for thom hartmann live from washington d.c. and i'm sam sax and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. president obama has announced a new federally funded scientific initiative to map the human brain and some republicans are even going along with it so should we be investing even more in scientific research for the benefit of all americans that and more in tonight's big picture rubble also we all know that the japanese people will face decades of health issues as a result of the fukushima nuclear disaster but could americans be facing similar issues to what is new research suggests about the radiation fallout from fukushima and its effects on americans living on the west coast and in tonight's daily take tom will tell you about an easy and straightforward method to reduce gun violence

in america. all right and we begin tonight with the big picture rumble joining us our marc harrold libertarian commentator and attorney and vince cullen a senior online editor at the daily caller market thank you both for joining us and i thank you so let's start off by talking about the brain yesterday the president proposed this one hundred million dollars project to basically map the human brain it's called the brain initiative setting for brain research through advancing innovated innovative neuro technologies here's a clip of what the president said yesterday. as humans we can identify galaxies light years away we can study particle smaller them adam but we still haven't unlock the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears there's this enormous mystery. waiting to be unlocked. the brain initiative will

change that by giving scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and how we learn and how we remember and this research can also lead to new developments in how to treat all timers other brain injuries epilepsy things like that maybe you can give us some insight into why conservatives like you guys all the way you guys who are a lot of them say oh don't forget autism and all this stuff so interesting way this is something that republicans seem to support at least house majority leader eric cantor who said quote mapping the human brain is exactly the type of research we should be funding it's great science so if this is great a great investment if this is something we should be doing then where do we draw the line what else should we be investing in right now as opposed to cutting as it seems like most republicans have been obsessed with over the last few years mark let's start with you the brain project it sounds cool and i'm sure there are some

things that it can do i think if it doesn't work it sort of ends up being like reagan star wars you know you got this thing literally called the brain project problem here and what i've seen on the coverage of this is they want to balance and say is this something we should do when we're making cuts and we have seaquest duration this isn't something we should do period i hope this is good science and i think there are places that should do this universities for instance and the pi the private sector but this idea that they're going to go after this i think this is way outside the u.s. and is supposed to do in universities get federal funding that is really sort of research or saying this should know should they get some federal funding in certain limited ways there is it basically comes through student tuition in the loan programs which is completely ballooned and we've seen the tuition skyrocket with the loans but you know this is you know this is one of those things this is not only what the government supposed to all of us i can now and i think outside of what about when the government generational mandate when the government gets involved in doing research for example creating velcro shoes or create the whole idea of velcro which was the government's massive project benefits that it benefits the human race that benefits the world so why can't the government be involved in sort of investigating the human brain because the government can be involved with

this only and so. far as it serves a legitimate government purpose of something given just has to do under the constitution they're out there fishing this is the brain project they keep saying ok it'll lead to something and maybe they'll help people inside when they were as you did it's ago when you were talking about investing in the internet yeah and we said well you know this is bogus idea this might not work i've been pretty silly i mean we were last on a bunch of stuff and i write or i absolute the government's involvement in the creation the internet is undeniable light but you know when we talk about a project like the brain project or whatever i generally think that things that are that have a general purpose in terms of research purposes can be good they're better at least then picking like a certain technology specifically and putting all of our money behind and an example to that is solar certainly got a lot of the green energy projects that we've seen collapsed during the obama administration there's definitely been a lot of money put in that direction when it's not entirely clear what our energy future is it's sort of like they're just shoot pool blindly i'm going to have when you have like a thing like the brain initiative or nasa you have programs that have general

purposes which is to turn determine how to cure some of the things that help humanity specifically and i actually think that this could be a good use of government funds i totally agree with eric cantor on this and i do think it's kind of funny what marc harrold said i love the headlines that we have lines could be if it fails are brain dead i mean i see all sorts of there's all sorts of really great have i just want to bookmark that for the record that we have republicans agreeing the government spending is a good thing on some things and so you republicans know i'm a libertarian there am i but that's ok yeah i don't but others i think title god all know that it's not you they are in service without being a republican or the other way around i don't assume see the difference here is between investing in this brain project and investing in things like alternative energy here you said it's a this is something that affects all of us the health of all of us. and you also said they we're not certain what our energy future is we should be throwing a bunch of money at something we're not certain i think it's pretty certain we do ours also fuels are not our energy future and there are there are other certainties i think that like oil shale and like there's a there are

a ton of clean energy. nuclear for instance is sort of the great enigma that like there is like environmentalists that are opposed to nuclear on grounds that really aren't all that realistic nuclear is that clean as you want to grant or is a pretty realistic road or you're supposed to nuclear and don't give the show always say i'm now you know i know you're coming out and that's a great example of why we have to start talking about the good but talking about government spending vents in just a couple and just a couple days from now both emerge the emergency unemployment compensation program which helps folks who have more than twenty six weeks of unemployment will sort of take a ten percent cut meaning folks usually got about three dollars a week will lose a good chunk of that money about forty dollars by the end of the year and you know forty percent of those folks that are unemployed have been unemployed for more than twenty seven weeks so we're not want to send money to people back to work we're not willing to x. millionaires to pay their fair share to deal with our deficit problems but we were willing to cut you know the most vulnerable individuals in this country those that are unemployed looking for work or those that lost their jobs at no fault of their

own isn't this a little bit some sort of backward logic here well i'd argue that that there are plenty of studies that definitely show that actual the receipt of unemployment does create its own vulnerabilities in terms of keeping people out of the job market because unemployment is actually a deterrent from re entering the job market as much as as much as we as much as we have it specifically so that people i find that i think that might be true in theory but i think you talk to anybody who is unemployed receiving unemployment benefits the first thing they'll tell you is i want to get back to work but if i am looking for a job right but it's not theoretical we know that when we place what it is no matter how to be there at the when we've laid out those are talking people who are employed when we place budget controls on unemployment we there's always a correlation between employment rising ok ok i get the point you're making here but let's look at the economic situation we're currently living in so in the ninety's when you know bill clinton reformed quote unquote reformed welfare we had a boom time sir plus there were jobs everywhere people you know people could find employment so they made it work for welfare requirement you know you had to pretend

like you were looking. find a job in order to hopefully not pretend i mean that was the point where he said well sit but you had to at least secure some sort of job to get benefits nowadays though when the economy is in the tank there's roughly three people looking for every one job opening here so whether or not people are lazy or not they can't find jobs period there's just not enough jobs for how many people are unemployed so you can't blame them almost i mean do we want these people to be suffering do we not here i mean are we are we are we focusing on maybe the two to three percent who are abusing the program and aren't screwing over the you know the rest of the ninety seven percent who need it the service going to all of mark to market and well i mean is this program going to take a hit absolutely if you look at the way it's coming down it's also a lot of burden shifting from the states it's very hard to plug in the federal program within the state program so there's some inconsistency there you know the problem here is that the economy is not growing because there's too much government regulation i want too much more of that now but there's the government not going because there's too much government regulation is the government not growing

because business isn't millionaires and billionaires are sitting on the sidelines raking up the cash now they're sitting on the sidelines because what you're doing with the corporate tax and what you do with capital gains you got to get them back into the game corporate taxes that really if you look at what corporations are paying are the second lowest in the developer who are corporate taxes huge it's one of the reasons they hire i mean i don't i don't i don't know about that one argument x. is very you know i mean you know what is the g.m. only to zero dollars in taxes this year if you look at the strictly the nominal rate of what they should be paying their high in the developed world but as far as exactly right back everything they look for was actually being paid is the second lowest i mean these are the facts also the fact is we did have a record low corporate tax rate we would attract corporate business the united states that are in it let's not i don't i just know i disagree with that argument because the big argument oh we raise taxes or we raise x. corporations are all going to leave we've seen no european corporations leave europe actually the thriving there and there's better benefits for their employer don't you think there's been a better bit there but there's a higher standard of living there for their employees and all those companies will

tell you that. because the higher standard of living they get more productivity out of their workers for less than ours the only people they can invest economy in the private sector the people that have some disposable income those who have a habit of the silk hat line that having all this other sitting on the sidelines but you're not giving the incentives to get involved are doing or blaming the wrong or for every problem owner and they said you know it's not even their fair share they're paying the same percentage as everyone else or they're not paying their fair share are not paying the same percentage let me tell you that here that's well it's true that it's more that it's more than taxes here though they're sitting on the sidelines because there's simply no demand for their products people have no money in their pockets to go out into the market and go and spend so now we're talking about taking even more money out of people's pockets unemployed people's pockets who would be spending that money how is their going to encourage any of these you know this is how do you want us to go to the limit so they spend in the market well yes at the very least that's what we should be doing we know not that i'm a theory but that economics would tell here and it works and we know that economic stability there is either should. we know that economic stability provided by the

federal government right so soon as we saw the fiscal crisis resolved at the beginning of the year you saw stocks jump because we saw the companies and corporations certainly had a lot more confidence in the market once we knew we were past the fiscal cliff once we know we're past these continuing resolutions when the government is in gridlock and you don't have fiscal certainty these businesses i think it's unclear the stock market isn't a good indicator of our the health of our economy i think it's true and people don't want to invest when they're uncertain no matter what the rules are going to be you've got to make the most sort of people know what to do but that's a question i brought this up i brought this up yesterday sam like we've talked about this government uncertainty and they're like oh there's government but that's because we've had john boehner in the speaker's mantle we've said the s. and p. five hundred first of the back of the congress of the gridlock you know any of john boehner and republicans want to get to work in their majority house they would get we would get where there would be this gridlock and get to those then they would come off the sidelines right well then there's no question republicans play a role in this but that's because they're in these fights and when you have both sides both sides lining up behind you just because you have

a grandpa and i want to go round paulism him. for the g.o.p. and we've seen that in his endorsements and some other things he's not i mean his libertarian principles i don't think he really would be the libertarian candidate was certain of his policies no. i mean with the party would take him at this point most likely in many respects mcconnell has given him the sloppiest wet kiss i've seen any politician ever give anyone ok let's go let's pick this up let's let's before we do that with the big nor the big the big picture we get back after this break. let me let me i want to know we're going to let me ask you a question. here on this network as we're not in the debate we have our knives out. this time what's the best thing

there to get here in a situation where b. and i don't even talk about the surveillance me. you know 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 sorry welcome to the big picture . here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call. a. i'm sorry i'm just

a guy who cares enough. to use our our if you know what kind of cells he. wants us to feature isn't he on the lip of the christhood point. to secure the borders. you know the corporate media distracts us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells of sensationalistic garbage because that breaking news i'm having marc. and we're going to break that it's. pretty. well you will find it here if you're looking for relevant stories and we respect that in tough questions. i.

welcome back to us for tonight's big picture rumbalara marc harrold vince cullen is does let's get back to it yesterday illinois senator mark kirk play him out for his support of same sex marriage and joins rob portman is the only two republican senators to come out in favor of marriage equality senator lisa murkowski know the republicans that are position is evolving on this so is there anything to read into this is the republican party. realizing that this is a losing issue a kind of coming around to the fact that really what someone says their positions evolving like i think you should have a position like like my position is developing it's coming out in ten weeks and i think. it's one of the you know so defend a flip flop in the case of mark kirk it's very clear he's got he's under a lot of pressure in illinois politics to come to to come out in favor of gay marriage definitely among his constituency there's really little option for him if you want to contain all the elective office at least in illinois so when and when

people sense this and say well mark kirk he's on the leading edge of republicans they're all going to be spilling over into this i don't think that's true i think he's really being reactive i think he's being responsive to what he's electorate wants his constituency wants so if i was a run down alabama right now and start asking you know u.s. senators what they think you're not going to see them jump across the line but that's interesting point i think i think you're right to say that because i think he is in a blue state a very very blue state a deep blue state for that matter but you know how to obama's old seat i mean i mean but how do you explain. portman how do you explain murkowski who's possibly going to cross latham in florida who's also said she's in support of gay marriage how do you explain those to how do you explain those flips will portman again is another that doesn't surprise me he was kind of criticized because like i just i just knew that from her i thought you i thought you i thought you took the rest of your dollars to fix and i don't think i was able to enter yeah and when you have a personal experience of course your personal experiences should influence your politics because we agree there yeah i mean you will you live your life that way now he could have made a decision to make a principled stand still against gay marriage but he didn't and that's not

surprising and i mean i listen i do feel that way to the point where i've even said for those programs with what tactics are coming out so late isn't all right usual off base there i don't know that attack on obama and obama only did that recently not as i said i was i said the progress he said that i think you guys went too far it's an evolution what do you what's your take on tomorrow the president kind of forced into it with some comments that were made you know i agree this is a blue state decision i think the impetus in many cases is personal relationships lately and across the switching if he does which i last which is read is read can be i think the reach starting to read some tea leaves on this issue i think most i've always thought most americans are fiscally conservative and socially taller and i think this can be a losing issue a divisive issue i think it's also a tough issue to talk about being a very small government very limited government when the government wants to define marriage i mean i can't think of too many issues which are is integral to the part of the role of the lives that people leave as who they're married to who they can love in a formal relationship so i hope the g.o.p. comes around on this we do need marriage equality there's no doubt in my mind that i agree with you about it because i think if you talk about the nanny state telling

people who they can sleep with that is my definition of nanny state for the republicans let's use that term in the same time the republican party vince has you know made this alliance with the you know the right with the conservative christian right. can they afford to break that alliance moving forward i mean aren't they going to have to break that alliance at some point and that we're going to raise your you refer to this is see this is the great problem that chris chris so-called christian right has here and. it's not exclusive to just like white southern questions you have black christians who are opposed to gay marriage this is this is something that runs across the board and christians are not a french group i mean they make up the lion's share certainly of the population of the united states and when it comes to the way they're portrayed especially in the media they're often like vilified we saw the washington post talked about how it addresses gay marriage like a couple months ago and now gone wrote about this and then revealed any reaction from a reporter that works for that paper and when he was writing he said when i write

about gay marriage why would i include traditional marriage proponents that would be like including a racist when i write about blacks i think that is a bad comparison and one that really hurts the debate but do you do you think that in fifteen years of this is going to be a non-issue do i think it'll be a non-issue i mean do you think this will be a settled issue in the same way that interracial marriage they had a list of christian churches has held for as long as two to about two thousand years now a little i don't forsee that changing you don't see anyone around saying that are already about i have to see is this whoever she is are more and more christians coming out and being like look we have to be very specific about this we love gay people and i know this is something the left hates we love gay people but we only believe in traditional what's your take on that mark well i think you have to draw a line i saw something the other day i was watching some show and it was talking about how if this goes through they they have to force pastors to you know go and marry certain people this isn't about what's going to happen in the church this doesn't even have to do with how people view it i'd say i do know people that don't believe in a racial marriage but as a political issue as

a legal issue it's been settled for a long a horse i do know people like that and the bottom line here is you have to you have to divorce this and their relatives people they're absolutely irrelevant they're completely wrong i'm just saying i do know people that feel that way but the bottom line here is we're not talking about whether you have to there are some people in the catholic church you don't get annoyed you get remarried they don't consider you married that's fine people in all will their position about the ceremonial part of marriage and whether you're aligning god's eyes the question here is about benefits being extended by the government the legal and political question. and i think the only way to do it is to say look you know i believe in small government we're not going to get involved in this i still have my own personal views and they haven't changed i think about religion north of the north carolina republican party introduced legislation to create an official state religion claiming that the constitution and the federal government doesn't apply to here's what the law says and section one of the law in north carolina general assembly asserts that the concept of the united states of america does not prohibit states or their subsidiaries from making laws respecting of the stab of an established religion in section two the north carolina general assembly does not recognize federal court

rulings with prohibit it otherwise regulate the state of north carolina in its public schools or any political subdivision of the state from making laws respecting and stablished whatever religion is it just me or is this the craziest of crazy crazy of state rights no it's not really it's not it's ridiculous and it shouldn't happen in the now but it's not completely crazy you have to remember when the bill of rights came out with not completely crazy from hillary no not from a store point of view and i just thought the war to be a no no because it's exactly right it was after the civil war that the bill of rights was incorporated in the states originally when the states the states you said will ratify this you give us a bill of rights they only understood it before ratification to be a restriction on the federal government so this isn't complete so it's any less stable state relations when the first one was right here that why they were here they were here for i want you guys here is that what this goes back to a problem that i have with i think the tea party and i was at the conservative movement as they talk about constitution constitution constitution one of the fundamental rights in the constitution is the freedom of religion and now they're

saying we agree with the constitution we carried in our pockets but we want to be struck out of the first moment in the state of north carolina actually the tenth i'm in the ninth and tenth amendment sort of pitted against the fourteenth member you have to remember that they took her just a minute or so that it not only but remember the first amendment a fourth a minute those were not incorporated states they didn't apply to the states to the fourteenth amendment to them through the courts but it applies to the people that live in that state because the first the what the first you know i'm a good side only if it only affected the federal government ok i don't have i agree with you at the end of this i'm just saying this. is that where the things are what i think this law i think this law passed by the line is completely unconstitutional because that means that you're a muslim you know caroline you should be kicked out the state you know dearly is unconstitutional now with the incorporated are ever be unless they want to be as they should be to lose the war here's my conclusion that he's not going to let her pick this still out until i find out what the religion is and what's i know i may be for against either i think they're considering pasta fairy and there's lessons that you never introduced this is already well you know we're talking about as nationally it's down in north carolina this is what they want to do they know it's not going to this is this is another bigger point that we've seen over the last

four years and we're seeing now in the gun gun debate or as well we saw when rick perry is talking about texas secession everything it's like anything that happens that comes from the obama administration states red states ok well we can ignore the constitution we can ignore the federal government i mean this is something that well we've tried before and i don't know this rose lord knows liberty loving citizens should welcome the opportunity to always be considering hey what are the limits of federal power what to the extent to what extent can we just as a state decide on these things and i think that's why we have the arson amendment it's a pretty good but that's only exercise and i mean far too often especially with obama the presidency liberals come out from the perspective of no no no there's no such thing as states' rights to federal and i don't know i differ on this i think we do think that there are states rights but to some extent states can't go around just doing the will in early stuff like succeeding from the union or past having their own state religion that's an interesting point because the constitution is basically a contract that was ratified between the states and the union and there's really no

al clause i don't think anywhere in the world would think that was a good contract is it doesn't say how you get out. really you guys are right we do have we do should respect some states' rights but only when it comes to marijuana legalization i'm not ok everything comes back to marijuana every day and always good i always know when i watch. listen and are very my two good buddies thank you so much for being on the show you want to take a look next. now it's time for tonight's the good the bad and the very very. big. the good florida atlantic university students after a month and a half of protests students have florida atlantic university have successfully stopped private prison conglomerate g.e.

zero group from buying naming rights the school's new football stadium since f.a. you unveil g e u g e o group stadium in february students at the boca raton school have led a concerted campaign to stop what they call alcatraz a reference to the f.a. you mascot and the famous alcatraz prison in san francisco while their activism worked on tuesday geo group announced that it would withdraw its sponsorship for quote public relations reasons good work you als now the bab al gary hart one of the most pervasive right wing conspiracy theories of recent years has been the fear that agenda twenty one just a simple un sustainable development plan is actually a stalking horse for a new world order tyranny and oklahoma tea party activists al gary hart has led a campaign to get his state to ban the plan and its guidelines for combating

deforestation and pollution their hearts crusade has taken a turn towards intimidation in recent weeks however on monday the oklahoman published an e-mail gary hart sent to republican state senator cliff brennan demanding that he supports the agenda twenty one band email contain the following warning quote. get that bill heard or i will make sure you are greg not doing it i will make you the laughing stock of the senate if i don't hear that this bill will . be heard in past we will dig into your past your family your associates and once we start on you there will be no end to it this is a promise well not surprisingly brennan has reported the e-mail to the oklahoma state bureau of investigation it really is terrifying stuff and now the very very ugly deadly brown during an interview with n.p.r. this morning brown the founder of the rocky mountain gun owners group urged his fellow republicans to get ready to hunt democrats in the two thousand and fourteen

midterm elections. i liken it to the proverbial hunting season we tell gun owners there's a time to hunt deer in the next election is the time to hunt democrats similar. while brown isn't actually calling for open warfare on democratic candidates he's actually calling out democrats for supporting what he sees as unpopular gun control measures his violent rhetoric couldn't come at a worse time that membership in right wing terrorist groups is at an all time high and law enforcement officials suspect that white supremacist gangs are responsible for recent assassinations of public officials in colorado and texas so given that context brown's comments are just very very ugly. and we'll be right back.

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 you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charged welcome to the big picture. of potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit stunning in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but what we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more powdery down the line

there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight if. decent it is kind of pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout and what's it been like nobody's long three drug policy some words and see here earlier exceptions. the worst cure for those things. white house to give it to the radio guy and call it a zero minestrone coffin. quote for a good cause you never seen anything like this from coal.