrat to win the white house in two thousand and sixteen and beyond throw these efforts in with the continual efforts to restrict early voting in minority areas make it harder to. register voters the new voter suppression idea laws that disproportionately affect minority voters what you have is a well thought out strategy on the right to destroy american democracy with a small d democracy and bring about one party republican rule in this country we all ignore what's going on right now at the peril of our own democracy joining me now for more on what we have to do about this is hilary shelton senior vice president for advocacy at the end and the director of the washington d.c. bureau. great to have you back with us always good to be with thank you for joining us how do you what do you make of these efforts to rig the electoral college votes from from the the founding of the republican till today you know the constitution

gives each state the ability to designate to select their electors however they choose and every state has said whoever wins the majority of the vote in this state gets our state's electors and now i think for the first time these states are talking about changing. to hear this is going on there certainly is they have partisan politics little cool advantage it's been done and in front of democratic participation they are led to a process many would look at the founding fathers and what's in our constitution and certainly the spirit of our democracy and talk about it in terms of one person one vote majority rules but the people have the last say in everything certainly a system in which the majority of the people in any state that vote for a particular candidate that a candidate actually carry and also the torah both makes sense it's consistent again with our democracy but what we're seeing here really explains in many ways why it's so important quite frankly that we have protections in our constitution

like the fifth amendment to the other fifth amendment to the to the civil rights a that actually calls for any state that has a problem in its history making sure that the minorities are able to fully participate they have to pre-clear things by the. troubling a reducer do plan we've seen in virginia and even take a close look at initiatives that we're seeing in pennsylvania that would take that power out of the hands of the people of pennsylvania and put into has a very few but. then state yes they may be subject to the civil rights act you would know that pennsylvania has not historically that's exactly right it's not which means that the pre-clearance provisions don't cover pennsylvania but however it does mean the section two of the voting rights act that covers this kind of discrimination that is clearly racially motivated among all the challenges would very well be in place where there's been a movement that has picked up a little steam after bush v gore in that election al gore got a half

a million more votes nationwide than george bush did and yet the supreme court made george bush president and you know according to the folklore of the election did to let's not get into that but the point is that we have had i think five elections since the very first where the person won the majority of the votes was not the president and so this national popular vote movement that you know we're states will assign electors based on who actually is winning the nation is has picked up some steam do you do you see any any kind do you think that the republican at times to rig the electoral votes in these five swing states might actually work and there might be some blowback to this it might cause a national popular vote or a serious rethinking of electoral of the sort of the hope you know quite frankly if we look at these issues and look at how it effects again the very integrity of our democratic process when you do have a move where the american people are becoming more sophisticated about how

elections the done won't just hand power over to anyone because some tape some small group or some group of party favorites decide they want to move forward on issues that are inconsistent. with the very values of our nation and i do think as the american people take a closer look at what's going on you'll see a continuation of the efforts to make sure that the will of the people actually the power of that individual vote and the collective votes are what carry the day so very well as we're looking at this happening in the at handful of states gradually moving to try to circumvent the very forces a will of their own populace could very well be able to move ahead of that and see that they will not stand for that we will always call for as we've done from the very beginning of the nation that the voice of every individual person is able to collectively decide who will be our leaders but it will be our president but this is been a long battle i mean the american legislative exchange council has put forward

these voter suppression id laws and in the champion of this nobody is really sure whether they're involved in the these redistricting plans but there's a reasonable suspicion the american legislative exchange council was started in part by a man named paul weyrich who also helped start the heritage foundation and several other republican think tanks and when he in one nine hundred eighty when he was working on the ronald reagan campaign he had this to say to a group of republican activists. how many of our quest to have what i call but do grow good government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote. by a majority of people they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not. in the elections quite candid like. now i doubt he thought the some day there'd be a youtube and that would get you know but that's been the republican strategy do

you really think that americans are wakening to this and that we can push back and what does a modern voting system look like how do we respond well i think very well americans are outraged to think that anyone would try to circumvent the power of the american vote and say that somehow a true blue few should make decisions for all of us i think most of us would be outraged as i am as we talk about this as sort of what we're looking for in ball was fought for the n.w.c. pretty is a system to make sure that every american is able to register and vote to go to the polls on election day and cast an unfettered without interference and the end of the day that but will be counted towards the overall in the side in the direction of the country including leaders to that direction and the president mentioned not standing in line for something that's one of the things i didn't mention in my list this is another one of their strategy oh absolutely a lot of people have to stand a lot if you think about those who get locked out it's not middle class folks who have flexible work schedules is those hard working americans that have to go into

that job every day to punch a clock and on get paid if they punch that clock they can't afford standing that law and not being able to work make sure their bosses to they're there on the job they lose their resources they lose by lose everything do we just have thirty seconds do you think do you think that we're going to see the president call this out in his inaugural address do you think we're going to see electoral reform in this administration i hope so there are bills now being introduced on capitol hill even today good friends like john lewis a civil rights icon stinney hoyer and many others to help move these issues forward they recognize the obstacles. as well as the things that we need to do to make sure that every american is able to register even automatically and be able to cast their vote without interference using many of the new technologies so every voice is heard and the best decisions could be made for and they should keep up the great work must thank you so much scrutiny will overshadow. just.

it's the good the bad of the very very rich great asli arguably the good academic partnerships academic partnerships is a company that helps public universities put their courses on line and they partnered with three university systems to put free for credit courses online arizona state university the university of cincinnati and university of arkansas will become the first schools in the nation to offer free online classes become with credits to the respective institutions this new program is a particularly big deal for our nation's undocumented immigrants who want to gain an education but can't do so legally sold more universities decide to join the program and offer top notch education for free to millions of americans. senator john mccain at a press conference yesterday mccain was asked about the upcoming hearings over the

appointment of senator john kerry as secretary of state it was his reply. we will look forward to interrogating him and his hearing the next two or even more surely surely it will bring back for the only time waterboarding to get the truth out of me. sure and the use of it by american forces on our enemies is far from a laughing matter is incredibly offensive and ignorant comments are particularly surprising coming from a man who experienced firsthand the pain and suffering the torture is responsible for and the very very ugly paul clement and house republicans. clement is the attorney who house republicans paid over three million dollars in taxpayer money to defend the anti-gay defense of marriage act doma yesterday a brief that clement wrote to the supreme court was released to the public on behalf of the republicans paid for with our tax dollars clement argued that quote in short gays and lesbians are one of the most influential best connect the best

funded the best organized interest groups in modern politics and attain more legislative victories political power and popular favor in less time and virtually any other group in american history given that the ultimate inquiry focuses on whether group needs these special intervention of the courts or whether issues should be left for the democratic process the political strength of gays and lesbians in the political process should be outcome determinative here essentially clement and republicans are arguing that gay people are too powerful to get equal rights. guaranteed both clement and the house republicans are unaware of the near constant discrimination that the l g b t community faces each and every day workplace to local restaurants to houses of worship and that is very very. coming up even though our rots your teeth that helps promote obesity and diabetes millions of americans drink soda every day but startling new research is out and it shouldn't really sound the alarm bells for soda drinkers especially men.

the worst year for those things. white house to give it to the radio guy and call it a minute from a quick profit i want you to watch closely because you've never seen anything like this on color. let me let me i want to know what all let me ask you a question from. here on this network is what we have in the bank we have our knives out. to do this right it's a bad thing never get here into the fray where b.

and i don't even talk about the name and me. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.

in the best of the rest of the news i dedicate this segment to our soda addicted director kevin callie millions of americans like fork out that are addicted to caffeine and many of them drink can after can of soda each and every day to get the caffeine fix that they crave however as has been well documented so it is bad for your health it ratchet teeth it also helps promote health conditions like diabetes and obesity just two weeks ago we told you about a new study that revealed a possible link between consumption of soda and an increased risk of depression now there's an even more startling research study out about the negative and a fair health effects of soda has especially when it comes to the health of man

joining me now to talk more about the new findings is scott hill morphism magazine a contributor to alter net salon and wired magazine scott joins us now from l.a. scott welcome. thank you for having me thanks for joining us so what's more dangerous pepsi or coke cane. pepsi seriously pepsi is more dangerous than cocaine why. well first of all it's more ubiquitous it's everywhere kids have it in their schools it's in any store it's within reach from anyone beyond say it was just given fifty million dollars to sell it to her base and if anybody else was interested it's more approachable excessive drug than cocaine which is out of reach for the majority of americans what does this new research tell us about the relationship between soda consumption and you know at this is not specific to any brand name i'm saying you know when i said pepsi earlier that there's no you know any particular brand that anybody knows

about this can affect the study came out of finland as i recall but what does it show about the relationship between soda consumption and risk of prostate cancer in men. is bill drake who is the lead researcher for london diversity who did the study found that she followed thousands of men for over ten years fifteen years and found that forty percent of them were more likely to develop cancer and this comes on top of the studies that came in over the last few years one from mark pereira out at the university of minnesota school of public health there are a couple others they've found links to pancreatic cancer esophageal cancer and of course the drake study which found prostate cancer and you know it it's really the causality is the issue they cannot locate conclusively which drink causes which kind of cancer but they all agree that they have zero redeeming nutritional value and that in fact they all have a major role to play in obesity which itself has

a major role to play in a variety of cancers so the big news this morning was how the f.d.a. is going to crack down on opiate drugs and people who have chronic pain we've got a you know super why. to them and make sure that they're not getting addicted to these drugs as far as i know the main side effect of opiate drugs is addiction which in and of itself is not fatal cancer is fatal not always but you know obviously it's a problem where is the public outcry why why isn't the news all over this. the public outcry is really being held back by the government by the industry which together sort of hand in hand they're kind of turning a blind eye because of the causality because of the inconclusive evidence and the sense that you can draw a point a to point b. line from pepsi to cancer a softball cancer pancreatic cancer prostate cancer and because of that you can draw a roundabout line from pepsi to bow b.c. to cancer and obesity is related to all kinds of cancers but because you cannot sit

down you know fifty thousand men or women over the course of twenty years and fill him with as much soda as you possibly can because it's unethical for one. and the industry would probably never allow it but you're never going to get the kind of conclusive evidence you need to get the kind of momentum you need to have legislation limiting consumption especially among the young how many dangerous or potentially lethal chemicals are there in soda drinks of all brands of all types. so it's hard to find because that kind of information is really hard to get your hands on the center for science of the public interest found that a caramel coloring which brought no flavor no sort of anything to the product it just changed the color of it was actually a known animal carcinogen and the minute that this this substance ran afoul of a new california law that said that all carcinogens must be declared on the can

they got rid of it in a quick hurry because they were afraid of could cause cancer label how many years of that been in our sort of. that i don't know. long enough that it's finally becoming an issue and that's really what this is about as as time goes on a soda becomes more and more of a public health risk a known public health risk where you have mayor bloomberg in new york and even michelle obama saying you know obesity is the number one national security threat to united states and yet you know at the inauguration beyond say who scored fifty million dollars to sell it is singing the national anthem and it's this kind of unclear blurred line between what is good for the public and what is good for business that is continuing to keep this stuff behind closed doors but i don't think that's going to last much longer and say well let's go scot bill thanks for joining me and my pleasure thank you.

crazy alert if you like some fresh ground dirt on that note at this pas one of the top french restaurants in tokyo has been known for its use of high quality local seafood and vegetables but now the restaurant is raising eyebrows because of its newest choice ingredient jerked that's right chefs at the top notch restaurant have created an entire menu of dishes that feature good all straight out of the ground dirt for starters you can have potato starch and dirt soup and as you can see it looks pretty dirty next up you can shout it out on a salad with dirt dressing and it's time to turn your attention to an irresistible dirt or so ago you saw ted seabass finally finishing off the night cleansing the palate with a light and refreshing scoop of dirt ice cream paired with a dirty mint tea and while the food may be dirty it definitely isn't cheap the

entire dinner that i just described cost around one hundred ten out as many people may be grossed out by the choice of ingredients but it actually could have nutritional benefits numerous studies have shown that exposure to dirt and other germs that are really age actually help develop the immune system in ward off the asthma so forget your vegetables eat your dirt. head she. is an american citizen and the mother of seven year old twins she's also one of the latest casualties of the his stereo built into our national so-called war on terror on the tenth anniversary of nine eleven she flew on frontier airlines into detroit when the plane pulled up to the gate all the

passengers on board were ordered to stay in their seats with their heads down and their arms up. federal agents carrying large military style weapons then boarded the plane marched down the aisles and here's mrs shoshana talking about what happened to her. i wondered if there was a fugitive on board. i had no idea there i mean. when they stopped at my road and ordered me to stand up. i was completely shocked and panicked. i was ordered off the flight employee and settled into the back teeth into a small cell where in offices to me. it was very low in that. i can't believe you begin to describe to me. no one would tell me what was going on despite repeated requests for information so until me and me right there when i would be able to comment but you know it's you know it with after some time mrs

shoshana was interrogated by an f.b.i. agent and she eventually learned that she was removed from the plane because of her ethnic first name and her seat assignment she'd been seated between two men who were described by flight attendants as possibly of arab descent she didn't know that those men had gone to the restroom a few times during the flight they too were american citizens of indian descent. but in our post nine eleven fear frenzy whipped up by george w. bush and dick cheney the simple act of using the bathroom while arab looking is enough to get you dragged off a plane a gunpoint and under the patriot act it's completely justifiable for federal agents armed to the teeth to spring into action and drag you because of whoever sitting next to you off the plane strip you naked and put you in a jail cell indefinitely without a phone call without a right to a lawyer and without any information whatsoever about why you're being detained and

they can legally keep you there for the rest of your life to repeat all of this is now legal because of the n.d.a. and the and the patriot act and post george w. bush america all of this can happen to any of us just as it happened to have she sure shot. the american citizen and mother of twin boys she now lives with p.t.s.d. in fear that this might happen to her again. in my wildest dreams. i would have never imagined. and i have to think about what would have happened if me and what if they'd been there with me. every time i fly i wonder if today is the day it's going to happen again. i wonder if i believe the fight on my own accord i owe everything that i have i know. i know now that i think i am on that day is having an ethnic name and i think. none of us can imagine this happening to us but all of us should our national war on terror has run now for more than

a decade with it we've seen two full fledged wars fought in afghanistan and iraq killing hundreds of thousands of people and destroying the lives of millions at a cost to us of trillions of dollars we've seen multiple covert drone wars launched in places like pakistan yemen and somalia we've seen an enormous security state apparatus constructed at home it collects our personal e-mails text messages phone conversations and god only knows what else we've seen the legalisation of indefinite detentions of american citizens without charges or trial or even the ability to confront their their accusers who are says if you are suspected of affiliating with terrorist organizations and in the case of heads she shot up we've seen the ruthless counter-terror operations that we believed were only done in far off places in the middle east or secret cia detention facilities instead brought home and used against us against american citizens on american airplanes at

american airports and for the most part we the people have allowed all this to happen. and now is this war on terror turns in word it begins devouring us from within. we have to ask ourselves what have we created with the help of the american civil liberties union this shoshana is filing suit against the f.b.i. frontier airlines the t.s.a. ice and the customs and border protection agency she hopes her lawsuit will bring what she says quote accountability and changes so this type of thing doesn't happen again we can only hope. the fact is that we the people allow this war on terror to begin and to grow and if we the people don't put an end to it fast then it will eventually turn its guns on us. and that's the way it is tonight wednesday january twenty third twenty thirteen for more information check out our website to tom

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