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 wise 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 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 to 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 and what you have is a well thought out. 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 of the director of the washington d.c. bureau. great to have you back with us as 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 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 here this is going on now certainly if they have partisan little cool advantages being done and in front of democratic

participation in the electoral process many would look at the founding fathers and listen 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 care and also the torah both makes sense it's consistent again with our democracy but what we're saying 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 say that actually calls for any state that has a problem in its history making sure racial and ethnic minorities are able to fully participate they have to pre-clear things at the very troubling a reduced planned we've seen in virginia and even take a close look at initiatives that was seen in pennsylvania. they would take that

power out of the hands of the people of pennsylvania and put it has a very few but i. stayed 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 that it 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 thirty 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 see any any kind do you think that the republican at thames to rig the electoral votes in these five swing states might actually work 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 and won't just hand power over to anyone because some think take some small group 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 see a continuation of the. it's 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 would 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 our nation that the voice of every individual person is able to collectively decide who will be our leaders but this is our president but this is been a long battle i mean the american legislative exchange council has put forward these voter suppression id laws 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 wrong 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. leveraging the elections quite candid like. oculus. now i doubt he thought the some day there'd be a youtube and that would you know but that's been the republican strategy do you really think that americans are are waking to this in that we can push back 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 and ball

was fought for at the n.w.c. pretty is the 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 vote will be counted towards the overall and the side in the direction of the country including leaders that move us in that direction and the president mentioned not standing in line for this and that's one of the things i didn't mention in my list this is another one of their strategy will absolutely along the 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 hardworking americans that have to go into that job every day that punch a clock in and 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 on the job they lose their resources they lose by lose everything 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 by our good friends like john lewis a civil rights icon stinney hoyer and many others who would 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 decision 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 trade 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 to come 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 as help more universities decided 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 making. 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. look mistreated as hidden deep beneath. this is

north welcome here. traps laid for intruders. the supernatural can arise from nowhere. be possessed by the spirit. mistress of the cave.

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 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 effect health effects of soda has especially when it comes to the health of man you joining me now to talk more about the new findings of 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 it's anybody else who's 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 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 came in fact the study came out of finland as i recall but what does it show about the relationship between soda consumption risk of prostate cancer and that. 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 university of minnesota school of public health there are

a couple others they found links to pancreatic cancer cancer and of course. drink 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 watch. 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 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 obesity 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 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 actual 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 benon are sort of. that i don't know the 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. the united states and yet at the inauguration beyond say who scored fifty million

dollars to sell it singing the national anthem 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 so let's hope scott bill thanks for joining me and my pleasure thank you. crazy alert if you like some fresh ground dirt on that note get 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 news choice ingredient dirt that's right chefs at the top notch restaurant have

created an entire menu of dishes that featured 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 dirtier soto so i. finally finishing off the night cleanse in the palate with a light and refreshing scoop of dirt ice cream paired with a dirt 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 dollars or so many people may be grossed out by the choice of a gradient but it actually could have nutritional benefits numerous studies have shown that exposure to dirt and other germs that early age actually help develop the immune system and ward off the asthma so forget your vegetables.

had she shot 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 they're coming. when they stopped at my road and ordered me to stand up. i was completely shocked and panicked. i was ordered off

the flight and plane and sent out into the back of the into a small cell where in offices that stage. it was very full and in that. i can't do that to 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 i know you have 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 assigned 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 are 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 are 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 should shut up. 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 this situation and i have to think about what would have happened if

me and what if have 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'm on that day that's 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 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 should shut 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 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 two thousand and thirteen for more information check out our website to tom harkin dot com free speech dot org or to dot com and blue dot com slash big picture you know forget democracy begins with you get out there get active tag your it seal .

download the official publication if you so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television or it just doesn't work so well with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. well. it's technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia. that's huge you're covered.

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